Final Chapter – The Final Equilibrium

Aya saw that the disappearance of the two, and when she was just about to try to locate them, the world went black around her.

She quickly conjured up a makeshift sword out of pure Celestial Order energy and just about then, the most familiar face in her life materialized before her.

"G-Grandpa?" she asked uncertainly. "Is that you?"

He just nodded with a shy smile, and Aya dispelled her sword and jumped onto him, embracing him tightly.

"It's so nice to have you back, Grandpa!" she cheered and looked around. "Oh, but where's Livy?"

Toshiro sighed a bit and peeled Aya delicately of himself, planting her on the ground.

"Livy… Won't be returning…" he said quietly, looking Aya deeply in the eyes.

Almost involuntarily, Aya started crying silently, but before she stopped thinking, she noticed something. Toshiro's eyes looked like the infiniteness of space, but in the center, as if hovering there, was a round core made out of convoluting energy, made out of seven distinguishable shades of grey.

"I see you noticed…" Toshiro grinned a bit.

"Your eyes changed again, Grandpa… But what happened to Livy? Tell me, please!"

"After I left with her, I was reborn. The dice roll was rather fruitful, as I was a son of a monarch in some kind of renaissance country. I grew up, pampered as expected, but also trained as a young warrior. When I hit puberty, my Celestial Order started "leaking". Magic was present in that world, but still my power was a bit over the top, since I could basically use any magic type, regardless of the limitations of that world. It caused a lot of confusion, but hey, they treated me like a gift from heaven. On my eighteenth birthday, I had to stand and fight as the leader of my country, because one of our neighbors tried to use the death of my "father", which happened a week ago, as an opener. And guess who was the general leading the enemy troops?"

The first thing that Aya though was "Mavet" but Toshiro shook his head there.

"Livy…?" Aya asked.

"Yes…" Toshiro nodded. "Thing is, her Celestial Order mastery was at a similar level as mine. The two of us carved our way to each other in the midst of battle, and after a brief slew of verbal abuse from both sides, we tried to kill each other with a concentrated blast of pure energy… It kinda backfired… The attacks annulled each other, but when they dissipated, my memories and the rest of my power got unlocked. We looked at each other, but before I could do anything, she surrendered her whole army."

"Wow… Neat… But it doesn't end there, right?"

"No, no… Of course our telepathic abilities unlocked too, so she quickly explained her plan. She was taken in as a POW, and then… Well, she was glad she met me again," Toshiro smiled slyly. "But after we "reacquainted" with each other, she told me a terrible truth, namely that the prince in line to the throne in her kingdom was using something resembling Celestial Chaos. To top it off, his sister did the same, so you wouldn't really have to have a college degree to add the two facts together…"

"Mavet and Maeve…" Aya gasped. "But what then?!"

"It literally took them ten seconds. The planet on which we stood was wiped away out of existence and the two appeared. They just approached us casually in the vacuum of space…"

"And then?!" Aya asked impatiently.

"And then we "talked" which was a stretch already and… we started fighting. We cast off our mortal shells and engaged in combat worthy of Elder Gods. What was a bit surprising was the fact that I regained my "former stature" so to speak, so the odds of this battle were basically a coin flip."

"But something happened that toppled the odds…" Aya pondered. "Did it involve Livy?"

"Yes, sadly… Seeing as the battle was dragging into a prolonged tie, Mavet "parlayed" with me. He told me to prepare all my Celestial Order might, and he'll counter it with his Celestial Chaos. Whatever ill intentions Mavet could've had then were irrelevant, so I agreed. Both Livy and I gathered such a powerful amount of energy, that just being in a few parsec radius would incinerate someone not of Elder Godly might. And then we dropped the bomb…

Our existence basically stopped for a moment. The impact of the two attacks, and the resulting interaction of two, supposedly opposite "elements", ripped apart the very fabric of time and space around us. For a split second, I couldn't feel anything, which is something for an Elder God… And after everything calmed down, I saw Mavet torn apart from waist down, and Maeve torn in half. Both were still seemingly alive, but their "godliness" was escaping them. And then I noticed Livy… She was also ripped to shreds, barely able to even smile towards me… I was so shocked, that after I took her hand, I couldn't say a word. She didn't say anything either, and just disappeared… But she didn't just fade from existence, no… She fused with me. According with how us Elder Gods work, I just gained a reserve power, so to speak. Furious like a thousand suns, I approached the two "bad guys". Maeve tried to approach me, but she could only move a few centimeters, looking at me sorrowfully. I took her in my hands, and approached Mavet. He only cracked a smile and nodded. I placed Maeve at his side, and he embraced her with one arm. She started crying from the one eye that she had left, and she tucked herself into his side."

