Damned Healer-Chapter 700: Stand Away

Darian took a deep breath. The enemy wasn't some brainless idiot; he knew Darian was a huge problem and didn't want to take any risks in the future. If he couldn't defeat him directly, he would just borrow another power to do it.

Darian understood the figure's intentions perfectly. He would attack using the power of Origin he had stolen, along with everything else he had, and that would create a fissure in the universe. It would be like an open wound leading straight into the underworld.

That wound could be repaired by the universe over time, but it wouldn't be fast. Meanwhile, all the destructive power from the underworld would flood in instantly, destroying everything inside.

Even if Niara or the other Spiritual Sovereigns opened spatial channels to their universes, those channels wouldn't be able to stabilize under the destructive force coming from the underworld. Everyone would be trapped, with no chance of escape.

By the time the wound finally closed, that universe would have been dead for a long time. Not even immortals could survive that.

Without a primordial beast using all its power to assist the Laws there, life would never return. It was the destruction of an entire universe—indirect, but absolute.

Darian had never felt so helpless.

"No…"

He muttered coldly.

Then suddenly…

He felt something inside his body shift and change without him directly acting. It was his White power—and the remnants of the black power.

It was like lightning suddenly ran through his body. Black lines spread rapidly through his eyes until they turned completely black, and his aura instantly transformed—dark, bloodthirsty, and wild. It was as if a demon had awakened inside him.

The manifestation behind him spun and pulsed, controlling that small amount of black power that had automatically fused with his soul.

In the next second, white lines appeared as well. One eye turned white, the other black. His body immediately stabilized, finding a balance.

Amid a mixture of regret and hatred, a strange clarity burst from the depths of Darian's soul. He locked onto the figure in front of him. His gaze was like an endless abyss, capable of devouring everything between heaven and earth.

He had no choice. No path left to walk.

If fate insisted on placing a road of destruction before him, then his only option was to implode the road itself.

"Come!"

Darian's Origin power moved toward the manifestation on his back.

*Crack!*

The sound of something breaking echoed.

A sinister aura wrapped around him as the power of Origin fused with the Zenith state. Darian's skin began to split like porcelain under pressure; his soul, subjected to a burden no mortal should ever endure, started to fracture.

But he didn't explode immediately. His White and Black powers fused to his soul, bearing the load for a brief moment.

Darian had imagined that adding the power of Origin to the Zenith state would bring the end of everything. After all, that wasn't a power a mortal should even be able to use. It could kill Gods, Immortals—anything… and he was still far too weak to withstand it now.

But…

The technique his master created had the ultimate goal of allowing him to use the power of Origin. It was Darian who, on his own, managed to use it ahead of schedule.

The Zenith state could fuse with everything he had, including the power of Origin. So why did Meru create all of this, giving Darian such a suicidal way out?

That was the realization Darian reached.

His master wasn't the type to do anything without reason; she was harsh and sadistic in training him, but not malicious, and she would never hand something so dangerous to someone lightly. Which meant…

…she knew he would reach this point. She knew he would have to fight someone impossible to defeat.

He had to use it. Even knowing it would be his final death.

Seeing the drastic change in Darian, the enemy hesitated, alarm clear on his face.

What kind of monster was Darian becoming? What was that man's limit, really? But the fear soon turned to disdain. It didn't matter.

With an arrogant gesture, he unleashed his attack: the Origin power he controlled shaped itself into a celestial spear, a judgment arrow capable of piercing eternity itself.

The spear advanced.

Darian watched the attack approach as if the world were moving in slow motion. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

A bitter thought crossed his mind: How did it come to this?

He never stopped, almost never rested. He fought every second to become stronger, yet life seemed to take sadistic pleasure in striking him with increasingly impossible challenges.

Around him, space collapsed.

Niara, fighting against unconsciousness, fixed her eyes on Darian. She felt his despair. Felt his intentions. Her entire soul trembled.

Darian's voice, terrifyingly calm, echoed in her mind.

'Sorry… I failed you.'

