Chương 68: Tribunal 6

So no wonder we're tarnished, but not like gods are so polished They said let death be abolished, now I can not be admonished And nothing's stoppin' my cursed fingers from grippin' my fate I can't be sent to my grave, it isn't written that way. No, I will not follow orders if chaos follows order I represent the lands between, but I'm crossin' the border I'll rest assured that the gods are not esteemed anymore My lord, now I can see you and I have seen it before.

What if I don't wanna walk in your grace anymore My faith is a fire, but the flame hasn't faded before Should your cup runneth over, spare me your sympathy My lord, you left us broken, so shed no grace on me.

I expected a few things to happen once I was in the gods' domain. I expected an ambush, a horde of Olympians ready and waiting to try and kill me. Ares would attack me from behind, maybe try and stab me through the heart. If the gods wanted to be more hypocritical, I could imagine some sort of staged trial. The Greeks were famous for their 'trials,' whether in myth or actual history. Would it be fair? Not even remotely. The outcome would be whatever the gods wanted it to be, right or wrong.

No matter their plans, I knew the Olympians intended me ill. They first lured me to Themyscira under false pretenses and tried to forcefully summon me to them. When that failed, they attracted Leviathan to that island, destroying it and threatening my wives' lives to draw me back and get me to them with emotional blackmail. The second they had made that choice, there was no going back. The die had been cast. They knew it. I knew it. This could only end one way. The only question was what came between now and then.

As I said, I had certain expectations when I stepped through the gate. I expected I would need to go full God of War, slaughtering my foes until only a few remained. From those few whose limbs I had torn from their sockets, I would extract answers. Slowly. Painfully. Why go through all this trouble just to get me here when I was living my best life, well clear of them? Why give up Themyscira? Were they commanding the Endbringers? Did Olympian blood taste different than that of Old Ones?

Where was the Stranger Endbringer? Were they the man behind the curtain, the one leading the Hand, the 'oppressor' Ciara spoke about, or perhaps the threat to the world Valeria Richards had cautioned against before the timely arrival of Behemoth? What was it like to have your own balls shoved down your throat? These were the questions I needed answered. It wouldn't be easy.

Their power could range from Gwyn in the Kiln of the First Flame, to the Elden Beast, to the top ten of the universe, depending on the continuity I was in. I had no idea where they fell on that curve, but I would find out, one severed appendage at a time. So yes, I had expectations. I was an idiot. Expectations are what Past-Me has to fuck over Current-Me to make Future-Me hate us both. I should have known better than to make plans or assumptions based on situations I didn't know or control.

To put it in the framework of the lecture I gave Raven, my enemies had an unknown amount of strength, speed, and skill. They controlled the situation and had the element of surprise. And what a surprise it was. The gate delivering me to a council chamber of some sort came as no surprise. It was a positively massive room, easily larger than a sports stadium, more than an actual chamber. White marble pillars gleamed in the light from a billion stars as the place had no walls or roof.

Nor was there a cloud in this sky. It was as if this council room was held aloft in the sky, above the Earth and with nothing around it. Though calling it that was being generous. It looked and acted more like a courtroom. Six enormous thrones, each the height of a skyscraper, were set in a rough circle around the center of the room, five of which were occupied by men proportional in size to their thrones. All wore armour of some kind, weapons resting beside their thrones.

The room was set up so all the thrones could see each other and look down into the middle. I was, surprisingly, not the only man there. Shazam, buffed up and in costume, was there besides a simple wooden chair. His face was set in an uncharacteristic frown, and he had his arms crossed as he gave me a nod of greeting. Dr. Fate did not glance my way, eyes remaining focused on a large portal that showed the ruined island of Themyscira, rain pouring down, and the waves crashing into the Amazons.

Of more interest were the others in the room. If I was an idiot, I would have taken them for the men of the Olympian council. Ares had explicitly said I was 'to appear before the council of Olympus.' Not 'the council of Olympians.' I wasn't an idiot. Ares left my side, still the same height as before, and walked to one of the enormous thrones. On it sat a man with bright red hair, clad in a white toga with golden armour underneath.

Ares stood at the mountainous man's feet beside another man in armour, resting a trident over his shoulder. Zeus was obviously the redhead Ares and Poseidon were standing next to. Also obvious was Horus, the falcon-headed god of the sun, son of Isis, and leader of the Egyptian Pantheon after deposing Seth. Vishnu was here, four-armed, and blue-skinned, to represent the Hindu. With an image that distinctive, it was hard not to know him immediately.

It was only my studies of foreign cultures, particularly East Asian ones, that allowed me to identify the last two giants on their thrones when others from my culture would have floundered. Yu-Huang, the Jade Emperor, was clad in thick, blue-green armour with stylized golden dragons embroidered on it. Izanagi-no-Mikoto, the forefather of Japanese legend, sat regally on his throne, his armour more closely resembling something a courtier would wear than a warrior, though a long, jewelled spear rested across his lap.

These were Skyfathers, the strongest gods of their pantheons, or at least some of them. I didn't see anyone who looked like Odin, so he was probably supposed to sit in the empty seat since I knew he existed in this world, thanks to Thor. Nor did I see others that the comics listed. Personally, I thought Amaterasu would be a better fit than Izanagi, but what do I know? Maybe it was sexism? Or they thought 'Council of Skyfathers' sounded cooler than 'Council of Skyfathers and one Skymother?'

Still, those five were the only ones present, despite the comics and my knowledge of mythology suggesting there were many more 'Skyfathers' out there. There was no one from North America, such as Tezcatlipoca, from central or southern Africa, like Khonvoum, or even older and less known gods. I don't want boring ones like Zeus if I am summoned to a council of Skyfathers. Give me Anu. Give me Tengri. Give me Anguta, Altjira, or Ong Troi!

