Chapter Eighteen: Diabolos Ex Machina
It was almost like a mausoleum, A vast dead place of stone and silence.
Ring after ring after ring encircled the small open space that sat at the centre, Four stairways cleaved through the stone rings leading to the centre. Standing solitarily within that small space was a stone throne, There was someone there.
"One!, How's my favourite little assassin doing?".
One herself had been sitting on the stone throne, Ever since she had found herself in this place she had been thinking over recent events and ultimately came to one conclusion.
"You brought us here just to feed him. Didn't you".
The white haired man had a look of surprise on his face "That wasn't my intention, The situation simply took an unexpected turn. Besides, How was i supposed to know he had some magic bullshit on hand".
He had stopped leaning behind the throne and moved to stand next to her. Golden, Curving antlers flowed from the sides of his head, His body was clad in a white long coat whose coattails split into five leaf like shapes. Navy blue ran across it, flowing across the arms in curves and going down the chest in a way to suggest the appearance of an undershirt. White and navy blue flowed down his legs, His knees covered by ornate gold plates. His hands were covered by navy blue gloves, Ornate gold plates covered the back of his hands wrapping around his writs and middle fingers. There were similar gold attire around his ankles, Noticeably above his hooved feet.
"Don't act innocent Loki. The fact you're more than enough to kill him makes using a proxy pointless, Unless you were planning for said proxy to die anyway".
"One...I'm hurt" He had a pained expression as he held his chest "The fact you'd think of such a thing, Let alone accuse me of betraying you from the beginning... " His attitude changed drastically, Grabbing her shoulder aggressively, Glaring at her.
Then laughing.
"... Is exactly why i gave you and your sisters a second chance. The fact you caught on so quickly is why i chose you".
Loki chuckled as he walked away from one, Her uncanny knack for finding out the truth was certainly vexing. But it did make things easier for him in a sense.
"Though... When did you figure it out?".
Their red eyes met.
"When i saw five be impaled, Four burned alive, Three having her heart ripped out And two massacred... And i could do nothing. What kind of 'god' would bring the dead back to life yet do nothing to save them... Unless, You couldn't"
"One" he started "The body is temporary, Building new ones for your souls to inhabit is easy. The soul is the problem".
"Removing them is simple enough, Storage can be a little tricky if you don't know your stuff. Then there's what he's doing with them".
"There's only two ways one can use to stop someone like me from bringing someone back" Loki emphasised this by pointing out two fingers. "One, is to destroy the soul. And you would not believe how many different ways there are to do that" He finished, Dropping a finger. "The other..." He paused.
"... Is to eat it".
"Quite insidious isn't it" He continued "Using the souls of others to strengthen one self, Denying those you 'Consume' an afterlife and using them as a foundation for your own twisted little world. Y'know, One. I am quite curious...".
He paused, Smirking.
"What world will be born from your conflict".
And with that, Loki had vanished.
Left alone, One thought over the information that loki had monologed at her.
After sometime, Footsteps echoed throughout.
"Well, He's as melodramatic as ever".
"What do you make of all this, Knowing that you've failed". One asked as mugen neared her.
"Not yet, As long as the possibility exists defeating hades is still possible. Though, The odds are pretty slim already to be honest".
"So, It's that bad?" Ones said "It seems we'll need to use everything we can".
As one said this, Mugens eyes sharply turned to her.
She couldn't help but chuckle "Damned either way it seems. One, There's a lot riding on you now. It'd be a real shame to die here".
"And that would be?".
"Well, Avoiding the end of all current existence for one thing".
"Hmph" Golden light flowed around the two, Carving into the air glowing runes and sigils.
"Nothing new then".
The wall before him exploded.
The dust fell around his black and crimson form, Eyes glaring at the areas centre.
"One".
"You took your sweet time"
Surrounded by rubble, Hades stood atop the staircase behind the throne.
"Well, Falling tends to be faster than walking. Though this place certainly loves being as inconvenient as possible".
As he spoke hades walked down the steps.
"... What was it like...Your world".
