One fine day, Macros is working in his lab trying to restore an aquatic species. But he finds his craftsmanship strangely lacking lately, and looks to the stars for inspiration.
But he senses an odd but familiar feeling coming from outside his lab and goes to investigate it, where he finds his many clones either dead or fighting to the death with a lustful look in their eyes.
He remains calm as an arrow is poised at the back of his neck, addressing his aggressor with a familiar tone.
His attacker is a tiny pink cherub named Amor, who is joined by a chimera humanoid named Vyvy. The two have come to force Macros to help them, as he once did billions of years ago.
But Amor in particular is upset at how neutered Macros has become, and even sheds disgust at how he's HELPING people.
Nevertheless her desperation is clear and Macros knows why. Ba'al and Aava'ris are dead, and the two female imps believe he will provide them his power in getting vengeance upon their slayers.
But he refuses, and Amor demands to know how he came to be the way he is now...So pitiful, when once he was the greatest of them all...Pride, Templar of the First Sin.
Macros recalls his former life from birth to now. Starting as the firstborn of Akumu Jigokuryu, he and his six siblings, the Leviathans of Sin, waged war in the outreaches of the newly forming universe against Futanji Shinryu and his Seven Virtues.
The war that was waged painted the depths of space black with blood, while the cells shed from the mighty dragons gave birth to the first angels and demons.
Eventually the war ended in the fall of Sin, and the usurping of the heavens by Futanji, who locked his shadow into the universe as a spine.
Pride fell for what felt like forever, eventually crash landing upon the mortal world reduced to little more than a human in appearance.
He spent many, many years stewing in his hatred of humanity as a newborn civilization grew in front of him. Time passed, and he continued to hate.
And even when an alien race came to conquer them, he could not even enjoy the carnage...For humanity eventually triumphed, winning with the strength of their pride whereas his had failed him.
He began to become curious, and watched a little closer to humanity as they adapt the alien's tech into their society...Which proved to be their ultimate downfall.
Pride watched humanity perish in fire as their own pride had made them neglect the level of technology there were rising towards.
And yet, it was curious...How pride could be both humanity's strength and their weakness. Pride became intrigued by this illogical conundrum, and left the reach of this world to explore others.
He pushed forward to another planet with humans, but was surprised to find demons among their numbers as well.
And to his surprise yet again, though humanity could not overpower the demons, their hearts gave them the strength to make a difference. One demon was even turned by the heart of hearts, awakening to justice.
This was the power of "empathy", and even Pride, for as black and cold was the ice in his heart, began to feel it thaw against the power of this "empathy".
He slowly began to discard his title as a Leviathan and grew to become the man Macros, observer and preserver of all life, his name derived from the term "macrocosm".
So in the present day, upon reflecting on all that's led him to this moment, Macros can only tell his siblings that he is the way he is because the universe is beautiful.
Amor spits at that answer, saying he's become weak.
And yet, while that may be true, Macros appreciates his weakness, because he's happier than he would've ever been being shackled to worthless sin.
And its not as though he's fully discarded pride...He has simply refocused it for good, taking pride in his work as a preserver of life.
Unlike Amor, who lost their power of sin to the mortal human who now resides with the enemy: Homura Akemi.
He starts to take his leave of the two to get back to work, but Amor refuses to let him go. She draws her arrow to sting him with a hypnotic spell.
Macros slowly unscrews his eyeballs and turns around, the arrow disintegrating while his hollow gaze of an azure abyss freezes Amor and Vyvy solid.
He warns them in a haunting tone that if their crusade comes too close to the likes of Mew and the others, he WILL remind them why he was born to lead.
He then puts his eyes back and returns to work. Amor does not let this stand, however, and plots a way to exploit his words with a loophole...
Meanwhile, halfway across the universe, the Mad Titan Thanos stirs once more. His loss to Riku had reignited his dormant lust for death, and he plots and schemes to make the universe kneel once more...Starting with his first guest, invited to him by the fear his name invokes...Beerus, the God of Destruction.
Though a survivor of his universe, Beerus wears scars of his battle with Yen Sid, yet meets the Mad Titan on an equal playing field with confidence alone.
