The Multiverse.
Empty, yet not.
It stretches endlessly; a vast, never-ending stream of branching realities and emptiness runs parallel to each other. Some intertwining with one another.
Look a little closer, and even in those singular realities lies the aspect of Time.
Branching timelines, different choices, alternate realities decorating that singular instance of reality amid the infinite:
Good endings.
Bad endings.
Death and destruction.
Life and creation.
All due to differing decisions, resulting in varied outcomes from a single decision. Or it may be due to multiple divergences and not just a single mishap or correct decision.
All in all, it was an infinite among the infinite.
Infinite Despair.
Infinite Hope.
But where there is hope.
There is Despair.
And where there is despair....
There is Hope.
Such is the law of the multiverse itself.
Ambiguous yet strict.
Unpredictable yet predictable.
Chaotic yet orderly.
Like the multiverse itself, its laws manifest in both consistent and inconsistent variants.
Paradoxical, yet functional.
Some worlds shimmer with hope, while others drown in despair.
In the endless tide of despairing worlds, realities, and timelines, a strange constant is seen.
A stubborn existence refusing to fade.
They call it...
The Everlasting Fragment Of Hope.
•••••••••••••••••
A world where Gods mingle amongst mortals.
Posing as one of them, playing with them.
All to stave off the boredom of managing souls mixed with the agony of immortality and omnipotence.
Centered in a single city built above the vile trenches of a mysterious dungeon with a tower that pierced the very heavens above.
This world... their Gods, and their people didn't know that they were hanging on but a loose thread.
As they enthusiastically awaited the arrival of the 'Last Hero'.
The Last Hero who never arrived.
As a young man, the one destined to become the Hero who saves the world and surpasses all his predecessors bled out in the Dungeon, early in his career.
Due to a small misstep, a short delay in the arrival of his would-be beloved.
The tiniest change, the mere flap of the butterfly, led to the destruction and Despair of an entire world.
Civilizations ruined, the Dungeon City purged.
Humanity and Demi-humans alike perished.
Even the Gods themselves, their divine and immortal nature proving to be as fallible as their arrogant wisdom led to their demise.
And that was...
The End.
At least, it was, until that existence appeared.
•••••••••••••••••
'I-I'm going to die...' Bell's inner voice whispered, laced with despair.
His body trembled with agony, and the adrenaline coursing through his body did little to soothe the pain. His face was battered and washed with warm blood seeping from his mouth, and he was confident that the Minotaur's singular punch had shattered a few ribs.
The dungeon wall behind him caved in with his figure, cobweb-like cracks spreading through the impact.
The spacious and dark halls of the Dungeon were deathly silent; the only sound resonating amid the stillness was the ground-shaking steps of the approaching, enraged Minotaur and Bell's growing whimpers.
Tears ran down his face as he roared in defiance, "MOVE! BODY! MOVE!" His shout amounted to but a pathetic squeak, as even his vocal cords, much less his collapsing body, obeyed his commands.
The Minotaur was getting closer, and Bell's figure was not moving an inch. Another step, and the Minotaur will be in range to finish the hopeful adventurer's life.
And Bell knew it too.
Whatever strength he had left... evaporated into nothingness.
'It's...hopeless.' His panicked, gleaming red eyes shifted into a lowered, resigned look.
His bloody lips pursed into a bitter, regretful smile.
'A single hit, and I'm helpless...'
He pushed past what his Dungeon Guide had advised.
And fate had punished his disobedience, his arrogance - by sending a Minotaur his way.
Indeed, Fate was a cruel mistress, and the Dungeon, her executioner.
Even in his final moments, Bell pulled all his strength to utter one final prayer, one final apology to the one who gave him everything. To the one who took him in when no one else did:
'Goddess Hestia... I'm sorry.' He closed his eyes as the Minotaur snarled, its breath hot and foul curling the air around them as it balled its fists for the final blow...
Only for it to never arrive.
Instead, he was met with... a warm, pleasant feeling?
The excruciating pain was getting more bearable, and following this strange revelation, a bright light prompted Bell's resigned eyelids to shoot open, as the Minotaur snorted scalding steam in fury once more.
His wide, almost hopeful eyes were greeted with a bizarre creature standing between him and the Minotaur.
It looked unlike anything he had ever seen or heard:
A mixture of a cat, dragon, and bird with a few strange features.
Cat-sized, standing on four legs, a slender body covered in pure-white scales that glittered like pearls, a long feathered tail with a hand-like appendage at the end of it, and a tiny pair of feathered wings on its back.
A pair of flat horns on its head, as well as a peculiar lack of mouth and nose, just a flat expression with a pair of golden orbs glowing with kindness and child-like curiosity.
Strangest and most mystifying of all was the almost hope-inducing glow that radiated through its body and stretched towards Bell.
The peculiar creature had also momentarily perplexed the aggressive Minotaur, stopping him in his tracks as he snarled at it with gusto.
Bell felt strength slowly returning to his body as the pain was dulling with each passing moment, as the light that the creature radiated towards him.
'This... This monster's helping me!' He concluded immediately with a sense of renewed hope.
It appeared more 'Spirit' than Monster.
It was practically unheard of, a complete anomaly. However, Bell lacked the leverage of time to ponder anomalies right now.
