Beyond The Impossible

Bridge of the Destiny-One

The lights are flickering: the ship’s internal power is fluctuating, and Noriko Null even has trouble staying anchored to the captain’s chair when the artificial gravity comes and goes.

<How was this a good idea!?> Gilgamesh asks, similarly struggling with the situation.

By contrast, Prometheus is still standing in front of the viewscreen like nothing happened, unaffected by the darkness or by gravity.

<Cerberus would have chased us to the edge of the Galaxy. This gives us time to deal with him.> Noriko answers, working with the ship’s controls.

<How is getting devoured by a monster help us!?>

<WARNING: primary shields unavailable. Secondary shields at 20%.> the ships’ artificial voice informs them.

<Please tell me the hull of this ship is made of Neutral Matter.> Prometheus says.

<It’s not.> Noriko answers.

<WARNING. Secondary shields at 10%. Total ship failure in 50 seconds.> the ship continues.

<Then you are going to die soon.>

<Don’t you mean “we”!?> Gilgamesh clarifies.

<I am immortal. You are not.> Prometheus reminds him.

<WARNING. Secondary shields at 8%. Total ship failure in 40 seconds.>

<Disable warning. Divert all power besides shielding to the primary warp phase inducers.> Noriko orders, working as fast as she can on the control panel.

<Turn us intangible!> Gilgamesh suggests.

<That would take too much power. I have a better idea.> Noriko replies, pushing a holographic button. The ship’s hull hums when a specific vibration transmits through its molecules.

<Dimensional shift successful. Primary and secondary shield at 100%.> the ship confirms; the lights stop flickering and the gravity is stable again.

<What just happened?> Gilgamesh wonders.

<Isn’t ii obvious? Activate main viewscreen and disable brightness filter.> Noriko instructs the artificial intelligence, with a confident half smile on her lips.

The Sun is no longer in sight: the monstrous form of Cerberus has released the Destiny-One into the void… where multiple electric storms of planetary proportions are visible in the distance.

<We’re in the Null Zone.> Gilgamesh realizes.

<Cerberus wasn’t after us to eat us, he just wanted to play. I just brought him to a place where he can run around without breaking anything… there’s nothing solid besides us in this entire dimension.> Noriko explains.

<Good thinking. In here, even Cerberus won’t be a threat.> Prometheus approves.

<That’s not exactly the idea here.> Noriko replies, activating the return to the ship to her native dimension.

 

Nyktelios, above the galactic plane

Enyo is kneeling, holding both hands on her own throat attempting to stop the bleeding after her vocal chords have been removed through sheer brute force.

Athena is standing behind her, triumphantly holding her spear still dripping with blood.

Quantum is the first to react, before Torn and even Vesta have had the time to process what just happened. He certainly has little sympathy for Enyo, but he has a grudge against Athena… he might not have been her main target, but she did incarcerate his wife and conquer his planet.

So Quantum transmutes his body into a particle beam, protons moving at very nearly the speed of light: it’s one of his most destructive attacks, way more powerful than any nuclear weapon.

Athena deflects it with a flick of her wrist: he can feel her divine power swatting away his particles.

<Please. I mastered how to manipulate matter and energy when your ancestors had yet to figure out indoor plumbing.> she boasts while dodging several daggers made of Blood energy.

Despite her speed, Torn anticipated her movements enough to throw an axe of Ichor in her path: it almost misses, managing to graze her arm.

Not enough to actually make her bleed… it’s less than a paper cut… but judging by her facial expression, she’s clearly irritated by this.

She was planning to keep Torn alive to study his connection to the Aether, but this made her reconsider. The only reason she doesn’t retaliate is that she has to deal with Vesta coming at her, ready to punch her with enough force to topple a skyscraper.

From Vesta’s point of view, Athena just disappeared from her path and reappeared behind her, using her lance to pin her to the ground.

She didn’t even see Athena move, and the lance is pushing against her back with enough force to hurt her. Especially because the gravity around Vesta suddenly increased a thousandfold.

<I was expecting more from the Vanguard. You’re no Null, but I held you in high regard almost as much as my former protégé. You’re not as impressive as…>

<Cut of a million deaths!!!> Torn shouts, summoning a stream of seemingly endless Blood daggers.

Athena is not worried by this and doesn’t try to get out of the way; not that she needs to, because the daggers move on their own to form a large spinning circle around her.

<Never understood why you named your attack that: you’re only trying to kill one target at a time. And even failing to hit anything, apparently.> Athena notes, raising an eyebrow.

<It’s called strategy. Hellfire Ignition!!!> Vesta shouts, her body becoming engulfed in flames so hot that even Athena’s spear made of Neutral Matter melts upon contact.

The ground doesn’t fare much better, with rocks turning into lava. Vesta isn’t bothered by this, being completely immune to heat damage, as she plunges into the newly heated magma.

