The legend of a warrior; Chapter 99 - The War to End All Wars

Story by Killer Tiger on SoFurry

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

#99 of The legend of a warrior


The penultimate chapter in this endless story is now ready to be shared. We are really close now, and if you have followed me all the way to this point, i can only hope you are not disappointed by the last great battles. I've been working on the final chapter and on the Epilogue itself for a week now; and hopefully i'll keep making steady progress over the coming weeks, to complete it by the end of the month, more or less. Can't promise anything, but that is the idea. For now, i will as always wish you a good and enjoyable ride. I hope it proves as gripping and epic as it should be. And as always, remember to drop me a comment. Nothing is more precious and welcome than getting to hear your thoughts about the story, the characters and everything.

Cruel, dominant primordial divinities have spurred Life on, surrounding it with existential danger, tormenting it with fear, with the war of Nature, with famine and death. Danger requires reaction. Reaction brings adaptation. Adaptation becomes Evolution. For Eons, Life has been spied and evaluated by greedy eyes... and now those cruel eyes glow triumphantly. Evolution has peaked. It is time to harvest its fruits.

Chapter 99 -** The War To End All Wars**

Galen shook his head slowly, amazed by how vast the corridors of the Sentence were. This one, especially, which ran along the center of the vessel and led to Sikanjal's quarters and to a vast complex of genetic and cybernetic laboratories. Apart from its amazing length, what most impressed him was the width: used as he was to the narrow, claustrophobic spaces on "normal" submarines, including his beloved Audacious, he was almost literally lost. It all looked like wasted space to him, if not even a safety hazard: even though he had walked past countless armoured and waterproof shutters ready to slam closed to isolate the submarine's thousands of compartments and limit the consequences of any battle damage, he just couldn't get quite comfortable with those corridors, more suited to a royal palace than to a floating war machine.

The Sentence had clearly taken many years to build, and when the work started the RA evidently still did not have a working mind-control device, and perhaps not even plans to ever get one. Galen had understood it by discovering that a part of the vessel was very different from all the other sections: there were spacious rooms for the officers and a literal apartment for the commander. While on the Audacious he had a tiny bedroom with a table, a computer screen on the wall and very little else, on the Sentence he discovered a vast and absurdly luxurious bedroom accompanied by a comfortable office, a regal mess room with a long, massive table of precious, chiseled hardwood for holding formal dinners with the ship's officers, and a bathroom with a Jacuzzi tub the size of a medium pool. It had been pretty disconcerting to discover, and his initial reaction had been one of disdain for such luxury and for the waste of space it implied... but in the deep, he had to admit that he had thought of that wondrous bathtub with alarming frequency ever since stumbling by the apartment. He was impatient to test it and just submerge into hot, bubbling water to wash away the sweat, the stench, the stress, the very memories, if at all possible, of the tormenting time spent hiding in the machinery room of the Audacious. The memories of those endless, terrible hours tormented him every time he allowed his mind to wander, and it was probably going to take him a while to be able to sleep without nightmares. And that was only because his boat had survived... indeed, the Audacious was now resplendent and in better shape than ever before, after Diana had finished taking care of the casualties and had quite literally made a dismissive gesture with her hand, smiling softly as all battle damage simply vanished. The countless bullets lodged deep into the bulkheads and the great diesel generators had disappeared, removed from existence like they had never been there at all. The hatches that had been forced open suddenly looked like new. The control room's consoles, that he had disintegrated with long bursts of machinegun fire, had pieced themselves back together like nothing had happened. All of the blood and gore staining the walls and floors had vanished, and new torpedoes had filled the empty racks in the weapons magazine, and a shiny new and perfect coating of anechoic tiles had appeared on the outer hull. The Audacious looked better than it had when it was launched, clean and perfect and resplendent... and that made him feel a lot better, even if a part of him couldn't help but be upset. It was a bit as if their long struggle out at sea had never happened at all. There was something deeply disturbing in the ease with which the goddess had been able to reshape reality. Something that made Galen feel like he, his shipmates and all of their efforts were cheap and insignificant. And much as Diana had, with delightful kindness, reassured him that their hard and dangerous mission had been absolutely crucial to the fate of the whole conflict, he couldn't help but bitterly wonder if it had ever been anything more than a game that the gods wanted to play. The disparity in power continued to torment him, making him wonder about the sense of their existences and making him question what fault they had committed to deserve to be condemned to being zeroes, insignificant and powerless and hopeless, for zeroes can only ever add up to zero. It was horribly unfair: their collective efforts, no matter their numbers, were always dwarfed into insignificance by the monstrous, absolute excess of Killer's power. And there was no escaping that vicious, cruel truth. They couldn't break free of reality, not even if they took their own lives. Even death couldn't rescue them: Killer could just bring them back as many times he wanted. He could do everything he wanted, anytime, anywhere, and no one was safe, never and nowhere. No one but him owned anything! If Killer decided that their houses had to be destroyed, they would disappear. If he wanted to fuck their daughters, he would. If he wanted to end their lives, he would. The tattoo on some of the goddesses' legs really said it all: "Killer always wins". That was the only true law of existence, and all others descended from it... and it was a terrible awareness to grapple with. The Audacious's miraculous reparation, in other words, filled him with horror as well as joy; with fear as well as happiness. The new reality facing them all was going to be tough to accept... and yet, terribly, they knew they had to live with it. They literally had no other option. It was enough to fill their minds with nightmares, and Galen couldn't even begin to imagine how he would have felt had all of those courageous shipmates in the machinery chamber ended up packed into body bags and then stored in the freezer, in a corner not far away from the crates of food, just to arrive into port in a good state, so to be shown one last time to the heartbroken family. That was what dying on a submarine was like... and no matter the courage shown in the last moments, there still was nothing glorious about it. The idea of getting back into port with the freezer full of body bags was a real nightmare, and he had seen it turn into a reality as sailor after sailor was mowed down by the RA's bullets during the siege... so he could only be indescribably grateful to his father, because he had brought back to life all the shipmates he had lost, right in front of his eyes.

It was weird but wonderful to have them back. The sailors who had been resurrected had no memory of where their souls had ended up after death, and they all were remarkably relaxed and cheerful about the idea of having died. They talked about it as if it had been a time-out of sorts. They were gone for a few hours, and then they were back. That was it, from their point of view, and none of them seemed particularly shaken by the whole experience... which generated a somewhat amusing contrast because for all the others, who had seen them die and collapse into broken, bloody heaps, it was instead very awkward and almost intimidating to now interact with them as if nothing had happened. Galen himself still got somewhat spooked whenever one of the "reborns" crossed his path, and he had only been able to laugh nervously when he had found out that they had formed a sort of little, exclusive clubs with exactly that title. Weird as it was, it clearly beat the alternative by a mile, though. He was overjoyed to have them all back. It was just going to take him a little more time to truly teach himself that, yes, the mission was truly over, and no, he had not lost any of his sailors. He had not failed. He was going to bring them all home... eventually.

In truth, since it was clear that their homes no longer existed at all, and that very few, if any, homes were left standing intact on the surface of the entire planet, he was going to keep them at sea with whatever excuse he could think of. His shipmates weren't stupid, but the less chances they had to see the ominous, Sun-less sky and the unrecognizable, devastated coasts on the horizon, the less they would know and imagine about the apocalypse that had struck their world. They probably knew, at least in part, that something terrifying had happened, but Galen was determined to try and protect them from finding out just how monstrous their new reality was. Killer had promised to fix it all... and even though it seemed simply impossible, Galen hoped that his father would be able to keep faith to his promise. He had resurrected dead sailors like it was nothing, after all! He was no empty hope; he truly was God and he truly had the Power.

Until then, until the world was hopefully resurrected just like his shipmates had been, Galen hoped that he could keep his crew safe and sound and as relaxed as possible. There were no longer enemies into the depths of the newly re-created ocean, and the Sentence and the Audacious could dive deep underwater and wait for a better future. They could... pretend that nothing had happened. They could act as if the silence of the satellite terminal was due to operational reasons, not to the fact that there was almost literally no one left to communicate with. Only those who got to look at the images coming from the periscopes would carry the weight of knowing the horrendous truth... and if they kept far away from the coast, they could limit the amount of devastation they had to see. It was a big burden to bear, but it was part of being commanders, and they were going to deal with it, like they always did. He had spent the last few hours trying to save the ship without alarming the few officers that he had called in from the Audacious to help him and Sandy run the Sentence's many systems, after all. The Sentence had very nearly gone down to the bottom of the ocean because of his father, who had somehow added so many thousands of tons of weight to the submarine to cause it to go under even though its water tanks were empty and it was supposed to float on the surface. Galen wasn't entirely sure of what Killer and the goddesses had been doing, but he knew his father well enough to imagine it. It was just... very hard to imagine that he could nearly sink a vessel the size of the Sentence literally just by having sex with his Disciples.

Dealing with his father was not very easy. It wasn't easy to even understand him, to even think on the right scale to begin to see things in the way he did. The fact that the emergency pumps of the Sentence had immediately clogged up and had been unable to do anything about the "flood" in the laboratory was terribly explicative, but his mind struggled to come to terms with the implications. His father's seed, too thick and far too plentiful to pump out of the hull, had nearby doomed them...? Literally thousands of tons of the... stuff... would have been required for that, and Galen could not even begin to imagine such excessive masculine omnipotence. He knew his father, his attributes and the legends and stories about him, but... holy hell. No. As much as he tried, he couldn't get his head around the facts.

He was almost at the majestic double-door leading into Sikanjal apartment when the door opened and Killer stepped out, thankfully back to relatively "normal" dimensions and wearing his customary black jeans, while his masculine, powerful chest was still bare. Galen could have sworn that he looked even more potent and muscular than before, if that was possible at all: his hulking form thrummed with unfathomable power and radiated incredible physical might. Whatever he had been doing to nearly sink the Sentence had caused him no fatigue at all. Indeed, it seemed to have made him even stronger and filled him with new vigor. Galen was stunned by the sight, and he stared in awe for a few moments, missing a step and nearly freezing in the middle of the corridor, just like a deer caught in headlights... but then he cleared his throat and forced himself to stand as tall and imposing as he could, crossing his arms on his chest. And Galen was plenty imposing, towering over pretty much everyone else. It was just in front of his father that he suddenly started looking... small. Still, there was one thing about Galen that never changed, not even in front of God: when he was in his uniform and on_his_ ship, he was the only divinity. On his boat, Galen was quite simply in charge, and he faced even his father with an expression so stony, uncompromising and so full of contempt that even Killer stopped for a moment, studying him in surprise for a moment and then coughing in embarrassment, hurriedly leaning his back against the door to push it closed. Samara, who was following him, had just enough time to squeeze through before the heavy double door loudly shut. Killer blushed, looking nervous as he exclaimed: "Don't get in!"

Galen half glared up at him, tilting his head to the side, and the huge male only grinned apologetically.

Killer looked a bit larger, but Vera definitely was a lot taller and her body had grown much more muscular and had filled with new and unfathomable, godlike _power_that radiated from her with enough intensity to cause electricity to crackle in the air around her. Her hulking form had only grown more spectacular, however, the larger muscles only adding even more to the formidable feminine proportions of her body, so much so that Galen gulped and stared in wonder. He wanted to comment somehow, but the only words that came to his mind to describe her were "divine" and "godlike", and both still seemed paltry and insufficient for her. She towered over him now, especially as she walked on high heel boots with a cruel steel sole and straps of crimson leather that were stretched taunt by her bulging muscles. The straps went up to the middle of her mighty thighs, and the ample open spaces between a thick strap and the next allowed her new tattoos and marks to stand out in full glory. She was wearing a pair of red leather pants, in theory, but they clung so tightly to her muscles and were so worn-out and ripped that it was almost as if she was naked. Beneath the pants she wore fishnets that did nothing to hide her skin, and Galen's eyes were inexorably drawn to her muscular thighs, where a KO mark glowed on one and a feral beast's skull, pierced by two cobras, stood out on the other. He couldn't miss the glowing letters spelling the phrase "Daddy's girl" either, and her heavy collar demanded its share of attention. Since the top of her body was clad only in a few straps of leather that left most of her glorious, firm, huge breasts bare and on full display, however, he was distracted by her sheer beauty and by the perfection of her form. She smirked knowingly, hands resting on her hips as she tilted her head slightly to the side, her emerald eyes glowing with energy and pride and bliss... and then Galen spotted the streaks of pearly nectar running down her thighs from her hot center... and he also saw thick, potent, dense, dark cum leaking out of her obliterated sex, spilling out from the rips and tears of her pants. Her body trembled a bit, he noticed, as if her legs were about to give away under her weight, and he swallowed thickly, knowing just what had reduced her into that state.

She was beautiful, spectacular, alluring... and Killer Owned and proud to be. It made Galen curse quietly under his breath, tormented by the awareness that he was never going to experience anything like what she was always eager to give to Killer.

Maybe it was also because of the rage that the awareness caused into him that he managed to strike his most hawkish and commanding expression, tilting his head slightly up and glaring fearlessly at the dark god even though his thighs actually shuddered in fear.

"What the friggin' hell have you been doing in there?" Galen barked, and Killer winced while Vera blinked in surprise, looking down at him in amazement at the tone and firmness he dared using against his father.

"Are you sure you want to know it...?" Killer awkwardly replied, tilting his head slightly to the side, and Galen rubbed a hand over his eyes and muttered: "Thinking about it, probably I don't. But you better have a convincing explanation for why the submarine nearly sunk. We have been piling up so many thousands of tons of extra weight that the Sentence dived while we were still in surface asset, with the tanks empty. And we kept piling up even more weight, so much so that I had to waste all reserves of compressed air to emergency blow-out just to keep us from crashing into the bottom or reaching crushing depths, whatever would come first."

"I... produce a lot...?" Killer awkwardly attempted, grinning stupidly and scratching the side of his neck while Samara smirked and leaned into his side, wrapping a muscular arm around his waist.

That simple answer caused Galen to lose his composure for a moment and sending him recoiling in awe, before Killer softly cleared his throat and added: "But yeah. You see, we all sized up, and then there were all my tentacles and... stuff."

"You nearly killed us all." Galen remarked, trying to sound tough but unable to keep his voice from breaking slightly as he tried to imagine his father's potency and the scenario that lay beyond those closed doors... "You've crumpled all the decks of the Sentence and nearly ripped right through the pressure hull. I'm sure you don't mind a swim at ocean depths, but if we were to be caught in such a catastrophic event, we'd be crushed instantaneously into nothing but liquid pulp. You've clogged up all of the pumps, as well."

"Sorry." Killer awkwardly mumbled, before trying to reassure the young captain: "The girls are getting all things back in order, though. All... clean and working."

"I hope so." Galen finally sighed, before he added: "Just... warn me, next time you try to sink my ship. It was scary to feel her going down like a stone while we were in surface asset. Thank gods all hatches were closed and there was no one on the tower."

"See...? I planned it all out." Killer joked, trying to amuse his stressed, tired and grumpy son, but Galen only looked flatly up at him, and the huge male huffed and shifted a little on the spot, rolling his eyes.

"I'm sorry, I got carried away. I've... I've gone through quite a while myself, you know...?" Killer quietly reminded, and that seemed to pacify Galen a little. The captain had been told why Killer had not helped them in their battle, and even though he was given the extra-short version of the story he could only admit that it was a really good reason. What Killer had gone though was monstrous, and Galen could imagine that he needed to vent, to relieve himself both mentally and physically. He could understand it... he was just grumpy because, considering all the power that Killer possessed, all the control he had over everything, all the luck he enjoyed in being surrounded by so many goddesses so completely devoted to him, he struggled to fully sympathize with him. A part of his mind always grumbled that, considering all that he had, Killer deserved some serious pain at least every now and then. The "evil" side of his mind considered it a form of balance and justice. Galen looked up at his father for a few moments, unsure of what to say and unsure even about how he was supposed to feel. Killer had saved them all as soon as he had had the chance to, after all. He could have ignored their fate. He could have toyed with them in literally every way he pleased. But he hadn't. That wasn't very tyrannical of him, was it...? Why, then, his affection for his father was so subdued, so tormented? Was it just envy for everything that Killer could enjoy, in any and every moment he pleased? The captain shook his head slowly, feeling somewhat ashamed for his aggressiveness, and he mumbled: "It's just that I have responsibilities, Father, you know that. I have the command over more than 100 souls. I must lead them to victory, and then bring them back home, along with the ship. You can't just... put their fate and that of my ship at risk for no reason."

"I know a thing or two about the weight of command myself, Galen." Killer gently reminded. He was tempted to also remind his son that his responsibilities as god extended literally over trillions of souls across a number of universes that he didn't even know, but he decided that it was better not to. It sounded arrogant, and would probably not help at all. He did, however, playfully add: "And I would never sink the ship, Galen. One of my tentacles would have caught it before it could get too dangerous. After all, what does the prefix say...?"

Galen blinked at that, and then snorted irritably, rolling his eyes. The ships of Kesteven and Kendrew had used the prefix "NES", for Northern Empire's Ship, right up to the fall of Ire. When all the nations of the world had surrendered before Killer's invincible power, an order of the day had made the rounds through the fleet, announcing that the new prefix was going to be HMS, for His Majesty's Ship. The command had decided that, having Killer literally become the king of the entire planet, it no longer made sense to use the old identification. The order had been received, but hadn't yet delivered real change as everyone was far too busy in far more pressing tasks when the messages had been broadcasted.

"Okay, technically it's your ship." Galen finally admitted.

"And I wouldn't break something that belongs to me." Killer confirmed, nodding and smiling in entertainment, before looking down at his son with complete seriousness. "Really, Galen... the ship is yours. I've kept it in one piece exactly because I knew that you would love her and that you'd squeeze the maximum usefulness out of her. I'm sorry I caused trouble... but I really couldn't help myself."

Galen gave a little nod at that, smiling quietly. Yes, the Sentence was a true wonder and he had dreamed of walking along her decks ever since they had confirmed that she existed and that she was just as immense and extraordinary as it was suspected. Did he love the boat...? In some ways, yes. His heart still beat for the Audacious, however, considering how much time he had spent on her and the adventures they had gone through together. It was going to take a while for a true affection to rise in him for the Sentence. For now it was more a matter of admiration, curiosity and sheer awe. There were both very good and very bad things about the submarine-superbattleship, after all, and he was still trying to discover them all and fix what could be improved. A refit in port was going to do wonders by changing the insides and installing proper accommodations for everyone on board. What he already loved was the super-advanced integrated combat system. Sitting in the "command chair" and being able to "see" the outside world as if the hull and the sea itself were entirely transparent, was incredible. Being able to maneuver the goliath submarine in battle with a stick and throttle, like on a fighter jet, was unbelievably rewarding. It was also incredibly disconcerting still, and he couldn't quite get his mind to accept that a literal handful of officers were enough to control every function of the immense submarine, but that was a secondary consideration. Surely he was going to get used to the half-empty control room... sooner or later.

"Okay, okay. It's... fine. I just need to see a psychologist. I'm heading straight into post traumatic stress disease, after a cruise like this." Galen finally said, smiling and speaking half-seriously and half in jest.

"I think you just need to get laid." Killer flatly corrected, before smirking in entertainment as Vera laughed a bit and squeezed tighter around his waist. "I believe Sekhmeth put her eyes on you... She can get the last few days out of your mind in a great hurry, believe me. Not to sound arrogant, but I just finished tiring her out, and you need her to be exhausted in order to come out of it alive, so this could be your best chance, Galen."

The captain blinked in surprise at that, gaping a bit as his cheeks suddenly burned crimson, before he remembered the titanic sizes of his father's colossal godcock. He couldn't possibly compare to that monstrous tower of black meat and the astonishing girth of the flared member had certainly inflicted fatal devastations to her sex, stretching it out to a gaping chasm. Samara, as if aware of what he was thinking about, hissed hungrily and rolled her hips, spreading her legs and squeezing lightly on her belly, sending enormous ropes of black, hyperpotent stuff leaking sloppily out of her gaping sex. Her muscular thighs trembled violently and her hips bucked and a sigh of relief came from her jaws.

"I... I don't think I should... You know... I don't think I would... feel much of anything, after you took a fissure and turned it in a cave." Galen admitted, blushing even further and repressing a shiver at the thought of how Sekhmeth's sex had to look after Killer had rammed her into blissful coma.

Killer couldn't help but grin at that comment, but he reached down to slowly stroke a hand down Samara's powerful abs, fingers pushing into the solid, steel-hard, perfectly chiseled muscle as she teasingly flexed, showing off her power and the proud hardness of her body.

"I admit I tend to... cause damage." Killer amusedly said, while Samara smirked and pushed her powerful body against his palm, grinding against his fingers. "But why do you think my girls tend to have all these muscles...? You'd be surprised how tightly they can squeeze you. If I was in you, I'd be worried about Sekhmeth clenching so hard that she rips your dick off, more than anything else."

"Crap..." Galen mumbled, swallowing thickly and repressing a shiver. "It all sounds very... exciting... but I think we have more pressing matters at hand."

"_We_do for sure... but you...?" Killer teasingly replied, winking playfully, before getting back to his usual seriousness as he looked down at Samara. "But you are right. I've indulged too much already. We have to get on that shuttle, and get a move on with things."

The mention of the space rocket gave Galen a welcome chance of escape from the incredibly alluring but also awkward and scary topic of Sekhmeth and her insatiable hungers. The discovery of a shuttle with relative launch ramp hidden inside the conning tower of the Sentence was one of the most amazing things about the whole super-submarine, and Galen had of course wanted to investigate, even before Killer asked him to take a look on his behalf.

"I've checked the space shuttle in the tower... or better, I checked what I could. The silo is mostly sealed and it is clearly not expected that the rocket will give much maintenance while out at sea. Everything looks in order to me, I've not spotted anything too wrong... but I come from submarines, not from a space program." Galen explained, giving them a little nod. "For all we can see, the shuttle appears to be genuine and we have found no IED or anything else on board. It does not appear to be booby-trapped and the launch silo seems safe as well. The launch commands look very intuitive... in fact, I believe the shuttle was meant mostly as a last resort emergency escape pod. To initiate the launch sequence you need to do little more than pushing the proverbial big red button."

"Have you managed to collect any coordinate from it...?" Killer quietly asked, before they looked up as Elaine pushed the great doors open and leaned out, her breasts still bare, her body still clad not only in darkness but in a thick, incredible layer of unholy, omnipotent dark cocksludge that dangled sloppily from her in thick, heavy ropes.

She gave Galen the briefest of gazes, then looked up at her father and said: "We are almost done cleaning up. Should we try and restore the laboratory? Do you think there is anything useful that might emerge from their research and logs...?"

"Unlikely. Don't bother with it, we don't need to mess around with Soulstones and cybernetics, and the rest is literally stuff about my own genetics. Don't need the imitations, I have the original stuff." Killer simply replied, before coughing a bit and adding: "You could maybe... cover yourself up, instead. Galen is... not quite used to our Pride's inner workings."

The goddess turned around to gaze flatly at the handsome submariner, sizing him up once more, his muscular body clad in a tight and clean new uniform. She grinned at the stunned expression on his face, and winked before teasingly remarked: "It's your son. He sure isn't scared by my boobs. I think what has him frozen stiff is your cum, dad... Let me demonstrate."

Before Killer could tell her not to, she had flexed her body, grinning widely and squeezing on her swollen, bulging belly until a huge gush of dark cum rushed out of her and splashed onto the floor. Enormous, unholy behemoth sperms immediately raced out of the open door and swam into the corridor, enormous and powerful and jutting with terrible spikes and long, flexible tentacles. Galen took a moment to realize what those python-sized beasts were, but when it began to dawn on him he nearly jumped backwards, his cheeks turning pale as he made a grimace of shock and instinctively yelled: "What the motherfuckin' hell!"

Elaine laughed at that, giving her father one "told you so" gaze as she idly made a beckoning gesture with one finger, catching the gigantic sperms in gentle psychic grips and dragging them back towards her, smirking as their long, muscular, spiked tails greedily wrapped around her arms. Galen stared in silent amazement, eyes bulging, and mouth slightly agape as he mouthed silent words of disbelief at the sheer, monstrous size and strength of those unholy, omnipotent seeds.

"Point made." She cheerfully stated, petting the colossal, monstrous seeds, and then she retreated into the apartment, warning: "Don't do anything stupid, daddy. Give us just a moment and we'll follow you to the rocket. We'll follow it in flight."

"Okay, Eli." Killer confirmed, smiling lovingly down at her as she closed the door again. Galen still looked like he had seen... well, not a ghost. Something far, far more impressive. Killer coughed in embarrassment at that, and finally offered: "Let's make our way to the shuttle, for a start."

Galen accepted with a breathless, silent nod, and they began to walk along the immense corridor, heading for the stairs that would bring them up to the base of the conning tower. After a moment of awkward silence, Killer decided that it was necessary to reformulate his earlier question: "Did you manage to access navigation plans on the shuttle? Coordinates? A route?"

"No. But I've asked one of the Audacious's weapon system specialists to make a quick check, as a missile is always a missile, at the end of the day. He was embarked on our SSBNs for a few years of his career, and knows what a rocket able to go to space is supposed to look like..." Galen replied, shrugging a bit and finally saying: "He says it looks alright. Same guidance system as a ballistic missile, apparently: an inertial system with a series of telescopes for getting positions fixes through stars observation."

"Which might be a problem, now that I think of it, since... space is a whole lot more desolate, these days." Killer muttered, thinking of how many planets and stars he had disintegrated or washed away with his dark essence, and how many others had been destroyed or badly damaged by the Swarm. There were also two whole new planets, Heaven and Hell, circling on at relatively small distances from Earth, so the rocket was going to go up into a sky that was completely different from how it had been when the Sentence was built. What if the shuttle tried to navigate its way looking for stars that were no longer there at all...? Its computers were going to get confused like hell. Galen looked up at him for a moment, eyes widening at the thought... but after a moment he tentatively reassured: "It's... it probably uses stars and reference points relatively close to Earth, so they... they should still be there. If you are right and there's some kind of space station out there, it shouldn't be on an orbit too wide. It'll be relatively close to the edge of the atmosphere, and it'll be easy to get there."

"Hopefully." Killer simply said, making a bit of a grimace. He was suddenly very, very glad for his near-invulnerable body and for the fact that he didn't need to breathe and that he knew how to teleport. The chances of being fired on a wrong orbit and getting lost in space had suddenly gone up by several points. Samara said nothing, but she looked down at the floor with eyes that lost some of their brilliance. They needed the shuttle to put them on the right route. It was their only real chance of finding Nadia... or at least of learning about her fate. Awkward, nervous silence accompanied them for the rest of the long walk back to the conning tower. They took the elevator, even though it meant that Galen was pretty much sandwiched between the bulky, massive forms of Killer and Vera, and got up almost to the very top of the tower: the hatch leading into the shuttle was just one deck beneath the top of the fin.

When the elevator door slid open, Killer and Samara were immediately faced by the circular hatch leading into the silo. The thick door had been opened already, and Sandy stood nearby, listening to the reports of a couple of sailors. One of them was probably the missile specialist that Galen had mentioned. They all looked up as Killer stepped out of the elevator, and they bowed deeply before him and Samara, their face betraying all of their awe at the sight of her and of all the changes in her body.

"Your majesty..." The admiral said, bowing his head again, and Killer waved a hand dismissively. The old captain nodded with a little smile at that, straightening as he commanded, and then continued: "We have done what we could, but to find out more we'd need to force open the black boxes of the mission system. That is unadvisable; we might cause more damage than anything that might lurk in there."

Killer nodded silently, but made a little grimace as he asked one last time: "Is there a way to find out what route this thing is meant to follow?"

"I'm afraid no, your Majesty. For all I could observe, the guidance system is very much like that of a ballistic missile, but there is a shuttle as payload rather than re-entry vehicle vehicles built around nuclear bombs. The shuttle does not seem to have much of a guidance system at all." The missile specialist said, after waiting for Sandy to nod a little to authorize him to speak. "I believe that, once the rocket has brought the shuttle into orbit, it will be guided to the space station by a radio beacon of some sort."

"If they turn it on." Killer muttered, making a grimace of distaste. "Well, thank you all for your efforts. Now the only thing left to do is to climb on the damn thing and lift off towards space. And hope that it works."

"So it seems." Sandy quietly confirmed, before adding: "All is ready, your Highness. We've brought the Sentence back up to the surface. We could launch from periscope depth as well, but... it seemed like a useless added complication, at this point. Nobody is searching for us... and we are no longer being dragged down by a flood in the main hull." The admiral shot Killer a flat look, and the king cleared his throat awkwardly, shifting a bit on the spot. They were never going to let go of what had happened, and he couldn't quite blame them. For him it was an amusing thing to remember, but for Galen and the others it had been a nightmare. A scare that they did not need, after all they had already been through.

They all looked towards the stairs as the few other submariners that had moved from the Audacious to the Sentence came marching in, orderly entering into the small room and quickly forming a guard of honor of sort, taking position in two short lines on either side of the hatch. Sebastian followed, giving a soft smile to his father and taking his own position in one of the lines, presenting his rifle like the other submariners. Killer squeezed his shoulder, and the sonar specialist smiled widely and gave a little nod, whispering a good luck. There really wasn't much else to say. The eyes did all the talking: every submariner knew that their future entirely depended on Killer and on the battles that he was going to fight. They had only a vague idea of the danger, and they didn't really know why their king and god was so interested in that weird space shuttle, but none of that mattered: their future survival depended on Killer, and that awareness obviously dominated all other thoughts. They could only wish him the very best of luck.

And just as the submariners offered their thanks and praises and well wishes, the interphone came alive with Mriya's voice as the goddess announced: "We are in the hangar and getting outside. We'll be right behind you, daddy. Ready when you are."

"Time to go." Samara said, without enthusiasm. There were many reasons to believe their mission was going to be a failure, while they desperately needed a success.

"Good luck, your Highness." Sandy said, and Galen squeezed Killer's hand, then Samara's as well, smiling to both and saying: "I hope you find what you are looking for... and I wish you the best of luck for the battles to come. For all our sakes."

Killer thanked him and the others for their well wishes. Sandy and Galen and the others had only a vague idea of what was going in the center of Existence, but they knew about the Swarm of angry, greedy gods heading towards Earth and they were worried about the great battle ahead. Killer knew that the Swarm was actually by far the least concerning of the threats lined up in front of them all, but he did not correct them. They did not need to know about the Sisters, and the exact nature of Cerberus's plan, and all the other scary details. If Killer failed to stop the Sisters, they would all die quickly. If he succeeded, they would be safe and free to rebuild the world. Either way, there was no sense in having them living their potential last few hours in existence with the torment of fear and uncertainty.

Samara was the first to approach the hatch, grabbing its edges and pulling up her long, muscular legs, elegantly slipping inside, feet first, and Killer followed after a moment, once she was out of the way. The passage was short and dark, a circular tunnel that led into a small shuttle with no other furniture than a few large, reclined seats arranged in pairs and complete with sturdy five-point harnesses. As the shuttle was obviously stored in launch position, the seats appeared to be bolted to the wall, rather than to the floor. Small metallic ladders went up the "wall" on either side of the seats, and Samara began to climb up one, aiming for the main seats at the front of the shuttle, the only ones faced by windows and by a couple of large touch-screens surrounded by a multitude of switches and buttons. All screens and windows were dark, and whatever little light came through the access tunnel suddenly went out as Galen closed the outer hatch.

Neon lights turned on inside the shuttle, thankfully, and Killer sighed a bit before grabbing the inner hatch and closing it, making sure it was properly sealed. "Here is one thing I never thought I'd be doing in my life." He commented, making a bit of a face as he walked the single step to the ladder, beginning to climb up just as Samara crawled into her seat. "Never put limits to the adventure." She replied, trying to sound playful, but none of them could shake off the fears, the anticipation, and the anxiety. In a moment, Killer moved from the ladder to his seat, taking position at her side and seizing the harness, instinctively beginning to secure himself in... before tossing the heavy straps away with a snort, as Samara smirked in entertainment. They were more than tough enough to resist to whatever amount of G force the launch was going to impress on them: after all, they could fly much faster and maneuver much more violently than any shuttle could ever hope to, that was definite. Their bodies had no problem sustaining extreme numbers of Gs. Indeed, both Killer and Samara had regularly trained in the past in special chambers specifically meant to artificially create an extreme gravity attraction to put their strengths to the test. Killer had one at home, and Vera had been thrown into another by the RA. Different circumstances but same mechanics. The seats, at least, were relatively comfortable and, for once, sized in such a way that even Killer fit into them without much trouble.

The huge male studied the screens in front of them, somewhat intimidated by the dozens of switches and buttons in the cockpit and wondering what the hell they were supposed to do with them... but Galen's voice came to them through interphone and announced: "We are going to start the launch procedure, if that's okay with you." Killer and Samara traded a nod, then gave their roger.

The armoured hatch on top of the launch silo clanged loudly as it began to open, and a bit of light filtered inside the "tube", coming to them through the windows of the cockpit. The sky above was black, sunless and ominous, but Heaven and Hell supplied a bit of illumination, casting sapphire and crimson light respectively. The flat screens in front of them turned on as well, asking them for a confirmation of the launch order. Both Killer and Vera pushed their palms down onto the screens, trading a gaze full of emotions... and then cursed as the computer blared: "Error, fingerprints not recognized."

"Oh, crap. I bet only Sikanjal's fingerprints can authorize a launch." Killer muttered, and Samara grinned widely before reaching for a leather pouch hanging from the back of her combat belt. She pulled out the demonic goddess's hands, bloodied and broken, and the huge male made a bit of a grimace, questioningly arching an eyebrow.

"What? Sandy warned me that we were probably going to need them." Samara cheerfully explained, easily pressing the two hands down on the screens. Killer made a bit of a grimace, but that only seemed to amuse the goddess, who shrugged a bit and added: "Sandy correctly remarked that we might also need Sikanjal's eyes to get through some controls, but you fucked her whole head into pulp, so... let's hope we can just smash our way through, in the case. Here, smashing is not an option." Killer could not disagree with her on that, and he only looked down with a little smirk as the computer was immediately pacified, and both screens began to show a short countdown. "That's why I'm so glad I have all of you around." Killer gently said, and Vera smiled warmly before adding: "I could hack the crap out of the computers as well, if it became necessary... but if we can avoid that, it's better. I don't want to end up erasing important information that might bring us to Nadia." Killer nodded in silence, and Samara put the bloody hands away just as the computer spoke in a pleasant, warm voice: "Welcome, goddess. All parameters are regular, the silo is open. Launch sequence started."

The shuttle shuddered as the massive rocket beneath them stirred into life and began to warm up for launch. Killer took Samara's hand in his own, squeezing it lightly as they traded a quiet look, before another violent tremble went through the shuttle as the rocket began to truly discharge power and the computer announced: "Lift-off in 10, 9, 8, 7..."

Killer closed his eyes and relaxed back into the huge seat, while Samara murmured: "We are coming, Nadia..." He nodded without a comment. He could think of nothing other than his lost little girl. He was terrified that the shuttle would only attempt to kill them, without leading to the answers he craved. Was Nadia safe? Was he finally going to see her again? That was what mattered.

Fire and smoke obscured the windows for a few moments as she massive rocket finally shot up through the silo, surrounded and followed by its own exhaust gases, and Killer and Samara both stared straight ahead of them, out of the thick glass, to admire the dark sky as it rushed rapidly closer. The rocket picked up speed at an amazing rhythm, with a savage progression in the number of Gs, but Killer and Samara barely noticed it: their bodies were far too strong and tough to be concerned by a 13 G acceleration. It hardly affected them at all, and they kept moving freely, like nothing at all was happening.

The huge male turned around to look out of the corner of the cockpit's window, gazing down at the world beneath. He had barely enough time to spot the Sentence beneath them, half-hidden by a great column of white smoke. The Audacious was on the surface as well, in position to the side and slightly ahead of the gigantic submarine battleship, but Killer's incredibly sharp eyes noticed that there was no one outside, on the casing: Galen's XO, now commander of the submarine, had clearly decided to protect the sailors from the horrible reality of the world in ruin and horrendously mutated and corrupted. The periscope had been deployed instead, and the crew had probably been admitted into the control room to gaze at the relevant display. For a brief moment, Killer wondered how that decision had been justified in front of sailors who clearly needed and expected a breath of fresh air after months spent in the submarine, with the last week in particular having squeezed out of them all of their personal resources, threatening to exhaust them both physically and mentally. Probably they had been told that the smoke of the rocket launch could be toxic... which it most definitely could be. But no matter how good the excuse, the men of the Audacious were smart and would undoubtedly ask themselves questions.

Killer sighed as he watched the two submarines rapidly shrinking away until they were no longer visible, lost in the middle of all that water. For a few moments, Killer and Vera leaned against the glass to admire Earth, which had a sort of special, monstrous beauty even in her current black color. The ocean that Killer had restored was the only touch of color in an otherwise dark sphere of death and destruction, and its sapphire color seemed to glow like a jewel, appearing luminous like a star in the middle of all that darkness. It was as beautiful as it was disturbing: the planet was unrecognizable, deformed by the male's hyperpotent and ever-evolving corruption. Galen and the others, out at sea and far away from the ruined, unrecognizable shores, had actually the best of all positions. The few that still survived on what was left of the dry lands had to deal with a far more monstrous and hostile habitat, and with the sight of what little remained of the civilization and nature that had been.

A shudder went through the whole shuttle as the first stage rocket burned itself out and detached, failing back towards the ocean, but the second stage kicked regularly in and continued to propel the shuttle higher up. Killer and Vera did not comment, only trading a gaze. They had no experience as astronauts and the sudden trembling of the shuttle had them worried for a brief but horrible moment, but they knew enough about missiles to quickly understand what was happening. They were both still nervous, but they would never admit it... and they went back to looking out of the windows: the sights were spectacular, that much was definite. Had the thought of Nadia not been on both their minds, it would have been a simply wonderful experience. Killer smirked a little at the sight of Mriya and Elaine, Sekhmeth and Boadicea, Gaia and Alcana and all the others easily keeping pace with the rocket, flying on either side of the shuttle, flying in formation like fighter jets protecting an high value aircraft. Killer couldn't help but snort in entertainment as his daughters swung closer to the shuttle, spinning easily on themselves and then waving playfully at him, playing as if that was the most natural of things in the universe. They sure had adjusted very well to being goddesses: while Killer was often tormented by the awareness of his limitless power and possibilities, they were clearly thrilled with them and eager to try out new things. Their curiosity and enthusiasm kept growing and growing as they challenged themselves to always new feats and found out, much to their delight, that everything was easy and seemed to require no effort at all from them, making them all the more eager to find out just what they could accomplish if they began to try for real...

It took only a few dozen seconds for the second stage rocket to burn out as well, and with one last shudder, the shuttle module detached from the falling hulk of the spent rocket. It smoothly changed its angle of travel, stabilizing its course and, for a moment, it seemed like they were just floating there, lost in the middle of nothing. Here we go. The navigation system doesn't find the stars it is looking for...

Samara said nothing, but she was clearly worried as well as the shuttle spun and began to orbit around Earth, giving them a stunning view of their planet... and a scary vision of the immense black tentacles that reached out from it and tore through space all the way towards distant worlds to strangle and corrupt and colonize with new, terrible life. Was the shuttle able to detect those immense obstacles in the way, or were they going to crash right into one? Hell, that would have been quite embarrassing. Considering that they were born out of his excessive, ludicrous hypervirility, Killer thought it would kind of count as a clumsy suicide. Not the most dignified way to go...

The screens in the cockpit weren't of great help. They showed no route updates... but then they began showing a 3-dimensional image of the space around them, tracking asteroids and satellites and, thankfully, the gigantic tentacles as well, as an anti-collision radar began to calculate a way past the obstacles.

Several minutes of silence followed, and every second that passed made them more nervous and worried. They traded gazes repeatedly, but they did not dare commenting... until one radio sizzled and crackled, startling them. They both turned towards the source of the noise, gaping a little as a voice came through and announced: "RAS Sentence, here is the RAS Valhalla. We see you on the radar. Stand-by for radio-beacon, we'll guide you in."

"We made it...!" Samara commented, her eyes sparkling as a big smile spread on her lips, and Killer leaned towards her and hugged her tightly, smiling widely as he rocked her quietly. Their absurd plan had worked, and he couldn't possibly be happier. The screens blinked, and then proudly announced that the shuttle had locked in on the radio beacon and was following it.

A green timer began to countdown the minutes next to an ETA acronym: Estimated Time of Arrival. They were close... and yet there was nothing in sight, in no direction. Nothing but emptiness and darkness as the shuttle veered steeply and turned its bow towards open, deep space.

"That absolute madman... I can't believe we guessed the name of the submarine right from the beginning. Judge, Sentence... motherfucker." Killer commented, snorting in entertainment, but his eyes continued to dart from side to side, looking at the emptiness of space in search of... well, something. Anything at all. They had no clue what the RAS Valhalla was supposed to look like, but knowing the RA they expected something gigantic and ambitious and impressive... and none of that was in sight. The sky ahead of them seemed horribly empty, in fact, for uncountable miles in every direction, and yet the shuttle proceeded in that exact direction, with its computers proudly remarking that they were following the correct route and receiving a clear signal from Valhalla.

Killer and Samara waited nervously for a sign, anything at all that could give them some hope... but instead they cursed under their breaths as the images on the computer screens flickered in and out of existence, replaced by static as the whole shuttle seemed to go crazy. Killer sat up into his seat, looking with horror at the lights flashing into the cockpit and thinking of what they were supposed to be doing to bring the shuttle back under control. Samara's eyes began to glow as she used her mind to penetrate the cyber defences of the aircraft's computers, but right in that moment the nameless voice coming from the RAS Valhalla spoke again and warned: "RAS Sentence, your onboard systems will be experiencing malfunctions right now, but we have you on the correct route. You have entered the area of maximum disturbance caused by our jammers. We will guide you; there is no need for action on your part."

The shuttle continued to fly on, in fact, keeping the route, and Killer and Samara traded a look and a grimace. The relief was only partial, since they couldn't quite trust the RA in any way, could they...? And Samara looked up at the cockpit with a quiet curse, studying screens and switches and whispering: "Do you think they have a camera on board...? It just dawned on me that they could be spying on us ever since we got inside this thing."

"Fucking hell." Killer muttered, making a grimace at the awareness that she could well be right about cameras. What would the RA do if they discovered that the people aboard the shuttle were enemies? Did the Valhalla know that the Sentence had been captured...?

A few long, torturingly slow minutes passed, and both gods waited nervously, completely uncertain about what was ahead. And then, all of a sudden, the shuttle shuddered once more, trembling violently as it struggled to tear through... something. Some sort of barrier, of field of force.

Don't follow us, for now. Killer hurriedly thought, knowing that his daughters and Disciples would hear his words loud and clear. Immediately, Mriya and the others slowed down and took on waiting positions just outside of the invisible wall.

When the vibrations finally and abruptly ended, Killer gaped in disbelief, because the Valhalla appeared in front of them in all its majesty. It was immense, a space station unlike any other, and it was surrounded by a number of shuttles equipped with robotic arms and other special welding and construction tools. At a far greater distance from the metallic fortress, a circular orbit of large satellites was clearly visible: each one was equipped with long, thin "wings" made of solar panels for onboard power generation, and they all had large armoured boxes hanging from their sides. It quickly became clear that each box was actually composed by several armoured canisters clustered together, and there was no doubt that each canister contained some sort of weapon, probably nuclear-tipped missiles aimed at Earth. Each satellite had a massive, thickly armoured body with a long tail at the read, fitted with several vectorable thrusters for maneuver, but it was the front of the satellites that truly caught their attentions. Two enormous lenses were visible, arranged one on top of the other: the top one appeared to be some sort of enormous projector, and that made Killer frown in confusion for a moment, until he leaned out of his seat to crush his face against the armored glass and look back at the weird "wall" that they had just pushed through.

He let out a small sound realization, eyes widening in awe as he realized that it was a sort of semi-liquid wall of high-temperature plasma which interfered with radar frequencies and somehow also acted as a screen upon which the satellites projected images... images of the open space, coming from cameras installed on the satellites on the far side of the Valhalla space station. Just like the active noise cancellation drones that sailed in company with the Sentence, the satellites generated an image of space beyond the station, effectively making it invisible. Any telescope looking at that corner of the sky would fail to spot the gigantic floating fortress.

