After a few moments…
The laughter vanished completely.
Not a trace of it remained.
At that very moment, the train began to fade away.
It did not crash, nor did it explode.
Instead, it seemed as though something immense were devouring it from the outside.
The carriages disappeared, then the corridors, then the walls, then everything within them, until the void swallowed the entire train.
In the end…
Nothing remained.
Adam was left alone.
He stood within the unfathomable void, with neither light nor darkness, no ground beneath his feet, and no direction to follow.
No sound.
No movement.
No existence.
Only his thoughts.
Endless thoughts, circling through his mind without stopping.
“Is it all over…?”
He remained silent for a few moments.
Then he lowered his head.
“Was I really that blind…?”
He remembered Diana.
Her smile.
Her voice.
Her hand clasped around his.
And the last words she had spoken to him.
“Was our life meaningless from the very beginning…?”
He closed his eyes.
There was no answer.
There was not even anything that could give him one.
Everything he had ever known had vanished in a single instant.
Then he whispered, his voice quiet and devoid of anger this time:
“I’m tired…”
He raised his head toward the endless void.
For the first time since the beginning of his journey, Adam no longer wanted to survive.
He did not want revenge.
He did not want power.
He wanted only…
For everything to stop.
Adam could no longer feel his body.
In fact, he no longer felt as though he possessed a body at all.
His consciousness hung suspended within the void, severed from every sensation of existence, as though the very concept of a body had become something distant and foreign to him.
For a reason he could not understand, Adam remained there longer than the other entities.
He did not decay.
He did not disappear.
He did not fall into nothingness.
As though something were delaying his end without giving him a reason to continue.
But even that could not last forever.
The fingers of his hand began to fade slowly.
Their tips broke apart into tiny particles, then vanished into the void without leaving a trace.
Adam stared at them in silence.
He did not resist.
He did not scream.
He did not search for a way to survive.
He knew that the end had finally come.
He was not accepting it because he had made peace with it…
But because he had realized there was no escaping it.
His body continued to dissolve slowly, while his consciousness remained motionless within the void.
His fingers disappeared.
Then his hand.
Then his entire body began to lose its boundaries, little by little.
And Adam remained silent.
For the first time…
There was nothing left for him to wait for.
“Do you really want it to end…
this easily?”
The whispers stopped for a moment, then the voice returned from all around him, closer now, clearer:
“No revenge…
no resistance…
helpless, without any strength?”
Adam’s eyes snapped open.
Parts of him were fading into the void, as though his very existence were beginning to lose its meaning.
He looked around, trying to determine where the voice was coming from.
“Who are you?”
There was no answer.
Silence lingered for a few moments, then his own voice began echoing around him in a strange way, as though the void itself were repeating his words from directions that did not exist.
Then the voice came again.
Calm…
Cold…
And far too deep to belong to an ordinary being.
“I am the Spirit of Absolute Darkness.”
The words paused for a moment.
Then it continued:
“And you…
will become my link.”
Adam’s eyes widened.
“What…?”
He could not finish the word.
Suddenly, something black surged from the depths of the void.
It was neither body nor matter, but something resembling living darkness, gathering around him before rushing directly into his being.
The entity entered Adam’s body.
And in that very instant…
His dissolution stopped.
The particles that had been fading away ceased their collapse, and the parts of his body he had lost returned to where they belonged.
His limbs regenerated.
His features returned.
And his body became whole once more.
Adam opened his hands and stared at them in silence, unable to comprehend what had just happened.
Then he raised his head toward the void.
But the voice was gone.
And the entity…
Had vanished inside him.
Adam was alone once again.
Except that something had changed.
Then the past vanished from Clark’s eyes.
Every scene, every image, every memory dissolved, and the present returned to its place.
Adam was still there, standing motionless within the void, neither moving nor uttering a single word.
Clark continued staring at him for several moments, astonishment mingling with anger in his eyes.
Then he said in a low but decisive voice:
“These gods…
It seems this world is far larger than I expected.”
He fell silent for a moment, then tightened his grip around the tiny particle.
“I have to change this chaos.”
His eyes rose toward Adam.
“And I’ll begin now.”
His fingers clenched even tighter.
Suddenly…
A massive line of light erupted from between his fingers, racing across the void as though tearing through an invisible barrier separating one world from another.
Then something happened that Adam could never have expected.
His body vanished from where he stood.
And in the next moment…
Adam appeared within that mysterious world.
Above the chaos.
He stood there in silence, while crystal-clear waters, colossal crystals, and a sky filled with stars surrounded him on every side.
Adam slowly raised his head.
For the first time, he seemed to be standing before a presence he could not comprehend.
As for Clark…
He watched him from afar in silence.
As dust fell from the strings stretching across the sky, the entire place began filling with a dense fog, within which countless colors intertwined; sandy, golden, red, black, and countless others, all blending together until it became difficult to distinguish the boundaries of the place.
Adam stood in the midst of that fog, astonished and unaware of what surrounded him.
He took a few steps forward, then stopped and called out hesitantly:
“Is anyone here?”
No one answered.
Silence fell.
Then a massive, imposing silhouette appeared before him, stretching across the fog as though it transcended the very boundaries of the place.
Adam froze for a moment, his body trembling involuntarily, but he clenched his teeth and tried to keep himself steady.
Then he said:
“Who are you?…
Are you one of these gods?”
Clark thought for a moment, as though remembering something distant.
He remembered that game he used to play with his friends at home.
And suddenly, a faint smile appeared on his face.
He raised his head and said:
“I am not a god.”
Silence descended for a moment.
Then Clark continued, his voice more confident:
“I am something mysterious that transcends history and fate…”
His smile widened slightly.
