Chương 290: Stand Down, Junior
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(General P.O.V)
A young boy, dressed in a yellow t shirt and small blue shorts, was riding on top of a massive yellow snake, laughing in glee as it dived deep into a lake and came out in a huge spray of water.
"Again! Again!"
Geb shouted in happiness, clapping his small hands with a wide smile full of excitement on his face.
Nagini hissed in confirmation, twining her body through the air before plunging into the water once more. The wave produced as a result pushed the fairy lotuses in the water, sending them drifting away onto the shores of the lake. Thousands upon thousands of Fairie's flew to the air, chattering in anger and pointing small sharp weapons at the pair.
Nagini pulled away with caution while Geb blinked his eyes wondering what was happening.
"Nagini, that's enough," a Voice called out before quickly adding,
"we don't want the Fairy kingdom declaring war on us, now do we?"
Sitting in a meditative position on top of a piece of rock, The White Shadow, Aden's Homunculi puppet looked at the pair with a fond smile. He reached into his hammer space and withdrew 4 Grangos, telekinetically sending them over to the four Fairy kingdoms. The small humanoid creatures immediately settled down.
Nagini swam towards the shore with a downcast expression on her face.
"Dad, please don't blame Nagini, it wasn't her fault. We never meant to disturb the pretty ferries."
Geb told him shyly from Nagini's back.
The White Shadow tried to keep a stern look on his face and failed.
"It's alright." He told the both of them, controlling the rock through Earth bending to move in closer. Aden scratched Nagini under her chin, a place he knew she loved being petted.
"I'm not mad." He told Geb, holding out his hand towards him.
Geb lost the shy smile on his face as it brightened up considerably. He jumped off Nagini's back and slammed onto Aden's chest, digging his face into the crook of his shoulder.
The White Shadow was surprised for a bit before he patted the little boy's back. One thing he had come to find out about his son was that he loved hugs.
Aden also know the cause. For the majority of his life, Geb had been alone. Locked away in the darkness, only later, pulling comfort from the bond between him and Shuri. Luckily, due to the god's continued suction of Aden's Spirit power through Geb, the small boy had been in a coma as he could not handle the strain.
He had come to full consciousness the time Aden had similarly woken up about a year before.
"Dad..."
Geb called attention to himself. The former adjusted the child's frame in his hands as he turned to look at him with a soft smile. Almost lazily, Aden controlled the piece of rock he was floating on and left the shore of the lake, moving toward's Nagini's tree.
"Yes, Geb?"
"I got you something..."
The little kid shyly said, holding out his small hand and revealing a perfectly smooth oval stone. For a few seconds Aden was stunned. In the middle of the stone was a collection of different colors. The stone was also subtly glowing, pulsing with a yellow soft light. It was like a golden egg.
"Geb...thank you for this gift...how did you know?"
The White Shadow asked.
You see, the gift his son had just given him, was no mere present. Aden had been struggling with his Earth bending ever since he had begun practicing it. And the small stone he held in his palm was like a master key, providing Aden a deeper connection with Geb's own specific abilities. It lessened the strain The White Shadow had while learning the last art of his elemental abilities.
It was similar to the time when Kai and Sai fused with Aden to enable him to tap into their respective essences of fire, rebirth and destruction.
"It just felt...right."
Geb replied with a small smile.
"You were struggling..."
The little kid added.
The White Shadow smiled just as they made their way to the tree. He allowed the stone to drop on his palm and enclosed his fingers around it. The spirit energy inside unravelled softly and a massive light show that could be seen from afar exploded out of him.
(Aden's P.O.V)
Normally, all prompts from the Interface would be relegated to the corner of my vision if I was in a combat situation. However, my attention was split between watching the enemies falling from the sky and wanting to see what kind of Gift Geb had given me. The latter eventually won out.
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(Earth) (Practitioner)
-Gravity (Unlocked)
-locked
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"Holy crap, how the fuck did that happen?"
Through our bond, Chaos could immediately sense that something had drastically changed within me. With a wide smirk on my face, I cut off my self propelled flight and simply connected with the field of force surrounding the planet, pulling everything down to it. Gravity. The first Earth Subskill. And what a strong skill it was.
I sank 2 inches down before I found myself easily suspended in the air.
