The corners of his mouth curled into a faint smile.
It was not a smile of satisfaction, nor one of relief. It was the smile of someone who saw the finish line right before him and finally no longer had to run.
He had waited for twenty years, from the age of fourteen to thirty-four.
Countless times, he had tried to break free from these eternal shackles, battering the shackles of life with his will in an attempt to bring his endless existence to a complete end. Yet after every attempt, he remained trapped where he was, unable to reach a true conclusion.
Now, he had finally realized that struggling on his own was useless. Only by borrowing the power of another world could he fulfill his wish. He merely had to open a passage connecting to the realm beyond, welcome the descent of otherworldly beings, and let them erase his eternal existence.
He would calmly feel his form gradually dissolve, sense the root of his spirit slowly return to nothingness, and walk the final stretch of his journey.
That would be the last sensation he ever experienced in this world.
Not pain, but release.
"Faster!" he shouted at the people below, his voice hoarse yet forceful. "Faster! The barrier is about to break! The otherworldly beings are waiting for us! Release all your source power! The more energy we accumulate, the faster the passage will open!"
Hearing his voice, those people accelerated the circulation of their power. The hum of surging energy rose and fell without pause. Streams of source power continuously converged, while ripples of energy flowing through heaven and earth spread outward in layer upon layer. The energy mass atop the altar grew ever larger, and the concentrated spheres of source light within the factory continued to