“You’re a real dirty bastard, you know that?” the Creator asked.

Palan ignored him as he moved on from Uriel, who had golden smoke pouring out of her mouth, and onto Creed. He stuck in cookie down the dead demon’s throat as well. After Uriel’s contract had been broken, a portion of the room had broken off and fallen to the ground below. Golden smoke drifted out of Creed’s body as well, and another cracking sound echoed through the room. A corner of the room shattered, falling to the ground and leaving a gaping hole by Palan’s feet.

The Creator disappeared and Camael’s body rose to its feet. Palan pounced on him and ripped his limbs off before pulling out another cookie. The Creator forced Camael’s mouth to remain shut, so Palan ripped open the dead angel’s stomach instead before placing the cookie inside. He wasn’t quite sure if it’d work, but luckily for him, it did. Camael’s body turned limp as smoke fled from his orifices. The furniture in the room rumbled as they shattered and dissolved into puddles of liquid.

“You don’t understand what you’re doing,” the Creator said as his golden figure formed above Camael’s body.

“I don’t need to,” Palan said. He frowned at Levy’s ashes. Raea’ had bisected the eight-legged demon and set her ablaze. How was he going to feed her a cookie? He broke a cookie apart and sprinkled it over her remains as a test. The ashes reacted with the cookie, producing wisps of smoke like kindling before a bonfire. “I just know the more you want me to stop, the more thoroughly I’ll finish this.”

“Why?” the Creator asked as another portion of the walls fell apart. “What is it that you seek? You don’t want to live eternally. You don’t want the fame that would’ve accompanied being one of my champions. Is being free and unrestricted the only thing you wish for?”

Palan turned his back on the Creator and moved on to Asura. He wasn’t sure which of her three heads he should put the cookie in, so he copied the actions he did with Camael and placed it directly into her stomach. He wasn’t sure why it worked, but it did. A sour smell reached his nose, causing him to turn his head. Uriel’s body was rotting while Creed’s body was rapidly aging. Camael’s hair was falling out, and his skin loosened as wrinkles adorned his face.

The last of the walls collapsed, and the yellow liquid that had accumulated from the dissolving furniture spilled over the sides of the floor, the only thing remaining of the room. Palan walked up to Raphael’s regenerating body and squatted beside the angel.

“Nothing I say will stop you from doing this, am I right?” the Creator asked. “I can make a deal with you. Let me inhabit your body and I’ll aid you in everything you do. I invested too much to lose everything now.”

“Your problems aren’t mine,” Palan said and placed the cookie inside Raphael’s stomach. The angel’s regeneration stopped as golden smoke poured out of the corpse’s multiple wounds. Palan sank as the floor lost its integrity before bursting apart like a bubble. The Creator sighed as motes of light floated out of his body—a single one at first, then two, then four, until a stream of light filled the air above, forming golden clouds in the sky.

Palan floated to the ground, landing beside Andrea and the two angel sisters. Andrea was glowing again, having consumed all the liquid that had fallen from the room. Palan rubbed her head and smiled.

“What happened?” Raea asked, raising an eyebrow. The room had survived the B.F.G. when nothing else had except for them and the statue of the Creator. Just what did Palan do to destroy it?

“I’m not sure,” Palan said and shrugged. “I destroyed their contracts and the room broke as well. That golden cloud up there are the remnants of the Creator.”

The girls raised their heads. Golden fissures were spreading through the sky like a web of cracks, and clouds were forming from them. The suns were blotted out by the clouds, but the ground was still lit up like day. “Is this something good … or something bad?” Selena asked, furrowing her brow.

“Well, it’s bright,” Raea said, squinting up at the sky. She thought she saw movements within the clouds “Generally, bright things aren’t bad.”

“Bright-colored animals are poisonous,” Andrea said.

Raea rolled her eyes. “I said generally.”

A yellow raindrop fell to the ground, splattering in front of Raea. It disappeared within the barren earth, and a second later, a green shoot sprouted from the ground. The rain began to fall in earnest, covering all of Div’Nya. The creatures it fell on glowed, and the land thrived. Animals ran out of their shelters to drink from the rain, and flowers blossomed throughout the land.

“Definitely a good thing,” Selena said as the brown wasteland that was the capital began to turn green and colorful. Her body was being soaked by the rain, but it was a comfortable feeling like she was taking a warm shower. She glowed as more and more rain fell from the sky. “This … I’m evolving?”

Selena bit her lower lip and closed her eyes as she activated her power of knowledge. “I see,” she said after a while. “The Creator’s power is returning to the land. He had consolidated a lot of it. So much that it was difficult for the halflings to evolve.”

“How do you see something like that?” Palan asked.

“It’s called making an inference,” Selena said. “You take bits and pieces of available information and place them together into a sensible explanation.” She smiled. “Or you can use knowledge and have descriptions flow directly into your head.”

“Ah!”

Palan and Selena turned their heads towards Raea. A black liquid was leaking out of her skin from all the pores in her body. It was washed away by the rain, but it continued to flow out. “Ray?” Selena asked. Her brow furrowed as she activated her power of knowledge on the liquid exiting her sister’s body. “Essence of wrath?”

Raea shuddered as her body was purified by the rain. The last vestiges of black liquid disappeared into the earth, and she opened her eyes. She looked at her hands before raising her head. A smile blossomed on her face as she ran forward and hugged Palan. “I’m sorry,” she said as he flinched, “for every time I wronged you. Thank you for putting up with me.”