68 Tribunal 3

I remember you

We would've died intertwined

We talked in tongues of a kinship

We could only deny

Now you think you're anonymous

A masked face without a name

But I know you're one of us

Underneath you're still the same

And I remember you

I remember you

********

The stage was set.

The actors donned their costumes.

The supporting characters practiced their lines.

The props were in their places.

The monster approached, ready to do battle against the heroes of justice.

A tried and true story. Good vs. Evil. Monster vs. man.

The world watched on, tentative hope kindling in their hearts like a soft ember ready to be roused into an inferno.

The stage was set for the fourth miracle of a new world.

********

Endbringers were major cockblocks.

And I had been doing such a good job of staying out of Brockton Bay since reviving Victoria and getting my body back.

I watched heroes arrive, congregate, aid in evacuation and prepare for the coming fight.

There was a nervous optimism in the air, faces were set into determined lines, and awkward laughter occasionally rang out as friends and teammates greeted each other, but there was no sense of defeat or resignation. Just hope and conviction.

It was all suitably heroic.

All I could think about was that I should be getting freaky with Yoruichi after hours of teasing her.

Or at least doing something else productive instead of killing time as twilight set in here in Brockton Bay and Behemoth made his plodding way here from underground.

I could be interrogating the Faerie Queen, cuddling my wives, trying to get an explanation out of Valeria Richards, sleeping with my wives, or trolling someone.

Instead, I sat twiddling my thumbs and fiddling with the cybernetic bracelet we had all been given while Ranni quietly seethed at her ruined date night, Yoruichi teased her about it, and other heroes pretended not to shoot us glances. There was some fear there, mostly at me, but also hope, envy, and a whole bunch of other emotions that ran the entire spectrum.

"Are you nervous," a voice shook me from my bored funk.

"No," I answered Beast Boy honestly as I looked him over.

I had only interacted a little with the Teen Titans since the Trigon incident, but Glynda and Raven had kept me abreast of them in the last few weeks. The green-skinned hero looked physically just the same as before, nor did I see any difference in how he held himself, staring up at me with a nervous, awkward smile.

"Right, me neither," he said with clearly false bravado, looking between me, my wives, and the heroes that kept arriving. "This is my seventh Endbringer fight, you know? We got this."

Even as we spoke, speedsters, airplanes, jets, teleporters, and other heroes with Mover ratings were delivering more costumed individuals from all over the world and taking away civilians. I had only been here for five minutes, and already over fifty heroes were in this plaza. Protectorate heroes and the Justice League, obviously, but also the X-men, the Guild, the Winter Guard, the Yangban, and a bunch of others I didn't recognize.

"We do," I agreed with a calm smile which seemed to reassure the shapeshifter. He clenched his fists, took a deep breath, and nodded at me. "Relax. You've all repelled them every time before, and the only difference this time is you'll kill it. Behemoth won't even know how it died."

"Thanks," Beast Boy grinned, punching his fists together. "How did you kill the Simurgh anyway?"

"I destroyed her core," I answered with a shrug. "All Endbringers' have a core, a brain if you will. Break that, and they go bye-bye for good. Behemoth's is buried deep at the base of his throat, between his shoulders if I remember right. Don't quote me on that."

"Are you going to eat it like you did to Ziz?" Mercury asked as she joined us.

"I shouldn't need to," I shrugged again. "Even if we ignore the damage doing that would do to the country, taking a chunk out of the planet isn't the best idea."

One of the reasons I was not busying myself with preparations or aiding evacuations or anything like that was because I plain didn't think it was necessary.

I had no intention of underestimating the Endbringers.

In Worm, they had been sandbagging hard, using barely a fraction of their abilities to facilitate a steady increase in challenge. A constant ramp-up intended to last centuries as humans learned and adapted, always just out of their reach, always a looming threat. Every time the heroes matched them, there would be a slight increase in difficulty that saw exponentially more deaths on the defender's side.

With the Simurgh dead, and a risk it could be destroyed, there was every possibility that Behemoth would go all out from the start. Collateral would be huge, no matter how many evacuations continued.

But this world was not Worm.

This was a world with heroes from DC and Marvel. Deathworlds so overpowered that the only reason that life still existed was because their defenders were as absurd as the attackers. They dealt with more significant threats than the Endbringers every year, if not every few months.

Even with the Endbringers holding back less than in the book, all their abilities operating at about a third more powerful, the heroes of this world were simply better. More diverse and less reliant on superpowers that didn't want to defeat the monsters.

Even after six years of receiving an attack from one of three Enbringers every few months, this world still didn't have an Endbringer Truce because it didn't need one.

The death toll among heroes who fought them wasn't one in four on average, like in the book, but one in ten. The highest had been the first fight against the Simurgh at one in five. And that included all the Ziz bombs that were after-effects and not part of the original attack.

Take this attack, for example.

The sirens had gone off fifteen minutes ago, indicating that Behomoth was on the move and through tinker tech, magic, or some super genius, they judged that it would attack Brockton Bay. Within the first minute, Dragon drones, Iron Man suits and a bunch of other robots or drones were out transporting heroes to the city or evacuating civilians. Within the first five minutes, the available Justice League and PRT members on duty had been teleported in. Within ten, most of the off-duty members were here as well.

Here we were, fifteen minutes after the initial siren wail and still waiting for the attack.

In the book, the defenders had a fraction of the time we had to prepare.

It showed in how the gala attendees had, instead of rushing off at the first sound, said their goodbyes calmly and then just walked out of the building towards a Stark aircraft.

Valeria Richards and the fake Reed hadn't even done that, just passing me a business card with a smile and inviting me to the Baxter Building to talk before wandering off to eat.

Not even my Family were worried.

I had, of course, told them all I knew about Worm, Shards, the Entities, and the Endbringers. Most of us had gathered in this plaza a few minutes ago to hash out a game plan, but we had gone our separate ways. Either to get a feel for the terrain, talk to some heroes, or set up preparations, in Medea's case. Priscilla had remained on the Island, and we hadn't contacted the three women still on Themyscria because, quite frankly, they weren't needed.

This wasn't like the Doomsday or Trigon situations. We knew about this threat and could take in a straight-up fight with little issue to the Family itself. With the aid of the heroes here? It wasn't even a question of whether we could kill it but how long it would take us.

While only a few of us could kill Behemoth without resorting to cataclysmic damages, I didn't think the Endbringer could kill us without getting sloppy. Energy manipulation was simply a bad matchup against the Defences the catalogue provided. Most of the worst effects it could do were explicitly blocked by Wild and Environmental Defence.

