The blood-red sun sank heavily to the earth. Half the sun on the horizon was like a child peeking through a window, while the moon had already become clearly visible. No matter how perfect Sakura's defenses were, the Law-Ruler's frenzied, no-holds-barred assault still exposed quite a few openings.
This was the first mistake Sakura had made, and it would also be her last. The Law-Ruler flashed from Sakura's lower right to behind her.
"You lost," the Law-Ruler whispered in Sakura's ear. A heavy blow then struck her back, sending her body straight toward the ground. She rolled several times before finally stabilizing herself in a half-kneeling position. Most of her blade had plunged into the soil, carving a long black trail across the grass. Kneeling on one knee, she used the sword embedded in the ground to rise.
Sakura wiped the mud from her face and flicked her blade in a graceful flourish, sending the grass and dirt clinging to it flying. The ice-blue longsword shone once more. With a powerful stomp of her right foot, she shot into the sky and challenged the Law-Ruler high above once again.
The white-haired Law-Ruler fearlessly dove straight toward the blade of Cold Prison Ice Sky.
This time, the resolve to die in Sakura's heart vanished completely. It was not because she was afraid, but because she had won her gamble.
"Dancing on the edge of the blade once more..." Sakura murmured softly as she gazed at its tip.
Against the crimson sky that seemed to burn, the two figures clashed in a tangled melee. But this time, Sakura held nothing back. Her superb swordsmanship and hand-to-hand combat skills forced the Law-Ruler's attacks into a series of uninterrupted evasions. Yet the Law-Ruler failed to notice that Sakura was gradually closing in.
The Law-Ruler's hurried dodges kept her from seeing Sakura's movements clearly at all. Taking advantage of an opening while the Law-Ruler evaded, Sakura pulled a flashbang from her waist. She pulled the pin and threw it before the Law-Ruler.
A cold glint appeared—it was Sakura's instant dash. Sakura appeared behind the Law-Ruler in an instant, followed by a white flash and a deafening blast. The specially made flashbang briefly blinded and deafened the Law-Ruler, but Sakura was not much better off. If it could affect a Law-Ruler, its effect on her was multiplied severalfold.
"Disappear!" Sakura said coldly, her eyes closed.
Skill and speed reached a near-perfect harmony at that moment. Sakura named this exquisite technique Fierce Dance of the Cold Sky.
Several blue flashes of frost appeared all at once.
Slash!
The blade flashes swept past, striking the Law-Ruler in unison. Numerous bloody wounds appeared across her body at once, and her clothes were left in tatters. The final and strongest slash landed on her right hand, cutting away most of its flesh and exposing gleaming white bone.
At last, the Herrscher of Binding's expression changed slightly. It was an expression of pain, but she buried that pain within herself once more.
What happened next made even a battle-hardened Fusion Warrior like Sakura reveal a look of surprise. The Law-Ruler's flawless left hand gripped her bloody right hand. The sounds of twisting flesh and breaking bones filled the air as she forcibly snapped off her own right hand. A golden fracture was exposed to the air, golden blood dripping continuously onto the ground.
The Law-Ruler threw her severed hand over. Sakura lightly blocked it with her blade, and the hand thrown by the Herrscher of Binding was knocked away by Cold Prison Ice Sky.
"I do not fear death."
"Because death is liberation," she softly told Sakura, though it sounded more like she was muttering to herself.
She spread her arms. Centered on her, a barrier ringed with golden crosses appeared across ten thousand kilometers of land.
The Herrscher of Binding rose into the sky. The golden runes and crosses around her instantly began spinning at tremendous speed, so fast that even a Fusion Warrior's eyesight could not make out their paths.
Sakura suddenly felt unbearable pain throughout her body. As her bodily functions fell into chaos, her control over herself weakened as well. She fell from the sky and crashed into a tree, splitting it in two.
Sakura lay on the ground, blood flowing uncontrollably from her eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Her vision turned entirely red. She pushed aside the leaves blocking her sight, and the first thing she saw was the silver disk hanging high above.
In ancient times, poets often entrusted their longing for home to the moon. Sakura could not help but feel a trace of longing for her younger sister as well. What was her sister doing at a time like this?
In medicine, there was an unwritten rule: doctors could not operate on their own family and friends, especially for major surgeries. Doctors already had all sorts of concerns during an operation. If they had to operate on someone close to them, the immense psychological pressure would likely crush their minds outright.
A similar unwritten rule existed among Fire Moth's Fusion Warriors: a Fusion Warrior's assigned defense zone could not overlap with their hometown. Because of her duties and this rule, she had not seen her younger sister for several months.
Sakura lightly shook her head, casting that faint longing into the depths of her memories. She picked up Cold Prison Ice Sky, which had fallen nearby, and barely rose to her feet with the broken tree beside her and the sword in her hand. Under the Herrscher of Binding's power, the spirit blade's cold aura had vanished, reducing it to an ordinary weapon with only a sharp edge. Sakura was no different from an ordinary person either, her long pink ears hanging limp and weak.
This was one of the Eleventh Law-Ruler's abilities: within her barrier, weapons powered by Honkai energy could not be used, while Fusion Warriors implanted with Honkai Beast DNA would suffer chaotic bodily functions and die within one minute.
Sakura had less than a minute left to live. The Herrscher of Binding stepped onto invisible stairs and walked down from the sky toward Sakura.
Sakura looked at the Law-Ruler once more, her expression calm. The countdown to death was not worth mentioning in her eyes. She was also a battle-hardened Fusion Warrior, one who had struggled at the edge of death's vortex countless times. That calm expression instead stirred a trace of curiosity in the Law-Ruler.
"Does everything you do truly have meaning?" For the first time, the Law-Ruler felt something she could neither crush nor control. Her power could certainly destroy human civilization with ease, yet she sensed something more abstract still looking down at her from on high.
That was humanity's spirit, and those who embodied humanity's fearless spirit were warriors.
Why were warriors called warriors? Was it the sharp blade in their hands, the sturdy armor on their bodies, or the fine horse beneath them? A great writer once said: true warriors dare to face the bleakness of life and confront the blood that flows freely.
Thus, warriors did not necessarily need to be fully armed, but they were certainly those who dared to charge toward death.
Sakura pointed the tip of Cold Prison Ice Sky at the Law-Ruler and stared directly at her. In her azure eyes, a flame called determination danced. "A person can be destroyed, but never defeated. You seem to have already surrendered, but I have not."
Before you continue