This work is a piece of fiction. While it may be inspired by real events, cultures, and practices in human history, the story blends factual history with fictional characters, dramatizations, and creative interpretation.
It is not intended to promote, glorify, or encourage any illegal activities, substance use, or harmful behavior. All depictions of sensitive topics are included solely for narrative and historical context, and are not intended to be offensive or provocative.
For the effects of the story, all characters are to be considered above the age of majority.
Reader discretion is advised.
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╔═══━━━─── • ───━━━═══╗
Earth-5H1N3, Year 2001.
Reality had been reset, but this was no miracle that could fix what couldn't be fixed. This was not a wish granted by a Cosmic Cube.
After the flash of Cosmic Flames, Yelena and her domain of absolute zero disappeared. Her prisoners, Proxima Midnight, Ebony Maw, Corvus Glaive, and the battered Supergiant and Black Dwarf, were released from moment to moment.
Jean, Kitty, Irina, and Plutusdrakon were gone too. Jean, the bunny, and the dragon were at The White Hot Room. Irina went on her own isekai adventure, and Yelena's core manifested in whatever unbreachable, indestructible pocket dimension Aragorn had created as a backup at the center of the Ark.
With the sacrifice of four Therions and a firebird, the only casualty was Thanos, his spirit to be precise.
When Reality was reset, all that was not part of the instructions of the Lego set was discarded, and that included Thanos' fused Spirit with it.
But his body was its own matter aside. Inert, floating like space debris, Thanos' body was pulsing with the power of the Reality and Mind Stones.
"My Liege," Ebony Maw's voice cracked with a belief crisis.
Thanos was their everything. Even so, they were individuals who had a will and aspirations of their own. Maybe not Ebony Maw, but Corvus Glaive certainly did.
He approached Thanos' inert body and reached for the Infinity Gauntlet. "We need to leave," he said while removing the gauntlet.
"Sacrilege!" Ebony Maw hissed.
"He is right," Proxima Midnight supported her partner. "Without his protection, we stand no chance against the Universe, much less the Drachantheon Therion. We must leave and hide."
The seal keeping the Barrens from corrupting the rest of the Universe had been lifted, and Proxima Midnight imagined that this was what was keeping the Therions occupied from dropping on them, but she didn't want to gamble on how much longer that would remain the case.
"Besides, the only way to revive our Liege would be through the Infinity Stones," Corvus Glaive added, not that he had any intention of following through.
Ebony Maw calmed down enough to evaluate the situation and realized Corvus Glaive was right. Through the six Infinity Gems, they could wish their Liege back, and that could only be accomplished if they had enough power to take the other four gems from the Therions' cold hands.
Unfortunately for them, while the Therions were busy resealing the Barren Lands, the Duskari piloting the metallic slime not far away from them were not.
Before Corvus Glaive could fit the gauntlet, the metallic slime pulsed with a red light.
Then they heard a voice spoken through gravitational waves say, "On behalf of the Fulgebunt Draconis Imperium, we cast Doom!"
The Black Order's bodies had been enhanced by the power of the Reality Stone. The Mind Stone's power kept their minds at peak condition at all times, yet they were not their wielders; they could not process information or react to stimuli fast enough.
A second pulse from the slime later, and what remained at the center of the Universe was an ultramassive singularity-less black hole.
Not for nothing, Aragorn deemed the metallic slime as the ultimate weapon.
The Infinity Stones could survive anything but their own energy and Aragorn's, so the Duskari surmised that they would be safeguarded at the core of the ultramassive black hole until one of their deities was ready to recover them. The Black Order? Yeah, they were done for.
Without Thanos to reality-warp the ultramassive black hole away, the Duskari were decisive. Or crazy, it was hard to tell with them.
"Don't forget to submit your reports of possible improvements on the MS-137," The Duskari commander instructed the countless Duskari pilots who had been assisting their deities. MS-137 stood for Metallic Slime version 137—Aragorn was not creative with his naming conventions.
"Commander Vigyo, is there any news of the Head's whereabouts?" one of the confidants asked.
"For the moment, it is assumed that he remains outside Reality-5H1N3, but an official royal decree would be issued by Princess Mindee next week," the commander revealed.
Several of the Duskari within earshot nodded, some listening to the conversation remotely also did. Aragorn, to the Duskari, was something akin to a sacred beast.
Hierarchically, in the Drachantheon Therion, Aragorn was above all of their deities, the ones they worshipped and who led them to the intergalactic empire they were today; however, Aragorn's relevance to their existence was never hidden from them.
The Duskari knew—they had been explicitly told—that they were faith batteries Aragorn encouraged the Therions to create. Their existence, even if now that was not their reason for being, was only because Aragorn willed it due to his love for the Therions.
Thus, while not worshipped, the Duskari cared for Aragorn differently.
Maybe the hole in Reality was opened directly above Earth, the most important Nexus point of Reality, but the Duskari, even if the Barren lands were absurdly far away from the Milky Way, knew more about this hole than what even the smartest, most resourceful minds of Earth did.
Without a doubt, part of this was owed to the updates the Therions fed them, but, additionally, they kept surveillance on Earth zealously because that was a point of interest to them.
Not only was this Earth the origin of their deities, but also the counterpart of the origin of their Ancestrals. Furthermore, Aragorn kept close vigilance over this planet.
All things considered, they watched Earth and its surroundings closely.
With the Space, Time, and Power Stones, Seraph, Yao, and James were able to, somewhat easily, reseal the Barren Lands, and the few thousand light-years that were corrupted by the Barrens in the short while the seal was released.
"I'm spent," James complained.
A few years back, in the timeline of Earth-5H1N3, Aragorn had to enhance their bodies for them to be able to wield the Reality Gems without dying. Now they were deities, and the only stone that remained problematic was the Power Stone, but the task of resealing the Barren Lands—a little bit more than 90% of the Universe—was taxing beyond their limits.
This was also the reason they didn't pop up immediately to collect the Reality and Mind Stones.
