Akhenamen’s mind was trying to understand the true nature of an Intent. Or Divine Law in this case. What were they? Sentients? Natural? Artificial?

  He did not need to wonder long, a new guest in his mind, the Divine Law of Gauss Unmaking. Its body floating silently inside his mind space, its shape still a complete copy of his current body.

  There were no smiles anymore, just the green Divine Law floating in the middle of his empty mind space.

  “I had forgotten it was once empty.”

  “So, finally, you decide to talk, Law?”

  “We were not ready until then.”

  Akhenamen did not answer back, his eyes staring into those that seemed so similar to his. He had thought that those eyes belonged to another, but the more he looked at it, the more he saw the truth behind them.

  “What are you?”

  The Divine Law smiled, its smile so small it might be unnoticeable to most.

  “That is the wrong question.”

  Akhenamen stopped thinking. No matter how many hours he stayed sitting down, trying to understand, he simply couldn’t; the being in front of him seemed so unfathomable. He had beaten it at its own game right before, yet now, he saw the Divine Law was far more than a sentient Intent.

  So he went in another direction, instead of trying to understand what he saw, he decided to just look, to let the visions wash over him. To see what was fully laid inside that being, instead of trying to understand it part by part.

  And he saw everything… from the creations of the first atoms to the disappearance of the last star. He saw what a Divine Law was. And the being in front of him was greater than that. It had once been a Divine Law, but now it bore another name: Aspect. A literal personification of an aspect of this universe.

  It was the end. THE End. An end to all things. He saw its purpose. A purpose that would be his. For that was the truth. To claim an Intent, a Law or even an Aspect, one had to claim its purpose.

  Akhenamen would become the End.

  This was what his quest for power had made him claim, a power so overwhelming that the purpose it carried was far greater than anything he could conceive.

  “I do not wish for this purpose. To be the end. To be…that.”

  “We do not have a choice, David.”

  Akhenamen’s eyes snapped back to the floating being before him. A sad smile appeared on his face.

  “You… are me, aren’t you…”

  “Yes. I am you. You are me. The Law of Gauss Unmaking can shatter all barriers, time, space… everything must come to an End. Except us. It is the punishment we bear for our power. To grant End to all. Except us.”

  “So...since the Aspect of the End. The Aspect of Unmaking can shatter time and space. I suppose it is how “me” from the future is contacting “me” in the present?”

  “Yes. I can only do this once before they discover my transgression, but even if I am caught, it does not matter, for I will have achieved our real goal. To show you what we went through. The important parts at least. What you need to know in advance so we can reach an even greater height.”

  Akhenamen’s eyes stared back into his own reflection. He saw so much! Blueprints that the Cygilites would have only received a few days before the final battle, which now invaded his mind.

  The different expansions planned by the System, the Intent and Laws which were secretly Aspects waiting to be claimed, even the collision between the universes, the war, the deaths.

  So many deaths. Sofya, Ascylla, Syllena… his new family, so many players fighting for what they believed to be the final expansions, but was truly the battle for the end of times.

  But it did not stop here; he saw Earth, his family laughing, his family healed. Saved. Yet.. death would come for them too. It would come unless he accepted the price of the power given by this Aspect. To be given the role of the Universe’s personal butcher.

  To be called by the Universe and tasked with ending a civilisation that needed to disappear. To exterminate entire planets… that would be his new role. Of course, he could refuse. But…

  If he refused, death would come. Not just for him and those he cared about. Despite the System’s planning, the war was at a level well beyond the one it had expected. Most would die. They would still win, but barely any would be left.

  Akhenamen’s role wasn’t to win this war for the System; he could do that on his own. No. His role was to help the System finish this war as fast as possible.

  If he accepted, then there would be so much blood on his hands. Yes, he would not do it out of any love for death and destruction; he would feel immense sorrow and self-hate, but this Universe would gain one of its most powerful fighters. Uncountable billions slain by his hands. And even more saved, including his family and friends.

  “Is there truly no other way…”

  “We have tried… we’re not the first 'us' to have contacted our past self. You’re the last in a long line. Until now, we failed. But maybe you will be different with the experience I will grant you.”

  “You may refuse the Aspect. I will not force you to bear a weight that I know far too well.”

  A hand was stretched toward Akhenamen. Yet, his mind was focused on the memories inside his mind. Rose, Jacob, Lan…Syllena, Ascylla…even Sofya…all dead during the final battle.

  No. No, he could not accept this price for the survival of this universe. If someone needed to be sacrificed, then it would be him. Him alone. It was a price far too heavy… to be cursed with eternal life as a construct made only to destroy and unmake. But it was a price worth paying to save those he loved.

  “I’m sorry. So sorry.”

  Akhenamen felt his future self's arms wrapped around him, two beings, the same being, hugging itself. One last show of self-love before the ultimate sacrifice.

  “You have now been granted a terrible purpose. But remember that all this… “

  He knew the end of this sentence. And that this was his end. David’s true end. His name was taken by Sapphyra. His new identity, far greater than he had ever been, was ready to protect his people.

  “This is all for them.”

  Akhenamen… Akhenamen could do it. Never David. David was a loving father who wouldn’t be able to hurt as much as a fly. To accept the price of ending entire civilisations to protect his entire universe, that Akhenamen could do.

  It was time for David to truly end. He had hoped to one day gain back his name. But now he knew that Akhenamen would save his family. It was also how he started to wonder… no… to know that David was made for Akhenamen to be born.

  For an Aspect to be given birth and the universe be granted one of its greatest protectors. He was not the only one; now he could feel them. The other Aspects, most were like he had once been, waiting to be fully awakened.

