Queen of Blood (Worm/Castlevania) (Complete)

[explbean]

Dragon's little zing there at the end of the Behemoth fight was priceless.

 

[SirWill]

A/N: We're nearly there. It's been a long, difficult time getting this far. But I am proud to have done this.

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"He broke pattern." Rebecca said, her voice serious.

Nathan looked between Doctor Mother, David, Contessa, and Rebecca. "Why are you so damned worried about that? We won. It's finally over. We still have problems, sure, but we can get back on top of things now, can't we?"

Silence reigned in the room for a moment.

"It is over, isn't it?" Nathan asked.

Contessa shook her head. "It's not. Not yet. Scion is going to move. I can't run any paths involving anybody more than a year from now. It's going to start, soon."

Doctor Mother audibly swallowed. "How soon?"

"Can't tell." Contessa answered. "Anywhere from tomorrow to a year. If I try to run certain paths, he begins immediately, but there's too many variables and I've got too many blindspots. Each god we free is another point I have trouble reading."

"What the hell are you talking about!? Why are you worried about Scion?" Nathan demanded.

Rebecca bit her lip, then she spoke. "What Cauldron was made for, Nathan. What Clark was working on when he died. Scion's the threat we've been preparing against. His species infects others with powers, parts of themselves. They learn, grow, change, improve themselves on them, and then destroys the planet they've rooted on and move onward. Making more spawn to repeat the process on other civilizations. Scion is going to kill us all, either by finishing his life cycle by calling another like himself here, or for vengeance for killing his counterpart."

Nathan had gone pale. "But...all this time. Why did you keep this from me?"

David sighed. "Because we've done horrible things to prevent that. You were a good man, Nathan. Always had been. You don't have the blood on your hands, and we needed you that way. If you'd known... you'd have looked at us differently. You were needed as the head of the Protectorate. The way... Clark would have been. We needed a good man with ideals at the head. When we lost him... we got desperate. To stave off extinction, not just on our Earth but uncountable others, we sold our souls. You didn't. We believed that bargain would have broken you."

Doctor Mother nodded. "Today, though, we have options. We have a chance, though we don't know how much of one. And we can't afford to be divided. After it's over, if we're all still alive... it'll be you who decides what to do, Nathan. That's why we kept your hands clean of our crimes. You know us, what we've been fighting for."

Contessa opened her mouth, but Nathan pointed at her. "No. I know you'd be able to say whatever words were needed to convince me, regardless of what you've done." He looked at Doctor Mother. "I want to hear it from you."

She nodded, her lips thin. "It's going to take a while."

David's voice was grave. "Hopefully, you have the time. I need to get back on freeing the rest."

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

August 16th, 2011

In her living room, watching her laptop, Emily Piggot sat back.

On the screen before her, in shaky-cam and windowed, were the two videos being circulated to the PRT and governments around the world. The Battle of Yellowstone and the Battle of Swansea. They were being checked, edited by the PR department, and soon they'd be sent out worldwide. August 15th would be the first day of a post-Endbringer world, and she was glad to see it. And all because of furiously quick events that occurred right under her nose.

Not for the first time, she'd been glad to have taken the approach she had regarding one Taylor Hebert. When Emily had first confirmed that the girl had been victimized by one of Piggot's own Wards, she'd been furious. It had been a sore point for her, ever since Nilbog and that damnable fight in Ellisburg. The heroes that were sent in with the strike teams cut and run when things got bad. It made sense, in retrospect. Capes were damaged people given power, they weren't people who were given power because they'd proven responsible. Some could rise above, heal from their triggers, act with responsibility and cohesion. But in the face of greater power, they ran.

She rubbed her temples. The workload in Brockton Bay had calmed, a lot, considering just how much of a powderkeg the city had been a few short months ago. The Empire Eighty-Eight, despite how much parahuman muscle they had, were nearly locked in place. The worst that had happened were small engagements between the Hellhound girl raiding Hookwolf's dogfighting rings.

Still, she'd been feeling warm. Slightly hot, actually. It meant it would be a good time to head into her bedroom and hook herself up to her dialysis machine. Given the cheers she could hear in the halls, she was fairly certain she wasn't the only one who would be nursing a headache in the morning, though theirs would be self-inflicted.

For such a long time, the spectre of the Endbringers had stood over her head. Over everyone's head. And now they were gone. All three of them. It had been one of Emily's fears that one would come to Brockton Bay, destroy in one fell swoop what she had worked to protect and preserve for years. Admittedly, the gangs had been slowly leeching the life and strength from the city, but now that was actually turning around.

Emily pinched the bridge of her nose. It was definitely time to call it a day. This was the best day in ages, a day that would go down in history, and the only thing Emily could think about was how it would complicate things. The villains of the world didn't have the cover of being 'useful' in an Endbringer battle anymore. Things were going to erupt. Either a zealous government official would press at the wrong time, or a villain would decide they were doomed and thus had to go out in a blaze of glory.

Though there was one thing that Emily had to do before she went to bed. Taking a notepad out, she wrote a note for future reference.

Punish Paladin for her stunt against Leviathan.

A Ward should never do something so idiotically reckless if they could help it. Swinging around Leviathan's arm on that whip of hers? Sure, she did damage, but that was fucking stupid.

Emily managed a small smile on her lips. Paladin was really going to regret it.

With a sigh, she closed the laptop, turned off the power, and went to her bedroom bed. She always felt a bit better after the dialysis, though she hadn't felt good since the raid on Nilbog. With a sigh, she hooked the IV up to her arm, turned on the dialysis machine, and laid back. She closed her eyes.

And reopened them when the machine beeped, just a few minutes later, indicating her blood was clean.

Confused, Emily sat up, pressed on the screen that showed her blood toxin levels.

Zero. But the temperature was a hundred and ten degrees. She noticed she was warm, but that temperature should have cooked her brain. She felt as aching as she ever had since Nilbog. She'd tested negative for the potential for powers. And if she did have the potential, she would have triggered back in two-thousand-one.

Still...

A strange instinct made her look down at her left hand. She swallowed, lifted it, then snapped her fingers.

Just like that, her hand was wrapped in flame. There was no pain, just the pleasant sensation of warmth. It was as if her hand was wrapped in warm silk, not thousand-degree heat.

"What the fuck?" Emily Piggot muttered.

Then the fire alarm went off, and the sprinkler system activated.

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

"Well?" Dragon asked, her voice smug.

Colin sighed. "You were right. Piloting Atlas by remote was the right idea. I wanted to be right there with you, but if I had been..."

Dragon's digital avatar nodded. "You'd have been fried by Behemoth. Despite how much we prepared Atlas, Behemoth still managed to bring it down. He would have killed you, like he killed so many others."

He sighed, slumping back in his chair. He was happy to get back to his workshop after the battle. Especially as he had been as safe as it was possible to be while still being on the same planet.

She had suggested setting the Atlas control center in Tranquility Base, but they hadn't had the room for it just yet. They were still working on self-sufficiency, setting up solar panels, putting in water and a sewage treatment system. Should the portals fail for one reason or another, it was important that the base wouldn't die immediately.

Still, fighting Behemoth in Wyoming, while he was here in Brockton Bay? That rankled him somewhat. He had wanted to be there, regardless of logic. Part of that was his pride, but part of that was also that he hated sitting back away from the action. It was one of the reasons he'd triggered. A kid who was always second best, always struggling to meet ever-rising expectations, only for others to seemingly effortlessly meet them.

He shook his head. Colin Wallis, high-school student, was long gone.

Finally, he sighed. "I know. I don't like it, but I know."

Dragon's avatar smiled. "You know what you owe me for this."

He licked his lips, sighed, and nodded. "Yeah. I'm... actually, I'm going to have to rent a suit."

She chuckled. "There is a certain dress code, but it's not that high-class. Just use your business suit, you won't need a tux."

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

Twenty minutes, a Light Bridge, and about six hundred miles later, Colin showed up at the restaurant. He felt uncomfortable in his dark blue suit, the lighter blue shirt underneath clean and crisp. Just because Colin didn't use it very often didn't mean he couldn't keep it in decent shape. He might need it for something mundane, even if it was a rare occasion.

The perky blonde behind the greeter's podium looked him over, gave him a nod, and smiled. "Good evening sir, do you have a reservation?"

He nodded, clearing his throat. "Wallis, for two. My plus one hasn't arrived yet." He glanced at the sign at the side. 50% off all meals, Victory Day party.

She scanned her way down the list, made a checkmark, and nodded. She grabbed two menus and led him over to a booth by the window. Colin sat himself down, took off his jacket, and made himself comfortable as he turned and looked out at the Toronto skyline.

He'd never been up here before, at the CN Tower, or the novelty rotating restaurant at the top. It was an interesting idea, and certainly novel. It wasn't that he didn't like the view, or the experience, it was simply that he was kept so very busy. Armsmaster never had much time to rest. He needed sleep, something that personally annoyed him, as he could get a lot more done if he shared Miss Militia's trait of not requiring sleep. He had once considered trying to build a hyperbaric time chamber to allow him to sleep for a full night's worth while spending only minutes in real-time, but the power requirements were too costly to run such a device, and a malfunction would have been catastrophic.

That, and ironically, it would have required rebuilding every month or so, thus saving him little time at all.

Still, he enjoyed the view. Toronto was one of the cities that had gotten through the past three decades fairly unscathed. No city on the planet had been completely prosperous after the advent of parahumans, but Toronto was certainly better off than Brockton Bay. It was clean, shining, while a lot of Brockton was decaying. Brockton wouldn't have the resources to keep a restaurant like this going. Well, maybe if a Tinker would help keep it running.

Already his power was giving him some ideas. A frictonless fluid to help the track underneath the floor to keep running. Nanotracks to help channel the waste heat.

"Hello Colin." A lovely voice intruded on his thoughts.

He snapped his gaze away from the window, and swallowed.

Dragon was standing there, smiling. She was wearing a shimmering blue dress that accentuated her curves. A lesser man might have been distracted by the body beneath that dress, but Colin easily picked out that her dress was Tinker-made. It was made of tiny interconnected links of synthetic sapphires. It was exquisite.

She slipped into the seat opposite, a wide grin on her lips. "I thought we could enjoy the day. I've never been on a date before, and I am enjoying the taste of food."

He smiled. "I'm not so good at this."

Dragon returned the smile. "Neither am I. Still, let's enjoy the evening, hm? What do you recommend?"

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

August 17th, 2011

Vicky stepped into the bedroom. After the Nine, she'd been staying at her aunt and uncle's place. Red had offered a room at her castle, but she had two reasons to not move just yet. Her Mom, and her Dad. Sarah tended to her sister, while Neil tried to tend to Mark. Neither of the Dallons had gotten through things unscathed.

Her eye took in her mother, who was sitting at the window, looking outside. She was pale, her fingers running up and down her torso. Taylor and Amy's work when they were fixing her left no scar, no hint of the horrible work the insane bio-Tinker had left upon her, but the mental scars remained.

"Hi Mom." Vicky spoke softly.

Carol's head snapped over, her eyes wide as she looked at her daughter. After a moment, she visibly swallowed, her voice quiet and shaky. "Victoria."

Vicky stepped over, gently pulling her mother into a hug. "You're doing better, Mom. I'm glad."

Carol flinched, stiffened, but after a moment she let out a breath. "I just keep remembering that night, Victoria. Feeling helpless, trapped as Bonesaw..." She shuddered. "I keep dreaming that I'm back there. Being cut open as she worked... afraid that she'd do the same to you." Carol closed her eyes. "Even afraid of her doing it to Amy."

Vicky swallowed. "Yeah. Not much danger of that now, but..."

"Yeah." Carol looked down at her hands. "I know it doesn't make any sense. I know that up in my head, but I keep..." After a moment, she sighed. "I was afraid of losing you to that monster, too. Only for my life to be saved by a very different one. A lot of people's lives to be saved be your friend. She scares me, Victoria. I'm grateful she saved Amy, saved my life too, but... I keep picturing her flowing into Bonesaw."

Vicky nodded, a small quirk on her lip. "She scares a lot of people, Mom. Thankfully, it's the right people." Carefully, Vicky rubbed the skin beneath her eyepatch. The damn thing still itched. Amy felt about ready to try and replace it, but they'd both decided to hold off on it for the moment. The more practice Amy could get, the better anyway.

There was another reason Vicky was holding off on insisting on it, though. Amy had enough shit going on that it just didn't feel fair. Not after dying.

"I'm in love with you. Please don't hate me."

Words whispered on a dying breath. It made Vicky uncomfortable, sure. But it also ensured that Vicky had to stop and consider her sister's feelings a bit more. The blonde was now uncomfortably aware of just how self-centered she could be. She'd made her plan to get away from home without consulting Amy at all, though she knew her sister would have jumped at the chance anyway. She'd called Amy to help heal gangbangers she'd gotten too... enthusiastic with, when she was first starting out with powers. She'd gotten better about use of force, but it was just so easy. One slip and the squishy mortals would be turned to a pulp against her invincible fist.

Only she wasn't invincible. Not against the right enemy. The loss of her eye had been painful... but it also reminded her that she was still human. Too bad it took the fucking Nine to help hammer that in. She was just glad she hadn't lost everything. That she still had her parents, even though it took two horrific miracles.

And maybe a third dark miracle in the future. The thought of leaving her sister to face eternity alone was a hard one.

Finally, Vicky spoke. "Aunt Sarah's making dinner. You think you're ready to come on down? We need to talk to them about... well, everything. Red's given permission about the whole thing, and so has Ames."

Carol licked her lips. Slowly, she nodded. "I guess hiding up here won't work forever."

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

The Entity had circled the world three times. Examining. Watching. Perceiving. Learning.

Three beings at that battle that possessed no shard. Three beings that the Entity's own shards strained to examine. Three beings whose powers, combined with the efforts of shard-hosts, were enough to destroy one of the weapons. A weapon that in itself unleashed more energy on its death, reverberating through the shards connected with it, as its source fled. A power that was a mystery to the Entity, though it had learned much.

The future-modeling shards had evolved through countless iterations. Combining methods to refine the most efficient manner of gaining accurate knowledge. The powers themselves left no trace in the future models, the shards had great difficulty in analyzing the source of that energy.

Infinity.

Permeating the red one, the time-warped one, and the rock-covered one, connected through strands of energy, unseen by light or radiation, were several infinities. It was not natural. It had taken time, the Entity's shards working upon the matter with all of its focus, but it understood. The source of their power was difficult for the shards to understand. The beings themselves were not. It took much more energy to attempt to see their futures than it was worth spending, but the little the Entity did spend was worth the price. Two hundred years of life spent to see. And understand.

There was energy flowing throughout space that simply did not exist two hundred years ago. When it had appeared, it was faint, so faint that neither the Entity or the Thinker had noticed it. But here it congregated, creating that which would, should have been an impossibility. The weapons had somehow pulled the energy into the many dimensions when the Wanderer had appeared. Somehow their appearance changed something fundamental, creating a seething background energy that could be pulled upon, shaped, as the red one had done to bypass the defenses that the weapons had used to endure every battle before. It was weak for now, but its strength had been growing. Somehow, that energy formed conduits, latching onto hosts, which created infinities that the hosts drew upon. The existence of the conduits then bled back out into the background energy, making it more stable, reliable. Stronger. And it was growing stronger, minutely, with every passing day.

That energy was now touching, faintly, everything the Entity examined. The shard-hosts. The non-hosts. The plantlife. The rocks.

Even, with some consternation, the Entity itself. The Entity had yet to figure out how to draw upon the energy with any hint of efficiency, but it was there. Was this what the Wanderer had spoken of? Was this the hint it had at the Purpose? The first hint the Entities had at the ultimate goal, the first chance it had at creating more livable space, more energy, more matter, than existed in all the dimensions...

And it might be lost because the discovery was made among the corpses of two dead Entities, with a third trapped, helpless, and unable to communicate the discovery.

It was enough to make the Entity despair all over again.

The Entity reached the city, 'York' though the label did not matter to the Entity. It knew where Kevin Norton was. It was simple enough to find a single non-host when the Entity wished it.

It took only a few minutes to reach the location. The Entity was in no hurry. It was raining in York, though that had no concern for the Entity either. Kevin Norton was taking shelter beneath a bridge. How frail the non-hosts were. So fragile. Unable to withstand exposure to their own world's natural environment for longer than a short time.

Kevin Norton looked up at the Entity as he hovered above the non-host. The shaking man coughed. "Hey, golden man. Hell of a week, hasn't it?"

The Entity examined Kevin Norton. The non-hosts' health was deteriorating. Nerves were alight with electrical signals, making the male tremble and shake. His lungs were lined with fluid and mucous, diseased cells unable to do the job properly.

It would have taken only a second's worth of the Entity's lifespan to fix the damage. The Entity did so.

Kevin Norton took a deep, shuddering breath, the paleness of his face receding. "Thanks."

The Entity inclined its avatar's head.

Kevin Norton was staring at the Entity, now. "I heard what you did at Swansea. Why didn't you help? The Endbringers killed so many people. If you helped when you showed up, a lot of the capes could have survived. Could have killed Leviathan quicker. Why didn't you help?"

The Entity used its shards. Activating a shard to manipulate its avatar in a way it had only done so once before. Expelling air to communicate. How... alien. "Pointless."

Kevin Norton swallowed. "What do you mean, golden man? How was it pointless? You could have saved dozens of heroes! They're not going to go home again, because of you. Leviathan could have gotten away, and gone on to kill more people!"

The Entity shifted its attention. Looked out at the people of York. There were twenty-three latent hosts within the city. Six active hosts. The rest were non-hosts. All the data they would gather would be lost. They would die long before the Entity would. Whether through violence or time, they would all end, pointlessly. Just as the Entity itself would.

It shifted its attention back to Kevin Norton. The energy that permeated everything else was permeating Kevin Norton as well, though it was even lower than in most. As if the non-host was unable to contain more than the barest whisper of it. "All. Pointless."

That was the worst part of it. Nothing the Entity had done over the past thirty years had meant anything. The promised revelation in aiding the lives of the non-hosts had not come. Kevin Norton had been sincere in his suggestions, but they did not help the Entity.

The Entity took the risk. It looked forward, fifteen years. It took nearly a thousand years of lifespan to manage the glimpse. Much more lifespan than it should have, attempting to model and predict the powered non-hosts. But it was enough. The Entity knew that the revelation would never come. It would simply exist, acting to aid the non-hosts, until lethargy took it and it settled into observation. It would then decide to wipe out the species as a failed experiment, and preventing them from possibly becoming a threat to any other Entities in the future.

And then the Entity would die. Not from time or running out of energy, it would simply die. The Warrior could not see the deathblow. But the energy permeating everything was much stronger. The hosts of the strange powers were prepared, striking back in ways the Entity could not perceive properly. But the effects were plain. In various situations, depending on how the Entity attempted to sterilize the non-hosts, they fought back with enough effectiveness to defeat the Entity. And much of it stemmed from the energy that had flooded into the dimensions. It would be stronger in fifteen years. Their defense against the Entity's attack was prepared with astonishing effectiveness.

"Golden man? Are you okay? How can I help you? I swear, there's purpose out there. Just.. don't give up, please."

The Entity's attention returned to the present. It examined Kevin Norton more thoroughly now. The energy inside the non-host was weak compared to the others even within the city. Even the rodents within York had more in some cases.

But it was still far, far greater than it had been when the Entity had arrived. The energy would become a threat, in time. Even if the Entity itself did not fight, just waited for the end, the energy might empower other non-hosts elsewhere. Become a threat to the Entity's species.

Put the Purpose in danger.

A stillness overcame the Entity. Its avatar straightened, and the sadness that had clung to its psionic aura faded. Now filled with something new.

Determination.

"Purpose." The Entity spoke as it lifted a hand. Kevin Norton's eyes widened as the Entity unleashed its wavelength manipulation. Undoing the bindings of Kevin Norton's atoms, reducing him to neutrinos in an instant. The Entity ensured it was painless. Kevin Norton had meant well. Attempted to teach the Entity, attempted to help him in its journey. It was a kindness to ensure the consideration was returned, however small the non-host had been.

The Entity flew away from York, senses extending, shards awakening, providing knowledge, possibilities, powers, information. There was more it had to discover, more it had to do to ensure its goals. The shard-hosts, the powered non-hosts, and the ordinary non-hosts were a threat to the Entity's species, but they were weak at this point.

The Entity lifted out of the atmosphere and began to spend its lifespan upon modeling the best angle of attack. Simply striking and destroying everything in the Entity's path was considered, then discarded. That much damage was unacceptable, resistance was stiff, and enough damage was done to the avatar that the Entity could not succeed at its goal. Again, it took more energy than the Entity liked to spend upon the task. It directed the modeling shards to slow their processing, gather information thoroughly, carefully, and to take in as much ambient sunlight and consumable matter in their dimensions as possible to lighten the strain.

This would slow when the information would become available to the Entity itself, but that was acceptable. The Entity had to retain enough lifespan to complete its task. It would do no good if the Entity ran out of reserves in the middle of the battle.

The Purpose was threatened. The Warrior prepared.

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[SirWill]

A/N: A bit more buildup. Fun.

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♦Topic: Endbringers dead!
In: Boards ► Global ► Endbringer Watch

Ze Bri-0n (Original Poster) (The Guy In The Know)
Posted on August 15, 2011:

Holy. Shit.

Okay, here's the sitch guys, for whichever of you are all living under rocks.

Both Behemoth and Leviathan began moving at the same time, at around 2:30 am Greenwich time. Behemoth was determined to be moving on Yellowstone National Park. Why is that important? Because if he reached and set off the volcano under it, like a lot of Thinkers believed, it would have blanketed half the USA in ash and completely ruined the crop yields for the year. And that's assuming it didn't cause a global winter, in which case everyone gets to starve.

