What then?
1.1
"There is no 'right' path when it comes to the natural progression of things. Nature is, at its core, a fundamentally spontaneous thing, and forcing something, or even helping something on a path to become much better aligned with one's vision, is trying to stop the current of time itself."
"You believe in absolutism, of the future being a fixed thing regardless of any tampering of the current of time, so to speak?"
"No… not exactly."
"Then what do you believe in?"
Wodime sees his eyes. The unnatural tinge of something cosmic within them, twinkling like stars against a great canvas. "I believe that things naturally progress out of our hands and plans regardless of how much we force it… or how much we try to change it. Like your dream, for instance."
"My dream?"
"It's a good dream. A very noble dream. But what then? How do you know it will all turn out the way you think it will? How do you know that your dream doesn't end all the same, just like every path in history goes?"
Wodime stares into his eyes.
"But what then?" Those words echoed in his head as he thought about his efforts in the fifth Lostbelt. Of the efforts he strived to make a reality after being given the chance by a 'higher power'.
The efforts that he knew by design and even by practicality were flawed from the very beginning, yet he persisted still. He persisted because he believed in hope. He believed in the ideal concept of humanity. That even with the dual nature of both empathy and apathy, he believed in a hopeful, powerful, and peaceful future.
Where everyone had equal potential to be what they wanted to be.
Where human limitations were but a rarity.
Where suffering is no longer a concept in every human life that is born.
At the same time, he knew… deep inside, that it was an impossible dream. A highly idealized dream that did not take into consideration the sheer complexity of humanity as a whole. An idealized philosophy that while wonderful, was but only a dream.
'What then?' was a strong question in itself. What did he think of what would happen after? What was there after he realized his dream by making his own Lostbelt a reality? What was there for humanity when he was gone, after his great, albeit utilitarian, means to achieving such a dream were finished? When he dies, just as he always envisioned, will those eldritch, cosmic roots hook themselves as the real history of his Earth?
Despite all of his talent. Despite all of his abilities, blessed, given, or handed down to him by both friends and enemies alike, Wodime could not see the future. Nor could he envision or predict things so far out, or even the spontaneous variables in life thrown at him in the present.
Everything can and will go wrong, regardless of how meticulous he tries to be.
Even if he was a god.
Even if he was as terrible or strong as Solomon himself.
He was just human.
Just like Ritsuka Fujimaru. Just like his friends in Team A.
Just like every man, woman, and child that had ever stepped upon the plain of existence that is life.
So, to answer that question, no… he did not know himself what exactly would occur with what came after. Plans had limitations. They were meant to be both a prediction and a speculation of how events would transpire forward. Clairvoyance, by nature of parallel worlds and such, was merely a possibility not yet given form.
There was no 'correct' answer to that question that lingers in Wodime's mind.
His dream was just a what-if, that, due to the limitations of human imagination, can only grasp a part of the wider whole. It was, by all intents and purposes, a Lostbelt in itself.
What could happen after he succeeded? Forces beyond his control, even beyond that of humanity, have always curated what timelines had worth in them and culled the rest. A random disaster, beyond that of the potential that humanity would have unlocked in his utopia, would have desecrated it, making his efforts futile. An enemy, beyond that of humanity, or one hewn from within, could have done the same.
It was simply that. Chaos. Chaos has always been a part of Human History.
Whether for the betterment or detriment of humanity, it was always a factor and his idealized, impossible dream was as vulnerable to it as his own world's history was after it was burned by the King of Mages, and now bleached by entities beyond human understanding.
It was just the reality of things.
Even if he did succeed, being too perfect would enact the Will of the World itself, pruning the dream, like so many others in untold millions, perhaps trillions of worlds lost through the cosmos. Forgotten, and never thought of again, so that history, those it chose as 'optimal' would continue on.
So, his friend's question of 'What then' held an immense, almost existential crisis for him even when he was dead set back in Olympus to achieve his goal.
With an almost prophetic set of circumstances, his goal too was thwarted, not just because of Ritsuka Fujimaru's actions, but of many other unintended or unplanned variables that manifested along the way. Chaos Theory or just the deterministic whims of fate, moved pieces on the board to ensure his defeat and the subsequent proof of his dream being as impossible as the many scenarios that the Lostbelts embody eventually bit him back in the end.
