(Aden's P.O.V)

I held out my hand to Order's broken form. Wisps of white colored energy gathered above the palm of my right arm. Below us, his body disintegrated into nothing. I paid it no mind in exchange for the Order essence I had extracted from him.

"He's a fool. Inexperienced. A child. Just because he has my memories he thinks he can outsmart me? With this, tracking him will be as easy as breathing."

I turned around to Chaos who had been suspiciously quiet.

"What? you have something to say?"

I held his gaze long enough for him to look away.

"No. I don't."

"Good."

I pushed past him and on the second step, opened my eyes in the real world. Unclasping my palm revealed the essence. I immediately got up and warped out of Energia. The next step was too risky to carry out inside.

Space was as always empty, cold and silent. But this particular instant, it seemed uninviting, as if aware of what I was about to do. I floated serenely for a few minutes, mentally readying myself.

Then Equity appeared in my hands.

"You think I'm being too irrational."

I mentally projected to Chaos.

"Yes. But I also understand that you're right to feel the way you feel. I am the part of you that is passionate. About the good and the bad. But you're not me. So don't get lost in feeling that you end up losing yourself. You are the Prima. You are the balance between me and him. Don't forget that."

I nodded, eyes blazing with determination.

"I won't."

Then I raised Equity up to the sky. The cosmic gazes came back again in full force. I ignored them in favor of letting out a little of my aura. My hair changed from black to green. My body begun to leak out divine energy causing a tornado of air in the dead vacuum of space. The air turned into very small particles of snow.

'Now!'

Equity came slashing down, tearing apart space and revealing nothing on the other side. I smiled, covering my body with meaning and the mysteries of all my power. Then I expended countless lesser miracles to enable me to survive in the void between worlds.

"Are you sure about this?!"

Chaos asked in alarm. The thing was, chaos knew what was above the hierarchy. What was above him and Order. The void. The true emptiness. Denial of existence, denial of being. Only high tier complex outerversal beings could do more than perceive it. I wasn't there yet.

The only reason I had been able to even move the entirety of Gaea to another layer of the void was because of the power afforded to me by both Order and Chaos. To count as a true Outerversal being, I needed the three O's. Omnipotence, Omniscience and Omnipresence.

But for now I could cheat. My miracles basically counted as one use Omnipotence coupons. And although I couldn't use a major miracle as that was reserved for something else, I could atleast stack lesser miracles together and use them to stave off the nothingness that would seek to pull me apart and meld me into the void.

"Yeah. I am."

I answered Chaos and plunged inside.

Only to hit a wall.

What...?

I placed my palm flat upon the opening in between the fabric of space. Trying to push my hand in, yielded no results. The wall was stubborn. Immutable and too durable. I pulled back my limb, folded the fingers into a punch and let it fly. My punch landed on the invisible wall and did nothing.

I clenched my jaw, flying back to add more distance between us. My hair changed from green to red. my form bunched up as I elementalized. My eyes became burning orbs and I stood at more than 20 feet. I had gone into my Flame God form.

Equity changed size to match me and started burning with a silver flame that was then enhanced by Chaos energy to look completely different. Imagine motes of black fighting for dominance against super hot and super destructive silver flames. This was an attack that if carelessly released, would leave a scar that could not be healed in the universe. Good thing I was only aiming to use it to puncture through the hole.

"Let me out."

I calmly requested 'him'. My uninvited guest.

Who you might ask?

The golden light floating in space next to me. It had always been there. Then again, he was everywhere at the same time.

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"I am not holding you captive Aden Strong."

The One Above All said, projecting his voice through the vacuum.

"Oh yeah?"

I motioned to the hole before me.

"Then why..."

"Because the 'two' are meant to be separate. Good and bad. Just as the Presence has his opposite so do I. And he, like the great darkness is unforgiving. I cannot allow you to give him access to this side."

Something bled out of me. Motivation.

"The One Below All."

I realized, powering down. Greater than my anger for Order was my hate for my apparent 'Creator' and if The One Below All was similar to the Great Darkness then...

I fixed space, watching as the fabric I had torn apart was melded once more.

"Fine." I faced him, seeing nothing but more light inside of more light inside of more...

I simply looked away, the vision of what my eyes had captured almost overwhelming my mind. True Omnipotence man...gotta get me some of that.

"Then help me."

There was silence and then...

"NO."

He answered. Not exactly surprising but...

"Why?"

I needed to know the reasoning behind why he wouldn't expell someone that could cause calamity across his creation.

"Because you can't pay the price for my help, Aden Strong. Handle this on your own."

Then he vanished, bringing the darkness back.

Space had never felt even more uninviting. I tightened my hand into a fist. Another dead end.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck Fuck FUCK! FUCK!! FUCK!!! FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!!!!"

