My avatar is becoming the final boss

Chapter 417 The World Tree Weeps Over Xia Pingzhou's Death (20,000 words, seeking monthly votes)

Despite the blazing sun, Xia Pingzhou's face was shrouded in a shadow that flickered between light and darkness.

In this game world called "Jurassic," he crossed the barren land and ventured alone into the depths of the jungle.

He looked up, gazing silently at Mario on the cliff, and Mario looked back at him in silence.

The two looked at each other.

Xia Pingzhou's view was seemingly obscured by tall bushes, but in reality, he had a chessboard-like field of vision that allowed him to see everything within a radius of several hundred meters.

A moment later, the roar of a giant beast came from the shadows of the jungle. Then, one after another, dinosaurs from ancient times roared and tore through the trees as they charged toward him.

The entire jungle trembled violently, the ground beneath their feet shaking as if every Tyrannosaurus Rex's hoof was crackling with lightning, each hoof striking the ground with a thunderous roar.

Trees broke, and wood chips flew everywhere.

Although the true appearance of the beasts was not yet seen, a wind rose from the edge of the forest and swept in, blowing Xia Pingzhou's hair high!

The next instant, the dinosaur horde emerged and surrounded Xia Pingzhou from all sides.

Xia Pingzhou raised an eyebrow and silently counted the number of the other party. There were more than ten "Game Creatures: Tyrannosaurus Rex" created by Mario, and each Tyrannosaurus Rex had a huge health bar on its head.

“You’re still using the same old tricks,” Xia Pingzhou said tentatively.

“Well, I’d like to see something new and interesting,” Mario said.

One of them could hear all the sounds on the chessboard through their domain, while the other had management authority over the game world and could hear everything in the game. So, they could communicate without any obstacles, even from such a distance.

"So you weren't brainwashed?" Xia Pingzhou asked.

"What are you talking about?" Mario asked coldly.

Xia Pingzhou remained expressionless, simply raising his eyes to quietly observe the ferocious faces of the Tyrannosaurus Rex, while simultaneously reaching out and picking up five Colossi of the Soldier and two Knights from the chessboard.

In an instant, soldiers holding shields in their left hands and swords in their right surrounded him. The knight colossus, accompanied by a thunderous clatter of hooves that could drown out the world, galloped from the entrance of the jungle and stopped in front of the soldiers.

"Giant God Soldier."

Xia Pingzhou gave the order in a cold voice, and a black and white prompt box popped up in front of him.

[Giant Warrior: Enlarges your soldier and knight units to a massive size; currently, their mental attributes are sufficient to support their expansion to 55 meters.]

In the next instant, the figures of the soldier colossus and the knight colossus were enveloped in a black and white halo. Mario raised an eyebrow. When he came to his senses, the bodies of the soldiers and knights had already transformed into towering pillars, comparable to the dinosaurs.

Knights swept their lances across the ground, while soldiers held their swords high before their chests, standing tall in the forest like majestic mountain peaks, their chilling aura sweeping across the land like a tidal wave.

Seeing this scene, Mario on the distant cliff was slightly taken aback. His bangs were lifted by the wind from the spear wielded by the giant knight, revealing a pair of surprised eyes.

He seemed to have never expected to witness such a scene in this battle.

"Unbelievable, only a month..." Mario thought in bewilderment, "What kind of monster is this?"

He had thought that he could only find monsters with more outstanding talents than himself in the Salvation Society, but he never expected that there would be such monsters outside the Salvation Society.

At that moment, Xia Pingzhou swiftly summoned the King's Colossus and placed it behind him to guard against enemy attacks.

At the same time, he casually summoned two cannon statues. However, he had barely set up the two cannons, and before he had even finished assembling the shells, he saw two wind-god pterosaurs descend from the sky, crashing straight down onto the cannons with a gust of wind!
"hiss--!"

The pterosaurs roared, steam billowing from their scales. They swung their scythe-like wings, creating blades of wind that destroyed the cannons, sending flames soaring into the sky.

Immediately afterwards, the two Quetzalcoatl pounced on the Colossus of Kings at the same time—Mario had fought Xia Pingzhou once before, so he naturally knew where Xia Pingzhou's weakness lay.

"Still resorting to sneak attacks..." Xia Pingzhou turned his head to look at this scene and said to Mario.

"I learned that from playing StarCraft," Mario said. "You know what stealing a base is, right?"

At that moment, Xia Pingzhou summoned his first contracted demon, the "Shadow Demon," pulling the king's statue into the shadows, causing the two wind god pterosaurs to miss their target.

Mario watched this scene silently. He understood that to kill Xia Pingzhou, he would have to break through the Colossus of the King, so he wasn't in a hurry.

He held his position, stopping the Tyrannosaurus Rex in front of the Titans and hovering the Quetzalcoatl overhead, waiting to launch an attack on the king. The Shadow Demons wouldn't last long.

“This is our second time fighting,” Xia Pingzhou suddenly said. “Right now, it only takes me five seconds to take you down.”

Mario looked at the colossi standing tall in the forest and raised an eyebrow slightly.

"It seems you really are different from before," he murmured. "I don't understand. A month ago, I was holding back, and you could only flee in a sorry state... But why have you become so much stronger in just one month?"

Xia Pingzhou did not answer the question, but instead asked him:
"If you haven't been brainwashed, then why are you working for the Salvation Church?"

“My companions have been brainwashed… I have to protect them.” Mario paused for a moment before replying, “So I’m sorry, I have to take you down.”

"Then I'm relieved." Xia Pingzhou closed his eyes and let out a soft sigh of relief.

"What are you worried about?"

