The Balance

"His Majesty has awakened. Do you still intend to continue this futile resistance?"

In the dimly lit hall, Haschwalth stood tall, his pure white knight's uniform spotless, the dark gold hilt of his longsword gleaming faintly.

In front of him stood a very muscular man wearing a vest and sporting a mohawk.

Kong was in bad shape at the moment; he had several sword wounds on his body and was still bleeding, and his vest had turned dark red.

The man known as the Marine Admiral was staring intently at Haschwalth, his eyes filled with unwavering determination.

"You want me to back down? Impossible! Justice will never retreat an inch in the face of evil!"

These words were spoken with considerable conviction.

Haschwalth remained expressionless and said calmly, "Anything that opposes the Quincy is evil. It seems the only way is to completely eliminate you."

"If you can do it, then come on!" Kong showed no weakness and was about to charge forward.

But then, the two of them turned to look at the door at the same time.

As they heard footsteps, they simultaneously concluded that there must be two people approaching.

As expected.

Two more people entered the main hall. One of them had blue and white hair, a fierce and arrogant face, and wore a black coat that revealed his muscular upper body.

The other person looked unremarkable, simply dressed in a fitted white knight's uniform.

Upon seeing who it was, both Haschwalth and Kong's eyes flashed with a strange light.

"Rocks / Basard?!"

Ha ha ha ha!

Rocks laughed loudly, scanned the room, glanced at Kong, and then fixed his gaze on Haschwalth.

"Kaya's second-in-command? Where's that Kaya guy? Tell him to come out, I'm here to take his life!"

Haschwalth ignored Rocks and looked at Basard. In a flash, he suddenly understood what had happened.

The process is actually very simple.

After the Quincy hunting game began, Basard went outside and found Rocks.

Then we bypassed the obstacles and arrived here.

"Basa, what are you doing standing here?" Haschwalth asked.

"That's what I should be asking you!" Basard stepped forward, his tone calm but laced with anger. "Do you understand, Has? That His Majesty!"

Upon hearing this, the atmosphere in the hall suddenly froze.

Kong looked serious. Although he didn't know what was going on, he didn't speak rashly.

Rocks displayed an expression of keen interest.

"What?" Haschwalth remained calm.

"Your Majesty... no, that man is merely using everyone as nourishment for himself! We will all have our souls stolen!" Basard cried out.

"Is that so?"

"On Hachinosu, I witnessed the deaths of all Quincy except myself! On the very day of the God Valley Incident!"

The God Valley Incident?

Rocks suddenly remembered that although he was still in a demonic state, he had witnessed that scene firsthand.

At the same time, Kong also thought of that scene.

As a beam of light descended, all the captured Quincy died, their bodies completely obliterated...

So Kaya could take Quincy's life so easily!

So this explains everything: why does Kaya create Quincy in large numbers? It's simply to devour Quincy and grow stronger.

"One general's success is built on the bones of ten thousand!" Kong lamented.

"So that's why he did that." Rocks glanced at the furious Basard.

At the end of the battle between Rocks and Maron, it was Basard suddenly appeared and struck Maron from behind, breaking him as he was about to self-destruct.

Clearly, this guy is preparing to rebel against Kaya.

Haschwalth's expression remained unchanged until the end; he simply stared at Basard with his calm, icy blue eyes.

"What do you mean? Even after hearing the truth about the Quincy's existence, you still intend to pledge allegiance to that person?" Basard shouted.

"Why are you alive?" Haschwalth suddenly asked.

"What?" Basard was taken aback.

"You say His Majesty killed all the Quincy, but why are you, this man named Basard, standing before me now?" Haschwalth retorted.

"Huh?!" Basard practically laughed in anger. "That's because we still have value! Isn't that how the Sternritter are?"

"You don't understand. This game is about hunting others, but also about identifying who within the Quincy is qualified to witness the New World alongside His Majesty."

"What?!"

"It's a pity, Basa, that you've chosen the opposite side, but today, here and now, you will become the cornerstone of peace."

"So that's how it is. The weight of the entire world is less than Your Majesty's alone? Is this your choice?"

Buzz~

Haschwalth raised his hand, and a platinum shield appeared in his hand, with a prismatic pentagram protruding on its surface.

Even when facing three people, he didn't exude any imposing aura, but just standing there, he was impossible to ignore.

"Anyway, if you want to see Kaya, you have to kill this guy, right? I'll go first!" Rocks drew his sword and leaped over.

"The Quincy are the most important enemy in our path!" Kong seemed to be convincing himself, and joined forces with Rocks to attack.

"There's no other way, so let's give you a good wake-up call, Has!" Orange flames ignited on Basard's hands.

"Abyss Curse!"

"Bone-Crushing Steel Fist Windbreaker!"

"Burning Fire Finger 1!"

Surrounding the central black and red sword pressure were countless fist shadows falling like meteorites, and what pierced through them was a beam of extremely the Heat rays.

The triple attack was not combined, but distributed from multiple directions, engulfing Haschwalth completely.

Boom!!

The entire hall was destroyed. With a dull thud, the surrounding walls collapsed one after another, and the roof, which was dozens of meters high, was blown off, revealing a pitch-black sky.

Flames and smoke swirled together, and the air temperature seemed to rise considerably.

With the sound of footsteps, Haschwalth emerged from within.

The platinum shield bore a slight mark of damage, but Haschwalth himself appeared unharmed.

"Take all the attacks!" Rocks said.

"No! I hit it!" Kong stared intently at Haschwalth's shoulder. "It went through the defense. Looks like it was just a lucky shot."

Haschwalth turned his head and saw that his shoulder was sunken, with a fist mark on one side. Just as Kong had said, the dense attacks had still grazed Has.

"You'll get hurt too, Has!" Basard raised a hand, flames coalescing into the shape of a blade.

"That's lucky, Admiral Kong Steelbone, you managed to hurt me," Haschwalth said calmly. "But that luck will turn into an equal amount of misfortune and befall you."

Bang!

Kong staggered suddenly, almost falling to the ground before he could react.

"What?!" Kong was shocked, clutching his fractured shoulder, the muscles he was clenching throbbed with pain.

There was no punch and no trace left, as if an invisible person suddenly appeared, punched him, and then vanished into thin air.

At the same time, he also noticed that Haschwalth's injured shoulder had fully recovered.

Haschwalth took a few steps and spoke calmly.

"I can collect the misfortunes that occur worldwide and distribute them to the fortunate, in order to maintain harmony in the world."

"And the misfortune that befell me will be borne by this Misfortune-Sharing Shield, turning into even greater misfortune and adding to your fate."

BOOM BOOM BOOM!!

Kong's entire body jolted violently several times, as if he had been hit by multiple invisible shockwaves.

He spat out a mouthful of blood; the meteor-like, powerful punches had landed all over him, breaking his bones and displacing his internal organs!

Haschwalth looked at the stunned group of people, and held his sword horizontally, like the two ends of a scale.

"Put everything on the scales!"