The Book of Cosmi

Chapter 18: The One Above All

| Elizabeth / Cosmos |

This isn't right, who are these two? A dark shadowy figure with no face in sight, it wore a musketeer's hat and held something firmly in its hand, it looked to be an arrow... maybe a key, a gun, a sword? It was really hard to tell even if I was in front of it. Then there was a beautiful woman in the shadowy figure's arms. She had one purple eye, one gold eye, she had god-like wings which contained orbs within them, she almost looked like a balance. Her clothes were half white and half black and her hair was half black and half blonde. There was a lot going on with her appearance but she was definitely pretty... Though, who were they? This DEFINITELY wasn't Priestess Hestia and Mother Gaea. Then I thought, mother said she went to Zexaos to set down some order in the Inferno. Conveniently these two I just transported were in the same place where Hestia and Gaea were supposed to be at. Dammit! I transported the prisoners, what the hell did they do with Hestia and Gaea!? I stepped back and lifted my hand up before yelling aloud...

"Scums! Prisoners, stay back! What did you do with Hestia and Gaea, how did you even get into my transport!?"
"...Tell me your name."

"Err.. Nhh... you're not gonna kill me, attack me!? Anything!? I'm not afraid, I will beat you both to atoms!"

"YOUR NAME! TELL ME IT!"

Turns out I was afraid. I scrambled backwards in absolute fear of what could happen. My hands were trembling, I didn't know who these two were let alone how this shadowy figure was yelling at me, but I didn't want to die... I really didn't! My breathing was extremely shaky and I held my hand out right at the two on guard... Something about the shadowy figure though, its voice sounded so nostalgic... comforting.

"My...My name is Elizabeth 'Cosmi' Terra."

"Elizabeth?"

"Elizabeth..."

"No... you've been truly tricked"

"Who in Zexaos' name are you two...?"

"Cosm-... One Republic... This is my... daughter... Ose."

The woman in his arms looked at him confused for a second, but then turned her head back towards me and stayed silent. It made me question for a moment how this "One Republic" could've even had or made a daughter while in Zexaos... I had so many questions that my head started to hurt. I then responded.

"I'm sorry One Republic and Ose but you two will have to be eliminated from reality. Under commands from Mother Gaea, you two are the prisoners of eternity, meaning you can't exist any longer... Do you have any last words."

I closed my eyes as my hands began to radiate a huge amount of energy, my hands glowed bright gold and I got ready to fire.

"No. Do not. Fire that energy blast and you'll be the one erased from reality instead. You needn't do this... Elizabeth... spare us and you will see the truth that lies within this realm."

Suddenly anguish fell over my body. My heart dropped and my eyes got watery with tears. Who was this thing!? Why was I suddenly so afraid to kill it... It was a prisoner, a war criminal of the Gods according to Gaea and yet I just couldn't muster up the courage to do such a thing... Suddenly I felt a hand placed on my shoulder and I squealed loudly in fear and put my hands down. I fell to my knees and suddenly burst out into tears from all the stress.

"𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚝𝚑 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚖 𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞'𝚛𝚎 𝚊 𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚒𝚊𝚌 𝚝𝚛𝚢𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚠 𝚖𝚎, 𝙲𝚘𝚜𝚖𝚒𝚌 𝙲𝚘𝚜𝚖𝚒. 𝚈𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚊𝚖𝚊𝚣𝚎𝚜 𝚖𝚎, 𝙸'𝚖 𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚜𝚎𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗 𝚊𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚢 𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚜𝚘 𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚐... 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚠. 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚠."

Cosmi, why did she call him by my middle name!? I had no time to think about that though–suddenly the woman in One Republic's arms was shot down by a purple dragon from the sky..! She was sent tumbling and flying away, rendering her out of commission for this battle or maybe even for good. I looked up and around and saw him... I knew it wouldn't have been long until he came... with a big crash land, his dark tattered cape flowed in the wind and his dark blue hair waved behind him. Xander. The strongest guardian in the history of all guardians.

"𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚔 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚇𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛... 𝙽𝚘𝚠 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚗, 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝙾𝚜𝚎 𝚘𝚗 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚎, 𝚑𝚘𝚠 𝚙𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝙲𝚘𝚜𝚖𝚒𝚌? 𝙷𝚘𝚠 𝚠𝚎𝚊𝚔 𝚍𝚘 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚏𝚎𝚎𝚕? 𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚝'𝚜 𝚑𝚘𝚠 𝙸 𝚏𝚎𝚕𝚝 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚜𝚘 𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚢 𝚢𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚖𝚢 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎!! 𝙸 𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝚍𝚊𝚢 𝚊𝚏𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚍𝚊𝚢 𝚝𝚘 𝚐𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝚞𝚗𝚏𝚊𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚖𝚊𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚙𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚛 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚒𝚝'𝚜 𝚋𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚖𝚎. 𝙷𝚎𝚛𝚎! 𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚜 𝙷𝙴𝚁𝙴... 𝙰𝚛𝚒𝚜𝚎 𝚖𝚢 𝚐𝚞𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚜!"

...I felt a change in my personality.. All fear left me and I lost all of my senses... and then my vision went pitch black. As if my bodily systems were shutting down.

. . .
| One Republic / Cosmic |

Cosmos suddenly changed in attitude and jolted upwards, walking next to Gaea, this was soon followed by Xander, then Zexaos, then Ose, Hestia, Verri, Chronos, Adelina, and a few others. I was screwed this time for sure. Nothing could save me now. I had all my creations, Gaea, and my sister in front of me ready to murder me. Fear overcame me, without a physical form in any way, I had no way to gain proper power or defend myself against so many powerful Cosmi Gods and a Celestial Dragon. There had to be a way. I knew there was. A million thoughts had run rampant through my mind until I pinpointed what I needed. It was Cosmos. I needed Cosmos. She was the key to my victory. My sister was always stronger than me, but such power and potential was never reached. I realized a power I had was to read souls in this form. So I did and I began to read over Cosmos's soul. Cosmos had taken on the form of "Elizabeth" which came with a change in godly status, she could no longer be the ruler, so she was demoted to something called "The One Above All" the ruler's right hand subordinate. This "One Above All" had powers comparable to the ruler, being able to grant many things and answer to the Gods who lived freely in the realm. If delusion and trickery was Gaea's game, I simply had to play that back. If I could gain control over Cosmos' mind for even a remote amount of time, I could have her attack Gaea and even figure out how to regain my "Cosmic" form, or simply just bring my body back to my soul.

As I formulated a few plans and ideas quickly in my barely-physical mind, I saw a figure dash towards me. Three actually. Xander, Chronos, and Hestia. Arguably three of the strongest guardians. Xander: The Cursed Guardian, the Celestial Dragon, personally trained by me. Chronos: Tyrant of Time, regulator of time across the Omniverse. Then Hestia, the twin sister to Juno, Mother of the Hearth, Grand Priestess of the realm. Xander came at me head on, Chronos from behind and Hestia from overhead. Xander channeled a large amount of his Vitality into his hands taking on the form of a dragon head, Chronos held a green staff in his hands ready to stab me in my back and Hestia had an orange flame in her hands which clearly was making Xander and Chronos stronger. I had a few options here. Fight. Dodge. Get obliterated. I almost chose the latter. I slipped beneath Xander's legs, allowing for me to evade him completely, but also allowing for his own teammate to hit him instead. Chronos never was really good with team fighting, so he ended up knocking Xander flat on his butt and I could visibly tell that the Celestial Dragon was cursing out Chronos like hell right now. Then there was Hestia. She was not fooled by my antics. She definitely knew it was me, except she saw me as an enemy and not as her creator. Hestia vanished for a moment and then reappeared in front of me, smashing her fist into my face, damn near taking off my shadowy head. She followed through with a knee to my chin and then an elbow to my throat. I stumbled back, but she kept going, dashing in for another attack. I stopped her in her tracks though. Golden blood spilled from her mouth and I kicked her away. I stabbed her with an extremely sharp arrow that I held in my hand. This originally was the key that I used to get out of my prison, but after I used it, it became part of me and forms into weapons randomly, it seems to like to be an arrow more often than not though.

