(Aden's P.O.V)
"Make a choice."
The words rang through my mind as I tried to meditate and failed. The transmission had ended and I wanted to put all of it behind me.
A dull thunk appeared at my front. I felt Nagini shift slightly and opened my eyes to see Chaos standing off to the side, leaning on the boulder near the huge tree Nagini was coiled around.
He motioned his chin towards the ground and I followed his gaze, managing to spot a group of fairies all with colorful wings, floating in a circle above a stone plate full of fruits, mostly a sort of pink plum with a sweet scent.
The fairies looked up at me in expectation, flapping their tiny wings and causing fairy dust to fall on the plums.
"They wanted to cheer you up."
Chaos told me from his position. I couldn't help it, they were just too cute. I found myself smiling.
"Thanks."
I told them, reaching into my inventory and coming out with 3 beautiful and fresh Grangos. Instantly, their eyes were drawn to the telekinetically floating fruits above my palm.
One of them, the most immaculate, dressed in all the 4 colors that made up their Kingdom floated forward and bowed while chittering.
"She says thank you. They appreciate it."
Chaos told me. I rolled my eyes.
"You do know I can understand them as well, right?"
He shrugged just as the group of 10 split themselves into 3, grabbed the fruits and carried them away on their backs towards their Kingdom.
"You should have given them 4. Each for one of the Kingdoms."
He pointed out and made me feel like an idiot.
"Meh, don't worry about it. Something tells me they have no problem with sharing."
He replied, pushing off the boulder.
I remembered how happy they were to work together and realized he was right.
"You've just been so...out of it. Ever since the transmission."
I looked down, grabbed a plum and popped it into my mouth.
"I was just about to go through the rest of the prompts from when I was asleep. Guess what? The humans from Earth not only managed to tap into my fire and Air elements but also unlocked Earth and a few sub skills of water."
I informed him, hoping he would drop a certain subject. Somehow he was understanding enough to let it go. Or rather, pretend to let it go.
"Mmmh." Chaos hummed.
"I see, that means all you have to do is carry out the advancement missions right?"
I nodded, thankful we were past a certain unpleasant subject.
"Well, not exactly. Just because they unlocked them, doesn't mean I automatically gain all the knowledge and experience. It's like, all this information and data, just waiting to be accessed and understood."
"Still, that cuts out a lot of time training, don't you think?"
He asked. A logical question infact. I shook my head.
"I have already lost more than a billion years in recovery. Lucifer put me back piece by piece but it wasn't fast. So if anything I'm late. Very very late."
"Oh, so that's who I was sensing."
He said, spitting out a plum seed from his mouth. I narrowed my eyes at his innocent look. Oh you cunning little...
He had led me to a thought. And now I couldn't stop thinking that maybe he knew something I didn't, forcing me to actually talk about what happened in the transmission even if I didn't want to. I closed my eyes and sent my memories of the Transmission over to him. It was better to get it over and done with.
Instantly he chocked on a plum, hitting his chest to dislodge it from his windpipe. Karma.
"What. The. Fuck!"
His disbelief and shock was immense.
"Yeah, I know."
I told him.
(Earlier On)
After Lucifer had completely shattered my world by the information he had given me, it was his turn to keep quiet and wait for me to talk. To make a decision. A decision that would not only affect my future but even the past.
Ok, let's look at the pros and cons of each option. Option one, would make me into a true omnipotent being, with the power I had only dreamed about. The kind of power I had been working towards since the second I found myself in DC. The power to achieve true freedom.
The cons matched the pros however. In return for all that power, I would be thrust back in the middle of a war with the possibility of true death at the end of it. And even if I survived, it would definitely leave me a different person. Power has a way of changing people. It's just the way it is.
Option 2 was the opposite, it would see me say 'fuck it' to the 'Plan', have humanity out of the realm which was a very attractive prospect and essentially allow me to live a family life. It would be peaceful and fulfilling.
