Epilogue

Night is now falling

So ends this day

The road is now calling

And I must away

Over hill and under tree

Through lands where never light has shone

By silver streams that run down to the Sea

To these memories, I will hold

With your blessing, I will go

To turn at last to paths that lead home

And though where the road then takes me

I cannot tell

We came all this way

But now comes the day

To bid you farewell

I bid you all a very fond farewell.

********

The fourth miracle.

A simple thing, yet irreplaceable.

Time.

Time to rest.

Time to heal.

Time for broken hearts to mend.

White wings flew silently around the world, gold light raining down upon all. A combination of miracles, powered by a well that would never run dry, rained gold upon a battered and bruised world.

All the tragedies, loss and pain would come tomorrow.

For one day and one day alone, Mikael bathed the world in a golden glow.

All sickness was healed. All injuries were recovered.

For one day, the Earth could rest and recover.

For one day, there was peace.

********

"NOOOOOOOO!" I screamed my pain and frustration to the sky, falling down on my knee/tentacles. "Why god? (That I don't believe in and possibly killed) Why? Have I not been good? Have I not done my best? Why must you do this to me?"

"Out of everything that happened, this is what gets him down?" Robin sighed in fond exasperation. "And how did I hear those parentheses? Is that a Great One trick?"

I ignored her, too caught up in my pain as I screamed to the heavens.

"Is it the decide?" "Probably." "Because I can stop. Really, I can."

Yoruichi's interruption was also ignored as I partook in communion... with myself.

"No more killing gods! ... unless they deserve it. But apart from that, I will be a pious little squidboi. So, please! Please! Undo what I have wrought! Right my wrongs! Do not let me suffer the consequences of my actions!"

"Is this truly the creature that slew Lord Zeus?"

One of the Amazons', I don't know whose, mutterings reached my ears. I whirled on the group of survivors, gesticulating frantically with my tentacles in frustration at her general direction.

I was being silly! Don't ruin it with your logic or expectations.

Even with my recent flight, the world could do with more silly.

"Give me Zeus! Give me Odin! Give me all the Skyfathers again! Just don't make me any bigger!"

Maybe it was because I, who had killed him, was talking about their dead god.

Maybe they were embarrassed by my over-the-top (and wholly justified) actions.

Maybe they had just had a rough forty-eight hours.

No matter the reason, none of the surviving Amazons looked happy to see me.

They also didn't look angry, though, which was weird.

In the end, it didn't matter what they thought of me. They were the ones on my Island, outside my mansion, while I was trying to rebuild my Baby Cthulhu body. I should be able to get a human body again later today, but to do so required being able to see the biokinetic without turning all the nearby humans into fish people on accident.

"Mikael," Diana sighed, both in fond exasperation and supplication. "Can you please get over it for the moment? Hippolyta has something to ask of you."

She wasn't using any titles for the woman.

Awkward.

"Easy for you to say," I said with a pout. I didn't have lips, per se, but I could get my disproportionately large eyes to water convincingly. "You're not the one who grew three sizes yesterday! I was dieting! Exercising! Watching my waistline! Using power beyond mortal minds to shrink! And now... Look at me! I am even fatter!"

"I honestly cannot tell the difference," Yoruichi poked at my pride, and I turned my watery eyes on her.

It was my mistake, as Robin was standing behind her.

Within an eyeblink, I was caught up and cuddled in the pirate's arms as she pressed me into her chest.

...I think I lost some of the gravitas I held with the Amazons, but I saw this as an absolute win.

I turned my head one hundred and eighty degrees to keep glaring at the cat from my prison of breasts. It was easy to do since I didn't have any bones.

"I grew thirteen whole kilometres! And I'm still shrunk! That means I actually grew sixty-five! Do you know how long that takes me to grow in just age? Hundreds of thousands of years!"

"Is it the lack of human body which makes him act so?" Hippolyta whispered into Diana's ear. "Lord Mikael did not seem so... whimsical when last we spoke. Nor is he that... thing we saw."

"No," Diana sighed again, but there was an uptick in her lips. "This is how he acts most of the time. It's a good thing, believe it or not. After everything, it is good to see him this way."

"I understand." Hippolyta seemed to mean what she said as she turned to face me directly.

She bowed deep and low.

The few dozen Amazons' behind her did the same.

"Elden Lord. I come not as a queen but as a supplicant petitioning for aid. Our gods have betrayed us, and our home has been destroyed. We are a people without a place to call our own. Please allow us refuge on your island. We shall build far from your home, so you need never hear or see us. We have neither money nor goods, but I hope my services may convince you to bestow your grac-"

"Sure."

"-e upon... Pardon?"

"You can live on my Island if you want," I said with a shrug. My ego appreciated the sight of a horde of beautiful women bowing to me, but they could have just asked, especially since I had actually liked Hippolyta, besides the whole trap and pet of the gods' bit. "I let murdering psychopaths in here. Why wouldn't I allow you guys? Don't know why you'd want to, though. I told you it was a death trap, right? I do not doubt your capabilities, but you will die. It might not be soon, maybe in a year, decade, or century, but this Island is no paradise. If the drakes, hydras, or basilisks don't get you, the Rot or the Old Blood will. You'd be better off asking Hera, Artemis, or your other patrons for a new home."

"That is not possible."

"Why not?" I asked the Amazon, whose name I didn't know. She looked like the priestess type and had one of Tsunade's wooden limbs for a foot. I had just killed their chief god yesterday, so why was she looking at me like that? "I get they're busy. I kinda made a mess of Olympus, but they should be able to sort you out if you give them a few weeks."

"It is impossible because there are no gods currently on earth outside of the Norse pantheon."

"What?" I asked, completely befuddled by Diana's words.

