Things were not looking good.
Then again, when did anything look good in this day and age? Everything was falling apart. Good and Evil. No. That was horse shit. This had nothing to do with right or wrong.
That was what Tamer thought, at least. To her, this had stopped being a matter of heroes vs. villains. At this point, all that this was was a battle of survival. And she picked the wrong side.
Most people would likely have these sorts of thoughts if they saw what Tamer was looking at.
She was looking straight into hell.
The battle with the Emperor was taking place down on planet Earth, and yet there were other events of importance that also were happening.
At the very edge of the universe, a wall forged out of an infinite amount of ice began to softly glow.
Sextillions of miles away, across the universe, Full Monarch flew at speeds that distorted space and time.
On the surface of a red planet known as Mars, the ground began to crack and shake as metal hummed and an ancient Beast woke back up, sensing the disturbance.
In a crater on the moon, two villains, Lucifer and the Emperor, both fought with everything they had.
In a palace, also on this same moon, Omega, Golden Weaver, and Gorgeous fought through a horde of hundreds of monsters, destroying the walls of the castle and killing the many dragons, ensuring that the Emperor's forces would be weakened, even if just a little bit.
Lastly, in the center of this palace, in a destroyed room, Hands and Legend fought with everything they had!
Lightning crackled and exploded, superheating the air as Legend threw bolt after bolt of blinding energy at Fairy Queen. The woman's wings were massive and expanded out, and she let out a hellish laugh as she twisted space around her, causing the attacks to miss. While she did that, Hands stomped his foot down and let out a roar. Ghostly limbs began to fill the air, hundreds of arms slapping out and firing out waves of bluish flame that ate through the stone.
Fairy Queen grunted as several attacks rammed into her and burned her arms. Before she could recover, Legend appeared behind her and sliced out with a spear made of magma, nearly taking one of her wings out. That just made the woman laugh harder, and she kicked her foot back, ramming it into Legend's stomach so hard that dozens of his ribs exploded and he was rammed through the palace.
A moment later, the entire building began to crumble and shake, and more hands filled the air. These ones were golden and forged out of metal, and Hands stepped back in mild fear as he watched his creations be swatted and destroyed.
Golden God lifted himself up, breaking through the layers of the castle and floating above the palace, looking down at all of them, his thousands of arms all stretched out. From one of his fingertips, the Princess of Life hopped down and landed, taking a bow.
"Hello." Her voice was shockingly soft, and she held a faint smile. "Can you please just die?"
"No!" Hands declared.
"Really? That's sad." The woman lifted her hand, muscles and bones pulsing out before she launched a massive spike out of her body. It flew toward Hands, and he wasn't able to react in time as it reached him.
Right before he was impaled, though, a blob of flesh appeared in front of him as Feast took the blow in his place. The spike impaled Feast's armor and ripped into his flesh, but he took the attack and stomped forward with shocking speed. He reached the Princess of Life and backhanded her so hard her entire head spun around and snapped. She grabbed it and twisted it back on the right.
"That wasn't very nice." Jagged claws exploded out of her flesh, and her eyes narrowed. "Die."
Blood hit the floor as Feast was split open, but he just chuckled and wrapped his arms around the woman's shoulders. "You die." He picked her up, opened his mouth, and chomped down, biting off her head. He kicked the headless corpse away and spat out the mangled head.
The head steamed and began to puff back out, tendrils jutting out, allowing it to put itself back onto its body, healing the damage.
Feast went to stomp on her, but before he could, Fairy Queen charged forward and sucker punched him. He was blasted back, and she flew after him. Hands charged up a wave of energy and blasted out at her, but his attack failed as a second later, Golden God's many hands blocked his damage. Golden God then got ready to attack again, but he was stopped when lightning and fire smashed through him. Legend, flying through the golden robot like a bullet, leaving a melted hole in the creation.
The best way to describe everything that was happening was 'pure and utter chaos.'
