That day, he did not charge madly into the chaotic depths of space to battle that calamity as he had before.
In a daze, he roamed the entire Main Universe, following its turbulent borders and crossing the ruined Vast Cosmos, as though this was how his life would end.
The primordial source of the Main Universe had already been devoured.
Or perhaps it had always been the final bait Sir Awen and the others had left for that calamity. The Painter had once said that if things spiraled out of control, he would still have one last chance, because after devouring most of the Main Universe, that being would fall asleep again. Just as it had digested the Painter, it would digest this final meal.
Then... awaken.
But he no longer cared.
He wandered alone through one star domain after another, all reduced to ashes, like a corpse that had lost its soul.
Until, as he passed a shattered planet, he suddenly heard a faint voice.
"King... is that you?"
At that moment.
His body froze. Those eyes, seemingly lost in eternal silence, widened, and a nearly extinguished glimmer finally seemed to return to his pupils.
That day.
Amid those ruins, he found someone who had survived the Great Cataclysm.
Because life was tenacious. Even at the end of the world, someone would survive. No matter what, someone would always survive.
He brought him back to Dark Night City.
And that seemed to become the last solace for his pale soul.
He began searching.
Through those shattered star domains, he frantically searched every corner of the Main Universe.
At last.
Over the dozens of days that followed.
He found more and more survivors who had once been his subjects, though some had lost their minds, some were dazed and confused,