Hearing Osko, everyone froze.
In the end, none of the elders moved. They just looked away, pretending to be invisible.
After all, it wasn’t their doing.
So, they could hardly be blamed.
In the distance, the older woman was the first to reach the faintly glowing silver soul. Her eyes glinted at its cold beauty. Draevor screamed at her from the distance as he struggled against the Rulers around him.
"You will regret this! Mark my words!! You all—every last one of you ungrateful, greedy, heartless Celestials! You all call yourselves Rulers, high and mighty. Is this the justice you claim to uphold? Now I see why that dark being killed Nathaniel so mercilessly! He was just like you—cruel and ungrateful!"
His words did make the woman and Yizhe, who was directly behind her, halt for a split second. A trace of fear and apprehension crossed the duo’s eyes, but it was fleeting.
They both knew what had to be done.
In the next moment, the woman grabbed the ethereal soul. The moment she did, all eyes were on her. Her eyes lit up as she felt the faint traces of chilling power clinging to her warm skin. She immediately wanted to destroy the silver soul and claim whatever power remained within it. But the moment her fingers passed through it, to everyone’s shock, it disintegrated into tiny snowflakes, drifting aimlessly and merging with those floating throughout the fractured space.
In the end, all that remained in the place was the quiet weak-looking ice sword the silver soul had held firmly to stay steady.
Silence descended over the scene.
The woman stared, dumbfounded, at her outstretched empty hand. She wasn’t the only one—everyone who had hoped to get a portion of Kyle’s power stood in stunned disbelief. Yizhe shoved her roughly aside.
"What the hell did you do?!"
He scanned the place frantically for the power that had been just within reach—the power that could surely have made him as strong as the dark entity Kyle had fought. But there was nothing. He found nothing.
"How can it just disintegrate? How?! Where did it go? You fool! You weren’t supposed to destroy Kyle’s power along with the soul!"
The woman stammered.
"I didn’t! I didn’t destroy his soul!"
She shook her head frantically, denying his words, still sprawled on the ground after he had shoved her, too stunned to even stand.
Yizhe glared at her, as if ready to beat her up. His eyes, red from the countless tears he had shed when he thought he would die under Azazeal, looked comical in their fury.
Suddenly, someone grabbed his collar and threw him mercilessly into the distance. It was Draevor. The middle-aged man spat toward Yizhe and the woman with disgust.
"It repulses me to breathe the same air as you! It’s actually good he died before your filthy hands could taint his pure power!"
He held his injuries—having sacrificed his life force to gain power when he had tried to stop Azazeal—now Draevor was barely holding on and standing. Still, he sneered.
"Don’t let me catch you alone. Right now, I can’t kill you—I’m not powerful enough, and too many Rulers stand with you. But what happened here today, I will never forget it."
With that, Draevor turned around and left. He didn’t show it, but the instant the silver soul scattered into snowflakes, he felt his heart break for the noble young man, who should have earned everyone’s gratitude.
Those who had fought alongside him to save Kyle’s soul glanced at the fragile ice sword one last time. Their eyes flickered with emotion as they bowed toward the sword in gratitude, then turned and left.
When all was said and done, it was they—the Celestials of the older generation, too weak to aid the kind man who had entered their realm and saved many lives—who, in the end, didn’t even get the chance to live.
Yizhe, the woman, and the elders stared at their fading figures. Simultaneously, nature let out a sorrowful noise that no one heard.
It had tried its best to mend the space and assist Kyle after the ice domain vanished.
But the realm had endured so much that nature had lost much of its power. That’s why gathering even a bit of natural energy in this barren, fragmented place was very difficult. Before the energy it had gathered could even reach Kyle, his soul vanished.
Nature cast an angry, resentful glance at the people who had attacked Kyle’s soul, cursing them so they would never be able to wield the natural laws as long as they lacked full control over them. As long as nature had even a hint of power over the laws, these ungrateful people could never call them. As for mastering those natural laws entirely, nature snickered—few were like Kyle, who could just learn a law and imbue its color inside their Celestial lake.
Mourning the vanished silver soul, nature finally fell into slumber, uncertain when it would awaken again. Maybe it would take countless years to recover, but it knew it would never see anyone like Kyle again.
A pity—really, what a pity. That man, who could have changed this realm, had simply vanished. It had never admitted it before, but it had always been quite fond of Kyle. That lucky Celestial. Even when Kyle had reached the End, nature had only dreaded that his strength would shake the realm’s order; it had never wanted him to vanish.
Osko was the one to break the silence as he landed in front of Yizhe and the woman.
"What a mess."
His cold voice echoed in all directions.
The Rulers around him flinched a bit, but although Osko was far weaker than them, no one dared to refute him. He was one of the elders who oversaw the Golden Hall of Light and had close relations with almost every powerful Ruler in the Celestial realm. The best example was Yizhe, the leader of the ancient temple that no longer exists.