[TRAVELER]

Do you remember what my power is?

It's called heat death. Or at least, this is the name I gave it. The creature in the void only gives us our names, but they don't always describe our power.

Mine for example is [TRAVELER]

But that's not something that explains what the calamity awakened inside me is.

It's more of a description of what I was before my first death, in my own world. I was a traveler, exploring the edge of the universe. What you call "world" in my reality is a very different concept. Planets are way smaller, basically the size of this island on average. That meant that traveling between planets was a necessity.

They said in the past we all lived on one big sphere, but the Sun near that was nearing its end and we had to travel away, exploring space. Since then, a new job called "traveler" was invented in order to explore the universe, find more planets and install probes that modified the habitat to make it hospitable.

It was a fun job. I really liked to see new thing and you never knew what you'd find. Often times you'd be alone on desolated rocks, but others you'd find remains of ancient alien civilizations and things like that. I lived for that experience.

But our reality was on a doomsday clock. We just didn't really understand how close we were to it pointing to zero. It was something that the Sun of our original home tried to teach us but we ignored. The energy in our universe was limited. And we were on the precipice of the end.

No one knew it at first, but then, some travelers started to get to completely frozen places. And that ice kept on creeping in, faster and faster. Initially, our scientists simply assumed this was simply an unknown natural phenomenon, we just had to study it and weather the storm.

So, everyone just went on as if nothing happened. Days passed…I…fell in love with another traveler. She was… great, I guess. We had children, bought a house on the planet in which we first met. She liked the idea of living on a planet that we made hospitable.

Then…the heat death phenomenon became impossible to ignore. It was obvious it wasn't stopping. But scientists didn't lie, they studied what was happening and eventually concluded it was a consequence of a lack of stars heat. The universe was becoming a big block of ice because it was too cold basically.

But there was hope.

An infinitely reacting core was invented. If someone managed to reach one of the last active starts and insert it into it…problem solved. Don't ask me how it worked, no idea honestly. I was more of a brawn than a brain.

Why are you laughing?

Whatever…still. The mission to bring the core into a star…was assigned to me. There weren't many travelers still active, heat death was slowly freezing more and more planets. It started slowly, than accelerated at an alarming rate.

I…departed while my wife was pregnant with our third child. Finally, the first son. Never wanted a boy before, but now that there were only women in the house…I felt really happy to know that a baby boy would join me. Not that I disliked my daughters, they were adorable.

My mission would have saved them…

But long story short…I failed.

And it wasn't even simply a failure in the sense that I died and that was it. It was gradual. First, while traveling towards the Star, news came that my home planet was engulfed into the eternal ice.

Then, when my only hope was that by reigniting a Sun would be enough to melt the ice and save my family, I failed to reach the star.

You see, our plan was flawed from the start.

The Star was already dead.

It simply skipped the usual phases due to the heat death approaching. So when I arrived there, I found only rocks. There was nothing for me to do aside sitting down and admire the universe in its last moments. It was an incredible experience. Breathtaking.

For someone who lived to discover, that was the ultimate discovery. A sight only I was privileged enough to see, and that no one else would ever be able to replicate.

I died.

And then…I was facing a divinity saying that somehow I drifted away from my destiny. You see, the ending of our universe was set in stone. It needed to happen. But at the last moment, I tried to enjoy the view of the frozen landscape for just a bit longer.

I used the core.

And went to flames.

The last spark of a dying universe.

It didn't matter. Destiny adjusted and I died anyway, but technically, I outlived my reality. And that made me someone outside the flow of fate. Still, the divine being wasn't angry, it said that my behaviour was simply a hiccup in the grand scheme and that my soul was safe.

But given the way my soul managed to escape destiny once…another Goddess wanted to offer me a deal. It was Arthesya. She offered me a new life here and I accepted…but I never wanted to actually help her. You see, the deal was simple, I get a second chance, in exchange, I got to see my family again in the afterlife.

The other divine being called it a bad deal, my soul was already saved. Accepting would have simply delayed our reunion. But that's exactly why I accepted the deal.

I was too ashamed.

It doesn't matter if it was preordained.

It doesn't matter if there was no way to save our universe.

I failed.

My wife died

My daughters never got to grow old

My son barely managed to be born.

And I never saw him

I never got to spend the last moment with any of them.

And at the same time, I died happy.

I couldn't forgive myself.

This life, it's my penance.

And I cannot shorten it. I…don’t have the strength to. I cannot forgive myself.

So when I died again, I felt a strange sensation.

On one hand, I almost felt freed from my penance. On the other, it still didn't feel enough.

But then, I discovered that I managed to elude destiny once again.

And the creature gave me the same power that killed my family.

This…this seems like the correct punishment.

To leave as the cataclysm that destroyed my existence. To be destined to recreate that same sight that was my greatest treasure for all to see. To lose what made the last moment of my existence so special…yeah, that seems great.

But even then, there was no way I could have tried to destroy the chains.

Not only my power is not destructive.

But to do so, conflict is inevitable.

I know how it is to lose someone to an unstoppable force. I wouldn't wish this to anyone. But there was someone that would simply push me towards the goal.

It was that fox girl.

You called her "Tama"

She called herself Tamamo.

And she's one that doesn't care to take lives to reach her goal. I cannot let her be. So I decided that my penance would be to follow her and limit her victims.

That's why I abandoned the mission.

I haven't done anything good enough to enable myself to seek salvation.