The electric guitar in the background had almost turned into a feral howl.
A violent assault on the eardrums. Perfectly syncing with the explosive scene unfolding at that very moment.
It was as if the audience's brains were being set ablaze.
When the black-robed swordsman's very first strike sent Castorice flying. The entire screen was empty.
For the next dozen seconds time he finished his speaking the comments were completely blank.
At first, the audience hadn't reacted yet. But afterward, it wasn't that no one was sending comments.
It was that the comments that appeared in that instant was far too dense, far too synchronized, to the point that the platform system itself lagged and the comments overlapped.
Until this very moment, all the comments from those dozen seconds exploded out at once, every kind of text stacking on top of each other, chaotic and indistinguishable.
In the same second, the collective gasp and exploding nerves of billions of audiences completely flooded the screen.
...
: !!!!!!!!!
: What?!?!?!?
: Holy shit shit shit shit shit!!!!!!
: What just happened ?! Did my eyes glitch?!
: Castorice! Castorice got KO' ed?!
: No way… what kind of speed is that, is this even legal?!
: Oh my god oh my god oh my god!
: One slash, just one slash, and Castorice was KO' ed?!
: Trianne dodged it, but she still looked so damn miserable!
: Mem was telling the truth! We really need to fucking run!
: Fuck, my whole body is shaking right now. This pressure, this is the real BOSS. In front of him, even Nikador is just a kid!
: And this damn music, electric guitar, drum beats, I'm losing my mind.
: Three slashes are enough… This is so damn showy! But why is the pressure so insane?!
: No, he's not showing off, he really means three slashes!!
: Fired up?! No, this is straight-up exploding!
: Just a dozen seconds, holy shit, the information, the pressure, the presentation, everything suddenly maxed out!
: This doesn't feel like riding a roller coaster anymore, it feels like jumping off a cliff!
: I knew the Grove of Epiphany's story wouldn't be this plain, but who the hell saw this coming?!
: The waters of Amphoreus… really are unfathomable!
...
The frenzied comments were proof of what the audience was feeling at that moment.
Just as the comments said. What they felt while watching this segment was no longer simple emotional fluctuation.
The earlier story was like a treasure-hunt plot, without much tension. The audience felt as if they were walking along a quiet country path, enjoying a leisurely journey.
Then, whoosh. The path suddenly turned into a perilous cliffside trail.
The black-robed swordsman appeared behind them and kicked them straight off.
That sudden sensation of falling. That immense contrast in feeling. It could be said to be a viewing experience they had never had before.
Who is he?
What does he want?
Why is he this strong?!
Is he an Emanator?
Countless questions surfaced in the face of the overwhelming gap in power.
The audience stared at the mask on the screen in shock, their grips unconsciously tightening.
Their brains were burning, their hearts pounding wildly.
And they were even more drawn in by the profound terror and mystery radiating from this enigmatic figure, far surpassing any enemy before him.
The story entered a suffocating atmosphere at this moment.
Everyone held their breath, waiting for what would come next.
...
And as the black-robed swordsman drew his blade. The music suddenly dropped by an entire dimension.
Only rapid, oppressive, low-tempo beats remained. Four gray-black afterimages appeared to his left and right.
Five figures hovered in midair like this, looking down coldly at everyone present.
At this moment, no one dared to underestimate the black-robed swordsman anymore.
Castorice endured the pain as she stared at him. The power of death spread over her wounds in an instant, briefly repairing them, and after that, her fair skin returned to its original state.
Meanwhile, Stelle drew her flame spear, staring straight at the black-robed swordsman.
The pressure in her heart had already been pushed to its absolute limit.
For some reason, despite having gone through so many journeys. The sense of danger she felt from this guy right now was the strongest she had ever experienced.
Even when facing Sunday head-on, Stelle had never felt like this.
Or maybe it was because this guy, was just too strong.
"Run, run away!"
Mem cried out urgently around Stelle, her voice already trembling with sobs. "I, I told you!"
That black-robed swordsman, in her eyes, was like a blazing furnace.
Even though the fuel inside couldn't be clearly seen yet, the flames that were nearly spilling out already made Mem feel an illusory burning pain.
That immense pressure crushed her almost to suffocation.
Stelle braced herself and looked at the black-robed swordsman, asking, "Uh… can we talk this out?"
