After a little more conversation with Allen, Max finally decided that there was no reason left to delay his ascension any longer. The crown had chosen its bearer, the world of Acaris had returned to stability, and every lingering threat had been erased.
Even so, Max spent two more days in quiet preparation, not out of hesitation but out of respect for the gravity of what he was about to do. Ascension was not merely a rise in realm. It was a farewell to the world that had shaped him, a threshold beyond which nothing would ever feel the same again.
When the time came, Max returned to the same barren desert where he had once endured the Wraith of the World and stepped into Divine Rank. The land was still vast and empty, stretching endlessly beneath the sky, yet it no longer felt desolate.