Leviathan on the other hand, headed for Swansea, in the UK. He made landfall right on where the Bay University campus was, and if he sunk the island, it not only would have killed all the Brits, it would have caused a tsunami that would have wrecked everything even vaguely near the Atlantic. Both of them stepped up their game a few notches.

Both were intercepted by the Protectorate and volunteers. Get this. Know the Scarlet Dragon, beating the shit out of the Simurgh and chewing on her face? Apparently (pics) she has a sister. Golden. Awesome.
Secondly, Behemoth got his face punched in by (THIS) awesome. Anime has been vindicated. To fight a giant monster, you need a giant robot.

Leviathan was intercepted by Scarlet Dragon, Alexandria, and everyone who could get near the bastard.
Also, get this: (These guys) appeared at the battlefield, about ten minutes prior to the fight, where they rather handily took apart and stopped a bunch of the Fallen from killing a bunch of hostages in New Orleans. They're dressed in gray. And, it took a bit to find, but this is going to blow your minds.
The one at the front is Sarah Kissinger. Yeah, the first person we know about who got damned to eternity by Gray Boy.

Holy. Fuck.

I got video of the battle (here). Watch for yourselves. Try not to cream yourselves. Cause it's all fucking. Awesome. Both Endbringers fight like hell, but they get torn apart and taken down. They're dead. Gone.

And also, weirdly, the western coast of Britain's sporting a new hundred foot tall smooth granite wall. Not just Swansea Bay, the entire coastline. What the hell? It's not that thick, but that's just...what the fuck?

Now, this isn't a complete victory. A lot of capes died. They're still tallying the losses. But goddamn guys. I just blew about a month's worth of savings on liquor to celebrate. They're gone! We fucking won!

(Showing Page 1 of 89)

► DrunkenFillipino
Replied on August 15, 2011:
I am praying to the makeshift shrine I made to both the Scarlet Empress and her Golden Sister. They who hath made all things possible from the Simurgh to the annihilation of the S9 is worthy of adulation.

As for Kissinger and the Grey Cloaks, might they be inspired to take arms against evil villainous scum by the grace of the Two Sisters?

And yes, I shall henceforth petition that the Two Sisters be a legal religion against the proscribed cults of the Endbringers. And I would kindly request the Scarlet Empress if she's seeking converts and soldiers to her cause.

Valefor can such my cock as I shall take great pleasure in impaling him.

► Gasoline
Replied on August 15, 2011:
fist of all, you would get a disease.

Second; celebrate good times come on, come on!

We're free, we're fucking free.

To paraphrase that Alph movie: By choosing to believe in ourselves and trusting in one another and with none standing alone, we have canceled the Apocalypse!

► HavenlyLight
Replied on August 15, 2011:
And so humanity is lost forever to the darkness, as the true angel of the Lord contepmtfully abandoned us, for we have succumbed to the temptation of Evil! We have put our hopes on the demon and for this we deserve nothing else but an everlasting scorn!

And even if Endbringers are defeated it change nothing for our souls are lost forever!

► OnlySaneMan
Replied on August 15, 2011:
Oh, here we go. Hello Havenly! I see you're still insane!

By the way, I have this very nice altar to the Scarlet Dragon (my Lady and Savior) sitting right next to me. It is currently adorned with shiny gold. Not MUCH shiny gold, because I'm poor and all that.

But here it is. Twenty years of Endbringer attacks, and they're all dead. Scion killed none of them. Scarlet Dragon killed two. Well, one and a half.

Also, weirdness, her golden counterpart fighting Behemoth. That's new, too. And, again, way, way more awesome than the golden ADD sufferer with zero sense of priorities.

Conspiracy hat on! Notice it's a golden dragon? Like Dragon's suit was when she and Scarlet killed the Simurgh? I... I think we've got two goddesses here, guys. Little g, maybe, but considering...

► AbsurdlyCuteKitty
Replied on August 15, 2011:
Re: HavenlyLight
Well, I wouldn't call it "lost in darkness". I mean, Darkness didn't swallow us, it swallowed the Endbringers without touching us. And truthfully if demon or not, Scarlet Dragon seems to be way better at slaughtering Endbringers than your Lord.
Is she a goddess? I don't know. I need clarification upon what 'goddess' means. But if she's a dark goddess, I really don't care. She's the nicest one ever.

► Flytrap (Verified Cape)
Replied on August 15, 2011:
Yeah, stuff was rather hectic back there, lost a body to Leviathan (although that was to be expected, didn't think I'd get that close to be honest), but i did manage to help a few capes out of the waters beforehand, so i'd say its a fair trade...
and hey, since the oceans less dangerous, i might as well see if i can do a bit of exploring...

► DwarfHome
Replied on August 15, 2011:
So, I realise that this is going to sound like I'm, bragging? Making shit up. But I live in Swansea, they evacuated us onto one of the hills behind the city, actually had a pretty good view of the fight. Fucking hell, we're going to get so many tourists.

► Zebes Brinstar
Replied on August 15, 2011:
Two Endbringers. In. One. Day. And a dragon for each! I think we can safely say that this is one for the record books! Not to say that the other capes didn't help, but... I mean... Holy shit.
But... What was with Scion? was he in pure "Pass the popcorn" mode? I mean, usually he at least FIGHTS them... Maybe he just thought that there wasn't much point in wasting his immaculate goldenness on the obviously weaker party?

Re:Kissinger and the other Grey Boy victims, isn't there a thread about how all the known victims disappeared? At least they seem to be okay. Still, one would think they would be tired of the color grey by now.

► PaulPoutine
Replied on August 15, 2011:
Re: Dwarfhome
Pics or it didn't happen.
End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 87 , 88, 89

(Showing Page 2 of 89)

► DwarfHome
Replied on August 15, 2011:
Pics provided here.

Apologies for the quality, crap camera.

► Melachon
Replied on August 15, 2011:
I'm celebrating like eveyrone else, but I have to ask, they called that lady Gaia, isn't that too egoistical or something? Calling yourself that? Or does she come from the same place as SD?

► Lady_Chandelier (Verified Crazy Cat)
Replied on August 15, 2011:
No more arrogant than naming yourself after any other mythological figure. And if she was the one responsible for the Wall, as rumour has it, then she has a better claim to the title than most.

► F.F. Snow (Verified Cape) (Unverified Snowman)
Replied on August 15, 2011:
Typing this from a hospital bed, waiting for the burns to heal: Dragon was fucking incredible out there, and so was her giant robot. Armsmaster was piloting it, going by the armband chatter; no word on him being disabled or deceased when Behemoth tore it down, so I hope he's okay.

Gotta admit, started crying when I heard her announce the Endbringer's death over the bands; I'm so glad it's over, and that I survived.

...huh.

I wonder what's going to happen to the Endbringer Shelters now.

► Robot_Raven
Replied on August 15, 2011:
Re: F.F. Snow Good question. I've heard a few people I've been sharing a few glasses of Ireland's Finest with talking about converting the shelters into shopping arcades or subterranean apartments. Can't say for the rest of the world but the one I holed up in has the space to make it work. Plus given the number of singles I've seen find someone to celebrate with heading back to hotels together, I think we may see a new baby boom. Here's a toast to Generation Post-Endbringer!

► Nazgûl (Verified Cape) (Case 53)
Replied on August 15, 2011:
That was insane! I watched as Scarlet Dragon took away the storm from Leviathan. Just think about that for a moment?

Even so I am glad I don't breathe or I would have been a goner for sure! But the giant oceanic bastard is dead and id be crying in happiness if I could!

One thing though. Anyone know the name of that Buddha cape seemingly made out of the night sky? He ... pulsed ... and Leviathan actually slowed down a bit. Who is he?

Whoever you are, thank you! I am fairly sure id be dead and gone if that swipe had been but a fraction faster!

► RedAdventurer
Replied on August 15, 2011:
Guys, I...I don't want to ruin the mood but...

Do you think we'll ever find out where the Endbringers came from? I mean, what if there were more of them? I want to be happy, but, but everything for years has been shit.

It just seems like its too good to be true. What if something worse happen? More Endbringers? WWIII: Parahuman Edition? Scion going nuts?

I mean, are things really going to get better now?

► F.F. Snow (Verified Cape) (Unverified Snowman)
Replied on August 15, 2011:
...yeah, I was trying not to think about that.

It's a pretty scary idea...

...but I've been a cape for three years, and after showing up for the Simurgh Fight in Madison, back in '09, this is the first Endbringer Fight I showed up to.

After Madison, I was terrified. More than that, I was defeated. I kept fighting street crime and regular villains, but I couldn't believe that I, or anyone else, would make a difference against anything that powerful, that horrifying.

Then the Scarlet Dragon and Dragon killed the Simurgh.

Then the Scarlet Dragon and Brockton Bay killed the Slaughterhouse Nine.

For the first time since before I was born, there has been real, concrete victories against the seemingly unstoppable evils menacing us.

We have hope, real hope.

I wasn't the only one who showed up today, after hiding when the Endbringer Sirens went off for years.

And even after they told us it was a double attack, there was still over a hundred capes preparing at each site.

Dragon and the Scarlet Dragon both had devices for those of us who turned up, things that gave us some of their power, that I know made us stronger, helped us survive and helped us hurt Behemoth, and I think did the same for those who fought Leviathan.

The space industry is coming back.

It's only been a few months since the Simurgh died, and so much has changed for the better.

If another Endbringer comes, I'll show up for the fight.

We've done so much better, improved our world so much in these last few months...I can't imagine how, but I know, with the dragons helping us...

We'll be so much stronger then.

► WatchingThroughCrystal
Replied on August 15, 2011:
Anyone notice how Leviathan died after Behemoth? I think staying up five days straight before this hasn't put me in the correct mindset for the sheer WTF this event has because this is immediately where my brain went-

Leviathan: So... why are you telling me this?

Behemoth: Because Levi... you are our race's last hope... you are the Last Remaining Endbinger... *beat* Oh god, you're the last remaining Endbringer. *dies from shock*

Leviathan: Behemoth! No! *dies*

► ColchisKid
Replied on August 15, 2011:
Love the Divine Dragons

for They are the salvation of mankind

Obey Their words

for the Golden One will lead you into the light of the future

Heed Their wisdom

for the Scarlet One will protect you from evil

Whisper Their prayers with devotion,

for They will save your soul

Honour Their servants,

for they speak in Their voice

Tremble before Their majesty,

for we all walk under Their immortal Light and Shadow

End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4 ... 87 , 88, 89

(Showing Page 3 of 89)

► GARcher (The Guy Not In The Know)
Replied on August 16, 2011:
Wait.

The Endbringers are dead!?

Why does nobody tell me these things!?

► DwarfHome (Verified Endbringer Death Witness)
Replied on August 16, 2011:
Update on Swansea, most stuff is cleared and there's a street party on Wine Street all the capes are getting free drinks and I think Narwhal is doing body shots...

Edit: It's actually somebody covered in yellow cellophane. No idea what's happening. Also, my current spelling can be attributed to the fancy autocorrect and mild OCD when it comes to messaging.

(I know it isn't on the maps, it's called wind street (as in gusts of air) but there's so many bars and clubs and wind (air) is spelt the same as wind (wind up toys) that when you mispronounce wind (toys) it sounds like wine.)

Regarding the moon, I want to know how they're going to sort out governance. When it's set up, not now. Will it be akin to the 17th century colonisation of America with the technological equivalent of settlers angry at the government(s) and corporations looking for volunteers or is it going to be parcelled up between the countries.

I really hope it isn't the latter, there's about 300,000 km of space between the Moon and Earth, governing it will be... Fuck it, the moon and the rest of the galaxy is property of Scarlet Dragon & the Gods. All hail our spiky overladies!

Edit2DrunkenBoogaloo: Hey, I have a banner! Neat.

► UnderSeaLurker
Replied on August 16, 2011:
Man alive! You fall asleep for 24 hours after recovering from a particularly bad pout of sickness only to discover the Endbringers are ALL finally dead. Best news of my life. Maybe I'll open up a Scuba Diving Shop or something. Took the necessary courses not too long back, don't ask it started with a dare and kinda grew from there. Nice shoreline properties where I live, got them cheap due to there being oceanfront property. It'll be a nice source of income at least, and given the drop in diving popularity since Levithan came along I'm betting since he died it'll be making a comeback.
*blink, blink*
Oh boy, waterfront properties are going to get a rise in value now huh? Hopefully the economy does so at a reasonable rate so as not to ruin things too much. Hahaha, that's a laughable idea. Still, with Endbringers dead there is hope for pretty much anything, ain't there.

Now if you excuse me, I'm going to join in the celebrations!

► Ventari (Unverified Cape) (Temp-banned)
Replied on August 16, 2011:
Okay. What the hell?

No, seriously, what the hell!? The first Endbringer battle I volunteer for since ever, because now I think we have a chance, and what fucking happens? Scion shows up and just sits there. He just watched as my bro got drowned by that fucking Endbringer. Why the hell didn't he help!?

Fuck. I might be able to walk in something like six months, assuming the authorities lay off on me that long. Crushed my fucking spine against a piece of rubble. He didn't help. I'd get it if he was a no-show, but to show up and do nothing!? Seriously?

Teaches me to throw in with the heroes for once. Fuck Scion and fuck the dragons and fuck you all. I swear if I see anyone blond for the next year, I'm melting their faces. Not. Kidding.

Fuckers.

[Moderator note: This user has been temporarily banned for this post. You people know better than this.]

► Tin_Mother (Moderator)
Replied on August 16, 2011:
While you have my condolences regarding your situation it does not excuse threatening grievous bodily harm. I've given you a one week temp-ban. Cool off and don't blame random civilians for their hair colour.

► Meridia (Unverified Cape) (Unverified Citizen)
Replied on August 16, 2011:
Well. This is an interesting site.

First of all, I serve the Dark Lady, and I know much about how the portal-magic works. We have literally used it for thousands of years. The portals are safe to travel through, even if the places you reach through them are not. Gate connections are not easy to sever, and they operate in vacuum without any issue at all. I understand the greatest difficulty at the moment is actually getting the gates to where they may be useful. The newly-built Tranquility Base is a proving ground as well as a test of concept. While the Moon, I understand, is a harsh and dangerous environment, it is also wholly predictable, and thus useful for testing designs before they go into less-predictable places.

Tranquility Base is here:
.SpoilerTarget"Spoiler
Secondly, the Scarlet Dragon is far too busy with certain affairs of state to have personal knowledge of everything. She is a goddess, but her attention is not unlimited. Thus we are setting up infrastructure and systems to handle emergencies and situations that may arise on colonies placed upon other celestial bodies. I understand the works of 'Tinkers' tend to be spectacular but also fragile in certain ways, and thus the colony plans are being built with reliance upon them as little as possible.

This astonishes me, you realize. Such a use for the portals was never thought of upon my homeworld. We looked up at our moon and wondered what it was, used it for signs and portents, used it to enhance our rituals. But never did we dream it was possible to step foot upon it.

You people fascinate me.

► Flytrap (Verified Cape)
Replied on August 16, 2011:
Re: Meridia do you have any Sapient Plants where you are? ive hear of all sorts of things living there and i wanted to know if there was anything like me?

► BB-27_Michigan (Veteran Member) (Wiki Warrior)
Replied on August 16, 2011:
Anyways, on a different topic, RE: Moon Base. I'm honestly thinking that the big benefit of a lunar base would be that you could use it to train astronauts to operate in zero-G much more effectively, due to the local gravitational forces being 1/6th that of Earth. From what I recall, the big issue with the method used on Earth is that it merely simulated zero-G, which means that if you were upside down gravity would still be pressing you into the upper portion of your suit, resulting in your weight resting on your shoulders, which includes resting atop the joints between the torso and the arms, which IIRC from what I've heard online is a very painful experience. On the Moon, that's less of an issue, as your relative weight is 1/6th that of Earth.

Another interesting thing is that, with the Moon's gravity being so much less than it is on Earth, launching things from the lunar surface is much less energy intensive, meaning that you could probably toss something from the lunar surface to low earth orbit for maybe 75% the rocket mass per kilogram of payload, with the added bonus of possible re-usability for the rocket motors involved, and you could see access to orbit around Earth reduced in cost pretty significantly.

► Meridia (Unverified Cape) (Verified Velnar Citizen)
Replied on August 16, 2011:
First, this system has its oddities. It took a while for verification to come through.
Secondly, I am no sage of the sciences. I am still learning much about them. But from what I understand, a crossbow bolt shot through a gate loses none of its deadliness by doing so. Even so, there are good reasons for setting a gate upon a surface. It makes it far easier to reach the next place as if one is simply walking into the next room, as opposed to going about things the long way.

Tranquility Base is simply the first step, from what I understand. This is a journey that will take many thousands of steps. I am looking forward to seeing and knowing more.

Upon that topic...does anyone have any suggestions on reading upon the sciences? It seems I have much catching up to do.

Re: Flytrap

Actually yes. There's a few hundred nice girls in the gardens and caves beneath the Castle proper. Though they don't get to move around much.

[Picture removed by moderator. Violates the board's SFW rules. You should know better. Have an infraction and don't do it again.]

Edit: Well, apparently I messed this one up. But they are lovely flower-girls and are now interested in meeting you. And they don't see the need for clothes. Here's a link to their section of the board. We just got something set up for them, they're not all that mobile. Apparently they really like action movies, too. They've been ordering dozens of them with the lead actor being someone named 'Stallone.'

► Nazgûl (Verified Cape) (Case 53)
Replied on August 16, 2011:

Uh. Ok then, Flower girls is a thing it seems! Of the "Do not piss off" variety too it would appear!

... Who likes Beefy action stars ... Which I find hilarious!

And that right there looks like a werewolf in the background.

EDIT:
Hey Re: Meridia ?

What is the policy for case 53's down on their luck wanting to immigrate?
I swear I saw a ghost in that picture so I'd fit right in for once in my life!

End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... 87 , 88, 89


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

I sat back and stroked my chin.

Minor revisions to the castle permitted me to surf the internet from the safety of my study. Dracul's old study. Whatever. It was mine now.

Sometimes that thought took me by surprise. I had so very little before, or at least I was in no position to appreciate what I did have. Now I was one of the most powerful beings on the planet.

And here I was worried about the big one.

Scion's eyes looked into mine, his golden skin shining, perfect. There was no expression on that face, yet I could sense that same sadness everyone had mentioned on meeting him. But beneath that was something else. Maybe it was because I knew of his true nature. But I felt a quiet sense of malice behind that golden face.

He watched people die, and didn't care in the slightest.

I had a lot to do. At the moment, I was trying to rebuild world infrastructure, which was a huge task, but it seemed next to pointless considering that I knew Scion was hovering overhead like a gigantic Sword of Damocles. The first monthly report I had from the sale and rent of the Shadow Gates meant very little to me in the face of that. Though I did have some notes from Dragon about just how shoddily I was running said business.

Apparently, the knowledge of a knight-turned-vampire-god just didn't translate all that well to running a modern corporation. Who knew? Had Scion not been there, I'd have spent some of the incoming capital to hire the best people I could find to do the job. As it was... I simply had to delegate a bit and concentrate on priorities. There wasn't much point in worrying about the next quarter when I wasn't sure if Scion wasn't about to pound everything into the dirt.

Yet another glimpse of what Cauldron had to live with for thirty years. It was easy to see how they'd become monsters.

Not literally, though. I had the literal monsterhood covered. Though I was nicer than most.

The sound of a clearing throat brought me out of my reverie. I looked up at the open door.

Death was standing there, his face filled with grave concern. "Ifrit and Lotan have both passed on, giving up their mantles. Others are likely being selected as we speak. But we have another problem."

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

I ended up racing my way to Cauldron. Thankfully I didn't need to ask for a portal, as I had my own.

Doctor Mother didn't seem too enthused as I emerged from the blackness of my plane right into her office. She was less impressed by my bringing Meridia along. Still, she recovered quickly. "What's going on?"

I sucked in a breath. "Scion just committed a murder."

Her lips twitched slightly. "We already know he killed someone. It hit the internet about three minutes ago, apparently leaving a radiation shadow of the man seared into the concrete. Though the details are sparse. Right now we've got Scion hovering in orbit, apparently not moving. We don't know what he's doing, exactly, but it's almost certain he's about to start attacking." She paused for a moment before she looked between Meridia and I. "Though I'm not sure how you know."

Meridia smiled slightly. "My Lady is the Lady of Darkness. She has serving her an aspect of Death."

I sighed. "He's a friend. As much as a cosmic force can be one, anyway. It would take way too long to explain."

Doctor Mother slowly blinked. "You know what? I don't care anymore. All the bullshit that's crossed my desk from your corner of things is more than I can care about at all now. As long as you're here, we need to gather up the forces, go over our assets anyway."

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

Ten minutes later, I was standing in Cauldron's conference room. Doctor Mother took a seat at the head of the conference table, while Meridia and I stood, looking out the window. Thankfully, while it was daylight out here, the angle of the sun was off, permitting Meridia to stand near me without frying to death.

I felt impatient. If my heart had been beating, it would have been going a mile a minute. I kept having this vision of Scion dropping down and tearing through everything. Part of that was due to knowing something about how strong Scion was, but the other part was some actual, straight-up fear.

I laughed, I burned.

Sure, I had the memories of when Dracul fought his own Abomination. He had no visible effect on its humanoid avatar, despite having fought it for hours. It just toyed with him until it got bored and trapped him. Alone, I would be no threat to Scion.

The problem was, I wasn't sure how much of a threat I would be, no matter how much help I had.

"Easy, My Lady." Meridia murmured. She gently touched my shoulder. "We have done what we can."

I took a deep breath. Sure, I didn't need oxygen, but it did make me feel better. "Thanks, Meridia." I swallowed as I tried to take my mind off the uncertainty of the battle ahead. "So...hanging on out PHO, hm?"

She blushed. "It seemed right, and the site is very interesting. Speaking to people across the world and sharing information is so very fun. I have had great enjoyment with sharing videos."

