Aden Strong: Avatar In DC Chapter 316: Vengeful Death.

Chapter 316: Vengeful Death.

(General P.O.V)


(Moondragon)


This had to be a nightmare. It just had to be. The alternative was rather grim.

That alternative was that she woke up in a place she only saw in her dreams. Or rather the Dragon's memories.

Moondragon dragged herself to her feet. Her legs shook, the thighs lacking enough strength to help her stand.

What was happening?

Why was she here?

The ground was covered by a dark mist, obstructing her view of the hardened rock that was the floor of this entire place.

The walls of the pit she was in were framed with large statues of numerous Gods from various Pantheons.

Most of whom she recognized had died in the hands of the Lord of Balance.

The very same being all capable fighters, heroes and villains alike had been gathered to defeat.

Yet...she had no idea what had happened afterwards. She only remembered going into the fight. Not the outcome.

The fact she was in this dreary realm however, showed that things had gone awry. They must have lost. And quite badly at that.

She needed to get out. Or soon she would lose something even more precious. Her life.

Using her very powerful telepathic abilities, she was able to somewhat scan her surroundings.

Under the Rocky ground beneath her feet, were magma vents that channeled viscous divine energy processed from the essence of dead gods.

"Help..."

"Help me please..."

Her telepathy snapped back like a rubber band. She knew this place was bad, she didn't need to hear the pleas of it's prisoners to confirm it.

Suddenly, more memories from the dragon assaulted her.

"Argh..." Moondragon winced at the accompanying migraine.

Visions of a hard fought battle and unimaginable loss brought forth an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness within her.

The memories were meant to warn and teach her about the enemy that governed this place.

The Elder Witches.

For it wasn't the first time the dragon had found itself here.

And it feared this place. More than anything.

"Shut up...shut up...shut up..."

Moondragon muttered, finally managing to place one foot under her and with all the Strength she could muster...stood up.

Only to tremble at the scene in front of her. The Dragon's memories were tame compared to the actual Quarry.

" The God Quarry. The rich soil of rotting deities from which all existence grows. The boundary between the orchard of all known realities and the First Firmament, the dark sea of infinite nothingness that came before."

The Dragon within her narrated, whimpering and scampering off to the depths of her consciousness.

But not out of fear of the Quarry itself.

Moondragon staggered in place, looking around at her surroundings. Phyla...Starlord...the ghost rider...all of their bodies were decomposing in the Pit.

Moondragon brought a hand to cover mouth in horror and disbelief.

"They died serving a cause. As shall you."

A deep voice stated from the center of the Quarry. She tore her eyes from her deceased companions and stared at the source of the voice.

At what had the Dragon trembling in terror.

A massive throne built out of glowing golden metal and inscribed in a language that caused her headache to worsen.

And on top of that throne was a being she thought dead.

The Mad Titan, Thanos. Standing next to him was a mysterious hooded figure.

"Tell me something wench. How do you want to die?"

Thanos questioned.

"No matter. The result is still the same."

The last thing Moondragon saw was Thanos' glowing dark purple eyes. And then nothing.

******

Moondragon was so shocked by the presence of her compatriots that she had failed to fight back.

Seeing each of them dead had caused her to somewhat mentally break.

Phylla-vell, The Guardians of the Galaxy, Spidermen and women, the Avengers, dozens of their variants, supervillains and more powerful figures.

All trapped in the Quarry.

But...what were they doing there? What was the catalyst to their presence?

The answer was simple.

Lady Death.

This had been her Back up plan. Aden had proven to be too powerful.

Powerful to the point the strongest across several worlds had still failed to bring him to heel.

In fact, so weak were they that Aden had ultimately decided to banish them

to their own Universes rather than waste his time fighting.

The Avatar had done so after noticing they had been tricked by Death to come after him.

So he had spared them.

Unfortunately, escaping death was not as easy. Everyone that beared her mark was instead forcefully teleported here.

Into the God Quarry. All to serve her agenda.

Vengeance.

And the perfect tool to get it for her was none other than Thanos.

Said Eternal, placed a foot on the chest of the dead Moondragon.

"Be careful with those eyes."

Lady Death, standing by his side warned.

"They are no less powerful than the Ghost-Rider's penance Stare. Our enemy possesses an even stronger variant of that."

Her hooded skeletal form informed him.

"Mmh."

Thanos hummed, staring at Moondragon's dead form in intrigue. This was Death's gift to him.

