This work is a piece of fiction. While it may be inspired by real events, cultures, and practices in human history, the story blends factual history with fictional characters, dramatizations, and creative interpretation.
It is not intended to promote, glorify, or encourage any illegal activities, substance use, or harmful behavior. All depictions of sensitive topics are included solely for narrative and historical context.
For the effects of the story, all characters are to be considered above the age of majority.
Reader discretion is advised.
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Earth-5H1N3, Year 2001.
Reality healed. It took me a bit more than predicted, but Reality—as in the Universe and the inner dimensions—has finally healed.
With its healing, I was able to analyze and quantify the extent of the damage Kubos and I had caused and the effect of that damage on Reality's continuance.
What I mean is that while Reality was damaged, in the few seconds after we broke it and before I could use my flames to patch it, a few entities—I believe—took advantage of the situation to plant a few parasitic seeds that will, no doubt, bloom into splendid future tragedies.
I'm not being pessimistic here. I can see the traces.
Most notably, there's the pest—whoever the fuck they are—lurking in the shadows, but additionally, I saw a few bread crumbs pointing at a possible incursion from outside this Reality, and, most annoyingly, Chthon and Dormammu are pulling some shit.
I am aware of Chthon's involvement primarily through Wandabus. She told me that she sensed him restless and that she caught a few motes of Chaos Energy flickering widely in a hidden corner of Reality, near one of the smaller hidden nexuses.
Dormammu, I was informed about him after I found some strange particles that I left in Yao's hands for investigation. I had a suspicion that said matter belonged to the Dark Dimension, because it was not compatible with teh Space-time mesh.
It was speculation, because there are countless dimensions with matter allergic to the Space-time mesh of a Reality. The sand of the Abeyance is part of this type, as it usually disappears from Reality after a while.
Yao confirmed it, and that was proof enough for me to know that something must have slipped in.
Sigh, everything is so complicated, and it is all Kubos and/or Odin's fault. The worst part is that both are truly gone now, yet they keep fucking everything up! So it makes the situation even more annoying!
These destroyed pieces of shit can't even disappear without leaving a pigsty for me to clean up behind!
That aside, let's celebrate the small victories. Reality is officially healed, I can now withdraw my flames and focus on healing my body, yay!
I pulled my flames out of Reality, which, I might add, was not dissimilar from pulling out of most of my Abstracts bosses, mainly Infinity and Eternity...
That's a thought I should seal away, yep.
As my flames receded from the backdrop of space, the bluish-white hue that had permeated the cosmos darkened until space returned to its usual darkness and scintillating stars.
I felt full. My current flame-body didn't change physically, but I felt denser, much more than before.
If before, while spreading myself thin, I was at around the beyond-omega level, now I was almost at the Skyfather level.
I'm still weakened, greatly so, but I should be getting better in a week or so.
Once I recover, I'll hunt for Destiny's Child personally. Before that, we still need to complete the Clean House operation.
The Hand is mostly taken out; the small surviving cells could become something else, gangs possibly, but without Krahllack, they'll never be more than some street-level concern.
Most likely, they'll join the Maggia. I'm not concerned about that crime syndicate, even if I once read that they were under Satannish's influence.
That leaves us with the problems related to the Inhumans, Mutants, Atlantis, and, finally but most annoying, the Skrulls.
The Inhumans are mostly confined to Attilan, and, even if I have a certain disdain for their royal family, they are well-managed by their rulers. They won't exactly become a problem that requires my intervention.
Mutants, on the other hand, are annoying. Most of them are receiving the care and attention needed to prevent another mutant baby like the one from the Green Door event from becoming a catastrophe. Still, their awakenings under stress are such a massive pain in the ass!
Why couldn't they awake under peaceful circumstances? I know it's too much to ask, but still.
So, I could only IAO: Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome.
There was a list of the most dangerous or annoying mutants I made from my memory. Funnily enough, Firebird and Wandabus were part of said list. Though, naturally, I no longer consider them part of it.
I mean, after I powered them up, Wandabus became the Goddess and Queen of Hell, and Firebird, being connected to Senior Sister and me, I made sure that their mental and soul stability was of the utmost importance, so I have trust in them.
Then we have Illyana Rasputina, who is technically not the threat, but Belasco, well, not exactly. Belasco is worth a swipe of my tail; the problem is the "Elder Gods" he serves, which are nothing more than subordinate creations to Chthon.
Aside from my dear Darkchylde, who isn't going to be a problem yet because Limbo was pushed further away by the Abeyance, we have others who are more concerning.
I'm thinking James Jaspers and Matthew Malloy. Reality warpers, I hate the lot! Not you, Wandabus, and Jean, but still, stupid mortals who wield power they can't comprehend.
Even if all the knowledge of Earth were known by the most intelligent mortal, someone like Reed Richards, I wouldn't trust reality-warping in their hands.
Humans can barely govern themselves—and I say that while knowing the scum that their rulers are—how can they possibly think they can govern Reality?
What most reality warpers fail to understand is that they are part of Reality, so the repercussions of their warping affect them.
The way I see it, reality warpers are like sentient trains that actively choose to play with the rails they travel without understanding that they will derail themselves.
My dislike for reality warpers aside, these two are a problem.
I'm not an idiot dragon; I have known of them for a while now. I had countermeasures in place; I removed their mutations early in the race. The problem is with my stupid Earth-5H1N3!
Perhaps blaming the poor suicidal thing is not fair. The real culprits are those who caused the previous apocalypses.
As I was assuaging the doomed status, the little fixes I had made were growing in impact and importance. Then the Green Door Event, the Goblin Force, and Kubos' Birth came and pushed my Reality into a relapse.
So—if bad that could happen will happen—Reality undid some of my previous fixes.
Now, why don't I take a more permanent solution? Self-fulfilled prophecies are a thing in this Reality.
In Matthew Malloy's case, I could, potentially, drop by the past and make sure he isn't born. I could also apply this solution to James Jaspers.
The problem is that this Reality doesn't have much energy left for rewriting itself. I would have to supply the energy, and that can't be good with the shadowy dude lurking around.
Also, while I know that Matthew Malloy could be dealt with like this, I'm not certain about James Jaspers' mutation's reaction.
I live in the [Present], literally, so I don't know what it feels like to have your existence rewritten by the [Past], hence I can't tell if there's a tell to it that could alert Jaspers' mutation and have it go haywire and fuck us all.
Kubos could end up as a power-down version of Jaspers in the worst-case scenario. That's how concerning the Celestial's experiment results are, particularly the mutants.
But, considering the creator of the Beyonders was created by my stupid friends, the Celestials, maybe they are just one-upping themselves.
Like a bunch of brat boys trying to prove who is the craziest, most daring idiot.
A Celestial comes and says, "So, ehmmm, we kinda broke Reality (1st Firmament) during our spat with those black guys (Aspirants), how about we find a countermeasure to prevent another Celestial War?"
Another one praises the first one's forethought, "That's an excellent proposal, this Reality (2nd Firmament) is looking kinda emo, so we'd better treat it with care!"
"That's true, in fact, this Reality (2nd Firmament) has been making eyes to the concept of all-death for a few centuries now," Another added.
"So, any ideas?" the forethinking Celestial asked.