<Yes, clearly I wouldn’t know anything about strategy. Trust me, I have analyzed any possible battle strategy you could think of and prepared for anything.> Athena replies, observing the dozens of duplicate bodies made of fire that emerge from the ground.

<Including attempting to overwhelm my divine senses. Easily fixed.>

When she claps her hands with more force than a thousand tornadoes, all the flames around her are immediately extinguished; even the dust and smoke created by vaporizing the rocks are swept away, leaving her field of view completely clear.

Which allows Athena to see that she’s completely surrounded on all sides by Blood daggers arranged as a sphere around her.

<Is that all? A cheap trap? As if I didn’t have a counter for…>

Then the Blood transforms into Aether, with the blades now glowing white.

And around them, a stream of high-powered photons that used to be Quantum shift into higher and higher frequencies of gamma rays.

<Oh.> Athena lets out.

<COLLIDER…> she can hear radio waves say, as gamma rays transform into anti-protons traveling at the speed of light.

<That’s new.> the goddess concedes.

<…WILDFIRE!!!> Torn completes the attack’s name, ordering the Aether daggers to fly towards Athena right before leaving the battlefield through a portal.

<No matter. I can still…> Athena tells herself, suddenly faced by Vesta flying out of the lava while throwing her strongest attack at point-blank range:

<HELLFIRE INFERNO!!!>

Athena is simultaneously hit by the heat of a supernova right as Aether daggers and a rain of relativistic antimatter hit her.

 

Millions of miles away

It takes a lot more than cutting her throat to kill a goddess. Enyo had stopped the bleeding even before Torn used one of his portals to move her to a nearby asteroid.

She feels the destruction of the planet Nyktelios even before the light from the cataclysm unleashed by the Vanguard reaches this celestial body.

Shortly thereafter, Vesta appears out of a pentagram-shaped portal; Torn is leaning against her, and as soon as they both set foot on the asteroid he collapses.

Enyo gestures towards him, struggling to make any sound come out of her mouth in the thin atmosphere around her.

<He’ll be fine. He’s never used Aether to this extent before.> Vesta explains, gently placing him on the ground.

Enyo tries to say something else; all Vesta can understand from her lip movements is “what about”.

<Quantum? He’ll be fine, it always takes him a while to reassemble himself after an explosion of this caliber.>

<What a pity.> a voice behind Vesta comments, immediately followed by a spear piercing through her side. If she was mortal, Vesta would have lost a kidney right now.

<He will miss the death of his comrades.> Athena comments, removing the spear from Vesta’s flesh. Enyo seems ready to fight, but Athena raises a hand towards her.

<Don’t bother. We both know that you’d be incapable of delivering an attack more powerful than the one I just survived even if you still had your voice.>

<How… did you…> Vesta tries to ask, finding it difficult to ignite again. Looking at her wound, she sees a swarm of nanites already infiltrated into her bloodstream, absorbing heat rapidly.

<Do you really expect me to explain my tactical advantage?> Athena asks, genuinely amused by the idea that she would be tricked this easily.

<You shouldn’t be… this strong. An attack like that… even a goddess of… your level…> Vesta says, feeling on the verge of passing out.

<Ah yes, divine levels. A useful classification system I created to feed my siblings to compete against each other about who’d beat who in a fight. Did you ever ask yourself why I never gave myself an assessment, Vesta? Why I didn’t go around boasting about being a Class-2 like Ares or Apollo? Or hang around with Class-3 like yourself and my half-sister?> Athena asks, nodding her head towards Enyo.

<Not… strong as… Ares.> Enyo finally manages to say, with her half-regenerated vocal cords feeling like they were just doused with acid.

<No, I’m not. I don’t have a… how do mortals call it? A gimmick. Like strength for Ares, speed for Hermes, stellar energy like Apollo, fire or sound like you two. I have spent hundreds of thousands of years studying all possible ways to exploit godhood. I can do anything any other god can; perhaps not with the same intensity, but with more precision.> Athena boasts.

<Sounds like a gimmick.> Vesta comments, coughing up blood.

<My greatest strength is multitasking. Specialization is for insects. Hmm, you actually did manage to make me explain my tactical advantage… perhaps you do know strategy after all, aunt Vesta.> Athena chuckles.

<I learned from the best. She likes contingency plans.>

Vesta’s words, transmitted through the Soul Relay that Athena can’t intercept, are the signal that Noriko Null was waiting for.

The Destiny-One de-cloaks above the asteroid, just long enough to lock Athena in a gravitational field and activate its dimensional shift technology.

 

Null Zone, outside the universe

The Destiny-One returns to this parallel dimension, only to dump Athena in empty space, and then it immediately shifts again to return home.

Athena looks around: aside from a rather confused Cerberus and several thunderstorms, there is absolutely nothing else.

Reflecting on how she’s going to return to her dimension, Athena pats the colossal hound.

<Hm. Nice strategy, Noriko.> the goddess concedes.