"The end of the End of Time." Galacta's voice echoed through the void, without an echo. "This is it. Nothingness."
Ian stood in the nothingness, looking around.
His eyes could see light, but there was no light here. His ears could hear sound, but there was no sound here. His perception could stretch very far.
But here, there was no far or near. Only nothingness.
"What exactly are you trying to do?" Galacta asked.
Ian was silent for a moment.
"Time is an ouroboros."
Galacta looked at him.
"Ouroboros? The snake biting its own tail?"
"Right. No beginning, no end. The past leads to the future, and the future leads to the past. The timeline is a circle." After a pause, he voiced his idea.
"I'm going to enter the very beginning of time from here." Ian looked at that expanse of nothingness for a long, long while.
Galacta's eyes widened.
"The beginning of time? The instant the universe was born?"
"Right."
"You can't get in. The beginning of time is sealed. No power can pierce that barrier." Galacta stated the universe's common understanding.
Ian turned to look at her.
"I can. If time is an ouroboros, then the beginning of time and the End of Time are the same point. The place where the snake's head bites its tail."
Ian's thinking was very clear.
He would enter the beginning of time, then accelerate time, step into that stretch of the past that had been severed and could no longer be traced back to, and then bring back his friends.
"Just watch me work."
Ian stepped through that door, and light swallowed him. Galacta stood outside the door, watching that crack slowly heal, watching that door slowly close. She reached out, her fingertip touching the last ray of light leaking