Awakening The Only SSS-Rank Class! Now Even Dragons Obey Me

Daniel slowly opened his eyes and found himself in the middle of a desert. His hands and feet were tied to a wooden pole—one that was normally used to set up tents.

He looked around. No one else was there, just one person standing in front of him.

"I expected you'd just kill me," he said tiredly.

"Kill you? In time. But first, I want to know who you really are. Why have you been trying so hard to save the pilgrims these past few days?" Malrik said coldly.

"I'll answer that, but how about you go first? Who are you really?" Daniel asked, curious.

He genuinely wanted to know who this person—someone he had thought was a friend—really was, and what he had been hiding this whole time.

"And why would I tell you?"

"No special reason. Maybe just because I'm curious? But I can see your ideals are… intense. Don't you think maybe you'd feel better if you told someone everything—especially someone who's going to die soon?" Daniel reasoned.

Malrik didn't respond right away and paused for a moment. Daniel's words did make sense, and deep down, Malrik did want to explain his ideals to someone—just once.

"The poison I gave you seals all energy in your body. You can't use any mana, meaning killing you would be effortless."

"So I guess there's no harm in telling you everything."

Daniel said nothing and simply waited for the idiot to continue.

"I was actually a student of Zirham. His only student," Malrik said with a slightly nostalgic look.

"Student? I didn't think the Prophet had any disciples," Daniel raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"No one knows. Remember when I told you he traveled all around the world? He found me in a village that had been destroyed by demons—or at least, that's what he thought."

"I was just a baby back then. He took me with him and raised me. Taught me all his dumb philosophies, all his powers, his path," Malrik explained, then his face darkened a little.

"I was supposed to be his heir. I helped him found the church. We were supposed to spread the Eternity Faith together."

He went silent for a few seconds. Daniel could see the killing intent in Malrik's face—how much he was trying to hold himself together.

"I wanted us to become the greatest—ours to be the truest faith. In my eyes, all the other religions were just a bunch of lies. But… his views were different."

"He wanted everything to move slowly, to let things happen naturally. That's when I gave up," Malrik sighed.

"I decided to go along with his plan anyway… Years passed, and as our religion spread, more and more people started to follow."

"That's why we had to open more churches, and the main church had to hire and accept more people… One of those people was a homeless girl. A girl who was given a second chance by the Eternity Faith."

Malrik paused again. As he thought about that girl, tears streamed from his eyes.

"You fell in love with her?" Daniel asked calmly.

"Yes. She was just a normal girl—nothing so beautiful the heavens would envy her, and not so smart that anyone would see her as a threat. But I fell in love with her."

"When you truly love someone, that love sinks into your bones. You stop caring what they are, how they look, what they do," Malrik explained.

"She fell in love with me too. We confessed and even got married. My master didn't mind—or at least, that's what I thought."

"So what happened? If your master didn't object?" Daniel asked, genuinely curious. It was starting to feel like a drama.

"After we got married, I realized she was aging year after year. But me? I still looked the same. I begged my master to give her the gift of longevity too."

"He said that longevity comes from the god, not from him. Normal followers could only live a few decades longer than average," Malrik said bitterly.

"I asked him to at least take away my own eternity. He said that wasn't possible. I was supposed to take over the faith after him. No matter what I said, he refused—and he forced me to watch the woman I loved die."

He went silent again. The air grew heavy.

Daniel didn't know what to say. He hadn't expected a truth like this.

"People fear death because they think it's the end of everything... But eternity? Eternity is not the end of anything—it's just dragging out a meaningless breath."

"Think about it. A thousand years pass and you're still the same. Same memories. Same emotions. Same unanswered questions. Being eternal means rotting without dying. And anyone who really understands that knows immortality is a beautiful curse, not a blessing," Malrik said mockingly.

"So that's why you hate the Eternity Faith and your master?" Daniel asked, sighing.

"That's why I hate the faith. But I hate my master for a different reason—because he killed the woman I loved," Malrik said with raw killing intent.

"…What?" Daniel frowned.

"It turned out the woman I loved was actually a demon. My master knew this from the beginning, but because she was important to me, he let it slide."

"So then…?"

"Later, it was revealed that she was part of the same demon tribe that slaughtered my master's family. She was the last survivor of that tribe. When he found out, he went after her and tore her to pieces."

"I saw the whole thing… The woman I loved—murdered by the man who was like a father to me. Her screams for help, and I couldn't do anything…"

Two streams of tears ran down Malrik's face.

Daniel fell silent. He truly hadn't expected this. But… it all seemed a little too coincidental.

So coincidental it felt like someone had orchestrated it from the shadows. But could that even be possible?

The Prophet was a demigod. Who could possibly deceive him?

Still, Daniel now understood where Malrik's hatred came from—and honestly, he couldn't even blame him for it.

Malrik drew his sword and placed it at Daniel's neck.

"You got what you wanted. Now it's time to die."