The universe known to humanity, with all its rivers, lands, galaxies, planets, and solar systems, was merely an infinitesimal point in an endless sea of universes.
Universes without end, stretching beyond all limits, each carrying a different possibility of existence; different physical laws, properties unlike any other, and realities that the human mind might find impossible to comprehend.
Existence embraced every universe that could be realized mathematically, and every possibility that equations could allow, no matter how strange or impossible it might seem to humanity.
But all of that…
Was being devoured.
From the edges of that infinite expanse, darkness began consuming the universes one by one, driving them toward something deeper.
Chaos.
Chaos was not merely a place.
It seemed more like a vast cosmic apparatus; universes entered it, and their laws began to collapse, their structures to fracture, their components to slowly disintegrate, until nothing remained of them.
Endless mathematical universes, containing no inherent contradictions…
Were continuously devoured.
From darkness…
Into chaos.
The darkness was a force of unknown origin, unknown nature, and unknown true effects.
It was not merely the absence of light, but something that swallowed and dissolved everything it touched, as though things lost their meaning the moment they entered it.
And stranger still, it did not merely affect creatures or objects.
It had begun to affect the very environment of chaos itself.
It was an endless chain of cycles of creation and annihilation.
Every universe eventually reached its end, and when the darkness consumed it completely, that ending was not merely oblivion, but the beginning of something else.
One universe perished, and in that same instant, a new universe was born.
Then it continued without pause; creation followed by annihilation, annihilation followed by creation, until the system settled into order once more.
There was no true end, and no true beginning…
only an eternal cycle that never ceased, where death became birth, and birth became death, while worlds continued appearing and disappearing without end.
…
Amid the chaos, the four friends crashed heavily onto the ground, landing on top of one another.
Ben sucked in a deep breath, then quickly raised his head and said:
“Is everyone okay?
Guanda?
White?
Nerv?
Clark?
Is everyone still alive?”
The other three answered quickly, confirming that they were fine.
But Clark’s voice never came.
Ben froze for a moment, then slowly began to rise, helping the others to their feet.
“Clark?”
There was no answer.
Ben raised his head…
And froze.
His eyes widened, the words caught in his throat.
He no longer knew where he was.
Before him stretched a ruined city, overrun by nature, as though it had been built upon the remains of a civilization that had vanished long ago.
Cracked concrete buildings stood among enormous trees and dense vegetation, while roots and branches covered vast portions of the walls and spread across the streets.
Water flooded sections of the roads, reflecting the abandoned car wrecks scattered everywhere, many of them so deeply covered in vegetation that it was impossible to tell how long they had been there.
A thin white mist drifted between the buildings, obscuring the edges of the city and making it seem as though it stretched into infinity.
But what left them truly speechless was not the city itself.
It was the sky.
Swarms of strange entities flew above the ruined buildings, their forms resembling nothing humanity had ever known, among them enormous creatures that looked like dragons, gliding slowly between the clouds and mist.
Ben remained rooted to the spot, his eyes fixed on the scene, utterly incapable of processing what stood before him.
Then he said in a low voice:
“What…
is this place?”
No one answered him.
Because they already knew the answer.
They had crossed into another world.
Nerv stood with one hand pressed against her head, her features tightening with pain.
“Where are we?…
My head hurts so much.”
Ben turned toward her immediately, then said anxiously:
“Clark!…
Where is Clark?”
Nerv looked at him, confusion lingering in her eyes.
“I don’t know…
I was pulled through the gate before him, and I didn’t see him after that.”
She fell silent for a moment, then added:
“Maybe he was pulled into another gate…
We have to find him.”
They all looked at one another.
None of them knew where they were, or where Clark had disappeared to.
Guanda stared in amazement at the strange dragons flying through the sky, following their movements for several moments as though her mind were desperately trying to reject what her eyes were seeing.
Then she said softly:
“The physics of our world wouldn’t allow…
dragons like these to exist.”
She paused for a moment, then added without taking her eyes off the sky:
“We’re in a universe governed by completely different physical laws…
but these creatures are actually here in front of us.”
Guanda slowly lowered the notebook in which she had been recording everything.
“Then…
we’re not in our world.”
