Chương 72: Tribunal 7
This world is cruel, filled with endless pain
But even so, I will love you every day
No matter what I must sacrifice
I'll keep you safe. I alone will pay the price.
The shadows of those who were chosen,
The corpses of those who were discarded.
I realized that I had, growing deep inside,
A Child of Evil in my heart.
Birthed from my righteousness and all my sacrifice...
A Child of Evil made their start!
********
Zippy was pissed.
"Does your disrespect know no limits?" Zeus snarled at me.
"I have no limits," I smirked, taking another sip of my beer. "But I also wasn't the one to set up this little get-together. You all want something. I want to know what it is. I think our best bet is for you to tell me what that is, so I can start telling you no."
"Hey man," Shazam 'whispered' to me. In this room, everyone could hear him, so I don't know why he bothered. "Can you tone it down a bit? Me and the doctor have been trying to keep things civil. We don't want to start a fight. That will end badly. For everyone."
"Tell that to the Amazons," I gestured to the portal/scrying spell Dr. Fate kept open to Themyscria. It was an ingenious way to get around Information Defence. That only protected against remote viewing, but if someone opened a magical door between two places and made it invisible on one side, there was no reason they couldn't simply look through. It bothered me that I had no idea how long they had been doing this.
I thought I had been better since the whole 'Glory Girl Revival' incident, what with my illusions and whatnot, but clearly, I had not been paranoid enough.
...What the fuck was wrong with this world if I am not being paranoid enough.
On the other side portal, the Amazons were beset by waves, blades, and other water projectiles. One went down, smashed by the waves and ripped from the land into the dark water.
Dr. Fate watched it impassively, as did the gods, but I saw Shazam clench his fist and grit his teeth.
Not that I was any better.
My hand clenched tightly on my beer as I saw Diana smash a piece of stone the size of a house tossed by the waves that would have crashed into Robin.
I would just have to trust that my Family could handle themselves.
I honestly didn't think either Behemoth or Leviathan were too much of a threat to my wives specifically, but situations could change, and fear wasn't rational. Not being able to be out there, helping put down threats, was driving me spar.
But there was wisdom in Shazam's earlier words.
I needed information, and acting like a petty little shit wouldn't get it.
"You will forgive me, but I trust you all can understand my ire at being summoned in such a duplicitous manner. Whether it be the attempt earlier today or having a war god appear before me, neither situation was in keeping with proper hospitality."
Far from understanding, none of the gods even looked sympathetic. In fact, most looked more insulted than when I had called Zeus Zippy.
Except for Horus.
I had no idea how to read 'bird head' facial features.
"When gods speak, mortals need but to listen."
I stared at Yu-Huang for a second with pursed lips.
So it would be like that, would it?
"Then speak, and I will listen," I said, letting the emotions drain from my face so they couldn't see the roiling contempt I was feeling at the moment.
"We have watched thee, Mikael," Izanami spoke. To keep up appearances, I turned to look at him. He spoke like Ranni, though I knew it was in proto-Japanese, closer to when it diverged from Chinese, and my brain was just translating it to a format I could understand. "Since thy arrival on this planet, this council has kept a vigil on thy actions, lest thee become a threat to Our garden."
"Your very existence is a blow to this world's natural order," Vishnu continued without missing a beat. "Plans set into motion thousands of years ago, prophecies that must be fulfilled for the safety of this world, all were destroyed when you arrived."
"Your nature, you cannot help," Horus took up the speech. His voice flowed easily, despite the lack of lips. I bet he was one of those hen-pecked husbands. Just a feeling I got. "Your actions, you can. This realm stands upon a precipice."
"We know of your power," Yu-Huang said, but there was a mocking way he spoke, though I couldn't place why. "We know the might of your Court. Ranni. Scathach. Diana of Themyscria. Trigon's brood. Powerful consorts for a powerful faction."
"Power unchecked is a threat," Zeus proclaimed. "Power directed is a weapon. It needs must only determine who wields said weapon and against what it is brandished."
"The Council of Skyfathers has summoned you so you might right your wrongs," Vishu spoke again. "That what is lost shall never be regained. Such is the impermanence of the world. But that which is might still be used to gain more."
"In Our magnanimity and under the council of the avatar of order and Shazam, We hath decided that thee might serve the world in the coming battle, so long as thee prove not a lowborn ingrate."
"Join us and prosper," Horus 'chirped' (heh). "Continue to act the kur, and We will drive you from Our shores as we have so many others."
"You are mighty, but you are no Pheonix. No Galactus. No Celestial. No Imperiex. No Starro the Conqueror."
"The Council of Skyfathers has protected this world for eons," Zeus picked up from Yu-Huang. "We, who have guided mankind since its infancy and protected them from the dangers of the beyond, will continue to do so. Aid us in the endeavour, or we shall be forced to deal with you as we have many other threats to this world."
Join us or die.
How refreshing.
Sure, it was couched in moralistic terms, preemptive defence, and all that, but that was what it boiled down to. Also key was the people they mentioned. Of my wives, all the ones they mentioned were those tied to the Divine or powerful entities they were aware of. There was a Scathach in comics, a Goddess from the Hyborian age, but I had felt no need to poke the divine hornet's nest.
Instead, it looked like it had come buzzing without invitation.
And they weren't just trying to recruit me, but my Family as well. Possibly why they had invited Diana to Themyscira, to try and coerce her to join as well.
That was before they sicced an Endbringer on the island.
Suddenly I felt nostalgic for Trigon.
I bet he would have taken a beer.
"I am not opposed to working to defend the earth," I answered, keeping my emotions from my face.
I wasn't even lying. So long as I was in this dimension, the Earth was my home. It's where I kept my stuff, and there were a few people I liked here.
"Great!" Shazam said quickly. "Easily settled. We're all on the same side! Now if your Radiencies don't mind, I am just going to go help."
It honestly did look like Shazam was about to fly through the portal to help.
Zeus held up a hand.
"Hold, Champion. We have not dismissed you yet. Neither has an answer been given." Shazam looked frustratedly between the attack on Themyscira and the god but eventually took a deep breath and bowed.
"Apologies for my haste," he said, putting that Wisdom of Solomon to good use. "The duty I have been entrusted with, protecting the world and its inhabitants, is very important to me."
"Your devotion to your cause does you justice, Champion," Horus answered. "But there is no greater threat on Earth than the one before you now. Until it is addressed, the planet will never be safe."
"The Tools will be repelled, as they have been before," Vishnu told the still-concerned hero.
Shazam didn't look happy but kept his mouth shut for the moment.
It helped that the portal showed that the Amazons had retreated behind a barrier Scathach had made and were no longer in imminent danger.
That, and the brief break in my role in the discussion, allowed me to clear my head a little.
"Look at Trigon," I started, and all eyes returned to me. "Or Doomsday. I've already defended the Earth."
"Your consorts felled the Ultimate," Horus pointed out. "You only provided the weapon."
"And thy usurpation of the Lord of Madness is more a mark against thee, than proof of thy virtue," Izanagi waived my point away.
"You act only when your women bid you," Yu-Huang sneered. "And should they bid you destroy? What guarantee have we that you will not fall prey to their honeyed words?"
I had to blink at that one. A lot to unpack there. Was he being sexist or just disappointed I was 'whipped?'
It could go either way, knowing what I did of Chinese mythology.
To be fair, no god in this room came from a society historically known for their equal treatment of women.
It didn't matter, though. There would always be those who thought a man doing things for the women he loved made them 'weak' or some bullshit.
Ultimately, I didn't care if someone was misogynistic, misandristic, or misanthropic. Someone could be a rampant mass murderer, and I would still not give a shit if it didn't involve me or mine.
