Chapter 228

The deepest part of the earth!

At its centremost point, near the heart of the earth, where the scorching heat made it impossible for anyone to survive….. The real Lucius stood here. His body had changed back to its original form, and next to him was the animal skin coat that survived in the snow.

This tunnel was not dug by him, nor was it carved out of this world. Instead, it was the product of a super empire far beyond this world by an unknown number of years, called the Federation.

Straight to the heart of the earth.

And the location of the pathway to get to this place was the mining cave of the buried gold city.

Lucius endured the temperature that could even melt him, looking at the planet’s core, hot and tumbling waves of air, and as the huge pressure doesn’t bother Lucius at all.

The place where nobody would ever dare to visit.

Yet two persons came today…

The sound of hurried footsteps sounded behind Lucius.

“Is it coming?” Lucius withdrew his gaze at the heart of the earth and turned to look at the visitor.

The god of this world, the will of this world, Michael!

“Brother….”

Michael has long since lost his calm posture. From time to time, there were waves of air spurting out, trying to swallow Lucius, but an invisible force hindered it.

Lucius looked up and down at Michael and smiled, “Maybe I’ll be able to acknowledge you as a brother.”

“Eh?” Michael froze. He stared at Lucius’s smile, Michael’s hand waved lightly, the ground under Lucius’s feet began to squirm slightly, “Why?”

“Because… you’re very powerful.”

These words came from Lucius’s heart.

“As the will of a planet, you are practically an immortal existence….” Lucius spoke in a praising tone.

“….There is no way to kill you. Every flower and tree of this planet, a breeze, a ray of sunlight. Almost all of them are your incarnation. You exist anywhere on this planet. No matter how small, if there is still a trace of anything within this world, you will not die….”

“….And the ability to create a life that you have….”

This time it was Lucius’s turn to sigh.

“… It’s so powerful. The ice giants you sent to kill my demons feel like a well-equipped army fighting with a group of kindergarten children. Not even I could defeat all of those golems, so I just threw them,” Lucius pointed to the bubbling lava at the center of the earth.

Suddenly, Lucius bent down and bowed. “Ah, I forgot to tell you, Dragon God… I am Esnorris, and if you want to know what happened to the real Esnorris…”

As he curtsied, he slightly extended his thumb and, using it as a substitute for a knife, gently wiped his neck, “Eaten by me, to be precise, his existence was eaten by me, so I am him.”

A slightly gloomy expression appeared on Michael’s face.

Lucius smiled and continued, “Even I was surprised when that happened. So it seems like the so-called Saint is not omniscient and omnipotent like in the legend!”

“Don’t get too carried away!” Michael clenched five of his fingers together, suddenly, the ground around Lucius’s body all turned into prickly needles rushing towards him, but Lucius’s hand suddenly took out a glass-like object.

Michael’s body suddenly stiffened. He could not move!

“I admit, I can’t match your strength.” Lucius gazed at Michael, “Demon legions are nothing but a joke in front of the will of the world. You can create thousands of creatures more powerful than the Demon King with just a wave of your hand!”

This was the power of the will of the world, to create anything you want at will, to fabricate anything that doesn’t exist at will.

“Powerful creatures you create out of thin air, and weak creatures become even stronger with your ability! And by your will, it cannot be killed.”

A dangerous glow radiated from within Lucius’s scarlet pupils.

“You are invincible, on this planet, the aggregation of the will of all life! So, I wondered what it would take to kill something so disgustingly powerful. Still, even if you are immortal, you are not omnipotent. In the middle of Alex’s battle, you can’t do instant movement! You can’t possibly know the changes in every corner of this planet!”

A look of fear appeared on Michael’s face as Lucius stared at him.

“And as Xerath gathered the power capable of penetrating this planet, you were afraid, with the exact same expression as you have now, so I realized something…”

Lucius held up this glass-like round sphere in his hand.

“Since every present life on this planet, every inch of land, every blade of grass, every trace of air, every ray of sunlight, all represent your existence, what would happen if …… all of those were destroyed?”

