CHAPTER 394: 394 DISCIPLINE OF INTEGRITY

[Lucy’s POV: ]

Dark shadows made from the corrupted power so powerful it gave off the same aura as the divine messengers and the demon knight, resembling the sorrows of the core, the emperor in this case materialised before us.

One resembled a woman, pretty and sad. Even after being made of completely darkness she was as attractive as someone one would see only among the royals of the powerful nations.

She was holding a sword, there was a smile on her sad face, and she was with another shadow that resembled s little younger version of the emperor.

He had some facial hair, unlike his current appearance. And, there was more softness in his eyes than what one could find in the eyes of the current emperor.

He was not holding any weapons and instead, his hands were covered pointy thorns, the tips of which seemed to be covered in poison.

These two were the first shadows that blocked our paths, and even though they looked and felt strong, I did not need Ana’s help to deal with these things.

"Huuuu..."

Corruption by nature was a negative power that had one purpose to its existence- to corrupt what was already in doubt.

It was a power that ate away at someone or something that was already resenting their existence or some actions, or anything that it could grow and eat at.

-Oooooooooooooong!

By nature, this power was corrupted and it corrupted anything that could possibly be corrupted. However, there was a power that even this great power could not affect.

[ *The sword general faced the two creatures with unwavering eyes, a golden light- born from his integrity as a response to the experience of these creatures- was now covering his sword.* ]

If the power of corruption was naturally dark and represented corruption, when someone that possessed no aspect that could be corrupted, when someone that possessed strong morality and individual integrity, as well as enough qualifications, faced this power... a unique energy was born to counter the dark power of corruption.

’Six season desolation.’

[ *The golden light born in the response to the disciplined swordsman’s integrity, the opposing force to the cancer of the Worldline— Sanctity was born in the moment of turbulence.* ]

It was a rare power move that few in the Worldline ever had the chance to wield.

All those who had ever wielded this power were special, famous people.

And now, I also had the opportunity to wield this power while still being a young mortal boy...

’Advent of late winters.’

-Swiiiiiiiiiiish...!

It was a unique power that directly cancelled the impurity of the corrupted power, making the insurmountable powers that he shadows bron from the regrets of the core, meaningless.

Before this power, they were rendered to nothing but big bags of energy, or a game for slaughter.

By merely using a fraction of the strength left in me, I was able to deal with both of the shadows with only one attack.

-Ooooooooooooong!

Still, those two were not the end of this battle.

They were only the beginning, and as I moved forward, many more of these shadows embodying the sorrows and regrets of the core of the emperor blocked my path.

-Swish! Swish! Swish!

It was not easy to deal with them, but even with their great strengths that could have been impossible for even El to overcome, I was able to slash through them all with the minimum effort.

Still...

"Haaaa. Haaaa."

It was not easy to deal with all those creatures.

They were strong individually. And since they were a fragment of the same energy core, they were also practically a single entity.

The coordination they had was impeccable. And there were a lot of them.

Though, as they were defeated one by one, their strengths started deteriorating and it became easier to deal with them.

[ "What now, master?" ]

Thanks to the power of Sanctity, we were soon standing in front of the core of this corruption.

"Now, we don’t have to do anything. In fact... we can’t do anything."

The problem with what he had done, the process of willingly allowing a fragment of corruption to house his body, was something that cannot be undone forcefully.

There was no way to reverse this entire process externally either and, his soul, mind, ego, and body were not going to get cleansed on its own.

[ "One has to realise the current situation, and the Sanctity has to cleanse one right when one fights back." ]

She realised it quickly.

And if she knew that, she must have already figured out how nearly impossible this task was.

"His integrity is in own hands now."

Using half of the stacks of ’Origin’ left on Dawn, I pierced the heart of the dark figure that was on the verge of corruption.

And when I did so, including the strong energy of the Sun, the power of Sanctity also pierced the body of the emperor.

-Oooooooooong!

The materialised darkness on the outermost surface started turning ash grey, there was a hint of gold on those turn parts, and there was a slight change spreading throughout the darkness.

The white blade that was dug into his body was slowly glowing dimmer.

The sanctity on the blade was growing stronger and the darkness was not handling it well.

This unique power was not affecting me nor the blade, however, as time passed, a strong scream like noise started coming out of the core of corruption.

Inside the mind of the emperor, whatever he was looking at must be starting to fade away.

If it was the same battlefield as this one, he would soon realise that what he was looking at was not the reality.

He would also realise that whatever he was believing to have achieved was all just an illusion created by the corrupt power that he held.

He already knew it was no simple power and it was dangerous in nature, but he must be thinking that he had complete control over it until now.

However, with this, he will know that it was not the case.

The fact that the power he had obtained had eaten him from inside out will soon become evident to him.

And when he does realise it, he will know that all the things that he had been seeing and experiencing until just now were all not reality...

’He might get angry that some power that he had control over was in fact controlling him all this time, he might get saddened or perhaps he might get angry, I don’t know what kind of reaction he will have.’

Though, one thing I’m certain of is... how he will not like whatever has happened to him.

He will want to get out of that fake world.

’He had his dignity as the emperor, the supreme monarch of the Barnacle and the west.’

He was not someone that would let something like past mistakes, sadness, sorrows, or guilt from affecting what he was doing.

From what he had to do and from what he must do.

Knowing him, he will fight back the corrupt power himself and instead of falling to its nature like any normal person might in his shoes, he will fight back against the power that had become a close part of his entire being.

-Oooooooooooooooong!

First of all, he will have to regain his divine powers by self realisation. Then, he must first target the corruption that had spread throughout his soul and free his mental body.

After he does that, he will have to target the corruption in the mind and free his ego, and only after doing that will he be able to be free enough to cleanse the power in his physical body.

If he tries to cleanse his body or even his mind before freeing his soul, then there is a chance that he will experience severe mental trauma and die on the spot, turning into a complete corrupt disaster.

It was already going to be extremely difficult for him to deal with this corruption, but if he somehow managed to deal with it even in his body, he will cleanse the corruption from his body— and for doing something so absurdly difficult, he will gain even more strength than he currently possesses.

’His divinity will also boost, and if I’m right, he will unintentionally start his ascension.’

I will get a brief window to fight him and win this battle. He will also try to delay this forced ascension, and we will be able to fight one last time as our own selves.

-Ooooooooooooong...!

He was an egoistic, proud, and crazy bastard that was smart and strong as well.

Thanks to his tactics until now, I’ve been pushed to my limits as well, and he was also on the verge of falling now.

He was going to die anyway by my hands, and since there was no meaning to his existence if he was not the emperor, he was going to do whatever he can to finish me off before his forced ascension finishes.

’Our fight would be the best possible ending for this epic since if he becomes a corrupted monster, I won’t be able to handle it in my current state.’

And his death was even worse, so he had to live through it.

"We were here to kill him, and look how things had turned out."

[{ The twist of fate is fascinating sometimes. }]

Now we were hoping that he would come out of that alive and fight us with more strength he could have ever had.

’We would be at the most disadvantage, but at the very least, I’ll get the direct duel I wanted.’

And he will have no other choice than to fight and to either kill me, or get killed by El.

The end that I wanted and the end that I got were different... but this is better.

’Much better than what I had planned.’