Extra's Perfect Ending

Chapter 126: Meeting god

Reeva couldn’t help but turn his head to look at Dilan, who by this point had already knelt down. The sense of confusion deepened as Reeva struggled to make sense of what was happening.

"Am I supposed to see something?" Reeva muttered aloud.

"You need more time," Dilan replied. "Look into the picture once more, and you’ll see god."

Reeva audibly gulped, swallowing his anxiety, and turned back to the black picture. This time, it stared back at him with an eeriness he couldn’t quite describe. It was like gazing into nothing and everything all at once.

His body started to twitch, and his eyes squinted harder and harder, focusing intently. In the darkness of the picture, he saw something — a vague figure, barely visible. His head moved closer, almost unconsciously, trying to make out what it was.

And then, he saw it. The darkness shifted slightly, and the figure became clearer. A gasp escaped Reeva’s mouth as the image took form.

A humanoid creature, seemingly like an ordinary man, except for one key difference: it had no eyes. Its face was smooth and featureless where eyes should have been, just a blank expanse of creamy white flesh. Reeva’s head shook involuntarily, panic flooding his senses. He wanted to get away, but something held him in place.

It was as if his body was no longer his own, bound by some unseen force. His muscles refused to obey him. His eyes remained locked on the picture as the figure within extended its hand outward.

From the blackness, a hand reached out — impossibly long, trembling at first, then stabilizing. It extended farther than seemed possible, stretching into the room toward Reeva, who sat rigid, too far yet somehow too close.

Reeva wanted to dodge it, but his body was no longer under his control. The black hand reached his face, its cold fingers tracing along his cheek before gently tapping on his eyes. Then it slowly retreated back into the picture.

The creature had no eyes, yet Reeva felt utterly exposed, as if it had just seen through him, down to his very soul. Fear gripped him; he wanted to flee this place, and somehow, the creature seemed to sense it. Its head tilted to the right, as if in thought.

Then, impossibly fast, it snapped back to its original position. The hand within the picture began to shake violently.

"Gh..."

For the first time, it opened its mouth, revealing rows of impossibly sharp, deep teeth, and let out a low, guttural growl. Dilan, still kneeling before it, rose and walked over to Reeva.

"The god asks if you’re willing to follow him?" Dilan intoned.

"Yes," Reeva answered, not out of choice, but because his fear compelled him to.

Something felt profoundly wrong. The darkness within the picture felt unsettlingly familiar — like the terrifying emptiness in Theia’s eyes, a void that could consume light and life with a mere glance.

This power seemed to be something beyond this world, beyond the reach of any god. Reeva shuddered, remembering Klad from the last chapter, holding the world together because it was falling apart. There were many reasons why things had come to this point, but one of them was the void.

About halfway through the story, the void is introduced as a villain and a force to be reckoned with. Its hands reach into many places, and its mouth reaches deeper. It’s a gimmick by the author to send the main character on a dungeon adventure.

But it is incredibly dangerous, especially for someone who isn’t a mystic. The void is like a demon, but worse — it has no morals, no code to follow. It does only one thing, and it does it very well.

It eats.

It consumes everything in front of it. Eventually, in the novel, it even devours the very essence of the world, tearing away what made it whole, and ripping reality apart.

Reeva’s doubt grew when he saw the eyeless figure. He never expected that thing to appear so early in the story. Such an entity could only be locked away by a high-circle mystic. He feared this was not the god he had been promised, but rather a creature that devours worlds.

Worse yet, the void entity typically operates purely on instinct, consuming everything it encounters. But whatever was running this operation was far from instinctual. A chill ran down Reeva’s spine. A cunning void entity was not on his list of things he wanted to encounter within The Legend of the Divine Twig.

After he gave his answer, another hand extended from the picture and touched his forehead. In an instant, Reeva felt as if his mind was suspended in air, disconnected from his body. Nothing seemed to matter anymore, except one thing, this world was… suffering.

Everything felt sick. His head spun, and his eyes lost focus. Abruptly, he rose from his chair, only to collapse to the floor. Reeva was losing control. His surroundings seemed strange and unfamiliar.

Dilan rushed over to him, catching him before he fell completely.

"Now, do you see?" Dilan murmured, holding Reeva up. "Do you understand our purpose? What does this special group stand for?"

Reeva felt a change deep within himself, a shift in his core. His perception of the world was altered. Everything around him appeared in stark black and white. The floor, the ceiling, the people. All colors drained away, blending into a bland, oppressive reality.

The only thought that crept into his mind was how painfully oppressive this world felt. It was painful to live in, painful to even exist. Each breath required concentration and every movement felt like pushing through thick, heavy air.

"It’s the way our lord sees things," Dilan continued. "This world is nothing but a nuisance to him, a prison from which we must break free."

Disbelief filled Reeva’s face. His eyes darted around the room, trying to make sense of everything he was experiencing. Then his gaze returned to the picture, and suddenly, everything made sense. The picture, the sensation — it was all the same. Black and white everywhere, blending into one continuous reality.

He realized then, with a shiver of dread, that their so-called god was truly everything and nothing.