Silent Crown

In the quiet palace, Arthur turned around and walked slowly to his throne, the

Stone Sword in his hand. After so many years of departure, the throne, smelt

of the sweetness of the blood, felt still so familiar to him. He chuckled and

said, “it feels so good to come back here again!”

Sitting on the throne leisurely, he looked down to the place by Lancelot’s side.

“Long time no see, Gawain. You are so weak and timid, as usual.”

Lancelot turned and looked to his side. There was no one there. But he could

hear someone breathing nervously.

“I was just awake from the sleep and you are already here to see me. By this,

you’ve shown your loyalty to me. I can spare you from the punishment for

doing nothing in those hundreds of years.

“Your majesty…” From the emptiness in the air came a trembling voice,

“I…I’ve come here to give your majesty some advice…”

“Oh?” Arthur burst into a splutter of laughter. “The coward who hid himself in

the armor and didn’t even dare to speak now has the courage to remonstrate

against his king? It seems a lot of things have changed during these years.

Considering your loyalty, I’ll give you a chance to say what you want.”

Supporting his chin with his arm, he said, looking intrigued, “show me what

you have learnt from those glib-tongued courtiers.”

In the silence, only the gasping of Gawain was heard. Then, Gawain

summoned all the courage he had and said, with a voice like a child’s, “things

could turn better if your majesty could abandon your pursuit of godly

ascension. The people have been waiting for your majesty to come back, and

if you show your mercy to them, the heaven on earth will revive in no time.”

He stumbled over his words, and couldn’t say any more.

On the throne, Arthur looked down with both pity and mockery in his eyes.

“That’s all?”

“Yes, your majesty.” Gawain said, nervously. That’s all I ask of your majesty.

Please take my humble advice. I’ll take any punishment your majesty

considers proper on me. I’ll try all the experiments and never say no to your

majesty.”

“Or?”

Gawain didn’t answer.

In the silence, Arthur heaved a sigh and touched the hilt of the Stone Sword

with one hand. “You are still so annoying, Gawain, even after you’ve turned

into ashes.”

Numerous broken pieces of crystal emerged slowly in the air and struggled to

converge together. Finally, an incomplete figure of man showed up, with many

voids and cracks all over the body.

The man had a handsome face that is almost as pretty as a girl. But now that

the face was full of cracks and dust, it was like a discarded mask.

At the corner of the eyes, there was still stains of tears.

“Then…” The figure held the invisible sword in his hand and aimed it at the

throne. “Please pardon me for betraying your majesty.”

In the silence, Lancelot lowered his head. He stood still, as if there were

nothing happening around him.

Boom!

The sound of clashing of metals was heard in the darkness, and was drowned

by the sound of storm. In the grim light, a cracked crystal ball fell from the

body that had collapsed into pieces with a crisp click.

Then, there was only the moaning of the Stone Sword.

The ashes flew away.

“I thought you have grown stronger than before.” Arthur shook his head

disappointedly. “You are on the brink of death yourself, how dare you draw

your sword on me? This country has deteriorated in the several hundred of

years. They have lost their manners in front of their king, and even have lost

their awe to their king and their senses…Oh, whatever. Now that I have come

back, I will restore order in this country in no time. And to achieve that, I will

wipe out all those obstacles in my way.”

Saying that, he put the stone sword into the stone in front of the throne. With

both his hands holding on the hilt, he depressed the violent resistance of the

sword against him until the light on the blade went out and the sword became

quiet.

“Let’s begin, then.” He raised his eyes, in which the dark sun emerged again.

Staring at the fires and fighting in the city, he sneered. Then, he shouted with

a coarse voice which depressed all other noise in the rioting city and

thundered in everyone’s ears, “the path to the top of the world!”

The earth shook. The dark clouds covering the whole country were torn into

pieces and the dark night sky was revealed, where numerous stars were

twinkling dimly, as if they were to fall onto the earth at any moment.

Endless dark firebirds spurted out of Arthur’s body and surged into the sky like

dark flood. Then, the firebirds turned into the shape of hands and rushed to

the shadows of the stars. Pulled by the firebirds, the light of the stars

converged and then was devoured. The pull of the music theories twisted

reality and time, a huge booming noise thundered between the sky and the

sea.

The path to godly ascension was re-opened!

At that moment, everyone saw it. Along with the collapse of the dark firebirds,

a huge crack was cut open at the center of the sky, through which glaring light

poured in. The violent sun, born out of the endless music theories, cracked

open the shell of the firebirds and hang in the sky, spraying out piercing light

that was like fire.

With the stone sword as the channel, Arthur sucked the power of Leviathan

and began to generate the catastrophe like the sun.

In the cheers, Arthur closed his eyes and laughed.

Suddenly, his laugh stopped.

Something was wrong. The operation of the path of godly ascension was

stopped by something.

“What is this?” Shocked, he lowered his head and looked at the ocean which

is full of glaring light. There should be nothing in that place. Yet the smooth

sea surface was covered with light, by which the reflection of Avalon was

shown.

That was the Country in the Shadow which had been sleeping in the

darkness!

The insulation between the physical world and the aether world was broken.

Therefore, the ruined city asleep in the unreal image was reflected in the sea.

In the reflection, there was a white-haired young man looked at the sun over

the sky and gave a weird smile.

