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"People die when they are killed!"
- Shirou Emiya (Fate/Stay Night)
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<(Atem POV)>
"Seriously? Couldn't she just open a regular portal like a normal person? No—she had to toss me through time and space like she's auditioning for the role of the next Sorcerer Supreme. Such a showoff." I muttered, plummeting toward Earth. Even without touching down, I could feel it—this wasn't my universe anymore. It looked the same on the surface, but something underneath felt… off. Like stepping into a damp, decadent room that has been housing a rotting human body for years instead of an actual living being.
"Well, at least she had the decency to drop me in New York." I sighed, slowing my fall as I neared the skyline. "Most of the major Marvel events take place here anyway. Odds are I'll find some answers here." I said, landing softly on the roof of a random skyscraper.
"Hmm, I should probably check the system's backlog before anything else. I never did claim the reward from that Mephisto quest, and I'm pretty sure I heard a few pings during my chat with Mistress Death as well," I mumbled, pulling up the system notifications page.
[Mission completed successfully!]
[Mission reward has been placed in the Inventory]
[Special Skill/Item Upgrade card: This card can give a random upgrade to an item or a random evolution to a skill/ability/power. Cannot be applied to divinities or skills derived from divinities]
[Ding! Death has given you her blessing!]
[Ding! The system has successfully integrated Death's essence from the blessing!]
[Congratulations! New unique skill created from the Essence of Death!]
[Death's Touch:You can forcefully apply the concept of death to anyone you kill who is weaker than the concept of Death herself, irrespective of the type of immortality or method of resurrection they possess.]
"That's a pretty niche skill. Should be enough to deal with most 'in-universe' threats... though I can already think of plenty of multiversal heavyweights who'd shrug it off simply because they are on the same level as Death herself—or way past it," I sighed, clearly not too thrilled with the reward.
I mean, after unlocking something like Void Fire, it's hard to imagine any new ability really impressing me anymore.
But an upgrade card? Yeah, that's the real letdown. Just from the description, it already feels underwhelming. I mean, what exactly do I even need to upgrade? My healing power's strong enough to drag people back from the afterlife. Boosting the Golden Rule of the Stars would be a total waste—I seriously doubt more charm or luck is going to matter when I'm dealing with cosmic-level entities. I'm more than satisfied with Void Fire, and the same goes for Astral Manipulation. Honestly, I haven't even scratched the surface of what that last one can do, so upgrading it now feels pointless.
Hmm... maybe the ice ability I picked up after eating a few frost giants during that whole Loki situation? But again, I can't even remember the last time I actually used it.
Cosmic awareness is another option. If I could evolve it into something close to omniscience, that'd be huge—but let's be real, the system's never gonna be that generous.
"Maybe my psionic powers could use the boost," I muttered. Omega-level telepathy and telekinesis at a level equal to Jean's full potential could definitely simplify a lot of things. Yeah, that's tempting... or should I just upgrade my Chaos Blades and get this over with... Damn it, this is actually hard. Choices, choices, choices—too many damn choices," I sighed, rubbing my temples as a headache started creeping in.
...Hold on. What about my eyes? Honestly, the Rinnegan's starting to feel redundant. Most of its special tricks overlap with powers I already have. I mean, I'd rather use my own telekinesis and telepathy than rely on the Rinnegan's push-pull or its basic hypnosis and genjutsu powers. The Outer Path's reincarnation? My healing ability already outclasses that. Summoning creatures through the Animal Path? Haven't used those in forever. The Demonic Statue? Barely useful. Even the black receivers are something I can replicate with my divine energy constructs now.
The only things really worth keeping are Susanoo and the ability to turn targets into chakra fruits and absorb their powers. Everything else is just dead weight... But those two alone make the eyes worth hanging onto. Then again, there's a decent chance the upgraded version would keep their old abilities—kind of like how Void Fire still lets me resurrect the corpses it incinerates, just like Ryujin Jakka. But even then, it's kind of a gamble.
