A warrior holding a huge spear falls down with the sound of an old tree falling.
“Iskandar! You son of a bitch!”
“This is the end.”
Lyra's Ekejax screams, still holding the remnants of ether.
A strange sound, like the howl of a demon sword thirsting for blood.
"Just because your ego dies doesn't mean your Master has to die too. If you go out through that passageway…."
"shut up!"
A woman in a school uniform cries in front of the remains of an ego called Iskandar.
“Die! What do you know!”
“….”
“I, with all my heart, loved Iskandar!”
“Oh, I see.”
Lyra expressionlessly pulls out the Ekejax again.
“You monster bitch who doesn’t even know love!”
“I forgot.”
"what?"
“I even forgot what it was.”
Lyra swings her Ekejax upwards in a big wave.
Iskandar's master, wearing a school uniform, is crying with blood on his mouth.
“Iskandar… I’ll go now.”
The final scene in Kali Yuga, the lingering scent and scattering of ether—and the traces of charcoal.
To some, it is a unique tragedy, but from a cosmic perspective, it is just another passing scene.
“Lyra… are you okay?”
“No problem. The wound is minor.”
Haru approaches Lyra and reaches out to caress her arm.
“Guys… help Lyra.”
In an instant, small, wriggling larvae swarmed around Lyra's wound.
Lyra's blood drops that were flowing out gradually coagulate.
“Master, do you know that?”
“What?”
“The Master is probably a force that can rival even the most powerful Ego.”
“Even if you flatter me, nothing comes out.”
Lyra waves her hand with a smile.
The wounds have already healed.
Who the master is is, of course, very important.
Lyra, in the timeline of regression that has already given up on estimating how many times it has happened.
I met the master with whom I have the best chemistry.
Above all, the fact that the Master himself uses the ether power… .
A master who knows how to use a smartphone, a master who knows how to swing a crossbow or a baseball bat.
And a master who can perceive or manipulate ether.
Even a child knows who will be more effective in the apocalyptic timeline.
“Master… there is no one in this pyramid anymore.”
Lyra's master, Haru, was an odd woman.
Being weird is not a very helpful thing in a capitalist society.
However, this is not the case in the world of the Apocalypse.
Haru and Laira investigated the milestones of this Kali Yuga.
“If things go according to plan… when the last Master and Ego remain, the path will open.”
Milestone.
The voices each created their own devices in the apocalyptic world.
Go to a certain point and get it all. Accomplish a certain task. Or survive alone until the end.
When you complete that milestone… .
They say the road is open.
The path to the voice.
"But I don't understand. Every ego already encounters a voice when it becomes an ego. Just because we encounter it again... doesn't mean we're making a wish..."
“No, Lyra.”
"yes?"
"Being called by my boss and being called by myself. Do you think those two things are the same?"
“…I understand now.”
"It might reveal the truth of the universe. Or it might grant wishes like a magic lamp. According to my research into ancient texts, Tir ner Nog was once worshipped as a wish-granting object."
“Has anyone actually accomplished all the milestones and achieved their wish?”
“I don’t know.”
One day he shakes his head.
“What is certain is that among egos, there are many who hate their voices.”
“Even Lyra?”
"I don't know... but the moment I meet your voice in person, I think I'll be brimming with ego, ready to immediately put my weapon to work."
After saying that.
Lyra looks around inside the pyramid.
The Pharaoh's tomb with a high ceiling.
Iskandar and his master, whom we just defeated, must be the last ego… .
“But! Ta-da! There’s no such thing as absolute!”
“Ah, this voice.”
A boring voice. A guy who talks so much that it's tiresome.
Ego, who has been encountered so many times in the timeline that it is suspicious.
Sometimes they were enemies, sometimes they were allies.
That's Lyra's memory.
“Master of the Formless Sword, peerless in the history of the nation, conquistador, conqueror Pizarro! He has descended!”
“….”
“I tried to imitate the gacha game drawing line from a certain timeline….”
“….”
“Lyra, isn’t that too much for a colleague you haven’t seen in a long time?”
“You are not my colleague. You are not my friend.”
“Oh my gosh, that level of humanity.”
Pizarro chuckles and pulls the cloak towards him.
It's like a bullfighter greeting the audience.
"Wow, this is your new master? She's a bit too pretty. I want to have her work in a hall modeled after an Incan temple."
“Stop talking nonsense and draw your weapons.”
“Oh, Lyra. Poor, poor Lyra.”
Pizarro looks down at Lyra and Haru like a child watching something funny.
On the Pharaoh's altar, she looks somehow gigantic.
“Please think about it, Lyra.”
"what?"
