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, Year 2001.
Unknown to the many shivering inside the Arbor Mundi's roots, the Halo returned to its rightful place, between the Moon and Earth, an illusion no more.
In a flash of warm and cold flames, Jean and Aragorn appeared at the entrance of the hole Kubos had bored into the Arbor Mundi.
Compared to the size of the sky-scraping tree, the hole was tiny. About as big as a three-story building, almost unnaturally symmetrical in dimensions.
Aragorn, in his flaming form, touched the jagged edges of the tree, his eyes blue with concern.
"Can you fix it, Firebird?" Aragorn asked.
"... Sure," Jean nodded worriedly. If Aragorn couldn't fix it, then he was more hurt than she imagined.
"It's not that bad," Aragorn said, as if reading her thoughts—which he was not. "The Gobling Force left me further hurt; I'm unable to instantly heal this in the Outside because Reality was left uber fucked."
"Are you homebound for a month, then?" Jean asked.
"Affirmative," Aragorn said. "By the way, don't enter my mindscape. That place is dangerous for the time being, more than usual."
Jean pouted at that, like a child. Then she placed a hand over the Arbor Mundi's trunk and flooded it with her Phoenix Force. She used her biokinesis to fix what was materially broken and her vast energy reserves to flush out the curses Kubos left behind.
As the trunk healed from the core outwards, a pearl flew from inside the healing hole. Aragorn extended his hand, and it landed softly on his flaming palm.
"Do you know how to overlay a dimensional entrance over Reality at a fixed point?" Aragorn asked.
Jean thought for a moment before nodding and making the pearl float to her. She carefully placed it over the point that would heal last in the trunk and waited a few seconds for it to heal around the pearl.
Then, she tapped it with her index and willed her authority over Reality to affix an entrance to the realm inside the pearl at that point.
Outwardly, nothing changed; however, if a certain Sorcerer Super-spy had been here, his eyes would have been popping out like a squishy toy.
"Your handle is improving smoothly," Aragorn commented. "Phoenix must be proud."
"I'm glad all my painstaking effort is being rewarded," Jean nodded with flashbacks clouding her eyes for a moment.
After Jean was done, Aragorn tapped the pearl like one would knock on a door and waited a second before Death and Gaea emerged.
For an Abstract like Death, who had her Abstract body paying attention to the outcome of the battle, Aragorn's state was no surprise. Her eyes solemn, yet determined, she cupped his face in her hands and flooded him with her concept.
"I can only kill this many," she commented before pulling back, giving space for a worried Gaea.
"This is a relief already; agony went down to suffering," Aragorn commented.
"What happened?" Gaea asked. She reached out to him, her hands phasing through his immaterial body. For a moment, lost in the lack of contact, she desperately tried to hug him. Unlike Death, she was unable to touch him.
"Chocolate," Aragorn greeted, his eyes flashing pink and golden. "I'm glad everything worked out in the end."
He wanted to reach out to her and feel the warmth of her belly, but for the moment, he had to settle for being able to see his child growing in her womb. He didn't want to cause more concern to her by foolishly reaching with his hands, only for them to phase through Gaea.
"I don't think this," she gestured to his flaming body, "is considered everything working out."
"I didn't explode myself this time," Aragorn pointed out.
"Or had me end you," Death added.
"And, technically, he is still here," Jean said. "I would say, all things considered, he did better than the last two fights."
"Yes," Aragorn nodded, her flaming horns followed with a subtle delay characteristic of flames. "Also, Jean can bring back the one who died, so it's not such a bad outcome."
"Ehmmm," Jean looked away.
Death, Gaea, and Aragorn turned to her with their eyes narrowed.
"Well, okay, I technically can," Jean sheepishly said, her tone and words not invoking relief or trust.
"But?" Death asked.
"I would feel better if Pietro could help a little... You know, to avoid severing a soul or two million in the timestream," Jean said.
"... Silly Jean," Death commented.
"Dummy Firebird," Aragorn added.
"Jeany Jean," Gea chuckled softly.
"You can't use my name as an adjective," Jean complained. "Besides, it's Phoenix's fault for focusing on the more belligerent side of my power. I was taught how to sever souls through the timestream, not how to save them."
"Fair point," Death shrugged.
"That sounds like SeNIO-NIO-NIO-nior Sister," Aragorn said.
"..." Gaea turned to him with narrowed eyes.
Jean chuckled at him, and Death looked away.
"What was that?" Gaea asked.
"... I was reconnecting my speech centers," Aragorn revealed.
"How were you even talking just now?" Jean asked.
"That's not important," Gaea interjected. "How hurt are you?"
She fretted around him.
"My previous replies had been pre-recorded, I peeked into the future before it was unraveled," Aragorn replied to Jean before turning to Gaea. "I'm unhurt enough."
"How hurt?" Gaea demanded.
"It's hard to say," Aragorn shrugged. "I'm still running internal diagnostics."
"Are you a computer, My Love?" Death asked with a playful grin.
"Honestly, I'm still deciphering where I stand," Aragorn said. There was some mirth to his tone, but it was difficult to tell if it was being faked.
"Could you have avoided this?" Gaea asked, her concern tinting her voice with anger.
"To be fair with our Love," Death said. "I think He wanted this to happen." Death looked at Aragorn with a look of questioning.
It was strange how Death had technically known the One Above All for far longer than Aragorn, yet Aragorn had interacted more closely and more with him.
"He pushed a Beyonder or two worth of energy into Kubos' birth," Aragorn revealed. "I think he wanted to exhaust that dimension, so he leaned on me."
"That makes sense," Death said. Jean nodded.
"Dimension?" Gaea asked.
"A Beyonder is born from a nursery dimension. The energy of the nursery is converted into newborn Beyonders. I think the Beyonders had a plan for this nursery, one that the Aniki didn't want to see come to fruition. So he ran dry the nursery by overpowering Kubos," Aragorn explained.
'That is correct,' A voice rang in their heads.
"Boss Tribunal?" Aragorn asked, turning his head to look above. Certainly, the Living Tribunal was not hovering above them; Aragorn was looking at him through the dimensional walls and borders between realities.
'It was for energy preservation,' the Living Tribunal added. 'I guided the remaining energy to this Reality.'
"Oh? That's great!" Aragorn perked up; Death did too.
