Unsettling Conclusion

The constant sizzling almost masked the words being spoken.

The flames and dust gave a deep sense of solemnity to the scene in place.

And solemn it was.

What had seemed like the relieving end had suddenly changed into something else entirely.

"As I thought. I can barely use it in this state. Yet the results weren't so bad..." a man in a green and white mask said.

Half of the city was littered in flames and black, charred ground that was quite brittle yet hard still.

The other half was merely riddled with the scars of the earlier fight and not the one that followed, between the Paladin Champion and the masked man.

Actuass looked before him.

Millions of people covered in halos of the protection provided by the star above... knelt deeply on either of his sides, their bodies prostrated to him as their heads even touched the ground humbly!