After Rania's brief conversation with Istaroth, all of us eventually returned inside the walls.
Outside, the obsidian-black dragon remained curled up like an oversized cat while the Transcendents maintained their positions atop the fortifications, keeping watch over the surrounding wilderness.
Not long afterward, Reina's group returned alongside Lucian, several researchers, and a handful of accompanying Transcendents.
The moment they arrived, however, all of them stopped.
For nearly an entire minute. Simply staring at the enormous fissure that had split the mountain range apart.
"What happened before we got here...?"
Reina slowly pointed toward the distant mountains while looking at Grace, who sat beside me eating peanuts as though nothing unusual had occurred.
Meanwhile, Anathasia, Rania, Roselia, and Istaroth had gathered around one of the tables nearby.
"Primordial Dragon," Grace answered between bites.
She chewed thoughtfully.
"Appeared."
Another peanut disappeared.
"Mountain go CRAAACK."
She gestured vaguely with one hand.
"Wave of weird entities charged the camp."
A pause.
"Primordial Dragon. Whoosh."
Her hand sliced through the air.
"Tail."
"Entities gone."
Reina blinked.
"…What?"
Grace offered no further explanation.
Instead, she continued eating her peanuts while occasionally offering some to me.
Nearby, Fran stood beside Anathasia as the others spoke with Istaroth.
I couldn't hear most of the conversation.
Mostly because they had specifically asked me not to get too close. Apparently, Istaroth was still terrified of me. Which was how I ended up sitting on a crate beside Grace instead.
"Still..."
"Hm?"
Grace glanced at me.
"Something wrong, Dad?"
I shook my head.
"Not really."
A sigh escaped me.
"I just feel a little out of place."
My gaze drifted toward the group gathered around Istaroth.
"How was I supposed to know I was apparently that terrifying?"
Grace tilted her head slightly. She swallowed her peanuts before immediately grabbing more.
The quiet crunching filled the brief silence.
"Honestly," she finally said, "I always thought Dad was just... a normal person."
I raised an eyebrow.
"A normal person?"
"Yeah."
She nodded matter-of-factly.
"A normal person who happened to have some weird shapeless thing behind him."
I stared at her.
Grace continued completely unfazed.
"Dad's nice."
She counted on her fingers.
"Caring."
Another finger.
"Gentle."
Another.
"Pretty."
"I don't think that last one was necessary, Grace."
She paused.
Then simply shrugged.
"Maybe."
Another handful of peanuts vanished.
"Anyway, I never really cared what Dad actually was."
She looked at me directly.
"I like being around Dad."
Then she pointed at me with a bright smile.
"And Dad's lap makes a really good pillow."
"Which means I don't really care if people say Dad's some weird thing that makes Logos itself never exist."
A pause.
Then she smiled again.
"Dad's still Dad, right?"
Something warm settled quietly in my chest. Not because her words changed anything.
And not because I particularly cared what I was. But hearing it from Grace somehow made Anathasia's earlier explanation feel a little less heavy.
A small smile tugged at my lips.
Reaching over, I gently patted her head.
Grace immediately returned to her peanuts as though she hadn't just said something surprisingly profound.
Several hours later, the discussions inside the facility were still ongoing.
Istaroth remained with Rania and Roselia while Anathasia and I wandered beyond the walls once more. The split mountain range remained visible even from here.
A permanent scar carved across the horizon.
"So."
Anathasia clasped her hands behind her back.
"The Woodlands is basically what Liscia used to be."
I glanced at her.
"A cosmological leak?"
"Pretty much."
She nodded.
"Which means she probably caused it herself back then."
The two of us continued walking through the barren landscape.
"So what's the plan?"
Anathasia lifted a finger.
"We call Liscia."
"That simple?"
"Yep."
She twirled a strand of hair around her finger.
"She'll just absorb everything back into herself."
A small shrug followed.
"It's kind of her specialty."
We eventually came to a stop. The endless wasteland stretched in every direction around us.
Dead.
Silent.
Unmoving.
"If those things get reabsorbed..." I murmured.
My gaze drifted across the lifeless continent.
"This place becomes alive again?"
Anathasia nodded.
"More or less."
Sunlight briefly pierced through the clouds overhead before vanishing again.
"But it'll still take years before people can actually live here."
Her eyes followed the distant horizon.
"Recovery takes time."
"Still..."
She smiled faintly.
"At least we won't have to worry about those things spreading into the other continents anymore."
Her gaze shifted toward me.
"And that's what matters most, right?"
I nodded.
"Yeah."
Silence followed.
The two of us simply stood there.
Watching the clouds drift overhead while occasional rays of sunlight broke through the darkness.
