Departure.

I could smell the sizzling of bacon as I came down the stairs.

"Mhmmm!" I took a deep breath of the bacon mixed with the lavender of Offee's hair and put my arms around her as she cooked us breakfast peeking over her shoulder causing her to squeak cutely.

"I smell deliciousness."

Offee planted a peck on my cheek as she giggled.

"It'll be ready soon. If you let me cook." She swatted my roving hands away from her breasts with the spatula.

"Uhun?" I smiled, squeezing her butt, "And what if I want a little snack before?"

"I'm afraid you'll have to wait." Offee pointed at Star and Luminara on the couch next to Eliot, as they watched him puff out a zeppelin of smoke, touring it around the kids heads as they giggle in delight.

Weizenmann's 3rd. A spell of smoke manipulation.

"Thanks for babysitting. They are hyperactive at that age. Nice trick, by the way." I praised, kissing Offee's head before I let go of her and walked over.

"Yeah, I was reading Stormlight a while back. Thought it would make for good practice. Anything to take my mind away from your lecherous acts of handholding." He teased, "Besides, these cute little critters have grown on me." He waved his hands around making them chase after the zeppelin across the living room.

"I'm glad." I smiled.

"Papa, I wanna smoke!" Star ran up to me, jumping into my lap.

"...me too." Luminara added.

I raised an eyebrow at a flustered Eliot who grabbed Luminara.

She had grown close to him over this last week.

"No. We went over this kids." He wagged a finger, "Smoking is bad."

"But you do it, uncle El!" Star argued.

"Just because I do it, that doesn't make it right." He explained confusing the kids thoroughly.

"Do as he says, not as he does." I told Star and Luminara.

"You know, I used to hate it when my dad said that to me." Margo said from behind me.

"Breakfast smells good." She took a seat opposite us.

Margo was in some ways the opposite of Eliot.

She did not get along with the kids. At all.

"Yeah." Eliot turned to Offee, "I'm half considering just marrying you!"

"If I don't take her first!" Margo added.

"Now now, don't you go making a pass at my wife." I chuckled, "You're more than welcome to come over for breakfast everyday."

"When you move out?"

I shrugged.

"I could make you a door into my household wards."

"Deal!" Margo shook on it causing me to snort in amusement.

"Good morning~" Yue came down, still yawning as she scooched in between Eliot and me, followed shortly by the rest of the crew.

"What's for breakfast?" Quentin asked.

"Shakshuka." Offee laid out the plates telekinetically, before us as she brought the pot over.

"With a side of candied bacon and toast."

"And some coffee." She poured us a cup.

"I could get used to this." Penny said.

The most he had said this past week as he took a bite.

"I don't know how you managed to score..a-a girl-wife like this." Quentin, licked the grease off his fingers, "You lucky bastard."

"Are you sure you want to say that in front of Alice?"

His eyebrows jerked up as he realized.

Alice pouted.

"Sorry I'm not a five star chef."

"I-i-i didn't mean it that way!" He explained, "You're great in your own way!"

"Oof!" I snickered.

"Bad choice of words." Eliot teased.

"Dumbass." Penny snorted.

.

Once we finished with breakfast, I brought out a bag of supplies and double checked everything.

"Okay. Everything is in order." I noted, "You guys ready?"

"Do we have a choice?" Margo asked.

"No. Not really. But you can always just stay here and wait for him to hunt you down."

She rolled her eyes.

"Alright then. Hand in your contracts."

"Why do we even have to sign these?" Penny asked as he gave it over.

"Yeah. This seems excessive." Eliot asked, "Don't you trust us?"

"I believe in trust but verify. Besides, all I'm asking is that you don't steal from me or reveal what I'm about to show you. I'm not even asking for anything in return like I did with Quentin and Alice."

"Pfft. You guys are getting the easy mode version of it." Quentin gloated.

"Yeah. Because they're not goofballs."

"Doesn't stop you you though, does it?" Margo said, displeased.

"Margo. What I'm about to share is extremely dangerous in the wrong hands. If the Beast or an evil god got their hands on this, they could ruin worlds. Wipe out magic from the multiverse itself. It's why I ward everything out the ass."

"Alright. Then show us what this thing is already!" Penny insisted.

"Yeah, yeah. Hold on." I apported the magical button to my hand and popped the lid on it's box.

"It's a button." Margo scoffed.

"A magical button." I corrected.

"You did this for a magical button?" Penny asked, annoyed.

"It's a button that can take you to other worlds, bypassing wards and constraints, magical or otherwise. It teleports you to a nexus between worlds. The Neitherlands."

"The Netherlands?"Margo asked.

"No. Neitherlands. Like 'neither her nor there', because they are like an inbetween place. When you go from one world to another, you pass through there. It is an infinite land littered with fountains. Each fountain leads to a different world."

"Like Narnia?" Quentin muttered.

"Yes. Actually, Narnia has a fountain too."

"Wait, really?" Penny exclaimed, before realizing that he was breaking his character and returned to his usual aloof, broody persona.

I sighed.

I don't know why he puts on this stupid appearance when he's just sweet pudding inside.

"Yeah. But it's frozen over." I said, continuing, "Now imagine if this fell into the Beast's hands."

I could hear the audible gulps.

"Yeah. We'd be dead."

"But we wouldn't let it fall into his hands. We're not idi-" Eliot looked at Quentin, "We're not ALL idiots."

"Very mature, El." Quentin rolled his eyes.

"Why the whole CIA treatment?"

