At that moment, in a place far away, Darian's father, mother, older sister, and several other familiar figures stood with their eyes fixed on a large image, watching that final moment.
Meru took a deep breath, stunned. "He really…"
"Yes, he really achieved something that only two people in history ever managed," Ruri murmured, her expression full of pride.
They had all seen before the same thing Darian had seen, and even received extra benefits. But none of them managed to reach that enlightenment.
At that moment, deep inside that immense figure, Alm and Bruno were somewhat shocked and in disbelief.
Darian had just felt something that no one besides them and the Queen, in the past, had ever felt. It was a connection with the Omega. Only after reaching that enlightenment could someone unite the two parts.
That bastard Young Master… the one they killed and took over the body from long ago… really climbed the celestial mountain step by step, went through all kinds of hardship and pain, until finally reincarnating as Darian and beginning his rise.
Now, he had reached the absolute peak.
---
Back to the battle.
The moment Niara intertwined her fingers with Darian's, it wasn't just a touch; it was absolute surrender. If necessary, she would burn her own existence to sustain him.
Without her realizing it, something deep within her awakened. The Power of Birth, the primordial essence of creation, flowed gently, guided by her unshakable will to protect him.
That power met no resistance; it recognized Darian and desired to merge with him.
Darian felt the connection. In that instant, his mind expanded in an explosion of clarity.
The missing piece finally fell into place. Everything his father had shown him about his and the Queen's ascension in the past, every detail, every fluctuation of energy that once seemed like an impossible formula to replicate, now made perfect sense.
His wife and his father had paved the way. He just needed to take the final step.
Darian murmured, "Niara…"
"Yes," she answered instantly. There was no hesitation; no matter what he asked, she would trust him.
"Give me everything."
Darian activated his domain. In that same split second, Niara felt an irresistible force pulling every ounce of her energy, her spirit, and her essence, and of course, she didn't resist.
Everything happened in a flash. While Byon roared, unleashing his most devastating attack to erase both of them from existence, Darian simply closed his eyes.
Then…
**HUMMMMM!**
It wasn't an explosion, but a vibration that echoed through the very core of every living being.
The entire universe, the underworld, and distant dimensions trembled.
The Laws of the World, the invisible currents that govern reality, began to sing in unison. It was an announcement. A universal decree.
The essence of existence, which had been fragmented for eons, was becoming whole again.
"WHAT?!" Byon roared, horror freezing across his face.
Time itself seemed to stop. On that devastated battlefield, Byon's attack froze midair, shattering like broken glass.
Niara, feeling light and empty, looked at the figure beside her, her heart racing.
Darian slowly opened his eyes.
There was no defined color in his pupils. What radiated from them was a dazzling, primordial light, something that made the souls of anyone who looked at them resonate in pure submission.
He took a deep breath. In that single breath, his senses became omnipresent. He didn't just see the enemy in front of him; he felt every fluctuation of energy in the universe, in the underworld, in distant universes, and within every living being that existed.
With a single thought, he could erase stars or create galaxies. He now held the power of creation and destruction over everything; nothing restrained him anymore.
Darian hadn't just leveled up. He had leapt from the third level straight to the top of the existential pyramid.
He was no longer a cultivator, a warrior, or a hero.
He had become a complete existence.
The bearer of limitless power.
After taking a deep breath, he turned his gaze to the side. A pair of amber eyes stared straight at him, shining with excitement and a dazzling smile.
Darian felt Niara completely; even her thoughts and deepest understandings were effortlessly clear to him. At that moment, he couldn't tell where he ended and where she began.
The only thing he was certain of was his love and connection with her.
"It's alright now. I'll finish this." He smiled and murmured softly.
She nodded lightly, her radiant eyes still fixed on him.
Darian turned, facing Byon, frozen in place.
"You feel hatred toward Heaven's Will… but in truth, the only thing inside you is envy." Darian's words struck him like lightning.
He continued slowly. "After making great contributions, you chose to ask something very important from Heaven's Will: to resurrect your former wife, who died long ago. But you wanted to make sure she would never leave your side again. So it granted your wish, reincarnating her in the Celestial Universe and giving her all the tools to become an immortal.
After half a dozen reincarnations in that universe, and in all of them being favored and retaining all her talent, she actually succeeded. But… at that point, she didn't care about you and found someone else.
You, in turn, couldn't accept that and attacked her partner, a Celestial Immortal. That's when you understood the difference between him and you, a Natural Immortal. After that day, you completely revolted and chose to walk this foolish path. All of this…
Because you couldn't accept that no one belongs to you. She chose her own path, learning new things and evolving, always moving forward. Meanwhile, you're stuck in the past. In other words, all you feel is envy, and you want to possess everything for yourself, forgetting that you're just a part of the whole."
Byon trembled from head to toe, unable to respond.
Darian let out a light sigh. "You still haven't learned enough. You should go back and start over, paying for everything you've done first. One day, you'll return to the top. Then you'll remember all of this and understand what I'm saying."
After those words, Darian waved his hand.
Byon's eyes widened, and then an infinite force pressed down on him. In a single second, his entire existence fragmented into dust.
Darian didn't just destroy his body; he also easily removed all the immortal power from his soul. Then, as if it had been waiting for that moment, the laws of the world moved and imprisoned him once again.
With another wave.
Suddenly, everyone in the enemy army felt as if a divine hammer had struck them. After that, they felt nothing; they simply vanished from existence, in a process identical to Byon's.
With two casual motions, everything ended.
Darian waved his hand, and everyone in his army felt the pressure on them disappear, along with an overwhelming sense of relief washing over their minds.
Darian turned to all of them. Then, his expression became light and calm.
"This is the end."
