Chapter 400. How Do I Explain All These Small Questions?
As Shaya had mentioned, Joshua was much more effective this time.
The soldiers retreated like a tide, in a mechanical-like manner.
They were all too stunned to extricate themselves.
Everyone present could instantly recognize that it was the Drow Swordsman's Moon Shadow Slash, albeit with a slight change to its movement, making it look more like a Full Moon Slash.
However, even if they were beaten to death, they refused to believe that the simple sword technique wielded such devastating power!
It was simply ridiculous!
After all, not only did it pierce through several layers of protection, but it had managed to avoid hitting the bodyguard, and it had even managed to strike the Prince who was taking shield behind the human bodyguard... What was up with its ridiculous flying distance and speed?
Why did the blade, which could only traverse 20 meters, hurtled to 100 meters at three times the speed?
More importantly, how could the Prince who was adorned top-to-bottom in various eye-catching artifacts be harmed?
Wait, just how did he manage to sneak up to Prince Joshua's side in the first place...
Problems were only piling up one after another, turning the situation from bad to worse!
These unanswered questions were akin to halos, halos that illuminated the already elusive and phantom-like Char, causing him to have a greater and more significant presence.
"Do you see this? This is the warrior who defeated the Giant!
A Dark Elf who had lost his left arm and was barely able to stop the bleeding raised his head and shouted. His face was filled with pride.
After all, he was also among those who had fought the Giant to the death, and thus, he had considered Char to be one of his comrades.
Even if Char was only a mixed-blood Half-Elf, his feats had garnered him enough respect to stand tall among the Elves.
Especially in such a situation.
Upon hearing this, panic began to seep into the soldiers who were originally watching closely and waiting for an opportunity.
Although they did not participate in the life-or-death battle against the Giant, they were well aware of the terrors that had transpired at the front line. Just by looking at the devastation left behind by the Giant, they could imagine what kind of battlefield it was. If the Giant were already this powerful, what could be said of the man who felled the Giant?
More curiously, why has this man yet to attack us?
Why did he only watch from afar and attacked Prince Maimon?
Man's capability for imagination was infinite, and spurred by the chaotic environment they were in, the soldiers present immediately came to a possible reason behind Char's actions.
Maybe... He's injured?
He's injured!
That's right! He's injured!
Just think about it, could a human possibly have fought against a Giant and survive unscathed?
Of course not!
He must have sacrificed something to deal a fatal blow against the Giant!
Of course!
This explains his injuries!
There was also a hint of relief mixed in with this speculation, which made the mixed-blooded Half Elf no longer seem as intimidating.
…So, his strength is not as insane as expected.
…So, even he is capable of getting hurt.
…So, we lost to such a freak.
….I guess we aren't that bad after all...
What followed was the thought of retreating.
In this battlefield that had taken place at the wrong time and place, everyone was eager for a reason to get out of the battle and retreat in one piece, and now, a perfectly good excuse had fallen into their laps.
Such a situation was similar to if a group of battered hunters were to encounter a wounded wild beast. In such a scenario, the correct choice of action was not to pursue after the beast, but to fall back and thank their lucky stars.
Joshua saw this scene and was speechless at the death of his old rival, old partner, and old b*stard, Old Maimon. At the same time, he also felt that Char was a difficult opponent.
This was the second time he had witnessed the other party using such a terrifying attack. It had only been mere minutes since the same attack was used against himself.
Without hesitating any longer, Joshua raised his hand and gestured for the Elves to retreat in an orderly manner.
His gaze swept through his troops before finally landing on Astro.
However, his eyelids drooped slightly, and his lips moved a few times, but he did not say anything.
Char could tell that the Prince wanted Astro to leave the Army, to avoid becoming Lucius' subordinate.
The reason was obvious.
There was no way that Joshua was clueless as to what would happen to him. As a hostage controlled by Char, he would be in the hands of Lucius for a while. He was well aware of just how vicious and despicable Lucius was.
