Immortal Paladin

[POV: Supreme Heart]

The heart was a delicate thing.

It could be wounded in ways no other organ could. The mind, at least, could be reasoned with. Logic could be presented to it. Evidence could be arranged before it. Given enough time, even the most stubborn mind could be forced to acknowledge reality.

The heart was different.

A scientific mind understood that the heart had nothing to do with the chemical reactions responsible for love, fear, excitement, grief, or desire. Those things happened within the brain. Neurons fired. Chemicals were released. Memories were formed and recalled.

Yet the heart disagreed.

It continued to hurt when the brain knew there was no reason to hurt. It continued to love when reason insisted that love was foolish. It continued to fear when the danger had already passed.

Why?

Perhaps it was madness. Maybe it was fantasy. Or perhaps neither explanation was sufficient. In the end, it all came down to conviction. A person's belief in what they felt. Their refusal to surrender that feeling even when every fact in existence stood against it.

And what did that mean for him?

What did it mean for the Supreme Heart?

What ruled a soul? What defined its existence?

Was it the heart?

Or the brain?

Could it not be both?

As the Supreme Heart, whose Supremacy Trait reigned over the hearts of all things, he should have known the answer.

"I have no fucking clue," Heart said, laughing.

The double meaning was amusing enough.

Across from him, Da Wei's expression did not change.

"Don't lie to me," Da Wei said. "Where is the trap, and what is it?"

Heart's smile gradually faded.

"I haven't been myself for a long time, Da Wei."

Da Wei remained silent.

"Do you know about the Primordial Age?" Heart asked. "Do you know how terrible that era was? A time when order existed nowhere in the universe. When chaos reigned supreme, and every living thing was nothing more than a slave to chance?"

"I couldn't care less," remarked Da Wei casually, his expression remaining cold. "Everything is a byproduct of chance. Out of billions of sperm, why did it have to be you? I feel sorry for your mother."

A faint smile returned to Heart's face. "You truly never fail to deliver the crudest and harshest remarks imaginable."

"It wasn't a compliment."

"I know." Heart's smile widened slightly, looking at Da Wei with an almost nostalgic expression. "That is what makes it sound so much like you. A man ruled by his heart does not hesitate to express hostility when he feels it. If I were in a reciprocating mood, I would probably be making my own snide remarks right now. But I am almost out of time."

"Stop with the riddles. Give it to me straight."

"Hm. Fine. I shall enlighten you." Heart continued. "You see, Da Wei, you were asking the wrong question from the beginning. There is no trap. What I do have is a very believable red herring. So that I could do the unthinkable unhindered."

Fear appeared in Da Wei's eyes. "What did you do?"

"The unthinkable."

Da Wei moved. His intention was obvious. He attempted to return to the Hollowed World.

Heart snapped his fingers.

Quintessence erupted.

A grand formation manifested around Da Wei, countless layers of power locking together as they bound him in place. Space itself tightened around him, refusing to permit his escape.

Da Wei's expression changed.

"Heart!"

Supreme Fate's face had also turned pale. Even through Athena's body, the fear was unmistakable. "Heart!" Supreme Fate shouted. "What were you thinking!?"

Heart did not answer. His gaze remained fixed upon the Hollowed World. The Dark Veil surrounding the black sphere began to move. At first, it resembled boiling tar. The darkness churned across the surface of the world, rising and sinking in thick waves.

Soon, something appeared. A jagged tooth. Another. And another. A smile emerged across the surface of the Dark Veil. Then eyes opened. They were smiling. More eyes appeared. More mouths. Jagged teeth slowly emerged from the boiling black shell as the thing imprisoned within the sphere finally began to express itself beyond its confinement.

The Hollowed World trembled. The darkness spread. Eyes opened within the vacuum of space. Mouths followed. Jagged smiles stretched across nothingness. The Supreme Void was looking outward.

"No."

Da Wei's voice trembled.

"No, no, no."

He closed his palms together.

The Dark Veil answered his command.

Blackness surged back toward the Hollowed World as Da Wei desperately attempted to suppress the existence that had begun to emerge.

"Heart!"

𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

His voice cracked.

"Heart! Why!?"

The formation around him shook violently.

Da Wei's hands trembled.

"He..."

His breathing became uneven.

"H-He..."

For the first time, Heart saw Da Wei unable to speak.

"The Supreme Void is going to kill them all."

Da Wei's voice was barely more than a whisper.

"My people."

The words came again, broken and desperate.

"My..."

His eyes widened as he stared toward the Hollowed World.

"My... No."

The Dark Veil continued to writhe.

"This can't be happening."

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Heart watched him. No more games. No more meaningless provocation. No more trolling. No more rage-baiting. No more petty attempts to draw reactions from people simply because he found their emotions interesting. Heart had enjoyed those things. He still did, in his own strange way.

But he had never forgotten his purpose.

