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_Time for another chapter to go online. It was a long and demanding one to write, and it is also a very important one in the story. Time to understand some more about what lurks inside of Killer, and about how Existence came to be, and how it works. To all of you that are out there, following this saga still, thank you. Your comments give me reasons to keep going. So, enjoy the ride, and let me know what you think. _

_ As planets continue circling on according to the fixed law of gravity, every other law of nature is called into question. Powers never before seen, gods greater than any being who came before are now rising, through darkness and strife. All across Existence, the fate of all life forms, whether they know it or not, depend on a single warrior's ability to keep fighting... _

Chapter 95 -** Until the last breath**

Mriya flexed her powerful body, muscles bulging as she clutched into the angrily flailing tentacle-cocks around her, squeezing with such eager strength that the Horrors beneath let out grunts of surprise. Two of them... evidently she was handling massive tentacles coming from both, but it was hard to tell where each majestic member originated from as dozens of immense, godlike members ground into her from all sides. Her body was still jet-black, almost glowing with the amount of hypervirile corruption coating her, armoring her, partially fusing with her spectacular body. Her hair danced slowly in the air, looking like blood-red fire as her eyes glowed solid sapphire, her energies crackling violently through the sky as she threw her head back with a roar that voiced pleasure but, at the same time, urged the titanic beasts fucking her to thrust harder, faster, to redouble their world-rattling efforts.

She snarled as they failed to comply, and she let go of a titanic, flare-headed tentacle to grab into the skull of the nearest Horror, her eyes flashing dangerously as her grip made the invulnerable bone creak audibly while she threateningly leaned down and growled in his face: "Fuck me harder, boy, harder!"

The enormous beast snorted steam from his nostrils, eyes glowing a ghastly white as his immense muscles bulged explosively, one hand reaching past a tangle of other tentacles to claw into her hip, his devastating talons pushing against her formidable abs... and failing to tear through her black skin, her great muscles rippling under his grip as she bucked her hips with savage force, impaling herself upon a trio of enormous members that ground painfully into each other while they were crushed together by the force of her clamping sex, her incandescent labia wrapped tightly around those devastating girths. Another two enormous tentacles fought for supremacy inside her ass, her tailhole flexing with enough force to almost rip the tentacles apart as she arched her back and used her hand to savagely jerk off another titanic beast of a cock, grinning as dark meteors of hypervirile sludge fired out of it with terrifying force, drawing miles-long black streaks across the ocean, causing the water to boil and vaporize while the darkness rapidly spread in all directions. She dismissively let go of the horned skull and caught another great tentacle instead, grinning viciously as she greedily peeled back the thick foreskin from the monstrous head, revealing steaming sludge of hypervirile produce, ruins and gore from the helpless mortal communities that the beast had ravaged. She leaned closer and licked up a few thick, massive chunks of that vile mixture, chewing it slowly and hungrily while trapping the massive tentacle under her armpit, hissing in pleasure as it eagerly ground against her side and half-wrapped around her perfect ass, supporting her weight without any difficulty. She made sure to catch another girthy, mammoth member under the other arm, flexing her powerful musculature as she swayed her hips against them, grinning widely as their precious, hot, thick essence sprayed all over her, covering her perfect breasts and rolling down her abs, only to be absorbed into the layer of hot darkness covering her, adding to her prodigious power.

The group of gigantic cocks buried in her eager sex moved rougher, faster, harder, twisting together and gyrating wildly as they ground into her muscular walls, thrusting with enough power to bounce and rock the young goddess upwards, causing her abs to rippled and flex and distend as her abdomen bulged outwards with the size and ferocity of the goliath members. Even so, she grinned hungrily and hefted herself up by squeezing into the cocks in her hands, moving even faster than the pistoning tentacles and at the same time grinding her cheek against the grotesquely massive flare of yet another tentacle-cock, hissing hungrily as she rolled her hips twice as hard, twice as fast, grinding back into the tangle of powerful members and making the Horrors around her grunt in delight and awe, their muscular, hulking bodies dripping thick, hypervirile sweat crammed full of parasitic, colossal sperms. She leaned towards a particularly imposing flare and spat on it, growling hungrily as her drool rolled down the immense shaft, before her hand greedily moved over and grabbed the neck of the cock, just beneath the vast flare, almost ripping into the solid meat with her claws as she began to jerk it rapidly, smearing hot saliva along it before guiding that monstrous flare in front of her face, grinding her features into it and licking teasingly at the edge of the vast, wide-open cockmaw. The Horror beneath her let out a breathless snarl of delight at that, which became louder when she suddenly nipped into the solid meat, trying to wrap her maws around that titanic cockhead while allowing her long, forked tongue to slither inside the cumslit, pushing deeper and deeper. The Horror growled in eager delight and he thrust deeper inside her throat, brutally smashing his way down into that flexing passage, feeling her muscles tensing and clamping on him with incredible force, milking him for all he was worth... and it was a lot, since an endless deluge of thick precum and sludge blasted out of his cock, filling up her stomach and bursting out of her lips, squirting out violently around the monstrous girth that had otherwise completely stretched out and sealed-up her throat.

Huge hands clutched at her mighty thighs, trying to slow her down, squeezing into her huge quads to beg her to give them a respite, but she only arched her back with a growl of delight and slid her foot down the slick, veiny body of a massive tentacle, loving how it was completely coated in thick, hypervirile slime. The Horror again squeezed on her legs, begging for mercy without words, but her eyes only flashed with entertainment as she bounced rapidly up and down, impaling herself deeper, even as several other monstrous cocks smashed into her buttocks and inner thighs, bumping her into her groin, grinding and coiling against their siblings as they teasingly pushed against her blossomed sex, causing her labia to flex under the heavy strikes... but that only added to the delightful sensations burning through her spectacular body as she arched her back and purposefully gargled around the tentacle thrusting down her jaws, sending thick spurts of masculine essence and drool exploding out of even her nostrils, arching high up before falling down all over her face.

She choked a little around the monstrous cock, but it only added to her greedy excitement as she purred and dived forwards, taking more of that colossal tentacle, her long and dexterous tongue wrapping several times around it even as a long section of it pushed deep inside the Horror's vast cum channel, tasting his essence - Killer's essence, her father's, her god's! - before it even erupted out of his body. Her impossibly long and flexible tongue made him whimpered almost pathetically as it licked along the underside and flanks of his gigantic member, causing him to groan in helpless delight as he started to thrust even harder and faster. Another Spirit device buried into his body and crudely hooked into his nervous system loudly fried and nearly exploded, electricity crackling for a moment down massive, flexing muscle, before he let out a groan of delight and horror at once, his eyes opening as if for the very first time after a long lapse of nothing but darkness. The beast instinctively recognized Mriya for his Mistress, for the daughter of his Master, and the gigantic beast immediately attempted to pull out, but the goddess's eyes flashed angrily and she rumbled in her throat, clamping her jaws shut as she slurped on the thick essence, growling to let him feel her eagerness and need.

He wheezed as her tongue nearly crushed his tentacle-cock, twisting it painfully and jerking it with incredible force, milking him for every last drop he could give. Another of his great tentacles was buried inside her overfilled, hungry sex, and the enormous beast groaned in delight and pain as he continued to pound violently inside her, his goliath shaft grinding against two others inside her as her nectar rushed down in an incandescent cascade. He pistoned in and out of her with all the force he could muster, gaping in delight and shock as she easily bucked faster and faster, gyrating her hips and smirking as she so easily toyed with him and the other Horrors, her sex clenching with terrible force around his girth, feeling like it would rip the great tentacle right off. Her eyes glowed with delight and with a clear challenge to him and the other monstrous, titanic males as she rode their furious thrusts, moving roughly up and down the tangle of tentacles slamming up inside her, her mouth slurping hungrily over the great member in her mouth as she gazed down through the thick glaze of semen and cocksludge covering her features, grinning down at the hulking titans that she was using as nothing more than fucktoys to tease herself with. "Mistress... I... please..." The Horror blurted, feeling the immense tentacles around his own swelling, thrumming with power as they hardened even further, and his own member flexed powerfully, throbbing as it grew even thicker, veins bulging all over it as an immense load surged up through the endless cum channel. The goddess, however, only flexed her hulking musculature and swung one leg up around the tangle of tentacles, slamming her boot hard down on his skull, forcing him to bow deep before her as she wrapped two other goliath tentacles several times around her arms, using them as ropes to heft herself up, slamming her hips back and forth all the harder, abs bulging as she threw her head back with a snarl full of greedy hunger. The Horrors helplessly tried to keep up with her ravenous movements, but their tentacles were sore after being squeezed and twisted and abused, and they only managed to give short, powerful thrusts up inside her incandescent, impossibly tight sex, still uselessly trying to pull back, but forcefully yanked back inside her, almost devoured by the strength of her muscles, the squeezing of her legs, the pull of her body. The hulking Horror gazed from side to side, eyes bulging in delight and surprise, his masculine chest heaving as his tentacles were almost crushed inside her, his hard flesh burning with pain as well as pleasure as the high-heeled boot pressed down on his head with surprising force. He was far bigger than the goddess, but even at her current sizes, Mriya was almost humiliatingly stronger than him, and without needing an order he worshipped her by slowly licking her bloodied sole, tasting gore and ruin and death, before his long, flexible, demonic tongue wrapped around her high heel, polishing it from the accumulated blood. His eyes kept darting sideways, seeking help in the other massive monsters, but some were still under the control of the Spirit devices, their eyes glowing crimson and staring at their mistress with nothing but hate. He turned against the nearest possessed Horror, hefting his enormous fist up and preparing to strike them down for their unacceptable heresy, but Mriya snarled loudly and bit into his massive tentacle-cock, making him look up in confusion. The glare she reserved him was eloquent, but the goddess made sure to invade his mind and her hoarse, ravenous voice boomed in his head with enough force to make him wince: Let them be, I like their ferocity. Try to be more like them, if anything!

Hurt in his pride, the apocalyptic beast first gaped in shock, then snarled furiously and ferociously rammed his shoulder into the closest Horror, slamming him backwards and gaining enough space to reach up and seize the young goddess by the hips, yanking her viciously downwards even as the tangle of immense tentacles buried inside her continued to pound savagely up into her tight, clenching sex. She snickered around his great cock buried in her throat, and pulled her foot off his skull to loosely wrap her leg around his thick neck instead, eyes flashing with pleasure and amusement as the colossal monster leaned forwards, huge muscles bulging explosively as his other enormous tentacle-cocks arched up from his groin and wrapped around her splendid body, grinding against their greedy brethren until one of them managed to snake its way over her bulging abdomen and up between her prodigious breasts, beginning to saw rapidly in and out of that great embrace of soft but amazingly firm flesh. He growled and licked her cheek in a way that reminded her deliciously of her father, and she smirked as the vast head of his cock punched roughly up against her muzzle, smearing thick, hypervirile slime all over her cheek before the immense member coiled around her neck, squeezing hard on her bulging throat and adding to the already formidable pressure on the other member already slamming down her gullet. His other massive tentacle-cock wrapped tightly around her powerful leg, making her flex with a murr as it sensually ground against her bulging muscles, before its vast, heavy head pushed ferociously into the tangle of other tentacles already stretching out her vagina, and the Horror snarled as he slammed forwards with his hips, using the one member already buried inside her to stretch her open even wider, her bones creaking as the goliath shaft ground into her inner wall and pushed, causing her abdominal muscles to distend as her belly bulged outwards.

Even that only made Mriya growl hungrily, her muscles flexing as she bucked her hips at a furious rhythm, forcing herself down until her stretched-out labia kissed the new cock pushing up inside her, clamping on the great flare with surprising, almost scary strength, sucking him in. The Horror threw his head back with a low rumble of anticipation and delight, feeling his girthy, titanic members throbbing powerfully as the pleasure rolled through his form like liquid fire in his veins.

Another Horror smashed brutally into him, trying to knock him to the side to take his place, but he resisted, roaring his challenge in his rival's face, just as the second beast reached up to grab her muscular thighs. He resisted for a moment, squeezing into the hard, formidable muscle with adoration and need, but finally let go of them just so he could grab her spectacular breasts instead, roughly squeezing into either side of those divine swells, pushing them crudely together so that they squeezed against either side of his monstrous tentacle. All four of his gigantic members pistoned viciously back and forth, stiffening up rapidly as shivers of indescribable lust and pleasure ran across his hulking form as his fourth tentacle-cock somehow ripped inside her, her muscles clenching around it with such force to make him roar, his muscles flexing and bulging as the clamping of her sex at once pulled him deeper inside and forced him back, making him snarl in amazement as he felt his tentacle slowly pushed out of her, before he rammed back in with even greater force, his fingers digging into her firm bosom, crushing on it with enough force to crack a planet like an egg and yet barely getting her to grunt in pleasure, her eyes glowing with entertainment as her voice again invaded their minds, teasing: Your are like Father... and yet, you aren't. It shows that you are just slivers of him. Come on, boys... slivers or not, you can give me some more, can't you...?

She gagged and gurgled around the monstrous titan of a cock slamming down her throat, her eyes rolling back in her head and her back arching with a blissful growl as the bestial tentacles hardened and swelled even further, causing her bones to creak and her insides to squelch wetly, air and fluids squirting loudly out of her ravaged holes whenever one of the goliath members drew backwards, and she grinned hungrily even as massive spikes and ridges of steel-hard flesh swelled all over the monstrous tentacles as the Horrors grew more and more excited, their endless seas of thick, hypervirile precum blasting inside her with the force of meteors, sending enormous gushes of overload batter squirting out of her in amazingly thick and powerful jets. Each and every one of her breaths came out as a struggling, rasping gargle mixed with a wheeze, but her eyes continued to burn with ferocious hunger, making the enormous monsters feel humiliated as she used them like nothing but toys, even as they flexed muscles that could pulverize stars and turn planets into memories, even as they snarled and roared, even as their eyes burned with dangerous, otherworldly energies. Her body shuddered and flexed, creaked and shivered, and tears ran down her cheeks, but there was nothing but hunger in her expression, nothing but craving for more, and more, and more, and worse and worse. She could feel the immense cocks throbbing, flexing with enough force to tear lesser goddesses apart like they were condoms ten sizes too small; she could feel every last great barb, every spike, every fleshy bump jutting out of those colossal beasts that not only rammed inside her guts, womb and stomach but gyrated viciously, grinding into each other, twisting around her insides, drilling her in ways that should have been impossible and that made her incandescent nectar rush down her tight passage before squirting out as best it could, spraying out in huge arches between one immense tentacle and another, her muscles bulging as her vagina squeezed on their members with enough force to make them cry out in pleasure-pain. The Horrors roared under the rain of boiling-hot juice, her nectar causing even their corrupt, pestilent, magnificent bodies to sizzle and smolder, their impenetrable hides burning and melting against the fluids of her pleasure... and each droplet that hit them caused their bodies to grow, to expand, their muscles bulging so enormously that they tore through their own hides and natural armor, their eyes bulging and acid drool leaking in ropes from their massive jaws. It filled their veins with fire, and sent them all into a brutal frenzy, grabbing into every part of her spectacular body that they could reach and thrusting harder and harder, their tentacles slamming up inside her with ferocious hunger, greedily burying as deep as they could possibly go, even as her clenching sex threatened to rip them apart, causing the Horrors to sweat thick, corruptive sludge as they had to struggle with all their might just to piston their terrifying members up against her flexing passage. She could feel every enormous member stiffen up inside her, she could feel the growing heat and the incredible force of the thrumming virility pumping inside, their immense loads building up, more and more and more as they pounded away at her from all directions, but still she craved more, and more, hungrily arching her back to grind her body against the hungry horde of other gargantuan tentacle-cocks that seemed to fill the sky in every direction. Every last enormous member was completely dripping with almighty masculine fluids, smegma, precum, sweat, all of it crammed full of monstrous, gigantic sperms. She greedily inhaled the unbelievable aroma of male, of power, of virility and authority that came from that forest of gigantic black shafts. They carried into battle the godly, glorious stench of ultimate masculine power that was her father's mark, and their semen was His semen... and she could never have enough.

The Horrors beneath her roared as the tempest of violent, delightful sensations overwhelmed whatever little control they still had, and they lost rhythm, hammering away at her tight, clenching holes, thrusting jaggedly as hard as they could inside the right confines of her passages, and she threw her head back with a growl of ecstasy as she felt the unholy, immense loads traveling up the great cocks, felt them bulging with the size of those tides of virility... until the first great rushes of seed erupted into her, making her tremble violently while her hips bucked helplessly back against those ferocious, savage pistons of their magnificent malehoods. Blast after blast after blast, tide after tide, ocean after ocean of thick, almighty semen exploded inside her, filling her up, surging through every last crevice of her insides and then squirting, bursting, erupting back out of her, from her nostrils, from even her ears, squirting out around the tremendous cocks thrusting mercilessly, powerfully up into her stretched-out holes, semen splashing down her legs, all over her breasts, down her abs, rivers running down her back, droplets and thick splatters arching through the air to rain down all over her, over the beasts, over the helpless world down below as it trembled and cracked under the stomping, heavy steps of the gigantic monsters. The Horrors were barely aware of the fact they were walking. Their attention was entirely slave to the ravenous goddess hanging from their great tentacle-cocks... but they were wading through the southern ocean of the world. Lunis was far behind them, so far away that it could hardly be guessed on the horizon, even though Mriya looked at it from high up in the sky. The Horrors were so colossal that their feet and hooves smashed the seabed into submission as they walked across the ocean like it was a puddle. They were so immense that the crimson waters didn't even reach far enough to wash their ponderously swinging, low-hanging, Moon-like testicles, even though the seabed was many miles below. Their steps rattled the planet and their movement sent tsunami waves crashing into dry land on either side of the southern ocean, but the titanic monsters only looked up at the goddess using them as nothing but toys... or better, at the goddesses. Elaine sensually half-wrapped her long, muscular legs around two colossal tentacles, grinding her feet against the invulnerable, adamantine black meat and squeezing those powerful appendages between her thighs, pushing her strong calves into them, letting out a loud murr of pleasure as her back arched and she gracefully ground her whole body against the terrifying tangle of world-destroying tentacles coiled around her spectacular form. Drool fell from her jaws as she greedily sucked on a humongous tentacle-cock buried down her throat, and her hands went from one enormous cock to the other, gripping the gigantic, fat heads and tugging at the thick, heavy blankets of foreskin, jerking and stroking, her fingers shamelessly digging inside cockmaws that yawned so wide that they could easily swallow her fist whole. Her huge breasts bounced wildly on her chest as her whole body was rocked up and down by the ferocious thrusts of the tentacles buried in her eager, soaked sex and up her ass, her belly bulging grotesquely and the shapes of the twisting tentacles showing through her hide of scales with amazing clarity, forcing even her powerful, godlike muscles to distend and stretch out. One immense tentacle ground arrogantly against her cheek while forcing its way between her breasts, and she rewarded it by tilting sideways to grind her face against the hard meat, covering her in the slobber of drool and thick, black precum leaking out of her sore jaws and flared nostrils. She flexed her powerful pectoral muscles, causing her heavy, prodigious breasts to jump, moving them up and down together, then in turns, causing the great Horror to growl in delight, his tentacles thrumming with power and then unleashing blasts of precum that shot through the air in majestic arcs, smacking the earth over a dozen miles away and drawing endless, thick rivers of dark cum over the crimson waters and over every bit of dry land they reached, causing literal explosions of powerful, pestilent, ever-growing life which split apart barren mountains with its roots, growing and evolving, creating new forests of fleshy, monstrous "plants".

Just like Mriya, Elaine had turned jet-black and smooth, darker than the most obscure of nights and yet somehow glowing brilliantly. Her body was taller, stronger, greater, more godlike than ever, crackling with great bolts of sheer energy that ran through the tentacles and tore into the Horrors, making them growl and cry in a mix of delight and agony. Her hair hadn't turned crimson, but rather had taken on a Moon-like glow that cast the world in terrible, scary light while long, semi-solid bangs of hair floated endlessly around her head, moving in tune with the energy radiating in waves out of her.

Her fingers sank in thick, solid meat as she squeezed into the tentacles hard enough to kill a demon, and her breath hissed and squelched out of her nostrils, forcing out through thick ropes of dark cum as she pumped the great members with rough eagerness, her eyes glowing as she gazed down at the titanic cocks of the Terrors: towers of black meat that were literally measured in miles, swinging ponderously from side to side as the monsters walked on, wading the ocean like it was a puddle, their hands leisurely stroking those monstrous monuments of virility, sending sperms bigger than ships crashing down to earth inside meteors of dark, hypervirile essence. Those enormous blasts painted long swathes of ocean black and they scarred dry land with enormous canyons, ripping apart the crust of the planet. The mere sound of their heavy foreskin peeling back and gliding over those gigantic cockheads was enough to cause mortal buildings to crumble into the dirt, and Elaine listened to those meaty, wet sounds with a little growl of bliss while slamming her hips back even harder to meet the ferocious pistons of the great tentacles.

Elaine grinned, at least as best she could while her jaws were forced so far apart and her cheeks bulged out so much, and her eyes followed two other great tentacles stretching towards her, dripping the blood of who knew how many victims and wrapping without hesitation around her, their coils constricting powerfully around her, thickening and growing, twisting themselves eagerly around her, pulsing visibly with heat and power. Her eyes met Mriya's ones, the two sisters trading a gaze of delight and, at the same time, hunger for more. A thought was all it took them, and the Horrors growled in delight and eagerly obeyed, their great tentacles shifting and tangled together until Elaine was shoved right under Mriya, in perfect position to bathe in the rain of blood and cum and hot nectar that cascaded from her savaged holes as multiple great tentacles ferociously slammed in and out of her, drilling orgasms out of her muscular, tough build. Elaine eagerly reached up for her sister's muscular legs, gripping into her awesome calves even as the tentacles coiled around her arms squeezed and shifted and tugged, demanding attention. She grabbed the tentacle in her mouth and pulled it out, jerking it furiously for a few moments until it unleashed a monumental wad of corruptive precum that tore across the sea like cannon fire, nearly ripping an island in two. She coughed up a huge load of dark cum, but swallowed it back down while massaging lovingly over her sister's muscles, panting hungrily as she nuzzled into her calves and licked up her blood and the Horror's powerful sludge. "Fuck yeah, boys... Keep it up, and I might even give you a treat..." She promised between rough pants, making her way up along those formidable legs, until she had to fight for space against the group of massive, alpha tentacles buried in Mriya's insatiable holes. Elaine mouthed those titanic members, nibbling and lapping and kissing, and they easily curved around her head and slipped down to wrap around her neck, playfully strangling her and yanking her roughly up until she managed to roll her tongue over the stretched-out, bloody, gaping labia of Mriya's black-fleshed sex.

The thick tentacles curled down and around her like snakes, smelling of the their father's almighty musk and sliding sinuously over her body, pulsing with supernatural heat and power and smearing her whole form in thick, hot, dark precum and cockslime, the two sisters growling in delight as they were shoved one against the other. Elaine spread her arms wide and half-leaned backwards, effortlessly supported by the massive members wrapped around her thighs and waist and chest, not to mention the almighty cocks that smashed with savage force up inside her holes, lifting her higher and forcing her face up against Mriya's ravaged pussy.

An arrogant tentacle pushed up between her face and Mriya's overstuffed holes, and Elaine licked it teasingly before grinning as the powerful tendril moved up to the tigress's stretched-out ass and brutally rammed forth, flexing and tensing as its barbs pushed against Mriya's buttocks hard enough to lift her higher up... and then, somehow, the great appendage ripped inside with a squelch of blood and thick juices that splashed on Elaine's face. "Fuck yeah, big boy... fuckin' ram it in there!" Elaine breathed, grinning as she squeezed hard in her sister's muscular thighs as they spasmed and flexed in a mix of pain and delight, and hot juices trickled down from above, washing down the dragoness's spectacular breasts. The tentacle pistoned back and forth with vicious force, and Elaine nuzzled it and sloppily licked its thick, powerful body... before her eyes bulged as it yanked back out of Mriya's ass and savagely twisted around to invade her muzzle, so thick and long and massive to choke her, making her gag as it slammed down her throat, almost ripping it open as it ravaged her depths, her voice coming up in a murr of approval even as her jaws sealed shut around that mammoth girth as she sucked so hard that the Horror beneath shuddered and let out a snarl of delight.

The last few Spirit devices burst apart as the two goddesses sent shivers of delight and violent discharges of psychic power through the monstrous titans, causing several of the beasts to look up at the far smaller females with gapes of shock and horror as they realized what they were doing and immediately bowed their heads to beg for forgiveness... only for Elaine to snarl and yank on the tentacles all the harder, her voice booming in their mouths and her order searing itself in their minds: don't fuckin' stop. Harder. Faster.

She threw her head back with a roar of bliss that came out as little more than a gurgle around the thick appendage in her throat as the other tentacles pistoned in and out of her devastated vagina, her belly bulging grotesquely from the sheer size and thickness invading her, as more colossal cocks ripped into her tight anus and countless others squeezed around her body, grinding against her smooth hide of darkness and fighting brutally for a chance to push up between her breasts or to crush down around her throat, all of them thrumming with a heat so great it threatened to burn her.The immense tentacles writhed and twisted and moved fiercely as she choked around the tentacle in her jaws, drool and pre falling from her muzzle as the enormous members twisted and gyrated, drilling inside her, all of them pistoning back and forth endlessly, with inexhaustible strength, all of them vaunting such size and such ferocity that they made her body bulge obscenely, rivers of blood running down the appendages ripping into her tight holes.

It was almost like being under daddy's vast and powerful frame as he pounded away. Almost. She could smell him, and feel some of his energies, and some of his strength and some of that delicious ferocity that they had to tease out of him... but which, once unleashed, always drove them into blissful coma.

They had managed to lure on them many, maybe all of the Horrors that had been rampaging on the world... unfortunately, however, Sikanjal had not taken the bait and was nowhere to be seen.

They had, however, one mission and a clear direction to follow: the Horrors were carrying them towards the Arctic, where the RA secret factories and facilities were located. The Judge's databases had given them the only thing resembling a clue that they had, and they were going to investigate on it. They could have teleported, admittedly, but the Horrors were so titanic that it was literally a short walk from Lunis to the South Pole... and sure enough, Elaine saw the arctic appearing before them, and rapidly drawing near.

The South Pole, just like the Northern one, had completely melted away, and the trillions of tons of ice had become trillions of cubic meters of extra water that had enlarged the oceans and flooded most of what used to be dry land across the entire planet. There now were mountains, barren and completely devoid of life, poking out of the surface of the sea and other plateaus and hints of a continent revealed by the disappearance of the ice, but the two goddesses found nothing to suggest that the RA had dug tunnels through the ice and all the way down into that once invisible land. They guided the Horrors along the routes that they had found in the computers of the Judge, and that brought them, apparently, in the middle of absolutely nowhere: nothing but icy crimson waters surrounded them... until one of the Horrors visibly stepped on something. His massive leg flexed for a moment as an obstacle pocked into his titanic spiked hoof, and then the beast snorted and applied a little bit of force, effortlessly flattening and pulverizing whatever obstruction had dared disturbing him.

Mriya and Elaine traded a look at that, and their eyes flashed with power, so much so that the Horrors stiffened and froze in place, their tentacles slowing down and then stopping completely, holding them aloft but staying buried, motionless and respectful, within their mighty bodies.

Mriya didn't need to speak her order: her mind seared the message with fire into the minds of the Horrors, and the tentacles slowly and reverently carried her forwards and downwards, allowing her to look through the dirty waters. The ocean was relatively shallow in there. It was a sort of bay, enclosed by rocky cliffs and hills that, for the most part, weren't tall enough to poke out of the water. In the past, that whole bay would have been well hidden beneath hundreds of feet of solid eternal ice, thick enough to be impenetrable by any kind of sensor and invulnerable to any kind of offence. No bunker-buster bomb could have pierced through that thickness of stone-hard ice.

It was a perfect hiding place, a natural bunker... just terribly unpractical and challenging to exploit. Life in that area of the Arctic would have been next to impossible when the ice was still there; never mind life _under_the ice and down into the depths of the sea. But Cerberus needed a quiet and safe place were to prepare his army...

The water lapped lazily at the legs of the Horrors, sometimes literally only reaching up to their ankles or little more, but since the sea was contaminated and colored of a sinister crimson, Mriya couldn't spot anything on the bottom. With a snort of irritation, she flicked her wrist and caused the ocean to first rippled violently, and then to seemingly break in half as enormous waves smashed into the cliffs on either side of the bay, before the water sprayed skywards... and remained suspended in midair, prisoner of her terrible psychic power as she literally opened a wound in the waters, revealing the seafloor.

At first, it looked like there was nothing there but sand and stone, but as she moved her hand slowly to the side, forcing the sea to open up wider for her inspection, she found a tangle of mammoth relicts that the violence of the waves caused by the Cataclysm had washed up against the cliff and piled up messily, one on top of the other. The corrupted, toxic sea had already inflicted a surprising amount of decay on those majestic hulls, but even with the growths and deposits and stains and rust, it was impossible not to recognize them as submarines. Massive missile-launching submarines.

"Crap. Cold was right." Mriya quietly commented, while her eyes ran from the bow to the stern of one of those gigantic beasts. The biggest SSBNs ever built in the whole world. A whole fleet of them. Carrying more nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles than any other SSBN on the planet. They had been trumpeted as the glory and power of the Raja family; as the ultimate protectors of the kingdom of Alfaya and of its immense oil fields. They had puzzled and terrified analysts and governments alike, forcing everyone to wonder whether Alfaya was preparing to hold the world at ransom with the combined threat of oil shortages and nuclear holocaust. In reality, none of those submarines had ever carried a single ballistic missile, and yet they had been built and employed for a project much more ambitious, much more monstrous, and much more destructive.

Mriya studied the long rows of car-sized hatches visible in the top hull of the submarines: all fake. She distinguished, instead, the edges of two much larger doors which could open. The whole, enormous, cavernous missile compartment, which made up most of the submarine ahead of the conning tower, was a massive hangar with a roof that could split open to allow stores to be lifted in and out. Those mammoth boats had spent their whole service life stealthily carrying stores from Alfaya to that secret place under the ice. It was the perfect plan, wasn't it...? SSBNs were built to sail out of port and vanish, after all. Real SSBNs made themselves invisible out in the open ocean, waiting to unleash Armageddon if their country was attacked. Those fake SSBNs vanished for a completely different reason, but who could have imagined that...?

