The man woke up in a black void with a gasp. As soon as he realized that he was awake and lucid, his eyes went wide and he crouched down, clutching the sides of his head, muttering to himself.

  “No. No, no, no!”

  Tears streaked down from his bloodshot eyes. Each tear was full of grief, loss, and anger, and each time a tear fell, his emotions grew even wilder.

  “Why am I still alive!? Just let me die already! That should have been the end of it!”

  As he cried into his hands, through the veil of tears he made a startling realization about himself and his current body. There were no more black cracks anywhere.

  In his old world, he was just a normal person thrust into an unenviable position of bearing a legacy against his will, until it abandoned him, making him a husk. In the world he was just in, he was an invader who tried to take the place of the version of himself who ended up with his old legacy that jumped ship.

  Other-Arden wasted no time he fastened his hands around his human throat and squeezed. He was finally whole. He would finally be able to die.

  He would finally be able to die!

  Just the thought of finally flying filled him with untold amounts of bliss. His eyes were smiling as he strangled the life out of himself.

  But when he realized that he was still breathing just fine, doubt crept in. He changed tactics and tried to bite off his tongue to bleed out, but he didn’t feel it this time as well, nor did he bleed. With his hysteria returning, he tried to jam his fingers into his eye and destroy his brain, but that too resulted in nothing.

  He was finally made whole again, but in this void there was nothing that could hurt him, let alone kill him.

  His thoughts turned to what he did in this foreign world. He nearly killed this version of his sister. He caused the stargate cascade. He tried to replace the world’s Arden.

  He caused his Vera to kill herself.

  “Is this my punishment?"

  In the void, he was alone. There was nothing that could respond to his sorrowful wail.

  And yet, a voice replied. A voice with a distinct Australian accent.

  “No, proxy. This is your reward.”

  Other-Arden’s emotions changed on a dime. He was no longer full of sorrow but full of white-hot burning rage instead. Rage at the second great cosmic deity that had betrayed him.

  “Life, you motherfucker!”

  The Archon Life was right in front of Other-Arden. It was without ceremony. It almost made Other-Arden question if Life had been there the whole time.

  “Why!? I did exactly as you told me! I had both your legacy and Beyond’s under your flag! I was Arden!”

  His rage exploded. It didn't matter if Life was an Archon, Other-Arden wanted to make Life pay.

  “But you betrayed me too! You’re worse than Beyond! At least Beyond only abandoned me! Beyond didn’t turn all of my actions into a weapon and give it to an enemy!”

  “It is true.”

  “Then why!?”

  Life didn’t answer for a long while. In the void with the presence of a god, it could have been seconds, or it could have been years. Eventually, Life gave an answer.

  “For the future. This is the only way reality can continue. I showed you on the night we met. The fate of every world, every timeline, every dimension, every reality. Existence is nearing its end.”

  “And betraying me will bring it about faster!?”

  “No. I don’t want everything to end. Life is precious. So is death. This calamity is neither. This was the only way existence has a chance of survival. I needed a broken vessel, one that couldn’t die, because only then would the legacies fit together.”

  “You made me retake Beyond’s legacy for that?”

  “It had to be you. You, who was already a broken husk. You, who was not from this timeline. You were a fundamentally broken individual from outside of causality. You were the only possible candidate. And because of you, there is a chance.”

  “So that's it. You scammed me out of my desire to be happy again. You used me to get what you wanted, and thanks to that, maybe the others can survive?”

  “Precisely.”

  “That's bullshit! What about me? I never wanted any of this, and I'm supposed to be happy that my life was used like this!?”

  Another thought came to him.

  “It had to be me, huh? Someone who didn't belong in either world, and was a pathetic husk.” He glared at Life. “Was Beyond’s departure orchestrated by you as well?”

  Life did not respond.

  “So it was then.”

  “You have to understand-”

  “I don't have to understand anything!” Other-Arden interrupted. “The entire time, I was nothing more than a pawn for you Archons! Do you know how long I was alone in my empty universe!? I don't even know! After the first few million years I stopped counting!”

  “We no longer have a grasp of time in the traditional sense.”

  “Is that supposed to be an excuse? You Archons are divine beings! You're supposed to be omniscient! You should know things that no one else can!”

  “...Yes, we are supposed to be omniscient. But we're not. If we were, I wouldn't have to rely on schemes to keep life and death in motion. I wouldn't have to have done this to you. I'm sorry.”

  Stolen story; please report.

  “Sorry is not good enough,” Other-Arden seethed.

  “I am aware, Arden. We dragged you into this eons-long struggle against your will. You and your friends were collateral in this grand design.”

  “Stop it.”

  “Us Archons are about as close to gods as can be, but we are not perfect, no matter how powerful we are.”

  “Stop it!” Other-Arden repeated, louder.

  “Our greatest strength is also our greatest weakness. Our devotion to our representation. We focus entirely on that one aspect.”

  “I said shut up!”

  “To me, nothing matters more than the cycle of life. I am willing to do anything and everything to prevent the cosmic stasis.”

  “Shut the fuck up!”

  There was another long pause. Other-Arden wanted in anger and exhaustion too vast to describe. His hatred was bubbling over since the start, but it continued to grow.

  Hateful tears stained his face formed into a permanent scowl. He bared his teeth like a wounded, feral animal.

  “...You helped me with that. It is impossible to overstate your importance in reality's survival. You fulfilled your end of the bargain the moment you collected Beyond’s legacy. Now, I must fulfill mine.”

