One…

A heartbeat amid a void.

Two…

The heartbeat was faltering.

Three…

Awareness returned, though it was disorienting.

Four…

Something was renewed.

Five…

Xavier had been hit by a grenade before… and he learned to recognize the moments he had a brush with explosive death.

The method to recognize concussion damage was rather simple – he would always find himself thinking about the shrimp he ate on his first tour.

It was as if each of those shrimps were personally fed their mother’s milk, soaked in the finest sesame oils, and coated with only the best cassava flour.

So even as his mind scrambled to make sense of what was happening through not making sense of anything, Xavier hugged the thought at the back of his mind.

It was the thought to keep moving… even as the world spun around him, Xavier knew he had to keep moving.

It did not matter if he was moving in the direction of battle… all that mattered was the movement itself.

To an Eternal, time was not a friend… it was a merciless thing but Xavier embraced the small mercies… that’s how he knew a dozen minutes had passed him by.

Thirteen was a special number…

It wasn’t until the thirteenth minute that The Eternal managed to open his eyes, but even then, he felt as if he was still blind to everything happening around him.

It was a sort of blind disbelief.

This was a type of disbelief birthed when everyone saw a cow but you, yourself, could only see a horse… Xavier was left to question the world around him.

Golden ichor flooded down the side of Xavier’s face, ensuring one eye could not fully open… he could only see a couple of meters ahead.

And even then… it was a disturbing sight.

The Eternal wiped the golden blood from his working eye, trying not to think about the fact that something literally squirted the blood into his palm.

There was…

Destruction…

The buildings left standing only did so due to the mercy of a few bricks that remained intact.

Crying…

Random strangers aiding each other to dig through the rubble, terrified by the buried cries from below tons of cement.

Even more people were blackened crisps of something resembling vaguely human.

Rubble…

There was barely anything left complete.

Pain…

Waves of emotion impacted The Eternal’s unstable psyche.

Desolation…

There was a bloody haze everywhere one looked.

Two skyscrapers stood a couple of miles away, leaning dangerously against each other.

“Skyscrapers?” He murmured.

Xavier assumed what was once a wasteland had been a bustling place before…

‘But before what?’ He thought.

The Eternal felt the blood dripping down his chin and reached for the origin of the pain – the wound on his head.

But when he expected to touch his skull, there was emptiness instead.

Blood squirted into his palm.

Xavier panicked, his breathing growing rougher than it already was as the gravitons around him surged, causing rock fragments to float in the air.

There was the startled cry of someone nearby being crushed by the gravity but The Eternal didn’t have the presence of mind to notice.

He touched once…

Touched twice…

And it wasn’t until the third touch that Xavier felt the size of the wound – a wound that had taken a chunk out of his head.

“Wha—”

Being alive was not a miracle… staying alive was.

“What?”

Xavier’s words slurred and though he knew exactly what he wanted to say, he was uncertain… unsure of how to say it.

It may have even been that he had forgotten how to say it.

‘This is beyond a concussion…’ His mind reasoned.

The Eternal knew the panicking in his heart would solve nothing and it was only his luck that he was too disoriented to give true thought to anything in particular.

‘I regret coming to this place…” He thought, slumping back onto the ground.

It felt right to give up but…

The wails bombarded his thoughts, forcing him to his feet even when he didn’t possess the will to continue.

“What happened?” The Eternal racked his brain, trying to remember the sequence of events.

Thoughts were becoming clearer as his mind organized.

The blood streaming down his cheek lessened as the gap in his head finally closed, restoring his memories in full.

It healing took a large portion of Cosmic Energy with it but… obviously, it was better than being dead or remaining brain-damaged.

The rate at which an Eternal physique was mending itself was surprising.

Xavier felt his dislocated shoulder snapping into place, then the countless lacerations on his body rapidly closing, replaced by Smart Cloth.

‘At least I’m not naked…’

Still, there was a question lingering – a question that Xavier could consider even with damage to his skull and brain.

‘What could have caused such damage to an Eternal?’ He thought. ‘An Eternal like Ikaris? Powerful enough to deflect bullets with his hair.’

THUD

THUD

The rubble floating in Xavier’s vicinity fell to the ground as his chaotic breathing finally calmed – even if he was currently injured beyond comprehension, he was healing… and that was good.