That left the other lens, much larger and much more complex and installed on robotic arms that could change its inclination. It was the lens of a powerful, oversized laser system which was no doubt meant to protect Valhalla from incoming missiles... if not even to target objectives on the surface of the planet, melting them like ice creams. Killer counted a dozen satellites in sight, and estimated that in total there were probably at least three times that number, on that single orbit. Looking upwards he saw another orbit circling around Valhalla's vertical axis and ensuring that it was invisible from all angles. At the right time, he suspected, the armed satellites were planned to reveal themselves and change orbit, circling around Earth itself and keeping every single corner of the world under inescapable threat. Valhalla had clearly been the ultimate RA superweapon in the pre-gods era, when the Raja family through they were dealing with nations, with armies, with air forces. The realization that the real difficulties would be caused by divinities had clearly caused a loss of interest in the whole space station, because the floating fortress was very evidently incomplete. It had been abandoned during build: the shuttles orbiting around her were mostly floating in silence, empty and forgotten. The fortress had clearly been built around a central module which, even at first glance, appeared almost ancient compared to the outer parts: just like the Sentence and the Judge, the Valhalla suffered because of its own titanic dimensions: it had taken so many years to build her, especially since everything had to be done in secret, that parts of her had grown old before the whole thing was even finished. Old or not, however, the central module was composed of multiple sealed and armoured cylinders that, Killer guessed, contained both nuclear reactors for power generation and atomic clocks for the accurate positioning of the station and for the correct tuning of all her other systems. Another key module had been attached on top of the power core, and it appeared like a thickly armored "box" built out of gigantic plates that had been probably welded directly in space after being carried into orbit by rockets which had pretended to carry satellites for peaceful uses. Killer was astonished by the immensity of the whole operation and by the level of technology it implied. On top of the "box", which appeared to be octagonal in shape, sat another massive module, a pyramid which looked both more modern and more heavily protected. It was topped by a series of massive antennas and radomes, and Killer bit his lower lip with a little growl of impotent rage: there could be no doubt that those were the antennas that had broadcasted "Lord Skyfall's" original messages into the depths of space, setting the Swarm in motion and expanding the war to all of the universes. It was terrible to think that it would have been enough to disable those antennas in time, and so many disasters would have never happened. Such was the power of information: the secrets that Cerberus had revealed were so important that every last god of Existence had decided to move out, in a way or another, to try and take advantage or to prevent a catastrophe. The latter, far less numerous, had sadly been slaughtered quite quickly by the crazed mass of greedy gods who did not care about the cost of their dreams of omnipotence.

"Well, this is the place where this nightmare started." Killer quietly commented, tapping his fingers nervously on his knee. "Hopefully it is where the nightmare begins to end, as well."

"If Nadia is here, she is most likely to be in that pyramid, isn't she...?" Samara quietly commented, pointing at the antennas. "Cerberus probably has his "doomsday bunker" inside that monstrosity. And if he has, he also probably brought Nadia right there."

"It's my guess as well." Killer confirmed, before his attention drifted down to the bottom of the gigantic structure: it was a weapon system of some kind, that much was definite... a gigantic weapon meant to target Earth and scare any nation into unconditional surrender. There was another gigantic lens there, which suggested the presence of a monstrous laser system, of terrifying dimensions and power... but there was also a large ring-like structure which apparently jutted with a multitude of titanic spikes.

As they got closer to the floating fortress, Killer realized that they were indeed spikes, or better enormous "nails" of solid metal. That was all. In their simplicity, they were terrifying weapons: their enormous mass could be fired towards Earth at such ferocious re-entry speeds that they would hit with enough force to dwarf nukes into insignificance. They were like artificial asteroids, able to destroy entire regions and pound any nation either into surrender or into ruin. The ring structure had never been finished, however, and there were only a few rods in place: each one required a special rocket launch from Earth, and the RA had clearly decided that it was a waste of resources and an unacceptable risk to the secrecy of their whole enterprise. After all, the rods were perfect to scare mortals into submission, but were of zero usefulness against the gods.

Similarly, the construction of four immense "daggers", arms that stretched out from the central module of the fortress, had been interrupted and their unfinished skeletons gave the whole fortress a sinister appearance. They looked like talons, or long, cruel fingers greedily reaching out towards the world.

"This whole thing is madness given mold." Killer bitterly commented, making a grimace of distaste. "This is the reason why half of the world starved for centuries. This is what the wealth of the Raja family procured: not progress, but nightmares."

"The work of entire, successive generations of power-hungry fools." Samara remarked, nodding slightly, before reaching over to squeeze his hand in hers. "But all of it useless, in the end. Hopeless when faced by true power: your might, daddy. Your power that can crush this nightmare out of existence without effort. Your power that can put everything right, and that is the sole real arbiter of Existence's fate."

"A heavy responsibility... But I'd lie if I said that I don't crave this power, and indeed even more of it. I want more and more... I want all of it. And for very selfish reasons." Killer calmly admitted, but that only made Samara grin and wink, pulling his hand towards her muscular thigh and guiding it along her bulging quads as she flexed for him, purring teasingly: "I don't think there is anything overly wrong with that, daddy... you are a predator and you are strong. Your hungers are commensurate to your strength and it is only natural that the strong wins."

"It's easy for you to say that, while being on my good side." Killer reminded, smirking a bit and squeezing greedily into the massive, hard muscle, slowly moving up towards her hot, eager centre. He could feel her heat even through her leather pants... and, to be fair, it was also his heat, as she was still literally leaking out great amounts of his cum. The seat beneath her was drenched in dense black batter that poured sloppily out of the rips and tears in her pants, still as incandescent and full of vigor as when he had erupted it inside her. Enormous sperms slipped out of her in great numbers, a sight which would have given nightmares to many but that Samara found nothing short of enthralling. "Oh, yes, daddy, it is... the stronger you are, the stronger I am. And I know that, once you have conquered it all, nobody will ever again be able to threaten me." She breathed, before shivering and bucking her hips slightly as his hand gripped hungrily into her clothed groin, squeezing greedily and sending even more of his semen gushing out of her. "Apart from you yourself of course... my life in your hands, always in your hands. That's how I want it, and how I want it to be." She ran her own hand down her powerful thigh, scooping up a thick load of his potent essence, and she brought her drenched fingers up to her mouth, greedily licking it all up, her eyes glowing as she gazed into his and whispered: "Your daughter, your lover, your slave, your weapon... always full of your semen... always dripping it all over the worlds I'll visit, so to conquer them all for you. So to spread life... your life... across the universes."

Killer licked his lips slowly at that, running his thick fingers through the dark semen and then pushing his great digits in front of her mouth, grinning as she kissed and licked, lapping them clean, slowly and reverently swallowing mouthful after mouthful.

"RAS Sentence, here RAS Valhalla. We are running scansions of your shuttle." The voice coming from the radio sounded a whole lot less pleasant and friendly now, and Killer made a grimace, snorting from his nostrils as he commented: "There we go. Cameras or not, they know we are not welcome in Cerberus's station."

"It'll be funnier if they try to oppose us. By now, it's way too late for them, no matter what they do." Samara easily countered, shrugging a bit and eagerly flexing her almighty body, looking down at her bulging muscles with emerald eyes blazing with vigor and cruel hunger. "I wouldn't mind testing my new body... the gift you gave me. It feels simply wonderful, but I know that it's in combat that I will truly feel godlike!"

Killer grinned at that, even as his eyes were drawn to something that moved rapidly in their direction, outside the shuttle. They both looked out of the cockpit to try and understand what was going on, and what they saw were enormous groups of large cylinders, bigger than trash cans, each with a small propulsion section with small thrusters arranged around the circumference. In space, in absence of gravity, it took relatively little power for those great cylinders to dance around with amazing agility and speed, and as more and more appeared, rushing towards them seemingly from every direction, Killer cursed under his breath and muttered: "Want to bet on those being mines? Reconfigurable, mobile mine-fields. They are completely surrounding us."

"Let them." Samara replied, shrugging and resting back in her seat, pulling her legs up and crossing them on top of the cockpit. "it's not like it's going to do them any good."

"RAS Sentence, identify yourselves!" The radio commanded, and the RA officer on the other side suddenly sounded pretty ferocious as he insisted: "Where is lady Sikanjal? We have confirmed the presence of survivors on the shuttle, but -"

Samara slammed the sole of her boot into the screen ahead of her, and then used the long, perfect talon of her big toe to flick up a switch, activating the shuttle's transmission radio and grinning widely as she coldly corrected: "That's wrong. There are no survivors." The huge male couldn't help but smirk to himself at that.

The Valhalla radio channel immediately went silent, and Killer sat up in his seat, looking out of the windows to see several of the closest satellites turning their deadly lenses around to aim at their little shuttle. The cylinders that had ominously rushed closer to their small ship also activated their thrusters and launched themselves against the shuttle, which immediately shuddered violently and dropped out of its route. Undoubtedly, the space station had turned off the radio beacon that had to guide them safely through the immense mobile minefields.

"Come on then, let's play..." Samara playfully said, licking her lips slowly as her eyes glowed solid emerald. Killer studied her with interest as she relaxed back in the seat, arms crossed behind her head and a wide grin on her features as lines of code began to appear on the screens of the cockpit, before they all began to glow of the same color of her eyes as the shuttle's engines roared into life, pushing the small ship forwards as fast as it could possibly go.

"You are just like Alexis. Why I can't ever get on a vehicle, of any type, with one of you without all hell breaking loose...?" Killer complained, but he it was mock irritation. He leaned forwards over the cockpit instruments, crossing his huge arms and leaning his chin over them, looking out of the armoured glass with a mix of entertainment and curiosity. The lasers were going to get them, sooner or later, but he wanted to see just how hard Samara could make it for them.

A bunch of flying mines charged in from the right, but Samara only snorted in contempt, guiding the shuttle in a steep climb and then veering on the tip of one of its stub wings to narrowly avoid another trio of cylinders that shot forwards at high speed. Other mines shot against them from all angles, but Samara only gritted her fangs in a mocking grin and sent the shuttle spinning between them, avoiding the cylinders one after the other, even as they began to explode, activated by proximity fuzes. Samara laughed loudly, tilting her head slightly to the side and sending the shuttle looping past another large group of mines, before spinning back towards them just as another swarm launched itself after them: the mines collided in midair and exploded, rattling the shuttle but causing no major damage as the Doberman launched it in a spiral past other minefields which desperately tried to hit them, without any success.

Light flooded the cockpit as a massive laser beam shot out of one of the satellites, but Vera sent the shuttle diving out of the way, exploiting the tiny fraction of a second that the ray of focused light took to get towards them. The incandescent beam trailed after them, dissolving a multitude of mines in the process, and Samara huffed and glared towards a distant minefield, her eyes glowing with energy as her mind connected to their computer systems and overwhelmed their defences, hurling the mines against the nearest laser satellites.

Killer grinned widely as the satellites switched target and began to target the incoming mines to protect themselves, and he snickered when the first couple of great machines were overwhelmed by the high number of maneuvering targets. Satellites began to explode all along the vast orbits surrounding the fortress, and Killer smirked and commented: "I had not thought of this possibility. I didn't think you could hack them too."

"They use a relatively simple swarming logic and the rest of the algorithm is mostly about recognizing friend or foe. They are trying to manually override from the space station, but their attempts are pathetic." Samara easily commented, arching her back with a laugh as she sent a whole minefield smashing into the space station, rattling it with the violence of the dozens of explosions. The thick armor was dented, at most, with no appreciable penetration, but that was exactly what she wanted: if her sister was inside the space station, she certainly did not want her to be harmed in any way. "But yeah, yesterday I wouldn't have been able to process so many algorithms at once. Fact is: you haven't just made my body powerful. You made my mind powerful as well." The goddess cheerfully added, effortlessly guiding the shuttle between the desperate maneuvers of the hundreds of mines that shot back and forth through the emptiness of space to try and intercept them.

Valhalla became larger and larger in front of them as they closed the distances, and large lasers lenses, guided by radar and thermal sensors, turned to put the little shuttle in the crosshair. There were whole batteries of those laser cannons arranged in armoured recesses at the base of the pyramid module, but Samara's mind easily established a connection with the computers moving the cannons and sent one of them turning sideways until its beam cut through all the other weapons arranged on that side of the fortress. "Puny, laughable little toys..." The Doberman commented, grinning widely as her terrifying psychic power effectively took control of the whole space station, turning all of its systems against the unfortunate souls that lived and worked inside it. Killer spotted an enormous armoured shutter half-hidden beneath the edge of the base of the pyramid module. It was an opening large enough to allow the docking of multiple shuttles at once, and all much larger than theirs, so the huge male pointed a finger at it and said: "That's our entry point."

"You bet." Samara confirmed, smirking as she gazed at the titanic piece of steel: it was sliding closed, sealing the hangars shut, but it was almost insultingly easy for her to override the order. It immediately began to slide back up, revealing the bowels of the space fortress. Unmanned Combat Walkers rushed to the edge of the hangar and opened fire against the shuttle, but Samara once more led the small spaceship in a daring maneuver and disappeared beneath the edge, getting out of their sights just as a dozen of flying mines, following her mental orders, rushed down like meteors, getting through the open shutter and exploding in the middle of the assembled troops. Several UCWs were ripped into pieces which floated out into open space, spinning lazily in the absence of gravity, while other robots were knocked back by the violent shockwaves. Killer braced, gripping the edges of the instruments ahead of him, laughing with the excitement of the wild maneuvers of the shuttle as Samara led it into a pedal turn around the corner of the floating fortress, ducking under a colossal steel girder, part of one of the unfinished arms of the space station. They shot right through it, and some of the mines that followed them smashed into the metallic skeleton and exploded, rattling it and tossing even more metallic debris into space.

The shuttle shuddered violently as they veered past the corner and flew right in front of another battery of lasers, which exploded one after the other as mines slammed down into them while Vera laughed darkly. There was another immense shutter on that side as well, leading into another bay of the immense hangar of the fortress, and as their shuttle rushed past it, the goddess caused it to slide open. Killer had a flash of more UCWs lined up inside, but facing in the wrong direction. They turned around, surprised by the sudden opening of the door they had just closed, and before they could even begin to put together a proper reaction, another barrage of mines rushed inside and the succession of explosions seemed to annihilate everything. Before Killer could see the results of the strike, the shuttle had already turned the following corner and the scene repeated itself with the following great hangar entrance.

They completed a whole orbit around the fortress's core, skimming the massive corners by what felt like mere inches, while the satellites all around the space station exploded, one by one, until the great plasma screen that kept Valhalla hidden began to dissolve. Apparently, some of the satellites were generators of an electromagnetic pulse that kept the plasma floating in one defined shape, without flying away through space... and they also had special lasers that were used to keep the plasma from dropping beneath the critical temperature. When those satellites were disintegrated by the mines smashing into them, the screen began to quickly dissolve, revealing the unfinished fortress to the world for the very first time.

"The cells are inside the pyramid. I know where we need to go." Samara finally announced, and her eyes glowed with tremendous intensity, her energies almost visibly reaching out of her and hooking into the electronics and computers of the fortress. There was no doubting her word: she knew exactly what she was talking about. "I'm isolating the whole block. I don't want them to use Nadia as a hostage or anything like that. I'm going to rip all of them apart, one by one, if they dare touching so much as her hair."

Killer only nodded, and did not comment. The venom in her voice was so terrible that it sent a shiver even down his spine. His grip on the console ahead of him tightened so much that the metal crumpled like paper, and he looked straight ahead as the shuttle made one last neck-breaking turn and flew right towards one of the great hangar doors, while mines rained into the hangar through the other three, smashing down like meteors amid parked shuttles and running UCWs and mobile missile batteries. The whole hangar seemed to become a single, enormous ball of fire, but even from the middle of that inferno missiles and laser beams continued to rush against them. Samara did not slow down the shuttle, and didn't even bother investigating whether it had an undercarriage at all. All that was of no interest to them, as they had already decided, without needing to say a single word, that the shuttle was going to be the battering ram they used to open a path through the enemy defences.

Killer and Samara traded a look and a nod, then slammed their shoulders into their sides of the cockpit, smashing through the metal like it was wet paper. They landed on their feet, skidding on a metallic floor that was deformed by the explosions and by the extreme heat, the steel glowing bright red in several places, as flames burned high, all the way up to the ceiling. The shuttle rushed past, tearing through fire and smoke and smashing into a line of UCWs and into contorted wreckage of other destroyed machines, adding to the carnage and projecting metallic, flaming shrapnel in every direction as it disintegrated into the floor of the hangar and its pieces, flying forwards with terrifying speed and momentum, tore like blades through the entire, vast depot, pushing other shuttles and wrecks and UCWs flying out of the hangar door at the other extremity of the cavernous room. The only reason why the flames burned brightly for an instant and then simply vanished was the lack of oxygen: with all hangar doors open, the artificial atmosphere had been shattered and all air had been dispersed, meaning that the fire could only last as long as there was comburent spilling out of the broken shuttles that had been parked inside. The depressurization had been complete and violent, and Killer made a grimace as he saw several corpses floating by him, heading for the nearest door leading out into the emptiness of space. They probably had the Spirit device installed into their spines, but even so they had died so abruptly that their faces were all frozen in horrible grimaces of shock and desperate need for air.

Sirens blared from all corners, calling in emergency response teams and security elements armed with massive UCWs carrying extra-large thrusters mounted on their backs, allowing them to move with precision and ease even in absence of gravity. Emergency bulkheads and shutters were descending from the ceiling in the attempt of separating the immense hangar in small and more manageable "islands", but when one of those dropped down in front of Killer, he stormed through it like it was a sheet of paper, smashing a hole through the steel and strolling right past, idly kicking the burned, half-molten wreckage of a shuttle flying across the hangar, grinning as it crashed violently into an incoming UCW, knocking the great robot sprawling back like a pin.

"Shut the fuck up, already!" Samara bad-temperedly barked, and the annoying shrieks of the sirens suddenly ended, while several electronic systems all over the hangar simply exploded, sizzling and sending sparkles flying out as the wires burned themselves out with the sheer immensity of the power radiating from her. The shutters ceased their movements, halting in midair for an instant... and then they retreated back into the ceiling, allowing Killer and Samara to see from one end of the vast hangar to the other.

Unmanned Combat Walkers rushed out from access shafts on either side, but the first of the great machines froze stiff after taking no more than a couple of steps into the hangar, and Samara's eyes glowed with cruel glee as she effortlessly took control of the massive war machine, which spun around to face the rest of the platoon and opened fire without warning, unleashing a barrage of missiles against the other robots, disintegrating them in a series of terrible blasts that deformed the tower of the elevator, blowing its bulkheads outwards.

Other UCWs attempted to return fire, but Samara only smirked as she strolled elegantly through the hangar, hips swaying seductively as the great, incandescent pieces of wreckage absurdly slid or floated out of her way, retreating as if terrified by her strength. The psychic energies that she radiated threatened to overload every last electric system on board the fortress, causing the few remaining emergency lights to flick on and off, while sparkles crackled out of burning, melting circuits. The UCWs were hardened against electromagnetic pulses, cyber warfare and even the disturbances caused by nuclear explosions, but their defences were still insignificant in front of her terrible power. The enormous robots savaged each other at close quarter, opening fire with everything they had and even grapping like wrestlers, revealing hidden blades that snapped out of their heavy arms. Killer looked on with a mix of fascination and awe, amazed by the sight of the great war machines ripping each other apart, before one of the largest UCWs angled down the massive, bus-sized missile launcher he was carrying on the shoulder and fired into the thick of the group. The missile rushed out of the tube and smashed into the nearest UCW, denting its chest inwards and shoving the whole robot backwards with amazing force. The warhead did not explode because the fuze correctly estimated that it hadn't flown a safe distance away, but Samara tilted her head to the side with a wide grin and corrected that, crumpling the tip of the huge missile with her psychic force. The explosion that followed tossed pieces of burning metal in every direction, disintegrating a whole troop of UCWs before they could even begin to put her and Killer in their sights.

The few massive robots that survived that massacre charged out of the elevators and Killer tensed slightly, preparing for a fight... only to see them tackling each other with brutal ferocity, before leaping out of the open hangar door, floating uselessly away into the darkness of space.

"You are scary." Killer commented, but the goddess only smiled and tilted her head to the side, remarking: "You are the one who gifted me all of this power. I'm still only beginning to get a feel for it, and an idea of just what I can do. Apparently, the answer is: whatever the fuck I please." The goddess smirked and slowly flexed her mighty arms, looking down at her own huge biceps with evident fondness, before every last surviving light in the hangar turned on and began to blink rhythmically. Flashlights began to project their powerful beams of light back and forth, sirens blinked on and off to flood the cavernous hangar with crimson light, and other signals blinked in green or in blue. Before Killer's eyes, she idly turned the vast hangar into some sort of night club... and the enormous shutters descended and closed down the great accesses, bringing near complete darkness so to enhance the visual effect of the games of light. "Want to dance...?" Samara playfully asked, grinning and spinning easily on the spot, winking at him and swaying her hips in a way that made him growl in hunger, flames of lust dancing in his sapphire eyes. She laughed and idly pointed a finger towards a loudspeaker hanging from a bunch of cables and dangling miserably in midair, and it and several other surviving devices began to blast out music, making him snort in entertainment.

"I take it that you already know where Nadia is, and that she is safe." The huge male quietly said as they got to the edge of one of the elevators. She made an idle shooing gesture, and the great piles of debris and metallic wreckage were instantaneously slammed out of the way, leaving behind an almost sparkling-clean room that had clearly been designed for Cerberus: it had the same excessive, uselessly luxurious style, made of gold and ivory and chiseled decorations that the king of Alfaya seemed to adore. As Killer stepped onboard, a small loudspeaker pinged to life and welcomed him with a sensual, needy voice: "Welcome, Master and Lord Killer, only true God of Gods and King of Kings."

"Much better. Believe me, the previous message was a whole load of bullshit! There are no reasons for praising Cerberus. You, on the other hand... oh, there are plenty..." Samara cheerfully commented, licking her lips slowly and looking at his hulking, spectacular form, lingering on his massive muscles and then on the colossal bulge in his pants. Killer snorted in entertainment, pushing her playfully aside as he walked towards the back of the elevator and leaned idly back against the wall, crossing his arms on his chest as the doors slid closed and the cab began to move rapidly upwards. The Doberman smiled at him, then nodded, almost trembling with the relief and excitement as she confirmed: "Yes, I know where she is. The base's computer systems are full of information about a special prisoner being kept in Cerberus's apartments, and it can only be her. The door to her cell is locked, and I control it myself. Nobody is going to get to her, I assure you."

"Not for lack of trying, I bet." The huge male guessed, and the goddess only nodded, letting out a low growl of rage at the thought of the RA soldiers that were desperately trying to get into Nadia's cell to use her as a hostage and bargain her for their pathetic lives. Some of them had the terrible misfortune of having no Spirit device in their necks, which meant they were fully and terribly aware of their impending doom.

"I'm wondering if we should disable "Lord Skyfall's" signal or not. At this point there is no turning back anyway... the damage is done, so I'm tempted to leave it on. If the Swarm follows it all the way and gets here, it saves us a lot of trouble. We can annihilate them all here, without having to chase them down one by one through the universes."

"Daddy, whether the Swarm comes here or not no longer depends on the radio beacon." Samara gently corrected, looking up at him with a little smirk as she reached forwards and gripped the immense shape of his flaccid cock, squeezing lightly into the titanic member as she reminded: "You crushed a whole lot of them out of existences from several universes of distance. Hell, you blasted countless of their starships into nothing but dust just by unleashing a blast of your thick, heavy, delicious precum across Existence. Did you forget already...?" She moaned hungrily, teasingly, and she playfully took the waist of his pants between her teeth, tugging on it lightly and nuzzling into the tremendous, gigantic bulge, hands sliding down his chiseled, perfect abs and gripping into the hard, curly hair of his happy highway. "Uhm, I bet you have. After all, you produce so fucking much in one day that one blast of pre or ten or one hundred still feel like nothing to you... But I will never forget, God Daddy... and even more importantly, they will never be able to get the memory of your Alpha waste disintegrating their fleets, washing them away like they were specks of dust inside a urinal. You showed them that they are literally nothing but food and toys for your throw-away sperms. They are terrified gnats desperate for a hope of survival, daddy... they don't have a clue about what they should do. They can't return home, even assuming their planets still exist, because they are terrified that you will follow them and turn their worlds into sperm-food. They don't dare breaking up the fleet because they know that, taken one by one, they are less than microbes in comparison to you... and yet they know that keeping the fleet massed together only makes them a more interesting target for you to hit." She laughed, with delicious cruelty burning in her eyes as she remarked: "No, daddy... the Swarm knows the truth by now. They have lost. They have no hope, no future, and no shelter. They have seen a hint of your power and it is enough to know that they are zeroes in comparison to you. What they do next is a pure matter of stupidity, now... if they are smart, they will break up and hide as far as possible one from the other, so they have a chance to last a little longer as you go from one to the other. That's all they can do. But they are not smart, and in their terror they will lie to themselves. They will dare thinking that there might still be a hope of salvation. They might be stupid enough to convince themselves that "Lord Skyfall" can protect them from you. If they do, they will run right here, chasing their last hope of survival. But the beacon...? The voice of Cerberus? It means nothing at this point. Whether the beacon keeps signaling or not is entirely irrelevant: they know the route by now, and they are close. But only those deluded enough to think that there is any hope of standing up to your power will come rushing in this direction. The others will hide like the maggots they are."

Killer rumbled in his chest at that, his hulking form flexing with excess vigor and with merciless hunger, his fingers stretching towards puny, helpless worlds that he could easily imagine... almost feel in his grip, frail and doomed and useless... almost taste in his mouth... almost feel crushed under his heavy foreskin, burned and crushed down into nothing but smegma around his enormous, barbed flare. He could taste their panic, hear their frenzied, insane, desperate thoughts as they pondered their chances of survival and kept coming up with an unforgiving zero. He licked his muzzle, slowly and hungrily, savoring the feeling of omnipotence, enjoying the awareness that he was so much stronger than them that they were as defenseless as mortals when caught in his shadow. He could do any and everything he pleased with them. His power was absolute and unfathomable, and now the Swarm was fully and deliciously aware of its vulnerability. They knew they were preys... and their fear tasted oh, so sweet!

"I'll have to admit, now I hope they hide. It would make the game more interesting." The huge male rumbled, and Samara grinned sharkishly, nuzzling greedily into his astounding bulge, grinding her face against that colossal, insatiable godcock, which thrummed with awful, merciless hunger even after having claimed Sikanjal's life, and her Child's, and reshaped Vera's insides and then those of the other Disciples as well... and she slowly licked over the stretched-out fabric, able to feel the thick veins even through the jeans as she gazed straight up into his eyes and teased: "The thrill of the hunt... of giving them a chance to hide, to fortify their worlds, to put up defences that you can then pulverize at will... entire worlds to punish... to play with... to annihilate." The goddess whispered in a hoarse, sensual voice that made Killer rumble in hunger. "But it wouldn't be much of a hunt, would it...? They can't hide. They aren't safe, not even in their dreams. The fun would come merely from taking it slow, from drawing out the game and tormenting them, in keeping them waiting for the end, wondering for who you'll come next..."

Killer grinned at that, nodding and gritting his fangs in a cruel, snarling grin as he threw his head backwards and closed his eyes, focusing for a moment on the Swarm, on the energy signatures of the immense fleet that had once looked so imposing and dangerous... and he began to locate the gods, one by one, no matter how far away they were. Samara was right: many of the surviving gods were running away, heading into desolate areas of space, hoping to make themselves look small and unimportant enough to be ignored. Countless ships sailed alone, spaced out on an immense front, using countless different routes. They were so terrified that the ships of the Disciples sailed at a great distance from the flagship of their God, an unprecedented admission of inferiority and a clear sign of how terror had crushed all of their hearts and minds. They knew there was no way to fight back.

Some gods had descended on distant, desolate planets and had carved out hideouts for themselves, hoping to ride out the apocalypse... others were restlessly sailing through space, only intent on putting as much distance as possible between themselves and Killer. And whenever he tried to focus on one energy signature in particular, he found it almost insultingly easy to penetrate their minds and their dreams... or better, their nightmares. He laughed softly to himself as he saw how they all obsessed about him, feared his coming, feared what he would do to them all... and he could spy on all of their thoughts, on all of their fears, on all of their plans. He could invade their minds and easily turn even the faintest illusion of victory into a nightmarish apocalypse for them, and their shrieks of anguish filled his head, making him rumble in cruel delight. "Tender morsels..." He mockingly commented, and Samara nodded with a predatory grin.

There was another large group of gods, however, which was just as terrified but far more deluded: just like Vera had predicted, some fleets still stuck together for mutual protection, racing towards Earth in search of a chance of survival. Their minds were full of the foolish idea that Lord Skyfall would be able to help them. That together they could still defeat the Beast. Killer snorted in entertainment as he paged through the thoughts in their minds: no one truly believed that drivel. It was just something that they obsessively repeated to themselves in the hope that, somehow, a miracle would happen and make it true.

That combined fleet, mere shadow of what it had been less than one full day earlier, was however following a different route from what Vera had imagined: instead of traveling towards Valhalla, like they had been doing, they had turned around and were racing towards the Center of Existence. They had already covered an immense distance, one too great to have been traveled with "normal" means, and that meant that "Lord Skyfall" had not only somehow reached out to them with a new message, but with some sort of portal that had allowed entire fleets to travel in leaps towards the Well of Eternity. "Some vermin are hiding. Others are rushing towards Cerberus." Killer coldly said, and his daughter made a grimace, reading into his mind and seeing by herself where the energy signatures were heading. She kissed his massive bulge one last time, then pulled slowly back and straightened, commenting: "The bastard managed to communicate with them, somehow. They are rushing to him like willing sacrifices strapping themselves to the altar of their slaughter. He will consume them all to grow stronger!"

"Well, to be fair I would have done the same thing, so their fate was sealed anyway." Killer said, making a bit of a grimace, halfway between amused and irritated. He was not overly worried by Cerberus. Maybe it was his arrogance speaking, but he was confident that he could still beat his rival with relative ease. The Sisters were the real problem. "Let's get Nadia first, and then we'll attack the Swarm and erase what's left of it. I'll yank the food right out of his jaws if I must... and, indeed, I will make him into food as well." The huge male calmly said, straightening and walking closer to the door of the elevator as the indicator on top signaled that they were almost arrived. They had gone up an amazing number of decks, because, of course, Cerberus's quarters were in the top section of the pyramid, on top of that fortress built to dominate the entire planet and pound it into submission.

Vera walked after him, taking position at his side, and their powerful bodies tensed with anticipation as the doors began to slide open, revealing a luxurious apartment that seemed to come out of the royal palace of some absurdly self-centered tyrant. But that was exactly what the Rajas had been, ever since they had taken power in Alfaya and especially so from the day when oil had been found in their lands, turning them into the richest family on the planet. The amount of golden decorations was so excessive to make Killer grimace in disgust as he looked over columns completely covered in intricate vines and flowers that had been chiseled in solid gold. Light veils of silk and gold draped down from tall arches and separated the vast room in a variety of comfortable environments. The floor was completely covered in precious carpets, all of them decorated with drawings so intricate and detailed to make the observers almost dizzy. Enormous sofas, all of ivory color, were arranged in islands around low tables covered in golden and silvery cups, and plates filled with all sorts of food and large bowls full of wine and other drinks. There were elongated plates covered in long strips of white dust, and Killer grimaced in distaste at the sight of all the drugs ready for use. Other plates were stained with drops of blood and with scattered cocaine and other substances that had been sniffed, licked up, swallowed. There was also an apparently infinite collection of golden hookahs, one more intricate and precious than the other, and a light cloud of smoke and incense lingered inside the room. Trembling light and small clouds of perfumed smoke came from countless small candles arranged in golden cups and candelabra scattered all over the room, and there were huge, soft cushions on the floor and on the sofas, in any direction Killer looked. There were no real windows, since the room was safely hidden behind who knew how many feet of solid armour, but flat screens were arranged all around the room, framed by slender golden columns, and real-time images displayed the outside world in full glory. For a moment, Killer stared at Earth, which looked so close and yet was so far away, its surface almost completely covered in black, corrupted muscle and flesh. Only the ocean, clear and sapphire and wonderful, added a bit of color to that otherwise pestilent wreck festering with insatiable, terrible life in the form of Killer's titanic sperms.

The huge male brought his attention back towards the center of the room, and then towards the walls, mapping out all the doors leading to the other rooms of that incredible royal palace, but there seemed to be nothing that even resembled a cell, a cage, a place where Nadia might be kept prisoner. He could perceive her presence, or at least a lingering, faint hint of it, but even now he couldn't locate her. For a horrible moment, he wondered whether their travel to Valhalla had been for naught, but then he looked again at the center of the room, past several golden curtains, and he saw a large group of figures who had crudely rolled up several large carpets and tossed them aside, revealing the marble slabs of the colorful floor beneath. They were all on their knees or squatting or in other ways bent forwards, muscles tensing and bulging as they desperately tried to, apparently, rip up the floor. For a brief moment, Killer was confused by that sight, but then he saw the lap dance poles arranged in a circle around that very same area of the room, and the huge couches facing that very point, otherwise empty... and he gritted his fangs in fury, hands clenching into fists as his worries were replaced by nothing but pure, unadulterated rage.

Nadia was there, in a cage hidden beneath the floor, and there probably were other girls prisoner of that perverted madness, almost certainly contained somewhere beneath their feet, probably right beneath the poles they were forced to dance along.

The figures that were tampering with the almost invisible edge of Nadia's hidden cell were large and powerful and, Killer immediately concluded, they had no Spirit device implanted in their spines. They were all tigers, and some of their bodies still faintly displayed the signs of what had once been muscular and massive builds, powerful and toned, shaped by constant training and countless battles. Now, however, they were all fat and flaccid and weak, their energies drained away from them, their physiques ruined by the heavy use and abuse of drugs, of food, of alcohol and by the sheer laziness. They were clad in royal robes, long and flowing and all completed by large ivory cloaks and turbans of various colors, and their chests glinted with countless medals and decorations of dubious meaning and value. They sure didn't look like they had accomplished any heroic feat on a battlefield in the last several decades... indeed; they had probably never left the space station for many, many years. They still dressed with ridiculous care and vanity, however, loading themselves with jewels and signs of their riches and of their past status of great warriors, of leaders of armies, of powerful warlords. Their bodies no longer fit the old armors and uniforms, but instead of being ashamed of themselves they only had new robes made for them, and carried on showing off their imaginary glory to each other.

Killer's features contorted in a grimace of merciless fury, his hands trembling slightly as he glared down at them with nothing but distaste, knowing that they were the nobles of Alfaya, the last heirs to the most powerful families alongside that of the Raja. They had once been a force to be reckoned with, all of them: they had been the heart of Alfaya's army and they had all fought to secure the throne. The strength of their bloodlines and the riches of their families used to be so great that the kings of Alfaya had always needed to buy their support and loyalty or risk a swift end to their reign. Their families had names that the entire world used to know and fear, if not respect, but now they were all there, willing prisoners in a golden cage, their strength and their minds and even their ambitions destroyed by the constant, reckless excess. They had lost all honor and dignity, becoming fat, spoiled, useless drug addicts that literally self-destroyed, day after day, while gazing down at their planet from that royal palace that was more of a prison than an estate. The Rajas hadn't even needed to bother with the installation of Spirit devices into their bodies; they had only needed to surround those once proud warriors with drugs, females and food, and the nobles had almost destroyed themselves with their incredible debauchery.

How many generations of Alfaya's "best" families had been willingly locked away into that golden cage? Killer didn't know for sure, but for sure quite a few: some of the figures ahead of him were old and burdened by the years. None of them was terribly ancient, but their style of life was so self-destructive that they just did not age well. He recognized some of the faces, even though it wasn't easy with how much they had changed, victims of gluttony and greed. Some others had literally been born on the space station, from mothers that probably occupied another floor of the fortress, if Killer's memories of Alfaya's social customs were correct. There were grandfathers in there, and fathers, and sons: the last few generations of the most influent families of Alfaya had been corrupted and brought on the Rajas' side, and then parked up there, in Valhalla, undoubtedly with the promise of a glorious future of world domination and even greater debauchery. Some faces that should have been there were nowhere to be seen, instead, and it was easy to imagine that their excesses had eventually had the upper hand and had killed them off.

Those fat cats probably thought they were important. They might even be deluded enough to still believe that Cerberus truly cared about them, and that he truly wanted to share the spoils of the world with them... or maybe, at that point, their minds were simply so badly corroded by the alcohol and the drugs that they barely realized where they stood. Their personal armies and their riches had been used up by the Rajas to fund and build that space station, the satellites, the development of the Spirit devices, the Judge, the Sentence, and the UCWs... the whole, immense and insanely vast arsenal that the Raja Alliance had created. That was how the Rajas had consolidated their power on Alfaya and secured hundreds of years of uninterrupted reign over a bellicose empire where kinds used to last as little as months. The space program of the RA, and the construction of the base under the ices of the Antarctic, and then of the Judge and the Sentence and the other ships had also served as convenient ways to send rivals away from the capital, where they could be isolated and kept under control. That had been a dangerous phase of the Raja Alliance's story: the Spirit device had not yet been developed, and Cerberus's ancestors had needed to convince, force, blackmail and pay their people, their allies and their rivals. Millions of persons had taken part, more or less willingly, to the decades of work that had built up the RA's bases and weapons, and all of it had started because those nobles had allowed themselves to be corrupted. They had helped the Raja family enslave virtually all of the population of their country, and that was just the first of their crimes.

They had clearly not benefitted at all from the vast program of genetic and biological engineering that their money had contributed to fund: while Cerberus had spent the last few decades trying to erase his mortality and create artificial godhood, those idiots had happily destroyed themselves with sheer, reckless excess. They almost certainly didn't even know that the Raja Alliance had long ceased to be about superweapons and space stations. They were probably still convinced that the floating castle being built around them would see them triumphant over the world. They had agreed to the most insane plane of world conquest ever formulated, they had funded it and made it possible, thinking that they would get to live like gods, high above earth, ruling from their artificial Valhalla. They hadn't even realized that their money and political support had enabled even worse plans to be put into motion and they had been too stupid to realize that they were nothing but prisoners, no more than pigs, overfed every day to grow fat and plentiful for the slaughter. Killer let out a low growl of distaste and hate. He couldn't even describe the fury and the hate that he felt for those flaccid, unscarred idiots that, with their debauchery and lack of honor, had condemned the whole of Existence to that monstrous war.

Samara fearlessly stepped into the room, aiming surely for its very centre, her eyes blazing in the semi-darkness. He followed her without a word, idly kicking a huge cushion out of the way and making a grimace as several large, used syringes flew off it and crashed onto the floor. The horrendous awareness that Nadia's cage could emerge from the floor and put her on display, right in the middle of the room, made him tremble with rage. The thought that those fat monsters had leered and cheered and catcalled while his little Nadia trembled behind the bars filled him with venom and ferocity, and he didn't even want to imagine their hands touching her body... or worse.

The fat bastards in the middle of the room stirred at the sound of the syringes shattering against the floor, turning around with expressions of shock and surprise. A few fell on their arses, while the only ones that had once been true warriors took on crouches that could barely pass for battle positions, or at least positions from which they could have sprinted away. Not that they were in the kind of shape that would get them far away, in any case. Their eyes, reddened and glazed over by years of excesses and drugs, bulged in shock and panic as some of them instinctively scrambled away from the barely distinguishable fissure in the floor. A few others desperately, obsessively attempted to claw into the fissure and drag the cell up, knowing that only having an hostage was maybe going to give them a tiny chance... they whined pathetically as they broke their claws on the marble, pawing at the floor obsessively even as their fingers peeled apart and stained the marble with ugly streaks of blood. There was a remote control on the floor, and one of the assholes insisted in hammering all of its buttons, desperately trying to get it to react in some ways, but Samara's powers easily kept the cage locked and sealed, out of their reach.

"You can stick that thing up your ass with your own hands, or I'll do it with my boot." Samara venomously announced, and the fat tiger mewled like a tiny kitten, clutching the useless remote like his life depended on it. The buttons caved inwards, but it was all useless... and when Vera's eyes narrowed, glaring at him with pure hate, he howled in anguish and blood burst out of his ears and nostrils. "Nooo! Nooo!" He shrieked in denial and pure despair, falling back on the floor as his arms moved outside of his control, the remote falling on the floor as his hands reached up and grabbed viciously at his own face, the indexes pushing against his eyeballs, making him kick at the air as he shook his head from side to side, desperately trying to escape from himself. "What are you doing to me? Stop it! Stop it, stop it, stop it!"

Samara grinned sharkishly as she walked towards him, ignoring the other tigers as they trembled in terror and went down on all fours, faces pressed against the floor, eyes closed as their bodies spasmed with pure terror and their bladders helplessly released. The stink of piss and worse filled the room even as the terrified nobles begged and prayed, shivering in time with the beat of her metal-sole boots on the floor.

One of the nobles crawled forwards and attempted to kiss her bare toes, whimpering: "Goddess, goddess, please... mercy! I did nothing, I swear... I... I'm innocent...!"

Vera snarled in fury and kicked him in the face, sending his fat body rolling several times over until it crashed into two of the others, who barely managed to stop it from sending them all bowling over. Half of his face was horrendously caved in, blood spurting out of his shattered muzzle as his body brokenly convulsed and gargling shrieks escaped from his throat.

"S-stay back! Don't come any closer!" One of the younger nobles cried, his voice rising to an annoyingly high and girlish pitch as he crawled backwards on his ass, but Samara growled and leaned down to pick up the remote, while the tiger that uselessly rolled back and forth on the floor howled and uselessly struggled against his own hands, trying to take them off his eyes as the pressure grew horribly.

"You have no clue... you can't even imagine what I'll do to your sorry asses for what you did here... and for what you didn't do. And for what you tried to do just now..." The goddess coldly hissed, before the tiger on the floor arched his back and pulled his legs up, spreading them open wide and helplessly offering his ass to her. She allowed his hands to drop away from his eyes just so he could blink painfully and clear his vision enough to see her putting the large remote between his fat buttocks.

"No... no, please, no..." He uselessly begged, whimpering pathetically, but the muscular female pulled her foot up and stomped down, hard, crushing the remote into a wreck and sending it tearing through his expensive pants and deep into his asshole, sending pieces of metal and plastic ripping through his guts, blood spurting out of his obliterated hole as he trashed violently and coughed up blood, curling up as best he could. "The girl you were trying to use as hostage to bargain for your worthless lives is my sister." Samara coldly reminded, and a shiver of pure terror ran through the miserable bastards cowering around her... before Killer stepped into the circle as well, his hulking, towering form casting a murderous shadow on them all as his deep, thunderous voice added: "And she is also my daughter."

Nadia wasn't, technically. Vanessa already had her when she and Killer met for the first time, but it didn't matter. It never had. He had loved Vanessa and he had adored the little girl, raising her like his own, at least for the too short time they had spent together before being brutally separated.

"Supreme King of Kings... our God and Lord and Savior... please, we... we didn't know. It... we didn't... we did not hurt her, we promise..." One of the crying lords pleaded, and the others hurriedly nodded and cried that it was true, begged him to listen as they groveled before him, crawling forwards and reverently kissing the ground on which he stood. They stared at his thick toes and at the dangerous toe-talons with pure terror, but they clearly decided that showing their submission was clearly better than risking angering him even further. The physical omnipotence of the towering, hulking body of Killer had them shivering in anguish, and the power that radiated from the god and the goddess made their very minds burn with fear and despair. The ultimate, overwhelming masculinity of the titan crushed them into the floor like an inescapable, titanic weight, and they sweated in the heat that seemed to radiate from the godlike beast, from that unmatched virility so evident in the way his pants obscenely bulged. They felt like he was physically crushing them under his heavy balls, and whenever they looked up at the titan they were given the proof that he could have easily done it for real.

"It's never your fault, huh...?" Killer coldly asked, looking down at the terrified nobles before slowly pulling up one heavy foot, grinning darkly as the fat tigers shivered in terror and stared up at him with bulging eyes, trembling violently but not daring to try and get away from him. He let his heavy foot loom over them, smirking cruelly as they spasmed and whimpered pathetically whenever they were caught in the shadow of his toes, driving them almost out of their minds with the fear as he sometimes allowed his foot to drop down, as if to stomp them into oblivion. "Are you trying to tell me that you didn't know what you signed up for, you idiots...? That you were unaware of what the RA would do with all the weapons and monstrosities that it built, using your people as slaves? You handed your money and your subjects up to the Raja family. You forced your people to labor like slaves, keeping them prisoner of bases in space and on the bottom of the ocean... and you dare telling me you didn't realize what you were doing...?"

They whimpered and shivered pathetically at that, mewling uselessly, crying out prayers and empty excuses that only made Killer angrier, until the huge titan slowly settled his foot down on top of one of the nobles, flattening his turban and pinning him down against the cold floor. The other fat, debauched nobles instinctively recoiled away from their shrieking comrade, staring at him no sympathy, with no care: their only feelings were horror and fear, the terror of being the next one to go. The trapped noble howled in despair and uselessly reached up to blindly grip into the liger's foot, pulling on unforgiving toes that didn't even budge, that seemed chiseled into an unmovable mountain. There was a loud crack of bones breaking, and the shriek became a gargle as blood burst out of the tiger's mouth and nostrils and ears, eyes bulging almost right out of the sockets as the pressure slowly but mercilessly increased as Killer ever so slowly settled his foot down on him, flattening him slowly and gradually, drawing out the agony for the unfortunate soul that weakly spasmed on the floor, uselessly trying to push himself up, to ease the pressure on his torso as every idle movement of Killer's toes caused another bone to crumble into powder. "And you have the nerve of trying to tell me that you didn't know about my daughter, when you destroyed your own hands in the useless attempt to get her cage to raise out of the floor... you are not just a band of assholes, you are also incredibly stupid." Killer coldly remarked, idly drawing back his foot and in so doing dragging the unfortunate bastard along the floor, grinding him face-first down into the marble. "Don't you dare lying to me, vermin... don't you dare pretend you are not at fault." Killer coldly remarked, and he idly ran his big toe along the fat cat's spine, making the noble howl in anguish and beg for forgiveness... until, with the lightest of flexes, his big toe pressed down and snapped the tiger's vertebrae like twigs. The legs of the noble immediately fell limp and useless, ceasing to spasm and kick uselessly at the air, and his eyes bulged almost explosively as tears of blood streaked down his cheeks, his howl of anguish breaking and becoming breathless and silent... before Killer flexed his muscular, powerful leg and pressed down with terrible, unstoppable power. The miserable's body, weak and flaccid, did not manage to provide any resistance at all, not even denting the sole of the liger's foot. The noble had no time to do anything, his entire body instantaneously squished into nothing but pulp, his overfilled, soft belly bursting apart like a balloon and gushing out pulped insides and ichors and gore. The other nobles gaped in shock as the whimpering cat was crushed entirely of existence, his body turned into an ugly spurt of blood and gore and pulped organs that spurted obscenely out from under his sole, squirting up between his toes as his foot tore deep into the marble, leaving a clear footprint in it, like it was nothing but wet sand.