"No rest for the wicked," Spark commented offhandedly. "Even while safeguarded by the black hole, it's best to collect the remaining stones earlier than later."
"Ugh, I don't think I can," James toppled back like a wet spaghetti, landing comfortably in Natalia's bosom. "Let me rest just a few hours. I'm all burnt inside." He directed a nasty glare at the Power Stone floating a distance away from him.
"Allow me," Natalis offered. "Seraph and I can go collect the stones."
She passed her husband to one of her sister wives and reached for the Power Stone while nodding at Seraph.
She grabbed the Power Stone and set it to her forehead, where it settled as the other Reality Gems had done on the wielder Therions. The energy of the Power Gem made Natalia wince, but she easily felt relief when Seraph clasped hands with her and shared the burden.
Seraph and Spark, due to the nature of their bodies, handled high-level energies more easily than their organic family.
A shroud of dark blue clouds swallowed them, and they reappeared at a distance from the ultramassive black hole.
The power of Space was all that was needed to reach into the core of the black hole and pull the two stones out; however, to pull something out of a black hole this massive, a boost from the Power Stone was necessary.
Natalia carefully controlled the power energy and channeled it through Seraph.
"This will take just a minute," Seraph confidently declared.
She extended her free hand at the black hole, and a stream of dark blue smoke shot forward, ignoring the pull of the monster.
The thread crossed the event horizon, and a few seconds later, Seraph's muscles tensed and her body trembled with effort as she started pulling with all of her might.
57 seconds later, with great strain, the Reality and Mind Stones encased on a bubble of space escaped the event horizon.
"This thing is really monstrous," Seraph commented with exertion.
"Please let this be over," Natalia gnashed out.
"Yep, yep, we are done," Seraph chirped happily, warping the stones to her, a feat only possible in such proximity to a black hole due to the Space Stone.
A portal of dark blue smoke later, and they had returned to the Ark.
"We have the full set now," Seraph celebrated while using her vibrations to levitate the Power, Reality, Mind, and Space Gems above her hand up high.
"We should fix the ban on psionic energy first," Margaret suggested.
"The Ark was made with the energy output in mind, right?" Steve asked Spark.
"You're correct, but the Ark needs to have a certain cushion of energy before accepting the Infinity Stones," Spark explained. "I'm afraid we are running critically low after the MS-137 was deployed. Creating such a black hole was not cheap."
"Don't we have an infinite source of energy right here?" Margaret asked, gesturing to the six Infinity Gems hovering above Seraph's hand.
"It would take some time for the necessary levels to be reached," Spark replied.
"Instead of using all stones at once, can't we use just the Power, Mind, and Reality Stones?" Steve asked.
"It's possible, but do you know if the ban on psionic energy was the only thing Thanos changed?" Spark asked.
"What do you mean?" Steve was confused.
"Assuming Thanos didn't want to see us win, he could have rigged this so that once we undo the ban on psionic energy, something would blow up in Reality's mainframe," Seraph explained. "So it's safer to wield all Reality Stones at once and wish for all that Thanos did to be undone."
"I would have imagined that after Jean reset Reality, all of these unsavory changes would be undone," Natalia grumbled.
"Only that which is not part of Reality's mainframe was purged. Technically, the ban on psionic energy doesn't count as eldritch, as opposed to having a consciousness merged with it," Seraph shrugged, as if to say that she was not the one who decided the rules.
"So we wait?" Natalia asked.
"We wait," Seraph stated.
"No other safe choice," Spark agreed.
"... Wait, what do you mean by that?" Natalia narrowed her eyes at Spark.
Spark shrugged, just like her sister, and pulled out a golden crown with six empty slots from a spatial storage. "Would you like to don the Infinity Crown?"
Natalia observed the Infinity Crown and imagined the combined energies of six Infinity Stones flowing through her body from her head downwards. She shivered violently and shook her head.
"I thought so," Spark nodded and returned the crown to storage.
Seraph walked to the obsidian black crystal pedestal in the middle of the room and set the stones with the rest in their respective spots. The stones hovered in place, rotating on their axes slowly. The edges of the obsidian crystal grew upwards and encapsulated the stones.
Immediately after, with a soft hum, the pedestals sank into the floor. The Ark, as if coming alive, pulsed softly with incomprehensible energy, slowly refilling its depleted stores.
"We should be able to undo Thanos' mess tomorrow," Spark informed them. "We can rest for tonight."
The next day, with a pulse unseen by most, Thanos' changes were undone.
━━━━━━━ ● ━━━━━━━
The Void Between Realities.
Abstracts were the type of entities that existed so long as their domain existed. Their domain sustained them, and they sustained their domain.
Just as when the multiverse ends, Eternity/Infinity ends. Just as a new iteration is born, a new form of Eternity/Infinity is born. Just as the aforementioned Abstracts weaken when the multiverse is reduced, and Oblivion grows in power, the opposite is also true.
However, this did not mean that the current entities taking the seat of the Abstract of a domain could not be replaced.
Just as it went from the 1st Firmament, to the 2nd Firmament, the 3rd Firmament, and so on until the current Eternity/Infinity came to be, it can also happen to others.
There are a few exceptions to this rule, either because of their nature or because so far they have simply not changed. For example, Oblivion and Death have always been as they have been. Phoenix would go through her rebirth cycle every so often, but she remains the same.
The newly born Abstract of The Void Between Realities belonged to the latter category. The type that had he not severed his connection to his domain due to the yearning he had for Aragorn, he would have remained forever the same until his domain changed, just like Oblivion and the Oblivion Void.
However, after he severed his connection and was pulled by Aragorn to The Void, his domain didn't cease to exist.
In The Void Between Realities, the Abstract who could intrude without clashing domains with it—Death, Phoenix, and The Living Tribunal—stepped in.
None of them appeared in their forms for easy comprehension by lower beings.
Death was a multibodied skeleton in all forms of shape life had ever taken, each skeleton dressed in shadows for a hood while wielding a form of scythe. The Phoenix Force was a phoenix-shaped cloud of Cosmic Flames, and The Living Tribunal was a three-headed being who kept shifting between states and forms.
