This work is a piece of fiction. While inspired by real events, cultures, and practices in human history, the story blends factual history with fictional characters, dramatizations, and creative interpretation.
It is not intended to promote, glorify, or encourage any illegal activities, substance use, or harmful behavior. All depictions of sensitive topics are included solely for narrative and historical context.
For the effects of the story, all characters are to be considered above the majority age.
Reader discretion is advised.
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Earth-5H1N3, Year 2001.
Shadow Realm.
The realm of shadows was one of those naturally occurring realms; realms that embodied an aspect of what made up Reality. The Light Dimension represented the source of light, the Kinetic Dimension the origin of movement, the Lightning Plane the root of electricity, and correspondingly, the Shadoe Realm was the source of the absence of light.
These were realms that didn't naturally spawn Dimensional Lords, and that for the longest time were lordless. Recently, Carol Danvers became the Light Lord, but that was a result as unnatural as anything that is related to Aragorn's whims.
For sorcerers of a certain caliber, these realms presented an opportunity to call upon the forces they represent. To other Dimensional Lords, these were ripe fruits ready to be harvested; however, the fact that all of these realms formed part of the inner matrix of Reality made them almost impossible to reach for their covetous hands.
These realms were almost exclusively pure of anything beyond their sources, with a few rare exceptions.
One of those exceptions was the Shadow Realm.
This realm was not an empty, pure space of darkness, shadows, and umbra. This realm was a reflection of the material plane it 'shadowed.' Though technically, even the matter in this realm was made of solid shadows, so maybe it was a stretch to call it an exception.
As one of James' divine domains, [Shadows] represented an important part of his divine identity.
In the imperium, when the Duskari wanted to keep something hidden, they would often pray to Yekaterina Draconisfilia, the Goddess of Secrets, and James Barnes, God of Shadows.
His affinity with shadows was something beyond the limits of umbrakenitics like Harry Hart; so much so, that just stepping into the Shadow Realm, James had an almost instinctive understanding of most of the dimension.
It was that affinity which made it easy for him to understand that something was wrong.
"... Why is there a trace of chaos mixed in here?" James asked out loud.
A dim light shines like a lighthouse in the middle of utter darkness. In this case, inside a realm so pure, anything that wasn't strictly shadows might as well shine like a star.
It was solely due to this contrast that James was able to find the traces of chaos; that's how dimmed the traces were.
With a look of brooding seriousness, James reached out to The System and sent some information to Wanda. A few seconds later, a tear in space opened next to James, and the infernal energies of Hell poured over the Shadow Realm.
With the clanking of her boots, Wanda announced her presence. She took a glance at the surroundings and pulled back the leaked energies into the tear and stepped out, making an effort not to contaminate the 'crime scene.'
"Hey, Wandabus," James called out affectionately.
"I heard you'll be a father again," Wanda approached him and embraced him in a hug. James replied in kind.
"I somehow managed to land a combo; I only missed Natalia," James said with a twitching smile. "How are your twins?"
"I believe they'll soon come out of their rebellious phase," Wanda said in a hopeful tone.
"Vladarion's lasted a few decades," James said.
"Please don't try to uplift my spirits," Wanda replied with a deadpan. "How was I to know that demonic children would mature far slower than regular therions?"
"Probably Aragorn knew," James chuckled.
"... Probably," Wanda snarled.
"Can you take a quick look?" James asked, pointing in the direction of a large, shadowy building shaped like the Empire State. "All chaos feels the same to me."
Wanda nodded and floated to the building with James behind. The two stopped in front of something that wasn't visible, and that, for all anybody else knew, might have had as much substance as air did.
"This is not like my chaos," Wanda commented with a pensive look.
"What about Chthon's?" James asked about the most famous Chaos Lord.
"No, I don't feel the same familiarity as his... It feels more... raw?" Wanda said, unsure of her conclusion.
"Raw? As in wilder than regular chaos is?" James asked. Chaos was not his realm of expertise.
"I can feel something else mixed with this chaos, I can sense some shadows that do not belong to the realm, and even something that reminds me faintly of Lady Death," Wanda analyzed.
"So, chaos, shadows, and death?" James asked.
"I didn't mean death in the Lady Death sense," Wanda chuckled. "I meant more like it felt as if this chaos was a part of Reality, like Lady Death's concept is."
"And what concept is this one?" James asked.
"That's where it gets complicated," Wanda paused. "It feels like 'anti-concept.'"
"A concept of anti-concept? Can that thing even exist?" James asked.
"Yes, it can, but we normally don't see such concepts because they can only be found at the end and the beginning of Reality," Wanda explained.
"Where concepts are born and where they end," James caught on to what Wanda was referring to.
"Exactly," Wanda nodded.
"... Well, this is beyond our pay grade, is it not?" James chuckled nervously, taking furtive glances around the dimension.
"Certainly," Wanda said, her tail swaying nervously. "Let's get the fuck out of here, shall we?"
James needed no convincing; he made his own tear and jumped through after making sure Wanda had jumped through hers.
The Shadow Realm returned to its lifeless lull...
━━━━━━━ ● ━━━━━━━
In a place that wasn't a physical location, shards of broken glass crashed against each other and fused as droplets of water would. These shards were painted with the pieces of an infinite ocean of stars and celestial objects.
In this place, sections of it bubbled like boiling water and evaporated into liquids only to then boil again and end up as solids.
In this place, the concept of direction was foreign, such as the most elemental forces that made up Reality. This was a place of hurtful chaos.
And yet, this was not the dimension of a Chaos Lord; this was not the hidden realm of a threat to the universe that would only come out when its presence most mattered. This was not a place within the realm of the concept of [Space]. This place... Aragorn's Mind/Souldscape.
"AGH! Fucking annoying!!!" Aragorn's voice growled with vexation.
When he and Kubos clashed, what most saw—those who could even witness such a fight—was the physical damage they dealt to each other and the repercussions of their clash on Reality.
What most couldn't see was the effects of Kubos' attacks inside Aragorn.
Aragorn is mostly unaffected by reality-warping. To him, this power is not as absolute. To him, reality-warping is like a flame to an iceberg; with enough fuel, it could be melted.
By the end of the fight, after his defenses had run dry, he was besieged by all the curses Kubos had left as its parting present.
Fixing his mind/soulscape was not truly a priority. Aragorn functioned in such a way that he could ignore such trifling wounds and mend them last. However, here was a problem: his memories of The Void.