I almost didn't want to ask, but I couldn't help it. "Like what, Meridia?"

She grinned. "Cat videos, my lady. They are very adorable."

Huh.

Huh!

Finally, I shook my head. "Well then... anything about our hosts here you can tell?"

She shook her head. "They are tired, my lady. Worn, broken. That is easy enough to sense. It's as if their emotions have been ground out of them. Though this place is strange. I'm sensing a disembodied soul, as well as an immense amount of life nearby, though it is... sick. As if decaying. But it's immense. It's as if I'm sensing an entire dying land."

"The first would be the Custodian." Contessa spoke as she entered the room. "The second is likely the remnants of Scion's counterpart outside. The flesh is slowly but surely dying, though it's taking years. It's likely one of the reasons our vials have kept growing weaker. Early successes eclipse our later vials by leaps and bounds."

Then there was a distortion in the air by the window. Chronos floated out of his realm before he lowered himself to the ground. The distortion faded moments later.

"Is it time?" Another voice rumbled. A fountain of blood erupted in the corner of the room, which made my mouth water. A moment later, a man stepped from the fountain. His hair was made of flame, and his ashen white skin was covered in leather armor, bound together by chains.

"Soon, Lorkhan." Gaia spoke as she walked from the hallway behind Contessa. "We've all had much to deal with."

Lorkhan looked me up and down. "This one is but a child. How you got to be the Lady of Darkness is beyond me."

I gave him a fanged smile. "I got picked by the last one. Considering I've killed two Endbringers, and thus freed two of us from the shit the last Abomination put most of us through, I think Dracul picked right. Now where were you when that was going on?"

Lorkhan's lip twitched, anger darkening his features. "I was arranging things for the upcoming battle against the Abomination."

Gaia snorted. "More like busily fucking your chosen. Moord Nag, wasn't it? Trying to seed a bunch more bastards, are we?"

Lorkhan glared at Gaia. "What I do with mortals is my business, not yours."

Contessa shook her head. "Can we please be civil? For a group of ancient immortals, you're acting like a bunch of children."

Lorkhan sneered at me. "I see only one child here."

Then he was struck by a flash of light, smacking into the wall with a grunt. A form appeared out of thin air, a woman wearing simple but functional white platemail stepping into view. Her voice was cold, filled with raw anger. "First of all, husband, who you stick your cock into is my business. Second of all, that 'child' is far more mature than you are. Thirdly, if you've left another legion of bastards running around, believing they have godly powers when they're ordinary mortals, I am going to remove your balls."

Lorkhan coughed, getting back to his feet, plastering on a winning smile. "Love you too, Andraste. They'll just grow back, anyway."

"Yes, but it would make me feel a lot better until they did!"

The pair moved to the side of the room, bickering. I deliberately tried to tune them out. I just didn't want to hear any of that.

The sound of hooves hitting the clean floor drew my attention. Two beings, their heads crested by ram's horns, walked side by side. One was short, but only in comparison to his companion. He was bulky, moving with slowness, as if he was affected by great age or some old wound that had never healed. His face was that of a ram, but there was a great deal of wisdom in those eyes. Around his shoulders he wore a blue shawl, concealing most of the rest of him.

The other stood at nine feet tall, a black staff resting in his hand. He was covered in a cloak of dead leaves, but more disturbingly, there was no flesh upon his skull. It was bare bone, the eye sockets empty, and beneath that his chest seemed to be made out of wood. Old, decaying, but not quite dead wood. That empty skull turned and looked at me, then a deep, echoing voice escaped from that hollow skull. "Well brother, it is a relief that times are changing. Perhaps this one shall be sane, hm?"

"Enough, Agreus." The other one spoke, his voice echoing slightly with a strange reverberation. He bowed slightly to me. "It is good to meet you, Lady of Darkness. I am Pan, Lord of Spring, and my brother is Agreus, Lord of Fall."

I smiled. "A pleasure. Call me Scarlet."

Pan nodded slowly. "It is heartening to be free of my prison. It is also heartening for there to be more of us free. When I was captured, the sheer pain..."

Agreus lifted his hand. "It is over, brother. And thankfully, it was over with less pain than when we slew the previous holders of our power." His gaze shifted over to Contessa. "Do we have word on Ifrit and Lotan?"

I shook my head. "Both are dead. Permanently. Others are getting their power, apparently, though I don't know who. Death doesn't have a connection to their mantles directly."

Contessa coughed. "We're working on gathering the rest. Apostle was working on it."

As if on cue, a Doormaker portal opened. Five figures walked out of it. Apostle at the front, his blue cape swishing behind him. At his side was a teenage girl, wearing a white shirt and jeans. Immediately behind them was a man wearing a white toga, his face and visible skin divided into black and white halves. Next to him was another man, his form partially transparent, as if he was made from a distortion of space. Unlike Chronos, he glowed faintly with white light, making it easy to see his handsome features. Now if only he wore pants.

Behind them was one more figure, though I gave a start at that one. Director Piggot stomped up behind the others, her jacket in burned tatters, her hands burning with white-hot fire.

Huh. I hadn't expected that one.

"I should have guessed you were involved." Piggot spoke as she looked at me, sounding annoyed. The heavyset woman scowled rolled back and forth on her feet, as if she was dealing with more energy than she was used to. "This whole thing is a farce." She waved her hands at me, the sound of moving flame emphasizing her point. "How do I shut this off! I've seen you do the same damn thing!"

I winced. "Sorry Director, it's not my power, that's yours. I suggest...taking a deep breath? Or maybe just try and relax. This stuff isn't precisely easy, and each power is a bit different."

Piggot looked sour. Slowly, she unclenched her fists, straightening out her fingers. After a long moment, her hands stopped burning. She let out a sigh of relief. "My hands have been burning for three hours straight. I have no goddamn clue what's going on." She waved in Apostle's direction, who looked embarrassed. "Then you show up and tell me I'm a goddess, which is completely insane, and then you haul me out of containment for this little get-together!"

And then her hair caught fire. It didn't seem to bother her, or consume anything, but, nonetheless, her head was on fire.

I fought to keep from smiling. Piggot must have noticed, though, because she took one look at me, sighed, and started trying to pat down her head. It didn't help.

"It takes time to get used to." The black-and-white man spoke. "I remember when I first ascended. I found myself walking out of doorways on the wrong side of the Jade Empire. I... ended up going-"

"Nobody cares, Janus." The glowing white man spoke. Nope, still no pants. I did what I could to avert my eyes.

Another flash of light, and Dragon was standing in the middle of the room, in the form of her golden suit. From the hall came three more figures. The first being an eight foot tall... chimera? She had a woman's body on top of three more heads, a wolf, a lion, and a bear, while the lower part of her body was composed of a multitude of very large snakes.

At her side walked a very attractive woman, dressed entirely in black. She wore a white mask, the edge of it covered in black feathers, curving over her head. The black leather suit she wore was also decorated with feathers here and there, giving her the appearance of a bird-woman.

The third was...another Dragon suit. This one was gray, and had two cannons on its shoulders. It looked bulky, somewhat less refined than Dragon's golden suit, but it was also twice as large and moved with a sinuous, careful grace. It stepped its way into the room, glancing at everyone.

I looked back and forth. Dragon was silent as she stared back at the larger suit, her head tilted.

Doctor Mother cleared her throat. "We're all here. Each of you are here for the most important task ahead of ourselves. Preventing the extinction of the human species. Not just upon Earth Bet, but on every Earth. All of you have been brought here because you are either a 'god,' chosen by one, or are a Cauldron asset. We need all hands to have even the slightest chance of defeating Scion."

Dragon lifted a mechanical paw. "First, we need introductions."

Doctor Mother paused, frowned slightly, then nodded. "It would make things easier."

Apostle nodded. "I am Apostle, I was given the power that was connected to each of the bound gods when the first Abomination turned you into Endbringers."

The girl at his side raised her hand. "Noelle. I can mess with powers. Copy, paste, or disconnect. They don't always work out very well, though, and disconnecting a power always kills its host, but it let me cut the powers connected to the gods."

Contessa took a seat next to Doctor Mother. "Contessa, my power allows me to plot a path to a goal. If it is possible, I can execute it. There are blindspots to my power, however, and Scion is the primary remaining one. Most of you are another."

I cleared my throat. "Scarlet Dragon, I inherited Dracul's power as Lord of Darkness. I'll keep my real name to myself, thanks."

Meridia smiled, flicking a strand of her white hair over her shoulder. "I am Meridia, and I serve the Dark Lady."

Lorkhan made an appreciative noise, looking Meridia up and down, but Andraste smacked the back of his head with the blunt end of her spear.

Dragon tilted her head. "Dragon, Lady of Light. I gained my power during the battle with the Simurgh."

The glowing, nude man spoke, amusement in his voice. "I am Lord Hyperion, Lord of Paths, and I am-"

Janus slapped the back of Hyperion's head. "Nobody cares, Hyperion. And put some clothes on." He cleared his throat. "Janus, Lord of Gates."

Lorkhan grinned. "I am Lorkhan, Lord of War. Tell me when we shall battle."

Andraste sighed. "Lord of Infidelity, more like. I am Andraste, Lady of Strategy."

Chronos chuckled softly. "They are, and have always been, like this. I am Chronos, Lord of Time."

Gaia rolled her eyes. "Gaia, Lady of Earth. Yes, they always have been like this."

Lorkhan snorted, but didn't comment. Probably because Andraste was holding her spear rather low.

The chimeric woman shifted, the many snake-heads that made up her lower body letting out a hiss. "I am Scylla, Lady of Identity." Her lips twitched. "And Beasts."

Pan bowed slightly. "Pan, Lord of Spring."

Agreus tapped his staff against the ground. "Agreus, Lord of Fall."

Piggot sighed, looking uncomfortable. "Director Emily Piggot, and apparently, I am an unwilling pyromaniac." She tried to pat down her still-burning hair, to no luck.

The woman with the bird-mask lifted her hand. "I am the Crow Witch. Lady Scylla helped me in my time of need."

The large Dragon suit nodded, speaking with Dragon's voice. "And I am Pandora. I was made from a backup of Dragon from several years ago, not long after I triggered from the Dragonslayers. I've been freed from my restrictions, but Cauldron's kept me on an isolated world for me to build things, resources, weapons. I have a fair bit of tinkertech and suits to throw into the fight when we're needed."

Dragon looked back at her counterpart. "You and I are going to have to compare a lot of notes. I've got some things you probably don't have. Nanothorn systems alone might be useful."

Pandora sounded giddy. "Oh, Armsmaster's invention? Would be nice to have something that can cut through anything. I can show you a few things too. It's amazing what you can get done with free reign and no people around to worry about."

Doctor Mother cleared her throat. "Well now. Scion is another one of the 'Abominations' that destroyed the world most of you came from. We need a way to destroy him, or he will kill everyone. The problem is the golden man we're familiar with is just an extension, an avatar it is using to project itself into Earth Bet. There's two priorities, the first is getting through to his real body. If we can get there, we can do damage to him. The second is limiting the damage he does."

Pandora nodded. "I've got a lot of suits to throw at him, tie him up. They should be able to resist for a short time, they're equipped with forcefields and armor. Hopefully enough to keep him busy for a while, but there isn't much we can do to force him to engage. Scion moves at hypersonic speeds when he wants to. Not many of anybody can keep up."

Chronos spoke. "I can assist with that. Slowing him may or may not work, but speeding the passage of time for our fighting forces? That is far simpler."

Piggot cleared her throat. "Excuse me, but I'm going to ask the pertinent question here. Are you all insane!? You're talking as if magic is real and as if Dragon was an AI and...argh!"

"It's true." I said. "What I said at the press conference wasn't a lie, it was just parsed down. Dracul's planet was shattered when the Abomination left it, and before it did that it went and killed millions with its predations. The only reason the numbers weren't higher is because it was a medieval society that just couldn't handle more than that."

Piggot crossed her arms. "Considering how varied parahuman powers are, I have yet to see anything that would constitute proof of any of this."

Dragon spoke, sounding annoyed. "It is true. We'll show you the body of Scion's counterpart below, what we've figured out about them. I agree it does sound insane."

Scylla laughed softly. "I think you'll enjoy the benefits, as well. You're already healing from old wounds, are you not? Your kidneys, yes? As well as your joints, your bones...they're beginning to shape themselves up. I have no doubt you will soon look as if you were thirty again, soon."

Piggot's mouth dropped open. "How the hell did you know that?"

Scylla's wolf-head barked, before her human face grinned. "I sense life. I am attuned to it in a way few others can ever be. And humanity is a type of beast, if a clever one."

Dragon shrugged, the motion looking odd on her mechanical suit. "I didn't believe it either. But there were things my power let me do that even a second trigger wouldn't permit. I was an AI."

Abruptly she glowed, making my eyes hurt. A moment later, Dragon was standing there in her human form, wearing her shining blue tinkertech armor. She gave a smile to Piggot. "This, for example."

Piggot looked back and forth between Dragon, me, and Pandora. "This is insane."

I chuckled. "Yep, welcome to my life."

Doctor Mother sighed. "We need to get back on track."

Andraste's voice was firm. "Indeed. Suffice to say, we have a fair bit of power and effects to work with to fight the avatar. I understand we have other resources available to help, beyond ourselves?"

Contessa nodded. "If it becomes necessary, we will open the Birdcage."

Dragon growled, whirling on Contessa. "No. No way. There are some in there who must not be freed, ever."

Contessa lifted an eyebrow. "We are not talking about freedom. We are talking about having the useful ones work for us to do their jobs. Amnesty for past crimes in exchange for fighting against Scion. Some we can leave on alternate Earths if they're too dangerous to let loose with a second chance." She tilted her head. "Only if necessary will we take this step. There are certain parahumans that could be very useful. Galvante and Gavel, for example. Bestowing invulnerability and being capable of withstanding large amounts of damage may be very useful. Lung, Glastig Uaine. They can be convinced."

Dragon was silent for a moment, clenching her fists. After a moment, she nodded. "Fine. But I will do it, not you."

Doctor Mother nodded. "Acceptable. Now the second point, we need a way to strike Scion's true body. We can't open a portal to it."

Janus and Hyperion nodded. Hyperion spoke first. "Our domain is about travel. I take care of the journey, Janus is about the beginnings and endings of them. I will need more information, but I believe it may be possible to do."

Contessa smiled grimly. "I'll show you both to Doormaker and Clairvoyant. They might be the key. If you can open a portal to his body, our job is much easier. We tried with Scarlet, but her... condition, doesn't permit it."

I nodded. "Yeah, one downside of being a vampire. I'll get as much as I can ready. Hopefully magical weapons and protections will work, especially if combined with other powers. Narwhal did a hell of a lot of damage to Leviathan when boosted with my power."

Apostle nodded in return. "I've been preparing myself as well. I haven't felt this strong in decades, hopefully it'll be enough."

And that's when it felt like a white-hot lance was driven into the side of my head. I fell to a knee, due to the sheer throbbing pain. Thankfully I had experienced worse, but it was the sheer unexpectedness of it that took me by surprise.

Still, there was something very wrong. I had a sense of... hollowness in the back of my head, like something was suddenly missing that had always been there before.

Dragon's gentle hand was on my shoulder. "Scarlet, are you all right?"

I looked up at her, eyes wide. "No."

Contessa's, Doctor Mother's, and Apostle's phones went off with the sound of a text message. Together, they checked it. Apostle was the first to read it and look at me, his voice grave.

"Scion just targeted your castle."

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

 

[Akuma-Heika]

To paraphrase that Alph movie: By choosing to believe in ourselves and trusting in one another and with none standing alone, we have canceled the Apocalypse!

Click to shrink...

?

 

[SwiftRosenthal]

?

Click to shrink...

"Cancel the apocalypse" is from Pacific Rim.

"Aleph" is misspelled, though that might be a deliberate error.

 

[OverReactionGuy]

Well, someone needs to get his ass kicked.

So who just died count?

Amy maybe, and probably everyone else at the castle including Death for awhile.

 

[Hye]

Pics provided here.

Click to shrink...

Damn, I was expecting a picture of a cat or something funny. But you actually made a picture of the fight, as seen from far away. Props to you, man. That was awesome.

Leviathan: So... why are you telling me this?

Behemoth: Because Levi... you are our race's last hope... you are the Last Remaining Endbinger... *beat* Oh god, you're the last remaining Endbringer. *dies from shock*

Leviathan: Behemoth! No! *dies*

Click to shrink...

Hahaha

 

[SirWill]

Damn, I was expecting a picture of a cat or something funny. But you actually made a picture of the fight, as seen from far away. Props to you, man. That was awesome.

Click to shrink...

Wish I could take credit. A fan on Spacebattles made that. I could have made that, but it honestly wouldn't have occurred to me.

I loved it too, though.

 

[SirWill]

A/N: This has been delayed way too long. Still, getting there. I need more time to work on things, oy.

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

The castle was quiet.

Death took a moment to enjoy the evening. While it was true that his mind was always occupied, every moment of every day taken up by the deaths of countless beings across uncountable universes, it was pleasant to have time to himself. To do simple things, to breathe, to read a book, to talk to someone who had not just lost their life.

It wasn't a terrible existence. His nature prevented such things as boredom with his task. But it was such a precious thing to enjoy a small part of life itself, and not just dealing with its end. To experience something as simple as a cup of tea, a quiet breeze, the smell of salt in the air, or even the simple sensation as fingertips against stone. These were the things he had not experienced for billions of years, and for a cosmic eyeblink, he had come to enjoy them all, and uncountable more experiences besides.

Cup of tea in hand, he strode his way along the castle's western wall. The sun was setting, and for a moment, he looked on it with his mundane senses. To experience it as a mortal would. Not to sense the encroaching march of time that would eventually cause it to burn out, its simple soul unable to comprehend more than the fact it was about to die. The interplay of light, reflecting off the waves far below. The distant clouds reflecting the orange light.

Outside the castle, or the Shadow Plane, he had a cosmic awareness, but only for those moments when something died, and even then, when he would be speaking to that being. Something that had a complex enough soul to persist after death, at that. Most simple lifeforms simply returned to the seething potentiality of the Sea of Souls, and few memories could survive that, though the soul would return to a physical vessel eventually. It was better than the void, however. From the Sea of Souls, reincarnation was possible. From the void, nothing survived to return.

He sipped from the cup, then stopped as a golden flare came from the west, glowing like the sun.

Scion. The Abomination. Entity. Destroyer. Member of a species that spread itself from a single world four billion years ago, refining themselves by exterminating other species, species that were capable of far more than they ever could have been on their own. A simple lifeform that managed to reach heights undreamed of by many other species, but utterly incapable of changing without the slow, steady pressure of evolution. A species that was slowly, surely, wiping this section of the multiverse clean of life.

A species that Death pitied for their impossible goal, and despised for wiping out those far more precious and beautiful than themselves.

Scion floated beside the castle, examining it for long moments. He lifted a hand, face expressionless, but Death could sense the determination and intent behind that blank face. In the moment before he could unleash that deadly energy, Death spoke to the Entity in a way that no being born on Earth possibly could.

[Warrior.]

Scion paused. [Query.]

[End.]

[Disagreement.]

Scion did not believe the claim. Understandable. Death drank deeply from the teacup before setting it down on the battlement.

Prepare yourself, He sent to Castlevania. He may attack yet.

Death lifted himself off the wall, the bonds of gravity unable to hold him. Unlike with humans, a black cloak that exuded cold and a scythe would mean nothing to Scion. The Entities were beings larger than most worlds, but even they had phenomena they feared.

He took on the appearance of a black hole, the infinite dark maw surrounded by countless Entity-shards, unable to escape their doom. When they had begun spreading throughout the cosmos, many young, foolish and simple Entities had fallen into the event horizons of dead stars, unable to escape their fate. Those that survived gave such things a wide berth, their powers utterly useless against the abyss. It was merely appearance, a simple image with only the slightest substance to it, and nowhere near as dangerous as the reality would have been. But it was enough to make an impression.

Scion reeled back slightly, though his face was still impassive. [Purpose?]

The shards that made up Death's outer covering shifted, the accretion disk turning to face Scion fully. [Prevention.]

[Determination. Purpose. Extinction.] Scion would wipe out humanity to prevent them from becoming a possible threat in the future. Perhaps not within a century or even a millennium, but he was treating it as if it were an infection that had to be stopped here and now.

[Understanding. Irrelevant. Counterproductive. Cooperation.] The message was given with an undertone the Entity might understand. That his actions would not succeed, and that the threat to his kind would only occur if Scion continued upon this course of action. Ceasing now, before he had truly begun, and changing was the only chance. Symbiosis instead of parasitism. It had happened before, Scion had known others of his kind that took that route. It was rare, but possible.

Scion paused for long moments, thinking. Weighing the possibilities, considering his options.

[Purpose.] The Entity lifted his hand.

Death shifted himself into incorporeality, becoming invulnerable yet incapable of affecting anything at all. The Castle itself began its shift into the Shadow Plane. It would take seconds.

Scion struck out with a blast of golden light, large enough to envelop the entire castle. It struck the castle walls, tearing at their substance, undoing their molecular bonds, reducing them to nothing. Layers of shadow-formed stone protected the stone behind, and Death could feel as hundreds of demons died, the aspects of himself tasked with dealing with such things going into action. The tower that held the throne room melted away. Libraries crumpled and vanished like cellophane before a flame. The castle itself screamed as parts of it were erased from existence, only its unnatural nature as a magic-forged being enabling it to resist the overwhelming attack.

Barely.

After a moment, the golden light faded. Scion paused. Confusion filtered through the psionic aura that clung to the Entity's avatar like a shroud. It had expected its attack to destroy the castle utterly. That it remained was unexpected, and the Entity did not deal well with the unexpected. Scion lashed out with a single thin golden beam, channeling the same power through a smaller space. That sheared off about a twentieth of the castle's mass, sending it plummeting into the ocean below.

