CHAPTER 43: CHAPTER 40 : INSTINCT VS EVOLUTION

Blood poured from both Nullen and Lin as they stumbled back from the blow.

Nullen raised two fingers toward the unconscious Lin.

“It’s over, Lin.

You will die here.

You will die all by yourself.

And no one will save you.

So I want to know, how frightened are you?

Tell me the truth.

If I tore a hole in your chest, would I see it?

If I split open your skull, would it be there?

Of course, there will be nothing there.

Because you aren’t there at all.

“Keep depending on your instinct until it devours you...

A power like that always carries its own curse.

I know exactly what you’re feeling now.”

His voice dropped to a growl as he stepped closer. “Every time you use that instinct, a dark spike pierces your soul. Enough talk.”

Nullen lifted his head; the crimson glow of his eyes began to twist, swallowed by a creeping black circling the iris like a living shadow. “Let me show you my instinct—the instinct of devouring. Let me show you despair.”

Nullen’s crimson eyes began to change.

The bright crimson glow was swallowed by a creeping black, circling the iris like a living shadow, until his gaze burned with a twisted blend of scarlet and darkness.

“This is my final message to you, Lin, because after this we may not see each other for a long time. I will gamble everything I have now, and you won’t stand a chance against me.

So, Lin, listen carefully — because what I’m about to say might help you once you truly understand it.

It may guide you toward a new path; I don’t even know if you’ll be able to hear it.

But it might just be the key to your question.”

Each of us lives and dies by our beliefs, and awareness is what we call survival. But why should we remain in that position? What if we were the predator itself, so the prey has no chance to rebel?

It is either to be eaten or to eat.

And to eat, you must abandon peace.

Because peace is a lie, there is only passion.

Through passion, I gain strength.

Through strength, I gain power.

Through power, I gain victory.

Through victory, my chains are broken...

And once they are broken, I can devour everything.

“And to devour everything, you must seek knowledge. Learn to see beyond the illusion of fear and arrogance, and alter the balance of the scales. True power isn’t found in domination—it lies in understanding both your past self and your new self. It is the light of rebirth, shaping the mindset of a hunter who becomes a predator. That is what separates one predator from another.”

You can copy others to form something better without losing your touch, but if you don’t add your own taste to it, then it means you are just a cheap, low copy of the one you imitated.

But remember, the more you seek it, the more dangerous it becomes. The real predator is the one who devours it without being consumed and losing himself.

So, Lin, are you ready for that?”

Nullen reappeared in front of Lin at high speed.

Lin tried to strike with his knee, but Nullen blocked it.

Then Lin countered with a punch to Nullen’s face, but it didn’t move him an inch

or harm him.

Lin tried to jump back, but Nullen gave him no chance. With unimaginable speed, his knee drove deep into Lin’s stomach.

Lin tried to react, but it was all a failure.

Nullen raised his heel over Lin’s head and slammed it into the ground.

Boom!!!!!!

A magic circle flared beneath them, launching Lin into the air.

Nullen spread gray wings of flame and shot upward. With both hands he seized Lin and hurled him toward the ground, then raised his left hand and roared:

“With the power blessed by Aybass,

The predator who seeks knowledge and power—

From silence I awaken,

From hunger I rise.

Chains shatter, shadows gather,

The predator denies the lie.

Through passion, strength is born.

Through strength, power flows.

Through power, victory calls.

Through victory, I devour all.

Devour the light.

Devour the dark.

Devour the fear.

Devour the world.

I... am the eternal predator.

O blessing of the fallen Ghoul of Aybass,

Lend me your strength...

And turn me into the Truth.

From the fall of ashes,

A gray sun shall rise—

to burn the lie and reveal the truth.”

In the next instant, Nullen vanished from sight. He reappeared behind Lin at blinding speed, seizing him from the back and hurling him straight toward the gray sun.

Lin tried to summon black wings, but Nullen’s gray flames scorched his back. He attempted to release his black spinal pulses, but they crumbled, powerless.

The gray fire only grew, consuming every defense Lin raised.

“Take this, Lin—the fallen sun of ashes!”

Nullen’s voice thundered as he drove Lin’s body into the heart of the gray sun.

The collision ripped the sky apart.

A cataclysmic boom roared across the battlefield as the gray sun exploded, scattering ash and fire in every direction.

From above, Nullen descended slowly, his gray wings trailing sparks.