"It is something I wished to speak with you about," my Amazonian wife looked concerned. "All powers stemming from the divine have ceased. No matter the pantheon, be they of the five you slew or not, all communion with the gods but those of Asgard no longer exist."

"Isn't that how it's been since I've landed?" I asked. I now knew there had been a sort of gag order from the divine, led by the Skyfathers until they decided what to do with me. "The whole Blinding thing spooked them. I imagine it's worse now that I went all 'Grr, argh. I'mma kill you. Grr.' On their strongest members."

I honestly wouldn't blame them if the remaining gods decided to keep their heads down.

I wasn't out to kill them, but they didn't know that.

"Nay," the priestess Amazon shook her head. "Their silence was never total. We could still feel their presence, their blessings upon us. We could reach out to them, even should they wish not to respond. But no more. It is as if they never existed."

"Maybe they're just hiding really well?" I shrugged stubby tentacle shoulders, seven of them. Cut me some slack. I had only a day to compress my Great One body down enough to not melt the minds of everyone on the planet. "And I don't think you all are in their best graces at the moment."

"We believed so as well," Hippolyta nodded grimly. "Willingly or not, discarded or no, we played a part in Lo- Zeus' death. But it is not just us you have felt their silence."

"Shazam lost most of his blessings," Diana explained. "Moon Knight has passed on. The Sorcerer Supreme's artifacts powered by the divine have gone dormant. All of them. No matter the magician or priest, they cannot reach their patrons. It is as if every god of any power has disappeared from the planet. As if they have all retreated from any connection to the mortal world."

"Or they're dead," Robin interjected morbidly with a smile on her face.

"I didn't do it," I said automatically. It was a major pet peeve of mine. I was fine taking responsibility for my actions but taking the blame for things I didn't do was something I hated. "Promise. I'm innocent. I've turned over a new leaf. No more deicide for this squidboi. Cross my heart and hope to die."

Even as I drew a little cross over where a heart should be, a mouth opened on my chest, revealing rows of eyes instead of teeth.

That was accidental, but I acted like it was on purpose by making all the eyes wink at the women.

The Amazons looked at the new organ in disgust.

Whoops. Forgot not everyone was used to body horror as comedy.

After the first decade in a death world with only the undead as company, you tend to take what humour you can.

I drew the mask further to the forefront as the mouth of eyes receded into my chest.

"We do not believe you to be at fault, Lord Mikael." The way Hippolyta spoke, so deferential and appeasing, set my tentacles shivering. And not in a good way. What happened to the woman who had stared me down just a few days ago? "The opposite, in fact."

"As I was recovering from your... presence, Lord Mikael, and you were battling with Lord Zeus and the Skyfathers, we felt your Love." I twitched at the priestess' words but didn't say anything. "Both Lady Athena and Lady Hestia spoke to me in its wake. They asked that I entreat you for sanctuary."

"So you bunk with me for a bit till your goddess' get back. That makes more sense."

"Nay. They asked for sanctuary for themselves."

"And the other Olympians?" I frowned in thought as my cat jumped, stubby wings flapping, and grabbed one of my tentacles in her mouth.

Medea didn't swallow it whole as usual, only lightly nibbling on its tip. I guess she was still full from eating Ciara's shard a few days ago.

"They mentioned not a word of anybody in specific, just asking for sanctuary. The vision was short." The Amazons watched Medea eat with horrified fascination as my chubby limb regrew.

The cute display didn't distract me from my thoughts, though.

What was going on here?

I did not believe, for even a second, that Emma's little light show had been enough to get goddess throwing themselves at my feet and proclaiming their undying love for me.

Ignoring that the effect wasn't active for more than a minute, leaving all who felt it distinctly aware they had been Mastered and thus pissed off. The simple fact was I had killed their father/brother and destroyed their home.

Even if the pair were incredibly pragmatic, which they might be since I had never met them, and decided to get on my good side so I wouldn't do the same to them, asking for sanctuary was a poor way to go about it.

And through an intermediary?

Why not come out after I had killed Zeus?

Or help him fight me?

Hestia, goddess of the hearth, let her brother, the patriarch of her pantheon, die and switched sides instantly?

Athena, the goddess of wisdom, did the same in an inefficient manner that did not benefit her?

Even though I had never met either of them, their actions didn't make sense in relation to their portrayal in myths, comics, or even what the locals of this world knew.

Unless...

"They caught on," I sighed. "They realized we were being played against each other."

"That was my inference as well," Diana said as she gestured to the group. "I brought them here as soon as you could handle the company."

"Without melting their brains, you mean?"

I was honestly impressed that it had only taken me a day to return to Baby Cthulhu form. It took me a week of dedicated effort only a few months ago. I was also impressed the Amazons were handling it so well. Only a day ago, they had been exposed to the full effect of a child Great One and now were facing its shrouded form. I wondered what sort of Insight they were getting, but that boat had sailed, so I didn't worry too much about it.

"Probably a good call. Keep them here while I am out. Raven and I will see about investigating divine realms and see if anyone is around. If they are, they can't do anything to me, even if I did kill their chief gods."

I wasn't going to go into the distinction between 'avatar me' and 'real me' in front of the Amazons, but I didn't need to, as the rest of the Family got the hint.

"And in return for sanctuary?" Hippolyta asked. It was faint, but I detected a hint of resignation in her voice.

I took a good look at her.

She looked bad.

Well, that wasn't true. I did not think it was possible for Amazons to look bad. Even soaking wet, covered in blood, and tired from the long battle, none of them looked less than 'action movie heroine.' They didn't have eye bags, and even their messed-up hair looked half-intentional.

But, the slump of her shoulders, the way her eyes drifted to her people and flinched away, and the way she had yet to meet my eyes once told me that the Queen of the Amazons was nowhere near top form.

