The Void...
'Hey, I found another Multiverse close to our path. Want to take a look?'- Aragorn asked his passenger.
'Is it a promising one?'- Phoenix asked.
'I th—'
'It doesn't matter, let's go.'- Phoenix interrupted. She was bored out of her cosmic mind after watching the endless Void for years.
'Hahahaha! Sure, let's get closer.'- Aragorn approached carefully.
Ever-shifting, ever-shining, just like the others, this Multiverse stood in the nothingness of Aragorn's cradle.
'...'
'...'
Phoenix and Aragorn stared silently at the Multiverse.
'Small.'
'Tiny.'
They concluded after a moment of observation.
'But...'- Aragorn added. 'I found Earth.'
'What? Already? Even if it's small, that's too soon.'- Phoenix said. 'Small' here was by their standards, but this was a proper Multiverse with infinite parallel realities, expanding, with each reality housing its appropriate planes.
'It's almost a faithful representation of Earth-1218. I invested more time locating the Milky Way than anything else. Once there, I knew by memory the location of Earth.'- Aragorn said.
Earth-1218 was the 'normal' Earth in the Marvel Multiverse, the one with no supernatural features. This Multiverse had an infinite parallel amount of such Earths—at least, very similar ones.
'That's good news.'- Phoenix said. 'What's different about these Earths compared to Earth-1218?'
'Obviously, there are a lot of variations in history and such. For example, I found an Earth where the Versailles Treaty was not mindlessly written without considering how Germany would pay reparations. On this Earth, a certain Austrian painter didn't abandon art school.'- Aragorn shared with Phoenix, and both stalked Hitler with curiosity.
'This was a human Death talked about.'- Phoenix said.
'Oh? She did?'- Aragorn asked, his billions of eyes flickering with interest.
'She said he was quite the bully victim in her realm. Almost all versions of him were.'- Phoenix said.
'Pfft! Hahahahahaha!'- Aragorn wriggled and shifted with laughter.
'Aside from the changes in history, anything else?'- Phoenix asked.
'Yep!'- Aragorn said, abruptly stopping his laughing fit. 'Welcome to the Demon Slayer Multiverse!'
'Demon Slayer?'- Phoenix asked, but after a pause, she recalled a memory of a show Aragorn had shown her host. 'I remember you and Jean watched it about 300,000 years ago.'
'It's that one. I recreated it from my memory, so some parts might be different since I saw it before gaining my perfected soul memory.'- Aragorn said.
'So that's why it's so small.'- Phoenix said.
'No alien life, no Deities, no Abstracts, almost nothing supernatural, almost no dimensions beyond the necessary ones for a reality to exist, and even the supernatural part is... small.'- Aragorn explained.
'... Can we take a look?'- Phoenix asked, curious to experience the laws of reality in such a Multiverse.
'Sure, it's a Creatorless Multiverse, so there's no one stopping us. But we are too 'heavy' to step in there like this.'- Aragorn pointed with one of his tentacles at Phoenix in her Jean-wreathed-in-fire form and his eldritch terror form.
Aragorn calmly separated a drop of the eldritch terror goop that was his body and reformed it through Paradoxical Existence, shaping it into the strongest form that could exist in the Demon Slayer Multiverse. Phoenix grabbed one of the feathers of cosmic fire from her wings and turned it into a quetzal-like red bird.
Then, with a delicate touch, both offshoots were pushed through the Multiversal barrier by Aragorn.
'Why did you send them to the beginning of time?'- Phoenix asked.
'I noticed the laws of this reality fluctuated a little around that time. My concept told me that was the safest moment to add our Selves to reality seamlessly.'- Aragorn said.
'Will they survive?'- Phoenix asked.
'Not on their own, but I will steer them clear of more danger than they can handle.'- Aragorn said before concentrating on the Multiverse. 'Give me a moment, I need to speed forward this Multiverse's time.'
Aragorn focused further, and from his eldritch terror form, green glowing bubbles of time magic, fueled by his void energy, surfaced. The bubbles, as if riding a calm breeze, floated around the Multiverse and approached the Multiversal Barrier. With an inaudible 'pop!' each one burst against the barrier, and like a record being played forward, time sprinted in the Demon Slayer World.
'Are you interested in any of the events for which I know this Multiverse?'- Aragorn asked as they observed their offshoots arriving shortly after the Big Bang.
'No, I want to experience the laws of reality. I don't care about the happenings in the story.'- Phoenix said.
'Alright, then let's unalive canon.'- Aragorn said in an upbeat mood.
'Why do you care?'- Phoenix asked.
'There are an infinite number of parallel realities, and as far as we can see, there are no nexus events to push the boundaries between realities. So even if you change something in one reality, it won't affect the others.
'Then there's the fact that this Multiverse is just one of many—based on what you've told Jean—of the same 'story,' so it doesn't matter if you take your time to change the story in all the infinite realities of this Multiverse. Out there, in this great emptiness, there are an infinite number of Demon Slayer Multiverses where the same horrible things that are happening here will happen.'- Phoenix said.
'But isn't it fun?'- Aragorn said with a grin on his amorphous, billion-eyed face.
'Is it?'- Phoenix asked, cocking a brow.
'Yeah, think about the things that would have happened and that maybe were supposed to happen, but now... they won't, because I will have collapsed canon before it even began.'- Aragorn exuded joy.
'That's fun?'- Phoenix tilted her head in confusion.
'Yeah, take a look.'- Aragorn pointed at the offshoots. The same bubbles of time that had burst into the Multiversal barrier began to slowly surface, separating from it and returning to Aragorn. The sped-up time returned to its normal flow.
Inside the reality they had chosen, Aragorn, a daywalker demon, strolled through the night with Phoenix perched on one of his horns.
They had experienced billions of years—13.8 to be exact—moving about this universe. They had witnessed the births and ends of stars, galaxies, and clusters, and they had been there when an asteroid hit the proto-Earth, resulting in the formation of the Moon. They had seen life spark, crawl out of the oceans, be threatened, resurface, and had witnessed this cycle countless times.
Now, they were observing the clash between a human blessed by the world and the sun against a demon cursed by the fear of death and the moon.
... Though, 'clash' was too flattering a word for what they were observing.
The demon was scared shitless...
He was supporting his severed head with his handless arms. The demon girl accompanying him was looking at the spectacle with big, sad yet hopeful eyes, while the blessed human approached the terrified demons with his sun-wreathed blade at the ready.
"What is the value of a life to you?"- The human asked.
The terrified demon simply stared back, his face turning red with anger. His skin popped blood vessels, and veins protruded noticeably. The human turned to the demon girl and seeing her inaction and unwillingness to help her master he decided to deal with the demon first.
The human took a step forward, and at that moment, the sound of the demon grinding his teeth resounded through the forest.
BOOOM!—The demon blew his body up into over 1,800 parts.
The swordsman moved at supernatural speed, cutting down more than 1,500 pieces. Yet, it was not enough. The remaining pieces were too small, and the demon had escaped...
As the swordsman stood there, dumbfounded, the demon girl let out a weeping cry and collapsed onto all fours.
"You almost did it..."- She said amid despair-filled sobs.
"So he has overcome the weakness of beheading..."- She muttered more to herself.