Good enough to calm him down completely.

The thumping of the rocks on the ground focused Xavier’s mind on something outside of himself – the environment around him.

Everything assaulted him.

The burning smell of pig’s flesh – automatically, his mind knew it was the smell of burning human flesh, not a pig’s.

He had smelled it before… both as Ikaris and Xavier.

There were sparse cries and yelling – a natural disaster had occurred but judging from the wound on his head, Xavier guessed there was nothing natural about this disaster.

His mind became a puzzle trying to fit the pieces of information together.

On a good day, Xavier’s mind was jumbled and wrecked with headaches, and on a bad day – as today – he found it hard to focus on anything at all.

There were questions to be answered.

Why was he here?

What had harmed him?

Was he alone?

As the questions swarmed his mind, bits and pieces of the truth started to swirl in Xavier’s head…

“Sam… Sam came with me, and –” He hesitated, thinking some more as more answers came. “There was Andy, Kaulder, and Mother Superion…”

The pieces started to fall into place.

The more pieces fell into place, the uglier The Eternal’s frown became.

“What the heck happened?”

Xavier stumbled to his feet, taking in the surroundings.

The Eternal channeled cosmic energy into his optical nerve so he could see further and with much more clarity.

Immediately, he wished he hadn’t done that.

Destruction, gore, and a blur of fighting that, though he couldn’t see it, Xavier knew the battle was one-sided.

A monstrosity against familiar figures.

As if sensing his vision, the monstrosity paused and Xavier was immediately overwhelmed with the urge to run for his life, but such was the fear that even Ikaris’s instincts were unable to overcome it.

Frozen in place, Xavier now saw everything.

The monstrosity was an inhuman old man with eyes as red as blood, though with an unholy black tint to the irises.

Andy’s head was held in one of the creature’s hands, while the other hand held Kaulder’s head.

A dark-skinned man was floating in front of the being, writhing as if being ripped apart by invisible bindings.

Time slowed in Xavier’s perception but even then, it seemed as if the world had caught up with him… or at the very least, the monster of a creature had.

BUDUP

BUDUP

Xavier felt his heartbeat accelerate.

But it was not being caused by him, it was being caused by the Old Man nearly a thousand meters away.

The Eternal locked eyes with The Monstrosity.

It was only then that Xavier realized the reason he felt so weak, the reason he was bleeding so badly – his blood had been flowing down his chin and across the expanse to The Old Man.

And it was more than just his blood.

Thick streams of blood floated across miles, joining into a river in the skies above.

The Eternal could feel lives being snuffed out of existence by the hundreds... some buried by rubble, others from a mere paper cut, and most by the injuries they received due to the earlier explosion.

‘RUN!’ The Eternal’s mind rang.

BOOOOOOOM

It was as if a new level had been unlocked, Cosmic Energy pulsed in Xavier’s legs, shattering the ground beneath his feet and the gravitons surged, pushing him up and away from the earth.

It all happened in an instant.

Xavier blurred and disappeared entirely…

At least, that was the plan.

A mere twenty feet from the ground, Xavier felt a hand wrap around his throat and the world went still once more.

BOOOOOOOM

Crackle of air…

BUDUM

Re-solidification of the air…

BOOOOOOOM

The loud booming of the constantly shattering sound barrier echoed around The Eternal and his captor – The Monstrosity.

Sadly, The Old Man – Lagus Tradio - didn’t even flinch as the destructive forces slammed into his seemingly frail physique.

An aura of blood protected The Noble.

Xavier met eyes with the Lagus Tradio – he recognized the old man as a Noble.

The gravitons pulsed, another boom…

But The Eternal was still unable to free himself, and something told Xavier that he would not be able to outrun this foe.

BOOOM

He abandoned all thoughts of running as his fist blurred toward the face of The Old Man – Xavier was determined to fight for his life.

Punches with enough force to send cars spinning impacted Lagus Tradio but a paper-thin barrier of red protected The Noble.

As the atmosphere heated from the mix of unstable gravitons and cosmic energy, the final pieces of the puzzle entered Xavier’s mind.

And he remembered everything.

