This work is a piece of fiction. While 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.
For the effects of the story, all characters are to be considered above the majority age.
Reader discretion is advised.
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DxD Multiverse, Urakyoto, Japan.
In a training ground surrounded by tall wooden enchanted walls and formidable trees, the hero faces the demon lord and the four heavenly kings.
"AGHHHH!" The hero shouts to power up and bravely crawls toward certain doom.
His body is battered by the vicissitudes of mortal combat. His eyes are focused on the 'prize'. His fist balled. His butthole clenched.
"I CAN'T BE STOPPED!" He lounges at his foe. Motivation at 1000%. Confidence at 0,0001%
A certain mentality is required to recognize certain doom and, even then, move towards it.
"BOOST!" The hero's cheat makes an appearance.
"Not enough," the first of the heavenly kings says with little care for the absolute display of bravery of the hero. No, in fact, there's disdain in the heavenly king's eyes. As if staring at a piece of excrement of particular revulsion.
The infantile hand of the heavenly king lights up in her innate fox fire. Cerulean flames harmlessly shroud her little hand, and with a straight jab, she gifts this flame to the unsuspecting left cheek of the hero.
Flames that behaved in her hands, now a vicious curse fixed on burning it all.
"IT BURNSSSSS!" All manner of bravery and heroism is lost at the sudden introduction of pain.
Like a little bitch, the hero cups his flaming cheek and rolls on the ground with tears flowing like rivers. His hand catches fire, and that only makes it worse.
"KUNOU-CHAN! STOP IT!" The hero pleads with no regard for his image.
"You want Mama's breasts," the heavenly king says accusingly. "Your eyes never left Mama's breasts."
And what an achievement that was. He faced certain doom, yet his eye never left the prize.
"Foxy OPPAI are irresistible!" The hero shouts loud enough for his ancestors to facepalm. Even the pain of third-degree burns can't stop the horny.
"Pain is the staple of a growing warrior," the strongest of the heavenly kings declares. However, besides acknowledging this fact, she doesn't care for the hero's efforts.
"... Ddraig, weak," the second strongest of the heavenly kings adds while looking listlessly at the rolling-in-the-ground hero.
"Ara, didn't you declare to be invincible if these girls were on the table?" The last of the heavenly kings crosses her arms below her plentiful breasts before accentuating them. The prize.
"Ugh, this is sad." Even the demon king pities the hero. "Cub, please put your fire out."
Kunou, clearly the weakest of the heavenly kings, shows mercy to the hero.
And so, the saga of the Oppai hero comes to an end.
The End.
━━━━━━━ ● ━━━━━━━
"That was sad, kid," Aragorn, the demon king, said to the splayed Issei.
"Ugh, I can't say I don't know where you're coming from, but please spare me," Issei complained. Compared to the shivering mess he was the first two days after his arrival, the fact that he could complain showed some progress... at least in the mentality department.
"Kunou was the weakest. How come you could not put up any semblance of a fight?" Aragorn asked with a shiteating grin.
"Yeah? How is that any fair?!" Issei exclaimed in disagreement. "Kunou-chan has been trained since she can remember. All the training I have is how to do the dishes and separate my clothes by color."
"Details, never mind the details," Aragorn said, his grin not dropping. "Tell me, what did you do wrong?"
"I should have used [Boost] before moving to face Kunou-chan, not while on the move," Issei said.
"That's one of the many mistakes you made; you should also try to fight without having your eyes dart to Yasaka's bust, but so long as you're identifying and working to correct your failure points, it's good," Aragorn said.
"Ugh..." he grunted and then went silent for a moment, as if gathering his resolve. "Again?" He asked with a quiver in his lips.
"Again!" Aragorn cast healing magic on him before returning to his role as the demon king. "Come, Oppai Hero! Defeat me and I'll give you half of the world's oppai!"
"AGHHHH!" The hero shouted to power up and bravely crawled toward certain doom.
"I CAN'T BE STOPPED!" He shouted as if this had not been the umpteenth re-run of the same scene in the day.
"At least his motivation is unfaltering," Yasaka commented with an amused smile while her daughter returned to her training for pulling back punches. Not every day could one find such a convenient punching bag.
"I have no reference frame, but compared to the previous wielders of this Sacred Gear, how does he fare?" Phoenix asked.
The fame of the Boosted Gear is widely known; however, for Phoenix, who was observing and evaluating her subject, after she forcibly awakened his Sacred Gear and set him up to fight for the first time, the experience was utterly disappointing. The legend was without a doubt not living up to its thunder.
"I'm not that old myself, so I can't talk about before my time, but for the past centuries, the Red Dragon Emperors I've met or heard of have never been this feeble," Yasaka commented under her breath, to spare the kid the embarrassment.
"What do you think?" Phoenix asked Aragorn.
"Mmmmm, it's like having a Bugatti, but so little fuel that you need to drive mindfully or risk ending up towed," Aragorn shared his analysis. "He has the tool, but he can't use it."
"Host is weak," Ophis added.
"Do you mean his body?" Phoenix turned to Ophis.
"The purpose of [Boost] is not to strengthen Ddraig," Ophis explained. "[Boost] cancels [Divide], [Boost] is not meant for boosting."
"Ara?" Yasaka asked with a hand to her cheek. She was as confused as Phoenix. [Boost] was not meant for boosting? That made no sense.
"Oh, I see." Of course, there was Aragorn, who seemed to be able to understand Ophis with the minimum amount of words.
"Explain," Phoenix demanded. Yasaka nodded in support.
"Ophis means that Ddraig didn't [Boost] himself preemptively; he waited for Albion to [Divide] before boosting and returning to normal. Most likely, boosting his power beyond what his vessel could handle was dangerous," Aragorn explained. "The original purpose of [Boost] was not to strengthen, so, with a host as weak as the kid, it doesn't have the minute control to [Boost] him without damaging. It was meant for use by a dragon with a draconic body. Like using a hammer to screw a screw, it's possible but..."
"I think I follow," Phoenix said. "Throwing caution to the wind, technically, the Sacred Gear could lift the kid to its legends, but only once."
"That sounds like the Juggernaut Drive," Yasaka commented. The others nodded.
"So the path is obvious, no?" Aragorn asked.
"Mhmm," Phoenix asserted.
"Nhn," Ophis voiced out in approval.
"The hormonal kid will suffer until his body is remodeled by breaking and healing," Yasaka said.
"The other choice is to change his race," Aragorn said. "Preferably, a draconic variant."
"Let's hold on to that," Phoenix said. "I want to observe how the Sacred Gear operates in its natural state."
"There are other avenues to pursue before going the extreme way," Yasaka added. She worried that Issei would not be eager to leave behind his humanity. "Touki is a viable path."
"Don't worry about it, Yasaka. Kids these days are less concerned about conserving their humanity; in fact, becoming part dragon is a novelty on its own," Aragorn said.
Aragorn's gaze was fixed on the trashing Kunou was handing Issei, and occasionally, when needed, he would cast healing magic on him. A broken arm wasn't an excuse to slack off. Third and fourth degree burns? Those were not either. Collapsed lungs? That's but a scratch.