The two are familiar with the other, but its clear that neither side shall yield to the other. Beerus was lured to this desolate castle by information that Thanos knows the location of the Elemental Overlord.
Thanos refuses to speak his mind on them, as he believes there's a bigger purpose behind their meeting. Survivors of dead universes, Thanos seeks an alliance with Beerus to conquer the "higher-ups" who damned them.
However, Beerus refuses, so Thanos demands he kneel instead, as his worth is not any greater than that in his eyes.
Beerus finds him cheeky for demanding a God of Destruction kneel. Thanos laughs, for his title means nothing now. And to Beerus, the same applies to Thanos.
Thus begins a dueling of these legendary titans of death and destruction. The two continuing to escalate their power and match each other. Thanos reminds Beerus WHY he was so feared, while Beerus shakes off years of rust by thrashing Thanos' castle and shattering his so-called "invincible" barrier.
Ultra Instinct, the Chains of Cytorrak, Hakai, and Cosmic energies are thrown out by both parties, a legendary battle of which on Whis bears witness to.
Eventually, Beerus tires of Thanos' stubbornness and chooses to use 100 percent of his power for the first time in eons, lamenting that he could not offer this gift to Goku instead.
In under a minute following this, Beerus manages to crash Thanos upon a faraway moon to defeat him, upon which he hoists the Mad Titan up via his tail and demands to learn the Elemental Overlord is.
Thanos complies, believing it shall be humorous to see how those events unfold...
Back on Earth, however, we find Joe Dark struggling with the toils of retail work. Despite a few drab and rude customers, he does wind up finding a little comfort in talking with a spry if not struggling old lady and helping her out with her groceries.
Though that joy becomes fleeting around lunch time when, in an attempt to expand the scope of his friends' circle, he ends up having a rather depressing talk with another guy who seems to have reached a roadblock in his life.
And then before he quits for the day, his boss gets on his case for giving the old lady from earlier some spare change from the register to pay for her groceries. The boss docks part of his pay and then warns that if Joe Dark pulls a stunt like that again, he's fired.
Joe Dark wishes he was a demon so he could kick his ass, but this mundane life doesn't afford that type of upside anymore.
Instead he leaves work, picks up Alura from her job, and begins to head back home.
On the way though, he winds up hearing someone getting assaulted and robbed down an alleyway. He has Alura run interference with her illusions while he goes in and scares the assailants off with darkness.
Once they run off though, he finds the person they were attacking is the old lady from before. And she had taken a nasty fall, the back of her skull now bleeding out. She's already dead, leaving her extended family and the happiness she gave them behind.
Joe Dark starts trembling, and once he leaves the alley he finds that cops were parked nearby and didn't do ANYTHING upon hearing that noise.
He's mad as hell at the world, but also, mad at a certain someone for the state of it.
He forces Alura to head back home on her own while he takes the dead lady's wallet and uses his darkness to go straight for Mew's house.
He wastes no time pounding on the door to get Mew out, proceeding to toss the wallet into his chest so he can press Mew with guilt for how bad the world is at the moment.
In Joe Dark's eyes a world with Mew in it shouldn't be a world where crime is this prolific. Not just in public, but in corporations and politics too.
Despite all this crime, Mew's just loafing around in front of his TV.
But that's not what Mew's doing, yet Joe Dark isn't exactly sure WHAT he's doing then.
Mew wants Joe Dark to calm down but he refuses, saying Mew needs to stop running from his duties, as he has the power to change the world.
And Mew retorts over how Prometheus was the same, and THAT'S the clinching point that silences Joe Dark for the moment.
Prometheus let power go to his head, after all, and ruled the world from the shadows with it.
Joe Dark doesn't believe Mew is ANYTHING like him.
But that's not the point. Mew and Joe Dark are just a couple powerful figures in a world filled with everyday people, so its up to them to be responsible with that power.
Mew sees and feels the world suffering every day and has to exercise so much restraint just to stop himself from lashing out at the media outlets in particular, let alone the government.
So instead, he's saving his power to stop threats that humanity CAN'T beat back.
Joe Dark isn't asking for the whole world to change, just for criminals to be stopped.
