"Aphrodite!" Dionysus called. It was one of the few times he did not have a glass of wine in his hands.
" The last of the Gods have already used all their power to summon heroes," he said, handing over a ring to Aphrodite.
If one were to look at the ring closely, they would find that it was a copy of Odin's ring, Draupnir, albeit with different engravings.
Aphrodite wore it on her index finger.
"What of Odin? Zeus? Loki?" She asked, panicked. Their attempts thus far had been futile, though they carried on stubbornly.
The ring glowed before turning into a streak of lits surrounding her.
"I believe Odin left a few decades ago to summon the last of his warriors and defend whatever is left of Asgard." Dionysus answered.
"Last I heard, Zeus and Loki were out courting whatever had legs. Maybe each other," he joked, smiling for the first time in years.
Then, he frowned.
"She's getting quicker," he said, looking worriedly in the distance.
Dionysus was one of the more relaxed gods in this world-ending scenario, though that wasn't saying much.
Aphrodite, taking the hint, flew off towards a platform below the world tree Yggdrasil. The death of all universes was increasing at an alarming rate. It hadn't taken more than a thousand years for the entity to reduce an infinite number of worlds to mere trillions.
" A few more decades..." Aphrodite whispered to herself, aware of the spreading darkness across every universe.
She reached the platform. Her heart wrenched as she watched the crumbling pillars. On one of the pillars was her own story. Every piece, from the moment she was crowned god, to the moment when humans would first worship her, all her life was engraved on it in pictures. As were the lives of the other higher-ranking gods on each pillar.
The platform was where the gods used to hold their celebrations, a place of joy, perhaps it was fitting that it was here where they could find their last hope.
With some divinity, she guided the light in front of her. The streak of light around her expanded brightly, opening a gate to the furthest edges of reality.
"Ratotoskr," she called to the squirrel watching. It was, after all, the only being left on the tree, even the serpent that had eaten at its roots had disappeared.
"Go to every edge of reality and find whoever responds to our call. Bring them here as soon as possible," she told the squirrel.
It obeyed, running through the light to the other side. The streak of light, now turned into a portal, condensed and expanded unsteadily.
'It should break any moment now,' she thought to herself. She pulled out a large fraction of the portal, molding it back into a broken ring, and then threw the ring into what was left of the portal, guiding it around the tail of the squirrel.
" Use the ring to return," Aphrodite said, transferring her remaining divinity to the squirrel.
As the portal collapsed, the light condensed into a piece of a ring and fell towards the stone platform. The goddess followed suit, having already exhausted all her strength.
From the ground, she noticed the steady decaying of Yggdrasil's roots. More than half of the tree has begun withering, with each universe killed, one root followed. Truly, it was the death of all Life...
"My, my, it seems I'm a bit late," the dark figure smiled, leaning against the decaying side of the tree. Aphrodite remained silent, looking at the creature with horror and trepidation.
"Oh c'mon." It said, " No welcome? It can't be that I've been forgotten right?"
It asked playfully, its hands gently caressing over to the living side of the tree. For a second, the entity looked fondly at the tree, leaning over to touch more of it. The bark withered where it was touched, and the entity pulled its hand back quickly.
"Damnit." It said, rubbing its smoking hand before it regenerated back. "There's still so much life in this damn tree."
It relaxed again, standing back on the decayed bark.
"Or is it finally dying?" It said, looking at the roots before turning its attention back to Aphrodite.
"That squirrel you have is real tricky," it complained, "I can't find it anywhere, where'd you send it?"
"Why are you here?" Aphrodite asked, discomforted at the aura surrounding the figure.
"Just to see how much of the universe still lives." It said nonchalantly. " And perhaps to meet some old friends," it smirked, looking back at the tree, then at Aphrodite.
The god marveled at its nonchalance, though she felt that it was better to keep it here. The death of the world slowed considerably if the main cause was chatting in the gods' realm.
"What do you want?" She asked again.
