On a distant floating island, a tense atmosphere hung heavily in the air.
Several warriors stood in rigid formation as they confronted a lone man. Compared to the numbers gathered before him, he appeared almost insignificant, yet nobody present truly felt that way. The man stood calmly atop a massive beast soaring through the skies.
Its appearance was grotesque and unsettling, possessing an enormous maw where eyes should have existed. The creature glided through the air in eerie silence, carrying its master with an unsettling dignity.
William looked down upon the floating island from above with a cold and indifferent gaze.
His eyes swept across the landscape below until they settled on a mountain range at the center of the island. Resting atop those mountains was a huge mansion that stretched over the terrain like a fortress carved directly into the earth.
The structure lacked any elegance or refinement. It possessed a rough and imposing brutalist design, all sharp lines and heavy stone, giving the impression of a monument built for endurance rather than beauty.
Around it stood several human warriors whose strength placed them among the strongest of their race. Weapons had already been drawn, and every face carried caution and hostility.
William barely paid attention to the tension gathering around him.
"As fellow humans," he said in a calm voice, "do not force me to stain my hands with your blood. Let me pass, and I will ignore the hostility and those unwelcoming stares written across your faces."
There was no anger in his tone and no visible threat. He spoke as though he were merely stating a simple fact.
After speaking, William did not wait for a response.
He simply continued descending toward the mansion.
As he drew closer, the warriors’ expressions tightened. Although none of them spoke, several unconsciously stepped backward. It was not an intentional retreat but a reaction born from instinct.
Then, suddenly, an overwhelming pressure descended upon them.
It was like an invisible sun had materialized above their heads and crashed downward with unimaginable weight. Their knees struck the ground almost instantly; their bodies trembled violently, and their faces twisted in shock.
William had merely activated the Solar Authority pressure effect born from the Sun God’s divine physique.
Without even raising a hand, the surrounding humans, numbering in the hundreds, immediately felt their bodies and abilities being suppressed beneath an impossible burden. Combined with William’s cultivation, the effect had become overwhelmingly powerful.
No one could stop him anymore.
William quietly stepped forward, passing through the kneeling crowd without effort. His expression remained unchanged as though everything occurring around him was entirely ordinary.
Soon, he arrived before the mansion’s entrance. The moment his feet touched the ground, a figure was already waiting for him.
A man dressed in simple black and white robes stood there and bowed respectfully.
"Welcome, Master William. My lord has been eagerly awaiting your arrival."
William let out a faint scoff. "Well, that was a warm welcome."
The butler showed little reaction to the sarcasm and simply gestured for William to follow.
Meanwhile, Rah continued circling high above the floating island, waiting for further orders.
William followed the butler through the manor.
The interior carried the same heavy and imposing feeling as the exterior, but there was some elegance hidden beneath it. Long corridors stretched ahead with ceilings so high they almost seemed excessive.
Eventually, they reached an enormous set of doors at the end of a corridor.
Ancient carvings covered the massive surface. Strange figures and intricate patterns had been etched into the stone, depicting scenes William could not immediately recognize.
For a brief moment, his eyes lingered on them; the artwork truly interested him.
However, his purpose here was something entirely different. He had not come to appreciate architecture.
Without speaking, the butler pushed open the doors.
William stepped inside, and silence greeted him.
The hall beyond was enormous, covered from wall to wall with bookshelves. Thousands upon thousands of books, manuscripts, and ancient records filled the towering shelves.
For a moment, William felt as though he had entered a library rather than a residence. Far at the end of the hall sat a lone old man reading quietly at a table.
William walked forward at an unhurried pace. His steps were measured and calm.
There was not even the slightest trace of caution on his face. The ceiling above stretched high into darkness, giving the impression that the structure was built for titans instead of humans.
As he moved forward, the old man finally sensed his presence, or at least acted to do so. He slowly raised his head and looked toward William.
William reached the table and stopped. Without urgency, he pulled out the chair opposite the old man and sat down before letting out a quiet breath.
"Your guards are certainly fiesty."
The old man smiled faintly.
"If you arrive uninvited, you should expect a little heat."
