[Myrkr]
The days he spent as Myrkr were quite more enjoyable during the past decade than as Magnus Fjall. There was no need to keep looking righteous or to think about the betterment of humanity.
All he had to do was to stab humans where they were weak a few times and let them sort it out. Needless to say that Magnus Fjall had more paperwork and annoying diplomatic works to do each time he appeared in his territory.
But it would be too suspicious to tickle the nerves of the other two superpowers without touching the largest one, no? Especially when Magnus was his greatest 'rival' and most bitter enemy.
While some might think that the things he did were quite unethical, he believed that it was needed. And destroying corporations standing near the peak of the social pyramid because they were corrupt counted as a good deed in his books.
Although he had to destroy some of the research material and forced thousands of people out of their jobs, it wasn't like they would die.
With this style of reasoning, Magnus kept stirring up trouble everywhere as Myrkr. Didn't matter if it was the current Roman Emperor who hid his power as an SS ranker to Magnus' surprise or the Five Lords of the North.
Even his disciples would receive a bit of his love every year to make sure they kept up to speed with other prodigies.
Though he had to say, the one who impressed him the most weren't the disciples who reached the level of his power and basically trained for him.
It was Sophia, an S ranker whose power level neither skyrocketed nor stopped. It kept advancing at a steady pace.
If there was a pond and someone had the task of throwing in seeds which would instantly sprout, the talented would throw as many as they could to finish their task.
Whilst the talentless were like blind people not knowing where the pond even was, missing most of their shots.
Sophia, on the other hand, knew where the pond was and decided to plant each seed one by one, so the entire pond was eventually covered with no gaps remaining.
This translated into her training, her body, soul, and brain. She focused on the supreme balance, perfect mental health, tempering her body, tempering her soul and remaining open-minded.
Her style was very close to the style of cultivators, and he could argue that it was even superior. She wasn't chasing weird concepts, which she wouldn't be able to understand for hundreds of years.
What she did was to lay a brick at a time, for her the final destination held no meaning and she very much focused on the present.
For in the present, she believed that she should build the greatest foundation, not in the future nor in the past.
Magnus' mind sometimes wondered what she experienced in the time she was gone, but he didn't probe around much. He even felt the romantic connection she used to force upon him was nowhere to be gone.
A trace of affection is what he felt, however it wasn't defining her as a person. Like it or not, he was quite satisfied and tested her as Myrkr, the most out of his disciples.
Many times, some questions or situations he put in her were quite inappropriate and would even break someone's mind.
Her's didn't break though and although oftentimes shaken up. She learned from the experience more than she suffered.
Magnus didn't know what it was, but the level of attraction began to develop a bit. Sadly, his goal preceded that of his desire to conquer women.
What was a beautiful vase when one wasn't even able to protect it from breaking? Sometimes that vase might be even stolen and exploited in ways that Magnus wished he didn't know.
Apart from testing Sophia. Myrkr was the more adventurous and daring type, who kept challenging the status quo of the entire world.
And that was not limited to humans, mana beasts, and the legendary beasts were challenged too. Unknown to humans, even the aquatic kingdom wasn't spared from Myrkr.
His havoc began with the mana beasts, their foundation weren't at all weak and he believed that those that survive for thousands of years might even be capable of helping him with conquering other planes and planets.
Not to mention that Honey Badger, whose fighting style gave Magnus shivers and bad dreams days after he fought with him. But even the leaders of the species were easily capable of contending with SS ranks.
The SS ranks were quite spread out though as some appeared in the canine group, some in feline. The air based mana beasts had quite the amount of SS ranks as well.
What spooked him the most was the S rank mosquito queen that possessed the potential to break through into SS ranks in the future.
Menace, pure menace, he thought as he remembered how much annoyance and pain female mosquitoes caused him in his previous life.
Multiple times, he considered the thought of erasing her and all of her brethren, but he changed his mind at the last second.
That S rank queen of mosquitoes was no monster without wisdom and intelligence. She was a real sentient being who didn't wish for the meaningless killing of her race.
In fact, he could argue that her love for her race surpassed every queen of the insect race. And after meeting Myrkr, who peacefully 'negotiated' with her.
Mosquitoes no longer targeted humans and other beings. Most of the times blood was inferior to mana, which gave them a further incentive to forgo their previous legacy.
Albeit they stopped using such things to get food and nutrition, the power of mosquitoes against beings made of flesh was unquestionable.
Even if one was covered in mana to protect themselves from little miniscule mosquitoes capable of surviving hard hits, the mana from the barrier would soon be gone.
Like a vacuum cleaner, they would suck you dry off your mana instead of blood. The potential of cosmic mosquito swarms the size of planets wiping out his enemies was something Magnus considered multiple times.
