Chapter 695: 173. Win or Lose
In a golden vision, Raphael was lifted and pushed into a crevice by the main subject of perspective. After completing this, Elizabeth closed her eyes as if she was beginning to breathe again.
Everything above the sky remained chaotic, and in that expanse of golden light that occupied all vision, no one but Raphael’s astonished eyes noticed Elizabeth’s actions.
As for Raphael’s reaction, Elizabeth did not even glance, and when she opened her eyes again, it was to the scene below in Saint Nali.
The vast, spreading golden brilliance had captured the attention of the majority, and the terrified Nali populace had long been forced out of their homes in the midst of this conflict, instinctively moving toward the center of Saint Nali, the Golden Palace.
Jasmine in front of the Golden Palace looked at the sky, and beside her, Captain Alagina displayed a tense expression because Valentina above had already started to fall, swaying unsteadily.
Alagina hurriedly moved to catch her, but Valentina steadied herself and landed on the ground.
Jasmine also rushed towards her and quickly asked,
“How is it? Did you deliver the medicine?”
“I don’t know. The light above is too bright; I can’t see anything. And that Chaos Race is falling down too, I didn’t dare to stay there.”
“Light?”
A sense of foreboding crept into Jasmine’s heart, and as expected, moments later, a series of crisp “crackling” sounds suddenly resonated from the sky, causing everyone below to shudder slightly.
It sounded like something was breaking.
Jasmine widened her eyes and looked up at the sky, only to see that the golden light overhead suddenly shattered. The light, which symbolized Xu’s Golden Laws, was on the verge of breaking and could no longer be maintained after fully unleashing its might.
“Crack! Crack! Crack!!”
In the aftermath of the light’s shattering, only a few severely injured Chaos Race beings remained, along with Xu, clutching his chest, his entire body covered in ruptures of law.
“Damn Destroyer.”
Xu weakly glanced at the enemy in front of him. Just as he was about to take action, the crevice in the sky suddenly stirred up a storm.
Unconscious, Dalasgon could no longer wield authority, leaving only Fisher able to act at this moment.
“Buzz!”
With a deafening roar, several Chaos Race beings were abruptly pulled into the crevice and vanished.
“Mom!!”
Jasmine had just breathed a sigh of relief, but Xu above was uncontrollably falling down, and Valentina’s expression shifted slightly. Just as she prepared to take off, the injuries on her back made her feel a sharp pain.
When did this happen?
Moments before, while chasing the Taurus, she had exhausted all her strength to fly upward, and the hormones in her body numbed her to fatigue and the pain of her wounds. But now, the slightest rest brought intense pain.
“Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!”
Just as Xu fell halfway down, countless mechanisms suddenly intercepted her mid-air, carefully lifting her and flying this way.
It was Captain Alagina!
Jasmine cast a grateful glance at Alagina, but felt an overwhelming anxiety in her heart.
At this moment, the sky suddenly fell silent, confusing the Nali people, rendered immobile by fear. They quickly surrounded the entire plaza of the Golden Palace, witnessing the scene here.
“Dad, what happened to Mom?”
Jasmine’s small face went pale as she communicated with Gouwen, who was far away in the Spirit Realm.
Gouwen seemed to have been trying to contact Xu as well, but received no response from the other side. Now, he suddenly turned to Jasmine, his tone urgent,
“Jasmine, listen to me. Your mother just forcefully used broken laws, and now the wounds from those laws in her body are continuously spreading. If they expand to her whole body and the law shatters completely, she will die! But don’t panic; didn’t I say there’s still a chance? Just now, the reason I left you on the ground was for this step, only I didn’t expect your mother to act so quickly.”
“Dad, hurry up and tell me! Don’t explain! Mom… Mom…”
Tears uncontrollably spilled from Jasmine’s eyes, her pale face reflecting the anguish of knowing Xu was soon to leave her. The love and care Xu had bestowed upon her all seemed perilously close to becoming mere memories at this moment.
She didn’t want to lose these; just the thought of losing everything made her heart ache terribly.
