Chapter 4

            Jonathan stood upon a hilltop, overlooking a wide green valley.  Grim determination marked his face; his long brown hair blowing in the breeze.  His piercing green eyes surveyed the ground before him, taking in all the little hills and features of the land.  At the far end of the valley, the glow from several thousand campfires could be seen brightening the night.  Turning to his side, he looked at his companion, a diminutive figure with cropped black hair.  A long sword hung on her back, the hilt projecting over her right shoulder within easy reach.  As long as Jonathan had known her, he’d never seen her draw that weapon, but it was always near her.  He had never been able to get out of her why she never used it, only that she was waiting for something.  Jonathan let it slide, because it in no way hindered her as a warrior.  He’d never seen anyone move like her.  And her dark black armor didn’t do anything to hinder her movement.  He’d felt it once, and though it was hard as steel, it wasn’t nearly as heavy.  It was just one more mystery about her, but he had any number of his own secrets as well.  In all, they merely accepted each other for what they were, and left it at that.  All that aside, Jonathan had never seen anyone fight like she did, except for maybe himself.  It’s lucky she’s my friend, he mused, because I’m not sure which one of us would win if we chose to truly battle.

            “They are more than I thought they would be,” she said.

            “Indeed.  And this time they have magic with them.  I am unable to get a better view of what we will be facing.  That is somewhat troubling.”

            She glanced at him briefly, and then went back to looking at the distant army.  “I could get closer, if you wish.”

            Jonathan considered her request, but eventually shook his head.  Their chances tomorrow would be greatly diminished if they lost her to a scouting mission.  “No, but thank you.  I feel that the risk outweighs the potential gains.  We need you tomorrow.”

            She nodded once, but said nothing.  Eventually, they both turned and started back to their camp.  As they were walking back, Jonathan took stock of the army.  Over a dozen different races had come together to combat the menace now facing them.  Even the reclusive Forest Folk had come out of their forests, and the many different kinds of them could be seen lying around the camp in various forms.  Most of them, like the mighty centaurs, were merely lying on the ground sleeping.  Some were sharpening various weapons, or making arrows, or simply sitting around a fire talking with fellow warriors.  All of them, male and female, seemed to be in good spirits.  It was a good sign for the battle looming on the horizon.

            Suddenly, Jonathan heard footsteps behind him—footsteps that had a moment before been merely walking suddenly changed their cadence to that of running.  Without even blinking, Jonathan dove to the right, his companion diving to the left.  Rolling slightly and jumping to his feet, his hand went to the massive axe resting on his back.  He spared a glance at his weapon as he turned to face his aggressor, noting its double crescent blade glowing blue in the moonlight.  He finished his turn, and found that his companion had also turned and armed herself.  She was standing in her normal battle stance, her feet spread slightly apart and her hands in a guard defense.  She had chosen, oddly enough, to wield her fist spikes instead of her normal sword, which still hung at her waist.  She must be feeling frisky tonight, Jonathan noted wryly.

            Turning to the task at hand, Jonathan took stock of his opponent—or rather, opponents.  There were three beings facing them, each wielding a wicked looking serrated sword.  They had blue-black skin, and wore a dark green sleeveless doublet over a black shirt and black pants.  Assassins obviously, Jonathan thought, but of a species that I’ve never seen.  This should be fun.

            Jonathan raised his axe and started forward to beat down this newest batch of assassins…

            “Jonathan…Jonathan!”  Hope was kneeling beside Jonathan, shaking his shoulder vigorously.  “Jonathan, you must wake up!”

            “Wha…?  I’m awake…what happened?” Jonathan looked around, and realized that he was still in the glade they had stopped for the night.  He shook his head to clear the dream from his mind…it had seemed so real.  As he regained his bearings, he remembered where he was and how he got there.

            They had made two “jumps” that day, the first from Hope’s cabin to a place somewhere in the Badlands of South Dakota, and the second to their current locale, somewhere in the Boundary Waters of Northern Minnesota.  At this rate, Hope estimated, it would take them around 4 days to make the trip.

