Chapter 370
Myra Astrielle's version of the Inverted Crucifixion began swiftly.
Her body, already burdened by suffering, was bound once more, positioned upside down, and the horrifying ritual commenced again.
However, fortunately for Myra, Xavier XVII did not remain idle.
With his intelligence and power, he had confirmed and tracked the elders' and religious leaders' plan.
He arrived just in time, though not in a manner open to negotiation.
Seeing Myra about to be sacrificed, Xavier released all restraints.
From his hands—or perhaps from his entire body—radiated a super bright cosmic light, the absolute opposite of his ancestor's dark energy.
That radiance was not merely an attack, but an absolute and terrifying purification.
The super bright cosmic radiation swept across the ritual site, and in an instant, the elders and religious leaders present were mutilated in a manner almost unimaginable, their bodies torn apart at the molecular level by a force too pure and powerful to withstand.
The Inverted Crucifixion was brutally thwarted.
'Is it a real wound, or regret that came too late?'
After being rescued from the jaws of the ritual for the second time, Myra Astrielle's body lay loose upon the ground still warm from the remnants of cosmic radiation.
Yet that physical salvation did not penetrate the fortress of her heart, which had hardened into stone.
Even in her weakened and nearly broken state, her stubbornness surged forth with full force.
She snapped at Xavier as he approached, perhaps intending to help or examine her.
Her voice was harsh, filled with genuine disgust and unease.
She ordered him to stay away, for the same reason that haunted her—because Xavier was the descendant of a murderer.
To her, the same blood flowing in his veins was contamination, a living reminder of all she had lost and hated.
Hearing her hatred-laced outburst, Xavier did not leave immediately.
Instead, perhaps with a patience born from understanding the burden of his lineage, he chose to explain.
Without attempting to conceal or romanticize anything, he told Myra a truth about that horrific event.
He explained that during the massacre, his great-great-grandfather, Alaric Syah, had been in a state of total loss of control.
That loss of control, according to Xavier, was not ordinary.
It occurred only when someone lost faith in everything, when hope had completely extinguished, and they chose to believe in only one consequence—a consequence of pure destruction.
It was a condition of absolute despair turned into a weapon of annihilation.
Furthermore, Xavier continued with an explanation that may have shocked Myra even more.
He revealed that after Alaric Syah left Myra's universe, after vanishing through the teleportation portal and returning to his own world, he did not live in peace.
Instead, regret haunted him every single day.
Alaric continuously repented, repeatedly apologizing to the heavens, to his unheard victims, and vowing to amend what he had reduced to "useless blood and flesh," a phrase reflecting how deeply he despised his own massacre.
That regret was not merely words, according to Xavier.
As proof of his ancestor's profound remorse, Xavier extended his hand.
In his palm lay a circular inscription, crafted from an unknown material—perhaps metal or an interdimensional crystal.
Myra could see into it, and what she witnessed caught her breath.
Within the inscription was embedded a vivid projection.
It showed a highly detailed statue of Alaric Syah, not in his furious and dark form, but in a prostrating position.
The statue bowed in deep remorse, its perfectly carved face radiating sincere suffering and a plea for forgiveness.
That prostration was directed toward Myra Astrielle, the surviving victim of the genocide he had committed.
It was an eternal confession of guilt, an apology frozen in time and delivered by his descendant, an attempt to convey that the monster she hated had, in the end, become a man shattered by his own remorse.
'Is this… forgiveness? Or merely a weary soul finally surrendering?'
Of course, Myra Astrielle did not immediately accept the explanation and proof of regret.
The hatred that had crystallized over the years, becoming part of her identity, could not melt from a single inscription and the words of a great-grandson.
Her heart remained stone, her wounds still wide open.
With a voice that may have sounded flat yet strained to the breaking point, she instructed Xavier to leave her sight at once.
To Myra, that was the only form of "apology" she could accept and offer—by erasing every trace and descendant of Alaric Syah from her life.
She wanted severance, a cleansing through exile.
Yet Xavier did not leave.
Instead of obeying her command, he did something entirely unexpected.
Calmly and with full sincerity, he prostrated himself before Myra.
Not a ritualistic bow, but a deep prostration, lowering himself completely.
He begged forgiveness to the utmost degree, not for himself, but for his ancestor and perhaps for the burden he now carried.
However, his deepest plea was directed to Myra herself.
In a gentle yet urgent tone, he implored her not to continue drowning in the sorrow and hatred that had devoured her life since she lost those she loved.
He understood that grief was a prison, and he wished to free her from it.
Then, in an act nearly incomprehensible, Xavier offered something extreme.
Willingly, he offered his life.
He gave Myra the choice to sever his head, if that would release her from the weight of hatred, if his blood as Alaric's descendant could serve as final atonement.
It was an absolute act of self-sacrifice, an attempt to break the chain of hatred by offering an innocent life.
After a long and tension-filled dialogue between pleas for forgiveness and the offer of death, the fortress of Myra Astrielle's defenses finally collapsed.
Tears she may not have felt for years began to flow.
At first they were only drops, then they poured heavily, washing dust and grime from her face.
Her sobbing was followed by a piercing scream rising from the depths of her soul, a release of all the pain, anger, sorrow, and confusion she had suppressed for years—perhaps for several lifetimes.
That scream was the voice of a girl finally allowing herself to be fragile.
And as the crying and screaming shook her body, Xavier sat before her.
With a gentleness almost silent, he allowed himself to be embraced by the grieving Myra.
Or perhaps it was he who carefully drew the shaken Myra into his arms.
Xavier's hands, capable of destruction and creation alike, now gently stroked Myra's short grayish hair.
The gesture was simple, a wordless comfort, an acknowledgment that her suffering was real, and that amid all the chaos of blood and inheritance, there was still room for compassion and simple human connection.
'Leaving the world that hurt me, and with him, traversing universe after universe.'
After that collapse of tears and bitter acceptance, the relationship between Xavier XVII and Myra Astrielle entered a new phase.
To be continued…