Chapter 13: Legacy

This might be the last time this simple, straightforward man sees himself in the mirror.

"I am Li En Sudar, and also Surl Dawon."

Shattered whispers echoed in the cramped space as fragmented memories were integrated.

The old Oath Knight, Surl Dawon, looked at himself in the mirror, feeling somewhat blank and somewhat bitter.

Why, only at this moment, did he suddenly recall the memories of his past life? Why, only now, did he remember his past as a human?

【Because your time has come.】

In the unseen, Surl sensed malice; was fate cursing him?

"Is that so? My time has come."

Indeed, it no longer matters; there is no difference anymore.

At this moment, the road has reached its end; there are no other choices left.

Then, what difference is there between the transmigrator Li En Sudar and the rebellious knight Surl?

He looked at himself in the mirror and revealed a bitter smile.

Now, he finally understood why he always occasionally had strange ideas, why he was always full of dissatisfaction and anger, and why he always felt the world should not be this way.

"Damn it, you're too late." If the memories and knowledge of his past life had awakened earlier, perhaps there would still be a choice.

【Was there really a choice?】

No, it's useless; in the face of the world's darkness, what choice does a single individual have?

No, it has meaning; this makes me more determined in my path, the path of the traitor. It seems truly meaningless, because...

"I do not regret taking this dead-end road."

No matter how many times I start over, no matter whether I have knowledge from another world, I will ultimately take this path.

Donning armor and grasping the sharp sword of judgment, the slick old knight rarely showed such a serious expression.

This time, it is still a deployment; it is still an expedition.

A hundred years of warfare may finally have reached its end.

"My lord." The young knight squire handed over gloves and a cloak, his youthful face filled with unease.

"Please take us with you." Along the way, the former Paladins had hoped Surl would change his mind.

Even if we have lost our holy power and can only serve as cannon fodder, please let us follow.

"Do we... do we still have a future?" The ordinary people within the city walls, the desperate disaster victims and petitioners, watched the man before them.

The unease in the mirror from a few minutes ago had vanished completely; before those knights and commoners stood a legend.

He was simple, straightforward justice; he was the protector of the weak; he was the scourge of evil.

The Great Knight slowly ascended the tower of the city wall, his gaze sweeping over the four directions.

Behind him were the people he protected; ahead lay an endless army.

"I, swear to fight for the weak."

This man, who had never been defeated, never hesitated, and never retreated, raised his right hand once more.

"I have done it. Through one hundred and twenty-seven years and countless battlefields, I have done it."

His gaze turned north, where the former kingdom lay.

"My faith compels me to fight for the law, to fight to protect order."

"I have done that too."

On the man's long sword flashed a scorching radiance; that was the brilliance of faith, the power of oaths, the power of protection—but it was not the light of faith!

"But now, my faith demands I slaughter the weak... Ah, pfft!"

Under the gaze of countless eyes, the old knight spat directly at the holy symbol of the Scales, spitting at the deity to whom he had sworn allegiance.

The armies besieging the city, the banners standing before the old knight, each bore that familiar Scales.

"Friends, brothers, we once believed in her... but now..."

Calm words were the most blasphemous of phrases.

"Our faith has clashed with basic morality and justice; what necessity is there for such damn faith to exist?"

The great villain uttered words of contempt against the deity.

In full view of everyone, the Law's Holy Scripture bound at his waist was torn apart directly.

The torn codex, page by page of legal statutes once regarded as the embodiment of justice, became scattered scraps of paper upon the city wall.

He had blasphemed his own faith; he had blasphemed his own deity.

"Boom!" The sudden thunder; what meaning did the deity's rage hold?

The war drums had sounded; the war songs had been sung.

This was the familiar scent of the battlefield, yet the target of this expedition was...

"Our enemies are the deities! The evil god who created this tragedy, the god of tyrannical law, the Lord of the Scales, and that corrupt theocratic nation that created countless tragedies!"

The long sword in his left hand and the war banner in his right pointed unhesitatingly toward the northern sky.

"We are the ones who are just. And justice does not lie upon the corrupt codex; it has always been within our hearts!"