Heroes were people too, and this one had just lost friends and family, been abandoned by her god, the father of her child, and seen the home she had built and protected for thousands of years destroyed.

She had every right to be tired.

But here she was, still trying to secure something for her people.

"Nothing," I shrugged five chubby arm tentacles at her surprised look. "Quite frankly, you have nothing I want, nor can you offer any service me and my Family cannot do ourselves. Actually, now that I think of it, are you even able to live here? If the gods are gone, aren't you just normal women again? Kick ass and skilled, but not the superhumans the gods blessed you with? I will tell you right now, as someone who can speak from experience, no matter how skilled you are, the creatures and monsters of this Island will kill you. If you can't shrug off your own death, you should not be here."

Since they hadn't already, I assumed they wouldn't die of old age catching up to them or turn to stone like they did in a few comics.

"Your concern warms our hearts, Lord Mikael." An Amazon, one I didn't recognize, bowed again. She was one of the ones staring at me weirdly. Not angry, but something else. "The blessings of our goddesses have not receded. They are given and are permanent unless removed by the gods themselves. Such has been the case with our wayward sisters over the years. Such is now the case with us."

"Fair enough," I shrugged again. This time, I only had three shoulders. I was almost done converting myself to a stable body, so the number of eyes or blades that randomly grew on me was much lower now. "But, as I said, whether or not you live on the Island doesn't matter to me. Same rules as everyone else. I won't hurt or help you. You're not allowed to cross the southern mountain range. The boundary field will stop you and alert me if you try. You also cannot leave without my express permission. A fail-safe to keep the things here from breaking out. Apart from that, you are free to do whatever you want."

"What is your tribute of choice?" The priestess asked. "During the Festival of Five, the goddesses accepted a deer. Is that satisfactory, or do you wish for a different sacrifice, Lord Mikael?"

"Nothing," I repeated with a sigh. "This is not a religion. I am not a god. The only reason I am 'helping' you." I made air quotes with my nubby tentacles. "Is because it literally costs me nothing."

I wasn't a hero, but that didn't mean I was against helping people if I could. I simply had a calculus I made. Does it cost me something? And if so, what do I gain from it?

Mercenary? Sure, but I found it an excellent way to balance all I could do so I avoided falling into the Superman dilemma.

I was an asshole, but I still had some basic empathy.

In this case, both sides of the equation were at zero, so I saw no reason not to let them live here. Either it would be temporary, in which case they would leave, and I wouldn't have to care, or it wasn't, and they'd eventually die out in a decade or two.

And if they tried something? I could sneeze at them and wipe them out.

"While we appreciate your kindness," Hippolyta said, regaining some of her old fire to finally meet my eyes. There was a stubbornness there, a pride that wouldn't back down. She was once again speaking to me as two leaders of differing factions. "We have not fallen so low as to forget grace given. Your family has saved our lives. You are offering us a place to rebuild."

"That will probably kill you," I pointed out.

Again.

Why do people keep thinking this is some sort of 'promised land.' It was literally an amalgamation of five death worlds.

"And it is the only place our patrons believed safe from our enemy, whoever they may be." Hippolyta's counter was quick and decisive. Her mojo must be coming back with a vengeance. "Whether you acknowledge it or not, we are in your debt. And we pay our debts."

Her words, as stubborn as they were, seemed to put something back into the Amazons behind her. Their shoulders squared, back straightened, and they all looked at me as if daring me to deny their Queen's words.

Well played, Queen of the Amazons.

But you are fighting a battle you cannot win, for I have the power of anime and silliness on my side.

"Tell you what," I said slyly. For some reason, my wives took a step away from me. How rude. "I will accept a tribute. But not a sacrifice."

"In what manner," the priestess asked with a frown.

"Nothing too bad," I waived off their concern. My wives looked worriedly at each other. "It's simple. Every month that you still live on my Island, every one of you must make at least one pun."

"No!" Yoruichi gasped in horror while Robin giggled. "Anything but that!"

"Yes!" I declared in my most serious voice. "A pun a month. That is the rent you must pay me."

"A pun?" The priestess tilted her head in confusion and looked around at the horrified and pained looks my wives were sending me. "Is that short for a punishment? Of what sort?"

"A pun is a type of joke," Diana said, holding her face in her hands after facepalming hard enough to shatter stone. "A witticism based on plays of words, usually involving words sounding the same but with different meanings. Do not mind him. He is joking."

"I am not," I declared imperiously as the Amazons looked between us in confusion. "Those are my terms. Should you violate them, I will know." I wouldn't, but they didn't need to know that. "A pun per person per month. Within a few years, you will be making them without even realizing it. It will be amazoning."

My wives, and Hippolyta, groaned. I think that one physically pained them.

I cackled.

"You are the worst," Yoruichi deadpanned at me. "Just the worst. And now you are corrupting these poor women."

"I get it," an Amazon said with a clap of her hands. "A test of creativity. Lady Diana spoke of you as a spirit of Freedom. You wish for us to prove our ability to think for ourselves."

No. I just thought the idea of the super serious Greek Amazons making puns would be funny, and it would get them off my back.

"Exactly! Well done," I declared.

She beamed, and the others nodded in understanding, buying my bullshit for some reason. Again, I had killed her god less than a day ago. These women were weird. They weren't stupid, and I thought they hated men, so what was happening here?

"We understand your wish, Lord Mikael," the priestess nodded at me. "You seek for us not to depend on you but to build lives for ourselves. We shall strive to make it as 'amazoning' as possible."

I laughed so hard that my control over my body slipped, and a dozen eyes opened, all narrowed in mirth.

