Earlier:

"N-Type and A-Type," Izuku said to Raia, standing inside his castle after Brandon had left. "What's the difference?"

"Vestiges are the Manifestation of your Soul's deepest reflection."

"My N-Type was a Shadow World. It was kind of... edgy for someone like me."

"Null represents chaos, emotions, desire. It's not something you're inherently aware of. It's very much... human."

"Like the doors on Bael's Forge," Izuku noted.

Raia nodded. "Absolute is order. It's sterile and it's very surface-level. N-Type is a Manifestation you didn't even know you had. A-Type is up to you. It's your creation. Your Soul is A-Type Particles. It harnesses N-Type Particles. So, N-Type is made by the universe, A-Type is what you make with the particles of your own Soul."

"Then why is my N-Type so dark? Is it just because I'm the Shadow Monarch?"

"I can't give you a definitive answer," Raia replied. "But I think... You've tried so hard to be a good person. I once believed you were too kind, too moral for this power. Somewhere in there, whether you know it or not, you hold more darkness than you know."

*******

Present:

"A-Type: Manifest Destiny."

The sky darkened, and the stars came out in full force. It was the most brilliant display of the cosmos Izuku had ever seen.

*******

[Manifest Destiny:]

ABSOLUTE-Type Vestige Manifestation.

Cost: Reduces Mana down to 1% of its max value.

Description: The User's physical body is stretched into a starry night sky. Each of the stars shine a laser at a certain angle. These lasers count as contact with the target, allowing the User to activate the Quirk - New Order. Boosts the power of every Order.

*******

"So it is a Quirk..."

"Izuku Midoriya's Soul is destroyed!" Cathleen's voice echoed around him.

One of Izuku's buffer Souls, contained within One For All, was mangled and vanished. It would regenerate eventually, but it showed she could get her hits in.

"What?! Why didn't that- You have multiple Souls!"

"Izuku Midoriya loses all of his Souls!" Nothing happened, not even the One For All Souls. That was because...

"Lasers are light, and gravity can have an effect on light," He answered, using his Apex Skill to create an intense field where none of the lasers would intersect with him. "It was a neat trick. Usually, only Gods can utilize Vestiges, but I guess your Primordial DNA gave you the capacity."

"Why?! Why won't you die?! Maybe I'll just keep you here forever! So humanity can move on!"

Izuku shrugged. "I can activate my own Vestige and cancel this out at any time. Or teleport for that instance. This Vestige isn't strong enough to hold me. The real question isn't why you can't kill me, it's why you want me dead so badly. You're conscious, something most victims of... ya know what, let's call it Space Madness- no Cosmic Madness. I don't want to use the exact phrase Project Gray used and it's much easier to say than Yog-Sothoth. Cosmic Madness is when a human brain cannot handle the truth of the universe, or the multiverse as it were. It's a biological response only a handful have. Some people can handle it. It implies a psychological state. So tell me, why do you want to kill me?"

"You think you can trick me?!"

"Well, it seems like I can't hurt you in this state and you can't hurt me, it's the perfect time to talk." Izuku shouted to the strange void that Star had become. He could've done any number of things, including a Vestige, but he didn't want to risk it just yet. It spent almost all of his Mana, after all. "Think of it logically. You know about Project Gray and you know that Cosmic Madness is a real thing. So, why kill me? Surely your fears stem more from the horrors of the multiverse?"

"You're part of it, NULL."

Izuku sighed. "Yes. It appears that I have been chosen as some... part of NULL. A vessel or avatar. I don't know. I know the way this world... universe, works. But that doesn't mean I know everything."

"NULL is chaos. It's the Monarchs, it's destruction!"

"Ah..." Izuku laughed. "You're afraid of a lack of control, that's where it all stems from."

"..."

"As a National-Rank, with a hotline to the President of the United States, you probably felt like you had control of everything. Or at least enough to not feel left out. That's why you see me as a threat. Someone stronger."

"An agent of chaos!"

Izuku struggled to not roll his eyes. It was so cliche. "I don't know if you've noticed, but I've been trying to limit the chaos! Jonas, for instance?"

"Sure. You're gaining my trust for some plan."