“Alright, Jasmine, listen. Just now, when three deities merged within the crevice, a brand new law was generated within them. This law is special because it was formed by consuming a part of Fisher’s body. It inherently has the characteristic of compatibility with other authorities, including laws. As long as you obtain that new law, you can repair your mother’s shattered law, and she will still be saved. That law is now within the artificial eye of the human empress behind you. You…”
As she listened, Jasmine’s expression narrowed, and she turned back to look at Elizabeth with reddened eyes.
The suppressed rage within her, the grudges held against Saint Nali, and her worries for her mother all erupted in that instant.
“Jasmine, calm down!”
Even Valentina beside her was startled; Jasmine had emotionally collapsed and charged toward Elizabeth.
“Elizabeth!!”
Elizabeth did not avoid it but let Jasmine grab her collar, pushing her back and locking her neck, furiously cursing at her with tears in her voice,
“I’ll kill you! Elizabeth! You… this beast!”
“…”
Elizabeth simply looked down at the emotional Jasmine, her hollow golden eyes reflecting the murderous intent, and Jasmine’s golden longsword suddenly extended, seemingly intending to directly cut out Elizabeth’s eyes to save Xu.
“Clang!”
Elizabeth showed no movement and let her raise the sword, as if seeing through Jasmine’s intention targeting her eyes. She then emotionlessly said,
“It’s useless. The artificial eye is bound to me; you cannot remove it without my consent. Even if you kill me, the eye will turn to ash alongside me. No matter what you desire, you’ll gain nothing.”
The longsword Jasmine raised hesitated slightly, and her furious expression became momentarily stunned. Just then, the ringing in her ears caused by her emotional collapse began to fade, and she could again hear Gouwen’s voice,
“Jasmine! Jasmine! You cannot remove her artificial eye by conventional means; only she can do it herself. No matter what, you must persuade her. If that fails, you must go into the crevice and summon Fisher. It’s likely only Fisher can persuade her to do so.”
Jasmine’s expression wrestled with struggle. She looked at the impassive Elizabeth before her, tears flowing incessantly. Her fury gradually ebbed, leaving only sorrow.
Her wrist trembled slightly, and the longsword she had raised lost the strength to support it, falling to the ground.
“Cling! Cling.”
Jasmine gritted her teeth, tears streaming down relentlessly. She looked at Elizabeth, and felt utterly bewildered,
“Why… why are you doing this? What did we ever do to offend you, Elizabeth? Why can you so casually commit such wrongdoings? My aunt is so kind; must she die just for being in your way? Why…”
Hearing Jasmine’s questions, veins popped on Elizabeth’s forehead as she sneered, looking at Jasmine with derision,
“How can you still not understand anything? After all these years, how are you still as naive as back then? You’ve seen everything, yet you refuse to think about the reasons. Do you know why? Because you only want to accept what you believe.”
In Jasmine’s moment of slight daze, Elizabeth reached out and pried her grip from her collar. She dusted off her hands and, gritting her teeth, looked at Jasmine,
“Your uncle, the founder of the Exploration Company, my father’s close friend, drafted all the strategies for the company over the years. For so long, he has been the greatest power in Nali. Don’t tell me you didn’t know about this?”
“Did you not ask me why humans were once so weak, yet after becoming strong, they arbitrarily bullied the Subhumans of the Southern Continent? Now I will tell you why. Because the Exploration Company only chases profit. In the blueprint designed by your uncle, Subhumans, nations, and people are nothing but commodities! Just a number; do you understand?”
“The Exploration Company invests, and my father provides policy convenience. They mine resources in the Southern Continent and traffic the Subhuman populations far and wide; to make war profits, during the war between Nali and Shivali, they would rather watch the front-line soldiers die than sell their cannons and weaponry. Do you think these strategies were determined by someone else? Huh? Do you think your aunt was unaware of these matters?”
Elizabeth looked at Jasmine, narrowing her eyes, mocking her naivety.
“Didn’t you personally go to your uncle’s underground palace? Under royal ground, there were treasures buried that outnumbered the entire Nali treasury. Do you think that money came from thin air? Didn’t you see it with your own eyes? That place can only be found by your Whale Folk; who do you think found it for him? Could that also be the desire controlled by my Pandora’s eye?”
