Sell you a Bridge

by MalcolmTent6730

Have you ever gotten an email telling you you've won a free cruise? Or one for a work out that will get you ripped in ten days? Wouldn't it be crazy if those offers were legit? Well for Morgan O'Malley they can be. Spam becomes real life when his meta powers finally manifest. Hopefully the perks of the super life aren't false advertising.

71. Chapter 71

July 4th 2016 Castle Bat, 11:45 PM EDT

Darkfather was faster than he looked. The whole imperial leader hands behind the back pose made him seem cumbersome, especially with the wide shoulders and thick arms, but his speed was deceptive. His explosive movement, was, of course, well within the parameters I'd established in the Outer Body though, and my reflexes were insane, so I dodged the punch flawlessly, whirling midair to lob a blast of demonic energy empowered ectoplasmic ice at him as the other twelve of me did the same thing.

The illusionary me's all landed their blows at the same time, and my Domain allowed me to superimpose the attacks in a massive burst of deathly cold that wrapped his legs and lower body, encasing him in midnight frost from the waist down. He hurled another punch, and I swapped with one of the other me's as the punch landed, shattering the ground with casual ease, even in this castle.

Speaking of the castle, once it realized I wasn't losing the fight, the bat castle came alive again, raining down stone and sharp beams on my companions as I held off Darkseid. Thanatos seethed with demonic power as I imbued my strength into it, the keyblade screaming for death and the end of all life in a way that would be deeply unsettling to me later. I'd perfected the forging process, but my Outer Body trance could only model things I had knowledge of. The merge between keyblade and death gun was outside of any parameters I could predict, and could have horrible consequences. Oops.

I swung the blade twice, creating a cross of dark energy in the air, and Darfather put up his arms to tank the blow, howling with pain and rage as his arms split open. I was between them before he could move, shifting to shadow and then back at a comparable size to him as I flashed forward, slamming my metal clad shoulder into him and driving him back as I lashed out with every ounce of skill and ruthlessness I could bring to bear.

I'd tried taking it slow, tried exploiting weaknesses, tried defense, tried mobility. The only thing I could do to beat him was pure offense. I had to tear his entire style apart at the seams, had to make sure he didn't have even a split second of time to gather his bearings. If he built up and momentum he would crush me. This wasn't some fairy tale where I had the perfect counter to his every strike and calmly took him apart with calm collected technique. I needed him off balance and flailing or I was going to fucking die.

He roared as the keyblade opened a gash along his ribs, the greyish flesh wound seething with dark energy. Thanatos was trying its damndest to consume him, but his own power was fighting back. Predatory entropy vs. tyranny, it was a close call, but it was also really fucking painful as far as I could tell. Good. I slammed a metal punch into his torso, explosively piling on strength, and he gasped out in shock because even gods have a solar plexus.

My other hand flashed forward and pressed over his open mouth as I poured death and demonic power and void into a gravity spell and shoved it down his fucking throat. His eyes bulged with pain and I hammered him in the short ribs with my keyblade wielding hand before driving Thanatos into his thigh (it was the closest spot I could get leverage for) and leaving it there. I clamped my hands around his head and shoved both thumbs into his fucking eyes, gouging them out viciously.

Sadly that didn't work as well as I hoped, he tried to use those fucking beams again, but since my thumbs had already smashed his eyeballs the damn things overloaded and almost blew my hands off. Only my reaction speed and armor saved me from losing fingers, but my hands were seriously fucked up. I cast Cure on them, using my power to select a potential outcome where the spell went off flawless;y and instantly and healed them up right away.

The split second I needed to heal though, interrupted the punishing rhythm of my assault and gave him a second to recover. Not enough to launch a proper attack, since I'd carved his eyes out and there was a fucking black hole going off inside his skull, but enough to start hurling out short, brutal attacks that smashed into my upper body with punishing force.

I felt my armor dent under the impact in a few places, though I smoothed it out without too much enrgy wasted. The cracked ribs were less easy to dismiss, but I was still a ghost, at least partly. I bounced back, even ignoring the damage. I called Thanatos, smashing it across my body in a short, harsh chop as I slammed it into one of his still injured arms, and where it clashed against his pitch black bone sparks flew up. Cracks spiderwebbed across his bone, leaking light into the air.

My head hurt, I was shaky and starting to get tired. I was pouring my energy into every fucking aspect of my powers at once, supercharging myself to deal with this bastard. I couldn't let him catch his breath or we would all be killed. There was a crash behind me, but I ignored it. I trusted my friends, I had to. If I looked away to make sure they were ok it would be over.

Swings of my keyblade blurred out, dark metal howling like an ebony storm, strikes of freezing power splitting the darkness as frost spells buried themselves in open wounds, exploding out into deadly ice that tore them open even wider. He started to regroup and I dropped the keyblade, hammering a punch into his throat and then shoving a thumb back into his scoured socket to smash his head back into the wall.

A knee came up to slam into his balls, then his gut, then the wounded thigh, as my other foot stomped down on the inside of his knee to break it. There was barely any plan left, barely any style, I was a fucking animal, savaging the dark god as viciously as I could.

Of course, if it had just been that it wouldn't have been enough. But these weren't just animal ravagings. They were sum total of a million head on brawls. The absolute knowledge of his weakest points and most inconsequential gaps. I was a fucking machine built to just to tear him apart, and every single thought in my head was dedicated to ripping through him piece by piece.

He opened his mouth, vomiting black blood, and it splattered my armor, beginning to corrode it. I cursed but didn't stop. Couldn't stop, as the acidic liquid ate through the metal, crackling with whatever that eye beam energy was, somehow having been backed up into him and corrupting his insides. I felt my flesh begin to boil and sear and I ignored it, flooding those body parts with blinding cold to counteract the agony, at which I was only mildly successful.