'Once you're done healing, report to Overspace,' the Living Tribunal said before his presence disappeared.
"That was terrifying," Gaea commented. This earned her strange looks from Jean, Aragorn, and Death. "What?" she asked.
"Don't you normally interact with me (Death), Jean (Phoenix Force), and our Love (Paradoxical Existence and Paradox Liminal Permutation)?" Death asked.
"... But you... It's different, okay?" Gaea said, embarrassingly looking away. How was she supposed to say that Death and Aragorn didn't have the same poise in her eyes and that Phoenix was too close in nature to her? "By the way," she added. "I know our baby's gender!"
The abrupt switch in conversation topics didn't matter to anyone. In an instant, three pairs of eyes turned towards her abdomen with an intensity that demanded answers.
"But it's just a blastocyst of energy, matter, and protoconcepts laced in protodivinity," Aragorn said, the tilt in his head expressing his confusion.
"I can't make any sense of what I'm getting from it," Jean added, her hands resting like a worried aunt over Gaea's abdomen.
"I only get that it doesn't carry [Death]," Death added. Her senses were not the most accurate when it came to [Life], but she was equally confused as to how Gaea could divine her baby's gender.
"Well, I know he will be a healthy baby boy," Gaea beamed a sunny smile.
"Seraph will lose her shit!" Jean shrilled.
"I hope he likes to wear clothes," Aragorn nodded sagely.
"Just because only Spark wears proper clothing doesn't mean he will be like us," Death added with a beaming grin that contrasted greatly with her gothness.
"Why are we assuming our baby will be an exibisionist?" Gaea asked, concerned about the direction the conversation was taking. "We all wear proper clothing, don't we?"
Jean looked at her over 90% exposed chocolate skin, then to the equally minimally attired Death, and finally to the utterly naked flaming Aragorn. Then, she remembered she had never seen Seraph clothed, and that Spark, the only one who dressed in actual clothing and not energy constructs, wore speedo-like raiments as her signature style.
"At least he'll have the rest of us as an example to follow," Jean said.
Aragorn and Death stared intensely at Jean's Phoenix's Raiment, unsure of whether to consider her green attire an energy construct or properly hylomorphic clothing. For the moment, they gave her a pass.
While they were happily fooling around, they turned to look to their right, where two energy signatures manifested.
"Fury," Aragorn greeted.
"Bast," Gaea followed next.
Bast had sensed the end of the conflict and the appearance of Jean's familiar energy spike near the Arbor Mundi; she put two and two together and realized it was over; the world was saved... for the moment.
Fury was different; he noticed the affixation of a dimensional gateway near him. He was, after all, temporarily housed near the core of the Arbor Mundi.
Both arrivals were silently staring at Aragorn. Bast was unsure of what to make of it, or maybe afraid to make a misinterpreted comment. Fury's gaze was appraising.
"I take it your incorporeal form is not a fashion statement," Fury stated. His comment drew an eye-popping gaze from Bast. "What happened to your body?"
'I knew any mortal who regularly associated with Aragorn was mental, but this mental?' she questioned in her mind.
"Had to inscribe it and blow it all up to deal with Kubos," Aragorn shrugged.
"Can't you like bullshit out a body or something?" Fury asked.
Aragorn replied by pulling dirt with his telekinesis and creating a flesh and blood body around his flames with matter control and transmutation.
"I can do this, but it isn't the same. Not that dissimilar from Playboy's armors," Aragorn said.
Death reached for his chest but scrunched her face in disgust at the sensation. "Awful, not the same," she complained. She killed the suit of flesh, and the body turned to dust, carried away by a gentle breeze.
"Does it have something to do with that?" Bast pointed at the night sky, laced with the same color as Aragorn's flames.
Aragorn nodded and said, "You drew a lot of our reserve divinity. How did it go?"
"I convinced the Ennead to back down," she turned to Gaea next and said, "Grandmother's advice of threatening to wake up Demogorge, the God-Eater, worked wonders. So, at least you don't have to worry about the Ennead in the upcoming conflict."
"About that conflict," Fury interjected. "Any chance our lady's spawns chickened out after whatever you did to that Kubos?"
Fury was cut off from Aragorn and Kubos' fight, but just a glance at the mostly bluish-white nightsky was enough to paint a picture for him, to say the least of the nearby wounds in the space-time mesh he could sense.
"That's not how it works," Bast said. "They struck first. What follows is Lord Aragorn and Lady Death's response." Bast spoke while placing herself as a pantheon goddess under her Skyfather and Skymother.
"They were greedy for our kernel." The venom in Death's words contrasted with the motherly smile she had while resting a hand on Gaea's belly. She hugged her from behind, her face resting over Gaea's left shoulder. "What else is left but annihilation for them?"
Her words made the Sorcerer Super-spy's knees tremble; he could almost see what sort of death she was talking about, and he was sure it was not his imagination or a psionic scene broadcast to his mind.
"Also," Bast added, cold sweat pouring down her feline back. "When that one is born," she pointed with her tail at Gaea's belly, "their divinity will be connected to Gaea, as is all divinity descended from Grandmother; there are ways, not that many but not inexistent, to hurt those who share an origin."
"I doubt a child of Aragorn would be constrained in the 'standard' manner," Jean added. "But I don't see why we should take the risk, should we?"
Seeing the belligerent determination burning hot in Jean's green slitted eyes, Fury realized it was a situation fucked up beyond saving. No matter what carefully formulated statements and reasonable arguments he threw at them, there was no stopping it.
He didn't bother to hide his sigh of reluctant acceptance—Bast's admiration for the 'reckless' daredevil grew even more. "Then, what should I do about Earth? Will it become a battlefield again?"
"Ah, right, you don't know, do you, child?" Gaea said. "Aragorn fixed the damage done to Earth."
"I played a part too," Jean raised a hand, like a child expecting a participation award.
"While the news is welcome immensely," the telepaths sensed the relief in his words, "I doubt Insanity Incarnate would be generous enough to do this after every future battle," he turned towards Aragorn, who shook his flaming head in denial, "and, correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the dead still cold in the limbo of souls?"
"I'll bring them back," Jean preened. "With a tiny bit of Pietro's help," her preening faltered a little. "By the way," she turned to Aragorn, "is Pietro resurrected already?"
"He should be in The Ark," Aragorn affirmed.
