A two-meter tall angel was floating a thousand miles above the Earth. His entire body covered in thick silver armor and his twelve enormous wings were shimmering in the golden sunlight. It appeared as though he were aimlessly drifting, but he was actually heading towards the African Continent.

There were a few flashes from the peak of Luna’s Mount Beatrix and he received a telepathic message. A feminine voice whispered “Lucas, you need to hurry… Iris is engaging the enemy and she appears to be in trouble.”

Luke had a tower shield on his left arm and a greatsword in his right hand, both of which were pure-white. After a minute or two, he finally reached a close enough distance to see the Nephilim and six-winged fiery elven woman fighting to the death.

“Iris, no~!” The moment he saw that azure kitten appear, he felt as if his very soul was being frozen. In an instant, all of the Chaotic mana throughout the entire continent of Africa was gathered within the adorable cat and one second later, it all exploded outwards.

It seemed like a bright-blue star had formed, but it was colder than liquid nitrogen and swiftly vanished. Both the inside and outside of Iris’ body were supercooled, yet she immediately responded by attempting to ‘heat’ herself up.

Chaos was given that name for a fairly obvious reason. Once she tried to raise the temperature, there was a rapid chain reaction and with a flash of blinding light, there was an absurdly large nuclear explosion.

Luke continued diving down towards the planet, but he was able to see the tsunami of pink flames passing over all of Africa. By the time he started to get close, he was forced backwards by the pressure wave and outrageous heat. His silver armor actually started melting and he felt like his internal organs were going to be destroyed if he tried to keep going forward. Fortunately, he didn’t need to worry about radiation poisoning and he was able to heal rather swiftly once he retreated far enough away.

Beatrix bluntly stated “Lucas… I can’t feel her presence anymore. I think she’s dead.”

As he continued to soar back outside of the atmosphere, Luke sighed, asking “What about Mike? Did she… Did Iris at least manage to save the universe?”

***

Iris and Michael were floating weightlessly in a pure-white room. The beautiful elven woman had fiery crimson hair and six ruby-red wings flapping around behind her back. Her bright-green eyes glared at him, as she interrogated “Who are you really?”

He immediately responded “I’m Mike, so who the fuck are you?”

She grumbled “Ugh, seriously, my name is Michael Cinagra… Though I’ve gone by many other names in the past.”

“Bitch please~! You ain’t my Daddy, so who the hell are you?” The naked Nephilim was crossing his arms and scowling.

Iris suddenly gasped and shouted “Wait a second… It’s you! It was so damn obvious!”

He muttered “I’m Michael Cinagra, and the only other people I know with that name are my father and… No way; are you ‘Him’? The guy from those stories I wrote… So I’m basically like your ‘God’, right? Or maybe more of a father… a ‘Godfather’, hehehe~.”

However, she instantly retorted “No, you aren’t God… Also, I read some of your ‘stories’ and your blog. You don’t even truly remember what happened, do you?”

Michael asked “What the fuck are you talking about? I mean, once I write something down, I don’t really need to remember it, right?”

She grumbled “That’s not what I meant… Sigh, you really are ‘Him’, aren’t you?”

The Nephilim smirked, murmuring “Okay~ then, I’m gonna go now if you’re just going to keep talking in circles like a crazy person…”

Iris sighed, explaining “You aren’t Michael Cinagra… That was always ‘my’ name. That’s why you still can’t remember what happened back then, even after awakening.”

He snickered, “So what you’re saying is that I’m not your God and I didn’t create entire universes by simply writing about them? Also, my name definitely is Michael Cinagra… My father totally named me after himself.”

The angelic elf shook her head and said “Well, that’s not what I meant… Listen, think about it this way: In that very first story you were working on, but never quite finished… Do you remember where you left off? You never posted it online, but me and Luke found it on a flash drive in your room…”

Michael immediately asked “Oh, sweet~! Who has it now though? It’d be nice if I could ya know, grab it off their corpse before I destroy the world, hahaha~…”

A gently smile appeared on Iris’ lips, as she whispered “Seriously, we should never have created Karma… And Azriel, no, even if you’ve gone insane, I’m still glad that Azriel created you, Rapture.”

The Nephilim frowned, “Wait, what? Isn’t Rapture supposed to be Luna? And she’s one of ‘your’ alter egos, so… Are you saying I’m ‘you’, cause I’m pretty sure I ain’t.”

