Stygian Galaxy, 3 million light-years away
Hades has never liked to fight. Unlike his brothers, he’s never felt the need to demonstrate he’s worthy of his position… until today.
As he gathers energy for his attack against Inanna, his mind goes back to when he was informed about a mortal managing to kill his sister Demeter… and how he considered the concept absolutely ridiculous.
But training Noriko Null in strengthening her connection to the Blood and the Ichor, he finally understood how she was able to channel unthinkable amounts of information into a single focused attack capable of obliterating a god’s mind… the Final Abyss.
Hades may lack her ability to manipulate so much information all at once, but he is the God of the Underworld… everything in this galaxy devoid of life is connected to him.
And by using such a connection, he’s able to replicate the Final Abyss: an astronomical quantity of raw information is being channeled through a stream of black electricity.
Obviously Inanna isn’t thinking about any of this. She’s experiencing pain to an extent she never conceived was even possible, an agony cutting through the very essence of her being that would destroy a lesser god.
But she is Inanna. She is known with many epithets among the Sumerians: Lady of All Pleasures, the Morning and Evening Star, the Mistress of Armies, the Lady of the Seven Gates.
And her personal favorite, the one she’s focusing on like a mantra.
The Untamed One.
Against the irresistible force created by the Slayer of Gods and wielded by one of the self-appointed Nine Gods Who Rule The Universe… she is pushing back.
<Nice… trick… small god…> she struggles to say; Hades puts more of his own soul into the attack, as she closes her hand in a fist and gathers her strength.
<Only one… drawback. You need… a galaxy… to pull that off!!>
The goddess charges forward faster than light, and increasing the mass of her fist past his ability to understand she powers through the Final Abyss to punch Hades.
He’s surprised by her move: he knows Inanna’s physical strength is second to none, not even to Zeus, but because as a Class-1 god he’s basically immune to harm from physical damage.
Unfortunately for him, Inanna’s strength goes past physics and into insanity.
The power behind that punch is unimaginable, more than enough to shatter the god’s body: an impressive feat, but futile since a god of his caliber can reform easily.
The problem comes from the gravity wave generated by the impact. It hits the core of the Stygian Galaxy like a sledgehammer, adding so much energy to the galaxy to overcome its gravitational binding energy.
Stars are pushed aside and snuffed like candles, blasting away planets and nebulas: space is warped by such an extreme degree that everything in the path of this annihilating wave is destroyed.
Light from the core would need thousands of years to reach the edges of the galaxy, but a warp in space itself has no speed limit: the wave will reach the intergalactic vacuum in a few hours.
The Stygian Galaxy has just been punched out of existence.
N01-Ragnarok, 2 million light-years away
On the bridge of the warship, Noriko Null kneels over from the captain’s chair and holding her head in visible pain.
<What’s wrong?> Kari Zel’s duplicate asks her, rushing to her side.
<Just felt something through the Cosmic Background Network… it’s the first time it sent a message; usually I have to engage with it directly. It was… intense.> Noriko answers, wiping off the trail of blood coming out of her nose.
<What kind of message?>
<I don’t know, I couldn’t decipher it. Almost like it wasn’t an actual message but just random noise, an enormous amount of information just… released… at once…> Noriko explains, realizing in the middle of the sentence what might have happened.
<That son of a b#tch.> she swears, getting back to the chair and plotting a new course.
<New plan. We’re going to the Underworld.> she announces.
<That’s like two days from here at full speed! What about the assault on Atlantis?> Kari asks.
<If Hades did what I think he did, this is a game changer.>
<Any chance you mean it in a good way?>
<No, Kari. Definitely in a bad way.>
Labya
34,000 light-years from Earth
Like most worlds in the Aphrodite sectors, Labya hasn’t been troubled too much by the war. It wasn’t a primary target: while it would be an easy prey thanks to its lack of defenses, it also holds no treasures besides its renowned brothels.
A man is standing on the balcony of the building, looking at the stars; the fact that it’s a cold winter night wasn’t enough to convince him to put on any clothes.
<What are you doing out here, honey? The fun is inside!> a barely dressed prostitute reminds him, approaching him and holding him close.
<In a moment. I just learned I have to get back to work.>
<You still have a job? You haven’t left the brothel for two weeks! You’re lucky you’re so amazing in bed we’re not even charging you.>
<I had a job, before I quit. Why should you be able to love what you do while I’m stuck with being the responsible one? I hate responsibility.> he admits.
<Then don’t be the responsible one! The sky don’t fall if you just think of yourself.>
<That’s what I thought too. We’re about to test if I was right.> Zeus says.