"I'll go work this out with him then," Jean said. "The faster we bring them back, the faster Tiamut can dine on their thought energy."
Her body became flames and then disappeared.
Fury's gaze moved from the remnant flames to Aragorn and pointed out, "You are wrecked, are you not?" He figured that if Aragorn couldn't even do 'this much', he was certainly hurt during the fight.
"I've been weakened to a beyond-Omega-level mutant," Argorn said dejectedly.
Fury's eyebrow twitched with violence.
"It was a hard fight," Death commented, looking at Aragorn worriedly, as if he were a terminal patient.
"No," Gaea covered her mouth, badly concealing a gasp. In her eyes, Aragorn was a palliative care patient.
"It was a close one, My Love," Death said, running her fingers reassuringly on Aragorn's back.
Fury would have slapped them silly if they were not who they were.
"I'll be crippled for a while," Aragorn said, leaning on Death as if he were in his last breaths. "But I know I can rely on you."
"... Motherfucker, you are doing this on purpose!" Fury exploded.
'This mortal is truly mad,' Bast thought.
"Heh," Aragorn chuckled.
"Don't worry, child," Gaea chuckled too. "The Drachantheon Therion will make up for Aragorn's lacking prowess for the next month or so."
"Why does that sound like I'll be bad in bed for a month, Noona?" Aragorn whispered to Death.
"Don't worry, My Love. I'll be gentle," Death whispered back.
"You promise?" Aragorn asked.
"Yes, I'll be your cowgirl for a month," Death replied.
Now, Fury knew they were messing with him!
"What do we do from here?" Fury asked after taking a calming, deep breath.
"How many died?" Aragorn asked.
"Less than a billion, I believe," Fury said while turning to Gaea for confirmation.
"Yes, a few tens of millions only," Gaea said. "I managed to catch or guide the vast majority to our tree's roots," she patted reassuringly the trunk of the Arbor Mundi. From her touch, the tree seemed to ripple with green divinity in delight.
"I think... I can't formulate complicated thought-streams at the moment," Aragorn said, his eyes flickering like faltering lightbulbs. "I'll leave it to you and Doom, get whoever you consider needed involved."
"The Drachantheon Therion is at your disposal," Death added. "A certain pack of wolven princesses will be happy to help you, Fury."
Aragorn nodded and tiredly took a resting lotus position at the feet of the entrance to Gaea's new dimension. Death leaned down and pecked him over his forehead. With a longing look, Gaea waved him goodbye, and then both ladies crossed to the new dimension.
'I'll be here, recuperating. Try not to bother me until I get my body back, at least,' Aragorn communicated in their minds, too tired to speak through telekinesis.
Bast turned to Fury and said, "Include me in the talks, Wakanda, and I can help."
"Queen Shuri has brains worthy of Aragorn's interest; she was in my mind already. Your help will be a blessing," Fury said.
His composure only cemented for Bast the fact that anyone who dealt with Aragorn was not sane. She nodded and teleported away.
Fury looked around the Arbor Mundi; it was just as pristine as he remembered, the only difference being the lack of a barrier around the tree.
Fury wouldn't brag about his understanding of Aragorn, but he understood that the fact that Aragorn had not restored the barrier spoke plenty about how weakened he was.
"Don't worry," Fury said. "We are not as powerless as to need the help of an aching... dragon to stand back up."
Aragorn didn't reply, but Fury had no doubts he had been heard. He teleported away, directly to Doom.
In one of the inner chambers of the Arbor Mundi, somewhere about half an Everest below surface level, Fury appeared. The room was lighted with the same flickering wisps of warm light born from the tree and Gaea.
This chamber was unique. The walls, made from the same brownish, crystal-like roots, allowed enough light from the outside to dimly illuminate the chamber. As is logical, at about half an Everest deep inside Earth, the only light source that could be found was magma.
Naturally, despite the literally melting point temperatures outside, the chamber was comfortably warm.
In the middle of the chamber, a bed grew from the floor, supported only by the root from which it grew, giving it an archane feeling. Above the bed, instead of bedding, soft moss grew plenty, and Doom rested over it.
Fury approached, making a grasping motion and making the cane Aragorn had gifted him appear in his hand.
He circled Doom, looking for something in his armor, and paused only when he found it near his right wrist. He extended his cane to it and touched lightly on a magical formation he recognized.
His cane thrummed, and slowly, at first, Doom began to awake, then, with a start, Doom raised and pointed a magic circle at Fury. Fury responded in kind and aimed an equally deathly circle back.
"... How long?" Doom asked, powering his attack down.
"Not even fifteen minutes," Fury replied. He lowered his aiming hand.
"Goddess Gaea?" Doom asked.
"Happily pregnant," Fury nodded. "Aragorn is back too, although not in one piece... or any piece for that matter."
"Earth?"
"Restored, Aragorn and Jean Grey worked a miracle out," Fury informed him. Doom nodded as if that was expected.
He continued with, "Humanity?"
"If I understood correctly, Maximoff and Red will bring them back," Fury said. He then pointed at his cane and added, "I'm gonna need another magical core."
"I have some in Latveria," Doom said. "How hurt is Aragorn?"
"He looked just enough to protect Earth," Fury explained. "He felt reachable, by mortal standards."
"That's not in our best interest," Doom pointed out.
"Your reasoning?" Fury questioned.
"I predicted the fight to spill over a few dimensions," Doom said, raising his hand. An ever-shifting construct appeared projected. "It appears I was correct."
"... Aside from the incoming war, there's now that to think about," Fury grumbled.
"Retaliation was a forgone conclusion," Doom said. He waved his hand, and the projection disappeared. "I imagine the new Pantheon will make it their mission to drive the other deities to extinction."
"A clusterfuck," Fury pointed out in frustration.
"Possibly the neighboring dimensional lords will join," Doom added. "A few more of the galactic powers, too."
"If only they could fuck around somewhere beyond Earth," Fury commented.
"Why did you wake me up?" Doom asked. "Is it time to fake Alduin's death?"
"I don't know about that, but we need to decide how well we move from here onwards, before Jean brings back the dead and overturns humankind's belief system beyond what it already was," Fury said.
"I'll assume all pertinent info will come in a few," Doom gestured to their P-Links. Fury nodded. "Then I believe we certainly need to fake Alduin's death, or something of equal shock value to shift humanity's belief away from the current deities."
