I watched in disbelief as the Goddess of Chaos withered before us. Her once towering form, cloaked in raw, terrifying power, was now shrinking. The chaotic energy that had once crackled around her like a storm dissipated into the air, leaving behind only the shadow of what she had been.
I could hardly believe it—the woman now standing before us was frail, her face drawn and aged. The beauty that had once masked her cruelty had faded into something weak, almost pitiful. It seems as though her entire being only depends on the timepiece.
It dawned on me with a shattering clarity—perhaps it was Satoru and I who inadvertently gave rise to this darkness. The time we spent unraveling the fabric of the time plane, distorting the natural flow of events, may have birthed something far more malevolent than we could have imagined.
My gaze shifted to the timepiece in my hand, its once radiant glow now fading into an eerie stillness, mirroring the dimming light at the center of the goddess of chaos’s chest—no, not merely her chest. It was her heart. A twisted, corrupted vessel, pulsing faintly as if it had been forged from the very essence of the time we had tampered with.
"Is it over?" Satoru’s voice came out in a whisper, as if speaking louder might break the fragile reality before us.
I glanced at him, seeing the same uncertainty reflected in his eyes. For a moment, we both stood there, breathing heavily, still reeling from the battle that had pushed us beyond anything we thought we were capable of. 
I wanted to say it was over—that we had won—but something stopped me. The way the goddess was looking at us, her hollow eyes gleaming with something dark and unreadable, unsettled me.
Then, she laughed.
It was a slow, mocking sound. The frail woman who stood before us, looking as though a single breath of wind might blow her away, was laughing at us.
"You think you’ve won?" Her voice was raspier now, but no less menacing. "You’ve defeated me, yes… but you’ve lost to time itself."
Satoru and I exchanged a glance, confused. I opened my mouth to demand an explanation, but then I saw it—the time plane around us, once vast and filled with the swirling bubbles of human memories, was collapsing.
The air was heavy with the sound of popping, like tiny explosions. One by one, the memories were vanishing.
"No!" I gasped, my heart pounding as I realized what was happening. This wasn’t just a battle against the goddess—it had always been about more than that. Time itself was unraveling, and the memories of humanity were disappearing with it.
"We have to go!" Satoru grabbed my hand, his eyes wide with fear.
We turned toward the timepieces the god of time lent us, pressed the crown, and the world around us dissolved in a blur of light and motion. For a moment, it felt like we were falling through the cracks of time itself, tumbling through a space where nothing existed.
When we reappeared, the chaos was gone. The time plane had vanished, and we were standing in the hall of the gods once more where the goddess and the god of time, who looked younger than the time we left, stood.
"We did it," Satoru said, his voice barely more than a whisper. "We stopped her."
But the god of time’s face remained grave. "No," he said softly. "It is too late."
The weight of his words settled over me like a stone, and I could feel the hope slipping away. "What do you mean?" I asked, my voice trembling.
"The time plane," the god of time explained, "was more than just the battlefield for your fight. It was the home of all human memories, the foundation upon which their lives are built. Without it, humanity will forget everything—who they are, who they love, the lives they have lived. It will be as if they never existed."
My heart plummeted. "But we stopped the goddess! We fought for those memories!"
"You did," the god of time acknowledged, his expression softening slightly. "But time is a force beyond even us. The unraveling has begun, and it cannot be stopped… unless you are willing to make the greatest sacrifice."
Satoru stiffened beside me, and I felt my own stomach twist. Just by the sound of it, I feel like I'll puke.
"W-What kind of sacrifice?" I asked, though I already feared the answer.
The god of time gestured toward the timepiece in Satoru’s hand. "To restore the time plane and save humanity from forgetting, you must turn the timepiece back. Back to before the chaos began. Before you met each other."
My blood ran cold. "You mean…"
"Yes," the god of time said gently. "You must go back to when you were still children, before you ever crossed paths. In doing so, you will undo your lives together, but you will also restore time for the rest of the world. All the memories of humanity will be preserved—but at the cost of your own."
I felt like I had been struck. The air rushed out of my lungs, and I couldn’t breathe. "But… what about our kids?" I asked, my voice breaking. "We’ve built a life together. How can we just erase all of that?"
Satoru’s grip on my hand tightened, and I could see the same shock and devastation on his face. "There has to be another way," he pleaded, looking at the god of time. "We can’t just… forget everything. Forget each other."
