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The boy\'s body gradually curled up, pressing close to Annelisa\'s.

"I am so afraid, Mother."

Only in these moments, not during impassioned speeches in restaurants, not while handling affairs in the office, not when forcing himself to show no weakness.

Only when nestled on his mother\'s lap, in these moments, did he resemble an ordinary child.

Annelisa gazed at her son in astonishment, witnessing the vulnerability and fear he unconsciously revealed. Her pupils first went blank, then her entire being, from her lips to her fingertips, from her flesh to her soul, began to tremble uncontrollably.

She stuttered, her throat choked up, unable to produce any sound. The indescribable, heart-wrenching sorrow that seemed to tear her entire heart apart left her with no choice but to gently stroke the boy\'s forehead with trembling fingers, unable to undertake any further action, even of the slightest magnitude.

The boy seemed to sense his mother\'s emotions, extending his hand to grasp the woman\'s shaking, uncontrollable hand, pressing it against his cheek.

"Do not worry about me, Mother."

With a fondness reminiscent of a young beast determined to leave its nest, he gently caressed Annelisa\'s palm.

"I have found my purpose, I am no longer afraid, truly."

"If the entire worth of that memory was for that moment, if all that I have experienced in these ten years was meant for this instant, if all my sacrifices could bring about this momentary change—"

The boy opened his eyes, his gaze, submerged in darkness, brimmed with tears.

Yet, he spoke with a smile:

"All of it was worthwhile, Mother."

At that moment, the sky above the flower field suddenly shattered, and in that fleeting instant, five figures exuding a formidable presence emerged from the fractured space.

Their accumulated lethal force was so extreme that even the residual effects were causing the flowers and grass of the field to disintegrate.

And just as Annelisa turned around, at the moment they were about to strike—

The demon that had submerged itself in the abyss awoke.

Pure, as if alive, the pitch-black darkness surged from Annelisa\'s embrace in all directions, engulfing the entire space. This mud-like, yet seemingly living shadow surpassed their understanding and thoughts, covering everything.

Then, Annelisa felt herself being hurled away.

For in the spot on her lap where her son had lain, a massive, indescribable mass of twisted "flesh" began to expand rapidly, screaming in agony.

It was covered with fine black scales, yet the scales writhed with endless black tendrils, resembling worms or tentacles, each one emitting a terror so profound that a mere glance could completely shatter the soul of an ordinary extraordinary being.

No one could locate a mouth in this grotesquely twisted mass of flesh, but it roared furiously with a voice that seemed to layer nine voices together:

"Kill... Kill..."

"Kill... all of you!"

It was an indescribable... annihilation.

Time, space, energy, order... everything was engulfed by the darkness, obliterated, reduced to nothingness.

The five fifth-stage extraordinary beings couldn\'t even comprehend the situation, unaware of what had happened, as they were ground into pure detritus... no, less than detritus, into non-existence.

Yet the destruction never ceased; the monster unconditionally obliterated everything around it, and even though destruction itself was meaningless at that moment, it still stubbornly and madly poured out its fury, spreading its profound darkness to even more distant realms.

And in this endless destruction, occupied by its massive, deformed body, there remained one person at the protected center.

She was unharmed, untouched by the extreme destruction, not even a single hair harmed.

When Annelisa regained her senses, nothing remained but the pure, boundless darkness.

"Ans... Ans!"

The woman, shielded by twisted flesh, cried out in utter despair, "Ans! Please, no... stop... Ans!"

"...Mo…th..e…r?"

As if it had destroyed everything and forgotten everything, the creature halted its movements upon hearing her voice.

It slowly coiled its body, lowering what seemed to be its "head," and with its fine scales and massive skull, it gently caressed her cheek as if with a hand, rubbing against her.

"It\'s alright, it\'s alright... Mo…ther." Experience more content on empire

Its voice, though eerily echoed ninefold, was still... a child\'s voice.

"I will protect you, Mother... I will protect you..."

"Protect... Mother."

He seemed to have forgotten everything, even himself.

But he distinctly remembered the reason and purpose for his monstrous transformation.

— A resolve not even the abyss could strip away.

...

Annelisa stood agape, her tears breaching and wetting her cheeks, as well as the fine, twisted scales.

Her son seemed... beyond return.

Devoured by the abyss, leaving nothing behind.

