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Hawk stood only ten steps away from awakening the Eighth Sense. Transcendence was already within reach.
Once he finished defining Life as—Singularity—his very being would change completely, letting him leave the prime multiverse forever.
The universe would not allow that to happen. The Celestials, who called themselves the wardens of the prime timeline, felt the same way.
If the universe was a prison, Hawk was the inmate trying to dig his way out. The universe acted as the warden, and the Celestials were its guards.
It was simple: the warden hated escapes, but the guards hated them even more.
This was how the universe and the Celestials related to each other, and it was why Hawk had watched them closely since Gwen vanished.
But after Erebus explained, a rare look of confusion showed in Hawk's double-pupiled eyes.
"You can't stop my ascension, and you can't kill me. So you decided to delay me instead?" He lowered his voice and stared at the huge machine. "You're willing to risk your whole species just to buy more time?"
What kind of choice was that?
Were the Celestials really ready to face extinction instead of giving up or backing down?
Hawk shook his head, looked at Jean, and then turned back to The Calculator.
"If you already knew I wouldn't negotiate, why bring my daughter here? You might as well throw her into some unreachable timeline and be done with it."
Wanda gave him a sharp look, but Hawk's face stayed cold.
He never responded to threats.
Mephisto had tried to use Anya against him, but Hawk refused to give in. Gargaratus tried the same with Gwen and got the same response.
This time would be no different.
A metallic clang rang out as the Fire Phoenix appeared behind Hawk, perched on the branches of the phantom World Tree. His Cosmo burst to life again, sending out a wave of power that pushed back against the prime universe's hold and made him even stronger.
The universe felt his resistance and reacted on instinct. Thinking Hawk was trying to break free again, it let out a cosmic roar.
The sound never reached the vacuum of space, but its shockwave rolled through reality itself.
"Back off!" Hawk's voice hit back like thunder.
"I swear upon the name of the Phoenix that I will not ascend within your territory. But if you suppress me now, then the day I transcend will be the day I return and burn this reality to ash!"
The universe went quiet.
The crushing pressure around Hawk disappeared.
When a god made a promise, it was never just a threat. It became a command.
The warden and the guards worked for the same system, but they had different goals. The universe wanted order. It wanted its prisoners kept inside and its walls untouched.
Once Hawk promised not to break through those walls to finish his ascension, the universe pulled back.
The Celestials were different.
They followed one absolute rule: no one was allowed to escape.
Each time someone transcended, it weakened the prime multiverse's principles. More than that, it weakened Eternity itself, and the Celestials existed to stop that. They kept the prison blocks in every dimension and hunted anyone who tried to escape.
As long as Hawk left without breaking the walls or stealing the universe's core power, the universe did not care where he went.
The Celestials did.
They wanted him dead.
Even after letting go of its hold, the universe left one last warning in Hawk's mind.
Leave.
If he stayed too long, the pressure would come back.
Hawk ignored it.
The Fire Phoenix spread its wings as his Cosmo reached its limit. With the Golden Phoenix Armor and the cosmic explosion inside him, his strength shot past the Eighth Sense.
Then he disappeared.
A cold voice floated through the emptiness.
"DIE."
A streak of golden light tore through Erebus's head from front to back.
The huge Celestial stood still for a moment, his massive body making the nearby planets look tiny. Only after the blow had landed did Hawk's voice reach his audio sensors.
Erebus lifted a hand big enough to crush the moon and touched the huge crater in his forehead. His six optical sensors flickered weakly, then went dark.
Like Gargaratus before him, the giant machine stopped working and slumped forward into the void.
At that moment, the image of Jean in front of Erebus's face started to blur. Her body turned to static and disappeared.
Wanda froze in shock. "Jean!"
"Jean was never here."
"What?" Wanda spun toward Hawk as he warped back to her side. "Then where is she?"
The golden armor faded from his body and melted into the ghostly phoenix behind him. Hawk stared at the second dead Celestial floating above the Milky Way.
"Somewhere in another universe."
Panic showed on Wanda's face, but she made herself stay calm.
"Wait. If Erebus already knew you wouldn't negotiate, why go through all of this?"
"Like he said."
Hawk let out a dry laugh as he looked at the Celestial's corpse. "To buy time. He wanted to delay my ascension."
Wanda frowned, trying to make sense of it.
Before she could ask anything else, a cold, lazy voice broke the silence.
Wanda turned.
Death stood casually on top of Erebus's bowed head. She crouched down, opened her pale hand, and gently blew across the Celestial's rusted armor.
A moment later, Erebus's soul appeared in her hand.
The once-massive cosmic being was now the size of an action figure. He stood quietly on her hand, looked up at Death's smile, and knelt down on one knee.
"Master."
"You belong to me now." Death closed her fist. Smiling faintly, she made a pocket dimension in her palm and casually tossed Erebus into a drifting multiversal bubble.
"Go manage the flow of souls for me."
With that done, she turned her empty gaze toward Hawk.
"Eternity's lapdogs ran away."
"I noticed. They're terrified of you."
"Heh." Hawk gave a sneer. "If they were terrified, they wouldn't keep testing my patience."
Death shrugged. "Fear is instinct. Stopping you is their purpose."
"..." Hawk frowned.
She smiled. "Don't misunderstand. I'm not defending them. They don't serve me."
Wanda glared at the cosmic entity. "Do you know which universe they sent my daughter to?"
Death looked down at her, a hint of interest shining in her empty eyes. After a moment, she shook her head.
"I am the abstract embodiment of souls. Ask me where Pietro's soul is, and I can tell you. Jean's soul, however, is beyond my reach."
"Why?"
"Because your daughter's soul does not fall under my jurisdiction."
She turned her lazy gaze toward Hawk.
"Unless you sign her soul over to me. Do that, and I'll give you her exact multiversal coordinates right now."
Their eyes met.
Death smiled.
Hawk smiled back. "No, thanks."
Silence followed.
Give his daughter's soul to Death?
Did she really think he was that foolish?
Maybe she would have kept her word and given him Jean's coordinates, but getting Jean's soul back afterward would not be as simple as taking Anya's from Mephisto.
But more importantly, Hawk had already figured something else out.
He looked calmly at Death.
"The Celestials never actually captured Jean, did they?"
Wanda blinked and turned toward him. "What?"
Death merely shrugged. "No idea."
Hawk chuckled as he felt Wanda's glare on him. He turned to face her.
"Erebus entered our universe and appeared above Westview, but I don't think he managed to take Jean. Maybe he never caught her at all. Or maybe he did, and she escaped while they were crossing between dimensions."
That was why Hawk hadn't hesitated to act while Erebus was supposedly holding his daughter hostage.
The holographic decoy was perfect. Even Wanda had been fooled.
But Hawk wasn't fooled.
The Jean floating in front of Erebus had no life force.
Phoenix Fire was the flame of life. Just as Death could spot a soul instantly, Hawk could tell a living person from an empty projection.
Erebus had definitely tried to take Jean, but something went wrong during the dimensional transfer. She must have escaped between universes, and the disturbance caused a violent temporal collision that sent ripples through the timelines.
Death listened to his explanation, her hollow eyes shining with amusement.
"You're clever, Phoenix."
"Thanks."
"So where is she?"
Wanda didn't care about their cosmic games. All she wanted was her daughter back. Nothing else mattered.
Hawk smiled.
"She probably took a wrong turn and landed in some random universe."
He saw the worry on Wanda's face and spoke with total confidence.
"Don't worry. I'll find her."
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