### **Narration – Belenus**
The skies bent beneath my shadow, not in fear — but in *recognition.*
The Earth welcomed me like a long-lost heartbeat.
I had reforged the Hollow Earth into something new — a realm unto itself. A nexus, a crucible, a throne of memory and fire. It pulsed beneath the world like a second sun, blooming with power.
But it wasn't enough.
The Pale Rift had been closed, yes.
Yet... I still *heard* it.
A whisper. A hunger. A logic that didn't care for will, soul, or stars.
The **Equation.**
---
### **Scene – Arrival at Mount Sumeru**
Mount Sumeru had changed. Floating obelisks of obsidian and gold hovered in the air, rotating slowly as divine energies funneled through them. Reality bent slightly at the summit, like the mountain existed in *multiple timelines at once.*
They had gathered.
Heroes. Gods. Scientists. Titans.
Some came to honor.
Others… to *test.*
I arrived not in war-form, not wreathed in burning scales or crowned in celestial fire, but in **my human form** — tall, flame-eyed, cloaked in armor woven from Hollow Earth's rebirth. Beside me, **Lunadora** shimmered with radiant silver-gold hair and quiet thunder in her step.
The air *froze* as we landed.
---
### **Voices at the Table**
**Goku (smiling)**: "Man, I thought Ultra Instinct was cool, but you're on a whole different tier!"
**Vegeta (grumbling)**: "He looks… like us. But the power in him… it doesn't end."
**Thor**: "He walks like a storm pretending to be a man."
**Wonder Woman**: "Then we must treat him with *respect,* not fear."
**Doctor Strange**: "He cracked open a primordial rift… and closed it. We have *never* done that."
**Zeno (giggling)**: "I like him! Let's not erase him!"
*Everyone else went very quiet.*
---
### **Tensions Simmer**
**Batman**: "What if he turns? What if this Hollow Earth becomes a dominion instead of a refuge?"
**Lunadora**: "You think power defines him? He walked into the dark and *forged light* out of it."
**Superman**: "I believe in redemption. But I also believe in preparation. If you are beyond gods, Belenus — then help us defend against what even gods fear."
**Belenus**: "I did not rise to rule… I *rose to guard*."
---
### **Scene – The Echo Returns**
A ripple passed over the summit. Even beings like Thor and Goku *stumbled slightly.*
The sky *cracked* — not physically, but *conceptually* — as if someone had pressed a thought against reality hard enough to bruise it.
> **"Ashen King..."**
> **"You are not alone. Nor are you unique."**
A symbol burned into the sky:
A perfect, recursive spiral fractalizing into ∞.
It branded itself into the mountain's face — *not physically*, but **existentially** — rewriting a portion of the mountain's memory.
Doctor Fate gasped.
**Fate**: "It left a signature in *time.* A sentient equation... rewriting the constants of reality."
**Andarta (System Notification)**:
> **⚠ Multiversal Anomaly Detected**
>
> Name: **The Equation**
> Origin: \[REDACTED]
> Nature: *Deterministic Acausal Intelligence*
> Threat Level: Omega-Dimension Tier
>
> **Target:** All Source-Bearing Realms
>
> Advisory: *"Prepare for Variable Collapse."*
---
### **Narration – Belenus**
The summit became silent.
Not out of fear.
But because we all understood the same thing at once:
This wasn't a war of armies.
This was a war of *foundations.* A war of what can exist… and what can *never* be allowed to exist again.
And somehow, I was at the center of it.
Not by choice.
By *design.*
---
### **Belenus Steps Forward**
> "I have seen what lies beyond the Pale Rift. A realm where logic dies screaming. Where fire forgets to burn. Where names are broken, and identities fracture like mirrors."
> "It wants us. Not to kill us… but to rewrite us."
> "That's why I rebuilt the Hollow Earth — not as a sanctuary... but as a **keystone.**"
> "A Nexus strong enough to hold the multiverse together."
---
### **Lunadora Adds**
> "He's not the weapon. He's the *counterforce.*"
> "And I'll stand with him. In shadow. In flame. In future and past."
---
### **The Heroes Respond**
**Goku**: "Heck yeah. That's the kind of fight I wanna train for."
**Wonder Woman**: "Then let Olympus rise again. We'll fight alongside our kindred flame."
**Superman**: "I trust you, Belenus. Let's show this 'Equation' what happens when *hope* unites."
**Zeno (to the Grand Priest)**: "Summon the universes. We're having another tournament… *but this one won't end with a wish.*"
---
### **Closing – Seeds of War**
As the summit disbanded, one figure lingered behind.
A tall, robed entity with a mask of shifting geometric runes. No one saw him arrive.
No one saw him leave.
Only Belenus felt his presence… and the faint whisper that came with him:
> "You've delayed the collapse, Ashen King... but the variables remain *unbalanced.*"
> "Soon, we solve you."
And then… nothing.