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(General P.O.V)

Rarely do universes from different layers of the multiverse intersect.

But a quintillion years before the before, a young realm sprouted. It's branches grew in the space containing the paradox of boundless existence and non existence.

And it managed to touch upon one of the oldest multiverses at that time. The concept of infinity is different. Some infinities are larger than others. One such was the opposite of the creator of this particular multiverse.

It saw a chance to take over its multiverse of origin by using the young universe. And so begun it's machinations.

(Aden's P.O.V)

My dad and I sat in his office. There was a chess board on the table in between us and suffice to say, he was kicking my ass more than anything else.

No matter what I did, he had countermoves for every action I took. And that was with him taking it easy on me. I still had my king, a couple of pawns and a rook.

I sighed and leaned back in my chair, giving him a critical look.

"What do you think you're doing Old Man?"

"Teaching my son the true meaning of despair. Muhahahaha!"

His villain laugh was actually on point.

"Keep it down there Jeff! Lindy is about to fall asleep!"

We both winced at Mom's loud yell. Jefferson Strong might have been the head of the family to the outside world but we both knew who actually held the position or in this case, the spoon and she was not afraid to use it.

"Hahaha you're so whipped."

I told him with a laugh, not missing the opportunity to tease him a little. My dad and I had a really close relationship. It wasn't wrong to say he was my best friend. We just got each other. I was practically a mini him.

He snorted, finally capturing my king.

"One day you'll understand the value of a good woman boy," he leaned closer.

"And how controlling she can be."

We both burst out in laughter.

"You better not be gossipping about me, you two."

Mom's voice came from downstairs. We looked at each other and the laugh died out, leaving behind smirks. I looked down at the chess board. Then took a deep breath to catch the faint scent of oldbooks that Dad loved to collect.

"I have someone like that dad." I told him. He perked up at the news.

"Just like you have mom. Kori," I sighed, missing her.

"Kori's amazing. You would love her. And you're gonna be a granddad."

He was stunned for a while before swallowing the emotional lump in his throat.

"That's good. That's really good Kid." He ruffled my long hair.

"I'm so proud of the man you have become. And I know your mom and Lindy are as well."

They say a man doesn't cry and they are right.

However, the single streak of tear coming down my left eye tried it's best to prove me wrong. He held my palm in his hand.

"You know, your mom and I worry about you alot."

I wiped the tear away and asked him,

"Why is that?"

Dad barked out a humorless laugh.

"You are blessed or more like cursed with passion Aden. When you feel so Strongly, there is nothing that can stop you." He shook his head.

"Such drive can be turned towards the wrong things. Things, I have tried my hardest to shield you and our family from."

He grabbed my other palm and held it in his hands. A look of desperation appeared on his face.

"But now, I can't do that anymore! And it scares me Aden. It scared me more than I can ever explain, every single time I regained a little consciousness, only to hear that you were still missing. The authorities had tried their best to find you and failed. There wasn't a trace left!"

Tears started falling from his face.

"You and I failed our family without meaning to. Your mom and sister...all alone. Me dying of cancer and you, my beloved boy, lost forever...we didn't even find your body!"

I was hit with a sudden weakness and the world started spinning. All this...why didn't I... couldn't I...How could I forget!?!

'Dad had Cancer...how could I forget that? Mom...Lindy...I left them all alone to deal with this...'

My mind was utterly blank.

Dad squeezed my hand, making me turn to stare at him lifelessly. He smiled in assurance.

"Your mom and Lindy will be okay. They'll be fine, I just know it. Your uncle will make sure nothing happens to them.

He nodded his head with a watery smile.

"And now that I know you you have someone you can rely on...it's easy on the soul...I can go, knowing you're okay..."

His face started to rapidly change.

"My family is...okay."

The strong jaw shrivelled into loose skin and bone. His skin lost it's glow and the muscles of his arms shrunk. What's happening?! My heart begun to race inside my chest as fear gripped me.

I immediately got off my seat, letting it fall behind me as I went around the table and held him.

"Dad! Dad?! Are you okay! Please say something!"

He was wasting away infront of me and there was nothing I could do. His hair fell off and what I was left with was a poor replica of my father. The one man who looked to be insurmountable to me. The one man who despite being a normal human, cast a larger shadow than Superman and all the rest of the Justice League.

My true hero...was dying. I panicked, pulling in from my life divinity reserves.

"Hey, you're going to be okay. I won't let anything happen to you. I promise! Just hold on!!!"

A golden glow suffused his entire body, the light washing down from his head to his toes.

His eyes regained some color. He stared at me emotionally and conveyed everything he ever needed to say with one simple look.

"Don't...forget us...Aden."

Then the light faded away.

"Dad...Pops!? Wake up man. This ain't funny! Not like this..."

His body begun to flake off into light. I used everything I had at my disposal, going as far as to attempt using a miracle to bring him back but nothing worked.

I felt the power of the miracle try to breach the dimensional plane only to rebound against something powerful. Something infinite. Something my soul recognized instantly even if my mind struggled with the concept of what was happening.

