Chapter 13 The Last Stand

The Mirror Demon's words still echoed when the demonic aura solidified into tangible demons and monsters.

There were at least three hundred of them, all kinds of mythical creatures from Eastern legends, and each one was a formidable opponent.

"Gui Xiao, how strong are these monsters?" Wu Si Can Xuan immediately turned to Gui Xiao, asking a crucial question.

The answer would determine their next strategic move...

"Can't win..." Gui Xiao replied after a two-second silence, six words that spoke volumes: "...Can't escape."

Though brief, his response was packed with information.

"I see..." Wu Si Can Xuan hesitated for a moment, then his expression changed and he chuckled, "Heh..." He actually smiled. "Alright, I give up."

"Huh?" Zui Wo Chang Ran didn't understand. He turned his head in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"You want to lie down and wait for death?" Sheng Yu Pian's face also showed puzzlement.

"Hehe..." Only Meng Jing Chan instantly understood Wu Si Can Xuan's true intention, chuckling lightly from the side, "He's not giving up on resisting, but..."

"I'm giving up on the match." In the next second, Wu Si Can Xuan took over Chan-ge's words, continuing in an almost self-destructive tone, "The responsibilities of a captain, the S2 championship, the year-end bonus... Screw it all!" As he spoke, he even cursed.

"Hey... what's going on?" A Xiu Luo wasn't familiar with Wu Si Can Xuan. In their limited interactions, he thought the man was quite steady and reliable. He didn't expect... Wu Si Can Xuan's personality to suddenly take such a sharp turn.

"Having to 'think thrice before acting' when doing anything, having to 'consider the big picture' with every decision, it's just too tiring..." Wu Si Can Xuan continued, "This 'captain' burden on my shoulders has made me unlike myself."

"If the 'yourself' you're talking about is that overgrown chuunibyou, I'd say it's a good thing." Sheng Yu Pian, having grasped his teammate's intention, naturally chimed in with a jab.

Wu Si Can Xuan ignored him, continuing in a displeased tone, "Let's not even talk about how this match is going. In any case, we only have two paths before us: either we get wiped out here, or we fight the Mirror Demon to the bitter end. The former... is an immediate loss, the latter... is just losing a little later." As he spoke, he started shaking the spray paint can in his hand. "Since we're going to die either way, instead of dying with a hesitant mindset, with a half-assed fighting style, I'd rather choose a more enjoyable method."

"Hmph..." Zui Wo Chang Ran also smiled knowingly upon hearing this. "I can't do anything with you. You should've said so sooner... I would've taken the captain role."

"Stop with the hindsight." Sheng Yu Pian was a comfort-ski who had to critique everything. "Hindsight is my patent."

"Hic~" Meng Jing Chan also chimed in, "Since it's come to this, hehe... let's all have a good time."

With these words, their team's morale surged.

At this moment, not only had Wu Si Can Xuan personally unloaded the burden of "captain", the entire Order team had also unloaded the baggage of "the match".

"Oh?" Seeing this, the Mirror Demon's tone changed slightly. "The aura... has changed..." In these few dozen seconds, its mirror-like demonic aura undulated, constantly releasing demons. "Whether you call it burning your boats or just giving up, the fact that you all can still maintain this fighting spirit in this desperate situation... you do have some heroic spirit." It paused, then gave a strange laugh. "Hmph~ Then this seat will grant you your wish!"

With that, the Mirror Demon moved its mind, and the demons in the sky moved with it.

Taotie, Qiongqi, Taowu, Hundun, Bi An, Fei Yi, Gu Diao, Gou She, corpse soldiers, Chi Jiao, Akame, Noppera-bo, Abura-akago, Rokurokubi...

Looking out, the demons and monsters were overwhelming, swarming in.

Among them... the strong ranked among the Four Fiends; the weak were also full of murderous aura.

Gui Xiao's words, "Can't win, can't escape," were indeed correct.

"Come on then, who's afraid of who! The small fries can't possibly have a reverse damage skill, right!" Zui Wo Chang Ran also let loose. He rose up, and shot a volley of Lightning Fast Fists toward the front line.

Instantly, golden streams of light wove a dense net of fists in the air, creating a bloody storm.

"I won't be polite either..." Sheng Yu Pian had also been holding back for a long time. He picked up his special weapon [Throat Destroyer] (a megaphone), and activated the [Roar That Starts to Stir When An Enemy's Health Is Below 14 Points] toward the dense crowd of monsters.

The substantial sound waves roared out, creating a sonic shockwave in a huge cone-shaped area in front of him, the violent power seeming to shatter even the air.

However...

