The philosophical victory over the void corruption's foundational lies created a cascade effect that Jin Ho could only watch in amazement. As the carefully constructed deceptions crumbled, sixty years of suppressed truth came flooding back through all three consciousness layers simultaneously.
Eum Mugeuk's human consciousness surfaced with explosive force, bringing with it six decades of accumulated rage, guilt, and desperate hope. "Sixty years," he snarled, his voice carrying harmonics of fury that made the realm itself tremble. "Sixty years of lies, manipulation, false memories, fake evidence! You made me betray my friends for a sister who never existed!"
The void corruption layer writhed frantically as its control mechanisms failed one by one. Without the philosophical framework to justify its presence, it was revealed as what it truly was: a parasitic system designed to transform everything it touched into more void essence. It had no inherent right to exist - it was simply a tool of the Void Overlord's will, and that tool was breaking.
"NO!" The corruption shrieked through harmonics of pure negation. "The deception was necessary! Humans cannot accept the truth of their meaningless existence! The gradual conversion was the kindest method!"
But deep within the consciousness matrix, the Shadow Demon Lord's voice rang out with crystalline clarity and sixty years of suppressed rage: "Kindest method? You turned me into a puppet! You made me watch as my own hands worked to destroy everything I was meant to protect!"
Jin Ho felt his Trinity Network resonating with the Shadow Demon Lord's fury. Through their connection, he experienced flashes of the horror his fourth brother had endured - being forced to watch as his body was used to spread corruption, seeing his realm transformed into a void-touched wasteland, feeling his own power turned against the dimensional boundaries he had sworn to guard.
[Blood Heaven Great Emperor]: "Fourth brother... all this time, you were conscious? You experienced every moment of the corruption?"
"Every moment," the Shadow Demon Lord confirmed, his consciousness growing brighter as the void corruption's grip weakened. "Every order I was forced to obey, every act of destruction I was made to perform, every lie I had to speak - I was aware of all of it. The only thing that kept me sane was the hope that someday, somehow, my brothers would find a way to free me."
The territorial amplification that had made Eum Mugeuk so formidable began to fluctuate wildly as the consciousness controlling it shifted. The Shadow Realm itself seemed confused - was it responding to the void corruption, the human consciousness, or the original demon lord personality? The conflicting commands created a feedback loop that made reality itself unstable in the immediate area.
[Thunder Lightning King]: "Whoa! The whole realm is going crazy! It's like... like it can't figure out who's in charge anymore!"
[Ice Soul Demon Emperor]: "Fascinating. The territorial amplification system requires a unified consciousness to function properly. With three separate entities fighting for control, the enhancement effect is becoming chaotic rather than beneficial."
Eum Mugeuk staggered as his amplified power became unreliable, sometimes surging to overwhelming levels and sometimes dropping to below his baseline strength. "I can't... I can't control it anymore. The realm doesn't know who to obey!"
That was when Jin Ho made a crucial realization: the Shadow Realm's territorial amplification hadn't been responding to the void corruption at all. It had been responding to its original master - the Shadow Demon Lord - who had been subtly limiting and redirecting the power to minimize the damage he was forced to cause.
"The realm recognizes its true ruler," Jin Ho said with growing excitement. "Shadow Demon Lord, you never lost your connection to this place. You've been the one controlling the amplification all along, haven't you?"
"I... yes," the fourth brother's consciousness pulsed with surprise and hope. "I tried to make every order as weak as possible, every technique as limited as I could manage. I couldn't stop the corruption entirely, but I could reduce its effectiveness."
The void corruption layer made one final, desperate attempt to reassert dominance: "The Shadow Demon Lord belongs to the void now! He has been transformed beyond redemption! He cannot return to what he was!"
But Eum Mugeuk's human consciousness, now fully awakened and blazing with sixty years of accumulated fury, turned on the corruption with vicious determination: "Shut up! You used me! You used both of us! You made me complicit in the destruction of everything I should have been protecting!"
The human consciousness began actively fighting against the void corruption, not from outside but from within the same mental space. It was like watching someone perform surgery on themselves - painful, dangerous, but absolutely necessary.
"I can help with that," the Shadow Demon Lord said, his voice now strong enough to project across dimensional space. "Human brother, let me show you how to cut away the parasitic connections. I've been studying this corruption for sixty years - I know its weaknesses."
Working together, the human and demon consciousnesses began systematically dismantling the void corruption's control mechanisms. Every false memory was identified and discarded. Every manipulative emotional connection was severed. Every philosophical justification was examined and rejected.
The process was excruciating for both of them, but Jin Ho could see through his Trinity Network that it was working. The void corruption layer was being stripped away piece by piece, leaving behind two clean, separate, undamaged consciousnesses that were finally free to think and choose for themselves.
"Almost there," Eum Mugeuk gasped, his amplified form beginning to destabilize as the consciousness controlling it changed fundamentally. "I can feel it... the corruption is almost gone..."
"Together," the Shadow Demon Lord said firmly. "On three, we push it out completely. One... two... three!"
The explosion of liberated consciousness was visible even to normal eyes. A wave of pure, clean energy erupted from Eum Mugeuk's form, carrying with it the broken fragments of sixty years of void corruption. The parasitic control system, stripped of its philosophical foundation and attacked from within by its own victims, simply... disintegrated.
For the first time in sixty years, two prisoners were finally free.
And in that freedom, they immediately turned their attention to the one who had made their liberation possible: the brother who had never given up on them, no matter how hopeless things seemed.