Thanks to all the stuff that they had carried, the RA had built a base under the ice, and when Elaine ordered the Horrors to lower her closer to the sea and she forced the ocean to part open for her, great domes of steel were revealed: factories and laboratories and accommodation blocks, all connected by tunnels. And then enormous shipyards, with colossal cranes mounted on rails, each able to lift colossal modules and piece warships together bit by bit. Underwater. It was unbelievable, yet undeniable. They even found one of the RA's guided missile destroyer ships, abandoned unfinished under a group of cranes that the fury of the sea had tilted over and bent in weird shapes. They saw a variety of cylinders of various lengths, at various stages of fitting out, scattered over a large area: building blocks that sea had washed away from the depots. Had they been completed and joined together, they would have become powerful submarines.

Mriya and Elaine stared at that spectacle in awe and rage. The Horror who had stumbled, quite literally, upon the RA base had crushed another unfinished warship under his hoof, turning the mighty destroyer into an unrecognizable lump of scrap metal half-buried at the bottom of a deep, immense hoofprint. The two goddesses glared at the great domes, their eyes glowing with power and with anger as their psychic force ripped those great structures apart, removing them like the lids off boxes full of toys.

They desperately looked for signs of life, hoping that the base might still be inhabited. Even daring to hope, for a brief instant, that maybe their father was held there, imprisoned in one of those structures... but it became immediately and painfully evident that the whole facility had been abandoned. Only corpses remained: those of the RA servants and workers who had outlived their usefulness and had been mercilessly terminated with a discharge of electricity that from their Spirit device went directly into the brain, frying it.

The warships and the transports built there and loaded with UCWs, tanks and clone troops, had been carefully guided under the ice by small but powerful submarine-tugs. The Arctic was the one area of the world which was surveyed only quite sporadically by intelligence satellites, so the RA had had little to no difficulty in inflating enormous bags to send the new ships up from the bottom, within safe timeframes when no one was watching. Radars could track the satellites and calculate to the second the windows of opportunity to evade their attention, after all.

The little submarine-tugs were everywhere, abandoned disorderly on the seabed in great numbers. They had clearly been sized to fit within the SSBN-transports, a clear sign that those, at least, had been built in Alfaya and then shipped over already complete. They were equipped with sophisticate and powerful robotic arms, so they had also probably been used to build up the base itself. The domes were special structures meat to resist to the pressure of the ocean, but inside they were nothing but yenga castles made up of prefabricated modules extracted by the SSBN-transports and carefully slotted together. Easy, clean, quick. At least, it had been as easy and quick as building an immense metropolis of factories and shipyards under the Arctic Sea could be. The proportions of the enterprise were astounding.

Mriya was half admired, half-horrified by the whole thing. The project had clearly required uncountable years of work, and the time it had taken could be guessed easily by looking at the very evident differences in technology between various pieces of machinery: many of the underwater cranes were bulky and ancient, clearly dated back several decades, while other equipment was almost brand new. Entire generations had worked at building up that sprawling underwater factory of war, passing the project on from father to son. She glared at a half-finished warships laying on a flank, and the gigantic lump of metal ground backwards over the "yard" and plowed right into one of the huge domes, ripping it apart. Inside there were immense sheets of steel, abandoned within laser and water cutting machines, and half-built modules for yet more warships. Some had been abandoned while already painted and fitted out, ready to be driven outside through a complex water lock and then maneuvered into position and welded to other blocks to form a hull. With the cranes and mini-submarines outside, the RA had been able to join up a multitude of modules per day, rolling out finished ships at an unbelievable rhythm.

"Clever little bastards..." Mriya hissed, looking down into the exposed workshop, her lips curling in a grimace of distaste as she forced the massive cruiser to spin on its keel, crushing the cutters and metal-bending machinery, the welding equipment, the stores and abandoned working positions, before the great, unfinished vessel smashed into the abandoned ship modules and sent them tearing through the walls. Some of the blocks were already secured on immense, remotely-operated trailers with hundreds of wheels, and those began to roll across the sprawling base, crushing everything they met on their path and eventually crashing into other domes.

Mriya sought Elaine's eyes, sighing in sadness and frustration and rage, thinking of nothing other than finding their father and already knowing that he wasn't in that base, even as they kept finding new domes while advancing along the coast of the semi-submerged, barren continent. Elaine looked back at her with the very same despair in her eyes. Her expression betrayed all the pain of a daughter left wondering about her father's fate, even as her body glowed gloriously with an armor of living darkness which was, somehow, luminous and obscure at the same time. Her white hair glowed, her whole form crackling with enough energy to fry a thousand worlds a thousand times... but all of that power still couldn't give her the one thing she wanted.

The dragoness felt tears pushing at her eyes, trying to get out, but she fought them back with a sniff-hiss of rage, clenching her fists as she silently ordered her titanic Horrors - servants to walk on. The dark beasts obeyed without hesitation, their massive hooves and feet purposefully smashing down through dome after dome; raking the tunnels into slivers of metal; crushing submarine-tugs and cranes into broken, ugly and unrecognizable wrecks. The ocean retreated in front of them, moving back as if afraid of their terrifying power, and the water peeled up in an absurd wave that moved impossibly backwards. As the blanket of crimson water was peeled off, more and more structures and half-finished ships and submarines continued to appear, only for the Horrors to crush them all underfoot. The great, titanic beast carrying Elaine with his tentacles had but a grunt of contempt to offer to the best warships the RA had been able to design, his hoof coming down over the middle of a great cruiser and tearing through it like it was an empty tin can, disintegrating its masts, destroying its superstructures and then flattening most of the hull, while the bow and stern sections bent upwards on either side of his hoof.

When he stepped onwards and his hoof tore its way out of the crater it had stamped in the seabed, the crumpled warship stuck pathetically to it, glued by sweat and sheet pressure. Thousands of tons of steel were hefted skywards, unnoticed and insignificant, until a droplet of sweat rolled off the great hoof and sent the useless hulk falling down like a meteor. It crashed down through a dome, flattening it like it was a mere tent, but Elaine only gritted her fangs with powerless rage, and dark energy crackled down her spine... before one of the Horrors around her shuddered, receiving her mental order and immediately turning sideways, opening its jaws wide and vomiting an infernal tornado of black fire that washed over the sprawling facility, incinerating, melting, consuming and dissolving everything it touched.

And then, predictably, the ocean finally unveiled the vast underwater "slipway" which had seen the Judge being assembled, made up of modules as large as full grown warships. The shape of her vast bottom was still faintly recognizable thanks to the immense forest of gigantic concrete blocks upon which she had rested.

Cranes and immense robotic arms were arranged in clusters all around that forest, and several of those clusters had been repurposed to build smaller, "normal warships", which looked like bathtub toys lost over that great shape. Elaine stared at all that with mild interest for a brief instant, then she snorted in contempt and gritted her fangs, ripping into the yard with her psychic force and allowing her rage to cut, tear, disintegrate, pulverize. Within instants, the only thing that remained was a confused pattern of glowing, smoldering canyons scarring the seafloor.

They didn't need to advance much further before finding another massive forest of concrete basements that had supported the modules for another super-weapon. Mriya and Elaine traded a look, and a grimace: none of them knew what the Sentence looked like, but the yard had the peculiarities of a submarine-building facility, including a special dome in which the tube-like sections making up the hull were fitted out vertically before being moved out. The enormous shape on the seabed was much smaller than the Judge's, but far, far larger than any submarine had ever been. It suggested that the Sentence had at least three resistant hulls, connected by perpendicular tunnels. The middle hull was longer and fatter and undoubtedly contained most of the crew spaces, while the lateral hulls, Mriya guessed, contained the machinery and probably a fair share of the weaponry. Missile tubes, for example. She remembered well the briefings that Cold had given them about the Sentence: she was suspected to be equipped with a revolutionary, super-silent propulsion system which probably was entirely housed in tubes buried deep within the submarine: the flank hulls were the logical position for such cumbersome arrangements.

The middle hull was enormous: a normal submarine had two or three decks, but the Sentence had probably nine or ten. There was enough space there that it was easy to imagine the Sentence having some kind of hangar for other vehicles... maybe even aircraft. Knowing the RA and their vertical take-off fighter jets and transports, it was easy to imagine the Sentence having her own powerful air wing.

Mriya and Elaine ordered the Horrors to put them down, and they searched the nearby workshops and domes. They found files about the Sentence's design and her building phase; they found information about her weapons; they found out that it was armed with no less than 22 monstrous torpedo tubes, some facing even aft, all capable to fire bus-sized super-cavitating torpedoes. She carried 48 nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles and had 128 vertical missile launching cells for other weapons. She was armed with three fearsome rail-guns, smaller variants of those used by the Judge. And she truly had a hangar, and a complement of two whole squadrons of Mantis VTOL jet fighters.

More impressively still, there was a vast laboratory on board, with a team of scientists, engineers and occultists who had worked on project "Hell Queen". A bit of research in the abandoned computers allowed the two sisters to discover, with little to no surprise, that "Hell Queen" was Sikanjal. The Sentence was her mobile base; the place where she vanished between a battle and another; where she had her wounds healed and her body upgraded and further empowered.

The Sentence had the kind of facilities that could contain Killer and allow Cerberus to experiment on the liger and steal his abilities by decoding his DNA, so it was possible that their father had been carried on that super-submarine... But while they dug further into the files, trying to find information about where the Sentence might be, they discovered something even more important.

The Sentence was equipped with an escape pod that was actually a space shuttle, programmed to reach a place called "Valhalla". Unfortunately, they only found very little solid information about that place, which was described as "star dreadnought". Some sort of militarized space station, if not a space battleship, parked somewhere in orbit. They immediately remembered what they had been told: Lord Skyfall's transmissions originated from somewhere in space, not far from earth, although they had never been able to locate the exact place. Now they knew, with almost absolute certainty, that the RA called that place "Valhalla". And they were immediately aware that Killer was far more likely to be held in there, rather than on the submarine itself.

The problem was that they had already tried, in every possible way, to locate the source of Lord Skyfall's transmissions. Whatever Valhalla was, it was shielded so well that even Alexis had been unable to sense its presence and fix its coordinates... and despite their best and most desperate attempts, they found nothing else about it. The databases contained no information about the star dreadnought. Naturally, Cerberus had wanted to keep his hiding place secure, and had shared the secret with no one. Probably those who had built up Valhalla had long been executed.

Mriya and Elaine continued to look for clues, however. They tried everything. They looked everywhere.

They found an immense warehouse full of stores, and three more full of stored and disassembled missiles and torpedoes, ready to be pieced together and embarked on the Sentence if she ever needed a reload and made her way back to base... but there was no sign she ever had, and she was unlikely to ever do so.

Mriya, Elaine and the Horrors razed the whole base to the ground. They ensured that no signs of its existence were left behind.

And when they were gone, the two goddesses stepped upon great, mighty tentacles, standing upon the gigantic appendages as they elevated them high up into the sky. The two sisters traded a look, then gazed out over the vast ocean as the Horrors turned around and walked towards deeper waters, heading north.

They had to find the Sentence. No matter the difficulties, they had to locate her and conquer her. Intact.

They needed that space shuttle. They needed the coordinates loaded in its computers. Those coordinates could guide them back into their father's arms.

If he had ever had any doubt, now they were all well and truly gone. Cerberus had not been kidding when he crushed Persephone underfoot and laid down his law: Killer could sense a permanent and heavy guard standing in the corridor outside the tower, their energies radiating clearly all the way to his position. He had sensed Persephone's energies coming his way a few times since then, but she had always stopped well short of the armada of supernatural guards, which all carried the heavy stench of Cerberus's corruption. Even without seeing them, even while a thick wall of flesh and tumorous growths separated him from them, he could easily determine that Cerberus had enthusiastically played and experimented with his novel powers, using some of the gods and goddesses of the Swarm as his canvas. He had impregnated several, filling them with monstrous, mutant life that he could sense moving, growing, developing. It would have disgusted him, had he not been honest enough to recognize that he happily did exactly the same kind of thing, and even more monstrously, when given the chance. All of the divinities outside the door had been turned into thralls who no longer had any true freedom, identity or independence: their mind processes were strictly limited by the overwhelming, uncontrollable need to do what their master wanted. They were extensions of Cerberus's will and of his power, made stronger and more durable but robbed of all their humanity, turned into nothing but slaves, no matter how powerful. Persephone had quickly realized it as well, and she hadn't even tried forcing her way past them or seducing them into doing what she wanted: they were too far gone, too deeply corrupted to be fazed by her beauty and antics and teasing. Sometimes she had wandered a little closer, but as soon as the hideous, monstrous guardians had moved towards her she had rapidly changed path and rushed back to her chambers. She was as much of a prisoner as he was, at that point... and Killer wondered at times whether Thanathos had beaten her, whether he had raped her, punished her... her energies still felt healthy enough, but Killer could perceive the anguish and depression in them. She was terrified and lost, desperately afraid of what tomorrow would bring, and terrified by her husband, who had become far more powerful and also far less predictable as violent emotions and even more ferocious needs cursed through his hulking, corrupted form.

Cerberus had not lied: the first time Thanathos had stormed the tower to torment Killer and show off his new and greatly expanded power, the liger had immediately realized that the god of war had only received a limited injection of new energies and corruption. In the words of Cerberus, he had only been given a diluted taste of "Killer-juice", and his ability to absorb and assimilate organic matter was even less developed than Cerberus's still troublesome one. Parasites infested the corrupted body of the god, in greater numbers and with greater hunger than in Cerberus, tormenting him worse, consuming him at such a rate that Killer half-expected him to actually die within a few months at most, eaten alive by the fearsome beasts tunneling through his mutant flesh and muscle.

Thanathos had been enthralled with his new powers, with his ability to devour lesser divinities to add to his strength; his newfound ability to absorb raw energy and add it to his own. But the god of war also appeared disturbed, forever hanging on the threshold of insanity, and his mood swings were getting truly terrible. One moment he would think of his beloved Persephone as an angel, beautiful and faithful and adoring... and the moment later his hulking form would crackle with enormous discharges of malignant, destructive energy as he howled in fury about her, about Cerberus, about the unfair world he had to contend with. Thanathos was tormented by the awareness that Persephone had never loved him and never would. He was torn between his helpless adoration for her and the terrible fury that burned in his veins whenever he looked at her, or smelled the thick, potent stench of male, of virility, of Killer that was by now an indelible part of her. He had seen the KO marks that she had overeagerly cut into her flesh, scarring herself forever. Her belly was already bulging again, even more monstrously than before, as a new litter of feral beasts rapidly developed inside her. Cerberus had consumed those who came before, but even his vicious rape had not been able to eradicate Killer's monstrous sperms from inside her. As soon as he had retreated out of her, those massive, ferocious beasts had colonized her devastated womb and filled it with new beasts, even bigger and more numerous than before, leaving her barely able to stand, her splendid form deformed by the grotesquely huge belly. Her perfume was gone, forever replaced by Killer's almighty stench. Her eyes looked at him with fear, with distaste, with false affection when he was lucky, and he clearly was finding it harder and harder to pretend otherwise. And he also knew he could not trust his "friend" Cerberus. He knew he was being used, and probably suspected that he had not been given the same kind of power boost that the tiger had reserved for himself. Cerberus's energy signature was gone, and Killer had to assume he had left the fortress, and probably the planet, to pursue Alexis across the universe, following her all the way to its Center, to the Well of Eternity. There was little doubt in his mind that Cerberus had been in such a hurry to leave also to avoid any prolonged comparison with Thanathos. That would have left no doubt at all, but even without it, Thanathos was fuming with barely restrained fury.

He had taken out much of that rage on Killer, spending countless hours in the tower, torturing him, tormenting him, howling questions and curses in his face. Again and again he had clawed and bitten into Killer's flesh, even into his beating heart, ripping off large chunks of bloody meat. Again and again he had roared his questions without answer: why Persephone couldn't love him? Why everyone only ever tried to use him? Why could he never trust anyone?

Had he not been literally chewing on his beating heart while blurting out those questions, Killer could have felt some sympathy for him. Instead, Thanathos only worried him, in some ways more than Cerberus: the god of death was a bomb on a short fuze which burned at erratic speed. There was no telling when it might go off, and how violently. He was clearly insane at that point and would thus be unable to consider any of the consequences of his actions. Cerberus had not killed him because he needed him still; but would Thanathos be able to restrain himself if he finally, completely lost his mind? Killer hated the idea of dying while nailed to that accursed cross of crystal, drained of his energies and unable to fight back.

He wasn't at all sure of how much time had passed since Cerberus's last visit, but Thanathos had already stormed the tower at least a dozen times, and the "guards" created by Cerberus had only reluctantly allowed him through, making him even angrier. They were under clear orders to pander to the god of death's wishes to give him the impression of being a leader, not a tool... but Thanathos was insane, not stupid. The two things are completely different.

Thanathos had started hounding the scientists, the corrupt creatures that were still hard at work to rip the last secrets out of Killer's body. They too had been corrupted beyond recognition by Cerberus, allegedly in an accident immediately after the end of the operation that had given him his new, terrifying powers.

It had clearly been no accident at all: Cerberus had only wanted to make sure that the scientists would be loyal to him and to him alone. Before, they had been held on a leash thanks to the Spirit devices, but that method was weak and flawed, especially because their brains were too precious to be damaged and rewritten too extensively. The Spirit was not kind to the nervous system of its hosts: the more it had to cancel the free-will of the victim, the more brain damage it caused, replacing entire cerebral functions with its own computer processes. Obviously, doing that to the scientists would have made them next to useless by cancelling vast parts of their knowledge. The scientists had to be kept under a much looser control, and that had been one of the greatest problems for Cerberus, because he couldn't trust them... and they didn't trust him one bit, either. They had originally accepted the Spirit device thinking that it would only enhance their brain's performances, and once they had discovered the truth they had been pinned down with brute force by Cerberus's henchmen. With the Spirit unable to selectively cancel their memory, they had never forgotten that betrayal and since then they had been understandably wary of any order they were given.

Being fully aware of the immense power they were now being asked to isolate, understand and reproduce, they had demanded better security and a proper payment... which had taken the shape of an injection of Killer's power and genetics, which had allowed them to grow into divinities of their own right. They no longer needed stairs, ramps and robotic ramps to work on Killer's titanic body and they no longer were so terribly vulnerable to the power of the colossus they were ordered to torture and cut apart. Cerberus had tried to convince them to accept some other form of payment, but the scientists weren't stupid: gold could not compete with divine power. Cerberus had had to accept their demands, but he and Thanathos and a vast army of slave-gods had guarded the operation throughout to ensure that they only used reduced amounts of "Killer-juice". The scientists, after all, could have kept all their precious discoveries to themselves: if they managed to ascend, nothing would then be able to blackmail or intimidate them again.

Had they played their cards well, the scientists could have built up their strength until they could crush Cerberus, Thanathos and all of their slaves and henchmen. They had tried, of course. They had continued to secretly inject themselves with more and more "Killer's juice", but Cerberus was no idiot and the juice was not without contraindications. Its use left very evident signs that just couldn't be hidden away. As in most, if not all groups, jealousy and envy had conspired to pit one scientist against the other. Literally, in their case, the demon had conspired against the angels: it seemed that, no matter the settings, angels and demons just could not get along. The two corrupt Arkangels in the group pulled in one direction, the Minotaur in another, the mortals in yet others.

Cerberus had brilliantly exploited those conflicts to ensure that the scientists, unable to trust each other, continued to work with him, as he could supply them with all the resources they needed, as well as protection from the eventual betrayal of any of the other scientists.

He had separately agreed alliances with the angel and with the demon, promising to be the decisive force in favor of either and ensuring that, in exchange, they gave him exactly what he wanted.

Idiots. Cerberus only ever sides with Cerberus. As soon as he had received his new powers, Cerberus had lashed out against the scientists, corrupting them and turning them into his thralls. Angel, demon... it no longer mattered. Cerberus had made sure to make them all well and truly slave to his will.

Thanathos knew he couldn't trust them, but also realized that they had no intention and no permission to kill him... yet. And so he hounded them. He followed them closely. Into the tower, where they spent their time cutting pieces of Killer off to study them... or literally to send them to Cerberus as food, using the Reapers as instantaneous messengers, the only ones able to freely teleport through the vast infinity of Existence. Thanathos controlled the Reapers, at least, and he exploited that: he made sure to eat at least half of whatever piece of meat or mixture of fluids was sent out to Cerberus.

Thanathos also followed the scientists into their laboratory, spying them as they worked. It immensely irritated the scientists, but they were under strict orders not to compromise the operation by doing anything which would turn the god of death definitively into an enemy. They did their best to keep their work as secret and unintelligible for him as they could, but what they could not do was turn against him and force him to leave.

Insane or not, Thanathos was not yet gone. He had no intention of being defeated without putting up a proper fight. Cerberus and the god of death were, by all means, enemies. Whatever germ of alliance had existed between them was well and truly gone, although none of the two was yet in a position to make it an open statement. They still needed each other, much as they worked hard to stab each other in the back.

Unfortunately for Killer, their conflict hadn't provided him with any chance for an escape, but had only caused him greater pain and misery.

The rhythm of the "visits" to his cell was now terrible. The scientists were visibly excited, a clear sign that they had now found a lead that they could follow and were steadily obtaining results. Each visit resulted in excruciating pain as they viciously tore pieces of him apart, cut others right off, and slaughtered him alive, cutting off morsels of corrupt flesh, of regenerating muscle, of his internal organs, everything that could give them access to the secrets of his body. Whenever the scientists worked on him, Thanathos stood behind them, studying their every move, observing every piece of him that was probed, tormented, cut apart. And as soon as the scientists left, Thanathos made sure to inflict new suffering to those exact same spots, organs, muscles, viciously biting into them, greedily eating them raw. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't... but Thanathos was in any and all cases all too glad to dig his head into the torn-open chest of the liger to chew on his heart, or devour long stretches of his guts, even if it didn't boost his powers in the end.

Killer was starting to lose hope. As long as Persephone had visited him, he had been able to tell himself that things were going to look up. Much as she tried to overcome his will force and get him to betray his love, his family, his principles, he could always tell himself that he was going to succeed in getting her to yank Requiem out of his chest. Now that she could no longer visit him, he felt completely and desperately alone.

Persephone had also brought him invaluable "food", which he now greatly missed: the gods and goddesses that she had brought to him had played a huge part in keeping his hungers under control. Fucking them, raping them, abusing them had kept him sane, horrible as it was to admit. They had been perfect toys for him to vent his endless sexual urges upon, and they had made it much easier to resist to Persephone's beauty, to her toxic charm, to her hellish seduction, to her supernatural magnetism. She had made a terrible mistake in deciding to "feed" him, as it would have been so much harder for him to resist to her allure had he not had another way to vent some steam... and now that he was alone and trapped, with no relief, blue-balled for pretty much the first time in his life, his body and his mind both yearned for Persephone like never before. Her limitless debauchery and her promises of pleasure and worship kept flashing up in the brief, confused, tormenting dreams and nightmares that yanked at his mind whenever his eyes heavily closed, between an infernal torture and another. Without the chance to vent his sexual urges, his body was storing them up, accumulating a fearsome power that he couldn't control, much as he tried to hold back, much as he tried to deliberately depress himself, to think of things that should have killed any libido, even his own... but nothing worked. He knew he was only giving away more of his power and his "secrets" in that way, but he just couldn't restrain his own supernatural, obscene vigor. His cock was permanently semi-hard, jutting out in front of him like an immense tower of pure masculine omnipotence, curved downwards slightly because of its own enormous weight. Barbs and spikes of hard meat jutted out of the titanic shaft, and cruel ridges were clearly visible down the godlike length, even though they were not yet fully swollen up. His cockhead was fat, bulging and massive... but at the same time it had swelled even wider, larger, and more terrible as a colossal flare had expanded all around it, with great spikes and nubs of hard flesh pushing out all around the corona of the colossal cockhead. It was terrible and glorious to watch, a true weapon of destruction as well as of chaotic, endless creation. His ponderous balls, heavier than ever, thrummed with power as they kept producing more and more masculine essence, seemingly interpreting the forced abstinence as a signal that it was time to up the ante and roll out the heavy calibers. The gigantic, monstrous cock flexed with endless vigor, its vast cockmaw gaping wide as an enormous flood of godly, ultra-thick precum leaked out of him in rivers, the dense batter coming out in almost solid chunks formed by uncountable giga-sperms wrestling each other down to get out faster, to be the first to invade an helpless body and turn it into a breeding machine. Enormous globes of thick precum forced out of him, making him grit his fangs in a mix of pain and undeniable pleasure as the sperms that came out only ever became larger, larger, larger, beasts of absurd dimensions and power, which also only ever became more numerous. In turn, if those titans were his runts, the ones that remained stored within his body had to be even larger and stronger. His cockhead was framed by ungodly amounts of smegma which accumulated over and beneath the massive flare, and spectacular chunks of that filthy masculine produce were slowly pushed off by the endless deluge of newer and stronger precum. Large chunks of that smegma covered the floor below him, mixing with fresher hypervirile batter coming out of Killer. Hell, the gigantic sperms surfaced out of him even through his sweat... the thick, corruptive, glorious black sweat and masculine batter that oozed out of his gigantic shaft. More, more, more and still more, his potency manifested itself with greater and greater force with every moment that passed, leaving Killer himself staring as those monstrous, giant sperms with angry fangs and muscular, hulking heads-bodies jutting with cruel spikes and devastating tentacles, while their long, massive tail whipped at the air and at the ground, hard enough to scar the fleshy floor. They were larger than ever before, leaving even Killer staring in shock at that formidable display of power.

Those beastly, divine sperms and all those masculine fluids were handing power and secrets to the enemy on a silver plate, and Killer was painfully aware of it but couldn't stop himself. Especially not when the scientists drove electrified rods through his immense testicles, tormenting them and sending them into overdrive, stimulating an even greater production.

The prey that Persephone had brought into his cell had also been perhaps even more important in maintaining him strong and full of vigor. Devouring them he had partially satiated his craving for violence and destruction, as well as given his body new and precious energies that were needed to aid his regeneration, to enable his body to rebuild itself after every vicious torture sessions. Their energy had allowed him to preserve his own, but now, just as Thanathos and the scientists assaulted him even more viciously, he had no alternative but to consume his own resources. He was trying to do so with extreme caution, both because he knew he had to endure for an unknown amount of time, and because he hoped to make things harder for his enemies.

Alone, constantly tortured and trapped into constant darkness, Killer was beginning to lose himself. He felt cut off from the world, from his own life and fate, and he just couldn't help worrying about his family, locked in battle without him being able to help them. He couldn't help but think obsessively of Alexis, who was forcing her way to the literal centre of all of Existence to try and come to his rescue. The thought of her determination, her courage, her loyalty and love for him filled his heart with warmth... but knowing that she was effectively rushing into yet another trap on his behalf made him feel horribly guilty. Cerberus was out there, hideous and corrupt by a power he could barely contain; a strength that made him dangerous even for the glorious, mighty Alexis. My power. The power he stole out of me. Used to hurt the ones I love... He was starting to wonder whether he'd completely lose control of his mind before even Thanathos did. He could feel the control slip away. He felt humiliated by his inability to just rip free of his restraints. Again and again he had tried to get to Requiem, to grab the infernal weapon, the blade of death, and yank it out of his chest... but the malignant force that the scythe could unleash whenever he tried to touch it was absolutely fearsome. Just like Wyvern, Requiem was a weapon so permeated with the energies of its owner to have developed a personality, if not a fully fledged conscience. It reacted with extreme violence to block his attempts to get out of that inferno... and the fact that the scythe had originally belonged to Azura and still was heavily soaked of the goddess's energies made it all even worse. After all, he had known Azura... her ghost, at least. Her... projection? He had met her in person, even though she was long dead and gone. He remembered well. It had been an amazing experience, which had changed his way of looking at life and death. She said she had "gone beyond", exploring the layers of existence that lay beyond space and time as they are normally conceived; beyond Heaven and Hell. She had asked him to look after Ira, her adopted daughter, and had blessed their union, and had wished him good luck for the struggles that faced him. "I've met Azura. We are friends. We are on the same side... Why the fuck do you hate me so much...?" Killer grumbled, his eyes opening and staring at the glowing, angry scythe pierced through his masculine chest.

"Have you, now...?" A voice enquired, sounding entertained, and Killer stiffened in his restraints and cursed under his breath: he had evidently fell unconscious once more, because he did not remember the door opening and his tormenters walking into the cell once more. How long had he been out? He couldn't tell, because nothing in that horrendous inferno gave him any indication of time flow, and he wasn't even sure whether the planet they were on had days in any way comparable to those he was used to. They could well have been much longer or much shorter than Earth's days, and that screwed up any calculation. He had long lost all counts anywhere, and it only made him feel even more miserable.

He repressed a shiver of disgust at the sound of Thanathos's voice, which had become very similar to Cerberus's: a disturbingly low and rasping growl, almost feral, which rumbled out of their jaws with enough force to make his ribcage vibrate. What was truly scary, however, was the fact that their voice now invaded even his mind, booming into his very brain, breaking past his defences and making it impossible not to listen. Could they also read his thoughts? He wasn't sure, but the thought of Thanathos and Cerberus being able to violate all of his memories, hopes and secrets made him shiver in revulsion.

Thanathos snorted in derision, looking down at him from the full height of his new, hideous body. He too had discarded the bulky energy-absorbing crystal armor, obviously, in favor of a new and disgusting natural armor made of fleshy growths, pulsing "tubes" full of thick corruption, flailing tentacles stretching out of infectious tears in an otherwise impenetrable skin that had turned into some kind of fleshy-metal, and muscles. Huge, powerful muscles that bulged with tremendous strength and that were able to spot almost any kind of offense or weapon. They were also the most visible and immediately understandable sign of just how much power they had managed to steal out of Killer... or, more accurately, to replicate. Despite the tortures and the repeated mutilations, they had not seriously damaged any of Killer's abilities and had not diminished his power. They were wearing out his mind and exhausting his energy reserves, but the scary truth was that if Killer managed to break free of his restraints, he would also be able to recover pretty damn quickly.