The Void was such a malign conception to Reality that even as memories—which interacted with Reality through psionic energy—it could end up polluting it with its paradoxes if not handled correctly.
To make matters worse, the Therions' society was such that wondering inside another's mind was not considered a casual breach of privacy. Aragorn didn't want to risk one of his precious souls purchasing an untimely, irrecoverable ending.
This brings us to this point.
"Come on, Void-chan! You have to let yourself be hidden!" Aragorn pleaded.
His memories of The Void were shaped like Void-chan, a female, featureless self of his. And these memories not only share such similarity with the real Void-chan, but they were almost sentient too.
|~~~~~~~~~~~~| The memories expressed their dissatisfaction with being unable to have fun outside by shaking the entire mind/soulscape.
"No!" Aragorn bemoaned. "You'll undo all my progress!"
Aragorn looked around his mind/soulscape and saw part of his ocean of stars break like an image painted in glass.
"You're not a child! Stop it with the tantrum!" Aragorn chided.
|\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\| The memories lashed out to his mental projection and collapsed it like a card tower. It then sucked the pieces in and ate him.
"Ja.Ja.Ja.Ja.Ja!" Aragorn reformed another projection and laughed sarcastically. "Pull that shit again, and I'll have Void-chan spend some time in here with you."
|!!!!!!!!!| The memories shivered like jelly.
"I thought so," Aragorn scoffed. "Let's just cooperate. I'll promise to unseal you on my enemies the next time, deal?"
|.....+| Reluctantly, the aggregation of memories agreed.
Aragorn released a tired sigh that reverberated across the entire shattered mind/soulscape.
He focused on sealing the memories of The Void, and when the last lock was in place, Cosmic Fire burst forth, and Jean materialized.
"Phoenix said I could come now," Jean said while eyeing the destroyed surroundings warily.
"Yeah, I just finished sealing the unruly thing," Aragorn slumped next to a cracked planetoid, his back resting against it.
"What took you so long?" Jean complained and began to let her flames claim possession of a corner and restore it.
"You ungrateful little shit!" Aragorn complained and made a whip swat at her butt.
"Kyah!" Jean shrilled out with her hands covering her buttocks. "I tell Death!"
Aragorn's reply was a couple of wild cracks of his mental whip near her feet.
"Fine!" Jean relented. "... Are you better?" She asked, concern evident in her voice.
"I'll be, my Firebird," Aragorn said with a tired cadence. "Your Cosmis Fire helps a lot," he pointed at her flames, healing wherever they burned. "How is it going with the aliens?"
"It's slow," Jean whined. "They cordoned off entire star systems with psionic scramblers. It isn't hard to track them, but I get a horrible feeling when I think about using my telekinesis to end them."
"A bad feeling?" Aragorn asked. "As in reluctance?"
"No, no, not like that," Jean shook her head hurriedly. "I'm not hesitating due to the innocent lives," she said in a subdued voice. "I feel like if I use my telekinesis enough times in a row, something terribly bad would happen. Phoenix also told me to listen to my instincts."
"... I have my suspicions on what that could be," Aragorn muttered.
"What?" Jean paused her work and asked.
"I think they are using shards of the M'kraan Crystal," Aragorn revealed.
"What?!" Jean exclaimed.
"It's the only thing I can think of that the Shi'ar could have chance upon which could power such tech," Aragorn said. "Or, they could be using dimensions, but that is beyond their capabilities as far as I know."
"... But the M'kraan Crystal... Are they crazy?" Jean asked.
"Don't ask me," Aragorn shrugged. "Those birds have always been mental to my eyes, and that's something coming from me," Aragorn pointed at his shattered mind.
"... So, what am I supposed to do?" Jean asked, dejectedly.
"Don't use your Phoenix Force-given powers," Aragorn suggested. "You should have plenty of other tricks that could bring about the annihilation of a star system, no?"
"Yes," Jean nodded, "but only slow and wasteful methods."
"... I have a crazy idea," Aragorn smiled dangerously.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Jean shuddered.
Aragorn took that as his permission to continue. "You can become Boss Galactus' herald and guide him through a rampage through their territory."
"... I want to facepalm," Jean confessed, exasperated. "But I won't, considering that it is a feasible plan."
"Yeah, just that Senior Sister would die of jealousy," Aragorn chuckled.
"Should I involve the Duskari?" Jean asked.
"If you want to," Aragorn shrugged with disinterest. "However, I think you're a big girl now. It's time you wear your big girl panties."
"... I guess the hard way it is." Her shoulders slumped. "Can you accompany me for my first time?"
"Kinky?" Aragorn asked.
"Idiot," Jean washed his face with her flames.
"I can send a thought-construct," Aragorn said with a smile. "I can't move much at the moment."
Jean nodded, and Aragorn handed her one of his eyes.
In a secluded corner of the universe, Jean opened her eyes and gazed with judgment at the outermost star system she found under Shi'ar enslavement.
Coiled around her neck, a thought-construct of Aragorn shaped like a snake, like the most expensive jewelry in the world, appeared.
She raised one of her slender arms and turned slightly, pointing her palm behind her, as if she were pulling a javelin. Her muscles tensed in her arm and back, and then she pulled forward with violence belied by her serenity.
Something began to shine bright at a distance measured in light-years behind her. She paid it no mind before teleporting to another edge of the cordoned area. She repeated the same action and then teleported again. She did this enough times before teleporting at a 'safe' distance.
"Can you help me witness it?" Jean asked.
"Are you sure?" Aragorn questioned.
"The sooner the better," Jean nodded resolutely.
Her draconic green eyes changed and began to cycle through multicolored nebulae. Her eyesight changed, and soon she was able to peer at the surface of the planets she had just judged.
The field of scrambled psions restricted her use of telekinesis... but only within.
Soon, at an observation outpost, she saw projections switch to the universally understood red of danger, alarms blared noisily, panic ensued, and light began to devour Jean.
How strong was this Jean Grey? Well... Strong enough to pull a celestial bombardment of a Star System three times larger than the Solar System.
From all Euclidean dimensions, stars travelling at speeds enough to rip themselves apart bombarded the panicking mortals who had been judged unworthy by the Host of the Phoenix Force.
Through her temporarily enhanced eyesight, Jean saw their hopelessness, acceptance, reluctance, despair, anger, wrath, fear, sadness, and finally, light evaporated them before the gravity of the stars could pull them out of their planets.