It wasn't enough. It was all just superficial damage, just physical harm. I hammered him until I found a real opening, a perfect spot to attack, and then I poured every ounce of power and speed and strength and magic into the tips of my fingers and stomped down, driving my hand forward into his chest and ripping out his heart, just like I'd done to Kalibak.

Of course, that wouldn't have been enough. It was torn out but not destroyed. The pain was too much, Darkfather roared, his agony overcoming the shock and damage more thoroughly than even my perfect predictions and modeling could account for, and his ravaged arms came up, gripping either side of my shoulders before he got a grip and PULLED.

He howled with triumph as my giant form tore in half, only to pause in confusion as my gigantified body dissolved into a cloud of black smoke. I'd switched with one of the illusions last minute, changing it to a clone to give me the time I needed. My giant hand dropped the heart, and I grinned as I called Thanatos to my hand.

The illusion was small, or rather, normal sized, and when I appeared in front of it the heart was the size of a small person, but it didn't matter, that just made it a bigger target. I slammed the keyblade into the black crackling mass of power, and as I did I POURED void and death and demonic power into it, and I threw every ounce of my energy into the strike, calling on my power to create the lie I wanted. Screaming with every ounce of my being DIE.

And he did. I felt it as it happened, felt the power as it ended him, snuffed out this bottomless, colossal thing I should have been completely incapable of killing. But I did. I staggered, but I didn't fall. I'd had my other illusions circle around and get in position near my friends, and with the last of my power I shifted my Domain, making all twelve of them real as I grabbed them each in a different set of arms and hurled us all through a shadow portal directly into the fucking Gummi ship on top of the 104 building.

I slammed into the deck of the ship, my body seizing as my head rode the edge between pain and complete dissolution. I dismissed my keyblade because leaving it out might kill someone, I'd need to deal with that shit later, but for now I needed to BREATHE. I was choking and twitching and I let my armor recede as I writhed on the ground.

Zee was there, and Drea, each pinning my shoulder to hold me in place so I didn't hurt myself as I screamed, trying to stop my fucking soul from fracturing like sugar glass under the pressure of the massive amount of power I'd used. Too much, too fast. I was supposed to do it slow, supposed to ease into it.

Then, suddenly, I felt a wave of power course into me, my soul started to mend, my head began to clear (slightly, it still fucking hurt) and the screaming stopped as I slumped back across the deck, turning my head to glare blearily around until I saw my phone, which had been thrown clear in the confusion. My eyes were blurry, but they finally resolved the image of the screen and showed what I expected. Midnight.

My power had dumped another surge of energy into my body, and it had burned itself up mending the damage I'd done. I was healed. My points had saved me. Maybe not completely patched me up, but enough that I could recover like normal. If I'd torn all my Deception muscles, this knitted them back together to a post workout state, making them just damaged and able to recover.

I panted as I stared up at the ceiling. "Everyone ok?" I asked in a croaky voice. I got a series of stunned agreements and affirmatives, and Sora leaned over me to check if I was ok before Kairi pulled him back. That was fine, I didn't mind. We were alive. I'd fought fucking BATMAN DARKSEID, and was somehow alive.

Kind of wished I could have taken out the Joker one, but I had a feeling I'd be seeing him again. There was a commotion as the others started gesturing out the windshield, and Chip and Dale kicked us into gear to get us out of there. Apparently the catle had turned into a giant Batman golem and was heading for us, but it was too far to get to us in time. We were safe for now, and I was so tired. I buried my head in Zee's lap and closed my eyes. I'd just take a short nap. But hey, at least I didn't get knocked out this time. Progress.

July 5th 2016 Mysterious Tower, 10:00 AM EDT

I woke up in a bed, which was a huge improvement on where I'd fallen asleep. I also woke up at all, which I hadn't been sure of at the end there. I'd thought I was going to die for a second. I looked down at my body, which was uncovered for the most part, except for a sheet. I'd been in my armor, but I was trying to remember if I retracted it to deal with the damage from the corrosive blood that had seriously burned me.

Whatever I'd done, I wasn't burned now. I touched my torc, and it felt the same as usual when it was retracted. I wanted to look it over with aura sight, but it was around my neck. Then I remembered I was half ghost, and I forcibly stretched my neck about a foot and turned my head to look at it.

It looked...fine. Darker. More deadly. But fine. The aura sang with power that hadn't been there before. It occurred to me that the armor had, when I first got it, been altered by my old key blade, and now I had a new keyblade, so maybe it was altered again. That didn't explain the lack of burns, or the fact that my aura was MUCH stronger now than it had been last time I'd seen it.

"Morgan!" Came a shout, and my neck snapped back into place so fast I fell off the damn bed with a start. Zee and Drea, both looking terrified, practically teleported to my side. Surprisingly, Drea was the one who buried herself in my side, and with a start I felt her actually sobbing. I was poleaxed at the display. Not that she cared, but that she was so...outwardly emotional. I was used to feeling her emotions through the bond, and they were usually more...reserved would be a good word I guess?

THIS was like a tidal wave of terror and guilt and pain and love. It was almost drowning me. I shushed her, petting her hair as she cried. Zee stood back to give us space. I knew why Drea was so affected. She'd stoop up to Darkseid for us. Maybe not the REAL Darkseid, but someone just as bad, maybe even worse. It was like facing down the boogeyman for her. Darkseid was her nightmare, they told bad kids on New Genesis that if they didn't behave Darkseid would come and get them. And she'd fought him for me. No, she'd been willing to DIE for me. She hadn't remembered the doll, she'd just drawn fire to keep me safe.

I leaned down and kissed her softly, then I pulled both of them up to the bed because stone floors aren't comfortable. "Hey girls. Sorry I had to nap...I feel, great actually, though I'm not sure what the hell happened."