If she could see it one would have saw the surprise on his face, The question certainly was something he didn't expect and while he was going to simply ignore it as some attempt at buying time...He couldn't, Nostalgia plucked at his heart as the memories of yore bubbled from his mind.
It was surreal.
While it wasn't that bad, His memory was spotty but such a thing failed to muddy his recollection of the life he lived before all this. Mundane, Run of the mill, It was a simple life.
But...
He had thought life was like a river.
He was a leaf, Floating along its currents.
Where the currents flowed, He followed, Dragged along by the life's river.
He hated it.
Opportunities, Like currents of their own, Came and went.
He always did have a problem with overthinking things, Ultimately it came down to whether it was something he wanted to do or could do.
Adaptive.
Flexible.
He may not have liked it, But there was no point in being picky.
He just had to do with what he got handed.
There was a lot he wanted to do, Far too much to be honest.
He drifted along, This unfulfilled desire to create festered. Growing like a cancer, Constantly bubbling at the surface raging to be unleashed, To be made.
A stubborn spark of life in a sea of wet timber.
Looking back on it all, It felt like he was just sleeping through the mundane and grey life he lived...It may not have been much, But it was better than nothing.
"...It was nice. Sure it was shitty in its own way...But it was nice...Peaceful..."
"And you already know what mine is like".
Right, The memory was hazy but it told him enough.
Much like his own, Ones world had its own pros and cons. Both had their dangers and in some ways were better than the other.
"Knowing this, I want you to tell me".
Hades continued to walk down towards the areas center.
"If you had the power and knowing the truth and purpose of both worlds... Could you decide which one deserved more to exist?".
"...!?".
'You...You know, Don't you...One, This power...'
"Hmph, The answers simple..."
Indeed it was.
The world he had once lived in was corrupt, Corrupted by those who yearned for power and so like parasites infested, Twisted and polluted everything around them for that quick fix of power. Corrupted by those who so feared losing the power they held that they tore at and added to the system that gave them power, Just to hold on for a little longer regardless of the chaos and turmoil that their greed caused.
The world she had once lived in was hell, Tragedy seemed as though it was a fundamental aspect of reality, Life was taken coldly and cruelly. Good will and aid was answered with suffering and loss. The end was always waiting at the edge, Waiting for those who guarded the world from it to slip for but a moment so that it could destroy all that was held dear.
Indeed, The answer was simple...
"Neither...Neither deserves anything, The only world that deserves to exist is one that lacks such weakness, A world that lacks such limitations, A world... A world that only i can create. I know, The hypocrisy isn't lost on me, But so what my life...My body...I've lost everything...Except for IT, This hunger...I want to see more, I want to experience more, I want more...More...More!. I want it, I want it more now than anything else in my life. I'll reach higher, Run farther, Climb, Claw, Cut...Kill, Devour and destroy...Until i finally reach it!, That which i cannot imagine!, That which i cannot predict!, That which i cannot touch...Right...That's it...What i've Craved for so long!"
He exploded with power, His body surged with strength as the black armour that covered him...Changed.
"From the sunlight paradise, Resplendent and everlasting".
Hades spoke, The words flowed forth from his very soul, The aria heralding that which flowed forth across the space around him.
"To the frozen purgatory, Unchanging and peaceful. Beyond the all consuming hell, A rejection of all yet a yearning for one".
His elbows and knees spiked, His shoulders curved. The black and crimson skin formed into armour, Coattails flowing from his waist and reached his ankles.
"The promised land lies waiting to embrace...But!"
The crimson cracks across his body and the orbs in his three voids had changed to lavender.
"My heart yearns for more! , I shall rage against the heavens, I shall crush the lost and i shall butcher the damned!"
Cracks and groans sounded from his back as it bulged, bubbled and shifted.
"I shall surpass all and reach the unknown".
Six blades shot from his back.
"INCARNATION!".
The six bladed limbs exploded from his back, Each lavender crack covered spider limb dwarfed him.
"Komm susser todd: Diabolos Ex Machina!".
