Chapter 58: Of Guards & Spirits, Pt 2
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Max deals with the consequences of assimilating a dark spirit's power by interesting means. Of course, he also learns forbidden knowledge in the process and makes a solemn vow in the process. Some reaslizations are made, plans are seeded and schemes are overlapped…
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Max found himself back in a familiarly tranquil forest that radiated a otherworldly power. His form was mostly transparent—blue, like a ghost, but his right palm was violet and corrupted, slowly spreading up the rest of his wrist. He frowned at his wrist.
"That 'Assimilation Rune' is pretty powerful if it's able to assimilate the Fallen One's true form," a voice caused Max to realize he was not alone. "That said, if it doesn't properly acclimate to you during the assimilation process, you will lose yourself to the fallen one's will and become just another vessel for her consciousness to take over."
Max turned around to see the 7 Magic Elemental Personifications watching him; it was Occultic who had spoken.
"What?" Max was flabbergasted as he stared at the creeping violet aura inching its way up his arm.
"Your physiology keeps it from swiftly consuming you—And you have a naturally high resistance to control effects," Psi began to clarify. "But being controlled and being corrupted, while similar, are NOT the same. Your soul is actively being corrupted/consumed by the Fallen One that YOU collected and repaired the scattered fragments of... Your body will become a husk for her to wear."
Max narrowed his eyes.
"I doubt I was brought here to be told I messed up and am about to die," Max muttered, his voice heard by all 7 spirits. "What's the solution?"
Max looked at the 7 spirits—All 6 of them turned to the 7th—Psi. Psi sighed.
"You'll need to assimilate a spirit or power of equal level alongside a compatible, superior source of power," Psi explained. "One of us can be that second source, but it means you'll become us—or, rather, our personifications would be integrated into you. Everything we know, everything we've seen—Everything we are—you'll become aware of, you'll become."
"And we are old, little one," Nature chided. "Our experience may overwhelm you—And, if it does, you'll be broken—Irreparable. Incurable. Undeniable."
"But if you succeed," Occultic said, picking up where Nature left off. "Your power will drastically increase. Your assimilation of the Fallen One will be completed in your favor."
Max pondered this over for a moment before asking, "Compatible spirits or source of power means I'd have to assimilate two of you, doesn't it?"
No one said a word—An answer in and of itself.
"It will be painful, won't it?" Max asked.
No answer.
Max sighed. "Let's get this over with. Psi and Occultic. I choose you."
Occultic wordlessly offered a hand, ready for the process.
As cosmic elementals, they didn't fear death in the same way mortals did. And this wasn't technically dying so much as living on in a new, more unified form. It wasn't a bad particular position to be in, nor was it necessarily difficult to pick.
There existed a more powerful, slumbering/sealed elemental — a more primal one,; their original progenitors— The divine elemental. They felt like, by culminating their powers in one, evolvable vessel, they could become much closer to that form that they were so separated from and that this situation was the best opportunity to achieve this.
That's how the elementals viewed the situation as a whole.
"Before we begin, a word of advice," Psi said, hand comfortably on Max's shoulder. "You'll see many things, including stuff about the enemies you face. Try not to lose yourself in the chaos of ages past, yeah?"
Max nodded, grasping ahold of Occultic and Psi's offered hands. Then, wasting no time, he activated the Runes of Amplification and the Rune of Assimilation.
Instantly, pain unlike any other wracked through Max's soulself. He felt like his nerve ending's sensitivity had been shot straight to 10,000x its natural levels and set ablaze with a multitude of catastrophic level sensations all over, all at once.
It was Hell and, sadly, he wasn't the Devil.
"The fool used his amplification rune," the voice of Darhk sounded heated. "It's like he has a pain kink, the fool."
"Well, let's hope his actions don't get himself killed," Blood's voice stated.
Max was sure she said more but the pain was getting worse and his consciousness was shifting.
Countless scenes—No, memories—played through his mind from across the entire TVDU multiverse, like a river of space and time.
Max saw the tale of humanity. The tale of evolution and innovation—Of fire, of fury and of ingenuity.
He saw the tale of Ben, of Ken and of the gods. The tale of the spark that created monsters spanning countless worlds.
He saw the tale of stars and of knowledge. Of wars and of survival.