At the end of the day, to preserve the innocence of Kunou's eyes, Issei was left fighting only in his underwear. Any other part of his body had been burned at least once. Even his hair was gone.
The girls went away, Yasaka to prepare for the evening, Phoenix to work on her Sacred Gear creation, and Ophis with Kunou to take a warm bath.
Issei, his mind clouded by the beating of his life, heard only Aragorn's deliberate footsteps upon approaching his fallen body.
"So? What do you think?" Aragorn asked. "It will be more of the same for a long time and then even more before you gain the strength to stand on your own, not considering having the power to protect your family."
"Ugh," Issei groaned. He felt that was the appropriate response.
He was not in pain, not physical pain, mind you, with how much thorough healing he had received, but the emotional and psychological sense of defeat and exhaustion was real.
"I think I will accept Yasaka-sama's offer to move my parents to Kyoto," he said.
He started with the objective of gaining enough power to depend on no one and protect himself and his parents on his own. However, after being shown how arduous and slow the path to power was, he had to come to a decision and compromise.
"So you'll side with the Youkai faction," Aragorn said. "Does it have something to do with Yasaka's tits?"
"Agh," he rasped as he shifted to sit down. "No, well, not entirely." He looked away sheepishly.
"If only you kept your mouth shut and didn't voice out your licentious thoughts, you would be perceived in a better light," Aragorn commented with exasperation. "So, what's the reason?" Aragorn asked after sighing audibly.
"Ophis-chan...sama(?) is too foreign. I fear that while I'll have protection under her, it won't give me the same sense of security that being under an 'adult' would," he said.
"That's well-thought-out," Aragorn agreed. "Ophis can be an idiot, and she is an airhead."
"I didn't say that, if anybody asks," Issei looked around conspiratorially. "Then you said that Phoenix-sama and you will eventually leave, most likely."
"That's true as well, chances are that we'll leave and even if we don't leave forever, we would be away for extended periods," Aragorn said.
"Right, and your sense of time is incompatible with mine," Issei voiced out. "So that leaves Yasaka-sama as the only real option, more so since the fallen angels and devils are unknowns to me. I'd rather not end up a second-class citizen or a slave, much less my parents."
"Looks like you put some real thought into it, kid," Aragorn said with a pointed look of surprise.
"Hey, this is my parents we're talking about. You don't joke with your family's safety," Issei said with a look that one wouldn't find on an oppai-pervert. In fact, bald as he was now and talking about family, he was missing only a 1970 Dodge Charger R/T and a tank top.
"At least not everything is about boobs in your life," Aragorn poked humorously at him. "So, how do you want to proceed?"
"That..." he looked unsure. "I don't know."
"You're still a kid; if you don't know what to do, simply ask a trustworthy adult," Aragorn advised.
"Will you help me with it?" Issei asked, a hopeful expression.
"Not me, Oppai-pervert," Aragorn shook his head with a mocking grin. "Ask your new master, she would be the one taking responsibility for you and your pervertedness."
"Hey! I'm not that bad!" Issei, from his sand castle, declared in defense.
"I'll take back my words if you manage to ask Yasaka for help without glancing once at her cleavage," Aragorn deadpanned at him.
"Ugh, that's impossible! Have you seen how those foxy oppai spill out?!" The pervert declared.
"Disgusting little shit," Aragorn flicked his forehead.
"Agh! Don't kill me!" Issei shouted while rubbing his forehead.
"I gave you some advice and you threw it away," Aragorn spoke with a disappointed tone.
"What advice?" Issei asked, confusion creeping into his voice.
"You're not ugly, you have potential, your body is healthy and health can be a turn on, you have a good heart, your soul is not ugly, you are not deformed, and you were blessed since birth by that Sacred Gear," Aragorn said.
"Thank you, though some of those characteristics sounded too specific," Issei said.
"What I meant to say is that you're not a bad match-up for a female, but first, second, and third impressions matter. If it were not for your stupid mouth blabbering about oppai at any moment, you would actually have a good shot at your harem dream," Aragorn said.
"Do you truly think so? And how did you know I want to have a harem?" Issei asked.
"I have no need to lie, and I don't need to be a psychic dragon to notice a fact all but Kunou noticed from interacting with you just twice," Aragorn said.
"Hehehe," Issei chuckled bashfully.
"That's why I advised you not to allow your mouth to lead you," Aragorn said with some visible exasperation. "In human society, your dream may have an infinitesimal shot, but in Urakyoto, harems are the standard for the strong. Some female youkai even seek to join harems rather than pushing for monogamy," Aragorn added.
"What? Really? Why?" Issei asked with unmasked eagerness and interest.
"In nature, the males are the protectors, the fighters, the physically adept. In a species that evolved and grew along supernatural energies, this difference can be even more stark than in nature," Aragorn said. "While it's true that a female empowered by magic can be just as powerful and dangerous as a male, the difference in natural roles can't be breached that easily, minus some exceptions like Yasaka and others.
"Take the average female and male, give them the same resources, and after a while, you'll get a male way above the female in level. Magic, prana, demonic power, touki, holy power, and most forms of supernatural energy tend to highlight the natural aspects of an individual; hence, males tend to outpower females in fields such as stamina."
"Ah," Issei blushed, "I understand what you're trying to say."
"Yes, for a female youkai, it can be taxing to be the only partner of a male youkai," Aragorn spelled it out. "While with humans, the difference in refractory periods puts males at a disadvantage, here it is not a real problem."
"... I just need to keep my mouth shut?" Issei asked with a focused gaze.
"Or find ways to express your perverteness that are not considered disgusting," Aragorn said. "You're no Casanova, but you're also not ugly, so you have enough cards to play. If only you could stop sabotaging yourself."
"Why are you telling me this?" Issei asked. "I'm grateful, but you strike me more as an... off-hand kind of person."
"Because you'll make things hard for your new master if you go around perving over her kitsune staff like you've been doing," Aragorn said with a flat face.
"... Ehhehe," Issei chuckled nervously again.
"Yeah, not even a week here and the staff is already thinking about filing a sexual harassment complaint with Yasaka," Aragorn said. "This place is not like that academy of yours run by devil children. Take things too far and you'll end up in a ditch."
"Wha-What?!" Issei frightenly stammered out. "Wait! What was that about Kuoh Academy being run by devils?"
"That academy is run by two of the heiresses of the devil faction," Aragorn revealed. "Otherwise, how would you explain the unnatural tolerance for your and your friends' lecherous behavior?"
"W-W-What?!" Issei exclaimed.
"Well, that was all I wanted to tell you, don't be a pervert in public and don't be an idiot, that's all, bye," Aragorn said.
"Wait! Please explain!" Issei implored, but Aragorn had already disappeared.
'Phoenix, I'll return after dinner,' Aragorn informed Phoenix before leaving.
'Ok,' Phoenix replied.
Aragorn reappeared on the other side of the world, Italy, to be exact. More specifically, in the Vatican.
The reason for this? It was his hoarding instincts as a dragon that led him there.