"Please, almighty God... show mercy... we... we will do anything you want... give you anything you wish..." Another of the nobles desperately pleaded, but Killer only snorted in contempt and slowly, cruelly twisted his foot on the spot, grinding every last chunk of unrecognizable pulp into nothing but liquid. They stared helplessly at that idle display of power, choking on their own vomit as they tried to fight it back, but many could not quite contain it as Killer slowly hefted his foot out of the crater and teasingly wiggled his toes above them, showering them with a rain of blood and unrecognizable pulp, while long ropes of sticky ruin stretched from his toes all the way down to the bloodied footprint. Killer didn't even need to order them, he just held his almighty foot aloft and the helpless, terrified nobles crawled right beneath it and starting to lick it clean, tasting piss and blood and gore and, spluttering then splotches of bloodied hair ended up in their mouths and shivering in horror at the sight of some small pieces of their lost comrade, including one semi-squished eye that seemed to stare at them with a silent howl of torment and a useless prayer for help. They hurriedly kissed, licked, lapped, slurped clean his rough black pads, swallowing ruin and death and dirt and, above all, terribly powerful sweat that made them cough and shiver as they choked on the intensity of his masculine musk. With horror, the fat nobles realized that their already weak bodies were rapidly shrinking and losing whatever little amount of muscle they still had. Moreover, they could feel their testicles shrinking smaller and weaker, nearly vanishing as their clothes started to feel loose around their bodies. Killer, on the other hand, loomed over them with infinite, unfathomable vigor and excessive, brutal virility, his hulking body seemingly growing even further in front of their eyes.

"You idiots truly do not understand..." Samara coldly hissed, grabbing one of the nobles by the back of the head and yanking him hard backwards, painfully bending his spine until it loudly snapped apart. She snorted in cruel entertainment at the sick sound and at the helpless shrieks that followed, and then she pushed that open-wide mouth right up against Killer's toes, grinding it right there, grinning as it filled with gore and ruin. "Do you really think there is anything you could ever give to him...? He already owns you, your lives, your minds... even your hopeless fuckin' dreams. He owns everything, and there is nothing that you disgusting pigs have to give."

The Doberman growled as she balled her hand into a fist, effortlessly crushing the tiger's skull into nothing but crimson pulp, and the corpse slumped but, for a brief moment, remained upright on the knees.

The remaining nobles shivered in horror and denial, whimpering useless laments, but Killer mercilessly seized another tiger by the head, effortlessly hefted him high up into the air, swung him up like nothing but a ragdoll and seized his ankles in his other hand. There was a shriek, then a terrifying rending of flesh, a disgusting squelching of guts spilling onto the floor, and the crunching of bones as the dark god easily ripped the noble in half like a chocolate bar.

Killer tossed the bloody, ruined, unrecognizable pieces of the broken noble far away across the room, and then he allowed his foot to fall down on top of another, squishing him as flat as a pancake. They cried and begged, and they finally even attempted to get up and run away, but massive tentacles stretched out of Killer's muscular back and slashed out across the immense room, tearing a running noble into halves and slapping another into the wall, shattering one of the huge flat screens and sending blood spraying all around as the flaccid body was squished into pulp against the armoured bulkhead. Another noble almost made it to one of the doors leading into the long succession of bedrooms, but two tentacles coiled brutally around his ankles and hefted him high up into the air, dangling him upside down for a moment before simply whip-lashing in the opposite directions, tearing the noble in half down the middle and dismissively tossing the devastated halves away, sending them crashing loudly into the walls.

Samara grinned in savage delight as another "pig" got up and comically attempted to run away, moving incredibly slowly and awkwardly with how obscenely fat he was. She effortlessly grabbed him by the shoulder and yanked him back in front of her, before she wrapped her powerful arms around his waist and easily hefting him up in front of Killer, who smirked and lashed out one lazy punch, his enormous fist tearing through that flaccid body like it was a hologram. Blood and gore exploded in a thick eruption of ruin that splashed across the vast room, and the two gods rapidly and mercilessly consumed their revenge... or, better, the first round of it. Samara grabbed one of the "pigs" by the ears and smashed him face-first into a golden plate covered in fantastic amounts of pure cocaine. She viciously ground his face into the pile of white powder, making him choke on it, filling his mouth and nostrils and eyes with the substance, so much so that the tiger quickly began to drool and splutter and convulse, eyes rolling up in his skull as he was killed off by a devastating overdose.

Then the goddess turned her attention back to her first victim, who continued to roll and trash around on the floor, uselessly kicking at the air while his devastated anus bled profusely and his hands continued to viciously claw and rip into his own face. Samara's eyes glowed with vengeful glee as her psychic powers took control of his body and forced the tiger to pierce and destroy his eyes with his own hands. The noble howled in anguish and shock and disbelief, and his hands viciously tore into his own eye sockets, digging as deep as they could, grabbing into the edges of the bone and yanking on them hard enough to crack it and break part of his own face right off, until his fingers dug deep enough to tear into his brain and kill him.

It was a gruesome sight that made even Killer grimace, but there was no mercy in him for those corrupted, debauched petty tyrants. When the few that remained attempted to make a run for the doors leading out of the great hall, Killer and Samara strolled easily after them and raked them, sending them crashing onto the floor and then stepping all over them, slowly and deliberately, crushing them underfoot, one after the other. Within a few moments, the nobles of Alfaya were gone, turned into ugly, scary red stains on the floor and on the carpets, and Killer and Vera traded a look that was in part of savage satisfaction and in part of hunger for more and worse punishment. The warlords had not paid an appropriate price for all their crimes, no... that was only the beginning of their punishment.

Killer glared coldly at the large puddles of blood and gore, grinning predatorily as he rested his hands on his hips and easily clawed into the souls that still lingered in the room, terrified and confused and shocked.

"You didn't think it would be over so soon, did you...?" The huge male taunted, huge muscles bulging explosively as he savored his unfair, glorious omnipotence. The souls struggled against his powerful grip, but they were even weaker than the already pathetic bodies of the warlords, and Killer laughed darkly, allowing them to fight for a few moments before brutally yanking them down. The ethereal souls solidified in midair, the bodies that had just been destroyed being recreated from thin air as Killer grinned and flexed, delighted by the almost insulting ease of it all. The warlords had barely enough time to realize that they were once more alive. They had only time to shriek in terror and denial as they were dragged down towards the marble floor with monstrous, brutal force, and even as they pathetically tried to catch themselves with their arms, they crashed into the ground with such violence that their chests caved inwards, their faces exploded into horrible masks of blood and broken bone, their limbs and spines snapping like twigs. "I'm not done with you, maggots..." Killer taunted, crossing his huge arms and grinning as he effortlessly yanked the broken warlords high up into the air again, just to hurl them into the floor once more, with such violence that their broken heaps bounced up like basketballs. Killer licked his lips slowly as he bounced them like balloons, disintegrating their bodies bit after bit, until all that was left was chunky crimson ruin smeared onto the floor. And even then, once again, the warlords were forced back to life, their bodies forming anew, in the very middle of those puddles of gore and crushed guts and pulped organs. They curled up on themselves, eyes bulging in shock as they cried and sobbed and stared at the hulking god with pure terror, not even trying to beg for mercy anymore: it was all too clear that there wasn't going to be any. Samara grinned coldly in front of that massacre, and her eyes burned with ferocity and cruel entertainment as she looked down at the shocked nobles, drinking of their despair... before she once more invaded their minds and took control of their bodies, forcing them to stand up and shift into clumsy ready positions, their fat, naked and bloodied bodies stained and drenched with their own bloody remains, looking ridiculous and puny, especially with their malehoods shriveled and shrunken down to resemble those of pre-pubescent little boys. In front of Killer's gloriously excessive hypervirility, they looked like jokes, like some kind of alien, weird creature that had absolutely no right to pretend they belonged to the same gender as the titan.

"Fight, you fat bags of trash." Samara mockingly ordered, and the warlords whimpered and shook their heads in useless denial, unable to resist as their bodies moved outside of their control. They charged one against the other and lashed out with all the strength they could muster, which at that point wasn't much, and they began to clumsily beat each other up, vomiting chunks of food whenever a punch slammed into their huge bellies. Blood soon began leaking from broken muzzles and swollen, ruined eyes, and Killer and Samara laughed darkly, enjoying that spectacle that sat somewhere halfway between ridiculous and horrid, tragic and comical. They warlords were soon sweating profusely and panting breathlessly, exhausted and with hearts that raced so wildly to be almost audible even from where Killer and Samara stood... but her psychic force mercilessly continued to drive their fists and their kicks, forcing them to beat themselves all the way to a slow, painful and humiliating death.

"It's probably going to take a while." The goddess commented after a few moments, her hand groping greedily over the colossal bulge in her father's jeans, stroking along that colossal shaft that so utterly and unfairly dwarfed all other males into insignificance. Killer nodded with a snort of entertainment, pushing his hips forwards slightly as his immense cock stirred and gave a lazy, arrogant throb full of fearsome power and vigor. "We will have time to play more with them in the future. Now we have more important things to do." He said, and Vera nodded in agreement, turning her back to the awkward fight raging in the center of the great hall and looking instead down at the outline of the cage that contained Nadia. The goddess swallowed thickly, nervously combing her hair with one hand and checking the leather straps of her outfit while the massive slab of marble trembled a bit and then began to raise up from the floor.

Killer turned around as well, anxious and excited and eager to see his lost little girl. He was worried, obviously. He couldn't help but wonder what was going to come up from that dark pit. How had Nadia managed to hold up during all those years of solitude and torment, after all she had had to endure, after the tortures and the abuses...? Would she still remember him? And more importantly still, was she ever going to forgive him for failing to come to her rescue earlier? Was she still able to smile to the world in that pure, wonderful, heartwarming way that he remembered with such fondness and warmth, even after all that time? What had Cerberus and the warlords done to her? Had they succeeded in cancelling forever that bright smile?

Killer's hands clenched into fists at the sight of the thick, heavy steel bars of the cage, his rage swelling at the thought that Cerberus, in his cruel cowardice, had made sure to toss little Nadia into such a small and cruel fortress of a cell. Did he fear her...? Did he fear she might one day get as strong as Vera...? Coward. He is going to pay for this as well.

The cell seemed to take forever to come up, out of the floor. There were no lights inside the cage, meaning that Nadia had lived for who knew how long in complete, utter darkness... and it looked like water was allowed to drip endlessly inside it, to add to the misery of the girl forced to live inside it; to make it almost impossible to sleep or find any comfort at all.

There was a little shape inside the cage, hidden in the darkness, and it shifted around suddenly, rapidly, seeking refuge into the far corner... and Samara bit her lower lip, tears streaking down her cheeks and her rage and horror flaring to such levels that the warlords behind her let out a last, collective gargle-scream as their heads were crushed like rotten tomatoes, her psychic rage snuffing out their unworthy lives with terrible ease. Killer understood her fury perfectly, but he did not want that massacre to be the first thing that Nadia would see, and so he teleported the warlords away, directly into the dungeon in the bowels of Eaglenest, where they would regenerate and return to life only to cower in terror in the darkness, waiting for Killer and Samara to come to "play" with them some more.

The cage clanged into position, some sort of lock mechanism securing it right in the middle of the hall, and a series of flashlights suddenly switched on and flooded the cell with light. Killer gritted his fangs in fury at that, looking at the couches arranged in a wide circle all around and all too easily imagining those fat, disgusting pigs cheering leering as his little, sweet Nadia, jerking off to her body and to her suffering. He could imagine their lecherous gazes, their naked bodies, their hands stroking their little dicks... well, little in comparison to his own, at least. He could imagine them groping and abusing and raping her... And it made him tremble in fury. The other cages emerged right at the bases of the lap dance poles, but they were empty: the girls had either been brought away or had been disposed of in less pleasant ways: there were splatters of blood on the floor of the cells.

The slender shape in the middle of the large cage instinctively but uselessly scrambled across the small space, trying to get away from the light that hurt her eyes after so many hours, or days, spent in complete darkness. Water stained crimson with her blood leaked out through the bars, cascading down into fissures in the floor that flushed it away, and Killer swallowed thickly, wrapping an arm around Vera's powerful shoulders and gently leading her as they stepped towards the cage.

Nadia curled up in the center of the cage, where there was a little bit of shadow, and she hugged herself, trembling violently. Her emerald eyes darted from a couch to the other, confused by the fact that they were empty and terrified by what that novelty could mean for her... and then she saw the two immense shapes walking forwards, and her eyes bulged as she blinked and attempted to see through the intense beams of light aimed at her like she was nothing but an object, a piece of art on display, a piece of meat on sale. She retreated away from them, moving on all fours like an animal and launching herself against the steel bars on the far side of the cage, desperately trying to get out, attempting to squeeze through them. She was not just slender, she was almost skeletal. Killer could see her ribs and pretty much all her other bones. Her hips, which could and should have been beautiful and shapely, were so ruined that the shape of her pelvis showed through her wet hide. Her raven hair fell messily down all the way to her waist and past, mercifully covering most of her breasts, somehow still proud and perky on her chest even though the lack of food had consumed them too, making them small and shriveled. Her body was covered in scars and in fresh wounds that struggled to heal, filling instead with infection as dirty water continued to slowly rain into the cage. That sight filled Killer with rage and despair, and he wanted nothing other than charge into the cell and make it all better, erasing her pain and giving her all the gifts and the affection he could give... but he needed to tread carefully, and let her adjust. She trembled so violently that he feared her heart might just burst, and her eyes bulged, appearing enormous in her face made skeletal by hunger. He feared that her mind might just snap if they moved too quickly, if they gave her a scare.

He let Vera move one step ahead, knowing that the two sisters had last seen each other much more recently than he had last seen Nadia. He hoped that Nadia would be able to recognize Vera and that it would give her relief.

Samara slowly crouched, making her imposing body less threatening and moving quietly, gradually up to the bars. The flashlights became less intense, and their beams of light retreated just enough to give relief to Nadia's teary eyes, and the little girl covered her face for a moment, sobbing silently and rubbing over them... and then, when she finally began to see again, blinking and gazing fearfully through her fingers, her jaw dropped in surprise and disbelief. "Nadia... it's me. It's over. I'm here now. Daddy is here now. And nobody will ever hurt us again." Samara said, slowly and carefully, knowing that Nadia was looking at the movement of her lips. She also used gestures of her hands, slow and gentle and reassuring. Killer and Vanessa had of course taught Nadia some of the signs language and had tried to instruct her on how to read lips movement as well, but it hadn't been easy and, moreover, they had been brutally separated too early. For Vera it was even harder: she was just a little child when she and her sister had been kidnapped from Killer's estate in Ire. Her knowledge of the signs was only partial, and in the following years, while prisoners of the RA, the two sisters had been granted only very brief encounters in which they hadn't been able to study the issue further. They spoke to each other in a mixture of recognized sign language and other signs that they had come up with on their own.

And for the last few years they had not met at all, so Vera was rusty and Nadia... well, who knew if she still remembered. She had had to deal with a lot, after all. Her mind, as well as her body, had been tormented and given no respite.

But the way Nadia dropped her hands away from her face, and the sudden light filling her emerald eyes... it definitely proved that she had recognized her, and Vera smiled widely, tears streaking down her cheeks as she traced a heart shape on her breast, in the special way they used to express their love for each other. And Nadia immediately did the same, tears rolling down her chin as she pushed herself up and tremblingly stood, running towards her sister. She was weak and unsteady, but the sheer relief and happiness propelled her, and Vera grabbed the massive steel bars and tore them apart like blades of grass, opening a wide breach and spreading her arms to catch Nadia as she pretty much threw herself at her.

"It's okay, big sis... it's okay now..." Samara reassured, and Nadia buried her face against her chest, her head almost vanishing between the goddess's huge breasts. Killer couldn't help but smile a little, despite the tears on his cheeks and the way his heart pounded: it was admittedly pretty damn fully to hear Vera, towering nearly 30 feet tall and hulking with a godlike, spectacular musculature and divine, perfect feminine shapes call the little Nadia "big sis". Technically she was, of course, being a few years older, but in physical terms Nadia looked like a child in Samara's arms, and the goddess had to be extra careful not to inadvertently crush her. Nadia was frail and vulnerable, but when she tilted her head back and looked up, her lips curled in that wide, heavenly smile that Killer and Vera both remembered with the deepest affection, and that filled both gods with pure joy and relief. Not only that, it filled them with genuine admiration for Nadia and for the incredible strength of her spirit, which never allowed the world to crush her, to erase her desire to smile and take everything that was good in life. Her body might not have been strong, but her spirit was stronger than words could describe.

Killer stepped quietly forwards, nervously wondering about how Nadia would react to his presence. He offered her a smile, trying to make it as reassuring as possible and trying to show all of his affection for her... and the little Doberman looked up past Vera's shoulder, staring at him for a long few instants. What was she thinking...? What was she feeling...? Killer didn't dare looking into her mind to find out.

After a moment of sheer disbelief, Nadia's eyes beamed and filled with joy, her cheeks burning red as she hugged Vera's powerful neck and hefted herself up, leaning over her shoulder and towards Killer, smiling at him with affection. Her hand came up, and traced the signs for the word "daddy". Killer closed his eyes with a cry of relief, stepping forwards and slowly, gently taking her face in his hands, pushing his forehead against hers and nuzzling her lovingly. His hand came up, and traced in the air the words love and daughter. For years he had dreamed to be able to make those signs again.

Vera turned around, effortlessly holding her older sister cradled in one huge, muscular arm while using the other to gently pull Killer closer, so they could hug tightly, all three of them.

"I'm sorry I didn't come earlier." Killer said, even though Nadia couldn't hear him. He squeezed both her and Vera to his chest, rocking them gently, and Nadia curled up against him, kissing his brad pecs, his neck, and then his lips, before flashing them another one of her beautiful smiles.

She had grown up every big as beautiful as she promised to when she was a child. Even while wounded and dirty and weak and scrawny after years of famine, she looked splendid. Her features, her eyes, her tall, slender figure spoke of beauty despite everything else, and Killer immediately reached up to gently slid one finger along one of her infected wounds, easily healing it, sealing her flesh and leaving behind not even the hint of a scar. Nadia gazed at this with a little gape of surprise, hesitatingly reaching down to touch her healed arm, while the huge male placed little, tender kisses over her chest, filling her with relief and warmth and energy, healing the open wounds and cancelling the ugly scars.

Nadia arched her eyebrows to pose a question, attempting to put it into words with signs, but then rolling her eyes in frustration as she failed to find a way to express herself. She touched the collar on her sister's neck, instead, gulping quietly as she felt the prodigious energy that permeated it, and then she reverently stroked down Vera' muscular shoulder, pointing at the tattoo of the roaring lion head and then at Killer.

"Yes." Samara gently answered, nuzzling her sister and leaning one hand against Killer's masculine chest. "Daddy is also my lover. And my God."

The little Doberman smiled at that, nodding a little to show that she had understood, at least in part... and then Killer gently leaned forwards to kiss her throat, softly and affectionately, whispering: "Try now, my little angel."

She frowned in confusion, smiling quietly, and Vera pushed one finger against her lips, gently parting them and saying clearly: "Speak, Nadia!"

The much smaller Doberman looked at her sister in disbelief for a brief instant, her eyes bulging and glowing with pure wonder and ecstasy as she heard for the first time. Everything was new, everything was beautiful, and she slowly licked her lips, and scratched into the thick hair of Killer's mane, listening to those quiet sounds with wonderment, before the huge male gently said: "Try, Nadia... the past is no more."

She opened her lips, and a little, weird cry came out of them, making her eyes bulge with happiness and surprise and try with greater determination. She tried to remember the few words she had learned to recognize through the motion of the lips, thinking of how she could replicate them... but she found with even greater surprise that she just knew. She knew how to speak, she knew the meaning of all words, and she exclaimed: "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" She cried in happiness, closing her eyes and hugging him tightly, gripping into his mane and nuzzling him as she cried out the word again and again and again, listening to her own voice, wondering at how beautiful and warm it was, before the turned towards her sister and exclaimed: "Big sis! You are the big sis here, not me!"

"You are older, though." Vera playfully replied, her lip trembling as she sniffed in awe and pure joy, barely able to keep the tears from cascading out of her eyes.

"Well, fuck you!" Nadia cheerfully countered, hugging her tightly and laughing, and laughing, listening to the sound of it and loving every second. And then she turned back towards Killer, gazing at him with gratitude and adoration as she asked: "But how...? This is... it's..."

"A miracle." Killer quietly confirmed, smiling softly and leaning forwards to kiss her on both cheeks. "They call me God. Normally it is not important how they call me, but... in moments like this, I am truly grateful for the powers I've been gifted with."

"God...!" Nadia exclaimed, looking amazed and yet not struggling to believe. She had just witnessed his miracles, and even more importantly she could feel the unfathomable, limitless energies that radiated out of his hulking form, speaking of power beyond her wildest dreams, far above anything she was able to imagine. She could feel some of those same energies burning inside Vera, who truly looked and felt like a goddess, her spectacular body full of fearsome strength and of reality-altering power. "I remember when mom called you a god, said you had blessed the world with your presence... and I remember thinking that, yes, daddy was godlike, and superior to any other person I had ever met ... but this is something else."

"It's a long story." Killer dismissively said, trying to brush off the topic like it was unimportant, before swallowing thickly and clearing his throat to say: "I only want you to know that I'm sorry... I'm sorry it took me so long to find you. I... please, believe me when I say that it is not for lack of trying. I've hunted down your kidnappers for years. I've traveled from one corner of Ire to the other, and followed all trails, in and out of the Northlands. I... I failed, and I can only beg you to forgive me."

"You have saved me, daddy... and I know it must not have been easy to get here. No one else would have been able to." Nadia quietly said, smiling at him with affection before turning back towards Vera, studying her powerful, prodigious body and the tattoos and marks on her, smiling softly. "And you saved my sister first, I see... and you have made her happy. You have made her free, and strong, and fearless."

"He did all that and even more, Nadia... and it is just the beginning of what we'll do together. We are a family again... and we'll be happy this time. And we'll make up for all the time that was stolen away from us." Samara confirmed, squeezing her little sister closer and allowing some of her vigor, some of her limitless energies to flow into her. Nadia threw her head back with a little moan, trembling in almost orgasmic pleasure, her legs kicking a little at the air as her back arched and her eyes blazed with pure power. Her features filled up, the signs of the hunger and of the sickness vanishing away, the scars dissolving, her hide smoothing and losing all signs of the premature aging causing by the tortures, the deprivations, the abuses. Her full beauty and grace were revealed, her body growing back in full, perfect shape, her breasts filing up and growing firm and beautiful, her legs long and athletic, her abdomen flat and toned. Nadia grew taller as well, groaning lustfully and reaching up to grip into Samara's shoulders as she threw her head back with a groan of pleasure and awe, feeling her strength growing, and growing, and growing, ten times faster than her body, even as she rapidly more than doubled in height, her feet soon touching the ground as she became about as tall as Vera.

"Here... isn't it much better?" Samara quietly asked, lovingly nuzzling her sister as she came slowly down from her high, her body flexing, and her toes curling as she arched her back with a groan of pure bliss, amazed at her own new strength. "Yes... much, much better..." Nadia quietly whispered, looking down at her body in awe, studying her hands, then her breasts... then her legs, blushing a bit at the sight of the pearly juices streaking down her thighs. "It's... it's incredible..."

"It's a mere hint of what daddy can give you, Nadia." Samara said, smiling in amusement. "For now I've just... given you a little boost, and healed your wounds."

"You call this a little boost...?" Nadia incredulously asked, looking down the nearly 30 feet of towering glory of her body, slowly flexing her arms and wondering at the strength she felt in them. "I feel like I could crack a planet in half like an egg."

"I know." Vera replied, grinning widely and giving her a little nod. "But that's just a party trick... I didn't want to change you, your body, and what you are, Nadia. That is not my choice to make, but yours. And that power is not mine to give, it is daddy's."

Nadia smiled softly, incredulously looking at her hands as she slowly flexed her fingers, and energy crackled around them with terrifying intensity, making her eyes widen and glint at the realization of just how powerful she now was. In mere instants, her life had been turned completely upside down: she had gone from exhausted and barely alive to supernaturally powerful with just one touch from her sister. And it was very clear that their father had far, far more to give, far more power at his disposal. She looked up at his towering, herculean body, smiling quietly as she studied the perfect, imposing profile of his huge muscles, and he smiled quietly back at her, whispering: "The choice is yours and yours alone, Nadia. I will not be urging you. You... you've had to go through a lot already as it is. And you have every reason to be... wary of further change. And wary of putting even more of your fate in my hands, when for so many years I've failed to keep you safe."

Nadia nodded quietly at that, and then turned back to her sister, gazing into her eyes for a few long moments. They both had the same emerald eyes of their mother, and even though they were not twins, they could instinctively communicate with a mere gaze. A quick look was enough to convey a thousand words, especially since they had been forced to learn to "speak" not just silently, but quickly, because Cerberus would never grant them the chance to spend much time together. Every little moment was invaluable and had to be used in the best of ways. Nadia smiled softly, shaking her head slowly and commenting: "Just like mom, huh, Samara...? In love, in awe, in adoration of Him. We never had a chance, had we...?"

"Not a single one." Samara easily replied, grinning and winking before looking up at her father with a smirk. "We were born for this... we were born to be His. Just like every other girl out there... and even more than them. We have the luck of being closer to him than the others. We have the honor of being his Daughters. We are blessed with his Love. Not just his hunger, but his love."

"That makes us the luckiest beings to ever live." Nadia whispered, nodding in agreement and visibly shivering as she reached forth to touch Samara's collar, feeling its weight, its incredible heat, and the amazing amounts of energy that thrummed inside it. "Mom was right all along. Daddy is meant to dominate everything and everyone. Daddy is Superior. Daddy is the Alpha... and we are lucky to have the chance to kneel in the first row, right in front of his glory, while so many others can only worship from afar."

The slender Doberman stroked slowly down along the great, perfect slopes of Vera's huge breasts, then slid her fingers down her sides, gripping gently into her hips and licking her lips as she studied the various tattoos and marks on her body. Her grin widened at the sight of the KO tattoo, which she traced with one finger, slowly and reverently, remembering: "Mom was one of the first ones to get this mark. She was proud of it and she helped it spread like wildfire. She knew that wearing this mark was a guarantee of victory and she knew that it would spread everywhere in the world... and she was a prophet, a harbinger of daddy's power. She helped other girls see the truth... and she would have drawn the tattoo on us herself, had she had the time for it..."

Samara nodded, grinning widely as the tattoo glowed like it was made of fire, the K shaped like a rampant lion, the O with a skull in the middle. They seemed to move, they appeared alive when the goddess idly flexed her massive quads, the muscles of her thigh bulging with world-shattering power, rattling the entire space station as her foot tore a deep footprint in the floor. "Mom was on the right side of history... and now it's our turn to be daddy's harbingers."

"It is..." Nadia agreed, licking her lips slowly and sliding one finger down to the other tattoo on her sister's mighty leg: the words "Daddy's Girl". She slowly traced the letters, one by one, hissing lightly at the incredible heat they radiated as they glowed like they were written with magma. "And what a great and wonderful role it is... Yes, there is no doubt at all, I'm Daddy's little girl, His and His alone." The young Doberman said, grinning widely and bucking her hips slightly as fire erupted out of her hide, supernatural flames dancing on her groin, just above her tender, tight sex, etching large, elaborate gothic letters into her flesh: "Daddy's Little Girl", forever burned into her very being, just beneath her navel, in full and proud display. A large KO tattoo burned into being on her thigh, matching Samara's own mark, and Nadia spun around with a little smirk to show off a "Daddy Always Wins" mark at the base of her spine, just above the base of her tail.

Killer grunted softly at that, licking his lips in delight and hunger, a warm thrill going down his spine and his titanic cock stirring arrogantly, eager to exact its price from her... But he forced his body to relax, and he softly warned: "There is no coming back from becoming a Disciple, Nadia... I will love you whatever you decide to do with your life. You don't need to rush a decision now. You are free... and perhaps you should keep that freedom dear."

Nadia smiled widely at that, but walked quietly up to him, tilting her head backwards to look up into his eyes as her hands shamelessly tugged at his waistband, then stroked greedily down the sides of his titanic black shaft. "Thank you, daddy, for the gift of freedom... it shows once again how generous you are. But what is freedom when compared to your glory? Is it freedom to wander away from you...? Freedom to settle for a boring, lesser life? Freedom to be with weak, lesser males who aren't even worthy of pretending they share your gender...? Freedom to forever regret not choosing slavery under you? Freedom to forever dream of this godbeast of a cock while surrounded by puny, worthless dicklets that will forever get nothing but snorts of contempt out of me...?" She paused and shook her head with decision, smirking widely as she squeezed hungrily into his monstrous, titanic bulge, her hands moving slowly down the colossal length, one after the other, trying to determine how many hands were needed to handle him. The answer was: "one hell of a lot". "Look at you, daddy... you are perfection. You are unmatched. You are absolute. Nothing can compete against you: even freedom looks like junk compared to you. Being your slave means being more of a goddess than anyone else across Existence could even dream to be. Being your property means being more free than anyone else could ever be."

Killer bit his lower lip, unsurprised by her words but torn at what they implied. Part of him, the part that was all about greed for power, for domination, for selfish pleasure, was all too happy to see the new marks on her body; but another part of him hesitated, as it always did, wondering if that was really the right choice for his daughter to make. He smiled softly down at her, tilting his head slightly to the side and studying the light in her eyes as he asked: "Are you sure that this is what you truly want, Nadia?"

She smiled lovingly at that, closing her eyes and leaning forwards to lightly kiss at his broad, powerful, masculine chest, her breasts grinding into his muscular front while her thighs ground together, glistening with the juice that ran down them from her exposed sex. Her hands were restless, and they struggled not to race towards her hot center, instead stroking hungrily, urgently up and down along the vast flanks of his titanic cock, wondering over it, its immensity, its virility, its omnipotence, her whole body trembling as she traced her fingers over thick, pumping veins that bulged out clearly even through the rough fabric of his heavy jeans. "Well, daddy... let me answer in this way: I'm in the presence of God. He has just saved my life. He has just given me the voice of a singer after a life of muteness. He's allowed me to hear the sounds of the world for the very first time. He has given freedom to my sister and turned her into a Goddess. Not only that, he clearly made her Happy, with a capital H. He is in front of me, towering, hulking, handsome, stinking of _Male_in a way that makes me tremble and my head swoon, and he sports this colossal monster of a cock that makes my poor little pussy literally cry in fear and awe and need. I know that nobody else will ever compare to this sight. Nobody else can even go close to it. He loves me dearly; he cares for me; and he offers me free choice. Now, daddy... without even mentioning the fact that I will become a Goddess if I wear his collar... how am I supposed to respond to this sexy, handsome, glorious, generous, hypervirile, loving hunk, huh...?"

The huge male grinned awkwardly at that, commenting: "You make it sound like a pretty good deal."

Nadia winked at that, looking amusement as she softly breathed: "I really don't think there is a way to make it sound anything other than wonderful... Indeed, it is too good a deal. I don't have much of anything to offer in return. Just my body, my love, and my soul... and even those, you already own. Offering them is just a symbolic gesture on my part."

"There is no greater proof of love than that, Nadia." Killer softly corrected, and he leaned down over her, pushing her chin up with one huge finger, that even with her new height and strength still seemed enormous compared to her face. She smiled, and it was the most beautiful smile Killer had ever seen: little Nadia had always had the most illuminating and heart-warming of smiles, even when she was so small and vulnerable, deaf and mute, cut off from much of the world around her and yet always cheerful, always optimistic, always smiling as if to comfort all the saddened faces looking at her with pity for her misfortune. Her weakness was gone, replaced by a muscular, mighty build to rival her younger but much bigger sister. Now there was a whole new layer of light and warmth to her smile: one made of true happiness, of true eagerness to live the future, of supreme, wonderful confidence in herself. Gone were her fears and her pains: the light of certainty now burned in her smile, more intense and more luminous than the glimmer of hope. He kissed her, lovingly and hungrily, and she welcomed him, half-suckling on his lower lip for a brief moment before he pulled back a little and asked: "This wonderful body is yours... I will not change you without accounting for your wishes. Reveal to me your true wishes, Nadia..."

The female breathed softly at that, almost panting a little as a thousand tiny, small and a few big wishes swung wildly back and forth in her mind. She tried to put some order in her thoughts, knowing that he could see them all... and finally she whispered: "I want to be yours all the way, daddy... I want my body and my soul to please you, above all else. But... if I have to express one wish, I would love to... to be more like my little sis."

Nadia gazed towards Samara, who smiled softly at that, looking touched and, at the same time, aroused at the idea of sharing their father between them, both of them with strong, shapely, beautiful forms fortified by his immense energies. Her request made Killer smirk, then nod with a smile as he bent forwards to nuzzle Nadia... before he almost bit into her muzzle, hungrily opening his maws and kissing her with dominant force. Nadia let out a moan of surprise at that, but she shivered in bliss and opened her jaws wide to let his forked, dexterous tongue invade her mouth even her throat. Her eyes widened in surprised at the size and strength of his dexterous appendage, but she looked into his own with nothing but pleasure and gratitude, moaning softly while the muscular, powerful tongue twisted and gyrated inside her, teasingly thrusting back and forth and effortlessly grinding her own tongue into submission. He seized her by the shoulders, hungrily, growling lowly in his throat as he effortlessly hefted her clear off the ground, holding her in place as she ground her thighs together and her hips bucked in pure bliss, precious juices streaking down her legs as her body began to rapidly grow even stronger, even more perfect, even more glorious. Muscles swelled across her whole form, bulging in great mountains of strength in her shoulders and down her arms, making her eyes glow with delight as her shoulders pushed his fingers apart with the size of the great chords of muscle swelling inside them. Energy flooded her body through his hands, and she whimpered in awe and delight at the sheer immensity of the power that filled her up, growing and growing and growing, greater and greater and greater with every passing second as electricity crackled loudly around her, rending the very air apart as she flexed her new, prodigious musculature. Golden flames tore through her hide once more, glowing out of both of her shoulders as the Winged Beast, symbol of Disciplehood, appeared on the left shoulder and a great, majestic feral lion head rapidly took shape on the right, marking her as His and His alone.

She flexed with a groan of bliss, amazed by her new power and staring at her arms as she felt her hide tearing, some blood leaking down her arms as her biceps bulged explosively, her sin not quite able to keep up and contain her new glory. She flexed her hands, idly, listening to the loud, thundering crackles of energy around her fingers and staring at his eyes with awe and disbelief as she realized that... that there was no limit to that power, that even her little pinky could snuff a star out of existence. One? Oh, no. Many stars. With ease. With insulting ease. She felt enormous veins bulging against her hide, pulsing as they pumped what felt like pure, raw power through her whole body, making her skin protrude outwards and sometimes ripping right through it. She slurped on his tongue as best she could, grinding her own against his while her hands groped and squeezed into his great muscles and into the monstrous behemoth of a cock that hung majestically from his groin.

Her hips bucked in pure bliss and hot nectar burst out of her black-fleshed sex as incandescent energy began to coil around her neck, squeezing down on her throat and making her choke a bit even as her eyes only glowed with even greater ecstasy and adoration. The golden energy began to form beautiful, detailed figures that became roses and thorny vines of black metal, all of them tangled together to form geometric figures and eventually connecting to a large golden clasp shaped like the roaring head of a feral lion. Her breasts swelled much larger, perfectly shaped and amazingly firm, perky and prodigious, topped by large, fat black nipples that he immediately groped. Her feet touched the ground again now, telling her that she had grown even further, both taller and bulkier, and she choked-laughed around his tongue as her toes curled and effortlessly ripped trenches in the solid marble, as easily as it was soft sand. She flexed again, focusing on her legs and making her now massive quads dance, thighs bulging with power and chiseled to perfection, her calves looking simply spectacular as that lazy flex alone caused her feet to tear deep down into the marble, then into the steel beneath, deforming the floor with terrifying ease. Her eyes flashed with savage delight at the awareness that the frail Nadia was no more: now it was the world that was pathetic and frail and had to beg not to be pulverized whenever she so much as flexed one long leg.

She arched her back with a murr of bliss, ripping Killer's waistband apart and bucking her hips with a hungry groan and a splash of precious nectar when his towering, monumental cock swung forwards and smashed into her leg, a colossus of black meat topped by a ludicrously prominent flare that then bulged into a fat, gigantic cockhead, rounded and firm, forever slimy with excessive hypervirile produce. She jerked on that monster cock, hungrily, eyes flashing with bliss as colossal ropes of black precum, omnipotent and incredibly thick, leaked sloppily out of him, growing longer and longer until they smacked on the floor, feeding expanding lakes and never breaking unless she stroked her hands all over the huge head of his member. Even almost completely flaccid, like in that moment, his cock was titanic and unrivalled, and she spread her legs to let it push between her thighs, grinding into them and sticking out far beyond her firm, perfect buttocks as she eagerly ground down into it, smearing the black meat with her nectar and juices.

Black fire exploded out of her muscular back, the flames arching high up into the air and spreading out all around her, before they solidified into vast angelic wings, six of them, ethereal and beautiful, made of eternal dark fire. The flames took on the shape of feathers, long and sharp and constantly changing, burning with an intense, impossible black color which seemed to absorb and imprison all forms of light, looking at darker than the most terrible of stormy nights... while at the same time glowing in its own strange and wonderful way, producing more light than a Sun. Tribal flames "tattoos" glowed into being down one side of her body, the opposite compared to her sister's own, so that the two females, now more than ever looking almost like twins, seemed to complete each other.

A glowing circle of words burned itself into her skin, running all around one massive, powerful thigh, and Killer grinned as he pulled back from the kiss, licking at his muzzle slowly while he tilted his head and looked down to read: "I'm Daddy's Weapon, I'm Daddy's Will, I'm Daddy's Toy, I'm Daddy's Meat".

The wings unfurled completely for a few short moments, spreading in all of their vast majesty, then folded neatly onto her back and vanished into motes of darkness, leaving behind a large tattoo of a pile of cracked skulls. Part of her hair burned out of existence, shortening her mane, which remained long and free on one side of her head, half-falling over one eye and down to her shoulder and beyond, while on the other side it collected itself in a series of tight braids going to the back of her skull. That aggressive hairstyle added even more to her aura of supreme confidence and made her look even more beautiful as she licked her lips to savor his hot saliva, her eyes glowing with hunger as she gazed up at him while balling her hands into fist and flexing, showing off the way her new, glorious musculature bulged and shifted.

Darkness wrapped in coils around her torso, moving slowly and sensually over her body, seemingly caressing her huge breasts before pushing them together tightly as it began to solidify into a tight corset, held in place by several heavy belts and straps. The sides were open, but for the sturdy belts, revealing her perfect skin and giving him a tantalizing view of her sensual hips, and she spun around to show her muscular back, mostly bare but for a series of belts and straps criss-crossing over her muscles. Plates of silvery metal covered the hills of muscle of her abs, with the solidified darkness separating them and showing off the perfect sculpture of her muscles, underlining the deep valleys of power between the packs. The corset was cut short to show off the "Daddy's Little Girl" tattoo, just above the waistband of an ultra-short black skirt, tight on her massive, powerful quads and connected to the corset by sturdy, heavy straps of solidified darkness. The same belts stretched down past the end of the skirt, connecting to straps of "leather" which were tightly wrapped around her huge quads and struggled to contain her muscles, groaning audibly whenever she moved and her thighs flexed. Her legs were otherwise gloriously bare all the way down to new, open-toe high-heel boots that added even more to her height and overall figure, making Killer stare at her with a little grin of enthusiastic approval.

The novel goddess let out a sight of bliss through gritted fangs, her teeth not just healed but now perfect and almost glowing, sharper and more threatening than before. She was one of the apex predators now, a force of domination and destruction that dwarfed the universes into insignificance, and she was deliciously aware of it as she gazed at her fingers, flexing them slowly and gauging the tremendous discharges of electricity that crackled out of them. "Fuck, yes... Oh, yes..." Nadia whispered, studying her new body with intense pleasure, hands gripping into her hips as she rolled her shoulders and idly flexed again, towering, harder than diamond, beautiful and powerful beyond description, almost literally bursting with vigor as her muscle threatened to tear through her skin. "What do you think, daddy...?" She posed for him, flexing one huge arm and leaning forwards to kiss her huge bicep as she grinned widely, commenting: "If I'm dreaming, or if I've finally gone insane into my cage... don't wake me up."

"It's the truth, Nadia." Killer reassured, shaking his head slightly and grinning as he admired her new body. "And you look simply spectacular."

"Thanks to you!" The goddess cheerfully replied, before turning around to grin at Samara, who was studying her with a smirk, arms crossed on her chest, her body thrumming with power and hunger and lust. Emerald eyes burned into emerald eyes as the two sisters grinned and measured each other up: Nadia had purposefully kept herself a little bit shorter than Samara, just for old times' sake, but they were otherwise very similar in physique. Both overwhelmingly powerful and stunningly beautiful, both proudly marked as his property. And then, without warning, Nadia lashed out against her sister, and Samara moved just as quickly in reaction, leaning forwards and catching both fists as they rushed forwards. The impacts of hand against hand rattled the entire space station and shattered all of the screens on the walls around the vast room, blowing the furniture out of place and smashing cups and hookahs and plates flying in every direction, crumpling loudly on themselves like they were made of paper.

Both goddesses grinned as they grappled, wrestling in a clash of pure, brutal strength, sending enormous bolts of electricity crackling out of them in great arches as their feet tore deep into the floor of marble and steel, and the power radiating from their bodies erupted outwards with such force that it blew the armoured walls outwards, deforming the entire space station and causing it to groan audibly as the metal begged for mercy. Nadia grinned widely, licking her lips slowly as she tested hers and Samara's strengths, before she commented: "Well, little sis, teaching me how to fight should be a lot funnier now."

During their time in prison at the mercy of the RA, Samara had tried to teach Nadia some basic combat techniques as self-defence means, even though it was little more than a form of comfort: it was not like Nadia could just knock Cerberus out and not immediately be punished by a whole group of angry guards. Still, Nadia had done her best to learn and had never forgotten that and other signs of her sister's affection.

"We can go straight to the advanced stuff!" Samara agreed, grinning widely and then stepping forwards, hooking one leg behind Nadia's ones and painfully bending her arms... but Nadia was not small nor vulnerable anymore, and she snickered, easily reversing the assault and using Samara's momentum against her, dragging her down and swinging herself up at the same time, her powerful legs wrapping around her sister's head and squeezing teasingly. "Oh, very advanced stuff, indeed." Nadia teased, winking as Samara looked up at her in surprise, reaching up to try and pry those massive thighs open, away from her head.

"Point taken. I see daddy has prepared you well." Vera said, smiling and looking amused as Nadia relaxed her legs and proudly rested her fists on her hips, grinning widely. "We can train very well together."

"For sure." Nadia agreed, before shifting around until she was sitting on her "little sister's" shoulders. "Don't worry, I'll make sure not to hit you too hard, for old time's sake. You were careful with me when I was weak, I'll be careful with you now." Samara looked up with a snort of entertainment, happy to carry her around for a little while and even take her playful taunting. It was so beautiful to have Nadia back, and to be able to hear her voice, and talk to her, and share everything with her, beginning with their adoration for their father. And even though she would not openly admit it, Samara was happy to see all that confidence and that sassy nature in her "big" sister: for way too long a time Nadia had been forced by life to lie down and take everything that came her way with a smile and a hope for better days. Now she was strong, ludicrously powerful in fact, and she had every right to land a few good hits on life and on the world, to make up for all the past suffering. Vera seized her sister by the legs, squeezing into her formidable calves as Nadia flexed with a little murr, happy to show off the glory of her new body, and she replied: "Don't you get all cocky just yet, big sis... I can play plenty hard games."

"I hope you do." Nadia teasingly replied, before frowning a bit and looking down at Killer with a little expression of surprise, whispering: "It was a long ride up to this point, wasn't it...? You two didn't recognize each other, at first."

"No, we did not. I... I had admittedly lost all hopes of finding you two alive, after all those years of silence." Killer quietly replied, before frowning in curiosity and asking: "How...?"

"You passed on your memories to me, daddy. And Samara passed some of hers, too." Nadia easily replied, smiling softly and idly playing with her sister's hair as she added: "I knew the world had moved on while I was locked into my dark little cage, but I never imagined that everything would change, and by so much. It's... it's a lot to take in."

"It was a lot for me as well. Even though I've lived every minute of the story, there are tons of things I still do not understand... and many I still struggle to believe." Killer softly commented, giving her a little nod to signal that she had every right to be confused. The young goddess nodded silently, then slumped a little just as he clearly felt her paging through his memories, almost able to feel her fingers moving delicately into his mind. She swallowed thickly, looking at him with concern, and she murmured: "Daddy... your mind... there is a war going on in there..."

"There is. I'm holding up as best I can and, believe me, your presence and that of your sister are doing miracles for me. It is much easier to resist to Darkness's attempts to take over if I'm with you and I can see and feel that you love and support me. It becomes a lot easier to tell reality apart from illusion. It becomes easier to... to silence my fears and keep them from swallowing me whole." Killer calmly explained, stepping forwards to lightly wrap his arms around Vera's waist and lean his head against one of Nadia's muscular legs. "As long as you are with me... as long as Alexis and all the others are with me... Darkness will not take over. No matter what he tries, I'll be able to see through his lies."

