"Good," Max said, nodding once. His voice was steady, unshaken. "Then I will see you all in the Black Rock Region."
Lady Divine’s voice cut in, her tone quieter but laced with suspicion. "Where are you headed now?"
Max’s lips curled faintly, his wings folding and then snapping open again as he turned toward the horizon. "To make so allies."
Before anyone could respond, his figure blurred. His crimson wings flapped once, and his body shot forward like a beam of red light tearing through the heavens.
In the blink of an eye, he was gone—only the trembling air and the lingering echo of his infernal aura remained.
Lady Divine’s eyes narrowed as she watched Max’s crimson streak vanish into the horizon. Her fingers twitched faintly, runes already stirring in her hands. "I should follow him," she said, her voice low, but her tone edged with determination.
Just as she prepared to give chase, a hand stopped her.
"Let him go," Aden said firmly, his brows furrowed. His usually fiery aura simred like restrained embers, the seriousness in his eyes leaving no room for argunt.
Lady Divine turned sharply to him, frowning. "If he continues like this—"
"He won’t listen to you," Aden cut her off, his tone grave. "Not now. Not in that state."
His gaze drifted in the direction Max had disappeared. "With what happened before, he doesn’t trust us at all. Not one bit. And because he’s in his infernal energy state, all of those feelings—the doubt, the rage, the pain—they’re being magnified. Every negative thought in his heart, every scar in his soul... infernal energy pulls it all to the surface. The hatred he feels toward those two demons, his dissatisfaction with us for caging him, the guilt he carries for the slaughter in Valora Continent, and the revenge boiling in him—it’s all amplified."
Aden shook his head slowly. "Until he returns to his normal form, reasoning with him will be useless. Anything we say will only harden his resolve against us."
The words hung in the air like heavy iron.
President William exchanged a glance with Emperor Hers, both of them sighing heavily before nodding in reluctant agreent. They could feel it too. That aura Max gave off—unstoppable, unyielding—it wasn’t sothing words could soften. Not now.
Lady Divine, however, wasn’t satisfied. She folded her arms across her chest, her sharp eyes narrowing further. Her tone grew cold. "How do you know so much about infernal energy, Aden?"
Aden smirked faintly, though the weight in his eyes betrayed the seriousness of what he was about to say. "Don’t think you’re the only one who’s done her research, Divine. The Four God Nation has been studying the Mourning Depths for centuries. We’ve sent countless n and won into its abyss. Geniuses. Criminals. Disposable test subjects. All sacrificed in pursuit of understanding the infernal demon tattoo and the energy it carried."
He let the words sink in, his smirk fading into sothing darker. "And we did learn. We discovered that infernal energy doesn’t just corrupt flesh—it corrodes the heart, poisons the mind, and twists the soul. No matter how strong the will, it burrows in, magnifies the darkest parts of you, and makes them unbearable."
Lady Divine’s brows furrowed. "And yet Max—"
"—and yet Max is different. I know," Aden finished for her, his expression grim. "That’s why he’s both terrifying and invaluable."
He added. "But there’s more. Sothing far worse than corruption or madness. We finally discovered the source of the infernal energy in the Mourning Depths only a few years ago."
"It ca from Mark." President William replied. "Previously, all the tis we have fought him, we were unaware of his energy but with Mourning Depths and the infernal demon tattoo, we ca to know his true power about a thousand year ago."
Aden gave a slow nod, his fiery-red hair swaying faintly in the night wind. "Yes, it is Mark," he said grimly. "But before the na Mark beca known, he had another title. Another legend."
His eyes swept across them, the weight of his words pressing down. "We used to call him the Immortal Devil. There was an old tale, passed in whispers across the Middle Domain. A tale that his soul had been cut, split into three fragnts, and sealed away in different corners of the world. But for the longest ti, we only knew of two. One fragnt was sealed in the Celestial Beast Temple, and the other in what was considered the safest sanctuary in existence— the Tower of Truth in the Lower Domain."
Lady Divine’s eyes flickered faintly at that. President William’s expression hardened further.
Aden continued, his voice steady but edged with fire. "It wasn’t until a few years ago that we uncovered the truth behind the infernal energy’s origin. It all traced back to that very Immortal Devil... who had taken over the body of a boy nad Mark. And the Mourning Depths?" His gaze sharpened. "That cursed abyss was where the third piece of the soul had been sealed."
The silence grew heavier.
"And as you all know," Aden said, his tone growing more solemn, "that fragnt of the soul was released—by Max. And it was Max who was forced, by Mark himself, to bear the 12th layer of the Infernal Demon Tattoo."
His fiery aura flickered faintly as he spoke the final conclusion. "And that is why the infernal energy reacts differently to him than anyone else. Because of that twelfth layer, the energy doesn’t consu him. It bends. It answers. It becos... a power source, rather than a curse. This is a theory from the many researchers of the Four God Nation from what we have researched on Max’s control of infernal energy."
He paused for a mont, studying their faces before adding, "From what I saw just now, Max’s mind is calm—steady, even. His thoughts remain his own. But his heart... his heart is under constant corrosion. That tattoo gives him control, but it also feeds his hatred, his grief, his rage. He can wield infernal energy as though it were his own mana—but it eats away at his heart with every breath."
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