The entity snickered and flicked its hand, causing a cage of pure darkness to wrap around Aphrodite. She levitated midair inside the cage. Each time she touched the darkness, it burned into her skin.
"You see, I can't have you stopping me." It said. "I've already stopped most of the gods, but it seems you managed to send an envoy for a hero already."
The goddess sighed, relieved. That meant that at least a few other Gods had managed to get other heroes.
"So why are you still here? You failed to stop me, no?" She said.
" I'll just take care of them when they come back." It said with a smile.
Yggdrasil was the last place in the universe connecting all the realms, it was natural to assume that Ratotoskr would return here with who he'd found.
"Why are you doing this?" Aphrodite asked.
"Why are you trying to stop me?" It asked back, even more perplexed. "Death is natural."
"This isn't death," she said. "It's destruction."
"I think I know what death is. I am death," it shrugged. "But anyway, there won't be anything left to know the difference soon."
"You haven't answered me," She said.
" I don't have to, you should know," it said causally. "Life was never supposed to last this long anyway, the experiment should've ended trillions of years ago. It's only because you gods have trapped me for so long that it evolved so much."
Aphrodite remained silent. Most of the gods had forgotten such a being existed eons ago. It was their carelessness that led to its freedom.
"So, why aren't you killing me?" She asked.
It looked at her, sighing deeply as if it was bored.
"Do you have dementia?" It looked exasperated. "I have to use you to take out whatever damn 'hero' pops up out of the portal." She said, pointing at the broken ring on the ground. "They'll return here, no?"
"It will take years," she tried to say.
"I have all the time in the universe and more," it smirked. "I reckon you don't have more than a few decades left."
The darkness was spreading rapidly, growing stronger and faster with each universe destroyed. It was now powerful enough to function on its own, much like a machine following its programming.
"...Aren't you a bit too relaxed, Lord?" A voice rang out.
Beneath the tree emerged a bird. It turned into a scythe before returning to its master.
" Oh?" The entity mocked. " Why are you broken?" It referred to the broken hilt.
" Odin threw his spear at me. I wasn't even gonna try to kill him, but the damn thing followed me across universes 'till it got me." The scythe complained.
No one knew where its voice came from, not even its master. Hell, even if it didn't know how it was talking.
"Did you find the squirrel?" The entity asked it.
"No, but about 5 other heroes have also been summoned. Their traces were lost when they arrived in the gods' realm."
"We'll deal with them later," said the entity to her weapon.
Aphrodite could only watch the exchange between the two conscious, yet not living beings. With all her hope, she prayed that Ratotoskr would find someone capable of stopping it, that the heroes would survive against this entity until they could defeat it.
***
On the other side of the multiverse, a squirrel was running about. It had been a few years since the goddess assigned it its mission, and it had yet to find anyone who could hear it.
Every few months it would stumble across a world where someone could see it, but they didn't have enough potential to hear or communicate with it.
The ring around its tail had begun to erode and the divinity surrounding it dwindled. Reaching the last few universes, it had only enough power to travel to 7 out of the 10 remaining universes.
The first universe was already lifeless, with stars and supernovae on the edge of their lifespan. The planets would often crash together, with no orbit or system in the dying reality.
The second universe it traveled to was in its younger phase, threatened by the surrounding universes to consume it. Yet still, life was no older than a few billion years, and the most advanced forms were still one-celled groups.
The third had life on the outer boundaries of its spiral tails. No one there could see or hear it.
After a few months, it came across a planet in the fourth universe. The inhabitants called it Earth. Ratotoskr traveled around all the continents, looking for days for anyone who could notice him.
Finally, after two decades since he began searching, he found someone. In the middle of Antarctica lived a short man. He was cooking by the time Ratotoskr found him, singing as the fish he had caught grilled on the stove.
The squirrel tried to get his attention, but all the man could hear was some squeaking and a crazy squirrel.
"Aren't you a brave little guy?" Said the man to the squirrel, biting on a piece of fish.