Nadia nodded quietly at that, but her emerald eyes continued to study him with sadness and worry as she leaned forwards over her sister's head and reached down to lightly play with the thick bangs of his mane. "We will always be here for you, daddy... but that is a war that must end. The intruder in your mind must be squished, so the pain will finally go away, and with it all the hesitations, all of your worries. How can we help you to make that possible...?" Nadia softly said, tilting her head to the side and looking at him with eyes that almost begged for a suggestion, an order, any kind of idea about how to assist him in that desperate fight that threatened to shatter him from within. The huge male smiled warmly at that, turning slightly around to kiss the neck of her foot, between a strap of her boots and another, his hands moving up to grip into her mighty calves, squeezing into their perfect, steel-hard profile as he replied: "Just stay close to me, girls. Don't leave me alone in this hour, and I'll find a way. It is a battle I must fight and win on my own... and one that I can fight only when Cerberus, Thanathos and the Sisters have all gone down for good."

Nadia nodded quietly at that, chewing on her lip and looking pained by the answer but doing the only thing she could: accepting his words and silently promising him all the support she could give. "Can you not... summon Cerberus and Thanathos right in front of you...?"

"I'd love to, but they have learned to silence their energy signatures in a very effective way. I don't know if it is something they have picked up through all the genetic material they have stolen out of me. I'm not very good at tuning down my magnetism and my aura, after all... yet they seem to have mastered that ability."

"Cockroaches need to get real good at hiding, or they get squished." Samara coldly remarked, and Nadia nodded with a little growl full of battle rage. Killer snickered a bit at that, even though all three of them were painfully aware that Cerberus and Thanathos were no longer squishy, "easy" targets: they had contaminated their bodies with enough of Killer's corruption and hypervirile essence that they were constantly and dramatically evolving. They couldn't control that evolution, differently from Killer himself, but that possibly only made them even more dangerous, because their bodies and abilities expanded explosively, developing in terrible and unpredictable ways. Their bodies would eventually be overwhelmed by that ever expanding power, and the corruption in them would literally burst out of them to seek more matter, both organic and not, to ensnare and absorb and forcefully evolve. They were going to end up like Earth: just like the planet had swelled larger and had grown "tentacles" and other gigantic appendages that had whip-lashed out through space to capture other worlds and stars, their bodies would eventually become mindless hulks of grotesque muscle, mutant flesh and pestilent, ludicrously excessive hypervirility guided only by the urge to grow even further and spread corrupt, superior life in every corner of Existence. Their lives were as sentient beings were on a countdown, but that only made them more terrifying: they were literally going to grow stronger and stronger and stronger, until their minds and bodies could no longer adapt and survive the growth and evolution. They were dangerous, imperfect perfection: they were perfect in the fact that nothing could truly hurt them, but imperfect because they could not give coherent shape and limits to their own evolution. Even the Horrors, the creatures born out of Killer's hyperpotent body fluids and energies, were "safe" when compared to Cerberus and Thanathos: the Horrors had almost limitless hungers, but even the most single-minded ones had enough self-control to constrain their evolution and savagery. Cerberus and Thanathos's bodies, on the other hand, were impatient, greedy engines of ferocious, destructive, pestilent, evolution that did not know when to slow down.

Almost every ability and power that the two gods had developed since they had been "contaminated" with Killer's genetics was incidental, but for the moment at least the two gods retained enough of a brain to plan their moves and exploit those abilities as best they could. Angry because of the constant, terrible pain they were in; barely able to control their bodies, and aware that their time was running out, the two gods made for very dangerous rivals and trying to summon them might well have backfired spectacularly.

Nadia had seen that too in Killer's memories. She had seen the bodies of the two gods growing bigger and stronger but also full of terrifying sperm-parasites that had the power to seed whole new realities, whole new horrific, god-dwarfing monstrosities. Beasts that were enormous and powerful, spiked and armed with terrible jaws that consumed Cerberus and Thanathos's flesh, consuming them from within, almost faster than they could grow and evolve. The sperm-parasites, as well as the thick dark corruption that leaked out of wounds that ripped open in their skins and tissues, were manifestations of Killer's raw, unrestrained potency. They were eager to move well past the two gods' bodies, which were too small, too constraining, too limited in their growth potential. Soon enough, the sperm-beasts would take completely over, turning Cerberus and Thanathos into nothing but pieces of muscle in the middle of a far, far larger "being" that would grow through entire universes, ceaselessly expanding and evolving. The thought was terrifying, and Nadia knew she should just let Killer go, even urge him to race towards the Center of Existence to hopefully find the two godless monstrosities and terminate them once and for all... but there were other memories that had caught her attention, and she was unable to let go of those images. She looked down into his eyes, fighting back the tears that threatened to streak down her cheeks as she whispered: "So that is... that is what happened to mom...? A bomb...?"

Killer sighed at that, closing his eyes and once more walking past the shredded door of that infamous classroom, coughing in the thick smoke, slipping on the blood and gore strewn on the floor, ears full of horrible, short-lived cries of agony and the endless blaring of fire alarms. "Yes. A cruel trap. They lured her and many others into a classroom, telling them that I was going to meet them all there... and then detonated a bomb right among them." The huge male confirmed in a whisper, making a grimace. "When I got there, it was already too late to do anything..."

"And right at the same time, Ire's assault teams came for us at the estate..." Nadia completed, making a grimace of pain and disgust and regret. "We... we could have been a happy family, all along. Damn, I remember it, we WERE happy...! And they took it all away from us!"

Her voice dripped venom, and a shiver of fury ran through her muscular form, causing electricity to crackle violently out of her as she flexed her great musculature, balling her hands into fists and gritting her fangs. There were a thousand things she wanted to snarl and shout and roar, but she only trembled in rage instead. They all knew that Killer was to blame, at least in part, for what had happened: he had been sent south on a diplomatic mission, to build bridges and new relationships between the tigers and the "prey species", but he had ended up effectively pouring fuel on the fire. His incredible physical superiority had ended up making him either adored as a divinity or hated with incredible intensity. Envy is a powerful emotion, and fear is an even stronger one: Killer had caused both emotions to expand explosively across the south as he used sports and sex to prove his unquestionable superiority. Vanessa was just one of countless southern women of all species and social statuses that had enthusiastically embraced his "religion" and turned their backs on their own races. The proud "race traitors" marked themselves with the KO tattoo and made clear that their wombs were only meant to carry ligers. And Killer, even back then, was so obscenely hypervirile that what started out as a porn fantasy trope started to feel too much like a reality: he ruined so many women and filled them with so many ligers that many convinced themselves that he was truly about to breed their races out of existence. Killer had admittedly undervalued those fears and the groups of haters that were born because of them: he used to laugh of them and taunted and humiliated them all the harder, but one day a group of those terrified, frustrated boys decided that, if he was too big and strong to be targeted directly, they could at least mow down his supporters. Killer had not dared imagining that those "losers" would ever do anything that serious, that monstrous. And, thinking like a northerner, he had told himself that, if they ever turned violent, surely they would attack him, not the girls that rooted for him. How wrong he had been, on all counts... Vanessa and many others paid, in a way, the price of his naivety and of his arrogance. And so many more people paid the ultimate price in the following years, when in his rage and disgust for the southerners he had begun to truly work to destroy their races. The brutal murdering of Vanessa and of dozens of other KO girls had served to cancel what little respect and compassion he had for the weak southerners, and it had led him directly to the most brutal of actions: that was when he started targeting pregnant women to destroy their children with his massive cock. That was when he began to truly make a hobby of breaking families apart, stealing wives and daughters. That was when he began to truly use his hypervirility as a weapon of mass destruction, organizing massive breeding orgies in which the females literally lined up, shoulder to shoulder, legs spread wide for him to brutally ram inside them and pump their wombs helplessly full of ligers. Rapidly. Mercilessly. Ceaselessly.

Things had only gotten more savage and merciless from there onwards, leading him straight towards the seven years of complete, monstrous fury that had only ended, as if by magic, with his arrival in Kendrew.

"None of your teasing, or those of mom herself, justified the use of a bomb." Nadia remarked, looking firmly down at him, almost scolding him for even daring to think that the terroristic attacks against the KO girls had somehow been a reasonable consequence of his actions. "They should never have attacked our family... and they deserve the punishment they got because of it."

"Not all of them deserved it." Killer corrected, making a grimace. "Most of those I killed in those days did not deserve to die... but I'm glad I pursued the leaders of all the hostile groups. And the army itself."

Nadia nodded, but there was still rage inside her, that was clear: despite her wonderful smile, full of hope and serenity, she was not short of venom. For years she had cried in the darkness and in the silence, wondering why their happy family had suddenly been shattered, and wondering what had happened to her mommy and to her daddy. Now she knew it, and she was not ready to forgive. All that rage and all that despair were resurfacing, filling her with murderous intent and causing energy to radiate out of her in solid, brutal waves and in great bolts of electricity. "I'm glad for all you did, daddy... and glad that Ire finally had to bow before you, grovel before your might and beg for mercy..." She licked her lips, closing her eyes and growling a little, and Killer felt her paging through his memories to find more images of the past, of him ripping apart Ire's army, of him throwing tanks across the battlefield like they were toys, of him breaking into the hush-hush bases of Ire's special forces and laying waste to them, all the way up to the memories of how Alexis had turned Ire's vast Navy into nothing but a collection of trinkets hanging from the straps of her boots... and finally of him, immense and glorious and godlike, poking the heavy, colossal head of his cock into the ground, taking all of Ire's capital city into his vast cockmaw, dwarfing them utterly, breaking their minds with that idle display of omnipotence... and turning their capital into an uninhabitable wasteland surrounded by a cockhead-shaped crater so deep and vast that there was no way to bridge it. She hissed in delight at that glorious memory, grinning sharkishly as she saw the puny mortals desperately trying to evacuate and run away from their homes, riding on aircraft and helicopters that had barely enough range to cross the deep imprint left by his cockhead alone. She laughed darkly as she saw the helicopters turning to nothing but rust, flaking away to nothing after crossing the thick, eternal cloud of humidity and hyperpotent stench that his cock had left behind. The heat and intensity of the all-male essence that had drenched the ground for countless miles in every direction were so terrible that metal rusted away in mere moments. Nadia bucked her hips and growled in delight at the sight of the several helicopters that had literally burst apart in midair, falling away in puffs of dust and sending the desperate mortals inside plunging down to their death. "Yes, daddy... yes... oh, fuck, I think I love your style. You know just how to make all those tiny bugs understand how insignificant they are." Nadia breathed, looking at him with adoration and need, grinning as she teased: "I have this wonderful image of me stroking your huge cock and then lazily slapping it down across the face of the planet, to turn Ire into nothing but a crater, forever stinking of You, your Maleness, your supremacy."

"Sweet revenge..." Samara commented, licking her lips slowly, and Killer hesitated, knowing all too well that he should not have been so tempted and delighted by such a cruel idea, such a blind and savage revenge against an entire country, a whole continent. No matter how he tried to tell himself that it was wrong, though, he couldn't help but be aroused by the thought, so much that his monstrous black cock stirred majestically, half-jumping up as it flexed and swelled even larger, drooping even longer, even greater, even heavier. More, and more, and more. The behemoth idly flexed a hand, his muscles bulging, body thrumming with power that was excessive, reality-shattering, unfair... and oh, so delicious. His gigantic cock blasted out another immense rope of precum, dense with the unholy tangles of giant sperms that filled it in ludicrous numbers. Wasn't for the past, Killer would have had very little, if any, interest in Ire and its fate: no matter what the mortal superpower did, no matter how many weapons it developed and stocked, he was always going to be so far out of their league that they couldn't even begin to dream of his power.

"You know what would make for an even better revenge, daddy...? Showing to all of them, small, weak things that they are, that they can in no way obtain anything, never. That they can never hide, never survive, never escape... and that even what they did in the past can be undone." Samara suggested, and her eyes glowed with a whole new light as Killer looked up into them with a tiny smile, immediately understanding what she was implying. Nadia, on her part, leaned down to idly play with his mane while she spoke softly into his ear: "Show the tiny ones that can never escape the truth of your omnipotence. Show them that everything they might try is useless and hopeless. Show them that they can never hit those you care for. Show them that they can only obey, now and forever."

It was all too clear that they wanted their mother back, and Killer snorted in entertainment before playfully scolding them: "You two make for quite a combination, really! You've already taken more than enough pages from Mriya and Elaine's book, really. The last thing I need is another pair of beautiful, manipulative daughters with puppy eyes and a talent for ego stroking."

"We love stroking your... ego." Samara teased, gripping the immense girth of his cock and slowly pumping along the colossal black shaft. "And yes, we are kind of giving you puppy eyes here, but... we really, really want our mother back. More than that, we want our chance of being a happy family."

"Happy and incestuous." Nadia cheerfully corrected, winking at him and smiling widely. "I've seen Mriya and Elaine in your memories, and all the others as well... and I look forwards to meeting them all. It is a family that I love to be a part of... but I can't help but think of mom, as well. I miss her, daddy. She was a good mother, and I miss everything about her... and I know how much she would have loved this!" She spread her arms and flexed lightly, showing off her powerful body and, even more importantly, the tattoos that marked her as his. "At your side she always felt like a Goddess, but now she could really be one... and she could... teach us how to properly serve you, and how to properly punish the small, weak, puny things out there. How to truly show them their place in the world, beneath your heel. Oh, daddy... I know you remember her, little devil that she was, with fondness. She was such a good slave for you, huh...? And such a cruel mistress to everybody else."

"Vanessa knew well how to truly crush the sissy boys into submission, yeah..." Killer admitted, remembering the many nights spent with the Doberman in front of cameras that she had set up first in her home and in his squalid accommodation block at the Military Boarding School, then in the luxurious, immense estate that one rich cuckold of an husband had been forced to hand to him. Vanessa had been a ravenous companion and an enthusiastic prophet of his supremacy over everything and everyone. It had started out as a playful little game they had put on camera to see how many people would react, and how... She, the southerner woman educated to believe that all northerners were uncivilized barbarians, inferior and unworthy of respect. She, one of the Army's elite soldiers, instructor in the capital's Military Boarding School and in the officer Academy. And him, the brute coming from the north, huge and handsome and superior in every way. Him, armed with a godlike physical supremacy and with such glorious hypervirility that he destroyed not just her pussy but her loyalty for her army, her country, her race.

At first they thought it was a fantasy, but it was a bit too easy and too pleasurable for them to play their parts in the scenario, because it was all true. There was nothing fake in Killer's physical supremacy and Vanessa soon realized that everything she said to make the boys on the other side of the screen jealous and angry was true. Her loyalty for her country and for her race was trashed in favor of true worship of him and his incredible power, and it became all too easy for her to savagely belittle and torment the shocked males that logged in, night after night, day after day, to assist to their cam shows. She proudly showed off her hugely pregnant belly; her KO tattoo, her marks of eager slavery, her hunger for him, for his physical power, for his prodigious hypervirility. She posed for the camera with Killer's flaccid cock pinning her down to the floor, the huge black shaft burdening over her like an anaconda. She snuggled with his immense cock, showing off how it dwarfed her arms, how it was thicker by far than her leg, how it could never fit on camera, how she could push pretty much all of her hand inside his immense cockmaw, how big his veins were, how frightening it was to see that monster cock throbbing and growing, hardening and bludgeoning, how his sperms were literally at least 10 thousand times the size of "normal" sperms, and how, in fact, his sperms dwarfed most dicks. She was deliciously cruel, and the public adored her for it: Killer and Vanessa had made ludicrous amounts of money because of donations that the "useless sissy boys" and "disgusting paypigs" eagerly sent to them. Even more money was easily made up whenever she decided to put one torn, filthy piece of cloth on sale: her broken panties, soaked in his cum; his ripped shirt smelling of his masculine sweat, her shredded bras, drenched in his semen, and even literal rags stained with his thick, plentiful smegma. The more she abused and belittled the boys through the camera, the more they paid her and Killer and the more they wanted to buy those filthy mementos. She terrified the lesser boys, telling them that their time was well and truly over and explaining how Killer was going to easily breed them all out of existence... and since her belly was filled up with a new load of ligers as soon as she delivered the previous, it was hard to not believe her, especially as more and more and more girls followed her example and joined the cam show and, more in general, covered themselves in KO tattoos.

It was Vanessa that more than others fueled the fantasy of the "breeding out of existence" of entire races. She became an eager prophet of that triumph and she made it all the more real when she began selling Killer's gigantic sperms, one by one, putting them into sturdy glass containers right on camera and then selling them to those who paid the higher amounts. The base was one hundred thousand dollars for each, and yet the demand was always high. Each massive sperm invariably resulted in a huge pregnancy, even in women who were sterile... so the numbers soon became terrifying enough to turn fantasies into very real terrors. Killer remembered it all with dark delight... and he remembered even more fondly the more intimate times spent together at the estate, as lovers and as parents for Nadia, Samara and many others, all ligers. Samara was the exception, the only one that, for whatever strange reason, had come out looking like the mother, not like the father, even though the presence of his genes in her could never be doubted, given her incredible physical prowess, evident already when she was a toddler. "I miss her too, girls, believe me, I do." Killer calmly said, smiling at them with affection and shaking his head slowly. "I'd love to have her back, but... she's been gone for many years. I don't want to create an empty simulacrum of her: I want the true Vanessa, not a cheap imitation shaped by my memories of her."

"Daddy... as I already said in other occasions, you think too much." Samara playfully remarked, rolling her eyes a little. "Don't listen to what lesser gods say. Don't listen to their rules and their concerns. They are weak, and puny, and can't compare to you. You've proven again and again that you are far stronger than all of them put together: their "miracles" are party tricks for you. I'm sure you can pull it off."

"The fact that they can't means nothing." Nadia insisted, looking at him with a loving and expectant smile. "We call you God only for lack of a better term. You are in a league of your own, daddy... one that words can never describe."

Killer sighed, rolling his eyes in amused exasperation, and he finally spread his arms wide, breathing: "Fuck me; you are_exactly_ like Mriya and Elaine. I need to urgently learn how to resist to your adulation and puppy eyes, for my own good." He flexed his enormous musculature, idly rolling his shoulders, and Nadia grinned widely, easily sliding off her sister's shoulders and landing on her feet, clapping her hands together lightly and eagerly asking: "What do you need?"

"Help me remember Vanessa. I want to remember everything about her, and make sure I bring back every last cell, every last thought, and every last mote of her energy." Killer easily replied, and Samara and Nadia both leaned forwards and touched his chest, half-grabbing at his mane, half-caressing the thick muscle as they thought of the past, and recalled every moment they had lived together.

"Bring her home, daddy. I'm sure that, wherever she is, she is waiting for you, her hand stretched towards yours. She just needs a little help." Nadia whispered, and Samara nodded, her eyes burning bright in the semi-darkness of the devastated room. Killer let out a little sound of agreement and then closed his eyes, focusing on Vanessa as best he could. His mind filled with memories of their nights together, of their cam shows but also of the quiet times spent just being lazy in front of television, her body sprawled upon his much larger one, her hands stroking his musculature, his cock, or feeding him tender morsels and pushing glasses of whisky to his lips. He remembered her exercising, day after day, proudly working to make her body even more perfect, her muscles more toned and even more finely chiseled, and he remembered walking with her at his side, her body scantily clad in clothes that she deliberately chose to impress and show off, always cut in a way that guaranteed that her KO mark would be fully visible. He remembered their complicity at school, too, and the moments of pride and joy whenever they sat down with their precious girls, Nadia and Samara... and then he began to see the memories of the two goddesses as well, discovering more about the affectionate mother that Vanessa had been.

His energies wandered far and wide across the universes, reaching out for whatever little mote of energy that resonated with the memories... and, amazingly, tiny particles of her essence began to burn brightly in his vision, calling out to him from the most different places. From inside the Unworld, from inside trees on distant planets, from the emptiness of space, even from within other living beings in several different worlds. Her soul, her very essence had been broken down into pieces and her energies had been fed back into the cycle and had ended up becoming part of a thousand different things... and yet, all of those tiny parts somehow preserved a memory of their former self. They eagerly replied to his call... and then, suddenly, he saw her face, skeletal and pained, yet still intact, still full of life, her eyes bulging in her emaciated features. She gazed back at him, and he almost recoiled in surprise as he realized that she was a Broken, that her very core had refused to dissolve, it had clung on to her beliefs with enough determination to survive at the margins of the Unworld. "What took you so long, stud...?"

His eyes opened in surprise at the sound of her voice, but he could still feel her energies rushing towards him, and he licked his lips while he reached down to grip into the base of his titanic cock with both hands, flexing for a moment, feeling his hide becoming painfully taunt over his massive biceps as they bulged explosively, feeling enormous veins bulging through his skin. He slowly, majestically stroked that proud behemoth of a cock, grinning as golden energy flowed out of his hands and coiled tightly around his shaft, squeezing into him with almost painful force, making him grunt in pleasure as the energy solidified into a massive, heavy ring of black leather straps and steel links, with a clasp depicting a lion head with the terrible jaws open wide and a helpless planet cradled on the large tongue.

He grinned widely to himself as he pushed that heavy collar down the immense length of his cock, licking his muzzle at the way in which the tight collar clamped on his girth almost like a greedy, eager mouth that he used to know very, very well. His colossal member was slimy with a thick, rich mixture of his hypervirile sweat and his precum, which together formed a dark, corruptive sludge that leaked in thick ropes from his goliath member, causing even the ground to sizzle and crack apart whenever the long strings of essence touched the marble and the steel. The black essence worked as lube and allowed the collar to slid down, down, down along his monstrous shaft, and then Killer struggled to angle the collar this way and that to get it past the bulging head of his behemoth, the vast and prominent barbed flare making him struggle with a grunt that was all pleasure... before he allowed the collar to fall down on the floor with a loud clang. The vast maw of his cock gaped wide open as it drooled out hyperpotent essence in thick, heavy ropes that easily swelled larger and heavier until they splashed all over the collar and beyond, nearly burying it whole under a colossal tangle of hypervirile sperms. Killer smirked as his hand slid across the shaft, wondering over it, its immensity, its virility, its omnipotence. There was a loud crackle of energy, almost like a lightning bolt erupting seemingly through, or from, the collar itself, and the thick mess of black precum began to rapidly shift form and nature, a figure beginning to appear, swelling larger and larger and standing up tall as a neck clearly took shape, already squeezed by the heavy collar. A beautiful, powerful body rapidly took shape, matching Samara and Nadia in height and in bulk, a stunning mix of awesome female perfection and great, mighty muscles that bulged explosively as they flexed and stirred. Raven hair emerged from the head that was rapidly taking shape, pointy ears already evident as her mane floated around her head almost like a halo as tremendous, divine energy crackled out of her. Vanessa had entered the army early on in her life, after her fiancé made her pregnant and then ran away like a coward. In the army she had been able to devote extra time to the care of her body, and bodybuilding had become almost a religion for her. She had always loved to work out, but being poor and with a newborn little girl to care for, she hadn't been able to chisel her body quite like she wanted. Military life gave her access to excellent gyms and allowed her to hone her strong, sleek body to perfection. She had always loved being strong, and she had always enjoyed the kind of attention that it bought her: it made her feel special, and craved. Sure, while some boys drooled at the sight of her, some males complained about her chiseled abs and powerful biceps, but she had never cared about those. She had always thought that strong females excited men and scared boys. She had no use for little boys.

That was part of why she had bonded so well with Killer: he loved strong females and even back then he was a great supporter of strong, muscular legs... When they were together, Vanessa worked out even more, pushed her limits even further, perfecting her build, enhancing herself in order to become tough enough, strong enough, to be able to serve him better and to make herself even more stunning. The more the hopeless little males around her craved her body, the more pleasure she had in showing them that she was Killer's property. Where bodybuilding could not arrive, she had remedied with surgery funded with the money that her paypigs and drooling slaves were happy to throw at her just to help her be a better whore, a better slave, a better toy for the godlike stud that had come from the North. She had gotten implants to correct the "insufficient" size of her bosom; she had corrected all her little imperfections, she had added piercings and tattoos to her figure and then she had corrupted, threatened and stolen to get Ire's most advanced genetic technology and nanomachines implanted into her body, to improve her ability to tank damage and regenerate. All just so he could fuck her harder, hit her worse, impregnate her more frequently and with more ligers. Still, so often he had nearly killed and destroyed her, and every time it had only made her look at him with deeper devotion, with greater adoration, with more profound love and understanding. He had reshaped her in body, mind and soul, and made her into his fucktoy, his whore, his piece of meat. And she had loved every second of it, and only ever put herself through more training and more treatments, just to be able to serve him better and look better in his eyes and in that of all the boys that desperately craved her but could never, never hope to get her.

Now her body was taller and stronger than ever, her muscles larger and chiseled with even greater perfection, her curves even more heavenly, her breasts natural and firm and proud and prodigious, far larger than her implants had ever been. She now ascended to that godhood that she had pursued all her life: in her fantasies, she was Killer's little synthetic goddess, his eager devil, his insatiable servant and his demoness, his punisher, always ready to crush lesser males into despair and submission and slavery, financial and non. Now she could crush entire galaxies with even less effort than it used to take her to dominate and manhandle a bunch of cuckolds and sissy boys, and the grin that spread on her beautiful features confirmed that she loved her new reality. Her head became crowned by golden demonic horns and her short, stubby tail was replaced by a long and flexible one, ending in a demonic spade-shaped blade of dark metal-bone. Vast draconic wings, leathery and powerful, spread open from her muscular back, beautiful and imposing with their immense span. She was the divine evolution of a Succubus, born to torment and consume weak males while serving her sole Master and God.

In life she had been a savage race traitor who had delighted in carrying Killer's young while teasing the lesser males about it, viciously belittling and insulting and exploiting them, and as Disciple she now had the power to truly punish and obliterate all those who didn't live up to her exacting standards.

Her old tattoos glowed brightly in the darkness, standing out like they were drawn with incandescent magma applied over her black and brown hide. And new tattoos and new piercings took shape, including a vast and astounding depiction of one of Killer's enormous, monstrous, powerful sperms. An incredibly detailed image of one of those spiked, armored, almost draconic creatures covered much of her muscular thigh, showing the great seed's terrible mouth open and aimed at her loins, while its spiked, segmented, powerful tail was coiled all around her leg, all the way down to the ankle. Whenever her great muscles flexed, it looked like the huge beast was moving and squeezing harder on her leg.

She was absolutely stunning, naked and unafraid, and when the dark essence completed the metamorphosis and revealed her fully formed new body, her eyes opened wide, glowing emerald with that same intensity that Killer had never, never forgotten.

"So... have I just been resurrected through a splatter of your precum...?" Vanessa amusedly asked, studying her hands and then idly flexing her arms, gritting her fangs in a grin of pure delight at the way her biceps bulged explosively, her abs simply stunning, her body thrumming with power. "Oh, God Daddy... I love it!" She exclaimed, not waiting for an answer to her rhetoric question, laughing a bit and hugging herself to smear the thick black essence all over her body, loving how incredibly dense and potent it felt, how hot, how absolutely festering with restless, gigantic sperms. She studied the massive sperm-beasts for a few moments, grinning as she realized just how much bigger and stronger they were compared to the ones that had already looked simply beyond godlike already when they had met the first time... and then she winked up at him and teasingly, sensually flicked out a tongue that now was demonic, muscular, dexterous, flexible and forked. "Does it mean that I'm not just your fucktoy but your daughter now...? That I have yet another reason to call you God Daddy...? Because that would be kick-ass!" The reborn goddess leaned forwards slightly and grabbed the mastodon black shaft hanging heavily in front of him, semi-hard but weighted inexorably down by its own monstrous mass. She slowly, reverently peeled back his thick foreskin, studying the majesty of that impossible malehood with eyes that sparkled with pure joy, and then she traced one finger slowly down the edge of his colossal flare, poking into the great, solid barbs of hard flesh. "No wedding rings on, God Daddy...? How so?"

"It's been a while since I've been hunting for hot wives." Killer admitted, shrugging a bit as his monstrous cock flexed powerfully in her grip, nearly slapping her in the face as it vigorously bobbed up. "Anyway, wedding rings used to barely fit on the tip of my barbs. Now they no longer can do even just that."

"It just means that the cuckolds will have to fork out for custom-made rings, Daddy." Vanessa immediately corrected, and Killer couldn't help but grin as he looked down at her and viciously grabbed into her breasts, squeezing them roughly, savagely, rumbling in approval as he leaned slightly back and spread his legs a bit wider, his monstrous black shaft pulsing with pleasure, with desire, with hunger as she made clear that her veneration had only gotten more extreme over time. The beast within him rose its head and smelled the blood in the air, and that made his heart pump a little faster and his gargantuan cock flex eagerly, jumping in her hands with enough force to make her moan in awe and delight, fingers forced far apart by his swelling girth and by the real deluge of inches of his lazy growth.

He smiled down at her, idly stroking her face, and he knew there was nothing he had to hide from her, and that there was nothing she wouldn't do for him. Whatever he demanded, she was going to immediately do, no matter the price. He had abused of her viciously, savagely, fucking her to within an inch of her life, quite literally, many times over. And she had only ever loved him even more for that, even though she had needed repeated surgeries to piece her bones back together and enhance herself with nanomachines developed for Ire's super soldiers. They were meant to regenerate bodies maimed by bullets and explosions on the battlefield; she used them to survive his fists and the punishment of his cock recklessly, savagely ramming inside her. She had needed new implants almost after every time they fucked, due to how roughly he handled her and grabbed into her breasts, laughing while the boys and girls watching them on camera half-orgasmed, half-pissed themselves in fear, half-vomited in horror... and begged him to either stop or be even more ferocious. Little, puny, scared, disgusting cuckolds and paypigs that showered them in donations and that were all too eager to pay for Vanessa's new implants as soon as Killer destroyed the "old" ones. Vanessa had always been gorgeous and perfect and limitless. His little suicidal girl. The more he destroyed her, the more she moaned and begged him for worse, thanking him and praising him for his power, for his size, for his ferocity. "That's right, little girl..." Killer teasingly replied, grinning sharkishly as he used his thumb to idly caress her cheek, before he added: "And yes, I think you are my daughter now, kind of... but beware: being my daughter doesn't mean you'll be handled more delicately."

"I sure hope not!" Vanessa eagerly replied, before leaning up with a murr of delight as Killer grabbed her by the shoulders and leaned down to kiss her, half-biting into her smaller muzzle as he forcefully raped her throat with his demonic tongue. It made her whole body spasm and tremble in delight while her hands rapturously stroked across his monstrous member, which throbbed with excess power but otherwise arrogantly refused to react to the whore's familiar touch. When the huge male pulled back from their kiss, he licked his lips slowly and cut off several long strings of thick drool, allowing them to splatter down across her face, beginning to smear her mascara down her cheeks, just in the way he liked. She gazed up at him with eyes that burned with bliss and lust, and he smirked a little as he commented: "I love what I made you into." Everything she was, everything she wore, every piercing and tattoo, and now her very soul and body, they had all been shaped by him and by her need to please him.

"Not as much as I love all what you did to me." Vanessa breathed, and she smiled softly as she reached up to touch her heavy collar, caressing it slowly and whispering: "I love this collar. I love this body, because it is literally just how you want it, and because it can serve you far better than my old, weak mortal form... no amount of technology and working out was ever going to make me ready for you... even just the old you."

"Now I might need to actually put in some effort to fuck you into a wreck." Killer playfully remarked, and the goddess only licked her lips, eyes flashing with delight at the thought as she breathed: "I hope so, stud... I'll take it as best I can. And you know I am pretty damn good at it."

Oh, she was, that was definite. She was ravenous and strong as a mortal, and now, with her new body and power, Killer expected some truly epic rides. "I love you, fucktoy. It's good to have you back, Vanessa."

"It's fuckin' awesome to be back, Daddy!" The female easily replied, grinning widely and flexing her muscular body, grinning at the sight of her bulging biceps and of her massive, powerful thighs. "And I really, really love what you have to the world... Hell and Heaven reduced to your balls polishers and toe kissers; Ire pulverized and humiliated, all nations of the world crushed into submission... all weak, puny bugs out there groveling in your shadow. This is how I always imagined it! The thought of your glory kept me going. It kept even the Unworld from breaking me." She winked, then tugged at the thick, curly hair on his crotch, teasing: "You might not have wanted to believe me or admit to yourself that you were something more, something truly beyond, but I knew you were God, all along. I've never doubted of it." She stroked slowly over the KO tattoo on her thigh, and then traced her finger up her groin, drawing a circle around another tattoo there that said "Killer Always Wins", and she winked again, before whispering: "Thanks for bringing me back. For giving me the chance to witness your true Glory and your true Reign."

She paused, shivering in bliss when he just hugged her tightly and kissed her on the forehead and then on the cheeks, and when he let go of her she turned to look at her two daughters, studying them for a few long moments, her lip trembling and tears beginning to streak down her cheeks, staining them with smeared mascara. "Hello, you two..." She awkwardly said, offering them a trembling smile that desperately tried to tell them how much she cared about them and how much she regretted not having been able to protect them and be there for them when they needed her the most. Samara and Nadia looked back with the very same hesitation, searching for words that they could not find and that would never be adequate to express the maelstrom of emotions that raged within them, after a good two decades of separation, of suffering, of despair, of regrets and also of rage. "Thanks for... for asking daddy to bring me back. Thanks for giving me a second chance." Vanessa finally said, and for a moment she was pure, innocent, vulnerable. In that moment she was no dominatrix, no goddess, not even the suicidal fucktoy of the titanic male. In that moment she was just a mother, delighted and relieved beyond description by the sight of her beloved daughters, that for so many years she had thought lost forever. She was the party girl who had been careless and had become a mother when still too young and in too bad an economic spot to be as good a mom as she had always wanted to be. And Samara and Nadia smiled at her, in affection and understanding and in pure joy at being reunited, because for all her limits, for all her defects and mistakes, Vanessa had always given her all for them. She had been affectionate and caring and protective, and they had loved every moment of the short time they had been allowed to spend with her. And yeah, Vanessa was crazy, and she had always tended to them while broken and exhausted and bloodied and immensely, grotesquely pregnant with Killer's spawn. And she had passed on her obsession for Killer, for his power, for his superiority, and her unhealthy appetites for sex and for money and for "fun", in its most extreme forms... but they did not blame her for it. Indeed, they were happy for it. Samara and Nadia stepped forwards, and Vanessa tremblingly spread her arms to welcome them, hugging them as tightly as she could and then guiding them in a slow spin around, so that her glowing, teary eyes opened to meet Killer's own as she breathed: "Thanks for watching out for our little girls. And thanks for turning them into these glorious goddesses that stand before me, more brilliant than any star!"

Killer smiled warmly at that, and stepped forth to wrap his huge arms around all three of them, squeezing them to his chest as best he could and whispering: "It's good to be together again. It's good to have you all back. There is so much we have been missing, and it is time to take it all back."

"Fuck yeah, it is!" Samara replied, and her voice trembled because of her tears, but there was no hesitation in her message. And Nadia ground into him all the harder, rocking herself against his mighty body even as she squeezed Vanessa around the waist... until her mother teasingly reached up to twirl her fingers into her hair as she cleared her throat and put up a trembling smirk, saying pleasantly: "Now we can be Daddy's favorite bitches, his tastier pieces of meat, his sturdiest toys..."

And Samara and Nadia shivered at that, not in horror but in delight, in bliss, in eagerness to turn that thought into reality. The three goddesses traded a look, and they fought back the tears in favor of giving him gazes that dripped with intent, with sensuality, with hunger. The tears on their cheeks and the long dark streaks of running mascara only made them even more beautiful as their hot breaths washed over his muscles and their hands ran adoringly down his hulking build. They shifted around slightly, until they stood shoulder to shoulder, with Vanessa in the middle, and the goddess leaned down and let her demonic tongue lol out, stretching longer and longer and dripping in hot, balsam-like drool as she began to slowly, adoringly lick at his monstrous shaft, the long appendage coiling slowly around the tremendous girth and squeezing, stroking, milking. "You've had that tongue for what, two minutes...? And of course you already know exactly how to use it." Killer commented, smirking in entertainment as he threw his head back with a sigh of pleasure, idly resting his hands on Samara and Nadia's heads as they breathed hard and leaned forwards to mouth and worship him, shivering in delight beneath him as their tongues began to work alongside their mother's. "Oh, but this is part of why I'm back..." Vanessa casually said, her tone pleasant and naturally sensual as she slowly dropped down onto her knees, great quads flexing gloriously and KO tattoo shifting, with the lion-K seeming to almost leap off her skin with how her muscles bulged. "I've not forgotten my role, Daddy... to give you plenty of beautiful daughters. To raise them to love and worship their God Daddy... and to teach them how to properly service Daddy's cock..." She grinned up at him, then gazed to the side a little as Nadia slowly knelled as well, and she reached over to touch the large KO mark on her thigh. Nadia, Vanessa, and Samara: Killer looked down at them with a rumble of delight, loving the tattoos and marks on them, their matching KO symbols standing out gloriously on their thighs. "Take Nadia, in particular..." Vanessa teased, turning sideways to rapidly kiss her daughter's cheek. "I'm sure there are a thing or two I can still teach her about sucking Daddy's gigantic cock... and it's a luck we are three, because you're certainly more than big enough for us to share..."

"In fact, I think we need to give you more daughters, fast." Samara added, and Killer rumbled in delight at that, licking his muzzle and squeezing a little harder into their skulls as his monstrous black cock flexed and slapped into their faces with a loud, meaty thud as it jumped up with its excess vigor. Slimy with their drool and with the thick, dense, hypervirile dark sludge that he endlessly leaked and oozed, the behemoth godcock cast a terrible shadow on all three goddesses, even as Nadia growled a little and leaned down to kiss and mouth the fat, colossal head of it, rumbling: "Bring it on, mom... we'll see who can better serve this monster..."

"Any time, my sweet... mom will teach you good. And maybe I'll want to taste my pretty little girls, too..." Vanessa breathed, but Killer immediately moved his hand from Nadia's head to hers, grabbing her skull hard enough to make it creak as he yanked her back and forced her to look up as he softly, amusedly scolded: "Don't you get ahead of yourself now, babe... they are not yours. They are mine. You are all mine. My property, toys for my amusement, meat for my hungers. I'll decide if you toys get to play with each other. If you are lucky I'll let you suck my cum out of their asses after I'm done devastating them."

"Yes, Master...we are all yours, and yours alone. And that's exactly how it must be." Vanessa immediately said, smiling adoringly up at him and only hissing in bliss when her collar glowed with incandescent, ferocious heat and made her neck sizzle like a steak, which clamping even harder on her throat, choking her slightly. "Thank you, Master... so generous and mighty."

"Besides, as good and eager a whore you are, you really can't deal with my cock, you never had a deep enough throat. You are just lucky that I enjoy the feeling and sounds of you bitches choking on my cock too much to kick you out. Let the little one learn on her own... the more she struggles, the more fun I have." He reached down to gently stroke Nadia's hair out of her face, and the young goddess smiled at him brightly, eyes glowing with lust and love as she loudly, messily slurped on the thick black sludge on his immense shaft, making him nod in approval. "That's right, Nadia... loud and messy."

He closed his eyes, smiling softly and relaxing for a few delicious moments, his great, throbbing shaft resting heavily on top of their faces as they ducked beneath it and ground their features against the thick, pulsing veins and the hot, dense and hypervirile sludge. He wanted nothing more than the chance to just lay down in one of the couches and spend the day with them, but he had not forgotten Alexis, Ira and Vesta that were out there, at the Center of Existence, holding the front and waiting for him. He had kept them waiting more than enough.

"As much as I'd like to continue this... conversation... I really need to go." Killer quietly said, and Samara looked up at him with a snort and a roll of her eyes, licking her lips clean of his potent essence before shaking her head as she remarked: "Dad, you are a dork. Where you need to go, we need to go. Where you go, we follow. Where you fight, we fight."

"We are one family. And we are your property and your weapons." Vanessa confirmed, before taking one last long, adoring, sloppy lap at his titanic black shaft. "Your war is our war. Besides, from the memories you passed on to me, Alexis looks like one hell of a mistress to follow and serve. I absolutely want to see what it is like to be caught right in the middle, between you and her."

"Uhhh." Killer commented, grinning widely and waving one hand to underline how ambitious that idea was on her part, but Vanessa was fully aware of it, and only nodded with a little smirk of her own as she straightened. Energy crackled around her, and for a moment it was like serpents of black smoke and fluids were coiling around her body, before they dissolved into motes and flames, leaving behind a corset of black armour, with silvery plates covering the packs of her abs. Pauldrons shaped like feral lion heads partially covered her muscular shoulders, and dark plates covered her hips, with another protecting her groin, otherwise covered only by a leather loincloth. Boots of heavy dark metal plating fed into other segmented plates that protected her thighs, halfway up her powerful quads.

"Just tell us the direction in which you want us to destroy, Daddy, and then pull on the reins when you want us to stop. We'll keep crushing everything in our way until then." Nadia said, grinning widely and once again surprising Killer with her eagerness and confidence: behind her angelic smile, she was fire and destruction, wild and savage. Her corset hardened into a set of battle armor not unlike that of her mother, and a helmet of solidified darkness, with great horns and wing-like blades, crowned her head. Her raven hair formed in a long ponytail which hang from the back of her helmet, and her mighty wings became even more imposing as dark, blade-like plates of metal covered them, with the dark feathers turning into long, terrible tongues of flame. And Samara grinned as she crossed her mighty arms, terrible black gauntlets covering her hands and segmented plates of dark metal, jutting with terrifying spikes and blades, wrapped up along her arms, leaving her huge biceps proudly exposed. The crimson straps and belts wrapped tightly over her perfect musculature now glowed with energy and looked metallic, armoring her while leaving much of her skin proudly exposed. A helmet protected her forehead and cheeks, framing her burning emerald eyes and crowning her head with a majestic set of curved blades, with the long ponytail of her hair falling down over her back. She too had proud, massive angel wings, incandescent and ethereal like flames but at the same time wrapped in heavy plates of dark metal. "The time has come, daddy. Your final Ascension. Your Reign begins today, when the ancient gods and the ancient laws are finally crushed under your heel and replaced by your Command."

Killer nodded, a shudder of impatience and tension and sheer excessive vigor running down his spine as he idly summoned his own battle armor, forcing the unkillable but enslaved god Deimos, personification of Fear, into morphing into plates of solid dark metal. Heavy pauldrons covered his shoulders, and his hulking torso became fully enclosed in a heavy and wonderfully chiseled armor that accurately replicated the profile of his prodigious musculature. It mimicked his old battle armor, the mortal one that he used to wear as General of Kesteven's forces, and so it had the very same black fur lining the neck. And not just some fur, but the hide he peeled off the corpse of Dark, his ancient enemy. For a moment he thought back to those days, when the Northlands were worried by an armada of tanks, artillery pieces, helicopters and soldiers led by general Dark. Back then they had been so dangerous, and stopping them had been so crucial and difficult... and now Killer couldn't even remember why it had been that complex. His power now was such that he could have literally snorted and blown the whole armada into little more than vapor. His enemies now included the most ancient of divinities, creature of such power and knowledge to be simply indescribable. Their power was unfathomable, and yet he was more than ready to grapple with them, just as back in the day he had wrestled against Dark until he had destroyed his army and killed him in duel.

Killer's heavy combat boots left deep and incandescent footprints in the marble, turning the solid stone into liquid magma, and every step he moved sent ripples of terrifying power through the vast emptiness of space, rattling the armoured space station like it was nothing but a toy, a leaf caught in a storm. He slowly flexed his fingers, completely clad into perfectly segmented armor plate, his heavy gauntlets accommodating his movements so incredibly smoothly that it felt like they were ethereal. He missed the familiar weight of Wyvern, as his sword was still in Alexis's hands, but he did not need anything more than his bare hands to rip apart whatever he wanted. He began by smashing a breach in the armored wall of the space fortress, using his psychic force to bend the meters-thick steel plates like they were nothing but sheets of paper. His other Disciples and the Praetorians waited outside, and in seeing him wearing his full combat armor they immediately understood that the time for the great battle had arrived. Mriya, Elaine and the others welcomed Nadia and Vanessa, hugging them and letting them know that whoever wore Killer's collar was a friend, a sister... a lover. Given their complete and very evident enthusiasm and devotion to their father, Vanessa and Nadia immediately gained the approval of the other Disciples, and Killer was very glad of it, just as he was happy to see all of the girls quickly covering their bodies with their combat armors, preparing for the war that would end all wars. The last great clash.

The huge male hesitated for just a brief moment, turning around to look at the damaged space station, floating ominously above the ruined, devastated Earth. All of the satellites that had protected the Valhalla fortress had been disintegrated and all of the mines had exploded, leaving behind a vast cloud of small metal fragments and assorted junk that floated all around the space station.

"What do we do with that piece of scrap...?" Vanessa teasingly asked, jerking her head in the direction of the silent, abandoned hulk of Valhalla. Killer's Disciples had been thorough and had cleared every corner of the fortress, slaughtering everyone on board. The Raja Alliance was no more: all what remained was Cerberus, and that colossal, incomplete monstrosity.

"With your permission, Daddy, I claim first dibs on that piece of crap. It has been my prison for way too long." Nadia intervened, floating up to his side, and the huge male nodded and softly said: "It's all yours."