This fight is already tiring me the hell out–unlike me right now these three had an unhinged fighting will and could take blows, hits, cuts, stabs, etc. for fun. Me on the other hand, one blow from any of them, especially now, would take me right off the godly census forever. I had to be careful. Unfortunately that motto of "be careful" wouldn't exist in this fight, but I really tried. It's hard being 90% soul and 10% physical. I saw that damn dragon come running at me as if he were a godly shipment truck, being chased down by Xander, the last thing anyone should ever want. I turned my back and I hot footed it out of here. This was going wonderfully. Physically fighting them wasn't gonna get me anywhere, magic was useless, I don't even know if I had an Omnipresent Vitality, so that left me at my original plan... my sister. I turned my course completely, instead of running away now I was now running towards the three maniacal guardians that were after me. Ironic. As I ran at them, I slammed my foot into the ground causing a miniature earthquake, throwing the three off course. They were not usually this stupid in fights... Whatever Gaea did to them definitely made them idiots. I ran past them as fast as possible and right towards Cosmos. I ran and I ran, I swear I could've been going at quadrillions of times past the speed of light, yet I felt so slow. I guess that was hopelessness mixed in with hope. Gaea looked at me as if I was an idiot, and yeah I was being one right now, but that's what you have to do when you have to save the Omniverse. I heard her yell aloud something...

"𝙲𝙾𝚂𝙼𝙸𝙲, 𝚀𝚄𝙸𝚃 𝚂𝙲𝚁𝙰𝙼𝙱𝙻𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝙰𝚁𝙾𝚄𝙽𝙳! 𝚃𝚄𝚁𝙽 𝚈𝙾𝚄𝚁𝚂𝙴𝙻𝙵 𝙸𝙽, 𝙸 𝚆𝙸𝙻𝙻 𝙲𝙾𝙼𝙴 𝙶𝚁𝙰𝙱 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝙰𝙽𝙳 𝙾𝙱𝙻𝙸𝚃𝙴𝚁𝙰𝚃𝙴 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝙼𝚈𝚂𝙴𝙻𝙵 𝙸𝙵 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝙲𝙾𝙼𝙴 𝙰𝙽𝚈 𝙲𝙻𝙾𝚂𝙴𝚁!"

There was a slight pause in her speech before she said something not directed at me but... Cosmos. I was done for now.

"𝙲𝚘𝚜𝚖𝚘𝚜, 𝙴𝚕𝚒𝚣𝚊𝚋𝚎𝚝𝚑! 𝚄𝚗𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚑 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚎 𝚙𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚛, 𝚋𝚎𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙾𝚗𝚎 𝙰𝚋𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝙰𝚕𝚕! 𝙽𝙾𝚆! 𝙳𝚎𝚏𝚎𝚗𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚏 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚒𝚊𝚌 𝚠𝚑𝚘 𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚍𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚢 𝚞𝚜 𝚊𝚕𝚕..."

A smile cracked on her face, and then it turned into a maniacal grin. Something bad was to come. As I ran and ran, Cosmos stood still. I finally caught up to Cosmos and grabbed her by the shoulder, taking her away from Gaea. She was mine! All I had to do was just knock sense into her once more. I boosted myself off the ground and took flight instead of running. I held my sister close to me. As I flew through the skies of Heaven I looked at my sister to begin my plan to take over her mind before anything bad happened, but it was too late. My heart dropped to the depths of the shadow realm. I regret every decision I made during this fight.

Cosmos' golden eyes of the Omniverse turned to a bright green and then to a bright and pure white. Actually, no. Her whole HEAD became PURE LIGHT. I let go of Cosmos instantly and flew backwards, she started falling to the ground. But, as she fell her back sprouted a total of eight separate wings four on the left and right of her body, they were similar to that of a birds wings. Her clothes then shifted from her normal Cosmi Goddess look to that of the more modernized god look, sort of similar to Gaea. A white sleeveless dress with a cross of the Cosmi Twins on it. Before Cosmos could hit the ground she stopped herself and instantly regained control over herself. Whatever she had just done, she had transformed into something completely different. It was bizarre. Scary. She began to back up to my level, this time with three other guardians, Xander, Hestia, and Chronos. These three were followed by Gaea behind them all with a large grin on her face. She did not say anything, but it was like she was controlling all four of them, giving them commands via. telepathic messaging. The first to attack to no surprise was Xander... it seemed I would have to fight them all one by one... How the hell would I win this one? I had my ways.

