Chapter 40：The phoenix

Rawley stumbled through the golden ring and nearly fell onto Cynthinia who was tending to William's wounds.

"Rawley! What are you doing here!? You could affect the timeline!" shouted Cynthinia. Rawley grabbed Cynthinia by the sleeves.

"The timeline has gone to dakra. Okubi is coming to the mortal realm with an army of gods and goddesses. He's going to take the power of the omni-god for himself and take over the multiverse!" explained Rawley. Cynthinia set Rawley down and ran outside to find the others. They were collecting resources before they next set off in search of a new home but instantly threw everything away after hearing what Cynthinia had to say.

Rawley opened another portal. Gaia walked through but the omni-god didn't even get close to it.

"I can't fight. If I use my powers the whole universe could collapse in on itself and this whole thing would be for nothing." said the omni-god. Rawley nodded in a tacit understanding. She closed the portal and opened another that seemed to lead to large, expansive, and completely dead area. She walked through followed by Liam, Cynthinia, Abigail, Mathew, Matilda, Lucifer, William holding himself up with a brace of water, and the asurian survivors. Izzy had gone through a different portal after asking Rawley to send her to the old base. They were on one end of the battlefield while on the other hundreds of purple portals popped up and large groups of gods and goddesses walked through and formed row apon row. Finally Okubi, Jack, and a chained figure exited through a portal in front of the army. Okubi wore a suit of light armour while Jack kept to his black cloak.

"See! I'm not all bad! Instead of sending my forces straight to their targets I brought them here for a ... reasonably fair fight." called Okubi. "And don't worry, I brought a friend of yours with me." Okubi clicked and the chains fell off the figure behind him. Edward stepped forward and brought his bow that now had a more evil and dark look. In the blink of and eye he drew his bow back and shot an energy arrow straight at Liam's head. Liam caught it and threw it to the side smiling.

"What did you do to him!?" demanded William.

"Don't worry, telling you would be wasting my energy on something that won't exist in a few minutes. Isn't that right Lucifer?" asked Okubi. Lucifer began to walk over to Okubi and embraced him in a hug while everyone watched; powerless.

"It's good to be back father." said Lucifer.

Meanwhile in the old base, Izzy navigated through rubble and debris. The meteorite swam had grazed the planet but had still left it's mark. Pushing the large table, now it two pieces, out of the way, Izzy's face lit up with joy. Pulling the sheet off with exhilaration, she uncovered her pride and joy. The money she got from beating Liam in a bet had been well spent to buy the last part she need for her biggest creation yet. Walking round the back she opened a hatch and slid the part into it's respective place and the machine whirred into life. It began to rise but began to stutter and fell back down to the ground.

"NO! No no no no no!" shouted Izzy. She slammed her fist on the top of the machine and a spark of electricity arc from her hand to it. That's what it was missing. She stepped back and put her arms out as lightning arced from her and around the room illuminating the lights and powering up the machine. The machine rose again and didn't stop until it was about three times the size of Izzy. She walked around the back of the machine and pressed a button. A large hatch opened and she climbed inside. Plugging Aiden's memory stick in, holographic dials, numbers, and words appeared all around her.

"Yep. I call her, Nova-X. And it's time for the first trial run." said Izzy. A portal appeared below the machine and it fell through.

"You may have taken our friends and family, but you'll never take our universe!" shouted Izzy. A portal appeared in the air behind him and down fell Izzy in a large mech. It was painted mostly yellow and white with some bare metal dotted around from where Izzy didn't have time to paint it. Izzy brought out her daggers and stabbed them into two holes that sent a massive power surge through the robot. It's eyes glowed brightly and Izzy took control bouncing back and forth while jabbing the air like a boxer. For it's size, the mech was surprisingly nimble and moved through the air with ease. William and Liam also brought out their celestial weapons and got ready for battle.

"Are you all here now?" asked Okubi getting impatient.

Suddenly, a huge gust of wind nearly blew everyone off their feet. They all turned to the right to see Ben floating on a pocket of air. He still wore his light blue trousers and pale blue coat but it wasn't buttoned up and showed the shirt underneath lined with straps that held an uncountable amount of throwing knives. Ben landed next to Liam and they embraced each other in a hug. Without speaking a word, Ben brought out his celestial weapon and slammed it into the ground.

"Bring it batman!" shouted Ben. Jack stepped forward.

"Do you mind if I start this off?" asked Jack. Okubi gestured for Jack to go right ahead. Wielding his scythe, Jack launched at the group who stood their ground. Jack felt a sharp pain in his stomach and his momentum was stopped completely. He coughed up some blood.

"We still had one last friend." mocked Cynthinia. Jack was launched back at Okubi and skidded to a stop at his feet. James rose up with his fist covered in a blue flame.

His face showing no emotion.

"James! You're alive!" shouted Abigail. James paid no attention to her. He didn't even acknowledge her existence.

"The price for returning to the mortal realm is the loss of emotions and feelings. To him, we're all just normal people he has faint memories of." said Cynthinia. She reached for her chest but James put his hand up and she stopped.

"Like the phoenix, we'll rise from the ashes. Even if you defeat us here, we'll keep coming back." said James. Okubi clenched his fist. He drew a black sword and raised it into the air. Bringing it down and pointing it at the group before them, the army charged and Okubi and Jack teleported behind the army. James began to walk forwards, swinging both of his arms in mirroring movements like that of the infinity symbol. Blue and red flames ignited in each hand and stretched to form two short swords. One with a blue handle and line above the blade and the other with a red handle and line above the blade. His walked turned into a run and the others followed behind him.

Ready to fight the gods.

Mortal vs Immortal...