“I am Ji Minghuan.” Xia Pingzhou opened his eyes. “As long as you stand on my side, we can rescue Shang Xiaochi and Sun Changkong. There are people in the brigade who can remove the mental imprints from your minds.”

He paused, then said, "Mario, I need your help... It will be difficult for this group to suppress Shang Xiaochi with their fighting strength alone."

"Ji...Minghuan?"

Mario froze, muttering silently.

Then, he said urgently, "Shang Xiaochi is in the core of the World Tree, one kilometer away. We can save her if we go there..."

But before he could finish speaking, just a second later, his gaze suddenly became deep and empty, his face turned pale, and his expression became stern.

The boy in the hospital gown seemed like a completely different person, a slight smile spreading across his face.

Xia Pingzhou's expression changed slightly.

“I knew it was you…” Mario began, adjusting his glasses, and said in a mentor’s tone, “I knew it was you… Ji Minghuan, you really do have more than just 'Black Chrysalis' as a puppet, my guess was right.”

tutor.

Xia Pingzhou instantly understood who was controlling Mario's body. In fact, he had already guessed this scene. It was too difficult to find a loophole in the mentor's control, but he still tried his luck.

"Struggle, I'll give you a chance to struggle," the mentor said with a slight smile, speaking through Mario's body.

“I’ll return your words exactly as they were,” Xia Pingzhou said coldly.

A moment later, the playful expression on Mario's face disappeared, replaced by a numb and cold demeanor. He lowered his head and operated the handheld game console like a machine. Ten Tyrannosaurus Rex suddenly sprang up, roaring and charging towards the Titans.

Xia Pingzhou lowered his head, his bangs obscuring his eyes.

“Then… there’s nothing we can do.” He murmured, then gave the two knightly giants an order:

"charge."

[Charge: The knight statue charges forward with all its might, dragging enemies along its path to the finish line.]

At that moment, the two knightly giants charged forward on horseback.

Their figures were gradually covered by a dark halo. They were like two black floods, crushing huge vegetation and carving two bottomless ravines in the barren land, before crashing head-on into the Tyrannosaurus Rex that were rushing towards them!
In an instant, the light stream that the knight giant transformed into was like an unstoppable river, washing the dinosaurs' bodies into the cliff face.

The entire cliff trembled, and even Mario on the cliff was slightly taken aback.

But the two knight colossi couldn't hold out for long; their spear tips were quickly shattered by the claws, and the ten Tyrannosaurus Rex retaliated. But then, the soldier colossi arrived.

They charged forward, slamming their shields into the dinosaurs' bodies, then brandished their mountain-like heavy swords, thrusting forward with all their might, forcing the dinosaurs back.

At that moment, Mario suddenly looked down, selected the third icon on the handheld screen, and pressed the "OK" button.

[One-time use item used: "Falling Boulder" x3 (Three boulders will fall at your chosen location).]

The prompt box disappeared quickly, and then the handheld console displayed a map from a top-down perspective.

There is a giant rock's shadow on the map. Mario uses the joystick to adjust the rock's position and place it on top of the King's Statue and Xia Pingzhou, ensuring that the rock's shadow covers both of them at the same time.

He then pressed the "OK" button in the "Confirm Delivery" section.

At that very moment, three giant rocks with radii of tens of meters fell from the sky above Xia Pingzhou's head. They overlapped each other, generating an infinitely doubled kinetic energy, and the atmosphere roared violently.

A shadow spread out and enveloped Xia Pingzhou's face.

Xia Pingzhou remained expressionless, calmly walking forward in the shadows.

Then he slightly opened his mouth and whispered:

"Black and White King Flash".

As soon as he finished speaking, the king's statue behind him suddenly raised his scepter high. The black and white halos merged into a pulsating point of light, expanded, contracted, and then transformed into a surging galaxy, bursting forth with a roar.

"boom--!!!"

In just a moment, Black and White King Flash crushed the meteorite into countless fragments, turning them into a light rain of stone chips that fell gently and pattered on the ground.

As a sacrifice, Xia Pingzhou used three soldier colossi that had been nearly crippled by Tyrannosaurus Rex as the price to activate the Black and White King Flash.

Mario watched this scene with a blank expression; he still had an absolute trump card up his sleeve.

That's the cheat code "Timed Counterattack System"—this cheat system allows him to put a target into a counterattack state within 10 seconds.

He decided to use this system to save the last dinosaur remaining on the field.

So I shook the joystick, selected the second icon on the handheld screen, and pressed the "OK" button.

Immediately afterwards, a black notification popped up in front of him.

[The cheat code "Limited-Time Counterattack System" has been activated (within ten seconds, damage and control effects received by a target will automatically reflect back to the source of the damage).]

The next instant, a Tyrannosaurus Rex, its body gleaming with golden light, burst out of the crater in the cliff and launched a desperate counterattack, tearing at the knights with unstoppable force.

It first shattered the knights' lance tips, then used its tail to overturn the wild horses, knocking the knights off their horses, and then shook off the soldiers' shields before swooping down on them.

Each time the giant soldiers swung their greatswords at it, they wounded themselves, countless cracks spreading across their armor and a huge hole opening in their chests.

Blood poured down like a long river, staining large swathes of jungle red.

"Rumble..."

Soldiers fell one after another, like collapsing mountains, deeply embedded in the ground, buried in the magnificent forest of giant trees, never to rise again.

Mario looked down at the scene, thinking to himself, "As long as I use the last Tyrannosaurus Rex to hold off these 'soldiers' and 'knights,' and then use Quetzalcoatl to take down his 'king,' I'll win..."

"Oh right, where's my Quetzal?" Mario suddenly realized.

