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Ritual started, I pushed Ego into a battle of the minds, where he struggled in utter dread for his life, for his individuality, for everything he ever held dear, himself.
Tragically for him, all this did was delay the inevitable by a few seconds or so.
Little by little, his power, his memories, everything that made Ego, Ego, was making mine.
"PLEASE!" Ego pleaded, his screams echoing across my mind as he tried to run away from what was a mental battleground without escape, without an exit, not until one of us ceased to be.
"The more you fight it, the more pain you will bring upon you," I replied, staring at him with a coldblooded indifference, the more his essence became mine, the less pity I felt for the monster in front of me, his crimes were unforgivable.
Everything he did in his life was heinous, one atrocious act after the other. Never regretting a single thing, there wasn't a grain of remorse in him, a grain of pity for his victims, for the toys as he called them that he used for his amusement.
"PLEASE! I CAN'T CEASE TO EXIST, I NEED TO CHANGE THE COSMOS!"
A monster, devoid of all emotions, yet capable of feeling fear. How utterly pathetic.
"No one, will ever remember you," I spat, finally overpowering his will as I opened my eyes into the real world, the echoes of his last scream, resonating in my head, one last time, "Stats."
[STATS
Name = Alex Walker
Race = Unknown/Celestial.
Title = The Gamer
Occupation = Prince of Asgard.
Ranking = 97th
Level = 1995
EXP = 0%/100%
HP = 314,645,000/314,645,000
MP = 407,740,000/407,740,000
STR = 560070 (+224028) = 784098
VIT = 629290
DEF = 321447
DEX= 479325
INT = 815480
CHA = 256625
WIS = 615478
WILL = 198215
PER = 176456
LUK = 10000
STAT POINTS = 23400
MONEY: 43,065,132,212.30$
]
Only 195 levels? Not bad, but I expected more. It also seemed like absorbing him had only increased certain stats by a lot, like INT, WIS, CHA and LUK, but left the rest without much modification.
Beggars can't be choosers.
"Time to go back," I had a playdate to attend to, I was already late as it was.
—--------------------------
I teleported back to Asgard, changing into a moral casual attire before going over Emily's room.
"Are you ready baby girl?" I asked, knocking on her door.
"Yes!" Without waiting another second, Emily replied, practically kicking the door open in excitement.
I chuckled, patting her on the head, "Well, lead the way then, I have no idea where we are going."
"To the park!" Emily replied, grabbing a hold of my hand before tugging me to follow her, which I did.
"So, tell me more about Vest and Mr. Ara," I asked. Something about all of this had me intrigued, maybe it was the prank of Bucky's arm, but I just felt there was something more to this than meets the eye.
Yet, I didn't feel like I should be on alert, which I suppose was the weirdest thing about the situation.
"Well, Vest is my best friend, she likes cooking, as you already know," Emily giggled, before continuing, "Her dad is… a weird man, not a bad weird… more like a cartoonish weird, if that makes any sense."
Cartoonish weird?
"What do you mean by that?" I asked with a small chuckle, wondering what she meant.
"Well," Emily mused at the question, trying to find the right words to word it out, "You know Bugs Bunny, right?"
Did I know about Bugs Bunny?! I grew up with him, and indoctrinated my kids to love him!
"Of course, childhood idol," I nodded.
"He's like him," Emily replied.
Oh… cartoonish weird, I see, that explains the prank with Bucky.
"Oh,"
"Yep," Emily giggled, as she continued to lead me towards the park.
—--------------
We arrived at the park before Mr. Ara, and his daughter, Vest arrived, so with nothing to do, I took the time and played with Emily as we waited for them to arrive.
For a bit, we played hide and seek, where Emily made me promise I would not use my map to find her, I understood her concern about me cheating that way, my ability makes hide and seek pointless, if I so desire to use it.
After being thoroughly defeated by Emily and her superior hiding skills.
We both sat on the swings and started using them, while talking about nothing in particular, silly stuff for the most part, we stayed like this for a good while, until two green dots appeared on my map.
"So sorry! We didn't mean to be late!" The voice of a girl around Emily's age said as I turned around to face her, beside her, there was a man, smiling as he walked towards us, carrying a box of sweets with a delectable aroma that basically floated out of the box.
[Vest Focis] [Ara Focis]
"I took the wrong turn, my deepest apologies," Mr. Ara chuckled, scratching the back of his head.
I frowned, their names floating above their heads, they had no levels, nothing but their names.
"I understand," I replied, deciding that at least for now, I would play it safe, at least until I confirmed where their power level was placed. Before that, I had to prevent unnecessary confrontations.
"Vest!" Emily smiled, jumping out of the swing, rushing to hug her friend, who smiled at the sight in a loving manner.
"Em! How have you been?" Vest, who was currently being hugged blue by Emily asked.
"Good, nothing new really," Emily replied, breaking off the hug while doing so.
"Oh, I see," Vest nodded, before turning her gaze towards me, and immediately I realized that something about her burning-looking eyes, about the way she looked at me, made me feel warm. It was strange, mystifying even.
"Hi, Mr. Walker," Vest smiled, coming towards me, her right hand extended expecting a handshake.
"Hi," I smiled in kind, taking her hand.