Some may say that an eldritch slime posing as a dragon can't have draconic instincts. However, that didn't stop Aragorn from recognizing that after the canon of DxD was destroyed by Phoenix and his interference, a certain soul he suspected must have a beautiful shine due to its purity had been released from its fate.
Like the proper hoarding dragon who surrounded itself with all manner of 'treasures'—the souls of his Therions—who better than Aragorn to grateful accept this soul into his hoard?
Like so, for the past few days, Aragorn has kept an eye—literally—on the innocent airheaded nun, Asia Argento.
"Hello, little nun," Aragorn greeted.
"Kyah!" Asia was most logically startled. Who wouldn't after the sudden appearance of a man in your chambers after being branded a witch?
She had been steaming in angst and worry ever since she had been put in solitary confinement after she had been declared a witch for healing a devil.
"Uhm, Sir?" she eyed the inhuman features on Aragorn, and after a second to recompose herself, she said, "You'll get in trouble if they find out you're here with me."
"..." Aragorn stared at her wide-eyed.
"..." Asia studied his inhuman characteristics with boundless curiosity.
"Eh? Is that your first concern?" Aragorn tilted his head skeptically. "Not about how I just showed up in a clearly sealed room, or about my obviously not human appearance, or about who I was, or what I was doing here? Your first concern is about how I'll get in trouble if your wards find me here?"
"But I'm in isolation, Sir. You'll get in trouble if they see you when they next bring my meal of the day," Asia said.
"..." Aragorn was speechless. He was not new to goodwill, but this type of selflessness was... startling.
"Why were you placed in isolation, little nun?" Aragorn asked. He scurried to sit on the feet of the wooden boards that served as her bed.
Although it could be called a room, it might be more accurate to name it a cell. It was small, with a barred window and a locked wooden door. Luckily for Asia, there was an excuse of a toilet in the cell, so she didn't have to do her necessities in a bucket. A bed with wooden planks for a mattress, and finally, a small cupboard with a crucifix.
"Uhmm, It's... I healed someone I shouldn't have," Asia said after some hesitation.
"I see," Aragorn muttered with a pensive look. "My name is Aragorn," he introduced himself with a soft smile. "May I have your name, little nun?"
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Aragorn," Asia replied with a bright smile. "My name is Asia Argento."
"You have a beautiful smile, little nun," Aragorn said while reaching over to cup her face. Asia was startled by the sudden contact, but quickly was overcome with a sense of comfort. "To be able to smile as brightly in such a despairing situation," Aragorn commented. "I envy Yahweh for being the end recipient of your love."
"Uhm, thank you, Mr. Aragorn," Asia said while pushing her face against his palm like a kitten. "I feel strange, why do I feel like crying in your palm, Mr. Aragorn?"
"Uhmm, do you know about the other deities aside from Yahweh?" Aragorn asked.
"I was taught about the heretic deities, but nothing in depth, Mr. Aragorn," Asi replied before placing her hand over Aragorn's and attempting to cuddle it. She was like a puppy starved for contact.
"There's this goddess who I'm friends with, she has this homey feeling to her due to her divinity." Aragorn moved softly to Asia and lifted her to his lap. The nun was too absorbed by the sensation of home and family emanating from Aragorn's palm to care. Aragorn cupped her face with his other hand, and she closed her eyes in solace.
"I learned from her how to project this same homey feeling. Do you like it?" Aragorn asked.
"Yes, Mr. Aragorn," Asia replied softly. "I feel... at ease. Is this how being embraced by a parent feels?"
"Possibly," Aragorn shrugged. "Did you never meet yours?"
"No, I was raised by the church," Asia replied.
"What about your last name?" Aragorn asked. "From the Latin Argentum, meaning silver, I doubt the church would have given you that last name."
"No, my name was embroidered on the sheets where they found me," Asia replied.
"Nevertheless, it suits you," Aragorn affirmed.
"It does?" Asia asked. She leaned her weight on Aragorn's chest and nestled comfortably. Not with the familiarity of strangers, but with something more filial.
"Your soul has a silver light to it," Aragorn pointed out. "Its core shines with a soft and caring silver hue." Aragorn's eyes flickered golden and green, then, as if talking to her soul, he said, "You're beautiful."
"Uhm, thank you, Mr. Aragorn," Asia replied with slow words. "I'm sleepy."
"Why don't you sleep then, little nun?" Aragorn suggested.
"Will you be here when I awake?" Asia asked. "I would like to talk with my friend again."
"Friends, huh... I suppose so," Aragorn said with an amused grin. "Worry not your little brain, my silver soul. I'll be here by the time you return from your travels in the dreaming. But before you go, could you do me a favor and make a short prayer to your lord?"
"Sure," she smiled, pleased. "Oh, Lord in heaven, I thank You for this day's grace. Grant me tranquil repose and Your vigilant benison through the night. And extend this same blessing to my newly made friend. Amen."
Slowly, her eyes closed, and her breathing evened out.
"May it be so, my silver soul," Aragorn whispered. His eyes, that so far had been locked in her soul, now looked above.
His gaze followed after something only he could see, faith. Even when the faith left the mortal dimensions, Aragorn tracked it until it arrived at Heaven's Throne.
"Weird," he commented. "Where's Yahweh?"
Before his death, he may or may not have known that the Biblical God of DxD had died, but after seeing so many die in the war while praying to a deity that never replied, he put aside any thoughts of the same nature. Hence, by when he gained his perfected soul memory ability, he had long ago stopped thinking about any form of higher power.
Thus, even if he once knew, it was not a thought that resurfaced in his mind after gaining his perfected soul memory.
With the same level of care a toddler has for consequences, Aragorn jumped directly to the Throne of Heaven.
"Where's Yahweh?" He asked upon arrival, to a very startled archangel.
"..."
"..."
Archangel and draconic eyes silently stared at one another.
The staring contest didn't last long, though. Aragorn gave a cursory glance at the Throne, his eyes then gazed through the boundaries in the levels of heaven, and quickly spotted the other angels.
He felt the operation was taking too long, so more eyes from under his skin opened up, and in an instant, he had scanned the entire dimension known as heaven.
He turned to the archangel and declared, "He is not here. Can you call him? I have a business proposition to make."
"..." Michael still offered no reply.
Astonished? Flabbergasted? Floored? No, that wasn't it. Not to say he wasn't but what kept his lips closed was not the surprise of the sudden intrusion into the Throne of Heaven, a place he was sure not even the whimsical Infinite could access so seamlessly, no, what really made him silent was that aside from the existential dread Aragorn's power made him experience, he could feel the blessings of more than 50 deities in him. But it was one of these blessings that shocked him silent, his father's.
If he were to ask Aragorn about it, he would reply that it wasn't exactly a blessing, it was a channel to contact the Yahweh from Marvel easily. However, it appeared unmistakably as a blessing.
So, Michael, after sensing the blessing of his dead father on a being he was sure was one of the rumored newborn dragon gods, was beyond flabbergasted.
"Brother?"
And right at that moment, his little sister Gabriel had to enter.
(Let's imagine her dressed like this and not in a string bikini. Or not, whatever floats your boat.)
