CHAPTER 103: A CONTEST OF CHOICES

The world was gone.

There was only an endless, silent, and absolute blackness. Rhys’s consciousness floated in this void, a single point of awareness without a body or senses.

He could feel an ancient, emotionless presence all around him. It was Chaos, the ultimate judge.

He had called upon it willingly. It was a mad gamble, a final, desperate move. Now, he had to face the consequences.

The voice of Chaos was not a sound, but a concept that bloomed directly in his mind.

"One reality has been erased. Another has been proven. But the challenge is not complete. Your choice created a Fracture Point of immense power.

It has spawned other possibilities, other realities born from the choices you could have made. You are the anchor.

All other versions of you are a deviation. To become the one true reality, you must prove that your path is the most dominant. You must confront your other selves."

Rhys understood. This was the true trial. It was not a fight against an external enemy. It was a war against himself.

The void around him began to shift. Faint, ghostly images appeared in the darkness. They were like windows into other lives.

He saw a version of himself that had never received the System. A boy who had been cast out by his family, who lived and died as a beggar on the streets of Silverwood, his life a short, forgotten tragedy.

That reality was weak, a flickering candle that snuffed itself out in an instant.

He saw another version.

A Rhys who had used the System’s power for simple, selfish pleasure. He had become a master thief, a wealthy and powerful rogue who lived a life of luxury, but he never built anything, never fought for anything greater than his own comfort.

That reality was brighter, but it was hollow. It lacked purpose, and it too faded away.

Countless other lives flashed before him, each one a different path he could have taken. They were all a part of him, yet they were not him.

They were echoes of possibilities, and one by one, they were judged and erased by the simple, undeniable fact of his own existence.

But one reality remained. It did not flicker or fade. It was a bright, burning star in the void, a reality so strong and stable that it challenged his own. Chaos pulled him towards it.

"One choice remains," the voice echoed. "The strongest path not taken. Prove your worth."

The darkness dissolved, replaced by a blinding, golden light.

When his consciousness settled, he found himself standing on a wide balcony made of pure white marble. Below him was a city of impossible scale and beauty.

Towers of gold and silver reached for a sky with three suns. Flying beasts with jewelled wings soared between them.

The streets were clean and orderly, filled with people whose faces shone with prosperity and respect.

At the heart of the city was a colossal palace, a mountain of white stone and glittering crystal from which all power seemed to flow.

This was the heart of an empire. An empire that spanned a continent.

Rhys felt the power in the air. It was thick and potent. This was the Mainland, a world far beyond the primitive Wastelands of the Azure Province.

This was a world of true cultivators, of ancient sects and powerful dynasties. And this empire, this entire continent, was ruled by a single man.

Another version of himself.

He turned.

A man was standing a few feet away, his back to him, looking out over the city. He wore the simple, elegant robes of an emperor, embroidered with the sigil of a coiled dragon.

A longsword with a simple, unadorned hilt rested at his side.

He was tall and powerful, and his presence was like that of a mountain, calm and unshakeable.

The man turned slowly. He had the same face as Rhys, but his was sharper, more mature. His pitch-black eyes were not empty voids; they were like polished obsidian, holding a deep, ancient calm and an unyielding will.

This was a man who had fought countless battles, made countless hard decisions, and had forged an empire with his own hands.

"So, you are the one," the emperor said. His voice was calm and steady, the voice of a man used to absolute command.

"The reality that chose to stay behind in the Wastelands, desperately trying to kill that Demon."

"And you are the one who chose to run," Rhys replied, his own voice just as calm.

The two versions of the same soul looked at each other across the marble balcony. They could feel the immense power in each other.

A physical fight would be pointless. It would be a battle that would last for an eternity and destroy this entire world.

They both knew that this was not a contest of strength. It was a contest of choices.

"I know why we are here," the emperor said. "Only one of us can be real. We must decide whose path was the better one."

"There is nothing to decide," Rhys said. "You made your choice. I made mine."

The emperor smiled, a small, confident smile.

"Yes. I did. When I faced Kaelen, I saw the truth. The Azure Province was a cage. A dying land full of fools who were too proud to see their own doom.