Did I care that I was in a comic-based world and thus had to settle for the Euro-centrism of its creators? Should I just be happy that they occasionally gave lip service to diversity and that the few non-mainstream gods present were the best I would get? No! I wanted something new, damn it! Despite this all passing through my mind in a second, I was distracting myself, and I knew it. I was spiralling much like that meeting between Death, The Company, and me.

I had expectations for a council of Olympians, and instead, I got a Council of Godheads. I was fucked. Time to do what I did best. Fake it till you make it. All eyes were on me in the few seconds it had taken me to look around the area. The five Skyfathers were content to look down on me, judging me, trying to intimidate me. I hated that.

Anybody looking over my shoulder sent my skin crawling, it was a pet peeve of mine, but something about these towering figures looking down on me stoked my rage to even further heights. Only I could judge myself, just as I passed no judgment on others. But, in such unfamiliar situations, I could not give vent to my frustration. I controlled my emotions, not the other way around. I just needed to channel my frustration in the most efficient manner.

After my first quick glance around this room and under the judging gaze of everyone present, I sauntered my way toward the center between Shazam and Dr. Fate and the obvious seat I was meant to take. I did not look at anyone. The only sound was my feet against the marble floor. My movement was unhurried, a leisurely walking pace, but I reached the center quickly. Between the two heroes was a chair.

It wasn't some sort of prison chair with manacles and chains, nor was it comparable to the ornate thrones on which the gods sat. It was just a chair in the middle of the room. If I sat in it, everyone would be able to look at me, and I would always have at least two of the five Godheads at my back. I waved my hand casually. KRAKA-THOOM! Shazam and Dr. Fate jumped away in fright at the sudden loud sound as the chair was disintegrated by a sudden crack of lightning. The pristine floor was blackened and cracked.

The gods did not even flinch. I continued my one-man show. From the Bottomless Box I always carried with me, I withdrew my seat of choice for this meeting and placed it over the scorched marks on the floor. It was no throne, ornate and gilded. It was a simple brown recliner, one you could find in most furniture stores. With its back to the empty throne, I threw the lever on the side, and the footrest rose, and the back fell at an angle.

A simple, highly comfortable human invention that allowed me to keep an eye on all five Skyfathers. Let them keep their massive thrones made of stone. I will take my recliner every day. Now I just needed my cat on my lap, a good book, and a drink. Speaking of...

"Beer?" I asked Dr. Fate as I held up a glass bottle to him, kept chilled with magic. I couldn't see his whole face thanks to his gold helmet, but the purse of his lips told me 'No.' I shrugged.

"Suit yourself, but you're missing out. It's Scathach's brew." Turning to Shazam, I gave him an apologetic look.

"Sorry man, I'd offer you one too, but this shouldn't be your first drink. Your mom would kill me if my wives didn't get to me first." One didn't need to have the Wisdom of Solomon to get what I was inferring. I knew who Billy Batson was. I knew where he lived. This little show I had put on told me so many things about the situation. Clearly, I was disregarding the gods in favour of the 'mortals' and yet said gods had not attacked, even as their faces become graver with every passing second.

They wanted something from me, which gave me leverage. It was also clear the two mortals here were only present at the gods' behest. What exactly their purpose was, I still didn't know, but they were waiting for a go-ahead before they said anything. The Skyfathers also weren't as unified as they seemed. My use of lightning had been a clear dig at Zeus, yet the chief Olympian had only clenched his fists, and I had caught a smirk on Yu-Huang's face.

The question was whether they were unified enough against a common threat (i. e., me) that they would put aside their disagreements. Odin's absence was telling. It was also clear who was hosting this little shindig. After taking a deep sip of my beer, I looked at the only Skyfather to be accompanied by other members of their Pantheon.

"You called Zippy?" I asked Zeus casually, taking another sip. If faking it was my useful skill, then my most used skill was pissing people off.

Fighting Leviathan near the ocean was impossible. The second Endbringer was simply the single most efficient killing machine on the planet. That was what happened when you were hydrokinetic on a planet where water covers seventy percent of the world's surface. There was water in the sea. There was water underground. There was water in the air. There was water in people. Leviathan going all out was the second greatest threat to the Family after Tohu. There were two simple reasons for that.

Range and energy efficiency. Leviathan had proven to be the Endbringer with the greatest range, and manipulating water was so easy that humans had learned the basics before modern dams or ships. Even some animals understood how to direct and control water in the limited forms they had. As if it was waiting for Mikael to step through the portal, the attacks upon Themyscira intensified as soon as the man and god disappeared.

Waves, originally only tens of meters tall, swelled to hundreds of meters as they crashed over and over into the once prosperous island. Tens of thousands of tonnes of crushing water shattered the stone, washing away all proof that this small nation, hidden in the Mediterranean, had even existed. As the seas retreated, water giving way to land in preparation for another tsunami, the blades came.

Water, forced under thousands of Gigapascals worth of pressure and only one percent of a millimetre wide, carved through stone and flesh. The Amazons, able to bear the force of the waves thanks to their blessings, were helpless from the sharpest non-magical blades in the world. Those able to fly might have made it to the clouds above the deadly seas and met the blades hidden in their dark depths. Everyone would have died if Scathach had not been there.

As it was, only the most skilled of Amazons still survived, huddled with the three members of the Family in a Bounded Field Scathach had created by carving Primordial Runes into the little bit of stone that still remained under their feet. What was once a proud island nation had been reduced to a few dozen women huddled on a rock smaller than a football field, cowering behind a magical barrier. New water blades or mountainous waves would crash helplessly against its shimmering protections every second.