I would get to see Breeze, Kai, Sai, Vor and my unborn son grow up. I would get to be a Dad. Be there for them like my dad had been. The Cons were, I wouldn't get to see my Dad, Mom and little Sister again. Vaatu would also have to choose between Demeter and us, his family.
Then all the friends I had made would probably not remember me after Lucifer changed the past. I would have to say goodbye to Paige, Linda my therapist who I hadn't seen in some time, April, Casey and the Turtles, even the Junior League.
It was a fresh start but one that I probably wouldn't get to fully enjoy.
(Looking back at it, I don't know if I made the right decision at that instant. But whatever decision I made...well, they say you live without regrets right? I was young and for all my increased intelligence and experience, it was an overwhelming choice.)
I looked up at Lucifer's eyes and responded.
"I can't choose to leave. No matter how much I want to put a lot of things behind me, it's not my choice alone to make."
He frowned in confusion, another emotion I hadn't seen in his gaze before. I knew it would be a struggle to explain my reasoning the second I opened my mouth.
"You said it yourself. I have people who I love and who love me back. I cannot choose because I'm not alone anymore. I have to think about Kori, she wants to mend her relationship with her sister. Vaatu is in love with Demeter and like it or not, the kids need to make friends outside of our family. Is it the most ideal choice? yes. It is. Is it selfish, yeah. Do I still want to choose it even if I know I won't and that it breaks my heart admitting that?..."
I pressed my palm flat on my chest. My heart was beating fast.
"Yes. Yes I do."
Lucifer held my gaze for a long time before running his palm down his face.
"Then I'm guessing that means you're going with the first option?"
He asked.
Contrary to his expectations, I shook my head.
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"No."
His lips parted. He was stunned.
"Are you really surprised by that, Uncle?"
He got to his feet and begun pacing in frustration.
"Yes. Yes I am! I'm offering you the chance to truly stand above all. To not Die! Do you not understand that!? You either live or let me give you the tools to fight back!" His eyes turned red and the whole office begun to shake.
"In exchange, I'll give away my freedom. "
I answered and that statement alone was enough to stop him in his tracks.
"What?"
The red in his eyes disappeared.
"Think about it. You're going to give me power to enable me to choose between fighting or fighting. Either way, I'll still be embroiled in the conflict between Grandpa (that sounds weird) and his counter part."
That stole the winds from his sails and he stopped in place, sighing before leaning on the liquor cabinet and crossing his hands on his chest. I understood that he wanted me to go on. I obliged him.
"Even if you argue that I can decide to enforce balance and pick no side, It would still be a path 'You' chose. Not me. I would still be a pawn. You didn't even refuse that. You know I would be a slave to the narrative. A player in the 'Plan'. I can't be that anymore." I shook my head.
"Not when I know what I know. You basically guaranteed that nothing was ever going to be the same by telling me everything. And now, now nothing seems worth my freedom. Not even Incredible Power."
Lucifer blinked with a blank expression.
"You're serious."
He observed in disbelief.
"Yeah."
I nodded, sure of my decision. This felt like me. Like the person who destroyed the Fates and disdained living an existence according to a pre-written path. I would die and live by my own folly. And I would be happy.
If there was one thing I had taken from my Dad, it was that. Self respect. I was finally understanding that look on his face even when on the bed. It was the look of a man unbowed and strong. He'd faced the worst thing in his life and failed, but even in defeat, the best move, the one where he held his head up high, was one he never hesitated to make.
"Now you know why I can't make a choice between either options. There is no right choice. There's just a choice. And I choose not to make one. At least not now. Not when my instincts are telling me to not consider either. Not when either won't feel like mine."
"You really are his son."
Lucifer finally commented.
"It's almost invisible, well hidden but I can see the glint. There's a reason why you were naturally able to take upon his law. The Self is divergent. The Self is the start of all. In other words, changing your minds once you have decided on a course of action is harder than kissing your own elbow."
"So not that hard." I chuckled.
"We have plastic man."