It was a succinct end. So merciful, Aragorn called in his mind a very Jean-like end.
The stars collided, and the result further destabilized their forms, resulting in them going supernova.
Jean didn't waste this and opened a large gate above the resulting celestial event and dropped it near the next Shi'ar star system.
Like that, her judgment of the arrogant birds commenced.
↓Part 2━━━━━━━ ● ━━━━━━━Part 2↓
Back on Earth, at the base of the Arbor Mundi, Aragorn remained in the same position for the third day since the Divine Incursion. Yelena and Irina were enjoying the hot springs at a short distance from him.
Re-Nazca's government, under the orders of Irina, had established an exclusion zone around this side of the tree's base. It was large enough to cover from the base to the horizon.
Not far from them, the gate to Otherworld was unapologetically influencing its direct surroundings. It wasn't much, barely a foot from the edge of the gate, but under Aragorn's eyes, and the divine senses of the maids, it was apparent enough.
If a gate to the Shadow Realm were to be kept open inside Reality, the shadows would seep into Reality, invading and claiming part of it.
Otherworld was not that type of elemental dimension, but still, its magic was beginning to influence its direct surroundings. Will it get to the point where Earth and the rest of the universe would become more magical? No. It was still a matter of concern.
Well... The maids splish-splashing inside the blessed hot spring didn't convey much urgency, or concern for that matter.
Irina was with her back against the nude abdomen of Yelena, her head comfortably set on the fox's bountiful breasts. Yelena's long white tails wrapped around the bunny in a scene of sisterly harmony. Not long ago, they had been at each other's necks—literally—but now they were inseparable. That's how therions were.
Yelena was one of the few who manifested changes after ascending; in her case, the tips of her white tails and ears gained a light blue tint. Irina was combing with her fingers these light blue tips, and if one listened carefully, a low purring escaped the fox from time to time.
This scene of sisterly bonds came to a pause with both maids turning to the gate to Otherworld before resuming their grooming.
"I don't think we can seal this from the other side, can we?" A feminine voice with a seductive bass said.
A reply came in the form of a growl.
"Really? I didn't know that was possible," the voice said with astonishment.
A second later, Medusa came out of the gate, accompanied by a black wolf at her height with vibrant green eyes.
"We're back!" Medusa cheerfully greeted.
The giant wolf turned to Yelena and Irina for a moment before shifting to Aragorn and making its way to him. The wolf lay down by his side, and Aragorn extended a hand to pet it; he had recently recovered the ability to interact with matter.
"Aleh, what did you find?" Aragorn asked.
"Grrr~l," The wolf growled. The message was conveyed psionically: 'It's possible to seal it by twisting space. Exiting its own entrance, a loop.'
"I don't think that will stop the leakage of magic into this plane," Medusa added. She undressed, her clothing being recalled to her P-Link, and floated slowly to the hot spring, joining the maids.
"Aragorn," Yelena called out. "Why is there a leakage of anything coming from Otherworld? Wasn't that a realm created by Goddess Gaea? It shouldn't be that different from here," she gestured at the area around the Arbor Mundi, damped in her blessing, "right?"
"Grr~ol," the wolf said. 'It's a different type of blessing. The blessing of Otherworld is similar to the one in Halo, less intense, but equally pervasive for this modern world.'
"Why would that blessing be noscious to the world, Aleh?" Irina asked.
"Grr~l," it replied. 'To humanity, not the planet.'
"Isn't Fury alright?" Irina countered. "He's been in Halo plenty of times; he even has a bedchamber to his name in the Crystal's guest wing."
"Grr~l," the wolf explained. 'But he is a sorcerer.'
"So if he had not been made a sorcerer, he would have been in trouble?" Yelena asked. The wolf assented with a nod, which made Yelena turn her gaze to Aragorn and ask, "You knew?"
"No, I didn't have much data on divinity back then," Aragorn shrugged. "Gaea later told me that, apparently, it could have gone wrong. That's why the ambassadors from Nova are forced to switch every other month."
"What exactly could have gone wrong?" Yelena insisted.
"Grr~ll," the wolf answered. 'An increase in sensitivity for dimensional and worldly energies, combined with an overstimulation of the spirit, could lead to a forceful opening of a mortal's perspective.'
"As in?" Yelena asked, confused.
"Fury could have become aware of too many things that an unprepared mortal can't possibly hope to deal with, like having the third eye opened at all times. In other words, Fury could have begun to sense the other planes of existence without knowing what was what, and then those planes would have sensed him back," Aragorn explained.
"... Doesn't that sound like that saying about staring at the abyss?" Irina asked.
"It does sound similar, yes," Medusa nodded.
"From what I understand, Friedrich Nietzsche suffered from mild overstimulation of the spirit," Aragorn explained.
"Lovecraft?" Irina asked.
"No, that one suffered from something else," Aragorn shook his head. "And you should not mention him much. It's different when mortals do it than when a goddess does it. I would rather not find out how sensitive and far-reaching the cosmic awareness of those fellows is."
"Grr~l!" the wolf's fur bristled. 'Nasty business!'
"Oh? Did you have an encounter with them, Aleh?" Medusa asked.
"Gr~owll," Aleh recounted. 'While I was sealed, I felt something dangerous reaching out to me, trying to make contact. At first, I thought it was Aragorn, since it felt similar, so I spat on their attempt. Then I realized it was something else, I curiously tried to reach, maybe they could help me escape, I thought... the next thing I knew, I had lost 100 years of my memory. I only got it back after Aragorn turned me into this.'
There was an uneasy silence upon understanding that a goddess who was also a Dimensional Lord lost 100 years' worth of memory simply because she let curiosity get the better of her.
"I value my memory too much," Irina said.
"It's also dangerous," Yelena added. "We have too many secrets about the Imperium and the Drachantheon Therion."
"Not to mention Lady Death and the Phoenix Force," Medusa added.
Irina and Yelena nodded.
Aragorn didn't think it was necessary to remind them that their memories were protected by a shell of information dense enough to almost turn to matter; the more cautious the better, he thought.
"Master, your one o'clock will be here soon," Irina reminded him. With his current state being what it is, he needed reminders like a mortal.
"... Right," Aragorn said with a sigh.
Aleh raised an eyebrow in questioning, as if asking what he was sighing for.
"There are some fresh wounds I'd rather not get poked at," Aragorn said.
