User blog:MockingJester/The loniest ascendence

"Daddy! Catch me~ A squeaky voice bounces through the walls of a venerable top of a skyscraper. the voice belongs to a tiny-winged demon bearing the ashen pigmentation with a contrasting set of yellow sharp irises twinkling in exuberant enthusiasm.

Her age does keep her at a young fourth year in life, rushing to a leather-garbed sofa where a man sits, having just come by at the start of the evening. Far from tired even under the day's battering, the man early broadcasts his arms wide, ready and willing to receive the childish demon blotting herself on his chest, giggling all the while "Hehe, your cloth is wet, hehe. The sun's got you~"

"Ohh? Are you insinuating something, hmm?" he speaks rising from the sofa with her firmly kept in arms.

"I think little miss is calling you sweaty, dear" Behind the counter, a woman of same statures of that the youngling. More mature and refined, bearing an apron over casual attires and a handkerchief to her ponytail. Her voice defines elegance overtaken by a motherly tone. Her hands and mind ceased tolling around with the kitchen tools, all-too embroiled witnessing her benedict taunting and lifting the pearl of her fruit upward.

"Really? Well then, how about you let the sun hug you as well?" His words enable the window slide to the balcony extended to a miniature courtyard where his steps take them.

"No, if the sun hugs me, then I'll be sweaty as well~ The infant giggles more, pretending struggle as her ashen visage takes to the outdoor to an orangy sky. The mother and wife, looking to join, merely snaps her fingers, enabling the work for today's supper to make itself.

She paces toward her small family, each step eruptive in the vestige of a long-dormant power, the same way her benedict breathes his own with a barely audible aura bending the light around him and his young. The memory to this moment rewinds to its beginning... --- [I am in the now. Born from nothing to something...are you my creator?] A robotic voice buzzes to a teen's ears, far from the public, from others. The tiny machine gazes all around it, seeing an array of things. People, walls, a school, cars, everything it sees for the first time before it lays its singular motif piece, a core of light, to a young man kneeling in front of it, buzzing with a clearer pitch of joy [I feel my matrix pulled and folded from your hand. You are my creator]

"Creator? Well, alright. Hi, yes, hi. Welcome to life, little buddy". The teen picks up the core, a manifold of light and constructs the size of his fist. It pulses with a dull warmth in his hand, increased only by its speech.

Being the genesis to this sentient sphere, the teen, Xavier, can feel its emotion picking up his scarce surrounding [Creator, you seem to be apart from the others. Is there something wrong?]

"No, no, it's something I've always been, little guy. I'm not the speaking type".

[Ohh...] The core lowers, in Xavier's perception, its gaze, only to lift it again with renewed vigor [Do no worry. I am here now. You need not be alone anymore, creator]

"Haha, alright then, little guy. If you're going to be this early to raise a hand, well...first, we need to get you a name".

[A name?] Curiosity peeks the sentient core.

"Yea, a name. Something I can call you. Got any preference?"

[Well...] It blinks, demonstrated by the ray of light pointing down and closing twice [I'll take anything you suggest. You are my creator, after all]

"Passing the ball, huh? Alright. How about..." --- "Ma'aï, hold still for a moment". Xavier is armed with a welding tool shimmered in likeness by his finger, encrusted by a humming gauntlet of white painting. His other hand is wrapped in splendor to the wrist, resonating with the sphere's manifestation.

Ma'aï, or Manifold auguring Artificial intelligence, speaks in kind [Please, don't tickle me like that, creator, It is making my attempt more complicated--oh, oh, oh] It laughs by the press of his illuminated palm holding it in place.

"Hah, sorry. Placing these shield platings is a bit of an annoyance. Almost done..." Xavier burns the last piece of armor on his sentient companion, a solid made from tellurium and gold plating. One for armor, the other, to better focus Ma'aï's focus on its power, further solidifying its percepts "There you go! One new core ready to bounce at will!"

[I feel more amply anchored to the world, creator. Is that the upgrade's design?]

"Yep. Lets you interact with the world better. I'm also thinking of installing several others like this, though, they'll be light-based instead of hard or software".

[Ohh, I can't wait, creator. You are considerate towards me]

Xavier looks to Ma'aï, the core under the telluriums plating blinking with happiness, waiting to feel the world more. The teen grins as the gauntlet on his arm dissipate into thin air "Same here, little guy". --- Years past, Xavier became a young man, moved to the Cordillera isles with his ever-helping sentient AI. The highest peak sees itself carved and established by Xavier's growing powers, wrestled in an array of technological artifacts, all of their makings.

Ma'aï looks to the stars in this semi-permanent night set. Or at least, the shortened day. Once again, it is upgraded, with tiny gleaming alphabets symbolizing its growth, ever hovering and orbiting itself [Creator, this place is beautiful when the night rises]

"Yea..." Xavier raises a hand, his will, acting upon the hovering stone the size of skyscrapers, molded and re-instated on the top of the mountain where their true home now stands hidden "...it is. And...it's desolate".