The squirrel was impatient. While the man could hear it, he regarded it as a normal squirrel. The squirrel was beginning to feel cold, unlike the man, who had multiple jackets on.
" Shoo shoo." He said, trying to get the squirrel away.
Ratotoskr, perhaps tired of this game now, bit the pieces of fish, holding them all with his teeth.
"Oi, that's my dinner!" The man said, chasing the squirrel.
He grabbed the arrows at his side and ran after it, trying to retrieve his own meal, and perhaps catch a bit more for his appetite.
The squirrel ran a few meters away and then waited for the man to catch up. Just as it was about to get caught, it used whatever divinity it had left to activate the impartial ring, causing a portal to appear suddenly behind it.
The squirrel jumped in, and before the man could realize it, his momentum caused him to tumble into the portal.
***
"Where is that damned squirrel of yours," the entity complained.
It had been 23 years since Ratotoskr had left to find a hero. Most of the omniverse had now been dominated by darkness. The trillions of universes had been reduced to tens of billions within that time.
"Any entertainment around here? Chess maybe?" It asked the caged goddess. "If you beat me, I'll give you two more years to live. That squirrel is taking so damn long." The entity said, bored.
"You're the one who wanted to wait." The scythe told it. They had been bickering for years now.
Then, the entity smiled.
"Bingo," it said, "Speak of the devil."
Aphrodite grimaced as she looked at the fractured ring beginning to glow. It hoped that the Ratotoskr would take a bit more time so that the entity would grow bored. The hero was coming to meet his end, apparently.
The partial ring glowed and expanded, opening up the other end of the portal.
"Huh..hehe..." The entity's laugh was hollow and out of place.
"Just my luck, what the hell did that squirrel find..." it grimaced as the squirrel ran out.
Out of the portal ran Ratotoskr, with a piece of fish in his mouth. A few seconds later, the world shook slightly and dropped a few degrees colder.
"You'll be my snack, damn thief!" A normal-looking man came out. With his appearance, the darkness spreading across the gods' realm receded slightly, freezing in its advancement.
" Where am I?" He said, looking around the unfamiliar setting."How'd I get here?"
Aphrodite only watched in confusion as the entity's expression turned to one of horror, then nervousness at the man's entrance.
It seemed hesitant to attack the man and weighed its options quickly.
Hiding its intentions behind a smile, it took the form of Aphrodite and hid the goddess from the man's sight.
" You're a hero, you're meant to save the galaxy from an evil being. Good luck," it said, though it's voice trembled.
The more the entity looked at the man, the more its rage increased. It was sure of what it saw, what it felt circulating in the man's blood.
"Master..." The scythe flew to its lord, its tone unusually serious.
" I know, I can feel it," it whispered back, holding its weapon defensively.
" Me? A hero?" The man asked confused, refusing such a title.
" Yes, yes. Go now," it said, mimicking the goddess. Its voice was straining from the act.
"But I'm not a hero," the man refused.
"Of course YOU are not" It whispered maliciously, clenching its weapon. The weapon, now disguised as a sword at it's master's side, shook slightly, reminding its master to keep cool.
Once again, the entity mimicked the goddess, not wanting to stir the dormant being before it.
" You have to be," the entity said.
Before the man could question further, divine light flew around him, teleporting him elsewhere, much to the entity's relief.
"Well, shit," the entity said as it regained its cool. It sighed heavily and clicked its tongue as it looked at the goddess.
" You still have some use." It said to Aphrodite. It shrank the cage, along with Aphrodite inside, and absorbed the goddess into its body. She wasn't dead, not yet, but trapped.
"Master, this might be a bit rash" The scythe reasoned, fighting against its own desire for revenge
"He'll pay, don't worry," the entity said quietly.
For the past thousand years, it had questioned why its relative hadnt tried to stop it. Now, it had its answer. An aura familiar to the entity was circulating inside the man, the aura of Life.