He had never looked away from his ambitions. Everything he had done had always been leading toward something. And now he had finally reached the point where there was no turning back.

Once, Heart could have altered the parts of his brain responsible for such feelings. He could have removed his guilt. His fear. His hesitation. His remorse. He had done so before. It was easy. A few alterations to himself, and the vulnerabilities disappeared. The mind could be adjusted. The heart could be manipulated.

Yet he had not done it this time. More specifically, he couldn't, because his Supremacy Trait was too powerful.

Perhaps that was why it hurt. Perhaps that was why, as he watched Da Wei desperately struggle against the formation, Heart could feel remorse and self-loathing.

Heart closed his eyes and allowed himself to feel all of it.

"I guess the long sabbatical is over."

The formation binding Da Wei trembled furiously. A crack spread across the grand formation. Da Wei's Heavenly Judgment churned around him. The pressure of divine wrath flooded the vacuum. A red horse manifested over Da Wei's shoulder. His armor thrashed as though countless ungodly specters were struggling within it, their invisible forms clawing against reality. Another crack spread across the formation.

Da Wei slowly raised his head. His eyes were bloodshot. There was only hatred in them, pure and absolute.

"I WILL UNMAKE YOU!"

It wasn't even Da Wei's fault.

Heart had been preparing for this for a very long time.

The moment Da Wei learned his Origin Art, Ophanim, everything had become significantly more inconvenient. Da Wei's ability to perceive and interfere with things beyond conventional understanding made it increasingly difficult for Heart to act without being noticed. So, Heart had needed a distraction.

A spectacle.

A tournament between Supreme Beings.

But the tournament had never been merely a distraction.

It had served a purpose.

Heart looked at Da Wei, whose Heavenly Judgment continued to churn violently around him. Da Wei's expression remained murderous, promising terrible violence to him.

"If there's one thing you got right, Da Wei, it's that Xin Yune is important to me. I can't let her fall into Void's hands. So do me a favor and protect her. The Tower exists as your salvation. Bring your people into it, and the Supreme Void will be unable to touch it. Know when you are beat. Fight another day, Da Wei. You are good at that, right?"

"You didn't care about winning in the first place. What are the words again? Lose a battle. Win a war. I call bullshit."

"Oh, I did care." Heart's expression became thoughtful. "Well, I tried. Clearly, I fell short. But like you said. Lose a battle. Win a war."

The desire to find a path beyond the existence of a Supreme Being had always been genuine.

If Heart had managed to acquire divine genetic material compatible with his own, something capable of rivaling the foundation of a Supreme Being, then he would have gone through with it. He would have followed that path and delayed breaking the Supreme Void out of his prison.

He had genuinely desired that possibility.

But regardless of how the tournament ended, Heart had arranged everything so that he would eventually win one way or another.

"You're right," Da Wei said, slowly calming down as he opened his hand. "Sometimes you lose a battle and win a war."

A small glass vial rested upon his palm, revealing ash through the see-through glass. The ash shortly disappeared. Or rather, a dream illusion bloomed from it. In its place, the ashes appeared whole and untouched, as though they had never been burned. A letter gradually formed before Da Wei, manifested through qi infused with divine power.

When Da Wei continued channeling his power, a figure shortly appeared. It was Nongmin. It was only a dream projection, yet the image was clear enough that Heart felt his thoughts momentarily stop.

"Checkmate," said Nongmin.

Heart stared at the projection, and then Supreme Fate spoke. "I withdraw my previous declaration in light of recent developments. One of Supreme Heart's contestants is still alive. Therefore, the contest has not concluded."

Heart's expression darkened as he watched Nongmin suddenly appear in the arena. "It was already declared. My defeat was final."

"The declaration was based upon the information available at the time."

"The declaration bound our fates." Heart's voice became colder. "The rules governing this contest are absolute. You established them. You confirmed the conclusion. Regardless of your power, Supreme Fate, you cannot simply retract a declaration that has already bound us."

Supreme Fate's expression remained grim. "Can you truly say the rules were never circumvented?"

Heart's eyes narrowed. "What?"

Supreme Fate raised a hand. "Consider Loki. Your contestant managed to deceive even the contract forged through fate itself. Loki inserted himself into the latter half of the contest after the fact and was accepted as a legitimate participant. That established a precedent. If Loki could exploit the rules without breaking them, then Nongmin could do the same. And he did."

With a more careful glance, Heart realized how Nongmin pulled it off.

Nongmin had memorized Loki's trick. That bastard had seen what Loki did and memorized it with his special ability. After that, he had duplicated the 'mischief' so perfectly that even the contract forged through fate itself had been unable to distinguish the deception from reality.

At the very last second, Nongmin had faked his death perfectly.

The realization unfolded rapidly within Heart's mind.

Nongmin eventually encountered Ding Cai. The two remaining champions of their respective Supreme Beings had met. And both had chosen mutual destruction. Heart's eyes widened.

Heart found himself completely helpless, and he could do nothing.

