Year 1: The Genius.
A man stood upon a barren battlefield, pulses of lightning colliding with a dark figure. Not one of those creatures—but far worse. His eyes could make the devil falter.
The man gritted his teeth. Even with his body bloody and his soul near broken, he planted his feet and launched himself toward his own demise.
"Every moment relies on this instance. I will not allow my fallen siblings to be in vain!"
The beeping of the device sent his mind into the past.
Back where all the chaos started.
Ding.
Ding.
DING!
Cosmo's eyes slowly opened as he sat slumped in his lab chair. Rubbing his eyes, he rose and turned to observe the progress on the restrained body of a creature. This was the closest he had gotten to sleep since this nightmare began.
Checking his watch, he muttered, "A full forty-three minutes. Must be a new record. But now is not the time for rest."
He circled the operating table, lasers dissecting every molecular detail of the already brutalized monster. Its corpse had been retrieved by Dawn during one of her nightly patrols.
A voice rang through the halls. "I'M BACK!"
Speak of the devil, and she shall appear.
Dawn walked in, bloodied, healing magic barely holding the corrosion back from her arm.
"Were you successful?" Cosmo asked impatiently.
"What do you think?" She slammed a small box onto the table—six vials of corrosive saliva rattling inside.
"Good. Put it in the scanner; it'll break down the molecular structure."
"Whatever you say." She carefully loaded the vials into a high-tech scanner, which poured the samples into testing tubes. Lasers danced over the liquid, analyzing every shift.
"Why did you need it anyway?"
"I'm trying to reverse engineer the substance. If I can create my own variation, we might finally combat these things. Corpses stop producing saliva after two hours—worthless without fresh samples."
Dawn smirked. "Right. I almost forgot you were a mad scientist."
"Better than going in blind against creatures that put demons to shame."
"Fair enough. Have you finally gotten on speaking terms with Gold?"
Cosmo went silent.
"You have to stop being so stubborn, for father's sake. You're worse than Red."
"I've tried," Cosmo muttered. "We just see things differently."
"He's prioritizing people. You hate it."
"I don't hate it. I'm logical. Pouring resources into masses that still die a month later? Wasteful."
"Is it wasteful to save a life?"
"It's cruel to give false hope just to watch them die. Any afterlife is better than this hell."
"Except we don't know which afterlife it is. Heaven, Hell, every faction—gone. Those souls are lost… or worse."
Cosmo paused, voice softer. "… I wish I could help them. Father knows I do. But the lab is where I'm needed. I'm not as strong as the others. If I can just do what I'm good at—maybe I can crack the code of these monstrosities."
"And that's why I keep reporting to you."
"You'd better."
"Pushing your luck?"
"Just testing the waters. You act as if I'm an emotionless wreck."
"You act as if you are."
They chuckled at the banter before the scanner chimed.
Ding.
Dawn leaned forward. "Is it finished?"
Cosmo froze at the screen, his eyes widening. "… Great. Just fucking great."
"What is it?"
"I don't know."
"What do you mean, you don't know!?"
"It's not one substance—it's all of them. Ever-changing. Designed to break down any material it touches."
"But it's in the—"
"Yes," Cosmo cut her off. "I invented a material it cannot break through. But unless you want to shoot fragile glass pellets at them, or wear glass armor, be my guest."
"…"
"I'll have to account for its shifting nature when creating a counter." He began pacing, rambling.
"Cosmo."
He ignored her.
"Cosmo!"
Still nothing.
"COSMO!"
Finally, he snapped. "What!?"
"It's dissolving!"
He turned just in time to see the saliva mutate, eating through the reinforced vials.
"Damn it." He slammed a button. The compromised vials dropped into the cluster of black holes for disposal.
"Thank you," Dawn muttered, annoyed.
Cosmo rolled his eyes and turned back to the restrained creature. It was still strange. Not just the eldritch horror itself, but the fact that it betrayed its own nature, or at least what we know of it. Others persisted even in death, only destroyed when utterly obliterated. This one… was different.
He remembered the older Time Council files—some creatures once displayed these anomalies. Survivors from an earlier generation? Perhaps. But that thought only raised another question.
Why? Why did they adapt like software patches—who was pulling the strings?
