Zane could no longer remember how long the battle had lasted. He had been so focused that even the number of times he'd died and been reborn had blurred into meaninglessness.
All he knew was that he had gone through countless cycles of reincarnation, died countless deaths, and fought through endless battles.
Until eventually, the monster that had once loomed so large it blotted out the sky no longer seemed quite so terrifying. It felt... beatable.
This time, after he returned through rebirth, the monster didn't immediately strike.
It twisted its massive form in the air, its body stretching between sky and ground. Claws flailed and its gaping maw opened wide, revealing a blood-red interior, as if it could swallow Zane whole at any moment.
But despite its vicious display, it made no move to attack. Instead, it simply stared at Zane—and then, unexpectedly, it smiled. There was a trace of mockery in that grin.
Suddenly, waves of inky-black ghostly mist rained down from above, falling onto the dark substance below—which had been reduced by more than half—and rapidly began to reinforce it.
The growth was rapid, overwhelming. In the blink of an eye, the monster expanded along with it. The black mass stretched out like an endless wall, swallowing Zane's field of vision.
It had returned to the form it had taken at the very beginning.
The reconstructed sky, shrouded in darkness from all directions, resembled a cage built from the monster's fangs and claws—intent on trapping Zane forever within its grip.
Fully restored, the monster gazed down at Zane. Those massive, scarlet eyes gleamed with ridicule once more, as if taunting him—mocking his arrogance and waiting to see how he'd react now that everything he had fought for had been undone.
Zane lifted his gaze and stared at the monster.
The enemy before him was just like the one he had faced at the start... no, even stronger.
From the darkness, a grotesque face swayed silently—wordlessly roaring at him.
You can't kill me!
The past cannot be severed. Pain is boundless.
It was born from Zane himself. And thinking an ant could devour an elephant? Nothing but a fantasy.
Once again, he was wrapped in cold and darkness. The faint glow that remained seemed ready to shatter completely.
Despair...
Zane whispered the word in his heart. Around him, the bizarre, grotesque creatures began to emerge once again, crawling out from the shadows like a tidal wave.
He stood amidst them, not even comparable to a lone boat tossed in a raging sea. Even with endless rebirth, he still seemed utterly insignificant.
But... Zane gently shook his head, his bright eyes locked on the distant monster, and spoke softly:
"The one who should despair... is you."
The surrounding monsters began to converge on him—but they didn't attack. Instead, they froze in place.
One of them, a hunched and hideously deformed beast, took a shaky step toward him. Trembling, it extended a claw that looked more like a beast's than a hand.
And then—
A beam of light descended.
In its hand—
A delicate white flower bloomed.
It was breathtaking.
Then came the second beam, then the third. Each shaft of light split the darkness like a tear through heavy curtains—or like a grand meteor shower falling from the heavens.
Countless beams of light gathered together, illuminating the entire world. A meteor shower born from the light of every "monster."
They had been slaves to pain—not pain itself. And they no longer wanted to be.
They too longed to have their own "white flowers."
But they had no light. They were saturated in darkness.
So from every one of Zane's "deaths," from every stubborn "start over," from every defiant attempt to "move the immovable"...
They had taken a sliver of the light from his heart.
One bit at a time. One fragment after another.
Because they weren't pain incarnate. They were beings wrapped in pain. It was pain that had stained them with that suffocating, unshakable blackness.
Once, they'd had their own colors.
Now, these darkened beings had quietly stolen a thread of hope from Zane—for themselves.
The last ray of light in the darkness.
After all, the past wasn't made up solely of black pain. The darkness and monsters represented the pain of the past—but not its entirety.
The beauty had never left.
And over time, it had grown, nourished by Zane's journey, building little by little.
There was always more beauty than pain.
What came before was simply a result of being unable to tell the difference—unable to notice—because pain always fills the heart faster than joy.
Pain lingers longer in memories of the past. It leaves deeper marks on the soul.
But now, they each had a ray of light. And pain could no longer bind them.
When the light fell upon the earth, the white flowers that belonged to them finally bloomed—nourished by hope.
Zane watched the "monster" before him, holding a flower. With his own eyes, he saw the black fluid solidify—then crack like a fragile shell, slowly falling away.
Fragments broke off, revealing soft rays of light beneath. And when the monster's shell had completely crumbled, what stood before Zane had changed completely.
A faint, glowing human silhouette stood quietly before him, cupping the white flower in both hands.
It nodded slightly—as if offering thanks—then gently extended the glowing bloom, as if giving it to Zane.
The next moment, its body began to dissolve from the head down, scattering into shimmering points of light. Slowly, the entire figure vanished.
But the white flower remained.
It did not disappear with it. Instead, it drifted down, touched the ground, and took root—growing.
That same scene repeated itself thousands of times in just a few moments, spreading rapidly across the land.
One after another, the "monsters" shed their shells, transforming into radiant silhouettes of light.
And one by one, the white flowers they left behind remained.
Countless motes of light rose into the sky, forming a glowing sea that filled the heavens. The sight was nothing short of breathtaking.
Zane raised his head, watching their ascent. He gave a faint nod of farewell, then lowered his gaze.
Beneath his feet, white flowers had taken root—so many that he could no longer see the ground.
They were utterly beautiful.
"When a beam of light falls to the earth in endless night, it gains life upon touching the ground."
"When everything begins to reveal itself, the white flower takes root and grows—blooming as the dark world fades and a world of beauty is born."
Those words from his memories echoed in his ears. Zane smiled softly.
They were words Qingyi had once spoken.
And now, they had come true.
Here, in this place...
A sea of flowers had bloomed, stretching beyond the horizon.
"Where the sea of flowers blooms is where all that is beautiful gathers."
...