But these bastards had done so.
I mentally counted down, calming myself once more.
"Guarantee?" I asked.
Depending on what they asked for, I might just give it to them for the moment.
Even if Rule Breaker didn't work on Divine Constructs, no magical contract could hold me, no matter how powerful.
I could make whatever promises they wanted, go kick some Endbringer ass, and then get revenge later.
My revenge wouldn't be quick, in either sense of the word, but I was a patient man by nature.
And, when I wasn't surrounded by a handful of the most powerful being on this planet, I would have enough time to get... creative with what I'd do to them.
So long as the price wasn't egregious, I could play along for a while.
But the gods were not the only ones in the room with me.
"Trust not its word nor its promise," Dr. Fate spoke up, not taking his eyes off his portal. "It may not be a Lord of Chaos, but its nature is not so far removed from them. They have ways around any deal or contract. Be it in letter or in spirit."
"You have cautioned before, Avatar of Order," Vishnu rumbled. I got the feeling the gods didn't like to be told to 'be careful.' "We do not fear the beast. But its use cannot be overlooked in the coming war."
I didn't even blink as he casually mentioned 'using' me.
"What sort of guarantee are we talking about here?" I pressed.
"A token of your commitment, a symbol of your word to defend this world," Yu-Huang rumbled.
"A sacrifice and offering," Zeus added. "Actions speak louder than any promise or contract."
I was getting fed up with the lack of straight answers here, but thankfully I wasn't the only one.
"Your sword," Ares declared simply, getting glares from the gods, but he was unrepentant. "They want your sword."
"Thy whelp continues to be ever the rebellious son, We see," Izanagi mocked Zeus. "At least thy brother knows to hold tongue."
As much as I wanted to see them descend into bickering, I still needed some clarification.
"Which sword?" I had a good idea of which one they were talking about, but I wanted to make sure.
I had a lot of blades, some meaning more to me than others. A peril of having fought for so long. If they just wanted a symbolic sacrifice of a powerful weapon, I had a few boss weapons that didn't mean much to me that I could give up without too much remorse.
"THE Sword," Horus almost spat the word. Which was impressive considering he was, again, a bird head with no lips. "The one which slew The Ultimate."
The Godslaying Blade.
The one I had lent Diana to kill Doomsday.
"Why that one in particular? I have other weapons, just as powerful," I asked, wondering if I had ever actually used its name in a public setting. I thought I had been pretty careful about that.
"That blade is an accursed abomination," Yu-Huang said, his disgust for me deepening as he spoke. "A foul instrument of evil. Its very existence goes against the Will of Heaven."
"We had called the Avatar of Order to speak with Us about you," Vishnu continued. "Despite his misgivings and your destruction of all prophecies, he spoke in your favour. Your mercy to the defenders of this world when you could have slain them and your removal of one of the Enemy's Tools heightened your use in Our eyes. But using such a profane weapon cannot be tolerated, even should it be turned upon the foes of this world."
"A sacrifice," Zeus repeated. It didn't look like any of them would take no for an answer. "One to rid the world of something so foul. And a show of commitment."
"Hmm," I made a show of humming in thought, which they didn't like. I get the feeling most people either said yes to these guys or were quickly smitten. Instant gratification for the win. "Before I make any promises, I have a few questions."
"You would dare?"
I didn't know what had affronted the Chinese god and, to a lesser extent, the others. That I would ask questions? That I could possibly say no? That I wasn't brain dead enough to enter an agreement for who knows how long to fight who knows what?
There was something off about this whole situation, and not just their willingness to throw the Amazons under the bus to get me.
It was like we were operating in two different worlds.
Yes, I probably couldn't take a whole council of Skyfathers together on top of Dr. Fate, Shazam and two powerful Olympians, but neither were they in a position to threaten me.
As far as they should be aware, I was not only immortal but could also make myself completely intangible to them if I wanted to run away, so how would they hurt me?
Unless I kept the conversation going, I wouldn't find out anything.
"Would you rather an ignorant soldier or an educated general?" I asked rhetorically.
There was a beat of silence, and I thought the gods would attack me.
Seriously, no chill.
Dr. Fate surprisingly spoke up.
"There is wisdom in his words," the helmeted mage told the gods softly, and they slightly relaxed as he continued. "Allow me, your Radiencies."
"We give you permission, Avatar of Order."
"Of course." Rather than take affront to Horus' curt words, one of the world's greatest Sorcerers gave me a Ted Talk. "Some thirty years ago, the population of Supers worldwide started to grow. While this was concurrent with the rise in the mutant population, that only accounted for a fraction of the numbers."
"The Entities," I said, and Dr. Fate tilted his head. "Sorry, it's just the name I know them as. Strange called them Worms."
"A not incorrect translation of their name given by the Shi'ar," Dr. Fate nodded. "The literal meaning is 'pest that rots from within,' but I can see why shortening it would behoove easy use. No matter what you call them, the fact remains that they are vermin and parasites of a multidimensional nature. Giving power then harvesting the local species."
"How'd they get to earth, or an alternate version of it at least, if you guys were defending it?" I asked, and the gods bristled. Dr. Fate forestalled anything they would say.
"It is not the duty of the Council of Skyfathers to protect worlds upon which there is no life. They entrusted the duty of investigating the pests to the Sorcerer Supreme of the time. She returned with findings indicating they were not a threat. The way the weaves of fate were changing was of more concern, and the Council let them be. Prophets the world over, divine or mystic, all started warning about impending doom."
"Isn't that like Tuesday for you guys? 1Hell, I've only been here a few months and already dealt with Doomsday and Trigon, if we are not counting the Endbringers."
"Trigon, a Demon Lord who had conquered multiple realities, had two, perhaps three, prophesies foretelling his arrival," Dr. Fate said seriously. "Every prophet who could peer into the weave, regardless of race, religion, or belief, felt the coming apocalypse. Even those from other planets. Be they a street hustler reading palms, to the greatest of Oracles, none were spared the vision of the end that was approaching this world."
"From the Worms?" I asked, seriously doubting that. "As far as I knew, they were the multidimensional equivalent of cavemen with laser guns. Power but no creativity. A threat but only for those unprepared." Then again, I could be wrong. This was a different reality, after all.
"As if the vermin would pose a threat to Us." Izanagi scoffed.
"No," Dr. Fate continued. "Their arrival simply coincides with the first of the prophecies. They were brain-dead husks, little more than bodies automatically creating more 'Supers' to feed a cycle that would never go on. The Council allowed them to live to increase the defenders of this world. Before your arrival, all prophecies indicated that the Earth needed as many heroes as it could produce to survive."
"But the Endbringers are their creations," I pointed out, just as I had to Strange.
"Yes," Dr. Fate nodded with a grimace. "We had been... unaware of that fact until you brought that fact up to Dr. Strange. That is one of the reasons I speak now in your favour. For all that your nature invites disorder, your actions have been largely directed to the preservation of Order rather than its ruin. Once Strange told me of their origins, I set out to the empty version of Earth the Ancient One claimed to hold the two beings. I found nothing."
I wish I could say I was surprised, but I wasn't. Ever since I had considered the possibility of a Stranger Endbringer, I had accepted that there was no way the Entities were as braid dead as Strange claimed. You do not put much thought into a contingency if you are working on autopilot.
"Signs pointed to their long inhabitation of the planet, and my spells proved they had lain there for decades, but I found no indication they had been there in years."
"So they had been there," I verified, and Dr. Fate nodded. "Did they heal and leave for another dimensional version of Earth?"