The only two Endbringers worse off would be the Simurgh, who couldn't see us at all thanks to relying solely on predictions to interact with the world, and Khonsu, who used time-based attacks that would do nothing to immortals like us.

Hell, Schathach was excited about the fight. I bet she could take the damn thing on with little issue with a combination of Primordial Runes and her Noble Phantasm. The rest of us were almost unnecessary, here to limit collateral damage rather than actually fight.

I might be a paranoid bastard, cowardly even, but I was not someone who couldn't recognize his own strength. I simply strived to see things as objectively as possible.

And objectively, Behemoth was fucked.

The Endbringers in this world were not called that because they were seen as symbols of an inevitable apocalypse. They weren't engines of destruction that slowly ground away civilization below their boots. They were called Endbringers because they couldn't be killed.

They returned no matter what the heroes had tried. Destroying, trapping, or banishing them never worked permanently. They were figures of fear, yes, but more out of resignation and dread than terror. The fear of the unknown, what they could pull off next or what nasty trick they would reveal, rather than fear of the monsters themselves, frightened most people.

Where did they come from? How did they work? What was their goal? How many were there? Was it all random?

Such questions had plagued humanity since Behemoth's first appearance.

An Enbringer attack was like an extra dangerous monsoon. It came and went, ruining buildings and killing people, but this world had gotten really good at rebuilding. You can even predict it roughly like a monsoon, and there was an 'Endbringer season' where you can expect an attack. At the end of the day, the Endbringers were always forced to retreat, even though this world lacked Scion, and most attacks ended with most of their targets surviving.

The Simurgh had been an exception because it had deliberately targeted human psychology, turning the heroes against the people they defended.

Now though? Now that I had broken the passive stranger effect that kept people from realizing Endbringer's weakness was a core?

Now the world could kill them.

I could think of a dozen heroes off the top of my head who could kill Behemoth with a little help and twice as many that could work together to do it. Mostly magic users, but others who used Shard-based powers. Tinkers or heroes whose powers came from unique biology were not suited to fight the energy manipulator, but many other abilities were.

I just had to sit back and eat popcorn.

Metaphorically, of course.

"I'm going to be playing support for this one," I told the pair of Teen Titans. "I can be more helpful healing with Tsunade and Melina than out on the field. I do my best work alone, far from fragile things like cities, continents, or mortal minds."

"We always need more healers," Mercury sent me a smile, looking around as the plaza grew more and more packed. "Who else is here with you? I saw Glynda and Shishou."

"Scathach is getting a lay of the land, and Glynda is helping with evacuations. I already mentioned that Melina and Tsunade meet with the healers before the fight to grasp their specialties, and Yoruichi and Ranni are right there. Priscilla is watching the house, and Artoria, Diana, and Robin are occupied and won't be joining us. Raven is here too. You just don't notice her."

To prove my point, my shadow waived energetically at Beast Boy. The shapeshifter awkwardly raised a hand and waived back.

"This will never not be weird," the hero muttered under his breath as my shadow saluted smartly and became inanimate again. "I mean, it's one thing to see two versions of Wonder Woman, ya know? But a second Raven? With a bunch of different personalities? That became a Demon Lord? That's married!? Should I congratulate you, or have you admitted to an Asylum?"

"Yes."

"I know what you mean," Mercury continued to watch my shadow like a hawk even as it remained inanimate. "I can somehow understand the demon lord part. I've heard of weirder heroes. And the multiple personalities make perfect sense for Raven. She always did seem to have a lot going on upstairs, if you know what I mean. But married? Happily? It's freaky."

"You know that is my wife you are talking about, right? And that she can hear you?"

"It's not a bad thing or an insult," Beast Boy frantically waved his hands in denial. "It's just... not something we expected, ya know? Takes some getting used to."

"Fair enough," I chuckled, not bothering to continue to scare them for my amusement. "Where are the rest of your teammates, by the way? Are they not coming?"

"They're around," Mercury nodded towards where the X-men were grouped together, the White Queen among them. X-23 was talking to Wolverine, the pair shooting the occasional glance our way. "The others are somewhere around here too. I know Winman is with Armsmaster, but I don't know about the rest."

"Eh, they'll turn up," I shrugged philosophically. "How are you two doing, by the way? After Trigon and everything?" Mercury's body rippled, shifting this way and that as she looked anywhere but at me.

"Fine," she said simply.

"We're hanging in there," Beast Boy grinned a shaky smile when he saw me raise an eyebrow, unconvinced by the mutant's excited and detailed defence of her mental state. "It sucked. Big time. Taken out like chumps by some demon frat boys, then all the... all the rest. It sucked. But we got through it. We're all here. Life moves on, ya know?"

I raised my second eyebrow, mildly impressed at the young man. It didn't seem like he was putting on a facade or just saying that to appear cool. For all intents and purposes, the green shapeshifter was taking the events of Oct 30th with a stoic maturity I hadn't expected.

"That's good to know. Glynda also tells me you all have been doing remarkably well in the recovery, but it's good to see it for myself," I grinned, an idea forming. "Still, I feel a little responsible for the whole thing. You know, for not telling you all about the looming apocalypse and all that. You've all handled everything very well."

"Nah, it's cool," Beast Boy waved a hand casually, cheeks flushing slightly. "An apocalypse is like a holiday, like Easter, Hanuka, or Christmas in July. It's just something to expect."

"Still," I chuckled lightly at his joke. "I feel I should make it up to you all. Tell you what, after we finish roasting marshmallows on Behemoth, I will start talks about setting up a music career for one of my wives, Priscilla. You can look her up on-"

"I know who she is, dude," the shapeshifter interrupted me with a grin. "Me and Win watch her streams all the time! She's great! So is she going to release an album? Concerts? What are we talking?"

"Uh," I hesitated for an instant, put off a bit by his energy. Only for a moment, though, as this generally fit my plan. "So you wouldn't say no to some tickets to her first concert?"

"That'd be awesome! When is it?"

"No idea," I grinned. "We're still in the early phase, and it's not going to be a full tour or anything. She's just starting out, but I'll save you some tickets and let you know."

"For all of us?" Mercury asked eagerly.

Both Beast Boy and I looked at her in surprise, and she was quick to defend herself.

"What? I might not be into games like you all, but she is really good," she defended herself. "Starfire loves her too."