[It is] Ma'aï blinks twice [Creator, why are we in a desolate mountain range? Is it not better to set home in a place with other people?]

"Well..." Xavier's eyes gleam as the artifacts on his body disappear, leaving him to hover hundreds of meters by the particles of his feet "We're not exactly the most normal of people here".

[Ohh? But creator, we have seen countless people with magical properties before. People weaving light and metal to make magical items]

"Yea, not to the degree we have here, little guy. You're a unique friend even in a world like this. A living creature, born out of a boy's thought with the attributes of a machine beyond machines".

[Ohh, really? That is surprising] Ma'aï looks to Xavier, knowing his founder had more to spill.

"And me, Ma'aï. As you've said, magic is a mundane force in this era. And light as well, even if less represented. Thing is, I make technology with mine. Things they're not supposed to see for at least hundreds of years ahead. I mean, remember our trip to Lua?"

[Oh yes, that was agreeable. We found so much tellurium here. And it gives a beautiful view of the earth]

"Yes, it was. And I did with nothing more than a mask of metal tethered to my face and the clothing on my back. That was more than enough to withstand the vacuum. And the radiation. And give me an entire life support system more than long enough for a week worth of trip over Lua. You don't see many people doing this sort of feat without heavy arcane spells or overbearing space suit, do you?"

Ma'aï's body gleams with radiance, spurning Xavier's thoughts. Interlinked as they are, the man can feel his artificial intelligence searching high and low through the cyberspace where most of the history is cataloged. Finding nothing, it goes further, acting on its extended symbolistic letters as augmenting focuses, now gazing through the weave of earth's history and any realm in-between. Anything...

[There's...nothing, creator] The AI lights down.

"Yea, sorry little guy".

[Is it...is it because of that entity, creator? Did it decide that we were no longer normal?]

Xavier thinks of the entity it speaks of. A king of gods sending an emissary in the shape of an eagle with words of duties bound to him. Creatures from the old, looking to assimilate the current world and their unwillingness to act upon it, instead, choosing a soldier to afflict with a blessing...and a curse. To never spend the night with another, never allow his heart to join with a kindred...or risk losing his powers. All of them.

On the other half, any year seeing him fulfill that promise would boost his powers, committed to the art of godly technology.

"Yea, it did. But, it works, because it means the rest don't need to worry about anything. Besides, you're here with me as well. So I'm not as lonely as you think..."

[Of course, my creator. But still...] Its core quivers with no time to express itself further as the light orbiting around it snaps in focus [BREACH DETECTED. SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE]

Xavier's eyes turn to the far sight, a mask of ornate tellurium and gold materializing on his face with crimson glows. He could see it from here, a breach of an old creature tearing up on the sky, waiting to drop on the citizens, unsuspecting. He spreads a hand toward it, instantly bathed in his war suit, the Star Forge to his most devastating weapons, and zooms toward the breach, diving within as a flying red star to those looking from the earth... --- Bathed in rifts older than men, he crossed his building-weapons against entities long waiting, the size of an ant compared to the horrors lingering in their territories. All of it, for hundreds of years.

Weapons and artifacts devised for wars long gone left dormant with sporadic awakenings. The carelessness of their makers is left for him to remediate. Him and Ma'aï. Broken beneath their arms, crushed under their boots and consumed by their ever-advancing weaponry, slowly marching through the centuries of relics.

Swallowing units and squads. Platoons and brigades. Columns and legions. Entire armies, bathed in the destructive galvanization of his artifacts. A shining crimson star venerated by the rest of the world for afflicting threats long before they submerged.

Venerated...and unknown. His title, Deus Machina for the mind-bending technology he bears. They attribute his life as a solitary one, constantly echoing Ma'aï's thoughts on the matter, their solitude.

His thoughts, drowned in stoicism as he paces in the city, watching the people live out their lives. A simper swallowing his expression at the marvel of the city teeming with bustling activities.

[Creator, would you be so kind as to purchase me a cold beverage?] His mind sparks with the thoughts of his AI filtering in.

"Ever the sweet tooth, are you Ma'aï?" Xavier stifles a chortle looking for the nearest convenience store, the exact amount of money in hand.

Moments later, he seeps out of the store handling two bottles filled with a soft drink. One of them dissipates in his hand, leaving the other to be opened for his leisure.

Drinking it, his eyes wander around, seeing a family walking an intersection of two streets. Seeing a man standing about the corner of a building in the process of lighting a cigarette, only for a manticore to come near, an already lit butt. Their respective hands embedded with twin bands as her butt lights his.

Looking further, Xavier sees...a woman. Shrouded in a hoodie, seemingly searching for something. An odd behavior to which he doesn't pay much attention to her jaundiced-looking gaze sweeping the area.