It wasn't impossible. Eden in Worm had been in the process of healing when Contessa had put a stop to it thanks to her Path to Victory. But for the Ancient One to miss something like that?
"It is possible but unlikely. I was unable to track them down, which indicates a grasp of magic such creatures lack. More likely, something or someone found the creatures and bent them to purpose. Six years ago, in all probability, when the Endbringers first appeared."
"And you believe whoever or whatever did so is the doom your prophets foretold before I arrived, which means you are starting recruitment in earnest." Things were starting to come together now, at least a few things. But that still left unanswered questions. "What about Leviathan? How did you get it to attack Themyscira if it belongs to this enemy?"
"One man's Tool, even belonging to the Enemy, may be used for other purposes. Though the beast is of great power, the seas remain Poseidon's domain," Zeus said plainly as if the answer should be obvious. "The creatures react violently when disturbed. He only needed to agitate it and lead it to the island."
"But why?" I asked, tapping a finger impatiently. "Why kill the Amazons? Why this blackmail style? Why the lies and false pretenses? I would have been happy to talk if you had just asked."
"Gods do not ask, they declare."
"Mortals need only heed their protector's, their Gods' will."
"When they defy that will, they are punished."
"This Council, in Our wisdom, conveyed Our will to the women of Themyscira."
"The Amazons failed me, and so judgment was rendered. Should they survive the beast, they will have proven their might and dedication. I shall again render them my protection for their faith at that time."
There it was.
The simple truth that I had been struggling to puzzle out this entire time.
Perhaps it was who I had always been, perhaps it was my knowledge of comic books, or maybe my time in Soulsborne worlds, facing the likes of Gwyn, the Elden Beast, or the Moon Presence, but I simply did not see gods as anything different than anything or anyone else.
I saw gods as merely more powerful beings than normal mortals. Their lack of aging wasn't uncommon, nor were they necessarily more powerful than some Supers. They were just a race, one that could make mistakes, fight, and die.
The End came for everyone, Amazon, God, or Dragon. There was no escaping it. Everything that had a beginning had an end. Whether it was at the hand of some nebulous prophecized doom, when someone more powerful killed you, or when the multi-verse ended.
At the end of the game, the king and the pawn returned to the same box.
Each of the five gods upon thrones, and the two at the base of Zeus', did not see anything wrong with the treatment of the Amazons. They were simply subjects that defied orders and were punished for it.
Hippolyta had stood up to me, even when I had threatened her, for the sake of her people and her belief. She had, in her own way, been protecting the gods from themselves.
A loyal dog, to the end.
I had respected that, even if I hated it, and, combined with the desire to keep Diana happy, I had left Themyscira without a fight.
And her wisdom had been betrayed by the very beings she had sought to protect.
Whether I agreed to this deal or not, I do not think these beings ever considered I could kill them.
Sure, they were trying to recruit me, but like the Amazons before me, I was simply another mortal. Powerful enough to warrant caution, but not an actual threat.
In some twisted way, I could see why they would think that.
I do not think they were lying about their defence of Earth. Dr. Fate and Shazam would not be here, listening to their dismissal at the loss of lives with a frown and tightened fists, if the Council of Skyfathers was not essential protectors for the planet in a universe so dangerous.
I wasn't the Pheonix, Galaticus, or any of the other threats they had mentioned.
I wasn't a god, a hero, or a monster, even if my actions and powers could qualify me as any of the three.
I was simply me.
That is all I had ever desired to be.
Free to be me.
Just a few final questions, and I could let go.
"Earlier, you said I was the greatest threat. Why? Wouldn't this 'enemy' be it instead?"
"An external enemy is less a threat than a duplicitous ally."
I didn't actually disagree with that idea, but I looked around for a more convincing answer than the one Yu-Huang gave me.
He didn't appreciate my dismissal but held his tongue when Zeus answered as well.
"All oracles agreed. So long as the defenders of Earth stood ready, and the heroes of this world grew in number and power, the enemy would be vanquished as so many had before."
"And I messed that prophecy up by showing up," I nodded. A prophecy was great when it predicted victory, even if it came at a cost. A gift of morale, if nothing else.
I was down to my last few questions.
Asking about the Stranger Endbringer wouldn't do anything since if they knew, Shazam and Dr. Fate would as well.
What about the other threats that have been facing my Family?
"You have watched me for a while, right? Do you guys know anything about the Hand, who orchestrated the theft at the Sanctum Sanctorum, or anything at all about who has been targeting my Family?"
"Of what do you speak?" Horus asked. Maybe with a frown? Maybe with a glare? Who knows.
"I know of what he asks, your Randiencies," Dr. Fate answered in my stead, then turned to me. "It has been through me that we have watched you from your appearance in Australia to today. We have been observing every time you leave your home, judging whether you will be a threat to this world. We have no knowledge of any foe of yours that you do not."
So they found me based on appearance and likely didn't know about all the times I had left on dates with the girls under an illusion. Good to know.
"ENOUGH!" Zeus ponded two fists onto his throne's armrest. "You have delayed enough! Give us your answer and the blade, or you shall be judged."
"Two more questions, and I will," I said, my emotions still not showing on my face. "One of them is pertaining to the deal itself. What is the deal with the empty throne? I do not want to make a deal if it will not be honoured by someone who isn't present."
The five gods grimaced, and I got the feeling it was the subject of annoyance for them all.
"Odin is... occupied," Vishnu said delicately. "His eldest is ever the problem child, unwilling to remain away from the mortal realm for long. But should you give your word, he will abide by this Council's ruling."
That willey old goat.
Whether I agreed to the deal or not, I wouldn't be happy. By using his son as an excuse, he had managed to stay out of the way of any fallout from this debacle.
Odin had always been one of the wisest of gods.
"Just the one question left then," I said and turned, not to the thrones but to the one person in this room who hadn't said a single word this entire time. "Poseidon. What happened to Atlantis?"
"I do not know, nor do I care." The voice was flat, completely apathetic.
Zeus gave his brother a questioning look but decided I was the more pressing topic.
"We have tolerated your whim and answered your questions. Sacrifice the blade and join us, or face the Council of Godheads! Choose!"
I remained reclining in my chair, but I withdrew the Godslaying Blade.
It was a straight sword, simple in design, unlike most of my other weapons. If one looked closely, one could see its blade was made of stone, but it glistened like metal. Golden runes, faint to all but the most discerning, flickered in and out of existence along its blade.
There was a weight to the blade despite its relatively small size.
This was a weapon with a history, with power.
Forged from the body of an Elden Lord and the Elden Rune, this sword had slain a God.
The reactions were immediate.
Ares' sword was drawn in an instant. All the gods upon their thrones tightened their fists or grasped their weapons. Shazam took a step back, but that was all.
Poseidon did not even blink.
The most violent reaction came from, perhaps unsurprisingly, Dr. Fate.
"What have you done!?" Whatever goodwill that had existed between us that meant the mage spoke in my defence seemed to have disappeared as he stared, wide-eyed in horror, at my sword. His voice, ordinarily dignified and coming in controlled cantor, was high and reedy. "What blasphemy have you wrought!"
"Do you know what this sword is called?" I asked softly as I ran a finger along its edge, ignoring the shock. My voice was conversational, devoid of all the emotion as it had been for a while.
I knew why Fate was so horrified by it, even compared to the gods.
"The Godslaying Blade," Shazam answered, looking between me, my sword, and the good doctor who had placed the portal between him and me as if as a shield. "You called it that when you gave it to your Wonder Woman to kill Doomsday."
So that's where they heard it.
To think, all this was caused by a sword that the world would have never known about if Artoria and Diana hadn't stepped forward. If I hadn't promised to support them no matter what, maybe the gods would have been content to leave me be if I didn't have this sword.
