Melania stood at the edge of the abyss, her hands trembling with the sense that the ground beneath her feet was about to crumble into pieces. She felt as if the very essence of her being was shifting through a space invisible to ordinary eyes. The air smelled of metal and ancient stones, and each breath she took was filled not only with damp cold but with the sense that time, which she once commanded, was rapidly running out.
Beneath her feet, the space pulsed, changing with every movement. The landscape around her took on forms that were uncertain: the contours of rivers, the curves of mountains, trees that seemed to emit light from within — all these images blended into one vast, shimmering picture where there was no boundary between the real and the imagined. Melania took a step, and the landscape shifted once again. She found herself standing in the center of a vast clearing, where cosmic lines soared upwards, creating a lattice of stars.
“Are you ready?” The voice echoed. It was familiar, yet there was no warmth, no sympathy in it. This was the voice of one who had found their essence by destroying all who might have opposed them.
Melania closed her eyes, trying to see this new world without thoughts, without fear. She knew that every step, every decision she made, could either destroy or revive everything around her.
“The choice is yours,” the voice continued, quieter, deeper. “You can build a new reality, but its foundation will be the ruins you leave behind. You will create it from what you destroy, for that is the only path to change.”
Melania felt her heart shudder. She stood on the edge — between what was, and what had yet to come. And though she had to make a choice, it wasn’t just between light and darkness, life and death. It was between two entities, both holding in one hand all possibilities, and in the other, the same death they feared.
“To destroy or to preserve?” Melania whispered to herself. And in that moment, everything around her seemed to stop.
The sky above darkened, and vast clouds gathered on the horizon, as if preparing for a storm. The wind became quick, cold, biting, and even the air around her felt as though it could tear her apart. Something began to hum deep within her heart. What she would leave behind, what she would destroy, would in fact become part of her. It wasn’t just the destruction of a world. It was the destruction of her very existence, her essence, for she was part of that world.
Images flooded her mind — broken bridges, torn realities, empty cities that were nothing but echoes of the past. But then she saw the light — warm rays piercing through the darkness, new horizons where something had already been built from those very ruins. She realized that every destroyed reality, every piece she lost, would be restored by new beings, by new possibilities.
The choice was before her. She could leave everything as it was, preserving the old order, the old paths. Or she could move into the unknown, destroying everything in order to create something new, perhaps better. But this wasn’t a simple path. She felt each step becoming harder. She understood that everything she had achieved had to be part of her destruction. You cannot change the world without changing yourself.
“The time has come,” the voice said again, and now it was different, no longer cold, no longer merciless. It was filled with understanding and pain.
Melania took a step forward. All the changes she was about to experience began to unfold before her, and she realized that this wasn’t just her choice. It was the choice of the whole world, a choice that would touch all those who lived in it. And she was ready. She took another step, and in that moment, as if behind her, the world split, reshaping itself.
Now, all that was left for her was to walk forward — into those very ruins that had become her foundation.