Still, unless he enslaved the queen, he wouldn't help her gain power, nor would he give her pointers. If she reached the SS rank power level sooner than he expected, he might have to consider doing so, though.
Talent could be found in every being, not humans only after all.
Succeeding his visit of the mana beasts was the poking into the aquatic world. That place was for sure the most dangerous.
He wasn't even able to meet the queen of the Atlantis Divine Kingdom with the identity of Myrkr. The beasts guarding her majesty already possessed the power level of SSS.
In total, he knew about 4 of these protectors and 3 of them were in the corners of the world whilst the last one was the direct protector of the queen.
Though Magnus doubted her inability to protect herself and with the nerf, he wasn't able to get near her without exposing his identity.
And while it would be beneficial to control the Divine Kingdom in the short term, he wasn't so sure about the long term.
As much as he was equipped with knowledge, techniques and knowledge, those were capable of shining the best on the surface.
His inheritance and ideas were a lot more limited in the aquatic world compared to the one on land. So, he decided to take a gamble.
During the times where the Atlantis Divine Kingdom shines, he would not interfere with its development. Only after it is under substantial pressure from the invaders, would he lend a helping hand to truly unite the entire Earth.
And the last ones on his task list were the legendary beasts. Their major difference from mana beasts was both their weird level of power and their connections to religions, which existed for thousands of years.
Credit where credit is due, mana beasts were capable of creating feats like those in legends and myths. But looking the exact same as a feathered serpent or being like the legendary Roc?
He wasn't quite sure, furthermore their control over elements was close to a level of a divine being which does not control them through spells but through the use of 'commands'.
These were some clear signs and red flags in Magnus' mind that those deities had presence in more places than just some puny little Earth.
To his relief, the amount of 'deities' or legendary beasts didn't increase much in the past decade with only one.
That one, though, gave him quite the anxiety as it confirmed an entire mountain of powerhouses which could descend on Earth at any time.
A man calling himself the emissary of Gods of the Mount Olympus. And it wasn't his projection that appeared, but he 'possessed' someone like an incarnation.
Magnus had a feeling that in the future, many 'successors' of these gods would appear to wreak havoc. And he'd be damned if all of them came to Earth with the intention of 'helping' humans.
Most came for faith, that he was sure of. But some could have simple thoughts of entertaining themselves and used their 'possessions' as master minds which would cause chaos.
He can't even rule out the possibility that gods or powerful beings comparable to gods would be employed to help his enemy.
His status was clearly not low when that overseer complimented him. Hermes was, at least for now, a friendly god who helped a lot of people without desiring their faith.
Hermes didn't even mind the presence of some satellites being dedicated solely to him. Though when Hermes mentioned and complimented those satellites in passing, it spooked a lot of higher ups.
His new presence aside, Magnus challenged the feathered serpent as Myrkr a few times.
He found out that the feathered serpent didn't grow faster overall than the top elites of every species. Its anxiousness was showing itself more clearly than ever.
His fight with it thus became much tougher as it had no desire to 'play' with him, directly exposing power close to that of the SSS ranks of the oceans.
Its power over wind grew as well and it could produce vacuums to block attacks. The level of manipulation it reached no longer manifested itself at the level of huge tornadoes unless it was faced with large numbers.
Instead, it seemed to concentrate, and it turned into soundless yet much deadlier power. Sometimes Magnus didn't even know where the attacks were coming from until the last second.
With most humans not familiar with this kind of deadly style, its potential to slaughter SS ranks went up by hundreds of times.
The legendary Roc was even more fearsome with its control over the element of earth. Although it was a bird, he felt that most of its power was unleashed once it was on the ground.
Power and defense on the ground and unparalleled speed in the air. It was capable of breaking multiple sound barriers in an instant and slow down to a halt in an instant as well.
The power it commanded was, in his opinion, on the higher end of the SSS rank spectrum, and he doubted that his entire faction of SS ranks would be able to beat it.
What comforted him, though, was the slow improvement it had, and with time, he believed that getting rid of it was just a matter of time.
Perhaps the most annoying to deal with was the mysterious woman, who, after all these years, was still wandering through Africa as if searching for something.
There was a change, though, and it was not in her power level or the followers she possessed.
Pyramids, those of ancient Egypt, appeared all over Africa inch by inch. No one was sure what those pyramids entail, but they were deemed as indestructible.
Even a 10 megatonne load was unable to destroy the tip of those pyramids and as the entrance was hidden, the implications would remain a mystery until the time was right.
And no one felt like those pyramids held treasure and good things within them. That woman's scope of wandering had also begun to shrink, and she wandered in the central part of Africa the most.
With the new generation, a new challenge was bound to appear and Magnus hoped that what he prepared was not just enough, but more than capable of both defending Earth from outside and inside...