"You are losing it, miserable rat." Thanathos taunted, laughing darkly, his eyes glowing with ghastly white fire as he frowned and studied the liger's face, looking straight down into his eyes and trying to read beyond them. "I killed Azura long before you were even a sperm in your father's balls. The bitch is well and truly gone, so you can only have met her in your delirium."

Killer only grunted and tried to break the eye contact, puckering his nose in an attempt to escape the stench of decay and corruption that heavily radiated from the pestilent body of the monstrous god. He had been ugly before, because of how his body had been mangled by Requiem Aeternam's energies when he had forced the scythe to kill Azura, but now, with enormous parasites crawling through his exposed skull, moving between the crevices of the mask of metal-bone that had grown all over his head; he was well and truly hideous. The parasites themselves appeared to be a mutation of Killer's enormous sperms, which was... awkward. In some ways, it gave Killer some dark and twisted pleasure to see them chewing Thanathos and Cerberus up. In other ways, it only made it more disgusting and disturbing. Killer felt definitely disturbed as he found himself staring at a particularly massive parasite that was crawling out of a veritable tunnel it had chewed open in Thanathos's now hunched back. The enormous beast had jaws with multiple rows of terrible fangs, and small eyes that burned like bright, merciless moons looking down over a doomed world. They differed wildly in size: the smallest ones were probably ten feet long or so, which wasn't much in comparison to gods standing hundreds of feet tall and was less than a quarter of the size of even the last runt sperm in his precum. Those were, literally, the newborns, the newly hatched monstrosities that had been born directly inside Thanathos's flesh.

Killer no longer had a real idea of his current height, but he remembered how tiny the scientists had been the first times, before exposing themselves to the corruptive "juice" they had extracted from him, or manufactured in laboratory with parts of his DNA and essence. They had needed elevators and robotic ramps and arms that brought them up to where they needed to work. They had been smaller than his sperms, literally, even the minotaur with the chopped-off horns, which appeared to be the leader of the team. He knew he stood several hundred feet tall, and Thanathos was just as enormous; with that awareness, Killer attempted to estimate the size of the biggest parasites, which were nested primarily on Thanathos's back and were easily visible even when fully buried into his flesh, because whenever they moved they caused the god of war's back to ripple, their spikes ripping bloody trenches through his flesh and metallic skin. Killer could see their thick, immense tails moving across Thanathos's chest, causing his metallic hide to bulge outwards and split apart in places, bleeding out a thick, disgusting black gunk. Some of the bestial parasites had their tail visibly lodged just above the god's groin, and their head could easily be on his back, half-poking out through his rotting skin while it chewed on a shoulder blade. Some of those terrifying parasites were 200 feet in length, some were even bigger, and their huge, spiked bodies caused Thanathos's hulking form to swell and bulge grotesquely out of shape. Each immense beast seemed to be able to generate other parasites, which started out "small" but grew rapidly, digging under the metallic skin and causing it to bulge outwards. At any moment, Thanathos's body could be seen rippling as countless parasites rapidly moved back and forth, consuming him alive. They had not come directly out of Killer, but had formed and grown directly inside Thanathos and Cerberus's bodies, and nothing and no one had been able to stop their rapid proliferation, or to yank them out, or to kill them in any way. They clearly weren't normal bugs and no poison seemed to worry them. Obviously they originated from Killer's darkness, from his obscene hypervirility and perhaps also from the pestilent force that Killer dominated through having absorbed Erra, personification of disease and sickness.

Their thick body was pretty much unchanged from those of Killer's gigantic, hypervirile sperms: in one word, they were muscular. Hulking bodies with a broad, massive back completely covered in a forest of cruel spikes. Arms, no less, ending in hands that were terrible, prehensile talons. Tentacles growing out of their flanks. Killer's sperms had always been huge and scary, and in this new mutation they were both larger and more monstrous. Their long, powerful tails now were segmented and armored by a bug-like exoskeleton that was covered in the same forest of spikes as the hulking, massive body-heads. Spike-like legs had grown out of those long bodies, however, making them look like hellish centipedes that brutally punctured everything they walked upon. The end of the long tails, jutting with cruel spikes and blades and ending in a harpoon-like tip, was extremely flexible and could curl up and then stab at a considerable distance, like the stinger of a scorpion. Killer was at once fascinated and horrified by those enormous monsters, especially as he could not only see them crawling over and inside Thanathos's body, but he could hear them chewing, skittering, biting, stinging. It was a constant and terrifying sound, real stuff of nightmares that made his skin crawl. But even in such a moment of distress, he couldn't help but notice that Thanathos appeared completely oblivious to a "beyond", to a different plane of existence that lay past the threshold of death. The monstrous god simply thought him insane... or maybe he was too afraid to even contemplate the possibility that something of Azura might still exist and live.

It was interesting to note, and kind of scary as well: it showed that even gods had much yet to learn about the existence they had been born into and given the power to warp, expand and modify.

"Requiem is a bit... rebellious, at times... but she is mine. Do you understand that? Mine!" Thanathos snarled, leaning dangerously close, almost nose to nose with the liger, making Killer wince with the stench of decay that came out of his mouth and from every part of his pestilent body. The flames in his skeletal sockets burned with ferocious intensity as his fury immediately flared and his hand went down to grab Requiem's thick pole, squeezing hard on it, almost as if to make sure it was still there and that it still responded to him. The scythe did bent to his will and allowed him to yank the blade further down through Killer's chest, but at the same time she partially rebelled, zapping him with a powerful discharge of malignant energy, as it always did. This time, though, that punishing bolt of energy made Thanathos howl in unarticulated fury, his hand clamping on the pole with such force to splinter it, squeezing like he wanted to choke the great weapon. "Mine! Requiem is mine, and you won't take her away! She'll always be mine!"

"Like your wife." Killer cruelly remarked, grinning into his face, and Thanathos's eyes twitched as his fangs creaked, gritted with savage force as he seized Requiem with both hands and slashed it violently across Killer's chest, sending out a huge splatter of blood as the liger hissed breathlessly and his whole body spasmed in agony... but the liger's eyes glowed with ferocity and lucidity, his gaze locked on Requiem as the maddened god of Death dragged the huge scythe downwards. It looked like at any moment he might be tempted to rip it out to cock it back for a wide, forceful strike... and if he ever made that mistake, Killer wanted to be ready to lunge forwards with all his force, to tear free of his restraints and smash the hideous god into pulp.

"No, your highness, no!" The minotaur scientist howled, hugging Thanathos's arm and squeezing hard, attempting to block It in place while the god of Death snarled and foamed at the mouth, yanking mindlessly back on the great weapon. "Requiem must stay in place! It's what he wants! You are doing exactly what he wants!"

"You won't have Requiem! Requiem is mine! Mine!" Thanathos again howled, and spittle and infectious gunk flew from his bone jaws onto Killer's face, making the liger wince in distaste even through nothing but pain filled his mind and his body as the god of death viciously yanked the supernatural blade in all directions, tearing deep, bloody trenches in the liger's chest and in his insides, causing black, potent sludge to leak out of him together with rivulets of blood. The scientists looked on in horror, their eyes going wide as they hesitated for a moment, unsure of whether touching Thanathos was in any way a good idea... but as their leader stumbled hard forwards while uselessly squeezing into the god's wrist, they decided that the risk of having Killer breaking free of containment was much worse. One of the corrupt, fallen Arkangels immediately raced forwards and wrapped both of his arms around Thanathos's own, shoving backwards with every ounce of his strength, while the second angel picked up a large, terrible, segmented blade of crystal and brought it up against Killer's throat, beginning to saw away at his flesh, sending blood spurting thickly out as the liger gargled in agony and shock. Killer could feel the large teeth of the blade digging viciously into his solid flesh, and his mouth immediately filled with the taste of his own blood, but he refused to let go of his opportunity and yanked hard on the chains and nails, almost breaking the huge cross off the floor as his hulking musculature bulged and he snarled: "I'll take it all away from you, Thanathos! I've had Azura, I've had Persephone, and I'll have Requiem. And if only you hadn't been a sterile, pointless fuck and had instead made a few daughters, I would have had them to!"

Thanathos's eyes burned with horrible, fearsome intensity at that, his chest heaving and his muscles flexing explosively as he balled up his free hand into a fist and smacked it viciously into Killer's face, smashing his head back against the cross of crystal with enough force to make the bone creak and to splinter off several large chunks of yellow crystal. The god let out a howl of inarticulate fury and anguish, striking again and again and again, while yanking Requiem hard down, then back up, chopping through ribs and organs, pushing so violently that the tip of the long blade tore out of Killer's shoulder.

"Saw off his goddamn vocal chords!" Urged one of the once-mortal scientists, and the Arkangel severing Killer's throat let out a grunt of frustration, his hands trembling as he struggled against the liger's supernatural resistance, his muscles bulging as he wrestled the terrible blade through the dark god's neck.

Killer hissed in agony as the remaining scientists picked up long, heavy spears and stabbed them viciously through his sides, before deploying brutal hooks that caught into his broken bones and into the solid chords of his musculature, blocking the weapons in place just as they glowed with terrible, malignant energies, unleashing them in enormous discharges that began to fry Killer's nerves, causing his whole form to shudder. And yet he flexed and yanked forwards his arm with all his force as he saw the blade of Requiem ripping out of his shoulder. He tried to second Thanathos's furious and mindless slashes, trying to get the blade to slip out of his flesh... But Thanathos struck him again, hard, smacking his head back into the solid, unforgiving crystal, and the agony caused his vision to go first crimson with the blood filling his eyes, then black as he nearly fell unconscious. He attempted to taunt him again, but his mouth filled up with his blood and only a gurgle came out of it as two of the scientists worked the blade through his neck, ripping and rending until he was almost decapitated, his head suddenly feeling "heavy" as it tilted to one side and dangled from the parts of flesh and muscle not yet maimed. It was a new and horrendous sensation that made his heart race and his mind shudder violently, losing coherence for a moment.

"Lord Thanathos, please!" Someone exclaimed, in a voice that sounded very much like it was begging, but the god of Death refused to let go of his scythe, foaming at the mouth and howling insults and curses and inarticulate fury as his fist morphed into a gigantic, oversized gauntlet of contorted metal plating. A huge, cruel blade jutted out of this and Thanathos immediately stabbed it violently through Killer's immense cock, grunting as it became stuck in the solid, powerful meat and then howling as he began to violently drag it down the length of the colossal shaft. "I'll turn you into a fucking eunuch, so you lose your arrogance for good, once and for all! You'll never steal me anything! Not anymore!"

Killer gargled as the scientists savagely dug inside his torn-apart body. One of them stabbed a curved blade into his beating heart and yanked it slowly downwards, ripping off a large chunk of potent muscle. Another dug large hooks into his guts and began to drag out long ropes of them, using a vice to clamp the mighty tendrils into immobility even as they flailed and whip-lashed angrily, attempting to wrap around him and crush him to death. The infernal rods buried through his ponderous, majestic balls began to thrum violently and expanded, making him gargle out in agony as his balls seemed about to burst apart... before they were violently crushed from the outside and at the same time sucked from the inside, as large tubes of steel flexed and thrummed, filling with black, pure essence, milking him of his sperm, of his seminal fluids, of his testosterone, of his almighty essence.

Killer winced inwardly at that, and trembled violently on the outside. He had been doing his best to limit himself, he had desperately tried to dial back the fertility and perfection of his sperms, trying to prevent them from carrying his genetic treasure. He knew he could do that, although he had no clue how it worked. It was what allowed him to have unprotected sex with Alexis and the others without getting them pregnant every time, or on the contrary it was what allowed him to impregnate every single being he so much as touched. He was trying to hold back everything he could, trying to blank out the genetic content of his sperms, trying to hide the secrets of his body even though he was the first one to have no idea where exactly they resides, or how they were coded into his being. He had no clue whether his efforts were achieving anything, but Cerberus and Thanathos and the scientists had taken all that time and all those attempts to get to what was just a half-accomplished result, so he liked to think he was doing at least something right. But between the pain driving his body out of control, the anguish filling his mind and the machinery which now violently extracted his fluids from deep within him, he was painfully aware that controlling himself was getting impossible. How much genetic information they were getting from those fluids; from the large chunks of organs and muscle and tentacles and regenerative tissue that they kept tearing out of him...? The thought horrified him, and made him want to cry. But still he struggled, twisting his body sideways and dropping his shoulder in an attempt to let Requiem slip out of his hard muscles, even though the cruel blade only sawed harder into his collarbone, threatening to cut his limb entirely off.

Your body is almost invulnerable. The blade will never come out on its own just because you twist around like a maggot. If you want a real chance, quit being an idiot and thinking like a mortal. You are not just indestructible; you can morph, corrupt and warp your own body as well as that of others.

Killer almost had a double-take, his eyes opening wide and his vision returning, just in time to see Thanathos tearing the blade out of his enormous cock just to stab it down again, and again, and again, even as the blade cracked and pieces of it splintered off when it struck against the brutal ridges of Killer's member. There seemed to be blood everywhere, and corruption mixed with it: thick, potent, devastating black sludge that splattered all around and leaked out of his wounds, greedily devouring everything it touched, even causing Thanathos's exposed bones and even his corrupt, pestilent flesh to sizzle and smolder. The sight hit him with the violence of a train running at max speed, and Killer found himself throwing out a gurgling cry of agony, thick fluids bursting out of even his nostrils as his devastated stomach lurched and clenched, and he was overwhelmed by nausea and by the wrecking feeling of metallic tools wondering inside his organs as the scientists half wrestled Thanathos back and half crowded around him to torment him, deliberately trying to drive him into unconscious state before the maddened god of death could cause a catastrophe.

But more shocking of all was the voice that Killer had so clearly heard inside his head. A voice he had not heard clearly in a long while. A voice he was starting to think he'd never hear again. A voice that he normally wishes he'd be able to drown out and silence, but that lately he had repeatedly wished to hear.

Killer's eyes rolled up in his skull as he instinctively threw his head from side to side, watching in the darkness of the tower as if he could find him there... but Black Killer was inside his mind. A product of his mind, maybe. A face he unconsciously gave to a side of his personality, perhaps. Or, maybe, someone or something which truly resides inside his body.

Killer's chest heaved, his heart raced painfully fast, pumping harder and harder to keep blood moving in his veins even though much of it was lost through countless wounds, and even more of it leaked out of the mutilated heart itself. But his mind somehow registered what Black Killer said, and found it wasn't a bad idea at all.

Thanathos twisted Requiem into Killer's flesh, leaning forwards to bathe in the blood and thick, hypervirile sludge spurting out of the horrendous mutilation, and then he yanked backwards again, hard... and this time he stumbled with a grunt as the blade slipped backwards much faster, with an ease that had never been there before. For a moment he grinned, thinking he had certainly chopped Killer's arm right off... but then the god of death gaped in shock as a multitude of cruel tentacles made of tangled, powerful muscle chords lashed out against him, jutting with a multitude of glowing "thorns" of incandescent, metallic bone.

The liger's massive, powerful shoulder suddenly rippled and seemed to explode as the great, formidable muscles split into thick tentacles, and the broken bones became cruel, terrible fangs as a nightmarish mouth opened in the god's body, turning the horrendous wound into yet another weapon, yet more destructive potential. Thanathos instinctively retreated away from those savage tentacles which whip-lashed out at head level, almost decapitating him as they tore deep and burning trenches through his solid, hideous hide of living-metal, and Requiem slipped unopposed through that new, great and terrible mouth as the bony jaws opened wide and almost spit it out.

Requiem Aeternam realized what was happening more rapidly than even Thanathos and the scientists did: the huge weapon overheated as it focused its terrible, malignant energies, and suddenly released them in the form of flexible, tentacle-like spikes that ripped deep through Killer's flesh, stabbing all the way through his massive, muscular arm and across his broad, masculine chest. The liger couldn't help but let out a snarl of agony at the sudden discharge of force that tore through his form, but the only sound coming out of his mouth was a gurgle as those ethereal chains tugged at his flesh from seemingly every direction at once, invisible but savage hooks tearing into his organs, his bones, his muscles, ripping deep wounds into all of them. Thanathos let out a strange sound of shock, almost choking on his own foam as he finally realized the danger and leaned forwards with all of his strength and body weight, driving Requiem back in, pushing her as deep as it could get into the liger's hard, powerful body.

"Don't let it come out!" One of the scientists shouted, and Thanathos snarled in irritation, as if to counter that it was obvious, before the Arkangels and the Minotaur all grabbed the god of Death's arm and helped him wrestle Requiem back into Killer's body even as the monstrous tentacles pushing out of the liger's body attempted to drive it out.

Killer growled and flexed, forcing back against their combined might, his biceps bulging so explosively that they nearly ripped through his own hide, but the other monstrously-corrupted scientists seized the blade buried into the liger's enormous cock and began to desperately yank on it, sawing the immense shaft near its thick, formidable base, sending wrecking shudders of pure agony up Killer's spine, until the liger's vision faded again, and everything became darkness.

Killer's eyes opened a moment later, but the liger immediately realized he had fallen down into his internal safe haven, his little refuge, the little bubble of consciousness and self-awareness that he had desperately protected during all those long, terrible days of torture.

"No, no, no... Not now...!" Killer muttered, jumping up to his feet and shutting his eyes tightly, trying to get back into the fight, but the voices of the scientists came to him muffled and distorted, drowned out by equally confused background noise, including the loud, majestic splat of something incredibly heavy down between his feet. The noise reached him like an echo coming from a million miles away, and he trembled in despair, letting out a howl of frustration as he realized that he was falling unconscious in that key moment. He turned around, looking out through the semi-transparent walls of that tiny sanctuary, past the memories of Alexis, of Mriya, of all the ones he loved, until he saw confused shadows moving outside, and recognized Thanathos as he drove Requiem deep and then carefully let go of the weapon and retreated, while the scientists continued to drive their blades and tools inside his body... "No! Not now!"

"You've fallen unconscious. Considering that they have cut off your cock, again, you probably should be grateful for it. Let regeneration do the worst part of the job while you can't feel most of the pain. It will save you a lot of misery." Black Killer said, smiling softly and looking darkly entertained. His eyes glowed solid sapphire, colder and more terrible than Killer's own eyes had ever been, and despite him having the same features, there was something about his face that was more perfect, more handsome still. Black Killer was also several feet taller, towering easily more than 30 feet, while Killer was probably around 23 or 24, as the projection in his mind was shaped on his "normal" proportions. Killer preferred to keep himself "small" because a lot of things tended to be a lot more complicated when almost everything turned to dust in his fingers and he had to constantly duck under roofs and be careful not to squish people around him. Black Killer, naturally, did not share those worries. He was probably all too happy to crush people underfoot with every step and had no trouble smashing someone's home if the roof was not high enough.

Killer let his head fall slowly backwards and let out a long sigh of frustration and annoyance, his heart thrumming in his chest and his whole body feeling horribly sore even here, in his mind, in the one sanctuary where he could isolate his consciousness from the tortures. "I was about to break free." Killer hissed, although his rage was almost drowned out by the despair. He had been so close to freedom... and yet so far away from it. Black Killer tilted his head slightly to the side and gave a little nod, playfully replying: "I know. That would have been pretty great to see, I'm sure! But unfortunately you are still a well-meaning idiot, thinking like a mortal and caring way too much about what the bugs will think of you."

"You could have showed up earlier to give me your great suggestions and priceless lessons." Killer caustically observed, slowly rolling his massive shoulders and gritting his teeth to suppress a grunt of pain at the way his body protested. Black Killer snorted mockingly at that, and then patronizingly remarked: "I would have gladly reminded you of just how stupid you are, but you've been trying very hard to isolate yourself and harden your mind. You shut my voice out and refused to listen."

Killer grunted and muttered: "Then I have done something right, at least." He tiredly closed his eyes for a brief moment, then half-turned to gaze at his alter ego from over his shoulder, smirking a little as he teased: "And how is it that the mighty and perfect Black has been left voiceless...? I thought you knew it all and had no limits or defects at all."

Black Killer shrugged, turning away with a snort of irritation... but then he grudgingly admitted: "You've improved a lot, in recent times. Your growth has picked up pace."

Killer blinked, surprised by Black's admission, and once more he wondered whether he was talking to himself, to a facet of his personality, or whether he was in front of a separate entity. He turned away, grumbling thoughtfully under his breath, and took some time by looking at the walls of the by now tiny "sanctuary". The semi-transparent walls of energy were like screens, alive with images of his past. Mostly images of Alexis, Mriya and of his other beloved girls, but also less pleasant memories of battles, of wounds, of the enemies he had faced. Many images played in an endless loop, however, and were clearly fragments of what they should have been, while other "screens" displayed only static or broken, confused images. It was a terrible visual warning of just how exhausted and broken his mind was becoming as the torment continued. The size of the refuge was a sign in itself: at first it had been much, much larger. The little safety bubble had shrunk down dangerously as the darkness outside became thicker and more terrible, crowded by giant shadows that moved back and forth, like wolves waiting for an opening to strike. Killer stared at those figures, trying to identify at least one, but they always made sure to stay just out of visual range, never revealing their features. Maybe they weren't enemies at all. Maybe they were only parts of his memories. But they could well be the last shadows of the gods and goddesses he had mercilessly devoured and assimilated, using their flesh, blood and energies to replenish his forces. They were a sinister presence that sent a shiver down his spine, especially as he saw cracks in the walls of his little refuge. How much longer was he going to last? Could he truly endure that endless torment?

He turned slowly around, walking the few steps that separated him from an old and worn armchair, unimpressive from all points of view but surprisingly comfortable. It was the only bit of furniture left in the refuge, as everything else had become too taxing to think about and too superfluous for him to care. When he sought out some peace from the excruciating pain he retreated to this hideaway in his own mind and sank into the chair, trying to think of home, of his family, of what he was and what he needed to do. This was the fortress protecting his sanity and keeping his thinking sharp, and to in order for it to work he had to achieve and maintain a supreme focus, putting every aspect of his being under tight and direct control. It was something he had been taught ever since he was a young prince, and Ira had tormented him endlessly until he had learned to believe that everything, even pain, was a state of mind and could be kept under some form of control. It wasn't easy, and it left him no time and no energy for wishing for anything else.

Black Killer, obviously, took a very different approach and strolled in front of him with a smirk, sitting down in a vast and majestic throne of made of gold, tentacles of corrupted, hypervirile flesh and live victims trapped between the powerful appendages, so that the colossal male sat down over squirming goddesses and crying gods. The hulking beast pulled his feet up as he leaned comfortably back in his seat, and immediately three more goddesses appeared, blindfolded and gagged, drooling as massive tentacles violated their bodies and kept them bound on all fours, forming a comfortable, vibrating footrest for the dark titan. Killer stood by his humble armchair, observing the throne of living flesh with a mix of desire and revulsion, and studying his much larger alter ego, his lips cresting in a little grimace. "What do you want? Are you here to exploit the moment? I'm tired, grouchy and frustrated, so if you are here to fight please let's just get on with it. Don't make me sit down first, just to make me stand up right afterwards. That would be a real dick move."

Black Killer tilted his head to the side and snickered, gesturing for Killer to sit down without worrying, and finally commenting: "See? This is part of why I like you. You really have spirit. And guts, considering that I could punch you on the head and hammer you into the ground like a nail."

"You are bigger, but that only means you'll make more noise when I take you down." Killer calmly replied, stepping forwards and then sitting slowly down into the armchair. It was a piece of furniture that came out of his memories: he used to have a similar seat in his apartment when he was just a young kid. A soft seat from where he used to play videogames in his free time... which was extremely rare, considering how hard his daily training regime was. He usually ended up playing late at night, before crashing into bed... and even that was something he did against the rules and the wishes of his father and of his mentor, William, as it robbed him of precious hours of sleep. Considering how early he was waken up to begin his training, he really should have used every precious minute available to rest and recover... but he had always been stubborn, hadn't he? It had gotten worse when he had discovered the pleasures of sex, extremely early on in his life. His vigor and hunger and the loving attentions of the two handmaidens tasked with taking care of his room and clothes had resulted in Killer discovering sex much earlier than normal, and his hypervirility had done the rest. Moaning females had soon replaced the videogames and most of his nights had turned sleepless and intense. Yet, he had not forgotten that old armchair, for whatever reason. When he had retreated into his mind for the first time, and had sat down to meditate and seal his mind against the pain and the fears clawing into him, his subconscious had brought into being that one seat, out of the endless options that were available.

Black Killer snorted in entertainment at his words, and shrugged the threat off with a smirk, causing his hulking musculature to flex and bulge outwards, immense and powerful, straining and stretching his dark hide as the massive muscles nearly ripped through his skin. "I'm here to warn you, I suppose." The titan said after a moment, resting back in his great throne as the goddesses under his muscular ass licked and kissed and worshipped every inch of his body that they managed to reach. "You have improved and grown greatly, but you are still the same idiot as always. Did you really need me to tell you to morph your body...? Couldn't you think of it yourself...?"

Killer swallowed a bit at that, shifting imperceptibly in his seat, annoyed and irritated by the simple truth: he had needed the reminder. He had tried using tentacles; he had hoped in the mutations that his body underwent without the need for conscious thought... but he had failed to understand that there was more that he could try. Could he have gotten Requiem out of his flesh had he tried earlier? Perhaps when Persephone was with him... When she teasingly leaned her weight onto the pole of the great scythe... maybe. He was horrified at having missed the chance to at least try, and it reminded him that way too often he still allowed his mortal mindset to reduce his possibilities.

"Thanks." Killer replied, in an ironic tone, before frowning and studying the much larger copy of himself, searching for subtle differences other than the sheer size. "Why would you ever want to warn me, though? Wouldn't you benefit the most from my defeat?"

"Not really, no." Black Killer honestly replied, before leaning forwards, one elbow resting on his knee as he held up his index, explaining: "I would actually prefer you to fully mature, to fully discover your might, to crush your enemies and conquer this weak, puny universe... because in so doing, you'd have to become part of me."

"Would I...? What if I do it my own way? I've gone through a whole lot without needing to listen to you. I thought you were gone. I half-hoped I might have finally eradicated you from my mind." Killer countered, gripping the armrests of his seat and staring at the dark titan with great attention, trying to gauge his reactions, trying to see past his exterior to find out what he was truly about. "And aren't you a part of me already?"

Black Killer chuckled at that, shaking his head slowly and gazing at him with entertainment as he commented: "Oh, gods. You truly have no clue about this whole thing, haven't you...? To this day, you've still been unable to understand whether I'm you or not! That Cerberus wimp is right on you: your ignorance makes for great entertainment." The titan threw his head back with a wide grin, snickering for a moment before idly wondering: "I really don't know whether I should tell you or not. It's kind of amazing to see you staring at me like that..." He paused, then dropped his head forwards and gave a mock-serious nod as he finally said: "But you are wasting too much valuable time as it is, so I guess it's time to speak plainly. I'm you... and I'm not you. You have been told of how you have been chosen, in virtue of your evolved, limitless nature, by both Light and Darkness. As you suspect, I am Darkness."

Killer did not reply as he found no words. He nearly froze in place, torn between the relief that came from finally knowing that Black was its own entity; and the horror that came from the awareness that one of the primordial titans, of the original deities that had created everything else, lurked inside his mind and inside his body. He straightened, facing the titan with a new awareness and determination, his whole body tensing and his muscles bulging powerfully, raw energy pumping in his veins and almost crackling around his form at the mere thought of Darkness being so close. One of the two titans who had created Existence with the supernatural, immeasurable power of their blows. Their destructive duel had been so vicious and powerful that when they had destroyed each other they had set into motion a shockwave of energy so indescribably massive that it had created gods and monsters and given shape to countless universes. Everything that existed was but debris, remains of that apocalyptic clash. Nothing that had existed since had been more than a tiny crumble of the two ultra-gods, a molecule that had once been theirs. One molecule among infinite others. It was mind-blowing to sit face to face with one of those truly omnipotent creatures... even though Darkness was, fortunately, no longer quite as omnipotent as he had been. That was why he was inside Killer in the first place: to use him as a tool to rebuild his power.

It was Black himself to break the sudden, electric silence as he corrected his earlier statement, remarking: "I was Darkness. Now I'm something less... and something more, too. I'm part of you, as you say... and much as it hurts my pride to admit it, you've changed me. Taught me things that I will never be able to forget."

Killer barely resisted the temptation to frown in surprise, and with a great effort he kept his features as stony and neutral as possible, only looking straight at Black and trying to make it clear that he expected to hear more. That look would have been terrifying to anyone else, but Darkness was unfazed by it as he leaned back further into the soft bodies of the bound goddesses forming his seat. He shifted a heavy, bare foot slowly forwards over the flushed, eager faces of the blindfolded goddesses in his footrest, dragging his thick toes teasingly over their eager tongues and then snickering as he lifted them out of their reach just to see them craning their necks, chasing after his foot with hot means of pure need. "Before meeting you, I would have had little to no interest for soft, frail little things such as these cows..." Black softly said, looking down at the enslaved, addicted goddesses with a look of... affectionate contempt, Killer thought. He was somewhat fond of their service, but at the same time clearly considered them utterly worthless and expendable, devoid of any right and merit. "Women, sex, luxury... they were all concepts I could have barely understood, and that would have hardly gained my interest. Ah! The mistakes of a young and inexperienced male, brash enough to think he needed no one."

Killer stiffened in his seat, unsure about whether he could trust Black or not, and made curious by that concept that sounded so alien to him. How could a male with the strength and vigor that Darkness had possessed not feel the need, the desire, the craving for the feeling of a quivering female curled up under his hulking form? "What were you, a little virgin nerd without a clue about the shapes of a female body...?" Killer taunted, his lips cresting in a grin as he tilted his head slightly to the side... and Black Killer snorted calmly, showing no real offence, only looking contemplative as he remarked: "I was a very simple creature, with the benefit of hindsight. Simpler than even you, amazing as it is to think about."

That effectively shut Killer up as the liger tried to decide whether he was offended by the remark or not. After all, he said it a lot himself. He truly was a simple creature, with desires that were not unlike those of any other man... with the exception of their humongous scale, of course.

"Existence was very different in my days, Killer... most of it was nothing but careless, cold infinity surrounding my home in all directions. The Cloister at the center of Creation was my home, where I was conceived, born and raised. There was far less variety. There were only three universes back then, three... prototypes, I think I should say, created by my mother, my... father... and my auntie." Black explained, and Killer didn't fail to notice the venomous tone that crept into the word auntie, or the special emphasis on the word "father". Considering that the Cloister still was the home of the Sisters of Fate and he had been told that no one else was as ancient as Light and Darkness, the liger put one and one together and swallowed at the result he obtained. "So... who of the three sisters is the daddy...?"

