Chapter 259 This is a personal grudge!
The pitch-black dimensional rift was like a gaping maw of the universe, constantly spewing out an abyssal chill that froze the soul.
Lev wore the gentle, scholarly smile of an academic, as if the world-shattering battle he had just witnessed was nothing more than an amusing play.
"As a colleague I haven't seen in a long time, I am genuinely glad you're still alive."
His admiration for Arthur was sincere, but that was all it was.
Lev lightly tapped the void with the cane in his hand, and Artoria, who was kneeling on the ground, trembled violently.
A dazzling pillar of light shot up from her chest, converging in mid-air into a brilliant golden urn.
That was the source of this disturbance—the Holy Grail.
The Holy Grail flew uncontrollably towards Lev, and having lost its final support, the Holy Lance in Artoria's hand instantly shattered into pieces like 琉璃般.
Golden divine power transformed into visible cracks, spreading wildly across her broken armor and skin.
It was the backlash of divinity, threatening to completely burst this body!
Arthur didn't even spare Lev a glance; his figure flickered, directly crossing the dimensional rift and appearing beside Artoria.
"Repeated missteps, don't think you can just casually exit the stage."
He extended his palm, his fingertips glowing with a soft, pale radiance, and pressed it firmly onto Artoria's trembling shoulder.
The rampaging divinity seemed to have met its nemesis, instantly calming down and returning to silence.
Artoria's tense body relaxed, and she raised her 碧金色 eyes, which had regained a hint of clarity, looking at the man before her with a complicated expression.
Lev, holding the Holy Grail, witnessed this scene, and the smile on his face became even more playful.
He calmly absorbed the Holy Grail into his body, an air of complete control about him.
"A wise choice, Arthur pendragon."
He spoke grandly, his tone seemingly imbued with a bewitching magic.
"You and Chaldea were never on the same path. Your birth, in the final analysis, was a tragedy placed on an experimental table."
"They see you as a tool, and Mashu as a consumable. What reason do you have to help them? To protect that laughable humanity?"
"Stop now, join us, and together witness the brand new future of this planet. This decaying human civilization has no value in continuing to exist."
Lev's words were filled with a viscous demonic quality, capable of stirring the deepest resentment in one's heart.
Arthur slowly withdrew his fingers, straightened his body, and turned his back to Lev.
He nodded: "You are right."
These four plain words, however, made the joy on Lev's face almost impossible to conceal, and he let out a long sigh of relief inwardly.
That's great, he really didn't want to be an enemy of this man.
The Holy Sword gave him a feeling of trembling and fear from the depths of his soul; it was a natural nemesis.
To solve it with words was the best outcome.
"You are very wise…"
Lev's words had just left his mouth when Arthur's next sentence completely cut them off.
"My intervention in this Singularity indeed has nothing to do with Chaldea."
Arthur turned around, his pale silver eyes calmly watching Lev, his gaze like that of someone looking at a dead man.
"I'm just here to settle some private grievances. As the culprit who once blew up Chaldea and directly caused my death…"
The corner of Arthur's mouth curved into a cold arc, his chilling killing intent completely undisguised.
"Professor Lev, I really must 'thank' you properly."
The moment his words fell, Lev's elegant smile instantly froze on his face.
A deadly chill swept through his body, and the alarm in his heart exploded, but it was too late.
A dazzling golden sword light, impossibly fast, tore through space and deprived him of all reaction time.
Pfft!
Lev didn't even have time to react before his head shot into the sky, his face still etched with the last traces of bewilderment and horror.
The headless body plummeted from high above; instead of blood gushing from the wound, a large amount of thick, ink-black liquid oozed and writhed out.
Those liquids fell from the sky, gathering, twisting, and expanding on the ground!
At the same time, Lev's head, flying in mid-air, also overflowed with the same ink-black liquid from its eyes, streaming down like two lines of black tears.
"Ugh—ahhh!"
A mournful roar erupted from the head, no longer a human sound.
His human skin was melting and peeling away, revealing the nauseating true form beneath!
It was a giant pillar of flesh made of countless eyeballs and wailing souls!
Black and red all over, exuding an evil so potent it could pollute the entire world!
One of the Seventy-Two Demon God Pillars, Flauros!
"Kill… kill you!"
The unknown entity's erosion completely overwhelmed Lev's remaining sanity; the desire for destruction dominated everything.
Arthur, carrying Artoria, descended from the sky, looking at the dense black smoke emanating from the surface of the Demon God Pillar.
The smoke contained a lethal amount of magical energy, accompanied by high temperature and pressure. Wherever it passed, whether ground or space, black and red demonic flames ignited.
Seeing this, Liya shouted, leading the refugees to evacuate towards the city gate.
Mashu tightened her shield and turned to follow Da Vinci, beginning to evacuate the civilians.
"My King!"
Gawain, who had previously been embedded deep within the city wall, struggled to reach the two of them, but the divine radiance pulsating around Arthur made it difficult for him to breathe.
The puppet, now a Demon God Pillar, turned all its ferocious giant eyes, locking onto Arthur's direction.
Boom!
Infinite magical energy converged, and a thick, dark red beam of light, strong enough to pierce through heaven and earth, shot out from the giant eye at the top of the Demon God Pillar!
Facing this attack capable of evaporating mountains and incinerating seas, Arthur's expression remained unchanged as he instructed Artoria and Gawain behind him.
"Sir Gawain, take her back."
Using the only two remaining Starlight Imprints on such a trash puppet would be too wasteful, so—
"Manifest, Avalon."
In an instant, endless light particles converged around him, weaving into an exquisitely ornate, translucent, brilliant golden crystal shield.
The dark red beam of destruction fiercely crashed against the light shield, yet failed to stir even a ripple.
The moment the light beam touched the light shield, it was decomposed, twisted, and finally vanished into nothingness.
Staring directly at the Demon God Pillar's countless ferocious eyes, Arthur walked forward step by step, treading through the aftermath of destruction.
"What an ugly form," Arthur's voice clearly reached its core, "Your taste in puppets is getting worse and worse."
He reversed his grip on the Holy Sword, and the brilliant golden radiance at this moment became utterly pure, the salvific lightning that purges filth.
"Starlight Mandala!"
With one sword thrust into the void, a square magic array rapidly expanded from all directions of heaven and earth, completely enveloping the mountain-like Demon God Pillar!
The divine armaments, imbued with mighty divine lightning, cut open one black crack after another, precisely piercing every inch of the Demon God Pillar's body!
The riddled Demon God Pillar ceased its roaring at that moment. The next second, its massive body transformed into countless points of light, dissipating into the air.
A golden urn reappeared amidst the brilliance, quietly suspended in place.
Arthur reached out to the sky, and the Holy Grail fell into his hand.
Having completed all of this, he slowly turned around, his gaze once again falling upon the Lion King, whose silver armor was shattered and whose expression was complex.
"Alright, the farce is over."
Arthur's voice was calm and without 波動, yet carried an undeniable sense of oppression.
"Next, it's time to properly discipline you, Artoria."