"The worst," Diana repeated Yoruichi's words, her head still in her hands. "We need to leave. Now. Follow me. I'll take you to a place I know. It's defensible, close to the boundary, and far from most of the worst the Island has to offer. I'll walk you through the greater threats to avoid as well."

"Hippolyta, a moment," I said, getting my laughter under control as the group was led away. She paused, and I turned to look at Robin for a second. "Do you mind letting Medea know about this? Don't want her running into them before we tell her."

"Probably for the best," the pirate nodded and dissolved her body in a flurry of pink petals, leaving me to fall to the ground while Yoruichi and the Queen watched, the former with a grin.

All the rest of my Family were still out and about, providing what help they could in the relief effort from the cluster fuck. I had healed everyone, but food, rescue, and relocation efforts could not be solved with a simple healing flyby.

I'd join them as soon as I was safe to be around.

"You sure this is a good idea," Yoruichi asked. "She's not going to like having them around."

"Medea will surprise you. For all her disdain for the gods, she has a soft spot for those they fuck over. I wouldn't be surprised if she whips them up a bounded field or such for their territory."

"If this new land is as dangerous as you claim," Hippolyta grimaced. "We will not turn down what aid we can get."

"Which brings me to why I pulled you aside," I absentmindedly scratched Medea's ears as she continued to nibble on one of my tentacles. "Why are you here, Hippolyta?"

"I told yo-"

"I just killed Zeus," I interrupted her and she shut her mouth with a click. "Yes, we were pitted against each other by some shadowy mastermind, but that doesn't change the fact that I killed the chief god of your pantheon. Diana's father."

"He was also Heracles' father," the Amazon bit out the name with pure hatred.

I didn't comment.

There were some things you don't joke about.

"He was a major dick, don't get me wrong. All of them were. And even if they weren't, I don't regret what I did. Even if I hadn't been manipulated into that situation by whatever the fuck was going on with Poseidon, I would have ended up clashing with them eventually. So if you are expecting me to take care of you all out of some sort of guilt, you are mistaken. I might not be the threat to the world they tried to paint me as, but neither am I a saviour. And you all hurt Diana with your actions. You had to have known it was risky to come here. That is why you left Donna behind, isn't it? So I will ask again, why are you here?"

Hippolyta gave me a rye smile as she seemed to sag in on herself.

The strong front she had been putting up for her people gave way to the woman who had probably just had the second worst day of her long life.

"Because we have nowhere else to go," she said, sounding helpless. "Man's world is in ruins, and they are scrambling to rebuild. My goddesses, the women who took me and mine in when we were at our lowest, are probably dead, or they would have reached out to us in some manner. We are an abandoned people with nowhere to go."

"Most countries would have lept at the offer you gave me," I pointed out. "After the last few days, they would have given you anything at all in exchange for a few Amazons acting as heroes for them. Land. Independence. To say nothing of your relationship with Wonder Woman and the Justice League or your actions during the World Wars."

"And would my people have been safe?" She asked rhetorically. "Even should I find someone whose words I could trust, most of my friends from my time as Wonder Woman are long dead. My people would have become weapons for any country eventually or become enemies. And if they didn't? What happens when the next Endbringer attacks? One of those creatures would have wiped us out had it not been for your wives. But you and your family have killed or aided in the death of every one of the beasts. With my goddesses' last words, is it any wonder I would consider your home to be the most fitting place for what remains of my people?"

I considered telling her that the only reason my Family had been so effective against the Endbringers was that we had knowledge of their abilities ahead of time, a knowledge that had run dry. As proven by the Stranger Endbringer, who I heard was temporarily being designated Sebettu, there was every possibility more Endbringers were coming, and I would know nothing about them.

"I kept Donna away because she is too young to spend her life here," Hippolyta continued. "My daughter has promised to place her with the Teen Titans, a team also under the protection of your wives."

"You might be safe here from outside threats, but that doesn't explain why you, and your entire people, seem to be ignoring the god-killing squidboi in the room. I would think you would want nothing to do with me."

There was a long pause as Hippolyta seemed to give my words some thought, and I kept compressing myself more and more into my Baby Cthulhu body. A few more limbs, and I should be good to go. Yoruichi watched us in silence, arms crossed.

"Before I told her of the invitation, I asked my daughter about you," the Queen eventually spoke. "She talked about what they had discovered and what she learned on her own. Insight, I believe you called it. Knowing the Truth of something without ever actually learning. She spoke of dreams, visions, and sometimes revelations that seemed to come from nowhere when a thought entered her head. It sounded much like Penelope's prophesies, so I did not think much of it then."

"That is not an... incorrect way to think of Insight," I hedged. "But it is not about so much about future knowledge, or even gaining knowledge, but about being confronted with the truth of the world and accepting it. That is the key. Being able to accept the Truth. If you cannot, you will frenzy. Through her resonance with my wife, your daughter gained Insight into me specifically, but it doesn't have to be about me. Just about peeling the layers of reality away to see what is actually happening and not what our limited minds can accept is happening. Theoretically, someone with infinite Insight will never be deceived by illusion, lies, or even the limits of time and space. They will know and see all."

I had always believed that to be how the Great Old Ones had a form of limited omniscience. That would fit in with what I knew of the Mythos and Bloodborne. They weren't wholly omniscient, limited to their own viewpoints as they were, and it didn't grant understanding, just vision in the metaphysical sense. That was why they could not understand mortals, for they knew we had limits but could not understand such a concept.

"And do you? See all, I mean."

"No," I snorted. "Except in very specific circumstances, I am just as fallible as anyone else, as the last few days proved. Nor do I want that ability. It would seriously suck. But we've digressed. You were explaining your reasoning."

"I do not know what all my sisters saw when Dr. Fate opened the portal," Hippolyta stared into the distance, northward where Diana had taken her people. "I do not even know what I saw. The pain blinded me within seconds, and I fell unconscious. What I do know is what I saw in that Dream."