He walks away, speaking to himself "Hey Ma'aï, got you that beverage".

[Wonderful. I shall join you shortly to enjoy it] A happy buzzing returns. Xavier continues to enjoy a leisure walk, only to be met with the same woman afflicted with ashen skin and a yellow glare, again with the same hoodie slacked on her head. Her head is a sentry, scanning the crowd in the park he now sits at.

"Weird..." he mutters, forgetting it a second time. His march carries him elsewhere with the ambient thought of being sought out "Hmm...another breach? Nah, Ma'aï would tell me about it..."

He paces far, enjoying the view of people going about their time. Their voices, their words their...steps...silence. Silence fills his ear. His eyes flash in the ruby bath as he turns with certainty, the world washed in gray under the pull of still time.

He turns to the same woman thrice spotted, hands in her hoodie's pocket. Her golden glare is returned to him behind the expression of an objective found.

Looking closer, he sees her entire lack of pants or even a skirt, her underwear hidden by the adjusted top. Leggings acted as the replacement for pants, lined in the color of jeans, a contrast to her ashen skin.

Her hair mounts a crest on each side of her face, taking to an oceanic blue. As one can expect from a demon, she was well-endowed. Hips, legs, buxom, face, all was more than enough to draw in countless men to her every whim if she desired so, broken only by the searing horns on her head, the tail wagging behind and the wings folded.

The last reason why Xavier stared so intently at her. Her pointed finger, squarely at him, moments following her shelved hand "I. Have. Found. You".

[WARNING: TEMPORAL DILUTION DETECTED] Ma'aï appears to Xavier's side, flashing in a hostile fashion.

"Yea, I noticed..." Xavier's face is coated by the meager armor of a metallic mask, waiting as his sentient companion notices the woman pointing at his creator [Ohh, a demon. But she's ashen. Rare pigmentation, but not unique]

"I have finally found what I was looking for. Your eternally unspoiled self standing before me". She speaks once again, a much more fond look to her face "This truly is a splendid day for me".

" Judging by out casually you just impeded time, I don't suppose you're one to ask for aid. Much mess with how easily you seemed to have found your way to me". Xavier takes a step backward, Ma'aï as suspicious as he is.

[Creator...this one...she's...]

"I know..." He and his AI fixate this time interloper, taking a stance...and dissipating.

"Hmpf..." Her body flickers for the breath of a second and fades away as well, taken to the backlash of speed cutting sound, re-instating the world as functional again.

Elsewhere, far from the people to the isolation of an upward ceiling, made manifest by Xavier's mind, he stands, affiliated by a mask and gauntlet, just about enough for what he thinks to be a short confrontation.

As expected, the demon's body flickers on the cerulean sky at the other side. She taps on the hard light floor "Impressive. You devised this in but seconds with no effort, no less. A place for us to crosswords, yes?"

[Creator...she's...her aura...] The AI whispers in their joined minds, prompting a spur of lightning coursing through Xavier's flesh.

{I know. I can smell it. She stinks of divinity. A coarse amalgamation of pantheons all splattered onto her. Her hands, pungent with their--}

(Ohh, that? Yes, I am sorry for that) She speaks, her mind broadcast to their elevated reflection, prompting a jolt across the Deus Machina (Surprised? Yes, I can speak to the same elevation as you. However, I would prefer if we used our voice as opposed to our planar thoughts. They remind me too much of them)

Xavier and Ma'aï quiet down, their thoughts no longer delivered to the beyond. The demon takes to remove the cowl to her head, allowing an elongated ponytail to fall to her midsection. A hovering nimbus gestates and shapes overhead, speaking of royalty in gold shades.

A goddess' crown.

"That crown..." Xavier speaks in distortion, the transcendence flowing more amply in his very being, shaping his AI companion by his mere presence. The sky becomes turbulent, ripe with his ruby force, altering itself to his whim "...it reeks. I did not know divine blood could smell this bad. No...not blood..."

[But their essence, creator] Ma'aï speaks in a gravel tone, impacted by his robotic phonetics.

He needn't say more, her mind, open for him to read. Images of her going after the gods themselves. He can see it all, a hundred times occurring.

"You took to the gods...and stole their powers?! Their might?!" Xavier forces himself from her mind, burning the sight from his own.

"Yes..." Her crown shines in the radiance of the sun, burning bright with might "...I drank their reviled essence and took their strength. Hundreds of them".

"Hundreds..."

"Yes, hundreds. Hundreds on which I sated myself upon, my very fingers ravishing them with no second thought. That and..." Her mind clouds itself from further completion, instead, spreading her arms wide.

"They struggled and failed, their whims and petulance blinding them...one...by...one. Now, their divinity belongs to me. All...for you..." Her arms then line up with him from the distance.

"Me? Why would you do so for me? I do not need power, in case you haven't noticed".