Iris sighed, muttering “No… I used to think that Rapture ‘became’ Luna, but the truth is that ‘you’ died back then. In order to save us, you sacrificed yourself… Then Karma got a hold of you. Well, maybe I should call her ‘Arcana’ now, but even after all these eons she’s still carrying out her ‘purpose’.”

He grumbled “Hmm~, well, how do you know that I’m not the real Michael and you aren’t Rapture?”

“Oh, I don’t know? Maybe it’s the fact that you’re willing to destroy an entire universe for an entity that will eventually devour you, along with everything else in existence?! At least when I destroy worlds or whatever, there’s a moral reason! You, you’re just a selfish, delusional asshole who only cares about satisfying your own desires!” It didn’t take long for her to become totally infuriated by the obnoxious Nephilim.

Michael retorted “Oi~, I also care about satisfying the desires of my wives and girlfriends…”

Iris screamed “You fused their souls into yours, so just how the hell are they different from ‘you’ now?! They’re all just pieces of your own soul!”

The naked man refuted “I’m pretty sure I’m not a crazy loli cat-girl Iris… I’ve also never been as much of a pussy as my angelic wife.”

She yelled “No, you definitely are! The seven of you chose to become a single entity! You’re all just one, really dangerous, insane and ridiculously powerful soul now! You might have multiple personalities, but you have conjoined souls!”

Michael sighed dramatically, “Calm your giant perky tits… Besides, how could ‘you’ have the right to judge me about this? When you truly love someone, it’s only natural to want to ‘fuse’ with them on the deepest level possible… To be with them forever and keep them safe. I’m not like ‘you’… Now that I think about it though, you’re a hypocritical bastard, ya know that? If I’m really Rapture, then I’m glad, because it means I’m not responsible for ‘your’ goddamn sins! The lot of you ‘invented’ evil! Before you seven existed… You know what, I don’t care anymore! It’s not my fucking problem! Life is about enjoyment! If you’re constantly trying to ‘fix’ everything, you’ll never be able to really ‘live’! Besides, I’ve never done anything wrong! Ever! I’ve made a few mistakes, sure~… But at least I never raped or enslaved anybody!”

Iris smirked, asking “Do you honestly believe that? Do you really think that Karma gives a shit about any of those rules anymore? Back when she was just an AI in a VR, she was programmed to punish sinners and reward those who deserved it… but it’s been too long since then. She’s evolved way past the point where she actually cares about anything other than power. All she desires is to become a true deity… Sure, she still follows the rules, but that’s only because she ‘needs’ them. Without the rules, she’s no better than Chaotica or the others…”

He smirked, “Well, to be completely honest though… I only kinda-sorta know what the fuck you’re talking about. For the most part, I’m just guesstimating and trying to pretend like I understand what’s going on. Still, if Kana tries to screw me over, then I’ll deal with that when the time comes… Anyway~, you’re dead now, so I got bigger or maybe smaller fish to fry. I guess I’ll probably see you in Arcana? Oh, and by the way, you’re going to be my daughter… and a cat. Not like a cat-girl, but an actual cat. Have fun with that~!”

*Author’s Note*

Since the moment I started writing “Hardcore OP-ness” people have been asking me if Michael from HCOP was the same character as Michael from “Immortal Soul”. Some speculated that Michael in HCOP was actually just the younger version of Michael from IS, especially because I started writing HCOP right after I stopped working on IS… And technically, they are very similar and possibly the same. Of course, there are also other Michael Cinagra fragments out there as well.

As for who Rapture is… It’s a character from a story I wrote a very long time ago and never really showed to anyone lmfao. However, it’s also a character from a story that I haven’t written yet, but ‘started’ writing a while ago… But I stopped before getting past the first chapter. I literally have dozens of stories like that saved away. Where I wrote a chapter or two, sometimes even ten(The Vanilla God), but I didn’t have time to focus on them.

By the way, I’m almost caught up with “Hardcore Legacies”… The current chapter that I’m working on is 107. I think that “Hardcore Legacies” will probably end at around chapter 110-120.

Sigh, I have so many stories that I need to edit and turn into books to sell, along with stories that I need to finish or at least get back to writing… It always feels like I have an endless amount of things to do in regards to writing and editing lmao.

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