I'm Not Afraid of Tomorrow, I'm Only Scared of Myself, Feels Like My Insides Are All On Fire, And I'm Looking Through The Eyes of Someone Else
A/N: Special thanks to Ketvirtas last chapter for being the only person to comment about the actual chapter itself. Been two weeks and there were only about five commenters, and just about none of it had anything to do with the story. I'm actually extremely disappointed, since it has hundreds of views yet I got essentially nothing from you guys. Please comment this time, and please keep it on topic. People stop commenting after there are a certain amount of comments on a chapter, and you guys going back and forth about nothing related to the story staved off actual commenters. If you want to converse with one another, please PM one another, not go on and on here! So thanks again Ketvirtas, and I'm sorry everyone. I just needed to get this off my chest, and I apologize for the rant.
Chapter title from "Tomorrow" from SR-71. Not that I bet anyone cares.
Please comment, and have it be about the story itself. I am having a really rough time in real life between the loss of a friend and schoolwork, and I don't want to see sprawling, irrelevant conversations taking the place of actual feedback like it did last chapter. Thank you for those who actually read this, and I hope you enjoy the chapter. It's got something a lot of you have been asking for after all...
Instead of entering the fray once again alongside Thor, Loki found himself dispatched by the hurtling green body of Doctor Banner. The giant carried Loki back with him as the large green figure was flung off of Thanos, whose face no longer showed any sign of amusement as he was forced to tap into a fraction of his true potential. The Hulk had managed to grapple with the miniscule portion being used to overpower Loki, and so he had been dealt with in a swift manner so as to not interfere with the previous fun he had been having.
This was the day Thanos was to become an immortal being with omnipotence: the power of the Infinity Gems brought together would make him the most powerful being to even exist, with powers comparable to that of a living god which put to shame the pseudo gods known as Asgardians and Alicorns. While this was his aspiration for as long as he could remember, this was the last time he would truly be able to enjoy any encounter with such mortal beings. He had decided to save Loki for last to rectify his mistake in trusting him once, and so these others who stood before him were not to be granted the same mercy. While Loki could and would be savored as Thanos’s final mortal kill, what were a transforming scientist, a drunken genius, a superhuman below the power of an Asgardian, and the so called “god of Thunder” to the half-ascended physical god?
All Loki knew about Thanos was his strength and ruthlessness, and the conqueror had no intention to fall into the trap some others had and monologue long enough to grant his opponent a chance to win. He did not mind talking during a battle yet, while this was more of a show than a true fight, Thanos had no purpose to inform Loki as to how every moment was an affront to Thanos’s own being. An affront that would be met with brutality and pain.
Thanos prepared himself to leap into the air, at which point he saw Loki crawling from out under the rubble formed from the collapsed coliseum wall he had collided with along with the green brute. Thor hurled himself forward with his hammer only to find that he would collide with nothing but air.
Stark, on the other hand, was far more unfortunate than Thor. The mechanical genius found his suit grabbed from the air, and in the next moment it was crushed inside of Thanos’s titan grip. While the powerful armor was not instantly flattened there was little chance that the man inside of it was anything but dead or dying, with the bones and organs inside being crushed and impaled by the armor turned into a weapon pointing inward.
The red and golden armor was then thrown at Captain Rogers, who had moved to assist the civilian evacuation which had suddenly become a frenzy after the first of Thanos’s forces arrived in the middle of the coliseum itself during the exodus of ponies, Jotuns, and Asgardians. Many of the Jotuns and Asgardians were resisting the urge to retreat from this battle, and instead they joined in arms against their foes. Under normal circumstances these two races would have an advantage over the metallic, skeletal beings Thanos had brought with him, but after the Sirens and Tirek drained these two empowered races they were left far weaker than they otherwise would be.
Rogers and some of the civilians fleeing into the grassy land outside of the coliseum were mowed down by the projectile that Stark had become, and the sight of this made Thanos regrow his previous look of contentment. These fools were throwing their lives away in an inevitable affair. The only one with the power to confront him was the animal Loki had so brazenly taken as a daughter when he married the brash horse princess.
The normally intelligent man had taken a family onto himself and even expanded it, all the while knowing of his impending execution at the hands of his former master. It made Thanos almost pity all of those he was about to kill because of Loki’s selfish desire, not that it would stay his hand at all.
Thanos had wiped out his own species after all, and sparing another from Lady Death’s embrace would feel wrong. He only kept those he needed to serve his goals and to do tasks too beneath him, and he had no use for a race of backwards warriors, their rival race of savages, or four legged animals so haughty as to think themselves worthy of being on par with truly sapient beings.
Once Thanos finally landed on the grassy field, Thor wildly charged him again in blind fury wishing to avenge his fallen comrade he had fought many battles alongside on Earth and elsewhere. This second attempt at combat was met with just as much failure as the first as the warrior found himself pummeled into the ground with a swift punch to the back of the head by the purple behemoth.
Loki paused as he watched as his powerful brother was defeated in a single strike, with Thor not even twitching after the hit and there being no signs that he was even alive. Loki refused to believe that the blonde haired idiot he had spent centuries with as a brother was dead in such an undignified manner, and it is with this thought pushed out of his mind that he prepared to fight again.
Loki had one condition in which he could actually win and kill Thanos, and it was after that was accomplished that he would allow himself to check on Thor.
Thanos turned to face Loki with a wicked smile, his words offering some insight on his inner thoughts, “When I have the power to impress Lady Death I will no longer be able to savor times such as our little fight. It is all I can do now to restrict my power to destroy this entire planet, a restraint I would hate to have slip should others continue to interrupt.”
The tragedy would truly be in that he would not get this last chance at a fair encounter, as well as have a harder time retrieving the energy of the Aether if it was scattered across what once was a planet. The actual death and destruction was nothing to Thanos, who had learned early in life that death was something everyone faced. Born with an appearance similar to a rival race, he had nearly been killed by his own mother and grown up a pacifist.
