The Book of Cosmi

Chapter 17: Zexaos Inferno

| One Republic / Cosmic |

This place was way worse than I remember it being when Zexaos and I first made it together. Seems he did a little bit of self decoration... I definitely don't remember having fields of skulls, dead bodies hanging from plateaus, and an arena full of demons fighting each other. Not to mention the ground was a little squishy... and... alive...?! This place used to be made of sheer obsidian, now it's been bloodied up and replaced with the flesh of demons. I can't say I care too much though, I just didn't think Zexaos would've gone this far in decorating his Inferno like this. Then again it is the embodiment of what those across the Omniverse would call "hell" and where those who are exiled from reality go. Now I'm one of those exiles and I have to experience this hell first hand. Kind of miserable. These demons were terrible fighters and the atmosphere of the place reeked absolute torture chamber and slavery of the exiled. Zexaos needs some way to entertain himself and I guess he made this arena to do just that. I realized how much of a pain this would be to get out of here, even finding Zexaos might be a task on its own. Gaea knows I've broken out by now, she had to have known. I scoffed and realized my plan had been totally foiled, at least this part of it. I had to scrap it and just go for this escape completely blind. The entire layout of the Inferno has changed since I last was here. Consequences once more from my creations. This was something I'd just have to get used to at this rate.

I felt my power gaining back quite quickly, but I knew I had different abilities that soon enough I'd need to learn of, I could just feel it. I slung Ose over my shoulder and encased her in a thin layer of my Omnipresent Vitality, which kept her safe and sound when I would inevitably get into fights later on while traversing the Inferno. I felt a change in the atmosphere very quickly... I noticed all the exiled were suddenly gone, as if they all simultaneously agreed on going home. I knew what this meant. Everything in the realm had been put on lockdown, every guardian in the realm would be coming after me, this was perfect actually, because now Zexaos knew where I... oh hell. Even though I didn't have a face, I still frowned and looked up.

"Ｏｎｅ　Ｒｅｐｕｂｌｉｃ，　ｔｈｅｒｅ　ｉｓ　ｎｏ　ｅｓｃａｐｅ，　ｅｖｅｒｙｔｈｉｎｇ　ｃｏｍｅｓ　ｔｏ　ａｎ　ｅｎｄ　ｉｎ　ｍｙ　Ｉｎｆｅｒｎｏ．"


Zexaos himself...

Well, he found me instead, this works I suppose. I was a bit afraid, I'll be honest, not because of Zexaos towering above me at a good 35 meters tall, but the fact that my Gaea, Xander, Hestia, and soon enough... even my own sister would be here to fight against me. But, I had to fight this beast first before anything. This probably seemed naive, idiotic, ambitious, but I had to do what I had to do.

I stood my ground whilst holding Ose tightly. Around me an aura of chaos and light formed from the power I absorbed earlier from Ose. Seems I had power absorption now, and I liked the sound of that. Suddenly a large fist from Zexaos was hurling towards me. Holy, this was terrifying, especially when you're as powerless as I am right now... I embraced the hurling fist towards me and as it made contact with me, my entire body shattered into a shadowy puddle... Ose gently fell to the ground, unharmed. Surprisingly though I was still alive... somehow. I was just dispersed across the ground in this goop of shadows. I just thought to myself and with a command within my mind I slowly congealed together until I took form once again. I was shocked, truly, I didn't know I could do such a thing. I responded to Zexaos' attack with something I knew I could do. I held my hand out to the guardian as purple and gold surrounded the palm of my hand and bursted in an outwards motion at Zexaos. It struck him straight on, it wasn't hard, he was huge. As it struck him, the energy would surface like a shockwave across his body, this made Zexaos jolt back suddenly, but he'd retaliate instantly, as flames surrounded me, setting me ablaze. I didn't feel anything to be quite honest but it was definitely troublesome. Now I was flaming and I had to figure out a way to stop burning, but I suppose that was the least of my worries when there were around 100 chains that I could only assume were sent by Zexaos to imprison me once more. I dashed around as best as I could, getting hit by a few chains here and there. My body would slowly lose mass the more I got hit, but I wasn't too worried... I was pretty sure I could win this fight. As a chain hurled itself towards me, I jumped over it and ran across it, this chain would lead right up to Zexaos himself and I jumped up to boost myself towards him. My body formed back together as I smashed my fist into Zexaos' face followed through with an uppercut to his massive nose. I landed on top of his head, I squatted down and smashed my fist into his head, knocking him down onto one leg. My strength clearly was coming back, but was it enough to allow me to defeat this monstrous titan? My old friend?

No.

