Damon Silverstar stood at the edge of the Okutama shrine’s main plateau, looking down at the winding mountain road. For the first time in weeks, there was no sound of falling iron or exploding mana. There was only the sound of a broom sweeping.SCRITCH! SCRITCH!One of the survivors, an older man who had lost his home in Shinjuku, was meticulously cleaning the stone path leading to the main hall. He didn't look up as Damon passed. He didn't dare. To these people, Damon was a monster descended from the heavens.Damon stepped off the shrine grounds and began to descend the mountain. He didn't fly or used the scythe to warp space. He walked. He needed to see what was left of the world he had supposedly saved.Damon walked into a neighborhood in Ome. The houses were mostly intact, but the vibe was wrong. There were no children playing. The windows were boarded up with plywood and mana-reinforced tape.Suddenly, a group of men stepped out from behind a rusted bus. They weren't divine soldi

The air atop the Okutama Mountains was thin, biting, and smelled of the coming winter. The Blood-Rust that had plagued the city hadn't reached this height, but the atmosphere was far from fresh. It was heavy with the weight of invisible eyes. Every bird that chirped and every leaf that rustled felt like a spy for a different constellation.Damon Silverstar sat on the edge of a jagged cliff, his legs dangling over a drop that would kill any mortal. He was focused on a small wooden bowl in his hands. He was trying to carve a spoon out of a piece of cedar, using only a small, rusted knife. Just the slow, repetitive motion of wood against steel. It was a meditative practice Jubei had often forced him to do. “If you can’t control a piece of cedar, you’ll never control the thread of a God,” the old man used to say.Damon’s hands, which had once cleaved a Seraph in two, were surprisingly steady. But his mind was a storm. Every few minutes, the synchronization would flicker in the corner of h

Damon closed his eyes. He had to do something. If he did nothing, she would be gone by sunset.  "I’m going to fix this, Isolde," Damon whispered. "I promise." He stood up and walked out of the room, his face a mask of cold stone. Tanaka was waiting in the hallway, looking concerned. "Tanaka, get the survivors together," Damon commanded. "Tell them to start the purification rituals the Master taught. I need the mountain to be a dead zone for mana. I’m going to the Atlantic rifts." "The Atlantic?" Tanaka blinked. "But that’s thousands of mile

Damon leaned his forehead against the edge of the bed. The sapphire marble was gone, its energy now acting as a permanent stabilizer inside his sister’s soul. She was safe. She was the only person on Earth who was now immune to the Sovereign Sickness. [Divine Mana: 2 / 150][Synchronization: 49.98%] He was at the edge of the abyss. He could feel Goddess of Fate's laughter vibrating in his very teeth. She was so close. She was almost home. "I'm fine, Isolde," Damon said, his voice a broken rasp. "Just rest. The rain is over." He stood up, his legs shaking. He walked out of the infirmary, closing the door softly behind him. Tanaka was still there. He saw the blood on

The sunrise was a lie. Instead of the warm, golden glow of a new day, the sky over the Okutama Mountains was a harsh yellow. It looked like the inside of a furnace. The golden ships of the God of Light were no longer hiding behind rifts, they were descending in a slow, rhythmic formation, like a closing cage.Damon Silverstar sat on the porch of the main shrine, the wooden spoon in his left hand. His right arm was still a blackened, useless weight, but the sapphire core’s resonance with Isolde had stabilized his heart. He felt a strange, cold clarity.[Divine Mana: 5 / 150][Synchronization: 49.985%]He had gained three points of mana from the mountain’s natural energy over the night, but it was like trying to fill a bucket with a single drop of rain. Every time he breathed, he could feel the Goddess of Fate’s presence. She was a physical sensation, a layer of silk wrapped tightly around his bones."Damon-sama." Tanaka approached, his face pale. Behind him, the survivors were huddled