Chapter 60: End
Cole’s eyes narrowed instinctively.
He was now standing in the worst possible position, only a few moments away from execution, yet he couldn’t find even the slightest opening to escape. No matter how many times the A.I. Chip recalculated the situation or how many possibilities it simulated, every single path eventually ended at the same conclusion: death.
On the surface, however, Cole remained completely indifferent.
He stood quietly amid the deafening chants, as though the thousands of people surrounding him weren’t demanding his execution, as though the countless eyes filled with excitement and anticipation weren’t boring into his body. These were the same people who had once lowered their heads and respectfully called him Young Master, their faces filled with flattering smiles and their attitudes as docile as lambs whenever they needed something from him.
Now...
They were waiting to watch him die.
This scene forced Cole to confront a painfully simple truth.
If only he had been stronger...
Perhaps everything would have been different.
If he possessed overwhelming strength, would these people still dare look at him with such mocking anticipation? Would they still dare shout for his execution while standing so close to him? Perhaps these same eyes that now contained ridicule would instead be filled with fear and reverence.
Unfortunately...
There was no use thinking about it now.
Strength was the foundation upon which everything else was built.
Without enough strength, even the most carefully constructed plans could collapse beneath a single powerful hand. Cole had understood this before, but only now did he truly feel the weight of those words.
He couldn’t change the past.
He couldn’t rewind time.
And no amount of regret could give him the strength he had lacked at the crucial moment.
Time waited for no one.
Perhaps...
This wasn’t a complete waste.
If there really was another life waiting beyond death, maybe he would approach things differently. Maybe he wouldn’t waste so much time hiding his abilities. Maybe he would focus entirely on growing stronger before involving himself in anything else.
A faint, almost self-deprecating thought surfaced in his mind.
If I get another chance...
I’ll make sure I never stand in a situation like this again.
The thought barely lingered before Cole pushed it aside.
There was no point dwelling on a future he might never see.
The chains around his wrists rattled as the elite guards continued dragging him forward.
Cole didn’t resist.
He simply allowed himself to be moved until the distance between him and Trisha gradually disappeared.
One meter.
Half a meter.
Finally...
The guards stopped.
Cole and Trisha were now separated by less than a meter.
They were so close that Cole could clearly see every detail of her blood-stained face.
Yet...
She had never felt farther away.
Trisha slowly raised her head.
Their eyes met.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Cole saw something in her eyes that made his heart sink.
It wasn’t simply fear.
It wasn’t even despair.
It was a kind of hopeless defiance.
As though some part of her refused to accept the reality unfolding before her.
As though she desperately wanted to tell him that all of this was merely a nightmare.
That the execution stage wasn’t real.
That the chains around his wrists weren’t real.
That her Young Master had never returned to the Saint Family.
Her lips trembled slightly.
She stared at him as though trying to convince herself that the person standing before her couldn’t possibly be the same person she had spent so desperately trying to protect.
After all...
How could someone be so stupid?
She had already warned him.
She had endured everything precisely so he wouldn’t return.
The trap had been obvious.
The accusation had been announced.
The execution had already been prepared.
Yet...
He had still come back.
Trisha’s eyes slowly became wet, but she desperately held back the tears.
Why?
Why did you come back, Young Master...?
Cole didn’t need to hear the question.
He could read it clearly from her eyes.
And for the first time since being captured, the calm expression on his face showed the slightest crack.
He looked at the woman standing less than a meter away.
Then...
His gaze slowly hardened.
Perhaps there really was no way out.
Perhaps the A.I. Chip’s 0% probability was truly absolute.
But as long as he was still breathing...
The story wasn’t over yet.
Maybe it was anger that gave Trisha the strength to speak, or perhaps she simply couldn’t understand how someone could be this stupid.
Her lips trembled.
A single syllable finally escaped from her mouth.
"You..."
It was only one word.
