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The last thing I remember was pain in my right arm as I saw black flames burn and turn it into black ashes that disappeared into nothing.

The pain was so intense I screamed and fell unconscious.

…

And now, it seems I’m here.

In yet another weird dream, it seems.

I seem to have these a lot now…

“…”

I looked around, feeling slightly cold.

Ah, this place is…

Darkness.

Stars.

Nebulas and planets.

Yes, outer space. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

“Is this a dream, or am I really here?”

I looked everywhere, floating around, feeling lost.

A lot has happened.

Even in my damn dreams, I can’t help but worry.

Dad is…

He’s…

Dead.

And also Zero One’s Mother.

She’s gone as well.

We won, but the cost was too much.

Can you even consider it a victory at all like this?

And that darkness that took my arm…

Was that what I think it was?

“…”

I looked around me, floating in the endless space. My own body felt weird, ethereal.

I guess it really was just a dream.

A strange one that let me think so deeply.

“I’m… sorry… Anna…”

“…?”

And at that moment, I heard a voice whispering to me.

TRUUUM!

An immense pressure hit my body.

I felt like my entire being was being crushed by the force of…

I don’t know, a damn black hole!

As I turned around to see where the voice came from, I was greeted by just that.

An endless, swirling distortion in space and perhaps even time.

A black hole, an abyss.

“Y-You’re…?”

A Seamless Abyss.

Just looking into this endlessly swirling abyss of dark matter made me feel sick.

My own soul trembled in pain.

This isn’t a dream!

It’s real!

He’s here…!

“Don’t look… I am… a horrible… monster…”

“…”

I didn’t stop looking at him, however.

As I cried, as my soul was tortured, I couldn’t stop looking at him.

Because I knew who he was…

“I’m sorry… Your arm… I… I couldn’t… stop it…! The hunger… a price… my help… I…! I…”

And I saw the countless crimson eyes of the Seamless Abyss crying tears of miasma, void, and blood.

I couldn’t help but cry as well.

“It’s… fine…”

I looked at my right arm—or where it should have been.

Indeed, it was gone.

Even the arm of my spiritual body, my soul, my astral form.

I’ll likely never be able to get a right arm again.

This was the “price” I had to pay…

For him to help us.

“Huh…?”

As I moved toward his endless body and felt myself being siphoned by the black hole, he panicked.

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“W-Wait…! What… are you doing…?! You will… you will die!”

He stopped me from being engulfed by his darkness as two gigantic tentacles caught me, cushioning me.

I used this opportunity to hug him.

As I hugged him, as my soul felt pain, I continued crying.

“You’re alive… my brother from that novel… right?”

“…!”

His eyes widened as I said what I’d wanted to say this entire time.

“A-Anna… Anna…!”

He cried more and more.

“I’m so sorry…! It’s my fault… I… You don’t know how much I wanted… I wanted… to see you again…! I ruined everything… I was… my world… everything… everyone… I… this feeling… it felt so hollow…! I couldn’t stop thinking… about… my family… my sister… Anna…”

“I know…”

I kept crying while hugging him however I could.

He was my brother, after all.

I knew it was him.

Since I had that dream where I was made of crystals.

And my arm disappeared.

I foresaw it.

“No… this is wrong…! You mustn’t talk to me; you mustn’t look at me…!”

“But I’m already doing that, brother!”

I didn’t let go of him.

Even if his voice was distorted and monstrous.

Even if his very existence made my soul tremble in pain.

I couldn’t let go of him.

No, not anymore…

After learning about what happened to him originally, I always wanted to see that Jack.

The Jack who lost everything.

I held the hope that maybe he never existed, that the Jack I met in my world was the only one.

But of course… stories don’t just disappear.

An author only writes new ones, but every other story they ever wrote remains.

Abandoned.

This is the true origin of Void Rulers.

Beings “outside” of the story, from abandoned stories.

Embodiments of regret, pain, suffering, hunger, agony, loss, dreams, and nightmares.

They are a representation of their own universes, of their broken-down, abandoned stories.

The Universal Computer, most likely, was also from a story the Author once wrote, abandoned forever.

They hunger for stories like nothing else because they desire to complete their own stories, which will forever remain incomplete.

And my brother here, as the supreme being of that story, of the original novel…

Somehow, he came here, as a Void Ruler, as the Seamless Abyss.

“A-Anna…! ANNA!!!”

He cried so loudly. He was a completely broken person.

He had fallen into such despair; he had lost everything.

His heart, his emotions, his family, his world—everything he’d once held dear.

He had nothing. He was nothing.

Hence, he became the abyss.

A forever-empty black hole…

“I’m sorry…! I’m sorry for letting you die! For letting everyone die…! I am so sorry! I didn’t want this! I didn’t want any of this! I-I…! I HAVE NOTHING…! I FEEL SO LONELY…! I FEEL SO EMPTY!”

“It’s alright…! I’m here… I’m here for you, brother…! I won’t let go of you… until you feel better…!”

“A-Anna…”

“I don’t care if you’re a Void Ruler, you know?!”

