Aurelion froze.
His breath hitched, his heart—if it still beat—would have stopped. His eyes widened as the figure stepped out of the crimson mist, unfazed, unbent, and unmistakably alive.
"Jin…? No… you were—"
"Dead?" Jin's voice was quiet, almost amused. "I was. And yet... here I stand."
He stepped forward. There was a new aura to him—serene, yet disturbing. As if he now walked between truth and illusion.
Aurelion's voice quivered. "But how…?"
Jin raised a single finger to his temple and smiled, eyes shimmering with cosmic deceit.
"I awakened not one, but three Requiems. The first is already known to you. Second is called Jest – Echo of the Fool."
Aurelion's lips parted.
"I am Fool," Jin continued, his voice echoing in multiple tones—as if mocking the laws of existence itself. "An ability that allows me to deceive everything. Cause, effect, prophecy, identity… even Death itself. So long as I declare it, the world believes it."
Aurelion staggered back, breathless.
"Impossible…"
"Is it?" Jin smiled. "Or was it simply that you never expected me to be more than your pawn?"
He reached into his robe and drew forth a small, ancient key—ornate, blackened by Abyssal metal and yet pulsing with silver light.
"This," he said, "is what you were looking for."
Aurelion's expression turned pale. "That's… the Voidlock Key—"
"You dropped hints over the years. You wanted to find it. So did the Monarchs. But I found it first. In the Abyss, when I became its King. At the time, I didn't understand what it was."
He paused. "Until I saw the vision."
"What vision?" Aurelion's voice was weak now.
Jin's gaze grew distant.
"The vision that my mom showed me. Your future. Your motives. You want to erase darkness entirely, then conquer entire Eternal Path, rule over every foreign cosmologies and also want to make a new world where weakest are dominated by you… and you need the Cup of Reincarnation to do it."
Aurelion turned cold, stepping back again.
"And the Monarchs… they want the Cup too, to destroy the Light. Two sides of the same corrupted coin. Aurelion I thought you are intelligent but I am worng. You are unworthy for the throne."
Aurelion shouted. " No__ I am Aurelion. I know everything in cosmos. Where did you get that courage to speak.''
Jin sighed. " No. You are not."
" Yes. I am."
Then Jin looked at his eyes. " Then can you tell me where is other half.''
Then it slipped.
Aurelion clenched his fists. "That Cup… the second half is hidden beneath castle—" He stopped too late.
Jin's smirk widened. "Thank you."
"Damn you!" Aurelion roared. "The Overlords will never spare you!"
Jin's expression turned grim, his voice dropping to a whisper laced with mockery.
"Overlords?" He leaned close. "Do you really believe they're still alive?"
Aurelion's heart dropped.
Jin raised a hand—and with a snap—
The world around Aurelion shattered like glass.
Suddenly, he stood in a grand hall drenched in blood. Celestial corpses lay twisted, torn, their divinity ripped apart. His wife—Selira—lay on the floor, her hands outstretched toward him, her eyes lifeless.
"No…" Aurelion whispered. "This isn't real—this can't be…"
"You killed them," Jin's voice echoed behind him.
"I didn't—!"
" Yes. You did this.'' Jin leaned close.
He raised a palm—and a vision played before Aurelion's eyes.
In it, Aurelion screamed at the Assembly, declaring his motives. They tried to seal him. He retaliated. He butchered them all—his wife, his siblings, his allies—because they wouldn't obey. Because they saw the darkness in him.
Aurelion sank to his knees, hollow. "No… what have I done…"
"You never realized," Jin said softly, "because my third Requiem— Flaw – Echo of the Error. Its ability is Hypnosis."
Jin looked down at him, pity in his eyes.
"It controls minds, thoughts, emotions. But its true terror lies in the flaw it creates… the victim never realizes they've been possessed until I tell them."
Aurelion trembled, tears mixing with blood. "You tricked me… used me…"
"No," Jin replied, walking past him. "You used me. I simply learned from the best."
Aurelion roared in a final fit of pain and launched a beam of pure stellar destruction—
But Jin raised his hand. "Reversal."
The blast froze, inverted, then raced backward—straight into Aurelion.
It struck him with divine force, sending him crashing into the rubble, his body mangled, blood dripping from every pore.
He coughed, crawling. "Jin… I…"
As Aurelion lay bleeding, his vision blurring, he looked up at Jin, who stood over him—not as a tyrant, but as something deeper, more tragic. A survivor who bore the weight of betrayal and destiny.
Jin's voice came low, solemn.
"You always thought I was just a child of fate... a mistake.
A vessel. A tool. A shadow of the Abyss.
But the truth, Aurelion?
I was never the fool. You were."
Aurelion coughed violently, but said nothing.
"You wanted to erase darkness—to shape the Eternal Path in your image.
But in doing so… you became the very darkness you feared.
