Caron opened his eyes in the dark. An unreal landscape unfolded before him. Fragments of memory, rendered like paintings, floated gently in front of his eyes.
Guillotine, Caron called internally.
Guillotine was his constant companion. Even if Caron called in his sleep, it would answer. But now, he couldn't even feel a trace of Guillotine. Everything felt hollow. There was no one around; only fragments of memory filled the space.
"Cardan, you will understand me, won't you? You are trapped in the time stream, and I am trapped in fate."
"The Demon King of Void wants us to kill him ourselves."
"That's why we shall make a vow."
"Even if we cross hundreds, even thousands of worlds, lead me to the conclusion."
The moment Rael and Cardan had sworn that oath echoed like a ripple in his ear.
Countless other memories drifted in front of him. Not only the life of Rael Leston, but even the life he had once lived as Cain Latorre. If Rael Leston's memories rang out like echoes, the life of Cain Latorre unfurled in raw, exposed detail. This time, it wasn't fragmented shards.
When Caron blinked once, he was suddenly back to that moment when despair had engulfed him.
"You worthless piece of trash! I told you to fall over when I stabbed you! Because of you, the bastards I poured money into—huh?—they're trying to kill me now!"
Caron heard a voice. Before he knew it, he was there again.
It was a dank-smelling cellar. In that place, where a faint candle was all there was, Cain had curled up, getting kicked by someone. A boy gladiator in the underground arena. There had been no freedom, only survival off the trash the master threw down. It was definitely a time he had harbored nothing but hatred for the world.
"Ha! If I'd known, I would have sold you to that widow!" the voice continued.
He still remembered the name as clearly as ever. It was Baron Norang.
Thinking about it, I never found that bastard in this life, Caron smirked inwardly as he hunched his shoulders. He had sworn, when he reincarnated, that he would kill the man. Only, that revenge had been too far down the list of priorities. He had been too busy charging after the Demon King of Havoc. There had been no room to care about trash like that.
The hollow voice rang in his ear.
"The world is filled with such malice."
"Remember the hatred you felt at that time."
The voice of Void made hatred writhe and dragged him deeper into that memory. But Caron only smiled more darkly and flashed his eyes.
"Damn it," he said.
It was childish. Listing off Cain Latorre's life wasn't going to let malice swallow him. That life had made the Caron Leston he was now, but it didn't represent the whole of Caron Leston's life.
Thud!
Baron Norang's kicks continued without pause, but Caron merely pictured the faces of those he had to protect.
It lasted only a moment.
"Hold on... Now that I think about it, these are only memories," Caron muttered.
He sprang to his feet. Stoking his thirst for revenge and reawakening his hatred with mere memories wasn't going to work.
"Hey, Baron Norang," Caron said.
"Has this bastard gone mad? Do you want your throat cut? How dare you speak someone's name—" Baron Norang began, but was cut off.
"Shut up, you're being noisy," Caron interrupted.
Thud!
Caron grinned as he drove his foot hard into Baron Norang's stomach. The man's body flew across the room and slammed against the wall before crumpling helplessly to the floor.
Caron looked around lazily and shrugged, remarking, "I really was small back then.
His limbs were short. He must have been about ten years old at the time.
Crack!
Caron stomped hard on the Baron's leg and let out a faint breath.
"This isn't reliving hatred," he muttered, "it's just stress relief. Thanks, you Void bastard."
"Ahhhhh!" Baron Norang's scream echoed off the stone walls.
There was no hatred worth wasting on a bastard like this. From the very beginning, his hatred had always been directed toward the demons.
Caron reached out, snapped the Baron's neck, and said with a grin, "Thanks to you, I just remembered someone I'll have to pay a visit to once the war's over."
He planned on going to Baron Norang's estate. He would need to have the man's family properly hunted down and made to pay for their crimes as soon as he returned to the continent.
Having so easily crushed the wicked ghost of his past, he looked up and said, "This is too weak. Got anything else?"
The Demon King of Void, as if waiting for that cue, unfolded more memories before him. It began with the battlefield where his comrades had died, then the cries of peasants during the suppression of the rebellion, before moving to the defeated soldiers who had begged for their lives. And finally, Caron himself, dying upon the palace steps.
Regrets, one after another, replayed before his eyes. But Caron felt nothing. Those memories were the very things that made him who he was now. Those tragedies had forged Caron Leston. He had come too far to be consumed by the past.
Perhaps realizing that, the Demon King of Void murmured with interest...
"If the past is not enough... then I shall show you the future that branched from you."
Caron's body was pulled somewhere once again. When he blinked, he found himself standing before Glory, the capital of the Arcane Civilization—just as he had before entering the Core of Sin. Only now, much time seemed to have passed. Corpses were strewn all across the city.
Among them stood Caron Leston, shrouded in violet light, laughing madly. Around him lay the bodies of Caron's comrades—each one beheaded.
"Another Caron Leston who reached me. To overcome that version, you too must accept me."
"You've got it wrong," Caron said calmly. "I already planned to accept your power."
It was the final method to defeat the Caron of Void.
Caron turned around slowly, and there stood the Demon King of Void, wearing his own face, smiling.
"But that's not the ending you wanted, is it?" Caron asked.
"Why do you think that?"
"Because what you really wanted was complete annihilation. But that thing isn't annihilation. That fake became a new Demon King of Void. You can't call that disappearance," Caron pointed out.