Black smirked in amusement at the question, giving a little nod of approval for Killer's deduction, before he easily replied: "Lachesis, the First Born, the Queen of Eternity, the Matriarch... or Patriarch, depending on which term you prefer... the Judge that measures the threads of life and ultimately determines when it is time for them to be cut and thrown back into the Well of Eternity."

Killer nodded a little, trying to hide his confusion and ignorance and feeling a lot like he was back in school as he hesitatingly guessed: "So, Lachesis is a Herm, and the true father of all?"

"That's correct." Black amusedly confirmed, before turning the palm of one hand skywards as he summoned a large golden cup into his grip, slowly drinking from it. It was immediately clear that the cup was not filled with wine, but with blood, and Killer grimaced not because of the life fluids, but because of how cliché it looked. Black, however, clearly did not care and savored the crimson liquid, licking his lips before adding: "Lachesis built herself up from the shapeless Chaos of the First Era, when nothing but loose energies existed, suspended in a dark void and constantly merging, breaking apart, clashing and mixing. Countless primordial gods emerged from the Chaos only to be crushed back into it soon afterwards, but Lachesis was different. She thrived in that chaos, endlessly devouring energies and making herself stronger. She was obsessed with putting order in what she saw as a pointless waste of potential that wasn't generating anything longeval enough to be worth dominating, and so she made sure to channel those energies, separating them on different layers."

"She created the Unworld...?" Killer asked, and for a moment he was unable to hide the awe he felt at the thought of someone singlehandedly creating that plane of destruction and annihilation, able to convert any complex form of existence back into pure energy.

Black nodded, and his expression was full of respect for his father's accomplishment, and envy for the power and skills it required. "And it wasn't even her greatest achievement. First of all, she had to contain Chaos. She turned it into the pulsing, ever beating heart of her creation, of the new Order she had in mind. She wrapped its infinite sea of energies into solid confines, and she built the Unworld around it. She wanted the Unworld to be so terrible, so destructive that it would keep Chaos contained forever, never allowing any wild creature to come crawling out of that ocean of primordial force."

Killer could barely begin to imagine the power and the skills involved into literally shaping reality as he had known it for all his life. Lachesis had built the framework of Existence, and everything that had happened afterwards had been, effectively, child play. Every last being to have ever existed descended, in a way, from her, and every war, every clash of gods and titans, every dream and every nightmare, everything to have existed since then had happened in a "safe" space she had single handedly built. Children. We are like children staggering around in the play-pen she's built for us. He swallowed a bit, feeling a shiver running down his spine, as if an electric discharge was tearing through every last chord of his massive muscles, causing them all to flex and bulge with power. He felt awe. He tasted fear, even, at the thought that Alexis was rushing towards the Cloister, towards that primordial, absolute force that had laid down the laws of Reality... but at the same time, his body burned with vigor and with barely restrained eagerness for the fight. Part of him all but growled: finally, a worthy rival. Terrifying as the history of her miracles was, he couldn't help but be eager to meet her, challenge her, measure his strength against hers... and prove he was even greater. That was his true nature: he could never have enough power. He could never be content until someone else was on top. And now that Black sat across from him, smirking knowingly, Killer realized that it was a facet of his personality that had nothing to do with Darkness. It was something they shared, but certainly not a fault he could blame on Black.

"She wanted to make sure that nobody would rise from the Chaos like she did. She wanted to make sure nobody would challenge her supremacy." Killer calmly observed, and Black nodded in confirmation, before taking a breath and leaning forwards slightly as he added: "That was a big part of the reason for creating the Unworld. Of course, she also needed to isolate the process of Destruction from that of Creation. The two don't go well together, for obvious reasons... like Light and Darkness, if you will." Black said, smirking in entertainment at his own joke and waiting for a moment to see if Killer would appreciate it... but the liger had way too many thoughts crashing around in his mind to care about puns in any way. The dark titan rolled his eyes, snorting in evident disapproval of Killer's ability to understand humor, and he resumed his explanation, looking down at the liger like he was a stupid child with a thick skull. "The Unworld has to contain the process of disintegration of all forms of existence to release raw energy back into the circle of life, as even Chaos would otherwise run out at some point. And nothing of that process has to spill out into Chaos or into the plane of Existence, otherwise it will utterly consume both. Lachesis had to build really solid walls to separate it from another new plane that she created, that of Existence, the one where we now live and die... and her real masterpiece is the Well of Eternity itself, as it connects all three layers, going from Existence to Chaos by piercing right through the Unworld, without causing any unwanted spill from one layer into the other."

Killer nodded, taking note of those important details that were making it much easier to understand why Cerberus wanted the Well and what tremendous consequences would come from him misusing that portal of incredible power. A part of him idly wondered if anyone else in the whole of Existence knew what he had just been told: Vesta certainly didn't have those details and nobody had ever mentioned Lachesis being a herm and having so much power and such a great role in the creation. And if Vesta did not have the details, then it was almost certain that no one else had a clue. For a moment, he almost grinned at the thought of how envious the queen of Seraphims would have been had she known about that little exchange.

A skeptic part of him wondered instead whether he was dreaming, seeing things because of the delirium induced by torture and privations, but it was easy to shot down that lone voice. Killer took a moment to put order in his thoughts, and then calmly attempted to connect the dots: "So, once in control of the Well, Lachesis started to control and regulate the flow of energy through the Well? Did she... take control of the creation?"

"She tried to." Black idly replied, talking as it the topic was unimportant and it bored him. Clearly, the Adonis liked talking about himself a lot, but grew bored fast if he had to tell about the feats accomplished by the rest of his family. "She began to condensate loose energy from Chaos into coherent structures, and began to form the very first of the universes... But it proved more complex than she had anticipated, and so she ended up wishing for some help. You see..." Black paused, and threw his head back with a wide grin of amusement. "Everyone calls them "sisters". Sisters of fate, seamstresses of life, builders of reality... all imagine them as sisters. But they are not. They are..."

"... Matriarch and daughters." Killer realized, speaking in a quiet voice, and Black nodded in confirmation before completing the tale with a shrug: "Lachesis impregnated herself. She always made it sound like such a huge deal... always said she was the only true Perfect being in existence, because she could be father and mother. She could do it all, and always create without needing anyone else."

Thankfully Alexis has never had any desire to make do without me... Killer made a bit of a grimace at the thought, but quickly let go of the half-serious concern and went back to the matter at hand. "So, she waited on her daughters to grow up and help her out...?"

"Yes. Clotho and Atropos, twin sisters who never actually looked, thought, or acted the same way. Clotho is way too soft, too concerned with the life of countless miserable microbes that aren't even worth half a thought. She is a bleeding heart who will happily spend every last bit of his energies just to stretch a life a little longer, to give it just another chance to evolve and improve... she has taken upon herself the task of spinning the threads of life, compressing the energy that Lachesis mines out of Chaos, and spinning each thread from distaff to spindle." Black said, and before he even began describing the other sister, Killer interrupted him and observed: "So, you either have a very low opinion of your mother... or you are the son of Atropos."

Black looked irritated by the interruption, stiffening in his seat and squeezing an armrest hard enough to crumple the heavy parts of gold and cause the tentacles to bleed out thick dark gunk. He snorted through gritted teeth, but then let go of whatever snarl had almost come up to his lips, instead merely confirming: "Yes, I'm the son of Atropos, The Inexorable, the goddess that cuts the threads of life and throws them back inside the Well of Eternity, to have them dissolved in the Underworld to release the primordial energies back into the cycle. Lachesis was disappointed that none of her daughters was "perfect" like her, but she was quick in deciding to fill up their wombs with her seed. Clotho gave birth to Light; Atropos to me. Father wanted us to continue her opera and to enlarge her empire by filling up the plane of Existence with new universes, new worlds, new races, and new existences for her to dominate."

Killer nodded, slumping a bit in his seat while his mind registered those words and tried to imagine the grandiose feat of powers he had just heard of. It was amazing to think of what Lachesis had done, and he was left speechless for a moment by the awareness that he now knew how everything had started. The question that had dominated the life of mortals and supernaturals from the beginning of self-awareness, finally answered. The immensity of it all left him almost dazzled. He found himself staring at his hands, part of him wondering how far his power truly reached: was he able to accomplish the same kind of wonders? Was there a limit to what he could do, or was he truly limitless? There was something intoxicating, and something scary, in the terrible ease with which he could doom a world, or a whole star system, and maybe even more... and Lachesis had worked her miracles at a scale that made the single universes look puny and meaningless. Killer slowly looked up, studying Black for a few moments and finally remarking: "Thanks for the history lesson, but this still doesn't answer why you now look and act like me."

Black huffed, rolling his eyes in his head, and then hissed: "Patience. Your ignorance is usually entertaining to see, but in this case it would become frustrating to talk to you and only get blank, dumb stares out of you." The dark titan smirked and a slave goddess appeared out of a cloud of darkness just to fill up the cup that he lazily held up. She whispered words of worship and adoration as she poured that nectar of death and destructing, but Black only gazed at her with something like boredom, and she vanished again, dissolving with a last word of gratitude. Killer was almost certain that Black had created that goddess from nothing but thin air, and destroyed her with the same ease... but they were inside his mind, so he wondered whether he should take that display of fearsome might entirely seriously. Maybe it was just his imagination being used against him... but for sure it felt very, very real.

"Clotho and Atropos never went along very well. They have been rivals from the very beginning, and they were driven further apart by their different approaches to the lives they lord upon: Clotho spins threads all the time, only ever trying to add more and more; to create entire new universes, to bring to life a multitude of new forms. My mother Atropos, on the other hand, sees the mortals for what they are, vermin, and is always eager to cut the threads and toss them back into the Well in hope that something better, more interesting and more rewarding, would one day emerge from that supernatural abyss full of devastating forces and endless energies. Obviously, as Clotho sees everything as if it was her creation, and every vermin as if it was a son or daughter, she is always complaining and trying to keep the threads getting longer and longer. Lachesis has little patience for both, admittedly, but is the ultimate referee: she judges whether a thread is worth keeping or if it is time to cut it."

"What prevents Lachesis from developing unfair sentiments towards this or that person, or even world...?" Killer asked, and he almost cringed inwardly at the answer he expected would follow.

"Nothing." Black easily replied, confirming Killer's fears and causing the liger's body to instinctively tense up for the battle as the universe around him suddenly felt a bit colder, a bit more dangerous, a bit more unfair.

"Luckily for the countless vermin out there, Lachesis is willing to let Clotho play rather freely, to see which direction Evolution takes. Much to my mother's frustration, the threads of life are allowed to grow for a long time and only get cut when they are worn out and fragile and at the end of their potential. Most of the time, at least." Black grinned sharkishly at that, and Killer glared at him in distaste. Darkness shrugged his disapproval off, however, and remarked: "Lachesis is not interested in bullying microbes. She is too far above them to care about them as individuals and I don't think she ever went around chopping threads at random. What Elelyon and other poor idiots call "Natural Law" is just Lachesis not caring enough to cut lives short at random, and at the same time caring enough to keep Atropos from doing it. The threads get cut when they start falling apart on their own, which happens when wounds, or sickness, or age become too much for the flow of energy to continue."

Killer didn't feel too reassured, however. The thought that supreme, super-powerful entities, far above gods, had such direct control over all lives and threads of Existence was nothing short of terrifying. What if Lachesis had a bad day? What if she grew frustrated with Evolution not going the way she liked? What if she just got distracted and Atropos went on a chopping spree through what was probably an intricate, impossibly immense forest of strings, ropes and threads...?

"And you? What kept you away from the Threads?" Killer finally asked, frowning as he studied Black's reactions, trying to gauge his sincerity, or lack of it. The dark titan snorted in contempt and made a grimace as he muttered: "Threads? Hell, no. I don't like the thought of killing just by ripping apart a cobweb. Takes away all the fun from it. No, I never really tried to get to the threads themselves... I wanted to get to the Well, but that one sits in the very middle of the Cloister, within Lachesis's personal castle. And "dad" never allowed me near her fortress. Clotho never wanted me near hers, either... and my dear brother always kept an eye on me to ensure I didn't sneak across the cloister."

"A happy family, I see." Killer taunted, smirking in dark entertainment, and Black grimaced and nodded.

"Lachesis created me and my brother with the sole aim of setting us loose into the mostly empty Existence. Our task was to create, warp, modify, and destroy. We had to expand her creation and put it to the test, and she hoped that our conflict, which she entirely expected, would spur on Evolution, forcing all life forms to grow stronger, more resilient, more intelligent and more capable in order to survive." Black paused, looking down for a moment as if saddened, before he sat up with a grimace, muttering: "At least that's what she said to us. I suspect she knew full well that my brother and I would be constantly at each other's throat, and that creation and evolution would finally triumph not because of our actions... but because of our reciprocal annihilation. I think she created us and grew us up for one mission only: dying. Destroying each other to serve as the spark to set true evolution into perpetual motion. I don't think she ever wanted or expected anything else from us."

Killer nodded in silence, wishing he had words to offer, but finding himself short of them. He knew the cruel, merciless desires of Black, which were also, at least in part, his own. He knew him enough to be aware that he did not deserve pity and that not a tear should ever be spilled for him... but it was admittedly hard to think that Lachesis, with her knowledge and with her power to see far into the future through the flows of all energies, had not foreseen exactly what would happen. And it was horrible to think that both Light and Darkness had been grown up as opposites, formed all along to be enemies, not brothers. Created to be the two key elements of a massive, terrifying bomb that with its explosion would have impressed a decisive acceleration to the Evolution of those lives that Lachesis had dragged out of shapeless, endlessly-morphing Chaos. How could a father be so cruel to his sons...?

"We were indoctrinated and formed in such a way that constant disagreement was a given. I was like my mother, Atropos: sick of vermin, eager to cancel those inferior, useless beings; those wastes of energy, mass, space and time that could have been better use to create and nurture divinities like us. Light, obviously, was the worthy son of Clotho and couldn't stand the thought of ending a world a moment sooner than when absolutely unavoidable. The more Light created and nurtured, the more I destroyed his experiments and drowned his worlds in my corruption, spurring the life in them to hyper-develop, to grow faster, to transform into higher and greater forms. Forms that Light invariably sought to vanquish because they were, in his words, abominations." Black recalled, looking down at his own hand and flexing it slowly, balling it into a massive, powerful fist that crackled with terrible, malignant energy. "Light and I never enjoyed our lives. We were powerful, we were omnipotent, but we never savored the taste of our own strength. We destroyed each other's experiments; beat each other up with savage force, tried to kill each other with every ounce of strength in our bodies... but never even stopped to understand mortal life... or even, I should say, normal life. We rarely, if ever, experimented the meaning of the word "pleasure". We had an extremely monotonous life. I'm sure he didn't even enjoy creating, even though it was his very purpose, his very divine vow... and I realize now that I never truly savored the pleasure of destruction. It was always so... impersonal, quick, unsatisfactory. A brief squeeze; a simple thought, a flick of a finger... and entire worlds vanished, shattered into fragments bound for the Unworld." Black paused, making a grimace at the memory of his first life, of his earlier existence, which he now saw with greater clarity. Whenever he looked back now he felt bitterness. He felt used, abused and betrayed by his father, Lachesis.

"I don't even hate Light anymore!" He finally exclaimed, shaking his head in disbelief, laughing bitterly. "Which is amazing, considering that my entire previous life was spent trying to crush him and his creations out of existence. I hated him with a passion... now I realize it never was necessary. He was a tool in our father's hands, exactly like I was." He paused for a brief moment, then made a bit of a grimace and added: "Doesn't mean I now like him, but... maybe things could have been different."

Killer gave the tiniest of nods at that, his mouth surprisingly dry at the thought of how the two step-brothers had been pitted one against the other and wondering what Lachesis's true motivations might be. Nothing seemed worthy of a price so high to consist of the lives of two sons, but he was so in awe of what the ultra-goddess had done that he hesitated in just brushing aside her motives. He focused instead on one fact that was almost painfully evident: if Darkness now sat in front of him, where did that leave Light?

"You speak of your brothers as if he was a thing of the past. But I was told he too had lingered on after your clash. I was told that he too had selected me for his rebirth." Killer calmly said, and Black did not try to deny, nodding instead with a little, unpleasant smirk on his face, before cheerfully exclaiming: "He had of course seen your potential, just as clearly as I saw it. We met here, inside of you, all those years ago, and we were tempted to immediately restart our fight... but eventually abandoned that idea. None of us felt inclined to repeat the agonizing experience of exploding into smithereens. We fought later on, repeatedly... he did not approve of my plans, naturally. But in the end, we both realized that fighting here, while in our current status, was all a little bit ridiculous, and we focused on influencing you instead."

"I don't recall ever hearing his voice." Killer flatly countered, and that only made Black laugh loudly, shaking his head in entertainment as he exclaimed: "You really think so...? Oh, man...! You heard him plenty, far more often than you heard me. You just never even thought about questioning the voice of "good". I am the evil voice, the one you are ashamed to hear, the one that tempts you and leaves you torn between the desire to go along with the avalanche and your stupid determination to hold back. You don't like hearing my taunts and you don't like hearing my suggestions. You don't like that we share so many lusts and desires that are oh, so evil! So incompatible with what your father taught you, with the example he provided. Of course you always tried to shut me off, and told yourself that such ideas could not possibly come from your own mind... I was your nightmare and, at the same time, your excuse, was I not...?" Black grinned knowingly, looking at Killer with a patronizing expression as he snorted: "Of course I was. You've always needed to be able to shift the blame onto someone else, in a way or another. But despite your best attempts to hold me responsible for everything, the truth is that you have influenced me more than I have influenced you."

"That is all to be seen." Killer coldly replied, but a cold shiver ran down his spine with how real those words sounded. Killer knew himself well enough to realize the extent of his cruel pleasures and to admit that he liked his power and the freedom it gave him at the expense of others. Many, many times he had killed, slaughtered, destroyed, ruined, stolen, and more, without Black Killer saying a single word.

"We both know the truth. And trust me, I don't like admitting that I was the one who had to learn. I like to think I know it all and that I'm better than anyone else at everything... especially at being bad. You showed me how much I was actually missing out on." Black serenely replied, waving a hand dismissively, brushing away the issue as non important. "But to get back to your question... Light was far less noticeable. You never had to blame him for anything. He was like your father speaking in your mind. He was like another helpful voice of conscience for you, and you never thought of him as anything else." Black smirked in cruel amusement, looking straight into Killer's eyes as he concluded: "In the end, I wasn't the one who destroyed Light. You did it for me. Light was always the soft one, the one who adapted and who was willing to adjust to the needs of others... so, of course, he couldn't quite maintain his form. Trapped inside your body, without a body of his own and way too willing to play along with you rather than fight, he ended up dissolving. You absorbed him, effectively... guess he became truly part of your conscience, or some shit like that. Better him than me. He was too much of a coward to truly try and take over your body."

Killer didn't listen to the contempt that Black threw out against his step-brother, thinking instead of what might have happened. When had Light chosen to merge with him...? Because Killer had no doubts about it, Light had willingly chosen to become one with him, to reinforce his conscience, to fortify his resolve. Had it perhaps happened right before he met Athena and Joy...? Was it because of Light that he had, that fateful day, finally been able to leave the past behind and change path and ways...? Many times during his darker years, when he had been a selfish monster out of control, he had told himself that he needed to stop, that he had no right to cause such misery and destruction, that it wasn't what he had been born for... sometimes he had even tried behaving. He had tried turning his back to the worst temptations and hungers, but every time, sometime in a matter of hours, sometimes of weeks, he had fallen back to the old habits. He had tried for years to suppress some of his oversized ego, to restrain some of his explosive potency, to control his aggressiveness and contain his astounding libido, but progress had been fragile and discontinuous. Then, something had clicked, and he had been able to settle down and restrain the worst of his urges. He had continued fucking, raping, conquering and dominating, sure, but within a "lawful framework", at least for the Northlands's standards. He had started doing what kings did. Just on a greater scale, obviously. He had always thought that Athena and Joy had been instrumental for his change of heart... but deep down he had always felt that there had to be something else involved as well. Athena and Joy were sweet, although far from innocent. They were kind and loving and they had pleased him with their bodies and their devotion. They had worshipped him and prayed him to stay. They had begged him to take down their tyrannical king, probably not realizing the risk they were running. He could have easily been a far worse, far more ferocious tyrant. What did Athena and Joy have that the countless other girls he had met and bedded, loved or raped, impregnated or destroyed, hadn't...? He had crossed the path of some girls who had been truly innocent and pure. Young, sweet things that should have melted his heart but that he had instead mercilessly ruined, fucking them into chunky oil to massage down the length of his cock and over his glorious muscles. Small and virginal and pure... those were actually the ones he most liked to annihilate. How many of those sweet little angels had he raped into pieces, forcing sobbing mothers to watch, and then to lick his cock clean afterwards...?

Athena and Joy could have easily been another two corpses on top of the pile, or another pair of monstrously pregnant wombs in his unmistakable wake, but something had given him enough determination to face his monstrous urges and order them back under lock. The more he thought about it, the more he could imagine Light sacrificing himself to add strength and authority to his conscience... and he felt his eyes stinging with emotion, his chest heaving as his heart thrummed a little harder, his whole body tensing. It was awkward to think that a primordial deity might be responsible for his changes. It was at once scary and comforting. He felt grateful for Light's contribution, yet annoyed by it at the same time. How dared he interfere? It was something he should have done on his own... it was something he liked to think he had done on his own. Now, thinking that it might have been thanks to Light, and not to his own determination, he felt diminished. Almost humiliated. Couldn't he do it on his own...? He had always hesitated in asking for help. He never liked depending on others and had always felt ridiculously offended by every personal failure. Whenever someone corrected him, part of him hissed in a mix of discomfort, shame and rage. He had been trained to always achieve the best result, to always know what to do, to always do the right thing. Whenever he failed to deliver, he felt a great, painful emptiness inside.

And now he had to contemplate the very real possibility that the biggest and most difficult choice he had had to make in his life had been made possible by someone else's spirit. It made him close his eyes with a grimace... before his features relaxed as he realized that he had no right to complain. The failings were exclusively his. If anything, he had to be purely grateful for what Light had done. What would have been of him otherwise...? Who knew if he would have been able to form his family, had he not changed heart and course. Some things would have been easier. Alexis would have loved him all the same... maybe even more. It would have been so much easier, so much more instantaneously rewarding for them to act like monsters, like tyrants, unstoppable conquerors that could take what they wanted, whenever they wished. But some other relationships, some other events, some other persons he loved and adored... they would have been lost forever, he felt, together with the love and respect of his father.

Light had given himself up to help him steer his life back on track. There could not be a great act of generosity, or a greater act of trust: it meant that Light had seen the danger that Killer represented, but also the nobility of his spirit. Light had not tried to fight. He had used every last bit of energy to nudge him in the right direction and then make him stronger. Killer bit his lower lip and closed his eyes for a long moment, calming the rage and focusing on the positive. He had a debt of gratitude that made him feel uncomfortable but honored... but he also had the comfort of knowing that, with Light gone, he had kept the course. So many years had passed since then, and the decisions he had taken and the sacrifices he had faced were all his. He had shouldered that huge burden alone, and had kept faith to his vows. He looked down at his hands, slowly flexing them and watching his huge biceps bulging powerfully, his hide seeming to ripple as it tightened over his chiseled frame as his muscles swelled with such power that they threatened to tear his own skin. He couldn't help but grin at himself, at how strong he was, at how tremendously powerful he had become. He had never been stronger. Back in his dark days he had been a colossus, a god amongst ants, a goliath towering over a world that turned to dust in his hands, even when he didn't mean to cause damage. He had been a hulking goliath of muscles who could grab battle tanks, throw them one on top of the other into a big pile, and then heft them all up above his head without breaking a sweat. The world had felt frail, vulnerable and powerless before him. He was the master and he had taken full advantage of that intoxicating power. It had been so difficult to resist the temptation of just doing what he wanted, taking what he desired. Nobody could hope to stand up to him.

But now...? Now his power was incomparably greater. Now he was quite literally limitless: all the time that had passed had only made him bigger and stronger. He had been tempered by years of war and hardship. Every one of the scars that pockmarked his frame - caused by gods and monsters, mortal heavy artillery and angelic blades; demonic fire and Unworld poison - only added to the majesty and mystery of his masculine, powerful, hulking body. Some of his enemies now literally were part of his power, their whole strength and knowledge and skills absorbed and assimilated within him. The temptations of his youth were now multiplied, expanded exponentially, in line with his new possibilities. He could now rape an entire universe out of existence if he felt like it, faster and harder and with less effort and in a shorter time than it would have taken him to violate a group of girls in a pub in his youth. He could do it in at least a couple of different ways, too... he could use tentacles to rape every last being inside the doomed universe... or grow so large he could thrust his cock through the mass of galaxies and wear it like a cock-ring.

There was no comparison at all, they were things on completely different scales... and yet he resisted. He had not turned into a tyrant, he was still working hard to do what was right, and abide by his vows. He was more powerful, more Alpha and more confident than he had ever been. But he had also matured, and reinforced his determination. He didn't need to make all the noise and the show like he had when he'd been younger. He didn't need to show off... just what he really had. He was the titan; the others were the bugs. There was no need and no point in tormenting the ants beneath him. Crushing their anthills was easy, but unnecessarily cruel. Wrong. And ultimately meaningless. A waste of his time. The true test that came with his power was Control. Control over his urges. Control over his aims in life.

I'm not doing that bad, Light... and I've no intention to give up."

"I don't expect you to understand it... but your brother was anything but a coward. What he did required great generosity and even greater trust. He knew what he was doing and what the cost was going to be, and yet he went ahead with it, demonstrating all of his strength. He trusted me to do the right thing, in the end. And I will." Killer calmly said, looking up after what felt like an age-long silence, almost embarrassed by how long he had been lost in his reflections. Black didn't seem to mind the long silence, but he grimaced in distaste and clear disappointment, as if he had expected all kinds of answers but not that one. "That is so sickly sweet." Black muttered, before sentencing: "As well as so terribly cliché. Doing the right thing, you say... and what will that be? Renouncing to the pleasure of being limitless and omnipotent just to be fair to bugs too small to be even seen...? That is hopelessly stupid, even for your standards, and no, you will not do it. I know you, and I know your desires. You will not resist forever. The hunger will grow unbearable."

"You undervalue me, Black." Killer countered, trying to sound firm and wholly convinced even as doubts rumbled endlessly in the back of his mind. "I do stick to my decisions to the end."

"Stubborn you certainly are." Black admitted, looking entertained. "But that doesn't change the facts. You like power too much not to pursue it, and you like flaunting it way too much to behave like that pansy of Elelyon. Eventually, you'll want me. You'll want to tap into all of your potential, and that will unleash me... and I will become the one in control. If you are lucky, thought, you might get to live on as a tiny part of my consciousness."

"Like you are to me now...?" Killer venomously retorted, but Black only grinned and shook his head slowly, laughing softly before he crossed his legs and leaned back comfortably into his throne, eyes glowing with mocking entertainment as he gazed down at Killer, explaining in a soft, lofty tone: "Oh, no... definitely no. I'm far more than a just a facet of your consciousness, and you know that. I have quite some control on your body, actually, and on your very energies, as well as a grip on my own powers. I very much exist as my own entity, and I've only grown stronger over time."

"But you are stuck inside me, dreaming of my body, because yours exploded into smithereens in the Night of Times." Killer teased, forcing a smirk on his lips as he tried to blindly but valiantly fight that battle of wills and confidence. Black knew far more things than he did, however, and it was hard not to feel constantly outmatched and on unsteady ground.

Black Killer paused at that, looking down into his cup as he slowly moved it, causing the blood and liquefied ruin to swirl around like a delicate wine, his nostrils flaring slightly as he savored the scent of the death and destruction of countless worlds. Killer looked at him with a grimace of disgust, clawing into the armrests of his seat, wondering what the ancient titan might be thinking about... until Black serenely admitted: "I do love your body. You are what Lachesis has been seeking from the very beginning of her... experiments. You are Evolution. You have the potential to be perfect, flawless, invulnerable, truly omnipotent, because you can absorb and dominate everything and everyone around you. You are unlike anything that came before, and everything that happened since Lachesis crawled out of Chaos was only a prelude to your arrival."

Killer blinked in surprise at that, almost crashing back into the soft armchair as he recoiled in shock at hearing such words coming from Black Killer, of all people... and the dark titan snorted in entertainment at his reaction, shaking his head slightly. "Why do you think Azura saw you coming, so clearly...? Prophecies are never easy and rarely truly accurate. But your strength burned so clearly into the future that Azura could see it all almost crystal clear. The prophecy of the Amon-Ra that you've heard is but a tiny fragment of what she saw and what she wrote into her diaries. Elelyon, idiot that he is, never even began to think that there might be something Azura had not shared, so he didn't worry too much with security of her quarters and of her documents. So, when Azura was killed, Persephone stole everything she could from her apartments, and when Elelyon finally moved in, after the funeral, he found nothing. Those other prophecies and visions were so clear that they have allowed Cerberus to easily plan ahead of most of your moves."

Killer made a grimace at that, but there was no real surprise in his words. Cerberus had already told him about Azura's diaries, while Elelyon's naïve and tragically misplaced confidence in the goodness and loyalty of everyone around him was old news. But hearing Black Killer admitting that he was truly a force so great, so unique, so unprecedented that everything else revolved around him... well, that was impressive. Shocking, even. Not surprising, not anymore... but still astounding and hard to accept. Exciting, sure, but also terrifying. It was also surprising to hear Black openly admitting that he was looking for power in someone else. Darkness was basically admitting that he was chasing a superior, absolute power hidden inside Killer, just like Cerberus was.

"Why do you think Elelyon and the other gods hurriedly Sealed you as soon as you were born...? Do you really believe the fairy tales about their concern for your well being?" Black snorted in contemptuous amusement at that. "They were scared! Azura had told them in no uncertain terms that a new kind of God, a true titan, greater than even the Primordial deities, was coming their way. Elelyon wanted to slow your ascension and gain time. He got the council of the Seven to help him, each divinity adding a different Seal... and although he told no one of it, he asked for the help of his other friends across the universe to form a Seal resistant enough to keep all others together. That's why Elelyon's Seal takes forever to break."

Killer nodded silently, wondering how many other things Elelyon had not been entirely sincere about... but this one was actually pretty predictable. Killer had already imagined that the Creator would have discussed the prophecy with his friends and allies and tried to craft a joint plan involving them, and he couldn't blame him for it. Indeed, it was one of few of Elelyon's decisions that he didn't just respect but wholeheartedly approved. He would have done the same, in the same circumstances.

"Wonder if Elelyon knew about you... or even just suspected you might not be truly gone." Killer finally mused, smirking a little as he shot a teasing look to Black. "He must have messed up your plans big time, huh...? Had I not been sealed, I would have been a newborn, horrendously powerful... and tremendously vulnerable. Light and Elelyon have screwed you up, haven't they...? I bet you expected it to be an easy, quick affair."

Black Killer did not respond, but his features twitched in a way that made Killer smirk and nod slightly, confident that he had struck a nerve and identified the truth, or at least part of it. Darkness stiffened for a brief moment, but then relaxed and sipped at his drink, before proclaiming: "They have caused a delay, admittedly, but compared to Eternity, all these years are nothing. Not even a blink, in the balance of things. And as I said... you've taught me lots. I've grown almost thankful for their intervention, because it bought you time to show me everything that truly matters in life. Everything I should have enjoyed, but never had. You see, it is not just about your body anymore. It is not just about your strength and your potential. I had the power once, but I wasn't happy. Sure, it wasn't quite the ultimate power I now have my eyes upon, but still... on its own, all the power of existence will not entertain me. It'll be as boring and meaningless as it was back then."

Killer swallowed a bit, beginning to understand the true motivations and the true dreams of the warped, evolved Darkness sitting down in front of him, and he was left almost breathless by the realization that Black was really determined to take over his life, with everything it entailed. Darkness had been betrayed by his father; had been failed by his mother and had had his brother turned into his worst enemy. He had never enjoyed the simplest and most important pleasures and wonders of life, and now he was determined to take it all back with interests. "I do not need your body to survive, Killer. And I do not need your body to become absolute. I could steal your secrets away and live inside my own, or inside an even better shell that I could easily create for myself at that point..." Black said softly, speaking almost with affection as he added: "But I want to take your place. I want to take your life. Look at you, at what you have: every fortune of life, plentiful and delicious, right in your grip. You weren't betrayed by your parents. You have a mother that loves you and a father that you are proud of, and devoted to. Seth has been for you everything that Lachesis never was for me. He was wonderful.

And you have Alexis, and her love, her loyalty, her adoration. And you have Vesta, and Ira, and Gaia, and Alcana, and all the others... all of them servile, affectionate, loving, proud to be yours and yours alone. Wearing your collar with absolute, complete joy. All of them believe in your as their master, their god, their father and lover. Every last one of them is ready to go to any and all lengths for you, no matter what happened, no matter the cost, no matter even how you treated them or whether you rejected them. I've seen them... drink your piss. Kiss your ass. Feed you with entire worlds. Crushing innocents into your jaws like grapes. Hell, I've seen them feed you with their own flesh and thank you while you devoured their living meat! Beg for more even while bloody and broken!" Black Killer's voice grew with every word, until he was almost screaming, his eyes open wide and glowing with craving as he leaned forwards and stared at the liger with a mix of hate and some form of disbelieving gratitude, as if Darkness still couldn't quite believe the beauty of what Killer had built up, an empire of flesh, of devotion, of power and carnal pleasure.

"Mriya! Elaine! Savannah!" Black Killer shouted, almost trembling as his hulking musculature flexed and bulged with tremendous power and barely contained eagerness. "There is nothing, nothing that they would not do for you. Nothing too monstrous, nothing too disgusting. For you, they would walk through hell... and turn heaven itself into the most nightmarish of infernos, just to put a smirk on your lips!" Darkness grinned widely at that, his expression terrible and trembling, deranged and anxious, his impatience to experience the same feelings and emotions almost burning through his skin, making him look truly terrifying. "And earlier still, when you were but a boy, still growing bigger and stronger every day... all those women! Hundreds of thousands of them, crawling to you to be enslaved and used. Paying you to be ruined. Breaking up their families for you, forcing their husbands to grovel; bringing you their daughters... bringing you their pregnant bellies and paying you to fuck their children into chunky oil... all those girls eager to kiss the ground you walked upon while savagely humiliating and fighting their males into slavery and depression, proudly declaring that they were unworthy of existing around you!" Darkness shook his head in disbelief, smirking in a mix of awe and cruel delight as he admitted: "I never thought it possible. I never thought I'd see anything like it. I've only ever known the terror and prayers for mercy of the worlds that I destroyed. They feared and hated me... it was always the same, wherever I went. A collective scream, a big shiver... and then they were gone, and my satisfaction was so brief to be almost nonexistent. But with you... hell, you are loved. They beg you to crush them out of existence! They give up everything just to get to experience you, just to be crushed by your cruelty. That is true power! Being loved and feared at once! Being prayed by your own victims... this is what I learned while existing as part of you, and I've come to adore every second of it."

Killer nearly blushed, embarrassed and shocked, dumbstruck as he stared wordlessly at Darkness, before he slowly gulped down and shook his head slowly, his mouth slightly gaping in pure surprise. "Darkness, I... I would have never imagined... I never understood that... that all you ever wanted was being loved. And I'm sorry, I really am... for being such a terrible example of what being accepted and appreciated is truly like. I'm an abomination, a deliberate extreme... and I've done nothing but turning you into a monster. I'm sorry. You seem to have focused on all the wrong things... on all the low, primal, carnal instincts made of fear, arousal, envy and twisted dreams. That is not the love you seek..."

"Don't try to mess with my mind!" Darkness immediately snapped, and for the first time he sounded truly threatening, truly hostile as he clenched his massive fist and disintegrated the golden cup in his grip, sending blood streaking down to the ground in a rivulet. "Don't try to make me look like a pansy! I know perfectly well what I want!" Black trembled with fury, snarling in irritation as he realized that his voice was almost starting to break, and he sat back into his throne, his massive, masculine chest heaving majestically with his breathing. He closed his eyes for a moment, and then snorted in dark, contemptuous amusement as he grumbled: "Of course you'd speak just like Light... I had to expect it. You don't want to share, obviously. You don't want me to even desire what you have..."

"Darkness, I'm serious. Listen to me, I can help you." Killer offered, extending a hand towards the massive dark goliath, but Black glared at his fingers like they were knives aimed at his heart.

"Look at what you have. Everything! Family, friends, love, devotion, companionship, adoration, strength, power... the admiration and the envy of the entire Existence. And I have nothing! I never had anything! Never got to taste what it was like to be loved, and feared, and respected, and envied. I only ever tasted scorn and hate!" Black Killer snarled, causing the gods and goddesses cruelly bound together to form his throne to visibly shiver in terror, as the fleshy, massive tentacles violating them and keeping them bound suddenly flexed and crushed down on them hard enough to break bones and send blood squirting out of them like they were overripe fruits. "Lies! I was fed nothing but lies ever since I was born! And now you too attempt to lie to me, to mislead me. You'd want me to believe that there is something better than what you have... "pure" love. Ah! I won't be tricked again! If there was something even better than what you have, why wouldn't you pursue it?"

"Because I'm not mature enough for that. Not patient enough. Not good enough." Killer quietly replied, looking firmly into Darkness's eyes, leaning forwards almost companionably as he bit his lower lip and tried to find the right words. "Look... What exists between me and Alexis; me and the other girls... it is indeed special, and I wouldn't trade it for the universe. But what the others felt for me, what you think is love... that is not love. It is a morbid and insane form of envy mixed with admiration and with the... the desire to somehow share into my luck. It is born out of greed, envy and a form of depression and insecurity. In front of me, people just felt... hopeless. Outmatched. And they craved to have a taste of what it was like to be me, or live with me, like me, outside the rule of law." Killer paused, nervously rubbing his hands over his thighs and looking upwards in frustration, trying to define the thoughts that, even within his own mind, sounded confused and unconvincing. "Love, true love... it has nothing to do with greed. Love is when people truly do care about you for who you are, defects included. And love is rare. Love is truly special, because it poses no conditions, it demands nothing in return. Do you think all those people back in Ire would have given a toss about me had I suddenly lost my power? If Ire's military had managed to take me down, you think many of them would have rushed to my aid...?"

Darkness listened for a few moments, frowning in a way that Killer couldn't quite interpret: was he listening? Was he getting the message he was clumsily trying to send? There was no way for him to know as the dark titan balled his fists but slumped back inside his throne, his chest heaving a bit faster than normal.

"I think I know what you mean..." Darkness finally said, speaking with a soft tone and looking at Killer without hostility. "And I suppose it is true... having someone who loves you, defects included, even if you are nothing but a weakling among other weaklings... It is nothing short of a miracle."

"It is." Killer passionately confirmed. How many had truly loved him during his life...? His family, yes, and Alexis and the others closest to you, even if he was still amazed by his luck whenever he looked at his girls and realized that yes, they did love him, not his power, not his darkness nor his light. It was what truly made him happy to be alive, and his greatest treasure. Of the many others that had sided with him, that had served him, that had sacrificed money, family, even their lives to him... few had truly loved him. Most of them had been obsessed, more than affectionate. It had taken him a long time to learn to distinguish and understand the difference, which was far greater than it appeared at first glance.

Darkness looked thoughtfully down for a few moments, and Killer waited in silence, hoping that he'd be able to appreciate that very same difference... but when Black looked up, the shadow in his eyes immediately signaled that he was not going back on his decision. "It doesn't matter." Black softly said, even though a note of sadness seemed to permeate his voice now as he slowly shook his head and added: "Yes, maybe you are right... there is a purer form of love, one that is eternal and selfless... but I will be perfectly fine with them obsessing with me. I do not plan on giving up my power anyway. I will give them plenty of reasons to be impressed and awed. I don't think obtaining the pure love of everyone at once is possible; and even less sure that it is worth the effort of an attempt." A ugly grin contorted his muzzle as he leaned forwards and exclaimed: "I remember your enemies in Ire... all those losers who spent their days being ardent racists and nationalists, babbling about defending their supremacy and asking for you to be banned from Ire, or better yet executed for your assault on the purity of their races. As soon as their rallies broke up and they were alone, they checked your website to stare at you fucking another load of their women into ruined, obscenely pregnant race-traitors. They fucking cheered you on! They jerked their puny little dicks with tears in their eyes, admitting to themselves that it was only right, that you were too superior, that you deserved everything you wanted and that there could be no resistance." Darkness smirked in maniacal amusement, tilting his head to the side. "Remember Juana? And all the other girls like her? Remember how they worshipped you, and how nasty they were to your enemies? And yet those broken cucks all but competed to be the one who threw more money at then, buying them stuff, paying to see them lick your ass, to watch as they worshipped you... paying to be belittled, humiliated, threatened and abused! Paying you directly, until they had nothing left to give!" Darkness spread his arms and shook his head in disbelief, snorting sarcastically as he exclaimed: "And you say they didn't love you...? Your enemies worshipped you! "Pure" or non "pure", that is the love I want from them. I will be all too happy with it."

Killer swallowed thickly at that, shifting uncomfortably in his armchair and feeling his cheeks heating up as he realized that, yes, he had enjoyed the slavish adoration that his "enemies" had reserved for him. It had been incredible and delicious and it had given him many a laugh and years of complete luxury and leisure. He immediately realized just how dishonest it sounded to try and play down the pleasures he had treated himself to... but he was sincere, or at least so he liked to believe. The liger's last certainties about his mortal values and the truths of life were admittedly faltering, leaving him wondering whether he was being flat out hypocritical. Still, Killer tried to avoid conflict and moved forwards, closer to his alter ego, sitting at the very edge of the armchair as he urgently said: "Darkness, please... don't make decisions you'll regret. I'm willing to help you, I really am. I... I never imagined what your motives were. I had no idea of your past. I didn't even know there had been anything before you... We can... we can probably work out a way to give you your own body, so you can build up your life and enjoy everything it has to offer." Killer offered, speaking softly and offering the dark titan a helping hand. "A nice place. A nice life. Good enough to cancel the memory of your past and the pains of it."

Black looked at the outstretched hand for a brief moment, betraying some surprise, almost some disbelief at being offered assistance for the very first time in his life. It was an alien experience and a weird feeling, not unpleasant even though it made him almost blush in embarrassment... before he bad-temperedly snorted and shook his head with a growl, muttering: "You... you are just offering me the crumbs. You are trying to buy me off with a scrap of meat, something you might feed a dog whimpering at you from under the table of your royal banquet!" Darkness's whole body visibly tensed and shuddered with rage, and the hulking beast barked: "Very convenient! I accept to retire into a little Eden you graciously build for me, and while I slip into memory, and then into oblivion, forgotten by everyone, you continue to live your dream, lording over everything and everyone! That is what you are proposing! I should really be thankful for that, shouldn't I...?"

"Darkness, that is not what I meant..." Killer whispered, but his own conscience bit at him like an angry dog, barking that it sounded exactly like that. How could it not...? Killer was perfectly aware of his luck, of the wonderful things he had, of the opportunities ahead of him. So aware of them that at times he felt guilty for them. But could he share his gift with everyone? Obviously no. Did he want to? No, definitely no. "Allow me to help you, Darkness. I won't let you take away my life, but we can still build yourself a good opportunity, the one that your parents didn't give you."

"No." Darkness replied, and his voice trembled slightly, coming out with a clear note of sadness... which became more difficult to guess as the dark titan stiffened and flexed, leaning forwards with a growl, muscles bulging explosively as he coldly remarked: "Killer Huxley... you are my opportunity and my bane at the same time. I cannot possibly trust you. You are a threat to me, whatever you say, whatever you do and act like. I will never trust you, and I will not be fooled by you. I've been part of you for all of your life: I've seen what's inside you... and you are far more monstrous and inexorable than I could ever be. The monster inside you is as terrible as it is glorious. A monster capable to crush all hope out of existence and cause even your enemies to accept their fate almost with joy. Something so terrible that nobody can possibly dream to stand against it. I've seen it all, and I want it all." Black Killer's features contorted in a small, strange smile as he shook his head slowly, whispering: "I know... if you promised me my life, I could... probably trust that. You value your word above everything. I would be safe; you would not kill me, you wouldn't come to maim and crush me. But where would that lead me...? I would be just another powerless spectator to your glory. Another plaything on your shelf. I would only ever have what you allowed me to have... and it would all be on loan. Yours as soon as you wanted it back... where could I ever hope to get, without your body?" The titan snorted sarcastically, spreading his arms wide, his eyes bulging almost insanely as he exclaimed: "What could I do? Would I still have Alexis at my side? No, I could never catch her interest. Would Mriya beg to serve me...? Of course not, she'd look at me like she'd look down at a cockroach!"

"I'm not giving up my life, Darkness." Killer firmly said, and his voice turned cold, his eyes icy as his own hulking body flexed and all but crackled with energy. "I'm not giving up the ones I love. I'm not giving up the family that I've formed. I'm saddened by your past and by what you had to go through, I really am, but if your request is not reasonable, I can't help you."

"Of course you can't!" Darkness barked, grinning almost insanely. "I know you will never allow it... but I will not settle for anything less. I will not settle for your alms. I will not be like those weak cucks who thanked you and paid you to fuck their wives, ruin their families, destroy their unborn children and enslave them. I will not accept slavery under you... I will take your place, no matter what it takes to get there! I will take away everything you have... and everything else too. Everything you should have conquered already, but haven't because you are a coward!"

"Don't spit into the hand I'm offering you, Darkness." Killer countered, surprising even himself with how calm and yet inexorable his voice was. He looked up at the dark titan, firmly but gently, almost beginning him to see reason, but Black only snorted contemptuously. "You have not succeeded this far, and you won't succeed in the future." Killer coldly warned, making a last attempt to get the sad, lost creature to see the light. "Let's work together, not one against the other. You can still get your share of happiness, and build your own life, rather than try to live mine."

"The only thing I wanted from you was growth and evolution." Black Killer coldly countered, glaring down at him. "Given your potential, I thought that the Seals would not last; that your enemies would have soon been crushed, and that your full potential would have been realized. So many years later, you are still stuck thinking like a mortal, struggling to deal with issues that shouldn't even get you sweating."

Killer sighed loudly, closing his eyes and throwing his head back with a huff of frustration, muttering: "So, you are not going to listen. Why, Darkness... why throw away your chance..." The liger quietly said, before looking at his alter ego with a grimace, tilting his head sideways and arching an eyebrow. "And really...? Are you also going to complain about what I accomplished and what I did not...? I kept the both of us alive and victorious. It's very convenient to complain while standing behind the stage, watching as someone else does all the heavy lifting."

"Oh, but I've been plenty active." Black Killer easily countered, grinning slyly. "You've built an empire and a great family, but I've spent every last moment building and building and building. I've expanded my control over your mind, invaded many of your thoughts and memories... and turned Alexis and the others into additional sanctuaries for me. There's a bit of me in every last one of them, and none of you ever realized what was happening."

"What did you do...?" Killer snarled, stiffening and clenching his fists. Was Black bluffing? He hadn't felt anything weird. He hadn't experienced the cold and uncomfortable sensations he had learned to associate to someone messing with his mind and using psychic links, but Darkness was not one for pretenses and the threat in his words sent a shiver down his spine. Suddenly, his eyes were drawn back towards the shapeless figures circling around his small mental safe-haven, and he saw that they had moved even closer... while still being unrecognizable, too faded to resemble anyone in particular. Their eyes, however, now glowed with unmistakable hostility. They were beasts of prey circling some distance away from the fire... and if the fire was to suddenly go out, they could come charging at him.

"Ensured my success!" Black Killer easily replied, smirking and shrugging a bit. "I needed to make sure none of your Disciples would be able to interfere when the time comes and I have to completely destroy your soul and consciousness, so your body becomes the vessel for mine, and mine alone. It wasn't difficult... there were plenty of chances for me to move from your body to theirs."

Killer for a moment tried to think of how that had happened, exactly... but he immediately decided he did not want to know. Instead, he tensed and tried to make ready for the battle that, he knew, was inevitable and fast approaching. Black was not going to listen, and if the shapeless forms outside the sanctuary weren't just a bluff, he was going to deal with a lot of adversaries at once.

His body was sore, rigid and exhausted, and the last thing he wanted was to get up from the armchair. He had fallen unconscious and had awakened here exactly because he needed rest, and a respite from the endless agony. Now, it seemed, he was heading towards yet more agony. It looked like his own mind was ready to turn against him, and he could only try to harden what was left of him, to fortify his consciousness against the incoming onslaught. Pain is a state of mind. He silently reminded himself, even though he couldn't help but wonder whether that had still any validity when he already was inside his own mind.

Am I going insane...? Part of him wondered, and he grimaced as he realized that it was a perfectly legitimate question to ask. A look into Darkness's eyes, however, was all it took to realize that it was a deadly real and serious affair. Don't think like a mortal. Don't limit yourself. And remember: corrupt or not, this is your own mind. It must account for something, surely...?

"What about Cerberus and Thanathos?" Killer asked, both for genuine curiosity and with the hope that Black Killer would be as enamored of his voice as always, and that his speech would gain him even just one minute more to try and put some force back in his trembling, sore, maimed muscles. It's your own mind! You make the rules here! The damage to the body is not so important until you can protect the mind!

"I did everything I could to keep my... secrets... hidden from them, from their scientists, from their experiments."

"With quite some success, admittedly." Black Killer confirmed, before standing up from his throne, rolling his massive shoulders, flexing his flawless, enormous muscles and looking down at his hands with a grin. He looked even larger, taller and even more imposing than before, and Killer felt dwarfed. Black was fresh, confident, full of vigor and in top shape. The exact opposite of him as he reeled under the terrifying physical and psychological burden of all the tortures and mutilations he had suffered... and was still suffering even in that very moment. "They were making next to zero progress before I stepped in to help them."

"Why the hell did you do that...?" Killer barked, gritting his fangs and staring at him with wide-open eyes... but of course, as soon as he asked he already began to imagine the reasons. Black Killer slowly walked forwards, grinning sharkishly as the throne and footrest vanished behind him, melting into blood and crimson pulp that absurdly floated in midair for a moment before flying into his back, feeding his already immense form, adding strength to his towering body, making him hiss in delight as he visibly grew even bigger, casting his shadow upon Killer.

"They are my insurance policy, so to speak. Since you got so lazy and cautious and basically decided to stop growing, I needed a way to get things to progress. Thanathos and Cerberus are perfect for that. Or better, Cerberus is. Thanathos is just a big idiot." Black Killer snickered at that, shaking his head slowly, and then he grinned widely, adding: "But Cerberus... I like him. He's got much more initiative in him than you. What he has accomplished in his life is nothing short of wondrous. An insignificant mortal that manages to trick the gods, all of them, in a way or another! He managed to get every last god playing to his tune, even though the very last of the divine runts out there could have crushed him under thumb like a mosquito. It is amazing, really... and his plan is brilliant, and perfect. It will make things so much easier for me. If he succeeds, he'll bring me right to the Well of Eternity, and even destroy all of the Anchors on my behalf... it's the best servant I could have ever wished for!"

"You manipulative son of a bitch..." Killer hissed, gritting his fangs in rage and only making Black grin wider as the dark goliath nodded a little and added: "And not only that; he is proving to be an excellent host. I just had to let him mine some of your genetic wonders out of your body, and he promptly started experimenting. Unlike you, who constantly hide from your own potential, he has embraced his gift with remarkable enthusiasm. He's grown and evolved more in just a few short days that you have in your entire life. Just think of what he could have achieved, given a chance earlier on..."

"If you like him so much, then why don't you torment him, rather than me?" Killer grumbled, and he was left wondering stupidly at himself for how his enormous ego was almost offended by Black's praise for Cerberus, even at a time like that, even while far worse considerations filled his thoughts.

"Don't be silly, now... he is infinitely weaker than you. His body is nowhere near durable enough to survive the flood of power I've gifted him with... and that was but an iota of your strength. Your energies are consuming him like a candle. He keeps trying harder and harder, but the faster he grows, the faster the horde of parasites inside him multiplies and devours him. Unlike you, he can't benefit from constant mutations and corrupted evolution... he can barely survive them. It takes time for him to assimilate every little iota of power, as his body needs to be destroyed and rebuilt entirely, into a larger and better form. Every little addition could kill him, if he dares too much. Too risky to use him, despite how well he is doing... But I really do like him. He resembles me, in some ways... we are both rebelling against your tyranny! We are both working to turn our lives around... it is amazing to think that he started out as a mere mortal. Makes me sad I'll have to crush his dreams into dust, eventually: I can only admire for standing up to you and getting this far." Black Killer grinned widely and gave a little nod of approval, then tilted his head sideways and grimaced in distaste as he muttered: "Thanathos... Thanathos disgusts me as much as Cerberus amazes me. Thanathos is a bag of fears, insecurity and stupidity all crammed together. He's spent all of his life desperately trying to please others to gain their approval, and he's gone from sulking and depressing whenever said approval doesn't come, to flat out pretending he is loved even when he isn't. The shit he has taken, right to the face, from his "wife" is something simply astounding. He is worthless. He's got nothing of Cerberus's initiative and his body, while much stronger than Cerberus's as base, is just as inadequate a vessel.

No, Killer... your body is the one and only perfect vessel. The one I really need. The one I want. In a way or another, I will take it, and I will take away your empire, your family, your everything. And I will expand it more and more. I will conquer all of the worlds, and when there will be no single place left to take, I will create new life, new universes, filled with new and better life that will love and worship me.

I needed Cerberus and Thanathos to be able to actually hurt you... otherwise I would have had to face your whole, intact strength, and that would have been far more dangerous. They have reduced you in this miserable state, and they are opening the path that will bring me back home, to the Cloister. Useful idiots, that's all they are." Black Killer stirred, lazily stretching and delighting in the power and mass of his muscles, in the strength that overflowed from every last fiber of his being, and he extended his right arm, grinning as a massive sword took shape in his grip, crackling into being like a lightning bolt of pure darkness. It was a terrifying, thick cleaver with a blade so thick that it could act like a mace as well as a sword. Alien skulls of primitive deities that Darkness had destroyed and assimilated now stared at Killer with empty eye sockets, seeming to grin sharkishly from the base of the tremendous blade, which resembled the base of an ancient tree: thick roots of alive, dark metal coiled around the skulls like tentacles, before merging together further up the length of the sword. Black Killer swung the massive weapon once, spinning it with unbelievable ease, and he grinned widely, whispering: "It's been a while since I've last had a chance to put my sword to good use. In our old language back home, it had a great name, very fitting of her... in your language, I suppose you could translate it to something like "God's sunset". It will certainly be your last sunset."

Killer stood up from his armchair, sighing inwardly and trying to hide how hopelessly exhausted he felt, welcoming the rush of adrenaline and the thrill of the challenge which, as always, came to sharpen his senses and make him eager. No matter how sore he was, he craved the fight. He demanded victory, he looked forwards to once more proving that he was the best and strongest of warriors. The odds were stacked against him, but that only made him more eager as he extended his hand... and Wyvern took shape into his grip, her familiar weight reassuring him, the little tingle of energy crackling up his arm letting him feel that the sword was just as ready and as eager as he was. Of course, that was just a memory of Wyvern. The true sword was in the real world and in Alexis's hands... but Killer tried not to think about it too much. He couldn't afford to think like a mortal and let his old vision of the world shape his actions. Not this time.

Black Killer looked down at him with dark amusement, looming over him like a tower of muscles and power, standing easily five or six full heads taller than him... and Killer grunted in shock as the armchair behind him burst into flames, becoming charred... before a muffled shriek came from it, and the liger found himself staring at a younger version of himself, at the kid he had been, bound in the seat by monstrous tentacles wrapped in great dark flames. The kid's eyes looked at him in terror as the flesh rapidly burned off his bones, his face melting away in a macabre display... before chair and corpse seemed to burst apart, becoming a tangle of flaming tentacles that lashed viciously out towards the liger.

Killer sprung sideways and slashed Wyvern down through the massive appendages, chopping them into halves, but even more exploded into being all around him, stabbing forwards like so many spears, all ending in deadly harpoons of bone. All but one, the largest, as thick as a redwood and covered in pestilent growths, tumors and pulsing cables and veins, with greedy eyes growing all over it seemingly at random, complementing an infinity of cruel mouths... and on top of it, at the very end, was the skull of young Killer, sneering sinisterly as the last of his flesh burned off the bone. Killer leapt off the ground as it seemed to simply explode, pelting him with slivers of energy that were incandescent and sharper than any blade, and he threw himself to the side as spiked tentacles ripped up through the crater, chasing hungrily after him.

Wyvern swung left and right, looking like a blur of crimson light as it tore through the dark appendages, sending broken, bleeding serpents of dark meat flopping wetly on the ground, squirming and squealing in agony, but more and more deadly tentacles tore through the walls and the floor of the little sanctuary, while the skull of young Killer sneered: "You are nothing but a failure. You have been given the greatest of gifts, the most unique of opportunities... and you wasted it by being a coward!"

Black Killer laughed and walked leisurely forwards, caressing the tangles of tentacles as he went, speaking softly but terribly: "Whatever you do now, you've lost. You no longer have a safe space. I'm everywhere, in every last memory. There is no friendly face, no help, and no respite. I will eradicate you here and now, or I will destroy you through Cerberus. Either way, your body will be mine, and everything else along with it. Beg for your life, Killer. Pray me, and if you can move me to pity, I'll let a tiny bit of you survive as part of my consciousness." The dark goliath snickered at that, before swinging his colossal weapon towards the liger, forcing Killer to leap backwards just as the heavy mace struck the ground and disintegrated it... and before he could land anywhere, even more tentacles and conical spikes of dark metal shot up through the cracks to impale him.

Your mind. Your rules. Make things happen! Killer closed his eyes and focused as best he could, and a platform of solid energy appeared in midair beneath him, rattling violently as a whole forest of tentacles smacked savagely into it, the tendrils bouncing back and looking dazed for a moment, while Killer wished for a staircase as he ran towards the open air... and his feet stomped solid steps of energy, allowing him to charge straight against Black Killer. The dark goliath leaned backwards with a snarling grin and hefted his tremendous weapon upwards, and Wyvern and Sunset clashed with enough force to cause what was left of the sanctuary's walls to disintegrate because of the shockwave. Killer grunted in shock at the fearsome strength of Black's blow as he was battered away like a baseball, flying like a comet through the darkness of a mind that suddenly appeared alien and hostile.

Black Killer tore out of that shapeless, endless darkness, grinning widely as he dwarfed him and swung the enormous mace-sword down into his chest, sending him crashing into the "ground" with terrifying violence. Killer vomited blood, curling instinctively up on himself as he sank through a material that was harder than stone and that felt just like an extension of his being. He experienced the pain twice, in and out, as even the battlefield was part of him and caused him sufferance whenever it was forced to morph.

Tentacles immediately swarmed all over him, leaking stinking pus and piss and pestilent corruption, festering with the same terrible parasites that he had observed inside Cerberus and Thanathos, and he winced as he felt them crawling all over him, stinging and biting, devouring his flesh as they began to tunnel through his form. The liger roared in agony and rolled over, closing his eyes as he let his energies tear through him in the form of fire, consuming the squirming bugs and sending the tentacles retreating for a brief instant... which he exploited to get up into a crouch, forming a shield with his energies and using it to batter back a tangle of harpoon-like tendrils that viciously stabbed towards his face. Black Killer was upon him in the very same instant and Sunset rushed down with vengeful fury, smacking into Wyvern with such force that Killer was sent crashing bonelessly backwards, bouncing violently against the ground, and then sinking into it as Black leapt forwards with a snarling laughter and stomped both feet into him, riding him like a surf board, crushing his skull into the solid, rock-like stuff of his mind. "Surrender now, Killer, and I will spare a little bit of your mind. Just enough that you can happily live a life of contemplation of my pleasure and of my dominance. More or less what you offered to me! Am I not generous?"

The liger winced in agony and powerless fury as he tried to swing Wyvern up only to have Sunset stabbed right through his shoulder, severing his arm with a vicious slash, sending blood spraying a great distance away... but Killer's other hand clawed into the shapeless darkness beneath him even as he shrieked in anguish, and enormous serpents of dark energy tore out of the "roof" somewhere above them, wrapping their mammoth coils around Black and hefting him clear off Killer's body.

The liger looked at Wyvern gleaming on the floor, covered in his blood, and then gazed at his devastated shoulder, thinking of his arm... and instantaneously getting it back in place, before he snarled and flexed, his body rapidly expanding, doubling, then trebling in size and power as dark, corrupt metal spread over his form, turning him into an unstoppable colossus crackling with energy and towering over Black. "Nobody gets to mess with me in my own mind!"

Black Killer, however, only laughed even as the new, armoured titan leaned forwards and stomped down hard, his colossal boot dwarfing Darkness... and yet, when Black pushed his hand up, he effortlessly stopped Killer's whole impetus, before almost leisurely stabbing Sunset up through his sole. "I'm afraid it is my mind now. I'm afraid my rules are stronger than yours!" Black exclaimed, grinning as a deluge of dark blood and corrupt energies exploded out of the wound, just as he shoved Killer over like he was a toddler, sending the goliath crashing on his back. "Let's take away your godlike abilities, shall we...? You so often think like a mortal. Let's see what you are like, fighting as a mortal!"

Killer snarled and kicked his legs up to jump to his feet, but just as he did that he realized that he was rapidly shrinking... and when his feet slammed into the ground he looked down at his hands with horror, suddenly feeling enormously, impossibly weaker. His body was leaner, even if still hulking and glorious with muscle, and he was shorter and lighter. His regal mane was shorter as well, still growing up on top of his head and down his neck, and the precious bullet necklace that ideally connected him to Alexis was gone, replaced by a heavy chain that he recognized with a wince of shock and disbelief. He used to wear that heavy necklace when he was 14 or so, when he went south, into Ire, to study in one of their military boarding schools and then their army's most prestigious academy... and even though his body and strength remained above godlike for the standards of mortals, he now looked at his body with nothing but horror. How could he possibly fight back against Darkness in his mortal, Sealed, 14-year old body...? He felt almost ridiculously small and weak, coming from his fully grown and hyperdeveloped adult body.

He stumbled backwards, clinging on to Wyvern and wondering where Black had vanished to... before turning around as fast as he could, sensing him coming into being behind his back. Before he could do anything, Black's enormous foot had smashed into his chest and he was flying backwards like a missile, crashing into a solid wall of darkness and vomiting blood and ichors and his own pulped insides, wincing at the sight of his broad, masculine, powerful chest crumpled inwards in a terrifying, unbelievable way. All his bones creaked horrendously as he tried to crawl out of the crater, all of them apparently broken and pulverized... and when he tried to heft Wyvern up, the sword morphed in his hands and turned into the great, draconic creature after which it was named. The dragon breathed fire into his face, charring his features off his skull and turning around with a shriek that made Killer's blood almost ice over. Sharp, terrible talons ripped into his chest as the beast grappled him and dragged him down, but the liger balled his head hand into a fist and hit the wyvern with an uppercut that sent fragments of teeth shooting through brain and skull like bullets. The draconic monster stumbled backwards, awkwardly flapping its great wings to retreat away from him, but Killer grabbed into its tail and yanked it hard back, slamming the beast down into the ground and immediately stomping on its already devastated head, pinning it to the floor while he yanked viciously on its tail. The beast let out a squeak of agony and fury as its spine loudly cracked, and then its whole body seemed to explode in a cloud of crimson as it broke into halves that the liger hurled away in the opposite directions. Killer hissed breathlessly in pain and shock, confused by what had just happen and horrified to see what control Black had on his very thoughts, but before he could even pull in a breath, Darkness tore out of the shapeless blackness surrounding him on all sides, and he had barely enough time to push up his hands, catching Sunset as it rushed against him. The impact smashed him backwards like he was a toy soldier, sending him spinning head over heels even as he attempted to dig his boots in.

Blood sprayed out from his arms as bones loudly broke and the sharply pointed segments tore through flesh and muscle to stick out through his limbs. He didn't dare to look down at them, closing his eyes instead as unrecognizable shadows rushed against him from all sides, and shapeless figures surrounded him. Again he tried to summon Wyvern to his hand, but some incredibly powerful force immediately grabbed the blade and ripped it out of his grip, before another force smacked him in the chest and knocked him flat on his back.

Killer rolled over and vomited blood and thick chunks of gore, shutting his eyes tightly and trying to stop the world from spinning around him in an uncontrollable way. Darkness laughed at him, seemingly from every direction at once, and Killer snarled in fury and agony, pushing up to a crouch and then leaping up to his feet to face the black nothingness. It was a supernatural, absurd obscurity that no light could pierce, and it left Killer lost and confused as he tried to make sense of his perceptions. He could feel enemies moving all around him, and when Black finally charged forwards, he had only a split second to distinguish him in that confused crowd. Killer slammed his palm forwards and caused a huge wall of ice and fire to rise in front of him, and Black grunted in surprise, barely avoiding it and immediately leaping up to overcome the obstacle... but as soon as his foot smashed down midway up the great barrier, the wall spun upside down, acting like a catapult and throwing the dark titan straight towards Killer, who stabbed Wyvern forwards with a roar. Black looked astounded by the liger's audacity, and his reaction was slow: Wyvern tore up through his mighty abs and impaled him from side to side as Killer shoved forwards with a snarl... but Black only grinned viciously, grabbing the liger's short mane and squeezing into his skull to steady him in place before headbutting him with ferocious force, sending him stumbling backwards.

Wyvern uselessly tore through Black's hip, passing through his muscles and bones without causing any damage, and the titanic god laughed and swung his mace-sword hard into the bloodied male, smashing him backwards, sending him to the ground in a broken heap. "Are you starting to realize, finally, Killer...? This might still be your mind, technically... but I'm already the one who writes the laws!"

The goliath hefted his gigantic mace-sword above his head, preparing to land the fatal blow, and Killer pushed himself up as best he could using his elbows, before closing his eyes, calling his energies and his very mind in help, and his wounds once more healed as he pushed both feet up and slammed them into Black's bulging groin, snarling as he put every bit of his strength into the donkey kick.

Darkness snarled in irritation more than pain, slamming his mace down but missing as Killer slammed a hand into the ground and vanished through it, traveling through his memories.

Darkness clenched even tighter around him, festering with countless shapeless figures which all seemed hostile and violent, and he almost hugged himself, his head shrinking between his shoulders as hands clawed and grabbed and yanked at him from all sides, talons ripping into his flesh, tearing into his skull as he sank rapidly through ruined, corrupted memories... until he finally crashed against a solid floor of marble, richly decorated. He stared at it with eyes bulging in a mix of shock and pure longing, falling to all fours and panting hard, his chest heaving wildly as every inch of his body screamed at him in pain.

He had immediately recognized the drawings and decorations in the marble, and they had been enough to make his heart beat faster with longing: that was his bedroom, back at home, a place connected to so many good memories, to so many nights with Alexis curled up against his chest... after being gone for so long, the mere sight of the scenes of battle finely drawn into the floor with colored marble made him almost tear up. He immediately looked up to see the immense canopy bed, nearly as big as a town square, with columns of marble and chiseled hardwood that rivaled those of a cathedral. He saw the "bow" of the bed, which had a base of marble and was shaped a big like a Viking longboat, and he stared for a moment in the eyes of the unevolved, powerful lions chiseled in stone on top of the bow: a lioness and a male with a mighty, vast mane, both powerful and glorious, looking down from a rocky cliff. The tents and veils of the canopy were pulled semi-closed, hiding whoever was resting into the vast bed, but the sheets were messily strewn all around and a lot of cushions had fallen over on either side. Scenes of ordinary, daily mess. The dawn was flooding the room with light through the tall, great arches leading onto the vast balcony, and Kendrew was snowy and cold in that crispy winter morning. The fire was still on in the immense fireplace, and someone had already silently walked in to prepare the table where Killer and Alexis liked to eat when they felt like staying alone, or at least with a smaller company, usually reduced to Mriya and Anubis alone, or few others at most. It was a dream to be back... but a voice in his mind immediately put a brake to his relief and brought him back to the cold, harsh reality: this is a memory, at best, and Black's doing at worst. This room has been destroyed, along with the rest of the world. There are only ruins now.

Someone moved on the vast bed, on all fours, laughing quietly, and both the voice and the grace of the shadow faintly visible through the veils made it obvious that it was Alexis... and Killer pushed up to his feet, swallowing thickly and looking nervously down at himself, stuck in his body of "teenager". He had never been ashamed of his body back in the days - why would he? He had been an Adonis that put adult tigers to utter shame and who looked utterly godlike when compared to the much smaller "prey species" - but now he felt horribly self conscious. Alexis had known the mature, expert, bigger, stronger and badder adult Killer, and then the God. What would she think of the young Killer...?

His heart threatened to burst with happiness when the spectacular goddess shoved the velvet tent out of the way and looked at him with a strange smile, one of mixed surprise and curiosity. He stepped towards her, smiling and spreading his arms as she straightened up with a smirk... but then he saw her hips rocking, her body moving with powerful, sensual grace as she hungrily impaled herself on a monstrous, titanic black cock that forced her pussy to gape so widely that her labia clung desperately to the formidable girth, tearing and bleeding as much of her passage was dragged outwards, prolapsed almost viciously by the monstrous size of that tower of virile omnipotence.

The goddess grinned, eyes glowing with amusement and derision as she backed up from the tents, sinking more of that immense shaft inside her body, grunting hungrily as her juices soaked the sheets, before she straightened, pushing up on her knees to show off the bloodied shaft tearing up inside her, her belly bulging outwards with the size of the mammoth invader, distending even her perfect, bulging, powerful abs. She bounced hungrily up and down, rocking her whole body, muscles bulging as she clawed into the mattress and rolled her hips deliciously, screwing herself upon that arrogant, colossal member that bulged with thick veins, struggling to bury inside her depths as they clenched with phenomenal strength, her longue lolling out as she growled in bliss. She smirked as she reached between her legs to grab a pair of absolutely immense balls resting ponderously on the mattress, and she greedily squeezed into the colossal orbs, yanking on the sturdy, leathery sack as she ground those humongous sperm tanks together, eliciting a masculine grunt of pleasure from the hulking goliath sprawled beneath her. She looked down at

Killer with a mocking, challenging smirk that he knew all too well, but that he had always experienced from the other side, and she flexed her muscular legs with a groan, spasming visibly as she pushed up into a squat, letting some more of that immense shaft slip out of her, her labia clinging to it and stretching out almost absurdly, her legs trembling even as she flexed her spectacular muscles... before she snarled hungrily as she let herself fall down, then squatted up, and down, and up, and down, moving faster and faster, slamming down to the hilt every time and gyrating her hips rapidly, grinding into him before moving up several feet, leaving the immense black shaft streaked with blood and entirely soaked with incandescent, pearly juice.

She tilted her head slowly backwards and looked down at him with a grin of superiority, and her eyes slid closed with a groan of bliss as the goliath stud beneath her easily sat up into the bed, his broad, masculine chest pushing into her back as he leaned his head over hers, making even her muscular, omnipotent form look small. The dark god seized into her strong legs with huge, powerful hands that effortlessly hefted her up, opening her glorious legs in a spread eagle as he began to move her whole body up and down along his shaft, faster and harder, filling the room with an obscene, wet tattoo of slaps of flesh against flesh, muscle against muscle, causing blood and juices to noisily squelch and spurt out of her.

Darkness grinned sharkishly as he began to slam forwards with his powerful hips, ramming his titanic cock home inside her, smirking as she drooled and nearly coughed up a thick load of his precum, her hands stroking down her bulging, deformed belly and squeezing into his goliath cock through her own flesh.

"Calling the past for help, Killer...?" Darkness teased, and the liger trembled in a mix of fury, despair and pure need, his entire body burning with a desperate desire for Alexis, for her touch, for her heat, for her prowess and strength. He did his best to shift into a ready position, but his eyes kept going back to Alexis's smirk, and he realized how truly terrible it was to contemplate her spectacular beauty with the awareness that she was never going to give anything other than derision and scorn. Darkness laughed at that, pushing up to his knees and arching his massive back slightly just so he could drive his titanic monolith of hypervirility all the deeper up inside her, his body so huge and powerful that the ship-shaped marble base of the bed loudly cracked. "It is my past now!" Darkness cackled, grinning cruelly as he added: "Put me to the test, if you don't believe me... I'm the true Master! I'm the true lord of your mind!"

"Mhhh." Alexis agreeably groaned, grinning widely as she reached up to wrap her arms back around Darkness's thick neck, her body flexing in eager delight as the gargantuan cock continued to savagely ram up inside her. Her eyes glowed with merciless amusement as she measured Killer up and finally teased: "And you... you are one hell of a colt. But you will never, never even come close to this stallion, to this fuckin' bull elephant and his mega-beast of a cock!"

Darkness laughed at that, wrapping his enormous arms around her and grabbing her huge, prodigious breasts in his strong hands, squeezing those great swells with almost vicious hunger... and Killer charged forwards with a snarl, leaping onto the bed as his teenager body rippled and fizzled in and out of sight, like static on a screen... before his adult body seemed to explode out of him, expanding his great form as Wyvern burst into being in his grip with a flash of fire. He swung the enormous blade against the two lovers, even as his eyes bulged in horror, fixed on Alexis's face despite his mind desperately howling that he was not looking at the true Alexis, that it was just a projection, a warped memory, or some other kind of creation coming from Darkness's vast and obscure powers.

Wyvern chopped through thick tents, light veils, mattress and marble, ripping the gigantic body in half and slapping one of the great columns of the canopy into nothing but a cloud of fragments and dust, but the liger snarled in frustration as Black and Alexis simply vanished from sight.

"Angry, are you...?" Alexis teased, and Killer instinctively ducked as he sensed her behind him... before immediately regretting as she easily saw the move ahead of him even beginning to act. Her bare foot smashed into his face and sent him flying through the room to crash into the wall, and he grunted in pain, vomiting blood as he sunk deep into the stone and concrete, before immediately kicking out of the crater as best he could. He feinted to the left and then sprinted to the right, trying to get up to a ready position to face her, but Alexis's ability to see the flow of energy well into the future meant that she was literally four or five moves ahead of him. Her hand grabbed his throat and hefted him clear off the ground, slamming him face-first into the wall and dragging him for a dozen meters through the stone, grinding his features into a mask of blood mixed with dust and debris. He tried to swing Wyvern out against her knees, but the goddess cackled as she effortlessly slid her hand down with ample advance, pushing almost playfully against the flat of the great blade and forcing it to miss her completely, before she stomped one foot backwards, not even needing to look to catch his arm right in the joint, crushing it down into the floor and breaking the bones like twigs, making him howl in pain as Wyvern fell out of his suddenly weak grip.

Alexis's leg extended backwards with all the elegance of a dance, and the flat of the blade bumped against her bulging, powerful calves, toppling over just so she could lightly kick into the heavy pommel, causing the massive sword to jump up in the air, just where her free hand could catch the handle and effortlessly spin the weapon tip-up. In the same movement she spun slightly to the side, easily avoiding him as he savagely kicked out with both feet, and she absently swung one leg over his own, catching his waist between her powerful thighs. She smirked savagely as she caught him in a deadly scissor, flexing her phenomenal muscles in turn just to listen to the sick crunches of his bones turning to powder, and she hissed in delight as he clawed uselessly into those chiseled muscles, squeezing bulging mountains of strength that didn't budge one millimeter. "Yeah, stroke those muscles...!" Alexis teased, grinning viciously as she twisted sideways a little, making him grunt in breathless agony as the move was nearly enough to rip his body in half. "Worship those legs, I know how much you love them!"

Killer was truly tempted to, even in a moment like that, even as those great thighs crushed his ribcage almost flat, causing his mouth to fill with blood and with... thicker pulp that he didn't even want to try and identify. He looked up at her, swallowing thickly, admiring her beauty and power despite himself, even as his mind desperately tried to find a way out of that nightmare. It was nearly impossible to surprise Alexis, even when they sparred in the best of conditions, and now he was light years away from his best conditions. He had rarely felt as exhausted and sore and broken as now... on the contrary, she was even taller than usual, hulking with perfect muscles adding to the feminine glory of her shape, looming over him with unquestionable physical supremacy. He felt dwarfed by her strength and powers, a toy, a slave to her whims. He vainly attempted to slam his feet into the broken wall to push himself and gain some momentum, but he could barely feel his lower body at all as she crushed his waist between her almighty legs, and she snickered darkly as he felt the tensing of his muscles, replying in turn by flexing hers. The power of her legs was simply fearsome and Killer shut his eyes with a breathless cry, listening to his spine crumbling into powder and completely losing control of his legs... before she mercifully relaxed a little, taking a moment to smear his blood all over one glorious thigh. "Wanna try again...?" She taunted, before moving her hand up to her gaping, ruined sex, playing with her stretched-out labia and soaking her fingers in the thick, almost solid slop of thick semen leaking out of her, before pinching the long tail of one of the enormous, monstrous sperms, yanking it out just to send it and many others falling down onto Killer's chest and face. The liger grunted in disgust and tilted his head away from that thick, heavy rain, closing his eyes and focusing his energies... and a large tangle of tentacles erupted out of his muscular back before splitting as the great tendrils stabbed against Alexis from every direction at once. The goddess snorted in contempt at that, smirking confidently and tilting her head to the side, effortlessly avoiding the first violent stab, before she twisted her torso to let another two rush uselessly past, tearing through nothing but thin air, while she bowed head forwards to let another pair angrily shot above her.

Killer winced in agony as she danced on the spot, sinuously flexing and bending her body this way and that, snickering as she easily avoided all of the tentacles, no matter how hard they tried to nail her in place. Every movement caused her powerful legs to flex, her muscles bulging and crushing Killer's body a bit further, making him groan breathlessly in anguish... before she pulled one foot up, bending her leg and causing Killer to roll over, exposing his back and the roots of the great tentacles. They immediately attempted to coil around her, but Alexis easily reached down and seized them near the base, spreading her legs wide just so she could heft Killer into the air by his own tentacles. "You are a disappointment, colt..." Alexis teased, grinning widely as she lashed out to the left, sending Killer crashing face-first into the floor, before she yanked hard on the tentacles and sent him back up into the sky just to hammer him down in the opposite direction, slamming him into the floor again and again. Her boot came down on the back of his skull, crushing his face into the ground and pinning him in place as she took the tangle of tentacles under her mighty arm and, with an easy yank and a grunt, tore them all out of his flesh, sending blood spraying up thickly from his back. Killer gritted his fangs at the agony that it caused him, but at the same time clawed into the floor to drag himself away from her, rolling over and kicking up to his feet as soon as he could... but Alexis was already there and smashed her fist into his chin before he was even done straightening, sending him crashing against the wall once more.

He groaned in agony and despair, shaking his head to get blood out of his eyes as he pulled up both hands and blasted spheres of focused energy against her, pumping out as many as he could, but Alexis was simply impossible to hit, sensually swaying out of the way of the projectiles and inexorably drawing nearer, grinning down at him as he desperately tried to surprise her. "I have no clue what the hell I used to see in you..." Alexis mercilessly sentenced as she came up right in front of him, and Killer charged forwards and lashed out an uppercut with all of his strength, snarling as the goddess pulled up one hand to intercept.

The impact was tremendous, generating a shockwave that blasted the room around them into nothing but fragments of marble, wood and glass, and the goddess grunted in surprise as she was pushed backwards by his tremendous strength, even as her fingers clamped down on his fist, blocking it. The male stomped forwards with a growl, tears falling from his eyes as he dropped his shoulder and tried to ram into her, his other fist slamming into her abs and making her half-jump backwards with a grunt even as her almighty, invulnerable muscles refused to budge and instead caused the male's knuckles to crack audibly.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and attempted to tackle her down, but Alexis growled in irritation and clawed into his shoulder, shoving him away with such strength that he stumbled and lost his grip... before he howled in pain as she moved with the speed of lightning and stabbed Wyvern right through his arm. She hefted the sword high up and the huge male found himself hanging from the weapon as it slowly tore his arm apart. His feet dangled several feet above the ground while his limb showered him with blood while the blade slowly severed it into two, and Alexis mercilessly balled her hands into fists and began to land a series of hooks and jabs that boomed louder than thunder, tearing holes in his normally invulnerable musculature and sending pieces of his bones splintering out of his back like shrapnel, flying away followed by thick spurts of blood and gore. The goddess struck him again and again and again, her eyes glowing with cruel amusement as she demolished him one piece at a time. She laughed as the blood covered her muscles and splattered over her features, and she smirked when he pulled himself up and kicked hard towards her abs, only for her to shift sideways and clamp both of his legs under her powerful arm, smacking her elbow down on his knees and making him howl in agony as she pulverized both kneecaps. "I've always been the best in our couple, by far..." Alexis commented, grinning cruelly as she almost absently ripped his legs off, sending blood spraying thickly out of the shattered knees, before she grabbed his belt and waistband and yanked them off, causing his tattered, blood-drenched clothes to disappear entirely, leaving him naked before her coldly amused eyes. "... now I can see by just how much." She added, before grinning as her own leather pants dissolved and allowed her monstrous, monumental cock to flop heavily and majestically forwards, smashing over his own and completely eclipsing it. Normally, Killer would have enjoyed a significant advantage on her glorious sizes... but in this new reality she dwarfed him in every sense of the world and even her enormous shaft was no less than a few feet larger than his.

The goddess snorted contemptuously at that, pushing forwards with her hips to smack her enormous cockhead right on his face, grinding the heavy girth all over his features until a thick, potent globe of dark precum spurted out and smeared his face. He arched his back and tried to pull away from that monstrous member, angrily reaching up to claw into it, but Alexis absently caught him by the wrist and slammed his hand back against the wall, pinning it in place with terrifying ease. "I might still keep you... you could still be entertaining, despite all. But I think I will keep the colt version of you." She teasingly said, before poking his forehead with a finger... and it was all it took her to force him to once again shrink down to his teenager body, making him feel all the more powerless as she loomed even taller in comparison, her gigantic cock bearing down on his own in even more humiliating fashion. "It is somewhat less sad. At least in this form you can claim you're not yet fully grown up." She taunted, grinning widely, and she let him fall down to the floor just as his legs began to regenerate. He hissed in agony as he fell heavily onto not yet completely reformed bone, and he caught himself on all fours, cursing under his breath as tears of blood fell from his eyes. He looked at her feet, perfect and beautiful like every part of her, with the deadly, flawless talons pushing out of her open toe boots... and he gritted his fangs in a mix of fury and despair. This is my mind. Mine! I can't get my ass handed to me on a plate here, of all places!

He angrily pushed into the floor, and it rippled like water, letting his hands pass through... but Alexis had already easily leapt off the suddenly liquid surface, snorting in contempt at his weakness and preparing to stomp down on his skull. Killer's eyes flashed with rage and frustration at that, and he let himself sink entirely through the floor, before the whole room around them warped and morphed into a multitude of sharp-edged square columns that jutted towards the center, smacking one into the other.

"Don't make me laugh, you loser!" Alexis taunted, fearlessly slapping away the great columns and shrugging them off as they exploded uselessly into clouds of dust and tiny fragments, before spinning around to face an adult, mighty Killer who charged out of the darkness beyond, swinging Wyvern in a vicious cut. She danced her way out of the trajectory and slammed her hands into the flat of the great weapon, knocking it onto its side as she leapt up into a handstand, collecting her legs and then donkey-kicking him right in the face, grinning at the sick crunch that resounded in the dark before she easily landed on the opposite side and gracefully went down in a full split, avoiding a vicious counterattack and then spinning around to kick his legs off from under him, sending the titan crashing on his back. "Slow." She mercilessly sentenced, even as a second Killer, in his teenager body, rushed forwards with a hook kick at her head level. She dropped her back flat against the ground so that he missed, and she slammed her palm up into his crotch, smashing him flying with a yell of agony... before she somersaulted back onto her feet and twisted sideways with a snicker, grabbing Wyvern as another adult Killer stabbed it against her. She snorted, muscles flexing powerfully as she dragged the heavy weapon forwards and sent it stabbing right through teenager-Killer's chest, impaling him and hefting him clear off the ground.

The other adult Killer kicked up to his feet and slammed one hand forwards, his arm rippling before jutting forth with a tangle of massive, spiked tentacles that shot against the goddess, but again Alexis moved out of the way before they even began to stretch towards her, and she grabbed the first mighty appendage in her hands, forcing it to coil around several others, wrapping them up in a knot and then effortlessly severing them in a splatter of blood by slamming down the cut of her other hand.

She tossed the broken, squirming tendrils away and grabbed the bleeding stumps, charging forwards with them and going into a slide between Killer's legs, dragging him down to his knees as she pulled on the severed tentacles... and then she grunted in surprise as the real Killer burst out of the darkness and lashed out his massive fist. She slammed her feet into the ground and sprung up to her feet, yanking the tentacles along so that the other male crashed face-first into the floor, and she dragged him in a circle to sweep real Killer off his feet... but in the same moment, their fists crossed paths and found their muzzles, sending blood spurting out of both of their mouths as two thundering booms echoed in the emptiness.

They both stumbled backwards, away from each other, spitting out blood to clear their mouths... and they traded a little grin, before the goddess commented: "That is one thing I always liked about you. You never give up..." She paused, and Killer winced, knowing her well enough to immediately backstep and close his eyes, again making his surroundings liquid so he could vanished through them, while a massive wall of darkness shot up in front of him just as Alexis charged forwards. She smashed through it like it was made of paper, laughing loudly as she flexed and her eyes flashed with terrible, devastating psychic force, causing the darkness around her to ripple and quiver like disturbed water.

Killer winced as his head threatened to explode, and all his copies and manifestations trembled violently before dissolving, falling apart into motes of energy. The vast, shapeless room of semi-liquid darkness suddenly pulsed and expanded, morphing back into a true room... or better, a corridor. Killer immediately recognized the long hallway of marble, columns, armors and showcases filled with ancient and precious weapons that led straight to the massive wooden doors of his office.

Blood burst out of his nostrils and ears as his skull threatened to split apart like a log, and the wall around him rippled and pretty much spat him out in the open, making him grunt as he landed on the elaborate carpet, his regenerated legs still somewhat unsteady.

Alexis stood in front of the door of his office, with the great doors of their bedroom to the right, and she was beautiful and inexorable, naked and glorious, omnipotent as her muscles bulged and her colossal black shaft, flaccid but already enormous, added even more to her towering figure.

She cracked her knuckles and walked forwards, smirking confidently as her massive shaft thunderously slapped into her muscular thighs with each step, and Killer gritted his fangs and prepared for another round. She was flawless and limitless, incredibly strong and with enough psychic power to rearrange the universe with a lazy thought, which left him with very few options. Her ability to see into the future was enhanced to levels he couldn't quite quantify: he knew, more or less, how many seconds ahead the real Alexis was, but this projection of her was at a higher level of evolution. One in which she had dropped most restraints and allowed her abilities to develop and her power to feed itself in avalanche fashion. She literally got stronger and stronger with every second that passed, and he frantically tried to think of a way to get past her defences. Even multiplying himself and changing the world around them, he hadn't been able to truly surprise her. She was at least twenty seconds ahead of him, which meant she knew his decisions before he ever firmed them up in his mind. How the hell do I fight her...?

Normally he'd outlast her. His superiority in terms of raw power and endurance meant that he had to land fewer hits to force an end to their sparring duels. He basically endured the onslaught and focused on landing enough super-heavy blows to exhaust her. But now... this Alexis was completely flawless and stronger by far than he was.

"Out of options...?" Alexis taunted, grinning widely as she stopped ahead of him, towering like a mountain above him. He could barely stare into her navel now, and she snickered as she grabbed the immense base of her titanic cock, hefting it up and leisurely stroking the gigantic shaft. She had stopped perhaps sixteen feet away from him, but it was barely enough for her flaccid shaft not to hit him straight in the face as it came up. It missed by mere inches, which meant that the first hint of growth would smash right into his muzzle. She snickered and shook her head slowly, looking bored as she slowly jerked off, flaunting her superiority above him... and she finally teased: "Come on, try and land a few of your hits. Put me to the test, use all of your strength. See if you can make it tickle."

Killer gritted his fangs and clenched his fists in a mix of fury and frustration and despair, his eyes vainly darting from side to side in search of ideas... before he summoned Wyvern to his hands and hefted the great sword up, half-shielding himself with it. His eyes fixed on the distant door leading into his office, far behind Alexis's glorious frame, and he frowned as he sensed something... a movement, a painful squirm... a cold, terrible feeling that ran down his spine with a wrecking shiver, causing his whole form to tremble and throb with anguish. Something was happening behind that door... somewhere in his mind... and suddenly, something in him clicked and he looked up at the goddess with a slight gape.

In all of this, where is Darkness? This is not the main fight. Find him. Whatever he is up to, it can't be good.

Killer closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then charged forwards. Several things happened at once, enough to get even Alexis startled for a brief instant as she was swarmed over by a multitude of ghost images in her mind.

The Killer before her suddenly seemed to explode into a multitude of warriors that charged at her, filling the corridor from side to side, but it only made her grin wider as she saw the thoughts in his mind, saw him craving the door at the end of the corridor... and she moved forwards into the crowd of Killers, raking five of them with her toe-talons, crushing another underfoot like a bug, cackling as she swung her heavy, massive cock sideways to slap another two into the wall... but they all dissolved into motes of energy that cluttered her vision and made it confused, as ghosts filled her vision and her mind at the same time.

Tentacles stretched out of her muscular back and shot through the crowd of ligers, skewering them like pieces of meat, crushing them in their coils, slapping them into explosions of gore, but all of it was immaterial, and the goddess snarled as she began to absorb that great sea of loose energies, flexing with even greater strength as she growled: "You fool, you're only making me stronger. How long do you think you can confuse me for...?"

Just long enough, I hope. Killer thought, wincing as he rushed right past her, avoiding her foot as it smashed up into a hook kick that slammed two ghost-Killers into the wall and right through it, before they dissolved into energy that was greedily devoured by her glorious leg. He charged right against the wall, leaping up onto it and climbing along it as his toes tore deep prints into the solid stone, before grunting as deadly, black-fleshed tentacles jutted out of her back, arching upwards and tearing effortlessly through the ceiling, sending plaster and rubble falling down in clouds as they all grew colossal, terrible harpoons of bone at their extremity. They began to stab viciously down into the swarming army of ghosts, cutting them to bits and absorbing them all in rapid succession, and Killer let himself slide down the wall just as one of them slashed out in his direction, tearing a tremendous gash through the wall like it was made of mere paper.

The liger landed between two showcases full of ancient spears and halberds and he had barely enough time to gaze through one before the weapons inside seemed to shiver and then tore free of their metallic restraints, swinging out savagely and forcing him to duck under several angry blades.

A spear, floating absurdly in midair thanks to her psychic power, came rushing straight against his chest but he sidestepped and caught it by the neck, muscles bulging as he wrestled against her mental force until he managed to send the weapon flying towards her back... only for it to disintegrate into slivers of wood as the goddess slowly turned to gaze at him from over her shoulder, regarding him with something like pity.

He rolled out of the way as two massive halberds hacked down to chop him into bits, and he winced as two spears barely missed his feet, sinking several feet through the floor of marble such was the force of her assault. Wyvern appeared once more in his grip as he slashed out his arm, and the massive, heavy blade tore through several of the ancient, precious weapons, sending their pieces clanging down to the floor as he leapt past another halberd and sprinted towards the massive double doors at the end of the corridor.

Two tentacles immediately raced after him, stabbing viciously down into his back, but Killer swung Wyvern up over his shoulder and used the vast blade to parry both assaults, grunting as the harpoons bounced violently backwards, before falling to the ground as he slashed the great sword upwards through the thick tendrils, severing them.

Alexis grunted in surprise more than pain, gritting her fangs as she realized that she had not seen his reaction coming... and she whip-lashed another enormous tentacle against his legs, only for the liger to leap over it and swing Wyvern downwards in a vicious cut that tore through the hard black flesh and the marble floor, leaving behind a pool of dark blood and corruption, slowly leaking into a glowing wound in the ground. The goddess growled in irritation, trying to clear her mind from all the clutter and angrily slapping another Killer-ghost into broken motes of energy before she cracked her neck and charged down the corridor, her mighty tentacles twisting together behind her and jutting forth with a multitude of spikes and blades of incandescent golden metal. They spun faster and faster, grinding into each other and smashing into the walls, the floor, the ceiling as they became a literal meat grinder that caught the various manifestations of Killer and ripped them into shreds, absorbing all of that energy and pumping it into her muscular form. She flexed her arm and easily slapped Wyvern out of the way as he spun around and slashed it viciously against her chest. She reached forwards and grabbed him by the mane, yanking his head forwards as she slammed her knee up. Killer hastily managed to bring his arm up in front of his face, attempting to grab her knee, but she of course saw it coming and aimed lower, smashing into his chest instead, hard enough to heft him off the ground and send him stumbling backwards. He vomited blood, coughing hard as he retreated and attempted to bring Wyvern up in defence, and he again sneaked a gaze over his shoulder, looking at the great doors and again sensing the weird, painful movement beyond them.

Alexis snorted in irritation as he retreated, and her eyes flashed as her terrible psychic powers clamped down on him, hefting him up into the air like he was nothing but a toy, even as he struggled against the invisible fingers that crushed into him with enough force to make his bones creak loudly.

"You disappoint me. I didn't think you'd run away like this. Stand and fight; go down with a bit of dignity." Alexis muttered, glaring down at him with distaste... before her eyes widened and she gaped a little in shock, evidently seeing what was about to happen, well before Killer firmly replied: "You know I never run away."

Alexis looked down at her chest with a grimace of disgust, energy crackling violently around her body as she attempted to fight back, before she growled: "What the hell have you done to me...?"

"Leveled the playing field a bit." Killer easily replied, gathering his legs and then smashing both feet into her groin, hitting with all the force he could muster and breaking free of her psychic grip, landing on the floor with a grunt of pain. The goddess arched her back with a howl of agony, eyes bulging as she grabbed her head and stumbled backwards as her perfect form rippled and attempted to mutate, her veins filling with dark, terrible poison that showed through her hide like a network of black cables, before enormous bolts of black energy tore violently out of her, literally exploding through her flesh and muscle, sending blood splattering all around her. Killer shivered, horrified by the sight of the disease spreading through her body, as infectious gunk began to fill up the ugly wounds in her otherwise spectacular and flawless form, and he closed his eyes as he turned around and ran for the doors. Even now, even knowing that he wasn't fighting the real Alexis... he just couldn't stand the sight, or the thought of what he had just done.

Tentacles overtook him on all sides, however, spinning viciously as they clamped down on him, their blades and spikes ready to make mincemeat out of him, and he slammed one foot on the ground to pivot on the spot, slashing Wyvern through that ferocious tangle of steel-harder appendages, cutting them into pieces before they could crush him. Alexis's eyes glowed a sinister, soulless white now, not the usual sapphire, and her fangs creaked with how hard she gritted them, letting out a long, drawn-out cry of pain and fury as she charged forwards and swung down her powerful fist, smacking the flat of Wyvern with enough force to send him skidding backwards with a grunt, while the blade cracked and several fragments of Godblood fell off, leaving him gaping for a brief instant.

"You poisoned me, you sick motherfucker!" Alexis snarled, sounding furious but, in a way, amused at the same time, like she was content with him having found a way to put up a fight. "Served energy to me on a plate... and somehow made it poisoning, even for me...!" She flexed her enormous musculature, clearly fighting back against the destructive forces at work within her... and some of the ghosts that she had absorbed and assimilated suddenly broke through her flesh, sending even more blood spraying onto the walls as they clawed and ripped into her. "Nice move...!" Alexis approved, hissing in pain before clenching her fists and snarling, arching her back as her own energies crackled violently around her and zapped into the rebellious ghosts, burning them down into shapeless husks... and then dissolving them into nothing, forcing them back inside her. "But even this won't be enough to stop me!"

She furiously charged forth, grabbing the damaged blade of Wyvern and snapping it in half like it was nothing but a twig, tossing the pieces of crimson crystal away and following with her fist. Killer sidestepped the savage assault and smirked as her fist missed and tore through the wall behind him, signaling that her precognitive abilities were still disturbed, and he immediately sprung forwards to smash his palm into her knee, knocking it backwards with a sick crunch and sending the goddess stumbling backwards with a roar of pain and rage. He stomped his way up her damaged leg, propelling himself higher up to smash both of his hands into her face in a vicious tomahawk, but Alexis caught him in the side with a terrifying hook and sent him crashing into the wall opposite. He spun in midair and slammed his feet into the wall to avoid a worse impact, and immediately propelled himself back against her, hands reaching up to catch her massive fist as it came forwards with all the power of a meteor. Killer grunted as he almost hugged her fist, restraining it as best he could and swinging his body upwards to smash a turning kick into her hip, sending her stumbling sideways with a grunt. She looked more annoyed than hurt, however, and she glared at him with a cruel grin before smacking her arm against the wall, smashing him back-fist into the stone and pushing her wrist up against his throat as she crushed him into the wall and dragged him sideways, leaving behind a grotesque, bloodied scar in the stone.

She balled up her other fist and leaned forwards with a grin, taunting: "You'll have to hit me a lot harder than that if you want me to feel it, you runt." She flexed her majestic, powerful arm as she slowly cocked that great fist back, ready to crush his head into nothing but a ugly splatter of crimson on the wall, and Killer found himself staring at her spectacular bicep even as his mind raced to find a way out, his hands reaching up and wrestling against her wrist as she easily kept him pinned. He had never felt as outmatched and small as in that moment.

Still, he closed his eyes and called upon his energies... and specifically upon those he had deliberately fed her with. As her fist lashed forwards, she grinned widely... and then choked violently as blood erupted out of her mouth and nostrils, her whole body tensing as her back arched so violently that her spine creaked, while a massive Killer-ghost tore out of her mouth, half-ethereal and half-physical, forcing her jaws impossibly wide as her eyes bulged almost out of her sockets. Killer threw all his weight to the side and tilted his head as far out as he could, barely avoiding the great fist as it effortlessly smashed through the wall, sending cracks spreading in every direction for the entire length of the vast hallway.

Alexis roared in agony and fury, blindly swinging her fist sideways and causing the entire wall to disintegrate as it tore through like through a mound of flour, but the ghastly figure of energy ripping out of her mouth reached out to touch Killer... and all that energy immediately flowed back inside him, rushing through his veins like a flood as he broke free and yanked on her arm, dragging her forwards hard enough that she fell on one knee, coughing up blood and failing to intercept his other hand as he smashed his fist into her face, blood splattering thickly up as he struck once, twice... and then she furiously straightened, reaching down blindly and forcing him to sidestep out of the way.

Her massive muscles spasmed as her body tensed up again, almost out of control as another great ghost of energy clawed its way out of her chest, causing all of her rips to loudly creak and sometime shatter as blood streaked down her mighty abs. Even so, she savagely chased after him, and he had to leap backwards to avoid her boot as it stomped down with terrifying force, causing the floor to disintegrate as a multitude of spikes of glass-like obsidian shot up through it.

Killer grunted as he leapt away from the first spike just to smack with his back into another, hissing in pain as the deadly-sharp blades cut into his flesh from all directions but somehow finding strength and speed to slam his foot up into the side of a large spike, charging up it and leaping away from that deadly forest, snarling as he lashed out a turning kick aiming at her head.

This time Alexis dodged and reached up with a snarl, grabbing his ankle and dragging him down... only for the ghost in her chest to break free with a roar and leapt against Killer, merging with him. The boost of energy caused Killer to hiss in a mix of pain and delight, eyes glowing solid sapphire as his muscles bulged and his whole body visibly grew, crackling with intense force. He yanked his leg up and kicked hard towards her face, forcing her to backstep as she brought up her hand to catch his heavy boot, pushing hard away from her and sending him falling forwards, out of balance... only for him to collect himself and fall behind her, landing on his hands and donkey-kicking with all his strength into the base of her spine, sending her crashing hard into the wall. "No matter what you do, you still can't hurt me for shit." Alexis snarled, smacking her palm into the wall and sending a ripple through it before it immediately morphed into a solid cliff of ice... that exploded and pelted Killer with deadly blades and fragments, forcing him to erect a shield of supernatural flames in front of his body, wincing as the massive spikes melted on the way through. "I'm far stronger than you. Far better than you. And I will turn you into my alone-time toy."

"Can think of worse endings." Killer playfully replied, and her lips crested in a small grin despite herself , even as she swung one arm out and Blue Vixen came into being in her grip, the heavy sword-gun glowing with her energies as she immediately trailed it on him and opened fire.

An infernal burst of massive, supercharged armor-piercing darts exploded in his direction, leaving him just enough time to once more summon Wyvern to his hand, gritting his gangs as the bullets pounded into it with enough violence to send him skidding backwards even as his toes dug trenches in the ground... and then Blue Vixen flashed forwards, and crimson met sapphire in a clash of titans, the force of the impact disintegrating the world around them... with the exception of the double doors leading into his office, which somehow absurdly floated, undamaged, in a world suddenly once more made of nothing but darkness. "What's happening there? Why do you defend Darkness?" Killer growled, even as his arms screamed at him in pain at the vibrations that went through Wyvern with each ferocious clash of the two swords, as Alexis moved with the speed of light and the grace of a dancer, stabbing and lunging and slashing with a rhythm that would soon become unbearable for him, as her terrifying strength nearly hefted him off the ground each time the swords clanged together.

Alexis snorted in contempt at his question and refused to reveal anything about what was going on behind those doors... maybe she didn't even know. But she immediately slammed Blue Vixen into Wyvern, knocking it sideways and then dragging her blade back until Killer's weapon became caught in one of the cruel segments. Immediately, she yanked hard back to rip the sword out of his hands, and he struggled to resist, both warriors leaning forwards and glaring into each other's eyes from mere inches away. "I'm with Black because he will rule Creation. He will be invincible and limitless, glorious and terrible... while you don't have the guts to walk that path. He has given me what you will never be able to give. Look at you: a runt. Look at him: the Alpha. No need to say more."

She stomped forwards and fearlessly seized Wyvern's blade in her free hand, growling as she hefted him clear off the ground like he was a toy, and she yanked Blue Vixen backwards, preparing to impale him like a tender morsel... but Killer closed his eyes with a snarl and muttered: "This is a waste of time. I'll find out by myself..." His eyes burned with ferocious energy, and another two great ghosts of energy brutally tore out of her, leaping against him and instantaneously merging with him, causing his body to grow by several feet in a mere instant, almost closing the gap with her towering body and leaving her gaping, groaning in stunned agony for a moment, just enough for him to ram his shoulder into her and send her crashing backwards... before he stabbed Wyvern hard up into her chest, piercing right through it until half of the blade emerged from her muscular back in a splatter of blood.

Alexis gargled breathlessly for a moment, sliding a few inches down the bloodied blade as her head dropped forwards... but then the poisonous, destructive energies of the male ceased to crackle around her form and she immediately looked up, grinning sharkishly as she grabbed the handle of Wyvern and yanked herself hard forwards, muscles bulging with power, swelling so much that they nearly ripped through her skin. "You think you can kill me...? You think you can stop me...?" She taunted, tilting her head sideways in derision. "This barely tickles."

Killer grunted, closing his eyes as she clawed into his skull and yanked hard on his head, nearly ripping it off his neck. He charged forwards, hefting her off the ground and carrying her suspended on Wyvern's thick blade, while summoning other places, other memories in his aid. The world around them morphed, the darkness rippling like water, before solidifying into a sort of lucid, mirror-like wall in front of him... and he roared as he thrust Wyvern hard forwards, stabbing it through the mirror and burying it inside until Alexis bumped into the weird wall. She turned back with a snarl of confusion and fear as the semi-liquid substance began to drag her inside... and Killer shoved with all of his strength, growling: "This will hurt a lot more!"

"Nothing can contain me!" Alexis snarled, glaring down at him with hate, and Killer repressed a shiver, knowing that it was true, and that she still dwarfed his current power level. Instead, he focused only on thrusting Wyvern inside that cube of memories, until the handle bumped against the semi-reflexive wall. Alexis sunk entirely through the mirror, and she immediately smashed her fists against the wall from the opposite side, sending cracks through it even as a multitude of shapeless shadows crept up on her from behind. He gazed at this for a brief instant, then yanked Wyvern back, watching as the weird wall rippled like the surface of a lake hit by a heavy stone.

Alexis roared something and smacked the wall again, sending a terrifying ripple through that entire dark inferno, but Killer ignored her and turned back to charge at the mysterious doors, gritting his fangs as he dropped his shoulder and barreled through.

The doors burst apart in an explosion of wooden fragments, but as soon as he emerged on the other side he found himself awkwardly floating in a space where gravity was not present, or in any case worked weirdly. He had imagined he would not emerge into his office, but he still ended up surprised as he found himself floating far, far above a massive wasteland completely covered in skulls, bones and ruins. He had already been there on occasions, but had never before seen that accursed place from such a perspective.

His eyes immediately sought the enormous pyramids that had surrounded the wasteland, looming over it and casting their shadows from one end of that desert to the other... but those majestic structures, which had looked invincible and eternal and had made him gape in awe, were now gone. Their vast bases were still faintly visible, but their titanic steps of stone had exploded into gravel, disintegrating into fragments that now littered the entire wasteland, visible here and there between the mounds of skulls.

The glowing runes that had covered almost every inch of the pyramids, glowing with intense, godlike energy and chiseled deeply into the adamantine lodestone, were now all dead and cold, their energy consumed and digested. Killer swallowed as he searched for any hint of the presence of the great, titanic chains that had stretched from each immense pyramid towards the great, titanic monster in the center of the inferno... but they had snapped apart just as violently, if not more. Some fragments of deformed, charred metal and crystal could be spotted here and there, scattered across uncountable miles of death and silence, but there no longer was anything majestic about them. They were still absolutely huge, true... but they were the wreckage left behind by a ruinous defeat. The Seals had been the masterpieces, the greatest efforts of the gods as they attempted to prevent Killer's power from growing and fully developing... but now all that remained was a bunch of pieces of half-molten, brittle metal which rusted and fell away into dust. All the energies expended by the gods had turned into nothing but a snack that the monster in the middle of that dark abyss had devoured almost without noticing.

Killer felt his heart thrumming in his chest, his muscles spasming uncontrollably as he shivered in instinctive fear and awe, his eyes bulging as he gazed upwards, and then to the left, and the right: all around him, a cold, endless, merciless infinity of darkness... and the sight of universes, galaxies, stars, planets and asteroids floating in that great space was somehow even more terrible. It did not comfort him at all, but only added to his apprehension and awe because he could sense a presence thrumming with absurd, absolute, overwhelming, excessive power, something so monstrous that it existed everywhere at once, that radiated tremendous might from every direction at once, causing the stars to flicker on and off like candles in the wind, so frail and ready to be snuffed out at any moment. The terrible awareness that everything that existed was just dust that floated helplessly around an overpowered, limitless Alpha who had to restrain himself not to blow it all away with his mere breath. What comfort could those universes be, if everything about them could be snuffed out of existence in a mere instant, in any moment...?

The Beast was loose. The Seals, ridiculed and broken, devoured to add even more to that endless strength, more than could be imagined and described.

There could be no fighting back that Beast. No resistance against such monster. And yet... yet Killer floated in space, and the universes continued to blink, projecting their light across the darkness. Something was still holding the Alpha back. But what? It was impossible...!

Killer closed his eyes, shivering as he tried to focus on what he felt inside his consciousness, trying to locate Darkness... and his lower jaw slowly dropped open when he suddenly visualized an endless, immense network of thick ropes and growths which glowed with the electric pulses racing through them. There were large globes suspended seemingly at random across the whole network, and looking straight at the closer one, Killer saw flashes of moments of his past. A laughing baby Mriya. A smiling, radiant Alexis the day they married. Alcana's delighted face when she had taken his hand and guided it to her belly to let him feel that Elaine was growing inside her... And that made it all painfully clear.

It's up to me now. There are no Seals. Not a single god left out there with the force to do anything about this beast. About ME. It's my mind that does the trick. Nothing but my mind...

And as he realized that, lightning bolts raced across the network, making the great nodes glow and changing the images that flashed on and off on their surfaces... and some, many, too many, flashed black, pulsing sickly, revolting to his thoughts, ignoring his orders, fighting back against his intentions as they responded to Darkness's own mind.

Black wasn't lying when he claimed that he had silently infected much of his mind and soul, and Killer gritted his fangs, following the thick neural synapses that dripped with thick, sticky darkness, wondering if they could somehow be purified, and asking himself whether it was too late.

He charged towards the first great node that glowed with a reassuring sapphire light, flashing images of Alexis, of Mriya, of Ira, of his girls smiling at him and welcoming him with open arms, eager to get some relief, desperate to call that past for help as he felt the corrupted Alexis smashing her fists against the wall, roaring in the distance, clamoring to get in and sending terrifying ripples of power tearing through the universes, causing the stars to lose their luster, nearly dying out as they were crushed under the fearsome power of the psychic goddess.

The almighty Beast was everywhere at once, his overwhelming presence bearing down on him like an unspeakable burden that destroyed his physique and his soul at the same time, but he refused to look. He refused to follow that force that taunted and seduced, that almost physically pulled at his chin to force him to look, to admire that unfathomable omnipotence, that endless glory.

No, he had to resist. He couldn't give in to that temptation. Certainly not with his mind in such poor conditions. Before he could get any closer to the great node, Killer spotted Black, thrusting against the very same sphere and pumping his terrifying essence into it, causing its silvery surface to ripple and its luster to progressively die down. Immediately, the liger shouldered Wyvern and flew in that direction, gritting his fangs in fury as he cocked the great sword back and then slashed it violently down against the other male's neck. With a snort, Black Killer flashed out of position and Wyvern cut only through thin air, while the gigantic dark god reappeared on Killer's side and violently slashed Sunset down, forcing the liger to spin sideways and swiftly cock back his arm, wincing as the flat of Wyvern trembled violently with the force of the clash. "Of course you couldn't just stay out of the way and let me finish. You have to be an annoyance to the very end." Black snorted, looking down at the smaller Killer with an expression of contempt, before his massive left arm flexed and erupted forth with a multitude of spiked tentacles, all leaking with infectious, corruptive black gunk and all ending in savage jaws lined with an infinity of long curved fangs. They all shot forwards like missiles, snapping their fangs angrily as they followed Killer, before biting viciously into Wyvern, yanking the sword in all directions, wrestling it out of his grip... only for the liger to twist his body sideways as his free arm rippled and then grew coated of magnificent plates of black armor, made of solid darkness and with borders and decorations of chiseled, solidified light. A deadly blade of golden energy pushed out of his knuckles as he roared and savagely stabbed his hand into the tangle of tentacles, ripping and chopping them into bits just in time for Wyvern to rise and intercept Sunset. The impact was so tremendous that Killer was smacked sideways and sent crashing into the large node... but although the wall was cold and solid, his pain was immediately soothed as, from the other side, his beloved girls reached out, their hands touching the strange barrier and sending warm, delicious energy into his body. He turned around without breaking contact, and he shoved his palm forwards, creating a solid wall of pure force just as a large sphere of crackling dark energy rushed against him. It exploded with tremendous force, crushing him back into the node and making its surface ripple violently, but Killer could almost feel his girls' hands pushing gently into his back, and that was more than enough.

When Black emerged through the smoke and motes of angry energy, with Sunset held high up above his head for the finishing blow, Killer snarled and smacked his palm into the cracked shield, causing it to explode, pelting Black with an infinity of sharp projectiles.

Darkness hissed in pain for a brief instant, but nonetheless charged right through that cloud of death, swinging Sunset down with such force that Wyvern was sent clanging hard against the node, causing an angry explosion of sapphire energy... which arched in midair and coiled around Black's massive arm as the dark god grinned and hissed: "You still don't get it, do you...? You cannot win against me. I'm you... but better. Stronger, faster, harder. Without your moral quandaries and ridiculous hesitations."

The sapphire energy rapidly decayed into flames of terrible, evil darkness, becoming a conical, spinning blade that Black stabbed down towards Killer's face... and the liger slammed his feet into the dome, reluctantly pushing himself away before his back seemed to explode, unleashing a tangle of tentacles that wrapped around the spinning blade. Blood rained down from above as they were savagely ground into gore and shreds of meat, but they nonetheless managed to yank Black's arm wide out to the side, and Killed swung Wyvern upwards to tear through it. The crimson blade chopped violently into the dark god's tricep... but then became stuck as the impossibly strong muscle flexed and bulged with power, and Black grinned ferociously, ripping free and immediately smashing his fist into the liger's face, sending him crashing downwards. "I'm invincible, you loser... no matter how hard you try, you cannot hurt me." Black remarked, tossing a sphere of dark energy after his rival and grinning as it exploded on impact... but Killer tore through that infernal globe of destruction and stabbed Wyvern up through his neck.

Black Killer recoiled with a gargle, eyes bulging in shock at the sight of Killer's body, covered in wounds, broken and ruined, soaked with his own blood... and yet still strong, still standing, still fighting on. Killer snarled as he drove Wyvern forwards all the harder, beginning to drag her sideways to decapitate him, and Black only gritted his fangs and seized the handle of Sunset with both hands, swinging it viciously upwards until it tore into Killer's hip, and from there savaged its way up to the liger's chest.

Killer's eyes bulged in shock and agony as he vomited blood, his back arching violently and an explosion of terrible pain almost knocking him unconscious as Sunset struck into his spine and began to sever his vertebrae. Black snarled as he tilted his head sideways until Wyvern tore her way out of his neck, and Killer's eyes widened in horror as the wound immediately sealed itself shut, while Darkness hissed: "You really don't get it, do you...?"

Black stabbed Sunset violently down into the crackling node, nailing Killer against its rippling surface of silvery non-metal, and the liger howled in anguish as malignant, terrifying force flooded the great blade, tore into his body and erupted inside the node, rapidly corrupting it. His hand spasmed violently, and Black kicked it with savage force, sending Wyvern spinning away, floating in the emptiness, making Killer feel naked and vulnerable like he had very rarely felt before. "One by one, the last pieces of your consciousness become part of MY consciousness." Black growled, leaning down to thrust Sunset all the deeper into the glowing node, causing the images of Alexis and the others to fade out of existence. Killer slammed his hands and feet into the semi-liquid globe, trying to push himself up, struggling against the blade that kept him nailed and slowly sawed up through his chest, threatening to cut him in half... and Black smirked cruelly, stomping violently on his crotch to pin him down. "Beg me, Killer. Beg for your life. I owe you enough that I might even be inclined to let a tiny part of you linger on."

Killer gritted his fangs in fury and agony, hearing them creaking as his body spasmed violently and his blood spurted high up, splashing into his face and almost blinding him, but he still found the strength to reach up and grab Sunset, ignoring the pain coming from the palm of his hand as he wrestled the massive sword back, trying to push it away from him. Tears of blood rolled down his cheeks as he choked on his own life fluids, gargling uncontrollably... but as Darkness leaned down with a poisonous, patronizing smirk, he swallowed the strong-tasting blood and corruption and ichors and let out a roar that started out low and weak but grew powerful and majestic and ferocious, his voice returning as he snarled: "This is my own mind! Nobody gets to boss me around in my own mind!"

He forced himself up, slamming his feet into the node and using every last bit of force in his abs. while thrusting Sunset away with enough strength to make Black grunt in surprise as he almost lost his balance. The blade ripped back out of the wound in Killer's side, and sliced open a vast gash in the surface of the synaptic node, causing a fountain of sapphire energy to spurt up into the liger's body. Killer rolled over, away from Sunset, and the energy flowing into his body formed a delicate but tough layer of protection over the margins of his wound, pushing his flesh back together, aiding his regeneration... even as he let his own powerful corruption run amok, forcing a multitude of tentacles that tore out of the wound and whip-lashed into Black, smashing him backwards.

Darkness looked stunned for a moment, tightening his grip on Sunset and snarling in fury as his sword was somehow pushed back out of the node, and he struggled to shove it back inside, half-curling up to protect his body from the savage slashes of the spiked, fanged tentacles coming from Killer's damaged body.

"You've been with me for long enough... you should know better than to ask for things you'll never get." Killer hissed, trying to ignore the violent agony in every last inch of his form as he stretched out one hand, summoning Wyvern back to his grip and half-standing up with a snarl of both pain and rage.

Black's eyes widened as he saw the liger advancing, walking over the surface of the node, and he pulled up one arm to blast him back with a discharge of destructive force... only for the liger's tentacles to stretch longer and stronger, coiling rapidly around his arm and dragging him hard forwards, so much that the pommel of Sunset smacked into his chest with enough force to almost tear through his impenetrable musculature. Black wheezed breathlessly, trying to use his body weight to ram Sunset all the way down through the node, but it fought back against him with increasing force, pushing the blade out... and his eyes widened as he saw clear treads of sapphire energy going from the core of the node right up to Killer's feet.

Black sprung to his feet with a growl, and viciously yanked Sunset out, spinning it rapidly upwards and chopping the tentacles restraining him, immediately unleashing a blast of darkness which washed out like fire. Killer barreled through that inferno, holding one arm up in defence as the sapphire energy coming from his memories, his very consciousness formed a shield that deflected the worst of the flames, and he sidestepped at the last moment, avoiding the hard downwards-cut of Sunset and smacking her away with the shield before chopping Wyvern brutally into Black's waist, blowing him off his feet and sending him spinning away with a cry of pain and rage.

Killer pursued him, cocking Wyvern back for a new strike and trembling in horror as the wound in Black's body healed almost instantaneously, vanishing entirely from sight and making him wonder whether resistance was truly pointless at that point... before Black grinned darkly and reached out with just two fingers, making a cutting gesture with them and tearing open a wound in the fabric of reality... which allowed Alexis to smash her way inside, her eyes flashing with terrifying, endless energy.

She was even greater than before, and she moved with such speed that Killer had just enough time to wince in horror and shield himself as best he could before her fist slammed into him, almost playfully, her enormous bicep barely flexed as she laughed loudly.

The impact was tremendous, and it made him gargle as he felt like the shockwave had hammered all of his bones into bits. He crashed back into the glowing, wounded synaptic node, groaning in agony, and the goddess floated closer to him, grinning predatorily and spreading her mighty arms to show off all of her destructive glory. Her presence sent a chill through the entire dark abyss, a shockwave that tore through entire universes and made them quiver in fear, the stars flickering in and out of sight... and some were snuffed out definitively, like mere candles. She gazed down at him with a snort, looming gloriously over him, her height and power exponentially increased. Her eyes glowed solid sapphire, without mercy, without limits or restraints, burning with tremendous ferocity and, worse yet, with terrible playfulness about it. She was too powerful to be stopped, and everything to her was a game, a passing entertainment. The idea of someone standing up to her was nothing but amusing.

She had not just grown, but had changed: semi-solid darkness now entirely covered her body, turning her hide black rather than ivory... and her beautiful golden hair had turned an equally stunning but more intimidating crimson, incandescent and glowing. The bangs of her hair danced slowly in the air, moved by the crackling discharges of electricity coming from her glorious body, and by the winds of pure force radiating off her. She flexed her arms, and her muscles bulged so majestically that reality pulled tight around her, deforming like a sheet of plastic, dragging entire universes out of place, pulling them closer to her massive, impossible, spectacular body.

Universes quaked as they orbited around her like ornaments, forming a belt around her waist and spinning rings against her massive, monstrous cock, ridged and pulsating and powerful, hanging ponderously between her muscular legs and causing reality to ripple and tear with every little flex, with every lazy jump of that beyond-everything shaft. A thick drop of precum leaked slowly out of the vast cockmaw and stretched heavily downwards, turning into a rope which swung leisurely from side to side, like a judgment of destruction: some universes were spared, some others were eradicated, swept away without her even noticing, as that great rope of supreme virility tore through void-space.

She laughed as her bulging biceps swept galaxies aside, breaking them apart in clouds of stardust while her massive, black fleshed member pulsated and entire worlds were helplessly caught between the vast, cruel barbs stretching from her flare, still flaccid but already tremendous. And behind that heavy titan, her humongous balls rumbled, pulsing ominously as they produced endless loads of sperms so many times larger than the helpless universes cowering around their mass; sperms ready to devour those universe whole as her body thrummed with power. "Told you so." The goddess teased, grinning sharkishly. "You had seen nothing yet. Running away from me will only make things worse."