Yet that's how all things escalate out of control. So Mew may stop one criminal, then others, but it'll keep getting worse and worse until eventually Mew razes the whole world...Just like Alex tried to do.
Joe Dark wants to believe there has to be some other way to use their power for good.
Mew moves on to citing the state of Sancturia under Gravitus' rule, and how he was treated as a god to the detriment of his people.
Mew thinks humans are stronger when they grow through struggle, and suffer when they get EVERYTHING they want.
Even if Joe Dark's seeing the worst humanity has to offer, Mew doesn't want him to start lashing out, but to instead save the world by playing by its rules.
Mew doesn't know how exactly, and that disappoints Joe Dark the most...
He returns home and immediately, Julius senses his strife. Julius has Alura make dinner so she's out of the way, then sits Joe Dark down to discuss his feelings.
Upon getting a feel for what's bugging him, Julius sees a lot of his father inside of him.
Senator Dark became the man he was because he believed in being able to change the world from within. "To be there for the people, as one of the people" was his motto.
The motto resonates with Joe Dark, who thinks of his experiences in life and the path he has to walk. He cannot stagger in his father's shadow...No, he has to go farther.
Joe Dark vows to become the President, a struggle he and Julius agree will be difficult beyond belief, especially given Joe Dark's past.
But Joe Dark cannot let his life go to waste doing nothing but the 9 to 5. He wants to make this world safe to live in for all who have not deserved their rotten lot in life.
Julius will support him every step of the way...But Joe Dark cannot allow Alura to know about this, for he wants her to have a life of her own.
Yet he fails to realize that Alura overheard all of that, and now has a painful feeling in her chest...
A couple days later Kairi's getting out of class, having been given the assignment to answer one question over the weekend: Where do you see yourself after graduation?
Its a question that troubles her greatly as she meets up with Mew outside of school and heads back home, him sadly tagging along and lazing around her house.
The moment she tries to think about the question she winds up passing it off to Mew in hopes that he might give her inspiration.
Tragically, him being him, he only thinks he'll be doing the same stuff as always. So Kairi gets mad at him, expecting him to have AT LEAST been thinking about a job to support Maria.
Mew, however, is going to worry about that when the problem arrives, which is just like him.
A spat is about to break out between the two when Auris wanders in, wondering what's got them all worked up.
She decides to take part in the question by asking Mew what he thinks she'd be good at job-wise.
Mew suggests a bartender and Auris agrees with the logic. She then has him spin that same type of logic onto Kairi to determine what she'd be good at.
But after a few suggestions, Kairi rejects them all and finds this has just become more a pain than before.
Auris leaves and in her place, Shina arrives to get involved.
Shina's not really thinking much of the future given her pregnancy. She's kind of in a pretty bad state social wise...Which is a depressing note that's quickly swept under the rug as she suggests Mew, Kairi and Maria become a superhero team.
Kairi, of course, denies that while Mew's super into the idea.
So Shina passive aggressively leaves her sister to struggle with an answer.
Kairi turns back to Mew, worried about his inability to decide his future.
Mew's a day-to-day sort of guy and doesn't really like to plan too far ahead.
Kairi's pissed off enough at this point and is about to let him have it when Mew sits up and sounds annoyed himself over getting ganged up on AGAIN this week.
He lays it onto Kairi straight that he HAS thought about his future, its just that he can't see himself taking a job he'd be able to enjoy.
He also doesn't want to be in a job that feels like he's cheating with his powers, as it'd be such an unfair advantage against people who worked hard to get to where they are.
So that's a pretty narrow field, all things considered.
Kairi agrees with his assessment of himself even if its leaves her with a lower opinion of herself. She's getting this angry at him for nothing to cover the fact that she's in love with him.
But right now especially, she can't let herself confess when her future's uncertain. She doesn't want to wind up being someone who has to rely on their husband to do anything. She wants to be relied on, even if Mew wouldn't admit to it.
Finally, Kairi realizes what her answer is going to be.
Once the weekend passes she turns her answer in, and winds up getting her teacher's praise for it.
Kairi admitted that she has no idea what her future will be but is still giving it some thought. That's a lot of honesty whereas a lot of other people are just content to come up with crazy career goals to make it seem like they have an idea of what to do.
