The legend of a warrior; Chapter 97 - Under God's Rule

Story by Killer Tiger on SoFurry

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#97 of The legend of a warrior


_Time for another chapter to go online. This one has taken longer, but for good reasons: it is just 3 pages short of 100, so it is a big beast. A lot of things happen, a lot of things are explained, and it gets the story closer to its conclusion. I've also been working on chapter 98 for a few days before getting around to posting this one, admittedly. A bit of a delay, but here we go. As always, i hope you enjoy the ride. Stick with me for a while longer, and this great saga will reach its climax, finally. For me, well more than a decade of writing. For you, hopefully, a good ride. _

_As always, you are encouraged to comment. There is nothing more rewarding and motivating. _

_Beloved daughter, stolen through act of violence. Feared warrior, forged with brutality and blackmail. Enemy of her father, because of lies and threats. Lover, guided by lust and bound by affection. Savior, out of chance and necessity. _

_While the universe burns and every last Thread of Life shudders in fear of the forces converging on the Well of Eternity, a daughter finds her way back home. _

Chapter 97 -** Under God's Rule **** **

Alexis snorted steam out of her nostrils as she easily yanked Wyvern out of the enormous construct of stone and adamantine metal that she had just chopped in half at waist level and then nailed to the ground. She looked at the silvery, dense, oil-like "blood" staining the blade and running down its thick golden spine, and then smirked a little as the sword greedily drank all of it, glowing crimson as it devoured whatever energy was contained in the fluid. The large crystal in the massive, heavy handle, glowed of a ghastly luminescence and a sad sigh came from it as shadows danced within the jewel. The sword was unsatisfied of that meal, of that tribute of energy that could not possibly comfort the legendary weapon for the absence of her master and owner. Alexis almost echoed that same sigh, as she felt no better at all. Killer had been gone for days, and she still was none the wiser about what he might be imprisoned, and how to get him out of trouble. She wanted him back, more than she had ever wanted anything else in her life. Finding him was the only thing that mattered, and her pain became worse with every minute that passed without making any progress.

She looked up from the remains of the enormous construct, and made a grimace. They had been traveling through universes for a time that she couldn't quantify. It could not have been more than two days, but it felt like ages, and every minute of what she perceived as a waste of precious time added to her fury.

The cold infinity of Existence made locating the Well of Eternity an arduous challenge: it was out there, somewhere in the center of a mass of uncountable universes which floated silently, arranged according to mysterious laws. There was no way to determine where the center was... assuming that it was truly and physically the center, and not just figuratively. That was a possibility as well, after all.

The distances involved were way too immense for even Alexis's "energy-vision" to pick up any hint of where the Cloister of the Sisters of Fate might be. To make everything worse, the Sisters had built good and solid defences around the Well, to ensure that nobody but them would have access to the Threads of Life.

Elelyon had seen the outer margins of the Cloister only once, and the only way he knew to get back there was to follow the exact same route, jumping from one planet to another.

Alexis had done everything she could to make their travel faster, but even with her ability to teleport across entire galaxies, the gains had not been satisfactory.

Elelyon kept reassuring her that they were close and that they would soon reach the unassailable barrier that protected the Well, making it invisible and inaccessible. Alexis had no choice other than believing him, following his indications and trying to speed things up. She had repeatedly tried to invade Elelyon's mind to get to the information she needed, once and for all, but the old God had put up a determined resistance, kindly but inflexibly reminding her that he was ready to self-destruct his mind if she betrayed her promise. Elelyon was painfully aware of his weakness and of the fact that his life and that of his loyal servant and lover Elelyon depended on staying on Alexis's good side, while also maintaining some sort of unique importance. The goddess was so frustrated, furious and emotionally unstable that Elelyon feared she might destroy the both of them just to vent some steam, if they ceased to be useful to her.

Wisely, though, Elelyon had allowed Alexis to access most of his thoughts and memories, reassuring her about his sincerity and willingness to cooperate. He had even made sure to let her read his memories in enough deep to be certain that he was sincere when he claimed that there was no alternative way to the Cloister. Alexis's frustration at the length and complexity of their travel had increased, but at least she had ceased to suspect that Elelyon might be deliberately wasting her time.

In other circumstances she would have adored every moment of that travel across galaxies, universes and dimensions. They had flown past stars of unbelievable sizes and which produced lights of incredible colors. They had passed by vast, spectacular nebulas more colorful than any fireworks show, and teleported on planets which were truly beautiful: some had been natural paradises, with trees as tall as skyscrapers and true cathedrals of green, or oceans as clear as crystal; others had been hives of technological evolution, with skyscrapers pushing to astonishing heights into the sky. There had been infernal worlds too, of course... balls of ice tormented by indescribable cold, gas chambers with toxic atmospheres and worlds of fire and magma. In better times, Alexis would have enjoyed those sights and would have loved to explore all those worlds... and admittedly would have adored to play a bit with the locals, to see their reactions to her beauty and power as she strolled through their towns. But that required Killer to be at her side. Without him, all poetry in her was dead and very few things were worthy of any real attention.

What had been simply impossible to miss was the fact that most of those worlds had been invaded by the Swarm and indiscriminately wounded and scarred and ruined by angry, impatient gods searching for hidden Anchors. They had seen vast forests incinerated, entire continents turned into deep craters, seas drained or cut in half by great canyons and cliffs smashed into the crust of the planet. They had seen towns reduced to mountains of smoldering ruins, and villages replaced by vast, deep chasms. Nothing and no one had been spared, and the invaders had violently ravaged the various worlds until the Anchors had come to light. They had literally seen entire planets cracked in half like nuts to reveal the Anchor hidden deep into their cores.

The Anchors now stood, silent and imposing and scary, towering over wastelands of misery, looking like funerary monuments. They crackled with the immense energies they were built to restrain and channel in controllable flows, and the survivors crawling in shock and terror on the surface of their devastated planets could only look up at those black obelisks with confusion and terror. Nobody knew what they were, what they had been built for, when or by who, but everyone could feel the fearsome force radiating out of them, and there was no doubting that they were omens of further disasters.

Alexis and the others had studied a few of the Anchors from afar, and had spotted well armed stay-behind forces entrenched around the obelisks. All they had to do, effectively, was waiting for the command to arrive, and they were then to activate enormous bombs already installed around the bases of the obelisks.

The warriors left behind for that ungrateful task were either mindless thralls that could not understand or care about their fate; or had been deliberately kept in the dark about the kind of power that would be unleashed. They were all going to die instantaneously as soon as the obelisk so much as cracked, after all, and Alexis doubted very much that there could be so many volunteers ready to commit suicide for their masters. Then again, I've learned to never put limits to people's stupidity.

Elelyon and Lemuel had asked her to intervene and attack those garrisons, get to the obelisks and rid them of the world-shattering explosive charges, but Alexis had refused to waste time on that. She was tempted to, and it was probably the good thing to do... but it wasn't the right thing to do, at least not in that moment. Removing the explosive charges from a handful of Anchors was not going to achieve anything substantial if all others were destroyed. The universe was going to ripple like the surface of disturbed water as the primordial, immense energies of the Big Bang were released and allowed to literally run through and away from creation. Everything was going to be pulverized, and every last life was going to be annihilated.

No, it was no longer the time to worry about collateral damage and the fate of the few. Yes, even entire planets now counted as few, very few, since all of the universes hung in the balance, ready to disappear in a sudden, unstoppable apocalypse.

Early on during their travel, they had skirted around the edges of the immense combined fleet of star battleships of the Swarm. Guided by greed, by the dream of somehow beating all others in the race to absolute power, most of the divinities of all of the universes had converged to form that vast armada. They sailed together because they knew that, taken one by one or in small groups, they had no chances to survive an encounter with Killer or Alexis. They had grudgingly sealed a temporary alliance and they were now heading en masse towards Earth, determined to destroy that legendary enemy that was definitely real, definitely dangerous but also, for most of them at least, entirely unknown.

Like an invasion of locusts, they left behind nothing but destruction and misery. Entire worlds turned into desolate wastelands, scarred and ruined and only dominated by the colossal Anchors brought out in full sight and readily prepared for destruction. Some of those gods had no doubt been reasonable, kind, even wise, but they were now all prisoners of the same collective foolishness. Some still told themselves that they were part of that unholy crusade only to ensure that the Anchors were NOT destroyed... but in truth they were all guided by the same hunger for power. Those gods who decided, for whatever reason, to leave the Swarm, had to do so with great caution. If they were spotted, their fate was sealed. The Swarm had developed a mind and a morality of its own at that point, and rethinking past decisions was inexorably seen as a threat. Any fleet which dared drifting out of line was soon blasted into smithereens, as the Swarm couldn't trust, and even less tolerate, those deviations. What if those who left had somehow found a quicker way to get to Earth? What if they had decided to side with Killer, or to gain an advantage over the others in some other way? In the doubt, every other warship always opened fire.

Even so, desertion was rampant. Cerberus and Thanathos had repeatedly sealed deals with alien overlords and opened special portals for them and their fleets. That was how Cerberus had built up his personal army of alien divinities... and in his guise of Lord Skyfall, he had used those same "desertions" to encourage the Swarm to be even more alert, more savage, more violent.

They had met the Swarm during one of the first legs of their long travel, after teleporting through a few galaxies. They had materialized on a planet that was literally about to be invaded, and they had rapidly left it to observe the swarm from a distance, just as entire fleets of leviathan warships took position just outside of the atmosphere and started to bombard all cities and bases and everything looking even remotely technological or threatening in any way. Pods crammed with assault troops had been dropped onto the planet like meteors, hundreds, thousands of them, and Alexis and the others had watched on from one of the moons of that unfortunate world.

Any resistance was very rapidly annihilated by the orbital bombardment, against which that one planet was clearly impotent. The invading armada of giant, godlike warriors probably didn't have a fire a single shot, instead rampaging over a world already crumbled into ruins, pounding holes into the continents in search of the Anchors.

Not all planets contained one, but no single world could escape a thorough search. Even the little moon they had chosen as their observatory was soon approached by a couple of large star destroyers which started pummeling it with their heavy artillery, demolishing it piece by piece to see if there was one of the black obelisks hidden deep into the core. It had been a frightening and surreal spectacle, and Alexis had been very tempted to take all those warships out... but they were, literally, on the very fringe of a fleet that sprawled for uncountable light years. The combined fleet was simply monstrous, containing an immense variety of ships that went from huge to truly titanic, in more or less direct correlation to the side and power of the alien god that lorded upon them. They literally couldn't see the other extremity of that endless front of heavily armed ships, and starting a fight with them in that moment was clearly not a wise thing to do. They would soon reach Earth if they kept their route, but what was Earth? Just another little planet amid so many others. They could not waste time starting a battle that would rage on for gods knew how long. The only comfort was in knowing that Earth was far from defenceless: Gaia, Adrasthea, Alcana, Mriya, Elaine, the Praetorians, the other Disciples... the Swarm was going to crash against the might of Killer's lovers, concubines, guardians and servants, and they were not going to like it.

Of course, Alexis was first of all worried about Mriya and Anubis. Powerful as they were, they were still young and inexperienced... and she felt horribly guilty at the thought of allowing the Swarm to march past her, untouched and undiminished, leaving a fight of such terrifying proportions in their hands. And yet, it was the only right and smart decision to take. She took it in the end, even though her body trembled with fury and tears streaked silently down her cheeks. She hoped to be able to return home in time, and with Killer at her side. And then they would annihilate the Swarm, entirely. That was a promise she made to herself, to her far away daughter and son and to every victim of the Swarm's lust for power.

They were unsure about whether the space battleships were able to pick up the spike of energy generated by their teleport, but it was pretty much certain that some of the alien gods traveling on those war machines had the ability to read the flows of energy. There was a very real risk that they would be detected and immediately hunted down, so they had decided to prudently sneak past the bombarded moon and move behind the second satellite of the ruined planet, using it as cover to avoid contact with the battleships. They had stealthily floated into the empty and silent space behind the Swarm's rearguard contingent, put some distance between them and the ships, and finally teleported onwards to the next planet in Elelyon's route. For all they knew, the Swarm hadn't picked them up on their sensors.

The reason for the length and complexity of their travel was the fact that Elelyon and Lemuel were not powerful enough to teleport across entire galaxies, and even less to move from a universe right into another, so Alexis was forced to use her energies to literally carry them along. It wasted a lot of precious energies, but it made the travel that much faster: Elelyon's original travel to the cloister had actually lasted centuries, maybe millennia, as he had mostly flown across space, visiting newly born galaxies and surveying nascent life on multiple planets. It was a vague itinerary, and it did not translate into a position accurate enough to be used for direct teleportation. Even with all her power, Alexis still needed to be able to visualize the place where she wanted to emerge, so the presence of Elelyon was an unfortunate necessity. Lemuel, of course, had wanted to stay with his lover and God, and Alexis had allowed him to tag along... mostly because she could threaten to rape him into shreds if Elelyon dared playing weird games. The old God was many things, but he certainly wasn't a coward: he was ready to destroy his own mind, even his entire self if necessary to resist to what he might see as unfair demands from Alexis. What Elelyon could not stand, though, was the threat of punished for his lover. Alexis didn't exactly like having to use what she saw as an underhanded method and she was horribly pissed by the fact that she couldn't just terrify Elelyon into compliance with her strength, but she had no time to waste dwelling on the issue for too long.

Alexis was turning that interminable adventure into the quickest transfer flight she could, but it felt like they were never going to arrive.

She closed her eyes with a sigh of frustration and straightened, easily pulling Wyvern up to balance it on one shoulder, looking at the beautiful scenery ahead of her but seeing only emptiness. The lake to the left seemed to be made of crystal, reflecting the green of the luscious jungle surrounding it with the clarity of a photograph. The trees were immense, rising an incredible height into a sky illuminated by a distant and barely warm sun of a dirty orange color. Probably a star far more ancient than Earth's sun and closer to the end of her life cycle, if Alexis reminded correctly what little astronomy she had studied. A red giant star, she wagered, which expanded while steadily losing luster as it burned away the gases that composed it. A dying star, effectively, that might one day turn into a nebula by finally losing its cohesion.

That was part of why the day seemed almost "dark" to her eyes, and at the same time rich of colors. The sky above their heads was also populated by at least four visible moons and by the great, colorful mass of another planet that was close enough to act almost like a second sun. All those celestial bodies reflected or generated their own share of light, and the shadows around them, as a result, were all doubled or trebled. Their combined brilliance resulted in a sky that had an almost violet color, made for a completely unique atmosphere. It was beautiful, but also disconcerting for someone used to Earth's days.

It was a fortune that so many celestial bodies had grouped together in such a "small" space, because otherwise the planet would have probably been nothing but a sad ball of ice floating around in one endless, merciless night. Looking up at the multiple moons, in fact, it was impossible not to notice a distant, immense black stain behind them, completely devoid of any light. It seemed to split the sky in half over the horizon and extended to infinity, looming over them, walling them in from every direction. It was almost like a painter had drawn that beautiful sky but then forgotten to complete its top half... or like they were standing in a badly illuminated room with a pitch-black ceiling with the only comfort of a group of pale lights hanging from it.

There were no other stars, no planets, no comforting blink of light in that blackness, and it felt intimidating even to Alexis, despite all her power and her fearless nature. Used to Earth's sky, comparatively full of life and hope, it was unnerving to look up and sink in that emptiness that seemed to suggest they were on the edge of the end of all things.

That darkness, however, meant that they were truly close to their target. According to Elelyon's explanations, that complete obscurity was due to the fact that the Sisters had build an impenetrable defensive barrier all around the Cloister, using Black Holes that they had dragged into position with their absolute, incredible powers. Those destructive, supermassive black holes devoured every last ray of light that shone in that direction, creating that vast and intimidating stain.

Nothing could get through that barrier without being captured by the vicious, greedy gravity force of the Black Holes, and nobody knew for sure what happened to something caught in those inescapable fields of force, but death was assured. Asteroids, planets, stars, nebulas... any and every thing that floated too close to that invulnerable wall was dragged into the darkness and crushed out of existence, probably only ever adding to the mass of the Black Hole's core, making it even heavier and inescapable.

Alexis sighed at the thought, closing her eyes for a moment. Killer had been in the center of a black hole, when Heaven's Anchor had been shattered. He had fearlessly fought back against that force of destruction and had absorbed it, making it just another part of his monstrous strength. How you wish you were here, Lion... with you at my side, I've never feared anything or anyone.

They stood on top of a cliff that towered over the lake, standing on what looked like a massive, almost terrace-shaped crack in the side of the mountain. It looked absolutely natural and was overgrown with all sorts of colorful plants and flowers as well as jutting with large formations of crystals and minerals that glowed with eldritch energies. It was pretty clear, however, that regardless of the appearances, that passage wasn't quite as natural as it pretended to be, and the massive Constructs that hard stepped out of the flank of the mountain and attacked them clearly demonstrated that they were on a path leading to... something.

"Why the hell are we here, anyway...?" Alexis asked, trying to keep her tone as controlled as possible as she turned around slightly and looked at Elelyon as Ira and Vesta parted slightly to let him come forwards.

The god looked at the broken constructs scattered in pieces on the path and swallowed a bit, looking nervous as he whispered: "This... we are getting closer, Alexis, we truly are. This is the planet where I had my first contact with the Sisters. From here, I was escorted to the margins of the cloister." He paused, kneeling by the cracked head of the gigantic sculptures that had, until moments before, been filled with the glorious energies of the Sisters of Fate. "But you have destroyed the guardians, and there is no telling how the Harbinger will react."

"The damn things blocked our path and attacked us." Alexis coldly replied, her voice hissing out through gritted fangs. "I'm not surrendering in front of a bunch of giant statues."

"They would have most likely only taken us into custody and escorted us to the Harbinger!" Elelyon replied, rolling his eyes in exasperation and finally looking past her and at the path that continued to climb up ahead, running along the sharp, narrow edge of that crack in the cliff. "Only one of them activated when I came here the first time, and there was no need for a fight, since I followed his instructions."

"Did they attack you on sight?" Alexis coldly replied, and Elelyon recoiled a bit, his mouth opening and closing a few times without producing a sound, until he slumped a bit and admitted: "No. It talked to me. But... but that might be because we are a group now, and you... you..."

"I scare the crap out of the Harbinger, probably." Alexis easily concluded, before kicking one large chunk of chiseled, rune-covered stone out of her path, walking past the large holes in the wall where the gigantic statues had been hidden, completely covered in vines and moss. Vesta followed, looking around herself with barely restrained awe and curiosity, very visibly struggling to suppress the many observations that came to her lips. Behind her, scrolls of parchment floated forming a sort of halo around her form, and countless beautiful quills, apparently made of the same kind of divine black feathers forming her wings, worked ceaselessly to take notes and realize incredibly detailed and perfect drawings of the world around them. It was easy to forget it due to her antics and carefree nature, but Vesta was a true scholar, a true lover of knowledge and a scientist at heart. For her, that travel across Existence had been a complete wonder, a dream come true. She almost bounced with her excitement and only restrained it because she knew Alexis was not in the mood for conversation, but her eyes blazed with happiness and wanderlust.

Alexis wished she could have felt the same interest for the world around her. Vesta was just as worried and anxious as her, but could at least find some relief in her studies and in validating much of her hypothesis. Alexis and Ira, on the other hand, were restless and could only think of finding a way for getting through to Killer. Faster, faster, faster. They could only obsess over the time that passed and over their perceived lack of progress. No matter how they tried, they could not clear their minds. The cobra walked up Alexis's side, and the two goddesses traded a silent, sad gaze. Their relationship had grown more profound than ever during that travel together, as they realized just how deeply they both felt for Killer, and how similar their suffering was. In the rare occasions in which they had been able to trade a few words, Ira had told Alexis about how she had trained Killer at Eaglenest, and of how their initially awkward and stormy meeting had turned into friendship, then love. For Ira, who had been viciously betrayed by her own family and had then lost Azura, murdered by Thanathos, Killer was not just a lover but also a daddy. Alexis, Killer and Mriya were the only ones who knew that the inside of Ira's collar was chiseled with the word "daughter", and the queen now appreciated the full meaning and depth of that gift that Killer had made to the cobra.

Mriya and Ira behaved very much like sisters, with a formidable level of complicity which, of course, extended to Elaine... and Alexis was starting to truly see Ira as a daughter as well. She would never have admitted it in those terms, however: the idea made her feel uncomfortably old. But sisters? For sure. Alexis and Ira understood each other with ease, without needing to really talk at all, and they took comfort from each other's presence.

"What was your travel like, after meeting the construct?" Ira finally asked, tossing a gaze over her shoulder and in the direction of the two far smaller male gods following humbly in their wake. They were not chained, or restrained in any way. They wore their best armors and Lemuel carried his massive golden hammer, made of solid light. They were apparently free to do all they wanted, potentially even fleeing... but in truth there was nowhere they could go. At that point, any one of the three goddesses was many times stronger than even the two of them combined, and any attempt of escape would have been rapidly and mercilessly crushed.

Lemuel was livid with powerless rage, but followed them obediently. In part, he did it because of fear of the absurd power of the goddesses, and in particular of Alexis's overwhelming strength. But the primary reason for his quiet, silent obedience was the fact that Elelyon himself was willingly collaborating with Alexis, despite the fear, the doubts and the reservations. The ancient creator god looked up at the colorful sky, which seemed perpetually draped over by a spectacular phenomenon of Northern Lights, and then closed his eyes, recalling those distant days. "The Harbinger interrogated me about the motives of my presence here. She asked about the worlds I had visited. She asked me what I had done to expand life and aid evolution. She asked me what I knew, and where I was headed... I think... yes, I think she evaluated me."

Alexis made a bit of a grimace, pondering the Harbinger's motives and wondering what was going to happen to her. She did not regret, not even for a second, turning the Constructs into scattered gravel, but the Harbinger was apparently the true guardian of the entrance to the Cloister, and her power could not be underestimated. Even though millennia had passed since Elelyon's visit, Alexis was somehow absolutely certain that nothing had changed and that the very same Harbinger waited for them, even though there was no energy signature she could pick up. The Harbinger did not want to attract attention, evidently, and carefully restrained her energies to prevent them giving away her position.

Elelyon had led them to the right place, however, and all they needed to do was follow the hidden path, overgrown with moss and alien vegetation. The narrow passage ended against a massive waterfall that fed dense but clear fluid into the vast lake below, and while Alexis could see nothing through that moving mass of liquid, she did not doubt that it protected some sort of temple.

"What should we expect from the Harbinger?" Ira calmly asked, her eyes cold and focused on the target ahead of them, her senses alert for possible new assaults. She sensed movement on top of the waterfall, and raised her gaze to see a whole line of gigantic Constructs walking to the edge of the abyss, carrying enormous warhammers and colossal cleaver swords which ended in heavy, crescent-shaped blades so thick and heavy to double up as colossal maces. She flexed her powerful muscles, eyes narrowing and hands ready to reach up for the handles of Vampira and Arctica, but the guardians of that wondrous place did not advance any further, instead looking down at their little group with unreadable expressions.

Alexis fearlessly tilted her head back to look at them, making a grimace and tempted to crush them into dust with her psychic fury... but eventually deciding to be "diplomatic". If they didn't interfere, they could go whenever they wanted; she did not care.

Elelyon gazed quietly up at the stone giants as well, even as he calmly replied: "The Harbinger did not reveal her power to me, yet I was terrified by her strength. She came to me dressed in nothing but veils and jewels, with a blindfold over her eyes and yet clearly able to see far better than I ever have. A beautiful, ancient creature who stood just a head taller than me... but that was just mercy and kindness on her part. What I saw clearly was but a fraction of what she truly is." Elelyon paused briefly as they negotiated a series of tall steeps, emerging onto the last stretch of path leading to the cascade. The roar of the non-water falling for thousands of feet and crashing down into the lake was almost deafening now, and the dense liquid glowed with eldritch energies, seeming to react to their presence. Elelyon cleared his throat and almost shouted to be heard over the noise of the cascade as he added: "I immediately knew I had no chance at all against her... but thankfully she was not aggressive. I answered to her questions, all of them, and she made me feel at ease enough to ask her some questions of my own. My hands trembled the whole time... Alexis, I beg you. Listen to what the Harbinger will say, and be patient. A fight is really not in our interest."

"That depends. It is for me to decide." Alexis coldly replied. She was not going to accept a no as answer, and she didn't care about how strong the Harbinger was. She had faced that endless journey because she needed to learn where Killer was taken, and if it took a battle to get to the Threads and find it out, she would not hesitate. Elelyon sighed and traded a worried gaze with Lemuel, who only grimaced in a mix of anger and fear, his gaze fixed on the titanic warriors looming above them.

"Did the Harbinger lead us to the Cloister directly, or will we have to go through more stops...?" Vesta enquired, barely deigning Elelyon of a fleeting glance. She had been his weapon and his most loyal protector for many millennia, and she had never, never imagined that one day she would have developed almost hate for him. She had loved and respected him and offered him her complete loyalty, but, even if generally with the best and kindest of intentions, Elelyon had effectively never been entirely sincere with her. He had kept too many secrets and had made too many wrong decisions, and there was no fixing that.

Elelyon was painfully aware of his failures and he looked at her quietly, swallowing a bit and thinking of how things might have gone had he behaved differently. There were many things he regretted, and even more things that he now dreamed of, knowing that they were never going to happen. His age was well and truly over. Killer's era had begun, and there was no changing that fact.

"The Harbinger told me about the Sisters, and eventually agreed to let me take a peek of the Cloister. She opened a portal for me and led me on a short tour. I never met the actual Sisters, and only saw the Well from a great distance." Elelyon admitted, before Alexis stopped in front of the wall of rushing water, idly extending her arm and touching that crystal-clear fluid for the first time. She let out a little sound of surprise as her fingers cut through the cascade only with great difficulty, and her massive bicep flexed and bulged as the incredibly weight of that dense fluid smashed onto her palm and nearly knocked her hand downwards. It was nothing like Earth's water, and she stood there for a moment trying to imagine the crushing force that the immense cascade had to generate at its base.

"I... if you let me try, I might be able to open the passage. The cascade split apart to let me through, last time." Elelyon quietly offered, moving forwards a couple of steps before freezing in place as Alexis growled and angrily shoved her hand upwards through that solid wall of dense liquid-crystal. There was a crackle of terrible energy as her huge bicep bulged explosively and a shockwave of pure force tore through the waterfall and forced a large part of it to absurdly rise skywards, moved aside like it was nothing but a delicate veil. Elelyon paled at that demonstration of raw power, swallowing thickly as he stared at the dense fluid towering above them, suspended in midair, and Lemuel stiffened on the spot, looking up at the constructs on top of the mountain, expecting them to charge forwards at any moment.

Nothing happened, however, and Alexis snorted in contempt, ignoring both of them and resolutely stepping forwards on dry land that rapidly turned into some kind of otherworldly marble which constantly changed the shades of its color, its veins alive with bright, almost-neon shades.

There was a monumental entrance hidden behind the waterfall, with enormous columns supporting a vast porch, built to the left of a monumental archway with a colossal set of double doors made of solid light or of some other golden but otherworldly material. The wall to the left of that grandiose door was completely covered by a huge and wonderful mosaic that depicted a blindfolded, almost angelic creature with a smooth, cool skin that could have belonged to a shark. She had "wings" of sort: enormous rectangular blocks of smooth and lucid metal that floated a couple of feet off her back, arranged around her in a crescent. Her slender, beautiful body was clad in floating armor that looked incredibly thin and yet adamantine. Curved plates floated a few inches off her skin, wrapping loosely around her, and her three-toed feet were clad in boots with incredibly tall platform and heels. There could be no doubt about her identity, but Alexis wasn't sure about how she felt in front of the Harbinger. The blindfold was surprisingly intimidating, somehow, and it made her expression hardly readable. Was that a soft smile, or a merciless, arrogant smirk? There wasn't an easy way to tell.

In the pictures, the Harbinger was surrounded by worshipful gods of countless different species, all on their knees in the act of offering gifts. Alexis frowned a bit, tilting her head to the side to stare at one of those gifts, depicted in foreground, and she realized that it was actually a solar system in which every planet was covered by some representative form of life, many of which were completely alien and eldritch to her eyes.

A massive golden scale had been drawn behind the Harbinger, and Alexis saw one world being weighted on it. Vesta, obviously, walked rapidly up the few marble steps and ventured under the porch, the floating quills working ceaselessly behind her, covering meters and meters of parchment with notes, descriptions and drawings more accurate and stunning than any photo. She carefully, reverently touched one of the mosaics, her eyes glowing as she studied it with awe and evident delight, and Alexis snorted a little, her lips curling into a hint of a smile for a fleeting moment.

Ira looked at the great mosaic and grimaced a bit at the sight of the world being weighted and evaluated, and at the position of servitude and slavish worship in which all the visiting gods had been depicted. "It doesn't look very promising." The cobra finally muttered, jerking her head at the scale and observing: "Looks like our Harbinger likes to be pampered, and that she feels like she has the right to gauge the worth of entire worlds."

"To be fair, you are the Queen of Hell and Vesta is the Queen of Heaven. You get to judge the worth and fate of a lot of souls." Alexis remarked, but her expression was cold and her eyes focused on that image. "What does this painting tell you, Elelyon?"

"Nothing, I'm afraid. I... the portal in the cascade was much narrower back then, and I did not see the mosaic." The old god said, walking slowly forwards across the monumental porch, half-hiding behind one of the enormous columns. "But the Harbinger did not ask for sacrifices, or anything like that. I... don't know, sorry. This is... surprising."

"We shouldn't be here, that's all." Lemuel urgently remarked, looking nervously around himself, hands squeezing obsessively into the handle of his huge hammer. "The Harbinger is the guardian of the Cloister, the most powerful being after the Sisters themselves... we shouldn't be here. We are not wanted. And your arrogance will get us all destroyed."

"It is my cock that will destroy you, if you don't shut up." Alexis coldly countered, before approaching the double doors, slamming her palm against them a couple of times, hard enough that the entire mountain seemed to tremble and some dust and plaster fell down from the ceiling. "I need an answer, Harbinger! From you or from your Mistresses, or from the Threads themselves."

Lemuel gaped in shock at her impetuosity, and Elelyon shifted uncomfortably on the spot, clearly expecting some kind of terrible consequence, but after a moment of silence, a massive lock clanked open and the two colossal doors slowly opened, letting Alexis through.

Vesta and Ira rushed inside after her, ready to support her if a fight ensued, but even though immense constructs were lined at attention on either side, with their massive weapons crossed and forming a lethal, intimidating "roof" above them, nothing happened.

Soft darkness enveloped them, and a cool breeze rushed over their skin, making it obvious that the room they had just entered was immense. It was hard to see anything past the long lines of Constructs, however, as the energy glowing in the runes chiseled all over their square-ish, massive bodies filled their eyes and only made the darkness beyond look more impenetrable.

Alexis fearlessly walked ahead, carrying Wyvern on her shoulder, and Ira glared coldly down at Lemuel as the god of light hesitated on the threshold and clearly considered whether that was a good time to run away. The cobra's gaze crackled with murderous psychic power, however, and the lion immediately obeyed to her silent but inflexible order. The enormous double doors swung slowly and majestically as soon as he was through, and in the space of a moment they closed behind them, precipitating the temple into even more complete darkness.

Lemuel became the only source of light for a moment, his body shining with a brilliant aura that extended to his heavy hammer, and when the god hesitatingly hefted the great weapon above his head, it became as luminous as a sun, bringing the whole, vast temple into view.

The roof arched an amazing distance above their heads, and its great, gothic arches were supported by a forest of surprisingly thin and agile columns of glass-like crystal. An immense, double-ramped staircase was at the far end of the temple and it led up to another monumental door, probably leading to the sacred chambers of the Harbinger.

But the center of the vast chamber was what really caught their attention because the silvery, otherworldly scale they had admired in the mosaic was right there, looming over them like a mountain, its huge arm cutting across the temple and leaving them all speechless with its immensity. And yet, what was in front of the scale managed to impress them even more: from where they stood it looked like an immense circular well, an abyss of which they could not see the bottom. It seemed almost like a pool, with large, low steps of colorful marble leading into that sea-sized space which glowed faintly, and Alexis made a bit of a grimace, walking towards the edge with a mix of curiosity and suspect. The pool definitely didn't contain water, and as they came closer to the abyss they gasped in surprise, seeing distant stars and planets and nebulas and galaxies, floating in semi-liquid darkness. Were they real? Were they a manifestation of the real universe? Was that some kind of portal?

Alexis was able to recognize some of the most impressive and colorful nebulas because they had passed them by during their long travel, and she was almost able to visualize the route they had followed... or part of it, at least. The well stretched downwards seemingly to infinity, and it was impossible to tell one galaxy for another as they cluttered together in crowded layers, becoming part of a colorful mess, as beautiful as it was confused. Even Alexis couldn't help but walk a few steps along the edge of the well, staring down at the open vastness of space and feeling the energy of the stars radiating out of the abyss. As terrible and astonishing as it was to think, that well truly seemed to be some kind of special window upon Existence, and a shiver ran down her spine as she gazed up at the scale and wondered what exactly happened in there. Could the Harbinger be so powerful to literally pluck stars and worlds out of the well to have them measured for their worth on that impossible, glorious device...?

Alexis still had difficulties visualizing the immense amount of power required for such a feat, but her eyes inexorably drifted down to her boots, and she twisted one heel outwards just to see the little, helpless planets orbiting slowly around it. She carried around entire worlds all the time, and she had had zero difficulties shrinking them to the size of trinkets, together with their moons. If she could do that, why should the Harbinger been unable to weight worlds like ingredients for some kind of preparation...?

Alexis paused for a moment, looking down into the well and finally putting Wyvern away, letting the blade rest across her back, glued to her thanks to a flow of energy going from her to the sword and back. She crossed her powerful arms and gripped into her own enormous biceps, flexing a little as she nervously bit her lower lip. What was a star to a strength like hers...? Could she pluck galaxies out of the well, if she wanted to...? Her mind hesitated in formulating the answer, but her body flexed with world-shattering power, making it known that it would have been not just doable, but almost insultingly easy.

"I would have been terrified of this, years ago." Vesta quietly whispered as she pulled up by her side, and Alexis gazed sideways at her, letting out a little grunt of agreement. The queen of Seraphims smiled and nodded almost imperceptibly, but her eyes kept scanning the vast chamber looking out for any sign of the Harbinger's presence. Ira walked forwards as well, gazing silently down into the well, and Vesta finally added: "Now? Now it takes a lot more than this to impress me. Don't let this fancy furniture worry you, Alexis. I could fish planets out of this well with a mere thought... and anything I can do, you can do ten at ten times the scale."

"Let's just keep up our guard." Ira prudently remarked, her eyes fixed on the massive double doors on top of the monumental staircase. "I still don't like the vibes of this place. There is... far less benevolence in the air than one would expect from the legends. I really don't think the Sisters are only interested in spinning yarn. They are waiting for something. And considering the events we've been living through, that something might hit very close to our hearts."

"I fear you are right." Alexis said, grimacing a little as she added: "I'm starting to think that, even if the Harbinger tells us what we need to know, we might have to... insist for more. I don't know what the Sisters are doing with the Well of Eternity, and that ignorance terrifies me."

"Lady Alexis... please." Elelyon urgently whispered, standing just a couple of steps behind her muscular back and looking up at her with concern. "I've not lead you here to see another war starting. The Sisters have spinned the Threads of life since the very beginning of Time, and I think they have done it with fairness and impartiality."

"We can't actually know that for sure, though." Alexis countered, calmly but with crushing authority in her tone. "You should have learned by now that trusting everyone all the time is unwise. How can you quantify how much control they have on the Threads, and on the destiny of living beings...? We know what has been, but we don't know what could have been without their interference."

"That is blasphemy!" Lemuel angrily hissed, his knuckles turning visibly pale with how tightly he was gripping into the thick handle of his warhammer, muscles bulging and veins pumping visibly with how incredibly tense he was. "You'll lead the whole of Existence to disaster if you keep challenging the wisdom and authority of the Sisters! We have already broken their Law by coming here, and now you dare doubting of their intentions! They have handled the fate of the Universes for a longer time than you can even begin to imagine, and yet you think you can lecture them about their responsibilities!"

"They are powerful and ancient." Alexis replied, before shrugging a bit as she calmly added: "It doesn't mean they are always right, Lemuel. It doesn't mean we should automatically trust their intentions. To beings like the sisters, Eons are like minutes. They can wait a long time to get what they want... and in that time, countless might live and die their days without ever being given a single reason to worry about their existence and role in the dance of the stars. But what happens if tomorrow, or the day after, is the time they have been waiting for...? What will the consequences be for all of us? You are a kindhearted divinity, Lemuel, and you'd never use your power to hurt others without a very good reason for it... but the Sisters might still prove to be far less altruistic."

Lemuel recoiled a little, taken aback by her reply, and he bit his lower lip, searching words to offer as a counterargument and even looking into Elelyon's eyes, seeking his support.

"We trusted Elelyon with all our hearts. We put our fates in his hands without hesitation, and we trusted him to always do the right thing." Vesta added, without looking at the two males, and both gods looked up at her with a shiver. Elelyon, in particular, lowered his gaze in shame. "Ultimately, it was proven that our confidence in him was... excessive. Although he acted with the best intentions, he still led us to disaster. And his power never was even a fraction of the Sister's one."

Elelyon trembled visibly under that scathing assessment, which he could only accept as true and which hurt all the more because it came from Vesta, of all people. The goddess had pardoned Elelyon for many things, including "infecting" her and others with the darkness and desires that he had struggled to control and that he had offloaded on others, forcing them to carry what should have been his burden. She had remained devoted to him despite his failure to listen to her warnings about Typhon. But the one thing she truly could not accept and forgive was Elelyon's attempt to keep the existence of the sisters a secret while Killer was missing and they desperately needed a way to find him. Elelyon had lied, saying that he didn't know how to help them find their master, and Vesta was never going to forget and forgive that one last betrayal. To her eyes, it was worse than everything else combined, and she just couldn't trust him like she had before. Her previous dedication and loyalty had turned into a cold indifference that bordered into real hate, and she increasingly ignored Elelyon's existence while also taking cruel pleasure in the fact that he couldn't help himself but drool over her beauty and power and lust. Among the many other mistakes he had grown to regret, Elelyon particularly suffered for all the wasted opportunities of his past. There had been days in which Vesta would have gladly shared his bed, but he had stupidly pursued ideals of "holiness" that required him to never give in to desire. Now Vesta took her revenge by letting him ogle her spectacular body and making it painfully clear just how utterly and completely Killer owned her; how he could have anything he wanted, anytime he wanted, while Elelyon was doomed to regret and envy. Elelyon was terrified by the idea of Killer returning, because he was painfully aware that Vesta was going to truly make him her cuckold as soon as the Master returned.

It was going to be tormenting... but Elelyon already knew that he wasn't doing to be able to say no. Lemuel kept saying that they should flee, that they should at least attempt to get away from Killer and Alexis, from their tyrannical domination, but the old Creator kept resisting. Whether the lion had understood the true reason or not, Elelyon couldn't say for sure. If Lemuel knew, he mercifully pretended to be blind.

"Whichever way you try to spin it, it remains blasphemy! You are proposing to mess with the very powers that have given us all the chance to exist and evolve!" The god of light insisted, his eyes almost bulging out of his orbits as he looked from one goddess to the other, before focusing on Alexis alone as he exclaimed: "It is foolish to seek a confrontation with a power so much greater than us all."

"Yet you are trying so hard to aggravate me." Alexis coldly replied, and the god of light recoiled slightly, clenching his hands into fists and gritting his teeth but backing off, knowing that he simply had no chance against her terrifying strength. He opened his eyes in surprise a moment later as Alexis quietly added: "You are so angry about me being so much stronger than you and Elelyon. You call me and Killer tyrants, and you see injustice in everything we do, and danger in everything we might do in the future. Not without reason, in some cases, I'll grant you that... Yet, you insist in being so blindly comfortable with the idea of three ancient goddesses literally handling the threads of our destinies."

Lemuel blinked at that, and his mouth opened and closed a few times, a blush appearing on his cheeks as the tall, Amazonian goddess turned slightly around and insisted: "I know, I know. Killer and I took matters in our hands, acted against your recommendations more than once and took the throne of Heaven for ourselves and all that... And you cannot possibly approve of our methods most of the time. I accept that... and honestly, I don't care about it. I'd lie if I said I don't get pleasure from having such power over "god". But why should you continue to deny the good we've done, and the fairness we try to rule with, while giving such credit to these three sisters? You are obsessed by what I'll do with my power, but never even seem to question what the sisters do with theirs."

"It... is a fair question, I suppose." Elelyon finally admitted, bowing his head slightly, and Lemuel looked at his feet with a grimace, looking chastised and genuinely embarrassed.

"The evil we do not know hurts us a lot less than the one in front of our eyes, no matter their relative proportions." Vesta sentenced, crossing her powerful arms and looking down into the well. It was something that, in other circumstances, she had heard from Elelyon himself, and the ancient creator visibly slumped further as his own wisdom was used against him.

"I've given you reasons not to trust me, and others to trust me. I know. But I'm asking you to give me credit for once: let me gauge what the Harbinger will say and do. Let me investigate matters further if necessary. I don't want to start another war, I really don't. But I do fear it will probably be necessary." Alexis calmly said, closing her eyes for a moment and listening to the unnerving silence that permeated that whole, immense chamber. Both gods fell silent, their heads hanging low in shame and submission, and she nodded slightly. At least for the moment, they were going to collaborate.

Her eyes roved over the stars and planets and galaxies floating in the well, and after a few moments she finally spotted what she was looking for: a huge black stain, a great area of complete darkness, with a planet orbiting on its edge, surrounded by four moons.

There was no other world floating near the Center of Existence, The red giant star they could see in the sky was actually many light years away, at the center of its own solar system, on the very tip of the spiraling arms of a colorful galaxy. More importantly, there did not seem to be any breach in the solid wall of darkness: the mass of black holes completely surrounded the Cloister, shielding it from sight, from invasion, even from Alexis's powers. Nothing could see through the black holes, and no image could shine through, as they literally captured light itself. "I'm guessing that there is no entrance we could use. Only the Harbinger, or the Sisters themselves, can open a portal, am I right...?" Alexis distastefully asked, making a grimace of frustration. Elelyon, unsurprisingly, nodded and confirmed: "The only way in and out is through the Harbinger. She is in contact with the Sisters and, together, they can open a suitable portal. The black holes will mercilessly crush and annihilate anything that wanders too close to them, and there's no telling what other layers of defence might stand behind them."

"Killer once had to shut a Black Hole with his bare hands. I suspect I might have to try my hands at the same job." Alexis muttered, and Ira smirked a bit and tilted her head sideways, looking at her with entertainment: "Does that scare you...?"

The goddess thought about it for a brief moment, then snorted in amusement and smirked, admitting: "No. Part of me is eager to try, and see if it is enough of a feat to give me a work out."

Lemuel glared at her with a mix of disbelief and envy, rage and shock, muttering something under his breath about her arrogance, but the goddess ignored him and Elelyon gently gripped his shoulder, squeezing into it quietly and shaking his head. The lion immediately calmed down at that, and before anyone could comment, the massive double doors at the top of the staircase swung slowly open, allowing the Harbinger to enter the chamber, her long and semi-transparent veils dragging on the marble floor as she floated a few inches off the ground.

