Chapter 4

(This is mostly from the main AU. I couldn't write this sequence better than him so I will put it in as reference for this and build of it. ✌️)

Legend - September 6th, 2003 - Dubai

We all line up, heroes and villains together, for the THING'S descent. While we at Cauldron knew it was bad news when Contessa couldn't path it, nobody could expect the damage it would lay. At least with Behemoth and Leviathan we can see the damage at first glance, who knows if we've still seen everything this Simurgh ruined in her last trip down here.

And now she's back, less than a year later. If the forecasts are true as well, We'll be seeing her probably once a year.

I look back to all the men and women standing behind me, ready to fight for their lives against possible extinction regardless of personal belief. 

Some heroes I hold as friends and comrades: Me, Alexandria, Eidolon, Iron Man, All-Might, Bang, Captain America. 

Some independents who in these moments I can trust to watch my back: Tatsumaki, Storm, Narwhal, Hulk. 

Even villains who wouldn't dare take this moment to fight: Kaiser, Accord, Magneto, Destro, Juggernaut.

Well, time to do this speech again. It hurts me to see all the people bored from hearing it for the tenth time, but it hurts me more to see all the people who could never make it out alive to hear it again.

"Welcome everyone and thank you deeply for your help to humanity in these moments. Even the villains. Regardless of your personal lives and crimes, this goes beyond that. This is a fight for survival."

"We've had time to gather since the Simurgh is taking its time to land and that means we have just a few more minutes to prepare and brief for its arrival, instead of jumping straight into the fray as we arrive. With this advantage, some luck, teamwork and hard effort from everyone, I hold out hope that this could be one of the good days."

I take a deep breath before announcing the horrors of the situation and showing a box we have to the side full of collars.

"But you should know your chances going in. Given the statistics from our single previous encounter with this beast, a 'good day' is a day where we won't have to worry about our sanity after we leave here today. The Simurgh, as the Endbringer has been officially declared, is a human master of the worst kind. Subliminal messaging and manipulations to where you could go crazy 5 years down the line and ruin the lives of everyone you love or start killing everyone you see today."

"From all the research we've focused on in the last 9 months, we've confirmed a couple of points. First, the insanity and so-called 'breaking point' that the Simurgh causes in humans is from her voice. All of our research shows that it takes 20 minutes for you to be considered a write-off."

I walk over to the boxes filled with collars and take one. I quickly press a button on a custom made one for an example before throwing it in the air. It implodes with a loud bang, wiping out a very contained area.

"This is a bomb collar we developed to implode your head once it has been confirmed you have spent twenty minutes in range of the Simurgh's song. There is no escape once you hit that point. Heroes, Independents, Villians. If you can't accept this point then leave now."

Screeching and yelling erupts at my declaration before I grab a collar for myself and latch it tightly around my neck. They quiet down for the moment.

"No exceptions. We can't afford for another of its designs to win. If the bomb can't kill you, you will be quarantined then hunted if you don't accept that quarantine. We are here so that we don't have to wall up to another city. We wish for them to never again be another Lausanne. Strider is ready to take you to a rest point if you can't accept this decision. What happened on December 30, 2002 will not be repeated here if I have anything to say about it."

There are a few who wish to retreat, but most stay. Good, they know what is at stake here. With only a minute until her descent reaches us, flyers begin going into the air as blasters get in positions with open shots. Me, Alexandria, and Eidolon fly upwards ready for another fight for the world.

Sure enough, she's here. As she reaches our range, she begins to scream loudly to where everyone could hear it. Twenty minutes start now.

Buildings collapse as the Simurgh uses them as ammunition, quickly killing a lot of the weaker parahumans in mass. When Alexandria and Eidolon try to hit her, they miss every attack attempted. I get similar results for a time.

After about three minutes of pointless mass slaughter and singing, I can see the Simurgh stop then change up its entire plan. Alexandria and myself begin to hit the beast while Eidolon still misses, much of the metal and nearby elements are being quickly assembled into a sphere of some kind. Tinker tech is built before our eyes as the designs looks extremely similar to that of nearby tinkers

I hear Alexandria quickly talk into the earpiece everyone has and let the assistants on the other end push the information out. We really need a better system than this.

"Alexandria. Code 439. Assume the Simurgh can replicate nearby tinker-tech or tinker powers. Quickly evacuate all tinkers from the area."