"Exactly. I came to wrestle you out of this state and make you human once again. This amalgamation of power will aid me, nothing more. And then...".

[Creator...if she gets her way...] Ma'aï speaks in worried tones as the woman before them powers up, her aura rushing upward, now entangled in a joust with his own. He can feel it trying to welcome his extended will in its embrace. A force dancing in invisibility to all but they.

"I know..." Xavier raises his fists mired by the light that once coursed through his eyes. At her opposite, the demon attunes the tips of her fingers to pulsate with dark gold, waiting...

The winds stop howling, snuffed out by their encroaching silence. The sky ceases all movement, leaving nothing but bare oxygen filtering out of their lungs, still, poised, waiting for the other move first.

And then...she moves. As he does, meeting her in the middle of his thought-made floor. Her fist against his at the very middle. The reverberation blows out through the entire mountain scale. The clouds dissipate by its touch. The floors shatter in immaterial pieces, collapsing by the powerful shock. Dust flies down the innumerable mountain tops.

Their eyes meet at the center as well, the blow, the bell of their fight ringing strongly as they fall to the dust-filled landscape, trailed by their ruby and gilded auras conflicting at the center at the rush of combat.

The demon's palm strikes downward with an open palm, only to be deflected by a parallel punch railing alongside it, replicated by his upward hook.

Her head rapidly cranes backward, dodging the fistful of lightning, re-asserting her attack stance to an even rising strike of her plated foot in a body-lifting spiraling kick.

Xavier backsteps briefly concealed in the smoke with the intuitive idea of leading with a jumping kick. Ruby lightning strings through his feet, putting great strength in his leaping foot, also concealed by the smoke's fallout. Surprise paints the demon's eyes, her instincts prompting her to block with twice her arms. The impact blows out the dancing dust around them, giving way to what would be breathing space if smoke was to even be a nuisance to the two, which it was far from.

Immediately, her hand clutches the radiating greaves of his boot, her surprise long turned to a grin "Got you~ A brief rush of gilded power streams across her pigment, instantly conveying the feeling of her power augmenting as well.

Xavier's teeth grit behind his mask, his momentum used against him by a volatile spin to a half-circle. The power imbued in her hands makes this anything but a casual throw, the impact on the mountain strong enough to have him pierce it straight to its water basin.

"I'm far from done with you, dear~ Her lunge is preceded by her glowing eyes in the dark of the caves. He was excepting it, his bounce back from the second wall he slammed against proving to be enough to get the upper hand on his assailant.

His two hands swing down with great weight upon her unprepared replica of his flying kick, slamming her down on the great river under. Again, this mere act sends the water flying upward in a weightless splash, making an artificial rain down the cavern as it tries to assemble in a place it was left dormant for years.

"Thanks, Ma'aï" He speaks, the lightning still crackling in his fists".

[Of course, creator.] It speaks back, entombed on his chest as a humble piece of armor [WARNING: RETALIATORY UPPERCUT DETECTED]

"I see it". One of his hands stands behind the other, braced for impact by her uprising uppercut from the fleeting water already mostly fallen. The second shock of their collision pushes any drop not already fallen, forcing the hundreds of thousands to fall as waterbeds.

Silence erupts in the cave, cut again by her voice brittle with excitement "I'll say, this simple exchange of fist has already given me much more than what those mongrels at their cerulean skies could provide. Surely you can feel it as well, dearful~ Her face lines in emotion, bursting in a particularly sensual expression.

"..." Xavier speaks no words, leaving her parole unmet. A decision spurning her face in a frown, stringent by her glare.

"You do not speak even in the face of a compliment, offering silence instead. Hmpf...This power has made you dull. Or was it the years? Either way. Unacceptable..." Her aura flashes as she displaces from him, her feet briefly hugging the stalactites behind her, the brands of hair just catching up to her cheeks.

Xavier knew her intent, opting to mimick her movement piece by piece. His ruby lightning now strings across his body, enabling his perception and reaction augmented by leagues. More than enough to see her bolt beyond the fold of light to meet him, raptured in a golden aura similar in function.

He dodges, his percepts catching the rumble falling with such sluggish disgrace that they might as well be suspended in time. A hundred actions in seconds by their evergoing brawl.

Xavier uses a slowly falling debris as a perch to vault back at her, a hand and foot creeping up at light speed in real-time.

Her aura moves downward, sliding off the wall of rock with chunks barely moving apart from her forceful grab, followed closely by his thundering tumble of kept momentum.

Her landing on water resonates with its upward splash, greatly halted in speed. Even Xavier's down landing of his foot fails to force the velocity against their processing brains.

Her hands catch his wrist at the center anew, the two caught in a struggle of power, careless of the debris only halfway through their fall to the crystal water.

"Tsk...I did not expect to have so much trouble with you!" Her teeth grit under the joust of aura and lightning, powerful enough to keep the water under from their feet. They float in pure instinctual prowess.

