Chapter 202: Because she called me Teacher Shaya (Two-in-one)
The sharp spear intent cut through everything around. Bronze, black iron, metal… even earth, stone, and sand. Everything was collapsing. The giant stone pillars, along with the stone statues and walls, plunged into the vast hollow below.
Above, the gloomy curtain was pierced. Streaks of brilliant lightning flashed, obscuring the dark and dim night sky. The enraged thunder transformed into a sea, and in an instant, extreme daylight returned to this eternal land of night.
The magnificent Holy Spear appeared from the end of the sky, the origin of the Astral Realm. It pierced the distant void of the Astral Realm, and also pierced the barrier between dimensions. In a flash, it descended from the depths of the Astral Realm into the Prime Material Plane. Within another breath, it pierced the eternal night curtain shrouding the entire Lost Island. Laden with the ringing of storms, it pierced unimpeded into the depths of the World Tree Fragment Plane.
The Holy Spear—Rungoniumad. The Anchor of Storms. These were not titles arbitrarily bestowed by mythologists to flatter. They were the genuine facts. Wielding storms and controlling thunder was merely the most basic authority that the Holy Spear could display after unlocking its thirteen restraints, with no chains or limitations remaining. In this instant, the roaring storms and thunder brought fleeting light back to the Lost Island, which had been bathed in darkness for a thousand years.
“Speaking of which—”
“At this moment, judging by the atmosphere, should I be shouting—”
“‘Spear, come’?”
A slight smile touched Shaya’s lips. His body lost its support, and he began to fall into the void below, along with the collapsing fragments of the palace around him.
“What power is this?”
A roar, like crashing waves, sounded in Shaya’s Spiritual World. This was an unforeseen development that exceeded the expectations of this ancient Sun God. He knew of Shaya’s mystery and power. Therefore, he had never let down his guard or been careless from the very beginning. Relying on the leverage he held over the Golden Elf, he temporarily stabilized Shaya and immediately began to rouse his main body from its slumber. Subsequently, as soon as his will entered Shaya’s Spiritual World, he began the process of corrosion and assimilation. Although Shaya’s Spiritual Body’s strength was somewhat beyond his expectations, it was still within his control overall. With a little more time, he could wear it down completely, devouring it and completely changing the master of this perfect container.
However— the other party produced another trump card. Not his main body’s Spiritual Power, nor any so-called magic. It was a Holy Relic, shrouded in immense mystery, that made him tremble.
“This is… the Holy Spear?”
As his thoughts raced, the ancient Sun God searched through fragments of memory, finding some faint traces of the past. It was a very distant memory. So distant that he had not yet ascended to the Throne of Heaven, nor had he acquired the name of Sun God. Back then, he was just an ordinary demigod, serving under another then-current Demon Wolf Ancient God, during the Chaotic Era before the Glorious Era.
The might of this Holy Spear had briefly appeared in the divine wars of a few Ancient Gods. But it was merely a fleeting glimpse. Before long, this powerful Holy Spear, like countless secrets and Holy Relics of the Chaotic Era, was lost in the distant Astral Realm, on the battlefield where the Ancient Gods once roamed. Later, when the ancient Sun God ascended to the Throne of Heaven, becoming the true supreme ruler of the Prime Material Plane, he had spent effort exploring the depths of the Astral Realm to find the remnants of the mysteries of the Chaotic Era, but ultimately found nothing. The vastness of the Astral Realm was difficult to penetrate even with his status at that time. He never expected that today, this human who had already brought him countless surprises would once again evoke surprise.
No, rather than surprise, it was a fright.
“How did you obtain the Holy Spear!”
“How did you get it?”
“If I said I got it by living off someone, you probably wouldn’t believe me either.”
“After all, love, in your eyes, is just an emotion devoid of meaning.”
Shaya’s words remained calm. He simply looked up at the brilliant Holy Spear that pierced the night sky, its radiance illuminating the dim firmament, letting his body fall downwards.
