He stared at hre, two twin pools of gold locked tight in a rictus stare with Adam's iridescent green visor. She ignored the gurgling mass at her feet and gently tapped her spear against the palm of her hand. Shadows pooled around her like a creature of midnight.

"Hmm, I thought I detected a foul smell." he waved a hand in front of his face, "At first I thought it was the sulfur, but now I see it was you and your crock of bullshit."

She frowned grip tightening around the shaft of her spear, "I did not come to speak to you, maggot. I came to speak to my daughter. She looked around expectantly, "She would usually be with you, no?"

"You gave up the right to call her daughter." He made a face at her, "Look at you know, Lanus would be disgusted.

In a moment she was on her feet and her spear was held at the ready, eyes boring into him with intent to kill written all over her face, "Keep his name off of your worm tongue, filth."

Adam circled slowly around the circle in the center of the room where the worms were still madly breaching the surface in search of their revenge, "What, my father in law, or did you forget we are family now."

Her grip tightened even further,, "No."

"You know I have always found it funny how you only follow your own rules and traditions when they suit you. Throw defective children into the volcano to recycle their spirits, you know unless you can't do it and so take one home and treat her like shit for the rest of her life, or leave another one to die on a mountainside. Or how when your battle partner dies in glorious battle it isn't personal and you should not hold a grudge against the ones who did it since they fairly died to a better warrior, you know unless you go bat shit insane and decide to become an egomaniacal despot. Oh and the right to unarmed combat is totally a thing until your daughter does it with someone that you don't like. I could go on but I am sort of running out of breath here."

Kazna lifted her head, "I will not dane to speak with you, worm, now where is my daughter?

"She's not here you slimy beetle." This time it was Lord Celex who spoke standing next to the edge of the pool and ringing out his ponytail. The man did not appear dressed for battle in any way, but Adam knew better, and so did Kazna.

He watched her stiffen.

As far as they understood, kazna was still a mortal. Her body had not died so she had not unlocked the true potential of her own Anima just like Adam, but there was some debate as to weather that was even possible anymore. The void had corrupted her soundly, and given her powers that not even some of the makers had, so it was unknown if her Anima was still in tact at all.

Either way she knew who he was and exactly what he could do. Not only was Celex a Maker, but they were pretty sure he was Deus like the rest of them, and one from the last cohort which mean he would be stronger than average.

Granted they all had some collective theories about Celex seeing as his past was marked mostly in war crimes and mass murder, and his maker name was aparticularly suspect, but Adam had no doubt he was on their side.

She narrowed her eyes, "Ah Emperor Celex, you look well."

He flipped her the bird, "No thanks to you."

She chuckled grimly, "Oh I seem to recall you made it out just fine. What I did was probably even good for you in the long run. Maybe the architect will forgive you for your past, indiscretions...." She trailed off and Celex glanced at Adam. Together they reached out their minds in an attempt to read what she meant, but as they tried the two of them recoiled as they came into contact with a bit of blackness so foul it seemed as if they would be sucked in if they went any further.

She laughed, "A pitiful effort you two." She glanced at Celex, "And yes, I know things about all of you that you don't even know about yourself." She glanced back at Celex, "Of course the architect isn't exactly happy about you blowing up an entire planet, but even that can be forgiven, what can't is your active attempt to usurp his power prebirth."

Adam glanced over at Celex who kept his face straight, IS that all?" He asked, "Seems pretty on brand."

She grunted dismissively, "Yes, a little bird tells me you were quite the problem, started your own insurrection." She glanced at Adam, "One that the architect's pet had to put down."

The two exchanged a look at each other, "No hard feelings." Adam said

"No of course not, fair is fair."

Adam turned his head to look at Kazna, "Is this supposed to break us apart or something, make us question each other's loyalty because it's not going to work."

She shrugged, "Perhaps not , but you do understand that I have the upper hand. I know more than you will ever know and that is a fact."

"Spare me the sanctimonious preening. And get on with it."

Kazna's eyes narrowed as she examined the two of them, "Why is she not here?" she looked over at celex, "I understand why he is here of course. You want your pet maker to make sure that you have backup." She turned her attention back to Adam, "And I understand why you are here, because you have a pathological need for attention, to be the hero, to do all of the exciting things despite never being the best man for the job, so intent on stroking his own ego that he doesn't let others dow ahat needs to be done, but..... she ....."

Adam waited.

And saw the moment she figured it out.

"No!"

Adam smirked.

"Took you long enough."