His voice echoed through the heavenly laws like a sacred reverberation. Every living being felt an unprecedented weight being lifted from their bodies.
...
After the victory, all the Spiritual Guardians and related individuals received the notification of the main mission's completion.
At the same time, Darian gathered his closest family members and easily took them to the Celestial Universe.
Upon arriving, the twins and Alear were quickly welcomed by their mother, Ruri, who now considered them her half-children.
***
Eight hundred and ten years later.
The Celestial Universe was celebrating, with a wedding taking place.
At the center of the altar, Darian and Niara stood side by side, watching everything. Their faces carried a complex mix of emotions — pride, melancholy, and a deep happiness that words could barely describe.
That was Arion's day. Their son was about to take the most important step of his long life.
Suddenly, the doors of the grand hall opened, and silence fell.
The bride entered.
Her colorful hair cascaded over her shoulders, and her blue eyes seemed to hold the entire glow of the heavens. But it was her smile that left Arion completely stunned. As for Darian, he sighed, certain that he had never seen her smile like that before.
Right beside Darian and Niara, a sound broke the silence: a muffled cry, almost a sob. Corin and Calirer, the bride's parents, couldn't hold back their tears anymore. Niara let out a soft laugh, feeling her own tears roll down her face.
For anyone watching the couple's happiness at the altar, it was hard to imagine the twisted path that had brought them there.
The bride was, of course, Remira.
Arion had taken only fifty years to reach the peak of Celestial cultivation — a true prodigy, no doubt.
But after that... time seemed to stop. He spent two hundred years trying, without success, to ascend to divinity. Niara, driven by longing and a mother's worry, ended up asking her father-in-law to send her son to another universe, hoping that new surroundings would bring the enlightenment he needed.
What she didn't expect was that fate would be ironic.
The universe Arion was sent to was drowning in such dense chaos that not even veteran immortals could deal with it. That was, until Arion showed up.
With the same stubborn blood of Darian running through his veins, he handled things his own way: with strength, intelligence, and a bit of boldness.
It was in that setting of war and struggle that he met Remira; she had also been sent to try to solve that problem.
At first, she only saw him as a reflection of Darian. The physical resemblance and the way he acted were undeniable, but over time, Remira learned to see the differences. She fell in love not with what he inherited, but with what made him different. Arion was unique, and to her, he was perfect.
As for why it took them centuries to reach that altar... well, genetics don't lie.
Arion had inherited his father's legendary "slowness" when it came to these things. Decades of obvious signs that he simply ignored, acting like a complete idiot while everyone around him lost their patience.
But now, seeing them exchange looks at the altar, Darian and the others smiled in relief.
***
After a few thousand years, when Darian finally stabilized his power and learned to use it completely, he was finally called by his father for a very serious conversation about the future.
Darian was now the second most powerful being in all existence.
But he couldn't break the rules that existed, or everything would fall into absolute chaos. Because of that, that gigantic figure had to explain everything, absolutely everything about the laws and his role.
That conversation lasted a long time.
After understanding everything, Darian now had the right to speak and decide his future.
That immense figure remained silent, calmly observing him, waiting.
But Darian simply smiled and asked his father what he needed the most.
Darian didn't become arrogant or think he was too important. To him, his father was the person he admired the most, and his only desire now was to help him with his complex work.
Being Heaven's Will, and the only one capable of controlling everything, was an impossible job for a single person... or maybe two, in this case.
In the end, the two discussed what was most necessary.
The answer came quickly.
All universes had existed since the very beginning. Even though they seemed infinite, there was a limited number that had never increased. But there was a special region where its size could truly be infinite: the underworld.
That place was colossal and could be expanded slowly. On top of that, it could house unique forms of life. But after the great war of the past, everything there had been reduced to destruction.
Heaven's Will could restore all of it, but it would have to focus solely on that, and it would take a very, very long time. So, having to manage the universes and the laws, it was impossible.
With that, everything was decided.
From now on, Heaven's Will would focus only on maintaining the general laws of existence and expanding life, restoring the underworld.
As for Darian, he received the title of *Healer of the Heavens*. He became responsible for taking care of life forms across the universes. His role was to heal the wounds that arise within universes, preventing them from dying.
He wouldn't directly interfere in the universes or take away people's free will. He would only act when there was a wound that truly needed to be healed.
With that, the missionaries of Heaven's Will would be extinguished.
All the Spiritual Guardians and the people of the Universe of Heaven's Will would fall under Darian's command. He would use them as his hands and feet, eliminating calamities and major threats that could lead to the universe's death.
With two beings of the same level working together, all universes would become safer. In the future, the underworld would once again become a habitable place. After that, the same underworld could begin expanding infinitely.
Maybe, one day, they could even discover how to create universes from scratch.
The future held infinite possibilities.
But...
Darian's story had finally come to an end.
**THE END**
---
Irrelevant note from Heaven's Will (Author):
[Finally, another book finished! I came up with the idea for this one while writing Duality of Shadows. When I finished that, even though I was pretty discouraged, I realized it was a good opportunity to write something in the same style, but fixing all the mistakes and using everything I had learned before. In the end, it was worth it, because this book was received much better. So, thank you very much for reading. I hope I managed to leave something good in you with this story :D
In case you didn't know, this book has 49 character illustrations, divided by volumes. Since the site doesn't allow images, the links to them are on Discord.
If you're curious about the story Darian talked so much about, and you liked this book's style, I'd be really happy if you gave Duality of Shadows a chance. It has its flaws, but I still think it's a good book. And finally... if you can leave a review saying what you liked and didn't like about the book, I'll definitely read it gladly.]
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Author's Note: My next book, Rise of the Synthesis God, will be released in the next week or so. It's an indirect sequel to Damned Healer and Duality of Shadows
