"Lyra, what happened?" Adam asked, his voice returning to its normal tone, though edged with confusion.
Lyra looked at Adam and gently put her hands on Adam's head. "Here, watch everything that happened! It is from Azrael, Vlad, and my memories of what transpired here." Lyra initiated the mind connection, showing him the horrifying sequence of events, his own demonic possession, and the desperate battle.
Adam, seeing everything, felt the uneasiness of his own body. He touched his heart, wondering if the demon was still inside of him.
"Help me analyze my body and check if there are remnants of the demon still inside," Adam asked Lyra.
As Lyra analyzed him, she confirmed his fears: his heart had traces of dark mana. However, it was now completely controlled by Adam's mana, which was overwhelming it.
"Dharka? That is your name?" Adam looked at the Lich King.
"Yes, Master. I followed your command as instructed. As you know, you are once a Demon King. I will follow every single request from you as your servant," Dharka spoke.
"Alright, this is a permanent request. Never hurt anyone I love. Any type of order in the future is nullified if it goes against hurting my loved ones. Understood?" Adam commanded.
"Yes, Master!" Dharka replied as he knelt down.
"Serbas and Vlad's vitals are low; both won't be able to last much longer," Lyra alerted Adam.
"I'm going to turn back time and return them back to normal," Adam stated, intending to use his power.
"No, you can't," Lyra quickly stopped him. "If you do that, the Demon King and you would exist simultaneously. It may have some unintentional consequences. When it comes to time control, we should seek Nirik for information regarding this."
"Alright, Dharka. Absorb the plague of this world back into the Hands of Death artifact," Adam commanded.
Dharka took out the artifact, the Hands of Death, and flipped through his summon books as the artifact floated into the sky. The air of death and darkness of the plague flowed back into the artifact.
The World Reborn
As soon as the plague was absorbed, the heroes who had stood together in battle glowed with a white light. Simultaneously, some of the special variants glowed with dark energy. Everyone was wondering what was happening as their bodies went into a final evolution without the plague's restriction.
The variants evolved with beastly features: harpies, beastmen, lizardmen, orcs, goblins, titans, etc. Their forms were reshaped into different species with human intellect. The heroes also changed in forms, some turning into an elf, dwarf, fairy, angel, vampire, dryad, or elemental spirit. Each one of them was transformed as they slowly became unable to recall their past memories, which shattered into fragments of their once-self.
In an instant, every living being in the world popped out a status window in front of them. The world had turned into a new evolutionary stage.
"Adam, something has vastly changed in this world. It is reforming into a new world filled with mana," Lyra stated.
Every species—demons, creatures, dragons, human, elf—were present, as if awaiting something big to happen. It was as if they were awaiting for an arrival. Adam and Lyra looked around, seeing all the newly formed species gathering toward their location. The original humans came out of the underground and encircled their location.