*Crack—*
Amidst the thunderous wave that shattered everything, a clear cracking sound suddenly rang out. It was the sound of something breaking. In the center of this half-ruined, gloomy palace, a segment of emerald green branch, its verdant, life-filled light suddenly dimmed. Then, a crack appeared on the surface of the branch. It was barely noticeable at first but rapidly expanded in a very short time. Subsequently, the branch violently shattered, turning into countless crystalline fragments.
It was the branch of the World Tree, the core that constructed this small world. The shattering of this World Tree branch signified that this world had reached its end. From a stable sub-plane, it transformed into a ruined planar wasteland.
The dimensional annihilation triggered a chain reaction— In a brief moment, dark cracks appeared one after another in the sky, carrying terrifying spatial distortion fluctuations. Each one was enough to completely annihilate the physical body of a Legend. Several of them were even less than a hundred centimeters away from Shaya. The overflowing spatial fluctuations cut into Shaya’s skin, leaving bloody gouges on his body, making the once handsome youth look somewhat ferocious.
However, Shaya seemed oblivious to these spatial cracks. He concentrated all his remaining willpower on the Holy Spear that illuminated the heavens and the earth, completely disregarding his physical body and merely letting himself fall. After the World Tree Fragment Plane shattered, Shaya’s back was no longer a solid metal floor, but empty dimensional void. It was the gap between dimensions, the interstice between worlds and planes. No one knew how long this fall would last, but… almost every traveler who mistakenly entered a dimensional gap or planar interstice had never returned.
“I admit, your ability to wield the Holy Spear was somewhat unexpected.”
“However, everything you’ve done is utterly meaningless.”
In the ethereal Spiritual World, the ancient Sun God’s will had also recovered from the initial shock of seeing the Holy Spear. While the fully unleashed authority of the Holy Spear was powerful, he was not incapable of dealing with it. Moreover, he and Shaya were now in the same body, the same Spiritual World. No matter how powerful the Holy Spear’s might, it would be useless. If Shaya wanted to use the Holy Spear against him, it would be equivalent to using the Holy Spear against himself… it would be pointless, apart from mutual destruction.
“It seems humans are, after all, still human.”
“Even an exceptional individual like you is still bound by mortal flesh and blood, influenced by the sensory hormones secreted by organs in your body when making judgments.”
His words smoothed out again.
“If, from the beginning, while my main body was still asleep and its power unsealed, you had summoned this Holy Spear and fought me with all your might…”
“Given my state at the time, you might have had a chance to defeat me.”
“But your biggest mistake was being infatuated by that Golden Elf, giving up resistance, and allowing me to enter your Spiritual World.”
“Now, even with that Holy Spear in your possession, what can you do?”
“Destroy my palace? Destroy the sub-plane of the World Tree fragment? Or destroy the entire Lost Island?”
“You don’t think I’ll be hesitant to act for fear of breaking something, do you? Do you think I care about those things?”
His words became indifferent again. It was true that this palace, and even the Lost Island, were his possessions. They were the territory of his former Elf King identity, and the elves on the Lost Island were his subjects. However, faced with the temptation of this perfect container, those things were all expendable. To advance further, he had abandoned his identity as a Creator and slept for a thousand years on this gloomy, unknown island. Why would he let trivial external matters interfere with his judgment? The moment he entered Shaya’s Spiritual World, he had already gained the upper hand in this game. Everything Shaya had done was merely a meaningless struggle and resistance.
“How should I put it?”
“If we were to consider you, trapped on the Lost Island, as a BOSS that a player needs to conquer, then the plan you mentioned is indeed the best choice.”
“Since it’s a BOSS fight, of course, you should strike when the opponent is at their weakest, kill them while they’re down, not act foolishly like villains in an anime, waiting for the protagonist squad to finish their transformation sequence, shout about friendship and bonds, and only then attack after powering up.”