Killer swallowed thickly, realizing only in that moment what the true scale of their clash was, and the true immensity of the dark abyss surrounding him... and he was almost crushed by the awareness that, as impossibly immense and powerful as Alexis was, the Beast permeating that darkness was impossibly, incomparably greater still. And he was tempted... horribly tempted to turn and watch that Monster in the eye, to look what the supreme and only Alpha was like... but he repelled that thought, he resisted that temptation. He stared at Alexis with a mix of adoration and horror as she slowly and inexorably moved towards him, and then he stiffened as he heard whispers from inside the node, and warm hands pushing against his back. Immediately, he smacked his free hand down into the node behind him, silently begging the past to come out and help his bursting heart... and his fingers sunk through the surface of the node, slipping inside like it was truly made of water. Delicate but strong fingers immediately clamped around his own, squeezing reassuringly. Killer braced for impact as Alexis drew near, and when he swung Wyvern up against her reality-shattering fist, he closed his eyes and let all that warm, reassuring energy flow through him. Time slowed down... or so it seemed. In reality, he realized that his senses had greatly accelerated and sharpened, and now even the titanic, faultless Alexis appeared slow. He saw hints of a ghost image of her, moving around Wyvern to strike him, and he gasped inwardly as he realized that he was somehow getting a grip of her very same sixth sense, of her very own energy-vision. His body stopped screaming at him in agony, and he felt the warm flood of sapphire energy rushing through his veins, filling him with new force and new confidence, healing his wounds, soothing his mind, slowing down the beating of his heart and giving him new clarity, new courage. New strength.

And he felt bodies moving next to his, rushing past him on either side, all of them graceful and powerful like only his beloved goddesses could be... and he repressed a shiver as he saw Alexis, splendid and perfect in her ivory hide and golden hair, charging against her crimson-haired alter-ego. And then Mriya, and Ira, and Vesta and Sekhmeth on the other side. And Gaia. Within moments, the whole family emerged from his memories, and he felt new energies flowing into him because of their presence, because of the smiles they flashed towards him as they leapt ahead.

Alexis and her evil alter ego clashed in a titanic impact, their eyes glowing with terrifying psychic power as their minds raced to stay ahead of each other. Killer grunted at the force of the shockwave that slammed him backwards and that literally blew entire universes into stardust, sweeping galaxies out of existence like they were nothing but dust on the floor.

Black Alexis was taller and greater than all of the goddesses, and even Alexis herself struggled to resist, grabbing her alter ego's fist in both of her hands and then spinning sideways to throw the larger herm over her shoulder... only for the dark goddess to easily somersault over her head before lashing out a vicious turn-kick at skull level. Alexis ducked with the same lightning speed, and swung one leg upwards in a savage counter, but Black moved easily out of the way.

They moved with such speed, grace and power to leave Killer speechless, and it was immediately clear that their clash was first of all one of minds: they both saw so far into the future that they had trouble surprising and hitting each other. The first one to get ahead of the rival would gain a decisive advantage... and the other goddesses charged forwards, splitting into teams to assault Black Alexis from all directions at once.

The dark goddess easily grinned viciously as Vesta came from the front, her twin sickleswords at the ready, and when the blades slashed towards her head and chest, Black had already spun sideways, moving faster than light and cackling as she pulled up behind the queen of Seraphims, backhanding her away like she was nothing but a gnat. Gaia's eyes glowed as she pointed her hands towards distant universes, dragging them closer, and Killer had enough time to wonder at the immensity of that feat before entire planets split apart like seeds, bursting forth with enormous tendrils of green, thorny, poisonous life that developed, grew and evolved endlessly while reaching across the dark space to envelope Black Alexis.

The terrifying tentacles wrapped around one of her arms, and Gaia balled up her fist, gritting her fangs as she crushed that mighty limb, ensnaring it in countless coils of thorny vines, but Black Alexis only grinned and yanked her arm violently forwards, effortlessly dragging the broken planets across space and swinging them like morning starts, forcing Boadicea and Sekhmeth to rapidly retreat out of reach, before three of the planets found Elaine, crumbling against her body as she shielded herself with her mighty arms.

"Don't make me laugh, Gaia, my dear..." Black Alexis taunted, grinning as her bulging bicep snapped the tentacles like they were strings, and her eyes glowed with tremendous psychic power as she glared in the direction of the other planets, crushing them all into pebbled and dust. Gaia winced in pain and shock, recoiling as the same psychic shockwave smacked into her body and clawed into her mind, but she immediately summoned the oceans to her hands, forming a rapidly expanding globe of roaring, angry waters between her palms, before a laser-like beam of cold, ethereal liquid shot across space and smashed into Black Alexis, forcing her to rapidly erect a shield of energy before she turned around to grapple with Alexis and twist out of the way before Ira could stab her katanas through her back.

Killer's eyes sought Black Killer, who had exploited the chaos to vanish once more, no doubt heading for another of the as-yet uncorrupted nodes; but they instinctively went back to Black Alexis as the dark goddess slipped backwards with a grin, avoiding both Mriya and Elaine and reaching up with terrible ease, grabbing both by the skull and smacking their heads together, before throwing them, dazed and bleeding, back against Boadicea as she approached.

Alexis, however, charged in at the exact same moment and managed to slam her fist into her alter ego's muzzle, smashing her head to the side with a grunt of pain and a thick splatter of blood. Black Alexis let herself move backwards through the dark empty space, grinning gamely and all but finding the time to wipe her nose clean with the back of her hand while catching Adrasthea's spear by its neck, forcing it to miss and stabbing it towards Vicky, who hurriedly had to abort her attack and throw herself to the side. Again, the goddesses assaulted Black Alexis as a team, but they were all repelled... but for Sekhmeth, who slipped through the ghost images in the goddess's head and managed to slash a massive whip of infernal fire across her back.

Killer charged towards that fight, hoping to be able to land a decisive blow against Black Alexis, but his eyes kept searching Darkness, darting in the direction of the few surviving nodes of his consciousness. And sure enough, he spotted him as he prepared to drive Sunset right through one of them. He hesitated for a brief instant, looking to his girls as they struggled to restrain Black Alexis... but Ira noticed his doubts and shouted: "Go! Don't worry about us! Focus on him!"

Killer immediately flew towards Darkness, even if he kept sneaking worried glances over his shoulder, watching as the goddesses clashed with terrible ferocity. This is still happening in your mind. Try to stay lucid. They are... real, yet they aren't. Don't let it all distract you!

Darkness saw him coming, snarling in irritation and slamming Sunset into the glowing node, piercing through its outer armour and pumping his devastating corruption inside it, at the same time snapping his fingers and barking: "You, whore! Keep this annoying bug out of my view!"

Black Alexis's head was forced to turn around, dragged by a tremendous, undeniable force that yanked her body around like she was small and vulnerable... and the goddess grinned sharkishly, nodding with terrible eagerness as her eyes flashed with pure power.

Killer grunted as he immediately felt that same power clamping down on him like a titanic hand. It dragged him backwards, away from Darkness, and made his body scream in protest as it crushed down with unbearable strength. Killer flexed, arching his back violently, struggling against that tremendous force and finally teleporting out of its field, reappearing right next to Darkness and swinging out Wyvern, smacking it into Sunset... before with a roar of fury, Black Alexis barreled through the space separating them and hammered both of her hands down on his neck in a tomahawk, smashing him away and sending him crashing through a helpless universe that scattered and nearly dissolved in a puff of stardust.

"Don't you dare interfering!" Black Alexis roared, charging after him again, and Killer spat out a thick mouthful of blood and ichors while straightening, readying for another clash, but Alexis, Mriya, Ira and Vesta assaulted Black and forced her to turn around.

Killer turned towards Darkness, but the dark god only smirked and tilted his head patronizingly to the side, clenching one fist that burned with terrifying black flames. "Since you've decided to involve the whole family, I guess I'll have to do the same..."

The corrupted nodes shuddered, then throbbed violently, black flames erupting out of each large sphere, causing Killer to recoil backwards with a cry of agony, his head threatening to burst apart, his eyes bulging in horror at the sight of new figures emerging, all beautiful and glorious, all terrible and corrupt. Mriya, spectacular and perfect but with a black, smooth hide of darkness and with the same crimson, fire-like hair he had already seen on Alexis... and then Elaine, with her white hair turned ethereal and glowing, adding even more to the imposing figure of a body that was taller and stronger, hulking with muscle and wonderful with femininity. And then Vesta, with crimson, fiery hair. And Gaia, with a stormy ocean for hair and blindingly luminous fire for armour. And Sekhmeth, her muscular body crackling with crimson energy, armed with endless, terrible whips of infernal fire.

One by one, all of the goddesses emerged out of his corrupted memories, made bigger and stronger and more savage than ever by Darkness's corruption pumping in their veins...

"Form square!" Pamela ordered, and the Praetorians formed a protective square formation around Killer as the corrupt goddesses charged into battle, sweeping into Alexis, Gaia and the others, clashing with indescribable ferocity, the shockwaves tearing through the darkness and pulverizing entire solar systems.

"Pamela, no! This is my fight, I have to fight it myself!" Killer protested, grabbing the shoulder of the armoured tigress, who stabbed her hybrid spear-sword hard forwards to force a corrupted Vicky into retreat.

"It is indeed, but you need to clear up your mind first." The captain of the Praetorians admonished, gazing briefly back at him from over her shoulder, wrapped in the usual pauldron of black and golden metal, with the roaring lionhead on it. The proud beast with its great jaws open seemed to look up into his eyes with an accusing glare, and Killer, for a moment, was left speechless.

Black Alexis charged against the square, and Pamela and Nikita bumped together, shoulder to shoulder, tensing their muscles and bracing to resist the impact. Killer turned around to help them as they were slammed backwards, crashing into his form even as they stabbed their spears forwards... but Mriya grabbed him by the wrist and forced him to turn in the opposite direction, meeting her beautiful sapphire eyes.

"Listen to me, daddy." Mriya urgently said, and the huge male fell silent, focusing entirely on his beloved daughter as she hugged him tightly... albeit briefly. It was a fleeting moment, an instant of heaven in the middle of that inferno. She broke the hug almost immediately, and hurriedly said: "Always keep this in mind: we are the true ones. The true me, the true mom, the true Elaine..." Mriya tensed, her beautiful body flexing instinctively as the shockwaves of godlike power washed over them like tsunamis, and the "square" of goddesses standing shoulder to shoulder trembled and recoiled, smashed out of formation by the vicious assaults of the corrupted goddesses outside. Mriya pointed her finger at the dark copy of herself, and she warned: "Remember this: that is me. Yet I'm not that. The monsters are within us all, but we are not the monsters! We are what we decide to be, what we strive to be! Remember it, daddy. Remember it always. When Darkness tries to destroy your mind, remember it. We are not them. We will only be them if YOU want us to be like that! Not Darkness. Not anyone else!"

Killer swallowed thickly and nodded, hurriedly hugging her close, squeezing her against his chest. Yes, he understood what she meant. He would not forget. Choices are what truly define us all. I've made my choice, and I must stick to it.

"Now go, daddy. We'll deal with these bitches. You stop Darkness." Mriya finally said, and her voice trembled slightly as she pulled back from his hug and turned around. Elaine grunted and pushed hard back against a drooling, ferocious Black Vesta, gaining some room just so Mriya could step forwards, taking her place back in the formation, her spear immediately swinging up to pierce through Black Vesta's hip. Killer noticed only in that moment that his daughters were wearing the full Praetorian armour. It gave him a shiver: it had always delighted and honored him to know that they craved a place in his special corps of guards, but it had also always unnerved him somewhat, considering how the Praetorians specifically identified themselves as sexual servants, as slaves of their Master as well as his protectors.

"Line, at the ready...!" Pamela ordered from the other side of the narrow square, and all goddesses around him flexed their muscles and replied with an eager battle-cry, moving forwards in unison. "Push!" Pamela roared, and Killer admired Mriya and Elaine as they sprung forwards with all of their force, smashing into the dark goddesses ahead and throwing them backwards, stabbing and slashing with their long hybrid weapons. Nikita, Valery, Crystal, Pamela and Kate followed their example, and the square enlarged a bit, giving him some room to breathe and maneuver... before he traded a gaze with Mriya, and his adored daughters let out roars of challenge and charged out in the opposite directions, smashing back the enemies and opening a narrow passage that he immediately exploited, charging out and diving into the emptiness, chasing after Darkness while the battle raged above him. Instinct guided him, and he soon spotted Darkness as he clawed into another synaptic node and fried it with his black flames.

He teleported right next to Darkness, slashing Wyvern out with all his strength, and when Black easily blocked the blow, a ghost of energy shot out of the liger's chest and smashed through the evil alter-ego, knocking him backwards with a grunt of pain and shock.

Before Black could react, the ghost tore out of his back, sending angry discharges of poisonous, destructive energy crackling all around his form, causing his muscles to spasm violently, almost out of control... and the ghost image solidified and turned around with a hook kick that smashed into Black's cheek, knocking him sideways. Killer simultaneously landed another vicious hack against Sunset, knocking the great cleaver out of the synaptic node, even as tremendous pain flared inside his head, pushing against his skull like it wanted to burst out. Sapphire fluid leaked out of the damaged, burning node as it convulsed and spasmed, and the images flashing inside it flicked in and out of view as precious memories were corrupted and compromised, filling him with anguish and rage as he stabbed Wyvern towards the monster's chest, and pressed on when Black deflected the blow out wild. He rammed his shoulder into him and sent him crashing against one of the many thin but incredibly strong tendrils that connected the various nodes, which crackled with discharges of electricity that immediately tore into Black with a vengeance. The dark god hissed in pain, but only swung out his free arm to claw viciously into the tendril, slicing it apart and pumping his terrifying, corruptive fire into the wounds, grinning savagely as the flames raced along the tendrils, smacking into the uncorrupted notes and causing the blackened ones to pulse and thrum with awful, eager power as they produced yet more copies of warped, evil goddesses by tearing apart Killer's memories.

Reinvigorated, Black charged forwards with a roar, eyes flashing as an explosion of pure, tremendous force blasted forth from him and knocked Killer backwards, nearly ripping Wyvern out of his hands... and when the ghost-Killer pounced onto his broad back, Black Killer only grinned allowed his own energies to shift, his back rippling and opening like a terrible jaw that viciously bit into the ghost and dragged him inside.

Killer let out a grunt of agony as Wyvern and Sunset clashed once more, and his eyes widened in horror as his ghost image pushed out of Black's chest but was unable to tear free, his mouth gaping wide and his features contorted in terrible agony... before it began to melt away, losing shape and coherence. Black Killer flexed with a murr of pleasure, huge muscles swelling with power as he forced Wyvern down almost with ease, and leaned over it to strike at Killer's face, his fist tearing skin apart, deforming and breaking bone, sending Killer stumbling to the side with a cry of agony.

"Clever move, to use your energy like that... but I'm you, improved. Do you think your little games can work twice?" Black Killer taunted, grinning viciously as Sunset smashed into Wyvern again and again and again, driving Killer backwards. "You got lucky once, but I can easily attune to your energy signature, whatever you do to it. I will devour you, piece by piece."

"But can you kill me...?" Killer countered, and a sly grin spread on his muzzle despite the pain, despite the blood leaking out of his wounds, his eyes flashing with some sort of bitter satisfaction as his muscles bulged explosively, swelling so much that his own skin began to rip in places, veins pumping as he struggled to push Sunset back, away from his chest. Black's strength was terrifying, so great that his blows should have been much more terrible, impossible for him to block. Something was forcing him to hold back, to restrain his ferocity somewhat... and Killer spotted an opportunity in that. "Can you kill me, you bastard...?" Killer insisted, his voice rising into a snarl as he slapped Sunset sideways and then immediately followed through with a violent lunge, his blade ripping into Black's vast, powerful chest. The dark god hissed in irritation more than pain, grabbing Wyvern's blade and yanking it out of his flesh before shoving Killer backwards, his wounds immediately vanishing from sight as he regenerated entirely in the space of a blink.

"You need me alive. You still need me to get the power you truly crave." Killer insisted, laughing even as Black Killer growled in fury and shoved a hand forwards, blasting a tremendous discharge of pure darkness into him and sending him crashing into a corrupted node.

Killer gargled as the ethereal but titanic force crushed him down into the solid node, and black flames enveloped him and began to char the flesh and muscle off his bones, consuming him, making him shudder in agony. Black Killer landed on top of him, dropping down to his knees, driving them into Killer's chest with a grunt full of frustration and rage, gritting his fangs as the liger wheezed, spittle flying from his jaws as all air was crushed out of his lungs. "For all your strength, you can't kill me." Killer taunted, even through his voice came out much weaker than he intended, and Black almost trembled in fury before balling his massive fists, ramming them down into his face with savage, brutal force.

"You believe you are oh so smart, don't you...?" Black snarled, leaning down with a growl and driving his fists brutally into Killer's skull, making it creak audibly and dent inwards. "But you are just delaying the inevitable. Have you at least looked at what you are denying yourself? At the power you are stubbornly keeping under wrap? You coward, I bet you didn't even try to look at it!" Black let out a weird sound of frustration mixed with absolute, unarticulated fury as he lashed out a kick that sent Killer rolling over with a grunt of agony, vomiting blood... but clutching Wyvern as close as he could to his chest, even as Darkness grabbed the back of his skull and forced him to look past the edge of the node. "Look at it, you bastard. Look at what you are denying to yourself, to me, to Alexis... what you should be, but insist on cowardly rejecting!"

Killer didn't want to gaze at the titanic, endless, unfathomable monstrosity lurking in the darkness. At least, part of him didn't want to. He knew that the beast was fearsome and glorious, majestic and unmatched, endless and incomparable. He knew just how much it enthralled him, how much it called to him. He knew how difficult it would be to keep his cool and resolve after looking at that unprecedented, absolute power. But part of him wanted nothing other than staring into that abyss. Part of him wanted nothing other than embracing the monster... and Black viciously clawed into his eyelids, forcing his eyes open and violently bending his head in the direction of the endless darkness beyond the burning, faintly glowing node.

Killer watched. And his breath caught in his throat and his heart skipped several beats, because the behemoth towering over that sea of death and decay had grown even bigger, even more terrible than before. Far, far more than ever before. That titanic monster, which in the past had looked impossible and omnipotent, now was simply overwhelming. Killer recoiled with a grunt when his eyes lingered on a gigantic toe-talon for too long, and energy crackled angrily around him as tears of blood rolled down his cheeks and his vision went dark, his mind pounding in agony just from looking at him... no, at an infinitesimal part of him!

He was too immense, too vast, too great and too mighty to be seen. And yet the outline of his glorious, invincible form continued to glow brilliantly in his vision even as his eyes burned and closed them and turned his head to grind his features into the dark node, as if he could scratch the image out of his eyes.

The nodes surrounded the Beast, poked into his immense form. Universes weren't even grains of dust compared to that incomparable, absolute deity, but the nodes were like incandescent spikes, like blades stuck into his form, keeping him from moving... and the tendrils, the nerves, the connections of Killer's memory and of his consciousness, the thick ropes of his morals and the sheer, infinite network of synapses, of nervous connections crackling with electricity, made up an unbreakable net, a sort of terrible, glowing barbed wire that kept the titan calm and peaceful. Awake, and yet not. The monster no longer slept, like the first time Killer had admired his titanic glory, but his eyes still stared without seeing. He was suspended in a network of memories and thoughts, hesitations and moral quandaries. He was bound by Killer's soul, and by the determination of the liger. By his choices. And it looked like such a puny, weak, hopeless chain, stretched across that hulking frame bulging with infinite, excessive power. But as thin as the tendrils were; as small as the nodes appeared, they were actually very powerful bounds, as strong as Killer wished to maintain them. So long as he stood true to his intentions, there was no way to break them.

And all universes could only be glad for it, because they were insignificant and helpless before that endless, unfathomable Godbeast, titanic and impossible and magnificent. His body flexed with absolute, undeniable power, muscles bulging explosively even as he slumbered, dominating Reality whole without needing a single conscious thought. Creation and Destruction, Existence and Void, they all cowered helplessly before him, warped and reshaped by his dreams, by the merest twitch of his omnipotent, infinite, hulking form, by his quiet breaths.

Everything around him was silence as the stars and universes flicked out like candles. Whenever the Godbeast inhaled, everything came to an end, the universes vanishing. He was divine, terrifying, hideous sapphire light, colder than ice, merciless and limitless, blinding, surrounding, inescapable. It burned everything else out of existence. And he was at the same time he was infernal, monstrous, devastating darkness, which enveloped and cancelled everything else, filling even the Void. Annihilation was complete and instantaneous and effortless, not even a hint of the unfathomable power that the beast could call upon to destroy, to create, to corrupt, to warp, and to enslave. All things obey him. All things cease to be as He breaths in all of their energy. No, _His_energies. The excess energy he radiates and that he allows them to enjoy for a brief while, for a brief existence that he owns from start to finish... and when he breaths out, countless universes are reborn, created anew, greater and stronger and better than before, but just as powerless, as helpless and insignificant before Him. Because he is Absolute. He is Alpha. He is the Only. He is All.

Killer and Darkness, like everyone else, cannot possibly look at him. His presence is so crushing, so overwhelming, and his body thrums with such unfathomable force and power, such awful heat, that it threatens to incinerate them. They can only see him, guess his glory instead of dissolving in front of a wall of raw, overwhelming power, because the Godbeast wills them to See. Because a hint of his power and glorious image sears its way into their minds. An image that is impossible and awesome, incomparable and unbelievable, and yet it can only be the Truth as the universes dissolve, physics is broken, reality is shattered, the Void crammed full, all life and light and everything else is reclaimed in a single breath. And he is slumbering; he is resting, he is floating in silence, lazy and uncaring. His powers go way beyond what they can see. He has more. He has even more. They haven't even begun to see the power he has to create, to punish, to destroy, to do whatever he desires. His dominance supreme and unyielding, effortlessly bending reality to his will, even as it fled from his power, even as the newly created universes drifted away, creation ever expanding to try and escape him... only to become ever more puny and helpless as his unfair supremacy only ever grew more unquestionable. One moment he was beautiful and perfect and enchanting, the other he was pestilent and limitless, filthy and infernally glorious, apocalypse incarnate, corruption personified, living war, eternal conquest, absolute Master of Creation and Destruction.

His hulking body flexed with impossible muscle, his body thrumming with incomparable power. His gaze, even absent and un-seeing as in that moment, was absolute, unyielding, cutting to their soul, making them tremble as it crushed their spirits and revealed every last secret of their souls. The godbeast's glorious, terrifying cock dwarfed the realities that helplessly orbited around it: the gaping cockmaw swallowed a million worlds whole whenever the almighty, omnivirile member stirred, jumping up slightly, majestically, ponderously, thrumming with unfathomable vigor as universes melted into less than smegma beneath his foreskin, while entire realities became nothing but short-lived ornaments on the great barbs pushing out of his unforgiving, titanic flare. Unworthy, unwanted glitter than could only melt away, dissolved in his hypervirile, omnipotent cock-sweat. He radiated power, and indestructibility, and limitless potency. And before him, Killer, Darkness, Black Alexis, Cerberus, Thanathos, Elelyon, any other god or monster, devil or titan; even their sum, was nothing. There was only Him.

Killer couldn't resist, his spine arched so violently that he finally managed to roll over even with Black leaning heavily down on him, keeping him pinned, and the dark god snarled, blood streaking his cheeks from staring at the Almighty, and his eyes glowed a soulless, terrible white as he roared: "Do you realize now? Do you see now? I don't care that you are too coward to become that... but you are denying me the chance to be that! I will get rid of you, no matter what it takes! There is nothing, nothing I will not do to become that!"

Black seized Killer's head in his hands, his thumbs hooking into his eyes and squeezing down with vicious force, causing the liger's chest to heave rapidly, out of control, his breath rushing out of his bloody, broken nose as he gargled on the life fluids filling his throat. Darkness snarled in fury, smacking his head back against the node, once, twice, thrice, bathing in the blood that sprayed thickly up and hissing: "I will eradicate you. Your resistance will only mean more suffering for you. Look at me: I'm already superior. I have already taken over much of your strength, and added it to mine."

"But through it all... you need me alive." Killer spat, forcing a grin on his features and trying to ignore the pain pulsing through his whole body. "You need me alive, because that Beast is not you. It is me." Killer felt some of his strength returning to him with that awareness, his mind clearing up a little as warm, delicious, incredible energy pumped in his veins, causing his muscles to swell with new power, his wounds festering with corrupt, hyper-developed life that rebuilt and regenerated him... and Black refused to admit it but snarled in rage and frustration, reaching out for Sunset, snagging her handle and yanking it up with a yell of rage. Killer's eyes narrowed in the very same instant, and his grin widened, causing Black's eyes to bulge as he realized his mistake, before Wyvern swung upwards in a flash of crimson light and crackling, sapphire energy, while the liger threw all his weight forwards to tear free and knock Darkness away.

Black Killer exploited the momentum to leap out of striking range, but Wyvern still found its way into his arm, making him roar in agony as it tore through muscle and flesh, hacking into solid, adamantine bone...

And Killer stomped his way forwards with a snarl, leaning all of his weight on his sword, forcing it to shatter the bone and rip the limb clear off, sending Sunset floating in the darkness surrounding them.

"I'm not a coward." Killer hissed, drawing Wyvern back and slashing it across Black's chest and torso, sending up a thick splatter of dark, sludgy blood, before Wyvern drew back for a new strike. "I've not turned my back on that power, and on my destiny." Killer remarked, and he stabbed Wyvern viciously forwards, forcing Black to grip the blade with his only remaining hand, hissing in pain as he wrestled it away from his heart. "That Godbeast is me. And you, Darkness, you are the interloper, the usurper... the old god who tried to hijack Evolution. I am the Alpha. I am the Only."

Black retreated, grunting in agony as Wyvern cut through his hand and into his arm, devastating his limb as Killer yanked the great sword back, cocking it for a new strike. "I won't allow you to usurp what I am. I will be that Godbeast. I do crave that power..." Killer coldly and inexorably remarked, before finally lunging forwards with a snarl, driving Wyvern through Black's abs and out of his back, sending dark blood bursting out of his mouth. "The difference between me and you is that you are so eager that you'd let that power control you. You won't become the Beast, you will let the Beast use you to come into the world. There's a decisive difference there." Killer coldly said, shoving Wyvern deeper in through his rival's body and dragging it upwards, disemboweling the dark god. "I want to control the Beast, not to fold into the Beast. I want to dominate my power, not become a slave driven by it. I've learned that true power is only achieved through Control."

Black Killer gargled as Wyvern slowly tore its way up through his chest, blood leaking out of his mouth as his intestines spilled out in ropes from the tremendous wound... but as Killer forced Wyvern further forwards, his eyes took on a savage glow and his expression changed, turning into a grin as he muttered: "What a colossal load of bullshit. Making up excuses again, are you...? That's only cowardice. That's only the reason why you fail and will always fail!" Black's body flexed, thrumming with terrible, awful power, blasting forth a shockwave of malignant energy that knocked Killer backwards, Wyvern slipping out of the wound as the blood caking it began to burn into the Godblood, sizzling and smoldering, biting into it like some kind of terrible, supernatural acid. The long ropes of Black's guts tensed and flexed, becoming tentacles that split apart just so they could grow deadly harpoons of bone that lashed out against Killer, cutting into his flesh, piercing deep into his abs and legs before he threw himself back with a snarl.

"You don't deserve that power. You can't handle it. But you are lucky... I will take it all away." Black Killer grumbled, spreading his severed arm and grinning as thick, terrible tentacles of semi-solid darkness stretched out through space and connected with the other half of his limb, easily dragging it and Sunset back. Within instants, all wounds were fully regenerated, and the dark god grinned darkly as an evil, crimson-haired Alexis and several other evil goddesses rushed to his aid, half-surrounding Killer. "I will corrupt and conquer every memory you have. I will cancel your soul one memory at a time, if I have to... but I'll have what I want."

Killer tightened his grip on Wyvern's handle, bracing for the clash and retreating towards the wounded sapphire node. Normally, Wyvern would comfort him with a little discharge of electricity, of energy that spoke of confidence and eagerness. But now he was alone. Even Wyvern wasn't what she used to be. This was his mind, but he could no longer control it. In any moment, they could turn even Wyvern against him.

He sneaked a gaze past his shoulder, out towards the abyss of darkness. Dangerously few nodes glowed sapphire, lost among so many others that thrummed awfully, wrapped into roaring black flames.

"Every memory a new nightmare!" Black cackled, as he advanced against Killer, flanked by grinning, savage, evil versions of Alexis, Mriya, Elaine and many others.

Killer's back bumped against the node, which pulsed quietly while a ripple traveled over its surface. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, flexing and summoning every last bit of energy he had.

Black and the evil goddesses charged forwards.

Wyvern and Sunset slammed together.

The node rippled, and Killer was shoved back through its wall, followed by Black Alexis, who grinned with predatory delight and smashed the walls of the node into pieces, opening a passage for all the others to follow through.

Attacks came from every direction. Sunset swung heavily above his head, and he then had to block Blue Vixen as it lashed towards his neck, and he had to repress a shiver of horror as he saw his beloved daughters looking at him with hate, stabbing their Praetorian spears towards his chest and forcing him to bump back into people, whose features were blurred and barely recognizable. Faces in the crowd, which he had seen but did not remember in any detail... but they were taller, bigger, heavier, and stronger than they should have been. They towered over him, and he couldn't quite push them out of his way.

He recognized the place as one of the corridors of the military boarding school in Ire where he spent some time in his youth. Time that had been made up of many good memories, other less pleasant, and a few horrible ones... but now, his memories morphed and warped around him, becoming ominous and threatening. People he had used to tower above now loomed over him, and the gazes of hate that back in the days had saddened him but never given him any real fear now had the power to make him swallow nervously. What would his enemies of the day look like, with Darkness's power backing them and turning them into monstrous giants...?

Wyvern clanged against Sunset. Bullets from Blue Vixen tore into his shoulder and sent him spinning with a cry of pain, before he was forced to duck under a huge hybrid spear hissing past him.

He panted, his lungs hurting as he struggled to stand up to the assaults coming relentlessly from every direction at once, and he wondered whether there was any way at all for him to survive. He kept fighting. He kept resisting. He was going to fight until the very last breath.

But he did not know whether that was going to be enough.