Whispering Poems

Chapter 3848 The Curtain Falls - The Sword of Destiny
The howling wind couldn't explain Xia De's astonishment at that moment. The fatal bullet flew into the distance, and the snake was unharmed.

Do you have any other trump cards up your sleeve?

The serpent, carrying a vision of apocalypse and propelling the world to its end, asked, its form swaying and ethereal, its voice seeming to come from an extremely distant place and echoing:

"What you'll be using next—those playing cards that seal monsters? Or your methods to become a god?"

Seeing that the snake had reached him, Shad immediately retreated towards the edge of the cliff, while the snake pressed closer and closer.

Seeing this, Bella nervously tugged at Luvia's sleeve, asking if they should prepare "The Fallen Moon Rebirth Song" again. But both diviners knew that the song couldn't work a second time. Luvia remained calm, shaking her head at Bella to indicate that there was no need to rush.

The snake's power rendered the perilous situation at the cliff edge insurmountable. The astonishment on Xia De's face quickly vanished; after all, he had made other preparations.

As Shad backed away, he asked:
"You have quite the nerve, daring to break into the out-of-control Tower of Myriad Forms. If I hadn't forcibly summoned you, you probably would never have escaped. Is that your purpose? To keep a part of yourself forever lost in the Tower of Myriad Forms, thus maintaining your 'invincibility'?"

The chilly March sky hangs in the starry sky above the cliff, with the starry sky as the backdrop. One person moves forward while the other moves backward, and they look as if they are performing a stage play.

"I know how powerful you are, and I know that even if I successfully shed my skin, you might unleash even greater power. Sending a part of myself into the Tower of All Things to seek possibilities was a decision I made long ago."

I also thank you for summoning me. In the tower, I saw all possibilities; I knew everything that was possible in the past, present, and future; I also knew your secret and saw everything you had ever seen.

Because when the voice appeared in his ear, Shad couldn't see the illusory shadow closing in and speaking, so he even began to doubt whether the voice he heard really existed in the real present.

Shad continued to back away, his eyes fixed on what was in front of him:
"How did you dodge that bullet? At such close range, even though that gun doesn't have a guaranteed hit attribute, I was confident I wouldn't miss."

"I saw the myriad possibilities of fate, so I selected the 'unlucky' endings and imposed them on reality. God will not directly intervene in the grand movement of 'Whispering Verses,' He gave you a gun, but also gave me the opportunity to resist."

"Summoner of the gods, now a million possibilities converge upon me; I have found the option to plunge the world into apocalypse."

As Shad continued to retreat, he was not far from the edge of the cliff.

"Fate is a double-edged sword. By choosing one possibility, you also strip away the other. How easily can you grasp the myriad possibilities? Serpent of Doomsday, the battle tonight has come to this. I can give you a chance—"

If you are willing to become part of the ring of destiny and be sealed by me, I promise not to shatter that destiny, but to suppress you beneath the mountain, just as the ancient gods did, so that you can see with your own eyes how far the world can go.

It wasn't that Shad wanted to let the enemy go; as he himself said, no one wanted to fight anymore after tonight's battle.

The snake, pressing closer, replied:
"I now have the upper hand completely. I have found possibility in the impossible and thus completed my final transformation. And you, the Summoner, have exhausted your trump cards, and all the 'foreshadowing' planted in the story has been revealed."

I know the stories you encountered every time you came to this island. Now all those stories have come to a complete end. Do you think you can conjure up new power out of thin air to defeat me? No, Mr. Tamaki will not allow such a thing to happen on his stage.

Shad stopped; behind him was the edge of the [Saint's Cliff].

"Isn't the chosen one of destiny still here?"

Ellie, who was called out, tried to rush over, but Chloe held her shoulder down.

The illusory serpent facing Shad said:
"She is indeed the protagonist of the story of destiny, and she is already standing under the brightest spotlight on the stage. But as the protagonist, she should not be fighting against me in my current state. At this moment, she cannot even touch me. Summoner, you, as an audience member, introduced power into the stage that should not have appeared, and thus I also gained an improvement."

She could be my enemy in the long, apocalyptic years to come, trying every means to get close to me, every means to hit me, but that would be a new legend and a new story. And now, Summoner, in the end, I have won this story.

It reached out its hand to Shad, who was standing on the edge of the cliff, but Shad looked at it calmly:
"Actually, there's still a plot point left unresolved in the story. But it's normal that you didn't realize it, since that was what happened when I first came to this island. Back then, you probably couldn't have noticed the witch's tower, so you naturally wouldn't know the story before and after I came to the tower."

Shad's first visit to Fatummister Island was not after the year-end festival with various purposes such as searching for the First Flame, but rather on the day of Margaret's illegitimate sister's funeral. After completing many of Sylvia's "mysteries," he was taken to the tower by the young black-haired witch.

