Apotheosis.

"...dei...de....he....."

Voices echoed, as if from a well, or a canyon. Faint. Distant.

"....they c...nowhere..." The voices were a little more legible this time.

It sounded....it felt like.... It felt familiar.

My mind was muddled. So muddled I could barely realize that it was. That I was.

Am.

Am.

I am.

A faint ray of sunshine. Warm. Divine.

Delicious.

A faint hunger crept up.

I tried to think but it was as if my thoughts were stuck in quicksand.

Something within me whispered.

Don't struggle.

Just sleep the eternal sleep.

No more demons.

No more night terrors.

No more paranoia and suspiscion.

Peace at last.

Like a lizard sunning on the beach.

No more worries.

I could hear elevator music now.

Odd. Eerie. Yet somehow comforting.

Like it held a finality to it.

But it was all shaken to bits as a force pulsed through me.

Once, twice. Thrice.

A tidal wave the color of blood washed over me.

And the quicksand melted away.

A sliver of thought returned to me.

And with it, memory.

In flashes it all came back.

The battle.

The final blow

The dagger through my skull.

The death of divinity.

The true death.

I floated in the crimson tide, struggling against the waves like a salmon in mating season.

And then it came to me. My final gambit.

A card flew out from my deck.

Stopped Hades in place.

The power of a dying wish.

A power strained within me.

Words echoed out, floating in the abyss.

Nen grows only stronger in death.

Stronger than ever before.

Nen.

My nen.

It was more now. More than before. More than me.

And another memory flashed.

It wasn't one card that flew out. It was...two.

A card for the god of the dead.

And card for he who would soon be.

Skip and.....reverse.

I could feel it's power.

A tether connecting me- no, something that was me, my nen, the desires I put into the nen.

A mere impression of me, connecting back to something that was my life.

Was.

No. No. NO!

This isn't what I wanted! This-

"No. Neither did I." A voice uttered.

And just like that, the fog dissipated, the mirror shattered, the veil lifted.

A nameless monster beckoned.

Her eyes burning with hatred.

She looked at me with utter contempt.

And words whispered in the wind.

That is not dead, which can eternal lie.

For with strange eons, even death may die.

A woman.

Strange. Beautiful beyond compare.

Yet, formless.

So unfortunately...formless.

She sat on a rock by a cool stream, autumn leaves fluttering down all around her.

"Some nerve you have." She said.

"...uh sorry, I guess?" I said on instinct.

Wait. That's not how I-

I looked down and saw me.

Not the current me.

The old one.

The shy, slovenly youth. Polite to a fault. Burdened. Afraid. Hopeless.

There was no future in that.

This.... isn't me.

"You're right. It isn't. It's me. Mine." She looked up at me.

My vision blurred, the reality glitched.

The world shook like a bad, degraded movie reel.

One moment she was there, sitting on the rock, her feet in the stream, another she was before me, her formless yet undoubtedly feminine face inches from mine.

"The thieves." She snarled, "They took it from me. Who I am- was. Tore me apart. And now you carry their legacy.

Into the realm of the dead."

I could taste the disapproval on her tongue.

Like an asian mother who just found out her son had gotten a C in math.

"It's not my fault." I replied, once again on instinct, denying all blame.

"Yes. It is not." She shook her head and cackled, before snapping back to me.

"Yet it is." She said, grabbing me by the throat.

"So here is what you will do."

She looked at me-through me and into something ...else.

Her hand reached out, breaking away into countless tendrils of eldritch power as she grabbed me, the pitch black tendrils grasping at my very soul as they dragged me back.

Back...to life.

And she whispered.

"Find me. Awaken me as I have awakened you.

And we shall have a festival of blood, and feast upon the corpses of the old gods. Bring ruination upon all existence.

Together.

You and I.

Come.

Find me."

Come.

Come.

COME!

And I awoke.

Divine light blazed within my eyes and my existence itself shifted on a conceptual level to something more.

Much, much more.

To death and back.

The reversal of natural order.

A rising resurrection.

To divinity.

Apotheosis.

At last.

"Hwaah!" I gasped.

A breath. For the first time.

All over again.

.

I could feel the something drip onto my face.

Wet.

I gave it a lick even before I opened my eyes.

Salty.

Tears.

I opened my eyes and stared into two deep blue pools, the familiar tone of skin.

I even recognized the softness at the back of my head.

Thighs.

A very comfortable lap pillow.

I smiled, reaching out to wipe her tears away.

"Offee."

"Don't Offee me." She sniffled, "You idiot!"

"Come on now. It's not like you to cry." I caressed her cheeks.

"I didn't sacrifice so much just to see you die again. You told me you wouldn't do that ever again." She said, "You promised. And I believed you. Like an idiot."

"Yeah." Wanda's voice came from the side.

I turned to see her standing by the door to the bedroom with Yue, who seemed to be holding herself back from just jumping onto me.

I could tell from her fidgeting feet.