Feast, Hands, and Legend all three fought with everything they had against Fairy Queen, Golden God, and the Princess of Life. Every few moments they would trade opponents, and none of them held back, all using everything they had in an effort to kill the other team.
The heroes were technically doing better, but the issue was that no matter the wounds they left on the three villains' bodies, it wouldn't be enough to slow them down. These three were the Emperor's finest. They were created to go toe-to-toe with the Enforcers and even tank a few attacks from a repressed Full Monarch. The heroes had the advantage when it came to sheer power, but defense and stamina were clearly in favor of the villains.
Not to mention the fact that the villains also outnumbered the heroes.
In other parts of the destroyed palace, Omega, Golden Weaver, and Gorgeous were forced to stop as they came face-to-face with Daemon and Alien, as well as the entire Bad Timers team.
Their own fight began with the three of them quickly being outnumbered.
Then, during all this chaos, there were those who were just trying to survive. Most were children. They cried as the world that they knew came to an end. In one corner of the palace, though, two heroes still clung to life.
Ferros and Tamer.
Ferros had always looked up to Tamer. Growing up, she had been the sidekick to Tamer. When Tamer had become a member of the Enforcers, she also got to join. She always felt a little jealous. Most people would go to Tamer instead of her or would still treat her as if she were Tamer's sidekick, despite the fact that she was worth a lot more. Now, though, being jealous seemed like such a stupid thought. Tamer was dying. A hole had been blasted through her gut, and only Ferros was there to help her old friend.
"Tamer. Don't die." Ferros struggled to stay on her feet. Her black liquid surged out and swatted away at any attack that came near her and held up debris as well as tried to block off Tamer's many stomach wounds.
Tamer rested on Ferros's back, her eyes dull and her face pale. Her life was slowly coming to an end, millions of miles away from her home. She couldn't help but wonder how her friends and family were doing.
Growing up, her life had never been that good. It wasn't a bad life, but it wasn't particularly a great one either. She had no choice but to become a Super when her powers awakened, even though that had never been her dream.
Still, she was shockingly good at it, and so she carried on with her life, saving people because what else could she really do? This life had been dedicated to putting others before herself, and so it was a life that inherently was never going to end well.
In these final moments, Tamer wondered if everything would have been a little bit better for her if she had lived life more for herself instead of for others. Did the lives she saved truly matter? After all, there was a good chance that if they failed here, then everyone would die. So why did it matter what she did in the past? Everything seemed like it was doomed to end poorly.
Indeed, the moon kept shaking as the constant battles were underway. The sky was filled with shadows and the Dead Virus, and cracks started to form all along the ground. The moon itself seemed like it was ready to give up and shatter.
And then, just as these thoughts filled her head, Tamer saw planet Earth in the distance. The palace had been so badly destroyed that seeing the planet she loved dearly simply required her to turn her head.
It floated out there, in the sea of black, and it was pretty. A blue and green glow that caught her eye.
It wasn't just about the people. That planet, this ball in space, which had seen so many horrific things, also deserved to be free and to be saved. Tamer forced some strength back in her body, and she squirmed.
"Stop it." Ferros shook her head and kept walking through the destroyed field of the moon. "Don't use up all your strength, Tamer. You'll die."
"So what?"
"Tamer."
"We're all going to die." Tamer gave a soft smile. "I'll just do it before you all." She picked up the cage, which rested at her belt, and held it up, giving it a soft and faint look. "I never liked this plan. I never liked the idea of coming up here and using that monster Lucifer to kill the Emperor. Still, I held my tongue because what else could I do? I was a hero, and I saved people. So I followed the orders of those who were in charge of me. Now that we've reached this point, I've been thinking. I still want to save people. I still want to help others out. I don't want to do it the way that I was told, though."
"Tamer?"
"So." Tamer's cage began to glow. "Just this once, I'll be a little selfish. Do me a favor, Ferros. Give this to the Emperor, and make sure he suffers."