“But…”

“I only care that you’re here for me! And that you helped me…! An arm?! I couldn’t give a damn about an arm, as long as I can see you again! My brother… my dear brother! Oh, how much you have suffered! You didn’t deserve this! You didn’t! You worked so hard…! So hard! And… and you only got the worst ending. You didn’t deserve to end up alone! So I came here…! I came here to change that…! I wanted to change it for you! Because… because I love you, brother! I love you so much!”

“A-ANNA…! ANNA…!”

As I cried, as I hugged him, and as I gave him love, I felt something within the depths of my soul surging with immense strength.

FLUOSH!

A large, pink-colored heart made of cosmic crystals appeared.

The heart spun above me, constantly releasing light.

The darkness surrounding us, the abyss itself, began to change.

Everything was consumed by pink-colored petals. A blue sky appeared, and in a mere second…

FLAAASH!

“A-Ah…!”

“Eh?”

We found ourselves standing above a beautiful plain covered with pink and white flowers.

There was a beautiful blue sky with white clouds and, in the distance, snowy mountains and a forest.

And my brother…

He was there.

No longer a monster, he was really there.

He was there as himself!

“W-What is this?! I don’t… I don’t understand…”

“Brother!”

I ran as fast as I could, reaching him and jumping onto his torso, hugging him.

“A-Anna!”

He started crying as he grabbed me, lifting me up and hugging me tightly.

I was much smaller than I remembered, as if I’d gone back in time to when I was still a ten-year-old girl.

I don’t know why this was happening, or how…

But maybe…

Maybe my Heart of Hope and Love did this.

The Path of Love…

Can it bring us together, even against all odds and adversities?

Is this the Path I’ve forged?

Is this…

The combination of the Legacies of my dear parents from Bestia?

This is… their love.

The love of my dear crow-faced father…

Of that cranky old idiot I love so much.

His love, his strength…

And also the hope and light he brought to me.

And my mother as well, of course…

And little Song, too.

It felt like it was thanks to them that I could now hug him, my brother from the original story.

“How is this happening? Why… why are we here? What is this place?” he asked in disbelief. “I… I was a Void Ruler? But… here I am… a human! A human again…! After millions of years…!”

“This is the power they taught me!” I said happily. “The people of Bestia… You were watching, right? The Heavenly Demon, the Heavenly Empress… Song! The people you fought to protect, brother…! The wonderful world you saved!”

“I-Is that so…” Jack muttered. His empty, bleak eyes began to gain more and more light as tears flowed from them. “I’m glad I did the right thing… for once…”

“Hmm! You did!” I nodded, hugging him and kissing his cheek. “I love you! And I always will! No matter what version you are… Because you’re my brother…!”

“Anna…” He continued crying, resting his head on my shoulder. “I wish this moment could last forever… I wish I could live happily with you… I wish… I wish so many things…!”

“Don’t worry…! I-I will… change everything!” I said. “I’ll change the story; I’ll make the happy ending you deserve! And I won’t stop working… until I get it done, okay? So just wait…! I’ll get it done, one day! I promise…!”

“I… I believe you, Anna…” Jack nodded. “I’m sorry for never letting you grow like this, for never encouraging you to progress by my side… And for being so overprotective… In the end, I caused so many terrible things because of my own insecurities, because of all my mistakes… because I was… I was afraid…”

“I… I know… I’m also afraid. Nobody is perfect… I’m so scared, actually, because I don’t even know what I should do from now on… But… but as long as you’re here, and everyone else…” I muttered. “I think… I think I can find a way…!”

As he carried me like a little princess in his arms, he walked through the endless field of flowers, looking at the sky and the sun.

“Yes… Let’s do it together… No matter what…!” he nodded. “But… I don’t want you to pay the price anymore… We must find another way… Anna.”

“I told you I don’t care if I lose all my limbs, as long as I—”

“No… That same attitude is what made me commit so many mistakes…” Jack looked at me, furrowing his brows. “I won’t let you carry all that weight alone, Anna… because I know that when I did, this is what I became…”

His body was slowly breaking down, revealing darkness and crimson eyes inside him.

At the same time, this illusory realm was already crumbling, having barely lasted a few minutes…

So it was indeed just an illusion.

A beautiful illusion, but one that couldn’t last as long as we wished.

“Brother… When will I see you again?” I cried, looking at him.

“Seeing me is dangerous… But I will always be watching over you,” he smiled, kissing my forehead.

Then, he placed his hand inside the hole in his chest as the cracks continued spreading through it.

“Ngh…!”

He seemed to be in pain, as if he were trying to pull something out.

“W-Wait, what are you doing?!”

“T-This… take this…”

He gave me a small, black and red oval-shaped jewel.

“W-What’s this?”

“This is… a piece of my heart… Please… carry it with you… for… for when I…”

“Brother?!”

“For when I…!”

He fell to his knees, his entire body breaking down more and more.

The illusion around us was collapsing.

As the world fell apart, I ran toward him.

“Brother!”

And as I was about to touch him…

“Take care… Anna.”

He smiled back at me, and then the dream ended.

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