"A gift from Geb, he unlocked the first Subskill in the Earth category for me."
"Gravity? Why gravity?"
Chaos wondered, the same question that was now ringing inside my head.
The answer came to me with the first of the god's changing courses from their intended landing point. They had begun heading straight towards me.
"Because he wanted to help...somehow, maybe due to his connection with the Earth, he could feel that it was in danger."
"You know what that means right? If he's connected to the planet then..."
"I can't let it get destroyed. There is a possibility that might harm him."
I stated, watching as more of the falling stars changed courses like the rest. They were coming for me.
"Let's take this new ability out for a spin, shall we?"
A gracious host would welcome them.
"Well, it's better than using your original idea to fuse into your Divine Elemental form. The shockwaves of power alone would have destroyed the whole African continent."
Chaos approved.
I spread out my hands, feeling my mind connect to the gravitational field of the entire planet. It was like a gyrating web that never stopped acting on objects with different masses to the Earth. In my divine sense, I tagged the fast moving objects falling towards the planet and got to work.
I clapped my hands together and a yellow light spread out across the atmosphere of the planet, faster than the blink of an eye.
Everything in the sky was now suspended in the air the same as I. The yellow light was a nullifying effect that acted on the g-forces affecting the falling gods. I could immediately feel the 1278 gods all begin to struggle against my hold. Beams of light attacks, fire storms, ice spikes, all kinds of elemental spells, divine magic, psionic abilities: all those fell, targeting me. The gods had responded.
The biggest of the attacks was a massive streak of lightning that lit up the night sky almost to the level of my initial attack. I had no time to concentrate on blocking or evading the attacks. To tell you the truth, I had turned the whole affair into an extension of my training. Gravity was a Subskill unlike any other in my arsenal. It wasn't something I could produce. It was something that relied on the presence of another body to even be effective it.
In outer space, where the distance between one object and the other was exponentially bigger, the effects of the Subskill would likely be very minimal if not outright useless. Just enough to push you or pull you in one direction. But pushing was not really Gravity's forte.
"Chaos?" I called, motioning to the oncoming attacks. It was not advisable to be distracted in a fight. However, this line of thought needed my focus. What was past Gravity? Equity flashed and with a small explosion of darkness, Chaos covered my front.
"Don't worry about this...you just, comprehend what you need to comprehend, I'll handle this."
He threw over his shoulder with a smile.
(General P.O.V)
"Oh yeah baby, show me what you can do."
Equity changed forms from a katana to a Longsword that highly resembled a red and black version of a popular weapon. One from myth and legend. The sword in the stone. The attacks were closer now, even though none of the gods could move an inch due to the nullifying effect for all motion, Aden was still maintaining on them.
"Proto..."
Chaos whispered, spreading out his feet on a platform of darkness that materialized under his legs. The hands holding the sword were thrust in the air and pulled back.
"Ex--Calibur!!!"
He screamed in wake of the attack.
Space started getting wonky around the beam of red that erupted out of the bladed edge of the Excalibur look alike.
There wasn't light, only a dark red slash full of chaotic energy that completely swallowed their attacks and proceeded towards the gods. Another response from the Earthen Pantheons saw light, this one more defensive in nature. The ground below rippled as stones and massive rocks rose up in a wave to block Chaos' attack and failed.
Off the same ground, trees and huge fungal plants grew long and massive, within a split second before the beam of darkness could land on the first of the gods. They fell to the dark blaze of Chaos' power, bursting apart before getting devoured. Psionic shields were created by more gods. Those was similarly torn through after a few seconds.
"Enough! Everyone! Deploy your domains!"
A loud shout was produced by the biggest and brightest light.
Immediately, all the gods marshalled together. Divine energy that caused the entire world to shake, filled the air, bringing about different wild effects that could be seen from very far off. Like a rainbow cloud with streaks of different colored lightning.
Around Aden and Chaos, the world was quickly changing, the entire surroundings were immediately filled with opulent landscapes from the land of the gods, huge temples and fantastic creatures. The effect was changing the very landscape.
Chaos raised Equity once more. The weapon shifted forms from Excalibur to a dull short weapon that looked more like a club with red circuitry.
"Ah Ea, a weapon after my very heart. Let's see what 0.00000001% do. If we're lucky, we will only destroy a continent." Chaos said with a nasty smile that chilled the gods facing him.
