Chapter 73: use and control the power of NYX?

"Well, Ren?" Velista asked softly, taking a slow, deliberate step forward across the cracked paving stones. "Now that you remember the sheer filth of the species you’ve been protecting... now that you remember how they stomped on you, starved you, and burned your home..."

She extended her pale, elegant hand toward him, her purple eyes glowing with a terrifying, hypnotic light.

"Join me, Ren. Reclaim your place as my other half, and let us bring eternal peace to this world... through total annihilation."

Ren’s breath caught in his throat, his posture freezing as the weight of her words hung in the mountain air.

THROB.

Before he could pull himself together, a dark, resonant echo vibrated directly within the deep recesses of his consciousness.

"Accept her offer, Ren..." the sinister voice of Nyx whispered, slithering through his mind like cold poison. "Why continue to bleed for those worthless insects?"

Ren shook his head violently, clutching his forehead as he tried to forcibly evict the entity’s presence. "Shut up... Get out of my head!"

"Why stand with mortals whose motives are utterly rotten?" Nyx’s voice pressed on, relentless and heavy with dark persuasion. "You think they care about you? They are using you as a living shield to buy themselves another day of comfort. The moment your utility wanes, they will discard you just as quickly as those street thugs did. Remember the cold, Ren. Remember the hunger. Where were their noble hearts when you were bleeding in the mud?"

The dark words hit him like a physical blow.

Ren froze, his jaw clenching as a sharp, familiar bitterness stirred in his chest. The entity’s argument hit dangerously close to home—not just for the original host of this vessel, but for his previous life on Earth as Elian.

Back on Earth, when he was nobody, working himself to the bone as a low-level laborer, he had been utterly invisible to society. His own family had treated him like an inconvenience until he began bringing home heavy paychecks. The moment money entered the equation, their cold indifference turned into plastic smiles and rehearsed affection. That experience had left Elian hollowed out, breeding a quiet, cynical belief that genuine altruism was a rare anomaly in a sea of transactional greed.

The memory of young Ren Celestial was no different. When the boy was starved, beaten, and watching his home burn, no high-ranking official or noble savior stepped down from their carriage to offer a hand. But now, because he possessed the System and the authority to command Lumiria’s defenses, ministers, generals, and survivors bowed their heads and praised his name.

"Embrace your true nature as the Dark God Nyx," the voice rasped, pulsing with intoxicating temptation. "Unite with Velista and wipe this pathetic, parasitic species from the face of the cosmos."

Ren’s chest heaved as he forced a deep breath into his lungs, battling the insidious logic.

He knew the dark god wasn’t entirely wrong about human nature. The majority of people were driven by self-preservation and shallow desires. But transmigrating into this world as a leader wasn’t about seeking hollow approval or playing a martyr.

He had taken the mantle of Lumiria’s sovereign to rewrite a broken dynamic, to build a domain where people didn’t have to turn into monsters just to survive another winter.

Humanity was flawed, unpredictable, and inherently selfish—yet that very volatility was what made them extraordinary. Unlike angels or gods bound by absolute, rigid archetypes, mortals possessed the absolute freedom of choice. A human could be dragged through the deepest mud of misery and still choose to extend a hand to another, elevating themselves above the cold arithmetic of the divine. Hope wasn’t a guarantee; it was a choice made in the face of despair.

"You’re wrong, Nyx," Ren snarled internally, gritting his teeth as he exerted his willpower to crush the dark whispers. "I’m not letting you control my choices."

The dark entity’s voice dissolved into low, discontented static before fading into the depths of his mind.

Velista let out a soft, mocking laugh, her purple eyes watching his internal struggle with cruel amusement.

"How much longer are you going to play the righteous savior, Ren?" Velista sneered, her dark gown fluttering as a cold breeze swept through the ruined coliseum. "The extinction of this planet was written into the stars long before you drew your first breath. Your little defense force, your stone walls, your pathetic weapons... it’s all an exercise in utter futility."

Ren lifted his head, his dark eyes locking onto hers with a sharp, unyielding focus. He planted his feet firmly against the cracked stone, standing tall amidst the ancient ruins.

"You call it futility because you see mortals as nothing more than livestock," Ren said, his voice ringing clearly across the open arena. "You think their corruption is all they are. But you’re wrong, Velista.