Kairi's paper gets an "A+" and she leaves the school feeling very proud of herself.
She then apologizes to Mew and wants to make it up to him by celebrating with ice cream.
As they head off though, a pillar of light strikes down in Sancturia, heralding the arrival of a dangerous enemy...
The God of Destruction Beerus has arrived, ferried here by his Angel, Whis, to hunt down the "dog of the 'higher-ups'"...
Mew immediately has Kairi withdraw and check up on Maria to ensure she'll be safe. Mew, meanwhile, will stick behind and try to placate Beerus a bit with his usual charm and wit.
...Which is stonewalled by Beerus, figures.
Mew does manage to lie right in Beerus' face about the Elemental Overlord not being around at the moment, hopefully buying him a few hours to maybe grab Riku or something.
To keep Beerus and Whis occupied though he tries to take them to the ice cream parlor, which they're accepting of given their love of desserts.
Certainly the presence of these two scares the pants off all the nearby Aurians, but there's nothing Mew can do about that except keep Beerus happy.
They manage to go and get the ice cream and Beerus and Whis enjoy it immensely. Mew tries to probe them about why they're after the Elemental Overlord but Beerus states its none of his business.
It IS, but he isn't about to blab why.
Beerus starts to suspect something is different about Mew compared to everyone else and in the process of uncovering that, nearly stabs his face with the spoon.
When Mew uses his powers to stop it, this exposes his true identity to Beerus, who proceeds to flick him out of the store and levitate after him ready to fight.
Mew doesn't really have a choice now but to engage the God of Destruction but first wonders again why Beerus is after him.
Beerus connects him to the "higher-ups" due to his title, and THAT'S his true target. Mew states he has nothing to do with them but to Beerus it doesn't matter. As long as he has that title he's tied to the same leash.
Mew attacks first with his sword but Beerus easily grabs it out and calls it a butter knife, proceeding to wail on Mew for a bit.
Mew immediately recognizes he needs to grab Riku to stand a chance, only for Beerus' relentless attacks to force Mew to reconsider and try to hold out on his own.
After tanking some of Beerus' attacks for a bit Mew manages to find an opening to go into Light Form, when his basic elements prove ineffective.
Not that Light is doing any better, as Beerus simply raises his power a bit and manages to eclipse Mew's one advantage: His speed.
Mew holds out long enough to cut Beerus and make him bleed. Beerus is impressed, raising his power some more to keep Mew unable to fight back.
Mew's worried about Sancturia dropping if the fight keeps up and tries to drag Beerus out, only to continue to be at his mercy.
Mew's bailed out suddenly by Maria jumping in and attacking Beerus with her gas fists. Though he hardly flinches, it provides the opening Kairi needs to leap in with the Neo Drive.
Whis intervenes on Beerus' behalf, worried that the Neo Drive would overpower Beerus with ease.
Whis dances around Kairi's ferocious attacks as she demands to know why Mew has to keep being targeted.
Beerus gets annoyed and prepares to attack her, only for Mew to now have been given enough time to go into Dark Form.
With this boost he manages to quickly drag Beerus out of Sancturia.
All these forms are making Beerus feel nostalgic, as he raises his power some more and clashes with Mew, dragging their fight out past the atmosphere of the planet.
Beerus is starting to see the legend reborn but does not waver, continuing to break through Mew's defenses.
Eventually they crash into the moon's surface, with Beerus proclaiming this is him being merciful.
Mew's frustrated at how he's losing, and not for the reasons he wants them to be. He wishes he was more angry at Beerus for threatening him and his home, but instead he's pissed his limits aren't being broken fighting this tougher foe.
It reminds him how he lost to Justek and Ba'al and nearly died for it, and now it feels like he's going to die to Beerus and it'll all be for nothing.
He wants to have some confidence in the fact that maybe he pushed Beerus to his full power, but instead...He's only managed 80 percent.
Beerus actually sympathizes with Mew for feeling so weak, but Mew can't buy that Beerus would know what its like to lose something close to him.