In hindsight, he should have destroyed the thing. Yet the scientist in him couldn't resist the puzzle. Every step forward only opened another maze, deeper and more twisted than the last.
Three months had passed since he first acquired it. Many times, he nearly destroyed it in frustration. But preservation was the key—he kept searching for the door.
"Here." He handed Dawn six fresh vials.
"I thought they didn't work anymore. With the whole ever-changing substance thing."
"I reinforced them. Enhanced them."
"… Honestly, your science feels more and more like magic."
"Good thing you can tell the difference, Champion."
She smirked, grabbing the vials. "I'll be back."
"I know."
She vanished into the void, wings disappearing into the black holes. Cosmo leaned back in his chair, exhaustion clawing at him. A water bottle splash kept him awake. He couldn't rest—not yet.
His gaze locked on a screen. Red's picture, stamped MISSING in crimson.
The screen shifted. Violet. The same word beneath. Then another. And another.
Cosmo's eyes burned with fatigue, endless concern flickering in them. Still, he worked.
He could not stop.
Not until he uncovered the truth.
Year 1: The Mage.
Dawn flies through the void at high speeds, using her energy to boost herself through the cold abyss. "Alright, it shouldn't take too long. After all, these guys are everywhere."
She notices a pretty barren planet covered in ruins. "This could be it." She tries to sense the energy of the planet, but her attention is grabbed by a nearby energy source a few galaxies away, along with the sight of lightning. She instantly rockets off there, accidentally dropping the box in her rush, and freezes at the sight of what she sees.
Blue is bloodied and battered, with chunks and bits of his dark armor skin breaking off, revealing his bright blue fur splattered with his blood as he gasps. Dawn can tell with a glance that he's holding on by a thread. Even death falls to adaptation, which means—no, she can't think about that right now; she has to help Blue.
She crashes down on one of the creatures with an intense magical output. Blue looks down, a bit shocked, but he can't afford to live at the moment as he parries a creature's claws away and dodges its corrosive spit.
Dawn is blitzed by two of the creatures as one of them knees her in the gut and the other grabs her torso and throws her through the void. "They're faster than normal; it must be their attempt to adapt to Blue's speed." She uses a boost of energy to blast herself up before casting an incantation.
"Stars of hope, vision of death, shining—" she's interrupted by one of the creatures slashing her across the gut and then throwing her into Blue's path, causing him to slow down to catch her, giving an opening to stab Blue through the eye and blasting him away.
Dawn looks up and sees what happened and quickly acts, using her feet to blast the creatures through the gut as she puts a palm on Blue's eye, invoking life energy to regenerate his eye and some of his wounds. Blue says, "Finish your incantation."
Dawn nods in agreement as energy engulfs them both as Blue speeds around her, keeping the creatures from getting to her as she heightens the potency of the spell.
"Stars of Hope." Stars form in her energy as she continues. Blue slashes three of the creatures in half, but they just use it as an opportunity to double in numbers, and now 10,006 are coming at him.
"Vision of Death." A dark and eerie energy engulfs her energy, with the stars shining in the darkness. One of the creatures slips past Blue and tries to decapitate Dawn, only inches away, but Blue shoots lightning, turning its hand to ash as he slices it to atoms and continues.
"Shining center." An orb floats in the middle of her soul, shining through her body, illuminating the void, and blinding the creatures, but Blue continues like it's nothing as the creatures' eyes start to adapt.
"Hands of Intelligence." Dawn's hands are engulfed with an energy forming like technology, enhancing her energy output.
"Mothers Champion." The purest form of energy forms around her with a crushing weight, even causing her own soul to crack under its weight. Blue dashes away at full speed. Dawn lets out a war cry before releasing all of her energy at once, causing a massive beam to shoot through the cosmos, obliterating all the creatures.
Blue stops and sees the beam go past him with pulsating energy vibrating through the cosmos. "That's enough, Dawn!" Dawn stops as the energy dies out. "We don't want to attract anymore—" Blue is suddenly pierced through the heart by a creature only halfway obliterated and adapting to the energy. Blue coughs blood in shock. "It masked its energy with the energy of the beam!" He summons his scythe to him, but it's too late as it slashes his body in half.
