Chapter 180: CHAPTER 178
[In a severed space from reality]
"Kekekekeke… I see you."
A most malevolent voice creaked in a nightmare inducing fit of mad laughter as he gazed at a planet that hosted something he immediately grew fond of as soon as his dark sight first fell upon it.
"Kekekekekekekeke… Soon."
The being in the planet mouth morphed into a wide deranged smile as he heard the voice of whoever was out there and knew that what he said was the truth.
He could feel it even. The pull that governed the light of the universe, two of the six, had been lost for a while before being found but unfortunately for everything else, it was enough to weaken a part of his prison.
"Soon, you say… soon." And then a mad laughter that trembled with the same malevolence as the first one echoed throughout the planet as it faded to obscurity in this forgotten part of the universe.
Woe to the ignorant universe, for darkness creeps behind the veil of your night.
…
Times truly were changing, more so in the ways no one would have been able to predict, because if it hadn't there would have been no reason for the Allfather Odin to sit and drink mead with a man, a human from Midgard even if Hel had been set ablaze.
Odin was by no means a benevolent or compassionate God, well he was a compassionate one in his heyday but not the type that 'moral' people would flock to, but he was a God nonetheless.
He was Odin Borson, The Allfather, God of War, Magic, Poetry, Wisdom and the Dead. And here he was, in the form of a frail old man drinking directly from a gourd with a mortal, nay, no longer mortal man, who didn't seem to care much as he chugged down on his gourd.
"A while it has been since I last had a drink so freely." Odin started, taking note that while the man's whole attention was on him he still didn't stop sampling the gourd of Asgards finest.
"God duties or is it that they are dead or you are now just a king to them?" Draul asked as he finally took away his face from the gourd. He was a pretty strong alcoholic in his past life and that didn't change in this one.
"All of them. I have bred more wars than the number of foes you have slain in your life. Killed more than the number of those on your planet. To me, war was a blessing, an essence of which I thrived in… but now, these same hands have grown weary. Wrinkled with age and… mercy. Truly the times have changed." Odin spoke in a tone reminiscent of that of a dreaming prophet.
"You talk as if you are one good guy who lost his way when he was younger. We both know you would choose war again if you had a chance to redo everything, the same way as I wouldn't change a thing. Asgard is built upon the blood of its enemies just the way the wall drips in blood because of my ambitions. We are not virtuous men… because if we were, we would have died a long time ago." Draul had to admit that whatever was in that gourd was enough to make him feel tipsy for some few moments.
"So even if you know the consequences of your actions, you still won't change a thing or seek another way?" Odin asked, his one bright golden eye staring deep into the man at his side.
It had been pure coincidence that they found themselves here. The first thing Draul had said to him when he arrived on Midgard was a simple…
'Hope you brought some drinks?'
And like the Asgardian king he was, mead was always in his spatial pockets along with his other accessories.
Draul had directed them to a mountain peak, one just below the clouds where they could watch the other humans go about their day.
"Knowledge is power, but it is also a curse. As a God of Wisdom, you of all people should be more clear on that fact. We can't take any chance unless we absolutely want to change our decisions but that also comes with the price that changing anything means changing all what we know. So no. Even if I held the Time Stone in my hands, I still won't change anything."
Odin nodded his head and took a gulp from his drink, mulling on what Draul said, because even if no one else could see it, he could. They were alike in many ways than one, and the one thing that pointed Draul out as a sort of kindred spirit apart from his strength which was a crucial factor, was the fact that they both would slaughter the many, millions even, for their few.
"You are permitted to take the Aether."
Draul almost choked on laughter at that but he nodded nonetheless. That was just Odin's way of saying that he sided with Draul, at least personally.
"Thor still wants revenge for what you did to Hogun." Odin's words made Draul chortle. He should care about Thor's revenge why? He didn't hate the bloke but that didn't mean he was buddies with him either. He pretty much burned down that bridge already.
Draul looked at Odin with the most unimpressive look on his face which made the old man chuckle for the first time. "I'm his father, not his mother. It's my job to make sure he learns the lessons he should from each battle scar."
"Wow. So Viking-like."
They both took the last sip from their gourds, emptying it at the same time before slamming in down on the rock they sat on.
A light flashed beside Draul and Odin was gone, riding the stars back to Asgard.
"Showoff." Draul got up and dusted his butt before he started making his way down the mountain, choosing the leg workout over flexing his powers.
…
The walk down was important to Draul as he needed to put his mind in order after fusing with the Power Stone. Turns out the Ancient One had been right and the Power Stone did change him by a lot, a change not at all subtle in nature.
