Vengeful Cia received an odd tilt of Aforgomon’s head.  When the gohma arose from the earth around it, however, the Great One did not hesitate.  Screaming, it swiped at the nearest gohma’s head, splattering its entire upper half into mud.  Another, molded like a shark with centipede legs, lunged forward to bite its ankle.  Its fangs pierced the shambler’s gruesome excuse for skin, drawing forth a brownish ichor that instantly shifted the creature into an alternate dimension.  Still another, a great mongoose, dove for it, but to its misfortune the clutching hands of Aforgomon grasped its body and pulled it, shrieking, in half.  All the while, the knowledge seeped into Cia’s head.  [i]Your monumental naivety is worth of a squealing lemming, not the mantle of godhood.  When the travelers of the vast abyss sought to destroy this earth, I cooperated with the consumed nightmare god to recall the disease that ended them.  I saved this world, while the legion of newborns dithered about.[/i]  Cia suddenly knew it to be true.

The earth sought to devour Aforgomon, but the Great One transcended those wordly binds.  Faded partially out, it merely walked through the mass of churning soil.  [i]All of creation is accursed to have you.  Billions of innocents slaughtered for the sake of ease.  I weep with them, as one in trance.[/i]  It held its glittering hands out over the shield that guarded the self-righteous one, and from jagged holes of light in its palms spewed forth lava from a burnt dimension.  If it did not break through the barrier, it would turn to diamond-hard obsidian around it.  [i]Even now, I can change it all.  My father is greater than I, but I am my father’s son.  I am who I am.  Do you doubt me?  My niece does not.[/i]

A trio of gohma arose at Aforgomon’s back to destroy it.  Before they could law claws on him, their bodies were sundered with a flash of glinting iron.  Behind Aforgomon stood Cythella, newly reborn from the dreams of the Merged gods thanks to the power of the Great One.  The noisome maw of Aforgomon seemed to smile.  [i]Dreams are my reality.  My niece lives again.  The humans can live again.  Doubt us not![/i]  For a moment, Aforgomon seemed to pause.  It had let something slip.

Meanwhile, Poseidon knew better than to come into the melee range of Flemmings.  The old god surrounded himself in a raging typhoon, constantly pushing anything around him away while threatening to drown them and allowing him to smoothly retreat.  Jets of boiling water lambasted Flemmings, and the barbed limbs of the Kraken stretched from pools of water to lacerate his godly flesh.

[center]-=-=MEANWHILE=-=-[/center]

Amphibious Aforgomon’s mouth opened wide, exposing a skinless green face with a deathly, jeering grin.  [i]Challenged by some beast?  You have much to learn about greatness.  Be still while I instruct—moving will make it worse.[/i]

It held out its rubbery claws, and between its wart-covered palms a tiny black dot began to beat.  Faster and faster it fluctuated, growing denser and denser, until the seabed strider threw it forward.  Abruptly the black hole erupted into a singularity of gravity and darkness, pulling in everything that wasn’t nailed down and most things that were to crush them all into a single spot no bigger than the head of a pin.  Aforgomon alone withstood it perfectly, its form becoming like ethereal water as it faded partially into the infinite abyss.  The crumplezone roared forward toward Rhona’s house, but against three Merged Aforgomon couldn’t afford to waste a single second.  It raised its arms in a salute to the moonlight sea, and from the sky columns of watery light surged down to blast Leon and Miriam.  All the while, however, the alternate Great One left its face uncovered.