            Jonathan sat up, and held his head in his hands.  That was the most realistic dream he’d ever had, and it was still vividly imprinted in his mind.  He remembered the beings that had tried to attack him, and he remembered the beauty that was his companion.  But he didn’t know her name.  She was unlike anything he’d ever seen before.  She was breathtakingly beautiful, but also obviously very dangerous.  The way she moved screamed that she was a warrior without equal.  Her alabaster skin offset her dark armor and black hair, and there was a wildness in her eyes, almost as though she was looking forward to the battle that was to happen the next day.            And then there was his own reaction to the attack.  There had never been any amount of panic or surprise.  There had only been a calm realization that he was again forced to defend his life.  It seemed that, in the dream at least, he was used to fighting like that.

            “Jonathan, what happened?”

            “What do you mean?”  Jonathan looked up at Hope confused.  “I was just dreaming, wasn’t I?” he added somewhat fearfully after he saw the look in her eyes.

            “Jonathan, you were drawing so hard on the Heart that it woke me up.  I’ve never seen someone pull that much power out of the Heart.  I’m amazed that you even survived it.”  Hope looked a little fearful, then said, “Jonathan, where did you get that axe?”

            He looked down, and sure enough, there was an axe at his side.  It was a double-bladed battle axe, from the look of it, and Jonathan realized with some shock that it was the same axe that he’d just dreamed about.  He dropped it when he realized that it was the very same axe as in the dream, and jumped back away from it.

            “Jonathan, what happened?”

            “That axe was in my dream.”

            “Jonathan, you must tell me everything about your dream that you can remember.”

            Jonathan slowly told her the story that he’d witnessed.  He left nothing out, and even told her about his thoughts after she woke him.  Hope pondered that for a while, but said nothing.

            “I don’t know what it means, but I know that we will have more time to study this when we reach the Grove.  Come, let us go.”  With that, Hope put her fingers to her lips and whistled.  Jonathan was surprised; he’d never heard a whistle that loud before.  It was loud enough that it hurt his ears a little bit.  A minute or two later, Jagal came trotting into the clearing where they were waiting.

            “You called,” he said with a little chuckle.

            “Yes, I thought you might like to see this.”

            “See wha…” he started to ask, but then he noticed the large axe sitting on the ground.  His mouth worked for several seconds before he found his voice, and when he found his voice, it was filled with awe and not a little fear.  “Where did you get that?”

            “Jonathan…well, he dreamed it here.”

            Jagal spun around and looked at Jonathan.  Jonathan was, at the moment, trying to be as unobtrusive as possible, and he shrank back under Jagal’s gaze.  He didn’t know what he had done, but from the look in Jagal’s eyes, either he was in deep trouble, or he’d done something unbelievably good.

            “Jonathan, do you know what that is?”

            “It looks like a battle axe that I saw in a museum once.”

            “It is a battle axe, but a very special battle axe.  It is a magical weapon, one that has been only rumored to exist.  But it is an artifact, which gives it even more power,” Jagal said with a particular emphasis on the word.  “Do you know what that means?”

            “Uh…no.  Does that mean that it needs to go to a museum?”

            Jagal chuckled, and then he said, “No, it means that it was the personal weapon of a God or Goddess.  The Norse God Weiland, unless I’m mistaken, crafted this particular axe, for another God of the Norse Pantheon, Tyr.  But Tyr sacrificed his hand to bind the evil wolf Fenris, and so lost the ability to wield the weapon.  It was said that the axe was hidden somewhere in Asgard, the realm of their Gods, to be safe for all time.  Obviously, either that was wrong, or something happened that put it on Earth.

            “It is a special axe, since it was created by not one, but two Gods.  It has a name, but no mortal that I have met knew the name.  Some have even speculated that only the axe itself knows the name, and will only tell its secrets to someone it feels is worthy.”

