Ronin did not make any change of expression once he saw Aurion. He simply looked amused.

“I have returned? You must have mistaken me for someone else, Lord of Light. This is the first time we have met.” Ronin said.

“Fausforus…..” Aurion reached out with his eyebrows creased, as if he was about to cry any second.

Ronin avoided his hand quickly and gripped his wrist.

“Are you not pitying your people? I have harmed them and yet here you are, reaching out for a stranger.”

The injured gods begged at Aurion, going at their feet.

“Our Lord! You’re our only hope! Please slay him!” Even the supposed God of War, Vesuvius, quickly groveled for Aurion to save them.

But it seemed that the Lord of Light had no care for anything else beside the man in front of him right now. There was so much pain in his eyes as he gazed at him.

“For so many years, I waited for you. I jumped from Hero to Hero, hoping that they will encounter the person you will become.”

He clung to Ronin like some child afraid of being abandoned.

“Fausforus, forgive me. I should have agreed to build the new world with you through our blood. I should not have been a coward and ran away with you.”

Ronin gritted his teeth and pushed him away.

“Like I said, Great Lord, I am not who you think I am. My name is Ronin Dreadborne.”

He changed his whip to transform into a sword, pointing it to his neck.

“I want all of Magecia to see how I would end the life of their ‘only hope’. To kill the very force of Light himself.”

Soon….

He had conjured many communications all at once. Every single person in Magecia can see a purple diamond floating in front of them.

These included the four women who were on their way to defeat him. They stopped in their tracks and looked aghast at the scene in front of them.

Ronin can hear their thoughts. His range had now turned to 20 meters. He can sense them behind him.

(No….. We’re too late.)

(What if we aren’t? Perhaps Cermin is….)

(That corpse over there…. It can’t be.)

(Why is Aurion not fighting back?)

He smiled as he pushed the tip of his blade a bit deeper into the golden flesh of the Lord of Light.

“Observe well, my beloved Magecia. Look at your fallen gods, the one you have put your faith on. Aren’t they pathetic?”

He kicked the stomach of the fallen Aurion, who did not avoid it nor retaliate.

“I was nothing but a Commoner, like all of you. This is what I looked like when I was young—”

He transformed, using Fool’s Eye on himself without even needing to activate it. At the maximum level, Level 100, he doesn’t need to activate anything at all and his skills were amplified.

He was as omnipotent as a god now.

The Commoner people like Joyful Salope and her child watched everything in terror and confusion. As he shifted into his former appearance as a Commoner child…..

Ronin continued to talk to them through the crystals.

“Just like you all, I was weak. I relied on my wits in order to get by. I was abused by Nobles, treated like an outcast, forced to bow down to them…”

He smiled. “All because these gods favored them more than us. They are the reason why fate is so cruel to the powerless.”

“But my dear people of Magecia, it’s time you open your eyes. You are the ones who give these gods power. Your faith and belief to their lies are what serve as their sustenance.”

He then turned his sword back into a whip, in order to conjure an image by whipping around in circles. The image that appeared….

Was no other than the conversation between Pallas and Vesuvius.

“It’s called relying on faith. The true essence of Gods. If you want people to have faith in you, then you need to have faith in yourself too.” Pallas said.

“This is a whole list of actions we could take in order to make sure that we increase faith instead of fear. If we follow my plan—”

“Your plan takes 40 years, and an estimate of 40,000,000 lives!” Vesuvius yelled.

It cut immediately to Vesuvius saying:

“You want to utilize death to increase your power? If we’re going to use death, then why not do it in one strike already using war! Let all humans rise up and fend for themselves, their lives won’t be a waste if we feed on their boundless faith!”

The humans watching this were horrified, and the gods themselves as well. Pallas was quiet while Vesuvius was angered, defending himself.

“He’s not showing the full story! He’s just picking the ones that will make us look bad— Urk!”

Ronin whipped his face directly, which caused his nose to get broken.

“These gods had seen you as nothing but pigs and cattle to feed on.” He said. “They don’t care about your survival at all, only their own.”

Ronin could tell that even the humans who came to serve the gods and fight him had doubted themselves. His grin grew wider.

He turned back to Aurion. “And the worst person of all…..”

“Is this supposed Lord of Light who has never returned for so many years, even during the time that the Rift was opened. Tell me, is this a god worth praying for?”

He clicked his fingers so that the humans could respond back through the violet crystals. So many of them floated all at once around Aurion, like corrupted stars.

“Why did you abandon us!?” An old man’s voice said.

A young pregnant woman exclaimed: “Do you really plan to use our lives in order to gain more power????”

The voice of a child cried: “My parents died, and I prayed for you to save them! But you were never there! I hate you!”

All around, there were only the outcries of the people’s suffering. Aurion was drowning in these voices, in these guilt.

“Forgive me…. Forgive me, everyone! Please…. I just couldn’t bear my emotions anymore….. It hurts my heart to see you all suffer….”

Ronin scoffed. “You are a god that was supposed to carry the weight of the world on your back. Why should you become affected by emotions?”

Aurion shook right there, and as these voices became louder and angrier…..

The divine light aura around him was also growing dim.

So was the one for the injured gods. People were losing faith in them, and they would soon turn into nothing but mortals themselves.

Mortals that could easily be defeated and die.

“I say we start a new era without gods, without blind faith. It’s time that the people are the one to take charge of their own lives, and have every man be of equal footing from another.”

He reached out to Aurion. “Give me your light, and let me be the new Sun of Magecia. A Sun that never falters from something as pathetic as emotion.”

“No! Don’t do it, Aurion!” The Goddess Seelie begged. She was close to death herself, but she was still trying to heal a nearby goddess of her injuries.

“Do you not feel any guilt at all? Are you actually heartless and only care for your selfish needs?” Ronin sneered. “You’re the villain here, not I.”

Aurion shook his head. “No… I never mean any of this…. I just wanted a world where I can be with you and not abandon the people…..”

He wiped his tears. “But I can never have both….. That is my cruel fate.”

He stood up, and went to point Ronin’s sword towards his chest.

The gods hurriedly tried to stop him, but Ronin just whipped the air to create a surge that will blow them away.

“I entrust my Light to you…. My Heart…..” Aurion said solemnly. “I hope that this new world you created will make you satisfied.”

He did not wish for Ronin to be good, or to take care of the people.

Instead, he hoped that he would be satisfied. Just like Cermin did.

Ronin suddenly lowered his blade. And then…

He reached his hand to plunge through the Sun God’s chest, and rip his heart off from it!

Aurion’s eyes widened before he fell down and his blood spilled all over the ground. The blood flowed towards the dead corpse of Cermin.

From that blood, flowers grew and surrounded the corpse.

The humans watched in horror as the Lord of Light gave up his life to the Lord of Darkness, and this Dark Lord raised his heart like a golden apple…..

And ate it!

He ate the golden heart, filling himself with even more power, more Flame. He was now the most powerful being in this world.

After all, Aurion and Fausforus’ blood brought the first Flame. It brought the phoenixes, and was capable of creation…..

And so Ronin can use it to create a world as he wished. He raised his hand up…..

And the Abyss alleviated along with him. It rose up higher than the Celestus Realm, where everyone below could see. He declared as he wiped the blood off his lips….

“Everyone bow down to your King or be consumed by Death himself.”

He was both King and Death. Either choice would be submitting in defeat to him.

There was no other god besides him as everyone else had become mortal and perished. He was now Magecia’s One True God, their Great Lord.