Leviathan had yet to be seen once, content to kill them from the seas without risk to itself.

"Are you almost done," Wonder Woman asked Robin impatiently. Her tears had been long mixed with the salty sea brine and washed away. More tears would be shed for all the sisters she had lost later. Now was the time for fury. If they could but get their foe to face them. Robin gave no answer, engaged as she was with her power and the enormous undertaking of the moment. Never had she exerted herself in this way.

"Give her time," Scathach said calmly. She was sitting in the center of the spherical barrier she had set up, knees tucked under her and crimson spears at her side.

"Rushing her will simply lead to another failure." Wonder Woman was going to say something to the meditating woman, likely a comment about how long it was already taking and how many had died before they had set up this safe zone, but a firm hand on her shoulder stopped her. Turning, Wonder Woman saw her own grim face mirrored back at her.

"You should join them," Diana explained simply with a gesture of her head toward a far side of the safe area where the other amazons gathered. Wonder Woman swallowed her angry words and nodded, stepping away from the Elden Lords' Consorts and towards what remained of her family.

"We have but the word of a man, his women, and of Ares! Are we to trust them over the gods that have protected us for thousands of years?" Clio urged the rest passionately.

"Who saved us from the depravities of Man's World? Who blessed us with youth and strength? What next? Are we to ask Circe for political counsel? Medusa for diplomatic advice? We must stay the course! Keep our faith! The gods have not abandoned us!"

"I don't feel very strong right now, do you!?" Pheobe snarled at the former priestess. It was hard to fault her anger. Mala had died saving her while they carved the runes into the stone below them. The thought of her first crush and lover threatened to send more tears from Wonder Woman's eyes.

"I do not feel protected! Our sisters are dead! Our home is gone! We are trapped as rats on a sinking ship, and you would have us pray?"

"What else are we to do?" Clio snarled right back. She, too, had lost people.

"As you say, we are trapped! Helpless! Made low by a beast we have never seen and cannot fight! Our only hope is to pray that the gods will forgive our failure to heed their warning."

"We did not fail," Wonder Woman heard her mother mutter. Her arguing sisters quieted down to hear their Queen's words. Hippolyta had let them argue, staring out into the dark ocean and cloudy sky as she held her youngest daughter in her arms. This was Donna's first authentic taste of danger outside of sparing, and Wonder Woman's heart ached for her little sister. So many of her friends had died in the last half an hour. Too many.

"Apologies, my Queen, but we did," Penelope insisted.

"We failed Lady Hestia when we allowed the man into our home."

"How quick we are to forget what has just passed," Hippolyta looked at her Oracle in censure.

"Was it not you who, after weeks of silence from the gods, came to me with their order to invite the Elden Lord and his consorts to our home?"

"It was," Penelope said, deep remorse written large across her face.

"And I stand by that oracle. Lord Zeus himself spoke to me. But, to my eternal shame, I could not understand Lady Hestia's message in time. I have doomed us all. Were I able, I would cast myself in the waters to return our fallen sisters for my failures. Should I survive this day when so many of my family have fallen, I shall accept all punishments for my failures."

"There shall be no punishment," Hippolyta shook her head sorrowfully.

"It is not you who has failed. I simply urge you to remember. Your interpretation of our Lady's message, do you stand by your translation of the augury?"

"I am willing to stake my life on it, my Queen. Though it took me time to decipher the message in the ashes, as they were in the old tongue I had not practiced in thousands of years, I am entirely sure of their meaning. We were to drive the Elden Lord from the island, never for him to return. Our failure to do so while he remained among us has led to this cataclysm."

"Even had you brought me the message sooner, I would not have done such an ignominious act." Hippolyta denied.

"After inviting him into our home under false pretenses, we would chase him out like a dog? I think not. The only crime we have committed this day is our violation of sacred hospitality, more than our acceptance of a man into our midst. But, that, too, I do not believe to be the root of our doom. Your prophecy, what were Lady Hestia's exact words?""' The Elden Lord is to leave Themyscira, never to return.'""' Leave Themyscira, never to return.' That is no order to chase him from our shores.

It is a warning to not let him back."

"What are you saying, Mother," Wonder Woman asked.

"I am saying the day is more dire than we know, cut off as we are from our gods and the world," Hippolyta turned to look at the stormy skies once more.

"I am saying that I believe the gods were divided on how to handle the man. One side did not wish to have any part in his affairs, and the other wished for him to be in their power. I am saying I believe the Elden Lord and his consorts. This was a trap for them, and we were but part of the bait." There was a moment of silence among the surviving Amazons as they digested the possibility of their Queen's words. It was entirely possible.

The gods were never unified and often quarrelled, and mortals, Amazons included, were often left to try and survive the tempest. The Trojan War was a perfect example.

"Are we sacrifices," Donna asked despondently, echoing the words Mikael had used before he stepped through the portal.

"No." Hippolyta did not even entertain the idea.

"We are Amazons! We are survivors! When this is all done, we shall have answers. Until then, the gods will do what they will, and we will do what we can. And what we can do is avenge our fallen sisters!"

"I do believe that is my queue," an elegant voice interjected. At some point, when the Amazons were discussing their fate, the three foreign women joined them. Wonder Woman could see the sympathetic pain on the face of her dimensional counterpart and couldn't help but wonder if this was familiar to the heroine. Had her loss of home been like this? A doomed battle, where one companion after another fell? Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Were all of the Elden Lord's consorts so burdened? Was that why they were so protective of each other? For an instant, Wonder Woman felt jealous of Diana. Not of her husband, for she was not fond of the man, knowing what she did of him. But she was jealous of the bonds the Family shared. The comradery. The closest she had come was her friends in the Justice League, and even then, some things simply could not be shared with men as they could with women.