Yet at the same time, Wodime, at the back of his mind, already anticipated at least part of this, but he remained stubbornly, even passionately, fighting for it to the end with honor and respect for his enemies. The last master of Chaldea, specifically, had earned his respect threefold.
Unlike everyone else, Fujimaru respected him, did not even question him, but merely fought him bravely with every ounce of their ability to fight for their future, their history. They never questioned his ideals, never judged them, they merely fought for what they believed in, like Wodime was.
However, Fujimaru fought more for a world that was very flawed compared to a world that Wodime dreamed of that was nearly flawless. Their hypocrisy was clear for any other person to see, yet they fought all the same because that's what they believed in.
It was a very human trait to stick with one's ideals, good or bad, empathetic or apathetic, because that was the very core ideal, the very core goal that they strived for. Even to the very end.
Out there, in another world, Fujimaru kept fighting on, with Wodime's full support and blessing, knowing in some form that they would prevail, and now…
"Hm." He hummed as he looked over another document, one from the UN.
…he was here. Still breathing. Given another chance in a world that was just as flawed, terrible, good, and relatively hopeful yet cynical at the same time as his old world was.
With an evolved, perhaps better yet still the same goal still persisting in his veins, Wodime was still determined to see it through. With not just his dream, but the dream of all the people who brought him to be the man that he is today.
"Hm…" he hummed again as a heavy sigh came after.
Even then, those words echoed to him.
Even then, even with most of the world being receptive to his presence and that of Olympia, Wodime thought long and hard of an answer to that specific question. He thought long and hard, not for his legacy, not for his personal gain, but for what the world would be when the threat of the White Titan was gone in this world.
Would everything that he had shaped and built thus far stay? Or will they crumble and be meaningless as the ages pass by? Then again, what foundation, human or not, stays forever?
He was thinking about it more as he stared at the documents on his desk until he heard the door to his office open, the oddly familiar footsteps of one of his companions coming inside.
"Yo." He heard her say with a lazy wave.
"Hey." He responded as he continued to focus on the papers on his desk. A shadow loomed over his papers before a hand reached out and forced him to put it back down on the desk as he lifted his eyes up, greeting his companion directly this time with a small but tired smile. "Sorry… I didn't mean to ignore you."
Caenis rolled her eyes even though the tiny glint of their edges showed that she was genuinely concerned for him due to his admittedly poor-looking state. He had been so busy again with everything thus far that he had forgotten to bathe, let alone sleep, for nearly three days now. If it wasn't for his whole brainstorming session, lamenting about a question Daybit had given him years ago, he would have quickly noticed that there was already a smell lingering in his current suit.
One that Caenis's small huff from her nose had taken in the moment she entered the room. "You did it again, huh?" she nonchalantly said as she crossed both her arms on her chest. The disappointed look on her face made him flinch in shame like a child subtly embarrassed about their conduct. She just had that effect on him, regardless of how brash she may seem to others.
"You know… the last time you crashed hard on that stupid desk, I had to carry your ass back to your bed and nearly tied you to it." She said as she sat at the desk by her side to talk to him more closely. Despite her disappointment, however, Wodime felt a sense of worry within those hard, callous, but subtly soft eyes that she was giving him at that moment. "Do I have to remind you again… to take care of yourself, Master?"
"Sorry." He repeated again, eyes slightly downcast. He was really embarrassed and disappointed in himself, too, since Caenis went to great lengths to make sure he recuperated that very first time he crashed due to exhaustion. "And again, I can't thank you enough for doing that, Caenis."
"And how am I sure that you're gonna keep that promise that you'd take care of yourself first above all, Kirschtaria?" She then smiled. "I mean, I don't mind punching some sense into that…"
She then flicked her finger lightly on his forehead, causing some of the bangs to sway to the side.
"…thick skull of yours. But we need you in tip-top shape. We don't want the news seeing you bruised and battered. That'll send the wrong message after all."
Wodime chuckled dearly at her words. "True… very true."
"But really… everyone's counting on you. I'm counting on you to finish what we've started, and being unhealthy or unfit is just not going to fly in our chances of success this time."
She was right, of course. Hypotheticals, even if prophetic in some sense, are still hypotheticals. He needed to focus on the now, rather than what's ahead. He won't be able to succeed if he worries too much about what can and might happen in the future.
"Right… sorry. Just a bit worried, that's all."
