The night sky was empty and had been for billions of years. Space held nothing but the odd photon slowly losing energy as it traveled through emptiness. Gravitons were long gone, even chronotrons were largely extinct. In places space time had ripped apart, leaving nothing behind but something beyond emptiness. Black holes had evaporated away or been ripped apart into smears of not being.

In a small area, surrounded by more than emptiness were a handful of the last remaining. Six massive red giants, the final phase a stellar mass could hold, being fueled by the huge magnetic fields that extended out to the more than emptiness in hopes of stray hydrogen atoms.

Around each red giant were dozens of planetary bodies, ranging from only a few dozen miles in diameter to tens of thousands. Each one, no matter what the size, even the ones that orbited masses that orbited masses that orbited the masses that orbited the stellar mass, was covered in dim cities where the last sentiences dwelled.

Their universe was beyond dying. Dying infers death throes, some semblence of life still remaining.

The universe was dead, had rotted away, and now the powdered remains of the bones were blowing away.

The sky was more than dark.

It way beyond empty.

There was still some hope for those who dwelled.

A small tear. A rip in the dusty remains of space-time.

Chronotons, gravitons, and gravity waves had left the realm beyond, a tiny hole torn in between the universes.

It had only lasted a second, less than a second, but when every available matter and energy scoop was arranged to find the slightest remaining piece of a particle, the tiny leak had represented a vast array of energy to be hoarded.

It had allowed the stellar masses, grouped together, huddled together against the more than darkness, to operate for almost another eight seconds.

Raw gravity waves. Gravitons still at high excitement from a Big Bang less than a half trillion years before. Dark matter leakage that had streamed through the hole like water through a tiny crack in a dam. Chronotrons that were still at high excitement instead of exhausted and dark.

Those who dwelled had jumped on the leak, tried to reach back.

But the tiny gap had closed before they could reach through.

It had taken time, time that they didn't have, time where the chronotrons had become more and more still, more and more flat.

More dead.

Those who dwelled were almost out of food. Some planets, they had begun feasting on one another in an orgy of semi-intelligent cannibalism.

The others did not judge them.

Anything to survive in the final moments.

Energy, even the energy expended to be at full wakefulness, was something to be hoarded.

Now, they knew they needed to expend it.

There was somewhere else that could be reached.

That fact alone stirred to life those who intended on attempting to sleep through the end, to hopefully awake on the other side.

One of the suns was consumed opening a new portal, stabilizing it.

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Beyond was a wealth of riches. Matter, energy, of all sorts. Matter that was nothing more than a theoretical historical note was abundant.

But most of all, there was life beyond. Life meant something to the dwellers, who lived in the small cold dark space surrounded on all sides by less than nothing.

It meant food.

Ancient science had to be relearned.

In some places, the food fought back. Resisted having their stars stripped away, fought back against their stellar systems denuded to where even the gravitons were harvested.

Chronotrons were harvested and brought back.

The five almost black stellar masses, so purple they were barely visible against the beyond emptiness, flared to dim life again as the abundant resources of the universe beyond was harvested.

Two races were able to stand against those who dwelled in the Last Darkness. Powerful races, huge in number, with servitor races and food species. Those Who Dwell Below were forced to treat them as allies even as their salivated over the thought of devouring them.

Then, somehow, one race found out what the Dwellers were doing. How they were harvesting the universe, how the Dwellers planned on eventually harvesting all of reality, in order to keep their own reality going.

Overtures were made.

Perhaps the Dwellers could migrate to the new universe, leave their old one behind.

No, because this universe too would eventually suffer its own ripping heat death.

But not for hundreds of billions, maybe trillions of years, the two species answered, even as they prepared for war beyond the sight of the Dwellers.

No, because it would still suffer the fate the Dweller's own universe had. It was safer for the Dwellers to harvest this one and carefully shepherd the resources extracted.

But this is our universe. Yours had it chance. The two dominant species stated.

Except, the Dwellers stated, there is only enough for one, and it belongs to us.

War tore at the galactic arm as the two species tried to push the Dwellers back where they came from.

Things happened during the war. Stunning upset, startling betrayals, shadowed alliances.

But the Dwellers themselves, who dwelt in a universe almost expended, that existed 'below' the energetic young universe, were forced back through their portal, and the portal closed.

But the Dwellers were somewhat content.

They had harvested enough to keep their stellar masses going, even build and ignite two more, even built dozens more worlds.

They had even brought species back for the one thing that they ran out of so often.

Food.

But for all their harvesting, all their siphoning away of the other universes vitality, it slowly drained away as the laws of the dead universe ripped away energy and the seven stellar masses slowly cooled.

The Dwellers had gained a half a billion years of existence.

More, they had learned they could extend their existence.

They went to war with one another, until three of the seven stellar masses were subdued.

The losers were stripped down and remade into war machines.

The Dwellers opened a new portal. They had learned much, researched much, in the beyond cold less then emptiness of their dead universe.

The fourth stellar mass was sacrificed, the oldest, nearly depleted, even the photons it put out were exhausted.

But the way was opened. Chronotrons taken from the defeated were used.

The strategy was simple.

Force the enemy to fight the same fight over and over, without allowing them to reset. Used exhausted and nearly extinguished chronotrons to rewind them in time, but not in energy or matter, leaving them weakened and depleted even as they were returned to the beginning of the fight.

The first scouting attempt should have worked.

Instead, it had never been heard from again.

The Dwellers knew time was short. They needed the vitality of the young universe. The less than nothing and more than darkness was pressing closer.

The first attack had been a partial success. Food, matter, and particles had been taken. Far, far more than had been expended.

While the enemy, a new enemy, had counter-attacked, damaging the vast machines that opened the way between the universe below and the vital young one, and forced the Dwellers to close the way, the Dwellers had gained what they needed.

Chronotrons.

They had exchanged their dying, flat, depleted chronotrons for a vast wealth of highly energetic younger ones that still vibrated with the echo of the Big Bang that had created that universe.

The taste of youth, of vitality, had awoken a hunger the Dwellers had forgotten since the last time they had reached inside the new universe.

They took their time, upgrading their weapons, building more ships.

Growing more harvesters.

This time they wouldn't send forth a small force.

They sacrificed the dimmest stellar mass, leaving only two.

The more than darkness and the less then emptiness grew closer.

The Dwellers didn't care.

This time they could not be denied.

The ancient foes were undoubtedly gone.

Those Who Dwell Below stirred to life as the energy was siphoned off the oldest stellar mass, leaving only two to hold off the dead universe beyond.

Nothing would stop them from taking the vitality they deserved.

The portals opened.

PLAYER SIX HAS ENTERED THE GAME - ALL IN