"Is he dead?" Max asked quietly as his figure drifted closer to Lucien, his gaze fixed on the corrupted crown that hovered in the empty air.
The battle was over, yet the weight of it still pressed heavily on his chest, making it difficult to breathe as if the world itself had not yet realized that its god was gone.
"He is dead," Lucien replied after a brief silence, finally turning his eyes toward Max.
There was no triumph in his voice, only certainty, the kind that came from witnessing something irreversible. Mark was gone, erased beyond return, and even the laws of this world would not remember him again.
"Good," Max said softly, nodding in relief.
At that moment, the terrifying aura surrounding him began to collapse. The Infernal Demon Transformation dispersed into faint crimson motes, while the golden radiance of the Heavenly Luminance Royal Bloodline peeled away from his body like fading light.
