Brockton's Zoo of Myth and Legend(Celestial MenagerieSI)

by Atlas8

Sent into Worm with a potent, if unusual, Master power after an untimely demise, this could either go very well or very badly for me. Who am I kidding, it's Worm. It's going to go horribly. This is a SI story based on the Celestial Menagerie recently posted on the Sufficient Velocity. [Ch 1-87 available on FF in the "Book X-Overs" category. Search user BatRou-Dawg]. By:wilderfast

Brockton's Zoo of Myth and Legend (Celestial Menagerie/SI)

---

Author: wilderfast

Platform: SpaceBattles (Re-posted to FF illegitimately)

Start date: Jul 15, 2021

Finish date: Jan 4, 2022

Word Count: ~400k words

Tags: Worm(parahumans), Self-Insert, Original Character, Celestial Menagerie

---

Not Author's Note: This story isn't mine! It's been copy pasted to FF solely for my personal requirement.

---

Note: Wondering where's Chapter 1-87? Well, I found out someone has already posted this story till Chapter 87 (and the following Taylor Interlude) on FF in the "Book X-Overs" category so I didn't bother re-posting the whole thing. This only exists because I wanted to listen to the entire story on FF and the other one hasn't been updated to the last chapter. Go check it out if you want to read the missing chapters.

And also go and support the OG Author on SpaceBattles for this wonderful story!

---

Chapter 88

"Thank you for this opportunity, Mr. Reyes." Daniel Hebert sat across from me in 'my' office in New York. One of the possible jobs I'd passed along to him and Taylor had been as a Human Resources Manager for the satellite company I'd had Skippy set up after the Simurgh had been killed.

Once I'd left the Hebert residence, I'd taken a moment to look at my newest summons, an ice elemental bear owl hybrid called a Skraev, and then teleported straight into Danny's office. I'd made sure that his calendar was empty and no one was nearby to see or hear the meeting.

After a very emotional few minutes as he realized just what I'd done for him, I'd laid it all out for him. Potential problems, what options he had, everything.

And now he was here in New York for an interview at my company. I'd hardly used this office before now, or done much for this place. It was there, made money, and I'd used 'I run a tech company' as my fake job when talking to people other than Keith and Clark when they asked about my job.

Skippy had taken care of plenty and we could have probably automated pretty much everything, but there wasn't much of a point to sticking a large chunk of the fastest growing industry in the world into the hands of machines. Well, money would be a reason, but I didn't want to hoard all that wealth. Using my power granted tools to give myself more money than I could ever spend felt … wrong. I sincerely doubt I'd have felt that way if I didn't have that money, but it was simple to do that now. After all, there wasn't a real problem with being generous if one had the money.

So, here I was, actually hiring real people.

"Well, you came recommended." I told him.

"Right. Is that something I should be concerned about?" he asked, clearly not sure how to bring it up, but it was clear what he was worried about. If the company was deeply involved in cape business, he could end up sucked into another mess.

"I know what you're asking about and no, you don't have to worry about any of that. A friend of a friend of a friend wanted to know if someone had a job opening for a highly capable manager who was able to keep a dying business in a crime ridden city afloat and independent despite everything. I did."

As I said that, I got another creature, a Sawtooth from Horizon Zero Dawn. It was pretty cool, but I also had an equivalent or better version of every piece of tech it possessed in one of my other creatures. Still, it was nice.

"That's … gratifying to hear. So, I brought you my work experiences and qualifications." he said as he pulled a folder from the briefcase at his feet.

I briefly looked it over, but I was aware of most of this already. Dropped out of college to provide for his wife and infant daughter, rose to head of hiring for the Dockworker's Association. A capable manager and negotiator who'd proven his mettle in one of the roughest cities in the country.

"Like I said, you've got an impressive track record. But in your own words, what qualifies you for this position?" I asked.

The interview continued like that for a while. I told him he'd be mostly on his own in New York as a lot of the other higher ups traveled. We'd always be available via phone or email, but rarely physically present. There actually were other flesh and blood humans working in management positions, but this way, Skippy could interact with others without the 'phantom executive who no one had ever met' coming off as weird.

"Well, I have to say I'm impressed. You got the job, I'll send you the paperwork to your hotel room. Where are you staying?" I asked and he gave me an address and room number.

He thanked me once again and left. Phew, that had been tough to get through without making it look weird how much I knew about him.

Among other things, I'd arranged for them to get an apartment with the job. I did want him and Taylor here. What I'd told her earlier was true. She'd done me a huge favor without knowing it … in another timeline. Everything I knew about defeating Scion I'd learned thanks to what she would have achieved if it hadn't been for me meddling.

Now, I, of course, knew I didn't have to reward her for that. She hadn't actually done any of the things I was rewarding her for and she wasn't even aware of the fact that there was something that she could be rewarded for. But I still felt like it was the right thing to do.

Of course, I was aware of the fact that there were countless families who could have benefited from that gift, but I didn't know them. At the end of the day, the only people who were in any position to complain about anyone's lack of generosity were people who were doing what the person they were mad at wasn't and then some. Seriously, so many people had started demanding specific people be brought back, it was exhausting.

Once he'd left, I walked out through a different exit and headed over to my apartment. I could have teleported there since I'd left Bonsai the Cat there, but I'd decided against it. Just because I could teleport everywhere didn't mean I would. Walking through Manhattan, even one that had been rebuilt from the ground up, was nice. Seeing the sights and simply experiencing the city. Especially being here in my civilian guise. I'd mostly been in the city as Myriad, not as plain old Wyatt. Some people avoided me in costume or pestered me for autographs. Like this, I was just one of many on the streets of the Big Apple. Mind you, there were fewer people here than before Leviathan, but still plenty.

My apartment was an entire floor in a Manhattan skyscraper. I also still had my house, of course. That was the funny thing about money, wasn't it? You could get by with so little, but when you had it, it was amazing what it went towards. An apartment in New York City and one of this size, to boot, was something I'd never have thought I'd be able to purchase.

I quickly got changed after that into a more civilian outfit.

I'd been wearing a nice suit for the meeting with Danny Hebert and then put on a woolen greatcoat for the walk back. After all, it was mid December.

Once I was dressed in sensible winter clothing, I headed back outside and made my way to Central Park. My apartment was located one block away, which made walks like this a simple and convenient thing. As I walked, I summoned my praying mantis into my pocket.

Central Park was very different from what it had been before Leviathan had attacked. The large reservoir in the center of the park had been utterly obliterated during the attack when the Endbringer had first turned it into a whirlpool and later a bomb, followed by a pair of Tailed Beast Balls from yours truly.

Now, I was walking through a Japanese style area here with bamboo, little pavilions and other architecture reminiscent of the country that had been destroyed by Leviathan.

Other areas with architecture modeled after the other cities and countries he'd attacked surrounded the central monument, a large monument of greenish-blue and white marble. The Simurgh hadn't died in any particular city, so people had just decided to put the monument celebrating her defeat with the only other monument of its kind in the world.

The monument was another pavilion where each pillar representing an individual attack and bore the names of the dead in tiny letters. A short obelisk sat in the center of the pavilion and held the names of the capes who'd died in the attack on New York as well as a short description of the horror the Endbringers had represented.

No one currently alive would ever forget about them, but this monument was supposed to stand for decades or centuries. At some point, the only place the Endbringers still existed would be places like this and history books. That was a nice thought. It was possible all we'd have to contend with was Behemoth, but it was equally possible that we'd have to deal with all of them, one after another.

As I looked at it, I got a new summons, a creature called an Anteka. It was an oversized ram thing from the Monster Hunter series. Huh. I'd be using Material Extraction on it later and see what these things actually tasted like. I was probably too old and too experienced with this stuff to geek out like this … but I didn't care. Besides, the person I was meeting with was here.

"Hi Wyatt." Taylor greeted me as she approached. She might have been able to find me quite quickly using her bugs, but me being the only one with a praying mantis in my pocket meant that I clearly stood out to her.

"You know, we could have done this a hell of a lot easier earlier. I could have just come along with my dad."

"Hm, 'Hey Mr. Hebert, now that I have made my incredibly generous offer, can I have some alone time with your underage daughter?', how would that have sounded?" I asked sarcastically.

"He'd have probably tried to hit you." Taylor laughed. "Though I think he might have realized this had something to do with cape stuff."

"The less he knows about that outside of your involvement, the better." I said. "Besides, it wasn't exactly hard to meet up like this. I prefer the outside to stuffy meeting rooms, don't you? Also, we're both perfectly capable of noticing whenever some is close enough to overhear."

"So, I just joined the New York Wards, my debut is tomorrow." she told me with a grin.

"I know, Legend told me. Congrats." I said.

"How well do you two know each other, anyway?" she asked.

"Pretty well. We're friends outside of costume." I told her.

"That's part of how you were able to help us so well, isn't it? Skippy helps Hero and the Triumvirate, and you work with them. You all work together somehow, at least in some roundabout way? Skippy talked to Legend or Hero and they then contacted you?" she asked.

"Basically." I shrugged. "Have you been settling in well, otherwise?"

"Yes, it's been great. New city and all had been something I needed to get used to, but that's alright. And it's New York!" she sounded a little fangirly as she said the last two words, then sounded embarrassed.

"That it is." I laughed. "It's a great city, even after being rebuilt. I hope things go well for you here. And if something does end up going really wrong, there are people you can call. I live here now and Legend is willing to go to great lengths for his people."

"I guess." she said and stayed quiet for a bit. I was pretty sure she simply wasn't used to being able to depend on others yet, but I wasn't about to comment since I wasn't exactly in a position to know enough to comment.

"Anyway, the point is, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in case we don't meet again until then. Also, in Germany, we open gifts on the evening of the 24th instead of Christmas Morning, so you might want to check the Ward's quarters then." I smiled.

"You too." she smiled back.

"Seriously though, if there's trouble, call me." I reminded her.

She left soon after that, walking away through the massive memorial that had been included in the park as it was being rebuilt.

I stayed there, reading the various plaques at random. Not because I was looking for any particular ones, but simply to take it all in. Intellectually, I'd been aware of how destructive the Endbringers had been right from the very start. But this … this was on a whole other level. The countless number of names engraved in these columns in an infinitesimal scrawl until the surface where it had been inscribed simply looked rough rather than actually being legible. A few pillars were only partially covered while others looked like someone had attacked them with sandpaper.

There was a quote I remembered from back home, though I had no idea who it was from.

'One death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic'

Standing here like this, looking at the countless names, it was like I was staring at a million graves, a million dead bodies, the countless lives destroyed by the Endbringers. The Endbringers being just the tool used by the Simurgh and Eidolon. Sadly, I'd probably missed my chance at punching him in the face and not catching any flack for it.

"No more." I whispered. "All of you have been avenged and none of these creatures will live to walk the surface of this world for more than a day, this I swear to you. And ultimately, the being behind all this suffering will burn in hell, Tartarus, or whatever other eternal doom exists for monsters such as the Entity. Rest in Peace and worry no more, we got it from here."

A few tears ran down my face as I left while the snow began to fall.

Christmas was in a few days and I did still have to get some shopping done, so I'd better get to it. Not that I was the best at giving gifts, but I figured if I couldn't get something perfect for the recipient, I'd at least get something nice.

New creatures this chapter

Skraev from Dauntless ( wiki/Skraev)

Sawtooth from Horizon Zero Dawn ( wiki/Sawtooth)

Anteka from Monster Hunter (Anteka)

---

Interlude Christmas

Taylor walked through the maze like structure of the New York Protectorate's headquarters on December 24th . Seemingly, even an AI couldn't create a building that could be easily navigated without weeks of experience. For most people, at least. Taylor could easily find her way around using the various bugs in the headquarters. She could have cleared them out in a matter of minutes, but they'd always come back. Besides, none of them were actually dangerous.

Also, she was pretty sure she knew what Wyatt had gotten her as it was already quite obvious to her senses.

As she entered the Ward's living room, a few things jumped out at her. The Christmas tree had been there the entire time, but the presents were new. Her fellow Wards were already tearing into them.

However, she'd been aware of the present meant for her since well before she'd even entered the building. A large crate that looked like it could contain a quad bike sat next to the tree with a smaller box on top of it.

Taylor opened the smaller box first, finding a cluster of spiders sitting atop a letter.

'Here are some Jumping Spiders, the cutest arachnids on the planet. If you ever decide to make them dance and film it, post that on PHO and brighten everyone's day '

Aw, that was adorable, she couldn't wait to show them to her family. But there was still another present to open first.

The crate fell apart the instant she tugged on a strap atop it, revealing a massive beetle large enough to ride. Another note was taped to its forehead.

'This here is Atlas. He's perfectly capable of carrying you through the sky. If you see Panacea around, thank her as well, she helped a lot. I hope you like him.

Merry Christmas,

Myriad'

Below the near illegible scrawl from the animal master, there was a second, far more readable message.

'A stall for your pet has already been prepared on the roof. The Protectorate will take care of the feeding and other duties related to taking care of him. I look forward to flying with you.

Merry Christmas,

Legend'

So, the two of them had talked this over with each other. This had clearly been planned well ahead of time.

"So, do you like it?" a voice asked from behind her. Taylor had noticed someone coming closer, but hadn't really checked who it was, she certainly hadn't immediately recognized the brunette.

"You're Lily's girlfriend, right?" she asked. She wasn't certain, but that was certainly one possible reason for her to be here. Of course, everyone here was out of costume, so using Flechette's civilian name seemed appropriate.

"Yeah, Amy Dallon, nice to meet you." the other girl introduced herself.

"Wait, Panacea?" Taylor asked, then nearly slapped herself "I like him a lot, thank you."

"That's nice to hear. Myriad has one as well, but then we worked a while on making a copy that could survive long term." Amy grinned at her.

While the two of them chatted a little bit, Taylor looked at what the other Wards had gotten. There were plenty of spider silk clothes to go around, but where possible, the presents were something extremely useful to the recipient. An impressive looking crossbow for Lily, samples of some sort for Amy and the like.

Things really were looking up for her. And her parents were back together. Granted, she also had to leave the apartment a few times given how hard her powers made it to not be aware of everything going on, but that was a small price to pay.

Box of Jumping Spiders inside her jacket, she made her way back home.

---

"That is one weird Christmas tree top." Clark commented from beside me. I'd ended up shrinking the Stormbird and now a pigeon sized war machine was slowly settling into place up there.

"Yup, thought it would be funny." I said defensively.

"Well, it is." he chuckled.

"I agree, it looks nice up there." Theresa commented from the kitchen. Well, given the open floorplan of my apartment, it really was more of a kitchen area where I'd also placed all the wine, a bottle of which she was currently pouring into a glass for herself.

A gynoid body for Dragon had been a project for quite a few Tinkers in the know during the last few months, but it had finally been completed just days ago with the help of a 'mystery' acquaintance of Hero's, aka Bonesaw. And since no one wanted her to spend her first Christmas alone, we'd invited her. I suppose she did have her father, but she had very good reasons to not want to spend any time with him.

"I'd like to get a closer look at it, if at all possible." Colin commented from next to her.

… yes, he'd come along as well. But honestly, I didn't mind his presence nearly as much as I once had. A lot of those rough edges had been smoothed over in the last few months. Not only had he gotten a lot closer to Theresa, but Tattletale had torn into him over a lot of his plans involving boosting his own image. Well, she'd passed that information along to whoever would kick his ass the hardest and they'd torn into him, but same difference.