            Jonathan looked with awe at the axe lying on the ground.  It didn’t look like it was all that special.  It was large, with a four-foot long handle made of some metal that had a dark gray luster.  The blades were carved by what appeared to be Nordic Runes.  Unlike in his dream, however, it wasn’t glowing.  There was nothing about the weapon to suggest that something was different about it.  Yet, as he looked at it, he could almost…feel something about it.  He concentrated, tuning out Hope and Jagal who were trying to get his attention, and tried to identify the feeling.  It was almost like it was tingling on the edge of his senses.  He concentrated on that feeling and it became more and more pronounced.

            Hope and Jagal watched in awe as they felt the power rise up in Jonathan.  It was something that neither of them had ever experienced, and it scared them to the bone.  It wasn’t the Heart, and it wasn’t a Divine power, but some sort of power erupted out of Jonathan, and started…singing to the axe.  The axe suddenly started glowing blue, and slowly lifted off the ground.  As it hung in midair, the axe started singing back toward Jonathan, and the two tunes slowly melded into a single cohesive entity—a kind of ethereal symphony.  They watched it float gently over to Jonathan, who grasped the handle as it hovered before him.  Before either of them could do anything, Jonathan reached up and cut his hand on the edge of one of the blades.  As the blood flowed from the open wound, Jonathan proceeded to smear his blood over the head of the axe, seeming to pay close attention to getting blood in all the engravings on the head.  Once all the runes had been highlighted in blood, Jonathan grabbed the haft in both hands and held it over his head.

            As his arms reached their maximum extension, the power coursing through Jonathan tripled, and the light and music—which had never stopped—became painful to behold.  But almost as quickly as it happened, it was over.  Jagal and Hope squinted through the afterimage of the light, and saw Jonathan lying on the ground with the axe in a holder strapped to his back.  They stood there in shock for a moment or two, and then ran to him to make sure he was ok.

            “Jonathan, can you hear me?”

            Jonathan slowly sat up slowly, his body strangely numb.  He opened his eyes blearily trying to gain his bearings.  As he looked around, he noticed that he was no longer in the clearing where they had been sleeping, but in a vast plain that went as far as he could see.  He was on the top of a hill, and in the distance, a massive thunderstorm could be seen just over the horizon.  As he continued to look around, he noticed that a few miles behind him, there was a massive canyon, much larger than anything he’d ever seen.  He continued to look around, until his eyes fell on the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.  Her auburn hair fell in cascading waves to the middle of her back, and her green eyes seemed to pierce into his very soul.  Her fair skin reflected what sunlight there was, and her very curvaceous body was sheathed in a flowing white gown that covered her body completely, but did nothing to hide what was underneath.  In one hand, she held an axe.  Jonathan gazed at the axe and realized it was the axe from his dream, and saw that it was covered in blood.  With her free hand, she gestured to Jonathan, motioning for him to come to her.

            Jonathan slowly rose from the ground and walked over to her.  As he got closer, he started feeling a peculiar power from her, and from the axe.  Even more curiously, he noticed that as he got closer, those powers started singing to him.  He felt something inside him open up, and start to respond to that power, merge with it, and from that merging, the power coming from the three of them seemed to quadruple in strength.

            “Greetings Jonathan, I am very glad to meet you finally in person,” the woman said as he approached.  “I have been waiting a long time for this.”

            “Who are you?”

            “That should be apparent, Jonathan.  You’ve known me your entire life, even from the first moment after you left the womb.”

            Jonathan stared at the woman for a moment, trying in vain to remember if he’d ever met this beautiful woman.  As he studied her features, something about her tickled his memory.  Almost like déjà vu, he knew he did know this woman, but couldn’t place where or when.  He considered her features more carefully, noting her red hair and green eyes.  Suddenly, like a clap of thunder, he realized who she was.

            He knelt quickly, “Forgive me Mistress Breanna, I didn’t recognize you.”

            “Jonathan, please rise.  You are correct, but to you, I am something more,” she said mysteriously.

            “Mistress?”