"And what plan is that? Just because I want to unite humanity under one banner doesn't mean I'm some... dictator or genocidal maniac."

"No, it's much deeper than that. I saw it when I touched Yggdrasil to activate an order." Izuku felt Star trying to probe him with the lasers as she spoke, missing every single time. "Our existence, our reality, is threatened from a place we cannot reach, something that NULL and ABSOLUTE are behind. So anything close to them cannot be trusted. The Monarchs and Rulers..." She scoffed. "They're just a symptom of the larger illness."

"Okay... fine... I'll tell you what it all is." Izuku sighed. "I doubt this'll make you any more sane, but it can't be helped."

"A-Type: Pillar of Reality."

Suddenly, Cathleen's Vestige was wiped away, like a canvas being washed of any paint.

Izuku and Cathleen stood in a white space, with a towering pillar of light behind them. It was made of countless strings of light.

"What... what is this?" Cathleen looked at her hands, surprised to see she was back to her physical form.

"My Soul," He answered. "My N-Type is a world of Shadows, for physical and magical battles in the real world. My A-Type is-"

"N-Type?"

"Oh... you can't do one of those? Nevermind, it's not important." He brushed away her concerns. "In this world, we are completely equal. Our powers are wiped away, and we stand on equal footing. I made it to combat things stronger than I am."

"But, if you're the same strength, then wouldn't they-"

Izuku practically giggled with mirth. It was a clear sound that rang throughout the eternity he created. "If our strength becomes equal, then it is only a test of willpower. Who can get hit and keep getting up? If it comes down to that... I will never lose."

"Is that why you pulled me in here? To kill me?"

Izuku shook his head. "I pulled you in here, because it's not just equal strength. It's understanding. My Soul laid bare for others to see and learn. I created this Vestige not only to handle stronger opponents, but to handle minds far different from my own. To reach an understanding, in the hopes that beating each other senseless is not necessary."

"Then, what have you brought me here to see?"

Izuku took a deep breath, still processing it himself. "In another world, above ours, is one we cannot reach as you put it. It is a universe very much like our own, where Earth came to host a series of powers called Quirks."

Images flashed around Izuku, a world without Rulers or Monarchs, without Gods and monsters, and without NULL or ABSOLUTE. "In this universe, there is another Izuku Midoriya. A boy who was born without a Quirk, who wanted to be a Hero, and to save lives. But in this world, a Hero needs a Quirk, a power. Something he doesn't have. And then." The images changed to show a suburban alley in Japan, where sakura petals fluttered down around a young boy with green hair and a frail man with blonde hair.

"Young man, you too can become a Hero!"

Izuku felt tears welling up subconsciously. In this space, everything you felt was made true. He couldn't hide the emotions such a scene drew from his heart. "This boy would go on to accept One For All, a Quirk that worked for the good of humanity." The entirety of Izuku Midoriya's life played out, up to the final moments of his Quirk.

He stood across from a man with white hair and cracked skin. "Tenko Shimura, or Tomura Shigaraki. In a final desperate plea to save his nemesis, Izuku Midoriya transferred One For All to this Villain." Tomura was then shown dissolving and the 'video' slowed as it reached his upper half. "The Quirks were in the process of destroying each other, and ending the threat to their world."

Cathleen's eyes grew wide. "NULL and ABSOLUTE..."

"Neither Quirk is NULL, and both are NULL. They are both ABSOLUTE and yet, neither are ABSOLUTE." He waved away the images. "The two Quirks had endless potential, endless energy. They were eggs, and each one held a universe of possibility. When they were set free from their human hosts, they merged, and what was one universe each became... a multiverse."

"So... I was right? We're not real? We're just the dying essence of two... superpowers?"

Izuku smiled. "I don't think so. I think... we're reflections. The two Quirks are destroying themselves, right now, as we speak. But time works differently here. Our years are attoseconds in that other universe. Our universe might be threatened by the two. Who knows what will happen when they fully merge, or maybe they'll destroy each other? But we are real."

"How? How could we possibly ever be real if that's where we come from?!"

"What created that universe then? What created the one above it?" His questions grabbed her attention. Her crazed gaze. The images revealed a chain of universes, never ending, never beginning. "We are as real as we choose to be."

