Leaving behind the fields filled with the fragrance of soil, Hoffa followed Chloe all the way to a vast city, to an enormous research facility, to the icy expanse of outer space, and finally, to a massive spaceship—one that resembled a colossal floating fortress.
Chloe led him to the center of the ship, where a gigantic pool lay. Soaking in the pool was a supermassive brain, nearly a thousand meters in diameter. Thick, entangled blood vessels covered its surface, coursing with a purple nutrient fluid. Countless electrodes connected the brain to the surrounding electronic components, and beneath those components lay an intricate web of overlapping magic formations.
Hoffa ignored the massive brain, the pinnacle of technology, and the sinister magic.
He searched around the pool and, at last, at the very bottom, he saw a tiny face—so small it was nearly invisible.
The small face muttered ceaselessly, "I am change... change... I am... change..."
Staring at the writhing mass of the gigantic brain and the nearly imperceptible face beneath it, Hoffa's heart clenched violently. Through endless ages, how many times had he seen this same face? How many times had he heard this same name?
"Sylbie...? Sylbie...?" he called softly. "Let's go. I'll take you home… take you back to where you belong."
But that face no longer remembered its own name, nor what "home" even meant. Perhaps a name, that fleeting existence, and home, that fragile concept, had long been obliterated by the tides of uncertainty. There had been too many names, and the universe was too vast. Did such insignificant things even matter anymore?
"Change... I am... change... I am the apex..."
Seeing him like this, Hoffa couldn't help but lose himself in thought. That was a soul lost in the vastness of the world, a certainty turned inside out, a self that had melted away.
"Sylbie… oh, Sylbie... POWER wasn't enough to get you through, was it?"
Hoffa closed his eyes, gently stroking the tiny face as he let out a quiet sigh.
The face seemed to react to something. It stopped its murmuring in Hoffa's hand, staring blankly into the void. Then, suddenly, the brain swelled uncontrollably, pulsating and expanding. It tore free from the electrodes, from the electronic components, from the layered magic formations—taking with it the tiny, almost invisible face.
They were devoured by the ever-expanding brain, vanishing without a trace.
One by one, specks of light flickered to life across the surface of the brain, blinking like countless eyes. As it swelled, a mouth began to form within the writhing mass.
"You have already won. Looking at the outcome, it turns out you were the superior one. Hoffa Bach… Unbelievable. Unbelievable. I thought Sylbie had endured long enough. He lasted a thousand times, ten thousand times, a hundred million times longer than all the others who came before him, combined. But then… my god… you're still here. As if nothing happened. Simply miraculous."
Hoffa recognized it.
The embodiment of cosmic uncertainty.
The God of Nightmares.
"Spare me the flattery, Nightmare. I'm about to die too," Hoffa said coolly.
"Of course, Hoffa Bach. Of course,"
The God of Nightmares writhed with frenzied excitement, its eyeballs swelling near Hoffa's face. It whispered ominously, "That blood was never meant for mortals to drink, Hoffa Bach. You have a hundred ways to use it, a thousand ways to rule the world, ten thousand ways to master the unknown. But if you make even one mistake—just one—I will find you. And when I do, I will seize you… and in the end, I will cast you down."
"And then what?" Hoffa asked. "Will you just move on to your next victim?"
"Victim? No, no, no… Hahaha! You humans are my masters,"
The God of Nightmares howled with euphoric laughter, tears streaming from its grotesque form. "Without humans, how would I ever rid myself of this endless loneliness? But you are right—there will be a next one. And another. And another after that. Forever. Without end."
"How remarkable… a god," Hoffa murmured, his gaze darkening. "You are eternal, while humans are destined to perish. Look at me—so fragile now."
"Yes… so fragile, so beautiful. And yet, so stubborn… so repulsive. Time and time again, you make me uncomfortable," the deity mused in a dreamlike voice.
"I'm truly curious, Hoffa Bach. How did you endure it? Even the greatest sorcerers have succumbed to madness, yet you—a mere human—have survived through an eternity of twisted time and still retained your sanity. How did you do it?"
Hoffa didn't answer the Nightmare God's question. Instead, he gazed into the void and murmured,
"Oh, god… I think time is better when it moves in just one direction. Most people really can't bear it… Don't you agree? Let's put an end to this, right here, with me."
The Nightmare God sneered. "What nonsense. The world will always have its opposite. Where there is light, there is darkness." It pointed at Chloe. "Even I have an opposite. Why should time be any different—"
Mid-sentence, its expression changed drastically. Staring at Hoffa, it suddenly had the eerie feeling that it had heard these words before, somewhere.
Hoffa smiled faintly. "Have you figured it out?"
The Nightmare God froze. The boiling mass of its brain stopped expanding.
"Well then… I'm afraid you'll just have to bear with this for a while."
Hoffa spoke as he drew a branch from his chest and pointed it at the God of Nightmares. In his palm, the small sealing mark carved by Chloe shone a glaring red.
Boom!!
A mind shattered.
A massive, uncertain, boiling, ever-changing monster crawled out of his consciousness, roaring in an attempt to escape.
But that frenzied, foaming chaos, that restless fantasy, that surging madness—upon touching the tip of the wand—was firmly restrained by the small branch, relentlessly consumed.
The God of Nightmares cursed:
"Burn you!
Burn you!
Burn you!
Burn you!"
The God of Nightmares cursed wildly.
In the end, the curses turned into whispered pleas and sobs.
Burn you.
Burn you.
Burn you.
Burn... stop.
Stop... please.
Please... I beg you.
I beg you, my master, my lord.
Please...
Hoffa remained unmoved. He stood firm, holding the wand level, until the last fragments of the God of Nightmares were absorbed into it. The sealing mark at the base of the wand glowed brightly, fresh and red like blood.
"The other side of this... should be left to stories, to imagination."
He muttered. Then, as if discarding trash, he tossed the wand away.
At the edge of the floating city in the sky, Chloe and Hoffa sat high above space. Chloe swung her legs, leaning happily against the railing, speaking in a relaxed tone:
"It's almost over now. The God of Nightmares has been sealed again, and the influence of the Half-Blood King will soon be erased. I think magic and fantasy will return. Hoffa, you did it. I can't believe it. I really can't believe it. You are just... so, so amazing!"
Hoffa smiled bitterly. Resting against the railing, he shook his head.
Amazing? Only he truly understood the hardships and struggles behind it all.
"Hoffa, even after all these years, I still remember what you once told me," Chloe said, gazing at the white clouds and the planet below.
Hoffa hummed softly in response.
Chloe looked at him intently and said seriously, "You said that if one day we could rest, if we could escape this endless conflict, if we could leave this unpredictable world... You would open a little shop, and I would open a chapel next to it."
Recalling his own words, Hoffa hesitated and replied with difficulty, "Chloe, I don't have time anymore."
"If there's a chance, Hoffa will fulfill this wish, won't he? After all, Hoffa is a man of his word."
"If there's a chance, I definitely will," Hoffa sighed. "If there's still a chance..."
"That's enough for me." Chloe grinned happily, pointing to the golden fireball at the world's edge. "Look, the sun is rising."
"Yeah."
"Hoffa, it's time to wake up. A lot of people are looking for you out there."
"Goodbye, Chloe."
"Goodbye, Hoffa."
(End of Chapter)
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