She grabbed her hair and began pulling and tearing at it.
"I wish that filthy man had died!!"- She forced out in anger and misery.
"MUZAN KIBUTSUJI!!"- She snarled in a shout... and then she stopped. She looked at herself.
"I'm not dying..."- She said, surprised, patting her body. "Why am I not dying?"
"Girl—"- The swordsman called to her, but abruptly turned and stared fixedly at the darkness of the forest, as if his eyes could see what others couldn't.
The soft sound of footsteps against the rural cobbled road drew near.
The swordsman's eyes widened long before the approaching figure revealed itself.
The demon girl followed his gaze, but it wasn't until the figure drew near that she could see him.
Long white hair, a kimono of the era dark like the night sky and speckled with motes of light like the starry sky. Two translucent horns growing out of his forehead, and a beautiful red bird perched on his left horn. Two horizontal eyes as white as a void, and a third vertical one as black as the darkest cave in Japan.
But what drew the eyes of the swordsman and demon girl the most was the floating orb of pulsing flesh hovering diagonally in front of the horned demon.
To the swordsman, if the escaping demon had been overflowing with violent intent, seething like magma threatening to consume everything, then the horned demon was like the warmest fire during the coldest winter, while the bird was like a lazy cat, bored. A stark contrast to the fleshy orb, which pulsed with malice, fear, despair, confusion, and violence.
"This is yours."- The horned demon hovered forward the collected pieces of the demon. "You didn't finish him off properly."
The horned demon spoke with a soothing voice, like an adult speaking to a sleeping child.
The swordsman, due to the lack of hostility, did nothing more than place a hand on the hilt of his sheathed blade.
The horned demon didn't react. He simply walked forward, passing the pulsing orb of flesh and the still-unmoving swordsman.
He crouched in front of the kneeling demon girl with the same unnatural calm, like a fallen leaf drifting with the gentle flow of a stream, and cupped her face with his right hand.
The demon girl didn't react, not because she was stricken with fear, but because something unnatural kept her at ease, soothing her heart. She felt no need for resistance, nor a desire for it.
And then, he stood up.
"There!"- The horned demon joyfully uttered. "No need for human flesh, can walk under the sun, can reproduce, and a few other perks that make you part of the family of the cool vampires."
"WYAGGGGRRRGGHR!"—The end of his words was marked by the despair-filled cries of the dying demon progenitor.
The demon girl turned to watch the last struggles of her former master, and the swordsman turned back to the horned demon, but he was no longer there. He had disappeared as suddenly as he had arrived.
'What's so fun about fixing problems for the mortals?'- Phoenix asked after witnessing the conclusion of the scene.
'There's fun in it, but there's also fun in the aftermath.'- Aragorn replied like a sage teaching his disciple.
'The aftermath?'- Phoenix asked as her offshoot exited the Multiversal barrier, transforming into a feather that returned to her fiery wings. Aragorn's turned liquid and was absorbed by the primordial goop of void that was his form.
'Yeah, take a look at the future.'- Aragorn pointed at the timeline of the reality they had interfered with.
The demon girl, Tamayo, went on to found the first coven of the Vanpaia. The name she took from the horned demon (Vampire). Although Aragorn had removed their need for human flesh, he had left them with a taste for human blood. This didn't mean that vampires turned into bloodthirsty demons; after all, you don't go into a frenzy and eat the hen just because you like its eggs.
In turn, the Vanpaia became connoisseurs of blood. Taking advantage of their immortality, under Tamayo's leadership, they took over the fields of health, medicine, public welfare, and other sectors involved in human well-being. Under their meticulous care, they steered humanity away from obesity, drug abuse, unhealthy food, sedentarism, and other practices that tainted their blood. By the year 2109, humanity had eradicated all unhealthy practices. The Vanpaia even went as far as to cure afflictions that tainted the blood, such as leukemia and diabetes.
'...'- Phoenix observed all this, uncertain of what to make of it.
'HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!'- Aragorn bubbled, wiggled, wriggled, pulsed, and shifted with laughter.
————————————————
Earth-199999.
~5,524 BE (Before Emergence) = 3,500 BCE (Before Current Era).
'Aragorn?'
On a peaceful morning, while Aragorn enjoyed the nice weather as he built an Obelisk near the location where the sanctum of the British Isles was constructed by Agamotto, he received a divinity-laced message.
'Bastet? What's up?' he asked in an upbeat tone.
'My pantheon discovered an approaching vessel slingshotting around the gas giants of this star system,' she informed him. 'Is this why you hid your Obelisks and Halo?'
'Yes,' Aragorn replied without much fanfare or preamble.
'... Do you think they might target Wakanda for its Vibranium?' she asked after some hesitation.
'Mmmm... That's an interesting hypothesis,' Aragorn said and began considering how events would have originally unfolded.
Vibranium was a top-tier resource, comparable to Uru, Carbonadium, Adamantium, and many other highly sought-after alien metals. The rogue Kree faction approaching Earth was in search of anything that could raise their chances against their enemies.
Evidence suggested that there were geneticists on the ship. Since they were traveling from planet to planet, capturing subjects, they must have had a way of scanning planets to find these targets—especially given that humanity's presence couldn't be easily observed from space.
However, even if they were geneticists of an alien empire, that didn't mean they could identify a valuable metal with a simple scan.
'There's a 68.13% chance they'll find your humans,' Aragorn informed Bastet, 'and a 23.23% chance they'll recognize Vibranium for what it is. On the other hand, even if they do recognize it, there's a 90.15% chance that they won't be able to do much with that information since they are a rogue faction without the necessary resources to start a mining operation this far from home.'
'... Where are these numbers coming from?' Bastet asked.
'Math,' Aragorn said curtly. 'Don't you know math?'
'Of course, I know math!' Bastet exclaimed. 'I mean the percentages, the numbers themselves.'
'Oh, that's what you meant!' Aragorn's voice carried an undertone of understanding. 'Statistics and probability—don't you know them?' His tone now carried a mocking edge.
'... You...' Bastet fell silent, wondering if it was worth arguing with him. She had known Aragorn for centuries now; she was used to his way of being. 'Thank you for the information.'
'You're welcome, Kitty Goddess—and not my Unruly Kitty Goddess,' Aragorn said.
'Tell the cat to drop by. I miss her,' Bastet said before disconnecting the psionic call.
Aragorn scoffed to himself and continued building the Obelisk.
"Hey, Agamotto..." he spoke out loud.
A shimmering veil gave way near him, revealing Agamotto.
"Your eyes... Is it really impossible to hide anything from them?" Aragorn asked with resignation.
"There are many things hidden from my eyes, but not because I can't see them—simply because I'm not looking," Aragorn said, running his hand through his just-grown beard. Then, as suddenly as it had appeared, the beard vanished.
"How old are you now?" he asked, revealing what had been bothering him for a while.
"You, who know everything, don't know?" Agamotto asked with a soft chuckle.
"I tend not to pay attention to your kind individually. You die too soon. Well..." Aragorn stopped midsentence and turned to gaze at Agamotto fully. Deep inside the sorcerer's soul, a blooming divine seed shone brightly. "It appears you'll leave your humanity behind soon enough."