"..." Xavier was forced to acknowledge his struggle, quiet as he recoils one of his fist in a mounting power of galvanizing thunder. Her palm does the same, wreathed in gold.

Their joust collides in greater state, the grind of their conflicting source spazzing out of control, the loser being the one who's upward trash fully lifts itself, leaving it and the user to an unfortunate flight.

[Creator, your arm...] Ma'aï feels their losing side, all too aware of her unyielding resolve.

"I know..." Xavier's power redirects to a body shield as he feels the slip of his fist upward, leaving him open.

"Hah! I win this joust!" Her colliding palm to his elbow sends him flying upward in a preparatory stance. His shield shimmer under the strike, and then another one from her feet, where the last remnant of her current strength is placed. A powerful double kick expelling him from the mountain top, shocked, yet virtually unharmed with his second layer the sole true suffering to her might.

"Do not think to relent just now!" her shout travels through the collapsing and breaking rock of the dying mountain falling to destruction. Her flight is defiant of the stone falling, shattering on her body as she prepares for yet another swing...

"!!!" Her attacking form falters, forced to dodge an eruption of ruby light. A small beam, one that many would think of being harmless. Yet, her awareness spoke otherwise, as well as the mountain utterly disintegrated by its touch. No explosion, no dying groan, but a whimpering dissipation to dust.

The smoke and dust clear, revealing Xavier's arm embedded in greater armor still assembling by the plight of his mind. Hardlight and hovering metal are joined in the harmony of technology. The pieces seamlessly join in the completion of a hybrid of rifle and pistol, upgraded to the sort of alien ingenuity.

Her eyes remain wide, all too aware of a potential grievous wound had she not opted out of ita path. However, they narrow in a focused glare "So, you bring greater weapons now?" Her hands sing a lullaby of promised destruction manifested in the materialization of a polearm ornate in crafting, strewn in the light of divinity.

"So be it. I will bear you greater as well!" She swings upward sending forth a rupturing wave of golden light his way. Pieces of hard light burst to life before him, colliding with the crescent wave, reflective in its sharp cutting power. The air in its way is torn asunder, promising a brief lack of oxygen in the space.

[Creator, I don't suggest continuing on any longer in this atmosphere] Ma'aï speaks in honest worry, gazing at the discordant space.

"My apologies! I did forget of this place's fragility compared to us! Let me remediate that!" Another motion flies at Xavier's hovering shield, this time, a draft behind its gilded trail with heightened pushing power.

One catching Xavier's focus out of this world, literally. By kilometers. A million, to be precise, as counted in his mask's heads-up display. People occupied in their mundane stop at a large, witnessing the gigantic crescent far in the distance.

The cold void of space welcomes Xavier's skin, the latter, prone to repel its nefarious effects with a dull, but powerful ruby aura spawned by his metallic appendages. His frontal shield meters from him finally shatter, cut clean by her crescent wave.

[WARNING: INCOMING THRUST] His weapon shifts to a crackling sword meeting the tip of her polearm. The shockwave from this initial contact is several times greater than even the skirmish back at the mountain as the distant planet of mars cracks at its surface. Jupiter's small ring of asteroids falters and disassembles, needing a greater focus of the planet's massive gravity to keep them from utterly falling out of space.

The sound and reverberation of their clashing weapons bring futility to the soundless space, the echoes of their battle constantly bringing sonance to the dead of the cosmos. The darkness is bathed in a  space between Mars and Jupiter, akin to fireworks.

The demon made no illusion of a quick or easy victory, having since wrapped herself in her God Stealer harness in a contest to his Star Forge Exo suit.

Even their primary weapons, be her polearm lacerating the ambient space in tears, or his cannon puncturing holes, in contrast, could no longer hope to bring asunder the defense of each other. Their armors, his shields. Their resilience, her wards, all too much for, in their names, conventional weapons, they cross the last gap to their power. Spells and relics crossed at the center.

Xavier spreads his arms wide, his palms pointed backward as countless towers of tellurium materialize, radiant in his immense prowess. Relics and weapons, the towers continuously rising from dead air until their numbers were comparable to the citizens of a venerable city. A city of towers, all humming in the empty void, glimmering in bright red across their circuits.

At the demon's side, a gigantic orb of unprecedented size, twice over the earth. Its interior and mid flesh is that of heavily dense purple nature, as toxic as anti-matter. The outer shell is that of the most of her radiant power, glimmering with brightness in the cold space waiting to unleash its might on anyone she decided.

"This is it, dear!" She speaks her thoughts to the higher planes, easily caught by Xavier's senses "The end of this duel will see you become my husband! Human, once more! This bind shackling you will be no more!"

"..." The overwhelming surge traveling his towers all accumulates on and in his Star Forge as the demon takes to dip and drink deep in her gigantic orb, gestating within.

