She lay limp, her eyes vacant.
Yes.
She had long since ceased to be the goddess of those rules. Perhaps from the moment she developed a self amid the changes of this era, she had already set herself on a new path.
Just like that world that had already shattered.
Unlike many other gods, she had never considered it a prison.
She had truly regarded that ordinary world as her home.
And that sense of responsibility and affection, whose beginnings even she could not pinpoint, had led her to regard everyone in that world as her friends, her children. She watched them grow, little by little, watched each of them build a life of their own...
She had felt fulfilled and happy.
But the arrival of that black nightmare had changed everything completely.
She still remembered with terrible clarity how the rules of fate had been corroded little by little, how she herself had been corrupted, and how she had then frantically written a series of nightmarish, horrifying fates for the entire world.
In an instant.
Her body began trembling violently again.
Those memories seemed like nightmares clawing their way out of the river of time, shrieking as they threatened to tear her apart.
"No... no, no, no, no..."
She trembled with mounting terror.
But Lynn kept his earnest gaze fixed on her, holding her mutated, twisted body tightly as he tried to restrain her violent trembling.
"Don't think about it. It's all right. I'm here. It's all right. Don't think about anything..."
He spoke softly, doing his best to soothe her turbulent emotions.
In that dark space.
The violent trembling and turmoil finally subsided, little by little.
As though she could feel the strong, steady heartbeat pressed against her, she lay vacant-eyed in Lynn's arms, seemingly drained of all