"How about we create Death Seeds and leave them in the hands of mortals?" A not-so-bright Celestial suggested.
"What in the First Firmament's name is a mortal?" One of them asked the most logical question.
"I'm not so sure. I received a glimpse of them from my future self. Apparently, they are our creation's creation's creation," the not-so-bright Celestial shrugged its cosmic shoulders.
"Let's shelve that for later, we have no mortals yet, and I don't think that will help us in any way," the forethinking Celestial replied.
"How about we create Exterminators?" a mentally-challenged Celestial added.
"... Okay... What's an Exterminator?" the forethinking Celestial asked. He was starting to suffer a cosmic migraine.
"They are a race designed to consume energy and life. I think this is what we need," the mentally-challenged Celestial explained.
"Didn't you hear? We are supposed to prevent another Celestial War, not end the concepts of energy and life before they fully flourish!" a bright Celestial admonished the mentally-challenged Celestial.
"Bright Celestial, do you have an idea?" the forethinking Celestial asked.
"I believe we must find a way to govern ourselves and protect our interests. I received some advice from my future self, something about creating a governing body, possibly a council, and enforcing rules and laws backed by the majority, and with the existence of Reality (2nd Firmament) in mind.
"I have a dream that one day we will rise and live out the true meaning of our creed: we are the protectors, gardeners, and guiders of Reality," the bright Celestial ended his speech with a powerful phrase that riled the hearts of the listening Celestials.
"Whoa!" the forethinking Celestial exclaimed. "Those were some powerful words right there." There was something vicious underneath the forethinking Celestial's words. "But... I can't help but notice that there's something... dark, to your color scheme."
{For reference, Celestial:
Apirant:
}
"Dark? What are you talking about?" the bright Celestial asked, concern mixed in his voice. "I've always been black with purple accents. Of course I'm dark."
"Yeah, I can see that... But, aren't you a bit... I don't know... Aspirant-looking?" the forethinking Celestial asked. His question made the other Celestials look at the bright Celestial with weary looks.
"Aspirant-looking? What even is that term?! Am I the only one with common sense here?!" the bright Celestial looked around with hopeful eyes, expecting to find a supporting figure.
He was met with fearful eyes that soon turned hateful.
'No, this can't be,' the bright Celestial thought to himself.
In the sea of hateful eyes, he found a pair of eyes that didn't exude hostility.
"Mentally-challenged Celestial, do you also think like them?" the bright Celestial asked.
"Ehmmm, think? Think what? Are we thinking? I thought we were making Exterminators, I already have a few designs in mind," the mentally-challenged Celestial replied with some cosmic drool dripping down his mouth.
"..." The bright Celestial looked away from the trainwreck and met the hateful eyes of the other Celestials again. "... Fuck me."
"Throw him out the window (Outside)!" the forethinking Celestial, which at this point should be called the politician Celestial, ordered.
After throwing the bright Celestial out of the metaphorical window, the politician Celestial suggested, "How about we make a nigh-omnipotent being and have it observe Reality (2nd Firmament) and police us from Outside?"
"Hey, didn't we create Cal-Horra during the last Reality (1st Firmament)? Why don't we give him more power and leave it at that?" the not-so-bright Celestial suggested.
"Okay, yeah, that sounds like it will save us the trouble of creating another being, let's do that," the politician Celestial agreed.
And I feel like after giving Call-Horra its fuel for omniscience, they later realized that the 2nd Firmament had committed suicide and were too busy with the 3rd Firmament to pay attention to Cal-Horra.
That's why they didn't realize Cal-Horra created the Beyonders, and these betrayed him and stole his power.
At least, that's how I imagine it. Otherwise, what explanation is there for such a long history of blunders?
So, yeah, with such a track record... I'm not surprised their careless experimenting led to the birth of these annoying reality-warping mutants!
With that in mind, I teleported to Charleston, South Carolina; defined by its cobblestone streets and pastel antebellum houses, it used to be a beautiful city.
When the crazy weather besieged Earth, many of the port cities around the globe were the first to be affected.
Spark showed me the memory of what happened here, given that I was in the Shinobi World when it happened.
There was a continental hurricane that pulled the ocean away from the eastern coast of North America, and then, like a tsunami, it pushed the water back. After that, the temperature spiked, and that created a crazy amount of evaporation, which led to clouds, then thunderstorms, and finally flooding from rainfall.
When Jean wished to repair the damage dealt by Kubos, she went out of her way to show some favoritism to Earth and healed it a bit; however, certain locations were not a priority, and Charleston was one of those.
So, while observing from the Mirror Dimension, I watched the Light and Stark Industries machinery work around the clock, repairing the city.
They were past the debris collection phase and were at the building phase. The city could be called a city of cranes, cement mixers, dump trucks, bulldozers, and builders.
Most of the able-bodied population took a sharp right in their professional path, and after losing their jobs due to the multiple economic crises, they learned about cement, rebar, cinder blocks, and 2x4s.
This was not unique to Charleston. Plenty of the humans who lost their jobs and way of life found sustenance in the business of construction.
Among them, a fifteen-year-old with the dormant potential to be a massive pain in my ass could be found: Matthew Malloy.
Brown hair and eyes, sun-kissed skin that used to be white, but after hours doing the 9 to 5 under the relentless sun had changed tones; he was unremarkable. A human like the billions of others.
"Malloy!" the crew manager called out. "Make sure to send my regards to your father!"
"Chief, I'll let him know!" Matthew Malloy shouted as he made his way out of the construction site he was assigned to.
I walked by his side, a dimension apart.
He pulled out his smartphone and accessed his online banking with a happy grin. Today was payday, I understood from the glimpses I caught of surface thoughts around us.
"$137, minus forty, and I have the remaining $478 in the other account, and the subsidy from the Light was 90% of my gross salary, I think... Yeah, I can make it this week," He said aloud, his math with a skip to his steps.
'Seraph,' I reach to my cute, blue daughter.
'Father :Love:' Her reply came loaded with her love.
'Lovely flan-eater, is the light supporting struggling Americans? :Love: :Care: :Affection:' I asked.
'Ah, yes, yes,' Seraph said in a singsong tone. 'It's more like a study loan in the sense that they have to pay it back, but the interest is slightly higher than the average interest rate for a savings account. So, it's a charity in a roundabout way.'
'I see, thank you, Love,' I replied. She responded with her affection again, and then I closed the channel.
I followed Matthew Malloy to the nearest health center. From the looks of it, it was a church—and its surrounding buildings—that had been repurposed as a hospital.
The interior had been rigged with several medical room dividers to give the patients a semblance of privacy. Most of the patients in this health center were those who needed healing time and not immediate treatment.
Matthew Malloy walked through the security checks with familiarity and entered a small and neat room. At the center, plugged, most noticeably, to an artificial respirator and a multipurpose monitor, was his father.
Johanatan Malloy, read the file.
It appears that he was one of the unlucky victims of the crazy weather.
I took a peek into his mind, it has almost gone, and decided to search his soul for answers.
From what I could piece together without getting too invasive for my taste, he was caught in one of those storms where the wind moved so fast it couldn't be breathed. I heard someone say, 'In the heart of a maelstrom, air ceases to be a life-giving gas and becomes a kinetic wall, denying the lungs their basic prerogative.'