"Think about it! How many times has the voice opened the Kali Yuga? How many doomsday parties has it hosted? How many times has it played this game with egos and mortals across timelines? Huh?"
Pizarro laughs loudly and points his finger up at the pyramid.
As if waiting for that signal.
Inside the pyramid, in that vast space where golden hues come in,
Egos reveal themselves.
“What the heck… No, that can’t be. Iskandar must be the last remaining ego….”
Pizarro laughs heartily, as if he were seeing a delightful sight.
“Lyra, you’re going to die soon in this timeline… and since you’ve somehow reached the ‘end of the apocalypse’ yourself… I’ll tell you.”
The egos are just waiting for Pizarro's signal.
Lyra stretches out her hand and measures the ether of the egos.
It's huge. No, huge isn't an understatement.
How many ducats does it take to become this strong?
This is impossible….
"It's like a game, Lyra. It's a very fun and enjoyable game."
Pizarro looks down at Lyra, grumbling.
"The voice always opens the timeline of the apocalypse. It's so far beyond our knowledge that we don't even know which Earth it is. And the egos participate in it, bonding with the Master—naively deluded into believing that completing a milestone will lead to the end of the apocalypse."
Those eyes are the eyes of a lynx.
"But you see, there's no such thing as a free lunch, Lyra. Even among egos, there are those born with a silver spoon in their mouths! There are nobles!"
“Pizarro, you talk too much.”
A man with a cold expression cuts off Pizarro's words.
“Shut up, what do you care? Her memories will be erased anyway.”
"This Kali Yuga must end soon. I've gathered enough ether. That's the will of the Voice."
A very calm, or rather, rather emotionless female ego.
He opens his mouth to Haru and Lyra.
"Think about it. Everything in this world has a cause and effect. Nothing exists without a cause and effect. Because there must be a cause to produce an effect."
“When will that crazy bitch come to her senses?”
"Now, Lyra. Look carefully. Why does the Voice initiate the End? Correct. To obtain ether. Then why does he keep repeating the End? Correct. To obtain an awful lot of ether. Then how much ether do you intend to collect? Correct. No one knows. Then does this 'game' have a predetermined ending? Correct. Of course! The result is destruction!"
“That’s right.”
Lyra turns her head to Haru.
“Master?”
“You were missing something important, Lyra.”
“What the heck….”
“If the end, including Kali Yuga, was achieved normally, there is one thing that cannot be explained.”
Lyra looks above the Master.
Pizarro and the three egos just looked at themselves as if they were having fun.
“What about after the end?”
“What are you talking about?”
"What happens after the apocalypse? After all, the apocalypse isn't the destruction of the Earth. If there are survivors, history must continue. Then a contradiction arises."
“After the end….”
"Yes! If another apocalypse comes after the apocalypse, it won't be Kali Yuga! It'll be another destruction of the world!"
“Wow, what’s with that girl? She thinks faster than you, Hannibal.”
“Pizarro, don’t call me by that name. I never gave you permission to call me by that name.”
"Hannibal. Hannibal. Hannibal~ The enemy of Rome~ One-eyed~ He crossed the Alps~ What is Hannibal backwards? The fall of Carthage? Ding! Suicide by poisoning! Hannibal, bang bang bang~"
“Crazy bitch.”
Pizarro and the man with the cold expression keep their mouths shut.
“This was a trap from the beginning.”
“Master….”
“Most egos and masters, because they never reached the end of the milestone… didn’t notice.”
Lyra's eyes distort.
It's perfect.
Why does the voice tolerate egos as if they were doing charity work?
In other words, if the voice was half-omnipotent, then it could just destroy, kill, and dominate at will.
Why do you do this?
Lyra realized.
Prosper the Earth and enrich the ether.
The hearts of people blossom, and ether spreads throughout the world.
Just like growing wheat.
And it causes the end.
The story of the end of the world—where human conflict reaches its peak, where human turning points become meaningless, or where it is triggered by human problems.
It was just a scarecrow.
The end comes when the time comes, like a harvest.
Then the egos come into play. A master is created, an ego is created, and a singularity is created.
They are running wild in that world, struggling against each other.
Their ether, the one that survives the most fiercely and holds out until the very end.
It will be very abundant.
And, if there is a ‘winner of the game’ who passes all the milestones… .
At that moment, the voice ends this world.
Those powerful egos will deal with the last victor.
"Perhaps once they kill us, this world will end. Not a Kali Yuga-like apocalypse... but a true end. The annihilation of all life forms possessing ether. A true reset."
“What a stupid thing….”
“Sow, reap. Sow and reap again. Perfect.”
Yeah, perfect.
A massive game solely for harvesting ether.
That was it.
Lyra recalls something Ego had said before.
