When Malin entered this world, he wasn’t surprised to find that he had become his former self: on one hand, an Earth monkey past middle age, and on the other, encased in the flesh foundation of the Silver Folk. The two were utterly incomparable.
However, Malin had no other choice.
If he gave up, not to mention his foster father, those two Divine Masters, Malin might as well find a crooked tree and tie himself to it organically with a rope.
Therefore, he had to find his sister and then take her away.
But Malin had never imagined things would turn out the way they now had. As he reached out to take his own skull, he sighed sorrowfully at the sight of his sister who had completed her transformation—this Maya knew all too well that no bride would tolerate witnessing the remains of her beloved being desecrated, so in her final moments, she tossed Lorrin’s skull to him to prevent herself from being distracted.
To prevent herself from being distracted... from noticing another self beside her.
So Malin started to back away, retreating while noticing the bullet hole on one side of the skull in his hand.
Then the world seemed to change color, Maya, who was fixated on him, slowed down, and red dots coalesced into human shapes.
’Go!’ a child-like voice screamed, ’We’ll cover you! Go! Take the kids!’
That small figure must be Lorrin.
’No! We agreed not to separate!’ Malin heard Faye’s voice, hoarse and filled with sobs, but that was Faye.
’Hurry up! Don’t disappoint Lorrin!’ came Jessica’s voice. The wolf girl... did well. If Malin were in Lorrin’s place, he would wish for a girl to lead the way in making a decision.
The shouts of fighting grew louder, and then Malin saw a human shape beside Lorrin turn around and point a revolver at him.
’Logan, what are you doing!’... It was Lillim’s voice, no, Margen’s voice.
Malin looked again at the skull in his hand, the silent bullet hole telling the grim truth of how real Margen’s curse was.
Logan, so you were the traitor!
At that time, Malin had been puzzled why Margen was calling him a traitor, but now he understood... she was looking at Logan behind him.
Logan, why are you the traitor?
Ah... right, they went to the ruined castle, and without the variable that was Malin, Logan and the others... probably had their minds twisted by the Chaos Cult that night.
As a pawn of Chaos, Logan had done well, even gaining Lorrin’s trust.
But such trust was repaid with betrayal.
With Malin’s sigh, the gunshot rang out.
All human shapes and light spots disappeared, and Maya in front of him reached out her hand, seemingly begging, wanting Malin to return the skull to her.
"You want it, right," Malin extended the skull to her.
The black bride nodded, her eyes brimming with joy and excitement.
Malin smiled and then crushed the skull in his hand.
As the skull shattered, the black bride before him wailed. She raised her longsword high, and the next moment, she appeared in front of Malin with a blurred figure.
In that moment, Ophie had transformed into a longsword, which Malin used to block the strike, taking a step back— the strength was unexpectedly great.
Amid his surprise, Malin turned around to see his sister, who had vanished from the front and reappeared behind him. He sidestepped the thrust, with the World Tree Sapling longsword braced against his chest, the black longsword scraping against it, producing sparks of black and white energy.
’That’s my brother,’ a soft whisper resonated near Malin’s ear; the black bride floated back, evading Malin’s slash.
Twisted Spiritual Bodies split from her and rushed towards Malin, who purified them with the sapling in his hand— the World Tree Sapling was the most effective weapon against Spiritual Bodies.
As the divided Spiritual Bodies were eradicated, the unaffected black bride retreated into the void, weeping.
’You hurt him, why, you are him too...’
Malin instinctively turned, parrying a thrust aimed at his neck with his longsword, the floating black bride’s pure black Soul Fire rolling in her eye sockets. She reached out to touch Malin’s face but was pushed away by his palm.
Stepping back twice, Malin raised his palm, noticing Negative Energy eroding his Spiritual Body.
This world’s Maya had completely fallen.
Her everything was ruined by Chaos— her lover, her family, her sisters... Malin raised his longsword, deflecting the approaching black blade, and struck down simultaneously while gripping the sword’s hilt.
Before the longsword could strike the black bride, she once again slipped into the void.
’Why would you hurt yourself...’ Maya’s crying was almost in Malin’s ear, her murmurs seemingly pounding in Malin’s head over and over: ’I see now, you must have become... twisted.’
The black bride emerged from the void, her longsword swiftly aimed at Malin’s neck. Malin, caught in a bad position, could only side-step and raise his longsword at the last moment, fending off the black bride’s blade to avoid decapitation.
’Why won’t you die, why won’t you go and die?’ she whispered with confusion, and Malin sidestepped again, facing another thrust. He deflected it and counter-stabbed, but the black bride had another longsword that swung towards Malin, forcing him to step back.