"You are prepared?" Hippolyta asked Robin, hand clenching her spear in anticipation.

"I am," the archeologist answered.

"Before we begin, are you sure you do not wish to evacuate? Neither Leviathan nor the divine barriers around us can stop us from returning to our home and bringing you with us." The Queen of the Amazons looked around at what remained of her people. Steely eyes met her gaze, unwavering and unflinching. For a moment, her eyes stopped on her youngest. Donna glared back as if daring her mother to try and get her to leave.

"We are in this till the end, it seems," Hippolyta said with fond exasperation.

"Would that we left sooner, more of my sisters would have survived. Hubris has always been the downfall of men and women alike. Now, all that is left to us is vengeance."

"No," Robin denied.

"All that is left is to live. No matter what." Then she was gone in a rain of pink petals.

"Will she be all right," Wonder Woman asked her counterpart in worry.

"She bears the greatest risk in this plan, and Leviathan has thwarted her attempts before."

"I would not worry about her but about yourselves," Scathach cautioned as she stood beside one of the runes carved into the stone, spear raised in preparation.

"I shall worry," Hippolyta interjected.

"Not only out of concern for a woman who has aided my people but out of my concern for my people themselves. Should any of you fall in our defence, I fear what wrath your husband would bring upon us." Diana let out a wet chuckle. The sound was so out of place in the pouring rain, crashing waves, and gloomy atmosphere that all eyes turned to her. Much like Wonder Woman herself, her tears had been washed away.

These might not have been the Amazons of her world, but the heroine knew her counterpart had been quickly forming a bond with a few, even in the short time she had spent on Themyscria. To hear laughter from her in such a dark moment was... odd. And concerning.

"Apologies, Queen Hippolyta, I meant no offence. It is a running joke in the Family, is all."

"Then explain it to me while we wait. And why the darkest day in our history merits laughter," the Queen of the Amazons asked with a frown. Not only her, but all of the other Amazons looked at Diana in displeasure.

"Or do you believe my concern about the Elden Lord's ire to be unfounded?"

"It is precisely because the day is so dark that we must laugh," Diana met her mother's gaze.

"We must find what joy we can even when things are at their worst. Robin and Mikael have taught me that. Your concern is also not unfounded, as I am not blind to my husband's tendencies. I truly meant no offence." Hippolyta's glare softened slightly. Not much, be noticeable enough to one who had known her long enough.

"As for the joke itself, much of the context is lost without divulging secrets that are not mine to share. Robin is one of the weakest of us in one on one combat."

"She specializes in dealing with large groups of weaker enemies rather than one powerful foe," Scathach interjected with a smile.

"Were we each assigned a rank based on threat, whether to an Endbringer or other singular enemies, Robin would rank tenth."

"And you find it funny that one of your 'weakest' is out facing the beast alone?" Clio asked, recrimination thick in her voice.

"No," Diana disagreed with another chuckle.

"It is merely the irony of your concern. It is a hobby of Mikael and Medea to assess threats to the Family and make plans for eventualities. A type of wargaming, if you will, like we... like I did when I was young. Many factors went into that ranking, such as assuming all our abilities would be used. I will not bore you with details, as I do not know all of them myself. All I know is that, for threat assessment, I am only number three though I am the physically strongest.

Raven and Ranni are both the most magically powerful, only slightly less than Mikael, yet they are more inefficient in combat, so they are ranked fourth and fifth, respectively. That might change in the coming years as Raven grows accustomed to her new... status. Power is not the be-all, end-all."

"Mikael is zero, and I am number one," Scathach said with some pride.

"My skills, runes, and Noble Phantasms combine to mean I am a greater threat to almost anything, even though I am physically and magically weaker. I am simply more versatile."

"I continue to fail to understand what is so humorous," Hippolyta sighed, but there was a slight smile on her face. It took Wonder Woman a moment to understand why, and when she did, she looked at her counterpart with renewed respect. Diana was distracting them from the wait, the anticipation of the coming battle. It was also pulling some from their grief. She was drawing their ire so that her fellow Amazons did not psych themselves out, an act that might cost them their lives.

Scathach had caught on instantly and provided aid. Looking around subtly, Wonder Woman noticed only one or two of her sisters in arms had caught on like her mother. Half a battle was waged with morale, and Diana was arming her side.

"The humour comes from the fact that Mikael and Medea came up with two ranking systems. The threat and survival ranks. Partially so we could all know how we currently stacked up to each other in all-out fights, but partially to mess with us. It led to many jokes."

"Should you ever wish to spar with Artoria going all out," Scathach smirked at the Amazons, idly twirling one of her spears.

"You but need to call her 'eternal second place.'""Her competitive streak is so cute," Diana giggled.

"She spent hours arguing that, even if she wasn't ranked zero, she should be at least first place on the threat ranking."

"Robin is ranked high on the survival ranking, so we need not worry. Even if she cannot defeat Leviathan, she can protect herself enough to survive," Clio nodded in understanding, but Diana shook her head, and Scathach's smirk widened.

"The premise of the 'survival ranking' was how difficult each of us would be to kill if we were taken by complete surprise and unprepared. It is murkier than threat assessment, but I am between fourth and seventh place, as is Scathach. The top three were never in contention. Number two is Artoria, number one is Mikael, and number zero is Robin."

"You've met our husband," Scathach chuckled.

"I am half convinced he set up both rankings just so he could joke about 'dropping the one' for Robin."

"If everyone in our Family was using all our tools at our disposal, none of us, even working together, could defeat my husband," Diana said seriously.

"But not even he can kill Nico Robin."

"Why," Donna asked.

