Chapter 3: Endbringers – Chapter 3

The woman broke the embrace. Taking the man’s hand, she turned towards the cliff’s edge, the man did the same. While he stared out over the horizon, her idle eyes fell downward amongst the trees, “You are a newborn, in time your body will acclimate, but for now you are still subject to the same vulnerabilities you had when human. While you cannot die, you lack control over yourself – you scream in pain, instead of healing the wound, you drip with sweat, when you can keep yourself cool, you fear death, even when it cannot come to you.”

She raised her eyes and looked at the man, “But you are no longer human, you are no longer one of my children, you are a Keeper, and in time, you will gain the same powers as I.” He turned his eyes to face her, and she continued, “There is only one thing you must approach with caution – other Keepers.”

With a lift of her free arm, a massive mountain elevated out of the ground, interrupting the forest landscape. She clenched her hand into a fist.

BOOM

The top of the mountain was gone, in its place a pillar of ash and smoke spewed out of its opening, while magma oozed from its cracks and into steady streams of lava. The woman opened her fist, and as she dropped her arm back to her side, the time of the world around them sped up, days passing in seconds.

When time had returned to its normal pace, the world was overshadowed by a thick haze of ash. Though it was day, no light shone from the Sun. The man began to choke on the ash, but the woman put a finger to his lips, and he could breathe.

The woman let go of the man’s hand and walked around the overlook, “Even if a world ends, it is of no consequence, as you may make another, or, perhaps, your people may already have another world to call home.” With a clap of her hands, the landscape was replaced by an alpine forest, in the middle of which sat a town. Its buildings were made of wood, while roads of gravel had been carved into the land, stretching far into the forest.

She turned back around and once again took a seat on the cliff’s edge, this time with her feet dangling off of it – the cushions no longer there. The man looked at her, still wary of falling, but decided to take a seat himself, plopping down right next to her.

“When it is time for your universe to end,” she pointed to the town, “and you decide to kill those who still remain,” she dropped her hand, “you will have devised something that concludes your story. However,” she paused and made sure the man was looking into her eyes, “other Keepers may see to your destruction themselves, and it is them you must be wary of.”

The man spoke with notable caution, “Why would Keepers try to destroy one another?”

“That is a question that has been asked by all of our line. By my predecessor to his, by me to mine, and now by you to me. Nobody knows, but when they come, they bring the unknowable.” The woman once again waved her arm and a massive, worm-like beast appeared, swallowing the town whole with one bite, “Monsters of incomprehensible makings, odd creatures that control the minds of your people, beings that seek to devour your universe itself – all will be possibilities, if not commonalities, during your time as a Keeper.”

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The woman paused, allowing the man to take her words in as he stared intently at her. She changed her gaze to affix upon the gaping hole where the town once stood, and the man, too, followed her gaze, finding that the monster had vanished.

When she began to speak again, her voice was soft, with a slight tremble, “But that is not the worst of it. Your end may be premature, but it is an end, nonetheless.” She turned to meet the man’s eyes, now sat upon her own, “There are Keepers, called Endbringers by our line, that seek to devour a Keeper’s very soul. It is said they achieve unparalleled ecstasy in doing so, as they amalgamate with the one whom they devoured, gaining their universe in turn.”

She could see a sort of worry in his eyes, “This is all conjecture however, as the other Keepers are incommunicable, so different from ourselves as to be incomprehensible, like their creations. Perhaps they do it for another reason, maybe it is simply the nature of their being, but the threat they pose is real.”

The man’s worry changed, his eyes now reflecting a sort of ferocity not yet seen of his character, “Can I devour the souls of other Keepers?”

The woman appeared considerably shocked by the question, her voice quaking as she responded, “I suppose so, though I am not aware of anyone in our line who has tried.”

The man broke his stare and peered back at the hole. “I see,” he murmured.

A sigh of relief escaped the woman’s lips, and she turned back to face the hole, choosing to focus her eyes on the horizon. There the two sat, shoulder to shoulder, for a time short only to the unaging.

When the woman was satisfied by the silence, she rose from her seat upon the cliff’s edge and stood over the man. She extended her arm, and the man took her hand. As she pulled him up, she took one last look at the hole, before it all vanished into nothingness.

Once more, they returned to the void.

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