Even under such overwhelming pressure, Stelle didn't forget to crack a joke.
However, the expected response never came. The black-robed swordsman stared silently at Stelle, for so long it felt unnatural.
Could there be a turning point?
Buzz! A dull sound suddenly rang out.
The phantom at the black-robed swordsman's side had already descended without a sound.
So fast it was impossible to see clearly.
A massive horizontal sweep, making the air around it hum, arrived in front of everyone in an instant.
"*Galactic profanity*"
"No sense of ethics!"
Stelle's eyes changed instantly. Flames erupted over her body as she gripped the flame spear with both hands, hurling herself at the blade with explosive force.
Boom!
Flames collided with black fire. The surrounding temperature skyrocketed!
Violent heat waves scattered outward.
And just as Stelle barely managed to block this strike, the other three phantoms followed up immediately, slashing one after another!
"!!!" This was the first time Stelle had ever seen an attack like this.
At the moment when she had just blocked an attack and hadn't recovered yet, she simply couldn't block such a ruthless assault.
"Lady Stelle, lower your head!" Castorice's voice suddenly rang out behind her.
Stelle didn't think at all, her body instinctively ducking and rolling.
A sharp purple-black slash shot forward from behind Stelle in an instant.
That strike carried a sense of serenity and calm, with butterflies occasionally fluttering out from its edges.
At this moment, the divine power of Thanatos collided with two of the phantoms.
Black chaotic flames erupted into the air almost instantly.
The violent airflow blew Stelle, who was close to the center, straight away.
Fortunately, Trianne flew up into the air, gritting her teeth as she flapped her wings and grabbed the corner of Stelle's clothes, barely pulling her back.
"This is bad…" However, Castorice's face grew even paler.
Because her full-power slash had only barely managed to block two of them.
The last one had already split open the black chaotic flames, and was charging straight at them!
At the critical moment. The petite pink creature flew up into the sky.
She gently closed her eyes, then waved her cute little stubby arms and shouted loudly: "Mem! I'm still here!"
A mysterious power manifested at that instant.
Stelle's body, in a bizarre way resembling time reversal, rewound in playback, layer by layer returning to its original position.
Right at the very center of the explosion. Castorice and Trianne, too, were each forced apart.
Stelle panted heavily, still gripped by lingering fear.
Yet in the midst of this extreme danger, from her spine surged three even fiercer impulses.
Those golden eyes were now completely covered by an incomparably resolute, ruthless will.
That was just the kind of person she was. The stronger the wind, the more fiercely she burned!
The more you blocked her path, the more she slept, no, the more she charged!
"Mem, meme mem don't!"
Mem instantly realized that Stelle was about to rush in recklessly and cried out in panic to stop her.
"Lady Stelle!"
"Little Gray!"
Castorice and Trianne both cried out in alarm.
But it was already too late. Stelle put away the flaming spear in her hand and switched to the bat, golden light blazing in her eyes.
"Damn it! I'll blow it up with you!"
"Rules are meant to be broken!!!"
A gray figure suddenly pierced through the air, charging to the black-robed swordsman's front in an instant.
Stelle clenched her teeth, eyes blazing with fury, the bat raised high in her hands, determined to smash the black-robed swordsman's head in with a single strike.
The black-robed swordsman tilted his head slightly, and the long blade in his hand traced a precise, almost clinical arc.
The movements of both figures slowed to a crawl at that moment.
The shot froze on Stelle's furious, teeth-gritted expression, and on the mask of the black-robed swordsman.
In this slow passage of time. Mem, far away, slightly narrowed her eyes.
Within those gemstone-like, radiant pupils, she saw a scene she couldn't tell whether it was a memory or the future.
In the illusion.
She saw the same place, the same position.
The difference was, in the illusion, in front of the black-robed swordsman, within a single second, more than ten, no! dozens of slashes appeared.
Those slashes were dense and overlapping, covering the entire place.
The black knight's leapt out from behind countless sword energies, then brought down a mighty, forceful jumping cleave, carrying innumerable blades of energy with it.
Sword intent, killing intent, death intent, rage, sorrow. Countless emotions mixed together with the sword light.
They rushed forward all at once. Mem stood frozen in place, her entire body stiff, trembling like a sieve.
There was no escape! She would die!
"Mem!"
However, this scene was only an illusion.
Those countless sword energies that looked enough to shred the body just by sight did not actually fall.
