The earth stained red with blood, the sky burned black by flames.
Between the shattered heaven and earth lay all things that had passed away.
The dead, the lost companions, the faces that had sacrificed themselves—those smiling young people, fallen amid the ruins with vacant eyes... the old men barely clinging to life, the warriors filled with regret and despair, the wounded weeping silently, and more... more...
More faces that there had been no time to remember.
More hatred that there had been no time to remember!
Hatred! Hatred! Hatred! Hatred!
Hatred for everything before him, hatred for himself, hatred for hell, hatred for every enemy... hatred for the betrayers who had created all of this!
In the deepest reaches of hell, within that surging darkness, a piercing cry arose.
So grating.
Like mournful wails layered over furious roars, countless voices echoed from within souls as those desperate memories resurfaced, flooding his mind...
Huai Shi closed his eyes, but there was nowhere to hide.
More, still more power emerged from this darkness he had created. From within his soul, those lost souls were reborn here, descending once more through his body, breathing out despair through his lungs, gazing upon the world through his eyes.
Then, those eyes opened, burning with scarlet flames.
Everything that had once been returned once more!
"--███!!!!!"
The tangible darkness roared and spread, until reality and illusion could no longer be distinguished.
Even Huai Shi's outline became impossible to discern. The monster forged from Abyssal Marrow and the resolve of the Human World constantly transformed its body, breaking past the confines of human flesh and rapidly adjusting the structure of its colossal shell. Pairs of crazed eyes emerged upon the blood-and-fire-covered Nautilus.
Like something breaking from the sea, the monster shrieked as it rose from the