Kyto, Fhiron, Obsidia, Elizabeth, Jean, Zarutha, and countless other people in the village were immobile.
Everything across the world was stagnated and brought to its End.
Movement, emotions, purpose, meaning, reason, logic, laws, ideas, stories, origins, and history.
They no longer remembered their lives, nor did they remember their names.
They were like emotionless zombies, with no meaning in existence.
Grimhild was adamant about bringing everything to annihilation, but Arthur refused.
+
Grimhild—no, the Endpoint—screamed as Arthur's words cut deeper than any blade.
"You… FOOL!!"
The skies twisted violently above them, turning black and violet, ripping apart everything.
Suns dimmed, moons fractured, stars reversed their age and collapsed into singularities.
From her back, hundreds of wings of annihilation unfurled, made not of feathers, but of negative space; each wing represented the death of a concept.
Time, Memory, Justice, Love, Thought, Song, Breath, Will, Light.
Grimhild's appearance started to change: once a Witch of Justice, now altered into a true Primordial.
With a roar of unimaginable horror, the Witch of Destruction soared downward as her wings folded into multiple spears of complete erasure, aimed straight for Arthur's heart.
But he did not move, he only closed his eyes.
"Excalibur…"
The sword glowed once more with divine light.
"Fulfill your vow."
And suddenly, from the ground beneath him, countless blades emerged; they were all possibilities of victory given form.
Each blade was clad in gold, and drawn by the idea of hope itself.
As Grimhild descended, the blades circled Arthur in a spiral like a storm of conviction, will, and light.
The spears of erasure collided with them—
SHHHRRRAAANG!!
A blinding explosion tore across the world.
But Arthur remained standing.
He stepped forward from the fading lightstorm as his armor cracked, his body bruised, but his eyes fierce.
"I told you. I'm going to bring you back!"
Grimhild's wings retracted, mangled and dripping with flickers of unreality.
Her hands trembled from the conflict inside her essence; Destruction tried resisting.
"You… don't know what you're doing!" She muttered. "If you defeat me now, I'll take everything with me. All realms, and all life. The world will return to before it was ever imagined!"
Arthur raised Excalibur again.
"I'm the Hope this world needs to survive. I'm the Light in the Void, and the bringer of Freedom!"
Arthur chanted out loud, closing his eyes.
"I will not let this world suffer again!"
+
It's been 30,000 years since Yggdrasil was born from the body of Ymir.
This was the beginning of the first era—the Amicable Age—the era where all races were neutral with one another.
It was peaceful, except for the Orcs and their leader, Onabula Spearhead, who enslaved humanity.
But before humanity's struggles and the pain of life, there were three Primordial Sources who watched the world.
Yorgana, the Atamon of Destruction, Vrulema, the Atamon of Creation, and Gravenheart, the Atamon of Chaos. The Great Silence dreamt of the Perfect World, and created these three Primordial Sources to keep the Hortus, or in other words, "Everything", in perfect harmony.
But over time, these three Primordials ended up creating an "Essence" that could carry out their will.
Yorgana created Grimhild, Vrulema created Beatrice, and Gravenworth created Agnes.
These newly created entities are somewhat "conscious", unlike their creators. With the ability to reflect, and be conscious of themselves; they could form reasoning and let environments influence them.
These newfound Atamon were the will of Yorgana, Vrulema, and Gravenworth.
The reason for their creation was quite simple. Their creators fabricated them to learn about the world and experience it through their eyes.
Yorgana, Vrulema, and Gravenworth were simply far too abstract, far too complex, and far too transcendent to manifest within the Hortus.
That's why Grimhild, Beatrice, and Agnes were formed.
At first, these newfound Atamon knew nothing about the world and were clueless to it all, but simply followed the orders of their makers—but eventually—conflict rose.
There was one Atamon who rebelled against the other two, and even her maker.
Descendant of Chaos, Agnes Gravenworth.
She wanted nothing to do with her maker and decided to do her own thing.
Thus, she spread endless chaos.
This was the purpose Agnes sought in life, but Beatrice suggested they should follow orders, and so did Grimhild.
Eventually, this led to them battling one another, but Agnes remained victorious.
As the most complex, and incoherent Primordial, she stood above them both and claimed that she would destroy this world.
[Many Ages Ago]
"We were created to be nothing more than slaves to a higher power." She stated. "We are meant to carry out their will? Pwa ha ha! What a sad, pathetic joke!" Claimed Agnes.
Grimhild appeared different.
She was a formless—humanoid shape of pure darkness while Beatrice was the same—except she was pure white.
Agnes looked to be both dark and white, swirling with contradiction.
This was before the time they had actual shape.
"They are our makers, defying them will cause nothing but harm." Proclaimed Beatrice.
"We exist to carry out their will, we cannot deny them. What you are trying to do will destroy everything that the Great Silence has dreamt, Agnes." Said Grimhild.
"Ufufu!"
Agnes snickered, towering over her sisters in the endless void beyond the Hortus.
"I understand that, my sisters, but that's what I desire. The complete and utter collapse of this world!"