"Not judging you," I chuckled. "Just surprised you've even heard her before. She's never left the Island. I'll have to look into just how popular she's become. Especially with fans like the Teen Titans."

"I wouldn't call myself a fan, per se," Mercury idly fiddled with some of her liquid body, not looking me in the eye.

Both Beast Boy and I snorted a laugh.

I had been non-too subtly promoting Priscilla's music for a while now but figured another point of influence wouldn't go wrong. By all accounts, Beast Boy was one of the world's most socially active and well-connected young heroes. His promoting my floof-dragon could only be a good thing.

And I hadn't been lying about the responsibility for their condition.

I might be an asshole and an abomination from beyond time and space, but I had the barest form of empathy for people not in my Family.

It was a small, decrepit, shrivelled husk of a thing, but that empathy existed.

If you squinted real hard.

"What are you laughing about, dear?" Medea asked, walking up to us. She was bedecked for battle, her cloak covering her completely and staff in hand. Full Witch Mode, I liked to think of it as.

"Just reaffirming my faith in the one true religion," Medea paused, hand already going to her temples as she prepared for my next spout of bullshit. I, naturally, couldn't disappoint her. "Floof is love. Floof is life. We are born of the Floof, made men by the Floof, undone by the Floof. Soon the Floof will rule us all. Nobody can resist the dark lure of all that is Floofy."

Beast Boy was nodding sagely along at my words while Mercury tilted her head in confusion.

Medea just sighed, letting her hand drop and staring at me in exasperation.

"You're lucky you're pretty."

"I know."

"And you spend way too much time with your cat."

"Heresy! You can never have too much Medea time!"

The Greek Witch looked like she was about to argue but then stopped, realizing the verbal trap I had laid.

She sighed again.

I grinned. I never regretted having my cat named the same as my wife. Too much ammo to use.

Man, I love winning pointless, silly arguments like this.

"You all set up and good to go?" I asked, sparing her further annoyance like the gracious victor I was.

"As much as I can in this limited time," Medea nodded. "I'm not limited on materials, thankfully, so I can spend extra in exchange for speed, but that only goes so far. If I had a week, I could have turned this city into a death trap. Maybe made the PRT headquarters, the Rig I heard it called, into a golem. For now, we must content ourselves with bounded fields, a few area traps, and only one teleportation field Scathach helped me with."

"It should be more than enough for today," I reassured her.

As mentioned, I had no intention of underestimating Behemoth, but I did not foresee too many problems with this many tools at our disposal.

"What's a bounded field?" Mercury asked.

"It's a topographical type of magecraft," Medea started to explain, always happy to talk magic, so long as it didn't delve into the secrets of her craft. "A sort of barrier that donates separate spaces. Boundaries have always had mystical properties, and with magecraft, we can exert rules over that-"

"You know how hot I find it when you talk magic," I interrupted my wife with a kiss that sent her hood back. She flushed red all the way to her pointed ears, which started wriggling in joy as she glared at me in embarrassment. "But it looks like it's starting."

I nodded to where Superman was floating in the plaza's center, gesturing for people's attention. Dr. Strange was there as a representative of the magic users, Captain America for the PRT, and Eidolon as the offensive team leader.

We, naturally, joined the rest of the crowd in giving big blue our attention.

"Thank everyone for coming," the Man of Tomorrow started as everyone quieted down, his face set in a line of grim determination. "Most of you have been with us before, but I will review the basics for those new. Behemoth is on its way to this city, and we aim to stop it as soon as possible. Even as we speak, evacuations are ongoing, but this city has millions of people. We cannot get them all in time. Minimizing casualties is our absolute priority, whether from civilians or our comrades. Everything else comes second. Limiting collateral damage is our secondary objective but should not be put above saving lives. Cities can and have been rebuilt. The dead will not return."

There were some cheers and voices of agreement, but more than a few eyes turned my way. I wonder if Superman intended to throw shade on me? Maybe to try and guilt trip me?

It wouldn't work.

I ignored all gazes, fully intent on never bringing anyone back to life.

"To do that," he continued. "You have all been divided into either Combat or Support, depending on your abilities. You can find your roll assignment, as well as placement, on your bracelet." He held up his wrists where the sci-fi-looking bracelets fit snugly. "These were created by Dragon, Mr. Fantastic, and Iron Man. They act not only as communication devices but also trackers, vital monitors, and IDs. At any point during the battle, you may press the buttons at the base of your palm three times quickly to request immediate rescue or aid. For this battle, Movers will be ready to bring you to the medical tent, so long as the area you are in is not under active threat."

I seriously wondered if Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards, had a hand in these devices. It wasn't impossible his daughter was making a bunch of stuff under his name. The 'Reed' at the gala had been a robot of some sort and not one with sentience. As soon as I shook its hand, I immediately noticed the lack of 'life' in it, something that didn't happen with dealing with AIs, cyborgs, or other lifeforms that could think for themselves.

The question was, what had happened to the original?

Dead? Incapacitated? Detained? Or was he doing something important enough to send his super smart yet unpowered daughter to meet me with only a robot as a bodyguard?

"...kill radius of fifty meters. Anyone without a brute rating or special ability to survive changes in temperature or radiation must remain far away." Superman continued to brief the heroes even as I tuned him out. "For safety's sake, we recommend over seventy-five meters of distance at all times. In case it moves your direction or escalates. Our thinkers have noted the Endbringers are slowly ramping up their power usage every attack."

"Why?" Some unknown hero I couldn't see called out from the crowd.

"We don't know," Eidolon answered, floating beside the Man of Steel. "Even now, after six years, there is so much we are unaware of regarding the Endbringers. I will lead the attackers, while Superman will lead the rescue efforts. We will report any changes in power usage or behaviour we note, so keep your communicators at hand at all times."

I, again, idly wondered if I should kill Luthor. Eidolon was a power projection, so staging an accident for the green hero would be pointless.

I decided to not do so for the same reason as I hadn't before.

A whole bunch of reasons that boiled down to two essential points.

One, I couldn't be sure he was responsible for the Endbringers. In the book, his shard worked by providing the man with what he 'needed.' Either as a power or as a worthy enemy. The Endbringers had always existed, the Entities using the conflict engines in all their worlds. All Eidolon had done was make them more powerful, shape them to conform to human myths, and unconsciously direct them to places to shake the status quo.

The braindead Entities might have done the same in this world on instinct in response to more powerful defenders.

The second point was, once again, even Luthor was responsible for the Endbringers, I wasn't afraid. Cautious, of course, but not scared.