The mysterious entity looked down at them with a neutral expression that nobody was able to gauge. The blindfold over her eyes seemed to completely shield her from their observation: even Alexis's ability to read energies failed to penetrate her defences.

The Harbinger was as tall as Alexis, and perhaps more, and looked down at them all thanks to her floating weightlessly in the air, surrounded by flowing veils and robes and by her beautiful, detached armor that wrapped around her form without actually touching her skin. She descended the great staircase and advanced to stand near the base of the gigantic scale, her head tilting almost imperceptibly to the side as she looked down at their faces, scanning one after the other. Blindfold or not, they could very much feel her gaze weighting down on them, measuring, judging, studying. It was almost a physical contact and it caused uncomfortable heat to spread through their hides and into their very flesh, making them feel like they were being cooked alive. The well pulsed slightly, glowing with energy as the Harbinger stood near the edge of the abyss, and Alexis's eyes narrowed slightly, her body tensing as she realized that the blindfolded goddess was devouring energy coming from the universes and galaxies, from the stars and the planets alike. She traded a fleeting gaze with Ira, then with Vesta, and both females nodded imperceptibly, confirming that they had noticed the same flow of force.

"Lord Elelyon. A long time has passed since our last meeting." The Harbinger finally said, in a melodious voce that was beautiful and yet intimidating, because it caused ripples of energy that made the whole chamber around them resonate with her force.

Elelyon went down to his knee, bowing his head deeply, and Lemuel immediately copied him. Alexis, on the other hand, stood fearlessly in front of the Harbinger, with the immense well separating them. Ira shifted a little on the spot, just enough to be able to give a quick, discreet look at the edges of the chamber, spotting a multitude of other heavily armed Constructs. There was a literal army of them, as the walls of the chamber and even the majestic, tall arches above were constantly interrupted by large, finely chiseled niches, each of which contained a statue. There were archers, lancers, assassins armed with twin curved blades, warriors with hammers or monstrous cleaver-maces and even massive shield bearers half-hidden behind enormous walls of chiseled stone decorated with cruel gaping jaws. Unknown, mysterious runes covered almost every inch of their bodies, pulsing quietly with the eldritch energy that seemed to permeate the whole temple. For the moment, none of the Constructs seemed to be moving, but there was no doubt that they would all charge forwards at once was the Harbinger to order it. The blindfolded goddess turned her hidden gaze onto Ira for a few moments, and the cobra crossed her muscular arms and fearlessly stared back, doing her best to appear cold and defiant. In truth, the Harbinger's gaze continued to be painful to sustain, and the entire temple around them was pulsing with enough energy to send a shiver running down her spine. The only way out, if things went sour, was fighting against that eternal, mysterious being and maybe even the Sisters themselves.

"Harbinger... it is an honor to be visiting a second time. One I didn't think I'd ever enjoy." Elelyon said, speaking with kindness and reverence and holding his head down. The Harbinger nodded a little, but whether it was approval or sarcasm, Alexis could not guess.

"We knew you'd return, one day." The Harbinger finally said, after a short silence. "When we met you for the first time, we felt it clearly: you carried important energies on you. Fate had already marked you, and your world would one day spawn true wonders." The goddess's blind stare moved on to Alexis, and the Harbinger floated forwards, directly over the star-filled abyss, drawing rapidly nearer and looking down at her. Alexis couldn't tell whether it was an attempt to intimidate her or not, but she waited fearlessly, arms crossed and huge biceps bulging with power. The Harbinger might have been looking down at her from higher up, but Alexis was much bigger than the slender divinity: the powerful musculature of the ligeress made the blindfolded girl look like a stick figure in comparison.

"We gave you a glimpse of the Cloister because we knew that, one day, you'd guide one of those wonders to this temple. And so you did." The Harbinger concluded, standing right in front of Alexis and reaching forwards with a hand half-clad in flowing, delicate veins. Her long fingers stopped just short of Alexis's cheeks, and seemed to travel over the exact profile of her features, even though they never made contact.

"Lady Alexis... yes. The most powerful being we ever witnessed, by far. A true wonder. Beauty and power combined in such a perfect champion..."

"Thank you for the compliments, but I came here only to ask a question. And by the sound of it, you might already know what it is about." Alexis replied, looking fearlessly up at that blindfold, wondering what it truly concealed. Did that creature even have eyes in the normal sense of the world...?

"You seek your lover. You want to know where he is kept." The Harbinger easily said, floating around Alexis and studying every inch of her powerful body. The ligeress gritted her fangs in irritation at that, but did not try to make her desist. She did her best to ignore the long fingers moving so close to her eyes, awkwardly gliding over her features, and waited as patiently as she could even as her hands clenched into fists, her claws digging into the palm of her fingerless gloves and threatening to tear through and draw blood.

"You are not at your best yet... no, your evolution is not complete. A lot of your power is still locked away, and the rest is potential. It is within reach, but not there yet..." The Harbinger whispered, and Alexis growled a little, closing her eyes with a grimace and hissing: "Harbinger, you know my question already. I need to know whether you also have the answer."

The blindfolded goddess completed a full orbit around Alexis and again stood directly before her, this time leaning down to shamelessly check between the ligeress's legs, audibly sniffing her scent while her nose moved in front of her spectacular abs. Alexis frowned for a moment, confused and irritated, but still she stood motionless, until the Harbinger let out a little sound of satisfaction and straightened and cheerfully remarked: "You are a herm!"

"Yeah, when I feel like it." Alexis snorted, tilting her head sideways and gripping into her monstrous bulge with one hand, squeezing into the solid, girthy mass of her flaccid cock, which was very evident, snaking its way down one leg, obscenely bulging her leather pants. "It's not like it is hard to spot."

"Oh, yes... your virility is astounding, enormous and plentiful. I can smell your power, and your wondrous fertility. Mistress Lachesis will be pleased: this fits her expectations." The Harbinger commented, sounding delighted, and Alexis cursed under her breath before finally snapping, eyes flashing and voice coming out with a venomous note: "I'll be glad to fuck Lachesis's brains out if that's her price. It'll be no problem at all. But I really, really want my answer."

"Alexis...!" Elelyon cried, and Lemuel cringed and looked at her in horror, while the Harbinger floated silently, looking down at Alexis with new and evident coldness that sent shivers down their spines.

"Lachesis is a herm too. She is the Father and the Mother of all. She brought her sisters to life, and then fathered their children: Light and Darkness. She tamed Chaos, began Creation and set Evolution in motion."

"That's all very impressive. If she wants to see who's got the biggest cock, I'll be glad to show her up. I hope she knows how to lose gracefully." Alexis countered, smirking coldly and causing the Harbinger to retreat in a mix of shock and sudden rage. The ligeress immediately moved a step forward, eyes glowing solid sapphire and her golden hair taking on a fiery, star-like brilliance of fire, her beautiful body flexing with power as she floated off the ground to watch the Harbinger eye to eye. "Now, the important thing. Can you help me, or can you not?"

The Harbinger stiffened visibly, and Vesta and Ira shifted slowly, almost imperceptibly towards ready positions, their eyes darting from side to side and expecting a full-out assault at any moment, and even Lemuel and Elelyon seemed to tense up in a way that suggested that they were ready to fight. Maybe not because they wished to help Alexis; maybe just because they thought it would be inevitable. Even so, it was a welcome change of pace.

"We could find out where your lover is." The Harbinger finally admitted, but it was obvious from the start that there would be an unpleasant catch. "But it wouldn't be in our interest to tell you. Lachesis is not interested in your mate, but only in you. You are true Evolution. You are Perfection. You are both Mother and Father. Killer is just a male."

"Clearly, you've never had a chance to measure his worth. In all possible ways." Alexis coldly countered, gritting her fangs and hissing: "What is it? Lachesis is a herm, and has decided that the pinnacle of evolution has got to be the herm form, regardless of all other considerations...?"

"You ARE perfection!" The Harbinger countered, her voice rising almost to a roar. "Yours is the perfect form, the one that creates without limits, without depending on anything or anyone else. Do not spit on the evolutionary process! Lachesis has cultivated the universes and spurred Life exactly because she knew that, one day, evolution would spawn Perfection."

"I have a high opinion of myself, but that is a load of bull." Alexis coldly countered, shaking her head. "I want my lover back, and I want to be with him. Whether we are perfect or faulty, good or evil... that is all secondary to me. What matters is that we are together."

"You are making things uselessly complex, Lady Alexis." The Harbinger venomously warned, but the ligeress's eyes only narrowed, energy crackling around her powerful form as she replied: "I could say the same thing about you. Tell me where I can find him, and once he is back at my side, I will listen to whatever your Mistress has to say. It is not a bad deal."

"Mistress Lachesis will not tolerate the continued presence of imperfections in her new Existence. Leave the past behind, Lady Alexis: there is no room for it in the future, and no need for the incomplete tools that males are." The Harbinger countered, and her words sent shivers of terror and disgust down the spines of Elelyon and Lemuel, who stared at her with mouths gaping in shock. Ira and Vesta, on the other hand, only gritted their fangs, their powerful muscles tensing and their bodies shifting ever so slightly towards battle stances. They had not expected that precise outcome, but they had come prepared for things to go sour and weren't that surprised by the Harbinger's unwillingness to collaborate. Their rage, of course, was also fueled by the awareness that Lachesis no doubt considered females as primitive and incomplete a tool as males. Whatever the Sisters had in mind for the future of Existence, there would be no room for then either. Alexis made a grimace and turned to the side, spitting out all of her disgust before coldly asking: "And this fabulous future that Lachesis is planning out... does it have room for me? Or is a Lachesis-only thing, a wonderful creation she wants to build up by stealing my power?"

"That will depend on your wisdom, Lady Alexis. If you collaborate, Mistress Lachesis will be happy to have you as queen of her new and eternal kingdom." The Harbinger emotionlessly explained, before bowing her head slightly forwards as she added: "If you interfere with her plans, Mistress Lachesis will destroy you and will devour the Evolution that you embody. She trusts that you will see the generosity of her offer, and the Truth in her vision."

Alexis grimaced in horror and disbelief at that ultimatum, then turned slightly around and flexed her powerful arm, causing her glorious muscles to bulge out in full definition, her massive shoulder standing out majestically and evidencing the rampant feral lion, battling a huge serpent, that was tattooed on the great chords of power, right next to Killer's name. "You can tell Lachesis that I already have a king and I'm already queen."

"You leave us no choice, Lady Alexis." The Harbinger coldly replied, and her whole form glowed with energy, crackling with tremendous force as the long veils floating around her suddenly shot towards Alexis, wrapping around her in endless coils, forcing her mighty legs together and beginning to suck the vital force out of her, literally working to mummify her. The ligeress grunted in surprise and pain, struggling against the restraints that so rapidly snaked all over her form, scarring her perfect body with their searing heat and with the otherworldly, lethal acid they seemed to be drenched with. The Harbinger's energies continued to be invisible even to her usually infallible sixth sense, and she had no forewarning of the movements of those tentacles of cloth that surged around her from all directions at once.

Alexis snarled and let her energies burst out of her in an explosion of fire, golden flames erupting out through the bandages, but the incredible cloth only smoldered without being consumed, and it glowed all the brighter as it greedily devoured her energies out of the flames.

The uncountable archer-constructs in the niches in the walls and in the arched ceiling above all came to life, pulling the strings of their immense longbows and unleashing a storm of crackling bolts of electricity, almost a solid wall of cruel blades rushing against Alexis from all sides at once.

Alexis flexed her massive muscles with a snarl, ripping through hundreds of the bandages and tearing an arm free just in time to grab another "tentacle" of cloth, flicking her wrist to wrap it twice around her forearm, before she yanked hard on it, dragging the Harbinger through the air.

The blindfolded goddess became a shield in front of Alexis, but the arrows that pierced into her back simply vanished... and then suddenly reappeared in front of her, shooting against the ligeress with even greater speed and ferocity. They crashed into her invincible abs and powerful chest, making her hiss in agony as they all exploded against her muscles, blasting her backwards with incredible force, but she still balled her hand into a fist and lashed it up into the Harbinger's abdomen, grinning as she heard the explosion-like impact and felt muscle and flesh squishing and bone loudly breaking under her knuckles.

The Harbinger hissed in agony as her back arched violently backwards, away from that ferocious strike, but immediately her hands shot forwards, crackling with energy as she shot a twin blast of terrifying raw force straight against Alexis's face.

Even without the ghost-images in her mind, Alexis's battle experience and instincts were so perfect that she moved out of the way in perfect timing, grabbing one of the Harbinger's arms and bending it violently backwards as she spun around her with amazing speed, driving a knee into the base of her spine and causing her whole form to bend violently, her jaws opening in a breathless howl of agony while drool flew out of them. The almost solid "blades" of raw force radiating out of the Harbinger's hands tore uselessly into the marble floor, disintegrating it and melting stone like it was snow, before Alexis bent the blindfolded goddess's arm further backwards, aiming that terrifying beam of power into some of the Constructs jumping out of the niches in the walls. The beam chopped its way through dozens of the tall and thin columns of the great chamber, and then crashed with vicious force into one of the great arches, turning it into a cloud of dust and pebbles, pulverizing a whole group of archers and several of the hulking swordsmen. Alexis grinned sharkishly as she bent that slender arm fully backwards, delighting in the sound of crumbling bone as it shattered in her merciless grip and then all but came loose in a spray of blood and gore, ripped apart like a mere twig. The Harbinger squealed in agony and her detached armor shifted, seeming to open like jaws, the golden metal plates all ending in cruel tips more deadly than any blade, but Alexis ignored those even as they closed violently on her, biting into her flesh, the metal groaning audibly as it tried to cut through her adamantine chords of muscle. The Harbinger's deadly veils wrapped over Alexis's hulking form, but the ligeress flexed right through them, ripping the unholy material into shreds as she got on top of her rival's backside and squeezed her thin waist between her almighty thighs, laughing darkly as she flexed those prodigious muscles and audibly made crumbles of the Harbinger's pelvis and spine, blood bursting out of her body as it split apart, deflating as a mass of pulped, squished guts spilled out of the ugly wound. "You crave my cock, you bitches...? Perfection, you said... feel how fucking flawless it is!" Alexis taunted, grinning through gritted fangs as she ground down into the Harbinger, idly thrusting the leviathan bulge in her leather pants into the goddess's quivering ass, causing the Harbinger to whimper and cry out in shock at the monstrous proportions of that godlike cock.

Alexis and the Harbinger fell through the air together, with the much larger liger grabbing the blindfolded creature by the back of the skull and leaning down into her back, smashing her viciously into the marble floor, making her sink through it in a cloud of smoke and debris, before yanking her head backwards just to slam her face into the ground, twice, thrice, again and again and again, smirking cruelly as blood exploded up over her muscular form. The Harbinger arched her back and struggled, trashing around while her armor again twisted around and stabbed into Alexis's body, cutting ugly wounds into her hide but failing to penetrate through her hard muscles as the ligeress leaned down over the goddess, crushing her into the pulverized marble and tauntingly ramming her colossal bulge against her exposed groin, forcing her legs painfully apart. Alexis looked briefly upwards as a couple of Constructs armed with giant cleaver swords charged against her, but before they could strike they were slapped into gravel by two massive, powerful tentacles tearing out of her strong back.

"You are frail, bitch." Alexis teased, before grabbing her remaining arm as it flailed and pushed uselessly against her chest. A small squeeze was enough to pulverize the bones inside the limb, and Alexis grinned and flexed, her enormous bicep bulging explosively as she crushed the slender arm until it exploded in a splatter of blood and gore, snapped in half like a twig. Alexis effortlessly pinned the Harbinger to the ground and swung her powerful arms around her head, trapping her in a full Nelson before leaning down to growl: "You can tell me what I need to know, or open a portal to the Cloister, or I'll rip your head off like pulling a cork from a bottle."

"You don't scare me, Alexis." The Harbinger replied, and her voice was surprisingly calm, relaxed and almost amused, enough to send a shiver of foreboding down the ligeress's spine. "You are physically exceptional, but power goes far beyond raw strength... strength is just a primitive and mundane form of power. You will get nowhere if you can only punch me."

"Punching faces into mush has always worked well for me." Alexis coldly countered, before flexing slightly, just enough to make her neck creak audibly, leaning down further to hiss into her ear: "Tell me where my lover is, or I'll get to the Threads to find out on my own."

"And how will you get past the Black Holes...?" The Harbinger taunted, laughing loudly even as she choked on her own saliva and blood, and Alexis gritted her fangs and snarled in fury, finally balling her hand into a fist in front of the Harbinger's eyes, her voice murderous and terrible as she said: "I'll pluck them out of the sky with my bare hands, bitch... but first I'm taking your head." The ligeress pulled with her monstrous strength, and there was a sick sound of shattering bones and ripping flesh as the Harbinger's head was torn right off her shoulders and sent flopping on the ground with a meaty thud. "You frigid whore." Alexis venomously remarked, immediately slamming her fist down onto the fallen skull, squishing it in a puddle of blood and liquefied gore. The ligeress immediately straightened, pushing back to her feet and turning to face the Constructs that kept charging forth in packed ranks, while more and more statues emerged from their niches in the walls. Ira and Vesta had sprung into action even before the arrows had left the longbows of the countless archers, and the first thing Alexis spotted was Ira catching a vicious hammer-blow of a monstrous cleaver between the crossed blades of her twin Katanas. Arctica glowed and terrible, supernatural freezing mist spread from its blade and enveloped the Construct's weapon and his arms, immediately encasing them in thick ice, immobilizing him and making his whole upper body almost desperately frail. The cobra's eyes glowed emerald as she slashed her Katanas outwards, effortlessly chopping the frozen cleaver in two and disintegrating the construct with a blast of psychic rage just as her swords found their way through the chests of another two giant statues charging at her from the opposite sides. Vampira took on a ghastly white brilliance as it audibly, sinisterly sucked the energies out of the first construct, causing the glowing runes to flicker out of sight, losing all of their luster and causing the enormous creature to collapse on its knees and then on its face, cracking as it violently smashed into the floor. Archers unleashed a barrage of darts against her, but the queen of hell lashed out with her arm and flicked her wrist, slashing her heavy chains outwards like whips: the lace of Lust erupted into flames as it smashed through the huge arrows and shattered them into motes of energy, while the chain of Discipline seemed to leap past the darts, rearing up like a serpent and then striking through one of the archers, making it gargle as the hooked blade shot through his chest. The construct was hefted off its feet and swept sideways like a toy, smacking into his comrades with such violence that their bodies of stone cracked and exploded into fragments, pelting other huge warriors coming up from behind. The behemotic shield bearers advanced to form a barrier in front of the archers, their heavy steps rattling the ground as they formed a wall with their massive shields, only parting them slightly to allow the archers to unleash new barrages of glowing, spear-sized arrows. Ira snarled as she yanked her arm backwards and sent both chains slashing heavily downwards, cutting through the arrows and smashing them into the ground, before spinning on the spot to slam her twin swords into an incoming spear, knocking it away from herself and then striking it again in midair, sending it spinning back towards the Constructs, striking one in the neck and sending the enormous stone warrior stumbling sideways with a grunt, its head nearly falling off.

Enormous cleaver swords rushed down against her from all sides, but the cobra slid between them with a grin, and then leapt up past another, slamming one foot into the flat of one blade and propelling herself higher up, until she could lash her first out and tear through the stone head of a Construct, turning it into nothing but dust and rubble just as she slammed both boots into the chest of another great statue, sending it crashing backwards just as its body broke into pieces. Energy exploded violently out of the broken runes and with an awful pulse it seemed to all concentrate in one point, forming a visible, crackling sphere of force which then erupted forwards in a beam that smashed into her with the force of a tsunami.

Ira grunted in pain as she was knocked backwards, slammed right towards the line of great shields, which blinded her with an explosion of light and deafened her with the loud crackles and discharges of energy coming from the glowing runes before they simultaneously erupted an immense wave of force.

Ira spun around and landed on her feet, her boots digging trenches into the ground as she flexed her powerful muscles and leaned into that monstrous deluge of force, pushing back against it and slashing Vampira into the flow, gritting her fangs as the blade became white hot, the sword trembling violently and threatening to break through her fingers and out of her grip. The Katana greedily drank of the energy pushing against the blade, however, and the goddess grinned even as her fingers smoldered and her flesh burned at the contact with the handle. "Play with me, boys! Push!" Ira taunted, muscles bulging explosively as she slashed Vampira forwards and moved a couple of steps through the inferno of incandescent energy, pushing the line of titanic statues backwards like they were toys. "Come on! Don't hold back!" She cackled, storming forwards with terrifying strength, growling as her biceps thrummed with power and swelled even larger, causing her black, armor-like scales to creak audibly as the mass of muscles beneath pushed with such force to rip through her own hide. Energy crackled around her arms as she drank of the Constructs' force through Vampira, laughing darkly as the stone giants audibly screeched backwards, repulsed by her tremendous strength. Constructs charged at her back, but the goddess easily swung her arm out and slashed her chain-whips backwards, cutting into their legs, ripping their limbs apart and sending them crashing heavily onto the floor. They crawled forwards on their arms, stabbing their heavy weapons against her back, but Ira grinned at them from over her massive shoulder and danced between their assaults, before stomping hard backwards, driving her foot through the head of one of the statues and turning it into gravel. Her chain-whips savagely coiled around another Construct, ripping into the stone like it was butter, and hefting the enormous creature off the ground as she flexed her powerful arm and dragged the great lump of stone through the air, using him as a morning start that smashed into the ranks of his comrades and disintegrated dozens of constructs, sending chunks of stone flying in every direction.

When her "prisoner" finally fell completely apart and the pieces slipped out of the coils of her whips, Ira yanked both chains back to her hand, grinning as they obediently shrunk down in size, countless links vanishing into motes of energy until the curved hook-blades clanged at her feet... and she immediately snapped them out in front of her, sending the hooks biting into the top edge of one of the great shields ahead. With a grunt, the goddess yanked hard on the chains and dragged the Construct forwards, ripping the enormous shields out of his hands. The beam of energy pushing against her suddenly shrunk smaller as a hole opened in the line of shields, and she immediately charged into the opening, grinning as she leapt onto the Construct's back and crushed him into the floor, stomping his body into pieces... before leaping off with a grunt as the fragments began to violently vibrate and the runes glowed even more brilliantly before exploding in an immense blast of fire. Ira grunted as the shockwave smacked into her back along with several large splinters of sharp stone, but she still swung her chain-whips sideways, using the enormous shield hanging from the hooks to smack another four constructs down, revealing the archers lined up behind. Her eyes glowed solid emerald as she gazed down at the statues as they aimed their longbows, and several of them froze in position as the runes over their bodies abruptly changed color. They trailed their longbows downwards and remorselessly shot their arrows in the back of the Shield Bearers ahead, causing the massive constructs to fall onto their knees and shatter into a million pieces. The other Constructs turned around in confusion, and the corrupted archers had enough time to nock another arrow and unleash a second barrage, taking down more of the shield bearers before their comrades reacted and assaulted them. Arrows flew between the ranks and struck into the immense statues, sending huge boulders and chunks of stone raining down, crashing loudly into the floor just as Ira flung her chain-whips upwards, hooking the heads of two shield bearers and dragging them down to their knees, using the momentum to spring up into the air, high enough that she could slash her Katanas out and chop the heads off both statues. She landed behind the line of Constructs, grinning as she looked up to see "her" archers and the enemy bowmen trading barrages, causing dozens of the massive statues to disintegrate all around her. She charged forwards into the ranks of enemy archers, cutting them down, and smirked as she spotted Vesta slashing both of her sickleswords down on top of a massive shield, yanking it hard forwards at the same time as she jackknifed over it, her foot smashing into the construct's head and disintegrating it into a cloud of fragments, sending the gigantic statue stumbling backwards just as she leapt onto his neck, grinning widely as she hooked her crimson blades into his shoulders and then jumped off him, dragging the creature all the way down to the floor, causing the whole temple to tremble violently as the giant crashed down and cracked apart. Vesta landed in an easy crouch and sprinted between the legs of an archer, chopping them at knee level and sending the gigantic creature of stone toppling over like a toy. The other shield bearers turned around and viciously swung their enormous sword-maces against her, but Vesta laughed as she sidestepped the assault, and then lashed her fist out against the flat of the huge blades, smashing them to bits, tearing through both like they were nothing more than biscuits. The enormous statues lumbered onwards, trying to crush her under the sharp edges of their colossal shields, but Vesta made a mockery of their strength by pushing her palms upwards, catching the two falling shields and roaring as her muscles flexed and bulged explosively, her feet sinking deep into the marble floor as she hefted both constructs clear off the ground, hurling them back against their comrades and sending them sprawling like pins. Golden energy crackled down her arms and curved blades as she cocked them back and then swung them out in a X, blasting out two crescents of solid force that tore through the messy pile of bodies and chopped the great stone blocks like they were butter, leaving behind glowing, half-molten wreckage... before they both exploded in a gigantic blast that dissolved a group of archers into nothing but dark mist. A barrage of massive arrows headed for her, crackling with electricity and followed by a freezing mist and clouds of poison, but Vesta charged fearlessly forwards all the same, growling as she slashed out a sicklesword, catching a whole group of darts in the curve of the blade and flicking her wrist to force all of them to spin, hurling them back against the archers and grinning as several of the statues collapsed, struck by the giant projectiles. Other arrows, as large as small trees, tore into the ground ahead and around her just as she deflected several more with her other sicklesword, before leaping up onto the smooth body of one of the darts, running along it and then jumping on towards another just as it tore into the ground, grinning widely as her six splendid wings burst into being and flapped once, generating a wind of fire that dissolved many of the other darts and knocked the remaining ones wide out of course. She flew forwards like a cannonball, heading straight for the closest of the archers. The giant immediately trailed his longbow up to aim at her, but Vesta threw herself to the side and shot by his neck before he could unleash, and one of her sickleswords hooked into the construct's throat, ripping through the stone with terrifying ease and sending the heavy head toppling off while the body collapsed.

Vesta hacked another archer to bits before landing on her feet, spinning around to slam her blades against the monstrous weapon of a shield bearer, knocking it away from her and then squatting to chop his legs apart just beneath the edge of his shield. She looked up to see Alexis charging towards the massive well in the centre of the room, which they assumed might act as some sort of portal leading even to the Cloister itself, and she didn't even need to look up as the damaged construct fell heavily down. She arched her back and caught the immense colossus of stone upon her powerful shoulders, immediately throwing it against his comrades and sending a large group sprawling, clearing the way for Alexis to approach the edges of the abyss. Ira took position on the other side, clearing the way from the endless deluge of stone colossuses, and Vesta spotted even Lemuel swinging his golden armor to smash great statues into gravel as the shield bearers rounded him and Elelyon, thrusting spears and huge cleaver-maces against the two gods.

"I... I must apologize." Elelyon quietly said as he followed Alexis towards the abyss. "I did not imagine any of this. I didn't know Lachesis had such aims."

"I know." Alexis replied, her voice taking on a bit of a cold note even though she sincerely welcomed his apology. "You are too kind for your own good, Elelyon. Nothing new."

"I'm sorry." Elelyon dejectedly said, looking down at the scarred marble floor even as his hands glowed with intense energy, his fingers moving slowly and guiding the growth of green, beautiful vines and plants that rapidly formed walls on either side of them, coiling around the incoming arrows and imprisoning them into rapidly growing trunks as hard as granite and completely covered in moss.

"Help me understand this... thing, Elelyon. I need to know if this is a way to enter the Cloister. Otherwise, I'll have to try my own way." Alexis urged, looking down into that weird window opened on the immensity of space and stretching her hand towards it, using her psychic power to move the universes around until the large black shell hiding the Cloister came up to the fore. The ancient creator nodded and walked up to the well, carefully pushing his hands into the darkness and whispering words that Alexis did not understand or recognize... only for the ground to start rattling violently beneath their feet.

"You are strong, but primitive." The Harbinger's voice coldly sentenced, and they all looked up to see the immense gothic arches high above splitting open, moving like jaws and leaking heavy, enormous drops of green, poisonous goop just as the columns ripped free and began to flail around, turning into metallic, titanic tentacles. Pestilent, tormenting stench erupted from somewhere deep into the temple as the ground shifted and moved beneath their feet, throwing them back away from the well as a sickening dark mist filled the room.

Vesta grunted as one of the immense columns-turned-tentacles slashed viciously down against her, forcing her into a sideways roll to avoid the tremendous impact, and she slammed one hand into the floor, going into a handstand and then launching herself up into the air as the great tendril swung sideways, grinding even the marble plates of the floor into nothing but dust. A barrage of arrows was immediately unleashed against her and she formed a wall of sapphire energy in front of her body, only to blink in surprise as the arrows seemed to vanish entirely from existence... before reappearing right behind her, stabbing into her muscular back and sending her crashing down with a roar of agony.

Immediately she swung one of her swords upwards behind her back, chopping the immense shafts as close as possible to her skin and then flexing with a snarl, her huge muscles forcing the cruel, barbed tips out even as the arrows mutated and grew, tearing deeper through her flesh and reaching out in all directions. She spun around as a Construct swung its great sword towards her, but when her sicklesword rushed upwards, half of the gigantic cleaver seemed to again vanish from sight, only to poke out of a tear in reality that opened in midair at her side. The huge blade tore into her muscular arm and sent her stumbling backwards with a snarl of pain, but her eyes burned with power as she glared up at the colossus, blasting it apart and sending its pieces smashing into the other creatures behind him.

Another massive tentacle lunged against her, enormous and terrible, dripping with a slimy acid that made her wince with its terrifying stench, and she threw herself to the side, grunting as the massive appendage stabbed deep into the ground, smashing through marble and stone like they were little more than sand... before hissing in agony as she fell through some kind of hole in reality.

Vesta howled in agony, vomiting blood and arching her back in anguish as she felt like a million wire-thin blades were cutting through every inch of her body, from all directions at once. Her eyes opened wide, but she could only see crimson and flashes of pure pain as she felt like her body would just break down in a billion tiny pieces... before she found herself falling through the air once more, a grunt of shock coming from her lips as she saw a gargantuan tentacle lashing out against her. She pulled up her sickleswords to chop it into pieces, but she suddenly felt horribly weak and she saw her form losing definition, turning almost into a sizzling image of herself as her energy lost coherence and literally attempted to disperse, to break apart and flee from her. It made her tremble in horror and confusion, but she still flexed her muscles and slashed her weapons as hard as she could against the incoming tentacle, only to lose herself once more through a wound in reality.

Her lungs threatened to explode as the agony of earlier tore through her once more, and her eyes bulged as she saw large motes of energy tearing loose from her melting form and vanishing away, before grunting in shock as she emerged on the other side and found Ira on her way, crashing out of her own weird hole in reality. Vesta pulled her sickleswords back as quickly as she could and Ira gritted her fangs and attempted to twist out of the way, but the two goddesses still clashed violently in midair and their blades cut into their bodies, blood raining down from the ugly gashes as they cursed under their breath.

Their eyes met briefly, but their expressions told each other that their confusion was the same, and they only spun around to land heavily on their feet, back to back, surrounded by glowing constructs surging forwards from all sides. "You are enamored of raw strength, and have little knowledge of anything else. You lack vision." The Harbinger added, and her voice seemed to come from every direction at once as the two goddesses fought back the assault of the immense horde of stone warriors. Arrows came raining towards them in such numbers to form almost a solid roof above their heads, and the two females sprinted in the opposite directions, going into slides that brought them right under the massive frames of their enemies, using their bodies of stone as shields. Harbinger laughed mockingly, however, and both goddesses gritted their fangs with grunts of shock as multiple dark wounds in reality opened all around them, vomiting thick groups of massive darts that crashed into them with brutal force.

"You can never hope to compete with Mistress Lachesis!" The voice taunted, and Vesta snarled in rage and pain as she crashed against the leg of one of the stone titans, vomiting blood as the long, spear-like arrows stabbed into her from below, emerging from the ground, and from the side, nailing her to the stone column that was the construct's leg. The gigantic guardian of stone looked down at her and stabbed its colossal cleaver forwards, but she twisted herself around with a hiss of fury and smashed her fist into his leg, shattering it into a cloud of fragments and sending the titan toppling awkwardly on its side. She groaned in agony as she ripped free, blood spurting out around the enormous, electrified arrows piercing through her body, and she slammed her hand violently into the falling mass of the colossus, shoving him away from her like it was a mere toy. A shadow fell upon her as something leapt down from the shoulders of another giant, and her eyes struggled to track its movements such was its speed. It took her an instant to realize it was an assassin, a different kind of Construct, armed with two twin daggers surrounded by dancing flames of some terrible, god-killing energy. The assassins were much smaller than the other constructs, and much faster, using agility to get to their targets without being seen, and to move back behind cover before anyone could react. They were coated in a sort of armor of metal so lucid that it worked like a mirror... and apparently did even more than that, since the beast suddenly became invisible just as Vesta rolled over to avoid his daggers. She blindly lashed out a sweep kick, but the assassin had already changed position and she growled in irritation before hurling a sphere of focused energy towards a line of massive shields that advanced rapidly towards her, glowing with terrible energy and preparing to unleash a combined deluge of destructive force. The assassin reappeared in midair, leaping up in the way of her projectile and seeming to grin as it allowed the sphere to smash into his metallic chest: the weird metal alloy glowed, overheating, but amazingly deflected the sphere of energy, shooting it back against her.

"Fuckin' little fucker...!" Vesta muttered, leaping to her feet and rushing out of the way before the sphere slammed into the floor and exploded in a massive white hot ball of destruction. She didn't move more than a couple of steps before wincing as chains as sharp as blades shot out of the ground, missing her only because she twisted her body backwards and instinctively evaded, dropping into a split and going into a sideways roll just as the same chains tore into a black, trembling wound into reality and simultaneously shot out of other fissures in thin air, missing her head by mere inches as the Harbinger laughed in mocking delight.

"My fault!" Ira shouted from somewhere in that forest of stone colossuses, and Vesta grunted, looking up over her shoulder to see the cobra's chains trapped into a sort of black hole that the Harbinger had opened in the chest of a Construct just as it was being shattered by her blades. Ira grunted and gritted her fangs as she yanked her arm back, trying to drag her chains out of those portals, but some terrifying force continued to pull on them with enough strength to nearly heft her off the ground even as her powerful legs flexed and hammered her boots deep into the marble floor, leaving deep footprints in it like it was mud.

Vesta turned around and charged towards her to help her, but the Harbinger laughed even louder and new dark portals opened, bouncing the two deadly chains from one to the next, shooting them out in the way of the queen of Heaven, making her hiss in pain as the sharp links tore through her flesh. Within a second she was caught in the middle of a forest of chains, but with a grunt she teleported right past them and turned around to blast spheres of energy into all the portals she could reach. "Show yourself, coward!"

"I'm having too much time making clowns out of you arrogant young gods." Harbinger easily replied, laughing as her portals effortlessly consumed Vesta's projectiles before another, large wound in reality opened right behind Lemuel and spat all of the spheres out. Vesta shouted a warning and the god of Light turned around, gaping in shock at the hailstorm of glowing projectiles rushing against him and instinctively bringing his heavy hammer up in defense, just in time for the first projectile to smash into the golden weapon and explode, smashing him flying backwards with a cry of pain.

Elelyon turned around immediately, one hand surrounded by vibrations of a strange ethereal energy and the other burning with the power of life: Lemuel's momentum was gently interrupted and the lion spun elegantly through the air, landing on his feet next to his lover and swinging his hammer in an uppercut that caught a construct in the crotch and shattered it in two cracked, collapsing halves. At the same time, Elelyon's powers of creation sent huge, luscious plants growing in front of the barrage of spheres of energy, leaving Vesta staring in amazement as countless huge, beautiful flowers blossomed open and basked in the light and heat radiating from the incoming projectiles... greedily consuming them, using their energy to grow larger and grow vines and branches that expanded in a wide area all around.

"She is using a pocket dimension to move around us unseen!" Elelyon warned, coughing up blood and stumbling forwards through the ever thickening green fog of acid and toxic fumes that were turning the enormous hall into a pestilent, stinking inferno. The stench was unbearable and destructive, enough to corrode even Lemuel's armor, causing rust to spread out over the surface of even his glorious hammer while their skin and even Ira's scales sizzled and bubbled, rapidly covering up in pustules and sores. "T-this planet is going to swallow us whole!" Elelyon shouted, and the enormous tentacles whipping around the shifting, moving dark room suddenly focused on him, slashing viciously down to crash him into a stain. Lemuel stepped in front of his god with a roar of challenge, his hammer glowing with burning white light as he cocked it back and then swung it up to slam the first great tentacle away, knocking huge chunks of metal-flesh flying as the appendage retreated with an audible, frightening squeak of agony... before simply exploding in a splatter of dark gore as light erupted through it, illuminating the whole vast cave for a few moments. Vesta looked up with a snarl to see the roof of the great room flexing, a terrible sucking sound nearly deafening her as the floor tilted further, making it nearly impossible to stand as the marble turned slimy with a terrible, foul smelling acid that audibly began to consume her boots.

The well opened upon space slid down as if the floor was made of liquid, and it became like an open throat that was eager to swallow them all. Countless constructs fell into that filthy abyss that tormented them with its pestilent, grotesque stench, but they merely sunk through dark portals and reappeared in a solid front ahead of Alexis and the others, forming a wall of shield and blades that advanced rhythmically, pushing them towards the chasm. The massive towers of stone that had once been columns now were tentacles hanging from the roof of that planet-eating mouth, and each of them dripped a revolting slime that burned everything it touched. Thick and sticky, it landed in huge drops that smacked into the ground like meteors, spreading their pestilent, deadly content, creating a layer which constantly grew taller, already burning into her feet and ankles. Her brain revolted against that tormenting smell, her lungs closing themselves to protect her from the toxic, greenish air that had literally turned almost into goo, dense with tiny but ferocious parasites that floated in it in immense clouds.

"Come here!" Elelyon urged, even though his voice was broken by the blood surging up through airways that were literally falling apart, burning into ashes. He valiantly fought back against that infectious inferno, his hands glowing with power as he further expanded the growing forest of luscious vines, thorny plants and glowing flowers. Even from where she stood, Vesta could see the growing plants pulsing, breathing visibly, somehow consuming that toxic, acid atmosphere and generating clean air instead, forming a little oasis that the panting god retreated into. Blood leaked from his ruined body, covered in infectious wounds and terrible growths and pustules, but his regeneration visibly rebuild his flesh and skin as he surrounded himself with that glorious creation. Vesta coughed up a disgusting mass of blood and infected, festering gunk that was clogging up her airways and her wounds, seeking to enter into her body wherever it might be somehow vulnerable, and she moved towards the oasis, snarling as a massive construct rushed forwards and tried to slap her into the abyss with his giant shield. The goddess slammed her palm into the massive wall of stone, knocking it hard backwards into the construct's face, sending him stumbling backwards, and she immediately swatted, slashing out a sicklesword and hooking his ankle, ripping him clear off the ground like he weighted nothing and sending him falling into the abyss, his foot and part of his leg tearing off and spinning silently into the darkness.

An archer shot a spear-like dart towards her neck, but Vesta turned to the side with a growl and caught it between her twin blades, stopping it in midair and then hurling it back with a roar, watching as it tore right through the bowman and carried on with enough force to pierce into the chest of the one right behind, slamming him off the ground and nailing him to the shield of a colossus further back.

Ira literally fought with one arm tied up, as the black portals around her continued to yank brutally on her chains, but even so she managed to somersault past the heavy swing of a massive cleaver sword, snarling as she extended her leg and kicked the Construct right in the face, disintegrating its skull of stone and sending it stumbling backwards... before its runes glowed angrily and it exploded, pelting her with a huge cloud of sharp fragments. Ira's eyes glowed with psychic rage, gripping the rocket shrapnel and bringing it to an absurd standstill in midair, before she sent it exploding back against a trio of archers just as they leaned through an opening in the wall of giant shields to shoot at her.

A lancer rushed towards her and stabbed its long weapon against her back, and Ira grunted as a vicious force yanked on her chains with enough violence to heft her off the ground and towards the cruel blade. She had barely enough time to pull up her legs as the long spear hissed forwards, and she stomped down violently on the shaft, sending its opposite end swinging violently up into the statue's chin, shattering half of its face. The creature stumbled backwards but still found the strength to lash out with his enormous fist of stone, forcing Ira to spin around with a turning kick that disintegrated its hand and much of its arm. Another archer took aim and unleashed a crackling dart against her, but Ira charged up the half-broken lancer's chest and leapt off his neck, grinning as she used the formidable strength of her muscular legs to send the colossus stumbling forwards to meet the arrow and end up impaled on it.

She sprinted forwards in the narrow opening, wincing in pain as the chains buried into her very flesh, ripping through her armor-like scales as she fought against Harbinger's strength, making steady but slow gains. A shield bearer charged at her like a raging bull, pushing his shield forwards and preparing to slap her past the edge of the abyss, but the cobra gritted her teeth and swung out with her free arm, stabbing Arctica into the shield with such force that the long, slender blade pierced right through it. The freezing mist surrounding the sword spread all over the shield, making it brittle, and she threw herself against it, ramming her shoulder through and grinning as it exploded in a cloud of countless fragments. The chains tensed violently and dragged her backwards, but the queen of Hell only roared in fury and dropped into a squat, dragging her chained arm forwards with such force that the chains slammed into the confused Construct and tore through his legs, sending him falling heavily forwards and into the abyss.

Ira straightened with a growl, trying to ignore the pain in her arm as her wonderful muscles were sliced open. A part of her briefly considered the possibility of abandoning her chains, but she immediately shot down the idea: the Lace of Lust and the Chain of Discipline were gifts of Killer and embodied her mission as a goddess in his service. Letting go of them was worse than any agony; more terrible than death itself.

She ran through ranks of Constructs, kicking and shouldering several gigantic statues into pieces and shoving another right into the chasm, before wincing as the assassin statue appeared out of thin air, landing heavily on her chains and slashing both of his daggers against her neck and head.

Ira ducked under the assault with a wince, and her eyes burned with rage as she blasted the creature with a discharge of psychic power, only to recoil with a splutter as the weird armor of the construct dented but somehow stopped her vicious assault.

The assassin leapt forwards and thrust one of his blades towards her throat, and Ira's eyes bulged even as she brought Arctica back to defend herself... only to see a flash of crimson right before her eyes.

"You were fighting me, you bastard!" Vesta angrily remarked, her muscles bulging as she drove her sicklesword up through the assassin's chest, hefting him high up into the air and tearing his special armor apart like it was cheap tin. The beast kicked and swung his blades angrily against the two goddesses, but Vesta snorted in contempt and swung her sword out to the side, tossing him away with such force that he crashed into the far wall of the abyss and disintegrated.

"Come here!" Elelyon again shouted, struggling to feed the forest around him with energy to keep it clean from the terrifying pollution that threatened to burn them out of existence, as the green, toxic fog swirled around his little oasis like an alive thing, like it had its own mind. Enormous tentacles slammed viciously down upon the green dome of vines and flowers, and Lemuel fought them back with powerful swings of his hammer. Each impact generated flashes of white light that turned the darkness into day all around them, revealing endless ranks of Constructs and the flexing, slimy walls of the unholy, impossible "mouth" that the cave had turned into.