"Madness!"
The brightest power shouted in alarm. Fear and nervousness was spreading among their ranks. To make it worse none could move, merely attack.
"The boss can use Spatial load to bring them back so no worries."
Chaos shrugged, lifting the weapon of the end with both hands.
Before he could land another attack, Aden's hand fell on his shoulder.
"That's enough. It's my turn."
Chaos looked at him and blinked at the confident light in the Avatar's eyes.
"I have a feeling you're about to do something cool."
He told him, lowering his arms as Equity changed into knuckles braces.
"Oh not as cool as you were about to do but..." Aden patted him.
"I can assure you, it won't be boring."
He glided ahead of Chaos and stopped in place, hands spread out like before.
"You better hurry up then, boss, before we get yeeted to Narnia."
Chaos warned. Their environment had changed as all the god's domain combined to bring them all into another realm.
"You can't hurry art, Chaos." Aden replied, twirling his fingers as if he was playing an instrument.
"And different from any other skill, Gravity is art. The art of pull and...push."
He pressed down on the oscillating force, one of the lights in the air found itself squished upon itself by virtually nothing but a uniform gravity.
The light quickly lost it's glow and collapsed upon itself, then Aden lessened the effect of the gravitational aura around it, causing an explosion of divine essence as the god contained within the light died.
The combined domain lost a corner of the projected realm, revealing the torn and destroyed terrain that was Wakanda. The light from the dead god lit up brighter than anything else in the sky.
"Whoa...you were right, that is Art."
Chaos muttered, looking entranced.
"Well? Don't let it go to waste. We are going to need every shred of divinity we can get."
Aden lightly ordered.
Realization dawned in Chaos and he immediately pointed Equity at the the light, activating it's shifting ability. From knuckle braces, they changed into a long spear. Then he awakened it's devouring effect, something they hadn't needed to use for a long time.
The light from the corpse of the dead god begun pouring into Equity's pointed end in a long rope like trail.
"Blasphemy!"
The very heaven's roared with the voice from the leader of the gods, Zeus. He was at the forefront and had seen what had happened to Quetzalcoatl. The Mayan gods were even madder. The divine realm begun to undergo massive changes. The light, color and beauty turned gray with storms of lava above head and...
"Oh Fuck no!"
Aden yelled, the sound propagating and causing shockwaves of power that ripped apart the entire realm into divine energy that was further sucked away by Equity.
"If you think, for one second that I will allow you to act cooler than me, you clearly don't know who you're up against. Reverse Gravity!"
Aden ended his statement by calling out the name of his next move. The attack was something that he felt needed a name, although he almost immediately regretted the corny name.
The whole planet seemed to still for a second and then, the nullifying effect imposed against the g-forces pulling the gods from the sky changed. A repulsion as the mass of the whole planet came bearing up on the deities caused the scene to change into something one would expect from a scifi movie.
Things started floating up. The earth was pushing away the energy balls.
(The Talon Fighter)
Alarms begun blaring out inside the cabin of the jet.
"We need to go! Now! I'm taking the Talon to the sky!"
The pilot gave a shout. A spear was immediately pointed at his neck.
"You even think of flying out before the Prince is here and my spear will taste blood."
Awinja told him menacingly, the tip of the spear nicking his dark skin and causing him to bleed a little.
The Dora Milaje leaned in.
"Are we clear?"
The pilot gulped, hands retracting from. the controls.
"Yes. Crystal."
Outside the Talon fighter, the whole compound of the palace was nothing but rubble. Running out, Okoye and 3 of her fellow Dora Milaje were sprinting while surrounding T'Challa.
On of them tripped on a loose root and fell when the ground begun to rumble and shake dangerously.
"No! Sister!"
Okoye tried to go back but T'Challa was faster. He ran back and hoisted her up. Then things went bad.
The rubble and debris around them begun to float up to the sky. T'Challa pushed the Dora Milaje towards Okoye as the section of the ground below them broke apart and floated to the sky suddenly.
"My Prince!"
Light surrounded them and the Talon and they thought death had come for them.
The nothing happened. Nothing except a sudden silence. The noise of the ripped and floating ground died out.
"You people must have a death wish."
A familiar voice said, appearing from the sky with T'Challa's arm slung over the shoulder.