So, no air, no oxygen to the brain, and that is the result. Also, his diaphragm suffered some trauma, along with his lungs.
"Father," Matthew Malloy started while holding his father's feeble hand in his. "Mom's funeral was simple but beautiful, as she always wanted."
His voice, contrary to the inner turmoil I could sense, was steady.
"Not many showed up, but I don't believe it was because Mom was not well-liked," he continued. "Most of our neighbors passed away... I also couldn't find the contact for some of Mom's friends, and the ones I was able to reach were not able to make it."
That's not strange; people around the world have been migrating in search of jobs and safer lands to build their homes.
"I'm making progress in the construction under Mr. Armstrong's tutelage," he informed. "He says I have a talent for this. Maybe, even if it was not my dream job, I will make it big in this business. And, it is projected that Mr. Stark and Ms. Abner will begin the third phase of the reconstruction efforts, so I'm sure I'll find a job somewhere after Charleston is rebuilt."
Considering all the infrastructure that needs to be rebuilt and built, this sector of the economy will thrive for a few more decades. If we consider the future destruction to be wrought, then yes, this is a good career path.
"I've been feeling lonely without you and Mom... Also, most of my friends moved away... and Becky, Anna, and Max were confirmed to have passed away last month... We already knew it; it's been so long since they were counted among the many that had not been found, but after the Divine Incursion... Anyway, I've been doing better, Father. That's what I wanted to let you know."
This is quite sad...
"Would you like me to heal him?" I asked after exiting the mirror dimension.
"W-Who?!" He turned around, startled.
His eyes, after recognizing my flaming self, opened wide, and his heart skipped a beat in fright.
"I can also bring your mother back," I added.
"W-What? Aragorn? Why?" He asked all at once, his words mixing one with the other.
"Aragorn indeed," I said.
I pushed my empathy on him and soothed his raging ocean of emotions.
"It's not for free, though," I added while inspecting his [Body]. "That was Aragorn Abner's schtick. I don't do free," I lied.
This part of my life is called scuminess.
"... Why?" He asked after unnaturally calming down, thanks to my empathy forcing him into an appropriate state of mind.
"I'm called Earth's Protector, am I not?" I asked.
"Yes, Lord Aragorn," he replied.
"That's a disservice to my reach. I'm the Universe's Protector," I explained.
"I... I don't understand how that involves me," he admitted.
"Don't you think the protector of the universe would only make a move if it's about protecting the universe?" I questioned.
"So..." his eyes widened with hope and pride from his father to me. "Saving my father is for the world's protection?"
"No," I shook my head.
"... Then, my mom?" He asked, confused.
"The price I'll demand from you will protect Reality," I explained.
"The price, you say? What price?" He questioned.
"You, all that you are," I delivered with impassiveness.
Matthew Malloy's eyes went still for a second before they widened abruptly, and his heart rate spiked.
"My life? You want me dead?" he queried, backing away, only to be struck by the stark reality of my proximity to his father, at which point he stopped.
"Yes," I lied. I didn't want him dead; his mutation allowed him to resurrect himself.
With how emo this Reality was, I did not doubt his mutation would jolt awake the moment I killed him. I needed him in a state more permanent than death.
"But... why?" He asked in a low, hopeless voice.
"For Reality," I affirmed the truth.
Because it was the truth. For Reality, he needed to disappear. He was not like Jean or Wanda, whom I could train, and even if he could be trained, or his mutation controlled, I did not have the time or willingness to do so.
Matthew Malloy, just like the Gamma baby, was not evil. He is a victim, that's all.
However, that may be, I was no hero who would seek a perfect win thoughtlessly. I, being truthful to myself and judging by my results, was a heroic being of neutral good most of the time. This was not my nature, though.
These were the results of the directives I built from my self as Lucian and from what I perceived would please those I loved. But, at my core, I was just as eldritch as the Aniki, Senior Sister, and Noona were; beings incompatible with mortality's way of being and thinking.
"Am I a risk to the world?" His voice cracked. A tear broke from the confines of his eyelid.
"Yes," I replied listlessly.
"And if I refuse?"
"I'll end you anyway, but I won't heal your father or bring back your mother," I explained while looking down at the unconscious patient.
"Do I have time to think about it?" He asked.
"How long do you need?" I already knew the answer, but I asked nonetheless.
"... Just a day," he said while his eyes were coldly fixed on mine.
I exited Reality and went back inside the Mirror Dimension.
After crying himself asleep next to his father, he woke up the next day and left the health center.
He walked to his shelter, and I followed.
He took a shower and then got dressed in neat, clean clothing, the type a teen would use as formal wear.
He visited his mother's grave and spent the rest of his last day with her remains.
When the last rays of sunshine were hiding behind the horizon, he said, "Could I make some requests?"
"Sure," I replied, exiting the Mirror Dimension.
"Could you ensure my parents' future?" He asked without looking my way.
"Yes."
"Could you make sure they forget me?" He cried in silence.
"Yes."
"Ensure they live long, fulfilling lives," he demanded.
"I guarantee it."
"... Make it painless."
"It already was."
Like so, I obliterated his [Body], destroyed his [Mind], and swallowed his [Soul] to cleanse it before returning it to Noona.
From his mother's grave, a small bone phased out. I touched it and used my biokinesis to grow back her body. I searched for her back in the timestream and pulled her [Soul] and [Mind] to the future.
Next, I made sure to grow another body for his father, before pulling his [Soul] and [Mind] out and making his body have a 'natural' death.
I deposited his soul and mind inside the new body and then teleported to Australia. While creating new lives for them in the registry and creating a record of their 'lives', I fabricated said lives in their minds.
Their new bodies were younger, and their bank accounts were filled, and lastly, to ensure good lives, I reached out to my Queen.
'Fluff.'
'Aragorn? What's up?'
'Can you bless these two for me, please?'
'Anything for you, Love.'
Through our connection, she pushed her divinity, and I guided it to his parents.
Lastly, I deposited them in their new life.
This was good work; Matthew Malloy was cooperative.
Now... Let's visit James Jaspers, also known as Mad Jim.
Or so I would like to say... What the fuck?
The oceans around the world began to churn like boiling water, oceanic currents went haywire, and Atlanteans popped up on the coasts of major population centers.
I saw it all through the SatNet.
⌈TheShineDragon: Uhmmm, did Atlantis go mental?
Firebird: Too busy mining for a giant pink diamond in space.
ImperatrixFox: I'm the Barrens, most of us are.
OlderSister: I'm in Abeyance. BTW, we received some pretty messed-up souls.
DarthKitty: I'm grounded -.-
ImperatrixFox: ...
BigTittyGothGirl: ...
GoddessOfLust: ...
DemonQueen: ...
Butler: ...
FastestIncubusAlive: ...
OlderSister: ...
Firebird: ...
343Guilty2B: ...
FoxWitch: ...
FoxSorcerer: ...
BuckysFairy: ...
StarsnStripes: ...
GoddessOfDragons: ...
SexiestRedCat: ...
BunnyMaidOfFire: ...
PrincessFox1237: ...
DoctorWolfgirl: ...
YellowBolt: ...
GossipWolfgirl: ...
RampagingCortana: ...
VladNotTheImpaler: ...
