Beyond The Impossible

The asteroid field that used to be Atlantis

Aegian Galaxy, 2.5 million light-years away

Poseidon is facing four goddesses, but he doesn’t seem to be sweating it.
Only Athena is putting up a real fight, keeping up the pressure by clashing her spear against his trident. Enyo, Amaterasu and Vesta are little more than glorified distractions, despite the impressive amount of energy they’re throwing at him.

Anubis would normally be tempted to join the battle, but his cybernetic eyes are transfixed overseeing the information relayed by his necrobots now that they have infected Noriko Null.

<Tell your critters to stop trying to hack into my Nexus. It won’t work.> she warns him, her voice having an electronic distortion now that the necrobots are inside her throat as well.

<Uhm, Nori, are you sure that turning yourself into a Borg was a good idea?> Quantum asks her. His energy senses are picking up all kinds of crazy signals coming from her.

<This should work. You know how I’ve configured the Soul Relays installed in all of our skulls to add as amplifiers, to connect us to the Blood?> she asks, while her own Soul Relay starts connecting with the others.

<Sure, it’s how we’ve been able to boost our powers in the past.> Kari Zel nods.

<I think I might have figured out a way to bring this to the next level, thanks to the necrobots. Torn, I’ll need you to keep an eye on the surge of Blood requirements. I’m about to draw upon more Blood than our bodies would normally be able to handle.>

<I will try to prevent you from exploding.> the Demon confirms.

<Excuse me!?> Quantum exclaims, particularly worried considering Torn doesn’t typically use figures of speech.

<You better do this in steps.> Torn suggests.

<That’s not a bad idea. Vesta, I know you can hear me: it’s time to go all-out!> Noriko orders, giving her instructions through the Soul Relay itself.

Hearing her loud and clear, Vesta flies away from Poseidon to gather her strength and allow her allies to get to a safe distance.

<Anubis, you better keep the others safe! Soul Fusion!!!> Vesta shouts, and the Soul Fusion allows the energy from the Blood to flow into her veins to significantly increase her own power.

<Everybody out! Hellfire Inferno!!!>

Enyo and Athena are quick to move aside, with the latter dragging Amaterasu out of the line of fire: Vesta just unleashed her most powerful attack, which delivers the equivalent of a supernova focused into a single blast.

<Is that all, little sister? I am a Class-1 god. I could survive ten billion supernovas.> Poseidon laughs it off.

<We’ll see about that.> Noriko Null challenges him, taking Torn’s hand and kicking both the necrobots and the Nexus into overdrive to scream:

<INFERNAL SOUL RESONANCE!!!>

If the battle was taking place in Hell’s solar system, the whole planet would suddenly shine like a star once all of its power is being channeled: across the entire universe, all Demons feel it.

<Kari! No time to waste!> Noriko calls her. With her soul screaming through the Soul Relay, she doesn’t need to use words to articulate her plan.

<This is the most insane thing we’ve ever tried. 10K Rise!> Kari shouts, her body tensing to anticipate the power of Myridia to multiply her physical abilities by ten thousand.

But her body doesn’t glow with the energy like it typically does. Instead, when Poisedon blows away the last remains of Vesta’s supernova attack, he has a terrifying vision.

It’s his sister burning so brightly that her body is literally white-hot and surrounded by an aura of incandescent plasma.

<10K HELLFIRE INFERNO!!!>

Poseidon senses the attack coming, literally ten thousand times more powerful than the previous one, and prepares to deflect it.

Even if Vesta is focusing the energy of thousands of supernovas into a single blast, only a tiny fraction of that is released as kinetic energy. 99% of the power generated by a supernova is harmlessly carried away by neutrinos, which are nearly intangible to ordinary matter.

In the few seconds of the attack, Poseidon realizes he should have paid attention to those.

Because in a couple of instants Quantum has transformed into neutrinos himself, joining the rest of them… but as Poseidon is being reminded, they don’t have to maintain their form.

Once Quantum’s will is transmitted to the other particles with the intercession of the Blood, half of them are transmuted into matter… and half into antimatter.

<Awesome Attack Name!!!> is all Quantum can think to say, his voice resonating as a radio wave across the absolute chaos he just unleashed.

Taken completely by surprise, Poseidon finds himself the target of both ten thousand supernovas and five thousand antimatter detonations… each one nearly the size of a whole star.

Concentrating so much power into such a small area is more than most gods are able to handle, and even Anubis has to give everything he has just to keep the mortals safe.

He concentrates his efforts on the shields protecting them, as well as a platform for them to stand up, manipulating the few electrons left from the onslaught.

He stands before an exhausted Noriko Null, who is kneeling on the newly created ground and busy throwing up necrobots.

Kari Zel is leaning against Torn, who himself is barely standing up, and Quantum has yet to reconstruct his body.

<I can’t believe my eyes.> Anubis admits, looking around: the goddesses who joined the fight… Vesta, Amaterasu, Enyo and Athena… are at least as powerful as he is, but they’re also licking their wounds despite not dealing anywhere near the amount of damage brought by the Vanguard.

<What sort of mortals are you!?>

<Dead ones.> Poseidon answers him, appearing behind Anubis and piercing him with his trident.

Sparks fly from the body of the cybernetic Egyptian gods: his circuits are shutting down, and with them the forces holding together the platform and the forcefield surrounding it begin to fade.

