The skies of H'Trae, once painted in brilliant golds and soft blues, had turned black.
No stars remained. No sun rose. No birds sang. No winds moved.
Only silence.
Then came the fire.
Flames that had no color, but burned hotter than anything that could ever exist in the realm of reality and imagination.
They swept across the lands like an inferno born of damnation, devouring forests, mountains, cities, and oceans alike. Nothing resisted. Not the fortified temples of the Eastern Continent, nor the sacred archives within the Fairy Kingdom.
All fell.
Everything burned.
The screams of the world faded into smoke.
The corpses of deities, legends, warriors, leaders, commoners, and beasts littered the ashen ground, bones disintegrating into powder under the weight of cosmic fire. Everything alive was already gone. Now the world followed.
At the center of the dead world knelt Rey.
The wind did not touch him. The flames passed around him. Yet, he could not move.
Chains—invincible and unseen—bound him to the last surviving platform of land in the midst of the crumbling world. Above him, the dark sky cracked with red lightning, and high above it all, two figures stood watching.
Zagan and Bal'aam.
Zagan was pale, slim and composed, garbed in black ceremonial robes woven with blood-thread that perfectly matched the black horns protruding out of his head. His body was draped in a shroud of immense energy, and six red rings floated behind him like fragmented halos. His face was cruelly handsome, carved in the perfect image of a god, and twisted by something ancient and unfeeling.
His partner, Bal'aam, was quieter—taller, larger, and far more inhuman. Eyes that spun like spirals of void, with a mouth that seemed far too wide and moved without sound.
Together, they were the end incarnate.
They had won.
At their feet, bound and gagged, was Ater.
Still alive. Still holding on.
"Such suffering," Zagan mused as he stepped forward, hands behind his back. "It is beautiful, in a way. How tightly your soul clings to the corpses of the dead. I must say, I'm impressed… worm."
Rey did not respond.
His body trembled. His lips bled from biting them shut. His eyes—once bright and burning—now dulled, stared with a madness only known to the broken.
"You look confused," Zagan continued. "You prepared so diligently. I don't know how you managed to study Ancient MajiK, but you even did that too. You ascended to new understanding, trained day and night… and yet, this is how it ends."
Bal'aam let out a clicking sound—perhaps laughter—as he dragged Ater forward.
The once-glorious being, now no more than a shadow of his former self, turned his head slightly to Rey.
"…Don't look," Ater rasped. "Rey… don't—"
A sound like thunder cracked through the air. The blade of blacklight pierced Ater through the chest and emerged out his back.
His body convulsed once, twice… then fell limp.
Rey let out a silent cry—his throat unable to make sound. His scream was one that shattered inside his own soul.
Zagan raised a brow. "There. Now, there is nothing left to protect."
"You…" Rey's voice cracked, a whisper of hate beyond words.
"Speak up," Zagan said. "You've earned a final word."
Rey lifted his gaze. There were no tears. Only wrath.
"I will kill you. I swear on all that remains. I will kill you."
Zagan smiled, then stepped close.
"In the brief moment we've been together, you've been nothing short of amusing. But it's time to put down the dreamer."
Without another word, Zagan raised his hand.
Black flames ignited around Rey's form as the chains that bound him fused into him, eating away at what remained of his spirit.
A final whisper reached his ears.
"You've lost."
Then came the strike.
The blade of void cleaved Rey's neck in a single, silent slash.
There was no blood.
Only light—pouring out of his neck like mist—before his body dissolved into the void, swallowed by the darkness of a world no longer real.
H'Trae screamed one final time.
And then it was no more.
The floating land collapsed. The sky shattered like glass. A flood of darkness surged from below, consuming every last remnant of existence, devouring memory, form, time, and thought.
Space and all that it inhabited had died long ago.
Now, the planet itself perished.
Zagan and Bal'aam hovered above the destruction, unscathed.
"Another threat, extinguished," The former murmured.
"Until the next," Bal'aam replied.
They vanished into the blot of darkness, leaving behind a void where once a world had breathed. And in the infinite quiet that followed, beneath all of existence, only one place still endured.
—The Last Frontier.
***********
Beneath the endless sea of stars-that-are-not-stars, the cat-like entity sat.
Its body shimmered faintly, as though flickering between matter and meaning. Two slit-pupiled eyes stared up at the place where H'Trae once had been.
A small smile tugged at its feline features.
"…This is why I warned you," it whispered, voice like a breeze in forgotten language. "The Ancients… cannot be underestimated."
Its tail swayed slowly, touching the water's surface.
"…The path you opened for me is closing, Rey. With the destruction of your world, my time to ascend has come. I could leave. I could… be free."
It paused.
Then sighed.
"…But I won't."
The being rose and began to shimmer with a gentle light.
"I'll give it to you. The path. A second chance. One that belongs to you, and you alone. I will wait. I will watch. And when you find me again…"
It turned its eyes toward the far edge of the cosmos.
"…We will walk beyond the frontier of the end."
And then, the cat was gone.
Only silence remained in the Last Frontier. But somewhere beyond the black…
… A flicker of light stirred.
It was nothing but a fragment, but it rose from the mucky blackness, traversing the stars that painted the infinite skies, and went even beyond the fallen layer of existence.
Rising within a diminishing path, through an unseen ladder that stretched high above, the fragment of light climbed and climbed… ascending to the very pinnacle of existence that no one dared to reach.
The land of the ones above.
And in that final moment where the fallen Lucifer watched the light disappear beyond its reach to begin a new life, the creature that was not a creature smiled.
It knew.
This marked the beginning of something not yet written.
A promise…
… that the story was not truly over.
[The End]
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Author's Note:
What a ride, huh? I'm sure a lot of you never expected the story to end this way. Well, I'm sure you must all have your thoughts on how the story ended, so please let me know in the comments below.
Special Thanks to everyone who stuck around until the end. I really appreciate all the support.
All of you are the best!
As you can already imagine, the story of Rey doesn't end here.
There is a sequel to this novel called Extra's Revenge: Reincarnated As A Slave, and I plan to release it by the end of the year or early next year.
Until then, please check out my newest project called "Arcane Era"
It is my best work yet, and I'm sure you all will enjoy it—perhaps even more than An Extra's POV.
Thanks once again for reading, and I hope to see you all around.
Cheers!
The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!