Like Michael, when her senses caught a whiff of Yahweh's 'blessing' on Aragorn, she too fell silent. However, contrary to him, she managed to ask, "Daddy?" in a broken voice with tears pooling in her large, upturned droopy eyes.
Aragorn turned to her and tilted his head in confusion. "What's the problem?" he asked both seraphs.
Only then did Michael reboot and clear his throat before asking, "You carry our father's blessing, could I ask how that is possible?"
"Yahweh's blessing?" Aragorn asked, appearing even more confused than the Seraphs. "As far as I know, I was never blessed by Yahweh, though I do have a direct communication channel with the Yahweh of my Multiverse."
"Multiverse?" Gabriel asked with her sad, large eyes on Aragorn.
"You can say I come from a place way beyond the Dimensional Gap, a separate Multiverse with its own cosmology," Aragorn explained with a gentle gaze. "There's a Yahweh over there who isn't your father."
Had any of his Therions been here, they would have looked at him strangely for the 'amicable' shift he had for the angels when compared to his usual callous manner.
In reality, like most matters when it concerned him, the reason was that the angels' souls were shiny. Hence, in his heart/mind, the angels occupied a lateral seat to that of the babies.
"So daddy is still... dead?" Gabriel asked with a pained look.
Aragorn appeared in front of Gabriel and, like appeasing a baby, he began to pat her head. For a moment, it almost looked like he was about to cradle her to his chest and gently rock her to sleep.
Yeah, angels definitely occupied the same spot as babies in his heart. Especially the innocent Gabriel.
Gabriel, on her part, felt no apprehension for his sudden teleportation and touch. The 'scent' of Yahweh wafting off of him had some hand in this, but realistically, it was mostly a quirky result of her character.
Additionally, unlike Michael, who could grasp at Aragorn's hidden power due to his connection to the Throne of Heaven and being the standing dimensional lord of the dimension, Gabriel only perceived Aragorn as a powerful being, not a monster on the level of the dragon gods.
Aragorn turned to Michael and asked, "Is that what happened to the Yahweh of this Muliverse?"
"... Father died during the Great War after having taken down our wayward siblings while weakened," Michael replied in a pained voice after a moment of consideration.
"Can't you use the accumulated faith in that construct to bring him back from the exact moment of his death from the past?" Aragorn questioned, his tail pointed at the Throne.
It was the obvious solution, no? Aragorn pondered.
While assisted by his concept, Paradoxical Existence, he had already studied enough of this Multiverse's paradoxes to understand that time flowed in a positive direction to the future, just like back in his home Multiverse, hence the past couldn't be changed without giving birth to a paradox.
However, pulling someone from the past at the exact moment when they stopped existing to the present should be feasible, after all, they would still be moving in a positive direction, hence the 'miracle' was possible. Unholy expensive, sure, but possible.
"I don't think I can achieve that," Michael said.
"Why?" Aragorn asked. "There's enough fuel in that construct for that, at least once with some change."
"Brother, is it possible to bring Father back?" Gabriel asked with hopeful eyes that pained Michael.
"I don't think so, my authority in the system can be compared to a stopgap," Michael admitted. "I didn't know that was possible, now that you have mentioned it, the system granted me access to that layer of information, but even then, I don't have the rights to access that quantity of faith, nor the confidence to achieve the miracle without unraveling time... Father didn't intend for this system to be used by us."
Gabriel didn't verbally reply; she dolefully looked downward.
"That's a problem," Aragorn muttered. "Are you the current leader of the Heaven Faction?" He asked Michael.
"Yes, though decisions of import are considered by us Seraphs," Michael answered.
"Then can I pact a deal with you?" Aragorn asked.
"I can listen to your proposition, but I might need to consult my siblings before making a decision," Michael replied.
"There's a soon-to-be excommunicated saint in the Vatican, Asia Argento. I want the public endorsement of one of you and the authorization for her to move under my wing and exit your faction," Aragorn said.
"Did she do something bad?" Gabriel asked. To this moment, Aragorn was still petting her golden hair.
"No, some devil, assisted by a few of the clergy, plotted to label her as a witch. It's true she healed a devil, but there's more to it than that," Aragorn said. "Regardless, her reputation has been marred widely enough that even the exorcists in training know of the 'witch'."
"That's not fair," Gabriel commented with a frown.
"It's standard human behavior," Aragorn dismissively commented.
"Is it because of her Sacred Gear that you desire her?" Michael asked. Gabriel's questions had bought him enough time to access Heaven's System and search for Asia in the database.
"No, I don't care for the trinket," Aragorn shook his head. "If you want, I can extract it and hand it over to the church or one of you. I want her for the beauty of her soul."
"Her soul?" Gabriel confusedly asked, her gaze distant with thought.
"Yours is also beautiful, girl," Aragorn said with golden and emerald eyes. "It carries the innate warmth of Yahweh's holy power, and the rays of innocence with just enough of the vicissitudes of war, all the while retaining its luster. A contradiction of being innocent, yet battle-hardened."
"Oh, thank you so much," Gabriel said with a shining, soft smile. She certainly didn't comprehend what Argorn was seeing, but she understood she was being complimented.
"Asia's is also beautiful, that's why I want her," Aragorn said. "I'm greedy like most dragons, so I like to hoard the shinies. My hoard is made of beautiful souls and those connected to mine."
"This," Michael voiced out, interrupting Gabriel and Aragorn's talk. "A devil from one of the pillars is connected to the church. This is not the first time they have done this." His previous gentle visage wrinkled in anger.
"I figured as much," Aragorn commented. "It all happened too seamlessly. By the way, my name is Aragorn. I just realized we never introduced ourselves, and now we are on a headpatting basis."
"I'm Gabriel," she chimed like a heavenly bell. "That one is my brother, Michael." She introduced her brother because she could tell he was busy concentrating on the system.
"Nice to meet you, Dove," Aragorn said.
"Dove?" Gabriel asked.
"It sounds like Love, and since you have white-feathered wings, I thought it suited you," Aragorn explained. "Do you not like it?"
"I like it," Gabrield smiled. "Then... I should call you," she looked determined at Aragorn, her eyes finding the eye-catching eternal flame above his head, "Lux!" She declared proudly.
"Oh? What a coincidence," Aragorn said, amused.
"Coincidence?" She asked.
Through the contact of his hand and her head, Aragorn temporarily enhanced and boosted her soul before saying, "}Lucivacui/Lux Vacui{ is my real name."
Her face crinkled in pain, she pressed her temples and said, "Ouchie, that stung."
"My name can have that effect, but did you understand?" Argorn asked.
"Yes," Gabrield nodded. "Lux is one of the concepts... uhmm, meanings(?) in your name. Also, I think I understood some... things(?) about you, I think... my head feels heavy." She spoke with a somewhat glazed and confused look.
"Don't worry, it'll pass in a second," Aragorn said. He made sure to use some of his biokinesis on her to soothe her headache.
"That feels funny." She perked up.
"Lord Aragorn," Michael interjected.
"Just Aragorn is fine," Gabrield said. "It's both a title and a name," she declared proudly. This was knowledge she gained from listening to Aragorn's true name.
