"General." The skeleton's voice was dull and vacant, barely sentient, able to utter only a single word.
Yet even that one word moved the True God Thousand-Commander deeply, as if he were once more living in the days of the Supreme Sovereign.
Quinn awakened more and more divine and demonic skeletons. His face turned waxy, his mind a cacophony of countless voices clamoring and shouting, nearly shattering his focus.
The True God Thousand-Commander, together with the reawakened divine and demonic skeletons, stirred up a storm of yellow sand. He used the last of his power to ignite the divine fire, melting the sand.
The sand turned to rolling magma in the air, then solidified into massive stones.
The True God Thousand-Commander was building their tombs. One by one, the divine and demonic skeletons used the stones to construct their burial chambers. Across the wasteland, mounds of graves gradually took shape.
By the time Quinn awakened the last skeleton, he finally collapsed from exhaustion.
All across the desert, the towering divine and demonic skeletons had finished their final tombs. They stood before their graves, awaiting their general’s last command.
The True God Thousand-Commander had also burned through his final reserves of power, leaning on his tattered banner as he gazed at the comrades who had died with him in battle.
The wind whipped the flag.
The tattered banner fluttered in the wind, its snapping echo like the return of those iron-blooded years.
"May there be a next life."
The True God Thousand-Commander did not speak, yet a voice rang out, like metal clashing and war drums pounding.
"May there be a next life—let us reunite and fight for the world once more!"
His voice swept across the wasteland, shouting to his soldiers and comrades: "The Supreme Sovereign will return! He will lead us again into battle! Now, all soldiers—rest."
"General, we’ll meet again in the next life!" came a voice from one of the divine skeletons.
One by one, the divine and demonic skeletons entered their tombs, laying their battered weapons at their sides, lying down as if, at the sound of the horn, they would leap up and take up arms again.
The last flames flickered in the True God Thousand-Commander’s deep eye sockets. Giant stone tablets flew silently through the air, sealing the entrances to each divine tomb.
Runes flowed along the tomb walls. As the stone tablets closed, the tombs’ protective formations finally became complete.
Quinn let out a breath, then looked up at the True God Thousand-Commander’s skeleton beside him and asked, "Senior, you built tombs for all of them, laid them to rest—why didn’t you make one for yourself?"
The towering divine skeleton sat down, bracing itself with its battle standard. The great banner stood upright, and he sat straight as an arrow, facing the rows of lofty, desolate god-graves.
"I am their general. I failed to bring them home, so I am not worthy of my own tomb."
The True God Thousand-Commander sat quietly, his banner fluttering in the wind. "I will guard them, be their tomb-keeper. I know none of them truly woke up—it was you who spoke through their mouths."
He lowered his head to look at Quinn Shepherd. "Thank you."
Quinn froze for a moment, then said, "I didn't want you to feel that you were the only one left here. So..."
The True God Thousand-Commander looked up and smiled. "Even if it was you, my heart is at ease now. I have no more regrets."
From his hollow eye sockets, two streams of light like long dragons flew out, entering Quinn Shepherd's eyes and coiling within.
That was the last of the pure yang and pure yin qi from his Divine Treasury, gifted to Quinn.
"Darkness is coming. Go there!" He raised his hand, pointing into the distance.
Quinn looked back and saw the setting sun about to sink into the vast desert.
"Senior, what do you mean by 'darkness is coming'?"
Quinn asked in surprise, "Does the night here also bring invading darkness? Senior..."
He fell silent, saying no more. The divine skeleton of the True God Thousand-Commander beside him had lost all vitality; its last will had faded, leaving only a raised arm pointing into the distance.
Quinn quietly rose to his feet, called over the chest, and the shivering Dragon-Qilin sitting atop it. "Let's go there," he said.
The chest stretched out its legs and followed Quinn in the direction pointed out by the True God Thousand-Commander.
Dragon-Qilin mustered his courage and asked, "Cult Master, what did that big skeleton mean by 'even if it was you'?"
"My spirit-changing technique can't bring back the souls of fallen gods and demons. The awakened skeletons have no consciousness; they only obey my commands. He realized this, so that's why he said that."
Dragon-Qilin was puzzled. "But I heard those skeleton monsters talking, calling him general."
"Those skeletons can speak because I spoke through them. I didn't want him to feel lonely, to think he was the only one left from the Supreme Sovereign Era."
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Quinn looked back at the divine skeleton sitting there, guarding the god-graves with its battle flag. Then he turned away, his expression calm. "But he still saw through it, even if he didn't expose me at the time. Actually, he must've held onto a little hope in his heart, wishing it wasn't me speaking, but his comrades."
Dragon-Qilin still couldn't understand such feelings, so he simply lay down on the chest to sleep, muttering, "I'm most afraid of these things. Last time at the Willow clan, I had nightmares for days..."
The sky grew darker and darker. Quinn quickened his pace, and at last, the sun sank beneath the desert.
Darkness surged in from the west like a tide, catching up to them in an instant and swallowing them whole.
Quinn was startled—this world too was swallowed by darkness. It was like another Great Ruins, but unlike the Great Ruins, daytime here was night there, and night here was day there.
Suddenly, Quinn's heart trembled. "I understand! I know the source of the darkness!"
Just then, a faint sound came from beneath the chest. Quinn stopped and looked down, only to see a boy with both legs severed clinging to the chest's legs.
"Grand Venerable."
Quinn smiled broadly. "Long time no see. How have you been?"
Ben Coates looked ashen and spat, "Qin, this damned world is messing with me. Kill me, chop me up, do whatever you want!"