—Cole POV—
“Father the sky is beginning to light up!”, Rebecca gasped in horror, “No wait, the sky it’s disappearing!! Everyone, please hurry!!”
“Get into the damn portal!”, I shouted out loud in response.
“Grandpa there are still families here!”, several of my grandchildren responded, “We can’t just push them away to save ourselves!”
Sensing what was happening, a grin formed on the deity's face.
“You better hurry up and save your children, if you don’t do something soon they are going to be erased from existence!”, he mocked me with a smirk, “All six of your worlds will be erased by me!”
“GET IN THE PORTAL!!”, I screamed at my children/grandchildren.
Hearing my wives and our extended family in the pocket dimension begging them to get in, I tried to move towards them but the Lesser Angels blocked my path.
“If we are going to die, you are going with us!”, Angelo spat as they aided the God of Destruction.
Pushed into a corner now, I was quickly losing ground and being forced away from the portal and my family. Trying to use all the skills I had at my disposal, I found it impossible to get closer to them as more Angels began moving here from the other five worlds.
“Dad…the angels are probably coming for you because they are leaving here. You can’t keep helping us and fighting them, they will kill you if you do.”, Rebecca choked up.
“Just get into the portal!”, I grunted shielding myself from a volley of spells, “I can take the beating, just do as I say!”
“We can’t daddy, there isn’t time…”, Rebecca told me as I heard her start to cry, “Please…please don’t leave our family alone again, we don’t want to endure a childhood without you there. No matter how many headaches we give you or how much trouble we cause, we love you Dad. Please be there to tuck us in, read us stories, and-”
Feeling the mental connection drop, the portals to the other five worlds abruptly closed. Hearing my wives start wailing loudly, I felt something in my mind snap.
“HAHA, I told you that they were just brats!”, Angelo mocked me, “If you had just given up on those trash children and the bystanders, you might have been able to kill us and reunite with your family. Your family had to watch them die, now they can watch you-”
Reaching my right hand out instinctively, I stopped feeling any pain as I grabbed Angelo’s face and dug my fingers into his skull. Staring at him as tears of blood ran down my face, a storm began forming over the city as red lightning came down all around us. Realizing that the destruction of the world had stopped, the God of Destruction froze up.
“My children…my wives…they are not trash.”, I growled as red lightning started dancing around me.
Trying to shake free of my grip, Angelo started to grow weaker with every passing second.
“What…what is happening…”, one of the angels said gasping for air as he fell to his knees.
“Those were my beautiful children and grandchildren you just killed…”, I informed them as my fingers broke through Angelo’s skull, “If you were going to kill someone, you should have killed me and let them live. Parents shouldn’t have to bury their children, but now I have to bury my children and my grandchildren! Do you know how much pain you have caused me!? All I ever fucking wanted was to be a father, you couldn’t let me have that! I’d have given you every I had to be there for them, there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t have done to hold them in my arms. You killed one of the few fragments of humanity I have left…now you can see the monster all of you created!”
Red Energy began to engulf me as Angelo shriveled up into a mummy. Watching lightning shoot out of my body, all the Angels it touched shriveled up as well as my power started building rapidly. Backing away from me in horror, the God of Destruction attempted to open a portal to escape but found his powers weren’t working.
“You can’t kill a God, you will be damned to Tartaros for all eternity!”, he shouted trying to threaten me.
“I don’t care…”, I said I felt the energy inside me reach critical mass, “Anyone that hurts my family gets no mercy from me!”
Releasing all of the energy at once, the world around us went white as the landscape vanished from view. Hearing Angel’s scream out in pain, I stood there watching them turn to ash as I stole every drop of magic, divinity, and life they had. Siphoning off everything, I turned to look at the God of Destruction who was barely able to stand up.
“We…we can be civil about this!”, he pleaded watching the lightning arcing off of our surroundings, “I…I just got bored of sitting around all day, cut me some-”
Vanishing from his view, I slammed my left fist into his gut forcing him to cough up blood. Stumbling backward, he wore a look of disbelief that he didn’t die from that.
“I purposefully left your Immorality alone because I won’t let you die that easily. Unfortunately for you…that means you will suffer at my hands till it runs out…”, I said with a dark tone as the red aura engulfed me, “No one lays hands on my family…I don’t give a damn who the hell you think you are!”