"A power that can cause instant death by looking into the eyes of the target. A worthy gift for Death's Champion."

"See that you don't disappoint me Beloved."

Lady Death whispered, her voice raspy.

"I will not tolerate failure."

Thanos frowned, eyes narrowed.

"I won't lose a second time. Not against him."

The image of Aden appeared in his mind, just as thunder roared above the God Quarry.

"Careful."

Lady Death warned a second time.

"Even thinking of him is enough to bring attention to us and our plans. You're not strong enough to face him, let alone his servant Chaos. You need to complete the forging first."

She knew first hand just how powerful and dangerous both were. She thought she could sway Chaos to her side. After all, it was It's nature to buckle against any sort of restraints.

Too bad she hadn't known that the Avatar and Chaos were essentially the same.

"Not strong enough?"

Thanos muttered, remembering his defeat. He wasn't strong enough even then.

"Let's solve that, shall we?"

Crack.

Moondragon's chest caved in under the Titan's foot. There was a shrill scream and then the soul of a black Dragon with a wide maw and numerous limbs rose out of the corpse, immediately taking to the skies in a bid to escape the God Quarry.

3 figures shrouded in shadows appeared on three separate locations across the God Quarry.

Their combined positions creating a triangle.

Immediately, they commenced a low chant. The quarry trembled in response.

The Dragon of the Moon, an entity with the power of a God, and responsible for Moondragon's telepathic abilities flapped it's wings frantically, freedom was but a few inches away.

All it had to do was escape the Black Hole that the God Quarry was in.

Alas, before it could break out of the dreaded place, a net of energy appeared above the mouth of the God Quarry, blocking its way.

The Dragon opened its mouth and released a storm of green flames at the net.

The Elder Witch's chants grew high pitched, rising in crescendo. The dragon's attack was subsequently absorbed by the net.

Undeterred, it increased its mass and weight through size manipulation, knowing this was it's only chance to break through, before it was completely trapped.

It roared, smashing and buckling against the net which stretched out widely, but remained in one piece, halting it's advance.

"Curse you Witches!"

The Dragon cried out in anger and despair.

Thanos wordlessly raised his hand, revealing an infinity gauntlet with all the infinity stones on it.

Including the Space and Time Stones which were supposed to be in Aden's and the Sorcerer Supreme's possession respectively.

The Gauntlet lit up and a beam of blue energy washed out into the Quarry.

Immediately space was inverted. Up became down and down became up.

The Dragon found its momentum reversed.

And instead of flying out, it fell to the bottom of the quarry, smashing onto the hardened ground and causing a tremor to race out.

The Witch's chanting ceased.

Thanos lowered the gauntlet, pleased with himself.

"You've gotten quite good at using the Infinity Stones."

Lady Death commented.

Thanos stayed silent as he approached the fallen form of the Dragon of the Moon.

The Mad Titan's aura washed out, much darker than before, much stronger than before. Much sinister too.

The Dragon of the Moon was a -Psionic being. Meaning it could not only sense the thoughts in someone's mind and manipulate them, it could also see right into the soul.

At the core of anything's existence. And what it saw in Thanos' soul was... It had no words for it.

Such appalling hunger for power. To the point, Thanos was using his own soul as a forge! Within it, he was smelting down powerful artefacts in the only forge capable of such a feat.

His own soul.

And naturally, such a forge would require equally priceless fuel. Souls. That's why there were many lifeless corpses everywhere. This was a ritual site!

The Dragon swallowed it's snarl, reeling back as if struck.

"Bane! Bane! Dumb Titan! You have fused with Destruction! You shan't survive this! She deceives, she cheats! She's death! It's in the name!"

"Silence, Dragon of Lies. Your only purpose is to serve me in death!"

The mad Titan declared, clutching his fingers into a fist and restraining the Dragon on the ground.

By using the Space Stone, Thanos had isolated the Dragon of the Moon from reality and then multiplied Gravity to hold it in place.

The gauntlet lit up with another stone as Thanos approached. The soul stone made The Dragon recoil in more fear.

It's true power was to open up souls to each other.

One singular being was already so complex what about more...?

But the Titan was using it for other purposes. The soul stone's glow covered the Gauntlet, seeping with unknown energy. Soul energy latched onto the Dragon's spirit.

"Curse you Mad Titan. I curse you to know defeat! I curse you to experience True Death!"

