The plaza dissolved.
Stone shattered into ash, ash into light, light into nothing.
When I opened my eyes, we weren't standing in ruins anymore.
We were in… Nothing.
Not darkness. Not emptiness. Nothing.
The ground wasn't ground—it was absence, and yet it held us as if the void had decided to pretend to be solid for our sake. Above us, stars wheeled in slow arcs, arranged like an audience of jeweled eyes, watching.
The survivors gasped, clinging to one another, as if their voices might slip away into the silence.
"Where are we?" a trembling voice whispered.
Dev clutched my sleeve. His knuckles were bone-white. "Is this… heaven?"
I almost laughed. The sound came out broken, half a choke. Heaven? If it was, then it was the kind of heaven where the angels weren't saints—they were gamblers, stacking bets over the blood pooling at your feet.
✦
A system notice blinked into existence, cold and vast, stretching across the stars themselves.
[Dimensional Observation Phase Initiated.][All surviving participants are now before the gods.]
The words didn't scroll. They thundered. Each syllable landed in the air like an earthquake.
And then the voices began.
Not whispers this time. Not hidden, sly murmurs like when they tugged at me in the city.
Thunderous.
[A God of War declares: "The Bug must be erased. It pollutes the script."]
The void shook as if a million spears slammed into the nothing beneath our feet.
[A Goddess of Mercy counters: "And yet he saved. He rewrote death into life. He deserves to remain."]
Her voice was soft, but it rolled through the stars like a tide.
[A Trickster God cackles: "Let the bug crawl! He makes the story fun! Do you hear the gasps? Do you hear the drama?"]
[A God of Order growls: "Unacceptable. He bends rules meant to be absolute. The system must remain pure."]
Each proclamation cracked reality itself. Stars pulsed. The void rippled. Survivors clutched their ears, but it was pointless—these weren't sounds you could shut out. They weren't heard with ears. They were heard with bone. With soul.
✦
Kael stood tall, shoulders squared, golden light still clinging to him as if even this place worshipped his silhouette. Even here, in the gods' gaze, he looked like he belonged.
Me?
Every divine gaze, every crushing weight of judgment, pressed into me alone. My lungs felt carved out of glass, breaking with each breath.
The Hero was admired.
The Bug was on trial.
✦
A massive presence rolled through the void. I couldn't see it, but I didn't need to. I felt it—the weight of countless battles, swords raised across millennia, blood spilled so often it drowned memory itself.
The God of War.
His voice was an executioner's axe falling.
"Erase him."
Another presence surged against it—softer, but vast. I smelled ink and parchment, felt the curl of smoke rising from burning tales.
The God of Stories.
Her voice was a quill scratching across infinity.
"Keep him."
The void cracked under the pressure of their conflict.
War demanded deletion. Story demanded preservation. Tricksters laughed. Order fumed. Chaos cheered.
And through it all, I stood there, just a human with a pen-blade clenched in one bleeding hand, listening to gods fight over whether I should exist.
✦
The survivors huddled behind Kael. Some whispered prayers, some sobbed openly, some stared at me like I had already doomed them all.
Dev stayed beside me. He shook, but he didn't let go. His grip was anchor and weight both.
I should've told him to run. But where could he go? There was no earth, no sky, no escape—only judgment.
✦
The system's voice intervened, trembling with strain as if even its machinery bent beneath divine argument.
[Vote deferred.][Anomaly Ishaan Reed will remain… under observation.]
The void quieted.
My heart slammed against my ribs. Not spared. Not doomed. Just… postponed. Like an execution delayed because the headsman hadn't sharpened his axe yet.
✦
And then, beneath the thunder of divinity, a different voice slipped through.
Almost hidden. Almost secret.
[Unknown Origin: "Keep writing, Quill. Don't let them edit you."]
It wasn't booming. It wasn't vast. It wasn't heavy enough to make the stars bend.
It was… close. Personal.
Like a hand on my shoulder.
My breath caught.
Not a god. Not like the rest.
Something else. Something watching from beneath the script instead of above it.
✦
The void fractured. Stars blinked out one by one, snuffed like candles.
When my vision cleared, I was back in the cracked ruins of the city.
Survivors were slumped on the ground, pale and shaking. Some were vomiting. Some were praying. Some just stared, hollow-eyed, like they'd glimpsed eternity and found it wanted nothing to do with them.
Dev muttered, "What… what was that?"
Kael didn't answer. His jaw was set, his gaze unreadable. But then he turned his head—just slightly.
And his eyes locked on me.
Sharp as blades.
Because he'd noticed.
The gods hadn't argued about him.
They'd argued about me.
✦
And then—
Mirae's voice screeched into existence like a fire alarm.
"HELL. YES! DID YOU GUYS SEE THAT?!"
The survivors flinched as glowing projection screens burst into the air, livestream chat exploding in colored text. Mirae leaned into the feed, cheeks flushed, eyes practically sparkling like a fangirl at a concert.
"Ladies and gentlemen, mortals and immortals, BUG FANS and BUG HATERS—what you just witnessed was a god-tier roast battle over one (1) Ishaan Reed, also known as QUILL THE BUG!"
She made an air horn noise with her mouth.
"BWAAH BWAAH BWAAH!"
The chat went feral.
"LMAOOOO the gods can't even agree if my boy should EXIST ""WarGod be like: delete system32.exe""StoryMom adopting Bug rn ""Quill of Defiance arc just speedran into Divine Trial arc???""Petition to ship Bug x Story Goddess""nah TricksterGod x Bug is endgame.""bro got fanfics before he got loot "
Mirae clapped like a seal. "CHAT YOU ARE KILLING ME—oh my god, the chaos of this stream. Ratings are gonna skyrocket."
I groaned and dragged a hand down my face. "Of course. Meme fodder again."
The system, helpful as always, chimed in:
[The Trickster God applauds.][The Goddess of Story laughs softly.][The God of War marks you for death.][Several minor gods begin wagering on your lifespan.]
"Yeah," I muttered. "Figures."
✦