Turning into The Beast, I poured out my rage and fury on him. Isolating the space around us, I put him through every sort of hell I could think of from turning him inside out to using his former destructive powers on him. Leaving him barely alive every time, I let him regenerate before torturing him again. Cycling him over and over for tens of thousands of years, his body finally gave out after five hundred thousand years of torture.
Returning to the normal timeline, I restored our world and took a seat beneath a cherry blossom tree. Pulling out drawings my children had made as children…I reflected on everything that I had lost at the hands of those corrupt bastards.
—3rd Person POV—
Up in Heaven, the Anti-Life machine started violently shaking as part of the energy it used to destroy the six worlds was sent back into itself. As it began to have a meltdown, the Gods quickly left the room and sealed it shut moments before it exploded. All of Heaven reverberated the unearthly sound the machine made as the energy ran rampant in the room.
“What in the hell happened!?”, the God of Time questioned holding onto the wall, “It’s never done that before.”
“Something must have back fed the energy into itself.”, the God of Death sighed knowing how big of a pain it would be to rebuild, “I know five of the worlds are gone, but what about that mortal’s world?”
“Let me check…”, the Goddess of Love offered nervously.
Shakily opening a viewing window, she expected to see that everything would be gone and the people Cole saved would be trapped in the void. As the picture cleared up, she was shocked that the world was completely undamaged.
“He…he did it.”, she said not quite believing what she was saying, “The world is in one piece!”
“Say what now…”, the God of Creation stated looking for himself, “Well I’ll be damn, the mortal managed to somehow save his world. No wonder the machine blew up!”
“Why is he just sitting there?”, the God of Innovation butted in, “He should be happy, yet he looks… heartbroken.”
Sifting through the people in the pocket dimension, the Goddess of Fertility discovered the cause of his sadness.
“His adult children and grandchildren…they didn’t make it.”, she told them.
“That poor man…”, the Goddess of Life said sympathetically.
“We…we should probably talk to him.”, the God of Creation spoke, “It’s the least we can do at this point.”
Nodding in agreement, the deities all went down to see Cole. As the world stabilized, Cole’s family were the first to leave the pocket dimension. Running out to see if he was okay, they panicked when they didn’t see him right away. Taking a second to survey the area, Fuyumi was the first to find him.
“Cole!”, Fuyumi shouted as they approached, “Are you…”
Seeing several pieces of paper laying around him, she knew that children had drawn them. Having seen what he looked like in his prior lives, everyone recognized who drew them.
“I failed…”, Cole said holding one of the pictures, “They died because I wasn’t strong enough to protect them as a father should. I swore I wouldn’t be like my parents, that I would give my life for my children if the need arose yet here I sit alive left holding the pieces…”
“Don’t say that, you know there wasn’t anything you could have done in the face of such overwhelming odds.”, the Goddess of Love stated as the deities arrived, “They kept the portals open as long as they could to save as many people as possible. All of them grew up without you, they made sure this time you’d be there for every step of their life.”
“She is right…”, the Goddess of Life admitted, “Mor…Cole, we are sorry that things came to this. You shouldn’t have had to be placed in this situation to choose between your family and billions of people you didn’t know.”
Holding the papers to his chest, Cole said he wanted some time alone with his family. Understanding and respecting his request, the God of Creation asked where the turncoat was. Pointing behind him, Cole told him that there wasn’t much left of him now aside from a skeleton. Looking to where he pointed, the God of Death gasped in horror as he saw his former comrade.
“How!?”, he questioned, “You…you left only his bones behind…”
“The Angels and that bastard got what they deserved…I stole every drop of magic, divinity, and life out of their bodies. I wrung that bastard's neck out for taking one of the few things in my life that I hold dear”, Cole stated keeping himself calm, “My children and grandchildren died because of their actions, and five worlds I once called home are now erased completely. All I want to know now is…where is the God of Reincarnation? I want his head, and I don’t care if I have to kill-”
“Dear please calm down.”, Luna and Sapphire stated holding him, “Rebecca and everyone else wouldn’t want you to go on a rampage for them.”
Looking at his family and his infant children, Cole calmed himself down enough to maintain his composure. In a calmer tone, he asked them where he was along with his supporters.
“They fled at the end of the meeting, he and six deities fled Heaven together. He has had most of his divinity stripped away, but the other six are still at full strength…or rather were.”, the Goddess of Darkness snickered looking at the corpse of her former colleague, “How did you fix this universe?”
