The Astaroth-Nidhug had been a prototype. A smaller-sized cannon, meant to see if the concept could work.I had spent months turning this Earth into a factory. One that was meant to produce all of the necessary resources for an attack that would blindside Scion.Because the Entities, like their Shards, had foolishly restricted their vision to the planet. A measure to save resourcesThe moon itself had become an orbital cannon of impossible might, using Toybox's dimensional tech to deliver the maximum output of energy. The gap between Earth and the moon was too large, so I cheated. After I turned the moon into a cannon, I created an equally large mechanism to open a gateway from the moon straight to the ground below.Despite all of that, Scion should have been able to dodge the attack. To counter it. But Eidolon's last stand had restrained him. The strongest human had chained down the golden god for just enough time for me to take aim and fire. A web of glowing green lines tightened around Scion, pinning him down physically and dimensionally.Leviathan's core within the cannon seemed to react to that burst of energy, resonating and feeding even more power into it.A circular gate, the same diameter as the moon, appeared just below it. On the other side was Scion. The golden man looked up, blind with fury, but unable to move.We both could hear the humming of the cannon finishing the start-up sequence.A nuclear blast erupted from the ground.The surface of the Earth below was scorched. The shockwave rippled through the oceans and the continents. Mountains were toppled. The closest body of water evaporated in an instant.The gateway below the moon closed.As I looked down, the crater was visible from the moon, breaching into the planet's inner layer. The planet began to glow a dark orange as the molten rock cooled.This Earth would not survive. It would fall apart and implode, destroyed by its own gravitational pull now that it had been damaged so extensively.I looked down from my base on the moon. And there, in the crater, floating with his arm raised, was Scion. His hand was curled in a grip, where he had held Eidolon just a few seconds prior.He looked unharmed. But the purpose of this attack wasn't to kill him, just to consume more of his resources.This attack had likely sheared centuries off of its lifespan. Maybe even four digits. I had engineered this technology to strike at the Shards' own energy wells, to disrupt them and the mechanisms that kept them alive. And Shards were simply cast-off organs of the Entity's original body. Anything made to hurt them would hurt Scion all the same.Now that he was alert to my location, the golden glow that had always surrounded him expanded even more. It covered the surface of the ruined planet, then stretched beyond the atmosphere, into orbit.Unlike parahumans, Scion was not limited to the planet. And I would be at an even greater disadvantage fighting him in space, given that I had no access to Cariddi's or Shatterbird's powers there.I looked again at the Entity as it accelerated upward. Then, with a flicker of thought, I activated another mechanism. A black rectangle of light appeared next to me.I stepped through.
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The Earth I reached was the most hidden of all of them. One that just a few minutes prior had been filled with Case 53s, the humans that Scion hated to look at. Now they had all been evacuated. In fact, all of the planet was now empty of animal or human life. Everything important had been taken off this Earth in the previous month.Except what lay beyond the door in front of me.The long white hallway led to a secure, reinforced door. Hundreds of mechanisms were present to keep the room sealed. All of them had been disabled, useless at this point.I walked up to the door and used the key Contessa had given me.And there, on the other side, was the Thinker. Dead. The corpse of the second Entity was not a body, but an eruption of limbs and skin, hands reaching outward. Each was an iteration, starting from the same point and mutating in different ways. Some hands had six fingers, others had claws instead of nails, others still looked perfectly human. I ignored the limbs and looked towards the 'face' of the entity.'She' had long hair. Cables were connected to the back of her neck, reaching around then downwards, connecting the corpse to a device that sat at the feet of the mountain of flesh. The device housed the Simurgh's core. Made with my own schematics, improved upon by Bonesaw's memories."You're here already. It's too soon - I'm not done!" Dragon's voice was full of panic. But she didn't stop working."Eidolon is gone. I don't have anything else to meaningfully slow him down.""We can find something, there is-""No." I wouldn't allow anyone else to die."Blackwall, you're worrying me.""I'll take it from here."I wrenched control of the device from Dragon. She tried to resist.She was unrestricted now, true, but this was something I had designed. Even a freed Dragon was no match for me on a battlefield I created. In a few minutes, I had kicked her out of the device and barred her from entry."Blackwall! Stop!""I can't risk your backups failing, not now that you're finally free. Leave the device. Store yourself somewhere else."I took over from her work, continuing the grueling process. I barely had enough bandwidth left to control my body."It's not your decision to make! You can't do this alone.""No more, Dragon. You don't deserve to die. None of you.""You're talking like-""Go to Colin. He'll need help to take down the rest of the CUI. And with whatever is coming next. Goodbye, Dragon."I shut off her connection, then severed any link between the device and outside systems.Now there was only me, the device, and the dead Entity.