Then he looked at the console's interface and belatedly realized that the two pterosaurs that had been guarding the top of the king, waiting for the shadow demon to fade away, had somehow turned into two mangled corpses, lying on the ground.

Upon closer inspection, they were covered with countless dark knife marks, and blood flowed like a waterfall.

"Who...did this?"

Mario paused slightly, a hint of surprise flashing across his expressionless face.

He couldn't understand how Xia Pingzhou's giant soldiers could be fighting against his Tyrannosaurus Rex, so who had managed to kill the two pterosaurs he had placed on the king's head in such a short time?

At this moment, he suddenly recalled the scene of his fight with Xia Pingzhou a month ago;

Compared to the battles of that time, Xia Pingzhou possessed a crucial piece of chess that had not yet been revealed in this battle:
——Queen’s stone statue!
The next moment, Mario suddenly turned his head.

A lofty and aloof figure shot through the forest like lightning. She climbed upwards, stepping on massive branches, until she was upon Mario like a bolt of lightning.

He had already used his "golden touch"—"ten-second rebound"—on the dinosaur. At this moment, he was completely defenseless. The Queen chopped at his neck with a hand chop, and he immediately fainted.

At that moment, the surrounding environment collapsed like a shattered mirror.

With a crackling sound, the blazing sun on the horizon shattered, and then the jungle and the great river vanished together, the boundless wilderness turned into glaciers, and a ray of moonlight shone down from the sky.

On another corner of the Hofs Glacier, Rukawa Chiba looked up at the sky, and the hacker on his phone was also stunned.

"It's truly amazing," Rukawa Chiba exclaimed.

"We're back already?" the hacker said blankly. "That little cat Casanova is really something. He's got all the Salvation Society kids spanked by him."

He transformed into a stream of data and entered Qi Yuanli's phone, asking him, "Commander, should we retreat...?"

"Retreat." Qi Yuanli shook his head and said calmly, "There's no need to get entangled in a battle with the World Tree. Its mobility seems average; it shouldn't be able to catch up with us."

"That's true, that thing doesn't look like it can be won."

Anrons, standing to the side, shrugged and sighed.

But just as they retreated, their bodies suddenly felt as if they had hit an invisible wall of air.

Immediately afterwards, a game panel popped up in front of me, with blood-red text on it that was utterly baffling.

[The final instruction left by the game administrator "Mario": If the final boss—"World Tree"—cannot be defeated, players will not be able to leave the game space.]

Seeing this scene, a sense of shock and fear flashed across the eyes of almost everyone present.

Except for Xia Pingzhou.

Since he had no intention of avoiding the battle, he and the Queen statue left the jungle at this moment and walked step by step toward Rukawa Chiba and the hacker.

The Queen statue held the unconscious Mario in her arms and handed him to Rukawa Chiba.

At the same time, Xia Pingzhou passed by Rukawa Chiba. Without turning his head, he instructed the doctor, "Keep an eye on him, doctor... and remember to remove the mental imprint from his mind. I'll come pick him up when it's all over."

Xia Pingzhou glanced at the boy in the jumpsuit on his phone out of the corner of his eye.

"And also, hackers..."

He paused for a moment: "Help me this once, protect the doctor and this child. Only you can help them defend against the World Tree's attack."

Upon hearing this, the hacker remained silent for a moment before transforming into a stream of data and entering Xia Pingzhou's phone.

“I might just leave this kid to die,” the hacker said. “I don’t even know him.”

“I believe you,” Xia Pingzhou said.

"Haha... He's clearly a traitor, yet he dares to say such things." After saying that, the hacker returned to Rukawa Chiba's phone.

"Xia Pingzhou, you're still as interesting as ever..."

Rukawa Chiba's lips curled into a wide grin. He simply adjusted his glasses, took a few steps back while holding the unconscious Mario, and silently watched Xia Pingzhou's retreating figure.

Xia Pingzhou didn't look back and rushed with the Empress to the other side of the glacier.

A kilometer away, in another corner, two enormous wolves were locked in a fierce battle on the polar plateau.

One of the wolves had white opacities in its pupils, while the other wolf's sclera was completely swallowed by black, and its grayish-white fur was tinged with streaks of pitch-black darkness, making it look eerie and dangerous.

White light and black light intertwined, almost passing in time, and collided ten or a hundred times in no time.

In this brutal battle of pure ferocity, the snow-capped mountains above the glacier crumbled, turning into countless fragments of volcanic rock that flew away in the snow mist, only to be instantly covered by the bloody rain that poured down upon them.

"Captain... help me this once." White Wolf was being beaten back by Philio, so he struggled to get up from the ground, turned his head to look at Qi Yuanli and Anlens, and said hoarsely.

"Who wouldn't help you? Old Wolf, we're just waiting for you to speak up..."

Anrons smiled and said, having already summoned the slot machine, put on his gambler's gloves, and pulled the lever.

The slot machine's display started spinning rapidly, eventually settling on three "money" symbols.

The next moment, a deafening roar echoed through the sky. Immediately afterwards, a heavy rain of coins fell from the heavens without warning.

It was like a golden ocean that engulfed Fiorio's figure.

It was pressed against the surface of the glacier, and the sea of ​​money filled every part of its skeleton. An ordinary person would have been crushed countless times by now.

Originally, Fiorio's speed was so astonishing that Qi Yuanli couldn't find an opening. But at this moment, Qi Yuanli seized the opportunity and grasped the Tonggu Compass.

"Boom—!!!" The Nine Dragon Cauldron descended from the sky, briefly suppressing Firio.

At the same time, Qi Yuanli poured out all the playing cards in his hand. The four playing cards had a value of 4, 7, 8 and 3. Although the value was not high, they were enough to cause a huge explosion. The shock wave could easily submerge a tall building.

