Xingyue, is Xiaokai also considered Kai?

After a brief exchange, came the decisive blow.

At that moment, a flash of light appeared outside Orleans.

The light was so intense that it turned the vision of everyone involved in the battle into a pure white.

The enormous sound, so loud it created the illusion of silence, tore through the atmosphere like a thunderclap, and the resulting shockwave shook the land of Europe.

As a result, Aetius fell to the ground.

"...When I was a child, my elders always told me that families like ours should strive for His Majesty Nero and Lord Novia, for the peace of the Empire, and for the continuation of the good tradition of the Church."

For some reason, in his dying moments, Aetius felt as if he saw something.

The figure of this person seemed to overlap with the somewhat blurred image of the holy statue.

It's not because of similarity, but because of identicalness; it's as if it were the same person.

"Ahhh, is this a hallucination...? But actually, I have to apologize, because I've never believed in this stuff since I was little... But—"

Aetius raised his head and looked up at the sky. Although he knew that the so-called heaven and hell could not be reproduced after the Age of Gods, he still squinted his eyes devoutly.

"Even so, I must fight to the last moment, never give up hope, and strive to find a way, even if it means struggling until death. I must uphold my principles until the very end, just like my honorable predecessors. But if this is what awaits me in the end, it's not so bad..."

In the swaying, blood-red twilight, under the glow of a setting sun, the Spear of Longinus, which had been dim for many years, gleamed with a faint silver light.

“Yes, Aetius, I will admit it, you are the ‘last Roman’.”

With the death of Aetius, the Battle of the Chalons ultimately led to a victory for the Hunnic Empire.

The defeat at the Battle of Chalons meant that the Western Roman Empire was no longer able to stop the Huns, and the capital Milan was in grave danger.

Apart from the Eternal City—Rome.

160: 'Savior' - Praying for the Wasteland (3k)

Humans are creatures that tend to accept things they like in a positive light.

This is because there is a psychological factor at play: "I don't want to think that the things I like are bad."

However, this is proportional to the goodwill one has towards others. One will not think badly of people one likes, but when facing people one dislikes, even the smallest thing will make one think that the other person is "deliberately causing trouble for me".

For those who are indifferent, this mindset simply doesn't work.

But for this young girl, everything on this planet is equal, whether it is a human being of the same kind or a creature different from humans.

An abandoned child whose parents are unknown, he grew up in a monastery adopted by the church. His body, ravaged by illness, has been healed by the Holy Scriptures, and the people in the church maintain a pure faith.

The world that the girl, who is worshipped as having the talent to save the world, longs for is an Eden where people will never suffer.

The greatest pessimism and the greatest optimism in the world are actually in agreement.

"Their lives are of no value to me in this world."

"However, I live in the present moment, and many lives do not live in the time when the gods lived."

"Ah, it should be so, it must be so. This world, this universe, everything under this sky, there is no need to be puzzled by my incomprehensibility. I have no need to ask. It turns out that the matter of living has a profoundness that can be contained even within itself, and is as important as the Lord and as weighty as the Lord... beautiful melodies and words."

"Therefore, their suffering is the same suffering I feel living here, not suffering that I cannot feel."

"The pain you feel now is not something that belongs only to someone else...that's why it's so important."

Therefore, one can give up one's own life, one can give up the duty of saving the world, and one can give up oneself.

until--

In the Thousand-Year City in the year 300 AD, when all the forces on the planet united to kill Zhu Yue, a young girl representing the church encountered a female magician who used illusion magic.

"You've really found something good! Will you fall into a dark abyss or be engulfed in raging fury...? I can't wait to find out!"

The purple-haired magician exuded a dark, misty magic that enveloped the girl like a swarm of flies.

The girl looked up at the crimson moon above her head and felt a tremor in her consciousness. In the ominous black light between illusion and reality, countless geometric shapes overlapped, as if she had accidentally wandered into a mirror hell with countless mirrors, a continuous space of illusory images.

