"Is this the end, my friend?" A dying woman asked Ben.

"How does it feel being the last human alive?"

"I won't be the last one."

"Am I human, though?"

"I wouldn't know. But you know that I didn't feel that alone. I lived well. I do miss my family, but we've been lucky. Just look outside. Having you talk also helps."

"Humans are weird."

"Don't tell me. Did you think we would go insane?"

"I tried my best to avoid it. Nevertheless, choosing a date for the forever farewell is never easy."

"But you can only do so much for others, right?"

"Despite knowing that, you're still so stubborn."

"I try my damn best. Your stories were just too incredible."

"If you want to experience a wide world, why don't you go? I even already helped you."

"My instincts tell me I won't likely be this lucky ever again."

"Don't exaggerate. My little bubble isn't everything."

"Yet, it feels special. I can feel it."

"Being talented has its shortcomings. You clung too much."

"Why hurriedly leave if I can experience this!" The woman raised her weak arms to the sky.

The sparse starry sky gave her this sense of emptiness, but it was by no means some seed of sadness. And that had always surprised her.

Yet, that wasn't as much of a surprise as the wild stories she heard from this rooted Elder.

She felt the stories were true, but how could she imagine a star so close that it would light everything periodically, building what the Elder called day cycles? Wasn't a day merely whenever she was awake?

"Am I dying?"

Feeling the nostalgia drowning her and all those big questions overwhelming her mind, Sol coldly asked Ben how close she was to the end.

"Soon."

"How lonely will you be?"

"I'll mostly slumber."

"How unfun. I'm sure you'll miss telling those tales to others."

"I'll eventually forget those too."

Sol stared at one of the bright stars, the only one that in her earlier days was dim but now changed.

"Is helping your friend's bloodlines this important?"

"I merely wanted some company at the end of the world."

"Liar. Even without knowing the consequences, I understand that this is insane. How can you help us this much? Our next lives will be fucked."

"The fascinating thing is that I also don't know the consequences."

Glancing away from her favorite star, Sol stared at Ben.

"So why did you do it?"

"Why do the bare minimum when you can go all out?"

"You sounded more careful in your past."

"I don't have some scary monsters surrounding me anymore. It's freeing in a way you can't imagine."

"I've been spoiled. That's for sure."

"Just a little bit."

"I wonder what ripples this will have."

"Likely not much. But it might surprise one of my friends, eventually."

"So long... Do we sound like kids to you?"

"No. Like short pops of lucidity."

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"In a sea of too much time. Solitude. You should've taught me more."

"I tried, but you didn't want to."

"I don't get how you can let go. How can you confront this dreadful bullshit."

"Perhaps I'm insane. But I don't think that's it, either. We have biases by nature."

"The idea of reincarnating is so freeing. Instead, you just rolled a die, not in your favor even."

"And somehow, I got here."

"A little nest of nothing. I don't think I could succeed."

"I didn't think that, either."

"Out of desperation? It sounds like downplaying."

"It was what it was, despite the outcome."

"It's annoying that there is no clear answer, right?"

"I agree. But it is what it is."

"I don't know what this has been, but it's been fun."

Sol kept staring at Ben, smiling.

"If only," she whispered, yet she couldn't finish her sentence as a wave of weakness overwhelmed her.

She had been forcefully staying conscious despite her crumbling body. However, despite her natural talent, she could only live so much under those circumstances.

"If only," Ben repeated. "Good luck." He added, his voice intended to be a farewell.

'Good luck, indeed,' Sol thought before falling asleep comfortably.

As her life ended, there was no pain, but she still held a lot of unwillingness. But that wasn't enough to linger in this situation for much longer.

And even Ben was at his wit's end.

"I didn't want to let go, either. But this was bound to arrive."

Once Ben felt the body in front of him lifeless, he ordered the tree to begin burial.

Meanwhile, he tried to sense the world disconnecting from the life wheel. Hence, he carefully took notes of the changes as this world seemingly became smaller.

As a result, nature's humming became even quieter. Now, it only was a weak pull, asking Ben to join it in the void. But it had no power over Ben anymore since he almost couldn't even notice it.