This universe was… small.
It was very weird when he thought about it and despite just possessing two of the six Infinity Stones, he could already feel himself on a higher plane than anyone he knew.
The Infinity Stones were limited by the imagination of the user, in other words, they were more than enough to surpass even the Abstracts, though he highly doubted that, as long as one knew how to truly use them like Thanos from the comics did as opposed to Thanos from the cinematics.
What Draul had in his possession was something that could topple universes.
He alone knew where all the Infinity Stones were and not even Odin or Heimdall with their all-sight could foresee it. He had been able to shield his house from Heimdall's sights and also from other forces but there were bound to be some that he couldn't conceal his workings from.
The Watchers.
The Watchers were the most neutral ground one could find throughout the multiverse and he was happy that even though they couldn't live without peeking, they rarely ever left their stations or used the knowledge for their gain.
Even now he was steadily siphoning the energy from both the Soul and Mind Stone simultaneously, each in different pocket spaces that were directly connected to him.
He might have underestimated the might of the Power Stone because all he had to do was boost his adaptation process with it and he would be more than enough to fuse with both stones at the same time.
But then again, he was fusing with the Infinity Stones, it definitely wasn't something he could just close his nose and swallow like a bitter pill.
Even though it wasn't instant, it was still faster than he had thought it would take to fuse with both stones.
Draul was almost at the base of the mountain when he felt something completely shatter the speed of light as it crossed into their solar system with ease, flying in a beeline… straight for him.
Due to his spatial omniscience, which was more potent around the solar system since that was where he limited it to so as not to be overloaded since as the Ancient One put it, the mind was ever evolving and the hypothesis was that the Mind Stone would be the key to completely evolve his mind to suddenly gaining omniscience, at least in respect to the stones. Though he was perfectly spatially omniscient and omnipresent on earth, he never did it because the feeling of knowing each and every point of electrons in the atmosphere was annoying so he just kept the radar feedback to outside the planet and beyond.
He could feel the intent and he knew fully well that he was being aimed at so he made the decision and warped to Pluto and whatever was coming for him just aligned its course by a few degrees and was now heeding directly for him.
The thing that was coming for him slowed down, letting Draul to clearly see it as it entered Pluto's atmosphere.
With the form of a man with its body all silver, riding a board in space with graceful movements as if he were surfing.
Standing before Draul was the Silver Surfer in all his silver glory.
The Surfer looked at him, tilting his head as he gazed at the man his Lord had tasked him with retrieving.
"You who holds the power of the Infinity Stones within your being, heed the call of Galactus."
"And what does Galactus want?" Draul wasn't the least bit surprised at seeing the Silver Surfer because he was not the most surprising thing he's seen in his short life. He's gazed at the Living Tribunal for crying out loud.
"A choice for salvation. Become the Devourers' herald, and your planet spared from his hunger." The Silver Surfer spoke in a very clean and clear voice, still hovering on his board.
The proposal almost made Draul's brows twitch. This was a situation as complicated as any.
Galactus' need to survive which in turn made him consume planets was a universal necessity, and it had already been proven on multiple occasions.
And talk less of whether Draul accepted or not, Draul clearly knew where his ties aligned with, and said ties was not about his physical relationship with his family but rather his less than transparent relationship with dark beings.
Galactus wasn't that fond of dark beings.
So at one point or another, they were bound to butt heads against each other and him being Galactus' herald was just trying to kill himself faster, though he never considered the allegiance for more than a second after it left the Surfer's mouth.
"And if I refuse?" Draul asked despite clearly knowing the answer.
"Then he will come for your planet and by that time, I fear it will be too late to reconsider." The Silver Surfer's voice had been neutral since the beginning of the conversation, not rising an octave higher or a decibel lower.
"I decline. If you could put in a good word for me then I would be grateful."
The Silver Surfer stared long and hard at Draul before turning back and flashing out of Pluto's space disappearing through a hole he ripped through space.
"And then there's Galactus." Draul would never agree to be anyone's underling unless it was out of his power and he also remembered a little bit about Galactus being the Lightbringer One or something like that.
The One who Vanquishes Darkness.
They were bound to cross roads and Draul's powers were malevolent in nature and even if it wasn't due to that, Galactus coming to destroy earth wouldn't sit with him.
If he had not been here then maybe the Silver Surfer would have gone to the Fantastic Four and then rediscover some of his humanity and plea that the planet be spared but this wasn't that reality and he had to take them as they come.
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