In the streets of Rose City, a man in a chicken mascot suit hunkered down behind a hot dog stand, praying that the rampaging monsters wouldn’t notice him. His prayers went unanswered though, as the hot dog stand was lifted from the ground and thrown by what looked like a towering snake-thing with dozens of arms.

A scream filled the mascot suit as he turned and tried to crawl away but was stopped by a twisted arm that grabbed onto the foot of his suit. As the snake-thing dragged the pleading suit toward its opened maw, ready to swallow the person whole, it suddenly froze in place. The person in the suit kicked at the arm, grabbing their leg, and ran without looking back. Behind them, the snake-thing fell apart in slices as an extremely thin blade collapsed into itself and reformed into a small sphere of black goo.

Ferros stood on the street with dozens of tiny pieces of that black goo surrounding her. She moved minimally, barely lifting a hand as her orbs shot out, piercing through monsters, severing tails before they could slam into screaming civilians, gouging through throats before a fire beam could blast out, stretching out into inky nets that caught people falling out of buildings or off of rooftops. The hero wobbled on her feet as she spoke to her earpiece. “Young Dog, Rook Street is under control. If you guys see someone in a chicken costume, could you ask them if they have a discount for heroes?” She asked in her typical dreamy tone.

In the nearby street, Young Dog leaped from monster to monster, throwing out what seemed like an almost limitless supply of daggers, grenades and gadgets from pockets covered in sponsor stickers. He rested for a moment on top of a crushed taxi before he responded, stabbing a dagger into the head of another monster, the m-shaped handle sticking out of the creature.

“Can do. Hands, mind giving a… Well, you know.”

Hands sighed over the comms, walking into Young Dog’s view. “Really? Low hanging fruit, man. Gods, I’ve got to rebrand.”

People swarmed past the hero, pursued closely by a monster that resembled a fleshy lawnmower with whipping tentacles. Hands held up his metal, runed arm. It glowed, and the runes seemed to howl as the air shimmered and a pale ghostly hand formed into existence. It was the size of a large bus and easily tore into the monster, ripping chunks away until nothing was left. The civilian’s cheering quickly died down and turned to screams when ash and paper gathered where the monster was, slowly reforming it back together.

“Golden Weaver, I can tear these things apart all day, but that’s not going to accomplish much. You mind swinging by?” Hands grunted, a bone blade halting an inch away from his face, held in place by more of his ghostly hands.

He didn’t have to hold it for long before threads wrapped around the blade. The monster screeched as it was pulled into the distance. Golden Weaver landed nimbly by Hands, his gold and white suit smudged with ash and bits of paper. “Seriously, these things are a pain. I’m telling you now, I’m not going to complain about fighting Yellow Kobold or Squid MD again.” Golden Weaver stated, blasting out thread to pin a monster against a brick wall adorned with a poster of Full Monarch.

“I fink yor baddies are a jook, sun. No teef. We shuld swap citteez. Yoo fight System fer me, ye? I cud taek yor Mudman guy on.” Omega called out over the comms, raining down blasts onto monsters that kept reforming and marching onward. He landed in a street and held his robotic hand forward, the palm opening out into a barrel. A massive purple beam of energy fired out, wide enough to cover the entire street, disintegrating any monster it hit. "Fawk ye, Iz da beef."

Golden Weaver and Hands looked at each other with blank stares.

“I only understood, like, two of those words.” Weaker joked, leaping from the street to a nearby building, clinging onto the stone before leaping to another.

"That's more than I did..." Hands complained.

On another street, Feast punched a twisted lion-beetle thing, its furry exoskeleton shattered before ash gathered around it and reformed. It roared and opened its mouth, a beam of fire shooting out and hitting Feast, generating a large cloud of smoke.

When it dissipated, Feast stood, unharmed as the flames flickered around him, rapidly getting sucked into his skin. The hero grinned and beat his chest. “What, that’s it? I’ve still got room for seconds.” He challenged, laughing at the monster.

It roared back, almost like it accepted the challenge, and sprinted at Feast, who spread his arms wide. The lion-beetle crashed into him, its momentum carrying them both forward, the hero’s feet scraping along the ground. As they stopped moving, the creature tried to pull back, but Feast grabbed onto the thing’s fur.

The hero’s grin widened, and his grip tightened. “Tell your buddies to make room in there, I’m going to want dessert after this.” Slowly, the monster began to get pulled into Feast, actually sinking into his skin, past his armor. Its screeches and roars died down as it disappeared into the hero’s flesh. Feast rubbed his stomach and belched, grimacing. “Damn thing’s giving me indigestion.”