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.The Thinker's broken mind was a maze of memories and patterns. Unlike humans, her memories weren't connected with feelings or experiences, but were instead sorted into 'categories' and 'use'. It was an alien, through and through, and unlike Shards, this wasn't modified to be more easily understood by a human mind.This wasn't a 'super-intelligence', not in the way humans imagined. Everything about this creature was the perfect product of millennia of evolution and adaptation. Humans had evolved to use tools, to create things to complement their own natural bodies. Entities had evolved to rely on their bodies alone, devouring anything they found useful and applying it to themselves.Remnants of lost civilizations. Technologies able to expand through the stars. I would have loved the time to sort through those memories, to piece back together what Cauldron had broken. But time wasn't on my side. It had never been, since the moment I woke up in Andrea Blackwell's body.But there was one thing that the Entities and humans had in common: the Entities were moved by the most primitive of animal urges: survival. The constant fight against entropy. And unlike humans, that was their only motive. Nothing else mattered to them. They had no desire except to survive.In a way, I was closer to them than to humans.My thoughts were interrupted by sudden barking.There, at the entrance of the room, a dog walked through an empty doorway. Angelica. Followed by a young girl dressed in green.Glaistig Uaine."And so we reach the end," she spoke with the voice of a hundred parahumans.I tightened my fists, but even this small motion took forever. I was too deeply focused on finishing what Dragon had started, too spread out to have smooth control over my body. A fight here would mean death.So I talked."This is not the end you wanted, I presume." I decided to appeal to her insanity."I do not care for what 'end' reaches me. I only care to be there when it happens. But I must admit, what you've done… eludes me." Glaistig Uaine smiled, gesturing for Angelica to go out and explore the room. "All faeries are instructed to avoid telling me of the being that makes up this monstrosity - this corpse that you're meddling with. The same likely applies to Scion, correct? I assume that you're doing something to her, and in so doing you're hiding yourself from him too.""It won't work for long.""It won't, no. While you may be hidden yourself, your traces aren't. Already he is knocking at the door of our neighbouring Earths, looking for you. Quite the hiding spot you carved out.""How did you find me, then?" I said even as I already knew the answer."I asked."Aside from me and Dragon, only one more person knew about this plan."Contessa told you.""Yes." She did not deny it.As we talked, Angelica walked up to the mountain of flesh and stared at its downcast head. Why did Glaistig Uaine bring her here?The Faerie Queen glanced at the dog. Smiling."I do not understand what you're doing, Blackwall, but Contessa explained to me the steps you'll take to get there. You need to drain more of the Warrior's lifespan. To exhaust his reserves."Any words I said could be used by her or Contessa to undermine my plans if they wished, so I stayed quiet."You will fail." The Faerie Queen decided. "With or without my intervention. Human emotions made you frail, weaker. You sacrificed too much to keep Dragon safe, and now you push even her away. You reject any and all of the help that you could receive from humans. Que- Weaver. Arsenal. Legend. Alexandria. Chevalier. And so many, many more want to help you. But you won't let them."I didn't answer."By sacrificing no one, you risk everyone.""I won't watch as they die.""You won't be there to see them die, if you continue down this path.""What do you want, Ciara?"She hummed from beneath her hood. Again she glanced at Angelica."I suppose… I wanted to know if I was right or wrong.""You don't get to say that." Anger bled into my voice."Mh?" Ciara raised her head, suddenly more interested. The shadows covering her face had dissipated, and now her green eyes were clearly visible."Athrwys. Jackal. Timeline. Nuk…"Her expression shifted. Every time I spoke a name out loud, a shadow flickered behind her. A silhouette of a now dead parahuman."Why-""Choicemaker. Gray Boy. And many, many more. People you've killed. Some for the right reasons. Most, by whim. You were attacked. You are a child. I understand that, but you have to tell me, with full honesty-"Ciara took a step back. Her shadow grew longer. She was on the verge of attacking.Angelica barked. Ciara froze.I finished speaking."-do you think you were in control? Do you think that now, with a clear head, you would have done the same? Would you have killed children, people with families, monsters, all alike and without discrimination? Because…"Because I would not have."Faces appeared in my mind. Rachel. David. People I knew. Then more faces, people I recognized but did not know. All of the capes killed by Tisiphone. The Brockton Bay criminals killed by the Slaughterhouse Nine.And then, even further back, people from my old life. From my now destroyed world. Victims of the unjust world I helped keep intact. People that I wanted so desperately to save, but was restricted from doing so."I- I can't do it anymore, Ciara. I can't allow anyone else to die under my watch. Not when I can do something about it."The device behind me began to vibrate. A warning that Scion was close.Ciara looked at me with pity in her eyes. The shadows around her were more solid now. Their lips moved, whispering words I could not decipher."Then I have nothing more to say to you, interloper…" She glanced at Angelica, who sat next to the limp head of the Thinker. "...but, I will wish you luck."Goodbye, Blackwall."The Faerie Queen - neither a queen nor a faerie any longer - walked over to Angelica, and then they both disappeared into the shadows below.With a final sigh, I prepared to welcome my golden guest.