“I tell you, your aunt has known about these things from the beginning but deceives herself out of love. She pretends not to see everything; even when her lover was killed by my magnification of her longing, she was willing to accept it. Thus, I want to eradicate the rotten worm of the Exploration Company that corroded the nation and society. Your aunt may be innocent, and I have never denied that she died because of me.
“But don’t talk to me about right and wrong. Revenge is revenge; you win, and I lose. I pay the price, and that’s all there is to it. You think this world is beautiful just because your Whale Folk compatriots and their beautiful love story are regrettable. In truth, it’s merely because your parents protected you well, and Fisher chose to help you.”
Gouwen’s voice had not yet resounded in her ears. Perhaps both Xu and Gouwen understood the stories of Muxi and Blake; after all, after ten thousand years, having experienced several mythical wars, they had seen too much.
But as Jasmine looked at Elizabeth, who also seemed to become emotional, she gasped and took a few steps back, shaking her head. Suddenly, she threw a punch, smashing hard into Elizabeth’s face.
“Bang!”
Elizabeth’s physical form was only at the tenth rank; that punch sent her crashing to the ground. At that moment, the surrounding populace quickly surrounded her. The vast population of Saint Nali was nowhere near comparable to the Whale Folk of the underwater or the Parasol Tree of the Northern Region.
The crowd outside surged like a sea, quickly encircling the battlefield that had merely a hundred people from the Parasol Tree.
“Your Majesty!!”
“Those damn Subhumans!”
“Protect the Majesty!”
As Elizabeth was knocked down by a single punch, all of Saint Nali erupted in anger, madly rushing toward the center. The Troll Race on the outskirts raised their weapons, but seeing the masses indifferent to them and only trying to reach Elizabeth, they felt disoriented.
They looked back at Valentina, who furrowed her brow and took to the skies, displaying her rank, attempting to calm the scene with a force that seemed to come from the cold winds of the far north.
“Silence!!”
The crowd below quieted for a moment but continued to glare angrily at Valentina above.
But did they actually know Valentina?
Not really; they were only concerned for Elizabeth, who was now surrounded and alone.
Valentina cleared her throat and quickly spoke,
“You’ve all been deceived by Elizabeth. What she hasn’t told you is that she—”
“We all know! Come down!”
“You bunch of Subhumans!”
“Your Majesty!!”
“Let go of Her Majesty!!”
But Valentina didn’t expect that nearly all the Nali people, after hearing Elizabeth’s announcement, were well aware of her actions and weren’t completely ignorant of what was happening.
Amid the swelling tide, quite a few fanatics even began trying to break through the defenses of the Troll Race and the Cangniao Tribe. The Trolls glanced back at Valentina in the sky, gripping their weapons tighter.
“Stand down!”
The outer chaos didn’t disturb the confrontation between Elizabeth and Jasmine. Drops of blood fell to the ground, and Elizabeth suddenly spoke, causing the previously fervent crowds to quiet down, yet still anxiously looked at Elizabeth on the ground, reaching out to her.
Elizabeth breathed heavily, covering her right cheek that Jasmine had struck, while Jasmine continued to weep, looking at Elizabeth on the ground with an unprecedented sadness in her eyes,
“Elizabeth.”
Suddenly, Jasmine opened her mouth and, in a hoarse voice, said,
“Do you really think everyone in this world is like you—only caring about winning or losing and profit?”
Elizabeth was slightly taken aback, her hollow gaze shifting involuntarily, avoiding Jasmine’s wounded expression.
She remained silent for a moment, her disheveled golden hair falling down, and through the obscured vision, she gazed at the crowd before her. Suddenly, she raised her voice,
“Isn’t that so? Look at the people in front of you; do they care about the safety of the world? Do they care about righteousness? To put it bluntly, do you think they care about me? It’s merely because I have provided them sufficient profit, and I will ensure their interests in the new order out of responsibility, that’s all.”
She stood up, covering her face and tangled hair, looking at the now subdued crowd. Her seemingly confident smile gradually faded, her voice becoming softer and more subdued,
“I am willing to give you my eye, Whale Folk.”
Jasmine was slightly taken aback, raising her head to see Elizabeth, whose expression seemed dazed, not knowing what thoughts filled her head.