The cage she held ignited in a flash of golden light, and then Tamer vanished, leaving the tiny cage behind. Ferros's fingers gently held it, and she glanced down at the cage in sadness.
Tamer was, in a lot of ways, very similar to the Emperor. She had a power that was close to those of the Lord of Land and Life, because Tamer could trace her bloodline back to one of the first Lords of the Land and Life.
Her power involved human transmutation. It was a little different from the Emperor's, however. The Emperor could place his hand upon a person and forcefully turn them into a monster. Tamer could not do this. Her power allowed her to trap people inside of her cages through a form of spatial wrapping, and then those cages could, in turn, transform a person within into a powerful new monster; however, this process required the person doing it themselves.
The cage had to be activated by the person within.
Tamer had used this power to capture Lucifer, and that was how she brought him to the moon, but Lucifer did not wish to become a monster under her control, and so the cage did not act. Of course, Lucifer was also so strong he could have broken out at any time he wanted.
Tamer was using her power on herself. Because the process required consent once inside a cage, Tamer's main monster team was made up of various Hero Branch officers who wanted to serve or those who were badly injured in the line of duty but were willing to do anything to still see some action.
This power was one Tamer had hated for one simple fact.
Just like the Emperor's, her transformations couldn't be undone. Once a person mutated and changed, they would be a new entity entirely. A brand new form that had new powers and a twisted way of thinking. They were also bound to Tamer's will entirely. Tamer hated this power, for it meant that she was forced to change and convert humans into monsters.
The Hero Branch loved it.
They could offer up weak, non-powered members, and in their place, Tamer would turn them into mighty monsters that would loyally serve her, and since she obeyed the Hero Branch, this meant in turn the monsters would obey the Branch as well. Because of this fact, Tamer had been placed onto the Enforcers, and every day she was given dozens of loyal workers who gladly gave themselves up so they could become something great.
Ferros didn't know for sure, but she always suspected that Tamer hated her powers and, in turn, hated herself.
Perhaps this was Tamer's final attempt at redemption. Tamer was now going to use her power and turn herself into a monster. This would heal all her injuries but turn her into something that was no longer human. In other words, she was fully giving up any trace of humanity she had left.
Tamer was a hero. One who wanted to save as many people as she could. Even at a cost to herself.
She was also someone who didn't want to keep doing this job. Someone who hated the path that she walked.
This was the selfish choice she made.
Ferros hugged the cage to her chest, and she felt a warmth. She could almost feel Tamer hugging her back, but of course, this was in her mind.
"Alright, Tamer," Ferros said gently before her look darkened. "Let's kill the Emperor."
Meanwhile, back on Earth, the battle between Max and Ruby and the true Emperor was about to begin.
Did free will exist?
In this universe, the Paths were a series of roads through time and space. They were the memories of the known, played back as they happened. The choices that people could follow were based on the many Paths that existed. Those who could see or read the Paths were able to determine the future, being able to glimpse into memories that had yet to happen. This allowed them to, in a way, see the future. It was through this power that a person would come to a troubling realization.
The Paths, or 'fate' as it could possibly be called, was made up of a type of energy. A particle that went unseen save by the tiny number of Supers who had the ability to see it. Humans could not interact with this particle, nor did they have any way to tell how the Paths worked. Even amongst Supers, most couldn't perceive the concept of the Paths.
For many, they would have but a single line. A destined future. One that they were unaware of and couldn't control. Those who could see and interact with Paths would have an endless sea of roads that they could pick and choose from. Even they paled in comparison to the nature of those above the Paths.
There existed Supers, Lords, and Rulers, who had strength so great the Paths simply didn't exist before them. There was no memory or fate that could be read. They would simply black out whatever force of being it was that wrote the Paths.
And so, when it came to the topic of free will... Humans lacked it. They were on a road, and it was one they'd follow forever. Supers, too, also lacked free will, being the exact same, but some had the power to see the hundreds of roads that were ahead of them and could select which one they wanted to be on. At the end of the day, though they had the illusion of choice, there was still a set amount of answers that were in front of them. Only the truly powerful, those who stood at the very top and shattered fate, destiny, and the concept of universal memory, could claim they had free will.
