Elisa opened another portal and descended.
The rift had dragged her into universes beyond any known boundary. These were no longer worlds separated by time or logic, but pure fractures in existence, dimensions where the laws of reality had completely dissolved.
Forbidden places, never designed to house consciousness.
There, the hat didn't vibrate with energy... It vibrated with fear.
The first world she visited was a graveyard of thoughts. A dimension where every idea forgotten by any living mind took shape... and withered instantly.
The hills were made of broken dreams, the rivers flowed with words never spoken.
And in the sky, thousands of faces screamed names no one remembered.
Elisa walked cautiously, but soon felt her own memories begin to dissipate.
Her name became blurred.
Her purpose, confusion.
She had to cling to the hat to stay sane and not get lost in her own thoughts. Only in this way did she manage to seal the rift, though at the cost of another tear she didn't know why she had shed.
The next opening led her to an inverted universe, one where time disintegrated everything and where thoughts became horrific malformations. There, beings built their bodies from what others thought of them.
Elisa was attacked by a creature made entirely of other people's hatred, formed from the fears that some version of herself had inspired in other worlds.
She had to confront the cruelest image of herself... and she couldn't defeat it; she didn't have the mental strength to eliminate herself, even if it was only a distorted version.
She only managed to flee, her heart beating like a war drum.
In another rift, she fell into a bottomless sea where fragments of unborn universes floated: nebulae of worlds never created, populated by incomplete versions of beings who didn't know they were alive.
A faceless child took her hand.
"Are you going to forget us too?" he asked, his voice breaking.
Elisa barely managed to seal the rift before that child, and that entire cosmic ocean, were reduced to utter oblivion.
But nothing prepared her for the final place she was dragged to.
A dimension corrupted at its core, where existence itself had been infected. Everything was pulsating, soft, as if the universe had skin... and throbbed.
There, every step was a mistake. Every breath, a wound.
The colors screamed. The shadows bled.
And in the center, a colossal rift... so wide it seemed to laugh. Elisa grew more and more terrified, unable to stop wondering, if these universes were already so terrifying, how corrupt must the first existence have been?
Elisa tried to seal it.
But the hat didn't respond.
And then she saw it.
Something... something was emerging from the crack.
A fragment of the original mistake.
A remnant of the First Failed Existence.
A formless monster, yet with a presence. Something that shouldn't be seen, that shouldn't exist.
Elisa tried to run, driven by a primal instinct for survival. Her whole body told her she had to run or she would end up dying, not because this being was stronger than her or because it was terrifying. It was simply because of how corrupted it was, a being with an aura and presence so malformed that it ruined existence just by standing there. Elisa ran with all her might, while space corrupted and disintegrated in her wake.
The hat trembled as if begging to be let go.
Her feet were breaking. Her soul trembled.
And in that instant, when all hope was lost, when she was about to be corrupted by this being,
a golden light exploded.
Elisa was ripped from the scene in a flash.
The dimension, the rift, and the monster closed behind her with a howl that didn't sound like something alive... but like the cry of the multiverse.
When she opened her eyes, she was in a stable dimension. Peaceful. With ground, sky, and...silence.
Before her, sitting on a small hill, was Astrid. Her brooch still glowed.
"You're not invincible, Elisa," she said firmly. "But that doesn't make you weak."
Elisa was still breathing heavily, covered in dimensional ash.
"You saved me..." she whispered.
"Because we're not finished yet." Before she could continue, Elisa noticed Astrid eating something she couldn't quite make out.
"What are you eating?" she asked, puzzled.
"Oh, right, where are my manners?! Want some? This is absolutely delicious." Astrid held out her hand to Elisa, who saw it was just a handful of wild berries.
"Huh? But they're just berries, nothing special." Said Elisa.
"Je, that's what they're called, berries, but it bothers me a little that you say they're not a big deal. My race, unlike yours, doesn't eat. We feed directly of the energy of the stars, so these berries and something I ate a while ago called bread and oranges are all I've consumed since I started my travel accross the multiverse and learned the concept of eat. Je, It's funny how something can be so commonplace for one person but an absolute treasure for another. I suppose it's all a matter of perspective."
Elisa remained silent.
Astrid wiped her mouth and took a step forward.
"Anyway, changing the subject, I think it's time we talked."
"About what?" Elisa looked at her with a mixture of anger, relief, and fear.
"About what we are.
Why we're here.
What we're supposed to do."
The wind began to blow.
They both remained silent, looking at each other.
Like two halves that didn't yet know whether to unite... or destroy each other.
And so, while the universe waited, holding its breath, the debate was about to begin.