Atlantis, Aegian Galaxy, 2.7 million light-years from Earth
Poseidon has felt something in the back of his skull when Hades performed the Final Abyss, without giving it much thought.
But the destruction of the Stygian Galaxy is something that he’s absolutely certain of: something of this magnitude couldn’t escape his senses.
<Is something troubling you, Father?> his son Triton asks, approaching him.
They were reviewing their plans for the war when he noticed something unfamiliar in his father’s face… something that disturbingly resembles fear.
<You wouldn’t be able to understand, boy. There are things only a Class-1 god can sense.>
<Does it have something to do with the war?>
<This little scrap with the mortal and her sycophantic excuses for gods? Not exactly. But I might have just realized why Ereshkigal decided to join our alliance… she never really cared for Null. She just wanted to learn.>
Abydos Galaxy
11 million light-years from Earth
Sitting on her throne on top of a golden pyramid taller than a mountain, Isis is focusing her divine senses across space.
It will take days or weeks for lesser gods to notice, and years for mortals… millions of years before the light of the Stygian Galaxy disappears… but she felt it immediately.
All Class-1 gods felt it, she is sure of it.
<She did it. That mad goddess destroyed the last remnant of order in this chaotic universe: the Nine Gods are no more. It’s every pantheon for itself now… and her conniving sister must have known.>
Irkalla Galaxy
100 million light-years from Earth
Ereshkigal has all the reasons in the universe to laugh. The Greeks have lost an entire galaxy, and even if she feels that Hades has survived his power has certainly diminished.
More importantly, now she knows there are ways for a god to use the Final Abyss.
Pushing Null to ally herself with Hades, allowing them both to study Ichor, manipulating Hades into a foolish war… everything went even better than she planned.
Her ever-so-predictable sister destroying the Underworld was just a bonus.
Yes, it would be reasonable for her to laugh. But she doesn’t: there’s work to do.
Hades might have been imprecise, but now that she has his example to study Ereshkigal won’t be so impatient. Her next attack will be perfect.
The War of the Six Empires hasn’t even been won yet, and she’s already planning the next.
Karnak Galaxy
212 million light-years from Earth
At the center of the galaxy, concentrating his power in a sphere of pure energy far brighter than any star in the universe, Ra is in deep thought.
He doesn’t care for the destruction of a galaxy. He has bigger things in mind and bigger concerns.
But he felt Hades wielding a power that no god should ever be permitted to gain.
Perhaps he should destroy the other gods before they get any ideas.
But true to the patient nature of the oldest non-Primordial god still alive, he decides to wait to see how things play out before he involves himself in the affairs of lesser gods.
Babylon Galaxy
500 million light-years from Earth
Marduk shakes his head. He’s always known that Ereshkigal and Inanna would cause the fall of the Nine Gods one day. And that power won’t be enough to keep them in check.
<Good thing Gilgamesh is alive again. Perhaps I shall pay him a visit.> he muses.
7 billion light-years from Earth
Primordial gods have little need for an actual base of operations, and they meet even more rarely.
Gaea has called for a meeting, but only two have bothered to show up: the Egyptian Nut and the Greek Nyx.
<Atum couldn’t be bothered again? I know he must have felt it.> Gaea say.
<He did. As the God of Creation, he’s not interested in destruction.> Nut explains.
<He’s no concern to us: we know he won’t intervene. And neither will Tartarus, if he even noticed.> Nyx adds.
<A god affecting the Cosmic Background Network? He must. That was enough to be heard from any Primordial… and more.>
<You truly are Greek, Gaea: you’re overreacting. There’s no way they’ll be interested in this.> Nut dismisses her.
Dark Galaxy
10 billion light-years from Earth
On a world that hasn’t seen the light of day since its creation, something stirs.
Bones blackest than the darkest night and older than most stars move slowly, as a god turns his head towards what used to be the Stygian Galaxy.
<INTERESTING.> Baal comments.
Celestial Galaxy
12 billion light-years from Earth
The light of a star flickers. Then a few globular clusters do the same.
If there was anyone left in the universe recalling its meaning, they would translate this equivalent of a morse code to translate to the word “investigate”.
The Empyrean
Outside the universe
The being known as Siduri has been left without a true purpose since the destruction of Heaven.
She’s just been standing still, inhabiting the body of a bronze-skinned woman without a face, in the last remains of her outpost: a glass room surrounded by raw energy.
She tilts her head, listening to something that isn’t there.
<Message received. I will report back when the investigation is complete, yes?> she tells no one.
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