The two forces, techno and arcane grow and growl, waiting and yearning to unleash. Space distort under the weight of energy circulating.

And it does further under their sudden and violent release. Xavier broadcasting his arms wide to summon forth an array of ethereal cannons from the flesh of the cosmos itself shooting the accumulation of his power straight at her. Beams the size of skyscrapers mounting an overwhelming cascade.

Replied by the demon's compress of the sphere's core in her hands, ushering an opening at the front where her beam strides forth, several times bigger than his cascade.

They collide at the middle, dueling in a struggle. One that...he would lose...

Experience and power were by his side. Centuries honed his prowess far beyond anyone else. Armies and relics, sundered under his cradling might. Monsters and horrors burned behind him. But here, it was none of them. No foot soldier of another era, no horror from the beyond, no sporadic relic. This...this was but a demon from today's world. Every once of her attacks, as devastating to the land as they were, were meant to incapacitate over maiming.

He couldn't bear to bring his full strength against her, in an ever-present fear of innocent death in his conscience. The reason why he lunged so many times within the enemy's realm over letting them spillover. This meant a slight margin in the demon's side, slowly glutting herself in advantage.

He couldn't bear to lose his power to another. He didn't want to become normal once more, under the might of one with similar power. But...he couldn't bear to end her life either, for every layer of her spoke of no malice, no sadist, no malevolence.

The golden and purple beam finally caught up to him, burning through his armor, his shield, his towers...

[Creator, you're losing. You're losing. Please, try to move. You can't take any more of it] Ma'aï's distress prompts the machine to spawn an alternate. A body reflecting on its physical thoughts. It takes hold of the man's hands and pulls, trying to get his creator out of the beam.

He does but without the armor. Xavier was vulnerable, devoid of any defense, far from consciousness. [Creator...creator, wake up. She's coming...]

Cradling Xavier's body in the void, Ma'aï can see the demon rushing their way, knowing all too well of his weakened aura, dissipated by her blast [Quick, she's coming. Creator]

"Ma'aï..."

[Yes, yes, creator, I'm here. I've initiated the 'subitis translatio'. I'm taking hold of your essence for the time being and translating us elsewhere until our wounds heal]

"Hehe, of course, quick to the point, are you, Ma'aï".

Xavier plants a hand on his AI as it carries his withering body. Their minds shared in one space, it knows the power pumping through his hand to its shoulder is enormous, somehow encapsulating the entirety of every breath of power he held throughout his life. A greater amount than even what he held to this very moment.

"Wait" Her voice pierces the desolation of the cosmos, her approach following it. An armor battered from all sides, yet standing with much power unlike Xavier's body now exposed to the entropy.

Her approach prompts Ma'aï reddening of his ocular lens, the power swelling through it manifesting a unique set of armor, comparable to Xavier's Star Forge, the Vigilia Angelus. The tellurium wings spawned from its back all co-join to wrap around Xavier.

Though, the surprise comes to meet its ocular lens as a pearly white lotus now hums in the dead of space, cupped in her hands in a shower of pure light. Her eyes, unmasked by her helmet, looks to the wounded Xavier and astonished Ma'aï.

Xavier had long lost consciousness, his body taken over by the ruby light shaped as Ma'aï. Her eyes lessen in concern "Is he...?"

[My creator is...merely recovering. I am translating away from this place]

A faint smile rises on her lips, briefly overtaking her eyes "I see...then, let us talk".

[Talk?] Ma'aï finds itself standing in a realm of clouds. A realm of thoughts where he and his creator stand, yet, do not. Near the sentient machine, the woman, bearing no armor, but the attire in which she would find the recovering man.

"You need not raise your arms, sentinel. I only wish to speak".

[You slashed and punched at my creator. Battled with him through the planets. And now that he lies wounded in my arms, you wish to speak?]

"Yes". Her eyes convey confidence, no hint of rushing malice or observation for a hidden opportunity.

Ma'aï looks down on his creator [That is...strange. Why attack him in such a manner if your only wish was to speak? Could you not have simply aborded him back on earth?]

"I could have but, I already knew he wouldn't have likened to become human once more".

[Human? My creator is still a man. He is merely transcendent.]

"Exactly. I wished to remove said transcendence, make him human. A normal one. Without his power. Without...the weight borne down on his shoulders. You are his faithful companion, are you not? Can you not feel his wary mind? His lonely disposition? Nothing?"

[Well, my...we never really took to strides among others...in the centuries past. My creator was content to simply see them live. It was enough for him. By extension, it was for me, though...] His voice stops midway, gravel in hesitation, a broadcast to its processing memories of concern.

"Though you felt it, did you? I did too, as I do this very moment. Even as he rest, recovering from our battle..."

Ma'aï looks down on the spiritual manifestation of Xavier in its arms [Yes. He thinks I already have translated from this place, far from you, waiting to recover. Waiting to resume....it's...as you're saying.]