'Aren't you like 87% wounds right now?' Aleh asked.
"These are not of the emotional kind, so it isn't that hard," Aragorn explained.
'Someone broke your heart?' Aleh asked, half jokingly.
"Yes," Aragorn replied curtly. His blue eyes reflected how serious he was.
'... Sorry?' Aleh said, awkwardly. 'Is that what one would normally say in this situation?'
"Usually, yes," Aragorn nodded. "How is the learning room treating you?"
'It's frustrating,' Aleh growled. 'Why is it so complicated? Can't people just say what they mean? Why go through all of these social cues when you can just express what you feel if it's so important? Is there a need to express the same thing in so many different ways? And since when has coitus been so important?'
Aleh only paused after she had let it all out of her system. That's when she noticed that the women in the hot spring had gotten quiet and had been listening to her ramblings.
"The building blocks of any society of mortals are made of lust, sex, coitus, and reproduction," Yelena explained. "Sex can trigger countless responses in mortals; from the shy virgins, the demure ladies, the daring experienced ones, the domineering, the submissive, disgust, anger, sadness, happiness, reprieve, and many other responses I won't mention.
"Given that so many responses can be generated from virtually the same action, doesn't that imply that everybody is different? As such, doesn't that mean that everybody will approach the same action through different paths? Well, that's why coitus begets so many different ways of expression," Yelena concluded her masterful class as the Goddess of Lust.
"And that's only about sex," Medusa added. "There's much more beyond sex, and like sex, everybody else's approach can be different."
'Ugh,' Aleh whined in frustration.
On the mark, at one o'clock, a portal opened near them, and three deities walked out.
The water in the hot spring immediately lost its transparency, and it gained a milky color. Medusa threw a grateful glance at Aragorn and sank to her shoulders, her green eyes evaluating the arrivals.
A hulking man of blue eyes and brown hair, shirtless, escorted two goddesses. One was a woman of beauty unmatched, with purplish-violet hair and light blue eyes; the other was a goddess of coppery hair and amber eyes, with a warm disposition that made the beholder want to lie near her and have pleasant dreams.
"We are honored you allowed us this visit," the woman of purplish-violet hair said. "I am Athena Parthenos, these are Hercules Panhellenios, and Hestia Amiantos. We greet you, Aragorn of the Drachantheon Therion."
"..."
"..."
"..."
To her greeting, Aragorn was staring fixedly at Hestia with blue stars swirling in his eyes.
↓Part 3━━━━━━━ ● ━━━━━━━Part 3↓
How did it all go so wrong, is the question I ask myself almost daily. For an immortal goddess like me, that's a frequency bordering on madness.
So many eons ago, when we arrived on Earth after following the traces of the Primordial Inkwell, the source of our power, also known as Gaea, this realm was the shiniest jewel to our eyes.
Intelligent life was abundant, not too developed to see us for what we were (invaders), and not too underevolved to force us to wait for millions of years.
Competition was fierce; we were not the only ones with our eyes on the jewel, but it was worth it. Worship, subjects, power, faith, treasure, it all made it worth it.
Above all, we discovered that the source of our powers had merged with this wondrous planet. In other words, the more of the planet we controlled, the more of the Source was under our grasp.
The first era was not bad. We were young, and we had been poisoned by the feeling of power and growth. It wasn't hard to figure out the mechanics; the more our believers grew and developed under the path we had set for them, the more our strength rose.
Then came faith pollution... As I said, we were young, and we knew not better.
Maybe because one of my multiple divine domains was Wisdom and Knowledge, I was able to notice it first and sever my connection to their worship.
That was not the case for most of my family—if I'm being generous in calling them that—there was an outlier, though. Hestia.
Hestia, by a design much greater than us or coincidence, presented her believers an image of her that was homologous to her core self. Maybe it was simply due to her personality.
She changed, but not in the twisted way that we had all become.
I focus on finding a solution, but it all seemed to be pointing at the undeniable reality that what had changed could only be changed back by the poison of faith. But, by that point, the image mortals had of us was so ingrained that it was not realistic to teach them about the 'New Olympians.'
Oh, how I envy our demigods, I think while observing my partner in crime, Heracles. Their divinity is achieved by their actions, which means that mortals see what they are and choose to worship them. Like Hestia's case, they can't be poisoned if the poison aligns with their personality.
I don't think I resent the Celestials as the rest of my kin does. They were here first, humanity was their pet project long before our arrival, and even if it weren't, it's thanks to them that Reality exists as is. And, most importantly, we were indeed causing damage to the planet and humanity when they cast us out.
We were guilty, that's a fact.
I thought I would never be able to step here in my true body, yet here I am. I had a good reason to believe so, given how binding the Celestials' contract was.
"Is it all right for us to be here?" I asked the goddess radiating magic like a furnace for the second time. Yao, Goddess of Magic and Therions, was her name.
How do they allow one of their own to govern their identifying concept is beyond me. More so because it isn't the Master who holds this authority, but one of his Therions.
By comparison, this would be similar to Zeus allowing Poseidon to hold the divine domain of God of the Olympians. Utterly impossible.
"We can't know for sure what the exact wording Odin used when wishing for the non-interference of the Celestials, but we do know that it was a wish Jean wasn't able to undo," the Goddess of Therions explained.
The Many-Angled-Ones were always beyond the logic of Reality's conception, but this was too much.
A spell that conceptualizes a target into that which is their root? I shudder to think of myself at the end of such an abomination to living beings.
"My current hypothesis is that said wish touched upon the souls of all deities and the essence of the Celestials currently inside Reality, which, as far as we know, is just Tiamut," she explained openly.
I don't know if I can find wisdom in sharing so much information with us; maybe they trust us that much, maybe it's their trust in the monster, or maybe they trust our terror for the monster. Either way, I'm thankful.
"Aragorn informed me that they have been avoiding this Reality like the Horde," she finished her explanation with the casual mention of a force that demands terror from my heart just as much as the Celestials do. "Anyway, you have nothing to worry about. I'll open the portal now."
A graceful, almost lazy, swing of one of her silver-white tails and a portal allowed us to exit from this barren corner of the universe.
The first thing we noticed after crossing was the air laden with Gaea's blessings. Then it was the women enjoying a bath in a divine hot spring. It wasn't their beauty that caught our attention; we were used to Aphrodite, but it was that we felt almost existential dread in response to something coming from that pool.