But just as Bell had recomposed himself, so did the Minotaur:
It roared as it charged towards Bell, ignoring the tiny creature in between them.
Bell's features twisted into a desperate panic as he managed to slowly rise up - but even with the rejuvenating light, it was not enough to escape the bull's horns.
And once more, the creature had saved him.
Bell roared in a mixture of desperation and shock, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
The cat-like glowing creature leaped straight into the bull's horns.
With ease, the Minotaur's right horn pierced through the small creature's white scales, hanging limply on its horn, and strange white blood sprayed all around them.
Lacking a mouth, the creature had no way to express its pain, yet it expressed its defiance with strength that betrayed its size.
With the help of its handlike tail and utilizing the entirety of its four padded legs, it pushed as hard as it could as it hung on top of the Minotaur's horn, bleeding to death.
Managing to disorientate and push the Minotaur away from its original route, allowing for the limping Bell to avoid the stampede, as the Minotaur hit the wall just beside him, followed by an explosive echo of the impact and the ground and walls of the Dungeon trembling around him, a cloud of dust and debris obscuring his vision.
An emotional storm mixed with notable pain coursing through his figure painted a troubling picture, as Bell could do nothing but tense his muscles defiantly and roar with all he could muster as he limply charged through the debris:
"WRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Mustering all his courage wasn't for naught, as a speeding bullet shot through the air, traversing an entire dark, despairing yet hopeful dungeon hallway at a pace faster than the eye could see.
A beautiful, blonde young woman clad in light armor and a sharp, elegant sword in hand.
Before Bell could even process the sight before him, she struck with grace and accuracy.
The speed of her blows had pierced through the cloud of dust and debris by stirring the wind around them, clearing the way to reveal the agonized Minotaur and strange fading light.
Blood sprayed around Bell and the woman as she diced the Minotaur with effortless ease.
It roared a final, pointless, defiant screech before shattering like glass, dropping its precious stone on the ground with a loud, resonating thump.
It was quiet, as Bell's weary eyes darted between the breathtaking blank-faced Sword Princess before him and the impact crater of the deceased Minotaur.
Tilting her head, the blank-faced girl inquired flatly, "Are you okay? Are you injured?" Her voice betrayed no emotion, yet her eyes were laced with a genuine hint of worry and regret.
As the adrenaline began to wear off, Bell flinched as he gazed at the seemingly empty crater, "I-It saved me."
"...?" The girl tilted her head further, as her eyes narrowed sharply to notice that the boy's legs began to give out, catching him before he fell with a single swift movement. Bell's eyes slowly began to close against his will.
"A-A monster s-saved me." Those were the last words that left his mouth, as he collapsed from both exhaustion and injury.
Holding onto his limp, unconscious figure, Ais Wallenstein could only reply with her own honest and inarguable truth:
"That is impossible." Her words carried a hint of hatred and clear finality, as she instantly dismissed his words as mere ramblings of a delirious, injured boy.
•••••••••••••••••
'It hurts.' The Fragment admitted as its figure was pierced through the Minotaur's horn.
Pain was one of the first concepts it had grasped when it had been born in the cavernous halls of the Dungeon.
But once it had hurt enough, The Fragment figured it would happen again, as it had happened before:
Death.
As its body began to fade into light, it had experienced Death for the second time in its short life.
But even with the excruciating pain, that pain it didn't want to feel again.
'It was worth it.'
To exchange one thing for another.
To exchange its own Pain for the very Joy of its Existence.
To trade its own Pain to dull the Despair of others.
It had managed to help, perhaps to save another being from despair - in its short existence, it could find no greater joy than that.
This had been a first.
It had managed to answer the deep calling coursing through its very essence.
As its existence had slowly begun to reform once more from the walls of the Dungeon, it couldn't cease the Joy that coursed through it at this very moment.
Ah, the Joy of defeating despair was a powerful, cathartic sensation indeed.
Yet, as The Fragment's small body was spat out once more rather uncouthly by its 'Mother's' walls, it couldn't help but feel... regret.
Another new sensation.
It didn't fully cleanse the despair of that, despairing, sad, and disheartened bipedal creature.
Covering the holes and trying to make the red liquid stop from flowing had done wonders, as the small bipedal creature seemed less hurt, but that larger bipedal creature was trying to hurt the smaller one so persistently.
If only The Fragment were more powerful, it could have completely stopped them from hurting one another, dulling the despair of one another.
It could only Hope that it had managed to discourage that big bipedal creature into backing off if it hit its head really hard.
'Avoiding pain is logical.' It mused.
However, the curious Fragment managed to note another thing:
'Why could I only sense the despair of that bipedal creature?'
Those who had previously killed it, some kind of shadows had little to no despair.
It is not that the creature desires others to despair; in fact, quite the opposite.
However, even when it managed to accidentally hurt one of them, it had shown no Despair at all.
For some reason, The Fragment was confident in its capability to sense the despair of others, and those that lacked it entirely were a complete anomaly for it.
Nevertheless.
It was a productive 'Death'.
'I managed to help someone!'
The power of Joy coursed through it, as it felt oddly empowered.
It could not smile as it observed the empty, dark, and damp hallway before it, but if it could...
It would.