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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Earth-5H1N3.
While Earth-199999 was going through one of the longest periods of uninterrupted peace, thanks to a certain billionaire, Earth-5H1N3 was well into its World War III.
Not only was society making snail-pace progress due to the most destructive economic crisis ever since the start of the economy itself, but the famine ravaging the world was only kept within 'manageable ' limits due to the sap of the Arbor Mundi turned into the staple of the planet.
This miraculous sap was used as animal feed, human foodstuff, and even as fertilizer. The processed formula sold by Re-Nazca was eaten morning, noon, and evening, and humanity, as curious as it was about food, had developed countless ways to ingest the miracle food.
Each region developed its own variant of the staple, and these were subsequently published on various social networks. Globalization then did its thing, and soon the whole planet was trying the best recipes and improving upon them.
Despite the year being 2001, smartphones and affordable technologies alike could be found in every market. For this, Stark Industries and N-Tek were to be thanked. Part of one of Aragorn's initial plans to locate all Hydra plants and agents was to use technology to fish for them.
Additionally, after the weather was apocalyptic'd as a result of the Phoenix Force and Aragorn's battle, the absolute need for constant updates on weather reports pushed the release of these technologies into the market. Hence, the strange dichotomy of a famine—a time of 'less'—and the explosive growth of SmarTek®—a time of 'plenty'—was born.
SmarTek® being the registered trademark for the new technologies brought by Stark Industries and N-Tek.
As chaotic as Earth-5H1N3 was, it had not climbed upward the stairs of chaos since Aragorn left. No new cosmic overlord had appeared, no sealed demon lord from the Heian period had been woken from his slumber, no abstract entity had decided to make Earth theirs, and no deity had decided to claim the planet... yet.
In this 'peaceful' Earth, an Astral Path opened right in the middle of the New York Sactum. With it, the characteristic scent of sulfur of hellish dimensions wafted off into the courtyard, and the corrupted energies of a hell violently poked the hone-through-experience instincts of the masters of the mystic arts.
No commands were needed, no questions were asked, and no hand signs or other methods of communication were used—whether magical or mundane. All the masters assumed positions around the Astral Path and loaded their meanest attacks.
The sorcerers of Earth-5H1N3 were different from those of Earth-199999. Although Aragorn had numerous times mentioned that the latter resembled a Doomed Reality, it wasn't; however, the former was without a doubt a Doomed Reality.
So, while Earth-199999's structure mimicked a Doomed Reality, Earth-5H1N3 was the real thing; this meant that the types of crises, tragedies, Armageddons, apocalypses, and cataclysms were incomparable.
So, the protectors of Earth-5H1N3, Yao's hands and legs for centuries while she used the Time Stone to squeeze even the most minimal additional second for Earth, were monsters in their own right.
They were the type of monsters that could seal and fix the dregs of Space-Time left behind by a Green Door event. The type that could momentarily contend against invading Dimensional Lords. The Type that Yao trusted. The type that had kept the Earth in one piece even while this one tried to walk to its end like a toddler to their death.
However, despite all their resolve and preparation for the eldritch terror they were expecting—a being powerful enough to tear open the dimensional veil at its most solid point—what came first was a hand holding a very familiar pendant: The Eye of Agamotto.
"Don't shoot! I have my visa right here! We were taught by the same Master!" A voice hurriedly called out from the other side.
"... Pietro?!" Master Wong asked. He recognized Pietro's voice because, as he had said, they had both trained under Yao at some point; however, the unmistakable divine and demonic aura flowing freely from the Astral Path complicated things.
"Yeah," Pietro replied before slowly exiting the Astral Path. His body, now that of an incubus, exited fully, and the Astral Path closed behind him.
Black demonic horns and the dark tail classic to his species marked the stark difference between the Pietro they once knew and the demonic deity in front of them.
"Sorry to scare you with the infernal energies, but I'm sort of in a rush," Pietro apologized.
"When the dragon said you were all going to ascend, the foregone conclusion was ascension to divinity, not a demonic ascension," Wong commented with an uncomfortable frown.
Wong—and the rest of the uncomfortable master, for that matter—was not so narrow-minded as to shun Pietro aside for his new race. They couldn't have protected Earth for so long with such a rigid mindset. More than once, Yao had sent them to make deals with demonic entities because these would have had positive results in their mission to preserve the world.
However, the almost instinctual dislike for demonic entities couldn't so easily be overlooked.
"To be clear, although my race and affiliation are demonic, I'm a god now, so you were not mistaken," Pietro shrugged with a cocky smirk.
"... Whatever," Wong brushed aside his concerns and lowered his spells.
Wards, sparks of White Magic, Magic Mandalas, Magic Circles, and Arias were lowered down after assessing Pietro—demon or not—was not a threat.
"Nasty stuff that was," Pietro commented with a twitching eyebrow.
"A good demon is an exorcised demon," Wong recited. "However, with you, your sister, and possibly Madame Agatha(?)," he drawled slowly in questioning, Pietro nodded, "in the equation now, maybe the old saying will see some changes."
"I wouldn't go as far as to say that all demons associated with Wanda are greenlighted, but us three and Duke Blaze, the Ghost Rider, should be greenlisted for entry," Pietro explained. He didn't mention his twins because it was safer that way. "That's what this is for," he gestured to the Eye of Agamotto, "other than to save me from your combined bombardment."
Wong pointedly stared at the necklace. Pietro, understanding what he wanted, threw it at him. Wong caught with a spell midair and began to thinker with it.
"Divine Aura imprints?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes, it should have the imprints of all deities of the Drachantheon Therion-Oh! That's the name of our pantheon," Pietro answered. "On Master's orders, you're to register these imprints in the dimensional veil. They should be arriving later today."
"Why?" Wong asked. "The Ancient One could have opened the veil and registered you in tandem."
"Right, I guess you guys are not aware of it." Pietro's demeanor turned guarded before continuing. "Someone is creating a reality-wide mess."
"..." Wong and the other sorcerers shared gazes. "Isn't that how it's always been?" he asked, confused about what made it different this time.
"No, I don't mean that someone is attempting against this reality," Pietro clarified. "I meant that someone is actively messing with it, even at this moment."
"... Case XX89, GH45, or RWW76?" Wong asked, his tone heavy with implications.
"Unconfirmed at the moment, but suspected to be a RWW76," Pietro replied.
"Reality-wide Warping?" one of the masters asked.
"Interference confirmed to be restricted to the Space-Time level only?" Another whispered.
"So far," another clarified. "So far, only Space-Time, but with untested and unknown limits."
"Who?" Wong asked with vitriol in his voice. His brow furrowed in anger.
