NOVEL NEXT Chapter 360: Lovely
The path toward perfection…
Noah's eyes flashed with brilliant light, ethereal threads flooded into them in abundance, transforming his gaze into two whirling pools of spinning, luminous strands.
Evadam arched an eyebrow, feeling the immense surge of power emanating from Noah…fate, destiny, and causality themselves rushing toward him like moths drawn to a flame.
The wind in the space stilled. For a fleeting instant, a crushing pressure seemed to descend from the heavens, then dissipated, fading as Noah's eyes slowly returned to their usual shape and color.
His expression stayed blank for a heartbeat… then a faint smile curved his lips.
"What was that?" Virgo asked, her sunglasses now pushed up onto her forehead. The sensation she had just felt was too vast, too invasive to ignore. For that moment, she had felt her entire life — past, present, and future — slip out of her grasp.
It was as if she were merely a spectator to her own existence, her every decision rewritten by unseen hands. The realization that her next breath, her next blink, could be altered made her skin crawl. She felt like marionette under the pull of invisible strings.
She didn't like it.
Evadam understood exactly what she felt, even if he hadn't experienced it himself. Noah was still too young, too weak to even graze the faintest thread that bound Evadam's fate.
But still…
"Your power is interesting, Noah," he said, smiling faintly. "The First Abomination had the power to steal the Records of others. The Second Abomination could become the Origin of every monster in existence, given enough time and consumption. And you…"
His smile sharpened, gleaming like the steel walls surrounding them.
"…and you, Third Abomination, seem to hold the power to command the threads of everything."
He chuckled then, softly, shaking his head.
"I see it now. I understand why the Records protect you, why they coddle you like their most precious child."
Virgo listened attentively to Evadam's words, doing her best to keep her face calm and expression neutral.
'Ignorant,' she mocked inwardly.
If only he knew… if only he knew that Noah could name everything and anything between heaven and earth, and that whatever he named would obtain the aspects of that name, then he wouldn't be sitting there so relaxed.
The power of threads was only one among the countless abilities Noah possessed. And Virgo was certain, even she didn't know all of them.
She sneaked a glance at him, finding him wearing that faint, knowing smile of his, the one that seemed to mock the entire universe.
She smiled inwardly.
'Aye. That's my man now.'
The thought sang through her mind with quiet pride. She sank deeper into the comfort of her chair, letting go of the chill she'd felt moments earlier. Somehow, she felt utterly safe knowing that he liked her, that he wanted to be with her, and that he…
…was her man.
She couldn't suppress the warmth bubbling up inside her. She squirmed slightly in the massage chair, her eyes softening as her mind painted pictures of a future where she and Noah were together…eating sweets, playing games, sharing laughter, all while reaching for their own impossible goals side by side.
A fantasy, one might say.
And yet, Virgo knew it was possible, with Noah, anything was. Each of them had their own path to walk, but together, they could move forward without leaving the other behind.
Now that was a life worth living.
And if she had to be forgotten by the world just to have that life, she would have chosen it from the very beginning.
She sighed softly in contentment, drifting deeper into her daydream.
Meanwhile, Noah was not thinking about Virgo's fantasies. His mind was elsewhere.
Wasn't it strange?
He had been born on Earth, died there, and reincarnated into another world entirely. His first goal had been simple — survival — yet along the way, it had twisted into something far grander and far more elusive: perfection.
And now, through that journey, he had encountered a being created by his past world, Earth itself, a being that had unknowingly caused its own apocalypse, only to be revived by its creator, who was now seeking the same "path toward perfection" he was walking.
Now… that was something worth pondering.
All of it felt too perfect to be random.
It looked like string of coincidences, yes…but when examined closely, each thread seemed to interlock with another, until the picture became clear.
Everything fit together.
Almost.
But Noah felt there was still something missing, something just beyond his understanding, a single piece hidden in the fog of cause and effect.
He had used his Providence ability moments ago to peer into his fate… but even then, the vision had revealed little. Nothing that could truly illuminate the road ahead.
