"Cat God! Cat God! Open your eyes, Cat God!"
His consciousness seemed to have been swallowed by eternal darkness, yet it also felt as though he had merely taken a long, comfortable afternoon nap.
When Shade realized someone seemed to be calling out to him with a strange title, all of his senses returned at that very moment.
He felt as though he was lying down, but every part of his body was beyond the control of his thoughts. That childish yet anxious voice came from beside his face, and something seemed to be licking him.
"Is that Little Mia?"
But he immediately rejected the thought. That weak, gluttonous cat could not speak, and she rarely licked his face.
"What happened just now?"
Only then did the memories come flooding back: burning Moon Bay, day and night being switched, Miss Isabella's gentle yet cold power, and the desperate strike of the evil god entrenched within the Sacrificial Ground.
In the darkness, he was somewhat dazed.
"I'm not dead?"
Her voice remained gentle:
Three drops of divinity still remain in your soul. Before they disappear, you should not die so easily.
Yet there seemed to be a trace of helplessness amid that gentleness:
Next time, do not do this again.
"I didn't mean to do this. It's just... Luvia will probably be very angry, won't she?"
His eyes still could not be forced open, but his perception suddenly detected the surrounding environment. Strangely, although he was lying flat on his back and would only be able to see above him even if he opened his eyes, Shade felt that he could now see everything around him from every angle, without a single blind spot.
Beneath him lay calm, pitch-black water. He was floating on its surface, legs together and stretched straight,