TheShineDragon: PFTT!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA! YOUR PARENTS GROUNDED YOU!
GossipWolfgirl: Daria, all we had to do was tell on her!
GossipWolfgirl: All those years we lost making a prison that could hold her... HAHAHAHAHAHA!!
PrincessFox1237: I will share this news with the Imperium.
DarthKitty: Mindee! Don't trample on my dignity as a goddess! My believers can't know of this!
GoddessOfLust: I feel like we should let the entire Universe know. @Spark, can you upload this to the IntraNet?
343Guilty2B: As much as I wish to, we shouldn't place the Pryde at risk... Still... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!⌋
As hilarious as it was, I left the chat in The System processing in my mind's background. The world was going to fucking end again if something wasn't done soon.
First, I spread my telekinesis globally and created a counterforce to the misbehaving waters.
Liquids were almost incompressible under normal circumstances. So this tug and pull war was going to force either me or the other side give up under stress. I'm feeling comfortable here, so I'm betting on the other side... Is that divinity?
Of course it is.
I sent a quick message to Seraph, and a moment later, she was teleporting next to me in a chirpy mood.
"You called, Father?" She draped herself around my shoulders. She was making contact with my flame body by changing the properties of the Element in her body.
"That divinity, is it Poseidon's?" I asked.
"Uhmmm, no?... Yes?... It's mixed with something... Could it be the shadowy dude?" Seraph pondered out loud while studying the divinity mixed in the water.
Under our astonished eyes, the oceans began to turn a shade darker.
"I don't know what's going on," Seraph confessed.
"Dear daughter... I don't know either," I confessed.
"Should we call Sislohrie?" Seraph asked.
Sislohrie was my mermaid Goddess of Water and Fishing.
"I feel like we need James, too," I added.
"Yeah, there's definitely [Shadows] mixed in there," Yao, who just teleported, added.
"Do you know what that is?" I asked.
"No... But there's magic involved, Atlantean magic," Yao explained.
"Uhmmm, I don't know how to proceed," I admitted.
"We definitely can't enter there, can we?" Seraph asked. Yao and I shook our heads.
I pointed at the blackened waters and pierced through with a telekinesis blast, I intended to, at least. As if the water was made of rubber, or some ultimate variant of oobleck, it reshaped around the blast and then closed up.
"Father, let me try," Seraph raised and aimed her hand excitedly.
Sonic waves shot forth and destabilized the abnormal water, creating a sustained crater over it, but not piercing it.
Next came Yao's turn. She went for a more decisive strike and opened a portal somewhere below the rippling surface... it failed.
We shared a look of concern. This was turning into one of those pains in the ass we don't like to deal with.
I pointed a flaming finger, and it and a beam of my bluish-white flames burst forth.
My flames didn't fail to erase a path into the black waters. I then pushed my telekinesis on the path and held it open.
"Cool," Seraph chirped and was about to move into the whole before I stopped her.
What I was analyzing with my eyes finally came to light.
"It turned into a territory," I revealed.
"... The entire watermass???" Seraph asked in alarm.
"Yes." I nodded gravely.
"How is that possible?" Yao asked. "It took Krahllack about half a century to claim North Korea. You're saying Poseidon, assisted or not by the other guy, claimed the entire oceanic mass of the planet in a few seconds?"
"Could it have something to do with his history as the God of Oceans on Earth?" Seraph asked.
"But he wasn't the only deity of oceans," Yao argued. "He never had this much stake over the planet's oceans."
"..." While I was thinking, something connected, and I realized how he did it. "It's a shared territory."
"Shared?" Yao asked.
"At approximately 1,000 meters (3,280 feet), the ocean enters a state of perpetual tenebrosity," I explained. "About 95% of the oceanic volume is perpetual darkness."
"So, Shadows, or darkness, or whatever the domain of the shadowy guy is, plus Oceans: a shared territory," Seraph concluded.
"What should we do?" Yao asked. "You're locked, pushing back the dark waters' advance, aren't you?"
"Pretty much," I said. "They are pushing with roughly the equivalent might of a Skyfather, which leads me to believe they are pulling back their punches."
"Poseidon was definitely Skyfather-level, and if the shadowy guys can escape you, Father, then they are at least that powerful," Seraph explained. "They are definitely pulling their punches."
"Do we need to summon the Therions?" Yao asked.
"I could grab all the water and shove it somewhere else, then refill the oceans with water from other sources," I shrugged. "From a planetary perspective, there's no difference.
It was an option. I couldn't accomplish that much with my current power level, but that's what magic is for: to breach the distance when personal might is not enough.
There were several problems with this approach, though.
For one, the oceanic ecosystems would be done for. The microlife is what sustains the macrolife; that's how life works on Earth.
If I replace all of Earth's oceanic water with foreign water—assuming I can filter out the macrolife out of those dark waters—almost all marine life would eventually perish.
If the oceanic ecosystems collapse, the coast would be next to go, and from there it would be a repeat of the Permian-Triassic Extinction Event, the Great Dying.
We do have a few cheat codes, in the form of Jean and Gaea, but whatever form life takes after that, it is unknown.
"Let's not do that, Father," Seraph shook her head violently.
"I'll summon Bucky, Sislohrie, Yelena, Mindee or Emma, Kitty, and with myself and Seraph, it should be enough to at least guarantee our survival," Yao said.
"Shadows, Waters, Ice, Iridescence or Light, Emacipation, Magic, and Wisdom?" I asked rhetorically.
"I'm not sure if that will be enough against a guy who can escape Father," Seraph said worriedly.
"I'll be ready to pull your cores, be ready to detonate your bodies," I advised.
"Our bodies, I don't think the planet can take even one detonation of our bodies," Seraph said with a nervous chuckle.
"It won't be the planet bearing the explosion; it will be the territory," Yao explained. "Those dark waters are not Earth's oceans anymore. They are a territory until they stop being one."
While they were plotting and planning, I wondered, could this be a distraction?
Just when I was going after James Jaspers, this happens? Is it a coincidence? I turned to the UK and located Mad Jim. He is right where he was moments ago, in his office, making plans to gain political power. Currently powerless, but equally dangerous.
No movements in his shadows, no concealed approaches, no lurking dangers, no... nothing. Uhmmm, was it a coincidence? I'm not the most easily trackable being, with all the teleporting and spatial jumping, but I can't be as arrogant as to say no one can track me.
I'll keep an eye on him, that's the best approach.
I focus a thoughtstream on Krakoa and another on Attilan, both countries had been comfortably floating over the oceanic surface. I wrapped their undersides with my telekinesis and lifted them.
The last thing I needed was two countries' worth of mutants and Inhumans getting taken over by shadows. For all I know, that shadowy guy could take over the shadows of the powered mortals and make his own shadow army after chanting "Arise". I don't plan to risk it.
"Father, Storm wants to get in contact," Seraph said.
I wonder what Gaea's priestess wants.
I located her in Krakoa and opened a psionic path between us.
'Ororo?'
'Aragorn, thank you for indulging our request.'
'Is this about Namor over there?' I could see him in front of the council with a panicked expression. Next to him was Beasty, which I guess is how he managed to get an audience with the Krakoan Council, as she is treated similarly to Seraph due to the P-Link hanging from her neck.
'As you surmise.'
