Ashen regretted not asking Mira to drop him somewhere closer to the human domains.
But it couldn't be helped. If he had stayed with her for one more moment, he was sure he would have refused to let her go back any longer.
He also did not fully trust her prediction against the Outer Gods. He had tasted firsthand the strangeness of their abilities, so it wouldn't be out of the question for them to have a trump card against her calculations.
Not long after her departure, the Narkals swarmed back toward him like sharks smelling blood.
It seemed that her aura was what kept the horizon clear of them, and the moment they stopped sensing her, they did what they always did best: attack him savagly at every turn.
Ashen was completely exhausted from the war against the Outer Gods. His last fight against False Mercy, especially, had sapped everything out of him, but he had no trouble handling Narkals.
A couple of days later, he encountered the last stronghold that the human army had conquered before their retreat.
It was filled with Narkals of all shapes and sizes, but destroying the flesh pillars had done its job. The concentration of monsters did not even reach a tenth of what it had previously been.
Ashen's hope ignited when he saw it.
'Finally… I'm close now… I'm getting closer…'
That hope guided him until he reached the second metropolis, and it ignited even further when he arrived.
He kept encouraging himself to keep going, silently praying for his legs to hold on a little longer.
Drip… drip… drip…
The black sky above started raining, akin to a mother weeping for her son, but Ashen did not care.
All he cared about was one thing.
'...Just a bit more…'
'Go… go… go…! I must be really close now…'
'C'mon, legs!'
By now, he had to use his intent and mana for every step and every strike.
The Narkals also grew more bloodthirsty when they saw their prey on its last legs.
What greeted them was only more gruesome deaths.
Without a spear to attack with, he had to rely on his fists to do the killing. Sometimes, he had to use his fingers to penetrate their eyes, his elbows to shatter their bones, and even his teeth to bite through their necks.
His arms, from his knuckles all the way to his shoulders, were permanently smeared with the entrails and gore of the beasts.
In truth, from an outside perspective, he was looking more beastly than any of the Narkals he was killing by now.
When he reached the third metropolis—the one that the great human army had conquered first—Ashen thought that his body couldn't go any further.
And that was when it happened.
A black light colored his next punch.
The blackness passed by in an instant and was barely visible beneath all the blood.
Ashen did not know if it was a hallucination, and he did not have the leeway to think about it.
Because all of his thoughts were converged into one:
'I will survive.'
He did not care for any phenomenon or apparition.
The black light colored his next strike as well.
And when he moved his feet, it also dyed the soles of his feet black for an instant.
Little by little, the blackness clung to him a little longer, concentrated a little further, until it resembled a flash of lightning.
CRACK—
The next punch tore a hole through the Great Demon charging at him, then went on to tear apart the dozen Demons behind it.
BOOM—!
The next step propelled him far farther than the previous ones.
The black lightning spread until it clung to his golden eyes, and Ashen suddenly felt as though he had entered another world.
Everything slowed to a crawl.
The claws coming for him, the sabers aiming for his life, the spells raining down upon him, even the raindrops…
Everything was freezing.
Only he remained unfettered.
His limbs swam through space with unprecedented freedom. Anything that had previously shackled him was escaped from, one by one.
His exhaustion left him.
His mind cleared.
And even the lack of mana did not seem to impede him.
He truly felt…
Boundless.
The concept of Slothful Transcendence that he had caught a glimpse of while under the rock silently manifested within him.
And when it did, the black light took over all of his movements.
Even when he breathed, it was accompanied by the silent crackle of that blackness.
Ashen traveled in that completely unrestrained state, leaving a mountain of corpses in his wake. His speed shot up until he was running at full force.
In the corner of his eye, perhaps due to his heightened senses, he was able to see a white-haired woman.
Ashen saw her looking at him in an almost encouraging manner, smiling in relief, but he did not stop to think or question it.
Right now, all of his intent was occupied by the mission of reaching home.
But if he had been in the right state of mind, he would have instantly recognized her as Miratheris, the soul of his planet.
The boundless realm he had accidentally reached did not recede, no matter how far he went or how much he exerted himself.
On the contrary, he felt that freedom color his surroundings until every part of his newborn Domain fell under his control.
He felt the unrefined mana and how it cheered the moment his intent passed through it.
