Honkai Impact: Grandma Pine Sparrow is still chasing me!

Chapter 332 The Fall of the Knight

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the final arena of the Ten Arts War... or rather, the killing field."

No one could see what Lithost's face was like beneath the mask, but as if a megaphone had been turned on, his voice was omnipresent around the ring, drowning out the whispering spectators.

He took two steps forward and raised the knife in his right hand: the blade exuded a shadowy aura, from which occasionally flickered will-o'-the-wisps and wailing ghostly fire skulls—anyone with eyes could see that Lithost was no good man now.

"What is he trying to do? Kill all the people he fought in the ring again? Shafulai, are you alright? Are you hurt? Do you need to rest?"

Qiong and Baiji ran to the edge of the arena and took Saffron and Luo Chenxue from Kiana respectively. Perhaps to keep her distance from Kiana, Qiong selectively ignored Kiana and focused on showing concern for Saffron.

Saffra was slightly taken aback, not expecting Qiong to ask her such a question.

"Hmm... Master Baishu, don't worry, I'm fine."

"Qiong, aren't you going to praise me?"

Kiana stared expectantly at Sora, anticipating his reaction, but well…

After hearing Kiana's words, Qiong finally shifted her gaze from Saffra and glanced at her.

"Yes, that's great, as expected of you."

Kiana sensed no sincerity from his calm tone and perfunctory attitude... Even knowing that it was Sora's doing on purpose, Kiana still pouted, looking dissatisfied.

You damn gray-haired brat, don't sleep too soundly tonight! I guarantee you'll have incomplete pleasure in your dreams, and when you open your eyes, it'll be me!

Just then, Litost slammed his blade into the ring floor. Instantly, a shadow spread outwards from the blade, covering the entire ring.

The audience, who had been whispering, fell silent. As the shadows expanded, everyone felt the air grow colder—Rim was a blessed land, with a perpetually pleasant, spring-like climate! Aside from the lack of natural sunlight, no one could find fault with it.

The audience felt a chill, and the closest competitors were no exception. The air around them seemed to freeze, as if their hearts were being gripped tightly. The beating was clearly audible in the silence, and some less determined competitors felt as if their very souls were being frozen.

"I know that some of you, out of hatred, wish I were dead."

"Is there even a question?!"

Despite having once again faced death, Luo Chenxue felt no fear—or rather, her hatred overwhelmed her fear. She struggled to her feet from Bai Ji's body, wanting to rush forward again.

"Let me go, I'm going to fight him!"

This time, however, a white pheasant held her down tightly.

"Miss Chenxue, please calm down! I have no intention of stopping you, but going up there now would only be suicide!"

Litost's voice continued to echo throughout the venue.

"Of course, there are also those who yearn to be victors, to worship the gods and become their shadow riders, to gain endless life and glory... In any case, you must all step over me, or there will be only one outcome: death. Gentlemen, the time has come."

As he spoke, countless black tentacles that had previously dealt with Chen Xue extended from the shadow's domain. These thick shadow creations attacked each contestant indiscriminately as they appeared.

"I will offer, under the watchful eyes of the gods, a knight's 'final promise'."

"The match hasn't even started yet?!"

"What is this thing? It's disgusting!"

"Let me go! Let me go!"

"Ouch, ouch, ouch! Aaaaaah!"

Because of Lithost's sudden action, some of the weaker fighters were captured and entangled before they could react, and then screamed in pain.

Seeing this chaotic scene, the audience suddenly erupted in a tsunami of screams. A second later, an unusually thick tentacle slammed into the wall between the contestants' area and the audience. Some of the spectators couldn't hold on any longer and started running out. Once one was out, another followed, and soon the entire audience was in chaos. People, including the staff maintaining order, rushed out frantically, screams and shouts mingling together.

Looking at the chaotic scene and the easily defeated contestants, Lithost's eyes were filled with disappointment beneath his mask.

Are these the young talents of Luo Xing? The pillars of the next hundred years? By his standards, most people here couldn't even withstand ten of his moves.

Is this the only people he can leave for Leiera—people like this and the thirty-odd chosen ones?

Kiana, protect everyone!

Oh, are the alien visitors about to move?

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At this point, Qiong couldn't care less about anything else. He immediately summoned his baseball bat and raised it up under everyone's gaze.

"Rules are meant to be broken!"

The bat radiated light, shooting towards the tentacles. Wherever the bat's light shone, the tentacles were scorched. But the bat was, after all, just a light bulb. In the shadows where there was no light, the tentacles continued to swing wildly.

"Finally couldn't stand it anymore? But not angry enough..."

