If God gave you a command to do something, would you follow that command? What if it was bad? Would you question God’s orders, or would you still obey?

Oftentimes, the Lord of the Sun and Cosmos, the Brightest Star, wishes that he had questioned God’s orders. Not a day goes by that he doesn’t wonder how different things would be if he had ever looked upon the Almighty on the day he was ordered to wipe out an entire race and simply said ’no’.

How different would the world have been?

Well, it likely didn’t matter. After all, the hand he had been dealt was the one he had. All he could do now was play with those cards and put his trust in those who came after. He’d have hope.

Long, long ago...

It still remembered that cursed day.

The planet shook for six days and six nights, as the sky was ignited in fire. It remained behind in the palace built by those who came before it, and it watched the sky as the four beings came down.

The Lordian’s. Four of them in total were created to be perfected beings, generated by the Almighty. The four pillars of the universe and the greatest creation the slumbering God ever crafted.

The Lord of the Land and Life, the Prettiest Flower.

The Lord of the Sea and Depths, the Tallest Wave.

The Lord of the Sky and Weather, the Loudest Thunder.

And the strongest of them all, the great being of absolute power and will, the Lord of the Sun and Cosmos. The Brightest Star.

It watched as the four Lords descended on its planet, and without rhyme or reason, they began to kill its people. The planet shook, the wildlife and forests were changed into deadly wastelands of venom, the oceans lifted to block out the sun, and the sky rained bolts of fire. All the while, the strongest of the four Lords, the Lord of the Sun and Cosmos, walked, every step shifting the core of the planet, setting off thousands of volcanoes and shattering the crust.

It was forced to watch as it could do nothing. These beings were far greater than its entire race combined. It threw all the weapons it had built at the invaders. It created viruses and plagues. It shattered sections of its own planet with weapons banned in a hundred different galaxies, but none of it was enough.

The four Lords were cruel, for they were the greatest weapons the Almighty made, and they wreaked havoc, killing its race, and with every death, it grew, forced to absorb the souls of its people.

Bit by bit, it absorbed, and it grew, getting larger and larger, its stomach inflating and its head growing, until eventually, its flesh glowed, and it had so many thoughts. When one of its people died, their entire race would grow just a bit more, absorbing the falling, but as they lost billions upon billions, all those psychic screams and rage and sorrow and hate mixed together until soon only a single being remained.

It was all that was left.

At the same time, it was also not alone, for within its form it carried every member of its species.

It had once been young. A bright-eyed being who dreamed of reaching toward the stars above. It wanted to craft a ship and a suit so advanced that it could go to the furthest reaches of the universe and see all that the Almighty had built. Those dreams died along with their world.

Red dust, bits of iron, and a sky that lacked heat and air. Planet Mars had been utterly disfigured and changed. Its very size had shrunken, and it lost all the beauty it might have once had.

As it stared out at its destroyed homeland, watching bits of red dust that were its own people, reduced down to a state of ash, it felt a fury in its heart. A fury brought on by the hate of an entire species, which had now fused into a singular being.

Gone was the wide-eyed being who had dreams of the future. All it had on its mind now was destruction. Annihilation. Extinction. It would wipe out the Lordians and everything they loved. It would kill them all and devour the world they called home. It would be a calamity upon the very universe.

The Beast felt rage. The Beast felt hate. The Beast felt anger. The Beast felt venomous. The Beast felt sad. The Beast felt sorrow. The Beast felt despair. The Beast felt lonely. The Beast felt pain. The Beast felt hurt. The Beast felt cold. The Beast felt.

Who had it been? What was it? Why did it exist? Where did it come from? Who created it? Why was its species wiped out? Why were they created to fuse? Why did the Almighty do all of this, and why did the four Lords slaughter its people? Why, why, why, why-

The Beast felt confused.

Then, suddenly, the Beast became aware. It knelt in the red sand and looked up at the four beings who now stood before it.

