The Invincible Young Master

Chapter 251 - 251 - Offer

The coalition forces rematerialized beneath a calm, endless blue sky, their feet sinking slightly into soft grass as the teleportation light faded away.

For a heartbeat, no one moved. The abrupt transition, from divine ruin and collapsing worlds to peaceful open plains, left many reeling.

Some soldiers staggered and dropped to one knee, others braced themselves with trembling hands pressed into the earth, as if afraid the ground itself might vanish again.

Slowly, hesitant breaths filled the air.

They were back on the surface.

The horizon stretched wide and undisturbed, clouds drifting lazily overhead, the sun warm and gentle, so painfully ordinary that it felt unreal after what they had just endured. For a brief moment, relief washed through the ranks.

Then voices began to rise.

"The Marquis?"

"He didn't made it."

"My lord-my lord didn't come through!"

The murmurs grew sharper, edged with dread. Silver-armored soldiers gathered instinctively, their expressions darkening with every passing second.

Just then, figures rushed toward them from the anchored academy vessel stationed near the ruin's perimeter. Healers and attendants poured out, alarmed by the battered state of the returning forces.

They hurried to the elder's side at once, channeling restorative energies as they worked to stabilize his grievous wounds.

"What happened inside?" one of them asked urgently. "Where are the remaining guards?"

The elder's face was ashen, his gaze distant as if still fixed on the ruin below. "The expedition… ended in failure. The guards perished and Marquis Reynold is still inside the ruin."

The words struck like a hammer.

The academy members froze, eyes widening in disbelief. For a moment, no one spoke.

Then the elder turned his head slightly, resolve hardening beneath the fatigue.

"Report to the Holy Land immediately," he commanded. "Inform them of the failure. Tell them to prepare fully for the ruin's emergence."

The messengers swallowed hard, clearly shaken, but they nodded and moved at once, sprinting back toward the vessel.

Before the murmurs could rise again, Lina's asked. "Elder… where is the core flame?"

At her words, several heads turned toward her. The elder frowned faintly. "It should be within her body."

Lina shook her head, fear tightening her expression. "No. I've checked. Senior sister doesn't have it. I can't sense it anywhere."

"Then…" someone muttered hoarsely, "…could the ruin lord have already devoured it?"

The elder's eyes narrowed. "No. There was no time. Not then."

His certainty did little to ease the unease.

Before anyone could speak further, the ground beneath their feet began to tremble.

At first it was subtle, a low vibration, like distant thunder. Then it intensified, the grass rippling in waves as soldiers struggled to keep their footing.

"An earthquake?" someone shouted.

"Is the Ruin emerging this soon?" another muttered.

All eyes turned toward the source.

Not far away, the massive gaping hole that marked the ruin began to glow.

The dome that once sealed it shuddered violently, fissures racing across its surface like spiderweb cracks.

Then, with a deafening roar, it shattered outward, fragments of light bursting apart as if the sky itself were breaking.

An overwhelming surge of heat poured from the opening, a pillar of blinding radiance erupting upward and piercing the sky like a volcanic plume.

But this was no volcano.

The air warped and twisted under the pressure. Even from this distance, the energy was suffocating and vast beyond measure.

Veterans and elders alike stared at the sight, awe and dread reflected in their eyes.

"Such intensity…" someone whispered. "This power…"

"It's beyond ethereal manifestation," The elder muttered, "Far beyond."

"Has the ruin lord… fully awakened from its seal?"

…

Inside the ruin, above the devastated flatland that no longer resembled solid ground, two colossal spheres revolved in slow, solemn harmony, one radiant beyond comprehension, the other steeped in abyssal darkness.

They circled each other like a sun and a moon locked in eternal convergence, their rotation bending the air, the light, even the sense of direction itself.

Below them, the remaining Durn soldiers fell to their knees as one. Not out of fear alone, but reverence.

As the glow from the spheres washed over their bodies, shadows began to creep across their skin like living ink. Veins darkened, bones reshaped, and their flesh hardened as layers of ruin-born essence fused with them.

Pain did not touch their faces. Instead, rapture did. This was undoubtedly the will of the ruin lord above, an anointment that stripped them of mortality and reforged them into extensions of its intent.

Then a voice entered their minds, vast and irresistible, carrying a command.

"Finish the ones outside."

The kneeling figures vanished instantly, swallowed by spatial distortion.

Far above the broken land, Reynold's body still hung suspended in the air, impaled by the lingering spear of divine light.

From the void itself, a massive arm composed entirely of churning miasma extended forth. It wrapped around Reynold's body with gentleness and began to draw him upward, toward the revolving spheres.

