The Three (DC Comics) [Chapter XX]

[Sincara]

Sincara blocked Yahweh's blade with an energy shield from the barrel of her revolver and then pushed her arm forward knocking the former god backwards, blasting the ground beneath his feet seconds after to make him stumble. An angry ex-God was hardly cause for alarm with Sincara now. The creation of a new Creator and the continuing threat of Eos were however. While the First and Second Aspect, both creatures she despised, grabbed the Third's attention Sincara, with an arm shielding her eyes, turned in the direction of the new Creator. Holding up the Six Shooter and blasted another stream of Creator's energy towards the ball of energy in what many would have proclaimed to be an act of madness. And she would not have protested that claim.

As a result of the stream hitting the ball it began to grow. Forcing the hunter to move back to give herself room. Wings of light being devoured by the Creator as its size increased from the heart of the holy city. Even if it meant this city fall to ruin, even if it meant her death, Sincara would see to it that Eos did not survive. Keeping a tight grip on the trigger of her weapon, the Creator grew and grew, threatening to consume Eos where she hung in the air. Threatening to bring about her own end.

[DC Comics]

Sincara could push all she wanted to, Yahweh had superior upper body strength to the girl energy shield or not. He could have easily kept himself from being pushed but he was too paranoid that the energy in question was of the Creator so he didn't risk it. He stepped back and saw Sincara make a fatal mistake. She not only turned her back on the man hell-bent on killing her. She was making that ball of energy bigger. Not content with allowing this to happen, Yahweh charged in and plunged his sword into the back of Sincara, running it on through her chest keeping his eyes focused on her so the sight of the Creator wouldn't send him into oblivion.

[Alex]

Alex was feeling a little underwhelming next to everyone else here. Based on everything she witnesses up to this point, if she even just played it safe and hurled holy energy at the Third it would only wind up glassed and shattered accordingly. So instead, the holy knight did the only thing she could do. Stand by Miracle's side and ensure her survival. No matter the cost to her own health. Alex felt something else happening too. The sparks of light from the Creator was increasing in size and she quickly slip through the Second Aspect to get to Miracle herself and begin moving her away from the increase in size while at the same time not interrupting her concentration.

[The Creator]

The Creator shinned in the middle of the battlefield like the star of Bethlehem sending the good news across the continent of Jherra and spreading to the rest of the planet and the realms. A new Creator has been born, born from the conflict between God and Man. An unseen and unprecedented variable never meant to be witnessed before mankind. The Big Bang. Though much smaller than its brother creator it dwarfed the others on the field, even the Arashi, and already threatened to tear apart Aircano long before the Arashi could. Jehanne had stared into its wonders and the origins of the ultraverse became no mystery to her. The overload of information combined with the beauty that was its form was more than enough to obliterate the woman who had stood before it. She was at peace now. No longer would she suffer.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

It heard the words of the child as she passed him by, eyes close to prevent her own destruction by The Creator's form. Those many other words parted the young woman's lips it was this particular verse and one other that would stand out to even The Creator.

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast."

Then The Creator grew, as if being fed by the word of the Lord, as preposterous as such a feat would have been. But nay. It was by its own energy that it was being fed, growing, threatening to destroy everything, even Arashi. The energy within its round shape burning brighter than a thousand suns. And then it burned out. Its shape turning a pure white, whiter than heaven before it began to fade away entirely. Its voice echoing across the minds of all of existence.

It will remember.

And then it was gone.

[Eos]

A blizzard had stormed across the city, and the snow well covered their feet by now save for around the newborn sun. Sincara's shots were the first to resonate across the field. The resulting detonation expanded the divine body at the center of everything. It stood a brilliant amorphous mass of unbridled power that would vaporize any mortal curious enough to gaze upon the purity of it's essence. Eos was in many aspects far closer in origin to the Creator than they could recognize - for without destruction there was no creation. No change. They would rather bleed their existence dry rather than abide by the rules of balance and gain eternal life. The energy penetrated the new god in a chaotic display and Eos was pushed back by the force. Gazing upon it, her expression changed; her brow furrowed and her jaw clenched: She could not voice the complexity of the sensation that raked her mind. For a god to feel - to be disfigured as she was - it was abomination.

A flare rose from the new Creator like a geyser and Eos' wings rushed in to protect her from the current. The light was swallowed in an instant and the Arashi flew back to the gate far from its reaches. That's when she saw them standing around the star. The First; shrouded in the darkness of shadows and blood. The Will; illuminated by his divine grace and power. And she stood among them as the End; the last of the angels with wings that would cleanse the world in their embrace. The capital of God bore witness to the holiest of communions - the assembly of the triumvirate of the Arashi. It had been many eternities since any of them had stood by each other upon the dawn of all things, how fitting it was that they would meet again at the dusk of it all. How cruel that fate made it so their positions among the heavens were not aligned, but opposed around the axis of their maker. There were three suns on the surface of Genesis, but they did not stand by each other - no - they stood separate, a mockery of their true power and beauty.

