Max slamd his fist against the barrier, the impact ringing through the chamber. His voice cracked with a mix of fury and despair. "What is there to understand, damn it?!" His whole body shook as he shouted.
His hands pressed against the glowing surface, the infernal energy around him writhing violently like it wanted to break free. Tears welled up in his bloodshot eyes and spilled down his cheeks. "Everyone I grew up with—the people I respected, the ones who helped when I was nothing, the ones who stood by —they were all in Valora Continent. And now they’re gone. Slaughtered. Burned out of existence!"
His voice broke. The anger in his tone twisted into pain, raw and unbearable. "And you want to just act like nothing happened? To sit here, locked away, while their killers laugh and mock us?"
The tears stread freely now, each one carrying the weight of a continent lost. His friends, the elders, the countless familiar faces of the Lower Domain—every mory stabbed into him with rciless precision. He bowed his head, his crimson hair falling into his eyes, his shoulders trembling as he pressed his forehead against the barrier.
In that mont, Max wasn’t just a monster of infernal energy. He was a grieving boy, crushed beneath the weight of guilt, rage, and loss too heavy for his young shoulders to bear.
"Max," she said more softly now, her tone changing from command to plea. "I am not telling you to do nothing. I am telling you to calm down. Do you not understand? If you rush into their trap now, you will die. And if you die, then what was the sacrifice of the Valora Continent for? What about Lenavira? What about the ones still alive who need you? Will you abandon them too?"
Max froze for a mont, her words stabbing through his rage like daggers. His shoulders trembled, his breath ragged. But then his eyes hardened once more, the flas roaring around him.
"I can’t abandon them. Not this ti. Not again." His voice was low, shaking, but every word carried iron. "Every ti I’ve chosen to hold back, every ti I’ve chosen to stay in the shadows, more people have died. I won’t let it happen again. Even if I die, I’ll take those bastards with ."
Lady Divine closed her eyes for a mont, sighing as though the weight of centuries pressed down on her. She could see it clearly—the boy was breaking, not because he was weak, but because he was carrying too much. His grief was becoming his weapon, and also his greatest danger.
"Max," she whispered, her voice like a mother’s to a furious child, "you are not alone in this war. Do not burn yourself to ash before it truly begins."
But Max only pressed his hands against the runic prison, his tears glowing in the crimson light, his whisper echoing like a vow:
"I will slaughter them all. Every last one. Until the word ’demon’ is nothing but a forgotten curse."
Lady Divine’s gaze lingered on Max, unblinking, searching. His eyes glowed a piercing red, his hair burned like liquid fire, and the infernal energy swirled around him in endless waves. She had seen countless cultivators consud by their own darkness before, but Max... Max was different.
It unsettled her.
For as long as she could rember, infernal energy had only ever ant one thing—the unshackling of the darkest impulses buried inside the human heart. Rage. Anguish. Hatred. Bloodlust. To wield it was to surrender yourself to its nature. That was the truth she had seen again and again. And yet here stood Max, radiating everything infernal energy was supposed to bring out, but at the sa ti... untouched by it.
He trembled with anger, yes. His grief was sharp and his intent to kill palpable, yes. But none of it consud him. None of it twisted him into a beast. Instead, he was calm in his fury, lucid in his despair, his pain still tethered to compassion. The contradictions burned in her mind.
He was in control.
Completely.
Just like one other man she had encountered in her long life. A mory she had tried to bury. For a mont, her chest tightened, a trace of fear creeping into her otherwise tranquil heart.
"This is a very huge matter, Max," she finally said, her voice calm though her heart felt anything but. "I can’t let you do whatever you want here."
Her words seed to hang in the air, battling against the infernal aura that pressed against the walls of her prison.
"I may not fully understand your grief," she admitted, her tone softer, her eyes flickering with sothing almost like pity, "but I do know this is hard for you. Still, I cannot stand by and let humanity’s greatest genius throw his life away. Not when the one who currently bears the title of strongest genius is nothing more than a cowardly fool—watching from the shadows, refusing to act while the world burns."
Her eyes narrowed, her voice gaining weight as she continued. "Let’s be honest with ourselves. The demons caught us off guard. Their infiltration was so deep, so thorough, that had it not been for you, we would have been blind to their sches until it was far too late. You were the one who tore open their disguise, who revealed their plots. And because of that, I can say with certainty that this war against the demons... will only grow worse for us humans from here on."
A long silence followed, but Lady Divine pressed on. "That’s why, when Hers ca to seeking help for an elf—asking to restore her from her dark elf form—I volunteered. It wasn’t just about Lenavira. It was about you. From that day, I decided to keep an eye on you, to make sure you didn’t do anything reckless. To stop you from making a mistake that could end not just your life, but our hope as a race."
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