Xing Wu had wanted to punch the creator next time he saw Him. But not like this. He stood over Statera Luotian's prone body, a frown permanently tugging at the corners of his mouth, his hands clenched into fists. He looked terrible, to say the least, even laying atop the finest bed in the universe; complete with covers woven with all the comfort Inesa could muster bound to the fibers. Covers he remained laying on top of.

  His armor, that bronze-gold breastplate and pauldrons, had been all but torn off. The helmet that had protected his head was missing, his horns cracked and burned, the purple robes beneath his armor shredded and torn. His face was pale. But the worst of it all was not his physical appearance, but the weight in his aura.

  There was a darkness to it. Burning, aching snakes of energy that tried to dig deep into the Lord of All Creation's very soul like a virus, snapping and snarling and spitting at any who tried to touch it – not Statera, but the curse itself. Aeriel, the goddess of wind, nearly had her arm torn off by vileness within Heaven's aura, when she caught Him as He fell back to the Four Realms and tried to yank the thing off of Him. It had taken the Big Four far too much time to figure out what the thing was, and the extent of its reach.

  A curse. A curse designed specifically for Statera Luotian, to unbalance Him. The tanned woman, Alala, he had later learned, had laid a curse on Him. And a curse from another Origin Deity, carrying the solidified weight and hatred of an entire other universe was not something even Statera Luotian could dismiss lightly. Especially not after what He had done to protect them.

  Xing Wu's fists clenched, his teeth grinding together as fury coursed through him. Not just at those who had betrayed them, but at his own powerlessness. Once again, he had been forced to watch as someone else gave everything, so those behind them could survive. He’d thought he’d become stronger than this.

  "There was nothing you could have done," the one who spoke was not one Xing Wu personally knew, having only met the Rival once before. He and the Mad Scientist had been summoned from the Physical Realm as consultants, once the Big Four had figured out they couldn't do anything against the curse. "She's always been like this, for as long as I've known her. Always the first to put herself in the line of fire. In this case, good thing she did, too. There'd be a lot more dead if she hadn't, even if it pains me to see her like this."

  Xing Wu hated that he agreed with that. The amount of power that had been thrown about casually in that fight, in the collision, had been staggering, and only served to remind him of how weak he really was in the grand scheme. His teeth ground, shoulders squaring as he recalled what he had felt when Statera Luotian had stood before the Four Realms, clad in armor he had never imagined upon the God, declaring that not a single soul amongst His children would be harmed so long as He still stood.

  A declaration that had been upheld, until the Four Realms ceased its bouncing. Staring at that back had been like staring at the Heavens, back when he was still mortal. Something massive. Something untouchable. And now it lay in bed, fighting a curse that threatened to steal away all it was.

  He hated to admit it, but he really was Statera Luotian's child. He would have done the exact same thing.

  "I promised to punch him, next time I saw him." Xing Wu said softly.

  "You still can. She's just sleeping, this doesn't count." The Rival deadpanned.

  "Hey!" The Mad Scientist objected from where she stood off to the side, observing the curse through the lens of some machine.

  "What?" The Rival asked, confused. Xing Wu, despite the poor taste in which the Rival had made that joke, still found himself smiling, however grimly.

  "No, he's right. This doesn't count yet," Xing Wu said firmly. "We just need to make sure that the world is still here when He wakes up, so I can give Him a proper punch." His shoulders squared as he turned on his heel, undoing the barrier that kept Statera isolated from the outside world. Or, at least, part of it. Just enough to let him slip out. "Keep Him safe."

  And out he walked, cloth-covered feet padding silently along the long, marble hallway. Dozens of beings stood guard just outside the recovery room, Fu Hao and Stilicho foremost amongst them. Statera's two angels were dressed for war, golden armor gleaming off of the two, Stilicho wielding a shining gold spear, while Fu Hao sported gauntlets of gold and spikes.

  The other guards included gods, Aeriel nursing her injured shoulder, and the most senior, powerful members of the Heavenly Host.

  "Elvira wished to speak with you," Fu Hao said simply, crossing her arms across her chest and frowning hard. Xing Wu promptly split off an incarnation to send to the goddess of heaven and divinity, but his true body had other duties to attend to.

  "I will speak with her. However, you two need to come with me." he told them, summoning his spear and laying it lengthwise across his shoulders, casually sauntering despite the pressure he felt. This was what he had been waiting for, all this time. War wasn’t just coming; it was here. And he was always ready to defend what was his. "We have defenses to coordinate."

  "But," Stilicho started, despite falling in line beside Xing Wu as he made his way out of the secret chamber, Fu Hao already at his side.