"The nobility of humanity doesn’t exist because they are perfect," Ren continued, his tone dropping into a low, resolute register. "It exists because, despite being born into darkness, weakness, and fear, a person can still look at a world full of cruelty and choose to be kind. They can choose to protect someone else even when it costs them everything. That choice—that freedom to choose good over bad when bad is easier—is something a cold, arrogant deity like you will never understand. That’s why I’ll stand with them. That’s why I’ll crush your grand vision."

Velista’s smile vanished completely.

For a fraction of a second, her expression turned dead and hollow, her dark violet eyes boring into his soul with a chilling, predatory stillness.

Then, she threw her head back and burst into a loud, melodic laugh that echoed wildly off the stone monoliths.

"Ahahaha! Fantastic..." Velista sighed, her tone dropping an octave as her laughter died down into a freezing, razor-sharp whisper. "You really have gone completely soft. A traitor to your own divine bloodline."

She took a slow step forward, the atmosphere around them instantly dropping several degrees. "If you refuse to reclaim your place, then I have no choice but to tear that fifty percent of divine authority right out of your chest and absorb it myself."

Ren’s eyes narrowed, every instinct going on high alert.

Velista spread her pale fingers. Dark, chaotic violet energy surged around her hands like liquid lightning, crackling violently against the stone floor. She flicked her wrist, and the dark energy coalesced into a massive, S-shaped war scythe—an ornate, terrifying weapon of death forged from pure compressed dark divinity, its dual blades gleaming with a sinister, violet sheen.

The ambient pressure within the coliseum spiked exponentially.

A localized gale erupted from her center, the sheer density of her unleashed aura generating a kinetic shockwave that whipped across the arena. Ren’s black hair blew back wildly, his dark coat snapped against the wind, and small pebbles lifted off the ground, disintegrating into fine powder before touching the stone.

Ren took a smooth half-step back, his body dropping into a low, shock-absorbent stance.

’Dammit... she isn’t holding back an inch. She really intends to execute me right here.’

Velista twirled the massive scythe effortlessly with one hand, sending out arcs of dark energy that carved deep trenches into the stone floor. She pointed the tip of the upper blade directly at Ren’s throat, her face twisted into a terrifyingly beautiful, murderous grin.

"Let us settle this as two halves of the same entity, Ren," Velista purred, her eyes blazing with absolute dominance. "Show me how much strength your precious human heart can offer!"

Ren’s mind worked frantically, analyzing every variable in a fraction of a second.

His physical stats were limited without his full equipment, his System’s Monster Forge was useless against an opponent of her caliber, and his Nyx Seal was hovering dangerously near its absolute threshold. Brute-forcing a direct exchange meant immediate death.

’Think, Ren... Think!’ he ordered himself, his brow drenched in cold sweat.

An ambiguous, crazy thought flashed through his head.

If Velista and his vessel were truly twin fragments born from the exact same Dark God, then their underlying energy structure had to be identical. They were two halves of a single coin. It made no logical sense that she could manipulate high-tier dark space arts and forge divine weaponry while he remained restricted to basic physical combat and System interfaces.

The only difference was knowledge—she knew how to tap into the core of Nyx, whereas he had been relying entirely on the System as a proxy interface.

’Nyx, you bastard,’ Ren communicated internally, pressing his mind into his inner core. ’I know you can hear me. We’re part of the same divine origin. How do I unlock the dark authority in this body?’

"Hahaha!" Nyx’s mocking laugh resonated faintly in his mind. "You reject my vision, yet you ask for my power to save your skin? Don’t make me laugh, transmigrator. Figure it out yourself!"

"Useless parasite..." Ren cursed under his breath.

Velista took her first step, her form blurring as she surged forward like a phantom, the dark scythe whistling through the air with lethal velocity.

’Step back, read the trajectory, analyze the flow...’

Ren’s eyes remained hyper-focused on the violet aura wrapping around Velista’s hands. He watched how her energy circulated—not through magical circuits like standard mages, but extending directly from her bloodline, bending the reality around her limbs through sheer intent and emotional focus.

A sudden flash of clarity illuminated his mind.

’It isn’t a spell... it’s an extension of presence.’

Ren’s lips pulled into a tight, sharp line as a wild, dangerous confidence sparked in his eyes.

"I get it now," Ren whispered.