Chapter Text
“Welcome to the end of the world clubhouse!” Brandon shouted through the thin atmosphere held to the entrance of the asteroid.
The size of a large city, the asteroid, nicknamed LxR9-Mortician, was Brandon’s premiere bunker for the end of the world, and much to his own surprise, he had people to show it off to.
Yui, shockingly agreed to visit the facility after some texting with the blonde. With the way the war was going back home, Japan was not much of a target. Izuku made enemies, but none of them were really considering Japan as an object of war goals. They had other closer enemies to deal with.
Yui, and a good deal of her class, did not feel right about going to other countries to fight wars that they didn’t even really understand. Fighting and killing monsters for the survival of the species? Sure. Fighting and killing other humans for… well, pretty much nothing?
She didn’t think Izuku was becoming a tyrant like Bakugo did, but she also didn’t support anything going on. And securing a safe haven for her family and friends if it became necessary was important. This was really the only existing option.
Jiro and Hagakure were also joining in because they didn’t have much interest in fighting a world war. Jiro had retired from Hero work a couple days prior anyways to pursue her music career.
Bakugo was on a bit of a bender since his last conversation with Izuku. Brandon was the only one he’d yet to push away.
There were plenty of other UA students and their families, including Inko. Even if Japan wasn’t the target of any current attacks, it was far better to hide out on some remote rock in space than waiting for something to happen. Especially whilst Izuku and Momo got their own spaceborn fortresses built.
They could all use a distraction, especially since the big players were out and about. No one wanted to get involved in a fight between literal Gods.
From a distance, nothing looked amiss about the stone, but on one corner of the rock, there was a flatter landing section. Brandon assumed that someone would land planes or other vehicles there one day, but for now it was just the entrance he’d teleported his guests to.
In front of the landing pad, there was an impossible glass hallway. Constantly shifting fractals mesmerized the small group.
“Perks of being a God?”
“Small ‘g,’ honestly. ‘Lower Being?’” Brandon suggested. “And no. Most Higher Beings have to use slave labor. They have set Skill Sets, based around things like Fire. I can pick and choose, so I just grab an Architect Skill here, and a Material Generation Skill there. Outside of Yogumunt or Correnic - the Engineers of both the Monarchs and Rulers you could say - I’m probably the only god who can do this on my own.”
“So basically you made Yaoyorozu irrelevant?” Jiro asked. “She could really use some help with… well everything that’s going on.”
“There aren’t many Creation Skills on the same Rank as her own. I can acquire up to Lord-Rank, and I can make my own Skills, but…” He paused to gather the right words. “Yaoyorozu is just better. I can’t figure out another way to put it. In order to use Creation Skills or Quirks, you just have to have a mind that’s built for it. Mine isn’t. I can build my own little castle, and make some cool stuff, but I’ll never be able to use it like she does. No Particle Weavers, no orbital cannons or military stations. And I don’t have the energy requirements to pull off anything big like arming humanity with smaller-scale weaponry. I’ve been making this thing for months now.”
“So you have a convenient excuse not to help?” Jiro added.
“I see you’re feeling better,” Brandon replied. “Your sass is back. I suppose that has something to do with your push for making your own music?”
“You get it. Music and writing. Creativity. It has a big impact on how you go through life.” Jiro paused. “Hey wait… I didn’t tell anyone I was making my own song, I just said I was pursuing the career.”
Brandon smirked. “I love knowing stuff. Any little thing. Makes me feel in control. So the first Lord-Rank Skill I made was my favorite.”
*******
[Primitive System]
- Unique Skill
- Class: Lord
- Cost: 1% of the User’s max Mana per usage
- Description: By mimicking the Synthetic Lord’s System, the User is able to read the laws of the universe to acquire meager bits of information otherwise unobtainable.
*******
It was proof of how incredible Raia’s System was that even a Lord-Rank Skill could only gather little details about a person’s life in comparison to the massively impactful battle intel of the Architect’s greatest creation.
Of course, once he explained that to the group, they were more than a little off-put.
“That’s like snooping in someone’s diary!” Toru protested as they entered the fortress. Her complaint fell on deaf ears as they all spied the interior.
The outside of the station appeared to be a futuristic, sleek, and modern design. Inside, however, the architecture was reminiscent of 20th century British noble houses.
“What?”
“I expected something much less… homely?” Jiro replied.
“Cold and unwelcoming was what I expected,” Bakugo replied, feeling free to throw himself into the nearest chair. “But this ain’t so bad.”
“You seem pretty carefree for someone who got told off by their best friend of almost 20 years.”
Bakugo’s smile twitched, but didn’t vanish. “Yeah? You think he’s doing the right thing? Going around getting involved in wars like that?”
“I think he’s doing the only thing that could save humanity,” Yui duly noted. “If we don’t get everyone on the same page, we’re dead.”
“Please ignore him,” Brandon said as he welcomed the group into his ‘home.’ “I’ve got some self-sustaining farms and a bunch of food I brought from Earth! There should be some Golems attending to your-”
“They’re quite shabby,” A voice said from deeper inside the bunker. “Saysus would never make such flawed creations.”
