It was literally a million degrees. Atoms were shorn apart under the unbelievable temperature, all other forms of energy basically flatlined into pure temperature gradients. Even his own resistance to energy and invulnerability was put under the highest test as the purity of the inferno tried to tear him apart, while kinetic forces blew him away from his disintegrating vessel at thousands of miles per second.

And then something split his head in two.

He looked down the glowing Blade, humming with an almighty power completely foreign to him, and met the glowing, burning eyes of the woman wielding the long Spear. He knew this was a Weapon made specifically to kill mighty beings, creatures that thought themselves immortals, gods, eternals, undying, or endless.

It had been brought here to kill him. And he, who had thought himself impossible to kill, for he would only tear free of Death and reform himself later on, realized that was not going to happen.

His soul was on fire, his mind was in flames, and his very existence was burning in a way that was far, far worse than Death.

It was the universe itself turning against him, rejecting him, and taking him and his Will apart on all levels, to be devoured, reduced to basic energy, and dispersed across time and space, just a part of the background of the universe, his psyche and soul erased as if they had never been.

Trying to remain beyond Death had some special penalties when it was time for Life to stay behind...

-------

The last of his body burned away in the point-blank energies of a photosphere consuming him inside and out. His personal invulnerability had still held up against the atom-frying power at close range, but trying to overcome that and Bane of Legends-powered vivus just wasn’t going to work.

Supposedly he was a Champion of Life, and so impossible to kill. But that was in another reality. Here, he was just an oddity, and Death was equal with Eternity, there was no ‘Life’ entity.

It took a lot of energy, and, y’know, the blood of a god, but True Death was something meant to come to all.

His skull didn’t burn away. I turned my head as I felt a great and subtle hand pass by me, a harvester and reaper of ageless power, come to collect Her due... even if it was only ashes on a stellar wind.

She was happy with me. Killing something that wasn’t supposed to die was quite a coup, and an other-dimensional intruder who shouldn’t be here in the first place only made it sweeter.

The Magus’ skull crystallized and fixed itself to the head of Function.

Dreadskull, Bane to Immortals.

No, no, She didn’t want me killing those who thought themselves unkillable, at all.

I turned around and looked at the homeworld of the Sovereigns behind me, shining golden and lovely in space, like all of their stratified, gene-bound, futureless society.

My Cosmic Awareness said that there were over two hundred places and people that had to be extinguished, or the Church of Universal Truth was going to try to build themselves another new prophet and rise again.

I grimaced, knowing I was feeding the Reaper now... and doing Her good and proper work, for it spared even more billions later on.

Death wanted a fat harvest. Time meant nothing. More death later was better than just some death now, although both were acceptable.

I could only sigh, close my eyes, and steel myself.

The Sovereigns were axiomatics, sapphire conformists of the highest order, convinced of the perfection of their dead-end path. This was about shattering the advances of Law, and specifically gene-engineered existences, a definite Lawful Evil supremacy play spurred along by the Magus, however he decided to disguise it under rhetoric.

Function’s Spear folded back in, and he shrank down as I stowed him on my back again. Wasting no more time, I shot off to resume my rampage, and for more millions of golden-skinned vat-born aliens to die in a catastrophe they’d brought upon themselves, never imagining Do Unto Others would come back on themselves...

Yay, me. There was a reason I didn’t want to work at this level.

I glanced at my Assay as I was racing towards the next fortress-temple, time dilating and slowing as I accelerated, giving me plenty of time to do so.

--------------

Dynamo, Warlock of the Widow in the Web, The Sage of Focus, Courtier of Death

Neutral Good Female Augmented Powered Human/6, Base Spider Totem Template

...

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=============

Many light years away...

The Magus was dead.

Getting spies into the Church of Universal Truth had been nearly impossible, as only the most subtle defenses and unconscious brainwashing was able to slip past the Magus’ conditioning of his followers. That artfully wrought conditioning of his spies had been shattered with the Earworms that had released so many others from thralldom to the interloper, and with them had come word of devastation.

The Church of Universal Truth was no more. Its pressure on the lines of Fate was decreasing by the moment, vanishing from the realms of possibility, removed like an artist snipping lines from a spiderweb and collapsing its unwanted form into a mess of tangles and rubble.

His own moves against the Magus had begun months ago, and overt fighting had been planned to begin shortly, his Black Apostles ready and eager for the struggle. The only reason he had not moved earlier was because of the Magus’ ability to convert whole planets by sheer force of will, and he did not trust that ability not to work on his minions, even disposable as they were.

But now, it was not an issue.

Already some of the looser pirate groups were heading for the Church’s would-be territory, knowing it would be less well-defended and ripe for plunder and slaughter. The fate of those worlds was now of no concern to him, he was moving on to other matters.