            “Please, don’t call me that.  Actually, I think it would be much better and quite a bit more adequate for you to call me Mother.”

            “Mother?”

            “Yes, Jonathan.  Your mortal mother may have born your body, but I bore your soul.  You have no memory of this, of course, because after I bore you, I placed you immediately into the body that your mother had formed inside herself.”

            Jonathan sat stunned for a few moments.  He didn’t know exactly what to say to this revelation.

            Breanna sensed his hesitation.  “I know you’re a little confused right now.  You will have to work it out for yourself, but know that I always hated what they did to you after you were born.  Know this, I was always watching over you, and I would have never let them do permanent harm to you, or kill you.  You will need those bad experiences soon.  Remember how it felt before, and you will prevail.”

            Jonathan slowly came out of his confusion and realized what she said.  “What do you mean that I’ll need my bad experiences soon?”

            “This world is ending,” she said bluntly.  “The demons have almost completely overrun this world, despite all our efforts.  The Gods have decided that it will be better to unmake this dimension than allow the demons to take control.  The specifics of it are irrelevant, but a certain few are going to be allowed to go to other planes to continue.  Most will be randomly deposited.  You, however, are being sent to a specific plane.  I cannot tell you which plane or why, but a being of higher power than even I has ordered it.  Think of him as the God’s God.  It is He who created everything, and He who can destroy everything.  Usually, he merely watches to see what happens, but occasionally he sticks his hand in.  You have seen him once before.”

            Jonathan suddenly recalled a dream he had when he was in a hospital room.  A man had visited him in the dream, and suddenly he realized that he had given him a gift.

            “That is correct, Jonathan, that was He.  He bestowed upon you a wonderful gift, and in a way, since you are my son, an honor to me.  I cannot tell you about this gift, but it will be of great importance soon.”

            “What is going to happen?”

            “Very soon, this world will cease to be.  Every nation on Earth is completely corrupted by demonic influence, and the influence of greedy men.  Though not unique among the realms, this one has a particular importance.  This world holds tremendous power, unrealized power, but it is there just the same.  For instance, the being that is leading what the Mortals call The United States is actually a demon summoned by his ‘father’.”

            “What?  I know not a lot of people like him, but he doesn’t look…”

            “Appearances can be easily changed by powerful beings,” Breanna interrupted him.  “You’ve seen Hope change shape before, have you not?”

            Realization hit Jonathan hard as he realized that if Hope, who said herself that she was not the most powerful Druid, could change shape, than a being that had to be much more powerful would easily be able to change shape.

            “That is correct, Jonathan.  Demons cannot directly effect this plane except when they’re summoned to it.  Once here, they can do much what they would like to do unless confronted by a being of equal or greater power.  Unfortunately, due to rules that I won’t explain to you now, the only beings able to effect a demon are Priests, but due to the persecution of other religions, the only priests with enough power to do anything are the ones of the Christian God.  But for some reason, they either don’t see the danger, or are too busy with their own greedy schemes to do anything about it.  But telling you won’t convince you, let me show you.”

            Reaching out, Breanna took Jonathan’s hand and squeezed slightly.  Jonathan jerked as Breanna touched his mind, while in his mind’s eye, he saw all the wars of the past hundred years.  He saw the senseless dying of millions and millions of people due to war, famine, plague, and just general negligence of the rulers.  He saw the leaders of the world corrupting a system of good into one of indescribable evil.  Finally, he saw the man that many called “Leader of the Free World.”  As soon as his image had settled in his mind, it began to change.  Flesh ran down off his face, only to melt away in a black smoke.  When the smoked cleared, in place of a human face stood a being nine feet tall with black skin and glowing red eyes.  There were no horns, but a coldly smiling face greeted his mind—a smile full of pointed teeth and a forked tongue.

            As Breanna let go of his hand, Jonathan collapsed to the ground.  All that pain, all that death, all that suffering.  All of it for nothing.  He realized that Breanna’s decision to end this universe was correct.  He steeled himself then, because Breanna had already told him he was to be spared.  In fact, he was going to be placed somewhere else.  He stood up, standing tall and proud, and looked over at Breanna.

