unfortunate

Well its for the better he choose to leave and can have a new life.

i think the author explained it well enough, it is true, that sometimes we all don't get our happy ending, in some way he also is at fault, in the end, even after the possession, the author lost her ability to control cliff, it was cliff himself who still wanted rhyse, though i agree that the "author" if definitely one of the causes why cliff is obsessed, but lets not forget, that he could have chosen a different path, but he choose to look for the "author" himself, he was definitely manipulated! it is sad to see that he turned like that bc of the "author"

I guess I feel indifferent about him.

Although cliff was manipulated and became current cliff because of author k, when author k was stripped of her powers to control/influence the characters, cliff still chose to obsessively look for his “rhyse” (author k) and abandon his post rather than come to terms with his wrongdoings, accept punishment and face reality. He was so drawn to his idealisms that like a moth drawn to a flame, he caused his own downfall.

But that’s just my take on Cliff’s ending.

thank you guys for these insightful comments, i guess i didnt really see or understood the part that cliff was given a second chance to redeem himself and that he couldve chosen a happy ending for himself.. although unfortunatel, i understand it now

i feel the same. The way he was written left little room for independent reasonings. Killian was written to want to be someone's someone so that person can be someone else than Rhyse but Cliff had no other purpose so he can't really chose anything other than Rhyse/Author K