Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 818: A wonderful duel?
In the ancient legends of the Moryas, those who can communicate with the spirits of all things in nature and master all kinds of strange witchcraft are called great witches, and those who rule over all witches are called the King of Elves. Among the spellcasters of this ancient and mysterious nomadic nation, there has always been a prophetic poem called "The Song of Samir", which is said to be written by Capes, the first great witch in history. It uses various obscure and profound metaphors to record the names, identities and life experiences of the other ninety-eight great witches after Capes. The level of detail even makes people feel that this is not a prophecy, but a record of existing events. The end of the prophetic poem also mentions that when the ninety-ninth great witch appears in the world, the ancient King of Elves will also return to the world to confirm the prophecy of destruction and rebirth.

The prophecy of destruction was given by the 61st Great Wizard Sangir, and it is still widely spread among the Moruyan people, and even provides inspiration for many fantasy works; however, before the new prophecy was written on parchment, the 99th Great Wizard Method had died and fell in the dark age that made people shudder. For several centuries afterwards, the Moruyan people did not give birth to another Great Wizard, nor did they wait for the king they had longed for. Instead, they have been wandering, either integrating into the civilized world and gradually abandoning their own traditions; or being burdened by the dust of the journey and forced to forget those seemingly true prophecies.

Until now, who in the mysterious world of the Western Continent still remembers the legend about the ancient Elf King? Even the Witch Society thought it was just an absurd delusion. With the death of the 99th Great Wizard, Method, they had successfully killed the prophecy in its infancy. Therefore, when the news of the man's death came from the continent across the sea, Tiantis personally marked him in the file: The last Elf King, Green El.

After the battle of the Sosen Mountains, the followers of the Goddess of Creation lost their most important and trusted leader, and should have fallen apart. However, at this critical moment, it was this man who stood up and took over the crumbling flag. He led the remaining followers across the stormy and desolate sea and ventured into the East Continent, where he continued his cause of resisting the Witch Society. He not only received the support of the Goddess' followers, but also the support of many alien races in the East Continent. Therefore, he deservedly inherited the title of King of Elves and once became the most difficult enemy of the society, even more so than Solomon of the Thirteen Hermits.

Tiantis originally thought that with the death of that man, the legend of the King of Elves would end, but he did not expect to see the shadow of the prophecy in another person today. Moreover, the young man in front of him was completely different from Green El. He did not have the firmness, fearlessness, and fanatical faith of a devout believer. He was even a very cold and realistic person, so much so that Tiantis initially thought that he was very compatible with the style of the association and tried to pull him into the grand plan.

If there is any similarity between the two, it is probably only the name. The man who did good deeds all his life but died in a small malice, what kind of deep expectations did he have for his adopted child when he gave him this name? Would he hope that his son would embark on this difficult road one day? Did he entrust his lifelong pursuit to a descendant who was not related by blood, and firmly believe that this child would be able to do it one day? Or did Mr. Yang Ke actually have no thoughts and just purely expressed his good wishes?
The past is buried in the river, unpredictable. Unless time can flow backwards, no one can see the scene at that time and guess the mood of the parties involved. Half of Tiantis's body was hidden in the shadow cast by the magnificent body of the perfect Alexander, and the other half stood in the extremely bright and dazzling platinum light. The alternation of bright and dark light made her face look a little blurry. Even Lingge, who rose to the sky and was at the same height as Alexander, could hardly catch a trace of her expression or a look when he lowered his head.

[Elf King - Lingge / Light / 1 star / Effect / Attack Power 56000 / Defense Power 56000]

[This card cannot leave the field, nor is it affected by the effects of other cards. As long as this card is on the field, you cannot summon or special summon monsters other than "Girl's Royal Power", and you cannot activate the effects of magic or trap cards other than "Girl's Royal Power". This card's attacks cannot be negated, and the number of attacks in a turn is equal to the number of Girl's Royal Power cards you have equipped. When "Metien, the Apostle of Hope" is on the field, you can return a Girl's Royal Power card you have equipped to the deck, and it is considered to have activated the effect of that card. When you return seven or more Girl's Royal Power cards to the deck with this effect, all cards in the opponent's hand, field, graveyard, excluded area, and deck are exiled from this duel.]

Lingge in the Royal Armor form was as powerful as the Mecha God Alexander. If he had appeared first, Gloria might have been the one who had the upper hand. However, it seemed a little too late now. His effect was not enough to break through Alexander's time and space blockade.

"The power that combines the beliefs and wills of the kings of order? If this is the possibility of mankind, it does give me a little surprise, but it is not enough." Tiantis shook his head slowly and said, "This power is still not enough. You should find a way to become stronger, strong enough to defeat everything that stands in your way and prove that mistakes are no longer a reason to hinder your progress..."