Since she wasn't on the same level as the will that created Veldanava (Tensura), she couldn't get the full understanding of Aragorn through his true name; however, she was still able to pick up some things.
"Aragorn," Michael corrected himself, "I believe, now that we know, it falls under our responsibility to correct and address the slights on Asia's reputation. So I'll have to decline," Michael said.
"Mmmm, that won't do," Aragorn denied. "I came only because she loves Yahweh and it would hurt her for life if the 'problem' was not addressed properly, but that doesn't change that she was mine from the moment the church decided to get rid of her.
"Even without your cooperation, I could go through the less savory channels and correct the problem the church caused with mind warping. I don't need you for that," Aragorn explained. "Besides, you haven't even heard what I'm willing to pay for the transaction."
The reason he sought Yahweh was not because of his importance and status, but because Asia cared about her Lord. However, it didn't mean that Aragorn couldn't mind control the church or Asia, or even use rhetoric to verbally manipulate the situation. The value he saw in heaven was akin to a parent giving their blessing to a daughter at the altar. It was appreciated but not needed. Just as one could go ask a father for their daughter, it was also possible to thank them for her.
"What do you offer for Asia?" Michael inquired.
"Any one request within reason," Aragorn said. "In exchange, I want you to bless her departure and fix the mess your corrupt institution and that devil made. Her reputation must become spotless."
"I don't think there's anyth—"
"Can you bring back Father?" Gabriel interrupted Michael's denial.
"I can," Aragorn declared with simplicity.
Just like Ophis was Infinite, and Great Red was Dream, Aragorn was Paradoxical Existence. To him, doing what would require almost all of the faith stored in the Heaven System was easily achievable.
"Brother, we should accept Aragorn's offer," Gabriel declared, with a hopeful shine to her.
"But, sister, we should not sell Asia," Michael replied. As tempted as he was, not for nothing was he sitting on Heaven's Throne.
"But Aragorn will treat her well, I saw it," Gabriel pushed. "He cares for his treasured souls."
"You don't need to decide now," Aragorn said. "By my hand or yours, the mess in the church must be fixed. Why don't you go down and correct that? You can decide what to do next afterward."
"..." Gabrield silently stared at Michael.
"I will be off then, I'm staying in Urakyoto, just make sure to announce your visit and don't barge in," Aragorn patted Gabriel's head one last time before pulling some of his ice cream out of his storage and placing the quart in her hands. He then appeared in front of Michael and petted him too, much to the archangel's confusion, he placed another quart of ice cream in his lap and then disappeared.
He reappeared in his shared room in Urakyoto, and the vulpine mother-daughter duo were already awaiting him for their nightly combing session. Ophis was observing with curiosity as Phoenix worked on her Sacred Gear prototype.
"How did it go?" Phoenix asked.
"Turns out Yahweh is dead," he said.
Kunou looked confused, not knowing who Yahweh was, Yasaka had heard as much from Amaterasu, and Ophis had been there. Phoenix, though, was surprised. Even more so because she knew of Yahweh, the multiversal level triumvirate entity from the Marvel Multiverse.
"How did that happen?" Phoenix asked. To her question, Yasaka perked up, as she didn't know the specifics of his death.
"Something weakened him before he went and fought to the death Lucifer and the other original devils," Aragorn said.
"What weakened him?" Phoenix asked.
"I don't know, and I don't think the seraphs knew," Aragorn said. He turned to Yasaka and asked, "Do you know?"
"No, my goddess doesn't either," Yasaka answered.
"Trihexa," Ophis said without prompting.
"What's that?" Aragorn asked. He felt there was some power to the name, but nothing like the comprehensive understanding others gain when he speaks his name.
"The Beast of the End," Ophis explained.
"But what was it?" Phoenix asked for clarification.
"Like Aragorn," Ophis said and pointed with her dainty index at Aragorn.
"..." Yasaka, Phoenix, and even Kunou turned to him. "Care to explain?" Phoenix asked.
"... A Void Beast?!" Aragorn exclaimed after a moment of thought.
What else could there be like him, aside from his 'siblings/offspring'?
╚═══━━━─── • ───━━━═══╝
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Earth-199999.
~28 BE (Before Emergence) ~ 1995 CE (Current Era).
It was 1995, a veritable interregnum between epochs. The Cold War's protracted chill had barely thawed, leaving a global populace perhaps too sanguine about its newfound unipolarity.
The Middle East was predictably... Middle-Easting, for lack of a better term. Still a Gordian knot of tentative handshakes and nascent enmities.
Meanwhile, humanity was on the cusp of a digital efflorescence: Windows 95, the peak of operating systems until Windows XP, had just dropped, bestowing upon the masses the arcane wonders of the World Wide Web, still a nascent curiosity rather than the ubiquitous overlord it would soon become.
The greatest anxieties revolved around the Y2K bug, which seemed, in retrospect, a rather quaint harbinger of technological hubris. Overall, it was a period of burgeoning digital optimism.
Yet, like a stalker after the idol they thought loved them dearly because of the glancing look they received during a concert with hundreds of thousands of participants, Aragorn found himself following the adventures of one half-human, half-Kree amnesiac Terran.
Normally, he would not be sticking his nose in events as minuscule as this one, yet Carol Danvers was one of the variants he had seen die multiple times due to the butterfly effect of his presence. He had already had to interfere during the moment of birth of her powers once, and that was one too many, in his opinion.
'She overloaded her powers with the return of her memories.'
-That time she burned down half the planet.-
|At least she survived in that scenario, in all the others she died, with the only variation being the number of deaths that followed after.|
>The assumption that the increase in the level of technology would not matter in her case, due to the alien hands in her origin, was erroneous.<
'It makes no sense, she was born thanks to Kree tech, why does Human tech matter in the equation?'
-Maybe Mar-Vell felt emboldened by the available resources of Earth's tech.-
|But the difference between the current technological level and the supposed one is not that great.|
>It's hard to tell, even for us (me). We couldn't predict she would die on re-entry.<
'In hindsight, it is not incomprehensible that her escape pod would end up screwed through by one of the Obelisks.'
|Or that she would fly towards the Isthmus and the automatic weapons system would evaporate her.|
>Or that the Skrull ship would try to land on the Halo and end up equally evaporated.<
-It's like she is a moth and we (I) are (am) the flame.-
'All of her deaths were not our (my) fault, though. There was that time she grabbed the Tesseract and ended up teleported into infinite pieces through space.'
|It is fair to recognize that not all of her deaths were related to us (me), but...|
'But...'
-But...-
>But...<
}8⌊⌋+?{ {A/N: BUT?}
|At least 96.45% originate from us (me).|
'...'
-...-
>... I say let's blame her.<
'Seconded.'
-I don't oppose.-
|Great idea.|
}H3H3H3H3H3!{
'Void-chan... There's no need to laugh.'
After stalking Carol Danvers long enough for her to retrace the steps of her previous life as a human and not a Kree, Aragorn finally witnessed her regain her memories. While her close friend and daughter, Talos, and Fury didn't notice it, Aragorn had seen how her energy spiked at one point beyond the range of the Photon Inhibitor the Kree had latched to her neck.
