The Sphinx stood at the center of the ruined city, its towering figure cloaked in shifting shadows, an otherworldly presence that bent the very fabric of reality. It was a creature beyond comprehension, an ancient force that had existed since the beginning of time, lying dormant in the folds of forgotten myth until it was awakened by the silent screams of worlds on the brink of collapse. The air around it was thick with the scent of charred earth and decay, the remnants of civilizations that had once thrived in the shadow of its inevitable arrival.
It moved slowly, deliberately, like a serpent winding its way through the remnants of what was left behind. Its eyes glowed a sickly yellow, piercing the darkness that surrounded it. There was no emotion in those eyes — no joy, no malice — only the cold indifference of something that had seen the rise and fall of countless worlds, and had grown weary of the cycle.
"The end," the Sphinx’s voice rumbled, an echo of thunder that seemed to reverberate from the depths of the universe itself, "has come."
Beneath its gaze, the earth trembled, cracking open like a wound, bleeding molten rivers of fire that consumed everything in their path. The Sphinx did not care for the cries of the dying. It did not seek vengeance or redemption. It was not a force of hatred; it was merely the embodiment of entropy, the unyielding force that tore at the very heart of existence. Its sole purpose was to unravel everything — for that was the nature of its being.
A lone figure, a warrior who had seen countless battles, approached the Sphinx. His armor was battered and scorched, his body weary from the constant wars of survival. He had heard the legends, the whispers of a force that no weapon could defeat, no magic could control. But he was stubborn, relentless, like the many who came before him. Perhaps he could fight back. Perhaps he could stop it.
His sword, forged from the essence of stars, glinted in the twilight as he raised it in challenge. "I will not let you destroy this world." His voice cracked, but he stood firm, driven by the last shred of hope.
The Sphinx turned its gaze to him, and the world around him stilled, as though the very air held its breath in fear. Its voice, when it spoke, was like the rustling of ancient winds — a deep, hollow sound that carried the weight of aeons.
"Foolish," the Sphinx intoned, its voice wrapping around him like the constricting coils of a serpent. "You cannot stop me. I am the end, the inevitable darkness that consumes all. I do not seek your life, only the decay of all things. Your struggle is meaningless, as is your existence."
The warrior’s sword shook in his grip, but his defiance remained. "I won’t let you win," he spat, stepping forward, ready to face the void.
But the Sphinx did not flinch. Instead, it unfurled its immense wings, the edges of which seemed to scrape the very boundaries of space. From within those wings, a dark energy poured forth — the palpable essence of chaos, the power of collapse. It was a force that could shatter time itself.
The Sphinx spoke again, and its words were not simply a command, but a decree from the universe itself. "The sun will never rise again. The stars will burn out, and the skies will crumble into dust. You fight against the inevitable. Your world, like all others, will fall into the void from which it came."
The warrior charged, but before his sword could even strike, the Sphinx lifted its paw. A surge of dark energy erupted, crushing the ground beneath his feet. He was hurled back, his body breaking upon impact with the shattered earth. The world seemed to vibrate with the force of the blow.
"You are not the first to try." The Sphinx’s voice echoed in the distance as the warrior struggled to rise, his vision blurred with pain. "You will not be the last. Each attempt to stop me only brings about the end. You only hasten what is already written."
The ground trembled once again, and from the cracks in the earth, serpentine shapes began to slither, each one a reflection of the Sphinx’s power — manifestations of chaos, twisting shadows that fed on the remnants of the dying world. The warrior could see them now — monstrous forms, their eyes glowing with the same apocalyptic light as the Sphinx itself. They were extensions of it, parasites of destruction, crawling out from the abyss to feast on the remnants of life.
The warrior’s eyes widened in horror as he realized that he had been fighting not against the Sphinx alone, but against the very fabric of existence itself. The world was unraveling around him, and no matter how hard he fought, it would not stop.
"Why?" he asked, his voice barely a whisper. "Why destroy everything? What is the purpose?"
The Sphinx stared at him, and for a brief moment, there was a flicker — a faint trace of something resembling recognition, but it was fleeting, like the last breath of a dying star. "Purpose?" the Sphinx murmured. "There is no purpose. There is only the void. I do not destroy for vengeance or desire. I am the natural conclusion to all things. I am the night that follows the day, the silence after the storm. I am the return to the darkness from which all light came. I am the end of all things — inevitable and unrelenting."
The warrior’s body went cold as he realized the futility of his efforts. He had been foolish to believe that he could defy such an ancient, unstoppable force. His heart pounded in his chest as the Sphinx slowly approached, each step resonating with the weight of untold aeons.