The magician's illusions were the epitome of pranks, consisting of nothing but nonsensical performances. However, the girl also understood that they were carefully calculated performances intended to provoke or entice her.

The girl didn't know the specifics of Pope Novia's deeds; in fact, there was very little information available within the church. But just by observing Kobek, who entrusted the holy scriptures to her, she could appreciate how noble, righteous, and charitable Novia was.

Despite the more than two hundred years that had passed, simply hearing the words of many saints and hearing Kobek recount his past adoration was enough to plant the impression of a "sacred person" in the young girl's heart.

To put it simply, the content of the illusion could be said to be degrading its 'sanctity,' but it did not accuse Novia of being a cruel and cruel killer, nor did it portray her as a despicable villain. The man in the illusion was indeed a noble being most of the time, the girl understood.

But the final scene was the reality that the noble ones were defeated by the power of the Lord.

Their actions are not always noble; some are driven by their own perspectives and run counter to the God of the church, making them heinous sinners.

"Oh dear, oh dear, she's actually crying~ That's true~"

"Francesca."

The magician, who had thought he had succeeded, couldn't help but observe her more closely. He saw that the girl still had a gentle appearance, but he couldn't tell if it was just his imagination, but he felt that her eyes seemed to be bright and piercing.

The magician almost thought the girl was crying tears of despair because of the shock, but actually the opposite was true.

The girl maintained her posture, offering the church's highest salute to the end of this illusory world, and conveying words directly from her soul.

"I see, thank you for telling me...this little-known truth..."

Francesca, who was observing all this, was puzzled when everyone noticed the emotions contained in those words and that were slowly welling up.

That feeling was—overwhelming joy.

If I thought the bright eyes were from tears, then they must have been from extreme gratitude and joy.

"...What are you saying...?"

In that instant, the creature that had been hiding in the world for many years, and had been imitating and incorporating its own concepts into what it had learned since witnessing that miracle on the island of Britain in the first century AD, was a mixture of the human form of Artemis and Beelzebub, and fear arose once again after many years.

Seeing Francesca's somewhat anxious expression, the girl smiled and said:

"Life is something dirty, smelly, and terrifying, but once people have experienced a good life, they never want to go back to poverty. Life is the same. Once you've been clean and tidy, you never want to go back to your original, messy state."

".......What?"

Why are you suddenly bringing this up?

Francesca wanted to say more, but noticed a strange change in the girl in front of her and stopped talking.

"I often think that no matter how glorious something is, it will inevitably fade away one day. No matter how much I miss something, it will inevitably be forgotten one day. If there is nothing absolute in this world, and everything must come to an end, then what is the meaning of living here now?"

The traces left are faint, unable to withstand the erosion of time; eventually, the stars will fall, leaving the bewildered masses helpless.

What on earth is this guy talking about?

But Francesca had a feeling that something sealed within the heart of the church's saints was speaking to her.

"Now, I have finally discovered that eternal thing."

The girl, completely captivated, placed her hands on her chest and bowed deeply to the magician who had cast the illusion on her.

If the girl's excitement were to falter even slightly, she might shed tears of joy.

Francesca was still unclear about what she had liberated.

The savior, who had originally separated himself from humanity and hoped to bear all suffering, understood that humans are all immature beasts, bubbles that devour desires, indulge in desires, and melt in desires, only bound by covenants... There is something like himself, in the same position, continuing to this day.

In other words, in the girl's current mindset, all the humans she has encountered since birth are incomplete, and only the one from the source is.

At the same time, the sacred text on the girl's body was shining.

"Ugh, how awful—"

The girl stroked the sacred text in a tone as if she were speaking to a nursing infant.

"Ah, how hateful! All those countless lives that should have ended two hundred years ago are now just fragments."

"In that case, who can refuse that immense love, that eternal love?"

The demon murmured sensually, as if indulging in a sensual ecstasy, holding the sacred text as if cradling a nursing infant.

"you--"

In the next instant, the magician lost consciousness so easily.