"Yes. He did enough. He's earned his rest now. A permanent one" Her eyes look back to the machine cradling its creator's body, taken to a defensive stance.

[A permanent one?]

"Yes. By the Maou, yes! Do you know how long you two have been doing this stick? This cleaning up after those incompetent things at their cerulean skies?"

[Incompetent thing--the gods. You speak of the gods.]

"Yes, but, that's for later. Please...answer me...." Her face approaches "How long...?"

[How long...] Ma'aï's disposition spurns out images. Thousands of images circulating through the realm of thoughts. Tens of thousands spanning through their eyes in but seconds. Ma'aï continuously scans and glances at every single one of them, compelling the date of their conception.

They flow and stop in an instant, his ocular lens slacked back to the demon witnessing it as well [My creator, since the first breach occurring back...we have been pushing back for the most of five-hundred years, four months, three weeks, two days and one hour in total.]

"Yes...yes you did. Five-hundred years by yourselves. By himself. You imagine a man spending this disproportionate time alone cleaning up their mess?"

[Your reasoning was but a call to rest...] Ma'aï looks once more to his close friend, the man who brought him to life. His machine sight calls the hand that lays on Xavier's.

"By my side. Together..." She looks to the machine, taken to a vigil, a stare of deep and everlasting concern mixed with a sense of relief to be so close to the man far from consciousness.

Ma'aï stares back, a revelation once foresaw by its core [How long have you been advocating for it? Your string of history speaks of countless pleas at their feet]

"About since his first century doing this. With their little curse inflicted".

[Curse? You mean his purity?]

A grin gestates to her face, somewhat surprised by his choice of words. She reaches for her chin with a finger "Is that how you call it? My kind prefers to speak of it as 'virginity'".

[Hmm?]

"Oh, nothing. Anyway...I did. Pleaded for them. A hundred years. Two hundred. Three. Four. They spat back with worthless promises, time after time". Her visage takes to a wrathful disposition, gritting through her lacerating fangs and an ominous glare sharpened by the yellow irises.

[I see. I see it all... my creator...] Ma'aï places its hand on Xavier's cradled body. The woman facing him knew of its intent, of what it learned beyond her last rejection, the reasoning behind her continuing travel and onslaught. Truth is, it wished it as well, wanted his rest. His life far from this den of a never-ending duty.

With its hand, Ma'aï takes to Xavier's power, the one replenishing in his bosom. An array of light courses from it to its metallic palm shaped to human likeness. Every strand of prowess he would have lost in the joining with a woman flees the man, embedded in the AI's core.

It approaches its metallic gaze, filled with but its first and only request [My creator. You have done enough. Please, this new life you are entering, it is no curse, but relief. Live again, as a man. I will hold your strength until you pass away. It is my only request. Freight not, I will watch over you...my creator...farewell...]

Xavier's body held his prowess no more. He was mortal once more. Left to drift from Ma'aï's hands to the demon's cradling arms, placing his visage on her bosom. The woman feels the machine point but a finger to her.

It knows. It saw the far future. Their joined lives. The child between them. The bountiful life Xavier ushered in, long in the best of a thousand years, twice given for the five hundreds he devoted to the gods' messes. And still, it warns. Still, by its beating core and menacing folds of wings [Anything...anything you do to him...I will seek you. Do you hear me? I. WILL. COME. FOR. YOU.] His hand wreathes in galvanized ruby-colored thunder.

"I know..." She whispers, holding the man in her arms, the bottomless stare of a woman carrying the love of her life so close "...that is why I let you hold regent over his essence. But you knew that".

[Yes. They do not, however. I will remediate that...] Ma'aï raises a hand to the top of this realm, no longer existing. The local space still ached from their battle, struggling to knit itself anew.

Bit by bit, its body, concealing the accumulation of Xavier's virginal power, dissipates to a realm he could access no longer, leaving the demon to hug him tightly as she began drifting back to earth "Your worries. Your anguish. Your...loneliness. Cast them to oblivion evermore. I am with you, at long last..." Slowly drifting back... --- "Huh?" Xavier wakes up to the sight of moonlight cradling over his sleeping shape "Where am--ohh..." He rises from the bed that welcomed him among an apartment and walks to the balcony, looking down at his hands.

One of them is laid upon by another. A slightly gray-texture envelops it, accompanied by a cheerful voice "Back to the waking world, I see"

"Yea, with nothing on me". Xavier's sight no longer lined patterns of circuits and light. His hand is left beret of any tingling lightning. He had no more than an average man.

And yet, his voice wasn't as melancholic as he thought he'd be. To become normal after a long time in overwhelming power. His shoulders felt weightless. Free from his vigil, his mind, circulating with his greatest creation's farewell words. He consented to this, and Xavier trusted in him "Well, at least he's not leaving a parcel of processing power to worry. Godspeed to you too, friend, I'll see you on the other side".