The Sphinx raised its paw one final time, its massive claws glinting in the fading light. The ground beneath the warrior cracked, and the sky above him darkened, the very heavens seemingly folding in on themselves.
"It is done," the Sphinx said, its voice a final whisper before everything around him faded to black.
The Sphinx stood alone, its wings still spread wide, the city around it nothing but ash and ruin. It was the harbinger of oblivion, the serpent of destruction, the shadow that stretched across the cosmos. And as the last vestiges of life faded, the Sphinx looked upward, gazing into the empty expanse where once there were stars.
The cycle would repeat. The end would come again.
For nothing could escape the grasp of darkness.
The wind was ash.
It blew across the hollowed bones of what once might have been a city — no, not a city. A dream. A whole civilization. And now, it was dust.
Dollia Trypp stumbled through the smog, her bare feet blackened with soot, her pigtails singed at the ends, her usual carnival-bright outfit smeared with gray. Buttons clinked in her patchwork coat, a motley parade of colors that looked offensive against the monochrome ruin stretching around her. Her green-and-gold spectacles glinted despite the haze. Her eyes — wide, frantic, too alive — searched the sky.
"Sphinx?!" she called, voice half a screech, half a plea. "You did it again, didn’t you?!" Silence.
The silence of an aftermath. The silence of something that had not passed through but ended everything it touched.
Dollia spun in a slow, desperate circle. Bits of broken marionettes and scorched stuffed animals clung to her coat. The only sound was the slow creak of a ruined ferris wheel — a memory from somewhere else. Some other world. Maybe one she'd built. Maybe one she'd saved.
“Not like this, brother” she whispered, touching her forehead with trembling fingers. Her thoughts sparked like flint and static. Her magic, tied to creation and joy, whimsy and rebellion, trembled in her hands like a balloon at the edge of a cliff.
And then she saw it — a crater, massive, blackened, carved into the world like a god had taken a bite out of it. And at its center…
The Sphinx.
Monolithic. Motionless. Its wings still half-spread, like the aftermath of a cosmic exhale. It sat, paws crossed as if it had all the time in the world, and no particular care for what had burned.
Dollia’s breath hitched.
She broke into a run — or a skipping, limping half-jog — toward the crater’s edge. Her boots (when she wore them) were always too loud. Her steps now were the only sound left in a world that had died quiet.
She stopped just short of falling in. Looked down.
And for a moment, she felt it.
The weight.
The sheer wrongness.
The pull of a thing that should not be.
It wasn’t evil — not to her. It wasn’t cruel. It was worse. It was empty. Detached. Like a god that didn’t even care enough to know the name of what it had devoured.
“Sphinx,” she whispered again, her voice cracking, “I told you — we’re supposed to manage the chaos. Not become it.”
The Sphinx turned its head.
Slowly.
No malice. No recognition.
Just… acknowledgment.
Its eyes, still glowing that sickly, yellow sun-death color, locked onto her. And for a moment, Dollia felt unmade. Her bones jittered inside her skin. Her heart nearly forgot how to beat.
But then her grin snapped back into place. Crooked. Unstable. Fierce.
"Don’t give me that look, tall-dark-and-entropic. I’ve been cleaning up your messes since the Time War of 2.5 Realities Ago. Remember that? The frogs that spoke in binary? That was you!" She jabbed a finger down into the crater. Her whole arm shook.
“You are NOT eating this timeline. Not with me in it.”
The Sphinx said nothing.
Of course it didn’t. That was the trick. It never said no. It just was. It just... unwound. She pulled a prism from her pocket. Twisted it. Light refracted, revealing flickers of still-living memory beneath the ash.
A playground. A warm hand. A child’s laugh.
Still there. Deep, deep underneath.
Dollia clutched the prism to her chest like a holy relic. "You missed a spot," she whispered. "And I’m going to build it back up from that."
She stepped into the crater.
Immediately, the pressure doubled. Her limbs felt like noodles wrapped in steel cables. Her heartbeat threatened to riot. The Sphinx didn’t move — it didn’t have to.
It was gravity.
Still, Dollia walked. Stumbled. Cursed in ancient puppet-code. Waved her arms wildly at the sky.
“I didn’t sign up to manage an apocalypse engine! I signed up to help a misunderstood world-ender learn nuance! Y’know — a little restraint?! Like maybe save the burning for Tuesdays, Sphinx! Leave Wednesdays for planting trees and watching bad reality TV!” She finally reached the Sphinx’s paw.
It was taller than her by fathomless amounts. Still. Silent. Covered in flecks of molten time.
