The world did not celebrate.
There were no banners, no songs, no prayers lifted in unison. The dead grew quiet, the sky healed its fractures, and the endless pressure that had weighed on every soul simply… lifted.
People noticed, but did not understand.
Kael watched from the boundary where the seal anchored him, half-present in the world and half-bound to the void beyond. Time passed differently here. A day could feel like a breath or a century.
He saw villages rebuild cautiously.
He saw fields replanted over mass graves.
He saw children born who would never know the dead had once conquered the living.
And still, no one came looking for him.
That hurt more than he expected.