“I rewound the universe to before the attack started.”, Cole answered without trying to hide it.
“That should have taken a lot of power, where did you get all that…”, the God of Time said before it clicked, “Oh…I see now, that would be more than enough to do it.”
“I couldn’t leave everyone homeless, all eight billion people need a home.”, Cole told him as he pulled Esmeralda and baby Rebecca into his arms, “If you want my Unique Titles, they were destroyed along with the five worlds. I did gain the titles Divine Protector, Demigod, Godslayer, and Reality Bender…if that is of any consequence.”
Giving Cole an uneasy look, the deities were a bit unsettled by the title Godslayer as it meant he had the power to kill them. If he were like the Abominations, they would have tried to kill him now to save themselves future troubles but he didn’t deserve it. Seeing his family around him, they were confident so long as they didn’t interfere with them he wouldn’t attack.
“If it’s any consolation, the fact you lost those titles means you won’t negatively impact other worlds anymore.”, the God of Creation informed him, “That means…you can hunt the remaining six turncoats down if you want. We will not stop you from doing so, they have caused incalculable damage today.”
“I will do it, but…I will do it on my time. All I want is to be with my family right now.”, Cole said looking at his sleeping daughter’s face.
Putting the papers away, Cole got up and made sure that everyone in his family was okay.
—Cole POV—
“Let’s go home.”, I stated after ensuring they were safe.
Running over in hurry, Kota and Eri looked at me worried that I might be seriously injured. Letting them look me over for wounds, I told them that their father was made of tougher stuff and to not worry about me. As we turned to leave, my father and mother ran over to talk to me.
“Cole what is going on?”, my mother asked me, “Who are all these women and children, and what exactly happened?”
“Yes, I think we deserve an explanation of what is going-”, Nezu started to say before one of my father-in-laws cut him off.
“Let the poor man mourn his children and grandchildren, we can explain the situation.”, Celestial’s father Deerborne spoke up, “It’s easier if we discuss things with you anyways, who among you is in a position of authority?”
Leaving the group to sort things out themselves, I teleported my family home. Getting the sleeping children situated, all I wanted to do just hold my wives and try to take my mind off of things.
—Cole POV—
“Father the sky is beginning to light up!”, Rebecca gasped in horror, “No wait, the sky it’s disappearing!! Everyone, please hurry!!”
“Get into the damn portal!”, I shouted out loud in response.
“Grandpa there are still families here!”, several of my grandchildren responded, “We can’t just push them away to save ourselves!”
Sensing what was happening, a grin formed on the deity's face.
“You better hurry up and save your children, if you don’t do something soon they are going to be erased from existence!”, he mocked me with a smirk, “All six of your worlds will be erased by me!”
“GET IN THE PORTAL!!”, I screamed at my children/grandchildren.
Hearing my wives and our extended family in the pocket dimension begging them to get in, I tried to move towards them but the Lesser Angels blocked my path.
“If we are going to die, you are going with us!”, Angelo spat as they aided the God of Destruction.
Pushed into a corner now, I was quickly losing ground and being forced away from the portal and my family. Trying to use all the skills I had at my disposal, I found it impossible to get closer to them as more Angels began moving here from the other five worlds.
“Dad…the angels are probably coming for you because they are leaving here. You can’t keep helping us and fighting them, they will kill you if you do.”, Rebecca choked up.
“Just get into the portal!”, I grunted shielding myself from a volley of spells, “I can take the beating, just do as I say!”
“We can’t daddy, there isn’t time…”, Rebecca told me as I heard her start to cry, “Please…please don’t leave our family alone again, we don’t want to endure a childhood without you there. No matter how many headaches we give you or how much trouble we cause, we love you Dad. Please be there to tuck us in, read us stories, and-”
Feeling the mental connection drop, the portals to the other five worlds abruptly closed. Hearing my wives start wailing loudly, I felt something in my mind snap.
“HAHA, I told you that they were just brats!”, Angelo mocked me, “If you had just given up on those trash children and the bystanders, you might have been able to kill us and reunite with your family. Your family had to watch them die, now they can watch you-”
Reaching my right hand out instinctively, I stopped feeling any pain as I grabbed Angelo’s face and dug my fingers into his skull. Staring at him as tears of blood ran down my face, a storm began forming over the city as red lightning came down all around us. Realizing that the destruction of the world had stopped, the God of Destruction froze up.
