In the palace of a distant dimension, great walls of violet stone reached and twisted around a blazing fire. A silent, hooded face stood watching the flames collect and mix, carefully observing the warm shades of red and yellow that composed them. The hooded figure unlatched a pack at their side and produced a small wooden box of ancient condition. Burnt into its side were the numbers five, two, and three. Sliding one of the panels revealed its contents: A single, diamond shaped earring. Hanging between the fire were iron rods, splayed from the ground and cross between each other. At their apex hung a glass lantern containing a bubbling concoction. The figure took the earring and slid it into the lantern's hot liquid. It sparked and shook, rattling the lantern and the rods that held it. The warm colors of the fire began to change. Orange, green, black, yellow, blue. The fire surged and roared across the figure, tossing off their hood. The colors ceased changing, and the fire rested. Bathed across the stone walls and the thin, stoic face of the man, one color remained.
"Pink." He said, scratching his chin and thinking. "Mewni."
"Ughhh." Star Butterfly, the acting queen of Mewni, mouthed the exasperated groan in a low whisper. She would have yelled it out if she wasn't trying to stay quiet in one of the castle's many broom closets. "I don't think I can do this anymore, Pony Head." Her compact magic mirror lit her tired face from below and reflected back Pony Head's apathetic one.
Pony Head sighed. "Look, it's, like, not a huge deal or whatever. You're not thee queen or nothin'.They can't be expectin' everything outta you!"
"I thought with Meteora and Eclipsa gone it would be, like, 'Yay! Mission Accomplished! We did it! Let's make a new holiday and sing a chantey!' But it is totally not that. People are scared and confused and angry and they're looking to the queen for answers… Chantey? Wait, what is a chantey?"
"I don't know about what any of those words mean, but shouldn't, like, your mom be doin' all this?"
"Mom's still missing. She might even still be in the magic realm." Star slinked down the side of the brooms. "Ughhh." She pushed the door open and slowly slid down a small avalanche of brooms.
"Now presenting: Queen Butterfly…" A royal servant announced.
Star shot up in the center of the throne room, launching an errant broom to the side. "Mom's here?!"
"He's talking about you, Star." Marco Diaz, the squire to the acting queen of Mewni, helped Star to her feet. "Also: why is there a broom closet adjacent to the throne room..?"
"Oh, so, like you don't need to be cleaning up junk on Earth, Turd?"
"Goodbye Pony Head." Star said, closing her compact.
Lined up at the entrance of the throne room were dozens of angry, confused, and scared townsfolk that came from beyond the castle to voice their wants.
Star slumped to the side of the throne and rested her head on her palm. "Alright then, let's get this over with."
The rest of the evening was spent delegating small decisions, explaining the situation with Meteora, and reassuring those who feared for their family's safety. The repercussions of Meteora's wanton destruction would not be ailed by these meetings, but giving the townsfolk the opportunity to engage the royalty directly put their hearts at ease.
"And where can we go now? How will I feed my family?! Why us?!" One particular incensed villager yelled.
Star thought for a moment before answering, "Meteora destroyed your home?"
"My home? Well, no…"
"Then go there?"
"Oh! Right."
Star breathed an exasperated sigh while massaging her thumb against her temple.
"At least the line looks like it's dying down." Marco said.
A knight ushered in the final person. Their stature was such that they ducked under the frame of the door to enter the room. Their impressive height was shrouded by a long, silver-lined cloak with only their sharp, angular hands exposed. Removing their hood revealed the lean face of a gray skinned man. Long, black hair receded from his scalp and poured down his shoulders. He bent his knee at the throne's base and spoke. "You must forgive me. I do not know your name, nor do I know how I should refer to you."
Star was taken aback by the man's commanding presence, and yet, she saw a gentleness in him. He has a kind face. She thought.
"Queen Star. Your majesty. Your highness. Those are kind of the hallmarks." Marco said.