That was until he discovered the personification of death itself, with whom he fell in love with as the representation of death and nihilism. For whom he murdered his family, for whom he gathered forces to bring about genocide against his own people in an attempt to impress her and gain her favor.
Decades spent in this pursuit seemed fruitless, that Thanos could not deny, and so for Lady Death to seem so intrigued by Loki this whole time made the man jealous in a manner much like the emotions of neglect Loki himself felt once upon a time and shared with Luna, who in turn shared them with the far younger Trixie. It was a universal feeling that brought pain to all who struggled with it, and it was one Thanos was unused to. He had once respected Loki as a capable agent of chaos and manipulation, but the man had betrayed and failed him. That was enough to deserve death, but to have captured the interest of Lady Death, as much as Thanos hated to admit it, made him furious.
Loki, for his own part, was content in allowing Thanos his brief moment of monologue. The villain may not have meant to allow himself to lapse into it, but the strong man couldn’t bear the heavy feeling in his heart. He loved this woman, and yet she seemed so interested with Loki in ways unfathomable to Thanos given her usual silence. She had ways of communicating, she merely chose not to the majority of the time. While this was of no issue normally to him, it did nothing to help his fears when he came to her and asked her what her intentions concerning Loki were.
The Asgardian prince had a family though, and while that made Thanos less worried, he still was not comfortable with it all.
“After our numerous encounters I have noticed that you have a bond to her, and whatever it is I cannot allow it.”
Loki knew of Thanos’s obsession with death, but he did not have the required information to manipulate the man further. Perhaps the rage Thanos felt could be exploited to drag out this fight long enough for an opening, for Trixie to finish her other encounters, but Loki’s own fatherly attachment to Hela prevented him from seeing things from his opponent’s mindset: that he was a romantic rival. The thought did not occur to Loki, who was more focused on ignoring the limp body of Thor at Thanos’s feet.
Loki tried to enrage Thanos in another manner, one which would backfire on the man so skilled at provoking opponents into fits of rage to rob them of finesse, “Good luck wooing my daughter after killing me. She is insane as it is, so you won’t be doing yourself any favors.”
This changed everything to Thanos. Loki went from someone he wanted to inflict unending pain and torture on as a final battle before ascension to simply a half-dead traitor who was of no further use to him.
Lady Death, or Hela as Loki called her, could likely forgive Thanos for slaying her father, or at least he believed as much.
“So that infant daughter of yours is…”
This would explain everything to Thanos. Hela sought out Loki due to having a disturbed version of “daddy issues”. The reason she tormented Loki and asked for Thanos to deliver him was to spend time with him, and due to her warped mind it was preferable to her just visiting him.
Thanos was grinning fully now, his teeth showing as he found a weight lifted from his chest, “No wonder she has such an interest in you. But she is the goddess of death, and killing you will give your soul to her for eternity. What better gift can I possibly give her?”
Loki realized the shift in his foe, and realized that perhaps he had chosen the wrong words. Still, he was not going to gain anything now that Thanos’s mind had changed, so he might as well continue down this path, “Your own head, preferably on a platter.”
“Very amusing,” Thanos kicked his leg out to slam into Thor’s body and send his armored body sprawling away, removing it from the battlefield so he could have things just be between him and Loki for what he presumed would be a short fight, “But after I ascend to a power far beyond her own, she will realize that I am the most worthy for her. I will have no need of gifting her at that point, so you may as well serve as one final present.”
However, while he now wanted to just end Loki’s existence without reservation, he did want to send him to Hela’s world with one last thought.
Thanos began to laugh madly as he brought his hands out and gestured in the direction of Canterlot, “However, I wonder what will happen with my agent who is currently in the castle you use on this planet. I told him to kill your family their while I handled things here, but will that disrupt Hela’s path in life or cause her to go on to rule the underworld just as the future and possibly alternate version of her does?”
Loki would have been more shocked if he had not already imagined the possibility someone would take advantage of this situation and invade Canterlot in some fashion. He only hoped that Luna would be okay and be able to deal with whoever was to assassinate their family.
Thanos cast aside his doubt about changing reality and time, assuming that it all would not matter soon enough when he was the one who would control the fabric of reality as well as time itself, “No, that is irrelevant. I will remake the world as I see fit, my wish and desire shall become reality.”
“You’re insane. I hope you realize that,” Loki taunted as he bared what little magic he had for what might be his last strike. When Thanos decided to suddenly attack, he would have to retaliate with all of his might and ability.
Even if he fell, he could perhaps leave things better off for Trixie. Luna could lead Asgard, and while Loki knew not how Hela would grow up he had faith that Sleep Near would at least be able to one day replace him.
Thanos seemed nonplussed by the insult, as if he had already weighed the possibility of his own insanity and cast aside any doubt before, “I believe myself to be handling my power quite well.”
With that the giant leapt forward and closed the distance between them in a flash.
“I doubt that animal who is holding the Aether is as lucky though!” Thanos pulled his golden fist back in a blur, “Say hello to Lady Death when you reach the underworld!"
It took some time for the stumbling Trixie to catch up to her fleeing foes, having been slowed down by the mind controlled Celestia and then plagued by problems she refused to relay to Twilight when the latter asked if she needed any help. Kael trailed behind Trixie in silence, seemingly having lost any charm or wit demonstrated prior to the plan he had been privy to finally came together. Trixie had taken to using her Elven form, which allowed Kael to help her along from time to time when she would momentarily stumble.
When Trixie finally caught sight of Adagio, it was in a part of the stadium that had collapsed partially recently and was still in the process of collapsing. Soft purple energy was flowing forth from Adagio as her eyes glowed even brighter than when she was outside sapping the strength from the thousands upon thousands gathered at the event.
It didn’t take Trixie very long to realize that she had only found one, and the fact that so much power was flowing forth from Adagio that it was almost repelling any approach made Trixie partially concerned about why that might be, “Where is the other?”
