***The Crystal City***

***Angrod***

I press forward with grim determination, sensing that the barrier between me and my goal is weakening.

There is no doubt that I could have gone about this matter in a smarter way, more sneakily which would have been gentler and with less stress for everyone involved.

But I sense that we are on the clock and by waging my power against theirs in a final battle I hope to harden my resolve for what is to come. The biggest hurdle is already taken. I killed allies and friends in cold blood. Even if they were influenced by the Calamity, it was no easy course of action. I even dared to attack Celes, my love.

Right after the alarm, I went to Chimera and took control of my palace’s central core. It has a reasonably smart A.I. which I steadily improved ever since I learned of Warden. But unlike Warden, Palace is under my direct control. It isn't able to refuse my commands.

Miruliru screams defyingly and pushes everything she has into the barrier, assisted by her comrades.

I sigh and increase my efforts slightly, knowing that they are no match for me. Ever since I had my second awakening, my transcendence, I was more deeply aware of the multiverse and the pathways. There is more to the power of a god’s divinity than the mere energy you can gather from the pathway network.

It appears that a god’s first ascendance is just one step of many on the road to true power. Many are too awed by the sheer force of their godhood to question whether there is more to it.

But there is more, another level to achieve which sets those who transcend apart from all the others. The pathway network is simply a focus that makes it easier to control the energies around you. Once I realized that the multiverse’s raw, natural energies are within my grasp – and that my mind is the only thing that’s holding me back – a new and broad horizon of power stood wide open.

The hurdle was to get rid of the walls within my mind.

A mind is power in itself. Why shouldn't it be capable of influencing and shaping the powers around it?

“Angrod! Have you lost your mind?” Chiffre snaps at me.

“No. I am perfectly sane. I just decided to wage my willpower against the multiverse. I will tip the balance and kill the observers until only I remain. Then… once there is just one observer left… the multiverse may bend to my desires.” I take another step and a few cracks appear in their barrier.

“You are mad! Didn't you say that you don't know for sure what will happen if there are not enough observers!” Miruliru doubles her efforts.

“That's why I called it a gamble. But I have a hunch that the multiverse is trying to please its observers with a reality that's appealing to them. Unfortunately, it's impossible to incorporate the wishes of everyone into the same reality, which is why we aren’t able to change things once there are too many of us. So, I hope that if there is just one being left it will be able to realize everything it wishes for.”

That's my hope.

“Even if it works! What crazy universe will you dream up! It's impossible to control your wishes! You are opening the box of Pandora!” Zanders answers me with a shocked expression, realizing that my goal is the destruction of all existence. That, and a considerable amount of confidence which might border on hubris, but that’s exactly why I am confident to pull this off.

“How do you even plan on destroying the multiverse? Even you can’t be everywhere at once!” Chiffre shakes his head.

“Unfortunately, you are right,” I admit. “There is a risk, but, I am a soul mage. I meditated and thought for very long about this problem. I searched my mind and my soul. There is just one thing I wish for. To be together with my family in this reality and without the Calamity.”

Now he will ask whether that includes everyone else.

“And what of the others! What will you get by only wishing for your family!” Miruliru snaps back.

I smile. “I don't know, but I wish for them to be as happy as they can without dying of boredom. I guess that's not possible without some other people and a little excitement. There will be contention in my new multiverse, so you people have a good chance.”

“Are we nothing to you?” Miruliru asks.

I give them a smile which makes them shrink back.

“All of ye who stand before me are nothing but dust compared to those I love!”

Hearing that, even my former guards join the ambassadors’ efforts to strengthen the barrier. I guess they aren't happy with an uncertain future either.

But it shouldn't matter.

The crystal core in my hand is the central piece of my palace. It did nothing but gather power for a very long time. Together with the distorted time inside Chimera's Void Zone, it accounts for quite some power.

Suddenly, someone grabs my shoulder and I turn to see that Carne got up again.

He gives me a winning smile, apparently relying on his divinity. “You forgot… gah…”

His expression turns shocked, then pained as a wave of power surges forth from within his body, incinerating him instantly in a flash of light from one moment to the next.

I close my eyes and try not to inhale the remnants of ash which were once someone I called a friend.

“CARNE!” Miruliru screams. “What happened?” Chiffre wavers, shaken by this turn of events.

“He relied on his divinity and switched his power with mine for a mere moment,” I explain calmly. “But he wasn't able to control the power which I wield now.”

I give the barrier a final push and it shatters.

Miruliru instantly jumps at me but I wipe her out of the air with my staff as I take my first step forward. Carne was the only one whose divinity would have given him a reasonable chance against me. If he had been able to control my current power…

I guess that the multiverse doesn't have enough determination to stop me after all.

A guard tries his luck, but one of my smaller crystal blades brings him an unfortunate end.

Chiffre unleashes a shock wave of power against me, actually stopping me for a second in my tracks.

Commendable, but futile.

I will have to ask him how that was possible should we see each other again.

With a wave of my hand, I raise the gravity within the area dramatically and everyone is sent to their knees, allowing me to advance without further hindrances. At the door to the central chamber, I stop for a second.

“Angrod!”

I turn around and see Celes stumbling towards me, impeded by the gravity field I put up. Her hurt expression causes a pain in my chest.

“You don't need to do this. We can solve this together! I am happy as long as we have each other!” She raises her hand towards me.

