Bab 299: The Other Champions 9

Paul Greyson POV - Langrisser Universe, Gaia - GY c.1350

With a single punch, I easily crush the skull of a Skeleton Soldier and generate a powerful shockwave that crushes the dozens of other Skeleton Soldiers behind it in a single blow clearing the path in front of me which gives me enough time to take a look at my surroundings.

Looking at the state of my friends and our enemies on the battlefield I feel myself relax a little while thinking, 'Finally this battle is about to end... Matthew, Grenier, and their armies are dealing with those nasty Hell Hounds, while Almeda and her army of priests are focusing on healing the wounded under the protection of the summoned Jessica, Scott, and old man Aaron. Meanwhile, Angelica is watching everything from our temporary camp making sure to stay as far away from the battle as possible...'

Seeing that the battle is about to end and that no more enemy reinforcements are coming, I slowly steady my breath and start to calmly walk back toward the camp.

At the same time, my mind start to wander as I again think about the series of events that led me here.

I was fighting together with everyone else against those invaders composed of Transformers and Kryptonians led by that bastard Transformer Champion and I could only watch as everyone I knew and loved was getting slaughtered by their combined force.

What was worse is that the Transformer Champion had even summoned Unicron, a freaking planet sized robot that is considered the ultimate evil god of its home universe that exists only to destroy everything leaving behind an empty void.

But just when I thought that my end was about to come, I heard the voice of Angstrom Levy who told me that our universe was doomed and that if I truly wanted to avenge us all, I must grow stronger and find allies powerful enough to face such impossible monster and that I was the only one with a will and a body strong enough to survive such a dangerous journey as he opened a portal right under my feet that swallowed me.

Shortly after that, I truly understood why he said that the journey to another universe would be so dangerous that no one else would have been able to survive.

Because different from the safe, quiet, and instantaneous times I used the Unigate to travel to another universe, the journey this time was truly a dreadful form of torture.

That moment when I disappeared from my universe into Angstrom Levy's portal, a storm of incomparably violent spatial turbulence assaulted me, causing me to feel as though my body was being stabbed and sliced by countless metal blades and that is saying something like a Viltrumite hybrid, my body is very, very tough and even more so as it was further reinforced by the Concept of Metal's Blessing, something that luckily remained even after I lost the Blessing.

Even with my stronger than average willpower, I roared out in pain as the Space around me was crazily being broken, twisted, and sliced, and my body was being broken, twisted, and sliced as well.

I felt that my body was instantly completely unidentifiable with my flesh and blood and the terrifying tearing force that was enveloping my entire body caused all the bones in my body to feel as though they were being wrangled.

It was too much and at some point, I also wanted to give up, but then I suddenly remembered Reviriel's figure as she was killed by the Transformer Champion and the fury and desire for revenge ignited my will to survive.

I growled and gathered all of my concentration on keeping myself alive through sheer will while allowing my natural Enhanced Healing Factor to keep my body barely alive.

The wounds on my body were incomparably severe, and not a single untouched spot could be found on my entire body.

However, thanks to my Enhanced Healing Factor, although my body was enduring incomparably heavy pain at every second, with every second, I was also slowly recovering as I got wounded.

Gradually, ten seconds passed, a minute passed, an hour passed, two hours passed, six hours passed, and a day passed until I lost track of time and fully focused my whole being on surviving.

I was still stained by blood on my entire body, however, ever since the start, the wounds did not continue to intensify and I continued to live through that horrendous ordeal.

The astonishing restorative power brought by the Enhanced Healing Factor that I inherited from my Viltrumite heritage had actually tied with the injuries created by this turbulence.

That allowed me to live as I passed through that terrifying portal that was filled with terrifying spatial turbulences.

And the number of times my body was torn, restored, torn, and restored on that day was so high that it could hardly be calculated but in this cycle with terrifyingly high frequency, my body and will were being refined using an inconceivable method, much better than any form of training I have ever gone through to the point that I felt that I had left even the likes of Grand Regent Thragg in the dust.

