:::[Third person POV]:::


    "You sounded like you wanted to say something earlier. Now is the time for anyst words," Adam said with unwavering confidence, and an out-of-ce grin appeared on his face. It was as if his emotions just turned upside down, and he appeared like there was nothing he couldn''t do.


    "You sound different…" Rudeus said, looking at Adam with puzzled eyes. Now Adam acted like he had an overwhelming advantage over him, so he wondered if he had finally be insane. After all, the corruption might have overtaken his brain, making Adam delusional too like what happened to him.


    "I just realized that theoretically there''s nothing I can''t do. So even if you die, I will take that power of yours and make sure that I will save Liu with my own hands," Adam said.


    Rudeus looked as if he wanted to ask what kind of nonsense Adam was spouting, or from where that sudden confidence came from.


    "…I don''t know what kind of power you awakened," Rudeus said, "but it seems like you are already at the end of the line"


    "End of the line? It''s just the beginning…" Adam said with a grin on his face as he walked slowly toward Rudeus.


    Rudeus also did the same and walked over to Adam, then the two of them stood in front of each other.


    Adam looked up to Rudeus, while Rudeus looked down at him.


    They both knew that the battle would be over in a few moments, and the oue depended on Adam''s seemingly new power.


    Swoosh!


    Adam attacked Rudueus with his sword but Rudeus avoided it and retaliated.


    Thud!


    Even if Adam''s sword looked dangerous, his fighting ability was still the same, so it didn''t change the fact that it would be easy for Rudeus to kill him, or so he thought.


    "Kuh!"


    However, this time, it was Rudeus who was taking damage.


    Adam attacked faster than he did before, and Rudeus could hear his bones breaking and shattering just so that he could match Rudeus in speed.


    sh!


    Adam''s sword shed Rudeus''s chest before his fist hit Adam''s face so hard that if it was a normal person, their head would have been pulverized.


    Boom!


    Adam crashed into one of the huge pirs again, but Rudeus felt a chilling sensation. "These red eyes…"


    Adam didn''t care about Rudeus''s attack and solely focused on attacking and delivering a critical hit. His red eyes looked at Rudueus without no whatsoever killing intent, he just looked as if he had already won.


    "Hahaha… That hurts," Adam said, standing up from the rubble.


    Rudeus instantly felt that it was dangerous to not finish Adam as fast as possible, so he leaped at Adam with the full intent of killing him.


    Swoosh!


    In a split second, Rudeus got close to Adam and wanted to crush him with his fist.


    Boom!


    Adam''s head prated the pir behind him along with Rudeus''s fist and cracks appeared on the pir as the whole castle shook violently due to the impact.


    Rudeus used his full power in this attack and Adam''s blood spurted everywhere around the area of impact.


    Then his limbs looked like they lost their strength and he was dead, or so Rudeus thought.


    *****


    Fear was an emotion that could drive a living being to do something that they weren''t aware of, instinctively or subconsciously.


    What was Adam''s fear? He feared that he was overthinking things, he feared that he would get hurt, he feared that his power would kill him, he feared that his theory would be wrong, he feared that he would fail despite trying, he feared that he would die without even aplishing anything, and so he didn''t want to take risks,


    In other words, what held Adam back to ess his full power was fear.


    Because of fear, he couldn''t open the gate of his soul, in other words, turn off his body''s safety mechanism, so he was always activating his nullification power subconsciously, keeping him from essing the authority of creation. It was a natural phenomenon simr to when the brain decides to lock away some traumatizing memories.


    Discarding one''s fearpletely was not something that the same person could do because it was only natural to fear for one''s life, to fear losing loved people, to fear failure, to fear being in ignorance…


    However, what Adam did was discard his fear to open the gate of his soul. Theoretically speaking, he should be able to do it even if managed to make his fearpletely vanish for a second, but the situation couldn''t let him do that, because he was a human. However, it did happen, so the question was how?


