? ?, ?. ?:?

The machine, D-3000, the noble, faithful servant of the artificial HighMind, experienced something exceedingly unusual. It wasn't a true 'feeling', nor could it ever be properly described as such; a machine could never truly "feel". It was the result of logical information being fed to its artificial 'brain' through a series of intricate processors.

Something was wrong. Reality itself seemed to be acting up.

There was a singular homo sapiens standing in the middle of the road, flanked on all sides by crumbling urban decay. The creature looked out of place - thick, muscular neck. Blonde Jheri curl. Lantern jaw. Broad shoulders. Thick arms with considerable musculature, an altogether physically impressive build. The male homo sapiens was clad in an outfit that made him seem as if he'd stepped out of time; a blue sleeveless vest with its collar popped, overtop a gaudy, long-sleeved red shirt. Trousers sharing the colour of his vest adorned his lower body, tucked into unsightly shin-high boots.

Despite the homo sapiens' uncanny appearance, despite the fact that a random primate walking about in the streets of the urban jungles their kind constructed as habitats for themselves was as common as fish swimming in the ocean, D-3000 struggled to process the information it was receiving.

The stranger flashed a pearly white grin, and winked one of his emerald eyes. He lifted his hand to his forehead and performed a swift salute.

No response.

Nothing moved. Everything was completely, utterly still. Humans stood about like statues. Some seemed to be mid-stride, while others looked into each others' eyes, unblinking, their mouths agape. Birds with their wings extended outward remained still and motionless in the still skies above, like taxidermized specimens in a museum dangling from a display's ceiling.

Beyond the planet Earth not even the cosmos had remained unaffected. Asteroid belts hung unmoving. Planets had stopped rotating. Molecules had stopped flowing. Cells had stopped reproducing. Stars had stopped dying.

"What a troublingly turbulent turn of events," the blonde stranger sighed. He seemed to be the only being not affected by the anomaly around him. "My plentiful perception ability cannot tell a lie. Something's broken, and that sensually sexually seductive silver-haired succubus didn't repair it."

Was this, then, the end of all things? The entire multiverse had stopped. All was dead still.

"What are you?"

If the blonde stranger had been a lesser man, he might've started. He only smiled, instead, and turned to face the source of the vocalization.

She stood some ten feet away. A girl, with long, silky blonde hair which fell to her waist. A darkened, plated eyepatch was laden across her right eye, with a glowing, crimson red sigil in its center. She wore no clothing.

A lesser man would have instantly fallen deeply in love with her. The blonde stranger simply tilted his head, and offered a chuckle.

"And you've been here the entire time, my lovely lady?"

"I do recall asking a question of you. Know that I'm not fond of repeating myself. I ask again, what are you? You aren't human. The sheer power that radiates from within you is too great."

The blonde stranger approached. The eyepatch girl stood her ground.

"I go by many a magnificent moniker," the blonde stranger retorted, "you may know me as Pith. Pith Some."

"An odd name."

"And yours, my devious, deathly darling?"

Pith stood mere inches from the eyepatch girl. He'd closed the distance between them far more quickly than she'd imagined possible.

She refused to let him see the physical manifestations of the fear emanating from within her. The primordial, instinctual terror screaming within her head.

"O-O…Othinus. Magic God Othinus."

Pith took her chin into his fingers. With gentle maneuvers, he ran his fingertips over the bony protrusion. Magic God Othinus shuddered with every touch.

"Do tell, Magic God Othinus, why have all things come to this heinous halt, hmm? Surely a god would have the answers I so seriously seek. Surely, a god would possess deep knowing even beyond my comprehension ability."

Othinus stepped away. Pith didn't attempt to follow. Instead, he merely folded his arms across his chest, that shit-eating smirk never fading.

"Isn't it obvious enough? Don't play the fool. This multiverse has been damaged beyond repair. Time briefly resumed its ticking. Yet it ceased to be once more."

Othinus' visible left eye became increasingly visible, her eyelids widening.

"Time hasn't simply "stopped", dullard! Time is gone! Time no longer exists in this multiverse! Space no longer functions! Order, chaos, eternity, infinity… all of these fundamental concepts are simply… gone. No power is great enough to restore them. Only to access broken remnants."

Othinus bit into her lower lip.

"Not even yours."

She turned on her heel, and gripped her left hand in her right.

"Our universe appears to have won some great, unknowable quantum lottery. It still exists, though broken. There were others… were."

Pith silently urged the babbling Magic God onwards, nodding his head.

"There remain many multiverses… with many universes within them. The Prime is an exception. It is a singular; one universe, with many dimensions. The Phases. Surely you know of that which I speak."

Though there was nothing upon which he could sit, Pith sat anyways, defying the laws of physics themselves.

"The Prime Universe… an advantageous answer to my current conundrum. I hadn't considered that. My planning ability could use some fine-tuning."

Pith raised an eyebrow at the naked Magic God.

"Well? What say you, my sumptuous, sweet seductress? Are you coming along? Or shall you, instead, reluctantly remain here? Oh, the love we could make."

Othinus sprang forward. The speed of sound itself could not have fathomed moving at a quicker pace than she. Even as she did, nothing reacted. All things remained utterly still.

"Tamper with the Prime Universe, and all things could be unmade! I won't allow it!"

As if he were witnessing the troubled antics of a wayward child, Pith sighed, evidently unimpressed. There was a gleam in his eye, for a passing moment…

And Othinus experienced the unbearable weight of ultipotence.

Magic God Othinus fell to the concrete below, crumpling into a heap. Every inch of her form was ablaze with pain beyond pain. She writhed, and shrieked, and howled. Every organ in her body collapsed, restructured itself, and then collapsed again. Every drop of blood spurted from every orifice upon her body at once, before her body refilled itself in an instant, and became a geyser of lifeblood once more. Every bone in her body broke, one at a time, and then repaired itself, only to break again.

Billions, upon billions, upon trillions of times, Magic God Othinus died, and was reborn, and died, and was reborn, and died, and was reborn… in the time it would take a human to blink.

It stopped, then, as quickly as it'd started. The unthinkable, unfathomable pain ceased.

"I'll take that, then, as a notable no. Do enjoy yourself, Magic God Othinus. Should some mysterious, miraculous mishap occur and time finds its place once again, I do hope your… wonderful body… so too finds good use. Time willing, I might return and use you myself… Tata."

And then Pith Some was gone. As if he'd never even been present at all.

Barely able to think, Magic God Othinus vowed revenge.