Chapter 1347: Chapter 1347: Divine Statue, Demon, and Gold

In that second when time was nearly frozen, Shard locked eyes with the demon. Then, the snowflakes resumed their normal speed of flight, and the almost solidified time began to flow once more.

Truth be told, this was the first enemy Shard had encountered who could manipulate time, making this experience extremely valuable. If he hadn’t insisted on seeking out Luviya’s secret and finally learned everything atop the bell tower in Tobesk, he might have suffered a huge loss this time.

“Time…seems I underestimated you.”

“Osenfort” said, stepping back slightly from the silver cross.

“If I didn’t have some skills, how would I dare get involved in such matters? I’ll say it again, I don’t want any mark,”

Shard remained vigilant, as expected, the already dim environment grew even darker. All shadows around them seemed to come alive and began wriggling, the colorful world began fading to a black-and-white photo-like state, and the convergence point of all this darkness was precisely the Stone Mirror Demon: Goethe, whose body appeared to be melting.

“What’s going on?”

[Similar to Maze Lock, but stronger.]

The shadows already wriggled towards Shard, the only spot in this black-and-white world that hadn’t faded. Without hesitation, the yellow moonlight at his fingertips illuminated the surroundings, though not as powerful as Silvermoon, it still offered Shard precious time.

His other hand reached into his pocket, pouring the ‘Golden Potion’ meant to fight the demon into his mouth. However, contrary to what Priest Augustus had said, Shard didn’t need to exercise to promote blood circulation for the potion to work quickly. Once the potion entered his mouth, the effect was almost immediate, and Shard’s eyes gradually turned a dazzling gold.

“Moonlight Greatsword!”

The empty bottle lost its color the instant it was discarded from Shard’s hand, but his empty hand drew a long sword suffused with yellow moonlight from the air. Thanks to the effect of the ‘Golden Potion,’ the long sword bore a dazzling golden hue. As Shard swung the long sword, a golden light blade cut a rift in this black-and-white world, flying straight toward the gradually melting body of ‘Ston Osenfort’.

The light arc crashed head-on into the melting body, and with a piercing howl that nearly ruptured eardrums from high above, the explosion of snowflakes and smoke even forced Shard to raise his arm to shield his eyes.

“Haha, very good, very nice!”

Applause and laughter still seemed to emanate from high above, and the surroundings remained a black-and-white world, yet the voice clearly carried an undertone of anger. When the explosive smoke and dust fully dissipated, there stood a giant stone mirror crafted from obsidian at the position where ‘Ston Osenfort’ originally was.

Red-brown stone veins akin to blood vessels clung to the surface of the stone mirror, and in the polished surface that reflected everything before it, there was no reflection of Shard, instead clearly showing the image of dark-skinned ‘Ston Osenfort’.

[The true form.]

“Hmm? Appeared so easily? Priest Augustus’s potion is really… a trap.”

Although he understood everything, Shard, at the peak of the potion’s effect, still inserted the Silver Cross into his waist and dashed forward wielding the Moonlight Greatsword:

“You’re kidding, charge now, or wait until the potion wears off to charge?”

In the black-and-white snowy world, his silhouette left a series of continuous light traces, as if his figure was branded onto the space itself. Although the distance to the mirror had been far, it only took a few seconds for the explosive power of a Circle Sorcerer to bring Shard to the stone mirror.

Crack!

With both hands gripping the sword, he drove it into the mirror surface using the momentum of his charge. However, instead of piercing through the mirror, the glowing sword blade went directly into the mirror.

Of course, this didn’t mean Shard’s attack was ineffective. The yellow Moonlight Greatsword, carrying the power of the Golden Potion, pierced straight through the belly of the dark-skinned ‘Ston Osenfort’ inside the mirror.

Its left hand hung naturally at its side, while its right hand gripped the longsword inside the mirror, allowing its arm to rot and then regenerate continuously:

“Truly impressive.”

The pitch-black eyes stared intensely at Shard outside the mirror, its face still adorned with a slick smile, while Shard’s expression changed.

[Your Priest friend was right; the Golden Potion alone cannot dispel it.]

Shard, at this time, wore a pendant around his neck, infused with Angel Power, granting him one more opportunity for a perfect counterattack. Yet, he did not extol the name of the First One to summon the angel’s exorcism power, but instead snorted coldly:

“Blade of Chaotic Time!”

Three identical yellow longswords pierced through the mirror from behind Shard, each stabbing the figure inside the mirror in the heart and both shoulders. The demon within the mirror still smiled at Shard in the black-and-white world:

“Very good, in that case, let me reveal the sins borne by one chosen by desire.”

