Bai Ya watched the orange light flash toward her. The scorching torrent seemed ready to swallow her whole. She stared blankly at the overwhelming radiance, her mind utterly empty. For the first time, she felt how insignificant humans were before absolute calamity.
Am I going to die...
She closed her eyes.
The next instant, Galsis’s light cannon engulfed Bai Ya.
Yet, Bai Ya felt no heat. Instead, a bone-chilling cold wrapped around her, making her shiver uncontrollably. She opened her eyes in confusion. Gone was the orange glow—only pitch black filled her vision. The darkness formed a spherical shell around her.
More precisely, someone was holding her. She could feel arms encircling her back. Her chaotic thoughts slowly calmed. Bai Ya sensed her Essence had completely shut down. In her memory, only one person could do this.
“...Yue Ge?” Bai Ya called out. Instinctively, she hugged the shadowy figure and burst into tears, eyes shut tight. She’d thought she was doomed.
But the figure stayed silent. It didn’t move—just held her quietly. In the darkness, Bai Ya saw nothing except two crimson orbs beneath a black cloak. Glowing red lights. Even pressed so close, she couldn’t make out the face hidden within.
An inexplicable unease stirred in Bai Ya. Not doubt about him—but a sense of wrongness where none should be. She gently slipped free from his arms. He didn’t react until her hands reached around his neck. Then, he finally moved.
Instinctively, the cloak lifted slightly. Those crimson eyes fixed on her. No confusion. No emotion. Just a hollow stare.
“Yue Ge... can you hear me?” Bai Ya snapped to calmness, shouting beside the hood. She might not grasp how his Essence worked normally, but she wasn’t clueless about this state.
Quite the opposite. Bai Ya still had the old experiment records. Past predictions based on them were often shattered by Yue Ge’s actions—but some truths never changed.
She knew every Essence had a theoretical “limit.” The body’s breaking point. Often, the Essence wasn’t fully used before the body failed. Collapse followed—backlash that meant unconsciousness at best, instant death at worst.
Clearly, Yue Ge had hit that limit. If he were conscious, his gaze wouldn’t be so empty. Only instinct drove him now.
In truth, Bai Ya’s guess was right.
Yue Ge had lost control of the Death Aura swirling around him. His consciousness was buried deep beneath the crushing weight of Death. Only instinct—granted by that Death—commanded his body. He’d broken free from the Reaper’s control, but that didn’t mean he could master such vast power.
More accurately, the Death hadn’t betrayed him. His own Death was too weak to expel the external Death and keep him conscious. If he hadn’t engraved a core instinct into his mind, his first move might have been to kill Bai Ya.
Rewind slightly. When Yue Ge tested this new form, he’d already grasped how the Reaper’s Essence worked. Simply: beings he killed became pure “Origin.” That Origin drew in external, mindless Death—letting him wield superhuman power.
That’s why, despite holding little Death himself, he could still manifest his Essence. As long as the Origin stabilized his mind, he could command external Death. But there was a limit.
Just like when Death scattered his consciousness before, this limit tied directly to his own Death. If his Death Aura couldn’t sustain his awareness, Death would shatter his mind again.
Yue Ge knew this limit well. So when he reached it, he reluctantly dispersed the excess Death Aura. The Death-filled streets tempted him—but he couldn’t control more.
This time, no Reaper would intervene. If Death scattered his consciousness, two outcomes awaited. First: total oblivion. Body and mind swept by Death into another world—the only true way to enter it.
But if he lingered half-conscious, instinct would take over. Death would guide his actions. That’s how Yue Ge absorbed Essences before.
Both paths were deadly. The first meant certain death in that world. The second meant he’d rampage until the Death drained away—unless someone like Bai Ya knocked him out cold.
Yet he did it anyway.
When Yue Ge saw Galsis solidify the lava on its body, he knew control was lost. Especially when he saw Bai Ya slapped down by Galsis—that snapped his last thread of sanity.
Beneath his calm surface lay absolute madness. A man unafraid of Death—his sanity was just waiting for the moment to break.
With his first step, the Death Aura he’d dispersed surged back to him.
With the second, Death within fifty meters converged on his form.
With the fourth step, every remnant of Death in the city bowed at his feet.
On the final step, Yue Ge didn’t know his own actions. But his body vanished—reappearing before Bai Ya the instant she closed her eyes. He crushed her in a fierce embrace. Only this could guarantee he’d protect her. Solidified Death wrapped around them, blocking Galsis’s light cannon.
He remembered one thing. Every shred of will focused on burning it into instinct.
—She must not die.
