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It was born inside the void of space, ungodly cosmic energy coalescing into a sentient beast. Mutated stars, turned into a mutated monster of the cosmos.

These beings are all born alone, and fated to die alone.

The goal of all life was to ascend to the top. These mutations stand no chance of passing the barrier of heavenly light. So they all seek to make kin, true kin. It learned how to multiply itself endlessly, but it was of no use. It needed a true born.

The only way for cosmic mutations to give birth is to take control of a world. In the long search through the sea of space, this nightmare came across a world, and sensed its lord was dying.

It disguised itself as the moon.

Years of waiting, and after all the Lord’s energy was gone, it attacked.

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These have been a very difficult few years. It seems like everything began to fall apart when his good friend died, out of nowhere. The strongest man he had ever known, gone.

The years after, he was forced to grow. A child, a wife, grievance, and fatherhood. If he from a decade ago met his current self, he wouldn't believe they were the same man.

Right now, he was barking orders on the battlefield, the infant eyes of that mother beast were currently attacking the Western wall, where humanity has retreated underground. When this wall falls, it will only be a matter of time.

Johnson took a drag of his cigar, he was never the type to smoke, but then again, he was never the type to be a general either. He casually cut down a few, now a legendarily accomplished swordsman. One of his few friends left landed by his side, floating on a disc of ice.

“Give me a hit.” Cyrek gestured toward his cigar.

“1,000 credits.” he demanded.

Cyrek clicked his tongue. Reaching into his pockets and pulling out his middle finger.

They both laughed, as if the world were not about to end. Barbos was long since gone, having died in the first wave, along with sergio. Johnson’s own teacher had died a while later. Those birds disappeared, probably long gone from this world. He couldn't help but be a bit resentful. They never even said goodbye. His wife and children were underground behind him.

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He often thought that when the world ends, he will not be able to die with them. His death was fated to be on the battlefield. Another mage landed beside him, his other best friend in the world.

His sister.

She had finally come to reconnect with him when his child was born. They have been fighting side by side for years. In the last moments of his life, even as humanity faced extinction, this simple fact gave him great solace.

“What's going on, sis?”

“Teacher will not be able to hold the creature back much longer, a few hours at most.” spoke tera flatly.

Up, far above, the sky mage was using all her power, all the remaining life force in her, to hold back the beast. It was futile, yet still she would struggle.

The sky mage had fallen into this world from another one close by, in a failed experiment. It was in this world lacking of magic energy, that ironically, she found the pupil she always had sought. In these moments, she was not afraid of death, but was deathly scared of her pupil’s. She had come to this world by sheer accident, and no amount of research would allow her to reproduce the results.

Johnson rested an arm on her shoulder, “Don't be so sad, sis. I think we did the best we could.” he smiled at her.

She could only give a weak one back. The weight of the world was on her, and she failed so many people in the hopeless pursuit. She ruined relationship after relationship in the search for power. She could fend off the infant eyes easily, but how could she kill a cosmic nightmare? A endlessly writhing mass of tentacles, with a maddening eye at the center of it all, 9 pupils swirling around?

Every single day of her life, she would regret that one moment. When she took the apple, and ran. She heard the voice whisper ever so faintly.

You are no Lord.

Perhaps it was her own subconscious.

She had never told a soul, not even her brother. This was the one good relationship she had left, but even that was impure. She felt guilty, all the time.

When the sky cracked open again, the creature regained its movement. The sky mage fell to the ground, powerless. These two years had been because of her expanding her life everyday, pushing back space itself to halt the advancement of the cosmic nightmare. Tera would slay all threats that landed on earth, but there were far, far too many spawn that came from the creature. Humanity did not stand a chance.

What was this life for?

She thought of the question he once asked.

What do you want?

She could answer that now. The same thing everybody wants, to feel themselves loved, to call themselves beloved.

She had failed. As the beast descended upon the last vestige of humanity, all crammed underground, she was able to hold the hand of her brother.

That alone had given her some solace. Everyone on the battlefield seemed to close their eyes, not willing to look at the nightmarish end to the human race. She thought, in her last moments, that she hopes to be reborn as a normal girl.

As the beast descended, signaling the end, a pair of massive, glowing, red-metaled hands came out of the earth, gripping the beast firmly.