Beyond The Impossible

26,000 light-years from Earth

The view from the orbit of Olympus is nothing like anyone, god or mortal, has ever seen: the entire planet is completely covered by plants so huge they grow past beyond the atmosphere.

The green mass is glowing ominously against the background of the thousands of stars that surround Olympus in this extremely busy galactic neighborhood.

The N01-Ragnarok is staying within a safe distance from the planet, but “safe” is relative here.

<She’s angry.> is Torn’s judgement, just by looking at the green from the ship’s viewscreen.

<And I think I know why.> Noriko Null adds, scrolling through the information provided by the holographic screen floating in front of her.

<Of course you do.> Quantum mumbles, rolling his eyes.

<The portal disruptors went offline for forty-seven minutes. Someone infiltrated Olympus while I was away and didn’t even trigger the alarms.>

<You put up alarms on Olympus?> Kari asks.

<You’d be surprised at how lax their security measures were.>

<I guess you don’t have to worry too much about avoiding assassination attempts when you’re immortal.> Kestral intervenes, just arriving on the bridge together with Myrrinha.

The merman and the mermaid are wearing breathing masks that supply water into their mouths, and instead of swimming they’re floating in the air thanks to the anti-gravity belts they’re wearing.

<This is going to take a while to get used to.> Myrrinha admits.

<Thanks for joining us. I hope you realize this is going to be the most dangerous thing you’ve ever done in your life, so there’s still time to back out… I’ve already used the Key to bring your city-ships to safety, I can bring you there as well.> Noriko points out.

<After providing sanctuary for our people, it’s the least the Atlantis Uprising can do in return. Especially since you’re taking the greatest risk here.> Kestra replies.

<Speaking of which, what exactly are we doing here?> Quantum asks.

<Gaea wants me to give here the Key of Heaven, I can’t let her have it and I can’t destroy it. This leaves us with one option: we’re going to fight her directly.>

<You said the Final Abyss wouldn’t work on her.> Torn reminds her.

<That’s right. Zeus completely ignored it, and Gaea is at the very least as powerful as him. We literally don’t have anything that can hurt her.> Null agrees.

<Uhm, Noriko, just because you came back from the dead doesn’t mean any of us are eager to try the same trick.> Kari tells her.

<I am. It sounds intriguing.> Torn comments.

<Wait, is this seriously a suicide mission!? I didn’t volunteer for that!> Quantum objects.

<Didn’t you already die once, when we fought Anubis?> Torn wonders, raising an eyebrow.

<No! Wait, I mean, kinda? Did I actually die that time?> Quantum wonders himself.

Kestral looks at his subordinate, and they both have incredulous expressions on their faces.

<What kind of lives do you people have!?>

<Interesting ones. Heads up everybody, looks like Gaea’s waking up.> Noriko announces.

In fact, the foliage that covers the entire planet shifts to reveal the green skin of the goddess… and as Gaea stretches her arms, her form grows once more to tremendous size.

<Is Olympus still in there!?> Kari asks.

<The ship is still receiving telemetry from the communications array inside the palace. According to the sensors, the planet is inside her chest… instead of her heart.> Myrrinha informs the crew.

<Null. I grow tired of waiting. Surrender the Key, NOW.> Gaea orders, her voice resonating through the minds of everyone on the ship.

<Here’s the plan. Quantum, Torn, Kestral: attack Gaea with everything you’ve got, but try drawing her attacks against the Ragnarok. Kari, you pilot the ship: keep us in the line of attack at all times.>

<Isn’t that certain death?> Kari objects.

<Gaea is physically unable to hurt me as long as I have the Vial of Destiny on my person: none of her attacks can connect with the Ragnarok because that would mean killing me. Questions?>

<We could use Vesta’s help.> Quantum points out.

Just then, a trail of fire passes right by the ship moving at nearly the speed of light.

<Vesta’s already on it. You have your orders, GO!>

Quantum disappears by transforming into a beam of light, and Torn creates a pentagram-shaped portal for himself and Kestral. Kari creates enough duplicates of herself to have a seat at every station, and increases the Ragnarok’s speed to intercept Vesta.

Myrrinha looks at Noriko reach for something she barely noticed: a small case she kept next to the captain’s chair, which she opens very slowly.

<And what are my orders?>

<You’re going to save the Galaxy, provided we don’t blow it up first.> Noriko responds, opening the case: it contains her crown as Co-Empress.

 

On the surface of Gaea

Considering she is now noticeably larger than Olympus, it’s no surprise that Gaea’s body generates the gravitational pull of an entire planet.

Her mass is so great that, if only the laws of physics worked properly around a Primordial Goddess, she would have to take a spheric form. But keeping the shape of a humanoid woman means her gravity is all over the place, which makes Kestral’s attempt to swim around with his anti-gravity belt all the more difficult.

<This is absurd. Compared to her we’re not even plankton at this scale, we’re viruses at best.> he complains. Thanks to the transmutation powers of his Drylon device he can generate his own water to breathe and filter out any dangerous radiation coming from space… but he doesn’t need to: in addition to gravity, Gaea’s body is manifesting a cozy atmosphere around her.

<Then why take the effort to keep us alive?> he then wonders.

<I don’t think she can help it.> Torn says. He’s never felt so much organic life around him: everything beneath their feet is entirely organic, for hundreds of thousands of miles.

