Adam walked aimlessly through the white landscape, sitting now and then as snowflakes fell endlessly like rain. It was cold—quietly, piercingly cold. When I pressed my foot into the ground and pushed forward, the earth trembled beneath me, cracking apart into dust. The tremor carried me across an unknowable distance, as if I had leapt through time itself. When I looked around, nothing had changed. The same white plains. The same silence.
I exhaled, breath fogging the air, and began to levitate—rising, gliding forward into the endless white. No matter how far I went, the scenery never shifted. It was always this plain. Always the same.
I was finally alone.
I'd said that phrase before, countless times, thinking I understood it. But this time, it truly meant something. I flicked my fingers lightly, testing a thought.
[Cannot destroy something that doesn' texist.]
"
What do you mean, Rehan!? I'm trapped here! Are you telling me my weakness is this—being trapped in some hellish void?"
[Affirmative.]
The Sandbox Mode.
I clutched my chest, standing motionless. My breath echoed back to me, hollow and distant, gnawing at my ribs. The cold didn't hurt—but being alone did.
"Rehan... can you teleport me?"
[Adam. I can't teleport something that is infinite... or non-existential.I don't know where we are.]
I lowered my head. "How powerless... am I really?"
[you're only playing God.You're not actually one.]
Rehan's voice was steady, grounding. It calmed me, even as a tear rolled down my face. I smiled weakly, not at sadness, but at how impossible things had become. How unknowable.
"What am I even doing? They're out there fighting right now... that thing isn't something anyone can handle. No, no—damn it, I've been too complacent."
I raised my hand and let everything go—unleashing a wave that shattered the very scape itself. The horizon broke apart, dissolving into pure destruction, until nothing remained.
And still, I was trapped. Floating in absolute emptiness. No sound. No light.
"Is this death...? Karmic punishment maybe, for everything I've done?" I laughed weakly. "I feel nothing. Confused... tired."
Back to Kaloterm
Piercebox marched along a broken road, surrounded by mechanical ships, golems, and towering behemoths. They seized whatever moved—people, beasts, even stray dogs—shoving them into containment ships. He coughed, smiling faintly as explosions bloomed in the empty streets.
He raised his hand. The ground trembled. Then he froze—an immense, furious aura was approaching fast. The air warped. In the distance, golems shattered and behemoths were sliced apart like paper.
"I guess... Adam failed," he muttered.
He lifted his radio, static crackling. "Uh... guys—"
Kiso's face appeared on a portal screen beside Toho's.
Piercebox sighed. "I think you should all retreat."
"What's happening?" Kiso demanded.
"Just follow the plan. If we fail... at least we can save the people we already captured."
He leapt onto a ship, grabbing the mounted loudspeaker. "Hey! Dumbass! You're about to meet the strongest person alive—Piercebox!"
He grinned wide, defiant, as the King appeared before him—wings of energy unfurled, face unreadable. Thousands of mineralized lightning swords and orbs of fire swirled in the air, raining destruction about to fall upon the ships. Piercebox clenched his jaw, realizing the attacks weren't even aimed at him—they simply ignored him.
He tore open a teleportation scroll and activated every barrier talisman he owned. Hundreds of glowing cubes flared around him. He smiled one last time, bracing for the impact——then came the light of a hundred suns.
The barriers shattered instantly. Reality twisted. Blocks of stone copied and reformed endlessly, disintegrating faster each time.
His eyes widened. The face of death was right there, staring at him.
Did I ever do the right thing? he wondered. If I die now... no one will care. A century will pass, and I'll be forgotten, no matter how many friends I had, or what I gave.
"What even is death...?" he whispered. "I don't want to find out."
He laughed softly. "Stupid. I already lost everything. What's left to lose? Maybe... someone..."
Then, suddenly—he wasn't burning anymore.
He looked around. A circus tent. Bright colors. Music. A strange, whimsical safety. "What...?"
Toho stood beside him, surrounded by balloon-like machinery. In her hands—a small orb, like a snow globe but a circus, glimmered with light. Inside it, Piercebox's body shimmered faintly. She poured every ounce of her power into stabilizing it, her tears steaming in the heat.
"I really don't want you two to die..." she said, smiling through the pain.
The King's eyes flickered—memories flooding back. His child... was among the captured. He thrust his hand skyward, redirecting the catastrophic blast into the heavens. It burst like fireworks, turning the sky white.
Far away, Kiso shielded himself from the heat, barely standing. "Huff..."
The King descended with glowing, feathered wings, landing near Toho's unconscious body—her mana completely spent. Piercebox emerged from the shattered orb, somehow alive.
He stared at the devastation around him and forced a smile. He teleported beside Kiso and Toho, tossing potions of strength and regeneration at their feet.
Then came the chains. Thousands of glowing binds wrapped around the King. He ripped them apart with pure strength.
"I'm here, dammit!" Piercebox shouted.
"Get out of the way, human," the King with a blank voice, slapping him aside with a single strike. Piercebox flew through the air, bones cracking as he slammed into the ground. Every nerve screamed. Every organ threatened to burst.
Still, he forced himself to rise, with his every soul and willpower... To just... Dont...Die "Don't... you dare... ignore me..."
The King turned slowly, expression unreadable.
Piercebox smiled, trembling, blood dripping from his lips. "Power isn't everything, idiot." as his intestine were twisting from the pain, with a single thought to himself being like a weak fool and a clown. Ragdoll and not being the strongest.
But still he had to act
He raised his final trump card high into the light.
As someone smiling grinly behind his back...