Beerus pauses, let Mew vent about his weakness for a bit. Ultimately, Mew decides that even if he's going to die, he's not going to LOSE.
Beerus respects his resolve by utilizing his full power against him.
Mew pushes his body forward with all his might, using both Light and Darkness against Beerus' Ultra Instinct and Hakai assaults.
They drag themselves away from the moon and go hurtling back towards the planet. Mew's body starts to break under the pressure of him straining his energy to their limits, attempting to breech the wall keeping him out of Chaos Form.
However it matters little, as Beerus drops him out of the sky and back down into Sancturia, so battered and broken that its a wonder Mew can stand let alone kneel.
Beerus prepares to wipe out Mew then and there despite his last stand impressing him. However, Beerus finds himself surrounded.
Dozens of Aurians, including all the friends Mew has made, engage him in a formation around him.
Even Whis is a little wary, given the presence of Kairi and Shina's powerful Drives.
But its Auris who steps forward, addressing the God of Destruction with no respect.
Beerus threatens her, but she laughs, believing even he could manage to erase her.
She knows what he's after and tells him he's wasting his time. When Beerus demands proof, Auris whispers something into his ear.
He drops his aggression immediately and realizes his mistake. He then turns to Whis and prepares to leave, baffling only Mew.
Beerus imparts one last bit of advice...To cherish his world, as he never could.
The two part ways with Sancturia, while Mew, meanwhile, starts to convulse, leading to him collapsing upon the ground coughing up black blood.
Beerus and Whis, meanwhile, reflect upon this encounter and what led them to this point.
How they survived their universe's destruction was nothing short of a miracle, and now all Beerus has left is his vengeance upon the "higher-ups".
Whis wonders about their future plan of attack. For now, all Beerus wants to do is find the person who led them here, as he feels they weren't being completely honest.
Whis finally recalls the name of said person...Alvis.
Beerus believes it'd be in their best interest to force Thanos to work with them and then hunt down this Alvis person for more answers.
And perhaps, in the future, they may require Mew's help to solve a peculiar mystery...
Some time later, rumors of Beerus' presence has wound up at Casino Neptune, specifically into Priscilla's ears while she's working.
Things are rather mundane lately and Priscilla's scratching for a tough fight, pissed off that all the great foes keep going to Mew's planet.
She wanders about doing her job as a bouncer and knocks a few heads around for trying to cheat. However, some strange occurrences start happening when the customers get rowdy against other customers, shouting jealous statements about luck.
Priscilla moves around knocking them out, but it becomes clear that there's a pandemic of envy going on through here and its spreading fast.
Worst of all, some of the customers start getting violent out of some eerie dedication to Priscilla's love.
After she knocks a few more heads to try and get some answers, she catches a whiff of black magic in the air and plows through the rowdy crowd to get to Neptune.
Eventually she makes it to the top just barely, but when she does she finds her wife cuddling a fake version of herself.
Priscilla charges the impostor but is attacked by a black-haired figure with goat legs and snake-lion tail, the Leviathan of Sin Vyvy
Neptune figures out the deception then and there and the impostor reveals themselves as the pink-skinned cherub, Amor.
Priscilla tries to warn her wife about what's going on and Neptune uses magic to see the sorry state of her customers in the casino.
She quickly turns upon Amor, recognizing her title and want for revenge for the lives of Ba'al and Aava'ris.
Though Amor confirms it, she calls this simply the first stage of her revenge.
Priscilla, furious as hell, is ready to take out her pent up rage upon Vyvy, leaving Neptune to duel Amor.
Priscilla and Vyvy's battle is a visceral clash of fury, though Vyvy proves herself to be incredibly intolerant of any physical display of pain. Her kicks match Priscilla's raw draconic strength, and she even has the power to steal things from Priscilla permanently, including the knowledge of using certain powers.
Unfortunately Vyvy picks to steal Priscilla's venom lightning, which Priscilla is able to reclaim by devouring it with the power of her Scourge Draconis.
Belle meanwhile duels Amor in the air, the two of them flirting with various magic forms and the cherub's arrows, which are capable of turning Belle's magic and even her wand against her.
Priscilla tries to break off to help Belle but Vyvy is stubbornly persistent.