Lucius cracked the corners of his mouth. A wicked smile appeared on his face, “If I were to destroy this entire world without leaving a trace of it, what would happen?”

“You will die, right?” Lucius scoffed at him

“You absolutely will die, right? You represent this planet, and as long as this planet does not exist, you will never exist either. Nothing is nothing! Nothing is death! Death means disappearance……”

Michael bit his lips, his forehead overflowed with sweat, and his expression perfectly illustrated the word fear.

Lucius took a step backward and gradually walked toward the heart of the earth, “So yeah, I planned this from the beginning… It seems that this so-called Federation had the same idea as mine. Not only did they open up this path to the center of the earth, but I also found this on that ship!”

Lucius held up the beautiful glass-like object.

“Once I throw this thing, there will be nothing left of this planet! It’s a bit sad but, that is not my problem.”

He chuckled.

“Brother… don’t… don’t.”

Michael looked in horror at Lucius, who was getting closer and closer to the heart of the earth, closer and closer to his own heart.

Lucius’s steps remained firm.

“Brother!”

Lucius’s body stiffened. He looked at the person in front of him in amazement. —The long jet black hair dangled down, reaching to the ankle, the pupils like the night sky with a little fright. Under the corner of the tearful eye, there was a mole… the face that Lucius missed.

‘No way…’

‘Impossible…’

“…… Jill?”

Lucius couldn’t move.

There was no way to move at all.

Lucius knew it was a ruse! It is Michael! His own sister died years ago, long ago…but the person in front of him was so realistic.

‘Kill her! Erase this illusion.’

But Lucius knew he could not do that!

The petite figure trembled and begging to Lucius, “Please, don’t walk there, okay?”

Lucius no longer walked to the center of the earth. Instead, he walked towards the young girl in front of him… Can he do it? The answer was no, even though it was an illusion! Even if it was an illusion, there was no way to do it because this was his purpose of existence.

“Brother?” She raised her head in surprise.

Lucius embraced the petite figure. Even though he knew she was not real, he held her tightly with both arms.

‘So…warm…’

Michael felt this strange touch, without any killing intent, from the heart of the loved ones.

‘Even if you know that I was in disguise, you still didn’t kill me? It’s all because of this woman… This woman is the hope of brother, right?’

A purple-black flame emerged from Michael’s hand.

‘Then erase, erase all the hope of brother! Kill this woman countless times!’

The arm with the purple-black flame pierced into Lucius’s heart. Then, Lucius’s consciousness sank into the pitch-black void.

…….

Michael opened his eyes. He has not known how many times he had done this kind of thing, to come to the world of hope in the hearts of others, then wantonly altered and crushed it, crushed it into despair.

‘How should I torture him….’

But…..

‘Nothing?’

Michael scanned around in amazement. He found himself entering a gray space, not pitch black, a completely empty grey void, “Where was Lucius’s… hope?”

Michael looked up and spotted a figure in front of him, huddled his own body.

After seeing it clearly, he found…

A walking Lucius. —to be precise, the young Lucius. His pupils were empty, emotionless.

‘This… is not the hope of brother. It is his despair!’

‘Impossible!’

Michael looked around but did not find anything else.

‘No hope, no future, only despair!’

This was the heart of Lucius.

………

Michael awoke from the world of consciousness and looked at Lucius, who still hadn’t done anything, “You kidding me… what kind of joke is this?”

“Thank you.” Lucius suddenly spoke faintly. “Let me relive this feeling… hope was something that died within my heart the moment she left me…”

Lucius let go of this familiar figure and reached out to stroke the other’s forehead, this time with a truly gentle smile on his face.

“Oh, if you are wondering about the planet-destroying device… I threw into the heart of the earth a few minutes ago.” Lucius handed the glass bead he was holding to Michael, “This is just an ordinary glass bead. Take it as a farewell gift, goodbye forever, my brother.”

“……”

His eyes widened, the illusion of Lucius’s sister that he made disappeared, and his body returned to its original form.

The earth’s center started to rumble, earthquake, and burst of lava, becoming more and more powerful.

This planet was also coming to an end, and no life could escape.