Chapter 199: Clown Game! Cat and Mouse!
The summer in Vermillion was far cooler than in Japan, and Arthur didn't feel the sun's scorching heat even when standing in the castle's central courtyard.
The busy maids occasionally cast their gazes over, carefully observing the two people confronting each other, whispering amongst themselves.
"Isn't Her Highness a bit too… 'belligerent' lately? She's always pulling her fiancé into sparring matches."
"Muscle-brained! Just like His Majesty the King! Muscle-brained!"
"Truly father and daughter, even this lack of common sense is exactly the same."
Their voices, not deliberately lowered, clearly drifted into the courtyard. Arthur glanced at Stella's red hair, which was faintly ablaze with light, and chuckled with a raised eyebrow.
"Did I hit a sore spot?"
"Shut up!"
The increasingly crimson Dragon Flame dyed her hair as Stella raised the Hiryū Zai Ken, wreathed in flames, and retorted.
"Who was it that, right after confirming our relationship, dragged his girlfriend off for combat training?"
Arthur laughed wryly, immediately raising his hands in a gesture of surrender.
"My fault, my fault."
Having won that round, Stella couldn't help but let out a soft hmph, and suddenly pushed off the ground!
Flowing flames danced across her entire body, just like in her initial control training, her power contained, striving not to affect any plant or tree outside.
Arthur casually raised his durandal, and the heavy wind pressure stirred the atmosphere, repelling the rolling heat waves that rushed towards him!
In an instant, flames and gales intertwined in a small space, and the clang of metal against metal was incessant.
"Indeed, even after falling in love, the busty Stella is as wild as ever."
A familiar voice sounded as Timite and Mili arrived together, their eyes full of mischief.
Stella, whose sore spots had been repeatedly poked, felt a vein throb in her forehead, and her fiery gaze pierced her two old friends.
"Perfect! It's been a long time since we sparred. Today, I'll allow you two to team up!"
Unexpectedly, Timite and Mili both waved their hands dismissively, pulling out an order from their pockets and stating righteously.
"By order of His Majesty the King, we two are here to take over the castle's internal defenses."
"As for Her Highness Stella and the Son-in-Law, who are idling, please depart with Her Highness Princess Luna."
Stella's angry expression froze, confused.
"Depart? Where to?"
"Kuiduolan's capital, Luxieer."
Princess Luna took over, walking gracefully and calmly, explaining the current situation.
"The Blazers dispatched by the Alliance Headquarters are on their way. Before that, Vermillion and Kuiduolan need to discuss matters of coordinated defense."
As it concerned the diplomacy of two nations, Arthur and Stella naturally had no objections.
Thus, the three boarded the royal private jet and flew directly into Kuiduolan territory.
Inside the cabin, Princess Luna was genuinely delighted about the future cooperation between the two nations, but Arthur frowned, looking out at the clouds.
For some reason, he always felt a highly discordant noise permeating the air, as if a misplaced note had been mixed into a perfect melody.
The three enjoyed state guest treatment throughout their journey, bypassing many tedious inspections, and the jet soon arrived in Luxieer.
Buildings exuding Western charm surrounded them, coupled with the retro clothing of the populace, it was as if medieval Europe had been reborn.
"It's beautiful, isn't it? Not far ahead is the National Arena of Profit [War], so this area is Kuiduolan's most prosperous street scene."
Princess Luna took a flower from an enthusiastic citizen, introducing the scene with a proud expression.
Her familiar and natural demeanor made it seem as if this place was her home turf.
Just then, a lavishly dressed blond youth loudly called out, running quickly towards them.
The moment she saw him, a joyful yet helpless smile appeared on Princess Luna's face.
"That clumsy fellow is John, Kuiduolan's First Prince. Let's go, we…"
Before she could finish, her foot, poised to step forward, was stopped by Arthur's outstretched hand.
Princess Luna looked back in confusion, only to see Arthur's eyes, colder than ever, fixed on the prince with the bright, sunny smile.
Before she could ask, Prince John had already run close.
Upon sensing Arthur's undisguised hostility, the sunny smile on his face didn't waver in the slightest; instead, it grew even more radiant.
He spread his arms, and with an exaggerated, almost operatic tone, he uttered the purest malice.
"Welcome, Radiant Dragon Holy Sword! And my dear princesses! I have meticulously prepared a gift for you!"
The starkly different tone and attitude made the truth glaringly obvious.