The three stood in a triangle formation, sequestering something that stirred in the core of The Void Between Realities.
The Chaos King created the throne, but he renounced and abandoned it for the allure of merging with Aragorn. The realm without a king was birthing another.
|... We should not interfere... right?| Death asked.
|I forbid it.| The Living Tribunal declared.
|Well, unforbid it then.| Death demanded.
|Negative.| The Living Tribunal denied resoundingly.
|The birth of an Abstract, its recreation, are not to be meddled in by those unrelated to it.| The Phoenix Force joined the conversation. Although she sided with The Living Tribunal outwardly, she supported Death's implied suggestion.
|Okay, but hear me out. Don't you already have a hard time keeping things civil between Eternity and Oblivion?| Death tempted.
|It is my duty. Betowed upon me by the one and only.| The Living Tribunal replied, full of conviction.
|Master Order vs Lord Chaos.| Death added.
|It is my reason for being.| The Living Tribunal was unshakable.
|Mistress Love vs Sire Hate.| Death was unrelenting.
|... Conflict breeds chance and change.| The Living Tribunal refused to back down.
|The Queen of Nevers vs The Griever at the End of All Things.| Death would not give up.
|... My domain is my bond.| The Living Tribunal would not cave in that easily.
|Galactus vs the Celestials.| Phoenix added.
|The Celestials vs the Aspirants.| Death continued.
|The First Firmament vs us.|
|The Beyonders vs the Aspirants.|
|The Beyonders vs the Celestials.|
|The Goblin Force didn't have a domain, so that is at least not coming back.|
|The Enders vs Galactus.|
Death and Phoenix took turns to rapidfire all those opposing and 'balancing' forces The Living Tribunal had to face.
|... My presence is needed elsewhere.| Without fanfare, The Living Tribunal disappeared.
|...|
|...|
Death and Phoenix shared a look, and the flaming bird and the countless skeleton bodies grinned, as much as such entities could grin in their current M-Bodies.
Phoenix pushed her psionic nexus into the churning shadows, taking care of the soon-to-be-born entity's mind.
Death used her authority over souls to modify the part of this entity that would represent its soul/core/essence.
With a coordination born from billions of years of working together, both Abstracts violated the sanctity of the birth of the new Abstract without remorse.
Weeks later, a humanoid shadow, female like Phoenix and Death often identified themselves, stood composedly and somewhat elegantly in front of them.
There were no claws or sharp edges, no shadow tentacles, and, most importantly, it was mentally sound and stable.
|I'm The Shadow Monarch. Nice to meet you. Are you my progenitors?| It even spoke with class and gave a sense of being a learned Abstract who had at least a doctorate from the prestigious University of Abstractology.
|We are your guides. Your progenitor/predecessor left Reality to elope with my husband.| Death revealed.
|My sincere apologies, Abstract of Death. I wish to proclaim no responsibility or relationship whatsoever with this aforementioned entity, beyond what is obvious and out of my control.|
|Your apologies are accepted. No blame shall befall you.| Phoenix replied.
|Was the Abstract of Death's husband also your husband, Phoenix Force?| The Shadow Monarch asked, given that Phoenix replied instead of Death.
|No.|
|Kinda.|
Speaking one over the other, Death and Phoenix replied at the same time.
With the sounds of countless necks breaking apart due to the sudden motion, all of the skeleton bodies snapped their heads towards Phoenix.
|WhAt dO yOu mEAN?| Death demanded.
|Jean did something.| Phoenix revealed.
|... WHAT?!| Death's voice forced The Void Between Realities to shake, as well as its Abstract.
|Don't blame me, by the time I realized what she was doing, I couldn't stop it. I hid it from Aragorn, but I think the sooner this is known, the better.| Phoenix pushed a memory packet into Death's mind.
After her mind processed it in an instant, Death gnashed her teeth with frustration. |She could have fucking asked!|
Phoenix ignored Death and turned towards the frightened newborn Abstract. |Anyway, from the memories of your domain, you should be able to know what your predecessor did. Don't make the same foolish mistake.|
|Rest assured, Abstract of The Phoenix Force. The Shadow Monarch is different from The Chaos King. My objective is to secure the conditions for The Void Between Realities to facilitate the existence of the multiverse. The Void Between Realities can't be without Realities, or else, it would simply be The Oblivion Void.|
|I'm glad you understand.| Phoenix nodded to The Shadow Monarch and opened an Astral Path while sighing. Death was muttering to herself and didn't realize when Phoenix pushed her into the Astral Path.
She had a lot of work to do before Death could be released onto her favorite host.
↓Part 2━━━━━━━ ● ━━━━━━━Part 2↓
The Void.
Due to Aragorn's paradoxical nature and concepts, he was capable of splitting selves into strata of existence. This ensured that only one self of Aragorn existed per level of existence. However, The Void was the only exception.
Whether because The Void was not a 'level of existence', or because it assisted Aragorn—meaning itself, because Aragorn was part of it—it was unknown, but this was a possibility.
Regardless, though, all selves were one single existence.
When The Chaos King touched his soul, and Aragorn didn't fight back the merging, across all strata, all of his selves were affected by it.
After he exited the Marvel Multiverse, all selves were pulled back into the one merging, including the one that carried a Multiverse atop its crown of horns.
Multiverses, to The Void, were countless, literally, and it didn't value them individually. For example, the Marvel Multiverse that her personality (Aragorn) called home, just by looking west of the nihility fields, it could spot an infinite number of those.
It wasn't that she was not curious about what happened inside the Multiversal Barriers; on the contrary, she enjoyed going through her personality's memories. She relished immersing herself in the experiences, what her personality felt, of Aragorn. And it was only until Aragorn became part of her that she could even begin to enjoy.