  "Statera Luotian will be safe. They are the Creator, and besides, this is the most secure place in the entirety of the Four Realms. Your skills will be better put to work in defending our universe, than defending Statera." Xing Wu reasoned. "And we do have defenses to build. The interior of the Realms have been damaged, and the exterior shell weakened. A coordinated strike will shatter the formation. We need to be prepared,"

  "The Big Four will take care of that," Stilicho argued further, obviously intent on staying behind, despite keeping step with Xing Wu.

  "The Big Four are panicking, and rightfully so. The Four Realms do not have a God of War, so the duty falls to me to coordinate defenses; the Big Four will send aid once they deal with the intruder, but we need to be the initial bulwark. No one expected the betrayal. That means the enemy will be prepared, while we are still reeling."

  "But..."

  "Look," Xing Wu sighed, pushing open a door and revealing that they were not, in fact, within the creator’s Palace. Any known Palaces, really. This was in the heart of the Hidden Realm, the secret Fifth Realm, a place built by Morgan specifically for itself and the Creator, hidden with all the prodigious skill of the Shadow. And protected just as zealously. Before them stretched a thousand immortal devil cultivators and Arachaeon, the arachnid beings building a fortress of steel-like thread that could hide things even from Xing Wu's senses. None looked up as the trio closed the door, the hidden room vanishing from this plane of reality, even as the entrance remained anchored.

  "What Xing Wu is saying is that we need to be prepared for an attack sooner than later. They cannot lay siege to us, this is not like the wars we've seen mortals fight. This is a war between universes. They need to take land from us, as we are entirely self-sufficient, and weaken the Will of the Four Realms to make their advance easier. Whatever they want, they need to attack now, take it while our greatest defense is down, when we still do not know how injured their Origin is. We must defend against that." Fu Hao supplied, silencing her brother. Xing Wu nodded in approval; that was his assessment, as well. "How injured are your stars? Can they provide something of a barrier?"

  "They never took a hit." Xing Wu said grimly as they appeared just within the shell of Primordial Chaos, looking out at the One World, and the flying enemies circling outside. Both angels looked at him oddly. He understood why; his stars, the power of faith they held, had meant to be an integral part of the defense. Now they would serve a different role. "Statera Luotian never let me take a single hit. Not a single Dao Path was lost in the collision. Not a single soul was injured. A Father, taking all the hits for their children." he muttered, cracking his neck, eyes narrowing. Vaguely, he was aware of Celene and Fang Xu appearing next to him, the married gods of the Sun and Lunar Star bedecked in their own war clothes.

  Thyia appeared as well, the goddess of catastrophe crackling with barely restrained fury. He felt pity for whichever unfortunate fools got in her way. Though not as much pity as those who would stand in his.

  Xing Wu thought of his own daughter, little Sequoia, and Inesa back in the Heaven Realm, huddled in the safety of the Holy Palace. He grinned viciously, grimly, determinedly. Once again, he realized he knew Statera Luotian better than he thought he did. He would have done the same for Sequoia; and fought to return home afterwards.

  "They will not set one foot inside the Realms while we stand guard. Not one foot."

  ***

  Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

  Standing before the Big Four was like standing int he center of the sun, in Astraea's opinion. All four stood in front of her with arms crossed, their auras pushed to the absolute limit, pressuring her into full truthfulness she already willingly gave, yet never once touching the child she carried in her arms. She counted it a blessing they had not tried to take the little one from her; she wasn't certain how she would have acted if they had tried to take the last piece of her mother from her she carried.

  Try to deny it all she did, Yueya was her mother. It was a startling realization.

  "You have given us no reason to trust you, Astraea, beyond your word and the openness of your aura. Yueya betrayed and deceived us all; understand that if you do try anything, we will not hesitate to erase you off the face of the Universe. It is a sin for us to destroy a truesoul, but you are not from the Four Realms, and are therefore not subject to our laws." Keilan said firmly, though from what Astraea could tell the god of connections did not fully believe his words. He would not betray his Father's confidence, nor his ideals.

  "I will take great pleasure in doing so," Reika, on the other hand, would. Of the four, she scared Astraea the most, not because of her power, but because of her viciousness. She held an anger within her that burned brighter than any star.

  Astraea swallowed thickly, nodding.

  "I understand," she told them. All four nodded, not satisfied, but not having any other choice than to believe her for now.

  "Then close your eyes. You will come with us to meet Father. There is still a way for you to meet Him despite His…condition." Alexander rumbled. Astraea closed her eyes, feeling the foreign power wrap around her as she was teleported to a location that was so devoid of anything she couldn't even feel her own stars. Her chest constricted, the child clutched to her chest squirming as she opened her eyes - and beheld what may have been her death, once upon a time, standing in a black void – a space between spaces.