Brandon, Bakugo, and Yui all tensed up. They knew this feeling. Something more than human.
“Get everyone inside,” Brandon whispered to the class.
“There won’t be any need for that,” A woman in a white dress walked into the foyer. Her face was beautiful, framed by sharp scales that matched her dress. “I have no intention of fighting. I was here to talk to an old friend, but I don’t need my Dragon Eyes to see that you’re not Saysus.”
“Strea, Lord of Dragons?” Brandon hesitantly asked.
“I am the one and only-”
She was cut off by the blonde’s dissatisfied response. “Oh for fuck’s sake! I just finished building this place!”
*******
“STAY INSIDE!” Enji Todoroki roared, sweeping his flames far-and-wide to scare the South Carolinians back into their metropolitan homes. It was less a warning and more of a threat.
He was already incensed that he’d been cursed to enter the service of Thomas Andre of all people. The fact that he got stationed in South Carolina was just a big middle finger. Even as a well-read man, Enji was not aware South Carolina existed to begin with.
Andre put him there due to the higher humidity and he needed some strong players in America’s southern-easterly states. In the event that Endeavor haphazardly attacked Villains from a broken Gate, the fire wouldn’t spread as easily. At least, that was the “logical” answer that Andre gave him, likely concocted by his assistant - Laura.
It was certainly better than placing him somewhere like California, but in reality, a Fire Mage at his level would burn something no matter the ignition point if he wasn’t careful.
“Maybe Andre simply values these people and their land less,” Enji thought to himself as the flames dispersed into the air. “I suppose California is the better econo-” He was caught off-guard as a burst of shotgun pellets struck his chest.
They bounced off like gnats, but the enormity of the sound froze the surrounding area in place. If there was one thing Endeavor could respect about Americans, it was their ability to suppress any self-preservation instincts in the face of a fight.
He didn’t regard it as stupidity… in some cases. He saw it more objectively than most could. Americans, for all their complaining, actually adored their home and were willing to go to pretty much any length to protect it. The problem was that they also tended to try preserving it in any social sense. They complained because they cared.
That, and the Second Amendment, was how Endeavor found himself surrounded by about thirty people with all sorts of armaments. Shotguns, rifles, pistons, and one guy holding a heavy machine gun that looked like it was from the Second World War.
Not a single one had Magical capabilities, and still they stood firm, unloading into a man who simply didn’t care.
Once the deafening barrage ended, Enji simply said, “Save your bullets for someone you can actually hurt.”
“ Or you can go back to where you came from!” Someone enthusiastically suggested.
“I’m working under Thomas Andre,” He replied.
“So? That rich asshole is what’s wrong with this country to begin with! A bunch of corporations and billionaires running the rest of us into the ground!”
“I’m guessing you all take the side of Star?”
“Yeah! She stands for what America is meant to be!”
Endeavor just sighed deeply. No matter what state he got put in, and no matter what their beliefs actually were, he’d find people exactly like this. People who were certain their side was in the right and everything else was in the wrong.
Somewhat strangely, the civil war didn’t really have definitive bad actors. Sure there were some weapon manufacturers, some posturing politicians, and a couple of billionaires and Heroes meddling where they shouldn’t have. But at the end of the day, not a single one of them actually started the war. The people who started the war were brainwashed or coerced for the most part. There were sides to be taken, but none with clear ideology, footholds, or organization.
It was kind of like pulling a thread on the sweater of America and it all coming undone. Decades of social stagnation, inequality, and violence had always been there. They didn’t even need a clear cut war to wage, they just needed the rest of society to collapse into war as well. One excuse was all it took for people to break down to their most basic behavioral patterns.
“Just… stay outta my way and I won’t fry you,” Enji nonchalantly replied.
“Endeavor!”
The flaming Hero turned to see a man hovering above him. “Jonas…” He growled.
But this wasn’t the National-Ranked Jonas from Brazil, this was America’s Fourth Ranked Hero, the XS-Ranked Jonas Robinson. Also known as… Mind Bullet.
This was America’s newest rising star, a standard Awakened Human with a real powerhouse of a Quirk. Except, that was a gross oversimplification.
*******
[Quirk: Mind Bullet]
- Quirk Class: National-Rank
- Cost: On average the consumption of psychic powers given by this Quirk is 60,000 Mana per minute. Emotional stability is also required to wield said psychic abilities.
- Description: Mind Bullet is a Quirk that gives its users ALL forms of Psionics, Classified as an Omnipscionic.
*******
It was a message that carried. Not to Enji’s vision, but to the relatively close moon of Jupiter, Io. There, hidden away in the darkness between the gas giant and moon, a dark castle rested on an asteroid. Futuristic propulsion emerged from each side, keeping it in position, and ready for rapid deployment. Inside the castle, a mechanical God read in disbelief.
“That… can’t be right…”
The Synthetic Lord had been weakened. Antares had nearly destroyed his Soul, permanently scarring it. In the aftermath, approached by Ashborn, he devised the most powerful weapon.