Adagio turned to face Trixie and revealed a wicked, toothy grin far worse than her previous ones that Trixie had bore witness to. Adagio had sprouted the ethereal wings she had grown outside once again, though this time they seemed less corporeal and more like they were an actual physical transformation born of her increase in power.
Being both parts insane and entertained, Adagio responded to Trixie’s question with a mad cackle, “Oh, don’t worry. Aria’s here too.”
Trixie snarled as she began to realize what she had caused, “What did you do?”
Adagio lowered her hands to her abdomen and let out a pleased breath, “I devoured the entirety of her magic and life force. I’ve never felt so…”
Adagio tilted her head back as a hand moved to her extremely bloated stomach as it rapidly began to return to its usual size. The more magic consumed, the more filling, and Adagio had never had such a large meal before.
The Sirens could feed off of energy, which was half the reason Trixie had invested so much effort in cultivating them for her own needs. She had intended to divide and conquer, but the small pause in her confrontation with them caused by Celestia’s controlled interference gave them the time to consolidate their magic albeit in a manner Trixie had not expected fully. The possibility of them preying on one another had crossed her mind, but she had sensed that the reason they had not done so after so long was that there was a bond between them all. While love may be overselling it, there was certainly some string between them that kept the three monsters from turning on one another despite their seemingly unending hatred for one another.
But Adagio had drained her partner despite that. Had being defeated for the first time in a thousand years sent her off the deep end and brought her to act in such a despicable and unforgivable manner?
Kael attempted to approach Adagio only to be pushed back by the energy forcefully, during which time Adagio finished compressing her “meal” and her body began to spark as it radiated power unlike it had ever possessed before.
Adagio looked down as she removed her hand from her stomach and let out a small chuckle, as if she had no regrets at all about it, “Sadly a non-renewable source of power, or else I would resort to it more often. It has been quite some time since I last tried this…”
Trixie crossed her arms as she coldly looked over the woman with complete contempt. The sacrifice of an ally in such a manner was clearly a sign of madness, of abandoning common standards of right and wrong.
“So nothing’s changed: she’s still going to be inside you tonight,” Trixie commented without any trace of amusement, her sole goal being to emulate Loki’s taunting tactics to infuriate Adagio into making a mistake.
Adagio fell for the bait, no longer caring about tactics of any kind or anything but her trampled pride, “Oh how funny, let’s see you laughing when you’re begging for mercy!”
The increase in power allowed Adagio to literally just throw a wave of pure energy at her two opponents, her anger spilling forth into the red-orange-purple strike.
Trixie threw up her own wave of energy to cancel it out, the result of which was a clash of varying colors which made the entire hallway distorted up until the point where sunshine broke through and illuminated Adagio, “You are welcome to try, you sick monster.”
Previously neither Adagio nor Aria had the power to confront Trixie in any true fashion given how they each were around half as powerful as her, but with their power combined the situation was shifted. While Trixie had no fear previously of actually losing to them, she actually was worried about the possibility of being defeated by this foe. There was a chance, and that was not something Trixie was at all pleased about after all the planning and preparation she put in.
Adagio brought her hands over her head and began to form a ball of energy there, one which grew in size turbulently as she cackled again.
“I am sorry Aria, you were fun while you lasted, but you’re far more useful to me this way!”
Once finished charging her attack sailed straight at Trixie and Kael, though it only hit the former as Trixie failed to teleport in time to avoid it. The immense power behind the hit knocked her off her feet and onto her back, which only served to feed Adagio’s ego even further.
“With this amount of power I don’t even need all of your fancy spells. I can just defeat you through brute strength,” Adagio claimed as she turned to be facing neither Kael, who had previously moved to be behind her, or Trixie. With a shoulder pointing at each of them she lifted a hand up to point at them both.
Trixie started to rise to her feet as Kael jumped into motion and leapt at Adagio, growing far more active and energetic as he attempted to close the distance between them.
Adagio gasped as her energy being shot at the Elf instead disappeared as he began to absorb it with an extended palm, while Trixie teleported to instead be behind Adagio’s new positioning, “Oh, I understand that now we’re on a level playing field in some ways, but you still can’t hope to defeat me. Especially not when that monster Thanos is outside and able to kill us both.”
With the revelation that Kael could just steal her power with enough effort, Adagio stopped feeding him it and instead spin to face him and emit a sonic attack that held the same strength in a different form. The waves of sound disorientated both Kael and Trixie long enough for Adagio to blast Trixie back a few feet and to knock Kael into the nearby wall. For some reason neither appeared as powerful as she expected them to be, though perhaps she was just perceiving things differently because of the spike in her power.
Adagio began to try and siphon the energy hanging around her in the air that she had just expended, not wanting anything lingering to be used by her foes with the revelation that they too could absorb magic with ease, “Let me guess, you want us to team up and fight him? Settle our business later.”
Trixie finished bracing herself as Adagio went from attacking them to fulfilling a different objective. No longer forced to cover her ears and defend herself from a sonic onslaught, Trixie was free to press onto offense. She needed to end this quickly and steal Adagio’s power if she was to continue on with her plan as scheduled.
An eruption of ice beneath Adagio’s feet was just too slow to actually strike her, a wide stalagmite that otherwise may have impaled her instead just continued up to strike the broken ceiling.
Trixie scoffed at how she missed, having underestimated how Adagio’s physical attributes may have increased as her body continued to process her new power more and more, “That would be preferable, but since you are high on magic right now I do not think you will be amenable to this idea, and will instead fight me and try to take mine as well to then confront him on your own.”
“How perceptive of you. You should have been a head doctor instead of a magician,” Adagio dryly stated as she took a glance outside, where the large figure of Tirek could be seen fighting off hordes of skeletal beings who looked to be made of metal. The Siren was pleased that something else had captured his attention, but at the same time she was worried about how completely in the dark she was about these beings Tirek was combatting.
Trixie made another pillar of ice erupt from the ground as Kael made a wall of fire come from the opposite direction to sandwich Adagio. The last Siren alive used her aura of power to try and repel the two powerful attacks, with the ice beginning to pierce the aura directly while the fire began eating away at it all as it moved to encompass all of her.