"Because of that," Scathach gestured to the sky with a spear. Wonder Woman looked up and saw a sky of pink. Like leaves of a cherry blossom tree falling or petals on the breeze, the dark sky covered in black clouds was torn asunder by the tide of pink bodies. It was only thanks to her enhanced eyesight that Wonder Woman could make them out in the dark and distinguish their features. A long, serpentine body with four limbs, each tipped with five claws.

The size was difficult to estimate at this distance, but Wonder Woman thought it had to be at least as wide as a stadium and three times as long. Scales that were light pink, almost white, shone in the lightning that occasionally illuminated the stormy skies. An Eastern dragon, Wonder Woman realized, as opposed to the more Western style of the rest of the family she had seen.

But instead of a head with whiskers or a beard, as she had always seen in depictions of Eastern dragons, a body grew from the front of each dragon. A female torso with generous proportions, crossed arms, massive bat-like wings sprouting from her shoulder blades, and pointed horns poking from long dark hair. It was like a Demon merged with a Dragon. And there were thousands of them.

"You might be able to kill one Flower Dragon," Diana said.

"Or two, or a hundred, or ten thousand. But so long as even one petal exists, you cannot kill Nico Robin."

"I can understand why it took so long," Hippolyta sighed in awe at the beautiful sight.

"The number is not the reason," Scathach shook her hand, eyes narrowed as she watched the sea.

"The trick was to form them far enough away that Leviathan could not sense their creation in time to stop them. She had to create them outside the atmosphere. Be prepared. Robin will draw the Endbringer out. It will be up to us to slay it." Even as they talked, the tide of Flower Dragons fell to the ocean and met a tide of water blades rushing up to meet them. Dozens died before the first reached the ocean. Robin could not maintain a defence of Armament Haki around so many clones at once.

But even if over a hundred died, that still left thousands of massive pink dragons to smash into the sea at once. Not a drop of blood fell, though. Whenever one of the dragons would take enough damage, it would simply dissipate into a flurry of pink petals. The sound of their crashing into the sea was cacophonous and turbulent waves crashed into, over, at, through, and away from each other.

The protected sphere of land was battered and smashed by dozens of waves but still held firm under the power of the Primordial Runes carved into them. The death toll surged as Robin placed her clones in the seat of Leviathan's power. Though none of the Family could die by drowning, water was one of the most lethal weapons on the planet. Massive pink dragons were smashed, crushed and sliced by the second.

In less time than it would take a regular person to drown, hundreds of dragons were killed, filling the ocean with millions of pink petals. It would have been beautiful had it not meant something so horrific. But not even Leviathan's hydrokinesis could kill thousands of dragons in only a few seconds. And with every one that fell, the next was slightly harder to kill, Aura and Haki less spread out between so many different bodies. Had Robin been fighting alone, Leviathan would have won.

It would have slain all the clones she had prepared in a fraction of the time it took to make them. Such was the advantage the second Endbringer held by staying in the ocean. But Robin wasn't alone, she wasn't trying to fight Leviathan, and she most certainly wasn't unfamiliar with the sea. Robin knew the ocean. The seas and the wave had been her only constant companion as she ran from a world that cried for her death, that declared she should never have been born.

And that ocean was far more dangerous than the one on Earth. Thousand of eyes searched the dark waters for the serpentine form of the Endbringer. Her Semblance, Library of Ohara, was incredibly simple and effective. It simply allowed her to process and retain information at a quicker rate, such as allowing her to act as a one-woman army to search leagues of water for one slippery eel. Robin found it when twenty of her clones died in a whirlpool of death in an instant.

It was moving incredibly quickly, but not so fast she couldn't see it with her Haki and experience sparing with Yoruichi. Once she had the location, she set to work on the last part of the plan. Even if she could kill Leviathan, which she could not, fighting the Endbringer in the water would be stupid. So she needed to get it out of the water. Fishman Karate was a fighting style that did not, in fact, control water or even rely on it.

Originally designed to take advantage of the Fishman race's strength and speed in the ocean, it remained deadly effective on land and in the hands of humans. This was because the basic principle of martial art was the propagation of force along currents and in waves of impact. Trying to fight Leviathan with water was impossible. Trying to fight Leviathan with currents? That was much more easily achieved. Especially when you had thousands of powerful limbs to help direct it.

Once Robin knew the general location of the monster, every single one of her clones started applying their power to create a massive current. More died every second, but with so many huge beasts all churning the water, it did not take long for the world's strongest current to form. Currents could be formed by wind, temperature differences, or even tides shifting. Leviathan could ignore all water movement and swim unimpeded through even the sea's most brutal currents.

But if a current was not caused by water but a void formed by Haki-infused blows? Leviathan was as helpless to swim through that as the weakest guppy. The Endbringer was sucked into the sky in a vortex of water, air, and black fists.

"NOW!" Scathach shouted, driving her spear into the rune that kept them safe and trapped. The Amazons all lept from the last battered piece of rock that was once their home island as it was swallowed by the waves of the crashing sea. Some could fly, others couldn't and had to rely on their more magically inclined sisters to keep them aloft, but they all knew they would never again be able to set foot upon Themyscira's shores.

Even as Leviathan flew through the air, chased by pink dragons, it was not helpless in any way. Turning its awkward tumble into a mid-air surf, it coalesced blades of water and launched them at its surrounding enemies even as the rain turned into falling spikes. Penelope's foot was severed as she swerved her magical platform away. Pheobe's arm fell to the water below, unable to dodge mid-air fast enough. Clio... did not make it, and what remained of her joined her fallen sisters in their rest in the briny depths.