He swatted me like a fly and I was sent crashing into a wall of flesh and dead demons. I spat out some golden blood, despite me being a soul, but I guess that's the part of me still being physical. It was confusing what Gaea did to my physical form. My head felt fuzzy and the abyssal atmosphere of the Inferno around me became heavy. I slowly peeled off the fleshy wall like a pest and fell straight to the ground. Ouch. I got up and looked around and saw Zexaos approach me... soon enough everything went dark before I woke up in chains once more, this time I faced a woman with tons of golden jewelry on her body... she wore a beautiful priestess robe and a Cosmi God crown... this must've been Hestia. Then there was someone else... I immediately knew it was Her. Gaea. Dammit all. I failed completely. I knew it was an over ambitious plan. But where was Cosmos..? Not a sight of her, just Hestia and Gaea... and the feeling of impending doom behind me... that must've been Zexaos.

"𝙲𝚘𝚜𝚖𝚒𝚌. 𝙸 𝚔𝚗𝚎𝚠 𝚢𝚘𝚞'𝚍 𝚝𝚛𝚢 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚜𝚘 𝚏𝚛𝚒𝚟𝚘𝚕𝚘𝚞𝚜."

"..."

"𝚈𝚘𝚞'𝚛𝚎 𝚍𝚘𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚊𝚐𝚊𝚒𝚗? 𝙷𝚘𝚠 𝚗𝚒𝚌𝚎. 𝚈𝚘𝚞'𝚛𝚎 𝚜𝚘 𝚠𝚎𝚊𝚔 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚘𝚠𝚗 𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚍𝚎𝚏𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞. 𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚖𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚏𝚎𝚎𝚕 𝚜𝚘 𝚊𝚜𝚑𝚊𝚖𝚎𝚍, 𝚏𝚘𝚘𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚑, 𝚒𝚍𝚒𝚘𝚝𝚒𝚌."

"I have more motive than you ever will. What have you even done to benefit the Omniverse since you've taken over?"

"𝙸'𝚟𝚎 𝚋𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚓𝚘𝚢 𝚝𝚘 𝚖𝚢 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚜𝚎 𝚊𝚌𝚛𝚘𝚜𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙾𝚖𝚗𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚎, 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚗 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚍𝚒𝚍! 𝙸'𝚖 𝚍𝚘𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚂𝙷𝙾𝚄𝙻𝙳'𝚅𝙴 𝚍𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎, 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚒𝚐𝚗𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚙𝚎𝚘𝚙𝚕𝚎. 𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚒𝚜 𝚓𝚘𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚜, 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚒𝚜 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗 𝚊 𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚔 𝚘𝚏 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚘𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚕 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝙾𝚖𝚗𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚎 𝚗𝚘𝚠..."

"So you brought imbalance to the Omniverse is what you're saying. Foolish. You could never be a good enough ruler under any circumstance."

"𝙸𝚗𝚜𝚞𝚕𝚝𝚜, 𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚐𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚜𝚝𝚞𝚙𝚒𝚍𝚒𝚝𝚢. 𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚊𝚔 𝚘𝚏 𝚗𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚕𝚒𝚎𝚜. 𝙷𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚊, 𝚎𝚡𝚒𝚕𝚎 𝚑𝚒𝚖 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚢... 𝙾𝙽𝙲𝙴 𝙰 𝙵𝙾𝚁 𝙰𝙻𝙻!"

"𝐘𝐞𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐆𝐚𝐞𝐚..."

This was it for me. This now was truly it. My own creations once more were bringing me to my knees. Hestia approached me slowly as a golden infinity symbol on her neck would begin to glow brightly. Hestia was Cosmos and I's grand priestess of the realm. She held power similar to Juno, very very strong and powerful. As the infinity symbol lit up bright, two different things suddenly happened. This confused me more than anything, I saw a glimpse of Ose... she was extraordinarily powerful, just enough to counter Hestia, Gaea, and Zexaos, never would I ever have thought she would've been able to wake up again. I saw her take Gaea down with one blow and she threw Hestia to the side, canceling out the erasure. I also saw a blast of golden light come from Ose's hands which would lock Zexaos, who was behind me, in a strong paralysis. Ose would grab onto me without a word. The second thing that occurred was a white light surrounding myself and now Ose since she was in my vicinity. Suddenly the white light encased us like an orb and we were transported out of the depths of Zexaos. I was going to ask how Ose woke up or even regained her powers to a degree that she could easily take down Zexaos, Gaea, and Hestia, but I didn't have the time to. She always had her ways of doing so and it was probably something that happened when Zexaos was beating me up like a fat, ugly cockroach in his bedroom. His bedroom of course being the Inferno. I'd assume it was something within the sub-realm of Zexaos holding her back greatly. Once we got out of there, Gaea's grasp upon our minds and power decreased substantially and with Ose being one of the mentally strongest beings to ever exist thus far, it was no wonder she was able to gain a large amount of her power back in a quick moment.

As Ose and I got transported out of Zexaos Inferno, I could tell we were going back into the realm. We both appeared in an area with pure white surrounding us like an endless hallway. I looked around, holding tightly onto Ose, making sure she did not hurt herself in any way. As I slowly looked around and turned behind me, I saw the glimpse of a woman with pure white gorgeous hair and a white and gold dress similar to my white and gold robe... This was not just anybody...

This was my sister. Cosmos Cosmi.