Chapter 113: Sacrifice

"Since she locks onto the last unit deployed, we'll feed her cannon fodder to bait out her skills!"

White Night let out a cold sneer, his hands moving so fast they became a blur.

His opening was very stable; his main DPS and core healers were the first to secure the high ground, while the Rider Leonidas held the front line.

Watching the 20-second countdown for Gorgon's 'Mystic Eyes of Petrification' approach zero, a sharp glint flashed in White Night's eyes.

"Now!"

Without hesitation, he deployed two low-star cards that required very little Cost—the Assassin class Servants, [Hassan of the Cursed Arm] and [Hassan of the Hundred Personas]!

Swish! Swish!

The two low-star Servants were instantly dropped into the most inconspicuous corners at the edge of the battlefield.

Hum—

A purple light flashed, and Gorgon's Mystic Eyes of Petrification accurately struck the two Hassans who had just landed.

Meanwhile, White Night's core DPS units remained completely unscathed!

"See that? This is called using low-star Servants as [Fast Redeploy] specialists!"

White Night curled his lips confidently. "Especially a card like Hassan of the Hundred Personas. In her lore, she has a hundred clones; if one retreats, the next one steps up. She's a natural Fast Redeploy Servant!"

"While the boss's skill is on its 20-second cooldown, main units, full DPS! When the next round of skills is almost ready, retreat these two fodder units and swap in new clones to keep soaking the hits!"

The bullet chat in White Night's livestream exploded instantly.

"Holy crap! You can play like that?! God Bai is incredible!"

"Hassan of the Hundred Personas: I'm a pro at this. We have plenty of people, feel free to send us in!"

"This micro-management, this understanding... Old Thief Kirito's secrets are being completely exposed by you!"

Over the next period of time, White Night showed everyone what 'piano-player level micro-management' looked like.

He was like a precision calculator, tracking the 20-second petrification cooldown and constantly dropping low-star fodder to absorb the crowd control;

At the same time, whenever poisonous blood appeared beneath his main melee units, he could always retreat them within 0.5 seconds and instantly fill the blocking slot with another unit, not allowing the demonic beasts to advance a single step.

Every retreat was a gamble, and every deployment was a race against the Grim Reaper.

Panting... panting...

However, as the battle reached a fever pitch, even a top-tier expert like White Night had fine beads of sweat covering his forehead.

While his 'Fast Redeploy' baiting tactic was perfect, the margin for error on the battlefield was too low.

The coverage of the poisonous blood was growing larger, the safe tiles for deployment were becoming fewer, and the Cost recovery rate could no longer keep up with the consumption from frequent retreats and redeployments.

When Gorgon's health bar was finally ground down to the last quarter...

"Despair! Turn into bloody water amidst endless agony, human!"

...

The perspective switched back to PD's livestream.

At this moment, PD was also stumbling along, copying White Night's 'Fast Redeploy' strategy, barely managing to survive until the final stage.

But looking ahead at Gorgon's massive snake-hair dancing wildly as she reared up her upper body, and a dark purple energy sphere like a miniature sun gathering in the sky, PD despairingly let go of the control stick.

[Warning! Gorgon is charging her Noble Phantasm: Pandemonium Cetus: Forced Seal · Pandemonium!]

This was an absolute area-of-effect instant-kill move that ignored any fancy micro-management!

"It's over..."

PD slumped into his chair, staring at the world-ending energy sphere on the screen. "No matter how good my micro is, I can't dodge this unreasonable full-screen instant kill!"

The bullet chat was also filled with gloom:

"No hope, these stats are definitely broken!"

"An ultimate that wipes the whole field, there's nowhere to hide."

"Are we going to be wiped out here?!"

Just at this critical moment, as players across the internet closed their eyes to prepare for the failure screen...

A small and silent figure suddenly walked from the back of the tactical sandtable toward the front line.

It was the mysterious loli Servant who had been accompanying the main group, who rarely spoke and always covered her face with a large hood—Anna.

"Anna? Come back! It's dangerous there!"

Belle shouted anxiously, trying to pull the NPC back through the system, only to find she couldn't give Anna any commands at all.

On the system's UI, Anna's portrait had turned completely grey, representing a story-locked state.

Amidst the wildly dancing poisonous blood and purple light, Anna faced the soul-tearing storm and walked to the very front, step by step.

The fierce wind whipped her thin clothes, but it couldn't stop her steady pace.

She slowly raised her small, pale hand and pulled back the black hood that had hidden her identity for so long, revealing a waterfall of long purple hair and a pair of eyes that were exactly the same as those of the massive Monster Mother Goddess in the sky.

Those were Mystic Eyes.

The legendary cursed eyes that could turn all life into stone statues.

"Master of Chaldea, and Mash."

Anna's voice was no longer timid as before; it carried a sense of calm and resolve, as if she had seen through her fate.

"Thank you very much for tolerating the existence of a burden like me all this way."

"Even though I was destined to become a monster, you were still willing to reach out your warm hands to me."

The young girl's eyes reddened slightly as memories flashed through her mind: the butter cake she ate at the Uruk market, the flower wreath Mash gave her, and this group of noisy yet exceptionally brave and lovely players.

"Though we only spent a short time together, I will never forget the scenery I saw with you."

She extended her right hand, and in the void, a massive scythe of unique design, radiating an ominous aura, condensed into form.

It was a Divine Construct specifically designed to hunt the undying and sever the causality of gods—Harpe: The Immortal Slaying Blade!

At this moment, the players finally woke up as if from a dream.

"Long purple hair... Mystic Eyes... and she looks exactly the same..."

"She's Medusa! She's the young form of the goddess Medusa before she transformed into a monster—Medusa Lily!"

"My god, Old Thief Kirito buried this foreshadowing so deep!"

"No wonder she always wore a hood, no wonder she was so afraid of being hated by humans..."

In the sky, the charging Gorgon saw this small figure, and her pupils constricted violently. Her high-and-mighty divine posture collapsed instantly, and she let out a hysterical scream and roar:

"You...! Why are you here?! That scythe... what are you trying to do?! Don't come any closer!!! A mere phantom thinks it can defy the original body?!"

Gorgon was afraid.

Even if the difference in size was like a mountain to an ant, facing her pure and flawless 'past,' this fallen Monster Mother Goddess still felt a shudder originating from the depths of her soul.

"Because, I am you, and you are me."

Anna—or rather, the young 'Medusa'—faced the world-ending energy sphere and gave a tragic smile.

"We are monsters exiled by the gods, a curse unaccepted by the world. But I... at least want to die like a human in the end."

"To completely end this ugly future of yours, and to prevent everyone in Uruk from dying in despair!"

The purple-haired girl gripped the god-slaying scythe with both hands, and her small body suddenly erupted with a radiance that rivaled, and even surpassed, the gods!

That light instantly tore through the gloom of the Blood Temple.

She turned her head and gave a particularly gentle smile to all the players watching this scene.

In that smile, there was no more fear of the world, only pure relief.

"Leave this final strike to me."

"Farewell, humans."

Accompanied by a beautiful yet sorrowful purple light that pierced heaven and earth, the small girl transformed into a burning meteor, charging without hesitation toward the despairingly massive Monster Mother Goddess.

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