I made a psionic projection over the councilroom, nothing more than an illusion only they could see.
"Hello, Beasty," I greeted. "Keeping those claws sharp?"
She replied with a Sknt as her hands' claws came out.
"I see, I see," I nodded. "And the flash step?" I asked about the short-range teleportation I granted her.
She had the P-Link for long-distance warping, but the flash step was for short range.
"I'm deadly," she said proudly.
"Yes, you are," I smiled at her before turning to Namor. "I don't know," I said with a shrug.
"What?" He asked, confused and stressed.
"I don't know the state of Atlantis," I explained. "We know Poseidon's divinity is mixed in the dark waters, but there's also another we don't recognize."
"I can find out," he declared with some desperation. "I know routes only an Atlantean would. I can swim and find out for you. Just, please, lift the psionic barrier."
"Uhmm, no, I don't think you can," I shook my head.
"What?" he asked. I sensed his temper flare, but his rationality kept it down.
"It's not that I doubt you, mind you," I chuckled. "I meant it literally. Let me show you," I opened a window to the space right above the ocean below Krakoa. "Go ahead, jump in. Just don't dive headfirst."
He gave a suspicious look at the window before hyping himself up and jumping through. Just like with my psionic blast, the water turned elastic before shooting him back right at where he came from.
With a hard thud, he landed on his feet in the middle of the councilroom.
"What?!" Hank McCoy asked what Namor wanted to shout.
"It's a territory, you can't just breach it," I explained. "That's what I meant, I don't think anyone can dive into the ocean, unless they are swallowed and absorbed by the territory."
Like what the dark waters were attempting at the shores with the land.
"So, Atlantis..." Namor dragged his words.
"It's not that being absorbed means death," I shrugged. "I simply don't know their current status."
"If you have a teleporter with a form of absolute teleportation, you could potentially breach it," I added. "But I don't recommend it. In fact, I forbid it. One Namor more, one Namor less, won't make a difference if Atlantis is in a perilous state."
He gnashed his teeth, clenched his fist tight, but he nodded, accepting Reality.
"Should we remain at this altitude?" Magneto asked from his raised seat.
"You're good," I revealed. "The Spire would protect and isolate the living island if needed. But do please inform the Inhumans that, if they can, try to park over landmass. If not, I'll drift them slowly over Mexico or the South of the USA."
I'm currently concentrating on something else, I can't split my mind anymore.
Compared to lifting Attilan or/and Krakoa, flying the little ships out of the darkened waters was less of a monumental effort, but there were so many of them!
I had split my mind into millions of thoughtstreams. I also needed to pull out swimmers, surfers, and more from the dark waters. This wasn't as easy as it could have been with my full power.
"Father, do you think we can pierce through with the roots of the Arbor Mundi?" Seraph proposed an ingenious idea. "There must be a few of them submerged inside the territory, no?"
"You're correct, Dear Seraph," I nodded. "The Arbor Mundi is too large, conceptually, for them to have staked a claim over the submerged roots."
I shifted attention back to Krakoa.
"They request your assistance," Magneto spoke on their behalf. "They are lacking the energy to make the journey safely."
"Okay, I'll drift them somewhere close to the Mexican-USA border."
I dispelled that projection and set that thoughtstream to work on something else.
Back to my flaming body, with flashes of light, James, Sislohrie, Yelena, Emma, and Kitty appeared.
"Oh, what the hell?" Kitty exclaimed upon seeing the black oceanic waters. "It's like a crude oil spillage, but... evil? Is that what I sense from it?"
"It's definitely evil," James spoke with the authority of the God of Evil.
"What have they done to the water?" Sislohrie wept. She was a sensitive mermaid like that.
"Did you leave Mindee in charge of the Imperium?" I asked Emma. "Weren't you flooded with work after the Great Moving?"
The Imperium was still settling in the Barrens, so, as its ruler, Emma was busy, super busy, like piles of data busy.
She looked away mystically and claimed, "My daughter needs hardship to grow."
... Wow.
↓Part 2━━━━━━━ ● ━━━━━━━Part 2↓
"Father, do you think you can carve a path with your breath to Atlantis?" my daughter asked. It looks like she realized it's better to leave the roots as an escape path.
"Definitely," I assured. All I had to do was release a breath attack right over the underwater city and then hold back the encroaching walls of dark water.
"I think she means without carving a path through the city," Emma added.
"... Well, I think?" I replied.
Here's the problem, I could see through everything—that has been the case far—and I have the ability to observe anything. The problem right now is the depth and focus of the target I wish to observe.
If my eyes could be compared to a lens capable of taking pictures of objects as small as atoms, or as far away as the edges of the observable universe, when I look at the dark waters, it is akin to aiming the lens at a random point and trying to locate an objective. I don't know if it's as close as the nearest atom in front of the lens, or the furthest cluster of galaxies.
I'm seeing everything in between me and my supposed target, and this has nothing to do with the distance from me to Atlantis; the problem is that these waters have been filled with observable objectives, so many that I need to restore myself to be able to have the computational power I normally do, to process what I'm seeing.
So, I won't know exactly when to stop my breath attack. Assuming these dark waters were the same as before, then I could calculate the distance with simple math, but this is a territory; everything changes.
"That can't be good," Yelena quipped.
"This territory feels denser, too," Yao added.
"What do you mean?" Kitty asked
"I don't think we'll be able to use dimensional magic while inside, only the magic powered by our internal sources," Yao explained.
"We can use chakra, as well, right?" Emma asked.
"Yes, it counts as an internal source, even if Kaguya is the origin," my daughter explained.
"I think we can have Aragorn carve a path to the bottom of the sea floor, and then Sislohrie and I can clear a passage to Atlantis," my butler suggested.
"I'll follow you with my gaze from up here." Because once I have an objective to focus on (Therions), I'll be able to track them. "You know what to do just in case, right?"
They rolled their eyes like children being told to behave for the umpteenth time.
"Flood our [Body] and [Mind] with void energy and blow ourselves up," Kitty said what I wanted to hear.
"Good cat," I praised her, pulled a takoyaki ball from storage, and threw it at her. She caught it with her mouth.
"Won't that take the planet with us?" Emma asked, more curious than concerned.
"The territory should take over 97% of the explosion's brunt," Yao explained.
"Oh, then'll be on the lookout," Emma said chirply.
"... On the lookout for what?" Kitty asked with a twitching smile.
"..." The rest of us paused our preparation and stared ot my fox-queen in silence.
"... Don't look at me like that, I'm just curious about the experience." The fox looked away in shame.
"Try not to die," I cautioned. "I'll only bring you back after I've recovered my strength."
Creating a body for their cores isn't that hard. I even have a dedicated automated facility in Halo for creating soulless bodies from samples I've collected. The inconvenience is pulling out their cores from my healing soul. With the shadowy guy lurking, I'd rather not compromise my ability to fight.
This shadowy guy has to be some minor annoyance, given that with my currently restricted power, we can contend, but with how good they are at escaping my gaze, they must be overspecialized in stealth or speed, or both. There's also the option of them being weakened, but that's unlikely.
When my Therions were ready, they gave the signal, and I switched space and brought us above Atlantis. I released a controlled breath attack and aimed down, at a slight angle.
