Obligatory Spoilers for Parahumans and of course, Lostbelt 7
Lattice
The sun bears down on the intruder from the stars.
The will of Malla made itself known as the power and aura of the entirety of Mictlan's hopes and dreams were put into one, final consensus. For the end of their world. For assigning the final blow of their conclusion by their own, iridescent terms.
The world around them, cast in interstellar flares and cosmic powers had irreparably done their job already in collapsing their world, their beloved Mictlan. The intruder from the stars cast its influence on reality like an aberration forcing itself into existence. The colors of the sky were wrought in abstracts as perception by both mortal human minds and those that existed within the Throne of Heroes could only experience it in vague swathes of color that encumbered green, yellow, purple, and various other mixtures.
Any sort of full understanding of its eldritch existence was beyond the confines of their conscious minds. What shape it took with its inevitable rebirths through the summoning system being much more radical than the last. Each form simply buys time as it recovers quickly like an endurance predator making sure to finish the job despite all the odds. Its lingering cells continued to bubble in energy as its sheer defiance, its inhuman will to retaliate and regain its advantage continued to beguile even its own adversaries.
Still, beyond its alien composition and higher thought, it understood what was now standing before it. It acknowledged the threat that now stood in its way. That threat being the one singular thing it had been urging to re-acquire in the entire epoch it was in stasis.
Within that moment, two beings of near similar origin now stand in opposition with each other, with one holding the clear close advantage over the other.
One, bearing the will of the world that it now carried and the hopes and dreams of a human history that it now allied itself with.
Kukulkan rises, the bright incandescent light of Malla's sun within her fingertips. Power coursing through her veins both from the will of her world and the cosmic aberration to which she originated from. The onlookers behind her watch in rapt attention and awe as she turns her head partially towards them with a lovely smile.
The Goddess of the Sun, King of the Lostbelt raises both her arms as she proclaims the final words that the Intruder of the Stars will hear, one last time.
The Ultimate One from the Oort Cloud beckons, and the alien tune it sings, rings out once more into the transmogrified heavens as reality once more curls in its grasp. The cells that linger on dance in avid fashion and anticipation as instincts of self-preservation and abject fury force itself to hasten…
But it knows… it knows it is too late.
It had calculated and seen even the most optimal of assertions, yet the confidence of survival, or victory was so minute that it could only blindly force itself forward to enact its alien feelings.
The final crescendo in the musical note was to come.
That was… until the cosmic radiance of Starcell seemingly halted for a moment. The rabid change in reality around the Lostbelt, around this version of Earth seemed to cease. The cosmic imitations of energy resembling interstellar galaxies within the sea of trees of the Crystal Valley stop swirling.
Then, the puppet body, the forced Grand Foreigner existence hastily created and perfected through each iteration by the singular Ultimate One inhabiting the planet turns its 'head' towards the left.
The will of Malla manifests as the Sun Goddess Kukulkan notices this tiny change within a microsecond. The Last Master of Humanity behind her almost frozen in spacetime due to how fast her perception had increased due to this alarming matter made her freeze in fear.
Kukulkan's eyes then widened in horror as she moved to intercept.
THHWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMM!
A beam of golden light that enacts stillness upon every facet of reality and the dimensions surrounding it had manifested into existence towards Mictlan and specifically upon the cosmic energies surrounding the Storm Border as Kukulkan defends them all from its trajectory.
The authority, no, the alien intrusion of such an act had been all but repelled at the cost of the full might of Mictlan's Sun. The prevailing power that surged in Kukulkan's veins had been reduced to near depletion as her form, her entire existence bleeds in pain and agony.
"ACK!" her body is forced down to the Storm Border's hull on all fours. A large hole exists upon her chest and she bleeds as she immediately forces nearly all of her remaining fire to protect the world and Chaldea. Yet even the Storm Border's protections started to fail. Systems and rapid energies from that one strike had crippled it again, to the point that Captain Nemo's spirit core had almost shattered.
The remaining crew scrambles in panic as the Last Master of Humanity runs towards the bleeding Kukulkan even as Mash screams for their name.
The source of such a weapon or entity was nowhere to be seen as the reach of any such vision or understanding of those who were left was miniscule compared to the origin of their attacker.