They were Doomsday equivalents, not Trigon level.

I could take them.

"...indicate it is approaching from the northwest," Superman continued. "Behemoth's standard pattern is to emerge between three to five miles from the city and cover the rest of the distance above the ground. We managed to drive it off the last five times before it reached the city's center. So long as we are cautious, today will be no different."

"It will be different!" Someone shouted from above the crowd. I looked over to see Glory Girl pumping her fist in the air, Panacea hovering beside her with her face in her hands. "We're gonna kill the big rock!"

"Yeah!"

"Kill it!"

"No more driving it back! Behemoth dies today!"

"Kill it!"

"Destroy Behemoth!"

More and more heroes began to clamour, cheer, yell, and hype themselves up for the fight. None seemed more excited than Glory Girl, who was leading a chant. Even Superman smiled, the grim mood of only a few minutes ago shattered by the excitement and cheers.

"She knows how to get them excited if nothing else," Medea whispered to me.

"Kill it!"

"Kill it!"

"Kill it!"

"Kill it, Elden Lord!"

"Cheerleaders," I shook my head in amusement. "Hot blond cheerleaders. Never should their powers be used for evil."

"Kill it, Elden Lord!"

"Kill it, Elden Lord!"

"Kill it, Elden Lord!"

"Elden Lord!"

"Elden Lord!"

"Elden Lord!"

"Like that," Medea asked with a laugh as all eyes, over a hundred pairs, focused on me.

Glory Girl gave me an encouraging look like she was helping me.

I wanted to facepalm but had to settle with a commiserating look with Panacea.

Fucking extroverts.

"You got this, boss!" Glory Girl cheered, giving me an enthusiastic thumbs up.

"Fine, fine," I sighed with a smile.

I was totally getting her back for this later.

The crowd cheered as I walked to the plaza's center, joining Superman, Eidolon, Captain America, and Dr. Strange. With Batman in the command center, these five were the figureheads of this fight. I side-eyed the last, wondering what was happening in the Sorcerer Supreme's mind. He had to know I wasn't going to keep secret what I knew about Endbringers.

What was he going to do?

The premier magical user on the planet simply gave me a nod of acknowledgement. Not the friendly smile and handshake of Superman or Captain America, but better than Eidolon's complete lack of reaction. I watched them all out of the side of my eyes as I turned to face the crowd.

"As much as I wish for a double kill," I said, smiling at the costumed people the watched my every move. "I'm playing support. So no, I will not be killing Behemoth today."

"Boo!" Glory Girl shouted with a thumbs down, though the gesture was playful.

"I don't think the residents of Brockton Bay want another giant monster rampaging around, do they?" I joked rhetorically, looking at the group of local protectorate members.

"It is appreciated," Miss Militia deadpanned at me, getting some laughter from the crowd.

I took the opportunity to look around, getting a good grasp of my audience before I continued. There were smiles, laughter, and good-natured jokes, but it was all tinged with hesitation. Smiles didn't reach eyes. Laughter had a nervous edge to it, and jokes were morbid and dark.

These were heroes putting up a brave front for their comrades. For the people they defended. For their families at home.

Nobody had to be here. These were all volunteers, risking their lives to just hold off a monster for a bit more time, knowing that another would be coming in three months, whether they lived or died.

And they would die.

One in ten casualties might be nothing compared to the book, but it was still a large number of heroes. Heroes these people knew, loved, laughed, and fought with. Everyone here was a comrade in arms, and every loss was felt.

My throat suddenly felt extremely dry.

My Family might not fear the Endbringers, but we were the only ones.

Everyone else was terrified.

Yet they were here.

If I was them, I wouldn't be here. I would be home with my loved ones, watching others fight and die for me.

They didn't chant my name because they worshiped, admired, or even liked me. They chanted my name because, to them, I was a hero in the most important sense. I did the one thing heroes were supposed to do.

I gave them hope.

Hope they desperately needed.

Hope that tomorrow will be better than today.

Hope that one day, they wouldn't live in a world where they needed to risk their lives four times a year to barely stave off monsters that would never die.

I could never be a hero.

I was too flawed, too selfish, too cowardly and egotistical.

But I admired heroes.

And these men and women, many of whom would die within the hour, were heroes.

"I will be straight with you all," I told the heroes. They quieted down as they noticed the smile gone from my face. "I can kill the Endbringers. All of them. All it would take is massive, cataclysmic damage to your planet. I don't want that. You don't want that. So, instead, I am going to do the second-best thing. I will give you all the tools you need to kill them yourself. Knowledge."

Know yourself and know your enemy, and you shall never fear a hundred battles.

Everyone feared the unknown.

The best way to combat fear was not with hope, no matter how much sappy media would have us believe. The best way to fight fear was with knowledge. I had told Hippolyta something similar earlier today.

It is ignorance, not lack of skills, that kills people.

In Dark Souls terms, if you know the boss' patterns, elemental weaknesses, and arena, you can beat it even if you are level one, naked, armed only with a stick, and playing on a banana.

Anyone who has ever played one of their games knows that it is only the first playthrough that is really hard. Even if you play new game plus modes, where enemies hit harder and are tougher, it is easier because you know more about fighting them.

What I was going to do was give these heroes what they needed.

A walkthrough.

"All Endbringers have exactly two weaknesses," I explained to the enraptured crowd. "The first is how you drive them off. Energy usage. They are incredibly powerful beings with abilities that exceed almost any Super in capacity and variety. But it all takes energy. Any damage to their body takes energy to heal. Any attack they launch takes energy that can be spent healing. They cannot exceed their energy limits even using their full powers. The key to driving them off before they accomplish their goal is making the energy requirements too much for success to be worth further expenditure."

I rarely see it elaborated on in fanfiction or other discussions on Endbringers. Yes, their physical bodies outside their cores were like clothes, but repairing clothes takes material and energy. And that energy wasn't limitless. You can tire Endbringers out and wear them down to the point where they can barely attack or heal. It was what happened to the original Behemoth.

It was also why they waited months between attacks. All damage had to be repaired, and energy recuperated while they remained inactive. Otherwise, they would be destroyed by simple attrition.

So they hid and rested to recover their prodigious energy reserves.

"However," I continued. "Their energy levels border on the absurd. It takes a lot of power to move such materially dense bodies and use absurd powers, but they have the energy to spare."

