章 218: Chapter 215
In a room beneath the palace of Madripoor.
A sinister laughter echoed.
Cortana glanced at the system information once again before letting out a slight chuckle.
The system had already devoured the planet Mars and continued to expand.
And Cortana, as if playing a game of strategy, arrived at the newly discovered territory and began to analyze it.
The lack of atmosphere was a problem, but she believed that with enough energy, she could solve it; after all, she had the Reality Stone.
As she continued scanning the planet, she suddenly saw a point of light that seemed like a worm burrowing underground.
At first, she was very confused, but the closer she got to the light and detected it clearly, the more she realized it seemed familiar.
When her senses came into contact with the sphere of light, she immediately recognized it as Arishem.
She vividly remembered his aura; she had even had a small battle with him before. How could she not recognize him?
That was the reason for her laughter; the system had absorbed him directly, and by absorbing him, it was easy to obtain more detailed information.
Arishem's consciousness slept deeply within the energy sphere. She knew that Celestials gestated in the cores of inhabited planets.
She assumed that his current state was a kind of survival mechanism for the Celestials.
Seeing that Arishem still struggled to reach the planet's core, Cortana quickly gave him a little help.
The moment he finally reached the core, he quickly slid to the center before sending a pulse of energy throughout the planet.
Subsequently, the energy sphere seemed to have fallen asleep.
Observing the pulse, Cortana immediately noticed microscopic changes across the planet, starting from Arishem's spilled blood.
Cortana supposed that in a few hundred years, the planet would have a good diversity of flora and fauna, making it habitable.
This was a prediction made with the Time Stone, she supposed that the blood of Arishem would have an incredible effect on the planet.
Being habitable, humanoid beings could populate the entire planet, providing energy for him to be reborn in the future.
Cortana supposed this was just an instinct, if Arishem had been conscious, he would never have done it. Now that it was within her reach, she would play with him as she pleased.
Suddenly feeling a familiar pulse of energy, Cortana left what she was doing to appear at the dining table where everyone was already seated.
"You usually arrive earlier. What have you so busy?" Carol asked upon seeing her appear.
"The system devoured Mars, so I got distracted looking at it and found a big surprise," Cortana said with a smile.
"Can we make Mars habitable?" Natasha asked curiously.
"Yes, it's not very difficult," Cortana replied, nodding.
"What's the big surprise?" Alice quickly asked before the conversation could continue.
"Do you remember Arishem? Turns out he's not dead," Cortana said, innocently smiling.
Everyone at the table, who had been having small conversations among themselves, suddenly stopped and looked at Cortana in surprise.
Damian, in particular, couldn't contain his curiosity and quickly used the system to scan Mars.
Before he could see it for himself, Cortana began to speak.
"I assume it's a survival mechanism for the Celestials. When they die on or near a planet, they become a kind of energy sphere as they delve into the Earth's crust toward the planet's core."
"Depending on the conditions, they start to modify the planet to make it suitable for life, which is the case with Mars," Cortana said.
Damian, who was listening to Cortana, suddenly widened his eyes in amazement as he detected the expansion of the system.
It had already encompassed the entire solar system, and upon reviewing, he realized that absorbing Arishem into the system, it was greatly propelling the expansion.
"So, we should... you know," Carol said, looking between Damian and Cortana.
"No," Damian and Cortana said at the same time.
"It's useful," Damian said, looking at Cortana, who nodded back at him.
"This is good, it gives us a lot of time to develop ourselves. We won't have a Celestial invasion," Cortana said, although they had prepared for it, it was better if it didn't happen.
All the adults nodded slightly, understanding the point immediately. Arishem hadn't died, but he hadn't escaped either. It would probably give them more time than if either of the two options had occurred.
"So let's prepare for the second part of the event," Damian said, looking at Cortana, who nodded back.
"Daddy, can we go out to play together?" Alice asked, looking at her father.
"Of course, honey," Damian said, smiling at her, feeling a little more relaxed now that he knew Arishem hadn't died.
The three girls looked at each other joyfully as they began to talk quietly, deciding what they were going to play.
"I met with Clint yesterday; he just got back from a mission. Fury sent him to spy on Hela," Natasha said, starting a conversation.
"Really?" Damian asked in surprise as he thought, if he had already returned, Clint probably hadn't spied on Hela with her powers restored, or he probably wouldn't have been able to return.
"Yes, he looked a little scared when I told him how strong Hela was," Natasha said, slightly amused.
"It was really risky," Carol said, nodding.
"Fortunately, he came back safely. He probably won't have to do that kind of thing again," Natasha said, nodding.
"By the way, it should be a couple of months before Peggy has her baby. I wonder what it will be like considering it's Steve's child," Sophia said.
Half a month ago, Peggy had already been replaced from her position and had returned home.
Occasionally they visited her and gave her good things for her pregnancy.
"I wonder who will have more potential, Steve or the Spartans," Ophelia said. She didn't know much about Steve, but she believed their physical condition was more or less similar.
"We'll only know in the future, although the Spartans have their armor, which is an absurd advantage," Carol said, shrugging.
In the end, both the Spartans and Steve were completely human.
As always, lunch passed while the whole family enjoyed conversing about both trivial and serious matters, lightly laughing at occasional comments.
Damian stood up and exchanged glances with his daughters before nodding to them.
The four quickly climbed the stairs before reaching the room of the three little ones.
"So, what do you want to do?" Damian asked, approaching the closet and looking at the clothes they were going to wear.
"We want to go fishing, but without harming the fish," Emma said.
Damian's hands paused as he made a small grimace.
Nevertheless, he quickly turned around and looked at his daughters with a smile.
"Sure, it'll be like a game with the fish," Damian said, nodding before starting to change them into more suitable clothes for what they were going to do.