"The Old Man suspects a deity, most possibly a coalition of them," Pietro explained. "It's probably a response to our pantheon's interference in the authority of transit of souls."
"Tch! Those selfish spawns of Gaea!" Wong spat. The rest of the masters were no better composed. "For the first time ever, we made a step forward with the arrangement of the flow of souls. The dragon did what they couldn't do in centuries in a scant few years, now they want to mess this up?"
"The Old Man predicted a similar response, but not on the same day we fixed the flow of souls," Pietro added. "Anyway, I came before my brothers and sisters to prepare for the upcoming war. For the moment, on Master's orders," he pointed at the Eye of Agamotto in front of Wong with his tail, "The Order of Sorcerers is to stop all contracts and contact with the deities other than those of the Drachantheon Therion, and prepare for war."
"Should we contract with you?" Wong asked.
"Yes," Pietro nodded. "End all contracts and use the Divine Aura imprints in the necklace to contact us and broker new contracts. The price is [Belief], so you can see how the conditions would favor you, right?"
"!" Wong and some of the quick-on-their-feet masters opened their eyes wide at the favorability of the contracts proposed. Paying faith to use the divine fields of deities was a dirt-cheap price.
"I'll go around the globe making preparations," Pietro informed. "Please take care of the order, and make sure to inform the rest of the sorcerers that war is not to arrive soon; it is already here."
With those foreboding words, Pietro disappeared. He didn't disappear; he moved so fast that he exited the timestream.
Initially, his mutation touched upon the feet of the realm of [Time]; however, after ascending with [Time] as one of his domains, he was beyond the constraints of the concept itself.
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Potomac River, Theodore Roosevelt Island, Triskelion.
"Mr. President, although Abner is one of ours, the distribution of the Arbor Mundi's sap is a national project of Re-Nazca; there's only so much he can do in our nation's favor," I explained to this politician for the fifth time in this conversation alone!
Oh, Mr. President, the only reason to get this much from me is that I know you're not a squid, and, these days, the standard for goodness is that low!
Sigh, if only insanity incarnate could arrive sooner. They departed early on the day. He said it would only be a few hours from my perspective, and then we could rid the world of Hydra. How can a few hours feel like an eternity?
"Director," the politician on the other side of the screen pinched the bridge of his nose. "Since the founding of the thirteen colonies, October 1918 during the Spanish flu pandemic held the record for the highest monthly mortality in U.S. history—by a substantial margin—both in terms of absolute numbers and per‑day death rates.
"Held, as in the past tense of hold, Director," the politician said.
Now, this kind of shit is why I can't put up with politicians! Sure, he sounds all tragic and heartbroken as a wailing mother. It's as if he had just discovered his white ass baby girl was dating a brother. However, for all of his 'heartfelt' performance, he cares only for approval ratings.
He can't fool this Supersorcerer Spy Supreme! I have recordings of his pillow talks, toilet talks, and even his browsing history; he can't fool my black ass!
That's why I prefer to deal with Insanity Incarnate. I ask; he answers with the brutality of someone who doesn't give a shit and, by preference, is looking for my annoyance.
On the other hand, with these fuckers you never know if they meant a single 'bla' they spat.
"Abner runs Re-Nazca, which, even after their past democratic elections, is an unspoken truth," he continued. "The Light and many of his corporations are tasked by Re-Nazca with distribution, but we all know that's his left hand talking to his right. Director, Americans are dying by droves! There have been reported cases of cannibalism! Western society is at risk! I can't be the president to end our country. It won't be me, Director!"
Ah, there it is. The truth shall set you free~ Hallelujah!
"Mr. President, I've walked the streets; I know of the deplorable state America, and the rest of the world, is in," I say. "However, Re-Nazca is already supplying as much additional sap as we purchase. The price won't change. I can't say that we would risk a world war should Re-Nazca offer us preferential rates because there is already a war being waged.
"However, the problem is not with the supply. If we need more sap, and we do, all we have to do is purchase more," I explain.
Yeah, now your face is scrunching in pain. Not physical pain, no. The type of pain experienced when you total your ride and picture the bills.
"That's not possible, Director. You know this," he said. Yeah, I fucking know it bitch! "The crisis hit us hard, even if America was not directly affected by the clash. The devastation left by the eruption of the supercaldera has been costly, to speak not of the loss of lives."
Sure, sure, sure, bitch! It's as if you and I didn't know that the H-Bombs exploded like a Black Friday deal in the Pacific, and their delivery systems are costing this country billions by the day!
Sure, Aragorn, Spark, and Seraph controlled the crisis to hit the 'more' fortunate, the pedophiles and enslavers, and that hit the rich hard; however, that's barely a pinch when compared to the cost of this stupid war!
"Mr. President, all I can do is pass the message," I said. "But you and I know that he is not amiable after the treatment he has received in America by the government."
"What will it take? Less taxes? Market priority? Governmental contracts? Should I have Pierce step down? Just name it, I'll have it done!" he exclaimed.
As if! There's no way you could make Pierce step down when more than half of your men are his plants! And lowering his taxes?! Hahahaha! That one is funny. Of all the 1%, only Aragorn pays his taxes; how do you suppose to wage war without his patronage? Hahahaha! What a good fucking joke!
"I'll mention it, Mr. President," I replied. "I have a meeting scheduled for tomorrow morning with Abner."
"That's... That's all I ask," he said. "Thank you for your work, Director."
"It's my pleasure," I nodded.
Bah! That's not all you ask, you little shit! You want Aragorn to kneel and suck you off, if it were up to you! Bitch ass politicians!
"Coulson, Hill, come in!" I called out to my agents. I noticed they were awaiting me to finish the farce with the president outside my office door,
"Director," Hill greeted. Coulson nodded. They are tense... Maybe they are being threatened?
"It's rare to have you in my office twice in one day. Is the world ending again?" I asked.
"I brought them over." WHO THE FUCK DARED SNEAK ON ME?
I turned with absolute apparent calm to the lounge in my office. Even if your bitch ass sneaked on me... You wouldn't catch me surprised! Bitch please! Insanity Incarnate kidnapped me, and even then, I didn't falter!
There, with the most motherfucking shiteatin grin, I found Pietro... Correction: Incubus Pietro
"Now I know for sure the world is ending," I expressed my dissatisfaction with what I knew was gonna be a shitfest of Aragornic proportions in my intonation.
"Well, sort of, possibly, but I doubt I'll be as harrowing as with the Unquenchable Hunger... hopefully," the kid—maybe not a kid anymore—said. The way he spoke inspired so much confidence that I almost started to pray to the Madame to take me away.