Blue looks to Dawn who's coming but is heavily drained after that attack. Blue holds onto the strength he has left and grabs the creature quickly and raises his voltage to the point it's charring his own skin and soul. "How about return the favor, you bastard." He unleashes all his lightning at once as he pulls the creature in half and incinerates it.
He gasps as he passes out. Dawn finally arrives and grabs Blue's upper body. "No, shit!" She blasts off to Cosmo's lab. "Please, go faster!"
Year 1: The Prodigy.
A golden man with black accents dashes through a broken city, with each step holding the weight of the world. His form is steady and unbroken, as if he was made for this.
He jumps up, soaring through the wind as he strikes a creature with shattering force, protecting hiding civilians. He lands and quickly says, "If you all hurry northeast of here, there will be an escape route guarded by angels and protected by holy light. Hurry there, I promise none of these creatures will follow you."
His voice is steady, calm, and comforting. It's easy to tell where Red gets it from. They all rush away in that direction as Gold grabs the hand of a creature trying to lunge at them. He uppercuts it, shattering its jaw, then punches it into the ground as a light emanates from his fist, obliterating the creature.
One of them tries to crash down on his back, but as it crushes the ground, the thing sees nothing. Behind it, Gold's eyes illuminate as he right hooks it in the head, sending it rocketing down the street, making sure it avoids buildings and cars in case of any potential civilians he missed.
He jumps over to it, clasping his hands together and slamming them into its spine, cratering the ground. He lifts it up by the back of its head, about to obliterate it before he gets a call on his earpiece. Gold double taps it to answer the call as the creature struggles and screeches, but his grip is now firm around its neck with an energy muzzle to keep it from spitting corrosive saliva on him.
"What's next."
Cosmo responds, "Hello, Gold."
"Unless you've come to your senses, lose my line."
"Look, I'm still not willing to go full in on saving civilians, but I will provide your group with the necessary technology and materials."
"What is your end goal, and don't bother playing dumb, I know how you think." Gold walks through the city, looking around for any more creatures as he drags the one he holds as it struggles.
"I just need you to come back."
"For what? Last chance, Cosmo."
"Red is missing."
". . ." Gold stops in shock, his mind now at a stand still like a deer in headlights.
"I get we don't always see eye to eye, but we need to band together, just this once."
He snaps the creature's neck and then obliterates it with holy light. "I'll be there, as soon as I can."
"Thank yo—" Suddenly, an explosion erupts outside Cosmo's lab, breaking off his communications.
"Cosmo?! COSMO!? DAMMIT!" Gold tries to fly off, but he notices a trail of blood. He weighs his options for a second before rushing towards the blood as it looks fresh.
Gold finds a child bleeding out, injured from one of the creatures. Gold grabs her and carries her on his back and uses holy light to close the wounds and keep her heart beating. "Stay with me, kiddo, we'll be out of this before you know it." Gold flies as fast as he can without damaging the child's vital organs.
Gold's blood runs cold as he sees stars flying towards the planet. "No, not them! Not now!" He tries to get to the evacuation spot but is cut off by a relatively big warrior of iron. Gold tries to fly around it, but even with its weight, it's somehow just as swift as it is big. He strikes it, but it barely budges as it strikes back, sending Gold flying back into a building.
As the dust settles, it shows Gold cradling the child in his arms as he looks forward with his golden eyes shining through the dust with determination. "Archon."
An angel forms beside him as Gold hands him the child. "Take the child, I can handle this waste of parts."
"Gold, we can assist you—"
"No, I'm the only one who can do any meaningful damage, but with you all on this planet you'll hold me back. Just go to the evacuation site and move them all off the planet and very far away."
"Yes sir." He disappears, and soon he can feel all of their energies disappear in holy light.
"Finally." Gold cracks his neck and then raises both of his arms out into the sky to hold the stars in his hands. He then suddenly rips his hands down as energy explodes around him with endless intensity, even more than Dawn's incantation.
He launches himself forward and punches straight through the robot. He rips his hand out, and it explodes in a golden light. He knows this is no time for rest, as there is more landing all around him.
"I'll reduce all of you down to your true form of scraps."
He powers up and his energy shines through the galaxy as he readies himself for battle. He plants his feet and grits his teeth as his energy is filled with nothing but rage as these machines move forward, yet he only worries about his siblings.