Dad's body turned into golden light that disappeared into the air. The whole room started changing, breaking down as my silver flames devoured it all. My anger was palpable but even more than that, the sense of loss I felt was so shattering, I wanted to curl up on the floor and cry myself to sleep.

"DAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDD!!!!!"

This was something much deeper than what modicum of relief, tears could bring. I hated the feeling of helplessness I felt. Nothing mattered at that moment. Nothing mattered than the the utter and complete destruction of the one who had stopped me from saving him.

My silver flames drowned everything in my space of being, my clothes turned to ash and I stood in a literal ocean of fire looking up at the sky. Looking up at the first ever instance of true infinity I had ever witnessed before.

A deep darkness that could not be breached by any conceptual or cosmic entity.

A darkness so supreme that it contained it's very own multiverse in it. An antithesis to the light that I knew to be true.

A darkness so authentically real, all others like Dark entities like Darkseid had pulled from it to gain meaning. Even now I could feel the connection my chaos side had with it.

It was so comprehensively massive that all that had existed or could exist was well within it, contained in a swirling mass of matter, energy, anti matter and anti energy. The essence of my father, mother, little sister, friends, my highschool bullies, the president, Genghis Khan, Barack Obama, Mother Teresa, Elon Musk, wild animals, ocean creatures, extinct animals like the dinosaurs, the history, the future and the present of the world of my birth.

I was looking at my very own creator. And within him, was me. A copy of my strongest self stared down at me imperiously and my soul shook, my body lost strength, my resolve faltered, my hope diminished.

All that was left was my hatred. My hatred which burned with the same passion that always worried my dad.

"Aden Strong, you have failed to keep your end if the bargain."

Trillions of voices said, making the space of my being experience tremors and world ending cataclysm events. I blacked out then came to with a shuddering breath, prevailing only because I used up most of my divine energy to stabilize my consciousness.

"Bargain?" I breathed out, my eyes blazing with anger and the promise of pain.

"What do the dead need bargains for? Is it to pay Thanatos as you close the river into the underworld?"

I asked with the full intent to carry out my threat.

The Creator went silent.

" We had a Bargain Aden Strong. Your father's life for conquest. You promised me Dominion. Why have you not delivered?

The voices were slow to say.

"Is that why you blocked the memory of my father's illness away from me! I have been living a lie! For months! And now he's dead! So fuck you and your bargains!"

"I did no such thing. You chose to do so yourself. To stop any distractions from clouding your judgement and derailing your mission. You promised me a doorway yet you took it upon yourself to make with my gift your own realm of dominion. I should have foreseen this. I did not. You have failed me, Aden Strong and so my punishment was taking from you what you hold dear."

Every single statement that left this thing's mouth only spurred my hate for it. For making me into a play thing. For allowing my dad to die...

'but if you had done what you were supposed to do, he would still be alive...'

The words hit me with the force of a sledgehammer.

Yes. I was the one responsible for that.

But even if everything it said was true, had my Order State not created a realm but instead a doorway for this thing to come through...the universe would have ended. And had he known that I had unknowingly or knowingly sacrificed him for the preservation of countless lives in the multiverse, My dad would have been proud of me.

He was dead but goddamit would he have been proud of me.

"You seek to trump my control and fashion yourself into a separate entity." The Creator begun.

"Oh what gave that away."

I asked it, putting strength into my feet and getting up. The fact that it was trying to stop me from going beyond the limit of my make up meant, I was on the right path. I was NOT going to stop.

"So be it, perhaps my champion will have a better time of convincing you on the foolishness of this endeavor."

It stated.

Before my eyes, the sky that was completely covered by his unbelievably dark form started roiling and twisting into itself, forming into a very strange yet familiar being.

Black as night, his skin was and on the top of his head were 4 horns. Two long ones on the side of the head and two shorter ones in between the other pair. He was huge and intimidating.

Casting forth taint and corruption in my being that I only held off due to exhausting lesser miracles.

The eyes looking at me were eyes devoid of nothing but a certain kind of devotion. It floated down gently. My soul immediately recognized the danger and my divinities spurred on by the instinct to continue existing activated by themselves.

Storms of fiery swords, beams of plasma waves, lightning bolts the size of Skyscrapers made up of pure cosmic rays and elemental energy, light beams owing to my electromagnetic spectrum abilities, hellflames, golden flames and Spatial rending attacks all fell upon it from every single possible direction.

Armageddon had descended.

The figure waited until right before the attacks landed and stretched out it's hand, opening it's closed fist into a palm. An empty palm.

Everything vanished. Erased.

Each attack I had thrown was enough to destroy countless solar systems. Together those attacks had the destructive capacity to annihilate an entire galaxy and yet...

It smiled, holding out it's hand.

"My hand is empty."

Those words were like a lightning bolt through my spine. It continued, eager and gleeful at the look of abject terror on my face.

"Supplicate yourself before our master, Aden Strong. Deny him no longer. Bow down and worship your creator, the Great Darkness."