From the beginning, the Demon King had been an ancient, colossal evil. Such evil wouldn't vanish in an instant. The Caron of Void had absorbed the Demon King entirely, and the Demon King would now live within him forever.
Step.
Caron approached the Demon King of Void, saying, "I'll grant your ancient wish."
The Demon King's lips curled in amusement.
"And how will you do that?"
"I'll absorb you," Caron said, "and then blow us both up along with that bastard."
"You mean to smother malice with malice?"
"Call it whatever you want," Caron replied coolly. "All you've ever thought about is how to die, isn't it?"
The evil that had existed since the dawn of time—ironically, all it desired was an end.
Caron seized the Demon King of Void by the collar, a faint smirk tugging at his lips.
"It's a deal," he said. "I'll help you die—so help me too."
At the word "deal," the Demon King's eyes gleamed with violet light. He laughed softly and nodded.
"I can already see your future."
"Don't talk in riddles," Caron said. "Just answer me."
"You'll soon understand our end."
At that moment...
Whoosh.
Caron's collapsing mana core began to shimmer faintly with violet light.
***
Boom!
Halo shattered the core of a Void Walker and exhaled heavily. The core's rampage was nearing its limit. Even if the battle ended, there was no guarantee he would be like before.
And yet, he didn't regret it. Dying here would be an honorable end. Or rather, dying after completing his mission would be.
Five minutes at best, he thought. After that, his core would collapse, and he would fall. But there was no regret. Caron would take care of everything somehow.
Whoosh.
Once again, Cain Latorre rose from the earth, screaming curses as he charged at Halo. But the gap between them had long grown insurmountable. The moonlit blade sliced only through empty air.
Whoosh!
As Halo cleaved through Cain Latorre's neck, violet beams poured down from the void above. He hastily cloaked himself in the ocean—
Ssszzzt!
"Urgh..."
The beams pierced through the oceanic barrier and scorched his skin. Halo clenched his teeth and endured the searing pain.
Just a little longer, Halo thought. He had to hold on until he could see Caron's face one more time.
Every second felt like eternity. The pain that flooded through every nerve threatened to crush his mind, but Halo resisted with superhuman willpower.
Boooom!
Booooom!
The Void Walkers unleashed a storm of attacks. Beams rained down and fists the size of boulders struck from every direction. Each time Halo blocked, blood surged up his throat.
He spat the blood onto the ground. The darkened liquid splattered and stained the earth black.
He didn't know how much time passed.
Craaack!
A violet bolt split the sky, and the Void Walkers that were charging toward Halo were obliterated in an instant.
"I'm a bit late, aren't I?" Caron said.
"...Caron?" Halo asked.
"Don't worry now, Halo," Caron said, smiling as he reached out a hand.
Halo stared at him in silence, saying, "Caron."
"It's all over," Caron continued. "We can finally end this miserable business once and for all."
With a sweep of Guillotine, waves towered toward the heavens. The overwhelming tide crashed down, obliterating everything in its path. When it passed, nothing remained. It was destruction incarnate.
Having wiped out countless foes in an instant, Caron flashed a bright grin and said, "You've been through a lot. Honestly, we both have. Don't you think we deserve some peace now? Leave the rest to me; I'll finish up soon."
"Caron," Halo called again.
"All that's left is to deal with the fake," Caron said lightly. "There can't be two suns in one sky, right? Help me finish off that impostor, and we're done."
Caron extended his hand, his voice calm and coaxing. But Halo only looked at the hand quietly.
Caron sighed, sounding faintly annoyed, then asked, "What are you doing? We need to get out of here. Who knows what's happening outside?"
"Right," Halo murmured.
"I'll disable the barrier. Just stick with—"
Slash!
Halo's blade cut diagonally through the air.
Thud.
Caron's arm fell to the ground, and gray dust began to pour from the wound. He looked down at his severed arm and laughed, as if amused by the absurdity.
"Bit much for a joke, don't you think?" he asked.
"You can't be the Caron Leston I know," Halo said coldly.
Caron chuckled and replied, "Ha... Friendship really is a nuisance sometimes."
Rumble.
Violet light pulsed from the stump of his arm, and within moments the limb regenerated completely. "Caron" smirked playfully, his eyes glinting with wicked delight.
"Didn't think I'd fall for that bastard Havoc's tricks, did you? Honestly, I stopped caring about things like 'comrades' a long time ago."
The power of Void began to swirl around him. Guillotine gleamed with a lethal, violent light, so intense it warped the space nearby.
"The Halo Leston I knew was a slow one," the false Caron said mockingly. "Amazing what losing a single friend can do to a man."
"You'll never understand it," Halo said quietly, "not until the day you die."
"What kind of curse is that?" the false Caron laughed. "To never understand until I die? That means never, doesn't it? I won't die, Halo. I'll live forever—through this boring, endless existence. But hey, at least I've got a new toy now. That'll make things less dull."
Madness flickered in his violet eyes as he spread his arms wide. He continued, "Stealing the life my fake worked so hard to build—doesn't that sound fun? But before that, I can't have anyone alive who knows the truth about me."
The Void-tainted "Caron" smiled wickedly and leveled his sword at Halo.
Halo drew up the last of the mana in his body and gave a faint, bitter smile, thinking, Sorry, Caron. I won't be able to keep my promise.
Without hesitation, he lunged toward the enemy wearing his friend's face.
And in that instant...
Squelch!
A blade of dark blue light pierced straight through Halo's chest.