The Power of Ten Book Four: Dynamo

The Underweb beneath all of Reality flared and rose to power, even as the spells woven across thousands of worlds converged here in this instant, my Dupes and Clones and their Dupes notified by our Marks and spells put into motion simultaneously across multiple times and realities, converging here, now, at this time.

The Weavers in the Web shifted, and beyond the stars of this Cancerverse, this place where so many Entities and Things from outside Creation had manifested, entered, or had Avatars placed, they acted.

This whole universe heard my words, a Voice of Thunder powered by all the transcendent Sublime Chord Thunder I could put into the two Words. It echoed forth beyond this universe into the planes and places attached to it, into the Mess beyond where things were truly a Mess after the powers of Mythos claimed power in the realm of the living, and the flow of souls stopped abruptly, depriving so many of the Lords of Limbo of power.

But not a certain one of the Lords, who was fat and happy in his realm, a place where nightmares swelled with pain and fear, and he drank in their essence, content in his power and the offerings given him.

He was Nightmare, and he ruled a plane of dark dreams and screaming visions in sleep, a Lord of Fear born from the first dark dream in the universe. Lo, there were many, many dark dreams to feed him now...

But that Call Thundered throughout the planes, jolting every single living creature from their dreams, an unprecedented interruption in the flow of his power and strength. Nightmare was knocked from his Throne of Dreams, all his power fleeing him at the same instant as everyone awoke and no one in all this universe and its subordinates was dreaming. The Call echoed back and forth to every single corner of his dark realm, to places where ancient dreams never died, they merely slept, waiting to be roused on another day.

“No!” he screamed, as he felt something shift, and stir, and open eyes even more ancient than his own.

In Her place on Titan, dead Death waits dreaming.

---

“No!” screamed Captain Mar-Vell, clutching at his ears, and then, there was a pause.

The whole universe just... paused. Just like that. As if Time itself had decided to stop, and taken a breath... or had just died.

We all heard it; that long, rattling sigh that comes of the last breath a mortal takes. Everyone in the whole universe and beyond heard it.

Death... woke up. The other half of Eternity stirred and looked upon the living corpse of the Cancerverse, and a long, low hiss filled the very, very still air around us.

Sad. Defiant. Expectant. Exhilarated. Disappointed. Vengeful...

I could see them, out there. The countless Entities who had come to play inside Creation, make of it a tool and toy, harvest it of psychic power and new minions to sing mad psalms and howl in exultation for their fathomless lords from far, far beyond.

And BEHIND them, I could see the Underweb that had risen to Seal this entire dimension off at once with the thousands of Underweb Spells woven in hundreds of other realities that had been spun out there and come here. The glowing eyes, behind and beneath those who were from beyond the stars, were waiting expectantly.

The Weavers in the Web. The moment was here. The moment I’d been brought in to make happen.

Why? Because the Widow in the Web had seen Aelryinth cut me loose, and She’d seen his proudest Title.

Champion of Creation.

And thus, they knew that I would do this, if I could do this. They’d only needed to power me up, with a Voice that could echo through more than Eternity, a Voice that could not only wake the dead, it could wake Death Herself, and arrange for a Spell powered by multiple universes to come here and hold their prey at the same time.

With me, they could do it all at the same time.

Function flowed to full length in my hand, the Dreadskull against Immortals flaring up with gray flames in front of Mar-vell’s face, and despite himself, he jerked back and away from it.

I didn’t take my eyes from him as I shifted it to my other hand, extended it, and a bony hand reached out, grasped it, and took it from me.

“NO!!!” swore Mar-vell and the Things inside Franklin Richards together, and a holocaust of crazed power fell down upon Death as I astutely ‘Ported away. Planet-rending forces, rewrites of Reality, Mad Truths, Unreal dreams, Insane logic, Orange and Blue Rules... they all converged on Her.

Alas, if the stars were right, the Ceremony was correct, and the Powers behind it great enough, Death could be Bound, and Death could be killed.

But just with brute force? They could as much kill Death with such things as they could destroy Eternity with them, and they were within Eternity, and that meant they were within Her.

They had no power here now, the stars were not right, and... there were no stars now, only tethered planets and pale, gibbous things in the night, now overrun with malformed Life that should never have existed.

The Avengers had once been witness to the Grandmaster’s theft of Death’s power; yet another game, yet another piece of knowledge released to the mortal world, for those who were looking.

Death... had the power to win at any time, and every time. She always did. Whether She chose to do so fast or slowly was completely up to Her, and perhaps some unseen Rules that were out there, which a mortal could violate and so bring forth slaughter where She could not.

She looked out upon this Cancerverse, full of abominations of life that should not have ever lived, and that which had lived and now literally could not die, even though nothing out there should still be alive after the rampant uncontrolled growth of life.

She raised Function, and vivic flame burned, blazing brighter than any star. The monstrous powers descending upon Her never touched Her, for She was the other half of this existence. She was back, and they could not deny Her, for all that they’d altered the laws of this reality around us, they’d not been able to alter HER.

They’d only been able to do so once She was not here, after all, and Eternity, having no power over Death, had been unable to stop them from taking advantage of Her absence. Perhaps He would have existed forever, a cancerous alternity who would slowly expand to others, slaying their Deaths and working their way in endless time across the multiverse, until the Cancerverse subsumed every Eternity everywhere.

Alas for them, the Weavers in the Web had set up a plan and a trap, and a great harvest which was now bearing the most final and terrible of Truths.

Death raised Function. It was a Legendary Weapon now, improved to that Level by Sama and Briggs. +VII, Greater Soulbound, Vivic, Blooding, Enmity to Evil, Bane to Aberrants, Bane to Legends... and Bane to Immortals via the Dreadskull our own Death had empowered.

It was something like a +XIX Weapon against them and their power, totally worthy of a Cosmic Entity raising it against the Mythos, and it came down once.

Only Once, for that was all She needed. She determined the time and the moment, and so She had chosen. The Great Old Ones, the Elder Gods, the Outer Gods, and all the Entities of Mythos could only scream and writhe and try to resist as the hand of Death came down, but the Weavers had done their work very well, indeed, and there was nowhere else to go.

For them, and all things within this universe, it was...

The End.