Nexus, the Lord of Pathways allowed Raia’s vision to flourish, and together, the three created a System. A System that read the laws of the universe, allowing definitive knowledge to be acquired. Its limit rested on what they wanted to acquire. If they wanted to read further into the laws of the universe, they would require a System with roughly 10 trillion times the size and complexity. As the definiteness of one law increased in measure, the accuracy of the other laws decreased.
That was a simplified way of putting it, but it meant that Raia could build a machine based on one aspect of life that would give himself and his allies immense knowledge. Many things were discussed.
If the System was based on Farming, Izuku would have received a wildly different mechanism by which he grew. A “Farming Sim” as the humans called it, one that would’ve allowed him to help humanity produce great yields of materials for other worlds that they could then use. Farming would not be limited to nature, but farming resources as well. It was the equivalent of America’s Lend-Lease during World War 2.
If the System was for transcendent knowledge on Machinery, Izuku would likely be playing an automation game that upgraded his own power and humanity’s. The technology leap would be so exponential as to make humanity capable of intergalactic travel, buying time for their species to evolve past the threat of the Monarchs and Rulers.
There was even an idea based around a “Business Simulator” or “Tycoon” as Nexus once put it. The idea would be to make humanity and Izuku so wealthy and important as to the point where they could actively barter with Gods. That leveling system relied on trade and industrial development, also becoming a sort of automation game. In fact, many games ended up coming back to automated processes.
Most of these, Raia did not trust, and he had the final say on his System. Once they settled on a group of laws to understand, he wouldn’t be able to change that without redoing the entire thing. So in the end, they settled on the rule of combat. They would have all the information needed during wartime and active battles, perhaps the most powerful asset of any military.
And as it turned out, Momo Yaoyorozu accomplished many feats that fulfilled the purpose of certain System types. The Particle Weavers were pretty much the end goal of the Machine System and it would feed humanity and many other species for millenia to come… if they survived.
All that to say, the System was reading the objective truth when it read people. Some had protections. By rearranging parts of your Soul, you could hide the knowledge in some other category that made it harder for the System to find the laws on. It was like overloading a computer with tasks, but it was a small price to pay for absolute knowledge.
Although, sometimes that knowledge was obnoxiously surprising.
“He… lied?!” Raia was not shocked that humanity had lied to begin with, he was more so incensed that President Andrew would lie to Izuku in such strenuous circumstances.
Cathleen Bate was the first, Maigo was a second and less powerful accomplishment, and from the sounds of it there was a second success still in the test tube. But here there was another human with the blood of Gods. Maybe not the strongest, but he had some serious power behind him.
This was America’s most experienced soldier, their greatest assassin, and special forces operative - Mind Bullet.
Except, he was now untethered from the one thing that restrained him.
America’s last hope was an entire strategy. A defensive doctrine based around their National-Ranks. The US couldn’t control them, but they could offer them pleasure. They wouldn’t step up until the last bastion of humanity began to falter and their earthly desires were threatened.
Even still, Star cared enough to go to war, Andre worried for his nation and people, and Christopher Reed was a professional. They were surface level concerns, born out of self-interest, but it spurred them to action. Mind Bullet had no such concerns. Years of heartless cruelty inflicted on foreign and domestic targets, coupled with his immense power, led to this moment. All he needed was an excuse, a nation becoming unstable.
So detached was the man that America barely considered him in their final defense. Ironically, it was his cold and uncaring demeanor that gave them such hope in Izuku, and the willingness to give him anything.
Izuku was a God who embodied mortality. Mind Bullet was a single life masquerading as the center of the universe.
When the world crumbled, Izuku would prop it up in spite of his power to escape the debris. MB would do nothing. He’d rather rule over ashes than misbehaving humans he saw as beneath him.
There was only one path such a superiority complex led down. It was a conclusion that had been drawn long before humanity became an Awakened species. A psychopath, born of ancient Gods and taboo science. Even with the greatest weapons of the Higher Beings aimed at Earth, humanity would always find a way to try and engineer their own destruction. Perhaps it gave them a sense of control over the uncontrollable.
Raia had no care for Endeavor, and he couldn’t get involved due to the limitations on his Soul and the necessity to see through the war with Higher Beings to its end, but even then, he offered Endeavor a “good luck.”
*******
Back on Earth, Enji couldn’t see the same message, but he had something now that he never did before. An intimate understanding of the Reaper’s chilly aura.
MB was bearing down on him with the weight of a planet. His Mana suddenly overflowed, giving Endeavor a taste of death once again.
Quirks and Skills were different in that way. A National-Rank Skill wouldn’t put you on the same power level as a Quirk of that nature. Really, Quirks were simply far more unique and potent Skills.
Nor was MB on the level of a Primordial. There were the Pure ones, born of only Primordial energy - and the Impure, who were the mutts of a Pure Primordial and non-Primordial. The genetics only continued to dilute as you went further down, and human genes did it no favors. But it was still Primordial blood in his body.
