The Indomitable, Cleodiana

Before I could process the strange commonality of interdimensional travel, a new figure precipitated from the light. Cleodiana. In her hand, she held a miserable, groaning sphere of purple goop. "Unbelievable," her voice echoed, tinged with a cosmic boredom. "I was planning to play tennis on the surface of a neutron star, and instead I must attend to this… mess."

With a snap of her fingers, the world fractured. The white dissolved, and we were back in the throne room on its checkered floor. My heart gave a sudden, painful lurch, then another. It was beating. The Empress had restored us all to a state of function… likely for the purpose of a sentencing.

"Marvalyn," she said to the sphere in her hand. "The outcome is always the same. But I will offer you this: a galaxy, all your own. An entire buffet. You may grow strong, you may challenge me again, and I assure you, the result will not change. Will you then abandon this preposterous charade?"

A low hum emanated from the sphere.

"So it is then," Cleodiana said, and with a casual flick of her wrist, she tossed the balled Marvalyn. It shot from her throne into the blackness of space, twinkling once before vanishing from all reality.

"Now," she said, her gaze falling upon the rest of us. She pointed a finger at Mary. "You are an annoyance. Unworthy of my time." A figure stepped from the shadows—Marilamba, her rapier drawn.

Ruru had told me stories how the Lamb in Boots had saved a planet of lambs from an alien invasion of wolves all on her own, and that in doing so wrestled with comets and sent them spiraling at the wolves planets… destroying them in animalistic fury. That she held her kind, no matter how expressed, in the highest sanctity. She would sooner cast those that would harm a lamb into the nearest star and explode it… just to ensure death.

"You are a murderer of the innocent," she stated, referring to the sacrificed lambs used to open the rift—the gateway to the Makai, which apparently still held open. "So shall that be your fate." A swift thrust, a choked scream, and Mary writhed on the floor, coughing up blood.

Cleodiana paid it no mind. Her gaze swept over Marissa, whose skeletal hand had not been restored. "Disappointing. Shall we have another lesson in humility?" Marissa flinched. The Empress then looked at Remi, who stammered backwards into the air. Finally, her gaze fell upon us. She descended, her white boots silent on the floor. "Did I not tell you, little Ling? You would have to kill. And yet… you failed."

She was right. My failure hung in the air, a cold, undeniable fact. There were multiple chances to kill Mary, to stop Marvalyn, I had failed.

"Your punishment, then." She turned, her hand reaching toward the floor. In the vast sky visible through the throne room's seeming dome, a dozen stars began to shine brighter. Then a hundred. A thousand. "Ten trillion suns," she said, a wicked smile playing on her lips, "shall come and burn the Makai to a crisp."

I fell to my knees. I could see them now, not as dots, but as wounds in the fabric of space, weeping light. They grew closer, brighter, a wave of absolute annihilation. How many worlds were being destroyed along the way? The only hope one might have was the possibility they would coalesce, and the monsters’ event horizon would peacefully absorb us…

---

And that brought us to the present, as my life finished flashing before my eyes. I was snapped back to reality by my darling’s voice.

"Stop!" Ruru cried out, scrambling to grab the Empress's leg, her ears flat against her head in terror. "Please, stop!"

Cleodiana knelt, using a single, elegant finger to lift Ruru’s chin. "And why would I do that, little fox?"

"Because!" Ruru wept, her voice breaking. "Because I've fallen in love for the first time and it's… it's too soon!"

The Empress cocked her head, her expression one of genuine, alien curiosity. "Is that so?" She held up her hand, and the stars… they seemed to recede. "Well. That changes things."

I was so taken aback I could not breathe. This being of casual, cosmic genocide… was moved by this?

"Detective," she stated, floating back into the air and crossing her legs. "Is this true?"

I could only nod, my mind a complete blank.

Cleodiana smirked. "Well then. If it is true love, consider this my wedding gift." She yawned. "I now pronounce you brides. You may kiss."

I stared. Ruru and I looked at each other, her expression one of dawning, ecstatic realization, mine one of incredulous, shattering disbelief. I fell back, the strength leaving my body, but Ruru pounced, planting a tender, tear-soaked kiss on my lips.

"Did you not hear, Ling Ling?" she whispered, her tail wagging with a delirious joy. "The Empress has spared us! All is right in the world!"

I could not believe it. The stress, the shock, the sheer, impossible absurdity of it all rose up to meet me. The world, with its impossible mercies and its cruel jests, simply dissolved into black.