Kaelen was just a symptom of the disease. Staying there would have been a waste. It was a hopeless fight."

He gestured to the magnificent city below them.

"So I left. I found a way to cross the Endless Ocean. I came to the Mainland. I had nothing but my own strength. I fought, I bled, I conquered. I built this.

An empire where merit is rewarded, where the strong protect the weak. A place of order and prosperity. I am an emperor.

I created a new world from nothing. Like me... no... we planned..."

"But you ran away," Rhys said again. The words were simple, but they were a sharp blade aimed at the heart of the emperor’s pride.

The calm expression on the emperor’s face finally broke. A flash of anger appeared in his obsidian eyes.

"It was not running away!" he said, his voice rising. "It was the most practical solution! It was the smart choice! To stay and fight for a dead province, to waste your potential on a lost cause—that is the choice of a fool, not a hero!"

"No," Rhys shook his head slowly.

"It’s cowardice. You have built an empire. You have become more powerful than I can imagine. But you still haven’t ascended. You are still trapped in the mortal realm. Do you know why?"

The emperor stared at him, his anger mixed with a flicker of confusion.

"It’s because you are a coward," Rhys continued, his voice quiet but firm. "You are afraid of a part of yourself. You ran from a destiny that was rightfully yours."

"I am an emperor here!" the emperor roared, his power flaring around him. The air on the balcony grew heavy.

"The people of this continent respect me! They see me as a saviour! I have achieved more than you ever will by continuing a fight that would never end!"

"I don’t call you a coward because you abandoned killing Kaelen," Rhys said, his gaze unwavering.

"I don’t even call you a coward because you became an emperor by abandoning your home. I call you a coward because you rejected the destiny of another choice you had.

A choice that was a fundamental part of our existence. A choice that never hindered your path to ascension, but one you were too afraid to face."

"What?" the emperor asked, his voice now a confused whisper. "What choice?"

Rhys looked him straight in the eye, and he spoke the final word, the truth that the emperor had been running from his entire life.

"Loneliness."

The emperor’s eyes widened in shock. The powerful aura around him vanished. He looked like a man who had been struck by lightning.

"To watch the world change," Rhys said, his voice soft.

"To see everyone you know fade away while you remain. To be the last one standing in a silent world. That is the true curse of our ageless body.

That is the loneliness that was waiting for us back in that dead province. You felt it. You knew it was coming.

And you ran.

You built this grand empire, surrounded yourself with millions of loyal subjects, all to fill the silence you were so afraid of.

You did not conquer this world because you wanted to build something new. You conquered it because you were afraid of being alone."

The emperor was silent. He had no words. He knew, in the core of his being, that Rhys was right.

He had built a perfect world, but it was a world built on a foundation of fear. His entire life had been a desperate attempt to escape a single, simple truth.

"My choice is made," Rhys said.

The emperor looked at him, and for the first time, he saw not a rival, but a reflection of a path he was too afraid to walk.

Rhys’s eyes changed.

The light in them faded away, and they became two pits of absolute, empty void. His consciousness expanded, leaving the golden city and the broken emperor behind.

It flew across the dimensions, back to his own reality, back to the province of Azure.

His gaze reached every corner of the land. He saw the silent cities, the empty fields, and the puppet people moving through their pointless, repetitive lives.

He saw them all. The soldiers, the merchants, the farmers, the children. Every single living being in the province, their blood tainted by Kaelen, without them even knowing.

He felt the immense weight of it all. To prove to Chaos that his path was absolute... there was only one way.

Kill Kaelen...

But to kill the Demon...

Rhys slowly raised his hand and clicked his fingers. A single word, a single law, echoed from the void and settled over the entire province.

"Erase."

*

* *

"Congratulations! You have proven yourself.

You have killed the Bloodline Stalker. His existence was erased from every world... the last blood demon is now forgotten."

Rhys suddenly recalled the words of Borin, the butcher he once served under:

"You have a big future as a butcher..."

A bitter smile tugged at his lips as he muttered, "True."

But as a human butcher.