“I am inevitability.”
Adam swallowed with difficulty.
He could not see the entity standing before him clearly.
There was something profoundly strange about Clark, something almost impossible to describe.
Even his face appeared like an unfinished illusion, concealed beneath overlapping layers of consciousness that prevented any being from perceiving his true nature or seeing his features as they truly were.
Even the squirrel perched upon his shoulder was surrounded by that same mystery, as though its existence, too, lay behind a veil that prevented others from perceiving its true nature.
Adam remained silent for a few moments, then asked:
“Why did you bring me here?”
Clark answered calmly:
“If you wish, I can return you immediately to your place within the void…
or I can help you obtain your revenge against the gods.”
Adam’s eyes widened in astonishment.
It seemed he had never expected this entity to know anything about everything that had happened to him.
But Clark continued speaking without stopping:
“I want to change that fate that devours creatures…
that darkness surrounding existence.”
Silence lingered for a few moments.
Then Clark looked at him and said:
“So, do you want to survive…
and reclaim everything you have lost?”
Adam’s eyes widened, and he felt something strange stirring deep within him.
For the first time in a long while, hope ignited within him once again.
A faint hope, but enough to give him a reason to keep moving forward, as though he had once again glimpsed a distant light and found a goal worth pursuing.
Clark remained silent for a few moments, contemplating what was happening, then whispered:
“The situation has become strange…
There are other gods watching over the universes as well, feeding the darkness…
I fear that something might happen to my friends.”
He fell silent for a moment, then made his decision.
He raised his gaze toward the stars and said in a low, resolute voice:
“I have to gather them in that world as well, under my watch…
As long as I have authority outside, I will be able to protect them, even if I can only do so through a simple will.”
Adam answered in a low voice, but there was unmistakable determination beneath it:
“Yes…
I want that.
I want my revenge.”
At that very moment, Clark felt something strange.
A sharp pain began spreading through his head, while his vision gradually blurred, as though his consciousness itself were beginning to drift away from this world.
Frost noticed the change that had come over him and said worriedly:
“My lord, it seems your spiritual energy is nearly depleted.
You will have to leave this place.”
Adam raised his eyes toward the colossal entity looming before him, while silence continued to hang over the place.
Then Clark finally spoke:
“Come closer…”
Adam hesitated for a moment, then began advancing with cautious steps.
His heart pounded violently, and the closer he came, the heavier the mysterious presence surrounding the entity became.
Adam whispered to himself:
“This entity…
It is enormous.
Its power is beyond belief…
and the mystery surrounding it is terrifying.”
Then, when he had drawn close enough, the scene before him fully revealed itself.
There was an entity seated upon a colossal throne, magnificent beyond measure; a surreal throne whose majesty surpassed everything Adam had ever known, as though its very existence belonged to a realm entirely separate from reality.
Clark spoke in a calm voice:
“From this moment onward, you are a member of the Fate Organization.”
He paused for a moment, then continued:
“You will return now.
Do not worry…
You will appear in a world known as Chaos.
It is not that bad.”
He fixed his gaze upon Adam, then continued:
“You must remain there until the time comes for you to return once more…”
He paused briefly.
“In one week.”
Adam tried to process everything he had been told, but the words felt too heavy to absorb all at once.
Then he asked:
“How will I know that I am going to meet you again?”
At that very moment, a strange symbol appeared above Clark’s throne.
Intertwined golden serpents twisted around one another in a mysterious pattern, and at their center was a massive eye staring down in silence.
The symbol shot forward from above the throne, then rushed toward Adam and pierced directly into his body.
At that very moment, everything around him began to fade.
The world slowly disappeared, while Clark’s voice reached him one final time:
“Wait for my command…
when that symbol shines, the time for our meeting will have come.”
Clark found himself once again inside that strange room.
He raised his eyes toward the clock and froze for a moment when he realized he had only four minutes left.
He clenched his teeth and said:
“There’s no time to think…
I have to throw myself from the balcony.”
Tick…
tick…
tick…
Clark moved toward the balcony, and the moment he stepped onto it, the book vanished completely, as though it had returned to its mysterious world.
But something strange caught his attention at the edge of the balcony.
He took hold of the lamp, then slowly brought it toward the abyss, trying to illuminate whatever lay in its depths.
And in the next moment…
He froze in place, a chill running through his entire body.
There were endless panels stretching throughout the abyss, rows upon rows, without end.
And on each panel appeared a different person; a figure carrying a history, a life, sacrifices, and a story of their own.
Clark stared at the scene, unable to comprehend it.
Then…
He saw two familiar panels.
His eyes widened.
They were the very same panels he had seen before inside the Fallen Gate.
On one of them stood a woman with black hair and beautiful features, and beside her stood a man wearing an elegant suit, a faint smile resting upon his face.
The lamp slipped from Clark’s hand.
Only two minutes remained.
He stared at the two panels with trembling eyes, then his voice emerged in a whisper, as though he could barely believe what he was seeing:
“Mom…
Dad.”
In that moment, Clark realized the truth.
His parents had not died in a car accident, as Max had told him.
There was something else…
Something mysterious standing behind their deaths.
Something powerful enough to make him question everything he had ever known about his life, and everything he had believed to be true until that very moment.
Tick…
tick…
tick…
Clark’s anxiety intensified.
Then the clock stopped.
At that very moment, Clark jumped.
The entity moved with a speed beyond the perception of the human eye, reaching the balcony in the blink of an eye, its hand on the verge of catching him.
But it was too late.
Clark fell into the endless abyss, continuing to stare at the entity as he drifted farther and farther away from it.
The entity stared back at him with a terrifying smile…
Then it vanished.