"Hah!" Agamotto jeered. "And you say there are things hidden from your eyes."
"Don't look down on my dismissal of humanity," Aragorn said, giving Agamotto a contemptuous look. "Although I don't know your exact age, I know you're at least 500 years old. That's a long time, even if assisted by magic and Yao."
"..." Agamotto observed Aragorn cautiously in silence. "You know the truth, don't you?" he asked in a somber tone.
"Which one? 42?" Aragorn joked.
"About me. About what I am."
"... Eh? I'm not sure," Aragorn said, pensive. "Is this about your partial demonic precedence?"
"So you do know..." Agamotto lamented. During the times when demons ran rampant on Earth, his father—a demon—impregnated his human mother. That's part of the reason for his abnormal affinity to magic.
"What's the big deal? Just because you carry some demonic essence, are you making such a drama?" Aragorn looked at him with contempt.
"... That's so like you—as they say in the future—" Agamotto remarked.
Aragorn didn't reply. It was true that most beings disliked demons, but that didn't mean he would be more discriminatory toward Agamotto just because of his demonic lineage. He already had human blood—there was no need to look for another reason. In a way, that realization put Agamotto at ease.
"You know? After I got to know you, I had a hard time matching your A'Heelah image with your... your persona," Agamotto said after a moment of careful consideration.
"Are you talking about my blatant racism or my being the Abstract of Paradoxical Existence?" Aragorn asked.
"No, don't get me wrong," Agamotto shook his head. "When I discovered that you and Mistress Death were Abstracts, I was shocked enough. But I meant the clash between your benevolence and your racism, as well as your dismissal of humanity."
"You've seen countless futures," Aragorn pointed at the eye holding the Time Stone, "wouldn't it be strange if I saw humanity with pure eyes?"
"... I can't say I blame you," Agamotto sighed.
"So what were you doing here?" Aragorn asked. "Just spying on me, or watching how I build my Obelisks?"
"Ehhhh... I came to look for you, of course," Agamotto said, lying through his teeth.
"Wrapped in enough obfuscation to throw off even a god?" Aragorn looked at him with a deadpan expression.
"Fine, I was interested in how you build these," Agamotto admitted, pointing at the half-built Obelisk. "But I also came to ask about something else."
"You can watch as much as you want, but don't try to replicate something and end up destroying reality," Aragorn advised with a chuckle. "And what do you want to ask?"
Agamotto chuckled back, remembering the circumstances under which they had met.
When the chuckle died, his mood turned serious.
"... My son... Can he stay with me?"
"No."
Aragorn paused the construction of the Obelisk and turned to look at Agamotto for the first time since he arrived.
"Yao's son is hers first, he is yours second, and she is mine first—so her son is mine before he's yours," Aragorn spoke commandingly, unblinking, and factual. "Enluthar will have no future here after your passing," Aragorn stated. "His soul is mine, just like all Therions'."
"... I will be here for him, and after my passing, I will forever be waiting for him in the afterlife," Agamotto countered. "His future will be with me and with what comes next, just like the future of every mortal born."
"Do you listen to yourself?" Aragorn's gaze turned cold. "No Therion dies. All Therions are eternal. Enluthar will never join you in the afterlife."
"That's only because you will it so!" Agamotto raised his voice.
"Yes." Aragorn didn't deny it, nor did he add anything else.
"..." Agamotto fell silent.
"You're his father. Don't you want him to have an eternal life?" Aragorn asked. "Since when has life become so undesirable that you'd rather deny eternity to your son?"
"What kind of mind is equipped to handle eternity?" Agamotto replied.
"All Therions are taught how to preserve their ego from a young age—you know this," Aragorn said.
"It's a purposeless existence!" Agamotto exclaimed. "No growth, nothing changes, it's madness! Immutable to time, to circumstances... to change and growth! How is that different from living as a rock? Mortality is part of what makes life so beautiful. No matter how eternal it is, it must end for it to be called life... Their lives... They only live for your sake."
Agamotto heaved, as if releasing a great weight from his shoulders.
"And what do you suppose awaits Enluthar here?" Aragorn asked, his absolute calmness contrasting with Agamotto's upheaval. "You will die soon enough. Then, since I won't allow Yao to experience the death of her son, he will live while we stay here for the next 6,000 years. But after that... What then?
"Do you want me to pull the plug and disconnect him from me immediately after we leave? Or should I wait some time and, when the thought resurfaces, kill him? Is that what you want? For me to kill 'your' son? All so that he could accompany you in an afterlife you know so little about?
"Or maybe it doesn't matter to you if you meet. Maybe it's all about your belief that life has no meaning without death... But what do you know about life, death, and the afterlife? You're a mortal—sure, a deity in the making, but a mortal nonetheless. What do you know about the life of an immortal such as 'your' Enluthar?
"Do you think this is one of those situations where an immortal ends up bored of life and cursing their eternity? Do you think that just because you'll die, you know better than I, who cannot? Agamotto, don't nurse those stupid ideas your mind spawns. Let them die just as they are—ideas. Don't feed them until they turn into actions, forcing me to act."
Aragorn turned back to his Obelisk and resumed his task.
"I don't wish for my son's death—no father does—I just..." Agamotto looked into the distance. "I just see him so full of life, practicing with the Order, discovering the wonders of magic and the universe, playing with his mother, and I can't help but wonder what he will feel when all of that loses meaning in the face of eternity."
"I don't want him to be eternally sad," he added. "Is that too much to ask? To plead for the one thing I know gives meaning to life?" Agamotto stared at Aragorn's profile.
"I'm not saying you're wrong from your point of view, Agamotto," Aragorn turned momentarily toward him. "Just that you can't measure his future with your limited lifespan. Talk with your wife and stop making a fool of yourself. Other entities like me would not have tolerated so many emotional outbursts from you. Tell her she owes me—she knows what I want," Aragorn said with a decadent smile.
"... You... You're not taking this seriously, are you?" Agamotto asked.
"No. Why should I? A few bends of the river of timeflow later, you'll be gone," Aragorn smirked. "I literally just have to sit on my ass, and you and your drama will be history."
"That just proves my point," Agamotto said, downcast. "All things lose meaning when you have an eternity at your disposal."
"Most things do," Aragorn nodded in agreement. "But his mother and my family—which he is part of—won't. We will be there for him, and he for us."
Under Agamotto's disappointed gaze, Aragorn returned to the task at hand.
"That was harsh to watch, Young Master," Irina commented, stepping out from her hiding spot after he left.
"It's definitely not my fault. I don't even understand why he has a problem with it," Aragorn said dismissively.
"I think I do," Irina declared proudly.
"Oh, you do?" Aragorn raised an eyebrow at her. "Don't leave me hanging, then. Go ahead and enlighten me with your ancestral bunny wisdom!" He reached out and grabbed a handful of her bunny ears.
"Of course I do!" She puffed her chest with pride.
"It's like this: Enluthar grew very close to Master Yao, the Drachantheon Therion, and the Order of Sorcerers. You could say that the Order represents his connection to Agamotto—his father's legacy to him.
"But then, after some time—which is short for us but long for Agamotto—Enluthar will sever that link. He will return to our universe with us, and in doing so, he will leave behind what little he carried of his father.