"Luckily." Came and unusually creepy and very familiar voice. "I happen to be quite familiar with the situation, and should be able to shed some light on the subject. After all, my student was attempting to treat you as it was happening, and was able to get a first hand look." Master Yen Sid stepped into the room through a door I didn't remember seeing there before, nodding to me gravely.

He worked with Merlin, and knew the deal with my abilities I was pretty sure. The actual details, not the basic premise. So I wasn't too adverse to him filling me in on what happened. "Well, I know that I just came stupidly close to death, and that I still got off easy against the bastard who did it."

"Well you aren't dead." Drawled Master Yen Sid. "At least no more than usual, but sadly the stupid isn't curable." I raised an eyebrow at the joke, which wasn't like him, but flipped him off for good measure, getting a giggle out of the girls. "You did indeed come quite close to perishing. You have limits, at least before you fully Ascend. There is a reason your powers are to be exercised over time. You did not do that, and had you not gotten very lucky your soul would have dissolved."

I looked down at my aura. It didn't look weak. In fact, it looked MUCH stronger. There was no way cracking my soul and then flooding it with points should do that. "How?" I said bluntly. "How did I recover, how am I stronger now. Like, my soul being repaired by the influx of energy I could understand, but how am I stronger."

Master Yen Sid stroked his beard slowly, his creepily wide eyes staring intently at me. "Sheer. Dumb. Luck." He said crisply. "Mickey was on hand as it happened, and took several scans I was able to use to discover how it happened. Put simply, your soul was badly fractured. Not the core of it, where your power lies, but the parts of it that are still human, which at the moment is still most of it despite your various physical transformations."

See, that sounded bad. But I didn't interrupt. He waited for me to speak, but when I didn't he gave an approving nod and continued. "The influx of energy would have, as you said, simply repaired what damage it could. But the energy itself wasn't enough. There was barely a trickle. What you would call five thousand points. That wasn't enough to recover. But there was other energy in your body. Powerful energy. And I'm sure you remember the unique trait of Deception energy."

The realization hit me like a bolt of lightning. "Shit!" I cursed. "Deception energy can become anything, and can convert other types of energy. The points influx didn't fix me, it altered the corrosive divine energy that was inside my body from where the blood had eaten through and it merged it with me. I consumed the divinity in Darkfather's blood. Hell, I literally butchered him up close with his giant heart right above me. I might have had almost all of it coursing through me. That's why I feel so strong. But what about...me? Did it change me? Make me evil or some shit?"

Master Yen Sid shrugged. "As far as I can tell, no. The power did the same thing it always does. It altered the fundamental nature of the energy to make it more compatible to you. It tricked reality into applying only gains and no losses. You're...quite a bit more of a god than you were before, stronger, faster, and the human portion of you is basically gone. Your soul is just as ghoulishly demonic as your body now."

Which didn't bother me nearly as much as becoming a mini Darkseid. I reached for my power, and I felt it...leap to my call. I covered one hand with another, creating a space where anything could exist, and then pushed just the slightest bit, opening the hands up to reveal...a rosebud, carved from the most beautiful opal. I plucked it up, the stem forming from beneath it as I lifted, and held it out to Drea with a grin.

It hadn't hurt to make it, not even a little. It had felt like flexing a finger maybe. I knew it took effort, but it was so little it hardly even mattered. Drea giggled at the rose, but took it with a small smile. I wanted to jump out of bed and dance and sing. But my smile faded as I remembered the aura of my torc, and of my keyblade...I may have made a huge tiny mistake. I wanted to call my keyblade, but I was a little worried the girls might be hurt.

"Hey, can you guys go stand by Master Yen Sid? I'm going to see how my armor is. It feels...different. I'm not sure it's going to be within my control when I first expand it." They looked concerned, but I just smiled reassuringly. They finally nodded, getting up to go stand behind the old wizard, who nodded to me gravely.

I stood up, looking down at myself and called my armor. It flowed different this time than usually. Most of the time it felt like liquid metal rolling over me, coating me from head to toe. It wasn't slow but it was a steady pace. This time it felt like a wave of black ink hitting a pond. It consumed me, and I could feel Thanatos in the armor, greedily howling for blood. It had patched the holes from the blood corrosion, and in doing so had melded into the armor irrevocably.

If it had been before I'd have had to fight it off, the blood haze trying to drown me, but I was much stronger. I smashed my will and power into the sensation and it just kind of...stopped. Like I'd stunned it. Then I kept bludgeoning it with my divine will over and over until I felt it submit to me. The feeling of bloody hateful rage evaporated, replaced by sullen unhappiness.

The girls were looking at me with worry, but I just cracked my neck, looking down at myself. The new armor wasn't just black. It was black squared. Vantablack. It ATE light. I looked like a walking black hole almost. Still, I could see flashes of ghostly faces in the metal as I moved, screaming faces. That wasn't really ideal. They didn't seem to be real living beings though, just corporeal resentment from the gun tainting the armor.

I snapped out a light jab, and my hand moved to fast a sonic boom cracked the air. That was fast. About as fast as I used to be when actively channeling demonic power for speed. The armor was stronger now. Like I was stronger. With a tentative flick of my wrist, I called Thanatos. The keyblade blazed into existence in a flash of ghostly fire. It was much different than it had been before. I hadn't had a chance to look at it before, to take in that changes, but there were plenty.

The shaft of the key was metal of course, abyssal alloy, but the actual guard seemed to be some kind of green stone that produced a resonance with ectoplasm. A red demonic gem was set into the base of the grip, and I could feel it calling out to me demonic nature. Lastly, the metal itself was hungry for lives. The witch wasn't there, she'd been destroyed, but the condensed hate and murderous nature of Gotham given form and infused with the power of an ancient magical predator from the dawn of time had warped it, and merging it into the keyblade had woken it up.

