? ?, ?. ?:?
There was a great and terrible booming from the skies above.
Had he returned?
Othinus had barely recovered from being utterly rent asunder by a power beyond power. The only way her mind could rationalize what she'd been exposed to was to call it primal. Like power from beyond time and beyond space, power that existed long before the laws and concepts she, as a Magic God, was bound to.
The booming formed words. Guttural and twisted like some darkened speech invented by a deranged madman.
The one-eyed Magic God looked to the skies.
…But they were gone.
The skies were gone. They were replaced by rolling, thundering masses of emerald green flame, and amidst all of the madness the visage of two enormous eyes and a jagged, fiendish mouth.
"Speak, wretch! Another passed through this broken realm – MY DAMNED, SHATTERED BIRTHRIGHT! – speak of it to me, or I shall unleash upon your very soul suffering beyond your IMAGINING! Spill your secrets unto Belial."
"Pith Some."
Othinus had only just muttered the loathsome name, yet the mockery of a face drifting above evidently heard her vocalization.
"Pith Some… an anagram! Mephisto! Mephistopheles, that lowly cretin! Flay the flesh from his bones I SHALL! Speak of where he went to me! AT ONCE!"
As if compelled, Othinus explained all she knew. Of her and that merciless being's discussion of 'the Prime', of her suspicions that he, surely, intended to interfere in the stability of 'the Prime'.
"Dullards, both of you. He for being a dunce in all things. You? You fell for his empty boasts," the mockery of a face spat. "Mephistopheles knows nothing of that which he toys with. My brother, loathe I am to admit his relation to one as unparalleled in all things as I, walks headlong into his own failure."
Though Othinus was about to speak, she was instantly cut off by the booming voice of Belial.
"Your usefulness to me is at its end. Coincidentally, you, as well, are to meet your end… if I cannot have this multiverse, my birthright, in its functioning state, then no one shall. I will simply end it all. The omniverse awaits my leadership."
Othinus, despite herself, drank in the irony of the position she found herself in.
Only shortly over ten years ago – Othinus chuckled at the thought of time, something that no longer even existed as a concept in this lost multiverse – she had subjected a certain boy, the bearer of the Imagine Breaker to something similar, albeit on a far lesser scale. Even when wielding the relic, Gungnir, she had only ever possessed total control over a single universe.
She knew now the fear, the anguish, the existential dread, the utter hopelessness and powerlessness that boy Kamijou Touma had experienced.
There was a great flash that enveloped all of existence, and everything ended at once. An entire multiverse, extinguished with but a thought.
In the reformed Hidden World…
The deed that'd transpired did not go unnoticed.
"I've only just reformed my physical essence, and this is what I must contend with. Perhaps I should have remained in Nirvana."
Moving about as if he were an elderly man straining against his withered body, in spite of the reality obvious to all present that he possessed enough power to utterly annihilate entire realities simply by stretching one of his withered legs, the Magic God known as 'High Priest' continued to mutter irritably. The deity was clad in a traditional purple Buddhist's robe with a bright red kilt beneath it, his shrivelled and partially-mummified skull enveloped by a tattered red collar that rose far beyond his shoulders. "Uppity Demon Lords…"
"That guy's getting just a bit too big for his britches," Niang-Niang remarked, seething, her usual playful demeanor all but evaporated. "You don't just… go around blowing up entire multiverses because you're a bit miffed!"
"And to think, we'd had the abomination all but imprisoned for eternity," Nephthys angrily mumbled, more to herself than to her fellow Magic Gods, many more than usual of their numbers being present in the Hidden World. Zombie, Chimera, Nuada, Proserpina, Tezcatlipoca, and even the illusive Forgotten God, many of whom, like High Priest, had reformed in the most primordial reaches of cosmic infinity were in attendance.
High Priest turned to face the Egyptian Magic God.
"Mysterious then, is it not? The multiverse in which that fetid being had been locked away simply ceased to function. The fetid thing was released upon us, no, upon all beings in all realities… once again. Uho hoi. Whom, or perhaps more accurately, what would benefit from this crisis? The Demon Lord Mephistopheles' appearance points to his involvement."
Nephthys shook her head, no, her silver hair flowing elegantly as she did.
"Mephistopheles is cunning, a deceiver and a manipulator, one who works behind the scenes and sows the seeds of discord from the shadows. He would never make such a brazen public appearance if he did not deem it necessary."
Zombie, a female shaped Magic God covered entirely in bloodied stitches who had only "recently" (by the standards of Magic Gods) reformed in their Hidden World, spoke up.
"Then, this does leave one other potential culprit worth investigating."
Niang-Niang swallowed hard, bringing forth a subtle "uho hoi…" from High Priest.