If they were not scared, maybe this wouldn't have happened.
Fear was a powerful motivator, and without it, who knows what could have been.
It always amazed me how little things could set off a chain of events with massive repercussions.
One night, and one Family conversation, had set dominoes into motion to change the world.
"Did you know it was made by a mortal?" I asked rhetorically. "At the behest of a goddess? Well, that is not strictly true. She didn't ask for this sword to be made. She forced it into existence by trapping the blacksmith, chaining him to a wall, and forcing her orders, her will, into his mind and soul."
"No wonder it feels like that," Shazam nodded, eyes settling warily on the blade. "He must have hated it."
"He didn't," I corrected. "Though he was forced to make it for her, and it killed the god she wanted to kill, he did not hate the sword. Because he made it for me. I provided the materials, and my hand was the one that swung it. Neither of us can hate our creation. He poured everything into it. His memories. His hopes. His dreams. His wish was for a better future for the woman who called a daughter. His faith in the man he called his Lord. Everything but his life was poured into the Godslaying Blade, and only because he needed to live to give it to me. There was no hatred in that act."
Though Marika had ordered the task, Hewg had made it his own. Just as Melina had done the task assigned her, not because it was her purpose, but of her own will.
The gods had been correct about one thing. Too often, mortals were forced to make the most in the wake of the gods' will.
Control what you can, that is where we can find freedom. Even if the only thing you can control is yourself.
Melina and Hewg had been free, in their own way.
"Then why is it so vile!?"
"The hatred comes from the materials themselves," I continued, fingers trailing over stony crags. "A previous Elden Lord, abandoned by its god, lived beyond time and space before I slew it. Do you know what an Elden Lord is? What this world has been calling me for months? What it really means?"
I had already sunken deep within myself, but I was going further, leaving the memories behind for the moment. The mask, the front I had put up to the world, was peeling away layer by layer. I was holding onto its last remnants, skin-thin protection. Just enough to keep my plan going strong.
It left me feeling wistful, nostalgic even, for when the mask was not needed.
When I formed connections with people.
When I had been human, if not in race, then in mind.
When I had not given up so much to be Free.
"Someone who had claimed the Elden Ring," Shazam answered again. I got the feeling everyone else wasn't talking because they were waiting to kill me if I didn't hand over the sword. The gods had their weapons in hand and were poised to strike. "You explained as much after the Doomsday fight. It is the golden rings in the blue moon, is it not?"
Of all the blessings Shazam had received, be it strength, stamina, speed, or power, I envied only the Courage of Achilies and the Wisdom of Solomon.
There was a reason the two mental blessings came from mortals and not gods.
"An Elden Lord is nothing more or less than a form high priest," I answered. "The holder of the blessing of the Elden Ring empowered to carry out its will by the chosen god of the Elden Beast. I used the body of a previous Elden Lord as the material for this sword, then I killed both the chosen goddess, Marika the Eternal, and the Elden Beast."
I looked at all the gods in turn, seeing how my words disturbed and disgusted them.
"To anyone not involved in the divine, it is just a powerful sword. One that deals wounds that do not heal. To you all? It must feel like everything you hate, all rolled into one. It would be as if I killed your high priests, turned their bodies into weapons, then killed you and followed it by slaying your progenitors with it. Nuwa, Chaos, the Trimurti, Atum, or Amenominakanushi and Kunitokotachi. The weakest of creatures, laying low the most powerful. A complete reversal of the natural Order."
That had been one of the basic principles of the Soulsborne games that I had fallen in love with.
The most wretched, pitiful, weak, and lowly creatures could eventually kill even gods through their willpower alone.
The Godslaying Blade was that idea shaped into form.
I held it out, handle first, to Shazam.
His face was sombre as he grasped the hilt.
I didn't let it go, even when he tried to pull it from me, and the blade split my palms.
No gods were involved in its creation, even if he would have been forced to make it anyway. Just two mortals. Do you know why?" I yanked the hero towards me, blade cutting me to the bone as I leaned forward to whisper in his ear. "Because gods are unnecessary."
Even after everything Gwyn had put me through, Marika had put Hewg through, and everything the Council of Skyfathers had done, I still did not hate gods.
To hate things, you have to care about them in the first place.
Gods might have been necessary at some point. Either as made-up constructs that humans used as allegories to make sense of the world or as real creatures with powers that had served to guide infant humanity in a cold, ambivalent universe.
Either way, they might once have been necessary, but they were not anymore.
Humanity had moved passed needing a parent to protect them and was ready to stand on its own two feet. To deal with the good and the bad that came its way. If a god chose to accept that the world had moved on, to change from a controlling dictator into a comrade, I would even admire them.
I didn't hate gods.
I hated people who refused to change, grow, and learn.
Before today, I hated Hippolyta more than I did Zeus, for she had refused to grow in three millennia of life.
Now? I hated everyone in this room for what they did, represented, and would do.
Well, almost everyone.
My hand laid upon Shazam's shoulder, and he disappeared from Olympus.
My Element could only work under two conditions. I had to be touching them, and they had to want to be Free of whatever I wanted to free them from.
The ocean as a whole, governed by the Parlament of Waves, wanted to be trash free.
Rhino wanted out of his suit.
And Shazam wanted to leave to help the world.
I didn't know where he ended up. I couldn't control that. All I know is that he was Free.
And that Ares had appeared behind me, separating my head from my neck in one swift, smooth motion of his sword as soon as the hero had disappeared.
I fell, blood splattering the white marble floor, my chair, and the Godslaying Blade. The god of war sheathed his weapon and bent down to pick up mine.
"Well done, my son," Zeus said with a grin. "The lizard was too talkative. Bring me the blade."
This was enough, right?
"Hold!" Vishnu ordered. "We must destroy it, here and now. The longer it exists, the greater the possibility the Enemy will steal and use it against Us."
The mask had stayed on for long enough, right?
"And how shall We do that? You feel its foul taint and power."
I could let go, right?
"I am aware of its risk," Zeus answered Yu-Huang. "I shall have Hephastos shatter it in his forge."
None of Mine were here.
"Nay," Izanagi shook his head behind his fan. "Should some fiend gather the pieces to forge it anew? Have Our daughter melt it in her sun's fire."
No civilians they would care about either.
"And risk your son getting his hands on it? Or have you forgotten the trouble he and your people caused mine? No. We destroy it here and now!" Yu-Huang insisted.
It was just me, Dr. Fate, Ares, Poseidon, and the five arguing Skyfathers.
"If I may, your Radiencies? I should be able to seal it until we can bring in a party we can all agree is trustworthy enough to destroy the abomination.
I let go.
The human mind I had built using the memories engraved in my skull by my Life Element receded.
In its place was something Greater.
Ares died covered in his own divine blood, Godslaying Blade separating his head from his shoulders as tentacles held him firm.
The barbs and blades like fins that covered me flittered with joy at the offering of godly ichor.
The gods, one and all, flinched at the sight of me.
I knew I wasn't pretty.
This was not the chibi Cthulu form I had adopted after failing to gain a human body.
This was the body I had inhabited for over thirty-five million years. A child Great One, once only a single worm-like tentacle with tiny feelers, had grown into a true monstrosity.
My body... wasn't.
Oh, I still had a body and still bled, but I was no longer bound to liminal space, human limits, or even the laws of physics. My body flowed into, over, and through itself in rivulets of pale white flesh. Tentacles, tipped with blades and hooks, writhed in and out of reality, and I saw the world from a thousand, thousand eyes. Some were visible, dotting my limbs or blinking into and out of existence like pinpricks of light.