'Something guiding me toward a specific path? The path of perfection…? Wait…is it my goal, or a goal I've been made to have?'
He subtly frowned.
As someone who could manipulate fate, Noah knew how thin the line was between acting by will and acting by design…between what one chooses to do and what one was meant to do.
Even for him, there were moments when the difference blurred. But now, more than ever, he needed to know. Yet the materials, the clues, were lacking.
He needed to go to Earth.
No… he needed Earth for himself. That world held too many secrets, too many impossibilities, for him to ignore.
It was his first world…the place where he had discovered Providence, where mortals had created existence without magic, where one succeeded in finding the path toward perfection with its destruction.
And even after being completely destroyed… it returned.
Too many impossible things had happened on and around Earth for him to simply let it be.
Having decided his next course of action, Noah sighed and turned his focus back to Evadam. His thoughts moved like lightning, by the time they settled, not even a second had passed outside.
"Will you tell me," Noah asked, "if I asked you the way toward perfection?"
"I've already told you," Evadam replied calmly. "Upstream, Noah. You have to swim upstream of the Great River."
Noah frowned. "Is that the path? Is that supposed to be the answer?" He couldn't make sense of it.
Evadam shrugged. "That's what the Records told me."
"Then why are you telling anyone else these words, if it's truly the path toward perfection?" Noah pressed, narrowing his eyes. "Do you perhaps understand what they mean already?"
Evadam looked at him as if he were an idiot. "If I did, do you think I'd still be here? Tsk." The sound that escaped his tongue was sharp, metallic, like steel grinding against steel. "And I tell everyone because, well…"
His smile turned shrewd. "Multiple brains are better than one, right?"
Noah's eyes widened slightly. "You mean…"
"Do you take me for a fool?" Evadam chuckled. "Anyone who enters here leaves with a trace of my signature energy and a few hidden devices embedded within them. That way, whatever comprehension they reach from those words will flow back to me."
"But what if someone succeeds in understanding it all at once?" Noah countered. "What if, through that comprehension, they become powerful enough to sense your tampering and come back to kill you?"
Evadam shrugged. "That's the risk I'm willing to take."
He said it nonchalantly, as though death were a casual inconvenience.
Noah found the progenitor strange. He was sure no other progenitor would have dared such recklessness. And that begged the question…
"What if one of your fellow progenitors hears about this?" Noah asked with a teasing smile. "What then?"
Evadam laughed. "If even I couldn't find the way, then they certainly never will. I'm the progenitor of the race that created life itself while still being nothing but wretched mortals. Believe me…"
He smiled faintly. "…their minds and standings are nothing compared to mine."
Noah fell silent.
Somehow, he believed him.
But still, to think that a progenitor this brilliant had chosen to let his children wander unguided through their own destruction…
What a waste.
'I guess no one is perfect,' Noah thought. 'And maybe that's exactly why he wants to find the path.'
He deduced quietly.
Then…
"I hope there aren't any hidden devices tucked somewhere inside me or my dear lover here, right?" Noah said with a smile that carried no amusement whatsoever.
Virgo trembled beside him, her lips twitching as she fought to keep from grinning too wildly. She barely managed.
Evadam scoffed. "I'm not particularly fond of earning the dissatisfied gaze of the Records, so don't worry, little pampered child. Nothing on you."
Noah smiled faintly. He already knew. Providence had long since scanned every inch of his being for anything hidden.
He just wanted to tease.
And now that it was over…
"Now, let's talk about something important, ancestor," he said, his expression turning into the warmest, most genuine smile he could muster.
Evadam eyed him with suspicion. "Talk about what?"
Noah's smile deepened. He leaned forward slightly, his voice dropping into a tone so smooth, so rich, that it sent shivers down Virgo's spine…so much that she almost came undone in sheer ecstasy at the sound alone.
"How about…" he whispered, every word laced with dangerous charm, "…you give me Earth, lovely ancestor?"
—End of Chapter 360—