"Thank you, Daddy." The goddess said, smiling softly and lazily stretching one arm towards the gigantic space station, electricity crackling around her huge muscles as she made an easy crushing gesture, and the colossus of steel shuddered violently and then began to rapidly shrink smaller and smaller, at the same time floating humbly towards her palm. Within mere instants, the RA's greatest war machine was reduced to the size of a little trinket, which the goddess effortlessly took between the tips of two fingers, studying it for a moment with a smirk of vengeful satisfaction. "I hope I get the chance to bury Cerberus into this little toy, and carry him around like the tiny pipsqueak he is."

"I promise you, in a way or another I'll give you that chance." Killer said, and the female grinned widely and nodded, breathing: "I know. And that's part of why you are the best of the best."

The other Disciples and Praetorians lined up in front of him, all goddesses wearing their battle armor, their eyes burning with power and eagerness and bloodlust as they waited for his orders... and Killer took a moment to admire their stunning, unmatched beauty and the terrifying, unfathomable power they possessed, as the universe helplessly trembled and rippled around them, cowering and shaking before their might, as distant planets literally cracked and then broke into dust and fragments that drifted helplessly away, washed away by the brutal shockwaves of sheer energy that the goddesses radiated. Electricity crackled around them, tearing through space like freak thunderbolts through a stormy sky, and Killer couldn't help but lick his lips slowly. They were perfect, and omnipotent, and spectacular... and they were his. They were the true measure of his power: the fact that they adored him and served him and were always ready to do literally everything he might ask of them was the true definition of omnipotence.

"Let's get this over with." He said, and the goddesses nodded and flexed, ready for battle. He closed his eyes, focusing on the distant energy signatures of what remained of the Swarm, and he teleported them all right in the middle of that fleet of battleships full of divinities and their disciples.

When Killer's eyes opened, he was floating in a whole different area of space, and the first thing he saw was the dark, cracked dome that protected the Center of Existence. For a moment, he could only stare in amazement at the titanic sizes of that bubble of impenetrable darkness, immense and ominous, stretching for countless light years in every direction. And his eyes went up towards the large wound in that impenetrable wall of Black Holes, where an unrivalled, unprecedented force had plucked Black Holes out of place like they were pebbles. Alexis had smashed her way inside that supernatural fortress, and the thought of what she had done was simply mind-blowing. There was no measuring, no describing the kind of strength required for that feat... and the only thing more exciting than knowing that she was capable of such enterprise was the awareness that he could do it too.

It was only after a moment that he noticed the massive star battleships that silently sailed past him on all sides, above and beneath him. They were right in the middle of the Swarm, in the middle of an ominous darkness that was only broken here and there by the glowing, incandescent plasma thrusters of the starships. There was one battleship floating just a few miles to his left... and at his current, titanic sizes that meant that it was within slapping range. He swatted it out of existence like a fly, disintegrating the vessel into a ball of nuclear fire and ignoring the broadsides coming from all other battleships, unfazed by the missiles and the bolts of anti-matter that crashed into his shoulder and chest and legs.

Nadia stormed in with a snarl, lashing out one arm while her eyes burned with ferocity and power, and a ripple of her energies tore through space like a blade, dissolving the incoming missiles before any could hit Killer again, and the great battleships that had fired those broadsides were slammed around like corks on a raging sea. "Nobody touches my father!" The goddess snarled, and her eyes flashed with fury as she focused on the nearest of the star battleships, her psychic rage freezing the wildly-spinning, out of control ship in midair, absurdly stopping all motion even as the gigantic plasma thrusters did their best to push the starship away from her. "Grovel before your God, you bugs!" She commanded, and the battleship was forced to literally bow, its miles-long hull of alien, adamantine metal alloys bending in half like it was a toy of rubber. The divinities and disciples traveling on the great vessel rushed out of the groaning, dying ship as the hull was further twisted, bent into a pretzel and finally shredded into nothing but fragments of metal and junk. Ice began to spread over her muscular arm, encasing it as the puny gods attempted to fight back, but the goddess only looked down at the freezing mist with mild interest, smirking as she idly flexed and let the explosive bulging of her bicep shatter the ice like it wasn't even there at all. Bolts of electricity and balls of fire crashed uselessly into her chest as she floated towards the group of helpless divinities, and they broke ranks and vainly attempted to flee from her as she reached out as if to catch gnats. And, to their horror, that's what they were to her, as she snatched a handful of gods and disciples and watched them squirm in her hand, grinning as they vainly pushed against her fingers, not even budging them. "For you, daddy...!" She eagerly said, before grabbing one of his enormous biceps, crushing her preys against his hard, invulnerable muscle and snickering as they burst apart like bubble wrap, popping wetly and staining his arm with their blood and gore. A little shudder of pleasure traveled through Killer's hulking form as the energies of those alien divinities was greedily absorbed within him, and Nadia licked her lips and massaged his huge bicep as he stretched out his arm and effortlessly gripped the fleeting gods in a psychic grip, tossing them through a portal without them even having the time to notice. The exit of the portal opened right in front of his face, and the unfortunate gods had just enough time to shriek as they emerged from it only to face their omnipotent enemy. Killer leaned forwards with a growl and took them in his mouth, deadly fangs closing on them as they shrieked and desperately attempted to push back against his teeth. In a mere instant they were crushed out of existence and ground into liquid between his teeth, making him rumble in dark pleasure as he commanded: "Destroy them all!"

The other goddesses were already doing exactly that, spreading out across the great fleet of warships and disintegrating them in rapid succession. It was crucial to erase the Swarm from existence before Cerberus and Thanathos had a chance to turn the other gods into their food,

Adrasthea plucked the great warships out of the sky like they were nothing but toy models, a grin on her muzzle as she turned the star destroyers into exactly that, her fingers crackling with energy that she discarded into the great vessels, frying their electronics and burning every living being within them into nothing but ashes. She collected the empty, silent hulks, and Killer couldn't help but grin at that, or at the sight of Vanessa cackling as she smashed her fist through the armored hulls of titanic and alien alloys, breaking battleships in half like they were twigs, digging inside them to pluck out the terrified, outmatched gods that were hidden inside the traveling fortresses. She slammed handfuls of them into her muscular thigh, crushing them directly against her KO tattoo, which greedily drank of their blood and gore and fed their energy directly to Killer.

Mriya, Elaine, Pamela, Nikita, Vicky, Gaia and all the others made short work of those great vessels and the gods in them, effortlessly erasing a whole Era of history: those were the Creators and the Destroyers who had shaped the universes as they knew them, and yet now they were little more than toys, helpless and doomed. Killer looked up to see the faint, slightly blue lights of the plasma thrusters of the other space battleships ahead of them, and realized that they were rapidly vanishing in the darkness, becoming invisible even to his energy-vision. He gritted his fangs with a snarl and rushed forwards, fearing that they might be using portals to escape, to reach Cerberus and Thanathos... but as soon as he moved forwards he felt a terrible force burdening down on him, making him wheeze as the air was squeezed out of his lungs and his chest crushed with such force that his ribs creaked audibly. He felt heavy and slow, his movements becoming slower and ridiculously difficult, his muscles bulging explosively as he struggled against a gravity force that suddenly seemed millions of times higher than normal.

The goddess felt it too, clearly and horribly, their bodies suddenly dragging them down like anchors, refusing to properly respond to their minds' commands... and at the same time the darkness around them became even more ominous and complete. The warships around them rippled and deformed like they were made of water, leaving them staring in confusion as they were all crumpled and crushed like pieces of paper, squished into a liquid pulp of molten metal that was somehow sucked down through space, flowing all in the same direction. Billions of tons of steel and alien alloys rushed down towards an area of space that was completely black and apparently empty, and at the same time the gravity force continued to increase, yanking them downwards much in the same way. Killer and the goddesses resisted, muscles bulging as they pulled in the opposite direction, gritting their fangs and fighting against that impossible force.

Killer hissed and did his best to prepare for combat as he saw the shapeless clouds of molten metal vanishing into the darkness: a gigantic black hole had just swallowed all of those ships right in front of them, and now the supermassive core was rushing against them. His eyes opened wide as he realized that the Black Hole was somehow ensnared by great, enormous appendages of mutant, ever-evolving flesh and muscle, the tendrils being the extremity of an immense, endless tentacle of which he couldn't see the root.

The tentacle whip-lashed against them with brutal force, tearing through Space at amazing speed and dissolving countless Light Years of galaxies, nebula and worlds, devouring every asteroid, every planed, every star it met on its path. It was a terrifying sight, like a blade was tearing apart the very fabric of reality, ripping the universe apart and deforming what was left of it, yanking entire worlds out of place, dragging stars around like they were nothing but marbles. It looked like a gigantic eraser was cancelling part of Existence, and the closer it got to them, the more vicious the gravity force became, dragging them towards that titanic tentacle. Killer closed his eyes and allowed his energies to explode through the floodgates, growing rapidly, ten, one hundred times larger in the space of a blink, and he crossed his arms ahead of him, rushing against the black hole and grunting as it rammed into him with indescribable force, punching him backwards and at the same time yanking him hard forwards, making him cough blood and let out a growl of agony as he felt like his skeleton would rip out of his skin.

He grunted in shock and pain as the Black Hole greedily yanked him forwards and his face collided violently with the black core, while his gauntlets and arm plates broke apart, beginning to warp out of shape as large motes of dark energy were sucked away, greedily yanked into the supermassive core.

Killer hissed in pain as he tried to push himself away from that nightmarish core, and his spine creaked, threatening to snap like a twig, before he tore one arm free and balled his massive fist, smashing it brutally down against the Black Hole, smacking into the superdense core and cracking it apart even as the gravity force made him cry out in pain, threatening to crush his hand as flat as a pancake, the bones in his fingers nearly crumbling.

He hurled himself backwards, away from that nightmarish dark sphere, and Pamela and Nikita sprinted forwards and seized him by the shoulder and arm, dragging him back as the pulsing, damaged Black Hole attempted to suck him in. The black hole devoured every bit of matter that it met on its path, filling up the cracks that Killer had caused and seeming to pulse as its own terrifying mass caused it to implode and shrink smaller, its density increasing even further and with it its mass, making its gravity pull even more atrocious. But the terrible force that threatened to crush Killer's chest and cave it inwards didn't come from one single direction, no... he took a moment to realize it, but equally terrible forces were gripping him and yanking viciously from all sides at once, making him feel like his limbs would tear off and his very skin would be torn off his muscles. The darkness around them had turned even more complete and terrible, and the Swarm seemed to have entirely dissolved. There had been hundreds of ships still, when they had teleported in, but now there seemed to be none left... and they realized, in a mix of awe and horror, that there were many other immense black hole-tentacles, whip-lashing out through space and ripping reality apart, leaving behind vast swathes of true, terrible emptiness.

The terrifying appendages swung viciously against them, and Killer lost sight of his Disciples as several massive tentacles singled him out, lashing against him from either side. Instinctively, he spread his powerful arms wide and braced for impact, his hands clenching into fists as his gauntlets regenerated and long, terrible blades emerged from his knuckles to impale the incoming tentacles. Terrible fields of gravity force crashed into him long before the tentacles did, and that ethereal but almighty grip threatened at once to pull him apart and crush him as flat as a pancake. He grunted in agony, wheezing breathlessly as his chest was compressed with ferocious force, but still punched outwards as hard as he could, smacking two of the incoming tentacles and burying his dark blades right through them. He immediately wrestled against the colossal tentacles, dragging his fists forwards and ripping long, large, ugly wounds through the muscular appendages, even as the dark cores of the Black Holes slammed into him like morning stars. They had no spikes, but their weight and mass was such that he coughed up blood, wheezing as they smashed into him with apocalyptic force, sending ripples through space and causing distant planets to rattle as they cracked and shifted out of their orbits. Killer flexed one enormous arm, muscles bulging explosively and ripping through his own skin in places, his eyes glowing solid sapphire as he tore his fist-blades down through one tentacle, slicing it open for countless miles, shredding muscle and meat... but the gigantic appendage only erupted forth with a deluge of thick, hyperpotent corruption, the dark fluid festering with terrifying amounts of colossal, evolved parasites. They were enormous, larger than the Horrors that had devastated Earth, and far more powerful and savagely, uncontrollably hungry, and Killer tore his fist back with a grunt of pain and frustration, gritting his fangs as uncountable monsters tore their ways out of the tentacle, swarming forward like locusts just as the tentacles reared upwards and yanked his whole body forwards through space, throwing him right among the parasites. Those evolved Horrors snapped their tremendous jaws against him, their massive bodies bulging with enormous, grotesque muscles and jutting with an indescribable multitude of tentacles and pestilent, sick growths of their own. The first of the group threw himself forwards with a roar, dropping his spiked shoulder and charging into Killer like a brute, an animal, and the liger grunted and reached up to catch the gigantic fist before it could smash into his face. The beast snarled mindlessly, wrestling him back as incandescent, toxic drool flew from its oversized jaws as they snapped hungrily, mere inches away from Killer's face. The liger gritted his fangs and squeezed hard down on the massive, spiked fist, ignoring the ragged blades and ridges cutting into his fingers and instead focusing on the sound of crumbling bone as the Horror's hand caved inwards and then deflated horribly, becoming flat and weak and dysfunctional as Killer crushed it into pulp. Dark tentacles immediately lashed forwards from the Horror's body, whipping viciously into him and making him howl in pain as the darkness tore deep into him, ripping wide wounds into his flesh and sapping enormous amounts of energy out of his body. Instinctively, Killer retreated from that assault, his back arching violently as his own tentacles burst out of his muscles and arched high up into the darkness around him, jutting with cruel bone spikes and ending in savage "heads" with horrible, devastating jaws. They dived on the Horror from all sides at once, biting into its massive body and viciously ripping off large chunks of it, biting into its mutant flesh again and again and again, cracking bones like twigs and tearing off huge chunks of festering, corrupted meat, trying to outpace the Horror's terrifying regeneration and evolution. The beast hissed in some sort of savage delight even as it was ripped into shreds, and its hideous body flexed, evolved, regenerated, growing even further, muscles bulging larger and even more powerful as it reached up and attempted to grapple with Killer, wrestling him and devouring his force. Other massive Horrors piled up on him from all sides, and the liger grunted in pain as terrible talons dug into his legs, his arms, his chest, clanging whenever they struck into his armour but effortlessly cutting deep into the dark metal, causing Deimos to shriek in agony and denial somewhere inside Killer's mind. The god did his best to ignore that pain and that additional distraction, and he viciously grabbed the sides of the first Horror clinging and clawing into him. The liger's hands squeezed with destructive power, crushing the Horror's waist with a splatter of dark gunk and festering, rotting meat, before large tentacles emerged from Killer's wrist and stabbed savagely into the damaged Horror, tearing through him and then beginning to spin and twist rapidly, with brutal force, maiming and destroying, liquefying the flesh of the great parasitic beast in a gruesome splatter of blood and black gunk. The Horror seemed to simply explode, torn into small shreds of gore as Killer's tentacles twisted together, jutting with countless blades and great bone spikes, and the liger whip-lashed those mighty appendages right into the confused mass of giant, herculean bodies piling up on him. One Horror was sawed in two at the waist, another was ripped in half from groin to shoulder, others were sent falling through the emptiness of space, bleeding corruption and spilling off their insides, but darkness seemed to endlessly spawn even more of those monstrosities. Killer looked up as one of the colossal beasts charged directly against his head, lashing out with gigantic, oversized hands in which every finger was actually a long, curved sabre of bone, but one huge glowing arrow shot between them and caught the Horror right in the small, ugly face, ripping right through it and blowing an even larger hole in the back of its skull.

The beast snarled in rage more than pain, his head already evolving around the damage, splitting into two as larger, hideous eyes opened on those bloody, brand-new skulls. "Keep the Horrors away from the King!" Pamela roared from somewhere to his right side, and another three arrows slammed into the beast, all in the same instant, blowing it backwards like a toy as thick, dense corruption burst out of the wounds.

Valery had already nocked three more spear-sized arrows, and Killer couldn't help but gaze in her direction as she swiftly, elegantly pulled back the ethereal, glowing string of her enormous longbow, while energy crackled loudly around the harpoon-like arrow tips. Triple composite arms of her bow groaned as they reached the maximum tension, and when she let go the arrows cracked through space like supernatural lightning bolts, crashing into another Horror and blowing him away before exploding, ripping the beast apart. It immediately began to regenerate and evolve into something even larger and stronger, but Pamela had already swung out her hybrid-spear and the massive blade hacked into the damaged body and ripped it in half, smashing the bleeding halves far away from her.

"How do we stop them?" Elaine asked as she pulled up by her father's side, easily slinging her monstrous auto-shotgun up and blasting out a burst of heavy explosive rounds, ripping one Horror apart and forcing the others to scatter somewhat, opening a tiny breach for Killer to exploit, just as Kimera and Adrasthea pulled up on his other side, the first cocking back her monstrous halberd and the second pushing forwards with her heavy, formidable shield and her long, agile spear.

Killer tried to think rapidly and provide good advice, but there was no real good way to face those beasts: they were super-evolved parasites that would only absorb any attack based on magic and energy, and they had terrifying regenerative powers that made them almost unkillable. Telekinetic attacks were pretty effective, but actual psychic assaults were almost useless because the Horrors were almost mindless creatures, guided by instinct more than by brains. There was little to no consciousness to attack and certainly no feelings they could exploit. The Horrors were full of nothing but fury and hunger, so trying to invade their minds only resulted in pain for those who tried. Physical contact with them was just as dangerous since their corruption was worse than Unworld residue: it destroyed everything it touched, turning matter into rotten pulp if not into loose energy, making it easier for the Horror to absorb it all. Even striking against them with physical strength was dangerous: their infectious, pestilent bodies would try to devour them alive. "Hit them quickly and continuously, don't give them a chance to regenerate and evolve properly. Use telekinetic attacks whenever possible; make sure to keep them at range." Killer urgently instructed. "Don't let them grapple you for long, or they will bleed you dry of all your energies. Hit, retreat, hit again!"

Adrasthea nodded, then sprinted forwards into the breach in the ranks of the horde, her eyes glowing as she telekinetically grabbed several of the beasts and hurled them back against their brethren, sending enormous bodies sprawling into the darkness. She lashed out with her shield, smacking another beast in the jaws and knocking it back before she leaned forth and stabbed her spear through its chest. She moved with the speed of light and the grace of water, her spear cutting through mutant flesh and adamantine muscles like they were just thin air, and as soon as she brought her weapon back she lunged forwards again, tearing through one of the Horror's eyes and across its entire skull.

Killer and Kimera followed, charging in and chopping the beasts into pieces, Killer's eyes burning with terrible power as his tentacles whip-lashed through the horde and stabbed brutally into the beasts, biting off huge chunks of dark meat and muscle. He let his own tremendous corruption ooze out of his tentacles, leaking in thick, dense ropes that clung to everything they touched and rapidly began to corrode and rot and dissolve it, crackling with electricity as they sucked up all energy at the same time. They could barely see each other in the tremendous, complete darkness that surrounded them like a physical thing, heavy and dense. It felt like they weren't even moving, and the Horrors only became visible at the very last moment, when they leapt against them like packs of wolves. The tremendous force of the Black Holes winging viciously against them was such that were dragged through space like toys, their bodies groaning and cracking audibly as those terrifying fields of gravity yanked on their limbs and made every single movement a torture... and much as Killer and the others kept advancing, there was no sign of the Swarm and its battleships. It was increasingly, painfully obvious that the entire Swarm had been consumed, devoured by the Black Holes... and that made Killer grimace in horror and rage as his mind began to ask questions about those colossal tentacles, so easily able to swing supermassive Black Holes around like they were nothing but weapons, no more and no less. Where did the tentacles and the Horrors come from...? The answer was obvious, but terrifying.

Energy crackled violently to his right, illuminating the darkness for a brief instant, before the Black Holes again consumed every last ray of light, and he had barely enough time to see a group of Horrors smashing into Adrasthea's shield, clawing into it and into the dragoness's body even as the goddess danced between them, swiftly stabbing her spear through one, then sweeping it down low, chopping the legs off from under several more... but the Horrors kept coming, and whenever their bodies were torn apart, corruption burst thickly out of them, arching in midair in ropes that looked like they were individually sentient since they shot past the edges of the large shield and stabbed into her hips, making her hiss in agony. Killer charged in her direction, blindly rushing into the fight, but a titanic field of crushing gravity force slammed into him and knocked him around like a toy, yanking him out of course and swinging him around for countless light years. In the complete darkness, he lost track of his position and that of the others... and then the dark core of the black hole smashed into him like an apocalyptic fist, making him vomit blood as the impact dented his chest inwards. His eyes glowed with fury as he reached forwards to grab the great, superdense core, and he ignored the terrible heat that burned through his gauntlets and into his flesh, stubbornly grabbing the Black Hole and wrestling with the tentacle to rip it out of the mutant muscle of the giant appendage. Hordes of Horrors charged into him, tackling him at the waist and ripping their teeth and talons into his arms, but Killer only roared and flexed, yanking back with all his strength until the Black Hole ripped free with a great gush of corruption and bloody, pulped gore. Holding the Black Hole in his hands was a torment, as the great core attracted his fingers in with a force that made it feel like his arms would rip off at the shoulders, but still the titan gritted his fangs in a snarling grin, tearing the Black Hole into two halves and clutching them in his fists. The Horrors closer to him hissed and glared at his hands with sudden fear, retreating away from him, but before they could get to a safe distance he had already lashed out into their ranks, punching through bodies and causing all other beasts nearby to be drawn violently against his knuckles. He stuck into them again and again and again, growling in vicious satisfaction as the force of the Black Holes combined with his monstrous strength, deforming and destroying, warping the bodies of the Horrors until their mutant flesh was completely crushed into pulp and absorbed into his fingers.

Killer looked upwards, knowing that there was something terrible looking down at them and toying with them in that way, and he formed a large sphere of light into his hand, making it more luminous than any sun before hurling it high above, illuminating that area of space.

The light did not last long, because too many Black Holes greedily devoured it, warping the very reality all around them, but for a moment they were given a clear vision of their enemy... and the contours of the titanic monstrosity somehow burned themselves into their minds in a way that allowed them to see, even when the dense, "liquid" darkness closed on them all once more.

The first thing they saw was eyes. Countless immense eyes, larger than planets, staring down at them with cruel glee. The light reflected into them, taking on the color of fire, and the sheer number of eyes, and the distance from them to the furthest ones, gave them a measure of the monster's grotesque, impossible sizes. Nothing of the old Cerberus remained, nothing of his beauty, nothing of his vain care for his body, yet the cruel arrogance in those hideous eyes was easily recognizable. The insane, ambitious mortal-god had truly and recklessly embraced Killer's powers and allowed them to rampage without limits: he had grown to simply fearsome proportions and now he towered in front of the dark sphere protecting the Center of Existence, looming over it and causing that terrifying, endless darkness. Cerberus seemed to have no legs, replaced instead by a twisting mass of colossal tentacles that seemed to stretch across the whole of space, reaching further away than Killer could see before the darkness settled once more. Many of those colossal tentacles clutched a Black Hole at their extremity, which made them all the more destructive, dragging entire worlds and stars to their end, sucking them in and bringing all of their energies right to the monstrous, godless creature. The titanic appendages whip-lashed through space, deliberately aiming for areas of the sky rich of stars and planets and nebulas and tearing through them, dragging all those worlds, all those uncountable trillions of tons of matter into oblivion, feeding Cerberus with new mass and new energy, sustaining his growth and his endless, uncontrollable evolution. The Swarm had been all too quickly sucked up, devoured in a few big bites, cancelled from existence like it had never existed at all, and now Cerberus had the power of literally thousands of Gods pumping in his veins, and all the mass and energy of uncountable stars and worlds. And he was going to suck even Killer and his Disciples in, if they gave him that chance.

Some of the beast's tentacles were wrapped over the solid dark dome that protected the Well of Eternity, and many were pushing into the large breach that Alexis had punched in it. From that vulnerable area, Cerberus had taken possession of the first few Black Holes, absorbing their superdense mass and the incredible amounts of energy they restrained, and he had continued to grow larger and stronger ever since. His tentacles were plucking out other Black Holes from the barrier, as if yanking bricks out of a damaged wall. The upper body of the galactic titan was incredibly massive, a hulking colossus of grotesquely enormous muscles, with shoulders that literally dwarfed galaxies and biceps that bulged too enormously to be contained within a single universe. He was hideous and rotten, looking more like a corpse than anything else, his flesh decaying and ripping apart in large purulent wounds festering with indescribable, terrifying epidemics, but none of it was a cause of weakness. The tremendous sickness of his flesh was just a furnace creating new and better life, monstrous but indescribably resilient, corruptive and eternal, festering, parasitic life that absorbed everything else and devoured it, changing, warping, rebuilding, evolving. Tumors and chaotic growths pulsed all over his form, thrumming with power, consuming his body yet making him more and more powerful with every passing instant. Every great infection, every terrible plague, every wound and tumor was nothing but a factory of further corruption, a titanic engine working to assimilate everything and everyone that the greedy tentacles scooped up by whip-lashing across the galaxies. He was a nightmare, unfathomable and limitless, and even though the Evolution within him was literally consuming every inch of his body to feed its expansion, its ability to infect other distant universes, Cerberus only grew stronger during the process. He was going to die, eventually, but the Power within him, the titanic, endless power of Evolution that he had stolen, in imperfect form, out of Killer, was not going to stop. It would use his corpse as a base, as a springboard for further expansion.

Cerberus's entire body and even his long, almighty, endless tentacles were hives, inhabited by an impossible, fearsome number of rapidly developing parasites. His rotting meat, even his muscles, so powerful and yet so horribly corroded by beasts that devoured him from the inside, were home to indescribable numbers of cocoons and cells and eggs in which more and more Horrors rapidly developed. The beasts that Killer and his Disciples were fighting were nothing other than the result of the rapid and overwhelming evolution and growth of Cerberus's powers: the sperm-like parasites that had been consuming him now had evolved and grown into fully fledged Horrors, immense and almighty and hypervirile, each one able to spread its corruption forever, without limits. Every last parasite was now a titan, a godless Creator... more powerful and more dangerous than ever, and terribly difficult to actually kill.

As soon as the eggs hatched, the parasites began to eat Cerberus's flesh, consuming him, digging tunnels in his muscles and in his flesh, tormenting even his face, so much so that his cheeks were no more, his eyes were no more: his head was reduced to a skeleton, terrible and deformed by saberteeth and by jaws of terrible, grotesque proportions and power. Horrors swarmed out of his ripped-open cheeks, while countless other "eggs" were visible under what little was left of his skin, which looked like parchment but was actually harder than any metallic alloy, than any diamond. Even in its ruin, his hide had turned adamantine and invulnerable, and all damage came from within, from where the insatiable parasites had tunneled their way out of his body to swarm out towards distant universes to colonize. Cerberus was a festering corpse: dead and rotting, yet more alive and powerful and terrible than ever. Ethereal flames burned in its otherwise empty sockets, while the ugly eyes they had seen grew chaotically all over his body, peeking open in tumors and gaping, infected wounds or even at the extremity of some of the countless tentacles of flesh and sentient corruption that jutted out of his form. The darkness caused by Cerberus's Black Holes and by his sheer, stars-eclipsing sizes was so total and dense that sounds were able to propagate through it: it truly was almost liquid in nature, and it slowed down their movements, like they were swimming in glue. The pressure, the heat, the density of the environment around them were all terrifying: Killer was reminded of his first entry into Hell, but this was far, far worse. More oppressive, more devastating. And horribly, all of it came from Cerberus: while the Black Holes wrecked havoc on their senses, even on their abilities to see and track energy signatures, the monster could see them with absolute clarity, and track them from all of his countless eyes. The godless beast grinned cruelly down at them, and somehow his immense fangs glowed clearly, shining bright even through the dense darkness. They could hear Cerberus's thundering laugh, both with their ears and with their minds, the beast's voice etching itself directly into their brains.

"As always, you are late, Killer. Always a bit too slow, always a bit too late. Despite how exceptional you are, despite all the chances that life has served to you on a silver plate, you are nothing but a failure. All you've ever been is a failure."

As Cerberus spoke, more eggs within him shattered, spluttering out great clouds of corruption and releasing more Horrors. There was a crackle of energy, almost like a lightning bolt, and for a moment light filled Existence, revealing the hideous, endless swarm of monstrous parasites rushing forwards... they were billions, maybe trillions, and more and more kept digging out of Cerberus's growing, swelling musculature.

Killer braced for impact, and he lashed out with a tangle of tentacles that caught the first Horror right through the eyes, blasting its head into pulp and ripping viciously within its body, twisting and grinding, jutting with cruel spikes and breaking him into shreds of corrupted meat even as Killer roared and swung his arm to the side, whip-lashing his tentacles and the shattered Horror through the incoming horde, swatting a great number of parasites out of his way. Others leapt against him, their bodies splitting down the middle to become hideous mouths that attempted to devour him whole, but the giant liger hook-kicked the first to charge forth, smashing its chest-mouth closed and sending tremendous teeth exploding in pieces in every direction, before he immediately moved on to the next one, howling in fury as he smashed his heavy fist through its torso, long blades of golden fire jutting out of his knuckles and ripping the Horror to shreds. Killer looked up in the sinister, terrifying light in the emptiness of the devastated space, and in the distance, where Cerberus's tentacles tore their ways through the barrier protecting the Center of Existence, he spotted another, different horde. His eyes narrowed, and focused, allowing him to see through the light years of distance, bridging the distance and making it meaningless... and he saw that the horde was composed of countless clones of the same terrible, divine being: a goddess, apparently. A blindfolded goddess, implacable and terrible, which continued to multiply and grow stronger even as countless Horrors swarmed against her copies and took several of them down.

The Harbinger, the guardian of the Cloister, the Servant of the Sisters of Fate.

"I was given none of your chances and advantages, Killer... but I was given brains, and ambitions. And my ancestors had put their own brains and ambitions into motion, working to build the weapons of my Ascension, generation after generation. Whole generations of my bloodline have sacrificed their everything to make sure that, one day, our family would rise above the arrogant, failed gods of the past. Including you!" Cerberus barked, and his voice caused the universes to shiver violently, the stars flickering in and out of view like candles trembling in the wind. "You had all the advantages, but you were blind, and stupid, and a coward. You couldn't recognize your own power. You couldn't believe the Old Stories... no, you lacked the vision. And so, despite your enormous advantages on me, you've always lagged ten steps behind me! For all of your life you, just like all other gods, have danced to my tune, and worked for me, and fought the battles I wanted you to fight! The powerful, glorious gods, tricked and played by a mere mortal! Turned into the instruments of a mortal's will!"

"We have fallen for your games and tricks, but that all ends today!" Killer furiously countered, roaring out to let his own voice rattle the universes and cause the whole of Existence to ripple helplessly, cowering in the shadows of the two titans. One of Cerberus's colossal tentacles swung viciously towards his head, but Killer caught it in his hands and wrestled it down, his muscles bulging explosively as he dragged the immense appendage in the opposite direction and used it to smash a whole line of Horrors out of the way. Their bodies visibly warped as the Black Hole sucked them in, nearly ripping the flesh off their bones, but even that was not enough to stop them, only causing their hideous bodies to further evolve, their displaced flesh and stretched-out muscles growing into extra limbs, into terrifying wing-jaws lined with colossal, deadly rib-spikes. The tentacle jerked violently, dragging him around, and hurling him right towards the blade-arms of a mutated, evolved Horror, but Killer swung his legs up and kicked hard into one of those blades, knocking it out of place and opening the way for his other foot to smash into the Horror's face, crunching it apart with a wet splat of corruption. It splashed onto his leg, burning like hell and seeming to burn through him down to the bone, but his body rapidly adapted and sucked that dark, toxic gunk in instead: it was, after all, something that originated from none other than him.

The Horror stumbled backwards as his spine broke at the height of the neck, but even that didn't even slow down the mutant creature, which immediately warped, his flesh bubbling and erupting with hideous pustules before new, terrible eyes ripped open with splatters of blood, staring at him from the end of a variety of flexible, almost tentacle-like growths. They glowed with cruel energy, blasting out beams of incandescent focused energy that tore through Killer's armor like it was made of butter... but his body once again resisted, greedily consuming those energies and sending them crackling down his arms instead, lightning bolts exploding out of his fingers and tearing deep into the thick, powerful tentacle, ripping large chunks of dark flesh and muscle right off. The Horror looked confused for a moment, but his mutant body did the thinking for him and began to regenerate around Killer's foot, trapping his boot into an ugly growth of muscle that seemed to be made up of countless ropes of flexible, hyper-elastic and adamantine metal. When Killer attempted to pull his foot back, the great chords of living metal kept him imprisoned, making him grunt in surprise and turn around... just before bones began to messily grow all through the metallic flesh, ripping into his foot and leg like incandescent stakes. Other Horrors assaulted him from all sides, seeing that he was vulnerable, but Killer's eyes glowed with terrible fury as he glared at the first of them, blasting him backwards with such terrifying force that his body basically exploded, pelting the others with thick splatters of gore and corruption as well as fragments of adamantine bone and metallic hide. The liger's tentacles stabbed out against the others, ripping through chests and limbs and then whip-lashing in different directions to tear the monsters apart, before swinging violently outwards, hammering the broken corpse against the other Horrors that followed. Killer twisted his body around as best he could and he gathered his free leg, snarling as he charged the blow as much as he possibly could before lashing out against the damaged monstrosity, hook-kicking the "neck" just beneath his trapped foot. His metallic boot ripped through the mutant's meat and muscle and bone, allowing him to break free... but the tentacle he had been grappling against arched high up, away from him, before swinging down with vengeful force. Planets, stars, entire systems were cancelled like stains from a sheet of paper, making Cerberus all the stronger even as he launched his assault, and Killer had barely enough time to send his own tentacles stabbing up into the titanic appendage, piercing deep through its meat and wrestling it back, away from him, at least enough to allow him to lash out with a fist that still clutched a large piece of Black Hole.

Cerberus grunted with the ferocity of that impact, his tentacle twisting angrily out of the way and flexing in pain... but even as an enormous chunk of mutant muscle came apart, swallowed into the superdense core in Killer's fingers, the titanic monstrosity lashed out with several more immense tentacles, laughing darkly. "It will certainly end today, but I'll be the one writing the last page." Cerberus said, grinning with terrible glee. "Just like all the pages before this one. I've been in control all along: when you fought the NWOA, you were actually fighting me. When you fought Riaku, it was because I armed him and sent him to war. I've played with all of you before, and I keep playing with you now. Indeed, it is becoming easier to do so!"

As if to prove his point, Cerberus swung up four of his gigantic tentacles, punching them not directly against Killer, but all around him, making him scream as he was half-crushed, half-pulled apart by the tremendous fields of reality-warping gravity force. His limbs moved outside his control, each one yanked inexorably towards one of the Black Holes, and his tentacles were dragged around in the same brutal way, some of them all but ripping apart, the thick muscle shredding painfully as large chunks were sucked into the supermassive cores. "As a mortal, I've controlled and manipulated the fate of the universes more than any god ever did before. Imagine what I will do now... or better still, what I will do once I've sucked the Well of Eternity dry!" Cerberus cackled, and Killer gritted his fangs in fury and hate, still barely able to believe that, every step of the way, Cerberus had been pulling the strings, using the ambitions and weaknesses of mortals, demons, angels and gods to his advantage. The New World Order Army had been nothing but a clandestine army in which unwise people had volunteered to serve, convinced to be fighting against the "tiger tyrants" of the North and instead unknowingly serving the most tyrannical of them all. Cerberus had recruited Riaku into the RA and used him to invade Glacial and Kesteven. It was because of that order that Alexis's parents had been killed and that Kesteven had been ravaged by war. Typhon's limitless ambitions had been weaponized by Cerberus supplying him with the technology to begin his reckless campaign of conquest. Satan had fallen for the exact same lure, moving war on Heaven because backed by Cerberus's technology. Taranis had followed the same siren... and Killer knew that all those wars, all those devastations, all the suffering, all the pain he had been through was just meant to slow him down, to confuse him, to keep him busy, to keep him looking in the wrong direction while Cerberus completed his preparations. Cerberus, as Lord Skyfall, with his messages broadcasted across Space, had revealed the ancient, crucial secret of the Anchors and set all gods, from all worlds, into motion. It was because of those messages that Elelyon had left Heaven, precipitating all other events. It was because of those messages that good, honest and caring gods like Elelyon had been put in a desperate position, fighting to protect the Anchors from far more numerous gods who cared about nothing other than furthering their power. That was how many good gods had died, and how Elelyon had nearly been ripped apart... and how, after the fall of the few ones with pure hearts, the Swarm of power-hungry gods had set into motion across Existence, destroying and consuming worlds like an invasion of locusts would devastate the cultivated fields. Cerberus had set the apocalypse into motion, knowing that he would not be able to stop it once things started rolling. He had used literally everyone and everything as chips and had gone all in with the ultimate gamble. A gamble that he could win or lose, but that would in both cases result in catastrophe for everyone else.

"I can taste your hate, Killer... and it is delicious. But what tastes even better is your grudging admiration for me." Cerberus taunted, grinning widely and bowing slightly forwards, mockingly thanking the liger. "Yes, I know... I'm exceptional. And I make no apology for praising the perfection of my plan. And now I'm here, looming above you... and blocking the way that leads to your beautiful wife. Making sure that she battles the Sisters on my behalf, keeps them busy while I grow and perfect myself and take care of you. Divide et Impera! I'm sure a great, famous general like you can appreciate my genius..." The monstrous, godless titan paused, then smirked widely and shook his head slowly, mockingly adding: "But your great legend is vastly overblown, isn't it...? You've never been so good a general, at the end of the day. Maybe a good tactician, but not a strategist. I'm the proof of it: I've always, always, always led you to fight exactly where and when I wanted you to..."

Killer grumbled at that, muttering a curse under his breath. Somehow, because of his oversized pride, even in that moment he was ridiculously stung by that one little insult, when it should not even touch his mind, considering how many far more dangerous things he had to deal with. And yet... insulted by a bastard who's never really led an army in all his life. A chess player who was only ever good at getting others to fight on his behalf... But Cerberus was right; he had put himself between him and Alexis, and that made everything more complicated and more dangerous. Killer flexed, closing his eyes for a moment even as an immense horde of Horrors surged forth, as countless of the parasitic beasts poured out of the infected, bloody tunnels in Cerberus's flesh, and he allowed himself to grow, his already immense form becoming ten times larger in the space of a blink, his fists opening and his palms extending towards the Black Holes that kept him imprisoned. Instead of trying to repeal the supermassive cores, he began to attract them, sucking them into his body, devouring the energies they restrained and aiming for the very superdense mass that made them what they were. The cores rippled and pulsed, looking scared, looking angry, radiating immense amounts of energy and even greater fields of gravity force that pounded one into the other, crushing him in the middle and threatening to squish him like a but... but he only roared and leaned forwards, gritting his fangs even as tears of blood rolled down his cheeks. The cores, all four of them, loudly cracked apart at the same time, and immediately huge chunks of their superdense matter were drawn into Killer's hands, slamming into his shattered gauntlets and then seeming to turn into liquid, rapidly vanishing inside his palms. Killer absorbed the four Black Holes inside him, assimilating their power with terrible ease, without any parasite vengefully turning against him, without his body so much as rippling in protest. Ugly, terrible scars glowed across his palms for a few instants, but they soon vanished from sight as the liger flexed again, muscles swelling greater, his height increasing further, his eyes burning with tremendous power as he coldly remarked: "Your power comes from me, Cerberus. It is me that you've been trying to become, for all of these years. I'm the monster that filled your nightmares and your dreams in equal measure, and everything you can do, I will do better." The four tentacles reared away from him, writhing in agony and bleeding thick cascades of toxic blood and dark corruption as they spasmed and clenched at the air, as if trying to grasp Black Holes that no longer existed. Cerberus hissed in rage at that, leaning forwards to lash out with a titanic hand armed with flexible talon-fingers that glowed with eldritch, terrible infections, but Killer grabbed one of the injured tentacles and yanked it hard up, slamming it into the monster's own claws. They tore through the dark muscle like it was nothing but butter, liquefying the metallic flesh like nothing, sending it falling away in drops as large as Suns and far, far hotter. Cerberus snarled in rage at that, but he only ripped his hand through the tentacle, shoving the broken, half-molten appendage out of the way as he swung his claws out against Killer in a hard uppercut. Killer threw himself back, wincing as those saber-like talons caught into the chest of his armor and ripped right through it, melting the black non-metal and causing Deimos to howl in agony somewhere inside him. Then Killer felt the claws ripping into his flesh, and his breath caught in his throat as he vomited blood, trembling in horror and agony even as he swung out of the way as best he could, ducking under Cerberus's other hand as it lashed out against his face, missing by mere inches.

Killer threw himself forwards between the monster's arms, growling as he smashed his spiked elbow down into Cerberus's stretched arm, smacking squarely into the joint between huge bicep and powerful forearm... but wincing as the great spikes creaked and almost shattered against the impenetrable hide of the beast, scratching down the bulge of the massive bicep and barely tearing into it, only able to squash a multitude of disgusting eggs, awakening a new horde of half-developed Horrors that swarmed all over his arm, biting and clawing with endless hunger and ferocious rage.

"Don't be an idiot, Killer... I've always been well ahead of you. I don't have your fears, your moral quandaries, your pointless hesitations... no. I am true Evolution. With every moment that passes I become stronger, and I embrace that, rather than pointlessly fight it back!" Cerberus taunted, grinning widely as enormous splatters of sentient black corruption immediately filled his shallow wound and exploded out over Killer's own arm, encasing it in thick, rubber-like gunk that prevented his arm from moving back. The liger gritted his fangs in horror at that, eyes darting to the sides as some of Cerberus's monstrous tentacles slashed violently towards him... and he grunted in agony as they hammered down into his back, causing his spine to creak audibly as his whole body rattled with the violence of the impact. Cerberus grinned widely, pummeling him with the Black Holes at the end of his tentacles, delighting in the violence of each savage crash that sent ripples through the universes.... Before he gleefully caught the liger by the hips, sinking his terrible talons right through him, ripping all the way into his guts and cackling as he began to dig into them, ripping them out in a gruesome cascade of blood and gore that only attracted the Horrors even more, spurring hordes of the filthy creatures into charging right at those vast, horrendous wounds.

Killer howled in agony, blood leaking out of his mouth as he looked up into Cerberus's laughing face... and then one of the huge tentacles swung down, right towards his features, and Killer tensed and arched his back under the onslaught, reaching up to snag the gigantic appendage in midair, fingers clutching right over the supermassive Black Hole. Furiously, desperately, Killer lashed out against Cerberus's grinning muzzle, thrusting the Black Hole right into it, punching his face with such ferocity that the supermassive dark core immediately disintegrated like it was made of glass, dark blood splattering all over his wrist as he squeezed the ruins into his fist and struck once, twice, thrice, as hard as he could.

Thanathos recoiled with a cry of rage more than pain, digging his talons all the deeper into his hips, ripping up towards his chest even as Killer collected his legs and then slammed both feet into the beast's chest, trying to propel himself backwards and at the same time yanking his imprisoned arm backwards, trying to rip it free as the large ropes of corruption reformed almost literally faster than he could break them. He leaned forwards instead, savagely smacking his fist into the monster's throat and at the same time hurling the pieces of Black Hole into the dark gunk: they were immediately dragged into the corruption and consumed in mere instants, but as the black sludge rippled and absorbed all that superdense mass, Killer managed to break free and throw himself backwards, hissing breathlessly as he slid off the incandescent talons of the monstrous, godless creature. His guts spilled out around those titanic blades, sizzling and smoldering horribly as they half-burned, half fell apart in pieces sliced apart with surgical precision, but Killer kept going, shutting his eyes tightly and finally letting out a cry as he tore free of those apocalyptic blades. Instinctively he shoved both hands forwards and unleashed an infernal tornado of golden flames right into Cerberus's face, panting hard and looking down at his torso with a grimace of horror, a shiver running down his spine even as his intestines began to move like tentacles, sliding back into him as the horrendous wounds regenerated, quickly sealing themselves shut.

The tentacles of the beast continued to savagely smash into him, half-wrapping around his body and dragging him back towards Cerberus's talons as the beast roared in fury and frustration and lashed them out with such savagery to send shockwaves of heat and pure power ripping through space, slicing distant planets into pieces without even noticing.

Killer allowed his energies to explode out of him in burning flames of gold and darkness, burning some of the massive Horrors that were already clawing into his guts, clinging to them and ripping at his healing wounds to try and invade his body. They were blasted backwards, hissing in pain as the flames rapidly enveloped them and consumed their bodies, but they rapidly began to absorb the flames, using the very same energy that was burning them to repair the damage. They kept surging forth, more and more of the terrible parasites pouring out of the swinging tentacles and out of Cerberus's hulking chest, and Killer arched his back and steadied himself, closing his eyes for a moment and using his energies to create an heavy, enormous sword in his hand, regretting once more the absence of Wyvern's familiar and welcome weight. He stabbed the great flaming sword through a Horror as it leapt against his face, and immediately swung the great weapon outwards to batter back another three, slapping them into pieces and then letting the blade carry on through another, chopping him in half at the waist... but the terrible beast let out a yell of fury and began to mutate, a short and massive body forming between the legs, a nightmarish mouth with huge jaws opening where the groin should have been and the guts and heavy, massive member of the beast turning into tentacle-hair that reared up around him like serpents ready to strike. Instead of getting rid of him, he had only doubled the problem, and the sight made him grit his fangs as he closed his free hand on the skull of another parasite and clenched, hard, muscles bulging as he crushed his head into a pulp and immediately began to drain his energies away, sucking him dry before it could mutate and evolve any further. The monstrous legs-monster leapt against him, moving with deadly and surprising speed, but Killer ignored it because he felt a welcome energy signature pulling up by his side. There were three loud, thundering shots and the monster's body was blown into clouds of shifting, rippling gore as Elaine snarled and squeezed the trigger of her giant autoshotgun, blowing another Horror into pieces and then swinging the massive, heavy weapon up to knock another away from her, crunching his skull in like a rotten tomato.

