Duality of Shadows-Chapter 1024: Obvious And Safe Path

The whale was left speechless, maintaining a serious expression. Ruri stared at him, and her face shifted, as if she could feel exactly what he was feeling.

She moved closer and held his hand. He snapped out of his daze as he felt his hand being lifted and pressed against her face. He looked at that small, beautiful face compared to his hand—her expression was gentle. He felt the warmth radiating from her, and it calmed him. It was like it warmed his soul.

At the same time, he felt a call from within his internal universe—it was Meru. She had sensed everything and wanted to come out to see him. The whale snorted and opened the way. Meru emerged and firmly held onto his other arm, making him feel much better with all that affection.

The mortal sensation pressing down on them hadn’t lessened—it was actually increasing bit by bit. He estimated that the queen was at the peak of her focus, trying to control those two items as fast as possible.

With the ex-missionaries influencing the items, judging by the feeling, they might only have a few hours before she fully mastered them.

Luckily, she hadn’t used them on the pearl yet. Maybe because her core power was depleted on the surface, she considered it a waste of energy and chose to wait for her power to recover before making a move.

"Dad..." Meru murmured, and he looked at her beautiful, worried face. "You can count on us, don’t forget that. Everyone will support you in everything. This fight isn’t just between you, your allies, and that woman—every single person in this world wants you to win."

The whale sighed and nodded before opening his internal universe, letting them all enter with him. Inside, they slowly approached his immortal army, all fully armed and ready for battle.

That sacred spiritual figure approached, emanating a terrifying aura. Nearly half of the people there had never seen him in his full form before. He gave off a natural sense of suppression—he was the complete Omega, the origin of everything in existence. But instead of fear, everyone felt their hearts pound fiercely with excitement.

He started explaining the situation coldly. Everyone swallowed hard. The God of Formations could hardly believe that such a level of formation could even exist. But with Omega’s power, the impossible simply didn’t exist.

"Of course, there are a lot of variables, but the most obvious and straightforward option for victory is, as you’ve all probably guessed. If we attack and destroy everything, we have an 80% chance of killing her now... or she might escape, which would make our victory in the future practically guaranteed." He finished bluntly, and everyone froze.

They could finally defeat the queen... but at what cost?

All the lives across millions of universes would be wiped out. Their souls would shatter forever. Even knowing that, in the future, when the heavenly laws stabilized, these souls would gather and form new consciousnesses... they wouldn’t be the same anymore. It felt like true, irreversible death.

"Master..." Rehvka murmured, looking at the whale. "Even if we can’t save them, they must be suffering so much right now. This formation connects all their lives, and the queen must’ve partially activated it, anticipating our move."

She glanced at Ruri, who listened and nodded. "That’s probably correct. With all three of their life energies trapped, they must be in a state of extreme agony, fearing for their lives every second. That bitch must be keeping them like that until she completely takes control of the items."

Corin quickly asked, "In that state, her mind control over them must be gone, right? They’re fully conscious now, basically being tortured, and most of them have probably realized that they were being controlled before."

Ruri nodded in agreement and explained. It wasn’t subtle control anymore. The queen had connected all of them through her power, and temporarily, her grip on their minds should’ve been undone. This made the formation’s connection even more stable.

"Hmm... what if master were accepted by all the people?" Maelik spoke seriously. "If they gave him just a little bit of their faith, even the smallest amount, some could break free from their chains. With many people granting him power, master could create a connection within them. Since they have a direct link to the formation, he could use it to invade and destroy everything without killing them."

Everyone’s eyes lit up at the idea. Ciceya heard and quickly spoke, "Yes! The power of faith comes from people’s will and consciousness. Since the queen freed that part of them, they can offer a bit of that power. Then, we can create a small mark within them. Even with just a tiny amount of power, it’s simple to do."

Th𝓮 most uptodate nov𝑒ls are publish𝒆d on ƒreewebηoveℓ.com.

Alm and Bruno listened to everything, stunned. Their disciples had formulated a plan so quickly. Even after changing so much, Alm and Bruno still felt the weight of their own power and, by instinct, still tended to try solving everything alone. They never would have come up with this idea themselves, not unless they had a long time to think.

