Chapter 228: At Long Last

Seeing Venom in that state, Evan's expression softened slightly.

He raised a hand and gently patted her head.

"Come on, don't cry. Didn't you say you weren't a little kid anymore? If Evangeline saw you like this, she'd give you another intensive lesson in etiquette,"

It was as though those words had flipped a switch. Venom's tears immediately stopped, and her expression turned one of pure fear.

"No, not again, please don't tell her," she said, though she still stayed clinging to him, like a koala.

Evan could only shake his head at the scene.

During the fourth cycle, while he ruled over the dragon race, he had cultivated three subordinates whom he had recognized as possessing exceptional talent.

He'd raised them himself, all of them coming from difficult, almost brutal circumstances, but it was precisely those circumstances that had shaped the talent he'd recognized in them.

From that point on, he'd taken them under his wing and carried them to heights they never could have reached on their own without the right opportunity.

He'd already come to think of them as far more than mere subordinates; their bond had grown much closer than that, almost like family.

So seeing this girl hadn't changed one bit didn't irritate him, if anything, it seemed to put him at ease.

After all, he'd left her here for an extremely long stretch of time, far longer than he'd originally intended.

It was clear that part of his plans hadn't gone the way he'd expected, and there was little he could do about that now.

The girl finally calmed down, and Evan finally had the chance to notice Elena and the other two unconscious members nearby.

Seeing her, he raised an eyebrow as the woman's image surfaced in his mind.

"Elena, right? From Branleaf," he said flatly, recalling who she was.

She was the woman he'd met at the Awakened Association in Branleaf, and later on the battlefield there as well.

He had no idea what had happened to her afterward. As far as he knew, she had died during the destruction, considering everything the Duke had done back then and the subsequent appearance of that portal.

He certainly hadn't expected to see her here, of all places.

He let his eyes drift for a moment, his vision seeming to pierce through the castle walls and stretch further and further outward, until the entire surrounding city fell within his range. He quickly identified which region of the Abyss they were in, and seemed to piece together what had happened.

'I see. Seems the barrier is starting to give out,' he murmured to himself, noting that the protections set up around the city were failing. It was likely that plenty of Hollows, along with Elena and the others, had ended up here by accident.

The Hollows had been eliminated by the city's defenses because they possessed Void energy, but the same wasn't true for these humans.

As for how they'd even ended up here in the first place, he could form a vague idea, but it hardly mattered now.

Elena, who had only just come to and had witnessed all of this, was caught somewhat off guard by the sudden question, especially since she was still lost in admiration of the man.

He was flawless in every sense, in appearance, in bearing, and in strength. Though she couldn't tell exactly what Rank he was at, the mere fact that he was handling that dangerous little girl as though it were nothing said more than enough about how powerful he truly was.

But amid all of it, she couldn't shake the feeling that she'd seen him somewhere before. And that was precisely what confused her so much, because she strongly doubted she would ever have forgotten a person like this if she had encountered him somewhere before.

"Yes, that's me," she finally said, answering his question, hesitating for a moment before continuing.

"But how do you know that?" she asked, and only then did Evan notice the strange way she was looking at him.

'Right. I doubt she'd recognize me. Not after the change.' he thought, already fully aware of how much he'd changed, both physically and in presence.

"It's difficult not to. I was there when the incident in BranLeaf happened," he finally replied, making no real effort to hide the detail.

Whether she recognized him or not made little difference; right now, he had far more pressing matters to deal with.

Hearing those words, Elena was taken aback, curiosity gnawing at her as she opened her mouth to ask for more, but at that moment, she saw the man shift his attention away from her, toward the girl still clinging to him, and the words died in her throat.

Even though the man hadn't shown her the slightest sign of hostility or danger, his mere presence kept pressing down on her. It wasn't anything physical, it was something her very being seemed to recognize and want to submit to, something entirely new to her, and she couldn't quite explain the strange sensation.

An unbidden thought surfaced in her mind, one she found almost absurd and yet, for some reason, oddly reasonable.

'Could he be a god?'

Unaware of Elena's inner turmoil, Evan gently pried Venom off himself, against her will, and finally got straight to the point.

"Take me to her," he said simply, but Venom understood exactly what he meant.

She was clearly displeased, but under his gaze she didn't complain and moved at once.

They didn't walk or anything of the sort, they simply vanished from where they stood, only to reappear in the depths of the castle, in that circular chamber where the colossal chained figure lay.

Upon arriving, Evan saw the majestic appearance of the woman before him.

Yet now, she looked weak and fragile.

Complicated emotions appeared on his face.

Seraphine herself, who by now seemed on the verge of being unable to resist any longer, as could be seen from the signs of corruption that had already spread across most of her body, seemed to sense their presence and, with great effort, lifted her head to look toward them.

A flicker of surprise mixed with doubt and confusion appeared on her face as she looked at the white haired man standing beside Venom.

She could feel it was Evan, she was nearly certain of it, but at the same time, another kind of familiarity struck her, one that only that person could give her, and the doubt she'd carried this whole time about Evan's origin began to solidify into certainty.

That stirred a spark of hope within her, one she'd been too afraid to even let herself feel this entire time, for fear it would turn out false. But in this moment, that fear was gone. Without meaning to, she let that spark grow as she watched the figure draw closer.

Evan's body lifted off the ground and floated forward, reaching the woman's face before him. He looked at her with a complicated expression for a second, before a gentle look settled over his features, followed by a smile as he opened his mouth.

"You've carried this long enough. Rest now. Let me take it from here."

The words were calm, ordinary even, but they stirred a far greater turmoil within her than the reaction to the Abyss's own corruption had.

Tears appeared in her eyes, involuntary tears that paid no mind whatsoever to the woman's will, as something inside her, something she had held back with every ounce of her strength this entire time, began to give way.

She struggled to maintain her composure, the same composure she had kept through every single cycle, fighting without ever complaining, for a goal that seemed to grow more distant with each passing moment.

But now she had finally reached it, and that realization was overwhelming her all at once.

In the end, gathering what little strength she had left, she returned his smile, finally murmuring something.

"You took your sweet time getting here, you idiot."