Cerberus swung a gigantic tentacle in their direction, but Mriya and Pamela shot forwards and stabbed their Praetorian spears into it, their muscles bulging explosively as they wrestled the great appendage away from their Master... and Mriya, who was still Inverted and armored with her own glorious, insatiable hunger, caught the tentacle in one hand that morphed into a deadly, enormous gauntlet armed with talons of segmented steel blades. She caught the Black Hole in her grip and cracked it, absorbing its mass and energies into her with a hiss of pure delight, and at the same time she pumped unholy, terrible flames into the tentacle, grinning as the fire spread through the tunnels full of eggs and capsules, burning them and causing many to writhe and burst apart in splatters of gore and corruption.

Killer swung his sword up as another two tentacles shot straight forwards against him, dripping with corrupting and pulsing with cable-like veins that glowed as they pumped not blood, but the same kind of liquid, incandescent disease that formed Cerberus's talons. His sword cut deep into the non-flesh, causing the great tentacle to twist and swing around angrily, twitching in agony and spluttering out that terrible, apocalyptic substance, which landed on the sword and almost instantaneously tore through the blade, burning holes in it like it was made of paper. Killer grabbed the end of the huge tentacle in his hand, claws ripping deep through the muscles, fingers closing upon great masses of eggs and developing monstrosities that he greedily consumed, focusing on absorbing them all into his being, before he finally manage to half-cut, half-rip the tentacle apart. He swung the heavy, colossal chunk of tentacle like it was a whip of sorts, smashing the Black Hole through the ranks of Horrors and grinning as countless beasts were warped out of existence, crushed into the gravitational field and greedily absorbed into the dark core, before Cerberus leaned forwards with a roar and snagged the tentacle out of his hands. His skeletal face looked undamaged, even after all the times Killer had slammed his fist into it, even after Killer's flames had enveloped it, and the beast opened its enormous jaws and vomited forth a crackling beam of darkness that slammed into the liger with tremendous ferocity, sending him crashing backwards through the empty, devastated Space.

Killer formed a shield of golden energy in front of himself, deflecting the worst of that terrible tempest away, but Horrors leapt against him from both sides and he turned around, swinging his sword into them, cutting through three bodies before he felt something else approaching from behind and he spun around with a roar, stabbing the blade towards Cerberus's eye. How did he get behind me...?

"Daddy, don't!" Samara shouted, barely avoiding the swing of his blade and looking at him in shock, and Killer blinked with a grunt of confusion and horror, trying to clear his vision but only seeing Cerberus in front of himself... and then another, leaping against him from the side. He stiffened in place for a moment, hand clutching hard on the handle of his sword, unsure of whether he should strike out or not... but he decided not to, and Vanessa emerged through the false image, grabbing into his shoulders and looking down into his eyes with concern.

"What is it, love...?" She urgently asked, taking his cheeks in her hands, and he panted hard, his gaze darting from her to Samara, then to Nadia as she took position at his side, battling back a charging group of Horrors. "He is messing with your mind, again, isn't he...?" Samara quietly asked, gripping his free hand and squeezing tightly on it. Killer let out a sound of horror, closing his eyes and uselessly attempting to clear out his vision, muttering: "Black... you bastard..."

I thought I'd make it all more interesting. Darkness replied, his mind pounding violently, feeling like it would explode out through his skull. _You do not impress me at all, Amon Ra. Cerberus is right; he is much, much better at exploiting the power he has. He learns fast. Maybe I really should side with him...? Or better, in him...? _

Killer wanted to roar and lash out against that smug, mocking voice, but he instead bit violently into his own lip, ignoring the countless beasts he saw charging at him. Vanessa and Samara fought back the real Horrors and the tentacles, gaining him a moment to try and clear his vision, but Black Killer cackled and filled his mind with false images. Even closing his eyes he could find no respite from the assault, his head pounding painfully and feeling like it would break in two. "How can I fight if I can't even tell Reality apart from Illusion...?" The huge male muttered, staring at his trembling hand and hating the fact that, even as she hugged him, Nadia looked to him like just another Horror, her body jutting with spikes and blades and tentacles even though he could feel her against him, soft and loving and comforting. Her warmth, though, couldn't quite reach him. He could guess it; feel it in the distance... but even that comfort was denied to him by the forces of Darkness. He straightened all the same, shouldering his sword and forcing a smile on his lips as he looked down at her face. He couldn't quite see her, instead facing a monstrous set of jaws open wide to devour him and crimson eyes that mocked him, but he did not want to worry her. "Daddy, we are with you, always and no matter what." Nadia quietly reminded, kissing his cheek, and Killer hurriedly nodded, hating himself for the inability to come up with something good to say. He swallowed thickly instead, and against shut his eyes tightly... and he suddenly realized that, while the Horrors vanished from his sight, the images generated by Darkness did not. They were in him, in his mind, and so continued to hound him... but that, at least, gave him a little chance to distinguish reality from illusion.

"It's clear that we can't put any real dent into Cerberus. Only you can do that." Alcana said, pulling up by Killer and shouldering her gigantic halberd, panting as she looked at him, her chest heaving, her body covered in blood and gore and in wounds and burn marks caused by the corruption that had splattered on her. "And the Horrors just won't stop coming. He's full of them, and new ones are born faster than we can take them down. We'll need to act more decisively. We can wrestle the tentacles out of the way and keep the Horrors at bay, and buy you some time."

"It's all I need." Killer replied, blinking as he attempted to map out the countless monsters in sight, trying to distinguish the real ones from the illusions. The goddess noticed his difficulties, but she did not comment, instead reaching across to squeeze reassuringly into his shoulder. He smiled a little, and then jerked his head towards the breach in the barrier of the Well of Eternity. "We need to get there, fast. And cut his tentacles out of the Cloister. If he keeps plucking out Black Holes and eating them, he'll keep regenerating and getting stronger. We'll never take him down unless we get him where he can't absorb any more energy."

"That is going to be complex." Adrasthea remarked, wincing as she smashed her shield into an incoming Horror, slapping him away and sending him crashing like a meteor into his brethren. "He has grown and evolved so much that he'll drain energy out of almost literally everything, even if we take the Black Holes away. You'll have to take over, Killer: if you devour the Black Holes and absorb the energy in the air yourself, he won't be able to keep his parasites at bay. They'll rapidly consume him."

"Yeah, I know..." Killer admitted, but a shiver ran down his spine as his mind filled with a vision of the sleeping titan inside him, the terrifying beast that was on the verge of breaking free. And, worse than even that, he got a glimpse of Darkness's eyes glowing with glee and eagerness. He was there, ready to take over, and Killer was not sure he could keep him at bay while at the same time giving free reign to his power, to his hunger, to his violent, limitless evolution. Besides, all the energy he consumed belonged to something: the waves of energy that traveled through the universe were literally the fuel of life and creation. The energy of distant stars, the breath of life of worlds he had never seen. Sucking them dry meant precipitating entire solar systems into mortal darkness. It meant turning inhabited worlds into lifeless husks. It meant destroying everything. It was a terrible decision to take. He was fighting Cerberus and the Sisters because they planned to do exactly that: if he did it himself, what would remain to set him apart from the evil he was fighting?

"Help me get to those tentacles. Let's get him out of the way." The huge male said, watching as the Disciples and Praetorians battered back the hordes of Horrors surging forwards from all sides, then looking up at the tentacles that, like umbilical cords, kept Cerberus tied to the outer wall of the Cloister, which now was a battery for him, rather than an obstacle. "Alexis is in there, and so are Ira and Vesta. We need to get to them. Together, we will put an end to this nightmare."

"I hate the idea of entering those filthy caves, but I think it could be helpful to hit him from within." Vicky urgently noted, pointing her long spear towards one of the ugly, infected wounds in the muscular mass of Cerberus's tentacles. They were truly like tunnels, dripping with corruption and toxic gunk and lined with endless masses of capsules and eggs filled with growing Horrors. Diana made a grimace of disgust as well, but nodded in agreement and said: "We haven't got the kind of raw strength it takes to deal with Cerberus out here, but I think we can inflict some real damage from within."

Killer hesitated for a brief instant, hating the idea of his Disciples walking into those hideous hives, but he had to recognize that the idea was potentially good: if they sized down and entered the "tunnels", they could get away from the Black Holes and perhaps even go off Cerberus's "radar". Undoubtedly the monster was able to make the insides of his body a terrifying inferno, but with some luck he would lose sight of them for long enough to allow them to incinerate much of the Hives, if nothing else. At least it would take the Horrors out of the picture. He finally gave a nod of approval, looking down at his most delicate and angelic goddesses. They had less brutal, raw destructive power and physical strength, but their courage was second to none.

"Two assault teams, then." Boadicea urgently said, shouldering Satan's Bane and flexing her hulking musculature, her other hand glowing as hellish fire burned out of her fingers. "You get into the tunnels and burn those goddamn hives into ashes. Get to those tentacles from the inside. We'll help Killer get to them from the outside."

"Lilith, go with Diana and Vicky. Take the point, and destroy without mercy." Killer commanded, and his Thrall licked her lips with a purr of cruel delight, her body heavily armoured with plates of dark, adamantine bone, her massive black cock hanging heavily between her legs, surrounded by tentacles that, while a bit less monumental in diameter, were still titanic and terrifying, dripping with blood and gore and constantly leaking heavy ropes of his dark, toxic essence. She nodded eagerly, flexing her enormous muscles and growling in eagerness, tentacles arching out of her muscular back as her claws grew into even larger and more terrible talons. Behind her, Riaku moved forwards as well, panting as he shouldered his bloodied sword and looked up at his father and Master, promising: "I'm with them as well. I'll keep them safe."

Killer bit his lower lip, hesitating for the briefest of moments, but then he nodded, especially as his sister Kaya, his father Seth and Kathy all stepped forwards as well, their eyes burning with determination.

"We'll smash a way through the Horrors and blast open an entry point into one of his tentacles." Killer urgently explained, his eyes fixing into Kathy's as his little angel nodded. Her face betrayed no fear, even though she was undoubtedly nervous. Her armor was battered and dented and half-corroded by thick splatters of corruption, but despite the wounds she appeared powerful and fearless. Her kindness had been put aside for the moment, and her eyes showed clearly that the savage side of her personality was in charge: Kathy was capable of the greatest kindness, but there was also a pit of perverted hungers in her that they had only just begun to explore. She was tremendously fascinated by her father's power and couldn't restrain her arousal in front of his brutality. With her strength rapidly growing thanks to her training as Praetorian, with her hungers only ever urged up by Mriya and Elaine, she had grown a lot more confident and a lot more vicious in a very short period of time. In battle she was entirely different from the Kathy of everyday life: she delighted in the thrill of battle and basked in what her power allowed her to do, in the destruction that it allowed her to rain upon her enemies. It was pretty scary, in fact, how much she could suddenly change, but it was the kind of scary that Killer adored. She smirked as she met his gaze, and her eyes glowed knowingly before she winked with a little grin, silently promising that, yes, she was going to be a bad, bad girl. She was going to smash his enemies into pulp. "I want to move quickly, but I can't tell you exactly when it will happen. Be ready to move in as soon as you see the breach opening."

Seth nodded reassuringly at that, while Kaya smiled and idly caressed her heavy collar, her muscles flexing with the sheer vigor in her body. She was eager to go... and Killer knew that there wasn't much else they could possibly plan out. They had no clue how Cerberus would react, how much awareness he had of what happened within his body and they did not know what exactly they could expect to find into the tunnels, apart from endless masses of gigantic, cruel parasites. The "plan" was really just an idea, thrown together in seconds and entirely dependent on further improvisation.

"We'll ensure Cerberus's attention is all on us." Adrasthea and Alcana promised, stepping ahead of him and preparing their weapons: the Goddess of Strategy half-ducked behind her massive shield, her agile spear leaning over its edge, and stabbing forwards into the Horrors, moving faster than even his eyes could properly track, while the Goddess of Love looked more like a creature of vengeance and destruction as she slashed her massive halberd upwards, hacking it into the chest of one hideous Horror-beast who had clearly already been broken apart at least one or two times already, but had pieced itself together and mutated into a sort of feral "wolf" moving on all fours and armed with multiple ugly heads with massive, powerful jaws. It cried out in agony as the halberd cut into its abdomen with a loud, sinister sound, cutting through bones and mutated muscle and hefting the whole monster high into the air as the dragoness roared and flexed, her muscles bulging as she turned her twin-headed axe around and slammed it down like an hammer, slamming the wolf-beast on top of another Horror and sending both falling through space like meteors, while yanking back on the long pole to smack it into the jaw of another monster that sneaked up on her back. She held the halberd with one hand and reached back with the other, catching the monster by the skull as it stumbled backwards with its face crumpled inwards, and with a roar she spun around, tossing him like a toy, right into the mass of its brethrens, sending them sprawling while her halberd, rotating in the other direction, cut down several others. Samara's eyes glowed solid emerald as she spun her twin swords and sprinted forwards, sidestepping a vicious lunge of an Horror and spinning one of her blades tip-down, driving it brutally through the beast's skull and then yanking it hard to the side, ripping it free and cutting half of the monster's head right off. The now faceless beast stumbled and almost collapsed on his front, but it took mere instants for what remained of his head to explode upwards in a mass of toxic gunk as a massive, ugly and chaotic mass of squirming tentacles and chords of muscle ripped out of his neck, turning his skull into shrapnel that shot into the goddess as she half-spun around and savagely hook-kicked the mutating monstrosity far away from her, at the same time blasting out a "spear" of telekinetic wrath that caught the beast in midair and shot right through him, devastating most of its upper torso and then tearing through several other Horrors beyond. Not even that was enough to put the beasts fully out of commission, but it allowed the group to move past as Samara's eyes glowed with fury and power, her mind piercing into several of the beasts, her power burning their nervous system almost into charred ruin as she took control of their bodies. The Horrors first seemed to freeze in place, then spun around and charged mindlessly against their brethren, clashing into the ranks and sending massive, titanic beasts sprawling around in tangles of bodies that snarled and roared and viciously clawed and bit into each other, ripping off limbs and huge chunks of flesh and muscle.

Cerberus spotted her, and his eyes glowed with a new ferocity as he snarled: "You! Traitorous whore, I should have gutted you like a fish!" The terrifying monstrosity vomited a tornado of black energy against the goddess, and Samara dived right into a thick mass of Horrors, closing her wings around herself and shooting through their ranks like a meteor, ignoring their talons and blades hacking into the flaming "feathers" of her angel wings. Cerberus craned his head around, following her movements and cutting through the horde of beasts with his destructive beam of supernatural, malignant fire, melting whole lines of the Horrors into nothing but stinking sludge. One of Cerberus's titanic tentacles swung up with vengeful force, however, and the terrible field of gravity force around the Black Hole at the end of it yanked Horrors and Disciples out of course, drawing Samara down towards the darkness despite her best efforts to resist. She snarled as she crossed her arms in front of her face, protecting herself as best she could as she fell against the supermassive core, just as it rushed against her. The impact was tremendous, her back arching in the agony of the moment as the dark sphere smacked into her face and nearly ripped her jaw right off, blood exploding from her features as she growled and tried to tear free of that incredibly powerful field of force. The Black Hole's force warped reality around her, sucking in everything that wasn't strong enough to resist and threatening to rip the flesh off her skull, making her howl in pain as she felt her head crushed, deformed, as the dark core attempted to suck her in for good. She immediately stabbed her twin blades into the thick tentacle, however, growling as she flexed her formidable musculature to bury the two swords into it, all the way to the hilts. "I'm no traitor. I'm my Father's weapon, and his servant!" Samara venomously shouted, eyes glowing solid emerald and seeing to send incandescent ripples through space as she yanked her blades in the opposite directions, slicing the tentacle apart and immediately retreating, spinning both of her twin swords and then burying them brutally into what remained of the beast's appendage, shoving it away from her with a roar of rage.

"You are just his whore, that's all you are good for!" Cerberus viciously countered, his eyes blazing with rage as the goddess seized the bleeding base of the severed tentacle and whip-lashed it out into the horde of Horrors, slapping beast after beast out of the way and absorbing many more into the huge black hole, which insatiably consumed everything it managed to touch. The supermassive core shuddered violently, then compressed even further as Cerberus shoved his palm forwards and unleashed a crackling bolt of pure energy, sending it smacking into the dense block of darkness, causing it to swell and thrum for a few moments... before it exploded with terrifying force, dissolving a multitude of Horrors into nothing but vapor, as the same time blasting them all away, pelting them with solid shards of superdense matter that was heavier than any planet and harder than any metal ever known. The pieces tore into Samara, making her howl in pain and fury as the large shrapnel pierced deep into her torso, seemingly aiming for the vital spots as if they had a mind of their own. The goddess coughed up blood as she felt those supernatural daggers scraping violently into the cage of adamantine bone that protected her vital organs and she reached up to grab them and tear them out of her flesh, but the tentacle she had cut apart stabbed forwards again and, from its bloodied, savaged extremity, it exploded forwards with a multitude of flexible spikes made of harpoon-shaped "vertebrae". The terrible flexible pikes shot against her with such speed and ferocity that they tore right through the sphere of energy she hurled against them. She slashed her swords up and deflected several away from her, but one, then other two and even a fourth ones slammed into her chest and tore right through her, making her vomit up blood in one silent, terrible gargle.

The enormous tentacle swung savagely sideways, dragging her across space as it smacked into Adrasthea's shield and knocked the dragoness backwards like a toy, but then Gaia sent a large tangle of her own thorny tentacles wrapping around the appendage and she flexed them with such brutal and sudden force to sever Cerberus's bestial weapon once more. Samara fell backwards with a wheeze of agony, mouth open wide as she gasped, uselessly trying to bring some air into her lungs as she trembling reached up to yank the mutant bone-spikes out of her chest, and Nadia charged forwards with a roar of fury, protecting her sister from another hard whip-lash of Cerberus's tentacles.

"You cannot hurt me, whores!" The mutant beast cackled, using another four of the bestial appendages to clamp viciously down on Nadia, forcing her to desperately wrestle back the crushing masses of muscle that tried to squish her. "I've already ascended beyond your possibilities!"

Sekhmeth growled in rage at that, slashing her whips of fire violently towards his face, but Cerberus only hissed as they tore deep into his flesh, coiling around his neck and ripping his throat apart. His eyes glowed almost with glee even as he shuddered in pain, and he reached up with one titanic hand to grab both whips. "Try your worst. You can only make me stronger, at this point!" He yanked violently on the whips, dragging Sekhmeth forwards even as the goddess flexed her hulking musculature and wrestled against him... before her eyes widened in surprise as his flesh and bone and muscle evolved and mutated violently around her flaming weapons. Dark, mutant flesh covered the roaring flames of her whips, turning the wounds in his head and neck into what looked like pulsing tubes that began to literally milk energy out of the two whips.

Sekhmeth stared in horror as the flames rapidly lost their ferocity, the whips thinning out and becoming weak, before she grunted as the monstrosity yanked hard on them once more, dragging her across space with tremendous force, sending her flying towards his grotesque jaws as they opened wide and revealed what had once been her fire... now his. The lioness crossed her arms in front of her body and formed a wall of black energy just before a tremendous hurricane of flames exploded forwards: it smashed into her shield with enough force to crack it as if was made of glass, but the goddess of Destruction only pushed forth all the harder, ramming her shoulder into her own shield and causing it to explode in a myriad of sharp blades that tore into Cerberus's skull. "Keep trying!" Cerberus taunted, laughing darkly even as those great shards of energy tore through him... only to dissolve rapidly as his ever-hungry form absorbed them, and the parasite within him festered on the energy, growing larger and stronger as more and more of the eggs within him swelled larger and maturated, while many others hatched and unleashed new and evolved Horrors. "The more you try, the stronger I become! The most techniques you use, the more I learn! I'm the perfect war machine... and unkillable laboratory of evolution!" The beast howled, throwing his head back with a laughter, before he leaned forwards violently, head-butting Sekhmeth just as she emerged through the wall of fire to strike against him. The impact was terrifying, enough to send a violent ripple through the emptiness of space, and Sekhmeth staggered backwards with a groan, her face turned into a mask of blood and her horns cracked and splintered... before Cerberus reached up and grabbed those, yanking savagely on them and dragging the goddess's head down towards his groin. He had no knees, but one enormous tentacle rammed into her muzzle with a Black Hole, crunching the bone and sending her stumbling backwards with a cry of pain and fury at the same time. She managed to tear free of his hold and threw herself back with a somersault, striking him under the chin and knocking his head backwards with enough force that his spine loudly snapped... but even that was useless, as it only resulted in new bones growing inside him, his neck lengthening and becoming flexible as well as armoured with heavy plates of adamantine bone and great, rib-like spikes that jutted out of his flesh.

Boadicea swung Satan's Bane right towards his throat, but right in that moment Cerberus demonstrated that he was truly learning their techniques because large shields of energy formed all around his head, spinning lazily around him... and when the heavy spear-mace smashed into one, this cracked and then exploded into a cloud of shrapnel that shot into Boadicea with vengeful force, sending her stumbling back with a hiss of pain... before all fragments exploded, ripping vast and terrible wounds in her body.

Cerberus stabbed a massive tentacle towards her, grinning widely as the flexible spikes of bone burst out of its flanks and stretched forwards, ready to pierce into the sharkess, but Gaia and Killer moved swiftly forwards and seized the massive appendage in their hands, wrestling it away from Boadicea. Killer savagely smashed his fist down into the tentacle, in a point where the adamantine meat was widely consumed and tunneled by the parasites, and he did his best to ignore the horrible sensation of the gunk and of the shattered "eggs" coating his fingers in toxic gunk. Instead, he twisted his fist deep into that squirming, squelching mass, clawing into it and yanking out large chunks of gory mess, incinerating it into his palm and ripping open a vast cave. Cerberus focused on him, floating forwards as one of his huge, mutant arms swelled with power and changed into an oversized blade sticking out of several massive segments of living metal that flexed and rotated on themselves, jutting with great blades and thorns of bone, metal and ethereal energy. As Killer dealt with that horrendous weapon, Gaia yanked the damaged tentacle in the opposite direction and clawed into the great wound, enlarging it and letting a deluge of magma erupting out of her palm to flood the long and horrible tunnels, incinerating eggs and capsules and great masses of gunk, sending fetid dark smoke leaking out of all the openings of the "hive".

Cerberus turned back towards her, grinning maniacally as he lashed out with talons made of incandescent, unfathomable pestilence, but as the goddess ducked he taunted: "That's nice, bitch, do it again! My little parasites are very useful, but there's way too many of them. You'll only do me a favor by controlling their expansion."

Not quite. Killer thought with a merciless inner grin. Killing the parasites would indeed relieve Cerberus of some of his torment as those beasts were devouring him alive from the inside, but those same beasts were the real center of his power. The hive was what truly evolved: he was little more than food and shelter for the parasites, despite being too arrogant to admit it. The huge male slashed out his sword, hitting Cerberus's talons and knocking them away from Gaia, even as the incredibly powerful substance composing them instantaneously began to consume his blade, half-melting it away. Gaia exploited that opening to duck away from Cerberus and thrust her palm against the huge wound in the tentacle, flooding it with a roaring deluge of clear, cold waters that washed away the gunk and abruptly cooled the magma, turning it into obsidian stone. The tentacle grew rigid and creaky as a result, and it became even stiffer as massive, thorny roots grew out of Gaia's fingers and expanded into the tunnels, spreading with terrifying rapidly all over the floor and walls and ceiling of the passages and "caves", stiffening their structure and beginning to piece deep into the flesh beyond, sucking energy out of it.

Gaia pulled her hand back and darted a gaze down to see Lilith, Riaku, Diana, Vicky, Seth and Kaya flying right into the great wound: they had sized down and prepared exactly for that moment, and now they vanished into the darkness of the tunnels, flying down the length of the titanic appendage. The surprise was complete: Cerberus was battling against Killer, talons and mutant arm clashing against heavy blades of solid golden energy, and as a result he didn't notice the invasion. Not that he would have been excessively concerned even had he noticed it: Cerberus was smart, but also obsessed by power and arrogant. Even though he was the best living proof that even the small and weak ones could grow into enormous threats, he was now so enamored with his cosmic power and dimensions to overlook anything "small" as powerless and worthless. "What did you do to me?" He snarled, eyes blazing with fury as he saw one of his tentacles turned into a stiff and inflexible "spear" that refused to bend and respond to his orders. He stabbed the massive, semi-petrified appendage against Gaia, who only retreated rapidly and swung sideways to avoid the assault, before shoving her hands out to blade two twin beams of roaring water right into his chest, smacking him with enough force to send Cerberus falling back towards Killer. The huge male immediately slashed his sword in a rising cut, chopping through the beast's torso from hip to shoulder, and before Cerberus could react he twisted his wrist and swung the blade out at neck level, decapitating the monstrous mutant.

A shudder ran through Cerberus's immense body, but the wound across his torso immediately began to fill up with growing masses of chords of metal-like muscle, bulging outwards as it became a new and immense hive, corruption flooding the wound and solidifying into new, endless rows of eggs and capsules while new muscle grew to form a ugly, enormous, pulsing scar that crossed the godbeast's masculine chest. Skeletal faces pushed up from beneath the armoured, impenetrable hide of the monster, and ugly red eyes snapped open all over Cerberus's body, fixing on Killer on one side and on Gaia and the other Disciples at the other, before all new maws opened wide and began to breathe out spears and javelins of corruption and burning, terrible darkness. Killer and the others retreated, shielding themselves as best they could and grunting as the great projectiles of darkness exploded against their defences, but the most painful thing of all was seeing Cerberus's head growing back out of what remained of his armoured neck, like nothing had happened at all. The tentacles of the mutant beast flailed even more ferociously all around him, and the one tentacle that had turned rigid and stony was like a blade in its own right, swinging violently towards Killer and forcing him to hurriedly duck: he couldn't just strike it and risk hitting his own son, father and some of the people he loved more in the world. It was unnerving to think that they were somewhere inside that corrupted, deadly growth, undoubtedly cutting their way through endless ranks of parasites, both newborns and mature... and Killer spun around to slash his sword right into the base of Cerberus's back, cutting through a skeletal face just as it emerged from the beast's rippling hide. Gore burst up in a thick splatter as the blade tore through the crimson eyes of that sinister mask, severing the bone in two, but the jaws of it opened unnaturally wide and spat out a deadly harpoon of bone that Killer barely managed to deflect with the flat of his blade, before at least three of the monstrous tentacles ground together and caught him in the middle. He closed his eyes and teleported out of that deadly spot, but as soon as he reappeared in midair, higher up and close to the gigantic tentacles buried through the wall of the Cloister, he was struck in the middle of the chest by a great blast of darkness that sent him crashing violently into the Black Holes behind.

Terrible, flexible spikes of bone erupted out of Cerberus's back and shot against him as he struggled to tear free of the tremendous gravity fields of the mass of Black Holes, and Killer hurriedly pulled his large sword up, slashing one into pieces, deflecting another, then a third... before one shot through one of his kneecaps, making him roar in agony and, losing his focus for one instant and immediately regretting it as another spike shot through his forearm, spraying his own blood all over his face and nearly blinding him just as the harpoon of bone savagely aimed for his forehead. Killer dodged on instinct and reached up with his free hand to catch the accursed tentacle-spike, yanking hard on it and tearing it into pieces, but Cerberus in the meanwhile had already turned around. Valery and Manticora pelted his newly-regrown head with a barrage of huge arrows, but the beast barely stumbled sideways because of it, growling in irritation more than pain even as the spear-sized darts exploded and tore half of his skull into pieces and dust. There was no brain inside, at least not a physical one... instead there was a dark blue goo, not solid and not liquid, dense and yet weightless and apparently sentient, because it exploded viciously outwards and chased after the two goddesses. It clamped around Manticora's ankle and dragged the muscular zebra back through the sky, hurling her violently into Kimera as the other zebra charged forwards and swung her massive battle-axe against Cerberus's outstretched arm. The two sisters violently crashed in midair and fell like meteors, with two enormous tentacles and a horde of drooling, hungry Horrors chasing after them, and Cerberus grinned widely as he slashed out with his oversized, mutated arm. Killer lunged forwards to meet him, growling as all his muscles flexed and bulged explosively with the effort required to tear free of the vicious pull of the Black Holes behind him. Killer's fist and Cerberus's mutated, pestilent gauntlet nearly collided in midair, but the two gods both shifted aim just enough to hit the target. Both fists found their marks, and the power of the impact caused a shockwave of such tremendous potency that the Black Holes of the Cloister were pushed around, the distance between them increasing and letting some light filtering through, revealing the various, uncountable supermassive cores, that had been invisible up to that point, all hidden in the same complete, utter, unforgiving darkness.

Cerberus recoiled with a growl of fury, the remaining half of his skull caved horribly inwards and then simply crumbling away in a puff of dust, while Killer was sent crashing against into the wall of the Cloister, his back arching violently as he vomited up blood. His chest was horribly dented inwards, his armour plate shattered and the remains of it rapidly melting, sending incandescent, liquid metal rolling in streaks down his muscles. Cerberus's tremendous talons had pierced deep through the normally invulnerable wall of muscles of his front, and their impossible, liquid pestilence made his flesh smolder and sizzle as it consumed him at an amazing pace. Killer howled in agony, looking down at that horrendous acid burning violently through him, wondering what the hell it was... and as Cerberus's many hideous faces, all over his torso, grinned gamely and cruelly, the liger flexed and attempted to get up, knowing that there was no time. Alcana flew forwards to help him even as hordes of Horrors tormented her from all sides, and her gigantic halberd swung up to chop brutally into Cerberus's chest, one head of the enormous weapon sinking all the way to the pole into the ribcage of the monster... only for Cerberus to laugh as his ribcage opened like a massive set of jaws and attempted to suck Alcana in. "Give up, you clowns... I'm a better god than all of you put together. More powerful, more vicious, more... creative." The monster mocked, slashing out his titanic mutant arm. Alcana smacked her huge, heavy weapon into that mass of metallic, wildly spinning blades and bones and muscles, but she barely slowed the enormous limb down, even as sparkles and flames flew from the clash between her halberd and the spinning blades. She was slapped away like a fly, and shards of energy exploded out of Cerberus's arm and chased after her... but as she fell, bloodied and pelted by those oversized daggers, Alcana opened her jaws wide and fired a huge beam of her white, draconic fire right into the pulsing scar across Cerberus's chest. Her otherworldly fire partially melted through even his armoured hide, and the flames tore into the immense hive of Horrors hidden inside the wound, causing a cascade of stinking gunk to leak out of him. Cerberus stumbled backwards with a cry of pain at that, and Killer picked himself up and shoved off the wall of Black Holes, cocking back his blade and pumping energy into it until it crackled with golden lightning bolts. Hit the hive. Always aim for the Hive cells. I don't think he has any real organ left. They are his only weak spots. Killer thought, and the Disciples Mark on his shoulder glowed and filled with heat: hopefully, his message would get to all the others through their spiritual connection. Horrors leapt up en masse on his way, but Killer threw a large sphere of his furious golden fire into their ranks and dissolved dozens of beasts in one terrible, apocalyptic blast, while Mriya and Elaine flanked him and tore through the beasts like scythes through corn. When the petrified tentacle swung against them, Pamela and Nikita flew forwards and caught the massive "blade" of flesh and stone in their hands, their muscles bulging explosively as they first pushed It back away from Killer, then managed to bend it at an angle that allowed them to thrust it like a spear through several of Cerberus's other tentacles, nailing them together in a huge splatter of blood and corruption.

Killer slashed his sword violently towards the damaged, leaking hive, but he grunted as he some sort of weird ripple in reality struck him... and his blade tore through some sort of portal, missing the obvious target ahead... and instead ripping absurdly through reality somewhere to his right, nearly cutting Savannah in half at waist level. Killer immediately pulled the great sword back, looking at it with horror, and then he felt himself being dragged violently back through both space and time. It lasted mere instants, and before he could even try to react he was once more crashing into the wall of Black Holes, along with Mriya, Elaine and the others. A tentacle immediately slashed up to smother all of them into the wall of Supermassive cores, but Crystal, Kate and Valery swept in and stabbed their hybrid spear-swords into the massive appendage, driving it back... before another ripple went through reality, and all three vanished, absorbed into some sort of evanescent portal. Killer gritted his fangs in confusion and horror at that... then threw himself to the side with a roll as reality rippled ahead of him and Kate came crashing out of it, her massive spear aimed straight at his face.

With the Black Holes right behind him, dragging her forwards with indescribable force, the vixen failed to change course, and Killer had barely enough time to throw himself out of the way. Her spear pierced violently into one of the supermassive cores as her eyes bulged in shock and horror, her eyes following him and screaming: "Master! I... I don't..."

"I know." Killer simply answered, grabbing her spear and pulling it back, muscles bulging as he struggled against the force of thousands of Black Holes... before he swung up the sword with his other hand and chopped the superdense core in two like it was made of butter. He managed to help Kate yank her weapon free of the gravity field, and turned around just as Cerberus laughed darkly and roared: "Space, Time... nothing can resist me! I control everything!"

Killer did his best to ignore the utter delight dripping from Cerberus's voice, and instead he looked at the pulsing, glowing, immense tentacles that fed the beast with power by draining Black Hole after Black Hole. They weren't too far away, and if he could just get there... Killer caught the two halves of the broken supermassive core and crushed them in his hand, one after the other, growling hungrily as their cosmic power and all of their mass was rapidly absorbed into him. He focused that great boost of energy on his chest, fighting back the pestilent gunk that was burning him out of existence, and the horrendous wound began to rapidly regenerate. He plucked another Black Hole out of the black curtain, but Cerberus spotted him and clicked his many skeletal jaws in mocking disapproval, before causing another ripple through the fabric of reality. The Black Hole in Killer's hand rapidly expanded, forcing his fingers apart as it grew back to a luminous nano star... and then it exploded with terrifying force, going back in time to its supernova stadium, when it imploded with enough force to annihilate entire nearby galaxies. Killer attempted to hurl the star away as the apocalyptic event began, but the very fabric of reality, warped out of shape, slowed down the movement of his arm. The blast charred the front of his body and threatened to incinerate him whole, but his form, as insatiable as ever, greedily absorbed most of the blast and of the radiations, rapidly regenerating him. "I'm really liking this "almighty god" shit!" Cerberus cackled, and Killer struggled against Reality itself to turn away from the blast and race towards the tiger's "umbilical cords".

It was like swimming into solid concrete, and every little movement required an immense amount of force to break through the resistance posed by the very Laws of physics, but he finally managed to lunge out of his bubble of apocalypse... and as soon as he did, time around him resumed its normal flow and his Disciples managed to break free as well.

He stabbed his sword towards the first of the supersized tentacle/umbilical cords, but another shadow shot forwards and sacrificed itself on his blade, blood spraying on his face as the woman impaled herself... and slid down the length of the huge sword, stabbing two large and god-killing knives towards the sides of his neck. "The fuck is wrong with you...?" Killer muttered, instinctively smashing his free fist up into her face and tearing right through her head, dissolving it in a splatter of gore. For an instant he had the chance to see who she was, and realize that she was one of the Blinded Girls. The Harbinger, according to Alexis's memories that he had accessed during their brief talk across the universes. The body still moved out of its own accord, but the huge male swung his sword violently to the side and it slipped off, one hip exploding in a blast of blood as the blade ripped free and a Black Hole greedily sucked the ruined body in.

He turned around to see another Harbinger swinging in low and stabbing a spear up towards his crotch, and he kicked the spear out of the way and swung his sword hard down on her head... just to realize he had fallen for another of Darkness's accursed illusions. A real Harbinger dived on him from above and stabbed a spear through his shoulder, making him snarl in pain and reach up with angry force, clawing into her ankle and dragging her down, viciously tossing her into another two Harbingers incoming and then grabbing the spear that stuck halfway out of him still, gritting his fangs as he yanked it out of his wound, spun it around and hurled it with vicious strength, nailing the three Harbingers together and sending them crashing all the way into Cerberus's chest. Killer closed his free hand into a fist and caused the spear to glow and crackle with his energies, before it exploded like a supernova, disintegrating the three goddesses and knocking even the monstrous titan staggering to the side. Again he exploited the moment to move towards the umbilical cords, teleporting in that direction while pumping energies into his ethereal sword... but before he could even materialize again, pain exploded into him as reality warped around him, and time cut through him like a wall of blades. He coughed up blood, shrieking breathlessly in agony as his body felt like it would explode into pieces... and he was forced to interrupt his teleportation, stumbling out of a ripple in reality, still well far away from the colossal tentacles. Immediately, a group of Harbingers assaulted him from all sides, but Savannah swept in with a yell of fury, her hands clad into terrifying gauntlets that became weapons whenever she clenched her fists: huge, roaring feral lion heads, with jaws open and lined with tremendous jaws. "Don't you dare mess with my father, you whores!" The young goddess roared, slamming one gauntleted-fist home on the temple of one of the Harbingers and basically disintegrating her skull, before landing an uppercut in her guts for good measure, ripping her chest to shreds and sending gore, blood and guts erupting out through the destroyed neck. The Harbingers looked taken aback by that sudden fury, and Savannah grinned as she displayed her devastating prowess by immediately spinning on the spot, throwing the broken corpse against a second Harbinger, gaining one second to land one, two, three blows in her hip, then a vicious hook to the chest, ripping through the first corpse and smashing into her, the jaws of her gauntlet closing on the blindfolded girl's heart and turning it into pulp, before she finished her with a devastating uppercut under the chin, ripping her whole form into shreds.

The third Harbinger stabbed her spear forwards in a vicious lunge, but Savannah danced around the pole weapon, grabbed its neck and swung both feet up, donkey-kicking her hooves right into the blindfolded goddess's face and knocking her back in an explosion of blood, before the zebra spread her legs wide and hocked one behind the head of the last Harbinger, yanking her forwards and then clamping her head between her thighs, crushing it with enough force to cause the skull to pop like a rotten tomato. Savannah spun sideways, hefting the headless body up into the air and hurling it away like a toy, and Killer exploited the window of opportunity to rush past. "Go, daddy, go!" Savannah urged, springing into a ready position and raising her gauntlets in defence as other blindfolded goddesses and Horrors charged forwards, some of them wrestling among themselves, others almost actively collaborating to surround the zebra.

"Can't let you do that, Amon-Ra!" Cerberus exclaimed, half-mocking and half-furious, his many eyes burning with rage and hate as the enormous beast turned around and lunged forwards, the mutant arm morphing into an apocalyptic cleaver blade that burned crimson with incandescent, devastating disease. Sekhmeth and Adrasthea got in the way to stop the assault, but a solid wall of pure, tremendous force erupted out of Cerberus and knocked both backwards, before the godbeast's titanic tentacles reared up all around him, whip-lashing brutally against the goddesses that attacked him from all sides. Killer saw the enormous cleaver blade descending and could only turn around to slash his own sword up into it, gritting his fangs at the violence of the impact and at the intense explosion of crackling bolts of malignant force. The ethereal blade he had created vibrated violently and began to smolder and melt away, the energies it was made off succumbing to the pestilent nature of Cerberus's titanic weapon, and Killer felt himself pushed back towards the wall of the Cloister... and towards Harbingers and Horrors that eagerly sneaked up behind him to stab into his back. His tentacles stretched out of his muscular back and stabbed into an Horror and an Harbinger clone, piercing through both and then smashing their bodies violently together before flicking them out against the other assaulters, sending a dozen beasts sprawling through space and several others falling helplessly into the greedy grip of the Black Holes. He pushed back against Cerberus with all his strength, but daringly removed one hand from the handle of the sword so he could gather raw, brutal force into his palm, preparing for a sudden strike... And then, suddenly, there was a violent explosion of light and energy from somewhere to the right, and a weird ripple went through reality, throwing space and time out of alignment for a moment. Killer threw himself backwards with a grunt of pain and confusion, acting on instinct, and a moment later a gigantic blade slashed right where he had been a moment earlier. Energy crackled violently after the great weapon, bursting out in great, violent arches that tore through Killer and many Horrors and Harbingers all around, burning some of them into ashes and stinking sludge.

The liger let out a breathless gasp, staring at the gigantic scythe as it went round in an ample cut and caught into Cerberus's mutant arm, catching into the spinning segments of metal... and then ripping through them, causing the godbeast to recoil with a cry of shock, struggling until his damaged arm came free and he could move back to a better position. The scythe slashed out again, chopping two enormous tentacles like they were blades of grass, and Cerberus hissed in pain and fury, moving up his armoured, mutant arm just in time to deflect another tremendous slash, and then another violent strike, as a new, terrible figure emerged fully from the fold in Reality, moving out through a fracture in Time and Space.

"Traitor!" Thanathos howled, and his voice caused Existence to shiver and ripple as if in terror, as terrifying discharges of destructive power crackled in the air all around him. The gigantic scythe, Requiem Aeternam in all her devastating glory, swung savagely down and hooked into the already damaged, oversized cleaver sword pushing out of Cerberus's mutant arm, and with a terrifying crackle of pure force it bisected the blade, shattering it and causing the weird, terrible crimson substance forming it to burn out of existence, falling away in the form of ashes.

"Traitor!" Thanathos repeated, glaring at Cerberus with white, soulless flames burning in the sockets of his exposed, monstrous skull, which was covered in ugly, disgusting masses of large eggs full of developing Horrors. He was far uglier than he had been before, and his worsening insanity did nothing to improve his looks as he stared at Cerberus with indescribable hate, drool and corruption leaking from his oversized, heavy jaws. He was visibly trembling in fury and outrage and, probably, fear as well. Fear of his rapidly progressing decay, fear of being utterly alone. Not for the first time, Killer was almost moved to pity for Thanathos, a sad creature which had made literally only bad choices, for all of his life, and who was now paying the price for them all.

The god of Death seemed to have grown hair as well, but the long and filthy ropes pushing out of the back of his skull were actually more similar to tentacles of black, pestilent, corruptive gunk, crammed full with capsules full of growing parasites. His body was deformed, hunched forwards and dominated by an enormous, mountainous ridge pushing out of his bent spine. His cloak had become one with his skin, turning into a dark cape of bloody, filthy, adamantine loose flesh. It dangled horribly from the ridge on his back, half-covering the root of his absurdly long tail made of exposed, spiked vertebrae and by an incredible amount of skulls and other bones of all types and sizes. There were scythes sticking out of that messy structure of skeletons fused together, and lanterns, and hourglasses, and bells that tolled sinisterly with his every movement. Countless parasites festered in the middle of that infernal cluster of bones, devouring every last shred of flesh and sucking eyeballs out of sockets, replacing everything with their thick, terrible corruption that leaked out of Thanathos in thick, heavy ropes. Thanathos had clearly absorbed many of his Reapers, forcing them to the supreme sacrifice: he had used his servants to patch up the gaping chasms in his body, to put a brake to his decay and destruction as the insatiable parasites devoured him from within.

He had undoubtedly devoured a few worlds as well, but Cerberus had made that difficult, reaching so far away with his tentacles and the Black Holes, so Thanathos had been left with few choices about how to gain some time, how to postpone his gruesome end. Cerberus and Thanathos were both on a countdown to their deaths, with little time to either complete their evolution, achieving perfection and thus getting control over their parasites... or to fail and be taken over completely by them, becoming nothing more than their hive and food. Thanathos's back jutted with great skeletal wings, composed of sharp, spike-like bones dripping with corruption, with dark flames stretching between them. His shoulders were enormous and protected by a multitude of skulls, all of them with sockets that glowed with sentient, cruel flames. Due to his hunch and the enormous sizes of his muscular arms he looked like a gorilla, propped up on his fists and on legs that appeared too small for his massive, powerful torso. His hands were enormous and skeletal, with long, blade-like fingers made of segmented bones and with "gauntlets" of heavy plates of adamantine calcite. Killer's corruption had turned him into an hypervirile monstrosity, a breeder of horrors armed with several massive tentacle-cocks jutting out of his groin and constantly, impatiently flexing, bulging with cruel ridges and spikes and massive, cruel medial rings as they all constantly oozed and leaked out thick cascades of dark, hyperpotent gunk. In his hands, Requiem pulsed with the unleashed monstrosity of her inner power: the weapon had truly gone back to him when Samara had failed to restrain it, and now the scythe was larger and heavier than ever, its great ridge burdened by countless new skulls frozen in the terrified expressions of their last instant of life, a new and massive curved pole made of spines melted together sustaining the heavy crescent blade The blade crackled with malignant, merciless energy as Thanathos's new power half-merged and half-clashed with Death itself, the immense power contained in that heavy weapon. It was the most powerful and terrifying weapon ever created, able to reap souls like corn, and the angry force exploding out of her was enough to send shivers down all of their spines.

"Traitor! You stole everything from me! My Reapers! My planet, my dreams... my wife! My wife worked for you, all along...!" Thanathos immediately rushed forwards, recklessly and fearlessly, the light in his eyes speaking of insanity and rage and despair, and he cocked his great scythe back, all the way up above his head, absurdly exposing himself in the uncontrollable need to strike down on his ex ally with every bit of his strength.