He laughed heartily, his body melting into Shard’s four swords. The twisted black light and shadow ultimately turned everything within the mirror black, and as Shard withdrew his longsword, preparing to attack the mirror’s body once more, his own silhouette appeared within the pitch-black mirror.

“Hmm?”

The two stared at each other, but Shard felt that the reflection of himself in the mirror was evidently different from what he saw in the morning. It seemed more like… the original appearance of his body when he first came to this world.

Suddenly, the figure inside the mirror spoke:

“I am the real one, you are far from being as strong as me.”

Shard didn’t care what this was, he held the sword with both hands and pierced it into the mirror once again. Under the influence of this eerie stone mirror, the words almost slipped out:

“I am the strongest person in the Material World!”

The longsword successfully pierced the chest of the figure inside the mirror again, and that figure laughed and disappeared, revealing what Shard had actually pierced. It was a solemn Divine Statue crafted from obsidian, with the statue’s hand holding a stone heart.

At this moment, the oppressive and intensely desecrated Elemental Statue was pierced by Shard’s longsword at the chest.

“What? Stone Heart Demon’s Statue?”

The statue seemed to gaze at Shard momentarily, but then cracks expanded from around the longsword piercing its chest. Within two breaths, the statue shattered into a pile of fine black stones.

The Desecration Element flowed from Shard’s longsword to his arm, attempting to entwine his soul while destroying the curse brought by the Deity Statue. And standing deep within the mirror was “Osenfort,” who once again applauded and approached:

“Arrogance! Disrespect for gods, cruelty to others, believing oneself to be the chosen of fate! I have witnessed your great sin of arrogance, I declare you an arrogant person!”

Outside the mirror, Shard was held completely still by the black-and-white world, as countless black chains extended from the stone mirror, entwining his body and limbs, trying to pull him into the mirror.

The demon within the mirror reached out its palm toward him:

“This time I won’t kill you, I’ll give you this mark, go fulfill my mandate! Without my mark, the power of the Great One whose statue you have shattered will make life worse than death for you!”

The relic at Shard’s waist, the [Desecration Cross], finally burst with a cold silver light as the demon was about to come into direct contact with Shard. The black chains extending from the mirror and entwining him abruptly paused, and Shard seized this final opportunity for one last defiance:

“Arrogance? You call me arrogant?”

He did not intend to retreat or evade but drew the silver cross emitting an abnormal light from his waist and actively plunged his hand into the mirror. The relic Shard prepared specifically for fighting the Evil God, capable of extracting soul power, directly pierced the demon’s right hand that attempted to stroke his cheek:

“Who gave you the courage to come so close to me?”

The Great Sin Chains shot from the cuff on his left hand, heading towards the dense black chains. Shard then actively stepped into the mirrored world. The pitch-black mirror world attempted to drown him in darkness, but this darkness was not nearly as silent as the night in the City of Eternal Night.

Sanctified silver radiated outward from his body, even though his upper garment was gradually corroded by the dark, the power of the mirror demon could not harm him.

Shard kicked away the stone fragments of the Evil God [Stone Heart Demon] Statue, and with a left-handed golden Moonlight Greatsword, he stabbed into the demon’s chest:

“Who made you think I’d fear the statue of an Evil God?”

The ultimate and most fierce power of the Golden Potion, radiant through Shard’s body, transferred into golden light, as he became like a sun descended upon the dark, banishing all evil within the stone mirror.

The palm print on his chest radiated subtly as if stimulated. At this moment, Luviya from the Prophet’s Society in the city, while watching the crystal ball, suddenly turned to look toward the direction where Shard was, in the north suburbs. Yet she did not understand why she did so. And that transparent figure once more flickered past behind her:

“So it was you that time…”

In this instant, Shard seemed to hear Luviya whispering by his ear, the heat radiating from the palm print on his chest prompted his next words to spill out:

“But you were right about one thing, I am indeed arrogant!”

The [Desecration Cross] absorbed the soul power of the Ancient Fiend, transforming into a sinister chill that entered Shard’s body, his surrounding golden light dissolving the darkness around him, after melting the mirrored world, even continued to dissolve the black-and-white world. The world like an old photograph slowly faded, and the vibrant scenery of the snowy Dark Forest gradually reappeared under the radiation of golden light.

The Stone Mirror Demon: Goethe, with its right palm pierced by the cross, and its left chest stabbed by the longsword, witnessed the vast hot steam mist appearing behind Shard, as if hearing bells from a time even older than its own creation.