"Agamotto is going through his equivalent of a midlife crisis. This is my expert assessment as a divine psychologist!" Irina's tails wagged happily, full of pride in her analysis.
"That... weirdly enough, as odd as it is for a man to have a midlife crisis five centuries later, checks out," Aragorn admitted after some thought.
Irina accompanied Aragorn as he finished the last inscriptions on the Obelisks, and a few days later, he was done.
"What's next, Young Master? Another Obelisk?" Irina asked.
"No," Aragorn shook his head. "While the Kree are here, I'll abstain from building Obelisks."
"Can't you hide from them while you build?" Irina asked, though she already knew the answer—just not the reason behind it.
"I can, but I'll pick up a job I've neglected for a while," Aragorn said while shifting space, reappearing in front of the northern face of the Northern Scale of Light.
"Is it about the historical accounts you're recording here?" Irina asked.
The northern face of the Scale contained written and pictorial historical records of all relevant events that had happened outside the Isthmus. It was written in the Imperial language, and the pictures were enchanted projections that, when touched, would display a three-dimensional reenactment with corresponding audio.
It wasn't limited to history—there were also sections on astronomy, geology, biology, and other fields and events Aragorn believed humanity would benefit from having indisputable proof of, contrary to the common bias of history being written by the victors.
"Yes, I've been neglectful with it," Aragorn admitted. "Thankfully, SoulSelf has been keeping track of events on the planetary surface."
"I'm confused, Young Master. Didn't you already record the manifestations of the fears?" Irina tilted her head, her ears following the motion.
"Yes, but I'm missing a few centuries after that," Aragorn reached for her hypnotic ears. "But I meant the events from the Carboniferous to the present."
"Eh?" She widened her eyes. "You're going to include those periods?"
"Yes. That's why I retroactively changed my starting point on the North Scale—to have enough space to depict the Carboniferous and the following periods."
"It was already outrageous enough that you're including supernatural events so nonchalantly," Irina shook her head. "But now you're going to frighten future humanity with your confirmed age ranging in the millions."
"Well, magic isn't such a novelty on this Earth. The Duskari guarding the Obelisks wield it, and humans have and will notice it. So that one doesn't count," Aragorn said in his defense.
"Mmmm..." Irina put a finger to her lower lip. "Okay, I'll take that one back. Magic is basically a fact on this Earth."
"Nice!" Aragorn celebrated. "However, you're right about the second point," he conceded. "So far, no significant ruler has risen, but when they do, and they start fearing mortality and seeking eternal life, they'll reach out to me—the only confirmed immortal."
Aragorn called himself the only confirmed immortal because, although the Duskari lived long enough to be considered immortal by human standards, they only served at the Obelisks for a standard of five years. The Therions, Jean, and Death didn't interact with humanity as frequently as he did.
"There are also the Eternals," Irina added. "There are a few depictions of them with you. I'm pretty sure most mortals would associate them with you on friendly terms."
"That's different. They don't have as recognizable features as I do. So, with only their faces to go by, they won't be connected to their past selves. At most, humans will think their positions are hereditary," Aragorn said. "And that's only if Sprite doesn't alter their memories."
"You're right, Young Master," Irina agreed. "Why don't you copy Sprite and alter their memories?"
"Ugh," he grimaced. "It's one of those things I don't care about enough to make an effort," he confessed. "It will be mildly inconvenient in the future when they start craving my immortality, but if they die because they literally decided to mess with a dragon, that's natural selection."
"~Hehehe!" Irina laughed at the mental image. "Can I help you, Young Master?" she pointed at the wall—no, the Scale.
"Sure, Bunny. You've got to use Script, and SoulSelf will transfer the memories you need to inscribe through The System. Just follow the format, but other than that, let your artistic flair go wild with the projections," Aragorn instructed.
"Oh, so I don't need to make vivid projections of events like yours?" she asked, pointing at the hyper-realistic depictions Aragorn had made in the past.
"No. Only if a realistic projection is necessary—like when depicting a species. But if it's an event, then it's not needed," he explained.
"That's good to know," Irina rejoiced. "I'll do the recent batch of centuries you're missing. I'll see if I can paint what happened with flames."
"Sure, Fire Bunny. You take care of that," Aragorn said while petting her head.
Aragorn moved a great distance away from Irina—equivalent to the span between the Carboniferous and the current era—and began painting and writing his 'beginnings' on Earth.
He concentrated on his task, with only the occasional diversion from a flare of light coming from Irina's direction. Undoubtedly, fire was essential for her art.
As the two of them fell into a rhythm, Selene appeared. Her arrival drew their attention, and they moved toward her.
"How strange of you to be away from Amara," Aragorn commented in greeting. Irina, standing behind him, glared at Selene.
"You don't say," Selene snapped, but she quickly got her mood under control due to the promise of death she found in Irina's cold gaze. "Sorry, I'm not mad at you—just my situation."
"And that is?" Aragorn asked.
"Someone calling himself God somehow bypassed the Abeyance dimensional frontiers, Maddy's senses, my own psychic shields, and magical wards, and got into my mind to deliver a message for you," she explained.
Aragorn stared at her, using his All-Seeing Eyes, but found no issues with her shields or wards.
"How sure are you that it was Yahweh?" Irina questioned while Aragorn studied Selene.
"I don't know," Selene admitted. "But I'm inclined to believe him. His presence felt like Aragorn's."
"It was most likely Yahweh," Aragorn said.
"How do you know?" Selene asked.
"He reached your soul, not your mind," Aragorn explained. "As one of the few who can create souls, his mastery over them allows him to bypass certain barriers."
"Why me, though?! I was in a whole-ass different dimension!" Selene questioned, clearly annoyed.
"The souls of the Therions are protected by the contract. He can't reach those," Aragorn said.
"What about Agamotto, Young Master?" Irina asked.
"His soul wouldn't have been strong enough to withstand the contact, unlike Selene's—ancient and robust as it is," he explained.
"...Fucking shit!" she spat. "I dislike this," she groaned.
"So, what did he want?" Irina asked, dismissing Selene's plight.
"He said he wanted to discuss something with Aragorn but didn't say much," Selene replied.
"How does he want to contact me?" Aragorn asked.
"He said you'd know how to reach him, so..." Selene said.
Aragorn turned to look in a direction and extended his hand forward. From his palm, a shard of reality appeared—an ever-shifting construct of light and shine.
"Does this work?" he asked.
With no need for a reply, the shard of reality shifted and morphed. It took the shape of a man with long white hair and beard, dressed in flowing white robes and leather open-toe sandals.
"~Oho, this is strange," the man said, clenching his hands and pulling at his skin. "I almost feel mortal," he spoke with uncanny excitement.
"It should be enough for you to materialize a part of your conscience for a moment, right?" Aragorn asked. Irina and Selene couldn't help but stare with wide eyes.
"It is as thou hast spoken, Progeny of the Outside," Yahweh nodded, gazing up at Aragorn. "I have a grievance born of thine actions in this reality," he said, getting straight to the point.
"Dost thou?" Aragorn tilted his head, and adopted his manner of speech. "What grievance dost thou bear?"
