After the scream - 2 billion remaining universes

"The stars are magnificent tonight, don't you think?"

I didn't know why I asked him that question, but I did it anyway. Perhaps, we both knew deep down that it was all that was left to us: a sky tinged purple and stars gently twinkling in the firmament.

The comets that usually passed over our heads had imploded to stain the sky one last time with their filaments of every color.

The entire world seemed to dread this moment, the moment where its existence would hang by a single thread, depend on a single decision, rely on a single person.

I would have liked to scream all my hatred at this world one last time.

I would have loved to prove to fate, to Who, and let's be crazy, to my brother, that they were all wrong, that they had all been wrong to leave us for dead.

I would have given anything for this moment to never end, for it to last an eternity.

But I no longer have the strength to shout my sorrow.

I haven't managed to prove them wrong.

I am powerless.

Yet, even as the end approaches, I feel free.

Free and relieved.

Relieved because there is still hope.

I know there is still hope.

Who knows there is still hope.

And nothing else matters.

My brother had been surgically precise so that the pain would last only a moment. I couldn't even close my eyes anymore, but I believe I wouldn't have closed them at that moment for anything in the world. I wanted to see my brother's face one last time.

That face I hadn't seen for so long. That face that could alone erase all my creations, whether they be mortal, eternal, or even Monarch, in a heartbeat.

That face I no longer recognized.

Everything had disappeared: there was no longer any anger, despair, sadness, or tiredness.

There was only a cold indifference.

And that's the only reason why I hated this world I had created and our existence.

This world had ripped away its joy and curiosity.

This world had trapped us.

Trapped in a golden cage. A golden cage where majestic trees rose towards the stars, their emerald leaves shining under the starlight. A jail where the grass, a deep green, seemed to dance to the rhythm of the wind. A prison where beds of dazzling flowers emerged from the fertile earth, exhaling intoxicating perfumes that mixed with the ambient air.

A prison traversed by a clear and sparkling river meandering through. A prison where birds sang in chorus from the branches, their plumages of shimmering hues competing with the colors of the flowers. A prison where wild animals with silky fur grazed peacefully in the lush meadows.

We had lived an eternity within this idyllic painting, and it was now time for my brother to leave it.

A bird had perched on my shoulder. Its plumage was of a brilliant white, its beak golden, and its pupils of an azure blue evoked a paradisiacal sea.

I raised my eyes to the sky one last time.

I would never have thought that my journey would one day come to an end.

I had only one regret.

I would have liked to see his smile one last time with my own eyes.

I whispered in a barely audible voice:

"Show them, my brother... show them your journey..."

The world went silent.

It froze.

The sword piercing his body dropped to the ground.

The stars had vanished.

Everything evaporated.

The purple turned to black.

The voice, cold.

"So, this is how it all ends."

Such indifference.

The world wavered.

It was free.

"Let's see how long this world can survive."

Only the void remained.

Nothing else.

Nothing left.