My Substitute CEO Bride

Before Francis could even finish his threatening words, he was suddenly pierced through, along with the giant tree.

Everything happened so quickly that he did not even have time to react. Despite his lack of ability to truly face off against Nash, he should have at least been able to respond to Nash's attack... How did this happen?

Francis turned his head.

Clint seemed to have appeared behind him at some point.

"This... This is impossible..." Francis seethed with rage. It was another genius.

He recognized Clint-yet another prodigy he could never surpass.

He despised it. He loathed his own inadequacy. It was only now that he realized Zirconia's method of explosively enhancing their power had merely been a shortcut, one that was ultimately self-destructive. Now, even with his heart full of resentment, there was nothing he could do. Was he really going to die in such regret?

Perhaps... Perhaps this really was the end.

Images flashed before his eyes in a rapid sequence, like a reel of memories. They were too old and too distant to recall in detail.

Yet here he was, facing two versions of himself-one as the young man who first went up to Tili Mountain, the other as the man who joined the Church of the Netherworld.

"Francis, this is your end... You're just like a pathetic clown..."

He opened his eyes again and found himself in a familiar place. He was at the fortress of the Church of the Netherworld. He was instructing the Doom Spawns, who, under his indoctrination, worshiped him as a god.

In another blink, he was back in his sect on Phoenix Island. His disciples revered him as a father figure. Lastly, his eyes opened once more, and he was in a forbidden area. Before him knelt the sect master of the Endless Horizon Sect.

"Please! Save him!"

It was the sect master of the Endless Horizon Sect. He was begging for his son's life. Francis recalled that his name was... Morry Roche.

Francis had delivered a puppet, branding it with the lotus mark.

"I didn't expect you to care for him so much... And to think... your son..."

Francis remembered clearly that Morry was the result of a brutal method used by Dawson.

Fearing no one would inherit his power, the sect master of the Endless Horizon Sect abandoned his wife as soon as his son was born. It was absurd. Yet, that child softened Dawson's once unpredictable

temper.

As for the puppet Francis brought, it was nothing more than an empty shell without a soul. That puppet would eventually become... Deluca.

In fact, Zaafea had glossed over

many things. He was unwilling to let

Clint and Deluca know these dark secrets. The woman Zaafea encountered in the forbidden area was Nora. noveldrama

Malvol Francis-had sent her there to reclaim the puppet. However, she ran into Zaafea, derailing the plan.

Francis continued to recall these memories.

When he opened his eyes for the final time, he was back on Phoenix Island, now a hell on earth.

His disciples were all dead, slain by

his own hands. At the time, he felt nothing. Yet now, as he recalled everything, the sight of their deaths overlapped with the images of them joining his sect. He recalled the fresh, hopeful faces they once had.

MS

Like vengeful spirits, the disciples closed in on him, their eyes full of sorrow.

"Master... Why?"

"Master... It hurts..."

"Come with us, Master."

"Yes... Come with us." Francis' disciples surrounded him, their voices haunting and echoing. "Stay away! Don't come near me! Get away! All of you, get away!"

The disciples engulfed Francis, dragging him down. What awaited him was the Netherworld.

Everything seemed to be over.

Nash watched as Francis's body fell. His heart was a mix of emotions that was impossible to untangle. "Amulet Glory..."

The world suddenly grew eerily quiet. It was a silence so profound it was almost terrifying.

The once brightly lit city was now dark and still, with only the constant sound of the wind breaking the silence.