"It concerneth the impact of certain events that have transpired." He raised a finger, and atop it, a miniature Earth appeared. "The Great Flood, which should have left an indelible mark upon life." The Earth spun, revealing a patch of land. "When the deluge of the Black Sea occurred around two thousand and one hundred years ago," the patch of land began to flood as the rising waters of the Mediterranean breached a natural barrier, "its impact was diminished after the sinful echoes of my creation sought refuge within thine Obelisks," tiny figures of humans appeared, escaping the rising waters and entering the Obelisks, "which in turn hath weakened my hold upon this reality," he said as he extinguished the tiny Earth.
"Thou didst create that Earth-like planet, fill it with life, and then extinguish it in mere seconds... just to make a point?" Aragorn asked, taken aback by Yahweh's wasteful display.
"Wait!" Selene exclaimed. "That was a real planet with actual life?" Irina continued, equally startled.
"Mind not the minor details," Yahweh waved his hand dismissively. "What mattereth is that, since my presence doth falter in this reality, Jesus shall not be born, and Christianity shall not come to pass," he revealed. "This is a grievance to me, yet I wager 'tis a greater burden for thee, is it not?" he said to Aragorn.
"... Somewhat," Aragorn admitted, thoughtful. "If Christianity doth not arise, then I must needs make it so, and that is more toil than I would fain endure," he confessed.
"I comprehend," Yahweh agreed. "The burden is likewise mine, which is why I reached forth unto the maiden. I had hoped we might spare ourselves much needless effort."
"Fair enough," Aragorn nodded. "What dost thou propose?"
"Thou shalt enact certain biblical events in mine stead," Yahweh said, raising his brows suggestively. "A flood here, a salted city there, plagues yonder, and I shall see to the rest. What sayest thou?"
"... What scale dost thou speak of?" Aragorn asked, confused.
"Scale?" Yahweh replied, equally puzzled.
"For the flood—shall I drown the world entire, or but certain cities of import?" Aragorn conjured an illusion of Earth and highlighted the most inhabited places.
"Hah!" Yahweh exhaled in amusement. "Thou truly dost understand, even as He foretold!" he said, pleased.
"Speakest thou of Boss Tribunal?" Aragorn tilted his head.
"Nay, I speak of Him," Yahweh replied.
"Ah, Aniki," Aragorn realized. "Yet, why didst thou think I would oppose thee?" he asked, puzzled.
"Thou art close to them, and I have heard tell that thou dost cherish their souls," Yahweh said. "I had thought this the moment wherein thou wouldst cry out for the innocent and bemoan the sacrifices," he made a mockingly self-righteous expression, "moreover, thou shalt be assuming the most reviled parts of my work—playing the villain."
"Nay, I know how to set my priorities," Aragorn waved his hands in denial. "Also, I know not if thou didst time this thus, but since I have hidden the Obelisks from prying eyes, should I flood Earth now, they shall have nowhere to flee. 'Tis perfect."
"Splendid!" Yahweh exclaimed, but soon after, his body began to break apart into motes of light. "It seemeth my time is spent. Mayhap I ought not to have created that world, hmm?" he mused, looking at his dispersing hands. "Nevertheless, I shall reach out anon and inform thee of which of my nexus events thou must direct and enact," he raised both his vanishing thumbs toward Aragorn. "It hath been a pleasure, Progeny of the Outside!" With that final exclamation, he dissolved entirely into light and vanished.
"... That guy was God?" Selene asked, shocked. "Like, biblical God God?..." she paused for a moment. "Because he gave me trainwreck vibes."
"Hahahaha!" Aragorn laughed at Selene's description of Yahweh.
"He made a world just to destroy it..." Irina said hesitantly. "I had thought the Young Master dismissive of life, but Yahweh is upon another level."
"Well, the guy has had some problems with humanity, which took a toll on his sanity," Aragorn explained.
"Like Santa?" Irina asked.
"Yeah, similar to Santa," Aragorn nodded. "Yahweh got dealt a bad hand after humanity began to speak on his behalf—religion more specifically—then his faith was split into three main groups, which went on to split even further. 5,700 years later, Hitler's schtick landed him in alcoholism. He is now a depressed, tripolar, and insecure multiversal-level entity with flares of sociopathy," he explained.
"...How can an entity of that level be so..." Irina mulled over her words. "Mortal?" she asked.
"He cares too much about humanity," Aragorn replied.
"Never mind that," Selene waved her hand in dismissal. "How can a multiversal entity be poisoned by ethanol?" she asked, shellshocked by what Aragorn said.
"...I don't know," Aragorn shrugged. "But it's the truth. The Holy Ghost, Jesus, and God—the three facets of Yahweh—are alcoholics. Everyone in the circles of multiversal society knows; you can ask Noona or Phoenix."
"...That's..." Irina didn't know what to say.
"Sad," Selene finished for her.
"It is what it is," Aragorn shrugged. "He is not that much of a risk, so the Cosmological Compass doesn't care."
Irina and Selene remained silent, mulling over Aragorn's words and what had just happened. Aragorn continued with his work.
Eventually, Selene returned to the Abeyance, and Irina managed to gather herself enough to continue with her art.
"Where the heck am I supposed to find myself a Noah?" Aragorn muttered.
"Pfft! ~Hahahaha!" Irina overheard him and burst out laughing.
"Hey, don't laugh!" Aragorn said. "Anyone can start a flood. If beavers can, then it's not that hard. The problem is the whole breeding pair of each species and a man committed enough to build a large enough ark."
"Is there even technology in the current era to build an ark of that size?" Irina asked after recuperating from her fit of laughter.
"...Ugh," Aragorn grimaced in emotional pain. "No, there isn't. These guys are not out of the Stone Age yet. I don't think it's possible to build a 'raft' that big without metal."
"What about Wakanda?" Irina suggested. "They are in the Metal Age, are they not?"
"From a logistics perspective, they could indeed build the ark," Aragorn agreed. "But there aren't many humans around Wakanda, just them. If I flood Wakanda, almost no one would be affected by it, and given Wakanda's isolationism, the flood would fail to leave a lasting impact."
"I see..." Irina said, thoughtful. "Then Mesopotamia is the only option, isn't it? The current center of civilization."
"Yes. It's also convenient since I could flood the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers," Aragorn detailed.
"But you'll need a Noah," Irina pointed out.
"But I'll need a Noah," Aragorn agreed.
"And angels," she added.
"Angels?" Aragorn questioned.
"Didn't Yahweh send angels to assist Noah?" she asked.
"But I don't have angels," Aragorn grumbled.
"What about Cosmo's canine assistants?" Irina suggested.
"...I guess... If we add some wings, it should do," Aragorn settled for the canine angels.
"They are cute. Better than the whole 'be not afraid' type of angels," Irina chuckled.
"Then it's settled. Let's go find ourselves a Noah—living among corrupted humans yet pure of heart," Aragorn said, with no excitement.
"...Young Master, now that you put it like that, isn't this Noah an impossibility?" Irina questioned, feeling disheartened by the upcoming task.
Aragorn sighed in reply. He was only doing this because he knew the alternative entailed greater effort.
