(Aden's P.O.V)

My hand lowered, Equity going slack along my left leg.

I sighed, floating down to the ground. A ground that was literally littered with body parts and blood.

"Well someone did a thorough job."

Chaos commented.

"That was barely a work out."

I rolled my shoulder.

"I kind of feel cheated actually. They died so quickly."

"Wow, Champ. You just took down two entire pantheons and you're complaining about it not being enough of a workout for you?"

As expected Chaos was there to squash my budding arrogance to smithereens. I rolled my eyes.

"You know what I meant by that."

The blackened ground crunched under my feet as I landed. I frowned, looking around at the massacre carried out by my hands.

"And you're not entirely correct. Two Pantheons with a few key figures missing sounds about right. I didn't see Set, Amhit, Khonsu or Ra himself and besides, Olurun the sky father of the Vodu pantheon was absent as well. Osiris and Bast seemed to be the ones in charge. We all know how that turned out."

"There's still one alive."

Chaos informed me. My eyes swept around the surroundings before honing onto a huge Gorilla a few meters away from the edge of the cavern.

"That, my dear dark side, was by design."

I responded to Chaos.

"Oh, I see. You let him live so that he could answer your questions."

Chaos intuited.

"You're almost correct." I answered walking towards Hanuman, who laid on the ground unconscious.

"Why waste time asking questions, when I can just read his mind? Without Mawi or Mawu or whatever her name was, there's no one blocking my telepathy."

I stopped before the Gorilla, who was easily the size of Grodd but with a darker fur and crouched.

He was breathing shallowly.

"Out like a light."

Chaos observed, materializing next to me from Equity.

I extended a hand out and touched Hanuman's forehead. Immediately something hard slammed onto my own mental walls. I brushed off the attempt quite easily despite being caught off guard.

'I..can...see you.'

A whisper that seemed to come from everywhere made it's way to our ears.

I retracted my fingers, scrambling for Equity while jumping to my feet.

"What the fuck was that?"

Chaos asked, his body changing into a dark shadow with multiple limbs holding dozens of Equity copies. We stood back to back in preparation.

"Maybe we missed one of the gods?"

Chaos offered.

"I don't..."

I begun to say, carefully surveying the quiet landscape before feeling something was amiss. I looked at the ground and saw a carpet of darkness that seemed to rush towards us. My response was to raise a foot and stomp it down onto the soot covered terrain. Purple flames rippled out of the contact while the ground cratered below me.

There was a hiss and Chaos jostled my shoulder.

"The Gorilla is gone."

The statement made me look towards Hanuman's body and frown. He had just disappeared. There was no noise or discharge of power.

"I know it's night and call me crazy but isn't it just a little too dark?"

He asked and upon closer look, he was right. Different from the carpet of darkness that had come towards us, this darkness seemed to dull not only light but even thought. I could feel a sluggishness try to hold onto my mind and fail. The source seemed to be...

"The Cavern!"

I shouted, looking at the almost tangible darkness pouring in from the depths of the hole left behind after rescuing Geb.

"Let's move!"

I leaned forward and blurred, Chaos taking a ride on my shadow. Before I could make it past the edge of the deep hole, a pillar of darkness exploded out of it, forming up into a huge western black dragon.

"Not something you see everyday."

By now I was convinced that the answers to my questions were all inside the hole.

The fact that a construct made of darkness tried to stop me was indication enough. Red blazing eyes stared down at me with a cruel glint. It opened it's mouth and from within came black fire, pouring out. I let the black flames land, only for the ground below me to disintegrate into fine ash. As for me? The fire breath died out and I came out of the dust cloud not a hair out of place.

"You call that a flame attack? Let me show you real fire."

My body grew in shape, the fine ornate robes getting pulverized into nothingness as I exposed my flame god form for the first time in this universe. My hair changed to flames that danced in the air by some unseen force. My body turned golden with flames covering my elbows, knees and ankles.

Black shorts covered my groin but not much else remained of my clothes.

"This is how you perform a flame breath."

My chest bunched up, heat twisting around and surging up from my belly to my chest cavity, then through my mouth.

(Elsewhere)

"Stop the Talon fighter!"

T'Challa ordered. The aircraft came to a steady stop in the air. They had just crossed the last of the Jabari mountains and before them lay a forest that eventually gave way to the capital city and palace. Further away was the river tribe's settlement. Or rather there had been. Aden's fight had ensured that.

"My goodness..."

Okoye remarked. All their eyes were on the second sun that seemed to light up the night sky even from the huge distance.

"I think we should head back, my prince."

Okoye advised T'Challa.

"This was only meant to be a scout expedition. Your father would not be pleased if you were put in harm's way."

T'Challa sighed, knowing that she was right.