It didn't try to consume or bully me. I'd beaten it into submission already through my armor. It would take some getting used to, but I could work with it. A thought struck me. "I guess in some ways I did end up getting keyblade armor." I laughed as I felt the bond between my keyblade and my torc, much closer than what had been there before.

I dismissed them both, letting the metal melt away and the keyblade go up in flames. "Alright." I said seriously. "That's...interesting. It'll help quite a bit in our siege on the Scala ad Caelum, but for now I have other things I need to do." I could create that implant now if I wanted. Just with pure effort. And I was pretty sure I'd need it. I reached into my spatial ring and pulled out the grimoire, showing it to Master Yen Sid.

"I need to understand Void Magic much better than I do. I've been studying, but some help would probably speed things up a ton. I assume as the ancient master of magic you have some familiarity?" The smile that crossed Master Yen Sid's face then wasn't exactly comforting. I suspected he did know how void magic worked. But I also suspected I wouldn't enjoy the learning process. That was fine. We were on a time crunch, I had no problem doing some hell training.

July 5th 2016 Mysterious Tower, 6:00 PM EDT

"Ok." I said through gritted teeth. "I was all for going through some hardcore training to get stronger, but HOW exactly is this training?" I had just emerged from what I could only describe as a fucking tear in reality, which I'd gone into WITHOUT my armor, and was currently bleeding openly from about fifty terrible injuries inflicted by rabid void turbulence.

Master Yen Sid sat calmly on the other side of the room, watching me with his creepy too wide eyes as he sipped tea. "You've studied the void in your book. Having seen it's mysteries I doubt a more thorough academic understanding of void magic would even be possible, but academia can only bring you so far in magic. To truly know the void one must traverse it, must experience it. The void has imprinted itself on your body and spirit, do you deny these effects?"

I grumbled, but didn't contradict him because I couldn't. He was right. Equations and memorizable spell structures were fine and dandy, but seeing the inside of the void. Feeling it tear into me...it was incredibly helpful in understanding WHY those structures and equations worked. Didn't mean it didn't fucking suck though. "Ok, well say I buy that." I said at last. "Is there a fucking reason you KEEP MAKING ME DO IT? Like, my Outer Body Trance would let me easily run that scenario a hundred times in the hours we've been doing this."

That got a nod. "Perhaps. But the void is formless and ever changing. To repeat the same experience ad infinitum would be to create habits and patterns that may not hold true in the void itself. You would be giving yourself an incomplete frame of reference. Tell me, in the six times you have traversed the void turbulence, have the phenomena repeated themselves even once?"

Right again, I could only sigh. Granted I planned to use those several experiences as Outer Body training anyway, I had enough of them that finding common elements among the sample size should still be helpful, but I acknowledged that he had a point at least. I sat down on the tile cross legged, letting my damaged body knit itself together. Being a ghost devil, not to mention a literal god meant my recovery was fantastically fast, combined with the fact that I was indulging my obsession, and handling the void damage was no real problem.

The last eight hours had ALSO taught me quite a bit about my new strength, how it worked, and how to adapt it to the abilities and forms I already knew. The void was a good place to go ape shit, because there was nothing there to damage, even in the turbulence (strange space storms in the void where shards of reality ripped through you like a fucking spatial blender) there wasn't much I could damage, and going all out let me understand my limits. Outer Body would do that too of course, but in order for it to work I needed data, which the void helped me gather.

Luckily, I had another method of processing and gathering data now. My eyes and mind were pretty fucking impressive with my memory and all the upgrades, but my ability to analyze every aspect of the things I remembered wasn't up to scratch, hence the implant. The Archimedes-Rubal bio implant had upgraded that aspect of my brain to a frankly terrifying level.

My memory had been flawless before, but the actual memories themselves were shallow, barely scratching the surface. The implant added depth, allowing me to use my memory to the fullest. Like the difference between a regular file and a zip.

Combining my aura sight with the suite of scanning and analysis tools allowed me to map the void in ways that would have been otherwise impossible and to compare that with my void magic knowledge and draw inferences in a way that totally justified the acquisition of the implant.

After healing up and putting my thoughts in order, I stood up and stretched. "Anyway, this training is done for now. I have data to compare and I need to do more research on the grimoir, but before that, I want to check in on my team and make sure they're doing ok." Master Yen Sid nodded solemnly, then stood up and swept dramatically out of the room.

When I finally came out, I headed for where I could feel Drea, Zee, and Rana. My girls would definitely be with everyone else. I'd wanted to go with them, but the training seemed like an important way to become acclimated to my new strength and I didn't want to put it off.

The first thing that happened when I got into the room was the sensation of a body slamming into mine. I figured it was Rana again, but looking down I was shocked to see a head of blonde hair. Stepping back with a sniff, Atermis tried to punch me in the dick, though with my reflexes she had no chance of actually pulling it off. She glared up at me. "You absolute bastard. I let you leave for a while and you almost kill yourself?"

I grinned at her. "Missed you too. You should be careful about trying to hit people like that though. If you'd landed that blow you would have broken Zee and Drea's heart."

Ignoring the groan of disgust from our daughter, Zee shook her head. "We took a vote, we decided that we'll allow it if it cures your stupidity." I shot her an offended look and she just winked and blew me a kiss. "Only joking love. Don't be so serious all the time."

I reached down and ruffled Artemis's hair. "Glad to know you missed me at least. I take it the training has been going well?" I shot a glance at Wally. "She been pushing you extra hard?"

He groaned in despair. "You have no idea. I'm honestly surprised my legs still work."

Zee nodded sagely. "I have that thought every night as I fall asleep, though usually for much different reasons." She paused before looking at Artemis. "I changed my mind about attacking him there actually. We really enjoy that."

"Gross, gross, gross." Rana moaned, covering her ears. "Grandma make them stop please." She begged Sindella beseechingly.