Just like all who step into the end, utterly mad like Hydral, he became an embodiment of the abyss walking among us, a pure vessel of destruction.

Annelisa knew little; she didn\'t understand why someone would come to kill her, why Ansel had received this news, or what the meaning behind Ansel\'s earlier words was.

But now, she understood the nature of Ansel\'s dilemma and the source of his power.

"Spiritual essence..."

Tears streaming down her face, the woman embraced the massive skull she could hardly wrap her arms around, listening as it intermittently uttered "protect mother," while she choked back sobs, murmuring:

"For the sake of protecting me, did you seek power from the abyss?"

Hydral itself was already inextricably linked with the abyss, and the spiritual essence Ansel chose could be said to... completely immerse himself in the depths of the abyss.

"Foolish child... foolish child... such a salvation... how could it possibly save me?"

Annelisa ceased her crying, stopped her choking sobs, because she knew, her child was enduring a pain a thousand times more intense than hers at every moment.

Yet, if the child endures a pain a thousand times more intense, then the mother, witnessing all this, will always endure a pain that is even higher.

"Ans... listen to me, Ans."

Annelisa, no longer weeping, closed her eyes and embraced the massive skull, softly saying:

"I am so sorry, despite saying you couldn\'t deceive me, I never realized what you were enduring."

"I am so sorry, it was I who should protect you, yet I let you suffer so much."

Her body emitted specks of luminescence, and at the same time, in the deepest reaches of the Zero Realm Enigma, surrounded by the pact heads, Flamelle, who was in the midst of ecstatic laughter, suddenly stopped laughing.

And then, almost as if mad, he rushed back the way he came.

"I truly wished to see you grow up, to see you marry the girl you love, have children, and to happily tell me that I am the best mother in the world."

"But I can\'t do that anymore, I am sorry, Ans, I am an unqualified mother."

Is the erosion of the abyss irreversible?

Not necessarily... Spiritual essence is the power at the core of the holder\'s soul, serving as the foundation for transcendence. As a form of power, it ultimately needs to be controlled, not born to destroy its wielder.

Before, despite how unstable Ansel was, he was still able to control that power. Therefore, as long as Ansel can be freed from his current state, or if he can be suppressed, eliminating the abyss\'s erosion of his soul, then there is a possibility for him to return to his original self.

And as for eliminating the abyss\'s erosion of the soul...

This task, the Head of Spirits is more than adept at.

"So, in the end, allow me to perform one final act... as a mother, shall I?"

"…Mother?"

The creature, puzzled and panicked, called out to her: "Mother... mother?"

"Do not be afraid, Ans," Annelisa gently caressed the creature\'s skull, "Even if I can no longer be by your side, do not fear."

"You will meet others who care for you, cherish you, and love you just as I do. And you must treat them with the same care, cherish them, and love them just as you have me."

The woman\'s form dissipated into points of light, signifying the self-collapse and dissolution of her soul, and with it, the destruction of everything extraordinary that was constructed from it.

But this was not a destruction without purpose. The endless points of light merged into the creature\'s body, visibly dissolving the darkness that entwined him and healing his body at a visible rate.

"Do not be afraid, Ans."

Annelisa Delian, a mother, gently kissed the creature\'s skull as her entire existence completely dissolved, dedicating her entire soul to her child, rescuing him from the abyss.

Just as she had lovingly and blissfully kissed his forehead the first time she held her child in her arms.

"This is my destiny. If my life, my everything, exists for this moment—"

"Then it is all worth it, my child."

Her body completely turned into points of light, vanishing into the endless darkness.

Then, the color of the abyss receded like the tide, and the distorted, twisted form began to shrink, continuously shrinking, until it became the small form of a boy.

The boy opened his eyes, looking into the endless void, destruction, looking around at the nothingness that remained, his lips mechanically moving but producing no sound.

He sat there like a puppet drained of its soul, his eyes devoid of all color, empty as if dead.

However, when his head, unsupported by any strength, slowly drooped, his eyes reflected a different color.

The color of flowers.

In this endless destruction, as Annelisa\'s existence was completely annihilated from within, turning into nothingness, there still was a soft, embracing cluster of flowers gently lifting the boy.

These flowers seemed to be recounting the words she had spoken to Ansel, also proving—

In this endless destruction, lies the greatest, the Head of Spirits who overcame the abyss.

The greatest mother, who saved her own child.

*