Many more were not. Metaphysical things that only existed in my mind.
I wasn't fully grown as a Great One, but even the gods flinched at the sight of me.
Half my body disappeared, shorn off by a blade of water.
It grew back in the blink of a thousand eyes, my Faith in myself guiding Miracles powered by a well that would never run dry.
I teleported behind the god, but he was prepared. Poseidon's trident severed the first dozen limbs that sought to constrain him, but they regrew around the weapon, enclosing it in supernaturally tough flesh.
I laughed, a wet, blood-filled, and mad laugh as the Godslaying Blade emerged from my flesh, guided by limbs not even H.R. Gieger could dream of, and impaled the sea god in the eye socket, showering me with gore.
Then my laugh stopped, and it was my turn to flinch as Poseidon died.
That wasn't right.
The derailment of my plan, and my surprise, cost me.
Barely an eye blink had passed since I had killed Ares, and already the Skyfathers had recovered from their shock.
The Heavenly Jeweled Spear pierced my core, sending limbs flying in pieces.
Yu-Huang's jiao diced me into giblets.
Vishnu's four clenched fists tore me to shreds.
Horus' fire scorched me to ashes.
Zeus's lightning bolts fried every part of me that existed in reality, a constant bombardment of energy, sound, heat, and pain.
Had I been in my human body, my avatar would have perished.
I wasn't, and my Great One body was only half real, half Dream.
No matter what they did to me physically, the part of me that existed on this plain would only regenerate from the part of the Dream. I would not be slain until they started attacking me with conceptual attacks or from within my own Dream.
My Life element was so against confining this form, as horrific and mind-shattering as it was, to a human body because of how vulnerable it made me.
My flesh reknit around the spear.
Gibets squirmed back together into new limbs.
The bloody tentacles in Vishnu's grasp writhed and wriggled, trying to strangle him.
Horus and Zeus's attacks, which had rendered me unto nothing in this reality, were met with a rain of stars from beyond time and space. Light in the darkness squeezed into and through eyes that did not exist, into a beam that sought to sever divine limbs.
No words were exchanged, no witty banter or puns.
Not from me and not from any of the gods that were tearing me to pieces.
None of my attacks worked.
Not against the Skyfathers in the seat of their power.
Spells were weathered, blades were broken, and the Godslaying Blade was avoided with literal godspeed.
Against one of them, I'd like to think I was tricky enough I could have taken them out.
Against five? It was a fight I was destined to lose.
But fuck destiny. I made my own.
So we kept fighting, and I kept losing and regenerating.
I do not know for how long, though it could have gone on forever if the Skyfathers never found a way to permanently kill me. They seemed to be in no rush, though. For all their power, they were content to keep destroying me repeatedly, likely hoping I would just give up and die.
I think that had been their plan from the very start since I was, by my own words, immortal so long as I willed it.
Break my will, and even an immortal will die.
They didn't know me very well.
I would never go hollow.
It was Dr. Fate who broke the stalemate.
After watching the fight, occasionally throwing in the odd spell that destroyed more of me or trying to trap me, which I just ignored since nothing could hold me, he had been largely passive. A trickle of blood dripped from his nose, a sign that not even an Avatar of Order could look at my form and not face the consequences.
I do not know if he had simply given up or if it was a contingency he had already planned, and that is why he had kept the portal open all along.
All I knew was that I froze when I heard his voice and saw what he was doing.
It didn't mean much, seeing as I was still losing and just focusing on regenerating until I got my chance.
"Wonder Woman!" He called through the portal he had expanded. Through a thousand eyes, I could see what was left of the Amazons, battered, bloody, and wet, standing on the back of a familiar pink dragon. I had no lungs, or I would have breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of Robin, Scathach, and my Diana all alive and well. "Look at it! How do we slay the monster the Elden Lord has become?"
The amazons that survived cried in pain at the sight of me, leaving only four women not holding their heads.
It was a good plan, all things considered.
I had no control over what Wonder Woman's Insight gave her. For all I knew, it would tell her everything there was to know about me, such as that if they really wanted to kill me, they would need to ignore my Avatar, grab their pantheons, and go wrath of god on my body.
If they did, I would have no choice but to flee this reality. Not even my actual body would be able to keep up with every god of the Earth trying to kill me.
It had also unintentionally put me in a bad position.
There was one woman with the will and the means to stop me.
Dr. Fate was the spell caster, so when Schathach tried to launch a spear through the portal, he simply willed it to a new location.
My eyes, most of them at least, were only for my wives.
Robin's arms were crossed, and she seemed to be concentrating.
Line of sight was her requirement, not distance, but I am unsure if that still counted from a separate dimension.
Diana, my Diana, was staring at the monster I had become with wide eyes.
Zeus's lighting casually annihilated more of me, but thirty-seven new tentacles grew and shot lightning right back.
I let the mask come back, dredging up the memories that served as its base from the recesses of my mind.
"Hello, dears," I said conversationally, my voice echoing from everywhere and nowhere. "How'd it go?"
I had never wanted any of them to ever see me like this.
I had always wanted to put my best foot forward for them, metaphorically speaking.
Falling in love is easy. Keeping that love is a constant effort, one I was happy to work at every day.
"It was an interesting challenge, more dredging the beast from the depths than the actual battle," Scathach replied just as casually, spear over one shoulder as her crimson eyes scanned my situation. "I am jealous. Had I known your battle would be like that, I would have joined you and let Raven have the serpent."
"She's keeping the others safe," I answered, not caring that Horus had rendered all my existing body to less than ashes in the wind. I simply regrew it from the void between space and Dream. "The plan changed a bit, as you can see, but I have everything perfectly under control." Vishnu's fists shattered space, rendering me into a bloody paste. From the Dream, it regrew. "Temporary setback is all."
"Clearly," Robin said with a wry smile, letting her arms fall to her side. No luck in getting to this dimension, it seemed. "How did you piss them off?"
"Wonder Woman!"
"I'm trying!"
"I'm innocent, I swear!" I said, ignoring the struggling heroine and the mage who kept trying to get me to shut up with spells. It obviously wasn't working. "They wanted my stuff, gave me the whole join or die speech and everything! I'm just a poor, misunderstood squidboi. See how I wiggle?"
I summoned a tentacle, one of the cute ones I knew they loved to fiddle with, not the horrific abominations of blood, blade, and eyes currently fighting the gods. I made it wiggle, doing a little wave, and Robin giggled. Yu-Huang sent a wave of sword energy, and it disintegrated.
"How rude!"
"Die abomination!"
"No, I don't think I will," I said haughtily as I tried to impale Izanagi with the Godslaying Blade from behind. He dodged. How rude. "I'll have you know, chicks dig the consentacles! Maybe you should try it sometime. Then your wife might have returned with you instead of preferring to stay dead. How bad were you in bed, anyway?"
His scream of rage was music in my ears.
Maybe letting go of the mask wasn't worth the power it gave me if it meant I missed out on the trash talk.
"Mikael. What happened?"
Her voice wasn't loud, accusatory, or even angry, but Diana stopped my next dig in its tracks.
One word.
That was all it would take to stop me from fighting her god.
One word.
Barring unavoidable accidents or deliberate tests, my wives had been excellent about not using language that triggered their control of my avatars. I appreciated it, I really did, but I always remembered the chain around my neck and the power they could wield over me.
"Your husband," Zeus answered before me, spitting the words in disgust. "Turned into this disgusting thing and killed both Ares and Poseidon. Though we offered terms to join us in the Earth's defence, it spat in our faces and sought to unmake all. I call on you, daughter of mine from a foreign world, to join us to raise your blade against it for the good of all who live."