He had an idea, a concept for a weapon of destruction powerful enough to send a star into nova. It was a thing that would contribute mightily in his goal to bring more souls into the embrace of Death.

But he felt... disquieted. His dark and brooding gaze turned to the charts of the Church’s territory, and the reports of the destruction wreaked there.

Billions of sapient beings had died in a struggle that had literally only lasted two days, yet covered a hundred star systems in so doing. It was a worthy tribute to Death... and he could tell that it had pleased Her.

Did... he have competition for Her favor?

His gauntlet tightened at the thought that such a thing was possible. There could be no one as devoted as he to Death, he was sure of it! If there was such a challenger, then he had to eliminate them, send them on to Death... or, perhaps, deny them to Death forever, and so render them anathema to Her!

It could not be permitted! He would investigate who was responsible for this further, even as he pursued the whereabouts of the Stones of Power, none of which had been seen for more than a century... but ferreting out secrets lost was one of his great gifts, and they could not escape him forever...

--------

Back in the Sol System...

I came through the wormhole with a sigh and a hidden shudder, glad no one was around to see.

Cosmic Awareness. What a curse it could be.

The pirates who’d been converging on the broken worlds and races of the Church’s expansion area had not exited hyperspace. Their disappearance would be a mystery as their remains were erased by dimensional erosion, and the stray atoms spread across infinities at hyperlight speeds, just becoming part of the background random atoms in space when they dropped out of hyperspace into reality.

Feeling billions of people die was an utterly horrible thing to have happen to anyone. Being able to feel that it was the absolute best thing that could happen was, in many ways, worse. It justified the slaughter and killing in an absolutely heartless manner.

Even doing it as surgically and precisely as time allowed, it was still a lot of dead. Knowing that I couldn’t stop the Magus from wiping some of the planets, even as I saved the others, was also maddening, yet inevitable.

No wonder cosmic entities lost a lot of empathy and became so distant. Everything to scale, the motes don’t matter, only the great weights of the end results.

Just, just, UGH!

I didn’t want it all to be a statistic, but I didn’t want to have every single individual soul’s demise weighing on me, either.

Unfortunately, I was too smart to really forget it all without judicious memory-editing. There was only trying to lean on my newly-enhanced Wisdom and Charisma and ride out the emotional shockwaves of actually unleashing that level of slaughter upon something and someone.

All to prevent more slaughter. Perspective, perspective, saving lives by reaping them...

Death was laughing. Getting promoted to a Courtier of Death... was the Widow in the Web laughing, too? I could feel her moving around in the Underweb vaguely, pulling here and there to do things in other worlds, other places, not really too concerned about me... as if I was already doing the things I was meant to, or really fucking up the things that were supposed to happen to build a new pattern.

Just like Sama and Briggs. Speaking of which...

Specs hooked me up. Sama picked up on the first ring. “Back so soon?” she asked archly.

“It turns out I’m monstrously good at this job, especially with the Mimic boosts.”

She considered that in silence. “How many did you kill, and how many died?” she finally asked.

“Nearly a billion, and over five billion,” I answered with forced calm. “I’ll send you the details. The Magus popped three planets to harvest their faith and souls. I pretty much annihilated the Sovereigns’ fleets and defenses, and shattered the heart of their faith in the Church. It might rebuild, but not at all easily, since now it’s taking the blame instead of the benefits.”

“Well, you’re still billions behind Briggs and I, so don’t feel too awful bad... although getting your first billion that fast is impressive.”

“I’m not even going to look back and see how you did that.”

“He started with the entire colony of Yith who used to live on Terra in pre-history. Interrupted them in their mindjump forwards and burned them into vivus. Gaia really enjoyed that meal, let me tell you. It’s one of the things that allowed us to isolate the Celestial Seed.”

Huh, that was... well, inspired. Survive by stealing the bodies of another race? Well, why don’t you just become food for the planet, instead? “Yeah, well those freaking body-jumpers deserved it.” Really, they did.

“I’ve collapsed a couple dimensions out in Limbo and cracked a few planets. I’m not innocent in any of this. I regret having to do it, but I don’t regret doing it. Welcome to the club. We’ll invite you to the next drinking party. Make sure you bring something that can get all of us drunk.”

“Wisdom from the Null,” I sighed.

“Was it enough to break you into Eternal?” she asked calmly.

“Death gave me a Dreadskull vs Immortals. I think She’s laughing at me. She also made me a Courtier of Death.”

“Briggs and I are, too.”

Wasn’t that all kinds of ominous. They’d killed enough that Death had actually taken the time to seek them out personally, despite them not showing up on Cosmic Awareness.

“What a trio we make,” I muttered...