Silence remained where the battlefield once existed.
Not ordinary silence.
The kind that arrives after the end of something irreversible.
The plains connecting the two forest villages were gone completely now. The forests near the battlefield had vanished alongside them, erased beneath the overwhelming destruction of Brahmashirastra.
No flames burned anymore.
No screams echoed anymore.
Only emptiness remained.
The sky itself looked strange now.
Broken.
As though reality still hadn't fully recovered from what had happened there.
Slowly—
the surviving villagers began approaching the destroyed land carefully.
Nobody spoke.
Nobody knew what to say after witnessing the end of the war.
Riven walked forward numbly beside Darin while Selene quietly cried behind them. Kael tried comforting Aira, but tears were already falling from her own eyes too.
None of them fully understood how to process it.
Because until the very end—
a part of them believed Arin would somehow survive again.
He always did.
Even against impossible odds.
Even against gods and monsters and armies.
Arin always stood back up.
But this time—
Brahmashirastra had erased everything.
The group eventually reached the center of the wasteland afterward.
Or at least—
what used to be the center.
There was nothing there anymore.
No battlefield.
No remains.
No trace of Arin.
Not even Vijaya remained.
The divine bow had vanished entirely alongside him.
Riven slowly dropped to his knees afterward.
"…no…"
His voice cracked immediately.
Darin stood frozen beside him while staring at the empty wasteland ahead. Selene covered her mouth trying to stop herself from crying louder while Kael looked away completely unable to watch anymore.
Aira eventually broke first.
Tears streamed down her face uncontrollably while she whispered softly,
"…he's really gone…"
The words shattered whatever composure remained among them.
Riven slammed his fist against the ruined ground afterward violently.
"DAMMIT!"
His voice echoed across the empty wasteland.
"He promised!"
Another punch.
"He PROMISED he'd come back!"
Blood ran from his knuckles afterward, but he didn't care.
Nobody stopped him either.
Because all of them felt the same thing.
Loss.
The unbearable kind.
Meanwhile—
Liora walked forward alone.
Slowly.
Silently.
The others watched her carefully afterward, but none of them tried stopping her.
Because unlike the rest of them—
she looked strangely calm now.
Not peaceful.
Empty.
Her footsteps eventually stopped at the exact place where Arin vanished beneath Brahmashirastra.
And just like the others had seen—
there was nothing left.
No trace of him anywhere.
The wind moved softly through the ruined wasteland afterward while her hair drifted gently around her face.
Then finally—
she smiled weakly.
A broken smile.
"…you idiot…"
Tears slowly fell afterward.
"You really left again…"
Memories flooded her mind endlessly now.
The lake beneath the stars.
The awkward moments during childhood.
His quiet smiles.
The way he always carried the burden alone no matter how much they argued against it.
And finally—
his last words.
We'll meet again in another life.
Liora's breathing suddenly stopped afterward.
Completely.
The others immediately noticed something was wrong.
"Liora?"
She slowly placed one hand against her chest afterward.
Then her knees gave out.
"LIORA!"
Selene and Aira immediately ran toward her while the others followed in panic.
But the moment Riven reached her—
he froze completely.
Because her heartbeat was gone.
Silence consumed the group again afterward.
Nobody understood what happened at first.
Then slowly—
they remembered.
Their souls were connected.
If one died—
the other would follow.
Liora weakly looked upward one final time afterward while tears slid across her face.
And strangely enough—
she didn't look afraid.
Only sad.
"…wait for me…"
Then light surrounded her body softly.
Golden particles drifted upward through the ruined battlefield while the others stared in complete shock.
And slowly—
Liora vanished too.
Not burned away.
Not destroyed.
Her soul simply left.
Following his.
The second life had ended.
And somewhere beyond death—
Arin opened his eyes again.
Darkness surrounded him endlessly.
Not empty darkness.
Distorted darkness.
The place between lives.
The same strange space he faintly remembered from before.
Except this time—
it felt different.
More stable somehow.
Arin slowly looked around afterward while fragments of light drifted endlessly through the void surrounding him.
Memories floated there too.
Karna.
Aditya.
Arin.
All of them existed around him now like reflections scattered across eternity.
But unlike before—
something had changed inside him.
He felt… heavier.
More complete.
His soul no longer felt shattered in the same way.
Slowly—
understanding began forming inside his mind.
Not fully.
But enough.
The pieces finally connected.
Every life.
Every death.
Every fragment he recovered.
This cycle wasn't merely punishment.
It was incomplete existence repeating endlessly trying to restore itself.
And now—
after recovering Vijaya…
after remembering everything…
after surviving longer than every version before him…
his soul had nearly completed itself.
Nearly.
Arin slowly clenched one hand afterward while countless distorted worlds drifted through the void around him.
And for the first time across countless lives—
he understood something clearly.
There was a way out.
A real one.
Not temporary survival.
Not another rebirth.
Escape.
Permanent escape from the cycle itself.
The realization shook him completely afterward.
Because now he finally understood what the first Karna had been searching for all along.
And somewhere within the endless distorted void—
another presence appeared quietly behind him.
Familiar.
Warm.
"…you figured it out."
Arin slowly turned afterward.
And there—
standing within the darkness between lives—
was Liora.