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In the suffocating tension between survival and death, Kael found his thoughts drifting somewhere unexpected.
He began questioning the meaning of his endless reincarnations.
With the system bound to him, he possessed something close to immortality.
For most beings, life was their most precious treasure.
For Kael, if he ignored system points and performance evaluations, life itself was almost worthless.
Even if his body were destroyed, his soul would be drawn back by the system and returned to the reincarnation space, waiting for the next world to begin.
At first, he had considered this power extraordinary.
Eternal life.
What greater advantage could there be?
But as the cycles accumulated rebirth after rebirth, his understanding of life deepened.
And slowly, boredom crept in.
Reincarnate. Grow stronger. Die.
Those six words could summarize countless years ahead of him.
It felt unbearably hollow.
Once, he had chased power the kind of strength a human body could never reach. To stand at the pinnacle of existence.
Later, after wandering through world after world, his priorities shifted.
Strength became secondary.
What he truly valued were the encounters with the people he met, the moments he experienced, the lives he brushed against.
At the time, that philosophy suited him.
Now, it felt incomplete.
Perhaps—
Perhaps this near-endless life of his should be used for something more meaningful.
Physical power was fleeting.
Only the elevation of the soul endured.
Only those choices that stirred something deep within him something genuine were worth pursuing across infinite cycles.
In every era, in every world, there were always individuals who bore responsibility like a crown.
The kind who chose to save others.
Kael had always respected such people.
He had simply never wanted to become one.
They lived heavy lives.
That had been his belief.
But now—
Standing in this fragile moment, possessing the ability to make a difference—
His perspective shifted.
The ideals he once dismissed as naive romanticism now felt strangely beautiful.
In that flicker of clarity, memories surged forward.
Moments of warmth.
Moments of loss.
The fading glimmer of life slipping through his fingers Lillipup's final spark.
Ael's platinum hair shimmered beneath soft sunlight.
Croagunk's thin frame was trembling faintly beneath his calm reassurance.
Suddenly—
He felt something flow through him.
It was like fine wine spreading warmth across the tongue—rich, intoxicating—followed by a sharp burn that lingered in the throat.
This world was dark.
Broken.
On the brink of collapse.
Yet in his interactions with it, countless invisible threads of cause and effect had bound him here.
A connection born from something instinctive.
Attachment.
To trade this temporary body—
For a few more years of life for this world and its people—
That did not seem meaningless.
A faint smile curved across Kael's face, gentle as a mountain stream.
Then so be it.
"—!"
The energy inside him burst free like a dam collapsing.
Reddish-brown Fighting-type aura intertwined with dark, mist-like Ghost energy, rising from his deep violet skin.
Crimson sparks flickered in the air like living embers.
Those were fragments of his core life force.
His four armored arms drew inward toward his chest.
At that center point, an invisible vortex formed. Red and violet energies—mist and flame—were pulled into it.
The pulse of life rippled across the forest floor.
A terrifying presence stirred within Xerneas.
As the sovereign of life itself, it could clearly sense what Kael was doing.
He was tearing life from his own body—
Refining it into pure attack energy.
That… madman.
The power condensing at Kael's chest was unlike anything he had used before.
It truly threatened Xerneas' existence.
And here, the fatal flaw of the Nightmare Seeds revealed itself.
If the Xerneas standing before him had retained full clarity—
Even weakened—
It would have fought to the death, pride intact.
But this corrupted creature was ruled by instinct.
It did not care for dignity.
It cared about survival.
It wanted to live.
In an uncharacteristically desperate display, Nightmare Xerneas turned and fled.
Its battered body staggered as it forced itself forward, retreating away from Kael without hesitation.
The decisiveness of its escape surprised even him.
Kael shook his head lightly.
"Just a beast driven by corrupted instinct. It's nothing compared to the true divinity that once stood above all life."
He did not chase.
His focus remained fixed.
Energy continued to gather.
Slowly—
A shape formed.
A blade of radiant light.
Fighting aura and Ghost energy fused with exquisite precision, blending into a deep, enigmatic crimson.
The edge shimmered with impossible sharpness.
It resembled Sacred Sword in form—solemn, dignified.
But this was larger.
Denser.
More absolute.
His own life essence coated the blade like oil along steel, staining it with violent scarlet.
Compared to the colossal sword now forming before him, even his four-meter frame seemed small.
Kael narrowed his eyes.
Life drained from him, fatigue creeping in.
But the light in his gaze was sharper than the blade itself.
All four hands gripped the hilt.
He did not precisely lock onto the fleeing Xerneas.
He simply aimed toward its general direction.
Then—
He brought the blade down.
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~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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