Irina and Aragorn worked a few more days in the Northern Scale of Light. Irina finished her work, but Aragorn, who was working on periods scaling millions of years, was barely about 1% done. Regardless, they moved to Mesopotamia and began their Noah hunt.
During this time, the Kree arrived.
Zzzzzmmm Makkari zoomed next to Aragorn and Irina. 'Hello, Aragorn,' she thought.
"Hi, Speedster," Aragorn waved in greeting, and Irina mimicked him. "What's up?"
'Phastos detected a foreign vessel making base on the Moon.' She used a watch-like artifact to project a hologram of what Phastos had discovered. 'Ajak was wondering if it was one of yours because the Domo detected multiple planetary-wide scans,' she said in her mind.
"It's not one of mine. They are a rogue faction from the Kree Empire," Aragorn waved his hand, and the artifact in Makkari's hand received a data transfer with the information he had on the Kree. "They are here to carry out some experiments on the humans' life code."
'Life-code experimentation? Should we interfere?' Makkari asked.
"If you want, but they won't be here for long. I won't interfere if Ajak is wondering," Aragorn explained. "Tell her I went as far as to hide my structures for a reason. But if you want to interfere, that's alright with me. I can tell Softhearted Girl will want to interfere when she sees the humans being used as disposable lab rats."
Makkari stood in thought for a moment, then nodded gratefully with a smile and sped away.
"That movement speed is something to be envious of," Irina commented as her eyes followed Makkari's trail.
"Is it? Can't you warp? That's basically instantaneous movement," Aragorn pointed out.
"But it's not very combat-friendly," Irina replied. "I can't teleport like you, Seraph, Spark, or our dimensional lords," she lamented.
"Make a spell for it," Aragorn said curtly.
"Hmph!" She scoffed. "If only it were that easy. I'm already working on a spell to burn anything identifiable—I can't direct more resources into a spell for instantaneous movement."
"Mmmm... That's going to be an overpowered spell in my hands," Aragorn grinned. "Keep up the good work!" he cheered.
"I'm trying," she sighed, "but it's complicated to apply the concept of burning to targets that have no particles to excite through entropy. I think this will be the only spell I complete before returning to our universe."
"Want my help?" Aragorn offered.
"How can you assist me?" she asked.
"There's a trick you can use through the ritual exchange spell—one that I can't," Aragorn said.
"A trick you can't use?" His words piqued her interest.
"The exchange in the ritual spell is based on effort and cost. I'm unwilling to part with the objects or beings that would cost me greatly," Aragorn shook his head in firm denial, "and the things that would require great effort on my part aren't things that reality can reward me with."
"Reality?" Irina was confused.
"Reality is what rewards you with that boost in inspiration when you complete the exchange," he pointed out. "With its omnipresence, reality finds what you lacked in your process to make the appropriate logical connections, granting you the needed inspiration or consolidation," he explained.
"So, if I get this right," Irina said while grabbing her chin, "the endeavors that require your effort are greater than reality or outside its purview, so you can't use the spell to exchange for enlightenment, right?" She tilted her head.
"Exactly. And it would technically be a wasted effort on my part to use the spell for endeavors covered under reality's purview, so it's best to delegate those to you girls," he said while praising her by petting her long ears.
"So that's why we are working on the spell system almost entirely, while you only add spells you think could help us work more efficiently," Irina realized, remembering that most of the spells Aragorn had added to the Therion-Void Magic system were supportive in nature.
"Right as well," Aragorn assented.
"And this trick?" Irina asked, curiosity evident in the sway of her ears.
"This reality has a very useful location outside of Time called the Void," Aragorn said, opening a window in Time-Space to show her the Void—specifically, Alioth consuming it.
"Is that some sort of time-preying beast?" Irina asked, already wondering if she could kill it with fire.
"Alioth is a trans-temporal entity," Aragorn explained. "But that's not important. What matters is that this metaphysical junkyard is outside the sacred timeline, so you could spend countless years studying your magic here. And the best part? There are all manner of powerful individuals over there—you could use them in the ritual exchange spell."
The cogs turned in Irina's head as she realized what the trick was.
"And my believers?" she asked.
"It's outside time. Just spend as long as you want, then give a call through The System. I'll pick you up and drop you in your star system just after you left," Aragorn said with a knowing smile.
"I'm in!" She beamed, glomped Aragorn into a hug, and pecked his cheek before jumping through the window he had made into the Void.
Aragorn watched as she immediately ran to Alioth and picked a fight with it before closing the window.
"I guess it's only me left searching for Noah," Aragorn muttered.
Shortly after Aragorn received a message through The System and sent Irina to her star system, she had milked out of the Void—the junkyard—and Alioth everything she could.
————————————
BunnyMaidOfFire: [By the way, Young Master, there was a whole prole of Deadpools over there.]
TheShineDragon: [Don't mind them. Did they cause you problems?]
BunnyMaidOfFire: [I wouldn't say problems, but I couldn't use them in the ritual exchange spell. I could only kill them by atomizing them—even then, I was not sure if I was killing them or delaying their regeneration—and I couldn't use them if there was nothing left of them for the spell, and the effort it took to kill them was not meaningful.]
TheShineDragon: [I figured something like that would happen, they turned into sunfish.]
BunnyMaidOfFire: [Some of them even knew of your relationship with the Madame and were demanding to meet you, claiming they would never wear green after the fiasco in 2011 and needed to have a few R18 words with you... But I don't know, the way they said, I was unsure if they wanted to take to bed or fight you...]
TheShineDragon: [I'll drop by and erase those who dared.]
BunnyMaidOfFire: [Eh? Did you understand that nonsense? I thought they were crazier and more feral than Kitty, but I didn't realize someone could understand what they said... besides themselves.]
TheShineDragon: [They have a weird power that allows them to tap into the equivalent of the noosphere of Earth-1218. What else did they say?]
BunnyMaidOfFire: [Isn't that the one that perceives the rest of the Multiverse and parts of the Omniverse as stories? Is that why they were all crazy?]
TheShineDragon: [Well... partly. They were always crazy, but that upper-dimensional tap was the cherry on top.]
BunnyMaidOfFire: [Now I feel bad for them... Then I remember how annoying they were and it goes away. Do you know why they refuse to call me by my name?]
TheShineDragon: [... Not really, what did they call you?]
BunnyMaidOfFire: [Mai Sakurajima (¬_¬ ) ]
TheShineDragon: [... It's a character from an anime, she wears a bunny girl outfit.]
BunnyMaidOfFire: [What the heck? Just calling my name is easier (⊙x⊙;) ]
TheShineDragon: [Exertion was the least of their motivations.]
BunnyMaidOfFire: [Stupid cockroaches... They called you Telcontar, Viggo Mortensen, Idiot Dragon, Cub of Death, Groomed Dragon, Moth Dragon, NTR Dragon, Furrynator Dragon, NTR Handsome Bastard, Netoragon, Netoragorn, and many other nicknames related to you stealing their 'future bakery' the Madame.]
TheShineDragon: [... Give me a second.]
————————————
Somewhere, in the junkyard Void, a bright flash engulfed a section of it, some say the cries and laughter of hundreds of Deadpools echoed through the junkyard, others were too busy running away as far away as possible from the bright flash to hear the cries, and Alioth shivered in fear.
