The predicant that Raze currently found himself trapped within was an incredibly precarious one. On one hand, a relentless, ticking clock echoed constantly in his mind; he was in an absolute, desperate rush to force his way into the Divine Realm. Even if the celestial beings residing in that higher plane were widely considered to be immortal, that grand title simply ant their bodies could no longer perish of their own natural accord or succumb to the slow decay of old age. An immortal could still easily be killed by the sharpened blade or the devastating spell of another warrior. Therefore, the longer he took to shatter his mortal bottleneck, the higher the terrifying probability beca that sothing tragic would happen to Safa up there.
The only two saving graces anchoring Raze's sanity were her unique, innate abilities. Safa wasn't just a regular, run-of-the-mill martial warrior stepping into the unknown. She possessed the incredibly rare, purifying power of Light magic, and she expertly wielded the legendary Lux spear. Combining those two potent factors ant she would be exceptionally hard to kill for absolutely anyone in existence, and that high tactical assessnt included Raze himself. She was a hardened survivor.
Still, sheer willpower and flawless logic weren't quite enough to bridge the gap. It wasn't exactly like he could just aggressively rush his own mind into helping him figure all of this profound philosophy out. The stubborn ntal block was just deeply frustrating him even more, twisting his focus into an agonizing knot. The others in his inner circle were growing increasingly worried as well, watching from afar as Raze would often just pace aimlessly around the bustling streets of Flendon. His dark eyes were constantly glazed over, completely lost deep in his own spiraling thoughts as the townsfolk gave him a wide, respectful berth.
'B has certainly given quite the heavy burden to think about,' Raze pondered, his boots scuffing against the cobblestone path. 'When she is talking about overcoming my lingering regrets, what exactly does she an by that? I already hunted down and defeated the Grand Magus. Erasing Idore from existence—that was the absolute biggest, most consuming regret I ever carried in my soul. If we are talking about general regrets accumulated throughout my entire, miserable life, I have had far too many failures to choose from. Dark mories I just couldn't possibly forget, no matter how hard I tried. So she can't possibly an it in that broad, historical sense. It must be intimately related to the present. It must be about the regrets that I would feel if I was to permanently leave the mortal plane of Pagna right now. As she said, if I was to unexpectedly drop dead today, what specific, unfulfilled regret would I have tying my spirit down?'
The frustrating truth was that Raze simply couldn't co up with his own organic answer. His heart felt surprisingly empty of worldly desires. So, having hit a solid ntal wall, he had decided to strategically borrow an answer from soone else. There was always sothing quietly bothering him in the back of his mind about a particular historical figure: the original founder of the Dark Faction, Bofan.
The legendary Dark Faction founder had pretty much walked the exact sa treacherous, world-altering path that Raze had. Raze was essentially following directly in his ancient footsteps. Over the centuries, there were a number of complex factions that had been created, all operating with the ultimate, greedy goal of obtaining the Golden Globe. Bofan had done a remarkably good job hiding the dinsional artifact, desperately hoping it would eventually fall into the right hands. He wanted it found by a person that genuinely loved both Pagna and Alterian, soone who absolutely didn't wish to see either side destroyed in a pointless, bloody war. He had done his ancient job perfectly in the end, thankfully resulting in the globe sohow ending up safely in Raze's hands.
However, that historical trail left a glaring, unresolved question: where exactly was Bofan now? It wasn't as if anyone had any written records of fighting the legendary founder to the death. Idore would have ticulously noted it down in the Grand Magus archives if he had killed him, or perhaps Heino might have known. If those powerful enemies had successfully hunted the founder down, they would have proudly docunted a number of different things about his demise.
Yet, it seed like Bofan had just vanished into thin air, entirely erased from the continent. To Raze, there was only one clear, logical answer to that historical mystery. Bofan had successfully ascended into the Divine Realm as well. Whether the ancient founder was currently stuck up there working as a servant, or was simply choosing not to ddle in mortal affairs, or perhaps had even died in so forgotten heavenly war—absolutely no one down here really knew.
But since Raze had been closely following in the founder's steps so far, and it had done him incredibly well in securing his victories, he decided to blindly continue doing so. When looking back through the old stories, he rembered that before his sudden disappearance, Bofan had gone around the continent formally challenging all of the reigning Clan heads to honorable combat. He did this to undeniably prove he was the absolute strongest warrior in the realm, settling all debts. So, lacking any better philosophical ideas to force a breakthrough, Raze had decided to do the exact sa thing.
It didn't take him long to initiate his grand crusade. He traveled relentlessly from place to place, crossing vast, sweeping territories to stand before the grand gates of every major faction and fight against their leaders. So of the proud clan heads eagerly welcod the challenge, seeing it as an unparalleled honor to test their martial skills against the legendary savior of the realm in the sparring rings. Others, however, were terrified. They didn't even want to raise a weapon against the great Dark Magus, actively trying to surrender and bow, but he firmly insisted on crossing blades.
Raze continued to win the duels flawlessly, one after another. However, he deliberately didn't use his dark extraction technique on any of his defeated opponents. His current plan wasn't to take their lives or greedily steal their cultivated Qi, because relying on theft didn't seem to be the enlightened path to truly ascend. This was purely about proving absolute superiority and clearing his mortal conscience.
He systematically went to every single prominent faction there was across the map. He started his campaign by dominating all of the fierce, unyielding leaders residing within the Demonic faction territories. Then, he moved on and bested all of the cunning, shadowy clans operating within the Dark Faction. And lastly, he had visited all of the righteous, sword-wielding clans in the Light Faction, politely dismantling their grandmasters as well. He left a trail of awestruck, defeated warriors in his wake.
But as he respectfully beat every single one of them, forcing them to yield their weapons, there still seed to be absolutely no internal change within his core. His Qi remained entirely stagnant. He couldn't get a clear image of his ascension, nor did he feel the heavy burden of his 'regret' lifting from his shoulders. He had successfully conquered the entire continent just like Bofan, yet he remained stubbornly mortal.
That was when Raze had a sudden, drastic realization. Standing alone on a quiet mountaintop after his final victory, the missing piece of the puzzle finally clicked into place. He imdiately traveled back ho and called the mbers of the Crimson Crane, as well as the rest of his closest allies, in for an urgent town eting in the center of Flendon.
The sprawling courtyard of his estate was quickly filled. Liam, Da, Alba, Rayna, and the rest of the veteran warriors stood together, murmuring in confusion as they waited for their leader to speak. The air was thick with anticipation.
Standing before the gathered crowd of his loyal friends—the very people who had bled, suffered, and fought by his side through the darkest of tis—Raze drew a deep breath. His dark eyes locked onto theirs, carrying an unyielding resolve.
"I've traveled across the entire map and fought against absolutely everyone of note in this land," Raze claid, his voice carrying clearly over the silent courtyard. He slowly drew his weapon, the steel ringing out. "Everyone... apart from all of you. So, to finally clear my path and leave no regrets behind... I will be taking on all of you as well."
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