An adult’s worldview can shatter in a single instant.
Evenheiler’s gaze was vacant as he stumbled back a few steps, the confusion in his eyes and the bewilderment in his heart laid bare without any pretense.
So... for decades of his life, he had even gotten the most basic information wrong?
The "mother" he thought had died in childbirth—though, of course, everyone knew "death in childbirth" didn't really exist in this era, implying a major underlying issue—was actually his "father." And the person he had always believed to be his "father" was actually the "mother" who had been pregnant and given birth to him.
Fine. It had a certain melodramatic beauty of a world turned upside down. The last time he had seen a plot like this was... well, the last time.
Evenheiler retreated silently, quickly withdrawing his power. He had no desire to speak with anyone, for within just these few breaths of time, he felt intense spatial fluctuations.
But at the final moment, he saw Katryn Kang open his eyes.
Amidst the swirling silver starlight, those eyes saw him—with a look of pure, unfamiliar confusion that Evenheiler had never seen before.
A tsunami erupted from the turbulent sea. Evenheiler took a step back and vanished from the spot.
Beneath the surface, Lei Ting withdrew the hand that had just crushed the core of the sand-based superpowered entity.
It was a biological structure similar to a "Heavenly Eye," a feature present in every race with superpowered potential. In this particular enemy, it manifested as a small ball of sand.
Fine sand flowed from his black gauntlet as the repulsion of space-time spread. The act of killing caused the upheaval to arrive early, and perhaps this, too, was a part of fate.
Amber energy exploded amidst the chaotic space-time fluctuations, its power spreading outward in a disorganized fashion, turning everything in its vicinity into yellow sand and linking with the sandy layers of the seabed.
Lei Ting felt this strange transformation and the shift in the entire underwater environment.
A moment later, he turned and surfaced, flying straight toward the sky.
A streak of silver radiance flashed by as Evenheiler caught up.
"What happened?" they asked simultaneously.
Evenheiler then fell silent, and Lei Ting, with practiced tacit understanding, answered first: "Space-time fluctuations played a part in the desert's formation. After that thing's core shattered, the chaos of space-time amplified and diffused its energy."
Evenheiler looked back—that beautiful blue was being swallowed by amber.
He knew that ocean would eventually vanish. Just as the happy life his parents and elder brother shared before his birth would vanish.
And they would be found by the search and rescue team’s superpowered individuals before the great disaster struck. At that time, they would have an extra child—a child born after the starlight had departed.
He would have soft blonde hair, blue eyes like the vanishing sea, and a life constantly beset by hardship.
"...My 'mother,' she was an Alpha, and... she seemed to be 'polluted.' And my father was the one who actually gave birth to me. He was an Omega," Evenheiler said in a low voice amidst the space-time fluctuations. "The reason he could endure in that sandstorm-like disaster until we arrived was because she was protecting him... I just still don't know exactly... why she died."
"...Hm?"
Pollution? Mother?
...Omega?
Lei Ting was stunned for a moment—if Katryn Kang himself was an Omega, then why did he do those things to Evenheiler?
"I know what you're thinking, Lei Ting." Evenheiler watched the three people from a distance. He watched them flee amidst the tsunami. "But... you're an Alpha, so you will never be able to understand any of that."
"Perhaps that is true, but I think you should set aside all other factors and look at me as a different character."
"What?"
"Your husband," Lei Ting said, his expression unchanging.
"..............."
In the increasingly blurred starry sky, Evenheiler slowly turned his eyes to stare at him, his gaze icy.
Lei Ting quickly shut his mouth, raised his hands, and backed away several dozen meters.
This caused Evenheiler to stare at him for a few more seconds before he finally couldn't help but let out a small laugh. "It must be a complicated feeling, seeing the scene of your own birth, isn't it?"
Lei Ting was slightly dazed, somewhat unsure of how to respond.
Yes... his feelings were indeed complicated. No matter who it was, seeing their own original source would produce such a feeling: a clarity like a sudden enlightenment.
A child. He recalled that tiny bundle of life. For a moment, he thought of Kang Li—was that child like that when he was born? he asked himself.
The answer was: he didn't know.
But for the first time, he truly faced the fact: *I have become the 'parent of a child.'*
*I should look forward to caring for my child, just as my mother cared for me. I should also embrace my child, just as my father embraced me...*
Lei Ting was lost in thought for a moment. He moved his fingers as if to make some gesture in the air, but in the end, he didn't do it.
That was too foolish. There was no one in front of him.
But a new ripple surfaced in his still-aching heart. This time, regret spread through him.
He never felt regret, except for this once.
He realized that among the countless ways to face a child, he had chosen the worst one.
While maintaining the maximum state of being "Immovable," he had left a wound on his biological child upon their first meeting, causing the child to see him as an enemy. He had evaluated that child’s inner and outer self, assessed the other’s combat and thinking abilities, and then evaluated everything else...
But that was not, and should not be, the mindset of a "father." At least, not the mindset he should have had as a "father."
And he...
Lei Ting tilted his head slightly, gazing at the planet not far away.