After these two waves of attacks, they had only killed a mere dozen or so monsters. The rest, though injured, still advanced relentlessly.

"So that's how it is... they're indeed very strong..." Meng Jing Chan observed for a few seconds, then threw away the wine in his hand, spat out the cigarette in his mouth, and unusually... held his sword with both hands. "I wonder if I can withstand this..."

No sooner said than done! Before Chan-ge finished speaking, he had already leapt up and used his sword. His swordsmanship was light yet powerful, unrestrained and magnificent, the sword aura extending over a hundred zhang, the blade force capable of cutting through metal and stone.

As he moved his sword, Meng Jing Chan muttered...

"I want to drink alone in a dry tomb,
Drunk from half a pot of immortal wine before the grave.
Silver frost hangs three chi in the tomb,
The souls of the dead under my sword, have you seen them... hic~"

Meng Jing Chan recited his crooked poem while using superb swordsmanship. By the time he finished reciting his self-composed poem "My Drunken Silver Sword", he had already struck out dozens of times, each sword strike possessing the power and range to cut a Gundam in half.

This round of attacks was quite effective, with about fifty demons being slashed by the sword aura and falling into the abyss. Of course... this wasn't entirely Chan-ge's credit. Zui Wo Chang Ran's and Sheng Yu Pian's previous AoE attacks had obviously reduced the monsters' health a lot, so Chan-ge was essentially finishing them off.

"Careful! The second wave is coming!"

Chan-ge had just withdrawn his sword and hadn't even caught his breath when Zui Wo Chang Ran shouted, reminding him to prepare again.

Because... the next wave of demons was already upon them.

At the moment, Zui Wo Chang Ran himself was almost constantly unleashing [Lightning Fast Fists]... Faced with so many formidable enemies, his single-target kill moves were useless; area-of-effect skills could cause more damage.

"It's okay! I'm here too!" At this moment, Wu Si Can Xuan, who had been shaking his spray paint can for a long time, was finally ready.

He roared loudly and stepped forward, spinning around to deliver two seemingly ordinary spinning kicks.

The force of the kicks carried the floating colors in the air out, then accelerated and magnified in mid-air, dyeing all the demons affected by it in color. Two seconds later, the monsters exploded like fireworks, scattering and collapsing, with each fragment becoming a geometric shape from Tetris.

"Is this the true strength of Zui Sheng Meng Si..." Watching the performance of the four, A Xiu Luo was filled with many thoughts. "The reference value of recordings is indeed very limited... These guys are clearly monster-level..." Thinking of this, he couldn't help but shift his gaze to Gui Xiao. "Speaking of which... this 'monster among monsters' hasn't made a move yet. What's the situation?"

Indeed, Gui Xiao's personality wouldn't usually allow him to be so low-key.

His temporary silence was for a simple reason... he needed time to sort out his thoughts and make a decision.

"Sigh..." Standing silently for about a minute, Gui Xiao suddenly closed his eyes and shook his head, sighing. "Saying to unload the burden... saying to have a good time..." He muttered in a low voice, "Heh... so, adults are unreliable after all..."

At this moment, this sixteen-year-old boy's mind was clearer than anyone else's.

"Since the match is hopeless... why even fight?" Gui Xiao murmured to himself, "Is it to release pent-up stress? To indulge in the thrill of battle? To give it your all in a meaningless struggle, to bleed every last drop of blood... is that really so enjoyable?"

For him, this was indeed a very unfamiliar feeling...

Since entering Thriller Paradise, he had never experienced "fighting an opponent to the death". When he encountered Lu Te in the S1 finals, he had the opportunity, but... the opponent had specifically targeted and restricted him, preventing him from displaying his strength.

Later, he became stronger and stronger... whether within the team or outside, he couldn't find an opponent who could match him; even Shiva, the "person closest to him", seemed to be getting further and further away in Gui Xiao's eyes.

Today, even a sub-god level existence like Dian He Wang couldn't contend with Gui Xiao, even with the "trap" laid out.

If Wang Tanzhi was a man who could assassinate gods with various extremely restrictive abilities, then Swallowing Heaven Gui Xiao was a man who could confront gods head-on and win... no... a boy.

How could he experience the thrill of defeating an opponent after pushing himself to the limit?

However, today, his chance had come.

As Feng Bujue said... Six Directions Mirror Demon was a "new god". To put it bluntly, it was a world-class Boss that matched the strength of the next version, its settings... were not something players of this version could handle.

And Gui Xiao was also a character who exceeded the level and version restrictions.

One of Feng Bujue's purposes in facilitating the Mirror Realm battle was to see... who would win between these two.