"Out with it, Kid," I said. "Is some sort of evil eldritch terror following after Aragorn in a few hours? Is the Abstract of Apocalypse coming for this planet's ass? Is an interuniversal war starting? Give it to me straight and unfiltered raw!"
"... None of the above, as far as we know," he said. Shit, something unknown to that paranoid dragon can't be good.
"All we know is that someone reality-warped the world to allow for Future Time to expand faster than Present Time-Space," he continued. The fuck does that mean?
"In other words, someone took advantage of the Old Man's absence and is preparing for something," he concluded.
"... Shit." What else could I say?
"I'm the vanguard. I arrived first to prepare the planet for a war, possibly a Divine War against most, or the strongest, deities of this universe," he added.
"... Shit." Again, what else could I say?
"Excuse me, Sir," Coulson called out after clearing his throat loudly. We turned to him, gesturing for him to continue. "Why are we here? Are we clear to participate in this conversation?"
I didn't reply; instead, I turned to the kid. He brought them over; he must have a reason for that.
"The Old Man said these two were trustworthy and that you would need their help," the kid said.
"I was not planning to introduce them to this part of the world, yet," I commented.
"It won't matter much," the kid shrugged.
"Explain," I demanded.
"Deities are not like the inanimate Green Door or the maddened Unquenchable Hunger," the kid explained. Yeah, I can see the dark hole this is turning into.
"The Old Man's identity will most likely be exposed after this. Deities are petty like that," he concluded.
Yeah, the profiles Goddess Gaea has helped me build of her spawns say that much. Petty, egoist, self-centered, divas, psychopaths, sociopaths, prideful, and many other 'great' adjectives can be used for them.
So, with permission through the kid's actions, I turned to my agents and said, "Alduin is a psionic construct of Aragorn. Alduin doesn't exist; there's only Aragorn, the owner of this universe."
First, their faces froze, then their eyes went wide and their jaws slackened, and finally... "Excuse me?!" they exclaimed in unison.
I left them to process that shit and asked the kid, "What is the play? I doubt evacuations will make a difference, so why did you arrive first?"
"There's no playbook here, Fury." The kid shared the news I feared. "Humanity is not at a level where you could be more than deadweight; however, those who qualify to help will help, and to them, maybe you could provide assistance."
"Stark?" I asked.
"Yes," the kid nodded. "I brought some toys for him, courtesy of the Old Man. You're required to help me in any shape and form you deem it worth it."
"... Fuck," I cursed. "The WSC will get in my way-Heck! The Hydra plants will get in my way."
"Worry not, even if you have to make the whole world your enemy, the Old Man will vouch for you," he replied.
".... Motherfucker," I cursed beneath my breath. "What about Doom?"
"He'll be my next stop, then Krakoa," he said.
"What else is there to discuss?" I said. "Be on your way, errand boy!"
"At least call me errand god!" The kid smirked, and then he was no more.
I turned to my still frozen agents and asked, "Well, what are you waiting for? The world is about to end, again. Are you two gonna be acting like fools when it does?"
That got them to restart!
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Latveria, Doomstadt, Victor von Doom's Palace.
Doom had many faces. Super-genius, megalomaniac, arrogant, prideful, ruthless, king, doctor, mad scientist, master tactician, and many others. Like the many on Earth, he was human. Both on the good and the bad.
For these good faces, no one would ever question Aragorn for offering the planet to him in the metaphoric silver plate; however, it was the dark faces that had many of his maids questioning him.
When asked why Doom, he said: "Even at his worst, he is beyond bribery, corruption, money, and desire. Doom is the type of messed-up human who only follows his rules, and while believing he is 100% above humanity, he would harbor the magnanimity, greatness, or even... pity to see it in himself to guide humanity to order and greatness."
Spark, who was in charge of profiling Doom, confirmed this.
They also believed that even his dark faces could be repressed after enough sessions in the learning room.
This same broken, strange, maddened, crazy, and sane human was sitting in his office calmly gazing at Pietro, who had just appeared in his territory unannounced and undetected.
"Vukovic, there's no need for that," he calmly, yet authoritatively, said to his assistant.
Pietro turned to the woman, pointing at him with a weapon of design he had only seen in Krakoa or the Halo's rooms of the maids—now goddesses.
"Fancy stuff, photonic discharge resonator?... Modified?" Pietro said with interest in the gun.
"Maximoff, your presence here, yet not a message from Aragorn means trouble, putting it mildly," Doom pointed out. "You're allowed to speak."
"Your personality is still shit," Pietro scrunged his face. "However, I don't have the time for petty squabbles," he scoffed. "A divine war is approaching, most likely today. Get ready to protect Goddess Gaea if needed."
"Numbers?" Doom asked.
"Unknown," Pietro replied.
"Affiliation?" Doom.
"Omnipotence City, most probably." Pietro.
"Scale?" Doom.
"Planetary, at least." Pietro.
"Objective?" Doom.
"Unclear. Possibly the dimensional lords of the soul repositories that the Old Man introduced." Pietro.
"Entry points?" Doom.
"Dimensional." Pietro.
"Priority?" Doom.
"Goddess Gaea first, Earth second, and humanity third." Pietro.
"Collaborators?" Doom.
"Fury, Krakoa, and Latveria." Pietro.
"You should contact Reed's team," Doom suggested.
"... Would they even survive the entry to the battlefield?" Pietro tilted his head in confusion. The Fantastic Four were objectively weak, but Doom was competent, so he wondered why he made the suggestion.
"Reed has been developing countermeasures to Aragorn—"
"Hah!" Pietro scoffed.
"—Maybe it's time his exercise of futility helps the world." Doom.
"... Accepted." Pietro nodded.
"I'll start preparations," Doom agreed.
"Perfect," Pietro said. He made a move to jump out of the timestream, but before that, Doom added, "I won't be able to help with the war ongoing."
"Ah, right. There was that," Pietro paused. "What do you suggest?"
"Go kill enough of the commanders on all sides to force the war to a pause," he coldly suggested.
".... How convenient for you," Pietro narrowed his eyes at Doom. "They'll believe you have some sort of super stealth weaponry once they see you as the only survivor."
"This... intrusion, the most certainly world-ending battle that is to come, a divine war perchance, will assuredly put a wrench in Aragorn's and my plans," Doom replied. "There's nothing convenient about my command. It is logically the only viable response to the situation. If you can't comprehend that much, then don't ask."
"... The Old Man was right, you don't respect even your shadow," Pietro added.
Then he disappeared from Doom's sight, only for him to hear a whisper from behind him, "I'm certainly not Aragorn, but you aren't either. Act like that again, and I'll show you Mephistopheles's previous abode, human."
