I stood in Nexus alone, everyone had left through the portals I created, even animals had wandered through. Now it was just the terrain, the buildings, the plants, and me. I did not just see Nexus through the eyes on my body. In fact, I had very little need of this manner of observation. The blackness in the sky was nothing but an extension of me, something that I had neglected to tell the others, both to avoid more worship from my Coven and to not delay the departures.

I returned to the Tower, or what was left of it. Now that Nexus was empty, I stopped holding back the collapse of the fabric of reality. The Tower's arms, twisted as they had become, now bent inwards to one specific point, the Entity's entry scar. The rest of the building quickly followed, then the ground itself was distorted out of shape and curved upwards. Far off in the distance, the horizon shrunk as matter dissipated into the Void, or rather into me, since I had enveloped Nexus in its entirety.

Mountains rushed by, followed by deserts and jungles. An ocean disappeared into nothingness. An indeterminate amount of time later the terrain began taking truly odd shapes, it looked like Nexus had absorbed the far lands of several worlds.

I watched all of this transpire, standing by as the world died. Then, finally the last atom had disappeared, leaving an empty, directionless space behind that only contained me. The fragment of myself that was still in Nexus disappeared through the entry scar, and behind it the space bubble turned itself inside out and collapsed. Nexus was no more.

I had fully returned to the larger self that I had only properly become aware of when I killed the Book. In the past I had taken glimpses outside of reality, usually to observe the layers of energy, or the Book's pocket dimension. Now was the first time I truly looked outwards.

At first, I was unable to perceive anything, still unfamiliar with the structure of higher-dimensional space, but gradually I saw that space's equivalent of colour. Dots appeared in my vision, each representing a world, they were infinitely small, lacking any higher-dimensional extent, but I could still see details if I focused on one. In one of the closer ones, I could observe Herobrine marching his army home, in another the hunters fortified their camp with materials they had taken with them.

But my focus was not on the worlds, because there still was something here in this liminal space that seemingly escaped everyone's memory. The Entity was here somewhere, it was not dead, and I needed to change that. If I didn't, everything we did, all our sacrifices would be nothing more than another link in the chain of its cycles.

With each passing moment my perception expanded further, I was able to see more worlds and look into these worlds with greater detail. Then I saw what I was looking for. A tiny speck of grey, rapidly moving away from where Nexus had been.

So that is how it operates, each time it is defeated it shoots away. Eventually it will collide with a world and begin its growth anew.

I began moving towards the Entity, slowly at first, having to get used to moving in this new state. Soon I became fast enough to match the Entity's speed, then faster to close the distance. As I got closer, the grey speck gradually became bigger and something dawned on me, even in this state the Entity was massive.

Before me was the higher-dimensional equivalent to a tetrahedron, though instead of the ever-repeating static that had covered its form in Nexus, here the Entity's surface was a single uniform middling sensation, not even a colour in the regular sense. This geometric menace now towered over me, many times larger than I. This bastion of Order that I had to bring down to prevent it from destroying any more worlds.

If I had a human body still, I would have instinctively swallowed at this point. But there was no point in deliberating. It was Order, I was Entropy. All I had to do was make contact and I would eventually erode it into nothingness.

Right?

I pushed my doubts aside and accelerated towards the nearest quasi-grey face. I braced myself as I rapidly approached. I slammed into the Entity… but it refused to give. The small dent my impact created immediately righted itself.

What if Order and Entropy work differently here? What if they cannot interact at all at this level of reality? Was I doomed to fail?

Questions like these began sprouting in my mind like weeds. As vines of doubt climbed higher, the worlds in the distance gradually disappeared, or rather my ability to perceive them did as I slowly slipped into despair. It was just like when I had found out that Claw had taken control. The realisation I had made in the nightmare rang true once again. If I failed here, I could not guarantee that my brother, or anyone, was safe. Feeling slipped away, the only thing I could perceive was my nemesis ahead of me, but even that faded slowly.

Just before my mind went dark, a faint thought appeared.

Why am I so concerned with protecting everyone? It is the right thing to do, but… why does it affect me so much when I fail? Why do I feel so helpless? It is as if I am unable to do something that is expected of me.

I held onto that thought. Back when I had emerged from the laboratory, Fire had that same emotion written all over his face, until I told him that we have a way out.

That was not what my brother would do, I have seen him push through hardship before, and I have done it too, it is what got us to where we are. Something is not right… To kill the Entity, the embodiment of Order, I need to break through its surface, something I cannot do as the embodiment of Entropy-

My thoughts ground to a halt. That was it.

Am I Entropy? The only ones who said so were Kay, who had heard it from the Book, and Freak, who had heard it from Dr. Mercury. None of them were reliable sources of information in this matter.

