The sky was rotting.
That was the only way Zen Arclight could describe the purple hole twirling in the sky which was getting bigger and bigger by every second.
If he didn't close it now, there won't be an Arclight Empire left to rule by morning.
Zen stood at the cenrer of the ritual altar, coughing out a bit of blood. His mana core was almost empty.
He was supposed to be the strongest man alive… the first mortal Emperor, but right now, he felt more like a guy trying to stop a flood with a handful of sand.
"It's now or never," Zen murmured to himself.
He didn't have a choice.
To seal a Void Singularity this big, you needed a sacrifice… a soul sacrifice with a soul powerful enough to act as a permanent plug… his soul.
As he started the final incantation, Zen began to feel his life force drain into the stone floor.
He told himself that one life for millions of other lives was a fair trade, and keeping them safe was all part of the job description as Emperor.
All of a sudden, he heard a voice from behind him.
"Zen! Get away from that altar right now!"
Zen winced. He didn't need to look to know whose voice it was. It was Valeria, his Vanguard. She was always loud, especially when she was about to do something stupid.
"Go back to the city, Valeria," Zen replied, keeping his eyes on the rift. "I'm busy saving the world."
"I don't care if you are busy. And I fvcking don't care about the world!" Valeria shouted back.
She landed on the altar with a heavy thud that cracked the stone. Her heavy plate armor was covered in soot and black blood from the monsters she'd been cutting through to get here.
Right now, she didn't look like a hero; she looked like a woman who was about to lose her mind.
"You think I'm letting you kill yourself for a bunch of peasants?" Valeria stepped into his personal space, her red eyes glowing with a weird, desperate light. "Not happening."
"It's not just for peasants," Zen said, trying to keep his voice steady. "It's for everyone. Including you."
"I didn't ask you to save me," she snapped, grabbing his collar. "I asked you to stay with me. Do you even listen?"
Four other women landed on the altar behind her.
Zen knew them all.
They were his Five Pillars… the women who helped him conquer the realm: his Spymaster, his Grand Mage, his Healer, and his Betrothed.
Normally, they were the most composed people in the empire. Right now, they looked like they were part of a very dangerous intervention.
"Zen, step away," the Empress said. Her voice was calm, but her hands were shaking so hard she had to hide them in her sleeves. "We've already found a different way. We can tether your soul to us instead."
"Tether it?" Zen frowned. "If you do that, the seal won't hold. The Void will infect the entire timeline. Everything we built will be gone."
"Then let it be gone," the Grand Mage shot back. She started tracing blue runes in the air with her fingers. "We'll just rewrite the laws of magic to compensate for it. As long as you're here, the rest of the world can rot. I don't give a damn about the timeline if you aren't in it."
"You guys are acting crazy," Zen said. He looked up at the sky. "Look at the rift. If I don't jump in there, there won't be a world left to 'rot'."
"We aren't letting you go," the Healer whispered. She had been crying, Zen could tell, but she was already channeling mana into a containment spell. "We've already decided. If the world has to change so you can stay, then we'll change it. We'll make it a place where you're always safe. With us. Only with us."
Zen realized then that they weren't joking. This wasn't just a disagreement… it was something else.
"Honestly, this is the best option," Zen muttered.
He tried to finish the ritual, throwing the last of his mana into the seal. But the Grand Mage slammed her staff down, causing a massive magic circle to erupt under Zen's feet, and turning the floor into a cage of golden light.
"What are you doing?" Zen yelled. "Stop the spell! You're going to cause a backlash!"
"We're saving you!" Valeria screamed. She tackled him, wrapping her arms around his waist like iron bands. "You're ours, Zen! You don't get to die without our permission! You don't get to leave us ever!"
Zen tried to push her off, but he was too weak.
The magic circle was pulling on his core, trying to anchor him to the five women, while the Void ritual was pulling him toward the rift. Two massive, opposing forces were using his soul as a rope in a tug-of-war.
"Stop it!" Zen roared. "You're going to…"
CRACK.
It wasn't a physical sound; it was the sound of his existence breaking apart.
The collision of the two magics was too much. Instead of being anchored or sacrificed, Zen's soul simply shattered.
"I have a piece!" the Spymaster shouted. Her eyes were wide and wild as she clutched a glowing shard of light to her chest. "I've got his shadow! He can't hide from me now! I'll always know where he is!"
"I have his strength!" Valeria roared, holding another fragment. "He's mine! I'll protect him from everything, even himself!"
Zen couldn't even scream anymore.
The pain was more than anything he'd ever felt. He watched each of his five lovers grab a fragment of his shattered soul through blurry vision.
Their faces weren't full of love anymore; they looked possessed, as if they had finally found the single most important thing in the world.
"Wait..." Zen tried to reach out, but he was already fading into nothing. "You... you're breaking everything..."
"We're making it better," the Empress whispered.
She reached him and leaned down to kiss his forehead as she absorbed the final fragment of his mind. "Sleep now, my love. When you wake up, we'll be waiting."
Then, the world went black.