However, she did not explode or burst into a supernova of Tesseract power. Once the 'critical' phase of it all had passed. He teleported to Mar-Vell's laboratory orbiting the planet.
When the Skrulls, and even the Kree in some of their many visits to Earth, or C-53 as they designated it, encountered the Obelisks, their curiosity and danger sense were piqued.
For all intents and purposes, the predominant civilization on Earth, namely Humans, should not have the level of technology needed to build such structures. This, as it stands to reason, demanded investigation.
Probes, more than Aragorn cared to count, were sent to the Halo, the Obelisks, and the Isthmus. Naturally, they encountered a blank screen.
No probe could access beyond the same levels as humans could in the Obelisks. No probe made it inside the Isthmus beyond the canals. For the Halo, though, they managed to capture some aerial shots, which were beyond what they managed for the Isthmus.
Finding a civilization living atop an artificial ringworld rang several alarms. But, they had to wonder, with all the probing and their blatant presence on Earth, why was it that there was no response from this technologically superior power?
They concluded that they didn't interact with the humans, and that led them to believe that maybe this advanced civilization was not native to Earth, and maybe, just like them, they were content with simply observing from a distance and found no particular value in humanity. Hence, the wise decision had been to ignore them, just as they had been ignored.
Imagine their surprise when the Skrulls left hiding in Mar-Vell's laboratory met the being suspected to be the leader of this advanced race.
Initially, caution for sure was in their approach, but after Aragorn began to hand over food, which they needed, caution was thrown to the air.
"It looks like some of your people are here for you," Aragorn commented to the adult Skrulls.
"That's..." one of them drawled. They didn't know what to think of it. It had been long enough that they had started to see the laboratory as their home.
"One named Talos," Aragorn added.
"Talos?" A female Skrull gasped.
"Yeah, he and some others," Aragorn replied. "They are being helped by a Kree-Terran hybrid and two humans. However, some of the Starforce are close behind them."
Murmurs and hushed gaps echoed in the room.
"Don't worry," Aragorn reassured them. "So long as you're not here with nefarious intentions towards the planet of its mortals, your total annihilation is not a possibility."
"But you won't protect us all, will you?" A Skrull asked.
"I don't protect all humans, and I've seen them be born, grow, age, and die," Aragorn said. Unease spread among the green crowd.
"But, well, I don't think any of you will die. Just make sure to surrender if the Starforce catches you," he added.
The wait was less than a day. The quad jet requesting entry to the hangar came into view.
Fury, Maria Rambeau, Carol Danvers, Talos and his men, and Goose the Flerken made it to the main hall and encountered the crowd of Skrulls. Talos, his emotions overcoming him, moved hurriedly to his mate and daughter.
"Soren!" Talos emotionally exclaimed. He hugged his wife and pushed his forehead and nose against hers. Soren made a calling motion with her hand and brought over their daughter G'iah to greet her father.
While this was a very emotional and heartwarming encounter, Fury, Maria, and Carol were silently staring at Aragorn.
The figure of Aragorn, not far from them, crouched and silently petting Goose, threw them out of it.
"What a good flerken," Aragorn said softly, his fingers running along the flerken's coat. The flerken was purring and rubbing against his hand.
"Uh, Mr. Abner," Fury said. "It's a surprise to find you here."
"With how annoying things have been around Earth's space," Aragorn stood up and turned to them, "It might be more surprising if the Kree-Skrull conflict doesn't catch my attention."
"You knew about it?" Carol asked.
"About their unauthorized entry and exit from Earth? Or their war?" Aragorn asked.
"Both," Carol said.
"Yes, they haven't been subtle about it, by Imperial standards," Aragorn said. "And about their war, I probably know more than even them," he pointed at the Skrulls, who were now listening attentively.
"Sir," Talos voiced out, his tone cautious. "What do you mean by that?"
"Do you know how your war started?" Aragorn asked. "It's been going on for tens of thousands of years. It's even older than the Kree empire."
Talos looked around his kin; they all shared a look of ignorance.
"The Skrulls were an intergalactic empire long before the Kree even left the gravitational well of Hala," Aragorn began retelling. "The Skrulls, during a phase of peace, decided to lord over other underdeveloped species and 'gift' them progress. Slavery with extra steps.
"In Hala, they found the blue humanoid Kree and another species, the Cotati, sapient plant life. They decided that they didn't want to share their gift with both species, so a contest was created to see which one would be worthy of their 'gift.'
"They kidnapped a sample of each species and dropped them on a lifeless moon with the challenge to see which one could build the most advanced city. The Skrulls left them alone, and when the deadline arrived, they returned to judge them.
"The Kree used Skrullian technology to build a massive technological metropolis, while the Cotati managed to breathe new life into the surface of the dead moon, creating a lush forest. The verdict favored the Cotati. Naturally, the Kree didn't like it and rebelled.
"They killed the jury and the Cotati and reverse-engineered the Skrullian tech. During those times, communication wasn't as simple as it is now, and they were considerably far from the Skrull's core, so when the Skrull Empire caught wind of the slaughter, it was already too late. The Kree had grown into an Intergalactic Empire.
"That was the spark; however, the newer generations fight without knowing the reason other than to exterminate one another. In the past millennium, the Kree finally won, and what you know as the Skrullian Genocide happened," Aragorn finished the story.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"How do you know all of this, Mr. Abner?" Maria's voice cut through the somber silence.
"Have you seen the image at the beginning of the North Scale?" Aragorn asked.
"The one with the red robot, you, and the Big Bang?" Fury asked.
"That red robot is a Celestial," Aragorn said. "Arishem the Judge, you must have heard of him, right?" he turned to the Skrulls. Talos and some of the older ones nodded.
"The Celestials had a hand in the creation of your species and kept track of it for a while," Aragorn revealed to the Skrulls. "I'm in contact with Arishem and an unborn Celestial. I have access to some of their records. Additionally, if you travel to the city of deities, you can also find records of your people and the Kree in their Halls of All-Knowing."
"I have no idea what any of that was, but I believe our draconic protector," Fury said.
"Well, it's not much of a matter of believing or not," Aragorn shrugged. "Knowing the truth doesn't change much. Besides, you've got company," Aragorn pointed at the entry points of the hall.
Assertively, the Kree Starforce marched. Guns hot and ready. The sound of their entry demanded their attention. Instinctively, the Skrulls and humans turned to Aragorn, only to find him missing.
Sitting comfortably atop the Laboratory, Aragorn observed as things followed their course.
'Why did you tell them that story?' Kitty, curled in his lap, asked through telepathy.
'You're getting good at warping,' Aragorn commented before plopping a hand atop her fur. 'How did you track me?'
'I asked Spark,' Kitty said with a purring undertone. 'But ever since I've gained my ninth tail, I've become more sensitive towards the peculiarities of my soul, the contract included, so I can feel more easily your presence through it.'
'That's good,' Aragorn approved. 'That way, you can teleport to my lap most easily!'
'Yes!' Kitty purred harder in delight. 'So? What about it?'
