The eclipse happened in a mere instant.
Some of the mortals watching from the more distant city walls thought their eyes had played tricks on them.
Yet the icy sense of death that had crawled up their spines remained fresh in their memories. It had not seemed false.
What had just happened? Surely it could not have been a mass hallucination.
Not only had the humans, with their ordinary mortal eyes, failed to understand it, but even the Demigods and the Ancient Dragon had not understood.
The Mountaintops of the Giants were hardly warm, and it was the depths of winter. Feeling cold was normal.
But that chill, which had made even the Demigods and the Ancient Dragon feel their joints go numb, was anything but normal.
Half of the enormous stone sphere suspended in midair had broken away.
Godwyn's long hair hung loose, his bangs covering half his face. Gripping the edge of the opening, he lowered his head and looked at Radahn with golden eyes.
"Still not leaving?" Godwyn took a deep breath. As his chest and abdomen rose and fell, he uttered, "Do you really want to die?"
As the word "die" left his lips, Radahn's mind reeled. He recalled the moment his vision had gone black, and the hand that had reached out of the darkness to seize his throat.
The concept of death had always been vague among the Demigods.
It was far too distant from them.
But now, the Lands Between had undergone the Great Tarnishing Incident, and everyone had lost their grace.
Death surrounded people once more. Life had become extraordinarily fragile; someone might even die from a couple of coughs.
It was far too terrifying.
The Demigods increasingly felt death drawing near, as though it were right beside them.
And what they