Even if he were to ignore his personal circumstances, the impact on the overall situation could not be ignored as well... With Old Maimon now dead, the hierarchy of the army was thrown into chaos.
Just thinking about what Prisilia would do during such a power vacuum made him shudder.
Therefore, he needed someone he could trust to stay in the Army and exert his influence.
However, in the end, he made no such moves.
The short moment of thought was enough for the astute and calculative Joshua to figure out that giving up this additional request would not be a bad choice, but rather a diversification of his investment.
Moreover...
To Astro, this was perhaps the best home for him.
After all, no matter how confident he was, he should have realized how terrifying Prisilia was after hearing Char's words...
By following Lucius, even if his son could not live well, he could at least avoid a tragic death.
At this moment, he might have followed the rationality of a politician and made this decision, or he might have acted as a father.
With such a tangled heart, who could possibly tell what role he was acting on behalf of?
However, this did not stop Char from pouring salt on his wounds.
Bickering with NPCs was Char's second favorite thing to do.
"How pitiful. You yearn for a 'trusted aide' to preside over the overall situation for you at this critical moment, only to realize that your son is the only worthy individual. Heh... Have you seen what your 'allies' look like? A piece of trash like Maimon is definitely not an exception."
Char mocked.
With Bloom dead, you have no chance of winning. Prisilia is definitely not as simple as you think.
"I know he's a piece of trash, but it's better to have the figurehead be a piece of trash than to have a group of dragons without a leader." Prince Joshua replied.
"And that is precisely why I killed him."
Char gave him a meaningful look.
Joshua could not help but shiver. When he looked at Char, the latter only left him with a view of his back.
...
With the main force now gone, all that was left behind was a mountain of corpses and earthen scars.
Everyone heaved a sigh of relief.
In the end, a hundred or so people had gone to Lucius' side.
All of them were the survivors of the battle with the Giant. Although they were all injured, their eyes were extremely bright.
Char had never seen Dark Elves with such determination and clarity in their eyes. Even though they had no choice but to lie on the ground, they held their heads high, like generals who had just returned from a victory.
"As expected of Elves."
Char mumbled.
Although he had always believed in science and despised blood-based theories, it had to be said that this innate pride of the Elves seemed to be engraved in their DNA. It was the same for both Dark Elves and Light Elves. Once they took off their stupid rose-tinted glasses and opened their eyes to look at the world properly, the brilliance that the race emanated was truly spectacular.
The Prince was still in Char's hands. According to the Elves' tradition, the prisoners would be released only after the main force had left three times the range of an arrow.
As to how it was brought about, the matter of three arrows was related to the dignity of the ancient Elves.
Elven archers were known for their accuracy, and the decision of how far this distance was was completely up to them.
They could set the distance at three meters, which meant that the Elven archers was only capable of shooting one meter.
This was obviously a great insult to their abilities.
As such, whenever matters related to three times the distance of an arrow shot were involved, the Elves would put as much distance as possible between the parties out of this ancient sense of self-esteem... It was an outrageous behavior, as they believed that the further the distance they put between their targets, the stronger they were as an archer.
Back to the matter at hand, all parties had signed a contract. Although Char could break the contract at any time and use the authority of Messiah to clear himself of any wrongdoing, there was no need for that.
In other words, Char's troops were relatively safe for the time being, on account of the Elves' generous estimation of their shooting range. Based on Char's estimation of his troops' stamina, they needed to rest for half a day before leaving.
Therefore-
"It's finally done."
He heaved a sigh of relief and rubbed his sore neck.
When he turned around, as expected, he was met with another pair of eyes.
Strictly speaking, there were many pairs of curious eyes.
Among the array of questioning gazes, the brightest one was likely Lucius'.
Why does it feel like my troubles have only just began?
Char could not help but smile bitterly. He had quite a hard time coming up with proper explanations.
They only wanted to ask two things.
Firstly, how was the Giant defeated?
