Chapter 583: Darius Bloodworth II

Damian’s mind rang with words spoken days ago, echoing back with new weight.

Felix Onyx sitting in front of him, those eyes carrying absolute certainty.

"No matter how much of a genius you are, no matter how talented or determined or strong you become..."

A pause that had felt like judgment.

"You aren’t Darius Bloodworth."

At that time, Damian hadn’t understood what those words truly meant.

He’d taken them as dismissal, as someone trying to diminish his worth by comparing him to a dead legend he’d never known.

But now...

His crimson eyes tracked across his father’s profile.

’My father...’

The thought formed with something approaching pride.

’He really was the greatest genius this universe has ever seen, wasn’t he?’

Before Damian’s thoughts could spiral further, Darius’s presence shifted back to normal.

The divine arrogance faded, replaced by the warmth that had been there before.

He turned back toward the setting sun, his posture relaxing fractionally.

Then his voice emerged quieter, stripped of that crushing weight.

"I told you this story for a reason, little friend."

He paused, his gaze tracking the horizon where light bled across clouds.

"To make you understand something that took me years to learn myself."

The cigar lifted to his lips, smoke curling upward before dispersing in the wind.

"When life wants to make you stronger, it doesn’t send blessings."

His hand gestured vaguely at the darkening sky.

"It sends battles, it sends pain, it sends loss that tears pieces from your chest and leaves holes nothing can fill."

Another draw from the cigar, his expression becoming distant.

"And when you’re in the middle of that suffering, when everything is falling apart and nothing makes sense anymore..."

His head shook slightly, the movement carrying old understanding.

"You think you’re being punished. You think life itself has turned against you, that the universe delights in watching you break."

He turned his head fractionally, crimson eyes finding Damian’s masked face.

"But that’s the lie fear tells you when pain becomes overwhelming."

A pause, letting that settle.

"The obstacle is never your enemy."

His voice gained edges, becoming pointed.

"It’s your invitation."

The words hung in the cold air between them, weighted with truth earned through blood and grief.

"If that boy hadn’t watched his siblings die one by one..."

Darius’s gaze tracked back to the sunset, watching colors deepen.

"If he’d been spared those funerals, if his family had been safe and whole and untouched by the games seers play..."

His lips curved into something that wasn’t quite a smile.

"He would’ve lived a comfortable life. He would’ve been happy, content with what he had."

Another pause, heavier than the first.

"But he never would’ve become the man standing here today."

The cigar glowed brighter as he inhaled, smoke drifting across the terrace like ghosts.

"Because greatness is never a gift someone hands you."

His voice became harder, carrying conviction.

"It must be provoked. It must be dragged out of you kicking and screaming, ripped from depths you didn’t know existed."

His hand clenched into a fist, the gesture small but somehow carrying enormous weight.

"It must be fought for with everything you possess, paid for with pieces of yourself you’ll never get back."

He opened his hand slowly, watching his fingers spread.

"The mountain was never meant to crush you beneath its weight."

His gaze lifted, finding peaks that stretched endlessly beyond the estate.

"It was meant to show you who you are when everything else gets stripped away."

His voice dropped lower, becoming almost gentle.

"So the next time life sends you a storm..."

He paused, letting the moment stretch.

"Don’t curse it. Don’t run from it."

His head turned, crimson eyes blazing with intensity.

"Bow to it."

The words landed like hammer blows.

"For the storm hasn’t come to destroy you."

His lips curved into something fierce and absolute.

"It has come to crown you."

Silence crashed down across the terrace like someone had cut all sound from the world.

Damian stood perfectly still, his hands hanging at his sides, the cigar forgotten between his fingers.

His mind turned over the words, finding truth in them that resonated with everything he’d survived, everything he’d become.

After several long moments, his whisper emerged uncertain.

"Can you tell me what happened afterwards?"

The question came out smaller than intended, almost pleading.

Darius chuckled, the sound warm and genuine, his entire demeanor lightening.

He turned back toward Damian, his expression becoming something approaching fondness.

"You know..."

His head tilted slightly, studying Damian’s masked face.

"You remind me a lot of my wife. She’s always curious to hear my stories, always asking what happened next before I’ve even finished the first part."

The words landed like physical blows, each one hitting Damian’s chest with force that had nothing to do with volume.

His entire body went rigid, his breathing stopping completely.

But Darius had already moved on, his gaze tracking away toward the horizon again.

His voice emerged quieter, carrying weight underneath.

"After that day, the goal of every seer across the universe shifted completely."

Another pause, heavier than the first.

"They stopped trying to prevent the rise of his family, stopped targeting his siblings one by one."

His voice gained edges despite remaining quiet.

"Because suddenly, there was only one target that mattered anymore."

The cigar lifted to his lips again, smoke curling upward.

"Him."

Silence fell for three heartbeats.

"They did everything they could imagine to stop his ascension."

Darius’s tone became almost conversational despite the terrible truth underneath.

"Sent their chosen ones in groups rather than alone, hoping numbers would succeed where individual strength had failed."

His hand gestured vaguely at the sky.

"Sent armies when chosen ones kept dying, mobilized forces that could have conquered any S rank portal."

Another draw from the cigar, exhaling slowly.

"But nothing could stop his rise."

His voice dropped lower, becoming almost gentle.

"So in the end, when he was about to break through to Demigod, when they realized all their schemes were useless..."

His crimson eyes found something in the distance, seeing beyond the mountains.

"They sent him to a major demon world and closed every dimensional barrier leading to that realm."

The sun had dropped lower, bleeding deeper reds across clouds that stretched endlessly.

"They sealed him inside with billions of demons and no way to escape, no portal home and no rescue coming."

Damian’s whisper cut through the quiet before his mind fully caught up to what his mouth was doing.

"And a year later, when the barriers finally dropped..."

His gaze found the horizon, watching light bleed from the sky.

"Only one man came out alive."

A pause, his next words emerging quieter.

"And the Bloodworth family gained its second Demigod."

Darius’s chuckle emerged genuine and warm, his expression shifting into something approaching pride.

"Indeed."

His head nodded once, confirming what everyone across their world already knew.

"That story is famous enough that nowadays even children learn it in academies."

His smile faded fractionally, becoming something more complex.

"But what they don’t know, what no official record mentions, what even most of my family never learned..."

He paused, letting tension build.

"Is what happened afterwards."