“My children…my wives…they are not trash.”, I growled as red lightning started dancing around me.
Trying to shake free of my grip, Angelo started to grow weaker with every passing second.
“What…what is happening…”, one of the angels said gasping for air as he fell to his knees.
“Those were my beautiful children and grandchildren you just killed…”, I informed them as my fingers broke through Angelo’s skull, “If you were going to kill someone, you should have killed me and let them live. Parents shouldn’t have to bury their children, but now I have to bury my children and my grandchildren! Do you know how much pain you have caused me!? All I ever fucking wanted was to be a father, you couldn’t let me have that! I’d have given you every I had to be there for them, there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t have done to hold them in my arms. You killed one of the few fragments of humanity I have left…now you can see the monster all of you created!”
Red Energy began to engulf me as Angelo shriveled up into a mummy. Watching lightning shoot out of my body, all the Angels it touched shriveled up as well as my power started building rapidly. Backing away from me in horror, the God of Destruction attempted to open a portal to escape but found his powers weren’t working.
“You can’t kill a God, you will be damned to Tartaros for all eternity!”, he shouted trying to threaten me.
“I don’t care…”, I said I felt the energy inside me reach critical mass, “Anyone that hurts my family gets no mercy from me!”
Releasing all of the energy at once, the world around us went white as the landscape vanished from view. Hearing Angel’s scream out in pain, I stood there watching them turn to ash as I stole every drop of magic, divinity, and life they had. Siphoning off everything, I turned to look at the God of Destruction who was barely able to stand up.
“We…we can be civil about this!”, he pleaded watching the lightning arcing off of our surroundings, “I…I just got bored of sitting around all day, cut me some-”
Vanishing from his view, I slammed my left fist into his gut forcing him to cough up blood. Stumbling backward, he wore a look of disbelief that he didn’t die from that.
“I purposefully left your Immorality alone because I won’t let you die that easily. Unfortunately for you…that means you will suffer at my hands till it runs out…”, I said with a dark tone as the red aura engulfed me, “No one lays hands on my family…I don’t give a damn who the hell you think you are!”
Turning into The Beast, I poured out my rage and fury on him. Isolating the space around us, I put him through every sort of hell I could think of from turning him inside out to using his former destructive powers on him. Leaving him barely alive every time, I let him regenerate before torturing him again. Cycling him over and over for tens of thousands of years, his body finally gave out after five hundred thousand years of torture.
Returning to the normal timeline, I restored our world and took a seat beneath a cherry blossom tree. Pulling out drawings my children had made as children…I reflected on everything that I had lost at the hands of those corrupt bastards.
—3rd Person POV—
Up in Heaven, the Anti-Life machine started violently shaking as part of the energy it used to destroy the six worlds was sent back into itself. As it began to have a meltdown, the Gods quickly left the room and sealed it shut moments before it exploded. All of Heaven reverberated the unearthly sound the machine made as the energy ran rampant in the room.
“What in the hell happened!?”, the God of Time questioned holding onto the wall, “It’s never done that before.”
“Something must have back fed the energy into itself.”, the God of Death sighed knowing how big of a pain it would be to rebuild, “I know five of the worlds are gone, but what about that mortal’s world?”
“Let me check…”, the Goddess of Love offered nervously.
Shakily opening a viewing window, she expected to see that everything would be gone and the people Cole saved would be trapped in the void. As the picture cleared up, she was shocked that the world was completely undamaged.
“He…he did it.”, she said not quite believing what she was saying, “The world is in one piece!”
“Say what now…”, the God of Creation stated looking for himself, “Well I’ll be damn, the mortal managed to somehow save his world. No wonder the machine blew up!”
“Why is he just sitting there?”, the God of Innovation butted in, “He should be happy, yet he looks… heartbroken.”
Sifting through the people in the pocket dimension, the Goddess of Fertility discovered the cause of his sadness.
“His adult children and grandchildren…they didn’t make it.”, she told them.
“That poor man…”, the Goddess of Life said sympathetically.
“We…we should probably talk to him.”, the God of Creation spoke, “It’s the least we can do at this point.”
Nodding in agreement, the deities all went down to see Cole. As the world stabilized, Cole’s family were the first to leave the pocket dimension. Running out to see if he was okay, they panicked when they didn’t see him right away. Taking a second to survey the area, Fuyumi was the first to find him.