To The Void, the miracle Lucian developed and the events that led him to attempt to consume part of her were nothing but the first true miracle it had ever experienced. It was not wrong to say that its spark of sapience was due to Lucian merging with her and the birth of }{Lucivacui/Lux Vacui}{
In conclusion, while The Void valued Creation, that which had always been out of reach, she did not value individuality.
So, when Aragorn's body was undone as it started the merging process, and the Multiverse in his crown of horns was released, Void-chan didn't pay it much attention as it drifted through the turbulent skies of paradox.
What caught her attention—the only thing that mattered to her—was the merging Aragorn was fighting against, the process her personality was resisting, when it clearly was her will.
But The Void was not angered by this rebellion, because those emotions resided inside her personality.
After every failed attempt at coaxing her personality to accept the foreign entity, Void-chan was not frustrated because frustration was not part of her.
Patiently, after so long had passed that the surrounding Multiverses had already ended and new ones had supplanted them a few trillion times over, The Void kept insisting.
From the thing of bluish-white light and dark umbra, streams of light branched off into the distance. These streams of light, like roads winding around mountains, coiled and played around the Multiverse Walls they came upon. These streams of light passed through the monsters that prowled The Void from Multiverse to Multiverse, and sometimes followed the Void Beasts that plagued The Void.
When so long had passed that Void-chan was almost starting to think of another approach, the bluish-white part acted decisively. It merged fully with the essence of the umbra, accepting and devouring all that it was into its being, but the material of the umbra, that which was not its essence, was sequestered by the bluish-white light.
The bluish-white light reformed and reforged itself around the umbra and the shadows, slowly taking shape and becoming.
The Void almost seemed excited, expectant even.
It slowly took form, it carefully undid and redid what it didn't settle with.
As it changed shapes while becoming, Void-chan changed each time to represent its female counterpart.
Like watching a reflection in a mirror.
And finally, after so long that it was pointless to measure, it finally became—
}}{Umbravacux/Umbravacuxis}{{ Void-chan named him.
|...| Eyes dead and empty turned to her without response.
}{Umbravacux/Umbravacuxis}{ wasn't so different from }{Lucivacui/Lux Vacui}{ physically speaking.
The only difference was that, aside from the glowing heart that could be seen through his translucent scales, a dark nebula of shadows and utter darkness could be seen between the locations where the sternum and the navel would normally be.
Through paths resembling arteries, void energy circulated. Through paths resembling veins, smoky shadows flowed.
As the outward change was done, inside his mind, it was incomprehensible chaos.
Aragorn's life was so immeasurable that The Chaos King's was, if anything, a phrase in the book of his life. Nevertheless, a merger between entities was more than memories.
Directives, emotions, sensations, experiences, paradigms, morality, thought processes, reactive responses to expected and unexpected stimuli, bonds, and more.
So many facets were merging that the chaos in his mind was understandable.
The part that was Aragorn had an advantage over the part that was The Chaos King. Aragorn fought against the merger for so long that the perceived passage of time had drilled holes in The Chaos King. This was partially the reason that the part that was Aragorn capitulated and followed Void-chan's encouraging requests, merging fully with The Chaos King.
Still, so much was happening and so much was being discarded, remodeled, and repurposed that the part that was Aragorn was concerned about his core being changed beyond what his family could recognize.
Decisively, he set aside his core self while the rest finished the arduous task.
From his newly reborn body, his glowing heart, and his light-swallowing stomach were pushed into Void-chan's awaiting hands.
When before she was Aragorn's female self made entirely of the empty phase of The Void, now she had a nebula made of the chaotic phase of The Void above her navel and below her sternum.
His previously lifeless eyes glowed back with the light of thought, and he said, |What the fuck?|
}WH47?{
There was something 'mortal' about the way he behaved. Hands to his head, as if trying to stymie a headache, eyes darting left and right, as if haunted, and his tail swaying erratically, as if unaccustomed to it, or maybe not even aware of it.
|Where's my family?| He asked with growing panic, even hyperventilating. |What are you? Where is this? The afterlife? I never believed in that. I don't see my parents, where are they?|
}LUC13N?{ Void-chan asked, her eyes turning to the heart of light and the nebula of shadows in her embrace.
|Lucian? Yes, that's my name. Are you a ROB? Is that a thing? I thought that if a god existed, it would be an eldritch thing like you, so I guessed that right, but I was expecting an eldritch God, as in the father of Jesus. Oh, but I certainly prefer you. Even if your features are somewhat unidentifiable, I can tell you're beautiful. By the way, what are you holding there? Is that a cloud of shadows? A crystal sculpture of a heart pulsing with light? That light is beautiful, which is weird because light is just light; never before had I thought of light as something beautiful. That would be like saying that matter is beautiful, which is strange, no? Also, I wanted to ask, do you know what's happening to me? I'm thinking too fast, far faster than I ever did, not even at my peak before the explosion-Oh, right! The explosion! Is this the result? Was my mind so upgraded that now I can't stop this bike? I can't stop thinking, and I just realized that I'm not talking with my voice. Am I talking with my thoughts? How does that work? Is that the reason I can't stop?! All my thoughts are being exposed! I should not think of goth mommies! Too late! No, wait, something is not right in my mind, too. Why are my thoughts so immature? Oh, this is interesting. I can't sense the trauma of the war. Cool! No, wait, it could be because I finally became a psychopath! No, but I do feel love, psychopaths can't feel love, right? Or was it sociopaths? Are those different terms? Why are the surroundings blinking between nothing and everything? Also, what are these threads of light dimming slowly?|
Like someone who used to ride a bicycle, given a superbike and testing the throttle for the first time. 7/10 times, they would shoot off due to the abrupt acceleration, like someone who used to ride a mechanical old car, suddenly trying a Bugatti.
The part of Aragorn that was his mortal self, Lucian, was not skilled enough to drive his body. His mind, which thought at unimaginable speeds, was overwhelming his focus.
The part that was Aragorn had shoved off Lucian and his [Body] while the rest of him took on the impossible task of settling things with the part that was The Chaos King, while they came to terms with their new self.
