"Oh, right. I remember now."
The colossus cleared his throat. The sound was like stone grinding against stone, echoing across the empty Cloud Cliff.
He addressed the crowd below, still stunned, in a voice fit for a momentous announcement:
"The age of gods is over, comrades..."
"Now, every one of you will become a hero!"
He raised his enormous stone arm again. As he spoke, radiant golden Blood welled from the surface of his divine body.
The golden liquid fell like warm rain upon the land below. It glittered in the rising sun, bathing the entire area in flowing gold.
At the sight, the most respected of the female elders was the first to recover from her shock.
She stepped forward with her arms spread wide, her voice trembling with excitement:
"Golden Blood! Falling like rain. The prophecy has come to pass. The Titans no longer want us to be supplicants...!"
The citizens around her seemed to catch fire at the sight. Their astonishment gave way to fervor.
They shouted as one, their voices swelling into a deafening wave:
"We shall be heroes of resistance—face Destruction, that fated Calamity!"
"Exactly, everyone!" The colossus kept showering them with golden drops like a giant sprinkler, his stone face straining into an encouraging expression.
"Forget the prophecies. This Golden Blood belongs in better hands!"
"And those hands are yours—all of yours!"
Elsewhere.
At the edge of the Amphoreus Scepter's Core Layer.
Cold streams of data flowed slowly around Herta and Screwllum like abandoned rivers of stars, flickering with intermittent light.
They stood amid vast ruins made of broken code, warped geometric structures, and frozen shadows.
Both stopped at once and looked around with curiosity.
Herta frowned, puzzled. Folding her arms, she surveyed their surroundings.
"That said, is it just me? Why is