"Done," Ben spoke, despite having no one to hear him.

"Next, let's take the heavy weight off, shall we?" He talked to the withered tree while it stood as just a dried stump.

Ben could finally let go of Hope's City's foundation. Therefore, he dismissed his weaved-underground intentions so they could begin evaporating.

Then, first, the atmosphere surrounding him dispersed quickly. And as a consequence, the functioning farm stopped working immediately.

Gradually, the surrounding lights dimmed too.

All those systems Ben maintained were turned off eventually.

The City had already shrunk into a village long ago as resources became scarce. But now, even that would turn into ruins.

Still, Ben observed the whole process despite it being slow.

The only difference was that he leaned more against the tree as he relaxed for the first time since the day he arrived in this City.

He slowed down but still stared at the abandoned place. His lucidity would return from time to time as he imprinted this place, turning to dust, in his crumbling memory.

Once he couldn't recognize a single sign of the structures, Ben felt a sense of accomplishment and turned to stare at the sky.

The sparse sky, he smiled at it.

The coldness embraced him, but he didn't mind.

He gave up all other functionalities in his body and only focused on keeping his eyes working despite the extreme conditions. And merely because he wanted to stare at this dimming sky.

Always there, yet always dark because there was no atmosphere or stars close to him. And only slowly changing due to the planet itself not rotating or moving through space.

And while he kept staring at it, he could only conclude that the decay had been too quick. But unfortunately, this dimension didn't follow Earth physics.

All the stars were short-lived.

There was no other galaxy. And there were no signs of black holes.

There wasn't even another planet outside this one.

It was a dimension incapable of holding life naturally. Yet it did, although shortly.

But now, there was only a single intent inside it.

Ben lay against this withering stump. And as if struggling against his tired eyes, he would take a single glimpse at the sky from time to time before falling into slumber again.

Yet, while his consciousness remained, the only signs of this reality's existence were those shining dots slowly turning off.

10...

There were no majestic Empires.

9...

All the unsealed memories of his friends faded.

8...

His consciousness became like this dimming sky, just wavering instincts. So weak, so fragile.

7...

His body dried and blended with the trunk. Only his eyes remained functional and fixated on the remaining stars.

6...

There were no signs of nature. Nor large seas and hurried life. Even the unmoving ground below Ben began to float as the force keeping it together dissipated. Fortunately, the dust was thin, so he could still see for a while longer.

5...

The chaotic energy from the upper world blended with this world as if they should've always been together. No crash happened.

4...

Coming to his senses temporally, Ben glanced at the four stars remaining in the visible sky.

His instincts fired up, and he tried to move but couldn't.

He tried to remember, but the remaining traces of his existence were under the seal. And even those were merely snapshots of his prior experiences.

Here, against this sudden awareness, there was just some instinct, those four dots of light, and an immense weight on its eyes.

3...

2...

1...

Years passed, but there was no notion of time anymore.

There was nothing to count time but the weak trembling from Higgs' seal.

Due to having no stimulus, Higgs' eyes eventually stopped working too.

Gravity gradually dwindled until the world transformed into a large dust cloud.

Despite everything, floating about was a stump with Ben attached to it.

Even nature's influence that kept trying to pull Ben into accepting the void dissipated.

Yet, despite all those crumbling laws, a magical imprint in the void kept itself together, humming almost unnoticeable, unnaturally.

As the fabric of reality cooled down, this buzzing became louder against Higgs' seal. Yet, Ben didn't respond. The pressure became everything, yet the seal merely became stronger, unwilling to bend.

And it remained like that. Eventually, the void had nothing else left, as even the dust had decayed. But here, Higgs' unwavering matter, hammered with time, prevailed.

" { I hate Pel the Bell. Why must he so easily point at my foolishness? But as always, the All-Seer is right. How unsurprisingly. Are you happy? Are you happy? I don't know what you did to him, but he not only came to bother me so much but also made me come down here. And I'm not even that angry, despite wanting to be. Because what a fucking sight! } "

A figure appeared in front of Higgs, its thought sending waves of deafening intention through the void, making it quiver and crack.

Yet, in front of this defying figure, Higgs' seal lingered, unmoving.