43: Chapter 43 The Truth

A meteor streaked across the night sky, its green etheric radiance gradually dissipating over the village of the Mountain Folk.

In the Servant roster, the card belonging to Arash had shattered completely into ash, unable to be selected ever again.

In the Shark Stream Room, PD stared at the screen, his eyes rimmed with red, his fingers trembling slightly.

He did not shout or make a scene as he usually did; instead, he silently changed his account signature to a simple sentence:

"Good night, Great Hero."

The entire Blue Star gaming community, after experiencing a night of tears and shock, welcomed an unprecedented sense of solemnity and determination.

Countless players wiped away their tears and put their VR headsets back on.

They were no longer doing it for so-called completion rewards, but carried a heavy sense of duty, swearing to trample down that lofty Chalk City.

The path to survival, bought at the cost of the Great Hero's body and soul, would not be squandered.

Deep in the desert, at the highest point of the Great Temple, following the decree of the Pharaoh, the temple's magical energy was completely overdrawn.

A "Dendera Great Electric Bulb" capable of piercing through the continent, carrying the supreme majesty of the Sun King, crossed hundreds of kilometers of desert and slammed fiercely into the indestructible outer walls of the Holy City of Camelot!

Boom!

The absolute defense, which even gods found hard to shake, collapsed with a roar under the divine punishment of the Sun King, leaving a massive breach.

The horn of counterattack had officially sounded!

Under the cover of the surviving Hassans, who charged forward one after another, and with the silent yet resolute blade of the Silver-Armed Knight Bedivere leading the way.

The Blue Star players, eyes red with fury, faced the resistance of the Knights of the Round Table and fought their way, step by step, through the pure white streets.

Finally, they stepped into the deepest part of the Holy City.

It was a grand, solemn, yet heart-wrenchingly empty hall.

There were no luxurious decorations, no heavily armed guards, only ninety-nine steps of pure white jade, and a solitary throne at the end of them.

A woman holding a massive spiral Holy Spear, clad in silver-white armor, possessing radiant golden hair and stunning beauty, sat upon the throne.

That was the former King Arthur, now an existence completely transformed into a god—[Lion King]. (Goddess Rhongomyniad)

A-Dai looked up in her VR perspective, gazing at the ultimate source of this Singularity.

The other's emerald eyes were like two bottomless pools of stagnant water, quietly looking down at the battered protagonist group below, devoid of even a shred of human warmth, as if looking at a group of insignificant specks of dust.

"We finally meet, Magus of Chaldea."

The Lion King's voice was ethereal and majestic, echoing slowly throughout the hall, carrying an oppressive weight that brooked no desecration.

"Why must you do this?!"

Mash held up her cross-shaped shield, her voice filled with irrepressible grief and indignation, "The Holy Selection was not to save people at all; the Knights of the Round Table are slaughtering defenseless refugees outside the city gates! Is this also your royal command?!"

Facing the accusation, the Lion King did not even frown.

"That was to filter out pure souls within a limited capacity. The slaughter is merely a necessary process of discarding useless impurities."

She slowly stood up, the Holy Spear in her hand emitting a blinding radiance, and walked down the jade steps, one step at a time.

"You do not understand at all what this world is facing."

The Lion King looked up, her gaze seemingly piercing through the dome of the Holy City, seeing the end of the universe.

"The 'Incineration of Human Order' by the Demon God King Goetia has already begun. Human history, the past and the future, are being thoroughly incinerated by that unstoppable fire. Humanity is destined to perish; this is a fixed outcome that not even gods can reverse."

She stopped, spread her arms, and the blinding sun above the Holy City shone in tandem with the Holy Spear in her hand.

"Therefore, as a former king, the only thing I can do is to transform this Holy Spear, which anchors the world, into the final ark!"

"I will permanently absorb those pure, flawless human souls selected by the 'Holy Selection' into the interior of the Holy Spear. There, there is no hunger, no sorrow, and no death."

"They will shed their physical bodies and cease to think. As 'proof' that the human species once existed, they will become eternal specimens, preserved by me forever at the end of the world!"

"This is the final salvation I bestow upon humanity."

Silence. A deathly silence filled the hall.

And in the real world, A-Dai, PD, and the millions of Blue Star players watching this sequence all felt a bone-chilling cold surge from the depths of their souls at this moment.

"Human... specimen museum?"

PD gasped, feeling his scalp tingle and goosebumps erupt all over his body.

Before this, the players had thought the Lion King was just a tyrant who had fallen due to inflated power, or a puppet brainwashed by evil forces.

In traditional game settings, villains usually commit evil to rule the world or satisfy their selfish desires.

But the Lion King was not!

She had arrived at an absolutely rational, yet absolutely cold, logical closed loop in the face of the desperate situation where humanity was doomed to perish:

Since the physical body would be destroyed, then keep only the soul; since living is painful, then turn humanity into specimens that will never change!

This was not simple evil; it was a "Divine Good" that had abandoned humanity. She was forcibly leaving behind a pathetic spark for humanity with the arrogance of a god.

The stream chat instantly boiled over; everyone was deeply shocked by this grand and desperate concept:

"She's crazy... is this the way gods think? No right or wrong, only pure rationality!"

"No wonder those Knights of the Round Table shed tears while slaughtering! They knew the truth; they were willing to bear the stigma of butchers themselves to help the King preserve the last specimens of humanity!"

"Turning into unthinking specimens, trapped in a bottle until the universe ends... this is ten thousand times more terrifying than death!"

In the VR footage, Mash and the Master gritted their teeth tightly, giving humanity's final answer.

"If even the right to think and make mistakes is stripped away, if there is no future to look forward to..."

"That kind of eternity, trapped in a glass jar, is not living at all!"

"We absolutely refuse your salvation!"

A trace of imperceptible sorrow flashed in the Lion King's cold eyes, only to be covered again by ruthless, icy indifference.

"Is that so. A futile struggle."

"Since you have rejected eternity, then become ash together with this world that is destined to be incinerated."

Boom!!!

Accompanying the god's judgment, the entire Holy City hall shook violently. A tactical grid expanded with a boom across the pure white marble floor!

[Final Battle—Engage Goddess Rhongomyniad!]

"Come on! Even if you're a god, today I'm going to drag you down from that throne and avenge the Great Hero!" PD gritted his teeth.