The readings inside the dying craft they were all boarding spike again as another volley was about to fire upon them all, destroying them completely, until the Starcell and with it the remaining cells of the Ultimate One hastily and quickly perceived the origin of the attack.
With what remaining power it had, within its reserves, within the remaining cells, and the puppet body it used with the summoning system it hijacked, its webs or its metaphorical lattice of arms and such were broadcasted across time and space.
The cry was so loud that it was only through the weakened Kukulkan's shields and influence that kept Chaldea and its final master from simply ceasing from existence entirely. The cry reverberated across the burning landmass of Pangea and right into deep space. The Crystal Valley shattered with what energy was being released as it surged forward into the local cosmos.
It carried within it a malicious cognitohazard manifesting both in part of the remaining cells the Ultimate One had jettisoned within its cry towards the source of the attack, an approaching Entity entering the confines of the local solar system.
This entity, which previously just had an exchange with an existence similar to its own to exchange data and shards momentarily had been shaping and understanding the local Planet of which it chose for it and its mate to enact its will.
It had detected the vast impulses of energy reigning on one version of this planet's surface and pre-emptively fired upon it, acknowledging its weakening frequencies. Absentmindedly, through its thorough extrapolation and analysis of this planet's many versions to which it can cling onto without active resistance, it failed to acknowledge the anomalous signal jettisoning towards its direction.
[ERROR]
Quickly and almost without fail, the hubris of this large entity made out of shards and cosmic energy had been affected by this signal to the point that the threat of near-total assimilation was a probable outcome. Its ability to expunge affected shards and parts was being outpaced as the central intelligence overseeing it all had cried out in panic. Yet it could not broadcast any such ails towards its mate as the Ultimate One's infection started to scramble what thought manifested between the network...
[ERROR] [ERROR] [ERROR] [ERROR] [ERROR] [ERROR]
[ERR-ASSIMILATION… 12% COMPLETION
Its body now plummets towards Earth at speeds that would force it to ram violently toward the planet as its mate, following behind cries out in question towards the silence between their contact.
Back on Mictlan, as the Starcell enacts its song, its head now turns towards the Storm Border and the prodigal extant of its burning heart and core looking at it in defiance even against the advantage now being returned to its grasp.
The Last Master of Humanity's servant, their trusty comrade cries out as she holds her shield.
Chaldea's staff and the occupants of the Storm Border could only watch in failure as Kukulkan weakly stared at the changing landscape around them. The new connection the Ultimate One possessed had allowed it new burgeoning, rapid effects against reality that time and space seemed to fracture all around them like glass in a shattered mirror.
Echoes of sound, physics, and various facets of the local universe seemed to crack altogether around them as Mictlan and the Lostbelt were beginning to crumble into simple energy that the nascent entity was going to absorb altogether after.
Its arms reach toward her, wishing to finally reclaim its prize, only for Kukulkan to look at the crying and screaming master of humanity within her arms as she continued to bleed.
She weakly smiles, for one last time as the crumbling will and hopes of her dying world pushed her to enact one final push of defiance.
She pushes what usable energy she has left within her, fueled by the will of Malla and the crying gasp of Alaya as the miniature sun once more manifests.
If the puppet of the Ultimate One were to assimilate and understand emotions, it would be relaying shock as the bubbling energies of both it and the burgeoning sun that Kukulkan carried had been forced into an unstoppable clash.
BWHOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMM!
Space and Time shatter around them. Dimensions between realities break momentarily as the shock of the entire exchange dooms Mictlan and its inhabitants as well as this version of Earth into non-existence.
What cells remained of Ultimate One of the Oort Cloud within Mictlan vanishes…
The Storm Border vanishes, Kukulkan carrying the last master of humanity vanishes…
And the infected Thinker Entity which was rendered directionless and in coma then slams into a primitive version of Earth. Its body produced a shockwave so immense that it had destroyed a large portion of land near enough to a human village that it killed nearly everyone on the spot.
One child awakens, minutes later, being the only survivor as she watches the strange colors from the sky manifest before vanishing in the fires of the impact. The 'blood' of this mass began spreading across the waters it touched as the violent impact had both forced the Ultimate One's cells and that of the Thinker Entity's to go inert. To go into an extended coma.
The child, watching in shock and awe is left alone.