So wasn't it ironic that these fools who could tell the story they wanted, could walk anyway they wanted, and could do whatever they wanted, were the same ones who followed a Path that had long since ended?
The Emperor was one such being.
Max had the ability to see the Paths even before he became a Lord. He was very good at it as well. After becoming a Lord, it was almost like there was a voice in his head guiding and controlling him. He saw trillions of different Paths for billions of different beings. So many stories and tales. It would all go away when he looked upon the Emperor.
Even now, as he stood on this destroyed battlefield, standing in a wasteland of nothingness with his wife, Max saw nothing when he looked at the Emperor. This villain, which had nearly taken over the world, stood as a sea of darkness. A black hole. An entity over which fate held no control. So why did he get the feeling that this man held less freedom than any other?
Seeing the Emperor's future was impossible, and so, in turn, anything the Emperor did would also block out all future points. Max had found a single loophole, however. There was one way to get around this flaw. As faint and as unlikely as it was, Max could still see parts of his own future. And so, if he looked at the sections that didn't involve the Emperor, he'd be able to get an idea of what would happen.
It was his ability to see these faint Paths that also led to him behaving the way he currently was, for when he would reach a certain point on all the Paths, all he saw was their ending... Somewhere soon... Somewhere very, very soon, something was going to happen where his story would suddenly come to an end.
Death.
The only way that event could be described was as a death. Not just any death, though.
He was seeing his death.
The end of his story.
That was what the darkness surely meant, and yet, Max was not scared. In fact, he managed to keep himself fully calm as he stared back at the black hole before him. He knew he was going to die and knew that his life would soon end, which meant he could get ready for it and do what needed to be done.
In other words, he had an advantage over the Emperor because he knew something that was about to happen. He could decide how he died.
Or maybe this was just him coping.
"Are you ready?" Max asked quietly.
Ruby kept her eyes trained on the Emperor, watching as the swirling force of energy grew in intensity. "Of course I'm ready." She announced. "I've been ready to beat this guy down!"
"I like the spirit, but don't get cocky—"
"Check this shit out!" Max was cut off as Ruby blasted forward, using her strength to send herself at the Emperor.
"Damn it, Jill!" Max flew after her.
The Emperor held his hands out, and his energy erupted as a massive blast. Dozens of beams began to slice through the air, splitting through even space. Max barely dodged them, reading his own Paths to understand what direction they would come from. As he did that, Ruby took a more brute force approach, the girl pulling her fist back and unleashing a sharp strike. She punched through the energy constructs and reached the Emperor, trying to land another punch on him, but he stepped to the side and dodged it. The hands he had been creating then expanded into large arms, and they formed around Ruby, clapping down. Ruby grunted and winced as she became trapped between the two hands, and she attempted to push them back.
"Did you really think you could fight me?" The Emperor's voice came out in a mocking tone. "You're still damaged from our last battle. Not to mention the force of recoil you took when you jumped back to the Earth must have destroyed several of your bones and organs."
"Who cares?" Ruby winced as the hands started to crush her. "That's not going to stop me from hitting you as hard as I can."
"Just die—"
Before the hands could fully crush her, Max came flying in, lightning gushing out of his flesh. He let out a roar and rammed into the Emperor's side. The two of them were flung away. The Emperor landed on his feet, but then Max came down from the sky. With a scream, Max grabbed the Emperor by the horns that poked out of his helm, then he planted his feet on the Emperor's chest and pushed down while flying back. There was a loud 'cracking' sound, and one of the horns was torn out of the helmet. The Emperor growled in annoyance and swatted Max away, backhanding him.
"You dare destroy my armor?"
Max was back on his feet and just gave a grin. "What? I think it looks better now. You were looking a little too edgy before."