<Have you forgotten!? The only thing capable of taking down a Class-1 god is another Class-1; you mean nothing to me!> Poseidon boasts, even thought the state of his body tells otherwise.

His skin is covered in third degree burns, even exposing the muscles and ribs beneath his chest.

<Keep telling yourself that.> Noriko replies, standing up and looking at him straight in the eyes while she cocks her Genius Gun.

<Last chance, Poseidon: surrender or die.> she threatens.

<I will never surrender to a mortal!>

<Fine. Then you die to me.>

<POSEIDON!!!> Athena calls him, throwing her spear at him.

The god is ready to effortlessly cast it aside, but to his surprise the spear disappears into a pentagram-shaped portal.

The coordination granted only by countless hours of practice and precise instructions transmitted through the Soul Relay, a duplicate of Kari catches the spear coming out of the portal.

She uses the weapon to expertly disarm Poseidon: once he loses his grip, the weapon flies directly into the hands of Torn, who infuses it with black Ichor energy.

Normally it would be impossible for such a weapon to hurt Poseidon, but given his wounds Torn is able to drive the trident straight into his chest.

And if that wasn’t enough, Quantum transforms into pure electricity: the trident’s metal conducts the lightning bolt without any resistance, shocking his organs from the inside.

This proves too much for Poseidon, who falls to the unrelenting attack. He finds himself pinned to the floor by both his own trident and by Athena’s spear, now driven into his abdomen by the goddess.

<You should have known our rivalry would end like this, Poseidon. You might be stronger than me, but I fight smarter.> the goddess taunts him.

<You don’t have… what it takes… to kill me…> Poisedon tries to argue.

<I’ll give you this, Poseidon: you’re the most stubborn god I’ve ever faced.> Noriko congratulates him, pressing her boot on his throat and pointing her Genius Gun at his face.

<But I did promise I would kill you, if you didn’t surrender.>

<I am… a Class-1… god…> he insists, shutting up only when Noriko puts the gun in his mouth.

<Then call me a Class-1 mortal.> she replies, firing the gun.

Which isn’t firing kinetic energy as usual: she loaded her most powerful ammunition, created to fight his sister Hera. Inside each bullet there’s a microscopic black hole.

She fires six shots in a row, with Poseidon swallowing each one.

Resisting the first five takes all the strength he has left, but the sixth one is finally too much: his body doesn’t have anything left to stop the black hole from hollowing him out from the inside.

Eating his body takes a few seconds, concentrating all of his mass into a tiny singularity that soon fades out of existence.

<Please tell me he’s gone, because that was REALLY all I had in me.> Noriko pleads, sitting down.

<He is. By Ra, you just killed one of the Nine Gods… without even using your Nexus device.> Anubis confirms, still overwhelmed by what he just witnessed.

<Great, ‘cause I’m gonna sleep for a couple of years after THAT.> Quantum complains, laying down on the ground to catch his breath.

<There’s still the matter of preventing this galaxy from collapsing, now that Poseidon is no longer holding together its space rivers.> Vesta reminds him.

<Seriously? Can’t it wait at least tomorrow!?> he adds.

<No need for that, we already planned for his.> Noriko says, and to confirm this there’s a black portal signaling the arrival of an ally. Just not the one she expected.

<I always told my brother that underestimating mortals would be the death of him.> Hades says, leaning against his wife Persephone: he still hasn’t recovered

<The old fishf##ker is really dead? I wanted a piece of him!> she adds.

<You will get your chance to kill a god. Someday.> Thanatos cryptically tells her.

<What the hell are you guys doing this? I was expecting Rhea! We don’t have time to waste, countless people will die if we don’t restore the space rivers.> Noriko says, jumping back on her feet… and needing Athena to avoid falling down, once she’s aware her legs lack the strength after what she just went through.

<My mother might have the power to restore my brother’s creation, but she lacks finesse. You need a Class-1 god to…>

<If I hear the words “Class-1 god” once more today, I swear I’m killing another one of you guys.> Noriko stops him from continuing.

<Do you have the strength to do this, Hades? You are not at your peak, and your specialty is administering death… not preventing it.> Athena wonders.

<Stay out of this, Unf##kable C#nt, he’s trying to be noble and s#it.> Persephone shuts her down; her arms have now regrown, and she’s holding Hades’s hand.

<Ready when you are, love. Show the Slayer that sparing you was worth it.>

Combining their powers, husband and wife emit a wave of energy completely different from what this system has seen today. Instead of carrying destruction, it restructures all the matter it encounters. At first glance, all it does is simply reassemble Atlantis beneath their feet and recreate the ocean that surrounds it… but to divine senses, it’s doing so much more.

The wave expands much faster than light, holding back together the endless rivers flowing through the stars of the Aegian Galaxy that were already dissipating in the vacuum of space.

<There. This realm shall thrive for as long as the water holds; I have infused a part of our essence into this new river system. It should be enough for the next hundred thousand years.>

<Does that make me the Motherf##king Queen of Atlantis then?> Persephone wonders.

<I don’t believe that is what Null wished to accomplish with this war.> Athena says.

<I remind you that I wasn’t the one to start the war, Athena. We’ll talk about the destiny of Atlantis when the war is over.> Noriko answers.

<Wait, what do you mean by “when”? Didn’t we just win?> Quantum asks.

<We defeated only part of the alliance against us, Max. We still have to take down Ereshkigal.> she reminds him.

<This better count as overtime.> he sighs.