'The story?' Aragorn said. 'You see, from a perspective, the Skrulls appear as pitiful war refugees, but their situation is more like the mess in the Levant. It's too convoluted to draw a line between the evil and the righteous. Either all are evil, or we say they are victims of their circumstances.'
'Ah, you meant it as a warning to Fury, didn't you?' Kitty asked.
'Yes,' Aragorn confirmed. 'Fury will have them stay on Earth under his care, but you do know what the real face of the Skrulls back home looks like, right?'
'A good Skrull is a dead Skrull,' Kitty said as if reciting a creed. 'Additionally, fuck the Kree!'
'I don't know what happened after the last movie I saw, but I can bet one of my draconic balls that the Skrulls will turn on Earth,' Aragorn declared.
'Can't you regenerate those at will?' Kitty asked with a laugh.
'Well, yeah, but you get my point,' Aragorn replied with a chuckle.
'Let's get real here, Aragorn,' Kitty said with all seriousness.
'I already dread what follows,' Aragorn said with a deadpan.
'Has Death ever asked you to grow a bunch of balls and sit on her face?' Kitty asked. 'So that her face is literally drowning in your balls.'
'Ugh, the metal image is giving me a backlash,' Aragorn complained. 'I felt my cultivation shake.'
'Hahahahahaha! Come on! It's a real question,' Kitty broke into a laughing fit. 'You know, I don't have such a degree of freedom in my shapeshifting; we mostly depend on our adaptability, but even then, I've gotten some frisky body modifications in bed a few times. A cat has got to wonder what you and our dear Death do under the sheets.'
'It's not even that I feel bashful to answer,' Aragorn facepalmed. 'It was simply so abrupt I almost got an aneurysm.'
'Okay... and? What's the answer?' Kitty pushed.
'... I've only sat on Noona's face in my female form,' Aragorn capitulated and answered.
'Uhmmmm, yeah, I can picture that happening,' Kitty hummed in agreement. 'There's something empowering about sitting on your partner's face as a woman. I don't think it would be the same if you were a male.'
'What about you, Kitty?' Aragorn asked. 'Have you stopped playing around with Spark and your siblings? Will you finally pursue something serious with someone you care about beyond the familial bonds? I'm still waiting for a litter of kittens.'
'I don't know,' Kitty shrugged. 'I like to have fun with Spark and some of the other men in our family, but it's nothing beyond playing around. I haven't felt that spark called love. Beyond our obvious familial love that is.'
'Maybe you'll find someone on our Earth,' Aragorn said, almost wistfully.
'With my age, that's gonna be hard,' Kitty stated.
'You still act like a rebellious teenage cat,' Aragorn teased.
'I'll always be a pirate pussy at heart!' Kitty declared with unnecessary over-the-top energy. 'Rebellion is my divinity.'
'No, it isn't,' Aragorn scoffed.
'Are you su—DID THAT FLERKEN JUST SWALLOWED THE SPACE STONE?!' Kitty exclaimed.
'Can you do the same?' Aragorn asked teasingly.
'As if! This pirate pussy doesn't have a subdimensional stomach!' Kitty replied.
'Man, I feel like my cat is the downgraded model,' Aragorn said in disappointment. 'For all that you're a goddess and you can't even do what that fluffy flerken can.'
'Shut up!' Kitty clawed at him. 'Why don't you swallow it then?'
'I wonder, would the concept of space be disconnected from Reality once it falls into my void stomach, or would it simply mix with my void energy and annihilate space for all of Reality?' Aragorn pondered out loud.
'Forget I said anything,' Kitty bristled.
Soon after, the quad jet made it out of the hangar in a rush, a Kree ship hot in pursuit. Then another Kree space pod, with Carol Danvers holding to its outer hull for dear life.
'Was the origin of our Carol similar to this one's?' Kitty asked.
'Similar, yes, but with some differences,' Aragorn said.
'Our Reality is very similar to this one,' Kitty commented.
'To an extent, but only on the surface,' Aragorn clarified. 'For example, our Carol is well beyond this one. With her power source being an entire dimension and a core, and not just a DNA mutation.'
From the comfort of space, Kitty and Aragorn lazily tracked the dogfight unfolding between the quad jet and the Kree space pod. On the other end, Carol got a handle on her powers.
It was entertaining for both of them, like watching a show. This joy, however, was interrupted by the warping of the Roman's, the Accuser, fleet.
A moment after their arrival, they opened fire on Earth's surface.
'Just like that? They arrive and drop enough warheads to glass the planet, no questions asked?' Kitty asked.
'That is the Kree way,' Aragorn said.
'What are you going to do about it?' Kitty asked, her tail indicating annoyance and anger like a cat, her pupils slitted, fixed on the Kree vessels.
'I'll give them a warning,' Aragorn calmly replied.
'Aha! I know what kind of warnings you like to give,' Kitty snarled with sadistic delight.
Carol Danvers bulldozed through the warheads and exited the planet's atmosphere to meet the Accuser's ships. Fighters were deployed, and Carol Danvers fought through them as if she were her own fighter jet. Then she bayonetted through one of the ships and made it explode in a violence of flames and Tesseract energy.
She then floated in front of the viewing deck of the Accuser's main ship while flaring her powers in warning.
"Return to the Jump Point," Ronan commanded his right hand. "We'll be back for the weapon."
Space folded behind the ships, and when they were about to warp away—
"No, that won't do."
—A voice interrupted them.
It impossibly reached everyone through their comms systems, natural sense of hearing, and even their minds.
"You come and go from my planet, and I allow it."
Aragorn, in a size beyond that of the Kree space ships, appeared in his draconic form behind Carol Danvers. The eternal flame burned brightly between the crown of his horns. His body was translucent, sunlight reflecting in his massive wings, and his eyes, almost camouflaged with the backdrop of space were it not for the white slitted pupils, judging them.
"You experiment with my humans and use their resources, and I allow it."
Energy readings were off the charts. The Kree in charge of scanners couldn't even hear their thoughts amidst all the warning alarms bleating loudly.
His long tail swayed behind him, and a wormhole wide enough to fit the moon through it opened up.
"You come and embroil humanity in your idiotic war, and I allow it."
A view all too familiar with Carol Danvers and the Kree appeared on the other side of the wormhole. Hala, the Kree throne world.
That was when panic truly set in. So many countermeasures exist to prevent warping in the near space of Hala, as is normal with Throne Worlds, and yet, Aragorn bypassed all of them.
"But I draw the line on attempting to glass my planet."
The left one of the three surviving ships blurred into the wormhole. An explosion bloomed like a flower almost immediately on the surface of Hala.
It was so sudden, so instantaneous, so abrupt that they didn't have the time to process what was happening before Aragorn made the next move.
"Civility and barbarity are repaid in kind."
Carol Danvers, finally restarting, flew in front of Aragorn's draconic face and waved for him to stop.
'PLEASE STOP! THERE ARE NONCOMBATANTS ON HALA!' She shouted in her head.
'Yes, I'm aware,' Aragorn replied in her mind. 'Just as 99.9% of humanity on Earth are noncombatants.'