Alexis snarled as she slapped a construct into pieces using Wyvern, her eyes glowing solid sapphire even as blood leaked from her nose and her mouth kept filling up with poisoned life fluids. Her skin bubbled and sizzled as the fetid fog ground down against her and invaded her airways even as her lungs sealed themselves up. Even without breathing, she still couldn't escape the horrendous stench and the immense quantity of parasites floating in it like it was a liquid. Flames of golden energy danced around her form, consuming as much of the cruel fog as possible, and she stood on the edge of the abyss, looking down into the darkness and trying to summon the portal, pulling at the well with her psychic power even as she swatted clouds of arrows out of the sky using the vast, heavy blade of Killer's sword.

Portals opened all around her, vomiting more of the arrows from all directions at once, but the ghost images in her mind guided her movements and she was so fast that she not only ducked and dodged every single dart, but did so in ways that sent the arrows tearing into the ranks of the constructs instead, sending dozens of them tumbling to the ground in pieces.

The goddess's eyes narrowed as the images in her mind showed another wound in reality opening right beneath her feet, and she spun around the spot like she was dancing, avoiding the blades at the end of Ira's chains as they shot out of the floor and viciously tore skywards in the exact point where her head had been an instant earlier. Her free hand snapped sideways and caught both chains in a vicious, invincible grip, and she snarled as she punched downwards, towards the terrible dark portal... only for Elelyon to scream: "Alexis! Don't! Whenever she catches you into the portals, she tries to disassociate your energies!"

"So that's what it was." Vesta muttered, looking down at her arms and grimacing at the sight of their trembling, vague shape. It was like part of her was melting away, escaping out of the shape of her body, losing coherence... and now she knew that that ethereal figure hanging from her limbs was actually part of her vital force, of her very energies.

Alexis hesitated for the briefest of moments, growling furiously as she glared down into the dark wound in reality, unable to see anything other than black emptiness while holding on to the chains... and she flexed her massive musculature, radiating terrifying physical power as she suddenly doubled herself, and the second Alexis fearlessly charged right into the portal.

"Want my energy? Come and get it!" Alexis snarled, slashing out Wyvern without even looking back and cutting through shields and stone bodies like they were butter, sending constructs crumbling in a pile of rubble all around her. "I'll give you more than you can possibly deal with!"

Alexis grinned as she yanked on the chains... and then let go of them, and Ira grunted in surprise and relief as they swung back all the way towards her, obediently coiling back around her wrist, the two hook-blades resting beneath her wrist, in easy reach but out of the way... and then they all looked up as a large "window" exploded open in the fabric of reality, breaking like glass and projecting pieces all around as Harbinger flew through it, hurled by the second Alexis.

The first Alexis didn't even turn around, snarling instead as she swung her fist down and caught Harbinger in the face, crunching her features inwards in a cloud of blood and sending her crashing down into the ground. Harbinger cried out in pain and shock, but sank harmlessly through the floor of shapeless, slimy non-flesh, only for the second Alexis to head back inside the obscure pocket dimension to catch her there.

"You've had Eons to mess around and learn your trade, it's true. But I'm a fast learner." Alexis coldly remarked, before reality shattered once more as her second manifestation rammed through its fabric like it was no more than a brittle glass, one hand squeezing viciously on Harbinger's skull and cracking it like an egg before tossing the body towards the first Alexis, who seized it in a bearhug and flexed, huge muscles bulging with power as she easily made dust of the goddess's spine and ribs, crushing her torso into a shapeless sack of scales and pulped meat.

Elelyon stared at the scene with disbelief, gaping slightly and mouthing silent, vague words for a moment before wincing as the world around them clenched violently, like it was a real throat that wanted to swallow them whole. The tentacles hanging from the distant, fleshy roof viciously hammered down on his little oasis, and he grunted as he gestured upwards, sending thick branches growing, enormous trees arching up over their heads to form a protective dome armed with countless thorns. The enormous, spiked appendages ramming down from above caused his arms to spasm as the energy recoiled back into him, his legs trembling and bending under the tremendous weight of each hammerblow... but miles upon miles of sturdy tangled vines erupted from the top of the dome and coiled around one of the tentacles, holding it down even as it angrily reared up, the adamantine thorns ripping even though its metallic body and ripping off great chunks as dark, poisonous, disgusting fluids leaked out of the damaged non-flesh.

Elelyon looked up in horror as the chunky, dense fluid began to eat away the vines, the plants, even the adamantine, harder-than-steel tree trunks as it sloppily leaked down in ropes as thick as arms, falling down in heavy dollops that sizzled with heat and greedily burned and consumed everything they touched, generating even more of the toxic, devastating fog and stench that was playing havoc with their minds and bodies alike. The tentacles hammered down again, smashing into the forest with enough force to send massive branches falling down, some of the trunks bending until they shattered in great explosions of wooden shrapnel, and Lemuel cried out in agony as more of that tremendous ichors leaked into the dome, splattering on his form and melting his armor like it was made of paper. The dark gunk festered with large, writhing parasites that immediately crawled all over him, skittering around with surprising speed as their many spike-like legs tore into his flesh. He slapped them away with a grunt of distaste, eyes bulging as the insect-like creatures leapt up towards his face and screaming when he felt some of them pushing into his mouth. He desperately spat out, grunting as vomit surged up his throat, only adding to the horrendous pain coming from his insides, seemingly all of them, as every breath of toxic air he had taken continued to infect and destroy his organs. An enormous tentacle tore through the outer layer of the forest and slashed viciously towards Elelyon, but the lion immediately stepped in the way and swung out his hammer with all of his strength, smacking the appendage against a tree with enough force to turn several meters of adamantine non-flesh into pulp. But even that gunk festered with deadly parasites, and the plants struggled to purify the dense toxic fog that immediately pushed through the breach and invaded their safe bubble, followed by another terrible tentacle that stabbed right through the wall of trees and then split open, becoming an ugly mouth lined with rows upon rows of gnarly, terrifying teeth. Lemuel sidestepped the fist lunge of that monstrous beast, and slammed his hammer onto its "head", unleashing a blast of solid light that tore through the beast like a blade, shooting out through its lower jaw and making it flail wildly from side to side, howling in agony and spurting poisonous gunk all around.

The gigantic tentacle angrily swung sideways, forcing Lemuel to leap backwards, and several large trees exploded into slivers, the whole green fortress trembling violently as slimy gunk rolled through the breaches in waves, pooling on the ground and rising rapidly in level. Lemuel smacked the horrendous jaws back, knocking dozens of teeth flying off or crumbling into dust, but the beastly appendage only reared up in anger and lunged forth again, snapping its jaws with cruel force and catching the glowing hammer like a toy. Lemuel grunted in shock, wrestling against the tremendous force of the giant tentacle, and his eyes bulged as the other enormous appendages clamped around the forest whole and crushed on it, dragging it towards the edge of the abyss. The lion charged forwards with a roar, pushing back the tentacle and pumping energy into his heavy hammer until a beam of it exploded forth, tearing through the monstrous appendage and slicing it apart, before hurriedly spinning to face another huge tendril that smashed its way through the green canopy and lashed out against him, scarring his back before he could hammer it away.

Ira looked at the forest with a grunt, grimacing as the green dome was slowly but steadily dragged into the darkness. She met Vesta's eyes for a brief moment, and the queen of Heaven nodded with a grimace and sprinted forwards, cutting her way through the ranks of Constructs and vanishing past the edge of Elelyon's forest. Ira looked down at the chains wrapped around her bloodied, scarred, wounded arm, and for a brief instant she hesitated, but then lashed out with a quick, smooth movement, throwing the Lace of Lust so that it skimmed just over the ground and shot right into the forest, smashing through one of the trees like it was made of butter and tearing right through the safe bubble, ripping out of the opposite side of the dome.

Ira flicked her wrist and swung her arm upwards next, and the hook-blade of Discipline jumped up into her grip, allowing her to toss the chain up above the mass of enormous tentacles that hammered brutally on top of the forest dome.

Vesta rammed her shoulder into a lancer, breaking him in half and sending the torso falling into the abyss while its legs collapsed on the spot, and even as other massive statues approached, the goddess's attention went to the dome of trees. A grin spread on her features as the Lace of Lust tore through and shot towards her, and she shouldered her sickleswords to grab the glowing chain instead. She had just enough time to pull on it and straighten before the Chain of Discipline came down from the sky, and she leapt up to catch this one as well, her wings exploding into being with a flash of fire and immediately propelling her hard backwards. Ira yanked in the opposite direction, and the two chains tensed and clamped viciously upon the tangle of monstrous tentacles, squeezing them together in a group and making them flail in agony, squeaking audibly as the glowing, energy-charged links tore through metal and flesh, sending toxic gunk spraying out in every direction until the whole group of appendages was guillotined into halves. Enormous pieces of tentacle fell onto the ground and trashed wildly, swinging from side to side as they spasmed in agony and pushed out stinking, horrible deluges of toxic gunk and masses of skittering, bug-like parasites, while the gigantic "mouth" around them clenched tighter again, flexing and moving as the planet itself seemed to howl in pain for a moment. What was left of the chopped tentacles retreated into the darkness, up near the roof of the cave, dripping down an unholy rain of acid gunk, and Vesta and Ira grunted as they dragged on the chains to pull the forest back from the edge of the abyss.

Finally, Ira called the chains back to her, and Vesta charged right up to the edges of the forest, grabbing the edge of one of the breaches and barking: "Did you find out where the damn portal is, already...?"

Lemuel looked at her in disbelief that rapidly turned into anger as he muttered: "We were too busy trying to survive, if you didn't notice!"

"Harbinger is the portal." Elelyon hurriedly said, almost shouting to overcome Lemuel's voice and get Vesta's attention. He looked at her pleadingly, shaking his head and warning: "We can't kill her, Vesta. Not until she has the backing of the Sisters. Her power will bring her back, again and again and again. And she'll be stronger every time. I really don't think we can force her to open the portal."

Vesta grunted and made a grimace of disgust, cursing under her breath as she turned around to leave, and Elelyon looked after her with concern, shouting: "Come inside, before the gas and the parasites kill you! We must retreat!"

"No we don't." Vesta coldly muttered, spitting a mouthful of poisoned, disgusting, rotting blood out of her mouth and drawing her sickleswords as the constructs again charged forwards.

"We can't do shit here!" Lemuel urged, pointing a hand at the flexing walls of the dark "mouth" around them as it tried to swallow them down into the abyss. "The whole planet is trying to eat us alive! We will end up melted like morsels into a stomach!"

"No, it only means we have to destroy the planet." Vesta muttered, and she gazed towards Alexis, making a cutting gesture in front of her throat. Before anyone could more, however, the abyss visibly flexed and shifted, and an immense cloud of toxic gas and maggots and parasites was blown into the mouth-like cave. The plants of Elelyon's forest immediately began to wither and die, the flowers turning black and dead, their petals taking on the consistence of ancient, frail parchment as even the massive trunks shrunk and dried away to husks. Vesta and Ira covered their eyes as best they could and turned their backs on that vicious assault, stumbling backwards and hissing in agony as the acid made their hides sizzle and cover in bubbles and warts and pustules. Their flesh and hides tensed so violently that wounds ripped themselves open in their bodies, cutting deep into their solid muscles as they coughed up blood and did their best to wrap themselves in incandescent flames of energy that consumed as much of the gas as possible while also incinerating the literal swarms of parasites that floated in that thick, almost liquid fog.

An incandescent wind of fire, burning at unfathomable temperatures, propelled that stinking cloud of death out of the abyss. It was like the Sun was rolling over them, and they groaned under its crushing weight and the impossible heat that turned their weapons into red-hot instruments of torture in their hands and threatened to cook them all alive. The forest around Elelyon and Lemuel was bent out of shape by that terrifying tornado of fire, and the divine trees overheated visibly, glowing like they were made of metal before finally melting, dissolving into little more than crimson vapor... but Elelyon turned around to face the new assault, pushing his hands against the whirlwind, and the flows of crimson, incandescent energy suddenly slowed down and became almost docile as the ancient creator moved his hands with a breathless grunt of fatigue, his muscles bulging and his back arching visibly as he folded those impossible stellar winds upon themselves, compressing them in his hands and forming a new small Sun that floated harmlessly around him, orbiting around his form.

Lemuel half-hid behind his lover, looking in awe at that display of power and prowess, but new and even more violent gushes of incandescent wind erupted out of the abyss, forcing Elelyon to repeat the feat again, and then once more... before an immense head pushed out of the dark well, towering over them all as Harbinger straightened, growing immense, titanic, filling the whole dark cave before her large breasts could even emerge from the well. Her armor now hugged her form tightly, her body bulging with new and powerful muscles and her smooth, cool, shark-like hide now revealing a pattern of small, overlapping, metallic scales that formed an impenetrable protection layer. Her metallic wings somehow poked through the roof and walls of the mouth-like cave without producing any visible damage, catching Alexis's attention, making her frown with a mix of anger and curiosity. Was it a bluff? Just an illusion...?

"No illusions, Lady Alexis!" Harbinger cheerfully replied, grinning cruelly, her eyes glowing with such energy that they shone with soulless, terrible white light even through her blindfold. The ugly, fleshy mass of the planet-mouth adjusted to her growing body and visibly began to merge with it, the mutant tissue and growths becoming one with the Harbinger's wings and with her muscular form.

The whole cave around them flexed violently and clenched tighter, becoming smaller as the walls rushed in against them, knocking the armada of constructs around like it was just a set of toy soldiers. Vesta and Ira turned around to face the rumbling mass of stone bodies that were scooped up like pebbles and sent rolling ruinously towards them, moving like a gigantic, planet-wide landslide. Their bodies glowed threateningly as the runes covering their forms burned with energy, supercharging and preparing to explode, and the two goddesses cursed under their breath, staring at that apocalyptic scene for a brief moment of shock.

The toxic, cruel fog became almost solid around them as the cave flexed again, trying to swallow them whole and leaving an ever smaller space for them as Harbinger laughed and straightened further, her head pushing through the dark walls of the cave and vanishing from sight.

"The planet... it is... just part of her belly!" Lemuel shouted, even though his voice almost refused to come out of his throat as he suffocated on the masses of parasites and on the sheer thickness of the compressed toxic gas that was frying the flesh off their bones. He coughed up poisoned blood and dark gunk that could only be described as ruin, and his voice carried a clear note of horror as his eyes opened wide, staring into those ichors and wondering what was happening to his insides. "She'll digest us alive...!"

Vesta leaned forwards with a roar, pumping energy out of her hands and forming it up into a gigantic shield as the wall of the cave rushed forwards with renewed ferocity, pushing ahead a literal mountain of constructs. Ira formed a large sphere of focused force into her hands, growling as she hurled it viciously into the mass of bodies and watched it explode, disintegrating hundreds of the statues and causing many others all around to explode, generating a chain effect that filled much of the dark cave with fire and destruction, hammering Vesta's shield with a storm of boulders and shrapnel of adamantine rock.

"Alexis, we need to retreat!" Elelyon again urged, looking up in shock as the walls of the cave shifted and flexed, bulging and morphing as Harbinger's body evolved and assimilated the whole planet. New and massive tangles of muscle chord expanded all around them, constricting and swelling, leaking acids and corruption that corroded and dissolved everything they touched, and the wall ahead of them suddenly opened like a cruel mouth, unleashing a grotesque tangle of mammoth tentacles. Harbinger's planet-digesting guts ripped themselves apart to turn into a multitude of monstrous tentacles jutting with spikes and cruel mouths and ending in circular jaws that vomited monstrous jets of terrifying, parasite-festering gunk. Lemuel swung his heavy hammer against the flood, smashing shark-sized parasites back and shredding them into pieces while holding up a wall of solid light to contain the flood of devastating corruption that threatened to wash them all away. "Teleport us away from here!"

"We are going nowhere without Killer." Alexis coldly countered, and her eyes became pits of burning sapphire fire as energy crackled violently around her powerful form. She flexed her formidable musculature and growled in rage and frustration as she began to grow, her height doubling in a mere instant and her muscles swelling even larger in proportion. "I'll gut her like a goddamn fish, but it's not going to keep her down for long, for sure. Get out of here quickly, and then stay back. Ira and Vesta will make up the first line; give them support in whatever way you can."

Elelyon looked up at her in a mix of disbelief and horror, but nonetheless found the strength to nod in agreement, watching as she closed her eyes and grew even further, towering ten times taller than a moment before as she swung Wyvern out against the tremendous coils of gut-tentacles, chopping two of them into halves and blasting the pieces away from her with a shockwave of psychic power. She turned her eyes towards Ira and Vesta, thrusting a hand out towards the enormous pile of toppling, exploding constructs and sending them all crashing back into the wall of Harbinger's belly, crushing them against her growing mass of muscles until they exploded in a terrifying blast of fire and energy. "I need you to cover my back while I deal with the black holes!" Alexis warned, and the other two goddesses nodded in understanding and allowed their own energies to surge out, crackling violently around their forms as they grew taller and stronger, preparing for the terrible clash ahead.

"What you want to do is impossible!" Lemuel barked, his eyes bulging as he spread out his arms in a mix of despair and exasperation. "Teleport us away from here before it is too late! The black holes will swallow you whole."

Alexis wanted to snap out against him, her fangs gritting angrily as a snarl came up from her throat, but she focused instead on stabbing Wyvern through the solid, impenetrable wall of titanic muscle that flexed and grew, clenching tighter with every passing second as Harbinger's massive, rippling abs worked to crush them right towards her destructive tentacle-guts and a core of pure, destructive darkness seemingly resting deep in the middle of their tangle.

Alexis grew even faster as she rammed Wyvern forwards with all of her strength, driving the blade through thick chords of mutant, massive muscle that flexed with such strength that the goddess feared they would bend even the godly crimson blade. Alexis gritted her fangs and fought back against their impossible strength, grinning viciously as dark blood and gunk burst thickly out of the wound while Wyvern's blade progressively vanished into the dark wall of flesh... before snarling as her head bumped up against the slimy, corrupt, mutant muscle and flesh, her body filling up much of the space in the dark, poisonous cave as Wyvern sunk in right to the hilt, its three blades sticking out of Harbinger's abs as the blindfolded monster let out a cry of agony. Alexis roared and flexed once more, trying to ignore the agony caused by the slimy, toxic gunk covering her and burning into her flesh. Parasites skittered horribly all over her body and viciously bit into her, tunneling into her muscles, digging even into her face, pushing into even her eyes even as she tried to burn them out of existence with the incandescent fire of her energies.

She shut her eyes as tightly as she could, desperately trying to protect them, and there were only pain and darkness when her ears finally heard the wet, sick squelch of Harbinger's belly bursting apart, sliced open by Wyvern and then destroyed completely as Alexis's body grew even further, expanding until she towered at least as tall as the blindfolded guardian, if not more... and Vesta and Ira grew alongside her, roaring in fury as they rammed their way out of Harbinger's body.

The cold, unforgiving vacuum of space came onto their skins as a relief after the tormenting heat and acid of Harbinger's insides, and Alexis hurriedly wiped the gunk and parasites away from her eyes, almost clawing into her own flesh in the desperate need to know them gone. She spun around with a snarl, forcing her eyes open and staring at Harbinger as the blindfolded goddess floated backwards, hissing in rage more than pain even as her abdomen hang in shreds of metallic flesh and pulped, rotten gore, her belly replaced by a horrific gape lined with gnarled, broken ribs and bones that moved slightly, eagerly, looking like fangs growing in messy, ugly disorder. Her fat, powerful coils of intestines immediately pushed out of her ruined body, reaching out like worms, slithering and shivering as they leaked unholy amounts of toxic, corruptive gunk. They flailed angrily, tearing loudly apart in places and mutating, becoming thicker, fatter, longer and solid, muscular tentacles in their own right, all ending in gaping, savage jaws that leaked ropes of pestilence and ruin. The horrendous wound in her abdomen flexed and snapped closed truly like a mouth, and when it opened again, the heavy gut-tentacles lashed out all the harder, vomiting thick spurts of toxic, hideous essence and lunging forwards to wrap around Alexis's muscular form.

The goddess spun around fully and slashed Wyvern savagely up through the horrendous tangle of squirming, muscular worms, chopping them right off but growling in disgust and rage as the cut "heads" rapidly mutated and became giant, terrifying leeches that sought to bite into her flesh, into her muscles, even into her large breasts, both sucking her energies and very flesh out and pumping into her some sort of vile, acid gunk.

Harbinger rumbled, her almost angelic beauty shattering like an illusion as she fully absorbed and assimilated the alive, monstrous planet that she had used as base. Her body became bulkier, hideous and savage, more powerful as muscles bulged out of her once slender frame, her back arching as she flexed and sinew spread, tumors and growths spreading all over her once perfect hide, devouring her armor and shattering it into pieces of sharp metal that became thorns and spikes and blades jutting from her chaotic, ever-mutating form.

Alexis grabbed the handle of Wyvern with both hands and swung the enormous sword up without hesitation, tearing through the beast's neck and decapitating her neatly, before pushing out one palm and unleashing a torrent of golden fire right into her gaping abdomen, burning the flailing gut-tentacles into ashes and consuming her hideous body, sending it falling towards the enormous dome of black holes that protected and hid the cloister.

Harbinger let out a roar of rage as the tremendous gravity pull of the mass of black holes gripped into her like a titanic, invincible hand, dragging her down all the harder and faster, yanking her around in a wide, crazy orbit around the first of the massive dark cores, but the gigantic blindfolded goddess had enough strength to spread her arms, pointing her hands towards distant stars and summoning incandescent winds of energy directly from them.

Vesta and Ira had to hurriedly fly out of the way as those crimson winds condensed into ropes of stellar fire, which Harbinger used to heft herself back up into the fight, dragging distant suns across space like they were no more than bowling balls. The tremendous whips of fire slashed viciously past Ira as she used her great wings to shoot out of the way, eyes glowing solid emerald as she flexed her powerful musculature and grew, ten, one hundred times her original sizes in a mere blink, then even more as she arched her back and turned to face Harbinger, blasting her with a wave of psychic force.

The blindfolded monstrosity leaned into her assault and slapped it out of course with terrifying ease, grinning widely as she dragged on the fire ropes and deliberately swung the captive suns against the cobra, who grunted and shielded her face with one muscular, powerful arm. The two stars smashed into her bicep and forearm respectively, burning the surface of her adamantine scales... but shattering into incoherent clouds of burning dust as the goddess flexed and shoved them away with brutal strength.

Helpless planets in the distance were hurled out of orbit by the terrifying force of her idle movement, and the cobra swallowed a bit at the realization of her own power and of the unprecedented scale of that clash, before looking up with a growl as she felt her movements slowing down unnaturally.

Harbinger grinned widely as she clawed into the very fabric of reality, tearing large wounds in it with claws that had extended into flexible, incandescent blades. Time became dense and unmoving around the cobra, nailing her in place just as Harbinger began to open a vast portal to her pocket dimension.

Ira grunted, flexing uselessly against her ethereal but solid prison in time, her eyes widening as Harbinger spun the circular portal on top of a terrible claw and then hurled it against her: it cut through reality like a blade, leaving behind itself a vast swath of ruin and of motes of energy which disorderly floated around. The portal disassociated energy, breaking down reality itself, and Ira gritted her fangs, hissing at the thought of what it would do to her... before the second Alexis, tiny in comparison to their grown, expanded bodies but no less powerful, slammed down on Harbinger's muzzle and stabbed Wyvern hard into the monster's forehead.

The first, immense, titanic Alexis swept in with ferocious might, smashing the full-size Wyvern into Harbinger with such apocalyptic force that Elelyon clearly saw the fabric of reality torn and deformed, rippling violently behind the crimson blade as its colossal mass dragged entire worlds into new and doomed orbits. Wyvern chopped Harbinger in two like a breadstick, and at the same time slammed the mutant monster towards the black holes, which again greedily latched on her form and dragged her pieces towards oblivion. Ira exploited the moment to close her eyes and teleport out of her restraints, breaking through the prison of time and ducking the destructive portal which continued to rotate like a sawblade. The cobra carefully clamped the portal between the blades of her twin swords, and she roared as she spun around, throwing the hellish weapon after Harbinger and catching her right in the throat, decapitating the blindfolded goddess in one clean pass.

Harbinger let out a short-lived cry of shock and agony, before her head almost literally vanished as it fell into the orbit of the first supermassive black hole, beginning to spin around it at a wild, indescribable speed before simply exploding in a splatter of crimson gunk that almost instantaneously vaporized.

Her body still flexed, mutating and evolving even while her legs were devoured by the black abyss and Alexis's golden fire continued to consume her from within. Her torso grew larger and bulkier, swelling with an even larger, grotesque musculature that punched new wounds through her mutant, horrid hide. Every new gash wept a terrible toxic gunk that festered with monstrous parasites, but before it could evolve any further, Vesta dived from high above and hacked both of her sickleswords into it, cutting down almost all the way from the shoulders to the waist and then ripping violently in the opposite directions, tearing her blades free and breaking the mutant, monstrous mass into two.

The broken pieces fell through space like meteors, greedily sucked in by the gigantic black hole and crushed out of existence, but they continued to mutate and evolve right to the very last moment... and when they finally shattered, they unleashed a cloud of toxic ruin that spread through space like a new nebula. Lemuel and Elelyon vainly tried to escape from that tremendous, incorporeal apocalypse that chased after them like an alive thing, coating their bodies with a stinking acid that burned into their flesh with mind-shattering ferocity. The powerful, horrible stench filled with heads with such insistence that their senses were almost completely blinded just as an immense horde of parasitic monstrosities began to take shape in the deadly fog. What had been large, bug-like skitters were now turning into massive, heavily armoured beasts dripping with corruption and ruin and armed with long stinger-tails and elongated bodies jutting with segmented talon-arms. They charged forwards in swarms, propelled by wings of ethereal blue fire... and the two gods were forced to battle them back as they effortlessly flew past them on all sides, moving at absurd speed, as if literally pushed by that destructive fog, making any attempt to disengage completely pointless.

"Mistress Lachesis wants you, Alexis, and she always gets what she wants." Harbinger's voice warned, coming from behind the dark barrier made up of Black Holes and sounding like there was a whole horde of blindfolded goddesses, not just one of them. "It doesn't matter how much you struggle, or how many times you kill me. I'll keep coming back, again and again, as long as Mistress Lachesis wills it."

Alexis ignored her threats, glaring down with disgust at the hordes of savage parasites that eagerly clung to her body, covering her muscles, biting and clawing and burning into them, tearing into her flesh and pumping toxic gunk through her hide. Her powerful aura incinerated them, burning their bodies into stinking, horrid dark mush, but the toxic fog that kept spreading through the emptiness of space somehow spurred them into constant regeneration and evolution. The dark sludge clung to her body like a living thing, mutating and shifting shape, generating spikes and hooks that ripped into her... or at least attempted to, as her formidable musculature flexed and pushed back against them with enough force to shatter the blades and push them back out of her form, while the damage regenerated rapidly.

Alexis angrily lashed out with her psychic force, tearing through the cloud of semi-solid gas that was clamping around her body like a gigantic hand, and countless other large parasites were crushed into pulp and blasted away from her. Her eyes burned horribly and tears of blood streaked down her cheeks, but she paid no attention to the pain and instead focused on smashing her way through the toxic gunk, her muscles flexing in a mix of fear and eagerness as she felt the Black Holes pulling on her body with greater and greater force.

She was painfully aware of how insane it was to float directly towards an enormous wall composed by an enormous number of Black Holes, but part of her relished the challenge of wrestling with the most powerful and destructive of all manifestations of nature. Her muscles flexed with barely contained vigor as she floated closer to that infernal barrier, and she gritted her fangs when the gravity force began to truly clamp on her limbs, then on her whole torso, making her ribs creak audibly as she grunted breathlessly, feeling the tremendous force that attempted to crush her and drag her away at the same time. She didn't immediately realize it, but her body grew larger and larger, bulging with even greater musculature and power as she advanced: the more the Black Holes challenged her strength, the more her body responded by overwhelming them with even greater mass and brutal strength.

She shouldered Wyvern and pushed her bare hands forwards, holding her breath as they sunk through the shapeless, terrifying darkness, becoming heavier and heavier with every passing second as her fingers were forcefully bent forwards... but she rolled her shoulders with a savage grin, looking down at her enormous biceps as they flexed and bulged in full glory, veins pumping visibly along them as her strength grew faster than even the gravity pull of the Black Holes.

Tiny glitter flashed through the darkness ahead of her and clung to her glorious body, coating her forearms with countless small lights, and she frowned for a moment before realizing that every last little glint came from a planet, a moon, a star. They crashed into her, drawn to her immense body and power in a way that they just could not oppose, and the goddess arched her back slightly, grunting in dark delight at the realization of her own omnipotence. Those doomed worlds, dragged for countless light years, torn out of their orbits and enslaved by her mere presence, were the measure of her current power and sizes. Their apocalypses were nothing to her; their destruction against her hard, perfect muscles went completely unnoticed even as they became nothing more than glitter stuck to the light sheen of divine, pearly sweat covering her perfect form. They were nothing to her, nothing but an unwanted decoration. Unnecessary glitter and body oil that only added to the perfection of her hulking musculature and to the glory of her flawless beauty. She licked her lips hungrily, only faintly aware of the countless worlds that she destroyed with just that insignificant little movement, wondering how many stars she had just extinguished with her saliva, and how many were stuck to her lips, looking like nothing but lipstick. Her body glinted like she was a stripper oiled and glittered up for a show, and she couldn't help but think of dancing for her lover and Master, seducing him, pleasing him, teasing him while wearing the ruin and destruction of countless worlds, of infinite, powerless lives.

There was no telling exactly how tall she now was, but she grunted in ecstasy, knowing all too well that this was by far the greatest display of power she had ever allowed herself to put up... and rumbling as she realized that there was even more power destined for her, even greater omnipotence to be unlocked, even more strength for punishing and destroying and crushing. Numerous Anchors crashed into her and shattered, releasing their terrifying force, but they went by almost unnoticed, almost unimportant, devoured and consumed by her body without the need for a single effort, for a single conscious thought on her part. Those tremendous energies rushed into her and only got lost into a far greater furnace of power that outshone the stars and reduced them to puny candles.

Planets and stars orbited around her body and them crashed into her, meteors too small and puny to be noticed as they shattered helplessly against her muscles, mere droplets that fell into the ocean of her power, and she rumbled hungrily as the wall of darkness visibly trembled and rippled, beginning to let some of her blinding, incandescent light pierce through. The darkness retreated from her hands and wrists, shrinking away as if in terror, and as the light crept through, some of the Black Hole cores became visible, their edges becoming distinguishable.

For the first time ever, Alexis also caught a glimpse, a fleeting feel of the presence of something so incredibly powerful and limitless that it could only be the Well of Eternity, the source of all Life, of all energy, of all existence. The only passage that speared through the Unworld and connected Existence and Void, Reality and Chaos.

Alexis trembled in a mix of awe, hunger and fear at the sheer immensity of the force that she felt radiating from the Well. It was an unfathomable fire, a pulsing, thrumming heart filled with indescribable vigor. And she drooled hungrily, her eyes losing all signs of humanity and burning with ferocity and greed as her heart seemed to attune itself with those great waves of power. It called to her. It threatened, and at the same time it begged to be taken and devoured. Her body flexed, muscles bulging explosively as she roared, rattling the universes with the power of her voice alone, and she leaned forwards with a snarl, pushing her hands deeper into the expanding breach of light, and pulling in the opposite directions to enlarge that fissure.

The Black Holes moved slightly as her terrifying physical strength interrupted the continuity of their gravity fields, causing a visible ripple to travel through the dark dome, deforming it visibly as Alexis's hands bumped into two pairs of black hole cores and began to force them further apart.

"How eager to get inside, Alexis... Lachesis is eager to meet you, but this is not the right time yet. You are not allowed to jump the queue! Wait for your summoning!" Harbinger coldly barked, but Alexis only snarled and flexed, yanking harder on the black holes in her grip, gritting her fangs as she squeezed into them, marveling at their absurd weight and their tremendous force, which threatened to rip the flesh off her bones, pulling on her fingers with such vicious energy that she thought they'd soon snap off her hands. The cores were incandescent, hotter than any other kind of star as they crushed and consumed everything they absorbed, turning even light into tremendous, apocalyptic heat and sheer mass.

"You are only ensuring yourself a lot more pain than would be needed, Alexis." Harbinger threatened, and the breach in the dark wall glowed for a moment as it spat out several large portal-blades that deformed reality as they spun wildly forwards. Alexis saw them coming with some margin, their ghost images filling her mind long before they were actually launched, but the goddess refused to let go of the breach and refused to try and dodge them. She snarled as they cut into her throat, her breasts, her abs, her arms, slamming into her adamantine white hide and trembling violently as they recoiled, failing to penetrate her armor-like skin and her massive, bulging muscles. They slammed into her again and again, their edges cracking and losing pieces even as they desperately attempted to cut through her hulking muscles, and Harbinger grunted in surprise and awe before shoving them forwards all the harder, forcing their cruel mouths to open wider and devouring the very fabric of reality around Alexis.

"You can try all you want..." Alexis furiously hissed, looking down at the blades as they finally began to slice through her flesh, ripping ugly wounds into her arms and chest, sending her blood splattering all over the dark dome. The circular portals finally tore into her, and their hollow centers proved far more deadly than their sharp edges, as her flesh and muscle was absorbed into the portals and began to lose coherence, losing shape and definition as large motes of energy flaked off her body. "You are not going to disassociate my energies, no matter how hard you try." Alexis coldly rumbled, leaning forwards with even greater ferocity and denting the black wall inwards with the tremendous force of her arms. The energy that drifted away from her wounds floated lazily towards the black holes, but before it could get any real distance away from her glorious form, it was sucked back into her, devoured and assimilated once more.

Elelyon stared at the scene in awe, looking up at the immense, titanic goddess and feeling like an ant in her shadow, his eyes bulging as shreds of pure, raw energy larger than solar systems were viciously torn off her body only to be reabsorbed with dramatic ease. Her biceps bulged explosively, covered in the tiny, trembling glints of light of so many powerless stars caught in her sweat, and her squeezed handfuls of Black Holes with such impossible strength that he could see the dark cores cracking and deforming, shrinking as much of their energy leaked out and was effortlessly absorbed into her palms.

Terrible, mutant parasitic beasts leapt against him, but he pushed back with the palm of his hand, forming a solid wall in their path and smashing it into their bodies, before flicking his wrist to turn the rigid barrier into a flexible "cloth" that wrapped completely over them and crushed them into pulp with a loud, ugly squelch. His skin was almost entirely gone, hanging in bloody shreds from a body that sizzled and bubbled with violence, smoldering as the tremendous, toxic fog threatened to decompose him while he still lived, but even through the agony and the fighting he couldn't help but admire Alexis's majesty and wonder about what she truly was. Her power went far beyond not just everything he had witnessed in his long life, but also everything he had imagined, and it defied any attempt to name it and classify it. It was impossible not to stare, because her beauty and her power were simply astounding and demanded worship and attention. Even as cruel parasites kept charging at him, his eyes kept going back to the glorious, titanic goddess that dwarfed the stars. He could actually only see a small part of her because of how much she towered over them all, but the image of her was literally seared with fire into his brain, allowing him to stare with amazing clarity even at the parts of her that were far outside his field of view.

Lemuel was just as helpless, his head snapping up to let him stare at her, every time he managed to swing his hammer out and smack some of the parasites away. A great explosions of light erupted from his heavy hammer as he smashed it through the hideous head of a huge parasite, and thunderous discharges of crackling energy tore in every direction around him, shooting through several other of the monsters and frying them into ashes, knocking dozens of them flying away and crashing into the endless horde of others charging forwards through the fog... but even that chaos around him paled into insignificance in her presence. His light was a mere candle compared to the omnipotent, dominant sapphire fire burning in her eyes: it seemed to melt even the black holes, tearing new breaches through the wall of darkness and illuminating the empty space around them in a sinister yet glorious way. A shiver went down his spine as he realized that Alexis's almighty, immense body had literally drawn in every world, every galaxy, every nebula and asteroid, every star in a range of who knew how many light years, and turned all those realities into nothing but posing oil that clung to her hulking, prodigious musculature. The space around them, all around the Center of Existence, was now well and truly empty, conquered and absorbed by her magnificent power without Alexis ever even thinking of it, without her ever acknowledging the apocalypse that her mere presence caused. Lemuel's jaws gaped open and awe filled his entire body, making him tremble in a mix of fear and adoration, hate and slavish love. He was painfully aware of the many civilizations that she had just completely annihilated, and he couldn't even begin to imagine how many lives she had unknowingly snuffed out of existence like mere candles... and much as the thought horrified him, he couldn't help but adore her, and worship her, almost vocally praise her for her absurd power and for her flawless, glorious presence. She hated the tyrannical, merciless excess of her power... and at the same time drooled in awe of it, feeling his spine almost physically bent as a superior force commanded him to grovel in submission.

The parasites themselves were clearly suffering the burden of Alexis's presence: even their cruel, empty minds couldn't escape the awareness of her power and their hordes half-froze in midair, staring, hissing, drooling, knowing that they had to attack her but no longer truly daring to get close to her formidable body as the energy radiating off her crackled in thunderbolts that tore through space and disintegrated everything they touched.

"No matter how big you become, you will still do as Mistress Lachesis commands." Harbinger venomously said, and the great portals that were vainly trying to cut Alexis into pieces suddenly changed their shape, curling up on themselves to become energy-absorbing chains and ropes that slithered around Alexis's arms like titanic serpents, leaving behind smoldering scars that glowed with tremendous heat as flakes of vital essence fell away like dead cells. Alexis hissed in agony and fury at that, glaring down at the living restraints and at the clouds of toxic gunk and parasites that the portal-ropes leaked directly into her wounds, infecting them before they could close and regenerate. Vesta and Ira reached approached from the two sides, growing up as much as they could, swallowing in awe as Alexis continued to tower and loom over them like a titan, despite their own universe-dwarfing statures. Being near the empress made them sweat with fear and arousal, their eyes glowing with lustful fire as they helplessly stared at Alexis, drooling visibly even as they grabbed the ropes and chains clamping down on her body, yanking on them with all of their strength. Their hands immediately smoldered and sizzled, their flesh burning and their energies flaking away rapidly as the portal-ropes devoured their very essence, but the cobra and the tigress flexed and traded a little nod before pulling in the opposite directions, roaring as they struggled against the force of a whole pocket dimension and the strength of Harbinger, who pulled on the ropes from the safety of the Cloister. "Stop interfering, you annoyances." Harbinger coldly hissed, blasting both goddesses backwards with matching shockwaves of psychic force that slammed into Vesta and Ira with enough violence to make them vomit blood, their backs arching as they half-collapsed forwards. Their hands continued to pull on the terrible ropes, however, and both females grinned slightly as they gave their mistress more freedom of action.

"Mistress Lachesis has no uses for you two. Stop wasting my time!" Harbinger barked, and this time two copies of the blindfolded monstrosity passed through the wall of Black Holes, towering as tall as Alexis, if not more, and flexing bodies that had turned hideous but also powerful, covered in mutations and jutting with fat, powerful tentacles lined with poisoned spikes and thorns. Vesta and Ira recoiled in front of those abominations, but refused to let go of the energy-consuming ropes even as the spiked tentacles lashed into them and wrapped tightly around their forms, stabbing deep into their flesh and immediately beginning to pump their toxic, devastating payload of pestilence and decay. The massive tentacles lengthened and grew quickly, coiling all around the two goddesses as the two Harbingers grinned cruelly and charged forwards, their deadly talons glowing with sinister, otherworldly force... and in the exact same moment, Vesta and Ira smirked as Alexis suddenly let go of the black holes, snarling as she gripped the energy-sapping ropes in her hands and ducked out of their loosened embrace. Both Harbingers turned towards her with gapes of surprise, and before they could do more than slash their incandescent talons against her, Alexis had already snapped the rope up, almost forming a lasso which she sent clamping down on the two mutated monsters. The two Harbingers let out matching cries of outrage and pain as the tremendous rope tensed and tightened viciously around their necks, smacking their skulls together with a sick crunch before Alexis's wings spread into being with a glorious explosion of golden fire that casted an amazing dawn across the whole universe. Harbinger stared at this in horror, clawing viciously into the ligeress's body and digging bloody trenches in her abs, trying to get to her inner organs but only scratching horrendously on the adamantine cage of metal-bone that protected Alexis's insides. In the space of a blink, Alexis shot upwards into the emptiness of space, roaring as she stomped her boots down on the shoulders of the two Harbingers and yanked on the supernatural rope at the same time, savagely hanging both of them and gritting her fangs in a cruel grin as their spines loudly shattered, before both heads were torn completely off as large shreds of flesh and motes of energy were ripped loose. "Have a taste of your own methods!" Alexis growled, dropping down from the sky and snapping the rope in two halves just as the two headless bodies flexed and began to mutate even further, bulging with grotesque, enormous muscles and erupting great clouds of toxic gunk and hordes of ferocious parasites. Alexis balled both hands into fists, clenching the two loose pieces of rope in either hand, and she brutally punched them deep into the Harbinger's severed necks, making a grimace that was half-disgust and half-pleasure as she literally made her "eat" her own pocket dimension.

At the same time, Vesta and Ira charged forwards and tackled the two Harbingers, smashing the mutating, hideous bodies down into the partial breach in the wall of Black Holes, growling as they pushed down with all their strengths, ignoring the tentacles and the acid, the parasites and Harbinger's terrible claws as they punched and shoved the two bodies into the narrow opening, slamming it against Black Hole cores that dragged on the two monsters with enough force to literally rip chunks of ugly, decaying flesh from the bones. Alexis cracked her knuckles and began to hit the two monsters with tremendous, brutal strength, her punches ramming the two bodies deeper into the mass of countless Black Holes: Harbinger's breasts burst apart like cheap implants when Alexis's fists slammed through them, tearing down all the way into her ribcage. The empress snarled in fury as stinking, toxic blood-gunk sprayed thickly up over her form, sizzling against her hide, spreading pestilence and corruption as ugly, large eyes opened in the messy, chaotic growths that sprouted up through the wounds in the bodies of Harbinger.

Alexis grunted in frustration and fury, slamming her fist down through one of those huge crimson eyeballs and squishing it in a splatter of crimson gunk that was hotter than a sun as it splattered all over her knuckles. Two more eyes opened to replace the shattered one, and large tentacles grew up from the broken mess of Harbinger's body as the headless monster cackled morbidly and then seemed to burst apart, her deformed torso splitting open and becoming a cruel mouth with sharp, gnarled ribs as fangs and with a tangle of fat gut-tentacles in place of a tongue. Enormous chords of muscle and ropes of sinew tore through what was left of Harbinger's decaying hide as the corpse became a weapon, an otherworldly portal to a toxic inferno which opened wide and then snapped closed on Alexis's arm, tearing into her muscles, shredding her gargantuan bicep, making the empress growl in fury and agony.