The man nodded his head forward and closed his eyes. "I am Leche the five-hundred-and-twenty-third and I've come with grave news."
"Uh, I think you might be late on that one. We just had our apocalyptic event." Star said.
"I do see the wake of some destruction that you've encountered, however, I'm afraid this concerns the very fabric of your realm. That is to say, in less than two days time, this dimension and everything within it will be entirely erased."
Star stood up from her throne, now concerned, "Wha— what are you talking about? Who are you?"
"As I said, I am Leche."
"And what kingdom do you hail from?"
"I hail from no kingdom. I am from a dimension known as Dourene."
"Dou— Dourene?" Star looked to some of the idle royal advisors who were shaking their heads and shrugging vigorously. "None of our dimensional maps show a place call Dourene!"
"And yet I must insist that is where I am from."
"Wait, wait, wait! Let's all just hold on a second," Marco interrupted and raised both hands in a calming gesture, "Why don't we listen to what this threat is first? It's not like this is the first time some reality eating monster has been banging on the doors of Mewni. So, Leche, what is this great dimensional threat?"
"I am."
With those words, knights sprang from every corner of the castle, sheering swords from their sheaths and pointing halberds at the kneeling man. Star extended her two arms, growing them to six. From her back sprout golden wings. She hovered in front of the man where she extended her palms, and from them, sparking aggressive magics were held at bay.
"I didn't come to fight. I don't wish harm on any soul in your dimension."
"Funny! That's sounds a little different from what you said a second ago." Star said.
"You said you have dimensional maps. Does that mean you have methods of travelling between dimensions?"
"Yeah, so..?"
Leche exhaled and smiled, "What a relief. No one has to die."
"You look really pleased for a person surrounded by a lot of swords." Marco said.
Star's eyes glowed with impatience,"You better start explaining yourself quickly!"
Leche reached under his cloak. The knights that surrounded him flinched and prepared to attack. From his cloak he pulled out a pen, "This is a writing instrument given to me at birth." He twisted it open at its center to reveal an ink capsule that travelled the length of the pen and fed into the nib, "The capsule inside allows its user to write without an inkwell."
Marco elbowed one of the guards, "We have, like, so many of those on Earth."
"Its maker was so finely skilled, so excellently capable, that its balance in one's hand is perfect." He put the pen at the very tip of his finger where it rested with ease. "Not too large, not too thin. Not heavy, not loose." He quickly flicked one end of the pen, and though so delicately balanced, it remained where it was, spinning in rapid circles atop one fingertip.
"As fate would have it, Dourene is forever the back of this pen. The rear of the balance. The place where the ink dries out first. Your home, Mewni, is the nib. Lush and full of promise and purpose. Dourene is a land that cannot exist on its own. It is inextricably connected to a vast array of dimensions, all of them dripping. When the ink runs dry, so too does Dourene. That is why I am here: To snuff out Mewni so that Dourene can continue to exist. Other emissaries have come before me, and so too will they after, forevermore. "
"Well, so sorry, but you can't blow up this entire dimension and everything we have, so thanks for the visit and the story about your pen or whatever." Star motioned to the guards to remove Leche.
"Does this inaction reflect the hearts of Mewni? Would you not give up your home to save the life of another?" Leche's parting words echoed through the silent hall, ending the meetings in a morose turn.
Later that evening, Star lay face down on her bed in her pajamas. Somehow the weight of her duties had grown heavier, and though she had never been more exhausted, sleeping felt out of the question. Moving to her window, she hung on its sill and watched as puffy, lavender clouds shaped and disrupted the moonlight.
Erase Mewni? She thought. As If I could ever let something like that happen.
Marco, through pure concentration, had fought and won his anxious rebellion with insomnia, and now lay sprawled across his childhood bed in a deep sleep. He dreamt of a timeline that wasn't his own. A reality where a magical princess hadn't stayed at his house. One where he hadn't spent sixteen years realm jumping. It wasn't a bad life; normalcy was something he had forgone all that time ago. Though he couldn't remember the Princess' name, he could feel her somewhere deep within him in that dream state. It burned and gnawed and grew heavier. It was painfully close to his heart. Too heavy; a crushing wave of pressure that threatened to end his breathing.
