Observing a certain part of the chaotic void in-between universes, one would be able to see a large spacecraft, blitzing across the quintillions of light-years in between the Olympus and Hell universes.
At the helm of this craft, was a man dressed casually in a black long-sleeved turtleneck, similarly coloured trousers, and shoes, with a grey hood that had inhibition magic inscribed on it.
This was none other than Hades, Olympian king of the underworld and the father of the prophesied 'child of destruction', on his way to the home of the mother of his unborn child.
He gazed at the multicoloured strings of energy around him and remembered his father, the Titan of time, Kronos.
'This energy was probably why his control over Time was so strong, and Tartarus was full of it too. If I didn't become able to sense it then I would not have known that what I thought to be sealing him was only placing him in a convenient place to recover.
I also started seeing some growth in my strength after all these years, I wonder if the child would be able to use this in the future.
Oh well, that is for the future.'
He laughed lightly as the aura emanating from him increased in intensity. If any one of the Olympians was there to see this, their eyes may have fallen out in shock.
'Tsk... I still haven't figured out how to control this well, how does he always do this comfortably?
I have to avoid meeting him so he does not figure it out. At least until I can control this well.'
He retracted his aura and shifted his thoughts to other matters.
'Persephone's reaction when I told her about this was quite funny, for me at least. She was very much pissed off.
It was expected, anyone would if their spouse came home and suddenly knelt before them asking for forgiveness for sleeping with someone else.'
He chuckled to himself as he remembered his wife's reaction to hearing that he had a child with another woman.
'But her reaction when I told her it was the prophesied child was the best.'
He kept on chuckling to himself as he occasionally used illusion magic to fool the eyes of any who he came across, he did not want his journey to be interrupted after all.
All of a sudden, the ambient energies around him became chaotic. Just as he began wondering what the cause was, he suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of fear.
One greater than the time when he was about to be devoured by his father, Kronos.
The aura he barely managed to hide burst forth from his body and his helm of darkness appeared over his head.
In his hands, were his twin swords with a bident floating behind him.
His gaze swerved around as he expanded his sense, searching for the cause of the fear he just felt.
He felt chills down his spine as his soul trembled, it was as if his very existence was being threatened.
It was then, he remembered the words of a certain prophecy he heard months ago.
' 'All gods of all worlds shall tremble with fear...'
So that was it. Never expected I'd be scared of my own child's birth.
Some might even flip out at this, they may also use this as justification to try to kill the child. Knowing that Diablo, there's no way he'd let such a thing happen though.'
Unsummoning his weapon and retracting his aura, he sighed, ignoring the gazes he felt around him due to his illusions being dispelled as he entered into the Hell universe.
◇ ◇ ◇
On an unknown planet, located in a universe that those in Olympus and the surrounding universes did not even know existed, a being laying down on a grassy field opened her eyes as she stared at the darkened sun in the sky.
"Should be about now, I think.
A being with the same affinity as I do, his is so strong I believe we might have the same type of special skill.
My universal fortune is also responding quite positively."
As she spoke to herself, she got off the ground while keeping her gaze locked on the golden cloud of pure energy hanging over her head.
"I already have so many questions, too bad I have to wait a few more years before getting an answer."
She heaved a sigh while wearing a downcast look, the next moment, her facial expression lit up as if she discovered a solution to her problem.
"Let me discover what universe he's in firstly, when he grows up, it'd be easier to find him. If the law of destiny is right, then he is the solution to this 'curse' plaguing me."
She then tied her light blue hair in a ponytail and spread out her six pairs of glistening pure white wings before disappearing after casting inter-universal teleportation magic with a level of speed and proficiency that would make drifters cry out in shock.
◇ ◇ ◇
In another universe, the leader of the Vanir tribe of gods, Njord, sighed as he remembered the inexplicable sense of fear he just felt.
It made him remember the times he faced multiple giant kings at once. He then looked towards the old man sitting across from him and asked,
"What do you think?"
"We should wait and see before taking any action."
"Do you really think so? More importantly, is that really what you want to do."
"Obviously not. However, my years of experience have told me, if we take any hasty action, we would definitely regret it."
"Make sure you tell that boy then, it seems his brother is the father, we can't let him jeopardize us all."
Even though Vanaheim and Olympus were allies, they still had spies in each other's territory. Due to Apollo's actions, word had already spread that Olympus was involved with the 'child of destruction'. He did contact the gods of other pantheons after all.
After instructing the spies to dig into the topic, Njord did not take long to figure out that Hades was the child's father, especially as Hades didn't even try to hide himself anymore.
"I will, I will."
The old man nodded as he repeated those words multiple times. He then looked towards the direction of the universe he ruled, Asgard.
◇ ◇ ◇
In an entirely white realm that had nothing but a Kotatsu table with mats for sitting in it, a shattering sound rang out as a cup of tea fell to the ground.
Clicking her tongue, the one who dropped this cup spoke in a voice filled with pure unrestrained rage.
|The stupid sense of fear should have come after I was done drinking my tea!|
As she spoke, multiple lower-ranked gods who seemed to be shivering slightly appeared and cleaned up the mess before placing two new sets of teacups, one for her and one for the man seated opposite her.
|Give it to me, I'd do it myself, I don't want any more tea getting wasted.|
She grabbed the teapot from the one holding it and poured the tea for herself.
"What's got you so annoyed this time?"
|Isn't it that damn prophesied child, he was just born but I don't like him already.
He blocked out all my suns and most importantly, he made me waste perfectly good tea.|
Seeing the woman in front of him being more concerned about the wasted tea than the birth of a being that could end their entire race, the man sighed to himself before speaking with a joking tone.
"I would like to partake of the tea prepared by the fair lady."
She rose an eyebrow at him as she asked in an annoyed tone.
"When will you quit speaking like that Susanoo?"
"Probably when you stop being weirdly fixated on tea, Amaterasu."
The man replied and took a sip of the tea before continuing.
"Delicious as always, still are you really doing nothing about this? No actions taken?"
"What can I say or do? Lord Izanagi stated we were to make no moves. He was even more annoyed than that time he cut up Ho-Musubi."
As he heard her reply, Susanoo sighed once again while thinking to himself.
'I really hope that's the best decision.'
◇ ◇ ◇
An Archdevil sat on a throne made of the large bones of unknown creatures, moving a pun across a chessboard as he spoke to the Greater Demon who sat on a similar throne across him.
"Diablo's daughter seems to have safely given birth. Shall we go and congratulate him?"
"Hmm...The child who's the reason for the current unnecessary darkness? When the eclipse ends we shall make our way to his Burning Realms to show our goodwill."
"The child may be a potential ally in our war with the celestials and the Angels too. We should begin getting him on our side from now."
"You really are a meticulous fellow."
The demon chuckled to himself as he replied to the Arch Devil's words, before placing down the chess piece in his hands.
"Checkmate."
◇ ◇ ◇
In the Egito Universe, a ship was moving across a river of stars with a single being standing at its helm. His usual robe that glowed as bright as the sun was darkened as he stared at the deep darkness of the chaotic void in front of him.
**FLAP! FLAP!
With the sound of flapping wings, an armoured being descended upon the ship. He retracted his wings as the helmet of his armour faded away, replaced by a crown with a cobra atop his head.
"All-father."
The being on the helm looked down at the appearance of the one who spoke towards him before replying.
"Hold on Horus, I need to deal with this worm first."
The armoured being, the god of war and the sky, Horus, was initially confused. However, this did not last long as he heard a deafening roar that shook the ship they were on.
|***GRRRRROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!|
Looking at the source of this roar, a gigantic serpent that blitzed towards the river of stars, he understood what the 'All father' referred to as a worm.
It was a huge serpent, large enough to coil itself around a galaxy multiple times over.
It roared once again as it dashed towards the ship they were on.
The roar was loud enough, to resound all across the universe of Egito!
In many of the planets below, quintillions of beings heard this roar as they all instantly ceased their various actions before kneeling and taking positions to pray.
Others rushed into temples and bowed before the statues of the gods there, and some knelt in front of their home altars and prayed.
Their prayers, could all be summed up in one line.
"Oh great Ra, protect us from the serpent Apophis."
As the quintillions of beings who heard this devastating roar began praying, the 'all Father' who was standing at the helm of the ship sailing the river of stars, god of the Sun, Amun-Ra, stared at the giant serpent approaching.
He put down the flail in his arms as his body suddenly swelled with power.
This was a racial trait of the god race, the ability to convert the prayers of their believers into power to temporarily strengthen themselves.
With this power, he swung down the crook in his hand multiple times. Giant slashes of golden divinity were released with each swing as the serpent moved to dodge these slashes.
Its large size, coupled with the speed of the slashes, rendered it unable to do so.
|***ROOOOOOOAAAAARRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!|
Its skin began to burn with golden flames as it was hit by the divinity-filled slashes. Roaring in pain, it retreated towards the deep darkness that even Ra did not dare tread lightly in.
After this, the excess power in Ra's body faded away as he picked up the flail he dropped. He then walked towards the slightly stunned Horus and asked.
"How is your sight?"
"I still see, as good as any mortal can though."
Hearing his reply, Ra felt sad as he looked at the darkened eyes of Horus.
Horus was a god whose right eye was the sun or morning star, representing power and quintessence, and whose left eye was the moon or evening star, representing healing.
However, both his eyes were darkened at the moment and did not have their usual entrancing glow.
"Worry not child, it is only temporary."
"I know, even so, I still can't help but feel peeved. This being was just born and he already caused so much, he even weakened you to this level as he blocked out the suns."
"It is not the fault of the child.
As you said, he was just born so he knows nothing. Let us not involve ourselves in his matters, as they would only bring misfortune upon us and the ones who we are meant to protect."
Ra looked down on the plants below and the quintillions of beings who had gone back to their daily lives after thanking him for protecting them from the serpent, Apophis.
He heaved a sigh as he remembered the fear he felt a few minutes ago, as if the Serpent Apophis drank up the Nile he sailed on with his boat.
◇ ◇ ◇
Various powers across the cosmos sensed the birth of the prophesied child and had a multitude of different reactions.
Some raged and some were calm. Some believed it was impossible for the prophesied child to fulfil his destiny while others simply just did not care.
A few theorized about what abilities the child could have that would enable him to kill even gods while some believed he would possess nothing of the sort.
A few shamans declared that the child was simply going to be the first of his kind, as many more like him would appear in the future, albeit weaker.
◇ ◇ ◇
In an unknown place, a group of beings was currently engaged in a conversation about the prophesied child. One that would make many tilt their heads in question.
[So that kid was just born, should we really leave him alone? Causality acted on his behalf, you know?]
The one who was asked this opened his closed eyes and replied.
{We are of a higher race than they are, nothing he does would affect us.}
(Where was he born though? I want to take a peek.)
Another voice asked amusedly as the one who spoke of them being a higher race replied.
{In that devil's home.}
(That Devil? Oh!, you mean Lucifer? So they were related huh?)
{Yes, the child's mother is Lucifer's descendant.}
[The father?]
{He's from that universe both of you did that experiment in.}
[The one with the time candidate right? What happened to him anyway?]
{He got defeated by his children so I took away his candidacy. If he could be defeated by his children with how weak they were at the time, then he won't be able to survive the next phase.}
[Too bad for him, still that child is the descendant of two candidates, he should not be weak then.]
*We would never know what happens in the future, besides you that is.*
{It's not my jurisdiction so I can only see limited things.}
As the two beings conversed the others present simply looked on, interjecting at some moments while remaining silent most of the time. One of them looked in a certain direction before speaking.
/I wonder how she'd react./
◇ ◇ ◇
In a realm that can only be described with one word; Golden, a black-clothed woman, seated atop a throne, shivered slightly before opening her grey eyes.
She ignored the gaze she felt on her body as she stood up from the throne.
No sort of aura or power could be sensed from her, yet she still had an intimidating air around her that could make one's hair stand on end just by being in her presence.
She walked out of the throne room, into a golden hall filled with over a hundred kneeling figures as she spoke with a voice that sounded sweet and euphonious to all who heard.
"It's not a hoax this time.
Find him, all of you."
[Yes, My Lady!]
The hundreds of kneeling figures responded in unison before simultaneously disappearing from their positions, warping to various locations to fulfil the order they were just given.
Left alone in the hall, the beautiful grey-eyed woman spoke out to no one in particular.
"If you want to end them, simply have to kill me.
Let's wait and see if you are up to the task."
◇ ◇ ◇
A golden-haired man, giving off a domineering aura, as if he was a king ruling over quintillions, tapped the armrest of the throne he sat on as he spoke in a solemn voice.
"The fourth of the previous era has returned. The wheel of fate will soon begin to spin once more."
Sitting on his lap and resting her head on his chest, was a woman dressed in a pure black gown that contrasted her white hair and skin.
"Soon, we would have to deal with 'that' again, for now, let us enjoy the small time of peace we have. This calm, before the storm."
The ambient energies thrummed wildly as the man nodded before turning his gaze in a different direction and speaking.
"Yes...until then, we shall bask in this illusion of peace."
◇ ◇ ◇
At a certain point in the chaotic void, an unknown amount of light-years away from the area with the Hell and Olympus universes, a being who was floating around in the chaotic void of space, stopped their movements and looked in a certain direction.
The being was dressed in all black, with a hood above their head obscuring their face from sight.
Two dots, glowing in an iridescent light could be seen from inside the hood as the being stared towards the direction of a certain universe.
||Only. One. Left.||
The being spoke those three words, their gender being indiscernible from their voice, before turning around to the gigantic spatial rift that was in front of them.
They entered into that rift, drifting away, into the cosmos far beyond while leaving behind two words.
||For. Balance.||