Nearby, Tamer shivered and stroked her lion. It towered over her, the size of a garbage truck, and was coated in bright pink fur. A shrieking creature leaped out at them, bones and spikes piercing through every part of it. The woman covered in cages barely looked up at the creature before it was snatched up in the massive jaws of what looked like a giant dragon with the face of an anglerfish and six arms dangling under its body.

She smiled up at the creature and held up a hand to scratch its chin. “Thank you, Amon. Now, go spit that out. It’ll make your tummy hurt.” The dragon-thing gave a nod before it flew down the street, scooping any monster it could find into its arms and dropping them off far from the people as it flew. She had gotten a lot of her monsters from the Emperor himself. Every person he ever hurt and changed was now with her, and they wanted revenge for what they had become. A revenge she would gladly help them get

Meanwhile, Gorgeous watched as people ran past him, descending into bunkers. He leapt forward as a monster ripped its way out of the ground. It was the size of a t-rex, green goo coating fists that it held out in front of it. As it touched things and passed by, the goo turned a deep red and exploded into blasts of fire.

It stopped as Gorgeous stood in front of it, arms crossed over their chest. “I’m sorry, but this street is closed. If you take that left you passed-” The hero’s quip was cut short as the monster swung its fist at the femboy, who dodged it easily with a quick leap back.

Gorgeous ran forward, swinging with a punch at the monster’s side. It landed but seemed to do minimal damage before the hero jumped back. The monster turned and started to punch again, but a spectral clone of Gorgeous appeared where the hero had stood earlier and repeated the punch. The clone copied Gorgeous's actions like a recorded playback. As it did, another clone appeared, and another, and another, these copies in different places but all copying the movements. The stream of clones and the copied punches slowly lifted the monster off the ground and into the air, where Golden Weaver was swinging by to snatch it up with a thread.

The swinging hero called out to Gorgeous. “I’m telling you, that would make for a great show. I can see it now: Gorgeous, the One-Hero-Show!”

Gorgeous opened their mouth to retort but was cut off by the appearance of a rippling blue portal appearing underneath them. "Oh crap-" They dropped down, and the portal closed around them.

Golden Weaver panicked and dropped down, making for his comms. "Guys! Gorgeous just got swallowed by a-" Another portal opened below Golden Weaver, dragging him in and closing.

"Not good." Young Dog hissed out as more portals began to open all around them, swallowing people up.

All of the civilians and heroes looked down as they all fell into portals. Even Omega, who flew to avoid falling, ended up flying straight into a portal that opened above him. In no time at all, all of Rose City was empty, save for the creatures charging through empty streets as all the people disappeared...

Meanwhile, in the Enforcers Tower, Sini found himself alone, now the last hero left in the city.

“Hey, there’s some stuff we need to talk about. The name’s Alpha. It's good to meet you, Lord of the Sea.” Alpha said in a dry tone. His hands were stuffed in his pockets, and his eyes looked dull as he took in the sight of the Lord before him.

Sini stared at the man in front of him. Messy red hair, with thick stubble along his jaw and cheeks, and wearing a long, black trench coat, Alpha looked more like a hermit than a Super. The man was young, too. Early twenties at the most. Yet he could feel power flowing through him. This was the one who created portals. He shuddered to think how strong he'd have to be to make so many over such a wide distance. It was like he was looking at a behemoth of a creature crushed down and forced into a human form.

Sini calmed his nerves, his mind slowly figuring out a game plan. He was the only one that was left, which meant it was all up to him. He’d have to hold the fort down until Full Monarch or one of the other heroes arrived.

“What is it you want to talk about? Flooding the city with monsters isn’t enough? You want to monologue?” Sini asked calmly. As he asked the question, he mentally scanned the tower, feeling for the traces of water. More specifically, sweat. Even the small amount on a person’s skin was enough to give him a rough outline of the person. When he couldn’t sense anyone in the building, his eyebrows furrowed. It was just him and Alpha. Everyone else truly was gone. All across the city, it was empty. This man had moved them all out of harm's way?

Alpha shrugged. “Monologuing isn’t really my style. I want to get this over with. The longer we talk, the more people die unnecessarily. I’m here with an offer for you.”