Diana looked to this world's version of her father, to the version of her mother on the ground clutching her head and moaning in pain, back to my monstrous form.
I didn't say a word.
Nothing Zeus had said was wrong.
Strictly speaking, they weren't morally right, as they had fucked over the Amazons, but if one were looking at the greater good, I should have joined them. It would have eased tensions, and we could have worked together against this shadowing 'enemy' that had control of the entities.
By fighting, no matter who won, the Earth would be weaker for it.
A hero would have put the greater good over their petty vengeance.
I was just me.
That didn't mean I didn't have a response.
My phone flew from the armrest of my chair, hidden by an illusion, through the portal and into Diana's hand.
She pressed play on the recording app I had open.
As soon as I had seen the portal widen, I had been remotely putting the recording to a specific spot. Easy to do when you have a thousand eyes and hundreds of limbs.
'"Gods do not ask, they declare."
"Mortals need only heed their protector's, their Gods' will."
"When they defy that will, they are punished."
"This Council, in Our wisdom, conveyed Our will to the women of Themyscira."
"The Amazons failed me, and so judgment was rendered. Should they survive the beast, they will have proven their might and dedication. I shall again render them my protection for their faith at that time."'
The battle stopped as the god's voice came from the phone.
It sucks when you overlook regular, day-to-day, human technology, doesn't it?
"I see," Diana sighed, touching her wristbands gently. Her hope for recreating her previous life left her with that sigh. "We will talk over dinner. Do not be late, or the others will worry. I will make sure there are mashed potatoes."
Then she turned from me and walked passed Wonder Woman, who had stopped trying to peer into the Eldritch Truth and was staring at her god in horror.
The brief pause in the battle gave me time to do two things that tipped everything in my favour.
Kent Nelson flew through the portal, landing on Robin's draconic back. The helmet of Dr. Fate remained behind, wrapped in a tentacle.
Since the old man didn't want to be Free of the Lord of Order's control, I hadn't been able to remove it with a touch, but that didn't mean I couldn't just take it off.
The second thing that happened was the Godslaying Blade piercing Izanagi's foot from below.
It was not a fatal wound, not by a long shot, but it was one that wouldn't heal and bled freely.
The last thing my wives saw as the portal closed was the Japanese deity screaming in rage and pain as divine ichor fell upon my tentacles.
"Foul creature," Izanagi snarled, all former courtly nobless absent from his face. "I shall take great pleasur-"
I would never discover what would give the god such 'great pleasure.'
He died too quickly, crushed beneath a clawed hand larger than a mountain.
Words alone cannot describe how large my actual body is.
My Island was roughly the size of Scotland, if a bit smaller. My body was five times that size, roughly equivalent to the British Isles.
The human mind cannot comprehend with its bare eyes something that large. Even if you fly over me in a plane, you are still too low to see all of me. To be fully visible to anyone, even if they were on the flat of the ocean, I would still need to be outside the atmosphere.
My head alone was bigger than some countries.
It was a pain in the ass.
When the catalogue had said dragons grew as they aged and could even reach universal scales, I hadn't thought about the problems that could bring.
I had been working on it, using Priscilla's spell to try and compress my body, but the smallest I could get before I could shrink no more was still larger than my entire Island. It meant I had been largely confined to my own dimension, lest I destroy the planet with an errant twitch.
But I wasn't on Earth anymore. I was on Olympus.
The dimension buckled and warped under my sheer mass, my body stretching from one end of this reality to the other.
But the dimensional walls held.
Izanagi might still have been able to survive if he wasn't distracted if his power wasn't draining with every drop of blood, and if he had been going all out from the start.
But the gods had underestimated me from the start.
Just like every other god I had met.
So all my mass crushed Izanagi to a bloody pulp.
A bloody pulp that I absorbed.
His power, the echoes of his blood, filled me as I discovered I could still do when I slew Raven's brothers.
Originally, Ares and Poseidon would have been sacrificed to give me enough power to face the five gods on a more even footing.
Poseidon had no power, so I had been left in the lurch.
No more.
To give credit where it was due, the gods immediately took off the kids' gloves.
It was too late.
Vishnu transformed, growing from a hundred-foot giant with four arms, into an avatar of destruction that would have rivalled me in size.
I bit him in half mid-transformation, swallowing the Hindu god in a shower of blood that would have turned the seas red.
This was not anime, and I wasn't stupid.
By that point, the last three were ready, and my size stopped being an advantage.
Zeus's lighting, so much more powerful than ever before, fried half my wings in an instant.
Horus, an actual blazing sun in the sky, melted my head from my neck in enough plasma to burn the Earth's surface dry.
Yu-Huang, an armoured battle god, severed my limbs with a sword the size of a mountain.
They were all incredibly powerful beings, enough to fight off the likes of the Pheonix or Galactus when they pooled their forces.
It wasn't enough.
If all five had come at me with their full power, there was every possibility I would have died.
But now?
I was a Dragon of Freedom and Life, with an endless font of power and Miracles that could regrow anything lost faster than only the three of them could destroy me.
If this became a battle of attrition, I would win.
It didn't.
The most significant benefit of my actual body was never its size, as it prohibited my usual skill and mobility despite the added bulk or power. Nor was it my survivability. Yes, I could now regrow my limbs faster, but I had also lost the semi-metaphysical state my Great One avatar had.
The greatest gift of my true body was output.
Before, I had been channelling my power through limited mediums. A stream, then a river flowing from the ocean.
Now?
I was the ocean.
I Breathed.
It wasn't my breath, I still didn't have that, but it didn't need to be.
Massive dragon heads formed in Olympus' air.
Yu-Huang was consumed in a tide of Rot, Ekzyke's Decay consuming him in its fetid and disgusting power.
Horus's sun was trapped in an enormous ball of living glintstone, Smarag's breath feeding off the power of stars.
And Zeus?
He fell to a ruin of fire and lightning as Placidusax's two ghostly heads raged.
They fought back, of course. It was a valiant, even heroic effort. I even admired it in my own way.
But it was a doomed effort.
I don't know if they ever even thought to flee, not that I would have let them or called for backup.
If there were other gods on Olympus, I never saw them.
By the time I left, glutted with the blood of five Skyfathers and a god of war, Olympus was completely uninhabitable from all the Rot that filled its air.
Never again would anything call this dimension home.
When I emerged after killing the Earth's greatest defenders, it was to a mad world.
********
Medea didn't shout or cry out as she saw the black dragon fall, knowing her warning had come too late.
It would be a lie to say she was calm.
In fact, she was a ball of panic and fear, but Medea remained in control of herself, knowing she couldn't help her Family if she fell under the influence of her emotions.
Teleporting below her falling sister, the Greek Witch caught the shinigami in her arms despite the size difference. Even the weakest Servant was still stronger than most humans, and Yoruichi had the smallest dragon form in the Family.
'Raven!'
'I have you.'
Both women disappeared in a swirl of a shadowy cloak.
'Glynda, get out of there,' Medea ordered as they reappeared near the medical area set up in Brockton Bay. She set Yoruichi's body down, mentally calling for Tsunade or Melina to aid the unconscious and dying woman. 'Tohu's last power is the Flash. I don't know how, but it does.'
'I saw,' Glynda said, mentally strained. 'I cannot leave.'
'This is no time for heroics,' Medea mentally snarled as she got a good look at Yoruichi.
It wasn't pretty.
Whatever Tohu had done had ripped a third of the dragon's body off, leaving an open wound in a rough curve. A piece of her neck was gone, as was her right arm and wing and two-thirds of her torso.
For the first time since appearing on the Island, Medea regretted being summoned in her more powerful, older incarnation instead of her healing-focused younger self.