"What the fuck just happened, Mavet? Explain this to me…" I asked, trying to contain my emotions.

"You really are blind, Adam…" he sighed in return. "Or maybe you were intentionally blinded… Livy poured her entire being both into shielding you and amping your combined attack at the same time… She sacrificed herself, so you could have your revenge, Adam… Are you satisfied now? Is the price you had to pay right? Was it worth it…?" he asked with a fading voice but with his usual venom still in place.

It struck me then. By disappearing from the universe, I basically caused this in the first place. If I hadn't copped out back then, none of this wouldn't have happened. Just stomaching his presence and keeping quiet… Sure, we would probably go to each other's throats after a few billion years, but I doubt it would be at such a scale… But instead I've chosen a way out that would benefit only me… Of course what Mavet had done was wrong, but… He was a bit right

"It wasn't…" I replied quietly with clenched teeth. "Not a single bit…"

"I just wanted to hear that… And now I'll say something YOU probably want to hear – I'm sorry, Adam… I'm sorry that I didn't notice back then, making you do what you did… You made a poor choice, but it stemmed out of my ignorance and bliss from being with my beloved…" he held Maeve tighter. "I… I won't ask you for forgiveness… I just want you to understand…"

"I do…" I barely said aloud.

"Thanks…" he smiled and looked at Maeve. "It's time for us, my love…"

He kissed her on the cheek, and both exploded in a cluster of red particles. I looked at it for a few seconds, but then, the particles shot at me all at once. I was frozen in place, so I took a direct hit from each and every one of them. The memories of the "chaotic" pair streamed into my consciousness like a raging torrent… I knew everything about them in a billionth of a nanosecond… And then, something changed…

Toshiro moved his hand before Aya, and it got coated in a constant flux of energy, similar in color to what she saw in his eyes.

"That's your Celestial Order, but…" she extended her hand fired up her own power. "It's so different."

"Because it's not the Celestial Order right now, sweetie," he smiled and patted her on the head with that hand. "According to what our "primordial" friend told me, this is now called the Celestial Equilibrium. Because of Livy "adding" her power to me, when Mavet's and Maeve's existence were added to me, instead of exploding or being just "put on the backburner" for me to use, they all fused, synergized and amplified, gaining whole measures of power. Right now, again, according to our "friend," I could single-handedly take on our blonde goody-two-shoes with her micro-self in hand, which is on a wild goose chase now, and have a fair chance at winning, assuming nobody would interfere. I basically transcended the concept of the Elder God right now, being only a bit less powerful than my creator. And she promised on her true name that it was the truth, not just a convenient lie so I'll feel good."

"Oh… My… G…randpa!" Aya shouted surprised. "But… What will you do now? Because…"

"I know what you're thinking now, Aya…" Toshiro sighed. "And you're right, that's the way I'll go. But it's not just because I could be a danger to this multiverse… It's also because I'll be committed to another project."

"Project?"

"I'll create my own omniverse, but empty for now. And then, I'll revive Livy…"

"Grandpaaaaa… That sounds awfully Frankensteinesque…"

"Don't worry, Aya. I said Livy won't be returning, but I didn't rule out she won't be alive, right? The thing is, there's a speck of her alive in me. I don't feel Mavet or Maeve, but I feel her existence inside me. I calculated that it will take about forty-two trillion years to restore her in her Elder Godly state, even with my power right now. And no cheating with time skipping, sadly…"

"Forty-two trillion years…" Aya gasped. "And how long would it take to restore her as a… normal god?"

