Magical Soul Parade

Chapter 392: He Did Not Fail

“Karmic Retribution.”

The moment the final syllable left Althea’s lips, the absolute cessation of Sage Limitless’s existence began.

It was entirely soundless and straightforward. There was no extravagant show of power, no grand, sweeping display of elements to mark the death of the world’s greatest anomaly. Instead, the crushing weight of the Great Dao simply pressed down upon his figure, executing a direct correction upon reality.

Fueled by the devastating momentum of the Great Dao and backed by the roaring intent of the billion vengeful souls that had chosen Althea as their sword, the attack pressed down on him from all sides.

Sage Limitless’s entire existence puffed out like smoke.

In a single, gory microsecond, his physical body decompressed into a fine mist, and before that mist could even scatter in the wind, his very soul underwent the exact same structural erasure. By the time Althea’s hand came completely down, absolutely nothing of him remained. There was no ash, no lingering aura, and not even the slightest soul residue.

Then, like a chain reaction, the cascading effect of his death surged across the entire plane.

Unlike the gradual, localized healing that had begun during the Sage’s brief ascension, this shift was instantaneous and total. Because there was no longer a single, self-centered entity holding an absolute, parasitic authority over the world’s mana, the change was near-instant.

In a single breath, the self-consciousness of the mana across the entire plane vanished entirely.

The change was felt down to the marrow. Every single person alive across the world felt an invisible, suffocating weight lift off the very air they breathed. For Arcanists especially, the transformation was even more profound.

And for Ossuarists, who under normal circumstances, possessed no natural compatibility to sense or feel ambient mana at all, the sheer magnitude of this sudden purification was so massive that even they could distinctly sense that something about the world had fundamentally changed.

The immediate battlefield, however, was not where the true impact of this liberation could be fully witnessed. Here, nearly everyone had already perished, leaving behind only a handful of powerful, heavily wounded Ossuarists and Transcendents who were still breathing among the ruins below.

Rather, it was those far beyond the horizon, scattered across the vast corners of the globe, who felt the reality of the miracle the most. All around the world, across the continents of Feraxia, Mechanus, and Aethelos, every living creature stopped in their tracks as a drastic, unyielding correction swept through the world.

The corrosive, parasitic effect that mana had aggressively enforced upon the souls of every Arcanist alleviated in an instant. Rapidly, a deep, unprecedented wave of physical and spiritual relief washed over millions of casters, though none of them possessed the context to know why.

For the first time in longer than the historical records of the world itself could trace, true balance reigned again. Reality reverted to its natural order, where magic was no longer a predatory virus that corrupted the soul with every single spell cast.

Meanwhile, back amidst the ruins of the battlefield, the one who had brought down the hammer of judgment remained floating silently in the sky. Althea, the sword of a billion vengeful souls, stared down at her own trembling hands.

Slowly, she raised her head, looking out into the distant horizon. Faint traces of white light still glowed within her pupils, granting her a temporary, heightened vision that allowed her to see the deep, underlying gears of the world’s newly balanced fabric.

For some reason, even though the deed was done, even though the billion vengeful souls had secured their retribution and vanished back into the natural stream of the cosmos, Finn was still actively channeling her with the Aspect Adaptation.

He could have severed the link the exact moment Limitless died, saving the massive reservoirs of makeshift divine power required to maintain such an apex state. Yet, he chose to keep the bridge open.

He wanted her to savor the moment. He wanted her to gain a clear, unshakeable understanding of what it meant to manipulate a higher power. He wanted the exact shape, rhythm, and weight of divine energy to be permanently remembered by her soul.

Now that Sage Limitless was gone, this world would finally be able to contain and accommodate divine power and faith without a violent environmental rejection. By forcing Althea to taste such a concentrated version of divine authority on a macro scale, Finn was essentially granting her a direct glimpse into the higher workings of the power.

It was a level of insight that no one else in this world, neither the existing Transcendents nor any future powerhouse who might rise from the masses, would be able to achieve for a very long time.

In essence, he was handing her a massive head start over the entire plane. And Althea also understood his intent very clearly.

In those few remaining moments of artificial godhood, she did not allow a single second of the connection to go to waste. She closed her eyes and savored the feeling, immersing herself wholly in the roaring current, carefully mapping the intricate nuances of how divine power worked.

But after several moments of absolute stillness, the intoxicating clarity finally receded.

Finn severed the adaptation, and immediately, his body trembled violently in the air. This was the very first time in any timeline or world that he had attempted to channel an adaptation onto a third party, grafting a foreign divinity directly onto another person’s soul. Even for an entity of his caliber, the tax was nothing short of brutal.

The moment the connection snapped, Finn’s body swayed dangerously, his altitude dropping by several meters before he caught himself. His breathing was heavy and ragged. And even the brilliant aura about him weakened significantly, dimming to a fraction of its usual intensity.

Far below, in the wreckage of the battlefield, Ailin continued to watch him. The deep, abyss-like blackness in her eyes held a calculated, knowing expression.

The entity dwelling within her had been watching with a silent, expectant patience, concluding that this was the exact moment Finn would face the catastrophic repercussions of his arrogance. The terrifying gaze of the Great Dao still lingered over the mountain peaks, refusing to retreat even though Sage Limitless had already been erased from existence.

To the ancient entity behind Ailin’s face, it was obvious that the heavens were lingering solely to deliver a final, annihilating judgment upon the Heretic for his unprecedented manipulation of divine law.

However, to their utmost surprise… and perhaps even to their dark glee, Finn did not collapse.

Ailin watched as the Errant Heretic rapidly stabilized his own internal reserves. He caught his breath, his slumping posture straightening back into that calm, unshakeable stance, and the dwindling aura around him began to steadily mount yet again.

A wide, unnerving grin broke across Ailin’s face, a expression of raw excitement that the entity could not hold back even if it wanted to. The smile stretched so wide that the skin at the edges of her lips cracked and bled from the painful tension, but the presence dwelling within her couldn’t be bothered by mortal pain.

Their excitement had reached an absolute peak as they watched the heavy, suffocating gaze of the Great Dao finally begin to roll back, retreating from the mountaintops the moment Finn proved he could hold his own.

“He did not fail,” Ailin whispered to herself in shocked delight.

The Great Dao had been waiting for Finn to break. If his soul had failed to hold after restoring the balance, he would have faced instant annihilation.

“…but he did not fail.”