Elisa and Astrid sat atop the hill of a garden that was an entire planet—a miniature world barely the size of a field, where the landscape itself was the universe. A tiny place floating within a neutral dimension, far from any rift, silent like the first day of the Second Existence.
Filled with stars.
Without time.
Wrapped in a perfect calm that would soon be shattered by what was to come.
"I don't understand why you saved me," Elisa said, still somewhat shaken.
"Because I still believed you could understand," Astrid replied while staring toward the endless horizon.
Elisa lowered her gaze. The hat rested on her knees, motionless, as though it too were listening.
"I believe sealing these rifts is the right thing to do. The responsibility of carrying this hat…"
"And what if I told you you're wrong?" Astrid slowly turned toward her, her brooch glowing like a still-beating heart. "What if, by sealing them, you're condemning countless lives that could exist because of those fractures?"
Elisa looked at her seriously.
"How can it possibly be right to let dimensions collapse into one another? Everything I saw in those worlds… how can it be right to live in a world that could end up like that?!"
"Because…" Astrid closed her eyes, swallowing her emotions. "Because my world collapsed precisely because we didn't."
The silence was heavy.
"In my dimension," she continued, "we believed we were safe. A world we thought was perfect, polished, built on mathematical harmony. But it had always been a mistake. A world rejected from the very beginning by its creators, and one we never truly understood.
We didn't know what existed beyond it.
We had no way to escape, no way to prevent it…
We had no choice."
"But you did," Elisa answered firmly.
Astrid nodded without pride.
"The brooch… I didn't find it by chance. It found me. Among the ruins of a reality that had already lost.
And when I fused my first rift… I saw everything."
"Everything that could be lost," Elisa added quietly.
"But also everything that could be saved," Astrid replied. "If every world became one… there would be no more surprises. No more fractures. A single body, a single existence. A universal order. Like a scar healing a wound, even if the mark remains."
Elisa lowered her eyes.
"But that's exactly what scares me…
The forced union of realities erases their diversity. It kills nuance.
What you're proposing isn't a cure… it's an irreversible fusion. The last universes I visited showed me what even the tiniest mistake can unleash, and if there's even the slightest possibility of that happening again, I can't allow it."
Astrid slowly moved closer until she stood before her.
"And what you're doing isn't a slow death? You seal rifts one by one like someone extinguishing stars.
Do you know how many creatures live within them? You're merely exchanging one possible death—one that could give birth to an entirely new reality—for the temporary salvation of another that's already decaying.
Those rifts aren't just reminders of a failed existence. They're also doors to new ones.
How many unborn worlds… will die before ever being born?"
Elisa looked at her with nostalgic eyes, remembering everything she had experienced throughout her journey and everything she had learned.
"Yes. I know. And I truly feel it with every closure. But I also know that if I leave them open… everything will disappear.
The Failed First Existence wasn't a warning story. It was a roar of what must never return, and if you continue your mission, you could doom the entire Second Existence. It would only take a single mistake—a tiny flaw while merging dimensions, or even failing to monitor one thing after everything has already been united into a single universe—for everything to end exactly like that other reality.
And the scars you've left behind in some of your fusions are proof of that."
Astrid turned away, anger and understanding mixing within her expression.
"...You don't know that. Every rift I fuse makes me stronger. Every union I create is stronger than the last. I won't make mistakes…"
"You don't know that!" Elisa interrupted. "No matter what you do, you can never guarantee stability. A new life isn't worth the risk."
"…And what right do you have to say that?" Astrid shot back coldly. "Out of every being in the multiverse, you are the one who has no right to say it. The one who caused this armageddon in the first place. The Traveler of Catastrophes who condemned countless worlds in her universe. The one who challenged the Guardians of the Multiverse and shattered all existence in the process."
Elisa fell silent.
"At least I'm trying to prevent what you caused from happening again. You're only delaying the inevitable. This corrupted plane exists because the Guardians were too foolish the first time they created reality, and that's why they forged this new existence.