A sigh was all Fury could muster.
"I thought that would not be a problem, with most of humanity being part of the Abrahamic belief," Fury said.
"You're correct, but when alien deities start appearing and not a glimpse of Yaweh in sight, we don't want them to throw their lot with the Olympians or Aesir, or the others," Doom said, calculations and plans rushing through his mind.
"Better the devil you know than the devil you don't?" Fury asked. "Yeah, I can see that happening. Humans turning on Aragorn's kids because of their familiarity with Goddess Gaea's spawns."
"Mhmm," Doom assented. "And that can't be allowed. Aragorn would rather restart humanity than spare traitors."
Doom cast a few spells on his self, activated his armor's scanners, and, after making sure he was at peak condition, he stood up from the moss bed.
"We should take this chance to bring in the Inhumans," Doom said.
"Why, in Goddess Gaea's name, are we poking that hornet nest?" Fury demanded.
Doom tapped his P-Link, and Fury received his reply on his.
"A coup?" Fury asked. "Wasn't Blackagar Boltagon vastly superior to his kin?"
"Every strong man has his weakness," Doom said. "Wasn't the universe almost ended just now in Odin's attempt to get a hold of Aragorn's?"
"Is the queen pregnant?" Fury asked, surfing through the files Doom had sent him. "Also, since when can you spy on that incestuous bunch?"
"Boltagon's weakness is his people," Doom replied. "And the answer is Pryde."
"Pride?" Fury asked.
"I bought access from Katherine Pryde," Doom said.
"Are you stupid?" Fury stared at him, unclear if impressed and or afraid for him.
"It only cost me a duchy," Doom said. Although he tried to hide it, he dreaded the time when he would have to invite Kitty to make decisions about Latveria's future. He also had a feeling that, like it or not, soon another religion would be born in Latveria.
It was crazy even for him, but he was considering taking the crazy cat's hand in marriage to solve plenty of future problems. He, a man of his mettle, feared for his future.
"For your sake, I won't comment on that," Fury waved his hand, and a portal to Halo appeared.
Doom, imperceptibly, nodded in gratitude.
Both men, of different walks in life, passed through the portal with a quiet understanding.
On the other side, it was not the Halo they remembered that awaited them. For one, the warping coordinated remained the same; Fury was sure of that, but the warping point didn't look the same.
Before, whenever he arrived, Fury was received at the main entrance of the Crystal. What greeted him was the main door of the diamond abomination, reflecting an unhealthy glow from the sunlight, the nightmare of any ophthalmologist. Now, after Elara took charge of the 'beautification' project of the Halo and Ark, what welcomed them was a view of the magnificence of the Halo.
Aragorn, for all of his complex psychology, was simple in his tastes. Shine, bright, fluff, and goth, those were the only qualities he cared for. Hence, it was no surprise that the Halo had been simple like his tastes. Elara was complex, like only a divine fairy like her could be.
"... This doesn't have Insanity Incarnate's feeling to it," Fury commented.
"One of the maids," Doom pointed out.
"Mhmm," Fury hummed in affirmation.
"The flora changed," Doomed pointed out.
Just like the Crystal, the flora and fauna in Halo had changed drastically after 300,000 years.
"Welcome," a passive voice greeted them.
"Irina," Fury acknowledged.
"Fire? and something else?" Doom asked in greeting.
"Assuidity," Irina said, and projected her divinity for Doom to sense it.
Doom rolled the many uses he could have for such divinity in his mind and nodded approvingly before asking, "Can we contract?"
"That was Master's intention," Irina nodded. "By the way, I'm not the welcome committee. I came to ask if you knew where my master was."
"I thought you could sense him," Fury said.
"He feels faint, too dim to locate," Irina explained with concern.
"He was hurt, he is recovering at the base of the Tree," Fury revealed.
Irina's pupils narrowed to pinpoints, her domains flared for a moment before teleporting away.
"... Well, that wasn't terrifying at all," Fury commented.
"Skymother?" Doom mused out loud. "So that was his plan," he muttered as if he had understood something.
"My King!" an annoying voice called next.
Doom's eyebrow twitched, Fury's lips quivered.
"Pryde," Doom acknowledged the teleporting cat. "The welcome committee?"
"Yep, yep," Kitty nodded energetically, nine tails flowing with ADHD behind her.
"You've grown beautifully," Doom complimented.
Kitty's eyes narrowed slightly before a wide smile graced her face. "Hahahaha," she laughed and added, "it isn't that simple, my dearest King!"
"... And cunning," Doom added beneath his breath.
Fury looked away to hide his growing smirk.
"I was always cunning, nothing different there," Kitty said with a pleased smirk.
"Huh? Did you become Victor's subdit, Kitty?" Another voice joined, and Yelena appeared.
"A few weeks ago, by this timeline, I bought a duchess title from him," Kitty said.
"Huh? What for?—No, well, it doesn't matter. Knowing you, it's either something complexly crazy or for your family. Anyway, where did my opposite go to? I felt her divinity spike with anger for a moment," Yelena spoke in a breath.
"Dunno, she was gone by the time I arrived," Kitty said, turning to Fury and Doom.
"She went to the base of the Tree," Fury explained.
"Ah, so that's where our dear daddy is," Yelene said before teleporting away as abruptly as Irina had done.
"Please forgive her, we are a bit worried about Aragorn disappearing again, like in the past times," Kitty explained.
"And you, Pryde?" Doom asked.
"I trust Aragorn and his preparations in case he disappears," Kitty said, gesturing for them to follow her. "Besides, I felt the laws of Reality getting fixed a few moments ago. I'm sure that was Aragorn's doing. He must be fine."
"... What?!" Fury exclaimed. Doom was still processing what he just heard.
"~Hehehe," Kitty chuckled mischievously. "Kitty, Goddess of Law and Emancipation/Adventure at your service!"
"LAW?! YOU?!" Fury expressed what Doom was also reeling back from.
"By the powers vested in me by the superior draconic power, I name you my Judge," she happily tapped Fury's left and right shoulders with her long tails.
"Hell naw!" Fury recoiled and tried to teleport; however, the laws of space shifted disorderly for a moment, and he could not avoid the conferring of the title.
Something changed; he felt it, Doom sensed it, but he didn't know what, and just one glance at Kitty's grin was enough to understand he would not be answered easily.
