(Aden's P.O.V)

The Mental recording abruptly ended and I found myself back on the island. An island that would soon need a name if it was to be the birthplace of the new Worker drones designed to develop new infrastructure and keep the environment secure and intact.

I looked at the Silver ring on my thumb in indecision. To be honest, this was what I wanted but I was also conflicted. Future Me was invested in making sure I made it out alive, that much was true. However, what assurance did I have that I would make it to his time the way I wanted? What if whatever upload I used to upgrade the Realm was something beneficial to him and not me? It's a deeper question than it might seem. And I was slowly learning to ask such questions.

"Well, I guess all I can do is take the chance that this won't screw me badly down the line. And even if it does… cutting down the time for the upgrade from one year to 3 months is a deal I can live with."
I told myself and stepped forward. My hand came up and touched the energy field surrounding the tower.

Instead of bouncing off, the palm sank in with a light tingling sensation. I took a deep breath and crossed through the membrane with minimal hesitation. Now that I was inside the tower, I could feel massive energy of the same signature as a Fatherbox just missing the sinister feel throbbing through the space. The tower was directly connected to the core of my world which was the cleansed Fatherbox paired up with Morrow's code and bound together by the Avatar State's order energy. The tower was directly tapping into the flow of energy and using that power to create a production hub for Worker drones. That was all there was to it. The Miner #0234 main task was to refine minerals and transport that mineral back to the Sconiad home planet or their outposts in the nearest star sector. The smart algorithm maintaining the realm had taken that chance to tweak the Miner's core objective into something else.

Left alone, the Realm was in the process of further upgrading that Smart algorithm into something more. The combination of the three factors, Fatherbox for source energy, Morrow's code as the building blocks and integrity and The Avatar State's order energy to balance everything would give rise to something completely different. True consciousness. To hasten the process, that's where the MDP came in. Which is also why I was hesitant into fully trusting it. What if the resulting True Consciousness was loyal to me but not this me? Gah, this shit is too convulated.

I feel like I'm taking an unnecessary risk. Should I go through with this? I took another hard look at the Silver Ring on my thumb. Be in Control. I remembered those words from Future Me. This didn't feel like I was in control. I lowered my hand and stepped back. I couldn't take unnecessary risks anymore. Not until I had the odds stacked in my favor. To ensure that the MDP would be in my full control, I was going to have to seek some mystical help.

Future Me was probably expecting me to rush into this because of the contradictory statement he added on later about power being the one thing I could count on but… Like I said before, I was starting to learn. So no using the MDP until I was sure it was safe to utilize.

I spared one look at the island before jumping inside a boom tube. There were many strong wizards, sorcerers and magicians I could get help from. Wotan was a beast easily on Dr. Fate's level at his strongest. Faust could take on Wonder Woman and Zatara in a fight and successfully escape, though full powered Zatanna would be more than his match and the less said about figures like Madam Xanadu, Morgan le Fay, Circe, Enchantress just to name a few, the better. My point is, to completely bind the MDP to me and erase any outside 'influences' I had a lot of options.

Every villain was immediately off the table though. Who knew what sort of backdoor, stipulation or deal they would try to sell and then doublecross me later? I couldn't risk it. In that same vein, most of the heroes were out as well. I had to go for someone who I could us leverage against. Someone who wasn't too powerful that I couldn't escape when I needed but also inclined to listen to me.

That said, I was not going in like I was…the Realm could wait a few more weeks before I upgraded it. Infact, the only role the MDP had was to shorten that time frame and while I agree it was less stressful to just go through with it, seeing as, if anything bad happened to me, Future Me would also be in trouble…this was one of the times I had to hit the breaks. Assume control. And to increase my odds and be in a better bargaining position, I had to power up.

I made it back into my room, through the Boom Tube and immediately left to find my landlord? Friend?. The door to the living room was closed so I gently knocked not wanting to interrupt whatever he was doing now and waited. A few more seconds and I knocked again. I was about to push through when door swung open. Instantly, a blast of hard rock assaulted my ears.

