Silver-black light trembled in the sky, as though railing against the boundless greed of the gray shadow before it. At the sight, Nimrod merely chuckled and looked around at the surroundings, which were rapidly beginning to change:
The constellations in the sky swiftly shifted positions, while all of Cordu Village shook violently. Everything around them converged on the church where they stood.
The affected villagers disintegrated without a sound. Most flew toward the altar behind Nimrod, while a small portion reassembled into different humanoid monsters.
Under the influence of Beyonder powers and the collision of objects, the earth buckled upward, and flames gradually sprang up on the combustible wooden buildings. Flesh merged together, and the church crumbled into fragments in the process.
Only then did Aurore's gaze clear, as though she had awakened from a dream. She looked at Nimrod beside the altar, then at Lumian kneeling on the ground, her eyes filled with indescribable remorse.
"So that was..." she murmured. "My little brother..."
Aurore's body also flew toward the altar, gradually breaking into chunks of flesh in midair. They combined with the organs of numerous villagers to form the three-headed, six-armed giant Lumian had previously seen in his dream.
The only difference was the faint gray fog permeating the giant's body.
"You've finally woken up," Nimrod said calmly to the despairing Lumian before him. "My godson."
Lumian opened his mouth and spoke to Nimrod in a hoarse voice:
"Was everything I did before meaningless? You knew about my condition all along, and you kept hinting that the loop in Cordu Village wasn't real?"
"But if that's true, Aurore... does that mean Aurore can't be saved?"
The more Lumian spoke, the more agitated he became. His flesh even began to writhe slightly, showing signs of losing control.
"When the last