I did not like her tone.

"I saw you. Alone. Burning for thousands of years."

The Kiln of the First Flame.

It always seemed to come back to fire.

Yoruichi had me in her arms in a flash, hugging me tight.

"I went mad after the first decade. You held on till the end."

Not by choice.

"I was only unconscious for a few seconds, but when I awoke, I wondered how? How had you retained your sanity till the end?"

Because I had been forced to. I was no more special than the average Joe. I had just been put in a situation that was anything but average, and I did everything I could to stumble my way out.

"Then I felt the call."

Hippolyta looked at me then, and I finally could understand the emotions in her eyes.

Behind the weariness, heartbreak, fear, and a soul-deep yearning I knew she must despise, I saw something I hated.

An overwhelming sense of pity.

"It... that's how you feel all the time?"

I had been trying to ignore it with silliness. Occupying my mind with the implications of Poseidon and the possibility of a divine armageddon, to say nothing of the 'enemy' the gods spoke of.

Powered by my Command Seal, Emma had Mastered the entire planet. She had done so using a copy of my mind.

I hated Mastering people.

I considered the act of being forced to live, even as someone else occupied your body and you were trapped in your mind, to be a fate worse than death. And I had died a lot.

And that is what happens when you are Mastered. Something else is there, but you are not.

What I had done to Emma was the worst version of what I hated.

Emma had essentially done to everything alive what had been done to her. My sin repeated a trillionfold. And everyone knew it. Knew they had been Mastered in a way that bent them to my every whim.

All the hard work I had put into our image, all the efforts to make my Family accepted, all undone in less than a minute.

And the worst part?

"It is."

I did not blame her for it.

When I heard of what Medea had authorized, and Emma had done to protect themselves and kill Tohu, all I could say was 'Good job.'

I would rather violate my greatest taboo, one of the few morals I held tightly, than risk the loss of my Family.

I had chosen them over my fear. I guess giving up my morals for them was just another sign that I was still human.

Hypocrisy and all.

"That is why I am here," Hippolyta answered finally. "I do not know what you are, what you will do, or where you come from. All I know is that if I can secure even a fraction of that... Love for my people, I shall never fear them being abandoned again."

"I not going to date, sleep with, or marry any of you," I said immediately, cutting off that train of thought. "If you expect that to happen, leave now. If you try to force it to happen, I will immediately throw you into the Lake of Rot and watch the flesh melt from your bones."

I did not have enough time to spend with the women I currently loved, let alone have time for others. I only entertained Emma's little 'plan' because it was irrelevant to me. Even if the local Emma Frost fell in love with me, it would not change the fact that I loved only one woman with that name.

I did not need some overt show of love, a grandiose plan or a flowery proclamation.

I just wanted what I already had.

My Family, my Freedom and myself.

"I did not mean it such as that," Hippolyta shook her head. "I know how futile such a plan would be. I simply meant that, given enough time, we will simply be part of what you consider 'yours.'"

More than anything else, that told me of the Insight the Amazons had gained.

People who felt Emma's semblance felt the love I felt for my Family, but they did not understand it.

My Love was not kind, was not human, or even rational.

It was a Mad Love, one I could only feel to those who were 'Mine.'

It had been nurtured for millions of years as I watched over the women who had saved me from myself.

"Even a fraction of infinity is still infinite," Hippolyta said as she walked away.

Then she paused.

"One other thing," the Queen of the Amazons said as if remembering something. "I do not know what it means, but I received one more vision after I awoke."

"Shoot."

"I saw a small restaurant, a deli, whatever that is, at the foot of rocky mountains. At one of the tables, a woman waits for you. Pale as the grave."

I said nothing, my face carefully neutral, as Hippolyta walked away.

********

The world had changed.

The bloodiest day in human history had come and gone, and in its wake, the living were left to pick up the pieces.

Millions were dead. Cities laid to ruin.

China had the worst of it in pure numbers of dead. But the full ramifications of Heartbreak would not be clear until much later.

Behemoth might have been a distraction, and the battle with Leviathan was far from well-known, but studies of Khonsu's and Tohu's actions would be hotly debated for years to come.

What was their fault? What were other actors taking advantage of the situation? And what was pure bad luck?

Nobody would ever know for sure, but one thing was clear.

The dead, those innumerable lives lost, on Heartbreak had been tangential. Collateral damage in the wake of a larger plan that became apparent too late.

Mass chaos.

Khonsu's teleportation hadn't been random. It targeted places of cultural significance and people of influence and power. Politicians, governmental authorities, religious leaders, industry tycoons.

It only had enough time in each location to get off one attack before Yoruichi was on it, and it was forced to flee, but each attack counted. Deathtoll-wise, Khonsu had killed a fraction of a fraction of Bohu, but the wounds it inflicted on the structure of the world were extensive.

You don't need Simurgh's scream to cause chaos, to pit humans against one another.

Simply create a gap, a void filled with power, money, and influence, and humanity will fight and kill each other to fill it.

Khonsu's attacks led to fifteen civil wars in the following weeks, three campaigns of religious persecution, and four annexations of countries by their more powerful neighbours.

Tohu never killed a single person.

It simply flew.

And sang.

The longest it ever stayed in one place was two seconds. Some of those stops were caught on camera or had witnesses, but many were not, guided as it was by the Simurgh's limited omniscience.

Its actions were the greatest source of paranoia the world could have imagined.

How did you know it hadn't stopped in your town? Your friends, family, and pets could have been influenced, and you would have no idea. At least with the Simurgh, all you worried about was the city attacked.

Now?

The whole world could be against you.

Trust no one, not even yourself.