I thought back to when I entered Nexus. As soon as I did my senses had expanded and I was able to tear holes into reality. I never had the time to question why these changes happened. I had not initiated them, so something else must have.

Just at the moment I finished the previous thought, I suddenly felt constricted. As if bound by countless of strings that dragged me in all directions at once. But my mind felt clearer than ever.

I am a mage, but am not magic, magic is simply a tool for me to use, so why would Entropy and Void be any different? I was asking the wrong question this whole time! Human? Entropy? God? What does it matter what I am? If there is no answer either way, why should I care?

I am myself. I am Shadow.

This thought surged through my mind, pushing away the numbness. Like a warm shower of rain, sensations flooded my mind. Millions and millions of worlds became visible and with every passing moment more joined them. I had changed too, no longer possessing a body of Void, I instead simply was, existing beyond description. Then, finally I saw them. The strings that had bound me so tightly moments earlier, now failing to find purchase on my transcendent body. With a thought I caught each of them, then tore them into shreds so small that they faded from existence entirely.

Back in Nexus I had thought I felt free, that feeling was dull compared to what I felt now. In front of me was still the grey bulk of the Entity, but despite nothing changing about our relative sizes, it no longer seemed to loom over me. It was then that I realized why the Entity feared me, not because of what I had been, even if many incorrectly assumed such. The Entity feared what I could become… have become.

I moved forward once again, speeding towards the geometric abomination ahead of me. Shortly before I collided, I saw myself reflected in its surface. I broke through, now surrounded by grey in every sense, shortly behind me followed a path of darkness as I carved a swathe into the Entity's formerly perfect being. Halfway between the black and grey, bright bolts of energy bounced like electric discharges as Order failed.

Once I arrived at the centre, I gathered my focus, pulling all that is the Entity into my being. The only way to be certain of its obliteration. Uncountable years of memories and information streamed into my mind, but it all seemed hilariously insignificant compared to what I was now. The embodiment of Order collapsed into me, and as it did a pulse of radiant sensations was sent flying outwards, rolling harmlessly over nearby worlds before dissipating.

But there was still something left where the Entity once was. Another mind, a familiar one. I had found her. I had found Destiny. Little more than a speck of existence, no body to speak of, but she was there. There was not much I could do for her, except for one thing. I carefully moved what remained of her, of the one who kicked off the events that led to our victory. Her world was not far. I made a tiny puncture in the walls of her world and pushed her through, then closed it up once more. I sincerely hoped that that was enough.

Now the only thing that remained for me was to return home. I knew where to go, sensing my world's resonance. Despite my relatively slow pace, my world approached quickly. But before I could reach it, I encountered something like a transparent barrier. I could see my world, but I was seemingly unable to move any closer.

With a thought, I parted the barrier, and went through the gap. The barrier neatly closed behind me. I immediately felt a difference, it was like after exiting Nexus. At first, I saw very little, then gradually more. Was this another layer of existence? My world was still ahead of me, so I pushed on, only to be stopped again and again. I cut through each barrier, growing more confused with each time. With every passage, reality felt thinner, sparser. When I looked back, I could still see all the worlds like before, but some of them were encapsulated in bubble-like structures. The further I went the more worlds looked enclosed, and after some point even the bubbles themselves appeared to have bigger bubbles around them.

Then, finally I broke through to my world. No matter how far I looked, there was nothing else in the same space, the emptiness was profound. But there was something when I looked at my world. My world consisted of three layers that were so close they almost touched. Two of them made sense to be there, one was the "real" world, the other was the server. The revelation that the server was not just a simulation, but an actual world passed me by almost without a trace, at this point it was barely a leap in logic. The third layer however, contained no matter, instead it was composed entirely of energy, like what I had seen in Nexus.

At this point I had no idea what exactly the implications of this third layer were, but it felt good to know that I could discuss it with my brother in peace once I was fully home. I moved close to the server's layer, then parted its walls to let a part of me slip through. My larger self would have to remain outside.

It was a peculiar feeling, being back to three-dimensional space after where I had been just before, but there was comfort to returning to such a familiar place. My body formed in the middle of a forest, namely the forest surrounding Rockhaven. The runes on my skin burned brightly for a moment as I returned to existence fully. I was of course not alone, the immediate area teemed with Mencur-Besh and Eye-and-Claws. Straight ahead of me stood Fire, who interrupted his conversation with Lucy and Dr. Mercury to pull me into a hug. As he did so I noticed something with my lingering extradimensional senses. My brother was bound by strings too.

Determination welled up inside of me. I would help him free himself, just like he had done for me.