Doom gritted his teeth in frustration.
"Your Majesty, how should we proceed?" Zora Vukovic, his loyal assistant, asked.
"Pull our forces back and move my subjects to the underground shelters," Doom replied. "Make it a royal edict."
"By your will," Zora Vukovic said, bowed once, and departed.
Alone in his office, he clenched his fist tight with anger.
"I've worked on this," he said through his gritted teeth. "I've studied this."
The truth was that he was not angry at Pietro's threat. For all of his unhealthy desire for control and power, he was a realist. He knew his attitude was wrong, and, as he said, he had been working on fixing his problems in the learning room. So, his frustration wasn't directed at Pietro, but at himself.
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New York, Baxter Tower.
"Okay, My Girl, let's do this. You want to impress Lena when she returns, right?" Johnny Storm was shrouded in the gentle cloak of his living flame while inside a sealed special room.
The room's walls shuddered under the heat mirage of his shroud. The room was empty, no furniture, and the walls were equally plain, no windows, and seemingly no door. It was indistinguishable from a sealed cube.
The shroud of living flames shuddered around him, and its tone changed slightly. It started in red, slowly climbing into the hotter colors, until it was nearly a starlight white shine.
"No, Reed said temperature is not the way," Johnny said. "It's not about incandescence. He said we need to mimic the wavelengths of the atomic emission of different cations. I didn't understand much, but it's mostly about trying different wavelengths until we hit the right one, not about putting more oomph to it."
The living flame in him steered left and right, and then its highly energetic shine dimmed down until it returned to a comfortable orange-yellow flame.
"You don't need to tell me. That explanation flew even above my head, and I'm pretty sure I studied this in high school," Johnny shrugged with a conflicted, faltering smirk. "How about we try something different?"
The flame swayed.
"The first time I saw you in a different color was when I was singing that song after a night with Lena," Johnny said. "Maybe it's about the song, or the mood. Should we give it a try?"
The flame bounced up and down.
"Alright!" Johnny exclaimed. He cleared his throat and said, "Here we go!"
Desperate for changing
Starving for truth
I'm closer to where I started
I'm chasing after you
The flame swayed with the music.
I'm falling even more in love with you
Letting go of all I've held on to
I'm standing here until you make me move
I'm hanging by a moment here with you
Johnny swayed with the music and the flame with him. The living flame pulsed with the rhythm.
Forgetting all I'm lacking
Completely incomplete
I'll take your invitation
You take all of me now
And finally, with Johnny's peaking emotions, a spark of blue was born in the shroud.
"Yes! That's it!" Johnny celebrated. "Cling onto that sensation, my beautiful girl! Hahahahahahaha!"
Johnny celebrated with her, and the flame rejoiced with him.
[Johnny, we have company. Haloan. Please come outside, it looks important.]
Susan Storm, his sister, spoke through the intercom installed in the room.
"Well... Looks like this is where our fun ends, doesn't it?" He asked his living flame.
Wearing his unstable molecules fabric body suit, and with the living flame frolicking happily around him, Johnny exited his training room and made way to the main shared room of the tower.
"Ehh? Pietro, is that you? Since when are you about half as handsome as I am, man?" Johnny cheerfully greeted the incubus.
"Johnny, bro, it's been a few hours, and your eyesight has already deteriorated this much?" Pietro greeted him back and walked to Johnny.
"Bro? Since when do I have a bro hundreds of thousands of years older than I?" Johnny chuckled and opened his arms in greeting.
"If it's like that, then you'd better address me as Sir Maximoff, brat!" Pietro hugged him tightly.
"Hahahahaha! Look at you, man!" Johnny pulled back and pointedly stared at Pietro's incubus traits. "I bet Wanda calls those her love handles," Johnny smirked teasingly while eyeing Pietro's horns.
"Boys?" Susan called out to them. Both turned to her. "Pietro came due to an emergency, didn't you?"
She gestured to Benjamin Grimm and Reed Richards, who were waiting next to her. They were seated around a round table, one they normally used during their company's monthly meeting.
"Right," Pietro nodded and made way to the table.
"This can't be good," Ben muttered loud enough to be heard.
"I almost cracked a puzzle that had been evading me for months now," Reed grumbled. "This better be worse than not good."
"Reed! Watch what you say," Susan chided. "The last time something was not good, Yellowstone exploded, and shortly after, the world almost ended."
"Yeah, even I would rather this be a social visit," Johnny added before turning to Pietro. "So? How efed up are we?"
"In a few hours, possibly, a divine war will befall Earth," Pietro shared the news with no filter or sugarcoating. The world was gonna end in a few hours; that was it.
"Called it," Ben said. His words might have come off as jovial, but his mood was anything but.
"Man, you and your big mouth," Johnny glared at Reed.
"How illogical, my words did not affect the delivery of the news," Reed complained.
"... Pietro... What's going on?" Susan worriedly asked.
"There was something a certain deity damaged a long time ago," Pietro recounted. "The damage was extensive enough that, for centuries, the sorcerers of Earth and the various pantheons across the universe banded together."
"To fix it?" Johnny asked.
"No. Hahahahah!" Pietro laughed powerlessly. Now, even more than before, after he went through apotheosis, he understood the scale of Odin's fuck-up. "They banded together only to extend the inevitable end of the universe."
"The universe was ending?" Susan asked, her hands covering her mouth in fright.
"The universe is always ending," Reed interjected. "Heat Death is a fact."
"No, the universe was not ending," Pietro ignored Reed and replied to Susan. "The universe is ending, even now."
"Learning this was not in my day's plans," Ben groaned.
"The Old Man already prevented four ends of the universe, as far as I know, but I bet there are more," Pietro continued his explanation. "Part of the damage had to do with the Cycle of Souls."
"Souls?" Reed asked, intrigued.
"And a few hours ago, the Old Man fixed the cycle of souls, pushing further back the end of the ALL," Pietro said. "However, in doing so, he lowered the authority of the deities of the world."
"Payback? Is this about something so nonsensical? Payback and power?" Johnny asked, dumbfounded.
"Deities are selfish young masters, according to the Old Man," Pietro shrugged as if the end of the world was a small matter.
"Are these gods aliens?" Reed asked.
"Sort of, you can also call them interdimensional aliens, since they have homeworlds (realms)," Pietro explained.
"Pietro," Susan called out, her face ashen. "Why are you informing us about this? What do you need from us?"
"What could we even do against these divine invaders?" Ben, grimly, asked. "If they are all like Goddess Gaea, we are cooked."
