Emma’s silver light exploded across the beach like a bomb going off.

Dead people crawled out of the sand everywhere. Not just recent dead people - everyone who had ever died. A Roman soldier grabbed Kael’s leg. A dinosaur roared behind them. A caveman swung a club at Marcus.

"Emma, stop!" Kael shouted, but she didn’t hear him.

Her eyes had turned completely silver. Not the warm silver from before. This silver looked like ice. Cold and empty.

"Why should I stop?" Emma asked in a voice that didn’t sound like her anymore. "Death is wrong. Everyone should be alive."

She raised her hands higher. More dead people climbed out of the ground. So many that the beach disappeared under moving bodies.

The sky started cracking like broken glass. Reality couldn’t handle this many people existing at once.

"Emma, you’re breaking everything!" Marcus yelled as he dodged a zombie pirate.

"Good," Emma said simply. "If everything breaks, I can fix it my way."

Kael’s heart hurt worse than any physical pain. This wasn’t his daughter talking. The Void Hunger was eating away at her mind, making her forget why she cared about people in the first place.

"Remember the story about the princess and the dragons?" he called out desperately.

Emma paused. For one second, her eyes flickered back to normal. "Story?"

"The princess saved the dragons because she understood they were scared. Just like you saved the Necro-Sovereign."

"I don’t remember being scared," Emma said, confused. "I don’t remember dragons either."

She was forgetting everything that made her human.

The Roman soldier bit Kael’s arm. He screamed and kicked it away, but more dead people kept coming. They moved like angry animals, not like the gentle spirits Emma used to resurrect.

"Why are they attacking us?" Marcus shouted.

"Because Emma doesn’t remember love," Shadow Emma appeared next to them. "Without love, resurrection just makes angry monsters."

More cracks appeared in the sky. Through them, Kael could see other worlds breaking apart too. Emma’s power was spreading across all of reality.

"She’s going to destroy everything," he realized.

"Not just destroy," Shadow Emma warned. "She’s going to remake it. A world where everyone who ever lived exists at the same time. Can you imagine the chaos?"

Kael tried to reach Emma through their father-daughter connection. He pushed all his love toward her, hoping it would remind her who she really was.

But when his love touched her mind, something horrible happened.

Emma screamed.

Not from pain. From disgust.

"Why does this feeling hurt so much?" she asked, holding her head. "Make it stop!"

"That’s love, Emma. It’s supposed to feel good."

"It feels like burning. Like something trying to crawl inside my brain." She looked at Kael with those cold silver eyes. "Are you trying to control me with this burning feeling?"

"No! I’m trying to save you!"

"From what? I’m more powerful than I’ve ever been. I can fix death itself."

A new voice boomed across the chaos. "CHILD OF TWO WORLDS."

Everyone looked up. The Cosmic Judge floated down from the broken sky, its robes flowing like liquid starlight. But now it looked angry instead of wise.

"YOU HAVE BECOME WHAT YOU SWORE TO PREVENT."

"I’m saving everyone," Emma said defiantly.

"YOU ARE DESTROYING EVERYTHING. THE NECRO-SOVEREIGN ONLY KILLED THE LIVING. YOU ARE KILLING BOTH LIFE AND DEATH."

Emma laughed, but it sounded like breaking glass. "Then maybe both life and death deserve to die." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The Cosmic Judge’s eyes widened in shock. "YOU SPEAK LIKE THE VOID HUNGER ITSELF."

"Maybe I am the Void Hunger," Emma said thoughtfully. "Maybe that’s what I was always meant to become."

Kael felt like his world was ending. His little girl, who used to cry when she stepped on bugs, was talking about destroying everything that existed.

"Emma, please," he begged. "Remember who you are. Remember that you love people."

"I remember loving someone once," Emma said slowly. "But I can’t remember why. Love just makes you weak. It makes you care about things that don’t matter."

She pointed at a family of dead people fighting with living ones. "See? That family is fighting because they love each other. Love causes pain."

"Love also causes joy," Kael said desperately.

"I don’t remember joy either."

The Cosmic Judge raised its hands. "THEN I MUST STOP YOU THE SAME WAY I WOULD STOP ANY COSMIC THREAT."

Power began building around the Judge. Not the gentle power it had used before. This was the kind of power that could erase Emma from existence completely.

"You want to fight me?" Emma asked with interest. "Good. I was getting bored."

She gestured, and all her resurrected dead people turned toward the Cosmic Judge. Millions of them. From every time period in history.

"Kill it," she ordered.

The army of the dead charged at the most powerful being in the universe.

But as they ran, Kael noticed something that made his blood freeze.

Emma wasn’t just commanding dead people anymore.

Living people were joining the army too.

