Suddenly, an overwhelming wave of power washed over Chiki as something deep within him began to unravel. Along with it came a strange energy he had never felt before.

The energy surged through his body, as though it refused to acknowledge a vessel as worthless as his but together with that power came something else, something instinctive that had always been a part of him.

A Talent he had never known existed.

"Chiki!"

"I said run!"

Even as Zenith’s voice echoed across the battlefield while holding the Ahankara alone, Chiki didn’t move because his consciousness had already been pulled somewhere else entirely.

A boundless white void stretched endlessly in every direction, suspended high above floated a pitch-black sun. Its darkness contrasted sharply against the endless white.

But even that black sun was almost completely concealed by something else.

An immense sphere of water countless times larger than the black sun itself. It enveloped the dark sphere completely, keeping it suppressed.

The moment Chiki saw them, he understood as if the knowledge had always existed within him.

The black sun was his Talent.

The Soul Parade.

While the orb of water suppressing it was mana itself, the legendary power spoken of in myths, the same power wielded by the mighty dragons of old.

Ever since childhood, his body had always been abnormally strong. At ten years old, he could shatter rocks with his fists. By eighteen, he could split apart massive boulders.

They called him the Young Dragon of Murgins but others awakened mana and their Talents at the age of sixteen, he never awakened either.

He had spent his entire life believing he was worthless, believing the world had never blessed him but now, looking upon the two celestial bodies within that endless void, everything finally made sense.

He had never been born without talent, his mana had simply been consumed from the very beginning to suppress the overwhelming power of his own Talent.

The realization came as naturally as breathing.

At that very moment, for the first time in his nineteen years of life, the grace of the world descended upon him as a transparent, glass-like window materialized before his eyes.

[You Have Awakened]

The instant those words appeared, the white void trembled violently and cracks spread across the immense sphere of water and then, if began to spill down.

Countless streams of shimmering water poured onto the pure white ground below as its color slowly began to change, turning golden, quenching the thirst of white void.

A radiant core erupted into existence within the white void like a starving vortex, it began drawing the endless water toward itself. The more mana it absorbed, the brighter it became as the overflowing energy finally seeped into Chiki’s body.

The strength he had been denied his entire life burst forth all at once as more of those glass-like windows materialized before him one after another.

[You Have Broken Through To Mortal I Rank]

...

[You Have Broken Through To Mortal V Rank]

...

[You Have Broken Through To Awakened V Rank]

...

[You Have Broken Through To Enlightened V Rank]

...

[You Have Broken Through To Ascended V Rank]

...

[You Have Broken Through To Exalted IV Rank]

At last, the core could absorb no more as the remaining mana settled peacefully within his body instead of rampaging through it.

Chiki slowly opened his eyes to the outside world as barely a few seconds had passed in the outside world but to him it felt like years.

His ordinary brown eyes now shone like miniature white suns as the muscles that had once bulged across his body had compressed into something denser and stronger.

His gaze instinctively drifted toward the battlefield.

Both his savior and the one who called himself God had completely stopped fighting as they stared at him in stunned silence.

Chiki ignored them.

His eyes turned toward the villagers instead as the same sorrow as before returned to his face.

His Talent [[Soul Parade]] activated on its own.

Before his eyes, every villager’s soul became visible and every one of them had already rotted beyond salvation. The black corruption had consumed their souls completely as their weak mana barely offered any resistance.

He could finally understand everything.

There was no saving them anymore and that only suffering awaited them now. Looking upon the familiar faces that had raised him, fed him and loved him after his village was destroyed, Chiki finally spoke.

"I am sorry..." A single tear rolled down his cheek. "I’m sorry I couldn’t save you. I’m sorry I was too weak but never again. No one from our people will ever suffer this fate again."

"Even if I must pay any price, I will carry all of your burdens. I will carry every one of your souls within my own and I swear... to slaughter every God who abandons their followers..."

"So that no one else will ever share our fate." His gaze shifted toward the unharmed children. "I swear to carry our future upon my back even if it costs me my own life."

With those words, he lowered his head instead of despair.

"So, please allow me to carry all of you. If I cannot save your lives then let me carry your hopes, your dreams, your regrets until the day I can fulfill them in your stead."

His voice trembled.

The villagers smiled.

"Do what you must..."

"Our dragon."

Chiki clenched his fists.

[[Soul Parade]]

The Talent bloomed completely as Askruak’s expression finally changed from his amusement. For the first time, his very being felt fear as if his natural predator had appeared.

He immediately tried to move.

Zenith intercepted him without hesitation.

From every villager’s body, a warm sphere of light drifted into the air. One after another, their souls answered Chiki’s call and each one merged into his body.

With every soul he accepted, his presence grew stronger as within the endless white void of his Soul Palace, the souls no longer wandered and instead they became stars.

Countless warm lights spread across the endless sky, illuminating the once-empty world within his Soul Palace, each star carrying a life, a memory and a promise as Chiki slowly opened his eyes again.

The warmth that had always lingered within them was gone. In its place remained only a cold, unwavering resolve as his gaze rose toward the sky, settling upon the one who had called himself a God.

"You shall answer for your crimes... Ruruk. I will make certain of it."

With those words, he surged forward.