"Because it's not just the Beast I have to worry about. Let me explain." I said, putting the button on the table.

"Don't touch that. It'll instantly teleport you away." I warned, seeing Margo go for it.

She flinched.

"You know how if something can be achieved in a lab, the same thing can happen under the same circumstances in nature? And vice versa? It's how we discovered fire. We saw lightning strike a tree and cause a fire and now look at us. We have electric lighters."

"What's your point?" Eliot asked.

"My point is this. When magic dies in a world, or the world ends, it's fountain freezes over."

"Then Narnia...?" Quentin asked.

"Yes. Narnia is dead. That's how I found out about this. Once a portal freezes over, nothing short of divine power can unfreeze it.

So going by that earlier hypothesis.

If magic dying or an apocalyspe causes a fountain to freeze over, what about the reverse? What do you think would happen if you purposely froze a fountain?"

"You could end a world...." Eliot realised, falling back into his seat.

"Someone could end our world." I corrected, "Now do you realize why I made you sign this?"

"It can't be that easy to destroy a world!" Alice argued.

"Yes. It's not. It would take a massive amount of magic. And an insane amount of meta math calculations.

More than a single magician could muster. But what about a hedge? What about the paranoid idiots over at the Pentagon? The military industrial complex with their advanced supercomputers? They have started wars over oil and the suspicion of nukes. You think if they find out they can transport armies to other worlds and rob them clean of resources without all that human rights business butting in? How about a world with talking animals? Or non humans, who are by definition not entitled to human rights?"

"It's going to be manifest destiny 2.0 up in this bitch." Margo realized.

"With a healthy dose of slavery and genocide. Talking bears getting hunted down for fur. The flying forest being cut down to make settlements. Oil refineries causing nymph extinction on Fillory. A fantasy colonized. And that blood will be on our hands." I said.

Of course, I didn't give two shits about that. But they do. And I need to make them feel the weight of their actions. Make sure they feel comfortable about the contracts I had them sign.

Not for long.

The moment that Leo Blade is in my hands, when god jizz activates my reality anchor.... I'll no longer have any need for these idiots.

Well almost. I'll still need guinea pigs and mules to take my trackers into the Underworld. But that's not something I can't have any other person do, if I really needed to. Or I could use the backdoor to the Underworld hidden in Fillory in a pinch.

"The fact that you came up wuth that is fucked up." Quentin noted.

"Well ..... I'm just saying it's a possibility. And with those ends, maybe let's be a bit more careful about this, y'know?"

"Yeah, we get it." Eliot motioned me to move on.

"Alright then. If there aren't any nore questions.....ready to go?" I said extending a hand.

Margo slapped her hand on mine and grinned.

"Bitch, I was born ready. Let's go kick some ass."

"And carve out our own legend." Eliot added, grabbing my arm.

"I'm still not sure if this is a good idea but...." Alice joined hands too.

Quentin just shrugged and followed.

"I'll follow Jay to hell itself." Yue cuddled up to me.

"I'll stay behind to watch over the kids." Offee said, waving us goodbye with a knowing look. She had her job cut out for her here.

She was going to convince Julia to join the quest by pretending to be a seer and foretelling her destiny.

She even looked the part with her tribal tattoos.

Idiots like Julia fall for that shit 9 out of 10 times. Especially when magic and Fillory is mentioned.

I smiled and sent a signal to the mercenaries I had mind controlled with nanobots in the Neitherlands during my little mapping effort of the place, and called them over to the earth fountain to be ready for a surprise.

In the show, the Leo Blade is only created because Quentin is attacked the moment they get to the Neitherlands and falls back into the fountain.

This causes him to seek out Julia and take a time bridge back to 1942 so they can follow Jane into one of the many portals into Fillory temporarily opened up for her by Ember and Umber.

The same event ends up delivering the map of Fillory that Quentin made to Martin who uses it to find the Wellspring and then become the Beast.

A delicate feature of the 40th timeline I'd like to preserve in the interest of getting not only the Leo Blade but also the god binding paralysis spell that Martin made as the Beast.

Julia herself had already summoned Reynard The Fox to Earth and had her memories patched up by John Gaines, something I arranged for her, just for this day. Their patch would plant fake memories of some vague divine purpose in her, painting a thin veneer over her traumatic memories of Reynard ripping out her friends' hearts and raping her raw, just like in the show.

All to maintain that one little part of the timeline that gives me the maximum number of benefits.

I have no doubt John will have questions about this and guilt tripping him with his lineage won't always work.

Not that he'll get any answers.

To me, he is just a bait for his father Reynard.

And bait isn't owed answers.

I grinned evilly inside.

I can't wait till I see his betrayed face as he bleeds out before Reynard's eyes.

Or maybe I could rig him with a bomb for maximum emotional damage to the evil god.

Nothing beats seeing your son get blown to bits.

I looked down at Star.

My precious little baby boy.

I'll make you a true god too.

Soon as I figure out how to manufacture god seeds by condensing magic.

So many projects, so little time....

"Bye Papa!" Star waved.

"I'll be back soon." I said, ruffling his hair, "So don't be too naughty while I'm gone okay? Listen to mama."

"Uhun!" Star nodded cutely.

"Just get on with it." Penny cringed, putting a hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah." I said and touched the button.

And away we went.

__________________

The extra chapter for 200 powerstones as promised!

The Beast Hunt has officially begun. Soon, there will be action, intrigue and deicide.

In the next episode of dragon ball- ITCOTM!

Thanks for reading.

Bye~