“This is a feathered arrow made of honey gold.”
“You only have one chance. As long as you shoot it into the heart of the demon king, the human world can avoid a blood disaster.”
A moment later, Langmuir stood in the middle of the temple’s sanctuary.
He calmly took the golden feathered arrow handed over by the prophet elder.
The longbow, which was radiating a bright aura, was already held in the hands of the young son of god.
This was the highest point of the Brett Temple, the place closest to the sun symbolizing the Goddess. In addition to the prophet elder, there were four serving elders standing next to him, all wearing white robes embroidered with sun totems.
The demonic breath of the demon king was a terrifying power, enough to tear open the Gasuo barrier. However, because its demonic breath was too pure, this was also the only power that the current human mages could lock onto outside the barrier.
“We will exhaust all our magic power and seek the protection of the Goddess to open a spatial magic circle that can lock onto the demon king for you.”
One of the serving elders said, “But under the interference of the spatial laws of the Gasuo barrier, you only have five seconds, and the space can only accommodate one arrow…Lord Son of God, everything is up to you.”
“I understand, elder,” Langmuir said.
He looked down at the longbow in his hand. It was heavy, but the son of god had already gotten used to shouldering the weight of the kingdom’s fate alone.
Langmuir quietly recited two sentences of the clearing the heart teachings, then put the honey gold feathered arrow on the string.
The next moment, the five elders chanted in unison, and the light of the magic circle spread layer upon layer. This energy caused a wild wind to surge from nowhere, blowing Langmuir’s white robe and golden hair.
The scene in front of him twisted under the spatial laws.
The young son of god squinted his eyes—
“…I missed.”
Langmuir put down the longbow, the huge consumption of Mana made him breathe lightly, his expression was somewhat stunned.
The five elders were greatly shocked, their faces pale and drained of energy as if the sky had fallen.
The young son of god, however, was the calmest.
“Its demonic breath is too strong,” Langmuir said, looking down at his own palm. “The honey gold feathered arrow only broke its right horn, then I lost control, I couldn’t even recall the arrow…I’m sorry.”
Although he claimed to have missed, Langmuir knew in his heart that it was not due to “carelessness” or “bad luck”, but the simplest reality—
His strength indeed could not kill the demon king with one arrow, even with the blessing of the divine bow of light.
The elders finally came back to their senses and hurriedly said, “Lord Son of God, don’t worry, we still have a way.”
“Besides, you broke the demon king’s horn, which is already a great achievement!”
“The wind of the abyss is the minion of the devil, an arrow shot from the sky to the earth, it’s as difficult as climbing to the sky to hit the target, our Lord Son of God can even severely wound the demon king!”
“That’s right, the demons control the demonic breath through their horns, the demon king losing its right horn is half useless, nothing to fear…”
The elders were all talking at once, none of them dared to blame Langmuir—yes, the son of god is such an excellent and pitiful child, who would have the heart to make him sad?
Speaking of this divine bow of light, only the Mana that had been cultivated to the extreme purity could bring out its maximum effect. And Langmuir, who was only fifteen years old, his Mana was far purer than those hundred-year-old elders.
In the end, what the son of god couldn’t do, these old guys couldn’t do either.
In the blink of an eye, the divine bow in Langmuir’s hand was taken away. The elders pushed the young man’s back and instructed him to go back and rest.
But Langmuir was still a bit confused, the matter that decided the safety of the human world, ended in the moment of drawing the bow and shooting the arrow, which made him feel unreal.
He was pushed forward two steps, suddenly looked at the prophet who had raised him, and said, “Prophet elder.”
“The demon king,” Langmuir hesitated, “seems to be a child.”
The sanctuary was strangely quiet.
The five elders all looked at the son of god.
“…Oh,” the prophet elder’s kind face showed a smile, and he said softly, “The Lord Son of God must have seen it wrong. When you look down from the sky, even giants look like children. Demons are much taller than humans.”
Langmuir shook his head, thinking blankly: But compared with the other adult demons around, that was clearly a teenager.
He asked again, “I didn’t kill the demon king, what should I do next?”
The prophet elder said, “Please rest assured, Lord Son of God, the temple will make other arrangements, the embodiment of evil is destined to perish under the light—this is the promise of the Goddess of Light to Her devout people.”
So, Langmuir walked out in a daze.
When he walked down the sanctuary and circled back outside the chapel, Knight Gilbert was still waiting there. The warm wind of early autumn dropped a few reddish leaves, the holy women in white skirts had just picked a full basket of flowers from the back garden, laughing and saying they wanted to make flower tea for the Lord Son of God.
Everything was as usual.
……..
This “as usual” continued for a while.
The Brett Temple released news: A few days ago, although a new demon king was born in the abyss, it was shot by the Lord Son of God, who was protected by the light, and broke its horn, barely alive.