BOOOOOOOMMMM!!!

A trail appeared in space, blazing with power as a figure burning in streaks of myriad flames exceeded the concept of speed. I was that figure, clearing over millions of light years in a split second before accelerating even more. Worlds, clusters, super massive black holes, star systems, cosmic clouds and billions upon billion of stars passed by me as I went past the Observable universe.

My logic was, if the One Above All couldn't help me then I was breaking out forcefully. At least on the edge of the universe if the One Below All decided to attack or spread his Influence, it would be too far away from any populated worlds and he could be stopped before it was too late.

"Chaos! I need All your power! Everything you can spare!"

I was too far gone. Having the prospect of freedom get dangled infront of me and then stolen away was more than just infuriating. I didn't have a word to express the kind of emotions going inside my mind.

The only thing I could see was Kori and my kids faces. They were waiting for me. Waiting for daddy to come home. Tears were openly falling from my eyes. I didn't care anymore. One way or the other, I was getting out. That or die trying! Chaos said nothing but a torrential wave of energy poured into me. A truly infinite amount.

He was absorbing the chaos from all around us. Stars died, black holes collapsed upon themselves, leaving behind a dark and lonely universe behind my wake. The beauty that you would witness from looking up at the sky was disappearing but I didn't care.

Infact I needed more. As the Lord of Balance, it stands to reason that I could do more than use all four elements. I hadn't tried it before but I was more than certain I could combine and use them all at the same time.

Not just the elements mind you, but everything I had. My divinities, my physical strength...all of it. I did exactly that. One of my eyes changed to red. My left side unravelled into wind while my right unravelled into myriad of colored flames. I could feel the load getting too much. This form was imperfect but the power it afforded me despite the body being on the verge of breaking down, only sustained by my high speed regeneration, was crazy.

I could almost touch upon the next level. A level that would make me transcendental among cosmic entities. It was incredible and too much. My hair was the first to go, burning away from the power I was exuding. I dispatched lesser miracles by the dozens just to keep the form going for one more second. The second second, having taken only one to make it all this way.

The edge of the universe was before me in an instant and I responded by throwing everything I had at it into Equity. Then chaos enhanced the power and it was glorious.

The instant the impact of my combined power which came out looking like a black, darker than dark slash, landed on the metaphysical wall of the universe, it all became undone. Cracks ran up, down and sideways of the wall. Spreading and adding more spider webs to it's form, revealing what was beyond.

A whiteness that confused the mind. A void that was different from my own layer which I had conquered only by relying on the connection I had with Order and Chaos. Now that one of them was missing, I could only look for other ways to cheat.

But I had made it. I instantly dropped out of the unstable form I had taken.

"Wow. I can't believe that actually worked."

Chaos told me.

"I know."

I was free and my face reflected that. A smile of accomplishment making its way to my face.

"Do you think your connection with Energia will remain after you leave this universe?"

Chaos wondered.

"I don't know." I shook my head.

"But Energia is going nowhere. This is important. We need to go after Order and get back my connection to Gaea. The longer we wait, the more time he has to prepare."

"I don't disagree. But...Energia might not be as safe as you might think."

Chaos pointed out, making me grind my teeth.

"Fuck. You're right. The Eternals. They know about Mars."

"Uhm...not what I meant but yeah. Still, this is the Marvel verse and you might be forgetting about a certain someone who eats Planets for breakfast. If he senses the energy fluctuations coming off of Mars then..."

"Galactus will devour it."

Shit. I closed my eyes.

Energia or freedom?

Why not both?

"I can sense a connection to Energia. It's a strong one. Stronger than even Gaea. I can make it back if I sense that something is wrong. This is not a chance we can miss."

I decided. It was a gamble. But life is always a gamble, isn't it?

And if it came down to it...I stopped that thought in its tracks. I could have both. I knew it.

Which is why, I flew towards the void with a determined look on my face.

Then everything went wrong.

"LOOK OUT!"

Chaos' shout was enough to shake the heavens but it stopped me right in my tracks. From the cracks around the veil/wall separating the universe, golden light begun to mend them quicker than I had destroyed them.

I stumbled back in shock, feeling the influence of a lot of cosmic beings behind the light.

"...No..."

A heavy aura slammed onto my shoulders and I found myself immobilized.

"Aden Strong, you are being punished for your actions against creation. The judgement is...Death."

A voice coming from everywhere all at once announced.

The most ironic part was how my punishment was carried out.

All of my power, the one I had used to break apart the wall of the universe was gathered and then in a controlled beam of pure destruction, redirected towards me.

"Poetic Justice, at its finest."

I said as the light drowned me under. Then darkness.