Battle of the Multiverse

[Demon Lord Gira]

The strike had caught the End of All off guard, and unable to properly brace himself the fell wyrm let out a surprised bellow as he was sent toppling onto his back.

If Chang'e was surprised by the attack that had slammed into Tannin, she didn't show it. Her gaze was locked upon the fusion warrior as he moved out of the rift, with nary a look toward Immanuel or toward the strange entity that was Evoex. Had the Ninjas not learned from what happened last time? A reminder was in order, but not quite yet. The likelihood of them having something up their sleeves to prevent the same trick from happening again so easily was low, but not zero. Orion would have his heart crushed when he least expected it, and besides, she wanted to savor the moment, of the stage finally being set for the climax, of the passing of this reality into the next molded in her own image. A few key players were already here, but she wanted all to see the perfect moment when Orion would fall and all hope would be lost. Truly, there would be no greater satisfaction than making these defenders of the Core think they ever stood a chance against Father's enhanced powers, only to realize they never did.

The bombardment of textboxes stopped mere inches from Chang'e and Aram, the latter silent and observing. Chang'es emerald eyes glistened as Evoex's own attack was scattered into the winds, the textboxes peeled apart and flung left and right by the Heirophant's telekinetic powers. Chang'e grinned, as Tannin behind her rose back to his feet, a snarl forming upon the maw of the Embodiment of Wrath.

"Hello, all you foolish defenders and heroes. I'm Chang'e, the people's Chang'e. You're just in time for the end of your current existence. Though, you are too late to save Tiamat, who is no longer with us. Don't fret though, she's been spared seeing what Father will do to all of you." Her grin widened as she extended her arms out. "You'll all learn there's no place to fools to hide or fight back! Fools must live under our rule and our rule alone! Father, the Ninja is all yours. Aram, dispose of the owl and the Quartheral."

In that moment, all sixteen eyes of Tannin flashed an icy blue color. Orion felt his blood chill, and ice begin to jut out as his blood vessels and veins burst. He was starting to freeze over, and the unholy wyvern spoke a word of power that reverberated across the ruined realm: "DUKK!" . The gravitational pull in the area Orion was intensified, and the fusion warrior began to pummet with his freezing over body toward the ground below.

At the same time, Aram smirked then bolted toward Owlzarus like living lightning. She vanished right as she was in his face, before reappearing behind him, and swung her claws down into the owl's back, while sending jagged bolts from her tails into Evoex...

_____________________________

The aberration horde found themselves cut down faster than they could retaliate. Even one of them would have been a match for the types of foes they were meant to kill and slay like Crigan or Mulek, but against the vastly superior Orion clones and Aphrodite, they were little more than lemmings for the slaughter. Where once there had been thousands, quickly only a small handful remained, yet there was no fear in these, only an insatiable desire to consume and destroy.

Yet, their nigh unkillable nature meant they were far from spent. Behind Aphrodite, several dozen remains began to mold and stitch themselves together into a giant undead spear. The spear arched itself back, then stabbed forward, hoping to run through the Goddess of Love.

____________________________

Cercil took a deep breath. To reface this nightmare... It scared her. The last time, it had costed the life of her brother, and before that her master Lucifer. She knew the chances of survival against Tannin were slim to none... But it had to be done.

She nodded. "Thank you, immanuel. I am as ready to confront this evil as I will ever be."

Voices rose up from far below. "We're coming too. We have a score to settle with Chang'e." The voice was Demogorgon, who flew up toward Immanuel and Cercil with Nichelle by her side. "And I'm not going to let my oldest friend fly in alone against that thing. Consider this my atonement for my rule of Sheol after I disposed of that ram skull fat bastard."

"Chang'e holds.. .a soul of a friend of ours captive." Nichelle explained. "When we fought her in Sheol, I sensed it, Doris's spirit on her. Doris is a dear friend of ours, and we now know what Chang'e can do."

Cercil looked at the two. "But... Neither of you... You're outclassed! You can't-"

"Cercil, YOU are outclassed as well." Demmy shook her head. "But you're going regardless because it is what needs to be done. Same here with us. We-"

"D-doris's soul... N-no, that can't be right! She was... She was supposed to be with me..."

This time it was Molly who spoke up, far below on the ground. "If... If they have Doris... I'm coming as well!"

Demmy stared down at her closest friend with a look of bewilderment and confusion. Then her expression changed into a scowl. "Absolutely the fuck not! It is one thing to deal with the Machine of Unmaking, it is another entirely to run head first into the battlefield against the Champion of Nether! Absolutely out of the question, Molly! Stay here where it is safe!"

Molly shook her head. "No. Besides, it is safest beside you and Nichelle. And I cannot stand by while Doris is held captive. She was the first one who joined the Cheshire Cafe, and helped get the cafe off the ground. I owe her so much even with who she is, and all debts are to be repaid. That is the motto of the Cheshire Cafe. I don't care if that's an actual god we're dealing with or something beyond that, I am rescuing my friend from her and coming with you."

"Molly..." Nichelle gazed over at her with a heavy sigh. "It is an unwise course of action... but it is your course of action to take."

"God I fucking hate that motto more than ever now, goddamnit." Demmy snapped her head to the side, before she finally let out a defeated groan. "I really do not want to do this, but... fine, you can come."

Cercil shook her head. "I never could fully understand why Crigan was so drawn toward humans like you. But, i won't deny your help either. If you wish to aid me, then I will accept it."

--------------------------------

Crigan took a deep breath. "If we are all ready, then."

He turned, and opened his mouth. A vortex of energy spiraled out and struck into a rock wall, and a rift opened. On the other side, Alex and the others could see the ruins of what was once Zeye's base of operations on Noraage. It was raining heavy on the other side, with an overcast sky and what fires had been raging there before now put out.

"I believe this is where the terminal that the demon spoke of was located, roughly in this area. Best of luck to all of you." Crigan said.

Mara nodded, and stepped into the rift. Minos followed behind, while RIsel prepared to walk in, but waited for Alex and Nyx to come with her. Lae and Aseya went into the rift as well...

[Godzilla165]

Aphrodite, focused on cooking a small group of undead in front of her, was caught off guard from the revitalized minions of Tannin forged now into a ghastly eldritch spear that launched itself at her with writhing tenacity. Just as it prepared to bludgeon the goddess and leave her dangling on the end of its fleshy protrusion, the voracious entity found itself stuck, caught in a trap from which it could not move. Aphrodite, taken aback by the ordeal, gazed to her right and found a clone of Tenchi floating beside her with the spear gripped tightly in their hand. The deity then infused the tendril with the one energy in which it could not regenerate from: Pure core energy. Tenchi relinquished their grip upon it and allowed for the concoction to travel down the full length of the javelin, visibly reducing each and every part of it down to nothing. No atoms, no molecules... Nothing. And, within a few simple moments, the conglomerate was no more; the very essence from which it had been created, destroyed.

"Incredible..." Aphrodite looked on, amazed. To have gotten rid of this plague so easily, so definitively... Was Tenchi Orion not simply a physical embodiment of the Core at this rate? The goddess turned to them, "Thank you, lord, if you hadn't intervened when you did, I might well have been pierced through the abdomen by that unholy creature."

Tenchi responded how they always did, with but a simple nod. Before, with a point to the left of them, they created a bright, star-like portal and motioned for Aphrodite to traverse through it. They and their clone brother would finish up with things in Sheol and Dudael; she was currently needed elsewhere. Aphrodite glanced at the portal, then back at Tenchi, and nodded.

"Very well, I shall not fail you, lord." She replied.

Before she left, as a parting gift, Orion clapped their hands together once then separated them right after. As they did, a white line traced itself along the air, a line that grew both in length and width by the second. Soon enough did it begin to take shape, sprouting various features like massive wings, four powerful legs, a long tail, and a smooth head. In fact, the entire iridescent body of this mysterious entity looked like it had been formed by the wind, with smooth unbroken curves, sloping lines, and delicate features. The newly created, or revived winged being floated silently beside her compatriot, now towering over that of Orion. She opened her eyes to reveal golden embers that peered at Aphrodite with warm reconciliation, and cooed harmoniously an inquiry: Was the love goddess ready? For today, the Celestial Angel would be her steward into the final battle, the final push to ensure the multiverse's safety.

Aphrodite smiled ever so sweetly at Dante’s gentle companion, not knowing what horror the angel had been through prior. Aphrodite reached out to give her snout a rub, “Indeed I am, blessed one… Let us at last end this infernal conflict.”

Wordlessly after, Aphrodite climbed atop the angel’s back, gave Orion a final nod, before she and her ally shot off into the portal where chaos would soon await them.

The clone of Orion turned their sights upon Sheol; this land needed to be healed. As such, they started off in the direction of where their twin sibling was, as there was much work needed to be done.
____________________________

The Final Arc:
Battle of the Multiverse

Tenchi's icy prison didn't last long, as with a simple exhale, they negated the powerful spell and melted the ice before they hit the ground. Hovering in place, the Ninja Prime faced the demonic Tannin with a fearsome expression, Hellsbane clenched in hand. They took a small step forward in the air and were instantly upon the massive wyvern before time could properly catch up. In moments, the warrior god blitzed across Tannin's muscular build and entrapped his neck, wings, legs, and tail in enormous ethereal chains of blue light that bound him firmly in place. Then, Orion drew Hellsbane closely inward on themselves, pointed the end of towards Tannin, and delivered thousands of slashes that covered the length of his chest in less than a second, before lastly toppling the fiend hard onto his stomach with a brutal downward kick. The realm shook with the force of a meteoric collision upon Tannin's collapse, and split the landscape in two.

With him felled for now, Tenchi set their sights on the likes of both Chang'e and Aram, with the latter finding their gaze first. They stuck their left free hand out beyond them and flipped their hand upward, thus conjuring golden two dozen javelins of raw energy at least 50 feet high, and sent them hurtling towards Aram like homing missiles with a sharp wrist flick. Quickly, the guardian then worked to move both Owlzarus and Evoex clear out of the way, before dealing them both with personal force field barriers that would certainly help in defending against any future attacks.

Tenchi Orion finished their assault by focusing on the vermin Chang'e, curling a fist. They drew that same fist back towards their face, as though they were cocking a rifle, and sent it forward with the speed and power to shatter the sound and light barrier. From beyond their fist came an even larger one, the size of a house, not unlike the one used to topple Tannin earlier. Akin to a speeding comet, it barreled towards Chang'e with righteous fury, threatening to flatten her into molecules.

Suddenly, a rift appeared high above the battlefield, and with it was a familiar voice unleashed from its maw.

"ARAAAAAM!!!" The goddess of love and thunder screamed, before exploding from the portal like a bullet, mounted atop the Celestial Angel. Her bright white eyes glowed with electric fury as they instantly found their target. "There, the pretender whom believes herself a true god; let us show her how wrong she truly is!"

With a nod, the angel dove towards Aram like a screaming falcon, Aphrodite summoning an especially violent bolt of divine retribution in the meantime. With an uncharacteristic war cry, the goddess launched the mighty electrical lance at the usurper with all her strength, where it cooked and boiled the atmosphere on the way to its target.

[Corzak The Mighty]

Though Aram was capable of moving at incredible speeds and attempted leverage such a maneuver against him, Owlzarus, with his near omniscient mind, had anticipated Aram to attempt to attack him in such a manner, and conjured a binding barricade of runes behind him! As Aram's ravaging talons raked towards the antiquarian, the shield of sigils lashed out, binding Aram with slowing runes... just enough for Orion to assist them with a pair of divine golden javelins. Appreciating the defensive barricade granted by Tenchi, Owlzarus watched as he sped off to confront Chang'e and Aphrodite appear to confront Aram. The wizened librarian then turned toward the final threat: the recovering form of Tannin.

"I cannot do much to harm you, End of All," Owlzarus admits to the multi-eyed draconic horror, raising up a hand defiantly. "But I will do what I can to hinder your progress."

The recovering form of Tannin, seemingly unamused by the confrontation by such an unimpressive foe, retorted with a volley of eye beams fired towards him, each aimed to obliterate the owl-headed librarian with a single, decisive blow. Conjuring up an orange ring, Owlzarus' magic slowed the beams to a crawl that passed through it, freezing them in a moment in time, before catching the remainder in a well of spacial distortion, causing the beams to reappear behind Tannin and strike him in the back of head, causing the End of all to bellow in annoyance! Irritated by this pest's insistence, Tannin unleashed another volley of devastating beams towards Owlzarus, which prompted him to conjure a barrier of protective runes! The beams exploded against the sigils in a kaleidoscope of colors, sending disruptive waves of time-distorting magic scattering across the ruined and rugged battlefield.

The eruption sent Owlzarus flying backwards, before he crashed into a hunk of stone. Dazed from the blow, Owlzarus conjured another trio of rings defensively around himself and Evoex, waiting to see what this dire foes' next move was....
________________________________________________________________________
Immanuel looked over those who had joined him and Cercil, offering them all a respectful bow.

"You are all brave and noble in spirit to undertake this," Immanuel said in dire tone. "Know that I cannot guarantee your safety, but... I will do what I can to make sure all of you return alive."

Golden barriers of light sprung around Molly, Demogorgon, and Nichelle, shimmering with the celestial brilliance of the sun itself. "Consider this my gift to you, before the final battle of our time."

Immanuel's wings spread wide and began to engulf those gathered, as Immanuel prepared to transport them all into the heart of the battle.

"Are we ready?"
----
Nyx took a deep breath. If she was going to be completely honest, she wasn't ready for this. All the things they had dealt with so far - Sutekh, Miyoshi, Persephone, and now Chang'e - felt like they had built up to this moment, but Nyx still was anxious about what lay ahead. But she knew this is what had to be done to save Earth... no, everything. This was MUCH bigger than Earth. The whole multiverse was in danger now. Yzazil had given his life knowing what was at stake, and she couldn't squander that opportunity.