  Other-Arden’s rage died immediately, like a fire extinguisher was let loose in his soul.

  “...You're actually going to do it?” Other-Arden asked. “You're actually going to give me my ending.”

  “Of sorts. I realized something about you as I watched you. You don't want to die.”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “No. You wish to be happy. At peace. I can offer you that.”

  “How?”

  A heavenly echo of laughter rang out in the void.

  “I am the arbiter of life. Death too is a part of life, and my domain reflects that.”

  “...What are you saying?”

  A portal not dissimilar to a stargate appeared in the void. It was much larger than even the largest one that appeared during the cascade. Unlike every other stargate, this one was not a single color.

  Every color of visible light shone from this mysterious stargate, along with colors that Other-Arden could see, but couldn't understand.

  “What is this?” He asked.

  “This is the entrance to my domain, Afterlife. Every Archon has one, but none are like this. This was made for the purpose of keeping lost souls happy. Everyone I have chosen and has ever died can be found here in their own special part of my world. It's my way of paying respect to them.”

  “E-everyone?” He asked, eyes trembling.

  “Everyone of my choice.”

  As Life spoke, a figure emerged from the prismatic stargate. It was obviously a woman, given the silhouette, but she was wrapped in the same iridescent multicolored film as the stargate was as she pushed herself out of it.

  Other-Arden wouldn't be able to stop his tears for a long time. He recognized the silhouette. He thought that he had lost her in their original world, then again in the world he invaded. He fell to his knees as the silhouettes original coloration returned to her.

  She was a drop dead beautiful woman, with her muscles only adding to her serene beauty. Her head was topped in long black hair with streaks of icy white.

  “Vera…” he said, barely able to get the words out as he went.

  Before either of them said anything, more figures emerged from the portal to Afterlife. Other-Arden recognized all of them even before the spectrum of colors disappeared from them.

  They were all people that he missed. People that he endured unknowable amounts of solitude for, solely for the chance to someday be returned to them.

  Vera was there.

  Sya was there.

  Mom and Dad were there.

  Cirai was there.

  Podren was there.

  Everyone that he missed appeared.

  Arden bawled his eyes out as his loved ones surrounded him, crying as well.

  “I waited so long,” he choked out between sobs. “I wanted to see you all again so badly…”

  “It took you a while…” his Vera said, sniffling and showing off the dazzling smile that he had fallen in love with. “But you finally made it back to us.”

  “How long were you going to make us wait for?” His Sya asked. “If you weren't already broken, I'd beat the crap out of you,” she said with obvious tear stained cheeks.

  Life watched the interaction with a smile.

  It was stuff like this that made Life realize that life was worth protecting. It was worth defecting from the Blight to see this. To Life, life was the most important thing in existence.

  Only with life could emotions be brought forth. Only with life could innovation occur. Only with life could someone- anyone, anything- feel worth existing in the first place.

  Life would protect that.

  “It's a good thing that you took as long as you did to try to claim the legacy.”

  Arden turned to look at Life. It was obvious to Life that Arden was doing this more as a formality rather than out of interest. The constant pulling of his eyes to Vera and Sya were proof enough of that.

  Life wasn't upset. This was the reason why Life existed.

  “With both Ardens in the same universe, causality was breaking. Both you and your girl know that. You both told that world's version of yourselves. Causality broke enough that I was able to slip Vera in, and that accelerated the process.”

  “That was you?” Arden asked.

  “Indeed. I needed causality broken to a certain point, but not broken beyond repair for everything to work.”

  “What was it for?” Vera asked.

  “For this. I was able to expand Afterlife. I was able to collect everyone who was deceased from every timeline. That's why you are all here. Afterlife was originally only for the current world, but thanks to you, I was able to provide some salvation to a lot more lost souls. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you, Arden.”

  “What about that universal cataclysm?” Arden asked. “Will that affect Afterlife as well?”

  “It may, but it's out of your hands now. You've done enough. Now it's up to the one we made. Now, Arden. You've spent too long in hell. Step through my stargate and you will be in paradise.”

  All of the people who emerged filed one by one back into Afterlife. When Sya followed everyone else, only Arden and Vera remained in the void with Life.

  “We'll talk about everything when we're alone in Afterlife,” Vera said. “The others don't know most of what happened, and I think we should keep it that way.”

  “Yes, please.”

  “Then let's go. To our new home.”

  Vera stepped through the prismatic stargate, and Arden was about to follow her when Life stopped him with a melodious voice.

  “When you step through the stargate, you won't see me for a very long time. If all goes well, you won't see me ever again.”

  “Hopefully not,” Arden said, full of vigor again after eons. “You made heaven for everyone, but that doesn't just excuse you for what you did to me. You and Beyond both.”

  “Which is why I feel the need to correct something. Beyond didn’t abandon you.”

  “What?”

  “Beyond was taken. If Beyond was able to make the choice, I know that he would have chosen to remain with you. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to make that choice.”

  Arden didn't say anything. He just ruminated on what he just heard.

  “Also, you weren't always a part of my plan. It was only after you made your way to this world that I devised a plan with you in the center. Your resolve and your existence was enough to change everything, including how I think. Take pride in that.”

  Arden said nothing. It looked like he wanted to, but he held it in. After several seconds, he turned away from life and entered the stargate to Life’s domain.

  Life looked up at the endless expanse of nothing, thoughtful.

  “This is the only chance we have left…”