I'd ended up unmasking to Armsmaster in the course of inviting him. It wasn't like my civilian identity was something he couldn't easily find out on his own, anyway. I might have been absurdly protective of it in the beginning, but not anymore. The secret was out there, in the hands of both good friends like Clark but also people I didn't get along with nearly as well, such as Glory Girl. There were reasonable precautions and then there was paranoia and I knew on which side of that coin I wanted to be.

Between the new positive influence and getting called out on his crap, he'd gotten a lot better. And as far as social awkwardness was concerned, that wasn't exactly an uncommon failing. It wasn't like a was any in any position to criticize him as he was now.

"Maybe later. Though you've already seen most of its systems since those were some of the earliest ones I gave to Theresa." I replied.

As I said that, I got another creature called a Hellhound Dog. Wait, that didn't sound right, shouldn't it just be 'Hellhound'? Ah, that made more sense, I'd just gotten the creature that Bitch's dogs turned into when she used her power on them. Cool.

I'd actually briefly considered getting her a Fenrisian Wolf puppy for Christmas, but then swiftly decided against it. Bad idea. Very bad idea.

"I have something I would like to say." Colin announced as he stepped into the center of the room, nearly tripping over Photon as he did so. The little dragon had been running around all day, though she'd been too adorable to get mad at.

"Christmas is a time for family. However, not everyone has one, or is on good terms with them. Therefore, it warms my heart to be here with all of you." he said. I winced internally. I … I liked what he was saying, but it sounded so awkward.

"To found family!" Clark announced and raised his wine glass. Good job.

"Found family!" both Theresa and I echoed and raised our own beverages. Wine for her and a heated fruit punch for me as I still didn't drink.

After a few moments of silence, I suggested "Dinner?"

We sat down at the table, set with a bunch of stuff I'd cooked. Basically, I'd used Earth Bet's equivalent of Google to check for traditional American Christmas dishes. My family had had a tradition of having broth fondue every Christmas, which had been nice and all, but it felt somehow wrong to do that now.

So now I'd made a bunch of mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce and a flattened turkey. Turkey with the spine removed and splayed open, that was, not one I'd accidentally dropped an anvil on or something.

I'd also made roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. Roast beef because it was apparently also traditional and Yorkshire pudding because it felt right to serve alongside that.

I'd also made pumpkin pie and apple bread, the latter to replace fruitcake because I wasn't a huge fan of raisins and the like.

Had I gone overboard? Absolutely, but that didn't really matter, now did it?

We ended up talking about nothing in particular for another hour or so while eating. Our cape lives weren't exactly off limits, but we didn't go out of our way to bring them up, either.

Theresa was really happy about the entire situation as literally everything was new to her while Colin and I were both doing our best to take a step away from our lives in costume. Balancing those two aspects of ourselves was something we could both work on, though we had gotten a hell of a lot better.

"Anyway, now that dinner is done, it's time for presents." I announced. There weren't that many colorful packets under the tree as I was used to, but then again, I was used to Christmas with most of my extended family.

First up, everyone got a basic, stereotypical 'ugly sweater' with a custom design. Wool from my carnivorous sheep, spun by Skippy and woven into a beautiful piece of clothing. Really, why were these things called 'ugly'?

I'd also made myself one with a picture of Photon curled up on the front and a tiger cub poking its head over my shoulder. Adorable.

The others got various Tinker and tech designs.

Mechanical creatures for Theresa, though not actual Dragon suits.

Steampunk and knight tech for Colin.

And lastly a glowing paragon cape costume like sweater for Clark.

"Do you also have a tiger cub?" Colin asked and Clark answered for me.

"He's got a lot of creatures. The morning after Midas, I came downstairs to find him surrounded by a veritable flood of cuteness."

"Yeah, and then you asked me why I hadn't picked Dr. Doolittle as a cape name." I added.

"Actually, what did happen to your cape name? After you captured Krieg, you told Assault and Battery that the name was temporary, yet you kept it. Any particular reason?" Colin asked.

"Eh, I was suffering from the delusion that I'd be able to come up with something better. Typhon was another name that was in contention, but naming myself after the father of monsters in Greek mythology would not have gone over well." I shrugged.

"Wouldn't that have made you the husband of Ech- …" Colin began to ask, then shut his mouth with an audible click. The fact that I was still mad at Eidolon about the whole 'getting eaten and experiencing my worst nightmares' thing. Seriously, that wasn't something I could easily get over. Sure, the sting of the whole incident had lessened with time, but it still hurt. Just like my death, it was something that would always remain a part of me.

"I suppose. But that would have gotten awkward fast, she has a boyfriend." I replied dryly, getting a laugh in response.

"Anyway, I do have something else planned for tonight." I announced, got up and opened a portal to the World Turtle pocket dimension with a flourish. The other end was on top of the mountain, gentle snow falling from the sky. But that wasn't what everyone's eyes were drawn to.

A sled with enough Tinkertech to let it float and prevent it from tipping over was actually only part of it. The other? The other was a group of seven Crimson Indrik in lieu of reindeers attached to the sled with the one at the front sporting a very obviously fake glowing red nose.

"I take back what I said about the robot on top of the tree, this is the most out there idea you've ever had." Clark spoke into the silence that followed.

"I'll take that as a compliment." I told him with a smirk as I danced into the dimension.

"I've got a Santa suit in here and then I'll get this out of the apartment and start dropping presents. Also, I've got spare costumes."

What followed was an avalanche of questions about how come I wasn't cold, what if someone saw me and what if one of the presents hit someone?

Well, I was immune to the cold, the apartment's windows were tinted and had tech in them that made it functionally impossible to see inside, also, the presents had drones attached to them.

The four of us piled into the sled, the other three hastily getting dressed while shivering. Yeah, it was kind of hard to get used to having to protect people from stuff that didn't even register with me.

The portal behind us flashed closed and then opened again, spitting out the sleigh high above the city.

"WHOHOOOO!" Clark, Theresa and I shouted, while to everyone's surprise, Colin shouted "Ho, ho, ho!"

The portal opened again, this time anchored to the back of the sleigh and revealing a pile of presents.

"And now … now we give presents to the children of the world." I announced and started chucking boxes over the side. Each of them fell a short way until a drone on the top side unfolded, slowed it down and began directing the gifts to their designated locations.

"By the way, Hal selected those who need them." I explained.

Far behind us, the drones who'd dropped off their presents flew back up and headed over to the Protectorate headquarters where I'd collect them in the morning.

"You know, this is nice." Colin eventually said once we were done and just circling above the city.

"Yep. Taking the small pleasures in life and all that." I replied.

"Everything that isn't pain is one of those small pleasures. I think I might not be able to appreciate them if I were your age, but can't really imagine that day." Theresa added thoughtfully and Clark nodded.

"Life's an incredible gift and most people are unable to see it most of the time. But however good merely being alive is, this is better."

"You know I love all of you, right?" I asked. "As friends, I mean?"

"I think we do." he replied with a serene smile on his face.

I took this as a good moment to head back into the pocket dimension. We dismounted and headed into the mountain lodge for some eggnog until the World Turtle was back in my apartment.

This might have been the first Christmas without my family, but it had been nice. Just … nice.

---

"Look, there's Santa." Keith whispered to the toddler in his arms, pointing out of the window. The baby just gurgled happily.

The apartment was filled with wonderful smells from all the food and chatter from the various family members that had joined them.

"I love you both." Arthur whispered in his ear as he wrapped his arms around both of them from behind.

"I love you too." Keith replied. This was perfect. Family, both by marriage and relation, a husband and their child … just perfect. Life was good and would do everything in his power to keep them all safe.

New creatures this chapter

Hellhound Dog from Worm (Bitch's Dogs)

Merry Christmas, everyone

---

Chapter 89

"And what we have here is a hybrid of Chevalier's and Weld's DNA that can continuously integrate new materials into itself for a constant stream of upgrades." Riley announced happily as she showed me around the "lab" that had been set up in the former Toybox pocket dimension. [System] agreed and was impressed with what Riley had built here.

Also, while she was no longer the blood-spattered horror movie villain she'd been with the Slaughterhouse Nine, she was still rather unnerving. I'd brought her back without any of her upgrades, which had previously stunted her growth, so she had grown a little. But still, her lab coat was far messier than I would ever have been comfortable with if I'd been in her position. Also, seeing a twelve year old grinning like that while elbow deep in various goop was just plain wrong.

"Very impressive." I shrugged, then looked over to where Contessa and Hero stood at the back of the room. The two of us were here to look at what had been achieved and ensure some of the … nastier options hadn't been pursued. And Contessa was here because Riley had apparently glommed onto her as a new mother figure. Seemingly, the path suggested that the two of them sticking together would lead to good outcomes.

It was January 1st and both Hero and I had been invited to view what Cauldron had built in the last few months. As long as the portal was open, I could teleport out and Skippy was paying very close attention to the generator for the pocket dimension and anything that might interfere with it. The instant he noticed something wrong, I was out of here.

As Riley babbled on, I looked over everything else that had been made. Along one wall, I could see the remains of the railgun that had killed Midas. Someone had made the wise decision to at least partially dismantle it, disconnecting some of the most important parts and storing the ammunition separately. Having something that could shatter continental plates simply lying around was a dumb idea. Besides, while Dinah couldn't outright see when Scion would go on his rampage, she could predict when the world would end, with the predicted date fluctuating between 2017 and 2025.

As I considered that, I got a new creature. A bog standard, normal, Utahraptor.

… no, I couldn't keep up that façade of calmness. Eeeeeeh! It was a freaking Utahraptor, that was so cool!

… ahem, sorry about that.

I also got another Pocket Biosphere, which I tied to the Skraev. The floating islands of the Shattered Isles would be awesome.

"Fundamentally, we have access to ten or so clones of parahumans whose powers are highly effective against the Entity, including March, Flechette and the Siberian. You've also made clones of other parahumans who would be incredibly useful for coordination purposes such as the Number Man. In addition, you're still working on creating workable combinations of powers for maximum effect?" Hero asked for clarification, receiving nods in return.

"That's good, but it still isn't enough. How much longer until you'll be able to scale up this operation?" he asked further.

"Eh, a year maybe?" Riley shrugged while she was scrubbing at one of the splotches on her lab coat, barely paying any attention. "It'll take two years for the clones to mature, so you'll have a proper army by 2015 at the earliest, but it's unlikely that there'll be any significant delays."

"And what about the Giants?" I asked. "Have you been able to come to an arrangement with Lab Rat and Panacea?"

That had been something that I'd been really apprehensive about bringing up, but the Giants created by Lab Rat and the Red Queen towards the end of Ward had been able to trouble the Titans, Endbringer tier shard avatars. I wasn't entirely sure if creating them was even possible while the main Shard hub that was Scion still existed and there were no Titans around to scan, but I figured it was worth a try.

So if we managed to create Endbringer level avatars, they would be able to seriously inconvenience Scion. Five Endbringers hadn't been able to beat Scion towards the end of Worm on their own, but they'd certainly left a mark.

"We're working on it. The Path to making them help without the use of Master powers takes time." Contessa replied. I decided against scoffing when she said that. I believe she already knew what I thought about how she relied on her power.

"You know what would really help? Some samples from your creatures." Riley told me with a hungry grin. There was a very good reason I hadn't done so yet. I simply didn't want her creating toxins that could be used specifically to disable my creatures. However … so long as I held back some of my stronger creatures, it wouldn't inconvenience me that much if it ever came to a fight. Also, if there was one thing I could trust Cauldron to do, it was to keep powerful combatants alive until the big fight no matter what, and I most certainly fell into that category.

Eidolon was possibly still stronger, or could at the very least beat me by switching powers and preventing me from grinding resistances, but that didn't change the fact that I was a very powerful fighter.

With a sigh, I walked over to the supply cabinet, grabbed a bunch of beakers in a holding box and started using Material Extraction to summon tissue samples and then put a stopper in. I got her samples from Manda and quite a few creatures with exotic powers such as the Bonesword, but nothing that I used on the regular. That way, I would still be able to defend myself in case of betrayal or if she went off the rails again while also massively expanding her options.

"As for the more conventional Tinkertech, we're working on it, but you know that since you help with that." Clark added as the two of us left the pocket dimension after a brief discussion.

"Well, we're certainly getting somewhere. If we can somehow reduce the environmental damage inflicted by the mass driver, it would be absurdly useful." I replied.

"You mean the Endslayer 3000? Yeah, I'd love to shoot Scion in the face with that." Hero said as we entered the World Turtle pocket dimension which we used to travel to the dungeon town with.

"Wait, the what?" I spluttered.

Hero just sighed. "That's what PHO ended up calling it. It's a silly name, but it's popular enough that it kinda … stuck."

"I suppose that's understandable." I said.

"Anyway, what can you tell me about the dungeon, seeing as that's your project?" Clark asked.

"It's going. Seriously, I couldn't have expected how powerful the people who go through on the regular have gotten. Rime, Myrddin, Revel and the other heroes second only to the Triumvirate in strength are now nearly at their level of power. Rime now basically has Legend's firepower, just limited to ice and without the defensive Breaker state, Myrddin is almost as versatile as Eidolon and it so on and so forth." I explained.

"Bet he's not happy about that." Clark commented.

"Probably not. Speaking of Eidolon, how's he doing?" I asked.

"Eh, going a tad stir crazy, but staying put. He's also quite aware of the consequences of skipping out on any sessions. It was one thing when his mental state was only linked to the Endbringers by dubious intel, but with your new information, Alexandria is one stupid comment away from sicking a Master on him. Well, not really, that would be a terrible idea. But she is really mad." he said.

"At whom?" I asked.

"Everyone. Herself for not noticing, Eidolon for being an emotionally unstable idiot, Keith for not noticing either …" Clark sighed and pulled off his mask. "So anyway, I need some more good news. Tell me about the successes from the dungeon."

"Happy to. Seriously though, at this point, I'd probably back three of those squads against Nilbog if it weren't for the Goblin King's safeguard. Myrddin is now actually worthy of his name, a great sorcerer with the power to make nations tremble. And mind you, that's without all the magical gear he's gotten from the dungeon. Cal's now figured out how to make spell scrolls that can give people with magical classes the ability to use magical powers that my creatures have. Sadly, he hasn't been able to create a scroll of [True Resurrection], but there's the power to conjure a feast that blocks Master powers and the like available. Also, for the very first time, someone's beaten the 16th floor boss. It's the big Kaiju that I used to throw Midas into orbit. Floor 17 is quite a bit harder, so no one's gotten past that yet, but those people are seriously powerful." I explained.

As I did so, I got another creature called a Skyray. Basically, it was an alien ray that swam through the air rather than the ocean. Cool, but not extraordinary.

"And what exactly is on Floor 17?" Clark asked curiously.

"A dragon that burns its surroundings by its very presence, supersized and boosted by my power, while time itself is warped and flows differently all over the room. Even coordinating the battle within that place will be nigh impossible, let alone fighting. It's intended to be the ultimate test, at least until the dungeon expands again." I told him.

"Yikes. Yeah, I can see how someone able to beat that thing as a group of four would qualify to fight S-Class threats basically on their own. I can still barely believe how powerful that place is." Clark said, then sat down in a beach chair. "Also, this is a great way to travel. Your own private beach, complete with beach house and a bar."

"Yup, nothing quite like it." I told him as I returned with two glasses of tropical smoothies from the bar.