Okoye looked around and saw the zone surrounding them and the Talon was shielded within a yellow bubble.
"Prince T'Challa!" Okoye raised her spear and pointed it at Chaos.
"Unhand him! I won't say it twice."
The Dark side of the Avatar frowned,
"Careful Daughter of The Border, treat me like an enemy and I shall be one."
"Okoye, that's enough, he...he saved my life."
T'Challa interrupted to give his surboodinate the order.
"Stand down."
Okoye commanded just as Chaos and T'Challa landed.
"You need to get out of here."
Chaos informed them.
"I can get the boss to create a path for you."
T'Challa shook his head.
"No, in the rubble we discovered a signal coming out of some of the underground bunkers constructed under the city. They were built just incase evacuation was slow in the event of a disaster. Some of them survived and there are people trapped inside. I need to get them out."
Chaos looked at the sky. Aden seemed to be in the middle of a pattern of lights emitting pulses of divine energy while surrounded by the crumbling realm.
"You must be out of your mind." Chaos laughed at T'Challa.
"Hahaha but I love it."
He sheathed Equity, cutting off the devouring effect momentarily, and brought his palms together. A dark light begun forming in the middle of them.
"I don't think I've ever had a Champion. Neither the boss too."
Okoye advanced while holding her spear. T'Challa held up a hand.
"If I can save my people then do what you need to do."
He replied with confidence burning in his tone.
"Awesome!"
"Hey boss, would you mind if I made the prince one of your Champions?"
Aden heard the transmission in the middle of flexing the applications of his new Subskill.
"Cool. Just make him into something with a Panther Motif."
He replied.
"Nah, I have a better Idea, people always talk about a Black Superman but never really make it Mainstream. Never really deliver. I'm creating a literal Black Superman."
Chaos countered, just as the swirling ball of darkness in his hands changed into a shield with the symbol of two fore arms in the middle. With it came a surge of transcendental power. The essence of chaos washed out in shades of purple and red colors.
Okoye gasped behind T'Challa.
"My Prince, I can feel it. This power, this man...he is a god."
She whispered, tightening her palm around her spear. Her bravery was immediately swallowed up by reverence and fear. She instantly took a knee, slamming the pommel of her spear onto the ground. The Dora Milaje behind her also knelt.
"A...god?"
T'Challa muttered in disbelief. Looking deep into the eyes of the one who had saved him...he realized the truth. This was not just any regular being. He contained no mortality. He was a being that defied logic just like Bast. But after Bast...could they ever trust in another god?
"Don't compare me to them." Chaos rolled his eyes.
"You can read my mind?"
T'Challa asked, taking a few steps back.
"Yes. Now hold tight, this will only take a second or so."
"I..."
T'Challa was conflicted. Chaos knew there wasn't time for a deep speech so he opted to use the Prince's motivation against him.
"You said you would do anything for your people."
With that statement alone, Chaos had him right where he wanted.
"Yes..." T'Challa resolved.
"I did."
He looked up as the indecision disappeared.
"Give me the power to save them."
He said, blazing with determination.
(Aden's P.O.V)
Chaos couldn't understand just how amazing this felt.
This power, the power to control gravity was cool just alone, but then you added as I did, something else. The concepts of pull and push, are ingrained in the core spirituality of the Avatar. I understand that everything had its own mirror version. It's counterweight. Something to balance each other off.
Using that instinctual knowledge, I tapped further and past the intricacies of Gravity and arrived at its opposite. If gravity pulls, dark energy pushes, stretches out. Or in more simpler terms a subset of dark energy is anti-gravity. The opposite of gravity.
The non gravitational field holding them had therefore ended and by using Anti-gravity, I repelled all the 1277 gods away from the planet. We immediately all shot up, leaving mother Earth behind, past the clouds towards the great expanse of space.
It was a phenomenon that blew everyone witnessing away. First was the fall of the stars which the governments of the world had failed to explain their existence. Mostly owing to how fast the stars had emerged. And now, now those stars were seemingly leaving, not keen to destroy the Earth anymore.
I smiled, seeing a prompt appear at the corner of my vision. That meant I must have achieved a new level in my Earth bending. Anti-gravity had been born out of studying concepts that were directly linked with my subskills. Maybe I didn't need Lucifer's Meaning, just like I had suspected.
