The portal spat them out onto cold stone. Kyle hit the ground hard, rolling until his shoulder slammed into a jagged wall. He lay there for a second, catching his breath, every muscle in his body screaming.
Snow drifted lazily through the ruined archway ahead of them. The air here was sharp, biting at the lungs, but it wasn't poisoned with shadow.
They were out.
Gia pushed herself up first, hair wild, face flushed. "Is everyone—"
"Still breathing," Felix grunted, brushing frost from his jacket. He limped toward a half-broken column and leaned against it, wincing. "Barely."
Kyle's eyes stayed fixed on the portal behind them. Its blue shimmer was collapsing, shrinking to a pinprick. And then it was gone.
No more tendrils. No more voice.
Silence.
The Quiet That Feels Wrong
They didn't speak for a while. Only the wind filled the space between them, whistling through the arches like a distant song.
Finally, Gia broke it. "He's really gone." Her tone wasn't triumphant—more like disbelief wrapped in exhaustion.
Kyle exhaled slowly. "Yeah." He ran a hand through his sweat-matted hair. "And so is the god. Whatever that thing was… it's not coming back."
Felix laughed once, a short, rough sound. "Guess that makes us the idiots who survived."
A Crack in the Sky
Kyle's relief was short-lived. As he glanced toward the horizon, his stomach sank. Far above the snowy mountains, a deep scar was etched into the sky—a jagged tear of crimson light. It pulsed faintly, like a dying heartbeat.
Gia followed his gaze. "That wasn't there before."
"It's from the collapse," Kyle said, voice low. "The throne was part of the seal. Breaking it stopped the god… but it also tore something loose."
Felix squinted. "Loose? As in—"
"—as in the world's not stable anymore," Kyle finished.
The Unspoken Decision
None of them said what they were all thinking: they'd won the fight, but the war to keep the world from falling apart might have just started.
Gia stepped closer to Kyle, her hand brushing his. "We'll figure it out. Together."
Her voice was steady, but her eyes were searching his face—looking for some crack in his resolve.
Kyle gave her the smallest smirk. "Guess we're not retiring after all."
Felix groaned from his corner. "You two can have your dramatic moment later. Right now, I'm thinking about finding somewhere warm before my toes actually fall off."
Kyle chuckled under his breath. "Fair. Let's move."
They started walking toward the mountains, the tear in the sky casting long, red shadows behind them. The villain was gone, the god was dead—
But the ending wasn't peace.
It was something else entirely.
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