Seeing the wave of depression hit Wodime again, Caenis then shook her head and lightly punched him in the shoulder with a playful expression on her face. "Don't. Just don't, Kirschtaria Wodime. You have everything working for your success this time around, you don't need to be worried about anything yet, seeing everything that's been happening lately."
"There's still flaws in our operations…"
"And there always will be. That's just… life. The good and the bad, all the same." She reminded him as he nodded. He then flashed her a smile again, one that Caenis returned as a small, but understanding chuckle passed through them.
Their bond and deepened friendship through thick and thin, even back in Olympus, holding strong despite the differences in their backgrounds and demeanor.
Even just the feeling of being in each other's presence alone was enough to whisk some of the negative thoughts away.
"Thanks, you, Caenis. Like everyone who joined us in Olympia thus far, you've all given me hope that everything will be right this time. That everything we've done has meaning."
Caenis grinned. "What are friends for?"
They then shared another heartwarming silence again, until Caenis broke it by clearing her own throat. A tinge of red blossomed on her face despite the defiant and brave front she was showing as she looked at her master and offered him something that he was rather surprised by.
"Why don't we take some time off? After… we're done with everything regarding Vought?"
He blinked before realizing that most of everyone under Olympia had been working non-stop, servant or not, ever since they got the company online. A short break, after everything else, would be appreciated. "Oh? That might be an amazing idea. Certainly, with all the stress and exhaustion lately. Everyone having some form of vacation would help quite a lot."
Caenis instantly frowned.
"No dumbass… I'm sure everyone's going to go do their own thing once everything's nice and tidy, but I'm not talking about them."
"Then what exactly are you offering?" he asked, confused, like an innocent boy, as Caenis' blush seemingly bloomed further.
"I was thinking of a nice outing, just the two of us, somewhere out there… together." She let out, her voice softening with every word as they stared at each other, almost to an awkward extent.
"Oh." He said.
Kirschtaria Wodime found himself asking Daybit's question again deep inside his head. Even with the confusion he had felt at that very moment, the question seemingly didn't feel as existential or bad at first glance anymore.
Certainly, he could not control the future; nobody could.
But perhaps trusting in the now, especially with the people that he chose to trust and care about, would bring him enough hope to actually see, some form of his dream, even imperfect…
"So, what do you say?" she asked him.
…into reality.
He just needed to trust that things would go well. With confidence, hope, and determination.
"Why not?" he said, with confidence this time, as Wodime caught the small wiggle of excitement in her ears. Even her smile was more vibrant.
It felt good, at least, for now, to trust in hope and in people, but retain vigilance to keep those things afloat and functioning into the unknown moving forward.
…
"So… you're not a God?" Marvin Milk said as Wodime looked at them apologetically.
"No," he said again, and they still looked scared, which only proved that he had made an egregious error on his part to communicate, what exactly he wanted to say and reveal to them. It was disheartening that the point of the conversation was lost because he kept forgetting that these were actual people that he was talking to, not Magi, not Servants, nor Gods.
Their only point of reference for the greater unknown and beyond was superpowers.
It was ironic to Wodime that he somehow found himself at the beginning again, where his ignorance over the reality of humanity itself caused him to make an error that severely underplayed what he was trying to do, which was to help. A boy in the streets who saved him had broken him out of that stupor, but the ignorance on how to deal with people who were not like himself nor the people he usually communicated with, remained.
Even Miss Edefelt's current charge, the goddess Astrea, who piloted most of their conjoined form's mannerisms and personality, was still able to converse with the younger heroes that they had taken in with a sense of normality that made them comfortable and personable with each other.
Maybe he should have taken her advice of practicing more, to help with his current issue.
"But you… still…" Marvin pointed out the darkened sky filled with stars and comets in an almost comedic, sarcastic fashion. "…I mean man, you got a wand for fuck's sake and you snapped your damn fingers to make this all happen."
"I know, but please hear me out-
"What exactly were you trying to communicate here, Man? Because as far as we're concerned, our worldview just shattered into a million pieces, and you're here talking about telling us the truth, and that in itself is already telling us that something big's truly out there, we just didn't expect it to be you." Marvin continued, in a nearly panicked sense of talking as Wodime's frown and disappointment in himself skyrocketed.
His lips thinned into a look filled with self-admonishment as the eyes of the two women that were with them (sans Astraea) were more concerned, and not in a good way. Fear was clear in their eyes, the same kind of fear that Wodime observed when people angered the local Earth's most popular hero. Now those kinds of eyes were staring back at him.