It was an avenue that opened more doors to me. I was glad I had saved up the Spiritual Attunement for both Earth and Water.
The first indication of a change in scenery was when I pushed myself and the descending gods out of the Earth's atmosphere. From across one end of the world, I saw the curvature of the planet, the blue seas and the sun just visible over the other edge of the planet.
The ozone layer didn't really have a true end or start, it was just a dense field of air that lessened the higher you went until you arrived at the second zone. Space debris.
Stones, rocks and metal from satellites all bunched together to provide the final blockade. I used my second hand to create individual paths for each of the lights before we broke through.
And then behold.
The emptiness of space, populated with only far away pinpricks of light was revealed to me. To us. The moon orbited dangerously close and a red planet I could clearly see due to my powers was further than that. I could feel Energia and Geb that way. Geb, my son. Who I had to protect with everything I had, if not for me then for our family's sake.
I usually felt a little guilty when thinking about them. Worried that Aqua would be locked away, lonely without her sisters, brothers and mom. I had hope though that with Gaea there, everything would be taken care of.
'Enough dilly dallying, the stage has been set.' I told myself, looking down to see a metal platform under my feet. The platform was only a small part of the whole structure. Using a blend of Earthbending, gravity and antigravity, I formed a ring of metal, stretching out around the planet. The width was about twenty football stadiums in length and the thickness was the size of the base of the Eiffel Tower.
I released the Anti-gravity shield around the gods and instead applied it to the planet. A yellow shield covered it completely. Now no attack or god could pass through and land on Earth. That fortunately or in their case unfortunately meant the gods were stuck above the Earth on a ring of metal debris with me. A ring that emitted it's own gravitational field that allowed them to stand on top of it. I was loving my new sub skill. Thanks Geb.
One by one, the glamor of light ended as the pantheons fully presented themselves to me. Zeus, flanked by his brothers, Poseidon and Hades, the essence of divine weapons wafting off them. Then we had a beautiful asian Woman who promised death with her eyes and was top ten strongest out of all of them. She stood to their right, flanked by other Japanese deities. Not to mention the Morrigan, The Chinese heavenly court and hell court, the Monkey King himself...
It was a party that I wouldn't dare miss for the world. At last, I could debut by fused form. I could reveal my new strength and see how hard they tried to fight back. I needed to be stronger, much stronger because soon enough, I was going to have to go up against true Cosmic Beings. If I can't beat a few thousand gods, what does that make me?
I touched the necklace on my neck.
"For you, nothing will keep me away."
A promise to Start, one I intended to keep.
"You Have Caused Us Too Much Trouble Aden Strong, Now Prepare For Your End."
A voice, unified by all their vocal chords rang out across the artificial atmosphere I had installed.
One lone man standing in place to oppose them. All I needed was rain and this would turn out into Neo vs the Agents.
I took a deep breath.
"I know your secret." I smirked, as an eerie silence dominated the air.
"I know who you are."
I added, raising up a palm.
"I know who's behind all these Pantheons, controlling them like puppets. You're not Dormammu, not Chthon or even Mephisto."
I wagged a finger.
"Nope, you are more ambitious, more conniving, more patient. You are the Darkhold. You gained sentience due to my spirit energy propensity to grant life. You wouldn't exist if it weren't for me."
My body begun to change, my long strands of black shifting into a literal firestorm that lapped greedily at the nothingness of space. The hair extending to my shoulders went down to my hips and then begun flaring out like snakes striking at the air. Hundreds of thousands of individual strands.
My eyes turned completely blue, into a vortex of power that sucked your sight in and trapped your mind in a crushing force reminiscent of the underwater pressure. They displayed the cruelty and the peace inherent in water.
My entire body was awash with different effects. Winds randomly blew against my body and were my body. I phased in and out of air currents, falling through the veils of space yet remaining in control. It was too much power to handle yet my 30 seconds were not up.
And finally my senses could feel a calling from the heavenly bodies surrounding me. The earth beat at what seemed the one true heartbeat. A heartbeat that was shared by everyone and everything present.
It was not the greatest of powers I had ever accessed but it was the one that felt most intimate. More personal. Most deserved.
"Now, Stand down, Junior."
I warned after completing my transformation.
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