"You cannot kill me. You cannot stop me. Nothing can." Harbinger's voice insisted, dripping with cruel glee even as Alexis blindly clawed and gripped into the mutating, evolving, diseased insides of the monstrous beast that was trying to tear her arm right off. Ira moved forwards and slashed Arctica through the rotten, evolving meat and the pulsing tangles of thick sinew, slicing Harbinger open from one end to the other as ice attempted to spread through the wound and all over the monster's body... but Harbinger only laughed as her hideous, chaotic form evolved even further, jutting with a thousand tendrils and appendages and bone-spikes that dropped terrible disease. The second Harbinger attempted to rip out of the breach in the wall of Black Holes, flexing powerfully as a thick tangle of enormous tentacles erupted out of its chaotic form and slammed back into the dark wall protecting the Cloister, hefting her upwards.

Vesta charged forwards and slammed both of her sickleswords down into the mutant monstrosity, slicing its confused body open and cutting two of the tentacles... but even that horrendous wound rapidly mutated, evolved, as new eyes ripped open in the beast's muscular, enormous hands and its broken torso became a horrendous crater that leaked and sprayed out pure corruption and disease. The queen of Heaven hissed in pain as hordes of parasites crashed onto her body and immediately began to rip and tear into her, while the toxic gunk turned her armor-like hide into liquid, melting her flesh away, but she still rammed her shoulder forwards into Harbinger as the monster again tried to break free.

Alexis snarled in agony and rage as the mutant beast snapped its ugly jaws again, biting into her shoulder, pulling in her whole arm and dragging her down until her face almost crashed into the hideous expanse of tumors, pustules and diseased growths that covered the endlessly mutating monster. Terrifying acids and squirming, flexing tentacles frayed her arm and ripped off great chunks of flesh and muscle from her bones, threatening to digest her whole limb into diseased pulp... and the goddess shut her eyes with a howl of frustration, leaning forwards with all of her strength and slamming both Harbingers hard down into the Black Holes, crushing them against the supermassive cores.

"You think you can keep me away from my lover, huh...?" Alexis furiously snarled, slamming her fists down again, blindly ripping and tearing into the two monstrous mutations, devastating them, throwing large chunks of rotting meat towards the Black Holes, and hoping to have them absorbing the very essence of that monstrous divinity that seemed unkillable and unstoppable. "Nobody can keep me away from Killer!"

Alexis's mutilated, bloody arm flexed with power, regenerating and growing and mutating, evolving violently, and the crimson eyes in the body of Harbinger opened wide, first in shock and then in agony as massive, muscular tentacles of black flesh erupted out of Alexis's wounds and savagely pierced through the monster, smashing through its body, disintegrating it in an explosion of ugly gunk and massive, horrible parasites. "And if you think you are the only one who can play around with tentacles, you are wrong again!" Alexis coldly hissed, looking down with hate as her tentacles grew further, evolving into beasts with solid, spiked skull-heads with heavy, blocky jaws armed with long, saber-like fangs. They lashed out with savage hunger, drooling acid as they fought over the remaining pieces of Harbinger, before assaulting the other manifestation of the blindfolded female, fearlessly biting into even its diseased, slimy body and ripping it apart with sickening ferocity. Alexis briefly looked down at her wounds and at her devastated arm, grimacing at the sight of the toxic gunk infecting every gash and hissing as her body worked to regenerate itself and subdue and absorb even those horrendous poisons and acids, turning even those into fuel, into yet more energy for her to exploit. She furiously smashed her fists into the small breach in the wall of Black Holes, trying to expand it, trying to smash a decent hole in it, and then she grabbed as many supermassive cores as she could and worked to force them apart. Her tentacles continued to shred and devour the remains of the two Harbingers, breaking them into nothing but bloody mush as they still tried to mutate, evolve and regenerate, and her glorious body flexed with power, muscles swelling even larger as energy and mass were absorbed into her hands as she shrunk and shattered the Black Holes, handling them like they were pebbles. The last few shreds of her clothes fell away, ripped apart by her huge muscles and melted into pulp by Harbinger's tremendous corruption, and Alexis arched her back with a growl as she finally managed to crush two or more of the black cores into her hands, hearing them crumbling between her fingers. Her leviathan cock thrummed with power, slapping heavily into the wall of Black Holes as it flexed with excess vigor, and its tremendous mass sent a ripple through the barrier while coating part of it in her thick, omnivirile, potent cocksludge. Sweat, hypervirile precum and smegma combined to form a black essence that coated the Black Holes and made them smolder as they were burned and mutated and rapidly consumed by her incredibly powerful virility.

"I'm never wrong, Alexis." Harbinger's voice arrogantly declared, and the dark wall rippled violently before several terrible blades of energy pierced through it and stabbed viciously towards the ligeress, tearing into her abs and chest, ripping out of her back and shooting out through space, like huge laser beams aimed at distant stars. Elelyon looked up in horror as Alexis hissed in agony and her jaws gaped open, blood and toxic gunk leaking out of them as the empress arched her back and twitched in a mix of anguish and fury, repressing a roar of pain as Harbinger laughed and pushed her long "pikes" harder forwards, hefting Alexis's body off the barrier. Vesta and Ira looked at the scene in horror, gaping in shock at their impotence against the sudden assault, before looking out into the distance as the beams of energy arched violently in space and snapped back towards them, each one dragging a massive, burning sun as if they were the spiked balls of metal of a Morning Star.

Lemuel and Elelyon pushed back to back, looking at that whole constellation of stars rushing down against them as they swelled larger and larger, pulsing with terrible, unstable power as Harbinger, or maybe Lachesis herself, pumped their terrible, corruptive essence into their cores. The two gods stared at the stars as they changed their color and shape, turning into hideous, gigantic bombs that tore wounds through the fabric of reality, sending ripples across the depths of space and reaching greedily out with long, flailing tentacles of dark, semi-solid gunk.

Elelyon pointed his hands against the incoming stars, struggling against their pulsing, diseased power and crushing the tentacles back into the cores, trying to morph them into new and brighter suns... but his eyes bulged in horror at the large pustules and tumors that swelled explosively into his wounds, pushing his muscles apart, tearing through his flesh and often bursting apart in thick splatters of pestilent ichors. His arms nearly burst apart as the flesh was savagely torn off his bones, making him scream in anguish as Harbinger's powers overwhelmed him and the toxic fog in the air wrapped around him with crushing force, seeping into his wounds and ripping open new ones. "Let go! Let go! Don't be stupid, it will kill you!" Lemuel urged, even though he was vainly trying to force one of the largest stars backwards, holding on to his hammer with both hands and blasting a huge beam of light into the incoming galaxy-annihilating bomb. The parasites suspended in the void around them savagely bit into their bodies, tearing off large chunks of their flesh and digging into their bodies, leaving them trembling in anguish and terror at the immensity of that power, but Ira and Vesta immediately rushed forwards and formed huge shields made with their energies, pushing them up in the way of the stellar bombardment. The huge Suns slammed violently into the shields, exploding with terrifying violence and sending waves of incandescent gas bursting past the edges as both goddesses shrunk behind cover as best they could, gritting their fangs as their arms trembled violently. They recoiled under the savage bombardment, bumping into Alexis's back as they did their best to protect her, but the great ropes of energy flexed around their shields and swung wide round, smacking the mutated stars into their sides, burning deep, ugly holes into their hips and shoulders and arms... before Alexis turned around with a snarl of fury and pain, flexing her enormous musculature and forcing her wounds to close with the violence of guillotines, cutting the beams of energy apart and absorbing them into her body. Dark smoke came out of her lips and nostrils as she half-collapsed forwards, grunting in anguish but nonetheless stopping the mutated stars in midair, freezing them in a psychic grip powerful enough to crack them all like they were made of glass.

Vesta and Ira spun around and used their own psychic wrath to drag the constellation of stars backwards, away from the Black Holes that already greedily yanked on them, eager to devour their mass and become heavier and stronger than ever. The two queens sent the great stars circling around their waists, forming an orbit of fire so terrible that it consumed the hordes of parasites and melted them out of existence, consuming even the poisonous fog, devouring it like it was fuel, surrounding them all with a thick cloud of dark flames that cast flashes of sinister light across the universes all around them.

Lemuel and Elelyon retreated behind that curtain of fire, panting violently and hugging themselves as their bodies attempted to regenerate and heal, exploiting that bubble of cleansed space, but their eyes were constantly drawn to the curtain of fire as billions of monstrous parasites mindlessly charged at it, trying to break through but bursting into ashes.

"It's a fight well out of our league." Lemuel grudgingly admitted, and Elelyon nodded in quiet agreement, trembling as he clutched at his ravaged chest, literally pushing against the large chunks of decaying flesh and ruined muscles that threatened to fall off from his ribs. He looked at the dark, poisonous fire for a few long moments, swallowing in horror at the thought of the supreme power that Harbinger protected. The source of all life was behind that black wall, and it was terrible to think that a monster like Harbinger was so close to the Threads. "No matter how outclassed we are... we must help Alexis get inside." Elelyon firmly said, making a grimace as he looked at his slowly regenerating arm, before muttering: "I can't believe I've allowed this filthy monster to guard the Well, unchallenged! Alexis was right. She was right all along. If this is the real face of the guardian... I don't even want to imagine what the real face of the Sisters is like."

Lemuel grunted, and then cautioned: "Killer and Alexis are tyrants. They know how to smile, but they are tyrants. And I don't know if we have seen their true colors yet."

Elelyon swallowed, nodding slightly, but the poisonous, destructive nature of Harbinger had shaken him to his very core. Alexis and Killer had terrible hungers and did not hesitate to make their own laws and break existing ones... but now that he had seen some of Alexis's true might, he wasn't even sure she could truly blame them at all. They could have done so much more, so much worse, but they did not. They knew the meaning of the word "restraint", at least. Lachesis, apparently, didn't have any.

Alexis flexed, snarling as she yanked the breach open wider, revealing more Black Holes stacked behind the first layers, and her massive, powerful tentacles rammed into the hole, twisting and pushing outwards, working to break it further apart... before her eyes widened as a ghost image of Harbinger filled her mind. Two of her tentacles immediately stabbed hard forwards over her shoulders, catching the blindfolded monstrosity in the face and in the chest as soon as she emerged from the darkness, slamming her back against the dark wall and shattering her skull into ugly, infectious pulp while impaling her straight through the sternum. Grinning eyes immediately burst open in the middle of large pustules and growths over the rest of Harbinger's body, accompanied by multiple large and terrible mouths that laughed loudly, taunting her... but what Alexis really noticed were the other two Harbingers that emerged on either side, charging forwards with matching snarls. The Harbingers had something new in their hands, and it took a moment for Alexis to realize they were the gigantic scale they had seen in the temple earlier. Now it was no longer titanic, but much better attuned to the blindfolded godbeast's sizes... and even before the monsters easily snapped the scales in two pieces, Alexis realized that both arms of it were double-tipped spears.

Vesta flew up in front of Harbinger, slashing her sickleswords in the way of the two spears, slamming them away from her only for the blindfolded monster to spin around and swing the spears round, stabbing the blades at the other extremities right up towards her face. The queen of Heaven bent backwards with a grunt, gritting her fangs as the two spears hissed mere inches away from her features, but she allowed her body weight to drag her down in a somersault, kicking one boot up and striking one of spears, knocking it flying out of Harbinger's hand. The monster snarled, pulling back her pulped hand as it rapidly began to mutate into a tangle of tentacles lined with sharp chunks of bone, and she viciously lunged forwards with the other spear, shooting darts of solidified fire that forced Vesta into using her sickleswords to shield herself. The queen of Heaven dropped down into a split in midair and swept her powerful leg out, but Harbinger easily leapt past it and stabbed her spear downwards, forcing Vesta to roll out of the way before slashing a sicklesword right up into the monster's side, cutting deep through her hip and dragging her across space. Vesta roared as she spun in midair, dragging Harbinger around and then hurling her violently against the black wall... only for the blindfolded divinity to flick a wrist and arrest her own momentum, her body rippling for a moment before splitting in two, generating yet another copy. The two Harbingers charged forwards immediately, and as Vesta leaned forwards to meet them, the spear that she had earlier knocked out of the monster's hand spun around and shot against her back.

Vesta spun around on instinct, grabbing the long weapon before it could rip through her spine and immediately stabbing it under her armpit, snarling as she shoved it violently into one of the assaulting Harbingers while turning around to face the other. Sickleswords and spears clashed together with a great discharge of crackling energy, and the two Harbingers hissed like feral beasts before their bodies flexed and seemed to literally explode, bursting forth with countless tentacles and pestilent growths and pustules full of festering parasites and toxic gunk. Vesta recoiled away from the thick splatters of devastating rot and poison, gritting her fangs as she slashed her twin swords out to parry the lunges of the spears and the cruel swings of the massive, hideous tentacles, and Ira did the same on the other side of Alexis, protecting her from the assaults of the other Harbinger, which had also split into two before growing massive, horrendous and pestilent.

"How long do you think you will be able to resist...?" The headless, broken body of Harbinger teased, its multiple red eyes blinking and looking up at Alexis with sadistic, insane glee, seeming to relish even the agony caused by the ligeress's tentacles as they twisted and slashed through her body, ripping it into shreds, shattering it into pieces, chopping off her limps, devastating her form in every way but only ever causing her monstrous body to mutate and evolve further. Poisonous tendrils and tentacles grew out of the unrecognizable mass of rotting pulp and gore and slammed into Alexis, piercing into her like a million needles of adamantine bone. Every tentacle pulsed and bulged visibly as it pumped toxic gunk into Alexis, making her hiss in agony and frustration and rage... and Harbinger laughed maniacally and insisted: "I can play this game forever, if it is what it takes. The more you damage and kill me, the stronger I will be upon my return... and the more Mistress Lachesis learns about you."

"It doesn't matter how many times you come back. I will kill you as many times it takes." Alexis snarled, but Harbinger's ugly eyes, bulging out of wounds and chaotic growths on her shattered, incoherent and constantly mutating body, only glinted with cruel amusement. Alexis snarled in fury at that, deliberately stabbing her tentacles through those taunting eyes, turning them into nothing but incandescent, sick pulp... and then she grunted in surprise as yet another Harbinger leapt out through the first one, looking like a ghost of darkness as it passed through and spread her arms, spinning two shortened spears and stabbing them up towards the sides of the ligeress's neck.

Alexis had no time to react and she refused to retreat, to let go of the expanding breach in the wall of Black Holes, knowing that every time she let go, even for a moment, the supermassive cores dragged each other back into place, closing the wound again. She closed her eyes with a snarl, just as the two weapons tore into her neck from either side, cutting right through and making her gargle on her own blood, choking on it and the thick, powerful, terrible corruption and pestilence that the spears oozed directly into her slashed throat. Huge, horrible parasites crawled inside her, diving eagerly down her gullet and crawling into her insides, making Alexis shiver in revulsion and pain as she felt countless tickling bug-legs stabbing and piercing into her flesh as the beasts scurried eagerly all over her insides, while others moved up outside of the terrible wounds and crawled all over her features, racing towards her nostrils and eyes.

Her insides burned with agony as the toxic disease began to corrode and rot her bones and her muscles, a horrible heat threatening to cook her alive from inside as their acids and their powerful bites began to consume the bone-cage protecting her mutated vital organs... and her muscles shivered and spasmed out of control as the horrendous beasts dug and burned tunnels through the powerful chords, into the sinews, colonizing her, devouring her, nestling huge piles of their eggs into her and multiplying at tremendous speed. Her strength began to fade away, and the Black Holes in her hands threatened to swallow her fingers whole, their force pulling on her with brutal, endless hunger.

"End of the road, Alexis." Harbinger gleefully taunted, using the spears buried through her neck to heft herself up and wrap her mutated lips over the ligeress' ones, biting into her muzzle with curved, poisonous fangs that sucked the blood away and replaced it with yet more pestilent gunk. The monster's voice came out of the countless other hideous, bent mouths opening over her chaotic body as she shouted with insane delight: "But this is not quite the end... you will meet the glorious Lachesis! The Father and Mother of All! The Ultimate! The Perfection! And you will become part of Her, and She will ascend to an unprecedented glory, to an unimaginable Evolved state! You will be part of the new Cycle, of the whole new era that's about to begin!"

Alexis arched her back, trying to rip away from that hideous, revolting, deadly kiss, but the Blindfolded monster's face immediately split apart, becoming bug-like, almost like a spider as long, segmented tentacles reached forwards and clamped around her skull. Worse, the monstrously deranged body of Harbinger seemed to split open, her guts slurping out of the wound in the form of slimy tentacles that wrapped around Alexis's enormous black shaft, cradling and massaging it almost reverently even as a large tendril pushed into her vast cockmaw and began to loudly suck up her powerful, hypervirile fluids.

Vesta and Ira tried to intervene, but yet more Harbinger copies tore out of the black wall, grinning from vast, hideous maws lined with flailing, "spider-leg" tentacles eager to drag preys into oblivion, and they were swarmed and forced to defend themselves.

Alexis looked down into the blindfold, almost able to see through it, imagining the glinting, delighted eyes behind it and almost choking on her rage at the idea of allowing that disgusting beast to touch her body, even less to defile it in that way... and the bright golden flames surrounding her were suddenly replaced by a dense, thick, terrifying darkness that made the starless depths of devastated space look bright and comforting in comparison. Alexis's eyes burned sapphire with a ferocity that extinguished and eclipsed the distant stars like they were tiny candles, illuminating the devastated universes with an apocalyptic sapphire dawn that was at once beautiful and terrible, incandescent and freezing. It instantaneously incinerated countless worlds, burning the very ground upon them, half-melting their crust until their glowing, burning cores were revealed... and then encased them in indestructible, unforgiving ice.

Her proud, splendid Mohawk of golden hair turned crimson, spectacular and terrible, dancing and burning like fire but with a ferocity that no star could even begin to imitate. Planets and worlds were instantly consumed, snuffed out of existence by her mere hair, and conversely others were born out of their ashes, her mane turning into a glorious, endless big bang that obliterated the old and created the new, with merciless, unforgiving, tyrannical determination, listening to no prayer, bending to no law. Harbinger's terrible, mutated face began to melt like snow, leaking away into a ugly black sludge... while utterly paled in front of the glorious, glowing darkness that spread over Alexis's ivory hide, encasing her in a new, invulnerable skin, smooth and beautiful, solid and liquid at once, which effortlessly drank up the planets and worlds and stars trapped in her pearly sweat, consuming them utterly. It devoured the toxic gunk like it was delicious cream; it turned the skittering parasites into nothing but food; it seemed to drink up even Harbinger itself, melting the blindfolded monster and slurping it up, turning its rot and decay into new and prodigious strength. Alexis grinned viciously, baring fangs that seemed to glow even whiter, even more perfect, shining in complete, utter contrast to her new, dark hide, and Harbinger's tentacles fell off and crumbled away to nothing, before her hideous jaws themselves shattered. Alexis grew even taller, even stronger, and she savagely bit down on Harbinger's broken muzzle, ripping it off whole and chewing it like a snack, devouring rot, flesh, bones, slurping it all up with a tongue that was not only muscular and long, dexterous and prehensile and forked, but almost metallic, segmented and terrible. Alexis teasingly licked what remained of Harbinger's head and that was enough to scrape up all the flesh, dissolving it all, revealing the skull beneath... and cutting it apart like it was a biscuit, tearing her head in two with terrifying ease, before the ligeress leaned down and cruelly chewed and devoured the pieces.

Harbinger held on to her, trying to drag her down, trying to restrain her, but the table had well and truly been turned, and now her pestilent gunk boiled and bubbled and evaporated against Alexis's sweat, Alexis's darkness and, above all else, Alexis's tremendous, omnipotent virility.

The glorious, dark goddess leaned down against Harbinger, grinning savagely as she clenched her hands into fists, crunching several supermassive black hole cores like they were biscuits, crumbling them, absorbing them and greedily grabbing several more of them. Her leviathan black cock stirred with insatiable hunger and glorious, terrifying power, bulging even larger and spilling forwards with several more light years of tremendous, omnipotent length, smashing through Harbinger's insides and bulging against the tentacles wrapped around it, snapping them like they were no more than old cobwebs.

"You thought I couldn't play this game...?" Alexis taunted, grinning darkly as she flexed her huge muscles, bearing down over the monstrously mutated beast and idly thrust her still mostly-flaccid cock forwards, laughing darkly as the rotten, mutated body bulged grotesquely, punched out of shape by the sheer immensity of her member, by the cruel, vast mass of her flare and the massive, heavy, fat rounded head that smashed its way through Harbinger's chest, ripping a vast wound in it and pushing up all the way to the gaping, torn-apart neck. Mutated, ugly organs and broken tentacle-guts were pushed out in a pestilent, mushy pulp before the enormous, barbed flare broke through, ramming out of the neck in all its monstrous glory, caked in ruin and gore. The tentacle that had pumped poisonous gunk inside the enormous member dangled from the vast cockmaw as the leviathan member flexed, and it was blasted away by a huge, heavy rope of black precum that was tremendously dense, crammed full with an absurd amount of colossal sperms that blasted out in tangles, their muscular tails coiled together messily as their powerful, spiked bodies struggled to fit through even her huge cumslit. The beastly, tremendous sperms utterly dwarfed Harbinger's parasites, crushing them like bugs under their massive bodies, dissolving them with the power of the omnivirile, acid, slimy gunk covering them; and devouring them whole, chewing them into tiny bits.

Alexis hissed in cruel delight at that idle release, and her muscles swelled even larger, thrumming with power that simply seemed to know no limits, her body covered in a sheen of black, slimy sweat that festered with the same omnipotent parasitic sperms, which swarmed and devoured and destroyed everything they touched. Alexis crushed the two broken Harbinger copies under herself, squishing them into pulp between her muscular legs and savagely ripping her terrifying monster of a cock back towards the first mutated, shattered body, splitting it apart like the empty, overwhelmed cocksleeve it was. Her behemoth cock tore through bones and mutated, metallic skin, shredding flesh and muscles like they were nothing but pulp. The colossal leviathan swelled even larger, growing lazily and arrogantly, unimpressed and unsatisfied by that sacrifice, semi-hard at most but already adamantine and unstoppable, and Alexis laughed cruelly as she rammed it back in, smashing through the first broken corpse and effortlessly ripping right into the second, crunching and destroying, thrumming with power as it erupted out terrifying loads of hypervirile precum, more incandescent, more destructive and festering with more, greater parasitic, unforgiving life. The other Harbingers turned around to assault the dark goddess and yet more of the blindfolded beasts emerged from the wall of darkness to charge against her, but Alexis's tentacles arched higher up from her back, flexing with bigger muscles, greater power, dripping with monstrous amounts of unholy, limitless omnivirility. They slashed out with titanic whips, cutting bodies apart, smacking several of the monsters back against the wall of Black Holes, crunching them under their mass...

And Alexis roared, her fists smashing right through the mutant beasts and her hands clawing into the mass of Black Holes, grabbing and yanking viciously backwards, ripping them out of the wall and causing its entire surface to ripple as the gravitational fields dragged countless others out of place, making the "fabric" a bit less compact, a lot less resistant. The goddess grinned and flexed, laughing as her huge biceps bulged and made a mockery of the universe-destroying mass of those dark spheres. She licked her lips as she looked down at them, objects that measured their weight not in trillions of tons, but in trillions of Suns. Each one of those spheres weighted more uncountable billions of times more than the Sun... and yet they were nothing but dark pebbles in her hands, little trinkets that looked almost bright compared to her glorious black hide. They were almost insultingly light, like a handful of gravel... no, like feathers... and Alexis laughed darkly as she clenched her hands into fists, crushing those reality-dwarfing beasts together, merging them into fewer but even greater star-destroying furnaces of destruction as she faced the charging Harbingers with a cruel, mocking grin. The first Harbinger launched against her, growling from a monstrous, mutated mouth dripping with acid... but Alexis only laughed as she slammed her fist down into her skull and shattered it in a thick spurt of pestilent gore, her arm sinking through the monster's body almost all the way to the shoulder. Alexis licked her lips in savage delight and carelessly allowed one of the black holes to slip out of her fist and right inside Harbinger's mutating, regenerating insides.

Alexis savagely tore her arm back out, ripping the front of Harbinger's body apart like it was made of paper, and the monster howled in fury and anguish, leaking toxic blood all around as its body attempted to regenerate and grow into a new, more powerful form... but only collapsed on itself instead, deforming in a disgusting, terrifying way and almost completely vanishing, devoured by the dark pebble.

"Come at me, bitch!" Alexis taunted, grinning viciously as a second Harbinger stabbed her spears towards her abs only to be chopped in half by an idle swing of her arm, before both broken pieces were violently sucked inside another black hole dropped by the ligeress. A third, a fourth, ten, twenty... Alexis laughed and flexed her glorious musculature, using only her invincible fists to methodically annihilate the monsters as they surged forwards. Skulls shattered into little more than vapor, chests imploded like balloons of hot air, mutant bodies were torn in half like biscuits as she smashed her fists through the monsters charging against her, dropping the Black Holes inside them and grinning as they began to collapse upon themselves, imploding as the vast cores devoured their very essences.

More and more Harbingers kept coming, and Alexis plucked handfuls of black holes out of the wall, making it ripple and deform as her monstrous strength made a mockery of gravity and mass, turning the mighty black monsters into nothing but marbles... But just as her physical power reached that glorious peak, Alexis's vision began to fade away, a sense almost of torpor taking over her mind as confused voices called out to her. She gritted her fangs with a growl of irritation and despair, knowing that sensation all too well and dreading what was about to happen, blinking her eyes to try and push back, to avoid it... but the all-too-familiar darkness crept into her mind and overlapped with her vision of the world around her.

It deliberately interfered with her sharp senses, leaving her moving on instinct as she battled back the assaulting Harbingers, while her vision of space was replaced almost entirely by a whole different reality.

In her mind, she stood in an empty, void and immense room that seemed to stretch towards infinite, eternal distances. Her boots left deep, glowing footprints in a carpet that glinted weakly, hiding into itself every last universe, every last powerless reality, every dimension, every world and timeline, all of them turned into nothing but a soft, warm floor for her to stroll upon. She had already been in that place, many times. It was a place that embodied a temptation and a threat at the same time, and as always when she was summoned there, she was faced by a second Alexis, even taller, even greater, even more muscular and flawless and powerful, her eyes eternally burning with solid sapphire light, her crimson hair dancing slowly and majestically above her head, adding even more to her fantastic and towering figure, black as a starless night and yet, at the same time, luminous in ways that could not be described, or believed without seeing them.

"The answer is always no, Darkness." Alexis coldly said, glaring at her inner monster that, as always, wanted to emerge and take control, with the aim of never letting go of it again.

Black Alexis gave a slight nod, snorting in bitter entertainment and waving a hand dismissively while holding her omnipotent arms crossed on her chest. "Your answer is increasingly irrelevant. I'm going to come out all the same. You've just unleashed some of my power into the world, and I didn't even have to insist."

"That is MY power." Alexis coldly countered. "This is MY body, MY mind, MY strength. And you are just a parasite."

"Maybe. But that doesn't mean I can't turn this into MY mind, MY body, MY power." Black Alexis easily replied, shrugging a bit, huge shoulders bulging with omnipotent vigor with the slightest of flexes. "You know that I'm filling up your mind. That I'm taking over your memories. How much longer do you think you will be able to resist...?"

"As long as it takes." Alexis growled, stepping forwards without hesitation, balling her hands into fists. But Black Alexis only smirked in dark amusement, turning slightly to the side and looking back towards another massive, glorious figure that towered even taller, far bulkier, above-godlike in size and build. Black Killer stepped forwards with a large, glowing grin on his features, his huge muscles bulging explosively with every little flex as his monstrous, apocalyptic cock dragged on the floor, titanic and invincible, its tremendous flare digging a deep furrow of annihilation into the carpet of realities and his omnipotent cocksludge flooding that vast canyon with unholy amounts of devastating omnivirility. "You pin your hopes on Killer, but I've got even more control on his mind than I have on yours. Whatever you do now, I still win. I'm in you, I'm in Killer, I'm in Thanathos and I'm in Cerberus. I'm in your daughter; I'm into all Disciples and into the Praetorians. My victory is assured. In a way or another, I will win, and there is nothing you can do about it."

"That's blatantly false, or you wouldn't be annoying me like this." Alexis spat, making a grimace of disgust as she glared up into Black Killer's eyes. He was flawless, glorious, invincible and handsome, superior to everything and everyone, unmatched and eternal, and she couldn't help but stare at him and at the corrupted version of herself. Black Killer and Black Alexis hugged before her, kissing hungrily, viciously, savagely, ignoring her like she was unimportant and impotent... and hell, in front of those two ultimate dominators, she was. Helpless and hopeless, just like everything else. Those two monsters just couldn't be stopped, and she was gloriously, painfully aware of it. There was no fighting back against those two, and their power was so great, so unbelievable that she could only adore it and bask in some of the glorious strength it radiated.

That was what she and Killer could be. That was their future. And Darkness wanted to steal it away from them, and be the one enjoying that glorious existence, where nothing and no one would be able to endanger them or oppose them in any way.

"Just come with me, Alexis..." Black Killer teased, his voice deep and handsome and sensual, glorious enough to send shivers down her spine. The herculean ultra-god offered a huge, strong hand to her, smiling welcomingly, and Alexis swallowed thickly, feeling incredibly compelled, drawn to him almost physically, dragged through space and time as he added: "You are right, this is not the present yet, but an image of the future... a future that can become the present, right now, if you come with me."

"No." Alexis countered, hating the fact that her voice trembled and came out a lot less authoritative than she had hoped. "No." She repeated, in a colder, stronger tone. "Killer's hand and lead are the only ones I want and crave. You are just a usurper. A pale imitation."

"Come with me, Alexis... and your pains will be gone; your fears forgotten. You will live this dream. Your dream." Black Killer insisted, and Alexis snarled and shook her head, shutting her eyes and taking a step back.

"Come with me!"

"No!"

"Please...! We don't have time for this! You can trust me, Lady Alexis! You need to come with me; Harbinger is not going to give you any respite!" A voice urged, and it definitely had nothing to do with Black Killer. It was a female voice, gentle and beautiful, and Alexis's eyes opened with a grunt of surprise, just as the image of Black Killer and Black Alexis faded away and shattered.

In their place, Alexis found a large breach in the wall of Black Holes, held wide open by her powerful, muscular arms. For the first time, she could see beyond the wall of darkness, and the sight left her gaping in shock for a moment, a grimace of confusion and horror warping her beautiful features as she recoiled slightly and shook her head slowly, in disbelief.

The Cloister was many things, undoubtedly, but not a garden and less than ever a paradise. It was a vast corner of mostly dark space, illuminated not by stars but by magic blue flames, like planet-sized braziers floating silently in a circle. What was most shocking, however, was the mass of debris, ruins and chaos that they illuminated: it was a vast, immense ring, large enough to swallow entire universes, and it definitely looked like several universes had had a tremendous car crash, smashing together and becoming chaotic mountains of rubble. The ruins of countless civilizations were visible in the great piles of rubble: towers, skyscrapers, homes, huts, they were all piled up messily together, collapsed one on top of the other. Different ages of history, different worlds, different races, all sharing the same violent, sudden, merciless end, crumbled together like sheets of paper and thrown away, like nothing but discarded drafts that had not satisfied the artist, the creator. How many worlds had been destroyed like that? How many creations had been started and then abruptly aborted and brushed aside? The immensity of the ring of debris suggested that many history lines had been mercilessly cancelled and crushed together, turned into a surreal background to Lachesis's fortress.

There were three different, massive floating fortresses orbiting slowly beyond the ring of ruins, and Alexis couldn't tell which one belonged to Lachesis, but what was absolutely and completely stunning was the sight of countless glowing ropes of white energy, strung between the fortresses and a blindingly luminous wound in the fabric of reality. The true centre of Existence, the Well of Eternity was too luminous for its shape to be distinguishable: it was like staring at a special, greater and more luminous sun that sent countless solid, tangible rays of light stretching through the dark void, all the way up to the towers of the floating fortresses. Every one of those thin, luminous strings represented a life, and their number was simply astounding, impossible to guess and to believe. The fate of every form of Life across the many universes and dimensions was determined by the energy that came up through the Well and flowed along the threads, allowing them to grow longer and longer, until each one met its end.

In a mere instant, Alexis witnessed the snapping of countless of those luminous threads, while a great number of new ones arched up out of the Well, beginning their slow growth across the deep and dark space. But there were a few threads which were clearly very special: they were titanic, dwarfing the masses of thin wires with their ponderous girth and oppressive mass. They had a whole different kind of light about them as well, and some crackled with excess energy, illuminating the Cloister like thunderbolts in a stormy sky.

"We need to go, Lady Alexis!" The unknown voice again urged, and Alexis looked down to see a young, gentle face staring up at her with urgency. The divine being extended a small hand with long, slender fingers, and her clear green eyes begged her to move quickly as she said: "I'm Clotho. I'm a friend. Alexis, please, you have to trust me!"

Alexis snorted steam from her nostrils, looking at the young, fresh goddess with instinctive suspect. She was one of the three Sisters of Fate; how could she be a friend?

Clotho had a tall, slender body, beautiful but covered in an intricate map of thick scars that bulged out from her otherwise smooth, cool hide. Her features were graceful and her expression gentle. Her short muzzle had something serpentine about it, just like the whole of her flexible, slender body, but it was really impossible to associate her to any existing race: she was something else, something that had never left the Cloister. There was some ominous resemblance to Harbinger as well, but something about the energies that Clotho radiated was immediately reassuring. Alexis found herself staring at the little Mohawk of loose, flexible scales that stood on top of Clotho's head and ran down the back of her long neck, but the primordial goddess again urged: "Please, Alexis. We need to move away from here!"

Alexis bit her lower lip, hesitating for a moment, but Elelyon and Lemuel floated forwards and ventured through the breach, looking up at the threatening Black Holes in the distance, trembling in reverent fear of the power of those supermassive cores but offering themselves courageously, showing trust in Clotho's smile. The immense, primordial goddess offered her palm to the small, bloody, exhausted males, carefully welcoming them and offering her fingers for them to grab on to... and Alexis turned around, seeking Vesta and Ira's eyes, calling them without using words. The two goddesses got the message and began to retreat towards the breach, fighting back the vicious assaults of the Harbingers... and then sitting on the edge of the breach, allowing themselves to fall back inside it. Alexis ducked into the opening and let go of its edges, grunting as the Black Holes shifted, dragging each other around and closing much of the opening, shutting out the horde of furious Harbingers.

"Grab my arms and follow me, please. We are not safe here." Clotho urged, and the three goddesses traded a brief, nervous look before doing as they were told, closing their eyes and wincing as the primordial divinity teleported away.

There was a loud crackle of energy, like a thunderbolt cutting a cloudy sky in half, and Alexis grunted a bit, feeling unusually disturbed by the jump through dimensions. She looked curiously around herself and spotted the grimace on Vesta's face and the slight stumble on Ira's part, and that reassured her that, at least, it wasn't only her problem. Clotho, if that was truly her name, looked at them with concern for a brief moment, and then gave them a small apologetic nod, bowing her head in sincere embarrassment as she murmured: "I'm sorry. I put a bit too much energy into it. But I haven't teleported in ages, and I'm rusty. I just wanted to... make it quick. Make it real quick. Harbinger will be scouring the whole dimension to find us. She is my father's implacable guard... dog? I think that's what you call them, in your world."

"I suppose..." Alexis awkwardly replied, looking at the slender goddess with a mix of sympathy and wariness. Could Clotho be trusted...? Was she truly as gentle and simple and shy as she appeared, or was it just a mask that she wore to conceal her true aims?

Clotho beamed at that simple confirmation, and she almost clapped her hands together before remembering that Elelyon and Lemuel were hanging on to her thumb. She blushed as she looked down at them, whispering an apology and slowly squatting to settle them down. With a flick of her wrist, she sent a fine, glittering dust falling down on the two males and quietly took a step backwards as her magic grew both gods up, expanding their bodies until they could at least look at her abs or chest.

"Sorry, I almost forgot about you, Lord Elelyon; Lord Lemuel... this little boost to your energies will make things less awkward in the future." Clotho quietly said, smiling warmly to both gods and then looking up as the distant black wall was rattled by ferocious blasts of pure power that sent flashes of sinister light tearing through the whole dimension. "Although it would perhaps be better if we all shrank smaller, rather than grow bigger. And we should also tune down our energy signatures, ideally."

Alexis grunted in instinctive disapproval of that suggestion, muttering: "I'm not the kind of person who hides."

Clotho nodded quietly at that, but despite a moment of hesitation she eventually found the strength to insist, spreading her arms to invite the others to watch over their surroundings. She had teleported them in the middle of the vast floating wasteland of discarded words, in a sort of fjord surrounded by tall, terrifying mountains of rubble disorderly mashed together to form an amazing, senseless mix of ancient and modern, of natural and artificial. Castle towers built with blocks of stone poked out of the rubble together with far greater and taller skyscrapers, while countless buildings and monuments of a thousand different worlds and eras filled the gaps, collapsed one on top of the other. They were, literally, in the middle of nowhere, well hidden inside one of the many cracks and ridges of the immense ring of ruins. Finding them in that infernal wasteland was going to be very a very long and very complicated process if they played their cards well. But if they continued to radiate the formidable, immense energies of their war-ready forms, Clotho's effort became meaningless. The slender goddess looked pleadingly up into the ligeress's eyes and quietly remarked: "Please, Lady Alexis. Nobody is going to call your courage into question. But there's no point in making your enemy's work easier. There is no wisdom in letting them choose not just the battlefield but also the exact time of the clash, is there...?"

Alexis bit her lower lip and rolled her eyes irritably at that, but she was forced to agree with the undeniable strategic wisdom of her recommendation. There was, however, another reason why she did not want to tune down her energy signature, and she turned to gaze at what remained of the vast, immense breach she had torn open in the dark shell of the Cloister. Part of the hole had already closed up as the Black Holes devoured the remaining debris and moved around, filling part of the void, but she could still see the dark, starless space outside. Killer was out there, somewhere.... "I came here to discover where my lover is. My only aim is to find him, or be found. I need him to come back to me. I can't make it any harder than it already is. He... needs to feel my energies, as soon as he has a chance to look out for them."

Clotho smiled warmly at that, tilting her head to the side and looking dreamily up at the muscular goddess as she whispered: "Ah, Alexis... you cannot imagine just how much I dream of love, and envy you for yours. What wouldn't I give to experience it; to find out what it's like to understand and like a person so intimately and so completely to be ready to fight against all kinds of monsters, even against life itself, just to stay together. The passion between you and Killer is a true spectacle. A true wonder. Something far deeper and far more spiritual than most realize."

Alexis frowned a bit, not quite able to decide if Clotho's enthusiasm was cute or creepy, and she made a bit of a grimace while wondering what the slender goddess had seen and hears, and how. It was definitely creepy to know that a primordial goddess had been so eagerly spying on her love life and especially on the most private and deep aspects of it. But the empress did her best to ignore that aspect and instead remarked: "If you so clearly realize why I'm here, how can you ask me to hide...?"

Clotho smiled softly at that, before bowing her head forwards, closing her eyes for a brief moment. "You are right, I can't just ask for such a thing without giving you the information you crave." The slender goddess turned around, towards the Well of Eternity that was hidden from their sight by a series of titanic mountains of debris but nonetheless glowed with such ferocious intensity that rays of its light tore through all cracks and fissures, shooting towards them like lasers, so focused and hot to almost make their flesh sizzle at every small contact. Clotho made a gentle shooing gesture to the side, and a massive floating chunk of rubble rolled out of the way, opening a vast window upon the center of the Cloister.

They were now much closer to the three floating castles, enough to distinguish the single towers and bastions and to see that there had once been a true Cloister connecting the three fortresses and encircling what had clearly been a luscious, heavenly garden. For whatever reason, it now floated in derelict pieces, broken down into small islands and vast fields of asteroids covered in mostly dead plants that had lost all color and all luster. What truly caught the attention of Alexis and the others, however, were two particular, very special Threads of Life which were so massive, so incredibly girthy that they almost choked the Well of Eternity shut, grinding one into the other. Those two titanic threads were strewn across the garden and coiled around all three floating castles, tying them together and bearing down on the great bastions with such ponderous mass to crack the ancient, glorious walls and crush entire towers into nothing but rubble. The two threads were colossal, far greater than all others, and they seemed to have grown out of every control, tearing through the castles and spiraling around the Well before lengthening even further, reaching out to colonize even the ring of ruins at the margins of the Dimension.

Both threads glowed brighter than a trillion Suns combined, generating most of the blinding white aura of the Well, and both were actually composed by a couple of smaller but still titanic ropes, entangled together in a tight double-helix that resembled a DNA structure. One of the ropes was made of incandescent, awesome golden fire, and the other rope was made of solid, terrible, impenetrable darkness.

There could be no doubt at all about the lives that those two Threads represented, and Alexis swallowed, feeling tears of relief pushing out of her eyes as she slowly stepped forwards, right up to the edge of the abyss, to bask in the familiar energy that came from the longest and heaviest of the two titanic serpents of light. "Killer is alive, Alexis. Imprisoned far away from here, but alive. I won't lie to you; it wouldn't help anyone. He's been tortured and tormented in horrible, horrible ways. But despite all the agony, he is stronger than ever and fully determined to return to you." Clotho quietly explained, although the Thread did all the talking with its immense energies. Vesta and Ira stepped forwards in awe, standing on either side of Alexis and looking out over the great thread, closing their eyes and leaning slightly forwards, breathing of his scent, sensing his presence, basking in his light as if he was a Sun. Their only Sun. The two goddesses gently gripped Alexis's powerful shoulders and squeezed into them, as all three stared silently at that glorious visualization of his power, of his presence, of his life. They wanted to say a million things, but no word was adequate and no discourse could ever be sufficient, so they only stood there, squeezing together, enjoying the warmth of contact as they all drank of that presence, of that energy, that for too long had not been there with them.

"He is still imprisoned, and he can't feel your energies, Alexis." Clotho quietly warned, after respectfully waiting for a few moments, letting the three goddesses savor the relief of having the certainty that their Sun still burned bright and strong. "But Harbinger and Lachesis and Atropos can. They will struggle to distinguish your energy signature proper from the one that comes from your Thread..." She quietly added, pointing a hand at the second titanic rope of Light and Darkness. "... but it won't take them long to figure it out."

"Do you know where Killer is?" Alexis urgently asked, barely paying any attention to her words. "We have to reach him immediately."

"We could find out his exact position if we could get to his Thread and "read" it... but Lachesis, Atropos and Harbinger will be at our throats long before we get anywhere near to it." Clotho cautioned, before recoiling slightly as she saw the homicidal fury exploding in Alexis's eyes as the muscular goddess turned around with a snarl. "Alexis, please! I'm your friend; I'm trying to help you! You must listen to me, if you truly want things to go the right way! Killer will be here soon!"

"How, if you want me to stay put and do nothing...?" The ligeress roared, clenching her fists in furious frustration, which only became more intense as Elelyon and Lemuel tremblingly stepped forwards, standing between her and Clotho, looking up at her with a prayer in their eyes. Vesta and Ira half-heartedly squeezed into the queen's shoulders, holding her back for the moment but glaring with impatience down at the slender primordial.