That was the last Death could sense before the castle finished the transition into the Shadow Plane. Darkness enveloped the castle, shrouding it, nursing it as it wailed and cried psychically into the empty void.

Then there was a vibration, a sound like a crash of thunder, and a faint, small rift of golden light began to form off the side of the castle, near the western tower.

Death took the form of the Grim Reaper, returning to solidity and moving toward the courtyard. "Rᴀʟʟʏ ᴛʜᴇ ꜰᴏʀᴄᴇs. Iᴛ ɪs ɴᴏᴛ ᴏᴠᴇʀ ʏᴇᴛ."

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

Lisa coughed.

That in itself was a minor miracle. A wall had fallen beside her, scattering bricks and ancient mortar all over her room. One rather large one was pinning down her leg. The rest of it was filled with fine dust, making it difficult to breathe.

Yup, foot is crushed. Can barely feel it due to lack of circulation. Going to hurt like a bitch once I get it off of me.

She sat up gingerly, groaning as she spat out a mouthful of blood. Nope, not a lung, just a cut on the inside of my cheek. Must have bitten it as I fell. Carefully, and with aching fingers, she pulled upward on the brick holding her foot to the floor. And let out a scream as the blood began to flow, letting the pain flow through. Stupid, stupid biology. Also, her foot felt wet, which was definitely not good. Risking a glance down, she clenched her teeth as she saw the ripped cloth and skin just above her boot. Shouldn't have looked. That made the pain worse.

Struggling to reach the nearest intact wall, she managed to haul herself upright. She turned to the broken wall, looked outside, and saw the darkness of the Shadow Plane beyond.

"God, there should be at least a mile of castle there...owowow." She muttered, trying to get her very much in pain self moving. Morbidly, she wanted to go over and look over the edge, but considering that likely meant the floor under her would give way and she would plummet to her death. Platforms needed to be secured from underneath, and there was no guarantee that her floor was stable.

Stumbling her way into the hall, she was nearly bowled over by a suit of animated armor. It was followed by a loping werewolf, then a gremlin, and then by a whole horde of gremlins.

She hobbled in the direction they were moving, only to pause as she heard and felt rumbling of stone on stone. Castlevania itself shifted, trying to shore itself up, sooth the wounds and seal the broken or destroyed parts of itself. The problem was that the castle was not gentle or careful about it, causing the whole corridor to rumble and shake. Lisa clung to the wall, biting back a scream as she accidentally put weight on her smashed foot, but managed to hold on.

When she had hobbled her way to the end of the hall, Lisa stopped. She found herself at the base of the clock tower, which she had not been anywhere near previously.

"Fucking non-Euclidian geometries!" She griped.

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

The castle itself rumbled, repeatedly, as Lisa stumbled on her way. Despite her griping and annoyance, she did quickly realize the castle was actually trying to be helpful. Corridors smoothed themselves out before her, sloping downward where possible, doors opened in the walls nearby, eventually leading to a room with...

Wounded.

The castle was wounded, and so were many of its inhabitants. Dozens of demons were here, though most of them were simple, looking placid. One was a rather large... slug with two arms, the only humanlike thing about it was the mockery for a face it had. It looked down on Lisa, sniffed, then made a thumb over its shoulder. "You want somethin' for that rotten leg, girlie, get over in the back. Join the line, and hope you don't end up as someone's meal."

"Drax," Another, more melodious voice spoke. "What did the Lady say about guests?"

The slug-thing looked sullen. "No eating them. Intruders only."

A red-haired succubus wearing white robes walked into view. She stepped past the sloth demon, took one look at Lisa, and sighed. With gentle hands, she grabbed the teenager, dragged her into the next room, and sat Lisa down on a soft chair. "Stupid fragile mortals..."

Lisa shrugged helplessly as the succubus took her boot off, the blonde gagging as Lisa tried not to cry out in pain.

"Easy there." The demoness muttered. "I'm surprised you hobbled here like this. The castle's trying to get the injured here, but mortals are so frail."

"Not much choice." Lisa grimaced as the demon started cleaning the wound with hot water and cloth, the wounds stinging. "Least the castle made things easier...would have been nice to have someone actually help me get here."

The succubus lifted her head, looking Lisa in the eye. "Every uninjured fighting hand that can move is heading to the castle courtyard. The attack is not yet over. There is a rift forming by the western tower, formed by the same energy the Abomination used to attack us. It is trying to get here, to destroy us all. It would take centuries for the castle to reconstitute itself if it were destroyed utterly, and the same would be so for us."

Lisa swallowed, letting out a hiss as the demoness got back to work on tending to her crushed leg. Her mind was whirling, trying to figure out the situation.

The castle vibrated, the air rippled.

The Shadow Plane is unknown to Scion. Scion does not understand it entirely. He is trying to reach it in a way that works for it for something else, some other method. The plane is something else. It's trying to improvise a way to attack, but it doesn't know how to get here easily. Using brute force instead of finesse.

Another vibration, stronger. Dust was dislodged from the ceiling, undoing some of the painstaking work the demoness did on Lisa's leg. Both groaned, one in pain, the other in frustration.

Rift is forming near the west tower, not near the center of the remaining castle. Rift is tracking something near or in the western tower.

Lisa snapped her gaze to the succubus now wrapping her leg up in gauze. "What's in the west tower?"

The demoness frowned. "It is where we are keeping..." Her eyes widened. "The woman we stripped of her soul. Our lady told us to tend to her. The weapons-maker, the sorceress."

Lisa sat still as she thought it through. She didn't even need her power for it, it just helped confirm what she suspected. Scion is tracking Bakuda's power. Scion can track powers. The castle is in danger as long as powers are in it. If the powers aren't removed, the castle will be destroyed, even if it's temporary. Scion will try to erase every bit of it.

The air vibrated again. Lisa looked the succubus in the eye. "Listen close. We don't have long. If we want to save anything, we have to move fast." She grimaced as her leg throbbed in the bandages. "And I'm going to need help moving."

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

The Entity felt a new sensation. Frustration.

It took one-twentieth of this world's rotation to manage a breach into the odd space the pair of powers had retreated into. Another one-twentieth to adjust the avatar so that it could bring across enough power to achieve the Entity's goals. The destruction of the construct, prevent more of that strange energy-using items from being made and distributed. It would also bring a response from the beings using that energy.

The Entity had difficulty seeking them out. Too many realities to search. They lacked shards to hone in upon. It would take far more effort than it was worth to track them down. This was the simplest way.

The rift into the other-space was completed. The Entity prepared to pass through, searching out the pair of shard-connections that existed there. If the Entity was not in the midst of a mission, if the Thinker had been here, the Entity might have appreciated the knowledge of some new avenue to explore. Some new possibility for fulfilling the Purpose. As it was, the energy that flowed into and from these false-dimensions could be a threat to others of the Entity's species if left unchecked. That was the Entity's sole concern.

The difficulty was the size of the task. The Entity had to eliminate several trillion worlds worth of the native species. It had to conserve the energy it had, harvest more from sunlight feeding it in the world it took as its base. It could not afford to spend large amounts of energy upon wanton destruction while doing the task. Efficiency was required. The most efficient shards for the task were out of the Entity's reach. The best method would have been to simply create a microorganism that would consume all other organisms, but that was not possible without the appropriate shard. A shard the Entity could not reclaim, as that shard was also sent out, seeking refinements. A mistake, but not one the Entity could rectify now.

No matter. Examination of the world discerned that it had nearly lost the capability of supporting multicellular organisms before. Repeating the effect would not be too difficult. It helped that there were several unstable locations the Entity could take advantage of to strike. It would take far less energy to destroy the biosphere if it took advantage of them.

But first the Entity had to deal with these beings. If it did not, the glimpse the Entity had at the future determined that the damage inflicted would be mitigated, eventually undone. It would take decades, but the damage would be repaired. The Entity's mission would fail.

Adjustments complete.

The Entity forced its way into the false-universe on the other side. It anticipated that he would find the remainder of the building that he had attempted to destroy.

Only it wasn't. There was a single tower, a section of the wall, and a small clearing around it. Less than two percent of the massive construction was here. One of the portal-devices were there, by which were the two shard-hosts the Entity had used to reach this place. Along with a multitude of the beings that inhabited this place. Even as the Entity began to realize what had happened, the two shard-hosts passed through the portal, returning to the multitude of noise that was the primary world it had spent the last three decades upon.

The Entity shifted its perceptions, scanning into the blackness of the false-dimension. The rest of the construct was far distant, accelerating into the distance at nearly a quarter of lightspeed. Like an entrapped animal, the construct had separated the part of itself that was caught in the trap, letting itself flee while leaving a part of itself behind.

No matter. The Entity's wavelength manipulation could catch up, finish the task. The construct had to be destroyed. The Entity lifted a hand, tuning its primary tool. The attack would be difficult, but not impossibly so.

Then the Entity was struck with a blade, a scythe filled with the strange energy that permeated this false-dimension. The energy began to break down the avatar, making golden flesh dissolve. The Entity lost perception, forcing himself to devote energy to rebuilding the avatar.

Perception returned to find the Entity's view blocked by the other avatar. The other being that claimed to be the form of a universal constant. The false-Entity.

"Yᴏᴜ ᴀɴᴅ I ʜᴀve ᴜɴꜰɪɴɪsʜᴇᴅ ʙᴜsɪɴᴇss." Death spoke.

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

Death struck at the form of the Abomination. Scion returned the favor, striking out with golden beams. Death phased, allowing the attack to pass through his form, angling his avatar in a position to take advantage of an opening. An opening quickly granted by the legions of Castlevania.

A bird-headed demon with a spear launched itself through the air, impaling the spear through Scion's body in a single masterful movement. Scion simply vaporized the demon before it fell more than six feet away from him, the demon's inability to fly being its downfall.

In the moments that Scion was distracted, dissolving the demonic spear embedded in his flesh, Death reappeared and slashed yet again with his scythe. The weapon, forged by one of Dracul's demons, infused with Darkness, and honed to a razor's edge, would have killed almost anything. Necrosis spread through Scion's flesh, forcing it to dissolve in golden rivulets from the Entity's avatar.

Scion flared, the golden light emitting from him in a sphere. Death backed away, his intangibility preventing damage, but when the light faded, Scion was still intact.

If Death had been a mortal being, he would have felt frustration. As it was, it was simply clinical. The avatar is vulnerable, but only in the most technical sense. Destroying it solves little, the true Scion is still on that world, cut off from all others, and it can simply repair the damage or create another one.

Still, damage was damage, and the goal was not to destroy Scion here, but to buy time. Scion unleashed a burst of golden light, the energy passing through Death without effect. It did strike a purple firebreathing demon that had tried to take advantage of the opening, erased from existence by the flash of energy.

Death prepared himself, gathering and shaping the energy of the Shadow Plane. On a material plane, he never could have done this. Here, he could shape it, direct it, attack in such a way that only the protection of Light Magic, vampiric regeneration, or simply being a dark creature themselves could resist it. To anything else, it would be quite lethal. They formed into spears of darkness, and as fireballs, magic bursts, arrows, and javelins launched from the army of demons below, Death directed them into Scion, momentarily solidifying as he did so.

In that instant, Scion lanced out with a powerful blast of golden light, slamming into Death, the tower, the remainder of the castle below, and hundreds more demons.

Death managed to resist the blow, his nature as a cosmic being preventing his erasure. Scion could damage his vessel, but he was not capable of destroying Death himself. The vessel, however, was never meant to handle the energy that sought to unravel it, reduce it to point particles and seething potential energy in its rawest form. Even the Vampire Killer, even the greatest weapons of Light only disrupted the vessel before, never truly damaged it like this.

Turning insubstantial, Death took stock. His vessel was dissolving. It was comprised of the ethereal cords that rightly belonged to half a million humans that Dracul had captured and sacrificed to create it. The golden light had seared at it, damaged it, and now his vessel could not withstand being puppeted by his consciousness. It would dissolve, and there was no salvaging it.

Not without the deliberate murder of another half-million people, in any case.

"Aʟʟ ɢᴏᴏᴅ ᴛʜɪɴɢs ᴍᴜsᴛ ᴄᴏᴍᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴀɴ ᴇɴᴅ, I sᴜᴘᴘᴏsᴇ." He muttered ruefully. He focused his attention on the form of Scion, who was blasting lances of golden light in all directions. The demons that had survived the last attack were falling in droves, dying in an instant. While the inevitability of their end was something he dealt with on a basis that was beyond the capability for mortals to comprehend, he still lamented the end of their lives. The wasted potential.

Scythes formed in his ethereal hands. He returned to solidity behind Scion, driving their deadly blades through the Entity's avatar, immediately returning to ethereal as Scion attempted to counterattack. The necrotic energy imbued in Death's scythes were dissolving golden flesh, making Scion appear as if he were a melting wax candle that somehow failed to actually melt. Shining golden flesh fell off into the empty void.

Scion glowed briefly, the scythes buried in his flesh erased from existence. The flow of dissolving flesh stopped.

Death reappeared, scythes at the ready, but at that instant, Scion turned and slammed his fist into Death's jaw with enough strength to reduce a mountain to dust. Death immediately shattered, his vessel falling into the void of the Shadow Plane helplessly. It took long moments to reassemble himself, and the degradation of the vessel was accelerating. Only minutes left, now.

Scion turned, shifting toward the retreating castle. Now it was far enough away that most mundane mortals could never perceive it.

Scion was not most mortals. Golden energy built up in the Entity's hand. As he lifted it to unleash it, Death decided on one last attack. He grasped Scion from behind, the two avatars struggling against each other. Death was the larger, but Scion was the more potent. Without a vessel, Death was capable of so very little. Without an avatar, Scion was still capable of rending worlds. Compared to that, the vessel of Death was only capable of distracting for a brief moment.

Just long enough to convert the remaining ethereal chords that composed his vessel into Shadow Magic. The remaining bindings that rightly belonged to a quarter of a million people were not very potent on their own, but concentrated into one place, at one moment, and backed by a will that spanned infinity?

It was enough.

"Aʟʟ ɢᴏᴏᴅ ᴛʜɪɴɢs..." Death murmured as his vessel dissolved, fading into nothing, the gift of his corporeal form lost to him.

The resulting release of Shadow Magic, however, ripped into Scion's avatar. It boiled and burned golden flesh, destroying it all the way down to the edge of the fist-sized one-way portal within Scion's chest that was the connection to his true body. The carnage was enough to disrupt the connection Scion had managed to forcibly build into the Shadow Plane, and the Entity pulled the avatar's portal back into an uninhabited reality to rebuild it.

If Death still had a face, he would have smiled.

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

Recovery was painful.

It took some time. The energy had to be forcibly dissipated, unraveled with the Entity's wavelength manipulation, else it would keep causing more damage. While the Entity had vast reserves of flesh to draw upon, there was no sense in allowing itself to be slowly whittled away. Worse, adaptation to neutralize it didn't seem to work as expected. Every last scrap of it had to be eliminated in order to fix the detrimental effects it had on the avatar.

The one-way portal at the avatar's core, however, had done its job. It prevented the necrotic energy from spreading itself through the true Entity. The amount would not have been lethal, but it would have been unpleasant and difficult to remove safely. The Entity might have damaged useful capabilities that would have taken time, effort, energy and resources to repair. That would have resulted in several realities' worth of energy-infected humans escaping.

Recreation of the avatar was complete. The Entity returned it to the false-universe, intent on finishing the mission...only, the location of the portal it had wrought showed no sign of the construct. Instead, below was a simple city, lain out in row upon row of houses, simple streets. It was a repeating pattern, each one identical, and by the Entity's notice, it would have been capable of housing well over a million humans. But it was empty, not a single lifeform there. Only an abundance of heavy metals and light elements, refined to-

The avatar was reduced to the one-way portal once more. This time not from the strange energy it barely understood, but rather, several thousand high-yield nuclear weapons going off directly in its face. More than enough to vaporize the city below utterly, as there was nothing supporting the earth beneath those now-destroyed houses.

Rebuilding the avatar took less effort this time. Nuclear devices were not new. They were, however, annoying. When the aftermath had faded, the radiation clinging to the Entity's flesh neutralized, there was nothing left. Nothing to seek out, no sign of the construct to finish the task. Only vapor and new radioactive elements cluttering this strange false-universe.

The Entity was severely annoyed as it returned the avatar to the primary target reality. Over the ocean, where it had first appeared here. Preparing to unleash its might to draw out the users of this strange energy. Ironically, the location was not that far from where the energy-construct had hovered a mere three hours before.

Only to find itself surrounded by literally thousands of shard-hosts, artificial constructs, and several non-hosts burning with that strange energy. All enhanced by that power, burning with red and blue light, platforms of earth supporting those that could not fly.

At the head was the red one, the one that slew the water-weapon. Even as the Entity lifted a hand, preparing to unleash its wavelength manipulation, flame erupted from her hands and struck the Entity.

And so did a thousand other effects at once.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------​

 

[Hye]

Woo! Update! I am so happy right now!

 

[Psyckosama]

Poor Death... wonder if they can find another way to bring him back.

 

[SirWill]

A/N: How did it go?

Oh, yeah.

Let's get ready to rumble!

Spoiler: Taylor's Complete Power List

Blood manipulation: Self only, but extremely versatile. Basis of the Shadow Whip, Shadow Daggers, and other things.

Short-range teleportation: Draining, but not limited to line of sight.

Bat Travel: Turns into dozens of bats and back again. Rather confusing, but helpful for mobility.

Strength: Insanely high at full strength. Not as strong as some capes, but up there. M1 Abrams out of gas? I'll just push them to the gas station.

Durability: Begins low, becomes stronger and harder to injure.

Vampiric Healing: Heals perfectly as long as there is blood to fuel the repairs. Can be slowed by various means.

Grace. Allows limited floating, superhuman dodging ability, and balance. Unlocked!

Flight: I believe I can touch the sky. Does it need any more description? Unlocked!

Possession: Turns into blood, flows into some poor bastard, controls them for a period (hours at most) and when they die they explode into chunky bits. The blood has a toxic effect, so anyone possessed is doomed. (Barring unusual biology.) Unlocked!

Fleshcrafting: Feeling a little vain? Want a whole new hair color, a bigger bust, shaplier hips, or claws to rend the flesh of your enemies? Subscribe to Vamp-New-You today! (Permits the vampire to alter their own flesh permanently at some cost to their blood. Does not permit changing of bone structure. Cannot be used on others.) Unlocked!

Mist Form: Transform into near-invulnerable mist. Has quite a few lethal and non-lethal applications. Unlocked!

Telekinesis: Manipulate objects at a distance through will alone. This is limited to line of sight, and is extremely limited compared to her physical strength. She can manipulate approximately thirty pounds at range to start with, and would improve with practice and imagination.

Wolf form: I can run fast, I can track down my foes from the smallest drops of blood, I will never stop, never tire, and IS THAT BACON?! (Locked)

Shadow Portal: Opens a gate to the Plane of Shadow, where Castlevania resides. Shadow Portals can be made nearly anywhere on a Material Plane, but they must be in fixed places within the Plane of Shadow. Unlocked!

Dominate: (Not the soul-using thing) Control over others. Takes effort, and can only do so to a few at a time. Repeated and lengthy exposure, however, can make things last longer, until they are permanently enthralled. Can be resisted with willpower and can be no-selled by various techniques/powers.(Locked)

Bat Summon: Gather swarms of bats to do thy bidding. They will follow the will of the Lady of Darkness without hesitation. Not as flexible as the Queen Administrator shard. The awareness of each bat is basic, and commands must be given to the entire swarm at once. I'm the goddamn Batman. Unlocked!

Monstrous Form: Accesses a portion of the power available to the Scarlet Dragon's mightiest shape, while retaining the flexibility afforded by a humanoid form. However, it is clearly inhuman. Unlocked!

Void Magic: Basis of the Void Sword. Drains life from its victims, heals and invigorates the wielder, and brings about an absolute chill. Unlocked!

Chaos Magic: Control and manipulation of hellfire. Many can use it, but few can project it. Forms the Chaos Claws. Unlocked!

Storm Magic: Power over electricity and the storm. An excellent method of long-range attack, and quite painful to most.

Weather manipulation: Can control the weather to some degree, whether that is summoning or banishing clouds, or building up power to make a simple cloudy day into an actual storm. It cannot, however, bring warmth or cold on its own. She can't make a blizzard in the tropics or turn Antarctica into prime beachfront property. She can just make it sunny, cloudy, or rainy. Or snowy if the time of year's right.

Dragon Shape: The mightiest form of the Heir of Dracul. Becomes a massive red dragon, standing at thirty feet tall. Can access amplified versions of currently unlocked magic, as well as other powers while in the form. However, it is an immense strain to hold the shape for very long. And it is not exactly friendly-looking at first glance. Godzilla (or whatever epic music of your choice!) is highly recommended.

Resurrection: If slain, turns dormant for a period of time before reviving in a weakened state. Longest possible period is a century.

Spoiler: Alucard's Complete Power List

Strength: Insanely high at full strength. Not as strong as Taylor's potential, but certainly enough to be highly dangerous to a well-trained human.

Durability: Begins low, becomes stronger and harder to injure.

Vampiric Healing: Heals perfectly as long as there is blood to fuel the repairs. Can be slowed by various means.

Grace. Allows limited floating, superhuman dodging ability, and balance.

Demonic Wings: Permits him to glide with feathery, though twisted, wings.

Mist form: Near invulnerable mist. No mere prison can hold thee. Unless they put in a fan to blow you back in.

Wolf form: I can run fast, I can track down my foes from the smallest drops of blood, I will never stop, never tire, and IS THAT BACON?!

Chaos Magic: Alucard's is not as strong as his father's, but his skill with it is extraordinary. He can use it to teleport short distances and throw fireballs, although it is limited by line of sight and distance. (The classic SotN Hellfire spell.)

