As I ignored my enemies and strode towards Nezznar, I silently focused on something called my “Killing Intent”. This was a power that I had, courtesy of the might of the essence of the killer.
As I activated it I sensed my acidic pet, the little ooze I had tamed, dash out from behind me and snake towards one of the bugbears whose attacks I had ignored earlier. Almalexia turned her gaze towards the beholder-like being who had attempted to attack me earlier. The draconic sisters giggled and threw themselves at the remaining bugbears.
I watched the battles occurring around me with a bright grin on my face. All the while I continued a silent, unstoppable advance on my enemy. The dark elf I was slowly striding towards had onyx-colored skin, hair the color of ivory, and wore a set of simple but functional leather armor.
My enemy was unable to bear his full might against me as I advanced on him. That was unfortunate since I vastly outclassed him even without the suppressive effects of my killing intent. He unsteadily raised his hand crossbow and attempted to point it at me, but his hands kept shaking as I unstoppably marched towards him.
“Stop! I’ve got this crossbow!” He yelled, stammeringly. His hands kept trembling as he tried to aim his weapon at me. Impressively he actually managed to fire the crossbow but the actual bolt veered off wildly, not even remotely coming close to touching me.
I chuckled at his pathetic display and listened as my allies worked on his servants. Around the two of us there was a fierce battle raging, though to call it a battle was a bit of an exaggeration.
My allies were the equivalents of beyond level twenty entities, aside from my slime mascot. They were trouncing the foes before them, with Almalexia merely hurling her blade into the central eye of the beholder-like beast she was fighting, and my two dragons simply ramming themselves into their enemies, which was enough for them to break bones.
I gazed at Nezznar with a smug smile on my face as he quickly fumbled while attempting to load another bolt into his crossbow. I actually stopped advancing and allowed him to do as he pleased for a second.
I waited while he struggled to reload his weapon. The reason I was waiting was that I knew that the instant that he perished I’d be freed from this place. I didn’t mind allowing my companions to have their fun. I even audibly told Nezznar to take his time.
It took him several seconds to actually reload his weapon and when he did he attempted to confidently shout at me. The attempt died in his throat and the sound that came out was a quiet whimper.
He was able to more firmly aim this time, holding the weapon affixed to his hand with more ease than before. He fired it and the bolt flew in my general direction but before it could hit me it seemed to bounce off of some invisible field that surrounded me.
I was protected by a potent “Minus” I possessed named “Amateur Amazing” which protected me from any and all targeted, ranged attacks. If someone did something like try and shoot me it’d miss, though someone could still attempt to do something like stab me if they wanted, or they could use a bomb in my general vicinity, though even that wouldn’t do a lot of good. Force-field powers are perfect for dealing with things like bombs.
This caused the elf to gasp out of fear as he realized that something unnatural was occurring. He wasn’t sure what, mostly due to the out-of-context nature of this power, but he was sure something was protecting me from his attacks.
This made him feel a twinge of anger, and I chuckled at that. It seemed as though he might yet rise up to try and strike me down.
“Come on! That’s it, use your anger.” I told him, teasingly. As I spoke I watched the anger deflate from him, leaving him swiftly as he had begun to become mad in the first place.
Now that he had been confronted by someone on a level beyond his own I could see that he was not worth much. That was… ultimately disappointing, but to be expected.
He was the villain for the tutorial campaign of what was in all likelihood the easiest edition of Dungeons and Dragons. He was not meant to be a challenge, even though when backed by a full party of allies and minions he could at least put up a bit of a fight.
The dark elf, when left alone, stood no real chance against an actual entity of power. I stared at him, disappointed, for a few seconds before I began to walk towards him. When he began to back away from me, I opened my mouth and activated my favorite mutation: Reeva Payge’s neurologically harmful screech.
A wave of sonic energy, at a pitch much higher than humans or even elves could actually process, emanated from my mouth. The sound pounded into the elf, and blood began to ooze out of his nose.
It begin to drip down his face and stain his light armor. His head was pounding furiously as he sat, and was forced to endure being hammered by the power in my voice.
At the very same time that I forced the dark elf to his knees I heard the gentle voice of Almalexia whisper into my mind.
“So we’re about done here right?” She asked me, speaking telepathically to me. I chuckled, internally and nodded, knowing she’d see it.
“We are. As soon as I kill this guy we’ll be teleported out of this place.” I told her, with a smug grin on my face.
“So… From here, what’s the goal? What’s your goal?” She asked me, legitimately curiously. I didn’t blame her for that, all of this was very odd. She had been yoinked from her home world to some only partially real realm, to this dimension that didn’t actually exist. And soon she’d be snatched from here and deposited in the world of my birth… Earth.
I contemplated her question while my foe began to lose consciousness. The sonic screech deployed by Ms. Payge was a powerful mutation and was easily one of my favorites.
I turned inward and considered how to answer her question. The truth was that I had relatively few goals at the moment. I, unsurprisingly, wanted to grow in power and influence but I also knew that there was more to the world and to life than to do just those things. This was far easier for me to say now that I had thoroughly become the strongest being native to my particular Earth, but it was still something worth bringing up.
Nevertheless, now that I was just moments from returning to Earth I knew that I needed to come up with more concrete goals than to just live. I had been given a chance to become something, or rather, someone truly great. I had been given a chance to live an extraordinary life and I needed to make something of it.
