The betrayal came so swiftly that Cermin was not even allowed time to retaliate or take action. He did not try to fight back or say anything…

But it was Ronin’s curse to hear his thoughts.

As they were locked in this tight embrace, replicating that night, the dead sun shining above them like a dimming street light…..

(All this time….. It was him. Yet he managed to hide it from me for so long. Did he really hate me that much for that night? Why….)

(It wasn’t out of hatred that I did it. I never wanted him to die. So why….. Why would he hate me so much….)

Ronin felt a tinge of anger from him continuously asking himself why. It was because he had broken his promise, that’s why.

It was so easy for him to take his life for the sake of his own.

He twisted the knife deeper, and used his skill Flame Regeneration to consume the Flame of others faster and turn it as his own.

“You are a parasite, Ah-Cheng. You have been a burden for me ever since I have met you.”

(A burden….? Was that all I ever was to him? Something that made him suffer? Why didn’t he say anything and stayed friends with me, then?)

(No….. I can’t let go. I need to survive this. He doesn’t even know what he’s doing, he’ll come to regret it later. I know that gege loves me. I just know it. That friendship could not have been a lie…..)

Ronin shoved him down and plunged the knife deeper into his gut, until….

“URK!” Min Cheng coughed out blood quickly as Ronin pushed even his hand into his wound.

Piercing a hole inside, his blood spilling between them and sticking them together in this tight grip.

“Don’t ever meet with me again. In the next life, and everything else that follows after.” Ronin told him. “You are the only source of my suffering, and I have killed you.”

Tears flowed down Cermin’s eyes. It did not matter that he had powers. It did not matter that he could potentially fight Ronin with weapons.

Words cut deeper than anything else.

It wasn’t the knife killing him, but these words that were making its way into his heart.

(I didn’t mean to….. Be your suffering….. I just wanted… I just wanted to be your friend.)

Ronin yelled. “Stop crying! Enough! Just leave me already! Leave this world and don’t come back!”

He had plunged his hand all the way in, and Cermin choked on his own blood. In his final moments…

Ronin saw his last thoughts being a memory of two children talking.

“What happened, Ah-Cheng? You’re bleeding!” Nelson Ou exclaimed.

Min Cheng just continued to cry and wallow. “I-I slipped and fell, gege. I broke the rock collection you made and…. and I tried to fix it. But I slipped.”

He raised his shirt to show a small piece of glass impaled in his stomach.

His gege quickly panicked, and took him in his arms before he passed out. “We need to get you to a doctor! Where are your parents!?”

“I called but they won’t answer….. Gege….. Am I going to die?”

“You’re not going to die from this! Not on my watch!” Nelson Ou said.

It wasn’t a deep wound, but it did feel like it was digging through little Min Cheng’s skin all the way.

And so, he hyperventilated, his breathing fast and ragged as he said:

“Gege….. If I die, I hope that you still at least become my friend. I have many friends say they wished they still have the same mom and dad when they die—”

Nelson Ou chided him. “Stopped talking, Ah-Cheng! Just calm down! If you keep panicking, you’ll make it worse!”

“You’re a good person, gege. You’re a good friend. The best I can ever have…. and so…. I wish we’ll be friends forever no matter what happens.”

He was sobbing now while Ronin was trying his best to carry him until he could find an adult.

They actually went to their pre-school after some years. This school was about to be demolished after it went bankrupt and did not get approval for support from the government.

But they still had Nelson Ou’s prized rock collection, which he had compiled for a project and won a Science Exhibit award in.

He wanted to retrieve a very special rock that he found.

A rare piece of obsidian that had formed on top of a coal, which seemed to be produced when the rock was melted by lava, but a small part of it still remained.

The doors were locked and barred from the inside, and the only way was through the windows. However, Nelson Ou was too large now for those windows….

And so he sent Min Cheng to get it for him.

“It’s all my fault….. Ah-Cheng, stay with me…. Don’t close your eyes.” His best friend told him.

Min Cheng cried not from the pain, but at the thought that once he died…..

His gege would be alone.

And so, he did not close his eyes. But that was back then.

Here in the Abyss, he was crying for the same reason. But now his gege was asking him abandon him and this world.

(I never want to leave you, gege. But if that’s what you want….. If the pain made your hatred for me weigh more than your love as a friend…..)

Min Cheng closed his eyes for the final time.

Ronin knelt beside his dead body. He could no longer hear the sound of his beating heart, which seemed to be louder than the rest.

It also felt much more warm, more pure, and….. more lively, than everyone else.

But it was now gone, for his own sake.

As he went to touch that still, unmoving chest…..

He saw small raindrops again.

Both from his face…

And above him.

Dark clouds have gathered over the Abyssal Realm, a swirling eye of a storm directly at his location.

There wasn’t much time. They’re all coming.

He left the corpse behind, and went to the Baptismal Grounds. There, the calmly meditating Espinella greeted him.

“You are now ready, my Lord. Look at yourself.”

Ronin did. He was so focused on the other pain that he barely noticed the growing pains that occurred when he was metamorphosing from Cermin’s Flame.

His Heartstone had now become Graphite.

He had reached Level 100, and was now ripe for transformation into Obsidian. He just needed to burn himself and be reborn from the cold ashes.

Ronin went back a few steps, preparing for the run……

Then, he activated his Illusive Shift to its highest potential.

The speed of light itself. That was how he planned to pass through as quickly as possible.

Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes…

And as he ran, the image of one person was the last thing he saw in his mind.

Actually, it was many images at once. The young him, the teen him, adult, all the different forms he went through in transmigration…

And the current him who softly closed his eyes just now.

It had always been him. Once Ronin was reborn, he wanted to be free of him. Not a single thought or emotion about him, not a single memory.

“There he is! Capture him! Don’t let him get in that beacon!”

He had heard the thunderous sound of several descending gods at once, all prepared for battle with several Hero Mages as their soldiers and personal champions.

But Ronin had already moved before they could even land.

He was as fast as light, and his transformation was not supposed to make him feel anything with how quick it was—

But he felt like dying for one-millionth of a second, dying the most painful death possible.

And he really did.

“AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” He yelled, as the lava had coated him and started to cool down.

It had burned even to his inner organs and flesh. Which should not have allowed him to live, and yet here he was. Yelling in agony as a puddle of lava that’s starting to become Obsidian.

He was Obsidian to the very core, even down to his bones. The blood that flowed through him was nothing but lava.

And his heart…..

His heart was also burned up, until only a speck of what it once was remained. Just one speck.

He opened his eyes after this, standing up slowly…..

And regarded everything in a completely different view.

“Ah….. I have returned.”

He wore a smile as he did. A wide malicious smile. He flexed his fingers and joints, watching how much power he holds in every small movement.

The people that were rushing to attack him halted in terror once they saw him. He now have that effect naturally on every single thing in Magecia.

He was the embodiment of what everything fear, after all.

“Fausforus!” They exclaimed.

He turned to them with a smile, and then…

He sliced a found into his palm, letting the blood drip into a trail in Abyssal soil. Soon, this blood mixing with the soil turned into smoke…..

And then the smoke turned into a bright purple whip.

Standing majestically with nothing but this Whip of Illusions, Ronin Dreadborne took it and changed his appearance however he pleased.

Then…..

With one strike, he killed all the humans and injured all of the gods.

It was hopeless for them, until…..

“You have returned. I waited so long for you.”

Ronin Dreadborne turned around, an from the corpse of Cermin came a light. Bursting out of his chest where his heart was supposed to be…..

And a golden god had appeared.

Aurion had also returned. All this time, the cave he was hiding in was no other than his ‘Champion’s’ heart.