Chapter 376: The Reunion
Ash wasted no ti, appearing directly in the skies of the 95th Heaven.
This was where Aphrodite and Persephone had been living for quite a while, though they’d first been on the 60th Heaven when the fourth incarnation had died.
Back then, the Fourth had sent them off to the budding cosmos he was crafting, but things didn’t go smoothly.
He’d built it using his strata and other Trans-concepts, yet sohow, he wasn’t the Anchor—turns out, the Earth Plane was.
His plan had been to cut the connection once it was strong enough, but, well, we all know how that ended.
After his death his cosmos crumbled placing everyone back into the thick of tension. But it wasn’t instant... enough ti passed for the won to be safe.
That was only the start of their defense against the sixth dinsion. And they weren’t alone—from the 99th Heaven down, every inhabitant was dealing with the sa challenges.
Floating in the skies looking at the divided lands he simply blinked as he willed a power into action.
|One Sight|
He wasn’t about to waste ti on those weaklings with their endless scheming and plotting.
His won had endured such nonsense for far too long. In this mont, he would strip away every worry they carried, before offering them pure pleasure and a chance to truly reconnect.
FWOOOOM!!!!!
Then, the four domains encircling the central domain—stretching for what felt like infinite light-years—burst into white flas.
But this was no ordinary fire.
These were flas born of pure truth—white as fresh snow, yet burning with the icy rage of absolute certainty.
They didn’t devour flesh first; they burned away sin.
The instant he opened his eyes, he judged every soul across the four continents as guilty—hundreds of billions, from the highest invaders in the heaven to the humblest pawns—feeling it all at once.
Their cris against the Earth Plane, his won and the very notion of loyalty to their dinsions—erupted within them.
The fire didn’t consu them from the outside, but from deep inside.
And countless deaths played out in re monts. Each and every invader found themselves dying over and over.
One soul might endure being flayed alive a trillion tis in the blink of an eye—each flaying slower than the last, every strip of skin removed with ticulous care.
Another could feel the crushing weight of every life they had ever destroyed pressing down on them.
The tornt went on without end, as Ash made them bathe in the flas of their sins.
And when the judgnt was finally done—when every trace of sin had been purged—the flas vanished.
But the continents hadn’t turned to ash.
They were remade, just like all the other Heavens Ash had restored before.
He didn’t go into much detail this ti, simply rging everything back into one vast plane of existence without any divisions.
He revived the dead plains, brought the symphony of colors back to the tunnel above, and made a few other changes.
The reason he didn’t fully recreate it was because, eventually, he planned to return it all to a blank state, just like the Lower Dinsion.
For now, though, the lands were once again livable.
Ash didn’t linger to admire his work—he simply turned west, heading for the central continent where the palace built by his won still stood untouched by flas.
Without sound or fanfare, he appeared at its entrance.
[A/N: This will be one of the last tis we showcase this whole destruction and recreation thing. As I can’t stand redundancy, so get ready for more and more intense battles ahead!]
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The inside of the palace was utterly massive.
And with this size, it was perfectly divided as one side was pinkish and radiant... while the other was just dark.
This was obviously Aphrodite’s and Persephone’s chambers, but it was also the chambers of the other won who were concubines to Ash.
Unlike his current harem, Aphrodite and Persephone thought it was appropriate to have order. And to do this, they split the won depending on what powers they were attuned to.
Those with anything other than darkness type things were in one of the many rooms on Aphrodite’s side and vice versa.
Inside of Aphrodite’s chambers... one could see nothing but paintings.
And each canvas had Ash’s face in every conceivable mood, every angle and even Ash in the forms of other races.
She sat at her easel now, brush paused mid-stroke, a half-finished portrait of him smiling that gentle, devastating smile she had morized across trillions of years.
Badump!
But, in that mont her heart skipped a beat.
"...Ash?" she whispered, brush falling from numb fingers.
----
Across the palace, in Persephone’s wing, she froze mid-step.
She had been tending to her many gardens, placing fresh black lilies among the many already blood.
So gardens even held flowers arranged to mirror Ash’s face and scent.
But in that mont, it wasn’t their bond that stirred—it was the curse she had placed on him long ago, a thing neither had ever spoken of undoing.
Her breath hitched, and the flowers slipped from her fingers.
In the sa instant, both won vanished from their chambers, reappearing side by side at the palace entrance, as if pulled by the sa unseen thread.
----
And as they looked at the man before them their hearts began to pound even more.
He looked different—yet the sa.
He was taller, far more beautiful in a way that even Aphrodite couldn’t fully grasp.
When Ash saw them standing there like ghosts, he smiled—and at that smile, the one they had grown so used to, both reacted.
Aphrodite’s hand flew to her mouth, while Persephone’s eyes brimd with tears she hadn’t shed in eons.
Behind them, an innurable multitude of won erged—tens of thousands in number—pouring forth from every wing, every garden, and every concealed chamber.
These were all the won who could be called his concubines, gathered from his journey in his past life.
Ash looked at them—his past and present—and his smile softened.
He opened his arms wide.
Aphrodite was the first to move, nearly tripping in her haste, with Persephone close behind. The others held back for now, patiently waiting their turn as tears slid down their cheeks.
Aphrodite pressed her face into his chest, shoulders quivering with silent sobs.
Persephone clung to his side, tears falling freely, her fingers gripping his arm as if afraid he might vanish once more.
Aphrodite’s voice ca first—soft, trembling, muffled against his skin.
"...How?" she whispered, barely audible. "How are you alive? We saw you die... and after a decade, your cosmos shattered right after."
Persephone’s grip tightened on his arm, her voice quieter, rougher.
"When that happened," she said, "we were certain you’d never return... usually one’s Strata is a direct sign of their existence."
She pressed her forehead to his shoulder, her voice dropping to a broken whisper.
"Please tell
this isn’t another bad dream... I was starting to think soone was toying with my karma for cursing you... Tell
you’re really here."
Ash wrapped his arms around them both, resting his chin gently on Aphrodite’s head before leaning in to press a soft kiss to Persephone’s temple.
"I’m here," he said simply. "And you never have to worry about
leaving again."
He let out a slow breath, smiling. Ash was never one to be overly sulky or sentintal, so, as always, he lightened the mood.
"Besides... didn’t I say so corny stuff back then?" he chuckled. "Sothing like, ’through our children we’ll find our way back’?"
Looking over their heads, he took in the sea of won still watching—so openly crying, others smiling through tears, hands clasped and hearts wide open.
With a laugh, he added, "I’ve missed you all," his voice softer this ti. "Every single one of you. So enough with the crying and tears."
Aphrodite let out a shaky laugh-sob, pressing her cheek harder against him.
"Yea... You’d better not disappear again," she whispered. "I’ve run out of ideas of how to paint you."
Persephone lifted her head just enough to et his eyes.
"Promise ," she said. "Promise you won’t disappear again, or next ti we’ll follow you directly into the afterlife."
Even with Ash standing there in the flesh, even after he’d ntioned, he’d return before his death, they knew nothing of his incarnations— as he’d never gotten around to telling them.
But in this mont, they didn’t even notice that Heaven was finally safe.
They were simply happy he was back.
Ash smiled—gentle, eternal, devastating.
"I promise."
He kissed her forehead, then Aphrodite’s, and held them both as the other won began to close in—slowly at first, then faster—until he was surrounded by a living tide of warmth, tears, and quiet, trembling joy.
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