In the middle of the painful memories, Kyle saw a few fleeting moments where Azazeal had felt genuinely happy. The first was hazy—Azazeal, very young, sitting at a table with two tall, blurry figures who laughed and called him ’Aze’ with affectionate warmth.
The second was a memory of him with Nathaniel and the ice enchantress Lilith.
The third—and final—was the time he had followed Kyle around in the No Mana Land.
Seeing the scene of the No Mana Land in Azazeal’s memories, Kyle’s soul flickered.
Until now, he had always believed that, at that time, Azazeal had stepped into the No Mana Land only to use him as a means to reach the hiding Celestial Spirit. Kyle had even assumed that the man would surely have mocked him later for being foolish enough to actually consider him a friend.
Kyle had never expected him to actually cherish that memory—one he had always hated even to recall, remembering it as the first time he was manipulated by Azazeal.
The happy moments were just like a tiny drop in an endless sea of pain. The agony was tormenting, yet even so, those happy moments still lingered in his broken soul.
Why couldn’t Azazeal let go of those little moments? The moments that had just felt fake because of the tragedy that followed?
Finally, something dawned on Kyle.
And when it did, the crown atop his soul began blazing with a cold, brilliant light.
He suddenly stopped struggling. After his soul ceased resisting the darkness, a low, calm voice formed from the energy drifting from his fingertips, echoing in the chaos.
"Aze."
For a moment, everything paused.
The calm voice belonged to Kyle. Though he couldn’t speak, he could use his power to create it. The faces of the two people in the oldest memory Azazeal held dear were blurred, yet the scene was unmistakable—a child with his parents. That alone told Kyle that the name ’Aze’ carried a lot of weight.
And to think Azazeal had told him that name when they first met. How strange.
The voice continued, rising louder.
"Everyone who destroyed your race—even the ones who wronged you—are gone, dead. You killed them with your own hands. They never made amends, I know. But trust me—at their final moments, they all tasted the weight of their deeds. So... just let it go."
The darkness thrashed violently in panic, lashing out at Kyle in a frenzy as it realized that Azazeal, who had been offering it all of his power—including his soul—had halted.
"Just let it go now, you bastard!"
Kyle shouted, the majestic, ethereal crown atop his head igniting like a blade of light, tearing through the surrounding darkness.
Except for the panicked noises coming from the darkness, there was silence.
Then a deafening sound shattered it.
The first to fall was Azazeal.
He completely surrendered his soul.
As his consciousness faded, a trace of sanity returned. Kyle heard him hum—a rather relaxed sound—followed by a faint whisper Kyle couldn’t catch in his state.
"I still... can’t."
"But... it all feels lighter now."
What he never voiced were the words he had sometimes hoped for—that if he had found Kyle instead of Nathaniel and Lilith, maybe he would never have come this far.
Perhaps everything could have ended with him starting a normal new life. But, as he had always said... there were no ’what ifs.’
What happened was bound to happen.
It was just Kyle—this lucky anomaly—who suddenly appeared and actually managed to stop him. Otherwise, he had known long ago that no one could. He had calculated it the day he began his revenge, and the day he reached the End, that vague calculation had become certainty. Azazeal just... never thought Kyle could become as powerful as him in such a short time. It was a surprise.
Strangely enough, in his final moment, his gaze held a calm tranquility, as if he had always known this moment would come.
The greatest irony?
It wasn’t just Kyle’s luck—it was him who had let Kyle come this far. After all, there had been many moments when he could have easily enslaved or simply killed him.
But he didn’t.
It was just a pity. With him gone, he would never know if Kyle survived. Yes, even until the end—even when he heard the words he had wanted to hear all his life—he didn’t let go of his obsession. Azazeal still gave all his power to the darkness, letting it rage.
Ultimately, in the void, it was the brilliant, radiant silver soul that fought against the dark entity that had sprung from Azazeal’s soul, its claws tearing at Kyle relentlessly.
This was the same dark entity, born from the remnants of malice left behind by the last of the first Celestials in the Layer of Ancients, alongside his Celestial symbol.
The darkness was truly ecstatic when it saw the being that had caused it so much trouble finally lose their source of power.
After failing to devour the cold energy, it began to erode and taint the pure power, shaping it to be corrupted like itself. Even though it didn’t truly need it, this brilliant silver soul—soon to fall—would make an irresistibly tempting and powerful vessel.
As it seeped into the silver soul, it felt the agonizing pain coursing through it—agony that could drive anyone insane. But just as the darkness believed it had succeeded, a familiar Celestial void emerged from deep within Kyle’s soul. Stunned by the sudden cold pull, it retreated. At first, it was merely surprised when Kyle suddenly released the void that had consumed his Celestial Lake when he reached the End. After all, it had come into existence within a similar void that had opened within Azazeal’s soul.
So, it didn’t take the void seriously.
Not to mention, to a Celestial, the Celestial void that had absorbed their Celestial Lake was, in fact, the last of their power before their soul and consciousness lost all will.
It wasn’t even powerful.
However, quickly, it realized the difference between the abyssal void that had opened within Azazeal’s soul and the cold void that had just emerged from Kyle’s. Azazeal had willingly submitted himself to the darkness, allowing the dark power to manipulate him.
On the other hand, Kyle made his power bow to him; he was its master. Moreover, everything that existed was a law—and the dark entity, born from malice, was also a form of energy created from those laws.
So, whatever went into the Celestial void was merely a law to him—a law that had to obey him completely, or he would erase it.