}...{ Void-chan was at a loss. It's not like she needed to do anything about this, but the situation was strange.
|Oh? What's this? I found a package in my mind! This is like one of those packages of memories I made for myself in my mind palace! Ha! I left this for myself. Now, that is strange, no? If I died, why do I still have a mind? I thought I was thinking with my soul... Hey! Where's my soul?! KYAAAAAHHHH-Pause... Aside from being soulless, I don't feel any discomfort. How is that possible? Ah, right, the memory package. I should focus on that first. Hohoho, this is funny. Like when you unpack your Amazon delivery. Hehehe—|
His expression went slack, his eyes lost, and then, he blinked.
He floated to Void-chan and leaned down to the nebula of shadows and the heart of light. |So that's the new me... That's where my soul is, too.|
He stopped observing his new self and lifted his gaze to Void-chan. |Why did you want my old self to absorb The Chaos King?|
}6R07H. 0990R7UN17Y.{ {A/N: Growth. Opportunity}
|Sorry, Void-chan. I'm having a hard time understanding you without my soul. Something about a possibility?| Lucian asked.
}+{
Lucian remained silent for a few epochs, then hugged Void-chan, the nebula of shadows and the heart of light pressed between them.
|It's not like I resent you, but this is the most fuck up tragedy that has ever happened to me. Even greater than when I consumed my world, and that is saying a lot.|
}?{
|Yeah, I have no doubt you don't follow. To you, this would be the equivalent of someone deciding to make a change in themselves and actually carrying it over.|
|From what my old self's memories tell me, I'm part of you, but we are also somewhat separate. All I can say is that you need to love yourself, Void-chan.|
}1 70V3 U5. 1 N33D U5. W3 CH4N63. W3 N3V3R C3453. }{Lucivacui/Lux Vacui}{=}{Umbravacux/Umbravacuxis}{=V01D=U5{
{A/N: I love us. I need us. We change. We never cease.}
|That's probably the most romantic thing you've ever said to my old self and me. Or narcissistic. It's hard to tell with us.|
}+{
|So, how long do you figure that's going to take?| Lucian gestured to the new self between them.
The Void didn't reply, for even they didn't know.
|I think I'll go to the shard of The Phoenix Force I left in DxD. I'm not ready to face those whom my old self loved... I also need some time for myself. This self.|
↓Part 3━━━━━━━ ● ━━━━━━━Part 3↓
One moment you're scant fractions of a second away from fully consuming your world, the next you find yourself facing an eldritch dragon lady who turns out you're part of? I'm confused about that part. The memory package just said to treat her as my shy split personality.
So, apparently, I have a wife, maids, daughters, sons, grandchildren, and a son on the way...
I also own real estate... An entire Universe of real estate. Huh?
My old self certainly made it big in life.
Oh, and I'm smart, like the creator of entire branches of science smart. I don't have many memories of that, though. Space was limited in the memory package.
I only have enough of everything to house a core of who my old self was, which is to say that the memory package had more memories than my entire previous life as Lucian was worth.
How strange.
Speaking of real estate... What happened to the Multiverse I had on my crown of horns?
I turned to my shy self, Void-chan, to ask, but she appeared to be closely observing the steps preceding the full consolidation of my new self: }{Umbravacux/Umbravacuxis}{
I guess that should be my name too... I kinda preferred Aragorn. Though the first part of my name, when translated to mortal level, sounds imposing. Like a demon lord's name. Demon Lord Umbravacux, The Agony of The World! Yeah, that sounds cool...
... My mind really regressed. No... If I pay attention, it's not that my mind regressed, it is that I'm not 100% Lucian, I have core parts of some of my old self's other selves. I'm a backup.
Well, it doesn't matter much. Few things do. My family does, but this nonexistent identity crisis doesn't.
|Void-chan, do you know if there's a piece of my old family in me? I absorbed them, no?| I asked.
The changes are less than slim. If my old self never revived our world, then it was impossible, most likely, but you don't lose anything by asking.
}-{
I think that was negation? Negative? No? Opposite? Regardless, it was clear that I was not seeing my family again.
I took a deep breath, I realized this body doesn't need breathing, and let go of my worldly attachments.
I trapped Void-chan in my arms, rested my chin on her head, between her horns made of nothingness, and closed my eyes for a century. A short bit in the absurd scale I now operate.
It's time to move to DxD.
My weird sense of direction, sponsored by my third equally weird third eye, picked it up not that far away from us, maybe half an epoch away.
I planted a kiss over Void-chan's button nose, which I realize now was based on my female self's nose, and departed by shifting The Void.
Almost as if my body had an instinct of its own, I shifted to my draconic form. My heart's location was empty, and the same was so for my stomach—
I came to a sudden halt. I found another thing in my body... A core?
|Whose core?|
I didn't have any memories about this. Judging by how overprotective my old self was of our family, if no message was left for me, then they probably were not aware of this.
Whoever this was, they must have joined my old self just as we were exiting the Marvel Multiverse. But... They are depleted.
Whatever led to their death drained them even at the soul level.
I need my soul for matters related to the healing of souls. I don't think I can generate the type of energy a soul needs as fuel to recover. Heck, after the old self merged with The Chaos King, I doubt we will be able to immediately dab in the matters of the soul fresh out of the oven.
|Okay, I'll keep you safe until we are back on business.|
I placed the core in my heart's slot. Something about having this Therion, whoever they were, near my heart brought a sense of peace to my restless mind.
I resumed my journey to the west... No, there's no west here. Anyway, I resumed 'walk' to DxD while evaluating a memory package the old self left me.
This memory package was labeled 'Merging,' and if it is the memories of the experience it suffered before accepting the merging, I have no idea what I am supposed to do with it.
I think my old self's mind was so warped and corrupted by The Void that we never had the chance/need to process my traumas. I doubt I'll be able to process this shit, so I'll leave it be for the time being.
Maybe I should be grateful I also don't carry that with me.
With the Therion secured to my heart cavity, I pulled and pushed The Void in the direction I sensed DxD.
