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I stepped through the portal to Arishem's location, immediately seeing the giant who towered over me in size, being over three hundred miles tall and a few miles wide, emanating nothing but pure cosmic energy in his wake.
For a long calculating moment, I simply stared at him, fully aware he knew I was there. In a way, we were both measuring each other up, feeling each other's intentions.
"You consumed the seed," Arishem was the first one to break the silence, his voice booming through the empty void of space like an echo in a well.
I nodded, looking up at him with a small frown decorating my face, this situation wasn't optimal for communication, It felt like I was talking to an impossibly large building, that needed to change it, so without a second thought, I changed my size, matching his, by altering my molecular structure.
"What do you seek here?" Arishem, unfazed by my noticeable change continued.
"I came here to make peace, and maybe some alliances," I replied, looking into his red emotionless eyes.
"The seed allowed you to consume it," Arishem said, sounding surprised yet calm, somehow coming to the realization of what Tiamut had done, "He chose this path, was humanity that valuable?"
"It was for him," I replied, after all, the value of something was in the eye of the beholder.
"Then we have nothing to discuss," Arishem replied, his eyes flashing bright, "He made his choice, and in turn, a new type of celestial was born, and it is not my prerogative to question that choice, nor judge it, as my title would suggest. While unusual, our kind has been known to have biological children the way organic individuals have, not that this enters that category, but it's the only example I have of it."
"Your Eternals were worried you would want to kill me," I replied, giving the Eternals a side look, who so far had been nothing but silent, staring at Arishem in shock, and fright.
"It was their mission to protect the seed from the deviants. Anything beyond that was out of their mission parameters," Arishem replied, his gaze turning to them, "I can see why the would assume such, nonetheless, you didn't do anything to warrant judgment, it is clear Tiamut offered his life to you out of his own volition, he chose you to be the new Celestial, therefore, judgment it's not necessary."
I smiled, this was going better than I imagined, then again, something told me it would go well, maybe it was the bit of Tiamut that remained within me that made me feel like it would go well, who knows?
"Then, I suppose the next item in our conversation would be, the alliance," I replied, hoping that this would go as smoothly as the previous item.
"Elaborate," Arishem replied, sounding curious, "As a Celestial, albeit an unusual one, you already have our support in your actions, as long as those actions stay within cosmic order, nonetheless, I am intrigued by your interest in forming an alliance, and therefore would like to know what warrants such a desire."
"Knull," I replied, and for a brief moment I felt Arishem's energy flicker in a mix of shock and something akin to fear, not quite there, but close.
"Explain," Arishem replied, his voice cold.
"He will wake up, I have foreseen it, and when that time comes, we have to be ready," I sighed, taking a deep breath, "I have no idea when, but it will be soon, by human standards soon, and I would like to have all the hands I can on my corner."
For a while, Arishem said nothing, simply staring into me seemingly at a loss for words, and I couldn't blame him. The last time Knull was around, he killed several Celestials like they were nothing but oversized roaches, so really… who could blame the guy?
Eventually however, Arishem replied, "That is most worrying. His awakening could mean the end of all in creation, that I cannot allow. You can count on us, the celestials will do their part to maintain the cosmic order of things, the grand design, but I'm afraid that might not be enough."
I liked this guy, even with all his power, he was humble enough to recognize when he was outclassed, "That's all I ask, and don't worry, when the time comes, we will be ready." I had faith I would be ready when the time came.
"Preparations must be made," Arishem replied, "Was that all?"
I nodded, "Yes… Well, not technically, I was meaning to ask about the Eternals, do you have any problems with them staying on Earth, or being free for that matter?"
"No, so if you desire to keep them. So be it, it was their duty to protect the seed, the seed has emerged, their duty is complete, they are without duty, you are free to give them one so you desire it, it is within your power to do so," Arishem replied, without even giving them a look.
"Very well," I replied, happy with how easy dealing with him had been, heck, he was a green dot in my map now.
"Farewell then," Arishem said, creating a rift between time and space teleporting out of sight, a few billion light years away, close to another Celestial, perhaps he was passing the word of what we shared.
"Well, back to earth, but first," I smiled, shrinking back to my normal size, before opening a portal to Earth.
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Back on earth, I sat with the Ancient One drinking some tea, as I gave the remaining Eternals time to process.
"We serve you now," Thena was the first one to approach, smiling in a seemingly emotionless way.
"I mean, if you want," I shrugged, "I'm not really into having sentient slaves," I chuckled.
"She killed… so many of us," Makkari muttered.
"Oh, right, about that," I smiled, equipping the time stone, "I can bring them back, if you want that is."
"You can?" Ajak asked, daring to hope.
"He is a Celestial, after all," Thena replied.
"Please," Ikaris muttered, kneeling on the ground, "Bring them back, I beg you."
