Ch 334: Fight! We Can’t Survive Without Fighting! （insert Card）

After Yselle recovered her composure, Bal and Phia returned to her side.

“Did you find anything?”

Yselle nodded, and she handed the letter left by Hassan to the two people.

“What is this?”

“A letter my Father left me before he was assimilated by the Black Tide. It mainly talks about his regrets towards me and the truth of some matters.”

“You forgave him?”

“He has already passed away, what’s the point of not forgiving him?”

“It’s good that you’ve let it go.”

“Mm.”

“So, Hassan, in the end of his life, was assimilated by the Black Tide, and he lured the Black Tide into this tower for you to seal?”

“That should be right.”

“The Black Tide should disappear now.”

“I think that’s the case.”

Just as Yselle put away the envelope, news came from the upper level.

“Whoa! There’s a Black Tide!”

Hearing about the Black Tide, the three immediately set off to return to the 98th floor.

“Where is the Black Tide?!”

Bal quickly ran to Philia’s side. He observed his surroundings, and Nia pointed to the cave entrance leading to the upper level behind Bal.

“There, I saw some Black Tide falling from above.”

“Tsk, shouldn’t it have disappeared completely?”

Bal stared at the cave entrance. Indeed, a few drops of liquid were falling from the upper level, and the amount of liquid was increasing. The liquid at the cave entrance gradually changed from dripping to flowing.

“No good, a large-scale Black Tide is attacking us!”

Grey, who was resting on the ground, frowned. When he first discovered the liquid dripping from the cave entrance, he used magic to investigate. Soon, Grey’s words came true, the amount of falling liquid rapidly increased, quickly changing from a stream to a column of water.

“Tsk, stay put, don’t run around!”

Phia immediately deployed a barrier. The Black Tide quickly filled the 99th floor and overflowed from the 99th floor to the 98th floor where everyone was. Fortunately, Phia, through her research on the Black Tide seal, had created a barrier magic specifically to resist the Black Tide. The Black Tide gradually filled the 98th floor, leaving only a hemispherical barrier created by Phia to protect everyone.

“Philia, prepare to use Teleportation Magic to take us to the initial connecting corridor!”

“Understood!”

Philia chanted the Teleportation Magic, but things didn’t always go as planned.

“Philia, look out!”

Xiaoyue sensed danger approaching Philia. She quickly hugged Philia and dodged. When she looked back, a Broken Sword appeared where Philia had been standing.

Philia wasn’t the only one who suffered this; Phia and Grey were also attacked in the same way, only Nia and Bal blocked the Broken Sword with their weapons.

“Is this a precise strike targeting those who use magic?”

Bal paid attention to his surroundings; his priority was to evade the Broken Swords that came from unknown directions at any time.

“Bal, I have an idea.”

Yselle spread her wings. This time, her wings turned into the six wings everyone remembered from their memories.

“Yselle, what are you going to do?”

“Since Father King could assimilate and confine the Black Tide, I should be able to as well. Let me absorb the Black Tide and buy everyone a chance to survive!”

Saying that, Yselle was about to fly out of the hemispherical barrier, but Bal grabbed her arm to stop her.

“No, I won’t allow it!”

“But…”

Just as Yselle was about to shake off Bal’s hand, a woman’s voice sounded from all directions.

“Ilis, you can’t do it.”

“Who’s there!”

Bal assumed a fighting stance; several Projection Weapons were already floating behind him.

A vortex appeared not far from the barrier, and all the Black Tide was surging towards it. Everyone quickly used their weapons to plunge into the ground to avoid being sucked into the vortex.

“How have you been? My… other half.”

A woman who was almost identical to Yselle appeared before everyone: the same blonde hair, the same clothing, the same six wings, only her wings were completely black. The sword in her hand was also a Broken Sword.

“Other half?”

Yselle looked at the woman with the same appearance as herself across from her in confusion.

“Want to know why you can’t assimilate the Black Tide like that foolish king? Let me tell you, and it’s time to shatter your fantasies about the future.

Why do you have a seal on you?

Why, as the seal is lifted, do you have less and less magic under your control?

Why is your physical age so young?

There’s only one answer.

Ilis, you are just a Clone separated from me. Your encounters with them were all planned by me.

I brought Avilinda, floating in the clouds, into the world. I threw you, separated from me, into the Sea, and I also had the Narwhal in the Seabed find you. Everything you’ve experienced since your birth was planned for you by me. Only you used a seal on yourself, because these seals are the means for you to prolong your life. When the seal is lifted, and the magic that sustains your existence is released, you will cease to exist.”

“What are you trying to do by saying all this?”

Bal pointed his sword at the woman in front of him. He was furious.

“What am I trying to do? My goal has always been the same! To completely annihilate the Black Tide!”

“I’m… a fake?”

Yselle in the crowd was confused, and her body began to tremble.

“That’s impossible, I really exist! You are the one created by the Black Tide!”

“Are you deeply trapped in the memories I implanted in you? Very well, let you all witness the true History.”

