Everything
That makes today...
The orbits continued even then.
Seventy-two, seventy-three.
The memories do not end.
Battles of the Final Trial that play out over and over.
Sometimes I lost, and sometimes I won.
And sometimes, there was no battle to begin with.
In any case, the memories are all much the same.
That makes... seventy-four.
I'm sick of this...
Whether I'm here or in the witch's well... There's no difference.
...Except, of course, up there...
...There's my master, somewhere beyond.
Still, caught in this orbit, there is only one thing I can do.
Clinging to my memories so I do not cease to exist, and circling this planet over and over.
Am I supposed to keep doing this until the veil is lifted?
With nothing else to do, I twisted the ends of my hair and looked down at the blue planet.
Out of seventy-four, eleven were about that man.
...No, was it twelve?
...
In any case, I've had enough of this.
Fulfill your mission.
...!
Master...?
Startled by the sudden voice, I quickly looked up toward where my master should be.
But Master, I—
What are you looking for?
...!
Time comes to a standstill, and a rift opens between dimensions.
And the woman walking through from within...
...The Witch of Favoritism.
To think I bothered helping you get out of the witch's well.
Now you're doing nothing but circling Lavistar?
...You think you can—
Seventy-four, was it?
!
Weren't you keeping count?
...So listening in on someone else's count is a witch's idea of fun.
...Pointless chatter.
More to the point, I don't understand why you're doing this.
...What's this all of a sudden?
You and the others... where did you come into being?
Huh?
Right here. In the Void.
*Slash*
The Witch of Favoritism draws her sword and sweeps it through my surroundings.
Ngh! What do you think you're—
Krrgh... Grrrgh!
...?!
I look around from where I fell, taken by surprise...
Voidborns fall to her sword. I have no idea when they followed me here.
The fallen Voidborns scatter... and somewhere inside my empty body, something fills just a little.
All that surrounded me was nothing but... Void energy.
Why would... Voidborns be here...?
Those things were right beside you as those seventy-four days passed.
Why, then, have you merely been orbiting?
The Witch of Favoritism approaches and extends a hand to me as I lie on the ground.
Surely you haven't forgotten how to do anything but orbit.
Executor.
I stare up at her blankly.
Remember.
...
What is your mission?
My mission...
I picture the blue planet I have seen more than enough of.
To cull.
Cull what?
Come on, you seriously can't think of anything you want to do?
Gille.
Then I picture myself, circling along that same orbit without end.
Everything there is.
...Right.
I chose not to accept the hand she held out.
I got to my feet myself and, for the first time, took a proper look at my hands.
The places that had been eaten away. And all the prey... flocking around them.
All this time, I've been starving... while lying right on top of a feast.
*Fwoosh*
I spread the wings I had kept folded all this time.
The Voidborns gathered around me fall one by one to my attacks.
The fallen Voidborns scatter... and are absorbed back into me.
...As much as I've withered away.
I'll devour everything.