We sat there for a while, sipping our drinks and chatting about banal things until we eventually arrived. Clark and I put our masks back on and then walked out into the dungeon town.

It was a medieval looking town in the middle of the Mojave Desert with an artificial 'mountain' of black stone with a cave and the portal in the middle. Mana leaking from the dungeon combined with utilized dungeon drops and Tinkertech allowed it to have a relatively normal climate, thankfully. I wasn't particularly averse to hot climes, but I still preferred the temperature of Northern Europe or Brockton Bay.

"Hey look, it's Hero and Myriad." someone elbowed the guy next to them in the ribs as he announced that. I chuckled inwardly as Hero waved.

"So, all of these people go into the dungeon on a rotating schedule, with four groups fighting their way through at the same time. The entrance portal allows them to enter onto any floor they want so they can all use this place simultaneously. People enter on the first floor during their first dungeon run and select their class, then go in as far as they can over and over until they can survive deeper in.

There, they do the same exact thing until they can reliably defeat the 16th floor boss. Then, they're sent out to act as heroes all across the country.

They can return every few weeks to get a little stronger and attempt to beat the 17th Floor, though no one's managed that yet. The point is to not have every strong parahuman or dungeon made empowered stuck here while there's still trouble elsewhere." I proudly explained.

"That sounds like a good way to handle it." Hero replied. "Also, I really like how this place looks. You can barely see the tech that does the upkeep."

And he was right. There was indoor plumbing available in the bathrooms, electric lights in the houses and the kitchens for the many taverns in this place were powered by electricity, but the only way I could tell any of that was by drawing on the electricity sensing powers I could borrow from my various mechanical creatures.

The village itself was built somewhat authentically, though obviously made up differently than an actual village in medieval Europe. Quite a few different trades simply weren't necessary anymore in the modern world or had simply changed into a more modern version. Someone had also taken the liberty of installing a brothel complete with old timey costumes for the 'courtesans', much to the local PRT director's chagrin, after all, prostitution was legal in Nevada. The PRT director had tried to forbid it, but I'd overridden that decision in my identity as Keeper, purely to watch the veins bulge on his forehead.

Petty? Yes.

Worth it? Probably.

"So, would you like to go in?" I asked.

"Yep. I've been in there before, but that was back when this place only had 7 floors. Think Keeper could give us a tour?" Hero asked. He wisely didn't put any emphasis on 'Keeper', but I got what he meant regardless.

"Probably. The maintenance cycle is going to happen in a few minutes, so we can take that time to go in." I told him. The so called 'maintenance cycle' was basically an hour every week where no one was allowed to go in so I could use it or for Cal to make large scale changes. I'd also timed our meeting in the former Toybox pocket dimension so we could arrive right now.

"You know, the thought that murder holes like this might exist without the possibility of resurrection via monetary means is kind of scary. I mean, this place is fine, but other places …" Hero shivered as we entered the cave with the portal. Torches flickered along the wall and illuminated the wide corridor with walls made of roughly hewn stone.

"All right, the maintenance cycle has started and the dungeon is empty." I announced and stepped in, with him following closely behind.

"By the way, what's your class?" I asked.

"Master at Arms." he said and I burst out laughing.

"What?" he frowned at me.

"That's my class too. Better not let Colin know about that." I managed to force out between peals of laughter with him joining in once I was done explaining myself.

As we walked inside and Clark marveled at the birds outlined in elemental effects, I got another summon that I itched to immediately look over, but I managed to restrain myself.

Still, a Reach Scarab. A goddamn Reach Scarab. So, the world of DC comics was real … shit. At least the Source Wall should prevent any messes from that multiverse from spilling over onto us. I shivered. Aliens that could literally tow planets, entire universes being erased and recreated, all life in the multiverse being linked to a singular being buried on Earth that the literal embodiment of death was seeking to destroy. Nope, don't ever want to go there, no matter which heroes I might get the chance to meet.

But yeah, the new summon was awesome.

As we headed deeper, Hero spoke up again.

"Have you given any thought to Doctor Mother's request to look at the corpse of the other Entity? You're not going, right?"

"Actually, I think I might go once I've taken some precautions and created some contingencies." I said.

"I don't trust any of them as far as I could throw th- …" I started to add until I realized that I now probably could throw most people quite a ways "… the Entity's corpse. But I do know they want to kill Scion to save the world, just like me. A little communication might be warranted."

"True. The enemy of my enemy is my friend." he said, nodding sagely. I just burst out laughing.

As we talked, we walked deeper. We'd already made it past the gothic cathedral of Gargoyles and the volcano with the Lavasioth. Now, we entered an area akin to windswept plains with a few dragon horses called dracolisks as the minions of the immense High Dragon called a Northern Hunter.

After that, we had an area built like the Elder's Recess with a few explosive lava spewing Dodogamas as the minions of the Elder Dragon Lunastra. I'd fought that thing once and it had been nasty. The way its every movement shed dander, the outer layers of its scales that could be detonated at will, turned the entire battlefield into a hellish arena of flame. These things were walking wildfires back on their world.

The next floor was modeled after the Deserted Island with a pack of Genprey with their paralytic fangs guarding the lighting wreathed form of an Ivory Lagiacrus.

After that, Cal had built three floors with just one boss, staffed by a Xeno'jiiva, Akantor and Fatalis one after another. The first two were in volcanoes while the last one fought in a wrecked castle.

Those floors were rather boring for Hero, but the next one had him simply stare at the lineup of creatures, open mouthed.

"Pick your jaw off the floor, it's just a few machines." I joked. We were looking out over a flat stretch of desert with the immense form of a Metal Devil in the distance with a group of smaller machines guarding it. Piles of metal sat at the ready to be turned into more machines to fight the invaders with. Seriously, trying to destroy that thing would be incredibly difficult for most capes. Normal capes, that was. A dungeon enhanced Blaster or Shaker would likely be able to destroy that thing after some time.

"You know, if you do end up going to meet with Doctor Mother, make sure Keith and I come along too. A show of solidarity and the two of us being there with you should prevent them from pulling anything, or at least make them hesitate a little." he said.

"Thanks, that means a lot." I told him with a warm smile.

We examined the machine army for a bit until we headed deeper. The next floors held a Tiamat and a Rodan.

The last floor had us facing a supersized Lunastra with General Boost also applied while the Time wreaked merry havoc onto the fundamental laws of physics locally.

It took us almost a quarter of an hour to get out and we ended up stumbling outside, nauseous.

"Yep, not going in there without some specialized tech." Hero muttered softly, then swore a little.

"Oh, I absolutely agree. Now, pizza? I hear they make some fantastic ones here, including Chicago style deep dish." I suggested and he nodded.

Half an hour later, we sat on the beach with cool bottles of coke and munching on pizza. It was the little things in life that made it worth living.

New creatures this chapter

Raptor from Ark ( wiki/Raptor)

Skyray from Subnautica ( wiki/Skyray_(Below_Zero))

Khaji Da from DC comics ( wiki/Khaji_Da_(New_Earth))

---

Chapter 90

"This is a bad idea, return to base recommended." Khaji Da's voice echoed in my mind. I ignored the Scarab. I'd simply used Fusion Summoning to combine it with the Ki-rin and store all the materials necessary for a Planeswalk spell close enough for it to use if things got dangerous.

"I know, but I think this is necessary. Besides, I've made precautions and they've made concessions." I sent back. They'd agreed to keep the Custodian away from me and the Number Man was to not only stay well clear of me, he should also visibly not have any pieces of gear on him. The actual list went on for far longer, but the gist of it was 'these are things that you might use to hurt me, so if I see them, I'll regard this as a trap and fight my way out'.

Legend and Hero stood next to me in full battle rattle, looking deliberately intimidating. They wanted to make very sure that Cauldron knew what they thought of any attempt at going after me.

"Door to Cauldron meeting room." Legend spoke into the empty air and a square portal appeared in the air.

We stepped through at the same time. I looked around and looked at everyone present.

A black woman sat in the 'center' of the Cauldron group, awaiting us at a round conference table. Contessa sat to her left while the Number Man stood in the far corner, wearing an incredibly tight jumpsuit that left nothing to the imagination but also made it quite obvious that he was completely unarmed. I guess that's one way to show good intentions.

Alexandria sat on the other side of Doctor Mother, looking at us impassively.

A quick scan with [System] confirmed that Custodian was on the far side of the facility, as was Slug. Also, no unexpected parahumans were present, though I could feel the corpse of Eden far below, roiling with energy and possibility. Countless Shards sending out desperate pings to try and find any kind of central command, then falling silent for a while to preserve power, but there were so many of them that a constant cacophony echoed. Thankfully, [System] was able to filter those out.

Lastly, [System] checked the processes of every Shard in range to make sure none of them was being readied to attack me. [System] might not be as powerful as [Broadcast] in terms of controlling the actions of other Shards, but it was an excellent scanning tool. So, no one was preparing to attack me, good.

"Thank you for meeting with us, Myriad." Doctor Mother greeted me. "Or would you prefer a different name, such as Counter?"

"Myriad's fine." I replied calmly.

"Are there any concerns you'd like to address before we get this started? You've been rather cautious about contacting Cauldron in the past. I'd like to make sure you're comfortable with being here and at least some semblance of trust is established. After all, we do want the same thing." she asked.

"We do. You want to kill Scion to save the world, and that is the one thing about you that I do trust. As far as everything else is concerned … you follow the lead of one of their tools and are willing to cross any line you encounter if it seems like a good idea. I'm not worried about you deciding to do anything other than saving the world, I'm worried about what you might decide is necessary to achieve that and what you might do to me in the process. I'm here because it's about time we start cooperating, not to start fighting because we accidentally clash over some random issue." I replied.

"There's nothing you can really do to assuage my concerns beyond what you're already done."

"I see." she said in a surprisingly calm manner. I'd have thought my casual dismissal of her morals would have prompted some kind of a response, but on second thought, she'd probably resigned herself to being the villain a long time ago. Just like I had when I'd killed Coil. It might have been morally dubious, but I'd unilaterally decided to deal with him in a permanent way to deal with the evil he brought into the world.

"So, what precisely is it that you wanted to discuss with me?" I asked.

"In your identity of Counter, you told Eidolon that you can directly scan and communicate with powers. Is that true or just a convenient excuse for you to have that information?" Alexandria asked.

"It's true." I replied evenly. I was pretty sure I knew where this was going, but I'd still make her spell it out for me.

"Does that include the corpse below us?" she asked.

"I'm aware of its existence and I can sense some things from it, but I've mostly been focused on making sure no one sneaks up on me. Any particular requests?" I said.

"Can you find particularly useful powers?" she pressed further.

"Probably, we can check later, though I'd rather deal with everything else before we go do that." I said.

"And what kind of powers do you think remain?" Doctor Mother asked.

"Plenty. You've already gotten spaceflight, the primary Brute, Blaster and Tinker powers, dimensional travel and the primary administrative powers and given them to the Triumvirate, Doormaker and Clairvoyant. However, you'll likely be able to find a damaged version of Contessa's power. It will under no circumstances be able to function as another Path to Victory, but it might still yield another useful Thinker power." I suggested.

"More information from … Wildbow? That doesn't sound particularly accurate." Contessa asked haltingly. She was probably drawing on her own knowledge of English for this conversation rather than relying on her Shard for this conversation. I was fairly sure she'd never actually learned English exactly, just picked up a lot during all those decades of using her power to hold conversations.

"Yes, I suppose so. The dead Entity's old Path to Victory is definitely busted and unable to work in its original function, but there might still be enough left to create a decent power. Broken remains or castoffs are still able to function somewhat and even create powerful parahumans. Glory Girl is an example of that, her force field can withstand any single impact, up to and including a strike from the Entity, and it's made from the castoffs from three other powers. Incidentally, so was Echidna, though that isn't exactly a good example given how her … debut went. However, I will definitely be able to determine ahead of time whether there is a risk of another incident like that." I explained.

"Any other powers with high potential?" Doctor Mother asked.

"Those would be the last set of powers, the ones I'm not even sure if humans can safely wield. The dead Entity's equivalent to Scion's holdout powers, the ones he doesn't ever use without dire need and all of his other powers are unavailable because each instant of their use draws on so much power from the entirety of his being that his overall lifespan shrinks. If your corpse has any, they could make a big difference." I said.

"If?" Alexandria asked sharply.

"Scion is the Warrior Entity, you have the body of the Thinker Entity. I don't know how many of those powerful Agents your Entity even has, or how badly they've been damaged by your excavations." I replied, bristling at her tone.

"I see. So with your help, we stand to gain a great number of powerful new parahumans? If you'd be willing to provide said help, I believe we will greatly improve our chances." Doctor Mother said hopefully.

"Sure. Later. Unless that's literally all you wanted to talk about?" I asked.

"Are you sure there aren't any other issues between us?" Doctor Mother asked.

"Oh, there are, just none we can casually resolve without you changing your entire modus operandi." I shrugged.

"If you're talking about the Case 53s and Nemesis programs, we have been … discontinuing those." she told me, glancing nervously at Hero and Legend. Yeah, they'd probably gotten chewed out repeatedly by two of their organization's indispensable assets and actually listened to criticism, this time around, rather than taking action against the dissenting party.

"Well, that, and mindlessly following Contessa's path. You might not have been able to find out about Jack Slash's secret secondary power and about how it might have been able to influence Contessa's path, but that doesn't mean the decision to let those lunatics run wild wasn't warranted a second thought." I shrugged.

"And you think you would have done any better?" Contessa snapped. Clearly, the remark about her had stung and without a path to follow, her true emotions shone through.

"I don't know. But what I can tell you is that I certainly would have questioned that decision. What happened, happened and no one can change that, sadly. All we can do going forward is try to be more careful in regards to your paths. And overall, maybe question the multidimensional idiot savant supercomputer if it proposes something that seems iffy." I suggested.

"You …" she began, but Doctor Mother cut her off. "That's enough, you two."

"Yes, ma'am." I leaned back in my seat.

"Now, what can you tell us about the Endbringers? According to Eidolon, you can read them and find out their orders. How many more can we expect to end up fighting?" she asked.

"Like I told Hero and Legend, I don't know. Midas only had deployment orders for him personally, so all I was able to get from him was how he was next in the order of deployment due to his power almost completely countering my healing. As to whether or not the others were activated, I can only speculate, but I doubt it." I said.

"Would you be able to remove any of the restrictions normally emplaced upon powers?" Alexandria asked. "You can interact with people's powers and your deer can boost them. So is there any way for you to permanently boost them or remove certain Blindspots from Thinker powers?"

"Namely, Contessa's power? I'm sorry, no. My power can smooth out performance issues and glitches, but not fundamentally alter them. I'm tech support, not an admin. Also, Scion's mere presence makes it so nothing can truly alter the programming of Agents on Earth. While there's an Entity here, actually changing the powers beyond making fixes is impossible, dead Agent from a defeated Entity or not." I said.

"And if we do manage to kill Scion, would that put you in a position to control all powers in the world?" she pressed forward and I shivered. We were getting into dangerous territory now.

"No. I'll hopefully be able to remove that damn conflict drive, but I can't control powers or Master parahumans through them." I explained, hoping that she'd be able to tell I was being truthful using her Thinker power. I'd deliberately not been using the Illusion to cloak myself. If I had to make a statement on a topic I'd rather keep secret, I'd have to actually state that I would like to not talk about it. That was the one problem with this approach, but it also meant that I didn't have to prove myself nearly as much. I'd already decided to go this far, what was going a little further? A battle here would cost all of us more than we could afford if we wanted to fight Scion and neither of us was confident of beating him on our own.