“Not only my eye, but also my life; I will repay it all. Taking my eye must relate to your mother. Take it to save your mother; this incident was my doing; I ought to bear the price.”
Death repayment; in the end, the Chaos Race in the sky was unwilling to leave. I can still tell you how to make them go away, so that the rest will be unbothered.”
Jasmine raised her eyes to look at the decisive and mocking Elizabeth in front of her, who also turned her head and finally said,
“From now on, grievances will be cleared. From now on, the Empress of Nali will be Isabel, and the people of Nali will not be subject to reckoning. Do you agree?”
Jasmine gritted her teeth. In the silence, the helpless sigh of Gouwen sounded in her ears,
“Jasmine, you see, the transfer of law is essentially the transfer of authority. Authority must necessarily have a carrier; otherwise, it cannot operate. In this process, someone must inevitably bear the erosion of the Law of Death until your mother recovers. Since she has said so in human form, let it be done.”
“Dad, you’ve known about Aunt’s situation from the very beginning, right?”
“Jasmine.”
Jasmine wiped her tears, said no more, just nodded and stood up, telling Elizabeth what she was about to do.
Elizabeth listened quietly to everything, then nodded in acceptance, but before that, she looked at the crowd beside her and spoke,
“You have all heard me say earlier that I will pass my responsibilities to my sister, who has the Godlin bloodline. After my death, Isabel Godlin will become your Emperor and be accountable to you.”
The crowd fell silent, while Elizabeth turned her head again to look at Jasmine and continued,
“The best way to make the Chaos Race retreat is actually through negotiation; they fear the pollution in the Spirit Realm. Because according to the original plan, when the crevice collapses, the pollution from the Spirit Realm will also enter reality, so the chaos from outside told me a spell that would frighten that pollution in the Spirit Realm to protect the living. You will tell them this spell, and then they can be safe in the Spirit Realm. The spell is:
‘お母さん (Mother).’
After Elizabeth spoke the spell she had remembered, Jasmine’s limbs suddenly began to tremble uncontrollably, perhaps because her emotions were too tense. However, when she snapped back to reality, she found that her collar had already been soaked with cold sweat.
“Hah.”
She took a deep breath, and at that moment, Captain Alagina had already used the mechanism to bring back the unconscious Xu.
Elizabeth knew it was time.
Elizabeth glanced around at the few women who were silent and intensely watching her, who had a close relationship with Fisher. They stood together, looking united and fiercely ready to take her down, just like the fate she had been struggling against, which seemed unbeatable.
Her eyes were hollow, and in silence, she lowered her head, slowly raising her hands toward her eyes.
“But the closer she got to her eyes, the more she trembled and the more fear gripped her.
It was not the artificial eye of Pandora that sent the feeling of rejection; it was herself.
Clearly, that artificial eye could only be removed with her own consent, but why, even when Fisher was around, was she still so afraid of his hand getting close to her eyes?
Perhaps she was only afraid—afraid of returning to the moment she lost her eyes.
Overwhelmed by fear, her hands trembled uncontrollably, as stiff as two pieces of iron, making it very difficult to even touch her face.
But she knew it all.
She had always known it.
She had already lost.
She always understood the principle of winners and losers, so as long as one wins, as long as one achieves victory, everything is fine; losing naturally means losing everything. She had always believed this.
At this moment, since she had already lost, shouldn’t she accept it calmly?
“Your Majesty! Wuwu.”
But just at that moment, a sorrowful voice came from outside, Elizabeth was slightly taken aback, and Jasmine and Valentina also turned to look outside.
They saw a lonely old man kneeling on the ground, tears streaming down his face, crying uncontrollably,
“Your Majesty, it was you who restored my son’s status as a martyr. He died on the battlefield of Shivali, and only you remember him! Everyone else has forgotten.”
Elizabeth opened her eyes and turned to look at the woman dressed in a wool sweater and scarf. She covered her face, and tears flowed down from the creases,
“We send our children to the battlefield; even the compensation for their deaths is so little. The previous kings used them up and then discarded them, leaving no names. In my neighborhood, one of my children, Lady Martha’s two children, Mrs. Donaldson’s three children—our children died, yet we can only live a painful life relying on our meager pensions, even being forced to rent our homes out. It was you who restored their identity and gave us subsidies again.”