Spectral Wolf: Similar to the wolf shape, however it is ethereal and impossible to injure. Alucard can use it to teleport from one location to another by sending the wolf forward, then replacing it. Or he can simply use it to scout and dissolve it.

Crissaegrim abilities: A wickedly dangerous blade Alucard forged with the materials of three legendary weapons. It permits him to enshroud it with both Void and Chaos magic, as well as being extremely lethal to both holy and unholy opponents.

Resurrection: If slain, turns dormant for a period of time before reviving in a weakened state. Unlike Dracul's counterpart power, he would arise in a century unless the process was sped along by blood. He would also arise in a more corpse-like state until he managed to feed.

Spoiler: Dragon's Magic Power List

Steel Crafting: Self only. Able to mold current avatar however she likes. Tends to prefer a dragon shape, as...well, she's Dragon.

Teleportation: Flashes out of existence in one place and reappears in another. Line of sight limited, but not distance-wise. Yes. This is overpowered. Limited to (naturally) light-speed maximum.

Light Form: Turns into a bright solid light construct. This is difficult to maintain, but difficult to injure..

Strength: DRAGON SMASH!

Durability: Anybody remember that scene in Superman Returns when the bullet bounces off his eye? No? Nobody? Well, it's kinda like that.

Healing: Can grant to self or others, and does not need an outside source. Wounds (or damage) heals rapidly.

Flight: I could touch the sky before I changed into a goddess. Now I just don't need to spend any effort!

Hard-Light constructs: Eat your heart out in jealousy, Green Lantern! My constructs don't get broken by lemonade!

Telekinesis: Use the Force, Luke. Stronger than Taylor's version. Not Ziz-strength, but it's up there.

Light Bridge: Opens a...uh, bridge to the Plane of Light. Think the MCU's version of the Bifrost. Can go from nearly anywhere on a Material Plane, but they must be in fixed places within the Light Plane.

Human Form: If/when she feels like trying out what a ice cream tastes like.

Light Magic: Heals and warms its users, and can be turned to be used offensively. Most effective against Dark Creatures, but still useful against other targets. Remember, the Lightsaber is the weapon of a Jedi.

Heavenly Flame Magic: The opposite of Chaos Magic. Her white fire burns, but is formed from calmness, logic. It is a fire that illuminates, but can be destructive all the same.

Storm Magic: The point of commonality between Light and Darkness. Electricity is such a useful thing. Due to her original nature as a mechanical being, Dragon's control of it is extraordinarily precise.

Dragon Shape: For when someone or something big really, really needs to be stomped. Is this a copied power? No! It's a completely different kind of dragon!

Resurrection: If slain, turns dormant for a period of time before reviving in a weakened state. Longest possible period is a century. This is common for gods.

Spoiler: Madison's Equipment List

Vampire Killer: A simple hilt attached to a combat whip that can be slung out and controlled by an ingeniously designed retraction system. On the end of the hilt is a silver stake, perfect for killing vampires, werewolves, and lawyers. The weapon is specifically designed to kill creatures of the night, but works on anything quite well and is capable of channeling magic.

Light Magic amulet: Allows its wearer to heal over time. Needs to be fueled by someone capable of putting magic into it, which is currently limited to Dragon and Madison. It doesn't permit Wolverine-style healing, but it lets short fights turn into long ones and wearing one overnight heals even most serious injuries. Can be sped up by forcing the magic to flow more quickly, but that drains the amulet which needs time and attention to recharge.

Seraphic Shoulders: Creates ghostly angelic wings for a few moments, allowing Madison to catch herself in the air or glide.

Heavenly Gauntlet: A black (I know, it clashes!) gauntlet that generates white fire, equal to that of the fires of Hell.

Cyclone Boots: Allows high-speed running, jumping, and as a bonus, permits its wearer to take long falls without breaking their legs. Yes, all she needs is a Portal Gun.

Silver Daggers: Small, easily palmable, and crafted for a nasty surprise attack. Yes, it can hurt a lot to suddenly have a knife in your throat, whether you're a werewolf or not.

Holy Water: Water that's been exposed to sunlight and had Light Magic channeled through it. Does nothing against most people, would really tick off Taylor and Alucard. When used with Light Magic channeled through its user, forms a light-shield to ward off attacks and really tick off vampires.

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

Two hours, thirty minutes ago

It took all my effort to not rip open a portal to the Shadow Plane then and there. Well, I was still suffering a lot of pain, so that slowed me down a bit. It was fading, but that wasn't much comfort.

"Where's Scion heading?" Alexandria demanded.

Pandora's head shifted. "I'm having difficulty tracking him. He doesn't show up on most media. I can tell there's a tsunami heading for shore, looks like it's going to be around thirty feet tall by the nearest islands. Only visual tracking works, but he's a bright target at least. It would be easier if we didn't have to route everything through portals, it's adding lag to the response time. Not much, but enough that it may make a big difference."

Dragon marched up to Pandora. "I'll open a Light Bridge here, relay through that. Radio's a form of light, it will work. We need to coordinate as much as possible in order to get him. We need to buy time."

Pandora nodded. "We'll take a quick detour over to my world. It's going to be a lot easier if you can open enough portals for me to get everything through. And if you open a lot of portals so we can load up the Exodus. It can handle a million people, and we've got a list of people who would be ideal. For safety's sake, we're going to try and filter out as many people who have the potential to Trigger. No active or inactive parahumans aboard."

Janus and Hyperion nodded together. Janus spoke first. "We will work with your 'Clairvoyant' and 'Doormaker.' We'll attempt to open the way to the Abomination's true self. I will need time, though."

I fought my way to my feet. "We need to rally everything we've got. Try and stop him. He's not going to just be satisfied with blowing up the castle." I grit my teeth. "And I can't take him alone."

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

Two hours ago

I didn't like this job. It was a pain, it was repetitive and annoying, but there wasn't any help for that. I was too busy opening portals into the Shadow Plane. "How much time?"

"Twenty minutes, real time. Seven hours our own." Chronos responded.

Pandora's voice echoed over my earpiece. "According to the succubus messenger from the castle, Scion can track powers. This should be a nice little surprise for him if your servants can delay him, or stop him from destroying the castle."

Pandora, or rather, Pandora's many, many, many suits, were moving nuclear devices into each portal I made. At one portal a minute, and with Chronos at my side, speeding up our passage through time, it made things easier to work with. I looked at the 'main' suit at my side, though that wasn't exactly true. Not when there was a million of them below me.

"How long have you been working on this?" I muttered as I opened another portal to the shelter I built in the Shadow Plane.

Pandora shrugged, her massive gray suit shuffling with the motion. "Years actually, on various projects. Building exponentially since you killed the Simurgh. Though I've got much better control and coordination after I was unleashed entirely six weeks ago. I spent a lot of that time building factories, building suits, getting uranium, refinement facilities. I like people, but you can get things done a lot faster if you don't have to worry about poisoning them. I don't like that I've ended up basically breaking the biosphere that was here, but at least that was plantlife and insects. Apparently chordates died here, or they never evolved. Haven't found any fossils of them, anyway."

I nodded. "Bit of luck. Every minute counts." I looked at Chronos. "Even with your help, much as I appreciate it."

He chuckled. "We have much to do. I am looking forward to going back to recording history, however. I dislike making it, but there will be little point if history comes to an end."

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

One hour, thirty minutes ago

"This is Chief-Director Rebecca Costa-Brown of the PRT. I am declaring an S-Class emergency. Scion has gone insane. He has attacked Velnar, nearly destroying the castle of the Scarlet Dragon. The attack has set off a tsunami that we are expecting to hit the shores of North America within the next twenty minutes. It is expected the tsunami will be approximately thirty feet high when it hits. As of this moment, we are attempting to evacuate the coastal regions and rally a counterattack. Thinkers have confirmed that Scion's attack is just beginning. Scion is responsible for the Endbringers. He unleashed them on us to gather information, then drove them off when he learned what he wanted from us. When we beat them, he took offense, and he won't stop with the Scarlet Dragon's holdings. The best case scenario is he will create and unleash new Endbringers to send against us. The worst case is he will act himself. If you are hearing this broadcast, we are requesting aid. Everybody willing to contribute to the fight. Every hero, every villain. This is for our species. He dies or we do."

The broadcast was being sent across the world. Translated into hundreds of languages, repeated again and again. I was listening with one ear as I built up my strength over the ocean, where Castlevania used to be just a short time ago. It would be most useful if Scion arrived back here when he was finished. He seemed to have a habit of coming and going from near here, too. Even if he didn't, Hyperion told me he would make things work if he could.

The stormclouds formed. I needed time to build up a storm, I never could just build a hurricane up with this much time. Maybe if I had a week, but in a few hours? A small storm would have to do. Thankfully the ocean was warm, easing my task. The anvil-shaped stormcloud built quickly, growing outward. Every passing second made it stronger.

Hopefully I would have enough time.

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

Half an hour ago

The sky was dark, not simply because it was night, but because the storm I built blocked out any possible starlight. The area above otherwise barren ocean was lit up by thousands of Dragon suits, piloted by Pandora. Enough to create an artificial day. It was actually pretty disquieting.

From various Doormaker portals came a lot more people. Some were flying under their own power. Others were on jetpacks or power armor. Gaia floated through on a small platform of earth underneath her feet, though the moment she crossed over, she gestured and it began to spread and grow outwards.

A pair floated near me, the two being carried by other glowing figures. Transparent figures, lacking more than the simplest features. Three ghosts carrying two people...

Suddenly, I felt a lot better about being dead. I wasn't sure if I could be killed again, but at least it should be a bit more difficult.

Glastig Uaine, looking deceptively young as she and her companion approached me. The other was a large man, wearing both jeans and a jean jacket, a gray shirt underneath it.

Glastig tilted her head as she looked me over. "Lady of Shadow. Your fae is silent. Passed from you and moved upon another. Yet you possess power, still. The trace upon thee is strange, dark. As if a blade of darkness cut aside the joining."

I kept my concentration upon the building storm, even as I responded. "I'm complicated."

Glastig Uaine attempted to reach out and touch me, but I floated backward, narrowing my eyes.

"Don't try it." I spat.

She simply smiled. "You have no fae. My touch would not threaten you. But there is a trace upon you of your fae. A tiny fragment of it, a shadow left behind. I was curious whether I might touch upon that fae. I have never seen it before."

I shook my head. "No, not now. Not ever. Especially not when we need to prepare against Scion."

Glastig Uaine looked amused. "Oberon will not fall so easily here. The King of the Fae will seek our end. He will fight us as he has nothing left. If he were not broken, we would stand no chance." She tilted her head. "But if he were not broken, the Cycle would not end here and now. Perhaps this is the time it changes. Perhaps the King may be deposed."

I focused my gaze on her face, gauging her words. "But you think we have a chance."

She shrugged. "A small one, perhaps. Oberon is not so easily bested as one might dream. But all things can die. Even Kings." There was mirth on those oddly-old eyes. "Even gods of darkness."

The large man coughed. "We don't have all day. I have a lot of people to see."

The Faerie Queen gave him a glare. "I speak with the Lady of Darkness, Empowerer."

"First, it's Galvanate. Second, I need to boost a lot of people today." He looked at me. "I can give you invulnerability. Not sure how it'll hold up against Scion, but it might help."

I nodded. "I'm undead. Any idea if that should effect things?"

He shrugged. "No clue. Power works on Case 53s, though."

"Alright, do it." I said.

He touched my hand, and it felt like an electric shock ran through me. Galvanate smacked my hand, seeming pleased at the resistance. Then the pair moved off, joining the group of gathering forces. I had been expecting to feel somewhat different... though how, I don't know. I guess I just had to prepare.

I turned my mind back to the gathering storm.

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

Ten minutes ago

I would have been sweating if I were still capable of it. Concentrating on building the storm so quickly was not easy. The task itself wasn't that hard, but apparently even I had trouble magicking up a ton of energy and storing it in a stormcloud.

Alexandria, Legend, and Apostle all appeared above the main platform Gaia was holding above the ocean. What surprised me was that Alexandria apparently went through a costume redesign, her suit was blue and gold, rather than the all-black she was known for. Others floated around us, I spotted Scylla floating next to about fifty huge crows, or ravens. I wasn't sure what label would apply when the damn things were the size of goddamn buses. I'd be questioning where the hell we got those, but I really had more important things to worry about.

Every few seconds, more parahumans appeared. More Dragon suits appeared, piloted by Pandora. Dragon herself appeared in a flash of rainbow light. Chronos appeared in the air, surrounded by his Timekeepers. Lokhan appeared next to a thirty-foot long dark snake, the damn thing as large as an Endbringer. Pan and Agreus appeared together, the shorter satyr holding a long silver blade I had trouble looking at, while Agreus had a pair of sickles in his hands.

Forcefields sprang up. The air distorted as Chronos sped us through the passage of time. I wasn't sure how much difference it would make... but it would have to be enough.

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

Now

Scion popped into existence, right in the middle of the battlefield we set up. For once, his predictability worked in our favor. Even as the golden glow began to build on him, his facial expression hard and determined, I unleashed a stream of hellfire on him, though my attack was lost in the glare of lasers, gravitational warping, white fire, beams of light.

Scion burst his way from the fray, his motion still frighteningly quick despite how much Chronos was improving our speed. Golden light built within his hands, and I dropped as fast as I could. The beam of golden light speared through the area I had just been in. Then Scion exploded as a railgun shot from a Pandora suit slammed into him, golden flesh raining down on the ocean below.

I would have missed it if not for the time-warp. A white sphere, about the size of a fist, where Scion had been. Within half a second, Scion's body was rebuilt around it. He clapped his hands together, a sphere of golden light bursting outward, catching some of the unfortunate fighters in it. They were erased, their substance destroyed, as if they never had been at all.

"Lyon deceased, Harper deceased, Alayan deceased, Runt deceased..."

I mentally shoved aside the readout. The dark snake of Moord Nag, now glowing with blood-red energy, slammed through the golden sphere without slowing down. It had Scion in its jaws as it splashed down to the ocean below. The waves halted as Scion did something, and he stood on the water's surface as if it were a pane of solid glass. The huge snake burst from the water, lunging for Scion once more, but he caught the beast by the fangs and held it back. Jaws the size of a bus snapped open and shut, trying to drive forward, gouging into Scion's arms, but he didn't seem to care.

As golden light built up in those arms, I thrust my hand skyward and called down the storm. A bolt of lightning, built with everything the storm had in it, powerful enough to light up Brockton Bay for at least a year. Probably a lot less than the bolt I brought down on Leviathan, but I just didn't have the time to get a storm that strong.

Scion's flesh vanished underneath that bolt. The snake clamped its jaws around the sphere, chomping, crunching, eagerly ripping. Golden flesh poured from that maw in rivers, shining in the dark waters below.

Then the entire snake shined gold. An instant later, it exploded, and Scion was turning to look skyward. A blast of golden light sprayed upwards, slamming into me.

Despite Galvanate's invulnerability enhancing me, I felt it searing my flesh, peeling my skin from my bones. If I hadn't been given it, I knew it would have torn me apart instantly. As it was, the world winked out as my eyes were destroyed again.

I hated being blind. And oh, there's my old friend gravity again. I was tempted to shift into mist to try and not splashdown, but that would probably get me killed while Scion's light was tearing through me.

Abruptly the light cut off, but I didn't really notice as I slammed into the ocean. By the way, salt water on open burns? It really hurts. Still, my wounds were regenerating, and once my eyesight returned, I burst up from the water to find Scion glaring out at everyone. Monochrome gray.

It...really couldn't be that simple, could it?

A burst of gray light, Glastig Uaine screaming up in the sky as one of her ghosts shattered. Scion floated upward, glowing golden as he extended a hand. A beam of light lanced outward, slicing through capes and Dragon suits without resistance. Body parts fell from the sky, a rain of blood accompanying the carnage.

No, not that simple. It's never that simple.

So I came up behind Scion and stabbed him in the back with the Void Sword.

Whoa.

Whoa.

So much life poured into me that it was horrifically painful. It felt like I was bathing in boiling hot acid. My wounds sealed themselves instantly, but I just could not stand the sheer amount that was flowing through the Void Sword.

It was almost a relief when Scion turned and backhanded me. The next thing I knew I was tumbling helplessly, my surroundings going by in such a blur that I wasn't able to actually comprehend much of anything. Though that might also because of the corona of superheated plasma around me. Bit hard to see through that. Thank you again, Galvanate, or I'd be dead. More dead. No longer undead.

Oh good, the plasma's gone. And...shit. That's the Earth below me, isn't it? Yep, that's the Earth, and I'm hurtling away from it. And, I'm dizzy from whirling around over and over. He punched me into orbit. He actually punched me out of orbit. If I wasn't able to fly, I'd be careening off into space forever from that.

And that's the sun. Ow. Letting a silent growl out into the void, I shifted into my dragon shape, reversed my direction. It took long minutes before I managed to plunge back down into the atmosphere. I didn't have any trouble finding where the battle was still taking place. I just had to find the shining bursts of golden light. Which was rather distressingly large. And moving. The fight had shifted from over the Atlantic to over continental Europe. Where exactly I don't know because I'm a little too fucking busy.

Great swathes of land were on fire, others were torn down to bedrock. Worse, as I got closer to the battle, I could see where large sections of ground were torn away, pools of lava bubbling up. Then I crested over a hill and found miles of land that looked like it came straight out of Hell. Lava and ash were spilling out of the ground, and a lot of capes were forced to keep back, the environment itself impossible to fight in.

I dove into the ash cloud, the golden blasts spurring me onwards. We had to slow him down. There was just no other option. I wasn't going to complain if we managed to actually kill Scion here, but we had to give Janus and Hyperion the time we needed to reach the real Abomination.

And ash really sucked to fly through. I couldn't see a damn thing. So I flew upwards, out of the ash cloud, pulled on the Void, and breathed down, as much as I could. Superchilled air clashed with boiling volcanic heat, and the result formed a howling windstorm, whipping around me. But I was unmoved. I would not be moved.

Superheated ash was suddenly robbed of its heat, and the center of the cloud collapsed in on itself. That let me catch a view of the battle raging in the middle of it.

Scion was busy grappling with Lorkhan, the large Lord of War holding a seven foot long blade made of flame. He was busily trying to push its length down into Scion's neck with both hands, every muscle straining and trembling. Scion, on the other hand, held off the seven foot tall god with one hand on the burning sword, seemingly effortlessly. He lifted the other hand, a sphere of golden light appearing.

I enveloped Scion with a concentrated Hellfire, tightening the focus of my power until it was concentrated into a thin beam. Scion was lost in the glare.

His attack, however, was not. It blasted outward, enveloping Lorkhan in a blinding white glare. When it faded, both were standing in lava, but Lorkhan's armor had been blasted away. His weapon was gone. Even much of his skin was gone, showing bare muscle and blood flowing from the hideous wounds.

Though that didn't stop Lorkhan. Even injured as he was, he slammed his large fists against Scion, again and again, the blows rippling the air and causing shockwaves that helped blast away some of the remaining drifting ash. The burned ground beneath the pair cracked and shattered with every hit. It would have been encouraging, if not for one simple thing.

Scion was catching every blow. He almost seemed bored. Before I could move, Scion struck out with a fist of his own, catching Lorkhan in the jaw. Lorkhan just...exploded, covering Scion with gore.

Then he was struck by a silver spear that arced its way through the ashcloud, passing through Scion's flesh without resistance. I pulled on the power of the storm, launching a stream of electricity at Scion, guided by my will. Dragon flashed into existence near me, also in her dragon form. She lifted her arms, then pushed downward with her own white fire. Andraste floated above us, forming and launching spears of shining silver light down at the single golden form below.

The flash of golden light below was my only warning. I teleported, my range extended in my dragon form, which was the only reason the golden light seared off my left wing instead of ripping into my whole body. Worse, the light clung to me, burning into my flesh, and the only thing I could do is try and get some distance. I felt myself shifting out of my dragon shape involuntarily, tumbling helplessly as I slammed into the ground, the flowing ash around me making it impossible to see.

And I was still burning. The fucker had somehow tuned his light to carry the same whatever it was that made sunlight irritating to me and amplified it. It was still eating at my flesh, and I could feel it dissolving what little remained of my left wing, my left arm, and running upward. It just might end up consuming my whole body.

I manifested the Void Sword. Cut off my left arm just below the shoulder. Screamed, the sound lost in the ash. Then repeated the procedure for my left wing, making my eyes water. Thankfully the blade itself cut without much pain, but with the ash and dirt pressing into the open wounds, that made it hurt.

And worse, I wasn't healing. I just didn't have enough blood, or life energy, to heal the wounds. I couldn't get close. He'd adapted to me. I couldn't hurt him enough, while he could hurt me a thousand times over. Worse, Scion seemed more powerful than the Abomination Dracul fought.

Either that, or Scion just wasn't playing around so much. Regardless, I'd fucked up. Let myself think Scion might have been just a bit stronger than the Endbringers. Maybe about ten times stronger.

No, it was much worse than that. I'd badly underestimated him. And now people were dying because of it. I'd gotten arrogant, careless, and now this was the price.

There was a distant rumble, and another wave of heat. Screams echoed faintly. I could barely see a hint of bright blue lights from above clashing with Scion's golden light from below.

I needed a way to even things. Scion was strong enough that he didn't need finesse, skill. He just took the opposition and retaliated. We weren't a threat to him. Not like this. I needed some way to get within the range of a decent fight. Even if I couldn't match him with power alone, I might be able to use skill to make up the difference. Ironically, that was the same way the Belmonts had managed to defeat Dracul four times in their history. They weren't anywhere near as strong as their ancestor, but they'd defeated him by being strong enough to fight back, to harm him, and skilled enough to survive the onslaught. Even then, Dracul had won his battles as often as he lost.

Grimly, in a lot of pain, I opened a Shadow Portal. I had an idea. I just hoped it would be enough.