Yet Mem's body still swayed, and she clutched her eyes in pain.
Just seeing that illusory scene had made her eyes sting as if they had been pierced straight through.
And right at that moment, the instant illusion and reality overlapped.
Bang! Stelle was sent flying backward, even the bat in her hand slipping free.
That heavy, all-out strike had been blocked with effortless ease.
Stelle felt as though she had crashed into a mountain, unable to shake it in the slightest.
Enduring the pain in her eyes, Mem rushed to Stelle's side to check her injuries.
Her heart was filled with lingering fear. Thankfully, it had only been an illusion.
If it had been here, if just now, the black-robed swordsman had truly used that move, her companions, her companions would have...
"I'm fine..." Stelle forced herself to her feet through the agony, feeling like her internal organs had all shifted out of place.
But amid the intense pain, her mind strangely calmed down under pressure.
This must be what it feels like to get hit by a train.
When they got back to the Express, she could probably go exchange notes with that Sunday about it.
"Little Gray... I, we should run."
Trianne was utterly terrified. She flapped her tiny wings, exerting all her strength to drag the bat that had rolled far away back to Stelle's side. Her eyes flickered, as if weighing something important.
"..." Castorice also moved to Stelle's side, firmly shielding her behind herself.
In this crisis, she couldn't care about anything else. With a stretch of her right hand, a scythe appeared in her grasp.
If nothing unexpected happened. She would probably have to go all out with this black-robed swordsman right here.
An extreme sense of suffocation spread across the screen. If the black-robed swordsman's initial strike earlier had been shocking.
Then now, with Stelle being blasted away, and Mem showing something like a glimpse of true despair.
What it brought to the audience was utter, absolute hopelessness. All previously established perceptions of combat power were completely shattered.
Excitement, shock, worry, fear, and an even crazier curiosity toward the black-robed swordsman.
So many emotions pressed heavily on the audiences' hearts.
....
: I, damn it.
: This isn't even about strong or not anymore, right?
: "Three slashes are enough" was a conservative statement?!
: Holy shit, the hardest thing to keep straight is that in this environment, Stelle's brain is still going off on abstract nonsense.
: It's over, it's over, it's over. Castorice even pulled out the scythe, she's going to stake everything too, isn't she?
: The problem is, can she even win?!
: This black-robed swordsman feels like he's not even on the same level anymore!
: I can't breathe, I really can't breathe.
: Pure, absolute crushing ...
: The black-robed swordsman hasn't even really moved his true body yet, he's suppressed the protagonist group with just clones!
: I can't even feel shocked anymore by the power Mem showed!
: Are they really going to write the protagonist group to death here?!
: Aglaea!!! Phainon!!! Mydei!!! Anyone is fine! Save them!!!
: Where's the train's support?! Pam!!! Welt!!! Himeko!!!
: I don't dare to watch... but I can't not watch either... What are Stelle and the others supposed to do?!
: My brain can't keep up anymore... completely losing it!!
: At this point, I feel like even running won't work!
...
The comments was filled with all kinds of anxious and stunned exclamations.
Every viewer, at this moment, was just like those on the Luminary Throne, shrouded in the shadow of the black-robed swordsman.
Amid pounding heartbeats and stifled breaths, they waited for the next second, for what might be destruction, or might be a turning point.
...
On screen.
The black-robed swordsman, who had not made any major moves until now, finally acted.
His right hand clenched in midair, and a crescent-shaped object glowing with white light, no, it should be a ceremonial sword, appeared in his grasp.
The ceremonial sword was small and delicate in shape, clearly mismatched with the black-robed swordsman's imposing build.
But no matter what, everyone knew, a final attack was coming.
The black-robed swordsman was getting serious.
Castorice's gaze grew incomparably grave. With resolve, she placed Stelle behind herself.
A deadly battle, ready to erupt at any moment, was about to begin!
Suddenly, Castorice's heavy expression abruptly widened, as if she had seen something utterly unbelievable.
-----------------------
T/N: Here, the author is really an expert.
In the game, Castorice, Stelle and Trianne knew Calypso was Cerces; and were just stalling the Flame Reaver, but here, they don't know Calypso is Cerces and Anaxa is dead and the Coreflame is no where to be found and standing in front of them is a complete monster [Flame Reaver] who can defeat them. They have no reinforcements to back them up.