The flames from the explosion engulfed Felio's figure, every inch of his fur burning fiercely, and the rain of coins around him transformed into the most ferocious fire.

“Frio—!” White Wolf shouted.

"I inexplicably teamed up with the team leader for a collaboration." Anlens chuckled.

The moment Philio struggled to his feet from the sea of ​​fire, he saw an array of eighteen bronze figures advancing towards him. The eighteen bronze figures simultaneously raised their weapons, unleashing a burst of golden light that once again crushed Philio to the ground.

The chanting of Sanskrit rang in his ears. At that moment, Firio roared to the sky and completely lost consciousness. The blackness in his pupils slowly faded.

White Wolf stared blankly at this scene, then transformed back into human form, stumbled over, and picked up Philio.

Suddenly, Qi Yuanli, who was in the distance, was slightly startled. The earth suddenly rumbled and the branches of the World Tree burst out of the ground, spreading towards them like thorns.

"Are they attacking from underground?"

The moment this thought entered Qi Yuanli's mind, he lowered his face, suddenly reached out, and placed his hand on Anlens's shoulder.

With a whooshing sound, the flock of crows swept past them, carrying them away from their original spot.

But Bai Tanlang could not escape his fate.

“Aa ...

He roared. There wasn't enough time to transform, so his back shattered, revealing a pair of enormous bone wings, but ultimately, the branches still pierced through his body.

His internal organs were all pulverized.

White Wolf hung its head, spitting out blood. Its entire body was pinned to the ground, and blood dripped down, staining Philo's cheeks red.

After a while, Bai Tanlang exhaled a deep breath of white air.

He looked down and saw that Philo, curled up in his arms, had narrowly avoided the branches of the World Tree, only a foot away.

Filio opened his eyes and looked at the blood-soaked face so close to his.

“…Dad?” he murmured groggily.

"I... I've never blamed you. Never."

After Bai Tanlang finished speaking, he slowly closed his eyelids and pressed his drooping head against Filio's neck.

Not far away, Qi Yuanli silently watched this scene, and Anlunsi also slightly suppressed the smile on his face.

Xia Pingzhou was slightly taken aback when he arrived from afar.

In the deathly silence, he stared at the corpse of the White Wolf for a while, then lowered his head, ordered the Queen statue to pick up the unconscious Philo, and then silently looked away.

The icy wind from the glacier lashed against his face, and Xia Pingzhou's cloak fluttered in the wind. He turned his head to look at the distant, incessantly rumbling sounds coming from there.

At that very moment, in another corner of the Hofs Glacier, Agubaru, Caesar, Origami Ayase, and the Bloodline were doing their best to draw the World Tree's attack, buying time for the others.

Caesar rode his Christmas sleigh, racing across the night sky, his figure as bright as the aurora borealis.

The phoenix was currently flying around Caesar, showering down a rain of fire in an attempt to burn away the spreading branches. But the raging fire was extinguished in an instant by the sweeping thorns.

Just as Caesar was about to be caught up, Agubaru roared forward, unleashing a flood that blocked all the branches.

The Bloodline, flapping its dragon wings, soared above the glacier like a black and red bat, dodging the thorns that were closing in from all directions. But soon, it found itself with nowhere left to hide.

"so annoying."

Blood flowed from her fingertips, creating a giant datura flower. The datura flower spun violently, its frenzied crimson color shredding the ends of its branches.

"Aguru!"

Caesar roared and charged forward with the sled, transforming into a blizzard. From afar, it looked like a giant white python, smashing through a tidal wave of thorns.

Origami Ayase, on the other hand, created a massive storm of paper pages with endless copies, sweeping away branch after branch.

No matter how hard they struggled, the branches of the World Tree were no match for them. It was like a torrential downpour; they used cardboard to shield themselves from some of the rain. The rain kept falling, but the cardboard got wet and couldn't be used a second time.

In this guerrilla war, Yagubaru attracted the most firepower.

It charged ahead, opened its bloody maw, and used "Dark Fang" to crush the branches that were stabbing at it. Then, in the next moment, its dorsal fin suddenly emitted a dark light.

Its enormous body spun around, its dorsal fin like a black blade, instantly cleaving through a large patch of thorny bushes.

[Death Fin: Transform your dorsal fin into an extremely black blade, capable of cleaving through everything in the world.]

No matter how many times it bites through the spreading thorns or uses its dorsal fin to cut through the oncoming branches, that giant tree will always launch an attack again.

It seemed endless. Its 500-meter-long body appeared so small and powerless before this towering tree that was thousands of meters tall.

If this continues, even if we fight to the point of exhaustion, this giant tree will still stand tall.

"Tsunami".

Ababalu suddenly roared in a deep, angry voice. Then, a strange scene unfolded across the wasteland.

Suddenly, a massive black tide surged up from the horizon, forming a flood that violently swept towards the World Tree in the heart of the wasteland.

At that moment, the branches facing them were briefly submerged by the flood, allowing everyone to catch their breath.

"This shark single-handedly blocked a mythical-level being? Really?" Bloodline flapped his dragon wings, hovering in mid-air, raised an eyebrow, and looked at Agubaru in disbelief.

"Well done, Aguru!" Caesar shouted from his sled.

Origami Ayase remained silent, her head tilted to the side as she casually gazed at Xia Pingzhou in the distance.

But after a short while, the floodwaters receded, and the World Tree remained standing.

Once again, long, sharp thorns fell from the sky, their dark branches densely covering the entire sky like a black rain.

"Hide under my body!"

Yaguba Lu was slightly taken aback, then roared at the people around him, and with the black tide in tow, he blocked the branches with his own body to protect everyone.