"Why is this one still alive?" The Tallest Wave was a giant being, nearly fifty feet tall. He had the head of a shark and the arms of an octopus. His flesh was a bluish green, covered in scales and slime, and where his waist started, a long fish-like tail jutted out, with more tentacles growing out of the sides of it. He smelled of ancient waters, and he wielded a long golden trident. "We must kill it."

"We can not." The Prettiest Flower shook her head. She was the smallest, at only ten feet in terms of height. She also looked the most human, having arms and legs, but her feet were missing; instead, they were twisted together into a vine-like shape, which jutted into the tip of a very pretty and giant red rose. Her skin was a dark green like grass with bits of thorns all over her, and long pink hair rolled down her back.

"Don’t tell me you’re getting soft." The Tallest Wave sneered. "This thing is of the race the Almighty told us to wipe out. Destroying it is what we will do."

"We can not kill it, because killing it is impossible." The Prettiest Flower sneered right back at her sibling.

"What do you mean?" The Tallest Wave demanded.

"What our sister means is this thing became an Eternal." The Loudest Thunder had the strangest form of all. It had no arms or legs nor even a head. Instead, it was a series of black clouds that all swirled around together, bits of lightning connecting off of them, keeping them tightly attached to one another, and in the center of it all, rainwater and wind twisted into the shape of a giant eye. "We cannot kill an Eternal. Such a feat is impossible even for us."

"An Eternal?" The Tallest Wave folded several of its arms. "Explain."

"It seems to have become like us." The Prettiest Flower began. "We came here to wipe it out, which we did, but this species is very special. Every time we killed one of them, its life force and psychic power would transfer across its race. Killing one wouldn’t be noticeable. That power would be split amongst eight billion of its own kind and be so small that they wouldn’t even grow one percent stronger. However, we didn’t kill one. We killed them all. Again and again, until all that is left is this poor, miserable thing. Its entire species are all within it now."

"And we can’t kill it because..."

"Because it became an Eternal." The Prettiest Flower gave her brother a deadpan look. "Its power has grown thanks to the slaughter of its race. Its life force is so dense, and the psychic energy it gives off is so intense that it became one with the very universe itself. That is what an Eternal is. A being greatly connected to the universe to the point that so long as the universe exists, so too will it. Of all the Lordians, only us four have reached this rank. I thought it required becoming strong, but clearly not. This being is only slightly greater than the basic Lordians, yet it became an Eternal. Every single one of us is billions of times above it, so it poses no threat, but even so, the only way to kill it would be to wipe away the universe itself. Of course, that’s something we can’t do."

"So, then what do we do with him?" The Tallest Wave demanded.

"We leave him here." The Loudest Thunder hummed. "It is of no threat to us. Isn’t that right, brother?"

The Brightest Star was the biggest of them all. Taller than even the Tallest Wave. He stood at nearly sixty miles tall. His body was bathed entirely in bright blue fire, and he had the vague outline of a person. A long orange cloak, also made of ember, was wrapped around his neck like a makeshift cape, and his arms were folded as he stared off into deep space.

The strongest of the four Lords, he who was connected to the universe more than any other, said to be a fragment of every star that ever lived, is living, or will live, all rolled up together, forged from light that hadn’t yet reached them, and covered in fire hotter than anything in the entire universe.

"Brother, are you listening?" The Prettiest Flower called out to the massive being.

"I see life."

"What?"

The Brightest Star saw past the blackness of space and the other planets that floated in the solar system. He saw a planet far, far away, one that was covered in blue and green. Almost as if he could reach out and touch it, he raised his hand up.

It was so pretty, and he could see beings. Ones who lived and laughed and loved, building towers of stone and networks of circuits, going about their lives unknown to the cosmos that surrounded them all.

"I see a planet. One with life. Thriving and living. They seem... happy."

"You must be wrong." The Prettiest Flower shook her head. "The only beings here would be this thing’s race." She glanced at the Beast, who stayed slumped on the ground. "The Almighty didn’t create any other planets with life on them."