His eyes opened, and sitting cross legged on his chest was that Princess whose name he now remembered.
"Star."
"Hi Marco!"
"Why are you sitting on my chest?... In the middle of the night?"
"Here? Why am I sitting here? Well, I can sit wherever I please. That's the prerogative of the Queen."
"Acting Queen." Marco corrected, "Did you… need something?"
Star rolled off Marco and lazily spun to the floor in a movement resembling something between a ballerina and a blind cat.
"I can't sleep!"
"This Queen stuff is really getting to you, huh? It's a lot to take in, Star."
Star gnawed on her finger while staring at the darkness underneath Marco's bed. "Erasing a whole dimension— as if someone could actually do that!"
"Wait, you're still thinking about that Leche guy?"
"You heard him, Marco! He sounded serious! I can't get his face out of my head. The look he gave me… it wasn't threatening. I think he really was trying to help us."
Marco propped himself forward and rubbed his eyes, "Then why don't we confront him? We can do it first thing tomorrow morning— then when you're not worrying about that, you'll have more time to worry about all the other stuff you have to… worry about."
Star gasped, "Yes! I can get back to worrying! Like, regular worrying. Thanks Marco!" She hopped from the floor and embraced him. When she did, a memory triggered within her. A memory that balanced between regret and relief. A late night photo booth and a mistake. With all the life altering events swirling around Mewni she had forgotten the difficult place where her relationship with Marco had landed. The realization left her paralyzed, still hugging her squire. Neither of them moved, both locked together, only moving in slow delicate breaths.
This is weird, right? I should let go, right? I need to let go. Star thought.
Wow, Star is a lot more broken up about this than I thought. She must really need this right now. Marco thought.
Star broke out of her paralysis, leapt up, and immediately faced away from him. "Okay, I'm gonna go to bed now, niiiiii—" She closed Marco's door before her parting words had finished.
Marco sat looking at the closed door. The warmth from the long-hug finished radiating off his body and he crawled back under his covers. Though he wasn't sure why, he found falling back asleep to be a simple task and he slept peacefully the rest of the night.
Sunlight had barely broken before Marco and Star were out looking for the one named Leche. Thanks to Leche's exceptional stature and unusual demeanor, it wasn't difficult finding townsfolk who had seen him.
"Saw him sitting atop a ridge near the entrance to the Forest of Certain Death. Wasn't interested in my corn if you can believe it." A food vendor told them.
Following the collected reports, it wasn't long until they found Leche meditating over an expanse that overlooked Butterfly Castle and the rest of Mewni. Pink skies flowed around spherical shapes and blanketed across the jagged tree tops that carpeted the horizon.
Leche craned his long neck and saw the two approach, "Your dimension is beautiful. I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that."
"I think so too. Even though I guess I never really take the time to appreciate it." Star said.
Leche rose to his feet. Without the slant of the throne room, it was clear that his height easily doubled Marco and Star. "Dourene… isn't like this at all. It's gray. Quiet. Squalid, even. The days are short and the nights are long." He turned to Star and Marco and once again pleaded with a face full of anguish. "Will you not take your people to a new dimension? Surely with the means of your people you can find one both fertile and vacant."
Before Star could respond, Marco held out out his dimensional scissors and stepped forward, "If Dourene is a place that can only exist through the destruction of other dimensions, then why live there at all? You probably used something like these to get here, why not take everyone from Dourene to a new dimension?"
