"..."
As his words fell, Khaslana sank into silence.
He lowered his head to look at the orange Phainon had offered him. That ordinary object stood in stark contrast to his godlike bearing.
He pondered for a long while, as though engaged in an intense inner struggle.
At last, he slowly reached out and accepted half the orange.
Khaslana remained silent, as though savoring the warmth lingering on the fruit. A slight change came over his voice:
"This body has never stood for [Salvation]."
Phainon nodded faintly. "It only burns for the [Negative World]."
Gradually, under Dan Heng's gaze, Khaslana's golden figure began to dissolve into countless warm motes of light, drifting away through the air like fireflies.
Before him, only Phainon remained.
He was still as he had been when they first met, wearing an optimistic yet resolute smile, as though no suffering had ever crushed him.
"So, I'll be heading into tomorrow ahead of you." With his back to Dan Heng, Phainon bid farewell:
"Don't keep me waiting too long, partners." His voice carried anticipation.
"Of course," Dan Heng replied.
Phainon raised his head and looked toward the sky, which was still burning yet seemed to reveal a faint glimmer of light. His gaze was distant.
"What harm is there in being born of [Destruction]?"
It was as though he were asking the heavens, and as though he were asking himself.
He stepped forward with unwavering strides, passing the lonely recliner and the stubbornly blooming flowers as he walked toward Kephale's mountainlike body in the distance.
"There is no need to weigh my true heart, nor to crave victory. If I was born to be a vessel for sin..."
"Then I will roar at sin and blaze a dawn for future generations to [Trailblaze]!"
All at once, the