Eos' eyes watered.

Aper raised his blade. Veran reached for his mask. And the Creator made the earth tremble with his presence. The angel joined her hands before her in a silent prayer with frozen tears flowing freely from her face, and she wept. The sword came down and cleaved the sky in two. The crystallized half of Aircano shattered like glass. Shapeless black tendrils engulfed her and Eos disappeared from sight. The city walls toppled and crashed down. A wave of energy pulsed from the newborn and towards the wall of white flames. The bell of the cathedral rang with the tremor. The inferno hollered like a great beast before being slain. The wings dimmed against the current and scattered in all directions. The wave of destruction was extinguished by none other than the judgement of man and - like the Creator - disappeared under the shadow.

It was as though night had fallen upon the city. Clouds of dust and vapors of smoke surrounded the scene. Aper and Veran radiated. Even Sincara and Yahweh basked in the glow of their terrible victory. The haze dispersed, revealing a great scarr across the horizon where the End had passed - a great desert of diamonds from the coast of Jherrazad to the heart of Aircano. Such was the cost of their defiance, a lifeless and eternal winter, and to forever behold the mark left by those who considered themselves infinitely greater than the humans who had defeated them. Man had prevailed - and it marked the end of the era of the Arashi.

A faint glimmer pierced through the fog.

There was not a part of the woman that stood unphased by what had happened: Her once glorious and dreadful wings were broken and tattered. Her skin had fractured and fallen to pieces, revealing gaping wounds all over her marble form - each of them illuminated by a faint dying light. The figure of the once almighty Arashi now stood shaking beneath the heel of her adversaries. She stood in an ashen grave, her feet barely holding their charge. She quaked as though stricken by the cold, so much so in fact that it was as though she threatened to give way at the slightest breeze. There was little doubt that Eos would soon join the wreckage herself and become what she had always looked like - a worn statue - and a monument whose image would remain forever twisted in a haunting guise betraying her former beauty. In spite of all this, her trembling hands were still together. Laced over her broken chest, even a few of the fingers cracked and fell at her feet from decay. But she remained, and she prayed.

It was as though the gesture demanded every remaining strength within her but she broke her hands free from each other. The arms fell limp at each of her side, but she was not finished - her body was ravaged, her eyes empty, but slowly she rose her arms at each of her side in quiet reverence to the sky and waited for death's embrace. She trembled in its absence and she waited for its cold grasp to still her at last. She stood patiently with tears in her eyes but it would not come. Life clinged to the angel like a disease, it persisted even with her final plea to the heavens, and she cried tears of joy.

''Itan.''

A pulse jolted from Eos like a nova and the blizzard that had befallen upon the land was ignited. The great tundra rose into the sky like a great pyre. The snow like crystalline flames of pure unbridled energy. Everything is had touched was caught and set on fire. She stood to her full height, no longer shaking from pain and wounds. They had called her a heretic and followed a false light. Now they saw her rise from her own ashes, a phoenix of light. They were lost and she would open their eyes to the truth. She bore the scars of their insolence proudly and marched where the Creator had once stood. They would deny her no longer and she would grant a final homily to those who had committed atrocities against her kind.

''Arashi.'' The word echoed like prophecy and in a great blaze the wings erupted back to life from the soil of Genesis. ''They are the holy tribunal of the LORD - the scions of balance - and guardians of the cycles.'' Her voice rang like cathedrals. ''The Brother - the Will; they are instruments of the End.'' Aircano burned, and the power of the End extended beyond the walls. ''Their purpose is of the highest order, the holiest amongst the heavens.'' The wings covered the sky in pale auroras. They coiled themselves around the walls, the mountains and Emmanuel in the sky. ''Instead of gaining clarity through their touch, you have wielded their powers with mortal intention - tainted their name through thoughts and action.'' She turned to Miracle. ''You are a blasphemer. You have disowned the faith and are worse than an infidel.'' She turned to Legion. ''You are sacrilege; born of a forbidden union and an abomination to all the horror and beauty of HIS power.'' The flames spread, freezing everything in their path. ''And so the hallowed names of the Arashi are dissolute - from this day forth they are brothers no longer for they stand among sinners void of worth and void of sanctity.''

Eos gazed into the sun, extending a hand appearing as if she wished to hold it in her grasp. The wings followed suit, wrapping it like a serpent. She gave no more attention to her enemies, instead voicing the last thoughts that coursed through her mind.

''You are nothing.''

