"I love you." She whispered softly.

"Actually, I feel the same way." I wanted to reply like that.

But it's too late to convey it now.

Because you're gone.

I've always been wondering what love is. It must be when I was stumbling towards you with a bloody body, and you used life magic on me with your flustered and heart-aching little face. Or when we escaped from the ruined ruins with disheveled appearances, you suddenly burst into a carefree laughter. Or when everyone else gave up on me, only you ran into my dark world, and conveyed the only tenderness through our foreheads touching.

It's always been there, filling our daily lives. Always, the tiny moments that I eventually forgot.

You were injured.

In front of me, when I gained Godhood, an arrow pierced your chest.

The arrow was meant for me, but you stepped in front of me first.

All because of my ridiculous pride and selfishness.

So you disappeared.

You were smiling at me.

But I knew I had made a mistake, a mistake I could never make up for in this lifetime.

I hurt the most important person.

I lost you.

***

"You...crazy..."

The frightened voice came to an abrupt halt. The middle-aged man's heart was pierced by a broken sword, and the extreme coldness instantly turned him into an ice sculpture. His fearful expression as he looked at Lu Lin was forever frozen in place.

"The last one," Lu Lin muttered.

And so, only he remained in this shattered plane.

"Mercedes, can you see it?" He said softly to the air, laughing mockingly.

The echo of the snowstorm answered him.

The world was snowing.

Like a storm of the apocalypse, goose-like snowflakes covered the mirror-like cracked earth, obscuring the blue and gold inscriptions forever burning beneath the surface. The world was growing darker.

Soon, the bloodstains on the ground, the broken shadows of people, and the shattered weapons were all buried by the heavy snow, leaving only chaotic whiteness.

Lu Lin walked in the snowstorm, the only black figure in the chaotic white world.

A half-Godhood was engraved into his shattered chest. The irregular crystal, somewhere between solid and liquid, emitted dazzling blood light as the incredibly complex patterns of Godhood merged into his body.

The armor made of divine runes and laws was blood-black and starry. He had a single black phantom wing on his back that blended with the dark sky, as if he had become the darkness of this world.

He was a god.

The ultimate being of this world.

Even with only half of the Godhood, he was still unrivaled, still capable of killing with every step.

All those who opposed or harmed him and her were slain by him forever, their broken bodies buried in the snowstorm that ended everything.

The howling wind swept over the frozen branches made of frozen blood, the cold snow burying the last trace of color.

Thus, the earth was covered only in the desolate white.

Snowflakes fell continuously on his body in the snowstorm, only to melt away. He would never walk alone in the snowstorm to the end of time, simply because this snowy world was his domain, and he was eternal.

"It's over, the God-seat war of this era, all of this." He was walking towards the end of the world, towards the path that led to the Pantheon.

He would be crowned a god.

He would become the legend passed down through hundreds of years, the being that everyone in the world revered.

"But...I've reached the end of time, looked back, and can no longer see you. Then what's the point of all this?"

When had it started? The time when he misinterpreted even the meaning of "like".

All she wanted was to stay by his side, but all he thought about was plucking the stars in the sky to give to her. By the time he returned with the sun, moon, and stars, the one he wanted to give the stars to was nowhere to be found.

"Take your Godhood...become a god, and be lonely for a lifetime, you fool." She said, with a mischievous and relieved smile, but her eyes couldn't hold back the sadness.But do you know? After you disappeared, everything I did became meaningless.

The snow got heavier.

There was no end to the heavy snow, just like the endless regret in his heart.

The snow dissipated around him, his pace remained the same, heading step by step towards the end of the world.

At the other end were the temples of the gods, ancient and complete, sacred and serene, arranged in the magnificent skyline.

He stood at the end of this world.

It was an illusory door, depicting a smiling angel with closed eyes, a sea of flowers and a rainbow.

Godhood is the key, and the divine realm lies beyond.

"Why not open that door?"

The sound was nowhere to be found, but it rang in Lu Lin's ears, ancient, representing the will of the world.

"Because she is not by my side."

Lu Lin answered as such.

"There lies the ideal kingdom, the place where everything beautiful exists. As long as you desire it, all the things that have passed away and all that you want will exist. As long as you have memory, you can create anyone in your memory.

Why cling to her? Let go of your past, and there, not only will you find her, but all the people you missed over the years will be by your side."

"That's not her. That's not them either. Those are just illusions created by memory."

"Why cling to it?"

"To me, she is the whole world. Without her, everything is meaningless."

"—So, are you willing to give up everything for her, your future, everything you will have?"

"Why not?"

Lu Lin spoke indifferently to that will.

"The other side is the future, this side is the past. So, what is your choice?"

He turned around, and at the same moment, Gods Graveyard was torn apart, the snow disappeared into nothing, the world around him, along with his armor and wings, turned into darkness.

