A dull longsword and a heartbroken villager

"It's that Marlene you brought with you." In order to help Sass find his family, Levi felt he should tell Sass these important things.

After he finished speaking, Levi burst into laughter, but his expression quickly subsided.

It was as if he wasn't laughing at all a second ago, which was quite chilling to watch.

"What are you talking about..." Sass was about to say something when he suddenly froze.

In a very short time, Sass thought of something terrifying.

"My sister is dead?"

“In a sense, yes.” Reeves shrugged.

“In a sense, no!” Levi laughed.

"Because I turned her into a work of art."

"Now, it has become an eternal existence!"

Applause came from Rivi.

Sass covered his face with his hands, his mind a jumbled mess.

Instinctively, Sass believed that Reeves was lying.

"What exactly is he talking about?"

--"impossible…"

—"My sister was turned into a monster?"

"—My sister is dead?"

"No, something's definitely wrong!"

But the next moment, Sass's face turned pale.

Clinton's missing sister, Marlene, who came to Clinton.

Marin is Marinvis.

She's been my older sister from the very beginning.

What is more terrifying and devastating than the death of a loved one is the desecration of their life.

Sass grabbed his hair and screamed in agony.

"You bastard..." For the first time, Sass had the urge to kill.

Sass supported himself on the ground with both hands, his whole body trembling.

“Marlene, is she in there?” Bray asked.

The dead fish stared at Reeves with emotionless eyes.

"Yes, but do you want to rescue her?"

"It's no use, it's no use, there's no point in talking about saving him."

“Marlene is gone, no, she’s gone,” Levi said, emphasizing each word.

The person called Marlene no longer exists in this world; no, Marlene wasn't even a person.

“Poet, how long are you going to keep yelling?” Bray glanced at Sass.

Sass did not answer; he was now consumed by despair and rage.

All Sass wanted to do was kill the madman in front of him.

“Katrina, take him with you,” Bray said, his back to Katrina.

"Hey, what about you?" Katrina looked at Bray with surprise and uncertainty.

"You're not going to kill this guy, are you?"

But Bray doesn't look angry at all.

Katrina couldn't quite figure out Bray.

Bray shook his head, dismissing Katrina's conjecture.

"I don't want to leave!! I'm going to kill this guy!!"

"That's it!! Mr. Bray!! You can definitely kill him! Right!!"

"You're so powerful!!! You can definitely kill him!!!"

Sass was screaming almost hysterically.

"Kill him...kill him!"

His once bright and sparkling eyes were now clouded with a haze.

“You can no longer be called a bard who brings amusement to people.” Bray glanced at Sass.

"You're so strong!! Quickly kill this scum who has defiled lives!!!"

Images of chimeras created from humans kept flashing through Bray's mind.

Bray sighed.

“I am not strong, but I understand your sadness and I know your anger.”

“Take him away, this poet is in the way now.”

“Okay…” Katrina understood what had happened, and her expression turned somewhat unpleasant.

Flowers and butterflies appear out of nowhere, and then disappear just as suddenly.

Along with the flower butterfly, Katrina and Sass also disappeared. Revi felt nothing about Katrina and Sass's departure.

However, Reeves was quite curious about Bray, who had stayed behind.

"Sir, what do you want to do now?"

“Do you think it’s human?” Bray asked.

"Hahaha, what are you saying? I'm practically the creator!!!"

"Look at my artificial body!! How could I possibly be a mere human?" Levi laughed loudly.

The body of Rivi standing here is merely a backup.

"That's good."

As soon as he finished speaking, Levi suddenly felt as if his body had become much lighter.

His entire right hand detached from his body in an instant.

An unattractive longsword was placed in Bray's hand.

There wasn't a trace of blood on the curled blade.

"Aa ...

Blood was splattered all over the ground, and the left hand that had fallen to the ground was still twitching.

It wasn't that Bray didn't want to kill Reeves with one strike, but that someone was interfering.

On the ground in front of Levi, besides a large pool of blood, there was a charred hole from a bullet.

“Revi, there seem to be a lot of surprises.” Pride was on the factory’s iron bridge, looking down at the struggling Revi.

Pride frowned as he looked at Bray; that shot should have completely blocked the trajectory of the attack.

But in the end, Reeves still lost one of his hands.

“Mr. President, you’ve come just in time. The Federation’s weapons are almost ready. Please stop this man.” Reeves said, then curled up in pain again.

Pride easily jumped off the iron bridge and landed in front of Revy.

"I am Pride Oman, President of the Federation."

“A face I’ve never seen before, is it a powerful figure from one side?” Pride asked.

“No, just an ordinary adventurer.” Bray sheathed his longsword and drew his greatsword from behind his back.

"I can provide whatever you want to the best of my ability."

"Do you want me to stop?" Bray stared at Pride with lifeless eyes.

“Exactly.” Pride nodded.

"Then we can skip it." The greatsword vibrated through the air, causing Pride to instantly assume a defensive stance.

However, the attack did not occur as expected.

“The president should be like an emperor, right?” Bray said slowly.

"That's not the case; they're just people exercising certain powers within the Federation." The Federation and the Empire are fundamentally different systems.

"Power? Then what do you use this power for?"

"Make the Federation strong."

Bray remained silent for a long time before speaking his next sentence.

"For these things... for so-called power, is anything acceptable?"

“That’s true.” Pride’s expression remained unchanged.

Even if it's built up by countless people?

"Without blood, there is no strength."

Bray didn't speak, but gripped his greatsword tightly, feeling the weight that would never disappear.

Pride drew his sword from his waist, holding a gun in his left hand and a sword in his right.

“I don’t understand,” Bray sighed.

Bray has always believed that a good ruler should love his people.

But Pride doesn't think so; Bray's way of thinking is fundamentally different from Pride's.

An aura, an inexplicable aura, suppressed Bray. It wasn't the oppression of a strong person, but rather an extreme form of ideological suppression.

Bray couldn't bring himself to say something as naive as "You're wrong" or "I'm right."

What each person holds dear is what they believe to be right.

Pride is proud of the beliefs in her heart.

“So you’re neither an emperor nor a president.” Pride straightened his back.

"That's true."

“ding—”

The metallic clang echoed through the empty underground factory.

"Beers" and Pride's swords clashed repeatedly, and the bright orange-red light that occasionally flashed between the two swords was dazzling.

It was as if this moment was their stage.

The surroundings were spinning, the air was trembling, and everything was in a frenzy because of this battle.

Every time Pride unleashed five or six strikes, Bray would simply move his greatsword once to deflect the raging waves' attacks.

Then came the sound of bullets exploding, the explosions echoing incessantly, the reverberations layered upon each other, intertwining in the ears.

Sparks flew intermittently in the dimly lit factory, followed by a piercing screech.

The blades rubbed and meshed together.

"Brilliant defense!" Pride withdrew his longsword after it was blocked by the greatsword and stepped back away from Bray.

Then, in the next moment, a bullet slid out of the gun in the left hand.

The magical bullets flew in a continuous barrage, striking the broad blade and ricocheting off into the ground, leaving countless craters. The lingering heat of the bullets told those around them just how powerful they were.

“But defense won’t solve the problem!” Pride’s voice rang out from behind Bray.

In the blink of an eye, Pride circled around to the blind spot behind Bray, an undefendable position.

The longsword struck at Bray's back.

But Bray turned around, and his greatsword appeared in the path of the longsword, completely blocking Pride's sneak attack.