  A man in silver robes, eyes as cold and distant as the stars themselves – nothing like her stars - peered at her. Everything about him screamed determination and death; the kind of an expression and steel to his aura that told her one wrong move meant being impaled on the spear he held loosely in one hand. And this was just an incarnation, a sliver of his being, but no less a danger for it.

  "She's got a completely different domain than me." he said, not ever looking away, though his spear lowered. "We're both stars, but hers are different than mine. I can read honesty in her being, however, and the kid - well, I don't need to be the one to tell you about the kid."

  Elvira made a noise of acceptance beside her, and the incarnation of the man vanished entirely. Then, the world came into view.

  What had been a blurred, blank void came into focus as a small room. Healing magic filled the air, battling the curse that ravaged Statera Luotian's prone form - it pained Astraea to see the once proud, powerful god of balance like this, especially knowing her own mother was one of the ones to blame, even infected as she was. The room was mostly bare, nothing on the walls, but here, Astraea could barely access her divinity. Everything was suppressed, locked down tighter than Curie’s most secret vaults. Designed specifically to freeze something in time and space, slow collapse.

  "Who's this, then?" a new voice asked. Astraea fixated her gaze on the immortal man sitting beside Statera, one hand laid casually on the small bed Statera rested upon, a book in his other hand. He was neither impressive nor unnoticeable; yet, once again Astraea felt floored by his attention. Perhaps that was because she didn't have access to as much of her divinity; suppressed as she was. Was this how mortals felt, all the time? She didn't like it.

  "Astraea, the goddess of stars from the One World." Elvira said firmly, stepping forward to stand by her Father's side as well, looking down at His pale, barely-breathing face. The child in Astraea's arms squirmed. She watched the child, then looked at the curse that bound Statera. It would not hurt the child. She could feel it in something deeper than her soul.

  "We met before," the Mad Scientist, a woman Astraea had met only once way back during the first meeting between Realms, piped up, alerting Astraea to her presence. The winged woman eyed her suspiciously, gaze lingering on the child. Astraea wrapped her arms around the little one protectively.

  "We have," she agreed. "I am sorry our reunion was not under better circumstances."

  "You here to explain what all happened, and how to combat that curse?" The Mad Scientist asked.

  "No." Keilan answered for her. "Mad Scientist, Rival, I believe it would be best for you to leave for this part. Your help has been invaluable, but what may happen next will be...well, difficult to describe." The Mad Scientist hesitated for just a moment, before packing up the equipment she had been monitoring with a wave of her hand and allowing herself to be teleported away. The now-identified Rival, however, stayed put, his eyes finding his book again.

  "Rival," Reika warned.

  "You'll have to pry me away yourself, dearie. She was with me through some of my tough times, the least I can do is stay by her side through hers." He drawled, completely dismissive of the amount of power in the room. None of the gods seemed to have an answer for that, and, to her immense surprise, none of them moved to kick him out, either. The Rival licked a finger and turned the page in his book. "Besides, I was just getting to the first smut scene, and Syl usually loves to hear those whenever I would forcibly subject her to my readings."

  "Just...don’t get in the way," Keilan sighed heavily, looking at Astraea. "As for you, to talk to Mother, you'll have to put your hands on Hers. Her consciousness is still awake; everything is focused on keeping the curse out of Her system. If She is receptive to talking, She will connect you to Her inner mind once you touch Her hand. When there, you will be able to speak with Her directly. Do not, under any circumstances, try to use magic or any sort of spells or abilities. Nor should you try to touch the curse; it will react if you do. If we sense anything, that will be the end of you, do you understand?" Keilan warned. Astraea nodded, stepping forward and taking a deep breath. This was it. The moment she had been waiting for, the precipice of her duty. Tears welled in her eyes as she unbound the child, laying the little one beside Statera Luotian - His arm slowly wrapping around the baby. All four of the Big Four started to surge forward, to pull the child away, protests half-formed on their lips, but they froze when they saw how innocently the child lay beside Him.

  How the curse did not react to its presence in the slightest. How could it? Statera was there.

  Astraea’s bottom lip trembled as she stared at them for a moment. Would this catastrophe not have happened, had Yueya loved her children, the way Statera loved His? If she had considered her creations children?

  She bit back a sob, and touched Statera's hand, her mind immediately being sucked into the inner realm of Statera's mind.

