Hero For Lust

Black Sperm peered down from the partly destroyed spectating chamber.

A vision so beautiful it demanded confession: a golden form to eclipse creation itself. Forty-three trillion cells, perfected into one superb architecture of being. Could another lifeform outbulk his muscles? A sole question with a sole answer: No.

Golden Sperm, Orochi, and Lord Boros stood, unwavering.

Unlike Orochi's betrayal and subsequent consumption of the Useless Emperor, to Black Sperm, the Monster King's new form delivered a faint surprise: A towering abomination of coiled tendrils, gnarled horns, and chitinous plates. But the actual surprise writhed above: dozens of serpentine necks, each tipped with a dragon's maw, spiraling from his body like a nest of enraged vipers. Or maybe the actual surprise was the furnace of flames raging within his form.

Not that any of it mattered. Compared to Golden Sperm, Orochi might as well have been a candle in the sun.

Orochi moved back. Does he plan to observe?

Both Golden Sperm and Lord Boros sprinted toward one another. Their fists met a wink after, neither budging as the floor shattered.

"Not bad." Golden Sperm commented. "Try to keep up."

Like twin cyclones colliding, they traded blows — each fist meeting its match. Gale winds ripped across the white-stone arena, whipping past Black Sperm as he observed in the distance.

Where the hell did this Lord Boros come from? The bastard is matching Golden Sperm strike for strike.

Orochi, a real cunt, attacked mid-exchange. Lashing out with a dozen serpentine necks, inducing the pair to backpedal whilst counterattacking. Fists met fangs in a spray of sparks as they punched back against the onslaught.

Twelve sinuous necks. Six racing toward Golden Sperm, six others darting to meet Lord Boros.

Asudden, they halted.

"Your fighting styles are crass, barbaric! Bear witness to my ultimate martial arts!"

The stillness held for but a heartbeat. Then the dozen serpentine necks erupted into motion, each crowned by a roaring dragon's maw, weaved a cadenced airborne dance.

Black Sperm's eyes narrowed.

Orochi's assault resumed. But now with speed, power, and technique many times greater than prior. The overwhelming display launched both Golden Sperm and Lord Boros away — their bodies hurtling into far off stone chambers in a cascade of rubble.

"'Lord Boros,' a title you're unworthy of. You wouldn't dare fight without your armor. Lest your fragile body fall apart.

And you Golden Sperm a mere object of shine and sinew. An Executive-class disappointment."

Two streaks of motion hammered back onto the white stone. Both combatants landing untouched, no scuffs, no stagger.

This bastard is really looking down on us… Black Sperm's countenance twisted into rage. So it all comes down to this… I'll kill him first...

Golden Sperm's ireful voice boomed. "Let's go, guys! 'Fifty-four Trillion Ultimate Combination!'"

Aside from a unit of one-hundred detached cells as insurance, the rest flooded out of the stone chamber and into Golden Sperm.

Neither Orochi nor Lord Boros hindered them before a brilliant light saturated the expansive oval-shaped area.

Tears began their descent down Black Sperm's face. Not in drops, but in thick, stream-like strands.

Like an emerging chrysalis…

Right now, in that single body, 54 trillion of 'me' are contending to be the sole consciousness. Once cells merge, they can no longer separate.

*For the birth of one new life, countless others have to be sacrificed. That's why it's precious. That's why it's beautiful.

My heart right now is filled with deep sadness. For 53 trillion 999 billion 999 million 999 thousand 900 of me are disappearing into nothingness. On the other hand, I am happy from the depth of my heart. As 54 trillion merge... the true 'me' makes its debut...

¤ ¤ ¤

Across time's latticework, Psykos watched humanity bloom and rot, a pattern of recursion: discovery and destruction, hope and horror. Every golden age led to a war. Every miracle bred monsters. Their defiance of entropy came at a cost the universe could no longer pay.

She saw the one constant, the contaminant across all futures: humans.

And so, she reached across timelines, converging upon the one immutable conclusion — humanity must be undone. Their existence severed from the causal tree. Permanently.

But first, she had to kill the aberration standing between her and absolute correction.

Caspian.

She partitioned her mind across ten thousand simultaneities. Each clone of thought calculated his motion, his trajectory, even his heartbeat, predicting his simplest blink as if the cosmos itself murmured his every micro-decision. She rewrote the laws of inertia around him. She dissolved time in a five-meter radius. She cast singularities shaped like blades.

And still—

He dodged.

No flourish. No technique.

Just moved.

Causality snapped like a thread. Possibility imploded. Her cosmic awareness screamed.

Psykos narrowed her cosmic eyes. He sighs, even now?

"I wanted to test out my martial arts but…" Caspian stood on what's left of Io and asked, "…are you really just Esper Cosmic Garou?"

Again, again he speaks words which none of his futures explain. Certainly, the one unknown future ending would answer all the unanswered questions. It would! It had to!

Her power now orbited annihilation itself. The Earth's erasure… a mere afterthought, should she will it. And him? No greater than a pebble on her path.

"What a pathetic set of last words." From high above him, with a single outstretched hand, Psykos enacted her will. "'Heat Death Domain.'"

A black sphere bloomed around Caspian, smooth as glass. Inside, all decayed. Light faded. Motion died. Heat dispersed evenly until nothing remained. Not tension, not force, not time.

Entropy incarnate.

This was no illusion. No, it represented an ultimate expression of the divine gift 'God' granted to her at her lowest point. Her 'Third Eye' ability? Merely the first snowflake of the coming blizzard…

'God's' parting words burned in her bones like scripture: 'Vanquish the Outsider, the one who defiles the vessel I destined for ashes.'

She bared her teeth in a feral grin, high on the thrill of victory. You're done. You naked bald bastard. Rot for eternity where time itself goes to die!

The glassy black sphere would exist on Io's remains until the genuine heat death of the universe—

Psykos blinked.

She swore her 'Heat Death Domain' rippled.

Preposterous.