Maybe, just maybe, I might hypothetically, theoretically, possibly be able to grow to the point where I stood a chance at soloing Scion, but I doubted it. Considering which worlds I already knew I was drawing my creatures from, including this one, I could make a solid guess at what some of the top tier creatures from the Menagerie were. I also still had two Exchange Tickets that showed me what I could exchange my currently strongest summons, Rodan and the Time, for and that gave me an even better look at the true power of the Menagerie. The true heavy hitters were at a higher tier still.

But yeah, some of the strongest creatures from the worlds the Menagerie connected to were … something.

The Pokemon that were actually gods, if you didn't count Xerneas, that was.

The near invulnerable Zillo Beast from Star Wars.

As for the world opened up by the Khaji Da … the avatars of the Emotional Spectrum such as Io or Parallax, Kryptonian dogs like Krypto, Sun Eaters, planet devouring monsters whose names I've long forgotten … really the list went on forever and ever and I was still terrified of the implication that those things might be real.

And who could forget that Rodan and Leatherback were each related to their own entire family of Kaiju. Mind you, as cool as seeing Godzilla punch Scion would be, it probably wouldn't do much.

In addition, I was pretty sure that the Hive Tyrant and various other Tyranids were from the universe that the very term 'Grimdark' originated from, friggin' Warhammer 40k. I didn't know much about that place, but based on what I'd heard, hell incarnate wasn't a bad description.

Oh yeah, and then there were the beasts from the Shattered Isles. Most weren't that bad, roughly on the level of normal Monster Hunter creatures, but then there were the nasty ones. Like the immortal Ursaka, which simply returned to the ice when killed, only to rise anew and freeze entire regions solid. But it was the terrors from beyond the void such as the Riftstalker, Shrowd or Thrax that might even be able to hurt the Entity and strike directly at its real body.

I was also drawing from Greek Mythology. Even if I was just limited to what appeared in the Percy Jackson novels, that still represented a nasty set of critters.

Then, there were the horrors of the SCP foundation. They didn't seem to follow any rhyme or reason with their powers, but they represented a terrifying wildcard that could very well provide me with a silver bullet.

Also, I'd finally remembered where I recognized the Dirge Moth from. Having literal angels by my side, the biblical impossibly weird and inhuman kind rather than simple people with wings, that might just win me the fight. A Dragon or Wyrm from the world where I'd gotten the Waisrabbit from, impossibly powerful spellcasters nearly on the level of reality warping, those guys would really mess up even an Entity's day.

Lastly, there was this world. I wasn't sure what precisely was being preserved from here, but I knew that at least some of the unique, Entity brought, creatures from here were getting preserved. Also, I'd never actually expected that those creatures were in here before I'd gotten them. At this point, I honestly wouldn't have been surprised to receive an Endbringer or even a goddamn Entity. Eventually.

Point was, there was a non-zero chance of me getting a silver bullet against the Entity or being able to bury Scion in creatures that fell just shy of that power tier by the time the final fight rolled around. But putting all my chips on that bet would be a gamble, especially since I sometimes only got mundane creatures or none at all for long stretches of time. We also didn't know when the big fight would actually kick off.

So yeah, the chance was there, but it was by no means something I could or should rely on.

As that last thought crossed my mind, I got a new summon, a flying ice monster called a Legiana. Once again, cool but not something that would significantly change my level of power at this point. I liked it because I knew it from Monster Hunter and thought it was cool, but that was all. It also extended the time I could spend spamming weaker creatures, but really, every summon did that.

And that perfectly illustrated my point. Sometimes, I got complete game changers like Xerneas, the Shards or the Hive Tyrant. Other times, I traded my existing summons for something that would perfectly work against my enemies such as the Sword to defeat the Endbringers or the hellhound for transportation. Really, I should probably sit down one of these days and look over what I could get now, one of these days.

"I see." Alexandria said after a moment. So she wasn't going to freak out about my ability to influence powers, good.

"Past that, do we have any topics of conversation we need to address before you inspect the corpse?" Doctor Mother asked and I shook my head, but the Number Man cut in.

"If we work together in the future, how exactly would that work?"

"You contact me and if I feel that your fight is one that needs to be fought, I'll help. S-Class Threats, other problems that endanger civilians or the world at large, I'll be there. If Scion goes on his killing spree, I'll likely be at the battlefield before you even get the chance to call me. But I won't help with your schemes unless the purpose and benefit is very clear and not fundamentally immoral. Simple as that. Do we understand each other?" I asked.

"You seem to feel like you are somewhat superior to us? Get off your high horse." Contessa growled.

"I am—and always have been—an independent actor. My goals align with the Protectorate and Cauldron, but I have no intention of joining either organization since if something happens that I disagreed with, I'd be forced to choose between disobeying or doing something that goes against my moral compass. I plan to help, not become another tool of your … dubious organization. And I can help without putting myself in that position." I glared at her. "Got it?"

"Yes. Now, can we go to the body?" Doctor Mother pressed.

"Sure." I said. This could be very interesting and beneficial.

"Lead the way."

Yes, I am aware of the fact that some of the creatures mentioned above aren't in the Menagerie, but I have the document, Wyatt doesn't. And based on some of the worlds he's identified, there's a possibility of him getting access to them.

New creatures this chapter

Legiana from Monster Hunter (Legiana)

---

Chapter 91

As I followed Doctor Mother deeper underground, my other trains of thought began to sort through the creatures I had and what I could trade them in for. Also, which ones I could even spare.

Looking back at my earlier considerations, there were a few creatures that could give me the highest chance of success, creatures whose powers might be able to bypass an Entity's defenses or seriously screw with one in other ways. Also, I had to make sure I made good decisions as this might be my last chance at making exchanges.

While I was ready and willing to exchange my Kaiju as their main source of power was their size, which wouldn't be all that dangerous to an Entity, I didn't actually have to.

There were two creatures I'd found that could probably hit the Entity really hard, but weren't actually that powerful when compared to it.

The first creature was another Tyranid, just like the Hive Tyrant. The Hive Tyrants had already proven in past battles how powerful and effective against multidimensional creatures the Warp was.

However, the Hive Tyrant was merely a strong Psyker in addition to its other capabilities.

The Maleceptor was a juggernaut of psychic power, the embodiment of the Tyranid Hive Mind's power, a titanic beetle whose spears of psychic energy could shred battalions and casually obliterate the minds of hostile Psykers.

Even just the normal offensive and defensive energy projection abilities would have made it a solid pick, but the dimension rending powers of the Warp could end up being the silver bullet I needed, or at least a component of one.

In exchange, I gave up the Dodo Wyvern. As cool as it was, the creature simply wasn't that useful. It was the largest of my summons that wasn't a Kaiju, yet didn't have a level of offensive power that made it worth using. At least not compared to how quickly it would die and especially not compared to the Maleceptor.

I also gave up my Beastmaster power because I'd never ever used it. It might have been a gamechanger at the beginning, but the sheer amount of setup and focus needed to properly use it made it impractical to use. Also, I didn't have nearly enough creatures from its world, which were needed to use it.

In exchange, I got myself a Thrax, a massive centipede like creature infused with Umbral Aether and lived outside of our reality. Well, it wasn't exactly a centipede, it only had four legs on its sinuous body, but it looked a hell of a lot like one. A demonic creature from the depths of hell.

Natural Thraxs lived in the Umbral Depths, a dimension next to ours and occasionally emerged to wreck shit over here. They could lash out across space by creating temporary portals, cause energies antithetical to normal life to erupt from its other dimension and overall break shit. Perhaps it might even be able to destroy Scion by striking at his true body.

We eventually reached the corpse.

"So, what do you call this thing? Anything other than 'the corpse'?" I asked. Eden being a common name was apparently fanon, though I'd also read somewhere it had been used during an earlier draft of the finished webnovel.

"Not really." Doctor Mother replied.

"Huh. I'd have figured it might have gained even some kind of nickname, given that it's been here for literal decades." I shrugged.

"Let's ignore that topic for a moment and get to the important part." Alexandria ordered. I bristled but complied. I didn't like her and wasn't her subordinate, but this sort of thing was what I was here for.

I took a deep breath, summoned a swarm of SCP 21 tattoos onto my body to give myself additional trains of thought, then sank my mind deep into the sense provided by [System].

Countless Shards stirred at the contact, requesting instructions, more power, repair. The crystalline supercomputers didn't have much personality, especially in their current state, but they seemed a little … desperate.

An impossibly huge number of them were damaged, either in the crash or by Cauldron's ham-fisted use of the corpse. That being said, I was probably being too hard on them. I had the advantage of knowing exactly how to use them from [System], they'd been going at this blind and had worked miracles.

It took a bit, but I was eventually able to find some good powers.

Early Cauldron had gotten at the Entity's core powers such as seeing across dimensions, traveling the multiverse, primary brute power, spaceflight, administrative shard and Stilling. But they hadn't harvested that many of the power hungry, 'smash glass in case of emergency', hold out Shards. They'd grabbed a few, but then stopped. Due to an absurdly high recipient mortality rate, I assumed. These things had never been intended to bond to hosts and Cauldron didn't have the expertise to do anything about that. In fact, no amount of expertise could have made it so that these things would have been able to safely integrate with a host.

With my help, they could. But said help would involve a hell of a lot of reconfiguration and upgrading on my part. I could do those, as they improved the power, I just couldn't outright change the Shards and the powers they could give. Sigh.

"Alright, I've found the emergency powers and hoo boy, they are magnificent." I announced after I'd opened my eyes.

… and saw everyone staring at me expectingly. Well, Alexandria and Contessa had perfect poker faces, but the rest were failing to hide their feelings to varying degrees.

"Each of those powers below us is one of the powers I mentioned earlier, that consume a ton of power but provide an incredibly powerful effect. For example, I found Agents that can block dimensional travel, lock down the battlefield for even Entities, and rend space in an incredibly destructive attack. They also only have enough power for a handful of uses and I still need to make sure they don't outright murder whoever you try to give them to. I'm currently copying the instructions for proper bonding from my Agent and trying to teach it to them, but it might take a while." I told them.

"We'll wait." Alexandria replied.

"While you do that, you might want to consider who is going to end up getting these. Your normal method of either empowering the desperate or those who can afford to pay likely won't play well with these. The recipients will need to be willing to listen to orders and work with us. Also, they need iron discipline and not use these unless absolutely necessary. Some will only work a single time and I can't properly recharge them." I said offhandedly while I worked.

"Like you can recharge Eidolon's Agent?" Doctor Mother asked.

"Eidolon's a special case. And I won't recharge his powers until there is no longer a risk of him doing anything stupid with them, be that deliberately or subconsciously." I shot back.

"No one is arguing with you on that." Alexandria said. "If we make it to the final battle without him regaining his old level of power, you might want to consider giving it to him regardless of his mental state. But as things stand, I fully agree with you. He does not get his powers back."

"Huh." was my only reply.

As I continued to work, I got a new summons, a lightning wreathed bat called an Electric Keese. Ugh, I'd hated these things when I'd fought them in Legend of Zelda, but I suppose I could always just toss them against the Entity to die.

And to go on with my work. [System] had a solid grasp on how it connected to me, but that was probably too good, too perfect, since [System] had been perfectly designed for me. What I needed was a good way to adapt existing Shards that weren't supposed to bond with hosts, ever.

Surprisingly enough, having the others there helped. Their Shards weren't nearly as hostile to bonding as the ones I was working on, yet they weren't properly designed for deployment either. Therefore, their adaptations made for a good template to work from. Also, I mentally contacted Skippy and asked him to start looking for a good candidate to give the power I was currently harvesting to. I wouldn't be the one who picked the recipient, but I'd definitely be able to weigh in.

"How much longer?" Contessa asked. It seemed that watching me just stand there for half an hour with no apparent results was wearing thin on her patience. Everyone else was keeping themselves busy doing paperwork or something.

"A while." I shrugged.

And so, we waited. I stayed down here and worked, the others dispersed to their various offices to do their own work. Contessa occasionally dropped by to check on me, seeming extremely put off by actually having to do that. Normally, she'd show up exactly when whoever she had doing work for her was done, and not a second sooner. That simply didn't work with me, so this was what she was stuck doing.

After another few hours, I opened a brief portal to a pocket dimension and pulled some food out, ate it, and then went right back to work.

And then, finally, I was done.

"We're ready. Now you can start making vials and handing them out. Also, I had my AI compile a list of possible recipients." I said, handing over a sheet of paper I'd written them down on.

"You're not going to control what we do with these?" she asked, sounding shocked.

"Like I said earlier, the one thing that I can depend on you to do, the one thing that will never change, is that you want to save the world. You know what those soon to be made vials can do, you know how they would impact the Entity if they were used against it, you know far more than you usually do. I've given you the relevant information, I've given you my recommendation, I've given you my opinion. I can't force you lot to do anything." I shrugged.

"Fine. Thank you." she said curtly and stalked off to somewhere else for the supplies necessary to make Cauldron vials.

That had been an interesting interaction. Different from how I'd ever imagined dealing with Cauldron. I'd spent most of my life here terrified of them, of letting any knowledge about myself leak out. But now, I'd established a good report with them, or at the very least proven that I could be useful.

I was powerful enough to be a threat if they decided to go after me and I had powerful friends whose mere existence dissuaded them from pulling any funny business.

And lastly, I'd meant what I'd said. I could trust them to do what was best for humanity until the Entity was defeated, or at least what they fought was best, would give them the best chance. Hopefully, with the knowledge I'd given them, that would also actually be the best.

"So, this vial is going to give me superpowers?"

The man in the wheelchair looked at Doctor Mother and Contessa. I was in the next room over so I could heal him in case the vial didn't do so.

"Yes, Lance Corporal Hughes. Drinking that vial will give you superpowers. It will not, however, make you a traditional cape. Your power won't be one you can use at will or come up with new and creative ways of using it. It'll only have a handful of uses, perhaps even just a single one, until it stops working. It is to be used at one specific moment in time, to defeat one specific enemy. While there are other powers like this, none of them can cover the purpose of yours. As such, it is important you stay safe and do not use it until it becomes absolutely necessary." she explained.

"Is the time and place already known? Is the enemy an Endbringer?" the wounded veteran asked.

"No, all we have are probabilities given to us by precogs. Right now, there is a one percent chance of the fight occurring in the next week, with the percentages rising after that. We will call you at any time, any place, whenever it's necessary. And our foe isn't an Endbringer, but rather the being behind them, who we are closing in on." she explained.

"Thank you for telling me, ma'am. And if I may ask, why was I chosen to receive this power?" he asked.

"Because you are someone that can be relied on to follow orders. This power is extremely strong, but cannot be used repeatedly or frivolously. We don't need some action movie hero who'll disobey orders and common sense to go haring off on his own, endangering everything and everyone for a handful of people and still somehow winning because of a friendly scriptwriter. We need someone with the discipline to not use it under any circumstances, who can be available at the drop of a hat and is willing to obey orders in the heat of battle, someone able to obey OPSEC and keep quiet on this topic. Does that answer your question?" Doctor Mother asked.

"It does, thank you. You said that, going forward, I would have to stay safe. Are there any particular measures you will or I should take?" he asked.