Lithost sneered, and the remaining tentacles instantly grew several times thicker, their strength increasing considerably. They seized some of the contestants who were still fleeing from the sky, and entangled others once more. Apart from a few contestants like Baiji who managed to repel the tentacles by burning them with their own magic, most of the contestants who had strayed from the sky became prisoners of the shadow tentacles.

"Lithost!"

Grabbing his baseball bat, Qiong jumped onto the ring—he wasn't stupid, so he certainly wouldn't say something as foolish as "let go of those competitors."

The best way to stop Lithost from killing indiscriminately is for yourself or Kiana to take him down, then interrogate him to find out what he's up to, and finally, depending on the situation, have an enemy (like Chenxue) send him to meet the King of Hell!

Qiong stared expressionlessly at Lithost, who was in the state of Ash Night Remains.

He was actually very calm now because he wasn't in a hurry. He wasn't worried at all that the others would be killed by Lithost—with Kiana around, Lithost would never be able to torture and kill those contestants.

But he was particularly puzzled. According to what Leiera showed him, Lithost should have also been involved with Sinadia, right? No matter how you look at it, Lithost shouldn't be associated with a psychopathic killer.

What kind of change turned a knight of God into a deranged serial killer?

Could it be that because Hinadia died, he couldn't bear it like that Martian god and suffered a mental breakdown...?

"You've finally arrived."

Regardless of what Qiong thought, the aura surrounding Lithost in front of him became even more terrifying.

"I've been waiting for you to show up."

"hehe."

Qiong didn't want to waste words on a heinous criminal like Lithost—she charged at full power with her Flame Spear, knocking him down, then pointed the spear tip at his chest and demanded an answer: if he dared to cause trouble, she would stab him!

"Visitor from beyond this world... Mr. Sora, I apologize for attacking your companion."

"You know my name?"

"The God of Luoxing knows everything."

Qiong snorted coldly, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

"What exactly do you want—shameless!"

Qiong wanted to ask a few more questions, but Lithost suddenly swung his sword with his right hand, and a black flame slashed towards Qiong. Qiong reacted quickly, dodging to the side, and the black flame grazed the hem of his clothes, leaving a scorch mark.

"Damn it! Aren't you supposed to be a knight of the gods? What about chivalry and the rules of chivalry?!"

Originally intending to say a few more words to satisfy his curiosity, Qiong glared angrily and became impolite. With a baseball bat in his left hand and a fire spear in his right, and a top hat on his head with a quill pen clipped to it, this outfit made Litost slightly curious.

However, he wouldn't ask, and Qiong wouldn't answer him either.

"The rules of chivalry? Just like you said, rules are meant to be broken."

Clad in jet-black armor, his blade wreathed in black flames, he was rarely serious. The twin blades danced in his hands, their blades slicing through the air with a sharp whistling sound.

Although Lithost desperately wanted Qiong to win, he wouldn't hold back. He leaped up, his twin swords slashing down in a cross pattern, black flames transforming into will-o'-the-wisps that tore towards Qiong. Qiong neither dodged nor evaded, his flaming spear flicking, the tip gathering firelight—just like last time, except this time Lithost wore armor and his longsword had been replaced by twin swords.

Black fire on one side, crimson flames on the other. The two completely different flames collided with a deafening roar, and the shockwave from the clash of the twin swords and the fiery spear ripped the bricks off the arena, sending dust billowing into the sky.

Each of Lithost's strikes was engulfed in chilling black flames. His movements were as elusive as a ghost, leaving burning footprints on the ring. Perhaps because the gravity on the Martian was so weak, Lithost, despite wearing armor, moved more nimbly than Lithost himself?

Her reaction time was good enough, but because her speed was indeed a bit slower than Shadow's, Sora could only rely on the Flame Spear for defense, while keeping her baseball bat constantly charged in preparation for a counterattack.

"As far as I can see—"

"coming!"

Qiong waited for the right moment to swing her bat, but when she looked around, she saw that she was surrounded by Litost.

Without a doubt, most, if not all, of them are fake.

boom!

For some reason, Lithost's longsword didn't directly attack Sora or get mocked into using the Flame Spear; instead, it collided with the baseball bat. The sudden, massive impact made Sora's arm go numb, but he gritted his teeth and endured it. Having missed his attack, Lithost immediately created distance.

But after creating some distance, Lithost was surprised to find a nick in his knife...

It's interesting, but not enough.

"Aren't you going to take the initiative? If you can defeat me here, you will surely be chosen by everyone to be the next knight."

"Let whoever wants the job take it! I have absolutely no interest in being your colleague!"

Working for the Martian god? That's worse than working for Kiana... Wait, how can I think like that? He's a free man, he refuses to work for a god!

"Ha, it's not up to you."

Lithost crossed his twin swords, unleashing countless black fire blades towards Qiong. Qiong remained unmoved, using the protective power generated by his spear to form a shield. The black fire blades struck the red flame shield, producing a sizzling sound, but failed to penetrate Qiong's defense.

