Rosacer checked his newly updated status.
Several new abilities had been added, while others had evolved.
Newly Acquired Skills
Ananta: Enter the endless, eternal world.
Anta: Enter the world with an ending.
Evolved Skill
Blight Bite → Blight Burn
Blight Burn: Ignite the enemy in blight, reducing them to a lingering, corrosive flame.
Rosacer flicked his wrist, and a green flame burst forth, transporting him into the dark world. Before him, endless light twisted and writhed, trying to converge at a single point. With another flick, he was back in the world, only now he stood in a dark, dingy room, a lifeless corpse lying before him.
He let out a breath. "So, this is teleportation."
The system window shimmered, offering an explanation:
[Temporarily exit the World with an Ending and enter the Endless World, a realm where time, space, and causality do not exist. While inside the Endless World, all actions have no effect and do not influence reality. Upon activation of return, the user must specify an exact location and time to reenter the World with an Ending. Successful reentry results in appearing at the designated point, producing an effect similar to teleportation. Incorrect coordinates or timing may cause displacement or failure to return. From the perspective of observers in the World with an Ending, the user vanishes and reappears instantly at another location.]
Rosacer reflected on the explanation behind the Dark Messiah.
'He may be a being born from the darkness of the universe,' Rosacer thought, 'a place where reality itself does not exist. When such an entity entered reality, it would naturally seek to claim it as its own.'
Thus came the title he would later yearn for. God of Reality.
Putting the thought aside, he looked at the body before him. He had teleported at random and was uncertain of his current location. However, due to the Mist City restrictions, he was confident that he had not deviated far.
The body in front was mutilated, its private organs scraped out. The eyes had been gouged away, and the head was completely shaved. The scene was as bizarre as it could possibly be.
A look of disgust crossed his face, and he turned away. With a snap of his fingers, yellow flames flared to life as he unleashed Blight Burn, reducing the body to ash in seconds.
He then exited the room.
A long corridor stretched before him, curtains hanging before every door, swaying faintly as they merged into the hallway itself. He looked toward the far end, yet could not see it. The corridor extended beyond the limits of his vision.
Slowly, he crept forward, his intuition sharpened to its peak, yet he sensed no presence.
The curtains fluttered at intervals, though there was no wind. It felt as though someone inside was breathing. Upon closer inspection, however, he saw no one. Every door was locked shut.
"Where am I?" he whispered.
Rosacer was only seconds away from teleporting out, yet he hesitated and pressed deeper into the hallway.
Moments passed. Still unable to find an exit, he flicked his wrist.
No flames appeared.
"What?"
He tried again. Nothing.
He attempted it several more times, but the result remained the same. At last, he stopped.
"Am I stuck in a loop?" he muttered as he jolted back toward the room he had come from.
He ran, pushing through the curtain-covered doors. Some fluttered violently, and for a fleeting instant, human heads seemed to emerge from within them. Yet whenever he turned to look, the curtains fell still, perfectly ordinary.
'I had better not be hallucinating.'
Soon, he stopped.
He stood before the door he was certain he had come through. A curtain hung over it. The entrance was locked.
He was sure of it.
He had counted the steps.
"This was it!!" He said, turning his head towards the empty hallway.
He had not felt this way since the incident when he had accidentally awakened an ancient monster from its slumber. The same dreadful sensation crept over him once more.
He stood in the hallway, yet nothing happened. Only the curtains fluttered at irregular intervals, unnaturally so.
But instead of being scared like his former self, he did something entirely unexpected. He snapped his fingers and began burning the curtains.
The curtains caught fire one after another. Even those farthest away, beyond what should have been the range of his ability, ignited as well.
The fabric burned with a crackling sound, until it was replaced by a sharp, infantile wail.
Suddenly, doors flung open.
Behind them were bright circles, like sun.
Its rays flooded the hallway, blinding everything in their path.
Rosacer covered his eyes. The light was blinding. He invoked the Mask, conjuring a veil of nightshade to shield his vision.
He crouched, lowering his head and pressing his hands over his face. Yet the light still penetrated. Heat seeped through his defenses, searing his pupils as though they were being branded.
The fluid within his eyes began to evaporate under the heat, sending waves of excruciating pain through his skull.
He screamed.
The pain was unbearable.
Blood streamed from his eyes, drying the moment it touched the air, painting his face in streaks of darkened red.
The scream tore out of him, raw and hoarse, but the light did not weaken.
His vision began to fail. White filled everything, pressing inward, as if his skull were being crushed from the inside. His thoughts scattered.
Rosacer dragged his hands across his face. The skin around his eyes had blistered, splitting under his fingers. Heat radiated from his sockets, deep and constant. The smell of the disgusting aroma of burnt flesh and iron in blood reached him a moment later.
His stomach pressed. He vomited onto the stone floor, the liquid hissing faintly as it spread.
The pain spiked suddenly, sharp and wet, and he felt one of his eyes give way. There was a dull rupture, followed by a sensation of collapse, as though something essential had folded in on itself. He slammed his forehead into the floor, once, twice, again, not to stop the pain, only to replace it with something simpler.
Blood smeared beneath him, already drying where it fell.
His second eye failed soon after. Vision vanished entirely, yet the pain stayed, lingering behind the ruined nerves, pulsing with his heartbeat.
Rosacer remained kneeling, blind, trembling, face streaked with dried blood.
Suddenly, his kneeling body gave way and collapsed onto the ground. He died.
Flowers began to emerge from the corpse. Buds split through skin and bone, swelling rapidly as they matured. They turned toward the sun, basking in its rays.
In the next moment, the flowers completely covered the body. There was no part of him left visible beneath them. Yet instead of burning, the flowers absorbed the light gracefully.