Erasure

Chapter 6: Divine Execution

I appeared on the battlefield above the clouds from earlier. A flaming purple aura surrounded me. Apocrypha stood in front of me helplessly as rage consumed my heart. I approached him slowly as my hands were both covered in darkness. I grabbed his throat with my destructive hands and hurled him into the sky above before he could say anything.

I flew after him and punched him relentlessly at light speed. Soon, we were in Earth's orbit. Apocrypha's frail body was floating off in the distance. He appeares to be dead already, but I was not satisfied. Not one bit.

I looked at the moon that shone behind me and focused on it. As I moved my hands, it went the direction I wanted it to. I used my strength to slam the gigantic object into Apocrypha. The moon knocked the former god into the planet. The surface of the Earth exploded into millions of tiny pieces, decimating half of the planet and knocking it out of orbit.

It was so satisfying to watch. In only a few short seconds, I had ended the life of a god and billions of people. I could see it all with my eyes. I saw each individual person fly into the vacuum of space. They all burned to death from the meteoric impact of the moon, which was then nothing more than hundreds of thousands of space rocks. I saw Apocrypha in the midst of the debris and my anger rose to a new height.

I spotted Mars and various other planets in the far distance. I could even see ones outside the galaxy, some even bearing life. I called upon them from the depths of the cosmos and they came crashing into the Earth in a fraction of a nanosecond. Thousands of planets struck the remains of Earth and its moon. Every last mountain and massive tower was reduced to ash against the might of the celestial objects.

I WILL... I WILL DESTROY... EVERYTHING!!!

"Stop this! What are you doing?!" A voice said to me. As I turned around, I saw Quote, Semper, Writ, and Peri looking at me in horror. I could tell by the looks in their eyes that they did not believe what they saw, but that did not matter to me.

Apocrypha caused us nothing but agony through the whole story. Because of that, he must suffer.

Quote pointed down at Earth's remains. "You are destroying our entire universe! We have nowhere left to return to! Duo, what has gotten into you?!"

This universe holds no meaning. We are fabrications of Apocrypha made only to serve as his puppets. I will dispose of this story and everything in it.

"This is not you, Duo! I know you're in there somewhere! Please fight it! This isn't what ou really want!!"

Silence. The only world that has meaning is the world of the gods. The one we live in holds no truth. This is the one true end. To exterminate all falsehoods without question. To demolish every world that does not exist. That is the one true ending that will be given to every story. That is Erasure.

"Please, Duo..." Writ cried. "don't do this!"

Writ Trahir... Quote Amoureux... Peri Ecrivain... This is the end of your story.

The three of them dissolved into nothingness. The only person that remained was Semper, who stood alone with sadness in his eyes. "Look.... maybe it's true that our lives have no meaning. Maybe there is no way to be satisfied with your own life... but that doesn't mean you have to do this!"

Semper Cogitari....

"You have ultimate power over this whole universe! You can create anything you want, yet you choose to destroy it? What good would come out of that?! That crystal you have... you can still bring back your friends... you can still undo this damage you have caused. You can undo this entire story, live with your mom again, you can even change your life to be better for yourself... isn't that what you want?"

I said nothing to him. Averted my gaze from the boy and spotted the glowering sun that illuminated the carnage I had created.

The end.... it is near. Everything we worked for served this moment. Our fates were all predestined, not by Apocrypha, but by a higher god. Our world is limiting, Semper. You of all people know that. I shall not allow our hopeless universe to stagnate. That is why I must obliterate all from this world until nothing remains.

"The Reality Crystal... it's corroding your mind! This almost happened to me before. Extreme use of the crystal leads to the corruption of your heart, removing all sense of purpose and meaning from your thoughts. This nearly happened to me before, but I was able to stop it before it got worse... I never imagined how it would react to someone who never holds back... The point is, you have to fight it, Duo!"

His words went completely over my head. They weren't even worth listening to. I held my hand out to the sun and made a pulling motion with my hand, causing it to bring itself to me.

It ends with you, Semper.

"Please.... try to remember!"

Our memories are false.

"No... the memories we create will always stay with us! Who cares if we're in a story? We can, and will, live on so we can cherish those memories!"

Nothing here is real. You are protecting meaningless sentimental ideas.

"You're wrong! The friendships we've made, the hardships we fought, the hope that we've gained and lost, those were all real. We might just be characters written into this world without any true impact on anyone's life, but the emotions we have are real, more than ever before! It's okay to lose things... It's okay to feel sad... Just remember that no matter what happens... even if there's no home to return to... even if it feels like the whole world is against you... I will always be by your side... It's my duty as your older brother."

S-Semper...?

"Duo-- No... I should call you by your birth name... Spero Cogitari... You can undo all of this."

He held out his hand and looked at me with hopeful, almost teary eyes. "Come on... Let's go home."

Semper... I'm scared.

"It's okay to be scared. This isn't your fault... Just take my hand and you can end all of this. We can finally return to normal. You can live with me... and our mom. Doesn't that sound great?"

Yes... Please help me, Semper! I can't do this on my own! I don't want to live like this!

"Of course... You should have enough energy for a few more wishes... Use them wisely, Spero."

I will... Thank you, Semper."