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The legendary heroes had fallen.
Count Bleck didn't know who or what had managed the deed, nor did he know when it had happened. Time always seemed to pass differently in the Void, so they could have been gone for years for all he knew. Of course, he didn't care to find out, either. It didn't really matter that much.
What mattered was that there was nobody to stop him any longer. What mattered was that the worlds were now ending. It was the final curtain call for every dimension as the Void encroached upon them.
His minions were in the next room celebrating their victory. He could hear O'Chunks' raucous laughter, Mimi's cheering, and Mr. L's overdramatic bragging about how it never would have happened without his robot. For them, this was a cause for celebration, but the merriment didn't reach him. The Count stood still, staring out the window at the swirling purple miasmas, feeling the whole castle rumble occasionally from the sheer destructive force it resided in.
It was intensifying. The end was near.
"Oy, Count! Aren't ye gonnae join us? 's no much o' a party without ye! I've got a bottle o' me finest with yer name on it!"
O'Chunks' voice rang out from behind the Count, prompting him to look behind him, getting to gaze into the room containing the party. All eyes were on him, including the lesser minions, all clearly expecting him to join the festivities. Bleck lowered the brim of his hat with one hand; It was hard for him to properly meet their gazes, knowing what was happening, and what was about to happen.
"I'm afraid I have some... last-minute things to see to, so I won't be attending."
As he said that, Mimi stood up from her table, flouncing over to the door with a smile on her face. A genuine smile...he rarely saw her with more than a smug, self-sure grin on her face.
"Oh, don't be silly!~ The heroes lost, didn't they? What more could you possibly need to do?"
Count Bleck stood silent; there was no answer he could properly give. Not without them stepping in to dissuade him. And he'd never in his life been a man to turn back once he'd started.
How much of that stubbornness was truly my own?
"Don't stop your merrymaking on my behalf. After all, you've much to celebrate, don't you?"
The Count hung his head, turning his back to them and starting down the hallway.
"Hey, wha-you didn't answer my question!"
Mimi's smile vanished, replaced with an expression of worry. She tried to dash out to stop the monocled man, only to be stopped herself by one of O'Chunks' arms.
"Let 'im go, lass. We've trusted 'im this whole time, 'aven't we? I dinnae see a reason tae be suspicious o' him now."
Mimi opened her mouth to protest, appearing as if she was about to blow up, shapeshift into something huge and yell about how it wasn't fair to stop her, but...instead, she slumped her shoulders, letting out a sigh.
"...Okay. But hey, Count? If you see Dimentio or Nastasia, tell them where we are, okay?"
"Aye. 's not much o' a party without the lot o' ye!"
Count Bleck paused for a moment. He considered saying something, anything, but even a simple agreement felt beyond his reach. Acknowledging any of them with the knowledge of what he had done felt ingenuine at best. He stood silently, then continued on his way without even a glance behind.
"Yer a part o' that too."
The Count moved silently through the halls of his own castle. Whenever the voices of one of the underlings approached, he'd ascend through dimensions or duck into another hallway to avoid them. He could have just warped to his ultimate destination, but he had been struck by a wave of sentimentality for the castle he'd called home for so long, deciding to take a final walkthrough normally before the end. Still, he'd rather avoid as many conversations as he could. The longer it took him, the more he'd have to think about his actions, and that was the last thing he wanted to do at the moment.
"Ahaha, isn't this strange? You don't often see the king of a castle sneaking around it like a serf who stole the crown, do you? Or...the monocle, as it were."
He turned around, coming face to face with the court jester in that medieval metaphor. Dimentio hovered off the ground, in a casual, laying down position in midair. Clearly, he didn't have a care in the world, just like always, in contrast to the morose and serious Count Bleck. He let out a sigh as he came to face the magician; so much for avoiding conversation.
"The others are looking for you, Dimentio. They want you to join the celebration."
"Oh, I'm aware that they're looking for me! They're looking for you, too, you know. I imagine that the one who returns their beloved Count Bleck to them will receive the biggest slice of celebratory cake! It could be you, if you return yourself to them."
"I have no interest in such things."
"Oh? Is there not a sweet tooth in that jagged grin of yours?"
Bleck turned away, beginning down the hallway once more, only to be interrupted by Dimentio teleporting in front of him once more, halting his advance again.