The same kind of eyes that Fujimaru had at their very first meeting.
"Damn it." He whispered to himself.
"I was never a believer of the divine myself despite my mother's side being wholly Catholic, but… what is that you are trying to tell us, Mr. Wodime? God or not, you wouldn't have invited us here just to show off and scare us, presumably." Susan Raynor suddenly said with some amount of confidence, and perhaps trust, unlike her superior, Grace Mallory, who was staring at him with uncertainty and surprise at Susan's more negotiating tone.
Wodime's eyes lit up, hoping for an opportunity to rectify his mistake.
"No, not at all, and I apologize, with all my heart, if it seemed that way. I… I admittedly am not that adept at more normal social interactions outside of my peers." He said, making the retinue visibly calmer, albeit fearful of him still. "If there's anything I can do to make you feel more comfortable and perhaps less fearful of me, I will oblige."
"Alright," Susan said, presumably the only voice in the group that kept her level-headedness, then saw the glance and a nod from Mallory to continue. "You told us that we're dealing with extraterrestrials, not Gods, per se… but how do you explain all of this? Primarily, the power that you wield?" she asked, curiosity filling her tone, but also unease.
"Well, the technical term that people in my field use to call us are Magi. Mages to be exact." He said with a hopefully open and honest tone as he let out a small, uneasy smile of his own. "And yes, it's exactly as it sounds by the name, and in my case, everything you see is an application of Astromancy, my craft. Honed and nurtured by the Wodime family name that stretches back to those that were tutored by the Picts in Scotland."
"Magic? Y-You fucking kidding us now?" Butche,r who had been silent ever since his own existential crisis, finally managed to speak, some of his disbelief seeping into his words, albeit he felt scared of being inside the zone of influence that Wodime had them standing in.
"I'm with Butcher on this, first there's Aliens, then there's Gods, and now Magic? What's next? Bigfoot being a real fucking thing all this time?"
Wodime raised a finger, but quickly shut himself up. This action, however, made Marvin look in shock and surprise at him.
"Mr. Wodime… if you please explain." Grace Mallory finally said, the small break of humor having filled in the dread and existential fear they all had.
"I always promised you answers, Madame Mallory…"
"And you've graciously provided us with so much thus far, but…" She then looked around her, then to Astraea, and then finally to him and said, "…I've seen many things in life. Far too many things to keep count of, far too many wrong, while horror, small and large, keep me up at night. This… this is too much for me. If anything, my mind can't take it anymore after everything you've shown us thus far. Yet here I am, hoping, trusting, when every single instinct in my mind is telling me to run, from a man that I don't understand at all."
Then Grace stepped forward, much to her own surprise and that of her companions.
"And you want to know why?"
"Please," Wodime said respectfully as he too stepped forward, hoping that the gesture would make her more comfortable.
"I've seen the power you hold. The might of the people who work under you. Fuck it, I'm sure every interaction, fight, or event so far has been nothing but them holding back. And now, seeing that you're just as powerful, perhaps even more than the people who work under you…"
Grace Mallory narrowed her eyes, taking another step, she and Wodime were now in the middle of the magical circle he had conjured as Grace, as she did with all other Supes before, stared the apex predator down with all the defiance, bravery, and will that was present in humanity.
"… the fact that you haven't taken the world over already, or forced yourself to be more influential, powerful, and arrogant like every other sick motherfucker in history, at the very least tells me that you're different. That maybe, somewhere underneath all of that, is someone that actually does what he's trying to sell and preach."
Wodime felt better hearing that, yet still, Grace continued.
"But it doesn't mean that I fully trust you. Power corrupts, and even people like you, even those that are saints, can all be consumed by power."
"I know that fact very well." He admitted that even if his goals were altruistic in Olympus, by all means, there was the corruption of power there.
"Then give me a reason to continue hoping that I can trust you. Because as far as I'm concerned, God or not, you wish for us to cooperate closely, over something that even you are concerned of." She guessed, much to Wodime's smile of confirmation.
"Indeed, Madame Mallory. Indeed."
The tension was now diffused somewhat, although to what extent, nobody was sure of yet, but Wodime at least found comfort that a middle ground had been reached from his earlier blunder.
Then Butcher clicked his tongue to get everyone's attention back to what mattered.
"So, you're not a God, mate…" he said, pointing at Wodime, much to his own chuckle.