And that was there the name came from. Mind Bullet. With enough force, he could invert the space inside someone’s skull and crush their gray matter into mush. If he was precise enough about it, he could make it look like natural causes. Even if the family ordered an autopsy, would they find the small deviations that led to someone’s death? MB was almost as perfect an assassin as the Shadows. His meta-physical touch was about as strong as Izuku’s Gravity Magic was during his fight with Beru. His versatility rivaled Star’s.
So when Endeavor compressed his flames into a blue burn and shot them out, so finely compressed as to cut like a blade, MB smothered them instantly.
“What are you even doing here?” The psionic asked. “It’s only Thomas Andre. A decently intelligent man could escape his grasp. Either you’re stupid enough to remain and fight his battles, or you have no will of your own.” MB’s eyes were empty, his limbs limp and lifeless. His voice felt like the heat death of the universe turned into sound waves. “Tell me. Then I’ll kill you.”
“Of course a man with the power to do anything thinks everything is easy,” Endeavor spat in return, suppressing his fear.
MB scoffed and reached out to crush Enji’s brain. He didn’t need to make this one look like an accident.
But in the moments before he could reach through the universe, using his Soul to control NULL and ABSOLUTE Particles, a voice out, using Enji’s vocal chords.
“Yogumunt told me to show up later. Be grateful, maggot. You forced my hand. The hand of a God! Your life was meaningless before that moment.”
Endeavor’s flames changed from orange to blue, then from blue to white-hot, and finally from white to invisible. They became so powerful that their wavelength vanished from the visible spectrum, crushing MB’s psionic energy.
“And after this moment, I will give it even more meaning,” Endeavor, or rather, the being possessing him gave a grim smirk. “I’ve always been jealous of the Monarchs. They get to cut free, truly free. I’ve been so held back by my siblings… I never got to play with my food.”
“Wha-”
“Do try to survive more than sixty seconds.”
MB scowled. “Who do you think you are?” It was a genuine question. He saw the change in Enji’s Mana and personality. This truly was a different entity.
“I am the greatest of creations our father bred. I am the Holiest Fragment of Brilliant Light! I am Razar!”
(-------)
Letter 1
To Izuku,
Today marks the fifth week. I really didn’t think I’d have to start writing these, but something is compelling me. I think it’s the Vestige. I’m perceiving the world through a lens of sorts, like I’m watching a movie or reading a book.
His (Waruk’s) Vestige is the manifestation of an entire solar system, one at war with some sort of robot war machine. I think his name might be the Gardener. Not sure if that has any significance.
You and Momo always use movie terminology to communicate, so I’m trying my best to learn as well! It’s sort of like I’m trapped in a war movie, where the soldiers move from trench-to-trench, climbing over the dead in the process.
The A.I. seems to be using very advanced machines, but super basic tactics. Not a whole lot makes logical sense in here. Neither me nor the Shadows can sort it out, but we’re managing to stick together and hunker down.
We’ve been darting from military fort to military fort. Waruk is way too strong in here for us, so we’re waiting out the “Hunt.” As you can imagine, it’s not easy for me to sit still, but if my choices are being bored to death or never seeing you again, I’ll settle for being bored enough to write these stupid letters that you’ll probably never see because this is all the manifestation of a God’s Soul. Maybe I should stop writing stream of conscious… Let me catch you up to speed…
(-------)
Letter 17
Yeah I got bored again. Not gonna write “Dear Izuku,” everytime, so deal with it! It’s week six, and we finally managed to get on a space transport. Apparently we were on Venus that entire time. It was terraformed, just like Kei and Momo were talking about for the future of the company. Massive forests and green mountains. It's beautiful, but it starts to get “same-y” very quickly. I can only look at so many trees before it gets boring again.
Hopefully time slows down in here. If it's like the time you spent in Star’s Vestige, I’ll be here for years back home. I understand if I come back to you having even more wives, but I’m trusting you to not move on from me completely!
But anyways, I can see now why you spent so much time on those Particle Weavers. This is pretty special, and I bet your work will be even more beautiful.
Makes me wonder why Waruk is giving us such a view. Why is his Vestige so pretty? I expected a dark forest or underground murder pit, not sprawling scenes of a galaxy at war. Admittedly that last one probably shouldn’t be beautiful, but it is. Now… how do I get out of it?
Tank, Arcka, Baruka, and Solomon tried all sorts of Magical stuff, but nothing changed. Either we have to wait out this Vestige, or we have to kill Waruk inside of it. I really don’t like that last option. I like fighting, but not when it's so obviously unwinnable.
(-------)
Letter 40
This is something you once asked me, and I didn’t have an answer for you then, but I’ve spent the last two months thinking on it. Don’t make fun of me for taking so long, these Shadows aren’t exactly the psychiatric type so I was relying on my brain alone, and we both know how dangerous that is.
The question was: “Why haven’t I met your siblings?”
The three of them… I had a lot going on in my life. Trying to care for them, deal with their abuse trauma and my own. I needed to put food on the table while getting an education (before I got my Awakening). I sorta became the thing I hated, an abrasive and brash maternal figure.
I was never physical with them, I’d never go that far. But you know me, I don’t have a filter. So when I had a bad day, when all of them were wearing down on me, I said something rude. Over the course of our messy lives, I did that a few too many times. And we all said a little too much to each other. We were already so tired and broken from our mother’s abuse that we had no ground left to give, no more armor to corrode away.