“Then stop the attack. You’re controlling the portals, right? Teleport your monsters away, stop attacking the cities, and we can discuss this deal,” Sini demanded.

“Not how it works,” the man sighed. “You hear the deal first, then I'll consider calling off my attack. I’m the one in control, you know. I even came to you out of costume. Person to person, I want to talk.”

Sini shook his head and walked down the hallway, knowing that Alpha would either follow or teleport to him. He entered one of the many meeting rooms in the tower, with a large rectangular table that had several papers and mugs of steaming coffee, a screen on the wall showing the planet with steadily increasing numbers on the display. He turned around as he heard the sound of a portal in the room behind him, watching as Alpha appeared in the meeting room, casually sliding into a cushy leather seat at the head of the table.

“What’s this deal then?” Sini asked, choosing to take a seat at his desk.

Alpha picked up a nearby mug, taking a sip and grimacing. He looked around the room and spotted a pot of sugar. A portal opened under the sugar, and it fell through, landing in his hand. Alpha took his time pouring a small amount of sugar into the coffee and stirring it with a pencil.

“Join us. Well, not join, exactly,” He stated, taking a sip. “Same offer we gave to your pal, Wano.”

“You offered Wano a deal?” Sini asked, frowning.

Alpha nodded. “Yeah. He turned it down, though. A shame. Would’ve made all of this so much easier.”

Sini scoffed, shaking his head. “What part? Attacking everyone with an army of monsters?”

“Exactly.” Alpha nodded. “Absorbing him would have let us avoid so many casualties. But then the kid had to interrupt us. Wano refused the offer, and the Lord got away.”

“Us?” Sini paused, thoughts whirring in his head. “Nier… he was there. He wasn’t there to help Wano, was he?”

Alpha clicked his tongue. “Bingo. He’s the one that made this whole thing possible. We wouldn’t have our army without his body transmutation ability. He's using his power of Lord of Life well, wouldn't you say?”

Sini recalled the transformed monsters, specifically Fire Prince, and how he had been transformed into a monster. “He’s the Emperor, isn’t he?” Sini asked, closing his eyes. It must have been a decoy or something. That was the only explanation for how Nier had been in front of the Emperor. He was sure—at least that it was Nier. Nier was behind all of this. The fiery red eyes fit as well. That was how all Lords looked when they were in their battle mode.

Claps echoed in the room as Alpha sounded his applause. “He said you’d get it, eventually. You know, he really didn’t want to kill Wano. When the guy killed himself just to make sure we didn't get the Lord, Nier really wanted to hate himself for it. But when it comes down to it, he'll do whatever it takes.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Sini opened his eyes and leaned forward, placing his palms on the surface of the table. “You’re evil,” He stated, venom clear in his voice. “Both of you. This is the same thing that happened seven years ago, isn’t it? The same experiments. Nier is still trying to recreate a soul.”

Alpha took a sip from the mug and let it go, allowing it to shatter on the floor. “Sure. I’ll take that burden. We’re evil. The kind of evil that brings progress, changes the world for the better, and brings the world to a new age. Part of Nier’s great cause, his great purpose.” He turned his head, looking at the wall or something past it. “Well, that’s time up. What is it? Are you going to go easy, or are you making it hard for us?”

Sini answered with silence, and Alpha sighed. A portal opened behind the man as he stood. The Lord of the Sea sprung into action, the table bursting apart from the water Sini had been quietly pushing into the wood. Forming into spikes, the water stabbed toward Alpha, but he disappeared through the portal before the water reached him. The Lord of the Sea stood alone in the room and growled.

He placed his fingers up to his comms, his eyes darting around. “Sini, here. Everyone be alert for a red-haired man in a trench coat, alias Alpha. He’s some kind of teleporter; capture him if possible-” Sini’s words over the comms were cut short as the building erupted with flames.

Moments before, while teleporting away, Alpha had opened one more portal. Above the city, this time. And through it, he had dropped something. A bomb. A really, really big bomb.

In the room, Sini flooded the room with water and instantly froze it, protecting himself with the icy tomb. As the flames of the nuke died down, the ice melted and flowed away. Most of the walls were gone, and Sini found himself standing in a massive hole that had been vaporized out of the side of the tower, most of the nearby buildings in piles of rubble.

He dropped down into a lower floor, finding a small computer intact, although the screen was cracked in multiple places. He quickly logged in, trying to figure out what was happening. As he typed, he sighed to himself.

“Oh, Nier. Why have you gone this far?”

