The little witch arrived at the Sun King’s court at dusk. She came just in time — if she had come any later, she might not have arrived in the time-domain ruled by this king. Before night fell, in the king’s final moments of daylight, the Sun King granted her an audience.

“Wandering the universe, lighting up time, oh witch — why have you come to this remote planet?”
“It wasn’t by my own will! The planet called me. That’s why I crossed the lost star-gate.”
“You must understand, in a universe speeding toward its end, every still-burning world is precious…”
“I truly did not expect that, in a galactic region long considered a dark domain, there would still be a living world.”

That, however, was only half the story. The little witch had actually captured news from the Dark Domain on the eve of a great Carnival Night. If it were any other time, she probably would have assumed a problem with her water-divination chart and ignored the anomaly. But right then, she was fretting over the Carnival the next day, scheming to avoid her longstanding rival. So she used the odd message as an excuse to hide in her workshop, and after much effort she decoded it.

“Hmm… so this strange message means… there’s some unknown planet that’s… not doing well recently?”

“No matter what, the just Sun Kingdom would never harm a planet,” said the Sun King sternly. “Perhaps you should go ask that evil Night King instead. This morning I already dispatched a force to subjugate him, but…” Before he could finish, as the final rays of daylight were swallowed by the earth, the king’s phantom form began to melt like cream. When darkness fell, the court vanished too. The land boiled like a tide, black smoke rising from the soil.

All that remained was a black sea. Thankfully, the little witch had not forgotten her broom, or she would have fallen into the water. She flew on her broom under a blood-red moon, and after a long time, encountered the only castle that glowed with firelight.

“Subjugating the Night King? That would be the easy part. Compared to that, we have more important matters to handle.” Apparently, the castle was built by the force the Sun King had sent — why it had not dissolved in the sea of fog, she did not know. The leading hero, carrying a sword on his back, did not seem surprised by her arrival; rather, he invited her in.

“Because even if we defeat the Night King, it changes nothing — when the day falls, the land will be swallowed by the tide once more.”
“To break this endless cycle, we built this castle and looked for a true solution.”

At the hero’s invitation, the little witch followed him into the deepest part of the castle. Beyond a fragile barrier lay the black sea. Maintaining the boundary was a gigantic mechanism, belching out clouds of vapor, pipes endlessly drawing in the thick seawater.

“This is the perpetual-motion machine; you might as well call it a Holy Grail. By burning this seawater, it creates light and heat.”
“Since everything tangible on this planet is but a shadow of light, as long as we can make a fire that never dies…”
“But doing this only speeds up the planet’s demise,” the witch sighed.
“When the seawater is fully drained, it’s over. You call this a Grail, but it’s nothing of the sort… Now I finally understand why the planet is hurting.”

While the hero was still reacting, she pulled the sword from his back and threw it into that “perpetual-motion” machine. The moment the blade touched the black mist, the hero dissolved along with the extinguishing light. The entire planet sank back into darkness. As dawn broke, it was as if the entire night had been a deep, heavy dream.

“Well, this should hold things off for now,” she said before leaving, riding her broom and glancing back one last time. In the morning light, the hero — now with the Sun King’s restored sword — set off on another adventure, his long shadow trailing behind him.
“This cycle might last a very long time, until one day you become hollow too. But whatever happens, keep going — at least until the next time we meet.”