I send them money, but never talk to them because I’m afraid what I’ll say wrong next. I don’t know if we can still bridge that gap.
It begs the question of why I don’t feel this way with you. Have I changed for the better, or are you merely better at handling me than my siblings were? I don’t know what the truth is.
It scares me not to know the absolute truth of things like this.
(-------)
Letter 107
A horrible thought crossed my mind today. What if this Vestige is visible to the outside world and no one’s broken in yet because… no one is left. It's been a year inside and I know time works weird in these things, but it still scares me. A year not seeing you, or Momo, or Kaina, or Kei! It makes my mind come up with crazy things.
Dead or alive, I just don’t want you guys to leave me behind. That sounds morbid as hell, I’m not wishing anyone dead, it's just that, whatever happens, I want it to leave us all together in the end. No this still sounds horrible, like I’m wishing for us to all die at the same time. I really should just stop writing, but if you’re not gonna read these, why not waste some time…
(-------)
Letter 133
Okay so this is the farthest we’ve gotten in understanding the Vestige.
- Inside the boundary of Waruk’s Vestige is a solar system at war.
- On terrestrial grounds, his power is magnified a hundred-fold.
- In space, his power is normal… or at least normal for a Monarch. Manageable for us at least.
- He can teleport between any of the planets so long as he’s standing on one of them.
- In order to maintain the Vestige, he goes into space to collect something.
That last one is just our theory. If he can teleport between planets then he never needs to enter space, but we’ve seen him do it on rare occasions. We also heard him mutter something about “feeding” and how all the corpses around him weren’t “right.”
Basically, he created his Vestige to give him an insane powerboost, but he didn’t like how short the hunt was, so in order to extend his Vestige’s duration, he added a negative clause to it.
You told me when you created your Vestige it was like trying to weigh things on a scale. Balancing the good with the bad. The good weighed less on the scale, for every 5 positive quality traits, you needed one trade-off.
Your Pillar of Reality allowed you everything you asked for with the one downside being that it couldn’t force someone to understand your position, and it couldn’t make you stronger than the people you brought in. It was balanced is what I’m saying.
Waruk’s is balanced if there’s some sort of tradeoff happening, such as needing to raid space, where he’s weaker, for some sort of resource to keep the Vestige going for this length of time.
So our best options are these:
- Steal the “food” before Waruk can get to it. Basically starve out the Vestige and we get free from it.
- Ambush him when he’s looking for this “food,” in space and is weaker. He’ll still be a Monarch though, so it’s more of a risk.
We’re gonna start with option 1, see if we can starve it out. At the same time, we’ll be prepared to take him on each time we go out on the hunt. If conflict is avoidable, that would be best, I’m not looking to die in here.
(-------)
Letter 135
Good news! We found the “food” pretty quickly.
Bad news! The “food” is a space worm the size of a skyscraper that gives Waruk a run for his money. He’s way too obsessed with fighting for his life.
I think it’s given me perspective on my own likeness for the sport of combat. I don’t like losing, I’m not sure I’m prepared to lose. Waruk is. He goes into his own Vestige with the understanding that in order to maintain it, he has to be willing to die.
I don’t think that’s the sorta person I am. I was prepared to die in the heat of the moment on Jeju, but if you told me upfront that Beru would be there, and be as strong as he was, I wouldn’t be able to force myself into that fight.
Does that make me a coward? To only enjoy the thought of a fight I win? To only have that adrenaline rush when I’m dominating a battle?
I think that’s why I can’t help but admire you. You’re the sorta guy who can go into a fight knowing he’ll lose, but still tries his best anyways.
You showed up to fight the nastiest beast I’d ever encountered with a smile on your face and the promise that everything would be okay. That’s the sort of person I love.
///////////////////////////////////
Everything collapsed, like a snow globe shattering and spilling its contents onto the ground.
Rumi and the Shadows found themselves in the dry, arid land, filled with gunfire and artillery barrages.
“You…” Waruk growled, red lightning flashing around him, disrupting his Vestige Manifestation. “You really are worthy of being an Empress. A brief period gone, and you almost managed to manifest your own Vestige.”
“I did?!” She asked in shock.
“Self-actualization. It’s a powerful thing,” Waruk replied with a grotesque smile. “If my prey cannot come to terms with their own being, then they are not worthy of the hunt. That is why my Vestige is so… complicated. I crave a complete meal. Not a husk ! You are certainly the former!” He extended his hand. “Once more, I should ask: Will you be my Empress?”
Rumi smirked and responded with two words. “Bunny Dragon!”
[Beastly Empress DNA: Onyx]
Rumi had a lot of time to practice with her new powers, and of all the DNA she’d played around with so far, Onyx was the most appealing.
Her Mana ballooned in size, scales growing alongside a tail and wings. Her muscles rippled and then contracted, growing dense with Magical energies. Her bones hardened and her teeth elongated. It was an incredibly painful process, changing the entire structure of her body to fit the stronger species.
