Null kept running while the figure remained completely still. Every breath, every step, every trace Null left was devoured by reality itself, as if Abyssal were piercing every causal thread, erasing his existence even before it happened.
Null: Bastard… —he whispers, speeding up even more, his breath cut by tension— is there even any way to escape this thing?
But even his sigh became a weapon against him. Not in probability, not in chance, but in pure causality, lasting just an instant before vanishing. That instant was enough: one of Null's arms disappeared, erased as if it had never existed.
Null: Grr…
He grabbed what remained of his arm while continuing to run, every muscle and fiber of his body tense, trying to keep pace.
Null's Thought:
If I stop, I die.
If I breathe wrong, I die.
If I relax even for an instant… I die.
Even if I sigh, do I die? —furious but not stopping— I never imagined something could be this dangerous.
Meanwhile, the figure advanced with millimetric caution, controlling every inhale, every exhale, every minimal tremor of their body, trying to open an escape portal.
Figure's Thought: If this fails, we both die. Do I leave him here or take him with me?
But even while hesitating, Abyssal remained motionless, unshaken before absolute chaos. Its mere presence ignored time, causality, and reality, bending them, fragmenting them, erasing them as if they had never existed.
The timeline warped, broke, and reconfigured.
The lava floated, ignoring gravity.
The reddish clouds cracked into impossible fractals.
The ground sprouted ever larger, sharper spikes.
Infernal beings turned to liquid, twisting as if their forms were illusions.
The air became solid, piercing, almost conscious.
Reality itself teetered on the edge of disintegration, and all infinite temporal branches of the multiverse felt the end approaching, with every timeline trembling before Abyssal.
Abyssal opened its mouth slightly, an infinite ring without organic features, full of teeth made of nonexistent energy. An absolute void, bottomless, endless, nothing. As it opened, all reality seemed to be absorbed, devoured, time and space collapsing toward a nonexistent single point.
Null realized too late.
He deactivated his clone and transformed his body into a lightning bolt, using the earth as conductivity, leaving minimal causal traces. Every step, every electric pulse, was a desperate attempt to evade absolute erasure.
Meanwhile, in the Creator's Forest…
Alanai emerged from the portal, breaking it and cracking the entrance, but Alcanor managed to exit just before the rupture completed.
Alcanor: Even in this new canon, you still don't wait for me to leave the portal —sighs, pulling Alanai's ear— Don't do it again, though I know you will.
Alanai: Ay ay ay ay —pretends to be in pain— Ok, ok, ok. (Laughs) By the way… what will this new canon look like now?
Alcanor: We can only observe the current situation (sighs). Our omniscience is useless against Null's anomaly; we'll have to see it in real time.
Alcanor and Alanai's eyes glowed with supernatural intensity, spanning from the Creator's Forest to all planes, including Hell.
Alcanor: Wow… Null is in trouble.
Alanai: Hahaha~ My little infernal pet, it's been a while since it awoke.
Alcanor: Abyssal attacks everything related to time, including memories and recollections; even Null wouldn't be safe from it.
Alanai: (nodding) Even if Null doesn't exist in past or future, his memory is a time of its own, and Abyssal erases every causal trace: breath, blood, movements… nothing remains, even if there is no detectable probability or cause. —laughs maliciously—
Alcanor: You picked the right kind of rival… (laughs) Do you think Null can survive Abyssal?
Alanai: We'll have to see, won't we?
Their gazes fixed on Hell, contemplating the total extinction of all reality.
Abyssal stopped focusing on the present, noticing it was undetectable, and shifted its perception to the future; if it didn't find him there, it would go for total eradication.
Null sensed a change.
The devastation was no longer immediate or chaotic; Abyssal's presence was less fixed, more like a backdrop behind everything, allowing him to move slightly.
Causal traces were still being erased, but more slowly. He took advantage of this breather and moved away as fast as possible from the space-time rift.
The figure opened a portal and teleported to Null.
Figure: There's no time, let's go!
They grabbed him and pulled him inside the portal.
Within, infinite timelines branched: entire multiverses, every micro-instant of past, present, and future branching infinitely in an eternal loop.
The portal dragged them out of the infernal reality, to a separate, safe space from Abyssal… at least for now.
Meanwhile, Abyssal opened its mouth of nonexistent void again.
Without time, without reaction, it devoured everything that was and could be: space, time, existence, infinite infernal universes.
Only a point remained where neither time nor space existed, and Abyssal curled upon itself, forming a circle.
Then it opened its mouth again, and this time a white light emerged from it, recreating everything from scratch: Hell reconfigured, the lava flowed again, chaos ceased, and the memory of the apocalypse was erased… except for Null and the figure, who remained outside Hell's timeline.
The portal closed, depositing them in this parallel dimension.
Null: What the hell…?! —points his sword at the figure— Who are you?
The figure raised their hands and sighed, removing the hood.
White hair like snow, eyes blue as ice. Two dark pendants hung from their left ear.
Figure: My name is Heal. I'm not your enemy… or at least I want to believe that.
As Null and Heal adapted to this dimension, Hell transformed: the infernal heat disappeared, replaced by absolute cold, so intense it made Absolute Zero feel like warmth.
Everything froze. Some demons survived by adapting; others were trapped as ice statues.
Abyssal remained unshaken from the temporal rift, as if no cause, time, or space could affect it.
For now, the apocalypse's dormancy reigned… and Null and Heal had survived the end of all times.