Well that was an unexpected turn of events, "I will, give me a second."
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[Alex Walker POV]
Resurrecting the Eternals Alice had killed has been super easy, barely an inconvenience, all I had to do was use the time stone to reverse to flow of cosmic energy and then when the energy was back, reshape it into its original form, using my own power to meld it all together once again.
It literally took me like two minutes tops, to do it.
After that, I relocated with Ajak to a different place to talk about their destiny, about what they wanted to do now.
Personally I had no need for them, I had golems in my attic that could fold their entire group in less than a minute alone. I just wanted them to choose for themselves, as a way to thank them for helping humanity until now.
Sure their reasons to help humanity were about the same as a farmer would have helping their cows, but still, whatever their reasons were, their actions, their results were good.
I mean, you know the saying… people sometimes do bad things for the right reasons? Well, I prefer the other way around, people doing good things for the bad reasons.
Sure is morally questionable, but who really cares?
So, in honor of that, I was giving them a chance, a chance to be more than they were supposed to be.
"You are a Celestial, Arishem himself recognized you as such," Ajak sighed, her eyes drained in a mix of confusion and something else that I quite couldn't read.
"Enough about me, what do you guys want to do?" I sighed.
"You are a Celestial, your will it's our command," Ajak replied bowing, as I couldn't help but wonder how many times she had said the same thing. It felt so… robotic, like it was almost second nature for her, it was uncanny.
"Hm, yeah, that might work on Judge Judy, but not me," I rolled my eyes, "I asked you what you want to do with your life, not what you think I want to hear as a quote on quote celestial."
Ajak said nothing, but within I could feel her hesitation.
"I know you weren't intending on letting the emergence happen," I sighed, as she looked upon me in mild shock, "I know lots of things, stuff I shouldn't possibly know, so please… stop acting and tell me… no, scratch that, do what you want, whatever it is, no need to tell me." I smiled standing up from the chair I had conjured for our talk.
"I thank you," Ajak bowed.
"Fair warning though, if your… family gets… Well, murdery for the lack of a word, I will… well, I'm sure you get the gist," I winked, teleporting her back to her group before teleporting to mine.
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[Ancient One POV]
Alex's power was inconceivably high now, both cosmically speaking and magically speaking, his power was beyond anything I have ever seen, and what's more, it was only the beginning.
Alex hadn't consumed a Celestial, not really at least, but a seed of one, and even then, the seed was stronger than most fully formed Celestials, a singularity amongst them, one that would take thousands upon thousands of years to grow and reach its full potential.
But even this cosmic singularity, one that went beyond what a Celestial should be, had a very well marked limit to his growth, by that I mean he was to reach its emerging potential in over twenty years or so.
But before he could, Alex consumed him.
Creating an entirely new singularity, born in the midst of their merging, one that combined both Alex's infinite potential for growth, and the Celestial's innate power to absorb cosmic energy generated from intelligent life.
Each Celestial has a clear limit, one they had imposed upon them since their seeding, after all, each seed was different, once they reached said limit, that innate power of them to absorb cosmic energy passively, simply… disappears, which in turn starts their emerging process.
Key point being that limit, one Alex lacks.
Now, imagine a Celestial without limits, one with infinite capacity for growth, for cosmic energy.
That was Alex, who in a way, had become more than a Celestial itself, a seed, one that would grow for all of eternity, consuming the cosmic power intelligent life creates around him.
I could now only wonder, what awaited him at the end of the road? Then again, I guess it didn't matter, after all, I would be there to see it anyway, like I had been for every step of his way.
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[Alex Walker POV]
I wanted the infinity stones, yes I know I said against Knull they would be nothing but pretty jewelry, but… I still wanted them.
Because while Knull was out of their reach in terms of power, I was, because unlike him, I was alive, and frankly sharing a weakness with Superman wasn't on my wishlist.
So, I had decided to collect the stones.
Or rather… have others to do it.
I mean, I already knew Thanos had one stone, the mind stone.
And that the remaining two, the soul stone and the reality stone, were in other dimensions, one required a sacrifice, and the other required time, or power to break the dimension open, power I now had.
Sadly, I couldn't break the dimension where the Soul stone was like I could with the Reality stone, because the stone wasn't hiding on a dimension itself, but on an idea, a concept so to speak, one that that was both attainable, yet unreadable, meaning I either sacrificed that what I loved the most.
Or.
I picked or.
Manipulate someone to do it for me.
Which is why I started Operation Thanos prime. As Amazon prime, my plan was simple: I would spread rumors across the universe about an old spirit living on a desolated planet that spoke about the stone and let the domino effect do the rest.
I estimated Thanos would be visiting the "old man" within a year or so, and from there, well, it was all a waiting game.
I feel bad for Gamora though.
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