Nyx briefly fiddled with the grip of her pistol, before she looked to Alex. "Let's do this."

The french woman stepped into the portal after Crigan...

[Beast Blood]

For the Bjornskaren giants, the clamor had calmed, the crimson tide receded. In this moment of respite, where violence and bloodletting made way for peace and recuperation, Korraz’s eyes lowered to her drawing tablet. If she was to stay put - per Gaiyan’s order - perchance she may indulge in some sketching, taking the time to not only admire the nature around her, but to capture it through the lens of her artistic interpretation, for however the world presented itself in one way for all, every interpretation of it was unique - no two hands rendered it alike; no two minds pondered of it in the same way.

From his gnarled roost, Hod glanced to his friend. Noting the intermittent lifting of her gaze to examine him a few moments at a time, he surmised she must be attempting to sketch his portrait. Thus, the raven endeavored to remain as still as possible, that the blacksmith may observe him as required to accurately etch his feathered form upon her canvas.

“Hush, little warrior. These burn wounds shall trouble you no longer. I shall see to it!” she heard Glaxion assure.

She raised her eyes from her artwork to see what her ally was up to. There was a tiny, whimpering wolf pup nestled in her hands, whose burn wounds she attempted to soothe with her waterbending, cleansing its ghastly wounds.

A slight smirk found its way to her lips. The tragic loss of her cubs had left a truly terrible void in Glaxion’s heart, but tending to the young of others seemed to fill it, if partially so. She may have been denied the opportunity to raise her own cubs, but nothing stopped her from nurturing those of others. Korraz's own cubs adored her. Still, there was a hint of grief and regret in her friend's eye each time she interacted with little ones, one that made the blacksmith feel sorrow over her friend’s plight.

To her side, Gaiyan had found a moment to relax as well, playing a soft melody on her whistle. Korraz appreciated both the music and the fact that her overworked friend finally had a moment for herself.

---

A sudden and powerful upheaval of the ground beneath the dragon disrupted his footing, the ground beneath his feet rent asunder. His fall was not softened by the earth, but worsened by the jagged apexes of wickedly sharp antlers piercing through his maw. Held skewered onto these deadly points that had narrowly missed blinding many of his eyes, the thing beheld the one responsible for this sudden, vicious assault as it slowly emerged from the breaking earth below him.

A creature of great brawn and might, draped in a thick coat of spotted, dark brown fur. Its antlers strong and sharp. Drool falling from its fanged maw. And its eyes blazing, alight with incandescent fury. Its crimson glare bore through Tannin’s own numerous eyes, yet for all of her meager two in comparison, Ristaang, the embodiment of bestial fury, summoned far more rage than the sixteen eyes of the dragon did.

A deep rumble from the depths of her chest, stubbornly disregarding the clawing she received in return, the Beastmother slowly raised a burly hand to seize the wyvern by his horn. However simple the gesture was, the strength behind it was unfathomable, cracking the scales and bone beneath each digit. With a snarl, Ristaang viciously ripped her foe off her antlers. Where the points had pierced and sliced, they now thoroughly mangled the creature’s jaws, face and throat as they tore free, trailing blood and grit behind them in their gory wake. But though the dragon was free, he found no solace, for Ristaang struck down with her elbow. Like a pillar of hard muscle and rough fur, the limb caved the creature’s chest inwards, wreaking havoc on his body with a shockwave of sheer force.

With a fierce bellow, the Beastmother swung her arm in a sweeping arc, streaks of red energy trailing in the wake of her dangerously elongated claws, literally tearing through the very air itself before she would make her foe’s visage suffer that same fate.

[Demon Lord Gira]

The unholy bellows of the Great Wyrm echoed through the desolate ruins of what had once been Earth. All sixteen of the Embodiment of Wrath's eyes were locked upon those foolish enough to strike at him, but especially toward the largest of his foes, the great horned beast that had impaled him on her horns and cracked his chest with her elbow. The owl would pay for his transgressions if not by his own claws, then by his spawn. His other half would handle the Ninja... such power contained within that vessel...

As Ristaang's claws sliced through the air to cleave through Tannin's flesh, the End of All's eyes glowed with a crimson fire. Sixteen bolts of destructive energy flashed out and erupted against Ristaang's flesh and muscle. The blasts cracked and burned through the great beast's bony plates and armor, and the force sent Ristaang staggering back, yet the very tip of her claws still cut through the great wyrm's flesh. Sizing the opportunity, Tannin lurched forward and clamped his jaws around the neck of Ristaang. The jagged fangs scraped against her armor and toughened skin, but connection was all Tannin needed. his tongue, split into four writhing serpentine forms, dug into the piercings and cuts formed from the fangs and began to siphon the life force from the giant of giants. The great wyrm used his larger size and mass to push Ristaang onto her back, one clawed foot placed upon her chest and its talons digging trenches into the Beastmother's frame. The sixteen eyes of the End of All began to shine once more, signaling a second barrage of the eye bolts primed to bombard Ristaang's head....

-------------
The blood that spilled from the End of All's wounds covered much of the battlefield, yet this blood was anything but. Forms began to rise from the inky black fluid, abominations and atrocities like the ones that had attacked Sheol and the Celestial world. The spawns of Tannin, some decrepit wyverns like their progenitor, others serpentine like heads and necks carried on numerous spindly legs, focused upon Owlzarus and Evoex. A pitch black wyvern unleashed a torrent of blackish flames toward Owlzarus as it circled above, while a pair of walking serpent heads started to make their way toward the librarian...

----------

Aram smirked as she noticed the bolts sent her way. She was the Supreme Goddess, a being above what Orion was. The javelins were intercepted by a pillar of light that caught all but the fastest of these energy bolts, yet that fastest one itself was caught in Aram's hand. The force behind the projectile took Aram by surprise, as she nearly felt her arm be wrenched from its socket, but she forced herself to remain in place. A careless attack, and now one of these javelins of raw energy was hers to use, at least for now.

And what better to use it on than the screeching banshee that was Aphrodite, coming back for round 2. Aram's smirk grew into a feral grin as she greeted the goddess's lightning lance with Orion's own energy javelin. The two weapons collided together and shook the landscape as they both exploded against one another. Sparks of lightning and light flew in all directions.

Though she had been ordered to handle Owlzarus and the Quatheral, this took slightly more precedent. Surely, Chang'e would understand.

With a hand raised high into the sky, Aram flew up high above Aphrodite, and aimed her hand forward. Suddenly, everything around Aphrodite went dark as blackness was all she could see. Though she could hear the sounds of war around her, what her eyes were taking in was nothing. It was as if she were blind, robbed of her sight as all the light around her avoided her eyes.

"Even if you were to somehow eclipse me in power, what good is all that if you cannot see?" Aram's voice taunted around her. "Amazing, what a lack of light can do to a bitch like you."

The Supreme Goddess moved her way around to just behind Aphrodite, still above her, and manifested her nine tails which stabbed downward, seeking to skewer the goddess from top to bottom...

-----------------

The divine fist flew through the air with speed and power unrivaled. It tore toward Chang'e, yet she did not budge. She watched as the strike came toward her... And then, the fist seemed to vanish less than a few inches before her face. The fusion warrior only had a moment to realize what was happening before that very same fist struck them from behind. The force of their own blow crumpled Orion and sent him crashing down into the dead earth below. The ground cracked and shuddered from the impact, and high above them, Chang'e laughed as the rift closed before her.

"As much as things change, they also stay the same. It's almost as disappointing as my first worthless daughter, yet far more enjoyable and hilarious." Chang'e's smile grew ever wider as she stretched her arms forward. The armor that Orion wore began to groan and creak as the Heart of the Multiverse began to forcibly constrict and tear into it with her telekinetic powers. The armor began to collapse inward, threatening to crush Orion within it.

"All power and no skill makes for yet another half dead god to bully. Your kind never learns, Ninja." Yet as she said this, her true plan was already in motion. That brief moment that Tannin had opened up a pathway to the Core was all Chang'e needed to establish a link from here to there. Even with that pathway closed, the link remained. It would take time for her to do what she needed, but that was what she was overqualified for: Buying time until she had accomplished her goal. Orion had no clue what hell he was going to be in for...

_____________________

The small child watched as the holy warrior flew off toward the distance. So cool, so amazing... But... why did they leave? Why had they left her behind? Was there something more important for them to do? And... where was everyone else? She saw no one left around her. They had all been taken elsewhere by the glowing angel warriors, but... she was all that was left, alone and forgotten. Where... Where was anyone?

"Mama?! MAMA!" The child cried, but what answered her was not the voice of her mother. It was an unholy screech as a partially burned remnants of an abomination pulled its broken dying frame out of an alleyway and toward the crying girl. The girl stepped back, fear gripping her heart. She wanted to run, to call for help, but she was too afraid. The spindly legged fiend dragged itself closer, blackish purple bile dripping from its opened maw before it lurched toward her. The girl closed her eyes and screamed.

It never came. A harsh screech was cut short as a wave of heat rolled over her. The little girl slowly opened her eyes and saw the thing that had been before her reduced to ashes. Had... had the warriors come back? Was she safe now?

"What a poor deplorable kid, left to her own devices by some abusive parent." A female voice said behind her. She turned, and there stood two women. One of them was adorned in a long pale white dress that flowed down to the ground and had just as long purple hair and eyes, and the other had short red hair and eyes and a scaled blackish crimson tail that flickered behind their short black and red skirt. "And... covered in hideous green goop. Shayati, why did you even bother saving this brat? We're only here to claim the throne that bitch left behind."

"The thing that was attacking her was a threat, Madam Golia." The red haired woman, Shayati, replied. "She also carries the scent of your rival, Persephone."

The purple haired woman, Golia, raised an eyebrow, before her entire demeanor changed. She knelt down to the girl and patted the albino Oni child on the head. "You know Persephone?" She asked the girl. "Is she your mama?"

The girl nodded. "Yes. Persephone is mama. I don't know where mama is. Can you... help me find her? I'm Delibra."

Golia's expression softened. "Your mama is... no longer here. But, she has entrusted your care to me. That and everything that once belonged to her. You can call me Auntie Golia. And this is your maid Shayati. We'll go back into the Palace and find whatever is in there that belongs to you."

"Your well being and safety is our top priority, Delibra." Shayati said. "A two horned oni with white skin... Such a thing should be treasured."

_________________________________

The other side of the rift that Crigan had opened saw the group enter into a location that Risel recognized immediately. It was the remains of Zeye's holdout, but the fires that had once raged had been snuffed out by a slow downpour that left only steam and smoke rising over the ruins. The bodies of those who had perished in the destruction of the holdout had largely been cleared out, likely by local wildlife, but the remains of the machines remained.

"This... This is the place, yes." Risel said. "But... where is the terminal?"

Mara's eyes searched through the ruins of the building. "Geez, to think this was where so much of what was happening on this world was taking place from... With any luck, the Varul will be seeing better days now that Zeye is no longer a threat."

The two pixies pointed further ahead. At the end of the ruined building, somehow still standing tall, was an elevator door. "Wasn't the terminal supposed to be underground according to Demogorgon?" Laeptus asked. "Then that seems to be a good place to start looking."

_____________________________

Demmy, Molly, and Nichelle all gave Immanuel a nod. "We're as ready as we can hope to be." Molly was the first to say. "I know... I know what lays ahead is extremely dangerous but I cannot simply stand by while Doris's soul is in Chang'es hands. After everything Doris had done to help get the Cheshire Cafe off the ground and to help he through so many other things, it's time to repay the favor. She needs me, and we'll be there."

"Affirmative." Nichelle replied. "Demmy, please prioritize Molly's safety. I am best suited to being on the offense, not at defending others."

"Way ahead of you, Nichelle." Demmy closed her one good eye, before she turned her attention between Molly and Cercil. "If someone had told me I'd be saving the world with both of my best friends side by side... I'd have called them a liar."

Molly let a weak chuckle escape from her mouth. "W-well, you never did tell me about your other friend here... Maybe once this is all over, we can exchange notes and talk about our friendship with Demmy, if you want?"

The archangel nodded. "Sure... Once this is all over." Yet even as she said this, Cercil knew far better than anyone here what lay ahead of them. How could she ever be truly prepared to face off against this evil that had haunted her for so much of her life? Every fiber in her body screamed at her to not partake in this battle, to save herself and abandon everyone else... But she knew that was wrong. She had lost Lord Lucifer to this evil. She had lost her brother Sariel to it, and now she had lost her sister Minerva to it. She had lost most of her kind to Tannin's blight. No more of her kind would ever have to live in fear of the End of All after this day.

And Mulek... Mulek had laid down her life to ensure Raspaganje's demise even when she had no reason to do so. She clenched her robes tightly, then watched as Crigan returned from sending the other group off to Noraage.

"Yes. I'm ready as well." She finally said. giving Immanuel a nod.

[Godzilla165]

“You are the goddess of love, dear child; you shall bring people together, not fill their hearts with hatred and tear them apart. This power you carry, this curse… It does not define who you are, whom you shall grow up to be. When the day comes that a living soul decides to challenge you, to make an attempt at relinquishing you your birth right as the harbinger of endearment… You must fight. Fight with all your resolve for what is good, for what is fair… For what love stands for.”

Hades… Even in death did her uncle’s words empower her, strengthen her resolve to push on even in the face of seeming impossibility. He was the father that Zeus never was; how similar she and the ninja siblings wound up being. She had at long last overcome her father, the demon whom taunted her for so many eons. Yet now she found herself against an entirely new fiend, one whom attempted to take away her eyes. Aphrodite’s divinations about Aram were only further confirmed: she really was crazed and rabid. And, like all rabid beasts, she needed to put down before she suffered any longer.