The god of time’s eyes were kind but unwavering. "There is no other way. You must choose: live in a world where you and all of humanity forget everything, living as empty shells, or return to the past and allow yourselves the chance to meet again—without the interference of gods, without time leaps or chaos. It will be difficult, but you will have the opportunity to build new memories. And perhaps, find each other once more."
I felt tears sting my eyes. The idea of losing everything—my memories, my love for Satoru, our children—was unbearable. But the alternative, to live in a world where none of it mattered, where we were nothing but hollow vessels of forgotten lives… it was equally terrifying.
"What do we do, Satoru?" I whispered, my voice trembling.
Satoru looked at me, his eyes filled with pain. "I don’t know, Quinn. I don’t know."
The weight of the decision crushed me, heavier than any burden I had ever known. Tears blurred my vision as the reality of what we were about to lose sank in.
My breath came out in ragged sobs, and I could feel my body trembling. The strength I had borrowed from the goddess, the unnatural power that had carried me through the battle, was ebbing away, leaving me weak and hollow.
My armor, once a shield of might, now felt like a prison, dragging me down as if the weight of the entire universe had settled on my shoulders.
I collapsed to my knees, unable to hold myself up any longer. The metallic clank of my armor hitting the ground echoed around us, a cold reminder of the battle we had fought, and the victory that felt more like a defeat.
Satoru was beside me in an instant, his arms wrapping around me, pulling me close. I could feel his heartbeat against my chest, steady and strong, but I knew he was just as scared as I was.
"Quinn," he whispered softly, his voice a quiet comfort amidst the chaos of my mind. "We have to decide."
I shook my head, pressing my hands to my face as tears streamed down my cheeks. "I can’t, Satoru. I can’t just… erase everything. How can we even think about doing this?"
Satoru was silent for a moment, his arms tightening around me. Then he spoke, his voice breaking with emotion. "We don’t have a choice, Quinn. If we don’t… everything will disappear. Not just us—everyone. The entire world will forget who they are. It will be like none of us ever existed."
His words hit me like a punch to the gut. I pulled away from him, my eyes wild with anger and grief.
"Does it even matter to you? Do we even matter to you?" My voice cracked, a sob choking me. "Our children, Satoru… How can you just decide this without even asking me? Do we mean that little to you?"
Satoru’s face softened, and he reached out, placing a hand gently on my cheek. He didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he looked at me, really looked at me, as if memorizing every line of my face, every detail.
His gaze was tender, filled with love, and it only made my heart ache more. I had seen that look a thousand times, but now it felt as if he was trying to capture the memory of me, knowing that it might be a long time before he ever saw me again.
"You matter to me more than anything," he said quietly, his thumb brushing away a tear from my cheek. "You and the kids… you’re my whole world. But that’s why I have to do this. It’s the only way to give us another chance. Maybe… maybe we won’t remember this life, but I promise you, Yukine… I’ll find you again."
I stared at him, my breath catching in my throat as the weight of his words settled over me. I wanted to scream, to fight, to find some other way. But deep down, I knew he was right. There was no other option. We couldn’t let everything disappear. Not like this.
Satoru held the timepiece in his hand, the one we had fought so hard to retrieve. He looked down at it, then back at me, his eyes filled with sadness.
Slowly, he extended it toward me, his hand shaking just slightly as he placed it in my palm. He didn’t say anything, but I knew what he was asking. He wanted us to do it together. To press the crown and turn back time, before everything was lost.
The god and goddess regarded us with a profound sadness, their immortal eyes heavy with the weight of a reality even they could not alter—a silent acknowledgment of their own limitations, bound by the immutable laws of time and fate, just as we were.
Their divine power, once so awe-inspiring, now seemed hollow in the face of what we had to sacrifice, as if the vastness of their existence was overshadowed by the inevitability of loss, a burden no deity could lift.
I hesitated, my fingers trembling around the timepiece. But Satoru placed his hand over mine, his touch steady and warm. "Together," he whispered, his voice low and filled with emotion.
Tears fell freely down my face as I nodded, though my heart felt like it was breaking in two. Slowly, ever so slowly, we both pressed the crown together. The air around us shimmered, the ground beneath us began to dissolve, and the world started to darken, as though we were being pulled into a void.
Just before everything went black, Satoru leaned in close, his lips brushing mine. "I love you," he whispered, his breath warm against my skin.
I closed my eyes, savoring the moment, the feel of his lips on mine. It was bittersweet, knowing it could be the last time we would ever share this. As our lips met, the darkness consumed us, swallowing everything.
In the last flicker of consciousness before the void took over, I heard Satoru’s voice, soft and determined. "I’ll find you. I always will."
Then, there was nothing but silence.