“I too, Your Majesty. It used to be that only those from the Royal Academy could work in the government. People like us from the countryside, those poor kids from outside Saint Nali had no chance at all to enter Saint Nali; we could only honestly stay on our land and farm for our whole lives. Now, with colleges in various places, even folks from my hometown can become magicians.”
“Your Majesty, if not for the mechanism factory you established, I, a middle-aged man, would have long been fired from the mines for being unable to do heavy work. I am deeply grateful that you revised the laws to protect us from being exploited by the Exploration Company.”
“Wow!”
The people of Nali, outside the Troll Race, knelt one after another, and hands came through the sturdy arms of the Troll Race and the sharp feathers of the Cangniao Tribe to reach out to Elizabeth, as if they wanted to grasp her. But the distance was too far, and there were too many people; how could they catch her?
Elizabeth looked at the crowd, some crying, some kneeling, and the breath that had been stuck in her chest couldn’t come out.
All of this was clearly just a responsibility.
All of this was clearly just the spoils I seized from my father and brother.
All of this was clearly just a stage for me to prove that I am better and more suitable than my brother.
But why?
But why?
Elizabeth looked at the hands reaching out towards her, and at this moment, no matter how she tried to use Pandora’s artificial eye to see through their desires, it was all in vain.
Perhaps they were simply still worried that after their death, they would be reckoned by these other forces, so they wanted to grasp this lifeline.
Yet what the artificial eye continuously relayed back was sincerity, which puzzled Elizabeth.
She opened her mouth and finally let out a breath from her chest, but it came out like a cry, each breath more rapid than the last, each breath weaker than the previous one.
“Subhuman, what Your Majesty has done is entirely for us; the blessings Your Majesty has received let us enjoy it. Therefore, even if it is everything you want Your Majesty to bear, please let us bear it together. Don’t let her bear it alone.”
Jasmine and Valentina had never encountered such a scene before, and faced with the approach of the kneeling people of Nali, even the coldest, hardest weapon could not be raised at this moment.
They turned to look at Valentina, and Valentina and Jasmine just watched Elizabeth in front of them, seeing the cracks gradually emerge in her calm, surrendering gaze. Her body began to tremble uncontrollably, and her golden eyes also drooped, turning red.
She wanted to cry, but what fell were only drops of bright red blood.
“Drip, drip.”
“I’ve already lost.”
“I’m just fulfilling my responsibility.”
But the more she spoke, the more she trembled, the smaller her voice became, until only the sound of sobbing remained.
She simply couldn’t understand, because since the day she had everything taken from her, she believed that victory and defeat determined everything, that the victors were kings and the losers were bandits, and so on.
So she used schemes to strive for victory, to get what she wanted.
But if it was really like that, why was it when she was ambushed by her brother and father and lost her eyes, she felt so hopeless and heartbroken?
Yet if it was truly like that, why did she let Fisher go when she had already won in Saint Nali?
But if it was truly like that, why, when she had already lost everything, was she still so moved by her people?
Perhaps she did not firmly believe in win or lose.
It was just that she hadn’t gained anything outside of “victory” in a long time, that she hadn’t had anyone pull her out of the quagmire of “you die or I die.”
“Subhumans, if possible, please let us bear the law she has to pay together with Your Majesty, let us become one body with Your Majesty, and share our sins together!”
Jasmine pondered for a moment, and after a long silence, Gouwen’s voice finally spoke again,
“I have already told the Chaos Race’s kin in the Sea of Souls the spell she spoke. They should be able to connect with each other, and it seems the battle in the crevice has also stopped. It actually worked; I almost had to kidnap and extort that group of Chaos Race kin. Jasmine, what are you…”
“Dad.”
Jasmine looked sadly at Elizabeth, who was completely collapsing among the outstretched hands of the people. For a moment, she didn’t know what to say, she could only tell Gouwen about the past.