Xander charged me instantly and he diverted his path to the right of me, something I taught him to do, never do a head on rush. But I was all too familiar with this technique, he came in full force, full speed ahead. His eyes were purple, filled with his Omnipresent Vitality, his hands lit up purple as well... he drew his fist back and that purple color turned into a seafoam green like color... Arcane... his second Omnipresent Vitality.

Xander's Arcane Vitality was arguably scarier than Dragonic, it could drain the Vitality of others and allow him to use it for his own gain, own gain as in permanent power gain. He drew back his hand and got ready to smash his hand into my black-shadowy chest, and so he did. I let him. His fist was against my shadowy body and I could feel my soul being drained of some of its energy, but then I grabbed him by the scalp of his hair and swept out his legs, sending him back flat onto the ground. I smashed my foot into Xander's chest, knocking any and all wind out of him. While he was dazed, gasping for air, I dropped down and grabbed him by his hair once more, lifting him up with ease. I put my hand over his face and with that an explosion of light occurred. I could feel my power suddenly surge, something awakened inside me... I enjoyed this feeling. Xander collapsed to the ground and I kicked him to the side, he was far too inexperienced still in fighting.

Gaea was a bit shocked. I could just see it on her face. Smarts clearly was a better fighting style than brute force... this would be something I'd carry with me for the rest of eternity. Next was Chronos and Hestia... they both came at me at the same time. A duet that wouldn't be fun to fight, hell I don't even know if I could beat these two together. Chronos ran at me full force ahead and Hestia followed suit with fire channeled through her hands. Chronos instantly stopped time... what a drag. Seems that forgetting who I was truly did help me to my advantage. As Chronos stopped time, Hestia would be stopped even Gaea and Cosmos were stopped in their tracks. It was just Chronos and I stopped time now. Why was I aware of the stop time, opposed to everyone else? It's because I created time itself. My sister did not, Gaea did not, and I granted the blessing of time to Chronos to allow him to do such things. I stood still though and let Chronos get closer to me. In halted time he could instantly kill me... that would've been the case if I wasn't aware and able to move within, but he approached me and drew his fist back ready to punch a few holes in me, but I had other plans. As he threw a punch I diverted it with my arrow and grabbed his arm with my hand, I then cut off his arm with the arrow. Chronos yelled in sheer pain. While he was distracted with his arm being cut clean off, I dashed behind him and kicked him to the ground, breaking his tail bone in the process and causing a large shock through his spine and neck. I then threw my arrow into his back.

"gαнн! нσω ¢αη уσυ мσνє ωιтнιη му ѕтσρρє∂ тιмє!? gαєα! ωнσ ιѕ тнιѕ!?"

"Gaea can't hear you, she is frozen, she does not have the ability to move within halted time. Listen to me, Chronos Cosmi. You are my creation and I blessed you with the power of time. You have me to thank for everything, you'll remember my name forever. Cosmic Cosmi. Lights out."

I then smashed my foot into his lower jaw, which spanned up to the temple of his head, knocking Chronos clean out for a very long time. At this point time would resume back to normal. Hestia would've stopped charging me, the look on her face was absolutely priceless I must say. She was shocked to see her comrade beat so suddenly. I stood next to Hestia and grabbed her tightly by the back of the neck. My arrow flew back into my hand and I pressed it up against Hestia' throat. I exhaled slowly and began to speak into her ear with an eerie tone of voice...

"Scram, Hestia Cosmi or you'll end up like Chronos and Xander in an instant. Your foolish theatrics no longer scare me."

Just like that Hestia trembled in my hands. I knew Hestia was not evil, she was not a fighter either. She was being forced against her will to do this all. Hestia was a kind soul, she was harmless to this Omniverse. She was one of my proud creations... my Grand Priestess. But even then, she was still out to kill me; however, I was not out to kill her. I let her go and pushed her away towards Gaea, where she proceeded to run as fast as she could.