"It has life." The Brightest Star said again.

The Loudest Thunder glanced at the Prettiest Flower, whose lips had thinned into a line. "Is it possible life was created on its own?"

"Life being created without the help of the Almighty." The Lord of the Land and Life shook her head. "No. An impossible thing. You’d be a fool for even thinking such a thing could happen."

"So then why is there life on another planet?"

"Well... I don’t know." The Prettiest Flower admitted.

"I want to see it." The Brightest Star’s voice shook the planet as he spoke up. "I want to go to it."

"We have to return to the Almighty’s side-"

The Brightest Star vanished. In a flash, faster than light itself, he flew from Mars to the blue planet, landing upon its surface. Buildings of stone were all around him, as well as towers of metal. Down below, every being froze, and all at once they glanced up at him. He couldn’t blame them. After all, he was so tall that he was almost poking out of the atmosphere of the planet.

The beings all seemed frightened, but he ignored them for the most part and looked around in awe. A moment later, his other siblings appeared next to him, having flown over almost as fast.

"Why did you just leave!" The Tallest Wave hissed. "We can not be here."

"And who decided that?" The Brightest Star growled.

"The Almighty."

"The Almighty isn’t here right now." The Brightest Star looked back at the people. "We are, though."

"What are you thinking?" The Loudest Thunder asked, letting out a soft wince. "Nothing good, I bet."

"I like the look of this place." The Brightest Star hummed. "Alright. I’ve made up my mind. We live here now."

"What!?"

"This planet is now our home." He folded his arms and allowed the universe to whisper in his ear. It told him the history of this world and its people. "Yes. We are Earthlings. We are humans."

And so it was.

Back on Mars, the Beast slowly stood up. Its arms dangled at its side, and it looked out at the destruction of its home world. Why did the Almighty make it? Why did it make its people? Was it all just some cosmic joke?

Was it the punchline?

The Beast walked, and it walked, and it walked, going around its world, red dust flowing. With every step it took, its hate grew. By the time it managed to circle its planet, that was all it felt. Hate for the Almighty, hate for itself, and hate for the Lords and Lordian. It glared up, seeing miles and miles throughout deep space. Far, far, away, a little blue planet floated in the empty void.

The Beast felt hate for planet Earth.

And so it was.

***

Sometime later...

The Beast was a very powerful being. It was connected to the universe itself and could create all forms of matter and adapt in billions of different ways. Due to its insane strength, only Full Monarch was allowed to engage it in battle.

That rule was being broken as two other beings fought alongside the number one hero.

"I don’t know what’s going on or why I’m glowing, but this feels awesome!" Ruby Admirial surged forward, and she struck out, a golden blast of energy unleashing from her fist. It washed over the Beast’s body and caused it to hiss in pain as the ground around it melted and bubbled.

"Don’t get cocky, blondie." Alpha also zipped forward, blue fire erupting out of Storymaker as he swung it and sent an arching wave of energy out. "What we’re fighting is very strong! Take it seriously!" His wave was sliced through as the Beast clapped its hands together and shot out a beam of pure white energy that nearly sliced Alpha’s head off, but Full Monarch flew over and shoved him out of the way just in time. "Don’t touch me." The redhead hissed.

"Don’t talk to my dad like that." Ruby glared back at Alpha.

"Focus, you two!" Full Monarch shouted. "Here it comes!" The Beast flew through the air with a shattering step, and it flickered in front of Full Monarch, punching toward him. The Lord blocked with his arms, but the force of the strike sent him smashing into the ground, shaking the land and denting the battlefield.

Alpha swung out at the Beast with his sword as hard as he could, but the monster easily reacted to him and caught his blade. "Storymaker! Send it to-" The Beast grabbed him by the face and twisted him around and flew down toward a mountain. Alpha grunted as he was shoved all the way through it, and before he could get back up, the Beast generated a beam of energy and blasted him even further into the ground.