While scanning his body, even swallowing his pride and asking Doom for help, Kitty and her ducklings made it to the main conference hall of the Crystal.
As soon as Fury stepped in, he heard eight voices calling him, "Uncle Pirate, welcome!"
It took a moment to process, but his Sorcerer Super-spy facade crumbled immediately after. With a quiver to his voice, he eyed up and down at the goddesses and asked, "Little Terrors?"
Their tails swayed excitedly in response.
"Didn't we agree we were Wolven Princesses?" Tatiana asked.
"..."
"You should close your mouth," Doom said, passing by, and made his way to his green seat, which was grand like a throne.
"This can't be," Fury said in denial.
The eight wolf goddesses chuckled and fretted about him, hugging him in greeting, with tails and all.
↓Part 2━━━━━━━ ● ━━━━━━━Part 2↓
Doom, despite being surrounded by a veritable pantheon of deities, felt and looked comfortable. It was an unthinkable fact for all those humans from Earth-199999, those who both worshipped and feared the Drachantheon Therion. Yet, it was undeniable how comfortable Doom appeared.
He was seated in a throne of greens that, taking into consideration the varied other seating arrangements, looked not out of place. Kitty was lounging on a bean bag. Natalia was sprawled on a reclining sofa. Elara was perched on a floating blob of something that looked unearthly fluffy. James was on a floating gamer chair. Some were in beach chairs, plenty in bean bags.
Only Mindee and Emma, like Doom, sat on thrones thematic to themselves.
Fury was in the middle of an abnormally long sofa, buried between the 'little terrors' who were not little anymore.
"Yelena and Irina will be attending Aragorn while he recovers," Emma stated. "Irina expressed her desire to return to her original duties as Aragorn's personal maid. She offered ten favors to whoever wants to look after her Star System in her absence."
Emma looked around the various pensive faces of her family.
"We'll be neighbors with Lepusculus, right?" Roksana, one of the Wolven Princesses, asked.
"By comparison with the other systems, yes, your Star System should be one of the nearest to Irina's system," Mindee replied in affirmation.
"Then, we'll take it," Tatiana declared. The rest of the princesses nodded in approval.
"Alright, with that out of the way," Emma turned to Doom. "We'll leave other matters pertaining to the Imperium after we hear our Terrans."
Fury rolled an eye to the blatant dislike in Emma's voice for Earth and its affiliates. He understood where her dislike came from, and the fact that it stopped at dismissal was already the best case from his point of view, but still, could she not change after so long? He wondered.
"With the continuation of your divine conflict after your arrival," Doom said, finding no desire to deny the foregoing conclusion in his statement that war was imminent in the Therions' faces, "there are certain matters related to humanity that must be settled beforehand.
"It's a fact that with you being an unknown and the Deities of Earth having renown through their myths, plenty of ignorant morons could be easily deceived to side with your enemies," Doom had to stop his opening speech after tasting the disgust and bloodlust in the changing atmosphere.
"..." He, wisely, decided to wait for the mist of bloodlust to clear.
"Settle down, please," Mindee called out. "Please remember that this humanity is not like the one we left behind. They are not unconditionally on our side."
That worked in calming down the raging storm like a charm.
Doom nodded to Mindee, noticing for the first time that her outrageous change in appearance was matched by an equally startling shift in maturity.
"This conflict will spill over Earth's geopolitical climate, no doubt, so we must take control over the narrative before the enemy gets around their shock and momentary loss," Doom continued. "I propose we reveal some of Aragorn's 'truths', and decisively pin the blame for the recent apocalyptic events on Omnipotence City."
"My King," Kitty called out. A few snickered and chuckled.
"... Speak," Doom curtly replied. His behavior did nothing but please the maniac cat.
"By recent apocalyptic events, do you mean the last fight, or the Green Door Event and the Cosmic Hunger's clash?" Kitty asked.
"All recent apocalyptic events," Doom said. "Blame them for every lost soul in the past four years, for the struggle without measure humanity faced, the famine, the destruction of countries, the economic crisis, and finally, the fact that Aragorn/Alduin was hurt so badly he is recovering at the base of the World Tree."
"You're trying to make them public enemy number one through one thousand," James said. "It's easy to blame them for the recent apocalypses; it was their fault, after all, but what about the other two?"
"Is Selene Galio still alive?" Doom's question made a few faces scrunch and tongues click in annoyance.
"She is," A new voice said, joining the meeting.
Spark materialized in the room, and a seat morphed out of the floor for her.
"..." Doom and Fury stared at her with scrutiny, trying to figure out who she was. Naturally, not all of the Drachantheon Therion were present; the Imperium had been recently moved, and plenty of divine hands were needed back in the Barrens, but both humans had already figured out and expected that the Haloans had grown in number.
"~Hello, my Chocolate Man," Spark purred like a seductive fox at Fury.
"Awh, HELL NAW!" Fury recoiled. Kitty chuckled, James hid a smirk, Natalia covered her mouth, and Emma struggled to keep her laughter in. Soon, giggles and laughter echoed in the meeting room.
"Spark," Doom said in realization.
"Doom," Spark greeted with familiarity. Spark and Aragorn were the Haloans who interacted the closest with him, so, even with the radical change, they recognized each other as peers.
"Do you want Selene to make a public declaration to lay the blame on them?" Spark asked.
"The previous statement, the leaked info, all pointed at Mephistopheles manipulating her, but what if she declares that Mephistopheles gained interest on Earth after Omnipotence City brought it up?" Doom proposed.
"That could work," Emma said. "At least for the general narrative, it could work. What about the Goblin Force clash?"
"Essex was a devout believer of Hela?" Doom suggested.
"No, that won't do," Spark dismissed the idea. "Hela is, technically, on our side. She is the Madame's."
"If you're looking for a 'dark' deity to blame for Essex's idiocy, we could use Hades. Dead gods tell no tales," Natalia said. She was going over the report of the war on her P-Link, and Hades' death in Manhattan had just popped up. "By the way, what happened to Poseidon?"
"He survived Stark... barely," Doom said coldly.
"Mmmmm," Elara hummed in thought. "Deities are stronger here, as Aragorn claimed. That armor was strong enough to end the Odin of Earth-199999."