No, it wasn't something, I glanced worriedly at Heracles behind me... It took me just a glance to realize what it was—my [Wisdom] filled in the blanks.
They were naked, and Heracles was a man. These were not flowers to covet; the moment he did, we would be erased with him, and that was the source of our existential dread.
Hestia and I, as pure goddesses, were faring well, but Heracles...
"We are honored you allowed us this visit. I am Athena Parthenos, these are Hercules Panhellenios, and Hestia Amiantos. We greet you, Aragorn of the Drachantheon Therion," I greeted and deferentially introduced ourselves.
The monster was weakened, even weaker than Hestia, yet I dreaded the thought of facing him in battle.
Maybe it was the fact that the divine wolf at his side made me shiver with its barely restrained bloodlust, maybe it was the scalding eyes I felt from that rabbit therion, maybe it was the restrained desire that fox therion was shamelessly projecting to my mind of ravishing me and drink the blood of my hymen directly from the source, or maybe it was the disgust I sensed from the other divine beast I'm without a shadow of doubt sure it was Medusa, the one I cursed.
Or it could have simply been the monster. I don't know which option I liked the best.
The silence that followed my greeting was crushing my will. I tried not to stare too obviously, but I had noticed the way his eyes shifted to Hestia when she walked behind me through the portal.
"You're so alike," I heard his voice from my side, in front of Hestia.
He was at the base of the tree, and then he was in front of Hestia, staring with those unblinking celestial blue eyes. There was no in between; one moment, he was hovering in a lotus position, the next, he was standing while hovering in front of her.
I sensed Heracles' startled reaction, and with all of my power, I manifested my shield between his fist and the monster.
I knew I could not contend in a clash of strength with Heracles, but I wanted them to at least understand that it was a reactive response and that I tried my best to stop this. I knew the moment his fist collided with my Aegis, I would be shot at Aragorn... I can't see a way out of that, and what will follow... our deaths.
Yet, maybe the grace of Reality hasn't abandoned us, because the punch never met my Aegis; instead, I heard the pained grunts of Heracles. The wolf had him pinned down with its maw closed around his left shoulder.
'DON'T!!' I exclaimed in his mind when I saw him rolling his fist to punch the wolf off himself.
"Uhm, could you please stop that?" Hestia, blessed be my aunt, pleaded to Aragorn.
"Ah, what happened?" Aragorn asked, tilting his head in confusion while eyeing his wolf drawing Heracles' ichor.
"He tried to punch you, Aragorn," I heard her voice from behind me.
I didn't notice when, but Medusa had appeared behind me and could almost feel something cold coiled around my legs and waist.
We've weakened so much since we left our pantheon, or maybe it is the monsters this monster keeps around himself.
"Irina, Yelena, please don't," he said.
I don't know what he was asking them not to do, but I felt myself ease before I knew it.
'Sigh, how did it all go so wrong?' I asked myself, Heracles, and Hestia.
"I apologize," I bowed my head. "Hercules' actions were solely against the perceived threat to our companion."
"Perceived threat?" he asked. "I would never hurt her... Though it's understandable you didn't know that. Maybe I shouldn't have displaced space like that... I thought of approaching Hestia, but it looks like that is one of the things Kubos damaged... Regardless, no harm done, no harm suffered," he then eyed Heracles' bleeding shoulder and corrected himself, "almost no harm suffered. Irina, can you be a dear, please?"
From the milky waters of the divine hot spring, the rabbit therion walked out, dressed in a peculiar black and white attire. Her actions were elegant, demure even, her face almost as listless as the featureless face of her master, yet her eyes, when they landed on Heracles, were nothing if not murderous.
Was she going to attack? Was she going to heal him? Was she going to melt him with the fire I sensed from her divinity? The tension was killing me.
Nevertheless, she healed him before making her way to stand behind her master.
"Goddess Hestia," Aragron resumed talks before the vulpine therion waved one of her tails, and seats rose from the ground for all of us, and a long root rose between us to serve as the table.
With a grace I found contrasting with our previous almost-scuffle, the rabbit therion, Irina, pulled refreshments from a pocket dimension, and soon enough, a tea arrangement had been set.
What is going on?!
Medusa, Irina, the vulpine therion, and even the wolf, took their seats at Aragorn's side of the table—root?
For a moment, we didn't know what to do. Hestia was the first to take a seat, opposite Aragorn. I followed after and lastly Heracles.
"You seem to know me," Hestia pointed out the obvious.
"I'm... friends—family?—with a Hestia from another Reality," Aragorn explained.
"Did something happen to her?" Hestia asked while reaching for one of the shortcakes.
"Uhmmm, let me ask this instead, what's most important to you? Your perceived family? Your believers? The future? The past?" he asked.
"My family," Hestia said while glancing at us.
"I see," Aragorn nodded. "My Hestia, when we met, had a unilateral family, affection and care flowed from her to them, but never back, can you understand that? I bet you can."
"... The ones by my side are the only ones who reciprocated my familial affection," Hestia replied with some pain in her words.
"I understand," Aragorn nodded again. "I sheltered my Hestia and gave her what she desired most, a family. I made my Drachantheon Therion and humanity her family. Maybe my mistake was allowing them to receive her affections."
"She abandoned you for them, didn't she?" Hestia bluntly asked.
My dear aunt, what in Hades' name are you doing?! Can't you see those crimson swirling galaxies?!
"I can't see you as her; your souls are different, but you're similar where it matters," Aragorn murmured. "Can you explain to me why?"
↓Part 4━━━━━━━ ● ━━━━━━━Part 4↓
"From what I can imagine, if I were in her position, I would probably weigh between which side needed me more," Hestia explained.
To her answer, there was a pregnant silence interrupted only by the clattering of cutlery coming from Heracles side. That brute, I need to teach him some table manners!
I shot a furtive glance at the pile of desserts on his plate, then I raised my eyes and caught his glimpse of dissatisfaction aimed at the served tea. What's wrong with the tea? It was a masterpiece, my domain of [Knowledge] even showed me that it was a craft of perfection of over 275,000 years of work.
Wait... It can't be... He would dare, would he?
"Lady, is a tankard of beer on the menu?" The brute asked with his 'charming' smile at the most approachable on the other side, the vulpine goddess.
The ice goddess gave him an appraising look, up and down, and Heracles, noticing this, flexed his pectorals and winked at her.
She smiled lustfully and reached into a pocket dimension for a tankard of beer.