"You didn't let me finish, Nephew." He lightly chided, his white wings twitching behind his back.
"It's like kissing your elbow, without lips, oh or an elbow."
He repeated making me burst out in laughter.
"Ok, that is hard."
I finally admitted.
Then Luci pushed off the cabinet and sank into the couch next to me, facing forwards.
"You know, cheating is not always a bad thing." The room seemed to darken as something materialized above his palm. Instantly his own aura dimmed in my senses. I stared at him in concern.
The Morningstar did not seem to care about my concern and instead brought whatever was in his hands closer to my face. Like it or not, I couldn't stop looking at the strange thing. A swirling mass of shifting colors, almost entirely like the universal bubbles we had seen. Imagination materialized. His Law.
"I still want you to have this." His voice had a scratchy quality that hadn't been there before.
"With it, You can atleast protect yourself."
Something in me was like an hungry maw. All I wanted was to say fuck it and grab that essence and absorb it. It would completely get rid of 99% of my problems. It would take me to the level of the One Above All and possibly beyond, enabling me to push through the boundaries of the marvel universe. I didn't have a counterpart to worry about sharing power with. Order was more akin to an unruly younger brother who had way too much power at his disposal.
A creator level entity and it all begun with accepting it.
I looked up at his eyes.
"I'm sorry. I can't."
(Energia)
"Was that the right choice?"
I found myself asking the shocked Chaos. I didn't need to explain my thought process during that time. I didn't need to tell him why I had decided not to decide. At least not alone. Not when it didn't feel like my choice in the first place.
Was it unnecessarily melodramatic? Was it annoying? Was it potentially shallow minded? Maybe. However...
Chaos let out his breath in whoosh.
"The Powers of the Presence huh? Wow. And Michael is Dad? That makes you..."
"The Presence's grandson? Lucifer and Gabriel's nephew? Yeah I know."
Chaos shook his head.
"No, I meant part angel. At least in the metaphysical sense. That means even if you did not accept his power, his law of Imagination, you still have the potential to awaken it just as they did. You already have two, what's stopping you from getting the last?"
That whole statement changed everything for me. I was sure I had almost made the wrong decision, even whilst my gut told me I hadn't. See my main gripe with having power bestowed upon me by someone? They or someone stronger could take it away just as easily. However, if it was something I was born with or worked for, something inside my very soul, then the number of those who could affect my abilities drastically dropped. Only self sabotage like in Order's case could even come close to ending me.
Chaos was right. I had been born with one Law already a part of me, the other I had achieved through an evolution of my soul. Gabriel had not granted me his law, my soul just intrinsically understood it due to the Avatar System. These weren't things that could be taken away by snapping a finger. They were mine. Mine and mine alone. The Law Of Imagination could be the same. If I understood it then...I was golden. I would reach the top level through my own effort. True undeniable power, all without being a pawn.
"Thanks man."
I responded in gratitude after careful thought. He looked up from his position on the ground and smiled.
"Anytime boss."
I grabbed a few plums and devoured them.
"So what do you say we start this training?"
::---------------------------------------::
(1 month in)
(General P.O.V)
In Energia, a zone where the local fairy kingdoms had termed as 'God's Domain' was a flat stretch of land. The land was a crater situated past the lake in the middle of a tall mountain, surrounded by multicolored clouds.
The peak of the mountain could not be seen from the bottom and getting there was another huge problem. Every step you took to walk up the mountain only doubled in weight. Gravity increased steadily and on your fifth step, a person weighing 155 pounds (70 kg) would have over 4900 pounds weighing him down.
The Fairies and other animals avoided that place like the plague. Gravity wasn't the only thing weird and dangerous about it either. Occasional loud howls of guttural pain would be heard all over the realm. The source being that crater.
This only occasionally happened when the sky 'bled'. An occasion where the roiling energies above the realm, after growing too potent would fall towards the ground in a shower of Elemental storms that made no scientific sense. The storms were catastrophic but all of them seemed to be attracted to the peak of the mountain.