The air ignited in blue fire and black lightning. The Emperor took a step forward, and a wave of kinetic energy shattered the landscape, a tremendous force suddenly pressing down on Max. The villain marched forward and swung out with his fist, shattering Max's face. The Lord took the blow head-on and forced all his energy into the horn he ripped off from the Emperor's helmet. He took a second punch and, as he did, stabbed up with the makeshift weapon, piercing past the Emperor's chestplate and ramming it directly into his body. More lightning surged out, and the horn was replaced with a claymore of electricity, expanding the wound in the Emperor and rapidly boiling his blood.
That barely slowed the villain down, but it did manage to piss him off even more. He flexed and shattered the energy sword and began to beat Max down. Max was slammed into the ground, and his flesh began to tear and be peeled away as the Emperor started to punch at him over and over again.
"Get the hell off of him!" The Emperor stopped and turned just in time as Ruby lunged at him, having managed to break out of the hands that trapped her. That wasn't all she did as she swung a heavy mace out, smashing it into the front of the Emperor's armor. This strike actually did make the Emperor groan in pain, and he stumbled back, the faceplate of his armor being dented slightly. "I knew it!" Ruby's grin grew, and she looked down at the weapon she held. "You can't defend against this, can you?" It was the weapon Hell Hound was always using. Several years ago, she fought Hell Hound and noticed that the mace ignored Super durability since it shut down powers on hits. It was the perfect weapon for her since it was heavy and required no skill.
"That weapon isn't yours." The Emperor roared, and this time he was the one to charge forward. He swung out a powerful punch, but Ruby raised her new mace and blocked. The force of his blow instantly faded, and the recoil was sent back into the Emperor, cracking his bones and armor.
"This weapon is freaking awesome!" Ruby laughed, and she slammed the mace into the chest of the Emperor, hitting directly where Max had. He was picked up by the force and sent flying into the air. She jumped after him and moved so fast she appeared above him. She brought her weapon up and rammed it down as hard as she could, unleashing a massive wave of force, right as the Emperor reached her. She shattered the back part of his armor, and he was sent flying toward the ground. He rammed into it, and Ruby came blasting down again and went to crack him upside the head again.
"Take it away from her."
Suddenly, the mace vanished. One moment, Ruby was holding it, and the next, she wasn't. "Uh oh—"
Pain erupted through the top of her head as she came down from the sky, and the Emperor rammed the mace directly onto her. One hand was holding it while the other held a long white sword. Using the power of Storymaker, he had teleported the mace out of her hands and into his grasp.
Ruby landed face down in the dirt and groaned, but before she could stand back up, the Emperor brought his sword down and jammed it through her back. She screamed as she was impaled, but he didn't stop there. He brought the mace down hard, hitting her over the head again and again and again! Her skull cracked, and her eyes rolled back. Parts of her brain even began to leak out, and even a normal Super would have been beyond dead, but her life somehow managed to stay clinging, even as her head practically deflated.
The Emperor breathed heavily, his weapon slick with bits of her brain and blood, and he shook his head, dropping the mace. "You're not even a human. Not even a proper Super. You're nothing more than a failed experiment. Something that should have never been born. He wanted a weapon, and so he made you, but you can't fulfill what he needs. Your kind shouldn't exist. You who come from beyond the walls. You who exist on a level above our universe. Lordians are not needed here. Lordians are the enemies." The Emperor raised his boot up and was about to stomp on what was left of her brain. "I was willing to spare the others. They know not what they have done. They don't know that they're fighting for the wrong side. You though... You must die!" He roared and was about to bring his boot down.
"No! Stop!"
The Emperor paused, his boot inches above Ruby's skull. Max stood before him, now also beaten up and bloodied, but still standing.
"D- Don't kill her." He pleaded.
"You think you can stop me with your words?"
"I don't." Max shook his head. "I know you're stronger. I know your hatred knows no bounds. I also know you need something, though." Max's shoulders almost sagged, but then he smirked and looked at the Emperor. "Okay. Let's make a deal. You can absorb me."