'Did that work?' I wondered. I could even see the smug look Heracles shot me.
The ice goddess's smile died flat when she floated the tankard to his side, and she ruthlessly shared her evaluation, "Too much body hair, that's no longer hot. Too much muscle; there is such a thing as excess, by the way. Not my type," she then turned to me and I shivered at the intensity of her gaze.
"I'm vowed for purity," I quickly stated.
"Even better." She moistened her lips in a way that reminded me of Aphrodite.
She rattled me so much I almost didn't catch Heracles' envious glances.
"I can assert my need for her was greater than humanity's combined necessity," Aragorn stated.
I didn't doubt it. If a monster like him said so, it almost certainly meant he was not lying.
"You believe that, don't you?" Hestia asked.
My aunt has always been so silent and reticent; she kept away from our conflicts and rarely stated her stance. What drove her to act like this in front of this entity? How can she be assured he won't end us for her indiscretion?
"Before my fight with Kubos, I had double humanity's population of selves running parallel, and all of us needed her, I can assure you that," he said.
'See? This is why I said you should be on your best behavior, Caveman!' I shouted in Heracles' mind, who was still trying and failing at flirting with the lusty goddess. 'Do you want those billions of personalities plotting your demise?'
'Athena, but look at her, she is irresistible in a way that Aphrodite isn't. How come she is unresponsive to my charm?' Heracles, my pig teammate, replied.
I would have facepalmed were it not for the situation I found myself in. My aunt has gotten crazy in confidence, and I think she believes herself to be undying at this moment, and my half-brother is being the same as always!
I could only rely on myself!
With this thought in mind, I tried to break the ice with the woman opposite me. "This is delicious, do you know what it is made of? I can't sense divinity from it, so I can only assume it was made using naturally delicious ingredients."
"I'm over you, but still, don't talk to me, Athena," Medusa replied.
"..." I think I'll return to pay attention to my aunt's valiant attempts at communal suicide. Communal because she will drag us down with her.
"Spark informed me you were hurt by Reality's rejection. How did that happen?" Aragorn asked.
"Ah, that?... It was a result of my heart leading my mouth," Hestia said sheepishly. "Before Odin's incursion, he visited Olympus to hammer out some final details with Zeus. As it is understandable, I was opposed to the stupidity, so I asked Odin why, if we were so desperate, we didn't release his daughter. I objected that even if she hated him to death and beyond, she could still work with other pantheons, given that the new Soul Repositories would have affected her as well."
"And he took offense at that," Aragorn stated.
"Surprising, it was not," Hestia chuckled. "You seem to have a good grasp of what his character was like."
"Believe it or not, I never met this Odin, and the only accounts I had of his personality were from my Noona and Gaea," he answered. Only an entity like him would petname the Abstract of Death.
"So you met one of his counterparts before?" Hestia asked.
"Yes, but that's not what gave him away. All Skyfathers I know, aside from mine, have an uncomfortable dildo of ego shoved up their assholes," he said.
"PFFT!" My brute spat out his drink and coughed loudly.
All the spat out liquid was stopped midair in front of the lusty goddess, and the scathing look she gave Heracles was easy to understand, even for him.
Luckily, Aragorn and Hestia seemed to have been absorbed in their own world, because neither of them paid even a glance at Heracles' blunder.
Hestia chuckled softly at his comment and said, "I can't find it in myself to deny that."
"Well, it's the truth. I tend to tease Gaea with it, after all, you all are her descendants," he said. "So, am I correct to assume you come seeking shelter. A pantheon to annex to?"
The shift in topics was as abrupt as his movements through space.
"We are weakened, and we betrayed our people. We, alone, are easy prey, especially so with the soon-to-be-blow-up divine war," I replied.
"Is this about strength in numbers?" he asked. "Or were you affected more than you expected by the separation from your pantheon?"
"We knew it was going to weaken us," Heracles replied. "But we expected more divinities to perish after attacking you."
"It was beyond my projections that the clash against the Allfather would not last beyond a day," I added. "The strength of Earth's warriors was also exceeding my expectations."
"With our departure, we could only peruse the gossip that made it outside the planet," Hestia explained.
"I understand," Aragorn said. "But I can't recommend you to join the Drachantheon Therion."
"Our pantheon is fueled by belief, all of it," Irina revealed. "You, whether you like it or not, should you join, would be subjected to what you consider poison through faith."
"Our Duskari, they are abundantly learned," the ice goddess added. "They already know a great deal about Athena, Hestia, and Hercules. The moment you're recognized as part of our pantheon, faith, tainted by their perception of you, would flood you."
"Since they know about your counterparts, you'd be affected, all of you," Aragorn finished.
"... That's not desirable," I confessed.
"You could also go to Gaea," Medusa interjected.
The cold gleam in her eyes, the smirk she was not bothering to hide, and her body language all expressed clearly how she mocking me.
'Good luck with that,' the wolf's scoff rang clear in our heads. 'In my world, the Olympians were responsible for making her lose her individuality from the planet. I can safely assume you also crossed her over her, can't I?'
"..."
"..."
Hestia and I couldn't reply to that. Gea, she was a monster to us, but in all fairness, we were also monsters to her.
"This was before my time," Heracles said. He gave us a look of reassurance. "Still, I would not abandon you."
"Have you tried asking for forgiveness?" Aragorn suggested. "Even my Chocolate knows she used to be a bitch and a half."
"... Will she listen to us?" I asked, turning to look at the entrance to a dimension I spotted on the bark of the divine tree. "Would an apology fueled by adversity and born from necessity even be worth listening to?"
"I don't know," Aragorn shrugged. "I can promise you safety so long as you keep to the shadow of this tree, but that's as far as I'll go for you—complete strangers—and that's only because I have a soft spot for Hestias. Your safest bet is with Gaea, she'll already accepted Bastet, but you can also try your luck with one of my Therions, maybe they'll be interested in creating a satellite pantheon."
"Doubtful," the lusty goddess said.
"Probably Kitty would take you, but I wouldn't subordinate myself to that cat," Irina added.
I turned from the entrance to Gaea's dimension to my friends and family, we shared glances, and we came to an understanding.
"We'll try our luck with Gaea," Hestia declared.
"I imagined so," Aragorn nodded.
━━━━━━━ ● ━━━━━━━
Watching the trio of Olympians part for Gaea's dimension, Irina commented, "I'm surprised you allowed them to approach Goddess Gaea, Master."