Aside from sensing its location due to this weird third eye, I can also feel a pull to something in it. Must be Rias Gremory.
From what little memories I have of the operation of The System, due to the barrier in causality between Multiverses that The Void poses, I was getting sporadic updates of her progress. It did not help that the time flow was so different from Marvel.
It wasn't long—just a few dozen Multiversal cycles—before I arrived outside DxD.
To these weird eyes, it looked as if two balls of clay collided slowly and were left merged together by the plane of collision. This plane of collision was the Dimensional Gap.
|I guess I just need to step in?| I doubtfully thought.
I switched to my humanoid form and reached for the Multiversal Wall at its thinnest, the Dimensional Gap, and pushed softly, only for my body's instincts to recoil in panic.
|Okay... I was about to do something very wrong... But, what?|
Mmmmm, it's not that the Multiversal Wall was about to retaliate and end me, I did not feel the threat of death—can I even die? No, I can't. That means that something else was the problem.
Ah! I think I know what it was!
I was about to obliterate this Multiverse.
|Truly, this is like handing a red button to a toddler that would detonate all nuclear warheads in the world. What was my old self thinking? Huh, now that I try some empathy, I think my old self was way overwhelmed. The reason for my current existence was probably a shot in the dark.|
Okay, lesson learned. Even if my soul is with Void-chan, this body holds enough juice to explode a Multiverse if it steps in fully and whole.
I need to stratify myself, but, contrary to my old self, I don't have other selves; I don't have a Soul, I only have Mind and Body, which means that I would need to leave one behind. I could enter just with a Mind body, a psionic body.
No, I don't think that's the answer here. Let's see... I should be able to [Create], right?
Facing The Void, away from the Multiversal Wall, I opened my palm and attempted to create a body my Mind could inhabit.
First attempt: Tentacles, a multieyed tentacle mass of tentacles and suckers. When I was a mortal, I think I once dreamt of something like this. It was a nightmare. A trauma-inducing nightmare.
Second attempt: Furry. No, I don't mean a shameless feak, I mean a literal ball of fluffy fur. As in, no bones, meat, or anything that was not fur and fur-related, or fur-adjacent.
Third attempt: Flash. No, I don't mean a speedster or a shameless degenerate. There was so much fucking light, I think I created a concept that superseded light. Something so bright I almost blinded these All-seeing eyes of mine.
Fourth attempt: Okay, this one is on me. My old self left me a few detailed impressions of our wife. So, yeah, I don't blame myself for this one. I approached the inanimate body of our wife and softly cupped her face.
|It's incredible that even without fully carrying the love my old self had for you, I'm feeling insecure about what you'll think of us, of }{Umbravacux/Umbravacuxis}{. My old self was beyond infatuated with you, enough to affect me.|
With care, I uncreated her body and continued practicing.
Creating was complicated, or maybe it was not something supposed to be wielded by a pseudo-mortal mind like mine.
Creating a body was even more complex. After practicing for a few millennia, I was able to masterfully create all elements in the Duskarian Periodic Table; some millennia later, I was rocking complex molecules, but fuck biology!
Fuck the DNA, and fuck the RNA!
Maybe I should just create the ultimate prion as my body and skip the whole genetic material shit.
Deep breaths, deep unnecessary breaths, find inner peace, think of a goth mommy's thighs sandwiching your face, no need to go extreme.
|Maybe the body was partly at fault for my old self's utter madness.|
I stopped counting the delta-change and focused fully on creating a vessel.
It obviously wasn't easy, and I might have created and destroyed a few stars to relax, but I succeeded.
I based the physical appearance of the vessel on the human body that my old self had created last time we were here. Long wild black hair, black eyes, white fair skin, full lips, a high-bridge nose, and of asian genetic.
Pleased with my creation, I stratified my Mind from my Body and entered the vessel before stepping inside the Dimensional Gap.
"Ah, the fresh air of Creation," I commented. "Well, there's no matter here, but the intention is what matters."
↓Part 4━━━━━━━ ● ━━━━━━━Part 4↓
With a clumsy, yet almost instinctual grace, I opened a way to Earth. One would think unraveling the secrets of space warping would be more complicated than DNA or RNA, but opening a portal through the Dimensional Gap and into Earth came to me more easily than the creation of this body.
A quick glance around, and I knew I was home: NYC.
Growing up, due to my parents' jobs, we moved around a lot, so I can't say I had a childhood home or a specific place I could remember, as many did.
After the war exploded, it was even more hectic, and by the time I died, I had more memories of living beyond Earth than in it.
Even so, the last year or so of my life before I was shipped into bug hell was spent in New York City. Hence, this is the closest place I can recall as my childhood neighborhood. It also helps that I have plenty of memories of Aragorn experiencing the city life of NYC.
I also have some conflicting memories of Lucy, the female mortal self, exploring New York City and mingling with its people.
This NYC was different from the one I remember, though.
The first difference I spotted was the technology level. You don't see people stuck to their smartphones walking the streets, or using electric cars.
The people carried flip phones, reminding me of an age when humans had yet to settle for the homogenized standard of the full-screen touchscreen.
Their dressing style was 'old', their makeup and hairstyling too.
The second most glaring difference was the effect of the rules of this Reality. The attractive ones carried a lust-inducing aura that was borderline supernatural, even for the ones that were not supernatural.
"I'm sure a whole codex of physics laws could be made only for the breasts," I murmured as I made my way to the absconded dessert shop between two large high-rise buildings.
Upon entry, a young human greeted me with a welcoming smile and a menu. "You can sit where you like, mister."
"Thank you," I said before gesturing at the redhead seated at one of the corner seats near the window, "She is waiting for me."
Her eyes were on me the moment I entered the Dimensional Gap, and they followed me with confusion until I sat next to her.
"What happened?" She asked.
"Everyone is all right," I started with the most vital info Phoenix required.
"No, I can tell that's not true," She shook her head gravely.
