Chapter 1314: Don’t Be Afraid Of Death

The staff collided with the palm and the palm stopped.

The resulting shockwave exploded outward in every direction, tearing through the dead zone and sending waves of distorted space rolling into the darkness. My arms trembled violently beneath the impact, and cracks spread across the surface of my staff as I continued forcing it against the gigantic hand.

Then the palm shattered.

A tremendous explosion engulfed the surrounding void.

My gigantic body was thrown backward like a mountain struck by a celestial force. The staff exploded in my grasp, and my Colossus Frame collapsed as I rapidly returned to my normal size.

Blood poured from my mouth.

My hands were broken, my arms hung almost uselessly at my sides, and the pain coursing through my body made it impossible to remain standing. I crashed onto one knee and stared ahead through the dissipating energy.

The gigantic palm was gone. But something remained. That tiny white spark still floated silently in the void.

My breathing stopped for a moment.

Even after everything I had done, I had failed to destroy it.

Lyrate immediately appeared beside me and caught my body before I could collapse completely. Her Soul Force poured into me as she began repairing my shattered hands and damaged body.

My future self watched silently before finally nodding.

"You did good. I was worried for a second there."

He raised his hand.

The white spark slowly drifted toward me.

"Don’t resist."

I instinctively tensed, but I remembered his warning and allowed the tiny flame to approach. It reached my forehead and disappeared into my body without causing any pain.

I could not feel where it had gone.

"What did you just give me?"

"You’ll understand when the time comes."

He turned away before I could press him further, directing his gaze toward the distant darkness where the ancient palace remained hidden.

He raised one finger.

Tap.

A multicoloured beam shot from his fingertip and vanished into the darkness. For several seconds, nothing happened.

Then a deep groaning sound echoed through the dead zone. The void ahead suddenly cracked.

The fractures spread outward like cracks appearing across an enormous sheet of glass before the entire region shattered with a deafening explosion.

My future self lowered his hand and casually brushed his shoulder, as though removing a speck of dust.

"There. I took care of the temporal formation laid down in this place. You won’t have to worry about anyone else being pulled here from the future."

He glanced back at us.

"You can recover and continue toward the palace without being interrupted."

I stared at him, still trying to process everything that had happened, but before I could ask another question, he gave me one final look.

"And Billion?"

"Hmm?"

His expression became unusually serious.

"Don’t be afraid of death."

Then he winked.

His body gradually became transparent, fading into the surrounding void until nothing remained.

I remained on one knee, supported by Lyrate, staring at the place where my future self had disappeared.

His final words continued echoing inside my mind.

Don’t be afraid of death.

*******

For several moments after my future self disappeared, neither Lyrate nor I said anything. The dead zone had returned to its previous silence, with only the faint remnants of our battle drifting through the darkness.

I finally lowered myself onto the void, while Lyrate sat down beside me, and the two of us began circulating Soul Force through our bodies to repair the damage we had suffered. My hands were already beginning to recover, but the pain remained sharp enough to remind me just how close that final collision had been.

Lyrate glanced at me while crimson energy continued flowing through her body. "That was ridiculous."

I couldn’t help but smile faintly. "Which part?"

"The part where your future self casually produced ninety-nine Origins." She shook her head, clearly still trying to process what she had witnessed. "I thought forty-nine was already absurd, especially considering how difficult it was for you to comprehend each one. Yet he had nearly a hundred Origins moving between his hands as if they were nothing more than threads."

"He wasn’t just controlling them," I replied, staring into the darkness where he had vanished. "He had them resonating together. Seventy percent across ninety-nine Origins is something I can’t even properly imagine achieving right now."

Lyrate was silent for a moment before looking toward me again. "And that white flame?"

My expression immediately became serious.

"I don’t know."

"You don’t know?" she repeated, almost incredulously.

"I really don’t." I slowly flexed my recovering fingers. "He called it the future form of our path, but that doesn’t tell me what it actually is. I have never felt anything like it before. It wasn’t another Origin, and it didn’t feel like Authority either."

Lyrate lowered her gaze toward her own hands. "It frightened me."

"It wasn’t because of the size of the attack," she continued quietly. "I’ve seen you use enough power to destroy things far larger than that. It was the white flame itself. Everything around it felt... incomplete, as though those ninety-nine Origins were trying to become something else."

I nodded slowly.

"That was exactly what I felt."

She looked at me. "Do you think that’s what we’ll become when we reach the next realm?"

"Maybe."

I paused, then shook my head.

"No. I shouldn’t even call it that yet. We don’t know enough."

Lyrate smiled faintly. "You usually have an answer for everything."

"Not this time."

The thought of that tiny white flame entering my forehead made me instinctively touch the spot where it had disappeared. I could not sense it anymore, yet somehow I knew it was still there, hidden somewhere within me.

"Whatever he gave me," I said quietly, "I’ll have to understand it eventually. For now, we have something more important to deal with."

"The palace."

I nodded.

"We’ve already come this far, and that future version of me went through all that trouble to clear the temporal formation. Whatever is waiting inside those ruins, we’re going to find it."

Lyrate finished circulating her Soul Force and slowly stood.

"You really don’t know how to rest, do you?"

I laughed despite the pain still running through my body.

"Apparently not."

She extended her hand toward me.

I grabbed it and allowed her to pull me upright.

Together, we turned toward the darkness ahead, where the ancient palace waited beyond the dead zone.