Dollia pressed a hand to it.
And whispered something only the two of them could hear.
The wind died.
The Sphinx blinked. Slowly. Not in confusion. Not in awakening. Just… registering a presence.
“You don’t have to be the end,” she said. “You could be the pause. The hush before rebirth. You don’t have to kill the story, Sphinx. Just... turn the page.”
Silence.
Then: a breath.
The Sphinx exhaled.
And from its mouth, instead of fire, came dust and stars.
The sky above flickered. The ashes stirred. Shapes tried to remember how to become people again. Color slinked back into the world in slow, reluctant threads.
Dollia dropped to her knees, laughing and sobbing, “YES! YES, YOU STUBBORN BEAUTIFUL TRAGEDY OF A COSMIC CAT, YOU LISTENED TO ME!”
The Sphinx didn’t nod.
Didn’t smile.
But it didn’t move again.
It simply let her sit there. At its paw. The first thing it hadn’t burned.
And for the first time in a thousand extinguished worlds…
The end didn’t come.
Not yet.
It came wearing the form of a child.
Not because it was a child. Not even close. But because the child-shaped silhouette was the most palatable way for reality to frame what had arrived.
The air shimmered before Dollia Trypp. Time blinked once. Twice. Then the figure stood there, perfectly still, framed in soft white light that didn’t touch anything — didn’t belong to anything.
It wore a cloak of threads. Not cloth — actual threads. Threads of fate, of probability, of every “what if” Dollia had ever imagined stitched into a tapestry that moved like a living thing. Its eyes were empty sockets filled with stars.
"You’re late," Dollia muttered.
The child’s voice was old. Unbearably kind. Horrifically certain.
“You’ve stayed the end too long, Dollia Trypp. It is time.”
Dollia rose from where she knelt at the Sphinx’s paw. The crater still smoldered around her like a stage. She wiped a streak of ash from her cheek and shook out her sleeves.
“Time for what? Another god-trial? A cosmic tribunal? Because if this is about my performance review—”
“No. This is your intervention.”
Dollia froze.
The silence between her and the entity felt sacred. She looked past it, to the Sphinx, who had not moved in hours. Its chest rose and fell, slow and patient, like tectonic plates. Not asleep. Just... waiting.
"You want to kill it."
“We want to restore the pattern.” The figure’s tone never changed. Not angry. Not cruel. Just... unbearable in its purpose. “The Sphinx is not an entity. It is an imbalance. It was born of a failed question. It unthreads everything it sees because it cannot understand restraint. It must be unraveled.”
"It was supposed to be managed." Dollia’s voice cracked. Her smile flickered. "I was doing that."
“You loved it.”
That stung worse than any blade.
“It is incapable of love in return.”
“SO AM I!” she screamed suddenly. Her voice bounced off the crater like shattered glass. "But someone gave me a chance! You think I haven't tried to leash it? To teach it? To put stars in its mouth instead of knives?!"
The figure waited. Still as a dying hour.
"I believed in it," she added quietly. "Even when it didn't believe in itself."
The entity stepped forward.
“Then believe in this: we can excise it. We can seal it in the zero-between, where it will never burn again. No more cities turned to cinders. No more unspoken riddles ending civilizations. No more ‘close calls’ with your prism. Just... peace.”
Dollia’s jaw clenched.
"Peace without it isn't peace. It's silence."
The figure raised a hand.
A tear opened in the air — not space, not time, something older. Something deeper. A rift shaped like a question mark turned sideways. Through it, she saw a world without the Sphinx. Clean. Clear. Safe.
Order.
"You can open the gate," the entity said softly. "You, who have walked between the script and the stage. You, who the Sphinx listens to. Say the word, and it will enter willingly. It will go quietly."
Dollia stared.
Then looked back.
The Sphinx raised its eyes to hers.
And for the first time — just briefly — its mouth moved.
A single word.
A whisper so old it hadn’t been spoken since the first fire.
“Dollia.”
Her eyes filled.
It knew her name.
It had always known.
"No," she whispered, stepping back from the rift. Her hands were shaking, but her voice was steel wrapped in velvet. "You don’t get to erase my monster. You don’t get to fix the world by killing the one thing in it that wants to change — even if it’s bad at it." The entity did not move.
"Then you will burn with it."
"Then I burn."
And with that, the rift sealed.
Dollia turned her back on the child-thing. On Order. On peace.
She walked back to the Sphinx and placed a hand on its chest.
"We don’t get saved, do we, brother?" she said with a laugh that almost broke. "We save ourselves. One nightmare at a time."
And the crater — that dead place — began to bloom.