Arthur stared at the young man, shocked.

The young man raised the shabby scroll in his hand slowly. And he said, “let

there be light…”

Then, there was light.

A pure white moon quietly raised out of the reflection in the sea. It was

shinning brightly. The light full of peace and tranquility filled the whole country

of shadow, giving life to the deserted realm of the dead. The grand music

theories of the Genesis were operating in the moon light and covered the

whole city in the shadow. By the will power of Ye Qingxuan, the combination

of ultra-light domain music theories and ultra-fine music control brought great

changes to the situation. It was as if time were flowing back.

The shattered streets were coming back to its original appearance, the

collapsed walls began to rebuild themselves and broken beams and columns

began to rise from the ruins. Then, bricks flew back to their original position

from all over the city. The city was being pieced together

In a short time, the city was intact again as if nothing had happed to it at all.

The floor was clean, the walls were shiny, and the oil painting on the roofs

were as fresh as it had ever been.

The hundreds of years of time was turned back in a split second. The heaven

on earth, which had been sucked out of all its resources and values, revived

from the ruins and was now full of moonlight and miracles.

And all the power needed for this, was drawn from the path of godly

ascension, which should have belonged to Arthur only.

Like a burglar broken into a treasure vault, he stole all the treasures and then

used all of them up in a blink of his eyes. Everything was wasted. And all this

was done in front of the owner of the vault.

This was ridiculous!

“This is not right! Not right!” Arthur opened his eyes and stared at the sword in

his hand. He figured everything out instantly and roared, the firebirds rioting

around him, “the sheath, where is the sheath? Maxwell! Where is my

sheath?!”

Arthur drove the firebirds onto the stone sword, which shook violently, causing

the breaking of numerous music theories. The soul in the stone sword

suffered great pain, yet instead of moaning, he burst out a crazy laugh.

Where is the sheath? Where can it be? Of course it was where it should be!

At that moment, with the heaven on earth being restored, the rhythm of the

Chapter of the Golden Victory sounded all over the space, from the center of

the country of shadow.

In the imperial court, the white-dressed young girl who had been prisoned by

Arthur for hundreds of years sat on the throne. Golden firebirds filled the

whole space like ocean tides.

All the power that Arthur had prepared for himself for the godly ascension was

under the control of the new king. With the power of the whole Anglo

converging with her, numerous music theories weaved a virtual figure of the

sheath in the ocean-deep golden firebirds behind her.

In the reflection, the figures of the golden hunt dogs were looming. They were

looking at Arthur coldly. They were as proud as ever.

The new king had the same blood of Leviathan, the same Chapter of the

Golden Victory, the same key to the stone sword and the same rhythm of King

of Anglo enhanced by the Pomp and Circumstance (March) I.

The heaven on earth supported by the Genesis re-appeared, bringing with it

the pull no less than that of Avalon’s to fight for the power of Leviathan against

Arthur.

Thus, the path of godly ascension was divided into two!

Several hundred years ago, on the day when Arthur was to ascend to be a

god, Maxwell betrayed him and cut off the path to godly ascension. Maxwell

also left Arthur a severe wound on his chest and he anticipated the coming of

this day at even that time.

He knew that Arthur would come back one day and re-start the path of godly

ascension.

Yet, due to the core music theories of the stone sword, Maxwell couldn’t kill

Arthur or himself. So, after he wounded Arthur severely, he chose to injure

himself. Then, the music theories of the stone sword were divided into two

parts, one of which was under Maxwell’s control and the other sealed in the

sheath. He endured the suffering of division and threw the sheath into the

dark world. To keep it at a place as far as possible to Arthur, he even

entrusted it to the church to seal and hide it.

The stone sword then became incomplete and the path to godly ascension

was thus divided into two.

If Hermes could see this, he would have laughed heartily. The dead king took

the throne on the earth, yet the king of the human world struggled in the realm

of the dead…This is hilarious!

“What a pity, your majesty.” Maxwell’s hoarse voice was heard from the

sword, “it seems that your path to godly ascension will have to end here…”

Suddenly his laughter stopped and a painful roar was heard.

With no obvious expression on his face, Arthur clenched his fist and said,

“Lancelot.”

“Your majesty.” Lancelot half-kneeled.

“Your sword is broken. Take this one instead.” Arthur stretched his arm and

the Lance of the Dragon Slayer fell onto his hand. The dragon slaying music

theories became iron hot when in contact with his hand.

Holding the blade of the spearhead, he let it sucking his dragon blood until the

shaking lance went quiet as if satisfied.

He gave the lance to Lancelot. Then, he waved his hand. The dark firebirds

converged and the masters of the first-generation royal music divisions

emerged from the shadow. Those people had given all their lives to king

Arthur. And now, the symphonies of predestination engraved on the bottom

layer of the city were waken up. The holy spirits sealed in the symphonies,

with the firebirds as their carriers, came back to the human world with all their

powers.

Driven by the will power of Arthur, the firebirds enveloping numerous music

theories were transmitted onto Lancelot and turned into a virtual dark sun.

“I bestow upon you the power of catastrophe. Take the royal music division

and crush those who dare to claim my throne.” The furious king, sitting on the

throne, gave his order, “bring my sheath and my power back to me!”