Trixie took the time Adagio was fighting off the attacks to let loose a barrage of ice shards while also taking a lesson from Loki’s book of combat, “If you are wondering how I knew that you would be so simple minded as to not choose a mutually beneficial truce, it is because I am entirely of the same mind. Amassing our power in one body will do more than splitting it and letting ourselves be defeated one by one. That is the reason for all of this. That is why you and Tirek are here.”
Adagio eventually overpowered the first fire blast and wave of ice, only to then have her body cut into by razor sharp blades of ice. She might be at the same level as Trixie, but their skill level was on wholly different levels in terms of sheer abilities to use. While their attacks might clash, Trixie had a far greater arsenal with which she could defeat the Siren.
As the Siren gasped in pain as one shard pierced a lung, Trixie began to prepare another spell while continuing her verbal plan, “Do you know why I have been using the Elven form so often?”
Adagio ripped the ice shard out of herself while withholding a laugh. The touch of the ice made her shudder as thoughts of Aria came back to her. When she had subsumed the purple Siren’s power, the latter still had some icicles piercing her body which were refusing to melt. She had felt them as she brought Aria into her own being, and the reminder of her action made her hesitate and actually not enjoy her own taunt she threw out at Trixie.
“We all know what you would like to be doing with it, what with your little toy over there,” Adagio growled as she threw a hand towards Kael, who had finished channeling fire magic at her and once again was rushing forward to forcefully take her power.
Trixie did not even care about the implications of the statement, instead wanting to verbally break this monster, and so she took no action as Kael began to reach through Adagio’s aura and towards the woman herself, “Incorrect. Blood Elves have an addiction to magic, and their bodies burn through it at a sickening pace. It keeps my power from overflowing and turning me into a ticking time bomb since I lose my magic about as fast as the Aether tries to expand it.”
Trixie was at her limit for power. The reason she could not just blow Adagio away with the power of the Aether was that she could not actually handle having all of its power inside of her, so she instead shared it with the magic consuming man who she had taken as a companion.
It took all of Adagio’s efforts to repel Kael and keep him from drawing closer to her, the Elf suddenly becoming far more powerful than he had been a moment prior. She grit her teeth as she threw as much energy as she could his way only for him to continually cut through it, it leaving her being and becoming a part of his own as Trixie continued to speak from the sidelines.
“Everyone has their limit, and I am about at mine. If Twilight could be trusted to defeat Thanos I would gladly hand it over to her as I believe her limit to greatly surpass my own, but I am the one who is better in the art of combat. She might throw it all away wastefully, while I can strategically use what I have at my specific level.”
“Is that to say you can grow no stronger?” Adagio said through her teeth as she began to move back one step at a time, since Kael was pushing through the defensive barrier bit by bit. If Adagio had the extra strength to she could have easily turned and killed Trixie right then and there, for the apprentice and daughter of Luna had given Kael her strength. His limit was larger than her own by a huge margin owing to his race’s natural affinity for magic as well as the rate it was expended due to their longstanding addiction to it.
Trixie shook her head as she denied Adagio;’s statement, “Oh no, I can still take in more magic, it simply would not be good for my well being either physically or mentally. A good deal of people are driven insane by excess magic I have read. After all, some poor individuals go insane from just their normal levels so overwhelming amounts can bring quite the toll on someone.”
“Speaking from experience, I presume? Because I feel just fine!” Adagio yelled as she dropped her defenses to instead let out the very same energy as an attack. The multi-colored energy swirling and surrounding her all moved to rush into Kael, who was pushed back by the sudden change but otherwise not seemingly any worse for wear.
Adagio had no way of knowing it, but the Elven race had a resistance to raw magic and as such her attacks were nowhere near as strong against him as physical ones might be. But since Adagio was not physically focused or capable, the magic sponge that was the Elf was an ideal counter to her.
In the split second Adagio lowered her defenses Trixie had taken back some of her power from Kael through their common pool of energy created first when they had left Niflheim while he was absorbing hers. While small at first, the link between their respective energy pools had grown to the point where it was something to be taken and given with ease in marked contrast to the forceful absorption of power between Adagio and Aria.
Adagio gasped and coughed out blood as a blade of ice pierced through her lower abdomen. Behind her Trixie stood with her arm thrust forward, the blade having formed directly around her arm as a natural expansion as she threw it forward for this finishing blow.
Trixie grabbed Adagio by the shoulder and raised a foot onto the woman’s body to kick her forward and off of the blade, “You killed someone and took their magic and life force. Your own limit increased by what she could hold I would imagine. You Sirens are quite the interesting beings, and I have learned a great deal from studying you.”
Adagio fell onto her knees first as the bloodied blade of ice exited her body, at which point raw energy burst from her and propelled her onto the ground. The energies in her body went about healing the wound at a rapid pace, but at this point it did not matter.
Trixie knelt down next to the woman and moved the blade of ice to press up against her neck threateningly, “It’s a shame that there won’t be any more of you. I had always planned to dispose of you three in Tirek’s former prison when you were done with your little plan, but you have already taken care of the other two.”
“You…”
No different from Tirek, Trixie could not help herself but monologue as she let out the emotions and thoughts she had been hiding for so long out, “While I was studying magic in Asgard after obtaining the Aether I came across some references to beings who can enthrall others to do their bidding. I had fought someone of the like in the weeks prior and was curious about the subject. Beings who can enslave others and steal their magic are quite the danger after all, as well as a useful tool.”
Trixie paused to slam Adagio’s face into the cold floor, “The more I looked, the more I realized that the beings were unaccounted for but last seen on Earth. So I spoke to the drunkard Stark and revealed that a portal exists between our worlds, and that perhaps some of the citizens from it crossed over. Reports of you Sirens gave me the impression of Sirens of our own world, so I took a risk and let Stark find a way to draw you here.”
