Chapter 186: First Possible Destiny

Darkness returned, swallowing the ruined world, the burning Crimson Ducal Estate, and the two figures whose existence had left Elias deeply unsettled.

For a fleeting moment, he felt as though he were falling into an endless abyss, unable to find anything to hold on to. Then the sensation abruptly vanished, and Elias drew a deep breath as he opened his eyes and sat upright.

An orange screen flickered before him.

[Ding!]

[The simulation of the possible destiny –Breaker of Divine– has ended!]

Elias stared at the notification while taking several deep breaths, his expression caught between shock and grim seriousness.

He could still remember the green hellfire pouring down upon the Ducal Estate, the screams of the people trapped within it, and the older version of himself standing behind him with that chilling, demonic grin.

"What was that?" he mumbled, pressing a hand against his forehead.

A dull ache began spreading through his head as he tried to organize the images and information that had flooded his mind.

Although the System had called it a simulation of a possible destiny, he couldn’t determine whether he had witnessed a distant future or something else.

However, one thing was certain: whatever he had seen was connected to Natasha’s destiny, and the implications were too serious to dismiss.

He closed his eyes briefly before beginning to examine the vision from the beginning.

The first place he had seen was a ruined city, its buildings reduced to charred rubble and its streets buried beneath ash.

At first, he had wondered whether it was Kilmir, but the scale of the destruction and the size of the city had made that unlikely.

Kilmir had roughly three thousand residents, whereas the city in the simulation appeared to have accommodated at least ten thousand people, perhaps even more.

Unfortunately, there had been no recognizable landmarks, distinctive architecture, or surviving inhabitants to help him identify it, so he could only conclude that it was somewhere else.

The following desert of ash offered even fewer clues. He had walked across its desolate landscape without seeing anything that could reveal its location, and he had no way to determine whether it had once been a desert or whether the devastation of the surrounding lands had created it.

Then came the battlefield.

Elias frowned as he recalled the countless warriors and mages fighting against the creatures enveloped in green hellfire.

At the time, he had found it strange that there were no spiritualists among the defenders, especially considering how important the Path of Spirit was to the world. However, the next scene had provided the explanation.

The gigantic tower.

He was almost certain that the structure had been the holyland of spiritualists in Jorn, the place built by the First Man to walk the Path of Spirit and the foundation from which the world’s spiritualists had originated.

Every holyland possessed an artifact associated with its respective path, and the Spirit Artifact was responsible for producing the Dew of First Men. By consuming that dew, a child aged twelve or older could attempt to obtain the right to walk a path, although drinking it did not guarantee success.

A person couldn’t simply choose to become a swordsman, mage, or spiritualist based on personal preference. They first had to consume the appropriate dew, and if the path accepted them, they would hear strange sounds that signified their right.

Elias remembered his own ceremony vividly enough. He had consumed the Dew of Sword because the Crimson Ducal Clan wanted its children to become only swordsmen, not mages or spiritualists. The clan’s expectations had been clear long before he ever held a sword, and there had been little room for him to consider another path.

Those who failed to receive the recognition of any path were called Medo, and their inability to awaken often determined how society treated them for the rest of their lives.

However, the part that troubled Elias most was what he had seen inside the ruined holyland.

The Spirit Artifact had been shattered.

His brows knitted together as he remembered the countless crystal fragments scattered across the tower’s foundation.

The artifact had been a massive crystal, just like the corresponding artifacts of the other holylands, and it had been responsible for producing the dew that allowed new spiritualists to awaken.

If it had truly been destroyed, then no new spiritualists could be born through the traditional ceremony. Worse still, the broken spiritual threads in the sky suggested that the existing spiritualists might have been slaughtered, thus permanently severing their connection to the Spirit Realm.

The implications were horrifying, but the destruction of the artifact raised an even more troubling question.

"How did she do that?" Elias mumbled, rubbing his forehead.

Every holyland was protected by a Paragon.

The Crimson Duke himself protected the holyland of swordsmen, and the other paths had their own powerful guardians.

The holyland of spiritualists in Jorn should have been no different, yet the Natasha he had witnessed had not only reached the structure but had also destroyed its most important artifact.

That was no ordinary feat, even for someone possessing tremendous power.

Elias leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he tried to reconcile the woman in the simulation with the wife he knew.

The figure called the Breaker of Divine had resembled Natasha, but her appearance had been very different.

Her skin was pale, her eyes were pitch-black with green, flame-shaped pupils, and two horns made of green hellfire on her forehead. Even the way she carried herself had been unlike Natasha’s usual demeanor.

More importantly, the figure had shown no hesitation while destroying the Ducal Estate.

She had watched the flames consume the buildings and the people inside without displaying the slightest concern, as though the lives of everyone within those walls meant absolutely nothing to her.

The Natasha he knew was mischievous, affectionate, and occasionally difficult to handle, but she wasn’t someone who would slaughter innocent people without reason.

Even after everything she had suffered, she had never shown him such merciless cruelty.

And then there was the older version of himself.