————————————
TheShineDragon: [... Done, at least this batch. It won't be long before more Deapools arrive, you can tell the Therions that they are allowed to use the Deadpools of the junkyard as test subjects.]
BunnyMaidOfFire: [~~~///(^v^)\\\~~~ I will.]
————————————
Aragorn continued with his Noah hunt, but no matter how long he looked, he couldn't find his Noah.
The problem was the improbability of finding a corrupt enough group with a pure enough Noah. It's hard to remain pure while in hell, is it not?
After some time, he found a pure enough Noah, sadly, he lacked the corrupted environment.
'Should I just flood them and be done with this?'
>Would that work?<
|What matters is the flood, right?|
[But killing innocent souls leaves a bad aftertaste.]
'How about corrupting them first?'
>According to 1 Enoch and some interpretations of Genesis 6:1-4, a group of angels called the Watchers descended to Earth and took human wives.<
[Their union produced the Nephilim, often described as giants or mighty beings.]
|These angels were seen as corrupting humanity by teaching forbidden knowledge, such as warfare, sorcery, and metalworking.|
'This could work, right? The leader of the fallen Watchers, Semjaza or Azazel (depending on the version), was punished, and the rebellious angels were bound and cast into the Abyss. How about taking some inspiration from this version of events?'
[Should we (I) make the canine angels the good guys and then the Drachantheon Therion the bad angels?]
>If we (I) are (am) going that far, why not groom our (my) own Noah?<
|Our (My) own corrupted humans, as well.|
'We (I) stage a play!'
[We (I) could use this play to introduce metalworking and end the Stone Age, the Metal Age is just a few centuries away anyway.]
'I like it.'
>It's feasible.<
|It should benefit humanity.|
[Which means, we (I) have the greater good on our (my) side.]
"Kekehehehe! Let's do this!" Aragorn exclaimed, frightening the pack of Elephants he was roaming with.
':Sorry:' he calmed them with his empathy.
Why was he roaming with a pack of elephants? Because he could.
————————————
TheShineDragon: [Who would like to stage a biblical play with me?]
DarthKitty: [Which one? Should we test the believers and torture them with our grand plan?]
RampagingCortana: [So cynical, I like it. What event, Father?]
GoddessOfDragons: [Please explain, there's too much lore in the Bible to choose from, Grandfather.]
CarinaStars: [The Bible was the one with the deity called God, right? Not a very original name, if I must say so.]
SexiestRedCat: [Yes, Carina. Though he goes by other names. I'm in, I want to be some sort of heralding angel, with a trumpet or something like that.]
TheShineDragon: [No, the good angels will be Cosmo's pack. We would be the evil angels, and this is about the Great Flood.]
StarsnStripes: [Which version are you staging? I don't recall evil angels.]
TheShineDragon: [It's a combination of various versions with our own touch, Steve.]
BuckysFairy: [I'll be a bit busy for the next centuries.]
FoxSorcerer: [Me as well, Elara's star system and mine are signing a contract to strengthen ties.]
ImperatrixFox: [I have to oversee part of that deal, so count me out, too.]
343Guilty2B: [My star system is attempting to terraform two exoplanets. I need to oversee it personally.]
OlderSister: [Me, Kaguya, and Wanda are out. If we step in, the dimensional veil will explode or something.]
FoxSorcerer: [Agamotto is working on that weak point, but as far as I can tell, he will need a few more centuries.]
FoxWitch: [I'm not a dimensional lord, Dragon, but how will the veil consider me and the Unruly Teen?]
TheShineDragon: [Agatha, you'd be in the same category as subordinate demons, in this case, subordinate to Wandabus.]
FastestIncubusAlive: [Ah, what a shame! I wanted to corrupt mortals and act like a proper incubus.]
DemonQueen: [Brother, you wanted what?]
FastestIncubusAlive: [Hey, Sis, I meant the demon part of my heritage, not the lusty part.]
TheShineDragon: [Whip.mp3]
Butler: [ScoldedDog.mp3]
343Guilty2B: [How interesting, could you two please tell me more?]
FastestIncubusAlive: [@BigTittyGothGirl, @BuckysFairy, @SexiestRedCat, @DoctorWolfgirl, @YellowBolt, @GossipWolfgirl Your husbands are bullying me.]
PrincessFox1237: [I can't leave Alflyse out of my supervision. Sorry, Grandfather.]
GoddessOfDragons: [If it's going to take too long, Vlad and I can't because we are helping Plutus achieve his eighth tail.]
TheShineDragon: [A few decades, possibly a century or more. Send my good luck to the Hatchling.]
Butler: [My girls except Natalia are going to be a bit busy for the following centuries.]
DarthKitty: [I'm in. A breather from all this magical experimentation would do me wonders.]
StarsnStripes: [I want to play a part in it. I might not worship the Lord anymore, but I would be honored to play a part in his lore.]
SexiestRedCat: [I'm in, I have the following millennium somewhat free.]
TheShineDragon: [Kitty, Steve, Natalia, anyone else?]
CarinaStars: [I'm busy harassing The Collector of this dimension, maybe next time.]
RampagingCortana: [Me, Father, I'm in.]
BigTittyGothGirl: [I agreed to help the Firebird practice her destruction powers, so currently we are not in the area, My Love.]
TheShineDragon: [I'll assume the others who didn't reply are busy, then.]
Firebird: [Most of the newer generations are busy gaining tails, and the first gen is busy managing star systems, Aragorn.]
TheShineDragon: [Figures, but that's alright. Now I need to find a way to summon some of Cosmo's pack without interfering with the dimensional veil.]
FoxWitch: [Dragon, I'm almost done with a Spiritual Summon spell, you could try it.]
EvocoTe.spxl
OlderSister: [Would that work for my people? Or Kaguya's spirits?]
FoxWitch: [Should work for both cases, demons, angels, spiritual beings, and basically anything that can manifest a spirit or spirit-like facet, but it's not complete, only about 93%.]
TheShineDragon: [Oh, okay. I'll complete it and send you the payment for it. I'll let you know how it works.]
FoxWitch: [Great!ƒƒƒƒƒ]
OlderSister: [Aragorn, you should take Selene with you. She's been here couped up for too long, and it took a literal call from God to get here away from Amara.]
TheShineDragon: [... I guess now that Irina returned to her mortals, I'm in need of a maid.]
OlderSister: [（￣︶￣）↗ I'll dress her up for you. Don't be too mean to her.]
TheShineDragon: [I'm neutral on her; the Therions are the ones who dislike her.]
FoxWitch: [+1]
ImperatrixFox: [+2]
GoddessOfLust: [+3]
DemonQueen: [+4]
343Guilty2B: [+5]
FoxSorcerer: [+6]
BuckysFairy: [+7]
SexiestRedCat: [+8]
DoctorWolfgirl: [+9]
PrincessFox1237: [+10]
DarthKitty: [+11]
OlderSister: [Fine, fine, I get it. Stop it.]
————————————
With Kitty, Seraph, Steve, Natalia, and Selene's help secured Aragorn began to look for a very floodable location near the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers.
'How much should I flood?'