<It’s her power. She continuously generates life. Soul Resonance!!!> the Demon shouts, and his body is enveloped in an aura of Blood energy. Normally he would just draw power from the near inexhaustible reserves on Hell… but this is an ocean of power far, far deeper than that.

<That’s new. Soul Reaper!!!> Torn calls out, and his energy scythe appears in his hands; it’s still made of Blood energy, but the lightning bolts that surround its blade are green and seem to be flowing from the atmosphere to the weapon itself.

Gaea seems to notice: large carnivorous plants the size of buildings emerge from her skin, and for a lack of a better term they seem angry.

<Think that weapon of yours will work against those?> Kestral asks.

<That would be a waste of my blade. I’m going to carve out the planet from her chest. BLIGHT OF THE LAND!!!> Torn shouts with vigor, and the scythe grows to twice the size of his body.

Once he strikes the ground with it, Kestral has to float above the chasm the Demon just carved: it swallows Torn and some of the plants, but the cut rapidly cauterizes itself.

The merman finds himself surrounded by a veritable vegetal army, his eyes shine as he uses his powers. The plants are transmuted into ashes… only to be replaced by new ones in a second.

<Note to self: find less insane allies.> he mumbles, transmuting the plants into a mixture of water and sodium to make them explode from the inside out.

 

On the other side of the goddess

From his landing position on Gaea’s back, Kestral can’t see Vesta’s attack on the chest: she unleashes a firestorm that could easily vaporize the surface of a planet.

Gaea extinguishes it with a movement of her arm, as if she was just swatting a fly. Even when flying as close to the speed of light as she can, Vesta is still amazed at just how fast her grandmother is able to move when she’s at planetary scale.

<Stay out of this, child. This is none of your business.> Gaea admonishes her, and her eyes start to glow ominously a moment before unleashing a devastating green energy blast.

Vesta moves to evade it, but the trajectory is cut off by the Ragnarok: the ship places itself directly between the two goddesses.

Vesta has never really fought her grandmother, but she’s seen her use that level of power before: even the Neutral Matter hull would not able to resist the blast… if the energy didn’t suddenly make a 90 degrees turn to avoid touching it at the last second.

<Son of a centaur. Her plan actually worked.> she’s amazed to admit.

<Hey, quick question…> she hears Quantum ask through radio waves: she can’t see him, but she can take an educated guess about his position when an antimatter explosion between Gaea’s breasts irradiates the entire orbit with gamma rays.

<…is that any reason why you’re NOT powering up with that Soul Fusion thing?>

<I can’t really control myself in that state… I risk injuring someone.>

<Vesta, I just hit her with something that should break the Moon twice over and she didn’t even feel it. I don’t think you have to worry pulling your punches: it’s time to go all out!>

<It’s not Gaea I’m worried about, it’s you guys. My most powerful attack hits like a supernova, I don’t want to risk vaporizing you.>

<It’s fine, I have an idea I’ve been wanting to try!> Quantum tells her, moving back to her position by temporarily turning into tachyons.

<That attack you were talking about? Hit me with it. Trust me, it won’t kill me.>

<Max, do you swear you know what you’re doing!?>

<I may not be spending my days with galactic politics like you and Noriko, but do you think I just read comics and watch TV? You’re not the only one who trained to use Soul Fusion. Now hit me!>

<Be ready, this is going to burn. Soul Fusion!> Vesta shouts, the muscles in her body twitching as the Soul Relay inside her head creates a connection between her divine powers and the Blood.

<I hope Noriko’s recording, this is going to be SO cool. Soul Fusion!> Quantum also says, and although his body is not immediately surrounded by flames like Vesta’s, he can feel the Blood running through his particles.

<Oh, how I’ve missed this feeling. The power to burn worlds.> Vesta gloats, staring at her own white hot hands with a slightly psychotic smile on her face.

<Just hit me with it before you go all “superpowered evil side”, okay?>

<With pleasure. HELLFIRE INFERNO!!!>

As Vesta unleashes her attack against Quantum, he can feel the absurd amount of energy she’s generating; he can’t truly comprehend just how much thermal energy she’s generating, but there is one thing he knows very well… thermal energy is just the speed at which particles move, and she’s generating a nearly unmeasurable amount of particles.

Which, once they pass through the intangible neutrinos that are currently what makes up Quantum’s form, briefly become a part of him. Normally, there wouldn’t be anything he could do with this… except Soul Fusion allows him to manipulate those particles as though they were part of him.

He redirects Vesta’s attack towards Gaea, but with a significant twist: he can change what the attack is made of, multiplying its already insane amount of destructive power.

To aid his own concentration, and because he’s spent too much time thinking of a cool attack name to waste this, he spares a tiny amount of radio waves to carry out his shout:

<ANTIMATTER WILDFIRE NOVA!!!>

A barrage of antimatter particles with the kinetic energy of a supernova hits Gaea straight on the face, and her head… which is significantly larger than Earth itself… is instantly vaporized.

<Holy φουcκ!!!>

The rest of Gaea’s body is staggered, moving around as if to find some non-existing ground.

<Impressive.> the headless goddess comments, holding out her hands: a new head grows out of the vines exuded from the leaves covering her skin.

<I almost felt that.> she admits, placing her new head where the old one used to be.