Yet when that word reached Cole’s ears, its impact was no less than a thunderclap exploding beside him.
There were a thousand questions hidden within that single syllable.
Why did you return?
Why didn’t you run?
Why did you come back after knowing this was a trap?
Why did you throw your life away for me?
Yet despite hearing all of them within that single word, Cole’s expression didn’t change.
There wasn’t even the slightest ripple within his eyes.
For a moment...
It was as though he had forgotten everything around him.
The countless people screaming for his death.
The guards surrounding him.
The execution stage.
Even Trisha standing less than a meter away.
Everything seemed to disappear from his consciousness.
His pupils were fixed upon the translucent window floating before his eyes.
The A.I. Chip had suddenly activated.
[Scan completed.]
[Vitals — Severely injured. Subject is on the brink of death.]
Cole’s breathing stopped for half a second.
Before he could react, another series of information windows unfolded before his eyes.
[Major blood vessels severely damaged.]
[Multiple arteries ruptured.]
[Bone structure compromised.]
[Severe internal bleeding detected.]
[Multiple organs sustaining critical damage.]
[Survival probability rapidly declining.]
One line after another appeared.
Each piece of information was cold and mechanical.
There was no emotion within the A.I. Chip’s report.
But Cole felt as though every single line had been carved directly into his heart.
His gaze continued downward.
Most of Trisha’s veins and arteries had been severely damaged.
Several sections of her skeletal structure had suffered catastrophic destruction, with some bones reduced to little more than shattered fragments beneath her skin.
Her internal injuries were even worse.
Blood continued slowly seeping from her wounds, staining the already ruined clothes covering her body.
The woman standing before him was still alive...
But barely.
The realization sent an icy chill through Cole’s heart.
For the first time, he understood just how cruelly the Saint Family had treated her.
This wasn’t ordinary punishment.
They hadn’t simply imprisoned her.
They hadn’t merely beaten her.
They had deliberately tortured her body until she was hovering on the very edge of death.
And the reason...
Was simply to force him to return.
Cole’s fingers slowly tightened.
It seemed that to discover his whereabouts, the Saint Family had resorted to methods that even demons would find difficult to stomach.
Then...
Something changed within him.
The anger that had previously been burning through his chest suddenly disappeared.
Not because it had weakened.
Quite the opposite.
It had become so intense that even his raging emotions seemed to freeze.
His heartbeat slowed.
His breathing became calm.
The blood rushing through his veins seemed to fall silent.
It was the terrifying calm that came immediately before a storm.
Cole slowly raised his head.
His gaze passed over the guards.
Over Amorpheus.
Over the elders.
And finally...
It landed upon the figure standing above the execution stage.
Markovich Saint.
For the first time since entering the Saint Family compound, Cole didn’t look at him as an uncle.
He didn’t look at him as the patriarch of his family.
He didn’t even look at him as an elder.
He simply stared at him as an enemy.
"Markovich..."
Cole’s voice was low.
Yet somehow, the single word carried farther than the countless screams that had filled the square moments earlier.
The noisy crowd gradually fell silent.
One person stopped shouting.
Then another.
The surrounding voices slowly disappeared until the enormous execution ground became eerily quiet.
Cole’s eyes remained fixed upon Markovich.
His voice was calm.
Too calm.
"How dare you..."
He didn’t call him Uncle.
He didn’t call him Patriarch.
He simply called him by his name.
Markovich Saint.
How dare he....
How dare he do this to Trisha?
How dare he use an innocent woman as bait?
How dare he torture her simply to drag him back?
And most importantly...
How dare he stand there as though none of it mattered?
The killing intent hidden within Cole’s eyes finally began to emerge.
It was no longer the anger of a young man being falsely accused.
It was something far colder.
Far more dangerous.
The anger of someone who had finally decided that whatever happened next...
He would make the Saint Family pay.
The crowd heard Cole’s words clearly.
For a brief moment, several mocking expressions appeared across their faces.