"Hmm? Looks like I've been spotted," I muttered as I felt a few gazes lock onto me. I even picked up on a couple of cloaked drones hovering about a mile out. "Sigh... this might be the biggest gamble I've taken yet. But hey, no pain, no gain, I guess." I clicked my tongue and applied the upgrade card on my Rinnegan, silently hoping I'd end up with something close to Yhwach's Almighty after the final evolution.
"Come to me, Almighty," I couldn't help but mutter without thinking. Truthfully, I wasn't too worried about the upgrade taking long. The system's always been efficient—no pain, no lag, just a clean, streamlined transfer every time. It was practically custom-tailored towards making the entire process of acquiring new skills as seamless and efficient as possible. So yeah, I was confident the upgrade would finish before any serious threat reached me.
[Ding Special Upgrade Card has been applied to the 'Rinnegan']
[Searching for evolutionary paths. No evolutionary paths obtained!]
[Searching for a skill of identical authority from the database]
[Skill detected!]
[Acquiring skill!]
[Warning! Skill acquisition failure!]
[Unknown System Error (Ç̴̴̧̨͖̥̩͕͓͙̭͕̱̯̻͖͉̹͇̙͒̿̓̓ͧ͐͌̈͗͑̇̇͒̾͗̌͒̄͘͡ò̡́̓r̢̡̛̝͓̰̖͚̼̻̙̝͍̲͎̮̔̏͛̏̒͒̿ͨ̓̉̄̊͌̈ͫ̒̍ͮ͠͠ͅ_ͅr͕͂ͦ̒̉̌ͭ͢͡u̶̵̢̘͔̦̫͉̟͍̻͙̦̮͆̓̿̇ͮ̎͊ͫ͂̃̅ͮͪͣͭͦ͊͆͒̇̕͢pț̵̵̷̷̷̣̮̯͖̖͙̬͒̈́ͧ̊̈́̍̓̍̋̌̕͢͟͠ẹ̵̴̵̢̧̢̫̩̮̼̇̐̾ͩ͒͑͢ḑ̶̦̥̬͍͖̯̟͓̰̬̏̔̎ͭ̂͂̎ͨ̀̓̽̚͠͡ C̙̯̰͇̒̋ͯh̵̢̛̺̟̖̠̟̫̠̙͉̤̤͒̂̃ͦ͋̔̄̉͐͒ͬ̑͌̍̉̓̀̓̑͋̌́̈͟͞ͅaͣ̃ͪŏ͖̙̹ͅẗ̢̰͔̙̝͈͍̮̱͉̖͚̯̖̣̂̓̅ͤ̋̾̊̓̇ͣ̈́͝_͙̫̯͕̥̫̩̆̽́͑̇̋̌ͅḭ̧̛̛̥̗̹̥̦ͣ̎̓̈͗̄ͯͣͦͨͩ̍̃͊͞c̵̤͇̻̺͖͖̙̄͒̿ͣͪ̓̅ͫ̃̽͞ A̶̶̡̨͔̖̺̞̲͚̞̦̞ͮ̍͌ͧ̀̃ͣ͆ͥͫ̓͂̅͑̏̓͘͝ͅu̡̢̼̲̪͚̻̳̹̤ͦ́̈ͮͧ͌ͦ͊̽ͩ͌͋͘͜͠ͅẗ̶͚̲̜͓̜̥̮̬̰͉̥͖ͮͮͯ̿ͩͬ̀̐ͭ͐̓̉̈́͒̀̊ͦ͘͟͢͢͟͡h̨̭̠͉͑̄̒ͩ̿͡o̷̤̹̫̘̝̔͒ͯ͗̃̓_̨͆ͫͮr̶̸̸̴̴͎̞͇͉̝͈̩͕̺ͪ͆ͧ͊ͣ̔̄̋͌͋̿̏̚͘̚̕͜͟i̺̳̜̥̩͂̓̃ͦ̈́̿t̨͇̦̪̘̥̥̳͍̿̃̀̓́̅̓̓̇͡͝͞͞y̫̖͓͖͛͗̆ͩ͌̓̀ͦ͛) detected!]