            Gradually, light returned to his senses.  He opened his eyes to look at the roof of what appeared to be a timber hut of some description.  He tried to sit up, but immediately a hand was on his chest holding him down.

            “You just put yourself right back down there mister,” a female’s voice said.  “You will not put yourself out again.  Stay right there, and I will go get Hope.”

            Jonathan eased his attempts to sit up, and lay back down.  Over the next few minutes, he took stock of his condition.  He wasn’t in any pain, and felt rather energetic.  He couldn’t feel anything wrong with him, and so he decided that whatever that person had said to do, he could sit up.

            He was just getting into a sitting position when Hope came back in, with what appeared to be an Indian woman.  She was dressed in what appeared to be a simple buckskin shirt and trousers, and had a belt with a few small pouches hanging around her middle.  In one hand, she held a large feather.

            “Jonathan, thank the Goddess you are awake.  We have been worried about you for days.”

            “Days?  Hope, where are we?”

            “We are in the Grove.  You have been unconscious for almost six days.  This is Kamama, a powerful Druid and Cherokee Medicine Woman.  She has been looking after you since we arrived here.”

            Jonathan started to get up, and was surprised that he was naked, except for a bandage on his right hand.  He concentrated on his hand, and felt the cut underneath.  Concentrating a little harder, he felt the flesh of his hand knit itself back together.  He continued to stand up, and as he swung his legs over the edge of the bed, he absently conjuring a new set of clothes.  Hope gasped as he threw the covers back and started to dress.  When he finished pulling his shirt over his head, he started to unwrap the bandage.

            “Jonathan, you should not remove…”

            “My hand is healed.  We don’t have time for me to be stuck in bed.”

            Immediately, Kamama was upon him, grabbing his hand and inspecting it.  “How is it that your hand is healed so fast?  Not even my magic could heal your wound this fast.”

            “I healed it.”

            “But…”

            “I’ll answer your questions soon enough.  Hope,” Jonathan turned to address her, noting that she looked a little scared, “please don’t be scared.  What has happened was meant to happen.  But I need to know, where is Jagal?”

            “He is making a circuit around the Grove.  He should be back in about an hour.”

            “When he gets here, could you contact me?  I have some things that I need to take care of before we leave.”

            “Leave?  Jonathan, what is going on?”

            “Just trust me, Hope.  I only want to explain it once, so you’ll have to wait until Jagal gets back.  Where is my axe?”

            “It’s under your bed.  Every time we tried to put it farther away, the axe would disappear, and reappear within reach of you.  Jagal said it was enchanted somehow, but didn’t know the extent of its powers.”

            “It won’t let itself become stolen.  It will always appear near me because if I need it, I don’t have time to hunt for it.”  Jonathan picked up his axe and put it in a harness strapped to his back.  “The best place for a weapon is within reach of its bearer.  But enough of this, I shall return when you call me.”

            And with that statement, Jonathan simply disappeared.

            Hope and Kamama stood there in awe for a moment, and then Hope chuckled.

            “What is so amusing?” Kamama snapped at her.

            “I knew, when I first saw him so many months ago, that he would change my world.  I see that I was right.”

            Several hours later, Jonathan returned to the Grove.  He appeared directly in front of Hope, Kamama, and Jagal, surprising all three.  Over his shoulder was a leather bag that bulged in several places.

            “Jonathan, I was just about to contact you.  What is going on?” Hope started.

            “I have spoken with my mother, and she told me that this world is ending.”

            “Your mother?  But I thought that you…”

            “Not my human mother.  You wondered how I was such a strong Druid.  My physical mother is the heartless woman you met at the hospital.  The mother of my soul is Breanna, Hope.”

            Hope looked somewhat shocked by this announcement.  “I didn’t think that was even possible.”

            “It is.  And she has warned me of something that I don’t think you’ll want to hear, but you must to understand before we can leave.  This world is ending.”

