'I never knew the world could sound this peaceful.'
Judas thought as he closed his eyes, taking in the silence.
After everything that had happened, the calm felt almost unreal.
He slowly opened his eyes and looked upward.
Stretching across the sky was a vast trail of floating rock and debris, forming a luminous band that encircled the planet.
The shattered remains of the moon.
Fragments broken away during his battle with Antares had failed to escape the planet's gravity and were now suspended high above the world.
'Looks like they got caught in the planet's orbit.'
Judas watched the drifting field of stone for a brief moment before launching himself upward once more, ascending toward outer space.
When he looked back, he could now see it clearly.
A vast ring of floating rocks surrounding the world, forming a perfect circle, resembling the majestic rings of Saturn.
'Not quite there. Saturn definitely has a thicker one.'
Judas turned around, his figure blurring as he landed on the battered surface of the moon.
The moment his feet touched the ground, he felt a resonance.
The moon began emitting a faint white light that drifted toward his body.
'I can feel its emotions...'
Judas thought as the moon happily gave him strength.
'It seems like it knows what I'm going to do.'
He sat down cross-legged and began channeling the Arcanum within his body.
A surge of blue light burst from Judas like a raging flood.
Yet instead of dispersing wildly into space, the Arcanum moved according to his will, flowing in controlled streams toward the massive ring of debris orbiting the planet.
Within moments, the entire ring was bathed in a pale blue radiance.
Judas raised his hand and made a series of precise gestures.
The ring responded.
Countless fragments of moon rock trembled before beginning to move, slowly at first...
Then faster and faster, as though an invisible force had seized control of every single piece.
The enormous ring began collapsing inward.
Drawn toward him.
Toward the broken moon.
The scattered debris converged from all directions, reforming layer by layer as the shattered lunar surface stitched itself back together.
Judas remained at the center of it all, surrounded by an endless storm of rock and dust.
Before long, even his figure disappeared from view, buried beneath the countless fragments still converging as the moon was restored to its original form.
When everything was finished, the ring around the planet had vanished, and the moon had been fully restored.
Judas burst out from the surface as blue light coated his skin.
'Sorry about earlier... I fixed you up now.'
He crouched down and patted the moon with a nod before heading back, launching himself toward the surface world.
...
"Look! Over there!"
On top of a hill near the Great Forest, Asfi called out when she spotted a streak of light heading toward their location.
"Is it an attack?"
Lante exclaimed as she clutched her weapon.
"No... don't be alarmed."
Artemis said softly, a light smile tugging at her lips.
"It's our hero who saved the day."
Hermes added with an amused chuckle as he adjusted the hat on his head.
A second later, Judas descended from the sky and landed before them.
"Judas!"
Artemis was the first to move.
"You did it..."
She rushed straight toward him and wrapped both arms around him without hesitation, her expression overflowing with relief and happiness.
"Judas? Not going to call me Orion anymore?"
Judas questioned with a raised brow as she continued hugging him tightly.
"..."
Artemis didn't answer immediately, but Judas noticed the tips of her ears turning red as she buried her face against his chest.
"Don't make me remember something embarrassing... I don't know what my other self was thinking. I only received fragments of her memories."
The goddess of the hunt said quietly, turning her head slightly to the side before finally letting go and stepping back.
Once she moved aside, Belle and the others quickly gathered around Judas, their faces filled with joy, relief, admiration, and lingering disbelief.
"That was amazing!"
Belle exclaimed excitedly.
"You were like... bam! Then that monster went rawr! Then the moon exploded and everything went BOOM!"
She swung her arms around dramatically as she tried to describe the scale of what they had just witnessed.
"I honestly never thought I'd witness a battle on that scale in my lifetime. I still can't process half of what I saw... I have no words."
Welf said as he patted Judas on the shoulder.
"You have no idea how terrified I was."
Lili added while shaking her head.
"I woke up and saw a giant ring of rocks surrounding the entire world. Then Belle casually told me those were pieces of the moon that broke apart."
"...When you put it like that, I guess it does sound really bad."
Belle muttered awkwardly.
"Judas..."
Hearing his name, Judas turned toward Rethusa and the other members of the Artemis Familia.
Every single one of them wore grateful expressions.
"Thank you very much for saving our goddess. The Artemis Familia will forever be in your debt."
Rethusa spoke as they bowed their heads in unison.
Judas simply gave a small nod in response.
At that exact moment, the first rays of sunlight finally emerged beyond the horizon, painting the dark sky in shades of gold and orange.
'It's finally morning.'
That intense battle made him feel as though he had just gone through the longest night of his life.
The group gradually fell silent as everyone turned toward the sunrise, appreciating the view.
They simply stood there together, quietly watching the dawn after surviving what should have been the end of the world.
And as the sunlight spread across the land...
The reality of it finally settled into everyone's hearts.
The world...
Had been saved.
...
"Finally, we're going back home... I don't want to stay in this place for even one more second."
Lili spoke with exhaustion in her voice when they finally found their ride home.
"With the intensity of the battle that happened, I'm surprised these guys didn't flee in fear."
Belle said as she patted a wyvern on the head.
"As expected of monsters personally trained by Lord Ganesha..."
Asfi muttered as she rubbed her chin.
A few steps away, beneath the shade of a tree, Judas sat in a meditative position with his eyes closed.
'The Arcanum inside my body is gone. Now I'm back to being a mortal.'
Judas thought as he assessed himself.
But he didn't fuss over it.
It was to be expected since he had already fulfilled the contract he made with Artemis.
As the original owner, her divinity naturally returned to her.
But Judas wasn't focused on that.
'An unexpected benefit...'
Judas looked at the mana core inside his chest.
Where it had once been riddled with cracks and holes, it now looked almost like a polished gem.
'Having Arcanum constantly flooding my body actually pushed the repair process from sixty-five percent to ninety percent.'
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