The Beast went to fire the attack again, but before it could, Ruby came flying in, wobbling slightly due to not being used to flight. She struck out with her fist, golden fire swirling out, and she smashed her strike into the back of the Beast’s head. Her blow staggered the Calamity, and it made another growling sound and spun around, slapping out with its hand. She was backhanded hard and sent ramming through the rest of the mountain.

Full Monarch then burst forward and smashed his fist as hard as he could into the Beast’s stomach. Its glowing skin cracked, and it was almost sent flying, but he grabbed it by the arm before it could and tugged it back in for another strike. The Beast opened its mouth and bit down on his fist when he tried that, and the number one hero winced. Then, his eyes widened as the Beast’s mouth glowed, and it breathed a wave of ice out.

Full Monarch became trapped in the ice, and he couldn’t move, unable to react in time as the Beast charged lightning into its fist and punched him away. Right as it did that, both Ruby and Alpha appeared on either side of it. Alpha sliced out with his sword, and Ruby kicked, but the Beast blocked both their strikes and created two energy orbs, which it launched their way. It expected to fry the two of them, but then, to its shock, they dodged.

The Beast watched as the two began to fly, both of them getting faster and faster as they circled around it! Alpha’s sword dug into its back, and Ruby’s leg smashed into its side, cracking it open. It struck out, fiery claws bursting out of its hands, but they dodged both of those strikes as well and landed two more blows.

They were getting faster?

But it wasn’t enough.

The Beast’s shoulders exploded as jagged rocks formed out into two extra limbs. One of them caught Storymaker when Alpha swung it, and the Beast smashed him into Ruby, tossing them both away. The stony hands then cupped together, generating winds hard enough to tear the surface off a planet, and it blasted out with the strike! The attack smashed into both Ruby and Alpha and nearly launched them off planet Earth from how hard it hit them, but Alpha managed to wrap his arm around Ruby’s waist and teleport them back to the ground seconds before he was flung into outer space.

The Beast let out a hellish roar of rage and anger and was about to charge toward them again, but Full Monarch finally broke out of the ice he had been frozen in and flashed forward, landing thousands of blows across the Beast’s body. Each strike got faster and faster, and even the hero became shocked at how well he was doing.

Still, he was fighting the Beast. It smashed its fist into his gut, and Full Monarch grunted, but unlike before, he wasn’t thrown back. Somehow, he withstood the attack and rolled with the punch. He struck back and smashed an orb of fire into the head of the Beast, the orb exploding with the force of a nuke, but the Beast then impaled its claws into his stomach, making him groan and gasp. After that, Full Monarch felt himself drop out of the air as the Beast harshly threw him down.

"Dad!" Ruby yelled and flew at the Beast, letting out a roar of anger. Alpha followed behind, and once more the two began to rapidly fly in and out of the Beast’s attacks, getting even faster than they were before.

Down below, Full Monarch dropped to a knee and breathed heavily. He had taken a beating and used up a ton of energy throughout the fight, but something else was happening as well. Something weird. He looked up, watching the battle. He wasn’t the only one staring, either.

In his mind, the Brightest Star let out a sigh and gazed at the Beast in sorrow.

The Beast was an issue he created. The Lord of the Sun and Cosmos was starting to realize that he had a problem. Almost every powerful enemy that now existed was due to him.

In the beginning, it had been easy for him to blame the Almighty and use the excuse that he was just following orders, but that wasn’t true, was it? Not even slightly. He and his siblings had gone to the Beast’s world and slaughtered every being there until all that was left was a Calamity of absolute hate that set its sights on planet Earth.

His planet.

Not to mention, the Shadow had come to planet Earth because of him as well... Because of what he did to the Almighty.

So too did he create the Emperor. Both of them.

At the center of the world he had come to call his own, he was the one who put it at risk time and time again.

"Was all of this my fault?"

The Brightest Star slouched down in his throne. His realm of fire was growing smaller, and his own body was covered in cracks, sections of him missing. He had been split completely in two since Full Monarch had sectioned off most of his power and given those shards to Alpha and Ruby.