“Ah,” Waruk breathed out. “That is the much more satisfying answer.”
[Beastly Empress DNA: Rig]
Her body felt like it was about to sink through the earth itself as the Rig DNA built literal metal around her bones and organs. Her body wouldn’t hold up otherwise. Not in a fight with a Monarch. But a Rig?
The relation between Rigs and Demoliths seemed so blatantly obvious. Demoliths provided for their builder companions in the Rig species. However, it was actually far more absurd.
The Demoliths had once tried to eradicate Rigs, seeing them as an annoying pest, but they found that the Rigs were too hard to kill. They were entirely harmless beings, but also nigh indestructible. In other words, the Demoliths chose to cooperate with the Rigs because even they, mighty giants of Magical energy, could not quash such a humble creature.
Enhanced with everything else pouring through her body? A Rig given attacking capabilities and an aggressive temper would scare even the heartiest of Chaotic who knew them.
[Beastly Empress DNA: Orinius Centurion]
Pushing the bounds of her new ability, Rumi stacked one final set of DNA atop her own. It was a species that Izuku’s Shadows encountered during their time spent cleaning up Russia’s Gates.
They were a species of echinoderms, similar to starfish, made of pure light. They were extremely fast, omnidirectional creatures with Soul-based attacks.
Rumi felt her body grow light once more, but she struggled to maintain her physical form, like her mind was slipping away from her own body. If the Rig DNA wasn’t making her feel so heavy, she would’ve simply vanished into thin air from the strain. But she needed this, she needed speed and she needed the ability to hit Waruk’s Soul.
Her form ballooned and stretched, streaking out like visual glitches in a video game. She could barely hold herself together, and yet, Waruk waited patiently. He saw something glorious waiting for him. This wasn’t about the Monarchs and Rulers. The war now meant nothing to him.
Behind her, Tank grew in size, mountainous chunks of ice ready to be fired off like Artillery. Baruka conjured a storm of intense cold, freezing everything it touched. Arcka contrasted it with a hail of lightning that bounced around the blizzard. And Solomon… was nowhere to be seen.
Suddenly, the cold rushed over Waruk, obscuring his vision. All he could see was the flashing of lights and the smell of frozen terrain. It reminded him of a time when he was a much younger God, hunting on a glacier planet that was a light chill compared to the harshness of Baruka’s storm.
The nostalgia overtook him, like a child returning home for the first time in years. Memories he thought lost flooding back.
He took a deep breath, a function he rarely needed to perform. The scorching cold burned his lungs. For just a moment, he thought about lying down to take a nap. Everything felt… right.
But he was still a God of the Hunt.
All at once, the calm was broken. A thousand shards of Magically reinforced ice shot at him from all directions and Arcka’s lightning flashed.
The lightning hit first. Wherever it struck, giant Mana crystals formed, and even Waruk’s claws could only gouge deep furrows in them, as opposed to shattering outright. The icicles filled the gaps between the crystal shards, or peppered Waruk’s skin.
He smirked. “Trying to restrict my movement? I do best at close-quarters.” He sat patiently, waiting for the Beastly Empress to jump into the makeshift fighting ring with him. Instead, a whistling noise broke through the harsh storm.
Even though he was “just” a Grand-Marshal, Tank's artillery barrage couldn’t really be compared to anything the planet had ever seen before. The shards of ice, crystalline in nature, held Mana extremely well.
On impact, their detonation seemed no greater than any other terrestrial artillery technology. They were shockingly tame for containing an energy that outclassed most of humanity’s greatest fighters.
But Mana was mostly empty space. Energy without mass. And it didn’t disperse like other forms of energy. Kinetic blasts that shattered rock or exothermic reactions that melted anything it came into contact with. Mana was both destructive and quaint when it came to the physical world. It could make explosions to dwarf nuclear warheads, but that didn’t mean it had to in order to deliver a sizable punch.
This was all a result of the very abstract quantum mechanics that governed Magic in the first place. It was not some easily defined variable that added energy to any equation by default. It was so much more bizarre than that.
So even the minute icy detonations, with all their power, didn’t heat up the surrounding area, but sent intense freezing power through Waruk’s body, ripping it apart and slowing it down.
“Barrage from a distance? They won’t be able to maintain something like that forever, and this can’t kill me. Buying time or-” Waruk felt a massive surge of Mana gathering within the storm, bouncing around thanks to Baruka’s efforts to obscure it. “She’s part Onyx!” Waruk realized in shock, not having thought of that species for some time.
Through the blizzard, a glow emerged, attached to the head of the creature Rumi now was. Her jaw almost unhinged as a power not quite of this universe condensed.
Rumi suddenly closed her mouth to just bare her teeth, directing the Breath Attack into a narrow stream of destruction. Behind her, Solomon was finally revealed, channeling as many beastly aspects as he could, drawing upon the life around them, scant as it may be.
It was Apex Magic, based in two forms, Earth and Water. Life Magic.
In function, it was almost oxymoronic. It was a pure force of energy that could be used for almost anything. It was theorized by ancients of the universe to be the Magic by which Souls themselves were birthed, and there was nothing more potent than a Soul.