The ship to the right of the Accuser's followed after. It blurred into the wormhole, and an instant later, another bright explosion was painted on the surface of Hala.
"One warning only. The next time I'll erase the Kree from the universe."
There should have been defense systems on Hala intercepting the meteoric space ships; however, no system was equipped for ships dive-bombing at speeds measured in relation to lightspeed.
Aragon used his Telekinesis to push the Accuser's ship into the wormhole.
"BACKWARD! FULL POWER!" Ronan ordered with visible despair in his voice.
Carol Danvers, shrouded in her cloak of Tesseract energy, charged at Aragorn to distract him. Yet, upon contact... she passed through him as if he were air.
"Know your place, Accuser."
With those parting words, he closed the wormhole behind the ship. Ronan would survive this. Aragorn made sure of that much. He had a role to play; his death was needed elsewhere, in another time.
When the wormhole closed, Aragorn turned to the bright mosquito buzzing around and through him.
'Will you stop that, Carol Danvers?' He asked. His body slowly shifted back into his humanoid form.
'DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY YOU KILLED?!' She shouted in her head.
"5,758,878,982 The exact number of humans on the planet. The same that would have died to their attack."
'...' Carol Danvers stopped.
"It wasn't an indiscriminate attack either," Argorn added while floating calmly in front of Carol Danvers. "No Kree below the age of 13 died, and that was more mercy than they afforded your kin. Humanity, your real kin."
'...' She still didn't know what to think about it.
"There's still one Kree left," he pointed at Earth with his tail. "Take care of him."
And with that, he disappeared.
"That was very lenient of you," Kitty commented as they appeared on Mindee's Obelisks on the Isthmus.
"It was just a warning," Aragorn shrugged.
"So? What was the real motive behind the warning?" Kitty asked. She was perched over his shoulders, around his neck, like the cat she was.
"They were abundantly interested in the 'Secret Civilization of C-53' as they called the Imperium," Aragorn explained. "That, paired with the birth of Danvers and what they found in her blood, would have been enough to have them return."
"Wait! Her blood?" Kitty meowed. "I thought she died in the explosion and was brought back with the Kree blood transfer."
"Yes, but..." Aragorn dawdled.
"But what?! Don't go all mysterious and shit, it doesn't fit you," Kitty hissed and clawed at his face.
"Do you remember what I said about how the butterfly effect gave Mar-Vell confidence in pushing boundaries?" Aragorn asked.
"Yes, what about it? Wasn't that why you had to intervene multiple times behind the scenes?" Kitty asked.
"That's true, but even with my interference, Danvers should not have survived the contamination with Tesseract energy. There was too much of it, and excessively concentrated; a product of Mar-Vell overdoing it due to the technology available to her."
"So you're saying she should have still not made it, yet she did? There's something in her blood?" Kitty asked.
"I know you don't follow what I did on Earth centuries ago," Aragorn said. "Hence, you don't know. Before the founding of Rome, I impregnated Rhea Silvia. Remus and Romulus were a product of my, Hestia, and Noona's interference."
"Ah, I know how it goes then," Kitty said with a laugh. "You made something inhuman out of their Life Code."
"Not to the extent of the Duskari, but yes. Longer life span, healthier bodies, better metabolism, enhanced immunological system, the works. Humanity has barely started to unravel the mysteries of the Deoxyribonucleic acid; nevertheless, the Kree easily spotted the genius in Danvers' blood," Aragorn explained.
"At this point, I can only say that you're putting out the fires you started," Kitty giggled.
"That was always going to be the case," Aragorn shrugged. "I interfered in this reality while attempting to follow the path I knew. I obviously was going to be making fires and putting them out. Be grateful, for these fires allowed the existence of the Imperium, which in turn facilitated your ascension."
"Aww, grumpy Aragorn is grumpy," Kitty cooed as if speaking to a baby. "You're the most brilliant star in my heart, Aragorn. Of course, I'm grateful," she licked his cheek and coiled her tail around his head."
"Hmph! It's good that you know," Aragorn leaned his face on her feline body.
The Imperium and the Drachantheon Therion continued with the Great Moving's preparations, and time slipped by as it naturally does.
The Internet, which Aragorn publicly recognized as humanity's best invention of the past one thousand years, continued to grow. The Internet Explorer 3.0 browser was released, escalating the "browser wars" with Netscape Navigator, and pushing the web further into mainstream consciousness.
Dolly the Sheep was born, the first mammal successfully cloned from an adult somatic cell, sparking profound ethical debates about genetic engineering and its implications. However, most debates ended abruptly when the news of startling discoveries found in the draconic bloodline was shared.
Similar to the space race, humanity competed to map the draconic bloodline and discover the gift Aragorn left for humanity in the bloodline of the Roman twins.
The first practicalMP3 player emerged, and what made it an even greater hit was that Aragorn, like he had done when the first of a kind of product was released, had been there to purchase the first. Just like he had done for the first game console, the first automobile, the first airplane, the first gun. These firsts are later set on exhibition in the many Obelisks around the world that served simultaneously as vaults and museums.
Hong Kong was returned to China by the United Kingdom after 156 years of British colonial rule. Aragorn inscribed this event in the North Scale; something that had become a novelty of sorts, with many constantly keeping track of every time Aragorn moved to inscribe events of the past decades.
NASA's Mars Pathfinder landed on Mars, deploying the Sojourner rover, which transmitted iconic images and scientific data from the Martian surface. With its most iconic image being one of Aragorn celebrating its arrival on Mars.
Google Inc. was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, initially as a research project, which would rapidly transform internet search and information access.
The Euro currency was officially introduced as an accounting currency in eleven European Union member states, a monumental step toward deeper European integration.
As time passed and humanity advanced, the end of 1999 arrived. Many, if not all, eagerly awaited this. Not simply because the year was changing from 1999 to 2000, but because, as stated in historical records, with the change of millennium, Aragorn would display across the skies of the planet a message.
Humanity, after so many advances in science and technology, felt emboldened to try and grasp at the mysteries behind this message. There was also a giddiness to them, since this was the first time humanity could claim that they had made startling progress. Enough so that Aragorn would not chastise them in the message as he had done in the past.
Like so, as they eagerly expected, when the world exited 1999, a message appeared clearly in all skies.
It was bloody, ugly, and dirty, and I came to believe you would not make it, especially during the Black Death. You had me on the first half. You've stumbled, crashed, and fallen, but you've stood back up again with the same light I like to see in Humanity. You've done great. My most sincere congratulations. You've found your progress path.
As such, to commemorate your success, all earnings of the Isthmus' canals—savings and future income—will be used for the betterment of the areas where you're lacking until our coffers run dry.
Additionally, for the following two decades, the Sages of the Duskari that roam the planet will be allowed to share one medical discovery per year.
The future will bring blessings, and just as many tragedies, but never forget what makes you humans proud. Safe travels.
With that, the year 2000 was welcome, and it was only until 2010 that Aragorn was spotted again in public.
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{A/N:
Same as last week. I'll update half of the next chapter on Wednesday if the power stones reach approximately 200.
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