***

Legend opened his eyes, or at least he thought they might be open. He couldn’t see anything, anyway. Wherever he was, it was pitch black, with no floor that he could feel. But he wasn’t falling. It was almost like he was in the ocean, but without the pressure of water. He gritted his teeth and waited.

“Did you really think I would let you die so easily?”

Legend grunted. “Just bring me back, already. Take your damn price.”

If the voice ever chuckled, Legend imagined that it would be a dark one, the kind a villain would make in a spy movie.

“Twice in one day. You must be enjoying my gift.”

“It is a tool. One to be used like any other,” Legend stated, feeling something slipping from him.

"Exactly. I cannot allow you to die yet.”

Legend mentally ran through any knowledge that he could, trying to figure out what the void had ripped from him this time. He remembered his children, their names and childhoods. Then he remembered his parents and how they had instilled him with stories and legends of ancient, forgotten gods and heroes.

He remembered his lov… His wif… The wedd…

Legend knew what had been taken. The mother of his children. Her face, her name, his love for her. But he didn’t feel loss for the memories. No, he felt the power. Dark and sickly, twisting in the spaces of lost emotions.

“Rise.” He felt his limbs piecing back together.

“Rise.” He felt his power rising, a gallery of shapes and forms swarming in his mind.

“Rise, my Ruler. My Ash. My Ruin. My Legend, awaken.”

Legend’s eyes snapped open, and he leapt to his feet, looking up to see the golden figure in the air, a woman in green leaves, and a woman with silver hair floating above the battlefield. Golden God had come with friends. One he knew to be Fairy Queen, from Young Dog's reports. But the third one...

A monster leaped at him as Legend’s hair grew long and wild, his eyes turning a deep red as he called upon a forgotten name. The monster paused as it stared into his eyes, and it turned to a nearby monster that was striking at a Hero Branch worker. Before it could hurt the worker, claws emerged from its chest as the monsters around Legend began to turn on each other.

Above him, Ruby let out a battle cry as she leapt at the trio in the air. Golden hands slapped at her, but Ruby blocked the hits, grabbing onto one of Golden God’s fingers, climbing up the arm, and punching at the robot’s face, sending it flying back with a compressed wave of air from how hard she hit.

As she fell, Ruby felt wind pushing her from underneath, and she grinned. “Send me at him!” She yelled to Max.

The man laughed to himself and sent a blast of wind at Ruby to rocket her at the golden villain. He floated in the air, rising to face the two women.

Fairy Queen sneered at him while the Princess of Life merely smiled passively, almost more focused on the battlefield below them. “You two wouldn’t mind surrendering, would you?” Max asked, “My friend’s going to deal with your golden friend, and Legend is back in action. Make this easy for us, eh?”

Fairy Queen laughed at Max. “Little Lord, there’s no fun in that. Besides, we don’t care about that bitch or the old man, we’re just here for you.”

“One of your pals already killed the last Lord of Sky, and now you want to kill another?” Max asked as lightning crackled around him. Ruby was busy dealing with Golden God, while Mermaid was trying to make it to Legend and back him up. That meant he was basically on his own.

“No, that is not our goal,” The Princess of Life retorted, turning to look at him with an almost concerned look in her face. “If you come quietly, the quicker we can enact our master’s plan and save this world.”

“Sure, every world-saving plan requires unleashing hordes of undead monsters,” Max stated, shaking his head. “Sorry, but I’m not going anywhere. Now, which of you want to- '' Fairy Queen cut him off with a grab at his neck that he dodged by simply dropping from the air.

The Princess of Life shot her a disappointed look. “What? He’s not going to come quietly. And we don’t need his arms or legs, just that Lord power hiding out in his mind,” Fairy Queen snickered with a shrug. “I’ll rip him to bits, but I won’t kill him.”

From underneath, Max shot up with lightning branching from his hands. Fairy Queen easily blocked it by using her ability to enhance space and extend it. He turned to the Princess of Life, who shook her head and kept her hands by her side. One enemy was one he couldn’t hurt, and the other one seemed like they didn’t want to fight back. The time he spent looking at the Princess was enough for Fairy Queen to finish blocking his lightning, and the woman took a swing at the air. Max looked at her, confused, before the air in front of him split apart. He held his arms out in front of him to block as the reality of the air twisted and slashed at him as if it were a sharp blade.

