Jiawen struggled desperately, but it was futile. After a heavy impact, darkness surrounded him. Layer upon layer of force tore relentlessly at his body, like countless mouths maddened by hunger devouring him bite by bite. Almost instantly, he was stretched to countless times his original length.
He had expected pain, but never anything like this. His enormous soul was being torn apart bit by bit, as though subjected to death by a thousand cuts.
Pain!
Agonizing, heart-piercing pain!
But this pain did nothing to resolve his crisis. He was the Soul Baron's core, the mind of this body, and almost all its suffering fell on him.
Sob!
All he wanted now was to sob his heart out, but the pain left him unable even to cry. All that remained was his refusal to accept this.
He was Jiawen. He owned Christie's, had exploited its accumulated resources to their fullest, and had successfully dismantled the Red Soil Continent. He was an unrivaled genius. In this Void Expanse, he was supposed to devour others. How could he become prey?
Yet now he was being gnawed apart, his flesh torn away little by little. Those fangs formed from black holes could rip directly into souls. He could almost feel his flesh being converted into energy for those Soul Barons.
A scam!
From the very beginning, from the founding of Christie's, it had been destined to be a scam. Escaping into the next era? That was nothing but a dream. The end of all his struggles was to become prey for these Soul Barons.
The Boundary Wall strengthened itself through ceaseless destruction, while the Frozen Continent before him was more like a swindler. Before an era began, it offered a possibility; when that era ended, it plundered every soul.
Once he understood everything, Jiawen