“Shut up,” the leader shouted.“Let me speak to your son.” To which Callum's mother flinched, her mouth closed mid-sentence.
The leader straightened his suit and cleared his throat, turned back to Callum.“Mr. Callum, let’s get straight to the point. If you want your family alive.. you will listen to me.”
For a moment no one reacted.
Then—
“What?!”
“Did he just say that?”
“Is he threatening him?”
Whispers spread through the crowd like wildfire.Their eyes widened, then went completely vacant.
“ You're threatening the man who saved us? Are you out of your mind?” someone shouted from the back.
The leader chuckled. “Heh.”
With a casual gesture of his, soldiers flooded in from every direction. Metal clicked. Guns were raised.
Every barrel pointed at one place.
Callum’s family.
And finally—Callum turned his gaze away from the system screen and looked at the new situation unfolding in front of him.
For the first time since returning, his numb expression changed. It was not anger or fear but Surprise.
The man standing in front of him was threatening to kill his family…for what? to control him?
The leader also noticed the change in Callum's expression. A smile of victory spread across his face. (I’ve got him. The strongest being on Earth… under my control, kekeke.)
But before he could speak his demands to Callum.
Wosssh.
The air around him stopped, not only him but everyone else felt the same. The sound vanished. The wind died. Even the screens where the leader's face was shown froze.
Time itself has paused and it was not metaphorically or gradually.
It simply stopped.
It felt like a silent command had been issued and no one was allowed to move but one person.
Callum.
He stepped forward, his footsteps echoed unnaturally loud in the frozen world as he walked through the crowd of human statues. Past soldiers with fingers frozen on triggers. Past the leader, whose smile was still stretched across his face.
Moving toward where his family was. With a thought, he released his mother from the time lock.
Immediately, her hands trembled. Her breath came in shallow gasps as she watched her son's approach. Who was now Taller than she remembered. His white hair floated in the air as if gravity had loosened its grip. His eyes were dark—not just the color, but the quality of them. Like they were empty, staring into nothingness.
"Callum..." she whispered.
Tears streamed down her face as she continuously wiped them. Then Callum stopped right in front of her.
For a moment, he just looked at her. No one spoke.
Then—
“Mother,” he said quietly, “at first….. I missed you. But as time passed, my emotions died one by one, like…. someone…was killing them.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
I….I.. until i couldn't feel anything anymore.”
Hearing this her heart sank.
“ Look…look at my.. my eyes, they have been… enslaved, look.. look at my hands.. they are not mine anymore, look at my legs..they..they don't listen to me.”
He paused for a second as if taking a huge pressure away from his heart and continued.
“In this miserable life, I learned one thing from a being who had given me this power……Freedom is everything even if you have to sacrifice your whole kin for it…. At first i didn't understood what that meant but now I can see it, i can be free,” insanity flashed across his face. “By killing this world of Mine.”
These last words struck like blades to everyone present.
“Revenge, yes..yes revenge, i..i want it”
“And…and freedom, yes freedom, freedom is everything.”
But, in an instant, Callum snapped back to an emotionless face. Every one became terrified after seeing the crazy look of callum and the way he talked. They could feel it that something was really wrong with Callum.
“ Mother,” Callum again called now with a calm tone. “ You are the only one blocking my path. They’ll use you against me. And because of me…… you’ll suffer even more.”
He looked straight into her eyes.
“Tell me, do you want to set me free… or…do you want to keep me trapped?”
Every word echoed what Callum said to his mother, and now the fate of the eight billion people rested on a single word from a mother!
…
Callum's mother's eyes were widened. Tears flowed freely now.
When her own son Callum talked about his misery, at that moment, she saw it all. The suffering. The loneliness. The unbearable weight her son had carried all alone for thousand years.
While she only waited for two.
Her hands trembled as she slowly raised them and placed them on his face. His skin was cold. Like touching cold marble in winters.
“Son…” her voice cracked. “I missed you so much…….i, i couldn’t help you. Huek, I couldn’t save you. I wasn't there for you when you needed me.”
Tears streamed down.
She turned her head slightly, looking at the frozen people around them.“These selfish people,” bitterness filling her tone.
“Even after you saved them all… they still tried to hurt you.”
Her hands trembled harder.
"I saw it. I really am in your way, aren't I?"
She pulled him into a hug. Her tears soaked into his armor—that had been forged by death itself, now looked alive with a mother's grief.