  All taking different fates, all with different lives, all ready to sacrifice everything that made them… them. To protect those they loved.

  This Universe had seen its destruction coming; it had chosen to sacrifice seven individuals, seven beings ready to sacrifice themselves to protect it. Akhenamen was simply the first to awaken.

  ***

  Akhenamen opened his singular eye. Glowing a bright green colour. His body towered above suns and entire galaxies. Sitting down on a throne made from the core of collapsing stars. Sitting down in the middle of six other individuals. He looked to his right, the Aspect he considered one of his dearest friends.

  The Aspect of Soul, her body was not much different from when he met her thousands of years ago. She stared back at him, her eyes shining bright. Without her, Akhenamen would have never been able to contact his past soul.

  Akhenamen knew what he needed to do now. To make sure of his past self’s birth, he would go against the Universe’s very command. Staring at a small planet, once covered in beautiful blue water, now a dried desert, empty of life and full of ruins.

  A tear rolled down his cheek.

  “I’m ready. We can fix it all.”

  “You know the Universe will force us to fight you. We will be able to resist its call for a time. But…”

  Akhenamen stared into every Aspect’s eyes. All looked ready. They had all lost as much as him. They were all ready. He didn’t act on his own. This was an act of rebellion to give this universe a second chance. A second chance, it was unwilling to risk taking.

  They would have no choice but to fight him to death for his transgression but if they succeeded, then they would all be ready to sacrifice themselves for even 1% chance that by warning the Akhenamen of the past, they could change everything.

  One nod. It was all it took before a loud and powerful rumble shattered space and time around Akhenamen’s body. Such power would have once killed billions on the now destroyed planets that surrounded the Council of the Aspects, but now those planets were empty since the war.

  The titanic construct, rushing at a speed well beyond the speed of light inside the Universe’s past. Instantly, every Aspect felt the immense pressure from the Universe commanding them to punish Akhenamen and stop him.

  Sapphyra’s eyes glowed bright alongside all theirs as a powerful shield surrounded them. They would resist as long as Akhenamen needed before being forced to fight him.

  Akhenamen felt himself go through time, the rift he had opened leading to the edge of the Universe, millions of years ago. His powerful stats allow him to stare directly past the Universe’s current physical limit. Feeling the place where The Colour was already fiddling with and trying to look inside their universes.

  With a power great enough to wipe out entire star clusters, Akhenamen used his aspect to make a small tear inside the Universe’s end, allowing a newly born Outer-Being to slip a single part of itself inside. A certain signal that would one day be heard by the Protheans.

  The first part of his plan had been achieved. He was making sure that his birth wouldn’t be stopped by the Universe.

  Then, as he quickly shattered space and time again, appearing in front of a small blue planet, almost fully covered in water. He watched over his own life. All the “accidents” the universe tried to do to end his life were prevented.

  The death of his past self in a car crash soon after his birth? Stopped by him. Sadly, his past self would grow without the parents HE had known. This kept going; every accident that would have put an end to David’s life before his intended death on top of that building was stopped by Akhenamen.

  Then he saw his family’s death. Akhenamen simply impersonated a big client, asking for a bouquet of roses that he would pay greatly for. That bouquet that had stopped David from going with his family to Rose’s spectacle was orchestrated by Akhenamen himself.

  Seeing them die was the worst. Even as an Aspect, Akhenamen would not accept this fate for them. Just as he felt his fellow Aspects start to appear behind him. They had held on for forty six years.

  He did not bother listening to the Universe’s words. He knew that the woman believed she knew better than everyone else. Sadly, she did not understand that sometimes risks needed to be taken for a true victory.

  So he ended the one thing that was supposed to be endless. Himself. The power unleashed from his forced death was something the Universe would never normally allow, which granted him the power to make one last act. A gift to his past self.

  His mind went back to the accident, interfering with such little effect that the Universe realised nothing in the middle of the self-explosion of its strongest Aspect. Using all its power to try to contain the explosion and shove back the energy into him as if it would fix everything.

  The Universe was like a mother. A toxic one who believed her children had “stolen” her life away.

  The supposed death of his family had been successfully simulated by Akhenamen, hiding their soul away, hidden in the furthest planets from Earth possible, experiencing their own adventures as another person, while their true body was stuck in a death-like coma on Earth.

  And finally… Akhenamen’s life was about to end. His eye started to close; he could see the Universe’s true body appear, a woman’s head forming from the very stars and galaxies around him. Her face, which had usually been one of constant confidence or pure arrogance, was now torn in a terrified and horrified look.

  “Akhenamen! Stop! Please! We can talk about this! STOP!”

  Their final plan. To make the universe know sorrow for the first time. The Universe did not see its inhabitants as its children. But the Aspects were her children. And today, the Universe, for the first time in billions of years of life, knew sadness and sorrow.

  She understood death.

  “NOOOO!”

  Her scream tore apart space, time, stars, sun… a wave of power so great that Akhenamen knew instantly that even as an Aspect, he was still far away from ever being able to fight a Universe’s Persona.

  In his last moment before his true death, one of his fingers twitched, pulling back at the strings linking his family’s souls to their true bodies. Bringing them back.

  He smiled.

  “Goodbye, Universa. I hope that you can finally understand us now.”

  His body, slowly disappearing, was being desperately put back together by Universa’s hands. Maybe she could bring back and reconstruct his body, but his mortal soul was gone.

  “Rose… Jacob… Lan…Syllena… Ascylla. I love you all so much. I will not allow your death. You will not have to suffer. I hope… he will succeed where I failed.”

  To use his powers not to destroy but to save…

  “Ah…what a glorious purpose.”