I didn't know how much exactly. That was never mentioned in the book, and I didn't trust fanon for any numbers. I estimated that each Endbringer qualified as a Type 1 civilization on the Kardashev scale. Exhausting them was possible since they were energy guzzlers but inefficient.

"Instead of driving them off, it is better to kill them. Quickly. All Endbringers have a core. A central body protected by layers of superdense material that make up the body we all see. Destroy that core, and you destroy the monster, no matter how little damage it has sustained up until that point."

I kept my eye half on Strange, wondering if he would try and stop me from talking, but he did nothing. In fact, he was watching me like everyone else, with interest and realization on his face.

I would need to talk to him later.

"So, how do we kill Behemoth?" Supergirl asked from the crowd.

"We destroy the core," I answered simply. "We can either damage it enough that the location is revealed or use attacks that bypass the layers of material separating it from us. The latter is better, as it requires less time, but it also means we need to know where it is. The priority of anyone with any Thinker ability, scrying or tracking technique, or magic should be locating it. Start around the shoulder area. I believe that is where it is located, but I cannot confirm that."

"How do we destroy the core?" Glory Girl asked.

"If it's exposed? Sufficient force should do it. Nothing energy related except magic should be used, as Endbringers will go all out if they think their lives are in danger. By that very notion, expect it to go absolutely nuts when it realizes it's in danger. And if it realizes it is about to die, expect it to go out with a bang. Literally. Anyone near it must be able to survive a nuke if they want to live."

There was a general muttering, unrest spreading among the crowd as they listened to me. I saw many frowns, looks of confusion, and even some glares sent my way.

"But how do we kill Behemoth," one Chinese hero asked impatiently.

"Find the core, then hit it real hard, then prepare to run," I boiled it down to its most basic level.

"I can do that," Glory Girl said with a grin, punching one of her fists into the other. She was one of only a few still smiling.

"How?" Iron Man asked impatiently. "How do we do it?"

"Find the core?" I asked, wondering where the problem was. "Magic will be our best bet. Medea, can you set something up?"

"It will take a bit of time," she answered from her place among the crowd. "If someone can get me a sample of its body, I could probably do it in five minutes."

"There you go," I shrugged. "Hit a chunk off, pass it to Medea, delay, then boom."

"Are you going to tell us or not?" Someone yelled from the crowd.

"Tell you what?" I asked, getting annoyed now.

Just because I respected their heroism didn't mean I would put up with bullshit. I had a very low tolerance for stupid people. Behemoth was like five minutes away. I didn't think people here were dumb, they wouldn't have survived this long if they were, and they might not have the context I have thanks to reading Worm, but I had been keeping things as simple as possible.

I kept things vague because any plan that was too specific would not survive the first five minutes. Not with so many moving pieces, different heroes, or abilities firing off in such quick succession.

My Family had plans, sure, but ideally we would never need them. Not with this many other combatants.

'Something's wrong,' Emma said in my mind. I tensed, waiting for her to explain, but Iron Man got there first.

"Are you going to tell us how you killed the Simurgh or not," he asked, frustration clear in his voice. "We are running out of time."

"What," I asked, bewildered for a second before the pieces clicked together as Emma spoke in my mind.

'They hear your words, but when you stop talking, they forget everything about a 'core' or weaknesses. They're being mastered somehow.'

Even as Emma explained what she saw in everyone's minds, I was lunging at Stephen Strange.

The Sorcerer Supreme tried to step back, clearly taken by surprise by my action and other heroes tensed, some ready to defend or attack.

I wasn't trying to hurt the man, though.

"Do you remember our conversation at your house," I asked urgently, my hand on his shoulder and 'freeing' him from influence. "About Endbringers and cores?"

"What? Of course, I do," he answered, shifting to try and release my hold on him. I held tight. "Unhand me!"

"And did you tell anyone?"

"I told everyone," Strange answered, brows furrowed in confusion. "The League, PRT, the UN, everyone. Everyone should know how to kill the Endbringers. They are everyone's enemy."

I let him go.

I watched him closely, especially in the eyes.

They didn't go unfocused, blur, or shift oddly. They didn't even change the emotions contained within. Even as I stopped 'freeing' him, he looked just as annoyed and confused as before.

"How do we kill Behemoth?" I asked, hoping and dreading the answer.

"You have not told us yet," the Sorcerer Supreme answered with the same disgruntled tone as he had asked me to unhand him.

'Nothing. As soon as you let him go, his mind filled in every word about Endbringers with empty filler.'

'They're not being mastered,' I responded mentally, puzzle pieces clicking together. 'It's a stranger effect. A large one. One that is off most of the time but activates whenever an Endbringer attacks.'

'If it was psychic, I would have felt it,' Emma defended. 'It wouldn't have worked thanks to the Defences, but I would have felt it.'

The crowd was becoming actively angry now.

Many were prepared to attack me or defend themselves even after I let Strange go. I saw Beast Boy look at me, confused and hurt on his face. Like I was betraying them somehow. I had no idea what they had heard until now. Maybe their minds were conjuring reasons to attack me.

'I know,' I answered, already guessing what was happening. 'It's also not magic-based, or Strange would not have been affected after I cleared it the first time. He would have put up defences.'

A pit formed in my stomach, a void of fear I did not expect to feel today.

Everyone feared the unknown.

Especially me.

'There's a second Enbringer active right now. One we've never heard about.'

That was when my communication bracelet started ringing.

********

Within the command center, Batman listened to Superman cover the basics of fighting Behemoth while he kept an eye on the instruments keeping track of the monster. The dynakinetic was, thankfully, slower than its water-based brethren giving more time to prepare and evacuate.

Today was going to be the day that Behemoth died.

If only the Elden Lord had told them how he had killed the Simurgh, he would have had preparations made instead of relying on the Dragon.

Batman turned his full attention to Mikael as he stood before the crowd. He looked like he was taking this seriously. Good. The caped crusader also noted that releasing Glory Girl and Panacea from M/S confinement was a good move. Depending on how they performed today, they should be able to be released with only minimal surveillance.

It had been a month since the Dallon's revival. A good baseline had been formed from observation.

Batman listened to the Elden Lord speak about the Endbringers with a furrowed brow.

Why hadn't he said all this before? It wasn't like he was trying to keep it a secret if he was talking now? Was he just trying to come in at the last second to play the hero? Is that what he did with Trigon?

Why else would he be keeping how to kill the Endbringers a secret?

Something didn't add up.