"He's not big on keeping his promises. Never has been." She chuckled.

"I know." I admitted, "But I brought back something useful." I checked inside me and let out a sigh of releif as I felt the presence of the dozens of god seeds I had stored within me.

All almost intact, with very minor damage. Easily solvable.

"Something that will even help me bring back, you know...." I trailed off, realizing the sore spot I had touched.

Offee gave me an indecipherable look, one that I immediately recognised from the day- that day.

"Offee-"

"No." She stopped me, "I'm not about to do something stupid."

She reached down to her hip and unclipped something, silently handing it to me.

"If having this means losing you all over again, then...I don't want this." She leaned down and kissed me, cupping my face.

"My Jay is dead. I can...." She hesitated, steeling her resolve, "I can come to terms with that. But I can't lose you, the you who is whole and true, right before my eyes. Not again. Not ever again." She ran her hands through my hair gently, "It'll break me, Walker. Really and finally. So you can have it. Keep it. Just in return, I want you. Just you."

I smiled, kissing her hand.

"Now I don't know...that seems like a big ask- ow!"

She went for my ears.

"You just have to ruin the moment, don't you?" She suppressed an involuntary chuckle, but Wanda and Yue didn't.

"Okay. Sheesh." I laughed, "Sorry."

"Hmph." Offee pouted cutely, "I'll forgive you this time. But you're on thin ice, mister."

"Yup. Got it. Loud and clear." I made a show of hands, "Not gonna do it again. Promise."

"Good. You better not." Offee poked my nose.

"Cherish it." Wanda snorted, "For all of the three seconds it'll last."

"No faith in your hubby, huh?" I huffed.

She just pointed at Yue and I pursed my lips.

"Touche."

Yue sighed.

"What'll we ever do with you?"

"Oh, I know a couple of things." I smirked.

"Why did I expect any other answer?" Wanda blushed and Yue licked her lips.

"Yes, yes. You can all go and have your little fuck fest later." Eliot interrupted, "Once you get that frozen guy out of my chambers."

I followed his voice to a sofa by the window and freaked.

"Holy shit. How long have you been in here?"

"The whole time. And seeing that these are my bedchambers.... rightfully so. Not that your little wives were allowing anyone to go in or out anyways with those insane, paranoid wards of yours all around us."

I settled down and sat up from Offee's lap.

"You brought me to Fillory?" I asked Wanda.

"Yes. We didn't know if more of them were going to come after you. And well, actually some did-"

"But we had it handled. No worries. Everything was fine. We definitely didn't break five reality anchors on the way here." Yue added hastily, before putting a hand over her mouth.

I narrowed my eyes.

"You destroyed five reality anchors?"

"...no." Yue looked away guiltily.

"So wait where are the other 20 or so..."

"All around the palace. We had to secure the place. Couldn't allow any supernatural presences here. We even brought the haxenpaxen."

"Oh so that is why the magic isn't working?" Eliot realized, "I thought the palace was just cursed or something."

"Okay, I get that. You took the logical steps to deal with a very real problem." I gave them a look of appreciation, "I'm proud of you. Good job. Now then...."

"The statue~" Eliot pointed to a corner.

I raised an eyebrow and turned to look and-

Oh shit. Right

"Hades."

Eliot's eyes went wide.

"Wait, Hades? As in th-the god of the underworld?"

"The very same." I nodded, "I'm surprised he's still stuck."

"I'm not even surprised you brought the god of death to my palace. Because that's a thing normal people do."

"Eliot, Eliot- relax. Chill. What's up with you?"

"What's up with me- No. No, you're right. Sorry." He rubbed his temples.

"Just....ruling is hard. The enemies are...troublesome. And the civil war isn't helping. Even as we speak, the Lorian army is marching towards us and I'm stuck here." He cast a look to Wanda.

"Under the most unbreakable wards in the world." She pointed out, "You're welcome, by the way."

"My people are-"

"Your people are trying to dethrone you. Not the time to care about them." Yue added.

"Okay, guys. Guys. Calm down. One problem at a time." I called their attention, "Hades is probably going to be stuck like that, for now."

Nen only becomes stronger after death. And attains near perpetuance.

I mean look at Hisoka, who could pump his heart back to life post mortem.

Or Camilla whose nen ability killed her attacker and revived her as a side effect.

My pre-death nen could have held him for days. This one will probably last forever unless I remove it myself.

So he's not getting unstuck anytime soon.

"So let's focus on the other problems. The easier ones." I called their attention.

Better stamp out the easier problems first before some idiot burns down a perfectly good flying ship.

"Alright. But where do we start? Like the civil war? Or the Lorian invasion?" Eliot asked.

I grinned.

"Why not both?"

_____________________

The extra chapter for 400 powerstones as promised!

Tell me what you think?

Sorry. It's my final semester and my project is due so working on that.

Thanks for reading.

Donate your powerstones.

Bye!