    Adam''s change was caused by the elements that only existed during Adam and Rudeus''s fight: Corruption, Verte, and near-death experience. Without these three things, Adam wouldn''t be able to ovee his fear. However, these were not the only necessary element because everything that Adam had experienced, for example, his mistakes, and his determination, seemed to have led to this oue. Was that just a coincidence?


    The corruption made Adam''s feelings dull, for example, his worries and his doubts. The near-death experience boosted the adrenaline and dopamine inside his brain making him focus on the fight and increasing his thinking ability. Finally, Verte was the key that showed him a glimpse of a world that he didn''t know existed.


    After that, Adam managed to discard his fear, even for one second, but instead of reverting to his old self, his body didn''t forget about the feeling of not feeling fear.


    Even though it was for a few seconds, Adam changedpletely, to the point that he was almost close to the person he aspired to be, his deepest desire.


    Primordial particles always acted ording to their host''s deepest wish, so in that case, Adam''s wish should be reflected on Pride. So, why did he create another version of himself subconsciously? Certainly, because it was the reflection of how Adam always wanted people to see him and not his pathetic self.


    However, his fear was his biggest obstacle toward this goal, and the reason was obvious.


    Adam finally let his imagination run wild without fearing being wrong, and he took risks without fearing the consequences. He made choices without doubting himself, and he didn''t fear overthinking things and theorized about every possibility.


    Moreover, he didn''t fear deciding to change things by his hand and doing everything to achieve his goal without fearing anyone. All of that, just because the emotion of fear was missing, leading to the disappearance of other emotions from his mind, such as doubt, pessimism, anxiety…


    Furthermore, he was now able to use the power of Creation authority, and even though it was just an insignificant portion, his crimson eyes suggested that he was not the same person as he was a few days ago. He became an upgraded version of himself.


    Everything that happened to Adam sounded like something extremely easy, or something insignificant, but he was the only person who could manage to go through such a change under abination of unique circumstances.


    Still, was this a good thing? Could a person still be called a human without feeling fear, or would they be a different being?


    *****


    "Finally, I can''t see where all of this is going… So this is how it feels to not know. The future is iprehensible even though I am looking straight at it, the Being who stood next to Adam and Rudeus without them noticing muttered.


    Even for him, Adam''s fate was not something that he could predict anymore. He believed that Adam was the one who would y him, but even such a thing was not within his ability of prediction any longer.


    The being created a being that rejected the naturalw that came to be established by the universe itself as a way for it to continue existing.


    "I wonder what would happen from here. Would he manage to deal with the one who lurks in the shadow of the Holy Church? Hahaha… I shouldn''t have said that out loud. Someone is observing me again…"


    After that, the being disappeared as if it was normal for him to not exist anywhere.


    *****


    Adam was about to die, Rudeus thought, but the entity just stated that he looked forward to seeing Adam''s future. A future that he couldn''t see.


    "Kuh!"


    As if confirming the Existence''s words, Rudeus groaned seeing a ck sma sword prating his shoulder.


    He began to lose the ability to move his arm when the sword began to prate his body as if his muscles were nothing more than butter.


    He immediately stepped back, and the sma sword fell to the ground but his shoulder was heavily damaged.


    "…" He finally understood what had happened. The sword fell from above as if Adam had already seen through his attack and tossed it in the air.


    However, to do that, Adam must have thought about all of the possibilities that could lead to failure, and such a reckless move was doomed to fail most of the time.


    Still, Adam took into ount how the Antimatter worked, Rudeus''s abilities and intentions, and also made sure that his sword could be activated remotely.


    His mind worked in a way that it never did before, trying to make his wildest imagination into reality, without doubting himself.


    All of that happened in a second, but still, Rudeus''s punch had also messed up Adam''s face.


    "Kuh…" Adam''s face was covered in blood, and his eyes werepletely red as if he was bleeding internally.


    Then, he picked up his sword from the ground meekly, but Rudeus felt something while looking at Adam.


    Fear!