Bölüm 1000: Her şey onun yüzünden

Bölüm 1000: Her şey onun yüzünden

Seeing the scene, Leon’s eyes immediately filled with tears. He choked back a sob, his voice trembling slightly as he whispered.

"Dad... Uncle Asher..."

Caria’s eyes were red as well.

She could see her parents and everyone they loved battered and bloodied before her eyes. Yet she forced her tears back, gritting her teeth as she grabbed Leon and pulled him and Amon, who also looked pale, back.

None of them had ever seen their family like this.

To them, their parents, uncles, aunts, and elders had always been formidable figures no one could defeat.

No matter how powerful the enemy was, they had always believed that these people would eventually overcome them and emerge victorious.

But now...

Two of them were standing between them and the Rulers, covered in blood, while the rest were struggling to withstand attacks that could easily kill them at any moment.

For the first time in their lives, the three youths realized just how helpless even the people they thought were invincible could become before those stronger than them.

There was always someone stronger out there, and if they wanted to protect those they loved and live, they had to become stronger—stronger than everyone else.

As Caria dragged Amon and Leon back, unwilling to let their presence become an even greater burden to their family, Amon’s green eyes suddenly caught sight of the ice sword and the floating Celestial Symbol at the center of the platform, which the three had overlooked until now due to the chaos.

Amidst the bloodshed, Amon also spotted his mother, who had somehow reached the center of the platform unnoticed. Avoiding the shimmering snowflake, which seemed to be surrounded by a powerful barrier, she stood beside the ice sword, secretly trying to pull it out from the snow-white platform.

Amon’s eyes turned bloodshot.

He clenched his hands so tightly that his knuckles turned white as the emotions he had been suppressing broke through.

"So... it’s because of him..."

His voice trembled with bitterness.

Then, without warning, he shouted.

"All because of him!"

His voice thundered across the platform, silencing the battlefield for a moment.

Even the Rulers stopped momentarily.

Amon’s chest heaved. For the first time in his life, tears gathered in his green eyes as he stared at the weak-looking ice sword with a mix of grievance and resentment.

"If he has already gone somewhere, then why can’t he just disappear completely?!"

His voice cracked, the pain beneath his anger becoming impossible to hide.

"Why do you all have to suffer so much because of someone who doesn’t even seem to care?!"

Everyone was stunned by his outburst.

Jian’s crimson eyes blurred with pain.

He wanted to tell Amon.

No. No, your father wasn’t like that.

Kyle wasn’t someone who didn’t care.

He cared.

He cared deeply for all of them. That was why he had chosen to leave them behind and face Azazeal all alone. He had never ever wanted them to fall into any danger.

Jian wanted to tell Amon that Kyle hadn’t abandoned them. That perhaps Kyle was facing some kind of difficulty he couldn’t overcome alone. Perhaps he was waiting for them somewhere, waiting for them to reach him and lend him a hand so he could return.

But the words remained stuck in Jian’s throat.

Because before he could say anything, the Ruler standing before him suddenly moved.

A dark flash passed through the air.

The Ruler’s hand violently pierced through his chest before mercilessly pulling back.

Jian’s expression froze.

The pain came a heartbeat later. Yet even as blood spilled from his mouth, his gaze remained fixed on Amon’s crying figure.

As Jian slowly fell down, clutching his heavily bleeding chest, a crisp clicking sound suddenly echoed through the air.

The Rulers’ eyes immediately snapped toward the sound coming from the center of the platform. Unlike Nine and the others, their pupils contracted in shock when they saw Yue’s familiar figure standing beside the ice sword, her hand firmly gripping its hilt. That woman had reached it while they were distracted by the battle! And she had actually pulled it free from the platform!

That ordinary-looking ice sword, which no one, not even many Rulers combined, had been able to pull out after Kyle’s death, had just been pulled out like that?! But how?

The Rulers’ minds lagged and struggled to process what they had all just witnessed.

But they didn’t have time to think. Only a moment after the sword came loose, the entire platform began to tremble violently.

A strange, chilling aura suddenly swept across the surroundings, instantly causing the expressions of everyone present on the platform to change. Yizhe, Mirabel, and the other Rulers’ hearts trembled as a terrible possibility flashed through their minds.

Some of them instinctively took a step back, already imagining the worst.

On the other hand, Sinon, Nine, and the others still standing on their side looked expectant and hopeful, their expressions filled with anticipation and nervousness.

It was almost as if they were waiting for something to happen—for this moment.

However, what really happened next shattered the hope in their eyes.

Under everyone’s eyes, as the ancient, chilling aura gradually dissipated, what Sinon, Nine, and those on their side had been anticipating never came to pass.

Instead, a low crack suddenly echoed through the air.

Then, the barrier around the Snowflake Celestial Symbol suspended above the now-empty spot where the ice sword had been embedded suddenly shattered into countless small, glass-like fragments.

The symbol trembled faintly but stayed suspended in place, almost as though it were waiting for someone to claim it.

For a moment, everyone was silent.

Nine dropped to his knees.

His eyes were bleeding, and his words came out incoherently.

"I... I... can’t see anything..."

Then, Mirabel’s laughter rang out.

Her voice boomed through the space like thunder as she, along with all the Rulers on the platform, rushed toward the Snowflake Celestial Symbol with all their power.

"I told you, he’s long dead!"