As the light from the massive pillar of fire died out, he had come to a decision.

"No, we keep on course. Fly in slowly."

He needed to know if the legacy of the Black Panther was still there. The Vibranium made Wakanda what she was, a force to be reckoned with. The Black Panther was the symbol of that force as well as her swift hammer of justice. And there could not be a black panther without the heart shaped flower.

They needed to do this. Even if the risk was too great.

(Aden's P.O.V)

"I think you overdid it."

Chaos commented, seeing the destruction past the cavern. If earlier the whole area had seemed like the impact site of a bomb, now it looked like how you would expect an underwater lava lake to do.

Wide chasms past the dark cavern where the dragon had been, had emerged from the destroyed landscape, spewing noxious gases and a river of hot viscous liquid made up of melted rock.

No tree remained. The river had dried up and Wakanda was no more the beauty I saw, when coming in.

"Yeah. Maybe just a little."

I admitted. There was nothing left of the dragon construct though, so not all bad news.

"Time to take the plunge before news choppers and military from the surrounding nations decide to investigate the lightshow from earlier."

I told my companion before taking a step and falling into the deep hole. Instantly, the temperature went down.

Take into account that I was still in my Flame God form and yet I felt the chill ran down my spine.

"Can you feel that?"

Chaos asked after falling for a few seconds.

"It's get colder the more I descend. Not regular cold either. This is a chill that goes deeper and touches upon the soul."

"And that energy..."

Chaos let the statement hung.

"It's spirit power. My own, corrupted by something else."

"I guess we now know for sure that there was someone behind the gods."

He responded, just as I felt the ground approaching fast.

I landed with a boom, crouching a little in a Superman pose.

"Really?"

Chaos questioned.

"Hey I've always wanted to try that."

Sucks to be him, not understanding the coolness of a good superhero landing.

The walls of the cavern were not what I was expecting. As I rose from my pose, they started glowing with light, purple and white. Two very familiar colors.

"Aden, that's..."

"Chaoum and Ordium, both full of spirit energy. Like a battery."

(General P.O.V)

"Is this how the gods were stealing your power?"

Chaos asked and while there was a possibility that that was actually true, it didn't answer everything.

"Maybe but something tells me that is not the whole story."

"And you would be right."

Aden made no outward reaction at the new voice. Chaos formed out of his shadow to stand next to him, a serious look on his face. Except for the black hair and purple eyes, he looked exactly like Aden. Smoke obscured the lowered portion of his body, causing him to seem half tangible and half formless.

"That voice."

Aden muttered.

"It's the whisper from before." Chaos told him, eyes scanning the glowing chamber.

"You were right. There was someone in the shadows."

Aden concluded.

"Naturally."

The voice stated, clearer this time. Aden thought it sounded like Anthony Hopkins in his Hannibal character, cultured, low and menacing.

"Oh, thank you."

The voice spoke up, shocking both Aden and Chaos at seemingly having his thoughts read.

"Oh hahaha..." The voice begun laughing sinisterly.

"You are in my domain, Aden Strong. I see you...all of you!"

Aden made eye contact with Chaos and both of them turned around cautiously. Aden found out that he couldn't feel any presence near them yet...

"Don't bother looking. You won't find me. Not here."

The voice told them.

"Who are you?"

Chaos questioned.

"Wrong question. The right one would be 'how do we get out of here?' to which I would be required by my honor to tell the truth and say...Never."

"Cut the crap."

Aden shouted at the bare cave walls.

"We both know you cannot hold us captive. Nothing can."

It wasn't arrogance, just unadulterated confidence.

There was a brief silence.

"Well, you don't scare easy now do you, Aden Strong?"

"Try to find out what is special about this room, I will keep him talking."

Aden spoke to Chaos through his soul bond. If the Voice could read his mind, then he would simply communicate through his soul. For added measure, he immediately made himself forget the memory, just as Chaos unravelled into darkness and joined his shadow.

"Where did your little friend go?"

The voice enquired with a note of suspicion. Aden shrugged.

"I don't know, I'm not his master... actually that's not true." He shook his head, not actually knowing where Chaos had gone off to, but trusting in him nonetheless.

"No matter, this conversation is about over anyway. Any last words before you meet me, your end?"

Aden almost rolled his eyes at the dumb one liner. He stomped down on his annoyance.

"Just one. Are you like, the final boss?"

"Huh?"

The voice was stumped. Aden continued,

"Yeah, you know because I'm getting exhausted with all this cloak and dagger stuff. It would be an immense relief if there wasn't like another big bad behind you, pulling the strings and influencing your actions like you did with the gods. I would like to know if you're it. I'm hoping you are, I have a training Montage to get back to, you see."

All the voice could say once again was,

"Huh?"