Adagio gasped as she realized how badly she had allowed this seemingly helpful individual to manipulate her. Since even before they met, she had been playing to Trixie’s fiddle, and that idea infuriated the prideful Siren.
Due to the summoned blade fading away Trixie was free to gesture outside with some glee, so pleased to be done with one part of her plan now, “Once here, I allowed you to do your plan. So long as it did not interfere with the defeat of Tirek and Thanos, why not let you siphon the power to yourselves? You would become targets alongside myself, and you would also foil some of what Tirek was planning to do while also providing me possible insulation against Thanos.”
If she had been in the right state of mind at the time, Trixie would have had Kael absorb Adagio’s powers in this time period, but instead he had been left standing as Trixie rubbed defeat in the Siren’s face. The success of a year long plan was too intoxicating for Trixie, who had long waited to defeat this smug enemy of Equestria and all sentient species.
“This whole time you have been…” Adagio growled as she slammed a fist down on the ground, only to then open her palm across it, “You…you bitch!”
The woman let out a shockwave of power which managed to knock Trixie off of her as well as to take Kael’s legs from out under him. She used this time to spring to her feet as fast as possible since her grievous wound had since healed, and with another quick blast she pushed Trixie a good two dozen feet away further down the hallway in the direction she came from.
Trixie was quick to recover as well, and unlike Adagio she was far less flustered. That moment of weakness may have been the end to some others, but for Trixie she was able to rebound and prepare herself for another strike. The attack hit much less strongly than before, like Adagio had not been able to fully put her power into it, and so Trixie laughed as she continued talking.
“I am sorry, but I intend to save Equestria from the likes of you and all others who would lead it to ruin. Your downfall was a necessary piece of that, and it crosses off the list of ancient threats Celestia did not properly handle.”
“No! I have worked too hard for this to just have some young harlot get in my way!” Adagio shouted, preparing to let loose a torrent of energy from her right hand as she pointed it at Trixie. She wanted to focus it all at the woman who had single handedly ruined everything Adagio had planned by engineering these events.
Trixie smiled smugly as no attack came forward from the hand. Adagio realized a moment after it was supposed to surge forward and kill Trixie that no such attack even materialized. In fact, her right hand was numb.
Adagio moved her other hand to grab her right arm as it fell limply to her side, “What the—”
Trixie wagged her finger at Adagio, still amused greatly by the situation, “Having trouble controlling yourself, Adagio?”
Fear gripped Adagio as she realized that she couldn’t use an arm, which would greatly limit her. It also meant that she lost the swing in momentum she had gained, instead now being left at the mercy of her foe, “W-why is this happening? I’ve never…”
The Siren fell to her knees as she continued to try and raise her right arm to no avail. She could try and fight back, but after everything that had happened Adagio was just breaking down. Tears were falling down her face as she realized with each passing moment just how much trouble she was in.
Trixie smiled as Kael crawled to his feet and moved to grab ahold of Adagio, his partner smiling patronizingly at the Siren as she continued to freeze up in abject fear, “Now, from you I can take the stored magic of countless Equestrians and other beings you have stolen from in the past. I have my own thirst and hunger for magic, you see, and I rather take it from a villain than have to steal it from innocents like you so enjoy.”
Trixie approached Adagio and lifted a hand up to enact the same power of magic absorption Kael had. As a Blood Elf she had learned to naturally do it, and with Kael’s knowledge she expanded it to a mastery of sorts. It required some concentration to take in large amounts of it though, so it was difficult to channel in the heat of combat except for the occasional sponging of excess energy here or there.
“I had intended to strip you of your powers, and then imprison you all. Seems only one of you will be receiving that punishment sadly.”
Adagio couldn’t even focus on her swiftly withering powers as tears rolled down her face as she began to undergo a complete breakdown, “Why can’t I…I was…”
Trixie shook her head in an amused fashion, relief washing over her as she accomplished the first of three pieces in her master plan, “It takes a lot of power and will to forcefully overtake someone’s body and mind. Even minor suggestions and altering of thoughts can be difficult I’ve learned, at least it is until you have your proverbial foot in the door. It gets much easier once their will has broken and their mind is left for you to reign free in.”
Adagio finally looked up to Trixie with the same tearful eyes, now no-longer caught up in her own world. She looked behind her quickly before turning back to Trixie, who had taken a hand to cup Adagio’s chin and make their eyes meet.
“I doubt Aria appreciates you killing her to empower yourself. To subsume her power and life for your own gain, even after all you’ve been through together…” Trixie looked down to the obstinate right arm on her opponent, “No wonder she’s helping me instead of you.”
Adagio attempted to fight off Trixie’s grip with her one usable arm, only to then realize how weak she had become as Trixie’s arm did not budge at all, “How are you any better than me, huh?” she began to choke on her tears as she pathetically tried to get Trixie’s hand and arm off of her, “You caused all of this! It’s because of you that Sonata was killed by that monster, that in order to survive I needed to take Aria’s power—”
The shifting of blame made the previously relieved Trixie to grow furious, moving her hand from Adagio’s chin to her neck, “I only manipulate for the good of everyone. That’s why. And I would sacrifice a million villains if it meant saving one innocent soul.”
Trixie lifted the Siren up off the ground and into the air with cold fury, her eyes narrowed as she began to tighten her grip, “When all of you villains are powerless, defeated…” Trixie swung Adagio to slam into the wall, her self control finally slipping as she lost her temper fully, “That’s when this will be all over.”
Trixie drew back a fist and forcefully brought it forward into the now frail Adagio over and over as she began to pummel the murdering sociopath, all the while envisioning someone else, “Because people like you are the reason everything like this happens!”
The choking ended up give way to Trixie grabbing Adagio by the shoulders and toss her aside, making the woman weakly stumble away, “You lie!” in a follow up Trixie swung a haymaker at Adagio’s face, knocking her onto the ground with force, “You manipulate everyone around you, even your loved ones!”
Now on the floor, Adagio could do nothing but cough and cry out in pain as Trixie moved to start kicking her in only partially misdirected fury, “Everything is only for your own personal gratification, your own sense of pride and ego!”
