West’s mind drifted backward in time... to the moment the chamber fell silent after she vanished.
The divine pressure that had crushed his lungs, bent the air, and made the world feel unbearably small was suddenly gone, as if it had never existed.
The gargantuan goddess, her six arms, her blinding rings of light, her dismissive arrogance... all of it... had disappeared without leaving even an echo behind.
Only destruction remained.
West lay there for a long while, floating half-submerged in the pool, staring up at a ceiling that no longer existed. Steam hissed from scorched stone. The chamber had been carved open violently with its edges melted and rough.
He exhaled slowly.
"...Back to square one," he muttered.
There was no triumphant fanfare or feeling of victory.
Just exhaustion and the sobering realization that he had failed to contract a very powerful being.
West understood what that meant.
Without a contract, the summoning awakening was incomplete. The next time he summoned, it wouldn’t be her. It could be something far worse or better...
Or something hostile that might decide to harm him this time.
Something weaker or something stronger... Possessing two branches was the only reason why he was able to summon something this absurdly powerful in the first place and he doubt it would happen again.
After all, lightning never struck in the same place twice.
Besides, summoning again would cost him energy. Just like the goddess had mentioned, tethering her to this plane despite not having formed a contract was not supposed to be possible for someone of West strength.
But having two branches meant having more energy as well. That didn’t mean West wasn’t currently exhausted.
However, thanks to the system and his vitality levels, he was regaining energy faster than normal awakeners.
He clenched his fingers slowly, feeling the steady rhythm of power traveling beneath his skin. He was awakened now. Truly awakened. He could feel the branches inside him like invisible conduits stretching into something vast and unknown.
But power without control was just another way to die. He needed to be careful with what he summoned next and he certainly needed to make sure he contracted it this time.
"I’ll deal with that later," West said quietly.
Pushing himself upright, West waded out of the pool. His clothes were torn, soaked, and stained with blood but his body felt... whole. The fractures, the internal damage, the agony that should have crippled him were not aching like they should.
His gaze drifted toward the center of the chamber.
The affinity stones.
Two of them.
Still embedded in the fractured rock, glowing softly with pure, refined energy condensed into crystalline form. West didn’t hesitate this time.
He reached out.
The moment his fingers brushed the stones, the system responded.
They vanished from the rock and reappeared within his inventory, neatly catalogued and secured. West released a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.
Just those alone could change his future.
But as he turned to leave, something else caught his eye.
The black sword belonging to the guardian laid where it had fallen, half-buried in shattered stone and still leaking wisps of dark mist that curled and recoiled like living smoke. Even inert, it radiated a presence that made the air around it feel heavier.
West swallowed.
That sword had nearly killed him.
He remembered the dark arcs tearing through stone like paper and the terrifying power packed into every swing.
"...Yeah," he muttered. "You’re coming with me."
He crouched and wrapped both hands around the hilt.
The moment he tried to lift it, his knees nearly buckled.
"Damn—!"
The weight was absurd. It felt like the sword itself resisted being wielded by someone it didn’t acknowledge.
Veins stood out along his arms as he growled and forced himself upright inch by inch.
This was worse than the chalice.
Much worse.
But he did it.
The system reacted immediately.
A translucent interface flared before his eyes, identifying the weapon in crisp, glowing text.
West skimmed it quickly—its origin, its rank, its terrifying attributes—before the sword vanished into his inventory on its own.
He sagged forward with both hands on his knees, breathing heavily.
"Okay," he muttered. "That explains why the thing was slow."
The beast hadn’t been clumsy.
It had been burdened.
Straightening, West finally turned away from the chamber.
It was time to leave this godforsaken ruin.
The journey back was quieter but not peaceful.
The deeper he went, the more corpses he encountered.
These were his neighbors...
Faces he vaguely recognized. A man who used to water his plants every morning. A woman who ran the small convenience store two blocks away. Someone’s child...
West forced himself to keep moving.
This wasn’t a place for mourning.
At one point, the temperature dropped sharply. His instincts earned him of danger before it even appeared.
West eyes narrowed as he jumped towards the side just as an arachnid-like creature dropped from the ceiling without a sound.
It was massive and grotesque. Its segmented body was the size of a small car. Its legs ended in bladed points, and its mandibles clicked hungrily as it locked onto him.
West didn’t panic or flee.
He reached inward and the sword answered.
The black blade manifested in his hands, nearly wrenching his arms from their sockets as its weight returned all at once.
West roared and swung.
A single, brutal arc of darkness cleaved through the air.
The creature didn’t even have time to scream.
It split cleanly in two with its body sliding apart before collapsing lifelessly to the ground.
The sword slipped from West’s grasp and slammed into the stone with a thunderous bang.
His arms trembled violently as he staggered back.
"...No wonder," he panted. "No wonder it hit like that."
He didn’t feel like this sword was meant for him. It was just too heavy. It wasn’t practical for use in combat.
He dismissed it back into inventory before it could finish wrecking his joints and that was when he heard snapping sounds.
West froze and slowly, he looked up.
Above him, stretched across the ceiling, was a massive thick and sticky orange web.
Trapped within the web was Harlan’s wife and the children.