You told yourself it was for peace. For your daughter.
But peace born from control is just another form of tyranny."
He knelt down beside Aurelion, looking directly into his eyes.
"You didn't lose to me because I was stronger.
You lost because you forgot what it means to be human.
And I… I never did."
Aurelion's gaze trembled. His breath caught. He began to see—flashes in his mind not just of what happened… but how far he'd fallen.
He saw his daughter, Aurelia, staring up at him with innocent eyes… and how that innocence faded each time he pushed the world toward conquest.
And then… the moment in the vision Jin showed him: his own hands soaked in the blood of comrades and kin, screaming as he declared himself the only salvation.
His voice cracked. "I… I didn't know…"
Jin nodded gently.
"That's the curse of power without conscience.
You never know… until it's too late."
Tears streamed from Aurelion's eyes as he reached out a trembling hand.
"Jin… forgive me. I… wanted to build a world for her. For Aurelia… but I let my evilness consume me."
Jin looked at him—not with hatred, but with a quiet, weary understanding.
"Then let this be your atonement. Rest. I will carry your burden now."
Aurelion, sobbing, pulled the crystal from within his chest and placed it in Jin's palm.
"Then take it… The Authority of the Lunar World. My last gift."
His broken arms reached toward the air, and as his life ebbed, his soul left his body gently.
"Selira…" he breathed, as the image of his wife appeared beside him.
"I'm here," she whispered. "Let's go home."
His last words were a whisper to the wind.
"Aurelia… forgive me… forgave you foolish father."
Suddenly, the air shifted.
Moonlight bloomed in the space before him.
Gentle, soft footsteps echoed—a familiar warmth returning to a world that had long grown cold.
Aurelion's eyes widened, tears slipping down his bloodstained cheeks.
From the glowing moonlight emerged a woman in a flowing silver robe, her presence radiant, serene—Aurelia, just as he remembered her in the days of innocence. Her hair cascaded like silk down her shoulders, and her eyes shimmered with both pain and love.
"Aurelia…?" his voice cracked.
She didn't speak at first. She simply stepped closer, her hand reaching toward him, fingertips glowing.
"Father… I waited for this moment," she whispered, voice ethereal. "I watched you fall. I cried, hoping you'd see. But now—here you are."
Tears streamed from Aurelion's eyes. "I'm sorry. I don't deserve forgiveness. I don't deserve to see you again."
Aurelia knelt beside him, pressing her forehead to his.
"Maybe not. But even monsters deserve one moment of truth… if they can change."
She smiled.
"I forgive you, father."
That word—father—shattered him.
Aurelion broke. The golden flames in his body extinguished, and only the man remained—not a king, not a god, but a father who had finally realized he had lost what mattered most.
He turned to Jin, voice trembling.
"Jin… thank you. For showing me… what I became. For letting me see her."
He raised his hand weakly and held Jin's hand.
" Don't become me."
Jin nodded solemnly. "I won't."
Then Aurelia turned to Jin, her eyes softening.
"Zenex… you've grown well," she said gently.
Jin's expression shifted—shock, warmth, pain, and something deeply human all flickering at once.
She smiled, stepping closer, placing a hand on his cheek.
"Thank you," she whispered. "For not letting my death be in vain… for still carrying light, even when it hurt."
The time stopped for—mother and her reincarnated son—two souls who had borne the weight of eternity's cruelty.
"I tried to protect you… When I discovered Zhel-Vorah's true motives, I fled. He never wanted love—he wanted domination. He planned to forge an unstoppable army… one born from both light and darkness. Beings who could transcend every weakness."
Her eyes shimmered with regret.
"You were his masterpiece, Zenex. The perfect fusion. Light strong enough to shape destiny. Darkness deep enough to erase it."
Then, Jin spoke, his voice low, resolute.
"I will kill him… Zhel-Vorah. The one who used you. The one who created me for destruction. He will fall."
Aurelia stepped back slightly, gazing into his eyes. Her glow shimmered, and her voice was firm yet tender.
"Then do it not for revenge… but for release. End him, Zenex, not as his son—but as the one who broke free. Just promise me… don't become the monster he wanted you to be and don't forget to live, my son. You were never his tool. You were always mine—my hope."
Jin nodded slowly, a storm behind his eyes.
"I promise."
With a gentle glow, Aurelia began to fade, her soul finally at peace.
"Live on," her voice echoed as light particles danced into the air, "for both our worlds."
Aurelion smiled faintly one last time as he watched her fade and he vanished with his wife fading into silver light.
Jin stood silently. Then he gathered their souls in silence and walked to the Lunar Lake.
There, beneath the stars, he placed each soul into the sacred waters. The lake shimmered, moonlight cradling their essence.
Jin knelt.
He closed his eyes.
And he prayed.
"To whatever gods remain… let them find peace. Let them be reborn. Let them… be free."