“Aguru!” Caesar shouted.

Soon, Yagubalu's scales and body were pierced by thorns, and the branches churned wildly inside its 500-meter-long body, as if it were churning in a sea of ​​blood, crushing its internal organs.

Agubaru's body shattered completely into a cloud of blood mist.

Caesar stared blankly at the scene, speechless.

But the next moment, countless deep blue particles suddenly condensed again in mid-air, transforming into a huge body.

[Ability: Death Reconstruction (When your body experiences a shattering, it will quickly reconstruct itself) (disappears after one resurrection) – Originates from the devoured generational fragment "Royal Court".]

Yagubaru's body plummeted from mid-air and landed on the glacier, crashing into a pool of icy water with a deafening roar, immersing its entire body in the cold water.

At that moment, a rain of thorns fell from above again, relentlessly pursuing them.

It was as if death itself had descended from the sky as a dark cloud, the aura of death forcefully embracing everyone's figure.

"Go away-!"

Caesar roared, his hair whipping in the wind.

He crushed a generational wonder, and orange light patterns swept across it.

A thunderous roar resounded again, this time as the Tower of Babel rose from the ground, its broken structure shielding them and briefly blocking the branches.

Then, the Tower of Babel collapsed with a roar, embedding itself deep into the earth and creating a chasm-like ravine.

"I still have to see 1001, how can I die here?" Bloodline said, raising his hand high. Thick blood turned into a sea that covered the sky, briefly stopping the overwhelming branches from falling.

"Commander, if this continues, we will be wiped out," Anlens said.

The principle of lacquer remained silent.

The entire Hofs Glacier was trembling. Caesar crushed generational wonders one after another, creating the "Loch Ness Monster" to buy time for the resurrected Aguru to escape.

“Aguru, run!” Caesar shouted, almost in tears.

Koyagubaru's body was still weak, every particle in it seemed to be jumping restlessly. It lay listlessly on the ice, looking up at the thousands of thorns falling like a rainstorm.

“Aguru—!” Caesar roared. “Black Sun Demon.”

At that moment, a cold voice suddenly rang out from the distant glacier.

That was Xia Pingzhou giving the order.

He gazed at the World Tree that stretched straight to the sky in the distance, then suddenly reached out and grabbed a demonic chess piece on the ring road.

This is the Cataclysmic Demon he defeated in Lijing, and it's also the only Cataclysmic Demon chess piece he has.

Immediately afterwards, a black sun hung high in the sky, its dark sunlight enveloping the earth and even swallowing the aurora that stretched across the sky.

"The Bridge Between Humans and Demons".

The moment Xia Pingzhou finished speaking, the phantom of the bridge appeared on the glacier, connecting the figures of the Queen Statue and the Black Sun Demon. Their shadows, one above the other, slowly overlapped.

In the end, she transformed into a bewitching and radiant figure.

[Hint: By using the skill "Bridge between Man and Demon", the "Queen Colossus" and "Black Sun Demon" have been successfully merged, and a brand new chess piece - "Black Sun Queen" has been born.]

The Black Sun Queen possesses the following abilities: Hand of Shadows.

“The final sacrifice,” Xia Pingzhou said as he summoned the bishop's statue.

The bishop's statue appeared instantly, turning the heavy religious text in his hands.

[Final Sacrifice: Sacrifice one of your "Chess" pieces to add its attributes to another piece.]

At this moment, the bishop's stone statue sacrificed a colossal soldier statue transformed from a giant god.

The Colossus transformed into a flood of black and white light, which flowed into the body of the Queen Colossus.

Seemingly sensing something was wrong, the massive tree roots broke through the ice from the bottom of the glacier, entangling the bishop's colossus and the king's statue together, instantly crushing them into a bloody mist by the branches.

But the World Tree's actions were too late.

It destroyed the bishop and the king, but could not prevent the birth of the Black Sun Queen.

The queen stood atop a crescent sun, high in the sky, and stretched out her right hand. An arm formed of countless shadows immediately extended out, blocking the thousands of thick branches that were spreading towards her.

Just then, Xia Pingzhou took out the last event card he had.

[Event Card Name: The World Without Light]

[Event Card Number: Li Jing ①⑤]

[Event Card Effect: Allows you or your summoned creature to instantly absorb all surrounding light sources, plunging the world into darkness for a brief period.]

With a "crack," Xia Pingzhou crushed the card. "Target: Black Sun Queen."

In an instant, a deep darkness swept out from the body of the Black Sun Queen, covering the sky and the earth.

She absorbed all the light, and the Hofs Glacier was immediately shrouded in shadow.

At this moment, the Queen truly became the focus of the entire world.

It was like a strange and cold sun, hanging high above the Hofs Glacier.

At the same time, amplified by the "Final Sacrifice," "No Light in the World," and "Bridge Between Humans and Demons," the Black Sun Queen's shadow power reached its peak.

She even showed a faint tendency to shake the World Tree. In this dark and lightless world, she manipulated thousands of shadowy arms to block all the World Tree's spreading branches head-on.

At this moment, Agubaru, who had been resurrected through "death reconstruction," finally had a chance to catch his breath.

"This is... a chess player?"

Caesar stared in surprise at the branch that had been blocked by the shadowy hand, then sped down on his sled and landed on the back of Agubaru's shark.

"Abaguru, I will heal you."

He muttered to himself as he manipulated the phoenix to unleash a rain of fire, his eyes welling with tears.

Before long, the 500-meter-long giant shark visibly regained its vitality, and its deep blue pupils shone brightly once again, as bright as the ocean.

Agubaru opened his bloody maw and roared with a voice powerful enough to shatter glaciers:
"The World Tree's weakness lies in its roots, a kilometer away. If we can break through there, we can find the child! Only by finding that child can we stop the World Tree—!"

