(Volume 1 Finale)
[STATUS: OVERLOADED]
[SOUL STABILITY: 15% (REACHING ZERO-POINT)]
[ACTIVE MISSION: KILL A SAINT OR ERASE THE TIMELINE.]
The air in the ash-desert didn't just feel heavy; it felt wrong. It was as if the universe itself was trying to vomit Kyle out of existence.
Arch-Inquisitor Vane descended from the golden eye in the sky, his feet finally touching the grey dust. He wasn't floating anymore. He was walking, and with every step, the ground beneath him turned into solid gold. He looked at Kyle—a boy who was now more ghost than human—and for the first time, Vane's eyes held something other than boredom. They held disgust.
"You have scavenged the threads of heroes and kings, little glitch," Vane said, his voice a low thunder. "But you forget one thing. A scavenger only eats what is already dead. I am the Living Light."
Vane raised his new staff, a pillar of pure diamond. "By the authority of the Seven Heavens, I sentence your bloodline to Causal Oblivion."
[SKILL ACTIVATED: DIVINE ERASURE.]
A beam of light, wider than a cathedral, erupted from the staff. It didn't travel through space; it simply existed everywhere Kyle was.
"Kyle!" Mia's scream echoed from the collapsing Void Asylum behind him.
But Kyle didn't move. He closed his human eye and opened his Crimson Eye to its absolute limit. The star-shaped pupil spun so fast it became a black hole.
"Malakar... now!" Kyle roared.
"Don't just eat the light, Kyle," the ghost's voice was a frantic, joyous shriek. "Turn it into a knot! Bind his divinity to your hunger!"
[SKILL EVOLUTION: CHRONOS-RIP ---> UNIVERSAL KNOT (TEMPORARY).]
Kyle reached out both hands, his skin tearing as the purple and black energies clashed. He didn't block the light. He grabbed the edges of the beam as if it were a physical cloth. With a scream that shattered the remaining trees for miles, Kyle twisted the light.
He tied the "Divine Erasure" to the "Dead Fate" of the Ravine of Whispers still lingering in his marrow.
BOOM!
The explosion wasn't sound; it was a shockwave of pure color. The gold light turned a sickly, bruised purple. Vane's eyes widened as his own spell backlashed, traveling up his staff and into his arm.
"What... what have you done?" Vane gasped, looking at his hand. His skin was aging, wrinkling, and turning to ash in seconds.
"I didn't steal your power, Vane," Kyle whispered, his voice sounding like a thousand overlapping whispers. "I tied your 'Fate of a Saint' to the 'Fate of a Corpse'. You are dying... because you are sharing the hero's grave."
[TARGET: ARCH-INQUISITOR VANE (LEVEL 68)]
[STATUS: RAPID DECAY / CAUSAL COLLAPSE.]
Vane roared in fury, a sound that shook the very foundations of the world. "I am a Saint! I cannot be killed by a child of the mud!"
Vane abandoned his staff and lunged at Kyle, his hands glowing with a desperate, dying light. He grabbed Kyle's throat, and for a moment, their souls touched.
Kyle saw Vane's memories—thousands of years of "cleaning" the world, killing anyone who didn't fit the Church's plan. And Vane saw Kyle's void—a dark, endless hunger that had no beginning and no end.
Vane's eyes filled with a sudden, overwhelming terror. "You... you aren't a glitch. You are the End of the Cycle."
"Eat," Kyle commanded his eye.
The Crimson Eye didn't just pulse; it opened wide. A black void emerged from Kyle's socket, swallowing Vane's head, then his shoulders, then his entire divine essence.
[SCAVENGING SAINT-LEVEL FATE...]
[LEVEL UP: 40 ---> 45... 50... 60... 65!]
[WARNING: SOUL CAPACITY EXCEEDED! ERROR! ERROR!]
[INITIATING FORCED EVOLUTION TO PREVENT SOUL DISSOLUTION.]
The desert erupted in a pillar of black fire that reached the stars. The golden eye in the sky blinked, then shattered like glass.
When the light faded, the ash-desert was gone. In its place was a forest made of obsidian glass, frozen in time.
Kyle stood in the center. He was no longer a boy. He looked like a young man in his late teens—his hair was long and white as bone, his skin was pale as moonlight, and his left eye was a swirling galaxy of stars and blood. He wore a cloak made of Vane's shredded golden robes, now stained black by the void.
[EVOLUTION COMPLETE.]
[NEW CLASS: LORD OF THE VOID ASYLUM.]
[HUMANITY: 0%.]
Kyle turned around. The Void Asylum had collapsed, leaving his father and Mia standing in the center of the obsidian forest.
Arthur looked at the young man standing before them—this tall, terrifying entity that felt like a god and a demon combined.
"Kyle?" Arthur's voice was a whisper of pure fear.
Kyle looked at his father. He felt... nothing. No love. No anger. No connection. The "Humanity: 0%" wasn't just a number; it was a physical wall. He looked at Mia, whose silver eyes were reflecting the monster he had become.
"I have ended the hunt," Kyle said, his voice sounding like a deep, resonant bell. "The Saint is dead. The Church will not come for a long time."
"Who are you?" Mia asked, her voice trembling. "You... you aren't my brother."
Kyle paused. He looked at his hands, covered in the fading threads of a dead Saint.
"Your brother died in the cottage," Kyle said, his tone indifferent. "I am the one who remains. I am the Scavenger of the Heavens."
He turned away from them, walking into the dark depths of the obsidian forest. He didn't need a family anymore. He had a world to devour.
"Welcome to all new readers from Fresh Stories! 🌑 If you like Arain's journey, don't forget to Add to Library. Let's hit our goal together!"