As long as he's continuing to engage the heroes, that's the important thing.

He does. The trickle keeps coming.

—scattering cells across worlds and time—
—two beings spiraling together through space—
—drawing energy from all parallel worlds when leaving—
—Destination.—
—building an avatar in the same shape as the inhabitants—

Each shade still comes with a power, but that seems hardly as interesting at the moment.

Indeed.

This is fascinating.

The search and rescue people managed some kind of improvement or whatever. That trickle slows down and fewer people die.

It's an Endbringer fight; that can't last for long.
—spiraling through space again, planning the next cycle—
—the crashed body being killed by a human with a knife—
—the shattered remains of every version of the world they just left—
—more spiraling—

This has happened before, elsewhere. But the cycle is broken this time. Interference, cosmic, then human.

Avatars of the entities, in local form... Scion?

She doesn't get any flashes that convenient, but that excerpt from a previous cycle does involve the impression of picking a form associated with local objects of worship. (It's a very high-bandwidth flash.) Flying golden Jesus would fit.

Heh. That's kind of amusing. The savior is the one who would burn the world.

It's taking longer and longer between fragments that aren't just redundant. It gradually comes out that the beings are dreading the end of the multiverse and are using the cycle as a way to evolve abilities that might get them around entropy somehow, hence all the note-taking on what hosts do with it. They make sure powers are incapable of reaching the worlds that contain the remainder of their own massive bulk, as well as the ones where they stash the cells that protrude into Earth Bet's three dimensions. The humans who killed the second one are now harvesting its body to distribute powers. Nothing says whether or not they know what they're messing with.

There's probably more information to be had, but judging by the repetitiveness she knows most of it.

Answers the question of powers-in-a-can.

What an incredible amount of power these entities control. With her collection ability, she could perhaps simulate it, eventually. Or even replace the dead one. She'll need powers, lots of powers, preferentially those harvested from that entity.

Nearly all the shades of physically mutated capes give flashbacks involving the dead one. The converse isn't true.

The fight, if she cares about that, seems to involve the defenders gradually losing ground. They drive Leviathan back and then he slides right through, and then they repeat. Spatial distortions and force fields occasionally prevent a charge before it gets going. Leviathan doesn't seem to be being very strategic, and then a geyser bursts from underneath the heroes' command center.

That'd be the aquifer. This fight is probably just about over, then.

The next few shades are more noncombat and thinker types than the last ones. Alexandria and the other front-line capes try to drive Leviathan back. While he tries to drown her, a blindingly bright light breaks through the clouds and bores into him.

And now the fight really is over. Time to go. She's not ready to meet Scion again just yet.

Wrong color. It's a white light, not golden. Not that she's the only one making that mistake.

Legend and Alexandria have fought Leviathan together before, and slip right back to fighting how they always do. Everyone else is just really confused.

...Ellie is also confused. She hadn't been under the impression any of the Butchers were that altruistic.

Can she make out his shade?

It looks the same as it did before. Butchers still attached. Most of them aren't actively doing anything at all, but there could be any number of reasons for that.

Curiouser and curiouser. Just who was Cristof working for?

Change of plans, she's staying to watch the rest of this.

So is everyone else, until some blue-armored cape with an axe reminds them that they're not just here to watch. Anyone who can join does; Legend is almost as much of a morale boost as a combatant.

That admonishment presumably continues not to apply to her.

If they want her help, they can ask for it.

No one does. One of the major reasons may no longer apply, but they still don't trust her.

Legend isn't enough to turn the tide by himself. Before Leviathan's next charge the blue-armored tinker duels him one-on-one, presumably coordinating with some communication device they didn't offer Ellie, and doesn't die. Alexandria does have to bail him out after he takes a hit, but giving the heroes a chance to regroup is worth a lot. They start driving the Endbringer back to the shore.

Over after all, maybe. Unless he turns out to have something cute up his metaphorical sleeve before he leaves.

More numerous and more dramatic waves, but Eidolon's off canceling those as best he can.

And some of the Triumvirate's international equivalents are here too, to compensate for Legend's loss, so the defenders are pretty well positioned to force him off.

Wonder if they'll be calling this one a win.

Definitely. There was a Leviathan attacking, then there wasn't.

After he's gone and after more urgent tasks, Alexandria stops by the Keres. "I hope I don't have to explain how much of a colossal bad idea it would be if you try to harvest any living capes here."

"We think we can guess. You need not trouble yourself, Rule. The reappearance of the Beacon has given us much to ponder."