Opening my eyes, I witnessed the overlapping haze of two similar but different objects swim before me. One was the embodiment of my own tree of Yggdrasil, the same that allowed me to soar in power level... Its many branches and roots expanding around me, encapsulating everything that I am or was, or am to be. The second image was the very same shadowed oak that was most definitely the multiverse's version of Yggdrasil.
'Huh? Hold on...'
"Indeed. Your soul has been burdened with the weight of an entire Multiverse." One of the sister's voices quivered through my mind as I instinctively attempted to discover its source. I failed.
"To bring those that are scattered as mere fantasy..." Future spoke now, Past's presence within my brain flicking away as the sickly sweet sensation of Future's now lathered every single brain cell.
"Into the fold of a single multiverse..." Present drowned out the other voices, provoking a sense of dread and foreboding that raked on my nerves.
The images before me aligned closer as the raspy voices of the sisters slowly chanted around me. Feeling the urge to gulp I looked down towards my own chest, a cold sensation having drawn my notice as the chanting continued. A discordant pulse of light forged into a tightly bound cord wove itself from my naked chest out and into the distance. Following this weave of sensations I quickly found myself traipsing my gaze up the length of the tree before me.
Its size was beyond comprehension, dimensionality and spatial characteristics... beyond explanation even. The Dark dimension or any other trivial spatially fluctuating realm paled in comparison to this... Anchor? Living being? Entity? Thing...? I finished gulping back the saliva within my throat as that cord coiled until tort, hooking further into my body and quite possibly my soul, before yanking somewhere behind my stomach.
"Thou shall now bend thy powers to thy will..." One voice faded to the next, "Grasp those discordant stories, tales and mythologies..." Present finished just after Past had. "And choose which of those shall be blessed to tie the knot to our own reality."
All three voices came to an abrupt stop as the visions of Yggdrasil, both foreign and deeply personal, merged as one.
"""Beneath the boughs of Yggdrasil's silent knowing, where root drinks deep of time's forgotten stream, the Wyrd-weavers whispered thrice: 'Shall the leaf command its fall, or wind its way?' So be it, Freya, thine is the will to sever thread with thought, and walk where even Nornir dare not dream."""
Every single sensation ceased abruptly as the two versions of Yggdrasil joined as one.
"..."
No noise marred the moment. No grand spectacle graced the visual spectrum. The White room itself was lacking the heat it did moments ago, yet that itself was expected given her absurd powers. There was zero sign of a change, emotionally, physically, psychically or spiritually... Just a small flutter within my stomach as all grandiosity faded and the shadowed Yggdrasil that once surrounded was no where to be seen. It was akin to being close to an epic climax with a lover, yet for that climax to be ripped away into the bowels of dissatisfaction.
"History art thou prey for its lessons hark within your very soul..." The past spoke.
"Never shalt thou wither before life nor death, for the present yawns at your mind's gate." The Present crooned.
"Hope shapes thou path near to paths unknown, as future is want to do." The Future whispered demurely but sexily within my mind as I felt a similar hook-like sensation but behind my navel this time.
'Wh-what...?'
"""Look to thy soul. Answers thy wish shall be granted if thee were to search."""
All three whispered with a finality only rivalled by death itself before I was yanked through time and space, brimstone meeting the receptors at the back of my nostrils as fire flared fiercely before me.
...
The pungent stink of sulphur suffused the atmosphere of this hellish plane, so much in fact that it mixed into a visible haze of green that licked ones' features constantly. It was in this oily cesspit of stench that I emerged, the 'air' of this realm turning nigh-vapid at my appearance.
Like the heat from the White room i found the odour subdued. The only reason I knew of the stench was my purchased knowledge and the constant wheezing of voices in the distance. These voices were punctuated by sporadic flurries of fire that blazed up and down much like geysers on Earth would have. Speaking of 'earth', the soil here was a harsh yellow-orange that reminded me of Mesa-Blocks from Minecraft, if they were to have been sun-baked for millions of more years and pissed upon by the foulest of creatures for that similar period of time.
All of that paled in comparison to the knowledge that this was the realm that harboured and was in fact ruled over by, Mephisto. Harry's parents were here, not that they were my complete focus for this mission... A side quest really... Mephisto had become too much of a threat to me. Appearing within my reality engine, my own worlds, and then having the gall to threaten me? He needed to be dealt with. Lucifer's little mission was just icing on the cake for me... I'd already made the decision to end him when I sensed his obvious malice for me.
*HSSSSSSSSSSSS*
An imp hissed at me from a few metres away, its wings flapping slowly underneath its bulbous form and engorged forehead. In its clawed but emaciated hands a trident, often depicted in Christian religion as a pitch fork, was leant forwards toward me. The sound was no doubt meant as a warding threat, a territorial screech so to speak... The weapon did little to scare me, in fact, with my staff suddenly appearing from subspace, it was a pathetic display of force.
'Hmmm... Why do I suddenly feel as if Lucifer is below me? Wasn't I afraid of him not but an hour ago?' Ignoring the little gnat before me I frowned, my inner eye scouring my own mindscape and soul for an answer to this question.
But, much like that entire visit to Yggdrasil and with the Fates, there was nothing to give explanation... Nothing to declare that I had changed in, whatever way one could imagine. No answer was supplied to me but the feeling of superiority refused to fade or subsume itself below other emotions. 'Is it my Sidhe nature?' The tone of the inwardly focussed question was less panicked and more analytical, scanning, in nature. It felt as if every part of me were simultaneously crying out from the roof tops: 'WHY SHOULD THIS SCARE ME? I AM BEYOND THAT!'... That, should have scared me, but didn't... And I was now okay with that, despite the fact I shouldn't be...
