Eternal Night

Chapter 505 The Lonely Warrior

Wu Pifu could confirm that after the golden skeleton in front of him was corrupted by the Lost Realm, although it possessed the special characteristics of the Lost Realm, such as corruption and immortality, its strength had decreased significantly. It was not even as strong as one-third, one-fifth, or one-tenth of its former strength in the entire province.

Putting aside other things, the titles of Golden Skeleton cannot be used simultaneously; they can only be used one at a time. This makes it too easy for the negative effects of the titles to be found and targeted. At the same time, the synergy and stacking effects between the titles are gone.

Even... this golden skeleton never used any techniques, only its spear attacks were quite skillful, at least at the level of a spear master to a grandmaster. So it was impossible that it didn't have any extraordinary techniques in its life, but when it fought Wu Pifu, it only used the most ordinary spear attacks.

As the golden skeleton ascended the dragon's head, an incomparably powerful aura emanated from both the dragon and the skeleton. Human and dragon were now one, not attacking separately. This was the true dragon knight, but…

Wu Pifu felt only sorrow and desolation.

Judging from the title of this golden skeleton, it must have been incredibly heroic, saving the world, perhaps more than once. Back then, it was incredibly powerful, full of vigor, and had hundreds of companions by its side...

Now, it's not even an ember, but merely a remnant of the last dragon knight of the past...

"Heroes grow old, beauties grow old," these two phrases inexplicably came to mind for Wu Pifu.

"Come! Challenge me! Give it your all!"

Wu Pifu stood still, shouting loudly at the last dragon knight who was spreading his wings and taking flight.

Whether the golden skeleton or the dragon understood his call, the giant dragon flying in the sky suddenly roared and then spat a mouthful of water from the top of the sky at the Wu Pi Fu below the seabed.

Its brilliance was dazzling and could rival the space-based weapons that Wu Pifu had previously withstood. A beam of fire rolled down from above, but Wu Pifu simply slashed upwards with the half of the Heroic Spirit Blade in his hand. In an instant, the blade light rose upwards and cleaved the beam of fire in two.

However, after the slash, it wasn't another beam of light, but a giant dragon swooping down from the sky, human and dragon as one. The golden skeleton, which had been weak and powerless, raised its spear high, and the enormous dragon burst forth with dazzling light. All the light converged on the tip of the spear, like a sharp cone of light descending.

Wu Pifu remained unfazed, raising his Heroic Spirit Shattering Blade once more and slashing at the sharpest point of the light cone.

In the instant the broken blade and the spear tip touched, Wu Pifu seemed to see a valiant young man, covered in wounds, yet still resolute and upright, raising his spear high and shouting for battle. Before him were countless unimaginable monsters, and behind him, a throng of people with waving banners surged forward...

For some inexplicable reason, two people from two different eras seemed to be looking into each other's eyes at this moment...

Swords clashed, and immense power erupted, shattering the entire seabed. A massive plume of dust shot a thousand meters into the air, and the previously pushed-back seawater surged back, revealing even more seabed space. Meanwhile, on the other side of the island, a wooden boat some distance away was suddenly struck by a powerful hurricane. The seven members of the Wakaba Squad struggled with all their might to keep the boat afloat, the entire vessel rocking violently as if it were about to capsize at any moment…

When the explosion subsided, a slash extended tens of thousands of meters away, almost splitting the entire island in two. The dragon was shattered, its golden skeleton lying on the ground, its bones riddled with cracks. Even the seemingly indestructible spear was full of cracks, yet it still gripped the spear tightly, slowly but resolutely rising from the ground.

On the other side, Wu Pifu had wounds on his skin, and beads of blood were gushing from the ruptured capillaries. However, these wounds were healing at a speed visible to the naked eye. He simply reached out and pulled, or used the Heroic Spirit Shattering Blade to cut through his flesh and bones, clearing away the areas on his body that had been completely corrupted and deformed.

At this moment, the last words of the Dragon Knight on the golden skeleton also dimmed, and only the words of the last lone warrior of civilization gradually shone. At the same time, Wu Pifu also noticed that the three gray-black words in the Lost were becoming dimmer and dimmer, turning from gray-black to pure black.

Even so, when the golden skeleton stood up again, charging at Wu Pifu with its broken spear, Wu Pifu remained silent, raising his sword in response and using the same force as the golden skeleton to send it flying a hundred meters. This time, as it flew, fragments of the golden skeleton's skeleton finally broke off, along with several pieces of the spear.

"...We still have hope!"

A dashing man shouted loudly at dozens of men and women in front of him.

This is a pure white space, but if you look closely, you can see a very faint hint of black at the edges of this pure white space.

“The Lost Pollution has begun. We have nowhere to escape. We are doomed. We might as well commit suicide now…” someone said in despair, head bowed.

The rest of the people looked on in despair and remained silent.

The valiant man immediately roared, "Don't give up, my fellow countrymen! Even if we are lost, as long as our civilization still has remnants, there is still hope of bringing back all those who have perished! And haven't we seen it? The white shift phenomenon has occurred at the pinnacle of reality, which proves that a new era of reality is about to emerge. This is consistent with the prophecy that the great sage Beelzebub told us. The iteration of reality is getting faster and faster. What if the next era of reality is one that can counteract the loss?!"

