Rise of an Immortal

Chapter 198: A Home Built From Miracles

[Asterhaven, Mars, Evening]

The tour stretched on as Ethan led them from wing to wing, and with every new room the palace revealed another layer of thought poured into its construction.

Each of their private chambers had been shaped around who they were rather than some generic template of luxury.

Susan’s wing carried clean lines and soft blue accents, shelves lined with blank journals and a lab bench tucked into the corner that looked suspiciously well equipped for someone who had not asked for one.

Diana’s space opened onto a private balcony overlooking the ocean, armor stands and a training area built into the adjoining room.

Anna’s wing held soft lighting and thick fabric everywhere, designed for a woman who had spent years afraid to touch anything without consequence and finally did not have to think about it here.

Jean’s chambers were bright and open, filled with warm natural light even at this hour, courtesy of whatever Ethan had rigged into the windows.

Didi’s room needed the least explanation. It simply felt right the moment she stepped inside, as if the space had been waiting for her long before she arrived.

Each of them walked through their own space in silence, taking in details built specifically around who they were, and Ethan watched from the doorway of each room with the same quiet satisfaction.

’Yeah, I definitely earned some good boyfriend and husband points tonight,’ he thought, arms crossed as he leaned against Anna’s doorframe. ’Might even cash them in later.’

Then they descended eventually to the basement, where the air shifted and grew heavier with restrained power. A massive chamber stood at the center of the lower level, its walls lined with runes that pulsed faintly gold.

"Hyperbolic Time Chamber," Ethan said, gesturing toward it. "Same tech I used to help you all through your Monarch transformations. Built a second one here in case anyone needs it again."

By this point, the surprise on their faces had dulled into something closer to fond exasperation. Anna crossed her arms and gave the chamber a long look.

"At what point," she asked, "does anything you do actually surprise us anymore?"

"Never, apparently," Susan said dryly. "You terraformed an entire planet into a better version of Earth and populated it with an alien species in what, weeks? A second time chamber in the basement barely registers at this point."

Diana chuckled softly. "I have decided to simply accept that surprise is no longer a reaction available to me where you are concerned."

’Honestly, fair,’ Ethan thought, watching them take the chamber in with barely raised eyebrows.

He led them onward, deeper into the lower level, until they reached a chamber unlike anything they had seen so far.

Crystalline structures lined the walls, humming with contained energy, and at the center stood a raised platform etched with the same golden runes.

"This is the Genesis Chamber," Ethan said. "This is where Adam and Eve came from."

Jean stepped closer, studying the crystal formations with open curiosity. "And the technology behind it?"

"General Zod," Ethan said simply. "Or rather, what I pulled from the aftermath of a fight with him, back during the whole Flashpoint mess. Figured a genocidal war criminal wasn’t exactly using it for anything productive anymore, so I borrowed it."

Anna’s mouth curled into a smirk. "So you stole it."

"I prefer ’acquired under chaotic circumstances.’"

"That is theft with extra steps."

Diana raised a hand before Ethan could argue further, her tone perfectly diplomatic. "To be fair, victor takes all. It is a very old rule. I would say this is entirely justified."

Jean turned and shot Ethan a flat look. "You are corrupting her. She used to be the reasonable one."

"Hey now." Ethan spread his hands in mock innocence. "I didn’t corrupt anybody. Diana’s just got excellent taste in logic."

’Or maybe it’s just my charm rubbing off on everyone,’ he thought, glancing at Diana with a faint grin. ’Either way, I’m taking the win.’

"It’s my charm," he said aloud, shrugging.

Didi and Susan both broke into laughter at that, Susan pressing a hand to her mouth to muffle it and failing entirely. Even Diana’s lips twitched with barely restrained amusement.

Once the laughter settled, Susan’s focus sharpened, the scientist in her clearly awake and turning something over. "Ethan, this Genesis Chamber. Could it be adapted for cross species genetic work?"

Ethan blinked. "Come again?"

"The old project in our company," Susan said, stepping closer to the platform, eyes tracing the runes with growing excitement. "Doctor Parker and Doctor Conners have been working on cross species genetic integration. We already give people mechanical limbs when they lose them, but what if we didn’t have to? What if we could regrow the limb itself, using genuine biological tissue instead of machinery?"

Her voice picked up pace as the idea took hold of her fully, hands gesturing as she spoke, the same energy she carried whenever a real scientific breakthrough sat within reach.

Ethan smiled as he watched her. ’There she is. Somebody hand this woman a lab coat before she starts drawing diagrams on the wall.’

Then the smile faltered slightly as a memory surfaced.

"Actually," he said slowly, "that project already hit a wall a few weeks back. Parker and Conners were close. Really close, from what I remember reading in the reports and only final step away from a real breakthrough."

Susan’s excitement dimmed into confusion. "Then why isn’t it moving forward?"

"Richard shut it down," Ethan said. "Said it wasn’t possible. That was back when the project still belonged to Oscorp, before the merger folded it into Aeon. From what I heard, he and Conners went back and forth pretty hard over it. They had a real argument, not just a disagreement. But in the end Richard pulled the plug and the whole thing got shelved."