Blinking out of my stupor I looked down at my right arm, the teeth of the imp scraping ineffectively against my pale white skin. The creature was feral. Its eyes were infernally red and tinged with multiple sins that were widely attributed to the actual hell. Though truly revolting, the creature was but an ant before the power of a lightning bolt. With that sobering thought flittering within my mind I simply moved my arm softly to the side, as if softly rebuffing the buzzing of a fly... What followed could only be described as macabre...
All of the green fumes vanished in a sonic wave of pressure as the body of the imp imploded into miniscule chunks of flesh and blood. The wave of sound scraped through energy transfers, bleeding into heat and kinetic energy within mere micro-seconds as the that free-falling viscera quickly sizzled, popped, then atomised into basic molecular structures and compounds. The sound wave quickly dispersed away from me, every stalagmite and stalactite caught in its path crumbling to dust. A path was carved through the mire of hellish landscape that only ended after several kilometres.
'Hmmm, fascinating. I should be freaked out at that, but I can't fathom being so disgruntled... That power though... A mix of Magic, Chakra, Qi and Dimensional Energy? Something to practice with.'
Shrugging it off I stepped forwards, my magic synching with the dimension itself and whisking me away to those that i wished to save. It felt, natural, to simply request my magic to carry me in such a manner. My consciousness blipped for but a single moment of time before I was now standing before two strained souls, their spirits suffering from continued exposure to the sin of wrath... James and Lily Potter were before me, still whole, still intact, merely awaiting their time with this realm's master as he sluggishly dolled out torture to past souls he had collected.
'I wonder if I could get Hela her position back with the 'good' death for freeing these amount of souls into her clutch once more?' A chuckle built in the back of my throat as I considered the absurdity of this entire situation. I hadn't even 'gone fishing in the well' like Lucifer said and yet I felt different, changed... My emotions were still there, my love, my hatred, my happiness, my want, they were just of a higher quality now. My love for Susan, Artoria, Yuna and Hela was monumental now and ultimately more present within my thoughts.
The desire for political power and such was somewhat dulled against the deeper understanding of myself. Personally I didn't care for politics or empire building. I only wished to spend time with my partners and to spread joy to everyone through my games and worlds. To spread the powers and stories of undiscovered universes and multiverses with the people of this multiverse... Feel them react to it and embrace it. A sense of purpose enveloped me.
[Empire Management System had been Usurped]
[Manufacturing Yggdrasil Alignment System...]
[Completed...]
[You now have the power to dictate which 'Game World' is anchored to your Multiverse]
[Displaying Multiversal Stats...]
{Multiverse Name-Yggfreyathir
Level-(1/100)
Rank-1
Size-(1/100)
Current Games Attached- Star Wars The old Republic (Attached Maximum is dictated by size of the Multiverse)
Quality-*ERROR* *ERROR* *ERROR* }
Smirking ever so softly I shook off the new information and switched my attention back to the two attached souls before me. They were hugging, crying into one another's arms as they awaited one of their friends; hoping that they would save them from this realm. Fortunately for these unlucky souls I was here and beyond willing to aid the parents of the boy who had so easily snuck into my heart within such a small period of time. He felt like a nephew in a way...
I reached forwards with my free hand, the staff clasped in my right hand, scooping them up and into my magical aura. That seemed to do the trick for their woes as the contact with my power sapped away the influence of Mephisto, who, I noted with some amount of glee, was traversing in my direction using a relatively slow teleportation method.
'Honestly, that is a pathetic way to travel... He should be ashamed of himself.'
The souls sequestered themselves away behind me, taking protection from the malevolence around them within the cave that was my magic. Illusion covered them and dimensional energy hid them, this upcoming fight would do next to nothing to my protections... Even if I were to somehow lose, an unlikely scenario. 'Heh, aren't I overconfident now...'
A soft chuckle escaped my lips as the fiery miscreant known as Mephisto slowly unveiled himself from the surrounding quagmire of flames.
"It's YOU!" My chuckle softly came to an end as I stared at this entity that had caused so many pain and suffering, the total opposite to what I wished to grant people.
"Mhm! It is me... In the flesh... Ready to get your soul cremated?" Glaring at me in incoherent rage his power swelled and the entire realm felt as if it were closing upon me, squeezing down onto my soul. A paltry sensation after having experienced the White Hot Room.
"Oh, I will enjoy torturing your soul. Not to mention the fun i can have with you body..." A grimace reached my mind but failed to communicate itself to my expression. The urge to laugh seemed to bubble forth again, no doubt an effect of my fey nature being released fully... 'Wait! That's what happened?' The realisation struck me more than his reveal of his creepiness did, though he didn't take it that was as his lips curled into a rictus of pleasure.
"Finally floundered your way into understanding have you?" A frown flickered to my brow before I huffed slightly.
"No you mewling cur, I'm figuring out how I am going to flambé a devil whilst he is within his own realm of power... Any suggestions?" His teeth gnashed as his power spiked, that feeling of weight slamming down once more to the same inconsequential effect.
"You'll die for this insult!"
"I'll die of boredom if you don't attack soon. I could be having sex with my wives, yet i am stuck here with you, so do try to put up an entertaining fight."
"AAARGHHHHHHHHH!"
'Hook... Line... and... Sinker...'
An explosion of power flattened the terrain for several hundred kilometres, souls flying and debris raining down upon the sorry excuse for earthen ground.
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