Abaddon blinked and suddenly he was in more familiar settings than his own backyard.

He and everyone else stood outside of Asherah''s humble wooden home.

The mother goddess herself soon emerged with her standard white dress and veil covering her beautiful face.

"Welcome... I do hope that the trip here was not too disorienting."

The sound of Darius'' retching noises was all the answer that she needed to hear to get her answer.

"Don''t mind him, he''s just not used to being pulled outside of space and time by anyone who isn''t his wife." Valerie rolled her eyes.

Darius was again too dizzy to retort properly, so he settled for a mere middle finger as he buried his head in the ground.

"Asherah..." Abaddon began. "Is what I''m feeling-"

"Yes, your intuition is correct..." She said grimly.

"Ten unique universes are being forcefully welded together."

The silence that followed in the wake of this bombshell was new even for the nexus of creation.

It is difficult to overestimate the jeopardy associated with universes colliding into each other.

Most of the danger lies in the overlap. If two stars are in the exact same place in opposing universes, universal fusion means that they must collide.

There is a 50% chance for them to grow into a bigger, single star. And another possibility that they will become black holes that feed on anything they can to grow bigger.

The same applies to planets, but on a worse scale.

Oceans spill over to the point of causing natural disasters. Entire landmasses can be ruined from smashing into one another; creating a nightmarish scenario for animals and mortals alike.

But there are other issues.

Imagine you are living your life. You just finished cranking one out to the latest questionable doujin on an ungodly website that you must take to your grave.

In the midst of cleaning your history, you develop a splitting headache.

This headache comes with memories of a life that is still very much yours, but also not at the same time.

In this new set of memories, you have a partner. A child. Maybe even a better job with paid vacations and your own parking spot!

But as soon as you get your memories, you realize that your reality hasn''t changed at all. And those things were almost like a fiction of your imagination.

Wouldn''t that drive you insane?

Mortals and deities native to the afflicted universes will feel that discomfort and anger ten times over. Anarchy will spread like a plague as mortals fight to cherry pick the best parts of their multiple lives for themselves.

If a man decides he wants his wife from his fifth life, he''ll go to find her.

But if he finds her with another man who she has deemed better for herself, his fractured mind will not allow him to simply walk away.

Bloodshed will be imminent.

Gods and beings of magical origin will be affected slightly differently. Like stars, they will either burn more brightly or go boom- shimmering out of existence. But the likelihood of the latter is much lower for them.

This was the reason the primordials went down at Courtney''s dinner.

They are beings who are but a step away from perfection. They are more finely in tuned with themselves than any human could ever hope to imitate.

They felt their alternate selves be forcefully pushed together as if to fit a mold.

Valerie opened her mouth to speak but no words came out.

She felt a soft hand land on her shoulder. Without even looking back to see who it was, she gave it a firm squeeze. Somehow it felt like this was her only tether to the world right now.

"I know you want to bring your whole army for your father. But there is another way here that I don''t believe you''ve taken the time to look at."

Though Asherah''s face was covered, Valerie could still follow her gaze.

She, and everyone else here, slowly turned their eyes to stare at the only human present.

"...What?" Shin folded his arms.

"I understand it may be a monumental ask." Asherah began. "But will you lend your order''s aid to this family so that they might bring a loved one home and avert catastrophe?"

Abaddon and Shin looked equally displeased.

"We don''t need them."

"My order hunts horrors, it doesn''t help them."

Both men glared each other like the hated adversaries that they were.

"... The order will be taking part in fixing the anomaly, but only because it spells misfortune for the rest of creation." Shin huffed.

Ten universes pressing together would have an effect on more than just them.

Once they were fully fused, their combined weight will start impacting surrounding universes- smashing into them just the same.

It will become one big, brutal demonstration of the snowball effect.

"I do have just one question though..." Shin looked at Asherah.

"Yes?"

"Surely this is something that should fall in the jurisdiction of you and your husband. Can you not pull apart the universes yourself?"

Asherah briefly faltered a bit before she kneeled down into the grass and started playing with the flowers.

"My control over creation is not quite as... all encompassing as my husband''s. I fear I wouldn''t fare much better than Gulban if I went now."

Abaddon''s eyes narrowed but he said nothing.

Shin grumbled. "Then I don''t know what my little outfit can do if even the mother of creation has to hold up her hands."

"That is why you need to work together with Ayaana and Abaddon.

The only way to pull apart the universes safely is if your forces are armed with their magic and your technology.

You don''t have to be best friends. You just have to work together for the greater good of all."

Shin glanced at Abaddon out of the corner of his eye.

But this time, the dragon wasn''t looking at him.

His gaze was thoroughly trained on Asherah; his expression deeply contemplative.

But he didn''t seem to be concerning himself with the subject being discussed at present.

His mind was almost somewhere else entirely.

What is it that she''s not telling us..?