"It hurts..."
Lorne gradually came out of his daze, propping up his upper body with his elbows against the ground. Rough grit scraped his palms, and dust fell from his knees as he moved.
When his vision cleared, he froze.
The terrifying, apocalyptic scene had vanished, along with the suffocating pressure in the air.
"The disaster's over?"
"And I'm actually okay..."
Lorne knew he should count himself lucky to have escaped the crisis unscathed.
Yet he couldn't shake the feeling that it had ended with a whimper.
Ugh, my head still hurts like hell... Lorne shook his groggy head and frowned.
He rubbed his throbbing temples. The keen spirituality granted by the Monster pathway had become a burden. Although the disaster had passed, the lingering spirituality around him still struck his nerves like countless tiny hammers.
The only consolation was that the needle-sharp warning of danger had truly disappeared.
"Did the authorities get here in time?"
No... Lorne shook his head, dismissing the idea.
If it were the authorities, there couldn't be complete silence all around. They would have cordoned off the scene immediately.
What exactly happened just now? It seemed to be... a card... right, the card!
Lorne remembered being struck by the shock wave, then having a flash from the card fill his vision before he passed out.
He abruptly opened his right hand. A playing card lay quietly in his palm, somehow undamaged despite his Robot-enhanced grip.
"Meow~"
Before Lorne could think any further, a cat's meow drew all his attention.
"Lucky?"
Lorne looked up into the distance and saw his cat using her mouth and paws to drag something as she crawled into a suitcase.
A few seconds later, she emerged, stood on top of the suitcase, and kept pawing at it.
*Wait, that looks like