For the first time since arriving at The Woodlands, the future no longer seemed quite so uncertain.
Before the silence could stretch any further, however, Anathasia suddenly snapped her fingers.
A woman instantly appeared in front of us.
Wearing a simple shirt and jeans.
Licking an ice cream.
Then immediately froze.
"…?"
She looked around for a moment before her eyes finally landed on Anathasia and me.
Liscia.
"I thought you and Lena were out dealing with a Sovereign?" Anathasia asked, folding her arms across her chest.
"We were," Liscia replied without hesitation.
"We just finished."
She raised an eyebrow.
"What were you expecting? An Outer God and an Author went to deal with that thing."
Anathasia blinked.
"You're not an Author though."
"That's not the point here!"
Liscia snapped back instantly.
Then she took another bite of her ice cream. A second later, her entire body stiffened.
Brain freeze.
Anathasia's expression immediately flattened.
"…Seriously?"
Liscia ignored her completely.
Instead, she continued eating until only the cone remained.
Then she ate that too.
After dusting off her hands, she finally looked back up and glared at Anathasia.
"Why did you bring me here anyway?"
"It's a Cosmological Leak."
The irritation vanished from Liscia's face almost immediately.
She lowered her gaze, crossing her arms while resting her chin against her finger.
"So."
A brief pause.
"The same thing that happened to the Demiurge's Image you turned into future narrative material ages ago?"
She shot Anathasia a glance.
"Yeah."
Anathasia turned toward the endless wasteland surrounding us.
"Thankfully, Rania's presence kept the infection localized."
Her gaze drifted toward the distant horizon.
"And this version is significantly weaker than the one that killed a Demiurge."
Liscia nodded slowly.
"The Equilibrium is more than enough to contain something like this."
She sounded oddly matter-of-fact.
"Even the leak that killed a Demiurge would've been less than a grain of sand if an Outer God got involved."
Her eyes shifted toward Anathasia.
"You ignored their natures back then because you were still me."
A faint shrug followed.
"So they never seemed like a big deal."
Anathasia cleared her throat before gesturing toward the distant horizon.
Far away, enormous storm clouds swirled above the barren landscape. Even through Rania's binoculars, which I'd borrowed earlier, they were still barely visible.
"That."
She pointed directly at the storm.
"That's your target."
She stopped short.
"You left way too many residues after that little tantrum of yours."
Liscia's lips twitched.
Just slightly.
Like she was one sentence away from punching Anathasia.
Somehow, she restrained herself.
"Anyway."
She cut in before Anathasia could continue. One dismissive wave of her hand followed.
"I just have to get rid of it, right?"
"That's literally all I need to do."
Anathasia smiled.
Usually a dangerous sign. Meanwhile, Liscia was already grumbling under her breath.
"Way to ruin my day, Anathasia Veridielle Augthoria."
She folded her arms tighter.
"I was planning on trying the mint chocolate chip flavor too."
A brief silence.
Then she clicked her tongue.
"Tsk."
The moment Liscia turned toward the distant swirl, everything stopped. The wind vanished. The drifting clouds froze in place. Even the air itself seemed to hold its breath.
"It's a simple cleanup."
The world groaned.
And suddenly, waves upon waves of entities erupted across the landscape.
The same creatures Istaroth had erased earlier began appearing by the thousands, as though reality itself was disgorging them from every direction. Only this time, they weren't charging toward the facility.
They were charging toward Liscia.
Desperately.
Frantically.
Almost like they were trying to return to something they had been separated from.
Some rushed across the ground.
Others floated through the air.
Many simply hurled themselves toward her in ways I couldn't properly follow. The moment they reached her, they vanished.
Absorbed.
Reclaimed.
My gaze slowly drifted away from the spectacle.
Toward the lookout towers lining the walls.
Istaroth sat atop one of them.
Quietly watching.
For the first time since I'd met her, her expression looked almost relieved.
Meanwhile, the rest of the camp had gathered outside.
Researchers.
Soldiers.
Transcendents.
Everyone stood watching as even the dark clouds above began spiraling toward Liscia.
The storm itself collapsed inward.
Layer after layer disappearing into her outstretched palm. Beside me, Anathasia simply folded her arms and observed in silence.
"Looks like the problem's finally gone," she murmured.
Then she glanced toward me with a small smile.
I nodded slowly.
"Yeah."
Neither of us said anything after that. There wasn't really anything left to say.
Everyone simply watched as the final traces of contamination vanished into Liscia's hand.
For the first time in decades, the sky cleared.
Blue.
Completely blue.
Sunlight spilled across the wasteland below.
And judging by the way Istaroth stared upward at the open heavens—
Perhaps it had been far longer than mere decades.