On a half-destroyed rooftop, an old woman looked up at the sky filled with shadows and whispered,
"He has saved earth before… he'll save us again… right…?"
There was no answer.
In a burning forest, a group of children huddled around a shattered hologram device showing Gustav's image.
"Mom… isn't he coming?" a little girl asked, tears streaming.
Her mother bit her trembling lip until it bled.
"He… he always comes…"
"He… always…"
But he did not.
He would not.
The sky remained empty of him.
As the final days unfolded, Earth became a graveyard draped in cosmic darkness.
Humanity fought tooth and nail.
They resisted with technology, with powers, with desperation.
But nothing mattered.
For the first time in the history of all their struggles…
There was no miracle.
No last-second arrival.
No Outworldly sweeping in with transcendent power.
Just death.
Hopeless, quiet, and absolute.
Even the deities themselves acknowledged it.