With a mighty and godly yell that echoed across the battlefield, Aphrodite released a shockwave bubble from within that acted as a massive flash bang, vaporizing blackness that Aram had tried to trap her in. Then, she clenched her fist and raised her forearm above her head to conjure a large and circular shield formulated entirely by lightning. As the ennead set of tails honed in upon Aphrodite, Aram would quickly discover them to have been utterly negated by the former’s created protection, smacking harmlessly against the shield’s brimming surface. Aphrodite used this opportunity to rocket herself upward, feeding Aram’s tails back into her forcibly, her eyes awash with electrical fury.

She slammed into the false god shield first with enough force to not only knock the wind clear from within her, but also visibly shook the very air in which they both harbored. Aphrodite used her other hand to grab Aram’s neck, as the latter did the same, rage-laden venom spitting from her lips. Aphrodite tightened her grip to the point where she would have popped Aram’s head had she been any lesser, and glared daggers into her eyes.

“Your defeat shall be the one I cherish the most, and I will make sure that I deal the killing blow!” Aphrodite harshly proclaimed, before rearing her head back and slamming it into Aram’s own cranium. The blow was enough to dislodge the warring gods and left one of them stunned, long enough for the other to send an electrical fist hurtling into her stomach like a freight train, sending Aram spiraling backward.

- - - - - - - - - -

The telekinesis on display was impressively powerful, proving a difficult challenge to overcome by the Guardians on their own. But, they were no longer separated, and Tenchi was equipped for such. Relaxing the muscles throughout their entire body, despite it being constricted by the invisible coils, the ninja deity exhaled deeply before “stepping” backwards out of their own body. Now a specter of sorts, Tenchi’s consciousness turned its attention onto the form that was still being squeezed by Chang’e’s latent powers, and reached out with its hand to flick two fingers upward. A second later, Tenchi felt their body be released from the binds that held them as the invasive telekinesis was properly negated and cleansed away. With a low sigh, the specter of Orion returned into the main body and gifted the protector of all their completed consciousness once more. Tenchi looked across the way at the mountainous Ristaang now locked in a brutal dance with the End of All, nodding once. The battle had indeed shifted, and Tenchi was now faced against the one entity whom believed to have everything figured out, every detail memorized a million times over.

Conjuring the gleaming True Hellsbane into their grasp, Tenchi Orion lended Chang’e a phlegmatic look. The false Heart now rodent had proved herself to be more than a worthy adversary on more than one occasion, but today was such that her many trials and dealings would come to an end. The time she bought would prove far too little, as Tenchi erupted towards her and was on the demon in under a second. Drawing in Hellsbane close to their side, the Ninja Prime disappeared in front of her, before appearing directly behind Chang’e as another one conjured in front of her once again. Another quickly appeared to her left, and one to her right also. The ninjas exploded towards Chang’e with deadly proficiency, yet all disappeared in flashes of iridescence with only the one facing her remaining. Tenchi sliced across Change’s flat chest in speeds that weren’t quantifiable, and appeared behind her facing the opposite way, having left a brilliant blue slash mark within her chest. The multiversal guardian then raised Hellsbane up to their chest and flicked it down to their side, thus causing for the slash mark to explode in a shower of azure energy.

[Demon Lord Gira]

Aram could taste copper as blood built up within her mouth. But it was from more than just blood that she was tasting copper, nor just from the electricity that boiled her blood and burst her blood vessels.

It was disbelief and anger building up within the Supreme Goddess. To dispel the void that had robbed Aphrodite of light so easily. That had been one of Astrelus's favorite tricks to use as the Goddess of Light, to ensure that those who faced her were at a complete disadvantage. Aram had herself been on the receiving end of that trick once the ploy with Vastrus had been found out, and so it only was fitting for Aram to try and cripple Aphrodite with a lack of eyesight... yet if she were to simply just dispel that away...

The teeth of the Supreme Goddess cracked in their jagged fang like formations as she spiraled down toward the ground, but she wasn't going alone. Her tails wrapped around Aphrodite and dragged her down for the ride, momentum carrying the two down to the cracked and jagged earth below. Right before impact, Aram twisted her body and her tails so that Aphrodite struck the ground first, her body all but bouncing from the impact before Aram drove her knees as hard as she could into the Goddess of Love. She watched Aphrodite's eyes roll into the back of their sockets as bones crunched and cracked from the impact as Aphrodite was driven deeper into the dead ground. Aram kicked back and launched herself back into the air, her flaming arms igniting into a blazing blue inferno as she arched them back, then aimed them forward, sending torrents of flames hotter than the core of the sun surging downward into the hole that Aphrodite had been left in.

These flames had left the God of Death in a powerless state and nearly reduced him to ashes, and that had been when Aram had been toying with Crigan. Again the full empowered inferno, Aram was certain Aphrodite wouldn't stand a chance. Dante would be getting her remains back in an ash filled bag.

----------------

The blade cleaved through the air as though it were a blazing knife through butter. The mark left by the blade shone across the torso of the Heart of the Multiverse, and Chang'es eyes were wide as a pain filled scream tore from her lungs. Once the blade flickered down, the mark erupted outward, and the form of Chang'e was split in twain from the divine energies at work. In but a single stroke, Orion Tenchi had done the impossible and severed the Eye of Darkness from existence.

Yet, Tenchi Orion felt it, something was off. No, they recognized this feeling. The lack of resistance to the blow. The fact both halves of the Heart of the Multiverse had their expressions twist into mocking smiles as they faded away...

They would not be fooled a second time by the same trick! Orion Tenchi turned to slice True Hellsbane down, but what they sliced into shocked them. Once more there was no resistance as this Chang'e was cut clean in half, and once more both halves began to laugh and mock the Ninja as the halves vanished into black liquid.

"After... Imaaaage."

The voice of the Heart of the Multiverse was the only warning the super warrior received before Orion was engulfed in a pillar of black unholy fire, as Chang'e hovered above, an ever growing smile on her face as her emerald eyes glistened ever brighter, a familiar black blade in her right hand. The flames ate away at Orion Tenchi's very cellular structure, burning away at the god on a molecular level as his flesh cracked and burned.

"This is the stage I was referring to before, Ninjas." Chang'e taunted. "A place and time truly fitting for all to see that even the greatest of gods is nothing compared to Father and I. Now, why don't you go join Tengri and his fleet in hell? They're awfully lonely there."

She swung the infernal black blade downward, and the energy within surged forward, a wave of annihilation that threatened to engulf Tenchi Orion as it consumed everything in its path...

[Godzilla165]

The flames were immense, yet the power on display was even more so as the two combined forces drilled a hole into the ground that spanned several hundred miles deep, and was at least a mile wide. When the tumultuous conflagration finally died down several seconds later, the surrounding area as well as the totality of the newly formed crater had both been glassed. The ground was a glowing mixture of bright orange and azure, nearly blinding in intensity. And yet… Such light paled in comparison to the one that slowly ascended from the pathway to Hell. As Aram shielded her eyes from the piercing glow, she could still very much sense the ghastly and incredibly infuriating presence of her rival. Her jaw locked with forces that threatened to cave her mouth inward.

There Aphrodite sat, atop the Celestial Angel, her gracious savior. Blood trailed from both sides of her mouth, her eyes were bloodshot, and her left shoulder was very much out of place from the brutal impact prior. None of that mattered; her mind was set firmly on a single track now. Her teeth gritted harshly, buckling from the pressure dealt to them, and her eyes exploded in a show of violent electricity. Aram no longer had a courtesy of being in the presence of the Olympian goddess of love. Now, she had to deal with the goddess of thunder.

Then, Aphrodite, with a single pat to the angel’s neck, was ripped from her position at light speed along the divine creature’s back. The goddess hopped onto her feet in a squat stance, and hurled herself at Aram, using the velocity from the angel to give herself even more speed. She clenched her fist tightly, divine lightning coursing both through and around it.

“ARAAAAAM!!!!” Her voice boomed like thunder.

With the comparative force of a shooting star, Aphrodite’s fist plowed into Aram’s stomach and dug itself deep into her gut. The eyes of the malevolent goddess bulged out of their sockets like a frog’s, her body folded over, and she vomited dark bile onto Aphrodite’s forearm. The latter was unshaken, for she simply glared daggers into Aram’s skull.

“What ever is the matter, Aram… Scared?” Aphrodite inquired truculently. “It shall be the last emotion that you ever feel.”

Aphrodite removed her fist, and hurtled a hard knee square into Aram’s face that sent her tumbling away mid air.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Tenchi Orion clenched their fists tightly as the darkened flames quickly threatened to eradicate both them, and all that they stood for… All that the Core stood for. Reality as they and everyone else knew it would one day end, that was an inevitability. But today, here and now… Such was not the time. Evil would not prevail in the face of the multiverse’s protector, nor would it ever, so long as Tenchi existed… So long as the guardians existed. The flames that burned them… Instead of Tenchi fighting against it, why not transform them into an investment? The power of the Core could purify any and all energy, and these flames were no different. As such, the Ninja deity’s chest glowed with white, as did their eyes and hair. And, before the eyes of Chang’e, the black flames that she once had control over were manipulated and purified into energy that Tenchi could use instead. She had inadvertently gifted them, and they were forever thankful.

Suddenly, the mighty warrior disappeared in a towering pillar of pure energy that engulfed Chang’e also. The power from Tenchi Orion singed and boiled her flesh to a blackened state, before forcibly removing her from its embrace. Such energy was swiftly absorbed and congregated into the rising body of an enormous, ethereal creature. A white shockwave washed over the ruined landscape, rejuvenating some of the life lost to the battle, and such acted as the bell rung. Tenchi gazed down upon Chang’e from a much higher place in the air, wound in pure energy from themselves and the Core, bluish white in coloration. Six golden eyes also stared down the multiversal witch, their heads adorned with oriental, crown like horns. Four mighty wings hovered a few feet above its back with a large halo circling behind them. Three long tails jutted out below, with large and powerful legs acting as pillars in front of them, and two muscular arms with mighty claws flexing on either side of the creature’s chest.

From the Ninja Prime himself did he lend Tenchi a powerful form, made even more so with forces at work now. It was here that, standing above Chang’e 120 meters high, the Inferno Hydra Angel was born at last. The mighty dragon wasted no time, not on the entity whom had committed so much chaos and atrocity. Within moments, white flames that were like tsunamis in their oppression, billowed from the hydra’s triple maws and crashed towards Chang’e, threatening to erase her now and forever.

[Beast Blood]

The great Beastmother denied him that chance, for with a ferocious growl she enacted swift and brutal reprisal. In but a moment, the End of All’s horns were snapped off like feeble twigs beneath her mighty paws, then shoved deep within his own skull, interrupting his forthcoming attack and eclipsing his vision in many of his sixteen eyes. The wyrm’s countenance erupted into a gory spectacle, streaming down onto Ristaang. With this many eyes, surely he would not mind losing a few. Or several.

Catching hold of that monstrous tongue, Ristaang stopped its insidious plundering of her life essence by brutally wrenching it forth from the dragon’s maw, tracing a bloody arc through the air with the ragged appendage in grim mockery of the image of the fire-breathing dragon. Wielding the lacerated tongue as a lash, Ristaang struck him hard across the face. The shattering of bone and spattering of blood painted the air, splintered teeth taking flight alongside the stunned wyvern himself as he was flung off his feet. His mighty wings’ valiant efforts naught, the defiant lashings of his tail moot, the wyvern faltered in his fight to keep his stance, brought to heel by the brutal blow wrought to him.

Yet this was but the onset of his troubles, for his tongue had absorbed within himself Ristaang’s essence, and with it, her Blood and its life-giving capabilities.

Before the wyrm could even begin to recover from the moose’s previous onslaughts, his form seized with agonizing torment, most dire suffering erupting from within him. Beasts from the absorbed Blood of Ristaang took shape inside of him. Trapped within the confines of his body, they then sought to break free. By claw and fang and talon, they rent their way out in savage passage, gruesomely carving the dragon out from within.

As the newly-spawned Beasts tore their way to freedom, Ristaang made to gather them in her arms to keep them safe, only to discover an unpleasant surprise. The Beast’s features furrowed, an inquisitive grunt coming from the perplexed Aspect. It appeared her foe’s blood bore properties similar to her own, as from the dark essence of the wyrm, grotesque creatures emerged, warring with her own bloodborne progeny.

It remained to be seen, however, whether this dragon would defend his children with as much ardor as Ristaang would. Little ones survived if not by their own ability, then by their parents protecting and nurturing them. And in this case, Ristaang would defend hers with as much fervor as the infamous Beastmother ever would.

Before Tannin’s spawn would threaten her own, the Beast hurled the tattered tongue of her foe, crushing the creatures beneath the mangled flesh as it ground over them. With a ferocious growl, she slammed her fists over each of the spawn, smashing them to smithereens. Gathering her progeny close, into the safe embrace of her mighty arms, she skewered the rest of her foe’s own offspring upon vicious spires raised of the earth.

The next to be impaled upon such, of course, would be the dragon himself.

[HayesAJones]

A long, shaky breath escaped Alex as Crigan closed the rift behind them; it was seemingly involuntary, as he looked up with a small start afterward and chuckled sheepishly to his companions.

"Sorry, I just... didn't expect to be back here so soon."

His head craned up to the rainy sky. He seemed to be looking for something. "We should get into the ruins fast. Big, clear-cut areas like this... they're common hunting grounds for valjornns. They don't usually fly in weather like this, but better too safe than too late, right?"

He began jogging towards the ruined structure. "The good news is that we're unlikely to meet sophont company. The people here have a lot of superstitions about areas full of recently spilled blood. Well... I think they're superstitions? I did once meet an apotogan... uh, an 'again-walker,' someone who died but rose up after. That probably won't happen here though. Probably."