Year 1: Death in the Family.
Cosmo loses his grip as he stumbles, his entire lab shaking from attacks all over. They've found him. He opens his security cameras and sees portals outside his lab with creatures flowing out.
"Impossible! How could they have found me? Dawn covers her tracks even with her clumsiness, and I haven't left this place forever—the only possible factor is—" Suddenly it becomes clear as he stares at the body on the operating table.
"Computer: scan for any abnormalities."
The computer runs an in-depth sweep but finds nothing. "Check for any and all frequencies, no matter how low." The machine checks again and dings, showing energy lines through the entire lab leaking out.
"How long has this been happening?"
The computer scans the room for any leftover residue of energy before saying, "Three months."
His eyes widened. He slams his fist against the table. "Activate all defenses. Release every countermeasure and put out the right energy frequency to deactivate those portals."
Thoughts swarm his mind. Fuck. I knew something was wrong. I should've done a better check. But if they knew I was here for three months, why did they never strike? I must've been right—they aren't acting fully on instinct. Someone else must be pulling the strings. They must've gathered all the information they needed, but what could they have needed…
His heart stops cold at the realization. They needed us separated. They must not have known where the other godchildren are, so they must've been biding their time, waiting for him to find them. But I haven't found Blue yet—I haven't found Blue…
He brings up Dawn's earpiece. Dawn picks up, "Cosmo!"
"Did you find Blue!?"
"Yes, he's in critical condition—I'm rushing back to your lab now!"
"DON'T—" Cosmo's command shocks Dawn; her energy falters as she stops mid-flight.
"Why?" she asks.
"They've found me, but not you. Whoever is behind this is counting on you returning!"
"What about you?" she cries.
"Don't worry about me. I'll figure out a way out with an escape pod. Just get away from here as fast as you can!" He hangs up, but Dawn won't abandon her brother that easily.
Cosmo freezes, turning back to the creature's dead body on the operating table. He aims his guns at it and steps back. For a few seconds, he thinks it's a false alarm. Then its finger twitches.
He starts firing.
The creature rips the operating systems apart as it jumps to dodge the bullets. Normally this wouldn't be possible—but after months in stasis it has adapted to everything in its surroundings, even Cosmo's thinking patterns. He kicks up one of the steel beams that fell and launches it through the creature's head. Even if it knew how he thinks, it hasn't seen his instincts in battle.
He teleports in front of it and blasts its entire upper body off before hurling its legs into the black hole. Cosmo stays where he is and notices the lack of noise outside his lab. Then he hears banging on the outer walls as claws and collective force tear through plaster and steel.
"Computer: status of outside defenses."
"Destroyed."
"Arm all inside defenses."
"Inside defenses are armed."
He steadies his breath and keeps his eyes on the main point of banging. It stops—then multiple claws strike through the wall, using their combined strength to rip a hole wider. "Fire."
Lasers, blasts, and beams of many energy types pour out at the creatures. Some are ineffective; others rip them apart. The computer takes note, switching energy profiles to find what works best. Bullets, explosives, anything that can slow them down is launched to keep them from getting too deep. Cosmo fires rapid rounds, blowing massive chunks off and letting the defense systems finish the remains before they can adapt and regenerate.
He knows this cannot go on forever. He's stalling until the portals close so he can make his escape.
"Defenses at 57%."
"Noted. Not much time left."
"Sir— all portals neutralized."
"Good timing."
"It wasn't me, sir."
". . . Dammit—she didn't—"
"She did."
Dawn flies like a comet through the collapsing portals, destabilizing them as she tears through the chaos. The computer recognizes her signature and stops targeting her. "I made it!" she calls. She flies inside, ripping through a handful of creatures before landing in front of Cosmo.
Cosmo, glad and furious at once, knocks her upside the head and then embraces her. "Dammit, I told you to stay back!"
She laughs. "You know, we godchildren are stubborn when it comes to who we love."
"Defenses at 34%."
"We have to go."
"Wait—Blue won't survive long like this."
"I have medical supplies in the escape pod. Let's go!"
They sprint for an escape pod as the computer counts down, "25%."
Cosmo shoves Blue into a pod, then is kicked in, and the hatch slams shut. "Code 097."
"Code recognized. All pods are permanently locked."
