"...Gather your focus..."
"Mind... become one..."
The Yellow Flower Cat's voice seemed to come from an extremely distant place. Zheng Qing could not hear it clearly. Nor did he want to. His head hurt a little, as though a bomb had been stuffed inside it and exploded. Even his thoughts had been blown into fragments.
He shook his head and slowly climbed to his feet.
The memories in his mind were fragmented. He vaguely remembered an Outer God whose True Name was Sartogua descending upon the Small World, and that he had fought It. As for why that Outer God had descended, it was because Senior Colmar had wanted to use a Magic Ritual to open the path of wizards for the tricksters.
I should have properly talked Senior Colmar out of it and made her give up that delusion sooner. The young wizard rubbed his temples, trying to ease the waves of pain throbbing across his forehead, while complaining inwardly. And Ilena too. She's usually so clever—how could she have joined Colmar in making such a mess over something like this...?
At the thought of Ilena, the hand pinching his temple suddenly froze.
A terrifying image surfaced in his mind—Colmar's form was turning translucent as the power of the void dragged her toward the abyss; the Gypsy witch had transformed into a small Tree, and from top to bottom, only her head remained recognizable.
The young wizard scrambled to his feet in panic and looked around.
Everything around him was blank. There was nothing.
There was no small Tree or Beautiful Snake Woman coiled around it, no senior sister about to fall into the abyss, no Great Toad Outer God, no silver-haired Old Woman, no Yellow Flower Cat, and no sun or moon of the Small World.
A blank