The uniform covering my back melted away, and I pulled on the Underweb.

If Mikaboshi was frightened, pissed, and worried when he was Bound so securely, I imagined his fright went right off the scales when the first massive leg thrust upwards out of the Tattoo upon my back, and arched down to drive with terrible delicacy upon the stones of the demon’s temple.

Ephemeral as shadow, more real than night...

More legs thrust out and up, long and deadly, and then the body followed, swollen and bulbous. The false space imploded and was sucked right into Her as She materialized, the temple literally disintegrating around us as it was fed into the reality She and She alone represented.

“No...” whispered the demon, as eight gleaming red eyes with neither pity nor mercy fixated upon it. Poison that could burn through a firmament dripped from ink-like jaws, and the great crimson hourglass pulsed like hot blood.

Shadowy strings still bound Her to the Tat on my back, and I didn’t move as She took exactly one step forward, looming over the Void-born demon, a thing that could grow to eventually threaten all the universe if left unchecked.

It had given us an excuse to kill it, and we had taken it.

With amazing speed and delicacy, silken strands reached out and wove around the burning ball with darkness at its center. In the center of every Suit Binding it, a red hourglass suddenly manifested.

Did the red eyes gleam suddenly in appreciation? Who knew?

Deftly, silks spun to entrap divine prey wrapped about the burning cage of the demon, unharmed by the Flames of the Faltine. The squealing, screaming demon was brought up before the dripping fangs, the Binding turned over for close inspection, and the Widow in the Web took one step back.

Her body poured back down into my Tat, Her legs releasing their hold on our reality one by one and following after. The grey outlines on my back returning to jet and crimson once more, and, if anything, were even darker than before.

I exhaled softly as the Tat fully reformed, and the Widow in the Web was gone. I flicked a finger, and spatial magic whisked me away, just a second before Master Logan and the others could catch sight of me through the trees.

---

“Do I even want to know what that was?” Master Logan asked, trotting up next to the masked Dealer, followed by all the warriors.

All about them was almost pristine wilderness, only the occasional odd piece of a column or archway that had fallen through spatial cracks giving any clue that a hidden Temple of the Hand had once been linked here.

They’d only been able to sense a massive and predatory Presence, not see what was going on, and had realized that if they approached, they were going to be meals, too.

“Something for you all to remember...” Dealer replied calmly, arching an eyebrow at the way her fingers couldn’t stop trembling.

“Things of the Dark, that seek to consume light and all of Creation, returning all to darkness and entropy, are, in the end, nothing but fuel for the rebirth, becoming the very thing they hate the most.

“They are the logs and the tinder for the next cycle of rebirth, and naturally there are creatures that can prey upon them, for in their own hateful way, they are the very richest of meals.

“One of those creatures that can feast on them is the Widow in the Web.

“Now, I don’t advocate any of you ever, ever Summoning Her up unless you’ve got something really, really good to eat in front of Her, or she’s going to eat all of you, too, and maybe a whole lot more.

“You were brought here to fight the Hand, but that’s not what this fight was about. This fight was, in the end, about getting rid of Mikaboshi. Your fighting and killing its mortal followers enraged the demon into manifesting, and so I could Bind it and Seal it... and thence, offer it to the Widow in the Web.” Dealer took a long breath. “She accepted it, and departed. The demon is going to spend a good deal of time getting sucked dry by the Widow, and whatever it has taken into its void cut free.

“Well done.” She winced as she thought of something, clasping her hands together to stop the trembling. “Master Logan, how many Hand Clans are there?”

“Huh.” He looked away, frowning. “Eight more, I think?” He looked back, and names floated up from those behind him as they recalled the lessons of their teachers. “Yeah. Although that doesn’t mean there isn’t one hidden enough we don’t know about it,” he admitted after a moment.

“I imagine they are going to be searching very hard for everyone and everything that was responsible for the death of one of their Clans and Patrons.” She smiled slightly, moving her hands apart and flexing fingers now under control. “Let’s get you all back home without leaving any traces, I shall Obfuscate the area, and leave them wondering. If anyone asks, you went out for a short walk.”

Cards flashed into existence around her and sped out to hit the warriors, mending wounds, restoring Soak, and most importantly fixing all their attire, so they weren’t spattered by blood, gore, and ash.

“Let ‘em wonder,” growled Master Logan. “No words about this. I’ll report up to the Grandmasters, not a soul learns otherwise.”

“Yes, Master Logan!” they all responded promptly, and like that, a Great House of the Hand and its demonic Patron faded into the shadows of history...

-----------

Time Passes...

By the time I opened my eyes, it was too late to do anything about them. The streams of energy were already past LaGrange, and had driven into the planet, gouging great ravines into the landscape that plunged right down into the volcanic mantle. Three hundred-some people randomly caught in the path of the energy bolts from on high had been atomized, and there was nothing we could do about it.