"I could snap her into existence right now, but I've been told she wouldn't survive that…"

"Oh…" Aya frowned sadly. "So you're leaving for forty-two trillion years, huh?"

"Exactly, Pumpkin. Don't worry, you have all your family with you, and a ton of friends. The "clones" I left with you are now the real Toshiro and Yoshika, so really, don't worry."

"I know, Grandpa," she smiled and hugged him tightly. "I talked to them a bit, and I'm already treating them like the real things."

"And good for you," he patted her on the head again, and suddenly a spark skipped between his hand and her head.

"Hey, that hurt!" Aya pouted. "Grandpa, don't abuse your granddaughter…"

"I switched your Celestial Order with the Celestial Equilibrium," he winked. "It'll set me back a few hundred years, but it's worth it."

"Oh? And what does it change for me?"

"Not much in your current state, to be honest… You'll just have it a lot easier doing anything, heheh… Bye now, Aya."

"B... Ah, wait! What... What about Maia?"

"Don't worry, dearest. She already knows about it. When I leave, you'll know her localization, and your teleportation skills are good enough to visit her. Go and console her a bit, okay?"

"Sure, Grandpa," she smiled. "Aufwiedersehen!" Aya grinned and saluted to him.

Toshiro saluted with two fingers and disappeared, but the darkness around Aya didn't dissipate. And just then, the two missing blondes appeared.

"You just missed my Grandpa becoming the embodiment of the word "legend"" Aya smiled warmly as the darkness waned and the normal world with all her friends returned before her eyes.

In total nothingness, Toshiro took his hand before his chest, and pulled out a small, monochromatic spark before himself.

"Ma…ster…" Livy's frail voice reached him.

"Don't worry, Livy, I'll restore you to your former glory… Even if I'll have to wait for longer than the concept of time predicts…"

"Love… you…"

"I love you too, Livy…" Toshiro said warmly.

And so, I begun my ultimate penance… Because I could, not because I must... And forty-two trillion years are not the time I needed to restore Livy, that's just a big round number... I'm sorry that I had to lie and seclude myself for such a long time, Aya... Actually you'll probably see me in a thousand years, since i'll detach myself from the Primordial Goddesses omniverse, so the time flow will be vastly different... Well, at least Livy's not suffering right now, and won't suffer any further... I'll restore her shell at an Elder God level so she can exist physically at my side in just a moment, but restoring her entire power, the combined power of Livy and Mavis, will take a wee bit longer... I really don't know the true extent of my power right this second... But I can feel every Elder God out there... Even those that are just about to be born... Good luck you all, and I'm sorry that you will be shouldering the burden of godhood because of my actions... But that's the natural order of things...

I look at a point in the infinite nothingness of my pocket "omniverse" and sense her just watching me. Don't worry, I know that you know, that I know I won't return to my "old turf" or at least not before I'm actually able to because of your rainbow barriers. You best prepare everyone and everything for my arrival in the case I don't "mend" myself... Right now, if I saw Kye, and she'd start wisecracking as usual, I'd probably rip her to shreds... And that is precisely why I have to leave all of the creation that you have brought into existence, and live past the Nexi, past what is tangible, or intangible... At least you won't tell Kye and the rest about my true status, that's comforting... Let them simmer in their own thick sauce of vain and self-righteous pride, thinking that they're the saviors of the Existence, and the most powerful entities that exist, of course sans P.G... How I absolutely despise that attitude of Kye... But don't worry, you blonde cunt, when you see me in my full power, the only thing able to save you will be your mentor, and that's doubtful... Yes, Eve, tremble, because my power as the one true Allgod Adam is being restored, and this is a process you can't stop... But until that time comes, everyone can think what they want, and do what they want... And unless I sense a sliver of true remorse, a boson of actual respect towards me... Not one sub-quantum particle won't be left anywhere... And I'm fully prepared to do that, and won't regret a thing...

Because I'm the man who sold the world.

I could only end this with a reference to the best game ever.

The end is here, and so is my career as a Strike Witches fanfiction writer. Good night, everyone! I wish everyone at least half a 'success' like mine!