Chapter 374: Remnant of Loss

26th April 2015, Remnant

(Selene Gallio POV)

As the man started to stab her beloved, Selene did the only thing she could and replaced herself with her wife. She felt the blinding pain where the attack happened, and felt the destructive energy spread throughout her body. But she wasn't afraid. For the first time, she wasn't afraid of Death. Instead, she looked at the love of her life, the woman that she caused more pain to than any enemy of hers, and she remembered the beautiful moments they shared, the love they experienced, and she realized that her sacrifice was worth it.

The last thing she ever saw before she turned into dust was the anguished look her wife gave her, and all she could offer in return was a soft smile.

(Jasmine Sayre POV)

I stared at the decomposing body of the woman who used to be my wife, and I just didn't know what to do, or what to feel. Ever since my ascension to a Celestial, I have had a hard time processing my emotions, and before seeing Selene's cold body on the ground, I was reasonably sure that I had lost all pretense of humanity anymore.

Then why did it hurt so much? This woman had betrayed me, smashed my heart and my trust for some kind of selfish ambition that backfired. She literally turned me into another person, after thousands of years of love and trust that we shared.

Even if I had any humanity left, seeing her die should have made me feel vindicated, like I was avenged. No, like the woman I used to be, that was betrayed and killed by the wife she loved so much, was avenged.

And yet, all I could feel was pain and overwhelming despair. It was odd to feel anything as strong, especially since I haven't felt anything for years. But the emotion was intense, and I was having a hard time processing it.

It seems that I still had some humanity in me. Not a lot, just enough to make the pain unbearable. And by all the powers in the multiverse, I wish I didn't have that little spark of humanity, if only to spare me the suffering of seeing Selene perish right in front of my eyes.

It didn't make any sense. Why was I even mourning her? I should hate her, and yet, now that I know that I will not see her again, I am in pain. Perhaps I still loved her somewhere deep down, despite her failure, despite her betrayal, despite her selfishness. The pain she caused me paled in front of the agony of seeing her body slowly slump to the ground, with a large hole in her heart.

I wanted to scream, yet I couldn't. I wanted to yell at the world, but my body couldn't move. I wanted to cry, but my eyes were dry. I stood there, my form trembling with conflicting emotions. The sight before me was surreal, and the scent of death hung heavy in the air. A mixture of sorrow and anger swirled within me, a turbulent storm that threatened to tear me apart, as I watched her lifeless eyes look back at me.

The pain I felt was not just from her death, but from the realization that a part of me still loved her, despite all she had done. It was a love mixed with regret and anger, an intricate tapestry of emotions that entangled me in their intricate web. I yearned to release the pent-up emotions inside me, to let them flow freely and wash away the ache in my soul.

As my mind struggled to process this overwhelming surge of emotions, my physical form remained frozen. It was as though my body was locked in a state of stasis, mirroring the internal conflict that raged within me.

In the midst of this emotional maelstrom, I felt a profound sense of loss and emptiness. The world seemed to fade into the background, leaving me alone with my turmoil, that was until I saw the face of my former wife's killer. He was grinning at me, happy that he caused me pain. I honestly, never knew what I ever did to that abomination of a being to make him revel in my agony so much. Our rivalry, our fight, was purely professional. We fought because he wanted to destroy the multiverse and I wanted… What did I want? Why was I even fighting? To save the multiverse? I stopped caring a long time ago when I realized that I didn't have a choice in the matter. Sometimes, I just forgot why I even bothered. Suddenly, I realized that everything I did was half-hearted. I fought because I was forced to. It was a professional assignment, not something I was really committing to. Well, now, Entropy had made it personal.

I didn't care that I was the one that asked her to fight for me. I didn't care that she wouldn't be dead if it wasn't for me. I didn't care that it was my Death Perception that guided me towards inviting her, in the first place.

I only cared about the smiling face of the man who killed her.

My agony slowly morphed into something else, something more, something bitter. It was as if the floodgates of my emotions had burst open, and a torrent of raw, unfiltered feelings surged through me. The pain and despair were still there, but now they were joined by a seething anger, directed at the man responsible for her death.

I had killed Selene. I realize that now. I trusted something that I knew I shouldn't have. But if I survive this, I will atone for my crimes, and mourn appropriately. But right now, I wanted nothing more than to kill Entropy. No, more than that. I wanted him to hurt, to lose everything that ever mattered to him and watch it wither away into nothingness.

Funnily enough, my Death Perception seemed to agree somehow but I didn't care. I just wanted to wipe that grin off Entropy's face.

Said cosmic entity wiped his sword of my former wife's blood, "You still cared for her, didn't you? For all your talk of ascension, you're still so human…"

I gave him a blank look, "You're going to pay for that."

"I don't think so. You only have that redhead there for back-up. I just killed over half your team. I guess you should have called it the 'suicide squad' instead. They all seemed to drop like flies."