I ‘ported outside and was at half-light speed a second later, two seconds later in orbit over the planet, looking down at Northam and the molten hundred-meter lines scrawled across the landscape below.

Primus zipped up next to me. “Awareness blanked?” he asked, as Callie joined us a second later.

“No. Did something like this happen on your vacation?” I had to ask.

“No. There are major differences in how certain key events resolved on our world, and I would definitely remember something like this. Although...” he stroked his bearded chin, “I did have to move the planet a couple times. It is entirely possible they... missed?”

“Recognize the language?”

“That’s writing?” Callie murmured, frowning. “Someone used an energy attack of that magnitude to write on the planet?” she asked incredulously.

“It’s Low Celestial,” Sersi said through my lips. “A declaration of ownership, or war. Similar to ‘I claim this world – TERMINUS.’”

“Is that so?” Primus murmured, turning around and looking back in the direction the energy bolts had come from. His Mask deployed across his face, glowing with Prime power. “There is a star there, about a hundred light years away, in that direction. I don’t see any weapons at a closer range that could have done this...”

I looked back along that path, and my Cosmic Awareness leapt along the backtrail. “Good instincts. The beams were fired from a weapon with cosmic-class power on that world, Arianis Major, which has been reduced to a blackened ruin. It used to be an inhabited planet.” I had to frown. “That has to be an act of extraordinary arrogance or ignorance. To hit a target from that distance requires incredible control and awareness. They should have been able to sense Celestials here, and the words are clearly mocking them. Is this something that thinks it can take on a Celestial?”

Both Primus and Callie hissed despite themselves. “I never confronted a Celestial personally,” Primus admitted, “even if we had the Stones to fend them off. Something that could fight one is going to take out the planet under normal circumstances.”

“The source of the energy is obfuscating itself with cosmic power, but that is just creating a lump of invisibility as it moves. It followed the energy blasts after finishing up its devastation of the world there. Primus, I’m pretty sure you should be able to see it along the backtrail. Should be about four light-days out. It’s using some sort of spatial folding to exceed light speed. I’m guessing it finished up ravaging the planet before coming here.”

“Focusing...” He shared his view via Marklink, and I nudged it towards the right line. “There it is.”

“That looks like an armored mech about a hundred feet tall. It’s using the long lance for propulsion, following the beam. The head of the being revealed is organic, so either of immense size or of massive cranial development, at least. Organic metal suit, but nowhere near the size or sophistication of Celestial tech.” He paused a moment. “There’s no chance this thing is a threat to a Celestial. That lance might be powerful, sure, but there’s just no possibility of it being a threat to one.”

“But to us?” I asked, studying the thing. “The interference is coming off the lance. The weapon is more dangerous than the creature. I think it’s a power source for the lance, is all.”

The Lantern’s head came up on coms. “I’ve diked the Mississippi River for the moment, so it isn’t getting drained into the canyons. Are we filling them back in and reversing this, or doing something else?” the red-skinned Zhuli asked.

Cubic miles of earth had been gouged out of the continent when making those damn beams, each stroke a hundred yards wide and the writing spanning literally thousands of miles as it cut across all in its path.

Mostly Tribal lands, too, with less than a quarter of it cutting across and into Tennessee and Indiana. Still, it had chopped apart entire regions, severing roads, tracks, and waterways with equal disdain.

-What’s the call, Sama?- I /asked. Ben Parker could reverse all but the deaths and restore everything to pristine easily.

-I would like to leave it as a warning sign, but there’s too much ecological disruption due to the length of the writing. Mr. Parker, if you could restore the landscaping, we’d be obliged.-

-Happy to be of help, ma’am,- he /replied, and invisible power reached out and down into the molecules that formed all things. Disintegrated matter reformed and returned to as it was, the great gouging display of arrogance filled in nigh as rapidly as it had been written. The chasms made by the merciless beams of energy were quickly gone, the waters that had fallen out of them returned smoothly to their courses, as were the unfortunate creatures who had fallen with them.

Lantern let his golden constructs fade as the land rose back up on both sides of the Mississippi, before the gaping eyes of thousands of people who had gathered to watch what was going on. There was sort of a spontaneous cheer as it did so, but notably none of the buildings or artificial things like roads were rebuilt as it happened.

-We’ll send out word that the magic of the Earthmother healed the little burns on her skin,- Sama /sniffed, and even Ben Parker laughed softly at that. -Now, this incoming twit. Do you want to handle it, or should I?-

-Planet-destroyers like this deserve nothing. This thing has killed at least a thousand life-bearing worlds, for no reason other than spite. It has no purpose but destruction, and thus no reason to exist,- I /supplied. -I think we can crack it, Sama. That lance might be useful, but I think that’s an organic metal it’s using. It’ll all have to be vaped to get rid of the thing.-

Couldn’t have living metal go reassembling itself and come back in the Annual, after all...