Max and Lucien arrived back in Acaris, and at that mont it felt as though the world itself had been emptied. Every city, every battlefield, every hidden corner of the planet was silent. All living beings had already been stored away, leaving only the two of them standing beneath the vast sky of a dying world.
They flew out from the secret chamber of the Four God Nation and rose into the open heavens. The mont they did, they felt it.
A familiar yet suffocating presence waiting without impatience. Ahead of them stood Mark. His figure hovered calmly in the air, his expression composed and almost serene. Behind him stretched an army of Ascendants, their auras layered together like a wall of pressure that distorted the space around them.
Max's eyes narrowed when he recognized one of the figures among them. Cain. The sa Cain he had t back in the Lower Domain when the Ascendants first descended to recruit him. Ti had passed, yet the cold arrogance in Cain's gaze remained unchanged.
Mark slowly raised his hand and pointed toward the distant horizon. "Can you see that?" he asked in a low voice.
Max and Lucien turned in the direction Mark indicated. What they saw made even Max's expression tighten.
A massive dark red cloud was advancing across the sky like a living calamity. It churned and pulsed as it moved, devouring everything in its path. Entire regions of the Middle Domain had already vanished beneath it, erased without leaving behind even ruins. From the speed at which it was spreading, it would not take more than a few days before the entire Middle Domain was consud.
"This world is dood," Mark said slowly, his tone carrying neither anger nor sorrow. "Neither you nor I can stop it in our current state."
Max looked back at him, his gaze sharp. "Even with your full power, you are saying you are useless here?"
Mark let out a quiet chuckle, a hint of mockery flashing in his eyes. "No. With my full strength, there is a chance I can fight it and force that red cloud to retreat. A chance," he emphasized. "But that only happens if I am complete."
He then looked directly at Max. "So tell . Are you willing to hand over the last two parts of my soul?"
Max did not answer imdiately. His silence stretched for a mont before he spoke. "How do I trust you?"
Mark smiled, genuinely this ti, as if he found the question amusing. "That is the interesting part, Max. You cannot."
His smile widened slightly as he continued. "You have no choice. Either you give the remaining fragnts of my soul, or this world is devoured by that foolish spirit. Those are the only outcos."
He gestured casually toward the sky. "The ascension tunnel is destroyed. You cannot leave this world. You cannot escape to another realm. Every being you care about is bound here just as much as I am. So make your decision."
Mark's eyes locked onto Max's. "Choose wisely."
Max looked at Mark and let out a light laugh, one that carried no mockery and no triumph. "You know, I used to hate you from the bottom of my heart," he said calmly. "For a long ti, that hatred kept moving forward. But recently, I realized sothing. I cannot bring myself to hate you anymore. The only thing I feel now is pity. You were ant to be the one who saved this world from every catastrophe it might face, and yet you stand here as the very opposite of that destiny."
He looked at Mark steadily, his voice lowering. "Do you even rember what happened to you? Do you understand what led you down this path, or has the corruption of that blood wiped everything away?"
"I know. I know!" Mark's voice exploded with rage, as if Max's words had struck sothing deep and raw within him. His composure shattered, his aura surging violently around him. "I fought for this world countless tis. I died for it more tis than I can rember. And what did I get in return? I was ambushed by those four beasts, betrayed by the very existence I was trying to protect, and turned into this monster."
His eyes burned as he continued. "I wanted revenge. I wanted to kill those four beasts with my own hands. But they vanished. They hid themselves so well that I could not find them no matter how hard I searched."
Mark's voice dropped into sothing darker. "That was when I realized the truth. Everything that happened to happened because I tried to protect these worthless humans. The mont that realization settled in, sothing inside broke. Ten thousand years ago, I started a massacre. Millions died. Ascendants slaughtered cities. Nulls erased entire regions. People scread, begged, cursed the heavens. And you know what?" His lips twisted into a cruel smile. "Watching them die gave fulfillnt. It made feel alive again."
He clenched his fists as mories surged through him. "But it did not last. Not long after that, a being from the Divine Realm descended and nearly killed . If I were not immortal, I would have died that day. That only deepened my hatred for humans. They were weak. They were fragile. They brought nothing but disaster."
Mark fixed his gaze on Max, his eyes filled with violent resolve. "So do not pity . Do not ever think that I am rely the result of so cursed blood. This is who I am now. I chose this path. I embraced it. This is not because of that blood alone. This is . I am an immortal, I am a god. The god of this world."
Max studied Mark in silence for a long mont, his gaze deep and unwavering, as if he were looking past the madness and into whatever fragnts of the man still remained beneath it.
Then, without hesitation, he raised his hand and brought out the remaining two fragnts of Mark's soul. The air around them trembled faintly, responding to the resonance of sothing that was never ant to be separated in the first place.
"Take them," Max said quietly, his voice steady.
The mont the soul fragnts appeared, the scene changed. The sword that had once been embedded deep within the heart, along with the blade floating beside the corrupted crown, suddenly dissolved. They did not shatter violently.
Instead, they broke apart into countless golden fragnts that shimred like shards of sunlight. Those fragnts did not scatter aimlessly. They were drawn toward the evil sword in Max's possession, flowing into it as if returning to their rightful place.
As the fragnts rged, the sword erupted with a brilliant golden radiance. The dark and malevolent aura clinging to it was erased completely, washed away by overwhelming purity.
In that instant, the infernal and evil energies that had tainted the blade for so long vanished, and what remained was its true form, a divine sword restored to its original glory, radiant and calm, as if it had never known corruption.
Mark did not spare the slightest glance at the transformation. The reborn divine sword, the fading darkness, even Max standing before him, none of it mattered. His eyes were locked onto the crown and the heart, his expression intense and almost reverent.
He could feel it clearly. The two missing fragnts of his soul were there, sealed within those vessels, calling out to him with an undeniable pull. The hunger, the incompleteness that had plagued him for ages, surged violently within his chest.
In that mont, the entire world seed to narrow to a single point for Mark, the promise of wholeness burning brighter than anything else before him.
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