"Roger. All Tinkers routed towards a Strider Extraction Point."

A little late, I can see the winged monster build a bomb of some kind before throwing it into one of the most densely populated areas.

"MOVE!"

I scream and try to stop it but it is too late. Some parahumans manage to get out of the way, but more die from the ensuing explosion. There were two endbringer shelters in that direction which I don't think exist anymore, so many civilians just gone.

The fight doesn't stop just because of deaths however. We need to move on and suppress her. Another 5 minutes pass of the Simurgh using telekinesis to full effect to slaughter some of the parahumans. This has got to be one of the worst days yet, I can feel it.

As everyone reaches the ten minutes mark on Simurgh exposure, she suddenly stops her singing and begins flying higher. For a second, we think that could be the end of the fight. That is, until the sudden storm that materializes.

Gale force winds start to pick up and lightning reveals itself. Thunder rages through everyone's ears as the clouds in the sky become larger and larger until it blocks out the sky completely.

"ROOOAAARRR!!!!!"

A piercing and bestial roar envelops everyone's hearing, stopping everyone in their tracks. The Simurgh is now beside the endless clouds in the sky before we can see it. A head pops out of the sea of clouds, soon joined by a long serpentine body and fierce claws.

Its size is immeasurable, it could lay down on this entire city. No sound is heard for a while until another round of lightning sparks and thunder rings, announcing the beast's arrival.

Why? Why are we so forsaken to have to deal with another of these beasts? I can barely manage to look around and see most of the nearby parahumans grow weak at the knees, dropping to the ground. Some pray for salvation.

The Simurgh floats next to the head of the beast, its entire body not even managing to be the same size as the dragon's maul. Suddenly, the Simurgh shakes its head up and down before mass telekinesis is displayed. Buildings are rearranged until what seems to be a giant set of stairs made from Dubai's finest architecture appears. At the top of the stairs, a base is formed in mid-air with a—human sized throne? Yes, a human-sized throne appeared on it.

Before I can wonder when the world will start making sense again, I speck of red light is shot out from the body of the large serpent and drops onto the chair. It takes form until a fully human shape appears, the head of the great beast being used as a backdrop for the appearance of this person.

Long, vibrant red hair flows down her shoulders, showing the care given to its owner's appearances. A multitude of exotic features on display, between elf ears, ram horns, and a devil's tail. An extremely large bust nearly overfilling the seductive clothes of the wearer, I believe that is what many of the parahumans in the audience are focusing on in this introduction. A perfect appearance of temptation and lust, if I wasn't gay myself I could easily see behaving how she wanted me to for any slither of attention.

The unmeasurably large dragon that appears to obey her also gives an image of dominance and control, a presence that forces your attention.

She looks towards the three of us, me, Alexandria, and Eidolon, and lazily lifts her hand before pointing it at us. She flicks her index finger towards herself in a 'come hither' movement, what she wants from us is obvious. She sits there with a slight frown on her face as we aren't immediately flying to meet her needs, as if we are servants who should be happy to answer her call.

She points at the Simurgh before the winged one starts singing again as the red-haired woman once again motions us forward. While Eidolon seems ready to fight again, Alexandria grabs him by the shoulder and pulls him back.

"Rebecca! What are you doing? We have to fight them!"

"David!!! We could barely manage one, and you want to start a war with two of them. Especially one that seems to want to talk? We might never have another chance like this again, we might as well see what it wants."

"I heard that. Being called an it is rather rude, do call me she. Did my appearance not give my gender away? Hurry up and come over here, my patience isn't unlimited. Don't you want Simmy to stop singing her song?"

I briefly looked between the three of us and our thoughts on the matter were communicated. David controls his temper while Alexandria updates the operators on the situation before we all drop onto the platform where her throne resides.

"There, was that so hard? Greetings, leaders of heroes. I am Osiris, Sister to the ones you know as Behemoth, Leviathan, and Simurgh. I prefer to call her Simmy for the record though."

She speaks with a slow drawl, as if slowing down her speech to make sure we could understand her. The implications of stupidity aren't lost on me. What is more important however is the fact that this could be the first actual conversation with these threats. Alexandria quickly goes to speak.

"I am Alexandria, Protectorate hero and first-in-command at Endbringer battles. Why are you here?"