Sindella just smiled warmly. "Don't be so sensitive dear. Just because they're your parents doesn't mean they can't have a healthy sex life." Zee looked smug at that, but her face blanched as Sindella continued. "Besides, it's not like her interest in well endowed partners isn't something she comes by honestly. I had to talk Suzie into upsizing our toys a few times."

The tall blonde bounty hunter dissolved into cackling laughter at the horrified expression on my girlfriend's face, and Zee scowled at the three of them. "I don't enjoy being ganged up on."

Sindella nodded wisely. "Well, I guess we don't have ALL the same preferences."

Taylor choked on his tea at that and Suzie fell out of her chair laughing as my girlfriend looked to be contemplating some kind of memory wiping spell. At my own rolling laugh though, everyone just looked at me in confusion. I just grinned, shrugging at them. "Sorry. It's just nice to be back."

Zee just sneered at me. "You're only saying because your mom isn't here. But trust me, having seen Marie, there's no way Gojo isn't demolishing that ass on the regular." At my wince she grinned. "NOW we can change the subject, enjoy never forgetting that mental image mr. perfect memory."

"You're an evil woman." I said with a grimace, forcing my brain to change gears. I walked over to the large table they were sitting around and flopped into a chair. "So, how has the training been going?And where's Tommy and John?" I didn't see two of our three trenchcoat wearers around. I'd figured they'd be greeting everyone.

Sindella snickered. "John is showing that pretty redhead around and helping her and her friends find rooms, though anyone with eyes can tell she's head over heels for the brown haired one. I don't think he's serious about flirting with her, just thinks she's pretty to look at. Tommy started a discussion with the blonde. He's thinking about taking her on as a student. Says she has a natural gift for being existential, whatever that means."

I hadn't noticed that the other wielders weren't here, but that made sense. It would be a bit before we left probably so rooms would be needed. Based on her aura when she saw Sora, he was out of luck with Kairi. Not that she wasn't a cutie (though Namine was more to my own taste) so I got him wanting at least talk to her a bit. I remembered him being interested when he saw her picture back on Destiny Islands too.

Taylor cut in. "As for training...not too bad. We've learned quite a bit while you were gone. Sindy has been drilling us all on our magic. I was never a big spell caster, so it's been an adjustment, but I've definitely learned quite a bit. Assuming we don't all die in the attempt, I suspect I'll be heading back to the Nightside I'll have plenty of new tricks to show off when the moment arises."

Sindella looked at Zee hesitantly. "And...I'll be going back with them." At my sorceress's stricken expression, she flinched a bit, but gathered herself and pushed on. "We already talked about some of this, askim but I just don't see how your father and I could possibly be on the same page. I tried reaching out with a sending spell, but he's retreated so far into the helmet of fate. Even if he hadn't though...knowing what he put you through. All of it in my own name? He isn't the same man. He can't be."

My girlfriend's eyes were shimmering, but she didn't let herself cry. Sindella was right. They HAD talked about this. Zee had been half expecting something like this. That didn't make it hurt less. "But what about me?" She said hoarsely. I wanted you to come live with us on the island. We were going to spend time together."

Sindella stepped forward and wrapped her daughter in a tight hug. "Oh, love. We still will. Johnny has agreed to put in a word with the Doormouse. I'll be getting a door made for each of us. You need your space, you have your own life, but you're still my little girl and I want to spend as much time with you as I can without overstaying my welcome. I promise, you'll be sick of me within a year."

With a watery laugh, Zee squeezed her back. She didn't argue the point. As much as it sucked to admit it, Zee didn't need a mother anymore, and they both knew it. They loved each other, and they would have plenty of time to get to know each other again, but having someone who was essentially a stranger come in and try to take over your life would make anyone chafe, and neither wanted their relationship strained like that.

Suzie stepped up next to them, looking SUPREMELY uncomfortable. "You can always swing by ours as well." She looked like she was briefly considering attempting a hug, but quickly reconsidered and punched Zee in the shoulder lightly. Taylor snickered slightly at her embarrassment and she glared at him until he shut up and looked away.

That got a smile from Zee. "Sounds like fun." She smirked at Suzie. "Guess she's not as much of a princess as you thought huh?"

Suzie's answering grin was lazy and wicked. "I wouldn't say that. She certainly spends enough time on top of a tower." Zee grimaced again and everyone burst out laughing. Poor Zee, she had no chance of ever getting one over on Suzie. But despite the cringing, I could see in her aura that she was happy for her mother. Part of her would always want her parents back together, but she also knew who her dad was, and deep down she thought her mom deserved better. I agreed, Sindella was a sweet lady.

Looking around at everyone here I was filled with pride and gratitude. That I'd been able to meet and befriend people like this, that they cared enough to risk their lives for me. I never would have imagine anything like this back when I first got my powers. I guess sometimes true stories can be just as wild as the lies. I could only hope this one had a happy ending, because soon enough, it would be time for the final chapter, and it would be a doozy.

July 13th 2016 Mysterious Tower, 10:00 AM EDT

It was time. Over a week had passed and I'd been training and studying constantly. Between the implant and the Outer Body training method, combined with my little haste trick that let me stretch time inside the trance, I'd managed to completely decode the entirety of the grimoire in the time I'd spent researching, as well as learn quite a bit about applying those skills. The nearly hundred thousand points had all been sucked away by the energy requirements of keeping up the time dilation, and I'd had to strain myself more than a bit on top of that, but it had all been worth it.

I'd even managed to integrate some of the void principles into my shadow portals. I'd regained my old mobility through the darkness of the void, without ever needing to step through dark corridors. The speed and flexibility of my shadow movement was incomparable to what it had been in the past, and was about a thousand times more useful in combat. I'd taken to calling the new movement technique "Void Step", because it sounded really cool and I wanted an awesome name for my new form of teleportation.