It was as though his old self was like a cocoon, This transformation...No Realisation had filled hades with more power than ever, He had cast aside his old self like a larvae breaking through its cocoon into adulthood.
"That, One...Is my answer, I'll just make a new world even if i have to kill the other two".
"...Your insane".
"Heh, Probably. I could say the same of you, I can smell its colour on you".
He stood near the throne, The stone seat facing away from him. The one who sat there stood up and turned his way.
The only thing that he recognised about her were her clothes, Besides that ones appearance had changed drastically. Her child like body was gone, In its place was a woman who looked like she was in her early perhaps mid twenties. Her hair was longer too, White instead of blond.
Their eyes met.
"Hades, If that's your answer... Then there really is no going back".
"Yeah, Neither of us can go back. We've made our decision and there's no going back on it".
Both could clearly tell the others determination, Both were on edge waiting for the other to make the first move.
The intent to kill flooded the place.
"To end the world, Were i and those i hold dear can live in peace. The world were my daughters can live as more than just weapons..." Hades spoke, The words further affirming his intent.
"To end the world, Simply because your dissatisfied with it. Ridiculous, I can't accept it...For my sisters to be used as the foundation for such a hollow thing..." One spoke, A black and white sword and a similarly coloured chakram appearing in her hands.
Both kicked of the ground simultaneously, Weapons poised to kill.
"I WON'T ALLOW IT!"
Both roared the same words as they clashed.
Ones weapons smashed into hades spider like limbs, Sparks flying as the two glared at each other, Both pushed against the other and were sent flying. The bladed ring flew through the air only to be deflected off of all three of his right 'blades', He threw back his improvised shield and landed on a wall; With a shout he kicked off of it, Shattering the stone as he shot through the air blades poised to strike; For one there was no escape. His blades cornered her on all sides and, Hungering for her, Rushed to taste their prey.
However...
All his blades pierced was thin air.
Out of nowhere, Two blades pierced his body.
One had appeared under him and ran her blade through him.
One had appeared behind him and ran him through.
Ah, There lied a problem.
Somehow, She was in two places at once. He could easily tell that both were the real deal, Neither were fakes or an illusion. So how was it that one was able to pull off such a thing?, The answer was quite simple really, However as far as hades was concerned there was no point in thinking such a thing over.
However, For our tenacious and beloved audience, Allow me a moment to explain for your convenience.
Simply put, One had used her new found power to move a few seconds into the future and a few seconds into the past, This gold, This colour that had permeated her existence had allowed her authority over time itself and much more. However, At the moment, Time manipulation will be all that we will see our tenacious heroine perform.
And now, Allow me to return to our main event.
Hades had sent his blades at the two, Again they had disappeared and again he was injured. The number of his foes increasing, Two had become four, Another lashing out and those four became eight. The area around them exploding from his stray attacks sending stone flying all around them.
The same song and dance continued, One was joined by more and more of her time clones while hades...
Was getting stronger.
Throughout the battle hades strength had grown continuously, As she brought forth more of herself from across time hades had noticeably skyrocketed in power in response; Like a feedback loop One would answer his overwhelming power with numbers whilst hades would answer her unending army by simply getting stronger.
"...!?".
While subtle, One had noticed a change about him. As her thirty five other selves charged once again she stayed back, Ultimately, Knowing what her foe was capable of was the most vital key to victory.
Especially now, Against a foe like him
As his thirty five enemies took their positions once more, Aiming to pierce his body and cleave his limbs, A strange phenomenon had occurred.
They stopped.
It wasn't that they had hesitated in their motion nor that they were met with an obstacle.
Much like the debris that surrounded them, Still in freefall from previous clashes.
They had frozen in mid-air.
As though time itself ceased to flow.
Within a millisecond his blades had slashed out, Dicing one's time clones apart. His purgatory of frozen time expanded, Its area of influence growing to encompass everything.
One jumped back, Trying to increase the distance between herself and his spreading purgatory. Her retreat halted as one noticed the number of frozen debris had ceased increasing, Considering the distance she estimated that his field had increased considerably since the last time.
Ten meters, That was the the difference between life and death.