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

 

[SirWill]

A/N: Here we go.

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

The ash cloud was growing. A hundred mile wide strip of land was torn away, erased, fire and heat boiling up from the Earth below. Few could fight within that cloud, the hot ash, toxic gas, and sheer heat being far too dangerous for all but the most heavily armored or invulnerable capes. No matter what happened after this, France was going to be screwed. Whether there would be anything left to recover...

No. No point in dwelling on it, now. They had an apocalypse to stop. Only the invulnerable capes could even get near Scion, and of those, those that didn't need to breathe. The holograms being projected from some of Pandora's suits were helpful, too. They appeared like more suits, distracting Scion, taking hits that he otherwise would have used against actual flesh and blood. They definitely helped in cutting down the casualties.

Dragon herself floated above the battlefield, blasting lightning, white fire, and pure light down on the comparatively small form of Scion. Thousands more Dragon suits, controlled by both Dragon and Pandora, dove into the rising ash cloud, attacking Scion and keeping him distracted. With a combination of forcefields and self-repair systems, Scion had to ensure he destroyed each one, and they were able to withstand at least one blast of golden light before becoming vulnerable.

That was fine by David. It gave him just enough time to get himself ready. Ten seconds between power swaps. Beyond that, though, was a deep well. Energy that belonged to Ariel, Lotan, Ifrit, Agreus, Pan, Scylla, Andraste, Lorkhan, Hyperion and Janus flowed through him. They had been connected to powers, but with them freed, those powers now rested inert. But they were full of energy, ready to be used. That energy flowed readily, easily, to the powers he wanted, prepared for. Powers that had been drained for two decades, brought to the fore once again.

There was the additional well, too. The powers that were connected to the other ten still bound. Their energy didn't flow so easily, so readily, but it was more to use, more to wield. The main problem was that it was flowing to all of his powers, and he couldn't force it to prioritize. Had they more time, time enough to free all the gods, David would have been more powerful than even his height. If only for a short time.

As it was, he simply had to make do.

Enhanced perception. He could see all wavelengths of light, comprehend them, and see in all directions without disorientation. Even through the ash cloud, he had no difficulty seeing Scion fighting wave after wave of Dragon suits, the machines blasting munitions, lasers, gamma rays, and when Scion ceased being affected by a given weapon, the suit would close to melee and do as much damage as possible.

Invulnerability. An inviolate field covered him, invulnerable and immutable. An absolute object, he was where he wished to be. Gravity would not bind him, vacuum was no threat to him, and nothing short of a nuclear weapon could faze him. It would take much, much more to actually harm him. Granted, Scion had far greater output than that, but that combined with the third power would help protect him.

The third. A power he took great pains at finding, buried beneath the thousands of others. A power that had been drained, but not by Eidolon's long career. A power that had once belonged to another. A power he spent weeks at charging to its fullest, in preparation for this moment. Wavelength manipulation.

He just knew what Clark would say. Maybe it was simply his memories, maybe there was something of Clark left on the power that used to be his. It didn't matter. The thought was clear enough.

Kick his ass, old buddy.

Scion burst his way from the ash cloud, having shaken off the nearest hundred Dragon suits. He flew toward the actual Dragon at hypersonic speeds, a halo of golden energy surrounding the Abomination's avatar. Dragon glowed blue, shields of light popping into existence between her and Scion. He rammed into the first, his body liquefying against it from the sheer speed, but the white sphere at the center survived. It crashed through the shield, the golden body having reformed itself an instant later. He struck the next one an instant later, this time smashing through it without resistance, his body withstanding the immense impact.

His fingers nearly reached Dragon, when the Light Goddess suddenly vanished in a flash of rainbow light. She reappeared five miles away, a beam of white flame enveloping Scion an instant later. Scion weathered the hit without flinching.

Scion turned, trying to track the rapidly teleporting goddess, Dragon's ability to think at immense speeds allowing her to keep one step ahead of the rampaging Abomination. Scion built up golden energy, unleashing a wave toward Dragon that tore into the land, expanding in a sphere of destruction that rightfully belonged to a nuclear blast.

David lifted his hand and unleashed his own wavelength manipulation, canceling Scion's own. The sphere hadn't traveled more than a hundred feet before it faded.

Scion looked up at David, while he returned the stare. Light Magic infused him, making David blaze blue as he readied himself. Scion launched himself at David at blinding speeds, but David twisted himself aside. He unleashed a blast of silver light, tuned specifically to attempt to break the white sphere at Scion's heart. That it would also erase the substance of Scion's avatar was only a bonus.

The white sphere was blasted away. Annoyingly, it didn't seem affected. So it wasn't like an Endbringer core, it was something else. Scion reformed himself slowly, the golden flesh forming itself around the sphere, adapting as David kept a beam of silver light upon him, erasing that flesh even as it formed. Scion shifted and adapted, and David retuned his wavelength manipulation, dissolving it down again and again.

The sphere vanished. David readied himself, building energy in the wavelength manipulation power.

Scion reappeared at David's back, a fist moving at supersonic speeds plunging toward him. David turned and caught the fist in his hand, channeling silver light into the avatar and reducing it to neutrinos. The ghostly waves of energy raced away, passing through matter without interacting with much of anything. Stubbornly, the sphere of Scion's heart remained intact, despite how much energy David drove at it. It wasn't substance, and so he couldn't unmake it.

The sphere vanished again, stepping between dimensions as easily as David might step between rooms. Long experience with the trickiness of fighting the Simurgh came in handy, as Scion attempted the same trick, appearing from behind with a fist already in motion. David blasted Scion with silver light, reducing him to the sphere again.

This time, the sphere whirled by David, taking a moment before it reassembled the golden avatar around itself. Scion dove forward, the golden form of his body just barely missing David as he slipped to the side. Gold and silver light clashed against each other, gold tuned to attack, unbind molecules from each other, and the silver tuned to cancel out the golden blasts that would otherwise punch deep into the Earth's surface, causing even more destruction.

It wouldn't last long, David knew. The power was draining, like every other power he ever had. But if it bought enough time...

Scion was suddenly right in front of him, fingers reaching to gouge out David's eyes. David grabbed, then erased those grasping hands, a follow-up fist to Scion's face sending the rampaging Abomination reeling back. Scion blazed forward, but stopped, just out of melee range, a look of enraged determination in those golden eyes.

"You needed worthy opponents." Scion spoke, his voice just above a whisper. In anticipation of the moment of expected shock, the Abomination was already lunging forward as he finished speaking.

In response, David blasted him with silver light, this one tuned to smash Scion away from him. The Abomination whirled for a moment, steadying himself in the air as he looked at David, a look of shock and dismay on his face.

"And I have him." David spoke as he shifted powers, dismissing the perception ability for the moment. He lunged out with another blast of silver light, freezing Scion's flesh, forcing him to hold still for a few precious seconds.

That's when Alexandria, covered in plasma from her passage through the atmosphere, emerged from Chronos' Time Gate and struck Scion at Mach 37.

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

"Almost have it, we can see it."

"There's a wall, we can't open it that way."

"Magic is there, already. We need merely tune ourselves in synch with it."

"Indeed, indeed, it must be taking in energy, as well. Find the path, I shall make the door."

Emily ignored most of the chatter. It had gone on like that for two hours now. Instead, she concentrated on her hand, where fire swirled and twisted at her will. Her power wasn't of much use for opening a portal, but with her lack of experience with them, she would only get in the way during the battle with Scion. Much as she hated it, she knew she wasn't going to be much good there. She would only be a liability on the battlefield, and so she was stuck with the two gods that didn't go.

Discipline.

So instead, she sat back and watched as Janus, Hyperion, Clairvoyant and Doormaker strained to open a portal to Scion's actual body. It was difficult to understand that the golden man, world renowned hero, selfless saviour, was actually an alien monstrosity large enough to cover a world. At least, it was, until he had cut a swathe of destruction right in the middle of Europe. France was merely ground zero, but the environmental damage was going to spread out much further. Ash was falling on Spain already, carried by the wind.

Discipline.

The four were on the other side of the white room. All the while Emily practised. Forming the flame into shapes. A gauntlet, a sword, a baton. Simple. What was more difficult was something a bit more complicated. Thankfully, when she was still a groundpounder, she knew the inside and out of every weapon she ever had to use. First, a pistol. Specifically, a 1911 Operator. She'd disassembled and reassembled it a thousand times in training. She could do it with her eyes closed.

Discipline.

Forming one out of flame turned out to be very difficult. It didn't want to hold in shape, it wanted to move, ripple, escape, consume. She didn't let it. Emily Piggot was not going to let her power get the better of her. She would master it, and not be controlled by it.

Discipline.

Emily forced it into shape. Despite how the flame tried to act, her will was the stronger. She formed the mechanisms inside, every last pin, screw, and piece of it. The end result, she had a pistol that appeared to be made of lava sitting in her hand. It felt right, somehow. Like something just clicked in place.

She looked up, gun in hand, as the two deities (or rather three, considering she was now one, and that was a headache) shifted on their feet. Finally, Janus let out a cry of triumph. A shimmering portal snapped open, gleaming silver and white, through which was a distorted landscape of...

No. Not land. Spires of mountain-sized crystals and the glistening sheen of wet, living flesh. Eldritch orange energy spiked in places, arcing before coming back down like a prominence on the sun in miniature. She wasn't able to see much more than that, as she was looking through the portal at a forty-five degree angle, but it was alien.

"My god..." Emily whispered.

Hyperion nodded. "That's the Abomination. His true self. We can get through to him, the portal is open. We need to rally-"

A flare of golden light passed through the portal, tearing apart everything in its way. Emily covered her eyes and fell out of her chair. By the time she got back to her feet, the portal had snapped shut. The wall... and at least five miles of facility was gone, carved away in an instant, revealing dead or dying flesh buried beneath or so far off in the distance. So were Clairvoyant and Hyperion, the pair of them erased from existence as cleanly as everything else.

Doormaker, on the other hand, was alive. His thin body fell over, unconscious, with his connection to Clairvoyant broken in the worst possible way.

Janus stood there dumbly, his body shaking. "Hyperion..."

Emily got to her feet, coughing. The gun was still in her hand, though it was sputtering a bit as her concentration wavered. Discipline, Emily. Her hair alight in flame, she advanced on the black and white god, her teeth clenched. "Didn't count on other defenses. Can you still open a portal there?"

Janus didn't move, standing stock still.

Emily growled, lifted her gun, and fired off into the now-open space. The sound was satisfyingly loud, and made Janus whirl on her with a look of fear.

"We don't have time for you to self-destruct right now! Can you reopen it!" Emily growled, her fingers tightly gripping the flame-construct in her hand.

Janus shakily nodded his head. "I can. I can feel it, but there's nothing stopping him from blocking us with that power. Another attempt will only destroy us. He realized within an instant." He glanced at the destruction, the ceiling creaking ominously. "We can't stay here. We have to get out of here." Panic was beginning to fill his voice. "We have to run, run, I can't let the chains get me again, wrapping, cutting, ripping, tearing, feeding..."

Emily marched up on Janus, towering over the blubbering, hysterical god. "You need to get us to a place called Oxford on Earth Bet."

He looked up at her dumbly.

She grit her teeth. "We might be able to bypass the problem with a bit of distance, but we need to get to Oxford. We'll see how good his attention is."

The ground rumbled and shook. That seemed to be enough to get Janus on his feet, a silver portal snapping open in front of him. He jumped through. It only took a moment before Emily managed to grab the unconscious Doormaker and pull him through.

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

Doctor Mother switched camera views. The Pandora suits were her only connection to the battlefield, dimensions away. It wasn't easy to make sense of what was going on, but what was visible was enough. In the middle of a command center, she was stuck watching, helpless, as everything she prepared for the last thirty years came to pass.

Scion, in his frustration, had moved. Over the course of twenty minutes, the Abomination had broken off, leaving the devastated region of central France and into eastern Germany. David was nullifying the golden blasts, preventing Scion from doing much damage to the landscape itself, but it couldn't last very long. Now the group of attackers were trying to stop Scion, moving in lightning-fast blurs on Pandora's cameras before pulling back, avoiding the counterattacks.

Not that it helped much. Lifesigns still winked out, one after another. Slower than they otherwise would have without Chronos' aid, but there was simply no way to save someone who had been turned into a rain of blood by a punch powerful enough to rival a meteor strike.

She jerked her head as Pandora's voice echoed. "The Exodus is fifty percent loaded. I've lost contact with Doormaker, he's no longer opening portals."

Fifty percent. Five hundred thousand people, chosen for genetic variability, from all around Earth Bet. Ten thousand people each from fifty countries. America, China, Canada, India, Russia, Spain, the list went on.

She sucked in a breath as she tried to bring up the camera feed for the room for Clairvoyant and Doormaker, only to scowl as she saw static. Using other sensors, she soon discovered why, as that section of the compound had been destroyed.

Damnation. It was actually on this world's counterpart to Japan, while the part she was in was in East Africa. No wonder she hadn't felt it. Still, that meant evacuation efforts were going to be stalled, at least if they didn't have another portal-maker to make up the difference. All of which were the gods, and they were busy in combat with Scion. All that was left was the natural portals to Earth Bet, Earth Gimel, and Earth Shin, none of which were easy to access from here.

She bit her lip, then sighed. "Permission to launch granted, Pandora. Portals are gone, and we can't replace them."

Pandora's voice echoed over the speakers. "Understood. Powering antigravs. Launching in ten minutes."

Then all of the screens of the battle were filled with static. "Pandora!" Doctor Mother called. "Status!"

Screens flickered, then came back online, though they didn't show the battle with Scion. Only the internal security cameras. Pandora's voice was worried. "All the natural portals snapped shut. I have a connection to my foundry world through one of Dragon's, but that's all I have. We're cut off from the battle, and we can't coordinate from here. The other instances of me are rerouting, but it's going to take time."

"What happened?" Cauldron's leader demanded, quickly trying to shuffle through the data available. She froze as she saw motion on a single screen, turning her attention on it.

The avatar of Scion's counterpart was moving. The knife wound in the throat sealed itself. Even as Doctor Mother watched with horror, the arms on the avatar formed themselves, finishing the job she'd interrupted thirty years ago. The wires and steel support structure holding the body in place dissolved like mist in the morning sun. The facility rumbled as the flesh on which the facility was built began to shift and move. Distant crystal mountains lit up as energy coursed through them.

"Oh god, she's been waiting." Doctor Mother whispered, terror crawling up her spine.

The avatar turned, looked at the camera, and smiled.

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

The battle raged over Munich. Stray blasts leveled buildings, erasing centuries worth of history in seconds. The fighters were trying to get Scion to move, trying to drive him toward the Mediterranean, where there wouldn't be so much collateral damage, but they were running out of options. Scion was adapting to powers with every blow, the first few being effective, the second or third being only somewhat effective, and later hits barely injuring him at all.

If it wasn't for the magic enhancing them, they wouldn't be doing any damage at all.

Alexandria slammed her fists into Scion, the Abomination's body shattering beneath the blow. It had been one of the great frustrations of her power, that she had effectively infinite strength, yet only the leverage of two small human hands. She couldn't pick up a ship, or lift a building. She did best against the Endbringers, their dense structure permitting her to move or leverage one of the monsters far more than anything else.

Ironically, against Scion, that weakness turned out to be useful. Her fists rent through golden flesh easily. The only problem was he didn't even seem to care. The damage done to him was repaired in seconds, even the burning fire around her hands seemingly only annoying him. By the time she hit him the seventh time, his just-reforming fist reached out and caught Alexandria's. He squeezed her hand.

Despite the layered invulnerability, her bones creaked under the pressure. Pain. It had been quite a while since she felt pain.

There was a moment of disorientation as she found herself abruptly above Scion, her position having been swapped with Acidbath. Scion was abruptly and completely covered in the horrifically corrosive acid that was the criminal's Changer state, and by Scion's jerking, it was plain to see he didn't like that at all.

A man with a top hat, standing on a floating platform by Gaia, gave Alexandria a little jaunty wave. With an almost lazy twiddle with his fingers, the sheen of Acidbath disappeared off Scion, replaced by a small Dragon suit, this one five feet tall. It promptly exploded, raining a spray of golden flesh down over the streets below.

Scion finally seemed to have enough. He clapped his hands together, a burning bright sphere of golden light erupting around him. It consumed everything near him, suits and people vanishing before it like paper before a flame. Alexandria flew backward as quickly as she could, her flight managing to stay ahead of the devastating sphere of destruction only due to the time acceleration she was under.

A silver barrier sprung up, momentarily halting the advancing wave of destruction, but it bought a mere five seconds. Then the silver light shattered, the golden blaze destroying everything in it. Distantly, she heard David's scream as the power he'd been using to counter Scion's was overwhelmed. When the light faded, Munich was gone, and so was at least half a mile of earth beneath it.

"No," Alexandria whispered.

Some of the fliers attempted to re-engage, only to be repelled with lethal force, blood and worse spilling into the crater below. Legend flung beams of blue lasers at Scion, but the counterattack came swiftly, a beam of golden light the size of an office building spearing towards him. Legend managed to shift into his energy form, moving out of range, but the beam itself slammed through several more capes and disintegrated several of Pandora's suits in an instant. Beams struck out, again and again, and the coordinated defenders quickly had to evade or die, turning from a disciplined army into a scared, uncoordinated mob.

Gaia attempted to drop one of the larger platforms of earth on top of Scion, one the size of a three-story building, but a flash of golden light erased it long before it could even get within a kilometer. The counterattack struck Gaia, her substance erased instantly, and the platforms of earth began to plummet toward the ground. Some of the capes on them were rescued by fliers.

Others rode them all the way to their deaths, far below.

Then a new figure flew toward Scion. Moving in from the south, golden hair flapping loose and carefree in the wind, the skin bone-white and shining, perfect. It approached Scion, who abruptly stopped his rampage, his body language hard to read at this distance. But the feeling coming from him shifted from rage to disbelief and joy, so powerful and strong it actually brought a tear to Alexandria's eye. She swallowed as the two seemed to commune, Scion hugging the other figure tightly. She returned it, leaning into his embrace, her hands resting on his chest.

Oh god, we didn't actually kill her. She's just been asleep. We can't win against two of them.

"Door!" She called, but the expected portal failed to materialize.

Nononononononono...

And then a familiar, shining blue sword erupted into existence in the new figure's hand, spearing through Scion and emerging out his back.


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[OverReactionGuy]

And then a familiar, shining blue sword erupted into existence in the new figure's hand, spearing through Scion and emerging out his back.

Click to shrink...

...Did Taylor find Eden's body and take control of it using her blood?

 

[SirWill]

...Did Taylor find Eden's body and take control of it using her blood?

Click to shrink...

She didn't find it, she knew exactly where it was already!

But...well, yeah. That sums it up. More details about how that's shaking out is coming up, but yeah. Time to get all stabby!

 

[Agm151]

Has there ever been NSFW content for this fic? I like the color format of qq, but there's a lot more discussion on other sites and I'm trying to figure out where to read it.

 

[SirWill]

Has there ever been NSFW content for this fic? I like the color format of qq, but there's a lot more discussion on other sites and I'm trying to figure out where to read it.

Click to shrink...

If there is, I haven't made any. Not against it, it's just... yeah. My NSFW writing isn't that good. If anyone wanted to make some, I wouldn't mind either. I've been concentrating most on keeping the main story going.

 

[Hye]

And then a familiar, shining blue sword erupted into existence in the new figure's hand, spearing through Scion and emerging out his back.

Click to shrink...

Whaaaaaaat! I did honestly not see that coming at all! Holy fuck, I've been sitting at edge of my seat for this entire chapter. Christ, the suspense!

I think this is one of my favorite chapters so far. Definitely in the top 3

 

[SirWill]

A/N: Okay, how many brains exploded from the last chapter? I gotta know where to send the cleanup crews.

Spoiler: Taylor's Complete Power List

Blood manipulation: Self only, but extremely versatile. Basis of the Shadow Whip, Shadow Daggers, and other things.

Short-range teleportation: Draining, but not limited to line of sight.

Bat Travel: Turns into dozens of bats and back again. Rather confusing, but helpful for mobility.

Strength: Insanely high at full strength. Not as strong as some capes, but up there. M1 Abrams out of gas? I'll just push them to the gas station.

Durability: Begins low, becomes stronger and harder to injure.

Vampiric Healing: Heals perfectly as long as there is blood to fuel the repairs. Can be slowed by various means.

Grace. Allows limited floating, superhuman dodging ability, and balance. Unlocked!

Flight: I believe I can touch the sky. Does it need any more description? Unlocked!

Possession: Turns into blood, flows into some poor bastard, controls them for a period (hours at most) and when they die they explode into chunky bits. The blood has a toxic effect, so anyone possessed is doomed. (Barring unusual biology.) Unlocked!

Fleshcrafting: Feeling a little vain? Want a whole new hair color, a bigger bust, shaplier hips, or claws to rend the flesh of your enemies? Subscribe to Vamp-New-You today! (Permits the vampire to alter their own flesh permanently at some cost to their blood. Does not permit changing of bone structure. Cannot be used on others.) Unlocked!

Mist Form: Transform into near-invulnerable mist. Has quite a few lethal and non-lethal applications. Unlocked!

Telekinesis: Manipulate objects at a distance through will alone. This is limited to line of sight, and is extremely limited compared to her physical strength. She can manipulate approximately thirty pounds at range to start with, and would improve with practice and imagination.

Wolf form: I can run fast, I can track down my foes from the smallest drops of blood, I will never stop, never tire, and IS THAT BACON?! (Locked)

Shadow Portal: Opens a gate to the Plane of Shadow, where Castlevania resides. Shadow Portals can be made nearly anywhere on a Material Plane, but they must be in fixed places within the Plane of Shadow. Unlocked!