After some unknown time, I finally felt relief as I felt the torment caused by violent spatial turbulence end, and shortly after that, I felt my body impact the ground, but at that time, I was way too exhausted to do anything, and so remained there, laying on the hard ground waiting for my body to naturally recover as I continued to keep myself awake through sheer force of will and desire to have my revenge against the ones that took everything away from me.

But then I suddenly heard a youthful male voice as it shouted in surprise, "Grenier! Almeda! Over there, on the ground!!" followed by the energetic voice of a young woman who exclaimed, "He's wounded! Let's go and help him!" but a more stern male voice quickly tried to stop them by saying, "Wait! We have no time for that! The Hyborean Empire's soldiers are still chasing after us! Moreover, for all we know he could be a dangerous enemy!"

In the end, those three chose to help me as the young woman healed me with her magic and that is how I met Almeda, Greinier, and Matthew a group of childhood friends.

They all grew up together in Dovalu Village in the Kalxath Plains, their lives were very happy and peaceful, until the Fire Nation atta... until the Hyborean Empire attacked with the intent of capturing Almeda as she is a surviving Descendant of Light.

The Descendants of Light are a group of people who have been blessed with the power to wield the Sacred Sword Langrisser.

Those present during the creation of Langrisser, later known as the Ancestors of Light, were given the ability to wield the blade against the Forces of Darkness, and this blessing was passed down through the generations, creating a lineage of those attuned to the light and because of that they are often hunted by the forces of Darkness or something along those lines.

Anyway, they were hunted by the Hyborean Empire because of Almeda's lineage, and because of that, they became fugitives of some kind.

And shortly after that she accepted the power of the Goddess of Light and took on the mission of recasting the Sacred Sword Langrisser, the duty of the Descendants of Light.

Grateful for the help they had given me, I decided to repay the debt by helping them in their quest since I was, and technically still am, stranded in this universe without any means to leave for another one.

Even more so when I realized that even if I don't recognize the universe I ended up in, it is clear that Almeda, Greinier, and Matthew are basically the main characters of this universe, and as such they will for sure encounter many dangers and opportinities along the way that may help me in finding a way to move to another universe and hopefully chase after that damned Transformer Champion in addition I also need to get even stronger and gathers some allies if I want to have a chance to destroy the Champion and his army and get my revenge.

Of course, when I offered the trio my help, I was honest about my background, objectives, and intentions but they still accepted me.

After that, I joined them in their quest and started to learn more about this universe that I decided to name Langrisser Universe, after the Sacred Sword which seems so important.

During our journey, we saved a mage named Angelica who is the disciple of a legendary archmage named Jessica who apparently lived through countless eras, wars, and battles and relied on reincarnation to extend her life.

Jessica taught us how to use the power of the shard of the legendary sacred sword Langrisser that Almeda, Greinier, and Matthew found to summon a memory of herself at her peak that could fight by our side and what is even more impressive is that the shards aren't only limited to her, but can, in fact, summon the memories of any individual that left a "heroic imprint" on it.

That immediately made me compare the Sacred Sword Langrisser with the Holy Grail and the Throne of Heroes from Nasuverse which made my impression of this universe rise quite a bit, but other than that I didn't have much interest in the Sacred Sword Langrisser.

The reason for that is that it has a big restriction that as said before can only be wielded by the Descendants of Light, and it also has a few flaws.

One flaw is that one can't summon too many memories at once as it is extremely draining to do.

Another one is that to summon a specific memory you have to gather enough "shards" of that memory, Jessica was easy as she herself gave us the shards needed to summon her, if you don't have the shards needed for a specific memory, then you have to rely on pure luck luckily once you have randomly summoned a particular memory many time, one will naturally gather enough shards to specifically summon that memory.

I don't know why but that particular mechanic reminded me a little too much of those dreaded gatcha games so much that I have the theory that maybe this universe may be related to one of them.

Anyway, I didn't give too much importance to the Sacred Sword Langrisser after that and focused more on training, and helping the group with their quest.

At least that was so until one day, from one of those dreaded random summons, Langrisser pulled out freaking Ainz Ooal Gown in all his dark skeletal glory.

To say that I was shocked to see him appear was an understatement, but that made my interest in the Sacred Sword light up once more because if it is able to summon "heroic imprints" from other universes then it may be the key to finding a way out of this universe, either by itself or by summoning another memory of an "heroic imprint" that has some dimensional travel capacity.

While remembering that, I arrive back at the camp and politely ask Angela if she can prepare some more of her amazing magical potions before I walk back to my tent and sit to calmly gather my thoughts as I wait.

The potions I requested are able to make my training 10 times more effective, to the point that I'm improving at a similar rate to when I went through that nightmarish torture while crossing over to this universe and Angela is a true magical genius to be able to create something like that.

As I sit on a chair a frown forms on my face while thinking about my current situation, 'Even if I'm fine at the moment this isn't nearly good enough... Sure, I'm growing stronger much faster than before, but even then I'm in no way strong enough to fight against my enemies yet. Moreover, even if Almeda, Greinier, Matthew, and the memories are quite powerful, they still are way too weak to actually help me... I need to do more...'

But then, I quickly slap my face with my hands and mutter, "Don't think like that, Paul! Take one step at a time... You will have your revenge and maybe you will even find a way to bring everyone back... After all, the Omniverse is so vast that there must be a way for such a miracle to happen!"

Jouichi Kujo POV - Toriko Universe, Earth, Human World - 500 GA (Gourmet Age)

At the moment, I'm sitting beside my doggo best friend Iggy, and in front of my very beautiful and slightly crazy girlfriend, Nellika Zoldyck in the most bizarre and grotesque restaurant I have ever set foot in my life, as the "candle" at the center of the table for our romantic candle-light dinner is actually an eyeball that spits a ghostly blue fire from its pupil or the tablecloth that seems made of a sewed patchwork of multiple skins and I'm not talking about only animals ones.

The sight around us is so strange that makes me question if in this place they even sell actually edible food.

The name of the restaurant is Harawata and the restaurant's owner and head chef is the "Bizarre Food Queen" Kopuriko, one of the top 100 chefs in the world so even if the sight is somewhat strange and scary the quality of the food should be guaranteed.

While we were waiting for our Hors d'Oeuvre, which is basically the appetizer, to arrive, my mind wandered back to everything I experienced until now.

My second life started out fine, just like requested, I was born as the twin brother of Jotaro Kujo and a member of the mythical Joestar Family as the Star Birthmark that is present in the region of the back of the left shoulder, close to my nape perfectly indicates.

My first few years of life were quite peaceful having a well-off family, a loving mother, a somewhat absent father who was always on a concert tour as a famous Jazz musician, and a brooding bother, but that changed when I turned 10 as I called my awesome grandfather Joseph Joestar and requested him to teach me how to fight and use the ancient form of martial arts known as Sendo and in consequence also how to use Hamon it took some time to convince both mom and grandfather but in the end, I was successful.

I really love and respect Grandpa Joseph not only because he fought and defeated the Pillar Men, a race of ancient, humanoid, super-human beings that could have easily dominated this world, but also because he is the inventor of the Joestar family's ultimate "secret technique".

A technique usually utilized as a last resort when battling the enemy seems hopeless, the invincible "Nigerundayo" or as said in English, Running Away.

The secret technique consists of carefully and quickly retreating from the opponent while keeping a close eye on the surroundings for things to use to defeat or assist in defeating them.

To the untrained eye, it looks like the user is simply running away like a coward, augmented by a panicked shouting when doing so, but in reality, it was actually used to stall time in order for the user to formulate a plan.

Even if Grandpa Joseph is a very loving grandfather, his training was very harsh and brutal, he not only trained me in martial arts through active combat against violent criminals and dangerous wild animals, but once he deemed me ready he also made me go through the same brutal training that Great Grandmother Lisa Lisa gave him.

