Huff!
Shade, lying on the snow, suddenly opened his eyes. After sitting up, he sharply threw back his head and looked up.
By then, the young ladies' shared singing had already vanished. He was sitting directly below the cliff of the Fate Ruins atop the peak, having fallen hundreds of meters before landing.
Above him were the cliff, the astonishingly bright Star Sea, and the moonlight veiled by the three March moons. Everything just now seemed like an illusion. Where was the hand that had held Shade above?
"No, someone really did hold my hand just now."
Because he could distinctly feel a trace of tenderness lingering in his hand, and could distinctly feel that silver figure still imprinted in his eyes.
"Was it you?"
The laughter of the night sounded in the wind.
"Was it you?"
The stars scattered gentle radiance.
"Was it you?"
Moon embraced him at that moment without answering, but he already understood. Perhaps what he longed for was waiting for him at the end of the Demigod Road, at the end of the Long Stair of Ascension.
Thick steam fog emerged from behind him. As Shade looked at his right hand in bewilderment and eagerness, a Destiny Ring even larger than In the Past rapidly spun into view from the depths of the steam fog.
[Outlander, you were struck down from Saint's Precipice by the Old God—Mr. Misfortune. You have felt "Blasphemy."] [In falling, you learned of the past; in falling, you saw the direction of the future. Destiny served as your impetus, and you took another step forward on the Demigod Road. The Newborn Ritual has obtained three of its six elements. Fall, fall, fall. The beginning is a fall, and the ending is also a fall.]
``` [Outlander, you