He didn't go to watch Evenheiler’s birth; instead, he watched the death of that sea. Amber spread outward from within, and the azure was gradually swallowed by it...
Many years later, near that desert basin, on a similarly desertified plain, he had intercepted an Otherworldly Demon searching for secrets.
Therefore, he could not stop its birth; that was an established destiny.
From an even earlier time, it had already been a part of the future.
But if one crossed that basin to the opposite side of the planet... he knew he would pass a rift indicating the planet itself had long been weaponized, passing the space where the "Gazer" statue was hidden.
He had even conducted some biological experiments in there, using his insufficient but functional knowledge.
Few people knew he understood those things, just as few knew he also understood sculpture and minimalist metal art.
There were far too many facts about him that people didn't know, because during those years, even he himself had forgotten them.
If a person spends the majority of their life using themselves as a machine, then even if they regain their emotions afterward, it is very difficult to escape that cold path of thinking.
Furthermore, if this person has been constantly punishing themselves, forcing themselves... it would be a disaster that everyone is well aware of.
But...
He thought.
But there are always some things in this world that you cannot avoid.
Like where you come from, and where you are going.
Evenheiler approached Lei Ting with a smile, and though the latter’s heart was heavy, he still twitched the corners of his mouth and returned a smile.
One must smile, and one must try to enjoy life.
How could he not smile? Facing the person who loved him, facing the remainder of his life...
When he was born, the people around him were all smiling.
Even though he didn't know their names and didn't remember most things from the first five years of his life.
But when he came into this world, two people had already loved him with all their hearts.
They loved him, loved the individual "Lei Ting," not out of awe for his power, nor out of submission to his authority.
Their expectation for him might have simply been to "light up himself"... and they were completely unaware that the future Speaker of the Federation was so close to them at that moment and for the five years that followed.
Well, at that moment, amidst the nearly infinite surge of hundreds of billions of negative emotions, Lei Ting suddenly realized that even if he didn't shine, someone would light him up.
Looking back, from that moment on, he had been receiving kindness and love.
And then? Pure deception didn't count... then there was the "Headmaster," his classmates and friends, and Evenheiler.
Were there many people? Not many. Was it pure? It wasn't.
But that could not be a reason to deny their existence.
Love is inherently the most complex thing in the world; there are plenty of people who can do the most terrible things in the name of love—Lei Ting himself was exactly such a person.
He would never forgive himself for the pain he caused innocent people and for their ends; no one had the right to forgive any of it.
But as he gazed at those two people—two ordinary Betas, a man and a woman, not superpowered, with no mysterious past or grand background...
His soul felt a long-lost peace.
The ripples of space-time distorted to the limit; this time, the impact was greater than expected. And, as anticipated, its primary target was Lei Ting.
But Lei Ting was neither surprised nor afraid; he knew Evenheiler was by his side.
"The charging time for this jump is strangely long... and I feel that I will be injured," he said. "That impact will explode at a fixed point, from the inside out... Your energy level is not as high as mine, so you cannot deeply permeate me, nor can you stop it."
Evenheiler frowned.
"I should have stayed and killed it myself." He likewise did not regret the decision made in the heat of the moment, but a flash of gold flickered in his eyes, and his expression turned somewhat cold. "If the current me tried to protect them, I would be more likely to kill them by mistake."
The surrounding scenery gradually blurred. Lei Ting watched the amber rapidly swallow the entire sea, watched the life within it die, and watched the world align with the form he knew so well.
But his voice remained gentle: "Do you feel it? Even... that is what I used to guard against."
"Of course I feel it," Evenheiler murmured softly. He looked at his own hand. "No wonder when you were seventeen or eighteen, you refused to use 'Immovable' freely no matter what...
"To clearly realize that you are gradually turning into a piece of iron—that feeling is indeed not very pleasant."
"Then why did you activate it on a mental level?" Lei Ting asked again.
"..."
Evenheiler fell silent.
"Don't follow my old path, Even. I know better than you what a terrible choice that is," Lei Ting said. "Let's make the direction of this matter a little better..."
"Wow, thanks for the reminder."
Evenheiler stared at what was happening on the planet's surface, gold light flashing in his eyes as he drawled, "I was just about to turn myself from an emotionally rich human into a cold, heartless, awkward, stubborn, taciturn, non-human-speaking bastard of a mature young man—one who is clearly a saint but makes himself look like a tyrant to everyone else, who is cute, who would directly kill his beyond-saving lover and imprison his soul in his own world, who continues to not speak like a human for about twenty years, who slaughters countless people for the sake of doing good, who is so guilty about that slaughter that he wants to slit his own throat, who would stew all these current events into a mess and dump them in the trash, and who is completely indifferent to his own injuries yet over-empathizes with the pain of others."
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 天眼 | Heavenly Eye | A biological structure in superpowered races related to their potential. |
| 凝望者 | Gazer | A specific statue or entity mentioned as being hidden on the planet. |
| 联邦议长 | Speaker of the Federation | Lei Ting's future political title. |
| 康砺 | Kang Li | Lei Ting's biological child. |
