"This construction is known as the Great Boundary," the being ran its hand along a wall so immense Gavin it appeared an endless plane of runes and objects. After so much time adapting to seeing nothing it was altogether too much of something. "These are the walls of the greatest prison ever made. Meant to hold our greatest failure."

Gavin stopped himself before he put made contact with the odd surface. Millimeters beneath his fingers he saw a mixture of felt, cheese and a car door blended into far too much sensation and stuff. "Is it safe to touch?"

"Of course. We trapped the danger in here with us, after all." The being gestured to the wounds covering it. "The thing that did this- the Void- it was meant to be a tool for peace. The nascent multiverse had already seen too much bloodshed, and those at fault were beyond punishment. We sought an end to it."

"Are you some sort of god?" Gavin asked bluntly, the spell the being had cast doing wonders for calming his anxieties and allowing him the freedom to say whatever came to mind. "This sounds like a creation myth, and to be honest I was never big on praying so if that's a problem..."

The being laughed loudly at that, a new element of boisterous energy emerging from where there had only been solemn wisdom. "Hah! No, though some of my brethren may disagree. Many among our number fancied ourselves gods, and many more have started religions. We are powerful, and I suppose the shoe fits in a way. But no. I don't suppose I am a god, and certainly not one like you think of."

"Then what are you?"

The being flashed through a complicated series of colors too fast for me to make sense of before settling back. "I am Ser'Vaya'Ser. The First and Final Spear of the Realm. An immortal from the first age and the first realm."

"Alright then Ser. Can I call you Ser?"

"I do not mind.

"Okay then Ser. I don't know what that means, so if you wouldn't mind getting to the point?"

"Of course," Ser'Vaya'Ser pulled themself away from the wall, hand dragging delicately along it as they brushed aside Gavin's rudeness. "The power devouring us both- it was meant to be a guarantee of peace. A final deterrent. In hindsight it was foolish, but it seemed so painfully necessary. Even now, I can only think of better safety measures and not a safer solution."

"You must understand- immortals ran rampant in our time, and many of our number were truly beyond death." The colors that flashed around Ser's form almost looked like images now, memories of faces and places and fights that rearranged the face of worlds cast in abstract color palates. "Some wiped their names from existence so that death would forget them. Some claimed eternal un-life through monstrous rituals. The how of their immortality mattered little. What did, was that for many of them there was no way to make them face consequences beyond inconvenience.

"So we created a weapon that could destroy anything. It was feared, and rightly so. A tense peace reined for many millenia as a result, before it was finally suborned, sabotaged by fools who sought to take it's power for themselves. They raised it to an impossible state of unlife in the hopes of creating a servant and in doing so transformed it from a useful tool to a living weapon. It destroyed the fools who granted it life first, then continued to spread."

"We tried every method of containment, then everything we could to destroy it. Nothing could do more than stall it for more than a short time. Until we came up with this," they gestured at the wall, "A masterpiece, almost enough to rival the Void itself." Ser closed their eyes, sighing. Their form was becoming more and more human-like as the moments passed as features slowly distinguished themselves from a faceless plain.

"We created a spell that cheated reality. It's boundary was constructed of everything. Or at least such an incalculable amount of things that it might as well have been. We just had to be inside it to maintain it."

"That seems... dumb. And like a weird design flaw."

"There's no such thing as a perfect spellwork, Gavin. Left inside alone the void would eventually find a way out even if it had to chew through the entire spell to do so. For all our power we could only imitate infinity, and after it finally escaped the void it would be all the stronger for having done so. But, we realized, if we were inside the prison we could continue to strengthen and control it with a spell anchor we would take with us. Believe me, if there was another way to contain it for a great length of time, the greatest minds of the our age could not find it. We had to make a lot of hard choices." Blue, red and black emotions blended into sickly dark purples.

"We- I killed all those who would not join us. They could not be trusted outside the prison without someone like me to rein them in. So we killed them and took their Truths to create the spell focus. I was originally Ser'Vaya, The First Spear, master of an order of like-minded disciples. I earned my suffix after my actions those days." The spear flashed brighter in Ser's hand, like it was reminding him of something.

"For uncountable years myself and many others have fled, stretching the barrier as we went. The prison's edge moves with us- we continue shifting ourselves away from the void, extending our flight further and further. It follows relentlessly, reaping tens of thousands of worlds in the process and growing stronger with every one. Until on the last jump it got too close.

"It ambushed us. I held off the enemy so the rest of my allies could flee with the anchor to the next world. That was 3000 years ago. Your world is likely only the most recent one since then to receive attacks from the void. Regardless, I escaped into The Gap Between once it was over."

"Why didn't you follow them?"

