One Cycle and One Day
T-Tyria...! You...!
...Kgh! Aaaagh...!
The surroundings fall away at speed.
Light slips behind me, and so does sound.
And when it all falls still.
My vision filled with a blue planet that sparkled so brightly I could barely believe it.
Ahh...
Ah...
...It was too much to bear, and I closed my eyes for a moment.
...Right.
I had been drifting here like this back then, too.
A place without time or space.
A place without light or sound.
Things existed, and nothing more.
That went for me as well.
Or perhaps I simply hadn't witnessed my own birth.
Just as the universe, the sun, the moon, and the stars had never seen themselves come into being.
...
Either way, it made no difference.
In the end, every being was surely filled with nothing but the endless Void.
And so, all I had to do was drift here without purpose, waiting for my time to come.
With no need for a name or a purpose.
Simply waiting for the day I would disappear.
Gille.
...?
Suddenly, a voice filled my head.
The voice, soft but firm, carried through time and space.
Distant beyond any sense of where it came from, or how long I had been hearing it...
You have been brought into being by the Void.
This is your name.
Gille.
...That distant voice filled the void within me.
...
...That's right.
My name is... Gille.
And it finally gave me a reason to exist.
Then, several days later...
That makes thirty.
Thirty...
One full orbit around this place is what humans call a day.
Thirty of those days make what humans call a month.
...
Over those thirty days, the voice in my mind kept count of the days for me.
It also taught me that I wasn't simply drifting, but moving around something.
And that completing one orbit meant a day had passed.
I wanted to orbit more often, to move faster, so I could build up more days.
...But that isn't something I can control, right?
Still, maybe it was because I hadn't just been drifting around without a purpose.
I think I felt… quite a bit better than before.
Because what I'm doing has meaning. One full orbit, and a day passes...
...Meaning.
All the while, the voice in my head kept talking to me.
There, without time or space, I listened to the voice and came to understand myself and this place.
Then I found myself wondering.
Even drifting through this place meant that a day was passing.
...
Then what about me?
For the first time, I asked the voice a question.
Why do I need to exist here...?
If I came into being... is there... some meaning to it?
Because you must cull.
Cull what?
Everything.
...
A place without time or space.
I feel myself floating, just as I did all that time ago.
But when I open my eyes, unlike back then, there is that dazzling blue planet...
Along with the Witch's Veil spread over it.
...My body...
Only then did I check my body and find how much it had already weakened.
Before I came here, the Star Savior and the others had attacked me, causing me to touch the Witch's Veil...
And as I made my way here, the Void had worn me away little by little.
Kgh...
Born in the Void, so back to the Void I belong... Is that it...?
Perhaps this was how I would meet my end, so meaninglessly.
I brought my hands together and prayed to my master.
Forgive me for failing to fulfill my mission, Master.
Yet I have no regrets, for I have devoted my body to your service...
...
After that short farewell, I open my eyes and see a planet home to countless living beings.
Little beings I had considered of no consequence... had pooled their strength and built a world like that.
They were destined to return to the Void in the end.
Then why?
...Tch.
Getting caught up in sentiment like this... I suppose it really is time for me to return.
Executor.
...!
Just like back then, I heard a voice calling to me inside my head.
...No, it's not in my head.
It's... right above me...
Looking up, all I can see is the same dark sky.
...But I can sense it without a doubt.
What is it you are waiting for?
There, high above.
On the far side of the universe.
The master I had been waiting so long for is there, nailed in place.
Master...?
Why are you in a place like this...?
You were made a spoke, below the bottom of the well.
While I, above and beyond the universe, was nailed here and preserved like a specimen.
Master, your voice...
Hearing my master's voice from this distance...
It was much fainter than before, and seemed to be breaking apart.
That was hardly surprising, given that my master had been pinned to the Void shortly after the Age of Darkness...
N-No, it can't be...
In time, even the largest stars lose the ability to maintain their form and collapse.
That is the law of this universe.
Why...
Why go this far...!
Do not let anger take hold.
Anger before its time, too, will return meaninglessly to the Void's embrace.
But... But Master...!
There is still a mission you have yet to complete, is there not?
...!
...That's right.
I serve as the Executor of Aldebaran.
And my mission... is to see my master descend upon this world.
I turned my gaze.
Void energy gathers around my arms and legs like bugs, ready to eat away at them.
Find your resolve.
Resolve...
Little by little, the Void energy recedes.
It holds its position, waiting for another opportunity.
...!
Are you saying that, if I have the resolve... I can delay my own disappearance, at least for a while?
I look up again.
There is still nothing in the sky.
You must wait.
For the moment the false veil is stripped away.
For the day you fulfill the purpose of your existence.
...
I can see the blue planet drifting slowly beneath me.
I was told to wait, and so I must.
And all I can do while I wait... is orbit.
...One.
I suppose I'll start keeping count today.