The world around us collapsed. All at once, everything came crashing down. Even the strongest of all the realms could not keep it standing up. The master of space in Cosmos failed to grasp the falling of space and the ruler of everything in Kaiser failed to keep in check the change of the world.
We could only blink in the face of the sudden movement that seemed to have pulled everything, everywhere, everyone into itself.
A pain similar to stubbing your toe, a perplexity that made one wonder how such an insignificant problem can leave you in pain, and a psyche that made you laugh and wince at the same time. Such pain and such perplexity flowed into all of our bodies and all of our psyches all at once.
What was a simple face-off against a being had suddenly turned into a movement across worlds, across dimensions, across boundaries, and straight into the embrace of a vast expanse.
The expanse of black was lit up with starry spreads like haphazard swings of a paintbrush. The litter of stars was further backed by an ethereal, ungrounded presence of nebulae of purple and pink. Their depth too deep for one's understanding.
All twelve of us were here in front of this….
space.
And all twelve of us were unable to move.
For even above the stars, brighter than the lights and deeper than the nebulae, darker than space itself were those existences.
Those existences with enormous eyes and appendages swinging around.
A depth too deep to fathom.
A size too big to perceive.
A concept…
A concept too convoluted to process.
Those were the beings above us, concepts.
Concepts that existed beyond our worlds, beyond our selves, beyond us.
They were…
"The outer… gods…"
My mindless mutter snapped everyone out of their reverie.
We were floating in the middle of the space, the eyes of those 'creatures' on us.
Barbatos, Girghet, and Albert grabbed their heads.
"Just seeing… them…"
Was enough to rip us apart. Beings far beyond our understanding were facing us, it was inane to hope to perceive them with our insignificant eyes.
Dive in and attack?
Foolish. How foolish.
"This can't be…" Luka's mutter spilled, his eyes leaking tears of blood. "T-the outer gods… weren't like this…"
I felt my body being crushed under the mere presence of the 'creature' was enough.
The Outer Gods that they had seen and lost again, were they anything like this? Had they even seen the right ones?
I slowly turned my gaze toward my sight. The others were already on their knees despite floating around. Only Kai was able to stay on his feet.
That was when I noticed, even I had fallen under the pressure.
Fighting here was impossible.
Death.
The space moved as the being started speaking. It needed no mouth to speak and no eyes to see, its existence itself was a command to the universe.
[y????????o????u?????? ???????????d?????o???n????????'????????t????? ????????b???????e??????l?????o??????n???????g?????? ????????h?????????e?????????r??????e??????????]
Words like bristles of metal clanging against concrete filled our ears. A few of them writhed while grabbing their ears.
[r????????e??????t????u?????????r????????n???? ???????????t???????o??????? ????????w?????h???????e?????r????????e???????? ????????y???????o??????u??????? ????????b?????e??????????l??????o??????????n???????g????????]
The space collapsed again. As if we were taken inward and then pushed outward all at once, we all shot off.
A single command and my body hurled through the space. Across the black expanse and beyond the glowing stars. All at once I was crushed through it all and pushed behind.
Beyond the purple nebulae and past the belts of asteroids. Like a comet speeding through the universe, everything but I had come to a stop. It all bend and contracted and it all straightened and unraveled.
Breaths, thoughts, understandings, all of them were taken away.
The command of the being was simple.
Return to where you belong.
Before my consciousness could go away, a blue and green object in the middle of the space entered my sight.
And then.
It all darkened.
***
A gust of wind tore through the air of the floating archipelago that housed the Elysium Tower and the Syncretic Academy.
Meteorites, just like meteorites, three burning objects came tumbling down the skies. Seeing it, all the teachers moved the students away and cleared the space.
A rumble resounded and the island almost caved in half as the meteorites fell on the ground, leaving an enormous crater that the faculty barely kept in control with barriers.
At it blew away and the students came crawling toward the crater, their eyes widened.
In the center of the ground were the principal of the academy and two adventurers of Mythril Rank that anyone who had seen a newspaper knew of.
***
Three great demons crashed into the red of the almost-empty hell. The smoke their fall brought about covered the red skies in grey for a day.
The hell that had only seen red and black was slowly growing colorful.
***
The clouds of heaven emptied out.
Many angels fell to their knees in the face of three OverGods that had bitten dust.
***
A gasp resounded as Titania slowly awoke in the golden grounds of Alfheim. The purple skies of the fairy realm were today filled with the sight of many other fairies floating about curiously.
She shifted her gaze to the side and saw Aine and Selphie collapsed on the ground. Her head hurt, Alfheim had done its best to cushion her fall but even that was insufficient.
Her heart thumped at the sight she had just returned from, but Titania didn't let it swallow her.
The same, unfortunately, couldn't be said for her two companions as they trembled and convulsed on the ground.
The queen of fairies rushed over and looked at her twin sister.
"W-w-what happened—"
Titania took in a breath and stood up.
"The end… is nearing."
***
Beeps and clicks rang together in a room with an enormous screen looming overhead.
"Director!" One voice called. "We have lost contact with one of our satellites. It seemed to have fallen after colliding with stray meteorites."
"Satellite? Was it important? And what's the impact point?"
"Not really, the impact point seems to be near Bermuda in the Atlantic."
"Bermuda? Whatever no one cares, switch its usage to a different satellite and let the coast guard know."
"Yes sir."
"We have a major show in front of the Hunter's Association today."
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel