"There are no eternal facts, as there are no absolute truths. "
― Friedrich Nietzsche
"Let's see what's stronger, you and your planet, or my countless years of forced study!"
Five runes, taller than mountains, turned to face Christopher's attack. The Green Man gave a huff, the continuous swing of his axe all the answer Ven would get. A barrage of force, riddled with laws, slammed into Ven's creations.
The tide of power curled around the rune of Reflection, swollen in size by the bells and chimes of Empowerment and Magnification. The tower that read Suppression pressed its face to the surface of the Earth and The Green Man's flow of energy slowed.
Christopher's swings lagged behind their past speed, caution in his eyes as he distanced himself from Ven's runic wards. Ven sighed, finger pointed at a childhood hero.
"I hope you're more durable than you look…"
The gathered energy compressed, forced into a thin lance. A spike of light touched the Green Man's chest before either of them processed its move. The sound of thunder, overlapped with a mighty howl.
Struck like a well timed pitch, the bearded man launched free of the Earth, into a distant orbit that was destined for the sun. Ven cleared the runes from the earth and squinted to the sky.
'Maybe I should do something…'
As rude as this Earth and its Guardian were, the man was still Saint Nick. The karma for the murder of Santa had to be bad news. A sigh on his lips, Ven sped after the christmas meteor, aura extended to slow his tumble through the void.
"Are we good now?" Ven sucked the man back toward the Earth, laughter in his words as Christopher glared through a blackened layer of soot. "If I wanted to threaten this planet, I would have eaten it already."
If Ven had to rank this Green Man's power, he would be a peak Earth Deity, maybe a bit beyond. Not a match for Cain, or even Huan, but far more sturdy than either. Probably something to do with the laws the man had mastered.
"I get that now…" Christopher grumbled as he flexed his injured hands. He shot a wounded look at Ven. "What is a Celestial Deity doing slumming around the lower realms anyways?"
"I'm not a Celestial Deity… I don't think, anyway," Ven dumped Christoper onto a sunny, deserted island and recalled his aura. "Everyone always has opinions on what tier I'm in, but I've never meshed well with expectations."
A flex of his talons withdrew a tin from his pouch, alongside a tall glass bottle. Ven offered the fair to the disgruntled Christopher, a wry smile on his lips.
"Milk and cookies?"
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"What should we do?" Mara frowned as she raised Ven's relic key and inserted it into the air. A twist formed the lines of a door, but it failed to take hold. "It's been over a week, and the key isn't working…"
"The connection is there," Brull frowned, hand extended over the air. "Excalibur can sense that much, but there isn't enough power inside the key to complete the passage."
"Then we should just add some more energy," Lyra bounced on her heels, impatient. "Dante says he isn't enough to stop the coming wave of Outsiders!"
Mara sighed as she passed the Key to Aangor. They'd had this same conversation before. No one but Dante had the juice to power the gate, and he'd refused. The devil needed to stay in fighting form, or the realm would be defenceless if Lucifer and Ven failed to return on time.
"To do that, we need way more power than we can pull together," Mara raised an eyebrow at the motivated wolf-kin, hands pressed to her desk. "Unless you've got a new idea?"
Lyra nodded her head and pulled Speaker up from the ground. The woebegotten ant waved his legs, frustration in his tone.
"The ant's and drones have found a potential solution, but it requires the full investment of our society's resources and effort." Speaker tossed a display pad to Mara's nimble hands. "We have to finish construction of the space elevator and make some key modifications!"
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"What's the plan, murder man?" Kalina poked at Cain's back, ignored as the man gazed at the oncoming wave. The titan's mad feats had pulled it much closer, less than a week away. "Without all the heavy hitters, we'll be turned to mush."
"Leave him be," Syy dragged Kalina away from the grim-faced Cain, senses extended to cover the realm. "He's already doing something…"
"What? Developing his edgy brood?" Kalina snorted, reluctant as Syy led her toward the city. "We can't do much, unless we can get Ven's key working."
"Cain is shifting his realm's time…" Syy waved to the skies. "He's using his own life to let us have the chance to outgrow the coming danger."
Kalina squinted over her shoulder. The black robed man looked the same as ever, a smooth-faced teen in his prime. Her hand snaked out to pinch Syy's cheek, a vice that brought tears to her friend's eyes.
"He manipulates time here at a whim, how is he trading his life?"
"That was before we left the multiverse," Syy pried Kalina's grip apart and pinned the woman's hands behind her back. "Out here, he can't steal away energy from the cosmic ocean. He has to drain energy from that black sea above and filter it through his body."
"Why do you always know so much…" Kalina winced as her arms were set into a joint lock. "I think you just say random words and your luck turns them into prophecies…"
Syy laughed and released her friend. She pulled Kalina past the city gate, headed toward the guild bar.
"You're half-right, but even I don't know if his efforts will make a difference…"
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"So… you were born on an alternate Earth," Christopher jammed another cookie past his beard, followed by a healthy chug of milk. "I've never met someone from beyond the cosmic divide!"
"The what?" Ven chuckled as he brushed crumbs from his chest, sprayed by the animated Green Man.
"The space between, whatever you want to call it," Christopher shrugged as he continued his ravenous attack on the sweet desserts. "The Earth remembers it from the Cosmic war, well before my time."
"A cosmic war…" Ven frowned. His own universe didn't have knowledge of such a thing. They believed their multiverse was singular. "Against who?"
Christopher's eyes glowed green, voice smoothed out to a softer octave. Ven could see a reflection of the Earth, hidden in the depths of the Green Man's gaze.
"We all fought against a single foe…" the Earth spoke with Chrisopher's lips. "A madman, fueled by death and driven to enslave all that is."
Ven's eyebrows raised. More than one multiverse had united, against a single individual. If each held their own True Gods and Conceptual Beings, he couldn't imagine the power of their enemy.
"What was their name?"