Ash knew all too well that the entire gameâthe creation of the cosmology as every being understood itâexisted for one singular purpose.
It was all about determining which of the two, the Mother or the Father, would ultimately absorb and assimilate the other.
That was the driving force behind everything.
Even their very first encounter had revolved around that same question: who would be the last one standing?
And now, realizing that the Father was, in truth, seemingly a doppelganger of the Mother, everything suddenly fell into place.
---
Ash shook the stray thoughts from his mind and let a small, easy smile settle on his face.
His posture went back to being relaxed, hands still tucked in his pockets as he looked at the exposed woman before him.
"Who am I?" he repeated, tilting his head slightly. "Shouldnât you know?"
The beingâs hollow eyes narrowed, her form still flickering faintly as the last traces of darkness burned away under the multicolored light.
She took another half-step back, clearly unsettled by how his demeanor remained so casual, even in the middle of a situation like this.
"I donât know a thing about you," she said, her voice low and tight with tension.
"Clearly, youâre not who you were destined to be. Youâre not the Motherâs creation, and youâre not the pawn who was supposed to die in the end."
She paused briefly.
"So, tell me... who are you, really?"
Ash let out a quiet breath, still smiling as he took another slow step forward. The autonomous swords and rivers of divinity around him remained perfectly still, waiting.
"The one I was destined to be, huh?" he said calmly, a faint chuckle slipping past his lips. "Thatâs funny."
Ashâs destiny was really all about perspective, depending entirely on how you looked at it.
And in truth, the woman wasnât wrong.
Ash and Male were both individuals fated to be leagues above anyone else, the kind of people for whom reaching the Prime Expanse would have been effortless.
But it went beyond thatâthese two were destined to stand on opposite sides of a great war, clashing as the ultimate champions.
Even so, Ash carried an even greater fate on his shouldersâa destiny to rise so high that no other character in fiction could ever hope to match.
He tilted his head slightly, eyes half-lidded with that same relaxed expression, as if they werenât standing in the heart of a battlefield where entire constructs were frozen.
"I used to run from it, you know... Destiny that is," Ash continued, his tone almost conversational.
"Tried my hardest to escape what was laid out for me. Even thought about biting the hand that tried to hand me such a lofty destiny....."
He gave a small shrug.
"But Iâve long since accepted it. And I must say.... I am exactly who Iâm destined to be."
And if he wasnât already, he knew he soon would be.
The path to becoming the Author of his own story was clearly within reachâso close that with just a thought, he could alter the drafts of NovelGeek2.
Still, if he was being honest, he didnât know if there was anyone in fiction who had the same ability. So, even if he wasnât the strongest just yet, he felt no concern about what was to come.
The womanâs expression tightened further, her hollow eyes searching his face as if trying to piece together meaning from words that clearly held weight she couldnât fully grasp.
Her form flickered faintly, the last remnants of her concealing darkness still burning away under the overwhelming light.
Ash chuckled again, low and genuine, before stepping closer.
His hands remained in his pockets, his posture easy.
"For now," he said softly, "youâll rest."
With a casual wave of his hand, her eyes fluttered shut.
Her body went limp, and she collapsed forward without resistance. Ash caught her gently with one arm before she could fall, the motion effortless.
In the next instant, a ripple of golden light and unseen darkness wrapped around her form, and she vanishedâsent drifting into Pantheos, far from the Primordial Expanse.
As mentioned before, Ash hadnât planned on adding many more women to his harem.
However, since he was already set on including the Motherâand this being was her doppelgangerâhe decided to do the opposite of what heâd done with his Mothers Lysa and Sandra.
Instead of keeping them apart, he would merge them together.
"That would give me more in the end anyway... I wonder what this cosmology will truly become once itâs complete?"
With that, Ash settled into a cross-legged position right where he stood, the multicolored light of his own making still flooding the Primordial Expanse around him.
His hands rested lightly on his knees, posture relaxed as if he were simply meditating instead of sitting in the heart of a realm that had just lost most of its foundation.
"Alright, letâs set the stage..." He muttered and with a single, casual blink, he reached out across the expanse.
HUMMMMM!!!!
The two Primordial Oceans the Mother and the fallen "Father" had been desperately trying to create surged forward all at once, completing themselves in an instant.
Vast, churning seas of raw Existence and Nonexistence roared into being on each side of the Primordial Expanse.
In that moment, the Prime Expanse below shuddered as the damage began reversing itself â shattered Thresholds started knitting back together, and the oppressive emptiness that had lingered for so long started to feel less absolute.
Ash exhaled softly through his nose, a faint smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"And no, I didnât destroy everything just to fix it," he said, addressing the readers.
"Iâve got a much better plan... I want Pantheos to have nine layers, but right now there are only five. So, just let me cook, okay?"
He let the moment linger for only a breath before moving on to the next task.
With another blink, two figures appeared before him.
They were two of the four beings Ash had created with Emma.
The Heroes and Villains... yet for his current purpose, he had called only the Villainsâthose who embodied the archetypes of Thanos and Darkseid.
At the same time, Ash reached deeper.
HUMMMMM!!!!!
With a second, heavier blink, he anchored a piece of Pantheos directly into the Primordial Expanse â specifically, a vast stretch of his own Nonexistence, the one filled with his Divine Horrors.
In an instant, the once barren and empty void of the Fatherâs side of the expanse began to twist and writhe.
Countless Divine Horrors poured into the space like a flood, filling the emptiness with writhing, nightmarish forms that pulsed with Pantheosâ power.
The Darkseid and Thanos embodiments appeared mid-step, both of them immediately tensing as they took in their surroundings.
Their eyes scanned the transformed expanse â the rivers of golden divinity still suspended in the air, the autonomous blades of chaos and void, the overwhelming pressure of Ashâs presence, and now the sudden infestation of Divine Horrors crawling through what had once been pure Nonexistence.
When their gazes finally landed on Ash, both beings froze.
Confusion, wariness, and a clear undercurrent of shock flashed across their faces.
They could feel itâthe immense presence of the figure seated before them. It wasnât just raw power; it was something deeper, something that made their very existence feel small.
Darkseidâs jaw tightened, while Thanosâ fingers slowly curled into fists. Neither spoke a word.
They simply stared, clearly struggling to understand why they had been pulled into this place... and why the man sitting in front of them felt like the center of everything.
"Well, itâs rude not to speak... isnât it?"