Gloria said coldly: "Activate the second effect of [Apostle of Hope - Metien], target a monster on the field and double the attack power of that monster; when the target monster is [Elf King - Ringer], it can be doubled again; when there are seven or more "Girl Kingship" cards on the field, it can be doubled once more."

She suddenly stopped talking here, her eyes inexplicably deep, and she silently said in her heart: Almost there, just a little bit... Now, right here, let me see your possibilities...

The blonde girl clasped her hands together, slowly closed her eyes, and offered a silent and pious prayer to the god in her prayer. From her body, countless soft golden light spots floated out, and gathered together to form a bright and beautiful river of light, connecting to Lingge in the sky, injecting a brand new power into every inch of the young man's skin, every blood vessel and every bone. At this moment, Lingge felt that his blood and heart seemed to be wailing, and the human body could not bear this power and gradually collapsed, and even the soul was torn apart, as if another will was split from it, a more sacred, majestic and glorious will.

With the blessing of Metien's effect, Ling'er's attack power doubled three times in a row, reaching a terrifying 448,000 points. In comparison, the momentum of Perfect Alexander seemed weak. With only 66,000 attack power, he seemed vulnerable in front of the Star Giant.

"Huh." Gloria slowly exhaled. It was not a sense of relief, but a feeling of completing a task, a routine. Then she slowly raised her head, stared at the black-haired girl across the bridge, and declared calmly: "I use [Elf King - Lingge] to attack [Steam Engine God Alexander - Perfectionism]. In this way, the duel is over. This is my victory."

[Elf Throne—Lingge: Attack power 56000→112000→224000→448000].

The light points of stars converged into rivers, and countless rivers converged into the ocean. The tides of starlight rose and fell in the ocean, condensing into a huge figure. It was the Star Giant holding the blue holy sword. His body was as magnificent as the perfect Alexander, as if he could touch the suspended stars with his hands. The two sides confronted each other under the vast galaxy, as if they represented the two wills of light and darkness, order and chaos in the universe itself. The Star Giant had no facial features and his body was completely condensed by starlight. Brilliant light points flickered in the deep blue curtain, as if another galaxy was being nurtured in his body. If you look closely, you will find that His outline is almost exactly the same as that of the young man, and this feature has become clearer as time goes by: the same long hair that is stretched to the ankles and fluttering in the cosmic storm, the same six wings that are spread out behind the back and almost cover the starry sky, the same solemn gaze with the silver moon rotating in the left eye and the surging tide in the right eye, and the aura that can clearly confront the gods of the entire universe but still gives people a sense of calm... Rather than saying that this is a god born from the young man's body, it is better to say that He is the true form of the young man's will driven by some magical power.

At this moment, all the creatures on the ground could clearly see when they looked up that countless vast starlight was gushing out of the young man's body. His limbs, facial features, and even every hair and every pore were purified into the ultimate starlight. The light was so grand that it broke through the darkness and depth locked in the endless universe, and even far exceeded the god of time and space and machinery, forcing him to flap the platinum fire wings behind him, and with beams of radiating flames protecting him in front, he could barely resist the erosion of the starlight.

"How about this?"

“Hey, this isn’t right!?” The holy sword in Ling’s hand made a confused cry: “This kind of victory is meaningless. Can’t Perfect Alexander still activate its effect and make the result of the duel invalid?”

There is no difference from the previous two victories. Is Gloria too nervous and confused, and even forgets the effect of Alexander?
"No." Gloria said, "She can't activate the effect."

She stared at Tiandis in the distance with her gray misty eyes that had frozen at some point in time, and said word by word with an indifferent tone: "Don't forget what monster she summoned in the first round of this duel, and what effect that monster had."

Eh?
Gloria's words made Alice fall into deep thought. Although her memory was not very good, it was something that had just happened, so she still had some impression. If the genius player remembered correctly, in the first round, the monster summoned by Tiandis should be [Alien Philosopher - Dante of Thought]. Dante's effect is to liberate himself during the damage step of the monster battle, making the damage of that battle 0 and forcibly ending the battle phase. Tiandis resolved an attack through this effect. But this card also has a negative effect, which will give your duel a global self-restraint, that is, in this duel, when your monster is in the damage step of the battle, you cannot activate the effects of any monster...

