[Insert Creative Title Here]

Astrid

Astrid stopped. Because as she was about to impale Lawrence through the neck, it happened again.

This time, without warning, a gaping black hole appeared out of nowhere. Much more sudden than it had before, her view of what was in front of her simply disappeared, replaced with a mental image of twisting, dazzling strings that constructed reality. As she watched, it seemed to form the face of a girl, and as she looked at the strings, they changed.

It was the girl from her dream.

As she stared more intently at the tear in reality, time seemed to slow, and she watched as the strings bent and twisted, adjusting themselves to fit their natural universal vibration once again.

As the strings faded, time seemed to return to its normal pace, and she jumped up to avoid Lawrence's flailing gauntlet. And she looked at the vault.

There was a hole in the vault. She raced into it.

Inside the vault was a singular platform, surrounded by a long fall to nothingness. The only way up was a long cart ride.

Esther raced into the vault, followed by Lawrence, both locked in a deadly dance, one armed, one unarmed. As Astrid again prepared to engage Lawrence, her leg, strained from exertion, gave way.

She yelped and fell into the cart. A knife fell out of her left hand, twinkling as it fell through the air, and Esther caught it. A low rumble came from below her, as the cart closed, and it started moving up. As she forced herself up, she watched as Esther and Lawrence dueled, each of their blades swishing through the air faster than the eye could follow. Though Esther was a good dueler, Lawrence was undeniably better, and Esther gave more and more ground to avoid being injured.

The cart rolled up at a steady pace on its sturdy tracks, and the dueling pair became smaller and smaller as Astrid approached the storage of treasures. Esther stepped on the track, jumping up and back to gain some leverage. Lawrence followed, making another slash and riposte as Esther deflected it.

And then it happened. Esther made a misstep, her foot failing to find a grip on the railing. She screamed and fell, as her right arm caught Lawrence's armpit as she flailed about. Lawrence, prepared to give another swing, was caught off guard by the sudden action, and as Esther's arms caught him as she fell, she pulled them both down, locked in a deadly embrace as they fell into the abyss.

In horror, Astrid cried out to her friend. Laying there, all too late, she realized the dream and all of the voids had meant. Even as Astrid and Esther journeyed to the castle, even as they had snuck inside, even as they had dueled with Lawrence, the girl from her dream had been crafting, shaping their pasts and futures from the beginning of time, unto the end. She, like everybody else, was a mere victim of the wild thoughts of this girl.

As the large store of treasure, a huge glass cubicle with various pieces of jewelry scattered around, a large diamond sat in the center, a brilliantly gleaming gem. Yet as she approached, she could see the chaotic web of strings reflected in it, and she knew what she had to do.

Stepping into the cubicle, she raised her fist to strike at its glass case, and as it broke, she stomped on the diamond, and it broke.

A string, then two, then five, came out of the broken diamond, lighting up everything around it in a whirling maelstrom. And as the strings stretched further and further to infinity, one of them broke.

Astrid saw the space around her fold and fade, twisting infinitesimally into the broken string. And as it spread out further and further, and it began to pull at her, and as time began to flow like honey, Astrid knew that she would die. She only hoped that she had done the right thing.

And then the world ceased to exist.