Elias’s expression darkened as he recalled the man’s demonic grin and the strange agreement between him and the Breaker of Divine.

’Why did they make such a deal? And why did it want my body?’

He had no answers, but the thought that his future self might have played a part in such a catastrophe made his stomach twist.

He couldn’t imagine willingly making a deal that required him to surrender his own body.

Perhaps that was the most disturbing part of the vision. The man had looked like him, but the expression on his face had felt completely alien.

Elias exhaled slowly and forced himself to consider another possibility.

The voice narrating the simulation had repeatedly called Natasha the Child of Divine, which was also the name of her talent. It had described her learning to hold hellfire, developing fury, learning hatred, and eventually breaking beneath the world’s cruelty until she began breaking everything around her.

The progression suggested that her transformation was connected to her emotions, particularly her anger and resentment.

Yet the final voice had referred to the Breaker of Divine as "It," rather than "She," which made Elias suspect that the figure was no longer Natasha in the ordinary sense.

Something else might have taken control of her body.

His thoughts immediately turned toward the Seven Sin Treasures and the Crowns associated with them.

Mekah had explained that the Seven Sin Treasures represented Lust, Envy, Pride, Gluttony, Greed, Wrath, and Sloth, and that the Crowns chosen by those treasures possessed supernatural abilities that ordinary beings could scarcely understand.

Envy, for example, had been capable of taking things she desired, including another person’s appearance, affection, and even thoughts.

She had also attempted to take Stella’s body, only to discover that Stella’s Sword Body prevented her from possessing it. When Envy later entered Natasha, the Heavenly Demon Physique had overwhelmed and destroyed her.

If a similar entity had taken control of Natasha in the simulation, it might explain why the figure behaved so differently from his wife.

"The Crown of Wrath..." Elias mumbled, his eyes narrowing.

Of all the Seven Crowns, Wrath seemed to fit the vision most closely. The green hellfire, the destruction of entire cities, and the merciless slaughter all suggested a being whose power was connected to anger and fury.

However, he couldn’t confidently conclude that the Crown of Wrath was responsible. He had no idea how such an entity might possess Natasha when Envy had failed.

Perhaps the circumstances surrounding the simulation were entirely different from what he knew.

Either way, he needed more information before reaching a conclusion.

He had wanted to use Spirit Detection during the simulation, hoping to determine whether another entity resided within the Breaker of Divine, but the vision had ended before he could test the skill.

For now, he could only rely on the limited knowledge he possessed about demons, the Seven Crowns, and his wife’s unusual constitution.

And he didn’t wish to revisit the simulation for now.

A soft, cheerful voice suddenly interrupted his thoughts.

"Oh! Husband is awake!"

Elias turned his head toward the sound and found Stella looking at him with a bright smile. Her long crimson hair spilled over her shoulders as she stood nearby, and the sight of her familiar expression eased some of the tension in his chest.

"Stella," he said with a smile, deliberately pushing his troubling thoughts aside.

She immediately skipped over to him, her eyes shining with relief as she stopped beside the bed.

"Do you know how worried everyone was, hmm?" she asked, placing her hands on her hips. "You slept for a whole day! Even I do not get to sleep for that long."

Elias blinked in surprise. "I slept for a day?"

Stella nodded emphatically before sitting on the edge of his bed. "Yes, you did."

"Ah..." He fell silent.

"Well, it does not matter!" Stella declared, waving away his concern as though it were an insignificant problem. "I am just happy that husband is awake now."

She began rolling a strand of her long crimson hair around her finger, and her cheerful expression made it difficult for Elias to remain caught up in his darker thoughts.

"I am also happy that you are awake," he replied, gently patting her head.

Stella’s face brightened further, but then she suddenly raised her palm as though remembering something important.

"Ah!" she exclaimed before leaning closer with a wide smile. "I want you to meet someone!"

"Who?" Elias asked curiously.

Stella pointed toward the space beside her.

"Her! She is me, but older."

Elias followed the direction of her finger, only to find nothing. He glanced around the room before returning his gaze to Stella, whose expression had become increasingly expectant.

"No one is there," he said.

Her smile vanished.

Stella placed both hands on her hips and pouted in annoyance, her crimson eyebrows drawing together as she stared at him.

"Husband is also lying to me like others," she muttered. "I would not talk to you anymore."

"Wait! Stella!"

She immediately jumped off the bed and stormed out of the room before Elias could say anything else.

Elias stared at the doorway for a moment, his brows furrowing as he wondered whether Stella had begun seeing her other personalities as actual people after consuming another Extraordinary Sugar Fruit and being freed from the Crown of Envy.

He couldn’t be certain what she was experiencing, but he knew he couldn’t simply sit there doing nothing.

Getting off the bed, he quickly followed her.

However, just as he took a step out of his room, an orange screen appeared before him.

[Perfect Role]

[The most suitable role for Stella Crimson has been realized!]

[Does the host want to act like a loving father who wants to pamper his daughter?]

Elias stared at the orange screen for a long while and then mumbled, "It does not sound like a bad idea..."