The dissolving Red Threads receded, and the people of the Inner and Outer Cities seemed to hear something as they raised their heads toward the curtain of rain falling from the sky.
The lingering souls of the dead were drawn out of their bodies.
A child who had been separated from her mother for over a decade heard her voice once more.
The lingering Red Thread tugged at her fingers, just as she had swung her mother's hand when she was little.
"Mommy's leaving. You have to live well. There won't be Eternal Life anymore, so cherish everything you have now."
Lovers long parted heard that familiar, everyday greeting again.
"Stay safe."
Parents separated from their children also heard those long-missed voices.
"Mom, Dad, I'm going now. I finally have a chance to say goodbye to you. Goodbye."
A downpour finally gave substance to the longing that had accumulated for so long, and gave souls with nowhere to return a place to settle.
At that moment, everyone shed tears without realizing it.
They all heard the voices rising from deep within their hearts, ethereal yet heavy as iron.
The farewell was so clear, as though they had personally seen off a friend they had never met.
But for some who had already gone mad, their first thought was to end it all. Blood splashed, and bodies fell, never to rise again.
Within this curtain of deathly rain, sobs surged like floodwaters breaching a dam, unstoppable.
[Eternal Life] staggered up from beneath the ground with only one thought: those four would pay.
His unwillingness to accept this stabbed at his reason like a sharp awl.
The feeling of being dragged down from his divine pedestal was unmistakable. The taste of rejection was like poison searing through his gut, burning his insides.