"Baal," the Buddhist Magic God spoke up.
All of those present faced High Priest, some recoiling in horror, others gasping in disbelief. The Forgotten God remained silent for its part, but became increasingly attentive.
"Baal is madness made flesh. He revels in the end of all things. Who better to perform his existence-obliterating duties than his own brother, Belial, the Father of All Lies? Uho hoi… I confess truthfully, I admire Baal's dedication to his beliefs."
"Then, we've got to STOP THESE LOSERS!" Niang-Niang uncharacteristically shouted.
Nephthys raised her hand, demanding for silence. It came without argument.
"Mephistopheles may be negotiable. A chance to one-up his fellow Demon Lords may prove advantageous to our cause, loose as it be."
The denizens of the Hidden World found themselves in agreement; they would come together, for the time being, to combat the existential threat before them. How exactly they would go about this remained up for debate, and debated it would be for plenty of time to come.
In another place and time, a certain spiky-haired boy had just about enough of the entire day he'd been through. If he wasn't being chased by two-dimensional thugs who'd appeared to be following some sort of rehearsed script, so cliched and uninspired their attempts at harassing the short-haired girl sitting on her own at Joseph's Family Restaurant had been, he was being violently attacked by the same short-haired girl he'd attempted to help.
A blackout had followed, as a result of the violent attack unleashed upon him by the trigger-happy, unreasonable level five esper.
"Such misfortune," he'd muttered to himself. It'd become his catchphrase by this point in time, and he had a feeling he'd be uttering this catchphrase many more times.
It was only after he'd completed the 'walk of shame' back to his dormitory and opened the fiberglass door to his dorm that a sense of true, legitimate foreboding formed within his gut.
Someone was in his dorm. Someone he didn't recognized. Nothing appeared out of place, nothing to suggest a burglary. The sliding doors, mostly made of glass which lead out to the dorm's balcony hadn't been damaged in the slightest. The intruder only looked to the dorm's true resident, as if she'd been expecting him all along.
Appearing to be no older than the average high school girl, her form was thin, but curvy. She had slightly curled, wavy golden hair that fell to her lower back, with glowing emerald eyes. Clad in what resembled some sort of uniform – certainly not one that the spiky haired boy recognized from any school in all of Academy City – consisting of a navy blue jacket which was unbuttoned, a simplistic white crop top beneath it that exposed her naval, a skirt that dangled just above her kneecaps and matched her jacket's coloration, and common school-issued loafers, she tilted her head to one side as her gaze locked with the spiky haired boy's own.
"Weeeeeelcome home, Kamijou-san! Let's throw a party and get our rockin' ability on."
She hopped up, rising from the position she'd held, cross-legged on the floor next to the cheap metallic table close to the television set. The spiky haired boy's eye merely twitched awkwardly in response.
"Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking. No, really. "Who is this bitch, and how did she get in my dorm?! I'm going to SCREAM at her!" Well, I highly recommend against utilizing your shrieking ability right now, because you'll wake up the resident magic spell-slinger next door. Yes, magic is real, everything you know about the world is a lie, get used to it. Kamijou Touma. What I'm about to tell you may save all things. The entire omniverse. Infinite multiverses, containing infinite universes."
Kamijou Touma, the spiky-haired boy chuckled awkwardly.
"What do I need to do in order to get you to open up to me here? This is, like, kind of very important."
"I'm going out of my mind," Touma stated, as if it was the truest thing on planet Earth. "That explains this. This Kamijou-san has finally snapped."
The unknown intruder girl crossed her arms beneath her ample bosom and sighed to herself. She'd imagined this was going to be difficult, but not this difficult.
"First things first, your memories are damaged. I'm going to fix them. Maybe that'll help with the damage to your comprehension ability."
The intruder girl merely clicked her fingers.
And it was in that instant that memories Kamijou Touma hadn't even known he'd possessed at all came rushing back. It was almost as if a broken bridge inside of his brain had been repaired instantaneously. Among all of these memories, one series of memories stood out, stronger than all others. It was laced with a honey scent. In his mind's eye, he could picture the subject of those precious, formerly lost memories. A stunningly gorgeous girl with long, beautiful golden hair, an inability to swim or even jog more than a few feet, golden, starry eyes that gleamed like celestial bodies in their places throughout the cosmos, and a knack for carrying around a purse full of remotes.
Kamijou Touma fell to his knees, and the intruder girl was at his side before long, slinging his arm over her shoulders.
"Kamijou Touma, bearer of the Imagine Breaker… my name is Pith Some, just call me Pith. You and that girl in your memories are going to help me save the omniverse. Buckle up."