Luke lost himself in the memories he had dragged onto himself, sinking as if he had fallen into a boundless ocean with no surface in sight.
Voices overlapped and intertwined, billions of thoughts colliding at once, each carrying fragments of fear, anger, hope, regret—too much to separate, too much to silence.
'I was arrogant,' he admitted to himself as the pressure mounted. 'I thought having a vast mind meant I could bear infinite weight.'
The realization came slowly, crushing rather than sudden, as if the ocean itself were pressing down on him from every direction.
The current pulled him deeper. Faces blurred past. Entire lifetimes brushed against his awareness and vanished before he could grasp them. His sense of self began to thin, stretched across too many memories that were never his to begin with.
'So this is where it ends,' he thought, not with fear, but a dull acceptance, as the darkness closed in further and the noise became a single, overwhelming roar.
"So… you're really going to admit defeat like that?"
The voice echoed through the endless dark, calm and almost disappointed.
'What choice do I have? It took everything just to imprison that bastard. My body might endure, but my mind isn't immortal.'
A low chuckle followed.
"Yeah, you made a stupid move," the voice said bluntly. "But it was clever too. You almost succeeded. I'll give you that—you exceeded my expectations in more ways than one."
'Who are you? And am I seriously losing my mind now? Hearing voices isn't exactly a good sign.'
"No need to know who I am," the voice replied evenly. "What matters is this—it's time you wake up and deal with the enemy. If you don't, he'll take over your body."
Luke's fall slowed, just slightly.
'And then what?'
"Then your authority becomes his."
'My authority?'
"Yes," the voice said. "The thing that's always been inside you. Indomitable will. Unity. Compassion. Rage. Love. The emotions that make humans human—and bind them together."
The darkness shifted, filled with distant echoes, as if countless presences stirred at those words.
"Have you never asked yourself," the voice continued, "why the system chose a human?"
Luke scoffed weakly.
'How would I know? I don't even understand how the system works.'
"It could have chosen something stronger," the voice said quietly. "A species born superior. Something flawless."
"But it didn't," the voice finished. "And that choice wasn't a mistake."
"So it's about time you stop moping," the voice went on, sharper now, almost impatient, "wake up—and beat that shitty Corruption."
Something snapped into place.
The crushing weight vanished.
The screaming noise of seven billion minds didn't fade—it aligned.
Luke's vision steadied as the chaos reorganized itself. The memories that had felt foreign moments ago no longer tore at him. They settled. Not as intrusions, not as strangers—but as something familiar. Like muscles he'd never realized he was using suddenly responding all at once.
He inhaled.
And for the first time, the weight didn't push him down.
It held him up.
…So this is it, Luke realized.
The voice returned, quieter now, no longer mocking.
"Yep. That's what you are."
The darkness around him shifted, no longer suffocating but vast—endless, connected.
"The collective will of humanity across the Omniverse," the voice said. "The Avatar of Humanity."
Images flickered through him—countless lives, countless struggles. Fear, hope, rage, love. Weakness and defiance tangled together, inseparable.
"And humans?" the voice continued. "They're the most stubborn beings there are."
Luke's lips curled faintly.
"When they want something," the voice finished, "they don't stop. They don't break. They endure."
The fall ended.
Luke stood.
"And eventually," the voice said, fading into him, "they win."
In the Limitless Mind Domain, the Shadow King laughed as he felt control slipping into his grasp.
"This body…" his voice echoed with greedy awe. "It's absurdly powerful. Powerful enough to tear planets apart. Why did you ever limit yourself just to kill me?"
The darkness crawling over Luke's form thickened, the black cracks spreading like rot—until something answered from beneath it.
"No."
The word didn't come from Luke's mouth. It came from everywhere.
A deep, layered roar rolled through the domain, and the black corruption coating Luke's body suddenly ignited. It didn't crack or shatter—it burned, white-hot, as if the darkness itself had offended reality.
The Shadow King screamed as he was wrenched free, torn out of Luke's body and forced into his own distorted form, stumbling back as if thrown by an invisible hand.
"How—?" the Shadow King snarled, disbelief twisting his features. "You lost yourself. I had you."
Luke straightened slowly. His eyes were clear now, steady, grounded.
"Nah," he said calmly. "I'm human."
He lifted his head, meeting the Shadow King's gaze without fear.
"And humans," Luke continued, voice firm and unshaking, "are stubborn idiots."
He snapped his fingers.
The domain answered.
Behind him, the presence of billions surged into focus. Not noise. Not chaos. Resolve. Seven billion wills aligned. The Shadow King felt it immediately, the pressure crashing into him like gravity multiplied a thousand times over.
Luke stepped forward, the air itself bending around him.
"That feeling?" he asked evenly. "The courage of seven billion humans."
The Shadow King tried to move—and failed.
Chains erupted from every direction, forged from memory, emotion, rage, hope, grief, love. They wrapped around his form, binding him tighter with every struggle, dragging him backward as the ground beneath him dissolved into a vast, endless ocean of memories.
Luke watched without hurry.
"Ready to feel them?" he asked quietly.
"No—WAIT—!" His voice cracked, splitting into layers as the chains tightened. "You don't understand—this isn't over! I exist in them! I—"
The ocean closed around him.
His form unraveled in pieces, shadows tearing loose as billions of memories crashed down at once. Rage. Fear. Love. Loss. Hope. Regret. Every human moment, every buried scream, every refusal to give up—pressing in from all directions.
"STOP—!" he howled, the sound warping into something raw and animal. "THIS IS TOO MUCH—GET IT OFF—GET IT OFF ME—!"
Luke raised a hand and gave a small, almost casual wave.
"Bye," he said.
"Drown in the anger of humans," Luke added. "That's what's going to kill you."
*****
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