  If standing before the Big Four had been like standing in the center of the sun, the standing before Statera Luotian, despite His injuries, was like having the sun burst to life within one's own soul; her very flesh transforming into fire and rage at His will.

  Her breath caught in her throat as she stared at the figure before her, back turned, gleaming golden armor hanging from His shoulders, a rich red cape waving in an unseen wind, before Him the writhing serpent that was the curse. And beyond even that, she could feel the Will of the One World clashing against his own will. He was not just fighting the curse. He was keeping at bay the Will of the One World as best he could.

  This was not the kind, goofy parent figure that had charmed Yueya and Alala. This was not even the god who had battled the Primordial Dragon, Sehuyun, in her own universe. This was a man who had decided to stand before his own family, and deny an entire universe the right to destroy what was His. A man who had decided such, and had not failed.

  "I see," Statera intoned, the very words echoing in Astraea's chest not like a rumble, but like a warm drink on a cold night. It was the feeling of forgiveness. "Thank you, for bringing it here. For bringing my child here. You have done well, Astraea of the stars. Whatever was left of Yueya when she gave you the little one would be proud. When you return, feed me the Authority. Press it into my brow. I will return it to Curie when all is said and done, so long as the One World persists in any capacity. I have no desire to conquer your peoples." Statera raised a hand to send her away, the mental landscape already fading.

  "I'm sorry," she blurted out, desperate to say anything, anything at all, to this one. To this one who was accepting such a task; and was willing to give all to protect what was his. "And thank you." Statera paused and, for the first time since she had arrived, turned to look at her over His shoulder. HIs eyes were sharp as ever, peering through her soul, focused as a laser.

  "Do not thank me yet," He promised, and pushed her out of His landscape.

  Astraea gasped as she was thrust back to the present, the child shifting beside Statera.

  "He said to feed Him the Authority," she said, answering their questions before they could ask them. The Big Four looked at each other warily, Reika still looking like she wanted to snatch the child from Statera; but the curse snarled at her, every time she tried to get close. It had to sense her fury.

  "Authority? That's odd," the Rival mused, scratching his chin.

  "You know of the process?" Reika demanded.

  "Only through rumor. There was some deity who tried to create a new multiverse by hoarding the Authorities of Origin Deities and binding their universes together. Odin, I think his name was? The original, not the fakes that pop up from time to time. Didn't work; if it was that easy to make a new multiverse the Overgod would have done it a long time ago - and wow, I'm surprised I’m being allowed to talk about this at all. What gives?" the Rival mused, glaring skyward. Astraea furrowed her brows, at an utter loss as to what the man was talking about.

  The other Four took it in stride, Elvira procuring the cylinder that contained Curie's Authority. The siblings looked at each other while Astraea wrapped her arms around herself, staring at the little one. It wiggled closer into Statera's side, hiccupping, the curse snarling and snapping - and flowing about the child like water, a subtle glow of Yueya's magic protecting the little one from the curse. This time, Astraea did sob, even as Elvira took out the glowing orb and pressed it against her Father's forehead, the light flowing about His head to settle on His brow like a crown.

  The effect was not immediate. It would never be immediate for something of this magnitude. But even as Astraea watched, she could see the curse weakening. The pressure from the Will of the One World weakening and, conversely, the pressure upon her own person weakened as Statera and the Realms accepted her presence.

  But most importantly, she felt the Rot, so far in the distance, scream with barely restrained fury. It knew what had just happened. It had to have. And that meant it could not wait.

  "Come, brother, sisters. There is not much more we can do but wait." Alexander rumbled, the great dragon rising up to his full height, teeth bared and eyes promising bloody murder. "Those who wronged us, who attempted to kill our Father and destroy our Home, will be coming. And I, for one, will give them a welcome they will never forget."

  Astraea shuddered, crouching, falling to her knees, not out of fear for what came next, but the weight of…everything. This was a conflict that should never have happened.

  If only she had noticed the rot sooner.

  If only...

  Xing Wu: God of Stars. Going to hold the line.

  Fu Hao/Stilicho: Statera's first angels, basically twins. Will hold the line, desperately want to protect Dad.

  Fang Xu/Celene: God of the Sun, and Goddess of the Lunar Star. Friends of Xing Wu.

  Thyia: Goddess of Catastrophe and Sacrifice. Ready to beat the absolute snot out of everyone; she never gets to let loose.

  Astraea: Goddess of Stars. Overwhelmed in so many ways.

  Statera Luotian: Diety of Balance. Our MC. Just a little sleepy.

  Curse: Doing Curse Stuff. Very Snappy. Very Bitey.

  Aeriel: Goddess of the Wind and Secrets. Quiet.