'What are you talking about?!' Niara screamed in her thoughts, her voice choked with panic. 'You could never fail me! I'll help you—I'm your shield! We'll beat this together!'

She said that, but her body was completely drained, without any strength left. Even sending a mental message felt difficult in her condition.

Darian gave a sad, painful smile. He loved this woman more than anything. Just imagining what he was about to make her feel… that was the greatest pain he had ever felt in his life.

He knew the end had come, but he wouldn't die in vain. His objective had been perfectly accomplished. He had saved the two universes.

The death of the Celestial Shadow was sealed, and Niara's universe was officially saved.

Back in his home universe, the three enemy Spiritual Sovereigns had lost all their influence and power, suffered heavy injuries, and lost their bodies.

Alear, after becoming an immortal, had now become a Spiritual Sovereign. United with the other four, and with everything Darian had built at their disposal, those three enemies would need at least a long time to attempt anything—and most likely, their chances of succeeding would be minimal.

With that, there was no reason for Heaven's Will to send Meru to completely destroy that universe. Everything was under control.

'Lucy, Lucius...'

Darian remembered how it all began, when he chose to sacrifice himself to give his siblings a future. He let out a muffled laugh. Fate was cruel; in the end, everything circled back to the same point.

As for the twins… now they had a bright and happy life ahead of them. Both had found someone they loved—and had found themselves as people.

He had fulfilled his role as the older brother, taking care of them in their mother's place. He gave them the world he himself never got to enjoy.

And his former mother… Alear was back now and had even reunited with the love she had missed so much.

He had won.

But the tightness in his chest came from those he would leave behind.

'Damn... Tir, Eleri, Awel, Ailik... I failed you. I hope that, in another life, I can make it up to you for being weak.'

'Master, we'll make it!' The voices of the four rang out hysterically.

Darian sighed and sealed them all inside his inventory, isolating them from the outside world, not letting them see or hear anything.

He couldn't release them in the middle of that annihilation; they would die anyway. He was also certain none of them would try to run for their lives—they would stay by his side and try to save him until the very end.

If the end was coming, then they would depart with him, without feeling pain. That way, the inventory space would simply collapse in an instant, and they would all disappear without feeling a thing.

With a snort, Darian activated everything he had to the maximum.

All of his Origin power moved differently. He activated his domain and his strength to…

…pull the enemy's power toward himself.

The celestial spear trembled and shifted in his direction.

It contained all of the enemy's immortal strength, along with the Origin power taken from the Celestial Shadow. It had the power to tear a massive wound into the universe itself—let alone into a mortal like him.

Darian stepped forward.

'DAN!' Niara's mental scream was like shattered glass. She realized what he was about to do—he would become the lightning rod of destruction.

'Niara...' he whispered, and this time his voice carried a painful tenderness. 'I'm sorry I didn't love you enough while I had the time. If fate allows me to live again, in any era, in any world... I'll love you all over again.'

'NO! YOU CAN'T!'

Niara tried to materialize inside, tried to reach him with trembling fingers, burning her own soul to do it, but… Darian was faster.

Using his connection with her, he moved the last remnants of mental energy within her, forcing her consciousness to shut down.

She closed her eyes, falling into a coma. Her physical body was ejected from the fissure, thrown back into the safety of the stable universe.

Inside the collapsing spatial fissure.

Darian stared at the spear. He opened his arms. His manifestation grew, becoming like the open mouth of a gigantic, starving beast.

When it touched him—

All that world-destroying power simply vanished, swallowed by him.

*Crack*

Darian's body pulsed. Blood burst from every pore, but he refused to explode. Not yet. He endured the pain and fixed his gaze on the enemy staring at him in shock.

Darian smiled. A sinister smile—from someone who had nothing left to lose.

"Stand Away!"

The force that erupted from him wasn't an attack. It was a supernova.

Darian closed his eyes as white light devoured his senses.

His curse couldn't revive his body. His curse also couldn't revive his soul without the power of Origin. That was a limitation not even his curse could bypass.

Which meant… this was the end. No chance of return.

**KBOOOOOOM!!!**