"Persephone only ever worked for herself. Not that I blame her, it runs in the family... her only mistake was trying to mess with me. I'm better than her at the game." Cerberus distastefully hissed, but even though it was an undoubtedly true point, Thanathos was too far gone to care, or even realize it. The mutant godbeast lunged forwards with a growl, a massive curved blade made of solid, incandescent pestilence snapping out of his forearm and jutting ahead of his fist as he drove it straight up Thanathos's chest.

The blade tore right through the god of Death, but Thanathos's eyes only bulged for a moment, a tremble going through his body but his momentum not even reducing as he impaled himself on the sword but closed the distances and hacked Requiem down like it was a pickaxe, chopping it right down into Cerberus's back as the tiger swung sideways to try and dodge. Energy exploded out of that impact, bleeding out of the mutant monster, and Cerberus's eyes bulged and cried drops of blood, shock spreading over his features as he shuddered and wheezed breathlessly. "Don't you defile her name!" Thanathos shrieked, his voice shrill with helpless denial, with indescribable hate for everything that had gone wrong in his life, and Cerberus only hissed and twisted around, yanking his wrist-sword hard out to the side, ripping it out through Thanathos's side while his other hand snapped up and grabbed Requiem by the neck of the pole, his muscles bulging explosively as he attempted to wrestle the huge weapon out of his sizzling, smoldering flesh. Bolts of malignant energy exploded out of the wound and crackled with even greater anger out of Requiem, viciously zapping down Cerberus's hand and causing it to nearly explode, countless Horror-eggs bursting apart and burning into nothing but toxic sludge as the godbeast howled in agony and arched his back in a mix of pain and surprise. Cerberus had stupidly thought himself already almighty and flawless, but the truth was that Requiem could still tear through his very vital force, and consume even the mutant meat of his corrupted, horrific body. "You can't stop me, loser... you can't!" Cerberus snarled, but they sounded like words destined to his own ears rather than to those of the insane monstrosity ahead of him, who grinned maniacally even when Cerberus stabbed his blade forwards again, driving it through the god of Death's throat. Again and again and again, Cerberus slashed and stabbed into Death's massive body, but the huge monstrosity only leaned forwards all the more, ripping Requiem out of his flesh and then slamming it down again, chopping violently through his arms and chest. Cerberus howled in agony at that, his whole form shuddering and his enormous tentacles rearing up around him, half-wrapping around his form to protect him while others shot forwards to smash into Thanathos, tearing into his chest and then whip-lashing outwards to rip his ribcage open. There were no evident vital organs or vulnerabilities to strike at, however, as the violent mutation and evolution of the beast's body had distributed his vital functions literally through every fiber of his massive form, so Cerberus let out a howl of pain and frustration and only savaged brutally and senselessly everything that his tentacles could reach, ripping off large chunks of flesh and sending broken bones exploding out in fragments and dust.

"You can't kill what is already dead!" Thanathos cackled, blindly clawing into the tentacles and crudely ripping them apart, ignoring the Horrors that poured out of every wound and sick growth. Ghastly flames spread from his bony fingers all along the great tentacles, burning into them even as they rippled and attempted to evolve and repair themselves, and Requiem found its mark again, piercing right into Cerberus's side and cutting up all the way into his torso, brutally deforming his chest outwards as the god of Death cackled and yanked the weapon hard backwards. "Sweet pain... I've grown to like it, you know...? If I can't have anything else in life, I need to make it my friend!" Thanathos insanely barked, gritting his teeth so violently that they splintered, fragments exploding out of his jaws, his whole body trembling violently as angry, otherworldly energy crackled along Requiem's pole and exploded into him, causing great wounds to rip open in his mutant body, what remained of his flesh bursting into flames that had nothing to do with fire... but even that couldn't stop or even slow him down, as he hissed in a mix of agony and insane, absurd pleasure at once. "The more you hurt me, the stronger I feel!" Thanathos cackled, swinging Requiem up and then slashing it violently down towards Cerberus's "waist", where his hideous, chaotic body split apart in that gigantic tangle of universe-dwarfing tentacles. The terrible blade chopped easily through two of the immense appendages and buried deep through the mass of hard muscles composing another, becoming stuck and in the tangle and burning it from within, causing Cerberus to roar in agony as his flesh rippled and writhed, melting away around the otherworldly blade.

Killer flew forwards, pumping energy out of his hands to repair and expand the great sword in his grip, grunting as he balanced it on his shoulder as it became long and massive enough to rival Requiem's huge blade. Energy crackled around the sword as he thrust it forwards with a roar, aiming for Cerberus's exposed chest, but Thanathos hissed in fury at that and turned around with a yell of inarticulate fury, eyes blazing as he ripped Requiem back and swatted it violently against the liger, shrieking: "Don't you dare, you monster! This is MY revenge! And it is against you as well, and all those you care for!"

Killer gritted his fangs with a wince as Requiem approached, already able to felt the weapon's terrible, unforgiving force arching through space and tearing into him like electricity, causing his heart to miss a few beats as his entire nervous system tensed and flexed spasmodically, burning in terrible agony. The liger swung the massive sword upwards to intercept Requiem, and the clash of the two weapons resulted in an explosion of terrible forces that slammed all of them backwards, away from the center of the apocalyptic blast. Cerberus's tentacles tensed, still pierced deep into Thanathos's body, and they immediately dragged him back while beginning to bulge with great loads of pestilence and corruption, pumping that tremendous poison directly into his rival. Flesh burned and withered away, falling away in scraps as dry and frail as ancient parchment, and the many skeletons and bones making up his mutant form began to crack apart and dissolve into puffs of dust, causing Thanathos to hiss in pain and shock for a moment... before Sekhmeth swept in and formed a new, long whip of hellfire in her hands, snapping it down across the pumping tentacles and tearing through them all, sending huge clouds of toxic gunk spreading through space. "Get a move on, Thanathos, do the right thing for once in your life!" The black furred lioness roared, snapping her whip against Cerberus's arm as it angrily reached out for her, and the long line of hellfire crashed into a couple of large, ugly eyes and the hideous masses of growing Horrors stacked up in gooey "eggs" all around them, ripping dozens of beasts apart and sending others crawling out of their cocoons while still incomplete, their shapeless bodies mutating angrily and chaotically to try and make up for the lost time. Thanathos, however, did not seem to appreciate her help at all, his eyes widening in insane fury as he charged forwards and slashed Requiem against her. The lioness gritted her fangs with a snarl of irritation and ducked, reaching up to seize the great scythe by the pole, wrestling it back away from her and flexing with terrible power, muscles bulging explosively as he tried to yank it out of the crazed god's grip.

"What are you doing, you idiot! You want your revenge on Cerberus? Come on, get it, we will ease it!" The lioness barked, eyes blazing with rage even as her whole body spasmed and shuddered violently with the ferocity of the discharges of mortal power that the Scythe angrily unleashed into her. The shock was tremendous, causing her muscles to flex and bulge out of control, literally snapping through the plates of her armor and ripping through her own skin in places, bulging right through her hide with their phenomenal size... but despite the agony, the goddess shoved hard forwards, using her superior, tremendous strength to smack Requiem violently back into the god's skeletal face, denting the bone inwards with a sick crunch. She then yanked him hard forwards instead, spinning on the spot and practically hurling him against Cerberus, but Thanathos howled in irrational rage and spun around to again slash his scythe against her and Killer, driving them both backwards as he shrieked: "I want revenge over every last one of you! You are no better than him! You have all turned your backs on me!"

"You have given us zero reasons to do otherwise!" Alcana coldly hissed, spinning her halberd downwards and then hacking it up between Thanathos's legs, hacking with savage ferocity right into his groin, chopping off a couple of enormous tentacle-cocks and shattering one enormous, low-hanging testicle that burst apart generating a galaxy-sized cloud of dark, monstrous sperms, no less terrific and savage than Cerberus's own Horrors. The god howled in outrage and pain, and a tremendous wave of deadly force exploded out of him, rippling through Space and Time and blasting them all away like toys, sending terrible psychic agony through their minds. His terrible tail flexed, then smashed into Alcana with brutal force, ripping off her chest plate and tearing the front of her body apart, sending her crashing away with a shriek of pain. Elaine heard her mother's lament and felt clearly her agony through their mental link, and the young dragoness turned around with a snarl of rage, charging against Thanathos with a wild swing of her Praetorian spear-mace. It smacked into the beast's chest and caved it inwards with an horrendous, meaty crunch, but Thanathos only grinned maniacally as several of the dead Reapers trapped into his chaotic body of bones turned their skulls towards the goddess and vomited spears of darkness in her direction. Elaine growled and smashed them away from her with rapid and perfectly timed swings of her spear, deflecting some of the blasts back into Thanathos's body and smashing him backwards with the violence of the resulting explosions, but Cerberus cackled and swung up a titanic tentacle, smacking her out of the air and sending her crashing away like a meteor.

"You crazy, worthless piece of shit, all of you! Whores, wannabe heroes of the universe, and angry, frustrated cuckolds..." Cerberus mocked, grinning cruelly into Thanathos's insane face on the last word, before howling: "I won't let you interfere with my day. This is my day! Mine alone! The day of my triumph!" Cerberus arched his back with a hiss of agony and fury, his umbilical cords pulsing and thrumming with the power they greedily absorbed into him to repair the damage he had sustained... And then his eyes glowed with terrible power as he clawed into the very fabric of time and ensnared Thanathos into it. The god of Death snarled as he felt his movements becoming slow and difficult, time around him flowing in a whole different way... and Cerberus grinned triumphantly as he reached for Requiem's pole and grabbed it, yanking hard on the weapon and wrestling it out of Thanathos's grip as his bony fingers visibly aged and decayed, becoming frail, crumbling away into dust. "Not even your weapon can stand you! Let's see if you are worth shit once I take the scythe out of your hands!" Cerberus cackled maniacally as he dragged the massive weapon towards him... but it immediately turned into a gargle of agony as the weapon glowed with tremendous power and discharged her rage into him, blasting him backwards and causing his whole body to spasm out of control, crackling with supernatural, malignant energy. Requiem seemed to be simply furious. Thanathos's insanity probably unsettled the strange conscience of the legendary weapon as well, which crackled angrily with great bolts of terrible, destructible energy. It violently vibrated in Thanathos's hands, viciously tormenting him almost as much as his enemies, and the God of Death hissed in pain but only clutched harder into the long pole, his body-fingers almost melting and merging with the weapon as the great discharges of electricity tore their way up his arm, causing his muscles to spasm and smoke to rise from the bones and skulls that composed his limb. The immense blade greedily clung into Cerberus's spiritual energy even as the monstrous tiger recoiled away from her, and for a moment Killer could see the ethereal image of Cerberus's spirit being ripped out of him... before the mutant monstrosity lashed out with his tentacles, striking Thanathos and sending him spinning violently to the side, leaving behind a cloud of blood and fragments of bone. The hourglasses trapped between the bones of Thanathos's body suddenly glowed with energy and slowly turned upside down, beginning to count the time of a new cycle, and the god of Death tore free of his prison in Time, spinning around with a snarl and barking: "You think you can just freeze me in the past? You arrogant mortal! Death is everywhere, is in every Time. I'm in every Age and in every World and in every Destiny! You should know, you traitorous piece of shit: you've used my power and that of my Reapers to travel through time and space!"

"The only thing you were ever truly useful for." Cerberus cruelly taunted, and Thanathos crudely swung Requiem down into him, chopping off a large chunk of his neck and shoulder, leaving behind a ugly, infected wound and ripping off a large chunk of flesh and muscle as the god of death howled in unarticulated fury and cocked his heavy weapon back, shrieking as he began to hack it down again and again and again. With every vicious strike, the monstrous, godless titan that Cerberus had become howled in agony, his entire body seeming to freeze helplessly in midair as the great scythe once more found its mark, ripping into his chest and piercing right through his torso, the tip of the blade tearing its way out of his shoulder blade. The flames in Cerberus's sockets bulged, then flickered out of view for a moment as he let out a breathless lament of agony and shuddered hard, energy visibly flooding out of him and into Requiem Aeternam, which glowed angrily and crackled with dark lightning bolts, punishing him with savage force. Still, the god of Death swung it out again, and again, even as his body smoldered and half-melted where the weapon's furious force ripped through his nervous system, incinerating it.

"I will rip you apart! You betrayed me, just like everyone else! You've all betrayed me!" Thanathos maniacally howled, eyes bulging in agony as he yanked his huge weapon violently backwards and caused Cerberus's body to arch with a great shudder of agony as the scythe hooked into his ribs. Cerberus's body attempted to regenerate, to mutate and evolve around the blade, but the malignant forces of Death continued to explode out of Requiem, ripping into him in the form of lightning bolts that disintegrated his flesh and muscles as soon as they regenerated. His dark and normally adamantine flesh bubbled and boiled and smoldered, decaying quickly and inexorably wherever Requiem touched... and Thanathos grinned in insane, savage satisfaction as he slowly, cruelly twisted his massive weapon into the wound, sending blood and gore exploding out of Cerberus's chest, making him gargle breathlessly even as he savagely reached forwards, clawing into Thanathos, ripping into his chest, tearing large chunks of bone and decayed flesh right off. The God of Death seemed to barely notice that onslaught, his eyes burning with vengeful glee as he pulled up one huge skeletal hand and seized into his rival's skull, clawing into one eye and squeezing with all of his force as he leaned forwards with an insane cackle: "I don't care if I die, Cerberus... I no longer care! I've lost all reasons to live, but one: revenge. You have all betrayed me. You've all tormented me. And I'll rip you all apart, one after the other!"

Requiem brutally tore upwards through Cerberus's shoulder, nearly severing his limb right off as Thanathos cackled maniacally and cocked back the bloodied weapon, slashing it down across the tiger's chest and cutting his mutant body open like a paper bag. Cerberus's guts were sliced apart, but they greedily spilled out and arched in the air around him, bulging as they pumped up great, terrible amounts of corrupted, pestilent gunk. The broken ropes of intestine sprung out of him and rippled as they became ridged and armored with thick plates of metal-like bone, their torn ends splitting open and becoming hideous mouths that sprayed out thick volleys of toxic black gunk right into Thanathos's face, making him stumble backwards with a shriek of pain and surprise. The tentacle-guts stabbed into his torso and arms, growing massive bone harpoons out of their "mouths" exactly for that purpose, and they effortlessly yanked Thanathos forwards just as Cerberus angrily joined his skeletal hands in a tomahawk and hammered it down on the god of death. The blow caught Thanathos right on the top of the skull, making him howl in agony as his whole spine bent violently and loudly snapped, and the beastly, enormous tentacles of the savage tiger immediately rushed in and hammered into the god of Death, smashing again and again into him and knocking loose skulls and bones and other pieces of his body.

"Realizing all of a sudden that you are a loser and that nobody ever gave a fuck about you doesn't grant you any special power!" Cerberus angrily roared, grinning savagely as he smashed his fist into the suffering God, knocking fragments of bone off him and sending them tearing through Space like massive asteroids. "You've always been a loser, and that's all you'll ever be! It doesn't matter how much you hate me, you will lose again, and again, and again!" Cerberus growled, savagely smashing his fist right down between Thanathos's eyes, cracking his skull, denting it inwards, then tearing right through it, grinning viciously as his whole hand sunk inside... before he howled in agony as dark, terrible flames erupted out around his arm and rapidly spread all over his body. Even so, Cerberus flexed his immense muscles and arched his back in fury, clawing into the skull and finally ripping it into pieces and bone powder as he roared: "This is my day, loser! This is my Ascension, and nobody, nobody gets to ruin it!"

Cerberus's enormous tentacles coiled savagely around Thanathos's body, constricting him into a deadly, devastating embrace that caused all of its bones to creak audibly and shatter, his tail whip-lashing in agony and ripping through the ranks of Horrors all around them... and Killer charged forwards, swinging his sword upwards in a crude but incredibly powerful cut that hooked into four massive tentacles and tore through all of them. Cerberus turned around with a roar of fury, opening his jaws to vomit his toxic fire, but Killer's fist lashed out and smacked on his snout with enough force to tear right through it and deep into his skull. The liger growled and blindly grabbed whatever he could, yanking hard back and tearing the beast's lower jaw right off, tossing it away into the darkness of space.

"He is mine! Mine!" Thanathos howled, somehow pushing through the weakened tangle of tentacles and gaining enough room of maneuver to slash Requiem in a wide cut, catching the massive appendages and chopping through them like they were blades of grass. The God of Death emerged through the carnage and immediately swung the scythe out against Killer, but Killed slid behind Cerberus and yanked its broken skull in the way, grinning viciously as Requiem slammed violently into it and cut right through, piercing all the way down into the neck of the beast with a sick, meaty sound. Thanathos hissed in fury and thrust Requiem forwards with all his force, ripping it out through Cerberus's back and stabbing hard towards Killer, howling: "Wait for your turn, you bastard! You'll pay too! I'll kill everyone you love, so you'll know how I feel! You stole my wife away!"

"She was never yours, Cerberus. And you killed her with your own hands, anyway." Killer coldly reminded, ducking under the massive weapon and tackling Cerberus from behind, shoving him hard towards Thanathos, who cocked back Requiem and chopped it down again, viciously, burying the massive blade through the tiger's shoulder. Killer exploited that brief chance to aim for the tentacles buried through the Cloister's wall, but the sinister eyes staring out of Cerberus's wounds and pestilent growths all focused on him and blasted out a multitude of dark energy beams, bombarding him with such violence that he was forced to use his sword as a shield, one arm going up to cover his face as the beams ripped into his flesh like spears, then exploded with terrifying violence, sending him crashing back towards Cerberus's damaged body. The bestial, godless creature flexed his massive body and grew even larger and stronger, his shoulders bulging grotesquely and then almost exploded, spraying corruption in all directions as long, terrible arms ripped out of the growths, followed by two long, segmented "necks" armored with heavy plates of bone, both ending in two draconic skulls, heavy with massive horns and oversized, deadly jaws.

The new arms clawed viciously out, tearing into Killer's chest and making him howl in pain as he was tossed away like a toy, slammed far away from the "umbilical cords" that filled Cerberus with power.

Killer hissed in agony as the wounds in his chest burned with the terrible, incandescent and pestilent substance that leaked from Cerberus's talons, but before he could even think of a countermove the monster's body mutated even further, splitting down the middle. Requiem Aeternam slid free as Cerberus's body divided into two, causing even Thanathos to stare in confusion and shock, before the two draconic heads of the monster twisted around and assaulted them: one snapped its jaws upon Thanathos, catching one arm and ripping it off in a great explosion of blood and corruption.

The other head lunged against Killer, opening its tremendous jaws and unleashing a hurricane of black fire. Killer grunted as he threw himself out of the way and bumped back-first into the Cloister's wall of Black Holes, cursing as they immediately attempted to suck him in, the gravity force threatening to rip the flesh and muscle off his bones. He twisted sideways with all his strength, muscles bulging explosively as he rolled past the curve of the sphere just in time to avoid the immense beam of black devastation, which struck the barrier with such force to make it shudder violently, dissolving several black holes in mere instants. They melted away like spheres of ice cream, and the great blade of black fire began to pierce right through the wall. Killer ducked just in time to avoid the blast, which sailed past him and cut through Space, firing countless light years away. Killer charged forwards right under the beam, gripping the handle of his sword of golden energy with both hands and swinging it hard upwards when he came into range, piercing it right up through Cerberus's lower jaw and all the way out of the top of the draconic skull. Cerberus let out a cry of fury more than pain, but just as Killer began to yank his sword to the side to decapitate him and tear the blade free, one shadow lunged against him at incredible speed, thrusting forwards a spear that crackled with white, horrible force.

"You are not allowed near the Cloister!" She barked, glaring at him through a blindfold, and Killer hurriedly aimed his free hand against her, blasting a large sphere of energy into her face. It struck and exploded with tremendous force, blowing distant worlds out of orbit, but the Harbinger was unfazed, charging forwards even as her features were burned out of existence revealing the bone beneath. "Cerberus is allowed, instead...?" Killer furiously snarled, ripping his sword free and smashing the thick blade into the spear, knocking it out of her hands and immediately angling the sword to stab right through her chest. She seemed made of smoke, however, moving quickly out of the way, splitting into two... and Killer realized that one of the two was false, a vision caused by Darkness. He hurriedly closed his eyes and focused on his other senses to find out who he should defend against, but as soon as he did his mind exploded with pain and voices. Shrieks. Laments. Noise he couldn't recognize. Confusion nearly overwhelmed him, making him recoil in shock even as he swung his sword out...

"Of course not! But Mistress Lachesis is not worried about him. She is worried about you. You will interfere. You come for Alexis!" The blindfolded girl shouted, angrily leaning forwards as Killer side-stepped her stabbing assault and swiftly spun to smack her with the flat of his blade. He still caught her, battering her away like a baseball, but once again his vision betrayed him as she multiplied suddenly in his mind, just as she hurled her spear against him.

"Nobody touches our Master!" Pamela snarled, shooting up ahead of him and battering the spear away with her own hybrid weapon, far heavier and larger, before she windmilled it around her waist and chopped the Harbinger in half. The two pieces of the alien goddess immediately began to mutate into something new and terrible, but Manticora and Valery rushed in and unleashed two massive arrows from their longbows, striking them and disintegrating both bubbling, morphing masses of flesh in two enormous explosions. Horrors and Harbingers fought against each other in this area, and all of them fought against Killer and his Disciples: Mriya, Elaine, Kimera and the others immediately charged into the confused battle, trying to open a passage for him, and as he moved through the breach he crossed his sword with other Harbingers who viciously lunged against him. "You goddamn whore, if you stopped annoying me just for one moment, we could stop Cerberus before he breaks the Cloister apart!"

"Cerberus is no threat for my Mistress." The Harbingers countered with one voice. "We can hold him here. We can let his own ambitions and hungers be his downfall. He'll be dead long before he can be a threat for the Sisters of Fate."

Killer snarled in frustration at that, leaning into the blow of his sword against the blades handled by at least four of those blindfolded goddesses. He couldn't see their eyes, but he could perceive their gaze, feeling it burning through his flesh and into his soul, tearing through him like lasers. Their strength was tremendous and clearly growing with every passing moment... but even as their blades clanged loudly together, sending lightning bolts tearing through Space, his eyes sought Thanathos and Cerberus as the two gods savagely hacked into each other, crudely and viciously, driven not by experience but by the sheer violence of their feelings and the sheer immensity of their new powers. The God of Death was broken and bloody, but his tail had lengthened even further as more of his Reapers sacrificed themselves to become part of him, giving him more energies, more mass, more power... more time, as the parasites within him mercilessly devoured and consumed every last bone. Now his monstrous, skeletal tail was a gigantic, incredibly long tentacle made of spiked segments of bone that counter-rotated, turning into a deadly drill made to maim and destroy. The scythes of the fallen Reapers stuck out between a bone and another, spinning rapidly and cutting through everything they touched, and Thanathos used that flexible, tremendous weapon against Cerberus's own tentacles as they coiled around him, covering almost every inch of him and crushing him in the middle, threatening to squish him like a rotten tomato. His terrible tail wrapped several times around the immense tangle of tentacles, ripping into them and grinding flesh and muscle into nothing but pulp, sending massive chunks of corrupted meat falling in every direction. The tentacles shuddered and writhed, bleeding out pestilent gunk full of immense Horrors and half-formed parasites, and whenever one of the great appendages burst apart, one supermassive black hole was freed. Their dark cores floated around the two rotting godbeasts, warping their bodies as they continued to viciously rip into each other.

Cerberus's body continued to grow, mutate and evolve as soon as it took any damage, frustrating Thanathos's efforts, but whenever the God of Death managed to savagely hack Requiem into his rival, an explosion of malignant force consumed large chunks of the tiger, leaving behind contaminated, glowing craters that struggled to close and experienced only slow, sluggish, ineffective mutations.

Killer remembered all too well how devastating was the touch of Requiem Aeternam: by far the most powerful weapon ever created, the scythe contained the power of Death and was able to consume terrifying amounts of energy with the slightest of touches. It sliced not only the flesh, but the spirit, cutting the very vital energies out of whatever she struck. She was the only weapon that could cut back even the chaotic, terrible Evolution within Cerberus... hell, it could deal with mine as well.

Cerberus had understood it as well, and the two monstrosities began to wrestle over the massive scythe, clawing viciously into each other's hands as their muscles bulged explosively and energy exploded out of their clash in great, ferocious arcs. Requiem Aeternam was very much a divinity in its own right, and the terrifying energies that blasted out of her tore violently up through both gods, burning through their arms. Supernatural, devastating flames devoured the hives of parasites inside Cerberus and Thanathos's limbs, and their armoured hides writhed and died away, retracting as the flames consumed the very vital force within their bodies. Their skeletal fingers cracked and began to shatter, forcing their mutant forms to evolve and split apart at the chest, surging forth with hideous masses of uncountable thin tentacles that lashed out and wrapped around the great pole of the scythe.

Requiem clearly rejected them both: the scythe continued to torment Cerberus with great blasts of deadly force, but the cruel bolts zapped Thanathos with pretty much the same intensity... and Killer winced inwardly, remembering all too clearly what it had been like to wrestle with that sentient, legendary weapon. But remembering also that Requiem had never accepted Thanathos as her owner. She had been violently stolen from Azura's hands, not conquered, and she had never forgiven him for the disloyalty and the betrayal. For a brief moment, Killer all but wondered whether the scythe had any role in Thanathos's torment: was Requiem responsible for the fact that he had been betrayed by everyone he had tried to call friend, or lover...? He discarded the thought almost immediately, snorting at his own credulity... but for sure, for all his life, he had paid for his betrayal of his Mistress and Mentor. And Killer had seen more than enough amazing and impossible things to know that the laws of Existence were far more complicated than he used to believe. Wyvern was more than a just a sword. Requiem more than just a scythe. Who could know the full extent of what they could or could not do...?

He needed the power of Requiem Aeternam. He couldn't afford to leave that almighty weapon in the hands of his enemies. That weapon possessed a power that went beyond even his regenerative and evolutional abilities... it was a terrible threat, and at the same time it was also an incredible opportunity. Requiem was not going to accept him as Master... but he knew exactly the One that the Scythe had never ceased to serve.

I'm going to need power. Lots of it. Killer thought, his eyes returning on the veritable army of Blindfolded goddesses standing ahead of him. Their spears lunged against him with indescribable speed and with fluid, terrible grace, and he countered their constant assaults with pure, brutal, terrible violence. He slammed the flat of his massive energy-sword into two Harbingers that attempted to dive under his blow, stabbing their spears against his knees. He caught one of the two by the skull, roaring as he squeezed on it with all of his strength until it exploded in a wet burst of gore, and smacked his spiked knee up into the face of the other, sending her broken body crashing backwards into the other Guardians of the Cloister, sending three more stumbling backwards just to be caught by his sword as he slashed it hard outwards, chopping all of them into halves. Their broken bodies exploded in his face, however, blasting into him as focused beams of energy, slamming into his already tormented chest and making him howl in agony.

Get back to work, Deimos! He angrily barked in his mind, thinking of the god and personification of Fear, who was condemned to serve as his armour forever, but the unkillable entity only shrieked in denial and terror and agony, trying to resist. He clearly didn't want to crawl out of Killer's body and form into a protective layer to tank damage for him, but he was left with no choice: the liger closed his eyes for a brief second and mentally clawed into him, reminding him that no amount of outside pain matched the torment that Killer could and would inflict on him.

The black armour, that had been broken into fragments by the earlier assaults, rapidly regenerated, crawling back in place over Killer's broad, masculine chest... and even the Blindfolded goddesses hesitated for a brief moment, recoiling in instinctive, helpless fear in front of that dark, infernal presence. Shaped to follow the exact profile of Killer's hulking, prodigious musculature, the armor made him appear even larger, stronger, more inexorable than ever... and the closest Harbinger broke down in a cry of panic, scampering backwards and half-tripping over the other copies of herself. It was all Killer needed to drop his shoulder ad ram into them, his deadly bone-spikes ripping through armor, flesh and bones as he roared and slapped a whole group of divinities out of his way, before swinging the same arm out in a wide and downward-cutting arch, smacking the flying bodies downwards and sending them falling into the wall of Black Holes that protected the Cloister. "Get out of my way, you whores!" The huge male roared, flexing his powerful form and sending a myriad of his enormous tentacle-beasts ripping through their ranks, impaling through their bodies and savagely biting their heads and limbs off in ferocious assaults... but the blindfolded monstrosities only spoke again in that terrible, unnerving collective voice: "You can't enter the Cloister. You would interfere. Mistress Lachesis wants Alexis. And you'd be in the way. You are an obstacle. You must be obliterated." The blindfolded monsters coldly and fearlessly insisted in piling up on him, forcing him back away from the breach in the Wall, from the tentacles that sucked in power to feed Cerberus's uncontrollable evolution, and what was truly terrible about the Harbinger was that she just kept coming back, no matter how many times they cut her down. Worse, she became stronger and stronger with every time she returned to life... and, apparently, more copies of her spawned into reality at the same time.

"No matter how many of you come at me... no matter how hard you try, or how many times you come back from the dead... Nothing and no one will ever be able to keep me and Alexis apart." Killer coldly said, eyes glowing with terrifying power and rage as his tentacles jutted forth with formidable, terrible arrays of spikes and blades of bone and corrupted, adamantine metal, beginning to gyrate and twist around and whip-lash in every direction, grinding together and crushing, maiming, squishing everything they caught in between, turning the Harbingers into mincemeat... and rapidly, greedily, mercilessly absorbing both the energy and the scraps of flesh and bone, feeding it all into Killer as pure power, as fuel for his own evolution. He growled hungrily, flexing his massive form as he allowed himself to grow even greater, and when an Harbinger managed to overcome his defence and stab her spear into his massive arm, he grinned as the blade shattered uselessly against his massive bicep, unable to so much as scratch him as he turned around and smashed his huge fist into her, cracking the goddess's spine in half like it was nothing but a twig. Mutant, terrible evolutions of the Harbinger began to surge all around him as the broken bodies resurrected and regenerated, while other monstrosities poured out through the wall of Black Holes, but he did not allow them to stop him again. A monstrously mutated Harbinger clung to his arm with a multitude of spiked tendrils and appendages jutting with deadly thorns that pierced through his exposed skin and even cracked through the metallic plates of his armour, but he only hissed in irritation as the poison poured into him and, after burning for a few instants, started to turn into yet more fuel for him. He reached down to grasp the hideous beast and crudely ripped her off his arm, smashing her back against the solid barrier of Black Holes, and he saw Nikita rush past his side, her crimson mane and long, braided tail dancing in the darkness around her and seeming to glow as she ducked under a vicious slash of a mutated blade-arm and then slashed her spear up into the beasts, knocking them flying like toys.

Pamela followed after a moment, and Boadicea raced forwards as well, his disciples and Praetorians helping him cut through that endless horde of enemies... and then a great mass of tentacles joined his own, the great appendages grinding together and spinning with savage force, eagerly turning around in the mess of blood and gore and corruption that spurted out of the crushed, destroyed Harbingers.

He looked up to see Gaia, glorious and beautiful in her armor made of all the Elements of Nature, her massive tentacles of thorny vines and plants spreading out of her back and whip-lashing through Space, ensnaring the Horrors and the Harbingers and strangling them, colonizing their wounds with roots that greedily consumed their blood and even their corruption, using it all to grow even larger and stronger. "I'm Killer's Nature!" The goddess roared, and in that moment she was the terrible, vengeful force behind all of the natural catastrophes. Gone was the seraphic and motherly Gaia, replaced by her most savage side. "I'm Killer's Will! I'm his Fire and his Water, his Air and his Earth. I'm the guardian of the Life he creates, and the torment and obliteration of his enemies!" Water danced on the back of her head, her watery mane reaching down to the middle of her back and then splitting in a multitude of vortexes which slashed out around her like tentacles, stabbing through the Horrors, impaling them one after the other, forming strings with them as if they were candy, the waters spiraling violently within them and washing away their flesh, consuming it even as it attempted to mutate and evolve. Adrasthea and Alcana and the others formed a line around him as well, and together they tore their way towards the barrier of the Cloister, tearing through Horrors and Harbingers, battering them back and cutting them down like corn during the harvest.

"Do you think I can bring a long dead Goddess back to life...?" Killer asked, turning to look into Gaia's eyes as he found himself at her side, his sword stabbed through an Horror that still attempted to claw his way forwards along the blade, gripping into it even as it burned its fingers to ashes. Gaia turned slowly towards him, and her eyes, which were glowing with terrible, soulless intensity, recovered their humanity for a moment, just so she could offer him a smile and a nod, even as he grabbed the Horror's skull and crunched it with his bare hand, flexing as he absorbed its energies, draining it to a husk before it could mutate further. For a moment she undoubtedly wondered who he was thinking about, but as Thanathos hacked Requiem into Cerberus and lightning bolts exploded out of both of their bodies, her eyes widened slightly and burned with a whole new light, showing that she had perfectly understood his plan.

The goddess of Nature surrounded them with a wall of roaring fire, and Killer's and her own tentacles stabbed viciously through the flames, ripping through enemy after enemy even as she reached up to caress his cheek and whisper: "You know it, Killer... you can do everything you want. You just need to want it... and we will help you, in whatever way we can. We are with you to the very end."

"Thank you." Killer replied, and he was sincere: he needed the reassurance, because he was about to attempt something terribly dangerous and incredibly ambitious. Something that, needless to say, no one had ever dared to contemplate. He looked up at the monstrous tentacles that fed energy into Cerberus, and he charged out through the wall of fire, eyes blazing with fury and power as he allowed himself to grow even further, muscles bulging explosively as he rammed his shoulder into the Horrors and smashed them out of his way, just for his tentacles to shot after them and coil around their damaged forms, strangling them with devastating force, crushing their bones to dust and squishing their muscles into pulp. The enormous tentacles arched up into the air and then plunged down through mouths and skulls, ripping jaws apart and burying themselves down the Horror's filthy, powerful bodies, bulging them grotesquely out of shape and filling them up with tremendous, almighty loads of black, incandescent, hyperpotent, hypermasculine gunk. The parasitic godbeasts shuddered in a mix of agony and delight, their bodies first bulging around the colossal tentacles, then becoming as taunt as too-small condoms as the tentacles began to suck all of their energies out, draining them into powerless husks until the gigantic appendages ripped right through, shredding them like they were made of paper.

Killer growled in a mix of delight, hunger and pain as their corrupted, malignant energies were absorbed inside him: it filled him with agony at first, but the sensations rapidly changed as his body converted and conquered those energies, adding them to his own. Harbingers and Horrors attempted to tackle him, but Boadicea roared and swatted them back with a great hook of Satan's Bane, Gaia unleashing a tornado of fire and ice onto the horde and burning entire lines of monsters out of existence. His Disciples and Praetorians slammed their way into the mass of monsters, and he sent an enormous tangle of his own tentacles shooting through that narrow passage, sending them stabbing viciously into the "umbilical cords" that kept Cerberus fed. Energy immediately crackled violently back along the tentacles, ripping into him in a burning flash of fire, but it only made him shiver in anticipation and terrible, endless hunger. His tentacles greedily coiled around the massive "cords" and he used them to drag himself forwards, closer to those immense, pulsing tubes of adamantine flesh.

"Show me that you are not a coward. Eat it all up! Drain that mortal wannabe back to the husk he was meant to be!" Black Killer immediately teased, and Killer grunted at the pain that suddenly exploded in his mind. He saw Black cackle as he corrupted more nodes within his soul and consciousness. He saw more of the great networks of memories and determinations turn into black, dead, corrupted strings that would never, never be able, and even less willing, to restrain the colossal beast that slumbered in the middle of the darkness, immense and unfathomable and absolute. For a moment, Killer hesitated, wondering what was real and what was not. Was Darkness really that close to breaking the restraints on the Beast...? Killer couldn't quite gauge his own feelings, his own sensations. Part of him so horribly hungry, terribly eager... but on the other hand, the other part of him was still fully lucid, and the fact that he could still worry about the consequences of his actions wasn't, in itself, a confirmation that his mind was holding up better than Darkness wanted him to believe...?

"I don't care what you believe. Just do it!" Darkness urged, and Killer saw his huge, gauntleted hand smash forwards into one large node of his memories, causing it to crack apart while terrible black flames erupted inside it and swelled violently, engulfing the entire sphere. Killer recoiled with a grunt of pain and confusion, his eyesight clouding up for a moment... but then he looked up as he saw the Harbingers and Horrors charging against him, and Gaia and Pamela rushing ahead to hold them back.

"Help him! Restrain Darkness!" Gaia urged, before moving further away, one large shield appearing out of her forearm, formed by a fiery wasteland made of magma, both liquid and incandescent and cooling and semi-solid. She grunted as she slammed her shield out to meet Cerberus's furious assault as the tiger-beast turned around and howled its fury against Killer... and the huge male gazed from side to side as Vanessa and Nadia and Samara got near him and pushed their hands into his chest and shoulders.

"Don't worry, daddy." Samara reassured, giving him a little nod. "You are not alone. We'll keep Black back, no matter what it takes." Killer gritted his teeth behind his closed lips, knowing that it was much easier said than done, but he nodded to them, gazing into Nadia's loving eyes, then into Vanessa's. Oh, he could still hardly believe she was truly back... and yet, those were her eyes, for sure. There was no doubt at all. She looked at him with the same slavish adoration, with the same eager worship, with the same desire he remembered from the old days, and even more.

"Let the bitches come, if you dare... it will be a real pleasure to destroy them too." Black taunted, cracking his knuckles and grinning as Inverted, savage versions of Alexis, Ira, Vesta and all the others stepped forwards on either side of him, the massive goddesses standing proud and fearsome in their power and their ferocity. Killer faced that wall of muscle, of beauty, of power and merciless hunger, feeling terribly alone at first... but then Samara appeared at his side, and Vanessa followed, along with Nadia. And within moments he was surrounded by "his own" Alexis and Ira and Vesta and the others, all of his Disciples standing proudly at his side, ready to fight for him.

He could no longer hesitate. Both Cerberus and Thanathos charged straight at him, and Adrasthea and Alcana moved forwards to restrain them. Requiem slammed into Adrasthea's shield and the curved blade ripped through it like it was made of paper, stabbing right through her forearm and making her howl in agony even as she continued to drive her heavy spear into the godbeast's flank...

And Alcana slammed her halberd into Cerberus, but barely managed to cut into his rapidly evolving form, his adamantine hide morphing rapidly around her weapon and nearly sucking the blade in, preventing her from swiftly moving back. Cerberus clawed into her with savage ferocity, and his pestilent talons sliced brutally through her beautiful breasts...

Killer couldn't quite hear the shrieks and tell apart the noises in his mind from those in the world around him, but his eyes bulged at the sight of the blood and the gore and the dragoness's eyes bulging in agony... and his tentacles and his hand both clamped hard down on the "umbilical cords", squeezing so powerfully that one of them squirmed violently and then burst apart, leaking out gunk and Horrors and eggs and, above all else, energy. Raw, cosmic energy. The very forces of Creation, the energies of countless stars and even entire galaxies that ancient Black Holes had devoured in the course of more Eons than could be counted. Cerberus immediately twitched, his body visibly spasming as the flow of energy sustaining him abruptly drained up, and his eyes burned with fury but also with fear, as a multitude of cells in the hideous Hives within him snapped open in a hurry, vomiting out new hordes of Horror that immediately crawled out of him and charged towards Killer to drive him away from the umbilical cords.

Fury and terror combined to give the godbeast even greater strength, however, and he slapped Alcana's halberd away and managed to viciously smash his pestilent fist into her wounded chest, smashing her away and sending her crashing violently into the wall of the Cloister. "Don't you dare! That is MY power!" Cerberus barked, his monstrous mutant arm morphing violently and turning into a sort of titanic warhammer that he slashed savagely against Killer... but Sekhmeth grabbed the edges of the enormous weapon and wrestled it backwards, muscles bulging explosively as she drove the massive weapon sideways until it crashed into Thanathos's arm, knocking it out of course with a violent crunch.

Adrasthea exploited that chance to yank her arm free from Requiem's cruel blade, her eyes bulging as her muscular arm spasmed out of control and the wound festered with terrible, inexplicable disease, nearly rotting away as motes of her vital energy leaked visibly out of the wound.

"Get the hell out of my way!" Cerberus roared, and his talons tore into Sekhmeth's hip, making the lioness howl in agony as they pierced deep through her guts, then ripped right out through her muscular back, slapping her away like she was a toy. Boadicea was next, standing on his way and slamming Satan's Bane in the middle of his chest, caving the masculine, broad muscle inwards and shattering another large hive of Horrors. Cerberus's whole body rippled and then violently, chaotically grew, his bulky musculature bulging explosively with the simplest of movements, his fury making him impervious to all assaults as he savagely swung her mutated arm backwards and slammed the gigantic hammer-head into her, smacking her flying across Space until she crashed into the wall of the Cloister. He seemed unstoppable, and he barreled right past Mriya and Pamela, brutally smashing his way through them, but Alcana and Elaine swept in from the opposite directions and opened their jaws wide, unleashing twin vortexes of white, draconic fire that smashed into the bulging chunks of hive hanging out of his countless wounds and chaotic growths and tumors. Their ultimate fire raged into the hives, melting and destroying countless Horrors and the "eggs" in which they were rapidly developing... and Cerberus laughed in dark, ferocious amusement and bliss, delighted by the sudden cleansing, by the sudden reduction in his pain and torment as countless of his parasites were consumed out of existence. He felt invigorated and ready to fight and win any battle... but Killer and his disciples knew that his strength was actually going to plummet rapidly as the Hive was destroyed. Cerberus lunged forwards with surprising, terrible speed, using his tentacles to swing himself back towards Killer and lashing out with a tangle of the massive appendages, the Black Holes at their ends pulsing ominously as they continued to suck in every bit of energy and matter they found on their path, absorbing even the stinking gunk that leaked out of the countless holes in Cerberus's mutant form. Killer grunted and prepared to defend himself, but Kimera lunged in from the side and her eyes hurried sought his, flashing as they silently told him not to worry, to leave it to them and only focus on his own mission.

He recoiled a bit at that, finding it hard to stay back and let them fight alone, but he knew it was the right thing to do, and while Kimera's twin-headed battleaxe smashed into Cerberus's tentacles, chopping one apart and sinking deep through another, he gritted his fangs and focused on absorbing even more energy out of the "umbilical cords". They trashed violently in his grip, trying to break out of his hands, but he only snarled and clawed deeper into them, his arms flexing with power as he sucked those great flows of energy dry. Kimera snarled as she hacked her heavy axe into the gigantic tentacles, cutting them apart, slicing their muscular flanks open, but Cerberus only hissed in what sounded more like pleasure than pain, and one of his many tentacles flexed with indescribable strength, ripping itself apart, splitting open in bloody, corrupted tendrils that retained enough strength to crack the supermassive black hole core into fragments, pulling it apart and then hurling the deadly, sharp fragments of absolute darkness right into the goddess. Kimera immediately dodged, but the tremendous gravity fields that pulled her back with terrible force kept the "daggers" of darkness homing on her better than any guided missile. They rushed forwards with incredible violence, and the zebra swung up her axe to batter a couple of them into pieces, wincing as the "pebbles" of darkness continued to push against her weapon with enough force to send it spinning violently out of her grip. The other large chunks of darkness slammed into her, tearing into her chest and abs and arms and sending her crashing backwards with a gargle of agony, her entire form rippling as the greedy pieces of Black Hole attempted to suck her in, to pull her body apart.

Manticora raced forwards to help her sister, spinning her twin kukri blades and then stabbing them up with a roar, piercing through another massive tentacle and forcing it to bend backwards, using it to ram into the many others and force them back... but the immense appendages only grew even larger, rearing up monstrously through space and then angling downwards as if to glare at her before punching down like meteors. The zebra leapt back, yanking her twin blades along and ripping through corrupt meat and massive, omnipotent muscle, before a first massive tentacle rushed down just in front of her, missing for what felt like inches... and another stabbed violently down against her, and she barely managed to throw herself forwards, feeling it hissing back her back. The zebra slammed both hooves down on the first tentacle and sprinted up in a huge leap, somersaulting and kicking the second away from her, causing blood, corruption and half-formed Horrors to explode out of the immense appendage. She landed back on the first tentacle just in time to avoid Cerberus blindly and furiously slashing his pestilent talons out, and the monster uselessly tore into his own tentacle-meat. Manticora, in the meanwhile, sprinted up along his other tentacle, her hooves leaving behind deep, bloody footprints that erupted into eternal fire as her energies tore into the beast, but before she could get to Cerberus's waist, Thanathos savagely slashed out Requiem and sliced the tentacle under her feet into two bloody halves that whip-lashed angrily in the opposite directions, blindly seeking him out. Requiem narrowly missed the zebra, but even without direct impact, the huge weapon radiated such terrible, ferocious power that Manticora was blasted off her hooves and sent spinning through the darkness, her body crackling with terrible, devastating energies that burned into her soul and into her flesh at the very same time. Gaia's eyes flashed with all the ferocity of Nature unleashed, and her living tentacles of immense, thorny green vines and roots erupted into being all around her and coiled around Thanathos's arm, around the pole of Requiem and even around Cerberus's own arm, her body flexing and her muscles bulging with explosive power as she gritted her fangs and restrained both monstrosities. "You stay right there." The snow leopardess growled, and her voice sounded like a terrible sentence of doom. Thanathos gaped at her in shock for a moment, surprised by her confidence and ferocity, that for so long a time she had kept hidden in the old days, when they had both sat at the Council of the Seven to advise Lord God, Elelyon... And for a brief moment the flames in his many eye sockets betrayed regret and nostalgia. Things had been easier back then. Things had been fairer.