"Hmmmmm, all the questions you could ask and the first thing you think of is why am I here? Well, I saw the fun time my sister was having and thought I would join in on the fun. Levi and Benny are too stupid to care about, but I like to keep up with my sis. Girl power and all that, ya know?"

I immediately tense, she finds what the Simurgh was doing as fun? This monster.

"How dare you. The simurgh's actions have directly killed hundreds of thousands. You look at that and laugh!"

My rage can't be contained at this disgusting, arrogant little devil.

"You are right in a sense. I dislike the way my siblings operate."

Huh.

"Levi destroys coastal towns and islands, Behemoth destroys energy sources, and Simmy mind control as she pleases. One thing I think they all got wrong is that they shouldn't waste their time killing you humans."

"W-well, that is—" 

I try to speak before I am interrupted by her.

"After all, you all are more than capable of doing that to yourselves."

"What? How does a monste—"

"Quiet green man, I'm making a point. No matter how much work my siblings put into killing you all, I am of the opinion that like most things there is a far simpler solution. So, I wish to play a game with the human race."

A wave of her hand and a thick stone tablet materializes before our eyes with words written on the surface as if they were commandments.

Holy Grail War​The War will be held once a calendar year at a location of Osiris' choice for a week.The Holy Grail War will count as a yearly 'endbringer attack' by Osiris at any given time of the year, ignoring all other attacks by endbringers.

As such, other endbringers will attack approximately every 4 months instead of 3 to account for this.

Seven contestants will be teleported into the location. Whether there is a time to prepare or not is subject to change year by year by the decision of Osiris.All contestants will be given immunity to (In Human Terms) Master, Stranger, Thinker, and unwanted Trump effects from other parahumans discounting fellow contestants.

Fellow Contestants will be resistant to such powers by a contestant, but can be affected.All contestants will have their powers enhanced before the war starts and the power-up will not be taken away, including the immunity.If a contestant doesn't have a kill by the time the war ends, they will be killed. If a contestant is killed by several other contestants working together, then credit will be given to the one Osiris feels deserves the credit.

The war ends after seven days with whoever has killed the most contestants and is alive wins.If there is a tie at the end of the war, the war will continue indefinitely until a winner is decided or all but one of the tied contestants gives up on attempting to win, which will result in them being killed by Osiris.

The winner will be allowed to ask one wish of Osiris to grant.

"Besides this game I intend to play, I have no plans to attack humanity. Everything will be left up to humans. If you play it smartly, my wars can even be a benefit to you!"

"How could something like you ever help humans!"

"Chill green man, you have so much anger in you. Relax a little, won't you? Anyway, for my games I will heavily empower all seven of the individuals that participate in my games to equal or greater levels than your own strengths. If you believe in humanity so much, here is your chance."

"I will not interfere in the matches beyond the rules started. While only three could remain at the end of my wars since everyone needs to kill someone else, that's still an endbringer fight that gives you three superpowered parahumans and only four deaths. Look around you at all the corpses, doesn't that sound like a good deal?"

I do as she says and look. So, so many dead. Could she actually be telling the truth?

"I believe that if I give you humans enough power, you'll destroy yourselves. Do you wish to challenge me on that thought?"

"We obviously would not! And granting wishes, do you think we are children?"

"Well, I guess you will just have to wait and find out!"

"So to recap! I will never kill a human with my own body or power as long as they don't bother me first. In return, you all play my game and you won't belong to me until after you die. I, Osiris, Goddess of the Dead, will take great care of all your immortal souls gifted to me after you die~~~. Until then, I will never lay the first blow with my own hands. That, or me and my sister Simmy over here can start attacking you together and I won't leave until every stone is left turned over. Accept now and I'll throw in convincing Simmy to end today's attack early."

She says with a childish excitement to her voice. This delusional beast really pictures itself as a goddess playing with souls like some fiction book?

So what do you say, Library of Alexandria, will humanity play with me?"

A quick deliberation later and an accord was met. The Simurgh flew back into the air while the monster in the clouds disappeared. As the human form of that enoumous beast before us starts to fade from view, I wonder whether we made the right decision or not.

We thought that regardless of if we accept this 'game' deal or not, we can always intervene with the outcome by approaching the fight. Little did we know that Osiris completely separates the war location from the rest of the world, not even Doormaker has found a way inside.

