Chapter 189. Peace
The scene had pieced itself back together.
The shattered terrain was now whole again. And then—
WHOOOSH.
A jagged rupture split the air—space itself cracking like glass under pressure. Out from the rift stumbled Art.
His divine, radiant image from before? Gone.
Now he looked like a beggar at best. Clothes in tatters, face caked with ash, eyes dazed and hollow. There was no lingering divinity to be found—only weariness clinging to every inch of him.
I tilted my head, expression impassive, voice devoid of inflection. "What happened to you? A moment ago, you were pretending to be a god. Now you look like something I’d scrape off my boot."
Art let out a dry, humorless chuckle—self-deprecating and weary. "Yeah, yeah. God, huh? What a fucking joke."
He slumped to the ground, exhaling as if he hadn’t breathed in years.
"That thing... whatever it was. That wasn’t just a monster. It wasn’t a being. It was something else entirely. I don’t even think it noticed me. And if it did, I was just... a toy. My powers were like a child’s toy compared to it. It played with me, broke me, laughed at me. The sheer difference in strength—it’s going to haunt me for the rest of my life."
I rolled my eyes. "Don’t be such a wuss. You’re alive. That’s what matters. Let’s just get the hell out of here. The monster horde should be gone. That... thing is gone. We’re safe."
Art glanced around, as if confirming that reality hadn’t shifted again. Then he sighed, a long, heavy sound from deep in his chest. "Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. We’re alive. That’s enough. But still... why did it disappear?"