"Seth and Thanathos have followed you here, Alexis. They are trying to sneak through the breach." Clotho explained, pointing her fingers to two other massive threads of life, both slimy with dense, filthy darkness that festered with parasitic life, powerful but destructive, which made the threads grow visibly and constantly... but consumed and ruined them at the same time. "They have managed to steal some of Killer's power and abilities, and they want to get to the Well to complete their ascensions."

"By the look of their threads, they might be dead before they get there." Ira snorted, before her lips curled in a cruel smirk. "They bit off more than they could chew. Serves them well."

"They hope to find you and Lachesis locked in a fight to the death. They will stay hidden, waiting for you two to exhaust each other's strength, and then make their mad dash for the Well. Lachesis is too arrogant to acknowledge the danger, Alexis... but you must. I beg you. If you let it happen, nobody will be able to stop them." Clotho immediately remarked, looking firmly into Alexis's eyes.

"That means that they no longer guard over Killer's prison, but it still doesn't mean he can break free on his own. Requiem Aeternam, combined with all other restraints, is the one thing that can hold even him down." Vesta bitterly observed, but Clotho smiled and pointed her hand again towards Killer's mighty thread, drawing their attention towards a much smaller but brightly burning rope that was rapidly veering closer to the huge male's, coiling around it, running right alongside it.

"He is not alone." Clotho corrected, as Alexis gaped slightly, staring at the moving thread, her eyes glinting and following every little move of that rope of light as her mind almost literally buzzed with the thoughts, worries and doubts spiraling inside it. Clotho looked up at her with a soft smile, gently reaching forwards and taking one of her hands, reassuringly squeezing on it until the goddess looked down. "Please, Alexis... I know this is the biggest decision you've ever had to take. But trust me, please. This is where you will be reunited with your lover. This is where you have to stand. This is where the decisive battle will be fought, and we can't afford to overlook a single detail. Please, Alexis... we need all the time we can get."

Alexis let out a sound that was half-growl, half-groan, desperately trying to decide whether Clotho could be trusted or not, feeling nothing but the ardent need to barrel past her and run towards the great Thread of Life, to lean into it and feel Him, taste Him, hear Him again, to discover where he was and to run towards him. He was the only thing that mattered. But Alexis could hear explosions in the distance, and she turned around to see colossal blasts of light annihilating vast regions of the Ring of Ruins as countless manifestations of Harbinger flew along it, bombarding every corner, destroying it piece by piece.

With Lachesis, Cerberus and Thanathos all determined to trigger the apocalypse, she had a responsibility. Killer had given her a clear instruction while sinking through the accursed portal that had separated them, and she could not disappoint him.

"There is not much time left, Alexis." Clotho urged, and the goddess sighed dejectedly, dropping her head forwards and closing her eyes, focusing for a few moments on restraining and silencing her enormous aura. Vesta and Ira looked at her in silence, sharing her inner conflict and her torment, and finally followed her example, subduing their own immense energy signatures.

Clotho smiled in relief and true gratitude, bowing deeply before them and then assuring: "Killer will soon break free, it's a promise. I've handled the Threads long enough to understand not just how they grow and evolve, but also how they interact. I can't quite see the future, but... almost. I will warn you when it is time to let your aura shine through, to guide him here."

Alexis grunted in bad-tempered agreement, tilting her head to the side and crossing her arms, compulsively flexing and relaxing her long, spectacular, powerful leg, gripping into her biceps in a vain attempt to ease her anxiety and frustration. She was tormented by that inactivity, by the doubt, by the fear of having made the wrong decision.

"Atropos and Lachesis are your sisters, aren't they...?" Vesta grumbled, making a grimace as she leaned heavily back against the side of a mountain of rubble. "Why would you help us?"

"Atropos is my sister, yes... But Lachesis is actually our Mother. Mother and Father, in fact. The Queen of Eternity is both Matriarch and Patriarch at once." Clotho quietly replied, looking down at the ground and grimacing in sadness and shame. "Why should I help you...? Well, I've spent all my life doing my best to spin the Threads of Life to make them stronger, so they can stretch longer, shine brighter and achieve more, only to have my inflexible mother reject and belittle all achievements. She looks at a life, a civilization, a world; and she decides that they are not good enough, that they are not worthy of the chance they have been given. And so Atropos comes, and gleefully cuts the threads to shreds, grabs them and tosses them back into the Well."

"It's... how you got all those... well, scars...?" Elelyon hesitatingly asked, and Clotho idly traced her finger down a huge, ugly cut that crossed her abdomen, going from one plump breast all the way down to the hip opposite. She nodded silently, and there was no need to add anything.

"Lachesis has always been enamored of herself, and has never had any affection for anything else. She has decided that the only correct Evolution for Life is one that... looks like her." Clotho added, looking up towards Alexis's formidable physique, from her spectacular feminine curves right to down her titanic, hypervirile black cock and the leviathan balls behind its ponderous mass.

"She wants to get rid of everything and everyone else. And this time, no matter how strong she is, I want to stop her. This time, she can't succeed."

Vesta nodded silently at that, looking at Clotho with a new form of respect, sincere and affectionate. Even Ira shifted on the spot, looking at the primordial goddess with a whole new gaze. She had plenty of experience of the kind of spiritual and bodily wounds that a degenerate, cruel family could inflict, and she could almost feel every one of Clotho's scars like they were her own.

"I don't know if Lachesis's elitist obsession for the Herm form has any basis in reality beyond the fact that she is so powerful; and you are so powerful..." Clotho said, smiling softly up to Alexis. "But I have no doubt that you will be a far better Queen of Eternity, regardless of that particular factor. And... well. There is a very special reason why I trust you; why I care so much about you..." The Primordial swallowed thickly, her voice breaking as she struggled not to sob, and Alexis recoiled a bit as shiny tears rolled down Clotho's cheeks. The Primordial smiled up at her with affection and with a strange sort of happiness even tears of sadness and regret rolled down her face and dripped from her chin, until she found the strength to say: "Light, you see, was my son. My only son. Lachesis was the father, but... but he was my precious, perfect boy. He shared my ideals; he fought my same battles. Now he is gone... but something of him lives on, as a part of you and as a part of Killer.

I couldn't save him when he needed my help. But I won't fail him again."

Killer's body shuddered violently as his eyes opened, the huge male grunting, startled by that sudden change of scenery. He was once more back in his cell, in the fleshy tower half-demolished by his own hypervirile power. A cell with a smashed door and with vast breaches in the walls, themselves largely overgrown with fleshy tentacles and other monstrous mutations born out of his thick, potent cocksludge.

Freedom was tantalizingly close and yet as far away as before, if not even more. Requiem Aeternam glowed a ghastly, terrible white as it greedily consumed energies out of his body, restraining him. The thousands of Seal-chains binding him to the very structure of the tower smoldered and literally dripped little drops of molten metal as they did their part to convey some of his overwhelming power out of him, and the cracked cross of golden crystal pulsed ominously, audibly, filling his head with an awful thrum as it drank of his energy to self-repair and harden itself further, restraining him even as he struggled with all of his world-destroying strength.

His mind pounded with pure agony as the battle inside it continued to rage on. Killer closed his eyes for a moment, trying to think of where he had been before "awakening", but the last hours... or days, he didn't know... were even more confused than those which had preceded them. Black Killer and his army of corrupted memories had been rampaging all over his memories, and despite his best efforts to resist, several more nodes had turned pitch black. Killer trembled as he realized that there were parts of his life that he literally could not remember anymore. He tried to think of his mother, and with horror he realized that he could not remember her features, but only the warped, corrupted version of her that had emerged from several corrupted nodes within his memory.

Memories of his brothers and of his sister Kaya were becoming scarce and confused as well, and his childhood no longer made sense to him, as most of the images his mind could offer him were corrupted nightmares in which his father and William beat him into a pulp and humiliated him for his endless succession of failures. Killer trembled violently, coughing up a thick mass of blood and vomit and gore and ichors, spitting it out of his mouth as best he could as his chest heaved rapidly, his heart thrumming, a sudden, tormenting coldness filling his form at the awareness that he was truly losing himself. There were holes he could still associate to the events of its past by their rough shape, so to speak... missing frames in a movie he still overall knew. But there are already were parts of his past that he just couldn't bring out of the shapeless, horrible darkness that was flooding his mind.

He frantically thought of Alexis, and thankfully her beautiful features immediately filled his mind, her smirk flashing up at him in that way that he so adored... but the relief was only partial, since the image soon warped, as Alexis grew before his eyes, glaring down at him with a whole different kind of fire in her beautiful eyes, as a perfect, smooth armor of black energy spread over her spectacular physique and her golden Mohawk turned into a hellish crimson flame.

Killer shivered and forced his eyes open, taking a deep and painful breath as he tried to chase that image away, hearing Black's laughter echoing in his mind, seeming to slam into his skull like a hammer.

She was beautiful, even in that evil guise, even dressed in her own darkness and ferocity... part of him, admittedly, felt even more passionately attracted by that version of her. But he had spent his last few... days? Fighting back against that vision of her, and against similarly warped versions of his daughters and lovers. Beautiful as they were, they were also fearsome adversaries and they had pounded him again and again, and more importantly contemptuously thrown away all hints of affection for him. Knowing that they were only copies, warped visions, was not enough to make that hate and contempt less painful. In that moment, all he wanted was the familiar and invaluable warmth of love. He needed to retreat in a safe spot where he could count on the affection and support of those faces he loved so much. His body was tired, but his soul was far more exhausted, after being assaulted so many times, and so viciously, by faces that should have been friends and lovers. It was no use reminding himself that they were not "real", that they were creations of Darkness, warped memories given power and purpose: after so many, countless hours of torture, his mind was falling apart. Thankfully, the minotaur was not in the room. The scientist had kept true to his cruel promise and had worked ceaselessly to dig what remained of Killer's secrets out of his body. His hellish instruments had cut, ripped, crushed, sucked, extracted, pumped. Killer's body had been tormented in all possible ways, and even in that moment some large machines insisted in pumping dark fluids out of him: there were metallic probes pierced into his heart, and others screwed through his skull. Enormous metal rods containing powerful pumps had been driven like stakes through his testicles and his immense cock, which stubbornly refused to drop down to flaccidity, eternally throbbing in a monumental semi-hard state, was still tormented by a variety of spiked rings squeezing and piercing into the adamantine meat. Cruel metallic tubes and probes had been driven down his vast cockmaw, and as the huge pumps worked to drain him and collect valuable samples, Killer winced in a mix of agony and sick pleasure.

The minotaur thrall kept bouncing back and forth from his main laboratory further down the corridor, since most of his instruments in the cell had been completely destroyed, either by Sikanjal or, more commonly, by Killer's arrogant and immense production of hypervirile male gunk. The demon would come, torture him some, dig in the part of the liger's body that most interested him at the time, and then he would cheerfully retreat into his laboratory to analyze the samples and mix the genetic material and the literal motes of energy together, trying to prepare doses that would be able to take root and begin evolving into a new host, without overwhelming the capabilities of the host's body. That was proving a real challenge, and the immense parasites that were devouring Cerberus and Thanathos alive were the most visible demonstration of what Killer's ever-evolving and ever-growing power could do to other gods.

The minotaur would often be away from the cell for several hours after taking the material he needed, and those were the only "breaks" that Killer could enjoy. The machines ceaselessly tormented him, sure, but that was nothing compared to the gleeful, maniacal digging of the demon inside his flesh and organs.

Killer sighed, hissing at the pain that immediately seemed to scream at his mind for attention, his whole body protesting for the way it had been maimed... and his eyes sought the largest breaches in the wall ahead of him, trying to gauge the security situation outside. He thought he could sense at least four gods standing guard at the doors of the main laboratory, and he could guess the energy signatures of several more inside the lab. Several had insisted on being test subjects for the new "Killer juice", but most of them had ended up regretting their choice: the weaker ones had been overwhelmed and destroyed in a matter of hours, and the ones who had adapted a bit better were nonetheless quickly falling victim to the enormous and aggressive parasites growing within them. A number of them were on life support in the lab, and the Minotaur was probably cheerfully cutting into them as well to see if he could learn more about the parasites and, crucially, find out how to fight them back.

I hope he gets eaten alive. Killer made a grimace, eyes narrowing as he snorted in disgust and frustrated rage, but his eyes remained cold and focused as he spied the corridor through the breaches. He spotted a few more gods standing guard along it, but he was tempted to grin when he realized that none of them seemed eager to come very close to the damaged wall of his cell. They all stood on the other side of the vast passageway, and at quite some distance from the cell.

It would have been easy to take them all out... even wounded and tired and tormented as he was, he could have crushed them out of existence like gnats, but Requiem was the one thing he just couldn't get past. The scythe's ancient element, its primordial magic, was one of the few laws still powerful enough to bind even Killer: that blade was the embodiment of Death, and its magic allowed it to become stronger in proportion with the force of the target it had to take down. Nobody was meant to escape Death forever, after all... even gods could get to an end, and the scythe had to be powerful enough to cut them down.

The more Killer struggled, the more inexorable and insatiable the blade became, draining even more energies out of him. He was increasingly and painfully aware that, without some form of external help, he was never going to get Requiem out of his chest... and that awareness was feeding his despair and filling him with real terror, despite his best attempts to resist and stay optimistic.

What time was it? Killer did not know. What was the pattern of life of the garrison? He had no idea. He had done his best to try and map out the movements of the gods, trying to memorize their looks in order to recognize them and be able to count them. But with his consciousness constantly drifting in and out, he had been unable to achieve much. And he was losing all drive and all hope: what use was counting them? He was confident he could make mincemeat of all of them, regardless of their number. But he needed Requiem gone. That was the one problem he had no solution for.

He did his best to calm down, listening to his own racing heart and trying to normalize its rhythm. The fortress was almost completely silent, but for the occasional movement of the gods in the corridor, most of whom were covered in heavy plate armor made of materials that came from their home planets. There was the low and constant growl and humming and buzzing of the machinery tormenting him, and the struggling, choking sounds made by the pumps and tubes that attempted to drain his hypervirile production out of him... and the walls, being made of mutant, alive flesh, made their own sick noises, suctions and slurps, as evil mouths drooled in terrible hunger and countless tentacles flailed lazily back and forth, waiting for prey. Still, Killer was unnerved by the silence, not by that by-now sadly familiar background noise. The tension and the fear were palpable, as was the mistrust between gods who increasingly wished for nothing but a way out of that mess. The laboratory was as silent as a tomb, but Killer knew that he could not trust his senses on that one: the walls and immense armoured shutters of the lab were so think and so heavily reinforced that they were completely soundproof. He could only imagine the roar of machinery, the laughing of the accursed scientist and the loud, desperate laments of the gods that were being eaten alive by the giant parasites. The other gods showed little to no interest or mercy towards those suffering bastards: Killer knew that each and every one of them thought that they had so eagerly volunteered for a shot of experimental "Killer juice" in order to become stronger and kill all the others.

He sighed again, choking on his own blood and spitting it out once more, coughing violently and angrily, uselessly struggling against his restraints. That was the most "peace" he had been granted in a long while, but it provided very little relief. The silence was a torment in itself, because it spoke to him of failure, of lack of progress, of lack of hopes. Silence was not going to yank Requiem out of his chest.

He couldn't even close his eyes and attempt to sleep a little. Oh, how much he craved some dreamless sleep! But no, if he closed his eyes he would fall right down into the battle against Black, in his mind. A battle that raged even while he was in the "real" world, but with... having a less direct awareness of it.

He was pretty sure that his lack of awareness made his defences weaker, and that meant he should have rushed back into the fight, immediately... he was only doing Black a favor by taking a step back. But the truth was that he was exhausted and frustrated and sore. He knew he had to go back there, but he couldn't find the strength for it. For the first time ever, he was slowly but inexorably letting go.

He did his best to rest, to calm down his nerves, to resume control of his thoughts, all without closing his eyes, all while focusing on some insignificant detail in his surroundings. All while his ears listened to that depressing silence.

He did not know how long it lasted, but he immediately pulled his head up, eyes widening slightly when he heard a distant little laugh. A feminine laughter, teasing and sensual. A weak voice, exhausted and yet loaded with a note of passion and sensuality so intense that Killer felt his enormous shaft throb hungrily. A male voice responded in a murmur that dripped with desire but also with the embarrassed hesitation typical of a man who doesn't really dare saying no to his girl, even though he thinks her request is incredibly reckless and stupid. Killer looked out through the breaches in the wall, trying to spot them, but all he could see where the gods on guard nervously shifting on their feet, turning to face the incoming pair.

"Don't mind them, stud... I'm all yours... unless you want to share, just to show them how it is done..." The female voice said, and even though Killer still couldn't spot her, he could now hear faintly clearly. And recognize her. Vera Raider. Or, as Black Killer had involuntarily made clear by messing with his memories, Samara, his long lost daughter. The voice was warped by weakness and it was kneaded and hoarse, but still easily recognizable and supremely, incredibly sensual. Killer closed his eyes and threw his head backwards with a muffled cry of pure bliss, tears rolling down his cheeks as he thanked... well, he didn't know who. Fate? The sky? He certainly didn't feel like there was any god he was bound to thank anymore... But that wasn't important. He chased the thought away, and just whispered: "Thank you, thank you, thank you..."

She was alive. She was not well, no... she had been tortured and tormented and abused and raped, but she was still alive. She hadn't been destroyed; she wasn't lost; she hadn't paid the ultimate price for his failures. She was still out there, determined, smart, unbroken, and defiant. Sane. Her mind had survived whatever torture she had gone through, and she was now using her feminine arts, her seduction, to craft a way out of that nightmare.

Don't let your hopes race too far ahead of yourself! You don't know what her actual intentions are. What if this is all a plan to torment you even worse? What if she is being puppetted by a superior force, or blackmailed...? Stay focused!

His mind warned him about the risks and the uncertainties. Already once he had brazenly assumed that salvation had come, and the result had been disastrous. He needed to stay focused, prudent and diffident. Take your chance, if it comes, but don't let your wishes guide you again. The last thing we need is another hellishly overpowered son growing in the wrong belly, or some other disaster of sort.

But despite his best efforts not to, it was really, really hard not to get excited with new hopes. The simple fact that she had survived was, in itself, a reason to be ecstatic.

Killer began to recognize the sound of their steps as well, and he realized that some of the background noise was actually the ruckus made by heavy chains dragged behind her. He spotted her feet through one of the breaches: she was shoeless and chained, her ankles squeezed together by heavy, sharp links of chain which dug cruelly into her flesh, making her bleed and leaving a crimson streak on the ground behind her. Her legs trembled visibly and were covered in scars and ugly, infected wounds. Her black and brown hide was caked all over with dirt, filth and dried blood. Even in such miserable conditions, and even with her muscles having already lost a bit of their perfect tone due to the lack of food, movement and rest, she was still beautiful. Her long, strong legs had him staring with undeniable hunger, so much so that he almost missed the legs of the alien god walking at her side and holding the end of her chains in his hand. He was a hulking beast covered in dark green scales, for what Killer could see, but then they were out of sight again as they walked past the breach.

"What the hell do you think you are doing...?" Barked one of the guards on the other side of the corridor, but the massive alien growled, revealing a deep, masculine and potent voice, and no one else dared adding anything. The massive beast snorted in derision at the sudden silence, and no doubt gave the other gods an arrogant smirk before thundering: "None of your business. I'm going to put this slut to good use for a while. If you shut up and behave, I might even decide to not completely ruin her, so you can have some fun afterwards without losing your little dicks down her cave."

Killer made a grimace at that, even though he couldn't deny that, in his place, he would have probably said much the same things. Whoever that beast was, he was clearly someone big and strong enough to intimidate most other gods in the garrison.

"And you needed to come here for that, of all places...?" One of the armoured gods irritably enquired. It was fortunate that those gods, who came from all corners of Existence, had adopted Lord Skyfall's language for interspecies communications. It was often impossible to even guess what they said when they talked in small groups, coming from the same worlds. Some of those alien languages were beautiful to hear, others were as disturbing as nightmares, but all of them had too little sounds in common with Earth's languages for any guess to be possible. It wasn't a problem just for Killer: the aliens did not understand each other in most cases, and the Swarm had obviously needed to select a common language with which to plan out operations. The alien gods still talked in their native tongues with their closest allies and servants, however, and that only increased mistrust and hate between the various groups, which could never be sure of what all the others were talking about. It happened within multinational forces back on Earth, and it happened at galactic scale here in space; it wasn't all that surprising.

"Yes, I come here. I want our arrogant guest to watch." The reptilian giant growled, and the guards in the corridor muttered and grumbled things that Killer couldn't hear. Vera let out a hoarse, teasing growl that sounded almost like a purr, and Killer could imagine her grinding lightly into the hulking beast's side, could almost feel her warmth and see her emerald eyes in front of his face, even though the damaged shutters of the cell separated them. "Come on..." Her voice urged, low and drawn out, her whine impatient and dripping with honey and hunger. "You don't need their approval, do you...? You are more of a male than all of them combined, aren't you, stud...?"

"Course' I am." The huge reptile replied, but Killer smirked a little. He had answered too quickly, in an evident hurry. He was nervous, and worried that he might disappoint her if he allowed himself to look vulnerable, even for a brief moment.

"It really is a stupid, stupid idea." One of the guards warned, and Killer heard the sound of a couple of steps of someone wearing a heavy armor... followed by a snarl from the hulking, reptilian god and by the hurried retreat of the same armor, which clanged audibly. "You are not here to judge my ideas and actions. You are a bit too scrawny for that." The bulky male growled, and the guards again grumbled but seemed unable to challenge him decisively. Still, the shutters didn't open, and the god evidently hesitated, because after a few moments he felt the need to add: "There really is no danger, anyway..." The reptile laughed, trying to sound confident and supremely in control, but his voice almost trembled, and took on an interrogative note at the end, before falling into short lived silence as he again babbled on: "He is Sealed and bound, and can't do a thing, right...?"

It was clearly supposed to be a rhetorical question, but it was followed by an awkward silence that Vera again interrupted with her teasing, irresistible purr. "Of course he can't do a thing... and if he ever tried, I know you'd have no trouble wrestling him back down, stud... I'm sure you can pin him to the dirt, where he belongs, right?"

"Of course, of course...!" The reptile immediately replied, and Killer grinned in cold entertainment, slowly licking his muzzle and cracking his neck lightly, all the massive muscles in his body flexing and bulging, full of vigor and eagerness. This was the chance he had hoped for. His heart raced, and he felt the urge to let out a shout of happiness at that development... but of course he restrained himself, biting his lower lip as he watched the heavy, enormous armoured shutters as they began to slowly slide apart.

The bulky alien male took up much of the door space with his massive frame, and he indeed loomed larger than any of the guards out in the corridor. He looked somewhat like a crocodile, covered by a natural armor of thick ridges and scales stretched over great, powerful muscles, but his face was sinister and, Killer thought, hideous. It was almost flat, with no muzzle just rather two large wound-like nostrils and an oversized mouth lined with multiple rows of dark fangs. He had no less than six eyes, small and unblinking, white and unreadable, arranged in three pairs, scaled one a big higher up in his skull than the previous, with the actual eyes spaced further apart going upwards. The last pair pushed out of the sides of his skull and could probably only see to the sides, not straight ahead.

His skull was topped by a forest of horns and spikes growing one next to the other, grinding together and forming almost a "mane" of solid bone which then went down his heavily armoured back, all the way down to the tip of his tail. He only wore a breastplate held up by large belts of leather, with his abs and part of his broad chest left on display, decorated by a multitude of tribal tattoos and swirling lines and motes. He carried two heavy curved blades at his waist, hanging from a heavy set of double belts, and a loincloth covered the shape of a massive and spiky member that dangled heavily in its mostly flaccid state, but was solid enough to poke against the cloth with sufficient arrogance to reveal its shape and ponderous dimensions. Killer saw the guards shying away from that scaly brute, and judging from the rich map of scars crisscrossing his abs and chest and arms it was easy to imagine that the alien was a very physical kind of warrior, and no doubt a brawler that loved few things more than using his superior strength to intimidate and dominate others. Space crocodile is really not that different from me.

Vera's eye darted down towards the reptile's swords, but the alien god prudently kept his hands wrapped around the handles and his grip visibly became almost desperately tight as soon as the alien saw Killer, an audible gasp escaping from his lips.

The alien was clearly used to be the biggest, strongest and most important guy in the room, but Killer looked down at him from much higher up, his massive, hulking form looming over him like a mountain as he stepped into the semi-dark tower. The "crocodile" visibly shivered, his steps becoming smaller and slower as his mouth gaped slightly at the sight of the dark titan ahead of them, wounded and tortured and yet glorious and bursting with excessive vigor. The crocodile turned to the side for a moment, watching the immense pumps that worked ceaselessly to drain Killer of blood, precum, semen and raw testosterone, and his eyes widened in shock at the sight of the colossal, spiked and ferocious sperms that smashed their armored heads and powerful tails against the walls of crystal of the enormous containment silos.

Vera was huddled against his side, one hand needingly tugging at his belts and the other sliding leisurely over the strong abs of the brute, fingers worshipfully trailing down the thick scar tissue, even as heavy manacles burdened her wrists and a triple chain of energy-draining crystal reduced her freedom of movement. She was naked, glorious in her beauty and in the strength of her chiseled muscles even while bloodied, scarred, covered in wounds and with her hide caked with filth and ichors. Her eyes glowed with unbroken pride and intact intelligence, even after all she had clearly had to endure, and Killer felt sincere admiration and pride for her resistance and determination.

She looked up at him while the crocodile was distracted, and her eyes widened at the sight of his body. No doubt she was horrified by the extent of his wounds and by how his body was endlessly tormented, but most of it was awe at the sight of his dimensions, of his growth, of his terrifying power having only ever grown more obscene, even while imprisoned.

She blushed visibly, blinking in awe at the sight of his titanic semi-hard cock jutting out of him like an obscene totem of hypervirility, and she tilted her head backwards to look further up until she met his sapphire eyes. A whole conversation happened in the space of a blink, her eyes warning him that this was their only chance to escape... and the huge male confirming he was ready, before jerking his head downwards to draw her attention towards Requiem. He flexed and arched his back, pushing his chest out as his enormous muscles bulged explosively, and Requiem crackled angrily, zapping him with a discharge of destructive force that smashed him backwards into the cross and filled the whole tower with ghastly white light for a brief moment.

The crocodile turned around at that, startled, and his eyes bulged as he found himself staring at that hulking leviathan of muscle, bulging with power and snarling in pain and fury. The alien stumbled backwards a step, eyes open wide as he stared at the throbbing monster of a godcock flexing in front of him, incredibly enormous and bulging with thick, pulsing veins and cruel ridges of flesh that was harder than steel. Vera got the memo, however, and her eyes flashed in understanding, her head hurriedly moving in a nod up at Killer even as she grabbed into the belts of the reptile, restraining him before he could lose all courage and break into a run.

"Hey, stud... what's wrong?" She purred, and once again Killer couldn't help but admire the way she handled that situation. "You don't want those sissy boys out there and this chained brute to get the wrong idea about you, now, do you...?"

"I'm not scared!" The brute hurriedly barked, but his chest heaved visibly as he balled his hands into fists and stared up at Killer in evident awe and shock.

"Course' you aren't..." Vera whispered, swaying her hips in a wonderfully sensual way as she spun in front of the crocodile and leaned into him, pushing him lightly backwards, just enough to send his bulky back bumping into the commands of the massive shutters, causing them to slide closed behind them. "You are the stud here, and those boys out in the corridor are just sissies and cuckolds. Let them listen as you make me scream..."

"I'll make you scream your lungs raw." The crocodile hungrily breathed, looking down at her splendid breasts as they ground into his bulky chest, her hands clawing teasingly into the perfect profile of his rippling abs. Vera swayed her hips again, and Killer found himself following them, eyes fixed on her perfect buttocks as a few droplets of hot desire fell from her black-fleshed sex, before she ground her thighs together and pushed one leg slowly up between the reptile's, teasing his spiked cock. "I know, handsome, I know... that's why I want it to happen here. Don't you want to force the big, scary Killer to listen, to watch on, to be your cuck...?"

"He is not scary!" The crocodile insisted, biting his lower lip only after the words had already escaped his mouth, and Vera smiled and nodded, coaxing him, playing along, beginning to slowly walk backwards, moving closer to Killer and teasingly tugging the reptile along by his belts. The alien brute forced himself to look up at Killer, craning his head sideways in order to see past the liger's colossal black shaft, and he awkwardly cleared his throat before taunting: "Yeah, you will watch, big boy, and you will learn how it is done...!"

"You tell him, stud..." Vera purred, kissing his masculine chest lightly while her hands worked with the heavy clasps of his belts, slowly undoing them. Her eyes went to the swords secured to them, but the alien god insisted in firmly holding the handles of both. She slowly removed the first belt, then tugged lightly at the long, red loincloth as he held on to his weapons, and she tilted her head to the side and gave him a teasing, impatient gaze as she softly taunted: "Well...? Are you playing, or not? You promised great things, but I'm starting to wonder whether you can deliver. Chickening out...?"

"How dare you, bitch...? It's your pussy that will be chickening out once I start pushing it in!" The reptilian brute barked, glaring down at her with a vicious grin and seizing her throat in one hand, making her gasp as he hefted her off the ground, holding her high up above his head while his other hand yanked the last belt open and tossed it, and the swords hanging from it, away.

Killer followed his movement, and Vera did as well. One long leg stretched outwards, and the belt half-wrapped around her ankle as she smirked predatorily, while the brute blinked stupidly at her change of expression. He turned around with a gape of surprise, but Vera had already kicked the belt upwards, and her arms sprung up in perfect timing. The chain connecting her manacles clanged as it slammed into the reptile's own arm, the sharp links biting into his armored scales and drawing blood as Vera yanked hard sideways, grunting as her great muscles bulged and she forced his arm to bend unnaturally, until a bone loudly cracked. The god's eyes bulged in shock and pain, a cry of surprise and agony escaping his throat just as Vera growled and forced her arms further to the side, until her hand managed to snag one of the swords as they fell back down through the air. With one smooth movement, she yanked the curved blade out of the sheath and twisted her hold around to stab it viciously through the side of the alien's neck.

"You are an idiot, boy. And as ugly as a dirty asshole." Vera remarked in a venomous whisper, grinning as she leaned in closer to his hideous face, while her muscles bulged as she forced the sword to sink entirely into his thick neck, sawing it against bone and tissue as the crocodile tried to shout a warning, a call for help, but instead only ended up gargling weakly as he began to drown into his own blood, with the dark fluid spurting out of his mouth and even out of his nostrils before his head simply fell off.

His massive body trembled violently while the skull hit the ground with a meaty thud, but amazingly it refused to go down, all muscles tensing and bulging as the headless body all but attempted to crush her windpipe for good, but Vera snarled and twisted her elbow, turning the blade downwards and hooking the chain with it, yanking and sawing desperately against the links of crystal, even though it meant the manacles bit viciously into her flesh, making her bleed copiously.

The reptile's eyes glowed with cruelty and fury even while the severed head rested on the floor, and his body all but charged towards the wall, slamming Vera against it, slamming her skull against the heavy shutter of adamantine metal, causing her to cry out in pain and surprise. Killer gritted his fangs, trying to think of a way to help her... and the great tentacles and growths of corrupted, mutant black meat covering and consuming the walls of the tower, responded to his wishes and immediately snapped forwards, biting and stabbing and piercing through the massive alien's frame.

"The hell are you doing in there?" One of the gods asked from outside, and Vera snarled in frustration and fear as she heard the other gods beginning to approach the shutters and the breaches in the walls to peek inside.

The tentacles tore through even the hardest scales, smashing their way through the alien's body and hefting it clear off the ground even as the headless god attempted to struggle, to push back, to break free. Its muscular form was rapidly encased by unforgiving, muscular appendages of steely black meat, and his bones creaked audibly before loudly shattering, his torso collapsing on itself, becoming as flat as a pancake as his legs trembled and kicked uselessly at the air before they were swept up by another tentacle, forced the bend the wrong way and brutally broken as he was compressed on himself like a bunch of rags.

Vera spat blood out of her mouth and gritted her teeth, looking at the broken god with vengeful glee as she pushed off herself away from the shutter while his hand trembled and lost all of his strength.

Sparkles flew from the crystal chain as she frantically ground it against the sword, and she groaned in frustration as it refused to give in, while the sounds in the corridor became more ominous as the guards rushed forwards. Killer saw several shadows in front of the breaches as nervous eyes peeked inside, and he snarled as the tentacles and mutant growths snapped viciously down through the fissures, stabbing against the warrior gods and forcing them to retreat. "What are you doing in there?" Someone urgently shouted, and another voice barked: "Get the hell out, right now!"

Yet, as a combined result of the reptile's own brutish strength and of the presence of Killer inside the tower, the guards were clearly hesitating at the thought of rushing inside, and the shutter still did not budge. Vera let out a growling cry of victory when the sword finally tore through the chain, breaking a couple of the links and sending fragments of crystal exploding in every direction as the chain and manacles suddenly lost their luster and ceased to consume her energies and suppress her psychic abilities.

Vera slammed one hand in the reptile's chest and knocked him back away from her, grimacing as the tentacles kept coiling hungrily around the corpse, crushing it and biting large chunks of flesh off the crumbled bones, and she landed on her feet with a grunt. "I'm coming, give me a sec!" She reassured, gazing at him for a brief instant as she bent forwards and began to saw the other length of chain, the one that tormented her ankles. Killer nodded nervously, tempted to urge her onwards, eager to just have a chance to savor freedom once more, but aware that she needed every last bit of her strength to wrestle Requiem out of him. She was no goddess - But she is my daughter, so she must be a demigoddess at the very least...! - and she was weak after the tortures and experiments and deprivations. Would she survive the contact with Requiem? It was far from certain. And even if she did, would she have enough strength to yank it out of his chest...? The truth was that they did not know. For sure she needed to get rid of the crystals that constantly drained her strength away, and she snarled as she stabbed the curved blade into the links, again and again, until they finally snapped apart. The crystal chains ceased to glow and hum ominously, and the Doberman stumbled backwards slightly, grunting as her energies returned with almost violent force, washing over her like a huge wave.

The armoured shutters behind her began to loudly slide apart, and Killer looked up with a hiss, gritting his teeth and using the tentacles in the wall to grip into the enormous slabs of adamantine metal, restraining them as best he could. Massive rifle barrels were pushed into the breaches in the wall as the sound of running came from the corridor beyond, and again Killer used his corruption, the growths of dark flesh covering the walls to smash those weapons out of the way. Gods cried out in pain and surprise as the tentacles arched down and viciously stabbed into their bodies, and alarms began to blare as someone shouted: "Get the others! Call everyone! We can't access the tower!"

The massive guns opened fire, spraying armor-piercing, magic-enhanced bullets inside the dark tower, but masses of rotting, mutant meat immediately expanded, growing around and over the weapons poking through the breaches, trapping them in place and crushing their barrels, dissolving them into nothing but dust. One of the tentacles wrapped around a multi-barrel machine gun and crumpled it like it was made of biscuits, before yanking it hard upwards, effortlessly hefting the god holding it all the way up to smash his head into the ceiling of the corridor.

Vera sprung forwards and leapt up on top of the bone spikes jutting out from his knee, using those as a step to climb up on the base of his colossal, monstrous black cock, making him swallow a little at the surprisingly pleasurable feeling of her bare feet moving over the gigantic shaft. She didn't miss the flash in his eyes, and smirked a little, looking pleased even as she hurriedly noted: "I don't think we have time for that, right now!"

He grunted in agreement and arched his back, pushing his chest out and flexing his almighty musculature, pushing Requiem out with all of his strength even as the scythe savagely punished him with its malignant, primordial force of destruction. The crackling discharges of ghastly force immediately arched towards Vera as well as the legendary weapon defended itself, but Killer clenched his hands into fists, calling the great tentacles towards him and causing them to flail in the air around the Doberman, luring those bolts of deadly force away from her. Vera grunted in shock at the sheer power of the crackling discharges around her, closing her eyes as some of the tentacles were struck so viciously that they simply exploded, splattering gore all around, but her eyes glowed with undeterred determination as she took a deep breath and announced: "Here we go! I can see it is going to hurt, so you better brace."

"Don't worry about me. Grab it and keep pulling until it is out! Don't ever let go of it!" Killer urged, gritting his fangs and preparing for the torment that he knew was incoming. The muscular female grabbed what remained of Requiem Aeternam's handle and immediately hissed in agony at the ferocious explosion of deadly force that smashed into her, blowing her backwards even as her toe-claws bit into his enormous, throbbing black cock, his immense shaft easily supporting her whole body weight.

Her fingers smoldered and sizzled, her flesh burning and dissolving as Requiem fought back against her touch, the great scythe trembling violently and glowing a blinding, ghastly white light that forced Vera to look away as she flexed and arched her back, muscles bulging explosively as she wrestled the great weapon back out of his flesh. Killer groaned in breathless agony, choking on his own blood as his insides seemed to simply explode, his blood surging up his throat and then bursting out of his nostrils as he coughed hard, his great musculature flexing and bulging out of control, spasming in time with the ferocious discharges of malignant force along his nerves, but still he fought on, clenching his fists and pushing against his restraints will all the strength he could muster, causing the crystal cross to lurch forwards with a loud crack. Requiem refused to budge, but Vera roared and yanked back even harder, her great biceps bulging so powerfully that they ripped through her own hide, making her bleed from a few large gashes... before her snarl turned almost into a triumphant laughter as the enormous scythe slid back a few inches. "Keep going!" Killer ordered, snarling through gritted fangs, and Vera did her best to nod even though a cry of agony escaped her lips as her fingers almost literally melted before her eyes, the bones coming into view as her flesh was consumed. She looked over her shoulder with a grunt as several large tentacles were ripped apart and the heavy shutters began to part rapidly, and she bit her lower lip hard enough to draw blood as she gave another vicious yank, dragging Requiem further out of Killer's wound.

A first god in heavy plate armor began to squeeze past the opening shutters, taking a look inside and gaping in horror and shock, staring at Killer for a moment before he began to shout: "He's breaking free! He is breaking free! Call reinforcements!"

Vera turned around with a hiss of fury and frustration, her emerald eyes glowing with psychic power as she glared down at him, and the god recoiled violently backwards, smacking his head into the opening shutter as he babbled something and obsessively squeezed the trigger of his heavy weapon, spraying Killer with bullets that bounced uselessly off his adamantine, invulnerable musculature. The alien shrieked, then blood burst out of his ears as he fell backwards, drool falling from his mouth and eyes glazing over... and he suddenly turned around to aim his weapon against the other gods in the corridor, opening fire on them and causing a couple of heads to explode into splatters of crimson that stained the wall.

The other gods recoiled in shock at first, but then rapidly took him down as one of them closed the distances, hiding behind a massive shield, and charged straight into the mindless, suicidal being, quickly cutting him to pieces with a long, heavy saber.

Vera's psychic powers were as fearsome as always, and Killer grunted in a mix of horror and gratitude for it, as he watched the god become the last of her victims, in the fashion that had gained her the nickname "Suicide Maker". She had always had a talent for mind control and, specifically, for ensuring that her targets took their own lives. Hers were the perfect murders, and nobody could even be sure of how many times she had delivered death, given that post-mortem analysis could do nothing but confirm that all harm was self-inflicted. The muscular female grunted in vengeful satisfaction and flexed, her powerful back arching and her legs tensing as he wrestled against Requiem's tremendous force and finally managed to dislodge it, the blade sliding back as Killer roared in a mix of anguish and triumph as he felt the weapon retreating... and even as the scythe viciously unleashed its destructive force into him, he felt his strength suddenly increasing, his muscles bulging explosively, swelling with tremendous power and ripping through his own armory hide, making him bleed slightly as great chords of pure power swelled and grew, expanding as his height dramatically increased. It was like a breach had been torn open into the damn, and the small fissure was immediately forced open wider by the sheer power suddenly thrumming inside him. Killer roared, eyes glowing an intense sapphire as he grew even taller and majestic, glorious and terrible in front of Vera's eyes, his muscles bulging with terrifying power and now truly thrusting Requiem out, making her grunt and lick her lips as she felt the balance of strength clearly and definitely switching, causing the scythe to tremble violently in her grip, its blade loudly cracking as Killer's body began to hungrily devour it.

The shutters behind her exploded into half-molten pieces of dark metal that flew towards her like shrapnel, but before she could even worry about it, Killer's terrifying energies had already frozen the slivers in midair, stopping time and warping space. The gods that had tried to rush inside found themselves petrified, prisoner of unmoving time, and those further back offering covering fire with their heavy weapons gaped in shock and horror as all bullets stopped absurdly in midair... before Killer grinned and yanked his arms forwards, shattering the cross of golden crystal like it was nothing but a breadstick. An immense amount of energy, of HIS energy, that the cross had been stealing and suppressing, was violently released in an explosion which blew the bullets and the fragments of melting metal back against the gods in the corridor, pelting them with terrifying violence and sending them crashing in the wall at the opposite side of the hall.

Vera grinned in predatory satisfaction as Requiem Aeternam quivered in her hands and lost much of her luster, her malignant energies flushing out of the blade and meekly flowing into Killer's body, adding to his terrifying strength. The long, crescent-shaped blade began to visibly rot away like cheap iron, flaking apart and cracking visibly, while the countless howling skulls imprisoned into its thick spine opened their jaws in silent, anguished howls and began to crumble, several of them imploding into small clouds of yellowed dust. She pulled the huge weapon out of Killer's chest, smirking as he saw that he wasn't even bleeding anymore, his almighty body glowing with energy as he stepped forwards and grew even further, so much so that she found herself hanging from Requiem, her feet kicking uselessly at the air as she lost contact with his enormous, monumental black cock.

Time around them still moved in an absurd, warped way, reality itself trembling around Killer, bending to his whims as he grinned down at the helpless, bleeding gods pinned against the wall and effortlessly drew them all back towards him. They shrieked and cursed and struggled as they were yanked off the wall, ripped viciously away from the large spikes and fragments of metal that had nailed them to the concrete, but their efforts were in vain. Their magic crashed uselessly into the terrifying waves of force that radiated off him, and their bodies were compressed and crushed like ragdolls as they flew helplessly towards him. "I'm hungry..." Killer growled, and there was a terrifying note to his deep, masculine, big balled voice that made the gods tremble like leaves. They were suddenly drawn forwards all the harder as the huge male flexed and moved a step forwards, a colossal mountain of muscles and power that loomed over them, immense and tremendous as he spread his arms and grinned, throwing his head backwards as the divinities crashed into him like bugs on a windscreen. Bones crunched loudly, shattering into fragments that tore through flesh and muscle like grenade shrapnel; blood and pulped gore sprayed into his glorious form and into Vera's body as she grunted and stared in awe and shock, curling up somewhat before slamming her feet into the male's enormous abs, yanking back one more time and finally falling back down as Requiem came loose. She landed on her feet with a grunt, looking down in a mix of awe and awkwardness as her toes attempted to grip into the upper side of his gigantic black godcock, her cheeks burning red with a weird kind of shame at the notion that she was literally walking on top of that colossal, living monument of hypervirility. She was amazed by the strength with which her bare feet became glued to that immense, hot, powerful member as she literally stepped into the slimy layer of thick, addictive, hyperpotent essence that dripped and leaked in dense, gooey ropes from his humongous godcock. She couldn't help but stare, wide-eyed, as several gods crashed into the immense member, one of them crunching against the heavy, monstrous flare of the gigantic cock, turning into blood and gore that mixed with the dark god's hypervirile filth; with the thick smegma leaking out from under the thick blanket of hyperdeveloped foreskin. Vera grunted in a mix of shock and awe as she met the eyes of the alien in the exact moment in which Killer's tremendous psychic force crushed him into pump against the bulging, enormous cockhead. She saw a god turn into mush in mere moments; she saw him becoming filth that added to the thick treasure of smegma accumulated beneath the enormous, barbed flare. It should have disgusted her, and yet all she felt was need and desire and adoration for that omnipotent godcock and for the thick gunk and slime drenching it and literally throbbing and bloating beneath his foreskin, that hypervirile filth smoldering visibly when exposed to the air, adding to the impossible stench of masculinity and unwashed power and ruin that emanated from the monstrous godcock.