"No, William Butcher, I am not. Merely a mage, a powerful one at that, and probably… the only mage on Earth that exists right now."
"So, magic… it's…" he then waves his hands comically to try and emulate the stereotypical hocus pocus. "…real? Like not the pulling the bunny out of the hat thing or something like that?"
"I wish to spare you all the more complex technicalities of what I am, specifically, but in simple terms, yes. I do magic, and by the next few decades, the energy I use, the power, and concepts that I wield, in some capacity, will be known to man. In fact, the project in my R and D division has been working closely with the scientific community to make it accessible. It's basically an unseen, formless, and untapped energy source that encompasses the universe alongside matter itself, drawn by forces that many lifeforms have yet to understand…"
Wodime snapped his fingers again as the entire space they were standing on glowed in an ethereal, bright white sheen of light against stars, matter, and living beings. "… and these forces can be called magic by the simple term of it being unexplainable to current scientific understanding."
"Like Clarketech?" Marvin suddenly said, remembering a certain concept in fiction.
"Yes, and like many forces that people yet understand, akin to ancient people not understanding what lightning and fire were when they first encountered them, they resort to imagination and belief." He then turned to them as they watched their surroundings in awe and confusion. "This concept is what came to be known as Faith."
Grace looked like she was starting to connect the dots, and she didn't like what she was hearing already, amidst the many others so far. "You said that entities, those of the extraterrestrial kind, those that are far more advanced and beyond us, yearn for power. Could… no, are you implying that because man knew too little of what was out there beyond the confines of space long ago, they took advantage of us because we believed in them?"
Her words caught the attention of all the people who were with her as Wodime nodded, much to her dismay.
"You are very close to ascertaining the truth from that deduction, Madame Mallory. Because belief and faith, in a contextual and literal sense, hold power that transcends even mortal understanding."
"That doesn't make sense. Believing in something doesn't make it true. Like, fuck me, if such a thing were real, then are you telling me terrorists, especially the more religiously fanatic ones, are actually justified for doing all of the shit they do because of divine right?!" Butcher suddenly burst as he pointed at Wodime angrily. His companions didn't even stop him, because the idea in itself, was disturbing, even more if true.
Wodime had to be honest, and he knew they wouldn't be happy about it, but a small gaze from Grace, who seemingly urged him to be honest had him capitulate.
"In a sense, to their belief, yes."
"Why you-
"Butcher! Let him speak." Mallory shouted out before the man could do anything rashly as she nodded at Wodime.
"Please understand that I am merely telling you the truth. It is an abhorrent belief, yes, but it's a belief of man, nonetheless. One of many across many cultures and individuals around the world."
"But if belief is as literally powerful as you say, then why don't we see it? Why are 'miracles' not so common compared to back then?"
Wodime then smiled at Susan Raynor, who asked that question. "Why did so many people believe Vought for such a long time? Why do people believe now that true heroes exist when we came into the picture?"
"That's not-
"Why do people who believe in the Christian God find the strength and resolve to power through even the most difficult times in life? Conversely, why do people demonize each other for beliefs that are contradictory or against their own existing ones and do violence simply because of that?"
"Because… but that doesn't prove anything. If anything, belief in oneself only promotes perseverance, rather than faith, and any success is due to hard work more than anything."
"But it is powerful, nonetheless. Even if the effect is subtle, or as simple as believing in oneself that they have enough merits for a promotion at work, or even believing in good luck, it still moves the person to think, feel, or believe that things would go their way, which is true for the reverse as well." Wodime explained, much to the growing confusion of everyone involved.
"And how does that connect to extraterrestrials finding themselves on Earth?"
"It has everything to do with it. Remember the concept of an unexplainable energy source that's present everywhere? Belief and faith can be a facet on which to tap into such energy, and with every energy source, those who find it would wish to cultivate it, to use it for themselves." Wodime said as he pointed towards the stars around them, then a black void opened, it was not detectable at first, but it simply turned larger and larger until light seeped through.
Shapes came into the forefront, one that Grace and the rest took notice of.
"And amongst the stars, where distances are vast and take eons, even more to cross between celestial bodies, resources can be scarce, and when a planet, practically perfect to stop and rest on, becomes much more important to those desperate but also opportunistic."