The battle of Supernatural Creatures – Andy, Marcus, Kaulder, Sam, Philippe, Coventry, Amelia, Mother Superion, Vlad and himself…

The shift to target the most dangerous enemy - Caligula…

The explosion of a red beam into the skies – the cocoon that Vlad had stopped from hatching; though, now that seemed unsuccessful…

The battle against the vessel of a God - Deacon…

The Eternal felt the sharp nails of The Noble’s hands crushing his throat and there was nothing he could do.

Xavier’s fists were blurs but he was becoming weaker with every punch that expelled cosmic energy… admittedly, the more ichor he lost, the greater Tradio’s strength became.

ARRRGHHHH

Cosmic potential rushed into Xavier’s eyes… a weak cosmic beam ripped free of Xavier’s eyes, burning through whatever barrier had protected Lagus Tradio thus far.

But The Noble was prepared.

The world spun and the ground shook… it took Xavier a couple of seconds to realize that his face was pressed to the ground.

The ground shattered with the powerful slam of a Noble.

Xavier was once again disoriented but this time he recovered quickly enough to realize his Cosmic Beams were burning nothing but meaningless earth.

The moment the beam ceased, The Eternal was rammed into the ground several more times, each time with a greater strength that made him feel helpless.

Every part of his body ached.

Perhaps, some things were broken but he could no longer distinguish one pain from the other.

Still, Xavier fought with everything he had… gravity became his friend – it pushed him up and down and round and round.

The Eternal roused as much gravitons as he possibly could… he may as well have been in the middle of a gravitational storm in space.

Lagus Tradio experienced a moment of instability and a black blur capitalized on the instance, wielding Mother Superion’s divinium blade – it was someone who had not been exhausted from the previous battle…

The divinium blade carved an inch-deep wound in Tradio’s back.

ARGGGH

An inhuman screech left The Noble’s mouth.

It caused everyone’s ears to bleed – some of the living humans, upon hearing the screech, immediately lost their lives.

Blade skidded to a halt, leaving a deep gouge in the Earth; then, he attempted to rush forward for another attack but Lagus Tradio was much faster.

The Hybrid-Vampire and The Noble blurred at the same moment but… immediately, The Noble’s sharp nails were inches away from skewering Blade’s skull.

A flicker of shadows.

Blade disappeared into the darkness and Lagus Tradio hit nothing but air… and for all The Noble’s troubles, Xavier’s Cosmic Beam layered with concussive force seared into his back.

It was layered atop the very same wound Blade had just dealt.

The attack caused The Eternal’s eyes to bleed but he had timed the attack well enough, sending Lagus Tradio in the direction of someone equally deadly.

ARGH!

The Noble screeched as he bounced across the earth, directly into Mother Superion’s floating divinium chains.

He was tightly wrapped in a single second.

Lagus Tradio cooked for a couple of seconds… he thrashed about, shattering the chains in a couple of wild swings and then smacking Mother Superion away with an almost dismissive backhand.

Luckily, a barrier protected The Warrior Nun at the last second, lest she directly die from that attack.

Xavier roused the gravitons attempting to fly high and crush Lagus Tradio with the accumulated momentum but… the gravitons responded weakly and The Eternal flashed forward a hundred feet before abruptly crashing into the ground.

His balance was off… his legs were shaking.

It was the pain of a broken body trying to keep itself together.

Still, even as he was rammed into the ground, Xavier – with acrobatic brilliance – used his arms as a pivot to launch himself to his feet.

A slow run was all he could manage…

If he could not fly, he would run.

Luckily, even Xavier’s slowest run was double that of an Olympic Athlete’s.

Lagus Tradio saw The Eternal coming and flashed forward to meet the threat head-on.

Cosmic-Energy-saturated-fist met blood-aura-dense nails.

RUMBLE~

Three of The Eternal’s fingers bent backward due to the confrontation.

Xavier found himself in another crater.

Lagus Tradio stood above him – The Noble’s eyes were overtaken by a bloody madness.

The Eternal knew he would die.

Luckily, as soon as Lagus Tradio’s nails aimed for Xavier’s neck, Mother Superion – who had recovered - slid forward and embraced The Eternal, projecting the best divine shielding she could muster.

It blocked one attack before shattering.

Lagus Tradio was quick to deliver another.

Shadows blotted out the moonlight above.

Blade appeared from the cloud of shadows, viciously slashing forward with Mother Superion’s divinium sword.

Andy’s Labrys twirled in the air as she appeared on the left, a deadly strike was her welcoming gift.