You're saving a world that was a mistake from the very beginning. Something that should never have existed and is doomed to die eventually—whether because of the rifts or because it simply collapses.
I only want to create a world that is truly better than the last."
Astrid's voice carried unwavering determination.
Elisa stayed quiet for several seconds. Those words hurt her deeply, but she refused to yield.
"Yes, it's true. I caused all of this, and that's exactly why I want to fix it. But you? Do you truly want to create a better world for everyone—or just for yourself?
I don't believe someone who supposedly wants to save everything would take so many risks and erase so many universes in the process just to create a new one, especially when the scars are right there as proof.
You don't care about saving the multiverse.
You only want redemption because you couldn't save your own world.
You blame me for destroying some worlds while you're doing something even worse."
"Don't you dare use my world as a weapon against me," Astrid replied while her brooch began to burn with restrained fury.
"You said the Guardians created a new multiverse because they failed to save the previous one, and you're doing the exact same thing. Creating a new reality from the ruins of the old one.
You regret the destruction of your world, and you didn't even merge it with another. You let me close the rift inside it because deep down you only wanted to forget the pain haunting you."
"SHUT UP!" Astrid screamed, making the entire universe around them tremble. "I did everything possible to save my world! There wasn't a single day when I didn't use the brooch trying to revive it! And now I can never get it back, and I couldn't let it be stitched together with all the others—I didn't want to lose the little that remained of it or have its existence diluted inside my new universe!"
"Then you admit it! This is nothing more than a selfish desire! If you truly wanted to fix everything, you would've merged it too no matter what, but you let it remain forgotten because you couldn't let it go!"
Elisa shouted firmly before slowly stepping closer to Astrid, who now stood there crying, and embracing her.
"We've both suffered losses that can't be explained. And we both want to protect what remains. But we don't have to fight. Please, Astrid, let's end this. We don't have to be condemned."
Elisa extended her hand toward Astrid with determination and compassion.
"We can build something new after all of this… together.
Maybe universes will die someday, but they don't have to be forgotten. There will always be a part of them that never disappears. One cycle ends and another always begins. No world truly dies. A new one will always live because of the last one. They will always remain engraved in the history of the multiverse…
…and there can always be something better."
For a moment…
A real moment…
Astrid thought about taking that hand.
But just before she did, an illusion of her mother and sister appeared before her, and she remembered the path that had led her here. Every tear she had shed. Every body she had buried. Every ounce of pain she had endured.
And the thought of living in a world like that again became unbearable.
A world where she could have done more.
A world that could never truly be saved.
A world where tears and the desperate wish to create something better—even out of selfishness—would ultimately mean nothing.
Astrid lowered her head.
She understood Elisa perfectly, but…
At the very least, she wanted to try.
If there was even the smallest possibility of achieving her goal, she would cling to it.
She knew what she was doing was selfish.
She knew her plan was imperfect and full of risks.
But she had already gone too far.
Long ago, she had lost the chance to give up.
She would not allow the universes to remain as they were.
She had to do what she believed was right.
Her mind repeated the same phrase over and over again:
No universe will end like mine did.
I will create one where no one ever dies again.
Astrid smiled sadly.
"Maybe… in another world," she whispered. "But not this one…"
She stood up. Her brooch pulsed like a restless star.
"I can't let you seal the last rifts. If you do… there'll be no turning back."
Elisa stared at her in disbelief before lowering her gaze sorrowfully. She truly did not want to do this either, but she had no intention of yielding.
"And I can't let you unite what was separated with so much effort.
Because if you do… we won't even know what we lost anymore."
Both of them stood.
Both looked at each other with sorrow.
Both knew that this was the final moment before the end.
"Do we hate each other now?" Astrid asked, without sarcasm.
"No," Elisa answered. "And that's the most tragic part."
Then the sky tore apart.
The energies of the hat and the brooch rose.
Space itself trembled.
And with a soft, sorrowful roar, the multiverse witnessed the beginning of the final duel.