With a roar, Hades jumped at her forcing one to stay a meter ahead of him. Even though he was a blur as he accelerated his flow of time she could clearly hear his maddened cackling, the two warping time to the point that they were both barely visible with the sudden pausing of both dust and debris being the only indicator of their presence and movement.
One brought forth more and more time clones to stay a step ahead of hades, one after another were caught in his frozen time and cleaved apart seemingly instantaneously. One step. One step was all that stood between her now and death, He was like a spider moving near the speed of light.
Blade after blade cleaving through whatever was caught in his web, A silk that was unrivalled in its strength and span. Each time clone caught in that predatory trap entwined within time itself and remorselessly entangling and dooming everything that walked its way.
However.
While his web of purgatorial time was unrivalled in its capacity to entrap and cripple an army.
Her eyes flashed with a wicked intelligence as one implemented her scheme.
For every one time clone she summoned One would bring forth two more, and for every two she would bring forth four more and eight more and ten more and twenty five more and fifty more and more and more and more. She continually escalated the number created, In a matter of minutes she had jumped from thousands to billions and beyond, More and more and with that she...
Hades swung his spider like limbs, Struck out with his arms and legs, Attacked even with his head.
He couldn't help but grin at the practically unending flow of one's time clones that assailed him, While his time armour and area of influence were powerful and had given him the edge it seemed that one had figured its weakness.
His authority was a power to crush the laws of the world, Forcing upon it his own law. However, his purgatorial time was the one that had the hardest time to emanate, The fact she had accidentally helped him figure out its limit was certainly ironic...…Thirty five...Thirty five was the limit he could maintain his frozen time at full strength. While it may have jumped somewhat thanks to the endless wave of ones the growth rate of his authority couldn't keep up, His enemies weren't stopped they slowed.
More and more were catching up, The time disparity decreasing considerably with each passing moment.
His grin grew.
His web was unrivalled, In strength and span...Whoever...How strong was it, Really?.
…Shot forth like a comet, A white lance that shot past her myriad selves and charged unhindered by the crumbling purgatory that strained to force her under its law. In the blink of an eye she had reached her destination and...
All around him...His frozen world crumbled.
The monochrome blade pierced his chest.
Hades movements had ceased, Perhaps caused by the shock of the death blow she delivered.
One paused, Taking in sharp breaths as the two stood there. Her time clones encircled them, Prepared to strike.
"...Its over...That hollow world of yours...Will die stillborn".
Suddenly...
"Interesting, I'm surprised you'd thought this would have been enough to kill me".
"Wha-!?".
The entire left side of her vision was consumed by light.
It burned.
Even though she had jumped out of the way of his swipe.
It burned her.
The light that had engulfed his hand had burned her, Even with her reverting her body to before his attack...The pain persisted.
Hades had a new power, Exchanging his purgatory for paradise. Exchanging a realm of frozen time for an all burning light.
The sea of ones jumped into action, Once more his body was assailed by a storm of blades each scoring wound after wound into his body. He lashed out, Punching forward a lance of light followed his fist piercing through and burning away all caught in its path. The white and black swarm carved and grinded away at his obsidian and lavender body, Hades met every attack head on, His hands and feet wrapped in claws of light and his blades too carried that light trail carving and slashing and swiping and clawing at his foes.
Time in the area he held was being distorted, Accelerated to ludicrous speeds combining with their assault an accelerated corrosion of his form. He just laughed as he kept fighting, More and more of his body was chipped away, Bone fragments flew, Blood spilled and flesh was pulped and eviscerated.
Somehow...Hades had killed them all.
Somehow...He had killed near trillions and survived.
The sight before her was macabre.
A spindly, Thin and heaving corpse. Limbs too thin and fragile to support it, There wasn't enough left for it to live and yet...And yet he...
Hades was still alive.
It took a step towards her.
"Seriously...What's up with you lately...?".
Another step on legs that should have collapsed under themselves.
"...I'm honestly starting to worry...Maybe that deal of yours made a few screws loose...".