Supreme Fate raised his hand, his voice carrying the solemn weight of an authority that governed even the destinies of Supreme Beings. "By the authority vested in me as the cosmos, and in recognition that the conditions required to bring this contest to its lawful conclusion were never fulfilled, I hereby revoke the finality of my previous declaration. The battle between the appointed contestants has ended without a victor, and with that conclusion, no party may claim the victory promised under the original terms. Therefore, let it be witnessed by the laws that govern us, recorded by fate itself, and recognized by every power bound to this agreement: the contract that bound the Supreme Heart and the Supreme Bearer to this contest is hereby dissolved. Its obligations are extinguished. Its claims are rendered without force. Its authority over either party is null and void."

Silence followed.

Heart stared into the void.

The boiling of the Dark Veil stopped. The countless eyes disappeared. The jagged teeth vanished. The smiles stretching across the darkness slowly faded until nothing remained but the black shell surrounding the Hollowed World.

Heart remained motionless and speechless.

That was not supposed to happen. His strategy had been sound. Its execution had been flawless. Every possibility had been accounted for. Every variable had been placed where he wanted it. Then Nongmin and Xin Yune happened.

Heart almost missed the person he had once been.

The Yellow Emperor was cold, calculating, and detached from the things that now made his decisions so much more complicated. Being the personification of the heart had become his flaw.

A heart could not always be reasoned with.

It could not always follow logic.

And sometimes, no matter how perfect a strategy appeared, the heart would introduce variables that logic could never predict.

Heart realized that he might genuinely be losing it. A dry laugh escaped him.

"Well played."

The grand formation suddenly exploded, and Da Wei broke free.

Heart barely had time to react.

Da Wei appeared before him. A hand closed around Heart's throat. The murderous fury in Da Wei's bloodshot eyes returned in full force.

"FORGET ABOUT UNMAKING YOU!"

Da Wei's grip tightened.

"I WILL OBLITERATE YOUR SOUL, AND DRAG ITS MOTES TO THE DEPTHS OF HELL IN MY OWN MAKING. YOU SLAUGHTERED SO MANY OF MY PEOPLE. NO MORE! NO MORE! THERE WILL BE NO SALVATION FOR YOU, HEART! NONE! SO, IF YOU ARE GOING TO RUN NOW, MAKE IT COUNT!"

Heart did not intend to find out whether Da Wei's threat was an exaggeration. He left a clone behind, and then he blinked through space. His body vanished from Da Wei's grasp, traversing the vast distance in an instant as he jumped directly toward the enormous pocket dimension he called home.

His apartment room.

The thought almost made him laugh.

An existence capable of standing among the greatest powers in creation, possessing a realm large enough to contain things that should never have been allowed to exist, and yet Heart still preferred to call the place an apartment.

Unfortunately, sentimentality would have to wait. It was time to retreat. Heart reached the boundary of the pocket dimension.

Suddenly, fingers appeared from his walls. Two fingers ripped through the seams of space. The boundary shuddered as something forcibly tore it open from the other side. A rift appeared, and it expanded rapidly. An enormous golden cross split through the void, its radiance piercing across space as though reality itself had been nailed open.

Da Wei stood behind it, seething.

Heart did not hesitate.

He abandoned the pocket dimension and escaped before Da Wei could force his way through completely. His consciousness immediately expanded, activating his projection technique.

Clones appeared everywhere into thousands and then millions.

Heart's consciousness scattered across them as countless versions of himself blinked through the void, each possessing the same presence, the same thoughts, the same mannerisms, and the same instinctive responses.

Each clone held a heart. Not a symbolic imitation. Not merely a convincing copy. It was a genuine heart. That was what made them believable. They possessed conviction. Emotion. Fear. Irritation. The subtle irrationalities that existed within a living soul. Even Loki's illusions would have been put to shame.

Heart's true body vanished among them. For the briefest moment, he thought he had succeeded. Suddenly, a mirage appeared before him. Supreme Fate stood there. Or rather, an image of him did. His expression was unreadable.

"You reap what you sow."

Just as quickly, the mirage vanished.

Supreme Fate possessed the greatest senses among them. It was only natural that he could find him. The void trembled, and a shadow covered him. Heart slowly looked upward. The Hollowed World had appeared above him. It hung over the void like an approaching apocalypse.

"FUCK YOU, FATE!" Heart roared. "YOU FUCKING SNITCH!"

Da Wei stood before Heart. His anger was no longer restrained.

Heart felt something invisible binding him; an unseen thread stretched through the void. It was fate. It connected Da Wei to him. No matter which clone Heart exchanged places with, no matter how far his consciousness scattered, no matter how perfectly he concealed himself among the countless hearts he had created, the thread remained.

Da Wei had him.

Heart stared at the invisible connection, and then he looked at Da Wei.

Da Wei's bloodshot eyes burned with murderous fury.

"You are not going anywhere," Da Wei said.