At that moment, the Beastly Empress was channeling countless forms of life from her singular servant as well as something else… the desire to live on.
There was a reason Life Magic was not so well-understood. It was just as dynamic and fluid as Souls themselves. Very few beings had ever so much as witnessed it, let alone harness it. It reacted to all forms of life, even those wrought from the very canals of the mind.
Rumi was not attempting to use it for anything delicate, nor did she even think she could. All she was feeling was a desire to see him again. To live on just long enough to spend time with him, with Izuku. Years inside that Vestige - mere moments in the physical world - became power.
Waruk couldn’t dodge in time. He had never experienced more pain in his entire life. It was like he was being torn apart on the atomic level, and for all his Godhood, the downside was that he could live to feel every atom being pulled away from its brethren.
He came to only a moment later, his body pulling itself back together as the being made of light rushed his way.
Waruk was barely a left side, his right side completely obliterated and not even beginning the regeneration process. Most beings in the universe would simply drop dead. He, on the other hand, dropped to his left side, avoiding a wide sweeping kick from the God-like “Bunny Dragon” attacking him.
He pushed off the ground with his one good hand, avoiding another axe kick that decimated the arid ground.
His proficiency in Magic, and fighting Magic, sucked. But when it came to a physical confrontation? He could keep up with just half his body working. He even got the chance to lash out with his incisors, catching only empty air.
His aggression caught up with him, and Rumi pivoted using the Onyx wings and tail, kicking him upside the head.
Waruk flew so far he exited the blizzard. It was actually part of his plan. He was struggling to get out of that environmental hazard with all the Shadows, so why not take a hit and let Rumi do all the work for him?
His Soul buckled under the attack, but it didn’t even come close to dying out. His body’s regeneration was immense, and by the time Rumi caught up with him, he was fully formed once again.
“Come on! Let’s do this for real!” He shouted, falling to the ground perfectly in sync with the newly born Empress.
She couldn’t manage another Breath Attack, and Waruk had been deeply wounded by the blast. The Shadows wouldn’t be able to keep up at this pace. They had done their job to support her initial exchange and give her a chance at going toe-to-toe with a Monarch.
The two Gods of the Hunt took a deep breath, and landed on solid earth like cats, not a single stone broken. That was when the Earth shook.
Even Izuku’s Gravity Magic seemed quaint in comparison to the physical exertion of the beasts. Their legs and arms collided with such intensity that any soldier taking part in the war in Turkey, civil resistance, or invaders, began to cower. It was like the end of days, a sensation that no shell shock could match.
Exchanges of kinetic force so intense that they created miniature flashes of atomic energy.
For a time, Rumi managed to match one of the strongest Monarchs in existence, one of the strongest living Gods. But…
“It’s lonely up here, ain’t it?!” He growled, driving his palm into her chest. “Here at the top?! No one but us!”
Rumi’s kick was intercepted, deftly deflected into the earth. Another strike crossed her face, rocking her mind.
“That’s my hunt! For someone to fill that void! Even if for just a second!” He tore off Rumi’s wings, her modifications beginning to falter in the face of a much more experienced hunter. “That second is up!” He declared. “You are alone!”
In the briefest moments between exchanges, Waruk was pushed off-balance. Not by any of Rumi’s attacks or defensive measures, but by the smile on her face.
Voices coalesced and echoed from every corner of the world, brought together by the Dark Magic of the Shadow Monarch. Momo, Izuku, and Kaina.
“Did you really think…”
“We’d leave her behind…”
“With the likes of you?!”
Rumi had been alone for a long time. She was alone no longer.
Waruk smiled even wider and spread his arms, exposing his chest. He had yet to spot his new prey, but they’d soon make themselves known. “Outnumbered, but don’t think for even a moment that I’m outcla-”
A shard of metal tore him in half from brain to crotch.
“ODIN!”
No one else could’ve done it. Calculations on the level of Gates. Momo did it in a split second, with help from Deep Blue and his Skill.
*******
[Orbital]
- Passive Skill
- Class: S-Rank
- Cost: Nothing
- Description: The User has an implicit and instantaneous understanding of orbital mechanics even when lacking certain variables.
*******
With the mental link between the Shadow Empress and Deep Blue, she could rapidly construct and direct the mass drivers on the moon. Instead of launching solar panels to orbit the sun, or Particle Weavers to other planets, she had them launch monoliths of Magical Metals.
In order to launch even one at full speed, she had to turn off every other construct taking up energy on the moon. It wasn’t efficient, but in return, she achieved a velocity of astronomical proportions. Had the railgun shot been made of something like titanium, it would’ve instantly evaporated the moment it struck Earth’s atmosphere. The speed would’ve torn it apart.
But with the durability of Magic, it ran through the atmosphere at a hundred times terminal velocity. Were it not for the non-standard physics of the material, it would have fused particles together and created an unimaginably large fusion detonation. Something that would’ve put the Tsar Bomba to shame.
Thankfully for the people of Earth, it merely liquefied the ground beneath Waruk, burying itself so deep that it broke through the crust and reached the mantle. It probably wouldn’t be a good idea to pelt Earth with them often, but they did the trick against even the hardiest of Gods.