Fate is surely trying really hard to test me, but my decision stands firm.

I turn and step through the opening door which allows access to Crystal City’s inner sanctum and Warden’s core.

Raising my hand, I allow Palace to fly forth to fuse with the table in the centre of the room which is not a table, but Warden’s core in a clever disguise.

So that's done.

“~Connection established. The core is under control.~”

The words echo through the room, giving my deeds a certain finality, so I don’t hesitate in giving my next order as I tighten my hand around my staff. “Raise the space and time barrier around this room and prepare the wave-front.”

A scream causes me to turn and I see Celes stumbling towards me. My eyes widen with uncertainty, but I relax when I realize that she won’t make it…

… just Seria appears behind her mother, giving her a final and vital push.

My wife stumbles into the room just as the barrier which I installed to seal myself off snaps into place.

“~Done.~” Palace announces exactly what I do not want to hear with machine-like duty.

Suddenly, everything turns silent, shutting off the noise and screams from the outside.

The barrier was supposed to protect me from the end by separating this room into its own little universe, not shutting me in with quite possibly the only being capable of stopping me.

Celes growls and jumps on one leg as she pulls out the little blade which I sent into her ankle to cripple her. She studies the small weapon which actually managed to draw blood and points it at me.

Feeling the imminent conflict, I step back and raise a hand. “Now, now, dear. We can talk about this! I have a perfectly good explanation!”

Her eyes narrow and she takes a step forward, causing me to circle around the crystal table to have something between the two of us. “Stay put you deceiving bastard and let me return the favour!”

“I would rather not…” I reply, my mouth feeling dry as she circles left while I circle right.

Normally, dealing with Celes when she is in a stabby mood shouldn't pose a problem, since our power-levels are roughly equal. My recent transcendence also made it only easier because of my new ability to turn non-corporeal.

This makes me wish that I hadn’t been quite that thorough in creating the barrier which is sealing us in right now. I really could have done without that divinity-restricting dampening field.

Which means that, right now, even though Celes also should have diminished power, I am still caught in a confined place with a person who made martial arts the core of her existence.

“Celes, you have to listen to me very carefully,” I implore to her. “Everything will be alright if you let me do what is necessary.”

“I know that!” she replies. “Seria explained everything, which doesn’t change the fact that you are a stupid moron!”

“Wha-”

Her exclamation stuns me for just a moment, but that is enough for Celes to leap over the table in an artistic display that would have humbled most athletes. Her scissor-leap allows her to catch my waist between her legs, bringing both of us down to the ground while fighting over the little blade. The entire experience instantly gives me unwelcome flashbacks of a certain little girl trying to gouge out my eyeball with her hairpin.

“You attacked me!”

“Just tried to delay you!”

“You injured me!”

“Happened often enough during training! You will survive!”

Celes suddenly abandons the blade and goes for the little pinky of my left hand, quickly bending it the wrong way until there is an audible snap before she lets go of me.

I am only able to stare at the injury… which certainly isn’t the worst I have ever had. Honestly, it’s quite minor in my book. That doesn’t change the fact that broken pinkies hurt like hell.

“Ow!”

“Next time, it’s your neck, understand!?”

I nod quickly.

My wife rolls her eyes and hurls me to my feet, sitting me in one of the chairs which are positioned around Warden’s table-core.

“We have a lot to talk about.”

“Yeah?” I gingerly touch the broken pinky and clench my teeth as I bend it back into its proper place.

Celes turns me towards the table, pointing. “But first, get along or the Calamity might notice that something is amiss. You still have to wipe out the multiverse.”

“What?” I glare at her and then at the table, slowly starting to believe that I have been out of the loop.

“The wave-front?” Celes asks and frowns.

“Yes?” Before the barrier locks down completely, I have to complete a ritual that allows it to emit the wave-front, a specially created spell matrix to wipe out the multiverse in a single, ongoing chain reaction.

The wave-front is an adaptation of my own chaos magic. Just with the difference that this version will have a self-replicating effect. That's why I was always afraid of sharing my chaos magic. It's actually just a little logical leap from my red maelstrom towards the wave-front.

Like a wave inside a pond, it will spread in every direction and obliterate everything. While doing that, it will be fed by the very own energy it unleashes by breaking down even the smallest atom into the most basic components. Not even the black hole and the Calamity will be spared.

Once the critical limit is achieved, the multiverse should collapse on its own and leave me as its sole survivor.

“Palace, activate the wave-front and lock down the barrier as soon as you are ready.”

“~Affirmative.~”

It just happens so that the multiverse has to end in order for something new to begin. Something without soul-eating monsters.

I take an awkward glance at my wife’s determined expression while the outside of the barrier turns black, giving way to an endless, black nothingness.

“~The wave-front has been sent. We are disconnected from the rest of the multiverse.~”

“That was pretty anticlimactic.” I turn to face Celes. “I have no idea what’s going on, but you should know that this won’t work without…”

Palace’s voice interrupts me. “~It had the expected effect. There should be nothing left in existence.~”

I nod. “So it is done. Can you confirm it by reconnecting us with the multiverse?”

“~Reconnecting.~”

The black nothingness turns into a white plane which reminds me of the eternal planes between the dimensions.

And on the other side of the barrier, I see a demon who is grinning at us.

“Hi, so we meet again.”