The beating stopped soon after Adagio stopped struggling, the strikes having rendered her unconscious from their sheer brutality. Adagio couldn’t feel it, but tears were falling onto her from above as Trixie’s shoulders began to hang forward along with her head, her face having grown an expression of pain with tears freely running down it.
“You don’t care who gets hurt, you don’t care what damage you do, so long as you are the ones who are on top in the end…” she paused as she fell to her hands and knees, I’ve seen that all too clearly…”
Looking down at the now bleeding and wounded Siren, Trixie looked down at one of her hands to find that it had blood smeared across it from the savage beating. While staring at it she became the one choking on tears, the voice inside her head serving as the ultimate self-consciousness.
“I…I…”
It took her some time to realize it, but Kael had begun to leave the area without a word. Trixie turned to face him as he walked out of the broken section of the structure, her mind racing as she thought about how she hadn’t told him to go anywhere yet.
“Kael?” she called worriedly, her voice weak as she brought a hand out towards him, “Please…come back…”
He continued to leave, either not hearing her or not listening, and instead left Trixie behind to gather herself as he continued on.
The way she was, everything would fall apart, and so she needed time to recover. She had the power to defeat Tirek at this point, but Thanos was still a pressing issue.
Behind him, Trixie brought an arm over her eyes to wipe her tears away, her mind pulling in a million different ways as she began to feel sickened by herself. Even the feeling of the red cloak Kael had left on her did little to help her, though the warmth from it helped to some degree.
“Mother…please…forgive me.”
Loki had managed to defend against Thanos’s first strike by utilizing the same trick he used against Thor in both his fights against him. He had just enough energy to use the simple illusion trick to make Thanos think he was attacking him, only to then realize he was hitting nothing. This was by no means a sustainable solution to the battle, for Thanos would not grow tired while Loki could feel each of the series of illusions becoming weaker and less believable than the last.
It was with the fourth that Thanos instead purposefully attacked directly to the side of where Loki formed the illusion, and the empowered punch collided directly with Loki’s head. It disconnected from the rest of his body much like the time Algrim struck him, and once again it did not end Loki’s life. It made him regret he could not follow up his illusion with teleportation, but he was thankful for the gift Hela had given him. Had she not altered him with her dark magic, he would be joining her once again.
Thanos watched with interest as Loki’s body got back up after being knocked down, only to then go and grab the missing head. The King of Asgard reattached his head with some discomfort, some curses about having to do this again escaping his lips, all to the amusement of Thanos who had not seen something quite like this before.
“Impressive. It will not save you, much like your cowardly running will not, but an impressive feat nonetheless.”
During this time, the motionless body of Thor had begun to get up weakly. The God of Thunder was barely able to stand, but he was not going to stop fighting so long as he could muster the strength to fight.
Thanos noticed this movement just like Loki did, and before Loki could yell out for Thor to stay down Thanos had already moved to finish off the Asgardian. Thor caught a large, booted foot to the gut and his body grew slack as he fell to his knees and once again became limp on the floor.
Loki realized with seizing fear that Thor’s eyes were still open, though they were as lifeless as often witnessed on the battlefield, “Brother!”
He tried to move forward, anger gripping him as he watched Thanos let out a small laugh of sheer sadism, only to find that someone was gripping his shoulder all of a sudden. Loki looked beside him to find that Kael was there, face pensive as he observed the scene before him.
“Will me lending you magic assist you?”
Loki was glad to finally have someone to borrow from, having wanted to take some of Trixie’s rather than Luna’s since the latter might need every ounce to fight back at Canterlot while the former had an abundance, “Yes, it will. How is Trixie doing? Where is she?”
Kael frowned as he began to charge his magic, all the while feeding some of his power to Loki, “She needs…time.”
“I see,” Loki nodded, his voice hollow because of Thanos’s most recent kill although Loki still tried to not let it show in his face. He couldn’t afford to break down in the middle of a climactic battle, not now at least, “I have a way of killing him, but I have no guarantee that I can land the final strike. It can backfire horribly.”
Kael finished his spell he had been working on, light appearing above certain bodies in the nearby area, “I can see about distracting him, but first…”
In a flash of white light, Thor came to life as if he had never been harmed at all. By this time Thanos had begun to approach Kael, not attacking him outright because of an odd feeling in the pit of his stomach and having learned long ago that caution can serve one best when you knew little about your foe.
Elsewhere Stark also managed to get up to his feet, his armor reshaped to no longer be impaling him, while the defeated form of Banner also got up with seething rage.
The fact that these defeated foes rose to life made Thanos begin to realize why he was feeling so off about this particular foe, “How did you do that?”
As an infuriated and newly empowered Hulk and Thor assaulted Thanos, Kael brought his hands onto his hips, his red, masterfully crafted armor from Asgard shining as he stood without his cloak to veil it, “Thanos, have you by chance found the Life Gem yet?”
Thanos narrowed his eyes at Kael briefly before realizing a floating green orb above Kael’s head, which he realized instantly was the mentioned object. He had little more time to pay attention as the suddenly faster and stronger Hulk and Thor began their new assault, each of them not caring about the circumstances of this second chance at battle and instead focused on slaying the fiend before them.
The lack of response made Kael smirk, “No, of course not. It would be difficult for you to when I have it right here. I haven’t been using it yet to keep its power hidden, but I see no reason to restrain myself now.”
Kael looked to the shocked Loki beside him, who remembered when Kael received this particular green orb from Hela months prior, “I lied before. Hela did not grant me my Verdant Sphere, she granted me one of the gems needed to defeat a certain foe. From my private studies on the matter the Life Gem is quite similar to a Verdant Sphere in many ways, so I suppose she thought me a fitting recipient.”
That made two Infinity Gems versus two Infinity Gems and the Infinity Gauntlet…this losing battle just morphed into a contestable one, and Loki found himself grinning at the opportunity of using his finishing weapon on Thanos. All it would take was a moment where the large man’s attention was diverted completely, where he wouldn’t be able to dodge for just a second despite possessing great speed and reflexes.