She watched as an invincible, invisible hand of pure force ground armored gods along the flanks of that titanic cock, hot juices streaking down her thighs as she swallowed thickly and admired heavy plate armor rusting and flaking and melting away like butter, and scales and fur, skin and flesh shredded and pulped, organs squished into gunk and smeared along the gargantuan godcock, the blood boiling and bubbling as the monstrous member devoured them, greedily dissolving every last atom. They were only ever good enough for adding a little to the slimy layer of hyperpotent male gunk oozing forth from the immense member, all their energies being nothing compared to Killer's tremendous might. Gods crashed into his omnipotent balls and were ground into pulp against them; others crashed into Killer's muscles and were smeared into them like chunky blood oil... and in the middle of that apocalyptic display of power, Vera barely noticed the fact that Requiem Aeternam, cracked and rusted, dissolved in her grip and vanished. The muscular female looked down with a frown as the great weapon glowed once, no longer fighting against her but almost attempting to cling on to her... but even as she gripped it harder, trying to hold on to it, the scythe turned into a ghostly image of itself and then disappeared entirely. She made a grimace at that, figuring that Thanathos had properly summoned the weapon and that they had lost an occasion to deprive him of such a powerful artifact, but her attention immediately went back to Killer as the huge male snarled-laughed and flexed, effortlessly snapping apart the manacles that were wrapped around his wrists. Other gods were already surging from both ends of the corridor, advancing behind walls of shields, but Killer laughed and easily flung the heavy, colossal manacles into their ranks. Each one was still connected to an enormous chunk of golden crystal, an arm of the broken cross, and those colossal meteors, which had vainly sized up to try and keep Killer imprisoned, crashed into the packed groups of gods like apocalypse itself. The enormous, mountain-like blocks of crystal crushed the armoured gods like bugs, throwing up a thick cloud of crimson and smashing through walls and floor, sinking a couple of levels down into the fortress as alarms kept blaring. Killer moved another step forwards as the stakes buried in his flesh and muscle rusted away to nothing and dissolved, his legs coming free for the first time since he had been captured, and the blood and gore covering them bubbled and boiled as it was consumed and absorbed, all energy rapidly put to use to heal the titan's wounds and aid his regeneration.

The immense tangle of Seals and chains behind him tensed and clanged loudly, restraining him for a brief second, and Vera looked up with a smirk, her emerald eyes glowing as she threw her head back and admired him, her hands stroking down the front of her perfect body and then gripping into her hot, soaked sex, spreading her blossomed black labia and burying her fingers deep inside. Her hips bucked wildly as a discharge of electric, incredible bliss ran up her spine, her eyes rolling up in her head and tongue lolling out with a hot groan as she squirted her nectar out, her passage clenching in need, her mind burning with a mix of ecstasy and fear. He was overwhelming and terrible, fearsome and spectacular, and she fell to her knees on his immense cock, spraying it with her hot nectar as he grew and grew, becoming a titan, his feet crushing the floor into ruins as he outgrew the cell, as he filled up the tower, his immense cock smashing through the fleshy wall and ripping it apart... and she licked her lips hungrily, hips bucking as she teased: "Come on, Master... we both know those chains can nothing against you..."

Killer laughed darkly and flexed, rolling his immense shoulders, and all chains simply disintegrated, all Seals dissolving into motes of energy that were immediately absorbed into his broad, powerful back as he ridiculed the efforts of all the gods who had tried to restrain him.

The tower, already damaged, now shifted and moved as Killer's corruption, no longer contained, completely corrupted and mutated the fleshy walls, turning them into an unholy, terrifying mass of immense tentacles which disentangled and began to whip-lash down into the other parts of the fortress, tearing through the bastions and smashing the roofs apart, slapping the long corridors and the massive barracks blocks into nothing but ruins and pieces of rotten gore. The cell was no more as the tentacles reached out in every direction, slamming down into the fleshy castle and sending great towers and walls tumbling down in piles of ruins and rubble, and Killer, titanic and invincible, towered over the shattered bastions and looked down at the suffering world beyond, his eyes glowing with cruel pleasure as he saw what his monstrous virility had caused earlier, when his dark, omnipotent essence had flooded the fortress and cascaded from the top of the bastions onto the wastelands beyond. The planet had turned black, and a new dense, gooey ocean of hyperpotent cocksludge now covered the land and corroded and melted at the base the great ruins and the fortress itself. Great, mutant growths of flesh and muscle and tentacles pushed out of the ground and grew all over the damaged, forlorn skeletons of skyscrapers and buildings of the past, and the tentacles viciously ensnared any living being that dared trying to travel over that dark sea. The fortress that had been Thanathos's pride was now a hopeless island, a wreckage surrounded by an incandescent ocean of vicious hypervirility, eternal and all-consuming, which was dissolving the castle, making its wall sizzle and smolder as steel, flesh, bone and metal alike were consumed and destroyed.

The monstrous liger grinned, looking down at that inferno and idly rubbing a hand along his monstrous shaft; his cock pulsing with power as he idly thrust forwards, bulbous, fat head throbbing and bulging even larger as his vast cockmaw opened wide, as if to swallow the whole world... and it was truly like a black hole, so immense and powerful that the suction yanked puny, helpless gods and beasts off the ground, pulling them up through the sky. Enormous pieces and chunk of walls and bastions cracked off the wreckage, crumbling and then floating up through the sky, sucked up into his thick, dark smegma as the god licked his lips and idly stroked his monstrous godcock, his thick foreskin gliding loudly over all those helpless divinities and pieces of wreckage, crushing them all into his smegma, grinding them into the incandescent filth. The gods drowned into the thick gunk, their strength completely useless against the sheer thickness, the raw omnipotence of that filth Alpha waste. Their bodies sizzled and smoldered as they were melted like butter, consumed and turned into mere additions to that omnivirile gunk that seemed to pulse when exposed to the air, breathing out a hellish stench of omnipotent virility that rolled over the world with impossible force. Vera struggled to breathe as that almighty musk filled her nostrils, forcing them to open wide as she gaped and choked, gasping on air that was as thick as steak with the titan's omnivirile scent. Her body flexed and spasmed in need, in craving, her hips bucking helplessly as she uselessly clawed into his monstrous black cock, her flesh sizzling with the sheer heat radiating from the unrivalled member. She laughed, darkly and maniacally, as she saw and felt him growing even further, his hulking form looming over that doomed world, his muscles replacing the sky above her as she crawled forwards over his terrifying cock, grinning as she realized that the thick, musky, sweaty forest of curly hair on his crotch was now far, far away from her. Every single strand of thick white hair loomed over her like a tree as the huge male grew and grew, finally unleashed. She dragged herself forwards, climbing up on top of a pulsing, monstrous vein and holding on to its living, moving walls with all her strength, panting in a mix of awe and terror, bliss and fear as the omnipotent cock eternally oozed out a dark, putrid gunk of sweat and hyperpotent precum, thick and gooey and filled with hulking, herculean beasts of sperms that made her tremble in fear, their muscular, massive spiked bodies bigger than huge sharks... and their tails looking endless to her eyes, zigzagging behind them and jutting with terrifying spikes. She felt insignificant and vulnerable like never before, but at the same time she felt triumphant and safe. No, more than safe, she felt invincible, because she was His and nobody could hope to get past Him. Nobody but him could touch her, hurt her, and use her. He owned her utterly and eternally, and nobody would ever be able to harm her again... just as nobody was ever going to be able to stop him from abusing of her body and soul however he saw fit. And that was how she wanted it. That was how it had to be, and she was just a little toy amongst uncountable others. Who was going to stop him, after all...? His power was overwhelming and limitless, and she grinned widely, back arching as she helplessly orgasmed again, her nectar rushing out of her in thick jets that were quickly lost in the dark sea of hypervirile potency beneath her. She panted helplessly, playing needingly with herself as she spasmed and her passage clenched again, and again, pinning her down as her poor sex was wrecked by uncontrollable pleasure, by the overwhelming lust for submission to him, by the need to be His. She realized that she was nothing but a tiny bug literally glued into the thick layer of dark Alpha waste, nothing but a fly stuck on flypaper, unable to tear free, unable to struggle... and unwilling to.

She watched in awe as the entire world seemed to shift out of place as Killer squatted down over the ruins of the fleshy fortress, letting his omnipotent testicles dwarf what was left of the castle as he loomed over the heavily armoured "box" containing the research laboratories. He had grown so fearsomely immense that the laboratory was reduced to looking like a literal shoebox in front of him, its great walls looking frail and useless as the adamantine metal wrapped all over them rusted away and flaked off like cheap paint as the liger's omnipotent masculine stench steamrolled over the structure. Vera grinned as a voice she had been forced to sear with fire in her memory came out from several loudspeakers somewhere far below. It came out in a squeak, in a pathetic, helpless cry of panic as the minotaur head-scientist babbled: "Retreat! Stay back from the laboratory!"

"Or else...?" Killer softly taunted, grinning widely as he rested his arms lazily on his legs as he squatted over the ruined castle. The immense fortress was no more than a shapeless pile of ruins and writhing tentacles and fleshy growths, with the "box" of the laboratory balanced awkwardly on top of the collapsed, crumbled bastions. The giant liger, that immense and terrible monster, made the box look like nothing but a child's toy, a mere plaything... a cardboard box abandoned beneath him, one of his giant feet tormenting the helpless planet on either side of it, making the world quake whenever a massive toe flicked at all. The vast bunker looked like a tiny and helpless cardboard box left out in the rain: the external layers of adamantine armor were rusting away to nothing, to dust that fell off stone and concrete that cracked and flaked, that seemed to be melting, soaked with the dark god's terrifying, hypervirile stench. Killer's big-balled voice was enough to send chunks of armoured wall tumbling off the crumbling exterior.

"I... I already sent the genetic products to my Master!" The minotaur squealed, his voice trembling and broken. "Y-you... can't stop his ascension... You... my job is done!"

"I'll take care of Cerberus and Thanathos later." Killer easily countered, looking down past his omnipotent cock, his eyes glowing and easily able to see the tiny, helpless minotaur through the rotting walls that were his only refuge. The scientist fell on his ass and scrambled uselessly backwards, whimpering pathetically as the image of Killer's monstrous glory filled his mind and seared itself in his brain. Titanic and impossible and horrific, the liger flexed his hulking muscles with terrifying, unfathomable power, smirking cruelly as the world further crumbled around him, the remains of the fortress melting away and bubbling into sludge as his supreme, unyielding dominance crushed the castle like a physical force. He didn't need to flick a finger, his mere presence enough to rip reality apart, to force it to bend to his will, to send it fleeing uselessly from his power as each mighty throb of his godbeastly cock caused the planet to quake and sucked up ruins and corpses and crying gods, hefting them through the air like there was no gravity... or better, like his body had a gravity that dwarfed that of the planet cracking beneath his toes. Pestilent and lethal, monstrous and perfect, he was raging war, merciless death, eternal conquest, living apocalypse and absolute master and owner of everything.

The bunker's roof fell apart like it was made of sand, dissolving into powder and leaving the minotaur howling in panic as he pathetically hid behind a rusting and flaking operating table, crying as the steel turned into rot and scrap in mere moments as the liger just loomed above, flaunting his superiority by letting his monstrous balls hover ominously above the ruined box. The minotaur squealed incoherently, his eyes bulging out of his skull as he stared at those almighty testicles, dwarfing him like they were mountains, no, entire planets... no, stars that pulsed with the tremendous might of the endless production going on inside their glorious mass. They radiated such heat and power that the minotaur squirmed and whimpered, feeling his sweat streaming down his form, his flesh burning, feeling like he was on fire, like he was being cooked alive. And higher up, the liger's monstrous godcock loomed, invincible and too big to fit his vision, a glorious, hellish monument of hypervirility that leaked hideous, hypervirile filth in long, gooey ropes that smacked the ground with the force of meteors, causing the ground to quake beneath the horrified demon. Killer slowly, leisurely stroked his immense godcock, mocking the helpless scientist, grinning down at him as he bombarded that doomed, little, hellish world with enormous chunks of thick smegma and ruin, masculine filth and country-sized splatters of omnivirile precum and cocksludge festering with countless sperms that were larger than ships. "Kill me!" The demon howled, grabbing the sides of his head and crying out: "Kill me! End this nightmare, end me!"

"Clearly you do not trust your master to be able to stand before me..." Killer taunted, and his every breath sent a fetid, terrible wind scourging the planet, causing abandoned, damaged skyscrapers to crumble and collapse like sandcastles, while the sapphire fire in the liger's eyes lit the entire starless, obscure, toxic sky. "That's wise of you, microbe, because nothing and nobody can." Killer easily mocked, grinning as he flexed his spectacular body and grew even greater, even more omnipotent as the planet loudly cracked under his feet. The minotaur howled in panic, staring at all the horrible wounds that should have been there, that should have been tormenting him with death and decay, but that simply weren't. They had all healed already... more than that, they had evolved into new muscle, into tentacles, into deadly growths, into omens of new life, of new power, of new ruin that would flood helpless worlds and consume the helpless prey it crushed. All his experiments, all his tortures, all the damage he had inflicted, all of it had already been cancelled... no, worse than that, devoured, consumed, and assimilated. Poison, wounds, decay, all of them had turned into yet more fuel, yet more power for Killer's endlessly evolving body. Now the monstrous godbeast was just taking a moment to enjoy sweet revenge, to vent some of his excessive, unfathomable hypervirility over that doomed world, and all the minotaur could do was scream in denial, helplessly staring as those omnipotent stars of omnivirility crashed down on top of what remained of Thanathos's castle, crushing it with a loud, pathetic screech of metal and squelch of flesh and crunch of concrete, the great, almighty balls barely seeming to notice the tiny obstacles that hopelessly poked into them from beneath before they were all utterly disintegrated under that terrifying, impossible weight. "No, no, no, please no!" The minotaur babbled, crawling backwards away from that destruction, but it was clear that he was never getting away. All he could do was watch as the almighty god-balls crushed the castle completely out of existence, smashing even through the crust of the planet, biting deep into the ground with their tremendous weight, the immense sperm tanks steamrolling over ruins and walls, mockingly moving forwards, unstoppable and invincible, grinding every last inch of the castle into nothing but dust. The minotaur squealed pathetically as the rotting wall ahead of him exploded into powder and gravel as one immense testicle rolled forwards, and he broke into a helpless, pathetic run, shrieking insanely and feeling the god's mocking gaze bearing down on his back with irresistible force, that alone causing him to stumble, then fall flat to the ground as the monstrous liger's presence crushed him like a bug. The minotaur cried out in despair and hate and terror, screaming empty threats and begging for mercy, asking for death even as he still attempted to crawl away, clawing into the floor as the dark god loomed above him, grinning down at him from his squat. The demon howled in despair, feeling annihilated by the unbearable presence of the hulking, herculean deity of destruction looming above, his presence crushing his ribcage with such force that he couldn't even breathe and his heart pushed painfully against his shattered ribs... before Killer laughed darkly and leaned forwards ever so slightly, allowing some more of the impossible mass of his all-male balls to burden down against the planet. The crust of the world shattered loudly, cracking for countless miles in every direction as large parts of the landmass sunk down under that weight, and the minotaur shrieked as the concrete floor beneath him suddenly tilted upwards, sending him sliding painfully down towards the invincible god-balls that slowly dragged forwards, obliterating the world along the way.

The minotaur's eyes bulged as he stared straight ahead for one last time, looking up into the dark sky only to see Killer's monstrous godcock flexing and unleashing an omnipotent, impossibly enormous blast of dark, putrid precum which fired forth with unfathomable strength and mass. The world quaked, rattled by a literal shockwave as that colossal meteor of hyperpotent virility shot past, and all the damaged towers and skyscrapers that still dared standing over the horizon seemed to simply explode, smashed into clouds of fragments which absurdly seemed to float for a moment... and then, the meteor of black cocksludge fired past, moving with such mass, velocity and power that all the debris was sucked in its wake, devoured as if by a gigantic and merciless black hole. Billions of tons of wreckage were sucked into that omnipotent rope of dark precum which fired out far past the horizon, blasting straight out of the planet's atmosphere and firing across space, smacking into one of the planet's Moons and disintegrating the poor satellite, shooting right through and continuing towards a distant planet, breaking it in half and at the same time coating it in a thick, impenetrable layer of hyperpotent Alpha male waste, so dense and mighty that it kept the pieces of the broken planet from drifting apart, connecting them with enormous black ropes festering with potent, ever-evolving life which immediately exploded in uncontrollable growth, forming tremendous "roots" that tore deep down into the planet's very core, fracturing it and crumbling it and draining it of all energy and force, while gargantuan, terrifying tentacles erupted outwards through space and smashed into other planets and moons, shattering them like they were made of frail glass and then dragging all pieces and fragments back towards the monstrous living planet-eater in the middle.

Killer laughed darkly at that, his eyes glowing with such ferocity and might to illuminate that whole corner of universe, his hulking, omnipotent body growing, expanding so rapidly that the doomed planet beneath could never hope to keep up. The minotaur squealed weakly, crying out in shock as he began to fall literally through the planet as it turned into nothing than dust, overwhelmed by the dark titan's colossal balls, the two grandiose sperm factories sinking through the world and disintegrating it with their literally star-like mass. The monstrous liger had outgrown the planet in mere instants, growing so immense that the Moons of the destroyed world had first floated helplessly towards him, then crashed into his almighty musculature and crumbled like biscuits, becoming nothing more that glitter stuck into the light sheen of sweat covering his form... sweat that had nothing to do with fatigue, but that was merely another product of his hyperpotency. The minotaur stared helplessly up at what little bits of the titan could fit into his field of view, seeing nothing but the planet-impaling strands of curly, sturdy hair covering his omnipotent sack... no, one single unfathomable, omnipotent testicle, impossibly gigantic.

The demon whimpered pathetically, curling up in fetal position as he realized that he should have been dead, that he should have dissolved long ago... wishing, in fact, that that could have been his fate. But he found himself prisoner of a vast, immense dome of opaque, semi-transparent... liquid? Energy?

It took his poor, overwhelmed mind long minutes to realize the horrendous truth: he was imprisoned in a planet-dwarfing bubble of atmosphere itself inescapably encased within a drop of sweat that had washed away the remains of that entire unfortunate solar system.

Which meant that Killer had already outgrown the entire galaxy, his hulking body dominating space itself... the demon attempted to imagine the glory of such unmatched power, but his poor mind, even expanded by scientific knowledge, could not even begin to attach measurements to such obscene might. He only quivered, his body spasming and trembling uncontrollably at the awareness that nothing and no one was ever going to cut through that mere drop of masculine perspiration that slowly rolled down one apocalyptic testicle of the dark monster. The demon howled in despair as he charged uselessly towards the "wall" of the bubble of emptiness containing him, but it was countless miles away and seemed to never come any closer, no matter how he ran... and tears flew from his eyes at the horrendous awareness that, even if he managed to ever reach that wall, he was never going to be strong enough to break through its superficial tension... and he could never, never hope to cross the vast, endless mass of thick sweat beyond that.

He howled again at that, screaming until his lungs were raw and sore and empty... and he trembled hard, suddenly realizing that he no longer felt any loyalty towards Thanathos or Cerberus. No, he was no longer their thrall... whatever they had done to his brain was nothing, nothing in comparison to that brutal display of true omnipotence. And since Killer had no need for him, his only companion was despair. Utter and mind-breaking panic and horror at his sealed fate.

And through the lenses of the enormous layer of ball-sweat that kept him imprisoned, he could see Killer's apocalyptic cock, ridged and barbed, veinous and invincible, jutting for literal light-years into the cold space, making it ripple with the heat and power radiating off the dark flesh. The liger was still unleashing that first, incomparable blast of precum and Alpha waste, a release lasting whole minutes and so immensely violent that the demon could see other distant solar systems being destroyed, washed away, drowned in that omnipotent essence that had torn a swath of destruction and death and ruin across the universe. The demon sobbed weakly, babbling incomprehensible and incomplete words as he stared at the immense wound of black, hyperpotent male gunk stretching across deep space for unfathomable distances. No star glinted through that thick precum, no planet survived, no asteroid escaped the unbreakable grip of that gooey, sticky, almighty essence of male power that festered with titanic sperms of such monstrous proportions that they devoured entire worlds, swallowing them whole. And the demon quivered, the parasites tormenting his insides biting and destroying and consuming with greater hunger and force than ever before as they filled with the power and fury of their almighty Master, finally unleashed. His crystal armor was rotting and cracking apart rapidly and he couldn't even begin to imagine what his body looked like underneath, his eyes closing in horror at the feeling of those terrifying, enormous parasites tearing into him like he was made of water, swimming through his insides and causing blood and gore and sick gunk and ichors to spread out in a puddle around him. His cock was painfully and inexplicably hard, but it was also getting smaller with every passing moment, and weaker, rotting away while he whimpered in agony, feeling like he had literally destroyed his testicles with the violence of his helpless orgasms. He had pissed himself in fear, repeatedly, and the inside of his crumbling armor smelled of worse things as well, and he couldn't even control his hands anymore, only trembling in terror as he stared at the terrifying power of the monstrous liger as more and more black precum blasted out of that unfathomably enormous cock. Killer laughed softly as he leisurely pumped that endless load of excess omnivirility out over a universe that was helpless in front of that deluge, and his hulking muscles bulged explosively as he lazily bucked his hips, reveling in his undeniable superiority and angling his immense shaft downwards to unleash his hyperpotent gunk over a different cluster of planets, bombarding them with his thick essence, grinning widely as entire planets were washed away and shattered, dissolved into nothing... And the demon curled up on itself and whined pathetically, horribly aware that the mind-shattering display in front of him was barely the beginning of what Killer was truly capable of, only a taste of his pre, that endless, apocalyptic deluge of overwhelming and reeking masculinity was the bare minimum hint of what his monstrous virility did truly produce inside those almighty balls. Killer wasn't even trying; he wasn't doing anything more than dumping a bit of excess vigor... and that was a terrifying thought to live with.

Killer rumbled as that first enormous blast of precum ended, thick and gooey essence still leaking from his immense shaft as he stroked it slowly, leisurely, panting sheer relief and in barely restrained hunger and delight at the sight of his thick, hyperdeveloped foreskin effortlessly closing over entire planets, slurping them inside, burying them under trillions of tons of invulnerable, omnipotent skin and crushing them instantaneously into powder and gravel, pushing them down into the unforgiving ocean of smegma accumulated beneath, turning worlds into nothing but filth stuck in his Alpha waste. He grunted in vicious delight, squeezing hard into his own immense shaft and taking a few moments to enjoy the contact with his own hyperpotent meat, after so long a time. How many times he had yearned for the simple relief of grabbing his cock for a second, especially when Persephone had teased him in his cell...! It was a taste of freedom to be finally able to touch himself again, and the sheer enormity of the power pulsing inside the monstrous member was delicious in itself. Hell, he was definitely much bigger than before, both longer and even thicker, even when considering his current, titanic height. He had grown enormously: his musculature had become even more hulking and herculean, his cock had taken on even more monstrous proportions... and he grunted in delight at the thought, even though part of him wondered whether he was ever going to be able to bury his cock down to the hilt into someone, ever again.

He floated in space, surrounded by planets and stars that orbited helplessly around him, and he closed his eyes for a moment, trying to clear his mind. The war inside his memories, inside his soul, raged even more ferociously than before and filled his skull with thrumming, ferocious pain, but he did his best to ignore that and focus on the world around him. There was one thing only that mattered and that he immediately needed to know: how was his family doing? He focused as best he could while the pain pounded so violently against the inside of his skull, threatening to break his head in half, and he winced as he was immediately almost deafened by the desperate cries and prayers coming from Earth and from many other worlds. He gritted his fangs and fought back against that painful invasion of countless voices, and focused on energy signatures, searching Alexis, and Mriya, and all the others... And his father, too. God, was he alive? Did Sikanjal say the truth about him...?

For a few long and torturing moments, he felt nothing apart from Vera's energy signature, which was literally resting on top of his own, for obvious reasons... and he bit his lower lip, feeling his fears growing thunderously in his chest, building up into a cold, hellish panic. He did not know where he was and he had no clue where Earth was, so he couldn't just choose a direction and focus on it. He tried to explore the universes whole, and he kept finding only cold and terrible emptiness, or the pitiful energy signatures of lesser gods, and the pathetic aggregate glimpses of force radiated by worlds full of mortals. Hell...! Gods look like puny mortals to me now... and mortals... hell, mortals are insignificant, even taken in trillions...

A shiver of cruel excitement ran down his spine despite the fear and anguish and worries tormenting him. There was something horribly delicious in the awareness that he could literally snuff those weak motes of energy out of existence with a mere thought now... he could kill gods with a lazy thought. Even if they were not just in another galaxy, but in a far away universe. Mortals? He could extinguish their worlds like candles. It was an intoxicating, arousing awareness...

But it didn't give him any joy, because all he really wanted was to find his family, and make sure they were all ok. He tried to sense further away, covering immense distances, beyond anything he had ever attempted before, and he recoiled in surprise when he found a shapeless but immense energy signature that covered multiple galaxies, perhaps multiple universes at once. For a few moments he wondered what that huge mass of energy could be, but then he realized two things: it moved rapidly, traveling through space and at times touching worlds along the way, burning and destroying. And it wasn't a single energy signature, but actually a cluster of a huge number of gods traveling together, along with literal hordes of disciples and servants. That made it plenty clear that he had just found the Swarm, and he took a few moments to marvel at the sheer immensity of it. He couldn't count the gods involved, and the number of star battleships of all sizes and shapes was simply amazing... and it was horrible to think that the whole, vast armada was heading towards Earth because of him. All those gods were cooperating with the precise aim of finding him, overpowering him and stealing his power away... and most, if not all of them had originally left their home worlds because of Lord Skyfall's messages, broadcasted through space. Cerberus. One mortal who had been able to turn all the gods of Existence into his servants. None of the gods would ever admit it, of course. They were all determined to ultimately take away the prize for themselves... but the fact remained: they were doing the job on Cerberus's behalf. That was the greatest possible visualization of the power of knowledge: the secrets that Cerberus knew were so grandiose that they had allowed a mortal to effectively use thousands upon thousands of gods as nothing but pawns.

Killer shivered at the thought of what could have happened had the Swarm reached Earth a bit earlier, when most of his power was Sealed away and he was nowhere near strong and skilled enough to face such an assault. His whole family enslaved, his world probably pulverized. It was terrible to think of it... but now the Swarm felt a lot less dangerous. Taken individually, the gods that composed it were little more than gnats in comparison to his monstrous strength, and even taken in groups, in whole fleets... Killer grinned darkly, focusing his attention on a bright cluster of energy signatures at the edge of the Swarm, following those burning candles as they headed for an inhabited planet nearby. He couldn't quite tell one ship apart from the other as the energy signatures overlapped in a confuse way, but that didn't matter as he thought of gripping them in his hand, of squeezing them like rotten tomatoes... and countless of the smaller energy signatures, the ones belonging to servants and disciples, immediately began to burst apart, shattered into motes of energy that rapidly dissolved, feeding into Killer's terrifying might, absorbed and consumed even from so many light years away. He could hear their cries and their shrieks, their howls and the helpless groaning of the battleships' hulls as they were crushed like tin cans, imploding and disintegrating in mere instants as Killer grinned and flexed his glorious muscles, rolling his shoulders slowly and leisurely stroking his omnipotent cock while listening to the distant gods as they choked on their own blood, on their own squished organs surging up into their throats as they were crushed like bugs.

He laughed darkly as he slowly squished them, enjoying the crunching sound of their bones turning into dust and the sick, wet squelch of organs turning into mush, before rolling his massive shoulders idly as the whole fleet disappeared, crushed into oblivion, the large stain of energy vanishing from sight in a brief moment. "I see you, bugs..." Killer teased, and his voice tore into the minds of those distant aliens, smashing brutally into their heads, inexplicably clear and understandable to all, no matter the language differences. The monstrous liger grinned down at them as the gods closed their eyes in shock, seeing a clear image of that invincible titan, of his hulking muscles, of his terrifying, prodigious proportions. That image brutally seared itself in their brains, sending them crashing down on their knees, helpless and trembling, terrified and unable to do anything against that power that, even through entire universes, could end their lives with fearsome ease. "But, more importantly, you can now see me. And that means you are the lucky ones getting to admire the true spectacle..." Killer mocked, his eyes burning with ferocity as he licked his lips slowly and let his body do the talking, his massive, bulging musculature thrumming with absolute power and dominance, his herculean, chiseled form shining slightly with the hypervirile sweat covering his glorious frame. Cords of veins pushed out in full definition and the ruins of countless worlds and stars glittered pathetically from within his manly sweat, making it look like body oil, only underlining the perfection of his build. Thousands of gods whimpered pathetically in front of that omnipotence and many others howled in despair and helpless rage as they somehow recognized their home worlds in the glowing dust that decorated his muscles. Killer's eyes gleamed with hunger, his fangs glowing a ghastly, terrible white, flawless and cruel, as he rumbled and squeezed into his omnipotent cock... and it was like their space battleships were in his hand, trapped between his cock and his palm, because he effortlessly crushed another part of the fleet out of existence. There was no defence against such monstrous might, and the alien gods could only pray not to be caught, looking around themselves in terror as warships all across the fleet were suddenly crushed flat, annihilated in one instant while everyone inside turned into nothing but liquid gore. "I'm coming for you, bugs." Killer softly said, arching his back slightly and listening to them gasping in shock as they helplessly admired his muscles, his astounding virility, even the musky, potent sweat that soaked the thick, bristly hair on his chest and crotch and armpits. Everything about him was power and dominance and they could only stare in awe as that alpha beast loomed over them all, dwarfing their fleets into ludicrous, helpless scrap as he flexed with absolute dominance and undeniable power, angling his monstrous shaft as he slowly stroked his titanic girth... before he blasted out an unholy, omnipotent load of black precum that shot through the universes and reached them, smashing through the heart of the Swarm and obliterating entire fleets, cancelling gods from existence like they were stains on the bottom of a urinal. Panic spread through the entire swarm as that black, omnipotent Alpha waste enveloped thousands of ships and crushed them, melted them, rusted them out of existence, before the disaster's proportions became even more tremendous as Killer laughed and angled his cock from side to side, slowly and teasingly, mocking them by directing that endless release of male batter back and forth, cutting horrendous wounds through the whole Swarm. The surviving battleships scattered as best they could and fired furious broadsides against the monstrous, leviathan sperms that crammed the black batter and that now chased mercilessly after the great starships, devouring them whole or disintegrating them on their spiked, invulnerable armor or slapping them into smithereens with their massive tails.

"I could wipe you all out of existence just like this... but it would be too kind, too merciful. No... I want you to live your last moments with the fear, the terror of knowing that I'm coming, and that there is nothing you can do to stop me. I'll visit you in person, soon... even though it's an honor you do not deserve, you miserable dregs."

He gritted his fangs in a mix of vengeful delight and real, frustrated impatience, only interested in finding his family, in making sure they were all safe. He couldn't waste his time playing with the Swarm, but there was one thing that the aliens had unwillingly done for him: their direction of travel undoubtedly led to Earth. Killer focused his efforts in that direction, even though a part of him felt like howling in despair at the uselessness of all that power, which seemingly couldn't do the one thing that really mattered... but then, finally, he gulped as he sensed and immediately recognized a distant but gloriously strong and wonderfully familiar energy... and then another. Mriya and Elaine. They had to be enormous, surely towering over Earth, and he could feel the violent mix of emotions in their hearts... and by focusing in that direction, Killer was able to localize the others as well. Gaia, Adrasthea, Sekhmeth, Boadicea, Alcana... the Praetorians were all there, and so were Diana and his father too... although his energy signature had definitely changed. For the better, becoming much stronger and brighter, yes... but confirming that he had indeed been murdered, and then brought back. Sikanjal, evidently, had been quite sincere: Seth's soul had really been saved by Kaya, and then given a new and improved, godlike body, probably created by Alexis in person.

But he did not find everyone he was looking for. Alexis's incandescent and spectacular energy signature was nowhere to be found, and he also couldn't detect Ira and Vesta. What had happened...?

He took a few moments to realize that Elelyon and Lemuel's pathetic energies were not in sight, and he gritted his fangs, rumbling in fury at the thought that they might have betrayed him for good and caused some terrible disaster... but he calmed quickly, reminding himself that there was absolutely no chance those two could cause any real trouble for Alexis. No, she could wipe the floor with them whenever and however she wished. Alexis had been heading for the center of Existence. She was just... in another direction, somewhere far, far away. She had to be. That had to be the explanation; he refused to accept the alternatives.

"Where the hell is the center of Existence...?" Killer muttered, doing his best to scan the universes around him. However far the Cloister might be, how could he not perceive Alexis's monstrous energy signature...? And how could she not pick up his, now that he was so monstrously massive and radiated such terrifying force in every direction, causing reality around him to ripple like water...? Either she was deliberately suppressing her energies, like Thanathos and Cerberus were no doubt doing, or something big, clearly, had to be in the way, separating them. It was not in her style to hide. Only some truly terrible danger could have ever convinced her to hide, and he just didn't want to believe there was anything out there powerful enough to scare Alexis. So, something had to be in the way. But what could ever be "thick" enough to hide her energy? She shined, brighter than any star, through any kind of "wall".

That awareness gave him a new idea, though, and he started focusing on areas of Existence where he could sense nothing. Complete emptiness. And, soon enough, he found a vast area of terrifying, complete silence and darkness. A gigantic hole of nothingness in the middle of clusters of universes.

And black holes they were, he realized. Multiple, uncountable ones. Somehow, they had been dragged together to form a cluster, to form a shell of complete, impenetrable darkness. An invulnerable wall that could hide any energy signature; devour even light itself; disrupt any and every sensor or perception... And in that moment he realized that he had found it, the mythical center of Existence. He was ready to bet that the Cloister was hidden inside that impenetrable shell of darkness.

He frowned and grumbled as he did his best to "touch" that cold shell with his mind, seeking any hint of energy, any opening, any weakness he might exploit... and he let himself float in space, immense and glorious, one hand still lazily squeezing into the formidable base of his cock, slowly stroking along its goliath length and reaching up to play with his vast, barbed, devastating flare, peeling back the thick foreskin to unveil the dense smegma beneath, unfazed by the fact that entire planets were caught, insignificant and unnoticed, into that Alpha waste, drowned and consumed like flies. The suction generated by the unfathomable mass of foreskin slurping wetly back and forth was so powerful that it sucked entire solar systems out of their normal orbits, dragging them to their doom, and stars fell into the vast, gaping cockmaw, sinking into his incandescent cum channel and dissolving, turning into vapor because of the obscene heat there... mercifully disappearing before being annihilated by the unholy loads of precum surging up his shaft with endless, ferocious hunger and impossible, limitless stamina.

Vera didn't know what Killer was doing, but it didn't matter: with that power, he could do whatever he wanted. He was far too immense for her to truly see him: her field of view couldn't get far past the hulking mountains of his lower abs, and all around her she could only admire the black flesh of his omnipotent cock, stretching out to seemingly infinity in every direction. Sperms covered in cruel spikes that could easily skewer planets like morsels of prime meat swam slowly in the thick ocean of dark, hypervirile sweat and male-sludge that made his shaft slimy. He had grown so much that she could now stand on top of that dense fluid, her pathetic weight completely insignificant to the superficial tension of that liquid. She couldn't dive into it not even if she wanted: it was harder than concrete against her feet and fists. She could see entire planets trapped like flies upon that sticky slime, and she couldn't help but gape in awe and terror as all those helpless worlds literally melted and crumbled away before her eyes... while others were devoured whole by the titanic sperms. Everything in that inferno could and should have already disintegrated her, but clearly Killer wanted her to live and be safe. Instead of being burned out of existence, she felt warm and safe and protected, basking in that tremendous, planet-melting heat that had healed her wounds and filled her body with new strength. She couldn't move, because the thick fluid was sticky and inescapable, keeping her on all four, glued in place even as her hips bucked helplessly and tears rolled down her cheeks with the intensity of her delirious orgasms. Her large, perfect breasts were heavier and even larger than usual and the Doberman couldn't help but whimper in bliss as milk leaked out of her black nipples. Her poor sex felt like it would tear itself apart with the ferocity, the intensity of her releases, as her passage clenched desperately and squirted out rich jets of hot nectar, over and over again, in an endless succession, her tongue lolling out as she drooled helplessly and stared at the "sky", or more accurately at the underside of his monstrous flare and of his barbs, which threatened to rip existence apart like they would a womb. Killer's omnipotent thumb moved in the distance, sliding along the almighty shaft as he lazily stroked his immensity, and it caused planet-dwarfing tsunami waves in the dark cocksludge, but Vera only ever stared in awe and delight, never feeling threatened... or, more accurately, never feeling like she could dare to object to his decision. It wasn't just a matter of being completely unable to resist, to oppose him in any way... no, she did not want to resist in the first place. It wasn't right to resist, to protest. No, he only deserved worship and adoration and thanks. If he wanted her life, she would offer it with words of thanks and praise. It was not hers to begin with. He owned it all, with no limits or exceptions. And the thought made her drool from both ends, her sex clenching hard and spurting out hot juices that blessed whatever insignificant, microscopic portion of his cocksludge they managed to touch.

Her muscles flexed, and she hissed as tremendous energy crackled around her, feeling stronger than ever and realizing that she was, in fact, growing. Not in comparison to him, no... she was if at all possible even more insignificant than moments earlier... but compared to the helpless planets stuck in his cockslime.

She panted hotly at the realization that, while on all fours, she could now look down at a planet, and when she gazed at the closest world for too long, the planet burst into emerald flames and simultaneously shattered, rapidly dissolving into little more than smoke.

"Oh my god... my god... my god!" Vera howled, thinking of the invincible male that dwarfed her and that was filling her with power, terrible and glorious. She gazed at her arms with a breathless cry of delight, admiring her own bulging muscles and feeling the explosive, terrifying power that grew within them... before she laughed as another helpless planet splashed into the thick cockslime, just ahead of her. She was growing so terribly rapidly that she found that her glorious breasts alone completely dwarfed that doomed world. She licked her lips in delight, throwing her head back and closing his eyes for a moment... and when she opened them, the planet was even smaller and she was straddling it, her huge, lactating breasts looming above it. She growled hungrily and dropped down as if to do push-ups, letting her glorious bosom settle slowly down upon that doomed world, and she laughed as her firm breasts trapped it between them. It barely managed to poke into her firm cleavage before crunching loudly, breaking down into fragments and dust, disintegrated in mere instants as the muscular female grinned and felt her hot juices streaming down her thighs as she grew even further, feeling his tremendous energies rushing into her veins, giving her strength beyond her wildest dreams. Her senses became far sharper, her body bulging with new muscle and at the same time growing even more stunningly sensual and feminine, her long legs flexing with fearsome power as she closed her eyes and focused on the space around her, putting herself to the test... and effortlessly grabbing a planet as it shot past, laughing as it went from being tennis ball sized to less than a grape in the blink of time it took her to clench her fist. The minuscule world was immediately obliterated, and Vera brought that same hand down to her clenching sex, grinding the miserable dust that remained into her drenched, dripping black labia, hissing in delight at the awareness of the power she had over entire worlds. Entire solar systems, in fact... and she breathed hungrily at that awareness, tongue lolling out and drool leaking from her jaws as she repeated, over and over again: "Thanks, my god, my Master, my owner, my everything... thanks for blessing me... thanks for letting me witness your superiority... your utter and eternal dominance..."

Her eyes glowed a burning, intense shade of emerald as she gazed towards one of the helpless solar systems that orbited around Killer's cock, drawn irresistibly towards the apocalyptic shaft, and she licked her muzzle at the insulting ease with which she could drag that little toy towards her hand, the star in the middle of the cluster trembling and blinking like a candle. She cupped a hand beneath that cute, defenceless, minuscule system, afraid to touch it because it looked like a frail miniature. She laughed at the realization that her hand was shielding it from annihilation, protecting it somewhat from the infernal heat radiating from Killer's leviathan godcock... and she pulled it back just to see the star flickering and almost dying while the planets visibly started to melt, leaking like they were made of chocolate. She leaned back with a snort of contempt, smirking darkly as she gripped her toy in one hand and easily swept the entirety of the solar system together into a little ball, crushing the planets together and watching as the star's flames trembled and lost luster, seeming frightened by the monstrous strength of her grip, as if too scared to even burn the worlds being crushed into its incandescent surface, as if afraid to steal some of the massive goddess's amusement. Vera snorted in entertainment at that, and simply pushed that helpless little ball down the profile of her mighty abs, hissing in delight as they melted against her skin, leaving a pathetic smear of white-hot sludge, before she used the tip of her index to shove that little sphere down over the soaked curve of her labia. She laughed softly as the little ball almost immediately dissolved, that sun and all those planets extinguished forever by her female nectar, reduced to nothing more than an oozing slime that her juices quickly washed away. "Thank you, my God, for making me mighty... for turning me into this glorious harbinger of your supremacy..."

Killer smiled a bit to himself, but he was only partially aware of what Vera was doing with the energy he was sharing with her. Her energy signature was growing exponentially, but his attention was still all focused on the distant wall of black holes... he was almost losing hope, because he had scanned a vast portion of the shell without sensing anything, but his instinct told him that he was on the right track, and so he kept searching. And finally, his eyes opened and his mouth gaped in shock, in relief, in sheer happiness as he felt the hot, ferocious, astounding energies of Alexis, radiating with tremendous intensity from a vast breach in the wall of black holes. The fissure restricted the ripple of power in width and beamed it in the opposite direction compared to Killer's position, and that was why he hadn't picked it up right away, but now he could sense her clearly. She was a flame that burned with unmatched intensity, and the power that radiated from her was terrifying. He was ready to bet that she had sized up and had flexed her muscles for real, smashing that breach in the wall of black holes. He could almost taste the light sheen of sweat on her skin, and hear her heart thrumming, her spectacular muscles flexing...

