Sacred King Horn

The shadows blocking the way lunged at her almost simultaneously, winding around the spear in layers as they tried to drag it into the darkness.

But the silver threads were lifeless things made to bind souls. After absorbing the shadows' power in reverse, their force through the air surged instead, trailing a silvery-white streak as they violently pierced the sky like a meteor.

With a crisp crack, the glass exploded, falling from above like a shattered galaxy.

The Unicorn let out a long cry and stamped its hooves fiercely, carrying Isolde through the collapsing breach amid a sky full of scattered fragments of light.

Violent void currents howled past her ears, tearing apart the last layer of viscous darkness.

As the debris flying around them gradually dimmed, the suffocating pressure suddenly vanished as well.

The Unicorn slowed. Isolde narrowed her eyes, brushed away the mist before her, and looked out from its back. The world before her was nothing but endless desolation.

At the far end of that fractured expanse, a massive pile of bones hung above the barren ground.

Above the bone pile floated a glowing beast horn.

The horn was silver-white throughout, with clear blue radiance slowly flowing down its surface, casting a cold gleam over the entire pile of bones.

So this was the anchor point she had been searching for.

The Unicorn carried Isolde closer. She leaped down from its back, gazed at the enormous bone pile before her, and resolutely stepped onto the stairs made of white bones.

She heard the bones weeping. Suppressed rage surged toward her with a bloody mist, and with every step she took, the soul within her trembled as though resonating with it.

Logically speaking, Isolde was a child of darkness. She should not have cared about such insignificant malice.

Yet the empathy remaining from Yu Lingye allowed her to feel that pain with incomparable clarity.

She climbed the bones one step at a time.

Two emotions intertwined in her chest, and even she could not tell whose personality was driving this body forward.

Still, there was one thing she knew for certain.

She did not need to make an either-or choice between Yu Lingye and Isolde.

Whoever she wanted to be, that was who she was.

The self she was now was the best possible answer.

The ruined Unicorn stopped beneath the bone pile, raised its head, and watched her quietly.

Too many people in this world had witnessed the Unicorns' holiness and perfection.

But no one had ever asked them whether they wanted that perfection.

If purity brought flaying, broken horns, melted bones, and sacrifice,

then those who crowned them with the name of holiness and worshipped before their statues were all detestable accomplices.

Believers sang praises, while executioners prayed.

Only the Unicorns' cries became the elegy of supreme glory.

At last, Isolde reached the top of the bone pile.

She raised her hand and gripped the horn.

In an instant, every sound around her vanished. Even the self-scrutiny that had been disturbing her mind fell silent at that moment.

[You have obtained: Sacred King Horn (Legendary)]

[The supreme power of purity is often used to suppress all ultimate darkness in the world.]

Isolde lowered her eyes to the short horn flowing with cold light in her hand, and a mocking curve touched her lips.

She understood.

The so-called Moon-Crown Lock had never truly been suppressing filthy darkness.

It was suppressing the undying hatred of the Unicorn race.

The Holy Court feared the backlash of that overwhelming resentment, so it cruelly forged a holy relic from the Unicorns' own bones, then used it in turn to suppress their curse after death.

Take the victim's bones and lock away the victim's hatred.

"Heh... How ironic."

Before she could figure out how to use the holy relic, a sharp cracking sound suddenly came from not far away.

In the depths of the darkness, another spatial barrier shattered with a thunderous crash.

Following the sound, Isolde looked up and saw a man in black slowly straighten amid flying ash and burning ruins.

In his hand, he clutched a gem-like lock core.

It seemed the other party had obtained another sealing anchor point as well.

With a flick of her wrist, Isolde's cold and beautiful face faded away, reverting to Yu Lingye's seemingly delicate and harmless features.

The man in black amid the ruins seemed to sense something unusual and abruptly looked up toward the high platform.

Their gazes collided in the void through the countless drifting fragments of light.

Isolde felt her palm suddenly grow scorching hot.

The newly acquired [Sacred King Horn] actually flew from her hand into the air.

At the same time, the lock core in the man in black's hand also became a streak of light and shot into the sky.

The two anchor points collided in midair. As their light merged, a Moon-Crown Lock woven from a beast horn and gemstone took shape completely in the air.

It hovered silently in the air, radiating an irresistible holy pressure.

At that moment, a new voice sounded beside Isolde's ear.

[Sacrifice one soul]

[You will gain the Moon-Crown Lock's recognition]

On the other side, the man in black had clearly heard a similar prompt.

He did not hesitate. The shadow behind him rapidly stretched out like a silent venomous snake, creeping across the ground toward Isolde.

Isolde's gaze turned cold.

She knew those hypocrites from the Holy Court could never have obediently sent only two people to release the sealing anchor points.

These people loved nothing more than forcing others into desperate straits, watching them tear at each other, then looking down from on high and saying:

"See? Human nature is inherently evil. Only the Holy Court is the world's sole embodiment of truth, goodness, and beauty."

Isolde had manipulated people's hearts before too, but the only difference between her and the Holy Court was that she never denied her own evil. Nor would she despicably seal off every path, much less need some excuse of light to beautify her judgment of human nature.

The Holy Court liked to invert cause and effect. She would put cause and effect back where they belonged.

The man in black's voice came from across the distance, probing as he asked:

"Did you hear anything?"

"Of course I did." Isolde stared at the Moon-Crown Lock floating in the air. "It wants us to betray each other."

The man in black fell silent for a moment. "How can you be sure?"

Isolde shot him a sidelong glance, her tone mocking. "Because I used to be the one setting the questions."

She walked down from the platform of white bones. The ruined Unicorn beneath the bone pile turned into a wisp of blue light and sank back into her palm.

"One life can serve as a lock anchor once, but one betrayal can let the Moon-Crown Lock continue proving the meaning of its existence."

She looked up at the man in black and continued explaining:

"It does not actually want any souls. It wants us to personally push each other into the abyss and make the crime of 'betrayal' real. Then, in the name of purifying sin, it can rightfully seal both of us away again."

The shadow beneath the man in black's feet stopped, as if thinking.

The other party had an Intelligence stat above 100, so what she said carried some credibility.

But precisely because he was intelligent, he felt even less certain.

What if she was lying to him?

Of course, Isolde was not without her guard up either.

Neither of them intended to entrust her back to the other.

The Moon-Crown Lock seemed to have exploited that, magnifying this small distrust into the true killing move within the illusion.