The void was much more complicated than most people thought, and my new trick was going to be a big surprise in more than a few ways. Of course, I wasn't the only one who had been training. The assembled team had been working hard for the whole time we'd been here, and their auras were all overflowing with power and surety. They'd integrated their keyblades into their fighting styles much more thoroughly, and even I would probably have had trouble taking them on before my recent upgrade.

"So." I said to Master Yen Sid. "We're here to talk over our entry plan. Somehow I feel like 'kill them all and let the gods sort them out' won't work as well as usual. Considering how powerful Darkfather was, I have no illusions that B-guy can't field someone dangerous enough to cause us problems. Even if I could probably take him much more easily the second time, I somehow doubt he's the type to send one when a hundred will do. Scala ad Caelum is their territory. Chances are good their lines will be stacked."

The wide eyed wizard with the stupid pointy hate nodded grimly. "Indeed. But this problem is one Merlin has foreseen. The cube he gave you does not lead to Scala ad Caelum itself. It will take you somewhere you may be familiar with. The Rock of Eternity."

That actually did sound vaguely familiar. "Wait. Isn't that the place that connects to the Magiclands? The one we used to get back to earth without the motherbox when we ended up in the Sphere?"

Mickey chuckled. "Haha. It is. The rock is a central focal point for the entire multiverse. It has a deep relationship with Scala ad Calem, and there's an entrance hidden within the Limitless Library. That can take us past any defenses the bat god may have waiting and into the heart of the the kingdom, which will allow us to access the world forge before they even know we're there."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you honestly see that happening? Because if you do, I have a bridge to sell you. B-guy isn't an endless, Dark or otherwise, but he's no pushover. He'll know when we show up, and he'll send someone to intercept, even if they may not be waiting for us at the door."

He nodded in acknowledgement. "Probably. But we still need to to do it. This is our best chance. He had a nearly inescapable trap waiting at Castle Bat, and we still got away. With the initiative on our side, this CAN work. Once you complete the keyworld your powers will manifest, you'll become the first Dark Endless. Can you do it?"

That...was a tough question. I'd mastered the grimoire, but that didn't make me a world forger. I made me a master of void. The void world would be the shape, the world forge the anvil, the X-blade the hammer, and my Deception power the flame. It sounded like all the ingredients, but even Merlin had said it wasn't. I needed to study Scala ad Calem, I needed to see what a keyworld WAS. My current void image wasn't complete.

"Yes." I said hesitantly. "I have a plan for how to manage it, but I'll need to see Scala ad Caelum and study the world forge itself. That means you all might be stuck holding the line as I work. My idea will cut that margin down quite a bit, but there's only so much I can plan for. This is going to be the most complex thing I've ever done. I'd say I'm fooling myself even considering it, but that's kind of the point isn't it?"

Artemis scowled. "I wish this was less wishy washy mumbo jumbo and more actual smithing. I could help. Hell Teague could help. Actually, what are the chances he would be able to pitch in?"

I shook my head with a sigh. "No. The Endless can't interfere. Not at the forge. Not while I have it connected to the dark multiverse. I'd say that meant B-guy couldn't either but...who knows. He's a squirrely cheating fuck. Even if he can't come in person I'm sure he has some plan to interfere as directly as possible. Our only counter to that is for me to complete the keyworld and become an Endless."

Once I did...well, I'd settle things with Barbatos once and for all. I wasn't stupid enough to think the universe eating dragon would magically become a pushover when I was an Endless. Sure I'd be taking some of his territory at the very least, but he was operating as a counterpoint to the Endless already. There would still be a fight in the end, and it would be a fucking doozy. I just had to get there first.

"Anyway." I said, focusing back on the present. "What is the Rock of Eternity. You said it's the center of the multiverse, but I thought Scala ad Caelum was the center? How are they related?"

Master Yen Sid paused for a minute, mulling over an answer. "To create a stairway, one must build it on a firm foundation. The Rock came first, Scala ad Caelum was built atop it. The Circle of Eternity holds court from within it. Most have forgotten that the Rock was ever anything but their citadel, but it remains the anchor point, and can still be used to access the stairway. Some of the Circle were gods from the kingdom that Scala ad Caelum once hosted, some simply invited there."

"Are they going to cause trouble for us?" I asked cautiously. Fighting a large number of gods BEFORE fighting our way to the world forge sounded...unwise.

Luckily, Mickey shook his head. "I've met plenty of people in my travels. The thunder god Mamaragan was one of them. He has a high position in the Circle despite being invited later, and I already contacted him to get permission for our passage. The Circle will leave us alone as we go through for the sake of a favor he owes me. The Limitless Library connects to many places though. And he can't guarantee our safety once we enter."

That wasn't a surprise. If this entrance wasn't dangerous I was sure everyone would use it. Zee looked positively rabid at the thought of entering a place called the Limitless Library, but calmed down as she forced herself to remember exactly why we were going. This wasn't a leisure trip. I promised myself I'd bring her back in once I was an Endless. Or help her build her own library that was just as good.

Once she got her instinctive glee under control though (I felt the whole process through the bond) she raised a good point. "How are we going to find the way to Scala ad Caelum? You said this library is limitless and has exits everywhere, wouldn't we need some kind of map to find out way through there?"

"No." Said Master Yen Sid. "But you won't need one. Don't forget who you're bringing with you. Mr. Taylor can find anything after all, and young Morgan should be able to keep you safe enough from any traps or obstacles as you make your way along the path.

He was right. "My aura sight will do the job." I assured Zee. "Not to mention I should be able to use the underlying structure of the place in the void to get a decent heading to start from. Any place called the Limitless Library that exists in that many spaces has to have a void connection."

"Well then let's quit suckin' our thumbs and light this candle." Said Artemis firmly. "The longer we wait the more terrified we're all going to be. Not like we can get more training in before we go. I spent all of last night dislocating my boyfriend's hips, and I'm about as relaxed as it's possible to be before we take on one of the most powerful evils in all of existence."