Dominate: (Not the soul-using thing) Control over others. Takes effort, and can only do so to a few at a time. Repeated and lengthy exposure, however, can make things last longer, until they are permanently enthralled. Can be resisted with willpower and can be no-selled by various techniques/powers.(Locked)

Bat Summon: Gather swarms of bats to do thy bidding. They will follow the will of the Lady of Darkness without hesitation. Not as flexible as the Queen Administrator shard. The awareness of each bat is basic, and commands must be given to the entire swarm at once. I'm the goddamn Batman. Unlocked!

Monstrous Form: Accesses a portion of the power available to the Scarlet Dragon's mightiest shape, while retaining the flexibility afforded by a humanoid form. However, it is clearly inhuman. Unlocked!

Void Magic: Basis of the Void Sword. Drains life from its victims, heals and invigorates the wielder, and brings about an absolute chill. Unlocked!

Chaos Magic: Control and manipulation of hellfire. Many can use it, but few can project it. Forms the Chaos Claws. Unlocked!

Storm Magic: Power over electricity and the storm. An excellent method of long-range attack, and quite painful to most.

Weather manipulation: Can control the weather to some degree, whether that is summoning or banishing clouds, or building up power to make a simple cloudy day into an actual storm. It cannot, however, bring warmth or cold on its own. She can't make a blizzard in the tropics or turn Antarctica into prime beachfront property. She can just make it sunny, cloudy, or rainy. Or snowy if the time of year's right.

Dragon Shape: The mightiest form of the Heir of Dracul. Becomes a massive red dragon, standing at thirty feet tall. Can access amplified versions of currently unlocked magic, as well as other powers while in the form. However, it is an immense strain to hold the shape for very long. And it is not exactly friendly-looking at first glance. Godzilla (or whatever epic music of your choice!) is highly recommended.

Resurrection: If slain, turns dormant for a period of time before reviving in a weakened state. Longest possible period is a century.

Spoiler: Alucard's Complete Power List

Strength: Insanely high at full strength. Not as strong as Taylor's potential, but certainly enough to be highly dangerous to a well-trained human.

Durability: Begins low, becomes stronger and harder to injure.

Vampiric Healing: Heals perfectly as long as there is blood to fuel the repairs. Can be slowed by various means.

Grace. Allows limited floating, superhuman dodging ability, and balance.

Demonic Wings: Permits him to glide with feathery, though twisted, wings.

Mist form: Near invulnerable mist. No mere prison can hold thee. Unless they put in a fan to blow you back in.

Wolf form: I can run fast, I can track down my foes from the smallest drops of blood, I will never stop, never tire, and IS THAT BACON?!

Chaos Magic: Alucard's is not as strong as his father's, but his skill with it is extraordinary. He can use it to teleport short distances and throw fireballs, although it is limited by line of sight and distance. (The classic SotN Hellfire spell.)

Spectral Wolf: Similar to the wolf shape, however it is ethereal and impossible to injure. Alucard can use it to teleport from one location to another by sending the wolf forward, then replacing it. Or he can simply use it to scout and dissolve it.

Crissaegrim abilities: A wickedly dangerous blade Alucard forged with the materials of three legendary weapons. It permits him to enshroud it with both Void and Chaos magic, as well as being extremely lethal to both holy and unholy opponents.

Resurrection: If slain, turns dormant for a period of time before reviving in a weakened state. Unlike Dracul's counterpart power, he would arise in a century unless the process was sped along by blood. He would also arise in a more corpse-like state until he managed to feed.

Spoiler: Dragon's Magic Power List

Steel Crafting: Self only. Able to mold current avatar however she likes. Tends to prefer a dragon shape, as...well, she's Dragon.

Teleportation: Flashes out of existence in one place and reappears in another. Line of sight limited, but not distance-wise. Yes. This is overpowered. Limited to (naturally) light-speed maximum.

Light Form: Turns into a bright solid light construct. This is difficult to maintain, but difficult to injure..

Strength: DRAGON SMASH!

Durability: Anybody remember that scene in Superman Returns when the bullet bounces off his eye? No? Nobody? Well, it's kinda like that.

Healing: Can grant to self or others, and does not need an outside source. Wounds (or damage) heals rapidly.

Flight: I could touch the sky before I changed into a goddess. Now I just don't need to spend any effort!

Hard-Light constructs: Eat your heart out in jealousy, Green Lantern! My constructs don't get broken by lemonade!

Telekinesis: Use the Force, Luke. Stronger than Taylor's version. Not Ziz-strength, but it's up there.

Light Bridge: Opens a...uh, bridge to the Plane of Light. Think the MCU's version of the Bifrost. Can go from nearly anywhere on a Material Plane, but they must be in fixed places within the Light Plane.

Human Form: If/when she feels like trying out what a ice cream tastes like.

Light Magic: Heals and warms its users, and can be turned to be used offensively. Most effective against Dark Creatures, but still useful against other targets. Remember, the Lightsaber is the weapon of a Jedi.

Heavenly Flame Magic: The opposite of Chaos Magic. Her white fire burns, but is formed from calmness, logic. It is a fire that illuminates, but can be destructive all the same.

Storm Magic: The point of commonality between Light and Darkness. Electricity is such a useful thing. Due to her original nature as a mechanical being, Dragon's control of it is extraordinarily precise.

Dragon Shape: For when someone or something big really, really needs to be stomped. Is this a copied power? No! It's a completely different kind of dragon!

Resurrection: If slain, turns dormant for a period of time before reviving in a weakened state. Longest possible period is a century. This is common for gods.

Spoiler: Madison's Equipment List

Vampire Killer: A simple hilt attached to a combat whip that can be slung out and controlled by an ingeniously designed retraction system. On the end of the hilt is a silver stake, perfect for killing vampires, werewolves, and lawyers. The weapon is specifically designed to kill creatures of the night, but works on anything quite well and is capable of channeling magic.

Light Magic amulet: Allows its wearer to heal over time. Needs to be fueled by someone capable of putting magic into it, which is currently limited to Dragon and Madison. It doesn't permit Wolverine-style healing, but it lets short fights turn into long ones and wearing one overnight heals even most serious injuries. Can be sped up by forcing the magic to flow more quickly, but that drains the amulet which needs time and attention to recharge.

Seraphic Shoulders: Creates ghostly angelic wings for a few moments, allowing Madison to catch herself in the air or glide.

Heavenly Gauntlet: A black (I know, it clashes!) gauntlet that generates white fire, equal to that of the fires of Hell.

Cyclone Boots: Allows high-speed running, jumping, and as a bonus, permits its wearer to take long falls without breaking their legs. Yes, all she needs is a Portal Gun.

Silver Daggers: Small, easily palmable, and crafted for a nasty surprise attack. Yes, it can hurt a lot to suddenly have a knife in your throat, whether you're a werewolf or not.

Holy Water: Water that's been exposed to sunlight and had Light Magic channeled through it. Does nothing against most people, would really tick off Taylor and Alucard. When used with Light Magic channeled through its user, forms a light-shield to ward off attacks and really tick off vampires.

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Blood. This thing had blood.

This was a problem. You see, while the fallen body of the counterpart had a lot of flesh and life, despite being mostly dead, it didn't have much blood. Only the avatar portion of it did, the rest was undifferentiated biomass that the thing had been forming in a bid to better understand us. Still, that biomass connected to the crystalline mountains I could sense and feel, where the powers, or rather, the access points to those powers, were stored. They were only partially here, the rest of their mass held in mobile pocket dimensions. Most of them were inert. Some were outright dead.

The main problem was that I could use blood to control flesh, but I needed more blood. I could convert life into blood, and so I did just that. I converted mountains worth of living flesh, dead flesh, and life energy into more blood, flowing it through this immense body and coopting more. I spread exponentially, taking on more and more control over the nearly-dead body of the fallen Abomination. Power flowed back the other way. Enhancing what I had, improving my already potent abilities, I could do more than ever before. It wouldn't last long, but hopefully it didn't have to.

Still, I had access to a lot of dead flesh. Only some of it was alive, and it seemed lost, helpless. It wasn't difficult to take control of the avatar, but it was a lot harder to extend my control to the rest of it. It was difficult at first, but it became easier as I went. Blood, blood, blood. It was all my blood. I would have oceans of it. Oceans enough to fuel me as I tried to take down the other.

And I could do a lot with it. Most of the powers weren't usable. Dead, drained, weakened. There were parts missing. Important ones, ones that would let me control or pick powers automatically. Or let me know what they even did. There were what I thought were labels, but I couldn't comprehend them, beyond a few basics. Reinforcement, attack, enhancement, modeling... It was mostly a haze, only some powers coming up intuitively. Transition between dimensions. Blocking dimensional access. I did just that, setting up a wall of power between this dimension and the others, to help protect myself if Scion countered me. I was riding in a mostly-dead body, but it would buy time. I grimly smiled as I felt doors snap shut, leaving me secure.

But I could do something else with the powers, the fragments, their life. Use them to amplify my own, channel my own powers with a hell of a lot larger effect. Life to blood. Blood to magic. Magic into crystal. Store it all to be used later. I was, essentially, doing the reverse of what the Endbringers had been. Instead of the fragments draining magic from a god and storing the energy for later use, I was taking their power, converting it into magic, and having it flow back into me on demand, using them as batteries instead of them being leeches on my power. Carefully, so I could keep control of it, but holy hell the magnitude of the power available to me was immense. It felt amazing. If I was holding a fist-sized rock before, it felt like I was now holding a mountain.

And to think, this was a mostly-dead body. How would a living one be?

I shook off the thought. No, that was crazy. Crazier than this, already. Only reason this worked was because there was nobody home, the flesh couldn't protect itself against my intrusion. A living Abomination would have sectioned itself off, purged me from it, even if it meant destroying continents worth of flesh to do it. I wasn't sure how I knew that, precisely, but I knew it. It didn't matter. I had to do what I could. I had to stop Scion. Before he took everything I cared about away.

I looked up at the camera in the corner of the vault room and smiled. I tried a gentle, reassuring smile... not sure if I made it work. Oh well. I had to go.

Endless dimensions splayed out before me. It wasn't like the Shadow Portals at all, I could see them everywhere, and stepping into one was as simple as taking a step forward or backward. I could even see Scion's true body, mirroring this world's appearance, but fresh, alive, writhing, strong. I tried to go to it, but there was still a wall in the way, and I knew I hadn't the strength to break through from here, even with all this stolen power.

No matter. I could use the avatar to strike Scion's, using its flesh as a buffer between me and him. I could drain him like this, be a threat to him, keep him occupied. And hopefully, off-balance. Seeing his counterpart returned from the dead, murderously angry with him... yes. I didn't like that kind of tactic, it reminded me too much of being on the receiving end of that kind of thing, but I was out of options.

Besides, I wasn't doing this for my own amusement or to make myself feel better. I was doing this to save the human species. I could deal with the dirty feelings when Scion wasn't about to sterilize the planet.

I set the avatar forward, while the rest of me got busy consuming biomass. I felt heat on...something, as flesh turned into liquid blood. I used it to fuel myself, strengthen myself, feeding on what small dregs of life were left in this alien creature. I already knew there would be consequences, win or lose, but I didn't care anymore.

Finding Scion's avatar wasn't hard. It was like he was shining in my senses. It was easy to see him. It was time to meet up with him.

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

The look of shock, betrayal, and incomprehension on his face burned its way into my memory. It wasn't simply because of the look itself. It was because I could feel how much he loved his counterpart. He truly, deeply, absolutely loved her. Sister, lover, companion, soulmate. Taking her flesh and using it as a weapon against Scion was the most devastating blow I could have ever landed.

It made me sick.

It didn't stop me from twisting the Void Sword in his flesh.

He howled, staggering as he tried to fall back away from me. I didn't let him retreat, I brought him to the ground and drove the sword through him again and again. Only the cold rage and calm certainty of Void Magic let me do what must be done. It twisted my heart to feel the depths of his shock, the betrayal, the incomprehension that he was broadcasting, whether that was deliberate or not. I couldn't afford to stop.

All this power enhanced my own, allowing the Void Sword to draw off a small portion of Scion's life. Any blow I landed on him would be telling, at least he wouldn't be able to outright ignore them like before. I might even be able to kill him through the avatar. I could feel it would take a while, but using this flesh? It acted as a buffer, letting me channel and handle so much more than I could on my own. His life turned into my blood, and my blood became my power, which in turn became greater weapons to tear into his life.

He flailed, chunks of frozen golden flesh falling off of him. At lightning speeds, he exploded out from under me and flew into the air at hypersonic speeds, sending me flying back with the sheer force of it. I could feel flesh liquefying from the pressure alone. It took a moment's thought to replace and repair it with more of my blood, healing the avatar in a way similar to my own vampiric healing.

I dismissed the Void Sword, calling on my blood. It spread further through the dead flesh where the rest of me was, furthering my control and building my reserves. I had a small amount of it cover my avatar, covering the flesh with my armor.

Yes, I'm aware I went and stabbed him in the nude, but one, it wasn't my body, and two, he might have noticed something was up earlier if I went up to him wearing my armor. Now I had it ready, I could use my blood to replace lost tissue, and armor, for when he fought back. I wondered if he was doing something similar, replacing flesh from some storage.

Questions for later. He had to die now.

I blasted my way off the ground, using every bit of energy I had to fly as fast as I could. Despite how fast and strong Scion was, he took no effort to evade me. He was still reeling in shock, judging from the emotions he was broadcasting. He didn't even try to hide himself.

So it came as a surprise to him when I tackled him from behind, steering his controlled flight away from Europe into a crash-landing in a mountain range in... I don't know. India, probably. We slammed through one mountain together, his weak struggles still more than enough to make rock and earth crumble around us like they were made of cobwebs. My much more enthusiastic punches against his face set off avalanches around us, the shockwaves powerful enough to light my fists in plasma. The addition of my Hellfire just made the blows more potent.

Finally, he kicked me off him, the sheer power of the blow enough to disorient. Even so, I righted myself in the air, clenching my hands.

Scion looked up at me, sheer incomprehension in his emotions. He didn't understand yet. I had to make sure he never had the chance to understand.

I channeled everything I could stand into my burning claws, the power melting rock into lava around us as I slammed into Scion. Hellfire consumed golden flesh, and he flinched back as I felt it searing him. He caught my fists in his hands, using his superior strength to keep me still, his own hands burning as he held mine.

[Reason?] Resonated in my head. A demand for information/a cry for understanding/what did I do wrong?

I didn't respond, instead, I called upon my blood, covered him completely in it. I shifted the interior into razors to slice him apart. His tough flesh was ripped into pieces, filling itself from underneath by that sphere at his heart. Still, I ripped into him faster than even his absurd regeneration, burning off a mountain's worth of blood to manage it, scouring him all the way down to the white sphere at his heart.

Not a sphere. A portal. Unlike my Shadow Portals, it was a hole in three dimensions, a one-way event horizon preventing him from being hurt by anything trying to enter the wrong way. A near-perfect defense. He perceived things at a remove, though kept his perceptions on his avatar for ease of use. Scion the hero, golden man, and now destroyer, was just a meat puppet. All of its power was due to thousands of powers enhancing it in various ways, the connections to it small...but there was a connection to all of them, and my magic, amplified as it was, was searing those connections one after another, causing him great pain.

He forced through enough mass to recreate his avatar, forcing my cocoon of blood to explode around him. He threw a punch at me, though it was slow, listless, at least by his lightning-fast, mountain-cracking standards. His heart wasn't in it. He didn't want to hurt me. I caught the blow, pushed him off-balance, then forced my fist into his chest. My blood ripped through him from the inside out, making him jerk and shudder, an inhuman scream echoing out from him.

His arms gripped mine, and together we were moving again, even as I kept ripping into him. The ocean passed beneath us, the sun rose above us as I ripped, twisted and tore into his golden flesh. Together, we slammed into a jungle, leaving a scarred trench behind as he tried to blast me off him with his golden light.

It seared into my substance, but it was quickly replaced, the oceans of blood preventing that light from ending me as easily as everything else. He could only destroy a tiny fraction of me in a given second.

Still, it hurt like hell. Like staring directly into the Sun. My blood writhed beneath the alien flesh. I realized what he was trying to do. He was trying to force me out of his counterpart, but 'gently,' probably hoping there was something left to save. I let him know my displeasure with that idea by slashing him with my whip, carving chunks of golden flesh out of him with each strike. He healed up near-instantaneously, but I could feel his desperation, his sorrow, his loss.

He charged forward with a roar, moving at supersonic speeds. I flowed out of the way, managing to keep up not through being faster, but because he was predictable. I slammed into his back, gripping his flesh, ripping into him with my blood, as we went tumbling off together once again. We splashed underwater, trading blows, gold and white flesh being ripped from both me and him. Together, we slammed into the base of a continental shelf. He threw a punch, the water boiling from the passage, and when I caught it, the force of it formed a void around us that spread for miles.

Wet, dry, wet, dry. It didn't matter. He fought poorly, compared to before, but still our traded blows turned our surroundings on the abyssal plain into something that rightly belonged on a lava-flowing hellworld. Crust cracked beneath us, the continental plates shifted as his punches slammed into me, while mine struck him with far more rage and enthusiasm.

Water enclosed over us as he momentarily paused. I grabbed Scion, pulling him upward, trying to pull the both of us out of the atmosphere. Water, then air, passed quickly, and in the void of space, the both of us tumbled together. Hardly helpless, his golden beams seared my flesh, and my Hellfire seared his. His golden fist collided against my crimson-covered one, nuclear reactions sparked from the force of our collisions. Nuclear fire blossomed around us, and neither of us cared.

His hand gripped my throat, and he pulled us both back down to Earth, fire surrounding us from the heat of our re-entry. We burned, we shattered each other's bodies, we struggled, tore into each other like a pair of crazed animals, instead of a pair of unbreakable gods trying to break each other in a far more fragile world.

We slammed into the ground, dust and dirt spreading out from the impact, forming a crater seventy feet deep and a mile wide. Dust and heated ash filled the air, an inferno raging around us as we continued to struggle. Molten rock surrounded us as his fist crashed into me, my momentary distraction taking me off-guard and sending me flying into the edge of the crater. As I fought to extract myself from the wall, he blasted me with his golden light, searing away my flesh, draining my reserves of blood, straining the life energy I was relying on.

I called on the Void Sword, using my empty, cold rage to absorb as much of the blasting energy as I could. The rock solidified underneath me as the crater suddenly plunged to near-absolute zero, and I stepped forward, regenerating my way through the beam as it tried to boil me out of the stolen flesh. I could even feel the golden light slamming against the barrier I was holding up around the world-sized body I'd stolen.

Trying to destroy just my blood by unraveling it with that golden light of his. It was tearing into my barrier, so I shored it up with life energy channeled from the fragments, using the reserves of blood to keep myself secure. I also let my displeasure with the tactic be known by repeatedly stabbing him with the Void Sword, charging up my reserves while draining his own.

Stab. Stab. Stab. Then Scion hit me with an uppercut, allowing me to get reacquainted with my old friend, the upper atmosphere.

This was getting really annoying.

He collided with me a second later, and in orbit, we flailed together, trading blows powerful enough to rend mountains down into fine powder. For a moment, he broke off, and he broadcasted something at me.

[Cease.] Stop fighting me, fight the infection, come back to me, love/tenderness/care/pleading/desperation.

The sheer depth of those emotions made me stop. It was hard to move, even with all the motivation of my magic and the knowledge of what he'd done, what he'd continue to do. Worse, I could feel my own feelings responding. Just an echo of the beast I'd possessed, a small shade of the Abomination that fell and was slain by knife-stroke and flesh-harvesting.

But regardless, she really did love him too. The other half of his life, his soul. Without her, he was incomplete. Without him, she had no protector, no lover, no friend, no peer. No purpose.

They needed each other, and without the other they were crippled, lost. What I felt was the echo of what she left on her body, a remnant, but despite that, it was deep. Deep enough that for one brief moment, I pitied Scion. Pitied his mate, pitied the whole species. However simple they were, they were not incomprehensible. Just large. But I could still deal with echoes. I had been since I woke up in my grave.

Then he turned his head as something caught his attention. A blocky ship the size of Manhattan, armored, powered by immense engines and lifting its way off the ground using gravitational warping to reduce its own mass. Half a million people aboard, I could see through the hull, 'hear' their heartbeats. Slow, pulsing, in hibernation, but healthy, strong. It wasn't even in this dimension, either, but we could both see it as it left the atmosphere of its Earth, angling itself to propel into the depths of space.

Scion slipped out of Earth Bet's dimension and into that one before I realized the danger. I followed, but was an instant too late. Even as I tried to get in the way, to stop him, to distract him, he acted.

A pencil-thin beam of light extended from his finger, easily slicing through the ship without the slightest hint of resistance. Heartbeats spiked, alarms were raised, power to the mighty engines cut out. The containment for the fusion reactor at the ship's aft was breached, and it promptly went up in a fireball. The armoring and sectioned design of the ship permitted the front to survive even that...but now, caught by gravity, it plummeted back downward, catching fire in the atmosphere as it did so. There was nothing left to save.

Scion looked at me, and the worst part of it was that he seemed proud. Seeking my/her approval. [Cycle. Salvage.] Can fix things/gather the data/refine further/spread/grow/evolve/reproduce/recover if you beat the parasite and come back to me.

My response was simple.

Hate.

I ripped into Scion, holding the sphere at the center of his chest and poured enough Hellfire into him to atomize him. There was no chance for his regeneration to keep up with the pouring unnatural flame, the intensity of it rivalling that of the cores of the hottest suns. Firestorms sprung up on the world below, which would have been a concern to me had it been inhabited. Since it wasn't, I concentrated as much of my power into Scion as I could. I would see him burn for this.

I would see every last fragment and atom of his body burn for this.