The psychological profile of the Elden Lord Batman had built told him that the Dragon was an egoist, but one that avoided the spotlight unless it benefited him. For him to stand before a crowd of hundreds of heroes and babble nonsense without making a single pun or joke did not fit Mikael at all.

Batman listened to the Elden Lord speak about finding a 'core' to Glory Girl, a wondered why he had not explained things before? A quick search through his database showed no information about one at all. Not even any theories.

What was he doing searching his database? He should be tracking Behemoth.

Batman made to close the window and pull up the seismic data once more when his screen, for the barest of moments, fuzzed slightly on the edges.

Now, Batman was a paranoid man.

Extremely so.

When he discovered that the Simurgh was still lightly active even when floating in space, engineering failures in space travel, he did everything he could to ensure his information remained as secure as possible. Lacking information on the exact nature of Endbringers, he had gone all out to prepare a secure computer network.

With Parker's help and using the Clairvoyant as a basis, they had completed a data server that was not only quantum based but existed at multiple places and times at once, but self-correcting by sending information backwards and forwards through time and cross-referencing the result.

Any discrepancy would be automatically corrected using both backups.

By keeping the verification to a fraction of a picosecond, they could severely lower the energy costs and ensure all their data was safe from anyone without their clearance.

But this was not the Simurgh.

This was something else.

A stranger effect so strong that it covered the whole world, bypassed the defences of the strongest of magicians and psychics, to directly interfere with the brains of people. Its effect on computers was not any lesser. No sooner had a backup restored the Bat-computer to its proper operation, knowledge of cores and all, than did the effect erase that information once more.

A vicious cycle was playing out too fast for the eye to track.

To an outside observer, it would look like nothing. A bit of screen distortion could have any number of causes.

But he wasn't any ordinary outside observer.

He was the goddamn Batman!

With a Thinker rating of 9, even without superpowers, Bruce Wayne was easily within the top five most intelligent beings on the planet.

He only had clarity for a few seconds while the Elden Lord talked to the Sorcerer Supreme about the cores.

But it was enough.

Batman stared at the note in his hand in confusion.

'WTWBWM. Elden Lord.'

Batman knew what it meant. He had devised the code, after all. It was even written in his handwriting.

It was a simple one but designed to be as tricky as they come. Complicated codes were easy to break, and each new addition was a point of weakness. And this one was even easier than most.

Wayne Thomas. Wayne Bruce. Wayne Martha.

Simple initials of three people. But depending on their arrangement, they meant different things.

If first names came before last names, he was being coerced or mastered to write the code.

If his name was first, it meant he was compromised and should immediately seek either confinement.

If his mother's name was written first and his put last, he needed to immediately have Alfred or Dick enact Knightfall Protocol.

There were a bunch of other combinations of those six letters, all meaning different things, but this one was more serious than most.

Father's name, his, then his mother's.

Stranger affect. No defence. Entrust others.

Then Elden Lord.

For a second, just a second, Batman watched the Elden Lord.

Why had he written this note?

Why the Elden Lord?

What was he supposed to entrust to this being, this monster that could destroy the world?

Could he trust this man who clearly had other plans, intentions he wasn't aware of?

For a second, Batman doubted his own code.

"It wasn't your fault," a sturdy, reliable voice echoed in his ears as a fatherly hand gently ruffled his hair. The hand was cold but felt warmer than the cool alley air. "We would never blame you, Bruce. We are so proud of you. Of the man you've become. You're a hero, Bruce."

It ached.

His heart, his mind, his body.

Everything ached.

"No matter what happens," a warm voice said in his ear as arms pulled him tight to a chest that filled him with aching familiarity. "Always remember. We love you. No matter what. We love you, Bruce."

It was a good kind of ache.

Before Batman could second guess himself any further, he sent off the message.

He would trust Mikael.

Just this once.

But why had he done that?

Within the command center, Batman sat with a frown.

How had the Elden Lord gotten that code to tell Superman?

********

'Tell Superman. Omega. Alpha. Capricorn. Devil. End. 479863.'

"Tell us how to kill Behemoth," Strange urged. "Quickly. It is almost here."

"Omega. Alpha. Capricorn. Devil. End. 479863." I absently read out, my mind racing a mile a minute as I tried to devise a plan. If the Bat wanted to communicate with the boy scout, he should have messaged him directly.

I didn't have time to play messenger.

My stomach was a ball of icy fear.

I absolutely despised working with faulty information but having no information at all was much worse. A big part of me just wanted to grab my Family and return to my Island, where it was safe, but I knew that would be a major overaction.

I still thought we could take on Behemoth with little issue. A new Endbringer would be a problem, but not an insurmountable one with the full force of my Family.

Dealing with both while fending off the hostility of the gathered heroes?

That would be impossible.

It would be a confusing melee, with nobody certain who was an enemy and who was an ally. That needed to be avoided at all costs.

I had to do damage control and explain why I could not tell people how to kill the Endbringers while still getting them to trust my orders and directions.

And I had to do it quick.

If they attacked me or mine, I would leave them to their fate. My admiration for heroes did not go so far that I would martyr myself for them. They could deal with Behemoth on their own.

"Everyone listen-"

"Everyone! Listen to the Edlen Lord!"

My words caught in my throat as I went to explain myself, only to be interrupted by Superman.

"Why?" Iron Man asked, looking non-plussed. "He's not telling us something!"

"That doesn't matter," Superman insisted. "When you all agreed to fight the Endbringers, you agreed to follow the Justice League's orders over those of your countries and organizations. As the field leader of the Justice League, I am ordering you all to follow the Elden Lord's commands! We are out of time. Will you listen, or will you leave?"

I had never seen Superman so serious. He had a look in his eyes as if daring anyone to contradict him. I was sure the first to do so would find themselves flown miles away in the blink of an eye and unable to return.

I blinked in surprise and shared a look of confusion with Medea. What was going on here? What sort of code had Batman sent me? That had to be the reason for Superman's behaviour. Had he shaken off the stranger effect?

Over a hundred heroes looked between me and the Man of Steel, confusion, anger, and fear in their eyes.

Then someone stepped forward.

"Not once have you led us wrong," Captain America told the Kryptonian as he gave him a pat on the back. "I will entrust our hopes to you once more. The Protectorate will follow the Elden Lord's orders."

With the two moral pillars of the superhero community stepping up, the rest fell like dominoes.

"The Guild will follow the Justice League," Dragon's drone said.

"The Yangban will follow, though we do so under protest."

"The X-men are here!"

"The Winter Guard will fight!"

