"The patient's heart rate is dropping rapidly!"
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"Quick! Get the defibrillator ready!"
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"Charging to 200 joules. Stand by for the first shock..."
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Boom!
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A powerful current burst from the electrodes. Though it lasted only an instant, a low boom still sounded as it passed through the patient's body.
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"Turn up the output!"
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"250 joules. Second shock..."
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"Third shock..."
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The current stimulated the patient's limp body again and again, making his muscles convulse violently each time. Aside from those instinctive reactions, there was still no sign of recovery.
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The steady line on the heart monitor didn't change at all. The attending physician closed his eyes and silently shook his head.
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Everyone fell silent. Amid barely audible yet unending sighs, they filed out of the operating room, preparing to carry the grim news to the world outside.
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The young man on the operating table looked pale and haggard. Clearly, he had suffered under his illness for a long time. Even so, his features still showed traces of their original handsomeness.
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Perhaps mourning the young man who had died too soon, the nurse sighed softly and carefully covered his body with a white sheet.
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As the sheet slowly covered his face, Duan Ming opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
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That's right. The person lying on the bed was himself—or rather, his body.
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His consciousness, or soul, now floated through the air like a feather. Not long after he had been brought into the operating room, he had become this neither-living-nor-dead thing. He had watched helplessly as the fine threads linking his soul to his body snapped one by one. At first, he had panicked and raged. Now, he felt calm.
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At least, he hadn't died an ugly death.
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There was nothing he could do but smile bitterly at himself. Duan Ming looked out the window one last time, with deep longing. The gloomy sky matched his mood exactly: oppressive and helpless.
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With a long sigh, he actually pinched off the last thread connecting his spirit to his body. At once, an inexplicable, irresistible force lifted him up and sent him shooting faster and faster toward the sky.
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Unhindered by reinforced concrete, his spirit soon burst through the hospital roof like a rocket accelerating into the sky. Before long, everything below had shrunk countless times over. People came and went, traffic flowed endlessly, and the world without him kept rolling on.
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So this was what it meant to leave no mark...
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As countless familiar sights grew smaller and smaller, the magnificent, beautiful landscape stirred Duan Ming's sorrow once more.
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He had no family or friends. As an orphan, Duan Ming had faced countless injustices from childhood onward. After entering the workforce, he had finally found a promising job, but before he could even imagine his future, a company physical revealed that he had a terminal illness.
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His job was gone, his life was over. Despair made him lose faith in everything, including life itself. The only thing that comforted him was the virtual world of the internet.
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Duan Ming gently closed his eyes. Endless sadness and grievances lingered in his mind. Disheartened, he let his thoughts go blank and allowed his consciousness to fade away amid its ever-quickening ascent.
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Deep in the distant cosmos, an immensely powerful force shattered the eternal, peaceful darkness. An unimaginable power suddenly erupted in some unknown region by means beyond comprehension, and a fissure darker than darkness itself appeared abruptly in the silent void!
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A flash of emerald light vanished in an instant. A tiny meteor shot away at an incalculable speed from the space that was repeatedly collapsing and healing.
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In the boundless sea of stars, light seemed lonely yet united, fragile yet resilient. As Duan Ming watched Earth recede farther and farther away, the sorrow that was all he had left turned to numbness, giving rise to question after question.
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Where am I going?
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Just as he was gazing into the endless darkness, a streak of emerald light hurtled toward him at an immeasurable speed. The instant he spotted it, it slammed straight into his spirit.
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He had no chance to react, nor time to scream. The moment they collided, a force powerful enough to destroy everything erupted between them. Like a ravenous primordial beast, it devoured him in an instant, leaving not a trace behind.
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Mardum, a prison world—a dimensional realm forged by the Titans under Sargeras's leadership to imprison demons.
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But after Sargeras shattered this prison, most of the demons escaped the Shattered Abyss. Under his command, they formed the Burning Legion, whose name struck terror across the worlds!
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Only a handful of lesser demons, incapable of traveling through the Twisting Nether, remained, along with a group of powerful beings entrusted with a special mission.
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Her body was twice the size of an ordinary person, an imposing sight. Her features were hideous and twisted, her joints bristling with spikes, and her enormous skeletal wings sent chills down the spine... No, compared to wings, the things on her back looked more like the pincers of an arthropod, bound together by countless webs!
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Black and sharp.
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The Spider Queen, also known as Aranasi, was a high-ranking arachnid demon. Cunning and capable of creating new demons, she was not especially powerful herself. Within the Burning Legion, she usually served as an advisor and oversaw demon logistics.
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Unlike her kin, Tyranna was a powerful leader who possessed both strength and intelligence.
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At least, in the Shattered Abyss as it stood now, no one could defy her will!
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"Your Majesty, the last fragment has been recovered." A voice deep as a tolling bell suddenly echoed through the dim space. A huge form cast a heavy shadow. A hideous Doomguard knelt behind Tyranna, its enormous hands raised as a piece of brilliant emerald crystal floated toward the lord-level demon, wrapped in cold shadow energy.
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"Well done, Belash." Tyranna's hoarse voice made one's hair stand on end, like the Grim Reaper whispering in one's ear. She turned and closed her gaunt, skeletal hand around the crystal. A clear chime seemed to ring from within it as wisps of emerald energy rose swiftly into the air.
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This was Fel!
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"What a captivating power. So pure, so potent..." A look of rapture spread across her gaunt, ugly face. To everyone's astonishment, Tyranna, the demon lord of Mardum, gazed at the crystal in her hand with a mixture of longing and reverence. "My master's will shall endure forever!"
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There was only one being the lord of the Shattered Abyss could call master: the Dark Titan, Sargeras...
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"After all these millennia, I can finally carry out my master's will."
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"Soul Eater, I'm entrusting you with the task of repairing the Sargerite Keystone. Don't disappoint me." Though the power in the crystal had made Tyranna reluctant to let it go, she hadn't forgotten the task Sargeras had given her. After all, she had witnessed the Dark Titan's might firsthand. She would never dare challenge his authority.
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"As you command, Your Majesty." Nearby, an Eredar woman clad head to toe in dark steel armor knelt on the ground. Her once-deep-blue horns had grown dull under Fel corruption, and her cracked, black skin had taken on a terrifying dark red hue, as if smeared with blood.
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More importantly, her emerald eyes stared fixedly at the crystal in Tyranna's hand—or rather, at the fragment of the Sargerite Keystone!
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Apparently sensing no ill intent, the Spider Queen flicked the fragment over. The Eredar demon hurriedly caught it. A dangerous glint shone in Tyranna's eyes. "Don't think you can steal my master's power. You're an insect, so know your place..."
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"Of course, Your Majesty." Soul Eater wasn't foolish enough to oppose the Dark Titan, who could destroy an entire legion on his own. She was overjoyed to have this fragment for another reason.
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What an interesting soul...
Before you continue