This plan wasn’t impossible to attempt. Right now, Alm and Bruno were the will of the heavens. They could split their souls into micro-fragments and invade all the universes.

They would be so subtle and weak that the queen wouldn’t notice the invasion clearly. But that wasn’t a flaw. What could they even do against such a terrifying formation with such ridiculous fragments? They would barely have the power of a peak divine cultivator. Even the queen, with all her experience, knew the answer was: nothing.

"But... practically every single person, across all universes, would have to completely surrender to uncle," Purimu said tensely. "They have to do it all at once, not gradually, or that hateful woman will notice and act."

Everyone listened and grew tense. Trying this was an extremely risky decision. If it wasn’t executed perfectly, the queen would sense their influence in the universes. She wasn’t foolish—she would simply focus all her power on the formation, blocking their invasion.

That would result in complete failure. They would waste precious time, and by then, it could be too late to turn back.

"The Lord is capable... but not everyone has the eyes to see that the Lord can save everything..." Zaimo spoke, clenching his fists alongside the dwarves, all of them serious.

Without hesitation, the voice of a small figure rang out:

"They don’t need to see it. The Lord just has to give them a little of what he gave us," Mistie said softly, standing beside Quirio, Quitera, and their children. "Hope. Everyone wants to live free, after all."

"Exactly. He likes to pretend he’s doing things randomly, but everything he touches changes. Just be yourself, and it’ll work," Langrum’s voice came through calmly. "If it doesn’t, then they deserved to die. We were the fools for suggesting something this ridiculous. It’s simple. We’ll fight by your side, in life and death, no matter what happens. If you want to attack directly, that’s fine too. No one’s gonna cower here."

Alm and Bruno listened in silence. Seeing those eyes filled with trust and conviction, certain they would follow him no matter what choice he made... he could only let out a heavy sigh.

Meru and Ruri smiled faintly, noticing the shift in him.

The safest and most direct choice was still crystal clear to everyone. But his allies followed him without hesitation, no matter which path he took.

No one told him what to do; they simply helped create a new possibility. Everyone knew that trying to invade was extremely risky and nearly impossible to execute perfectly. But... at the same time, they believed that if he tried—if he truly wanted it—it could happen.

Minutes passed. Time was running out, and he had to decide.

"Well, who cares," he said softly. "Going with the obvious and safe path has never really worked for me. When I take the nonsensical route, that’s when new doors open."

He spoke and sighed...

It had been the same on Earth. When he tried to go against his father, everyone called him crazy and turned their backs on him. In the end, he died alone, and those people survived. But that life had been a great lesson and a test for them.

That had been his last life on Earth anyway, but they needed to die to be brought into a cultivation world. If they had cowered before his father and lived to die some other way, would they have had the courage and madness to face the queen later?

Maybe. But they definitely would have been different from who they were now. And maybe that difference would have killed them along the way.

In the life where they had only been Alm, it was no different. They went against everything and everyone, carving their own bloody, ruthless path. After taking over Denil’s body, it was the same. So many times, they could have made simpler, safer choices.

"Everyone, stay on high alert. I’m going to split myself and invade all the universes," he said calmly, and everyone nodded with faint smiles. They were sure he would.

"I’ll keep trying until the last minute; if it doesn’t work, everyone attacks. With the power of the three Primordial Chaos items combined, we can do serious damage if we’re fast enough. Anyway, I’m off."

Saying that, he felt lighter. Instinctively, their souls split apart once more.

"This is much better," Alm said dryly, and Bruno snorted.

The exit to the internal universe remained open. Everyone was to leave only at the right moment to avoid being detected. Then, the figures of the two turned into light, splitting into millions of particles.

The particles had two distinct colors—white and black—pairing into opposing duos before vanishing from everyone’s sight.

"Well, this shouldn’t take long," Meru said, smiling excitedly, almost euphoric.

Ruri nodded, and everyone behind her did the same. "Master likes to pretend he’s subtle, and we have to pretend we believe him. I give it an hour, tops. Everyone, the time has finally come!"

The crowd roared with excitement, gripping their weapons tight.