And Vesta and Ira were near to her. There were also other immense energy signatures, vast and eldritch and terrible enough to send a shiver down his spine. He had never felt anything like that before, but if the stories were true, those immense forces could only belong to the Sisters of Fate... and to others. Servants of the sisters...? It sure didn't feel like Cerberus's energy, and less than ever like Thanathos's.

Alexis, my love. I can sense you, finally. I can feel you. And it feels like I've been born again. I feel like I'm alive, for the first time in... I don't know how long it has been. Killer paused after sending out that first thought. There were a billion things he wanted to say to her, but for most he would never be able to find adequate words. Even the few ones he had used could never be appropriate, never be enough. He tried to silence the battle and the monsters in his mind, waiting for her answer, hoping that she would hear him...

And he closed his eyes, almost crying with sheer relief when her voice entered his mind, beautiful and strong, full of love and confidence, blasting away all the ghosts, pushing back even Darkness and his assaults. Lion... I feel you too. And it's like the sun has dawned on me, for the first time in weeks. I... I'm sorry. I couldn't make it to you in time to help you.

Don't say it. Killer gently interrupted her, shaking his head slowly and smiling a little to himself. You have helped me plenty. The thought of you kept me sane and gave me the certainty that there would be a tomorrow. And you kept everyone safe. Even... even brought back my father. Thank you, my love. Thank you so much. Alexis hesitated in replying, feeling ashamed of her failures rather than heartened by what she had gotten right, and Killer took a deep sigh and then quietly asked: sing for me, my love. Sing my mind to peace, because Darkness is tormenting me.

Alexis did not hesitate in front of his prayer. Her splendid, perfect voice, capable of moving from hoarse sensuality and ferocious roars all the way to the sweetest of tones, filled his head with those few verses that they always sang for each other in the morning, in their bed, when they awakened one in the arms of the other. My fall will be for you. My love will be in you. You were the one to cut me so I'll bleed forever.

Killer's racing heart found some much needed peace, and his mind cleared some as Alexis sang for him, lovingly, affectively, caressing his scarred soul with her voice and with her love... And as their minds connected, he let her fingers delicately page through his memories, hiding nothing of what had happened, letting her see every minute of his agony... and all of his mistakes. Chiefly, putting a son in Sikanjal's belly.

I don't think I could have survived half of what you went through, Lion._She quietly whispered at the end, and Killer shook his head slowly, ashamed of how he had allowed himself to be blinded and tricked and played. He thought of a thousand things to say, but he just couldn't find the words, and Alexis interrupted him, gently stopping the vortex of his worries. _Shhhh. Sikanjal's fault. Not yours. And I've never had anything to say against you banging other girls, have I...? So long as you always come back to me; so long as you love me the way you do... then I can share in your pleasure. The more cunts you smash, the better.

Killer couldn't help himself at that, and smiled widely, shaking his head slowly. I don't just love you. I adore you. And that will never change.

He could see Alexis's smile with amazing clarity, almost like she was standing right in front of him, and it was the most beautiful of sights. The memory of her accomplice smirk, of the teasing light in her beautiful eyes, was the image that had kept him sane while he was savagely tortured, and to see it again was the greatest of gifts. And then he remembered what Darkness had told him about spreading into Alexis, into the Disciples, into everyone Killer cared for... and he swallowed thickly before admitting: Darkness is trying to destroy my memory and shatter my mind... I've been fighting against him all this time. And... much of my memory is corrupted. There are already plenty of things I can no longer remember, and other images have been turned into nightmares.

I know. I've seen the monsters in your mind. Alexis quietly replied, doing her best not to add to his worries despite the powerful, painful emotions in her chest. I can't do much to help you, at least not from here. But never forget this: I'm with you to the end. And so is Mriya. Elaine, and all the others. We are and always will be with you. Never hesitate and never let the warped ghosts in your mind throw you into doubt. No matter what Darkness tries, we'll only ever be with you.

A little smile conquered his lips at that, and her voice soothed the pain in his mind, her psychic fingers wiping the black corruption away from some of his memories, her energies pushing back against Black and giving him some relief from the torment. She did her best to help him isolate Darkness, but the distance was too vast for her powers to have a decisive effect... and there was one fear that truly gripped Killer's heart. Alexis... He... Darkness said he invaded you too. And all the others. Is he messing with your mind too?

The goddess did not immediately reply, and that, in itself, was a confirmation. She closed her eyes with a sigh of frustration and rage and pain, and admitted: He is trying to. I'm sure he is trying to affect the others as well, and... with you gone, we... weren't very stable. We've been angry and scared and worried sick. That has greatly eased his task, I'm sure. But now that you are back, we can fight back without any fear. He is not in control, Lion... and he'll never be.

Killer grimaced, and clenched his fists tightly, no doubt crushing multiple helpless worlds out of existence without even noticing their presence. It was horrible to think that he had infected his loved ones, contaminated them with such a plague, with such a cruel being, an invader of minds. And he wished there was a way for him to fix the problem, immediately, for all of them... he wished for words good enough to really express how sorry he was for what had happened... but Alexis, once more, gently shushed him, virtually pushing her finger against his lips as she remarked:Don't start. Darkness and Light have been in me all along; just as they have been in you. And it was inevitable that Darkness would try to get into our daughter, and into every member of the family. We are strong, Lion. Stronger than he ever was. He wants to steal what we have... but we won't allow it. She paused, briefly, and again he could see her face, her smile, and even feel some of her warmth, as if she was hugging him, as she warned: No guilt. No regret. None of us regret our choices. Being with you is worth any price. And worrying about things will only make the fight harder. Keep your mind clear, my love. Don't give him weapons to use against you.

Killer nodded in silence, and all he could do was thank her with all the love and gratitude possible. I don't know how I'd manage without you, Alexis.

I know. I'm awesome. The goddess cheerfully replied, before winking at him as she added: But you are too. I can't imagine myself without you.

Killer smiled quietly and nodded, trying to send her an image of himself... he had no clue what he was doing, in truth, other than thinking intensely of her. She was the psychic warrior, the mind reader, the miracle-worker. He was just the tank, the brute that could resist ungodly amounts of damage and deliver even worse destruction. I can see you plenty clearly, Lion. Alexis reassured, smirking. And you look spectacular. If I didn't know what you went through, I'd have to guess you actually had a great holiday, with most of the time spent in the gym, pumping iron. You are at your best... and that godbeast of a cock is just... wow.

Killer laughed a bit at that, unable to resist despite the situation... but then he sighed, knowing that they both had to move on with the urgencies at hand; painfully aware that they only had limited time at their disposal, and that he must warn her while he had the chance to do so. Cerberus and Thanathos are coming your way, Alexis. They are... completely different beasts compared to what they were before. They have injected themselves with the genetic products engineered from my own... powers. They are flawed, but powerful. They want the Well of Eternity.

I know. Alexis calmly replied, before warning: And we will have to deal with the Sisters too... Lion, the Sisters of Fate are a greater threat than the both of them. Lachesis wants to use me. She plans to consume me to feed her own power. To become limitless and invincible. I cannot let it happen. And I must make sure they can never handle the Threads of Life again. They are far from impartial and seraphic. Lachesis has used the whole of Creation as nothing more than a laboratory to engineer Evolution... the kind of Evolution that she wants. The one that she wants to embody. She wants to dispose of everything else.

She is not any different from Cerberus and Thanathos, then. And the Well of Eternity is what they need, all of them. The Well, and us. Killer bitterly remarked, before smirking a little as Alexis shrugged and fearlessly noted: Well, that just means that now we know where to find all of them. We can finally crush them all, and end the war.

Killer smirked a little at that, loving the battle-lust that filled her voice and her supreme confidence. Alexis was even more unshakable than he was: whatever the challenge, she was only ever eager to charge in the thick of the action and prove that she was the best. Still, they were both silent for a few moments, lost in thought about what lay ahead. They were both fully aware of the force of their enemies and of the dangers ahead. They were both horribly aware that if they failed to keep their enemies away from the Well, it would be over for everything and everyone.

I can tell you that Lachesis has a terrifying energy signature. Cerberus and Thanathos are hiding theirs, but I can sense Lachesis and... it's unreal. I'd be very surprised if Cerberus and Thanathos could really compare to her, even if they have part of your power in them. Alexis explained, and Killer listened. When the time came and she got serious in her strategic and tactical analysis, she was rarely wrong. She is the most powerful enemy with which we'll have to grapple, yet she is the least dangerous one, at the moment. For what I see from your memories, Cerberus and Thanathos now have our ability to consume energy and matter, or at least a flawed variant of it. Lachesis doesn't.

Killer nodded in agreement, confirming: Cerberus and Thanathos are the ones who must be kept out of the Well at all costs. But they must also be kept separated from Lachesis: I'm sure she'll try to capture them to steal their abilities.

Yeah, she will. Much easier for her than trying to dig them out of us. Alexis remarked, and Killer fell silent again. The final clash was rapidly drawing near, and their battle plan was essentially already drawn. There weren't many strategies they could use. Things could have been different had past mistakes been avoided, but it was way too late to change any of the variables.

Killer and Alexis, however, knew that there were another two terrible enemies they had to contend with: Darkness, nestled deep within the both of them; and Sikanjal, who carried a rapidly-developing monster of terrifying, apocalyptic power in her belly. How long would the beast take to develop and rip out of her...? For sure, not long. Killer's hyperpotent virility had often resulted in ultra-fast development and in the birth, exceptionally early on, of fully formed, incredibly mature and terribly strong "children" already when he was "a mortal". When he wasn't even 20 years old and his days were spent terrorizing the world with his strength and hypervirility, he was able to pump dozens of ligers in a womb and have them develop in as little as two months. At one point during his campaign of terror in Ire, when he arrogantly threatened to breed entire species out of existence, he literally filled up his victims once a month.

Now? Now he could generate monsters pretty much instantaneously. Sikanjal, as a high-rank demoness of Lust, was undoubtedly able to accelerate her own pregnancies, so he was honestly surprised his unwanted son hadn't emerged yet. It could happen literally in any moment... and he could only imagine the kind of unholy power growing inside that beast with every hour that passed. Sikanjal could barely breathe and move because of that monstrous, unholy pregnancy, but her vulnerability was not going to last for long. If she was genuinely well prepared to take on her own son and absorb him, she would ascend to frightening heights of power. If she failed to slay her newborn quickly, he would devour her and consume the universe by himself. One between Sikanjal and the child would survive and grow into an apocalyptic, unstoppable, unfathomable force of destruction. It did not matter who survived: any of the two would devour the whole of Existence, driven by endless hunger for power. _ _

Killer and Alexis were equally aware of it, and their brief, intense silence, that moment in which they were virtually together, snuggled close, was their desperate escape from reality. They clung on to that silence, to that contact, which was delightful even if "just" a connection of minds. They both knew that it would have to end, soon, and that their separation had to continue at least for a little while still, but no one wanted to rush the moment. Killer, who felt the full burden of his crime bearing down on his shoulders, knew he had to be the one to break that illusory, heavenly peace.

Can you hold Cerberus, Thanathos and Lachesis for a little while? Killer asked, even though it cost him dearly to even contemplate the thought of leaving her alone in that battle for even just a second. I... I have to fix my terrible mistake. Make sure it doesn't doom us all.

Alexis looked up at him with a little grin, tilting her head sideways and giving her that confident, teasing gaze that he so adored, saying easily: I'm Alexis Archer Huxley. I can land good kicks even on your ass. You KNOW that I can tackle any and everyone. You shouldn't need to ask.

He snorted in entertainment at that, and the amusement masked the tension and the fear which was there, in both of their hearts. They traded a gaze that was worth more than a billion words, and then Alexis added: You go and do your thing. And make it as brutal as Sikanjal deserves. No matter how well she interpreted me, she wasn't allowed. I just wish I could be there to watch you perform, and to hear her screams.

I'll make it quick, and then I'll reach you with all the Disciples. We'll put an end to this nightmare. Killer promised, and Alexis nodded in agreement, smirking. She seemed thoughtful for a moment, and he instinctively knew that she was searching for a specific energy signature... and when she found it, she grinned widely and looked at him with savage delight. I see you performed quite a number on the Swarm, already. Please, finish the job while you get here, so that annoyance is also terminated. _ _

I will. Killer assured. Finishing off the Swarm was going to be the easy task. Sikanjal was the actually dangerous and complex one, especially because he did not know for sure where she had sought refuge. He believed, but maybe it was more a matter of hope than actual conviction, that she had headed back to Earth and, specifically, to "her" submarine, the Sentence. In theory, that was the only established base she had, especially now that she had well and truly betrayed her former master, Cerberus. The Swarm and all of Cerberus and Thanathos's forces would be on her trail to kill her, so that restricted her chances by quite a bit. If their assumption was right and the Sentence was her "home" and the laboratory where she had gotten her body repaired and upgraded after their previous clashes, she had probably gone back to it.

If it turned out she hadn't, well... Killer did not even want to think about it. It would leave them with no clues and almost certainly destroy all hopes of dealing with her before her unholy son matured enough to be born.

So, Vera saved you. It seems like I owe her a huge one. Alexis softly said, and Killer could see her looking down at the Doberman as if she stood between them in that mental meeting... and he realized that Vera was indeed there, looking up at Alexis with a strange expression in which fear was mixed with affection and even with some bold rivalry. It also seems like I now have a new... daughter. The empress added, and Vera blushed a bit, looking down in embarrassment that was not devoid of gratitude for that word.

Welcome to the family, Vera. Alexis said, with sincere affection and evident gratitude, and she bent down to hug the much smaller female, kissing her cheek lovingly and teasingly at the same time, acting a bit like a mother, a bit like a sexual predator, a bit like a rival.

T-thank you. Vera replied, looking somewhat confused, surprised and pleased all at the same time. Alexis smirked in entertainment at that, and nodded a bit before saying calmly:I'll let you and Killer have a little talk now. There are important things you two have to get right. And then we should all get moving.

Vesta and Ira pretty literally forced their way into Killer's vision, tearing through the bright white walls of it, grinning at him in relief, love and adoration as they took position on either side of Alexis.

The girls wanted to say 'hi'. Alexis shrugged, grinning in entertainment. Couldn't deny it to them. They have been tugging at me like children all along.

Killer smiled and hugged them both, squeezing them tightly against his chest. The relief and happiness he felt were impossible to describe, but it was clear that it was a reciprocal sentiment. Vesta and Ira's eyes shined as tears of happiness rolled down their cheeks, and they whispered words of love, of worship, of relief and pure bliss. For a few glorious moments it was like the distances between them had ceased to exist and their hands could really touch each other's bodies. Muscles flexed, hearts raced, sweat streaked down their spectacular bodies and Killer grunted, his hips bucking and thrusting his apocalyptic cock through helpless space as he felt like Alexis, Vesta and Ira were all grinding into him... but all too soon it was over, and they had to say goodbye, at least for the moment.

Killer's eyes opened slowly and his mind adapted as best it could to the absence of the three goddesses, focusing instead on the cold infinity of space... and it took him a few moments to realize just how immense he was. He wasn't really prepared to seeing doomed galaxies glinting weakly from inside his light sheen of sweat. Nothing could have made him ready to realize that planets and stars, as tiny as specks of glitter, were stuck all over his body, reduced to nothing more than a decoration, like body oil massaged all over his herculean build. He looked out over Existence, leisurely stroking his apocalyptic cock and rumbling as he saw the glittering worlds stuck in his thick smegma and the dissolving galaxies that were consumed by his hyper-potent cocksludge and ceased to exist, absorbed into him without him even noticing. How many of those worlds were inhabited...? How many civilizations had just ceased to exist because of him...? He looked down at the two terrible, endless black scars that violated the fabric of Reality, like two wounds that stretched for uncountable light years in two different directions, forming a V that sprawled over many, many universes. His precum alone, his almighty Alpha waste, had caused more destruction than even Darkness himself, and as he idly continued to squeeze into his omnipotent shaft, he leaked out more dark, omnipotent essence which crashed down through entire galaxies, whole universes, washing them away like specks of dirt, while many other helpless worlds were torn out of their orbits and dragged towards him, defenceless before his might, unable to resist the attraction caused by his sheer mass; the suction of his thick foreskin slurping lazily over the fat, colossal cockhead and the vast, endless flare.

How many Anchors and gods had he just destroyed and absorbed...? How many divinities had just been turned into yet more sweat and hypervirile gunk on his cock...? More than he could count. More than anyone could count. And he had felt nothing... nothing! The first time he had absorbed the power of an Anchor, it had nearly fried him alive. As recently as the time when he had been captured, back in Alfaya, he had struggled to survive the sheer potency of the shattered Anchors. It had taken him a supreme effort and all of his strength to absorb all that power without being crushed and incinerated by it... but since then his power had been growing at an impossible rate, like an avalanche that just couldn't be stopped, and now the anchors were barely noticeable power boosts, as insignificant as beer snacks that he could devour in handfuls. It was monstrous, ruthless, cruel, and beastly: he had just exterminated billions, no, trillions of living beings. He had just committed the most terrible and the greatest of all genocides, dwarfing every previous definition of evil. Cerberus? Ah! For all his crimes, he was just a spiteful child in comparison to Killer. Thanathos? Typhon? Ridiculous amateurs. Even the Swarm's devastation struggled to compare to the sheer annihilation caused by just one blast of black precum from his cock. He was a monster, a tyrant... the real master of Death, the real Apocalypse, and the only true master of War. And for a moment he was left wondering whether the evil he was fighting was actually preferable to him. Were they the heroes, and he the monster...?

No, of course no. They were monsters, and they would do worse than even him if they were allowed to secure absolute power. But it was all too clear that he was a monster himself, and that he had once more failed to repress and contain his hungers and put a limit to his innate ferocity. And for perhaps the first time ever, he readily admitted to himself that it was because of him, and him alone. Darkness would have done worse, had he had the chance to stir, but what Killer had just done was due to his own desires, to his own cruel pleasures, to his own lack of care for the bugs around him.

And there was so much more power at his disposal, and so much more size... and he shivered for a moment at the thought of it, knowing how easily he could grow even further, and how he could continue that tremendous, apocalyptic massacre. He felt shame and horror, but at the same time delight and arousal and desire. He felt like a bully, and he grimaced at himself... but part of him only craved for more of that.

He looked down at the base of his immense black shaft, and saw Vera there, tiny in comparison to him but so gloriously immense compared to the helpless worlds glinting around her, never bigger than marbles in her hands. And he closed his eyes, muttering: "Enough of this."

He shrunk himself and Vera down to more controllable sizes, and when he opened his eyes they were both standing on a desolate planet that, a moment earlier, had been falling towards its doom against his immense cock. The huge male looked idly down at his glorious body, his massive shaft still hard and gigantic, standing up proudly even if angled down by its own calamitous weight. The planet offered nothing to compare himself to, other than dust and rocks, so he couldn't quite gauge his current height but he estimated he stood well above thirty feet. His growth had been uncontrollable once Requiem and the Seals draining him had been removed, and even now he found that the only thing that felt truly difficult to accomplish was trying to pack his own immense potential in a smaller frame.

Vera stood at his side, naked and beautiful, gazing down at her hands and at her arms as she flexed slowly, admiring the way her muscles had grown in size, tone and definition, her body truly godlike. All wounds were gone, and all the mass she had lost due to torture and hunger and deprivations was more than recovered. She glowed faintly with the majestic amount of energy pulsing inside her and her eyes burned like stars in the darkness, their emerald light illuminating the planet around them.

She turned slowly around to face him, her head level with his broad, masculine chest... and she visibly shivered, her thighs glinting with the streaks of hot, precious nectar streaking down her powerful quads. Her cheeks burned red as she bowed her head and tremblingly whispered: "thank you, Master, for your gift. I feel... I feel incredible. Better than ever before. Better than in my dreams. And I owe it all to you."

"I owed you a huge one for standing up for me in the battle. For warning me about Cerberus's plan. And especially for allowing me to break free. Without you, I would still be suffering, nailed to that cross." Killer calmly replied, trying to hide the vortex of thoughts and emotions that raged within his mind as he desperately tried to figure out a good way to talk to her about the past. What did she know? What did she suspect? Would she believe him? And how would she take to the news? The last thing he wanted was for her to hate him... but he had failed to protect her, hadn't he? And moreover he had failed to recognize her and save her the very first time they had met. He looked down at her, admiring her beauty and her strength, and his mind was crossed by memories of those days in Ire, with Vanessa, with Nadia, and then with their little girl. "Samara..."

Vera's eyes widened at that, and she recoiled slightly, her lips parting in a little gape of surprise as she was assaulted by her own broken flashes of memories of the distant past, of those very first few years of her life that now felt like a whole different era. "That name... I haven't heard that name for a long time." The Doberman finally whispered, swallowing thickly and adding: "And I did not think I'd ever hear it again. I had forgotten it. It was stolen from me one life ago..."

"I should have prevented that, but I couldn't... and I will never be able to properly apologize for failing you." Killer said, looking down at her with love. Whatever little doubt might have still lingered inside him was now well and truly dissolved. "And what does the name Nadia mean to you...?" Killer quietly asked, struggling to keep his voice from breaking. Vera cleared her throat and suffocated a sniff as she hurriedly reached up to wipe tears out of her eyes as she replied: "My little sister. Well, she is actually the big sis, in age terms... but I've always been much taller and bigger than her."

"And you've always protected her. Nadia... you see her smile, and you cannot bring yourself to imagine that she can't hear and she can't speak." Killer softly added, remembering that sweet, frail little girl. Nadia was not his, she was the first daughter than Vanessa had had from an unhappy love story which ended with her being alone, heartbroken and with a deaf and mute girl to raise while trying to make a career in the army. He had loved her, however, and he had happily called her daughter and sincerely cared for her.

"And so..." Vera began, but she fell silent with a little gasp, her voice failing her. She moved a step forwards and slowly, reverently reached up to touch his vast chest, then to stroke downwards, her fingers tracing over majestic, mighty abs as she looked up into his eyes. "So Cerberus did say the truth for once in his life... you... you really are my father...?"

"I loved your mother, Vanessa." Killer confirmed, a soft, sad smile conquering his lips before he added: "Vanessa and I were... very close. I truly loved her, and we spent a lot of time together back when I was much younger and, in many ways, much more stupid and even more arrogant."

"Mom... I remember so little of her..." Vera whispered, closing her eyes with a sigh full of sadness. "I've lost almost all memory of those days, but... I remember that we were happy. I remember that dad was strong, so very big and strong... and I thought he was invincible, and I thought we would always be safe and happy..."

"I didn't try hard enough. In my arrogance, I... I dared thinking that my many enemies would never dare going after you and your mother. I thought I was too scary, too strong for them to even try." Killer sadly recalled, and a shiver of regret and guilt went down his spine. "But then there was the bomb, and I wasn't there to save Vanessa..."

"Was it a bomb...?" Vera quietly asked, looking down at her bare feet, studying her footprints in the sand and dust without really seeing any of that. "Yes, it must have been, of course. I remember the noise. I remember running to the window... and the the black smoke I saw. And then... brother. Don't even remember his name anymore... telling me to run, to hide, to bring Nadia with me. Noise outside. More explosions."

"I rushed home as soon as I could, after... after realizing that there was nothing I could do for Vanessa. After realizing that it... it might not be over." Killer said, but it felt so pathetic, so insufficient, so much of a failure on his part... He had not been able to save a single one of his sons, and he had lost both daughters. He looked down at Vera with an apology in his eyes, but he couldn't restrain himself from asking: "What do you remember...? What happened?"

Vera shook her head slowly, and mumbled: "I don't remember much. I know that, all of a sudden, the floor was shaking and the walls were exploding into pieces. I remember flashes of light, and clouds of dust and smoke and gas. I remember coughing my lungs raw. I remember crawling on all fours. I remember being scared, and angry as I dragged Nadia along, unsure if she was still breathing at all because she had lost consciousness... and I remember ugly figures in gas masks surrounding us... and my fury, and my fear, and then blood raining on me as heads and gas masks exploded into pieces." She paused, looking out over the cold infinity of space, making a grimace as she looked over universes and galaxies that had been literally torn apart, shredded by Killer's mere presence, purely by his immensity and his monstrous strength which had rewritten the cosmic laws of gravity and yanked entire solar systems out of place, dragging them for countless light years and abandoning them in whole new areas of space. Killer followed her gaze and he made a bit of a grimace at the awareness that even those worlds that hadn't turned into smegma under his flare were, in many cases, equally doomed: there were worlds which were freezing to death after being dragged away from their sun. There were other worlds, on the contrary, which were burning and dying, turning into scorched deserts because they had ended up too close to wandering, lost stars dragged across universes like mere candles. He had changed everything, reshaping entire universes, dissolving whole galaxies, turning delightful Edens into deserts of fire or ice and at the same time turning infernal, desolate balls of rock, ice or fire into new Edens by dragging them into new Goldilocks Zones where the conditions were just right for Life to thrive. He had recklessly and leisurely toyed with Life in ways that the gods of the past had only been able to pursue over Eons. Ages of effort from millions of gods, raped into a whole new shape by a mere flex of his hulking, invincible body; a mere throb of his almighty black cock; a moment of lazy rest in the middle of deep, dark space. Nothing of it had been planned, nothing of it had been conscious at all and none of it had required a single iota of effort on his part. He had literally flexed, and then closed his eyes to think, to talk with Alexis, to rest his sore mind for a little while.

"What are you like when you actually use those muscles...?" Vera quietly asked, voicing the same question that half-tormented and half-delighted him. If that was the effect of him lazily resting; of him restraining his growth and stopping it at a point that was almost ridiculously small compared to his true potential... what could he do to Existence if he ever decided to try? It was an unfathomable scenario.

As if to answer her question, his leviathan cock stirred and throbbed, jumping up with a great display of vigor and unleashing a thick, enormous globe of black precum as his foreskin slurped back just a little. It pushed out a large chunk of dark smegma with a terrifying stench of masculine power, of hypervirility and ruin mixed together as entire galaxies rapidly melted and decayed and died within the potent gunk. Killer grunted hungrily as the large globe of gunk swelled even larger and then erupted forwards, firing forth like cannonfire and dragging behind a huge rope of black precum that smacked the surface of the planet with enough force to make the ground tremble... before tremendous, chaotic, lethal forms of life made of dark flesh grew violently out of the desolated wasteland, cracking stone apart and rapidly covering the dusty surface in black, powerful muscle and male-meat, tentacles and thorny vines, plants that were lethal and glorious, monstrous and beautiful. Killer seized his titanic cock in one hand and idly pumped out that whole enormous blast, then grunted in a mix of pleasure and irritation as he looked down at her and admitted: "I have no idea. I... usually hold back. A lot."

"I can see that... fuck...!" Vera breathlessly replied, looking up at him in awe and fear, her body trembling visibly even as her nectar dribbled down into the dust beneath her, soaking it and filling it with new and strong life that rapidly grew all around her: flowers, vines, fleshy plants and tentacles, much smaller than those born out of Killer's potent essence but also more colorful and less aggressive.

"What I witnessed completely redefines the very idea of "god". It is ridiculously reductive to call you a god, when your might completely eclipses them... we'll need to find new and better words, and even then they'll still be mundane and inadequate." Vera whispered, her nostrils flaring to take in as much of his glorious male-stench as she could, adoring even the strong, musky sweat and helplessly rubbing a hand over her clenching sex, pushing her fingers slowly inside her hot passage as the other hand gripped into a large, prodigious breast. She looked at a distant planet, dark and desert and hopeless, and her eyes glowed emerald as it immediately cracked like an egg, magma erupting through the fissures before it simply exploded in a cloud of small fragments that drifted away from the rapidly cooling, dissolving core. "I can now effortlessly do to planets and stars what I could once do, with quite some effort, to skulls..." The young goddess quietly commented, before gently gripping Killer's wrist, tugging him quietly down with her as she sat down on that alien, desert land. The huge male accepted her silent request and sat down right next to her, legs spread wide, his gargantuan balls smashing craters into the soft ground with their monstrous weight, making her smirk for a moment before crossing her legs as if to meditate, her arms resting upon her muscular, powerful thighs. She gazed at the dead, arid ground for a few moments, and then resumed her story. "That was the moment when I realized that I had innate and terrible powers. I could wreck minds, and with enough focus, or with a great deal of rage or emotional stress of other nature, I could turn brains into pulp and cause heads to explode like overfilled balloons. And I did exactly that, killing as many of the soldiers around me as I could. I took them by surprise, I believe... they didn't quite expect my powers to be that great at such young age. But they had come well prepared, and they eventually subdued me... beat me down and tied me up in special restraints until I could not do a thing." She paused for a moment, and then snorted with a bitter smirk that had nothing to do with amusement. "Of course, I was too young to realize that my power to bust their skulls was the very reason for their presence in the first place. By killing some of them, I only reinforced their leaders' belief that I was worth the price in blood and treasure."

"Do you know who they were?" Killer quietly asked. He had pursued them for all his life, but he had never managed to get a firm, clear picture of what exactly had happened. Besides, with what he had learned about Cerberus, it was clear that even some of the things of the past he thought he knew, were not actually accurate.

"Irenic special forces. I'm pretty sure it was real, not a cover story. That's how it began... because of any one of the many "black" programmes of Ire's army. Don't ask me which particular band of psychopaths it was, but... you know the type. There were a lot of different groups back then, and I'm pretty sure Ire's government had already lost control of several." Vera replied, grimacing in disgust, and Killer nodded quietly. That made sense, and it was what he had always assumed. Ire was known already back then for having an endless appetite for persons with special abilities and superpowers. The Irenic armed forces had a massive program of genetic experimentation and several large units of "super-soldiers" organized according to their unique abilities. Immediately after her birth, Samara had given clear clues of the spectacular amount of psychic power she was gifted with, and even though Killer and Vanessa had tried to keep the secret well guarded, Ire had somehow found out. Alex, the rival of Killer at the military academy, had probably spied him with the help of his friends, admirers and partners in crime, who in those days were willing to go through all sorts of trouble just to annoy Killer in whatever way they could. Killer did not know how it happened, but he was convinced that Alex had somehow discovered Samara's secret and passed the information on to his father, who was the Irenic army's Chief of General Staff. From there onwards, things had undoubtedly moved very swiftly.

"For years after that day, I have pursued and slaughtered the units of Ire's special forces and destroyed many of their laboratories. I hoped to find you and bring you back home, but the groups were either too well organized to leave footprints behind... or just too chaotic to really keep track of their activities. Some files that I recovered immediately after the attack on our house made mentions of a test subject who I'm sure was you, but despite my best efforts, I never found anything else. I lost the track entirely..." Killer sadly recalled, resting his arms on his thighs and leaning dejectedly forwards. "I suspect you were transferred into some kind of even more secretive program... and judging from your later history, I'm guessing that at some point Ire's special forces handed you over to the New World Order Army. It the transfer was ever documented, someone went to great length to ensure all files were destroyed."

"That is correct. I don't remember when exactly it happened, and at the time I didn't really realize what was happening. Being a prisoner of the NWOA or a prisoner of Ire's Super Soldier programs was more or less the same thing. Lots of beatings, lots of torture, lots of... people strapping me to surgery beds and looking into my head and body." Vera muttered, making a grimace of distaste at the thought. "I was too young to understand what was going on, and I knew nothing of either organization. I only knew how much it hurt, and how many ghastly, horrible persons surrounded me. Things only became clearer much later on, when my training was expanded to include indoctrination about the 'holy mission' of bringing down Kesteven and its 'oppressive' domination over the Northlands. I went backwards through my memories, and made sense of some of them."

"There is one thing about the NWOA that I've never been able to understand..." Killer snorted, shaking his head slowly. "... why Kesteven? My father was working to build peace! He was pushing the other kingdoms towards reforms, towards a new relationship with the prey species, founded upon tolerance and respect... the NWOA should not have seen us as enemies. If anything, it should have seen us as allies."

Vera nodded in agreement with Killer's words, but then snorted in bitter entertainment as she squeezed lightly on his wrist and warned: "It should have, and it would have, had the NWOA truly been about fighting to 'end the tyranny of tigers over the prey species'. But the NWOA is a gigantic lie. It has been for many years now, and most of its members are poor idiots who fell for the lie and fought to the bitter end to defend it, without ever learning the truth. The NWOA members are volunteers ready to give everything up for a cause they genuinely believe in... the problem is that they do not realize that the cause is just a cover story. They are being used, but they do not realize it."

"Cerberus again...?" Killer dejectedly enquired, sighing in frustration and painfully aware of just how much he had been outthought and outplayed by the king of Alfaya.

"It began with Cerberus's father, actually, for what I know." Vera corrected, making a bit of a grimace. "Do you remember that famous raid of the Alfaya's special forces which decapitated the leadership of the NWOA, all those years ago?"

Killer nodded in silence, and Vera shrugged a bit and continued: "It was every bit as successful as was claimed back then, and then some more. The NWOA ceased to exist that day, such was the impact of losing all the main thinking heads at once. What resurfaced a few years later was the NWOA in appearances only: the Raja family rebuilt the organization from the ground up, changing the target and making it Kesteven. It cost them a lot of money in propaganda and disinformation, and they had to hire a few non-tiger figureheads to put at the helm, paying them a lot of money, but it was a good investment nonetheless: Ire and other powerful countries eagerly bought in the lie, convincing themselves that Kesteven's reforms were just a diversion to cover plans for expansion, and began to pour funding, supplies and fighters into the NWOA."

"And in good time, my own actions in Ire's territory must have made their lies all the more convincing." Killer bitterly muttered, painfully aware of how much his rampages had hindered any prospect for a new and lasting peace between North and South.

Vera mercifully did not add anything to that particular point, shrugging instead and drawing idle circles in the dust with her index while continuing: "The NWOA became a powerful paramilitary apparatus, and then a gigantic and well equipped armada that effectively served the Raja family's interest while costing them almost nothing, since manpower and funding came from the South hungry for revenge. The NWOA is a weapon that the Raja family has yielded very effectively for all these years, using it to keep you busy and to inflict as much damage as practicable, without ever exposing themselves."

"The Rajas are admittedly incredibly good at deceiving, tricking and provoking... they have managed to convince half the world to fight their war against Kesteven on their behalf; and Cerberus has pulled the same trick on the gods of countless worlds, getting them to do the dirty work for him. It's... monstrous. And amazing. I hate them for it, but... even I must admit that their plan has worked out spectacularly well." Killer bitterly mumbled, looking moodily out towards the planet that Vera had effortlessly disintegrated.

"It is an elegant form of cowardice, but still cowardice. Blackmail and lies... the same method they have used with me, to turn me into their weapon." Vera replied, grimacing with distaste and turning to the side to spit into the dust, uselessly trying to clear her mouth from the hideous taste of rage and regret.

"Well... yes and no." Killer honestly replied, shrugging a bit. "Cerberus and his ancestors are many things, but not cowards. If anything, they are insanely reckless. For all this time they have juggled forces that dwarfed them. In any moment, their plan could have collapsed for a hundred different reasons, and they would have been crushed out of existence because of it. Mortals that deceive gods; or that trick the world's greatest countries into fighting a war on their behalf, cannot expect to survive the revelation of their dishonesty."

Vera grunted in grudging agreement, but she couldn't help but grimace in distaste as she recalled: "It was hard, you know, knowing that Cerberus, the most tyrannical of all Northlands kings, was the real leader of the NWOA. I was disgusted to no end. Every single day I pitied my "comrades" who ignored the truth and died not even in vain, but in servitude to the kind of tyrant they thought they were fighting against...

Every minute of every day, I was tempted to warn them, to tell the truth. And one day I tried. I told a few of them, the ones I thought I could trust. We organized a revolt... but it... it didn't work out." Vera shivered, remembering the terrible repression that had followed, and the look of agony on Nadia's face as she was tortured while she was forced to watch, strapped to the wall. "The leaders of the NWOA managed to convince most of the warriors that I had gone rogue and that I was trying to disrupt their crusade from within... we were taken down. Those who had rebelled were swiftly dealt with. A big pile of corpses. Some gasoline. A bulldozer pushing the ashes into a hole in the sand and covering it all up." Vera paused, closing his eyes and shaking her head slowly. "Cerberus made sure to increase my isolation afterwards. I hardly ever got the chance to talk to other volunteers again... some of Cerberus's men were always around, acting as a filter between me and the others, when I had to operate alongside other teams or operatives. Most of my missions were lone wolf stuff, anyway."

She made a grimace and cleared her throat loudly, bitterly, before spitting into the sandy ground... and then she recoiled a bit, startled by the sight of life growing and evolving rapidly out of her saliva: plants and flowers were spreading from her drool, colonizing that desert planet even though it had no breathable atmosphere and no real sun. "How is this even happening...?"

Killer looked curiously past her, smirking a little as he had to bend forwards to see past her formidable, firm breasts, and he smiled in entertainment at the sight of the growing vegetation before answering simply: "Well, you are a goddess now. Even unknowingly, you can perform miracles and prodigies."

"I really am your daughter, huh...?" Vera quietly asked, shaking her head slowly, still full of disbelief at the thought. Her eyes fixed on the dense, hyper-potent sludge of masculine sweat and thick precum that leaked in ropes from his titanic cock, staring at the powerful, ferocious life that grew between his legs and all around him, whenever a single drop of his sweat hit the surface of the planet... and then turned around with a frown as something tapped lightly on her shoulder. She found herself face to face with a tentacle-plant of black, powerful, slimy muscle that danced slowly in the air, already probably thirty feet in length and rapidly growing even further, both below and beneath the surface of the planet, cracking stone like it was a biscuit as its "roots" pierced deep into that dead world, fertilizing it with superior, unholy life.

"Very funny, dad... the greatest power in the universe, and you use it for this kind of jokes...?" Vera flatly commented, but she flashed him a smile nonetheless, and her eyes shined a brilliant emerald. To the huge male, that meant the world.

"What did they do to you in all these years, Samara...?" Killer quietly asked, looking at her with guilt and concern. "What were you forced to endure because of my failures...?"

Vera gazed at him quietly for a few moments, and squeezed his wrist gently, whispering: "There... there is no need for you to worry about that, it... it is gone now."

"I must know, instead." Killer gently but firmly countered. "I must know my sins, and ensure that all of their weight is properly pressing down on my shoulders."

"I don't think anything can ever be a true burden for shoulders as mighty as yours, daddy." Vera whispered, smiling at him... and he smiled back, lovingly and sadly, his eyes urging her on.

"I know the full story will... take a long time." Killer murmured, looking down at the ground without seeing it. "But do give me the short version, for now. I have to know... please."

The Doberman sighed, then nodded a little and began to tell her story, in a soft, sad voice. Her captors had been deliberately monstrous for many months... for a few years, in fact. She was beaten savagely, raped and crudely cut open by an endless succession of surgeries that kept her alive and preserved her combat potential but had no other kindness to them. "They tried to understand the unique traits of my psychic powers. They are... different. I can directly affect the nervous system, as you know, and I can also affect machinery and electronics. I can penetrate even the most intricate software as if it was just another living mind, and this is something that Ire had never seen before. I was... moved around a lot. My cell never remained the same for more than a few days. I was constantly sedated and caged like a feral animal, and carried away in a hurry." The goddess paused and looked up at the huge male, smiling a little as she added: "Today I know they had a very good reason to do so: you must have looked like Death itself as you razed all their bases to the ground and chased after their commanders, leaving behind a trail of destruction."

Killer's lips curled in a little smile for a brief moment, but it was short lived because, much as it was somewhat satisfactory to remember the apocalyptic destruction he had caused, it brought no real relief. Ultimately, for all his rampaging and beating and torturing, he had still lost the trail and Ire had successfully made his daughters vanish. Vera seemed to understand his feelings from his expression, because she resumed her tale. "The NWOA... which really means Cerberus, as I discovered over time... finally took me away from one underground facility which in my memories is nothing but darkness and pain. I have no clue where it was; I hadn't seen the sky for months at that point... but what I remember is that the NWOA went to great lengths to convince me that they were nothing like Ire. No, they were justice warriors. Heroes. The ones who would bring change to the world. They treated me better... instead of merely keeping me alive, they started feeding me to build up my strength. They still messed around with my head..." She paused, and she gripped her long raven hair and pulled the long ponytail to one side to reveal the intricate map of scars going all the way down along the back of her neck... and Killer gazed at them in silent horror. They had actually turned invisible with her growth and regeneration, but as she willed them back in place they literally glowed crimson, making him wince at the thought of what she had had to endure. "They did it a lot more gently, and talked me very sweetly into it, but ultimately I still couldn't say no. I realized only much later that they needed to explore my psychic powers to partially replicate them and perfect their accursed Spirit devices. Unfortunately, I'm the living blueprint for those damn things."

"We had figured that after disassembling a few... but it is not your fault. You didn't have a choice." Killer quietly said, looking down at her with affection and sadness. "None of that would have happened, had I been a better father for you."

"For the little I can remember, I was happy with mom and you. I... I can't fault you for failing to prevent an army of psychopath murderers from assaulting our house while you and mom were outside." Vera murmured, before taking a long breath, sighing it out and closing her eyes for a moment, looking thoughtful. "I mean... Sure. I was angry at times. I must have screamed a lot when I was awake in those first few... weeks, maybe...? I'm sure I yelled for my dad and my mom to come rescue me. I'm sure I held on to hopes of my big, strong dad coming to save me, and I was angry and desperate as time passed and no one came to my aid. Of course I was angry. I might even have hated my daddy at some point, and told myself he had forgotten about me..." She paused again, her voice dying away in a quiet sob as she shivered visibly... and then she opened her beautiful emerald eyes and looked up at him with a little smile, saying quietly: "But realistically, what could have you done more than what you did...? Can I really hold a grudge because you were outside? Because the world's largest armies were able to keep you from finding me...? I'm no longer a child. Tempting as it might still be in some ways... I can't blame you. I know it makes no sense to. And I don't want to. I liked you even when we were enemies. I like you a lot now... daddy. I don't think you deserve to be blamed. And I need you too much to ever push you away."

Killer smiled softly at that, closing his eyes and nodding slightly, sighing in relief. "I'm so very happy to hear it, Samara... so very relieved." He paused, then bit his lower lip and looked down at her in concern, realizing that he had insistently used her old name... the one that was nothing more than a pale memory of a distant past. "Can... can I still call you Samara...? I realize only now that the choice is yours, not mine."

"I am Samara Huxley, and now that I know it, I couldn't possibly be prouder or happier. Besides, Samara means "Under God's Rule", and I find that deliciously fitting, since you are my father." Vera replied, without any hesitation, smiling brightly at him... before tilting her head to the side a little, adding quietly: "But I would like to keep the name Vera as well. Even though it was given to me by my jailers, it has been with me for so long that I really... I really made it mine. I've been through a lot as Vera. Most of those memories hurt like hell, but I'm not ready to let them go, all the same."

"Nobody will take it away from you." Killer assured, and he pulled up one huge, powerful arm to wrap it around her shoulders... before hesitating a few inches away from contact, asking quietly: "So, you sure you can forgive me? You sure you don't hate me? Can I...?"

Vera laughed softly at that, and arched her back to lean up against his arm, to grind into his palm, seeking the warmth of contact as her eyes glowed with beautiful emerald light, full of energy and love and happiness, her body hot with barely restrained desire. "You know, dad... you are adorably shy and full of concern, despite being the amazing ultra-god, fuck-god, over-the-top beast that you are. It might seem like a trivial thing to you at this point, but you've just turned me into a fucking goddess! It would be very difficult to hold a grudge against you right now, even if I hated your guts. And I don't."