[Corzak The Mighty]

Nyx took a deep breath as the rift sealed shut, taking in the cool air, smoke, and ash with a single breath. Something serious must have happened here, and not too long ago either. She turned her head at Alex's anxious breath. Nyx was curious as to the series of events that had occurred, since Alex and Risel seemed to have a... rather unfortunate history with this place, but she decided not to press too hard and followed in Alex's wake.

"You know, I'd ask what the hell a 'valjornn' is, and how common it is for dead people to get back up like nothing happened, but after half the things I've seen in the past few weeks, I'm just gonna roll with it," Nyx said, keeping a steady jogging pace with Alex. "Let's just hope the underground portions of this place are in better shape than the above ground."
___________________________________________________________________
Owlzarus watched in awe as Ristaang battled with the End of all, clashing tooth and claw with the monstrous beast that threatened to tip the balance of the multiverse into calamity. The antiquarian raised his taloned hands, runes swirling about them in preparation of aiding the Mother of Beasts in her clash with Tannin, but his attention was turned to more pressing matters as the blood of their foe birthed ancient horrors as it fell.

Eyes widening as the ebon-shrouded wyvern exhaled its plume of destruction upon him, Owlzarus swirled his runes and sigils into a roaring vortex of space-time distortion, before the flames found themselves swallowed by the distorting vortex. A sudden exit vortex opened next to the snake-headed beasts who assailed Evoex, sending the onyx flames washing over their allies, engulfing them in dark fire.

As the wyvern passed overhead, Owlzarus coalesced his runes into the palm of his hands, before he unleashed a lancing bolt of magical energy directly into the wyvern's chest, causing its movements to suddenly slow to a crawl before stopping completely.

"Are you alright?" the ancient antiquarian asked his glitchy quatheral friend.
___________________________________________________________________
"Very well then," Immanuel reponded, tapping his golden stave upon the earth. "You are all brave to join in this endeavor. Now, let us go; for the final push to bring peace to the multiverse."

A flash of blinding sunlight radiated around those gathered, before they found themselves travelling at light speed, zooming into the heart of the fray....
----
As the battle raged far below, chaos engulfing the remnants of the shattered earth, a light filled the skies above. A second sun, far brighter than the one so distantly away now, illuminated the entirety of the battlefield, dispelling the creeping shadows of Tannin's influence. Six great wings, wreathed in celestial fire, spread high above the battlefield, as golden barriers of protective light surrounded the forms of Tenchi Orion, Aphrodite, Ristanng, Owlzarus, and Evoex.

The light suddenly began to intensify, before it focused in on Tannin, unleashing a devastating blast of solar light upon the End of All, engulfing his body in a beam of divine ire. Radiant burns seared themselves across Tannin's frame, burning with such heat as to halt the spilling of the abomination's foul blood and halt, at least for the moment, the legions of horrors that had been given fell life in his wake.

From above dropped down those who had gathered with Immanuel - Molly, Demogorgon, Nichelle, and Cercil, each shrouded in a barrier of golden light - before the light dulled enough to reveal the form of Immanuel, having taken his true form of the Great Wheel.

"Tannin, your time of judgement has come!" Immanuel boomed, as torrents of celestial fire washed across the battlefield, heartening his allies like a beacon of hope, and scalding the forms of Chang'e and Aram with his raw heat. "No longer will you poison the multiverse with your malice!"

[Demon Lord Gira]

Mara gave Alex a concerned look. "I don't think I like that people can just come back from the dead here, and I'm the girl who has the God of Death as her husband."

"People die when they're killed." Risel said. "That's the way it should be."

"That depends on your culture and personal beliefs, but perhaps a better topic for when we are out of here." Lae let out a sigh. "Not that I've had plenty of time arguing over such things with Lilith in the past."

The group quickly reached the inside of what had once been Zeye's personal abode. At the elevator, Mara grabbed at the doors and tried to pry them open, but nothing happened. "Fuck, these are jammed shut. If I still had my powers I could easily blast through."

"Perhaps a more scientific hand can-"

Lae was cut short by Risen grabbing both of the doors and prying them open. The elevator shaft was empty, with nothing heading up higher for obvious reasons, and only an extra opening further down before it was submerged with water. Lae took a deep breath.

"Or more brute strength. That usually solves things."

"Damn right it does." Aseya whistled. "So, I guess we're heading down there?"

"Nowhere else to go, according to Demogorgon... Hopefully nothing too dire is down there."

______________________________________

On the Planet of the Ninja, as the group vanished to aid the Ninjas against Chang'e, a certain silvery haired lean Celestial rounded the corner just in time to see the group vanish away.

"Hey, wait!" Tenkarus shouted as she began to pant heavily. "Drillgore, he's... No wait, come back! Where are you all going?!"

She continued to breath heavily. As far as she had gotten from Drillgore's base of operations after the rescue, she had no idea if she was even safe here. She had a feeling she knew where the others were at, if those tears up in the sky were any indication, but... To go there, or to stay behind in case Drillgore tried anything else?

With any luck, there were plenty of other Ninjas and the large walking fur carpets to help keep her safe- erm she meant keep Drillgore in check. Right, this was probably the safer option, probably... She hoped....

_____________________________

The End of All cared not for the spawn born from his blood, only that they would aid in purging this world of all that was not him. They were an extension of his being, a means to an end, part of the greatest whole that could exist. Their demise meant nothing to Tannin, whose burning eyes focused upon Ristaang with a smoldering disgust and hatred. Before Ristaang's eyes, the form of the End of All began to shift and contort as he adapted to the life force absorbed from her. The horns upon his head elongated and thickened into a form more akin to antlers, and muscle rippled and swelled underneath the decaying scales of the Embodiment of Wrath. Blackened flames licked and flickered from the opening maw of the unholy wyvern as it arched its head back, ready to engulf Ristaang and her spawn with god slaying fire...

The attack was cut short, as the radiant light of Immanuel consumed the End of All. The radiant energy burned at Tannin and the great beast bellowed in hateful rage as he was blasted onto his stomach, right into a rising stone spire formed by Ristaang. The spire struck Tannin in the chest, tearing through an opened raw wound.

The beast's howls echoed for hundreds of miles.

Tannin's eyes swerved back to the source of the divine light and narrowed as Immanuel's form took form. Yet another foolish god to strike down, he would pay for standing in the way of what was rightfully his! And... he had brought a special guest, one of the few to have survived his wrath in eons past.

Yet in that moment, a voice echoed in his mind, the voice of his other half, the brain of his brawn. "I shall handle Immanuel. Focus upon Ristaang for now. You need only to keep buying time before all falls in place, Father. "

The eyes of the End of All swerved back to focus upon Ristaang, and Tannin's flames reignited as black fire churned and billowed out of his maw. The unholy flames engulfed Ristaang, burning away at the beast goddess on a cellular level, every fiber in her body screaming in agony as the netheral flames burned away at them. He began to step back, the stone spire in his chest removed, leaving behind a great gaping wound that continued to drip with black blood. Already, some of the earlier wounds that Ristaang had inflicted were starting to close, the eyes stabbed out or blinded reforming at a rapid rate.

Rising up into a more erect bipedal stance, Tannin flapped his wings before him once, supercharging the netheral flames with a burst of oxygen that surged toward Ristaang, threatening to incinerate her!

----------------------------

The blows sent Aram's mind reeling. This... This was not happening! She was the Supreme Goddess, the culmination of the most powerful of her family all melded together into one vessel, unrestrained by the God of Suffering's bloodlust. Against this worthless spawn of a foreign god, she was superior! She had outlived many of her own kin. She had outlived the dragons of her world, several rulers of the Abyss, countless Lords of Sheol, survived the wrath of Salavance the Golden, and now was on the winning team! For her to struggle against Aphrodite, for this mere worthless spawn to draw blood from her and to strike her...

A screaming howl erupted from Aram as she erupted into flames and vanished before Aphrodite, right before Immanuel's heat could affect her. Her form reappeared, as fast as the light she commanded, right behind Aphrodite and slammed both of them down into the back of the Goddess of Thunder's skull. The radiant heat burned at Aphrodite and singed her mind as she was knocked back down toward the ground, yet Aram was not finished. She dissipated and reformed below the falling Aphrodite and swung her balled fists into her side. Bones cracked and skin ruptured as she was sent sprawling across the ground. The azure flames that roared around Aram flared ever brighter, and she brought both of her hands forward as corrupted divine light channeled before her.

"I fear no other god!" Aram shouted. "All other gods fear me! I am the Supreme Goddess, the greatest creation of Jinengus. I am the greatest in the heavens, the embodiment of Love, Suffering, Light and Destruction! I am the only god this world needs, SO PERISH WITH THE REST OF YOUR KIND, AND BURN IN THE LIGHT OF CREATION!"

The light shot forward, vaporizing the ground as it spiraled toward Aphrodite, a pillar of destruction and rebirth...

------------------------

She had to admit, she hadn't expected the ninjas to pull a stunt like this.

Chang'e observed as the great hydra that Tenchi Orion had formed unleashed its divine fire down upon her. At the same time, a second source of divine heat scorched her from the side, the source she realized immediately as the god Immanuel. It appeared she was at an impasse, trapped between two surges of holy power to erase her where she stood.

But her foes were only forcing her to draw from her limitless bag of tricks, and it was time to repeat her penultimate trick she had used against the prior fusion of the Ninja Warrior, and she knew just what to do with it, with the giant hydra giving her an idea.

"Dqaaya!"

In that instant, all of time froze in the ruined realm. Even Father was frozen in time, but he wouldn't mind. It wasn't something that would negatively affect him, and while Chang'e wanted to make him an exception to let him tear through Ristaang with no resistance, the burden of having to use her ability to freeze time three times in such a short period meant she had to be precise and quick with her efforts.

"End the forebearers of light. Pave the way for my grand return. Kill them now."

She blinked, and looked around. Had she been hearing things? She thought she had heard a voice, but... It wasn't Father's voice, it certainly wasn't her worthless daughter's voice, nor was it the twins... She shook her head. All this time freezing was getting to her. She was so close to her goal, she just needed a little extra time to buy in the most extravagant and fitting way possible.

She held out a hand and allowed some of the essence within her to manifest before her. The essence took on the bloodied form of the Wyvern King, tattered and weak. With her other hand, she motioned for Scylla to rise up, and the molten creation, freed of the frozen time, was lifted up into the air toward the Wyvern King. Her eyes closed, the molten creation dissipated and merged in with the Wyvern King, while Chang'e motioned toward the divine hydra's flaming attack. The stilled flames from the divine hydra were blackened with but a thought from the Heart of the Multiverse and swirled around the merged beings and fused with them. A new creation was being made, a new Wyvern King was being born, one far more fitting of a match for this divine hydra the Ninjas had created. Chang'e smirked, but that smirk lead to her clutching her chest and black blood dripping from her mouth.

This body, it couldn't handle any more of the temporal distortions. She would have to revert back to her true self if she wished to continue her onslaught, but not yet, she wouldn't do that yet. Not before she pulled her ace in the hole against the fusion ninja...

Time resumed for all, and where once Chang'e had been about to be vaporized by divine fire, now a three headed wyvern that rivaled what Tench Orion had made shielded her from the flames. One of its heads was the same as the original Wyvern King, but the other two were of the molten Hellfire Hydra, necrotic flames flickering from its maws. Wings partially leathery and partially of flame beat out, and twin tails stabbed into the earth. The reborn Wyvern King bared her terrible fangs at Orion and his pet, while Chang'e teleported up above her pet's heads.

"The audience has gathered in full, and the stage is set for the final show this reality will witness." Chang'e proclaimed, wiping the blood from her mouth. "Why not have one giant many headed serpent, when we can have two! The only judgement that shall be delivered is upon all of you who stand against me!"

The enhanced Wyvern King lurched forward, twin plumes of magma surging toward combined with the hellish fire from the central head. At the same time, Chang'e herself flew toward Orion, vanishing right before his eyes, only to reappear behind him. She swung the blackened blade into his side, ready to slice the fusion ninja in half with the Feldite blade her daughter had originally made for her own...

------------------

Molly was taken aback by what she was witnessing. The fight against Miyoshi had been chaotic but, not like this. Nor had it seemed so... desperate that time. Then, it was clear the Ninjas were winning no matter what, that everyone was holding their own and succeeding. There was something about this that looked different to her. Aside from RIstaang, it seemed as thought everyone was struggling just to handle the assault. And even then...

"Worry not, Molly" The voice of the Lifemother spoke to her mind. "Our enemy is great, yes, but we will be victorious. We will save my follower... your friend. We will stop the End of All here and now."

Molly took a deep breath and steeled herself. She was right. She had to have faith in everyone and herself that they would succeed. But, what was she even to do?

"Crigan, with me. It appears Tannin is already being dealt with by Ristaang." Cercil told the God of Death. "Dante and his kin are having less success against Chang'e. We must tilt the odds in our favor, and avenge everything she had torn apart and destroyed for everyone."

"Yes. I'm all too eager to end all of this here and now." He took off into the air with Cercil flying off ahead. This left Demmy, Molly and Nichelle by themselves, but not for long. Great bloated demonic forms began to advance upon them, their stomachs lit with burning souls within.

"Enemies approaching." Nichelle reported. Even with her blades shattered, she knew she would be more than enough to handle them. "Intercepting to keep them away from you."

"And I'll join and help blow them up!" Demmy's one good eye glistened as crimson beams fired out and tore through the bloated forms...

[Godzilla165]

If mortals truly believe that gods cannot bleed, then they are mistaken, my dear. Every living entity bleeds, even we. Though, I do not see this as pensive, but as a reminder… A reminder that we live and breathe. We are alive, all of us, and it is our right, our primal instinct… To fight for it. Never stop fighting, my angel of besottedness, now, nor ever. Live.