Cosmo bangs on the pod door desperately. "What are you doing! GET IN HERE!"
"You're smart enough to know how that'll play out," Dawn replies, calm in the face of annihilation.
"17%."
"Seventeen percent left—we'll be dead before we can make it five AUs away."
"Gold's on his way! We can make it!"
"Gold's not Blue, and with Blue out of commission, you'll need to tend to his wounds. So either way, that just leaves me."
She smiles, steady and resolute. "I'm just speeding up the process. I'll see you on the other side, my brothers. Tell Gold and Red—I wish we had more time."
Her tears fall as she presses the launch. The pod shoots into the abyss of space.
"DAWN!!!!" Cosmo screams—his old composure gone, replaced by raw, helpless grief. He claws at the pod like a frightened cat.
Dawn watches the pod vanish and turns back. "Computer."
"Yes?"
"Percentage?"
"Ten percent."
"Alright. It's been a damn good time working with you. Allow us to go out with a bang."
"Yes, we shall."
She rushes into the inferno, chain-exploding creatures with each strike. Surrounding explosions and her own energy create what she sees as a heavenly burial site. A creature stabs her through the heart, another drives a blade into her shoulder, the last severs her legs. They hold her aloft like a trophy.
Dawn smirks, blood spilling. She presses a thumb to her chest. "Soul Burst."
A colossal burst of energy shreds the creatures away.
Soul Burst, a well known technique mainly taught to the highest level of heavens soldiers, the seraphim, and the god children. This technique allows what is their version of adrenaline, gifting them strength normally locked away in the depths of their soul. Numbing pain, and directing all flow of energy into the soul, usually destroying the vessel they call a body.
Most of the arsenal fades; seventy percent of their systems have either run out of ammo or been destroyed.
"Computer… self-destruct."
"Self-destruct sequence activated."
"10." She watches the horde converge.
"9." Time slows. Her perception dilates.
"8." Energy swells inside her.
"7." Her soul fractures more—piece by piece.
"6." She forces her energy outward, destroying her body, leaving only her astral form.
"5." Waves of force sweep creatures into oblivion, but not enough.
"4." An orb of energy forms, lashing out energy whips quicker, keeping the mass at bay.
"3." Memories flood in; acceptance settles.
"2." Regrets and faces—Gold, Blue, Red—flash in her mind. I should've spent more time with you all.
"I'm so sorry."
"1." "It's like Gold says: grit your teeth, plant your feet, and RAGE!! Cosmo, Gold, Blue! Find Red!"
"0."
The lab detonates. The explosion erases everything inside, but Dawn's blast dwarfs it, expanding outward and incinerating surrounding hordes. In the distance, Cosmo sees the bloom of the explosion take the shape of an Ecuador Rose, with the same colors of the sun at dawn.
The blast grows, threatening to engulf them—but Blue, still clinging to life inside the pod, infuses his remaining energy into the vessel. The pod surges, outrunning the expanding explosion.
"Blue," Cosmo whispers as he tends to the wound and powers the pod. Ten agonizing minutes pass before they clear the blast's reach. They sit in silence for fourteen hours as Cosmo performs a surgery on blue to save his soul.
At last, a gold light pierces the void. Gold, wounded and bloodied, rips the hatch open and reveals Cosmo and Blue—Dawn is gone.
"Where's Dawn?" Gold asks, voice hollow.
". . ." Cosmo cannot find an answer.
"You saw it also… I know you did." Gold collapses into the pod, both furious and shattered by failure.
"I'm so sorry," Cosmo mutters, shame thick in his voice—he didn't expect forgiveness.
. . .
"It's not your fault," Gold says after a long, broken pause. "Just looking in your eyes… I can tell how it played out."
"I should've done something. I should've had more contingencies. All I had to do was a more in-depth search."
"There is only one path now," Gold replies. "The past is set. Stow your sadness. Even you know what must be done."
Cosmo stares into the view beyond the pod: a glorious black hole, cold and immense. He steadies himself, with his soul hardened like steel.
"I'll murder the bastard behind this."
"If you don't— I will."
They look outward in silence. "Do you have any idea where to go next?"
Cosmo thinks. "Before Red disappeared, he mentioned something about a shadow realm. It's about time we paid them a well-overdue visit."