Work Text:
The world came to an end for the first time when a child was killed by a demon. The child was of no importance-rejected by family and rejected them in turn, scrounging off the land with no impact on even their backwater home. The demon, whose ancestors had long since duped the world into seeing them as divine, thought nothing of the incident. Among the townsfolk, nobody noticed either. But that was the day the world ended.
The world came to an end for the second time when a band of pirates raided a passenger ship. The name of the ship was never recorded, there were no fatalities, and the pirate crew would find themselves subsumed into another within mere weeks, as can so often happen to weaker bands of criminals when faced by ones stronger than they. The pirates had recently recorded a young boy among their plunder, but he soon disappeared after their otherwise successful raid. But he'd only been a cabin boy, and nobody really even noticed he'd gone. But that was the day the world ended.
The third time the world ended was in the midst of what anyone would think was a much larger incident. A globally-sought after criminal had been captured, and was set to be sent to prison. Her friends sought to save her from her fate, but failed to save her from the transport which took her to her sentencing, as she drove them away herself. To continue on would not only override her desires, no matter how fragile, but would make an enemy of the entire world. And nobody would think to do that. But that was the day the world ended.
By the fourth time the world ended, a few people had started to take notice. But this was not an event to be noticed. On an island that didn't exist, a man who wasn't meant to live decided to betray two different people at once, with the second betrayal a mere fig leaf to entice the first. It was a plan to slay a dragon whose hide could not be pierced using sheaths without swords that the man himself did not yet know even existed. Nobody with any knowledge of geopolitics or of the men and beasts involved in the betrayals would have ever entertained this plan as capable of success. But that was the day the world ended.
The fifth time the world ended would also be the last . Two empires lay shattered at the feet of ancient histories at long last revealed. The forces of stagnant order and despotic conquest each rallied themselves against this new power, this threat to their games, but were laid low. A trio of trios rose as servants not of law or greed or any ideal grand or base, but of change itself. Nobody could have done such a thing-and he did. A superfluous, unnecessary nobody who had been presented endless opportunities to remain such rejected them all without a single thought, and demolished the fabric of existence with his rejection. Precious few died in this apocalypse of alteration, and teeming masses of people would tell of how they personally met or were saved by him. But the World, the immovable political, societal entity into which he was born and against which he sailed, was well and truly ended on that day. And what replaced it was something that the masters of the old world could barely comprehend. But that was alright. Their world had ended, and a much better one had taken its place.