My hand still remained extended toward the empty air.
Then before I realized it—
our connection was abruptly severed.
My consciousness returned to where I originally stood.
Back at the Tower.
The screens still floated before me.
The battlefield still burned.
The war still raged on endlessly.
Nothing had changed.
Yet somehow—
everything felt different now.
For a brief moment—
I simply stared at the empty space before me.
Then quietly whispered,
"…You did well."
My voice barely reached my own ears.
Even after the connection ended, my hand remained suspended in the air as though a part of me still expected Hope to answer.
But nothing came.
No system notification.
No familiar pressure.
No response.
Only silence.
I could only gulp and grit my teeth at my own failure.
I still wasn't recovering from what had just happened.
Hope's disappearance lingered heavily inside my chest, leaving behind an unfamiliar emptiness that I could not properly describe.
Then—