Even as Leviathan dodged a punch from Donna, it was smashed in the back by one of Robin's tails and into a brutal uppercut from Hippolyta. Half of its head shattered, falling away. Those present had no idea about the Stranger resetting the other Endbringers or that they were lucky enough to have started this operation after it was trapped in Ranni's Diorama. All they knew was they could finally hurt the monster that had killed so many of their friends and family.

But, so long as its core was not destroyed, no amount of damage would hinder Leviathan's operation. Watery claws racked against Artemis' shield as the monster spun mid-air. Never having fought the Endbringer before, the Amazon was unprepared when the whip-like tail, covered in an extremely thin and sharp segment of water, bisected her from below. Wonder Woman roared out in fury but did not strike out with her sword in the opportunity Artemis had bought with her life, for she had fought the beast before.

Instead, the Lasso of Truth was there to catch the murderous appendage, tightening around it. It was only the tip of the tail, but that was enough to halt Leviathan's momentum slightly. Diana's Lasso caught Leviathan's left arm. Trusting their Amazonian sisters to protect them from the blades of water and dagger-like raindrops, the two versions of Wonder Woman pulled. They were not trying to tear the beast apart, even with their stupendous strength. They were just holding it in place for the true killing blow.

"Stab and penetrate... Thrust and drill!" One that could only happen if it remained within forty meters of its killer.

"Gáe Bolg Alternative!" The barbed red spear pierced through space, through dense layers of silicon flesh, and through fate itself.

'The spear was thrust, so the heart was pierced'' became something completely different. The heart was pierced, so the spear must have been thrust. Every drop of water within leagues froze in place. Then the rain fell gently upon their heads. At once jubilant in victory as it was filled with grief, a cheer rose from the survivors. And then the sky opened.

Even as the battle raged against Bohu, the Tower shattering piece by piece under the combined might of her sisters and the heroes of this world, Medea never took her eyes off the real threat. Tohu was small, tiny, really. Compared to the Tower, it was barely a dot in the sky, only visible because of the clear weather. Even comparing it to Behemoth, the sixth Endbringer was minuscule. Size-wise, Medea thought it might even be smaller than Mikael.

The form was vaguely female if a woman had one pair of legs, two torsos, three faces and four arms. Unlike Behemoth, who looked to be made out of cooled obsidian, or Bohu, who built its body from stone, Tohu's entire body seemed to be formed from strands of hair that fell from its three heads and woven into ribbons and cords in the approximation of a human body. It was far from the most disturbing sight the witch had ever seen, so she had no trouble keeping her eyes on the creature.

That was why she was the only one to see the monster make its move as its 'sister' died. The first sign was when the hair on one head turned platinum white, the bright colour woven throughout the small body as a third of its composition matched the transformed head.

As Medea saw the first of Tohu's heads transform, saw the delicate female features with high cheekbones, saw the dull silver eyes that looked out at the world with a cold and empty gaze, saw the asymmetrically placed feathered wings that sprouted from the Endbringer's back, she screamed.

"RUN!" Her voice, magically enhanced to carry as far as possible, warned all the heroes and civilians to flee before the smallest Endbringer. It was hard to not let the glee and sheer relief she felt leak into her shout. She and Mikael had spent long nights coming up with plans, contingencies, and estimations about all the threats this world could throw at their Family. Endbringers had factored surprisingly low on that scale.

Compared to people like the Sorcerer Supreme, Molecule Man, Apocalypse, Doctor Manhattan, and Mad Jim Jaspers, they were just not something they worried about. That wasn't even factoring cosmic-level entities like the Phoenix Force, Galactus, Darkseid, the Anti-Monitor, or Trigon. There had been one exception to that, out of known Endbringers. Tohu. All their discussions on Endbringers had factored in the idea that the monsters would be holding back their power, thanks to the death of the Simurgh.

Ideas like Behemoth not limiting its kill range, Leviathan controlling the whole ocean, or Khonsu teleporting as much as it wanted were bandied about without any genuine concern. The Family would be able to handle it, especially if they worked together. The creature's weakness to magic and the Defences would be able to counter almost anything the monsters could throw at them. The smallest Endbringer had been different. Their biggest question was what constituted 'all out' for the creature.

Obviously, there would not be the slow ramp-up process it faced in the book. It would choose powers all at once or at least one right after the other. From there, the options differed. Would it supercharge powers? Theoretically, if it invested an Endbringers' worth of energy into specific powers, it could kill even Mikael's true form or eradicate the planet. Would it be able to control more than three powers at once? In Worm, Tohu had mitigated this limit by using Trump powers like Eidolon's or the Faerie Queen's.

If it didn't need to be so constrained by three powers, it could make even deadlier combinations. Sting-empowered light rays from Legend's power, while the Endbringer cloned itself and was protected by force fields, would be a nasty and efficient combination. Would it cycle through powers instead of sticking to only three?

Even if three was the maximum it could hold at one time, if it could change them mid-fight, it would give the Endbringer unmatched versatility thanks to the thousands of options it had to choose from. That last one would actually be worse than the previous two options. You can plan around overwhelming power or effective combinations, but you cannot plan against thousands of different powers that constantly change and combine in new ways.

In the end, Mikael and Medea had settled on two possibilities that were the worst they could think of. One was bad, and the other was almost impossible to stop. Tohu imitating other Endbringers was the former. So Medea sighed in relief after she shouted for the other heroes to flee. The Simurgh was much easier to deal with than Leviathan, Behemoth, the Stranger, or even Khonsu. The Family could handle the Simurgh without issues.

Not only were they immune from its influence thanks to the Defences, but it perceived the world through predictions, which could not see any of them. Tohu itself, without using a power slot, perceived the world through expressions of power. The Family might as well be invisible to the monster. The Simurgh head started to sing as Medea rained light upon the creature. Now that the other Endbringers were dead, and it was clear it wasn't retreating, there was no point holding back from trying to take it out.