"No," I interrupted, "you don't understand. I don't care about the multiverse. I don't care about cosmic entities. I don't care if you win or lose. I care about hurting you. If you win, I'll make your victory as costly as possible. If you lose, I'll make your defeat as painful as possible."

The cosmic being looked perturbed for a fraction of a second, after which his smirk came back on his face, "Yeah, good luck with that."

I yelled in fury as I sent a giant wave of pure destruction towards my opponent. He seemed to send one of his own. The two waves met between us. Neither of our attacks seemed to get past the other, and at the point of impact, the darkness seemed to rise into the air, higher than even a mountain.

Yet, slowly, I was being overpowered, pushed back. Until I felt Jean's flames somehow enhance my own attacks. I had forgotten about the avatar of the Phoenix in my grief, but right now, I didn't care. I only wanted to see my opponent suffer as I was suffering.

Dark red and black fought to a standstill. It seemed like in terms of raw power, the combination of me and Jean was enough to somehow balance the scales.

But I was still fueled by my hate, and I decided to stop this stalemate. A cloud was gathering above from the heat of our attack, and I tapped into its natural element with a mixture of darkness and light, and created two giant bolts of lightning, one filled with burning light, another with consuming darkness, that fell down towards the abomination that used to be a cosmic entity.

The attack was powerful that it would have vaporized most opponents. However, Entropy wasn't your usual villain. But it did seem to do a good job at distracting him, especially since Jean's flames seemed to win out against his attack and consume him.

The Battlefield was silent for a moment, we were waiting to see the result of Jean's strongest attack. A singed Entropy with a few cuts on his face emerged, "Now, that's just playing dirty."

I didn't dignify that with a response, as I prepared one of my strongest attacks. It wasn't one that I would usually use on an inhabited planet. There was a reason I chose to fight in another dimension, like Remnant.

Turning towards Jean, I exclaim, "Can you distract him for me? I'm setting something up."

I gathered my power for what will probably be my last attack. I never wanted to use this in my life. I learned while experimenting with my cosmic powers that the dimensions surrounding a reality exist in some kind of balance. It's why reality doesn't destroy itself easily. For every light dimension, there exists a dimension filled with nothing but darkness. For every fire dimension, there is one where nothing is left but cold and ice.

And for every material dimension, there exists one with anti-matter. It was easy to create anti-matter with energy, but it was energy consuming. Slowly, I started to convert my cosmic energy into anti-matter, making my inevitable attack stronger and more devastating with every drop I put there.

I look towards Jean who was valiantly holding her own. I had to admit that she was impressive and more than a match for my daughter. I sincerely hope she'll survive this. I use whatever is left of my reserves to pull her back as I unleash my attack while yelling out, "ENUMA ELISH!"

What? Even with practically no humanity, I was still dramatic.

A gigantic vortex of energy appeared in front of me, it converged into a beam of power, which was fired towards my distracted opponent. Entropy couldn't really do anything about it. His power is to dissolve the bond between molecules, but anti-matter, would do the exact same damage even if the energy is dissolved. He couldn't negate the attack, since there wasn't anything to negate. The beam seemed to disintegrate anything it touched, even the ground was barely more than a pile of ashes. I suppressed a grin as Entropy widened his eyes when he realized that he couldn't negate the attack, and finally, the beam connected. Reality itself seemed to bend and shatter under the weight of my attack, and Entropy was overwhelmed, his physical form turning into nothing. His form, no matter his power, was material, hence it was nullified by the anti-matter vortex I created.

Jean gave me a hopeful look, "Did we win?"

He couldn't have survived this. I knew that. But damn, cosmic entities really were bullshit. This was literally everything I had left in the tank.

But of course, my luck was shit anyway, and some of the darkness started to converge into the familiar form of my enemy. He looked pissed now, "Now, that was impressive. I wouldn't have thought about an attack like that. But I told you, in my core, this is nothing more than a projection of my power, one that I could reform. Nice attack though, even if you're practically powerless now."

Instead of going after me, dashed towards Jean, and grabbed her by the neck. As she tried to summon her flames, he waved his hand, and they were dispelled immediately. He summoned the necro sword and pointed it at the redhead's neck, "Now, none of that deary. You're the only one left I'm going to enjoy seeing the look on her face as I gut you like I did her wife."

It was then that I realized that there was literally nothing I could do against him. This was a consciousness that was powered with energy, a living form of a concept. You can't kill an idea, that's the truth.

Suddenly, my Death Perception gave me a path to follow. It was so simple. Why didn't I think of it? With renewed purpose, I grabbed a small disk and ran towards my enemy. He stabbed Jean with his infamous weapon, only for both our eyes to widen as she turned into sand. Wasn't Loki supposed to have died? It didn't matter. What did matter was that my enemy was taken aback. I tackled him into the ground and the disk I was holding started to glow.

Suddenly, we were both enveloped in a Kaleidoscope of colors.