The absolute silence of the Spire's top floor was heavy. There was no victory music. There were no cheering crowds. There was just the cold empty space and a small pile of grey dust that used to be a god.
Sebastian lay on the white marble for a long time. His digital body was a horrific mess of severed limbs and exposed bone. His health bar was flashing a desperate angry red and hovering at exactly one percent.
If a rogue gust of wind had existed here, it would have killed him.
"Alright," Sebastian wheezed as his voice sounded thin and ragged. "Break time is over."
He slowly pushed himself up. With his pain receptors permanently deleted, the process wasn't agonizing in a physical sense. It was just a logistical nightmare of trying to operate a body that was missing half its essential parts.
He dragged his ruined avatar across the floor and left a gruesome trail of pixelated blood and black sludge.
He approached the center of the platform.
