Infinite Evolution: My Idle Evolution System

But when the Vampire Duke looked into this black congregation, he was baffled to see something that even he, with all his knowledge, couldn't comprehend. The congregation felt detached from reality, yet it contained within it a level of danger that made him cautiously activate every defensive Skill he could utilize on this Floor.

'What the hell is that thing!?' Alaric questioned, his eyes widening as he saw the same black congregation tug at and pull Cassius toward it.

At first, Cassius was surprised by what happened after telling the System to bring him to the Nightmarescape. However, when he felt no threat to his life, he relaxed his nerves and let whatever was happening happen. He did so while calmly sweeping his eyes between the vampire daughter-father pair, who had already retreated quite a distance away. In particular, his icy eyes honed in on the beautiful, worrisome expression of the girl he once considered to be something like a sister.

If only for the briefest of moments, the way Cassius looked at Bella became rather… sad.

He was also angry.

But what was the point of being angry? Would taking his anger out on her change anything? It wouldn't rewrite the past. It wouldn't accomplish anything.@@novelbin@@

Plus, in a way, what Bella and her father had done to him was a gateway of sorts that made it possible for the Idle Evolution System to enter his life. Without everything happening as it did, it was tough to determine whether the System ever would've made him its Host. And without the System…

Without the System, he was nothing. The System was both the cause of his pain and his salvation.

Sighing, Cassius said to Bella, "It seems this is where we part ways… You know, I honestly thought we had something going for us… But I guess… I guess it was all just my imagination."

Bella's expression drastically changed as she reached out, but was held back by her apprehensive father. "We did have something, husband! We do have something! Just come with me, and I'll show you everything! We can be together forever!"

Cassius faintly smiled as a reminiscent look formed on his face. "Do you remember what you told me that day at the arcade? You said, 'Just look around you. Look at all that you have.'

"Your words meant a lot to me that day," he murmured. "But it seems I didn't look hard enough… I saw your Affection Rating; I should've realized sooner that something was off, and I did. Yet I didn't further pursue the matter."

"Perhaps I just didn't want to lose what I already had. Perhaps I wanted to continue living in an illusion. A greedy, hoarding dragon… I guess that phrase fits me well."

All the color quickly drained from Bella's once-spirited face as she did everything in her power to break free from her father's grip. Something inside her was telling her that this wasn't how things were supposed to be. This wasn't what was supposed to happen!

Above all else, she feared.

She feared what would happen if she let him leave today!

She knew… she just knew that nothing would ever again be the same.

That was when a certain thought entered her mind:

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'Was I… was I wrong…?'

The moment that thought appeared, Bella's entire world started to crumble and collapse. What she was feeling… it was scary. So very scary.

In her fright, tears streamed down her face as she hit the ground with a thud. Her father's large hand was tightly holding her down, afraid that she would do something foolish. Yet his expression—it was no better than hers. He averted his gaze from both his daughter and the warmly smiling young man whom he was originally supposed to capture.

Through tears, Bella reached out her trembling hand toward the person whom she considered to be her whole world. "I… I love you… I love you so much…! You are my everything!!"

"I know," Cassius said fondly. "I'm sorry that it took so long for me to realize."

He briefly paused.

"I'm also sorry… that I'll not be able to reciprocate your love."

That was the final blow.

The final strike against a heart that had been twisted for as long as Bella could remember.

*Bzzztttt—!!!*

As the black congregation became more volatile and took away more and more stretched-out parts of Cassius's body, a group of dark clouds appeared above the Antarctic. Large droplets of rain beat down on the world below. A girl—with a face as if her whole reality had collapsed—knelt in the mushy, snowy ground. Her eyes dimmed until they turned lifeless.

Tears ceaselessly rolled down her cheeks. Lightning struck, lighting her sorrowful face in a mixture of glowing blues and whites.

Alaric's expression became complicated. He had not expected something like this to occur, and yet it had…

Cassius looked one final time at the heartbroken girl. His final words—which echoed out as the last of his being passed through the black congregation—further shredded Bella's already dilapidated heart:

"This is goodbye, Bella. I hope we never meet again. And I hope you forget about me. Do yourself that favor… please."

FWIP!

With that, Cassius vanished. His entire being had been transported into the black congregation. The congregation closed up at the same moment his face was erased from the bleak-faced girl's line of sight.

"…Husband… my love…" Bella, suddenly overwhelmed with a waterfall of emotions, deliriously screamed, "NOOOOooooo—!!! Cass! Come back!! I-I… I don't want you to go… Why… why won't you let me love you…? I… I don't understand…"

She went through several complex emotions in a fraction of a second. Her puffy eyes ultimately ran out of tears, and her face froze.

Bella was lost…

She didn't…

She didn't know who she was without Cassius.

Who…?

He was her everything.

Without him, she was… she was nothing.

—Multiple minutes passed by like a slow, agonizing crawl—

Even after the two table-flipped ice walls clashed into one another, and even after Hunters walked to and fro around the seemingly invisible vampire pair, they hadn't moved from their spots. They now sat under a large semi-translucent crimson bubble that stopped anything from touching or seeing them. Following the aftereffects of the two ice walls' collision, they were quickly submerged under countless tons of ice and snow, but neither seemed to care.

They just existed in that spot, each going through a whirlwind of emotions…

Until, eventually…