Secondly, how did he sneak attack Prince Joshua in front of everyone, and how did he kill Old Maimon from a long distance?
However, these were difficult subjects for Char to explain...
The Giant was the projection of the Holy Spirit itself, a terrifying entity created by the Holy Spirit using the authority it stole from somewhere and the character of NPCs and players during maintenance. It was the Holy Spirit itself that drove its actions, and the one that condensed its form so that it would not collapse was the Holy Sword Narshil, which was engraved between the Giant's eyebrows.
Therefore, killing a giant required two core operations.
One of them was when Char touched Narshil with the Silver Oak of the Origin. The shock from the collision of the two Holy Sword was enough to disintegrate the giant's body.
The second was due to the actions of the Supreme Holy Spirit.
Originally, after making several calculations, Char had determined that he had no chance of winning. After all, it was clear that the mysterious short sword Narshil had been imbued with an unknown power meant to deal with Char. Not only was it meant to defeat Char as a character, it was meant to kill him as a player.
If it was not for the appearance of Anu, Char would have ended up in a terrible state. This could be seen from the Supreme Holy Spirit that was stabbed by the sword.
However, Anu had appeared.
Her appearance was not something that Char could explain.
Her materialization felt almost inevitable.
It was as if someone had predicted that the Supreme Holy Spirit would appear in such a way, and so, they hid his nemesis, the Sword-sealing Maid Anu, within the Holy Sword Narshil.
As such, when the Supreme Holy Spirit attempted rebirth with the Holy Sword, Narshil's aid, Anu, who was slumbering within the sword materialized and retaliated against the Holy Spirit.
This was no longer a coincidence. This was a response that had been carefully designed. Once the Holy Spirit side had designed this, it would definitely trigger a rescue mechanism.
However, Char was dumbfounded.
He had never expected the Giant, or rather, the Supreme Holy Spirit to be defeated in such a manner...
The second problem was also one that Char could not explain.
Putting aside the matter of Old Maimon's assassination for the time being, the reason Char had managed to conceal his presence despite the number of eyes of the battlefield was due to him hiding within the Pseudo Divine Space left behind by the Giant after its death.
After the Supreme Holy Spirit and his manifestation, the giant had been taken care of, using the authority of the Messiah, Char had taken the remaining Pseudo Divine Space and the ownerless Holy Sword Narshil for himself.
Logically speaking, an ownerless Pseudo Divine Space would dissipate, just like any other any other item soul-bound to a character, such as their inventory. The moment the player deleted the character, their inventory would dissipate, alongside all the items that were stored within.
However, even after the death of the Supreme Holy Spirit, the mysterious Pseudo Divine Space did not disappear.
This was because it did not belong to the Supreme Holy Spirit. Its owner was actually Char.
This was very strange.
Char had basically appeared in his own inventory.
This reminded Char of the question he had when he read Journey to the West when he was a child. If the Town Deity of the Five Elements at the Wuzhuang Temple could use his sleeves to control the universe and bring everything into his grasp, what would happen if he used his sleeves to capture himself? Would he not just disappear on the spot??
Writing such a paradoxical piece of code would undoubtedly lead to the game crashing.
However, to think that he had actually experience this process...
It was a whole new experience for Char to hide in his own Pseudo Divine Space. He was like a spectator outside of this world, with a transparent dimensional wall that allowed him to see everything that was happening here.
He could not be noticed at all.
It was as if...
It was as if he truly were the Messiah.
However, once he noticed Joshua preparing to make his move, Char had no choice but to leave his Pseudo Divine Space, thus breaking away from this experience.
Now that everything was settled, he tried to replicate the experience again, but he could not do it no matter what. He could not get anything out of asking the goddess. either
These were the sources behind Char's difficulty in explaining the situation.
Moreover, Ksenja had also told him that the mother and daughter had been teleported here from their house in the newbie village...
This was even more ridiculous.
He could not wrap his head around these strange occurrences, and as such, how could he possibly explain himself?
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