Some people raised their heads slightly, a faint glimmer of hope appearing in their eyes. They asked, "But it will take at least several thousand years from the time of the White Shift to its appearance. We're too late. The Lost Contamination has already arrived, and we only have these few dozen people left..."

No! There is still hope!

The valiant man held up his long spear and slowly walked towards the edge of the pure white space, heading towards the pitch-black area.

"I am the last transcendent being in civilization. We all know that transcendence is corruption, and when the Lost Corruption appears, it first corrupts the transcendent beings. The fewer uncorrupted mortals there are in civilization, the faster and deeper the Lost Corruption erodes. But we also know that transcendence is the only force that can resist, or at least slow down, the Lost Corruption..." "I will depart! I will enter the turbulent currents of the dream world, drifting with the tide. In this way, unless I become the source, or I die, my information will never be able to return to this place..."

"I will go alone to draw the attention of the lost pollution; it will follow closely behind me. Unless I perish, my brethren will be safe..."

"Please believe in hope, please believe in your strength, make good use of your wisdom, utilize the lost patterns that the deceased discovered through sacrifice, and the illusions formed by the lost pollution, use their rules to fight against the scattered lost pollution entities..."

"Don't learn supernatural powers. You don't have resistance to pollution, but you can contain it. You can use containment materials to contain even more pollution and monsters..."

"My compatriots, remember my words: do not give up hope, do not give up the fight! I will be with you until the very last moment of our battle!"

Wu Pifu's senses snapped out of the pure white room, and everything around him returned to the battlefield. In the distance, the golden skeleton stood up again, spear in hand, and charged toward Wu Pifu at a speed at least 20% faster than before, its strength also increasing by about 20%.

As swords and spears clashed, Wu Pifu deflected the spear and slapped the golden skeleton's spine on the back. More fragments of the skeleton crumbled and dissipated, and a large chunk of the spear in its hand also shattered and disappeared...

In a futuristic metropolis filled with cyberpunk style, a valiant man wielding a long spear stabs a mechanical, bloody Buddha to death. He looks back and sees that none of his followers are left; they have all been turned into mincemeat.

"...I'm sorry, I brought all this disaster upon myself. I won't run away; I will fight alongside you all, so..."

"...I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..."

Blood rolled down his face—perhaps sweat, perhaps rain, perhaps… Many beads of blood rolled down the valiant man's face. His eyes widened as he charged forward, spear in hand, charging alone into the horde of mechanical, fleshy monsters, piercing through a lotus platform made of metal and light…

The golden skeleton stood up again, its body staggering and almost losing its footing. A few seconds later, it charged at Wu Pifu with 20% more speed and power than before.

However, this speed and power were still insignificant compared to Wu Pifu's full-force attack. It was easily knocked away again, and more fragments fell from its body. The spear was already tattered, and a large number of spear fragments fell to the ground and turned to ash in the wind...

"I am an ominous person. I am grateful to you for saving me, but... please do not come near me."

The scarred, heroic young man sat alone on the mountaintop, watching his companions leave. After a long while, he shook the dew from his eyes, walked into the forest, picked up the food left behind by his companions—dwarves, elves, humans, orcs—and began to eat it heartily.

The Lost Corruption followed him like a shadow, plunging the world into apocalypse. But this time, his companions were more powerful than ever before: warriors, priests, mages, monsters, divine dragons…

He came up with a good idea: if the most powerful mages joined forces to open a temporary spatial rift, he could then lure the giant, the vessel of the Lost Contamination and known as the Lost Contaminant, into the rift and kill it inside…

Can this save everyone?
He didn't know, but he wanted to try...

The golden skeleton rose once more, riddled with holes. It charged at Wu Pifu again, its spear equally tattered, its speed and power increased by another twenty percent. This time, as Wu Pifu cleaved it away, all the fragments on its body and the spear shattered completely…

"...I am left with only my soul, but I can still resist."

"This is my body, the perfect body of the sublime body..."

"The target of the Lost Contamination is only me; you are merely collateral damage. Therefore, place my remains in an empty, uninhabited place, suppressing them in the deepest recesses. The place closest to my remains will be the purest and most pristine, like the eye of a typhoon. All this Lost Contamination will be drawn to my body..."

"I have scattered my soul throughout the central network, so that it may also shelter souls willing to enter. But please clone your bodies as soon as possible. Your souls have not undergone the baptism of sublimation, and once separated from their bodies for too long, they will be eroded by the omnipresent pollution..."

"Human beings, never give up hope!"

"...Don't give up...hope..."

Wu Pifu stood silently, watching the golden skeleton completely dissipate, watching the broken spear slowly turn to ash. In this final moment, he was the only witness.

A lone warrior in the last stand of a civilization, a fighter who fought to the very end.

Wu Pifu stopped, clasped his hands in a fist salute, and turned around.

Seawater overflowed and submerged everything.

(End of this chapter)