During those one and a half years, Duskwild suffered endlessly.
Relentless rains flooded the land.
Earthquakes shattered the ground.
Tsunamis swallowed entire coastlines.
Storms roared across the planet like the wrath of the gods.
Every living being trembled in fear, wondering if the end had finally arrived.
And then, one day…
Everything stopped.
The rains vanished.
The earthquakes ceased.
The storms disappeared.
As if none of it had ever happened.
Slowly, people returned to their daily lives.
Many searched desperately for the cause behind the disasters.
But in the end, they found nothing.
Only silence remained.
But they did not know that the one responsible for all of this had yet to open his eyes.
And when those eyes finally opened…
Every being in the universe would remember why they had feared him.
Now every wound on Ank’s body had healed.
At first, the old man believed it would take years for such terrifying injuries to recover.
But as days passed, something strange happened.
The boy’s body was healing at an impossible speed.
Burned flesh regenerated.
Broken bones repaired themselves.
Even wounds that should have left permanent scars disappeared completely.
The old man had witnessed many powerful beings during his lifetime.
Some possessed extraordinary regeneration abilities.
But this was different.
What Ank possessed was not simply fast healing.
It was terrifying.
Standing beside the bed one day, the old man quietly muttered to himself.
“I do not know who you are, boy.
But my instincts are screaming at me.
Telling me to run as far away from you as possible.
Telling me that if I stay, I will die.
Yet my heart keeps telling me to ignore those instincts and help you.” The old man laughed bitterly.
“So, as much as I hate to admit it…
I am hoping my instincts are wrong.” His eyes remained fixed on the unconscious young man.
“How ironic.” “Me…” “A man who once protected countless planets.” “A man who trusted his instincts more than anyone else.” “Now hoping that one of my greatest weapons is wrong.” “Hahaha…” The laughter echoed softly through the room before fading away.
“Boy, get some rest.” “If my instincts are wrong…” “I still have enough strength to kill you.” He remained silent for a moment.
Then a faint sigh escaped his lips.
“I hope so…” He checked Ank’s condition one last time.
After confirming that nothing had changed, he quietly left the room.
The moment the door closed, Ank slowly opened his eyes.
His blue eyes still shone with an unnatural brilliance, but there was no curiosity within them.
Instead, they carried a sorrow that had endured for billions of years.
His gaze slowly wandered around the room.
It was neither large nor luxurious, only a modest room with a single bed.
The plain walls and bare ceiling held almost no decorations, yet for some reason, it felt far more peaceful than the countless throne rooms of the universes he had once ruled.
For a long moment, Ank remained motionless, silently staring at the wall.
Then the memories returned.
Not all at once, but one after another, each one carving deeper into the wounds he believed time would eventually bury.
His final battle.
The faces of the friends who had once believed in him.
The disappointment in their eyes.
Ank slowly lowered his head.
His injuries meant nothing to him.
Neither the loss of his power nor the fact that he had survived when he had longed for death stirred even the slightest regret.
There was only one sin that continued to haunt him, no matter how many billions of years had passed.
He had betrayed the friends who had once believed in him without hesitation.
“Sorry…” he whispered quietly.
Tears slowly began to fall from his eyes.
This was only the second time in his entire existence that the First Waestor of the Universe had cried.
“I must never lose myself to the greed for power again,” he thought as he slowly steadied his breathing.
The past could not be changed.
“I have to change.” “I have to move forward.” He already understood that someone had saved him.
Someone had granted him a second chance he never deserved, a chance bought through sacrifices he could no longer remember.
Suddenly, memories resurfaced in his mind.
His final battle.
His friends, standing against him.
Their eyes filled with anger and disappointment.
Before they were sealed, each of them had said the same thing.
When they were finally freed…
They would kill Ank with their own hands.
They would hunt Ank even if they had to destroy the Universe.
The memory struck his heart like a blade.
For a moment, Ank lowered his head.
Then he slowly wiped the tears from his face.
Tears would not return the past.
Nor would they erase the sins he had committed.
The past was already buried,what mattered now was the present.
Raising his hand slightly, Ank summoned a book.
A faint brown book materialized before him.
A worn brown book materialized before him.
Within its pages rested countless truths, forgotten secrets, and knowledge that even gods feared to uncover.
Ank slowly opened it.
The moment his eyes fell upon the first page, the calm expression on his face disappeared and his body froze.
Silence filled the room.
His pupils contracted disbelief and shock.
“How…?” His voice was barely a whisper.
“How is this possible?” His hands trembled.
If someone had told him this before, he would have laughed.
Yet the truth lay right before his eyes, cold, cruel, and utterly impossible, defying everything he had believed throughout his endless existence.
And it made no sense at all.