Elisa had crossed the threshold.
The first universes fell quickly, almost without resistance.
Aetheris's technology, combined with the power of the black hat, had turned her into an unstoppable force. Every conquered world became a base from which to invade another. Every reality became a step toward the next.
With time, she stopped distinguishing between victory and catastrophe.
Conquest became the natural rhythm of her existence.
The first interdimensional journeys were chaos.
Not all universes were the same: some were governed by physical laws so different that her army disintegrated the moment it entered; others were realities so fragile that they collapsed from a mere thought.
There were universes where time flowed backward, where oceans were made of fire, where consciousness alone was enough to create and destroy.
But for Elisa, none of that was an obstacle anymore.
The hat protected her.
It made her something more than human.
Her body was no longer just flesh and mind: it was a form of existence shaped by the void.
As she advanced, her army dwindled, consumed by the anomalies of travel.
But it did not matter. Elisa now possessed a power with which she could conquer entire universes alone.
With every world she conquered, Elisa absorbed its knowledge, its energy, its essence.
She no longer needed anyone.
Worlds spoke of her in fear.
Not as an empress, not even as a dictator anymore, but as a calamity.
There were worlds that committed suicide before letting her enter. Others tried to hide, concealing their presence so they would not be detected.
But nothing worked.
Elisa found them all.
"No one can escape the totality," she said, her voice reverberating across galaxies. "And the totality belongs to me."
The echo of her words traveled between dimensions, dragging ruin behind it.
Entire planets bowed before her. Civilizations that had existed for eons were absorbed or annihilated.
Sometimes she did it with violence; other times with calm. Sometimes she sent her army to conquer them, and sometimes she did it herself.
But in the end, the result was always the same: emptiness.
As the expansion continued, her own government began to fracture.
The Council of Aetheris, which had once stood beside her, became an obstacle.
In secret, the councilors spoke of stopping her, of how her ambition had passed a point of no return.
Even Isabella, her lifelong friend, had begun to fear her.
One night, Isabella confronted her.
They were alone, in an orbital station suspended above the remains of a collapsed universe.
"Elisa, look at yourself," Isabella said, genuine fear in her eyes. "You have destroyed more than you ever created. You are not even ruling anymore—you are just… erasing everything in your path. You are not yourself anymore."
Elisa turned toward her slowly. Her gaze was distant, though something human still remained within it.
"Not myself anymore? No, Isabella. I am what everyone should be. The stars now shine or go dark because of me, and my order is the universal order. But it is not enough yet. Soon, it will be the multiversal order."
"For God's sake, Elisa, stop! This has gone too far!"
Elisa smiled, without a trace of irony.
"There is no God, Isabella. That is why I took His place."
The silence that followed was unbearable. Isabella stepped back, realizing there was nothing left of her friend.
Soon afterward, the Council gathered in secret.
Elisa knew before they had even begun.
That day, the Council, together with part of the army, summoned Elisa to a planet under the pretext of discussing expeditions. In reality, they intended to stop her and imprison her on the spot.
Elisa arrived by opening a portal. The hat rested upon her head, and a dark glow reflected in her eyes. Before the army could say a word, Elisa spoke first.
"I know what you were planning," she said. "Did you really think anything in existence could happen without my knowledge?"
Her voice sounded inside every mind at once.
The councilors recoiled in fear, but quickly ordered the soldiers to attack, declaring that they would put an end to her madness.
Elisa looked at them expressionlessly.
"Stop me?" she said at last. "You cannot stop what already encompasses everything."
The next second was absolute silence.
Then every soldier present unleashed a storm of bullets at Elisa. She did not even bother to dodge. The bullets disintegrated before touching her, as if an invisible field surrounded her.
Elisa raised her hand, mimicked a firing gesture, and released a small beam of power that pierced through an entire line of soldiers.
The remaining troops hurled grenades at her, but Elisa lifted into the air, avoiding the explosions, and launched a small sphere of power that created a blast far more devastating, eradicating almost all of them before she descended back to the ground.
"Do you understand now why I am the one in command?" Elisa asked the remaining leaders, whose faces were drenched in sweat.
Desperate, the leaders of the empire called for reinforcements. Countless portals opened in the sky, and dozens of motherships appeared, already prepared to face Elisa.
She only smiled confidently.