"Odin aside," Doom addressed the fairy, "Zeus and Poseidon were not stronger than you."
"That confirms it," Elara nodded. "Mmmm, but I don't think I would have survived against Aragorn's Destroyer Suit... I'm not that versed in combat, though. What about you, Hon?" she asked James.
"Without Aragorn's energy?" James asked. Elara nodded. "I think I would do fine enough. Not comfortably enough to clear the fight without harm, but not as devastated as this," he gestured towards the satellite picture of Poseidon's broken body.
"How strong are you?" Doom asked. His question was aimed at a power scale between the Haloans.
"I probably rank in the top ten, five, depending on the conditions," James revealed. "Yao, Emma, Selene, Madelyne, Kaguya, Wanda, Agatha, Irina, Pietro, and Spark over there, we manned the top spots. Obviously, leaving Jean and the Madame aside. Also, fighting without special tools under 'equal' conditions."
"Tools?" Fury asked.
"Aragorn and Luxena, Yelena's daughter, weaponized the Halley Comet of Earth-199999. I think only a few of us could survive a strike of that thing, from this room, only Kitty," Natalia explained.
"Yet, you don't form part of the top percentile?" Doom asked his duchess.
"Ah, well, my fighting style was banned from the rankings," Kitty shrugged helplessly.
"Fighting style?" Spark asked with a raised eyebrow of judgment.
"... Okay, maybe I was simply banned because I always aimed for mutual destruction," Kitty sheepishly said.
"What about conditions?" Fury added, jotting down in his mind palace all the new info; a vice of his lifestyle/profession.
"If Irina fought for the protection of a target of her 'Assiduity,' she wins nine of ten," Spark explained.
"If we fought at night," James said.
"—Hon wins 7 of 10," Elara interjected proudly. "If it were war games instead of duels, Vladarion, our son, God of War, wins nine out of ten," she added.
"If it's about escaping," Kitty said. "I'm better than even Pietro."
"In group battles, we are undefeated," the wolven princesses spoke as one.
"In conclusion," Doom said. "Each of you excels in a field."
"Your domains?" Fury asked.
"Not necessarily," Elara said. "Cosmo has multiple domains, but his specialty is his telekinesis when it comes to combat."
Fury and Doom, who so far had been keeping up with the new names popping up thanks to their P-Links, opened their eyes wide when they saw who Aragorn made the God of his heaven.
"Yes, and, although Madelyne's field is souls, if it came to unrestrained warfare, Abeyance would trample on any galactic empire we know of," Spark added.
"... Planning this war will be troublesome," Fury commented. "Let's set that aside for a moment. What will we do about Aragorn's Alduin schtick?"
"Isn't that obvious?" Kitty questioned.
"Enlighten me, Pryde," Fury said, almost regretting it just after he requested it.
"Lord Alduin gave it his all in the fight and nearly perished at the hands of Odin. He transferred to his Herald, Aragorn, in an attempt to continue protecting Earth. Aragorn had to step up and fight for Earth and humanity! #Heroic. But the opponent proved too fierce! #Tragedy. In the end, Aragorn and Alduin merged and fused, and a new entity was born...#Suspense... Lux! #Surprise. Lux defeated the evil god Odin and restored Earth. #Savior. Lux brought back the dead. Easy, right?" Kitty dramatized her explanations with sorrow, tears, joy, and solemnity. A one-cat performance.
The Therions and Terrans mulled over her plan for a moment.
"... That may work, with a few adjustments," Doom stated.
"I'll arrange for The Light, The Spiral, N-Tek, and our other enterprises to be transferred to Seraph, Aragorn Abner's only heir," Spark said. "Also, instead of Lux, if we want Humanity to ever interact with the other empires, we should use the name they use for Aragorn, which is Aragorn."
"So Alduin merged with Aragorn Abner, and he had to leave behind his mortality, so he became solely Aragorn?" Kitty asked.
"We could claim that Alduin is a title," James contributed. "Though Aragorn will have to publicly appear only in his current flaming body."
"Aragorn won't care," Spark declared. If the one who shared most of Aragorn's memories said so, then it was true.
While the Therions and two humans planned a lie for humanity and plotted the immediate future of an entire race, down at the base of the Arbor Mundi, Irina and Yelena had met with Aragorn.
"Master... You look so..." Yelena was lost for words.
"Gorgeous." Irina was not. Her eyes sparkled with the same stars Aragorn wore when staring at something fluffy and shiny.
Yelena did a double-take and stared wide-eyed at her pyromaniac sister. "Of course you would think so," Yelena, exasperated, commented.
Aragorn didn't react to them, not outwardly, but the flux in the emotions he projected with his empathy was enough for his maids to understand he was paying attention.
"How hurt are you, Master?" Yelena asked and approached cautiously. She placed a hand on his shoulder, attempting to get a feeling for Aragorn's state; however, her hand sank in as if Aragorn were made of incorporeal flames. "... That hurt, huh?" Yelena commented while retracting her hand.
Irina walked to his other side and elementalized into a cerulean flame of purple hues, and grabbed one of his hands with the care only she had for Aragorn.
Her flames spread from his hand upwards, flooding his body steadily. The bluish-white flames gained a darker, almost cheerful, coloration with her flames. Her eyes closed in deep concentration.
"Irina, you psycho, are you trying to impregnate Master while the Madame is away?" Yelena gasped in mock horror.
To Yelena's comment credit, Irina, eyes closed, blushed slightly. Truthfully, she was not trying to commit suicide by Death; she was attempting to gain a feeling of Aragorn's state, something she could do because Aragorn's Eternal Flame was somewhat considered fire, but the thought, when she saw her flames mixing with his, did pass through her mind.
"I'm not," she said. "I'm trying to understand what's broken and figure out if we can help fix Master."
"I'm certain you're not lying," Yelena smirked. "But, mixing your essence with Master, I doubt the thought didn't creep into your mind." Yelena chuckled her words out.
"... Shut up," Irina weakly demanded. "It's not my fault that we were told how Gaea conceived some of her offspring."
Yelena laughed at Irina's bashfulness, but eventually, her good mood died down, and she was lost staring at the canopy overcasting the sky as far as the eye could see.
"Are you ready to face Johnny?" Irina asked, her flames, inside Aragorn, were reaching the black hole stationed as his navel.
