Everyone, regardless of their strength, immediately turned their eyes toward the source of the loud sound. The small, brief moment of peace vanished instantly as they witnessed what had just happened.
Their hearts contracted.
Under countless horrified gazes, Skyler slowly lowered his eyes toward the sword that had just pierced through his heart.
His vision dimmed as blood trickled from the corner of his lips, slipping between his trembling fingers as he covered his mouth in an attempt to stop it. His body fell from the dark sky, his vision blurring for a brief moment before he crashed down onto his knees amidst the burning crimson flames consuming the piles of corpses below.
Everything happened so suddenly and unexpectedly that no one had the time to react. Charles was the first to scream.
"Skyler!"
His shout was followed by others, their voices echoing across the battlefield.
Yet, despite the terrified screams and the figures rushing toward him, Skyler’s gaze slowly rose toward the familiar woman in the dark sky—the very person who had just driven a sword straight through his heart.
Her face was covered in strange, jagged dark lines, while her blue eyes were now filled with an unsettling trace of madness.
The elemental crystals within her heart were in chaos, twisting violently as they devoured her lifespan and transformed it into an overwhelming surge of power.
The sight before him was something he could never have imagined.
Skyler’s breathing grew heavier.
Even as pain spread through his body, he couldn’t bring himself to believe what he was seeing. His lips parted slightly, and a voice filled with utter disbelief escaped.
"Jenny...?"
However, the woman whose name Skyler called seemed completely lost within her own thoughts. Jenny continued muttering under her breath, staring down at him with anger, as if trying to convince herself of something that no longer made sense.
"...I saw it... You aren’t supposed to be strong... You aren’t supposed to be here..."
Her trembling voice grew quieter, yet the madness in her eyes only deepened.
"It should be me... I should be the one standing there, shining so brilliantly!"
With that, she screamed, grabbing her disheveled hair. Her voice was so powerful that it created a huge shockwave, sending everyone approaching flying backward.
Yuris was shocked, his eyes filled with anger and an emotion he couldn’t describe. If he was right, Skyler had just said Jenny... Wasn’t she his sister? His own sister? How could she have done what she just did?!
"You crazy bitch!"
He screamed as he balanced his body and disappeared toward her, his fist aimed at her face without the slightest hesitation.
Yet, before his fist could reach her, it struck a barrier that rippled into existence around her. The rebounding force struck back with twice the power of his own attack, sending him flying and leaving him utterly shocked.
Charles and Isaac, on the other hand, had already reached Skyler. Yet, before the two could touch him, see his injury, or stop the continuously flowing red blood, a sound of laughter suddenly echoed from his lips.
Charles’ outstretched hands froze as he watched Skyler’s eyes, which had been fixated on Jenny, slowly turn pitch black, with a white hue flickering within them.
The sound of his mocking laughter grew louder and louder, like an amused melody reverberating across the whole battlefield, becoming so eerie that it caused everyone coming toward him to stop in their tracks. They could only watch him in quiet shock.
Even the few remaining grotesque dark creatures that had been running around froze in place, falling silent. As if scared, they lowered their bodies and trembled.
In that scene, with Skyler laughing and Jenny looking as if she had gone mad, no one dared to speak. Even the duo’s parents, Riya and Johnson, stood motionless in the distance, their faces devoid of color after they understood what had just happened.
Yet, someone still spoke.
Someone who had just appeared.
"I told you to stop."
Hearing the cold, indifferent voice, Skyler stopped laughing, his gaze finally shifting toward the tall man who had just stepped out of the space opposite him. Seeing the familiar dark hair speckled with white and meeting the familiar golden eyes staring back at him, Skyler could no longer laugh.
Max lowered his vacant gaze, staring straight at him.
"I told you... No matter how much you distort reality, everything will return to its course. Why don’t you understand?"
Blood gurgled from Skyler’s lips as the sword piercing through his heart radiated a brilliant divine glow, its power relentlessly consuming his life force. After all, this was the Lost Sapphire of Serenity—a Mythic-tier sword that he himself had found. Now that it had awakened from its dormant state, its power had become even more terrifying.
At this moment, with a faint crack, the two large mirrors within Skyler’s subconscious shattered, the glass fragments dissolving. And then came the memories he had tried so hard to suppress—returning all at once.
Max’s eyelashes trembled as he landed directly in front of Skyler’s kneeling figure.
"I just... want everything to return to its proper course. Even if it means death... I only want it all to end now. So please..."
His voice cracked as he forced a smile.
"Stop running... and accept it."
No one understood what he was saying. But just as he finished speaking, everything around the two froze like an image, as if someone had clicked the pause button.
Skyler’s gaze returned to its blue hue.
Yet, the pain brought by the memories replaying within his mind was a thousand times greater than the sword that had pierced his heart. He couldn’t accept it.
But it was the truth. The truth he had been running away from for such a long time.
Max was right.
He was right.
Everything was a lie.
Even the life he had lived so far.
It was only him who refused to admit it.
What Skyler Ironhart?
What Skyler Thorne?
From the start, he was just Skyler.
Just Skyler, an ordinary human who was born with no power. Not even a trace of it.
Everything began because of an accident—a mere accident... that happened because the Human Queen wanted his heart blood to cure her dying husband after discovering that he, Skyler, the worthless grandson who had been discarded by her daughter long ago, had somehow inherited his bloodline.