Aphrodite remembered those words her mother said to her long ago as she laid in a trench of her own making. Dione was right about many things, but one especially so now: gods did bleed, as well as feel pain. And, right now, Aphrodite was experiencing both profusely. The back of her head oozed plasma through her matted hair like a ruptured hose, parts of her flesh were singed black, and at least a third of her bones were broken or fractured in one way or another. Her head was also thumping like the beat of a very loud, very obnoxious drum; everything seemed like it was moving in slow motion. Aphrodite had to hand it Aram, the latter hit hard, and brutally. The Goddess of Love hadn’t felt pain like this since she lost one of Ares’s “sparring” matches, the big idiot.

Wait. Ares, Dione, Athena, Hermes, Apollo, uncle Hades, Aunt Persephone, Olympus… Aphrodite’s family… Her home. Her childhood home was destroyed by a madman, the “God of Chaos”, as many called him, during the worst genocidal reign of terror the multiverse has ever witnessed. Those eyes… She could still see them as they pierced through her very soul. Olympus in ruin, Dione pleading for her to run before being cut down and tossed aside. Aphrodite spent eons itinerant, an unsettled soul whom saw nothing but the nadir cruelty of the multiverse. She was lost… Until one day, she was found. The Yakuza, the ninjas, they brought her into their home and world. They made her feel like she was one of them; she IS one of them. A realm of gods and goddesses who showed her nothing but love, nothing but grace and empathy. Her home… Her people… Dante…

And now, now the Goddess of Love and Thunder was faced with a madwoman whom stood to undo all of that, to tear down what the former loved so dearly. Not this time, not when Aphrodite finally had the ability to change her history. She would fight, for as long as there was a fire lit in her breast, and love in her heart, she would fight for her life… For her families’ lives.

Gripping a handful of dirt, and letting out an agonized breath, Aphrodite rose to her knees first before standing to a pair of unsure feet. Her body was screaming at her, demanding the goddess to stay down and rest for at least 10 days straight. She was tired, not possessing the otherworldly stamina that the ninja siblings had; she still had no idea how they did it. As much as Aphrodite agreed with herself, the work was not yet done; rest would come later. She closed her eyes and captured a breath, holding onto it for a few moments, before letting it free. Her stormy gray eyes now open, she used them to peer up at the descending pillar of destructive light, aimed to render her nonexistent, a mere passing thought.

Raising one foot, Aphrodite slammed it deep into the hard ground and did the same with the other. She squatted down into a stable stance and gathered her energy, all of it. “This shall either decide the battle here and now, or it will be the death of me.” She considered to herself. Bright purple electricity zigzagged all around and across her being, and, borrowing a move from Dante, Aphrodite glided her hands and arms in front herself in a graceful orbit. Her energy intensified, the ground began to shred itself apart as bolts of lightning poured themselves into her. This was everything she had left. One final attack, and her most powerful.

“For my friends..” Aphrodite cupped her hands together out in front of her chest. “For my family..” She drew them closely to her right side. “For Cthelee..” The Goddess of Love took a breath. “And yes.. Especially you, my love…” Aphrodite faced down Aram with eyes ignited, power coursing through her veins, and love in her heart.

“I will NOT fail! LIGHTNING OF ABSOLUTION! Aphrodite slung her hands out in front of her, and out erupted dozens of gargantuan lightning bolts that combined into one massive pillar of raw destructive divinity. Only those with the most powerful of eyes were able to see this area of the battlefield, as the two opposing titanic forces collided into each other.

It was a pure, unadulterated stalemate; neither goddess relented, neither buckled. This was a battle that would see only one victor, one being left standing. For Aphrodite, for Aram… To be conquered here was not an option.

*********************************
Within one of the tears peppering the night sky in the ninja realm, a bright and twinkling white light descended silently from it. Night soon turned into a bright evening from just how bright this mysterious conglomeration of energy was, acting as a makeshift sun. Before Tenkarus knew it, she was surrounded on both sides by dozens of curious Yakuza whom were all drawn to the warm embrace of the new light source.

Among the group were the Night Owls, as well as Lafayette. Vale, Alexei, and Hayden all stared bright eyed at the source, their faces full of childlike wonder like the rest of their kin around them. They all knew, deep in their subconscious, that this source of power was not there to harm them. Meanwhile, Lafay merely looked on with a smile, one of satisfaction and pride.

“Well now, it appears we are going to have all the protection we need.” She mused.

The large thing of energy soon took shape, sprouting obvious human-like features such as arms, legs, and fingers. The white light began to converge inward on itself, absorbing rapidly into the epicenter until the very last bit of it was consumed. Thus, the being who stood before the awed Yakuza was laid bare: an avatar of Tenchi Orion. While one remained in Sheol to defend the city from any remaining threats, the second one was ordered by Tenchi themselves to go and watch over their home. It was an easy way for the divine ninja to keep an eye on their realm without themselves physically being present. This avatar was an extension of them, and thus Tenchi could see everything through their eyes.

The Yakuza citizens were all but entranced by the newcomer; they knew that this entity was their champions as one. Some of them bowed, some even kneeled, but most approached the glowing entity to greet them, touch them, and simply be in their warm presence.

“Magnificent… Truly magnificent.” An older sage spoke as tears reflected in his amber colored eyes.

“So this… This is what the ninjas turned into-” Alexei said, mouth aghast as he studied Tenchi. “It’s… They’re…”

Vale smiled, shaking her head in disbelief. “Amazing.” She muttered.

“Yeah…” Alexei agreed.

Tenchi turned their head to look at the three young warriors, granting immediate bows of respect from all of them. The ninja smiled with their eyes, nodding in greeting.

“Did you see that guys?” Hayden grinned excitedly, trying his best to whisper. “Princess Daeva totally smiled at me, I could feel it!”

Vale grunted with irritancy while Alexei shot him a sneakily little wink of approval.

As Tenchi turned their eyes from them, they found themselves stood face to face with their beloved aunt. Lafayette stared up at them wordlessly, granting the guardian a warm and loving smile that said everything. Reaching out, she grabbed on of Tenchi’s hands to collect in her own, and peered into their golden eyes. She didn’t have to say anything; the existence of this being was enough proof for her. Her sister was alive… By the gods, she was alive and well! The Ninja Prime nodded gently, if to confirm what she was thinking, and Lafay felt her cheeks grow warm and flush. Though, she needed to keep it together for the sake of her own self. Plenty of tears would come later when she and Tiamat were locked in embrace.

For now, she was more than happy to just stand there and hold onto what Tiamat, the Core itself, and her amazing niece and nephews had created.

Tenchi briefly turned from her and peered at the celestial, Tenkarus, nodding graciously her way. They motioned up towards the many tears that littered the sky. If she wished to help with the fight above, she could; the avatar would remain here to assist and defend the ninja realm from any threats. Tenkarus’s many amazing abilities would very much help in turning the tide to the heroes’ favor.

*********************************

The Feldite blade conjured by Chang’e swung into the massive celestial hydra at speeds that shattered the sound barrier. Yet, instead of finding itself with the result of a beast split asunder, much to Chang’e’s surprise, the blade phased harmlessly through Tenchi Orion’s creation. Before she could react, the dark weapon became transparent, reflecting time and space surrounding it, before it froze within her hands. For now, it was stuck in another dimensional plane, harmless to those around it. The Heart of the Multiverse would soon discover that she too was frozen in place, with not a fiber in her being able to move. Chang’e wasn’t the only whom could manipulate time and space, and nearly as well as she.

Floating soundlessly above, wings spread and angled towards Persephone’s eternal mother, the Celestial Angel used her conjunctional relationship with the multiverse to restrain Chang’e in another pocket of time, separate from the one that continued before every other being present unopposed. But, such a hold was proving to be rather temporary and difficult to hold; Chang’e’s mental and physical fortitudes were astonishingly powerful still. The angel chirped loudly at Immanuel and the rest of their allies present. She had the Heart, but not for much longer; they needed to hit her now, and hit her hard.

With Chang’e being dealt with for now, Tenchi Orion was free to put their full attention onto the revitalized Wyvern King. Twin flames roiled in towards them, but the draconic being was a step ahead. The Hydra Angel quickly unleashed divine flames of their own to collide with and combat those of the Wyvern’s, locking them in a galactic stalemate that fractured the ground around them for miles. However, Tenchi had their own bag of tricks to pull from, and with a bright flash of their eyes, Evron’s infamous ability reared its head. Appearing hundreds of feet above the Wyvern King, two additional clones of the Hydra Angel locked sights with their massive target, ready to pummel her with white hot flames of their own when the time was right.

[Beast Blood]

Like the relentless assault of waves upon shore, the black flames washed over Ristaang’s mountainous body. But her nerves’ tormented signals were met with complete disregard, their cries soundly ignored. The Beast did not merely endure the infernal onslaught, however - she, of course, fought back.

Maw slavering, eyes flashing, horns crackling, her burly arm surged through the hellish maelstrom. Seizing the wyvern by a grotesquely mutated horn, tilting both head and dark conflagration, the brawny limb ensnared the dragon in an inescapable headlock. Wrangled beneath her arm and swung about like a mere plaything, the End of All struggled with arm and wing to free himself, but no combination of contortions from his body or limbs could free him, and the Beast incarnate refused to allow him any sort of leniency. Her free hand broke off one of his horns-turned-antlers and cast it aside; more to make a point than to inflict any real damage. Within moments, however, torment came, as Ristaang viciously mauled his trapped visage with her paw. A handful of eyes, a fistful of flesh, torn from him in ragged scraps, discarded to the side by the angered Beast.

This pitiful cur could mimic her appearance and steal her power all he wanted, but he could never truly replace her. Strength was nothing without heart to direct it, and Ristaang’s ferocious heart was her sole guide - love was her singular compass, inspiring her both to furious fits of might to protect hearth and kin as much as it led her to acts of kindness. This creature, with his callous disregard for his own offspring, possessed a mindset as opposed to hers as it could possibly get. Her spirit would forever elude him.

With a mighty heave, the Beastmother hurled her foe skyward, before forcefully bringing him back down. The same earthen spire that had impaled him before rose again under her command, and the dragon descended onto its jagged pinnacle with all the strength of the Beastmother behind him. Skewered like a fish on a spear through his chest all the way through his back, he was freed from the headlock only to be trapped in a different way - still at the mercy of his adversary. His feet sought to stand, only to slip in an expanding pool of his black blood. His wings sought to lift him, only to pointlessly beat the earth, splashing dark life essence around him in his struggles.

Crossing each arm over the opposite shoulder, Ristaang growled with primal fury, eyes blazing and horns surging with blood-red energy. When she threw her arms to her sides, the pillar followed the movement the only way it could: by shattering into an uncountable number of jagged shards, assaulting the End of All like an earthen snowstorm!

---

The giants joined the crowd around Tenchi Orion, massive shapes towering above, curiosity keen yet understanding feeble. Only by catching floating fragments of conversation drifting from nearby Yakuza did they finally come to a certain comprehension of the sight they beheld. This entity was somehow a combination of their smaller allies from this realm, a fusion, a confluence, of all four of them. Indeed, a closer look revealed certain unique traits taken from each of them.

Korraz frowned, yellow gaze concerned. Four strands entwined, but could the threads of this weave be unraveled, so that each of her friends may return to live their own life, or would that separation spell their combined demise? Would their individual spirits forever remain merged into this being? Her thoughts turned to her friend, Jurgen the Thundercaller, and his Stormcrows, whose minds were their own even if shared purpose bound them as one. If his Stormcrow allies all shared the same spirit, as a great ocean, a collective soul, what then would distinguish one from the other? Her friendship with Hod would simply not be the same then. While she had nothing against the other ravens, it was with Hod that she shared a true connection with. Were he not to have a mind of his own, so that it was not by his own volition that he had chosen to help her in her time of great need, their bond would have no meaning, no real foundation to stand on. Who would the Yakuza have to thank if this being rescued them? Would it be one of the entities making up this amalgamation, a number of them, or all of them?

And though his expression appeared serene, Korraz wondered if this was only outwardly. Did trouble stir beneath his calm countenance? Were the ninjas’ differing personalities wrestling in his mind, or had their scales tipped equally to strike a certain equilibrium, meeting in a sort of harmonious middle ground? What would such a combination of herself and her companions possibly look like; how would that merging manifest?

In the corner of her eye, Korraz noticed one of the Quatheral tentatively approaching the gathering, stirring her from her thoughts. The bird, or the one that looked like a bird, seemingly wrought from some sort of fabric. That was puzzling in itself, yet more so was his forlorn state. Did that one not have a few friends accompanying him before? From their absence and his downtrodden appearance, the blacksmith could only assume the worst. She wanted to comfort him, but there was no way she could catch his attention when his back was turned to her. She glanced to Hod, gesturing towards Cthelee. But the raven, strongly attuned to her, had already surmised her intent simply by the way she had been watching him. He knew how she was. He called out to the textile avian with a short croak, inviting him to come to them.

[EdGojira]

Titanomachy PT. II

It was an odd sensation for Godzilla, to be in such a situation where he was not only struggling against something but he was wounded too. And to be in a dimension which actively adapted to him… he hadn't felt as vulnerable since the times where he was nothing but a blind creature driven by nothing but pain and hatred. Gaia had gotten one over on him, no doubt about it.

A barb plunged into his side. It penetrated through thick hide and even through muscle. He roared in pain and anger. For the first time in forever, the world didn't give away for him. He was just one creature, screaming away in a black abyss. His face hadn't contorted with so much rage for so long. Not since he'd found his attempted murderer. Something who shouldn't have even been there in his universe.

He remembered red skies, the burst of holy and nuclear energy mixing together in an abominable manner. The burst from the bloody seas as his body changed rapidly to adjust, sending so much energy into the sky as to burst the moon apart. The ungodly ascension which put him in the realm of the false idols whom the vile war pigs bow to.