"Or is it there something else you're planning?"
Dimentio's register dropped from the light, sing-song air of carelessness, he usually spoke with, taking on the tone of someone who knew more than he let on. Of course, the jester always seemed to be more knowledgable than he presented himself as, but now that was becoming far more worrisome than Bleck had ever felt it. He didn't respond for a long while; after all, what could he say? If Dimentio truly knew what he was planning, then any response would either incriminate himself or be immediately seen as a lie.
"...What exactly is it that you know, Dimentio?"
The jester giggled, his everpresent grin seeming more smug than ever.
"Oh, you know, a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Knowledge is like-"
"I don't have time for these games, Dimentio. If you want to speak, speak. Stop playing games."
The Count narrowed his eyes, tilting the brim of his hat downward and hunching his shoulders. He felt anger boiling within him at Dimentio's taunting nature, though it vanished as quickly as it had come. He was almost surprised, in a way; it'd been a long time since he'd felt any emotion that strongly, compared to the dulled, almost empty feeling he kept most of the time.
"Well...I don't believe you're planning on returning at all, are you? Why else would you be headed towards the castle's exit during the end of all worlds? Despite your fierce, villainous mien, you hardly seem the type to gloat while everything falls to ruin. I've never understood your choice to act like a C-rate performer on a caffeine high, myself. Not when it's so obviously not the true Count Bleck."
'The true Count Bleck'...an interesting choice of words to be sure. It had been so long since he'd been his true self. What would he say, if he could see what he'd eventually turn out to be?
"An interesting deduction, Dimentio. Do you truly think I would do such a thing now, of all times? When victory has been achieved, and our goal is finally at hand?"
"Oh, but it never truly was your goal, was it?"
Bleck's jagged grin strained at the edges, then fell. He only lost the expression for a moment, but it was more than long enough for Dimentio, always perceptive, to pick up on. Of course, he said nothing in response, simply hovering in place, his own smile never wavering.
"...Perhaps not. I can only hope that she'll be there, waiting."
The Count stepped to the side, moving right past the jester to continue his final trip down memory lane. Dimentio turned around to watch him go, but didn't make any moves to get in the way anymore.
"They don't know that they're throwing a going-away party and not a celebration. Don't you think it's apt to at least say goodbye?"
Bleck didn't stop to respond. He ducked into a side hallway, ascended through dimensions, and managed to slip out of sight once more.
Loss was hard enough when he didn't get to say farewell. How could he lose those close to him again, while looking them in the eye?
There was only one way in or out of Castle Bleck. At the end of the entrance bridge, a massive, black stone door with violet patterns and inscriptions on its surface. One well-versed enough in its inner workings could change the inscriptions' color to denote their chosen destination. The Count had set them to be a pale yellow, only to watch their color change repeatedly in time with the quaking of the castle. Every time it shook, another dimension met its end. The number of worlds still standing ticked down from an uncountably high number. It had started at several billion. If he had to hazard a guess, there were around fifteen worlds left.
Another quake, and the color changed again to a neon green. Guess that's fourteen.
"Count! There you are! Thank goodness I found you!"
Bleck heard loud, clacking footsteps on the bridge behind him, rapidly approaching. He'd recognize the sound of secretarial high heels on his castle's terrain at any time, but the voice was more than enough to tip him off to who approached.
"...Nastasia."
He turned to see his right-hand woman hunched over, hands on her knees and glasses ajar, breathing heavily from the exertion of making such a run with no training.
"Dimentio...told me where you'd be. You don't...really plan to-"
The Count hung his head, casting his face in shadow from the brim of his top hat and leaving his eyes to glow through the darkness. Of all the faces he could have seen today, hers was the one he wanted to avoid the most.
"I do. And don't try and stop me."
The bridge shook beneath them as another world met its demise. Nastasia nearly toppled forwards off her feet, stopped only by Count Bleck stepping forward to catch her. When she finally pulled away and readjusted her glasses to appear a little more put together, he couldn't help but notice the tearstains she'd left behind on his cloak.
"Count, I...I can't possibly understand how much your loss hurt. But don't you realize that you're about to put m-...us through the same feeling? We can't go on without you! It wouldn't be the same!"
"You'll have each other, will you not? Along with perfect new worlds, free from the hardships we've all dealt with. I had no such luxury then."