It had taken one a few seconds to register his attack, She had just barely blocked his six blades. One couldn't help but agree, This was the second time she underestimated him and almost died for it.
With a shout one pushed his attack aside and charged his regenerating form, Throwing her chakram aside and bringing forth a second blade she slashed away at him with hades returning ones blows with his fists. Claws and blades clashed as the two battled, More and more of his body healed as their exchange continued, Time warped as ones strikes became monochrome blurs and hades arms visibly degraded as he matched her though a good number hit their mark, Parts of his body suddenly exploding as he was hit.
Ultimately, The two had returned to the state that their battle had started with. Hades strength had grown considerably over shadowing when he had first arrived and one had summoned and sacrificed ten of her other selves to evade the burst of blinding light that engulfed him.
"You know...You remind me of someone i know".
"Oh?, Really".
The chakram soared through the air, Racing as it reached its target.
"yeah...She was someone who was too stubborn to die and too bothersome to deal with".
The bladed ring cleaved into hades neck.
"Guh-!?".
The weapon had dug deep into his neck, Cutting through his major arteries and bone. The only thing keeping his head attached to his body was a few muscles and his other carotid artery, Blood sputtered from his wounds and mouth as his shocked gaze stayed on her.
One calmly walked towards him, Sword raised. While hades had overwhelming power one had both combat experience and tactical skill. Indeed that was ultimately what separated them and had given her a way to balance them both out, A few shrinking steps were all that stood between the two.
She approached cautiously, His spider limbs were poised but like his arms trembled, He could attack and potentially open himself up or defend and attempt to remove the one thing halting his bodies regeneration of his neck. She held the advantage either way, One wouldn't underestimate him a third time.
The two stood a few inches away from each other, No way of escape.
One swung at him.
The blade cut through the air as it rushed towards his neck.
And it...
And it...
It...
It...Was...?...
Slowing...Down...?.
Before her eyes, Time had stopped.
'Again...Again!?' she thought as again hades had pulled another seemingly impossible trick.
Next thing she knew.
Ones world had become light.
A blinding, Burning, Embrace of light.
Hades pulled the ring out of his neck, Throwing it aside he let out a deep sigh as his neck reconnected with his body. He looked over at the charred body of one, If it weren't for the shape she would have been unrecognisable. Still he couldn't help but be surprised at pulling that off, He was in an unwinnable situation and was sure he was going to die, Switching from one ability to another took some time and hades wasn't sure he was able to switch from paradiso back to purgatorio in time.
But the fact both were active at the same time shocked him as much as it did one, Even though it was a power born from the depths of his soul there was still much that he didn't know about it. Ones charred body was on its knees, Head stuck upwards, The smell of burnt flesh assailed him.
"... after all that, For all your effort and struggling...It didn't matter much...did it?".
It was strange.
"...No. It did matter...One, I'll make sure to burn that determination of yours into my memory...It may not be how you'd have wanted it...".
Hades readied his blades.
"But, This way...Its better than being alone at the least...".
He moved to pierce her blackened body...
Her left eye cracked open, Revealing a bloodshot eye. She pushed off of where she lay, Kicking off of one of his blades and with the sword that appeared out of nowhere.
So she was still alive.
That was what hades thought as his head soared through the air.
"...Maybe...Maybe it is better...".
Ah, So even decapitation didn't work He certainly felt the fool worrying about that.
"But" She continued "There are things i've done...Things i can never forgive".
The two's bodies had already regenerated, Though in hades case his body simply grew a new head.
One turned to face him.
"You feel the same way, Don't you?".
"If dying can let them live the life they never had the chance to live, Then disappearing doesn't seem so bad... It may not be how i wanted it to go...But, Disappearing together-".
"Would be for the best'...Right?".
His gaze was nothing but malice.
"Bullshit. One... Were you... Always that weak?".
The lull in their battle had faltered as the to readied themselves to fight.
It made him absolutely livid.
To do all that, To struggle through so much and then to just bow out from the stage like some two bit actor and disappear... It pissed him off. It pissed him off how she could just accept such a pitiful end, And just who the hell was she to go and say they were the same?, As far as he was concerned that was no more than just another easy way out to avoid dealing with the consequences.
