In the blink of an eye, Darian found himself inside a small world bathed in shades of purple.
The ground was flat like a mirror, and the sky was a deep blue, with a few clouds drifting by, calm and peaceful. It was the kind of place that could make him forget all his problems.
Tir was standing beside Darian. Eleri and Awel also ca out, looking around with a hint of admiration.
"Welco, friend." A gentle voice sounded behind him.
Darian turned around and saw a middle-aged man dressed in a white robe, standing there like a scholar. He was only a remnant soul, not his true form. That world carried an extrely pure, bestial aura. When he was alive, he had been a kind of divine beast connected to the earth elent.
"My apologies. I hope I didn’t scare you," the scholarly man said, wearing an apologetic smile.
"You’re being very polite, senior. What’s going on?" Darian asked.
That figure sighed. "Those eight... they were that bastard’s secret weapon. If they had arrived in ti to save him in the final battle, the power of the Sacred Treasure would never have been able to defeat that Divine Nether Beast."
"Luckily, through the earth, I was able to sense their subtle approach to the battlefield. When I realized how serious the situation was, and that no one could stop them... I had no choice but to sacrifice myself to kill them."
Darian nodded. That figure alone had wiped out a terrifying army of Nether Beasts, which could very well have changed the outco of that battle.
The man continued, "However, I only managed to crush their bodies, not their souls and bloodlines. Their father’s power rune was inside them for ergencies, saving them. If I hadn’t sealed them, they could have possessed other Nether Beasts and been reborn. But... I’ve already seen figures approaching them and forming connections. I feel that cursed one might return soday."
Darian looked at the man and sensed no anger or regret coming from him. He seed like a kind person.
Even so, Darian and his three partners all felt that this man was simply burying everything deep inside himself, using all his strength to do so.
"Senior, do you feel hatred?" Darian suddenly asked.
That figure was taken aback. After staring at Darian for a mont, he seed to understand what he ant and nodded. "At first, yes... but after so ti, I stopped caring. Do you see the clouds in this sky?"
Darian nodded. The few clouds were beautiful and clearly visible.
The man sighed. "When I used all my power to seal them, my inner world was covered in black clouds, the manifestation of my hatred. I hated them for destroying my peaceful life, for murdering countless people. I hated them for forcing to abandon my respected master and... my beloved family. When I died, they were surely overwheld with pain..."
His voice grew hoarse, lost in distant mories. Then he looked up at the clouds in the sky.
"As ti passed, those black clouds faded, and I no longer felt so much hatred. Now, my world has only those four clouds, which represent the love in my heart."
He pointed at one of them, smiling warmly. "This one reminds of my wife, the most caring and beautiful woman I know... a foolish woman who sohow fell in love with and gave everything. I was willing to give her everything I had too. From the mont I saw her, I swore I would make her the most blessed woman in the world."
"These three smaller clouds remind of our children. I felt incredibly blessed when they were born... I swore I wouldn’t let anyone hurt them. But... I was unable to protect those I wanted to protect. How sad must they have been when they learned of my death? I can’t even imagine the pain on their faces..."
Darian’s heart tightened with an incomparable pain. He rembered the vision of the past, when he saw his father being tortured and killed by Mallory. That man’s eyes reflected the exact sa feeling...
Endless regret. They wanted to live, they wanted to return...
But at the sa ti, they were happy knowing they were leaving behind a future for their children.
That was also the vision Darian feared the most. He didn’t dare imagine how much pain his loved ones would feel if he were to fall in battle.
That was the inevitable result of war. So powerful individuals created these conflicts, yet never understood the extent of the pain they caused others through their battles. No matter the outco, there was never a true winner.
"I felt hatred. I hated those beasts for their brutality, and I also hated myself for my powerlessness. But as ti went on, I could no longer keep those feelings in my heart. I forgot the scenes of my battle. I forgot the nas of the brothers who fought beside . I don’t even rember my master’s face anymore. Now... all I can rember is them, my family. I want to hate, but I’m afraid my hatred will make forget the people most important to my heart," the man continued. As he looked at the four clouds in the sky, his eyes filled with emotion. Those clouds were everything to him.
Eleri and Awel trembled as they tried to hold back the tears welling up in their eyes.
Tir took a deep breath. The feeling that man emanated made the three of them rember sothing they had felt strongly in the past: helplessness and despair.
Tir spoke solemnly, "Senior, you don’t need to hate anymore. When Master leaves, he will avenge you. That monster will not return to destroy anything. This entire universe will be reborn brilliantly. When that happens, you will be able to break the seal and reincarnate. Heaven’s Will will bring you back to your loved ones."
The man smiled and looked at the little boy. He felt his kindness and his extre affinity with the earth, just like his own. "Thank you, my young friend. However, since my power was inferior to theirs, in order to seal them, I gave up my chance to reincarnate. My soul is only a tiny remnant now. This kind of damage is so severe that it prevents reincarnation."
Darian sighed. Cultivators had a deeper understanding of the world’s laws. Killing soone was not such a grave matter, since everyone knew their souls would be taken away to be reborn.
However, truly cruel people refined and destroyed a person’s soul to the extre. Once it reached a certain point, it was common knowledge that the soul would never return. That was true death.
The Divine Dragon of the Divine Protection Universe, for example, in order to free itself from the grasp of the Celestial Shadow, had to sacrifice its soul, sothing the Celestial Shadow never expected. In the end, however, Heaven’s Will, at the request of the Chaos Dragon, recovered that soul, which eventually beca Niara.
Darian sighed again. He knew his master was watching everything he did. He also knew she was a rciful woman. Now that Darian’s karma with that man had gently connected, she could save him.
