"What can I do for you?" Max asked as he faced Mark. His tone carried neither hostility nor fear. Instead, there was a quiet heaviness in it, a subtle shift born from everything he had learned about Mark's tragic fall.
The hatred he once felt had softened into something more complicated. Mark was no longer just the enemy who destroyed his world's stability. He was also the victim of a calamity that even beings of the Divine Realm feared. That knowledge made Max approach this conversation with an unusual sense of restraint.
"Nothing," Mark replied with a faint smile, though the expression twisted strangely on his corrupted features. "This is my world, after all, so I have always been here, watching while you and the others fought. I must admit, you have grown impressively strong. Almost as strong as me." His voice drifted with a mixture of amusement and warning, as if the acknowledgement held a deeper message beneath it.