"Chared, we are chared," Johnny corrected.
"That arrogant green bastard suggested I get Reed Richards and his tech involved," Pietro said while fixedly staring at Reed.
"What tech?" Reed asked. He wore a mask of composure; inwardly, he was panicking.
"The one you've been preparing to deal with the Old Man," Pietro, his electric blue eyes still fixed on Reed's, said with a flat intonation.
"W-What? Reed, is that true?!" Susan exclaimed. She hated it; she hated how he kept them out of the loop. She hated how he could not even understand something so simple as not to antagonize Aragorn. She hated how he looked away in shame, yet not in introspection. She hated how she knew he would do it all over again without a second thought.
"Man, I thought you were smart," Johnny mocked him.
"Reed... Why would you do something so stupid?" Ben tried to understand his motivations.
But to all of this, Reed only asked, "Since when have you known?"
"For someone so smart, you ask such an idiotic question," Pietro said without hiding his glare. "The Old Man would even evaluate your progress and point out where you made a mistake. I saw him and Seraph spending quality time while mocking your work."
"... You're lying," Reed said with a glare of his own.
"... Since you can only see reality for what's convenient to you, I'll stop talking to you; I would have a better chance making a wall confess its love to me than making you understand that you're an idiot," Pietro declared and turned to the rest of the Fantastic Four. "Get ready, I don't know how long we have. If your resident idiot can't cooperate, knock him out and use his tech yourselves. The world is more important than his ego."
Pietro disappeared with that last message.
"Reed, you'd better fork out your dragon slayer toys," Johnny advised coldly. His living flame coated him in an instant. She knew she was a resident of this world, and she knew of the terrifying being she heard her host call Aragorn.
"This is not the time to play stubborn, Reed," Ben stood up and cautioned.
"Why are you taking his words over mine? Besides, even if you knock me out, how will you access my tech without my entry codes?" Reed asked before standing up and moving away from Johnny and Ben.
"Guys, please stop," Susan said in a composed voice.
"Listen to Susan," Reed said. "She knows I'm speaking the truth."
Susan locked gazes with Reed with the same starstruck eyes she had ever directed him; he knew then that she was on his side.
However...
Soon, he was attacked by severe dyspnea.
"WHAT?!" Reed panicked and looked around.
His brain function rapidly deteriorated. This caused confusion, disorientation, dizziness, and a loss of coordination. His eyes became bloodshot.
Then he saw it, almost imperceptible, the edges of an almost invisible barrier encapsulating him.
"COUGH SU- COUGH -SAN?" He asked between coughs as his body involuntarily struggled for air.
"We'll talk about this later, Reed," Susan said. Her right hand was pointing forward at him, her eyes colder than he ever thought was possible for her.
Susan closed her open hand, and all air escaped her bubble. Seconds later, Reed melted into a puddle of molten plastic.
"Damn, sis!" Johnny exclaimed and raised a hand facing her. "Hardcore!"
Susan rolled her eyes at him, but even then, she high-fived her brother's hand.
Ben sported a worried look. "How will we access his tech, though?" He asked.
"This," Susan pointed at the P-Link hanging from her neck.
"Big guy, don't worry about it," Johnny chuckled.
Ben grunted in affirmation, and after that, Johnny and Susan made it outside the room to Reed's 'secret' lab. Ben spared Reed one last look before closing the door to the room. From the outside, he touched a side of the wall next to the door, and a screen turned on.
"Manual lock," He instructed. The door clicked closed, and then he walked to the distribution board of that floor. He switched off the security breakers and disconnected the main feed to the entire level.
He knew best his friend; he knew that, given the chance, he would have hacked away to his freedom. Hence, the best option was to lock the room and power it down while closed.
"That should keep you trapped for long enough, old friend," Ben commented with a sorrowful look.
━━━━━━━ ● ━━━━━━━
Stark Residence.
"Jarvis, still no news of the Old Man's return?" Stark asked out loud. He was bunkered in his mansion, armored up, and the security of the house was fully up and running—runic inscription and all the fanfare. Additionally, his security detail, the mutants from Krakoa, were inside and outside the mansion.
"Sir, there has been no report of communication from Ms. Seraph in the past 180 seconds," Jarvis replied.
"Tony, you're gonna upset Jarvis," Pepper, fed up, commented from across the room.
"Even if Ms. Seraph doesn't contact you right away," Happy added, "Ms. Laura here has a direct channel to Mr. Abner," he nodded at Laura, calmly drinking a tall glass of milk in the corner of the room she had claimed as hers.
"Little Verine, not that I'm complaining, but why did you portal into my living room?" Stark asked.
As he had said, Laura had opened a portal to his living room not so long ago. She had done so and immediately after moved to her corner as if her sudden intrusion had nothing to do with her.
Since she had met her father and Aragorn had told her that Logan was working with Stark for the foreseeable future, Laura took it upon herself to come unannounced and stalk her father.
It was not some deviant yandere stalking; it was more akin to a predator studying its prey.
Initially, due to his PTSD, Stark would panic at her arrival, especially because to mess with him, Aragorn allowed her P-Link to bypass the runic defenses of the mansion.
However, after he got used to her presence, and she literally did nothing else aside from stake Logan out—she even brought her food in her P-Link—he stopped minding her.
However, today it was different. Laura was an animal of routines. She always portaled to the same spot—the foyer—and she did during the late hours of the day, when she felt more at ease under the shadow of the planet. This time, she had teleported to the living room, and the sun was still up.
"The weak of the pack must be protected," Laura replied with more words than usual.
"... I didn't get it," Stark said after a moment of thought and turned to Pepper, who was his designated translator for the Lauranese language.
"Is something worrying you, Laura?" Pepper asked with a collected yet warm tone.
"Mhm," Laura nodded in reply; however, she didn't elaborate further.
"Could you tell us more about it?" Pepper asked with overflowing patience.
"Aragorn returned and then went away," Laura shared.
"Was he picking up Goddess Gaea?" Happy asked.
Aragorn's original plan was to develop a spell to sever the connection between Gaea and Earth and return to pick her up and have her deliver in a low-risk world, like Earth-199999.
Happy and Pepper, part of Stark's inner circle and habitual confidants of Seraph, knew the bold strokes of this plan. However, this had changed, and Aragorn had returned not to pick up Gaea, but on Pietro's advice to pop back up and take a look at the changes on Earth-5H1N3.
"No," Laura shook her head. "Gaea is online."
She tapped her P-Link and projected her chat's contact list. In it, Aragorn, Seraph, Kitty, Mindee, and a few others of the Therions who had shared contacts with her appeared offline. Notably, Gaea appeared online.