Susan frowned, clearly unsatisfied with that answer. "That seems like an unusual decision for someone that close to a breakthrough."

Even though Ethan knew why the project had been canceled, he chose not to bring it up. Doing so would only lead to a much longer discussion with Susan, and this wasn’t the right time for it.

He could explain everything to her later.

"Yeah," Ethan agreed. "We’ll dig into it properly when we’re back on Earth. For now, let’s keep the tour going. There’s a lot more to see."

They moved on from the Genesis Chamber and continued through the palace grounds, passing through gardens, training courtyards, and long open halls where Kryptonians going about their duties paused to bow their heads in respect the moment they recognized Ethan and the women beside him.

"Lord Ethan," one would say, inclining their head. Another would offer a warm "Welcome home" to the group as they passed. Every single greeting carried the same weight of genuine reverence, none of it performative.

Jean, still adjusting to the sheer scale of what Ethan had built, found herself curious about the people themselves. She stopped one of the passing Kryptonians, a tall man with kind eyes carrying a stack of crystal tablets.

"What’s your name?" she asked.

"Zorbo, my lady," he said, bowing slightly.

Jean blinked. "I’m sorry, what?"

"Zorbo," he repeated, entirely earnest.

They continued on, and Jean, now thoroughly intrigued, asked another passing Kryptonian, a woman tending to the garden beds along the path.

"And you? What’s your name?"

"Blorbin," the woman answered with a proud smile, as though it were the most elegant name she had ever heard.

Anna nearly choked. Diana’s composure cracked entirely, a laugh slipping free before she could stop it. Susan pressed her lips together hard, and Didi outright snorted.

Jean rounded on Ethan immediately, eyes narrowed. "Ethan... Zorbo and Blorbin. What did you do?"

Ethan raised both hands immediately in surrender. "In my defense, we made a hundred of them. You try coming up with a hundred good names in one sitting without repeating yourself."

"So your solution was Zorbo?"

"Zorbo has range, Jean. Don’t disrespect Zorbo."

’To be fair, Blorbin was actually one of the better ones,’ he thought, biting back a grin. ’You should hear what I almost named the guy standing guard by the east gate.’

Anna wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, still laughing. "This is exactly why you are never naming our children. Not without a full committee vote first."

"Seconded," Susan said immediately.

"Thirded," Diana added, still smiling.

Didi simply nodded along, entirely unbothered, clearly filing the entire moment away for future teasing material.

Ethan sighed dramatically, pressing a hand to his chest. "Wow. Vetoed before I even got the chance to name anyone. This family has no faith in me."

"We have plenty of faith in you," Jean said, patting his arm with mock sympathy. "Just none whatsoever in your naming ability."

Ethan couldn’t help the thought that crossed his mind.

’Why does this feel like I’m some anime protagonist stuck in the middle of an absurd naming scene? What kind of anime setup is this?’

He shook his head and decided not to think about it any further.

As the laughter faded and the tour wound its way back toward the main hall, Ethan finally walked them through the fuller story behind it all.

He explained how the idea for Mars first took root, the months of quiet planning that went into adapting the World Engines, the sheer volume of blood it had taken to seed the soil, and the care poured into shaping every mountain range and coastline by hand.

He told them about the moment he had first stepped onto the barren red surface and pictured, with total clarity, exactly what it could become.

By the time he finished, even Anna’s teasing had quieted into something softer, the weight of what he had built finally settling in fully alongside the humor.

He also told them about his new power, the Paragon Force, and his plan to create a legion of Kryptonian Heralds by gifting them the Paragon Force, allowing them to wield the Power Cosmic.

He also intended to send them across the universe to gather the DNA of new species, expanding the Genesis Chamber’s genetic library and creating even more unique cross-species hybrids for their planet.

The idea was met with almost universal excitement.

Jean, Diana, and Anna immediately proposed going out to explore the universe themselves. They had traveled to other universes before, but they had never truly explored the one they now called home.

Ethan smiled at their enthusiasm and promised they could all take a short trip together once everything here had settled down.

...

[Asterhaven, Mars, Three Days Later]

Three days passed in what felt like no time at all.

Ethan and his family split their hours between Earth and Mars, unwilling to let either home go unattended, drifting between the quiet comfort of New York and the still-new wonder of Asterhaven.

Jean caught up on prenatal visits between short trips back to Star City. Susan spent an entire afternoon buried in the Genesis Chamber’s readouts, already sketching early theoretical notes despite Ethan’s warning that the Parker and Conners situation needed sorting first.

Diana toured the training grounds with Adam, testing the limits of Kryptonian sparring partners with clear delight. Anna wandered the gardens with Didi, the two of them trading quiet conversation beneath Martian skies neither had ever expected to walk under.

But today carried a different kind of weight.

Today, the Skrulls were finally going home.

Ethan stood in the main hall of Asterhaven, the golden light of late afternoon spilling through the high windows behind him. He raised a hand and drew a slow circle in the air, and a portal opened before him, humming faintly with contained power.

On the other side waited Nick Fury but he’s not alone.