Kaulder appeared as if from the ground, thrusting Hexenbane forward with an undodgeable precision only an eight-hundred-year-old Immortal could manage.

Three attacks… a kill box.

Mother Superion managed to sink into the ground with Xavier in tow and it was made easier when The Eternal roused the graviton to push them back towards the surface a moment later.

RUMBLE

RUMBLE

The aftershock of an attack mounted by three skilled fighters found Lagus Tradio nursing a laceration to his neck, two missing fingers, and a severed nose.

The Noble had finally been injured… but the injuries lasted but a second before the wounds closed.

Luckily, wounds dealt by divinium were not so easily healed so Lagus Tradio’s two fingers remained missing.

Mother Superion and Xavier instantly felt much lighter, the blood was no longer leaving their bodies in favor of someone else but they could do nothing about the blood already lost.

‘A thought for another time…’ They decided.

And as if things couldn’t get worse for Lagus Tradio.

Creatures of the night started to skitter across the ground.

Everyone turned their heads, surprised to find rats, badgers, bats, moths, monkeys, and a host of other nocturnal animals covering the miles of the wasteland.

And the animals were far from normal – they had a bloody glow in their eyes that foretold of a maddening frenzy.

The animals passed by Mother Superion, Xavier, Kaulder, Andy, Blade and the others who had yet to recover from the explosion... but when the creatures met Lagus Tradio.

The moths flew down his throat, badgers bit into his flesh, and the bats spewed green gasses from their maw… the monkeys hammered their fists into whatever fleshy surface they could.

And amid all these creatures, Vlad moved with unnatural grace, striking at Lagus Tradio with every opening The Noble showed.

Shadows twirled amid the carnage, opening a breach to another dimension courtesy of Philippe.

Marcus and Coventry walked out of the shadows, murmuring incantations beneath their breaths… magical energy built between their interlocked fingers.

This was now the endgame.

“Stall him!” Marcus yelled.

The Eternal roused the nearby gravitons, shooting himself and Mother Superion forward.

He did so with much more grace this time around… there was no better place to learn not to fuck up than a battlefield where he had almost died three times…

And that was in the last few minutes alone.

Philippe flickered and appeared with Kaulder, Andy, and Blade.

Sam, previously hidden in the shadows due to his dark fur, now darted into the moonlight with Lady Amelia on his back.

They were weaker but still necessary.

…

Rumbling…

The earth shattered…

Blood splattered everywhere but it didn’t stay there for long, quickly getting sucked into the whirlpool of red being created between Marcus’s and Coventry’s hands.

Everyone had chosen to trust the two men.

Marcus was a blood witch and Coventry was a Grand Magus – if the two men could not solve the matter, Xavier was fully prepared to make a run for it.

He would have to get back to Forks, grab Angela and her parents, maybe warn The Cullens, and book it to Antarctica or somewhere equally inhospitable.

Lagus Tradio would likely follow the blood to the next major city so Xavier knew he would be fine… at least, he hoped he would be.

A plan was already forming in The Eternal’s mind.

Luckily…

After a couple of seconds of trying to keep Lagus Tradio at bay…

“Get back!” Coventry warned.

Lagus Tradio had killed thousands of the creatures of the night – a combination of Vlad, Sam, Amelia, Andy, Blade, Xavier, Philippe, and Mother Superion could not restrain The Noble any longer.

Thankfully, they didn’t have to.

Just as Lagus Tradio was about to create a dome of blood to protect himself from the ruthless attacks, Coventry and Marcus completed their binding incantation.

The Grand Magus and Blood Witch simultaneously pointed their finger toward The Noble and bloody chains hopped out of an equally bloody crack in the ground, nailing Lagus Tradio to the air as if it was solid.

The chains snaked through his palms, the soles of his feet, the center of his gut, and his forehead… the chains glowed red with corrosive power.

Then… more chains came.

The chains were as thick as thousand-year tree barks and as long as The Great Wall of China.

More chains…

More crunching sounds as the chains contracted, becoming more and more condensed… until…

A cocoon of blood, chains, and wails.

Everyone could hear the animalistic fury in Lagus Tradio’s wails but mostly, they felt only relief.

Nobody felt sympathy, only worry that the prison would not hold… and it wouldn’t.