Same as I did before, I pushed the walls of dark waters as my breath cleared a path downward. I stopped my breath attack as it landed on the seafloor. My Therions wasted no time and shot through the hole with their telekinesis.
James and Sislohrie were running point, Seraph, Yao, and Kitty were in the middle, and Emma and Yelena were bringing up the back.
'Just in case you recently became obtuse idiots, let me remind you of the basic rules when fighting inside of a territory like this one,' I said in their minds.
'This one? What do you mean?' Sislohrie asked.
'The one in North Korea was not comparable to this one,' I explained. 'This one is almost a dimension of its own.'
'So, same rules as fighting within a hostile dimension and its lord?' Kitty asked.
'No spatial movement unless you have the computing power of at least Seraph, or you can adapt spatial displacement spells on the fly with a reaction time of 1/10,000,000,000 seconds, approx,' I reminded them.
'No using ambient energy, unless you wield absolute energy manipulation,' James added.
Most obviously, if you attempt to wield hostile dimensional energy while inside the said dimension, the Dimensional Lord would fuck you over.
'No exceeding lightspeed,' Emma added. 'Not like we can casually exceed the limits of Reality.'
'If trapped, and, assuming you have the time to open one, Astral Paths are almost the only certain method of escape,' Yao said.
'Unless you have a well of energy larger than the said dimension itself, a battle of attrition is a Sisyphean task,' Yelena chirped in.
'No summoning magic,' Seraph contributed.
'Okay, you guys seem not to have turned obtuse,' I praised. 'Now, we don't really care about Atlantis, so the main objective is to slay Poseidon, destroy whatever or whoever is causing the rise of the oceans, and dispel the territory without ending all oceanic life and consequently most of that on land.'
'What about the shadowy guys?' My daughter asked.
'That guy is not a priority,' I mentally shrugged. 'I don't see any possible benefit for them to act now. This is probably another weird stall task, or maybe a distraction.'
I'm a smart dragon, maybe not a prodigy dragon in anything not shine- or fluff-related, but smart enough in the Eldritch IQ scale. Even then, I can't understand what this guy's objective is- No, wait!
'Jean?' I reached for the Firebird.
'I'm a little bit busy.' She sounded strained.
I pulled one eye away from Jaspers and locked in on Jean on the Shi'ar Galaxy.
Mmmmm, not exactly what I had feared. The shadowy guy is not attacking her, directly at least.
'So, how did you end up in that mess?'
'Have you heard of a Nega-Bomb?'
'Through the grapevine... Did you...'
'Turns out, when you end their deities, the zealots don't take it well.'
'It detonated already, you should probably escape.'
'I'm trying, but this crystal is all fucked up, I'm moving as fast as I can without breaking it.'
Indeed, as the Firebird said, this M'Kraan crystal was all cracked, and some pieces were only kept together by the equivalent of wet glue. Then, behind her, the explosive force of cracking open a portal of antimatter was 'slowly' engulfing the Shi'ar Galaxy.
'Mindee!' I reached for my small fluff fox.
'Aragorn? Is something wrong?' She asked after having picked up my urgency.
'No time for questions, order the Therions and capable Duskari to portal to the Shi'ar Galaxy and begin harvesting planets in masse.'
If they were going to end their entire galaxy, why not inherit their riches?
'... On it.'
I pulled back to Firebird and told her, 'Some of the Therions and Duskari are going to portal a few planets and stars away. You should hurry, you're too close to the epicenter of the explosion.'
'I know!' Firebird spat. 'Those suicidal zealots waited for me to arrive near the M'kraan Crystal to detonate the thing! I hate the galaxy! I'm glad it's going to get pulverized!'
'Calm down, Firebird, there's something else I need to inform you about,' I advised.
'Great! Another shitfest.'
'Who taught you to talk like that?' I asked, concerned.
'Kitty, and she told me you taught her, so it comes back to you.' I found her schadenfreude annoying.
'So, the shadowy guy might have a hand in your current misfortune; keep an eye open, please.' I switched topics like a pro.
'Ugh.'
'Yeah, that expressed well enough your and my feelings about this, Firebird.'
I glanced at the Barrens; the Duskari and Therions were warping away at a rapid pace, throwing 'inherited' planets or stars back into the Barrens as they constantly opened and closed portals. Luxena, my vulpine Goddess of Agriculture and Celestial Stars, was working her ass off rearranging the planets and stars on the fly.
It was a mess that would generate 'paperwork'—not like the Imperiums used paper—in montaneous quantities, poor Mindee.
As my Therions penetrated the territory, things took a rapid turn toward chaos.
The first to sense the change were James and Sislohrie. As deities grow into their divine domains, they begin to get a sense of harmony with their concept. Just as Thor was everything [Thunder], Hela to [Death], Aphrodite to [Love], Yelena to [Lust], Irina to [Fire], Sislohrie was everything [Water]; hence, territory or not, she easily sensed the change in the darkened waters.
James, my butler who does little to no butlering, felt the [Shadows] and [Evil] behind the attack.
To better comprehend the attack, it's important to understand that they were kilometers (miles) below the sea level, and that since I breathed at an angle, to not erase the sunken mystical city, light was not reaching the bottom of the opening.
The scant photons that bounced in at strange angles were not enough at all for any manner of light-based sight to function. Certainly, as the level of existence of an individual increases, certain limitations are reduced to negligible levels; however, when fighting those of equal or greater strength, negligible turns into fracture points.
So, this shadowy guy—because I refuse to give credit to any Olympian's intelligence but Hestia's—was knowledgeable enough to understand these nuances of deity-vs-deity combat.
He used the nigh-absolute darkness to bind my Therions in place—as if the shadows were a psionic field they could enforce telekinetic force through—as a previously shot volley of foul waters cut at my Therions' heads and hearts.
Sislohrie and James used their respective domains to parry the attacks just enough to miss any 'vital' point.
"Agh!" A couple of my Therions grunted in faux pain. A few of them put on pained expressions. Some even began to look weary, as if they were about to deliver their final words.
"..." I was certainly not surprised by this showmanship. I've seen them fight, and there's nothing about their way of fighting that indicates a warrior's path.
They fight dirty, play pretend, insult their mothers—even if most of them never knew them—go for the weak points—which, at this point of their existence, are mostly those points that cause the greatest amount of pain—and always try to get under each other's skin.
So, I was not surprised about them putting up this show; it's just that in a territory, it's hard to trick the territory lord.
I mean, I support them acting as if their heads and hearts were weak points, a territory lord won't know about their cores, but the lord will certainly sense that their pain is fake.
Oh well, maybe they're trying to give the territory lord the impression of being rookies in the field of divine bettling.
Using raw divinity, they pushed out the shadowed waters, piercing and infecting their bodies, and speedily regenerated.
James and Sislohrie started their job as the spear's tip and carved a clear path for their group to tread their way to Atlantis. After the greeting in the form of their shadows turning on them, and the water walls surrounding them rampaging, they took certain precautions.
Emma created a swarm of fist-sized white stars that surrounded each of them in a way to eliminate any shadow cast by a Therion.
Yelena froze the water-walls, and Kitty changed the laws to allow her ice to freeze any shadow mixed with water; that way, Yelena's ice could freeze the darkened waters.
Yao was casting a divine scouting spell to track the sources of the territory, and Seraph was leaving [Script] as breadcomes behind them.
