THE VILLAIN'S POV

Chapter 937: The Wall of Fate (2)

Before long, the path began to manifest before them as a tear in empty space, an opening that led into the unknown.

Frey and Abraham immediately supported him with their Aether, allowing Seth to push the power of his Rune to its absolute limits without losing control.

Audrey was the last to join them, supplying an endless stream of Aura through her extraordinary ability.

Little by little, the passage grew.

It expanded further and further until the gateway, which had begun as nothing more than a narrow tunnel, became wide enough for several people to pass through at once.

Beyond it stretched a long road of brilliant white light, piercing through the boundaries of two worlds and disappearing far into the distance.

Sweat poured down Seth’s face.

Frey and Abraham were struggling as well, pouring everything they had into keeping the passage stable.

"Now!"

"Go, Agaroth! We won’t be able to hold it for long!"

Seth’s shout rang out, giving Agaroth the signal he had been waiting for with every fiber of his being.

Agaroth immediately charged toward the gateway.

And he entered it.

But the instant his foot touched that passage...

He froze.

A crushing pressure descended upon his body.

The Aether and Aura used to construct the passage bore down upon him simultaneously, making the simple act of remaining upright a challenge in itself.

Even so...

Agaroth moved.

He forced himself forward, step by step, his crimson eyes fixed upon what awaited him at the other end of that road of light.

Everything he had ever yearned for was waiting on the other side.

All he had to do was cross.

At that moment, Agaroth would not have stopped even if the entire world turned against him.

And the moment he advanced further...

Everything began to tremble.

From Agaroth’s body, from somewhere behind him, dark ropes of Aura emerged and wrapped themselves around him, desperately dragging him backward.

At the same time, a strange pressure came from ahead, pushing him away.

"The Land of Survival is reacting to him..."

Seth’s expression darkened the moment he understood what was happening.

"It refuses to let him go!"

"And the Aether World is rejecting him as well..."

Frey frowned alongside him.

But there was nothing either of them could do.

"Everything depends on Agaroth now."

"He has to endure it and keep moving until he reaches the other side!"

Trapped between two worlds, Agaroth’s body began to tremble violently.

It felt as though everything inside him had descended into chaos, as if a small piece of his very existence vanished with every step he took.

Still, he endured.

Still, he moved forward.

Blood began pouring from his body.

His appearance grew paler with every passing moment.

Agaroth roared from the depths of his being and summoned every last fragment of strength he possessed.

Clea’s seal had crippled him severely.

There was nothing else he could rely upon.

At some point, the entire road began to shake.

The gateway slowly started to contract.

Maintaining the passage was becoming impossibly difficult, and Seth was already approaching his limit.

But Agaroth had crossed most of the distance.

He was almost there.

And as he approached the end...

The Land of Survival unleashed its most violent rejection yet.

It clung to Agaroth with everything it had.

Suddenly, Agaroth’s right arm vanished from existence.

It was torn backward toward Frey and the others as though some impossible force of gravity had ripped it away.

Then his left leg was torn from him.

Agaroth crashed violently onto the path.

Yet he refused to stop.

He fought with everything he had left.

Soon, his entire body began to disintegrate.

Pieces of him were dragged backward as black dust, scattering into the passage behind him.

Agaroth’s body grew smaller and smaller.

His physical form became so broken that the others could barely recognize him anymore.

And still...

Agaroth kept moving.

His endurance stunned everyone watching.

"Don’t stop!"

Frey’s voice thundered from far behind him.

"You’re almost there!"

The passage was on the verge of collapse.

Agaroth’s body had nearly turned entirely to dust.

Almost nothing remained of him.

Yet that tiny remnant...

Made it.

Agaroth finally reached the end of the road.

He stood before the gateway on the other side, and for the first time in his entire existence, his crimson eyes beheld the Aether World.

It was there.

Directly in front of him.

The goal he had pursued his entire life was finally closer than ever before.

Only one step remained.

One final step.

Agaroth took it with every last fragment of strength remaining within his shattered existence...

Only to find himself standing before the terrifying being who had once haunted his nightmares.

Agaroth stopped.

No.

He was forced to stop.

Frey’s eyes widened alongside everyone else’s as they saw the figure who had appeared from nowhere to block Agaroth’s path at the final moment.

She had entered from the other side.

And now...

She stood before him.

Agaroth stared into those dark eyes, eyes resembling a vast cosmos drowned in stars, and tried to move past her.

He tried to cross.

But the one standing before him was none other than the First Writer herself.

Clea.

With a single motion...

Agaroth was blasted backward.

He was thrown all the way back to where he had begun.

And then Clea destroyed everything.

Instead of Agaroth crossing into the Aether World...

She entered the Land of Survival.

With her real body.

Agaroth crashed down violently.

The passage Seth had created shattered the instant Clea crossed through it.

Everything they had built collapsed.

Everything vanished.

And history repeated itself.

Far away from them, deep within the Council...

The Oracle, Lea, sat alone with her knees drawn tightly against her chest.

Sadness covered her face.

And at that very moment, she whispered an apology no one was there to hear.

"I’m sorry... Frey..."

Once again...

Agaroth found himself standing before the wall of fate.

Before overwhelming, absolute power.

A wall no one could ever cross.