Journey to Become the Zenith

The Original Soul

The moment the artifact activated, a white light covered a large portion of the cave.

For an instant, everything disappeared beneath that radiance.

The stone walls, the scattered weapons, the broken ground, even the figures of Victor and Evelyne were swallowed by a blinding brilliance. The air itself seemed to tremble as an unfamiliar force spread through the cavern, washing over everything within its range.

Diana narrowed her eyes and instinctively raised an arm to shield herself from the light.

Victor, however, remained still.

He simply watched.

There was no fear in his golden eyes. Only curiosity.

Then the light began to fade.

A silhouette emerged from within it.

At first, it looked like a towering figure wrapped in white radiance. As the last traces of light peeled away, the figure became clearer.

It was a woman.

She was extraordinarily tall, with long black hair cascading down her back in a smooth ponytail. Her features were so refined that, at first glance, one might have mistaken her for a beautiful man. Yet there was no mistaking her feminine appearance now that the soul had fully stabilized.

This was Evelyne.

Her eyes slowly opened.

For the first time in countless years, she could feel her former strength coursing through her spiritual body again.

At the same time, the body of Evelyne Elmhart began to move backward.

The separation was strange.

Even though Evelyne’s soul had successfully materialized into a complete, functioning body, she remained connected to the physical body where her soul had originally resided. The invisible connection between the two remained like a thin thread stretched across space.

Evelyne glanced briefly toward her original body before turning her attention toward Victor.

Her lips curled into a confident smile.

"You forced me to use my trump card so early, but now you will regret it."

There was a hint of disappointment behind her words.

The artifact had been precious.

More importantly, it could only be used once.

She had never intended to reveal it so quickly.

But that disappointment was quickly drowned out by something much stronger.

Excitement.

Power.

For the first time since taking over Evelyne Elmhart’s body, she could once again feel the strength she had possessed in her previous life.

It was intoxicating.

Every movement felt lighter. Every breath carried power. Even the flow of energy through her spiritual body felt familiar, like an old song she had almost forgotten.

Half an hour.

That was all the time she had.

Once those thirty minutes passed, the materialized body would disappear and the artifact would be useless forever.

But Evelyne wasn’t worried.

To her, half an hour was more than enough.

’Thirty minutes is plenty.’

Her gaze settled on Victor.

Then her expression slowly changed.

Something was wrong.

The man standing before her wasn’t the same man she had been fighting moments ago.

Victor’s handsome face, black hair, golden eyes, and sharp features had disappeared.

The man standing beside Victor’s empty physical body looked almost painfully ordinary.

He wasn’t particularly tall.

He wasn’t particularly short.

His facial features were neither ugly nor handsome.

He was simply average.

Completely average.

There was nothing about him that demanded attention.

Even his presence had vanished.

The overwhelming pressure Victor had previously carried was nowhere to be found. The strange aura that had made Evelyne instinctively cautious had disappeared so completely that she almost wondered if she had imagined it.

The man before her felt like part of the cave itself.

If Evelyne looked away for even a moment, she could easily forget where he was standing.

Her brows slowly drew together.

’So he really was like me.’

The realization struck her with genuine surprise.

She had already suspected that Victor wasn’t a normal person.

But seeing his soul manifest in an entirely different form confirmed it.

Victor had not simply been hiding his strength.

There was another person beneath that appearance.

A soul that did not belong to the body.

Yet the difference between them was bizarre.

Evelyne had manifested the appearance of her true self—an exceptionally beautiful woman whose presence still carried traces of her former majesty.

Victor’s manifested soul looked like the very definition of mediocrity.

Even the air around him seemed unwilling to acknowledge his existence.

Evelyne stared at him for several seconds.

The confusion on her face became impossible to hide.

"How can someone like that possess such strength?"

She didn’t say the words aloud.

She merely watched.

Victor’s empty physical body remained standing nearby, almost like a silent shell abandoned by its owner.

The materialized soul didn’t even bother moving it.

He simply stood there, looking at his own Spirit body.

There was something strangely detached about the scene.

Evelyne’s eyes narrowed.

She had expected an overwhelming spiritual presence.

Instead, she got this.

A man who looked like he could disappear into a crowd without anyone remembering his face.

A faint scoff escaped her.

"Hmph, so that’s what you truly look like. Seeing how weak you are in your current form makes me feel a little bad, so I will allow you the first hit."

Evelyne lifted one hand and casually gestured toward Victor.

The gesture was almost insulting.

She wasn’t merely challenging him.

She was telling him that she believed victory was already hers.

Her confidence came naturally.

She had recovered the strength she once possessed.

For the next thirty minutes, she was no longer the weakened woman trapped inside another body.

She was Evelyne.

The former wielder of overwhelming power.

The soul before her, meanwhile, looked as though it couldn’t even threaten an ordinary soldier.

Evelyne waited.

Nothing happened.

The man merely stood there.

Then, after several seconds, he finally seemed to notice her.

His head turned slightly.

[Reader Note: Victor(?) is not a different person or a separate soul. He is the original soul of Victor’s body—the soul from his first incarnation. The question mark is only used here because Evelyne does not yet understand his true identity or realize that the soul standing before her is the original Victor.]

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