The people of the kingdom were almost crazy. Everyone was sincerely proud of their little son of god.
But Langmuir always felt sad. He admitted that his failure to kill the demon king was his own fault, but the temple greatly praised his achievements, as if they couldn’t wait to directly declare that he had killed the demon king.
Even his parents—the then Holy Monarch and Queen—brought exquisite and valuable gifts when they came to visit him in the temple, and they celebrated for him with joy.
His younger brother Aiden also had stars in his eyes. The little prince, who had always admired his elder brother, wished he could cling to Langmuir, saying over and over again, “Brother, you’re so amazing!”
Langmuir quietly shook his head. If anything, the son of god’s emotional fluctuations were always overly calm, his joys and sorrows were all faint, he really didn’t seem like a boy of his age, sometimes he even seemed indifferent.
But Aiden had long been used to his elder brother’s demeanor. The little prince didn’t care at all, he still cheerfully called out, “Brother, brother, what does the demon king look like, is it really like the bronze statue?”
“…No.”
Langmuir paused, “It’s… very different from the bronze statue.”
Aiden just snorted, flicked his flaxen hair, and puffed up his little chest, “No matter what the demon king looks like, it’s going to be defeated by my brother!”
A few days later, when it was the season to harvest fruits, Langmuir’s knight Gilbert came to say goodbye to him.
Only then did Langmuir learn that the temple was going to send knights into the abyss to crusade against the demon king. Taking advantage of the demon king’s recent severe injury, they intended to completely eliminate this root of evil.
He was very surprised. First, he didn’t know that the barrier could also be opened from the human world. The next thought was: such a crusade must be full of danger, why didn’t the elders let him go?
“Gilbert!” Langmuir suddenly stood up, “It was my fault that I failed to kill the demon king. The responsibility is mine, you shouldn’t have to go to the abyss.”
Gilbert didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, “My god, my Lord Son of God! I am a knight belonging to the temple, even if I die for it, it is an honor. Does the Lord Son of God think that Gilbert is a coward?”
Langmuir said, “That’s two different things.”
That day, Langmuir went to find the elders of the temple and proposed to go to the abyss himself, and then, unsurprisingly, was rejected.
“My knight can go, why can’t I, who is stronger than him, go?”
The prophet elder was helpless, “Lord Son of God, the abyss is where the demons dwell, it’s extremely filthy. You are the child of the Goddess, and also the eldest prince of the king—”
Langmuir lowered his voice, “The teachings say: all men are born equal. Besides, I act on the will of the Goddess, and have more responsibility to protect my kingdom.”
Elder: “Your existence itself is a power for this kingdom.”
Langmuir: “People worship me, love me, give me fine clothes and food, is it just to worship a motionless statue?”
The prophet elder choked suddenly. The four serving elders standing behind him also looked at each other, showing a headache.
Son of God Langmuir was gentle, firm, and strong, almost perfect.
If there was any flaw, it might be: he was sometimes too gentle, too firm, and too strong.
—This led to, when Langmuir started to be stubborn, most of the elders couldn’t persuade him, and they had no way to deal with him.
This time was the best example. The elders of the temple tried everything, they invited the Holy Monarch and Queen, invited the little prince Aiden, Gilbert was also trying to persuade, but all these had no effect.
Langmuir gently responded to everyone who tried to persuade him not to take risks, then demonstrated his unwavering will.
Worried that the elders would act first and report later, sending others into the abyss without his knowledge, he even went to the edge of the Gasuo barrier and sat quietly outside, in a stance of “let’s see who can outlast whom.”
A few days later, the four serving elders began to give in.
“Why not let the Lord Son of God go?” they said, “The Lord Son of God’s Mana is so strong, to say the assassination of the demon king, he is indeed more suitable than those knights…”
Only the prophet elder shook his head with a stern face, “No.”
This white-haired old man had deep eyes and said in a hoarse voice, “Lord Son of God Langmuir is too kind-hearted, letting him see the true face of the demons, the consequences are unpredictable.”
The serving elders all shook their heads and laughed.
One of them said, “Prophet, don’t worry too much.”
“We are not unaware of your concerns.” Another old man also echoed, shaking his white eyebrows, “But hundreds of years have passed, the demons are no longer humans!”
“They are evil and greedy, lascivious and bloody, the Lord Son of God has been pure since childhood, he will only hate this kind of life more when he sees the true face of the abyss.”
“Besides, prophet elder, do you have a better way? The more you hide, the more suspicious the Lord Son of God will be.”
“Alright, alright.” Finally, they decided on their own, “Let’s do it this way, tomorrow we will send the Lord Son of God into the abyss, we old bones can also return to the temple to rest… Ah, the edge of the barrier, it’s too desolate here!”
