The Ashen Keeper

Chapter 127

"More mistakes again?", she appeared to be a wreaking ball of mess in the future.

"Oh, the humans are bad but there exists far, far worse. The dark of man gathered and gave rise to four pure evil beings. There was another one too, I believe but let's leave it out of here. They invaded this reality making it unstable.

They corrupted men and turn them into full-fledged demons. Not aliens were spared either. The human exterminated them with extreme prejudice even going as far as to blow up their own planets. Let us say it did not work out well."

"So, humans ruling are not entirely a bad thing. I believe I would greatly prefer humans over spawns of other dimensions."

"I knew you would say that. Here, take a look.", the Grandmaster moved further along. She then saw another hologram. This time, it was a giant Skelton sitting on a throne plated in gold. There were trinkets of technology and flying skulls with metal components around it.

"This is from the 41st millennium.", the Grandmaster sounded very excited to tell her about this. His voice took an ominous turn.

"For more than a hundred centuries, the Emperor of Mankind has sat immobile on the golden throne of Earth. He is the master of mankind by the will of the gods and the master of a million worlds by the might of his inexhaustible armies.

He is a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the dark age of technology. He is the Carrion Lord of the vast imperium of men for whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day so, he may never truly die."

The grandmaster took a long hard look at the flickering hologram of the giant skeleton on top of the golden throne as if he were recalling memories of it. He turned around suddenly towards her looking away from the hologram.

"You see this, keeper. This is merely a glimpse of what will happen. The ruler of mankind itself is a rotting carcass. I believe you can only imagine what fate will fall upon the common people."

"I see it, Grandmaster. I can only imagine them so well. But, what of the four beings you said earlier?"

Humans were important but she wants to know what happens when she threw the dark of men away. What else was she supposed to do with the dark? It was not like she could just destroy it when even the likes of Gwyn failed to do so.

"As I just said, the war between Chaos and Men shattered this universe to pieces till this is all that is left. Recall the outside world keeper. Not even reality is left untouched. They all crack like glass."

"Then, what doth thou suggest I do? I cannot stop the diminishing of the flame and neither can I destroy the dark of men. What happens will always happen. This is nature."

"Oh, I do not know for sure but I know for certain that the lady waiting outside does."

"Lady Maria?"

"Yes, lady Maria. I am aware of only the general things."

"Then what of the everlasting ones? I have great doubts that they would disappear without a trace."

"Ah... I hold no knowledge of that one either. You will have to look for answers elsewhere."

"Not a lot of thing thou hast knowledge of ...", she remarked out loudly.

The Grandmaster stared at her causing her to feel slightly embarrassed. After all, it was her in the future that did not tell him these things. The Grandmaster appeared to notice that she was embarrassed and turned around once more with a smile.

He continued walking before reaching another hologram yet again. This time, it was more like a picture. It shows her holding a ball of grey matter handing it to a skeleton in a black cloak. She could tell that the skeleton was female due to the presence of a bust.

Why does the skeleton have a clearly feminine bust was a question she ignored for now. How does that even work? No idea for now.

"There exists only one unbiased being in this world. That is 'death'. Well, she likes death but other than that, she is mostly impartial to everything.

When you realized the downward spiral of humanity and this world, you gathered every single soul that will ever exist and entrusts them to death. I believe that your timeline has been pruned and moved to this end of time.

It is still safe for now, but it is only the timeline itself that is safe. The souls that has existed since the beginning of time now lies in the hands of death. You handed all of them over to 'Death' in hopes that these souls remain untouched by the dark of men."

"Did I succeed?"

"Yes, you did but there is one thing you did not account for. What goes inside the kingdom of death never comes out. Not when it is handed to Death personally. You will have to win them back. But beware not to anger her.

Never allow her to deny you or any other souls from the kingdom of death. Trust me, a world without death is something you do not wish to witness."

"If it truly is death itself, doth thou really expect me to beat death itself? I am rather suprised by thy confidence in me."

"No, no, no. That is not the case.", the Grandmaster shook his head with his hands behind his back.

"This is where I come in. We shall play a game with death. A game we will not lose. Trust me, keeper. I have been playing games for a long time. Far too long. And that is why only I remain at the end of time with no else present.

I kept playing games. I know you do not despise or fear death. I would go as far as to say you welcome it. But now, is not the time to be obsessed with death. Now, is the time to be obsessed with life, my dear keeper.

How exciting! We will play a game with death at the end of time!", he gleed with joy.

She wasn't sure she was going to like his games.

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This is Chapter 127.

Not much going on but tell me what you think.