Medea's Rain of Light, her primary offensive spell, fell upon the small body of the monster that couldn't dodge an attack it could not perceive. They did damage, but only at the superficial level. It might look like it was made of hair, but Tohu's body was as tough as any of the other Endbringers. Heroes fled below her, instinct and experience telling them to get as far away from the sounds coming from the Endbringer. The Simurgh might be dead, but the fear it instilled in the world was ever-present.

Medea continued to chip away at the small body, distracting it as best she could for the moment as she communicated with her sisters.

'I cannot help,' Glynda warned mentally, her mind heavy with strain.

'If I lose focus, this tower will fall, and everyone will die.' Medea spared a glance downward. Glynda had already transformed into her dragon form, her purple scales glinting in the sun as she hovered in the sky before the massive mountain of rock, steel, and glass that once formed the body of the largest Endbringer. Without Bohu to keep the gigantic form stable and floating, the 'corpse' the size of Mt. Everest would have fallen to the Earth with disastrous consequences.

Glynda focused more on precision than power but still had enough juice as a dragon to keep it from impacting the ground too fast. She had to do it alone, as any hero in the song's range was more of a risk than a help. Even in the second Medea spared, she saw the remains slowly start to descend as the former huntress tried to settle the artificial mountain in a way that wouldn't cause the world's worst rockslide.

'Yoruichi,' Medea ordered rather than lament the situation.

'Here!' The feline dragon smashed into the Endbringer in the sky, claws tearing wings from the body as both forms were shrouded in black and white lightning. Medea stopped her attack, knowing the Shinigami was the better choice for fighting this particular battle. The battle may have ended there had the second head not transformed instantly. A green hood of hair covered a glassy helm as the white platinum of its body was joined by threads of green. Eidolon. Medea grinned.

Yoruichi continued to try and claw her way through the monster but could not penetrate the strands of hair, now made invulnerable by the second power chosen. Eidolon's power was essentially 'give me what I need right now.' Invulnerability was possible, but it also wasted one of the four slots Eidolon had in this world that could have been used offensively.

The second and third slots were equally obvious when Yoruichi was forced to leap away from a blast of greenish-black energy, the same kind that had recently killed Bohu. The monster would have only been able to use that power against the black dragon if it also invested a slot in some sort of perception ability that allowed it to see the Family. The Defences were potent, but they were not all-encompassing.

Bohu had been able to sense them thanks to the tremors they made in the air around them, and Leviathan could do the same by sensing the displacement of water vapour. Tohu could have used an Eidolon slot to have eagle vision, which would be enough to see them. More than likely, it was some enhanced dynamic senses to keep up with the speeds Yoruichi was moving. The Family might have lost its invincibility, but Tohu was down to one Eidolon slot and one head.

It could cycle Eidolon's abilities, of course, but it would keep one for senses, one for defence, and one for attack. Anything less would be stupid. So what was its play now? Every second it delayed was more time for the rest of the Family to gather, more time for the fleeing heroes to find safety and more time for civilians to be rescued. Medea cast a spell to further enhance Yoruichi as she kept her eyes on the most significant threat they faced today.

That was when Priscilla's voice echoed in the Family's heads, paralyzing them all with panic and fear.

'Mikael is gone!' Yoruichi would have died, her attack stuttering to a stop and allowing Tohu to envelop the Shinigami in that ball of green energy. Only a quick teleportation from one of the Emoticlones saved her life.

'What do you mean?' Emma asked urgently. Medea teleported herself further away from the monster to gain time to think. Mikael. Not 'Sir Bard.' Priscilla was panicking. That didn't change the fact that they were in a life-and-death struggle at the moment. She reappeared half a kilometre away from the Endbringer, getting a wider look at the situation. Most of the heroes had already fled, which saved her the worry of possibly having to fight them.

Even if Tohu was going all out with the Simurgh's power, it should not have been able to affect them too badly in such a short period of time.

'His body! It is gone!' The entire premise of Mikael going off alone was that he was effectively immortal so long as his real body was safe in the Jewel. A psychic burst of panic flooded their minds, threatening to send Medea to the ground in mental pain. Emma's terror, panic and pain almost floored them all. Medea almost instinctively raised her Mental Defence but held herself back. That would cut her off from the Family.

The Caster knew they all cared for and loved Mikael, but Emma was something completely different than the rest of them, no matter what the relationship issues Mikael and her were having at the moment. Ever since the mutant entered his mind for the first time in the cell, Emma had become entirely different from the woman first summoned to the Island. Emma had fared the worst when Mikael was burning in the Kiln of the First Flame. She had been the only one to know what was happening then.

However, even when the rest of the Family learned about what had happened, it had still been Emma who degenerated into almost incapacitation when he beat Dark Souls II, and they waited for Robin to be summoned in the third game. After the first day, the mutant had not eaten a bite of food. After the second, she didn't leave her room, even when the drakes had hatched. On the fifth day, Tsunade had barged in to check on her.

Medea hadn't been there at the time, occupied with dealing with the hatchlings, but the former Hokage had emerged from the room to tell the group that the benefits of the Catalogue had prevented any sort of physical degeneracy from lack of sleep or movement. But Medea had seen the look in Tsunade's eyes. The former ninja had been disturbed by what she saw in that room on that day.

It was only later, after Mikael had freed himself and they landed on Earth, had Medea been able to piece the entire puzzle together by the way they acted toward each other. Their Family was complicated on a good day, and their relationships varied from person to person. Mikael's relationship with Artoria and Diana was formed from mutual respect and admiration. Robin was pretty much Mikael but female, so they had hit it off immediately.