"Why do you have the goddess in your friend list?" Stark asked what the other two adults also wanted to know.
"Friends." She replied in that many words.
"Laura, do you mean to say that something is wrong?" Pepper asked.
"Mhm," Laura nodded.
"Since you have her in your list, why don't you ask the Goddess?" Happy suggested.
It was already outrageous that Laura, the beast child, even more feral than her already feral father in his opinion, had the Goddess in speed dial, so why not push it further?
"... Okay," Laura tilted her head as she agreed.
"Wait! Are we doing this? Are we really doing this now?" Stark asked in half panic. He knew how overprotective Aragorn was of Gaea; he didn't want to risk another love tap (electrocution) just to satiate his curiosity about a 'crazy' child's words.
But it was already too late. Laura gave the mental command, and the line connected in less than a second.
"Sweet child, it's nice to see you again," Gaea, a projection of her, said. The projected Gaea stood at 1:1 scale; it was so 'solid' that it felt as if she were present in the room.
Stark, Happy, and Pepper, after getting a passing glance from her, bowed slightly in respect. Gaea was not that type of Goddess, but still.. This was their first pseudo-face-to-face meeting without intermediaries. Who wouldn't get flustered at their first divine meeting?
"Aragorn, he was here," Laura cut straight to the matter at hand.
Gaea, with a knowing smile, replied warmly, "Yes, it's surprising you noticed."
"Contact list," Laura replied. It was her usual style to utter one or two words and expect the entire meaning to be conveyed. In fact, it was rare that she spoke with so many words to Pepper.
"I see, you noticed the moment he went online," Gaea smiled motherly. Sh understood that Laura, with her broken views of the world due to her inhuman upbringing, saw Aragorn as the leader of her circle, her pack; hence, she always followed his movements.
"Something wrong?" Laura asked.
"... You're a sharp child," Gaea smiled proudly. "Wait just a moment, he is on his way to you."
"Who?" Stark asked. "Is the Old Man coming?"
"Ah, Ma'am, you were here?" Pietro asked.
Stark turned in an instant, his palm facing Pietro; the repulsor glowed menacingly.
"SHIT! It was you, kid. What the fuck? Are you trying to kill me?" Stark complained.
"Gaea alone is fine, Pietro," Gaea said. Her motherly aura seemed to overflow when speaking with one of hers.
"Please spare me, Ma'am. I don't know what the Old Man would do to me if he heard me addressing you so casually," Pietro scrunched at the thought.
"~Fufufu," Gaea chuckled.
"Did the Old Man tell you about it?" Pietro asked while making his way to Laura.
He reached to pat her head with a grin.
SKNT Laura's claws came out, and she slashed and stabbed at him. However, the claws phased through him.
"?" She tilted her head in confusion at her claws.
"Hahahaha!" Pietro laughed heartily. "I'm too fast now," he said with a smug grin.
Laura pouted with a lost look. If she couldn't slash and stab, what was she supposed to do? What was the meaning of her life? What was she worth? And while her mind was spiralling out of control, inspiration hit her. She turned to Gaea and used her training to forcibly pool tears in her eyes. Then she pointed at the laughing Pietro and said, "Mean."
"Haha—" Pietro's laughter died immediately in his throat. He solemnly turned to Gaea, met her disappointed stare, and bowed in apology.
"A child is always a child," Gaea commented with a sigh. Whether she was referring to Laura or Pietro, it was not clear. "Go on with your explanation, child."
"At once, Ma'am," Pietro said immediately after. He turned to the amused peanut gallery and declared, "A divine war approaches. You're hereby enlisted to fend off the incoming assailants. Stark, Fury will be your support. If you think you can work with the arrogant green asshole, contact him. If not, coordinate with Fury and try to work with Susan Storm."
"..." Stark's reply was hyperventilation.
Pepper facepalmed. Happy tightened with worry.
"It's this shit all over again, isn't it?" In between heightened breaths, Stark asked.
"It's different," Gaea said in a calming manner.
"Di-Different how?" Stark asked.
"You should not engage in proximity combat," Gaea said. "It's hard to find any deity less skilled than the most skilled of your kin. The vast majority of deities have lived for so long that at a point in life, regardless of their domains, they sought to master a combat art.
"The deities of Earth, my descendants, measure their ages by the millions, and they are not the eldest of Omnipotence City. Power armor, suit of armor, mechanized armor, or no armor, the moment you fight any of them in close quarters, you lose. Hence, this time you'll be supporting from a safe distance," Gaea sternly advised.
"Seraph said that you'll have control over Brother Eye and some of the ballistic weaponry she and the Old Man left behind," Pietro added. He tapped his P-Link, and soon the lights of the residence flickered.
"Brother Eye: Link Established. SatNet Alpha through Omega connected. Combat Mode: Authorized. Assault Mode: Authorized. Defender Mode: Authorized. War Modules: Download->Executed->Authorized->Engaged. Authorization for Communications General Relay: Approved. AlphaFury: Online. AlphaSusanStorm: Online. AlphaDoom: Awaiting Confirmation. AlphaKrakoa: Awaiting Confirmation. Skynet.Link: Authorized->Engaged. Global Tracking: Started."
"Blue, what the heck did you do to my Jarvis?" Stark muttered in puzzlement as the reports came through the speakers of the residence.
"Fury, online." A holographic projection, just like Gaea's, appeared in the room. "A pleasure, my Goddess," he bowed to Gaea.
"Hello, Nicholas," Gaea greeted him.
"Susan Storm, online." Another holographic projection appeared. "Oh, i-it's an honor," she stammered out as soon as she spotted Gaea.
"At ease, child," Gaea dismissed her formalities.
"How did it go with your resident idiot?" Pietro asked. His question brought Susan out of her fangirling and awestruck.
"Reed is currently contained," Susan reported with a cold gleam in her eyes.
"And? What about his tech?" Pietro inquired.
"I... I apologize, he was building this right under our noses and we... We didn't know. I know ignorance can't be an excuse when the fate of the world is at stake, but I'm truly sorry," Susan bowed down in shame.
"Reed is just as stupid as he is intelligent," Fury interjected. "There's a reason why no one approached him for a partnership. His stupidity is well-known in my circles. Put that idiot aside and report what he was building."
"Right," Susan nodded eagerly. Fury offered a hand, and she was determined to take it. "He named it: Spatial Interference and Evacuation Volatile Expulsor, SIEVE. Which I believe is an absurd name. In summary, it's a type of device that interferes with the spatial mesh and cuts out a volume for 'evacuation'. Then this volume is ejected from 'Prime Space-Time', I'm not clear on what he meant by that—"
"Reality," Gaea interjected.