Hope, so tenderly cultivated in the wake of the Simurgh's death, was struck low once more.

What did it matter if every Endbringer died if another could appear at any moment?

What good were heroes if they were as vulnerable as everyone else?

What was the point of carrying on in the wake of Heartbreak?

Heartbreak was a day of loss, a day to mourn.

The Fourth Miracle was a day of rest, a day to recuperate. A day to lay the foundations upon which to rebuild.

Everything that came after?

Those were just the regular day in a world beset by powers much greater than those living on it.

********

Humming to himself, Nathaniel Essex marvelled at what a great day it was.

It all seemed so simple. Why hadn't he thought of this idea before?

His goal had always been the evolution of humanity as a whole to the perfect species, so why had he been thinking so small?

Well, no more. He had all the tools at hand and hadn't even realized it.

Had he been a more expressive man, he might have face palmed at his idiocy, but the mutant geneticist simply kept humming.

He was almost done here.

Cadmus had been an investment that had paid off with the boar. It wasn't needed anymore and, in fact, was now a liability. But it could still prove its use as a testing ground. This last experiment was the perfect example.

Essex watched the monitors of the underground facility, the fighting and the dying on the screens less interesting to him than the method.

Some still looked human, others were slobbering beasts, and a rare few were something else entirely.

Better.

Sure, some subjects had regressed into animalistic monsters instead of ascending, but that was to be expected.

Some people were just lesser than others.

Essex didn't care if ninety-nine percent of subjects died. That was how evolution worked, after all. A superior species would supplant the old one. The survivors would breed, develop, and the cycle would continue.

That was how the world should be.

How the world would be.

Another monitor showed a Maneating Boar feasting on the remains of its guards.

It wasn't the original, just a clone. But that was the wonderful thing about the Blood.

Those that consumed enough of it would, in turn, start to produce it.

A few clones, a Mister Sinister specialty, of the beast glutted upon the blood of the original, and he had an infinite supply of the liquid.

Enough for an entire world, desperate for a means to defend themselves.

An increase in strength, speed, endurance, and instant healing?

Superpowers in a bloodred vial.

A world of test subjects.

Humming a song to himself, all three eyes focused on the screen, Nathaniel Essex dreamed of mankind's next great step.

Ascension.

********

Her smile never faded.

She could not allow it to.

Not allow herself to feel despair, fear, or loneliness. She could not fall to guilt, shame, or failure.

If Valerie Richards ever lost her smile, she would not be Valerie Richards anymore.

So she smiled as the world ended.

She could not feel hope either.

All she allowed herself to feel was curiosity.

When would Mikael be here?

********

Lured by the call of Life, the Pheonix winged its way toward Earth.

Lured by the call of Death, Mikael flew to a small deli.

********

"You have a lot of nerve," I said as I sat at the booth. I was honestly surprised they were open. But even the end of the world wouldn't stop people from needing to pay rent. "Meeting me here? Now? Are you trying to piss me off?"

"You're early," Death said in light surprise. "You should not be able to sense me until you reach Tier 11."

She was different again, no longer looking like Death the Endless. Still dark-haired, still pale skinned and dressed in black, but that was where the similarities ended. She looked more like a Victorian widow coming from a funeral with her long dress and gloved hands holding a cup of tea than the punk rock look of her lesser aspect.

"I didn't," I waived down a waitress, tentacles disguised as a hand under an illusion. "Some crystal ball bullshit. Only with more eyes."

"Ah," the Embodiment of the End nodded as I placed my order.

"Shouldn't you have known? You know, with the whole omniscient thing?"

"Anything interacting with you directly, or happening within your pocket dimension, is invisible to me. Has been since you finished your sentence."

I was silent for a moment, gathering my thoughts.

The minutes stretched on. Death drank her tea and watched the rain fall outside as I watched her.

There was so much I wanted to say, so much I wanted to ask.

When I received my order, a steaming cup of mate, I took a deep whiff of the blend.

It smelled like home.

I had not had mocha mint mate in over thirty-five million years.

This deli was one of the few things that remained the same in this world and my home. A cute thing of hardwood, good food, and friendly staff.

It was also the front of a religious organization that was legally, I am told, 'not a cult.'

After the first sip, I set down my cup.

"You set me up."

"I did."

"The Company set me up."

"They did."

"I set myself up."

"You did."

I took another sip, trying to sort out all my feelings.

Death decided to elaborate.

"Three parties sat at that table. Three parties planned to screw the other two over. Three parties succeeded. The Company screwed you over by trapping you in the cell and tainting any relationship you could have with your bonds by their control over you. You will never be free of the risk they pose. The Company screwed me over by taking everything, all the quadrillions of credits I had accumulated and spent on the exception for you and placing me in a situation where you do not want to help me."

"Because you needed to screw me over too."

"The loss of memories about the deal did not target you," Death nodded. "It targeted me. This meant I needed to set things up to manipulate you to free yourself without knowing you were doing so. And when you got the memories back, you would know I had done so. Any relationship we might have had would be ruined."

"Because I hate being manipulated."

That, more than anything else, was my own hypocrisy. Someone who takes joy in manipulating others should be prepared to face the same outcome.

I couldn't help hating things that I hated, just as most people couldn't help liking what they liked.

I liked manipulating people.

That didn't mean I wasn't susceptible to it.

When I found whoever set me against the gods, who put my Family in danger while they distracted and used me, I would make their suffering a thing of legends.

Less because of the manipulation and more because of the danger they place my Family in.

"Before you took the deal, you had no protections from foreknowledge. Both the Company and I could predict your future. Would you like to know what it was?"

"I can imagine," I sighed, taking a sip. "But go ahead."