After getting dressed, Alice ran to one side of her room where there was a hyper-realistic globe.
Alice took it before approaching her sisters; the three quickly played rock, paper, scissors before Emma won.
With a slight smile, she spun the globe before closing her eyes and extending her finger at random.
The globe stopped instantly, and the four pairs of eyes saw Emma's small finger stopped on the Amazon.
"Wow... the Amazon, there must be really big fish there," Damian said, smiling.
"I'll catch a giant boa," Ivy said, smiling with excitement.
"I'll catch a Titanoboa," Alice said, smiling at her sister.
Emma just watched them, slightly pursing her lips. Lately, her two sisters had become a bit more competitive than usual.
Her eyes briefly sparkled for a few seconds, causing a slight smile to form on her lips.
Feeling a steady gaze on her, Emma turned to look at her father and saw him smiling at her knowingly.
Emma just giggled softly, knowing her father had caught her.
"Let's go, girls," Damian said, squatting down and picking up his daughters in his arms in different ways.
Soon the four disappeared from the room before appearing next to a huge river.
The river had a brown color, not allowing any of the creatures swimming in it to be seen.
Damian made several trees, rocks, and soil suddenly turn into an elegant, quite spacious wooden boat.
The boat quickly arrived on the water before Damian took a big leap and landed on it.
Alice, Emma, and Ivy smiled before also jumping behind their father.
The boat then began to move slowly downstream. The girls sat on the edge and extended their hands, feeling the water in their hands.
They played for a while before getting serious and lining up in front of their father.
Damian smiled before placing a fishing rod suitable for each of their sizes in each little hand.
This fishing rod was different from normal ones as it didn't have a hook and only had a small sphere at the end of the string.
Without the hook, the fish wouldn't be harmed; after all, they weren't going to eat them.
The three sisters looked at each other before going to each side of the boat. They sat at the edge before retracting the rod and swinging it forcefully, making the small sphere travel a good distance before falling into the water.
Damian just chuckled softly as he watched them while he leaned back in a chair comfortably.
Soon, there were splashing sounds. The spheres at the end of the rods were very attractive to any creature as they had a bit of magic.
He saw his daughters immediately pulling the string with an excited smile, only to be disappointed when they didn't see any fish.
Damian smiled slightly, avoiding making any noise.
His daughters cast their lines again, waiting for a fish to bite.
Like the previous time, a fish quickly bit the sphere again, causing the three little ones to pull the rod.
But once again, there was no fish.
"Don't rush it, feel the fishing rod and the fish through the string," Damian said from his seat.
His daughters immediately looked at him with a complaint as they immediately knew it was a trick from their father.
Damian just looked at them innocently as technically he wasn't to blame.
The three girls followed their father's words and felt the vibrations and slight tugs of the rod when the fish bit the sphere.
The sphere looked like the most attractive thing to any fish, so they immediately wanted to bite it.
But they weren't stupid either; when they felt the string pulling them, they had time to let go of the sphere.
The three could feel the fish fighting for the sphere. Focusing, they began to feel when the fish gave the first bite, leaving the sphere in its mouth and savoring it.
Soon, this fish left the sphere pushed by other fish that replaced it.
Little by little, they began to form a mental image of what was happening underwater.
Suddenly, the three pulled the fishing rod with force, sending three fish flying. They quickly extended their hands, holding the fish tightly with both hands.
The fish, which was quite slippery, began to wriggle in their hands, causing the three to finally let it fall back into the water before looking at each other excitedly.
It was really fun for them.
...
While Damian spent time with his daughters.
In Europe, an event was taking place that neither Damian nor Cortana could have predicted.
"Wait, wait, give me time, I can get more high-level mutated meat," a man on the ground said as he tried to back away.
"It's not necessary, we've already reached an agreement with someone else," a man said, pointing a gun at him.
"What about my family?" the man on the ground said desperately.
"Your family died a long time ago," the man with the gun said, laughing under his breath before shooting.
The loud sound echoed through the abandoned factory as the man on the floor stopped moving, his face staring only at his killer's back with the last vestiges of consciousness.
The resentment on his face was almost palpable; even before the world changed, his family had been kidnapped, and he had been threatened with them to do their dirty work.
It was all his fault; he was a pretty good thief, able to get in and out of all sorts of places.
Embodied by his repeated successes, he stole from people he shouldn't have.
In the end, his family was kidnapped, and a season of robberies for that organization began, which until that day he didn't even know who they were.
Now, as he was dying, the resentment was very intense on his face. He wished he could tear them apart, and totally eliminate those guys.
His consciousness blurred as only the desire to kill remained in his mind.
As if some kind of force started to appear in his body, he slowly turned face down before starting to crawl on the ground towards his killers.
A kind of black magic occasionally ran through his body, changing it in microscopic ways.
The sound of him crawling caught the attention of the men coming out of the factory.
Seeing the corpse moving towards them with unfocused eyes and making guttural sounds, they couldn't help but be scared as they pulled out their guns.
They quickly shot him several times, destroying part of his face and filling his back with bullets.
"What the hell," one of the men said, scared to see him still making sounds.
"Bring ropes, we'll take him with us," the head of the men said with an interested look, realizing that he seemed to still be alive.
He wondered if he was one of those new mutants; surely he would be rewarded if he managed to bring him back.
His subordinates nodded before going to get what they asked for.
The boss approached the corpse before squatting down and putting his two fingers against his jugular to detect the pulse.
Suddenly, the corpse reacted violently by biting his ankle.
"Shit," the boss said, standing up in pain before kicking the corpse's head.
"Did something happen?" one of his subordinates who had returned with the ropes asked.
"It's nothing, just tie him up and take him back to the base," the boss said, shaking his head without giving too much importance to the bite.
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