Ser laughed, but his soul didn't glitter with the humor he'd seen the first time. While it sounded roughly right, Gavin could see it for the hollowness it hid. "Look at me Gavin. My spirit practically drips with the Void. My presence would've drawn major incursions to the new world within weeks at most even if I didn't use my magic."

"Can't it just follow you guys normally?"

"Not exactly. It needs a way to enter. All realms are protected by powerful barriers, and it would take a long, long time for a breach to be opened normally."

"...does that mean you can't send me back?"

They shook their head as they drifted closer, and their face's features drifted closer and closer to wearing Gavin's face. "All beings are tied to the realm of their origin- it is part of why my brethren and I cannot call upon our power freely in each new realm we travel too. That tether allows corruption to find our worlds quicker. But your tether is linked back to your home realm, and will allow you to return much easier."

"I'm- Send me back, please. I don't like it here. feel like I'm going insane." Gavin was still calmed by whatever spell Ser had used to let them communicate, but all that did was help him rationally analyze his situation. Even with something to focus on he could still feel that he was not meant to be here. "And you starting to look more and more like me is freaking me the hell out too. It's like you're preparing to bodyjack me."

"I do not mean to cause you fear. I am merely preparing my own spirit for the spell, as resembling you will the next steps easier. And you have some time yet here before I must send you back. Though you were going mad, I am currently shielding you from the worst of the erosion. Regardless, I have more I must give you."

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"Could you speed it up then?"

"I am hurrying, but please, oblige me a little longer in the final act of a dying warrior."

"The final- is this going to kill you?"

"Well, it's not going to kill me exactly. Technically it's worse- what I am doing will destroy my soul, removing me permanently from the cycle of reincarnation."

Gavin's soul pulsed electric yellow with shock. "What the fuck?"

"Worry not," the paternal colors were back again, warm and comforting. It did little to reduce Gavin's horror. "I have long since come to terms with my death. This is freedom."

"That's seriously fucked up." Gavin refused to dwell on how willing he'd been to die to escape this place a little earlier.

"Gavin Wilder, I have lived longer than you can possibly know, and bore the burden of my own role in this grand mistake for much of it. No other being could hold on under the destructive force of the Void for as long as I have, and there is a reason for that. I was the original wielder of the Void before it was granted a life of its own. I am not titled the The Final Spear in jest. That is my name because I was given the most bloody work of my contemporaries."

"I was the one who wielded the Void for the sake of peace. I was the one who slayed those who would not join our cause using the power of the very void we sought to combat. I was even forced to cut down my disciples who wielded the same power as I did when they disagreed with our decision. While my contemporaries wrought a spell to give the multiverse hope, I bathed in blood."

Ser's mental voice was grave and heavy. Up to this point Gavin had felt the incredible wisdom and age radiating off their spirit. He could feel their age with their heavy and languid presence, but had forgotten something important. Wisdom didn't come without mistakes.

"Many of my disciples were my own children. My own family. I betrayed kin and friends and those I had fought beside because we had no other option. And since? We have traveled between worlds in our eternal flight for thousands of years, each time dooming a world with our presence to a lifespan of decades at most.

"And now my existence serves no purpose. I cannot help in the battles to come, weakened and poisoned as I am. Passing my power to you would be the last gift of an immortal who should have died a long time ago."

"Oh."

They sighed, withdrawing slightly, "I apologize. This is a lot to leave you with, but frankly I have few options left. I have not encountered another being in The Gap Between for the three millennia I have wandered here, and do not wish to wait millennia more in torment in the hope of finding a better option. Forgive me my selfishness."

"What does it mean for you to do this?" asked Gavin, "Will it hurt? What will I need to do?"

"For me to meld my soul into yours I will have to sever the void infection from my own soul before forming my spirit into a shield from the infection that has touched your own. It will hurt some, though you will not need to do anything."

"Wait. If you can remove your void corruption all this time why didn't you? And can't you remove the void in me too?"

"These injuries are far too deep. Cutting them out would kill me. As for you, I could excise it but I will not. The soul is normally not meant to dally with the anathema. You will require a period of adaptation to one day wield the void as I do, and this fragment will serve well. There will be more to do afterwards in the time you will have, but my soul will shield you from it for some time as you grow to become my inheritor."

Ser stared seriously at Gavin, willing me to understand with copies of Gavin's own eyes. "This does not give you leave to be lazy. I was not strong enough to make a difference even in my prime,, and you will not even reach that without your own efforts. I have lost much already and will lose more in the process of giving it to you.

"A full assimilation will be a lengthy process as you race to you master my power as it fades away. I advise you to hurry. It would be easier if I could give you everything now, but that would likely scour your mind from your soul as the strength of my soul overwhelmed yours in totality."