He turns to the demon, the engram to her name, weaved to his mind long before the loss of his transcendence "Charlotte, is it?"

"Hmm?" Her head slightly pivots sideways, sensing a question on his mind.

"All the gods? That much?"

"No...no, not all of them. Just those who thought of this clever little idea".

"Really? Well, it doesn't matter that much anymore, now does it? I doubt this average man can offer you anything now".

"You think so..." Her hand gently turns his own to an open palm to join hers "...I think otherwise. You may have forgotten to read between the lines between me and your AI companion. The same one that is very likely giving them a piece of his mind at this very moment".

"Yes, I know you went to the gods. You protested their refusal to let me become...well, this".

"I did. But this isn't the first time they think of shepherding a human for clean-up duties". Her stare turns to the moon "With this trivial promise of unbound power in exchange for services, forbidden be joined with another. Funnily enough, it was always my kind that went to protest".

"Ok, well, I have nothing to give you now. You've apparently 'drank' to the gods while I transcend no more. Why remain here, with me? A mere mortal, now?"

"Well, yes. You are". Her hand moves backward, prompting Xavier off the rail of the balcony where she can cup her palm over his shoulder, a crimson glaze on her cheeks "A human with no more than the next. A man next to one that can defy the deities with ease at this moment. An insurmountable gap in power. An...unbelievably narrow-sighted view you take".

"Really?"

"Yes. All this power I wield, it meant nothing to me, as I forced it out of them. It means nothing to me now. Just a step to my true and final objective: you".

"Me..." Xavier feels his hands being brought to her hips, the notion of their difference in strength, rendered worthless to her eyes. Utterly worthless. Spitting on the power she carries.

"Yes, you. Someone who went to spend the utmost of five-hundred years cleaning up after a bunch of maggots with crowns that couldn't be bothered doing the same in literal eons. You, who went so far as to place the well-being and gleeful existence of his AI companion over his own. You, who I constantly watched as he battled and struggled all by himself, wondering when you would ever land among us. All the delicious and desirable qualities of a mate squandered by entities that couldn't see the beauty in those if it slugged them in the face and robbed their power in a way all-too-familiar to us".

"Well, when you say it like that..." Being made an average man once more, Xavier was easily pulled to her stream of compliment, realizing his hands were tightly placed on her hips. With the vanguard of transcendence departed from him, came the desires of a man standing before a creature of immaculate beauty in front of him. He turns his face away, the centuries far from his bodily and hearty desires rendering them as alien to him.

Charlotte places a finger to his chin, pivoting his eyes back to meet hers, sharing in this uncharted land. Her voice, laces in fruitful desire "You think I would have debased myself to these worthless eels in the heavens when a splendid man stands before me? I would not even entertain the idea of such a vile act. No, no..."

The demon snaps her finger, presenting him with a contract as she places her hands back to his shoulder, a gaze of unwavering love projected to him"...the only one who gets the blessing of making a wife and mother out of me...is you. You, and no one else. All I ask...is for a chance..."

Mirroring her words, the contract illuminated by the moon has but the words 'An honest chance' written upon it with a space for a signature.

"A chance?"

"Yes..." Her chest finally leans on his torse "An honest chance as a 'mere' human, as you'd say. A man who already has proven himself worthy of rest. Let them clean after themselves. Your AI is making sure to project the message as I did before".

A smile stretches to Xavier's lips "And you would take this 'mere' man".

"Of course..." Her lips approach his, closing her eyes all the while "Nobody with such worth deserves to live alone. Not as long as we are here..." Her whisper is cut by the joining of their respective lips, embraced in a kiss, the signature to her contract... --- A signature that, since the moment, saw nothing less than utter joy in her life as well as his. A joy that neither powers that transcended could hope to bring. For it would fail to usher in the tiny moments of their walks, punctuated in small hobbies, far from the ability to shatter mountains with but a fist.

Fail to express their joined anxiety in the night of their first mating, drinking deep in the small embarrassment of their clumsy movement, that the augmented perception would rob of its sincere love and pleasure from their voices.

And worst of all, fail to convey the immeasurable joy of witnessing the birth of their daughter, Glanderia, crying in the arms of her mother, then, her father, lulled by their comforting voices. An act that their heightened senses, like the divinities, would see as insignificant. Instead, their eyes would tear up, basking in the shameless joy of feeling their child recognize their tone, singing, and whispering throughout her conception in her mother's belly. --- An act that even now, fills Charlotte with the purest of happiness. Watching her daughter pretending to fly, flapping her tiny wings in the air all while giggling, held tightly by her father.

As a wife. As a mother. Joining her family with but a side glance to the roof, seeing Ma'aï watching, invisible to his creator. She waves. He waves. He bows, ever vigilant, exalted to see his creator so unrelentingly happy. He dissipates, carrying this image among a hundred-thousands back to his domain, patiently hoping that this picture lasts...