He basically made me live for years with the Hamon Breathing Mask which forces its wearer to constantly breathe and produce a Ripple or doesn't let the air through at all, and also made me go through lethal training regimens like the Hell Climb Pillar, it was hell, but it was worth it after all, Hamon is one of Dio's weakness.

When I turned 17, I awakened my Stand, Smooth Criminal, which has the power to steal something from an object it touches with its left hand and fuse that something with whatever it touches with its right hand for a limited time that grows longer the stronger I become.

That something can basically be anything, kinetic force, heat, attributes like durability, heaviness, speed, or even the material the object is composed, basically anything, the only limit is my imagination.

Of course, the awakening of my Stand also indicated the beginning of Dio's shitstorm and because of that, I decided to return to Japan to help my brother in the incoming battle against the one and only Dio Brando and his group of servants.

But before doing that, I made sure to save Mom using the power of my Stand to "steal" the Stand that was killing her and fuse it with a simple rock before quickly destroying the rock and the stand, but that was only a stop-gap measure as she would be in danger as long as Dio lives.

And like that, my scary and exciting adventure with the Joestar Group started.

The Joestar Group was made up of me, my brother Jotaro, grandpa Joseph, Muhammad Avdol, Noriaki Kakyoin, Jean Pierre Polnareff, my doggo best friend Iggy, and for a time Merlai Anne until it got too dangerous for her to stay with us.

In the end, the battle against Dio and his cronies was hard, but thanks to the information I already had about their powers and Stands I was able to guide the Joestar Group to victory and without any loss of life.

Mostly because I personally took care of Vanilla Ice by attacking his Stand, Cream by surprise and fusing the lips of its mouth together so that it couldn't open its mouth and use its most dangerous ability to become a portal to a void-like dimension and disintegrate everything in its path and then Ora Ora'd him out of existence with a barrage of Hamon-infused punches.

I also informed my brother and the others about the "possibility" of Dio's Stand having the power to stop time as soon as Dio unleashed the World for the first time, preventing Kakyoin's sacrifice.

But even with that, the fight against Dio was brutal, I was forced to stay on the defensive and use the power of my Stand to fuse the hardness of all the metals in the immediate surroundings into my body and constantly taunt Dio to keep his attention focused on me while Jotaro's Star Platinum slowly awaken its own time stopping powers.

I was Muda Muda'd, stabbed by knives, thrown around, traumatized by that damned Wryyy, and even got almost crushed by a Road Roller, but luckily I endured long enough for Jotaro to join the fight and together we defeated Dio once and for all.

After that, I spent the rest of the time in my home universe by tracking down and taking out a few other notable individuals before they could actually become a problem together with Iggy who became my best friend after our adventure in Cairo.

I'm talking about Yoshikage Kira, Johngalli A., Yoshihiro Kira, and Enrico Pucci.

Regarding the mafia boss Diavolo, well, I'm not going to open that pandora's box not even under torture, so I decided to let my newborn great grand uncle, Giorno Giovanna deal with him.

As I remember my great grand uncle and a few other family members I can't help but curse in my mind, 'Damn it! Thanks to Dio's stealing my great grandfather Jonathan Joestar's body and spreading his seed everywhere and Grandpa Joseph being still very "active" thanks to his mastery of Hamon despite his advanced age, the family tree is very fucked up. I don't even know how many "uncles" and "aunts" I actually have at the moment. Well, at least I'm pretty sure that Grandpa Joseph only had one other child as he only had one extramarital affair with that university student Tomoko Higashikata.'

Of course, being the nice grandkid that I am, I immediately informed both Grandpa Joseph and Grandma Suzi of the birth of Josuke Higashikata.

At first Grandma Suzi was rightful furious after she learned of Grandpa's affair but after a painful kick in the nuts, she forgave him and forced him to be present in the child's life.

Anyway, shortly after that, the Random Battle started and I found myself in the Demon Slayer/Kimetsu no Yaiba Universe together with Iggy who chose to come with me.