"How-" Gavin struggled to continue. If he had a throat it would've been drier then a desert, and his soul clenched around an unwise question that he still felt compelled to know. "How can you know I'm a good choice? This seems- I'm nobody. I didn't even know magic existed until a few seconds before I ended up here."

Ser shrugged, "I can see your soul. You're not a terrible person and have decent potential, which eases my mind, but frankly I would choose almost anyone in your position."

"Why?" That felt wrong. Insane, even. The magic calming him couldn't stifle the pulse of confusion and wrongness that pulsed through him when he learned that Ser would give this power to anyone. "What if I was evil? Would you really give this power to a monster?"

"Souls can change. Perhaps you will grow bitter and resentful over the course of your journey, turning into the kind of monster you seem to fear. I've seen it happen more times than I care to count. You could grow to be a monster beyond what the darkest depths of mortal depravity can fathom as you gallivant your way across the multiverse leaving terror in your wake. I cannot afford to care."

Ser looked far into the distance, pupils in a face identical to Gavin's blown wide and unseeing as if he was beholding the entirety of their failure reflected in their titanic prison.

"The Void is a singular threat to existence itself. Its equal will never come again. It was made with the core of the multiverse, born from the death of the first realm. Nothing can or will threaten existence as the Void does. The multiverse will continue to grow forever, never knowing death except through the Great Enemy. Even if you went on to become the cruelest tyrant in history, if you destroyed the void the multiverse would rightfully write you into the history books as it's savior."

One of Gavin's favorite hobbies was talking with people. He'd strike up a conversation with a stranger as he walked or visited somewhere, and he'd get to share in some of their lives as the other person got to share some of their own life in the comfort of a stranger they would never see again. He never expected to get good at recognizing people carrying stories of regret. They always carried a blend of anger and sorrow directed inwards and while they often buried it deep it always revealed itself in the moment. And in this moment, with the blues and reds of anger and sorrow in visible form? It was all too easy to see.

That last bit came out quickly, more like a rant then anything else and Gavin knew that Ser talking to themself as much as to him. How heavy did the weight of failure rest on Ser's shoulders? They called themself the 'First Spear,' the person who wielded the void, presumably as some mix of executioner or law enforcement. If he saw everything that came after as his failure, Gavin could understand his feelings. No matter how much good or evil Ser did with their immortal life, their actions could never outweigh the burden of their single failure. Gavin could see how a final death could feel like a freedom, in their place.

Ser paused long enough to collect themself, allowing Gavin a moment to process. "All the practical knowledge I can give you will come during the assimilation. Do you have any questions before I seflishly leave you with one last burden?"

"I mean I don't know if I can do this. I didn't even know magic existed until right before it killed me! I'll never succeed."

"You might not. In fact, I do not expect you to make much of a difference at all, in the end." Ser's spirit closed with Gavin, void and soul bleeding off in pieces drifting through the void, shrinking as it grabbed Gavin's soul in an iron grip. "You are not chosen by prophecy. You are not fated for this power. Our meeting was an accident of chance, and I am simply playing the odds. I've found that works far more reliably than relying on prophecies. If my actions here will improve our chances by the minutest measure- buys another second of life for another- than I will give you this power gladly. "

Any response Gavin might have gave was silenced as his spirit groaned, stretching to accommodate the power flowing into him as Ser's soul melded with his. "I do not believe you can win against the void, Gavin. Greater people then both of us have tried. But I do believe you can become strong enough to run. Let this be the final act and request of Ser'Vaya'Ser- First and Final Spear of the Realm."

The pain barreled towards unbearable as Ser spoke their last words. "When you lose, run. Run with my allies- give them my name and they will take you with them as they flee. Run until the years grow heavy enough to crack and fray your spirit. Run until the void starves in it's hunger to be free."

The pain and volume of their words built to a crescendo until it was too much for Gavin to hold within his spirit. Colors of pain flashed by faster than any mortal observer could have made out as everything he was stretched to accommodate new power and Ser's soul melded into his Ego.

All the wisdom and gentleness Gavin had been looking at in Ser was gone, now. In their place was the presence of the immortal warrior that they had been in life. Their spirit sprayed void energy out of pulsing filthy wounds into The Gap Between like malevolent ink from fel arteries as they worked unbelievable magics. The furor and will of someone who had given countless lifetimes to a singular cause in the vain hope of righting a wrong blazed and bent the world to its vision.

"Run until you run out of places to flee! Run until the uncountable years have lost all meaning! And when the day comes when you are finally caught and slain, let us hope the realms outside have grown strong enough to fight the void in our stead."

The last words of Ser'Vaya'Ser were quiet, barely whispered by the last unseparated motes of their twinkling soul. "Take up my mantle and survive, Gavin Wilder. For I am no longer the Final Spear."

Gavin woke beneath a tarp on a metal table screaming.