Cathleen grabbed her head, falling to her knees. "What is all of this?! Just a hell to toy with us?!"

"We're a reflection, like I said." The images changed to show several different Izukus. A hybrid human-dragon. A man encased in metal armor who could run faster than the speed of sound. An autonomous sentience, seeking answers and the penance of humanity. A young slave piloting a mech. Dozens more crossed Star's vision, showing her endless possibilities.

"Reflections of their world. Some are similar, some are impossibly different, and some that make no sense at all. I believe that, in many ways, I am Izuku Midoriya's desire to hold onto his power. I am his potential for endless growth, given away for the sake of others." He sat on the 'ground' of the Soulscape, across from Cathleen. "That is Cosmic Madness. Understanding that we might not... matter..." He laughed bitterly. "Do you know how much I've been through? How much we've all been through? That's why some people fall to the Madness and others don't? It's because those who are immune have reconciled with their own importance."

"How does a reflection matter?" She asked quietly. Her madness vanished, replaced by an impossible void of loneliness.

"You just asked the same question Izuku Midoriya once asked himself," He replied, showing the Izuku Midoriya above comparing himself to All Might. "And if he knew the truth about his universe, where it came from, he'd ask the same question... because it's the question everyone asks. What is my purpose?" He gestured broadly at his own Soulscape. "Is this real? Or is our physical world the real one? Simulations, Gods, happenstance. That is how our endless cycle of universes exist. None of them are more 'real' than the last, and yet they continue."

"I think... therefore I am?" She whispered.

"Exactly. Maybe one day, we'll create our own set of universes that spiral out into the chain of reality."

"But if it could all end? The Quirks merging?"

Izuku shrugged. "It won't happen for at least another three hundred and twenty-six thousand years. A... friend of mine, did the math." He corrected, almost saying the Synthetic Lord's name. "What happens at the end of those years is not for us to say. The most likely conclusion?" She looked up with tear-stricken eyes. "We continue to exist, our own link in the chain. It's really not much different from our current reality. One day, a few more billion years I grant you, the sun will consume the Earth in a fiery haze. And in a couple decades, without interference, the climate will eradicate most life on the planet. We've always been on the brink of destruction."

"So, what are we doing... here?"

"Well... that's for us to decide. Our... original, if that's what you want to call him," Izuku said, gesturing to an image of the Izuku in the universe above theirs, "believes that his purpose is to save lives."

"And in the grand scheme of things, it won't matter," Star protested.

"Yet he did it with a smile. And I'll continue to do so as well, no matter what I know."

"How...?" She asked again.

"I told you, I don't have all the answers. I just know... this is a world worth fighting for. As fleeting as it may or may not be, I'm not going to let the Monarchs destroy it. They think we have no free will because the Absolute Being and his sister knew all of this." He spread his hands to encompass everything he'd told her. "They couldn't handle that truth, that we may not matter, that we may not be real, or have free will. They want to destroy this universe so that they can build their own, without NULL and ABSOLUTE. As for me, I don't care. I just hope that, one day, I can meet my own reflection and tell him that his sacrifice was worth it. He spawned countless lives, countless universes, even if he didn't mean to."

The Vestige faded away, and the two found themselves sitting cross-legged on a mountain top, somewhere in Montana. Star was no longer in a fury of madness, she merely looked sad. Izuku grabbed some snow and poured it over Star's head.

"Gah! What-" She stopped short as she spotted Izuku's smirk.

"Feels pretty real, huh?"

She stared off into the horizon, watching the sun rise. "Yeah, it did... It's uhm... a lot to process."

"I know. I haven't even told my wives yet. Still debating that. There definitely are some things we aren't mean to know." He looked up and saw Igris standing next to him, a hand on his Liege's shoulder. "But, if it's any consolation, my Shadows know there is something after death. Something beyond even the Shadow Monarch. There's more to this... reality than we know." He slapped his knees and stood. "Come on, we have work to do."

"Wha...? That's it? I start a war and try to-"

"I was prepared to kill you, didn't mean I wanted to. As for the war, that's exactly what you're going to fix."

*******

"I'm sorry what?! It's been five days?!" Izuku was dragged to his home in Japan by Momo's phone call.