Princess Luna's face turned pale, and she immediately retreated, standing beside her sister, who was ready for battle.
Arthur stepped forward, shielding the two sisters behind him, and carefully observed John's unchanging smile, a flicker of understanding in his eyes.
"To create your 'gift,' you've recalled all the Hell Silk scattered across the world?"
"Bingo!"
John snapped his fingers dramatically, his sapphire eyes twisting into a grotesque expression utterly incongruous with his sunny smile.
"To give you a surprise, and to perfectly present my artwork, I've been preparing all of this since the end of the Seven Star Sword Art Festival!"
With that, he unhesitatingly punched himself in the chest, eliciting a creaking sound of cracking bones.
"Unfortunately, this fellow isn't very obedient, and there are too many control threads, so you still detected traces of it!"
A sneer escaped John's blood-filled mouth as O'Erge'Er, hidden behind the scenes, wantonly ravaged life, using it to display his twisted sense of humor.
Stella tightly gripped Princess Luna, who was on the verge of tears, while Arthur surveyed the surrounding populace, who still maintained their welcoming postures but whose faces were beginning to stiffen, and exhaled a long breath.
"Before you start showing off your evil plan, I'm curious, where does your hatred come from?"
"Hatred?"
O'Erge'Er, hidden within the palace, hung upside down on the Hell Silk, his heterochromatic eyes reflecting the figures of Arthur and Stella, as he let out a neurotic laugh.
"No, no, this isn't hatred at all."
"Who told you to possess the world's most precious jewels? And I am merely a wicked fellow who enjoys trampling beautiful things."
"So, I've always wanted to try and utterly destroy Stella's cherished lover, family, friends, and even her people—"
"Utterly destroy!"
The faint sound of snapping nerves reverberated in layers across the plaza!
One moment, the people were smiling, and the next, black, muddy blood began to ooze from their seven orifices!
Their limbs began to twist grotesquely, and their bodies emitted sounds of unbearable cracking!
Their gazes collectively turned to Stella, their hollow eyes silently accusing, waiting for their own deaths to arrive in extreme agony.
"Oh! Right! And by the way!"
John's head twitched, a morbidly enthusiastic smile still on his face.
"I arranged for professional assassins to infiltrate the royal castle early on. I imagine Vermillion's King and Queen are currently living a fate worse than death."
"The Kuiduolan army I manipulated beforehand is also launching an attack into Vermillion territory. By my calculations, they should be nearing the border now."
"What did you say!?"
Hearing the latter half of his words, Stella and Princess Luna both paled. They looked back towards their homeland, and in their ears, they even hallucinated the wails of the border people under continuous artillery fire.
Seeing this, O'Erge'Er, who had remained hidden behind the scenes, twisted his lips in pleasure.
"Not enough! Far from enough! I want to see even more desperate expressions from you!"
"Shut up, clown."
Arthur raised a hand to rub his brow, and the calm in his eyes instantly erupted into a brilliant azure light.
"You gathering all your power here is, for me, actually a good thing."
"Thanks to your incessant chatter, I'm ready on my end too."
"This is the Heavenly Authority Edict, Wind and Thunder! Respond to the call of the Cloud Rider, suppress all things!"
There was no earth-shattering thunder. The moment the Divine Word resounded, invisible wind locks, centered on Arthur, spread like ripples across the entire Kuiduolan!
The bodies of the collapsing citizens suddenly froze, their twisted limbs forcibly halted, and the black blood flowing from their seven orifices solidified midway!
A prison constructed of divine power simultaneously confined the lives and deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in that single instant!
Immediately following this, on the distant border of Vermillion.
Behind the hills covered in golden sunflowers, a brilliant thunderbolt descended from the clear sky, transforming into an icy curtain of heaven!
The Kuiduolan army, poised to become an iron torrent, was instantly thrown into disarray, their steel bodies unable to advance an inch!
This sudden change reached O'Erge'Er's mind through the Hell Silk. He first froze, then became even more exasperated!
"Cheating! Cheating! You actually want to destroy my masterpiece?"
"Do you think you, alone, can save both the capital and the border at the same time?!"
Tear!
A Hell Silk connected to John suddenly tightened. Arthur, a thousand miles away, pulled the thread, forcefully yanking John's head towards himself!
His cold gaze pierced through the puppet's barrier, stabbing directly at the pathological soul behind the scenes.
"Don't be so quick to declare victory, scum."
"The cat and mouse game… it's only just begun."