Krahinn stood next to me, staring at the party celebrating some massive victory. Everyone I am looking at is either dead or out to kill me. It was surreal seeing them all celebrating and looking elated together. What could possibly have happened from here that led to the Void King and Mahdi wanting to exterminate all Reincarnators? What did the hero do? Who was Ariam? The previous tension in the air was now boisterous applause as the group was being tossed into the air in celebration. Krahinn looked at his brother with a pained expression as past him walked up to the celebration. Hugminn went from being a raven to the humanoid raven form Krahinn usually stayed in and went up to his brother to give him a massive hug; the two were almost perfectly identical. The only differences were Hugminn had slightly lighter feathers and a cheerful demeanor compared to Krahinn’s prickly grumpiness. Kind of refreshing to know Krahinn was always a grouch.

“Krahinn! We won! The Demon Sovereign was defeated!” Hugminn told his brother excitedly. Krahinn looked on with so much guilt that even I could recognize it.

“So, are you done experimenting with humans? Can we go back to Ygdazi?” Past Krahinn asked his brother in a deadpan voice. Krahinn used to be crankier?

“Krahinn, we are celebrating. And stop calling it an experiment.” Hugminn lectured his brother.

“Krahinn, do not act in a manner that embarrasses .” Helsiri snapped at Krahinn. Krahinn’s expression mixed with guilt towards his brother and the sheer hatred as he stared at Helsiri, the hero, and the Void King to be.

“Just so you know, I spent a long time finding every relevant soul to this memory. We are going to get to see it all more than likely today. Depends on where the goes, but I have nearly every one of the fragments and the full perspective of the hero.” Krahinn warned me. That was not reassuring at all.

“Can you give me some context? What happened? Who was the Demon Sovereign?” I inquired. Krahinn let out a heavy sigh.

“To grasp what’s about to happen, Ariam is Scius’s fiancé, the Demon Sovereign was a being that led the demons to try and conquer all of Arcadia, and the hero has a of and .” Krahinn explained. Oh. Was Ariam still alive?

“ is possible? Is Ariam alive?” I checked. If I recalled correctly, the Void King was .

“It is and she is. Ariam is Scius’s wife now.” Krahinn confirmed for me with a sigh. So, she was the Void Queen.

“Wait, is it just the Void King, Void Queen, and Mahdi out to kill me? What about their kids?” I asked Krahinn. If they are as old as Krahinn, they’ve had plenty of time to make a family.

“You don’t have to worry about kids.” Krahinn told me ominously. His eyes were currently locked onto the hero. What did the hero do? I didn’t probe further as I knew the answer was to keep watching.

“Let’s celebrate!” the Void King declared happily.

The joyous crowd set the party down and began moving into town as the news of victory rapidly spread throughout. We followed the party along the street, seeing everyone smiling. I looked at the hero, but it was hard to see what he was doing as Krahinn completely erased him. Helsiri stayed in his osprey form while looking bored at everyone praising their success. Krahinn kept his eyes on his brother as the memory progressed. Clearly, the memory was far from the events that mattered. Everyone seemed so ecstatic that the war was over. What did the hero do? Why? What entered his mind that ruined all of this? seemed strong, so how did the Void King overcome it? How did Hugminn die? From Krahinn’s cryptic answers, the disaster was apparently a singular incident that spiraled horribly out of control. You don’t have to worry about kids. What led to that inciting incident? The hero did something that caused it, I suspected. But the Void King seems to possess an immense hatred well beyond just that. Centuries have done little to quell that endless wrath of his; he was willing to exterminate every last Reincarnator for a millennia after the events of this night. Mahdi stayed loyal to the Void King throughout this time too.

After a few minutes, the entire town of Zaubsaal was celebrating. The party went to a local tavern that was serving booze like it was water; the atmosphere got lighter, happier, and vibrant as everyone began downing steins of alcohol like the world was ending. I noticed the party looked like they were relaxing and not drinking a lot despite the rapturous party around them. Everything looked like it was going so well, and everyone seemed to be so happy. It was bizarre seeing the joy I knew was going to devolve into an absolute train-wreck any moment now. As the party raged on, several redheaded individuals walked in; two of them were older with three little kids that all looked similar to Mahdi. Confirming my suspicion, Mahdi happily ran up to greet them.

“Mom! Dad! Zwai! Quoili! Fehni!” Mahdi declared happily as he ran up and hugged them.

“Mahdi You all won! You saved Arcadia!” Mahdi’s dad praised him with the proudest expression on his face.

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“We did it! We can rebuild. There will be peace!” Mahdi said joyfully as he was happily hugging his family. We shifted closer to Hugminn and Krahinn.

“Do you see the joy? Look at how much of a change we made! We improved an entire Realm! See what good you can do as a ?!” Hugminn asked Krahinn.

“They’re humans; this peace is temporary. In the blink of an eye, all of this will be history to the Realm. Sure, the Demon Sovereign went on a world domination rampage, but all you did was delay the inevitable.” Krahinn shot back to his brother. Krahinn looked at his past self with immense disgust and loathing.

“Why are you being such a jerk Krahinn?” Hugminn sighed. Krahinn looked like he wanted to slap past him.