Wait, that is to say... when Lingge and Alexander fought and Tiantis's LP was reduced to zero, she had actually lost the duel, because at that moment, she had no way to activate Alexander's effect to restart time and space! Moreover, since this was a self-restraint for the duelist, not an effect for Alexander, even the mechanical god Alexander with unsolvable resistance could not reverse this outcome! No wonder!
At this moment, Alice understood many things that she didn't understand before: No wonder Tiantis always said that escaping is useless, and only by defeating mistakes head-on can there be hope of victory; No wonder Gloria said that the outcome of the duel was decided from the beginning, even when Tiantis summoned Dante. Because there is only one way to defeat the machine god Alexander: that is to ensure that Tiantis cannot activate the effect of restarting time and space while defeating him. Only when these two conditions are met at the same time can it be called hope.

Therefore, victory is such a simple thing, as long as you don't fear the power of the machine god Alexander, you can defeat him with dignity. However, Gloria mistakenly believed that Alexander was unbeatable, so she wanted to bypass him to win, but Alexander used the power of time and space to reverse the outcome.

It was not until this moment that I finally realized the only correct path to victory.

The monster that was summoned at the beginning became the foreshadowing of his final defeat. Is this irony or a sense of fate? It can even correspond to the history of the real world: in history, the philosophers of the Witch Society developed the Genesis series of constructed mechas and defeated Alexander; in the game, the reason why Alexander was defeated is also closely related to the effect of the philosophers. The difference is that both the person who summoned Alexander and the person who won the victory have undergone incredible changes.

The so-called duel, its outcome is unpredictable at the beginning, and at the end, who can guess the beginning?

When Alice was lost in thought, Linger had already raised the blue holy sword in his hand and pointed the blade at the silent and solemn perfect Alexander. As he moved, the Star Giant behind him also raised the giant sword that seemed to be able to tear the universe apart. Under the sword, the starlight extended infinitely. The figure of the God of Machinery was as small as an ant. All the stars were crawling under this sword. The universe full of gear planets and steel stars was shaking violently, like the background board of a drama stage, and it was crumbling.

The next moment, Lingge swung his sword, and the tip of the sword drew a graceful semicircular arc from left to right in the air.

The Star Giant also swung his sword.

A dazzling sword light burst out from the far end of the universe, passing through the sea of ​​stars, passing through the darkness, passing through countless wailing stars, and finally passing through the heart of the perfect Alexander. The God of Machinery tried to resist, but the thunder in his hands had just gathered when it was ruthlessly wiped out by the sharp edge of the holy sword. The next moment, his chest was torn apart by this extreme sword light, revealing the severely damaged gear structure and broken bearing pipes. A shocking wound was cut on the steam power furnace in the heart, and flames flowed out like blood, soaking those glorious armors and steel bodies.

Behind Him, beams of radiating flames were gradually extinguished, just like a blazing firework that faded to a dark end in the highest sky, until only a pair of empty cold wing bones remained, echoing the roar of stars and wind. His body, as heavy as a fortress, was like a bird with broken wings, slowly falling against the backdrop of the universe, falling towards the river filled with black and darkness. In his platinum eyes, the light flickered wildly, and a chaotic noise was emitted: "Detected... time and space changes..."

"Data is missing... Start correction..."

"Correction... failed... exceeded... the upper limit of the analysis module..."

"Unable to verify... Unable to verify... Cancel correction, start execution, self-destruct program..."

Rumbling sounds came from all over the mechanical fortress. Broken pipes, collapsed steam towers, and falling outer armor ignited beautiful and shining flames on this huge body. It was clearly falling, but it seemed more like rising, making this disaster scene at this moment have the beauty of the sun reborn after an eclipse. On the ground, Mechanical Saint Mida and Holy Creation Knight Dayang raised their heads at the same time, looking up at the horrific and shocking scene of the sky fortress falling in the crumbling steel universe, but they happened to meet the eyes of the mechanical god Alexander, which was the only part of his body that remained intact. In a trance, he went back to the long river of time and returned to the past, and saw a familiar calmness and relief——

"Human," at the last moment, His voice no longer had a mechanical noise, but rang clearly in His ears. Although it was still rational, it was also appreciative: "Well done."

Many years ago, in a desperate situation like this, it was the Mechanical Saint Mida who broke free from His refinement with great willpower, and even used her own faith power as a cage to restrain Alexander's space-time power, which gave the Holy Creation Knight Dayang the opportunity to drive the constructed mecha and rush up without hesitation to die with Him. At that time, Alexander, who was heading towards collapse and disintegration, did not feel angry or regretful, but praised him like this. This scene seemed to show that history may not repeat itself, but the possibility of mankind will always shine.

Tiantis also smiled. Her smile was quickly drowned in the flames and light released when the machine god Alexander disintegrated. No one noticed it. Only Lingge, who had been paying attention to her, saw this smile. He also saw that before being drowned in the fire and light, the girl silently lip-read a sentence -

"What a wonderful duel."

[Tentis: LP8000→0]

【You Win】

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)