“I…” I began, as my mind contemplated millions of different possibilities for my future. I sighed, purely internally of course, and then relaxed. For now my goal would be simple; I’d prepare for the day I visited the universe of the Elder Scrolls.
“My goal is grow to prepare for the day that we invade Aurbis. When that day comes we will unify everyone.” I informed my wife, sternly. This caused her to audibly gasp, and then begin to smile in delight.
This was admittedly a somewhat strange goal to have. Invading Aurbis from the outside would invite the reprisal of the universe’s countless inhabitants, including mighty entities like Sithis, Akatosh, Azura, and Alduin. That was more than a bit exciting to me, and brought a wicked smile to my face.
Strong enemies were exciting to clash against and I had powers that rewarded me for being brave and defeating even the mightiest foes. Any foe I defeated I would directly empower me, and the thought of having the powers of beings like Namira or Hircine made me want to go ahead and find a way to their universe.
Aurbis was far from the only place that had creatures that I wanted to find and defeat. If I could get to places like Theros, The Fated World, or Skyriver I could also tremendously grow in power. Heck even the world where “A Song of Ice and Fire” takes place had some entities worth tracking down and killing such as the god worshiped by the Faceless Men.
I was a god of death who gained power by slaying everything from ordinary people to creatures as mighty as universe creating gods. If I wanted to grow the most sure way to make that happen was to go ahead and kill other creatures, especially powerful and unique ones. Now that I was armed with “Godfucker” I had a hell of a reason to go on a rampage in the near future…
Fortunately for the world, though I did want to grow stronger and stronger, I didn’t want that enough to just go berserk when I returned home. No, I had other, better routes to power that wouldn’t involve me losing my mind.
When I returned home I could simply pave the way for me to slowly grow in power from the worship of Earth humans, while I planned what jump to take next, once I had endured the next few years of basic survival in an array of jumps. Just one year in each one before I could go and truly have fun… My powers made it worth it for me to wait, even if waiting didn’t sound fun.
Whether it was Molag Bal, or the Drowned God, there were enough gods out there for it to be worth growing in power before I went ahead and tried to tackle some foreign divinity. Fortunately for me I had plenty of time to allow myself to grow in power before I tried to punch any gods in the face.
I approached the fallen dark elf and willed open my mental weapon’s wheel. The thing was filled with the various weaponry used by the Doom-Slayer himself and as it opened up I felt time slowing around me.
I was standing over the dark elf I had come here to kill. I peered down at him and readied myself to bring this adventure to an end while I studied the weapon wheel which now sat firmly in the middle of my mind’s eye. All sorts of weapons were on it, from things like the B.F.G. 9000 to the combat shotgun.
The instant that I shot the elf all of this would come to an end. And when it did I’d be free to return to Earth… And to undergo my final apotheosis. That made it hard for me to pick whichever gun I most wanted to be the one that sent me home.
The Doom-Slayer had a litany of weapons. It was fun to try and pick a single one to use right now, since each of them had so much history and was a part of an iconic lineup of weaponry that could have left even the most decisive individual with a sensation of analysis paralysis.
I spent several seconds, in my own mind anyway, attempting to pick a gun. At first I felt like doing special and using a high-tech weapon such as the gravity gun, but when I closed the wheel and aimed my weapon at the head of the elf the weapon in my hand was the super shotgun.
The weapon was a classic, and it was simple. In my hands it was a surprisingly ordinary looking slightly futuristic shotgun, with a powerful and cruel looking meat hook affixed to it for the sake of fun and cruel transit from one place to another.
The weapon was already loaded with shotfun shells and it felt light to carry around and aim. I pointed it at the head of Nezznar and I watched as I pulled the trigger and saw explosive shells surge out of the gun. They rocketed towards the elf and hit him square in the head.
As the elf’s head began to be smashed by the potent shells that were in the process of ending his life I felt the rest of the world around me freeze in place. While this was happening I could have sworn I heard Ben’s laughter beginning to ring out in my mind, and I watched my surroundings become suffused with potent white light.
“And now… We’re heading home.” I muttered, alone as I felt the simulation I had been inside of dissolve around me. By the time everything was done changing I found myself exactly where I had been… perhaps hours, perhaps minutes ago.
At the very same time the other me was also hard at work. He was doing something important… Preparing to open up the bazaar dimension that I owned. And even here, on Earth, time was frozen. Surprisingly, that made me sigh in relief.
I had been expecting to feel overwhelmed by the sudden and dramatic explosion my mind had received due to the sensory enhancements I had gotten by drinking the countless essences which were now a part of me. That was coupled with the knowledge that I was about to undergo one more potent apotheosis that would further extend my senses and my ability to perceive stimuli… To say that I was nervous was an understatement.
Fortunately, even though I was on Earth since the other me wasn’t done yet it looked as though I had some more time! I needed to take this chance to prepare for when my body was fully updated.
I smiled and winked, and as I did I activated a powerful “Not Equal” power I possessed known as “Albini Lock”. The instant that I activated it I teleported out of Barnes and Noble and reappeared in the very same room I had left hours ago to prepare to go to work. Seeing it again, as sparsely decorated as it was, brought me a certain amount of joy…
I felt proud seeing the room before me. And I readied myself for the explosion my senses were surely about to undergo, the very second that “I” was done interacting with merchants in my private marketplace realm.