"I had to sacrifice one of my star sources to capture you," a deep, ancient voice muttered, echoing from everywhere and nowhere at once. "Your body had better be worth it."

Reynold felt himself pulled closer, the pressure intensifying until even thought seemed ready to fracture. Then his body crossed the threshold of the luminous sphere, and in an instant, light consumed him entirely. His form dissolved into brilliance, submerged without resistance, erased from the physical ruin.

The next moment, the world changed.

The two spheres now hovered above a vast, tranquil sea, its surface mirror-smooth, stretching endlessly beneath a colorless sky. Gentle ripples spread where nothing touched them, and the air carried a faint resonance of familiarity.

This was Reynold's spiritual palace.

"Where are you hiding, my little lamb?" the voice echoed again, smoother here, more intimate. "I know you are still conscious."

For a moment, the sea remained undisturbed. Then the waters stirred, rising and shaping themselves into a towering figure, a colossal reflection of Reynold himself, standing upon the surface as if the sea were solid ground.

"Since you already know," he replied calmly, his voice carrying across the endless expanse, "there's no point in playing dead."

"I knew you were special," the voice said. "You lifted my curse, turned my own authority against me, and survived my divine light. Few beings across eras could claim even one of those feats."

Reynold's expression remained steady.

"I'm unworthy of such praise," he said honestly. "I believe I am still lacking."

"Then become my vessel," the voice offered, "And I will show you your full potential. Just as that prince desired answers, so do you. You question the ruins, the origin of this world, the limits imposed upon existence. Become one with me, and I will show you everything, truths buried beneath epochs, the secrets you seek, the very edge of power itself."

The calm sea reflected the two spheres above, light and darkness spinning endlessly, patiently.

Silence lingered between them.

Then Reynold spoke again, his voice neither defiant nor fearful.

"I have to reject your generous offer."

The sea beneath him rippled softly, as if acknowledging his choice.

"It's far more meaningful," he continued, lifting his gaze toward the hovering spheres, "to search for answers on my own, and to discover them with my own hands."

The voice lingered for a heartbeat longer, as though the ruin lord itself had been caught off balance by Reynold's refusal.

"I suppose I can only force you into submission," it said at last.

At once, the calm sea within the spiritual palace darkened, as if ink had been poured into its depths.

Waves rose and collapsed in slow motion, and from between them, black-red flames began to surface, spreading across the water like a living taint.

"That flame again," the voice muttered. "Tell me, where did you learn to conjure the void flame?"

Reynold's towering spiritual form did not waver. He watched the inferno climb higher.

"Why do you care?" he asked calmly.

"As far as I know," the voice replied, "only one man ever grasped the method to wield that flame. And he has long since perished. Did you inherit his legacy?"

Reynold offered no answer.

Instead, the flames intensified. The sea vanished beneath them, replaced by a boundless inferno that swallowed horizon and sky alike.

"Since you entered this place, let us perish together," Reynold said.

"Foolish!" the voice roared.

In the next instant, the two colossal spheres blazed with overwhelming brilliance.

Light and darkness erupted outward in a cataclysmic surge, shattering what remained of the palace's tranquility.

The sea, the flames, the sky, everything collapsed inward with a deafening boom.

Reality inverted.

The spheres vanished from the inferno and reappeared above the ruined flatland within the ruin itself.

Reynold's physical body was violently expelled from the collapsing space, hurled through the air like a broken star.

He twisted mid-flight, forcing his shattered senses back into alignment, stabilizing himself just before slamming into the ground.

Ash and debris spiraled around him as he slowly straightened, blood trailing from the wound in his chest, his breath ragged, but a faint, unmistakable smirk tugged at his lips.

The voice rumbled from every direction, heavy with disbelief. "You still smile while standing at death's door?"

"I don't plan on dying here," Reynold replied.

He raised his right arm.

Above his open palm, a brilliant crimson sphere materialized, its glow warm yet profound, pulsing with countless overlapping wills. Hope, prayers, defiance, longing—all fused into a single burning existence.

"The core flame…" the voice muttered, the composure it had worn until now cracking audibly. "Give it to me!"

Countless arms of miasma burst forth from the surrounding void, surging toward Reynold from every direction, blotting out the sky as they closed in.

Any one of them could have crushed a mountain, yet Reynold did not move to evade. He simply watched them approach, his gaze steady, his grip tightening.

Then, calmly, decisively, he clenched his fist.

The crimson light vanished. Completely Extinguished.

[{Required condition achieved}]

[{Energy fusion complete}]

[{Awakening False Divinity…}]