Yaoyorozu gave him a hug of relief. "We couldn't reach you. Kamish, Phantom, Beru, Igris, The Lesser World and Orobours. None of them could get to you."

"Okay... okay, bring me up to speed..." He took note of President Andrew in his living room, just as everyone else took note of Star.

"She's sane. A whole can of worms there. I don't see her as a threat. But him?"

"My job," Thomas Andre said, joining the party. "When it became clear America was... fracturing, I took him here, the only place I knew he'd be safe. I would've asked but-" He didn't seem too broken up about crashing in Izuku's home with the President.

"It was the right call," Izuku said, ending that discussion. "Her Vestige," he said pointing to Star, "My Vestige and my Gravity Magic... we must've dilated time for ourselves between those three. So, what happened while we were gone?"

Kaina still looked ready to shoot Star, but held her tongue. "Well, about 12 hours after you guys vanished, the United States was in complete turmoil. It's not even clear what sides there are. California, Texas, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona formed their own little contingent. They're probably the most organized outside of the North-East Coalition. Pretty much any state close to D.C."

"But practically every state is in urban warfare." Andrew butted in. "Even the North-East and the South-West alliances. States are more divided than they'd like to admit. Total chaos. I made an address from Area 51, declaring Star a criminal and explaining her 'influence' over the North-East States. Moments later, we were being bombed by our newest stealth plane."

"Which is when Andre requested we shelter the President," Phantom added. "Due to Japan's favorable relations with the United States, and our relative peace, we accepted. I made the decision, my Liege. Should there be any burden for that decision, I will accept them fully."

Izuku shook his head alongside Momo. "No, you made the right call. No one would risk coming here to get him. I appreciate the initiative, in fact." He turned his attention back to the President. "You seriously couldn't get them to listen?"

"I made so many calls..." He said, his shoulders slumped. Rumi, standing behind him, nodded to Izuku. He was telling the truth. "Generals, politicians, entire divisions of the American forces..." Andrew looked up to Star with broken eyes. "General Abernacky... How did you destroy us so..." He couldn't finish the sentence.

"I... I admit I used Orders to mind control or brainwash several high-ranking members. But I didn't think I did enough to completely eliminate your own influence," She responded. She seemed confused. "Am I missing time? I don't understand... General Abernacky, are you saying I turned him?"

Andrew scoffed. "I knew his family, I thought... but no, he just wouldn't listen..."

Cathleen looked at Izuku. "I... don't remember that. But I remember everything else. I was fully conscious, just... under false beliefs."

"I think I believe her." He saw his family staring at him. "I'll explain everything later, I swear."

"So you think that something else is at work here?"

"Possibly, we never did figure out what those Anti-Heroes on Europa were up to..." Izuku shook his head. "Please continue."

"As soon as it was clear that America was... occupied, China made its move. Taiwan is currently repelling an invasion force."

"That was when the Shadows intervened," Igris answered. "I took command of our army, and with support from our Empress, started to allocate forces around the world."

"Taiwan and China are in a stalemate thanks to their own military might and some Rogue Warriors and F-52s for air support," Momo reported.

"Shortly after that, India and Pakistan's relations broke. They'd been remarkably amicable up until recently. Pressure from the Gates and the geopolitics..." Andrew shook his head. "Brazil's own Civil War continued in earnest, with Jonas back to his old tricks. Argentina and Chile formed a defensive pact. Turkey started moving into the Middle-East. Ever since Russia became neutered by the Shadow Monarch, they've had much more 'freedom.'"

Izuku clicked his tongue at that. "Is Russia still... ya know?"

Setsuna nodded. "Don't worry, I talked to Yuri, with a translator of course. Russia's still half infested with Chaotics, like Australia, and recovering from the Second Russo-Japanese war. Even the most hardcore Generals over there want time to rebuild their forces before they do anything stupid. Yuri's got everyone on a pretty tight leash after Quaresha anyways."

"That's what probably got to America..." Izuku realized. "To some of these countries. Maybe working through humans, maybe not. But we can assume some Higher Beings are involved with these wars. How's Europe, Africa, and the Norwegian countries?"

"The Norwegian countries are currently neutral, nothing going on there."