Yoruichi was still alive thanks to her tough body, enhanced by Haki, but she wouldn't be for long.
'Tohu is already gone,' Glynda continued, not phased by Medea's harsh words. 'After you left, it disappeared rather than attack any of us who remained.'
Medea jerked her head up as if expecting to find the three-headed Endbringer to come flying at them.
It didn't, but one of Tsunade's shadow clones had emerged from the medical station and was running her glowing green hand over the gaping wound.
"You are not leaving me!" The Hokage's clone ordered the dragon sternly. "Not you. Not anyone."
"Will she be all right?" Medea asked.
"I don't know," the clone said honestly. "My Life element is not the same as Mikael's, and I am not familiar with healing dragons, let alone ones as unique as us."
"Panacea?"
"The Defences," the clone denied. "Unless she lowers hers, Amelia cannot work on her, and neither can the other heroes. It's why I'm here. Damnit! You drunk cat!"
"There has to be something! Melina?"
"Accelerates healing, can't work on anything this large. She's missing most of her organs."
The ground shook, and Medea instinctively raised her hand, magic gathering to blast the new arrival to pieces.
Tsunade, the real one, landed beside the three of them as the Female Titan fell to the ground, uncaring for the destruction of the surrounding buildings.
"Wake up!" The Hokage ordered, patterns on her skin glowing purple as light pulsed through her into the unconscious woman. "Damnit, wake up and turn back! I can't do anything for you, you furry bitch!"
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then the fur and scales started to recede, and Tsunade breathed a choking sob of relief. Even before the legs had returned to their normal alignment, the blonde was there, sealing the wounds and rebuilding Yoruchi's neck and lung with living wood.
"... you're the furry, Tits," Yoruichi gasped pitifully through a lung full of blood. Tsunade let out a half laugh/half sob.
Medea took a deep breath, reorienting herself now that Yoruichi would live.
Now she needed to decide what they were going to do.
'What do you mean it's gone?'
'As soon as you left, Tohu disappeared.'
'Emma?' Medea asked, half afraid of a response as she could still feel the psychics' chaotic emotions in their bond. 'Can you find it?'
'It's not with Him,' the mutant babbled. 'I still can't find Him! Where is he?'
'The sooner we deal with the monster, the sooner we can look for Mikael,' Melina said plainly.
'... It's not teleporting,' Emma's voice wasn't calm, but it was understandable again. 'It's moving fast and running around the world. It stops occasionally, always singing, but then runs away without attacking anywhere.'
'Where?'
'Too many places. Nowhere already attacked. New York. Ottawa. Berlin. Singapore. Kyoto. Sidney. Marrakesh. Other places. I can't either if nobody saw it, even with His command. Why can't I do it? I should be able to do it. He trusted me. I'm Chosen.'
'Focus!' Medea snapped. It was unkind, but she needed Emma here now. Not spiralling. 'Any pattern.'
When this was all over, they needed to get their therapist a therapist.
'Cities. Important ones. Capitals, centers of trade, famous landmarks.'
'The bastard's a tourist,' Yoruichi snarked mentally, even as Tsunade continued to heal her body.
'Could be confirmation bias,' the Hokage cautioned. 'Emma can only see places with people, doesn't mean it doesn't go other places.'
'Either way, it doesn't matter,' Medea sighed. 'We're retreating. Everyone back to the Island.'
'Understood.'
'Why!?'
'I cannot for the moment.'
A torrent of responses flooded the mental channel, but Medea cut them all down.
'We cannot win,' the caster said plainly, silencing them. 'The Speedforce is a source of unlimited energy, on top of the speed it grants its users. A speed only Yoruichi can keep up with to a limited extent, thanks to Observation. And she lost instantly with the combo of Eidolon's powers. We simply cannot catch up to it, and if we could, we would not be able to kill it. We cannot even lay a trap since we do not know where it will be. This is our loss.'
It was a bitter pill to swallow, but they simply could not defeat the Flash with the addition of Eidolon's powers and Endbringer's physiology.
There was a reason the speedster had been the hero Mikael had been most wary of. Which was also the reason Medea knew so much about him and his powers.
'How is it even using the Flash's powers,' Tsunade asked. 'He is not a parahuman.'
'The Simurgh,' Medea answered simply, guilt in her voice. It had been her mistake to underestimate Tohu's first choice. 'It perceives the world by looking at the past and the future. We might be immune, but other heroes are not. It simply had to observe the past. The Entities and Endbringers are creatures of science and biology. If Amelia can duplicate Kryptonian biology, there is no reason they cannot duplicate other, non-shard-based powers based on those principles. The Speedforce, despite its somewhat mystical nature, can be accessed by scientific means.'
It was easy to forget, with all the flashy powers and Endbringers, but the Cycle the Entities created was part breeding, part eating, and part scientific study.
If the creatures could survive a comic world, they would have an enormous amount of new information and powers to test and make their own.
'And the Simurgh didn't use it because it never had the chance,' Tsunade put the rest of the pieces together. 'It only attacked a few times and was still ramping up.'
'If it would at all,' Glynda said. 'Before we killed the Stranger, they never needed to go that far.'
'It is all irrelevant for the moment,' Medea brought them back to task. 'Tsunade can leave her clones to keep healing, but the rest of us will return to the Island. Glynda, how long till you can drop that safely?'
'Five minutes.'
'Raven, keep aiding evacuations, but once Glynda is done, I want you to leave the rest to your Emoticlones. We can defend the Island while we wait for the Endbringer to retreat.'
'I can still help,' Raven denied. 'Tohu cannot hurt me.'
'And we thought it couldn't beat Yoruichi either! I'm not taking the risk, not with Mikael gone and not under my watch!'
'Thou are not thinking rationally,' Ranni said, rejoining their conversation after killing the Stranger. 'Pride has told me of the issues we face. While our Lord Husband is occupied, the rules of the Jewel remain the same. The beast need only approach with the intent to do us harm, and it shall be able to pass.'
'And it won't be able to leave,' Medea countered. 'I am not telling us to run to the Island because it's home. It is simply the most defensible option, even without Mikael. I've had over a year with practically unlimited mana and material there. I've turned the entire dimension into my workshop.'
There was a beat of silence as the group decided what to do. Just because Medea was left in charge didn't mean everyone would listen to her.
The Greek Witch took the moment's reprieve to look over Yoruichi's condition.
Tsunade had already replaced the missing parts of her body, a curving section from hip to neck along her right side, with wooden flesh perfectly mimicking what had been there before. Medea didn't know if it was a joke, but the replaced breast even had a nipple, visible thanks to the shifter's lack of clothes.
Yoruichi was experimentally stretching the arm this way and that.
"Amelia will be able to make it actual flesh once she is not so busy," the Hokage told her lover.
"Thanks," the shinigami gave the blonde a quick peck, and they both looked at Medea.
'Melina?'
'I shall join you in a minute. We are close to finishing the injured from Behemoth's attack.' The caster looked at Tsunade, who wordlessly nodded and entered the healing station to help speed things up. Opening their own portal home, the familiar grey rectangular doorway, she delivered the last of her instructions.
'Once you are done, I want you to retreat right away. Who knows if Tohu's will come here when-' Medea's mental voice was cut off by Emma overriding her.
'I can get Tohu.'
'What?' Medea asked once she could speak telepathically again, hurridly steeping through the portal. 'You can catch it?'
'No, but I can bring it to the Island. Once it's here, how confident are you in being able to kill it?'
The doorway had deposited the pair of women near the front of the Mansion, and it didn't take long to find the telepath.
Emma looked rough.
