"Alright, you've all done enough."

  All present, except Creation, Rou and Celia, and Affection turned to stare at the nearby voice that none of them knew. A rather strange-looking fellow who appeared to be a man of some sorts, certainly not of their species, floated in the air. Strange, gem-like skin, humanoid in shape, wearing finely tailored clothes of unknown material.

  Aether was suddenly pulled back by a force she couldn't see or feel and Creation was shackled in place, leaving him struggling. "Ah, that's my doing, you can all relax. Sorry about all that, but I had to wait and see what was going on before stepping in. Astyss is the name, of course you might have no way of knowing, but I am extra-dimensional. Think of me as… the overseer of this side of your dimension."

  He walked along through the remnants of the world and barriered domain of the 'Gods', no longer guarded by that barrier and now everyone able to see all the stars and sky in space, a rather beautiful site not that anyone was in mind to take it in.

  "This old fellow here, he's committed crimes against nature, and it's my duty to take him back and he will be punished accordingly. Sorry, I can't let you kill him. You can hate me all you want, but work's work." Astyss strutted around like he was the big boss here, casually looking over Creation's energy prisons and then noticed Affection. "Ah, right, you. Poor thing, been stuck in here a while." he non-chalantly freed Affection and turned to look at the other gods, turning his back on Affection and Rou.

  "See –"

  Before anyone could react, Affection, practically rabid in the anger of having been forced to watch her beloved Rou and Celia be spiritually tortured for a gods age as they had… watched the world below, every life in it destroyed and the souls thereof ripped to bits… she no longer had any reason to her. She wanted blood.

  And while high-dimensional beings had no blood…

  Creation, weak as he was? Was even weaker than Affection. She tore into him as she left her mortal body to slump and devoured him like a wild beast. Quite literally ripping Creation limb from limb, pulling his high-dimensional form out of the mouse body and leaving the other beings quite upset.

  Except Astyss. He was angered and raised an arm to kill Affection for disobeying him. A mere high-dimensional being ignored /him/? An extra-dimensional being!

  –

  But something stopped him. Astyss froze.

  His head turned and he found himself staring at the eyes of the feminine-looking male that was on the ground on his knees. Their eyes met. Rou, in what little sense he had, was threatening to kill Astyss on the spot if he dared.

  Of course, what fear did he, an extra-dimensional being, have of a regular mortal? Not even a high-dimensional being? But he felt it. Briefly.

  Fear. There was a flicker of hesitation, instinctual, as if there was the slightest of chances that if he tried to follow through on that, Rou would somehow really hurt him.

  Astyss was confused before he realized something.

  Realized, and then began to laugh.

  –

  "Luck! LUCK! HAH! The old bastard was right, it really was all luck!"

  Affection, after having devoured Creation, had ran to hug Rou and try to protect him, but all the higher-dimensional beings and Astyss both realized at nearly the same time.

  Rou was unconscious the entire time.

  That look he had in his eyes? He never consciously gave that look. Or if he did, he had to have fainted immediately after. But his body was upright, eyes open, and through pure, unadulterated luck, had somehow managed to make a being two dimensional levels above him… flinch.

  He posed no threat, but somehow, for that brief moment, Astyss flinched.

  "I'm in love! This is amazing! To think I, in my long, long lifetime, would actually be able to witness real, true luck in play!"

  Astyss danced around in glee, leaving everyone confused. But what no one expected was Affection was still lost to her rage. She wanted blood. And now that Creation was gone, she turned to look at Aether. Poor Aether's emotions drained out of her as she saw Affection looking at her with such hate. It was Laughter who stepped in and hugged Affection, stopping her briefly. He was too weak at the moment after giving his energy to Aether, but Affection realized something was wrong and looked at him.

  "She was the first to step in to protest. You might not remember well. She's not your enemy."

  Light came back to Affection's eyes, but she quickly began to sob and ran to grab Rou, hugging him, Rou and Celia now within her clutches as she tried to protect them from further harm. Further pain.