All colors of lightning, storms of wildfire and explosions, hail storms, acid rains, continuous heat waves, that increased the temperature of the crater to become hotter than Lava, beams of light from the heavens, meteors, tornadoes of cutting winds. Each bombardment was merciless but each time the mountain stood tall.
Inside the crater and under a steady 500 times the gravity of the earth, a figure was surrounded by over a hundred thousand firebenders. Aden had begun to explore more of his divinities and has the god of life, even if true sentience was out of the picture, he had copied the biology of a normal firebender from the system's own training options and then pasted it unto ice constructs. Therefore he had created clones of the firebender which gave them access to blue flames instead of the normal yellow ones. They were a fusion of ice and fire.
The firebenders stepped forward in one universal move. The ground rumbled from their steps as they pushed out with their palms. Streams of blue flames raced out and combined above their heads.
A roaring head of a dragon made up of only blue flames rose up towards the sky, headed towards him. The perks of his new creation? They could endure the gravity imposed upon the crater and could coordinate their attacks. Aden saw the dragon wind through the chromatic sky and then dive, opening it's mouth to swallow him. He allowed it, spreading his hands out eagerly.
The blue dragon snapped it's jaws shut around him and Aden disappeared into it's blazing maw. A split second later, the blue flames making up the dragon froze. Then the whole construct shattered into blue pieces of ice that calmly floated around Aden.
"My ice is steadily approaching absolute zero. Not only can I steal heat and momentum, I can now shatter normal laws of physics. Like freezing fire."
The Avatar muttered. Then his gaze fell onto the Firebenders on the ground. He waved a hand and the blue ice scattered in the sky above the crater fell down like rain, completely decimating their formation and destroying them. A mist rose up, revealing nothing under.
Aden floated to the ground. Despite not using Spiritual Attunement, Aden had achieved grandmaster in his water bending. He had chosen the option to not to carry out the grandmaster trial but instead do the Divine Ascension with increased difficulty. Even that was put on hold as he tried his best to increase his chances of succeeding by shoring up his weaknesses.
Aden pulled up his Avatar Display and tracked his progress.
::---------------------------------------::
Water (Unlocked)
Ice.
Mist.
Healing.
(Divine Ascension Trial Pending)
::---------------------------------------::
After thorough thinking, he had decided to focus on only 3 main subskills for the time being. Ice was self explanatory and so was mist. The jump from ice to mist was basically just going in the opposite direction.
The last 2 weeks of the month had been focused on mastering Healing. This involved increasing the gravity from 500 to 10,000 and then using water to enhance his already crazy regeneration speed.
During those moments, Aden's body would break apart and heal in a pool of boiling water that was thicker than lava. His organs would rapture and then reform inside the bottom of the pool. His eyes would pop, bones shatter and blood explode from his veins. Then he would use his divine sense to scan his body and activate his water healing in the places where his regeneration was lagging behind.
Water healing to him was...weird. Basically, it worked by redirecting chi through energy pathways and focusing it on increasing the body's own natural healing process by using water as a catalyst. It was weird to him because, Aden had only recently managed to acquire Chi and Magic. And of the two, chi was the fastest growing in terms of reserves. It could not match the kind of boundless spiritual and divine energy he had access to but it was still immense.
For reference, a blow made with all the Chi he had inside him could destroy an entire planet. Not too outstanding based on some of his other feats but keep in mind that it was continuously growing.
At the start, he only had so much. Only enough to destroy a simple continent, now he was a planet buster in only a month. The synergy between the skills worked incredibly well too. Water healing covered for his regeneration.
Both prompted Adaptive Physiology and enhanced it's effects which made his body and mind stronger. In turn this increased the amount of Chi his cells could produce. It also increased his energy control through enhancing the durability of his mind, due to the hellish training.
Aden was burnt, boiled, broken and all kinds of cruel training methods he could think of, but they had all paid dividends.
Sufficiently confident in his control over water, he moved on to Earth bending.