"If that's the case..." Gui Xiao took a deep breath, "Then I'll also discard 'restraint'... and go all out."

The moment he made up his mind, fighting spirit erupted!

A vast, black hole-like energy suddenly arose, its presence expanding rapidly in an instant, even surpassing the space itself.

"That... what is that..." A Xiu Luo looked in horror at the red-haired youth who was about his age, like a mortal looking up at a god.

This glance made him feel a sense of despair for no reason; he suddenly felt that his so-called "secret weapon" was truly overestimating himself. All his confidence turned out to stem from ignorance—he simply didn't know what he was facing.

"Six Directions Mirror Demon." Seconds later, Gui Xiao looked down at the Mirror Demon, calling out its name.

"You..." The Mirror Demon's voice involuntarily revealed a hint of fear, "...What are you going to do?"

"I want to apologize to you," Gui Xiao replied.

The Mirror Demon didn't respond; it simply drove all the materialized demons... changing their target to Gui Xiao.

"First, I want to apologize for not going all out just now." Facing the demon army's encirclement, Gui Xiao remained calm, "Until two minutes ago, I was still considering 'having to preserve some strength to compete after killing you'." He shook his head. "That kind of thinking was too naive... You are not an existence that can be eliminated with that level of determination."

Before he finished speaking, the demon army arrived.

In the same second, four strange figures suddenly appeared out of thin air, protecting Gui Xiao.

It was his Stand [Taye], and three Spirit Beasts—[Mask], [Undertaker], and [Water Demon].

These four beasts cooperated seamlessly, each displaying their unique abilities, using their bodies and powers... to fight against the demons' onslaught.

However, the demons released by the Mirror Demon were not ordinary; some of the stronger ones were no less powerful than the beings summoned by Gui Xiao. The four beasts could hold them off for a while, but they definitely wouldn't last long.

"Second, I want to apologize for what I'm about to do." But Gui Xiao's words continued, spoken unhurriedly and confidently, "After all... you only have one life, but I can start over."

"Absurd!" The Mirror Demon was filled with anger and shock. "You think... having the determination to 'perish together with this seat' means you have the ability?"

Before it finished speaking, the Mirror Demon couldn't wait to release a beam of demonic energy from the mirror, piercing through the demon horde and directly attacking Gui Xiao's heart.

Unexpectedly, Gui Xiao's figure suddenly blurred at that moment, turning into an afterimage.

"Attacking with a cold arrow shows that you are already afraid," Gui Xiao said the next time he spoke, now appearing behind the Mirror Demon.

"This seat is afraid of you?" The Mirror Demon's voice suddenly rose to a broken screech.

"My speed is faster than yours, it's impossible to sneak attack me. Besides... your attack isn't very strong. Even if I'm hit, I won't be killed by a single strike," Gui Xiao didn't answer the other party's words, simply stating, "So, I advise you to give up on any attempts to strike first and prepare to receive my attack."

"But... but but but..." The Mirror Demon let out a strange cry like an asthma attack from being too agitated, "Damn it—"

"Oh, right..." At the last moment, Gui Xiao seemed to suddenly remember something. He turned to look at his four teammates, revealing a slight smile, "Ramen Head, Pot Lid Head, Hot Sipping Mess, Graffiti Guy, I have to apologize to you too. As for the reason... you'll know soon enough."

"Hey! There are still outsiders here!"

"Did the nickname get exposed..."

"Don't look at me like this now, I used to be called..."

"Little brat! Just say if you want to be arubared!"

The four spoke almost simultaneously, all responding to Gui Xiao with sarcastic remarks.

Gui Xiao also chose to ignore them...

A moment later, his smile turned into a savage grin. His intimidating murderous aura burst to its peak in that split second, directing it entirely at... the Mirror Demon in front of him.

Crack—

The surface of the Six Directions Mirror actually cracked... when it reflected that pure murderous aura.

"Could it be that you..." The Mirror Demon's voice was trembling, "You want to defeat this seat with one move..."

"See clearly!" Gui Xiao interrupted the other party rudely, his arrogance returning.

"With your only life..." That domineering self-confidence also returned.

"W-wait... wait..." The Mirror Demon seemed to sense something; it was the survival instinct of a higher being, but... now, no matter what it said or did, it was too late.

"Witness..." Gui Xiao had no intention of letting the other party continue, "...What is the strongest!"

The strongest declaration, the strongest strike.

The aura of swallowing the heavens, the power to shake the earth.

When Gui Xiao poured all his strength and used [Left Hand of Judgment], the entire [Mirror Realm] shattered... like a fragile mirror.