"...They won't be perfect without you."
Nastasia rubbed the side of her face, flicking a tear down off of her face to stain the bridge. She was trying to project an aura of professional stoicism as always with her straightened posture and detached tone, but the sounds of her choking back sobs were much too obvious for her facade to stay up properly.
"This has been my plan from the start. The Chaos Heart gave me power over destruction, not creation. I was never the one who could create dimensions and make them perfect. Dimentio is the only one with that capability. With your analytical mind and his dimensional magic, the perfection we've all desired will be moments away."
"But...why?"
Nastasia adjusted her glasses again. She took a deep breath, finally clearing her vision and stifling the tears. Her face had taken on a tinge far more purple than blue now, though she didn't seem to notice.
"With yours and Dimentio's powers, O'Chunks' and Mimi's strength, and my brains, don't you think we could've...y'know, fixed the worlds we had? Why destroy them all?"
Count Bleck's eyes narrowed. Between the fiery glow, the jagged grin, and the height nearly twice her own, he certainly appeared as intimidating as he was intending to...but she could no doubt pick up the sadness behind such an intimidating glare. He'd never been able to hide anything from her.
"What's out there is beyond any help we could give. It's better off gone. You know that as well as I. You can create much better. Besides-"
He stopped; he'd never spoken this part of his plan aloud, even to her. Even to himself. It seemed so selfish to say...and yet, within his own mind, it was the only glimmer of hope he still had. The only piece of himself he'd been able to hold onto. The only reason he could justify the atrocities he'd committed to the good man he used to be.
"Besides what?"
"...Her curse. It was to wander across dimensions forever, never having time to settle into any given one before being thrust to the next. She could have been anywhere, and I'd never be able to find her, as she would just end up brought somewhere else."
"With only one dimension left, you thought there'd be nowhere her curse could carry her."
Nastasia finished his thought for him, pulling Bleck's hand into her own and squeezing it gently. She started to tilt her head up to meet his eyes, only to cast her eyes downwards instead. The Count's hand was limp, bordering on lifeless. She'd never touched him before, but she'd hoped that he'd at least have at least held her hand if given the chance.
Perhaps that was her moment of selfishness, then.
"When there's only one world left, I will walk into it. I'll feel the sunshine upon my skin once more, or perhaps the cold air of nighttime. And if all goes as I've hoped it would, I won't feel it alone."
"But what if she's not there? What if you're wrong?"
"...Then I suppose I'll be with her in a different way."
The Count pulled his hand out of her grasp and stepped towards the door. The number of dimensions left unconsumed could be counted on one hand, leaving him with very little time remaining. As he walked forward, Nastasia reached out to grasp at his cloak, trying to stop his advance.
"Blumiere, you can't-"
He wheeled around, tearing his clothes from her grasp and rising up to his full height from the slouched, hurt position he'd been holding throughout the conversation.
"Do not speak that name again!"
His voice boomed out angrily through the area, stunning both her and himself into silence. The only sounds were the distant roaring and swirling sounds of the Void as it consumed everything. Eventually, he slumped down and hung his head, ashamed at the outburst. These weren't the memories he wanted to leave her with.
"...That man died the day Timpani left his side. Even if he were still alive, he'd hate the man I am, and hate himself for becoming such a tyrant. Blumiere is the name of a man who wanted nothing and loved the world, not the name of one who lost everything and destroyed it."
The castle shook again; He was running out of time. Count Bleck tossed his cape aside, summoning his cane and slamming the base end into the ground. In moments, the black bridge began to crumble beneath their feet; he was careful with how he collapsed it; Nastasia was at no risk of tumbling into the Void beneath them. And yet, with her inability to fly, there was no way she could reach him any longer to stop him from reaching the door.
"Count, no, you can't do this! You'll...you'll..."
"Nastasia."
He looked over his shoulder to her, jagged grin softening into a warm smile as he reached for the door.
"Thank you. Promise me you'll see that the new worlds are perfect."
She gulped, running a finger under her glasses to catch the tears that were flowing like rain again. After what seemed like forever, she returned his smile, nodding weakly. She wanted to see him off properly; if this was truly his last moments, she wanted to add a touch of sweet to the overwhelming bitterness of a final farewell. He nodded in return, tossing his scepter over to her as a memento...
And Count Bleck stepped through the door.