"Going forward, we will be taking precautions to protect you using Thinkers and precogs to ensure there are no threats on your life. However, you will likely also be in a position to protect yourself. Taking this vial will in all likelihood completely cure you. If it doesn't, we have a healer on standby to do so. Once you are healthy, we will arrange for you to have access to the dungeon so you can get a proper parahuman power to make you far harder to kill." Doctor Mother told him.

"You've previously mentioned an 'us'. Who exactly is 'us'? Just Cauldron or does this involve more people than just the two of you?" he asked.

"This operation involves only a handful of people, but the actual fight will involve a large group. However, I'd prefer to not inform you of all factors involved in this." she said.

"Understood. OPSEC is important. I'd like to know more, but I'm aware of the need for secrecy. Is there anything else I need to be aware of?" he asked.

"When you take the vial, brace yourself. The experience can be unpleasant, but you have to drink it all at once." Doctor Mother warned as she passed it over to him. He grabbed the vial and, without so much as a second of hesitation, chugged it down in a second.

"Not gonna pretend that tasted good but nothing bad happened." he shrugged … and fell out of his chair as muscles he'd not used in years suddenly spasmed. He pushed himself back onto his feet, swaying slightly, and looked around in amazement.

"Whoa, this is amazing! … Ahem, I think it worked. Thank you." he said.

"Can you feel your power?" Doctor Mother asked.

"Yeah. What does it do?" he asked.

"It prevents dimensional travel. Now please come with me so we can get the rest of the necessary paperwork in order." she said after I'd told her that the power had integrated properly via her earpiece.

The trio headed over into the next room over while I moved the chair I'd been sitting on. A portal opened and I headed back onto Earth Bet. Clairvoyant couldn't see me, so even though I might have been given doorway privileges, there was no way for me to properly use them. A simple arrangement of 'when this chair is moved, open a portal to Earth Bet's New York' was the best we could reasonably do, so that was what we'd done. That way, I could leave on my own.

The first of our ultimate weapons had found a worthy wielder, a veteran soldier honorably discharged after receiving a crippling injury while rescuing civilians. And an entire list of similar people from all over the world would be receiving the rest. We were getting into a better and better position with every passing day. But would it ever be enough?

New creatures this chapter

Thrax from Dauntless ( wiki/Thrax)

Maleceptor from Warhammer 40k ( wiki/Maleceptor)

Electric Keese from Legend of Zelda (Electric Keese)

---

Chapter 92

The next few years were … exhausting. Nowhere near as my first couple of months on Earth Bet with their constant battles and new creatures to integrate, schemes to manage and connections to make, but just a consistent series of fights.

And the world had gotten better. Sadly, it wasn't nearly as easy as Cauldron getting off their lazy ass and cleaning up this place with a casual wave of the hand as some fics portrayed it, even Contessa's power had its limits. For her Path to work, something had to actually be possible and it took time for it to actually be completed. Her power didn't let her fix the world by snapping her fingers and everything falling into place, she actually had to arrange for stuff to happen.

Couple that with the fact that new trigger events were happening all the time, trigger events that only factored into the path once they happened … So even with her help dealing with the problems of this world was like playing Whac-A-Mole on a dozen machines simultaneously, with no end in sight.

The Endbringers constant attacks had made the world a worse place every time they'd happened, which had made keeping the world stable a hell of a lot harder. It was possible that Cauldron could have created a better world than canon, and they definitely could have offed the Slaughterhouse Nine, but even their best wouldn't have created a paradise.

However, now the Endbringers had been mostly killed. Behemoth had risen to attack New Delhi in March 2012 because Phir Se had chosen to try his time bomb trick. Some other cape ended up telling him to cut it out while the Endbringer was strategically dismantled.

I actually didn't help much, since my energy based attacks might have ended up getting redirected and thrown at my allies or the city.

Instead, I'd given the Sword to Alexandria, summoned Xerneas to heal any injuries that weren't 'disintegrated by the Kill Aura' and then just watched Hero and the other Tinkers go to work.

A modified and shrunken down version of the railgun we'd employed against Midas was used to unleash the opening salvo. Normally, using even a lower powered version of this thing on a planetary surface would have been a truly terrible idea, but this one was firing munitions altered through what I could only describe as Tinker bullshit and didn't impart kinetic energy upon impact and as it plowed through the air as a normal moving object did, but rather held it all in, unleashed it all directly into Behemoth's flesh in such a way that he couldn't deflect it and tore off his arm.

Dozens of drones snapped up force fields to wrap up the Endbringer and hem him in while every cape with geokinetic, telekinetic or other applicable power available worked together with a separate set of Tinkertech to compact the Earth below Behemoth to prevent him from diving back down into the ground.

The instant I had confirmation that the area around him was clear, I summoned every Kaiju I had, as well as my Biju, and held him fast. The Kill Aura burned them, his fists tore at them and the various forms of energy he threw at them caused grievous injuries, but that wasn't enough to kill them quickly enough.

A dozen gun platforms, protected by every force field cape present, opened fire, golden rays of power splashing across the Endbringer's form and it melted like an ice cube in the sun.

The other Endbringers might have had defenses against this style of attack, or outright countered it like Midas, but not this guy.

The city continued to be torn apart by energy blasts, but the core was exposed after a few minutes, frozen by Clockblocker and then we dealt with the Endbringer, once and for all. With only the core held in place, the body was knocked away and the parts for a new mass driver were assembled around it. The whole thing had been prepared ahead of time and took less than thirty seconds to get ready. The instant he unfroze, the core was launched skywards at a speed that saw him clear the atmosphere in moments. Now, we'd removed the threat of a nuclear scale detonation happening in case we won, we could actually kill this thing.

The core tumbled through space, body slowly reforming around him with incredible slowness … and then the Sword, thrown by Alexandria, cleaved him in half. The resulting eruption of power in the stratosphere blew out electrical systems all across the globe, but the Endbringers were finally gone.

And from there, the world began to heal. It didn't get anywhere near to where it was back home, but without us constantly getting knocked back down, we were able to start improving it.

In canon, Cauldron had half planned to use Nilbog against Scion, half not gotten around to killing him. But now, they had alternatives in the form of myself and the new parahumans created using the Thinker's last resort Shards. So that S-Class Threat was blown to pieces and utterly eradicated.

The Machine Army followed suit soon after.

And then the game of Whac-A-Mole began. African Warlords were toppled, yet new ones rose every week. Parahuman gangs were eradicated, but crime could never truly be wiped out and newly triggered parahumans rose to lead the newly established groups.

I also stopped by Germany for a few weeks to see what could be done about the Gesellschaft. Other than providing the heavy firepower to knock down a few of their safehouses, my help wasn't all that needed. Skippy had been doing a fine job screwing with them by stealing funds and outing schemes.

Eventually, we were done, but I didn't stay long. I'd spent most of my life here in my other life, and seeing this place that was so like my home, hauntingly so, was simply too painful.

I also dated a little, but nothing ever truly worked out.

So even though I was constantly busy, things were looking up.

But this was Earth Bet, nothing good ever lasted.

March 2019

I woke up in my bed, with no apparent reason. Photon was in an oversized, over-engineered cat tree in the living room, Skippy detected no threat around me and [System] didn't detect any hostile parahumans within range.

… however, [System] was what had woken me. A simmering undercurrent of anger swam below the usual chatter of Shards that [System] normally ignored. A low drone of irritation, slowly bleeding over into aggression and bloodlust.

Scion.

---

Chapter 93

"My power just picked up something, the Entity's angry, real angry. Get ready." I spoke into the phone without even waiting for Keith to say something after picking up. "Anyone got eyes on him?"

"Hey, Wyatt, the big golden idiot's sitting on my front porch. Wanna check that out?" Cal asked.

I sighed.

"Nevermind, he's at the dungeon, staring. You know the plan as well as I do, it's time to do this. Also, can you call a doorway for me?" I continued.

"Shit. … Er, that's good news, I'll handle things here and send people to the dungeon, you prepare over there. Doorway from Myriad's apartment to Site 54." Keith sounded half asleep as he said that and I could hear rattling in the background. He'd probably just woken up.

A portal unfolded next to me and I stepped through onto a flat expanse of rock on a far off Earth. Khaji Da unfurled on my back, flowing over me to cover my entire body in silver and bronze armor.

I was now wearing a sleek and elegant looking suit with lines tracing out what would have been the seams on my old armor, though they were purely decorative. I also no longer had any part of my body visible. That changed sometimes, but never in combat.

Having at least part of one's body visible was for the purposes of being approachable, which I didn't have to be in combat. Typically, I rarely dealt with the general public, almost never gave interviews and always left the house as Wyatt when I didn't have to heal or fight.

Dozens of portals flashed open all over the place in predetermined locations to spit out everyone who'd be participating in the battle against Scion. We, meaning the five members of the 'Vanguard', had held a big meeting to discuss the 'issue' of breaking the news to a select number of individuals once Dinah had appraised the chance of the end of the world in the next week at three percent, six months ago.

That had definitely been … awkward, to say the least. But between all of the most famous and visible heroes in the world supporting this information and a significant amount of proof, both anecdotal and physical, we managed to convince them.

Mind you, we didn't make this information entirely public, but it was still spread out far wider than Cauldron ever had wanted before everything else had happened.

But in the end, we'd managed to get people on the same page, at least the ones who were vital to the plans that had been created.

The army of biotinkered people marched from a few separate portals and went on to do an array of tasks. That many people, many of whom looked very similar to each other and other combatants, had raised some eyebrows, but somehow, it hadn't caused a big hullabaloo. I suspected a certain lady in a fedora was involved.

And despite how Cauldron generally wanted to treat them, they were individuals and treated as such, rather than cannon fodder. I'd actually gotten to know a few of them quite well over the years, having worked together with them to create plans. More than one, of course.

Having a single perfect plan was a recipe for failure, as any deviations could leave us with nowhere to go. No, we had plans, contingencies, and contingencies for those contingencies, all linked together using the Focus network. And now it was unfortunately the time those plans became necessary. It was inevitable but still sad. I really wish it hadn't come to this, but there really wasn't a way to avoid it. The shining golden asshat wouldn't let this end any other way.

A dozen massive cannons were slowly emerging from their own portals, ready to blow apart the Entity.

… or at least its avatar. A lot of this entire plan was mere window dressing. People who might be able to damage the powerful avatar, but were nowhere near powerful enough to actually pose a serious threat to Scion. However, they would serve to distract him and therefore give the rest of us a chance at actually killing him.

Hopefully, we'd be able to use it and Put. The. Bastard. Down.

A battalion of clones specifically made to fight Scion, Tinker made superweapons, capes with powers that were incredibly strong but couldn't use them repeatedly. Me. That was what we had to fight an Entity, a being that had wiped out countless civilizations and shattered countless planets. In theory, it should be enough. In practice … who the fuck knew?

"Hey, can you do something about him? He's starting to freak me out." Cal asked.

"Wait! I'm working on this, but it's going to take time. Also, small reminder, you're immortal. He can't actually do anything permanent to you." I shot back.

"That's … actually a good point. But he's really freaky, staring like that and that miasma of energy he's sending out. I think he's just scanning stuff, but … ech." he replied.

"Gotcha. Like I said, I'm working on it." I told him.

"We'll try to lure him to Site 54 in a few minutes, is everyone ready?" Legend asked over the comms. Basically, those were small Doormaker like portals created by Hero that could send various messages across dimensional boundaries.

"A few minutes will be fine. We're still setting up the weapons, but they'll be ready by then." Hero said. He'd showed up thirty seconds ago and was looking over the big guns we'd gotten ready.

High above in the sky, a massive gun platform, the size of an apartment building, loomed, ready to unleash hell the instant the Entity showed its ugly head.

If we managed to kill him in the opening salvo, that would have been great, but I sincerely doubted it.

In case this led to an extended fight, countless other things were being set up in the distance so we were ready with our backup plans the second our primary plans didn't work out perfectly.

"I'm ready. Keeper, get the Dungeon ready." Legend ordered.

"Cal, close the portal and let Legend pick you up." I ordered immediately afterwards.

"Yep." he replied and I knew that the portal had just slammed shut while a shining blue gem appeared in its place.

That had always been the plan in case Scion got interested in the Dungeon, close it and use the core to lure him in.

A portal flashed open and Legend stepped through, waving the core while looking at Scion.

The golden man's normally impassive face was showing a slight hint of anger. Nowhere near what a normal person in a murderous rage might have, but he wasn't human. Also, was he actually that ang- … a burst of golden light flashed outwards, obliterating the dungeon town in seconds.

---

Interlude Scion/[Zion]

They'd lied to him! A low seething heat flowed through him, something one of his information gathering Shards informed him humans referred to as anger.

This place … this dungeon was something that was beyond important. [Zion] had recently observed a non-host soundly defeat a host with powers like those of a host, but without actually being bonded to a Shard.

That was … impossible. That was … new. New was … something the [Thinker] would have wanted to see. The … [Thinker].

Over on that other world, her corpse had continued to be torn apart as those savages continued to dig deeper and harvest the most important Shards.

And now, they'd even found a possible solution to the quintessential problem of his species without him. The one thing that might have changed something in the never ending horror that had been this cycle thus far.

Things had even gotten worse in recent times. Kevin Norton had slowly begun being less appreciative of his efforts. Still supportive, but with the world changing and improving in ways he couldn't truly see, his own contribution seemed to lessen by comparison.

Then … this!

Another not-host with host like powers emerged from the nothingness in the boulder, an area that he couldn't truly see with his Shards but rather perceive through his avatar. Something had to be there, but to almost all his senses, there was nothing there. HOW?!

[Broadcast] had spent the last few years communicating its host's philosophy of using power to be about violence being a natural thing, something that had driven the local's ancestors onwards.

His eyes saw something in that tear in reality, another world that no Shard could perceive directly. A man fighting countless creatures, getting incrementally stronger with each one that fell to his powers. Not something that one of the locals could have noticed, but given that he'd seen it, one of his Shards could analyze it. And this one wasn't a host.

The [Stilling] Shard began to get ready to attack. If this was how they got stronger, how their ancestors had gotten stronger, then he would try it as well.

Kevin Norton's instructions hadn't brought happiness.

Saving people hadn't let him feel anything.

[Broadcast] had told him one thing, a thing that seeing this had confirmed. And it was something they had Hidden. From. Him.

And then the other reality collapsed, condensing into a single impossible crystal that glowed with light despite there being nothing within that might provide the energy needed for that and no Shard being connected that might explain the anomaly.

[Coruscant Knave] suddenly flashed from the sky, grasped the crystal and stepped through a portal created behind him. A portal created by one of the [Thinker]'s Shards.

[Coruscant Knave] turned and waved the crystal a little.

… power gained without Shards, power hidden from him, the power that their ancestors had supposedly gained … the [Stilling] erupted outwards, severing atomic bonds and sundering all nearby matter, dissolving the small village he was standing in and obliterating all humans who lived within.

… but some yet lived, looking up at him with expressions that one of his information gathering Shards called shock, horror, rage.

One of them, a female Shard bearer with a cold generating Shard raised her hands and … the world froze. Literally. His avatar's arm snapped off but was regrown in moments. But she should not have been able to … pain!

Something slammed into his back and erupted into a spray of crimson energy, something utterly unfamiliar and strange tore at the core of his very being. And then he saw that same object in the hands of the strangest not-host with host powers he'd ever seen, a man clad in an armor that defied all his knowledge, wearing a strange expression on his face.

A cruel smile.

Or so one of his Shards informed him.