"I will continue the great work you were unable to complete, and until that day comes, I will always play the music of blessing for you."

Subsequently, the savior recognized by the planet, Mabul Qihuang, refused the holy sword that should have been hers. Using the holy scriptures and the connection between Art and the humanoid Art, she defeated the Demon Marshal and the Moon King in the Millennium City through the power of goodwill and faith, and seized their weapons.

Then, time passed, and a hundred years later...

After the Battle of the Chalons, the people of the Western Roman Empire were in a state of panic upon learning of their crushing defeat, including the main church in Rome... This was how it should have been.

The Eternal City was teeming with inhabitants from all over, those fearing death praying for the Lord's salvation. However, seemingly overnight, an eerie silence and an overwhelming 'black tide' descended upon the entire city.

Accompanied by a surging, dark wind, it slowly spread from the center of Rome, enveloping everything around it—

All life has ceased to respond; the bodies remain but cannot react, leaving only the city, ruled by silence, to exist.

"How perfectly timed! The church, which has indulged its desires to this day, has finally met its demise."

Behind Mabul Qihuang, who sat in the center of the Papal Palace, the space there distorted and deformed.

The emotionless roar filled the space around the Papal Palace, as if it were a living entity in itself.

"Beelzebub's divine power is almost gone, and there's also an alien... heretical god?"

Qi Huang smiled gently, "You are somewhat different from the gods of the Age of Gods."

The gods of the Age of Gods are myths that arose only after the existence of deities.

The alien god that Qi Huang spoke of came first from mythology, and then from godhood...

To be precise, in some unknown galaxy, there exists a group of beings that conform to the image of gods in a myth that has not yet been born.

"However, in that case, it does align with part of the revelation."

The savior sat there quietly and spoke words full of emotion, as if they were a declaration of love.

"I will exterminate every single species on this planet that is defined as 'human', leaving no one alive."

"After all, there are only two people in the world."

161: The Guardian, whose end is the burning of all things (3k5)

As countless people fell silently like straws in the Western Roman Empire, the Huns, galloping across the empire like legendary mad hunters, brought terrifying bloodshed to the land.

After crossing Orleans and capturing the capital Milan, the Western Roman Empire was utterly defeated, and its vast territory was being torn apart by the Huns.

At this moment, outside Rome, the city known as the Eternal City, dark clouds like an iron curtain obscured the midday sun, and the vast world was shrouded in the gloom of the clouds. As the earth groaned under the iron cavalry, bolts of lightning swept across the clouds, striking down with soul-shaking thunder.

Each flash of lightning illuminated the deepest outline of the clouds, and a chilling wind blew from the ends of the earth.

But in the almost frozen air, silence suddenly descended, with only the sound of the desolate wind echoing ahead.

"How could Rome be deserted?"

"Could it be that they ran away?"

"But I just heard a few days ago that Rome was packed with people..."

Avia remained silent, ignoring the surrounding noise.

But he wasn't thinking about the appearance of Rome, which he hadn't seen for many years; instead, he suddenly fell into a daze.

It seems like I've seen a similar environment somewhere before, a scene I should be used to, but I didn't realize it at all. This feeling is very strange... It's like something familiar to me has been used on me by someone else.

"Please be quiet."

Avia suddenly said.

He drew everyone's attention, yet didn't look back at anyone, his eyes casually fixed on some point in the city of Rome, as he continued:

"I'll go in and take a look."

Upon entering Rome, although hundreds of years had passed, some memories still naturally surfaced in the silver-haired youth's mind.

For example, the story of how he was arrested by the Roman polytheistic nobles when he first arrived, the story of how he returned in triumph after the massacre of the Jewish province, and the story of how he bid farewell to his fellow believers when he convened the council three hundred years in advance. Yet, Rome, which should have remained prosperous and flourishing, is now only a desolate tranquility.

The moment he entered Rome, Avia knew the answer to why Rome was the way it was—

"So, it's an illusion?"