When the tunnel of frozen darkened waters made it to Atlantis, none of its splendor could be appreciated.
Atlantis is not exactly the oldest city on Earth, but it may as well be. Gaea and her siblings were the first to spawn on Earth, 'birthed' by the Demiurge.
They were the first and only inhabitants of Earth for a long time before the first saplings of [Life] bloomed under Gaea's care.
They were not the type of beings who would build edifications. Now that I think about it, even though we share some similarities, I'm different in that regard. I have my Halo (Dragon Nest) and anything that came afterward.
That stray thought aside, though, the first 'species' to roam Earth were the Elder Gods, the Deviants built the first civilizations—and, some time later, the hunted humans who were confined to the continent of Atlantis.
When the Great Cataclysm befell the world, Lemuria, the main Deviant continent, and Atlantis sank to the bottom of the sea.
Obviously, the civilizations populating the surface collapsed, including Atlantis, so it is not accurate to call the current Atlanteans the same as the ones from back then, but still, Atlantis is the oldest human city on Earth.
As the oldest city on Earth, magic was not buried by the passing of the eras.
Atlantis lived through the birth and rise of magic. The first great sorcerers were Atlanteans, and, for this Earth, those sorcerers were the ones who created the first Order of Sorcerers.
Atlantis rode the wave of science and technology ages before humans rolled the first wheel or wielded the first stick spear.
In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to claim that by the time the first humans discovered pants, Atlantis had a similar level of technology to humanity pre-WWI.
So, what type of city was Atlantis supposed to be? A wondrous sight, technology and magic almost undistinguishable from each other, a small city with traits of magnificent empires like my Imperium.
The bright colors and alien structures characteristic of coral reefs, the dark blues of the deep ocean illuminated by magical lights, towering structures housing the Atlanteans like the 'uplifted' beings they were, and, due to the buoyant force of water that was magically supported at these depths, the city was tridimensional, with artificial water currents that allowed the citizens move in three dimension without the need to enter their edification from the base.
I'm not ashamed to state that when we first built our underwater city for my mermaids on Halo, we took inspiration from the various Atlantises across the multiverse, because I liked the city that much.
Yet, that's not what welcomed my Therions.
First of all, the territory remained allergic to photons, so the only light sources were the constellations Emma created.
With the dulled reflections their eyes caught, a picture of the end of the world was painted.
If Earth had been a water world, and humanity had evolved on it as the Atlanteans did, and suddenly the Apocalypsis befell this supposed civilization, this would be it.
It was a weird form of apocalypse, I admit. The shadows, the ones that were more than the simple absence of light, were eating away at Reality by the seams.
The Atlanteans, who came in varied forms and colors, more than the humans above—who were all the same but with different gradients of brown (melanin)—floated or sank unconscious.
The shadows, like the perverted tendrils of slime I saw in that hentai world, licked at the humanoids greedily, trying to eat their [Reality Factor] off of them and gain access to their cores ([Souls]).
The magnificent underwater towers and spires looked like a depiction of what would happen if a plague of eldritch worms had taken each a bite. These edifications, by all accounts of the laws of Reality (Physics), should have collapsed, but were kept afoot by the corruption of these same laws.
There were sections of the corrupted space-time turning into something like the void outside Realities, different but similar. It was empty of what most mortals consider 'things' and incompatible with Existence.
This actually felt like... Father-in-law? Not quite the same as Boss Oblivion, but different. Like the primordial void before creation... Is the shadowy guy a Dark Elf? But aside from Malekith, I don't recall another powerhouse among their kind, and even the Accursed would pale in comparison.
Comparing Malekith with this shadowy guy would be like comparing Johnny Storm with Senior Sister, simply because both wield fire. Utterly disproportionate.
"I can't sense anything," James said while furrowing his brows in deep concentration. "Or, more like, can I only sense evil all around us. I can't determine a source."
He reached for the shadows and whinced before pulling back. "These 'shadows' don't fall under the definition of my shadows. At least the ones inside the city don't."
Sislohrie floated with a concerned mien and reached for the aquatic aspect of these darkened waters. "I can still influence the waters, but I feel resistance."
"Like a clash of sovereignty with another deity?" Yao asked while she and Seraph were inscribing with mad abandon.
"Yes, I feel like I'm clashing with Poseidon for control of the [Water]," Sislohrie explained while concentrating. "Yelena, can you guard me while I disrupt them? This will take all of my attention."
Yelena nodded and stood next to her.
Then, all shadows faltered for a moment, and, even from this distance, I felt the hostility of the territory spike and aim at my Therions.
"Shit!" Kitty exclaimed. She felt the laws of Reality crumple like paper and exploded in a purplish divine light. She pushed out as much divinity as she could.
Sislohrie was the next one; her body was shrouded in a fuchsia glow, and her divinity spread like a shockwave along with Kitty's.
Next came Seraph's and Yao's turn. They flooded the Script they had been branding all across the territory with their reserves of my energy.
The script activated immediately, and an iridescent glow began to spread from the path they had carved out to the rest of the territory like a spillage of crude oil through a negative filter.
Wherever the iridescent glow of the Script passed, the darkened waters were warped back into what they should have been: simple oceanic water.
However, the propagation was slow, and the oceans of the planet were vast.
"Not enough," a voice rang. It echoed from any molecule of dark water. It was a voice that sounded strained, not lofty. "You won't stop us. You can't stop us."
The voice was not wrong. Sislohrie, Kitty, Yao, and Seraph were effectively out of combat, simply sustaining what they had accomplished. That left Yelena, James, and Emma to face off against Poseidon and the shadowy guy.
Maybe, considering that their power levels were not so apart, it could be argued that they were matched. But my Therions were inside their enemies' territory, and the deities of this Reality were far more experienced than they were.
Additionally... Poseidon belonged to a pantheon. I ignore the origins of the shadowy guy; I doubt he has a pantheon, but I know that Poseidon belongs to Olympus.
Hercules, Athena, and... the Hestia of this world were clear on the stand of the remaining Olympians on me and the Drachantheon Therion; they hated us to the bone.
Hades and Zeus were gone, and Poseidon was almost ended by the suit of armor I lent Stark. And, I believe Poseidon, if he was not a complete idiot, possibly informed his fellow deities that I kidnapped Hercules, Athena, and Hestia, to rile them up.
What I'm getting at is that my Therions aren't fighting while assuming that only two deities are their enemies.
Now that I think about it, could this shadowy guy be the Erebus of this Reality? It would make sense, the Nyx of this Reality was powerful enough to source a Destroyer Armor that was able to house a Beyonder in its Cosmic Cube state, and Erebus is supposed to be her brother/husband.
According to the lore, Nyx and Erebus were born from Chaos... But that's the myth, Nyx comes from Outside, and Chaos is not exactly an entity here. It would not make sense for them to be related to Chthon, who comes to mind when I think of the word chaos.
The other one I can picture would be Oblivion's Spawn... Wait, is it him? The Chaos King? But he doesn't have any relationship with Erebus or Nyx... Besides, he is a singular entity, and I know for a fact that he should have been sealed by Hercules in the mainstream world... So, no, it can't be the Chaos King. And if it were him, at my current level, he would have undone me and cast me to The Void.