The snake didn't ask any further questions. Its hand had already touched Shad's neck, but only pierced through a layer of mist under the moonlight. Thirteen Rings of Fate floated behind Shad, who appeared from behind the snake and embraced them. Then, together with the snake, they rushed off the cliff.

Exclamations arose from the crowd, but soon, amidst the earth-shaking tremors, the enormous black and silver snake heads rose together from below the cliff.

The two giant serpents intertwined, spewing twilight-colored light and silver fire at each other. Then the two serpents fell back down the cliff, and soon the serpents with thirteen rings of fate hovering behind them reappeared together in human form, along with Shad, who also had thirteen rings of fate hovering behind him.

As the two transformed into dim yellow light and silvery moonlight respectively, colliding with each other under the starry sky outside the cliff, their 26 rings of destiny also collided with each other under this starry sky.

Shad was forced to passively defend himself and even endure the snake's attacks, while the snake evaded every single one of his attacks. The snake seemed to have chosen every possible way to avoid being hit, and in just a few minutes, none of Shad's hundreds of attacks had any effect whatsoever.

After a brief exchange, the two fell back to the edge of the cliff. Shad clutched the wound on his left shoulder, actually trying to prevent Mia from showing herself. The seemingly unharmed snake strode towards Shad.

"Caller of the gods, the Sixth Age ends at this moment. Thank you for sounding the horn of doom. Let us embrace the end times together."

"Cough cough."

A cough came from the crowd—it was actually Luvia—and those who received the signal went about their business.

First, two muddy hands suddenly emerged from the ground beneath the snake's feet, causing the snake to turn its head to look at the chosen one on earth. Then, a beam of light, which was not harmful but was absolutely pure enough, enveloped the snake.

The scythe of death unleashed a blade of light imbued with black flames, yet it still failed to strike the snake. The sun gun, arriving next, pierced directly through the snake's body and flew into the distance.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Shad gathered almost all of his remaining spiritual energy into a ball of "moonfire" in his palm and slammed it forward. But even though it was like holding the moon in his hand, this strike still failed to hit the snake's body.

However, Shad wasn't aiming for a hit. The pure and powerful moonfire caused the elemental traces near the cliff to become severely disordered by the miracle element.

So, while the four chosen ones and Shad provided cover, the two chosen ones of time and space worked together to bring the two most suitable people behind the snake.

The snake had actually sensed the presence of the two people behind it, but the moonlight in front of it had momentarily distracted it, and it didn't believe the attack from behind could...
puff!

The silver blade pierced through the snake's back and emerged from its front.

Before the snake, Shad, whose moonlight had dissipated, was somewhat unsteady on his feet, yet he still smiled and said:

“You’ve achieved at least hundreds of ‘miss’ results, right? As I just said, fate is a double-edged sword. When you choose one outcome, another outcome is essentially chosen by you.”

Behind the snake, Sylvia and Ellie gripped the sword hilt together. Ellie was merely an assistant, lending the power of fate to Sylvia. This witch, who first brought Shad to the Fatumunst Snow Mountain and seemed unrelated to the story of fate, yet actually initiated it, revealed the name of the power she had shown Shad on the "First Night":
"Witch's Secret Art: Sword of Destiny!" (Chapter 3152)
When facing a certain object, failure is inevitable before successfully hitting it, but success is certain after a sufficient number of failures. This is a secret technique that Sylvia created herself based on probability theory, and it was the first force of fate that Shad encountered after the story of time ended—although Sylvia believed it to be the power of mathematics.

Ellie concentrated the light of the dark golden "apple" and attached it to the Night Watchman, thus the power of the chosen one perfectly destroyed the snake's body.

The snake's seemingly swaying, illusory body solidified again, all possibilities converging into the single "reality" of that moment. Then, through Ellie's power, its body gradually turned into grayish-white ashes in the night wind atop the mountain, slowly drifting away with the wind.

The snake looked down in astonishment at the sword tip emerging from its chest, then looked up at Shad with a strange expression:

"The witch's power is actually a secret technique specifically targeting possibilities. It's true, power is no match for destiny."

Shad couldn't comprehend its thoughts at that moment, but he knew the night was finally coming to an end. The ringed beast's body, a symbol of "doomsday destiny," was irreversibly collapsing. Under the starlight, Shad asked one last question:
Do you think the story of the ninth chosen one, this story of fate, is compelling enough?

The snake answered in a hoarse voice:

"Wonderful."

The snake also asked Shad one last question:
"Do you understand that even if I perish, the end will surely come in the Sixth Age? There will be no Seventh Age."

“I understand, I’ve understood it for a long time. I will wait for the end of the world, the moment when the world truly comes to an end, not the landscape you’ve conjured up.”

"That's good, Summoner of the Gods. When the true horn is sounded, I will be waiting for you at the final moment, waiting to witness your end."

Its last piece of body turned into grayish-white dust and was blown away by the wind, leaving only a yellow ring hanging on the Night Watchman, the ring dim and without light under the starry sky.

(End of this chapter)