"Why? This wasn't our purpose." Said Beatrice.
"Wasn't our purpose? Look into the Hortus, Beatrice, Grimhild. What was the purpose of everything else? Can you find any?"
Both Beatrice and Grimhild went quiet.
"You can't, can you? There's no true reason for all of this to exist. What's the purpose of everything? It's simple; there is none! It's all but the dream of the Great One! And soon it will vanish, just like the old Garden."
[Present]
[In Grimhild's Mind]
All those ages ago, I knew Agnes would be nothing but trouble for this world, but she persuaded me.
She persuaded both of us.
I and Beatrice gave into her ways, and embraced our primal nature, creating physical bodies to manifest within Halvrendor.
My purpose was to destroy, and Beatrice's purpose was to create other worlds for me to destroy.
After Creation comes Destruction, and after Destruction comes Chaos.
That was the natural order of everything, and we abused it.
Beatrice created endless worlds, and I destroyed them, while Agnes fed off their Chaos.
We were rebellious and irredeemable.
There's no doubt in my mind that our makers long disowned us.
We were persuaded and believed that world had no purpose, and that it was simply a dream that would come and go like all the other Gaedens from the Great Silence—so we constantly consumed spheres and other realms that long existed, wanting to see it all fall.
But that all changed once Beatrice created Yggdrasil, the World Tree.
This was a world full of potential, and we were going to destroy it like all the others, but little did we know, we created our own downfall.
We first watched the world grow and saw the mortals prosper before we decided to wreak havoc in the Mystical Age.
We brought forth the Other Gods, corrupted the Elohim, and drove this world to madness.
However, there was one thing we didn't take into account, and that was our essence.
Creation, Destruction, and Chaos had spent too much time together, and our opposing natures fabricated something else far more grand.
Thus came another Atamon.
It was born, just like us, when our makers fabricated our existences in the Atamon Plane.
We assumed it was another Atamon created by our makers, but soon we discovered the truth.
It was born from our clash of essence—it was the Atamon of Neutrality.
During the Mystical Age, it gave itself a physical body and wandered all of Yggdrasil to see its purpose for living.
It couldn't find any.
It was soon to become just like one of us, and see no reason for life to exist.
But that changed when it met humans.
Despite our destruction across Yggdrasil, the Atamon of Neutrality met humans who were living lavishly in hidden kingdoms that were concealed by the Voicelords.
It soon grew to love humans and admire their ideals—eventually giving it a reason to live.
Thus, the Atamon of Neutrality wanted all life to succeed and live on forever.
It incorporated human morals, ideals, and philosophies into itself forming its own purpose of life; to be it's savior.
It wanted to use Mortal Concepts to fight against Ineffable Sources, and so, it became a blade. One that humans called Excalibur.
But it needed the perfect human—one who represented good—to wield it.
By turning into a blade and dropping itself into the lake of the Mythical Valley, it waited for a human to one day wield its power and save the world.
After years of its departure, mortals created rumors that one day, a lady of the Lake would rise up in the Mythical Valley and give Excalibur to the Chosen Hero.
While it may have been nothing more than rumors—those rumors gave birth to an Alufray Spirit who would fulfill that purpose.
And that Spirit was known as the Lady of the Lake herself.
When Arthur Pendragon asked the world for help, it answered.
In the Mythical Valley, he was given this Almighty Blade, and now he uses it to slay the forces of Evil, and protect the world.
He was the one who changed me… so why? Why am I letting Destruction consume me again?
This isn't who I am.
Arthur, you were the one who showed me the meaning of life.
You were the one who forced me to understand mortals and this entire world.
I changed because of you.
But my older, and darker self is taking over.
+
"There's no true reason for all of this to exist…"
Agnes's laughter reverberated through time itself, drowning Grimhild's thoughts in that same cold nihilism that once consumed her.
Back in the present, Arthur gripped Excalibur tightly, watching Grimhild falter.
He saw it.
A weak point—
A fracture in her unstoppable form.
The Endpoint was faltering.
"I know you're still in there, Grimhild!" Arthur called out. "This world has meaning because you gave it meaning! You loved, you protected, you saved countless lives, didn't you?!"
"How do you know that…?"
"Because Excalibur is telling me the truth! It speaks to me! It sees your pain, and wants to save you as well!"
Grimhild screamed again, but it wasn't the raw cry of a god.
It was human.
It was broken…
"I… don't want to remember!" She rasped. "I don't want to feel it again… the betrayal, the loss, the emptiness. I tried so hard… to be good… and it meant nothing!"
Her wings of annihilation flared open once more, shrouded in erasure.
"If I return to who I was, I'll feel everything I buried. I'll break apart!"
"I never said it was easy, Grimhild. Being good means doing the right thing even when the world gives you every reason not to. It means standing back up when you fail, when you're hurt, when it feels pointless. And it will feel pointless. You will question it a million times."
He lifted Excalibur and pointed it toward her.
"But that's what makes it real. That's what makes it stronger. Not power. Not perfection. But choice! So don't let the old you consume the new you!"