“If measured by speedrunning standards, everything I’ve done might be considered zero points, a classic example of fumbling a winning hand.”
In the Spiritual World, Shaya sighed softly.
“However, the difference here—”
“is the difference between you and me.”
“Although you claim the Path to Godhood is the wrong path and that humanity should avoid madness, all you’ve done is a superficial, clumsy imitation.”
“Or, to put it another way.”
“Rather than divinity, the logical thinking of you mythological creatures is completely driven by self-interest, seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages—it’s pure bestial nature.”
“Beasts will fear when they are in pain, devour the remaining value of the weak, and cling to the strong… How similar this is to your actions.”
His back straightened little by little.
“Rather than mythological creatures, you are just slightly more advanced beasts.”
“Therefore, beasts naturally cannot understand the actions of humans—”
“—cannot understand that some things must be done, even at the cost of one’s life.”
A faint voice echoed from the depths of the Spiritual Ocean: “Is that your reason?”
“For a female of another race, with whom you have no connection, whom you’ve known for only a few months, to the point where you’re willing to sacrifice your life?”
“Given your status and abilities, as soon as you leave the Lost Island… you can have as many beauties of different races, with different appearances, charms, and styles, as you want.”
He didn’t mind talking to Shaya a little longer. This was because the fusion and usurpation couldn’t be rushed. If he could defeat Shaya verbally and make Shaya lose the will to live, everything afterwards would be much smoother.
“That’s just the sexual impulse caused by the sensory hormones secreted by the bodily organs when humans see attractive members of the opposite sex.”
“I didn’t expect you to have researched human anatomy, even understanding male hormones and other such substances. I must say, you truly live up to your reputation as the Creator of the Glorious Era?”
Shaya raised an eyebrow.
“Setting aside whether we’ve only known each other for a few months, according to you, it’s indeed not worth it.”
“In that case… Shī Jiang isn’t that great either.”
“She always has a cold expression, likes to pinch my face when I slack off during training, and often peeks at my miserable state when I’m bullied by Little Death. A pure, older elf with malicious fun.”
“Her chest is as flat as Little Ai’s, and her personality is somewhat shy and tsundere. Even if she cares about someone, she never expresses it in words.”
“By doing this, I’m purely abandoning the entire forest for one tree. I still have people waiting for me at home.”
Shaya sighed deeply.
“But Shī Jiang is Shī Jiang.”
“When Little Ai and I left the ruined Ceylon and were wandering homeless on the Western Continent, it was she who gave us a new place to live.”
“I can’t bear to live a comfortable life in the Imperial Capital while she wanders alone in the Astral Realm.”
“And, here, on the beach of this Lost Island.”
“She called me—”
“‘Teacher Shaya’.”
The light and shadow in Shaya’s eyes gradually faded. Did he not know how unwise it was to let the will of an ancient being enter his Spiritual World, how much risk it concealed? But Shaya had no choice. This ancient Sun God truly held his weakness. If he didn’t do this, regardless of the outcome of Shaya’s battle with the ancient Sun God, with a single thought, the latter could ensure Heiser’s death by controlling the elven bloodline. Only by doing this, using himself as bait, forcing the opponent to abandon his original physical body and bring everything into his own Spiritual World, could Heiser be truly safe and gain true freedom. Of course, the consequence of this was that Shaya had to face the full will of that ancient deity. It also made him lose any possibility of escape, because once the Spiritual World was lost, the self named Shaya would cease to exist, and he had nowhere to retreat.
However— Shaya had no intention of running from the beginning.
“I almost forgot, I was once called the ‘Knight of Knights’…”
Shaya turned around, looking at the majestic phantom image of the Elf King in the Spiritual World.
“Because you are not human.”
“Therefore, you naturally cannot understand the noblest spirit among the eight virtues of a knight—”
“‘Sacrifice’.”