These memories, the feelings of vulnerability… they were good. It'd been so, so long since his body had needed to improve. Whatever this thing was, it was like that tree before. The thing that he still hadn't fully recovered from. Now, experiencing it a second time, he could feel the surges of pain across his body once again. The changing within his muscles, his impossibly hot core.

That tree was like a vaccine. A vaccination against this thing. His body was priming itself for it.

The tendrils around his body and the tendril in his side sizzled. Veins of purple energy arched around them. The sea evaporated around the point of contact, taking time to adjust to the new ability. Godzilla's body glowed the deadly lavender along its usual volcanic seams.

Godzilla could hear his opponent start to groan. This was only the beginning of it. On his chest a small sphere formed, then in a massive wave expanded like a dying sun. The wave of energy forced Biollante to release him. He reached a hand and buried his claws into the plant, allowing himself to be dragged through the water toward the center of attack.

Biollante wasn't dumb to this strategy. She instead threw the tendril out of the water and attempted to shake him free. The more she shook, the more of her fluid was thrown around by Godzilla's claws growing deeper. A tendril shot out from beneath and wrapped around his tail, several barbed tentacles jabbing into him along his sides. He set forth another pulse, repelling the attack.

Then the tendril that he'd held ripped apart from the strain of the claws causing him to fall back toward the sea. He whirled around and unleashed a fiery blast into the black ocean. Several tendrils that attempted to meet him halfway felt the sting. His immense mass sent tidal waves as he smacked into the water. Several small toothed mouths clamped around his wrists. With a blast from his mouth, they scattered away. Another set met a nasty blow from his tail. Their teeth and blood flung throughout the water.

His feet touched an underwater hill. He could feel it was covered in the mossy texture of the other monster. The hill opened up beneath and attempted to swallow him. He swam upward and sent an atomic blast toward the tendrils. What kind of power output was he letting out by now? It had to have been enough to at least distort a black hole. Yet, this other monster simply screamed from the pain of the burns and retracted the vines.

More vines shot toward him, the sheer force of them sending streams of water clear into the outer atmosphere. He whirled around in the water to meet them, but by the time he'd met them he felt the teeth digging into the flesh on his shoulders, forearm and neck. He repelled them with a forceful nuclear pulse, but the damage was done. His eye moved toward one of Biollante's many teeth. He snatched it from the water and gazed closely at it.

Biollante took this as an opportunity to attempt to attack him, but a pulse of energy caused her to retract. Godzilla snorted after finishing inspecting the tooth. What he suspected couldn't actually be what had happened…

He groaned in pain. The attacks from the start had mostly closed, but still not nearly as fast as he would have hoped after adapting. Something about that plant had an effect on him. His adaptations were way slower than they should be.

He glided through the water, scanning the sea floor in search of the other monster's source. He was getting nowhere very fast by only fighting the vines.

He moved over a deep abyss, staring down into it. When his eyes adjusted, he could see the silhouette down below. And she could see him. It was like when the two grew nearer, there was an instant sensation in his mind. The same must have been true of her.

A mane of rose petals sat along a toothy maw. They were oddly fleshy, like they weren't plant and they weren't quite animal either. He could see from between them yellow slit eyes tilting upward to gaze deep into his. Her body was even larger than his and like a gigantic winding trunk… dark green and mossy. Through the gaps he could see something that looked like pulsing muscle, but iridescent like the flowers of distant planets and glowing a deep volcanic red. Her many branches, the way they interlocked and separated and went off in different directions reminded him of the world tree.

But those eyes.

Those eyes were like the images that had flashed through his mind so long ago. Of the monsters that were feared before his time, whispered into the fearful ears of travelers. One of the things that helped bring them into being. Their mother, Echidna.

Was there her soul in there?

If it was, Godzilla had an all new reason to end her. Typhon was a simple wish on the Dragon Balls away. With that, the wide spread of all of Gaia's and humanities wrongs would be all but assured.

The tooth made him hesitate, though… there was something too off about it. This moment's hesitation was long enough for Biollante to throw her thickest, most closeby tendrils into him.

The jaws on the tendrils crunched into his thighs, arms and midriff. He could feel the teeth sink deep into his flesh. One ripped a chunk of volcanic flesh from his thigh and then dug into the other side of his midsection. Biollante stared into his eyes as he did so. Was that… hesitation too?

He could use that to his advantage.

His body hummed loudly with such power that the vibrations thrown off decimated several dozen spires on the shore. The teeth in his sides dug deeper. Teeth scratched against the bones of his arms. He gritted his fangs, concentrating on this one attack. She was still not ripping him apart. And that one was a mistake.

A stream of violet energy surged from his mouth. It instantly evaporated the liquid around them for half of the planet's surface. It struck her clean in the eye before he fell. Part of Biollante's head exploded in a slurry of red, orange and green fluid. Her petals showered from above, sloshing against Godzilla's skin as he made his freefall and crashed into the seabed.

He rose from the charcoal colored ground, ripping some limp tendrils from his body. He breathed in and out, the gore running from his fingers. One arm hung limply, a hole ripped clean in the bicep that reached all the way to the bone. Nevermind his wounds. Godzilla took the time to examine his handy work.

Biollante's head hung down. Visible now was the row of petals along her back, coming down off the mane of petals. A hole had been dug in her skull where the eye had been struck. This hole was already closing.

She turned her other eye to stare at him. This head looked so eerily familiar to him. Even more so when she snarled at him. He charged in to attack her once again and her tendrils came to life, smacking him in the ribcage and sending him several kilometers digging an immense trench through the dense seabed. The material had adapted so much to his durability that he could feel it thrashing against him and burying into his exposed muscle. A new sting.

He clawed his way to a stop and shot an attack at the distant foe. She reared up a wall of tendrils more than a kilometer thick.

A shockwave of violet splashed across the surface of the massive wall of tendrils, sending a tremor of eldritch proportion through the dimension which imprisoned the two. For a second, Godzilla thought that his attack had been for nought and deeper depths of fury swole forth from his nuclear heart.

Biollante wasn't lucky enough for that. Her plantlike tendrils caught aflame, searing and crackling from the attack. The violet ray burst through and slammed into her. Godzilla watched her squirm and howl as she attempted to move herself, but the nature of a plant was to be nearly immovable. She had little choice but to either be uprooted or be torn straight through.

A shot of pain surged through Godzilla as a tendril smashed into his face. For a second, he finally understood what "seeing stars" entailed. Thorns dug into the back of his neck, some throwing off sparks as they dashed against his spines. He felt the immense air pressure from the vine curling back around and toward his face.

A direct attack at his face? Perhaps, he wouldn't have much issue getting rid of this new generation of Gaia's progeny after all…

He felt the swell in his body and the heat build through his body, but as he opened his mouth he was met with something wrong. Nothing came free from his mouth. The atomic breath had vanished.

It was the tree again, wasn't it? But why now was it affecting him when he'd been recovering from it?

He didn't have much time to think, because in that time Biollante's thorned branch came for his neck. It clamped around his neck, driving thorns deep inside. Now he felt the solemn sting. It had all but decapitated him now. What clung on was his spinal cord, armored so strongly from the catastrophes which birthed him, and some scarcely connected flesh. A bizarre spinning sensation rolled through his head. When had he felt that before? The first time his flesh had grazed the deep thermal vents?

It was like he could hear her laughing. No, not his enemy. At least not this enemy. Gaia herself. Those thermal vents… they'd been shelter once upon a life he had before.

That life before. Before he was Godzilla, before they came and they made their own judgement day. That life when the faint light in the deep sea was enough to jar the mindless creature he was away. So few neurons that ignorant didn't even begin to describe how much he was unaware of what they were doing there. What was going on above.

The light of a sun could have gone off on the coast, but the life below wouldn't see it. They would feel it. Like the eel had felt the matter drop from that seed. Like the eel would feel the things all around them eat their way into its form, becoming bigger and bigger. The voices of the stars singing their sinister sound into its head.

Biting. Biting. Biting. That was all he could do. It was the only thing which came to mind as more things merged into it trying to tear themselves away before losing their sense of being to absorption by the thing which knew only pain.

More neurons absorbed, simple souls all as one once absorbed…

This snapped Godzilla to reality. For a second, the rush of the waves as the nigh indestructible world attempted to correct itself put him to ease. If there was one thing he could compliment the gods for, it was that once he ascended beyond the regular plane he could sleep. But sleep wasn't here, and these black waters were more a coffin than a place to lay the head.

Godzilla raised his hand to the massive, powerful tendril which dug into his neck. His blurred vision could see the expression across the mosasaurine head of his enemy. The way those muscles pulled, it was almost like looking into a mirror. This mirror told him everything.

Godzilla's lip curled to reveal his fangs ever so slightly. Roots shimmered through the water and embedded into his feet. He didn't utter so much as a groan. He could see there, out of the reflection of the water, the violet energy coursing into the tendrils, moving their way into the titanic beast's core.

If she wanted some of what he had, then she'd have to face it all. They were connected, souls and minds feeding into one another. Now, what would she have to think when she experienced just one of the things he'd seen?

He sent out neurological signal. Simple as that, with her thorns so near his spines. A signal showing the Machine of Unmaking firing. The cracks forming across the very fabric of the cosmos.

He felt the thorns withdraw as alarm crossed Biollante's face. A face that Godzilla had no issue now attacking. In fact, her thorns had a certain side effect. As he charged his attack, the dreaded atomic power shot from every spot which had been pierced. Violet rose petals of energy, all ripping into different parts of Biollante before his neck finally closed up and from his mouth, he directed an attack at everywhere which he had already struck.

Biollante's eyes opened wide in horror as the attacks hit in such quick succession that they tore apart her very roots and stem. A flame erupted from her back, a volcano evaporating the water around. Charred tendrils lazily attempted to reconnect with the dead cells. Godzilla charged another attack but was upturned by a swift vine to the jaw. He felt his teeth crack as they slammed forcefully together.

The atomic breath shot clean into the sky, ripping holes through the fabric of the reality which hurried themselves to close before the spectacular display of destruction could explode any more millions of worlds. Godzilla quickly stopped the attack but not without giving Biollante an opening to clamp her various maws across his body and rake him through the ever more adapting world's soil.

With a crack that unveiled the abyss beyond, Godzilla was brought face to face with a jaw full of razor sharp teeth. No, not any of the small ones. The viney behemoth herself had brought him in toward what was likely her strongest weapon. Even as she wilted to the side, body trying to stabilize itself, she had the tenacity to keep holding onto the battle.

Godzilla's vision was filled with nothing but a massive cavern lined with spikes. Up close, it was clear to see these jaws were large enough to enclose the entirety of Godzilla's upper body. So, why did he once again feel reluctant to attack?

Was he a coward? No. It was rare, but he'd fought things of comparable strength to him before. Pterosaurs that could bring light to a supermassive black hole, entities that managed to slip their way into reality through folly of man, eldritch chimeras of multiple universes merged together, very angry gorillas. He'd met them too.

Ristaang. Somehow, he knew that name. A mother of a world of beasts, able to breach the veil between Midgard and the Afterlife with merely her claws. If she was as strong as he was, Godzilla could only feel… less alone.

He felt less alone too when seeing Gaoh amongst the moons. He could feel rage when he failed to commune with it. All things whose blood stained the seas from his hand… something to Gaoh dying gave him a potent rage. That rage, where he vowed to himself kill the rest of the Four Beast, was of a type he couldn't pinpoint. He couldn't figure out why he was angry. At Sutekh? Not over Gaoh. At Persephone? Please, killing gods wasn't the worst thing in the multiverse.

Godzilla thought of Ristaang and Gaoh that moment. The jaws that closed around him just made him think of how much he didn't want to kill Ristaang. He only killed Gaoh out of a---

A tantrum?

Godzilla didn't throw tantrums. What was he thinking?

The heaviness in the furnace of his chest translated to a spectacular burst of energy. Straight into the back of Biollante's throat and out the back of her head. That strange concoction of flesh and vine splattered across his face and his body, cinders of bright abominable energy twirling around the dark dimension's air.

Godzilla stared into the sky through the hole in the enemy's head, sounds of his internal pulse filling his ear as he watched more of the flesh crumble away.

Air escaped his nostrils in something he wouldn't accept as a sigh as he watched the wound start to close. Even though that meant her jaws would close around him too.

He thrust his arm around, with that the tendril now loosely hooked whipped up and smacked its parent across the face with enough force to send some of her thorny teeth flying. As she reeled, Godzilla lurched forward and clamped his comparatively small jaws on the outside of her neck. When she attempted to ready herself to bite down on him again, she instead gave him full access to her back.

She attempted to rectify her mistake, but with another pulse of energy she was forced to withdraw. The wave of energy made its way across her leaves like a forest fire, giving perfect foundation for Godzilla to drive his hands into her side.

It was clear to him that the center of her consciousness wasn't in her head. That made it somewhere else. If he would hazard a guess, that would make it within her. That glowing core he'd observed before.

From all around came barbs and maws and thick tendrils to stop him in his tracks as his claws raked and tore into the monster's back. He smacked one out of the way with his tail, dodged another one, felt one chip away at his spines, but they were too much with his back turned. Several got their roots deep into him and dragged him away from his target and repeatedly bludgeoned him into the ground. The molecules in the air grated against his rough skin, generating such vast heat to billow a great fog into the sky as he made contact with the surging inward waves.

It was amazing that this world created by that pirate could withstand this. Not only withstand, but continue to grow strong enough to where Godzilla could taste his own blood as it met the ground. This blood dissipated into vapor upon his next nuclear pulse.

He had few moments to react after being freed before being met with Biollante's jaws nearly clamping all around him. He flared out his hands, having his arms impaled through in several places as he summoned his strength to stop the massive jaws cold.