It took less than two years for me to figure out that Osiris could be so much worse than all the other endbringers. We of the triumvirate were especially blamed for some of the tragedies to follow when the full conversation with Osiris was uploaded to the internet and became impossible to remove, like most of her content. From her actions, she's clearly an attention whore.

Seraph

February 28,2004

Brockton Bay

As I was contemplating what to do with the rest of my time when a bright light flashed blinding me and presumably everyone else.

I quickly looked outside only to see a huge dome covering the sky. If I had to guess it was covering the entirety of the Bay.

Who would do this and why??

And then she appeared. The one these people call Osiris. The one I realised was responsible for my transmigration years ago. I don't know how she managed to affect the past but there's nothing I can do to her.

After all without her I would be dead. It would be bad to repay kindness with betrayal.

As she hovered in the sky, I noticed she glanced at me briefly then smiled before she started her yap session.

"Hello world!! This is your girl,Osiris here ready to host the 1st Holy Grail War. Coming straight outta Brockton Bay!"

"I decided to make here the first site since there are so many powerful people from here. I decided to make this a mixup with the old generation and the emerging new ones. Even the unknown powerhouses here. Yes, Seraph I am talking about you."

Damn! Did this bitch just out me.

"Anyway you all know the rules. I will introduce seven of you to the audience and then grant you your power boosts. After that you have one week to prepare."

"First, Marquis's, Bone manipulation. Was captured by The Brockton Brigade while protecting his daughter. Power upgrades are: Immunity to master effects and trump effects like suppressing and copying. Immunity to all forms of precognition. Self biokinesis, increased range of bone manipulation and fine control and creation of bone constructs with a rating of Brute 3."

"Magneto, parahuman activist with macro control over magnetism. Power upgrades: Micro control over magnetism, Brute six rating, standard immunity package."

"Carol Dallon, Brockton Bay Brigade. Control over light constructs, flight and ability to turn into a sphere of invulnerability. Helped put Marquiss in the Birdcage. Power upgrades: Ability to form light armaments in an area around her, standard immunity package, increased flight speed and ability to fly at fast speeds while in her invulnerable form."

"Kaiser, Leader of the Empire. Ability to create blades of metal from surfaces around him. Power upgrades: Brute 5 rating, Metalkinesis and increased range of his blade creation and manipulation.Standard immunity package."

"Tony Stark, Second-In-Command of San Diego Protectorate Branch .He is an open Tinker with his productivity and quality based on his own personal excitement for a project. The more he liked what he was working on, the faster and better his tinker tech. Tinker 8.

Upgrades granted: Added a tinker specialty of Body Armor and Power Sources. Standard immunity package and Standard Tinker package: removes the random maintenance for tinker tech. As long as there is no reason to break down. It won't.

"Genos, Independent hero from Brockton Bay. Tinker specialty: Cybernetics. Power upgrade: Added Tinker specialty: Efficiency and Modularity. Standard tinker amd immunity package."

"And almost last but definitely not least. In fact he's the strongest one here. I am conflicted if I should even give him a boost at all because even with all your upgrades he is still stronger than all of you naturally. But he's involved so I have to make do on my promise."

I could feel the air shift as she locked eyes with me. Yeah they will be gunning to take me out first.

"Seraph. An inter dimensional traveller from a far off universe who is stuck here by accident. An Emperor of the Seas. One of the top ten strongest in his world. Powers: Half Lunarian which gives him pyrokinesis and Brute 9 rating and flight alongside partial invulnerability. Devil fruit ability: Ice Ice fruit:model logia which is awakened which gives him a passive ice breaker state and complete control over the element of ice. He developed the ability to freeze time around himself. Devil fruit ability: Tremor Tremor Fruit: model paramecia which allows him create and control earthquakes of any magnitude and scale in different ways. Devil Fruit ability: Door Door fruit which gives him a personal pocket dimension and allows him create doors to go anywhere well most places. He triggered when he came to this dimension and gained a tinker ability: Pathfinder. He is able to copy technology he has seen or imagined. He is able to permanently copy tinker specialties by being around them. All in all way to OP for you guys he might as well be a humanoid endbringer compared to you."

"Anyway, Standard immunity and tinker package. Devil fruit ability: Mythical Zoan: model Shadow Monarch. Able to resurrect the shadows of killed foes to permanently fight for him in his shadow army."

"Thats all folks. Remember you have a week to prepare. Good luck you will need it."