Rain Passed, Skies Cleared

For more than ten years,

the Tribe had lived under the shadow of the Sea Monsters' attacks.

On this day, at last, the people had driven away with their own hands the gloom that had lingered in everyone's hearts for so long.

But after a brief celebration,

the tribespeople who had survived the battle looked around at the scene and fell into a daze.

The war was over.

But...

the Tribe had paid a heavy price for this hard-won victory.

Under the monsters' trampling feet,

mutilated corpses and collapsed ruins lay scattered across the island.

The new home they had worked so hard to build had been destroyed for the most part.

Even those tribespeople who had survived by sheer luck

had lost family and friends in the war.

At that moment,

the people, immersed in grief, did not notice

that faint points of light had suddenly appeared

on the bodies of some fallen tribespeople.

The weak lights floated upward as lightly as dandelion seeds.

A gentle breeze carried them

over the mountains and plains,

all the way up to the place that towered into the clouds.

At last,

they gathered in the radiant place where the god resided—

the Temple of Eternity atop the mountain.

As they disappeared one after another into the temple's dome,

soft radiance flashed through the temple before gradually fading.

"Sleep well."

The god said.

He gently waved his hand.

And so,

the souls stopped drifting apart. Still wrapped in divine power and kept safe, they became fragile orbs of light. They did not drift into the Divine Artifact that stored colors,

but instead floated into the darkness.

There, they gave off a gentle white light.

The god would give these souls the resting place they deserved.

That was all

He could do.

Long before the war had begun,

the god had already seen everything.

But

if

a civilization truly wanted to explore and conquer the sea,

then learning to drive away the Sea Monsters invading its home with courage and wisdom, instead of relying entirely on a god, was a necessary first step.

If it could not take that first step,

then it could not hope to survive for long in the merciless sea.

Fortunately,

the people had truly managed to take that step.

It was all over.

After reclaiming the Dropper's divine power,

Mona returned the departed souls to the darkness, whole and intact, within the Temple of Eternity.

Only then

did he turn his gaze to the Hermit Crabs that had invaded the island.

After glancing indifferently at the monsters' souls,

information about them continued to appear.

None of these Hermit Crabs were older than the one he had dissolved before.

Of the ten Hermit Crabs,

the oldest had lived for seventy years.

The others

had lived for only forty or fifty years.

Moreover, the color of these Hermit Crabs' [Spirituality] and [Life Essence] was noticeably weaker than that of the previous Hermit Crab.

Therefore,

in terms of both life and soul, they were nowhere near as powerful as the earlier Hermit Crab, which had lived for more than a century.

That enormous Hermit Crab that had attacked the ship alone

might have been the lord of these creatures.

After it died,

the weaker Hermit Crabs had come to these waters and claimed their dead lord's territory.

Mona withdrew his hand,

lost in thought.

After examining these monsters' souls twice, he had gained a certain understanding of the outside world.

Most of the Hermit Crabs living in these nearby waters should have been wiped out in this war.

The colors of these Hermit Crabs' life structures showed that they had very low reproductive rates.

Therefore,

for quite some time,

the Hermit Crab population in these waters would probably vanish without a trace.

After dissolving and extracting some of the monsters' colors,

Mona kept only the [Hermit Crab Life Essence].

After controlling so many insects to help the people drive back the Sea Monsters,

the Abigail Flower had grown a little weak.

It was already at a critical point, on the verge of entering its next stage.

Diverting its power to control the Rot Spirits at such a time

had naturally strained it and consumed some of its life force.

For now,

once it absorbed the Life Essence from all ten Hermit Crabs,

the Abigail Flower would surely recover and truly enter its next stage.

Mona studied the scene on the Drawing Board.

After pondering for a moment,

he took out his Paintbrush again.

"Let it rain."

"Once the rain passes, everything will be different."

He knew

that after a downpour,

the gloomy skies would clear.

The people needed rain, too,

to wash away their pain

and welcome a new beginning.

Mona opened the [Palette] and dipped his Paintbrush into the color of [Holy Rain].

[Holy Rain]: A miraculous rain that nourishes all things. It greatly promotes the growth and recovery of living beings, slows the loss of moisture, and can also be used to purify the environment.

After dipping his Paintbrush in the dark teal Holy Rain, Mona lightly splashed the color across the island's sky on the Drawing Board.

Drops of blue rain began to fall, one after another.

[You have bestowed Holy Rain upon the island.]

[With the nourishment of Holy Water, plants, whether withered or still growing, will flourish with new life.]

[The medicinal herbs on the mountain that heal wounds will grow rapidly.]

[After being moistened by the rain, the Abigail Flower's pale blue radiance slowly regains its luster.]

[When the cool Holy Rain touches the faithful, it will soothe their burning pain.]

The dazed and helpless people, immersed in grief, suddenly saw a torrential downpour begin beneath the gloomy sky.

It was clearly no ordinary rain.

The deep teal water that fell upon their skin carried a soothing, refreshing chill. It was the Holy Rain bestowed by their god.

The tribespeople, covered in blood and on the brink of death, miraculously began to recover in the downpour. They were given hope of being saved.

"God!"

"It's God!"

"The Holy Water the legends say God once bestowed!"

"That's right. We still have God!"

Sobs,

excited shouts,

and... devout prayers

rose and fell throughout the rain.

As the downpour grew heavier, the many voices gradually blended together until they could no longer be made out.

When he had finished all this,

Mona gently waved his hand

and shifted his view.

The scene on the Drawing Board dimmed.

The world fell silent again.

He had done all he could for the living.

Mona looked at the orbs of light floating in the darkness.

Their already dim radiance seemed to have weakened a little more.

Some of his followers' souls

would not be dissolved and separated in the Dropper.

Instead, he would keep them as mementos.

But

to preserve these fragile souls whole and intact forever, he would need to use a new power.

"It's time to create a new Divine Artifact."

Mona gazed at a spot on the Drawing Board and murmured.