Vera laughed again, arching her back with a murr of pleasure as she hugged herself and squeezed her large breasts with almost vicious strength, exploring the perfection of her new body, reveling in her beauty and in her power, in the new feeling of safety. For the first time ever she was at peace, confident that she was safe and protected. She was strong enough to resist to anything that life might throw at her next, and she was not alone anymore. It is a delicious, intoxicating feeling and she just couldn't get enough of it. She cackled as she rolled her prodigious breasts slowly in her hands, showing off for him and for her own pleasure, pushing the great swells together and admiring the perfection of her physique, before idly pointing a finger at the dust and the pieces that were all what remained of the planet she had destroyed earlier. She smirked and winked at him, silently asking for his attention, and as soon as he looked up, the vast nebula of fragments and powder shifted and shrunk as the uncountable pieces floated backwards and joined together once more, bringing the planet back to life like nothing at all had happened. "Hell, calling me a goddess is cheap and inadequate. Such paltry words can't even begin to describe the power you've gifted me..." She paused and smirked, humming thoughtfully for a second before licking her lips as she effortlessly dragged three other planets towards the first, idly making a turning gesture with her finger and grinning as they formed a circle, beginning to orbit slowly according to her will. Her eyes glowed solid emerald for a moment, and a large emerald star exploded into being in the middle of the circle, half-melting the four worlds and turning them into brilliant balls of white-hot fire, before all five celestial bodies melted together to form a beautiful, gigantic jewel. She whistled a little, admiring her own handiwork, and then she looked up at him with a delicious look of fake innocence, playing the part of a little girl asking daddy for the permission to buy a very expensive toy. "Can I, daddy...?"

"It's yours." Killer easily replied, grinning as she gazed up at her new pendant and summoned it with a mere thought, dragging it through space like it weighted nothing and shrinking it down until it was small enough to sit in her cleavage like it was nothing but a jewel. She studied him for a few moments, and then snorted in entertainment as she commented: "And I haven't even begun to try... I'm only starting to understand the very outline of the power you have blessed me with."

She turned around, leaning into his side and nuzzling up into his armpit as he wrapped his powerful arm around her shoulders and squeezed her closer. She greedily sniffed of his masculine scent, and reverently licked the thick hair there, tasting his virile sweat and paying only the briefest of considerations to the fine sand it seemed to contain... shivering in delight at the awareness that they were actually planets, stars, worlds, universes.

"As for your power, daddy... I cannot even begin to dream of it. It terrifies me and delights me and fills me with euphoria and need..." Vera hoarsely groaned, sensually moving one leg over his and humping his muscular thigh to smear him with her hot nectar, her drenched labia kissing his solid muscles as she breathed: "I love you, daddy... in more ways than one. You are my God Daddy...and this is how much I adore you... This is how much I love my God Daddy!" She kissed his armpit in between her words, and hugged his massive, hulking frame, needingly clawing into his solid form, dragging her hands down the herculean profile of his musculature and grinding into him while she slowly moved out from under his arm, planting little kisses along the massive, glorious ridge of his masculine pec before teasing his black nipple. "I can't help myself, God Daddy..." She hungrily breathed, before arching her back with a loud groan as her hips bucked uncontrollably and her eager sex squirted hot nectar all over his leg and abs as she hissed in bliss and helplessly reached down to force all of her fingers inside her soaked passage, moving them rapidly into her drenched labia, panting as it resulted in an obscene, wet squelching symphony. "You are too much, daddy..." Vera brokenly moaned, shivering violently and reaching over to grip his titanic black shaft, grunting at the mind-shattering feel of that leviathan mass, that monstrous weight, that obscene girth that she couldn't even go close to encompassing, that hellish heat, that thrumming power pulsing in every large vein of the intricate map of rope-like blood channels bulging all over that monster. Killer grunted in pleasure as she greedily stroked upwards along the mammoth cock until her hand bumped in the underside of the apocalyptic flare that expanded outwards monstrously, adding to his already brutal girth to create a weapon capable to enslave and obliterate any hole. "Fuck, yes... yes, yes, yes..." She breathed, grinning as the thick black cocksludge she scooped up with her strokes all coated her hands, streaking down her arms, seeming determined to encase her whole body in his unholy, excessive virility... and she helplessly bucked and squirted again as she felt a huge surge of precum traveling up his shaft, making it bulge even wider before blasting out with terrifying force, arching high into the sky and firing an incredible, mind-breaking distance away before it even began to arch downwards under its meteor-like weight of hyperpotent cocksludge. Killer growled hungrily as his monstrous tower of godcock flexed and unleashed that endless deluge of Alpha waste, arching his back and seizing the enormous base of the leviathan, pumping it hungrily, his hand never bumping into hers thanks to the sheer amount of space on a shaft that was more than 250 monstrous inches long... and with his other hand he effortlessly hefted Vera off the ground, lifting her up until he could push his thick muzzle between her thighs, half-biting over her squirting sex and greedily slurping on the rich jets of hot nectar, gulping it down in mouthfuls while her muscular legs locked around his neck as best they could, the goddess half-leaning forwards to grip into his mane as she humped her loins against his thick muzzle while desperately clutching into his monstrous godcock, pumping it as quickly and forcefully as she could.

"Does God Daddy like the taste of his little Samara...?" Vera asked in a breath, throwing her head back with a wide grin and then licking her lips as the huge male rumbled in approval and snorted his hot breath into her sensitive passage, before dragging his large, forked tongue over her blossomed labia. She moaned in bliss at that, shivering as he slowly, slowly dragged his big tongue over her hot sex, flicking her clit with his big forked end and then slurping his way back down, making her hiss in delight and finally gasp and flex as his strong tongue pushed inside her, twisting slowly around, grinding into her flexing walls as he hungrily suckled on her labia.

He slurped greedily on her juices, making her squirm and tug needingly at his monstrous shaft, sticking two of her fingers beneath the thick blanket of his foreskin and scooping up a thick chunk of hyperpotent smegma, dark and terrible and reeking of maleness and ruin, of his glorious god-scent and of the decay and death of an unfathomable number of helpless worlds. She brought it up to her lips, her eyes meeting his, and she pushed out her tongue, dripping hot drool as she lowered the thick Alpha waste towards it.

"You don't have to, Samara..." He gently said, pulling back from her dribbling sex, but the goddess murred and smeared the thick chunk on her tongue, and savored it inside her mouth before chewing into it, grunting in a mix of pleasure and surprise at how thick and tough it was, how it glued her jaws together until she had to struggle to force her mouth open. "But I want to, God Daddy..."

He rumbled in delight at that, gripping her by the hips as he leaned back against a comfortable cushion of tentacle-plants that immediately bent down and twisted together to form a seat for him. The huge male took another loving lick over her incredibly hot sex, but then bit his lower lip and quietly remarked: "We don't have time for this, I'm afraid. Not yet."

Vera looked down at him with affection, playing idly with the long bangs of his mane, and she gave him a pleading look while whispering: "Just a few minutes more, dad... we both need them."

Killer hesitated for a brief moment, then nodded in agreement, but after kissing her muscular inner thigh, savoring the nectar that drenched it, he said: "That's true, but... let's use them to know each other a bit better, then. Please, tell me the rest of your story. How did you become the Suicide Maker?" He gently lowered her down until she was sitting in his lap, her back leaning against his monstrous tower of black flesh and her breasts on full, glorious display right before him. She gave him a little smile, looking up at him with fake innocence and very real hunger, reaching up to idly play with his mane and his broad, masculine chest, before giving a little nod and resuming her tale: "Ire's special forces broke me to bits. The NWOA took over to rebuild me into the weapon they craved. I was trained in body and mind; I was indoctrinated about the organization's objectives... and mind you, not the false ones pumped out by their propaganda, but the true ones. I was taught that Kesteven was the source of all evil. Whenever I had second thoughts and questions, they rapidly quashed them... and when I really tried to rebel, they were quick to remind me that they had Nadia too, locked up in a cell, and that they could do terrible things to her if I did not behave."

She made a grimace of distaste at that, and a shiver went down Killer's spine at the thought of his little girl, already prisoner of her world of eternal silence, locked up in a cage and vulnerable to all sorts of cruelty and violence. Killer closed his eyes and swallowed thickly before forcing out the question that had buzzed in his mind all along but he had desperately left for later, as if that could ease the pain in any way. He already knew the answer in his heart even as he asked: "They still have Nadia, haven't they...? It is to protect her that you followed Cerberus's orders."

"Yes, he still has her... Or at least I hope so. If he gave up on any ambition of using me again, he might... he might even..." Vera replied, her voice dropping to a breathless whisper and then dying away entirely. "I don't know if she is... still alive. I don't know what they might have done to her. I haven't seen her in... in... way too long."

"Do you know where he holds her?" Killer quietly asked, but Vera shook her head with a grimace.

"There were two things I was never allowed to know: Cerberus's whereabouts, and Nadia's position." The goddess bitterly mumbled, before adding: "I'm sure the two things more often than not coincided. The little piece of shit always feared me, and wanted to have his hostage in easy reach to... keep me loyal." She made a grimace and dropped her head forwards, falling silent for a few moments. Killer gently moved a bang of raven hair out of her eyes, and then gently and firmly assured: "I promise you, Samara... we will find her, and bring Nadia back home. We will be a family again, and I will make up for all the time we've lost... for all the tears and the pain. I promise."

The goddess stared at him in silence for a few moments, tears streaking her cheeks as she trembled slightly... and then she closed her eyes and smiled, bowing her head with a little sigh of relief and happiness. "There was a time in which I dared hoping and asking for help. It ended in disaster, and it left me scarred and afraid... but now I hear your words and I know I can trust you. In a way or another, you can save Nadia just as you saved me. Nothing of what Cerberus might do matters: I've witnessed your power, and I know that there is nothing you can't achieve."

"I've dreamed of you, of Nadia, even of Vanessa when I was hanging from that cross." Killer whispered, and although he refrained from telling her how they were marked and covered in tattoos that said to the world that they belonged to him, she smirked in a way that made him think she had exactly the same image in her mind. "I... don't know if I can truly achieve everything I'd like. But... if there is a way, I will bring mom back. I will bring Vanessa back home." He didn't know what made him say that, and he almost regretted it as soon as it came out of his mouth, because he had been told in no uncertain terms that bringing back people from the dead was more than just a "godlike" feat, unless the soul could be found. Vanessa had been gone for many mortal years, which translated into countless millennia in Heaven and Hell. She could have... moved onwards from either afterworld, in any of countless different circumstances. If her soul had gone on, back to the Well of Eternity and through the Unworld, it could have long been broken down into raw energy. Fragments of her, without any memory of what they had been in their previous incarnation, could have already found their way into other living beings and even objects across the universes. That was why even gods could not normally perform such miracles. It was why he had never before dared to make such a promise, not even to Alexis, even though he knew she had been searching both Heaven and Hell to try and learn what had happened to her parents. He hadn't dared making such a promise to Ira either, despite the way the cobra mourned the loss of her adoptive mother, Azura, the original goddess of Death of their universe... And yet, something within him had now spurred him into making that promise. He could only hope it was something more than the voice of his arrogance. He felt powerful like never before, that was definite, and he struggled to see limits to his might, but that didn't mean that there weren't.

Vera didn't know the complex laws of the afterlife, and even though she was well aware of the enormity of what he had just promised, she was also absolutely confident that he could deliver. He swallowed thickly, feeling the full weight of responsibility as her eyes glowed with love and adoration as she smiled at him, nuzzling him and whispering: "I know you will, daddy. And I'm not afraid of death anymore. Death is but the name of your pinky. Death will do what you command... if not today, then tomorrow. I'm sure of it."

"I promise I will try." The huge male quietly remarked, before closing his eyes and thinking of everything she had told him. His mind was still full of questions, however, and he gazed into her eyes, asking quietly: "When did you first meet Cerberus?"

Vera made a grimace of distaste as she thought back to those days, but replied without further hesitation: "Cerberus first came to me years ago. I couldn't quite keep track of time in that inferno, but I cannot have been more than seven years old when he first revealed himself. It happened, I believe, because it dawned on him that the NWOA propaganda lies alone would not convince me nor motivate me enough to do what I was ordered to do. They could not trust me as I always tried to break my leashes. Whenever they needed me for an attack, they had to employ many of their warriors just to keep a close watch on me. The Spirit device was never a solution with me, since it was modeled on my own powers and couldn't quite subdue them... So I guess you could say they were getting desperate. They never tried to put me on the battlefield anywhere near to you in those days, and now I know why: I would have broken ranks immediately at the sight of you."

"But you didn't when we finally met for real." Killer quietly countered, remembering their very first meeting, up on top of the skyscraper of the Kauffman International Bank. "At least, not quite. It was like you... wanted to put me and Alexis to the test."

Vera nodded quietly, her lips curled in a sad little smile as she commented: "Indeed... perhaps things could have been different had I been courageous enough to come with you right there and then. But I couldn't. For one, I did not recognize you as my father... I had long lost hope to find my dad and I had forgotten what little I knew about him, after more than a decade of torture and indoctrination. You are world-famous, but I last saw you when I wasn't even five years old, and I spent all those years effectively imprisoned or out on the field, surrounded by guards and kept on a short leash. I couldn't exactly do anything or search for clues. For me, you were what Cerberus and the NWOA said you were, and nothing more."

"I don't doubt it." Killer quietly admitted.

"At first, Cerberus tried to play the part of the good guy, you know...? The bastard. He tried to pass as a fatherly figure... and he brought Nadia to me. Allowed us to spend some time together. Tried to pass as a friend who really, really wanted to help us, but needed my help first to cleanse the world from a great danger and injustice." She turned to the side and spat in disgust. "But even as a child I could smell the lies he fed me, and he became a lot less gentle once he realized that I was not going to be his obedient little daughter-weapon. The visits of Nadia into my cell became much shorter and under much tighter guard... they became blackmailing, pure and simple. A decade of torture and brainwashing can really wreak havoc on your mind... at one point, I kind of surrendered. I already told you what happened when I tried to rebel, to save the poor morons around me... when I told my story to a few of them which I can almost describe as friends. I hoped we could turn the NWOA around and use it against Cerberus. I tried to free Nadia... but it ended in disaster." She paused, then slumped a bit and continued in a lower voice: "Following orders hurt a lot less than trying to ignore them, and they allowed me out of my prison to carry out my missions. I... started to like it. Honestly, I did. Hacking computer systems? Infiltrating military bases? Sabotaging? Reading, torturing and rewriting brains? Forcing people into taking their own lives while I watched? I started to love it all. I started to welcome any mission that was given to me, because they were... a taste of freedom. And a way to vent. During the missions I could take my rage and despair out on others. I turned from tormented into tormentor... So, over time, I became the perfect assassin and saboteur. I learned that if I didn't question the orders and didn't resist, my freedom was allowed to last longer and the leash was kept a bit longer." She spread her arms and sighed, shaking her head with sadness. "I ended up accepting the fact that the only freedom I was going to have was their brand of freedom, and so I played along. Cerberus went to great lengths to indoctrinate me about the spectacular military power of the Raja Alliance, the true show, the one that included that puny diversionary operation that the NWOA was. And when I saw that even demons, even divine powers were on his side, well... I guess I lost whatever little hope I had left. Only seeing you in action put a bit of a sparkle of hope back in me."

"I remember..." Killer quietly said, looking into her eyes and taking his hands gently into his own. "You tried to warn me, in a way. You... put me to the test when we fought, and... I guess I didn't quite give you what you were seeking."

"You weren't ready, but all the same you made plenty clear that you were the only real hope." Vera said, nodding and offering him a quiet smile of apology, whispering: "I... courted the idea of deserting right there and then and come with you. But in the end I decided not to. The RA still seemed way too powerful, and they had Nadia and... and..."

"You don't have to justify yourself." Killer gently reassured. "I've only just seen the immensity of Cerberus's plan and of the forces he managed to set into motion, so I can't blame at all for having fears about the future. We would have lost Nadia for sure and... and I really don't know how things might have gone. Perhaps we would have ended up in a much worse spot."

"But maybe things would have gone that much better, instead. I... I owe you an apology, for not trusting you, and for all the grief I caused while I was on the wrong side." Vera whispered, leaning forwards and hugging him tightly, pushing her face against the thick mane covering his neck. He felt the wetness of tears, and he wrapped his huge arms around her, rocking her gently for a few moments before attempting to crack out a little joke to break that moment of pain and regret. "Don't worry, the only one who might still be holding a grudge is Siegfried, for how you messed up the computer systems. Drove him nuts."

Vera went from sobbing to snorting-laughter as she pulled slowly back, looking at him with reddened, teary eyes in which, nonetheless, sparkled some entertainment as she thought back to the days of the war in Kesteven and Glacial, when she kept interfering with the empire's command systems and communications networks, dueling with Siegfried who desperately attempted to shut her out, with the help of other hackers and specialists. "Oh, hell. I had almost forgotten about that. I had way too much fun running circles around him... It'll take quite an apology for him to stop hating my guts."

"Nah. He is a good sport. He'll understand... Eventually." Killer replied, laughing a bit. "But you should have seen his faces back then."

"Oh, but I did. First thing a good hacker does is taking over the cameras." Vera said, grinning widely. Killer smiled at that, shaking his head slowly and realizing how truly happy he was to have found his Samara. Moreover, he was happy that Vera Raider was Samara Huxley. He had always liked her, even when they were enemies... and it had always been a form of affection that went well beyond the admiration for her perfect body, or even the genuine attraction he felt for her confidence and antics and personality. No, there had always been something more, something different, which he hadn't been able to quite recognize. Had he thought of Samara when he had first crossed her path...? Probably he had, in the deep. But he had been with many other Doberman ladies since the days of Vanessa, and he had long lost all hopes of rebuilding his old family. After years of fruitless searching, he had convinced himself that his little girls were gone forever. When Vera Raider had entered the frame, he had never dared thinking she might be related to him... yet, clearly, his instinct had somehow picked up hints of that special connection all the same, because he never managed to truly hate her, to truly think of her as an enemy. And he awkwardly cleared his throat, looking at her with a long hesitation as his mind came up with an uncomfortable question that his mouth seemed unable to put into words... until he finally whispered: "And did Cerberus... well... try to be more than a father and a jailer...?"

Vera snorted in entertainment at his hesitation, shaking her head in amazement as she commented: "Seriously, dad. You can be so surprisingly shy, despite being who you are...! But to answer your question, well..." She wrapped her arms around his neck and made a bit of a face, sighing. "And as I grew up, Cerberus's interest for my body grew. He did try to get me to see him like a lover..." She made a grimace of distaste at the thought, and then snorted in bitter amusement as she sarcastically added: "Stockholm syndrome never got me, though. He always disgusted me... and so the bastard raped me. The first time when I was barely fourteen."

Killer swallowed and clenched his fists, a tremble of fury going down his spine, but she nuzzled him reassuringly and continued: "I learnt fast, dad. I did not want to waste tears because of him, so I taught myself to... well. Not to like it, no. I could never like anything about him, and even less about him leaning into me. But I taught myself to like sex and to be insatiable for it, and demanding. Soon enough, I was effectively the one doing the raping. The harsher he was, the harder I worked him... part of him, I'm sure, loved it, and I'm very sorry for it. But other parts of him did not. I hurt him enough that he eventually stopped trying."

Killer closed his eyes and sighed at that, trembling in fury at the thought of what she had had to endure, but Vera leaned into him with a little playful snort and commented: "Oh, come on, daddy... it is not so terrible. Really. I've moved on from that... I try to think of it as... training of sorts."

Killer looked at her with sadness even as he tried to force a smile on his lips. He tried to think of something to say, but any and every word felt insultingly inadequate at best. What could he even say? 'I wish you hadn't had to bear that'...? What use would it be to say it? She no doubt wished it as well.

"I'm just... sorry. Sorry that I couldn't spare you all of this."

She kissed his cheek, lovingly, and shook her head slowly before putting up a little grin as she playfully remarked: "Don't worry, he is too small and weak to leave a mark."

"Oh, hell." Killer exclaimed, unable to resist laughing a little. "You are not just strong. You are also evil!"

"Well, I'm your daughter! I might not have been properly aware of it, but it always was in my blood." Vera easily replied, shrugging a bit and smirking in entertainment, pushing a finger against his broad, masculine chest. "The one who got the worst end of the deal was poor Riaku. When Cerberus ordered me to train him in the use of his powers and of the increased abilities he obtained with the Spirit device they installed into him, I... used the poor boy to cover the rape memories with something more satisfactory, but I was a bit too rough for him, I'm afraid."

"Yeah, but he still liked it plenty." Killer amusedly commented, before adding quietly: "He is my son too, you know. You are stepbrothers. Which, I suppose, means we are a very fucked-up family with no hopes of ever ranking under 'normal' status."

"Yeah, I know. But fuck normal, it is boring." Vera commented, shrugging a little. "I didn't know at the time, of course... I just thought he was a good fuck. Strength, size and stamina galore. Completely erased from my body and my memory anything that Cerberus did, and allowed me to vent, I suppose. I needed it... it was maybe the only pleasure I could get while prisoner of the whole NWOA's play."

"I'm not judging you at all, Samara." Killer reassured, and the Doberman smiled a bit before reaching for his gigantic cock, squeezing lightly into the adamantine, unforgiving girth, stroking it slowly upwards, foot after foot after foot of leviathan virility, before teasingly commenting: "Of course, the father has the son beaten 10 to Nil on all counts... and it was always so, you know, daddy...? I bet Riaku didn't tell you, but once I discovered you had been the king of porn, I literally forced him to procure your movies... and whenever I fucked him, there was one of your DVDs playing, so I could tell him just how much better and stronger his daddy was..."

"Fucking hell. You are a devil!" Killer amusedly commented, and she murred in confirmation, moving her hand up until she could cup the very tip of his monstrous cockhead, and plunge two fingers inside the vast cockmaw, moving them rapidly and teasingly, grinning at the loud, obscene squelching of thick black precum. She grinned widely, then teased: "The worthy daughter of the supreme evil, as Cerberus tried to depict you. He taught me that you were the bane of races like mine. That you were the oppressor, the monster that enslaved the prey species like me. That you embodied everything that was wrong and sick in the world, that you were the reason why my parents were gone, and that you had to be stopped and taken down. It was clear from our very first meeting that the reality was completely different."

"The sad thing is, Cerberus isn't entirely wrong in his assessment of me." Killer grimly commented, but the goddess immediately pushed one finger against his lips and shook her head. "Never, never say that."

Killer smiled, sincerely touched by her affection and care, but he insisted, snorting and countering: "Oh, come on, Vera...! You saw what I just did here. How much destruction I caused. You know all too well what I do for a living and what I enjoy. Nobody can seriously claim I'm a good person. Be sincere; how do you feel about that...?"

She paused at that, tilting her head to the side and studying him with amusement and genuine curiosity, before smirking seductively as she stood slowly up, using two fingers in a V to spread her black labia wide open, revealing how drenched they were, how they dripped constantly with her desire. "Let me show you exactly how I feel..." Vera whispered, rapidly flicking her drenched lips and bucking her hips in front of his face, showering him in hot droplets of her juice as large rivulets streaked down her muscular thighs as she moaned and came for him, squirting out a powerful jet of pearly juice that he greedily took in his mouth, opening his jaws wide and pushing out his great tongue. "This is how I feel, God Daddy, when I feel crushed by the unforgiving _weight_of masculine power radiating off you... when the sheer immensity and brutality of your Alpha musk smashes into me..." She took a step to the side, then collapsed onto her hands and knees, tongue lolling out as she groveled before him, licking his enormous, muscular arm, kneading into his apocalypse-bringing muscles, squeezing, massaging, worshipping, kissing his enormous bicep. "This is how I feel, daddy... I feel the need to prostrate myself to such an ungodly, fatal, apocalyptic, omnipotent, perfect monument, tower, leviathan of masculinity..." She added, licking her lips slowly and drooling like a feral beast, dripping from both ends as she faced his monstrous godcock, shivering in awe and sniffing loudly up his hyperpotent stench. "This is how I feel when your musk hits me, like a sandstorm of toxic humidity, a mixture of acid rain and crack cocaine, delicious and addictive, powerful and ferocious. It wraps around me, it squeezes me like a toy, it fills my lungs, and it makes me drip all over as my very womb barely resists the craving to be knocked up entirely by the scent of your cock and balls alone. It rapes my mind, over and over again..." She purred and leaned forwards, nuzzling his monstrous cock and half-hiding behind it as she licked and kissed, worshipfully teasing the underside of the leviathan member and purposefully allowing some of the thick black gunk to coat her "jewel" made of a star fused in a ring of "gold" made up by four planets. Killer grunted in delight at that, his body flexing and his back arching a bit as his hips instinctively thrust against the air, and he grinned despite himself, even as he said: "Okay, I... should ask you again when my energies are a bit more restrained and not so... intoxicating."

"Your magnetism is quite damn extreme right now, but no matter how many times you ask, I'll always reply in the same way." Vera assured, smirking hungrily up at him, peeking with one eye from behind the massive tower of black godcock. "Daddy... I've seen what real evil is like, and you... well, you are a different beast. A monster, yes. Ruthless and cruel, sure, when you feel like it. But you have your honor and you have your principles. I've studied you as enemy as well, and from the other side of the barricade it was fully evident how much difference there is between you and Cerberus. You can be a cruel master, but he is evil. He has no regrets or second thoughts: if he had your power, he'd never ask others for their feelings and thoughts. You care; he doesn't."

"I appreciate it, Samara, but I don't think that would be enough of a reassurance for the people of the worlds around me." Killer replied, smiling awkwardly, in a mix of sincere gratitude and true embarrassment, but Vera only shrugged and said: "Then try to do better, if you feel it's the right thing to do. Or don't. Daddy, at this point, the decision truly is yours. Or it will soon be. The bugs around you will complain, of course... but they are insignificant. Cruel as it is to say, they are. There is no hero amongst them who can stop Cerberus's evil, and less than ever anyone who can stand up to you. They will do what you want them to do, and they will better be grateful for it, and obedient."

"You wouldn't say that if you were one of them, though." Killer quietly observed, and Vera made a grimace before easily countering: "I was one of them until shortly ago. I had abilities, I had... superpowers, you could call them. But I was just as powerless as them, in comparison to you. Moments ago I was a gnat stuck in your cocksludge, unable to do a thing. You could have destroyed me in a million different ways. I was nothing compared to you... Hell, I still am!"

"But would you accept me destroying you just because I'm stronger? Would you find it right if I acted like that, like a cheap bully?" Killer incredulously asked, making a grimace of disbelief and horror, and Vera looked at him thoughtfully for a few long moments before whispering: "I'm not saying it wouldn't hurt and make me cry... but the lion is rightfully uninterested in what sheep think. And when we crush a bug unknowingly as we walk on the street, does it make us bullies?"

"Well, no, but..."

"But nothing. What happened earlier was the exact same thing. Tiny bugs and their puny anthills were in the way, and you crushed them unknowingly. You didn't plan it, you didn't even move! It just... happened. You are something greater, something more than all of us... something more than you allow yourself to be, even. There is so much of a difference between you and us that... that we can't blame you at all. Is it right that you own us all and our fates? Fuck yeah, it is. We are ants under your toes... too tiny for you to notice us, too weak to avoid our doom. It is not bullying... it is just crushing superiority."

He swallowed thickly at that, clearing his throat a little and feeling burning, intense pleasure in his body as he felt her wet thighs grinding down against his legs, her prodigious breasts pushing against his majestic cock, her face nuzzling into that great tower of black godmeat while one of her hands wandered up over his powerful, chiseled abs. He grunted, thinking of what, if anything, he could say, but Samara shivered and looked at him with that awe, that adoration that he loved so much, with that lust and reverence that filled him with delight, with all those things he enjoyed seeing, and his hands dug harder into her solid, muscular form as he seized possessively into her buttocks, spreading them, pushing one finger down to feel how wet she was, how needy, how ready for him, and him alone. The Doberman shivered and whispered: "It's bad of me to say it; but at the same time it is true. We are nothing to you but meat. Toys. Objects for you and your use alone. And I want it! I'm happy about this! I want to see the real you... the one that does not hold back."

She straightened, going up to her knees and grinding into the fat, enormous tower of his cock, pushing her chiseled abs against it, pressing her great breasts against its sides as best she could despite the monstrous girth, and she half-lidded her eyes, whispering: "Let me phrase it better, once and for all: you own and deserve it all! We have no rights, no hopes, and no worth. And your absolute dominance shall endlessly expand, through absolute destruction, from porn industry to politics to the highest realms of planetary power and beyond. All pantheons should be snuffed out on your cock, all goddesses, all daughters, all wives, all mothers, there should be legions of paypigs faggot cucks used as urinals, prized queens eating your ass, beloved last chances of a species survival used as your jacking toy, growing and growing harems of glorious and divine daughters of your own to use over and over, just as freely, just as savagely. Anything God Daddy wants, he should have! Everything you want, is right and is due." She paused, grinning widely and moaning in delight before adding: "And as I say this, daddy, the only fear that floods my being is 'is this enough? No, it is never enough. I must do more!', and I will. I promise you that I will. Cerberus tried to teach me otherwise, but you own me... and you always, always did." She pushed her face against the immense head of his cock, smearing her features with his thick smegma and with black precum that was thicker and hotter than tar, her tongue slithering inside his huge cockmaw and teasing it while her eyes glowed, doing their best to look up at him with adoration even as the hyperpotent precum glued her eyelids almost entirely closed. "Clearer still, God Daddy...? If you asked me for my life, I'd give it to you with pleasure, thanking you for the honor of serving your lust. If you wanted me to carry your children, I'd jump at the chance and glorify you for your generosity. If you wanted to rape my children into bloody pulp inside my belly, I'd fucking beg for it. All my life I've fought to keep my sister safe, but ask for it and I will hold her down while you fuck her into pulp..." She paused, bucking her hips as her hot nectar once more washed over his titanic black shaft, and she gritted her fangs with a cry of bliss, trembling and half-burying her muzzle under the vast blanket of his heavy foreskin, slurping upon thick, heavy smegma before hungrily breathing: "Any and everything you wish, you deserve. There is no sacrifice I won't make. No order I won't carry out. If you wanted me to pluck every last angel out of the sky so you can fuck them into gore, I would with glee. If you asked me to feed children into your mouth, I would cream myself at the joy of being allowed near you. You own us all, God Daddy... and we are all here to serve. The few who still don't get it will soon be crushed by the truth."

Killer hissed in delight at that, arching his back and flexing his hulking musculature, unable to deny the intense, dark pleasure that cursed through his form with that monstrous, savage promise of love and worship and servitude, and he leaned down to kiss her forehead, tenderly and gentle even as he towered and loomed over her, protective and godlike, terrible and wonderful, loving and possessive. "That is how a true Disciple tanks... so I guess there really is no chance of us being "just" father and daughter."

"No. Pushing me away is the only thing you'll never be able to do." Vera teasingly replied, grinning widely before licking her own muzzle, scooping up as much of his thick, potent essence as she could. "And I want to be your Disciple. I want to wear your collar. I want to wear your mark. Nothing will make me prouder; nothing could ever make me happier." She paused briefly, smiling up at him with eager desire, and then she corrected: "No, there is one thing, one thing only... to wear my mark together with Nadia and mom. To be with you, all three of us, each with her collar... Yours to toy with in any and every way you'll want, as you lord and dominate over everything and everyone."

"Oh, Samara Vera..." Killer breathed, grinning widely as he hugged her close, as he squeezed her tenderly against his chest. "Daddy is cruel, and daddy is generous. Daddy wants the same thing... and he will give you everything your heart desires and your body begs for. And then even more. The only question is whether you can handle it..."

"Nobody can." Vera replied in a murmur, her eyes glowing as she gazed up at him with love and need. "But that is exactly what makes it so wonderful... so unmatched. So far above everything else."

He rumbled a bit at that, and he squeezed her harder against his powerful body, licking his lips slowly, both frightened and excited at the thought, the fact, the awareness, the certainty that she was going to get exactly what she hoped for, and worse still. More, always more. Infinitely more.

They stood in silence like that, just enjoying each other's presence for a few moments, and then Vera looked up at him with a quiet smile and murmured: "Now I will ask my own question, dad... what did Cerberus and Thanathos do to you? I can tell that they have somehow stolen some of your power for themselves. How...?"

"I don't know, Vera. I only know it hurt like Hell, and that they had to get my genetic material from multiple areas of my body and... stuff." Killer awkwardly replied, making a grimace. "What did they do to you, instead...?"

"Torture, beatings... they worked to inflict me the worst pain they could engineer." The goddess replied, and even now that she was safe and stronger than ever, she couldn't help but shiver. "There was nothing by now of my abilities that they hadn't already stolen, so that wasn't on the menu. They just wanted to punish me, and make it ugly. I... I didn't think I'd make it out of there alive. But then Cerberus left in a real hurry and evidently decided that delivering the killing blow was either premature or not worth his time... and Thanathos seems to have eventually forgotten about me entirely."

"He completely lost his mind in the last while." Killer quietly said, making a grimace. "My fault in no small measure."

"I bet you fucked the brains out of his wife." Vera commented, snorting in entertainment and looking up at him with a smirk. "Right...?"

"Hit and sunk." Killer confirmed. "Persephone was... was a monster. Beautiful, but horribly evil in many ways. She has played a huge part in this whole catastrophe, and I... had I been free to move my body, I would have killed her. Much as she tried to please, she remains a monster."

"Thanathos eventually came to the same conclusion, I think." Samara quietly murmured, looking down as her features suddenly darkened. "She was locked away in a special cell, not far from mine. I heard them screaming and fighting, again and again. He adored her as much as she despised him, that's the feeling I got... and before leaving the last time, Thanathos... well, he lost it completely when she refused him once more. He slaughtered her. The noise was... abominable." She trembled violently, and Killer squeezed her tenderly against his chest, leaning his head against hers and trying to reassure her as she added in a broken voice: "I listened to it all... and for every moment of it I was afraid that he would move on to me..."

"He'll pay for that as well." Killer quietly promised, before he closed his eyes with a bit of a sigh. Part of him was sad for Persephone's end, but the other part of him cynically commented that she had done much to deserve every moment of her agony. Vera seemed to understand his inner conflict, because she pulled back slightly, just enough to be able to look into his eyes as she quietly asked: "Will you bring her back too...?"

"I don't know." Killer sincerely replied, shrugging a little. "Part of me is tempted. Part of me says she does not deserve another chance. I can't tell whether I want her only for her body, for her flesh... or whether there is a hope for her to be something better than she used to be."

Samara nodded silently, tenderly caressing his broad chest and then whispering: "I heard her crying, all the time. I heard her calling your name. I heard her being raped and beaten and tortured, and through all of it she never gave up on you. She told Thanathos again and again that, no matter what he did to her and to the world, he would never be like you. Never more than a pale imitation."

Killer listened in silence, swallowing a bit at that, surprised by that form of weird loyalty. He knew it was not quite love on Persephone's part, but rather an unhealthy, unholy obsession. She had made that plenty clear and it was obvious that she craved the worst side of Killer, the cruelest and monstrous... she had probably derided and taunted her husband to the bitter end, telling him that he could never be more than a paltry imitator of the true monster. And it was an awkward awareness, one that filled him with pleasure and disgust at once. He had more than enough trouble trying to restrain, tame and change his own monstrous side; he didn't need the added challenge of holding the reins of another evil. And yet, part of him admittedly found the idea incredibly alluring and arousing. "I... I'm not entirely surprised." Killer whispered, making a bit of a face. "I will... think about it."

He paused for a moment, and Vera waited in silence, recognizing and respecting his confusion and hesitations. In the end, the huge male decided to move past that topic, and nuzzled her gently instead, asking with concern: "How did you break out of your cell?"

"Well, you saw the idiot that came with me into your cell... A brute that had been guarding my cell for a while. It was clear like dawn that he liked my body, and as soon as Cerberus and Thanathos vanished, he pretty much took over the garrison. He was enough of a big bully that the other gods preferred to let him do rather than try and rein him in." Vera easily explained, shrugging with a grimace. "Apart from dealing with my disgust, I didn't have problems in seducing him and getting him to... take care of me. He put an end to the tortures and made sure I got some food as well. He said he wanted me in top shape."

She grimaced at that. Clearly, the alien god had been in too much of a hurry to enjoy her body to actually pursue such an ambitious target: she would have needed a much longer period of rest and good food to recover from all the pain, the wounds, the infections, the hunger and thirst... But at least it had allowed her to breathe, to recover some energies and some sanity. "You saw him. The boisterous type. Vainglorious."

"A bit like me." Killer amusedly observed, but she waved a hand dismissively and shook her head, remarking: "You can actually walk the walk. He could only ever talk the talk, and sometimes he couldn't quite do even that. But as I imagined, he jumped at the chance of showing you how it's done. I teased him into forcing you to watch, and he was all too happy to accept... started having second thoughts about halfway down the corridor, though." She grinned in cruel amusement at that, and Killer himself couldn't help but smirk, squeezing lightly into her hips and nuzzling her with affection as he breathed: "Thank you, Samara. You saved both of our lives." He paused, and then nuzzled her again, winking and playfully adding: "But now let's agree on a story to tell the others, huh...? I have a reputation; I'm supposed to be the one who does the saving bit."

"Well, but you did." Vera easily replied, shrugging a little and shaking her head before leaning forwards to kiss his cheek, licking teasingly up it. "My plan literally ended at the door to your cell, daddy. I counted on you to somehow make it progress from there, because I sure hadn't the strength to get through the garrison, or even just to break your restraints. It was a huge gamble born out of despair, pretty much... but I knew that, if I could just give you a little bit of assistance, you'd get us out of there."

"You did plenty well with the brute, and with Requiem Aeternam. You did spectacularly, in fact! You did exactly what was required." Killer gratefully exclaimed, nuzzling her lovingly and squeezing her gently against his herculean frame.

"I tried to control Requiem, to hold it in place, but... It vanished." Vera explained, and her voice took on a note of bitterness and sadness. "I'm afraid it literally ran back to its owner."

"Yeah, it almost certainly did... even though Requiem doesn't really belong to Thanathos and certainly doesn't like him much. But in any case, we'll deal with that when the time comes. I won't let myself be tricked a second time." Killer calmly said, and the Doberman looked at him quietly, her eyes flashing briefly, betraying her curiosity about Requiem's story, but she decided to leave it for later. She bowed her head forwards instead, and let out a little sigh as she leaned against his muscular chest, taking a couple of breaths before muttering: "We have to go, haven't we...? I take it that you know why Cerberus and Thanathos left the planet in such hurry...? I don't, but it can't be a good thing."

"Well, in part it is. We would not have survived otherwise..." Killer admitted, even though it was a painful and humiliating awareness, one that made him grimace in distaste. "But yeah, I know where they are headed, and why. We have to stop them, at all costs. Alexis is already in place..."

"And she's gotten awfully good at reading minds, too. Hell, she immediately knew all about me... about us." Vera commented, smiling warmly. "I'm glad she is fine with it. It might take me a while to get used to being a "daughter" to her, but... well. It's pretty clear I currently cannot hope to take a punch from her and live to tell the tale, so I'm happy she has taken it nicely."

Killer snickered at that, and then slowly and majestically stood up, easily carrying her in his arms as she curled up against his chest, smiling tenderly up at him and letting one arm dangle loosely down just so she could teasingly stroke along some of that endless, monstrous leviathan of a cock. He rumbled a bit at her touch, and she smirked playfully... before looking down curiously as he took her hand in his much larger one and gently used one of his digits to extend her index. He said nothing, but winked with a smirk that filled her with arousal and anticipation, and she eagerly let him guided her hand down until her palm touched the incandescent, sweaty, roughly-textured underside of one of his colossal balls. She let out a low purr of bliss as she pushed up a little, just to savor the tremendous weight of his beastly cum-factories, eagerly squeezing in that monstrous orb, so solid and heavy and massive, so hot and coated in thick, hypervirile sweat that drenched her hand and rolled in rivulets down her arm. Her huge bicep tensed and bulged as she hefted the sheer mass of that single orb, and she hissed as he guided her hand in a slow, worshipful slide along the colossal testicle, scooping up a great deal of sweat festering with enough virility to impregnate whole, dead universes with luscious, supernatural life. He carefully guided her index, holding it gently between two of his own fingers, and she tilted her head to the side in curiosity as he made sure she gently scooped up a drop of sweat in particular, picking it up, whole and plentiful.

He smirked and slowly guided her hand back up in front of her muzzle, allowing her to see the thick sweat drenching it, her nostrils flaring as she sniffed his intense, formidable stench of hypervirility, and she hungrily reached forwards to lick it all up, slurping her palm clean even as her eyes remained fixed on the large drop resting on the tip of her index.

She could feel an energy signature inside it, too small and puny to gain her attention and yet somehow familiar... and when she was done licking her palm clean, Killer whispered in a cruelly entertained voice: "The bastard who headed all the experiments and tortures I had to endure, is crying somewhere inside that drop. I'm not done paying him back for his... generosity, so I thought you could help me."

A few hours before, Vera would have frowned and questioned how it could even be done, how it could be possible, what exactly he wanted from her... but now she instinctively knew and understood. She licked her muzzle, then hungrily opened her jaws wide and slowly stretched out her tongue, licking her finger from the base upwards. Slowly, oh so slowly... and she could swear she heard the infamous demon yelling in despair, terror and anguish. It only made her murr louder as she effortlessly scooped up the drop and swallowed it whole. "Let's keep him... warm." Killer playfully said, and Vera grinned darkly as she added: "I'm sure he'll like the stay in my stomach... might be a bit... scorching... but I'm sure he'll survive. Somehow. I'll spit him out whenever you feel like playing some more with his useless hide."

"Thanks, Samara... I knew I could count on you." Killer amusedly replied, before rumbling in barely contained hunger as he said: "Before reaching Alexis, though, there is another urgency I must take care of. Sikanjal has something that belongs to me, and I want it back."

"I remember warning her sister, Regina, that you would be too much for her to handle..." Vera teasingly replied, licking her lips hungrily, and Killer grinned at the dark memories of the demoness's end. "Now...? Fuck! I wouldn't even know how to word it."

"And in fact this will be a lot better... or worse, depending from how you look at it." Killer promised, walking a couple of step forwards while focusing his mind upon Earth; upon the energy signatures of Elaine and Mriya, who seemed to be literally turning the ocean upside down to find the Sentence. "Maybe you can... help me." Killer teased, and Vera licked her muzzle hungrily, her drool leaking from the corners of her mouth as her eyes flashed with cruel delight, before she whispered: "And get my collar in the process, right, daddy...? I need to fully become a Disciple, to be able to truly serve you as you deserve, and be truly useful to you in battle..."

Killer rumbled hungrily at that, nodding in agreement and grinning as he teasingly added: "And you'll also get to know your sisters."

Vera curled up further against his chest, pushing her head against his herculean frame and tugging playfully on the bangs of his mane as she breathed: "Let's not make them wait any longer, then."

Killer nodded, and energy crackled violently around his form before he vanished from the spot, teleporting towards Earth.