"There's a reason your scholars don't see Dourene on your planar charts." From his cloak, Leche pulled out a peculiar sword resting in its sheath. Its grip was a translucent, metallic blue. He placed his large hand around it and pulled it from its scabbard. The shimmering blue metal ended as it rose the length of the sword. As the blade grew further from its grip, it gained a smoky black and broken texture. Pieces of it crumbled and fell to soot in his hands. "I am not an intellectual in the matters of planar travel, but it is my understanding that Dourene exists in a plane that is too... distant to reach by conventional methods. This is a dimensional blade— a one way ticket. The one I used to get here." He sheathed the broken blade and gave it to Marco.
"How do we know you are who you say you are? How can we know that… you can just blow up a whole dimension?" Star said.
Leche dropped his cloak and unbuttoned his shirt revealing a violet and black darkness beating at the center of his chest. It cracked and webbed in every direction, blooming out from its pulsing core. "It's a seed of dark magic implanted in me at birth. Apocalyptic in power. The journey between Dourene and here was its catalyst. In one cycle of your sun, there will be nothing to stop it. So long as I'm here, everything that Mewni is will be gone.
"Implanted from birth?! Okay, sorry to say this about your people, but I'm starting to think these Dourene people are jerks." Star said.
"I wouldn't know." Leche said, throwing his cloak back over his shoulders.
"Huh?"
"I've never had another acquaintance. Not until yesterday when I met you. Those who are created to be emissaries are cordoned off from the people of Dourene, probably to save us the heartache of leaving loved ones behind. I lived in solitude in a temple at the top of an impassable mountain with only faceless magic-created homunculus to raise me."
"What the heck, man! That's really messed up." Marco said.
Leche smiled, "Is it? This task… it is all that I am. Please, Queen Star, don't let it end Mewman life."
Star smiled warmly and stared at the grass beneath her, "Even in a days time with a hundred dimensional scissors we wouldn't be able to save everyone. And that's if they would even believe you in the first place."
Marco looked to Star and saw something different in her. Something he had seen before, but never in her. What he saw was her mother. Stately, calm, and stoic, all in the face of imminent destruction. For the first time he wasn't seeing Princess Star, he was seeing a Queen.
"Leche, I don't just want to be your first acquaintance. I want to be your first friend. By this time tomorrow I will present to you a solution. One that works for Mewni, Dourene, and you. And… If for some reason I don't... " Star paused and breathed deep, "The safety of those in my kingdom come first. I'll… be forced to do what is necessary."
They agreed to meet in the same place tomorrow, then went their separate ways.
"That was amazing, Star! You're like some kind of interdimensional royal diplomat! So— what solution did you think of?"
Star slowly turned her head to Marco, her eye was twitching and her mouth was frozen
in a half-smile. "I… have no idea!"
"What?!"
"I'm gonna go plumb the royal archives to see if there's something I can do about that dormant dark magic in Leche. You go talk to Hekapoo about that dimensional blade and find out what she knows."
Marco sighed, "Okay, back to X-103 then." He pulled the dimensional scissors from his pocket, ripped open a pathway, and stepped through. A moment later, he pulled himself back through revealing his older, more rugged self. "I'll catch up with you later at the castle, Star." He said in his gruff adult voice.
"—on second thought, maybe I should come with you."
Once in the grungy, dank X-103 dimension, they headed to Hekapoo's forge. The usual wafting smoke from her home in the rotten tree was weak, and the whole swamp was silent. Pushing open the doors revealed Hekapoo sitting with her legs kicked up on a stool and twirling one-half of her dimensional scissors.
"Look who it is. Abs and all." Hekapoo said, not looking away from her fingertips.
"H-poo."
"Oh, and you brought the young radical."
Star smiled awkwardly, partly obscuring herself behind Marco's now-large frame. The Butterfly royals recent relationships with the members of the Magic High Commission were precarious at best.
"Something big might be happening in Mewni. You ever hear of a dimension called Dourene?"
"Nnnope."
"What do you know about a dark magic that could destroy a dimension?"
Hekapoo laughed, "You don't need dark magic to obliterate a dimension. A peeved princess could do that herself. Isn't that right?" Hekapoo said, looking at Star.