"Well girls, go and play, Mr. Walker and I, we'll be here in case any of you need us, probably eating what I brought in the box," Mr. Ara chuckled, as Vest gave him a look I couldn't quite read.
"Ok, have fun daddy!" Emily nodded, grabbing Vest's hand before running into the park.
"Hi," Mr. Ara waved.
"Hi," I replied, wondering how this would go.
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Discord invite: https://discord.gg/XHduApz
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The playdate ended, and I didn't know what to think. Those two were strange, yet I didn't feel particularly threatened by them, which on its own was weird.
They were a mystery, even after using my powers to try and find some sort of information, I found nothing, but what was clearly a fabricated bio, like those you would find in roleplaying games.
Helping with Mr. Ara didn't help either. At first, I tried to talk with him, without making my intentions clear. But it was no to avail, everything for that man was a game, an opportunity to do something irritatingly silly.
I now understood what Emily meant by cartoonish.
But even after all this, I found myself lowering my guard against him.
I guess he was simply annoying, and annoying doesn't mean inherently bad.
Maybe this is one of those parental situations where I have to hang out with people I clearly don't like for the sake of Emily's social life.
No.
That was too harsh for them.
I didn't hate them or anything.
Vest seemed like a very good friend for Em, and was a contrast compared to her father in terms of behavior, and yes, Mr. Ara gave an array of mixed emotions, but none were bad, most of them were simply based in my confusion.
What really bothered me the most, was the fact they had no levels.
I mean, was that a new thing? Even the Beyonder had some questions marks for his level, indicating his level was way above mine. But them, nothing, just their names.
Perhaps they came from a different universe, but that wouldn't explain why they didn't have levels.
"Enough," I sighed, I had been wasting enough time as it is with this, if they are a threat, that for some reason I am sure they are not, I will deal with them accordingly, in the meantime, I have things to do, Knull wasn't going to kill himself.
Taking a deep breath, I opened a portal to my office, but, before I could take a single step forward, I saw something approaching, nearing me by the second at an alarming speed, while shouting, "BROOOOOOTHEEEEEEER!"
I sighed, bracing for the impact while wondering if my days would always be like this, with Thor doing Thor stuff. Crashing against me at mach 8, the floor beneath us caved, crumbling into pieces as Thor blasted me with his body a few dozen floors down.
"My bad brother, I was training a new move, but pressed the wrong button," Thor chuckled, standing up as he dusted his armor.
Meanwhile, I laid on the floor, completely unharmed, but currently questioning my life choices.
I blinked, rewinding inside my mind what he had just said, "Pressed the wrong button? The fuck were you doing?"
"Oh, I said that? My bad, must be the terrible concussion I have, everything smells and tastes like copper right now, but!" Thor smiled, stopping me before I could talk, "I put a bandaid on my head, so don't worry."
He tried to… heal a concussion with a band aid?! What kind of idiot he… he got a ton of knowledge from the fucking tree and well, where did that all go?! No no, Alex, focus, one problem at a time, heal the idiot first, scold him later.
Sighing, I stood up from the ground, pressing my hand against his head, using [Heal].
"Ahh, that's much better, I knew the band aid was right about to kick in," Thor smiled, giving me a hug.
"First," I smiled, kicking him on the knee with enough strength to bring him down, "What were you doing healing a concussion with a band-aid, second, please tell you know you can't heal a concussion with a band-aid, and third, what in the fuck were you doing to get injured in the first place, you are basically indestructible."
"Well, answering your questions in order, the band-aid was part of a loot! I mean, an orc challenged me to a fight, I electrocuted him to ashes, and in the middle of it all, there was a band-aid, so, yeah, I used that like you use your potions," Thor chuckled, scratching the back of his head as one of my eyes twitched, "But, I guess it was no magical item, at least not like ones your monster drop, and, yes, I know a band-aid doesn't cure a concussion, obviously you need two."
I glared at him.
"I'm joking," Thor chuckled, "As for your last question, well, I was training a new form of mine! I call it, the super duper Thor, the name is a work in progress."
"A new form?" I asked, unsure what to think of that.
"Yes, a transformation, where I, the mightiest brother, uncle, god, king, lover, hair keeper, and biggest shareholder of Thorial, my personal brand of shampoo, get access to power beyond my imagination!" Thor nodded, as I used [Great Heal] on him.
I mean, there had to be something in there that [Heal] didn't heal, maybe [Holy Heal] next if [Great Heal] doesn't work. If none of that works, I might need to use the stones.
"Brother, stop healing me, I'm fine!" Thor protested.
"I… that's debatable, today you are being more Thor-like than usual, too Thor-like," I muttered, narrowing my eyes, "This will end poorly."
Thor chuckled, "Bah, I'm just happy, if I perfect this transformation, name pending, I will be able to fight by your side!" he grinned.
I chuckled, "But, how did you get hurt then?"
"Oh, well, I exploded after losing control of the transformation, and well, the explosion sent me flying towards you," Thor replied, giving me a small shrug.
"How about, you train that… transformation, in a place where you can't hurt others, I mean, had it not been me, you would've made a paste of whoever you had landed on," I said.
"I… very good point," Thor nodded, "In my defense though, I didn't know I could explode, but granted, I am mighty, I should've expected it!" he grinned.
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