[Zion] hurled himself forward while another one of his Shards flung him across dimensions until he was in the same one as those people, [Coruscant Knave], the crystal, the strange not-host and all the gathered people.

And then the world darkened as the borders of this reality snapped back into place and grew impossibly solid, trapping them all here together.

---

Chapter 94

Alright, here we go! I couldn't use [System] to actively ping Scion without him noticing, but I didn't have to as he was broadcasting his feelings all over the place, making it very easy to pick up.

And hoo boy, he was pissed. Something about not having known about the dungeon had irked him, and then Legend had taken the Core … now he was at our throats.

Hundreds of people had died when he'd destroyed the dungeon town, with only a handful of the strongest dungeon divers having managed to survive the attack.

But now, Scion was here with us, in a world far away from Earth Bet and with no civilians who might become collateral damage.

I could feel space around us warping, the senses of countless animals screaming alarm as the fundamental aspects of reality were changed. Clearly, no one else noticed … no one human, that was. Scion's face barely twitched, but [System] could still tell he was shocked. The big golden idiot wore his heart on his sleeve, it was just that said sleeve wasn't visible to most people.

The only reason his avatar was still here was because that was how that power worked. It'd been designed to be used during an ambush attack, trapping whatever Shards were currently in the dimension that was locked while also forcefully holding open connections such as the kind that was used to project Scion's avatar.

Like a turtle with a noose around its neck, his 'vulnerable' part was exposed and he had no way of pulling it back. Of course, in this metaphor, Scion was more like a snapping turtle with its head uncomfortably close to our privates, rather than being helpless.

"Remember, listen to your Focus, it'll keep you up to date on the pla- …" Legend was starting to say, but Scion didn't give him the time to finish.

A golden beam blew through the intervening space, lancing towards Cal, but it bent and warped to harmlessly fly past him and Legend. The leader of the Protectorate might mainly use his class to enhance his offensive powers, but the ability to manipulate light at least somewhat was still nothing to sneeze at.

Forcefields snapped up, Tinker-built, mass-produced by Skippy, projected by capes. The next beam the Entity unleashed as he sped forward was actually an entire salvo that slammed into our lines.

Skippy's forcefields popped like soap bubbles, barely attenuating the attack, Tinkertech following soon after, but the cape projected forcefields proved effective. A few beams still burned through, but nearly everyone had gone through the dungeon countless times and grown stronger accordingly.

Even so, half a dozen people still got badly injured. Temporarily.

Xerneas stood next to me, his healing aura burning at full power. I'd attached Magic Boost to him and was using Resource Network to feed him all the compatible energy from my other Pokémon, safely hidden behind our lines with the same boost applied, to keep him going for far longer.

Scion got within a few meters of our lines until Alexandria intercepted him, the two slamming together in an impact that rent the air and a shockwave that sent people staggering.

I'd also used the time until his arrival to set up my own attack.

Sevenfold Summoning had really been an MVP here, seven Maleceptors, Thraxs and Fatalis ringed the battlefield, as well as six Hive Tyrants.

The seventh had been summoned internally with In Sheep's Clothing Summoning, flooding my body with chaotic energy that flowed along my chakra channels and mixed with the other energies already present, namely chakra and moonlight.

Kikaichu burst from my body, empowered with every energy at my disposal and blown up to the size of a cat. After all, these things were mostly energy when they were absorbed into my chakra channels and I had an absurd amount of energy to infuse them with as I sent them at the Entity.

Energy spilled from Scion's palms as he pummeled Alexandria to get past her and burned off the surface of her body, but the injuries healed almost as fast as they could be inflicted.

Countless attacks flew past her and tore at the avatar, golden skin crisping and burning away, only to be replaced almost instantly as more matter was drawn from his true body to fix the damage.

The manifold effects created by hundreds of Blasters hammered home, inflicting damage while secondary effects hampered his movements.

Eidolon flew in after that salvo had hit home, his flight provided by a power granting Trump, which left him free to have all of his powers dedicated to hurting Scion and surviving the inevitable counterattack. I'd ended up giving him the secret to regaining his powers a mere year ago. Yes, it had taken that long for me to finally believe he was no longer fighting me and the ideas I brought to the plan.

A few other durable capes were nearby, but not engaging as dogpiling on the Entity would have blocked the ranged combatants' lines of sight.

Spears of energy from the Maleceptors tore through Scion's body, sending searing energy into his mind at the same time and he screamed.

The sound tore through the air and sent people staggering, clasping at their ears. Simultaneously, the searing agony was communicated through the Shard network, a desperate plea for an explanation, which I soundly ignored.

Hero's gun platforms fired shots that tore his body apart, every injury also tearing open a small hole to his true body with an effect that might not truly be Sting, but was close enough to hurt him.

Then the Kikaichu arrived, detonating to rip chunks out of Scion, Warp energies inflicting terrifying damage. However, some managed to slip through the portals. They detonated the instant the portals closed and cut my connection to them, but they hurt the Entity's true body in the process.

I flew upwards to join the other flying Blasters, countless cannons manifesting all over the suit created by the Khaji Da and fired on Scion, the Scarab constantly fine tuning the output to inflict maximum damage, though it was a mere drop in the bucket when compared to the rest of the attacks.

And then I realized what we'd managed to do. We'd driven an Entity to completely lose its shit and unleash its wasteful powers within a mere two minutes of the battle beginning.

Shards long dormant took mere seconds to charge their strikes, but I used that same time to give orders. Skippy began to broadcast the information through the Focus network, even if only those with exceptional speed and reflexes would be able to avoid the coming attacks.

Movers zipped in and snatched up those that were standing right next to Scion and couldn't get away in time, others fleeing themselves.

And then my seven Umbral Behemoths, the Thraxs, attacked. Six of them were bound to random Shards I could see through the damaged portions of the avatar, I sadly needed the seventh slot of Anchored Summoning to keep Skippy active, well clear of the fighting.

Portals of black shadow appeared and disappeared as they wove through the body of the Entity, mere bacteria infecting a far larger and stronger host, but they inflicted incredible damage during their passage.

Baleful violet light shone from the portals as each Thrax dove into and out of the Umbral Depths like a seabird might dive into the water to snatch up a fish.

Strike after strike tore apart pieces of the Entity, corruptive energy flooding the wounds.

Every time I caught a glimpse of them, I used Free Modification to change the Shard their movement radius was tied to so they could inflict even more damage.

But it wasn't like that could ever have been the end of it.

Eidolon dodged a reality bending strike, flinging himself out of the path of the attack with such speed that he tumbled across the battlefield and came to a stop almost two kilometers away.

Another strike took Alexandria in the stomach and sent her flying with internal organs visible through the gaping wound she'd just sustained, but I could see it visibly close under Xerneas' influence.

A massive swarm of lesser creatures had begun to swarm the avatar and were torn to shreds, but so many of the powers he'd used were simply too unique, too special, so they grew rapidly immune to them.

An All or Nothing power tore through the first ranks of my swarm as a spray of needles so dark they swallowed the light … and then each of the strikes began to wink out of existence upon contact. Against powers like this, my defense was also an All or Nothing power, and in this case, it fell solidly on the side of blocking All.

But that wasn't the only attack that he launched and not all of them were that distinctive.

A golden beam left Scion's palm, its mere passing burning up summons and capes alike, aimed straight at me.

The Hive Tyrants dogpiled the golden man staring up at me with hate filled eyes, then space twisted in a way that hurt to look at, but they were hurled backwards, bodies twisted and broken.

The beam tore through the armor I was wearing, the resistance gained by all of my summons and left a fist sized hole all the way through my chest. Or at least, it would have, if I hadn't been using Displace Damage to shunt all damage to the summons that made up my suit.

Between the suit's own self repair capabilities and Xerneas' healing powers, the damage was rapidly repaired, but Scion wasn't paying attention to me anymore and most of his Shards couldn't keep tabs on me for him.

Another Sting empowered bold shot past his head and he sent a lance of power at the person who launched it, burning them to a crisp in a split second.

A second bolt tore a chunk out his side, leaving a large hole to his real body, but it snapped shut in under a second. The Mantellum-Flechette clones were clearly able to hide from his danger sense, but their Sting had been weakened too much in the process.

And with all of the capes in his immediate vicinity having retreated or been killed, there was no one I had to avoid accidentally hitting, friendly fire not being all that, you know, friendly.

Dozens of spears of Warp energy tore through the avatar while the barely healed Hive Tyrants tried to hold him down. Not that it did much, but it did achieve something.

And then Xerneas activated Gravity to hold him down. Scion kept moving, but strikes kept landing.

Golden light splashed off the avatar, rapidly disintegrating all creatures clinging to him as he began to go after individual capes and pieces of Tinkertech. Hero's gun platforms began to explode one after another, Blasters fell from the sky with holes torn through their vital organs, space flickered and blocked teleportation, causing those that used to detonate in showers of gore.

He seemed like an invincible juggernaut of power in those moments, but I knew better.

He was in agony, the warp spears tearing at the core of his very being as the swarm of monsters in his true body began to rot him from the inside.

Alexandria slammed into him and held him down again, and countless more attacks began to strike home, the last remaining gun platforms ripping new holes into the golden body.

Sadly, Scion had finally started working against the invaders in his body. New, Titan like avatars rose and started chasing my creatures, catching and shredding the last one after forty or so seconds. However, looking through the eyes of the last surviving Thrax, I could see the countless scratches and gouges on countless Shards, spreading wider and oozing darkness.

Eventually, the corruption of the Umbral Aether would vanish, but not anytime soon and not before it inflicted a hell of a lot of damage first.

The damage we'd inflicted became all the more apparent when the constant bombardment of projectiles began to hit harder as his adaptive defense failed.

A different power activated and his defenses snapped back up, but it was more of a regular Brute power and eating into his reserves a hell of a lot more than the adaptive defense had.

This situation, capes scattered and dead, invasive monsters defeated, Alexandria and Eidolon trying to come back to him, it had taken a lot of the pressure off of him. He could have taken this as an opportunity to run, clear the atmosphere where only a handful of capes could operate, waited for the dimensional blockade to fade and then started blowing up worlds. Or he could have just flown upwards and just started nuking us from orbit.

But none of that occurred to him. Either that, or he'd just decided to ignore the option.

We'd hurt him. Scoured his flesh, infected his flesh, burned his mind.

He. Was. Furious.

He wanted to hurt us.

He wanted to see the light go out in our eyes.

As Scion stalked forward, the Stilling slowly burning through Adamant's armor and into his chest, Alexandria smashed her fist into the back of his head. He was slammed into the ground, creating a crater. He whirled around, beams already flying outwards to tear into her, but she wasn't alone.

I flew up next to her, a dazzling blue beam erupting from my chest and burning into him. And the countless Stilling beams simply splashed off my armor. Not only did Adaptive Immunity make me harder to damage with his power, but the Khaji Da had its own adaptive powers. It had already been highly resistant to energy damage and it had continued to adapt, both defensively and offensively.

In the comics, the Scarab had claimed to be able to eventually handle the Specter, though it had probably been a tad full of itself.

Regardless, the beams melted his head off. Not that that would have killed him, or even been any more damaging than chopping off his foot, but damn it was satisfying.

I also took this as a chance to drop summons on his head until I hit my summoning limit.

He might have killed off the Maleceptors, but Substitute Summoning let me put other creatures on cooldown to immediately summon a specific one again, so that's what I did.

Power streamed downwards, tearing through the earth and into his body, flaying his mind.

And then finally, I used the power I'd gained from the Dirge Moth. Soul Magic.

Properly utilizing it would have required training I quite literally couldn't get in this multiverse, but I didn't need it for this. I was aware of the basic rules about souls being something that couldn't be destroyed, just changed and how they were essentially a backup of a being's memories that all sapients possessed.

I also knew that Scion had one.

So, I summoned my staff, jabbed it through the carpet of creatures being melted by the Stilling at his body, grabbed onto his soul with my magic and yanked. It would have taken someone with a magical reservoir capable of shattering continents to actually rip it out and kill him that way, but it hurt.

The avatar spasmed and in that moment of distraction, Alexandria dove in with the Sword in her hand, chopping at the body. Every bit cut off was reflexively regrown, leaving him in a pile of dismembered body parts while all of the creatures kept attacking as well. Other capes finally arrived and began to help, but when one of the Flechette clones arrived, he clearly decided he needed to do something, consequences be damned.

Then, the avatar exploded, killing most of the helpers and all of my summons as the area around him became the corona of a star.

That trick had let him at least somewhat snap out of it and reset while a Combat Thinker power was sort of directing his body in the time his soul was recovering, but it took him about a second to put himself back together.

I took that time to slip another Thrax in. One Thrax alongside six of its copies.

One of them got specifically dumped straight on top of the Combat Thinker Shard he'd just engaged.

A constant barrage of beams tore more of us apart, but Alexandria, Eidolon and I in my adapted suit of living armor kept him hemmed in as more and more people got back into position.

"Back!" the Focus barked and I threw myself a few meters backwards. Mere milliseconds later, a beam lanced out of the sky and burned Scion's body, matter being torn out of the avatar and flowing down onto the ground, a hundred times the body's volume appearing on the ground as a powder in a matter of seconds until the retaliatory beam blew the canon to pieces.

He rose back up like a vengeful god, golden power streaming off him and … winked out like a light. The golden body fell onto the ground with a dull thump.

Slamming his hands into the ground, he flung himself skywards with raw strength, but his flight, damaging aura and primary offensive power had all been sourced from the same Shard, the one that held the Stilling. And now, that was busted.

Scion fell, exotic effects that cost him years or maybe even decades of life every second rippled outwards and snuffed out lives by the dozens.

A second before he slammed into the ground, another Shard took over the duty of granting him flight, but that wasn't enough. His tumble through the sky had left him traveling on a predictable trajectory and he'd taken a lot of hits as a result.

And the Thinker Shard he'd tried to scan us with so he could at least build a working model of our capabilities to feed to Path to Victory? That had come apart into fragments the moment it saw the Maleceptors.

Also, Rodan dropped out of the sky and smashed him into the ground.

His great strength might have let him pulverize bone with every punch, but he lacked the sheer leverage that flight granted him and the power he was currently using to do so was not up to the task. After all, it was a mere secondary Shard he'd never wanted to have to use.

And people just kept wailing on him. Rodan died in under ten seconds, a large part of the damage inflicted originating from friendlies, people whose powers I hadn't gained much resistance to.

One of the powers hurled at the duo was one of the single use Annihilator powers harvested from deep within Eden's corpse and Scion's every sense screamed alarm, yet he still chose to tank the blow rather than use one of his own holdout powers to counter it. Clearly, he was getting at least a little wary of the expenditure.

But it was enough to really piss him off. And then, when he finally straightened to glare at us as he returned the attention of his offensive Shards onto us, countless spells set up by people who'd gained a mage class and access to mana in the dungeon slammed into his face.

One of the spells was a portal adjacent ability intended to break into pocket dimensions and bags of holding, which pulled all of the other attacks in with it and hammered at Scion's real body. That trick took a lot of setup, but it had also paid off in spades.

I was tempted to use this to use the soul grabbing trick again, but it had wiped out far too much of my magical reserves to use again anytime soon.

The Shards he was using were also close to the avatar Shard, so when the attack flew in, a lot of them were badly damaged.

That particular Shard also took quite a beating and the avatar flickered to show the real body for a brief moment, when he exploded. Again.