"—Ah... Okay, it expels that volume from reality into what he called the interspace. He theorized it was a hostile and volatile void between 'Prime Space-Times', or reality as Goddess Gaea pointed out." Susan finished her report.
"How stupid," Pietro scoffed. "That would have never hurt the Old Man."
"Maybe not Aragorn, but what about a deity?" Fury directed the question to Gaea.
"Yes, it should very much kill a living deity," Gaea confirmed. "However, it won't be instantaneous. If they can reality warp the universe as they are doing, then an expulsion from our reality won't be the end of it."
"This is assuming it's an individual and not a coalition," Pietro added.
"I think both cases are horrendous for us," Stark added. "Whether it's an all-powerful individual or a coalition of mildly omnipotent gods, both sides are terrible news. It would be easier if they were wielding an artifact or device; what are the chances for that?"
"I can confirm it isn't any of the Infinity Gems," Gaea said. "If it were that, I would not have felt it."
"You sensed it?" Pietro asked.
"I only realized that was what I felt after Aragorn pointed it out, but yes, I felt it," Gaea confirmed.
"That doesn't mean it isn't any other cosmic warping trinket," Fury pointed out.
"Basing it on what I know of technology and runes, and my understanding of what the Old Man does with his void energy in this world—"
"Wait! You understand what the Old Man does with his excess energy?" Pietro asked, interrupting Stark.
"With the same level of clarity a high schooler has for differential equations, just because they study math. However, Seraph has patiently explained it a few times, so I can at least grasp the basics of the basics," Stark explained.
"Continue," Fury commanded.
"As I was saying," Stark nodded and continued. "The Old Man reinforces reality with his energy," Gaea and Pietro nodded at that; they also knew that. "But the way he does it is by permeating it through its 'volume' all at once, not from his self as the point of origin. So, if it's a device or artifact, it should act as the point of origin with the Old Man's reinforcement resisting it."
"What are you getting at, Mr. Stark?" Susan asked.
"That we can track the origin by searching for the boundary of inflexion between void energy and whatever is causing this change, whatever that is," Stark explained.
"That method should work even if the origin is a being," Gaea clarified. "The way Aragorn does it is not the conventional way. Not unless a deity were using their domain as the medium, which is already permeated in reality."
"What's the likelihood of that, Goddess Gaea?" Susan asked.
"I don't know of a single Skyfather or Skymother capable of such a feat, regardless of how possible a feat it is," Gaea replied. "However, we shouldn't discard that possibility."
"We'll keep it on the back burner," Fury said. "Normally, the correct option is the one that comes most logically. Stark, can you get on it?"
"Jarvis, how much coverage do you have with your new authorizations?" Stark asked before replying to Fury.
"Sir, the full range of the SatNet left by Mr. Aragorn reaches beyond the Oort Cloud of the Sun, one lightyear beyond it," Jarvis replied.
"..."
"..."
"..."
Susan, Stark, Fury, and the peanut gallery, Pepper and Happy, were shellshocked and silent. Laura didn't care much for the talks; she had done enough for the day by calling Gaea, so her attention was elsewhere. Pietro and Gaea, on the other hand, nodded approvingly.
To them, this was expected and encouraged. In fact, they knew that if Aragorn didn't trust his might and theirs that much, he would have an even vaster detection range.
"That would only work if they step within that range," Pietro pointed out.
"Are they outside that disgustingly massive range?" Stark asked.
"Motherfucker," Fury gnashed. "Deities are not confined to the mainstream spatial mesh."
Fury didn't call himself a Supersorcerer Spy for nothing. He had taken his sorcery lessons to heart, and he remembered when Yao talked about the deities and their quirks.
"No, Nicholas, this is good," Gaea interrupted his anger. "Whoever did this waited until Aragorn was absent to make a move."
"Are they coming for you?" Susan connected the dots and covered her mouth in shock.
Although she was not privy to the intimacy of Gaea's relationship with Aragorn, Susan was a smart one. She had all the wisdom points Reed lacked.
"Yes, child," Gaea nodded.
"Goddess Gaea has something of value to the Old Man and the Madame, to say anything about Goddess Gaea herself," Pietro explained to Susan. "Whoever did this, if they are avoiding the Old Man this much, they must be after avoiding a direct confrontation. Hence, the millennia-old practice of hostage taking is the most logical approach."
"So they'll poke their heads out of the rabbit hole?" Stark asked.
"Affirmative," Fury affirmed. Gaea nodded, and Pietro's demeanor supported the conjecture.
"Then that makes things easier for me," Stark assured. "Jarvis, how long until we can get the entire area surrounding Goddess Gaea in our crosshairs?"
"T-600 seconds," Jarviss reported.
"There you have it," Stark cockily smiled. "I'll have the entire dome of the Arbor Mundi targeted for the most minimal inflexion boundary in 10-15 minutes. Then, we'll get Reed's toy fixed to space and be ready to orbital bombard the enemy after we create a distraction."
"... It's a stupidly optimistic plan," Pietro said. "But I don't have any better."
"With all the ammunition I'm sure Aragorn left in your VI's digital hands, I'm sure there's something that can be done," Fury said. "I'll get some of my assets into position too, and I think we should contact the princess."
"Which one?" Pietro asked.
"Wakanda's princess," Fury replied. "Or, should I say, Queen?"
"I'll drop by after my meeting with Krakoa's council," Pierto nodded in agreement. He knew Shuri, then princess of Wakanda, now queen and Black Panther, was an investment Aragorn had made after the Green Door event.
"Krakoa, Mr. Stark, my team, Wakanda, which I didn't know had the standing to be part of this conversation, Director Fury, and who else is joining our efforts to stop the end of the world?" Susan asked.
"The order of sorcerers and Doom, too," Fury said.
"You have something wrong, Sue," Pietro pointed out. "The Old Man told me to be under no impression that we could win this war with just us. We are not stopping the end of the world; we are delaying it long enough for my family to join the battlefield."
"..." Susan's face turned ashen. Stark's breathing hiked up.
"Don't worry, children," Gaea reassured them with her motherly and homely vibe. "We are not powerless. The Arbor Mundi is more than just a divine tree; also, Carol is by my side, and Aragorn dear was lovely enough to leave me protected enough that I, and consequently the planet, won't fall before he returns."
"I also brought presents," Pietro added while looking at Stark.
"Presents? From Seraph?" Stark asked, his eyes lit up like a preteen hearing of his crush.
"I believe Seraph helped," Pietro replied. "However, it was mainly the Old Man who built this."