"You didn't know, Irina?" Yelena asked.
"What?" Irina tilted her head, her long bunny ears tilting quizzically.
"Hela declared she would protect our future prince; she was very knightly about it," Yelena revealed.
Aleh, the wolf, perked for a moment at the name, but eventually focused on continuing to get used to the feeling of her new body. When she pounced on Hercules and sank her teeth into his godly flesh, she had failed her true target, his neck.
'With the amount of power and raw divinity I hold, I should have been absolutely stronger than that weakened god,' she thought to herself.
At first, after waking up in a body inspired by her Fenrir, she was irate and attempted to end her life, for she understood Aragorn was beyond her reach. But after Aragorn explained that it was a transitive state and that when she got used to her new existence, she would be able to switch forms like Medusa, the only other divine beast of the Drachantheon Therion.
It also helped her spirits that Aragorn had found a way to encapsulate the equivalent of almost one and a quarter times the divine quintessence she held at her peak inside this new body.
Still, witnessing this Reality's Hela was a complicated affair for her, and she continued to think of herself as Hela and not Aleh, the unimaginative name Aragorn had come up with.
"I guess with her as the guard dog—" Irina said, turning to Aleh, "—no offense, Aleh—we have nothing to worry about."
'Bitch,' Aleh snarled. Irina replied with one of her flat stares, but Aleh could swear she saw the corner of her mouth twitch.
"By the way," Medusa interjected, "Wasn't the Inhuman city descending today? I heard it was landing in the Atlantic. Won't Atlantis make a fuss about that?"
"They shouldn't," Aragorn shook his head. "The Atlantic is large, there should be enough space for the... Who am I kidding? They'll surely make a fuss. I can already picture a few coastal cities sinking."
↓Part 5━━━━━━━ ● ━━━━━━━Part 5↓
Attilan, the Inhuman city, to some extent, could be called a ship-city. It was capable of atmospheric flight, and in the vacuum of space; however, if the Inhumans had the idea to fly to Mars and use their prowess to carve a piece of the red planet for them, they would be disappointed.
Thousands of years ago, when the Kree started their experimentation on the primate humans, they did not intend for Attilan to be used as a travelling vessel. It was meant as a mobile research center. Hence, it was never meant to travel great distances, so going from the Moon to Earth was already pushing its performance limits.
Additionally, after thousands of years of the Inhumans duct-taping and WD-40'ing the research center to have it function as their capital city, Attilan was not returning to the Moon any time after descending.
This is why, for the Inhumans—even more so than for the humans who would soon learn of their long-lost distant cousins—landing Attilan on Earth, in the middle of the North Atlantic, was an era-shifting event.
Initially, when Aragorn arrived on Earth, back in 1997, humanity's development in satellites had reached a point where only the truly powerful governments, the lurking shadows like Hydra and SHIELD, and a few other exceptions, and eccentrics had access to reliable satellite networks.
Additionally, due to how skewed the technology path of this version of Earth was, plenty of satellites orbited the planet; not truly developed ones, but plenty.
Then came the Goblin Force, and with its rampancy, it ripped the planet of most of its satellite networks, all of them except for Aragorn's Sat-Net.
The electromagnetic disturbances left from its rampage ensured that whatever had survived eventually short-circuited or burned down.
The necessity of the situation—the weather was acting crazy, and the tides had shifted, to mention a few—forced Spark's hand, who, at that time, was acting on Aragorn's behalf, and the Sat-Net had to be revealed.
The Halo had already been brought out into the open, so it wasn't far-fetched for humanity to believe that if Aragorn could create a ringworld, he could build a Sat-Net capable of withstanding what no other satellite could.
Soon after, in partnership with Stark Industries, N-Tek launched the new line of smartphones with free access to the Sat-Net, and, basically, humanity gained free access to it.
It wasn't only telecommunications that worked through the Sat-Net, GPS, weather tracking, tide changes recording, live feeds, exotic energy readings, and, most recently revealed, orbital bombardments. The Sat-Net did all that any satellite could and more.
Still, the Sat-Net was privately owned.
That had been the status quo until a day ago. The world had just accepted the passing of Alduin and Aragorn Abner when Doom, 'close' friend of Aragorn, made a public announcement. Aragorn's will included ceding his rights to the Sat-Net to the UN or any future planetary overseeing organization.
So, when most of the world would not have picked up the alien city doing atmospheric reentry for the first time in thousands of years since Attilan first escaped to the Moon, this time, anyone with a smartphone could watch it live.
At that point, normally, panic would have ensued, but humanity, growing through adaptation to the sheer bullshit their lives had been in the past years, only groaned in annoyance at the thought of having to return to the shelters after only getting out.
"Fuck this shit!"
"BULLSHIT!"
"Just kill me and be done with it!"
"Can I report this as paid leave? I can't do with another three days of VTO; I have bills to pay."
"Is it aliens now?"
"Wasn't it aliens three days ago? Or just because they looked divine, it doesn't count?"
"Maybe they come in peace."
"As if we were that lucky!"
"I haven't even done the laundry, I have no clean clothes!"
"That's why you gotta keep two apocalypse backpacks ready."
"Can't they nuke these guys? I feel like they look nukable, unlike the previous monsters."
"Anything is nukable; if it doesn't work, it's because you didn't use enough nukes."
"I would like to see you nuking a demon."
"Hey, I bet even a demon has a nuke-tolerance level."
"Yeah? Are we talking about nuclear fission at the level of stars?"
"We'll be nuked with them even if we could."
"But, hey, doesn't that mean that the problem would be solved?"
"Let's focus on something more productive. Look! There's an alert incoming. I hope it's not another violet alert."
Much to their relief, it wasn't another alert ordering total evacuation, like the last one; this time, it was an announcement that in three days, King Doom of Latveria would direct a press conference accompanied by Blackagar Boltagon, the King of the Inhumans, the inhabitants of the new arrival.
Among other topics, it was mentioned that a few statements would be made about Abner and Alduin's passing and the entity calling himself Aragorn.
As is expected of a society experiencing the first telecommunications technological boom, social media exploded.
Theories about why they called themselves 'inhumans', about where the ship/floating city had come, about why Doom was leading the conference, about what was to be announced regarding Abner and Alduin, about what would happen with all of Abner's holdings, like The Light Enterprises, The Spiral CO, N-Tek, a countless others, speculation if the inheritence would be left to Seraph Abner, or Jean Grey, the only known family of Aragorn Abner, and, more importantly, many asked about what will happen with the Halo now that its owner is no more.