  All the while, Astyss danced as none of it mattered.

  –

  "So, this boy, and his two souls, are the last survivors of this world?" Astyss asked as Aether came up and nodded. "Yes, originally his soul was from another world, but was reincarnated here because of natural malformation."

  "Mal…"

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Astyss looked Rou over, receiving a possessive glare from Affection. "Ah, calm down girl, I'm not gonna take him from you. I'd never hurt him! None of you know just how rare he is! Luck isn't tangible. Sure, you lot can try and play around with it a little using your systems and world orders and such, but it's more of a request. It's just another form of energy in the greater existence between all dimensions. It's there, but none can see or measure it, only the results. But the old bastard managed to accidentally create a perfect storm for luck to gather and hoooh this is such a treat, a blessing just to see!"

  None of the 'gods' of the world cared, though. They all began to look at the greater cosmos beyond the barrier, soon enough realizing about the same that there wasn't much there. At some point, the predator had consumed everything.

  "So there's no high-dimensional energy left at all?" Aether realized, looking at the sky and feeling all the hope she ever had of being saved from the predator.

  "Oh, that? There's still plenty, it's just in a cycle of being cleansed. That's not something you would have the perspective to know, but that thing the old bastard was so scared of? That you all were hiding from like all the other worlds? It's not what you think it is. At least… not fully. It is a high-dimensional predator, but it's under my control. That species naturally absorbs and filters energy, removing impurities. Of course, as energy, it could absorb you and probably would."

  Though Astyss finally looked back towards Rou. "Though two souls, how rare. That's not natural at all. I guess that was part of the luck too, huh. How wild. Luck usually enables beings to pursue their dreams. What was his dream? Mind telling me, missy?" Astyss looked at Affection who relaxed slightly and since they were talking about Rou, she said proudly, "He had an idea that if somehow he got two souls, one aether, and one high-dimensional, he could wrap the high-dimensional soul in the aether one and avoid being seen by the predator. And in doing so he might be able to find a way to lure it away eventually towards a natural high-dimensional dead zone and see if he can't kill it."

  Once again, Astyss began to howl in pure delight as if he had just found the greatest treasure in existence. "Of course! It all makes so much sense, how clever! What a clever little thing this fellow is! What's his name? I must know!"

  "...Rou. Rou Erial."

  "A fine name! I shall remember it, and engrave it in the halls of eternity for him to be remembered by all!"

  None of that mattered, though. Not for Rou. He had only just regained awareness and was hugging around Affection for support. His world was destroyed. Everyone he ever knew and loved was gone. None of it mattered.

  "Well, since there's no reason for y'all to be here, I'll do you a favor." The gem-skinned Astyss looked at all the other high-dimensional beings. "Come with me, I'll take you somewhere safer where you can ascend to my dimension. It might take you a long time, but you won't have to worry about stuff like you did here. My present to you all, for letting me meet this boy."

  "And Rou?" Affection asked. "Ah… shit. Well, he's not even a high-dimensional being yet. I can't take him with me. And that old bastard you called Creation? He destroyed all the other worlds in this side of existence. It would take longer than his remaining lifetime to take him to some other world and even then he'd have to reincarnate. And then it'd just be pointless, yeah?" Astyss felt a bit bad but there was nothing he could do. At least, not directly on a whim.

  "Then no."

  Laughter was the first one who spoke. He walked over towards Rou and sat beside him. "He planned to save us, to risk it all, and even if it's not needed… I will stay with him. He has earned that." Affection smiled at Laughter as he said that, and to Astyss' surprise, one by one, the other 'gods' of this world? All agreed. They went towards Rou and took a seat in support. They were tying their fate to his.

  Astyss crossed his arms, "You all realize that if you stay… you're consigning yourselves to perishing, yes? I won't be coming back. I only came because the old ones rampage caught my attention."

  They all nodded, causing Astyss to sigh and look towards Rou.

  Aether, though, still stood there, staring off at nothing, not having confirmed or sided with anything.