Kael looked over Loki with some concern, noticing that the King’s neck was only barely connected to the head, “I can combat him on some level, but not forever or for long. I hope you have a plan of your own?”
Loki nodded, glad to have the help now, “I can finish him if given the opportunity. The problem is that he is too fast for me to be sure it will work. I can only try once though.”
“Make your shot count then. I will see about buying you and Trixie the opportunities you need.”
Kael, unlike Trixie, could not finish Thanos with powerful spells. His specialty lay not in directly damaging things, and while he could summon a powerful inferno an enemy who was on the way to becoming a god could survive the flames. The raw, unadulterated power Trixie could release could actually be lethal to Thanos, but she was not in any condition to battle him yet.
Even if he fell, Kael could simply pass his power along to Trixie, so he would stay and fight with it until he no longer could. By then, she would hopefully have recovered and have defeated Tirek.
And if not…
Well, he had died before. If it meant saving lives, he would do it again.
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I bet Thanos wasn't expecting that little surprise. Now if only Super Trixie can get into the fight
Kael rezzing champions...I feel I've been on the other side of this fight before.
And we approach the climax at last...
Im really glad you went with having Trixie get remorseful at the end there; I was worried you'd have her be unconflicted about it.
Strangely, I feel like it really wasn't as satisfying to have Adagio defeated by being to dumb to realize the implications of having difficulty using her power. I understand why you wrote it like that, but it still feels like a hollow victory for Trixie. Because the simple fact of the matter is that she became a cannibal to simply be on par with Trixie is very... How to describe it... Disappointing of the abilities of the sirens. After all, they were manipulative and creative survivors at one point in time. Granted, they aren't as efficient magic sponges as Tirek, but they did survive the magic low Earth for a thousand years. Any way, now there is just Tirek, Thanos, the idiots in Canterlot, and Thanos' army left to deal with.
Thanos obsession with Death is ever more evident, although him thinking that killing her father would be a good idea is clear sign of his ever present insanity. It is quite creepy when he considers the idea that the newborn infant child of Loki is his beloved. And so the sirens fall. A rather nice end to one enemy with two remaining, although Tyrek seems less of a problem compared to everything else. In a way Trixie got to see herself become the vary bad guy that she had sworn to eliminate, a tragic revelation as any person could come across. However there is no time for her to be concerned about such things as her world is literally being on the brink of distraction, that and the whole reality too. Loki being a badass as ever, fairing rather well against the big bad guy on the playground. Far better than the Avengers when considering the Hulk go flung like a rag doll.
And speaking of the avengers, nice revive on Kael's part, life gem and sorcery supreme. Who needs Doctor Strange when the elf is right there?
Final battle then, this should be accompanies by awesome music in the background.
Amazing chapter, really good work.
5716713 No he probably was not, Thanos is probably a little mad right now
Particularly because Hela went out of her way to tip the scales in the favor of Team Royalty instead of Team Conquerer. And Trixie’s having a bit of a breakdown, so she needs a bit of time to cool down. 
5716764 Thank you for reading my author’s note and demonstrating that you actually read this chapter unlike nearly all the comments last chapter
5716993 Kael rezzing champions in addition to his use of a soul absorbing verdant sphere was what made me want to give him this particular gem
Thanos has got to fight a raid boss now 
5717045 The climax is definitely on its way. It’s hard to think that there are only eight chapters left! Funnily enough, it’s still a tenth of the story, but it still feels like so little.
Trixie is having a breakdown, so part of that is lashing out and part of that is feeling wholly self-conscious. She feels terrible, so I’m glad you agree with how she reacted to it all!
5717257 Adagio didn’t lose because she was too stupid to control her power, she lost because she fully absorbed Aria into herself and Aria stopped her internally from doing anything first manifesting as a weak attack and then quickly becoming complete control of a limb. Adagio is breaking down at the end because she can’t even control herself since there is someone inside fighting her. Trixie even guessed this to be the case and stated it.
Two souls, one body. Somebody has got to win, and while Adagio’s tougher it’s not that she’s got a wholly more powerful will.
5718939 Thanos is the kind of insane you don't want to deal with: cold and calculating, with a large dose of genocidal. He's a terrible guy.
The Sirens are finished, leaving Tirek, Thanos, the Canterlot people, and Thanos's forces. I'm sure I'm forgetting someone, but we still got a few people to finish before we can have our bittersweet ending!
Trixie certainly has a lot on her mind, so we'll have to see how that all goes.
When one fights Kael in World of Warcraft for the first time he revives some people to fight you, so him being able to naturally do that inspired me to have him receive the Infinity Gem he did.
Final battle? That would be nice. There's plenty of music to listen to though, since I list a song with every chapter.
5721013 Okay, but it's not like she hasn't done that before. She even says as much.
5721260 It's honestly not an issue like you're making it out to be, especially since Adagio was too stricken to explain what was happening to her. I was going to point this out in a later chapter, but since you think it's a big fuss, Aria is fighting her for control of the body and is only successful with minor control of a single part (Adagio's right hand). Trixie said in this chapter it takes power and will to suppress someone's mind, and Adagio's power was not greater than Aria's in the same substantial fashion as she is used to. As such, normally she could just overpower someone and it would be no issue, but this one time she took the energy from someone who had the willpower to fight back and the strength to not fully be "deleted" like Adagio's other victims.
Adagio was defeated by her own backstabbing attempt born from never having tried to absorb someone more powerful than an Alicorn before and being unable to follow up on it as a result. One body, two people, one of whom is very angry at the other. Trixie even suggested as such in the chapter.
5723035 Still going to bug me. Not much that you can do about it.
5723201 Well that's your conscious choice, so whatever.
Agh so much drama. I expected that adagio would betray aria but that betrayal was a little excessive! Good thing you didn't show that or this story might have been a bit vore. Excellent work on another chapter and I can feel the climax speeding towards us. One last thing I wonder how scootallo is handling herself in the castle?