Tir felt another wave of sadness upon hearing those words. Still, he and his two sisters turned to Darian with eyes full of trust. They were certain Darian could handle anything.
The man spoke with a smile, trying to comfort the young ones, "Don’t feel bad. I died with dignity. As a husband, I managed to protect my wife. As a father, I did not sha my children. That is enough. I am satisfied."
*BOOM!*
At that instant, the purple-toned world shook. Everything began to tremble, and the glass-like ground started to crack. It looked as if that world was about to shatter.
"Ti started flowing again, and their attack began," the man said, snorting.
"Thank you. It’s been a long ti since I talked to anyone. I’ll have to send you away; after that, I’ll seal everything again with my power. Don’t worry, their plan won’t work. I’m not a fool, and I kept my core intact. I’ll burn it to eliminate those two and keep the eight sealed for another thousand years... after that, my energy will be completely gone."
Darian’s heart raced. The core of a Divine Beast was known to contain the essence of its power and could also store its mories, if the owner chose to keep them and pass them on to soone, of course.
"Senior, can we change the thod?" Darian suddenly asked.
"How?"
Darian waved his hand. "Don’t worry about those eight. I’ll eliminate them myself."
The man’s eyes changed, turning incredulous.
Tir and his sisters smiled, clenching their fists, brimming with energy.
Darian murmured, "It’s normal that you can’t believe it. After all, you can’t feel anything inside . That’s because I’m a missionary of Heaven’s Will."
"WHAT?!" That figure’s eyes widened instantly. Then he focused on Darian and only at that mont noticed that peculiarity.
Darian smiled. "You seem well-inford. Yes, I ca to this universe to deal with its problems. Anyway, let’s keep it short. I want to make a deal."
"What do you want?" the man asked quickly.
"Just send back. I’ll burn a lot of energy and solve the problem you couldn’t, completely erasing those eight from existence. In exchange... could you help my little partner?"
Darian said this as he turned to Tir.
The man’s eyes changed imdiately. He understood what Darian wanted.
"He calls Master, but I only taught him the basics of earth power and gave him theoretical knowledge. He needs sothing more solid for his earth power to truly shine," Darian added.
The man took a deep breath. "No problem. If you do what you say, I’ll leave my complete mories inside my core. He’ll also receive my essence, allowing him to study and learn much faster through his senses."
"Great. After that, you can leave," Darian said softly, eting his gaze. "Go in peace. I promise you that Heaven’s Will will be rciful and help you. You’ll reunite with your family soday."
That figure fell silent, not knowing what to say. He had already accepted long ago that he had lost everything he loved...
He swallowed hard when he saw Darian make such a solemn promise. Then, that old warrior who had fallen in battle nodded.
In the next instant, space trembled, and everyone was sent away.
The red-haired man and the muscular man were being strengthened even further by the eight skeletons, their auras rapidly growing as more power fused into them.
When Darian arrived and faced them,
The two roared and charged at him, as if in a frenzy.
Then...
**BUZZ**
At that instant, all the Void power and all the Nether power within Golden Sky Mountain vibrated.
It wasn’t just there. Throughout the entire region of that universe where life existed, an area limited to the size of one or two small galaxies, with everything sowhat interconnected...
...all-powerful figures felt a terrifying disturbance in the energies and the laws.
Outside.
Alaric’s eyes went wide.
Far away.
The Emperor, who had been ditating, jumped up from his chair in shock.
"A divinity?!"
Cold sweat ran down his spine. He had never felt fear like that in his life. He was certain that a figure he couldn’t even dream of opposing had just appeared.
A disaster was coming.
At the sa ti, inside a luxurious hall, a pair of green eyes opened.
"Dad...!"
She stopped mid-word, since that disturbance lasted less than ten seconds.
Suddenly, everything vanished.
As if it had never existed.
...
Back inside Golden Sky Mountain.
That entire underground hall completely collapsed. The eight skeletons turned to dust. Their souls were also completely destroyed.
Darian activated his primordial physique at full strength for a few seconds and attacked.
The eight Nether Beasts sensed the danger imdiately. Then, in a desperate move, they made all the power inside those two return to them at once.
But obviously, it wasn’t even close to enough.
"Lucky bastards," Darian said, snorting, already back to normal.
The two Primordial Chosens who had turned into puppets returned to normal. They regained consciousness and hadn’t suffered serious injuries.
Before, they were dood, but their luck, thanks to the influence on this universe’s laws, worked exactly as expected.
When Darian attacked the skeletons, a wave of power exploded...
And, absurdly, both of them were instantly thrown upward, out of the massive abyss.
"Damn you! Just wait and see!"
Not only did the two co out alive and well, but they also managed to flee quickly in opposite directions, disappearing without a trace.
Darian didn’t want to chase them and waste even more energy. Even if he did, he would only catch one of them, and the other would definitely escape.
But his objective was complete. Saelil had been on his back the whole ti, well protected and fast asleep.
At that mont, the crystal with a purple aura appeared in front of Darian.
Tir rushed over, and the almost-fading shadow of that man appeared before him.
"Boy, I never had a disciple. I’m very happy I was able to leave my legacy with soone."
Tir quickly bowed to him. "Thank you very much. I swear I’ll honor this legacy. I hope to et you in another life soday."
The man smiled, and the crystal moved into his hands. Then he turned to Darian.
"Thank you for giving hope. I hope you can accomplish what you ca to do in this universe."
His final words echoed, and imdiately, that remnant of soul and will vanished.
Darian sighed, satisfied. He felt the laws of the world carrying him away.
He lost quite a bit of energy, but it was totally worth it. Tir now had infinite potential for the future.
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