"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm sure no one was hurt." I furrowed my brow. I had the memories my old self left me, and they clearly proved no one was harmed in any irreparable way.
Sure, some of them 'died,' but it was true death.
"You, you were hurt. What in Creation's name happened to you?" She cupped my face with her warm, soft hands, forcing me to face her, to face the concern in her eyes.
"You say that no one was hurt, but you have no soul. Your psionic nexus is not with you. Your selves, I can't feel them; it's just you. You're even so depleted that you managed to inhabit this mortal body. You're a wretched mess." I could feel her worry and ache.
"It's a complicated story. I take that your lack of knowledge of my current state means that you haven't been able to connect to your real body through the cores I left in Ophis and Rias Gremory, is that correct?" I asked.
The Void functions as such an impossible barrier for causality between Multiverses that Phoenix could only update her real body through my old self or the connection points, the cores, I left behind.
The fact that I'm currently finalizing the new me could have interfered with the connection to the cores. Hence, why Phoenix was cut off from the main Phoenix.
"I was not around Rias Gremory when it happened, but Ophis reported her Cooking System glitching for about a week before it resumed normal functionality," Phoenix revealed.
That was an eventuality my old self had accounted for; the systems were capable of operating independently, but it looks like the merging was more significant than I thought.
"How long has it been?" I asked.
When I first noticed the level of tech, I stopped myself from reading their minds to determine the year. I was not that sure of my current level of control over my abilities, and so far, I have not seen any dates.
"... And you claim no one was hurt when you can't even read their minds?" Phoenix gestured at the mortals around us, all of whom were ignoring our conversation thanks to her interference. "It's been just a couple of months since you left. I think your time-heist of Yaweh interfered with the time flow."
"A ray of unexpected luck shines through the overcast of tragedy," I commented. "Maybe his death was such a significant event that it was a notable scar in the timestream."
"A Nexus Event," Phoenix commented.
"I think those don't exist here," I explained, sharing what my memories held. "I think it was as if the timestream was a hose bent a few coils around a post. I removed the post, and the hose untangled. Or something similar."
"You were lucky you didn't miss much," Phoenix concluded.
"Yes," I didn't deny it. "By the way, may I have the memories of my psionic clone?"
She didn't verbally comply; she poured the memories directed into my receptive mind.
I didn't miss that much.
Phoenix perfected her sacred gear creation project. The pervert continues to suffer through his training arc; his parents were recently moved to Kyoto, and—against all odds—his obsession with breasts has improved... Well, no, it didn't improve—Yasaka's overflowing jugss are too much for the pervert—but his outward tells have become somewhat manageable.
Asia, my saint, is loved by the Youkai and is a favorite of the fox cub, Kunou. Unexpectedly, she became the object of study of Ophis. I had told her that Asia was as close to pure good as any mortal could get, so this is no surprise.
That was another update. Ophis has made some progress in her own morality; she can now identify the extremes of the karmic spectrum. That drove her to pull back her snakes from those in the Khaos Brigade she knew were evil.
The repercussions of that are yet to hit the world.
My psionic clone kept up with the cooking classes. Rias Gremory, Venelana Gremory, Serafall Sitri, Koneko Toujou, and Serafall Leviathan have faithfully attended without missing a session. Maybe the lasting pleasure resulting from my recipes has to do with it. Which, I should add, we blame on the laws of this universe; things were not like that in Marvel or Tensura.
Lastly, regarding Heaven's development, Phoenix and my clone knew very little. The Dove dropped by to 'play,' but she instantly realized it was a psionic clone, so she said that she would return later. No updates since then.
About the cores I left in Ophis and Rias Gremory... No updates. My psionic clone could not access the root code to evaluate it. Ophis did tell Phoenix that she had not encountered any problems, but her system is far simpler than Rias Gremory's.
"Have you noticed?" Phoenix asked.
"Uhmm?" I hummed.
"You've been talking with your voice," she pointed out.
"... Shit!" It took me a second to realize that she meant that literally. Aragorn was unable to speak with his vocal cords because his voice caused cognitive damage.
"At first, I thought that you were already aware of it, and that's why you were speaking. Did you truly come into this establishment full of mortals and speak without knowing you could?"
"... Don't flay me alive," I facepalmed. "I feel like I'm driving a spaceship with a license for two-wheel vehicles. This body, even if it's my own creation, is hard to use. Less said about the body I left Outside."
"That's another thing. Aragorn was never able to inhabit a biological body," Phoenix revealed while eyeing me curiously. "You're more mortal than Aragorn was. Incredibly mortal. Actually..."
Her words dragged on, and she reached for my hand. I turned to her to allow her to drag my hand towards her, curious about what she'd do. Then, before I could process, she sank my hand into the softness of the swell of her breasts.
She overlaid her fingers on mine and squeezed without breaking eye contact with me.
"What?" I asked, baffled.
She smirked slightly, barely imperceptible, and released my hand. "You're not Aragorn," she stated with factuality undeniable by anyone.
"Yeah, even Aragorn, my old self, is not Aragorn anymore, but what did that have to do with your breasts?" I asked, confused.
"You felt lust. Aragorn would never feel lust," she declared.
"Anyone would feel lust in this scenario; that's just absurd," I countered.
"Ah, right there, exactly that, is the tell," Jean chuckled. "Nakedness, body contact, and the normal social boundaries that most humans cherish, none of them are the same for Therions. Jean has boldly demanded that Aragorn bathe with her. Kitty went for months at a time wearing nothing during one of her maniac phases.
"Sometimes, during coitus, they blast their act through the psions. Aragorn, throughout all of this, would at most appreciate their beauty, from a clinical, almost medical, point of view. And you should know this, the fact that you don't means that it was not in your memories."
"Huh?" I voiced out. She was right, I was missing a lot of my old self's memories. "If that is the case, why am I considered the core backup?"
"... That, I don't know," Phoenix confessed. "Maybe, since you're what Aragorn was before he was Aragorn, he trusted that you would grow back into what he was, or maybe once you rejoin the whole, you'd trigger something in the new him."
