Cultivator of the End: I Refine My Own Death-Chapter 86 – The Last Choice

The landscape before Rin was unlike anything he had ever imagined. The Threshold of Infinity was not a place of stars, nor a vast void filled with cosmic energy. It was something beyond—an expanse where time itself seemed to distort and unravel like the frayed edge of a tapestry, torn from both ends.

The air around him shimmered with a strange, liquid quality, as if the fabric of the universe itself was in a constant state of flux. The ground beneath his feet had no form or substance, and yet he stood firm, as though anchored to a place that existed neither here nor there. Ahead of him stretched the great Abyss, a vast chasm that seemed to swallow light and color, a gaping maw of nothingness where all things dissolved into oblivion.

The Threshold was the boundary between the known universe—the one he had spent his entire existence striving to change—and the unknown, a place where even the most powerful beings feared to tread. It was a realm where the very laws of reality held no sway, and even time was meaningless. Here, the choices of life and death, creation and destruction, faded into the background, leaving only one question: what would Rin choose now?

As he gazed into the Abyss, a voice stirred in the depths. At first, it was a murmur—soft, barely audible—but soon it became clearer, as if countless voices were converging on him, speaking in unison. The sound filled the space, reverberating through the very marrow of his being, urging him to listen, to understand.

"You have come far, Rin Xie," the voice began, its tone calm yet filled with an ancient weight. "You have walked the path of death, of transcendence, of creation. You have torn apart the cycles of the world and remade them in your own image. But now, you stand at the final threshold. The last choice awaits you."

Rin's heart pounded in his chest as he stood at the precipice of a decision that could not be undone. His every step had led to this moment, and yet, the weight of the choice seemed to stretch beyond anything he had ever encountered.

"The choices before you are simple," the voice continued, though there was nothing simple about them. "You may choose to become the eternal ruler of the new universe you have forged. To reign over the realms you have crafted, to shape them as you will, and to guide the cycles of life and death in your own image. In this, you will have unimaginable power, but you will also bear the burden of eternity, ruling alone in the emptiness of your creation."

Rin's mind swirled at the thought of ruling—of becoming a god in a universe of his own making. He had seen the ravages of immortality, the endless suffering that power had wrought. And yet, the temptation was there. The idea of control, of shaping reality itself, held an allure, one he could not easily dismiss. But the price, the loneliness... it weighed heavily on him. ƒreewebɳovel.com

"The second choice," the voice whispered, "is to return to the cycle of life and death, to restore the balance you once sought to destroy. You will return to the mortal realm, where the forces of creation and destruction will once again play their endless game. You will live and die as all things do, bound by the laws of nature, but in doing so, you will restore harmony to the universe and bring peace to the realms. However, you will forfeit your newfound power, and all that you have gained will be lost."

Rin's breath caught in his throat. To return to the cycle would mean relinquishing everything he had worked for—the immortality, the control, the transcendence. But it would also restore the balance of the universe, bringing an end to the madness of endless death and creation. It would restore the peace he had sought at the beginning of his journey, but at the cost of his own desires.

"The final choice," the voice intoned, "is to dissolve yourself into nothingness, to erase your very existence from the universe you have shaped. In doing so, you will release all things into the void, allowing the universe to continue on without your interference. You will no longer be bound by the limitations of form or power. You will become a part of the nothingness, a forgotten echo in the void. This choice will bring an end to all that you have done, but it will also bring an end to the suffering you have caused. The universe will remain, but without you, without the burden of your will."

Rin stood motionless, the gravity of the decision settling over him. To dissolve into nothingness—to cease to exist altogether—was the most terrifying choice of all. But in it, there was freedom, peace, and the possibility of a universe that existed without the corruption of his interference.

As Rin considered each option, the very space around him began to change. Figures materialized before him, each one drawn from the threads of his past. Some were familiar, others strange, but all were tied to the choices he had made.

The First God, who had once offered him the power of creation, appeared first. He was a towering figure, cloaked in robes of shifting stars, his eyes burning with the knowledge of eons. "Rin Xie," the First God spoke, his voice like the rumble of distant thunder, "you are the one who could shape the universe. You are the one who could break the cycle. You have the power to transcend the bounds of existence. If you choose to rule, I will grant you the strength to command the very forces of creation. You will shape all things as you see fit."

But before Rin could respond, another figure appeared—Xie Yun, the mute cultivator he had met in the Silent Caverns. Her presence was calming, a soft, almost ethereal glow that radiated compassion and balance. "Rin," she said, her eyes speaking the words her mouth could not, "the cycle is not the enemy. Life and death are not things to be broken, but things to be understood. If you choose to restore the balance, you will not only bring peace to the realms, but peace to yourself. Do not cast away your humanity in the name of power."

And then, a figure emerged from the shadows—Ny'xuan, the sentient dagger forged from the bones of a death god. His eyes gleamed with the sharp edge of experience, a cold smile playing at the corner of his lips. "You are the one who has walked the path of death," he whispered, his voice a low hiss, "and you have created something new, something dangerous. But what is creation without destruction? Without you, there is nothing. Choose your fate, Rin. Become the ruler of this new world, or dissolve into the nothingness that you have wrought. Either way, you will leave your mark."

Rin was surrounded, the weight of their voices pressing down upon him. Each figure represented a path he could take, each offering a different vision of what could come next. But at the heart of it all, he knew the truth: the choice was his alone.

He could become the ruler of all, commanding the realms he had shaped, but at the cost of eternal loneliness and a burden he could not foresee. He could restore the cycle, returning to the life and death he had so fiercely rejected, but in doing so, he would abandon all that he had gained. Or, he could erase his existence altogether, leaving the universe to continue without him, free from the corruption he had caused.

The air around him crackled with the tension of decision. As Rin gazed into the Abyss, his heart pulsed with the weight of the universe, and for the first time in his life, he truly understood what it meant to be human—to be bound by the very choices that defined existence.

The last choice, the voice whispered, was his.

To be continued...