If the climax is the resolution or instance of the dramatic complication in a story, then the denouement is the final conclusion or result of that complication.
The three Immortals were awaiting the denouement. They wished to know what would happen now that I had overcome their most fundamental of assumptions about this world and thrown their entire worldviews out the window.
The Simurgh, I declared, had never created this world in the first place. It had assumed that it was the supreme being of this world, its only creator, because it had never known anything above it.
It knew that there existed other powerful beings outside this universe. It had once told me about gods, after all, but it had always assumed that those gods were outsiders and that its own actions had been the result of its free will, its own choices and decisions. Even if the Simurgh had potentially been created by an external deity, it must have believed that its own actions had, at the very least, been under its own control.
That was not the case. The Simurgh was, just like the rest of them, a servant of the story. No, perhaps it had been worse than that. As the creator of this world and one of the main antagonists of the story, it had been the a slave to the narrative. It had been operating under the misguided assumption that its actions were independent and that the knowledge that it possessed had either been created by itself or that all of this knowledge was somehow fundamental to all of reality.
But no, the Simurgh was a character. And its role was now at an end.
The Silver Moon was surprised as well. All this time, he had been trying his hardest to leave this world, to embrace the Simurgh and annihilate his physical body so he could return home. The lowering of the Simurgh’s status revealed to him the chilling fact that if he had really done what he had been planning to do and gone and annihilated himself, he would have certainly died in this world and been lost to the narrative entirely.
He also realized, a touch quicker than the other two did, that his own actions had been perfectly choreographed and indeed, looking back at it, this explanation made sense.
He had appeared in this world in the nick of time, been granted immense power but with it a restrictive mind.
He wandered aimlessly in this world, bringing about the conditions for humanoid sentient life and of a crumbling elfin society stuck in the stone age which had become the setting for the beginning of the story.
He had been both an instrument to the plot and an important character, sometimes antagonist and sometimes ally. He must have thought, during it all, that he had been playing me like a fiddle, but he had never realized that he was being strung along himself.
The former Evil Eye had been stunned by the starry sky and he had lost his composure because of the fall in the stature of the Simurgh, but he was the least troubled by this explosive climax. Once again, I found myself wondering what domain he had recreated himself around. Whatever it was, it had shielded him from the worst questions that I had attacked him with. Curious, but he was never a threat to begin with.
The fake cosmos froze. The Nothingness stilled. I raised a hand. The cosmos began to churn in reverse.
The planet, the stars, the nebulae, the galaxies and the entire tiny universe itself began to converge back to a single point. This time, the single point was above my hand and it was swirling with intense energy, heat and power.
Soon, everything was gone except for the tiny point of energy and the three Immortals hanging listlessly in front of me in the Nothingness.
Their expressions were blank. They did not respond. I knew they were exhausted in many ways and that it was safe to finish off the last of my objectives. I snapped a finger and darkness filled my vision.
---
I opened my eyes and the Nothingness was gone. I was back in the physical world, standing in the center of a massive crater. My skin prickled. I scratched my chin.
I should probably fix this before somebody got hurt by it.
I raised a hand and began to float in the air. The earth churned like butter and began to repair itself. Not just beneath me, but over the entire landscape.
Craters were refilled, newly made valleys and rifts closed back up again, and rivers returned to their natural paths. Forests that had been ripped up and burned to ash found themselves replanted. Even monsters that had run away from the heavy fighting and begun clashing with others over territory were dragged back to suitable habitats. I made sure to take extra care around the settlements of sentient races like humans and demons.
I confirmed that no sentient beings had been killed but noticed that quite a few of them had hurt themselves in their panic. A few warm thoughts and a gentle blanket of magic took care of most of those issues, especially now that I could use truly magical spells of healing and care.
Farmlands that had been destroyed, domesticated monsters that had escaped, and scared children who were shaking all over the land, I made sure to fix all of those with great detail and attention. I removed all traces of radiation from my nuclear spells and even fixed up the mountains that had been destroyed during the first ritual where the Immortals of Evil and Madness had tried to read the Book of Annihilation.
I kept flying through the sky like a comet. I passed over the lands, doing one quick sweep fixing as many problems as I could. Even things that were clearly not my fault, like monsters attacking villages or a dam about to burst, I fixed them all as quickly as I could with what energy I could spare.
I crossed the mountains and the land beneath me fell further away. I knew where I was because of the devastated landscape. With a grim expression, I raised my hand, and fixed the curse upon the land.
The Simurgh had destroyed most of the Plains of Serenity. The tussle between the Immortals had imbued a curse on the land. Even monsters could not survive here easily and most had been stragglers that had made their way over from nearby areas.
I rejuvenated the plains with rainfall, better topsoil, and some replanted fauna. The dried up riverbeds, little more than fossils in the rock, sprung to life as water rumbled through them once more. The trees and grasses weren’t tall or mighty, and they did not cover everything, but over time this place would be lush and green once again.
Monsters would wander over, seeking water and food. Sentient beings would return as well, attracted by the promise of game, land, and places to forage.
Except, they would not be the original inhabitants of this land. Despite everything, I knew my Beloved would not accept that elves who had died years and years ago could be revived on a whim. And if my Beloved would not accept it, it could not be.
And so I returned to the pond where it all began. The moon was out, but this was not the moon as it had been once. The domain was floating free, as all domains would be from now on. And the red star was merely a star in the sky. It twinkled and smiled, without anger or malice, and the starry night sky would be forever more a welcome sight.
I dipped my feet into the pond but there were no ripples. I looked back down at the image reflected within but there was no reflection there.
There was no reflection.
I wasn’t here.
I did not exist in this world anymore.
It was time to go. It was time to leave. It was time to be free.
I raised my hands. Little birds flew out. These were not the birds you are used to, my Beloved.
The birds flew away to carry my last goodbyes. A few of them dragged a sleeping young man to my side. I held onto my fellow traveler. Made sure he had no reflection either.
I let go of my final domains.
I bid adieu to my magic systems.
I declared The End but reminded the air:
That like the lingering sweetness from a bite of chocolate, there would be something afterwards. An afterword, an epilogue. Something to look forward to.
I hugged the pond, my face went under. Submerged in cool water, I spoke clearly:
“Now my charms are all overthrown, and what strength I have’s mine own. As you from crimes would pardon’d be. Let your indulgence set me free.”
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