“You can’t-”
As if to insult the proud Monarch, his two halves, speaking in unison, were cut off a second time by a shot heard around the world.
All the way in America, Kaina let loose a shot that traversed nearly half the planet to reach Turkey and strike what Momo’s Odin couldn’t. Waruk’s Soul.
The two bullets, with quite the difference in size and impact, striking within seconds of each other, served to annihilate most of what made Waruk tick. His Soul and body ripped to shreds and forced to pull itself back together after all the damage from Rumi, the Shadows, Momo, and Kaina.
All of it, impressive as it was, was merely a distraction. A brief window of opportunity for the Shadow Monarch.
Slipping from the darkness, seeing his family fighting, he was filled with every emotion known to man. Dread that these were the beings still to come, that this was just a small taste of their power. But also elation.
Sung Jin-Woo could’ve been the Shadow Monarch, once upon a time, but he would’ve had to leave his family and friends behind. He was to become the sole arbiter of Death.
Izuku, in contrast, was surrounded by those he could stand beside. Not just the rest of Earth’s strongest, not just the undead, but actual loved ones.
Anger that they could be threatened. Joy that they could win the fights humanity would’ve once thought impossible. It was so much emotion. So much feeling . And it forced his hand in a way he hadn’t been expecting.
He appeared with the intent to beat Waruk to death in the same way he killed Quaresha. Gravity and Soul Magic. It was still a reliable strategy, and yet, he was pulled away from it by a sensation that was so unendingly powerful it nullified his perception of the universe itself. It unlocked the shackles of humanity and allowed him to manifest a theoretical power.
It existed for a fraction-of-a-fraction of a second. It was such a small space of time that scientific measurements would’ve said it never happened.
Izuku’s Gravity Magic was not a tool of Gods. It couldn’t warp space enough to create a black hole… big enough to actually affect anything. But when Izuku’s mind narrowed, when Death became him and he became Death, there was a window of opportunity to form a black hole at the smallest level.
On its own, it would do nothing. It didn’t have the mass or energy to be a weapon, unless Izuku could also manifest the opposite. An unconfirmed celestial body that had never been seen. A white hole.
It was a theoretical interaction that Izuku held in reserve. Two infinite forces of contradicting mechanics colliding in a space that couldn’t be measured. It was practically fantasy… and yet…
Waruk pulled himself back together, growling at Izuku and preparing to lunge. Izuku was going to say something, but the words caught on something. Like he was too in the zone to care about anything else.
“I’ll rip your fucking throat-”
“One For All - Fa Jin”
A lash of… something, struck out. It wasn’t energy, it wasn’t gravity, it wasn’t Magic of any kind, and it wasn’t physical. Spatial Magic was easy for Gods, but what about time? That was more difficult. Both at the same time, with such force, was basically impossible. A one-in-a-trillion chance of even happening.
It was a paradox-based attack. Fa Jin was space and time. A critical strike that broke reality.
The unstoppable force and the immovable object working together. It almost split the planet in half. Izuku somehow managed to direct it like a Pulsar, a singular beam in one direction.
“N-”
A small hole formed in Waruk’s chest, and it expanded like a virus. It wasn’t just tearing through him… it was erasing him from existence. If your time and space was being obliterated… where did you exist?
You simply were ‘no more.’
“I’d like to have lived just long enough… to see you and Antares battle…” Those were Waruk’s last words, and they changed the course of history.
In Death, Higher Beings gave up all concerns. The mortal plane was no longer for them. The lives inhabiting it were less than meaningless.
But in the course of being erased, Waruk’s words carried to the ends of the universe. It altered a law that not even Ashborn could change. It was the same technicality that brought Ashborn back, the same force that made him a God of Death. A God, with a wish more respectable than Quaresha’s or any other Monarch, desired to stay after life, so the NULL force intervened.
[Error]
[Attempting Admin Intervention]
[Error: System cannot override NULL]
“Izuku,” Raia’s voice carried across the cosmos. “You remain responsible for him.”
[System Allocation: Temporary Shadow Slot Added]
“Arise, Rakan, Monarch of Beastly Fangs.”
Izuku’s vision changed the moment he spoke those words. Suddenly he found himself standing before a tree made of black metal. Its roots were buried in the similarly dark sands. It was an island in darkness, and beyond the land, there was an ocean of bright-red water that eerily illuminated the submerged beach.
“I suppose introductions are in order.” A robotic tone filled the air and spun around to face the monstrous figures in the shade of the tree that bore their fruit.
A dragonman, a metal reaper, a scarred assassin and many more. Some bore his face like the dragon, others, like the assassin appeared to be duplicates of Momo.
“Izuku Midoriya, the Shadow Monarch. I am the NULL Lord, Izuku Oric Serax.” The dragonman said. His green hair contrasted well against his black scales. “Welcome to our anchored point in time and space. The NULL Beach.”
The metal reaper, who Izuku somehow knew was the Gardener, spoke the final fateful words. “You’re one of us now.”