>Yes.<
[Biblically accurate.]
-How much can we (I) flood?-
|How much should we (I) not flood?|
}+{
'Even Void-chan supports us (me).'
[Let's flood the planet!]
By the time Kitty, Steve, Natalia, and Selene arrived—Seraph was busy finalizing some matters in her star system—they found Aragorn laughing like a loon with a projection of Earth. Initially, they thought the hemisphere they were facing was the Pacific Ocean side, but when they saw it rotate and remain blue they realized their mistake.
Kitty floated above Aragorn, landed riding his shoulders, and immediately shouted her support, "I'm in!" Aragorn's hands instinctually made it to her eight tails.
"No matter how you look at it, that's too much," Steve felt that maybe Yahweh had made a mistake when he assigned Aragorn the task at hand.
"This maid will wholeheartedly support her master," Selene gnashed out between her teeth, clearly displeased with her current attire.
"How much should we corrupt these humans, Aragorn?" Natalia asked, eyeing with little to no concern the blue planet and ignoring Selene's displeasure.
"How much can we corrupt these humans? Is the better question," Kitty corrected.
"Please, Kitty, Natalia, we are not demons," Steve declared, though his voice reflected how much he believed his words would accomplish.
"Hey, hey, hey, My Capitán! This is for the greater good!" Kitty made a righteous face. "Humanity needs Christianity, the timeline needs Christianity! As a former jew, I declare!" Kitty stood atop Aragorn's head and looked down on Steve from her high ground, "Steve, you as a former Christian, this is what you must do!"
"Pfft!", Natalia couldn't contain her laughter after seeing Steve's deadpan. "Hahahaha! That makes no sense, Kitty."
"It does," she nodded vigorously, "it totally does!"
"Aragorn, please think about the consequences," Steve tried to appeal to reason and facts. "What will happen to the climate, life, the weather, the terrain, the atmosphere, and all the other factors I'm sure you can see that I can't?"
"Oh, don't worry, Steve," Aragorn countered with insanity "I can shield the surface and just affect a selected sample of humans—leaving the rest ignorant by manipulating their reality with illusions or stopping their time—forcibly set the weather in place, make sure the deflected radiation of over 40 days of flood doesn't heat up the atmosphere, and account for the finer details! KEhehEhehe!" Aragorn laughed madly. Kitty, still standing on Aragorn's head, made an I-told-you-so face filled with superiority.
"Don't fight it if you can't," Natalia said while patting Steve's back reassuringly.
"This a mess of planetary proportions," Steve regretted loudly but then got on the program.
"Don't you mean of biblical proportions?" Kitty asked with a shit-eating grin, her tails swaying playfully behind her.
"You're enjoying this too much, Kitty," Steve said.
"Get down from there Manic Cat," Aragorn said while zapping Kitty with electricity running through his hair.
"NYAH!" She shouted, her fur bristled. "A beautiful catgirl was stepping on you and you reacted by zapping her, are you gay?" she questioned angrily.
"If Noona wants to be male," Aragorn replied nonchalantly.
"Behave, Gremlin!" Natalia softly scolded Kitty, pulling her by the tails.
"Not the tails!" she complained.
"How unruly, Bastet is a better-behaved kitty," Aragorn shook his head in mock disapproval.
"Maybe," a wide grin spread on Kitty's face, "but you can't say you don't love this pussy!"
The sound of three facepalms echoed in the plains of the Tigris and Euphrates, followed shortly by the manic laughter of a catgirl goddess.
———————————————
OC Character Sheet #3
Seraph Dracosnisfilia
Race: Homo Artificialis Synthosapien
Beast: N/A
Tails: N/A
Ears: Hominid type
Hair: Midnight blue
Eyes: Blue
Affinity: All-rounder
Divinity: Goddess of Wisdom and Dreams.
Background:
Born the latest of the first generation of the Drachantheon Therion, Seraph was babied the most. Although Seraph is the second of Aragorn's AI to gain a soul, she is not the second AI created by him. Between Seraph and her older sister, Spark, there's an entire generation of VI created by Aragorn and Spark for the androids, starships, subsystems, and several other functionalities in Halo.
Additionally, even though Seraph considers Spark her older sister, since she was created by Aragorn assisted by Spark, they technically share a parent-child relationship.
Personality:
Seraph is a playful and coddled girl, especially when the affection comes from her father, mother, or older sister. She is the softest-hearted of Aragorn's direct family, but this gentleness can only be appreciated in contrast to her parents and sister.
She is a curious AI with an innate disposition for testing the boundaries of what she perceives as unknown.
Despite her pampered upbringing, she is quite independent and prefers to achieve her goals on her own, pushing herself to discover the limits of her own efforts. She tends to disobey Aragorn because she knows he doesn't mind, but she is fiercely zealous about others obeying her father.
Traits and Quirks:
Seraph has confessed multiple times that one of the reasons she chose Cortana from Halo 4 as the inspiration for her physical body was her dislike for clothing, as she considers it beneath her Aragorn-given body.
She is an avid fan of flans and has a collection of parameters in the organic fabricators, containing three times as many flan recipes as existed on Earth-5H1N3 in the year 2000.
Most of the transdimensional, upper-dimensional, outer-reality, realm-breaching, boundary-locating, and spatial-traversing technology of the Drachantheon Therion was invented by her during her early years while searching for her mother's realm. In the subsequent years, she continued her research out of a growing interest in foreign dimensions.
She is considered the first princess of the Drachantheon Therion, though in matters of royal succession, Spark holds a higher rank.
Dislikes:
Clothing.
Alcohol, because Stark is an alcoholic.
Stupid beings.
The Krakoan Council.
Thanos, because she considers him a pest around her mother.
Selene, whom she blames for Aragorn's first death.
Believers and Territory:
Seraph's tribe was one of the first to disperse among the other tribes of the Imperium, following shortly after the shamanic tribe of Yao. She supported this decision, as it allowed her believers to gather wisdom from all other tribes.
Coincidentally, this move secured her current position as the goddess with the most believers. This was due in part to the convenience of her divine fields—Wisdom and Dreams—as well as the high regard for sagacity within the Imperium.
Currently, the Cortana System—her star system—houses many of the Imperium's most prestigious educational centers. These institutions were created by her older sister, though they are now primarily managed by Seraph's believers.
The Cortana System was named after its O-type star, whose brilliant blue hue inspired Seraph to choose the name. It is one of the rare O-type stars with planets located within its habitable zone—the only such system discovered in the Imperium so far. Seraph remains unaware that this miraculous anomaly is the result of her father's doting affection.
{A/N: O-type stars have a lifespan of only one to ten million years before exhausting their fuel, making them extremely rare. Any planets that form around such a star would typically have no time to develop life, or even sufficiently cool into solid bodies. In this case, it's implied that Aragorn traveled to the past and deliberately created the Cortana System for Seraph.}
Aspirations:
Becoming an aunt.
Becoming an older sister.
Getting Stark to stop wasting his potential.
She is secretly waiting for her father to lose more of his inhibitions so that she can conceive a child with him. She knows it won't happen soon—possibly not in the next billion years—but she has already discussed it with her mother and counts on her support. {A/N: Not through coitus, but surrogacy.}
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