“You are wasting your potential. Who is going to care about what happens in this Realm in a century from now? I just don’t see the point.” Krahinn shot back at his brother.

“Helping others isn’t wasting potential. You are too much of a cynic.” Hugminn retorted with notable irritation.

“I’m shocked you’d rather waste your time with humans rather than spend it with Ipnerslei. Didn’t you two get married? I’d imagine she be more fun than this.” Krahinn taunted. Krahinn apparently got better with age. I didn’t voice that out loud, but Krahinn glared at me.

“You have no idea how much I wish to change my last moments with Hugminn. I’m aware of how insufferable I was. I…I just felt like humans were beneath us. Like why waste time with beings with such finite life spans in a Realm no one would care about. He was just trying to share his joy with me, and I acted like that towards him.” Krahinn lamented. The sheer regret in his voice was palpable.

“I’m sorry. This can’t be easy to see.” I apologized, feeling a bit guilty for thinking that.

“It’s alright; I know I’m not the most pleasant individual at times. That being said, we’re in this moving forward so keep those thoughts out of your head. We are about to see the moments that forever altered the course of history.” Krahinn sighed. He had a good point; something occurred to me.

“How is the Void King still alive? He’s a human. If they’re all humans, how are they alive over a millennia later?” I asked. The answer was obviously some , but what made you immortal?

“Just keep watching. We’ve almost reached the beginning of the end.” Krahinn told me while looking at Hugminn; his expression was so pained.

Mahdi was celebrating with his family looking on top of the world. The Void King and Ariam were clearly flirting with each other. Hugminn and Krahinn were clearly arguing about whether helping humans was worth the effort. I looked at the hero and Helsiri who were at the edge of the party; the fact he was erased made it difficult to tell what he was doing or look at his face. Helsiri seemed to be done with the Realm by his expression. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary as the party continued; something told me once the party ended things were about to go horribly, horribly wrong. But what? What started it all? As the memory progressed, Krahinn looked guiltier and guiltier at his past self. The Void King gave Ariam a quick peck goodbye before leaving the tavern. Hugminn left with Krahinn behind the Void King, as the two of us shifted to the hero in the memory. The sense of dread I had was only getting worse as the Void King left.

“Hello Ariam.” The hero stated casually. Or as casually as what sounded like a robot voice could express. Krahinn even erased his voice.

“Hello Hero. We won today; we finally can work towards peace.” Ariam replied. When his name was said, some artificial voice just filled it in with Hero.

“We can build a future.” The hero told her. Something about the way the voice distorted told me an emotion wasn’t properly expressed.

“Scius officially gave me a ring. I’m looking forward to the future we make.” Ariam informed the hero, showing off her hand.

“I see.” The hero quipped. Something about the hero’s phrasing caused this horrible feeling to creep up my spine.

“I hope our kids have his ability.” Ariam added on. Something about how the hero shifted made me uncomfortable.

“Hopefully they do.” The hero replied. His voice was so oddly distorted from being erased, making it hard for me to decipher his tone. Ariam glared at him before standing up; I had no problem recognizing the disgust in her expression.

“I’m tired. I will be going home.” Ariam snipped before bidding Mahdi a more enthusiastic goodbye.

“What does he have that I don’t?” the hero snarled to Helsiri.

“A , but I fail to see how a is not as impressive. Perhaps she wants something else.” Helsiri mused. Oh, that was not a good conversation.

“I am the chosen one; the one selected by the Lords to save Arcadia. I was given a second chance at life to bring salvation to this Realm. Why would she choose him over me?” the hero snapped. How delusional was the hero?

“Humans are fickle beings. Who knows what she’s thinking?” Helsiri said calmly. Krahinn was glaring at Helsiri.

“Maybe Scius used his to trick her. I am the hero, not him. I should be the one who gets the beauty.” The hero spat. Holy shiza. Wow. Did…did he really just say that?

“Your life is a story, write the ending you want. You’re strong enough to make it happen.” Helsiri replied. Was Helsiri encouraging his delusions?

“Don’t worry, it gets much, much worse.” Krahinn informed me dejectedly. I at least began to grasp how things began to go disastrously.

“You have a point Helsiri; I am strong enough to.” The hero agreed as he straightened up.

“So, what are you going to do?” Helsiri inquired. What did he do? What was the hero about to do?

“Make my own ending. If Ariam won’t see the truth, I can help enlighten her.” The hero answered as he stood up. Oh Lords.

I looked at Krahinn who looked completely disgusted at Helsiri as we followed the hero. His entire walking stance was off; it wasn’t some casual walk down the street but like he was stalking something. The hero was actively stalking down Ariam as his pace quickened. Stop. Don’t. You are about to doom thousands upon thousands of people with this; you are a delusional man about to create a monster. I knew this was a memory that prevented me from stopping the events that were about to unfold. The hero picked up her trail and started moving much faster. Why? Helsiri was flying nearby without any care in the world following who he made a contract with. I tried grabbing the hero to stop him but my hands went right through him. Krahinn put his hand on my shoulder while shaking his head.

“Welcome to the Disaster at Zaubsaal.” Krahinn told me as the hero caught up to Ariam.