Pietro tapped his P-Link, and a black armor with silver and golden highlights appeared in the middle of the room.
"You can get the specifics after you synchronize it with Jarvis," Pietro explained. "I can tell you now, though, that it was created with Dragon Ore, Vibranium, and Uru extracted from an armor that the Odin of Earth-199999 forged. Also, he based it on some of the suits your counterpart created, so you should be familiar with it."
"I thought you said I was not supposed to engage in proximity," Stark absentmindedly commented. He, slowly, with a studious gaze, observed the armor up and down.
"This is the type of armor that works as a vessel for the spirit," Gaea said. She was familiar with the Destroyer Armor of Earth-5H1N3, so she immediately understood what Aragorn had in mind when he sent the 'gift'.
"Ah, yes," Pietro affirmed. "It is as Goddess Gaea said, you're supposed to ride it with your astral form, your body shall remain safe here."
"This... This changes things," Stark commented. He knew his biggest enemy was his PTSD; however, if he could remain safe while he piloted the armor, he had nothing to worry about.
"Alright, I'll leave you to it," Pietro said. "I still need to make rounds in Krakoa, Wakanda, and Nirn after this."
"Safe travels, Pietro," Gaea softly said.
"Thanks, my Goddess," Pietro smiled bashfully. "The Old Man and the Madame told me to remind you that no harm shall befall you."
"~Fufufufu," Gaea smiled like a girl in love.
Pietro disappeared after that, and after saying her goodbyes, Geae hung up the call-projection.
"I'll code the detection algorithm for the boundary inflexion before I get to work on this bad girl," Stark said before escaping to his workshop.
"Ms. Potts," Fury called out once Stark was gone.
"Director?" Pepper asked.
"Can I bother you to start a worldwide broadcast through SmarTek?" Fury asked. "I know how little taking shelter will do, but we must cover our bases."
"It is no problem, Director," Pepper agreed. "What would you like the message to say?"
"Make it a purple alert; total, immediate evacuation," Fury grimaced. He knew the mess that would follow. "Celestial Event Incoming, should be the message. The authorization code is: AR1278JKL67###FGH875629*##HUJ. That's my code, you can rest assured that it can only be traced to me and not Stark Industries."
"As you wish, Director Fury," Pepper nodded.
Ever since the world almost ended, and for some, it did end, humanity has changed in many ways. This was a change beyond those born out of adversity, such as the global famine and the economic crises. It was a change in mindset.
Many in the civilized world used to think that death was something you'd hear of in the news. Sure, for the Middle East, death was a known evil, and parts of the third world were not better. However, the notion that the continuity of humanity could be threatened from one day to the next was a new evil for humanity as a whole.
Hence, in response to this new addition to the paradigm of the civilized world, alerts were created.
Initially, when the weather was beyond fucked up, these alerts were used to keep the surviving population up to date with the latest local weather phenomena. However, as humanity recovered from its near-death experience, as was normal, hindsight highlighted the many areas of improvement.
Many began to question, 'What if Aragorn and his people had not been there to protect the many they did?'
What if Jean Grey had not shielded the planet from the excess irradiation?
What if... What if... What if... And more What ifs.
So, the alerts that many saw in their daily lives mutated into what they have become today.
Global alerts that were treated as law, even beyond local jurisprudence, could order the entire human species to evacuate. Naturally, these alerts were codified, and not even the creators of SmarTek could issue one without the appropriate approval codes.
A purple alert was coded as a Global Threat.
So, after Pepper followed the appropriate procedure and issued the purple alert, Celestial Event Incoming, on any screen, radio station, wavelength, channel, and any form of broadcasting communication means, the siren for the end of the world rang again.
Panic was too small a word to encompass humanity's response. Hysteria was closer, but even so, it was not enough.
However, even while some suffered cardiac arrest, many fainted, many went into panic attacks, and numerous cases of mass hysteria happened, humanity, those who retained their presence of mind, moved like one body to evacuation points.
Many prayed to Yahweh, as had been the way for centuries, and a growing faction of believers prayed to Gaea.
Morality became an option for many; the world was ending, so why not let go?
Family and love made many stronger; the world was ending, so who else but a loved one to share the last minutes?
Foolhardy bravery came to light as well; the world was ending, so why not fight to the last man?
And while humanity sought to cope with inexorability, from a layer outside reality, an impossible distance away, Odin observed frigidly as humanity stirred.
"The protective veil of secrecy was lifted," he murmured.
The glowing tesseract in his chest piece glowed faintly in response.
"The Shi'ar and the Kree are not ready," he pointed out while turning his gaze in another direction.
"I need more time," he concluded after evaluating the war preparations of the aforementioned intergalactic empires.
The tesseract glowed faintly once more.
"Yes, you're right," Odin muttered.
"I don't need more time... I wish for more time."
The Cosmic Cube glowed brightly, and a miracle manifested. As if someone were fast-forwarding a video, the Shi'ar and Kree's preparations began to speed up. Troop mobilization, resource preparations, supply route establishment, training, and the many rituals that creatures like them, pompous as they are, followed were all accomplished faster and faster by the second.
Odin needed more time, so the Cosmic Cube compartmentalized the universe and sped up the time flow in the regions where his allies were preparing.
Pietro on Earth, with an innate affinity to the concept of [Time] and a divine domain equal to nine tails for it, sensed something.
He paused his running to Wakanda and stood still for a moment.
He concentrated and focused on the time stream.
He felt the direction of the flow; always pushing forward, like a river.
He felt the upper and lower currents of the river.
He felt the speed of the flow.
He felt the density of the liquid.
He felt the temperature.
He felt the viscousity.
And then... he burned his divinity like fireworks on New Year's Eve.
His eyes gained a green glow characteristic of time in Marvel. His visage was of complete concentration. Like so...
Gasp! He came out of the trance and heaved heavily.
"FUCK!" He spat. "They are gonna break the time stream. Are they stupid?!"
He was enraged. He was a deity of [Time], and what Odin was doing, what the Beyonder Fetus (Cosmic Cube) was doing, was worse than an unholy aberration to the dignity of [Time]. It was so disgusting to his senses that he worried Eternity would erase this reality just for the affront.
But even so, he knew his leeway was becoming shorter by the second, so he resumed his sprint to Wakanda.
╚═══━━━─── • ───━━━═══╝
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{A/N:
Please check out my P@treon account! There are already 10 chapters ahead for premium members, which is at least 100,000 words. Premium members also gain access to a new chapter every week.
[email protected]/ExistentialVoid
Free Members get access to all free chapters, and I upload free chapters about 12 hours earlier on P@atreon.}
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