"... Well... What am I supposed to say?... I think, in hindsight, this was inevitable. 300,000 years... That buttload of years, even by our standards. What were we thinking? Sexual attraction and love would concern such a chasm? Impossible," Yelena declared.
"... Not everyone can be as monstrous as Master," Irina commented, trying to console her sister. "Even though Master taught us how to shape our minds so that the passage of time doesn't undo us, we still alter with time."
"... If I tell him that I didn't feel love for any of them, do you think it would hurt him less?" Yelena asked.
"I don't think it'll matter...The truth is that you're a grandma now," Irina mercilessly proclaimed.
"Hey!" Yelena flicked a bushy tail at Irina's head.
Irina defended with her telekinesis, which earned her a "Heh!" from Yelena, looking down on her.
"Don't bully my short tails," Irirna glared defiantly. "Master loves to play with them."
Yelena grumbled at that. She knew it was the truth.
Did Aragorn love playing with Irina's tails more than he did with Yelena's? Not really, but to Irina, who was wholly dedicated to Aragorn, just the fact that he didn't fail to reach for her tails when he saw them was enough to boost Irina with pride. Which meant that no matter how much she poked her about her short tails, Irirna wouldn't care.
With a sigh, Yelena continued, "Maybe I was the fool to keep my heart only for him after so long."
"Did you not think about keeping your legs close, too?" Irina, without a care, asked.
"... Yeah... That was on me," Yelena had the decency to look away.
"You should have at least kept to one of us; Johnny would probably think that's hot," Irirna scoffed. "That fool has been trying to land a threesome with us ever since he met me. He would have probably asked for the memory of it, but you got laid with men."
"And some women, too," Yelena added.
"Not the point," Irina said. "... Oh."
"Oh?" Yelena asked.
"Master is... hurt," Irina declared. Her essence had finished exploring as much of Aragorn as she could and was returning to her.
"Hurt?" Yelena asked, furrowing her brows.
"Master almost feels... small?" Irina asked.
"Are you asking me? I don't know what you felt," Yelena flicked the tip of one of Irina's long bunny ears.
"Stop that!" Irirna glared before continuing with her explanation. "You know how Master has always felt... vast?"
"Like his mindscape?" Yelena asked.
"Yes, or the few times he has allowed us to get a sense of his soul—"
"Can that thing be considered a soul?" Yelena interkected.
"—Well, now he feels small. If, before, Master was a universe, now he feels like a giant planet. Still a vast, but nothing compared to a universe," Irina explained.
'Can you summon Fury when he's done?' Aragorn asked.
"Master, I thought you couldn't speak," Irina rejoiced.
'I can, but I'm rerouting resources to other areas in need of reconstruction,' Aragorn explained.
"Are you a rebuilding project, Master?" Yelena chuckled.
'Sure, if the scale of the project were universal,' Aragorn replied.
"Can we help?" Irina asked.
'Other than the Orbs in Halo and the Ark, no other form of energy could help me recover,' Aragorn revealed. 'Just give me some time, I'll be alright.'
"I can go requisition them," Irina said eagerly.
"Hey, calm down, Fiery Bunny!" Yelena floored her and sat her in between Aragorn's crossed legs. "Those are in use! Besides, I doubt it would make a big difference, would it, Master?"
'It's not worth it,' Aragorn said. 'I would have said so sooner, but I was fixing that part of my mind.'
"Which part?" Yelena asked.
'The part that extrapolates the needed information for a receiver to understand my actions or inaction,' Aragorn explained.
"Pretty important part, if I say so myself. Our pyromaniac was about to black out the heart of the Imperium without a second thought," Yelena said.
Irina, guiltlessly, shrugged off.
━━━━━━━ ● ━━━━━━━
Helheim, Hel.
It was a realm of darkness, emerald fires, aguished souls, shadows, frigidity, vacuous torment, imprisonment, and punishment.
In the halls of a black edification, indistinguishable from Dragon Ore, with striking, sharp spires, an intricate skeletal framework of pointed arches, vast, and kaleidoscopic windows of green hues, a goddess stood dumbfounded, staring in confusion at the fading chain marks over her pale skin.
While most of the deities of the universe recoiled at the 'birth' of three new repositories of souls and resented the repair in the Cycle of Souls, Hela rejoiced with anticipation at the changes she could only attribute to her Lady, Death.
During the eons of her imprisonment, Hela, not once, blamed Death for not rescuing her. Just like Jean Grey knew Phoenix, Hela knew Death. Which is why she didn't entertain the idea of her Lady using her infinite power to free her from her unjust imprisonment.
She blamed Odin, she was scornful towards Frigga, she was disgusted by her weakness, and she abhorred the Queen of Angels, but not once did she resent Death.
There was something about the relationship between Death and her hosts that Phoenix had never been able to imitate with hers.
Death was feared by the vast majority. This was wrongful hate, for death was what gave meaning to life. Mortals ate because it was pleasing, but the action was pleasing because, without eating, death would claim them.
Mortals fornicate due to the orgasmic bliss, but given that lifeforms could not be immortal, they had to settle for passing what they learned to the next generation, all in the hopes of escaping death.
Mortals walked the realms of the Sandman during their rest, because if they didn't, death would claim them.
Death gave meaning to life, ultimately, and as such, an ultimate end without equal; it shared the characteristic of many other ultimate ends, like love and hate, it was attractive. Alluring. Worthy of worship.
Like so, many of her host worshipped Death.
Hence, while the seconds trickled down to the end of Odin, and Heal could sense it, her expectations built up uncontrollably.
She couldn't wait to escape her bindings and witnessed the last moments of her father's life. She didn't know who was acting on behalf of her Mistress, but she feared she might even fall in love with them upon witnessing them ending her father, that's how much she longed for Odin's death.
She wished him not an easy death. She relished the thought of Odin's possible torture; she fantasized with despair overflowing his eyes, the same despair she felt upon her baby sister's end.
She wanted, needed, to be there for his final breath. She wanted to break his mind; she needed him to know that she would destroy Asgard after his tormentous passing.
She hated Odin, no, she [Hated] Odin.
However, shortly after getting his hands on the Cosmic Cube, Odin wished for his daughter's sealing to be independent from his life force.
Hela noticed the change at once.
"NO! NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NONONONONONONONONOONONOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Heal roared and bellowed like a maddened fury.
