Entry #███
Core Calibration Protocol – Final Test
The Core is ready. After years of meticulous planning, recalculations, and countless prototypes, today marks the final stage of the experiment.
This device—this monumental creation—has the potential to revolutionize monsterkind's future. Infinite energy, drawn from the very fabric of reality. With this, we could power our society for millennia, sustain our existence, and perhaps… even rewrite our place in the world.
The calibration process is delicate, requiring precision beyond any project I have ever undertaken. The energy output must be stable, balanced at all times. Any fluctuation could result in… no. I must not allow myself to dwell on failure. The calculations are sound. The design is flawless.
S-1 is not here to assist today. I dismissed him from the lab, his reluctance growing too palpable. He is safe, far from the Core chamber. That is what matters.
The panel is active. The readings are steady. All systems nominal. This will work. It must work.
Entry #███
Destabilization Detected
Something is wrong.
The readings… they don't make sense. The energy output is increasing exponentially, far beyond the projected levels. The containment field is destabilizing. I've tried recalibrating the flow, redirecting the surge, but the control panel isn't responding.
My followers are panicking. They're calling my name, looking to me for answers, but I… I don't have them. Not this time.
I glance back at the Core. The glow is blinding now, pulsating with energy I can no longer contain. My hands tremble as I work the controls, my magic flowing into the panel in a desperate attempt to stabilize the reaction.
"S-1…" I whisper his name, though he is not here to hear it. For a fleeting moment, I wonder if this was his way of escaping me—escaping all of this.
The alarms are deafening. The room is shaking. I can feel the magic itself tearing at the seams of reality.
Entry #███
Point of No Return
The Core is collapsing.
The panel sparks and groans under my hands. I hear someone scream—it might be me. My followers are rushing toward the exit, but the surge of energy is pulling us all back, dragging us toward the Core like a black hole consuming everything in its path.
I make one last attempt to shut it down, pouring every ounce of magic I have left into the controls. But it's too late. The panel explodes in a shower of sparks, the force of the blast throwing me to the ground.
I feel myself falling, the pull of the Core growing stronger. My body feels weightless, suspended in the blinding light. I reach out, grasping for something, anything to anchor myself—but there is nothing.
My followers… they are gone, their forms dissolving into the light. I try to call out to them, to S-1, but my voice is swallowed by the roar of the Core.
And then, silence.
Entry #███
The Fall
The light fades.
All I see is darkness. Endless, all-consuming darkness. I do not know if I am alive, or if this is what comes after. My thoughts scatter like fragments of glass, each one slipping further from my grasp.
I was wrong. The Core was never meant to be tamed. I thought I could control it, harness its power. But the truth is clear now: I was a fool.
If these words ever reach anyone, let them serve as a warning. Ambition without caution leads only to ruin.
Entry #17
Dark, Darker, Yet Darker
The void stretches endlessly. Darkness, unbroken by light. It is neither cold nor warm. It simply… is.
I do not know where I am. I do not know when I am. The sensation of time is fractured here, disjointed. Moments bleed into each other, indistinct and immeasurable. My body—or whatever remains of it—feels… scattered. Pieces of me adrift in this abyss, a puzzle that can no longer be completed.
The last thing I remember is the Core. A critical experiment, one that held the promise of boundless energy, boundless possibility. Yet something went wrong. The control panel failed. A surge of energy, uncontrolled, untamed. I remember the explosion. I remember the fall. And then… nothing.
Where are my followers? Where is S-1? Did they vanish alongside me, or were they spared this fate? I reach out into the void, calling for them, but no one answers.
This place is silent. Unyielding. Perhaps I am alone. Perhaps this is the price of my ambition.
Entry #███
Fragments of Self
I am breaking. Or perhaps I am already broken.
The void twists around me, reflecting fragments of my thoughts, my memories. They are not whole, but shards—sharp and incomprehensible. I see flashes of S-1's face, his tired eyes staring back at me. Did I drive him to this? Was it my hand that set this chain of events into motion?
The Core. The experiment. It should have worked. The equations were flawless, the parameters controlled. How could it have failed?
Or… did it fail?
The thought gnaws at me. Perhaps this was not a failure, but a miscalculation. Perhaps the Core did exactly what it was designed to do, and I simply lacked the foresight to understand the consequences.
I must find the answers. Even here, in this endless darkness, the pursuit of knowledge drives me forward. It is all I have left.
Entry #███
Echoes in the Abyss
I am not alone.
I hear whispers now, faint and distant. They weave through the void, carrying words I cannot fully understand. Are they echoes of my own mind, or something… else?
At times, I see shapes moving in the darkness. They are fleeting, indistinct. Shadows within shadows. Are they memories? Are they others trapped here, as I am? Or are they the void's creations, born from its own unknowable nature?
I reached out to one today, only for it to dissolve into nothingness. Yet, for a moment, I thought I saw… his face. S-1. Watching me.
I must keep searching. If there is even the faintest chance that he is here, I cannot abandon him. He deserves better than this fate.
Entry #███
The Fabric of Reality
I have begun to understand the nature of this place. The void is not merely empty—it is a fracture, a wound in the fabric of existence. It is the space between spaces, the absence that lies beyond reality's edges.
I feel myself unraveling, my essence diffusing into the void. Yet, I also feel… connected. As though I am part of something greater now, something that transcends the boundaries of existence. Is this what it means to be erased? To become one with the void?
The whispers grow louder. They speak of timelines, of realities layered upon one another. If I listen closely, I can almost hear… voices. They are faint, but familiar.
Is this my punishment? To observe, but never to exist? To be trapped between the threads of reality, forever unseen, forever unheard?
Entry #███
Hope in the Shadows
Today, I saw it clearly. A light.
It was faint, a mere flicker in the endless darkness, but it was there. It pulsed, rhythmic and steady, like a heartbeat. I felt it calling to me, pulling me toward it.
Could this be the way out? Or is it another illusion, a cruel trick of the void? I do not know. But I must follow it. If there is even the slightest chance that it leads to freedom, I cannot hesitate.
I will keep writing, if I can. But if these entries stop, let them serve as a testament to my existence. To my mistakes. To my ambition.
Let them serve as a warning.
—W.D. Gaster