"You would have remained trapped in that cell for centuries." My tentacle tightened hard enough to crack my mug. "You would have gone mad, but not hollow. A different kind of madness. A necessary one. Aided by your Life Element, you would have spent that entire time developing your mind and will after giving up on escape. Completely alone, you would wait for your chance. With infinite time, it was inevitable that, eventually, the door would fall. In this case, an asylum demon would shatter your wall, killing you after you lured it in. But you'd be free of the cell. From there, defeating Gwyn and lighting the fire would take another seventy-six years. Your time in the cell, as well as the longer time for your journey, would have fortified your will enough to last in the kiln till the next chosen would take up your duty."

"And the rest of the games?" I asked out of morbid curiosity.

"Much the same as what actually happened," Death waived away the question. "The Dark Souls worlds would have been practically identical."

"Elden Ring?"

"Some slight differences," Death nodded. "You would not have been able to use faith, unaware as you were of your true body, and since you lacked any knowledge that you were recruited by the Company, you would not have been able to bind Ranni."

Death didn't need to say anything else. From there, I could puzzle out the rest.

"I would have fallen in love with Melina anyway. After so long alone, I would have been even more desperate for companionship." I was a loner, an introvert by nature, but I was still human. I still craved love, affection, and companionship like everyone else. "I would have wanted to stop then. To live in that world with her and not risk beating the game and moving on to the next. Melina would never have allowed that, driven by her purpose. I would have had to follow her or risk losing her. And she would still have burned."

"From there, you would have claimed the Elden Ring, slain Marika, and moved on to Bloodborne. I told you at that table, Bloodborne was where I was placing my bets."

"But it wasn't my unfamiliarity with Elden Ring that would have driven me to seek my freedom," I sighed. "It would be the loss of Melina. I would be completely alone. Without knowledge of the Catalogue or your involvement. I would have done anything and everything."

Even the few lives I had saved in Yharnam would not have been spared from a version of myself who had lost everything like that.

"You would have absorbed every drop of blood in that city, the labyrinths below, and the nightmares overhead. You would have reached the max level, been freed, and returned to the island where you would remember the truth. And discover the last trap the Company had planted. In your fear of their control over you, of being trapped again, you would have released all ten women without ever knowing them, and they would have died. Moved on to the afterlives, if they exist, of their home worlds that are long gone. Everything you signed up for and every wish you had initially worked for turned to ash by your hand. A true monkey's paw."

Her voice was conversational as if she was talking about the weather and not a nightmare that could have come to pass.

I could see it all, knew myself enough to know that is precisely what would have happened.

It wouldn't have been pretty.

"I was going to screw you over to manipulate you to your Freedom. All that heartbreak and pain would have been the sword to break your chains," Death took another sip. "I was going to screw the Company over by bringing Melina back. As a Tier 12 with Company access, they cannot predict me. Melina would have never been bound, so she never fell under their purview. Nor would she need to be bound. Already immortal, she would be someone with you that you didn't need to fear, side-stepping the second trap. It would have been bittersweet, but you would have had your happy ending. Ideally, my actions would have allowed us to work together, despite the bad blood. Cordial, but not friends."

Despite the dark subject, I smiled as I sipped my mate.

"But I screwed both of you over."

"You fell in love," Death nodded. "We could not predict your trick of sending your bonds to the past, as it occurred after you were Free and had your Elements. That one choice, that one action, changed everything. Robin gave you the idea to escape early after Emma gave you the determination to perform such an extreme act. They also trained you, shortening the time it would have taken. It was almost a disaster, but Diana's 'order' kept you sane through the kiln. Because of their existence, you were receptive enough to Ranni, who you wouldn't have met at the Moonlight Alter without knowledge of the Catalogue pushing you past the idea of monogamy with Melina. Ranni, in turn, was there to help you recover after the loss of Melina. And in Bloodborne, Emma was the means to escape."

"And since Melina has been bound, you've lost your leverage over me."

"I never intended to hold her hostage," Death shook her head. "I need you to aid me willingly. But, yes, your love for the others reduced the gratitude you would feel for me bringing her back."

"No, it doesn't," I declared firmly. "No matter what else happens or happened in the past, I will never forget that."

I hated being manipulated, but I also wasn't blind to blessings.

My hypocrisy only went so far.

"That is... heartening," Death said after a moment's pause. "As I said, I have been unable to observe you directly since you've been freed. All I have to go on is my predictions from the revised scenario while you were still trapped. They are relatively accurate but not as exact as I am used to. I have been forced to observe you through intermediaries, and even then, only when you are off your Island."

"Is that why it took you so long to call me?" I asked, finishing my drink and waiting for a refill. "You were afraid I wasn't grateful enough to hold up my end of the deal?"

"That," Death nodded. "And once you were Tier 11, you would have had more leverage in our negotiation, making you more secure and trusting. As I said, I need you. You do not need me anymore."

"Why do you need me, exactly?" At her arched eyebrow, I clarified. "I know you want me to bind, which will free you from the limits of your Tier, but what does that mean?"

She thought for a moment as I got my new drink, sipping it slower than the first.

"I am Death."

"Repeating yourself doesn't clear things up," I snarked.

"I am told you before that I am not Death of the Endless, Lady Death, or any version you know. I am all of them and none of them. I am Death. The End." I could practically hear the capitalization in the last word. "I am there at the End of all things. When anything is destroyed, I am there. When any life is snuffed out, I am there. By that nature, I am also there for all beginnings, for a beginning is but the End of what came before."

"Omnipresent, got it. But what comes after that on the tiers? Why put so much effort into all this?"

"I do not ask you to raise my Tier," Death corrected. "I simply ask you to free me. I am present for all beginnings and ends. Including mine."

"The Doctor Manhattan problem," I nodded with dawning horror.