Star looked perturbed, "What are you talking about? Are you implying that I did something like that?! Because..."
Hekapoo looked at her with a face of disbelief, "Dimension 811? You're telling me you didn't even read Skywynne's chapter?"
"Ohhh..! Wait, yeah!" she laughed, "I knew I'd heard something about a dimension blowing up before!"
"Skywynne?" Marco said.
"Yup. Queen Skywynne dipped down so hard she supernova'd an entire dimension. She was alright." Hekapoo said, trying to parse her own memories from the stories.
"Well, what do you know about this." Marco unsheathed the dimensional blade and set in front of Hekapoo.
Hekapoo looked at it curiously. She picked it up and ran her fingers across its broken black surface. "I see what they did here. Whoever used this must've been in a real darkspace slum."
"Can you fix it?" Marco said.
"Sure, wouldn't be too hard."
Star jumped, "Yes! Perfect! It's super important, can you do it right now?"
"Eh. I'll start later."
"H-poo," Marco walked to Hekapoo's side and kneeled beside her, "This is kinda a life or death situation. Please. We need it as quickly as possible."
Hekapoo averted her gaze and turned away, "Oof. Quit looking at me like that. Fine! I'll see what I can do."
Marco smiled, "Good. How long do you think it'll take?"
Hekapoo twisted the blade, examining at it in finer detail, "About forty years. Maybe thirty if I get lucky and source some of the materials locally."
Marco froze. Star's heart sank.
"I'll bring it to the castle when I'm finished."
"Yeah… thanks," Marco said, slowly walking away, "Let's go Star."
The two left the dimension with their heads slumped and their hopes dashed.
By the time they returned to the castle, light had already begun fading under the horizon.
"Do you think this archive will have anything on Leche's… uhh… magic condition." Marco asked.
"Honestly... no. I think Hekapoo fixing that blade would've been our best bet, I think Eclipsa would've known something about the dark magic, and I bet my Mom would have solved all of this by lunch. But this is all I got, so I gotta try!" Without looking, Star pulled a thick manual from the library shelf that read 101 MORE Uses for Riddle Magic, on its cover was a Rubrikian prism with a floating fist at its center.
Marco pulled another one from the wall and started thumbing through it, "Since the odds of us finding a cure for dark-exploding-dimension-heart seem to be low, maybe we should speak about… contingencies. Like, ones that involve sending Leche to void space?"
"That can't be an option, Marco. It's not just Leche we're talking about! It's his whole dimension!"
Marco noticed he was looking at what appeared to be a magic cookbook and sighed, "Okay, book solutions, book solutions."
As they pored over the eclectic archives of Mewni magic, a pile of searched books grew behind them. They thumbed through taped together gossip columns, low-mewman poetry, warnicorn rearing guides, waterfolk biology texts, and other books that brought them no closer to an answer.
Marco jumped awake from the sound of the book he was holding hitting the floor. "Sorry." he said in a mumbled, shameful tone.
"It's okay. You can sleep Marco." Star was hunched over a desk with two books. She bounced between them and briskly flipped between their pages.
Marco sat up and pulled a chair next to her. "Maybe just another stack."
Star peeked at him from the corner of her eye. His eyes were orbited by black circles and his hair was a mess. Still, he thumbed through page after page with deep conviction, carefully studying the contents with diligence before continuing.
Does he really owe that much to Mewni? Does he love this place that much? Or, could it be...
She noticed her attention drifting and reoriented herself on the search.
The next morning, Marco woke with his face stuck to the page of the Underworld Rhyming Dictionary. At the end of his nose was Star's face. She was still fast asleep, and looked perfectly tranquil. The gentle morning light from the archive's windows poured softly across her frame, and Marco thought in that moment, that even with Mewni being at the precipice of something terrible, he was happy to sit silently with her for just a while longer.
Star opened her eyes. They sat wordlessly with their heads down and their eyes connected. Neither of them felt a need to speak; they just shared a content listlessness.
