Chapter 2027: To Alice and Lenavira!

No sooner had Freya left the room than Alice turned toward Max.

Her eyes were full of worry.

"Do you really have to go if it’s this dangerous?"

A heavy silence filled the room. The question sounded simple, but it carried a lot of weight. Alice wasn’t asking because she didn’t understand his ambition. She was asking because she understood him too well. Max had always walked toward danger whenever danger promised strength, and even though that strength had protected them plenty of times, it had also put him on a path where every step seemed sharper than the one before.

Lenavira stood beside Alice without a word, but her expression carried the same fear.

Max looked at both of them. For a moment, he didn’t answer. Then he took a deep breath and nodded lightly. "I have to."

Alice’s fingers tightened slightly.

Max continued in a quiet voice, "The situation’s already changed. The devils have gotten into our universe, the Wall of Eternity’s been pierced, and nobody knows how long this current peace will hold. If I stay here and cultivate normally, I might get strong someday, but that day might come too late."

He looked at Alice first, then at Lenavira.

"I need strength. Not just for myself, but for both of you, for Big Sis, for the people inside the Dimension of Genesis, and for everything I want to protect."

His voice dropped lower.

"And you both know about my parents. My mother and father are still trapped. I haven’t forgotten what happened to them. I haven’t forgotten who destroyed my childhood. If I want to rescue them, if I want revenge, if I want to stand in front of the people who took everything from me and make them answer for it, then I can’t afford to grow slowly."

Alice bit her lower lip. She wanted to tell him not to go. She wanted to tell him that revenge, strength, destiny, even the fate of the universe, didn’t matter more than his own life. But looking into his eyes, she knew those words wouldn’t stop him. Max wasn’t leaving because he wanted to abandon them. He was leaving because he believed this was the only way he could one day come back without fear.

Lenavira finally spoke. "You always risk your life for strength," she said quietly. "More strength, greater strength, then even more strength after that. When are you going to stop doing this and just live normally? When are you going to start caring about yourself? When are you going to look after yourself the way you look after everyone else?"

Max’s heart tightened slightly. He didn’t know how to answer right away, because Lenavira wasn’t wrong. He’d thrown himself into danger again and again. He’d challenged enemies stronger than himself, accepted trials that could’ve killed him, hidden pain beneath calm smiles, and kept moving forward even as every new step brought a stronger enemy. He understood their fear. He understood why they were tired of watching him leave for places where death waited.

But he couldn’t stop. Not yet. Not while his parents stayed imprisoned. Not while the devils threatened the universe. Not while people like Varok looked at their home as a place to invade, corrupt, and control. Not while Max still lacked the power to fully decide his own fate.

He stepped closer and pulled both Alice and Lenavira into his arms. They didn’t resist. Alice leaned against his chest, her hands gripping his clothes tightly. Lenavira closed her eyes for a moment and rested her forehead against his shoulder. For a while, none of them spoke. The silence between them wasn’t empty anymore. It was filled with fear, affection, helplessness, and a warmth none of them wanted to let go of.

"I promise you both," Max said softly. "It won’t be long before I leave all this fighting behind and live peacefully with you. That’s what I’m working so hard for."

His arms tightened around them.

"I don’t want endless war. I don’t want to spend my life chasing enemies from one battlefield to the next. I want to reunite with my family. I want to protect the people beside me. I want a life where I don’t have to worry about someone taking everything away from me again."

Alice’s eyes turned slightly red. "Then come back," she whispered. "Don’t just promise us a future and disappear before we get there."

Max lowered his gaze to her. "I’ll come back."

Lenavira looked at him with trembling eyes. "You always say that so calmly."

Max smiled faintly, but his voice stayed serious. "Because I mean it."

The room went quiet again. This time, the silence felt softer. Alice slowly raised her hand and touched his face, as if trying to memorize him before he left. Lenavira moved closer too, her earlier worry slowly giving way to something warmer and more tender. Max looked at the two women in his arms, and for the first time that day, thoughts of the devils, the Godslayer’s Pilgrimage, the Eternal Body, and the coming war faded from his mind.

For this moment, there was only them. Alice. Lenavira. The people he wanted to come back to. The people who made all his desperate effort feel like it meant something.

Max gently lowered his head and kissed Alice first. She didn’t pull away. Then Lenavira moved closer, and Max turned to her too, holding both of them with a care that slowly softened the fear in their hearts. What started as comfort soon turned into something deeper. Their words faded, their hesitation disappeared, and the emotions they’d been holding back for too long finally found a way to speak without needing to be explained.

That night, Max stayed with both Alice and Lenavira, and their closeness deepened into something more intimate.

It wasn’t driven by impulse alone. It was a quiet, intimate promise between three people who understood the road ahead might separate them for a long time. Beneath the gentle glow of the room’s formations, they gave each other warmth, trust, and a closeness that made the coming danger feel a little less cruel.

For that one night, Max didn’t train. He didn’t think about the Godslayer’s Pilgrimage. He didn’t think about Varok, the Devil Race, the Seven Monarchs, or the path beyond the Seven Divine Veins. He stayed with Alice and Lenavira until the weight in their hearts slowly eased, until their fear didn’t feel so sharp anymore, and until the coming separation became something they could face together.

Outside the room, the Voidwalker Clan stayed quiet beneath the ancient sky of the Five Sacred Clan domain. Inside, Max held the two women close, letting the silence settle around them like a fragile peace.

For one night, before stepping into a battlefield where even geniuses from five universes could die, he let himself remember what he was fighting for.

When the night deepened, the room finally settled into a peaceful silence.