Face To Face With Mortality

"Max, the power is back up and the Mecha is fully operational. What is your order?" Sylvie requested.

Both Gloriana and Death of Hope were floating side by side, slowly moving from the vicinity of the eighth planet toward the seventh, while in front of them, the battle at the portal raged.

"Is Nico back online?"

"Affirmative. She is back online and using her System Skills to make adjustments to her unit."

"Then we will rejoin the battle."

The two Mecha moved forward toward the pocket dimension, where the full fury of the Myceloid Horde, empowered by their God and glowing with green energy, was facing off against a dozen Gods. The chances of them winning were between slim and none unless the Myceloid God directly intervened, but with Max and Nico, there might be a chance.magic

Then, they hit a barrier. Mere metres from the entrance, they were stopped from rejoining the fight, blocked in their own layer as the portal distorted in front of them.

"Sylvie, what does your analysis tell you about that?" Max asked.

None of the Gods seemed to be aware of it. Not even the Myceloid God, who was expecting them to rejoin the fight at any moment now that he had seen their Mecha moving again.

Max adjusted the scanners, there had to be a way past that barrier, no matter what it was made of. If he couldn't finish the fight with the Great Enemy here and now, they would only withdraw, hide and spend eons rebuilding their strength before they attacked again.

He couldn't, no wouldn't, allow that to happen.

[It's impregnable. There is something about that which feels familiar, but I can't place it. But I can say for certain that there is nothing in our arsenal that can break that shield.] Sylvie decided.

"Feels familiar?" Max asked.

[I have encountered that phenomenon before, but the time and location stamps of the data entry are gone. I am sorry Commander, I wish I could be of more help.]

Max turned to face Nico so he could look at her not just through the cameras, but through the viewport on the Mecha. Her thoughts were just as baffled and frustrated as his own, and there was nothing that she could think of that would let them join this fight.

With a sudden pulse of energy, everything went black.

"Dammit, get the sensors back online." Max cussed.

"Sensors are online, Commander, there is no light or ambient radiation here. Switching modes." Sylvie replied.

Everything stood still outside of Gloriana, even weapon attacks were frozen in place, hanging halfway between targets that looked as if they were stuck in time.

That was it, they were stuck in time. And so was he.

Gloriana was turned to look downward, and two glowing golden eyes looked back at Max through the darkness.

[Eternal Champion, you have returned.] A soft, grandfatherly voice whispered in his mind.

[God of Time. You have awakened. But how? It was said that you were killed, utterly destroyed.] Max replied.

[You can't kill time. To truly kill a natural God, you must remove their aspect from the universe. In the last moment of my life, I froze myself. And now, here you are, bearing gifts unlike any other to help me revive.

For eons now, I have watched the mortals. I must say, I misjudged them at the start. They are not the plague upon the universe that I thought they were, mortals are the free electrons, the wandering energy that spreads change and rebalances the universe, remaking the changes wrought by the Gods into a coherent picture.

For that reason, when I fully awaken, I will grant you a gift.] The God paused, and waited while Max's suspicious thoughts tried to determine if he was being tricked.

For the God of Time was not the only God that was here. Max could sense another core, a flicker of life that represented a second God, the original God of Humanity, which fell in the first stages of the Eternal War.

Like the God of Time, she was not truly dead, and couldn't be as long as humanity existed. All she needed was something to bring her back. Something that Max had with him.

The collected energy of the Divine One and a thousand Greater Energy Beings, kept in the separate body attached to Max's energy.

It was surely intended to be used for something else, but if he inserted it into the form of the fallen God, it would be enough to restart her growth. With that, the Rebel Gods wouldn't dare to touch humanity again. Two gods on their side, their own and the Myceloid God, were too much for the Great Enemy to overcome.

The God of Time seemed amused by Max's thoughts.

[You do not have enough energy to fully awaken a God. Not even close to it. But in a thousand years, the devotion of your people could bring her back to her former strength. Yes, that is the path, we will try that this time.]

The God of time wasn't making much sense, but if he could awaken the God of Humanity, it would change the balance of the battle, and perhaps she could do as he had done and plunder some of the spoils for herself to increase her growth speed.

Max made his move, focusing on the body of the fallen God, but before he could act, a dozen battered looking Gods were standing in front of him, each bleeding deeply and covered in green blood. The Myceloids had definitely gotten their fight.

[We will not allow it. Never again, you have been banished and she should never have existed. The God of Humanity will not be awakened.] The God closest to Max announced.

"You cannot stop us." Max simply replied as his weapons charged.

Nico's smile was so powerful that even the Gods in front of him trembled before steeling their resolve and attacking. Or at least trying to.

The interference of the God of time slowed everything to a creep, with the immense suppression of the Time Domain trying to lock them in place. Likewise, Max could only wait and watch as both sides built their energy to a crescendo, and then unleashed it into the middle to collide with a reality - bending force that shattered everything, including the law of time that was binding them.

Max charged forward, slicing apart the toga clad figure of the closest God and feeding the released energy to the corpse of the Human God. Then a tiger god fell beneath his blade, and a twisted tree that emitted filthy black slime.

The sound of rending steel caught Max's attention as Nico's boot stomped down on the neck of an armoured Deity, and its head rolled free of its body. The remaining few Gods fled as the power of the God of Time grew again, and Max made one last desperate push, guiding all of his stored energy into the body of the human God, filling it with the second body of energy that he had so carefully compressed.

[That is enough out of all of you. You will behave.] The God of Time demanded.

Its words spread through the universe, reaching through space and time to find every hidden human, God and Energy Being.

Max found himself outside of his Mecha, standing on the ground next to Nico, and looking up at the immense and vague form of the God of Time.

[Every time we do this, it is the same thing. Reality is broken and the Gods die. But no more.]

Everything went black again, and Max wondered if time had stopped.

Then a vague voice came to his ears.

"I'll just have to work with what I have." The woman's voice whispered beside him.

"Now, if you will just sign your name and the child's, you're ready for discharge." A much clearer young woman's voice caught Max's attention.

No, oh hell no. It couldn't be. Not even the God of Time would be that cruel.

"What do I name this child, that simply couldn't be born a girl?" He heard his mother's voice asking.

[Keres Max, you will name me Keres Max or by the Gods I will kill you now.]

"Keres is nice, I will name him Keres Max."