Max held on until the slashes ended, feeling the faint cuts they left on his arms. With a crackle of thunder, he leapt at Fairy Queen, sending her flying into the clouds above with a bolt of lightning. None of the attacks hurt her, but the energy did cause the winged woman to be pushed up, shoving her out of the city.

As Max's battle raged in the clouds, Ruby leapt from limb to limb as she fought Golden God. Each time he would attack, she would grab onto the limb and rip it off the robot. They seemed almost endless, though, and for each one she ripped off, three more would counterattack while she was falling with the detached limb. And with each falling limb, Ruby kicked off it while it fell, sending her flying back up to Golden God.

As she reached another hand, she went to rip at it, but it fell from the robot on its own, detached from the inside. While Ruby fell, a dozen arms all shot at her, far faster than any of the others had been. The ground cracked as she was sent directly into it from a harsh series of slaps. In a crater, she lay on her back and dusted herself off. Ruby stared up at Golden God, who floated above her, and growled to herself. This counterattacking thing wasn’t her style. She didn’t like to wait for them to swing first. Countering was a trick, a technique that weak people used to turn their enemy’s strength against them. And she refused to use cheap tricks when her own strength was the only thing she ever needed.

More hands launched out at her, and she slammed a fist into the ground. A dust cloud bloomed out, and the hands hit where Ruby had been. As they lifted away, the cloud dispersed to reveal a hole carved into the ground. As Golden God floated down to look around, a nearby patch of grass burst open as Ruby leapt out at him from beneath the ground, having literally dug her way through it. Before the golden robot could float out of reach, she punched at his metal face, landing a solid blow that sent the villain crashing to the ground so hard the entire city shook.

Ruby leapt onto the robot and started to beat on the metal of his chest. Hands converged on her, and she leapt off. As soon as she jumped away from him, Golden God shot up, floating rapidly toward the clouds above. Ruby grabbed onto one of the limp hands hanging from him, holding on as they passed the cloud layer.

Golden God noticed his passenger and whipped at the limp arm before Ruby could jump to another one. As she began to fall, she felt wind wrapping around her from behind and turned to see Max, bloodied and bruised.

“You want to try attacking from above?” He asked, smiling.

Ruby nodded. “Yeah, this asshole’s a coward. Can’t get a good shot in.”

Max closed his eyes and concentrated as Ruby felt the wind around her gather and solidify under her feet.

He opened his eyes and patted her on the back. “There you go, won’t last long, so don’t hold back.”

“Hell yeah, just how I like to do things!” She stated and leaned forward, the air under her feet was now enough to keep her aloft. She began to fly up now, twirling in the air, carried by the wind itself. Max had created a large cloud she now stood on and could use to fly.

Max turned to see Fairy Queen floating nearby, the scorch marks from lightning shocks slowly fading to smooth skin as she grinned at him.

“Oh, that’s just unfair,” He sighed. “You can also heal?”

Fairy Queen just laughed at him. “Is this it? Now I’m sad that the Emperor didn’t allow me to come as he killed the last Lord of Sky. That would have been actually entertaining.”

The lightning around Max crackled and snapped as he glared at the reality-weaponizing woman. He snarled and shot at the monster, lightning snaking out and zapping her even as his fist swung through the air.

As he passed, her slim hands whipped out and grabbed onto his head. Max fought to pull her off, but his vision faded…

“Hey, wake up!” Wano yelled, shaking Max’s bed until the son opened his eyes.

Max started to speak, to talk one last time to his father, but stopped. This wasn’t real; he knew it straight away. He was in his home, back in the village. But it wasn’t right. He looked around, saw the house, but everything had a faint layer of static, even Wano. He smiled sadly at the man who stood over him, waiting for his father to talk. He wanted whatever this was to be real. He had dreamed this exact scenario dozens of times. But he knew it would never happen. Wano was dead. He had a burden to carry, and he couldn’t spend his time in dreams.

He dug deep, feeling for the Lord inside. He knew it was there, and if this Fairy Queen wanted a Lord, he was going to give her one!

The illusion shattered around him as his hair lit up. Fairy Queen looked down as the Princess of Life shot up into the air nearby, a swarm of spears chasing after her. Legend ascended through the clouds, wearing a bright red cape and wielding a spear and shield with massive wings coming out of his back. The Princess, on the other hand, seemed to be able to actually fly like Full Monarch floating through the air as Legend chased after her. Fairy Queen went to follow, but then she felt it.