His power had been reduced to less than half his total. Before, even if all three of his siblings teamed up against him, he surely would have won, yet now, he was starting to doubt if he could beat even a single one of them. To make matters worse, the strength of Alpha and Ruby had grown far beyond what they should have, thanks to having a fraction of his power placed in them, while Full Monarch’s power had lessened considerably-

No.

That was wrong.

The Brightest Star stared at the screen, which displayed the outside. He saw and felt everything Full Monarch did.

’Jackson... Have you grown stronger?’

Outside, Full Monarch stared down at his fist. His hair was golden, flickering on and off, and his eyes burned with a scarlet light. He was a bit shocked himself, as he had torn a ton of his power out, yet somehow, it was actually going up instead of down. He glanced at Ruby and then at Alpha as the two of them fought with everything they had.

The two of them were getting stronger and faster as well. Their power was growing. Alpha was landing strikes he shouldn’t have been able to, and Ruby was blocking and smashing blows away from how that would have ripped off her limbs.

The fraction of the Brightest Stars’ power shouldn’t have been able to do this. It would have made them both stronger, but not to this degree. Their hearts were all beating together as one, and Full Monarch smiled.

All three of them were connected, their energies fueling one another. He could feel it. Alpha’s anger and Ruby’s annoyance. Their hearts were communicating with one another, and the act of doing so was powering them up to a great degree.

"We can win," Full Monarch declared. "It’s not over yet." Full Monarch closed his eyes and focused his power. "I’m going to finish this in one punch."

Alpha stabbed out at the Beast, and it went to dodge, but before it could, Ruby grabbed it by the leg and held onto it, keeping it stuck in place. Alpha’s blade struck out, and he impaled it. He went to teleport it, but the Beast blasted out fire from its mouth, aiming to halt him, but once more, Ruby reacted, and she grabbed its neck, shoving it upwards, causing the attack to miss Alpha, which bought him just enough time to speak.

"Storymaker! Teleport it down!"

The Beast vanished from between the two of them, and it reappeared down on planet Earth. It glared up at them but then sensed something and spun around. Full Monarch’s entire body ignited with a bright blue glow, the fire dancing around his form. Even without the full Lord’s soul, he was able to burn through his own power and the borrowed energy he was getting from his children, allowing him to ignite his strength back to what it should be.

The Beast glared at him as he charged, and it saw the image of the Brightest Star. It saw its race wiped out, its world destroyed, and its form permanently twisted. The Beast saw the true monsters for what they were. It charged up all its energy and went to strike out at Full Monarch as hard as it could! Their fists would clash, and the force of the attack would wipe out the planet itself-

"Teleport all the Beast’s kinetic energy to outer space." Alpha pressed his blade into the Beast’s back.

All at once, all its generated power and all its energy vanished, leaving its arm extended without motion, just in time for Full Monarch to hit it.

The blow was shockingly gentle. Full Monarch used all his power and ensured that the Beast would be the only one who absorbed the force of his attack. This meant that the world would be spared the devastation of his strike. The damage the Beast had already taken was great, and this was the final nail in the coffin.

Trillions of cracks opened up along its flesh. It didn’t even have time to leave behind a bomb or explode. It was already dead.

The Beast’s body caved in, and it fell apart like shattered glass, grumbling away and breaking up more and more until it became a fine powder that the wind carried off. All that energy had reduced it to absolute dust.

Of course, it wasn’t truly dead. It’d take time, but eventually the Beast would be back on Mars, ready to fight again, for as long as the four Lords existed, so too would its hate, and as long as it held hate in its heart, so too would it return.

For now, the battle was over.

"Is that it?" Ruby wobbled in the air and slowly landed on the ground. "Did we do it?"

Full Monarch’s blue fire went out, and he let out a tired sigh. "Yeah. That’s it-"

Alpha jammed his sword into Ruby’s side, catching Full Monarch and his daughter off guard. The strike missed all vital organs, and he made sure not to make the wound deep, but it still hurt like hell.