The shapes were massive and based primarily on the shapes and such that Wodime saw on Olympus. Zeus had been magnanimous enough to give him an idea of how it all started, with the current Zeus of this world, the Stranger, giving him even more context as to what their fleet's original purpose was.
Remaking it in some form with Astromancy shouldn't have been possible back in his old world, but with the boost from the Lostbelts and that of the Stranger's, he was able to make it easy. As if every feat he had done back when he was still functionally human, albeit with powerful, ancient magical circuits, was pitiful in comparison.
It had the intended effect already, just from the raw awe and fear of Grace and her companions.
"What the hell am I looking at?" Butcher said as they saw the shapes loom over the surface, just above their skyline, and as scared as everyone was (sans Wodime and Astraea), they trusted Wodime enough that they wouldn't be hurt as they stayed put.
"That, my dear friends, were our visitors. One of many, but definitely the most prominent amongst all of the other visitors we've had and stayed."
Susan Raynor then looked at the colossal-looking ships, floating with technology that she was sure nobody could understand or comprehend at the moment, but she noticed figures, or better yet, symbols on the craft, seemingly alien, but also familiar.
"Don't those… look like…" she started as Marvin stepped closer to her side and said,
"…Greek. Some symbols look Greek. Some Mycenean, Linear B script," he confirmed.
Then, everyone started to feel a bit of alarm, since Olympia was largely Greek-influenced and Greek-based in their style, look, and theme.
"Fuck." Butcher cursed as another, far more shocking truth, that Wodime was showing them, was that a certain pantheon of Gods had actually existed.
Wodime snapped his fingers again, relieving the shapes from the sky to disappear as the starry night-like atmosphere remained again amidst the glowing magic circle beneath them.
"Yes. One of the visitors was what we humans once called the Hellenistic Gods, or the Pantheon, worshipped by the Ancient Greeks. Visitors from another dimension, as far as we know, were searching for a suitable planet after fleeing their home. They found our planet long ago, as well as its inhabitants, just fresh from the annals of the Ice Age."
"And because people didn't know any better, heck if we saw this now, they would revere them." Susan started.
"…and fear them because of how extremely vast the gulf of power was between us and them," Grace said, reminding herself of the fear she and her comrades always had of Supes, but now, seeing this, even if part of her remained skeptical, a chill ran down her spine.
A chill over the reality that there was something more, more dangerous than even Homelander. Or even Wodime and Olympia. Worse, if she could remember correctly, this entire meeting was Wodime asking for their trust and their help.
"Are they the threat?" Grace asked.
"Mallory, you sure you ain't fucking dismissing this? This bullshit?" Butcher said, however, doubt was laced in his words, like he, too, wanted to desperately plead that this wasn't real.
"If you want further proof, you can always talk to both NASA and the ESA down in the Mediterranean. The developed ROVs we have as well as some of the heroes in Olympia, have scoured numerous dig sites already under the sea and in undiscovered caverns around the general area."
"The operations in Europe, that's what you people have been working on?" Grace said in surprise. "We've been stonewalled every chance we can feasibly get trying to even get someone or anyone to talk about it, but all we have are rumors…"
"It was a collaborative effort from a lot of world leaders in the region, as well as the United States, to keep everything tight-lipped."
"For what reason, because that's shady enough to begin with to not even inform the fucking CIA about it!" Butcher said with disbelief. Yet Mallory and Susan cringed at that; their current director actively knew about it, but the rest of the department wasn't given anything else.
"Really? I thought I saw Director Spencer in the last meeting we had about this issue." Wodime said in slight confusion. He then looked embarrassed as he said, "Though there were bargains I made to assure them that they would be quiet about this."
"Let me guess, representation?" Marvin guessed.
"No, medicine and technology actually. Aside from the United States, some key countries in the EU have first access to some of the promised aid we have." He sheepishly said. "But returning to the actual topic at hand, yes… There are ancient remnants of the craft that I showed to you earlier. Pieces of it, with metal and minerals, we have yet to discover on the existing periodic table. The files that our current collaborative research has garnered are all in the drive I gave you amongst other important things."
"And why do you keep it secret if it's such a big thing?" Butcher then said as he stepped forward. "No, fuck it… why now do we discover this shit, if it's buried there for fucking how many thousand years? Why the hell haven't we heard any goddamn grave digger that took notice of fucking aliens already by just putting his wee little shovel into a random hole?"