Social media and the speculative ganders of the common man aside, the world's governments, which had been reeling back from the Divine Incursion, had no choice but to try to gather information and even reach out to Latveria, to try to get a scoop of the upcoming conference.
And so, with the world buzzing, three days passed, and the time for the conference arrived, full of the world's anticipation.
The venue chosen was one of the few remaining truly neutral nations, Re-Nazca.
At the base of the Arbor Mundi, opposite where Aragorn recovered, a venue was prepared.
On the trunk of the tree, an indentation was made through Veridis Magic, and a long, table-like vine was prepared for the participants to sit behind. The guest sat opposite this table-like vine.
The ground had been transformed to accommodate the guests, and the forum was an open-air venue. There was no need for concern for the weather, as it was being managed by a combination of Inhuman power and magic.
Light sources hovered above the venue, a product of Latverian technology. These devices had some resemblance to luminous floating eyes.
All in all, it bore someresemblance to the Theater of Epidaurus.
Behind the vine that served as a table, Blackagar Boltagon and Medusa Amaquelin sat representing the Inhuman kingdom. Erik Magnus Lehnsherr and Ororo Munroe represented Krakoa and the Mutants. Anthony Stark and Seraph Abner represented the interests of the 'departed' Aragorn Abner. Carol Danvers was in her capacity as the WSC's interim until new councilmembers were chosen after the previous ones 'mysteriously' disappeared. Finally, Doom was on behalf of himself and Latveria.
"Our world has only been filled with mysteries," Doom began. His voice carried over without difficulty throughout the venue, and it was broadcast around the planet.
"For this reason, we won't say that in the past years the world has become more interesting for those of us who seek the unknown," Doom paused, his sharp eyes moving across the reporters and a few of the cameras.
"It is undeniable that in a few scant three years, the world has become unrecognizable. A nuclear war is being waged, secret nations came to light, deities roamed the planet, dragons protected the world, and now," he turned to Blackagar, "our distant relatives come down from the Moon.
"Test after trial, humanity has persevered to the modern age; the resilience of our kind is a rightful object of unbiased admiration, yet, these past years, we've been edging the territory of extinct species, straight past the designation of endangered species.
"Throughout it all, under the charity of the departed Lord Alduin, we've lucked through the Green Door Event, the demonic invasion and subsequent rampage of the cosmic entity, and lastly, the Divine Incursion.
"In the shadows of Lord Alduin, our brand of heroes has bloomed; some of them are present with us tonight," Doom gestured to Jean, Carol, Magneto, and Storm, "and our first hero, Aragorn Abner, after paying the ultimate price, will forever be absent.
"In this conference, due to the importance of the topics to discuss, several subjects will be addressed, starting with the introduction of the Inhumans," Doom finished his introductory speech and passed the spotlight to Blackagar Boltagon.
On the other side of the Arbor Mundi's trunk, while Aragorn, Medusa, Irina, Yelena, and Aleh—with disinterest—observed the conference, Aragorn suddenly turned to the west, his eyes sharpened for a moment, and sparkling red stars dotted his sclera.
"Problems, Master?" Irina asked.
"The important coasts of O'ahu have just been carpet-bombed, with nuclear warheads blessed by divinity," Aragorn stated factually. "The divinity of War."
"What was the result?" Yelena somberly asked.
"... There are some survivors," Aragorn dragged his words, as if he were waiting for the denouement of an intriguing play. "There's something wrong with them."
'Are they warring with each other?' Aleh asked, as if in confirmation.
"Yes, they are forming 'factions' and killing each other; it's senseless warring," Aragorn confirmed her suspicions.
'It's one of the disgusting ways of using that divinity. After facing a war god over and over, losing always to internal strife fueled by her divinity, I found it easier to command the undead,' Aleh explained.
"I thought the humans numbered the casualties through collateral damage. Why would they target them like this?" Medusa asked.
"Maybe they want to divert some of our resources," Irina pointed out.
"They'll just give Victor more work," Yelena stated. "We might lose him to overwork."
"Didn't he have an army of Doombots? I think that one over there is one of those," Irina gestured to the Doom on the projection of the conference.
"Mhmm," Aragorn nodded. "And that's Jean's thought projection, and one of Seraph's Element clones. I wonder what they'd think if they knew the main characters of the conference were too busy to attend this show."
The conference concluded eventually, and right after, the news channels were flooded with reports of the revelations.
Aragorn's properties, what he publicly owned on Earth, were left to Stark and Doom, a twist no one expected, and his most coveted asset, the Halo, was left to Seraph and Jean, who took the opportunity to inform that they would retire to the ringworld for a while, to mourn.
Just with the news of his parting, the stock market collapsed for a day and a half... Well, the market had been so in rags the past year that this was not news.
The revelation of the Inhumans, and most critically their alien origins, might have shattered the preconceptions of the world—had those minds not already been overwhelmed by the emergence of magic, dragons, witches, demons, cosmic entities, and deities. Consequently, people were already focused on other anxieties. Most pressing was that the Inhuman King, utilizing sign language with the aid of his Queen, publicly expressed his interest in the Tree of Discord, the sapling growing in Point Nemo.
King Doom made a few startling public statements calling for the cessation of WWIII and the establishment of a planet-wide regulating institution; a face for the world outside Earth.
His statements found immediate support from Carol Danvers, who is now known as one of the Six Original Protectors: Alduin, Gaea, Aragorn, Jean, Carol, and Pietro. This endorsement, given by one of the world's 'surviving' highest authorities, caused more than a few officials around the globe to seethe with avarice or shudder with apprehension.
Then came the reveal, officially that is, of Krakoa. Magneto and Storm presented a united front and disclosed that Aragorn Abner had been the main founder of the country of mutants, which made a few million people weep harder, and then stated that since Wakanda was removing its cloaking field, Krakoa was following in their steps.
Finally, the declaration of Doom of intending to create an alliance between Latveria, Wakanda, Krakoa, Attilan, and Re-Nazca was almost as explosive as the fate suffered by O'ahu.
It was only the next day, about 5 hours since the end of the conference, that the United States revealed the island had fallen.
With Ares' interference, the Divine War restarted.
╚═══━━━─── • ───━━━═══╝
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{A/N:
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