As the storm of ash settled, his eyes faded back to crimson.

Through the haze, Lin’s body staggered—bloodied, scorched, barely breathing. His vision was gone, his sight drowned in darkness.

Hah .......hah.....hah.........I am strangely tired, not from trying too much, but from the thought of what I will face if I fail.

“You’re right... about everything you said,” Lin muttered hoarsely.

Cough... cough... cough.

“None of us really cares what the other thinks.

As for me — I’ll use my instinctive power even if it destroys me, even if it ends me. I know exactly what I’ll face once it’s activated... I know how much pain I’ll endure once I lose my restraint.”

“Aaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

A large amount of blood poured from Lin’s mouth. His body began to exude heat and blood from his mouth, nose, and ears.

“But there is one thing you are wrong about.”

“What is it?” Nullen muttered with a heavy breath.

Lin continued as if he gathering all his strength hardly:

“There is no lie, no truth—only the perspective of words. Originals, copies... all crumble the same. A sentence is a blade: in one hand it cuts as truth, in the other it bleeds as a lie. And now, Nullen... you will bleed beneath my truth.”

Lin walked toward Nullen, dragging himself on one leg. He launched a final hit at Nullen’s face, but Nullen avoided it and passed him.

“The king has fallen,” Nullen muttered.

With a spin he struck Lin’s skull from behind, knocking him down.

Nullen pressed his left bleeding hand, slammed Lin into a corner of the wall, and fell into it.

He started taking heavy breaths, then closed his eyes as if taking a break.

“Phew... phew... phew...”

But then, a massive shining light erupted, sending everything in its path away as dark white heat spread outward.

Nullen opened his eyes to look.

Lin stood still—his eyes had turned pitch black, with a single white oval gleaming at the center and in it a dark black dot.

“Damn you, you opened Phase Two.”

Lin’s eyes became wide and oval, wrapped in a radiant white glow that shone even in the darkness. At its core lay a small pupil surrounded by a dark swirling pattern of fractured lines, like endless cracks of surging energy. Its form radiated both awe and dread, like a mysterious vortex that devours anyone who dares to gaze into it.

Cough... cough...

Nullen started coughing blood.

“Is that a... a... Phase Three?”

Nullen’s mouth trembled.

He gazed at Lin as if seeing himself as an ant before a giant monster. His gaze turned to despair, then to lust.

All he was thinking was, what if he devoured that monster?

What would he become?

“Life isn’t fair.

You had a double awakening.

What a terrifying talent.

“I know you’re watching, Equilen.

Why not lend your brother a hand before this monster’s Phase Three completes?

I didn’t claim this body just two days ago to die so soon.

I want to see more... learn more... devour more.

I will live—long enough to devour that monster.”

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Reader’s archive

This is a poem in Arabic that I wrote for Nullen to express himself.

The first version is a direct translation. In the original Arabic, it is much stronger, since the Arabic language carries greater poetic weight.

The second version is an adaptation that suits the readers better.

For me, though, both English versions feel weaker than the Arabic original.

1-

I, O son of Nothingness, when it fell, stood tall until the end.

From the ashes of collapse a thousand selves are born, restless, sleepless.

I am Death that has perished, and from the wound of scorn was born the weeping.

I am a curse, a scream, and a fire sprouting from the very core of torment.

With crimson eyes that search for the meaning of life,

I converse with silence and measure shadows at the crossroads of annihilation.

You — my origin and my past — you are the vessel.

If you vanish, I will reshape you from the ashes of what remains.

I am the truth when all melts into the silence of nothingness,

and you are but a phantom dissolving in the dust of extinction.

2-

In the shadowed cradle of your whispered abyss,

You rise—an echo born from the void’s kiss.

Son of Nothingness, with scars etched deep,

From shattered remnants, endless selves creep.

Death’s ghost, once fallen, now breathes anew,

In wounds of scorn, tears find their hue—

A curse, a scream, a blazing core,

From torment’s heart, forevermore.

Crimson eyes seek meaning in the night,

Converse with silence, shadows ignite.

At the crossroads where worlds collide,

You stand as witness, as guide.

Vessel of past, of what once was—

If you dissolve, I’ll forge because

From ashes, rebirth’s whisper calls—

A truth beyond the mortal halls.

You, a phantom in dust’s embrace,

Fade into silence, void’s cold grace.

Yet in that silence, I awaken—

From nothing’s womb, new worlds are taken.