  "What about you?" Astyss asked the wistful high-dimensional being. "I give up. My inaction has hurt those around me, hurt the boy, Affection, everyone. Think I'll just… take my end accordingly here with Creation and this world. It seems fitting."

  "Screw you." Affection's harsh words caused Aether to turn and stare in surprise. "You want to piss around and screw up and now you want to just run off and end it all? I'm disgusted that I ever wanted to have you around. If you have /any/ remorse for everything, you'll stick around as well, until the end, whatever that end is. And only then, it’s his choice, not yours or mine."

  Aether realized that was true and quietly went to sit by the rest, looking at Astyss and giving him a nod. As ever, she was obedient towards Affection. To a fault.

  "Very well then. Though there's no more high-dimensional energy in this region, I suppose I could call it over and leave some here…"

  Astyss seemed thoughtful then went over towards where Rou was, looking at him.

  Rou looked back up and spoke for the first time in a bit. "You said you are extra-dimensional, yes?" Astyss nodded, "Why?"

  "All the damage Creation did, all the death and destruction, can you… can you fix it?"

  "Ah fuck… sorry kid, no. I mean, I can turn back time locally but it wouldn't do any good. See, maybe someone even higher up than me could, but just me? I could like, restore the worlds and all, but actually fixing the souls? Can't. Everything without a soul though, sure, but it's just you now. Well, you and your other soul. And… that one over there." He pointed towards Borgain's soul which they'd all forgotten about. Astyss had no idea what was up with Borgain but didn't really care.

  No one did to be fair.

  "And what about the souls? All their lives, memories… hopes. They're just going to float here forever? Debris in an ocean?" Rou shivered at the thought, Celia's soul having started to fall asleep inside him as she had always had a weaker soul by default, especially as time went on.

  "Oh? No, they'll actually dissipate before long. The husks of all the souls, those might stick around longer but they're useless. The memories and filling of the souls though, they'll just return to aether whence they came."

  He could see Rou's whole body quaking, realizing that his family, his friends and lovers were all gone. It actually made Astyss feel bad for him.

  "Then before you go, can you… can you do something for me?" Rou slowly raised up after kissing Affection gently on the forehead, looking at the gem-skinned extra-dimensional being.

  "Sure, what do you want?"

  "Can you restore all the worlds to how they were? And… all of the souls, the memories, everything of the lost ones. Can you store them in me?"

  Astyss smiled slightly. "I can restore the worlds, but as for storing them in you, you'd die. Pop, poof."

  Rou shook his head, "Please. You already said my fate is decided, right? That nothing matters, that the last of my kind, I'll just live and die, likely unable to even become a high-dimensional being?"

  "Mm… true."

  "Then give me what I ask. I've been just a soul enough that I know how cold and lonely it is. Celia and I both agree."

  "He's right." the sleepy Celia agreed, struggling to stay awake. "No one deserves to be alone, especially not now."

  "See?" Rou smiled strangely, causing Affection to grasp his hand gently. She didn't want him to do it, but at this point, she was going to trust him. She would let him make his own path here at the end. She'd be here with him until the end.

  –

  Astyss chuckled, "If you insist. I'll even give you a bonus."

  Everyone watched in amazement as Astyss created some screens for them to see and began to reverse the flow of time all over this dimension, restoring the destroyed and broken worlds. But despite it all… it was mostly for show. There no more beings with souls on them. Sure, the plants and animals and such would be restored, but at the end of the day, what was the point?

  Even the world of these 'Gods' was restored right beneath them, relatively speaking. But all the broken souls and memories? Those still remained. Astyss slowly gathered them all into numerous balls and let them float in the air nearby Rou. "Here you go. If you want to harbor them in you, I won't stop you. Who knows, lucky as you are? Maybe you'll come up with something I'd never have thought about. Luck's funny that way. As for the bonus… let's see."

  Astyss looked around a moment before saying, "Aha, there it is." and whistled.

  Suddenly an ear-splitting, soul-piercing noise sounded.