Wally, who had come a long way in his time with us, didn't even blush, he just shot her a smug smile. "One of us couldn't use our legs this morning, and it wasn't me."

I was shocked to see Artemis actually BLUSH at that. "Being able to vibrate is cheating." She mumbled. And I had to reach over and offer the redhead a fist bump which he accepted graciously.

Jim cleared his throat. "Perhaps we can talk about something OTHER than your sex lives, children. We're about to risk our lives after all."

I just snickered. "You're just jealous because Claire and Paula are back on the island and everyone is getting laid but you." I froze. "Well, not everyone." My eyes pinned my daughter. "It BETTER not be everyone. Regardless, you're both right. We should head out if all of us are ready." I looked around the room, meeting the eyes of everyone present.

John, Taylor, Sindella, Tommy, and Suzie were sitting together, all having gotten pretty close in the time we were gone. Jim, Artemis, and Wally were with Drea and Zee, as were Rana,Roxas, Namine, Kairi, Sora, and Riku. Kit and Eddie was sitting together off to one side, oddly quiet, but auras firm as they both waited for things to get started, while Mickey sat with Master Yen Sid. This was our whole team. Seven light keyblade masters and thirteen dark including me.

We all stood, heading for the hangar, and we were oddly silent as we walked. This was going to be monumental for all of us. It would be scary and dangerous and there was no other choice at all. Barbatos was getting hungry, and sooner or later the dark multiverse wouldn't be enough to sustain him. It might not be tomorrow or the next day, but he would come for the worlds of light eventually, and by then the dark multiverse would probably be too far gone for me to take my rightful place. We had to strike while the iron was hot.

It was almost ironic really. How his own impatience had pushed us to get our act together. If he'd have ignored me I probably wouldn't have been nearly as motivated. Del and the others couldn't have interfered quite as much either. Tyrants create the people who destroy them after all.

When we arrived at the hangar we all mounted the Excalibur and Chip and Dale loaded up the cube again. Jumping up on it and loading the coordinates into the main system of the ship, surprised to see the destination appear on the screen. "Alright." Said the squeaky voice of the navigator, his speech almost jarring in the formerly silent ship. "Next stop, the Rock of Eternity."

July 13th 2016 Rock of Eternity, 8:00 PM EDT

The trip to the rock was much longer than I expected. With the whole warp drive think I figured it would be fast, but even moving through fluctuating space it was a long process getting to the center of the multiverse. Ten hours of transit, though I suspected even that was only because the warp gateway that the cube had opened moved in time as well as space. Merlin really knew his temporal bullshit.

Arriving through the warp we found ourselves...somewhere. I expected a giant ass rock floating in space, but given that Scala ad Caelum was built on top of it and it sat at the center of the multiverse maybe that was stupid. Instead we were floating over and endless plane of grass, with cities in several directions, and in front of us was a colossal white marble building that existed in way too many dimensions and made my head hurt just to look at it.

That." I said with certainty. "Has to be the Limitless Library." Or someone had been REALLY bored while designing a courthouse, which the tall column supported facade reminded me of.

Mickey nodded. "It is. Haha. I've been there once before with Master Yen Sid. As he said, there are more than a few entrances, and their collection of knowledge is impressive. Just don't call the librarian a monkey. He HATES that." I...wasn't sure how to respond to that, but since I was talking to an anthropomorphic mouse king, I was guessing the librarian was some kind of ape...person?

Zee was staring at the building so lustfully if it had been a person I'd have been jealous. I waved my hand in front of her face a few times, and sure enough, nothing. "I think we lost her, guys. Anyone have any cold water on hand?"

Her eyes snapped to me, narrowing in a glare. "Don't you even think about it. I'll deal with a lot of nonsense from you, but if you mess up my hair I won't be responsible for what I do to you. Do you have any idea how embarrassing it would be for me to walk around like that?"

I grinned down at her white button up shirt. "That might have something to do with your refusal to wear a bra."

She just shrugged. "I'm a sex elf, if I can't go braless then what's the point?" I saw Artemis nodding solemnly in the background and rolled my eyes. I'd unleashed terror on the world when I created the heavenly punishment elves, and I was only now understanding the consequences of my actions. I blamed my ignorance on being blinded by all the amazing sex.

Taylor cleared his throat, looking noticeably uncomfortable at the topic, much to the amusement of Suzie and Sindella. "Be that as it may, we'd better head in. Who knows how far we have to go. I don't imagine they call it the Limitless Library because of a convenient centralized layout that lends itself to short walks."

He wasn't wrong. I doubted that would be the extent of the trouble either. Master Yen Sid had implied we might run into...obstacles, in this place. I wasn't sure what those would be, but I doubted they would be anything as banal as emphatic shushing and excessive late fees.

We landed the Excalibur outside the library building and filed out. I was glad to be free of the confines of the ship. Bigger on the inside it may be, but twenty people in an enclosed metal box for ten hours wasn't comfortable, even if the box was big and fancy. "Alright." I said as everyone lined up. "I'll go first, my armor can tank any surprise attacks. Rana, you take the rear in case someone tries to ambush us from behind."

My daughter nodded seriously, but I felt a surge of giddiness through the bond that I trusted her to play rear guard. Sora, Namine, and to my surprise Kairi and Riku, trailed back to stand by her, providing silent support. I hadn't realized the latter two had even spoken to my daughter, but I wasn't going to complain about her having backup, even if one of them was a suspiciously handsome silver haired emo who would definitely bear careful watching.

Everyone took up a formation like I'd suggested, with the various social groups gathering together within the structure I'd set up. I, as the lead, expanded my armor, feeling unearthly strength roll through me as the powerful suit of abyssal alloy clothed me. It was so much more than it had been before my fight with Darkfather, and I was much more confident in its ability to protect me. I also called Thanatos out, though I had to focus some of my energy on suppressing the bloodlust.