Requiem pulsed angrily, however, awakening them all as it thrummed with terrible power, her supernatural rage channeling through Gaia's immense vines and tearing all three of them at once.

Gaia gaped in shock, eyes bulging wider at the sheer violence of that malignant force, but she clenched her fists and flexed, her great muscles bulging explosively as she used her tremendous physical strength to resist the torment and wrestle against the combined might of the two mutant beasts. Even through the agony, her teeth gritted in a snarling grin as she looked down at her massive biceps, at the great, formidable musculature that she had always wanted but had never been able to obtain... until Killer had liberated her, and made her not just powerful, but strong, as well. It was a very different thing.

Cerberus howled in agony and frustration, flailing and struggling against her tentacles, trying to tear free, moving towards Killer as best he could, but she only growled in gamely, predatory satisfaction as she dragged him hard forwards and spun to slam her fist into his ravaged chest, snickering as her fingers, gauntleted over with heavy plates of stone kept together by rivers of hot, liquid magma, tore through his armoured hide almost with ease. She hungrily, savagely clawed into the messy, disgusting hive of Horrors within him, and then grinned widely as she unleashed the full fury of Fire inside that infernal factory of monstrosities, causing flames to push out of all his wounds and all the holes in his armoured skin, while Horrors crawled and flew and jumped out of him, trying to escape from the burning maelstrom.

Cerberus howled, but in rage, not pain, again struggling against her monstrous strength... and while they wrestled, somewhere deep inside his mutant body, Riaku turned around, slashing Toryu out just in time to cut through two Horrors that had leapt against his back. The broken halves of their bodies flopped heavily on the ground and immediately rolled over and began to crawl back up, their chaotic bodies morphing and mutating rapidly. Countless other beasts were following Riaku and the rest of the assault team, but the son of Killer was holding up the rear and he was determined to let no one through, even though he was panting, his heart racing and his body covered in sweat, blood and sick gunk. Going down the tentacle had been relatively easy thanks to Gaia's fire cleansing a passage, and her root-tentacles forming a long and secure corridor, but even so, they had been assaulted by an incredible horde of parasites that devoured their way through Cerberus's flesh, tunneling through muscles and bones and ripping into the corridor from all sides. Now they were in uncharted territory, their feet dragging through thick dark sludge that clung to them like glue and burned into their flesh, working to corrupt and mutate them. Everywhere all around them there were large, ugly, semi-transparent capsules and eggs in which terrible Horrors were rapidly growing. The beasts stared at them through the thin, sticky walls of the eggs, and it was one of the most unnerving things Riaku had ever had to deal with. He looked up with a grunt as he heard the rumble of another horde approaching, and he made a grimace of disgust at the sight of countless parasites rushing down the "corridor" they had just finished clearing. He summoned a large sphere of energy to his palm, then hurled it violently into the green, thorny roots that kept the walls of the corridor stiff and secure, and the massive explosion that followed ripped the tentacle apart.

Cerberus's eyes bulged in surprise at that, and he gazed down to see his stiff, unresponsive tentacle coming loose in a blast of fire, before Gaia swiftly reached out and grabbed the stiff piece of flesh in one hand, spinning it around and savagely stabbing it through his chest, sending him recoiling with a gargle of agony. Cerberus immediately reached up to strike back against the goddess of Nature, but he shuddered violently as another series of explosions tore his waist apart, disintegrating a huge number of eggs and sending broken Horrors spilling out of him as a shiver of pain and shock ran through his form.

"Burn them all!" Seth roared, surrounding himself with a tall, thick curtain of hellish flames and swinging a heavy, massive sword that blazed with tremendous energy. Kaya stood back to back with him, her eyes glowing with savage satisfaction as she drove her sword through a massive Horror, dragging him down and then swiftly chopping his head off with the smaller, curved blade in her other hand. Vicky circled around them, beating back the incoming parasites and smashing her fists through the pulsing, hideous eggs, crushing the skulls of the developing beasts and unleashing torrents of golden fire into the endless rows of capsules. Kathy and Lilith were in the vanguard, their eyes glowing with icy, murderous sapphire flames as the young, angelic-goddess tore her way through the enemy ranks with powerful, elegant swings of her Praetorian spear, channeling great discharges of energy down the long pole and shooting them out in the form of lightning bolts, sending them ripping through the Hive, cutting swathes of destruction through the endless, cathedral-like towers and columns and arches heavy with clusters of enormous eggs. Burning Horrors howled in outrage and agony around them, crawling through the fire and leaping recklessly into the fight, but Lilith's enormous tentacles whip-lashed out into them and slapped them back into the inferno. She laughed darkly as some of her tentacles morphed until their extremities turned into cruel, spear-like needles that dripped with focused corruption, with Killer's tremendous, hypervirile essence. Whenever a Horror managed to charge up towards her, she leapt backwards and immediately snapped down those frightening needles, stabbing them into the beasts and pumping them full of hyperpotent gunk.

It caused the Horrors to writhe and shriek in agony and confusion, their bodies evolving rapidly and chaotically, growing, expanding, flexing with even greater power... and as they evolved, the Horrors turned around to tear into their brothers, biting and slashing and ripping apart, contaminating other parasites. A small army of converted Horrors was now fighting with them, and Riaku couldn't help but stare at those hulking black titans, muscular and powerful and savage, their bodies endlessly dripping and leaking with thick, dense, hyperpotent, omnivirile black gunk that smelled of their Father and god. Those beasts could impregnate entire worlds with their filth, with their sweat, and they carried around monumental tentacle-cocks that constantly oozed endless, excessive cascades of virile, omnipotent essence. They were manifestations of his father's spectacular power, and now that they were back on the right side they seemed unstoppable, their evolution reinforced and accelerated. One of them swung out a muscular, massive arm and battered a whole like of parasites out of the way, crushing them against and through the masses of eggs, causing a great squelch of gore and toxic gunk, before he reached up and snapped his terrible jaws closed on a couple of eggs, popping them and crunching the beasts inside into nothing but sludge, greedily swallowing it all. Another of the "good" Horrors slammed his fist down onto three of Cerberus's parasites, squishing them into an ugly stain of gore, and then grabbed a fourth, helplessly hefting him up and tearing him in half. Amazingly, those great mutant titans humbly followed him, and Riaku led them deeper into the Hive, slashing Toryu through monster after monster, cutting them down into pieces and that the Horrors behind him greedily consumed and devoured, eliminating them before they could stand up again and morph into something else, more monstrous and dangerous. The great Hives burned, and the supernatural fire spread through the tunnels, consuming endless eggs, especially as Elaine and Alcana breathed their draconic fire into the godbeast's wounds, and Gaia unleashed magma and flames right inside him. Cerberus's eyes bulged in horror as he began to realize the truth and understand his terrible mistake, staring at his arms as they began to almost deflate, his skin writhing and becoming frail instead of armoured, his strength rapidly decaying as the hives were burned out of existence.

"No, no, no!" The tiger-monster howled, trashing violently against Gaia and the other goddesses that kept striking into him, opening wounds that, instead of healing and evolving, gaped wide open and vomited out torrents of toxic gunk and molten remains of millions of eggs. "I will fucking rip you apart!" He maniacally threatened, slashing his tremendous talons out towards Alcana, but the goddess avoided him with almost humiliating ease, her mighty wings flapping once and bringing her out of range... before Thanathos swung Requiem out instead, snarling in insane fury as he tried to chop her in half. She hurriedly retreated even further, and Requiem missed, restrained by Gaia's tentacles, allowing Alcana to turn around and aim her fire against the god of death, incinerating the scraps of corrupted meat covering his chest of bones and skulls. Thanathos, however, only hissed in a mix of pain and rage, flexing his massive form and pushing against the vines and roots with renewed ferocity, allowing Requiem's terrible energies to rip right through him and into the tentacles of thorny vines and roots coiled around him and the great weapon. The great green roots that were restraining Requiem simply burned out of existence, consumed by the weapon's tremendous strength, and Gaia staggered backwards with a grunt of pain and exhaustion, before her eyes widened as the bells on Thanathos's body all tolled at once, and her mind threatened to explode with the sudden, indescribable pain that flared into it. The energy that crackled around her tentacles seemed to merge with the darkness and somehow burst into fire, a fire that was terrible and horrifyingly-powerful, enough to go far beyond even her control. It was reality-changing, and it made Gaia howl in agony, her eyes clenching shut as her back arched and all her muscles spasmed out of control even as she gritted her fangs and tried to break free of that torment without letting go of the two gods.

Killer gritted his teeth at the sight of her agony, staring as Thanathos broke entirely free of Gaia's grip and swung the massive scythe against her. The leopardess's eyes bulged as her back arched, a shudder rattling her as the blade tore through her armor and pierced right across her, sticking out of her back and causing a burst of gore and crackling bolts of energy to erupt out of her. Killer howled his denial and fury to the sky, hurling a large sphere of energy against the god, but the countless Reapers crudely merged with Thanathos's body all looked up with cold ferocity and turned their hourglasses around.

A ripple went through time as a result, and the sphere of energy froze absurdly midway between them. Killer growled as he felt the fabric of Reality compressing, clamping down on him to keep him motionless, slowing down even the flow of the energy he was absorbing out of Cerberus. Boadicea's own movements became horribly slow just as she was slashing Satan's Bane against Thanathos's head, and he had all the time to cruelly rip Requiem out of Gaia's flesh and cock it back, rising it high up before slamming it down on the sharkess's neck. The blade hacked into her flesh with a terrible, terrible meaty sound that sent a shiver down Killer's petrified spine, but almost immediately afterwards there was a loud metallic clang as the blade slammed into her collar. There was an explosion of raw energy that sent Boadicea's frozen body crashing in one direction and Thanathos staggering in the other... and the god of Death snarled in frustration but did not chase after the sharkess, instead preparing to slash Requiem through Killer's own neck, and through Cerberus's umbilical cords.

"I'll have to kill you first, since you keep interfering!" The god of Death squeaked, his voice made shrill by insanity and uncontrollable rage. "You... you are the one who truly stole my Persephone away. You corrupted her! Yes... yes, it's all your fault! All your fault!"

The scythe crackled threateningly above his head, and Killer closed his eyes, focusing. It wasn't the first time he was shoved into a pocket of warped Reality and trapped in a bubble of still time, and he knew he could get out of it. In the darkness, however, he found himself leaning over Wyvern, glaring into Darkness's face over their clashing blades. And Darkness was taller, greater, and stronger, simply in control. And around them, Alexis fought against the inverted version of herself, as did Mriya and all the others. And it was a terrible clash. One that they were not winning.

Still, he could no longer hesitate on the threshold. Whatever the risk, he had to take the leap.

Killer flexed against the fabric of Reality, stretching it out like it was nothing but cheap plastic, wrapped over his huge musculature for some kind of show. Time and Space desperately attempted to resist, to restrain him, but they inexorably began to tear apart as the huge male snorted steam out of his nostrils and reached up with one hand, catching Requiem by the neck of the pole and shoving it hard away from him, causing Thanathos to grunt in shock and disbelief. The liger's titanic body flexed and rapidly grew, thrumming with terrifying power as his biceps swelled enormously, thick veins pushing outwards as glorious mountains of omnipotent muscle nearly tore through his own skin as he arched his back slightly and grunted in dark entertainment, loving every second of that even as the pain in his mind only intensified, and the battle against Darkness became more ferocious and desperate.

Thanathos leaned forwards with all of his body weight and strength, driving Requiem forwards as hard he could, but Killer singlehandedly shoved him backwards, gritting his fangs as the scythe savagely lashed out against him, but resisting.

Cerberus broke free as well and charged forwards with a yell of inarticulate rage, slashing his cruel talons against Killer, but the liger only clamped down all the harder on the umbilical cords, and sucked out all the energy they contained, so much so that the beast's body began to visibly shrink and shrivel, the parasites once again consuming his body faster than he could regenerate. He stared for a moment at his own body, realizing what was happening, and his eyes betrayed all of his horror, all of his panic... before the flames in his uncountable, hideous eyes began to burn all the brighter, fueled by pure rage, by pure fury, by the horrendous awareness that his dreams and plans were dissolving, right when he was so close to transforming them in reality. "I won't let you ruin it all, I won't!" Cerberus howled, charging forwards again, and even though his body was now decaying rapidly, in his fury he remained terribly dangerous: Adrasthea smacked her shield into him to batter him back and stabbed her spear through his damaged, burning waist, but the beast only slammed his massive body into her and rammed her out of his way, before slapping Mriya back like the was a toy. Elaine and Alcana continued to breathe fire into him, but his tentacles lashed viciously out against them, ensnaring them in a deadly embrace and crunching them right in the middle of a mass of Black Holes. Killer hear their shrieks, and saw Thanathos moving forwards as well, the two godbeasts back to acting in concert, almost as if their alliance had never broken down... but Killer knew exactly how to put an end to that clash, and he reached out through the folds of Time and Space, his energies radiating even into the darkness of the Unworld.

Somewhere inside the wall of Black Holes, at the margins of the Cloister, the bracelet around Ira's wrist glowed with his energies, and the cobra was left wondering why... before gasping in awe as she felt other, different and yet familiar energies responding in kind, moving back towards him. She could feel them flowing through her, through the jewel and then past her... and a tear of awe and joy rolled down her cheek. It took him a tremendous effort, but there she was: beautiful and proud. She was smiling, and she spread her arms wide to welcome his ethereal yet solid and powerful presence. She wasn't in the Unworld, and her eyes had not been disassociated... she was, for lack of a better word, a ghost. True spirit that had maintained its coherence and had somehow avoided the Unworld, moving somewhere Beyond even that, exploring the true, mysterious darkness that surrounded the cycle of life, death and disassociation.

She looked exactly like she had when she had briefly appeared to meet him and Ira at her little shrine in the 4thHeaven, in the thick of the jungle, in the shade cast by the Holy Tree.

The dragoness had clearly been waiting for him, and her white eyes without pupils looked up at him with such intensity to send a shiver down his spine. One of anticipation, of lust, of bliss. Those eyes could see the future, and not just moments in advance, no... days, weeks, years... even Eons in advance. Lady Azura, Goddess of Death, as ancient as their universe, had been one of very few true prophets. Those very eyes had seen ahead, recognizing the coming of the war that Killer was desperately trying to conclude. She had been the one who formulated the prophecy of the Amon-Ra, that supposedly anticipated Killer's destiny and that of the entirety of Existence. She had dedicated her late life to studying and understanding her incomplete visions, trying to inform Elelyon in the best of ways and working to prepare the coming of the Amon-Ra. She had also saved Ira's life in Hell and had acted as an adoptive mother for her... but then Thanathos, her most capable and cherished student, had betrayed her and murdered her with her own weapon. That was the reason for Requiem Aeternam's unending, unforgiving fury.

Her notes and diaries and studies, falling into the hands of Persephone, had truly set the apocalypse into motion, by giving Cerberus the information he needed to become "Lord Skyfall", the spark that would set Existence on fire. In a way, she had effectively caused her prophecy to become true. She had never wanted it, nor imagined it possible... but she now carried the burden of that terrible awareness. Without her notes, no one, and certainly not a mortal, would have been able to conceive the monstrous plan that Cerberus Raja had pieced together and so effectively executed. And as he approached, her eyes closed for a moment, and her head bowed forwards in a silent, speechless apology.

"There will be time for that later, if ever." Killer gently said, before wincing a bit at the sound and feel of its own voice, which radiated through Time and Space to get all the way to her, across the indescribable, multi-dimensional distance that separated them. "Now I just want you to come with me. To join us. We... I... need your help."

"Not as much as I need yours." The goddess replied, smiling warmly and reaching up to touch his hands. For a moment, Killer was disappointed, because her fingers seemed to go through his own, ethereal and distant... but it was only an instant, before a violent ripple traveled through Reality and slammed into Cerberus and Thanathos, causing both of them to recoil slightly. There was an explosion of light that seemed to come from Killer's body, but it actually generated from a large crack in the fabric of Reality, which expanded to become a large portal as a tall, powerful figure floated through out through it.

Thanathos brutally slashed Requiem through that wall of almost solid light, his teeth gritting together in frustration and rage as the golden brilliance blinded not just his eyes but his other senses as well, and then he gaped as the beautiful, mighty contours of a body began to emerge with clarity. The first thing he noticed was scales. Black scales, smooth and beautiful and solid, forming a hide that was like armour. And even though the color of those scales did not match the one he remembered, something else about them was just completely unmistakable. Requiem let him know in no uncertain terms that he was not dreaming: the scythe violently rattled in his grip, nearly ripping out of his hands and blasting him with all of her angry, terrifying strength. The huge weapon stopped in midair, refusing to cut through the figure that was emerging out of the portal, and no matter how hard he pushed, he was unable to budge the great scythe.

"No, no... it is not possible... it's not possible, what kind of trick is this? Are you messing with my mind? Are you? Stay out of my fucking mind!" Thanathos squeaked, shaking his head in denial and floating slowly backwards, almost hugging himself as he clutched Requiem's pole as hard as he could, desperately pulling the weapon back against his chest. "What kind of illusion is this...?"

Azura had always been slender and toned, with long and seductive legs... but the goddess coming back from the dead was not only taller and even more glorious shaped, but muscular and powerful. Mighty, bulging quads and massive calves added to the perfect profile of her long legs, and her abdomen was armoured with abs chiseled perfectly, bulging with strength and harder than any metal alloy. Her breasts had grown along with the rest of her, and then some: even in proportion to her grown body, they were substantially larger, yet firm and perfectly shaped, sitting high and proud on top of her muscular chest. Her inner thighs and the center of her body, her abdomen and her prodigious bosom were all covered in golden scales, tightly packed and smooth and almost invulnerable, while the rest of her had taken on the color black. Azura wore an heavy, beautiful choker of gold and precious stones that protected her throat and descended down towards her cleavage, covering part of it yet seeming to only further evidence her vast, deep cleavage, and at first Killer thought it was the same that she used to wear in life and that he had seen on her ghost image... but no, it wasn't. Azura had taken the Imprisonment Crystal out of her choker and gifted it to him, and now the massive precious stone was set in Wyvern's handle. Moreover, Azura had transformed what was left of her jewel into a wristband that she had gifted to Ira. The cobra had never removed it since then, but had rather had her powerful, supernatural chains merge with it. No, the heavy jewel around Azura's throat was an entirely new collar, with a modified shape that only maintained some of the old vibes: it was now heavier, thicker, more cruel as it came with a roaring lion head clasp and a large golden ring hanging from its jaws, ready to take his leash if he decided to use it with her. Two large, heavy golden chains ran all along the collar, squeezing into her neck and glowing with Killer's great energies, showing to the world that she was his slave, sure, but that she was also a tremendous, apocalyptic force that he restrained and controlled. A bringer of destruction that only He could set loose, because the laws of the past no longer mattered. The rules that had governed Death in the past no longer meant anything to her. The agreements she had reached with Elelyon, even less. No, she no longer was Death... she was now His bringer of Death. There was one single law, unbreakable and absolute: Killer ruled over everything and everyone. His wishes were her new reason of life. His commands were all that mattered.

Her eyes were still without pupils, cold and mysterious and beautiful... and the expression on her perfect, young features was one of happiness and battlelust. She grinned at him, amused by his helpless shock and disbelief, and that mocking smirk sent a shiver of fury down Thanathos's back, leading him into a brash assault against her. Requiem refused to hit her, but the godbeast slashed out his heavy fist, his gauntlet of bones thickening and becoming heavier and more lethal thanks to the growth of his massive, pestilent talons. The goddess caught his fist in her hand, stopping it before it could get any closer to her muzzle, and her eyes blazed with satisfaction as she grinned mockingly and flexed her powerful new body. Her arms were no longer just slender and toned: now she had great, powerful biceps and strong forearms that only enhanced her beauty even further... and nothing of it was for show, as she demonstrated by squeezing hard on his fist, causing his gauntlet of bones to loudly crack apart, part of it crumbling away into a cloud of yellowed dust.

Her head was crowned by tall proud horns growing on either side of the "Mohawk" of sharp, blade-like fins that grew out of the back of her neck and went up to her forehead, crescent-shaped and curved forwards. Her mane of loose, flexible, long scales had changed, however, replaced by a proud mane of fiery red hair that perfectly complemented her new black scales. She pushed Thanathos back with terrible ease, grinning widely as she pulled up her other hand and slowly flexed her fingers, studying them with interest and entertainment, admiring her new musculature and tentatively flexing to see what she was truly made of... and her vast dragon wings spread wide for a moment, revealing eternal draconic fire instead of leathery skin, while the muscular arms of her wings bulged powerfully and then jutted with great rows of deadly bone spikes. Her long tail slashed lazily through the air, still splitting into two roughly halfway down its length, and both tails still ended into massive, heavy harpoons of adamantine bone, sharp and vicious.

She was fully and glorious naked for a moment, showing off the perfection of her new body and licking her lips as she gazed down at it... but all Thanathos could really see were the new tattoos and marks on her form: multiple KO tattoos, with the rampant lion forming the K... a small crown on her hip, to proudly signal how much of a size queen she was... and a "Killer Always Wins" tattooed just above her black fleshed sex, which was tantalizingly blossomed, her big labia stretched hungrily out and dripping with hot juice.

Thanathos had seen those same marks on Persephone as well, and it seemed like every goddess and every beautiful, worthy female in Existence was already marked and owned. It felt like every last one of them was mocking him, and rejecting him, and denying him all hopes. It made him let out a half-roar, half-shriek of complete anguish and uncontrollable rage, as he swung his arm out against her, wanting to rip that mocking smile right off her muzzle... only for her to grab his wrist and yank him hard out of position, making him stumble forwards and smashing her fist right into his chest, tearing through the chaotic mass of bones and corruption and making him grunt in shock, the flames in the multiple empty sockets all over his body flexing on her as he mumbled: "But... you... you can't! You are..."

"... angry because my friend and student betrayed me and stabbed my own weapon into my back? Yes, I am." Azura replied with dark entertainment, and Thanathos made the mistake of swinging Requiem again towards her, punting it hard into her abdomen. The massive weapon reacted with outrage and pure fury, unleashing a vicious discharge of deadly force into him, and the godbeast howled in pain and misery, his whole body shuddering violently as the hives within him burst into flames and large chunks of bone exploded out of him, shattering as great bolts of supernatural energy ripped through his form, too violent and too malignant to be absorbed, or even just contained.

"Using my weapon against me, you runt...?" Azura hissed, grabbing into his burning body and bending his spine painfully backwards, nearly snapping him in half as she gritted her fangs in a savage, merciless grin. The flames in Thanathos's eyes flickered in and out with the intensity of the agony and with the terror and rage at the sight of her, completely unfazed. Requiem had always, always, always lashed out against him and against everyone else. But not against Azura. None of the malignant force that was burning his body apart and causing the hives within him to burst into splatters of stinking gunk was tearing into her arm.

"Requiem Aeternam hates you for a reason, boy. She knows exactly what you did. And she has known, all along, that one day I would be back." The goddess coldly explained, looking down at him with disgust. "Traitors like you deserve to experience betrayal, every day of their lives... and it looks like that is what happened to you. Can't say I'm sorry for it."

Killer floated forwards, and Thanathos's eyes shifted on to stare at him, trembling in anguish and hate. The monstrosity trembled violently and several hideous, terrible mouths snapped open all over his body, the bones and skulls shifting around as the little flesh left beneath mutated, his muscles expanding massively and tentacles of semi-solid corruption beginning to push violently out of him. "I... h-hate... you..." Thanathos hissed, and the venom in his voice was terrifying... but Killer only looked flatly down at him for a short moment, before saying: "As absurd and unbelievable as it sounds, I think I don't hate you, instead. I'm sad for you, Thanathos. You made all the wrong choices in your life, and happiness always evaded you because of it. It gives me no joy."

"Y-you... liar!" Thanathos howled, trashing violently and lunging towards the liger as best he could, but Azura leaned forwards with a growl and seized Requiem's pole. The weapon welcomed her with a warm pulse of energy... which became a lightning bolt of terrifying ferocity as it spread into Thanathos, sending dark smoke pouring out of his wounds. The goddess yanked the scythe out of his hands, and this time there was nothing he could do about it... but as malignant electricity crackled violently in and out of him, he flexed and bulged, grew and expanded even as flames burned out through the masses of bones that formed his body. "Keep that traitorous piece of steel! I don't need another traitor in my life! I will rip you both apart, and stab Requiem right through you, so you die happily!" The beast howled, while his body rapidly mutated, more chaotically and violently than ever before. The burning hives inside him shifted and merged together, as the parasites melted together instead of breaking out of their hives, and Thanathos rapidly grew to loom over both Killer and Azura, his body losing what little coherence it still had and turning into a horrific, indescribable beast: a monstrous, towering, terrible entity made of bones, eyes, grotesque mouths and flailing tentacles and poisonous growths. His voice came from all jaws at once as he shrieked: "I have nothing but revenge left! But that is something I won't give up! I will never give up!"

Darkness, solid and terrible, exploded out of Thanathos with such violence that Azura and Killer were slammed backwards, hissing in pain as the malignant forces of the godbeast became like a myriad of blades that stabbed viciously into the front of their bodies. Three enormous pair of muscular, powerful arms, jutting with ribs and spikes and rusty, terrible scythe blades, pushed out of the flanks of the titanic monster, his muscles bulging so explosively that they repeatedly tore through his mutant, armour-like hide, causing black, corruptive gunk to leak out of him in waves. It slashed out against Killer, and the liger grunted as he hurriedly reformed his blade of golden energy, slapping it against the gigantic fists and knocking them wide off the mark, while his tentacles stabbed into another of Thanathos's arms, ripping it out wide to the side and forcing the monster into an half-turn. The liger immediately lunged forwards and speared his sword through him, but Thanathos hissed in something that sounded more like pleasure than pain, and his eyes all focused on the liger as dark, horrible force cracked out of him and through the sword, causing the golden blade to simply explode into pieces. Killer grunted as he was blasted backwards, eyes opening wide in shock as a tangle of tentacles made of mutant muscles and masses of bones and scythes shot against him, whip-lashing into him. He shielded himself as best he could, raising one arm in defence and forming a shield of energy, but the spinning, grinding mass of tentacles shattered it like a piece of glass. The blades and bones tore into Killer like a meat-grinder, snagging him brutally up, dragging him towards his doom as his flesh was shredded rapidly, blood spraying all around him... and Boadicea stabbed Satan's bane through Thanathos, and Mriya and Pamela and Nikita followed with their Praetorian spears, before Adrasthea drove her heavy weapon right through the mutant god... but nothing seemed to hurt him, and terrible tentacles and growths erupted out of his chaotic form and tore into all of the goddesses, stabbing cruelly into them again and again and again. Valery and Manticora turned around to pelt the god of death with the massive arrows of their longbows, but Thanathos only laughed maniacally. Alcana, who was still hosing Cerberus in draconic white fire, saw the disaster unfolding and spun around to breath her flames against Thanathos instead, but even through many chunks of hive and many growths burst apart and burned out of existence, the mutant monstrosity continued to advance against Killer. Other Reapers appeared all around Thanathos, shrieking in denial and trashing uselessly against a terrifying force that dragged them down into the chaotic body of their master, absorbing them, greedily consuming them... and their bones merged together, forming a new and terrifying Master Scythe that crackled with the obscure powers of death.

"If Requiem doesn't want me, I'll forge a whole new Death...!" Thanathos shrieked, and there was nothing funny in the shrillness of his voice, or in the clouds of fetid, toxic breath that rushed out of his many mouths as he walked through the wall of white fire. Gaia hesitated for a moment, glaring down at Cerberus, who stubbornly continued to mutate and evolve even as she burned him down with the fury of her own Fire... but then she was forced to admit that Thanathos was an even worse threat, and she directed her flames against him. Elaine redoubled her efforts, flexing her powerful body as she focused all her energies into her own beam of white fire, slowly cutting Cerberus in half with it even as the godbeast continued to regenerate at an absurd rate, shrinking slowly smaller as his parasites either merged together to repair the hive and his body or were destroyed by the roaring flames, of by the assaults of Riaku, Seth, Kathy, Lilith, Vicky and Diana as they continued to rampage within his mutant body.

Azura slashed Requiem right through the tentacles that were tormenting Killer, and the huge male swiftly grabbed into those that remained, snarling as he pumped his energies into them until they burst into flames and dissolved into ashes. He turned to look into Azura's eyes, and part of him noticed that she was no longer naked: her body was now clad in a heavy set of armour that only partially resembled the one she had worn in their first meeting: the new armor was made of bones, stacked beautifully together to form plates and straps that tightly hugged her muscles, revealing the chiseled shape of her body. She still had, however, the two large pauldrons in the shape of roaring lion heads, which had been part of her battle armor ever since she formulated the prophecy of the Amon-Ra, identifying the Savior in Killer.

Azura spun Requiem in her grip like the weapon was weightless, and she slashed through another tangle of tentacles, dissolving them in a crackle of deadly energy, before roaring as she swung the scythe in a wide upwards cut as Thanathos lunged against her. The blade caught one of the monster's arms and cut through it, severing it in a splatter of blood and gore and dark gunk, leaving behind dark flames that consumed the severed limb and also burned into the wound in the beast's side, consuming the growths and mutations that immediately attempted to push out through it. Azura slammed Requiem down once more, hooking into the monster's body and ripping a terrible gash through it, but Thanathos still wasn't slowed down, his other arms smacking down on her with terrible force, sending her crashing backwards with a cry of pain and surprise. Again she swung Requiem into him, but even through the blade pierced deep through his mutant flesh, it failed to take him down. The beast let out a cry of pain, but gritted its many, gnarled fangs and immediately grabbed the pole of the scythe, wrestling it back away from him even as Death's malignant forces crackled through his arms. Azura growled, grabbing her weapon with both hands and ripping it downwards with all of her strength, but the beast's body mutated so violently and chaotically that the blade was pushed slowly but inexorably out... before the hideous wound seemed to simply explode, spraying up blood and dark gunk as a great, monstrous growth pushed out, looking like some sort of terrifying, gigantic bug bristling with segmented, blade-like legs that frantically stabbed into Requiem and into Azura, ripping into her arms and filling all wounds with thick, sloppy poison. Alcana directed her beam of fire onto that terrifying growth, but Thanathos's immense, terrible tail slashed violently into her, sending her crashing bonelessly into Cerberus, who greedily clawed into her as the hideous, grotesque jaws in his body viciously bit into her flesh, ripping off chunks of her bulky muscles.

"I'm with you, Thanathos, I'm with you!" Cerberus exclaimed, his eyes betraying panic and yet wild hope as he crawled closer to the mutant god of death, wrestling against Alcana as the goddess swung her halberd backwards and hacked deep into his body, ripping a deep gash into his broad, hideously burned chest. "Together we can kill them! Together we can secure your revenge!"

"Shut up!" Thanathos cried out, insane and furious and full of despair, but he did not push the mutant tiger away, instead using his multiple arms to grab into Azura's sides, making her howl in anguish as he ripped deep into her abdomen and savagely began to rip her guts out, so that the bug-like parasites growing out of him could lunge forwards and bite into her intestines, shredding them and devouring them in great, disgusting gulps, loudly snapping massive, terrible pincers. "I can trust no one!" Thanathos howled, and energy exploded out of him in a wave that slammed Azura backwards. She yanked Requiem out of him, wincing as the wound was immediately filled up by other masses of parasites: countless of them burned out of existence, melting into toxic sludge, but they were so many that they continued to merge together to rapidly form another hideous, centipede-like creature that clicked angrily as it lashed out blade-like legs, clanging loudly against Requiem, causing the weapon to vibrate violently and nearly break out of the goddess's grip.

"You can trust me! I'm your friend!" Cerberus shamelessly exclaimed, crawling closer to the monstrous, hideous mutation that now suddenly looked like his best chance of coming out of that battle alive... and Elaine roared in utter disgust and fury, blasting focused meteors of white fire into the beast's many skull-faces, disintegrating them and incinerating the countless eyes on Cerberus's form. The young dragoness dived down on him at the same time, slamming her boots into his chaotic body and stabbing her Praetorian spear through the hideous hands that kept clawing and ripping into her mother.

Alcana breathed hard, clutching at her wounds with one hand and blindly slamming her halberd down into him, again and again and again, breaking his arm into shreds of meat and chunks of bones, until Elaine was able to grab her by the shoulder and help her out of that hideous embrace. Cerberus let out a wrong, sick sound of pain and anguish, but his body continued to awfully evolve and thrum with pestilent power as he lunged against Killer and Azura, slashing out with great, segmented arms lined with chaotic, toxic talons.

Killer twisted out of the way at the last moment, gritting his fangs as the talons still managed to clang against his armor and rip off large chunks of black, living metal, before he chopped his sword down into the beast, striking once, twice, thrice in rapid succession, cutting those great arms apart.

"Requiem hurts them, but it's not enough!" Azura urgently barked, leaning up past Cerberus's chaotic form as she hacked her scythe into him and yanked it hard back, ripping open a bloody canyon in the beast's back. Cerberus twisted around to slash out with a tangle of tentacles, slamming into her chest with savage force... before Killer chopped those dark tendrils with his sword, only for a new mutation to burst out of the hideous monstrosity. Thanathos cackled insanely, reaching for Killer, and the liger stabbed his sword through him, yanking it through his form and nearly ripping it in half... only for new, bug-like bodies to burst out of the gash, their countless blade-legs stabbing into him and yanking him forwards, towards what was turning into a sort of terrible mouth in Cerberus's body.

The two terrifying mutants all but began to merge together under Killer's eyes, as bug-like growths stretched out of Cerberus and half-clawed, half-hugged into Thanathos's own. The liger's eyes widened in disgust and horror at that, and Thanathos laughed maniacally, squeaking: "If this is what it takes to get my revenge... so be it! I will destroy everyone you love, everything you care for! I'll steal away everything from you, just like you did to me!"

Cerberus laughed in dark delight at that, his charred, chaotic form flexing and bulging with new muscle, thrumming with new power as he merged with Thanathos and began to drain energy out of him, and Killer growled in disgust and true hate, forming a large sphere of focused, burning energy in his fist and then slamming it down through a large, hideous crimson eye as it stared unnervingly up at him. His fist sunk deep through the two merged mutants, and he savagely gripped into whatever sick mutant organ or chunk of hive he felt against his fingers, unleashing the flames directly inside the beast... but even as Thanathos and Cerberus writhed and shuddered in agony, their segmented arms and tentacles slashed up into him, huge talons ripping into his body, stabbing right through his armor as they glowed, incandescent and pestilent, poisoning him with unknown, terrible disease that made him wheeze in pain.

Vanessa immediately formed a huge battleaxe in her hands and savagely slammed it down into the mutant limbs and tendrils, chopping them into pieces, but Thanathos only hissed and angrily swung his new scythe out in a sweeping cut, catching the Doberman in midair and nearly tearing her in half, sending a horrible splatter of blood exploding out of her side as she shrieked in agony and fell through the darkness.

Killer roared his denial and horror, struggling against the ever-expanding mass of chaotic tentacles, limps, bones and talons, his eyes bulging as Samara lunged in front of him and caught the immense scythe in her hands, wrestling it away from him... before part of Cerberus's hideous body twisted around and unleashed an internal beam of dark flames that crashed into her with horrifying force, sending her crashing back into the wall of the Cloister, where she was immediately swarmed over by Horrors and Harbinger clones.

Elaine, Gaia and Alcana again unleashed torrents of supernatural fire into the monstrosity, but it still smashed his enormous fists of bone and incandescent pestilence into Azura, smashing her backwards in a broken heap even as she slashed Requiem again and again into the mutating mass of muscle and bone.

Nadia rushed forwards with a roar of rage, wrapping her muscular arms around one of those monstrous limbs and flexing as she twisted her body sideways, breaking bones like twigs and beginning to rip the arm entirely off... but then she grunted in shock as the limb seemed to suddenly come loose, while instead it transformed into some sort of terrible, living beast-tentacle lined with thousands of bug-like segmented blade-legs. The tentacle lengthened violently, pushing her back as it reared up, stretching longer and longer until it flicked her over and greedily coiled several times around her, squeezing with devastating force and making her howl in anguish and disgust as the blade-legs viciously stabbed in every inch of their flesh, ruining her spectacular body and pumping her full of terrible poison.

Killer immediately grabbed the tentacle with both hands, snarling as he flexed and pulled in the opposite directions with all of his strength, ripping it into two... but even though it was entirely severed, the tentacle continued to mutate, and the half wrapped around Nadia grew a large, terrible skeletal head, with six eyes and terrible, clicking pincers. Killer reached up towards that monstrosity as it leaned down towards Nadia's face, but before he could strike, the other half of the tentacle lengthened violently and wrapped around him, yanking him hard downwards.

"I win! I win in the end, Amon-Ra!" Thanathos insanely cackled, and Cerberus opened a massive, hideous new jaw that nearly split his chaotic body in two. Killer looked down into that vast, monstrous maw and gritted his fangs at the sight of a mass of Black Holes huddled together in a gigantic dark gore that dragged him down with impossible force. Most of Cerberus's original tentacles had retreated into his charred body to regenerate him, and now the supermassive cores were a sort of stomach meant to absorb and destroy literally everything that existed.

He flexed and struggled against the hideous tentacle, his muscles bulging explosively as they pushed the blade-legs out, but they kept stabbing back in, squeezing into him all the harder... until fire exploded from what had once been Cerberus's abdomen, and something enormous tore its way out of him.

Killer had just enough time to wonder what else could come out of that ever-evolving monstrosity, before realizing with relief that the figure was actually Riaku, who speared his sword through Cerberus's form and ripped open a vast, bloody chasm while sizing up.

Cerberus gargled and Thanathos turned around in shock, before another part of their combined bodies bulged grotesquely outwards and then exploded in a gruesome splatter of gore, revealing Seth and Kaya, who rapidly grew larger and stronger, their bodies clad in terrible fire as they stabbed and slashed their swords into whatever part of the monster they could reach.

Cerberus let out a breathless howl of anguish, and then fell silent as great, spiked tentacles exploded out of him, stabbing through his body from the inside, again and again and again... and Lilith's fist brutally tore through his flesh, before the Thrall rammed her way out right through his ribcage, cracking bones like twigs. At the same time, two glowing blades ripped out of the sides of the joined monstrosities and slashed savagely in the opposite directions, completing a roughly circular cut that severed the last of Cerberus's tentacles from the rest of his terrible form. Kathy and Vicky emerged from that eruption of gore and gunk, their muscular forms caked in blood as they grew rapidly and crawled out of the shocked beast.

Finally, fire erupted out of Cerberus's hunched back as great black angel wings tore and melted their ways through him, burning with intense, glorious golden energy. Diana pushed out through the broken body, straightening slowly and majestically, her toned muscles bulging gloriously as she yanked her swords upwards, ripping them out through Cerberus's chest.

"What sorcery is this...?" Thanathos squeaked, glaring down at what was left of Cerberus and growling: "What is this? Did you just betray me again...? Did you?"

The assault team ripped free of the mutant, merged bodies, leaving behind an infernal devastation and roaring, supernatural flames that consumed the hives of parasites still filling up the two monsters. They slashed and hammered their blades and fists into the chaotic mutant creature, joining the other Disciples and Praetorians, but even though Cerberus was howling incoherently, lost in the throes of pure agony, his body still rippled and evolved and mutated, even more horrific, even more dangerous.

"I'm not strong enough to tear him apart. He mutates too quickly, even Requiem can't cut through that infernal thing!" Azura shouted, eyes open wide, chest heaving with her rough, hard, exhausted breathing. Then her eyes glowed, and did all the talking as they met Killer's:I need your strength. We need your power, all of it. Grab Requiem, and help me.

She slashed Requiem into Thanathos, hacking into his chest, and the blade tore right through him, the long rip breaking out of his back. Immediately, just as his body began to violently mutate, Killer lunged forwards and seized the crescent-shaped blade. He gritted his teeth, expecting the usual terrible assault of malignant forces... but Requiem welcomed him instead, pulsing only once, warmly, almost reassuringly. The weapon was back in her Mistress's hands... and her Mistress had bowed in servitude of the huge male. The collar around Azura's neck was a bond that extended to Requiem itself.

Killer grinned widely, feeling the power of Death flowing into him, merging with his own, submitting to his will... and he roared, muscles bulging explosively as he dragged the blade further downwards, cutting deeper down through Thanathos's chaotic form, even as the monster's body wildly mutated, evolving violently, with great growths and bug-like creatures jutting into being all around Requiem's blade, pushing it had back out. "You can't do that! You can't stop me! I'm Evolution now; I am the only future the universe has left!" Thanathos howled, lashing ferociously out against him, but Killer gritted his fangs and insisted, yanking Requiem further downwards ... before an explosion of pure force slammed him away, blood bursting out of his devastated chest, while Requiem was almost contemptuously spat out of him and Azura crashed backwards with a wince of pain. "I'm unstoppable! I'm endless!" Thanathos shrieked, but Killer only gritted his fangs and allowed himself to drop lower down along the chaotic form of the beast, right towards the mass of Black Holes arrayed in the middle of Cerberus's destroyed form.

Killer smashed his fist down through that mass of black cores, shattering two of them like they were made of glass, and he hissed in a mix of pain and greedy, delicious pleasure as his form expanded and thrummed with new power, muscles bulging explosively as he looked towards Azura and thought of a single word: again!

The goddess nodded and lunged forwards, raising Requiem Aeternam and gathering her strength for another strike, and all the other Disciples and Praetorians unleashed beams of fire and energy against the merged mutants. Thanathos uselessly clawed out towards all of them, insanely, ferociously trying to catch them but only ending up oozed down in supernatural flames while Killer turned towards the wall of the Cloister and extended his right arm, closing his eyes with a growl of terrible, endless hunger.

The dark wall of Black Holes rippled violently, terribly. What little remained of Cerberus looked up through ugly, chaotic eyes peering out of vast, ugly wounds, staring in awe as Black Hole after Black Hole began to shudder and tremble as if in panic, before the entire wall lost coherence... and exploded into pieces.

Killer roared, and the power of his voice alone sent a ripple through all of the universes, causing them all to tremble and cower, while stars trembled like candles in the wind and planets cracked like they were made of glass. The supermassive black holes disintegrated into a myriad of dark pebbles and fragments, and countless Horrors and Harbingers were greedily absorbed, dragged into that inferno and crushed out of existence by the great gravitational fields.

"Not... not possible..." Cerberus breathed out, gargling violently... and then the merged, shapeless bodies of the two beasts shuddered violently, and an ugly, small heap of flesh and muscle and broken bones tore loose. Killer and Elaine both saw it, and reached out to catch the miserable, broken body of Cerberus, but it somehow slipped out of their grip, dragged into the dark field of broken Black Holes and vanishing from sight.

Killer cursed under his breath, even though part of him reasoned that, in such a broken and weakened form, surely Cerberus was not going to survive for long. Maybe he had already been devoured by one chunk of Black Hole or another.

"Traitor! Coward! Running away like the coward you are!" Thanathos insanely shrieked, while a large part of his body rapidly deflated and writhed away as the parasites inside it greedily, mindlessly devoured all the flesh and energy that remained.

Killer's eyes burned with rage, and with hunger. No matter what pity Thanathos might have once inspired into him, now he just wanted him gone. He flexed his outstretched hand, majestically clenching his huge fist... and the immense field of broken Black Holes became an unbelievable rain of asteroids and fragments and cosmic energy that splattered onto him like water... and rapidly ended up absorbed within him.

"No, Killer... no... no, you... you can't..." Thanathos babbled, staring in awe and horror as the liger stirred and flexed, muscles thrumming with tremendous, unfathomable power, Reality trembling and pulsing helplessly around the liger as his sapphire eyes burned with solid, expressionless ferocity.

"Time's up!" Azura shouted, and Requiem slashed down once more, cutting through Thanathos's chaotic form. Killer reached forwards almost lazily, glaring down at a mutant beast that no longer looked so large and terrible, dwarfed as it was by his glorious, perfect body... and his fingers wrapped around the blade, pulling it rapidly down through the rest of Thanathos's form, slicing him in two like he was made of butter.

Azura let go of Requiem's long pole, and Killer easily pulled from the opposite side, ripping the entire weapon out through Thanathos's body as the mutant monster gargled helplessly, the flames in his eyes dimming down as Death's terrible, Killer-enhanced force consumed him and turned his parasites into nothing but smoke.

"I am the only Evolution. I am the only Alpha. It is time to wake up from your dream... or, in your case especially, from the nightmare." Killer calmly and inexorably said, easily spinning Requiem around and seizing it by the pole, before reaching up with his other almighty hand, seizing Thanathos's skull and beginning to rapidly drain all energy and mass out of what remained of him.

Thanathos sobbed and whimpered pathetically for a moment, not even daring to try and resist at that point, knowing that he had absolutely no prayer... and then Killer easily, clearly slashed Requiem just beneath the skull, decapitating the monster.

There was one last sound, something like a sigh as Requiem reaped whatever trace of "soul" the beast might still have possessed, and then all was silence. Requiem glowed ghastly. Killer's muscles flexed slightly, satisfied of their last "meal"... and the huge dark god turned his hand over and looked down at his palm, grinning at the sight of a ring made of bones and topped by Thanathos's skull, laying atop two crossed scythe blades.

Azura grinned widely, bowing deep before him, and he shouldered Requiem for a moment, while studying the ring destined to Alexis's toe. She already had one ring of bone on the other toe, made with the remains of another god of death... and this one would complete Killer triumph.

Death was just another strand of his power. Just another slave to his will.