Chapter 484
He knew that this was his remaining time, the remainder of all the time he had left to return the main scenario of the first arc, episode eleven, back to its proper course, the remainder of all opportunities that might never come again if he allowed himself to keep standing in the same place with an unmoving body and eyes that could only watch from afar without ever doing anything to change the direction of the narrative that had begun to deviate in ways he had never calculated.
And within that awareness, within the understanding that every second that passed without action was a second that brought Ilux closer to the edge of the abyss yet also further from the will to truly leap, Theo then moved in a way he had never done before throughout his entire journey as the Supreme Author.
Not with firm and confident steps like when he gave instructions to Aldraya or recorded minor details in his small yellow notebook, but with steps that felt heavy, as though his feet were walking over shifting sand beneath his soles, as though every step he took carried a burden he had never imagined would be this heavy when he first decided to stand in this room with the hope that tonight would be the night when everything he had planned would unfold according to the scenario he had written.
He approached Ilux's position on the bed in a way that would never be known by the young man, with steps that left no trace on the cold floor, with a body that remained hidden beneath layers of Resolve, Will, Intent, and Ambition that made him something more than a mere shadow yet less than a being that could be seen, heard, or felt by anyone within the same room.
"Strangely, there is still one part that remains."
Before the body lying weakly with a chest rising and falling in a rhythm that was never truly calm, with eyes that sometimes opened wide as if searching for something on the unchanging ceiling yet sometimes shut tightly as if trying to escape a reality too heavy to face, Theo stopped at a distance close enough to observe every minute detail that might have escaped his attention during the long hours he had spent standing in the corner of the room.
He observed in a way different from all the observations he had ever made toward other beings in his journey as the Supreme Author, not as an observer recording details in a small yellow notebook, not as an architect ensuring every piece on the chessboard moved according to a meticulously crafted scenario, but as a being standing before something he had never fully understood despite having spent countless times trying to comprehend the most complex emotions within a story.
He saw how the body remained weak even though the breathing sometimes grew erratic without clear cause, how the fingers gripping the bedsheet tightly would sometimes loosen their hold as if releasing something unconsciously, how all the signs of collapse that should have been enough to make anyone lose every reason to keep enduring still left behind a single space deep within that remained untouched by all the pressure he had continuously imposed for days.
And within that space, within the deepest part of a consciousness breaking in ways he had never imagined could be this severe, there was still something standing firm despite everything around it collapsing one by one in unstoppable fashion, there was still a belief that he must make his long-deceased parents proud, there was still a thin thread that had never snapped even though all other ties connecting him to the world had been severed in the cruelest ways imaginable.
Fuuuh!!
Fuuuh!!
Beneath Ilux's consciousness, shattered by mental exhaustion, Theo stood like a weightless shadow.
The world around him was not a real space—it was a fractured landscape of consciousness, filled with shards of memories and emotions colliding like floating fragments of glass.
At the center of that space, Ilux stood alone, his body blurred like mist that had nearly lost its shape.
Theo did not act immediately.
He observed first.
He saw something that made him narrow his eyes slightly.
Amid all that mental ruin… there was still one thing that had not collapsed.
Ilux's belief that he must make his parents proud.
A small belief, yet deeply rooted.
Theo drew a slow breath, then finally decided to begin.
The voice that emerged from him did not sound like someone else's.
It sounded like Ilux's own voice.
A whisper from within.
"If one day you were reborn as an ordinary human," the voice surfaced gently within Ilux's consciousness, "without power, without a grand destiny, just an ordinary man living a simple life."
Ilux, standing in the center of his consciousness, slowly lifted his face.
"And your parents are still alive. They watch you grow, watch you marry, watch you live until old age."
The voice paused for a moment.
"Would you accept that life?"
Ilux remained silent for quite some time.
His blurred body trembled faintly.
But in the end, he answered.
"I would accept it."
His answer was soft, yet clear.
"I don't need to become someone great, as long as they are still there."
Theo narrowed his eyes slightly.
The answer was as expected.
And yet, that was precisely the problem.
Ilux's conviction was too strong.
Theo continued.
"Then what if reality is different?"
The voice now turned slightly sharper.
"What if your life remains the same as it is now… full of failure, full of despair, but that suffering does not last forever?"
Ilux lowered his head.
"What do you mean?"
"If your life remains painful," the voice continued, "but one day that pain will end, would you still endure?"
Ilux's body trembled more intensely.
His consciousness began to waver.
Yet he still answered.
"I would endure."
His answer was no longer as firm as before.
But there was still resolve within it.
"Because if I give up, then everything they did for me would be meaningless."
Theo let out a faint sigh.
Just as he had expected.
Ilux's source of strength was only one.
His parents.
And as long as that belief was not destroyed, Ilux would never become the Nothingness.
Theo finally decided to stop pretending.
"Is that so?"
The tone of the voice changed.
No longer gentle.
No longer neutral.
Now it sounded cold.
Cynical.
"Are you truly sure they care about you that much?"
Ilux immediately lifted his head.
"What?"
"A child who failed to protect them. A child who could not even save himself."
The voice let out a quiet laugh.
"Do you think they are proud?"
Ilux's body trembled.
For the first time, his consciousness truly shook.
"Stop."
But the voice did not stop.
"If they were still alive, perhaps they would regret ever having a child like you."
"Stop."
Ilux clutched his head.
Cracks began to appear within his consciousness.
"Stop!"
But at that very moment—the world around Ilux changed.
To be continued…