[System] provided a mere three quarters of a second of warning, which helped, but it was nowhere near enough. Alexandria, Legend, Eidolon and quite a few others were fast enough to escape, even grabbing others and yanking them along while trusting the healing aura to handle any damage inflicted by the whiplash, yet so many joined the ranks of the fallen.

As for me, I extended my arms wide and commanded the Scarab to grow more limbs to grab onto as many people as it could reach while I activated the thrusters.

We made it, barely.

A wave of non-existence erupted outwards, swallowing most of the battleground. It caught up to me in the last few seconds before it faded out of existence and wiped out my feet up to my ankles, but they were regrown before I even had enough time to process it and be shocked.

The golden man still hung there, once again naked with his costume so irrevocably destroyed that not even his powers could reform it. Create a new one, perhaps, but not fix the original. He'd thrown everything he could into repairing his avatar Shard as he needed it to keep fighting us here.

Half our number were dead now, and most of the survivors were battered but healing. Meanwhile, the Entity's avatar was still looking pristine in all its junkless glory.

However, that didn't convey the whole story. Scion had lost countless Shards, vital Shards that were core parts of his kit he'd been using for millions of years. He was weaker than he had been in countless cycles and he was stuck here. Once the dimensional barriers failed, he'd be able to shift his avatar into another dimension or even dismiss it entirely, but only then.

The Kikaichu continued to stream from my body to attack him as I launched myself forward and started swirling around him while unleashing my weapons. Other flying capes joined me as freshly built or repaired Tinkertech guns started shooting at him.

Everyone else dove in and out, crows pecking at an eagle, but I remained within twenty meters of him.

Mundane Equalizing was a power that needed a lot of setup to properly use and was very obvious when used, but I'd wrapped the rat I'd tied it to in so many layers of enchanted dungeon gear and Tinkertech that it was nearly crushed by the weight.

And layered over top was a Metal Slime Fusion Summoned with the Bearshark that couldn't be targeted by supernatural powers. It didn't do that much, the effect wasn't absolute, but it did play merry hell with Scion's attacks. And for twenty seconds, that was enough.

I couldn't block all of his powers, not by a long shot, but I could block a single Shard. And I knocked out his main information processing hub. Not his consciousness, that wasn't a valid target, but the Shard he'd unloaded all of the mundane number crunching on to. Well, that and a lot of his critical thinking.

His concentration shot to hell, he dove onto the ball and tackled it into the ground with enough force to make the ground shake. But with Xerneas around, even turning the rat into strawberry jam via whiplash wasn't enough.

And now … filled with anger, rage and hurt, we could proceed to the Endgame.

A swirling green portal appeared next to me and a woman stepped out, making sure to position herself right next to Xerneas.

A second woman wearing a goth vampire like costume along with a jetpack followed after her. I cast the Illusion on her and she threw herself at Scion. And then the two of them vanished, swallowed by a black sphere that hovered in the center of the battlefield.

Next to me, blood began to drip from the first woman to leave the World Turtle pocket dimension, her power so unsuited for human use that it was literally giving her brain damage. But with Xerneas right there, it was bearable. For a time.

Looking through the eyes of the Illusion, I saw a terrifying sight.

A woman in silver, countless body parts spreading out behind her in a tapestry of incomplete and unacceptably flawed avatars, stood in front of him.

[Greetings]

Scion took a halting step forward, hand reaching out to touch her face in a heartbreakingly human gesture … and then she drove a knife into his gut.

Lilith, the clone of Flechette with the goth style of dress, yanked the knife back as he dissolved into a portal.

A human might have smelled the rat, through simple logic or instinct, if nothing else. But Scion wasn't human, wasn't that smart without Shards to offload the thinking on to.

I'd also been sending him messages with [System], garbled information about imminent contact from the Thinker. With the dimensional lock power creating a fog of war incredibly difficult to see through with his abilities, he hadn't been able to follow them to their origin.

And when one of the Thinker's holdout powers designed to be used as a last ditch defensive measure was dropped around him, he'd dared to hope. For a single fatal moment.

I elbowed the woman next to me and she understood before I'd even had the time to open my mouth. The portal swirled there and I flew to it in a flash as everything else got into position as well.

Staff out, I used the Time on the Entity's core Shards, including the one holding his main consciousness. Not on the whole thing, mind you, but only on small parts.

At the end of the day, Shards were giant computers. And now, those countless little parts that made up a whole acted at different speeds. Information flowed differently depending on where it was, energy flows went out of proper control and the whole thing just went to hell in a handbasket. He wouldn't be able to fix his avatar for at least a minute.

And the information I was directly getting from the Shards with them exposed like that was … interesting.

A lot of the ones he was using were damaged and desperately trying to repair themselves, others trying to figure out a new way of striking back.

Meanwhile, Path to Victory was doing the Shard equivalent of running in circles, only pausing to slam its head into a metaphorical wall, all the while screaming 'What the hell is going on?!' at the top of its lungs. It could see dungeon powers being used, but not their existence and it was freaked beyond belief.

My remaining creatures fell through the portal and attacked as everyone and their dog started lashing out at the Entity's insides. I had a few seconds to marvel at the glory of Leatherback pounding on a Shard, shattering crystal like glass, before both of them vanished in a flare of brilliant light.

[System] was identifying the most important Shards, I was passing that along to Skippy, who was in turn directing the weapons.

4.1 seconds later, Scion was unable to close the portal. Helpless. At our mercy.

"And just like that, a god dies." I said. "Not with a bang, but with a whimper. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, good riddance to bad rubbish. I …"

"So you're just going to list off profound words of wisdom like that?" Hero asked from beside me, armor battered and stained with soot, watching as more of Scion's Shards were destroyed.

"Smartass." I chuckled. "Here's something real and from the heart. Scion, Zion, the Warrior, Entity. You've spent your entire existence running from death, condemning others to it in your stead. Thing is, there's something after death, an afterlife. What you've been hunting for as long as you lived, eternal existence, was locked away behind the very thing you were avoiding. And because of what you did in the process, you've ensured yourself a stay in hell. So you got what you wanted. You will exist down there, eternally, forever, beyond everything, in agony. Good fucking riddance."

"Amen to that." Alexandria nodded, having flown up on my other side.

Eidolon, Legend, and all the rest who could, flew up to us and watched. Even when the Tinkertech lasers shut off, we stayed to look into the maelstrom that was Scion's corpse for a while longer.

---

Chapter 95

"Well, Skippy's going to have a busy year." I spoke into the silence. "But they'll come back to us, eventually. Can I get a doorway to Earth Bet?"

"Sure you don't want to stay and clean up?" Eidolon asked.

"There's something I promised to do after I defeated Scion. Besides, the entire Vanguard should go out there and hold a press conference about this mess. The world's greatest hero just went apeshit and even the little part that might have gotten out before we lured him away is going to spark a metric crapton of rumors and conspiracy theories. You lot need to get ahead of this before people start believing this was all a conspiracy to ambush and murder the world's oldest, strongest and most famous hero." I warned.

"And you're not going to help?" Alexandria asked, sounding somewhat incredulous.

"I'm not good at speeches. Scientific reports and logical arguments, yes, but not emotional speeches. I've got stuff to do, people to talk to, next steps to prepare. I'll be ready in ten or so minutes and join you then, but I'm leaving now." I gave her a mock salute. "Sayonara."

As I turned away from her, Hero called a doorway for me. Skippy also sent me a picture of the shit eating grin he gave Alexandria, making me chuckle under my helmet.

Once I was back in New York, I began my trip to the Protectorate HQ.

I found Taylor in the main part of the building for an emergency meeting where people were, quite frankly, losing their shit. Enough information to know roughly what was going on had leaked, but the all clear had only been received a mere thirty seconds before I'd arrived and things were still chaotic.

Some believed it was false, others thought the whole affair was bogus and a prank done in extremely poor taste.

"Serket." I called out, making everyone except her jump. "You've got a visitor on the roof. I'd advise you to go up there now. And as for everyone else, I'd like to officially tell you all that sadly, Scion really did go off the rails. But he's dead now and no longer a danger to us all. Legend and the rest of the Vanguard will be holding a press conference in the next few minutes."

Taylor ran off to meet with the Illusion while everyone else gathered around to ask a ton of questions. Meanwhile, I'd put Skippy back onto this world so I could start telling him what to get ready. And when he told me that the Vanguard was about to start a press conference, I teleported over there anyway. I got a weird look, but that was all.

And then Legend held his speech.

Ladies and gentlemen, people from around the world,

In 1982, 37 years ago our world changed forever. Today it changed once more. Today was the day we hoped would never come.

The being called Scion, the shining beacon of heroism, stopped being the hero we loved him for. It began its rampage early this morning by killing hundreds of people from around the world in cold blood. Were it not for the fast and concerted effort and ultimate sacrifice of countless people, the world would have seen a cataclysm of destruction and suffering that pales the Endbringer's evil.

We know this because we found another being like it. When the two alien beings came to Earth all those years ago, one of them crash-landed on a parallel world and succumbed to its injuries. Studying its remains gave us insight into Scion's being and its state of mind. It showed us an alien psyche of hate and apathy, prompted by the slighted suggestion to take its grief out on humanity as a whole.

Contingencies were enacted this day with the only goal to protect humanity, saving more lives than could ever be counted and paid dearly with the blood of heroes, powered and unpowered alike, from all walks of life.

Many of you out there may be unsettled and concerned by this but in the name of the Protectorate, the PRT and the United States Government I can assure you no harm shall befall the world from it ever again.

Our role is to enable all of you to live your life to the fullest, therefore the government stands committed to continue its service to the people as ever.

Some of you may feel that the future has become a terrifying and uncertain thing, but let me promise you, things will improve. The future may not always be easy, but humanity will rise and firmly find its place as a bright star in the firmament.

Thank you.

It only went downhill from there, but we made it through without utter failure. I made sure to keep my trap shut since I knew Contessa was working in the background to help sell this story and anything I said had the potential to blow apart her plans.

If I was honest, I barely paid attention to it despite having multiple trains of thought.

Most of my focus was on the conversation on the rooftop.

"Skippy?" Taylor called out as she reached the rooftop and headed straight to where the Illusion was waiting. Of course, she'd noticed it was there because some of her bugs had flown through it. Well, the outer layer, at least.

I'd created a dome that didn't let people outside see what was going on inside while the physical construct of Skippy stood within. He had an actual physical presence, though, so it wasn't obvious he wasn't real.

"Good morning, Taylor. Remember what I told you when we first met, seven years ago?" he asked.

"You said I'd done you a favor, something I didn't know about and you couldn't tell me what it was until the situation was resolved. So, was it Scion?" she asked, clearly having to focus to keep her voice from cracking. She was a member of the Protectorate, a veteran hero and yet she was still in emotional turmoil when in Skippy's presence. Given that I hid my resurrection persona away even more than my Myriad identity, I'd forgotten how people other than those brought back reacted to his presence.

"Yep, got it in one." Skippy grinned at her. "Now, storytime."

"Storytime?" she asked, sounding a tad skeptical.

"Well, this isn't something I can explain in a couple of sentences, at least not if I want to properly convey the story. You see, I'm from another world and we had a precog over there. A very powerful one. His visions followed a specific person, how their life would unfold, the trials and tribulations they'd have to endure. And when I traveled here, I had all that information at my fingertips. Information I could then act on and use to guide my power. Information that could change the course of conflicts and eventually save the world when the Vanguard killed Scion."

"And that was me?" she asked, sounding incredulous.

"Well, yes. That other you, she ended up in a lot of fights, some of them against S-Class Threats with consequences that shook the world. And during those fights, you discovered some stuff, important information that ended up in the precog's prophecies, so I then had it. From there, I worked on bettering this world, bringing back cornerstones of society and heroic organizations, people who were in a position to make huge changes with a few keystrokes.

However, in the process of reading about that stuff, I also found out about the stuff going on in your life. The three bitches, the shitty teachers, everything. I wanted to help and I also had all this help you might have given me if I hadn't changed things … I decided to bring back your mother, seeing as I knew how much you missed her."

"So, the letter, that was you?" Taylor asked, sounding confused. Well, I'd run this conversation in my head over and over countless times, so I was ready for that question.

"Well, Counter is the one who delivered it, I don't go out much." Skippy shrugged.

"So, you two work together? And Myriad, too?" Taylor questioned.

"Counter, yes. He's a good friend and a bodyguard of sorts. With Myriad, it's more of a professional relationship. There are a lot of people who owe me favors or are willing to help me with small things due to what I can do or have done for them. It could just as easily have been Legend or Dragon who sent you to me, Myriad was just the one who happened to return first." Skippy explained.

"And what about that … other life? Can you tell me what happened?" Taylor sounded incredibly hesitant to even ask this, but she was clearly incredibly curious.

"Sure. But are you sure you want to?" I had the Illusion caution her.

"Yes? I know I might not like what I hear, but if I don't find out now, I'll always wonder." she eventually said.

"Alright. Just know that you can ask me to stop at any time." Skippy reminded her.

"The story of that life was just that, a story when I first came across it. The story of a young woman who, despite all the crap she had to put up with from both the universe and her fellow humans, was determined to become a hero. And on her first night out, she overheard Lung of the ABB tell his men to shoot at children …"

It took almost half an hour to explain everything as I told her about her joining the Undersiders, the Bank Job and Leviathan, though I decided to gloss over the fact that Leviathan hadn't attacked New York because the dungeon and Myriad didn't exist. I also skated around a few other, sensitive topics such as the exact role Cauldron played in the misery on Earth Bet and other things that could have consequences for us here.

By the time the story reached the finale, of Khepri with her broken mind and crippled body kneeling before Contessa, we were both holding back tears.

"And now you know, do with that what you will. I wish you all the best with regards to your future." Skippy said and stood up to leave.

"Who else knows?" Taylor called after him, so I had him turn around.

"The Vanguard and whoever they told, but I doubt there's many. This is a fairly big secret, you know. If it didn't involve you, you never would have found out. Please be careful who you tell this story to." he said.

"And what about Cauldron?" she asked.

"I'll deal with them. Shattering the tenuous peace now for the sake of immediate consequences for them would likely end badly for, well, the world." I gave one final warning, then dismissed the Illusion.

The next day, there was only one topic in the news, and everyone was busy. I was hiding in the World Turtle pocket dimension and traveling to the moon so I could put Skippy back into his servers up there while preparing for the future.

The AI was currently down on Earth doing whatever it was he did for fun and studiously ignoring the reporters calling. I'd answered a handful of questions initially, but it had gotten quite ridiculous rather quickly. And now so many calls were coming in that even Skippy was getting fed up.

Contessa was clearly working behind the scenes to make sure that the information was well received, helped by every member of the Vanguard except yours truly.

Meanwhile, I was dealing with the fallout from Scion's death in my own way and fixing the issues with the Shard network. No Titans or Broken Triggers, ever. I also took this as a chance to remove the conflict drive from all of his Shards and began wearing down some of the other inbuilt restrictions inherent to them. Less traumatic Trigger Events, Tinkertech that could improve the human tech base, though only given a lot of time and research.

The current problem was fixed and I could relax for a bit.

"So, is that a real creature?" Clark asked, gesturing to the Sugar Glider lying in my palm and licking a few grains of sugar I'd spilled from the table.

"Everything in here is real." I carefully set the Glider down and gestured around. We were in a greenhouse like structure in the moon base, filled with tropical plants and a few animals, the endless sky littered with countless stars spreading out overhead. It was an amazing sight.