He could feel it from her. She was becoming more desperate. He wished that he could say the same thing. However, as his arms warped from muscle and bones layering themselves---attempting to find form while still pierced---the thought crossed his mind that they would be doing this forever. Until Nidhoggr closed its jaws on the last of reality, they'd be in this dimension contorting their bodies, biting, clawing, blasting…

And they'd been fighting for minutes. If they were lucky, they would be unmade by Tengri's abominable weapon as the multiverse ended prematurely and everything turned to void. What was more likely was that they would be unlucky, and it would be the Legendary Beast which ended them both. Or forbid, something from the void that was banished when the World Tree was grown.

The jaws continued to try to close. Godzilla's flesh bubbled on his bicep, bone ripping upward like a tidal wave to merge with the new muscle which shot forth like a fell orca. The skin weaved around, merging the new arm that formed from his bicep into his pierced arm. The extra muscle mass slowly forced the jaws apart.

Godzilla roared. Frustration, confusion, pain. It all manifest as a dimension-tearing scream.

The skin on Godzilla's arm began to change shape. It solidified. He could feel the bone in his original arm begin to merge with it. He didn't even know what his body was doing now. The skin and bone seemed to form a massive cone, slowly piercing through Biollante's upper jaw. He watched it malform just like him.

Another roar, another attempt to rip his emotions out of his soul. Despite its immense power it may as well have been a single drop of water in the foggy eternity of the underworld.

He simply couldn't stay in denial anymore. This… it went beyond Gaoh or Ristaang what kind of connection he was feeling. These teeth, this uncanny ability to adapt, the glow coursing through Biollante all belonged to him.

Biollante was Godzilla's spawn.

The age of new monsters was because of him.

This next chapter in the Titanomachy was started by him.

Despite the sheer fury this brought him, he could only barely manage to fully open Biollante's jaws. With an upward thrust, he tore free her upper jaw and slammed it to the ground.

Then, he simply stared.

He'd been a fool.

The King of the Bloody Seas hung his head down.

From behind, he could hear weak flapping.

"Davy Jones's Locker…" uttered Saint Kabuto.

The sheer level of violence on the field must have been something to behold. Any other world, neigh, dimension would have experienced an apocalypse. The cosmos originally formed here was rearranged, stained by the blood of the giants. Their pieces floated through the soaked black seas.

"You must've been going easy on me… don't know how."

Godzilla turned his head slightly to look at the giant beetle. The massive creature let out a startled sound.

"Neither of you are dead?"

Godzilla could hear the confusion in Kabuto's voice. That always seemed like a flimsy emotion; something Godzilla would get over quickly before crushing the enemy underfoot. Something that would fill Godzilla with mirth as he appeared over the mountainsides to burn down the war pigs. Confusion was the thing they felt when the hourglass drained and they, the hedonists, realized he was never on their side.

Those scars across Kabuto. Caused by him.

Godzilla didn't even flinch as Biollante ran him through in all his limbs and raised him into the air, limbs splayed like the idols of some of the humans' savior.

"This…" Kabuto said. "... Doesn't seem right."

Godzilla growled loudly. Did you not come here to wipe me off the slate? Do it.

"Get back. He's faking it."

Godzilla wasn't faking it, but Kabuto was right… pity was no place for him. It was true that Gaia had made him a pawn. It was true that he was an idiot. But that was why he would do better. He wouldn't ask for salvation like some lowly god spawn.

Biollante, surprisingly, listened and attempted to withdraw. The vines ripped themselves free from his limbs, dropping his mass into a thunderous boom. He got the ground already ready to move.

There wasn't a world where Godzilla could let the Titanomachy go along on its own.

If it were foolish to let it happen, it would be doubly foolish to let it happen unabated.

He'd twist these hands of fate to work for him.

He exploded forward, thrusting his hand forward and clutching Kabuto by the face. Biollante coiled her vines around Godzilla's tail, pulling him toward her. Kabuto clamped all his claws onto Godzilla and dug his heels into the ground.

He was going to be pulled apart. They thought, at least. A surge of violet energy erupted from Godzilla's mouth, slamming into Kabuto's face. The great insect flew back and all resistance that Biollante was suddenly reliant on caused Godzilla to hurtle clear toward her. He watched from the corner of his eye as she hastily raised a small wall of vines. He released a pulse of energy, shredding the wall and leading to his spines digging themselves shallowly into her stem.

Kabuto flew toward him, smacked aside by his tail. As Biollante forcefully removed her enemy from her stem, she let out a scream of pain as this inevitably led to the spines digging more trenches through her body. She tossed him through the air. Behind Godzilla, a sea of vines appeared. At their end were red petals. They opened to reveal Kabuto inside. He swooped and picked Godzilla from the air, allowing the tendrils to come around them like a massive bloom. Kabuto swung and kicked Godzilla into the bloom, narrowly escaping as the attack swallowed Godzilla up.

The vine wall suddenly closed like a clenched fist, driving thorns all over Godzilla's body.

Kabuto coughed up blood. "It takes two…"

No sooner he said that did he get struck in the underbelly by an atomic beam, sent spinning through the air head over heels.

Godzilla snarled at him from within the now ineffective thorns. His body had taken that adaptation earlier and applied it all over. Whatever came from that tree in Cercil's realm wouldn't be a problem for him anymore. The hole in the ball of vines attempted to seal itself shut as it pulled him deep beneath the planet's surface.

He saw what they were doing. They would seal him inside. How, after this world had adapted so she could now barely budge this rock, did they expect him to stay within the trap? They couldn't. And they would know about his new world order.

He wouldn't kill them. No. He had to own up to his mistakes. And forge a new path to spiting those like Gaia, those like the humans, those like the Olympians, those like the Giants, even those like Typhon.

He surged through the hole in the vines and dug his claws through the deep roots and vines inside the tunnel. With that and his body reacting to the plant matter, he climbed forth. Great mass against great mass, he had never felt more limber.

There were more layers. Those monsters that caused the chaos across the worlds, whether figurative ones born from humans or literal ones which came from the lineage of the First Ancestral Race, there was always a little bit of Godzilla inside of them.

But GODZILLA would have the final say in how those seeds came to bloom. He'd been counteracting the carelessness of the worlds wrong.

When Godzilla emerged, ripping and tearing through the last plug of vines, he could see that Saint Kabuto still lay unconscious. About a moment before Biollante clamped her jaws around Godzilla's head.

Naturally, armored plating generated to counteract the points of attack. He unleashed another blast into the back of her throat, this time severing her head from her body.

Godzilla slipped it off and tossed it across the seabed beside Kabuto and clean across from the severed upper jaw from their last encounter. The other creature still seemed to be able to see, as it looked at its other self in alarm.

Godzilla slowly approached. Escaping from his throat was a sound similar to those he made to communicate with Gaoh. This time, they worked.

"A ceasefire?" Kabuto said, rising once again in a state that Godzilla could only describe as kissing Death. Godzilla eyed him sympathetically. The cruel monster knew Kabuto was another creature that only existed because of him. "... You're serious."

Godzilla grumbled something to Biollante. She replied back. She was loyal to Hercules. Why something so similar to Godzilla would have any type of faith in that ratty fraud was something he would need to ruminate over. He was tired of the being alone. Whether he liked it or not, him and Hercules shared a legacy.

Kabuto stammered before finally finding words. "I never thought…"

Godzilla nodded solemnly. This titanic pirate had been his longest lasting opponent. The bravery and dedication Godzilla could admit now was nothing short of admirable. Neither of them expected it to end this way.

"I can't forgive you."

Godzilla didn't need forgiveness. He just needed to own up. Kabuto deserved to know why everything happened. Godzilla would explain. He would tell the story of the Titanomachy and finish it because the next chapter in the Titanomachy belonged not to Hercules, but to Godzilla. And he would see this story to the end as the King of the Monsters.
__________
Dana was on her knees. There was a sting in the air. In a way, she'd done it. She'd taken part in the defeat of a heavy threat to the multiverse. If the maw that was made out of stars was this Raspaganje, she'd had the last laugh. The blight that was the whole reason why she was a "ghost" and not another reincarnate, undone by her. Revenge on the highest order. But it wasn't.

"It was me. You owe your abilities to me."

Jake checked around. Most of the others were distracted by the End of All. Thankfully so. If anybody knew that Dana's glitched reincarnation wasn't one that was a simple accident like so many others... it'd be all the more reason for some to want to come for her. It was true that Jake didn't know her well, but if she were evil then he would've known about it. Their kinds' negative reputation as unnatural and the spawn of Yamato no Orochi wouldn't allow even the most minor of crimes to slip through the cracks and not be widely broadcast. If she wasn't evil, she had a fair shot at life.

Dana gave him a contemplative glare. "That... that thing. How's it... How's it that we met? In all the multiverse? How?"

"I suppose the Legendary Beast might have its ways of altering probability," Jake said grimly. "If that's the case, there isn't much telling why. And... there's more pressing issues."

Dana followed Jake's finger to the battle going on. There was part of the sting in the air. Someone sacrificed themselves to some horrible fate. She, Jake, and the others worked hard. Only for in no time at all another crisis to pop out of nowhere. There was pyrric victories and then there were straight up tragedies. Sure she could do magic, but she was pretty sure this was on a level she had no way to deal with.

"We're in for another one, it seems," said the Sandman. "My advice is to follow through on your third form. If you'd like, Dana, I can trap you in your subconscious----"

"NO!"

"Then, even if not for this battle, I think that your best option is to commune with my sister."

He tapped his staff. She was caught in a whirlwind of sand. Then, she was beside the waters on Noon Harvest.

The fresh watery air brought a nostalgic tear to her eye. She felt the Sandman's presence in the crunching beneath her talons but there was something else here... something that made the waters black and layer of fog grow in the dreamy landscape. Death was nearby. She knew it before she even saw the pale white horse.
_______
The world was rending apart. Jake has found the solution to one problem, but then another had arrived. There was something to the humanoid which battled Chang'e... something comforting. A deep familiarity. He hoped that it'd be enough but there was no use in being in the waiting. Ristaang had taken initiative... and was proving to be fairly effective.

Jake had a feeling he knew exactly what Tenchi Orion was. It seemed to him that the Ninjas had something up his sleeve he'd never seen before. Through all their dire fights, he doubted this was anything but new. That was unlike the form they'd yet not seen.

He hung his head low. It wasn't his fault, surely. This form was dangerous----no, catastrophic---but in all their times battling alongside each other he had no doubt there was at least one time where it would've done more good than harm.

His eyes moved through the skies. Peeking, just visible from the scar over his eye, was the ball of sand the size of a gas giant. Laced with divine energy and the power of endless universes' worth of collected subconscious—enough to birth hundreds of thousands of gods from the LCL. Maybe it'd be enough. It had to be. This second form was spent.

He gave the Sandman a nod. "Bring me in."

La'tomer nodded grimly. He was keeping an eye on the battle. Not the most comforting thing when Jake was going to have to rely on him to keep the surge of power from causing any damage.

"Keep the eye on the ball," Jake warned. "Putting them to sleep right now might not do any good."

The Sandman nodded again. He tapped his staff and Jake was suddenly trapped. All sides he was entombed in so much mystic sand that he couldn't move. It was comparable to if a regular mortal was trapped in solid cement.

The pressure of the sand's weight squeezed at him. It was so dense in here that the gravitational pressures must've eclipsed several suns. Any further, it would be a black hole.

"It's so kind of you to be dealing with all these pretenders for me. Ever wonder... just which parts of your mind that I get to inhabit?"

Jake tried to block the thing out. It, like Raspaganje, was trapped. It wasn't a present issue. In fact, things were looking more now like it might've not even been one. So many things coming for this multiverse. He wondered for a second if the sun was supposed to set on this reality earlier...

No, no it couldn't be.

"I'm your dreams... mind astray."

The taunts wouldn't work. Jake felt a burning rip through his body. In the blackest tomb of sand, he could see a glow of blues and reds. He knew this was the glow of his cells reprogramming, ripping away at the skin and muscle to layer them with new and better replacements. The energy itself was changing, being swallowed up and spat out. Clashing and ripping at itself to produce something stronger before moving onto its mission to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Into something stronger.

"You know it's sad but true."

The only thing true was what was coming would make the form which wounded Sutekh look like a fragile chicken's egg.

Jake sent a message to Tenchi Orion. One last one before his mind could only concentrate on the transformation. "Hey, guys, sorry for the delay. See you have something new there... you showed me yours. Time soon to show you mine."

[MinorBone Good]

Cthelee had stepped away from his group of friends. After listening to Cider’s explanation on why Quatheral sent them here, and what they had done and attacking the Ninjas, he needed to try and calm himself down. The stress was getting to him. His own friends came looking for the group, and they almost perished due to joining the wrong side. He looked back to where he came, seeing Fiotto already prepping them tea.

The strange bird let out a sigh, shaking his head. At this rate, his feathers would go gray just like his hair. At least, according to a human’s saying. How their hair would change the older they got. Though, he always had his hair gray. Or brown. He never really looked at himself too often to know what his hair color was besides looking in the pond he swam in back home. Cthelee stopped for a moment, the faintest smile formed on the cartoony stitched mouth, turned slightly upright.

How silly. Here he was worrying about how his hair looked after hearing such bad news. Was it because he was trying to get his mind off what could have happened? Or was it because he was actually getting used to the chaos that surrounded the Ninjas and allies? Cthelee flapped his wings out, stretching them out a bit before continuing to walk forward and tucking his wings back to the sides of his body.

Perhaps it could be both, the monochrome avian thought.

Cthelee closed his eyes, breathing in and out slowly. His thoughts started to drift back to earlier. Ishome. Howo. They… They were still dead. Plucked so easily from the murderer that he had feared for years. Tears started to well up in his eyes again. He tried to shift his thoughts somewhere else, but then thought of the missing Mitsif. There was always that nagging feeling inside him. If he hadn’t pushed himself to grab Fiotto, he would’ve been dead too.

