Hero For Lust

Chapter 162: Scared



A 'Hyperspace Gate' spawned above a rustic mansion outside Y-City.

"It is time, Caspian." Blast looked down at the man hovering with his hands behind his head. "Void will guide us to the 'Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave.'"

"We have a minute to spare if you have anything you need to do first," Void added.

"Nope. This will only take a few minutes."

Blast frowned. "Do not underestimate 'God.' He is beyond any opponent you have faced."

"Okay..."

"Caspian, can we talk... in private?"

Below in the mansion's front yard stood a bronze-toned woman.

"Suiko? How did you get back here so fast?" Caspian asked.

"Does it matter?"

"Nope." He turned to Blast. "Looks like I'll need that spare minute after all."

¤ ¤ ¤

Suiko had grown quieter than usual ever since the day of the proposal.

"Is this about Suiryu joining the New Neo Heroes? I promise there's no reason—"

"No..."

They sat together on their eight-seat sectional sofa. Caspian held her hand, thumb tracing gentle circles across her knuckles. The familiar weight of her palm against his grounded him before the coming battle. "Tell me what's wrong."

"Why ask when you could use your 'Omniscience?'"

"I won't use that beyond protecting you, protecting all of you, unless you ask me to. I want to hear this from you, Suiko; your words, your feelings."

Suiko's gaze fell to the plush carpet beneath their feet. The afternoon light streaming through the windows caught the worry lines around her eyes. "I'm terrified."

"Of what?" he asked.

"Of being... a mother. Am I cut out for this? The thought of labor, of raising another human being, of being responsible for their entire existence..." Her grip tightened on his hand. "I can't stop imagining everything that could go wrong during delivery.

Will I still be me afterward? Will we lose our freedom entirely?

I'm happy we're having a baby, but these fears consume me."

"I can't experience what you will while carrying our child, but I know you'll be an incredible mother. You'll have support from everyone. Me, Mosquito Girl, Yuta, Tatsumaki, Fubuki, Psykos, Wavygyaza, and plenty of others." Caspian drew her trembling form into his arms. The scent of her shampoo — jasmine and vanilla — filled his senses as he pressed his cheek against her hair. "You're confident, compassionate, perceptive, level-headed—"

"We have to leave now! 'God's Cage' is eroding completely!" Blast's urgent shout shattered the moment from outside.

Suiko leaned back, brushing away a tear that caught the light like crystal. "Thank you. Now go, and no matter how powerful you are, please be careful."

Caspian nodded, memorizing the curve of her face before capturing her lips in a lingering kiss.

¤ ¤ ¤

Here I am at last.

Blast and Void had departed to secure Earth with the rest of the 'Earth Defense Force.'

The 'Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave' manifested as twin obsidian towers, their surfaces alive with swirling nebulae and countless stars. Each tower stretched impossibly high, their peaks lost in cosmic darkness. When Caspian pushed open the gate, reality shifted around him like liquid mercury. He found himself on a vast highway of pure light, surrounded by the same cosmic void that decorated the entrance.

He followed the serpentine path until he encountered another set of doors. So tall that their peaks vanished into infinity. Strange runes of nine different colors adorned their surfaces; one hue for each ancient member of the 'Earth Defense Force.'

"Push or pull?"

Caspian pressed his palm against the gate. The runes blazed with luminous fire, interconnecting in brilliant networks that fortified the last barrier.

"Neither." He soared to the gate's edge and slid the boundless construct aside, sending it tumbling into the cosmic void.

"'Who are you?'" 'God's' voice reverberated through his mind.

At the dimension's heart sat a cage wreathed in chains stretching toward perpetuity. Lightning split the air every few seconds, illuminating the strange cloudscape in stark relief.

"The Outsider."

"'You... are not the Outsider.'"

"I know. Without 'Omniscience,' you might have stunned me with that revelation." Caspian launched himself from the light bridge into the stormy hellscape. "Let me free you from that cage."

With a casual blink, he obliterated 'God's Cage,' revealing the entity's current form. A seated figure resembling a whirlwind, with scribbled lines that outlined a human silhouette.

"'Your method of freeing—'"

"The method? Simple. I directed the force generated from my eyelashes."

'God' rose, extending his arms wide in theatrical display.

"Ah, summoning your ultimate vessel from within the moon? You also enjoy observing from Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Another vessel hidden there?"

'God' remained silent. Lightning clouds throughout the dark space converged on his wind-swept silhouette like iron filings to a magnet. Nebulae and stars streamed in from behind, feeding into the entity's essence.

The process continued for a full minute, culminating in 'God's' moon-sized form towering above.

"'You, a being that belongs not in my cosmos, shall face forfeiture.'" 'God's' fist moved faster than any opponent Caspian had encountered.

"I've built you up in my mind since the beginning." He stopped the Iceland-sized fist with his pinky nail's edge. "But you were always destined to disappoint."

'God' vanished; teleporting beyond the dimension.

This can only end one way. Though first, I should contact a recently reacquainted friend.

After reaching out through the mental communication network ability he'd copied from the 'Earth Defense Force,' he stepped through a gate into a galaxy at the universe's far reaches.


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