Her face twisted into a rictus of disgust and rage,, "No! How dare you disgusting creature. How dare you befoul my daughter with your....." She trailed off jaw working unwilling to say what was on the tip of her tongue.

"I find it funny you should care what she does with her body, considering you once considered incinerating it."

She snarled, "Better she burn than let a thing like you touch her."

Adam shook his head, "I think you gave up the right to care who touches her, when you spent her entire childhood abusing her, anyway as her husband, I accept full responsibility for acting as her liaison, so anything you want to tell her can go through me."

Kazna's mouth drew into a very thin line, "No, I do not think I will, however." She glanced back at Adam, "We should certainly be thanking you."

"We>"

A shape appeared from the shadows face gaunt and skin gray though his blue eyes were still sharp and piercing despite the yellow sclera. Adam took a step back though he recognized the face easily.

Captain Everette

But not in his perfected maker form.

IN his form as the cannibal who Adam had been forced to dispatch.

Adam's mouth twisted into an expression of hate as he saw the man, "Traitor."

Kazna laughed, "Traitor, perhaps, but also the Void's greatest triumph. You see that little accident with the civilian transport near, what did you call it, The Hand of God nebula." She chuckled, "I find that a bit Ironic, don't you.?"

"Get on with it."

"The void has been around for longer than you think. It has always had influence in the galaxy, where there is the light of the architect, there is the darkness of the void, but the void did not have a true physical presence, a really good hold until that transport went missing, or not really missing at all."

Adam waited.

"I am surprised you haven't figured it out.

He shrugged, "I never claimed to be the smart one."

"Well perhaps now you will notice the similarities between the hand of god incident and.... The behemoth attacks." Adam paused and then felt his blood run cold. Indeed he did sense some similarity. Madness that had overtaken the entire crew, refusal to eat, some just giving up and choosing to die.... All things they had seen on ships exposed to.....

She laughed, "I see you have figured it out. Everett's ship was the first to run across Void, purely by accident mind you, but they did not waste time in using it. Most of the crew died before we could harvest their souls, but Everette..... Well we took our time with him."

Adam felt his blood running like ice through his veins, and did his best to stifle a shiver.

"Harvest souls/'

She laughed again, "Oh naive human, you didn't think we just let all those souls go did you." She motioned to celex, "Deus may be difficult to keep in line, but the average anima isn;t particularly difficult, weak and willing and easy to corrupt. Once the behemoth got ahold of those people they certainly didn;'t have a chance."

Adam felt sick.

That had never occurred to him though.it certainly should have.

"Where are they?"

She smiled, "They are being put to good use, I assure you." She tapped her finger against the armrest of the throne, "THe void cannot make energy on its own , that is something only the makers and the architect can do.....

She trailed off, but Adam understood, "Void energy."

"Now you are catching up. Indeed, void energy harvested from thousands of Anima."

Adam didn't want to think about the implications, "Now some anima are harder to harvest than others, deus for example, of which there happen to be many in your particular cluster of galaxies. Andromeda and the milky way are certainly a hotspot, but thanks to you we hardly have tow worry about that anymore."

Adam felt his chest tighten, ribs constricting on his insides like a vice, "What do you mean?"

"Well the portal of course. The funny part is we weren't even planning to use you. You see, we had already been waging a war on the starborn nest when you showed up, we fully intended to throw one of them through the portal since Starborn are almost exclusively deus. It would have worked, but it wouldn't have been nearly as powerful as using one of the first cohort, and then what happens, but Impetus himself shows up, with Everette here at the lead." She rested a hand on his shoulder, "The portal was intentionally designed to use anima signature to find other anima, the best we could hope for with a single deus was simply finding one or two galaxies at a time, but using your signature." She laughed, "As soon as Everette threw you through the portal an entire universe was opn p to us. So thank you Adam, thank you for being the catalyst as usual, no wonder they call you Impetus."

Adam felt his face flush, though his skin went cold. She continued to laugh and he felt sick.

Had he really done that.

Had he exposed the entire universe to her.

To this.

He looked down at the floor where the theocrat was still gurgling and moaning pawing at the bones which protruded from his eyes.

IS this what the rest of the galaxies had to look forward to?

All because of him.

"Harvesting void energy has become so much easier with your help." She prodded the theocrat at her feet.

Adam stood in the middle of the floor feeling.... Surprisingly helpless, and immensely foolish.

Kazna continued to laugh.

"Well, I am definitely getting tired of this." Celex said, and lobbed a bolt of energy straight towards kazna and her crystal throne.