Amor is admittedly surprised the half-dragon is this tough, which Belle states with pride is because she's stronger than all the Planetary Aurians and perhaps would've been tougher than Gravitus.
She then taunts Amor for being so foolish as to try and avenge her siblings with vengeance.
But this is not about avenging anyone. Her siblings deserved death for being so weak, but to MORTALS of all creatures? That, she could not stand.
Amor despises mortals for the sheer depravity of their love. As the Leviathan of Lust, she's been forced to FEEL the passion spared in acts of love. Every manner of fetish has been forced upon her body and she's SICK of it.
And there's just SO MUCH VARIETY that it never ceases. So she'll be glad to wipe out mortals just to make their sickeningly sick desires CEASE.
Belle pities her for not understanding love, and how experimentation is good for a relationship.
However, Amor prefers unbreakable obedience, and once she fells the concept of love completely domination shall be all that remains in its place with her at the top.
Belle believes she's truly sinful, and Amor loves to be called such, for only one fit to sit upon the throne of Hell deserves such compliments.
The two continue their duel while Priscilla manages to drag Vyvy around, slamming her against a wall and unleashing a powerful Grand Scourge Ray to seemingly take her down.
Yet the chimera is not only resilient to death, she lashes out in sheer defiance of it. Her envy is so powerful, and yet she despises its existence. Vyvy wants nothing more than to cast aside envy and know what its like to feel ANYTHING else, but her body simply cannot perform such a miracle and she HATES it.
Her body snaps and bursts into green flames like a nuclear bomb of jealousy, and through them flames she re-emerges as a thirty-feet towering titan with stitched mouth and its animalistic features far more prominent on its body.
This is the true form of Vyvy...Invidia, the Leviathan of Ceaseless Hate.
Priscilla goes full dragon and the fight between her and colossal chimera escalates even further. Neptune, meanwhile, comes to blows with Amor while seemingly trying to perform trick magic behind her back.
Amor starts playing dirty though, her visage appearing as Priscilla's yet again. But the presence of this fake Priscilla, even though Neptune knows its a deception, cannot bring any harm to it no matter how much she tries.
Taking advantage of this, Amor manages to take away more of Neptune's tools with her love magic, while Invidia manages to gain the upper hand against Priscilla due to an amplified intolerance to pain.
Amor soon manages to make Neptune bend at the knee, while Priscilla is clamped down under Invidia's hands, struggling to break free.
Amor uses her advantage to try and push Neptune into making a bargain with her. Either help them kill the Elemental Overlord and his friends, or lose everything they've built up.
Amor even promises to let Neptune and Priscilla have their own world in her new dominated empire, where they have as much love as they please.
Neptune seems to be accepting that bargain...But tricky as she is, she manages to bind Amor in handkerchiefs and then slap a seal over her mouth.
Because, as Amor put it, Neptune can't do anything to harm who she loves...But as it turns out, the very fetishes Amor despises worked against her, as Priscilla is into bondage.
Also, Neptune's magic signs earlier? Simply her putting her customers to sleep so no one perishes on her watch.
Now, with Amor down for now, Neptune rushes to her wife's side and blows Invidia back. Then, the loving couple waste no time channeling Priscilla's flames through magic runes to create the almighty Malpurgio Zettaflare.
Though their home is greatly burned, they manage to hurt the Leviathan so much that they revert to their sealed state and knock them unconscious.
Now, seeing as they've won, the couple decides what to do with the two aggressors of sin. Neptune suggests detaining the chimera, while Amor is crushed underfoot by Priscilla.
However, the shards of Amor scream a most horrifying wail and get consumed by bright pink flames.
...The battle is not over. Soon after, the roof of their home is torn off by the tendril of a multi-limbed statue towering over their entire casino. Depicting the evanescence of lust, this is Amor's true form...Luxuria, Leviathan of Death's Embrace.
Priscilla is drained solid, but Neptune has plenty of magic up her sleeve to combat this last obstacle in their path.
Luxuria attacks with her tentacles to break away their home, leaving less room for Neptune to move around.
Neptune attacks as best she can, even using her strongest magic to force the Leviathan away...But they rise back up, barely any worse for the wear.
