Spare Me, Great Lord!

Outside of St Paul’s a river of blood had formed. However, the violence and cruelty there had no impact on those inside of the church at all.

“Mr Lu Shu, do you agree to take Ms Coral Johnson as your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do you apart?”

Lu Shu remained silent for a long moment. He had once watched an identical plot in a movie, but today, he was the main character.

“Yes, I do.”

Exhausting all her remaining strength, Coral hugged Lu Shu’s neck tightly, as if to hold on to the last wisp of warmth in this world.

“Ms Coral Johnson, do you agree to take Mr Lu Shu as your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do you apart?”

Silence.

“I’m sorry, Lu Shu,” Coral said, tears welling up her eyes, “No, I don’t.”

Drops of tears rolled out of her eyes, as if falling into an abyss.

In tears, Coral smiled. “I said it, but I think you didn’t hear it. I will say it again.”

“Lu Shu, please stay with me for the rest of our lives. If you say no, I will wait till you agree. If not, I will think of other ways.”

Lu Shu felt a giant hand grasping tightly at his heart. His blood flow almost stopped due to the excruciating pain.

“In fact, I heard it.”

“In fact, I knew you did,” Coral continued, smiling, “I know I’ve been putting in more effort than you, but it doesn’t matter. It was my wish that one day you would like me too. And now, that wish has finally been fulfilled.”

Lu Shu was speechless. Coral gave a light pat at Lu Shu’s chest and said, “Finally, I have a place in here. I am selfish to insist that you accompany me during my last moments. But I don’t want you to live in the shadow of my death from today onwards. Hence, I’m sorry, Lu Shu. I don’t agree. I can’t agree. Actually, I have a secret. I always have a feeling that I may not love you this much when my Gungnir breaks. I don’t know why, but I don’t want to accept it. So, please forgive me. This is the best ending for me. It’s so good to have you in this world.”

Coral gently ran her fingers across Lu Shu’s face. “Farewell, my love.”

Then, there was a crack, as if something inside Coral had broken apart.

Lu Shu could feel the rapid fading of her vitality, until her energy waves became undetectably weak. Coral’s eyes were shut, and her adorable eyelashes would not dance again.

The invisible hand lifted Lu Shu’s heart forcefully and cruelly. The agony was suffocating.

The priest released a heavy sigh. He patted Lu Shu’s shoulder and exited from the door, leaving a world of silence for him.

All of a sudden, the white tree mark in Lu Shu’s palm shone brightly. The broken Gungnir in Coral’s body transformed into white stars and radiance, flowing into his palm. In the next instant, Lu Shu felt himself in another world, which seemed to harbor a grand and eternal will.

“The new epoch has finally arrived,” someone said in the world.

The voice was seemingly transmitted to Lu Shu’s brain directly. In silence, Lu Shu raised his head to gaze at the towering tree. Just like Coral’s description, the tree blotted out the sky, and countless creatures inhabited its branches. Tens of thousands of roots immersed underground, leading to nowhere.

“Who are you?” asked Lu Shu.

“As you can see, I am the World Tree. You came with the key, and I have always been waiting.”

“Oh,” said Lu Shu. Then, he kept silent. He felt nothing, as if his heart had been dead.

The voice suddenly said in a joking tone, “That girl’s feelings for you stemmed from the reliance of a branch on its main trunk. Your grief will be relieved when you recognize this.”

Lu Shu fixed the World Tree with a calm stare. “Fking bullshit!”

The will was not angered. It continued to indulge in its own analysis. “In fact, there is a way to save her, but in exchange you have to give her the World Tree. Has it ever occurred to you why she fell for you, a mere mortal? Her bloodline was exceptionally pure, just like her ancestors. It is no exaggeration to claim that she is a goddess in this world. How can a God love a human?”

“I belong to you, and her feelings stemmed from the connection between Gungnir and me. In this case, are you willing to save her?” the will repeated. It seemed that Lu Shu was connected to the bloodline of the World Tree.

It was a strange feeling. At this moment, Lu Shu suddenly understood that this grand existence was really his.

And the Tree was telling the truth, without a doubt.

Sitting on a root, Lu Shu went quiet.

As it turned out, he was fooled by fate.

And the loneliest individual on this world was actually he himself.

Then, he started to mock himself. “So that’s why a wonderful girl like her would like me, a lame joker. At the end of the day… I am still unworthy of love.”

Lu Shu continued, as if talking to himself, “Do you know? In the past, a girl confessed to me. But in the end I realized that she only wanted me to help her do her homework. Ridiculous, right? Will you die if you do your own work? Why are feelings and lies so meaningless?”

“So, are you still willing to save her?” the will asked.

Lu Shu suddenly started laughing. “Sometimes I really hate the word ‘fate’. No matter how far you go, it’s all lies. Even dreams are better than that. But… so what? I’m still willing to save her. For some reason, I want to thank fate, for at least caring for me for once. Alright, screw all the bullshit. I simply don’t want to see her dead. What’s wrong with me? I’m not so helplessly emotional.”

His tone had finally turned serious. “I want to save her.”

It was like that day, when he received a fake 50-yuan note. Despite his urge to take revenge against the world in the same way as how he had been mistreated, he still bore all the unhappiness himself.

This time, he had been well fooled by fate. But he would rather believe that everything he had felt and seen was real, that they had truly existed.

At this moment, the will seemed to have withdrawn from the connection with Lu Shu. A distant voice sounded, “The upcoming era is far more interesting than any other history. I will look forward to it.”

Suddenly, Lu Shu’s consciousness returned to the church. The white tree mark in his palm slowly rose up, shining brightly!

Then, as if it was alive, the mark gently fell into Coral’s chest.

Dong dong.

It was Coral’s heartbeat.

Her vitality was recovered. Coral was reborn. This time, she acquired the entire World Tree, which would belong to her from this day onwards.

Carefully Lu Shu lowered her body and placed her on the soft red carpet. With the can tab on his finger, he strode towards the door of the church. Outside, there were battles that he had to fight. As he left, his figure looked painfully lonely yet decisive.

“Farewell, my love.”

…

Coral felt that she had had a long dream.

In the dream, she was like a vulnerable little girl, running about in the darkness. She felt that she was losing something forever, which made her heart ache.

She ran on and on for a few days and nights. Finally, there appeared a gray castle in the dark world. It stood in her way.

In front of the castle, Coral punched the walls and cried continuously. Her fists were bleeding, and her bones almost fractured under the impact.

But she did not want to stop, which would make her lose the dearest thing in her life. Hence, she was willing to exchange her life for it.

With a crack, the gray castle finally yielded. The noise was deafening in this quiet world.

However, the fissure was still too small. The gray castle seemed unbeatable without true power.

Lying on the red carpet, Coral was like a princess in a grand ceremony. Her beauty was beyond words.

At the instant when the crack appeared, a drop of a tear rolled down her cheeks. It was like the first ray of light before sunrise.

The princess mumbled, as if sleep-talking, “Don’t go, Lu Shu.”

Her voice was as soft as the mist. No one knew whether she had really said it.

…