“You don’t know,” Malakai repeated, unimpressed.
Valentine shook his head.
“No. I don’t know where it came from, and I had to figure everything out myself. But somehow, when it entered me, I just knew. I could feel it… like it was alive. Sentient. But it never said a word to me. Not once.”
Malakai gave a small nod. “Is that what fused with me?”
Valentine nodded. “Yes.”
Malakai let out a slow breath. “Alright. Another question. Why you?”
Valentine blinked. “Pardon?”
“I mean,” Malakai said, gesturing vaguely at the memory, “why did it pick you? No offense, but you seem like the last person anything would ever choose as a successor. So why you? And why hold a trial now?”
Valentine cleared his throat again, forcing himself not to take the jab personally.
“…That might be because I was the only one around for miles.”
Malakai raised a brow. “So it had no choice?”
Valentine nodded sheepishly. “Pretty much.”
Malakai didn’t respond immediately. His gaze turned thoughtful, but there was still a sharpness in his eyes. “So what about now? Why wait until now? Why a trial at all?”
Valentine’s expression shifted. He looked away.
“…That has something to do with me,” he said.
“What?”
Valentine sighed.
“When I was… fighting the darkness creatures, and I realized there was no hope… I couldn’t handle it. I panicked. I begged the essence to find someone else. But I had this feeling it couldn’t… not unless I gave up my life.”
He paused. “So when I chose to sacrifice myself, I didn’t just want to shield humanity. I wanted to find another successor to save us.”
Malakai’s eyes narrowed. “So you’re responsible for this death trial.”
Valentine’s gaze darkened, looking guilty, but Malakai only stared, cold.
‘I can’t trust anyone.’
Valentine had kind eyes. A warm smile. One would think he couldn’t hurt a fly.
But this same man had designed a trial that led to the death of over a hundred youths.
“I—I didn’t know,” Valentine said quickly. “Not at the time. I swear. I only followed the essence’s guidance and made the trial hard so the next host wouldn’t be as useless as me.”
He rubbed his eyes again.
“The essence needed everything from me at once. From the rules, the age range of the participants, the number of participants. It… it felt like a game. I didn’t even specify that the battle be to the death; the essence added that by itself. I didn’t realize until now what I had actually done. And by then… I was already dead. Even the voice you heard in the trials, it wasn’t mine but pre-recorded.”
Malakai’s eyes sharpened again. “You’re dead?”
Malakai knew how that sounded, the man had sacrificed himself, so of course he was dead. But what he had just realized was that he was supposed to be dead. Then, who was speaking to him?
Valentine nodded. “Ah, yes. Think of it like… a dying wish. I asked the essence to preserve a fragment of my consciousness, just so that I could guide whoever made it through. I wanted to witness humanity’s eventual turning point.”
Malakai shook his head slowly. He wasn’t even surprised by this man’s actions anymore.
He simply nodded, then finally voiced the question that had been nagging at him all this time.
“Did the darkness come because of the essence?”
A meteor had fallen from the sky, and not long after, the planet was overrun. Many would call it a coincidence, but Malakai wasn’t buying it.
Valentine shook his head slightly. “No… I don’t think so.”
But Malakai only narrowed his gaze. “In the scenes you showed me, you were always fighting large clusters of darkness. Why? Did you go to them… or did they come to you?”
Valentine rubbed his chin, thoughtful. “Hm. Now that you mention it… they did always find me. No matter where I went, they were there. And in large numbers too!”
He clapped his hands together. “Maybe you’re right! Maybe they were after the essence!”
Malakai stared at him like he was looking at the dumbest person alive.
‘…Seriously?’ he thought.
He shook his head, brushing the intrusive thoughts aside. “So, you don’t know anything about the origins of the essence.”
Valentine shook his head.
“And you don’t know anything about the origins of the darkness either.”
Valentine gave another apologetic shake of his head.
Malakai sighed. “Okay. What now?”
Valentine blinked. “What?”
“I said, what now? This is the end of the trial, right? I can leave?”
Valentine’s mouth opened. “Yes, you can lea—” He stopped mid-sentence and frowned. “No, no, not that! I mean… that’s all you’re going to say? You’ve accepted everything? Just like that?”
“Yes,” Malakai replied without hesitation.
Now it was Valentine’s turn to stare.
He looked at Malakai like he was some anomaly, something beyond comprehension.
“You… you just found out all of this. That you’re now the successor of Life. That everything happened because of this. And you’re just… calm?”
“What do you mean?” Malakai asked.
“I mean, shouldn’t you panic? Refuse it? Reject it? This is huge! When I first fused with the essence—”
“I can evolve, right?” Malakai interrupted with a calm voice.
Valentine blinked.
“Yes…”
“And I have the means to grow stronger?”
Valentine nodded again. “Yes.”
Malakai closed his eyes tightly.
Numerous flashes passed through his mind.
That night. His father and mother’s death. His weakness.
The days of silence and solitude in the Sanguine Clan.
The scars. The humiliation. The pain.
The goal.
Revenge.
He needed power.
And now… he had it.
When he opened his eyes again, there was a roaring intensity in them, one that made even Valentine’s heart tremble.
“That’s all that matters,” he said.
…
Time passed in silence.
But instead of the silence filled with reflection or the outburst of emotion Valentine had expected… the opposite occurred.
Valentine stood in one corner of the vast hall, his arms crossed and face filled with nothing but disbelief as he muttered different words under his breath.
“I don’t understand…”
“Who even is this child?”