Before he knew it, he walked down several halls from where he once was. He exhaled, a bit of snot running down his left nostril. He used his left wing to try and clean most of it up. Well… If nothing else, he did meet new friends. And… if the Ninjas really were as powerful as they built themself up to be and shown thus far, he had faith in them. Cthelee nodded to himself, before deciding to head back to the group.

A frown adorned his face as he began his walk back to the gathering. It wasn’t for anything really. It just became his natural resting face these past few hours… days? He wasn’t quite sure how long it had been. Guess that’s what happens when you go planet hopping. Suddenly, Cthelee heard a caw. Curious, Cthelee turned his head to see a familiar face. Well, faces. It was the large bear that Cthelee had seen earlier, as well the bird that was perched on her shoulder. He remembered he wanted to try and speak with them earlier, but multi-universal threats had prevented them from actually having a chance to truly meet.

Cthelee smiled, using his wing to simulate a wave back to them. Cthelee chirped back to Hod, greeting them back. Cthelee actually had to look a bit upwards to see the furry creature in full, which was rare considering he was tall back home. He wondered if this creature was common in how large they were, or if they were just an oddity like everything at Quatheral. Cthelee chirped to Hod. Though Korraz couldn’t understand what Cthelee was saying, Hod could interpret Cthelee perfectly.

He greeted himself and gave Hod his name, Cthelee almost hopping with joy as he got closer to the two. Though Cthelee had no beak, his neck flaps vibrated, mimicking a bird’s voice somewhat. He then looked at the dark blue bandages around Korraz, worried about her safety, and asked Hod if she would be okay.

Little did the Quatheral avian know that on Korraz’s back was Mitsif, invisible, but still there. She wasn’t quite sure how it happened, but she knew she teleported somewhere else. Apparently, one with Cthelee! So that’s where that scaredy-bird was! While still invisible, she climbed up Korraz’s back like a furred playground, soon reaching the opposite shoulder Hod was on and peeked down at Cthelee, starting to come up with a prank.
_______________________________________________________

Evoex, to put it bluntly, was not feeling great. His vision had resorted to ones and zeros. He saw everything and nothing at the same time. It almost felt like the moment where his body deformed, just not as fast. His skin felt like it was on fire, he tried to speak, but what felt like water was drowning him. He couldn’t think. One moment he was giving it his all, and the next moment his body was shutting down.

He couldn’t speak, he couldn’t see. And he could only hear the muffled voices around him. His consciousness began to stir, his body losing shape as it struggled to retain his memories.

Just…

Evoex twitches, burning up, but keeping on together even if his body resisted.

Keep…

Suddenly, Evoex’s form solidified once more, Owlzarus’s voice piercing through his mind. He can’t lose… He can’t lose… He… Can’t… Lose! He had to keep…

FIGHTING!!!

A green and blue electric bolt exploded out of Evoex’s chest, his body releasing some of the corrupted energy into the sky, nearly striking Owlzarus! The bolt coiled around itself, splitting apart into several branches. Each branch slithered around in the sky like a snake, before looping back in on itself and exploding in the sky, causing several tears before it reformed.

Evoex still couldn’t see, most of the sky was a bright white now. Still, his body twisted around, floating back upright. A text box forming at a tilted angle besides Owlzarus.

[“READY AGAIN! WE CAN WIN!”]

[Beast Blood]

The more Cthelee approached, the taller the giant stood over him, till his vision beheld naught but she and the Stormcrow, two monstrous shapes filling his sight completely. Two enormous figures in the night, heavily muscled and jagged with fur and feather, gleaming yellows and blues, the Stormcrow gazing down at him as a menacing gargoyle. But Cthelee harbored no fear within himself, for he knew the giants’ hearts. They were kind and gentle, however much their feral, rugged appearance spoke of the contrary. Korraz leaned down towards him, and even as she loomed over him as a ghastly shadow poised to grab him, he remained, if uncharacteristically for him, unafraid. Slowly, so very slowly, so much it seemed the trickle of time had stopped its hold on her entirely, she gently enfolded him in her hands, as carefully and tenderly she would her own cubs, and brought him against her chest with the folding of her hulking arms, and held him there softly. From her towering height, in the safety of her huge arms, a new face to the Realm of the Ninja was presented to him. Though he had already seen the awe and amazement of the Yakuza before the presence of Tenchi Orion, he now saw the true depth of their fascination from this vantage point, for so many more of these onlookers were present to watch their combined guardians - who, in the throes of fierce combat as they were, still took a moment to reassure their kin.

The rolling landscape was not the visage of death and desolation as his eyes had seen far too much of lately, but an image of peace and healing in the wake of these recent tragedies. And Gaiyan, ever tireless, continued to paint this peaceful picture with deft flicks of her wrists like precise brush strokes, bestowing healing spores onto any injured her keen red eyes caught, alerted to any blood her equally sharp nose caught. Her eyes, in turn, briefly examined Cthelee as well, on the lookout for any injury on his textile person, yet from the lack of action from the healer, it was clear she recognized the gravest of his wounds were not of the flesh - and Korraz was already doing her best to calm them. Thus, the green giant took her attention off of him for the moment, but kept him in the corner of her mind.

Hod answered with words unknown to his master, but understandable to Cthelee. Soft cawing, somber yet not without its haunting beauty, conveyed to him the blacksmith would be fine. The labored nature of her breathing, though harrowing and definitely worsened by her present wounds, was at this point tragic normalcy to her - just as her silence.

A slight chuckle drew Korraz’s attention to her right, where another small figure clung to her shoulder. Whether it had been from such a tiny weight being perfectly unnoticed to her great strength and damaged nerves, or simply from her distracted mind, she had just now become aware of her presence. She had thought this one to be wandering elsewhere. What little she knew of this Quatheral, though, told her she appeared to be quite mischievous. But the giant would not let this little rascal trick the precious friend in her arms. A yellow glare, stern for only the briefest amount and for the smallest instance, told her as much.

Here, in this slowly healing realm, surrounded by mighty Borskall who would let nothing befall him, perhaps the nervous Quatheral would finally know some degree of repose - if only for a moment.

[Godzilla165]

Tenchi stood and watched as the graceful form of Gaiyan maneuvered among the crowd, intermixing her towering presence with the comparatively tiny Yakuza with a silent effortlessness. Her healing touch made any injured soul she blessed brighten with the radiance of a hundred suns. While Tenchi was happy to stay and converse with their fellow kin, they also knew that further work was needed; there were still injured Yakuza and Fae alike that needed assistance. To even provide a tinge of relief to Hale and his team of doctors and nurses would make all the difference. And so, Tenchi inaudibly glided alongside Gaiyan, following in her shadow to further provide healing to their homeland. The divine entity offered the other gentle giant, Korraz, a greeting nod and a reassuring eye. They sensed her worry, that perhaps, underneath the fold, there was chaos ensuing amongst her four friends. Tenchi provided her with a warm sensation, an aura that promised to her that the tides were gentle, that there was harmony and tranquility within their ethereal spirit.

Spreading their arms apart and their fingers spread, Tenchi Orion intermixed their energy with that of Gaiyan’s, and spread a cloud of healing and rejuvenation across the mystical realm of the ninja. This place was one of peace and harmony, a haven where anyone could come to seek shelter, kinship, and safety. That was Tiamat’s original vision, and her children had dedicated themselves to keeping true to that reality. And though it had been marred by those who wished to see chaos and violence spread, Tenchi was now here to help return their home to its heavenly state once more. They would do right by their people. They would make them proud.

As they marched forth continuing their work, their footsteps but a whisper, Tenchi would occasionally stop to give attention to fellow Yakuza, and Fae. Their eyes smiled brightly, their hands soft to the touch as they provided warm embraces to those who needed it. The celestial ninja provided children and pixies with radiant flowers, watching joyfully as their faces gaily ignited with cheer in their hearts. Slowly but surely, peace overcame unsureness, the fresh scent of cinnamon and pine ebbed and flowed through the springtime air, and the milky glow of the moon shined brighter. Some even began to sing, casting their voices into the multiverse waged in conflict for anyone else to hear, to feel assurance that everything would be okay.

After a while, the good doctor, Hale, busy at work operating on Emmanuel’s grounded hand, felt a presence whisper behind him. He peered over his shoulder, and his eyes ballooned. The doctor stood, fiendishly rubbing his hands through his wild hair, and removed his monocle haphazardly. Tenchi Orion stood before him, face drawn into a gentle smile, from what Hale could see.

The latter bowed curtly, “My lord.” Hale greeted before rising to meet the guardian’s eyes. “It is an honor.”

Tenchi returned the gesture, their eyes moving over to Emmanuel’s still form resting in a hospital bed. His skin was pale, and there were dark bags under his eyes. Drillgore had done a number on the ex-pilot, yet he was still holding strong, thanks to Hale. Bloodied bandages laid beside him, the doctor having removed them to begin surgery on his hand. Tenchi went to him, Hale following alongside.

“He still has a ways to go before he is fully stable… But master Emmanuel is a fighter. He will pull through, of that, I have no doubt.”

Tenchi nodded, studying their friend with the eyes of a tender caretaker. Manny, if sensing their presence, awoke from his slumber, his eyes slowly peeling open to find the multiversal protector standing over him. Emmanuel took a minute to peer at the person(s) before him, if he could even call them that, and in the end, smiled tiredly at them.

“Sss-so… This i-is what you ff-four get int-into while I’m go-gone?” He asked weakly.

Tenchi nodded, eyes warm, yet empathetic all the same.

Manny chuckled hoarsely, pained coughs intermixing. Using his one good hand, he shakily reached into his dirtied pants pocket to pull out an item he held dear. It was an item that he cherished, and yet… It didn’t belong to him. He reached out to Tenchi, his closed hand trembling, only to be collected into his lord’s own.

“I-I… I made sss-sure to h-hold onto thi-this for ya… Your mmm-majesty.” He said. His eyes filling with tears, he nodded, “I did… I-I will nn-never let you d-down. Win… Www-win, and make her ddr-dreams… Come...True.”

The little bit of energy that Manny had left was null, causing him to slip into unconsciousness once more. Tenchi stared at him, expression never changing, but their soul alight with fire and kindling. They peered at their clenched hand housing Emmanuel’s gift and opened it, revealing a small, burgundy suede box. The latter had been carrying this around for 200 years, never letting it out of his sight nor possession for longer than what was necessary. “Just say the word, and she’s aaaall yours.” He would always tell Dante. He was Dante’s greatest friend, and now… He was Tenchi’s.

Clutching the little box like the priceless artifact it was, Tenchi Orion, the guardian of all, reached forward, laid their hand upon Emmanuel’s ravaged one… And focused. He would be whole again… He would live to see that day.

[HayesAJones]

Alex cracked a smile at Risel's simple solution to their roadblock. "You'll get along well with some of my friends."

His smile faltered as he looked down at the submerged path forward. "Uh... anyone confident about how long they can hold their breath? Someone should make sure there's fresh air down there before we all take the plunge."

[Corzak The Mighty]

Nyx took a confident step forward. "I can handle it. Been without a helmet in way worse situations than some cold water."

The french woman reached into one of her jacket pockets and produced a small walkie-talkie looking device before her black eyes locked onto Alex and she passed the device over to him. "If you don't hear back from me in a couple minutes, it's probably deeper than it looks."

Nyx slides into the dark, frigid waters before she takes a deep breath and disappears below the surface...
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Owlzarus' avian eyes contorted as best they could into a smile, before the owl-headed caretaker waved his hands over the still glitching form of Evoex. Orange sigils and runes conjured themselves around the Quatheral dancing through the air and swirling in a protective shield. Though it did not do as much as Owlzarus had hoped, but the glitching that wracked Evoex seemed to slow, at least for now.

"It is not a permanent fix," Owlzarus admitted to Evoex solemnly, "but it will have to suffice for now."

Owlzarus' expression steeled, his large eyes glaring across the ruined battlefield, before he once more locked onto their greatest foe: Tannin. The End of All clashed mightily with the great Rstaang, as tooth and flame met fur and frost. Though The Mother of Beasts hammered upon Tannin's form, spilling his black blood across the splintered, cracked earth once again, Owlzarus knew that Tannin would get up again and again, and more and more of his spawn would flood the multiverse like a tide of death. Owlzarus' hands flared with orange light, but before he could make a move, his attention was grabbed by another conflict: the battle between Aphrodite and Aram.

The two had reached a stalemate. Their techniques had been laid out before one another in a dazzling display of power streaking across the ruined battlefield! They were evenly matched, and their duel could go either way... they needed to tip the battle into the favor of light, rather than risking it falling into darkness.

"Aphrodite needs assistance... let's must to her aid!" Owlzarus stated to Evoex, as the antiquarian's filled with an orange glow.

Runes once more danced around Owlzarus, before the librarian's form disappeared into a brilliant portal summoned before him - one he left so graciously behind for Evoex to use - before he suddenly reappeared above the dueling beings! Dancing sigils suddenly appeared around the Supreme God, as each of them bound themselves to Aram, causing her movements to slow to a crawl!

"I cannot... hold her... for long," Owlzarus stated, his body visibly straining. "Finish her!"
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Immanuel's burning form, wreathed in radiant golden light, acknowledged the Celestial Angel's implication as best it could. Chang'e would return soon enough, that much was fact. Tenchi and the others needed time to lay down a strike upon the mastermind to Tannin's brawn. But not with the Wyvern King baring down upon them; no, they needed someone to to distract this newest foe, this newest horror that had appeared before them.

As blackened flame filled the sky and the celestial hydra's fire clashed with that of the Wyvern King, Immanuel's form shone before brighter, before he unleashed a concentrated blast of golden light towards the now-surrounded Smoke Robed King, hoping to distract the beast long enough for Tenchi to land a decisive blow!