She clenched her fist, and the infinite power of Aper was consumed. There was no tremor, no quake, and Aircano caved under the presence of the End. A great ripple traversed the world, and the wings became roots growing and seeding across Genesis like the great tree of Eden.

[Miracle]

Miracle's eyes softened at what they saw. The tears down Eos' face became apparent and the High Priestess felt a sympathy that made her sick to her stomach. It was easy to look upon a creature like Eos, angelic appearance notwithstanding, and see her as nothing more than a monster to be exterminated. It was a different thing to think it had emotions. That it could feel sorrow in the face of her brothers turning against her. Even though Aper had been a living construct of the contrary when it came to the broad assumption that Arashi didn't feel. It made her feel guilt.

"STOP IT! STOP IT RIGHT NOW!"

She screamed. The crying, the praying. It offended her. Ate away at her. She wanted it to stop.

Then it all did.

Her shinning city became a pyre and Miracle looked up to witness the impossible. The sight of Emmanuel being consumed as the damaged wings of the Arashi was born anew and stretched out into the heavens threatening to destroy everything. The High Priestess fell to her knees as Aper left her. Her faith was shattered like the glass after being crystallized when touched with the Arashi's light. The wings of the angel coming to grant her the same fate and she closed her eyes ready to accept it.

She had nothing left to live for.

[Sincara]

Sincara gasped the sword running her through as the shock sent her down to the ground. Smelling the fresh scent of blood falling from the wound bringing a hand to it, removing the hat with the other and swinging it towards Yahweh as the sharped rim came alive in an attempt to skewer him. But regardless of damage it was all to push him away so she could act. Sincara didn't care if she died as long as the threat of The End was neutralized. Sincara had been ready to sacrifice herself the moment she left Aircano in search for the Arashi.

Sincara's eyes looked up to see both a terrible and beautiful sight. The sight of the Three all standing in the same place. Two oppose to the other. The guilt on Miracle's face as she felt Eos' pain all too well. The whole thing stank. Who mourns for Arashi? Certainly not Sincara. Her eyes then came on something of interest, the ink black smoke that drew from Legion to form Veran. It was more than it appeared to be. It was The Essence.

“The Essence... Breeds nightmares. Indefinable, unavoidable, undeniable nightmares...”

Sincara aimed the dual barrels of the Six Shooter towards it now that the eyes of Arashi were off of her. Remembering the words of the demon child.

“If we are nightmares then the defeat of The End will see us dissolve into memory...”

She fired. The Creator's light bursting to life from the barrels to cast away the darkness.

Destroying The Essence of all three Arashi in one final act of defiance.

[DC Comics]

By this point Yahweh was regretting his decision in creating the man who invented the concept of weaponized hats. He twisted his body to the left to avoid the boomerang throw and then readied his sword to make contact with the rim of the hat upon its return, as both were just as sharped as the other the hat crashed into the ground as soon as contact was made. He then turned back and was in awe at what he saw. Not just at Eos consuming Aper but Sincara threatening to destroy the Arashi Essence itself. His eyes then saw the light heading to glass Miracle who had given up on life in the aftermath of shattered faith. Yahweh had a choice to make.

And he made it.

When Miracle's eyes opened she would see a man of crystal standing in front of her with his arms stretched out wide to defend her against the light.

That man was God.

[Alex]

Alex looked up in shock. She was ready to throw herself in front of Miracle as there wasn't enough time to get her out of the way until Yahweh had beat her to it sacrificing himself to save his servant. That bought Alex all the time she needed to grab Miracle and pull her away, running across what remained of the ground as the light flew everywhere threatening to glass them.

[Eos]

Eos implored to the sky as Genesis froze to its core. The Creator's energy once again protruded from the weapon of the hero like a chimera ready to banish the Arashi from the face of Genesis once and for all. It seared through the air possessed by the sole intent to destroy all that stood in its path. It was the final moment; the retribution of the human race and it neared the End.

And it missed.

It took a moment to realize it in wake of the blinding flash, but the wave had missed its target entirely. But how? Sincara's aim was true; her hand still in spite of her injuries. Her mind was determined. There was not an ounce of her that could have possible missed that shot, but a large crater stood besides the Arashi in proof of the contrary. Slowly, Eos lowered her gaze to the woman - her eyes tracing back along the barrel of her weapon. Her hand. The cold sensation racing down her spine like a signal. Suddenly it started to make sense, even as the currents of light that had coiled itself around her arm tightened and another came into view to her eyes from the wound Yahweh had inflicted upon her.

[Miracle]

The High Priestess didn't even have to look at the man's face to know who it was. She was in shock, shocked that the man who brought about all of this through the creation of the Arashi had stood in the way of the light. All to save her life.