They then dismantle their home until only the spot where they stand remains, laughing at them for leaving this world with nothing but worthless love.
Neptune doesn't care, and calmly embraces her wife, believing there'd be no world if she abandoned her love.
Before Luxuria can deal the final blow, Neptune and Priscilla speak of regrets, of which Priscilla has only one...Not having a child.
They hold each other softly, and the tendril lashes towards them.
However, they are saved at the final moment by none other than...Macros.
He tanks the appendage through his gut without flinching. Coyly announcing his presence as little more than someone who happened to be passing by, her nevertheless chooses to ally with the loving couple against Luxuria, who curses him out with his true name.
However, Macros' aid comes with a sworn promise from the two to not tell anyone he was here.
Neptune agrees, and Macros begins to unscrew his eyes, warning the two not to look his way lest they wish to vanish.
Macros then starts deconstructing Luxuria's never-ending tendrils, advising the couple on how to win, as he cannot directly harm his siblings.
The strength of their love is the key, they just simply have to channel it into one final attack. Fortunately, Macros managed to buy a couple Ethers to help top off their magical power for just this moment.
He points them at Luxuria's stony chest and continues to just barely fend off the Leviathan's attacks as they begin charging their magic into one final shot.
Luxuria is so enraged that she could possibly lose this, as she had done everything right, only for Macros to once again brown-nose where he doesn't belong.
However, declaring their love is eternal, Neptune and Priscilla fire one powerful heart-shaped beam that manages to obliterate Luxuria's form and expose Amor in the open.
Macros immediately lunges out and grabs Amor by the neck, hoisting her up while being extremely calm.
Amor laughs, daring Macros to try and make her feel pain, because he simply CANNOT.
However, Macros lets out one chuckle that unnerves her entirely, and chides her for believing he plays such childish games as...killing.
In the aftermath of the battle, Neptune and Priscilla are completely exhausted and REALLY wanting a vacation. However, first Macros approaches them and thanks them for their help.
Priscilla's suspicious though, especially since the two Leviathans have vanished. Macros wants no questions on the matter and expect them to trust him.
However, seeing what they just got swept up in, Neptune cannot have her silence bought with words.
She threatens Macros by planning to expose his true identity to Saturn or other folk. Macros admits how troubling that'd be for him and decides to allow Neptune and Priscilla to be in the know about the past he shares with his siblings.
Later though. First, Macros has to deal with his siblings.
It doesn't take long afterwards for Neptune and Priscilla to rebuild their home and relax. However, Priscilla's one regret has convinced Neptune to start considering a way to give them a child...
And as for Amor and Vyvy? Well, Macros has them trapped inside a couple of his pods, injecting Vyvy with pure concentrated happiness while Amor's forced to watch 24/7 Hallmark Movie Marathons. A fitting end for them both, as he says...
Back on Earth, Mew finally awakens from his battle with Beerus feeling sorer than hell. He had some sort of weird dream/premonition involving Alex, but doesn't recall much of it given all the pain he's feeling.
He tries to get up but can't, his body still needing a bit of rest.
He's in the Aurora household, on their couch, but no one's around. So he waits, thinking about what occurred against Beerus.
Specifically, the fact that the "higher-ups" have once again come up. He thinks about them, what Justek mentioned regarding them, their role in the events surrounding Mr. Reality, and even what happened to Alex thanks to a "witch in gray".
Mew realizes he doesn't really know the motives of the "higher-ups" only that they SEEM to want worlds gone...Except they clearly allowed the universe to be restored twice.
And their involvement in the affairs of the Elemental Overlord and Dark King have gone unanswered for so long now.
Auris and Shina return, and Mew thinks about getting some answers from them.
Shina puts some groceries away while Auris sits down and checks on Mew. Slowly, calmly but coldly, she starts listing off all the people who had checked on him, including a couple surprising faces like Saturn and Solaris.
At the end of it all she berates him harshly for getting into a fight with Beerus instead of trying to think. Of course Mew thinks its fine since Beerus is gone and he's alive...And that's the straw that breaks the camel's back for Auris.
She draws her sword on him and in his attempt to defend himself, he fails to summon much fire.
