“I’m here to destroy you,” Daniel said calmly. Though his tone was soft, his words carried an earth-shattering weight that echoed through the air.
Randy’s expression darkened immediately.
“That’s a poor joke,” he replied coldly. “If you haven’t come with good intentions, I suggest you leave at once.”
His voice, edged with anger, betrayed his irritation. Randy clearly regarded Daniel’s statement as nothing more than provocation, a mockery aimed at him.
“Why should I approach someone who’s actively destroying this world with goodwill?” Daniel retorted. “Besides…”
His gaze sharpened. “You’re not even from this world, are you? You’ve simply taken over the body of someone named Randy.”
Those words struck like lightning. Randy’s expression faltered, his composure cracking as though his deepest secret had been exposed.
In an instant, his eyes changed—one black, one white—radiating a chilling, otherworldly aura. The tranquil beauty of the
secret realm
disintegrated, replaced by a stark, surreal landscape.
The once-lush greenery faded into endless whiteness, except for the ground beneath Randy, now a pitch-black void.
Around him, the terrain rippled like liquid, each step causing waves to emanate across the surface.
“Who are you, really?” Randy asked, his voice cold and measured.
“I’m someone trying to save this world,” Daniel answered.
“Save this world?” Randy laughed, a booming, mocking sound that reverberated through the emptiness.
“Surely you’re joking.”
To Randy, the very idea was absurd. The world was already beyond repair: its
world tree
severed, its
world consciousness
dormant, and its
original essence
siphoned by remnants of gods and devils. The destruction was inevitable, and Randy, like others of his kind, was simply accelerating the process.
“Save the world,” Randy sneered. “What a ridiculous notion. The world is doomed, and you think you can change that?”
Having abandoned his earlier façade, Randy no longer hid his true nature.
Daniel’s earlier accusation had been correct: Randy’s body was nothing more than a vessel. The true occupant was the consciousness birthed from a god-and-devil relic—a spirit of immense, destructive power.
As Randy’s aura fully unfurled, he scrutinized Daniel more closely.
“You… You’re different,” Randy mused. “Part of the world’s essence? Or perhaps a fragment of its consciousness?”
The curiosity in his voice was tinged with malice.
“No matter,” he continued. “If you’ve come to me, then I’ll gladly devour you!”
Behind Randy, a spectral pen materialized, its shape faint but menacing.
The pen began to move through the air, leaving trails of dark glyphs that swirled and twisted before coalescing beneath Daniel’s feet.
The glyphs rose like walls, encasing Daniel in a prison of black text.
The walls tightened, shrinking until they formed a pill-sized sphere that hovered in Randy’s hand.
“Delicious,” Randy remarked, grinning wickedly. “I can’t wait to savor your essence. If only more fools like you would deliver themselves to me.”
He tossed the sphere into his mouth and swallowed.
But instead of the rush of power he expected, Randy felt… nothing. No surge of energy, no familiar taste of
world essence
.
“Was that your best shot?” Daniel’s voice rang out behind him.
Randy whirled around, his disbelief palpable. There stood Daniel, completely unscathed.
“How…?” Randy stammered, his mind racing. The attack he’d unleashed had transcended this world’s rules—escaping it should have been impossible.
Realization dawned too late.
As Randy’s spectral pen moved again to strike, Daniel acted.
Extending his right hand, Daniel grasped the pen directly.
The world shifted once more.
The blinding white landscape dissolved, replaced by the verdant scenery of the original
secret realm
.
The pen, the source of Randy’s power, trembled violently in Daniel’s grip.
Randy dropped to his knees, his strength draining away.
The pen wasn’t merely a tool; it was the true source of his existence. Without it, he was nothing.
The pen was no ordinary artifact.
Once belonging to a powerful god-and-devil figure, it had been damaged in battle and left to rot.
Over centuries, its spirit reawakened, growing stronger by feeding on the
original essence
of the world.
Eventually, it gained sentience, claiming Randy’s body as its host.
But Daniel’s intervention had changed everything. His grasp pierced the layers of reality, reaching beyond the pen’s illusory projection to seize its true form.
“Please, spare me!” Randy’s voice, now filled with desperation, pleaded. “I was wrong! I’ll serve you—do anything you ask!”
The pen spirit’s newfound sentience brought with it a deep fear of death, and Daniel’s hold on its core filled it with terror.
“Spare you?” Daniel replied evenly. “This world doesn’t need creatures like you.”
His grip tightened, and the pen began to crack. Randy’s face contorted in pain, his voice rising in frantic protest.
“No! You don’t understand! If you destroy me, they won’t let you go! They’ll come for you—all of them!”
Daniel’s gaze didn’t waver.
“Let them come. I’ve been waiting for them.”
With those words, he crushed the pen, its remnants disintegrating into nothingness.
Even after ensuring no hidden contingencies or escape mechanisms remained, Daniel searched the surrounding area with his
mind power
, confirming the spirit’s complete annihilation.
With the pen destroyed, the true Randy stirred, his eyes fluttering open.
“Thank you… Thank you, sir,” he whispered weakly. His voice carried both relief and lingering fear.
Freed from the pen’s control, Randy was once again himself—a man who had endured years of imprisonment within his own mind.
“If not for you,” Randy continued, his tone trembling, “I would have been erased completely. That… thing would have consumed me.”
Daniel studied him for a moment. Randy’s survival was remarkable, but his ordeal was over. For Daniel, the path forward was clear: the fight to save the world had only just begun.
“Tell me everything—what exactly happened?”
Daniel’s voice was calm but firm as he fixed his gaze on Randy.
Randy nodded weakly, a mixture of exhaustion and relief flickering across his face. In a halting voice, he began to recount his story, one that spanned thousands of years.
A long time ago, Randy had been a minor member of a powerful family, an
affiliate child
with dismal magical potential.