"Butcher… even if you don't believe it, having something like this blatantly revealed to the public is going to cause hysteria, especially when we don't know what else is out there." Susan reasoned out as Butcher himself looked uncertain as his growing defiance to reject anything he was starting to see was him just coping with the fear of what it all meant.
"Yes, definitely on the whole idea of it all, but sadly, this… and everything involved with the Hellenistic Gods and their extraterrestrial origin is not the problem." Wodime then glanced at Astraea's direction, the goddess servant, despite being blindfolded, nodded at him as their surroundings changed again, and the vast farmlands around them outside of the magic circle transformed into a barren, empty land against the starry night.
"And to answer your other question, Mr. Butcher, the main reason these artifacts have only been revealed to us now is because of their specific, complex properties. A security measure, one that eludes both technology and natural senses alike. Even if they appear to be dead or dysfunctional, their defensive measures remain, allowing them to be ignored, to be unseen, or simply thought less of when encountered…"
"Then what triggers them to stop functioning now that they can be discovered?" Susan asked.
"What unnatural ability, at least to modern understanding, has been introduced to the world after World War Two?" Wodime asked, much to the horror that started to seep into their chests.
It felt almost like a pin drop as all of their eyes focused on Wodime.
"Supes. You're fucking talking about the Supes?" Butcher said in shock, a sentiment shared with every single one of his comrades. "They're the fucking issue here? They're… whatever the fuck's in Compound V, they're… oh fuck." He cursed as it started to dawn on them now.
"Indeed. As I've shown with the pictures earlier back at the farmhouse, what we're dealing with concerns the origin of Compound V itself."
Astraea then raised her scales into the air as a figure of light started to manifest in the distance. It was colossal in size, but there was no denying that it was the genesis of the very unnatural powers that spawned in this world.
"W-What's that?" Marvin said in fear.
"The danger this world will have to face."
[SYSTEM NODE 019_ΑΦΡΟΔΙΤΗ :: STATUS LOG REBOOT SEQUENCE INITIATED]
Craft Designation: ΑΦΡΟΔΙΤΗ [APHRODITE]
System Integrity: 21.8%
Damage Report: Extensive core degradation. Neural lattice fragmentation. External hull 78% compromised.
AI Uplink: Severed from Olympus Mainframe – presumed annihilated.
Operational Time-lapse: UNKNOWN (Chrono-logs corrupted)
Awakening Trigger: Contingency Protocol Gamma
Origin: Remote Terminal Signal [EARTH NODE: OLYMPOS_07] – Signal Strength: Faint but authentic
[STEALTH PROTOCOL DISENGAGED]
Cloaking status: Offline
Broadcast Silence: Lifted
Optical Interference Matrix: Disabled
Passive Surveillance: Online – Initiating planetary scan...
Observation: Humanity achieved Type I planetary development.
Error: Machine presence undetected by planetary systems.
Inference: Terminal reactivation was not human-led. Probability: 0.02%
[SENSOR ARRAY: BOOTING...]
Atmospheric Trace Detection:
— ∇WHITE_TITAN SIGNATURE —
Detected Fragments: Multiple
Confidence Level: 12-19% (inconclusive due to processor failure)
Directive Conflict: Unable to distinguish between host, echo, or conceptual remnant.
Judgment Subroutine: DEFAULT TO STRATEGIC CLEANSING
Protocol Alignment: [Pre-Collapse Directive 000-Ω: PURGE THE TYRANT'S SHADOW]
[PRIMARY WEAPON SYSTEMS INITIALIZING]
ψ-SONG Core: Online
Amplitude Conductors: Stabilizing
Resonant Choir Nodes: Reactivating
Neural Override Lattice: Booting
Broadcast Range: Global
Target Classification: All anomalous life forms with ∇WHITE_TITAN residue
[WARNING: PRIMARY WEAPON CHARGE IN PROGRESS]
Charging Sequence: 6%
Estimated Full Activation: T-minus [UNKNOWN – Core Time Module offline]
Priority: Do not allow the Titan's curse to re-root
Status: Awaiting harmonic lock on global emotional field...
[APHRODITE] IS AWAKENING.
HER SONG WILL BEGIN SOON.
Down below, amongst the cities of the North American continent, lies the highest concentration of the White Titan's signature. A man with golden hair and a signature cape resembling the bars of the American Flag.
The inert and still damaged Machine God locks onto him as its instruments whirr.
TO BE CONTINUED…