The Dragon cried out as its soul was ripped out of its body, killing it instantly.

The soul was then absorbed into Thanos.

Wild and uncontrollable amounts of power begun swirling in a vortex around the Mad Titan.

The vortex died down as the soul was entirely comsumed by the forge.

"Still not enough."

Thanos gritted his teeth.

"You needed Quantity, now you need Quality."

Lady Death whispered behind him.

"The only benefit to absorbing all those weaklings was to light the forge."

Thanos grumbled.

"The power I have gained is minimal. Only enough that I can now accurately measure the gap between Him and I."

And what a gap it was.

Thanos turned to the Elder Witches.

"Prime the teleportation array once more. This time, get me some True Monsters. Only Grade A beings and above!"

The Elder Witches stared at Lady Death in consternation.

"How Arrogant he is Milady!"

"How Reckless he is Milady!"

"How Disrespectful he is Milady!"

Thanos didn't seem to like that, so he blasted them with the full might of the Infinity Gauntlet.

The three witches screamed in agony, a terrible sound that grated on the the ears.

"It would be in your best interests to do what I say, witches."

Thanos stated, schadenfreude rolling off his tone.

The Witches bowed in deference and soon the Array was re-activated.

Space rippled as something started forming in the circle.

A power unlike any other rippled out. Power that made even the Mad Titan grin in anticipation at getting his hands on the owner's soul.

The next victim that appeared was no man, nor female. They were the anthromophic representations of time in its states.

"Hello, Eon."

Thanos grinned up at the 3 cosmic entities, rising from his throne.

The beings before him were eldritch abominations. They possessed forms that could turn any weak minded individual insane.

And together they embodied the aspect of Time in its progressive aspect.

They were Eon, his daughter Epoch and his son, Era.

Their temporal manipulation abilities rivalled that of the Time Stone.

"Cease this Thanos! You have no idea what enemies you make."

Eon in the shape of a large green head with a face on one side and a large bloodshot eye on the other side spoke out, immediately noticing where they were.

Its voice sounded normal despite the alien visage, energy limbs dancing in the air of the Quarry.

"Father...this is the God Quarry."

Epoch cried out in fear, a hiding behind her Father.

Her and Era resembled their father Eon to a T. Possessing the same green skin, giant head and multiple limbs.

"Indeed."

Thanos cut in, walking down the steps of his throne, the Gauntlet on his hand lighting up.

"And I have brought you here to serve as fuel for my Forge, Eon. Be grateful that your family shall aid in my ascension."

"I've heard enough from this guy."

Era who had been silent up until then stated, massive amounts of Temporal energy priming within his multiple limbs.

"I shall rip time itself out of your soul!"

The limbs shot out towards Thanos, but the Mad Titan remained unafraid.

The Reality stone pulsed and the three entities lost access to their power.

Thanos smirked as the same bands of gravity that had restrained The Dragon of the Moon covered the three Temporal entities, suppressing them.

"And now you die..."

He gleefully declared, planning to suck their souls out.

"You...know, I've been waiting like a year for you to do something."

A voice stated from behind him.

Thanos momentarily stopped what he was doing and looked back. His face paled instantly.

Lady Death was getting choked by chaos who held her up by the neck.

The scene chilled the Mad Titan to the bone. He found himself taking a wary step backwards.

"No...not yet. What are you doing here...?

The question was meant for Aden who was sitting on Thanos' throne.

The Avatar had his feet casually slung over the armrests and was staring at Thanos with a bored expression.

"Seriously, I'm disappointed in you man."

Aden shook his head.

"You had all this time and all you could achieve was the power to know just how wide of a gap is between us? And it's been a year? What have you been mutilating your soul for? You're still so weak."

"You..."

Thanos bit out in anger.

"I'll end you! Bastard!"

All the stones on the Gauntlet lit up. Aden sighed, jumping to his feet.

"Chaos, don't let her escape. This time we'll deal with her permanently."

He informed his one third.

"You got it boss."

Chaos replied with a cold smile.

"As for you..."

Aden continued, twirling Equity.

"I-"

Before the Avatar could complete his statement, something objectively strange occured. In the space between them, two figures raced out of a time vortex.

One of them wore a costume of red and was covered in streaks of yellow lightning.

"The Speedforce?"

Aden muttered in surprise. What was a DC speedster doing in Marvel? But the second being made him stiffen in shock.

There was no mistaking the connection he felt with the second figure.

That. Was his son.