In an instant, she shot into the sky at an absurd speed, piercing through the ships as though a bullet were tearing through cardboard boxes. Explosions lit up the heavens like fireworks.
The ships unleashed their entire arsenal upon her and launched smaller fighters to pursue her, but Elisa moved at a speed impossible to follow, dodging every shot and every ship. She even caused the vessels to fire upon one another as she crossed their trajectories.
The fighters tried to chase and shoot her, while the surviving soldiers on the ground desperately fired upward, but it was becoming impossible even to see her.
Suddenly, several fighters began crashing into each other for no apparent reason.
Then everyone saw Elisa seize one ship and hurl it into another. She grabbed a fighter in each hand and used them as shields while continuing to destroy the rest.
The explosions continued, and when she had finally destroyed all the fighters, she turned toward the remaining motherships.
Positioning herself beneath one of them, she grabbed it with what seemed like impossible strength and lifted it.
Everyone stood frozen in disbelief. Their shock deepened when they saw her throw the massive ship into the others, causing an explosion that illuminated the sky.
Through the smoke and ashes, they watched in horror as Elisa descended back to the ground, completely unharmed.
When she landed, she looked coldly at her empire, whose eyes were filled with horror and astonishment.
"And you still haven't seen anything yet."
The survivors began to flee in terror.
Elisa created an explosion of void that spread throughout the universe, and the light vanished.
The nearest planets were swept away.
Stars went out like candles in the dark.
An entire universe was erased in an instant.
Elisa emerged from the ruins. She no longer walked; she floated, leaving a trail of void behind her.
Her body glowed with a purple radiance that wavered between the divine and the monstrous. Her eyes were now completely white, without pupils.
She drifted through the remaining shadows, leaving behind what had once been her government.
She was no longer an empress.
No longer a leader.
She was an idea. A force.
Isabella also emerged from the ruins, horrified and unable to understand why she had been the only survivor.
Then she noticed the force field around her. It dissipated as she watched the one who had once been her friend and leader slowly approach, staring at her with eyes that looked like two white voids.
Isabella barely recognized her. Elisa's appearance was truly terrifying.
She tried to run, but Elisa appeared in front of her with impossible speed.
Desperate, Isabella tried to make her react.
"Elisa, please stop! If you had wanted to kill me, you would have done it already, but you left me alive, and I know it's because there is still some goodness inside you. I know that deep down there is still a part of the Elisa I knew. Please, stop! Despite everything, it's not too late for you—I know it!"
Elisa answered with a voice that no longer sounded human, a voice that left an almost spectral echo behind every word.
"No, Isabella. There is nothing left inside me anymore. Because now I encompass everything… and everyone."
Elisa stepped closer and touched Isabella with her hand.
Isabella began to be absorbed into the hat, able only to scream as she faded into the darkness within the object.
"Now I will encompass you as well. And soon, everyone else."
The memories of Aetheris, of Isabella, of her people… no longer mattered.
They were merely names lost in the current of infinity.
Only the desire remained.
And that desire knew no limits.
She continued her journey.
She crossed thousands of universes, thousands of realities.
Each one fell just like the last.
The oldest civilizations knelt before her. The gods of other dimensions were absorbed or destroyed.
In some worlds, the survivors worshiped her as a deity.
In others, they cursed her as a plague.
But she no longer listened.
No one remained who could stop her—not even herself.
The hat, the artifact that amplified her mind, had fused with her being.
Power could no longer be separated from the person.
They were a single entity.
Her body had become a living shadow, and her completely white, pupil-less eyes shone with overwhelming intensity.
And so, universe after universe, Elisa continued onward.
Devouring. Conquering. Rewriting.
Until there was nothing left to conquer.
In the silence of the final universe, she stopped.
She looked into the void.
Only she remained, suspended among the remains of infinite collapsed realities.
"I did it…" she whispered.
But the voice did not sound triumphant.
It sounded hollow.
As if her own throat doubted the word.
The echo of her voice vanished into nothingness.
And for the first time in countless ages, Elisa felt something akin to fear.
There was nothing left to possess.
And when there is nothing left to possess… what remains of the one who possessed everything?
Elisa closed her eyes, feeling the weight of the silence.
Even in that nearly inhuman state, she could not stop a single tear from falling, though she did not even notice it.
The universe was complete.
But she, as always… remained empty.