Really, It Ends Here

"Drip... drip... drip..."

The enormous fireball slowly faded away, turning into clouds of smoke that gradually dispersed. Chunks of scorched earth and rubble poured down like rain, crashing onto the gourd-shaped clearing blasted out by the explosion. As the smoke finally settled, everything returned to silence.

Crack!

At that moment, south of the original circular clearing—toward the depths of the forest from its edge—at the center of the half-deep circular crater blasted into the ground, a thick, charred hand slowly drooped down. Then another hand, crossed over the first, slowly fell as well, striking an irregular oval-shaped blackened stone in front of it. At once, it smashed a crack into a protrusion on the stone's right side.

Smack!

Then the other hand dropped, striking the other side of the blackened stone and knocking off a layer of black ash, though it did not create another crack.

"Cough... cough..."

After both hands hung down, swaying against the stone, a faint coughing sound came from above them.

I... I didn't expect him to still have one last... last trump card...

Maki, blackened all over and still giving off wisps of scorched smoke, barely opened one eye. Looking at the charred stone before him—thick at the bottom and pointed at the top, broad on the left and narrow on the right, bulging in front and thick behind—a miserable smile tugged at his blackened lips.

As he smiled, a layer of charred dead skin immediately fell from the corner of his mouth, landing on the ground before the knee he had half-knelt on and shattering into grains of black ash.

Ninety percent of his body had suffered explosive burns. His left hand was already unusable. Though his right hand could still feel pain, it was difficult to exert any strength. Both legs had gone