This is the information Xia Pingzhou obtained from Mario.

Now, taking advantage of the time he gained while the Black Sun Queen was fighting the World Tree head-on, he used Agubaru's voice to transmit this information to everyone on the battlefield.

"One kilometer away?"

Qi Yuanli raised his eyebrows, muttered to himself, and looked at the World Tree's trunk, which was a thousand meters away.

As Agubaru had said, there was a huge, dark tree hollow. But the outside of the hollow was covered with a thick layer of thorns and branches.

"It's easy to say, but how are we supposed to get over a 1,000-meter-high place..." Anlens scratched his head in frustration.

"What else can we do but give it a try?" The Bloodline flapped its dragon wings, landed beside the two, and grinned as it said, "Otherwise, we'll all be dried up by this broken tree sooner or later."

Above the ice dome, the Black Sun Queen continues to single-handedly resist the World Tree's attack.

However, this situation cannot last.

Soon, the fusion of the Queen's statue and the Black Sun Demon will be severed.

At that moment, Xia Pingzhou stared at the tree hole a kilometer away from the World Tree.

He understood that as long as they did their best to break through the tree hole, they would be able to see Shang Xiaochi hidden inside the tree, and only by eliminating Shang Xiaochi could they end this battle.

But in that instant, Xia Pingzhou's expression suddenly changed slightly, and his attention shifted to something else.

"That is--!"

He abruptly turned his head. Just moments before, from a chessboard-like perspective, he had observed tree roots emerging once more from the bottom of the glacier; this wasn't the first time the World Tree had used such a treacherous tactic.

The next instant, the dark tree roots broke through the ice, and Ayase Origami in the distance was surrounded by branches.

Seeing this scene through the perspective of the chessboard, Xia Pingzhou's pupils contracted slightly. In that instant, the branches of the World Tree, like scythes, fell from the sky and plummeted towards Ayase Origami's body.

He knew he couldn't get the Black Sun Queen to spare a hand to protect Origami Ayase, otherwise the main battlefield would collapse in an instant, and everyone would die.

However, the King's statue and the Bishop's statue have already been destroyed by the World Tree. If he rushes out recklessly, there may be irreversible consequences.

That's too late……

It's too late...

Xia Pingzhou was panting, his pupils contracting rapidly. He stared blankly at the kimono-clad girl surrounded by branches and thorns, knowing he had to leave now, or he would miss his chance.

In that moment of utter silence, almost instinctively, he took off running. Like a mad dog, he sprinted across the snow-covered plain towards Origami Ayase.

The next moment, thorns that had sprung up from the bottom of the ice came crashing down like a guillotine in the hands of an executioner.

However, Xia Pingzhou suddenly raised his hand and used the final skill of the "Soul" branch - "Repulsive Hand".

"Bang——!!!"

In an instant, a black and white halo burst forth from his palm, crushing all the oncoming branches. But a dangerous jungle of branches still blocked his way.

As he rushed forward, Xia Pingzhou summoned his third contracted demon—the "Raging Demon."

In an instant, the demon on the cross appeared above his head. It transformed into a huge bone shield, lying beside Xia Pingzhou, blocking the barrage of attacks from the World Tree branches.

But soon, cracks began to appear on the surface of the enraged demon.

The enraged demon grunted, "Kid, I won't last much longer."

Xia Pingzhou could no longer hear anything.

He did not respond.

They just kept running around regardless of everything.

As he charged toward Origami Ayase, he unleashed the Black King Domain.

In an instant, a black and white ring stretched forward, like a giant hand or a surging tide, continuously flowing towards Origami Ayase.

At the same time, the branches of the World Tree tore through the pages, slashing towards Origami Ayase's head like the scythe of death.

At this moment, time seemed to stand still in Xia Pingzhou's eyes.

The image of the girl in the kimono was reflected in his dark pupils.

Hurry up...

Faster...

Just a little bit is enough.

He silently prayed in his heart, and the black and white circle stretched out towards the kimono-clad girl.

It's like an outstretched hand.

But at this moment, Xia Pingzhou looked at the thorns shooting down from above. He knew he had to shrink his domain, otherwise, he would be pierced by the branches of the World Tree in the next second.

He had no other means of survival. But he didn't stop. From beginning to end, he didn't look up, his gaze fixed on the lonely girl in the kimono.

The next instant, blood splattered in front of Xia Pingzhou's eyes, staining his cheeks red.

Suddenly, he breathed a sigh of relief.

this is.

His own blood.

In an instant, a dark branch pierced his heart from behind.

At the same time, in that fleeting second, the black and white rings finally spread to Origami Ayase's side.

Origami Ayase stared blankly at the scene.

In an instant, the ring enveloped Xia Pingzhou and Ayase Origami, binding them together.

A short while later, as the ring disappeared above the polar region, the two figures entered the Black King's domain.

With a thud, Xia Pingzhou knelt on the black and white chessboard. He gasped for breath, and with each breath, blood gushed from his throat.

Xia Pingzhou lowered his eyes and silently watched as blood continued to flow from the wound in his chest.

His chest was empty, devoid of internal organs and bones, only blood oozing from it.

At this very moment, the only bishop statue with healing abilities has also been destroyed by the World Tree.

It's too late; no one can save him.

He let out a deep groan, coughed up a mouthful of blood, and then, supporting himself on the ground, struggled to crawl towards Ayase Origami.

About ten meters away, Origami Ayase was tilting her head, staring blankly at him.

Xia Pingzhou slowly approached, extended his blood-stained palm, and gently pressed it against her cheek, leaving a bloody mark.

