Building Interstellar Empire With Universal Synthesis

"She came from the future," Neo repeated, the realization hitting him hard .

​"Tch. Yes. Hear it from her own mouth, since she won’t stay silent," the cold version of Moon snapped with irritation.

​With a sudden, fluid motion, her posture softened and her gaze turned ethereal.

Moon’s personality changed once again.

The frost in her eyes melted into a desperate, longing haze. She seized his hand with a strength that surprised him, pulling it firmly against her chest.

Through the fabric of her gown, Neo felt the erratic, thundering thumping of a heart pushed to its absolute limit.

​"Let me show you the bitter end we never wanted, Neo," she whispered like a dying flame.

​Instantly, the world around them dissolved..

The balcony, the city, and the very air vanished, replaced by a sensory onslaught that tore through Neo’s consciousness.

His vision bled into colors that shouldn’t exist, and a psychic shockwave dragged him into the belly of a nightmare.

​He saw drifting planets, cracked open like hollow eggs, their molten cores extinguished and cold. He saw stars that did not shine, but instead groaned as they were turned inside out as their light was consumed by a void that hungered for existence itself.

Also, galaxies that once spanned millions of light-years were being ripped apart, their spiral arms shredded like silk under a hurricane.

​Far away, the universe was being swallowed by a darkness so absolute it felt sentient.

It was a terrifying, suffocating shadow that chilled Neo to the very marrow of his bones.

​He witnessed lifeforms of every scale meeting the same horrific end. From tiny insects on forgotten worlds to Titanic Behemoths that drifted through the vacuum, all snuffed out in the same heartbeat.

They didn’t just die, they were erased, consumed by the eternal gloom until not even a memory of them remained.

​The horrific imagery played out in his mind with a vividness that felt more real than the stone floor beneath his feet.

Gasp!

When the vision finally snapped shut, Neo was left gasping for air.

​He slumped forward, clutching his chest as his lungs burned with the sensation of phantom smoke.

The sheer proximity to that magnitude of destruction had left a scar on his psyche.

He looked up at Moon, his eyes wide and bloodshot, finally understanding the terror she carried within her soul.

"How can something like that exist? How can lives become so meaningless before it? How can something so evil exist in this universe?" Neo muttered, trembling with rage.

​"That evil is you, Neo." Moon looked at him and released a sad sigh.

​Neo’s heart skipped a beat. "Me? H-how? That is impossible! I would never do such a thing!" he denied vehemently.

​"You might not do it now, but you will one day." With that, Moon looked at the sky, her expression turning deeply melancholic. "Let me tell you about a different version of you."

​Her voice turned solemn. "In my timeline, when Eragon gave you the choice between Light and Darkness, that Neo also chose Darkness. Then, one day, his mother and sisters were killed by mistake during a government operation. The pain and suffering drove him mad and vengeful. Over time, that darkness slowly consumed him.

​On the path of the Dominator, he became known as the Tyrant Emperor. In his greed for power, he turned humans into undead, tortured civilians, enslaved myriad races, and controlled galaxies at his fingertips.

No one could stop you.

Eventually, the higher beings, the ones called Gods, decided to step in.

They banished you to the Chaos, letting you drift aimlessly.

​There, you encountered the True God of Darkness. That primordial creature gave you a ’Devil Fruit’ in the name of primordial power, but you didn’t know that all she wanted was for you to cause destruction over creation. And thus, the Primordial Horror was born. You sought only destruction and eradication. You had no goals, no objectives. Myriad beings whispered your name in fear, the Gods abandoned the mortal realm, and the universe stood on the brink of total annihilation.

​And then, someone stepped forward. She was a vision of immortal beauty and boundless will: the Spirit Queen.

Even though it pains me to say this, she was the one who managed to clear the fog suffocating your heart, while I remained a mere shadow, quietly supporting you as your dutiful wife. She found the cause of your pain and cleared it. She brought back your sense of love and other emotions.

​I was left heartbroken. I couldn’t understand why I hadn’t been the one to save you. I wanted to be the closest person to you.

Naturally, we were at odds with each other. But our rivalry wasn’t the cause of our end. It was the lurking God of Darkness. It tainted your being with even more darkness until you became the epitome of Chaos once again. The Gods attacked you once more.

​It was then, in the deepest corner of the Empyrean Verse, that I discovered something: a core of absolute power. It had the strength to blend both Light and Darkness together. I named it ’The One Core.’ It became our ray of hope to save you. But when I returned, I saw only your broken corpse in the Spirit Queen’s arms. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

​Sad and broken by the loss, we decided then to return to the past, hoping to place the "One Core" in the fated location where you would find it, learn to master its power, and stabilize the darkness growing within you. The Spirit Queen said it would be futile, that changing the past wouldn’t change the future, but only create a separate branch. But I refused to give up.

​I decided to enter the River of Time alone. Unfortunately, my body was annihilated during the journey. The Gods had tightened their control around the temporal flow. But at least my soul and the One Piece made it through.

And now, here we are: on the brink of changing destiny. No; it should be your destiny instead. After all, everything is over for us."