Once there, we started to wander around hoping to quickly find my opponent while dealing with all the Demons we encountered on the way, and luckily Hamon was very effective against them and Iggy's The Fool very good at restraining them.

This continued until one day I encountered her, Nellika Zoldyck in all her beauty and craziness.

She didn't hesitate to attack me as soon as she realized that I was also a Champion and that was the craziest battle of my life, as I felt like I was fighting against Bugs Bunny as way too many absurd things happened around me, but what was strange was that none of her hits actually harmed me, but instead, I felt myself growing weaker and weaker while she was growing stronger and stronger.

That made me realize that each one of her attacks stole my energy instead of harming me and to counter that, I decided to use Smooth Criminal to steal her energy back and fuse it in me to recover, needless to say, we ended up in a stall, but just as I was about to propose a truce, a bunch of angry Demon chose to attack us and the people of a nearby village and without any hesitation, we stopped our battle and started to massacre the Demons.

After that battle, I don't exactly know how it happened, but she became very, very close, and dragged me to a nearby Inn where I had what I consider the best night of both my lives.

Then Nellika and I decided to officially become boyfriend and girlfriend and also to become allies in this competition as I do not have a particularly strong desire to own an Omniverse but simply wish to stop a very bad individual from getting one and I'm fine if Nellika is the one that wins in the end, even if she muttered something about creating some Universal Rule where I can only get hard in her presence and about killing all those who targeted cute shotas.

After that, we spent the rest of the year in the Demon Slayer/Kimetsu no Yaiba Universe where we hunted down all the Demon and had a lot of fun all three of us.

But we didn't do only that, as Nellika helped in awakening my and Iggy's Nen and taught us how to control it and use it, and after training for some time, we went through the Divination Test and found out that Iggy is a Transmuter while I am an Enhancer.

Meanwhile, I taught Nellika everything I knew about Hamon as we found out that it is very compatible with Nen and in fact using it in conjunction makes your Nen much more abundant and powerful.

Once we spent a full year in the Demon Slayer/Kimetsu no Yaiba Universe, we decided that our next stop was going to be the Toriko Universe, a place that would surely further improve our lifeforce and thus our Nen, Hamon, and also Iggy's and my Stands.

The reason for that is very simple, Gourmet Cell, the physical embodiment of savoriness and Appetite Energy, the source of life and all known ingredients in this universe.

When a human successfully adapts Gourmet Cells into their body, they gain overwhelming life force and power.

Enhancements common to many implantees generally include: extremely increased physical strength, speed, general athleticism, stamina, endurance, and senses, in addition, as long as calories are available, the cells also grant incredible regenerative power, and lastly the cells can also grant a wide variety of outright inhuman abilities or grant superhuman senses.

There are two known ways to infuse Gourmet Cells into a living being that does not contain them.

The first and safest method is through "ingestion", where one must regularly intake pill or food items containing Gourmet Cells, at which point the cells will begin to slowly conform and adapt to the consumer's body as the consumer continues to eat them.

However, this method takes far longer to have an effect on the body and there are many cases where the cells are never able to adapt and give no physical enhancements to the consumer.

The second method is through "injection", which involves directly injecting Gourmet Cells into the body via a syringe.

This method is the more dangerous of the two but also the fastest, as direct injection causes the injected cells to adapt faster, and thus the time it takes for them to adapt to the body is overwhelmingly fast when compared to the safer method.

However, this method has many risks for if the cells do not properly adapt they begin to invade the body and mutate it, turning the injected individual into a horrific-looking monster, or worse it may end up killing them.

Since we are not in a hurry, we decided to use the slower and safer "ingestion" method which is why we are now traveling all around the world enjoying the dishes of all the various reputable restaurants working as Gourmet Hunters to earn enough money to pay for the expenses, and after such a long time of doing that, Nellika, Iggy and I all feel that we are about to successfully adapts the Gourmet Cells into our body and for sure that will make our abilities spike.