Without an active enemy to battle against the suppression wasn't much of a problem, even if it was annoyingly everpresent. As we approached the library building, I took in the huge bronze double doors closing the place off. They were awe inspiring, not just in size, but in complexity, the engravings of wondrous scenes of heroism and bloodshed etched into the metal so delicately I half expected some of the tiny figures to leap off the doors and come to life.

As I drew near, the doors rumbled and then began to slowly creak open without me ever touching them. As we stepped through, I felt the world SHIFT around me in a strange way that I hadn't experienced before. It felt kind of like the instant a teleportation started, except it went on forever. Looking at the aura of this place, that was the closest accurate description that fit even independent of the sensation. It was like...they built a building in the location of 'being teleported'. Even considering it made my head hurt.

Still, it was an incredible feat of engineering, and involved principles of void construction that I had to actively work to understand. I'd thought I was pretty accomplished in void magic, but the person who build this place was working with concepts I hadn't even considered. Now that I was able to witness them though, my absurdly firm foundation (that grimoire was comprehensive as fuck) let me puzzle out the underpinnings with a brief bit of study. Just standing in here was teaching me a shit ton about spatial manipulation.

"Morgan." I heard something from a ways off but ignored it, focusing on the magic. Morgan!" The voice snapped again, and upon further inspection I could hear it was Zee. My eyes tore from the aura around us, landing on her with concern, which I saw mirrored in her own gaze. She had been worried when she couldn't get me to respond. "Are you ok? You spaced out there for a sec."

I shook my head a bit to jar some of the thoughts loose. "Yeah." I said with a croak. "Sorry...this place is...you ever see something that looks impressive, but only on a surface level? Then you see it later in life and you know enough to REALLY understand how terrifying it is, because then you have the context to understand just what was done? This place is like that. If you guys knew what I knew about void magic this place would blow you away." Raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm surprised you aren't gaping actually. You've studied void magic some."

She snorted. "Some. Not like you have. Plus I don't have your aura sight. I'd need active spellwork to see the underpinnings of this place, and if you're this out of it from a quick glance I don't think that would be a wise choice."

"Fair." I admitted with a sigh. "I'm good now though, just needed to adjust mentally. This should help out though, with my task. If Scala ad Caelum is like this I can understand why seeing it is going to be necessary." I'd probably need to use my little time dilation trick to digest all the advancements in my void magic too. I could only assume that the stairway would be even more advanced than this place.

Forcing my aura sight to shut down so I could look around without my brain blue screening, I took in the still very impressive building. The inside looked pretty normal for a library, with the sole exception of the fact that the stacks extended into the fucking horizon in every direction. I saw intersections with wooden tables every so often, breaking up the sight line, but that was the only real differences aside from the signs on the bookshelves with arrows that pointed to different sections.

I turned to Taylor. "Alright big man, you're up. Your gift will work in here right? I never even thought to question it, but having SEEN your gift in my aura sight I doubt it'll be a problem. Especially with your keyblade boosting things." Taylor nodded, calling his keyblade from the air in a swirl of darkness. Follow the Wind, which helped with treasure hunting, and made an excellent focus for Taylor's monstrous gift.

Despite how badly things had gone last time, some part of me DESPERATELY wanted to watch him open his private eye again, to see the power unfold as it burned its way into this dimension. I wasn't a fucking moron though, so I kept my aura sight firmly off as Taylor closed his eyes and focused.

Suzie's hand snatched Fenrir from the air, clutching her keyblade in a white knuckled grip as she loomed behind her boyfriend, while Sindella reached out to grip his elbow and steady him. After a few seconds he opened his eyes, swaying a bit. "This place is...mental." He said in a disturbed voice. "I saw far too much about how it works for my own comfort, but I know the direction we need to follow."

He pointed down one of the side paths through the stacks, and we all headed in that direction. As we walked, my eyes skimmed the book titles. They started out pretty mundane, just thousands of tomes of varying descriptions that you could see anywhere, but as we went on, my speed reading and perfect memory let me pick out titles from the morass that seemed slightly off. Histories of places that didn't exist, biographies with titles that wildly contradicted the nature of the people they purported to be about, and the further we walked the more of them showed up.

Some of the books were magical or supernatural, but those were harder to identify as being out of place due to their already fantastical nature. Zee was scanning the shelves as we walked too, and I could feel her distress through the bond as we walked. I put an arm around her, careful not to squeeze or anything because of my armor.

Suddenly, I stopped. Everyone else came to a halt with me, and they all looked at me in confusion. "So." I said casually, my eyes trained ahead of us. "Have any of you seen anything but books and tables? Some kind of decorations maybe or art exhibits?"

All my friends stared at me in confusion, but Artemis, obviously, was the one who called me out on my nonsense. "No Morgan, we haven't seen any ART EXHIBITS." She sounded impatient and on edge, but I didn't mind, this place made me uncomfortable too. "This is a library."

I nodded to myself. "Yeah, I was kind of afraid you would say that." Artemis was looking at me like I was a lunatic. "Followup question." I said calmly, the arm not holding Zee coming up to point behind them all. "Do any of you know when that creepy crying angel statue showed up there? Because I'm like...ninety percent sure it wasn't under that bookcase a minute ago." In fact. I was pretty sure it had moved while I glanced at Artemis a second ago. Despite not having activated my aura sight to check, I had the sneaking suspicion this series of creepy events boded...poorly.

I couldn't resist that last addition, it was just too perfect not to throw them in. To head off any questions no, the Doctor won't be in this, the angels are just a one off mob for the library, I just loved them as a kid and wanted to put them in lol. There are probably three or four chapters left in the story, as the final arc is winding to a close and I'm loving how it's turning out. As usual pat-reon has the advance chapters at that site/malcolmtent . Hope everyone enjoys