She wasn't doing anything.
Just running away.
"Well, If you're so fine with disappearing...Then let me help you along".
Suddenly, His limbs were consumed by flames.
Black and purple danced and flicked around him as he stood poised to strike.
The first to move was one, Within a second he had lost count of them as they charged, Numbers increasing with each moment. Once more she stayed back, Hades hadn't moved an inch and there was no telling what those flames were capable of. The sea of time clones descended upon him and...
He jumped straight into them, Striking with his flame covered limbs.
Everything those flames touched were ravaged remorselessly, It wasn't just that he had again skyrocketed in power, His blades cutting power had increased considerably as well. One observed as those flame enhanced attacks had cut through both weapon and body, What concerned her the most was that even those who had altered their own time had been cut down.
Even as she brought forth more time clones their numbers were dwindling quickly as hades tore through them, Cutting down and burning away more and more as he ripped through -!?.
He... Was getting closer?.
Slowly but surely, He was advancing upon her with every swing. One jumped back and kept increasing the distance between them while she kept up the numbers of her time clones, Limbs and mutilated bodies flew through the air as hades gave chase tearing into everything in front of him.
One stayed back and observed him, Those flames were indeed the most dangerous weapon hades had mustered up to this point. The fact that it could burn even time showed that overcoming it would be difficult, Though now that it had her attention the very action of those black flames 'burning' didn't make sense. If it simply burned away everything it touched then that meant her time clones wouldn't be dropping like flies, It was something else then, Something that went beyond burning everything.
Destruction on a higher level, However as long as the timeline were she could escape such an end persisted then these flames must have be capable of burning away timelines. The idea that these flames were that powerful was impossible, Hades had not once showed such a level of power with his other abilities so...It had to be something else.
Destruction on an intimate level.
Complete, Total annihilation on a deeper level.
Conceptual erasure.
Those black and purple flames erased everything they touched.
'...I see...'Help me along'...'
One rushed forwards, Her charge joined by an uncountable multitude of time clones. She had realised it now, From the very beginning both of them had been trapped in an unwinnable stalemate, Both herself and her foe wielded power that could be considered god like, Yet, That very power had rendered victory for either one of them impossible. All that was left to her was a gamble, A final strike to over come the immutable stalemate that entrapped them.
Robed in black flames hades answered, Bladed spider like limbs poised to strike and arms readied to counter. He couldn't help but feel like her charge was suicidal, A final all out assault to make way for her true attack. Exhilaration and sadness churned in his breast, Exhilaration at the battle that had unfurled from their clash and the sheer scale that it had reached. She had pushed him like no other, Forcing him to climb higher and higher...And saddened as once she was slain, There could very well never be another to rival one, Never another to force himself to such limits.
The black and white waves clashed, The sea of white descended upon him. Hades brought his limbs forward into a cone shape and pierced through the horde and Threw them aside breaking the tsunami of ones, One herself shot forward like a comet, Racing past the falling bodies of her myriad selves blade readied. Hades barely had time to react, He straited his fingers and pulled his flame clad arm back.
"HADES!" One shouted as she thrusted her blade at her foe.
"ONE!" Hades shouted as he shot his arm at his foe.
And...
Blood flew as the two skewered each other.
The two stood there, The flickering flame and the growing inferno bridged by the weapons that impaled the both of them. Blood trickled down from his wound, His body locked in place to avoid the slightest movement, his eye flickered the slight movement from her. It was hard to notice but one was definitely getting weaker, Even in defeat she refused to yield.
This woman was something else.
"...You realise...It doesn't just stop at proving yourself right...Hades...Can you really live in such a world?...".
"...I will, Even if it'll be difficult, Even if everyone becomes my enemy...Like i said, Its not something i can just walk away from on a whim...I'll live...And prove you wrong".
With those final words hades ripped his arm out of her body, One fell back strength lost and soul devoured.
Silence fell across the cavernous room as hades stood, Victorious...
Yet.
Alone.