The silence was absolute.
Nothing remained.
No stars, no planets, no universes. Only an immense void where the echo of creation had died countless ages ago.
At the center of that shattered expanse floated Elisa, or what was left of her.
Her body was no longer human: a figure made of distorted space, a fusion of energy, form, and shadow. The black hat had merged with her, making her appearance seem less divine and more like an anomaly.
She had remained in that void for so long that she had forgotten what time was.
Her inner voice had faded among the echoes of the power that had devoured her.
She was a goddess, yes. But a goddess alone, in a kingdom she herself had emptied.
For a long moment, there was nothing.
Not even thoughts.
Only her solitary existence.
And then, in the silence, Elisa noticed something.
Not a star. Not a particle.
A presence.
Elisa raised her head.
For the first time in centuries, she saw.
On the other side of the void, a figure materialized amid soft lights: Astrid.
Astrid had not intended to reveal herself, yet the eternal emptiness and silence of the multiverse had left her exposed. She was the only thing that could still be heard. Elisa, even ruined by her own power, had gained a perception so profound that she could now see beyond the limits of creation, piercing the boundary of the observers.
"You…" Elisa said, her voice distorted like the echo of a thousand voices. "Who are you…?"
Astrid was profoundly shocked, not only because Elisa had managed to perceive her, but because of what Elisa had become. She no longer saw a person, but a living energy twisted by ambition and power.
For an instant, she thought she could speak to her, that she could try to reason with her…
But Elisa no longer listened.
A spark of madness shone in her eyes.
"You're part of it… aren't you?" she murmured. "Another fragment of what belongs to me."
And then she screamed.
A roar that split the void into golden waves.
Her body twisted, almost losing its human shape before painfully reforming.
"I WILL CONSUME EVERYTHING!" she shouted with a fury that did not sound human. "IF YOU EXIST, YOU BELONG TO ME! IF YOU ARE REAL, YOU WILL BE MINE!"
Elisa hurled herself toward Astrid, her energy tearing apart the remnants of space around her.
Astrid stepped back, raising her hand, trying to stop her.
"Elisa!" she cried. "Listen to me! There's nothing left to take! It's over!"
But Elisa was no longer a mind capable of reason.
Only desire remained. Emptiness. Greed.
Astrid sighed, with sadness more than anger.
She did not want to do it. She did not want to continue this cycle.
But she understood there was no choice.
She extended her hand.
A golden light burst from her body, pure and serene.
The contrast with Elisa's absolute darkness was immediate.
When the two energies collided, the void shattered in silence.
Elisa screamed one last time, not in fury, but in fear, as though for a brief instant she had remembered what she once was.
And then she vanished.
The story of that version had come to an end.
Only nothingness remained once more.
Astrid floated among the ruins, alone.
For a moment she remained still, staring at the place where Elisa had been.
Every attempt, every restart, every world… always ended the same way.
A different path, an identical conclusion.
"Even when everything is perfect," she whispered, "the result is the same."
She crossed her arms, thoughtful.
She had done everything possible to change the circumstances: first by eliminating the origin of the problem, then by altering the environment, then by reshaping the structure of the universe itself.
Nothing had worked.
The result was always destruction, despair… ruin.
"Then is the world the problem?" she asked the void. "Or is it us?"
There was no answer.
Only her voice lost among the particles of dead space.
Astrid lowered her gaze.
She knew giving up was not an option. She could not leave the cycle unfinished. If there was a way to fix it, she would find it.
Perhaps the mistake was not the context, nor the artifacts, nor even the story.
Perhaps the mistake was the very nature of the world itself.
"If the problem is the world," she said slowly, "then I'll make another one."
She raised her hand, and the void trembled.
Around her, tiny lights began to ignite, sparks of creation swirling in gentle spirals.
"This time, Elisa will not be born in Aetheris," she whispered. "She will live in my world… in Vellhara."
For the first time in ages, Astrid smiled.
Not with joy, but with a mixture of exhaustion and hope.
"She won't have the hat," she said as the new universe began to form. "She'll have the brooch. And with it, perhaps… she can have a different life."
The lights fused together, the void disappeared, and the cycle began once again.
A new world.
A new attempt.
And a new story that, like all the ones before it, was born with the promise of being the last.
Vellhara
Vellhara was a world born from a dream.
A planet where cities were constantly illuminated by the light of the sun and the stars.
Its inhabitants were a race of brilliant minds, capable of shaping matter with thought, altering light, transforming dreams into tangible forms.
There were no wars or boundless ambitions.
Knowledge was sacred, but so was harmony.
Children grew up learning that every idea must be shared, and that the power of one was the power of all.
Among them was born Elisa.