5728586 And it seems Aria didn't really appreciate the betrayal. Unlike Adagio, she actually demonstrated an inkling of affection despite being rebellious and overall a bitch.
And I didn't think about it being like vore, but now that I look into it I can see how one might think that. Only problem with that theory was that she didn't literally eat Aria, so we didn't really miss out on actual vore. Since the Sirens can live off energy though it was like the largest "meal" of Adagio's life though.
The climax is definitely coming, and I expect a lot of drama to happen when the climax does roll around
As for Scootaloo, she'll be back next chapter, so don't worry. Orange filly versus orange guard! To be honest, that fight has already happened, so we'll get to see the aftermath 
That doesn't account for the person Thanos sent to kill Loki's family though...
Thanks for reading, and I'm glad you're excited for the climax! I know I am, having had it planned for 48 chapters now roughly
Great chapter, once again.
The first half was a bit slow paced though. But towards the end you had a nice steady frequency in which everything happened.
I am really curious now as to how Trixie will handle things when everything is over. The aether sure seems to be a burden to her if she constantly has to check her mind and even has to assume another form and form a magical bond with Kael just to be able to handle wielding it.
Oh and you had some pretty surprising turn's of events. Kael having the Life Gem is pretty cool. Though I have to ask something.
I'm sure I already asked that before, but: Where exactly does Kael come from? I got the feeling he's not from the Marvel universe..
Another thing that surprises me and I think I can now officially call it a trend but I got the impression that you slowed down the pace considerably since entering the colosseum. Of course it may also be because you have more perspectives to write now and you have to do them in greater details due to the greater emotional weight of the scenes but it seems paced considerably slower than the rest of the story.
Is that intentional?
5737882 Thank you very much
During the normal story I am passing through events as they occur one after the other, whereas here we are focusing more on a climactic battle and the related pieces to it. Whereas in a single chapter I can cover weeks if not months if I want, here I'm spending 5+ on a single day. So if it feels slower it is very much intentional and reasonable to see it that way.
We'll have to see if/how Trixie will handle things afterwards. I make no promises on who is going to come out ahead, though I do like me an earned happy ending...with a tinge of bittersweet
And the bond with Kael was there in the same way Luna bonded with the Nightmare entity (which is now resting inside the Aether). Trixie expanded upon the bond to use the Crack Elf as a bank of sorts for magic 
The Aether certainly is a burden, despite the power it holds...Trixie can't handle it as well as one might hope. Her aptitude for power is not all that great, even if it's been increased since her very beginning. It's just not her thing. Control over magic is more her domain (skill versus raw strength).
Kael having the life gem is a twist I was looking forward to, so glad you like it too. It raises some questions, ones which will be answered in due time, and gives our heroes a better chance
And Kael is from Warcraft, and is now in a spin off to this story with Trixie called "Equestria Was Merely a Setback!", taking place in that world instead 
Same world as Illidan.
Equestria Was Merely a Setback
5740925 Glad you are enjoying
While I work on the next chapter, I hope you can enjoy the side story "Nothing Lasts Forever" so as to keep you occupied while I catch up on all the writing I need to!
Guess who's back.
Well, okay, a lot of people, thanks to the Life Gem but I was referring to outside the story.
It's taken me long enough but I've finally caught up and I must say, reading the last three chapters in succession was exhilarating. Reading them one by one would've been painful since there's a whole lot going on and cliffhangers of sorts that wouldn't have left me a happy camper
I particularly enjoyed the arrival of Stark, snarky and joking as ever, has to enter with a one liner. Sonata dying actually did nothing to me, she just felt like an eventual casualty, anyway. I know how I sound saying that but I really never did, nor do I have any love for the Sirens. Trixie seems to be in trouble, though, that's a given, she's been using more and more of her power and the Aether is going to seep into her being eventually. I actually came into this chapter and the previous one expecting the death of someone, and Loki's thoughts made me think it was gonna be him I was saying goodbye to, and I realize there's still the possibility that I may very well be, but compared to Trixie and Luna, he'll hurt my heart like .5% less. Not much, but with matters like this, it's more than you'd think. I'm so sorry Loki, I love you but Blue Horses take priority.
Tirek's a bore for me, I just want Trixie to be done with him. I really, really, really want to see Trixie and Thanos have a face-to-face. She's got a lot to take out on him and she's not about to hold back. Let's just hope her anger and reckless use of power doesn't turn her insane because it would be utterly horrible for, after all this struggle, that she goes insane or kills herself while finishing Thanos. That's just break everyone, I think. It's fully possible that she's the one dying after this. Since, I can't really tell. It keeps changing. It could be Luna, Loki, Trixie, Kael or any one of the other hundred people in this story.
I'm curious as to what's happened to Scooty and the foals. That sounds like a really weird band, actually. But nevertheless, I'm curious as to what's happened to them. Are they dead? Maimed? Did some heroic hero come to save them? Are my suspicions correct and was that that one pony that came out of nowhere that nobody likes? I'm pretty sure it is. In fact, I'm willing to bet money on it. Who else would be a perfect little pawn for a writer to take out some spite on?
5769511 I am afraid I have no idea what you just said. What?
I would leave a really inspiring comment that also included positive feedback and praise, but my brain went on power saving mode and refuse to work on said comment.
5769816 Well okay then
Try again tomorrow when I finish the next chapter? 
I really enjoyed the fight against Adagio, the reasoning behind Trixies breakdown was well done within that scene.
The life gem reveal kind of irked me but that is more a dislike of revivals in general, I see why you did it the way you did.
Looking forward to finishing the rest of the story . I am really drawn in with everything you've written this story, thank you for your creation.
she paused as she fell to her hands and knees, I’ve seen that all too clearly…”
1. Forgot your closing quotation mark.
I know it is very, very late but I feel sorry for you. I know that pain.
Life gem! Yay~
I was worried for those that would survive. Everyone else dying is no fun.