The girl in the kimono was deathly pale, the bloodstain resembling a red bean fallen on paper. Her pupils trembled, reflecting Xia Pingzhou's blood-stained lips.

"Don't die..." His lips moved slightly, "You are... the most important person to me."

In the silence, the hoarse voice slowly fell, and then Xia Pingzhou's right hand slowly slid down. He lost all strength and collapsed into Ayase Origami's arms.

It was quiet all around.

The girl in the kimono sat motionless in a pool of blood, cradling the gradually cooling body.

The next instant, the Black King's domain collapsed, and the entire world began to shrink. A short while later, the two were back on the glacier.

Origami Ayase's body was still trembling. Her head was bowed, her back hunched, and she pressed her cheek against his, repeatedly speaking in a hoarse voice:
"Don't go...don't...leave me..."

At that moment, the endless manuscripts moved without wind, and the pink pages suddenly faded, turning into a pure gray-black, which danced wildly in mid-air.

The World Tree beneath the clouds was completely shrouded in gray-black paper pages, with not a single branch able to break free. The thorns covering the World Tree's surface were peeled away layer by layer by the paper pages.

Just then, the Black Sun Queen reached the limit of her fusion and slowly returned to her original form, but Origami Ayase took her place and tightly suppressed the World Tree.

Everyone stared in shock at the girl in the kimono, wondering how she had done it. But then, they saw the blood-soaked figure in her arms.

“Xia Pingzhou…” Xueyi was taken aback and blurted out subconsciously.

"How did the little cat Casanova become like this..." The hacker's eyes widened.

“This is not good,” Anrons said.

Qi Yuanli remained silent, his face expressionless.

“Copy Demon…” Xia Pingzhou suddenly moved his lips and murmured.

As soon as he finished speaking, the second contracted demon, the "Copy Demon," appeared shakily on Xia Pingzhou's shoulder. He jumped down while sobbing, transforming into a clone of the king, towering above the glacier.

"Sacrifice, Knight Colossus, Soldier Colossus..." Xia Pingzhou hoarsely commanded, "Black and White King Flash."

The next instant, the cloned king raised his scepter high towards the distant World Tree.

The black and white light points converge at one point, expand, contract, and burst forth.

He aimed at the core of the World Tree, one kilometer away from its trunk.

Forced by the storm of paper pages, the World Tree entered a defensive state. Countless outward-spreading branches gathered together, forming an indestructible barrier on the outer layer of the tree, completely blocking Xia Pingzhou's "Black and White King Flash".

That was a defensive capability that could almost drive one to despair.

Even Xia Pingzhou's Black and White King Flash only managed to shave off a thin layer of the thorny barrier. No one could imagine how to break through the core of the World Tree and harm the girl.

Everyone watched this scene, and a feeling called "despair" quietly spread.

Xia Pingzhou's eyes slowly closed upwards, just like the blackness disappearing from the top of the king's scepter.

Everyone knew he was not going to survive.

"No way..." Bloodline's eyes dimmed slightly, the shock on his face still lingering.

The storm of paper pages was still raging, yet the world was silent.

But in that moment of utter silence, a hysterical roar suddenly shattered the ice dome, breaking the despairing silence.

"Dragon Tail—!"

They looked in the direction of the sound and saw Agubaru roaring as he surged forward, carrying with him a black tide.

[The inherited skill "Dragon Tail" from the generational fragment "Red Dragon Wales" has been activated.]

Like a moth drawn to a flame, it weaved through the storm of black pages, raising its tail high. At that moment, its tail seemed to transform into a sharp blade, piercing the raging dragon flames.

Immediately afterwards, it struck the surface of the World Tree with all its might.

"Boom——!!!"

Dragon flames erupted, sweeping out in uncontrollable fury.

The entire colossal tree was trembling violently, flames climbing up and down its trunk, shattering the glacier rooted at its base.

The night sky was instantly turned into daylight by the soaring dragon flames!

"Titanic—!" Caesar's attack came in quick succession as he soared in on his Christmas sleigh, a rain of fire from the phoenix clearing a path for him through the out-of-control tornado of paper pages.

Immediately afterwards, he crushed the generational card in his hand, and the phantom of a steamship descended from the sky. Amidst the overwhelming sound of steam horns, the Titanic rammed forward across the storm, crashing into the surface of the World Tree with all its might!

"Boom—!!!" Another loud noise rang out, startling everyone awake.

Qi Yuanli watched this scene silently, grasped the Tonggu compass, and summoned a pair of lacquered and gilded drums.

In an instant, the drumhead began to vibrate, as if an invisible giant was forcefully striking it. Immediately afterwards, a bolt of lightning shot out from the center of the Wind God Thunder Drum.

Suddenly, a beam of lightning tore through the night sky, shooting straight towards the center of the World Tree, creating a hole in it.

At the same time, Qi Yuanli controlled the flock of crows, which grabbed five playing cards of different ranks and flew hysterically through the storm toward the World Tree.

Finally, the playing card the crows were carrying in their beaks tore apart, transforming into a dazzling display of fireworks that exploded across the wasteland.

"Boom—!!!" The entire snowfield was dyed a ferocious crimson.

In an instant, the barrier surrounding the core of the World Tree completely collapsed.

Only at this moment did the Bloodline Affinity shift her gaze from Xia Pingzhou. She flapped her dragon wings, her face grim, like a blood-red crescent moon suspended in mid-air.

He then channeled all the dragon blood in his body, which coalesced into an unprecedentedly enormous spear.

"A thousand meters of tree trunk, right... We don't even need to look for it, the commander has already marked the spot for us." As she thought this, her eyes were fixed on the tree pit that Qi Liyuan had blasted out.

