Outside the Sigma District, the banks of the surging river had fallen utterly silent.
The air was grayish yellow, thick with a complicated mix of odors.
As far as the eye could see, the ground was no longer level. It looked as though a pair of giant hands had kneaded it over and over.
The ceaselessly rushing river was now even more violent and turbid. All that remained of the dense woods were a few charred stumps standing alone amid the ashes.
Several fissures, dozens of meters wide, stretched across the riverbank like scars.
Enormous impact craters dotted the landscape, every one of them seemingly bottomless.
In one of those craters, Zhong Dingming, reduced to nothing but a head and a heart, was immersed in a strange solution-type tool, clinging to life in a bizarre fashion.
Beside him, Old Johnny, who had lost an arm, clutched his shoulder and stared at Zhong Dingming with an odd expression. "I never imagined you had so many lifesaving tools, or that they came in so many varieties."
"Brute strength trumps every trick." Zhong Dingming's voice came through a speaker outside the container, distorted and electronic. "For all my tricks, Royt still nearly crushed me to death. Good thing I dragged you into this, or he'd really have been kicking my head around like a ball today."
"Don't flatter me. Without those nasty tools of yours, I couldn't have beaten him either."
Old Johnny looked up at the sky and river, which had suddenly cleared. "Funny, though. Just a moment ago, thousands upon thousands of gods were crossing the river like lunatics, charging toward the Safe Zone. How did they all vanish in the blink of an eye?"
"No idea." Zhong Dingming also surveyed their surroundings. "Just as we don't understand why they went