Within the Mindscape, Ethan's final wisp of consciousness faded.
This time, it was real. There was no lingering echo, no distant presence to cling to. It was gone entirely.
Yet even as Ethan vanished, his inner world did not collapse. Instead, it stabilized, then quietly transformed. The chaotic battlefield and blazing hellscape receded, replaced by something eerily calm. A profound clarity settled over the Mindscape, unlike anything it had ever known.
Before, the world within had been bright but indistinct, like a morning shrouded in thin fog. Now, the sky stretched overhead in a flawless, crystalline blue, cloudless and sharp, as though a storm had passed through and scrubbed everything clean.