"..."

Isn't this level of defense a bit over the top? Maybe...

Lithost vanished in a flash. Just as Qiong was about to search for Lithost's whereabouts, he felt a chill run down his back. He immediately turned around, only to see Lithost already behind him, his twin blades slashing down with fierce momentum—then deviating and striking the impassable flaming spear.

"The decisive blow!"

The bat, as dazzling as an incandescent bulb, struck Lithost squarely in the chest, sending him flying. Qiong saw that Lithost's black armor was riddled with cracks from the blow, and the black shadow flames struggled weakly to try to fill them, but the "infiltration" of the destructive power had already stained them white.

Lithost, who had been knocked away, knelt on one knee. He slowly lowered his head, touched the disintegrating breastplate, and a hint of surprise flashed in his eyes, which were unseen by anyone under his visor, before he let out a low laugh.

"Hehehe... I wasn't wrong about you, I underestimated you!"

His twin swords were deeply embedded in the arena, supporting his swaying body. When he stood up, the twin swords vanished, as did the black tentacles that had harmed the other contestants. All the shadows around him surged into Lithost's armor, causing black flames to burn wildly.

"It's either me or them who die!"

In an instant, a huge black vortex appeared above the arena, and a group of extra-large skulls emerged from the vortex and swept towards the sky.

[Qiong, now's the best chance! Use mine, unleash your ultimate move!]

"Ultimate move?"

Kiana's voice suddenly echoed in his mind, and Qiong was slightly taken aback. Although he didn't know how troublesome this attack was or what tricks it might have, he chose to trust Kiana.

Qiong took a deep breath, put away the unused top hat and quill, then retrieved the baseball bat and gripped the Flame Spear with both hands. She dyed her hair white and her eyes blue.

[With this raging fire...]

"Nothing can be cut off!"

With a swing of the flaming spear, a massive shockwave of purple flames blasted towards the horde of skulls. The flames collided with the skulls, producing a deafening roar, and all the skulls were engulfed by the flames, turning to ashes and vanishing.

The residual force of the fiery shockwave continued to sweep towards Lithost. Lithost stood still, his black flames surging wildly around him, forming a massive black barrier. The fiery shockwave struck the barrier, erupting in a dazzling burst of light.

Lithost remained standing on the ring, his armor now more tattered, the black flames reduced to mere wisps. A gash in his chest, scorched by purple flames, silently signaled his impending exhaustion and defeat.

However, when he looked up at the sky, his eyes beneath the mask still gleamed with excitement.

"Brilliant, absolutely brilliant! One more time, one more time and it might kill me! Come on!"

"Are you crazy? Flame Spear..."

Just as Qiong was about to try again, Lithost suddenly knelt down on one knee. He slowly removed his mask, revealing a pale but excited face.

"Hahaha! Hinadia, my mission is about to be accomplished!"

Lithost raised his hands, and the previously chaotic shadows began to shrink in an orderly fashion, resisting the final blow from the white-haired, blue-eyed Qiong—but as the manipulator of the shadows, he knew that this was a futile act, nothing more than a hasty performance by someone who wanted to die but didn't want to die.

Lithost looked at Qiong, his eyes full of admiration. He was more qualified to be the Shadow Rider of God than Lithost, a sinful fellow like himself.

It's time to rest! He closed his eyes and awaited death.

Yes, the shadow has been pierced; death is imminent...

It's coming soon...

Arrival...

Hmm? Isn't this taking too long?

"Hey, are you surrendering?"

He's not dead yet?

Lithost immediately opened his eyes and saw a flame spear burning with purple flames hovering one centimeter in front of his chest, and his successor, whose golden eyes and gray hair had turned into blue eyes and white hair, was staring at his face.

"Tell me honestly, why did you do this? What happened to Chenxue's sister—what are you doing? Are you looking to die?!"

Thinking that Lithost had already given up his defense and surrendered, Qiong wanted to interrogate him before dealing with him, but Lithost took him by surprise and met him head-on with a flaming spear?!

Qiong wanted to move, but it was too late. Lithost, who had pierced through his own chest, looked up at him, a hoarse laugh seeping from his shattered armor.

"Ah... thank you... I can..."

Before the stunned Dome, Lithost's body began to disintegrate, his black armor turned to ashes, and the last remaining black flames were completely engulfed by the flames, eventually dissipating into the wind.

The arena fell silent, with only Qiong still standing on it.

"No, what is this..."

"Good! Champion! Champion!"

Qiong: ?

Qiong put away her Flame Spear, turned around and looked around. Everyone around her who hadn't run away (except Kiana) was clapping in unison.

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I forgot to send it...