"I would liken it more to an Eren Yeager problem," Death pursed her lips in thought. "On a much grander scale."

I suddenly felt a much greater companionship for Death.

"That sucks," I said in the understatement of the century. "So you are trapped, living out your birth, your life, and end at all times."

"In a manner," she hedged. "I am not human. I perceive the world differently than you. I do not die so much as I cease. When my corner of the omniverse disappears, as large as it is, I will as well, for there will be nothing left to reach its End. I do not believe I would have minded such an existence if I didn't know there was more out there. Bliss in ignorance."

Nothing lasts forever.

Everything ends.

Even the personification of Death will eventually be gone when nothing is left to die.

"The first knowledge I had that there was more out there was when some random soul ended up in one of my worlds. A soul completely unfamiliar to me, which should be impossible. That was the first time I considered the possibility of things greater than me."

"The Company?"

"One of their agents," Death agreed. "Someone who filled out a catalogue similar to you. A being of voracious sexual appetite. I watched them for centuries until they angered the wrong god by sleeping with their wife and getting killed. So certain were they of their 'chosen one' status they never considered they could lose. With the knowledge I had gained from them, I reached out to the Company. Eons later, here I am. Infinitely close to my Freedom."

"So you don't want more power, just removing your shackles. And I, whose Element was granted by a higher being but no longer bound to them, am the key. You needed me to be a Black Mark, so they wouldn't interfere later."

Death was sneakier than I suspected. Who knew?

"One of the many reasons I chose you," Death nodded. "Everything from here on will be entirely dependent on your actions. I have stacked the deck. You need just play your cards."

"You really did," I sighed. "Doomsday, Trigon, the Endbringers, the Council of Skyfathers, and whoever manipulated me. All in a few months. Interesting times indeed. I do not suppose you will tell me who that last one is?"

"I shall provide no help, no information," Death insisted. "Neither directly or indirectly. There is no Lady Death, Chosen of Death, Black Racer, or embodiment of my power. The closest is your bond, Priscilla, and she is far from an avatar of death yet. As of yesterday, no gods of death remain on this planet either. Everything, the good and the bad will depend on you. That is the only way you can grow. No one to blame, no one to thank."

"For someone who wants to be free so bad, you aren't helping yourself," I sighed. The Wuxia method of training. Wonderful.

"I could be free this instant if you would stop holding yourself back."

I didn't have anything to say to that.

It was true.

"Did you know why I only released the Defences in this last year?"

"So you could observe me?"

"That is why I held onto them, but why did I wait for thirty-five million years to release you from your 'sentence'?"

"Power."

"Power," Death nodded. "Inexhaustible means your well never runs dry. Dragon Heritage means your well grows as you age. In my predictions, after you freed yourself from Bloodborne and spent a few centuries on your Island in accelerated time with Melina, as I promised, you would be freed from your sentence and ascend to Tier 11 immediately. You would have met all the requirements. But you didn't. A Tier 11 might have the same power as a Tier 10. Both are theoretically infinite. The difference is in the nature of their being."

"But I didn't change my nature," I sighed. "I chose to stay myself."

A choice I might not have made if I had gone through everything she had said.

"You remain your own greatest barrier."

"Story of my life," I snarked with a wry smile. "I guess you are out of luck then. I am not giving up on myself. I like me. My wives like me. I am going to be forever a tier 10. Maybe I should make a T-shirt?"

"I cannot control you, and if that is your decision, then I am indeed out of luck." Death did not sound sad, just matter of fact as her pitch-black eyes stared into mine. "I shall only say this. There are multiple ways to achieve Tier 11. The tier system is just the Company's way of classifying beings but power, usefulness, or nature. It is not the be-all-end-all. Especially not for you. You have no limits. You are truly free. Free to become who you wish to be. All I can hope for now is that you do not disappoint me and will one day fulfill your promise to free me."

"Answer this last question, and I will tell you if I will." I stared back into those pools of the void. "Will you bring back Millicent if I ask?"

I did not love Millicent.

Not as I did Melina or any of my other wives. Nor was she as close to me as Solaire, Andre, Patches, or a few others had been.

But more than anyone, I owed the redheaded Valkyrie.

Owed her for her words, which guided me toward Freedom.

Owed her for a lie I could not tell her, the trust I could not place in her.

Owed her for my Wall.

"I will not," Death shook her head, and my heart fell. "I do not say this out of inability or out of cruelty. I say this because I have already offered to do so. I offered revival to two people from Elden Ring, not one. I had hoped it would make up for the loss. But only one accepted. And I will not deny someone their End. That is as much against my nature as asking you to enslave someone would be against yours."

"I see," I sighed in melancholy.

I had always believed that death was a rest.

I could mourn her loss, even as I respected her choice.

Life was as cruel as it was beautiful.

I could not take away that choice from her, even if I wished I could have shown the beauty behind the cruelty.

"If I ever find a way to Tier 11 without losing myself, I will free you."

Even after the manipulation, the confession, and the lack of help. Even after all that, I could never begrudge someone a wish for Freedom.

I had done much worse in the search for mine.

"Thank you," Death nodded, and we both sat silently, finishing our drinks and watching the rain.

I got up to leave. My wives would be waiting for me.

I knew I would find her here if I ever wanted to talk to Death again.

Before I had left the table to teleport home, Death's voice called me with a question of her own.

"Was it worth it?" Death asked. "Even after everything. All the pain, fear, and loss. Was it worth it? Would you do it again, knowing what it would cost?"

"In a heartbeat," I said. "Every second was worth it. Dark Souls. The Kiln. Elden Ring. Bloodborne. Doomsday. Trigon. Gods. All the death and destruction. After all that, nothing has changed the fact that I have never been happier."

I left Death and returned to my Family.