            “You said as much before, but why?”

            “As it was explained to me, this universe has become almost overrun with demons.  Every major civilization, and many of the smaller ones, has demons running their government. Rather than risk the eventual domination of this realm, the Gods have decided to destroy this universe and start over again.  They are giving a few selected people the ability to escape this…event.  Most are going to be simply deposited on other worlds without any choice in the matter.  My own destination—and yours, incidently—has already been determined.”

            Kamama looked a little frustrated at this.  “I do not wish to leave this place.  I have lived here for the better part of two hundred years, and I have no desire to leave.”

            “Kamama, in fourteen hours, there won’t be a ‘here’ anymore.  This world will be no more.”  Jonathan looked straight into her eyes and said bluntly, “Either you come with us, or you die.”

            A number of emotions passed over her face at this pronouncement.  First was shock, then anger.  But finally, a look of resignation settled on her face, and she sat on the ground hard.

            “There really is no other choice, is there?”

            “Well,” began Jonathan, “you don’t have to come with us.  But I have been told that where we are going is very magic heavy.  There is none of the pollution that plagues this world, as it has not been overrun by demons.  There are more races than there are here, as well as other powers.  For a magician, it is a very powerful world.  However, if you choose, I can send you to a random universe.  I do not know where you will end up, nor do I know what kind of realm it will be.  It could be a completely magic dead universe, for all I know.  Or one where humans are persecuted like we have done to so many others.”

            “I must think on this for a while.  Please, leave me be.”  And with that, Kamama walked a small distance away, sat on the ground and started to meditate.

            “Jonathan,” Hope started somewhat hesitantly, “How is it that you know of these things?  The ability to dimension travel using Druidic magic is something that I’ve never heard of.  And your way of speaking.  I’ve never heard you so…formal before.”

            Jonathan laughed humorlessly, “When I was ‘unconscious,’ Breanna taught me everything that I would’ve learned in a millennium of study and practice with Druidic magic.  When I get to the new universe, I don’t know how much will work, or even if Druidic magic will work at all.  I know it’s a magic rich world, and that I have some task that I am supposed to do, but nothing more.  Breanna regretted it, but she knew nothing other than the name of the realm we are headed.  She said my spell would deposit us somewhere in a forested region of a realm called Dolaria.  It should be well out of any population centers, so we can scout and learn as much as we can before we encounter the locals.”

            Jagal spoke up then, and said, “What about fighting, did she teach you that as well?”

            “Trying to find out if you get to come too?” Jonathan teased.

            “Well…”Jagal looked a little embarrassed.

            Jonathan laughed and said, “She said that I could take the three of you.  Since you are the only people in this world that I want to be with, all three of you are welcome.  If you want to come that is.

            “As far as fighting, she taught me everything she knew, but unfortunately, that’s all it is.  I have the knowledge of fourteen different fighting styles, including all hand weapons.  But I don’t have the reflexes for any of them.  Against someone untrained, I’d be good.  But against a trained warrior, I’d probably get my head handed to me.  I need to spar, a lot, to get good.”

            “I see she taught you more that magic and fighting,” Jagal said approvingly.

            At that moment, Kamama walked back over to them.  “I have thought it over, and I believe that going with you would be for the best.  I would rather travel with people that I know than take my chances with someone I don’t.”

            “In that case, you all have two hours to gather anything you want to take with you.  Please try to take as little as possible.  Clothing and accessories to that effect are not really necessary.  I would take a coat or a heavy cloak, if you have one, because I don’t know what the weather will be when we get there, and we may have to do things the old fashion way if Druidic magic doesn’t work.  But anything of a personal or sentimental value are ok.”

            For the next hour and a half, Jagal, Hope, and Kamama gathered up the few belongings they were taking with them, and Jonathan merely sat and meditated.  Exactly two hours later, he stood up and called the others over.

            “Is everyone ready to leave?”

            Hope and Jagal merely nodded.  Kamama was gently crying, but she also nodded.