After a few moments that spanned lifetimes in their young minds, Marco spoke. "I guess
we should go to him now, huh."
"I guess so." Star conceded.
Before leaving the castle they made small preparations. Marco splashed some water on his face, then found his cape and sword and fixed them to himself. Star instinctively went for her wand, forgetting that it was with Eclipsa. It has to be done with my hands now. Casting spells without an implement made the actions feel more personal and she feared what that meant.
They left the castle and moved through the town. Even with only a few days removed from Meteora's rampage, the townsfolk had resumed their usual lives and many were smiling and enjoying their return to normalcy. Their carefree attitudes might be cut short if they had known of the terrible and imminent power that lied just beyond the thin walls of their homesteads. The edge of the town began to disappear behind them, and in front of them began the cliffside precipice where Leche waited, just as he said he would.
Marco fidgeted nervously, "Are you… gonna be okay?" He asked Star, fumbling for words in the moment.
"I will be. Because I have to be."
They both went to take their first step onto the precipice when suddenly the dimension tore in front of them. From the severance, Hekapoo stepped out holding the sheathed dimension blade. She looked away from them and gave a slight, self-effacing sneer, "Look, I'm sorry alright?" She said handing the blade to Star. "I lost track of time."
Star pulled the dimension blade from its sheath. The darkened, destroyed blade now shined with a dazzling, cobalt glow. The destroyed elements had been completely restored. "I don't understand… you said—"
"Yeah, yeah, forty years. It fell behind my work table so I forgot about it for a few decades, so it was more like… fifty. But hey, I found some structural flaws and actually made it better. It won't break after one use now."
Marco smacked his forehead with his palm. "Duh! Dimension X-103! Time doesn't run parallel to Mewni! Hekapoo, I could just—" He ran and hugged her, lifting her from the ground.
Hekapoo's face went flush and she pushed him off, "Whoa, whoa! Okay, uh, yeah, you're welcome I guess. I'm just gonna..." She backstepped slowly back through the portal while obscuring her embarrassed face.
Star grinned from ear to ear, "Leche can use this to get to Dourene. He can use it save his people and break the cycle. We have our solution!"
"Let's go!" Marco said.
They stepped onto the precipice and ran to Leche waving and shouting. He turned his head to meet their greeting, but did not return their pleasantry.
"We fixed it! You can use the blade to return home— and it won't even break! Use it and save your people!" Star shouted while raising the sword above her.
"I'm sorry, Queen Butterfly." Leche turned his body to them. The pulsing black and violet magic surged violently from within him. "I'm afraid it's too late. I must correct the dimensional balance."
"What do you mean, Leche?! Use the blade and… and… Dourene's people can use it to find a new dimension!" She shouted the words, but they weren't reaching Leche. The dark magic had reached his mind. Its cause was singular: the eradication of Mewni. The powerful energy lashed toward them like a knife cutting through air. It collided with them, tossing them backward through the air. Marco pulled himself up and lifted his arm, a section of the sleeve of his hoodie had been perfectly erased.
"Star! This is too dangerous! We have to…"
"I know!" Like a crack of golden lightning, Star surged into her butterfly form. Five of her arms extended a dome of glimmering defensive magic, holding the dark energy at bay. With her remaining hand, she extended two fingers toward Leche. "You have to stop it this instant Leche! If you don't… I'm warning you! I'll…" She trudged through the growing lashes of dark magic. Her two fingers pierced through its wall, as if dividing a dark river. Once she reached Leche, she opened her hand and hovered it above his heart. Her wings extended and the sigils on her cheeks glowed brighter. "Please Leche! Don't make me do this…" Her threatening words were choked behind tears. The violet tendrils lashed the surrounding landscape. Rock was squeezed into dust. Trees were torn from their roots and collapsed into darkspace. Star gritted her teeth, and strained her hand.