Odin then wished to reinforce Hela's bindings.
"AGHHHHHHH!" Her bindings, usually metaphysical in nature, solidified like chains and burned to her skin.
Her pale skin boiled and hissed, and the chains melted into her skin, incrusted in her flesh. Muscles bubbled like molten slag, bones charred like wood, it was purposely agonizing, and Hela growled and bewailed like a hurt animal in response.
Then, she stopped sensing Odin's presence. That presence which had grown vastly a few hours prior to her sealing disappeared like a mirage.
Hela didn't know it, but that was when Doom had deported Odin from Reality.
Nevertheless, this Comic Cube's reality-warping wasn't illusory; it was permanent. Even if the 'caster' had been ejected forcibly from Reality, its changes remained; hence, Hela only trashed harder.
If she could no longer sense him, yet the chains kept boiling her, it only meant this was her new reality... And, after having tasted hope, this was too much. Her mind, which had somehow endured so long, after just a taste of hope, was about to break.
That was when she felt it, Kubos.
It had not the slightest resemblance to Odin in presence; it was a monster through and through; the type of incongruous presence that had her forgetting her torment for a few minutes.
Then she felt something equally terrifying arrive. Something that, contrary to the other presence, she had sensed before. Something she had pegged as the protector of the Universe, since it had come to its rescue the last time she felt the Goblin Force.
It wasn't long until she felt the incongruous presence vanish and, shortly after, her chains were undone by a pulse of reality-restoring.
And now, while she gazed in confusion at her body, struggling to heal the atrocious wounds left by the chain that had been boiling her alive, she heard her.
"I wish I could have made him suffer," Death commented.
Hela was naked; her attire had not survived the solidification of her bindings and subsequent torture, yet, when she lifted her eyes and recognized the speaker, he knelt with the regality only afforded to the first princess of Asgard, exiled or not.
"M-My Lady," she stammered.
"My Love promised me his suffering, but the fool went and ended himself," Death spoke calmly, ignoring the rivulets of salty water cascading down Hela's lowered face.
"Well, since the newborn Beyonder absorbed him, we can consider him conceptually ended," Death added. "And that good kid, Victor, did make him witness the pulverification of his wife ~Hehehehe" Death chuckled evilly.
Death focused her gaze on the wounds left behind Odin's last, thoughtful gift to his daughter. "But, maybe, it wasn't enough." Helheim shook under the violence of Death's desire to make Odin suffer.
She took a deep breath and calmed herself down. "Let's try to move on. He is beyond us now. There's no coming back from a conceptual ending. Maybe the Never Queen could bring him back, but I doubt she'll bring him back only for us to torture."
"My Lady," Hela called. "..." She realized she didn't know how to continue, or to begin.
"Hela, lift your face," Death instructed.
The goddess did as instructed. Her green eyes locked with the almost black green eyes of her mistress.
Death was different. Black horns, a bladed tail, sharp claw-like nails, sharp canines, pointed ears, yet, she was all the same to Hela, the same ash she had been in her dreams, where they met, the same unchangeable Abstract she had and will always be, Death.
"Who are you, Hela?" Death asked.
Hela smiled; it was an unconscious response, something her body learned on its own, and declared, "I'm the point of accumulation of [Death] of this universe, I'm your, My Lady's, host!"
Evidently pleased, Death smiled. "Then, come. I've been splitting my focus from my duties for a while now, and Tribunal is not 100% pleased with that. My family needs a Goddess of Death in my absence, and I could only think of you."
"Your family, My Lady?" Hela asked with interest, rising from her kneeling position.
"I wouldn't say that much has changed, but some things are different now," Death spoke with a soft expression Hela had never seen in her. "You'll love them."
Hela, not one to doubt Death, followed after her mistress.
━━━━━━━ ● ━━━━━━━
Re-Nazca, Arbor Mundi.
Aragorn and Irina were left alone at the base of the World Tree; Yelena decided to wear her big goddess pants and went to Johnny to face 'judgment', as she had claimed.
Irina had taken the form of a giant bunny, as large as a car, and had taken on her elemental form. She was flat on her paws and stomach behind Aragorn, serving as his backrest.
Her bundle of flaming tails swayed happily, expressing her current mood.
She was truly a maid happy to serve her master.
Her good mood was... not exactly ruined, more like disturbed, by an annoyance.
"Who dared?" She snarled.
'After Jean fixed everything, satellites were also included,' Aragorn patiently explained.
"... Hydra?" Irina asked, vitriol in her voice dripping with bloodlust.
'They probably detected the missing barrier, and my current appearance gave them the idea that it was now or never,' Aragron said.
Irina glared fiercely at the incoming nuclear warhead; she sensed the energy of the Space Stone pulsing within it.
'Leave the radiation to the Tree,' Aragorn ordered.
Irina didn't reply; she stared fixedly at the incoming bomb, which felt more like the spit of a dying, resentful man, her eyes supernaturally tracing its trajectory.
"I'm back, what do you need from me, Aragorn?" At that moment, crossing through a portal, Fury returned.
"..." None replied to his question. Sensing the strangeness of the situation, he saw the giant bunny behind Aragorn glaring at the sky.
He squinted his good eye, his patch, a product of technology Aragorn had gifted him some time ago, produced a telescopic image of what the bunny was glaring at, and he couldn't help but swallow a curse.
"Who the fuck is that fucking cra—... Fucking HYDRA!!!" He roared.
The bomb arrived and detonated at a distance from them, perfectly timed to maximize damage, but there was no shockwave, or sun of fiery radioactive flames; in fact, there was only the metallic clanking of when the bomb fell apart and the rustling of the Arbor Mundi's roots as they rose to sway around where the bomb had 'detonated'.
'I have the spell,' Aragorn declared calmly.
"... THE spell?!" Fury exclaimed. The last time he had been so purely happy about something was when he was nothing but an innocent child and his father had returned home during a late shift. He thought he wouldn't make it to Christmas Eve, but his father had managed in the end.
It was such pure happiness that, for a moment, Aragorn saw Fury's soul as dazzling.
'The spell,' Aragorn confirmed.
"... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! YES!!!!! YESSS!" Fury celebrated, as he had never done before.
Without a doubt, he was happy about finally being able to rid the world of Hydra.
╚═══━━━─── • ───━━━═══╝
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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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