Could it be that the Erebus of this Reality is overpowered like that? But, if so, why didn't he act before I arrived here?
... No, it's possible that he just arrived, when my fight with Kubos destabilized this Doomed Reality... So an invader?
Fucking Reality!
No, that's not fair for this little Doomed Reality; it is not to be blamed for getting invaded. It is the victim, and the victim is not at fault!
Still... Oblivion's Spawn would fit the profile I compiled of the shadowy guy... Except for the part of the power level, but maybe it's weakened, like I am.
James lifted his left hand in a halting sign, and a divine spear was halted midair by his telekinesis about a breadth away from his palm.
He mixed raw divinity with his psionic energy and powerfully closed his hand into a fist. The spear crackled, resisted, ondulated, and cried like nails to a chalkboard before it was compressed into a crumpled sphere.
A magic madala sparked to life, and he cast, "Ad Auctorem Revertatur."
It was a fancy spell Wandabus created about 296,000 years ago. Originally, it was meant as a tracking spell, but after Spark modified it, it became a spell that hijacked cause and effect to return the effect to the point of origin of the cause. In simpler terms, it returned targets to the sender.
The compressed ball shot back at relativistic speeds, and then it disappeared in between the seams of the space-time mesh of the corrupted territory.
A bright star was born about half an oceanic world away, and from the explosion of divine fire, Ares flew away. About 30% of his body appeared burned, yet the battlelust was not dimmed from his eyes.
I reached with my telekinesis to deport his soul out of his body; at the same time, I felt the shadowy guy reach for my Therions.
The aim was clear to anybody; if I prioritized Ares over my Therions, they would perish.
"Ha!" I scoffed loudly.
It appears the shadowy guy knew little of me and mine.
Without hesitation, I reached for Ares and flooded his body with my psionic energy.
He was a god. A god of Earth-5H1N3. He sensed something, perhaps my psionic energy, maybe his impending demise, or possibly his instincts warned him. He made a start to... something, I don't know what he wanted to do, but it was already too late.
My energy located his [Spirit] and I grabbed it. I pulled, and with the last vestiges of control over his body, he declared, "I pray all my divinity to Poseidon." His body then transformed into a red star; he detonated it.
At the same time, his divinity exited, and it rushed back to Atlantis, but... the shadowy guy intercepted it, because I saw the shadows swallow it. That confirmed it, the shadowy guy was not with the Olympians, so maybe not Erebus.
Ares' body exploded, and I was too busy to contain the explosion, so with it, it took a small section of the Angolan coast. Luckily, it was a small part of the desert section, so I didn't sense more than a few dozen lives extinguished.
Then came the cries of pain of the shadowy guy, and a section of the territory was erased via my energy.
My anger spiked as I sensed James' and Kitty's core appear within me.
It was the smart choice, I can give the shadowy guy that.
James was the strongest of them, and Kitty was the most annoying, as she was redoing the laws the shadowy guy was corrupting.
However, it miscalculated. Kitty and James followed my advice and blew themselves up when they realized they had been kidnapped and separated from the others.
Still... Fucking Shit! I will need to find a replacement for the water that was erased.
While I was regretting my upcoming extra work, Yelena and Sislohrie went ballistic.
Script lit up all over Yelena's skin, and she turned into an energy being.
Sislohrie opened her mouth and the energy Yelena dived into it.
I do not know of this... Ah, okay, now I understand. My Therions are all crazy... How cute.
Script began to glow all over Sislohrie, not unlike Yelena's. Her body contorted in pain, and then she cast an original spell through her divinity.
As the entire territory was frozen solid, in other words, as the oceans of the planet became solid divine ice and the planet was pushed into an Ice Age from one second to the other, Sislohrie's body crumpled into dust, and I sense both their cores appear within me.
Seraph, Yao, and Emma released sighs of relief, and I stopped fighting the territory's expansion.
Both vulpine goddesses and my cute daughter returned to inscribing.
I appeared next to them and asked, "Since when can you guys use each other as fuel for spells? I thought you guys didn't like using sacrificial spells."
"Spark, Seraph, Agatha, Wanda, and I created them not even a year ago," Yao answered. My daughter nodded.
"As you can see, they have not been perfected, but I don't think we can perfect them beyond this point, Father," Seraph chirped, her hands, the dozen she had grown, didn't stop inscribing.
"I said we needed additional supporting spells," Emma added. "But Wanda and Agatha stated that if we turned the spell into a ritual, it would lose its battle-applicability."
"Did you base it on my Opus Genus spell to conceptualize targets?" I asked. It was similar to how my spell could conceptualize a target into its true form, as I had done with Kubos returning it to a Cosmic Cube, except it turned targets into energy.
"That was Wanda's idea," Seraph nodded.
"Agatha and I were working on simplifying that spell to make a usable version for us, but Wanda suggested that instead of reducing something into anything that represented the target's conceptualization, we could reduce it to a single option, energy," Yao explained.
Emma began using her tails, hands, and feet to aid in the inscribing, and I also got to the task. We needed to return the oceans to what they were supposed to be, not this tar!
"Are they okay, Father?" Seraph asked with :Concern: leaking into her question.
"Yes, I have their cores within me," I reassured her. "I drop them into their new bodies later."
"Maybe you should drop the cat's core into a mortal body," Emma snickered. "She's still grounded, is she not?"
"Hehehe!" Seraph chuckled, and I saw an amused smile on Yao.
"If we were not at war, I would have," I mirthfully said.
An hour later, the territory had been undone, and we stood around a statue of ice: Poseidon, or what was left of him.
"What happened to him?" Seraph asked.
It was difficult to explain his state. He had certainly perished, no doubt. The thing was that his existence had been mauled. Not that his body had bite marks, his [Existence], most of it anyway, had bite marks, and a few chunks had been bitten off.
"He is gone," I declared. "It was as if I had tried to erase some of his Existence."
"It's horrible." Emma looked away.
Whatever Yao was about to say died in her throat when we sensed a portal opening next to us.
Selene walked through the portal with a concerning expression.
Without having to prompt her, she informed, "Shiklah reached out to me. She reeked of panic and said that she would join me. Initially, I thought that Deadpool's whispers had done the trick, and she was frightened by you. Then Deadpool said that they barely escaped from a thing that ate Lilith."
"Lilith?" I asked.
"Apparently, Shiklah was approached by her. I think she wanted to pull her to her pantheon's side, the Annunaki," Selene said.
"Her pantheon?" Emma asked, confused. "I thought she was a demon, and if affiliated with a pantheon, it would have been Yaweh's."
"No, she was in Hell for a while, then at some point she was one of the deities of Atlantis, and later on she joined the Sumerian deities when Atlantis' Deities began to be forgotten," Yao explained.
"Yep, she is one of the Annunaki," I affirmed before turning back to Selene. "Did they catch a glimpse of it?"
"Shiklah didn't, her instincts warned her, but Deadpool did," Selene replied. Her face turned complicated before she added, "I thought about taking a peek at his mind, but I felt revolted immediately after."
"... Sigh." Yeah, everything is complicated when it comes to Wade Wilson. "I'll take a look later, maybe we'll find something worth it if his thing-he-calls-a-mind didn't twist the memory."
I feel so overworked.
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{A/N:
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