Gaea stared at me with sheer anger at this point, that anger then turned into a smirk. She bent down and whispered into the ear of Cosmos, saying something. I couldn't pick out what she said to Cosmos, but I knew everything was about to get... real. Gaea was out to kill me now, but it wasn't gonna be Gaea who was going to kill me, no... it was going to be my own sister... Once Gaea wrapped up her words to Cosmos I could see Cosmos grow restless. She was getting amped up. Cosmos began to float downwards and walk towards me... she was walking until she wasn't, once she made contact with the ground, she took one step forward and then... she blitzed forward at speeds leagues and leagues beyond the speed of light... hell I couldn't even calculate it. She grabbed my shadowy head and with her free hand a large spear appeared, fully made of Vallen Kigeao. She spun the staff around faster than I could ever react and she stabbed it right through my gut, all the way through my back. Black blood spat out from my mouth... my regenerative abilities were far weaker than they were before and I was starting to feel pain... My sister is absurdly stronger than me right now and there's not much I could do except face my fate... I grabbed the staff she was holding and pulled it out from my gut. She still held onto it but I was pushing back on it quite a lot, to avoid any further stab wounds. I looked at her pure-light face and grinned, trying to cope with the pain I was feeling right now. I apologized in my head in advance before attacking Cosmos. I lifted the spear up and kept it away from my body, whilst keeping a tight grip on it. Vallen Kigeao was practically unbreakable to the normal soul. But anything was possible. I twisted the spear which would throw Cosmos' composure off balance. From there I snatched the spear from her, slipping it right out of her grasp. Instead of using the spear to attack her, I smacked it across her head, with my combined force and ability to break the metal against Cosmos who also was getting ready to retaliate... her fist and the spear would make contact, causing a huge burst of light to explode from it. This would be the first ever item made from Vallen Kigeao to be broken, an impressive feat. We both stood far apart from each other, about thirty meters away, staring each other down. I then spoke out...

"Cosmos. Come back to me. Come back to the Omniverse. Come back to the Cosmi family, sister. I am waning and no longer can I keep up. We together can take back OUR realm and defeat Gaea, the one who brought this upon both of us!"

"You're a living lie. Your words of folly anger Mother Gaea and I. My patience is waning with you. I must fulfill my goal, forfeit now One Republic or meet your end."

"Sometimes, the act of blasphemy is the only just thing to do."

I stood upright and opened my hands, I stepped out to my right and slammed my foot roughly into the ground of Heaven. The whole realm rumbled and golden light began to surround my body, it surrounded me like a ribbon, but it would not touch me. Heaven recognized who I was but was still in denial. Dammit. Nonetheless, I utilized this. I ran forward and boosted off the ground, soaring through the air at about 25 meters upwards. The light that was around me would form into not a spear but more like a javelin. Despite me not being able to touch the light, it still followed my bodily movements, and thus I threw that javelin right down at Cosmos at speeds that were equally as fast as she could move and once the javelin made contact with the ground and/or Cosmos a huge burst of purple darkness emerged from it. I call that my Omnipresent Vitality. Named "The Books." That purple darkness allowed me to harness the power of the books within my One Republic state and for a moment I could see it... the glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel. Writing appeared in front of me like a book, even though no book was present. I formed a shadowy quill and began aggressively writing away. I rewrote reality, now allowing Heaven to recognize me. Perfection. An old power of mine was back now, I was gaining strength that could compete with Cosmos now! But my hope did not last long. Despite that supernova size and power explosion from the javelin I threw, Cosmos came out completely unharmed and was now handling me like a goddamn Celestial Dragon. She held me by my throat and began aggressively punching my face over and over before throwing me to the ground. I abruptly crashed back-flat into the ground with not even a picosecond to spare in time to think before Cosmos landed on top of me. She was harnessing the power of Heaven in her hands now too. Over and over she would make Heaven constructed weapons and proceed to stab me, hit me, beat me, and thrash me with, every time she constructed a weapon, on hit they would deteriorate and she would just make another which would do the same thing, deteriorate. This allowed Cosmos to freely go at it without me being able to counter her. I was in a really terrible place now in this fight. Being slowly beaten to death by my sister. As she beat me, I reached my hand out to her face... I groaned in utter pain but Cosmos was just perfectly in reach... that was always the mistake someone made when fighting me. They got too close. Cosmos was no different. I grabbed her head and Cosmos was knocked out... she collapsed to the ground and before I followed suit and blacked out, I shielded us both... keeping my hand firmly placed on her pure light face.