Not fast. Not loud. But alive.
A single flower pushed up through ash.
And beside it, another.
The Sphinx watched. Silent. Breathing. Becoming.
And Dollia Trypp stood in front of it, arms wide, facing the stars.
There were... problems.
Firstly, The Sphinx could not sit in a chair.
Not in the normal way.
It had tried, once.
It had whispered:
“I am seated.”
Dollia had sighed, pinched the bridge of her nose, and decided this was a win.
Dollia had scoured thrift stores, stolen from costume trunks, and finally wrestled it into something approximating "passable."
A high-collared trench coat (because it refused to not look dramatic). Sunglasses (to hide the eyes that showed people their own death). A hoodie that said "I AM NORMAL" in sparkly rhinestones (her idea). And pants. Actual pants. Which it wore incorrectly at all times.
“They bind the serpent in denim.”
“They’re Levi’s, brother. You’ll live.”
Lesson #3: Small talk.
This went poorly.
"So if someone says ‘how are you?’ you say—?"
“Their bones itch.”
“Nope.”
“I have seen the heat-death of joy.”
“Not great, but we’re closer.”
“…Fine.”
“THERE he is!”
Still, Dollia tried.
She dragged the Sphinx to coffee shops. Taught it how to hold a latte without incinerating the cup. Made it watch rom-coms and TikToks and cooking shows. It hated all of them.
She gave it flashcards:
“Do not refer to mortals as larvae.” “No one wants to hear about the blood-soaked birth of entropy.” “Try smiling. No, less teeth.”
Once, it attended a staff meeting.
It took one look at the PowerPoint and whispered:
“This is worse than extinction.”
Dollia laughed so hard she choked on her pen.
And yet—
There were glimmers.
The Sphinx began to hold doors open. Mimic head tilts. Attempt idle conversation.
It once paused before incinerating a man and asked: “Is this… frowned upon?”
Progress.
One night, Dollia found it sitting on a rooftop. Silent. Staring at the city lights.
"You didn’t destroy anything today," she said, settling beside it.
"I was… curious."
She blinked. "About?"
"A man gave bread to another man. Then laughed. I don’t understand why."
"Maybe he just… wanted him to have it."
"Is that… permissible?"
"It’s beautiful, actually."
The Sphinx was quiet.
Then: "Would you like some bread?"
"You don’t have bread."
It held out a vaguely charred bagel.
"...Where did you—?"
“Do not ask.”
She took it anyway.
They sat there, sharing soot-flavored baked goods, wrapped in night and neon.
It wasn’t normal.
But it was something.
By week seven, The Sphinx had learned:
Not to stalk people in elevators.
That karaoke is not a form of combat.
That sneezing is not a sign of impending doom (though the first time it did, three pigeons burst into flames).
It still occasionally whispered omens at baristas, but now followed it with: “Please.”
A win is a win.
Dollia watched it walk beside her, clutching an iced tea like a bomb it was trying to defuse.
Once, it had spoken in prophecies. Now it muttered about straw sizes.
"You're getting there, brother," she said, bumping her shoulder into its arm.
The Sphinx didn't smile. But it didn't set anything on fire. That was progress. The Sphinx did not understand wrestling. At least not at first.
It sat beside Dollia in the arena, arms crossed like a deity trapped in a mortal prank, surrounded by the thunder of pyrotechnics, screaming fans, and a man in a cape yelling about honor.
The Sphinx leaned close and hissed:
“This is war.”
“No, sugar, this is RAW.”
Dollia popped popcorn into her mouth, grinning ear to ear.
“They are… performing?”
It said the word like a threat.
“Exactly. It’s kayfabe. You’ll love it. Just don’t smite anyone.”
Ten minutes in, The Sphinx had questions.
“Why do they battle in briefs?”
“Aerodynamics, probably.”
“Why does the one with no eyebrows scream ‘DESTINY’?”
“Branding.”
“Why is the crowd chanting ‘YOU SUCK’ at the handsome one?”
“Because they love him.”
The Sphinx blinked.
“This… is ritual.”
“Kinda, yeah.”
Then something changed.
A rookie face was cornered in the ring. Beaten. Bloodied. Down to one knee. The heel loomed over them, all arrogance and steel chair threats.
And just as the crowd reached fever pitch—
“NO,” The Sphinx boomed, rising to its feet.
People near them screamed.
Dollia tugged its sleeve. “What did we say about smiting?!”
“This injustice cannot stand.”
“It’s scripted, breathe…. Calm”
But The Sphinx was trembling. Eyes glowing faint gold. It pointed at the screen.
“T