Underneath the floating fragments of the earth like broken mirror, the eternal burning divine pattern also extinguished, standing in the void was a door, pitch black and chaotic, the future unseen. He saw the traces of the past years in the black door.

Behind him was light, the divine realm, the future.

In front of him was darkness, the unknown, the past.

"The choice is no longer necessary."

Lu Lin said, walking towards the dark door without looking back.

The passage through the past.

The howling of time came from within the door, like a sigh, hitting him, as if even gods could not withstand the carving of time, his armor cracked, and his vitality disappeared.

He did not speak, did not stop, Godhood burst into a torrential blood at this moment, completely merging into his body, his darkness at this moment, madly rendering towards the dark door and the darkness of the world.

"This is not the future I want.

The unforgettable, no matter what, will not fade; the unyielding, throughout one's life, will not let go of the hand.

Forgetting about it... What does it matter if I lose Godhood, or cut off my future? I will personally go back in time to find you!"

As he approached the door, the sighs of time pierced his body like a sharp blade, and for the first time, blood spilled from the corner of his mouth. The wound was hard for even gods to heal.

He smiled, his fingertips drawing through time, a crack flashed, and the twin swords of black and white were already in his hands.

The Sword of Darkness was as deep as ink, deeper than the black.

The Sword of White transformed into the light amidst the desolate night.

These were his destiny soul swords, "Star" and "Unforgettable".

"Who enters your life is due to the randomness of fate. But who can stay in your life, fate cannot decide... The only one who can decide is myself!"

With the two swords crossed, the divine might exploded in an instant, his body emanating a supreme dragon's roar, snow and wind arriving once more, the domain opened again!

The raging wind, carrying the snowstorm, turned into a huge snow dragon with unfolded wings behind him!

He walked against time towards the dark door, even if the snowflakes turned into blood blossoms, even if the swords were scarred by time, his steps never stopped.

Time was engraved on his body, piercing his soul, yet he never let go of time either. The darkness of "Star" raged, and the third domain erupted, "Unforgettable" flared up, and the fourth domain, at the instant when he burned his own soul, overlapped with the previous three domains!The gigantic dragon crashed into the gate and then dispersed, with the ice and snow rolling back. Lu Lin's body trembled, but the Dark Door was also shaken.

"To overthrow the years... to love her once more, why not?!!!"

Black wings tore through the darkness, the four domains erupted simultaneously at this moment, and he charged towards the Great Door without thinking. Godhood stirred up a monstrous killing intent, and everything was infused into the pitch-black Star Sword by him.

That was his world-shattering sword against time and fate!

Under Godhood's frenzied will, the four domains blossomed to the extreme, and the fusion of the elements gave birth to a touch of transcendent power.

Four colors intertwined, and an extremely faint trace of gray rose from the sword's body. But the moment the gray appeared, the entire world seemed to pause.

"Chaos..."

The ancient will's calm voice had a touch of disbelief.

Gray intertwined with the years, collapsing the entire space and time as if everything had turned to nothingness!

He stepped into it, into the Dark Door, amidst the collapse that seemed to destroy everything in the world!

Almost at the moment when he entered the Dark Door, the Dark Door disappeared.

The origin of the world fought back madly, repairing the world that had been corroded by the passage of time.

"I never thought... that he could condense Chaos."

The ancient will was silent for a long time and spoke again. Its figure slowly appeared, mottled in the self-repairing world, like a dark crow.

...

Time seemed to engulf him like a torrent, and he could no longer distinguish between illusion and reality here. Pieces of memories buried in time floated up, constantly brushing past his mind.

"Don't worry about fighting for the [Godhood]. I'll be behind you, protecting you."

The girl smiled at him under the night moon and kissed his cheek before running off the roof. That was their last night together before entering the Tomb of the Gods.

"Lu Lin! Lu Lin! Hang in there!"

The girl tightly grabbed his hand, tears streaming down, and then she carried him on her back, fleeing for a full seven days. She was just a girl weaker than him, and Lu Lin didn't understand why she suddenly had so much strength.

Now he understood that it was love.

That was the story of their escape after they broke through the encirclement in the Warrior God's inheritance land.

"Lu Lin, look!"

She smiled at him constantly in the river of time.

The two nestled in the river of time, their faces matured but also childish, and their characters experienced yet naive.

"Can you tell me your name?"

At the end of time, the young man raised his hand on the ruins, and the expressionless girl struggling to stand up from the ruins had a special inscription on the collar around her neck.

"It's okay not to say, just come with me, or the imperial bastards will search here again in a while."

He looked at her and smiled.

After hesitating for a moment, the girl reached out her scarred hand.

- That was their first encounter.

Time continued to go back, and he seemed to lose himself in the years.

But he smiled - just like the first time he saw her.

- I will go back in time, just to find your smile in those years.

- This world, I will only overthrow it for you and you alone.