Still clad in the outfit of the 'White Queen,' she stood near the table, the one she liked to sit at and stare out at Mikael's dragon form. She stood there, completely motionless, like a diamond statue. Her chest didn't even move, for she did not need to breathe.
She had wholly retreated into her mental self, body discarded for the moment.
'With Priscilla's aid? Completely,' Medea answered mentally, rather than try and draw a reaction out from the psychic in the physical world. 'How will you get it here?'
'My semblance.' Medea had to bite back the question that came with the simple answer. Emma had explicitly told everyone that she didn't know her Semblance. Turns out Emma didn't need to be asked. 'I discovered it months ago.'
'Why didn't you tell us,' Glynda's question was gentle but reprimanding. 'I could have helped you train it.'
'It is not something controllable. It is an all-or-nothing ability that affects everything it touches, everything my mind extends to. No exceptions. Animals, plants, the undead, even the golems. And if I cover the world, it will reach Tohu, no matter where it runs. But He will not be happy. He hates it. It is a Master ability.'
Rather than curse out her husband and fellow wife, and the secrets they continued to keep from the Family, Medea remained focused on the here and now.
'I do not doubt thy abilities,' Ranni chimed, appearing as well on the Island thanks to her own portal. 'But the Endbringers have proven immune to psychics and Masters. Why wouldn't thy Semblance be different? And how would thee reach the monster?'
'I am still powered by His Command. I can cover the entire planet in its effect. And it is not a... nice effect. It is not psychic or biological. I attained it while I was in His mind the third time. When He used me to free Him from the prison. He called it 'Lover's Dream.' It will come to me, and so will everyone else who can.'
'Doesn't sound too bad,' Yoruichi mentally replied, trying to inject some cheer into the conversation. 'Romantic even. Mikael can be sap sometimes.'
Medea didn't think so.
A Semblance, the manifestation of a person's soul, of an incredibly powerful and mad psychic? One conceived in the eldritch brain of the Great One that had driven said psychic crazy in the first place and powered by said Great One's limitless energy?
It might be better for the world to let Tohu run rampant.
At least there was a good chance the Endbringer would eventually go dormant like the others. If the Entities had been able to access the Speedforce all along and had only used it now, then it was probable that they were still bidding their time.
Emma didn't do anything, her body as unresponsive as ever, but the Greek Witch could feel her mental attention on her. Just as the caster could feel the panic, the pain, the fear, and the despair of the woman through their mental connection, she could also feel the desperate need for guidance, for instruction.
Mikael had left Medea in charge, and unless he returned, Emma would follow her orders until she died.
Whatever happened next, the decision, her fate, was in her hands.
In the end, it came down to what she valued most.
Leaving an enemy alive, one that could strike at any time and could access something as deadly as the Speedforce, was entirely against her nature when she could do something about it.
When she had told Melina that history tended to repeat with Servants, she hadn't been lying.
Medea of Colchis was someone who got revenge.
Fuck the world.
Her Family came first.
'Give me and Priscilla a minute to set up. Yoruichi, defend her once she starts. Ranni keep an eye, or a hundred, out for more unpleasant surprises. Everyone else not engaged should focus on rescue efforts. I said we'd kill them all, and I meant it.'
********
Primary Objective... 91% complete.
Energy levels... exceeding parameters.
Structural integrity... compromised.
Likelihood of achieving Primary Objective before destruction... 97%.
Proceeding along Unit 03's simulation.
Relocating to next destination... Arrived. Designation: 'Gotham.'
Targets located. Triggers implanted in local host.
Primary Objective... 92% complete.
Relocating to next destination... Arrived. Designation: 'Cadmus'
Targets located. Triggers implanted in local host.
Primary Objective... 94% complete.
Relocating to- Error. Error.
Unknown energy source detected.
All objectives overridden.
New Primary Objective... 'Please Him.'
Relocating to next destination... Arrived. Designation: 'Elden Lord's Dimension.'
Additional Assets in proximity.
Additional Assets irrelevant.
Unit 06 immobile. Cause... Magic. Additional Assets approaching.
Immobility irrelevant.
Energy exceeding maximum capacity, structural integrity severely compromised.
Loss of structural integrity irrelevant.
'Death' approaching.
'Death' irrelevant.
MuSt PlEas- HIm.
********
It was a minor tragedy compared to everything else the world had experienced that day.
On the bloodiest day the world had ever seen was a tragedy with only one casualty. Said casualty was the last Endbringer. It should have been a thing for celebration.
But it was the one tragedy everyone, and everything felt.
Hero or villain.
Super or normal.
From Brockton Bay to Beijing and everywhere in between.
So powerful was Emma's Command enhanced Semblance that it even echoed into the blackness of space for the psychically sensitive, thousands of lightyears away, to feel.
The ability was as simple as it was terrible.
It was just emotion.
The emotion of a Dreamer towards those it had protected for millions of years.
The emotion one man felt for the women he loved.
The emotion a mad woman was baptized in while plumbing the depths of the mind of a madman.
It was Love.
An all-encompassing, all-accepting, all-powerful Love that was Free, without any limits.
A Mad Love.
A Love you would do anything to feel.
A Love that would drive you crazy.
Emma only kept her Semblance active for a few moments. Planes were diverted. People got in cars and started driving. Boats took to the sea. Birds flew, fish swam, land animals began to migrate en mass, and even the plants bent toward the source of that all-encompassing Love.
Everyone and everything, for those few moments, were all pointing towards one Island and Diamond Dragon that flew in its skies.
Superimposed over that beautiful creature was the image of another dragon, one gleaming white with six wings and clutching a jewel.
In that time, dozens of Supers who could fly or teleport or move fast enough arrived at the Jewel and found their way blocked.
Only those who intended harm could pass.
Nobody and nothing could intend harm to the source of that Love.
Not even Tohu.
In the end, Priscilla, upon a dragon of Magic's back, flew out of the Jewel to cut the Endbringer in half. Below, Yoruichi protected Emma from the entire Island of creatures trying to reach her.
It was almost anti-climatic, but nobody cared.
For when the last of the Endbringers died, it took the Love with it, and everything in the world was the lesser for it.
A tiny tragedy that everyone had felt.
Everyone who lived through that day would, until the day they died, feel the loss of that Love.
The day the world's heart broke.
Like Dragon Day, it would eventually come to be an international holiday.
A day to remember the dead.
A day to celebrate the last victory over the Endbringers, monsters the world had thought unvanquishable.
A day to mourn the loss of a Love they would never feel again, the only Master ability people wished they could feel again.
The day the world's heart broke.
The entire day would come to be called 'Heartbreak.'
SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO 
ReadingDangerously
ReadingDangerously It's late, and I am tired.
I didn't have time to edit this one, so pardon me if it's a bit janky.
But I have never missed a deadline, and the final chapter of volume 2 will not be the first.
I am not going to lie. The response from last week's release had a part to play. I won't stop writing, not until I finish this story, even if nobody reads it, but I do feel more invigorated to write when I get positive feedback.
Not to say that some of the criticism isn't valid; it most certainly was. Some of it, at least. I, more than anyone else, know the faults in my writing. Because of the lack of editing, the hang-ups, and the constraints I placed on myself by trying to create an original story out of a triple crossover using the Waifu Catalogue, of all challenges.
I am in no way a perfect, or even professional, writer. I don't even have a Patreon.
Volume 2 suffers from middle child syndrome. If I were to put it into context, I think of it as Isolation from volume one. We are still in the setup phase, with volume three being comparable to Solitude and Desolation. The pacing suffers from that, and my desire to be a bit more experimental with the arcs.
But, for all that, I hope some are still enjoying it.
I will see you all next week for the epilogue.
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