A while earlier—
Luca was training in the dark dimension. His jaw clenched in excruciating pain as cold sweat soaked through his hair. He could feel the tiny trace of human genes flowing through his body begin to transform.
In truth, he didn't want to lose the human part of himself—let alone the lingering traces of his mother that remained within him. But the woman he loved was an Eternal, and the Demon Emperor expected him to inherit the throne, hunt down the Eternals in hiding, and challenge the god realm.
As long as he still carried human blood, he would never be able to break through his limits or attain Emperor-level power. And without that power, he could never protect Kelsey from the Demon Emperor if her identity were revealed.
Before his wife's Eternal aura fully awakened, he had to inherit the Emperor's position and obtain all of the Emperor's essence. Only then could he protect this realm from the gods' grasp—and protect his wife, the gods' pawn.