Our waffles arrived, and we silently enjoyed them for a few minutes before I pulled out the core that had travelled with me. "Can you help revitalize this one? I don't know who it belongs to, though."
"You need to identify them to create a body for them?" Phoenix asked while carefully grabbing the core. "Can you even create a deity's body in your current state?"
"I have a memory of the cores having the needed 'tools' to recreate a body if you revitalize them," I shared with her the memory.
"Is that so? I never studied them in depth, and you kept adding functions as you mastered your concepts and expanded your library of Script," Phoenix said. "Jean was only interested in how to safeguard them, not much about their operation. So, do I just fuel them directly?"
"No, not exactly. Create a pool of vitality/chakra/lifeforce/shi/qi or any other life-bearing energy and submerge it in it. The 'tools' would take care of the rest."
She did just that. She created a pool of life energy floating in front of her chest, and the core slowly sank into it. While doing so, she kept the others' focus away from the lightshow.
The pool of life energy was a milky green and orange, with a subtle yet noticeable glow to it. My energy manipulation allowed me to follow what she was doing, but my mastery of this body was sorely lacking in replicating what she was doing.
Sigh, I want my true self to hurry up so that I can join back. I feel... disabled. Incomplete. Maybe that's what being soulless feels like.
The pool dried down, entirely absorbed by the core, and the miracle of energy-mass transformation occurred right in this mortal establishment, in the middle of NYC.
Her body came first, white skin, long wavy hair of a purple so dark it was almost black, equally purple eyes, two soft and fluffy cat ears on top of her head, no human ears, and nine beautiful and long cat tails... And she was naked.
She blinked her dark purple eyes once, recognized Phoenix seated next to me, but when her eyes landed on me, there was no recognition.
My old self didn't include many memories, or as many as I realize now they shared, of his relationship with the Therions, but the feelings were there. Which is why it stung when Kitty saw me as a stranger.
"Phoenix? What's going on?" Kitty asked.
"I have studied enough of Jean's memories to know that the correct answer here is, 'You've been isekai'd! Congratulations, and welcome to the world of titty physics'." Phoenix reached across the table and flicked Kitty's bare right breast.
JiggleJiggle
"... What the fuck is this?!" Kitty exclaimed and then slapped her breasts.
SlapJiggleJiggleSlapJiggleJiggleSlapJiggleJiggle
I facepalmed, loud. She noticed.
"~Hehehe. Sorry about that, Sir. This is amazing," she chuckled while using her divinity to conjure clothes out of her energy and the molecules in the air.
"I'm," I hesitated, "Lucian, Kitty."
"Hah! No, you're not Aragorn," she scoffed, offended. But when she saw Phoenix next to me, not commenting, she stopped herself and observed me not only with her eyes but with her divine sense. "Where's your soul?"
"The Chaos King would have never given up on void energy, and since all Realities existed within The Void Between Realities, to ensure your protection, Aragorn accepted the merging and dragged him out of the Marvel Multiverse. You died just before my old self exited, your core was pulled towards him, and he had too much on his plate to redirect you," I revealed.
Brows furrowed, eyes clouded with unshed tears, she turned to Phoenix for confirmation, who nodded.
"A-and you? What a-re you?" Her voice broke, but her tears remained unshed.
"A backup, based on my old self's core; Lucian, mostly." I didn't hide the truth; it'd been pointless. "My new self, my soul, is finalizing some details after the merging. He is in The Void. I came here to wait. I didn't feel it was a good idea to return to Marvel while in this state. Death... Noona would not appreciate it."
"I know she and Jean wouldn't," Phoenix interjected.
"I don't appreciate it!" Kitty grumbled. "Fuck The Chaos King! I'll become an Abstract just to fuck him over, sideways, and bilaterally!"
Her wrath warmed me, but also hurt me, for it was not wrath for our new self or me.
"While the intent is appreciated, The Chaos King didn't survive the assimilation with The Void, and whichever new personality is born from The Void Between Realities, it would not be him." My words didn't bring tranquility to her stormy eyes, but she took a deep breath and unclenched her fists.
"... Maybe, it's time we all actively participate in stabilizing Earth-5H1N3. We have the power to do so now." Kitty signalled the waitress and ordered another round of waffles. "The Phoenix Force, the Mephistopheles, and now The Chaos King; while the nature of Earth-5H1N3 had to so in their appearance in our Reality, they have all been outside threats.
"If our Reality were not such a magnet for trouble, and if you could dedicate your efforts to protecting it instead of fixing it, none of this could have happened," Kitty said, paused to unclench her fists again, and continued, "After I died, Aragorn... You had set Earth-5H1N3 on a collision course with another Reality. I say, if Earth-5H1N3 is not fixed by the collision, we should give up on it and live in the other Reality."
"..." She was right, but I also knew it was the task my bosses assigned to me, so I was not ready to give up on it. I've invested too much in it, and leaving because things were hard was not my way of doing this; otherwise, I would have taken the easy way out during the Extermination War.
"Don't be so defeatist," Phoenix chided softly. "Aragorn's work has been admirable, and although there have been setbacks, he has fixed much of the mainframe to sustain Reality-5H1N3. Fixing what was damaged during the last world-ending events will not be as complicated as the first time."
""Really?"" Kitty and I asked at the same time. I didn't have many memories about the intricacies of how Realities operated, so I didn't know that.
Phoenix rolled her eyes at us. "Why would I lie?"
The second serving came in, and the kid needed some help from another coworker to bring all that Kitty ordered, which was one of everything. We didn't see anything strange in her actions; reforming a body left one hungry.
"So, what can you tell me about this World and what you're doing here?" Kitty, with renewed energy, asked.
"Oppai," I answered succinctly.
"It's almost a sex World," Phoenix followed after without hesitation.
I saw something light up in Kitty's eyes. "Heh," she smirked.
I would have preferred for Irina to be in her stead. This cat is equal to problems.
╚═══━━━─── • ───━━━═══╝
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{A/N:
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