'It's done,' Max thought, breathing heavily, his entire body soaked in sweat. His mind felt numb from the intense focus he had maintained for hours, and yet a satisfied smile tugged at his lips.
He rembered the last ti he tried sothing similar — when he first began condensing his raw soul force into thin threads. Back then, it had taken him an entire week to complete the process, constantly struggling to shape the formless energy into sothing structured.
But now, with his Yellow Soul supporting him, things were different. It only took a few hours this ti. That alone was proof of how much stronger and more refined his soul had beco. If it had been soone else, soone with a weaker soul — like a Red or Orange Soul — they probably would've needed at least a day or two to finish what he just did.
The newly ford golden sword gently lifted from his hand and floated upward, calmly resting in the air above the Soul Palace like a guardian watching over its master.
Max's eyes slowly shifted, drawn toward the far end of his Soul Palace where sothing else quietly hovered — a faintly glowing, colorless sphere. Inside it were two strange objects: a red seed and a black cube. He stared at them in silence.
He already understood that the black cube was connected to his Yang Soul — a powerful part of his dual soul structure. But the Yin Soul, the other half, was missing... and because of that, there was no corresponding counterpart to the black cube.
What puzzled him most, though, was the red seed. It had appeared before, and even now, its purpose remained a mystery. He couldn't understand what it was supposed to an or why it was there.
'Is it because of this red seed that I'm still alive even though my Yin Soul is gone?' Max wondered, narrowing his eyes. It was just a guess, but it was the only one that made any sense. Still, with no clear answer and no way to interact with the seed, he could only shake his head in frustration. He made a ntal note to co back to it later.
With that, he slowly pulled his consciousness back from the Soul Palace and returned to his physical body, the sensation of the real world rushing back into his limbs like a tide.
"It was very tiring to shape my soul," Max muttered, his voice low and weary as he let his body fall onto the bed. Even though everything had happened within his Soul Palace, he could still feel a lingering fatigue in his physical body — as if the ntal strain had seeped into his muscles. His limbs felt heavy, and his thoughts, though slow, were clear.
As he stared at the ceiling, his mind drifted to the path ahead, the things he still needed to do in this vast and chaotic continent. 'I need a proper technique for lightning,' he thought, frowning slightly.
While he already had the Ten Hands of the Lightning God, it felt more like a beginner's foundation rather than sothing that could match the might of the Violet Lightning. That power demanded sothing greater — a technique strong enough to truly bring out its full potential, sothing worthy of divine punishnt lightning.
His thoughts then shifted to sothing he had been neglecting. 'I also need to finally practice the Five Ons of Absolute Calamity.' It was a mysterious technique gifted to him by Klaus before they had left for King Magnar's birthday celebration.
Back then, Max had been too busy, with no ti to sit down and properly explore it. But now that he had a little breathing room, he could finally focus on it. Klaus had told him that it was the strongest technique of the Black Lotus Guild, which made Max curious — just how powerful could it be? He intended to find out.
And then there was the matter of the tattoo — the Infernal Demon Tattoo. A dangerous and unpredictable power, one that he still hadn't learned to control. I can't ignore it any longer, he admitted to himself.
That tattoo was like a sleeping beast etched into his body, and sooner or later, it would awaken. Mastering it could beco either his greatest strength or his greatest threat.
These three — mastering the Violet Lightning with a proper technique, practicing the Five Ons of Absolute Calamity, and learning to control the Infernal Demon Tattoo — had now beco his top priorities.
Of course, there was also the matter of Princess Lenavira. That situation was still unresolved and hung over him like a quiet storm in the distance, waiting to break.
And above all else, there was still the most important issue — his Yin Soul. That missing half of his existence. Without it, he was technically incomplete… and dangerously so. A normal person would've been panicking by now, searching every corner of the world for a solution, desperate for answers. But Max wasn't.
'I'll ask around,' he thought calmly, almost too calmly for soone whose life literally hung in the balance.
The absence of the Yin Soul should have terrified him — it was a matter of life and death, after all — and yet, deep down, there was no fear. No anxiety. Just a strange, steady calm that flowed through his heart. He didn't understand it, and honestly, he didn't try to.
Maybe there was a reason. Maybe there wasn't. But if calmness was what his mind gave him, then calm was the path he would walk. No matter how serious the problem was, panic had never helped anyone.
Knock!
The sudden sound pulled him out of his thoughts. Soone was at the door.
Max stood up and opened it, not expecting much — maybe a servant, or soone from the academy.
But the mont the door opened, ti seed to freeze.
There she stood.
Alice.
The girl he had once believed he'd lost forever.
She was right there in front of him, alive, breathing, and staring at him with wide, glistening eyes that spoke volus — pain, relief, disbelief, everything all at once.
Before either of them could even say a word, their bodies moved on instinct. No hesitation, no questions. They rushed into each other's arms and hugged tightly, as if letting go ant losing everything all over again.
And in that silent, powerful embrace, Max felt sothing warm and alive return to him — sothing he hadn't realized he'd been missing.
He held her tightly, his arms wrapped around her as if afraid she might vanish again. The mont didn't feel real — not after everything. He had thought Alice was gone, truly gone, killed by Mark.
Then he lost control to the sword, to the infernal energy, to everything.
Only much later did he learn that she was still alive, but even then, a part of him hadn't dared to believe it fully until now. And now she was here — warm, alive, breathing in his arms. "I thought I lost you," Max whispered, his voice catching in his throat, raw with emotion.
Alice tightened her grip around him, her fingers clutching the back of his shirt. Her voice trembled as she spoke, her face buried in his chest. "I thought you'd never co out of that pit…" she whispered, tears slipping from her eyes. "I thought that was the end."
Neither of them pulled away. The silence between them said more than words ever could — the shared fear, the quiet pain, the unbearable relief. Two people who had each believed the other was gone, now finally finding their way back.
The world outside didn't matter in that mont. For now, it was just the two of them, clinging to what they thought they had lost forever.
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