Chapter 142: Victory’s Cost

Words : 1347 Updated : Sep 17th, 2025

Chapter 142: Victory’s Cost CALEB POV I called Lily’s name, but she didn’t hear me. She was standing right in front of me, but her eyes were looking somewhere else. Somewhere I couldn’t see. It was like she was watching a movie that only she could watch. "Lily," I said again, louder this time. "The battle is over. We won." She blinked and looked at me, but it took her a few seconds to focus. When she did, I could see pain in her eyes. "Did we?" she asked quietly. "Did we really win?" I looked around at the battlefield. The supernatural union had defeated the Void Walkers. The dimensional tears were fixed. Reality was stable again. Everyone was celebrating. "Yeah," I said. "We did it. The worlds are safe." "But at what cost?" she asked. I knew what she meant. Lily had saved everyone by becoming a dimensional anchor. But now she existed in all realities at once. She was here with me, but she was also somewhere else. Always somewhere else. "Are you okay?" I asked. She laughed, but it wasn’t a happy sound. "I’m watching my sister make friends with a thing that wants to turn her evil. I’m seeing versions of myself die in seventeen different worlds. I’m feeling the pain of every Lily who ever lived. So no, Caleb. I’m not okay." My heart broke for her. Lily had always been the strongest person I knew. She’d been my best friend since we were kids. But now she seemed so lost and alone. "Maybe there’s a way to reverse it," I said. "Maybe we can find a way to disconnect you from the other dimensions." "I tried," she said. "I can’t let go. If I do, all the worlds will fall again. I’m stuck like this forever." "There has to be another way." "Does there?" she asked. "Caleb, I can see the future. Not just one future, but all possible futures. And in every single one where I’m not the center, billions of people die." I felt anger growing inside me. It wasn’t fair. Lily had saved everyone, but she was the one who had to pay the price. "So what?" I said. "You’re supposed to suffer forever so everyone else can be happy?" "If that’s what it takes," she said. "That’s not right." "Right doesn’t matter anymore," she said. "Only necessary." I wanted to fight with her, but something else was happening. Lily’s body was glowing. One second she was solid, the next she was see-through. "Lily, you’re fading," I said. "I know," she said. "It’s getting harder to stay in one world. The connections are pulling me in too many ways." "Fight it," I said. "Stay here with me." "I’m trying," she said. "But it’s so hard. There are so many other forms of me that need help. In one world, I’m being chased by monsters. In another, I’m trying to save my parents from a fire. How can I ignore them?" "Because this is your real world," I said. "This is where you belong." "Do I?" she asked. "Caleb, I can barely remember what it feels like to be totally human. I can see through the eyes of a thousand different forms of myself. I can feel their thoughts and feelings. Sometimes I forget which memories are mine and which belong to other versions of me." I reached out to touch her hand, but my fingers went right through her. She was becoming more ghost than person. "I’m losing you," I said. "I’m losing me too," she said. "Yesterday I tried to remember my favorite color. Do you know what happened? I remembered a hundred different favorite colors from a hundred different forms of myself. I don’t even know which one is really mine anymore." "It’s blue," I said. "Your favorite color is blue. Sky blue, like the color of the ocean on a beautiful day. You told me that when we were eight years old." She smiled, and for a moment she looked completely solid again. "You remember." "I remember everything about you," I said. "I remember when you were afraid of the dark, so I gave you my flashlight. I remember when you cried because you thought you were too weird to have friends. I remember when you first discovered your powers and you were afraid you were going crazy." "I wasn’t crazy then," she said. "But I think I might be now." "You’re not crazy. You’re just carrying too much. Let me help you." "How?" "I don’t know yet," I said. "But I’ll figure it out. I promise." She was quiet for a long moment. Then she said, "Caleb, I need to tell you something. About the future." "What about it?" "I can see what’s coming. The Void Walkers weren’t the real threat. They were just the beginning." "What do you mean?" "Something else is coming. Something that makes the Void Walkers look like harmless dogs. And it’s coming because of what I did. Because I opened links between all the dimensions." I felt cold. "What kind of something?" "I don’t know exactly. But I can see pieces of it. It’s old. Older than the dimensions themselves. And it’s hungry." "Hungry for what?" "For everything. It wants to swallow all of reality. Every world, every dimension, every option. It wants to be the only thing that exists." "How long do we have?" "Not long," she said. "Maybe a few weeks. Maybe less." "Then we’ll fight it," I said. "Just like we fought the Void Walkers." "We can’t fight this," she said. "The only way to stop it is to close all the dimensional links. But if I do that..." "You’ll die." "Maybe. Or maybe I’ll just cease to exist. I don’t know which would be worse." I felt tears in my eyes. "There has to be another way." "I hope so," she said. "But hope isn’t enough anymore." She started to fade again, but this time it was different. Instead of becoming see-through, she was breaking apart. I could see various versions of her overlapping each other. "Lily, what’s happening?" "I’m being pulled into too many dimensions at once," she said. "I can’t hold myself together anymore." "Focus on me," I said. "Focus on this world." "I’m trying," she said. "But something is calling to me. Something powerful." "What is it?" "I think it’s the thing that’s coming. The thing that wants to eat everything. It’s trying to use me to get here." "Don’t let it." "I don’t think I have a choice," she said. "Caleb, if I disappear, if I can’t fight this anymore, I need you to promise me something." "Anything." "Promise me you’ll find a way to save everyone. Even if it means forgetting about me." "I’ll never forget about you." "You might have to," she said. "If this thing gets control of me, I might become the enemy. I might be the one trying to destroy everything." "That will never happen." "It already is happening," she said. "Look at my eyes." I looked. Her eyes were changing. The normal dark color was being replaced by something else. Something that looked like the empty space between stars. "It’s inside me," she whispered. "The thing that wants to eat everything. It’s been inside me all along." "Fight it," I said. "I can’t," she said. "It’s too strong. And it’s using my links to the other dimensions to spread. Soon it will be in every world at once." "Lily, you have to fight it." "I am fighting it," she said. "But I’m losing. And when I lose totally, it will use my body to destroy everything I’ve ever cared about." Her eyes were completely black now. When she spoke again, her voice was different. Deeper. Older. "Thank you, little anchor," the thing said through Lily’s mouth. "You’ve given me exactly what I needed." "Give her back," I said. "Oh, I will," it said. "Right after I use her to end all existence." It laughed, and the sound made reality itself shiver. "Starting with you."

Chapter 142: Victory’s Cost

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