They all walked a little farther through the city, stagnant water covering portions of the streets and reflecting the strange light surrounding them.
White looked around cautiously, then said:
“So…
is this the chaos they were talking about?”
Ben answered as he studied their surroundings:
“I don’t know, but this place really is beautiful.”
He fell silent for a moment, then added:
“We need to find Clark first.
After that, we try to get back to our world so this curse can finally end.”
Nerv looked at him anxiously and said:
“And what about the darkness that’s going to devour our world?”
Ben turned toward her, then shrugged.
“What’s the problem with that?”
Nerv stared at him in disbelief.
Ben smiled and continued:
“Honestly, I don’t believe any of this to begin with.
And if chaos is this beautiful…”
He swept his gaze across the strange world around them, then said:
“What’s wrong with our universe becoming part of it?”
Nerv tried to answer, but suddenly fell silent.
Her pupils widened, and the words caught in her throat.
Guanda noticed the change in her expression.
She reached out, touched Ben’s shoulder, and whispered:
“Ben…
look.”
Ben slowly turned toward the place she was pointing.
In the far distance, above the ruins of a city drowned in vegetation, an entity sat amid the wreckage.
At first glance, it appeared human, but it was clad in a darkness so deep that it seemed to swallow the light around it, while massive intertwined tentacles coiled around its body, strange symbols glowing across their surfaces, symbols none of them could read.
It sat completely still, staring at the ruined city before it, as though waiting for something they could not comprehend.
No one moved.
Then…
The entity turned its head toward them.
Everyone froze.
It had no eyes.
No mouth.
No nose.
There was nothing upon its face that could suggest the presence of human features, and yet they all felt that it was looking directly at them.
No one dared breathe.
And without any warning…
The entity vanished.
It did not move, flee, or make a sound.
Its body simply dissolved into the air, transforming into particles resembling ash, except that they glowed green, before those particles dispersed into the void as well.
The friends remained standing motionless.
Not one of them said a word.
White spoke immediately, staring at the others while nervously running a hand through her hair:
“What was that thing?”
Guanda answered, trying to remain calm:
“I don’t know…
but we need to move carefully.
It’s gone now, anyway.”
Nearby, a beautiful green tree stood, countless spirits winding around its trunk and branches, moving slowly among the leaves as though they were simply another part of this world’s nature.
Then the plant beneath it began to grow.
At first, slowly…
Then with unnatural speed.
Its branches stretched outward, its leaves expanded, until they covered a vast area of the ground.
Suddenly, the heart of the plant split open.
And the entity emerged from within it.
Its green tentacles rose through the branches, intertwining around its body, while strange symbols glowed across them, appearing to be more than mere writing.
They resembled existential laws carved directly into its very body.
The entity made no sound.
It simply stood there…
As though emerging from the heart of the plant were the most natural thing in existence.
Everyone stood in indescribable astonishment, utterly incapable of comprehending what they were seeing.
Ben clenched his left hand tightly from sheer tension, beads of sweat running down his forehead.
He stared at the entity, then said hesitantly:
“Who…
are you?”
There was no answer.
The entity remained motionless for several moments, then something happened that sent ice through their veins.
Human features began to appear upon its face.
The surface of its face slowly changed.
Two eyes formed from nothing, followed by a mouth, a nose, and ears, while strands of hair began sprouting from the top of its head.
Its features did not form in the way a natural body would grow; they assembled and shifted as though the laws of nature themselves were incapable of deciding what shape they should take.
The entity slowly advanced toward them.
Ben stepped back, then raised his voice in fear:
“Back away!”
Nerv stepped in front of Ben, while he tried to grab her and pull her out of the entity’s path.
But she calmly brushed his hand away, then said, struggling to control her fear:
“Sir…
You don’t seem hostile.”
She raised her eyes toward it and added:
“Who are you?”
The entity stopped.
Then came its voice.
It was deep and powerful in a terrifying way, carrying a pressure that made the air itself seem heavier than before, as though merely hearing it was enough to force their bodies into submission.
And it said:
“I am…
the one forgotten by history, the one lost within the abandoned city.”
Silence fell.
None of them understood what it meant.
But they all felt one thing…
They were not standing before an ordinary creature.