Ilis, with Black Wings, swung her Broken Sword. She chanted an incantation in ancient Text. A Memory entered everyone’s minds.

————

This was a time when the Black Tide was rampant. Ilis at this time was already a Saintess who had been on her journey for a long time.

“Did we fail again?”

Ilis weakly knelt on a building. Solandale’s land had already been swallowed by the rampant Black Tide. There were no more teammates by her side, and none of the people she should have protected were saved, but she did not give up.

“If that’s so, then there’s only this left. I’m sorry, Oulan. I originally vowed I would not use this, but now I have to break my promise.”

Ilis drew her sword, its blade full of cracks. The rampant Black Tide seemed to sense Ilis’s intention, and countless Monsters emerged from the Black Tide. They had the same faces as the people Ilis had failed to save, among them even her former teammates she had fought alongside.

“Join us, Saintess.”

“You, Witch who brings misfortune!”

“Lord Ilis… I don’t want to die…”

“Ilis, do what you must.”

Among the countless Monsters created by the Black Tide, Ilis saw Oulan’s figure. He smiled at Ilis, nodding his approval of what she was about to do.

“Thank you, Oulan.”

Ilis used her cracked sword to kill all the Monsters generated by the Black Tide, then she plunged her sword into the Black Tide, and the Black Tide was sucked in along her sword.

“Since the Black Tide is pure Magic, can’t I just absorb you?”

Ilis chuckled wryly. She spoke lightly, but the price of absorbing the Black Tide was immense; her humanity would gradually disappear, her thoughts would gradually change into the Black Tide’s, and the fusion with the Black Tide would also cause her immense physical pain.

After absorbing the Black Tide on the ground, Yselle looked towards the sky. She sensed that the Sky City also had Black Tide.

“I can’t… stop… yet…”

Ilis used her sword to support herself. She spread her six wings, now half-blackened by the Black Tide, and flew towards the last place where the Black Tide appeared: the Sky City, Avilinda.

When Ilis arrived at Avilinda, the Black Tide in this city had already been sealed, but the city’s residents were all gone. She sensed a reaction from the Inverted Tower, so she took her faltering steps one by one towards the Inverted Tower.

“Is this the last of the Black Tide? It’s so little compared to the ground.”

Ilis chuckled wryly as she looked at the Inverted Tower. She unlocked the Gate of the Inverted Tower, and at the same time, she used her body to absorb the Black Tide within the tower. When she reached the Lower Level, the Man on the Throne had already become a Monster, and the letter left by Hassan was something the Monster had been protecting.

“Was this your choice, Father?”

After killing the Monster that Hassan had become, Ilis absorbed all the Black Tide. She felt fatigued, and drowsiness washed over her brain.

“Time to rest.”

She lay down on the Ground of the Inverted Tower’s Lower Level, used Hassan’s Magic to sink the Inverted Tower into the Clouds, and then closed her eyes.

Ilis indeed sealed the Black Tide with her life. Over a long period of Time, her consciousness was constantly struggling against the Black Tide within her body. She resisted the Black Tide’s temptations time and again, but even the most determined Willpower will eventually wear down, just as dripping water will eventually wear away stone, and a saw will eventually cut through wood.

“Hmph, you want this body? Fine, take it. But you cannot make me submit to you!”

Ilis used her last Secret Technique to separate her remaining humanity into a Clone. To ensure the Clone could last long enough, she implanted her power and Memories into the Clone and sealed it. Finally, she sent the Clone towards the future she could not wait for, with the hope that this Clone, with a group of Heroes, would return here again.

————

“You’re going to sacrifice yourself?”

Nia, the first to wake up, supported herself with a Greatsword. She had barely opened her mouth when Ilis, with Black Wings, interrupted her.

“Your name is Nia, right? You are very strong; I envy her. Her name is Yselle now, isn’t it? What a nice name.”

“Why do you have to do this?”

“Only what you see is the true History. I hope you will remember that we also once lived in this world.”

“Is there really no other way?”

Ilis, with Black Wings, shook her head.

“The Black Tide and I have been fused for too long. I can’t hold on for much longer. I don’t want the Black Tide to reappear in this world. As a fellow Saintess, you should understand me.”

“Is there only Battle left?”

“Fight. If we don’t fight, we can’t survive.”

At this time, everyone woke up from the false Memories created by Ilis. In that Memory, Ilis with Black Wings was a person corrupted and fallen by the Black Tide. They stared at Ilis with Black Wings.

“Are you all awake? What is your choice?”

Bal drew his Long Sword, the tip pointed at Ilis with Black Wings.

“Yselle is someone I found. Even if she isn’t real, so what? I saw her determination and effort with my own eyes. You can’t deny her existence.”

Yselle, who woke up last, stood up. She spread her pure white six wings.

“Ilis, you were once the Saintess of Solandale, but you have fallen. Now, it is you who must be defeated!”

“Well said!”

Ilis with Black Wings raised her Broken Sword, and the decisive battle in the Sky City began.