A wave of pain stabbed through her layered reality, burning through the infinite distance. She felt pain and turned just in time to see Max. His hair was the color of a storm cloud, and his eyes ignited with a fiery red glow. Spacial lightning able to pierce time and space crackled around him and literally twisted reality so that it could shock and burn Fairy Queen.

Fairy Queen screamed and swung at Max, but a pulse of lightning sent her flying back. The Lord of the Sky opened his eyes, electricity sparking from his iris like a laser beam. Everyone stared, even Ruby and Golden God, as they all felt energy gathering around them like an intense storm.

The clouds below solidified, and any clouds above vanished to reveal the endless blue sky. Then, everyone blinked, and it switched. The clouds were above and the endless blue sky was below them, and everyone felt gravity trying to pull them into that endless blue. Pillars of storm clouds extended down into the blue, down past the point where any of them could see, and in the distance, everyone could see things twisting and moving in the distance, roars and screeches reaching their ears. In a flash, they were no longer on Earth but instead found themselves in a land of twisting storm clouds that covered every distance around them.

Max looked around and saw the paths. Some were twisted, fragmented, and breaking in places. Others were solid, a straight line from birth to death. He turned to Ruby and Legend, giving them a grin. He created a realm. A pocket world where his Lord power would flow freely. A realm of weather that could control time and space.

“They wanted a Lord.”

Meanwhile, in the Enforcers tower, Sini tapped on his earpiece, trying to get through to someone. Right before he gave up, he heard a crackle, and a voice called out on the comms.

“Whoa, what was that? Young Dog, you got some teleporting thingamajigs on that toolbelt or something?” Golden Weaver asked.

Sini sat up straight. “Golden Weaver, that you?”

“Unless there’s another insect-themed hero on the Enforcers, I’m one of a kind. What happened?” Golden Weaver responded, his signal carrying the faint sound of people speaking in the background.

Sini clicked through the computer. “I was hoping you’d tell me that. Your signal’s saying that you’re in Daisy City.”

There was a pause before Golden Weaver answered. “Oh yeah, haven’t been here in a while. Hey, you know if they’re still dealing with that jester villain? Dude freaks me out.”

“Focus,” Sini instructed. “What happened to you?”

“Oh, right. Yeah, some blue portals opened and nabbed us all. Everyone’s here, even the civs.”

Sini frowned and leaned back in the chair. “Why would Alpha do that?” He clicked through the computer some more, going through any camera that was still operational, checking satellites and even traffic cameras. Alpha was nowhere to be seen. But he could see someone standing right outside the Enforcers tower. One tall and dressed all in black. The Emperor, flanked by a woman in blood-red armor. They were waiting right outside his building for him.

Just as he was debating what to do about that issue, another voice crackled into the channel. A familiar one that caused all of them to pause and feel the smallest spark of hope return.

“-onarch, getting -ose. -llo?” Full Monarch’s voice asked.

“Full Monarch? Boss man! De fawk yoo bin dooen?” Omega asked over the radio.

There was a brief silence as everyone mentally processed the question.

Full Monarch answered without pause, seemingly understanding Omega. “I’ve been busy. Things don’t look too great down there, do they?"

In the background, they faintly heard Golden Weaver asking how Full Monarch understood Omega. “There’s a full-scale attack by the Emperor and a swarm of monsters. We’ve also got reports of some of his ‘Generals’ attacking Max and Ruby.” Sini explained. “I’ve got eyes on the Emperor and one of the Generals outside of the Tower.”

“I’m coming, immediately,” Full Monarch replied.

Sini shook his head, forgetting that no one could see it. “No, go save Max and Ruby first. I’ll hold the Emperor off. I’m a Lord, too, remember? I can keep them at bay for long enough.”

“But-”

"This isn't a suggestion; it's an order." Sini said, cutting his friend off. "Get to Max and Ruby as soon as you can. They need you more than me. You can come back me up once you've made sure your kid is okay."

There was a pause before he heard Full Monarch finally speak. "Right. I'll do that- Uh oh."

"What's Uh oh?" Golden Weaver asked in a panic.

"Someone was waiting for me to return to planet Earth." Was all Full Monarch said before he hung up.

High above the clouds, in the upper limits of the atmosphere, the golden blur found himself coming face-to-face with a man with inky black hair, holding a book. Angelic wings stabbed out of the pale man's back, and his golden eyes stared into the number one hero's.

Lucifer smiled. “Hello, Jackson. It’s been some time, hasn't it?”