“Cole!”, Fuyumi shouted as they approached, “Are you…”
Seeing several pieces of paper laying around him, she knew that children had drawn them. Having seen what he looked like in his prior lives, everyone recognized who drew them.
“I failed…”, Cole said holding one of the pictures, “They died because I wasn’t strong enough to protect them as a father should. I swore I wouldn’t be like my parents, that I would give my life for my children if the need arose yet here I sit alive left holding the pieces…”
“Don’t say that, you know there wasn’t anything you could have done in the face of such overwhelming odds.”, the Goddess of Love stated as the deities arrived, “They kept the portals open as long as they could to save as many people as possible. All of them grew up without you, they made sure this time you’d be there for every step of their life.”
“She is right…”, the Goddess of Life admitted, “Mor…Cole, we are sorry that things came to this. You shouldn’t have had to be placed in this situation to choose between your family and billions of people you didn’t know.”
Holding the papers to his chest, Cole said he wanted some time alone with his family. Understanding and respecting his request, the God of Creation asked where the turncoat was. Pointing behind him, Cole told him that there wasn’t much left of him now aside from a skeleton. Looking to where he pointed, the God of Death gasped in horror as he saw his former comrade.
“How!?”, he questioned, “You…you left only his bones behind…”
“The Angels and that bastard got what they deserved…I stole every drop of magic, divinity, and life out of their bodies. I wrung that bastard's neck out for taking one of the few things in my life that I hold dear”, Cole stated keeping himself calm, “My children and grandchildren died because of their actions, and five worlds I once called home are now erased completely. All I want to know now is…where is the God of Reincarnation? I want his head, and I don’t care if I have to kill-”
“Dear please calm down.”, Luna and Sapphire stated holding him, “Rebecca and everyone else wouldn’t want you to go on a rampage for them.”
Looking at his family and his infant children, Cole calmed himself down enough to maintain his composure. In a calmer tone, he asked them where he was along with his supporters.
“They fled at the end of the meeting, he and six deities fled Heaven together. He has had most of his divinity stripped away, but the other six are still at full strength…or rather were.”, the Goddess of Darkness snickered looking at the corpse of her former colleague, “How did you fix this universe?”
“I rewound the universe to before the attack started.”, Cole answered without trying to hide it.
“That should have taken a lot of power, where did you get all that…”, the God of Time said before it clicked, “Oh…I see now, that would be more than enough to do it.”
“I couldn’t leave everyone homeless, all eight billion people need a home.”, Cole told him as he pulled Esmeralda and baby Rebecca into his arms, “If you want my Unique Titles, they were destroyed along with the five worlds. I did gain the titles Divine Protector, Demigod, Godslayer, and Reality Bender…if that is of any consequence.”
Giving Cole an uneasy look, the deities were a bit unsettled by the title Godslayer as it meant he had the power to kill them. If he were like the Abominations, they would have tried to kill him now to save themselves future troubles but he didn’t deserve it. Seeing his family around him, they were confident so long as they didn’t interfere with them he wouldn’t attack.
“If it’s any consolation, the fact you lost those titles means you won’t negatively impact other worlds anymore.”, the God of Creation informed him, “That means…you can hunt the remaining six turncoats down if you want. We will not stop you from doing so, they have caused incalculable damage today.”
“I will do it, but…I will do it on my time. All I want is to be with my family right now.”, Cole said looking at his sleeping daughter’s face.
Putting the papers away, Cole got up and made sure that everyone in his family was okay.
—Cole POV—
“Let’s go home.”, I stated after ensuring they were safe.
Running over in hurry, Kota and Eri looked at me worried that I might be seriously injured. Letting them look me over for wounds, I told them that their father was made of tougher stuff and to not worry about me. As we turned to leave, my father and mother ran over to talk to me.
“Cole what is going on?”, my mother asked me, “Who are all these women and children, and what exactly happened?”
“Yes, I think we deserve an explanation of what is going-”, Nezu started to say before one of my father-in-laws cut him off.
“Let the poor man mourn his children and grandchildren, we can explain the situation.”, Celestial’s father Deerborne spoke up, “It’s easier if we discuss things with you anyways, who among you is in a position of authority?”
Leaving the group to sort things out themselves, I teleported my family home. Getting the sleeping children situated, all I wanted to do just hold my wives and try to take my mind off of things.