From an early age, she showed a natural mastery over the "architecture of existence," the art of designing cosmic structures through thought. At eight years old she could already sculpt small stars that served as compasses for worlds. At fifteen, she helped perfect channels that connected the worlds of the universe.
She did not do it out of ambition.
She did it because she loved creation.
Elisa was loved. Everyone knew her, everyone trusted her.
Her smile was a symbol of hope.
People said she had been born with a spark of the universe itself in her eyes.
One afternoon, while exploring the ancient forests surrounding the planet's capital, Elisa found something.
The forest was peaceful, and the air resonated with a natural music that only the Vellharians could perceive.
Among the roots of a colossal tree, something glimmered.
A golden brooch.
It had a blue core that pulsed like a heart and emitted a warm, almost living sensation.
Elisa held it in her hands, captivated.
She did not know where it had come from, but the moment she touched it she felt something indescribable: an ancient, powerful energy that seemed to resonate with every cell in her body.
"You're beautiful…" she whispered.
From that day on, Elisa never parted from it.
The brooch seemed to understand her.
When she wore it, her ideas came to life with an ease she had never known before.
The most impossible projects became simple.
Machines that once required years just to design could now be built in a matter of days.
Vellhara's power of creation multiplied.
Soon the skies filled with new structures: bridges of light between continents, gardens capable of purifying the air, towers that served as satellites for entire galaxies.
Elisa became the central figure of the planet.
She was the creator of creators.
The dreamer who had made the world a tangible paradise.
And yet, there was something about the brooch that unsettled her.
Sometimes, while working, she felt that her energy was out of alignment.
The power did not flow entirely from her, but through her.
It was as if the brooch possessed a consciousness of its own, and she was merely a conduit. As if, even though the artifact belonged to her, it had not been designed for her, but for someone else.
At first, she ignored it.
She assumed it was an illusion born of exhaustion.
But as time passed, the feeling grew stronger.
Whenever she used the brooch, she heard a murmur.
A distant echo. A voice she could not fully understand.
It was not hostile, but it was… cold.
As though something inside the brooch rejected her, as though the object had not been made for her.
Years passed, and Vellhara reached a state that bordered on perfection.
Disease no longer existed. Neither did war. The life expectancy of its people approached a thousand years.
The planet's energy was stable, its resources infinite.
Elisa had accomplished the impossible.
And yet, whenever she looked at the stars, she felt the same emptiness as before.
"What else is there?" she thought every night.
"If there's nothing left to improve, what am I supposed to do now?… What comes next?"
That was when the brooch answered.
One night, while examining the plans for a new stellar project, the blue core of the brooch shone with an intensity she had never seen before.
Elisa touched it.
Immediately, a current of energy surged through her body.
Her mind expanded beyond Vellhara, beyond the known universe.
She saw fragments of unknown realities, distant worlds, parallel dimensions.
She felt the pulse of existence itself and understood that, although her world was perfect, it was not everything.
She saw that an immense multiverse existed.
And she… could go farther.
From that moment on, her curiosity became hunger.
A hunger that was neither physical nor spiritual, but existential.
The desire for more.
More creation.
More discovery.
More existence.
She felt that creating and saving worlds was her purpose, and now that purpose would expand across all existence.
She began building portals to other planes using the power of the brooch.
Her companions watched in amazement, and although they knew Elisa's intentions were good, they could not shake the feeling that something in her had changed, as though the reason behind all of this was no longer the same.
Her gaze grew distant. Her voice colder.
She spent entire days before the portals, contemplating worlds she had yet to know.
Sometimes the brooch glowed with a strange radiance, as if trying to warn her of something.
But Elisa did not listen.
With every use, the power wore her down.
Her body began to show the strain: streaks of energy across her skin, eyes reflecting golden light, uneven breathing.
But she continued.
She no longer slept.
She no longer ate.
She only kept going.
And when the first portals finally opened, something inside Elisa awakened—while something else seemed to fade away. She was no longer doing this to save everyone. She was doing it to save herself, and the worst part was that she still did not know why.
One day, Elisa stopped before her reflection in one of the crystal towers.
She saw herself with the brooch shining upon her chest, her blond hair floating from the energy emanating from her body.
Her presence, once serene and almost divine, now looked worn, barely recognizable. It was as if she no longer knew what she had been created for.
But she did not care.
"The universe gave me this power… the power to create and see the whole," she whispered. "And I know it gave it to me for a reason…"
With a calm but almost forced smile, she turned toward the sky.
The brooch shone with blinding intensity, and a new portal began to form.
All of Vellhara watched her ascend.
Their goddess was departing toward infinity.
But not even infinity seemed enough.
Elisa did not know it yet, but deep within the brooch…
a different consciousness was watching her, waiting for the moment when the gluttony of creation would consume everything.