Gouwen was silent for a moment, then thoughtfully said,
“Perhaps it is not unattempted, but the rank of humans is too low. Even if they can take on the burden in numbers, the consequences of the corruption brought by the Law of Death are something they couldn’t even imagine. Moreover, how much they can bear for this person is yet unknown.”
Jasmine sighed and conveyed Gouwen’s words to all the Nali people present, and this included almost all the humans of Saint Nali.
Upon hearing this, Elizabeth weakly raised her gaze, quickly lifted her hand, and hoarsely said,
“No, it has nothing to do with them.”
“You heard! If the consequences are such that you feel unable to bear them, Nali people, please stand up and leave.”
Among the crowd of Nali people, some voices of conversation could be heard, and perhaps a few people immediately stood up and left. Before leaving, they bowed towards the Golden Palace, then quickly left the scene with their heads down.
Outside, many officials spat a mouthful of saliva, put on their top hats, boarded their carriages, and called for their drivers,
“Ah, let’s go quickly! We haven’t had enough of the usual Hohos. Now it’s finally time to die. Hey, get up! What are you doing? If I had known, I would have swapped the mechanism for the carriage, leaving you without work!”
Many Nali people turned to leave, but still, most remained at this place, in front of the Golden Palace.
The sun in the sky, after a fierce battle throughout the day, was finally about to set. The radiance of the sun gradually dimmed, but the westward slanting sunlight shone on the brick walls of the Golden Palace, reflecting brightly on the square ahead.
The soldiers maintaining order both inside and outside all knelt down, the sound of their armor clinking; the naval commander of the near sea of Saint Nali, who had been ordered by Elizabeth to stay away, was still worried and, after a democratic vote, decided to bear the consequences of disobeying orders and drove back to the near sea.
For some reason, the dialogue in front of the Golden Palace seemed to be able to transmit to each Nali person’s ears through their souls.
The naval commander on the ship looked towards the direction of Saint Nali and knelt down, banging his head against the ground.
Elizabeth watched in pain as the Nali people who were unwilling to leave, even just one more person made her body tremble even more.
And among the crowd, she also saw Isabel, who had been absent from Nali for a long time, someone she had just ordered to capture.
She too knelt among the crowd, raising her gaze, looking at Elizabeth with sadness and determination.
“No. No. Sister, all of this is my fault.”
Jasmine raised her sword, her eyes complex as she looked at Elizabeth in front of her, quietly speaking as if delivering a judgment,
“Elizabeth, take off the artificial eye; we need to start the ceremony.”
“Don’t let your people down.”
Elizabeth’s eyes were red, turning her head to look at Jasmine, who was now towering over her.
In her eyes, there was no mockery of a victor, only a complex sadness.
“Crack, crack!”
The long-fought crevice finally quieted down. In the profound silence, Elizabeth finally bowed her head again, raising her trembling hands once more.
In her closed eyes, the fear of the past resurfaced.
The fear of darkness.
But the sounds of countless people praying and breathing around her kneeling calmed her trembling hands slowly, guiding them back up along her cheeks.
Before her, once again the last scene she saw while sharing vision with Heow appeared.
That blood-soaked Fisher looking back at “herself” with hatred.
Fisher, perhaps he had long since given up on her.
What she sought after.
Was merely wanting to return to the past with him.
When the ferocious last expression of hatred suddenly appeared before her eyes, Elizabeth’s trembling hand finally steadied. The next moment, her fingertips had crossed the bondage of her eyelids, grasping the artificial eye in her eye socket.
“Poof!”
“Ah! Wuwu.”
The painful sound from the throat of the Empress, that terror, that tremor, made all the Nali people kneel down, closing their eyes, their hands clasped together, tighter and tighter.
In the sky, Pandora’s spectral image slowly dissolved, and from Elizabeth’s lowered face, trickling blood fell to the ground, as the two golden artificial eyes turned, looking back at the one covering her face, like blood and tears pouring down Elizabeth.
But the next moment, the artificial eye in the blood was clutched in Jasmine’s palm, ready to mend Xu’s life.
“The ceremony will begin soon!!”
The crowd remained motionless, except for a pair of blue-golden, scattered pupils gradually retracting their gaze, soon disappearing without a trace.
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(This chapter ends)