He saw the tale of countless reincarnators across the TVDU multiverse—All across the anals of time immemorial. Since that dawn of life, when the first mind could think, Psi was there. When the first idea came to be, Occultic was born. Together, even before magic or psychics came to be, they were already born in the eyes of the world.
Then he saw them—An organization group hellbent on ensuring stories played out in a proper way—So much so that gods were restricted to beatable levels, monsters were devoured whole across worlds and reincarnators were slaughtered long before they ever got a chance to truly grow—And "ruin" the stories.
When Max saw this, the rage he felt was inspeakable. There was no "proper" way for a story to exist. It was a story! It wasn't written in stone… Just ink on a page, or lead, but most definitely not stone… Unless you count caveman drawings, but still!
It was like this Hand of Nature was an organization's equivalent to Boomers... Or Karens.
The thought only served to piss him off more.
Max swore he'd avenge the fallen reincarnators slaughtered by this organization. Yet, as he noted their origins, he noticed something — The Hand of Nature were invaders—Sent from outside TVDU to guide and guard the plot, eliminating any threat to that goal.
'They came from somewhere,' Max thought, realization dawning. 'The chances of there being other branches to this organization in other verses are overwhelmingly high...' Max smirked, his pain, though active, long forgotten. 'Maybe I should visit other verses with an organization of my own—My own team of reincarnators to combat the big, bad team of reincarnators...?'
As Max saw the TVDU multiversal history, he couldn't help but smile at the thoughts. He wasn't a hero—Not by a longshot.
If Max had to categorize himself as a character, he'd put himself into the Chaotic Neutral archetype—Or, rather, the Chaotic Evil-ish Neutral archetype.
He did things solely for his own self-fish benefit… That and those who he considered close to himself. He wasn't a saint, and he had tendencies to be downright morally questionable, but he valued his freedom above all else. His personal freedom meant more to him than anything—And, even if he completely eradicates this Hand of Nature from his end of the omniverse, who's to say others won't arrive to take their place?
'An organization that spans multiverses like this unchallenged is a threat to my freedom regardless of situational future victories,' Max grimaced. 'I'm no hero, but enough souls have fallen from these people, and I reckon many more have elsewhere as well. If I leave them unchecked—unchallenged—they'll become even more of a threat for future me. Perhaps keeping eyes out for other transmigrators and developing a network of us wouldn't be the worse thing to do....'
The pain only intensified, but, as Max steeled his resolve, his enemy realized, he felt like he knew what to do next—Like he could handle it—Both the pain and the future.
Max returned to his body 4 days later, with a mind, soul and body capable of conceptual level psionics (psychic, seer, telekinesis, telepathy, etc.) that made up Psi, conceptual inspiration and ingenuity that made up Occultic and the combined power of Inadu from across the multiverse—All alongside the concept of the phoenix, which was fully acclimated to Maximus now that he was immortal.
In other words, Max was, in essence, a cosmic being after the elemental assimilation.
Of course, Max hadn't stopped at just Psi and Occultic—The others were amplified and assimilated, too—With their permission, of course.
Max essentially became the TVDU version of a Nexus magical being.
But he wasn't a fool.
He would not get sloppy or settle just for this. Especially not after what he saw of the leader of the Hand of Nature.
The guy was a monster. His power was insane... So much so, in fact, that as Max fully assimilated Psi's power, memories and person, he used his conceptual level psionics to greatly enhance the psychic plague linked to the being he had left alive from the Hand of Nature.
'The bastard sensed it and somehow cut the connection,' Max paused his research briefly. 'It doesn't really matter, though. The psychic plague was already enhanced to trans-conceptual levels—But to sense my doing so quickly and still manage to cut me off across dimensions...? I'll need more power, most definitely—And so too, will they.'
'In the end, at least I bought us more time.'
[In Another Dimension]:
In the dark dimension of the Hand of Nature, Number One was glaring into the distance.
He was not happy.
Not only had the boy wisen the plague devastating his people, but he did so across realms.
"The boy is growing," he frowned before a glint appeared in his eye and he smiled, then laughed. "Good. The bigger he grows, the more devastating the fall. This fight may actually be fun."
Suddenly, he began cackling into the void, clearly beside himself with a maddening glee.
"Maximus Bennett..." he said, as if to himself. "When I exit this place, I'll be coming straight for you. Don't disappoint me now."