Beyond The Impossible

Myridia, 50 light-years from Earth

Bob Null has heard a lot of stories about his daughter’s adventures on other planets, but he’s never had the chance to see with his own eyes what she has accomplished.

He’s on the balcony at the top floor of one of the many, many skyscrapers of Null City, enjoying the view of a rather futuristic metropolis.

<I thought you said this place was a warzone.> he tells to his daughter’s friend, Jane Blake.

<It was the last time I was here. Myridians are amazing builders.> she replies. To a stranger it would sound like a neutral observation, but he’s known her long enough to pick up the clues.

<You’re worried.> he says.

<How can you not be, Mr. Null? Nori brought us here because she fears Earth’s going to blow up!>

<Nah, it’ll be fine. My kid’s got everything under control.> he reassures her.

<I wish I could share your optimism.> Jane replies, turning towards the penthouse: the argument between Kari and Shinobu Tanaka is getting rather loud.

<What’s up with those two?> she asks. She can’t understand a word they’re saying: they’re both speaking Japanese, and she didn’t get the chance to pack a translator.

<I suppose he wants to leave the building and she doesn’t want him to. I can understand if she doesn’t trust him; he’s tried to kill the Vanguard a couple of times.>

<Who is he, exactly? Everything happened so quickly…>

<He used to be a terrorist ninja but I think he’s a billionaire now.>

<…>

<Oh, and he’s Nori’s cousin.> he adds.

<Is anyone in her family a normal person!?> she wonders, just in time to be joined by a duplicate suddenly appearing out of nowhere.

<Please pardon me for not greeting you properly before, Jane Blake. Any friend of Null is most welcome in our community.> Ganos Lal greets her, bowing respectfully.

<Thanks for providing this shelter for us, Your Holiness.> Jane replies, still feeling weird talking to someone who considers her best friend a goddess.

<Aren’t you going to introduce me to your very handsome friend?> she asks, glancing flirtatiously at Bob who just holds out his hand to shake hers.

<Hi! I’m Bob, Noriko’s father.>

Ganos Lal’s jaw drops. Her mind goes blank for a couple of seconds before she prostrates herself at his feet.

<My lord! I am not worthy to be at your presence!> she pleads.

<Uhm… is it always this awkward around here?> Bob asks nervously.

<No, I think this is a bit extra.> Jane comments.

 

5,000 light-years from Earth

Ares allows his fleet to proceed in its path towards Earth; as much as it would amuse him to see them fight Null’s ships, the thought of watching them pillage her planet is far more entertaining.

He stays behind, engaging the N14-Surtur in a complex battle. Of course he could just annihilate it, but every time his sword hits it the modular ship reconfigures itself into a new form.

And that means that he can simply fight it over and over again until he gets bored.

The sensors of the N10-Quetzalcoatl are doing their best to keep track of Ares, keeping the ship within range but as far away as possible.

<You will only get one chance.> Torn warns Quantum.

The two men are the only crew of the N10-Quetzalcoatl: even Kari didn’t send a duplicate, leaving the ship to be entirely controlled by robots.

<I know. You don’t have to keep saying that.> Quantum replies. He’s sitting on the captain’s chair, with his eyes closed to help him concentrate.

Torn is standing next to him, placing his hand on his shoulder.

<Unlike Vesta, your body is not strong enough to withstand the Blood. Never attempt to use Soul Fusion unless you are in your energy form.>

<I get it. Now go, you don’t want to be anywhere near me once I begin.>

<I have the the utmost confidence in you, Quantum. Your soul lacks the complexity to be corrupted by bloodlust; Soul Fusion should be easy for you.>

<Torn, sometimes I don’t get if you’re insulting or complimenting me…>

<It’s time. Punch his donkey, as you say on Earth.> Torn says, taking a step back and disappearing into a pentagram of fire before Quantum can correct him.

<I guess he meant “kick his ass”. Okay ship, set a course to crash us into Ares and jump to ten times the speed of light when I say “engage”, okay?>

<Collision course calculated. Ready to execute command.> the ship’s computer answers.

<Okay. Deep breaths, Max, deep breaths. It’s just the God of War, no big deal okay? You defeated the Goddess of War, you can deal with her much bigger and much scarier brother.> he tries to convince himself, inhaling and exhaling a couple of times.

He then transforms his body into a mass of photons, and concentrates deeply.

<Here goes nothing. Soul Fusion!> he tells himself; despite not being made of flesh anymore, he can still feel the warmth of the Blood flow through his veins.

<Engage!> he yells.

The engine of the N10-Quetzalcoatl is activated. Ares can’t see the ship approaching faster than light, but his divine senses alert him of an approaching enemy… especially when Quantum releases the electromagnetic pulse that destabilizes Neutral Matter.

Ares smiles underneath his helmet: he has survived the same exact attack before. What he doesn’t expect is that the ship doesn’t remain in its Neutral Matter form for very long.

First Quantum changes his body into anti-matter, causing an explosion the size of a nuclear bomb inside the ship’s bridge. That would normally just create energy and gamma rays, from which Quantum would be able to recreate his body. But with Soul Fusion, it’s just the beginning.

The gamma rays also change into anti-matter. That creates a chain reaction that releases an unfathomable amount of destructive power as billions of tons of material react with billions of tons of anti-matter… right on the target’s face.

The armor had already sustained damage in the previous encounter with the Null ships, but this is the last straw: the detonation of the N10-Quetzalcoatl, and the N14-Surtur to a far lesser extent, pushes the cracks beyond their breaking points.

When the maelstrom of destruction and radioactive particles is dispersed, Ares is still standing… but his armor no longer completely covers his body, leaving several parts exposed.

Quantum is nowhere to be seen: it will take him a lot of time to recreated his body from this. He can’t see Ares take off what’s left of his helmet.

The god’s icy blue eyes illuminate his face in the darkness of space… including his smile.

<Is that really the best you have, Null? I was hoping you’d give me SOME challenge!>

 

Asgard Station, Null Zone

Dmitry Voron wakes up when the bed shakes. It takes him a second to realize that it’s not just the bed, but the entire station.

<Lights on.> he orders as he looks for his clothes. The lights flicker, which is a bad sign: the station is powered by an entire star, so there shouldn’t be any chance of power fluctuations.

Unable to find his shirt, he just settles for a pair of pants and hurries towards the main lab.

The Nullbot that keeps guard at the lab’s door moves its faceless head to follow him, but it’s been programmed to allow Dmitry inside the lab.

As Dmitry expected, this is the source of whatever is happening to the station: Noriko Null is working the controls of the main computer, and the production chamber is emitting pulsating lights that are visible despite the heavy shielding.

What he didn’t expect was to see that she’s only wearing his shirt and nothing else.

<Isn’t that a little excessive for an alarm clock?> he asks, needing to raise his voice to overcome the deafening sound of the reverberating walls.

<What? Just gimme a sec!> Noriko replies, inserting a few commands until the sound is lowered to a consistent hum.

<Sorry, did I wake you up?> she asks, removing a couple of earplugs. Realizing the shirt isn’t covering her up as much as she thought it was, she turns around to button it up.

<I think you woke up half of Earth, and we’re not even in the same dimension. Also, there’s no need to be modest, I’ve already seen everything.>

<I know. Look, Dmitry, about last night…> she replies, hesitating before continuing. She’s saved from the conversation by the computer giving several beeping alarms.

<Don’t worry about that, I’ve boosted the containment field but I haven’t had the time to recalibrate the sensors, so the alarm is constantly going off. I’m not blowing up the station, I promise.>

<I’ll take your word for it. You were saying?>

<About last night? I had a breakthrough.>

<Is that how they call it in America?>

<You’re incorrigible, Dmitry. I meant about the project. Do you know how Neutral Matter works?>

<It’s like neutron star matter, but cold and with a microscopic fraction of its weight.>

<Right. It’s actually forged from a neutron star: the mass, temperature and pressure of the star are shifted outside of the universe. Hephaestus discovered the process hundreds of thousands of years ago, but I’m pretty sure that he just re-discovered the same phasing technology invented by the Eden to make themselves intangible… probably because the Lar had a less efficient version.>

<I thought you already knew how to create Neutral Matter. What’s the breakthrough?>

<Hephaestus made one mistake in his creation: he didn’t go far enough. He did forge the Heaven-Slayer, which is sharp enough to cut through Neutral Matter, but the forging process takes millennia. And Degenerate Neutral Matter, the material of the armor and sword of Ares, is just regular Neutral Matter with more mass. I think he stopped there because, if he tried to pump even more mass into his creations…>

<He would run the risk of collapsing everything into a singularity and create a black hole?> Dmitry hypothesizes; this is far beyond his area of expertise, but he is the second smartest human alive.

<Exactly. And last night I figured out how to harness that kind of power.> Noriko explains, lowering the protective shield.

Dmitry can see something floating inside the creation chamber. He figures that it must be a sword, but he can only see the hilt: the blade is obscured by the flow of incandescent plasma floating around it, fueled by a stream of stellar material being fed from multiple sides.

The hilt includes parts from the disassembled Keys of Heaven; the cross-guard is bronze, and the grip is black with a helix of silver that goes down towards the pommel, which has a prominent Ø symbol on it. Despite its high technological level, it looks like an ordinary European sword.

<I used the Keys’ dimensional shifting technology to fold a spacetime manifold akin to a four-dimensional singularity.>

<Amazing. Can you take it out of the chamber?>

<Not yet. If I take out out before she’s done feeding, it might absorb the entire station.>

<“Feeding?”>

<The blade is like a non-gravitational black hole: anything it touches is absorbed. It already ate four stellar masses worth of material and it’s not even close to being…>

<You made a sword that eats stars!?>

<I made a sword that eats gods. Speaking of which, how about breakfast?> she asks, lowering the protective shield and nonchalantly leaving the lab.

Dmitry Voron hesitates a moment before following her. He’s always known that she was dangerous and inhumanly smart… but this is the first time he understands why anyone would find her terrifying.