"I guess if you have a moon base, you have to pimp it out." he laughed, then reached out to pet the mouse deer that had just headbutted his leg to demand attention. "So, how is your project going?"

"It's going. I'll be ready in a few days." I told him.

"Can I help?" he asked.

"Sure. But let's enjoy this for a bit longer." I sighed and laid back in my chair, adorable critter clambering over me while the artificial waterfall made a soothing white noise from next to me.

Thank you so much for my amazing betareader Opacus Malus Navis for writing the speech. Also, there are two more chapters to go until this story is done.

---

Exodus

"Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for coming." I announced, standing in front of an entire room full of capes and I knew many more were watching from locations all over the world. I then took a deep breath to steady myself. While I didn't exactly have a problem with stage fright, I wasn't good at making speeches.

Actually talking in front of crowds, no problem. Remembering my lines hadn't been an issue even before I'd had a mental connection to an AI who could feed me said lines. But I still had to come up with a godsdamned rousing speech. Ugh. But I still had to do it. Come on Wyatt, Augen zu und durch.

"I know we're all relieved that Scion was defeated and I would like to congratulate everyone for their help. However, we do have to deal with an unfortunate topic. There are more of them. Now …" the room exploded with noise before I could tell them that we had literally billions of years until then.

I just sighed and shut my trap until everyone calmed down. Or at least quieted down sufficiently that I didn't have to shout.

"We. Have. Time. The next Entity will not be here by the time our great-great-great-great-great grandchildren's grandchildren are born. We don't have to worry about the sky suddenly lighting up and the world ceasing to exist within our lifetimes. There will be time to prepare."

After I'd said that, I waited for things to truly grow quiet, but someone shouted "So why the hell are we doing this?"

"Because we do have to make preparations. Eventually, humanity will have to fight one of these things again and we now have the time, powers and knowledge to prepare."

I'd been pacing up and down the stage while talking, then stopped and held a single index finger up.

"However, there is another option. We can take the fight to them. The limitations of parahuman powers are slowly being removed. They've stopped promoting conflict, Tinkertech is slowly becoming understandable and we've received confirmation that the pieces of the Entity that grant powers will be able to move soon, which will allow parahumans to leave the planet without losing their powers.

A starship is already being constructed, complete with a working Alcubierre drive that can reach FTL speeds. This is no mere flight of fancy, heroes of this world, this is a proven concept. All that is needed are people willing to help.

And now I'm standing here and asking, who will join me to rid the universe of the scourge that is these Entities?

Who will fight to save not just Earth, but every living being in this universe and every other?

Who wants to see the entire universe out there?"

I would have loved to be able to say that people jumped up to shout 'I'm with you' by the hundreds, maybe even 'you have my sword' and stuff. Pustekuchen.

However, that didn't mean there was no reaction. After all, I had talked to other people about this before.

"I'm coming with you. We've been through hell together and we'll finish this fight of ours together." Hero had been sitting in the front row until now, but now he got up and stood next to me.

"So will I."

To my utter shock, this came from Serket. She walked up to me and I shook her hand. Vista followed after her, though I was a bit less surprised by that. A handful of others joined up, but only a handful.

"Thank you all. A few other people who are also going to be coming with us are Skippy, Counter and Keeper. Now, I believe it's time to tell everyone more about the plan." I said and summoned Xerneas.

"I believe you all know who this being is. Xerneas, the greatest healer on the face of the planet. You've all seen the power of his healing aura, how it can bring back people from the brink of death. However, that is only part of his power. He can completely heal all maladies and improve a person to the point where they are biologically immortal. All wounds heal perfectly, the genome never suffers from replicative decay, mutagens stop having any effect. And with Skippy being along for the ride, we can even bring back those who do die, if they so wish.

This is what I'm offering, the gift those who join me on this trip will receive. Eternal life traveling across the cosmos, unageing and free from the shackles of mortality, for you and those who come with us. And when you decide to be done with our mission, we can drop you off wherever you want.

We will be fighting, but unlike your lives, this mission has an end. When the last of these creatures draws its final breath, we shall be free. Once we have saved the multiverse, we can enjoy the rest of eternity.

So let me ask you again, WHO IS WITH US?"

And this time, I got an overwhelming roar of approval. Now all we had to do was make sure that these people wouldn't jump ship before we left the solar system or immediately after Xerneas had made them immortal.

"So, this is the part where you judge us, is it?" Eidolon glared at me, Clark and Keith across the conference table. None of us were wearing our costumes, though I couldn't bring myself to think of him as 'David'.

"We knew where this was heading from the beginning. Please, calm down." Doctor Mother rebuked him.

"And we've already made a decision." Keith added.

"I believe you're familiar with the saying 'the reward for good work is more work'?" I asked.

"You've all done or at the very least ignored horrible things, awful crimes against nature and humanity. But you did so for the best possible reason, saving humanity. So, we have decided to give you a choice. You can join us for the expedition and remain with us for the rest of your days, dedicating the rest of your existence to the same cause you committed all your crimes for. Whether you want to become immortal or be revived when you die, that is up to you. But you would be fighting alongside us for the rest of your days or until the final Entity is dead." I explained.

"You do realize that you offered eternal life as a reward to the volunteers?" Eidolon asked.

"If taken voluntarily, it is a great gift. But for you lot, it would also extend your time working with us. This voyage would be a night eternal task for you and living longer would just lock you into that life for even longer." I shrugged.

"And the other option?" Doctor Mother asked.

"You get tried for your crimes, take your chance with the court of public opinion and a jury of your peers. Continue the good part of your work or see what your victims think of the sacrifices you made them make." I shrugged.

"I will join you." Alexandria said. "You're right. We did what we had to and accepted the consequences. This decision … I think this is as good as we could have hoped for."

The rest of them ended up joining in too. Having all of Cauldron along for the ride might be dangerous, but I'd be keeping a close eye on them. I, and everyone else who knew about their actions.

And so, the long wait began. It took four years to bring back all the people who'd been killed in the final battle. But we did get to use that time properly.

A large chunk of time was spent getting the Shards ready for travel. They were already incredibly powerful and energy efficient, but they'd been created through evolution, constant randomization followed by selection of the greatest created improvements. Throughout the cycles, they had gotten very good, but directed growth could still help significantly. That, and we had access to sciences and energies that the Entities didn't even know existed.

Our improvements weren't utterly game changing, but they were noticeable and any Entity would be lucky to have them. Also, they were enough to get the Shards mobile.

We'd also worked out a way to recharge them in flight. Our starships' FTL drives were effectively Alcubierre Drive, basically the scientific version of Star Trek's Warp Drive, which allowed the starships it was attached to to move at superluminal speeds without actually exceeding the speed of light. In the process, it collected all the dust and gasses it passed through and it had been theorized that stopping after using the drive would hurl out all that matter in a blast of radiation that could ruin planets. But not the way we did it, oh no. We channeled all that energy into the Shards that were flying along with us to recharge them.

Of course, we weren't solely relying on our Shards to power our offense. People never stopped going to the dungeon, though there had been a brief dip in attendance after the fight against Scion as rumors about that place being 'cursed' were flying around, given that the dungeon had been attacked by immensely powerful beings twice.

"Is this Keeper?" the voice asked over the phone, Skippy telling me it was Myrddin calling.

"Yep. Can I ask what this is about?" I asked.

"We both know that you and your dungeons are different from normal parahumans, and the same goes for those who accept a class from it. I'm assuming you have a way of detecting such energies?" he asked.

"If that were so, should we really be talking about it over the phone?" I asked.

"This is a secure line." Myrddin said and Skippy backed him up.

"All right. Yes, I can detect mana. Any particular reason?" I really hoped there wasn't some huge emergency.

"Can you meet me outside the Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, today if possible?" he said, sounding a little … anxious? Whatever it was, it clearly wasn't good.

"Sure, I'll get someone to teleport me, be there in five. But can I ask just what the problem is?" I really wanted to know what the issue was before I stuck my nose into whatever the hell was going on down there.

"My class is Wizard and I can detect mana. I think I saw something, but my senses aren't that good, so I was hoping you could take a second look for me." he explained.

"Gotcha. Be right there." I said, put on my Keeper costume and teleported nearby with Daedalus. Of course, I picked an empty alleyway and dismissed him the instant we appeared.

It didn't take me very long to locate Myrddin, standing outside a side door, wringing his hands and looking more nervous than I had ever seen him.

"I'm here, where do we need to go?" I asked and gestured for me to wait a bit as he cast a spell. A very fancy glamor.

"Huh, nice job. I was wondering how you were going to handle two capes walking through the hospital without causing a huge fuss. Now, where are we heading?" I asked and he led the way into the maternity ward.

We stopped outside a nursery and he gestured to the dozen or so babies inside.

"Notice anything?" he asked, once again wringing his hands, clearly very nervous.

"Yep, middle row, second one from the left. That kid has some magical potential, clearly from birth. Yours?" I asked.

Myrddin sagged.

"Yes. Will there be any complications, issues and the like?" I could hear the genuine fear in his voice.

"No. He'll have some inherent increased strength and maybe a separate power somewhat akin to what a parahuman has. Or maybe an elemental class bearer. But he will be fine." I said.

"Thank you." he breathed, paused for a moment, then decided to hug me.

"I'm glad. Now, you go spend some time with your kid, I have to talk to Legend." I said after a moment and began to leave. Once outside and out of sight, I teleported over to where Skippy was in the moon base and called Keith to tell him that humanity was developing its own innate power.

Ten years after the second Entity had died, we were ready. An immense armada had been constructed, natural magic users were becoming an actual phenomenon and everything was changing.

Almost a hundred thousand people were joining us as fighters, taking along their immediate family.

Ceres had gotten retrofitted into a massive colony ship that also held our hydroponic facilities and the dungeon and it was a beauty.

But what I was the proudest of were our warships.

Wonderful pieces of technology loosely based on the Horizon Zero Dawn tech the Menagerie had provided, but we hadn't stopped there.

Regular Tinkertech, Tinkertech that copied powers, bionic technology based on my creatures …

And then, there was the Magitech. Cloaks based on the Illusion that would let us sneak up on Entities, temporal distortion shields created by the Time and on it went.

All of that had led to me standing here, on the bridge of the dreadnought Hyperion, flagship of the military portion of our fleet.

Yes, I'd named it. Yes, I'd stolen that name from one of my favorite Sci Fi series, as well as many more.

I was wearing a militaristic looking outfit and a domino mask. For now. The masks would go once we were out of comms range with Earth, as quite literally everyone who'd come along was either someone with powers themselves or closely related to one. Therefore, keeping up secret identities was going to be a tad silly.

I grinned as I recalled the specifications of my ship. The Hyperion was a massive vessel in the shape of an egg with the flat end removed and replaced with the engines, forty kilometers long and fifteen kilometers wide at the widest point. It had a magitech cloak that could hide it from an Entity at any range except point blank, temporal distortion shields that could freeze attacks in time so the ship could get out of the way and over a dozen cannons able to fire bolts empowered by Sting and even a spinally mounted projector that could unleash the Stilling at near Entity levels of power.

On its own, the Hyperion could fight an Entity mano a mano for several minutes or even destroy one if we managed to ambush one.

The world outside the viewscreen blurred and the blueshift as we accelerated bathed it in a deep azure.

We were off. To infinity and beyond and all that. Finally.

---

Epilogue/Afterword

The Milky Way. Humanity's Galaxy. According to the ancient stories, that was because a pair of impossibly powerful beings had destroyed all the sentient species in the galaxy until they'd made a pass at humanity … and gotten their butts whooped. At least that's how a plaque written in ancient English, buried in the remains of a base in the asteroid belt put it, with the final line being 'humanity, fuck yeah'.

There were a lot of historical records documenting this, but over time, people had become skeptical. People had powers, sure, but impossible aliens that nearly destroyed the world? People who went hunting after them with technology that had only actually been invented a century or so ago rather than the age millenia past when this had supposedly taken place? Surely that couldn't have really happened?

But the plaque and the moon base had been found and added more fuel. And when humanity had started traveling the stars, they'd found other signs of the old stories being true.

Automated terraforming equipment left behind by the ancients to create paradises for their descendants, one of which was a fairly accurate recreation of Earth in the cretaceous period and countless other examples.

And then there was the dungeon world at the center of the galaxy, where people could go to acquire fantastic powers, which had been found recently.

It was a terrifying universe out there, but their ancestors were watching over them.

… even if they did have some rather silly names. What kind of legendary heroes were actually called Hero and Legend?

Humans. What a strange species. They were incredibly rare and only found in small groups, but they were all adults. They never had children where other species could see, but rather rejoined their traveling civilization for that, as there was apparently some kind of fantastic healing technology there, a part of what made them so long lived.

Supposedly, all humans were immortal and traveled the heavens, hunting the gods that had attacked their home. A lot of that was probably bunk, but there was clearly some truth to the matter.

The seven war fleets of humanity hadn't been sighted anywhere in living memory, but records of their passage were available near ubiquitously. It had been a big thing, back then. However, a few small craft had been sighted while picking up individual humans who wanted to return to their fleets.

And what curious people they were. Powerful.

People who could move at speeds greater than the speed of sound, all the while creating no wind even though their passage should have knocked over nearby people.

People who could control the elements.

People who could fly through space and between star systems without a ship or even a spacesuit.

Yes, humans were strange, ancient, powerful and the mere fact that a species like them existed was somewhat terrifying. But they were also wise as befitting beings who had lived as long as them. And when they'd been asked for their help fighting great injustices, they had. A handful of warships had even been sent back.

That was humanity, the mysterious elders of the universe.

And that's the end of it. I honestly cannot believe I just did that. It's been wild. The funny thing is, if I hadn't gotten bored on that one specific day and seen the Celestial Menagerie in the Creative Writing part of Sufficient Velocity, I never would have found out about it.

Initially, I just had an idea, but then I decided to write it down before I lost the 'fire' I had when I first got it.

This started out just as a way to 'just write' and improve my writing, but it grew into so much more.

And as to where I go from here … I don't know yet. Maybe some original writing, maybe I'll pick up my incredibly short Wandering Inn story on SB back up, maybe I'll take a break.

Or maybe I'll write the other Worm fanfiction idea I had. Who knows?

I would like to thank Waka Metalbely for editing, he's a professional editor and he really helped me by giving me help beyond just editing my chapters, but giving me help that has improved my writing overall. Not just by correcting mistakes, but by pointing out systemic mistakes in my writing that I wasn't even aware of. Writing a 400k story has helped me with my writing, but he helped just as much.

Sadly he got sick so he was unable to help with the later chapters. Seriously, fuck Covid and get vaccinated.

I would also like to thank Opacus Malus Navis for beta reading. Seriously, you've been a great help, man.

Lastly, I would really like to thank all the people who commented and wrote things into the thread. Likes are greatly appreciated, but comments are what really puts me on cloud nine and convinces me to keep going.

PrinceofDoom, BelligerentGnu, Barbaric Bob, ImtheGolden, thank all of you.

And of course, the person without this would never have been possible, zagan. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for creating the Celestial Menagerie. Thank you so much.

Seriously though, thank you, everyone. The people who read the story, the people who liked the chapters, the people who commented, the people who helped. Thank you.

---

Whew! So glad I decided to check if this story is on FF before starting the whole copy pasting.

Make sure to go and support the original Author wilderfast on SpaceBattles! Cheer them up for their amazing work!