"I… can't do it." Star muttered into the hollow darkness. "It's not just Leche… it's his whole dimension. I can't be the one to end it. I'm sorry Mewni…" She turned around, "Marco, I—"
But he was already there behind her. Before she could finish her apology, Marco put his arms around her and fell backward. He had opened a dimension to Earth and pulled her through with him. The consuming darkness was replaced by the piercing blue sky above the Echo Creek beach. The roaring darkness was now the steady beat of waves and the distant call of seagulls. They laid on the soft sand of the beach together for a moment, still in shock.
"What did you do Marco?" She asked the question, but knew the answer. "What did you do?!"
Marco looked back into her eyes. There was no hesitation when he acted; no part of him felt regret.
"You don't get to do that! Let me go back! Mewni is… Dad is…" Her vision blurred and she wept into Marco's chest. Marco laid with her silently, staring up at the cloudless sky of his home dimension. He held Star close, knowing that he could only feel a fraction of her pain.
When Star was out of tears, she pushed herself up to her knees and wiped her face. Extending her hand, she began to recite a familiar spell in her slow, mournful voice: "I summon the all-seeing-eye. To tear a hole into the sky. Reveal to me that which is hidden, unveil to me what is forbidden."
"Are you sure you wanna see this?" Marco asked.
"Yes. I have to know."
From her palm extended a temporal vision of Mewni. She reactively turned her head, as if expecting the dark magic to reach through the spying spell. But the dark magic that was supposed to have consumed hey home was not there. The spell hung across open fields, it dodged around the homes of the townsfolk, and finally landed upon the great precipice where Leche once stood.
"I don't understand." Marco said.
"Marco! Your scissors!"
He tossed them to Star who cut open the portal back to Mewni. She peaked her head in slowly and saw that the reality matched the vision. The rocky precipice was torn asunder, as if a bomb had exploded and erased everything within its blast, but everything else was as it always had been. The pink skies of Mewni stretched in every direction, untainted by the terrifying magic.
Marco stepped through the portal behind her, "Is it possible… that the magic just didn't
work?"
Star slid down into the precipice's crater. She kneeled down at its base and grabbed the sheath of the dimension blade. "The blade is gone." She said, "He left."
Waves of sparking energy sang around Leche as he plummeted through the portal into Dourene. He had returned to the only place he had ever known before Mewni. The thralls of the dark magic at his center continued to thrash the world around him. He felt the creeping magic gnawing through his conscious. Time was short. He ran to the ancient barricaded door of the temple, and the dark magic ripped it in twine before folding into non-existence. Ahead of him was the only view he ever had of Dourene; it was the distant rooftops of the planet's capital city. With dimension blade in hand, he ran to it.
Before reaching the city he could tell something was wrong. It was silent. Grand statues of figures unknown to him sprang from the earth, town homes were layered upon each other with delicate intention, and marble columns held together the houses of the state. But they were all silent. Doors lay off their hinges. Grass and weeds sprout from every corner. In Dourene's greatest place of gathered civilization, there wasn't a soul to be found. And the signs of absence spanned centuries.
Had they left?
Were they long extinct?
Did the ancient scripts fabricate the existence of a Dourene people?
How many? Leche wondered. How many dimensions before Mewni had been erased to keep the balance of a vacant universe?
Leche released his hold on the dark magic, and it spread across the Dourene landscape like a living blanket. It consumed everything it touched and folded it into voidspace. He lifted his hand and swung the dimension blade once more, ripping open a new portal. From his cloak, he pulled out his pen. He twisted it in his hand and read the inscription in ancient Dourene script: BALANCE. A smile crept across his face. He thought for a moment that maybe of the five hundred and twenty two emissaries before him, that he was the only one to create true balance. He released the pen through the portal, and The dark magic completed its consumption.
Dourene was no more.
In the far reaches of voidspace, somewhere between the stars, the pen drifted and spun. Without gravity, nothing could break its momentum and it would continue to spin forevermore.