r18novel Chapter 58 Perseus
Chapter 58 Perseus
Tokyo's late nights are enveloped in a morbid neon color.
Arthur walked on the spine of the tall buildings, his star-studded cloak fluttering behind him, the night wind blowing through the gaps between the buildings.
He made no attempt to conceal his footsteps or restrain his magic. From this moment on, he was no longer a guardian, but a hunter.
He stopped on the edge of a commercial building's rooftop, with the abyss-like street below, the car headlights flowing slowly like red blood cells in a vein.
In the distance, the orange lights of Tokyo Tower shone quietly in the night. He closed his eyes, and the Dragon's Heart began to throb heavily and powerfully within his chest.
It was like the beating of war drums, like something was surging upwards from the deepest part of the riverbed, and the scalding blood was flowing faster.
He opened his eyes, and deep within his pupils, the emerald green of his eyes ignited.
A dark golden light emanated from the center of the pupil and spread outwards, like molten gold being poured into clear lake water.
Dragon's eyes, fully opened.
In his view, the entire city was no longer just a pile of reinforced concrete.
The buildings became transparent skeletons, the streets became flowing rivers, and each lamp was a tiny speck of light.
Underground, between buildings, beneath rivers and bridges, countless magical veins intertwine, spread, and pulsate like blood vessels.
Arthur's gaze swept over the veins; he was searching for that extraordinary magical light.
To the southeast, in Xindu District, Arthur's dragon eyes locked onto it; a ball of silver-gray light hovered high in the sky.
Within that ball of light lay immense resentment, an extremely dense, fresh, and still-bleeding resentment.
Arthur lowered his body, channeled dragon power into his legs, and shot off the rooftop like a silver lightning bolt.
His feet crushed the concrete edge of the rooftop, and before the rubble could fall, he was already on the roof of the building opposite.
Without stopping, he launched himself again, the skyscrapers beneath his feet becoming stepping stones, and the abysses between the buildings becoming his scale for measuring the city.
The star-studded cloak stretched behind him in a deep blue line, so fast it was almost invisible.
It drew closer; the silvery-gray light was at the top of the TV tower, three hundred meters above the ground, the highest point in Tokyo.
That's...Perseus!
Arthur slammed his foot on the edge of the last building's rooftop, causing the concrete to crack and lifting him upwards, breaking through the clouds.
The night wind whistled in my ears, the neon-lit city shrank beneath my feet, the steel frame of the TV tower rapidly enlarged in my field of vision, and the red aviation obstruction light on the top of the tower flickered on and off.
He saw it: Perseus was sitting on the edge of the tower, wearing a white cloak decorated with wings, his short red hair being blown back by the night wind high in the sky.
He was fiddling with a short scythe in his hand; it was Hepar, the sword of the god of war that slew Medusa.
His mouth was moving, he was speaking, but the howling winds high above swallowed his voice, yet Arthur read his lips.
"Hey, Master, I've killed another innocent person today."
Arthur's hearth trembled violently, confirming that the layer of gray-black resentment on Perseus's body was caused by his own hand.
This is not a battle between Servants during the Holy Grail War.
Arthur's sword had arrived; the moment the sword was drawn from its sheath, a lake-blue light exploded in the sky.
The power of the Wind King's barrier was compressed onto the surface of the sword, forming an invisible hammer. The air pressure arrived before the sword's edge.
Perseus sensed it at the last moment.
His body flipped backward at an impossible angle, the feathered boots on his toes emitting pale light, and he floated in mid-air defying the laws of physics.
Arthur's sword slammed into the spot where he had just been sitting, causing a loud crash against the steel frame atop the television tower.
The steel beams bent, the rivets flew off, the entire tower was shaking, and the red aviation obstruction lights were flashing wildly.
Perseus steadied himself in mid-air, his short red hair disheveled by the air pressure, and the feather decorations of his white cloak trembled slightly in the shimmering light.
He glanced at the silver-white knight who had landed atop the tower, a smirk playing on his lips.
"Oh my, this sense of oppression is really frightening." His voice wasn't loud, but the strong winds high above didn't blow it away.
"No spiritual core fluctuations... You actually have a physical body?"
Arthur held the sword in one hand, a lake-blue light flowing across its blade, and the magic he released made the surrounding air smell of burning.
That's the temperature at which the dragon's power naturally overflows under the rhythm of the furnace core.
"I see him, Perseus, the great hero of Greek mythology." His eyes sharpened, and his voice was filled with anger.
"You are burdened with the resentment of many new people. What have you done?"
Perseus blinked, then he smiled, not in a frivolous way, but with an "I see" kind of knowing smile.
"Your eyes... I see, that's why you saw through my identity. But it doesn't matter."
He twirled the short scythe, Hepar, between his fingers. "As for resentment... I've killed many people recently, some bad, some innocent."
"But in order to resurrect the angelically pure Master, and to create a peaceful world, these 'necessary sacrifices' are unavoidable."
His tone was calm but tinged with sadness.
Upon hearing this, Arthur's anger transformed into a deeper sorrow.
He raised the tip of his sword half an inch. "Having committed such a heinous act, you shall leave this stage."
Perseus's gaze turned cold.
"How arrogant, knight." His figure vanished in an instant.
Hades' Helmet, the Helmet of Invisibility, is one of the divine artifacts that Perseus has possessed since the age of mythology. It can completely conceal the user's aura, magic, and very existence.
Arthur's dragon eyes spun wildly, observing the air currents, the gale-force winds high above, and the subtle deformations of the heated steel tower.
All the "movements" created corresponding ripples in his Dragon Power River.
On the left, an extremely subtle ripple appears.
Something extremely sharp was approaching at high speed, so fast that the air didn't have time to be pushed aside and was sliced in two.
Hepar, the sword of the god of war, Arthur turned to the side, the blade grazing his star-studded cloak.
A corner of the cloak was cut off, and the dark blue fabric billowed and drifted away in the fierce winds high in the sky.
Behind, a second ripple appeared, appearing simultaneously on the left and behind.
In two places, Hades' heel concealed Perseus's presence, but it could not conceal the friction between the blade and the air when he swung his sword.
However, the two ripples were almost perfectly synchronized, so it was impossible for Perseus to be in two positions at the same time; they were mirror images!
The Bronze Mirror Shield, another divine artifact of Perseus, is called a shield, but it is not used for defense; its ability is "refraction".
It doesn't refract light, it refracts "existence".
Perseus swung his sword, and the Mirror Shield refracted the "existence" of the sword to another location, creating a false afterimage.
The dragon's eyes couldn't distinguish between the two ripples, because both were real. At the moment of refraction, the afterimage also possessed the exact same magical fluctuations as the original.
Arthur took a step forward. Since he couldn't tell the difference between the real and the fake, he decided to let both swords miss their mark.
He rushed into the gap between the two ripples, and Herpal's sword passed behind him, the tips of the swords almost colliding.
Perseus's figure appeared in the air, right where the two ripples met.
His eyes widened slightly for a moment; he was surprised that Arthur had made such a choice.
"Too slow! Too slow!" Perseus's voice came from all directions.
He disappeared again, this time not just two ripples, but four, six, ten.
The Mirror Shield refracted wildly as Hepar's sword struck from every angle simultaneously, slicing the high-altitude gale into pieces and leaving new slash marks on the steel tower.