            “Very well.  Kamama,” he said, turning to the crying woman, “don’t think of this as the end.  Think of this as a new beginning, a chance to make a difference in a place that truly needs help.”

            With that, he turned around and began to hum.  As the pitch began to gather strength, a wonderfully sonorous melody began to form.  The pitches rose and fell, and as the melody carried on, a small glowing orb formed about five feet in front of him.  As the minutes passed, the melody continued, seeming to come from the very Earth itself, merely using Jonathan as a conduit for his song.  As the song ended, Hope and Kamama gasped as more power than they had ever experienced leaped out of Jonathan and merged with the floating orb.  When the energy from the Heart and the orb merged, the orb flattened out to nearly a two-dimensional shape, but expanded in size until it was almost seven feet in diameter.

            Giving his new friends a quick smile, he stepped through the gate.  Hope, Jagal, and Kamama quickly followed behind, not knowing how long his spell would last.  As Kamama reached the gate, she cast one final look around her beloved Grove, and with a final sniff, stepped into the unknown.

            Thirteen hours later, a tremendous earthquake started shaking the Earth country of Iraq.  This earthquake was much different than any other ever experienced anywhere on the Earth however.  On the Mortal Richter scale, it would be measured somewhere in the ten or eleven Richter Magnitude.  Every building, road, bridge, house, and any other man-made object was destroyed.  But as the seconds went on, the earthquake did not stop.  In fact, the shaking began to get worse.  The crust itself began to crack apart, spraying magma over a thousand feet into the air as the land began to sink.  As the earthquake continued, more and more of the Earth succumbed to the force of the shaking.  Spreading out across the face of the globe, the shaking devastated the globe.  Within an hour, nothing that man had ever made was standing.  As the last piece of South America sank into the liquid magma, the shaking intensified even more.  A few seconds later, an explosion greater than any man had ever observed completely obliterated Earth, Sol, the other planets, and every object that Terran man had come to know.  In the next instant, the only thing left was Breanna and a select few of the Raised Gods who were fortunate to have followers that got saved.

            “Breanna, are you sure that we did the right thing?” the voice of Allah asked.

            “It is what must be done.  In time, this world shall begin anew.  Look, even now I have started reforming the planets.”

            “It is good that we at least have a chance to begin again,” the voice of the former Christian God said.

            “Yes, you survived.  But let me make something abundantly clear,” Breanna said firmly, looking at the two deities, “A lot of the violence and hatred that caused this was due to you.  Your worshipers started wars over NOTHING.  Your power hungry followers gained power using fear and intimidation of the other Gods followers to gain more power, and used that power to further their own greedy schemes.  Not again!”

            Both gods looked stunned for a moment, then bowed in submission.  Their followers used to number in the millions, but now only a handful remained.  Since the power of the Raised Gods directly depended on worshipers, their power was greatly reduced, and even together now they had no chance of resisting Breanna in any way.

            “BREANNA,” a voice said from the ether.

            All three deities suddenly fell to their knees, bowing before the immense form of the God of Gods, the High God of All Universes.

            “HAS THE CHOSEN ONE LEFT?”

            Keeping her face to the ground, Breanna meekly answered, “Yes, my lord.  He has been sent on his way, and I did not tell him anything other than the name of the place he is headed.”

            “YOU HAVE DONE WELL.  I AM VERY PROUD OF YOU.  I REGRET THAT YOU HAD TO UNMAKE THAT WHICH YOU HAD MADE, BUT THE DEMONS MUST NOT GAIN MORE POWER, FOR THEY SEEK TO CONTROL ALL.”

            With that, the God of All reached out, and placed his hands on Breanna, sending his power into her very essence.  As his power touched hers, Breanna felt an expansion of herself, as her power was magnified to three times what it was.

            “NOW MY CHILDREN, TO YOUR TASKS.  YOU HAVE A UNIVERSE TO REBUILD.  BREANNA, HAVE NO FEAR FOR YOUR SON, FOR I WATCH HIM EVEN NOW.”