Then, with all his might, he hurled the long spear, woven from red and black, from his hand.

Like the legendary Gungnir spear, the blood-red gun tore through the sky and shot straight into the notch opened by the Wind God Thunder Drum.

"Bam—!"

The blood-red giant spear pierced through the thorns and the storm of pages, carving a bottomless pit into the tree trunk.

At that moment, a figure in a purple suit crossed the wasteland alone and approached the World Tree.

Like a reckless madman, Anlens, clutching a slot machine, ran across the surface of the World Tree, climbing upwards over thorns and branches.

He laughed wildly, ignoring the branches that kept sprouting up behind him, and stepped over thousands of thorns.

Finally, they arrived at the core of the World Tree, a kilometer away. The combined attack of the others had transformed this place into a red and black cave that seemed to be flowing with lava.

"I never expected it to end like this..." Anlens stared at the crumbling opening, realizing this was his objective. A slight smile played on his lips as he murmured:
"Never mind, I'll get a good night's sleep."

Just before he was about to be pierced by thousands of thorns, he mustered all his strength and threw the slot machine into the hole.

The next instant, the slot machine fell into the red and black pit located a thousand meters away from the World Tree. Anlens closed his eyelids and his body plummeted from mid-air.

But at that moment, he suddenly heard the hoarse cawing of a crow, and he abruptly opened his eyes.

"Captain..."

Qi Liyuan appeared beside him in that instant.

He reached out and embraced Anlens's body. A thorn, piercing through him, instantly pierced Qi Yuanli's shoulder, and blood spread along his black swallowtail trench coat.

At the same time, a breathtakingly beautiful scene slowly unfolded around him!

—Along the River During the Qingming Festival.

It's like a ring that encompasses everything, taking in all the thorns that come from all directions.

The next second, a flock of crows swept past the two figures. Qi Yuanli and Anlens disappeared from the outer edge of the World Tree and returned to the distant glacier.

At the same time, the slot machine that had been thrown into the air suddenly exploded, turning into a deep red flame that shot into the sky.

It was devastating! It completely burned away the deepest layer of branches inside the tree cavity, creating an unprecedented opening.

In a short while, the colossal statue of the Queen in the distance had returned to its original state after the fusion.

She is no longer that proud, solitary black sun. Now, she is merely a mortal.

She approached Ayase Origami step by step, her eyes lowered, and knelt down before the corpse in the arms of the kimono-clad girl.

In that instant, the colossal statue of the Queen suddenly trembled slightly. She saw Xia Pingzhou's blood-stained lips move slightly; their minds were connected, so she understood what he was trying to say:
“Go… Shigagul.”

The queen's statue stared blankly at him. Shiga Gur, that was the name he had given her...

He said it was just a name randomly taken from Norse mythology.

But for her, it was a unique name, the only thing that had ever been given to her in this world.

"As ordered."

As Shiga Gur spoke softly, he closed his eyes slightly, then picked up the dagger stuck in the ice and stood up again.

At that moment, Shijagur opened his eyes.

A chilling blue flame reignited in her pupils, and her figure shot out like lightning, stepping on one giant thorn after another that stretched towards her. Like a petrel soaring over waves, she leaped through the air.

The Queen launched a final assault on the World Tree.

The storm of gray-black paper pages continued to ravage the surface of the World Tree, and the exploding flames from the slot machine created an unprecedented crater on its surface.

The dying blows of the others paved the way for her; Shigargul's ethereal form could only last for two seconds.

However, in those two seconds, her body moved like a transparent eagle, piercing through thousands of thorns in an instant and covering hundreds of meters in a flash.

She crossed a world constructed of black and red, filled with countless pages of paper, fiery red flames clinging to the surface of the World Tree, and endless thorns and branches that covered her body.

She was still moving forward.

One hundred meters.

Five hundred meters.

One thousand meters.

Two thousand meters.

Finally, at the moment when that transparent layer faded from its surface, the Colossus Queen saw the heart of the World Tree. In that cave made of thorns and flowers, she saw a girl, a completely naked girl.

Shang Xiaochi had her eyes closed, her body entangled in thorns, and a look of pain on her face.

If it weren't for the strong support of others, Shijia Gu'er would never have had the chance to come here and meet Shang Xiaochi. She would have been pierced by thorns just moments before reaching the core of the World Tree.

But she did it.

It was a fleeting second. Before being overwhelmed by the sea of ​​flowers and thorns, Shijiaguer leaped toward Shang Xiaochi, who was embedded in the tree trunk, and pierced her chest with a dagger, shattering her heart.

Like uprooting a tree, Shijagul used another dagger to decapitate her.

"Pfft—!" Blood splattered out, dazzling like a crimson tide.

Shang Xiaochi is dead.

In the utter silence, Shigaghur slowly closed his eyes.

A dazzling red light burst forth from the headless body's chest, and the fragments of myth shattered at that moment. Countless thorns wrapped around Shijagul's body, pulverizing her into a blurry mist of blood.

Then, massive trees, some thousands of meters long, even tens of thousands of meters long, gradually collapsed on the southern side of the Hofs Glacier, triggering an unprecedented avalanche.

Snow……

Snow fell thick and fast.

Like a flood, the extreme snow color instantly covered the entire world.

At the same time, the same notification panel was reflected in everyone's pupils.

[Game over. The "players" are the winners, and the administrators are the losers.]

[We are about to return to the real world.]

The world was a vast expanse of white, hazy like a painting washed clean by water.

The girl in the kimono bowed her head, tightly embracing a cold corpse, a tear of blood streaming down her cheek. Soon, their figures were swallowed by the snow.

The snow is still falling.

The world was completely silent.

(End of this chapter)