Before any more could step forward, I interrupted.

We didn't have time for this.

"Enough!" I ordered, using magic to enhance my voice. "Nothing has changed. Prepare to fight Behemoth as before. Leave killing it to my Family. In my absence, you are to follow all their orders. Your goal remains the same. Save this city. Save lives. We will take care of the rest. So go!"

With so little time to formulate a plan, it was better to entrust them to do what they did best. Even if I could think of one that would guarantee Behemoth's quick death, without practice or easy coordination between hundreds of people, I did not trust these heroes that I had met for the first time today to do as they were told.

Superman's and Batman's aid had avoided the worst possible outcome, but I still would have to do work if I wanted to win today.

'Emma! Connect us all,' I ordered mentally.

'What is going on?' Tsunade asked as soon as she joined our mental chatroom. She and Melina had been in the healer area and had not heard the talk in the plaza.

'The situation has become most complicated,' Ranni answered. "Though, I admit, I fail to grasp the particulars.'

As we talked, the heroes were breaking into their assigned positions. A few shot us suspicious looks, as we hadn't moved, but a look from Superman sent them packing.

'I found out how the Endbringers have survived so long,' I answered grimly. 'Whenever one attacks, they have another playing defence. One I have never heard of before. Like the Simurgh, but instead of using Master powers, it uses Stranger ones. It not only prevents people from realizing their weaknesses or that they can be killed, but I am willing to bet it has other abilities. Possibly spacial or temporal, likely the latter. It would explain how they keep coming back after seemingly being destroyed. A hidden Endbringer is pressing rewind. But that is just a theory, be ready to throw it out as soon as we know more.'

'Weren't you just talking about how energy intensive these things are,' Yoruichi asked. 'If you are right, it means this thing has been here for every fight. That doesn't give it a lot of time to recharge.'

'If it never gets hurt, then it wouldn't need to recharge as much as the others,' Medea theorized. 'Healing, or in this case recreating matter, would be much more energy intensive than regular usage.'

'Where is it?' Scathach asked, eager for the fight.

'It can be literally anywhere,' I answered. 'Its grasp has to be worldwide. Otherwise, people in foreign countries watching the fights would have noticed the discrepancies through tv or the internet. Its effect must be technopathic as well. It can be underwater, underground, or anywhere at all. Fuck, large or small, it can look like pretty much anything. We have no way of knowing what it looks like.'

'Can we not ignore it?' Melina asked. 'Simply defeat the Behemoth and leave the other for later?'

'It is unwise to leave our backs exposed to an enemy we are aware of,' Scathach chided.

'And we have no idea of its capabilities,' Yoruichi continued. 'We might be immune to its stranger effect, but who knows what else it can do?'

'That's how we'll find it!' I said as I had an idea. 'We are immune thanks to the Defences. And all other Endbringer are obviously inhuman, no matter their size. Ranni! By my Command Seal! Expand your order upon the world!'

The blue moon in the sky brightened, illuminating the twilight in its chill glow. The gold loops of the Elden Ring shone as if in a noonday sun. One of six Command Spells faded from my chest with a red glow.

'My Lord Husband?'

'With that much power, you should be able to deploy thousands of dolls,' I explained. 'Have them search the world over. You do not need to fight. Just look.' I readied my second command seal. 'Emma! By my Command Seal! Encompass the world with your power!'

'Mikael!' The mutant complained at the sudden increase in her abilities. It was like a supercharged Cerebro. 'This is going to give me such a headache.'

'Sorry, but same deal,' I continued, the plan falling out before me. 'Just look. Limit yourself to Ranni's vision and compare it to one or two people around the dolls. Wherever they don't line up is where it is! Yoruichi, you're going to be the first responder. The priority is to hit it hard and fast. If it is away from people, great. We'll blast it. If not, our goal will be to separate it from civilization as quickly as possible. I do not want to give this thing time to respond once we find it.'

'We'll deal with Behemoth until then,' Medea nodded along.

'Exactly, we need-'

'Mikael!'

'Artoria? Perfect timing,' I didn't even comment on the lack of 'sir' in my name. 'We have a situation. We need-'

'Leviathan is attacking Themyscria!'

"What!?" I asked aloud, not bothering to care about the remaining heroes. Superman gave me a surprised look, but I waved him off.

The ball of icy fear in my gut was as large as an iceberg.

'I cannot reach Robin or Diana!' Emma urgently reported.

'They remained behind to help defend,' Artoria explained quickly. 'It has been launching waves at the Island for minutes now, and we could not reach you. I had to open a portal home.'

The iceberg melted into an inferno of rage.

********

"Brace!" Diana yelled to the amazons as another tidal wave crashed upon the island's shore. The dark night makes strange shapes of the waves, moonlight unable to shine through the dark clouds overhead.

The water crashed, torrential force smashing against a wall of enchanted shields and superpowered women. Defensive enchantments, long woven around the small city, blinked in and out of existence as the Amazonian sorceress tried to reinforce them with magic.

Everyone had retreated to high ground as the water level rose, wary of being dragged out to sea by a rip tide. Now, the hundred-odd amazons stood atop a peninsula overlooking their ruined home. The same one that Hippolyta had shown Mikael earlier that day.

"By Hera," Diana heard someone mutter as houses and buildings washed away, stone crushed under the force of the water. But she didn't have time for any of that.

"Any luck?"

"He's fast," Robin answered, face scrunched up in concentration with her closed eyes and arms crossed over her chest. Diana had not seen her need to use that trick in almost a year. Not since she had ascended to Tier 7. "Extremely fast. Not only moving but destroying my eyes as soon as they form. So long as he remains underwater, I cannot lock down a location."

"If we could drag the beast from the ocean, we would," Hippolyta growled, holding her shield above her head to protect herself from the rain.

The droplets fell like knives and would have shredded the common mortal like tofu. To the amazons, they were papercuts. Annoying and could kill if enough accumulated, but not immediately deadly.

For the island? They were catastrophic.

The rain had only fallen for the last few minutes, but all vegetation on the island had been destroyed. Torn to shreds and washed away in the mud. Stone shattered. Trees splintered. Houses crumbled. The island paradise that Mikael had visited only a few hours ago was now an almost bare rock adrift in the Mediterranean Sea.

Diana inwardly wept for the loss of another home.

And in only five minutes.

Without even catching sight of their enemy.

They wouldn't know what was attacking them if it wasn't for Robin.

"We must hope Artoria returns soon," Diana told the Queen, trying to bolster her spirits. She did not look pleased, to say the least.