William chuckled and leaned back in his seat. "William Kaiser Solaris."
The old man nodded. "Edmund Harrowgate."
The introductions ended there. Neither seemed interested in wasting time with meaningless conversation.
Edmund looked at him directly.
"So, you killed Elavlin?"
William stared at him silently for a moment. Technically, he had killed three primarchs, but since that was not the question, William remained silent about them, answering only in one word.
"...Yes."
His answer carried no hesitation and no concern. There was nothing more to explain about this situation.
Unexpectedly, Edmund nodded.
"Thank you."
William stared at him.
That response had not been what he expected. He had anticipated hostility, anger, threats, and warnings.
Instead, the man had thanked him.
"That sounds rather diabolical coming from you," William said. "I expected retaliation, perhaps a warning or two. Instead, you’re thanking me."
Edmund merely shrugged.
"She killed many among my people. Some of them were friends."
William’s expression shifted slightly. "Even while you were the Primarch?"
Edmund nodded.
"She wanted to cultivate her Blood Flames. There is only so much you can do, even as a Primarch."
William frowned.
"If her death truly relieved you, then why didn’t you kill her yourself earlier? Why didn’t you seek revenge?"
Edmund removed his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose before looking at William properly for the first time.
"For a while, I wanted to." He spoke calmly.
"I imagined it countless times. I imagined her suffering under my hands. I imagined her begging for my mercy." His eyes drifted toward the bookshelves around them.
"Victor stopped me at that time. He told me to wait a thousand years before going after her."
"Victor was the supreme authority even among us primarchs; refusing him would be akin to dying uselessly, so I obeyed him and waited for a thousand years."
"After a thousand years had passed, eventually I realized something: I had never rested for the past thousand years. I had devised countless strategies, strengths, and tactics to kill her," Edmund said as he looked back at William.
"But today, if I killed Elavling, then what?"
William remained silent.
"The dead would remain dead. The emptiness would remain. I would only have traded grief for satisfaction that lasts a moment."
His voice lowered.
"And after that moment passed, I would still wake up the next day with nothing."
"Revenge does not bring back the people you lose; it does bring back hollowness. If I keep delaying the revenge, I will have a driving force forward; if I exact revenge, then I will be a hollow shell with no purpose ahead. For in the former case, I can always give myself the reason to exist for a millennium without losing my mind."
William’s expression hardened, and he shook his head.
"That was never the point."
He leaned slightly forward.
"Revenge isn’t about bringing people back. It’s about consequence."
"If someone causes suffering, then they should experience the same experience; it should come back to them. Not because it changes the past, and not because it heals anyone."
His voice became colder.
"But because justice does not appear on its own. It only exists when someone imposes it, and to impose justice is the greatest virtue."
Edmund remained unconvinced.
"The idea itself is flawed. Most offenders already understand what their victims go through, so the idea of making the offender feel the offense is useless."
"Most monsters aren’t monsters because they fail to understand others’ suffering. They’re monsters because they value themselves more than everyone else."
"Elavlin was a primarch; a group of humans was nothing more than cattle feed for her. Moreover, even if revenge is justified, there are better ways to channel and utilize that feeling."
"So what would revenge even accomplish other than 2 minutes of self-satisfaction?"
A smile slowly appeared on William’s face.
"Then that only proves my point further."
His eyes narrowed.
"If they fear becoming victims themselves, then they already understand what they did. Which means making them experience it is the most fitting punishment possible."
Edmund shook his head.
"Why waste time pursuing such things? Time swallows all your enemies eventually. Age, disasters, and fate make everything disappear in the end."
His eyes wandered toward the books surrounding them.
"Meanwhile, I can devote my efforts toward understanding the world itself. Toward research. Toward discovering truths." His voice grew quieter.
"Perhaps even finding ways to bring back the dead."
William understood immediately, but he slowly shook his head.
"Life is not vast enough to permit answers to questions like those until one remains struck in the same realm of cultivation."
His gaze became distant. "Once a soul completely dissipates, it ends there. The identity disappears, the ego disappears."
"And when those vanish, that person stops to exist."