"YAHWEH!"

Miracle extended a hand towards the now glassed former god before she was snatched away by Alex and led down the ruined path of her homeland. For the third in a row Miracle could do nothing but watch her home be destroyed as they ran for their lives avoiding the now massive wings of light that swung through the air. Her eyes moving over to see one of them touch the hand of Sincara as she went for her shot.

"Sincara, look out!"

[Alex]

"We can't save her let's go!"

Alex tugged on Miracle's arm and led them out of Aircano. There was nothing more they could do here and staying only meant death. The blonde wouldn't dare look back now while departing the blazing city of light causing everything it touched to instantly turn to ash as it reached up into the sky like the spiral itself.

[Sincara]

Sincara's eyes widened in horror when she watched the shot missed not understanding how it could have been so. Her eyes meeting the gaze of the angelic figure up ahead as she felt the child shoot up and down her spine, eyes finally settling on the hand that wielded the Six Shooter that had served her well since the day she first held it. There she saw the life with a firm grip on her hand and the light coming out of her wound before looking back at her enemy.

It was the end

Her feet were the first thing to go, the crystallized glass reaching up to her ankles as she bent down grabbing the hat that had fallen to the ground by her side earlier. Placing it atop her head for the very last time before bringing the hand down, the crystal reaching up her legs and waist until eventually her entire body was nothing but crystal. The life force within fading away becoming one with the Arashi. And there she stood, amongst the ruins of Aircano her home, alongside the god of old, a martyr.

[Legion]

Emmanuel lit up the sky for one final moment before it became apart of Eos. Legion could feel the presence of the Second, and the power it bestowed upon her form leave in the time it took for a single heartbeat. The now enormous wings of the Third Aspect threatened to consume everything, tearing through the buildings of the holy city turning them to crystal before they shattered, and coming for them. Legion watched the figure of Veran disperse just in time to see the light coming for her and Miracle.

Just in time to see Lord Yahweh glassed.

It was Legion's turn to look on in shock as the god of man and arashi alike sacrificed himself to save one servant. She knew he did not move to save her but the High Priestess by her side who had already given up hope. Her faith shattered in the death of Aper and now the God of Jherra. With his death many of the answers she sought would never come to light. If Legion survived this she would be doomed to wander the earth always wondering.

And she would make her pay.

Miracle and Alex departed what remained of their homeland as Sincara met the same fate as THE LORD. It was just them now, the remaining two Arashi that stood on Genesis. The Third and the Fourth, one true and one abomination. Veran was dead, Aper was dead and they both knew there could only be one. A river of blood rose from underneath the child's feet, rising up with the intent of drowning this entire damned city. The Vulture soldiers to crash and burn would rise anew under the Arashi's power. Their moans and gnashing of teeth reaching earshot as they entered into the city through the blood. They would meet the light of The End and fall to pieces after becoming crystal. To be raised from the dead only to be obliterated. Legion's revenge was now truly complete. The dark tendrils that served her since her beginning exploded from her back and outstretched forward, Eos herself would feel an invisible force pushing against her as the child's telekinesis came into play, followed by flames as the Fourth Aspect released everything she had at the sister to disown them all.

''You are nothing.''

“What it is, is beyond the boundaries of knowledge. All of the beauty and horror of infinity bow before that which cannot be named – for I am that which is not.”

And so she walked.

To meet her destiny.

[Eos]

The force pushing Eos was palpable - vicious. Even then the angel of destruction stood against the current and turned mechanically against the wave to face the last daughter of the Arashi. Just as Eos bore great wings, so too did Legion now spread her own dark feathers and reveal the extent of her power - the crushing essence of a spawn of the divine.

''You are that which was never meant.''

Shadows clashed against light, their wisps intertwined and embraced until the darkness was snuffed out. It choked under the pressure of the final Arashi. In spite of all of Legion's efforts, Eos walked against the storm and returned it in full against all of Genesis. Waves rose from the oceans and swallowed the islands. Fire poured from the bowels of the earth and unto the land. The sky roared and fell upon the cities. Everywhere the great white currents tore their path, reclaiming the sum of creation to the End. And Eos looked at the girl before her surrounded by the same hurricane of power. A fog came between them and Eos lifted it.

''You are a product of blood and fire and vapor of smoke…The suns have been turned into darkness, and the moon into blood before the awesome day of the End.'' The damned rose and she froze them. ''Young women have seen visions, as old women have dreamt dreams.''

She could feel the death of the soil and the sky feed the energy of the cycles and returning to its original shapeless state. It called to Legion like the nightmare. Blinded her from reality, and encircled her in a world of crystalline awe and wonder until nothing remained but constellations of purity against the dark background of the cosmos.

''You now awaken.''