"Why should I make you suffer more?" she whispered against his chest. "Why should I trap you here when you've already been trapped for so long?
Then she pulled herself back and looked over her shoulder at her younger son, frozen a few meters away.
Once their eyes met.
The second, horror filled his frozen face as he understood his mother's final decision.
His lips formed the word—Mother—but no sound came out. The time lock held him in place, forced him to watch, unable to speak or move to stop what was about to happen.
She looked at him, pain etched deep into her face.“Sorry.”
Then she turned back to Callum.
Her voice steadied.
“Live,” she closed her eyes
“Even if the world must end for it.”
The moment the last words left her lips—the pressure exploded. Cracks spread through the air like shattered glass.
Invisible waves tore through the frozen world. Statues of people screamed, though no sound came out.
Callum looked at his mother and saw her giving a final smile to make it easy for Callum.
And instantly—Her body collapsed and he caught her before she hit the ground. Lowered her gently onto the pavement.
For a moment—just a brief moment—he knelt there beside her. The woman who'd given him life. Who'd searched for him when no one else cared. Who'd just chosen his freedom over her own existence……died.
He tried to feel something. Grief. Regret. Anything…Anything…ANYTHING.
But there was nothing.
Just an empty space where emotions used to be.
Callum then turned to look at his father
His father met his gaze.The old man's eyes were open. Aware that Callum had released him from the time lock as well.
There was no fear in his eyes. Only acceptance.
His father nodded once. And then he collapsed beside his wife.
(Both mother and father wore a strange smile even after death that no one can understand, why?)
Silence.
Callum stood between their bodies as he heard a robotic voice.
….
2 souls collected.
…
And the next moment,.he stood up and time resumed on its own.
Sound crashed back into the world. Screams. Shouts. Panic. The panicked thunder of thousands of people suddenly unfrozen.
The leader stumbled, his egoistic smile finally collapsing as he saw the two bodies at Callum's feet.
People finally understood one thing now.
This was not a savior. This was the judgment itself.
Fear exploded through the crowd like a bomb blast. Soldiers dropped their weapons and field. Leaders screamed orders which no one followed.
Mothers grabbed their children. People trampled one another, desperately trying to escape.
But how could they escape? How could they hide themselves from Callum?
Callum rose into the air. As the system screen materialized before his eyes.
…….
2/8,035,894,201.( Souls )
Ping….The Divine Transference Shard is in active state.
Ping….Another planar earth has been confirmed.
Ping…. Searching for compatible vessel…
………
Callum, retracted his eyes from the screen and shifted them at the fleeing crowd.
His two daggers appeared in his hands, as if they had always belonged there.
Then—
He vanished from his place.
His figure became a blur cutting through the sky, passing through the crowd faster than thought itself.
Aah…slash
spare me… slash
Wherever he passed, bodies fell, either headless or torn apart. Voices cut off mid-scream. Hope died before fear could even take a form.
No one was spared. NO ONE. Age meant nothing. Status meant nothing. Innocence…. meant nothing.
To Callum, they were all the same.
He moved through one city. Then the next. Then the next. There was no place left untouched—not cities, not villages, not even corners of the world forgotten by maps.
He knew where every human being was present as the system had marked every human location to him. And one by one he found them.
…..
Ping.
Souls Collected: 1… 87… 12,340… 1,002,889…
....
The number climbed up at fast pace.
From the ground, from the air, from every corner of the city, human life was erased in silence as Callum moved like a reaper freed from chains.
His face was completely expressionless just as he had told his mother. He killed, he killed, killed until the whole world fell silent.
……..
Ping.
Souls Collected: 8,035,894,200 / 8,035,894,201.
…….
Callum paused mid in the air.
“Mm, only that person is left now.” Callum muttered.
In an underground bunker.
The steel door slammed shut, locking with a heavy clang. And it was none other than the leader which Callum hadn't killed.
The leader then collapsed against it, sliding down until he hit the cold floor. His breathing was fast, his hands were shaking so badly he couldn’t even wipe the sweat from his face.
“This… this… what is happening, why does he want to kill us.” he whispered.
Creeeek
A sharp sound came behind the steel door.
Hearing this the leaders blood turned into ice. No..,no.., no..,
The steel door behind him groaned. And the next it was pulled by a hand in the opposite direction.
And Callum stepped into the bunker.