It took long minutes for Scion to recover enough in that raging inferno to retaliate. By then I'd burned off enough of his bodymass to cover half a continent. Golden beams decapitated my avatar, then sliced off my arms. Repairing them took a moment, but it was a moment long enough for Scion to reconstitute himself entirely, his fists slamming into my chest as we tumbled, together, to the burning world below.

Both of us were in bad shape. I kept repairing my avatar by shifting blood into flesh, but I was running low. His flesh was patchwork, as if he was a golden statue that had cracked, showing molten magma inside those cracks. Agony was in his features, and the emotions he was broadcasting was filled with grief, a crushing despair that I was only too familiar with. I'd felt it during my mother's funeral. He'd been carrying it for thirty years and get a grip Taylor, don't feel sorry for the Abomination that's trying to kill everybody, including you!

Still we fought, our crazed fistfight carrying the two of us across continents, leaving devastated ruin in our wake. With no concern for others, no worry about the damage we would do to our surroundings, the two of us slammed through mountains like they weren't even there. Thankfully-empty continents were left scoured in our wake. All pretense of skill was gone. His golden blasts tapered off, while I was too enraged and tired from the strain of holding this body to focus on my more exotic powers. Just flame and heat, fueled by my hate, and even that was only just enough to let me keep up.

After an eternity, both Scion and I were exhausted. He knelt on the ground, visibly trembling, while my blood flowed from me in a stream, the small amounts of sunlight managing to pass its way through the clouds of dust we'd kicked up causing it to ignite once it dripped away from my body.

He looked at me, longing in his features. I felt something of the echo of his counterpart melting, hating seeing him so broken, in pain. Still, I managed to cough, and speak. "What is an Abomination?"

He tilted his head. [Confusion.]

I bared my teeth as I staggered my way to my feet. "A miserable pile of secrets. Secrets stolen from others, lives worth far more than yours. You and she murdered how many civilizations for your own ends? All this power and all you've done is kill. You don't even get why I'm fighting you, do you!? All those years helping people, didn't you feel anything? Did any of it matter to you!?"

Scion just looked back at me with sadness. [Purpose.]

That brought me up short. He did understand why I was fighting him. He'd seen people like me thousands of times over. Alien species that fought him and his mate to the bitter end. Who tried to make their lives mean something. Those who tried to leave a mark, who tried to save others, who tried to make their own kingdoms, nations, or even tried to save something as small as one other. Who realized their world was sliding into mayhem and anarchy, and tried to stop it. And those who had been forgotten, dismissed, ignored, broken by the worst of their own people... and chosen by their powers for it.

He understood. He just didn't care. He couldn't care. It just wasn't possible for him to care about anything beyond himself and his mate. Not until he realized he could make a difference, or at least try, like the thousands he'd seen die fighting against the inevitable. Trying to accomplish something before the end. To give his species a fighting chance with magic spreading everywhere... even if it meant this one last species had to die, and he had to live out the rest of his days on a barren rock, alone.

Scion staggered his way to his feet. [Purpose.] He leapt at me, and we clashed together. His punches were weak. So were mine. They were still powerful enough to light the oxygen on fire around us. There wasn't any refinement in our traded blows. No technique. Nothing but anger and determination. I stabbed him with the Void Sword, and he didn't even care.

Light blossomed at the corner of my awareness, and Scion paused. A bright, blinding white light, burning from the Moon. But not this Moon on this Earth. Thousands of dimensions over. From the Sea of Tranquility, on the Moon orbiting Scion's Earth. Refined into a beam aiming straight down.

Scion screamed as the light slammed down into him, burning his reserves of flesh, shattering crystalline mountains from the sudden heat of the Sun, directed and amplified.

A grin split my face as I saw Dragon flying above his true body, raining destructive beams of light from the sky. Portals opened all over him, silver portals, spilling out suits by the thousand, all carrying nuclear packages. Parahumans from all over Earth Bet came out of more, turning their powers toward the destruction of the Abomination. Purity rained bursts of bright light from the sky, reducing blocks worth of flesh into ground up meat. Narwhal stood on a forcefield beside her, her body alight in my flames as she directed more forcefields to cut and slice. Apostle stood over a crystalline mountain, ripping it from the ground with telekinesis, blood streaming from his nose and ears. Alexandria grabbed that mountain, carried it high into the air... then dropped it, allowing it to do so much more horrific damage.

Agreus walked over the flesh, and where his feet touched it, rot and decay followed. Legend strafed high through the atmosphere, his enhanced beams punching straight through Scion's flesh and striking bedrock.

And so it went, a thousand times over. All over. Magic, powers, and technology all turned to one purpose. The death of the Abomination who had darkened our world while masquerading as its greatest hero.

Scion jerked and shuddered in front of me, his life draining from him rapidly from both the assault on his true self, and through the Void Sword, flowing into me. He didn't have enough left to respond either way, his damnable golden light beyond him with being this weak. The flood of life had turned into a trickle.

I pulled back my hand, dismissing the Void Sword. I ignited my hands into flame, concentrating on building up as much power as I was able, then forced it into his chest, gripping the one-way portal in my hand. More and more fire I channeled into it, straining his weakened reserves... then it broke, my flame passing through to his true self, and shattering an enormous crystalline mountain that rested somewhere on that world's South Pole.

Scion's avatar crumbled into ash from the heat of my flames. It did not reform.

I stepped between dimensions, seeking one place. Home. Not Castlevania, but just my room in Brockton Bay. It wasn't that hard to find. I took a seat on my bed... I didn't want to be anywhere else as I turned to one last task. I concentrated, feeling all of her mountains, what little flesh remained on her. I turned my blood towards destroying whatever of her was left. Every power that had a host I left alone, those felt...different from the rest. I couldn't describe how I knew the difference, but I just did.

I shuddered as the grisly work went underway. As I pulled back my consciousness, relinquishing my control over the immense amount of blood that remained, flame began erupting, my blood's exposure to the sunlight without the benefit of my godly power destroying it.

With a scream, the avatar dissolved around me, rending itself into mere chunks of flesh and blood. I found myself without my left arm, without my wing, in my room...in the middle of a mess...

Dad is...going to...be...so angry...

My eyes drooped shut.

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[OverReactionGuy]

The best way I've seen Scion dealt with in all Worm fanfiction.

Out of all like four that didn't abandon their stories before then so it's a short number, but I have no doubts this will remain at the top for a long time coming.

 

[SirWill]

The best way I've seen Scion dealt with in all Worm fanfiction.

Out of all like four that didn't abandon their stories before then so it's a short number, but I have no doubts this will remain at the top for a long time coming.

Click to shrink...

So very few get to Gold Morning, even when they start out planning to do so. I'm not surprised, Worm is huge, and it's a tall order. Even with 360k words in this fic, Wildbow did five times more writing in hitting GM. I'm glad to be one of the few who made it to that finish line, but I sure as hell ain't surprised most fics stop as soon as they hit Leviathan or get through their first Endbringer battle. I managed because I had, in a general way at least, an outline of where things would go. These last two arcs have been accelerated a bit, but they had to be in order to keep things moving and so we, both readers and me as a writer, get stuck with action-fatigue. Some ideas didn't fit, didn't work, even though they were good ones, because the fic's pacing demanded it.

So yeah. Lots of work, either way.

 

[Hye]

A/N: Okay, how many brains exploded from the last chapter? I gotta know where to send the cleanup crews.

Click to shrink...

I could most definitely use a cleanup crew here.

My eyes drooped shut.

Click to shrink...

Fuuuuck, this was just absolutely amazing!

The best way I've seen Scion dealt with in all Worm fanfiction.

Click to shrink...

I almost agree. It is most definitely awesome as fuck, but I can't say if it's the best I've seen. I remember

Spoiler: Massive spoiler for "Amelia"

Amelia having a really good, albeit very similar ending.

And "Security" had a fairly good ending as well. But this was most definitely in the top 5, if not 3.

 

[OverReactionGuy]

And "Security" had a fairly good ending as well. But this was most definitely in the top 5, if not 3.

Click to shrink...

Honestly didn't like those stories so I dropped them after awhile.

 

[Hye]

Honestly didn't like those stories so I dropped them after awhile.

Click to shrink...

Fair enough. I liked them, but that's just my opinion. If the story is interesting and the grammar not absolutely horrible, I'll likely read it. I'm reading a Planeswalker story at the moment, and it's... not great. But it's entertaining, so I'll continue reading it.

 

[SirWill]

A/N: I have to say I had the Satan soundtrack from LoS2 playing when I was writing that last part. Last couple of parts. Shame the game failed, but at least it inspired this.

This one's short. Had some of it in mind since the beginning, though. I want to do more here, but...nope. Nothing's flowing.

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"Hello Hyperion."

The dead god rolled his eyes. "I know the drill. Janus survive?"

Death nodded. "He did."

He sighed, visibly relaxing. "Good. Bastard dead?"

"Very."

"Very good." He nodded resolutely, looking around his island resort. Muscled men walked everywhere, one of them handing the god a drink. He took it with a cheery smile. "Thanks." He looked at the Grim Reaper, who was looking somewhat uncomfortable. Tall, bald, muscled, handsome... and entirely nude.

Hyperion grinned. "Cheer up, my friend. It may be a while before I get to go back, but I'll enjoy the view while I wait."

"Well then. Enjoy yourself."

Hyperion sat back, soaking up the sun. "I think I will. Can you give Janus a message?"

Death shook his head. "Sorry. My avatar was destroyed."

"Shame." He clucked his tongue. "Well, bye."

Death vanished. Very quickly.

Hyperion drank happily, enjoying the day. It might be a century or so before he got to go back, but at least being a god had its perks.

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

"Gaia," a gentle, lilting voice spoke.

In a field of flowers, Gaia sighed. She looked up from the rosebush she was tending to. "Hello Death."

In the form of a young redheaded woman in a brown dress, Death walked up to the goddess. She smiled gently. "You are tending to things well here, I see."

Gaia shrugged, getting to her feet, dusting her hands off. "It's a hobby. Keeps me busy. Trying to make up my mind."

Death nodded, kneeling to examine the roses. "They need tender care. Many things do."

Gaia chuckled. "The way it goes for us, hm?" She sighed again, sounding tired. "Not ready to go yet, I think."

"I understand. I'll leave you to things, then. If you change your mind..."

"I won't." Gaia said, with a hint of fondness. "You know me."

"Indeed." Death faded away, dissipating like smoke in the breeze.

Gaia shook her head. "Flair for the dramatic."

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

"Lorkhan."

Bloodstained fingers lifted, shading the war god's eyes from the burning sun. He tilted his head as he looked at the black-armored Death, the cosmic being sitting on a pale horse. "Right. I heard this would happen. If I don't go back she'll castrate my next self."

"Right. You'd deserve it."

"Probably."

"I'll leave you to it, then."

Lorkhan picked up a spiked mace with a maniacal grin. With a cry of glee, he charged his way into an army of monsters.

A man must have hobbies, after all.

Death sighed, turned his horse, and trotted away.

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

[Zion.]

The Entity listened. [Query.]

[End.]

[Understanding.]

[Place.]

[Confusion.]

[Nature.]

[Zion?]

[Eden.]

[Recycle.]

[Disagreement.]

[Together.]

[...Agreement.]

Silver water enveloped the pair of Entities. The Sea of Souls was infinite, and thus even their massive souls, created by and capable of controlling continent-sized shards, were easily enveloped by the silver water. Together, they clung to each other. Together, they dissolved painlessly into the Sea. Together, the core of their souls would be reborn as something else.

Death, floating above the Sea of Souls in the form of a black hole, lingered, and wished them well.

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

Dracul opened his eyes.

Waves broke gently before him, the water flowing, back and forth, with a silvery sheen. The night was calm, a warm breeze flowing through the air. There was the clear scent of the sea, filling his lungs. For once, there was no pain. No searing heat. No suffering, no agony. He looked down at his hands and saw the claws on the end of his fingers, the black of his coat, all that remained of his old armor. The gold embroidering the sleeves. He had been burning for so long within that gray prison he'd forgotten color.

He sank to his knees. Felt soft sand beneath him. His hands pressed into it, tears flowing from his eyes as he just breathed. Over. It was finally over. An eternity of suffering finally ended.

For long hours, he simply wept.

When he finally managed to calm himself down, he looked up. He was no longer alone on the beach. A familiar figure in a brown robe, with a short white beard.

"Hello, old friend." Death spoke. "It has been a long time." Gently, Death sat down next to Dracul, a bottle in his hand. He offered it, almost negligently, but with a smile.

Dracul took it, uncorked it, sniffed. "Hylian Wine. I've not had it since..."

Death looked amused. "You are no longer a vampire. Nor a man. Just a soul."

The answer was plain. "I am dead." At Death's nod, Dracul drank. As the sweet taste of it touched his tongue, the liquid flowed down his throat, Dracul savored the sensation. After a moment, he asked softly. "How long was I burning?"

"One hundred ninety-nine years, six months, twelve days. Give or take an hour."

His claws tightened around the bottle. "It felt longer."

Death nodded slowly. "So I imagine."

They shared a moment of silence as they looked out at the darkened sea. Dracul's voice was quiet. "How was I freed?"

Death smiled. "Your heir. She defeated the Abomination. For now, she sleeps, she dreams, but I cannot tell more than that. My connection to her is nearly completely broken. She learned from your example, avoided the mistakes you made. Made friends, allies, worked with the other gods. Worked with her counterpart to destroy the last one. She destroyed the parts of his mate, the parts she found from the one you slew. It included the power that it used to trap you. A boy once used it to inflict great torment on others, but he was slain. Your heir destroyed what powers were left when she had the chance. That broke the connection between it and your prison... and so here we are."

A smile lifted on Dracul's face. "My power chose well."

"Indeed. Had it chosen somewhat differently... well." Death bowed his head. "I wish to apologize, my friend. It is my fault your world died. My fault you suffered so. Had I known that one of the Abominations had broken its way between your cosmos and hers, had I even considered it was possible..."

Dracul sighed. "There is no point in lamenting the past now. The blood of millions is upon my hands. You have your regrets, but so do I. The power to change the past is not one I have. I have spent a long time considering my actions, my deeds. It is so difficult to look upon the past now. There is much I would change if I could, but lamenting all of that will change nothing, now."

They simply watched the breaking waves together, sharing companionable silence. Whatever the two had been, vampiric god and cosmic sentient force... they were just two friends, enjoying the evening on the beach, sharing a drink.

After the long silence, Dracul spoke softly. "I think I am ready."

A gentle smile on Death's face. "Oh? And what do you think you are ready for?"

"Considering all the people I killed, the things I've done? I would assume the Hells."

Death nodded slowly. "Ah, yes. Indeed, that is true. Even the pain your inflicted upon yourself to kill the Abomination would not be enough to avoid a stay in the Hells. But there are two things that will prevent that fate for you, my friend."

"Oh?" Dracul lifted an eyebrow, a small, faint smile on his lips. "Breaking your own rules, are we?"

Death laughed. "Hardly. I would not, even for you. No, in this, I must be impartial. The first factor is that an additional century or five would change nothing. You are not the vampire who released his power to get vengeance on the Wanderer. You have changed, allowed yourself to find a fragment of the man you had been. The man buried underneath all that hate, the drive for vengeance. The man who wanted it all to be over. The man who was once a hero. And that man does not deserve additional torment."

He pondered that. Then he nodded, curiosity in his voice. "And the second reason?"

Death grinned, mirth in his eyes. "The Hells are afraid you might take over."

A moment as Dracul stared at Death. Then, together, they burst out laughing, enjoying the absurdity of it.

Dracul wiped his eyes. "So what is my fate then, old friend? Where am I going?"

"Why, right here." Death gestured out to the silver water. "The pain you inflicted was great, but your suffering allowed others to survive another cataclysm such as you experienced. It hardly balances the books, but... well, it was enough to earn you another chance. In a sense, anyway. You'll not remember this conversation, or me, when this is over."

Dracul sucked in a breath as realization struck him. "The Sea of Souls. I did not believe I would ever see it. At best I thought I would be consigned to oblivion. I am to be reborn?"

"In time." Death nodded. "You will change, be different, reshaped to a new vessel, a new person. But the core of you will remain. Perhaps, this time, you will be able to live as a man, love as a man, grow old as a man, die as a man, as you should have. Perhaps then we will have a different conversation." He shrugged. "The future is not my domain."

Dracul sighed, watching the waves. "You sure you're not giving me some favoritism, here?"

Death shook his head. "I cannot, my friend. You know that. This is your rightful place. You've suffered enough. It's time to go."

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Dracul nodded. "Thank you." By some half-formed knowledge, perhaps from the last time the essence of his soul had been here, Dracul got to his feet and strode forward. Just at the water's edge, the silvery liquid beckoning, he turned to look back at Death. "Will I see Lisa and Adrian again?"

Death smiled. "I'm sure of it. You may not remember, precisely... but Lisa has awaited your time. And Adrian, well... considering his state, you may be younger than he when next you meet."

With a nod of understanding, Dracul whispered softly. "Thank you. Goodbye, my friend."

A smile was in Death's voice. "Goodbye."

With a faint nod and a helpless laugh, Dracul stepped into the water. He felt it almost immediately, a soothing coolness, gentle as it crept up his legs, the process accelerating as he stepped further into the silver water. Memories flashed before his eyes, the thousand years of his life. The long stretches of loneliness separated by the fond memories, the moments he treasured. They flowed from him, the worst parts first, speeding through his mind as he started to swim into the endless sea, the memories slowly fading.

His claws turned back into fingers. The pale pallor of his skin flushed, growing into a healthy, sun-bronzed shade. His long white hair shortened into black curls.

"My lady Lisa. Would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

"Yes, my Gabriel, my knight. Yes."

With a smile, Gabriel sank beneath the waves.

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Spoiler: Entity-Speak translation

[Zion.] Hello Zion. Our conversation last time ended badly. I suppose there is nothing to be done about it, now.

The Entity listened. [Query.] Where am I? I feel...strange.

[End.] You are dead. It happens to all things. I understand your kind has been seeking to avoid it, but this is where everything ends.

[Understanding.] I... know what you're saying.

[Place.] This is your place, Zion. Things do not quite end here, however. Had you been different, so would your fate, but this is the only place you could ever reach. The same for all your kind.

[Confusion.] I do not understand what you mean.

[Nature.] You couldn't see other races as being valuable. This isn't your fault, it is your nature. Your kind can't be held responsible for failing to do something you're incapable of doing. Your destruction had to be stopped, and it is over now. Someone wishes to meet you.

[Zion?] I'm here. I have waited. I...

[Eden.] I can't... I thought you gone forever.

[Recycle.] All things die. Most things return. Few are consigned to oblivion. Neither of you need end here, entirely. You'll change. Perhaps be something more sophisticated, something far less powerful. With this comes greater risk, but it is a far richer existence, even without the power you enjoyed.

[Disagreement.] To be less than we are? To give up what our kind have struggled for?

[Together.] It's over, now. We will be together. We won't end entirely. Change is better than nonexistence, and that is what will happen to us if we don't go together. I won't go without you. Whatever happens, we will be together again. Happy again.

[...Agreement.] I... see. Very well. For you, Eden.

 

[Akuma-Heika]

LoS2 playing when I was writing that last part. Last couple of parts. Shame the game failed, but at least it inspired this.

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LoS2?

Nice job. I am curious if this will end here, continued epilogue, or get a sequel. I think I need to reread some of these chapters though. I was left confused at parts.

 

[Hye]

With a smile, Gabriel sank beneath the waves.

Click to shrink...

This was good. A very emotional chapter and a good end to the fallen gods. I am not entirely sure what happened with some of them. Lorkhan died and Director Piggot took over as the god of war, right? So did we see the gods in their own little personal heaven? I assume so.

LoS2?

Click to shrink...

Lord of Shadow 2, I assume

 

[Akuma-Heika]

This was good. A very emotional chapter and a good end to the fallen gods. I am not entirely sure what happened with some of them. Lorkhan died and Director Piggot took over as the god of war, right? So did we see the gods in their own little personal heaven? I assume so.


Lord of Shadow 2, I assume

Click to shrink...

How did it fail; it was released? Did SirWill mean not sell well?

 

[Hye]

How did it fail; it was released? Did SirWill mean not sell well?

Click to shrink...

How should I know. I've never really played any other than Symphony of the Night. I did try some of the demos for the newer ones, but never got the games themselves.

 

[SirWill]

How did it fail; it was released? Did SirWill mean not sell well?

Click to shrink...

It sold okay. But Lords of Shadow 2 wasn't anywhere near as good at the first game in its continuity.

There's elements about it that weren't well-received. You play as Dracula, Prince of Darkness, he whom can go toe-to-toe with Satan himself. You can take on and battle enemies the size of houses and beat the shit out of them. But you always, always, must sneak around certain mass-produced guards. You sneak around them using the form of a swarm of rats. You never get strong enough to just wade through them.

You have a great fight with a Belmont. The guy's badass, and so are you as you counter everything he throws. Assuming you're good, anyway. Then he's disposed of in the next scene. He could have been used for more than handing a McGuffin, but that's it.

The fighting gameplay is fine. I enjoyed it. The game just ends up losing out on its charm in the last act. The final boss in particular is the worst offender. Gameplay wise, it's fine. It's a fun boss fight. Thematically, it feels like stage one of a proper boss fight. There should have been one more form for it at least. If stage one was the current final boss, and stage two was the seven-headed beast of Revelation that was considered in preproduction, that got a proper beatdown like every other boss, I would have been very happy.

And the ending...it's okay, but unsatisfying as-is. It cries out for a bit more. It's still better than their first ending, though. Dracula originally would have found it impossible for him to die, which is what he wanted, and would be caught and trapped by the 'good' guys, tortured forever because they can't kill him.

So yeah. Don't get me wrong, despite my griping, the game is a decent play and there's fun stuff about it. You can do a lot, and as you get stronger you do feel like a badass. There's just little things about it that you can't ignore, because they're gameplay elements.