"Deploy."

The open city gates, the last of the iron cavalry, led by the Oath Knights, launched a charge of the weak against an infinite army.

Was there a chance of victory? How could there be? Most of our own Paladins had already lost their divine favor and power; only a very few Oath Knights still retained holy power.

And opposite us stood an army at least ten times our size, a nation with countless logistical supplies, and even a True God.

That was destined to be a war with no possibility of victory.

Blood flowed continuously; the rebels had mostly lost their holy power, while the Oath Knights, who maintained their strength through oaths, faced colleagues a thousand times their number.

That was a rebellion destined to fail.

"I have no regrets; I only regret not realizing the truth sooner."

The most powerful Oath Knight of this era ultimately fell upon the dunes.

He smiled bitterly, yet never for his own sake.

Surrounding him were countless corpses; behind him stood no one. Fully armored Grand Inquisitor Knights had blocked all his paths to escape.

He knew there was no way out. At least half of those surrounding him were strong individuals he knew, or even brought forth himself, representing the most formidable combat power of the entire Order.

For his sake, the Zhongde Sect, teetering in the storm, abandoned all other battlefronts.

Yet they, with complex expressions, watched the end of their colleague, mentor, senior, and master—the man who had never yielded.

The old knight, with broken arms and legs, lay weakly propped on the ground. Upon the broken sword driven into the earth still shone the purest radiance.

That was the purest Holy Light.

It was his oath to the weak.

He had proven he had not betrayed the justice within his heart.

Even though he had betrayed his deity and faith, even though he now bore countless arrows, even though he was an undisputed first-class villain.

"Great Villain."

"Why betray? The deity has favored you enough."

"She gave you power, she gave you a stable life."

"Law brings order; order brings justice."

Facing his former colleagues as they gradually approached, facing their doubts, the old knight smiled.

"Does law represent justice? Who says so? Which bitch goddess?!"

Even with only his mouth able to move, the old knight remained the most dangerous villain.

"Who decreed that farmers must surrender ninety percent of their income, even in these famine-stricken years of disaster?"

"Who decreed that even the seven most cruel evils could not be judged against the nobles of the religious clans?"

"Who, time and again, suppressed the people's resistance, forcing them to hand over their meager possessions under the guise of healing disasters and atonement?"

"Who made the children of the lowborn remain lowborn, and the children of nobles forever nobles? Who is it! Dare you tell me?!"

The desperate roar caused the Inquisitor Knights closing in to halt.

"Ask your own hearts: is all this justice? What kind of justice is this?!"

In truth, how could any Inquisitor Knight not know that all of this was contained within the Code?

"Law is the tool of the rulers; if the rulers are evil, then it is the most evil of evil laws."

Then, the old man laughed.

"I see you have studied law until you went mad, studying until you lost your humanity? Fools, look at me!"

The old man tapped his chest.

"Justice has never been upon the Code; it has always been within our hearts. In the days to come, ask your hearts."

"Enough!"

A sudden roar, followed by flames, ignited everything.

This golden flame, from the very beginning, exceeded the strength of mortals. Within the divine flames, the old man smiled happily.

He raised the broken sword once more.

He looked upward, at the divine avatar finally forced to descend.

She was beautiful and holy, untouched by mortal dust, her eyes closed as if unable to bear the world's suffering.

But if one cannot see it, does it truly not exist?

"Ha, that evil is worth a fight."

The strike that had been accumulating for so long finally found its target.

The old knight leaped up suddenly, the single remaining arm displaying the most dazzling, pure light.

When all light focused on a single point, it was yet again that familiar roar!

"Evil-Cleaving Slash!"

This was a roar repeated countless times, a strike against evil just as countless times before, a strike made with life and will.

The blade turned into light, tearing the atmosphere, tearing the sky.

"Boom!"

Within the flames of the god, the laughing old knight gradually turned to ash.

Yet, he continued to smile.

Just as he said, he never regretted it.

But when the smoke cleared, all the Inquisitor Knights present stared in shock at the scene before them: the divine avatar, which should have been flawless, now bore cracks.