Fortuna, her name was, could only stare at what was left.
A puff of a metaphorical cigarette glistens into the air, as one of the last of the Crypters watches with his servant from the realm in-between. Daybit Sem Void frowns as he stares at the events transpiring.
"Should we have expected this?" he asks.
"Hm. Perhaps you should look closer." Tezcatlipoca says as Daybit raises an eyebrow.
The master then focuses his gaze harder before his expression turns to that of surprise. A rare feat in the mountains of experience and sights that Daybit had been exposed to in a lifetime.
"Ah. We never really accounted for that haven't we?" Daybit says.
"I was never that keen on seeing such an event to pass, yet at the same time this cruel happenstance of fate gives us an extra set of steps, to bring upon your wish."
"Hm." Daybit hums as his mind starts getting to work on what move to do next.
"You don't sound too enthusiastic. Thought you might appreciate this new development."
Daybit looks away and allows the smokey surroundings around him to make his extra extranormal emotions rest, even if slightly. His eyes encompass the cosmos as information and data gather in his form.
"Nothing, it's not my place to question the great order of things. Ecosystems remain as ecosystems, even the stars in the night sky are merely flowers stepped on by organisms dwelling in the expanse. This is no different."
Tezcatlipoca smiles.
-\\~?2011-PRESENT?~/-
Rebecca flies around in her guise as Alexandria after a recent dealing with the Elite. Her comrades clean up around her as the local Protectorate team under her command discuss with each other. She surveys the area absentmindedly as the recent meeting within Cauldron discussed the strange behavior of one of their documented Case-53s.
Weld, as he was known by the Boston Wards had suddenly become inert and placed into a sudden coma that was anomalous in nature. His body had transformed into a strange lattice-like material that an enforced containment was created around his body.
It had brought concern amongst all of them as they did not know what it fully meant.
Most of them within the group started voicing concerns over this to prompt investigation but given the strange circumstance of the Simurgh leaving her attack post before she ravaged Sydney, it started to dawn on them all that something was up.
Even David was expressing concerns about the sudden influx of power returning back to his grasp.
It all screamed of something subtle working against the shadows.
Rebecca felt a degree of fear starting to creep within her mind as she stared below towards the people, they were all meant to save once the spark of the end was to begin.
While she continued to dwell on those thoughts, a sudden loud sound boomed into existence around the city.
Rebecca turned towards the sky. The once sunny day in the Californian state was now riddled with a strange mix of colors as reality literally shattered into millions of pieces at one point in a loud cry. A miniature meteor of sorts came barreling down from that hole of reality before it sealed up seconds later as if nothing happened.
Rebecca's alarm skyrocketed as she flew toward the incoming burning object to stop it…
But was too late when it impacted the middle of a busy street.
THOOOM!
A powerful explosion erupted around it as dust, debris, and what was left of those killed from the blast were thrown into the air. The smoke emanating from the impact continued to manifest as Rebecca, blown away from the initial blast, quickly flew through the smoke, ready for any such combat that would occur from this sudden event.
Yet as the smoke cleared, what she merely saw made her confused.
It was a woman, with strange green hair and a bleeding hole through her chest, holding an unconscious, red-haired teen in her arms.
The older woman with green hair could only gasp one more breath before she too would lose consciousness.
TO BE CONTINUED…
AN: Ambitious? Yes, and quite frankly I'm very, very concerned how this will be received. LOL. Please don't be too harsh on me haha. I read Notes once again and re-read the Translation for Lb7 and it forced me to plan at least ten chapters worth of notes for how this will all go.
Hope ye enjoyed at least. The planning phase for this one is still heavily ongoing because the last vestiges of the Final Chapter of NF is close to completion.
And of course this is probably the last omake of the story. I will be honest this I'm not too sure if anyone of you still read this story within this site, and if you are thank you, for NF is basically my first finished story in this site as well as the first out of the three stories I have written before that's finished. Two of those being original work that I hope to publish on official paper someday (unlikely as that would be).
Anyway, at the very least, whoever the readers are in these past few weeks who have gone dormant, quiet, or simply left altogether, I merely thank that you still read this story all the same even if its not perfect, to which I admit.
To any that's still here, I do wish you enjoy the ending and hopefully this entire story meant to you in some way or form.