The void was silent now — not the silence of fear, nor of defeat. It was the silence before birth, the pause before the first word.
Ash stood at the edge of the known universe.
Behind him, the Anchor Tree shimmered with restored vitality, its roots pulsing with life as the multiverse slowly healed. His companions, battered but alive, gathered around him: Sarina with her divine bow slung over her back, Akarshan's armor cracked and glowing, Monish leaning on Shivam for support, Anuj scanning the horizon with his mind tethered to the last remaining priest-tech.
They had survived the war against the Council of Extinction.
But the real mystery still loomed ahead — what lay beyond the edges of this reality.
Ash raised his hand.
In response, the space before him rippled and split — not like a door or a portal, but like the skin of the world tearing open. Light didn't pour out. Darkness didn't either. Instead, a strange white shimmer — empty of meaning, full of potential — spilled through the cracks.
Sarina whispered, "Is that… the place you came from?"
Ash nodded slowly. "That is the Origin Zone — where even time kneels. Where the first Supreme Being awoke. Where I was born, and where my memories were sealed across the cycles."
Akarshan clenched his jaw. "And now we're going back there?"
Ash turned toward them, his voice calm but heavy.
"No. I'm going alone."
Before anyone could protest, he raised a hand, silencing them.
"I know now what I am. I remember the truth. I wasn't the only Supreme Being. There were others — thirteen. We built countless universes. But one by one, they fell… until only I remained."
Monish stepped forward. "So you were the last of your kind…"
Ash nodded. "And I ordered this universe's destruction because I feared what it would become. But you changed me. You reminded me of the beauty of life. Of why we create."
Sarina placed her hand on his shoulder. "Then let us go with you."
But Ash smiled sadly. "If I enter the Origin Zone… I may never return. I must discover what happened to the others. I must face the First Silence."
He opened the rift wider.
Just before stepping through, he turned back.
"Sarina. Akarshan. All of you… if I fail, protect this reality. Teach it to grow. Don't let it become what I feared."
Sarina's voice trembled. "We will. But you'll return. I believe it."
Ash stepped into the Origin Zone.
And everything changed.
There was no space. No time. No sound. Only understanding.
Ash didn't walk. He became.
He floated among the fragments of dead realities — silent statues of long-forgotten Supreme Beings, locked in eternal slumber.
He saw Orr'Zeth the World Weaver, Luralune the Star Poet, Vaak the Void Singer — all once mighty, now dormant.
Then he saw it — a throne not made of stone or metal, but of concept. It pulsed with a deep, old power.
Sitting atop it…
A being that looked exactly like Ash — but older. Eyes closed. Motionless.
Ash felt it immediately:
His original self. The one who created it all.
> "So we meet again," a voice echoed — not in sound, but inside every part of Ash's being.
The eyes of the original opened.
> "Welcome home, my echo."
And so began the confrontation between what was… and what has become.
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