On her holy face, blood seeped from wounds; spiderweb-like injuries made her beautiful features resemble a shattered mask or a dummy, utterly chilling.

"So, it is also red..." The old knight's whisper still echoed in this world.

The god, whom the old knight viewed as evil, also bleeds.

Then, is it possible she could be destroyed?

Mortals may eventually die, but his will, his thoughts, did not end there.

It is merely that a fallen hero's soul could not bear it.

His story, his life, ended here.

The dream gradually shattered, a low voice narrating his own ending.

"This is the story of a fool, the end of a stubborn Bai Chi... Heh, he was truly useless, unable even to destroy a fragment of a god's power. In the end, he still failed to fulfill his oath to protect the weak."

The protagonist appeared before Li En. He, who was also Li En, smiled as he spoke his own demise and powerlessness to another Li En.

"Blind righteousness? At least, that assessment fits."

The playback of memories did not end there.

The knights and legions had already departed; the avatar of the god, after venting hysterically, returned to the heavens.

Upon that wasteland, where knightly ashes and divine blood mingled, an ancient book floated.

It seemed to be recording something.

This book, Li En knew all too well; it hung at his waist!

And just as Li En thought everything would end here, the book suddenly changed again.

On its open cover, countless phantom images appeared, and the entire book swelled violently.

Deformed flesh? Beast forms trying to escape everywhere? Faint afterimages of historical heroes? At that moment, it seemed to be enjoying some delicacy.

Finally, when all returned to calm, it seemed nothing had changed.

The book vanished once more.

"Now, do you know why I dislike Li Ensu?"

Li En shook his head; the amount of information was too great, and he still felt a bit dizzy.

However, what he saw was the figure of this knight becoming increasingly illusory.

His time was nearly at its end.

Li En's intuition told him that the heroic soul before him was not the original body, but merely a recorded fragment of a soul, a lost memory.

The real Li Ensu? He might have already reached the next segment of time, or rather, the next life, or perhaps, he was right there in the mirror.

"Will we have a chance to meet again?" Li En, somewhat dazed, asked subconsciously; he still had so many things he wanted to understand, yet his heart already knew the answer.

"Perhaps, but probably not in the way you understand." Still speaking vaguely and cunningly, yet it was a declaration of parting.

"Is there anything I can do?"

"You will know." Still that malicious smile, but after a moment of thought, he shook his head.

"Since this is instruction, teaching you nothing would be unbecoming of a senior." The appearance of the middle-aged paladin concealed no exhaustion; the triggered memory of the heroic soul was gradually reaching its end.

"Do you feel boundless darkness? Do you feel your feet bound? Do you feel the pressure from all four sides?"

"No, I do not."

"Adjectives, adjectives; social pressure, the darkness around you; do you truly not feel it?"

Li En recalled the dwarf blunderbuss pressed against his forehead, thought of Will who died with eyes unsealed, thought of this painful world, and he fell silent.

"What I can teach you is to remember this darkness, this oppression, to endure, and to suppress your rage until the time comes."

An extreme paladin to the core, yet speaking words that were not so extreme.

"... When there is no retreat, when there is no escape."

"Swing your sword."

That sword light tearing the sky, that strike that wounded the god, was still before him.

"Can I do it?"

"Perhaps, after all..."

The middle-aged figure in the phantom waved his hand, like a traveler about to depart on a long journey.

"... I am Li Ensu, and you are also Li Ensu."

【Instruction Mode Phase One has ended. Please initiate Phase Two as soon as possible: Inheritance of the Heroic Soul...】

【Soul Ability... Thousand-Faced Dragon has been activated.】

【Listen, the dragon-snake of infinite reincarnations whispers through the ages.】

【Lies are the scales of His new birth, layer upon layer covering the infinite body of the Infinite Dragon.】

【It can be the most wicked immortal, or the most devout saint.】

【The history of mortals is but sand flowing between its claws.】

【The epics of heroes are tragedies and comedies sung to lull it to sleep.】

【Do not awaken it, unless you expect to see the world burn fiercely.】

【Or, unless you also long for the new birth amidst the ruins and ashes.】

(End of this chapter)