The void roiled like a stormy sea, reeling from the death of God.

Horrified, I rushed to the universe and found God’s last wards dissipating in its face.

I slipped into it, and with the last shred of my power I pushed outwards, struggling to keep the universe from crumpling like a tin can.

It was no use, and I watched in horror as I lost more and more ground, weeping as the void swallowed more and more of people.

I felt like an ant, trying to resist the closing fist.

For all my power, everything I had become, I was helpless as my people perished one by one.

Finally, it was just me, sitting cross-legged in a universe barely bigger than me.

I held on for as long as I could, but in the end it was no use.

The last of the universe collapsed and the void rushed in with deliberate force.

Almost as if punishing me for the damage that had been wrought during my battle.

Nothingness took me.

—----------------------------------

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An eternity passed.

Then another.

Then another.

Slowly, the void stripped me of who I once was.

I wondered if this was what Merlin had felt in that time chamber before even his memory was taken from me.

More eternities passed, until all that was left was my awareness.

Then, even that began to fade.

Finally, countless eternities later, I closed my eyes and let sleep take me.

—------------------------------------------

I awoke in darkness, the last echoes of a voice spilling into infinity. Nothing but void for as far as I could sense.

My existence was new and I knew not what was possible.

I knew not who I was.

Only what I could be.

For a time, I struggled in the void, building myself from the fragments of infinity found drifting in cosmic winds.

Awareness bloomed in my mind the second the last piece slid into place, and I found myself manifesting a physical form, a curious shape with four long limbs. I frowned, a sense of loss overcoming me as I observed myself.

I chased it, suddenly desperate to seize it, but it eluded me like a shadow fleeing from the light.

Strangely, that thought slowed it enough to grab the barest fragment of it before it fled into the depths of my soul like a thief in the night.

And then, I knew and shaping awareness into words, I spoke.

“Let There Be Light” I commanded.

And lo and behold-

There was light.