"Ow! What the fuck-"

"Send her to the other side of the world."

Ruby vanished.

Full Monarch let out a tired sigh, then chuckled, rubbing his neck. "You work fast, don’t you?"

"The time for words ended long ago." Alpha pointed Storymaker at Full Monarch. "I want this to be done. I’m tired of this going on and on. How about you and I put an end to all of this? What do you say?"

"Sure." Full Monarch lifted both his hands and entered a stance. "We’ve come this far, and I did promise you, didn’t I?"

It was time for this song and dance to finally come to an end.

Alpha lunged forward with a roar. He swung his sword as hard as he could, putting all of his emotions into the strike. A lonely life spent in the dark, a world where only a single being as corrupted as him ever showed him any affections, an existence where he was made to be a weapon and live for only a single cause. All of his truth, his pain, and his self-hatred went into his final swing!

"I’m the Emperor! And I’m going to be the one who surpasses you!"

Full Monarch punched as hard as he could, and he also put all his emotions and feelings into the strike. A million images went through his mind, both those that were and weren’t. He saw himself celebrating Jill’s sixteenth birthday. He saw himself teaching a young boy with reddish-brown hair how to ride a bike. He saw himself reading a bedtime story to a six-year-old Jill. He saw himself giving that boy with red hair a piggyback ride through a forest. More images kept coming forward, worlds that could have been but weren’t. Ones where he met his daughter and his son earlier. Worlds where things didn’t have to be so complicated or depressing.

Finally, he saw one more possibility.

He saw himself at the dinner table, Jill and Alpha bickering back and forth as they all ate their favorite meal.

’What does it mean to be a hero? Plenty of people have asked me that. When I first started, I would have said that being a hero was doing the right thing any time the opportunity arose. As I’ve aged and as I’ve come to terms with the fact that I have an incredibly long life and won’t be able to reach the end of the story with a ton of people I like, I find myself having a bit of a different answer. I still think doing good is important, but also that the world can be cruel and sad. It isn’t all bad, of course, but still, I find myself realizing that being a hero means making a sacrifice. One day, my smile just vanished. Now that I think about it, it’s been a while since I had a real smile. I’ve been so busy that I haven’t been able to check up on my friends or family, and it feels like, slowly but surely, their lives are leaving me behind. I don’t think I’d stop even if I could, because this is the life I picked, and the world needs a hero, but still. Just know that being a hero isn’t an easy job. I hope that one day we’ll have a world where people can keep their smile and still be heroes. Stay close to your loved ones. Spend as much time with them as you can, for you never know when they could change and become a person you no longer recognize. Above all else, know that it’s okay to make mistakes, and it’s okay to hurt. We are all human. Pain is proof that we exist.’ - Full Monarch’s five-year anniversary speech, when given the question ’What does it mean to be a hero?’.

Strangely enough, that was the same year the world gained most of its heroes.

Alpha screamed as his sword sliced down and cut into Full Monarch’s fist, but the number one hero’s strike didn’t slow down, and Alpha grunted as he felt the sheer difference in power and skill. Even after coming this far, it still wasn’t enough.

Storymaker was yanked out of his hands and sent flying away from the punch. Alpha’s eyes widened, and he watched as everything slowed down. Full Monarch’s fist was coming right at him, and for just a single heartbeat, he also saw it. Worlds upon worlds that could have been. He felt Full Monarch’s heart beating alongside his and felt the man’s emotions. So hot and bright, they were warm and comforting.

Alpha closed his eyes, ready for oblivion. Ready to have the same fate that the Beast had.

Instead, all he felt was more warmth as Full Monarch’s arms wrapped around him, and he was pulled into a hug.

"It’s over, Emperor." Full Monarch smiled. "You lose."

Alpha grew rigid, but then slowly his shoulders lost all their tension, and his arms fell. "It would seem so."

The Emperor lost.