A chess piece on a chessboard. A pawn on a chessboard.
“Not all egos are like you, talking about love, endings, and salvation.”
A short girl looks up at Lyra, giggling.
"There's also the ego that just wants to keep having fun. How great is that? You stick with the strongest... Play as you please, and when the time comes, you can just move on to another game... Even if you die in the middle, your Ducats are still intact. Isn't this a game where you cheat alone in a new world?"
The girl giggled in an annoyed voice.
"For your information, Pizarro is the only one of us who dies during the apocalypse. He keeps getting involved and going wild."
“I can’t hear you.”
“And I didn’t become a voice subordinate for fun. It just meant something else.”
“Oh, me too. I just became more vocal because of my deep concern.”
“Me too. I have a very rational and logical secret.”
The girl looks back and forth between the three egos.
“You idiots.”
“Anyway—for that reason.”
Pizarro swings his right hand.
The shadows of countless conquistadors take aim at Haru and Lyra in firing positions.
"You guys, you should just die now. Ah, this is so annoying. That's the kind of line a cheap villain would say."
“Aren’t you a cheap villain?”
“This is the result of death, caused by recklessness.”
Lyra lifts Ekejax and aims at the four egos.
“I won’t forget.”
"what."
“I won’t forget any of this.”
"okay?"
“I will definitely get revenge. Pizarro.”
Pizarro looks into Lyra's eyes.
"Ah, those eyes. I love them. I've seen them hundreds of times, but I never tire of them. Eyes that genuinely hate the other person. They're perfect for Kali Yuga."
Pizarro snaps his fingers.
“But, you know what? Lyra?”
“….”
“You even forgot the face of the man you love the most?”
“!”
“Do you remember the word ‘uncle’?”
"you!"
Lyra opens her mouth to say something.
But Pizarro had already snapped his fingers.
In the last pyramid of humanity.
Hundreds of gunshots echo far into the distance.
####
Four egos are loitering before the pantheon of voices.
The staff don't seem very polite.
“If things continue like this, it won’t be long.”
"okay?"
“Yes. Probably twice as many as the apocalypse we’ve had so far.”
“Then isn’t there an awful lot left?”
“Everything is relative.”
The voice looks down at Pizarro expressionlessly.
“But… in this timeline, there’s an ego couple who completed a milestone, right?”
“Oh, right. What is that… a friend named Lyra.”
“Ah, Lyra.”
The voice smiles.
"Now, poor Lyra, will she become ether and fly away? Will she vanish? Ah, how fleeting. A human life lasts only thirty years. If you want to live, you will die. If you want to die, you will live."
"Why do you always use Eastern proverbs? You're from Spain."
“Yeah, it’s noisy. I don’t listen to people with smaller breasts than me.”
“Anyway, it’s a chest made with ducats.”
“Yeah, I like fake breasts better than real ones.”
“Lyra disappeared? That can’t be happening.”
Four egos see the voice.
"I made a fair contract with all egos. Egos don't die unless they become transcendent and make their own 'choices'... or are forgotten due to lack of ether. They are regressors."
“You are the one who keeps the contract… no, god… no, monster… no, was that a voice?”
"sure."
The voice smiles brightly.
"Lyra will become Ego under another name. I'll give her an appropriate name and mix her into Ego's timeline."
“So, now Lyra is just an empty shell?”
“No. Lyra will become stronger.”
"what…."
"Why? Lyra has passed the ordeal. She's crossed the milestones and finally reached the end of the apocalypse. Of course, she deserves to be rewarded, right?"
“Pretending to be kind.”
“No, it’s just fair.”
The voice raises the corners of the eyes slightly.
“You can tell just by looking at you, right?”
Take that as a signal.
The four egos, already familiar with the voice, leave the Pantheon.
The voice left alone reaches out and pulls the space.
A ball of light stands before her.
“Okay, show me.”
Inside the bead, a voice is heard.
“Poltergeist… That feeling remains… Even the voice can’t help it… Because love lasts forever…”
The voice laughs and holds the bead in his hand.
The orb of light shatters without a sound and flows into the darkness of space.
Just one.
The only thing the voice can't control.
If the heart is so earnest, the ether of that heart remains in that place.
Even the voice can't help it. It's the realm of the gods.
"But what are the odds that that heart will reunite with its original owner… in that place? And what are the odds that all of those owners will gather at the same time? And what are the odds that their timelines will coincide?"
The voice is trying to control the Milky Way by moving only the hand while holding the chin.
The odds are, it's more than impossible.
"But if those hearts were to come together again. If such love existed."
The voice pushes the Milky Way away.
In the pantheon of infinity, the voice exists alone.
“You might be able to kill me.”