In the middle of the apocalypse, there was a man named Kuro.
Kuro was nobody. He was not a Monarch. He was not a warrior. He was a Gravedigger.
For years, his job was to bury the dead. He buried the victims of Ren's rot. He buried the victims of the Monarchs' war. Now, he buried the ashes left by the Sun.
Kuro sat on a pile of dirt. He was tired. "Why does it never end?" Kuro asked the soil.
He looked at a rotting corpse. Everyone feared Rot. Ren feared it so much he stopped time. The Sun feared it so much he burned it.
But Kuro knew the truth. Rot is mercy. Rot turns the dead into soil. Soil grows flowers. Without rot, the world is just a pile of corpses that never go away.
"The world is sick," Kuro realized, "because it refuses to die."
He reached into the deepest, foulest grave. He pulled out a black, slimy mass. It was the Aspect of Decay.
Ren had rejected it. The Sun hated it. Kuro hugged it.
"I accept you," Kuro whispered. "End me. End us."