Chapter 623: The Final Stage
Max fell silent, his brows slightly furrowed as he sank into deep thought. Aria’s explanation made sense, and that in itself made things far more complicated than he had originally believed.
If what she said was true—if the strange blood ritual and those black-eyed figures were remnants of the Devil God Nation—then something ancient and dangerous was still lurking in this citadel.
But what disturbed him most wasn’t just the eerie display. It was the reaction of the infernal energy within him. That wild, primal agitation. The restlessness of infernal energy.
He had received his infernal energy through the cursed tattoo of the Infernal Demon that Mark had forcefully etched onto his body. That mark had nearly killed him once, but over time, he’d subdued it.
Mark had claimed the entire Mourning Depths was overflowing with infernal energy because a fragment of his own soul had been sealed there. That could only mean one thing—the infernal energy didn’t come from some universal force. It wasn’t some external power drawn from nature or dimension. It was Mark. It originated from him. He was the source of the infernal energy inside Max.
And yet... why did that same infernal energy—the one that was now entirely under Max’s control thanks to his Unholy Trinity Body—respond so violently to the arrival of those black-eyed puppets if they were from the Devil God Nation?
He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing. He ran through the possibilities in his mind, connecting threads that refused to tie together.
If the infernal energy was born from Mark, and Mark was in no way tied to the Devil God Nation—or so Max thought—then the only plausible explanation left was far more unsettling.
’Whoever was possessing Mark... whoever was truly sealed in the Mourning Depths... might be from the Devil God Nation.’ He thought. Perhaps even its last surviving shadow. A being from an age lost to time, now hiding behind Mark’s face.