Eternity in darkness, that was his punishment.

For his actions.

For his mistakes.

For everything left unsaid.

Somehow breaking free of his stupor, Amano Yukiteru forced his eyes open and greeted the darkness once again.

He's done it so many times that he lost count. Nothing ever changed.

The second Murmur, his mystical servant bound to this timeline, continued to read her manga. He continued to float aimlessly, more silent than the universe. The stars all around them continued to fill the void with their feeble light, but none could match the light of his everlasting Future Diary.

The cell phone, a powerful yet fragile device imbued with the power of a god, was just as stagnant as he. For ten thousand years, the final message had not changed.

For one hundred centuries, the screen had cast its brutal light upon his features, illuminating the final message for him to see. Stinging his eyes, irritating him.

They would water if any tears remained. But he had long since cried himself away. No tears remained.

There was only anger. At himself, and at the being known as Deus, who had initially forced him and eleven other unfortunate psychopaths into the ultimate battle for power.

The Survival Game, as it had been called, was a bloodbath. He'd lost himself along the way, but that was negligible. He had taken innocent lives, but that was irrelevant. No, the only thing that he truly cared to lose...the one thing that he now knew he could not live without…

Her.

[7/28]

The fated day.

[4:57AM]

The sun had barely begun to rise.

[Sakurami Middle School]

Where it all began. Where it all ended.

His eyes passed over the message, and for the first time in countless years, his chest seized up.

He grit his teeth. Yukiteru reached for the phone and barely managed to stop himself from crushing the device, but he couldn't stop his eyes from moving, flitting, scanning.

Reading and reading and rereading the cursed message.

Yuno died.

Gasai Yuno died by her own hand.

Yuno died.

He wasn't able to save her.

Yuno died.

He couldn't even save himself. From hesitation, from weakness. From his damnation as the eternal God of Space-time.

And as if it were the easiest thing in the world to do, Amano Yukiteru sat upright.

He rose to his feet, despite floated aimlessly in the vacuum of space.

And he looked to Murmur. His loyal servant. His friend.

"Murmur," he spoke at full volume, and for the first time since his imprisonment, without bitterness.

Needless to say, the otherworldly creature was so stunned to hear his voice that she ripped her manga volume right in half. Any other day, she'd have attacked him for making her do that. Murmur whirled around so fast that, had he still been human, Yukiteru wouldn't have followed her.

"Whoa, whoa! Don't say my name out of nowhere like that, especially after keeping your mouth shut for so long! Look what you did!"

And she displayed the remains of her favorite manga with the most accusatory glare that a creature of her height could muster.

"You're going to make me a new copy of this manga, right now! And while you're at it, why don't you spruce up this place with a few new planets or something? I'm getting tired of staring at black and white panels when my head is down, and looking up only to see more black emptiness and white stars! You won and I have to serve you now, but that doesn't mean-"

"We're leaving."

"-that you can just toss me aside and let me rot here in silence! I'm a servant, I need to SERVE! Give me something to do, give me something to make or blow up or something! Make me your interior decorator! Throw in some trees, a lake, maybe-"

Murmur trailed off. Blinking twice, she tilted her head in apparent confusion.

"Eh? Leaving? We are? Finally! It's about time you stopped moping around!"

Without offering a response, Yukiteru turned around and raised his arms slowly.

"So, Boss, where are you taking us? Somewhere nice I hope, maybe a nearby galaxy. Find a pretty jungle world, or one that's nothing but water! Oh! Oh! Or maybe-"

"The Third World."

Murmur blinked again. "Eh, sorry. I think I misheard you."

"We are going to the Third World." Yukiteru responded in a flat tone, raising both arms up and directing them out from his body, palms open and facing the void ahead.

Murmur dug into her ear with her pinky finger and flicked away the excess wax. "One more time, I swear I just heard you say-"

"The Third World, yes."

"Stop interrupting me!" She pouted and tugged his ear. "Why are you spouting crazy stuff now? Did it really take several thousand years to fry your brain? There's no way into the other timelines, they've been closed off ever since Second died!"

"Yuno," Yukiteru mumbled. "Her name is Yuno."

"Was," Murmur retorted, tugging his ear again. "She's dead, Yukiteru. I don't like saying it because I don't want to remind you of sad stuff like that, but it's true."

"Not in the Third World, it isn't."

"Even if there was a way back-"

"Just shut up and-"

"STOP INTERRUPTING-"

"-watch!"

A ripple. Murmur's protest died in her throat. If such a thing were even possible, she could swear the space around them had grown colder than before.

Yukiteru exhaled, closing his eyes. Digging deep. Tapping into the well of power that had become an ever-flowing river, the river that had become a churning lake, the lake that had at long last grown into a writhing ocean.

Ten thousand years of languor had finally borne fruit.

The power to rend space-time.

Yukiteru opened his eyes, eyes wild with desire, and he yelled. With all the might in his breast he roared his defiance.

And, bending at last to a power far greater than it could handle, time shattered. Distorted light spilled forth from the massive gateway, a hole with branching cracks that made all the emptiness less daunting.

Contorted iridescence. Cracks in the mirror.

Smiling for the first time since his initiation into godhood, Yukiteru gave the little girl hanging on his shoulder a brief pat on the head before leaping through.

A/N: Legend of Akasha REDUX, 2.0, Bigger Better and Uncut, whatever you want to call it. If old readers are looking for an explanation, I nuked the previous upload because I couldn't bear the thought of an unfinished product. But since it looks like I can't avoid leaving unfinished work behind, I'd rather leave you with that than nothing at all. I'll try to update this much faster than before, too, since I think I've got most of the story still in my head and more in there than I did before.

Let's watch Alpha Yukiteru rip the Third World a new one in the ultimate Survival Game. Stick with me to the bitter end, readers. I won't disappoint.