Maze ran her eyes over me disinterestedly.
"Oh, it's just you…"
With that she turned back and walked away. I followed her in, closing the door behind me with a barely audible click due to the delicious ear rape going on. I'll explain in a few.
"Where is Lucifer?
I shouted over the music.
"Whaaat!"

She shouted back from the couch where she was bobbing her head to Beelzeboss by Tenacious D, the final showdown of the movie by Jack Black and Kyle Gass that was playing on the huge TV screen. Maze made to pause the movie but I jumped over the couch and stole the remote.

She narrowed her eyes at me but I shook my head with a knowing smile, then turned to watch the underrated movie that had become a cult classic.

"...It's fucking tasty

I'm the Devil, I can do what I want
Whatever I've got I'm gonna flaunt
There's never been a rock-off
That I've ever lost
I can't wait to take Kage back to Hell
I'm gonna fill him with my hot demon gel
I'll make him squeal
Like my Scarlet Pimpernel

[Interlude: Jack Black, Kyle Gass, Both]
Noooooo!
Come on Kage, bring the thunder
There's just no way that we can win
That was a masterpiece
Listen to me
He rocks too hard
Because he's not a mortal man
Goddammit, Kage!
He gonna make you his sex slave
You're gonna gargle Mayonnaise
No...
Unless we bust a massive monster mamma-jam
Dude, we've been through so much shit
Deactivated lasers with my dick
Now it's time to blow this fucker down!

[Verse 2: Jack Black, Kyle Gass, Both]
Come on, Kage
Now it's time to blow doors down
I hear you Jables
Now it's time to blow doors down
Light up the stage
'Cause it's time for a showdown
We'll bend you over
Then we'll take you to brown town
Now we've got to blow this fucker down
He's gonna rape me if we do not blow doors down
Come on Kage
'Cause it's time to blow doors down
Oooh, we'll piledrive ya
It's time for the smackdown
Hey Antichrister
Beelzeboss
We know your weakness
Our Rocket Sauce
We rock the Casbah
And blow your mind
We will defeat you
For all mankind
You hold the scepter
We hold the key
You are the Devil

We are the D(×18)

The lyrics went on until the song was complete. By the end of it, Maze was laughing so hard tears were running down her cheeks.

"Can you imagine Lucifer's face if he ever watched this movie? It would be priceless."

I told her setting her off into a laugh fest once again.

A few minutes later and the movie was done. I turned to her and waited eagerly. She saw me staring and sighed.

"Ok, I'll admit you humans have a penchant for the unexpected. That wasn't half bad."

"Yeah it wasn't. Jack Black is a fucking rockstar."

I responded and we talked for a few more minutes about other comedy movies she could watch. I even promised her that we could do a movie marathon, you know to show her more of what humanity had to offer in the ways of entertainment media. So far the only thing she deemed worthy of humanity's continued existence was the booze. I sucked in a hiss, the only thing standing between Maze and her pushing the big apocalyptic button if she had one, was the booze. The booze.

That's a short list that I aimed to change.

"So what did you want with Lucifer?"

Maze finally wondered.

"Well, I still have 2 more missions to carry out before he and I are square."

She nodded for me to continue.

"But I was thinking of taking 2 weeks off to just rest up and unwind from everything, if it's possible. I guess I just wanted to know how urgent the next two missions are. I don't want to risk putting people's lives in danger just to take a break when I can deal with the missions now and be done with them."

She nodded and poured herself a drink from... somewhere. The bottle literally appeared from mid air.

"Well, you're in luck. After you sent Galiel and Mammon back to hell, your other targets have grown cautious and are wisely keeping their heads down. Your next mission was to go to Las Vegas and deal with a sex demon." Her jaw tensed and she tightened her palm on the glass. Seems like the she had some personal history with that particular demon. "Luckily, she is not one to cause senseless murder, so two weeks is okay I guess."

I got up.

"Thanks. Hope you don't mind telling Lucifer about that new arrangement?"

I requested. She waved me off.

"Don't worry about it, Kid. Go do what you have to do."

With that, I left. Time to rest and after that, I'm getting started on the first Firebending Sub-skill.