Yoruichi and him trading teasing remarks, the dotting way he was with Priscilla or the gentleness he shared with Tsunade. They all had different relationships, different ties that bound them together, but no matter their form, their love was one of mutual affection. The love of a man and wife... or wives in this case. Medea did not see that with the mutant. Emma did not love Mikael as a man. Mikael was not her husband, no matter what he claimed. Mikael was her God. Mikael was Emma's everything.

And like any believer in a religion, she sought to spread her belief. Emma would continue her actions, doing everything she could to 'elevate' her god, even if he told her not to. After all, it had worked out last time. The Family was happy now, weren't they? So Emma hadn't been wrong. If it was just blind devotion, Mikael would have been able to nip it in the bud. Even with his ego, he was more aware of his faults than anyone else. But it wasn't her mindlessly following his orders.

Emma still retained her own will for all that she had been born from the madness of his eldritch mind. She had even joined hands with this world's version of her, whom she absolutely despised, just to prove a point to him. That was why Mikael had so much trouble with her. How do you convince someone you are not their everything? How do you deal with someone who went mad with love for you because you were mad with love for them? There wasn't. Not without using a Command Seal. And Mikael would never do that.

Trapped in a limbo where Emma's plans to 'elevate' him against his wishes was a sure sign she was still free to make her own decisions but wanted nothing more than what he currently possessed. The man wanted a wife. The woman wanted a deity. And that deity, the one Emma had seen every single day for over a year as she sat on her chair with a glass of wine, the one she had built a shrine to in her room, as absolute as the sun rising and as inevitable as its setting. Was gone.

The mental anguish the Family felt as a blowback was blinding. They could all feel the loss, confusion, and pain Emma felt. They could feel it as, regardless of what she was doing or where she was, the mutant opened a portal to the Island to verify Priscilla's words. They all felt the abyss that opened in her soul as she beheld the Island, the Jewell, but no Mikael. Medea had to stop her before they all died at the hands of the empowered psychic and the Endbringer fighting a bird made of shadowy energy.

It was hard to think through the panic that bombarded her mind, but Medea was not a heroic spirit for nothing.

'Emma!' She mentally shouted. Medea absolutely refused to lose her Family again. Especially to blind panic.

'He's still alive! I can feel our connection through the seals!'

'Where is he?! Where is he?! Where is he?! Where is he?!'

'I don't know, but you need to calm down! Raven can't keep this up!' Even with the boost in power thanks to absorbing Trigon, Raven's powers were highly affected by her emotions, to say nothing of her Emoticlones. Medea had no idea which one was controlling that shadowy bird, as the primary consciousness was still focusing on rescuing the millions of people trapped in the city. Still, there was no way it could keep up the defence while being psychically blasted.

Thankfully, it looked like Yoruichi had decided to raise her Defences and rejoin the fight. Her draconic body was once more under control and no longer spasming. Medea grit her teeth in psychic pain, wishing she could do the same.

'Trust him! He won't die on us! We just need to do what we can here!' Realistically, Medea should have known that reasoning with the mad and the panicked was a hopeless endeavour, but she had to try. They couldn't fall to infighting so close to the finish line. Panic attacks were not something someone could get over quickly. The only difference was that they could all hear Emma's internal monologue as she lost control.

'Why hasn't he summoned us? He could be trapped, sealed, in another cell. Death could do it! Maybe The Company? He needs us. I won't let him be hurt again! Where is he!?'

'Mikael will never be trapped again.' Melina's voice did not shake from the psychic pain, nor was it panicked in the slightest. It was calm. Certain. As firm and unbending as the strongest metal in the multiverse, there was no doubt in her mind at the veracity of her words.

'If Mikael is alive, he is Free.' Medea had a moment of realization then, as she continued to feel Emma blast them with her emotions. It took time for someone to recover from panic attacks, even as Melina's steady presence helped calm the psychic. It was easy to forget because she was so quiet most of the time, but Melina was the woman who knew Mikael best and had been with him the longest. She knew his faults and flaws. His strength and weaknesses. She was the opposite of Emma.

Their love was that of a mortal for a mortal. That was why her faith in him was firm.

'If Mikael is Free, and he is not Home, then woe betide whatever foe dragged the dragon from its den.' Medea would have loved to ruminate on that nugget of realization and what it meant for the Family and her own relationships. In an ideal world, Emma would have time to calm down, and the Family could investigate what was happening with Mikael. Reality was sometimes cruel. They had wasted too much time. Even half blinded by psychic panic, Medea saw the change in the third head.

"RUN!" Even as Medea shouted once more, voice heavy with panic and fear, she knew it was too late. Yoruichi's removal of the psychic communication, necessary to keep up the battle, doomed her to be unable to respond in time. The black dragon fell. Tohu had made its final power choice. The worst case had happened.

Unit 00 unresponsive. Unit 01 unresponsive. Unit 02 unresponsive. Unit 03 unresponsive. Unit 04 unresponsive. Unit 05 unresponsive. Primary Objective? 76% complete. Most efficient selection for accomplishing Primary Objective? Unit 03. Transforming. Sonic disruption to surrounding brain waves. Local species dispersed. Continuing operation. Error. Damage sustained. Unknown source. Emergency selection. Designation 'Eidolon.' Additional Asset 'Yoruichi Shihouin' interfering in Primary Objective.

Additional Asset 'Medea' interfering in Primary Objective. Additional Asset 'Yoruichi Shihouin' threat to Unit 06. Additional Assets in localized space. Additional Assets threat to Primary Objective. Primary Asset fulfilling Secondary Objective. Lethal force authorized on Additional Assets. Most efficient selection to accomplish Primary Objective and removal of Additional Assets? Designation 'Flash.' Additional Assets threat eliminated. Primary Objective underway.