I'm in the middle of writing a story and I've been going through my beat sheet and getting to how I want the story to end. The general premise without too much detail is that the world in the story is slowly starting to fade away, like a painting drenched in water, and the king is doing everything in his power to prolong the inevitable, even at some terrible costs. The protagonists go on a whole journey that help them come to the realization that things are meant to someday end, and after a whole plan is put into place they stop the king and....
...Fade away? I thought of ending it right there, with the world growing dark until there is nothing, the end has finally arrived. Bittersweet in a way, as the characters have already decided that impermanence is what makes everything precious, but I can't help but feel like it won't be a satisfying end for the reader.
Would it be better to add some semblance of hope, like a light slowly rising on a new world? Or is implying some kind of cycle to everything compromising the whole message of learning to let things end?