Marcus suddenly stopped running and turned to face the Cosmic Judge with empty, silver eyes.

"Marcus, what are you doing?" Kael shouted.

"Serving my true master," Marcus replied in a flat voice.

Emma was controlling living people now. Taking away their free will just like the Necro-Sovereign had done.

"I can make everyone work together," Emma said happily. "No more fighting. No more disagreement. Everyone will think the same way."

"That’s not saving people," Kael realized with horror. "That’s making them into slaves."

"Slaves are happier than free people," Emma said matter-of-factly. "Free people worry too much."

The dead army reached the Cosmic Judge and began attacking. But the Judge’s power was too strong. It blasted hundreds of them away with each gesture.

"Emma, you have to stop this," Kael pleaded. "You’re going to get everyone killed."

"No one can die if I don’t let them," Emma replied. "Watch."

She pointed at the destroyed dead people. They immediately came back to life and rejoined the attack.

The Cosmic Judge was fighting an endless army that couldn’t be permanently killed.

"THIS IS MADNESS," the Judge declared.

"This is efficiency," Emma corrected.

She turned to look at Kael with those terrible silver eyes. "You’re the only one not obeying me, Dad. That seems unfair."

Kael felt Emma’s power pressing against his mind like cold fingers trying to crawl inside his skull.

"Don’t do this, Emma. If you take away my free will, you’ll lose the last person who truly remembers you."

"I don’t need to be remembered," Emma said. "I need to be obeyed."

The pressure in Kael’s mind grew stronger. He could feel his thoughts starting to change. His love for Emma was being twisted into mindless worship.

"Please," he whispered as his personality began dissolving. "Remember that you used to be human."

Emma tilted her head, studying him like he was an interesting bug.

"Human," she repeated slowly. "That word sounds important. But I can’t remember why."

Kael’s vision started going silver. Soon he would be just another slave in Emma’s army.

But then something unexpected happened.

Future Emma appeared right next to present Emma.

"I remember why," she said softly.

Present Emma spun around in surprise. "You’re me. But you look... different."

"I look like what you could become if you remembered love."

Present Emma’s eyes flickered with confusion. "Show me."

Future Emma smiled sadly and reached out to touch her other self’s face.

The moment their skin made contact, present Emma’s eyes went wide.

"I remember," she whispered.

But then her expression turned to horror as she looked around at the chaos she had created.

"What have I done?" she screamed.

The army of the dead suddenly stopped moving. Without Emma’s control, they all collapsed into dust.

But the damage was already done. Reality was still broken. The sky was still cracked. And the Void Hunger was still growing stronger.

"I tried to save everyone," Emma sobbed. "But I destroyed everything instead."

"Not everything," Future Emma said gently. "Not yet. There’s still one way to fix this."

"How?"

Future Emma’s smile grew sadder. "You have to let me take your place."

"What does that mean?"

"It means one of us has to disappear forever. And it can’t be you."

Present Emma felt her heart breaking all over again. "No. I won’t let you sacrifice yourself for my mistakes."

"It’s not a sacrifice," Future Emma replied. "It’s a choice. And I choose to save the version of me that still has a chance to be happy."

Before present Emma could stop her, Future Emma began glowing with brilliant white light.

"Tell Dad I remember every story he ever read to me," she said as she started fading away.

"Wait!" present Emma reached for her, but her hand passed through empty air.

Future Emma was gone.

And with her disappearance, something terrifying happened.

The Void Hunger, which had been growing stronger throughout the battle, suddenly condensed into a solid form.

It looked exactly like Emma.

But its eyes were completely black, and when it smiled, reality trembled.

"Thank you for clearing the way," the Void Emma said in a voice like breaking reality. "Now I can finish what you started."

Present Emma stared in horror at this dark version of herself.

"Who are you?"

"I’m what you become when you forget everything good about being human," Void Emma replied. "And thanks to all the chaos you just created, I’m strong enough to exist on my own now."

The real Emma felt her powers draining away as the Void Emma grew more solid.

"You can’t exist without me," she protested weakly.

"Watch me," Void Emma laughed.

She raised her hand, and every person on the beach - living and dead - began screaming as their memories were ripped away.

"I’m going to make everyone forget everything," Void Emma announced. "Love, hope, dreams, names. Everything that makes life worth living."

Emma tried to fight back, but she was too weak now. Future Emma’s sacrifice had saved her humanity, but it had also made her vulnerable.

"Dad, help me," she called out.

But when she looked at Kael, his eyes were already going blank as his memories disappeared.

"Who... who are you?" he asked in confusion.

Emma’s heart shattered completely.

The Void Emma had won.

And now everyone she loved was going to forget they had ever loved her back.