She lectures him on learning NOTHING from Riku in trying to brute-force higher levels of power. Clearly Mew didn't learn from his body nearly breaking itself from overload.
Mew pushes it back in HER force that maybe he would've acted a little smarter if she had given them a heads-up about Beerus.
Auris seems to stutter a bit when she tells him off for trying to avoid the issue about learning from his mistakes. Admittedly, even Mew feels like a jackass for going too far and apologizes, saying he won't try that again.
Auris leaves and then Shina pops in to check on Mew. The two chat a bit about her baby but Shina's more worried about Kairi's health, as she's "sick" cause of Mew.
Mew doesn't get it, go figure, forcing Shina to reveal how long Mew's been out for. Its been a week. A week of everyone constantly worrying whether or not he'd wake up.
Mew worries more about the programs he missed cause of Beerus but quickly reasserts his priorities towards talking with Shina about the "witch".
Shina of course tries to avoid the topic entirely but Mew keeps pressing on. Thus, Shina's forced to dissuade his persistence by revealing a secret...She wants Mew to be her child's godfather.
He's proven he's good with kids given Maria, so she wants him to be there as a good influence for her kid too.
But hearing this doesn't dissuade Mew from his path, but instead reinforces it.
So Shina just lays it out on Mew that she can't bring herself to let him go down the same path Alex did and die for it, and that he's being a dick trying to force her to send him down that road.
Auris steps in again and Shina asks her to do something about Mew.
Auris lies to get Shina out for a bit, then immediately bashes Mew on the back of his head. Her patience is being tested and Mew's a few tip-toes away from getting killed by her.
Mew isn't going after the "witch" to fight the "higher-ups" though.
It doesn't matter to her either way, he's a fool for considering prodding beings who can wipe out entire universes and timelines in the blink of an eye. And she's not saying that as hyperbole, she's WITNESSED them do it many times.
She will deny his will as long as it takes for him to develop a sense of self-preservation or die from a lack of one, but she hopes to avoid the latter for someone else's sake.
Mew wonders how she's so worried when she can simply just see the right path for him to go down.
That's when Mew pieces it together at long last...That Auris' clairvoyance has been gone for a while.
She admits as such but thinks it changes nothing. She immediately takes Mew by surprise by slapping him then hoisting him up by his shirt, pounding into his head just how stressful its been to no longer be able to see the future after so many years.
His fight with Beerus and his near-death experience really hammered it in to her that she's been too lax around him and his antics and now, she's going to take advantage of his weakened state to keep him down until he understands her damn point.
Despite her tearful plea, Mew vows that he HAS to protect everyone...Prompting Auris to reveal one more secret.
She drags him to the temple where they first met and takes him to her secret chamber. Inside she reaches inside the altar the communication orb hides in and causes a coffin to rise from the ground.
Inside is the body of the original Elemental Overlord, preserved, but deprived of its soul.
Once, there was a hope she had that maybe, someday, the "higher-ups" would see reason and undo the punishment on Sarajin.
No matter what though the enemy could not be beaten by words or actions. That's what the future told her. Not to mention Sarajin's soul is gone now anyways, thanks to Alex's betrayal.
Sarajin's goal was a world where everyone could be happy, his good nature exploited by the "higher-ups" until he was broken and worthless to them.
He died in a manner lacking glory, and Mew will suffer the same fate if he tries to defy the "higher-ups".
But Mew points out one critical difference between the two of them...He's still here, fighting.
Auris is only able to tolerate his talk for so long before she breaks down screaming. She fears she's listening to a reflection of her husband and it hurts her so much, because once more she feels unable to change his mind.
So she finally tells him that he cannot inflict this pain she's feeling onto anyone else, least of all Kairi.
Hearing her scream so passionately for once forces Mew to maybe step back and reconsider what he's doing.
So he promises to her not to get involved anymore with the "higher-ups" business and try to live in the peaceful life he's managed to earn for him and his friends and family.
And she's all the happier for it, for the first time in two-thousand years she feels like she made the right choice...
So reluctant as Mew is to do so, he leaves the temple with this vow in his heart...To enjoy peace.
Story 9 END
