Chapter 470 — Who

Then Agatha looked at him directly, her black eyes meeting his crimson ones.

"In my domain today, you shared your greatest worry with me."

Damian’s mind flashed back to that moment, to sitting beneath the colorful tree in her peaceful domain.

His own voice echoed in his memory.

"I can fight. I can refuse to give up. I can do whatever it takes, pay whatever price is necessary."

"But how do I win against something I don’t even understand? How do I protect people when I can’t see the threats until they’re already here? How do I break free from manipulation when I don’t know where the strings are?"

Agatha’s voice broke him from his memory.

"I don’t know what sort of ancient being you’re facing or what entity has set its sights on you..." She paused. "But doesn’t the situation seem somewhat similar to what the whole Bloodworth family faced?"

’Similar?’

Damian’s thoughts raced.

’Indeed... Generation after generation, they fought against enemies they couldn’t see and manipulation they couldn’t predict, but...’

The image of the Old beggar came to his mind.

’He knew everything about the world and what’s coming that nobody else does... And he set his plans in motion years ago.’

That old man seemed more powerful and all-knowing compared to these so-called seers.

’And if he really is... then what kind of a monster am I actually dealing with?’

The implications crashed over him like a physical weight.

"But just when everyone in the world thought there wouldn’t be another SS rank Bloodworth..."

Agatha’s voice interrupted his spiraling thoughts.

"The youngest son of Desiderius Bloodworth was born."

’Is it... him?’

Damian’s pulse quickened slightly.

"I don’t know much about him personally, but the stories that spread were... unprecedented."

Agatha’s grip on his shoulder tightened.

"Being the youngest, Desiderius and the entire Bloodworth family loved him dearly. They forbade him from trying to reach SS rank and told him to stay at S rank, to live a long life instead of chasing power that would only get him killed like all the others before him."

She paused.

"They even tried to stop him from entering portals at all..."

Damian’s entire focus on her words.

"But he was simply too talented and by the time he reached S+ rank, those seers and oracles intervened again. And this time, they didn’t arrange a simple assassination or portal accident."

Her voice became darker.

"They sent him to a major demon world and closed all the dimensional barriers to that realm, sealing him inside with no way to escape."

Goosebumps erupted across Damian’s skin, his entire body going rigid.

’They sent him to a fucking demon world?! Then... how did he–’

His mind struggled to process the implications.

"More than a year passed."

Agatha’s voice continued relentlessly.

"Everyone believed that another Bloodworth heir had been successfully killed. The seers declared his death, the oracles confirmed it, and the world moved on."

Thump thump

Damian’s heart hammered against his ribs.

"But when the barriers finally dropped..."

She paused, letting the silence stretch.

"Only one man came out, covered in blood from head to toe."

Thump thump thump

"Billions of demons were dead! Every single one in that world, from the weakest creatures to the SS ranked demon lords who ruled that realm, all of them slaughtered!"

Damian’s breathing became shallow, his entire focus on Agatha’s words.

"And written in the center of that world with demon blood, carved into the ground in letters large enough to be seen from space..."

Whoosh

Lily transformed suddenly, her dragon form shrinking into her humanoid shape.

She began walking towards him, her voice carrying across the peak, filled with awe.

"In the entire universe, under all heavens, across every world that has ever existed or ever will exist..."

She stopped beside Agatha, her golden eyes fixed on Damian.

"There is only one man who will stand at the peak."

She paused, her lips curving into a smile.

"Darius Bloodworth."

Thump Thump Thump

The name crashed over Damian like a physical force, his heart suddenly hammering against his ribs so hard it hurt.

’So... it really was him.’

Agatha’s voice cut through the moment.

"That was the day the Bloodworth family gained its second SS rank awakener... Even more terrifying than the first."

Her hand squeezed his shoulder one more time before releasing.

"A man who came to be known as one of the greatest geniuses in the entire universe."

Silence fell across the mountaintop, broken only by the wind and the sound of snow hitting stone.

Damian stood frozen, his heart pounding, his entire body vibrating with each beat.

Then Felix’s words from earlier crashed back into his mind: "No matter how much of a genius you are, no matter how talented or determined or strong you become... you aren’t Darius Bloodworth."

’So... He wasn’t being dismissive of me. My father...’

His throat tightened.

’So if it wasn’t for saving us, he really wouldn’t have died, huh?’

A helpless smile crossed Damian’s face, bitter and understanding all at once.

’Grandfather split the entire region in half with a broken sword... Father massacred an entire demon world... The Bloodworth family produced legendary awakeners generation after generation...’

The question formed in his mind with terrible clarity.

’Then... how is it even possible for a family with these kinds of beings to be massacred in a single night?’

The impossibility of it pressed down on him.

’To the point that only I was left... An infant who survived because his bloodline was removed and his mother walked to her death carrying a decoy.’

Agatha moved to stand beside the statue, her walking stick tapping against stone.

"Come, Damian." Her voice was gentle. "Pay your respects to your grandfather."

Damian’s legs moved, carrying him forward until he stood directly before the carved figure.

Up close, he could see details that distance had hidden.

Damian’s breathing caught as he looked at the carved features.

The expression was kind, gentle in a way that didn’t match the stories he’d just heard.

’Is this the man who started all of this?’

His thoughts scattered, trying to reconcile the face before him with the legend Agatha had described.

’His face doesn’t look like mine at all.’

The thought came with strange detachment.

’We might have the same hair color, same eye color, but the face is completely different. I must look more like my father... Or my mother.’

He didn’t know why that mattered or why he was analyzing facial features when everything else pressed down with so much more importance.

But his mind latched onto the observation anyway, seeking familiar ground in the chaos of too many revelations coming too fast.

His knees bent slowly, his body lowering until he knelt before the statue.

And as soon as his head touched the statue–

BOOM

–The world seemed to have stopped.

Sound cut off completely, wind dying mid-gust, snow freezing mid-fall.

Damian’s eyes snapped open and he stood on the same mountain peak, but everything had changed.

The night sky was gone, replaced by clear blue stretching endlessly overhead.

Birds chirped somewhere in the distance, their calls echoing across the peak.

And the snow had disappeared completely, leaving bare stone beneath his feet.

’Where... am I? What is this place?’

His thoughts felt sluggish, as he looked around, taking in the impossible transformation.

’Am I still at the statue? Did I pass out? Is this a vision or–’

Suddenly, movement caught his attention.

Damian’s head turned, his crimson eyes focusing.

A man sat at the edge of the mountain peak, his back turned toward Damian.

Damian’s breathing stopped completely.

He couldn’t see the man’s face, couldn’t make out features from this angle.

’Who...?’

And standing on an impossible version of the peak, Damian was about to meet a man he never expected.