[Accessing 𝐻̥̊⃝𝑒̥̊⃝𝑎̥̊⃝𝑟̥̊⃝𝑡̥̊⃝ 𝑜̥̊⃝𝑓̥̊⃝ 𝑡̥̊⃝ℎ̥̊⃝𝑒̥̊⃝ 𝑈̥̊⃝𝑛̥̊⃝𝑖̥̊⃝𝑣̥̊⃝𝑒̥̊⃝𝑟̥̊⃝𝑠̥̊⃝𝑒̥̊⃝ for special authorityfor Skill Swap]
[Selected Skill Swap determined by ███ █████ ███ as incomplete]
[SelectedSkillEvolution deemed too harmful for the host's current existence]
[Looking for existing comparable skills to be incorporated in the Evolution process as a catalyst!]
[Skill 'Death's Touch' has been selected!]
Wait, wait—no, I need that! I panicked internally as the system notifications started spiraling out of control. Whatever the system was dealing with, it clearly wasn't a minor issue. But all that aside, Death Touch was a skill I had to keep if I wanted to finish the quest Lady Death gave me. Without a way to force death on a bunch of undead, zombie-tier, immortal freaks—heroes and villains alike—I had zero options to take them out for good.
Too bad the system didn't care. It just kept firing off notifications like I wasn't even there.
[Death's Touch skill has been sacrificed. The Essence of Death is being integrated in the evolution process!]
[███ █████ ███ has approved evolution]
[Congratulations! Skill Evolution successful!]
['Rinnegan' has evolved to 'Eyes of Annihilation']
[Eyes of Annihilation:Can see the truth of the world as well as instantly erase it—physical, magical, or conceptual—anything. This ability can bypass all forms of defense, immortality, regeneration, and divine protection, destroying even the soul, origin, or laws governing reality. Can be toggled for precision control.]
"..." I stared at the description of my new eyes, reading it over and over, doubting my own upgraded vision. These eyes felt... too powerful, like some kind of one-hit-kill hack that could win any battle. But my gut was telling me reality might not be that simple. 'However, the vision's definitely impressive,' I admitted mentally, since I could now see in nearly every spectrum I knew of. From the full range of electromagnetic wavelengths to cosmic energy flows and even chi—I could see it all.
And more than that, I could see fractures. Faultlines. Intersections. Invisible threads running through everything around me—lines only I seemed to be able to perceive with these new eyes. I didn't fully understand what they were yet, but something told me they were tied to the flaws in how things were made. Nothing is perfect. Nothing is truly invincible. Everything has a weakness. And now, I can see them all.
[{(Image from Discord)}]
"Hmm? Finally, you guys are here. I was getting bored with waiting. I thought you all chickened out for some reason." I chuckled as I turned my head to look at the familiar armors of Iron Man and Warmachine floating behind me, their repulsors aimed at me.
From the outside, they looked normal, just like their counterparts in my own universe. But my new eyes saw past the armor. Past the flesh. Most importantly, I saw their souls.
Their bodies hadn't started rotting like the zombies in some of Marvel's infected timelines, but there were signs of... infection of some sort. Subtle shifts in their biology—mutations creeping in. They were human… and not. It was like something had corrupted them, slowly warping them into something else. Something darker. As for their souls? They were rotting from the inside like a spreading cancer, twisting them into monsters.
No... not twisting. They were already monsters. Irredeemable. If their souls were bread, then that bread had long since rotted away, leaving behind nothing but maggots and mold. This wasn't some disease. No, unlike the hunger virus or the zombie pathogen, there was no hope for a potential cure. This was irreversible. They had become something that couldn't be brought back.
They were beyond saving now. The best course of action for me to take was to give them a swift, clean death and hope that their souls find peace with Multi Death.
"For your own sake... I really hope these eyes can kill you for good."
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