And then, he did what his Mana Imperium was whispering for him to do.
He took hold of it.
The mana ran joyfully toward him until it converged into a blue storm surrounding him.
He fed that storm to Dream Manifest, and as days passed, a human silhouette started materializing behind him.
Days continued to pass, and the silhouette's figure became more solid until, finally, its identity was revealed.
It was Lola, the Mistress of Lust.
She stood behind him like a guardian angel, wielding her Togetherness to aid him. She mended his body, mixed her concepts with his own, and further assisted him with each of his strikes.
However, no matter how much she tried, she couldn't rid him of the corrupting mana stewing within him.
Her Togetherness could potentially expel it, since it did not originally belong to the 'toghter' that was Ashen. But the volume surpassed what she currently possessed in mana by thousands of times, leaving her completely helpless.
However, none of it mattered.
He continued going until he reached the edges of the now-destroyed Pride Domain, and that was when the boundlessness finally receded.
Ashen felt all the shackles click back onto his body and bitterly smiled, but a System notification stole his attention away.
Since he had just cleared the road of monsters, he took a moment to read it.
[You have gained a new Trait: Pure Heart]
════════════════════════
Pure Heart
Mortals had always looked for ways to touch the Gods, but they lacked in almost every domain when compared to the divine.
One inferiority that had always plagued them was the vastness of Their will.
A God's mentality was naturally more elevated than a mortal's, making it easy for them to dominate the weaker mortals through sheer intensity.
This absolute superiority was broken when a certain mortal race found a solution through enlightenment.
"If our will lacks vastness, then all we have to do is make it sharper. Concentrate everything into a single intention. Sharpen the soul, the will, and the intent until a speck could fell a mountain."
A mortal is able to enter this state of singular will once or twice throughout their entire life, mostly when they discard everything else to move toward a single objective.
But an ancient mortal who could enter this state at will had once existed.
The mortals of that time had called him...
A person of a Pure Heart.
════════════════════════
{It seems that you have reached it… Congratulations.}
Ashen smiled faintly as he heard his twin's languid voice, but before the smile could reach his eyes, the old soul had to rain on his parade.
{Though it seems that those filthy Outers had left a gift for us…}
'What… are you talking about?'
{That.}
Old Ashen did not need to elaborate any further, because Ashen could now feel it clearly.
'A Catastrophe?'
That would be manageable, somehow.
The thought had not even solidified before he saw another one appearing beside it.
Then another shot out from beneath the earth.
'Three? No matter. That's not going to stop me after I've come this far.'
As if to mock him, a fourth appeared, flying low beneath the clouds.
"..."
They did not stop.
A fifth, a sixth, a seventh…
They never stopped.
A hundred.
Two hundred…
A thousand.
When they reached that number, Ashen did not bother to count anymore and simply let out a sigh.
"Haah… So they gathered every Catastrophe on the continent at this border, just in case I slipped past them?"
{It seems that way…}
"How tiresome… These tenacious motherfuckers are more clingy than my own lovers, I swear…"
Ashen swept his eyes over the mocking smiles of the Narkals and asked silently.
'Well? How is my body currently? Can you take over, even for a moment? I don't think I can get past this many.'
{The moment I do, you will instantly die.}
'Great.'
Ashen suddenly felt a hug engulf him from behind.
"Lola…"
"I told you to call me Mother…"
Her trembling voice made him show a bitter smile.
"I'm sorry, but I think I'll need every bit of mana now, so this is goodbye for now."
He looked sideways and saw tears brimming in her violet eyes, but did not know what to say.
"I'm so sorry… I'm so useless… I can't help…"
"Don't say that… If you had more mana, I'm sure you could have swept all of this rabble away. If anything, it's my fault for not giving you enough of it and letting you feel this despair alongside me."
"Ash… please… don't die… Please tell me you have a way…"
"Of course."
He smiled lightly.
"I will never die. They weren't able to kill me then, and they won't be able to do it now."
"I will come back home."
Lola was unable to say anything anymore because she was already fading away. Ashen had silently retracted the last of her mana.
"Now then…"
He walked slowly toward the army of Catastrophes, one hand reaching up to massage his sore neck while the other crackled with black lightning.
"If I am destined to be defeated…"
Ashen's golden eyes swept across the endless army before him.
"…then I will fight one last time."