Five minutes.

Nobody had died yet, a testament to the training and abilities the amazons of this world were blessed with, but in only five minutes, Leviathan had torn down what her people had built throughout millennia.

If Diana was distraught, she could only imagine this version of her mother was much worse.

There would be a reckoning, of that it was inevitable.

"Artoria is not coming," a voice intruded on their conversation. A male voice. A welcome one.

"Mikael!" Robin greeted cheerfully, though her eyes remained closed, and she focused on locating the Endbringer in the ocean.

"How did you get here?" Hippolyta asked Mikael as he casually strolled up to the battered amazons, a shield of shimmering blue magic protecting him and Scathach from the rain.

Apart from the Celt, he was alone.

"I told you earlier today, there is nowhere I cannot go," he answered simply. Diana saw his eyes flit to her and Robin, give them a once over to check for injuries and return to meeting Hippolyta's eyes. "Now tell me, Bird," he practically snarled the last word, and to a one, every Amazon recoiled. "What song are you to sing this time?"

Robin and Diana shared a concerned look, but Scathach seemed unsurprised. She simply watched the amazons like a hawk.

"What?" Hippolyta asked, looking visibly confused but not backing down from his intense gaze. "Explain yourself! Are you here to aid us, or shall I take your invasion as a violation of your word?"

For a tense moment, Diana feared her husband would attack the Queen, his draconic eyes glowing with power and rage.

Then he laughed.

It was not a good laugh.

It was not the laugh she made when he shared a terrible pun with Robin. It was not the laugh of delight he had when rubbing Medea or Priscilla's fur. It wasn't even the petty laughter he got when planning a prank.

This laugh was deep, bubbling up from his chest and rumbling like falling boulders on a cliff.

Dark.

Malicious.

It was a laugh full of sadistic delight.

Diana, unaffected by the cold and the wet, felt herself shiver.

"You have not realized it yet, Birdy," Mikael laughed, clapping with delight. "They did not tell you, did they? But why would they? You are just a pet."

The last word dripped with such condescension, derision, and disgust that Hippolyta recoiled as if slapped. Something must have clicked for her as she looked at the man with horrified realization.

Others, however, were not so well informed.

"I will not allow you to speak of my mother in such a way," Wonder Woman said, stepping in front of the woman and glaring at Mikael. The man just looked, if at all possible, even more amused. "Either explain yourself or leave. Now is not the time for squabbles."

As if to prove her point, the water line started receding again, and another tidal wave gathered in the distance. Larger than before, it covered the horizon and rose over twenty meters into the air.

Then it was gone.

Evaporated in a tide of fire and lightning that blinded the watchers, billowing forth like an ocean of its own from the ghostly heads of a former dragonlord.

"I told your mother this, and now I tell you," Mikael said as he dissipated Placidusax's Ruin, steam still wafting from the evaporated water. "I am above your weight class. And I am not here for Leviathan. Scathach is."

"Alone," Diana asked, worried. "Where is everyone else?"

This wasn't like Mikael at all. He was the type of man who would rather use excessive force than risk using too little.

"Occupied," he answered, giving her and Robin a severe look. "Between you three and the birds, you should be able to handle Leviathan, even if he is going all out."

Diana realized something then.

Not that Mikael was angry, that was obvious.

Mikael was determined.

Something had set him off, and he had drawn his line in the sand.

Mikael was showing that conviction she had so desperately hoped to see again.

Despite everything, the destruction of another home and the looming threat, Diana had to fight a smile.

This was the man she fell in love with.

"And you?" Hippolyta asked, her voice shaking as if dreading the answer. "What will you do? Leave?"

"Since I've been invited, leaving without greeting the house's owners would be rude. They must have heard my knocking."

It took Diana a moment to realize that Mikael was looking at somewhere specific as he spoke. She followed his gaze.

It stood, glowing a pale white in the dark night, white marble doors floating in the air. Framed by Corinthian columns and decorated in gold filigree depicting figures of myth, it was an image Diana had seen before.

Then the doors opened to a familiar helmet and armour.

""ARES!"" Diana, Wonder Woman, and Hippolyta shouted simultaneously, arms falling to their weapons. The other amazons reacted similarly, whirling from the water to face the god of war.

"I am not here for you," he growled, his own weapon in hand as he faced the army of Themyscria. Then he turned, and Diana understood Mikael's words. Horror gripped her. "Elden Lord. You are to appear before the council of Olympus. Come peacefully. Or don't. I don't care."

"I'm so scared," Mikael deadpanned before sending off a wink to Diana and a cheeky smile. Then he started walking towards the gates to Olympus. "Anyone ever tell you you look like an edgy teen? It's the horns and spikes you see. Makes you look desperate. Screams daddy issues."

"Your clothes appear as if someone has vomited a cornucopia upon cloth," Ares snorted in derision. Mikael had clearly changed clothes at some point, returning to his floral print shirt and short combo. There was no way Ranni would have let him wander around with his chest exposed. "I am unimpressed."

"Don't knock it till you try it," Mikael defended, flaring his open shirt like a cape. Three command seals glowed red in the night. "I killed a Demon Lord wearing this. I figured it was appropriate. Fashion Souls is the true endgame. Everyone knows that."

Ares didn't bother responding, just reading his sword as Mikael approached the door, ready for an ambush or trick. The amazons, too, were tense even as another wave gathered far from the shore. Their eyes, however, remained on the god and the gate. Everyone was ready for an outbreak of violence.

There was none.

Mikael walked by the god of war without even blinking an eye.

"By the way," he said, pausing one step from the open gate as if an idea just came to him. Diana did not buy it for a second. Mikael never did anything without at least three plans. "Was it your idea? Leviathan?"

"Sea brains," Ares answered gruffly.

"I'm flattered," Mikael chuckled lightly as if the answer was expected. "Really makes a guy feel special, you know. Sacrificing your last worshipers just to meet me. Gives me the tingles."

Then he stepped through the portal to Olympus, followed quickly by the god of war.

The portal disappeared in seconds, leaving behind a people abandoned by their gods.

********

The stage was set.

The actors donned their costumes.

The supporting characters practiced their lines.

The props were in their places.

The monster approached, ready to do battle against the heroes of justice.

A tried and true story. Good vs. Evil. Monster vs. man.

But the lead actor left the stage.

The hero was gone, yet the monsters remained.

Even without our protagonist, the show must go on.

And so the curtain rises on a new world.