Kyrion spent the rest of the month getting the school owned by Unity and Peace (U.p.), up and running as he spoke with an older tanned man with a turban, long white beard, and tired eyes.
“What do you want to know?” The old man asked.
“The slayers had or have weapons capable of planetary destruction. Had I not been able to cheat past that, I would have died, everyone in Detroit would have died, and the tides would have gone wild due to the missing moon. It was interesting getting that replaced.”
“So that was you. Did you make it?”
“How advanced was your earth before the last attack.”
“Ah, about the same as this one. But, I recall the first iteration. Humanity had begun to expand past the stars and reached levels of technology that allowed planetary travel and terraforming. Then a being came and began to consume the universe forcing us to find a way to survive, leading to the inhabitation of a new universe. We discovered the people living there were tens of thousands of years behind and hid out tech in various parts of the world.”
Kyrion nodded. “Check out.”
“Then the world eater came again, forcing us to do this a third time, losing much of our tech and original members, but gaining the Slayers, and Cerberus as organizations. We colonized this planet around a thousand years ago and with careful decisions many of us had ”managed to integrate seamlessly and share our shattered knowledge.”
“Oh.”
“The man leading the Slayers at that time, didn't make it, as he sacrificed himself to ensure our escape. What they became after, well, I’m glad you put them down. The Janitors are a newer group made by the creature calling himself Uncle Sam, he was here before we got here and has played many roles in the history of the United Continent.”
“That stingy tea drinker was quite weird.”
“So you know how much of a headache he can be.”
“I heard he died.”
“Meh. It’s more he can choose if he’s inhabiting a living vessel, a spirit, or existing as a force of nature.”
“Wait…Is Uncle Sam, Cecil's cat…Oh that sneaky feline. If I can split parts of my soul off, it shouldn’t be so surprising.” Kyrion stated as he followed the old man.
“Yes, in part.” The old man led them through a large city packed with people to a small ally to a body-beaten and bloody moments away from death.
Kyrion approached it only to sense them take their last breath. He was already too late.
“You knew they were here.”
“I sensed a fading soul. Heal them.”
“But they're dead! I can’t. It doesn’t work.” Kyrion said as he felt their pulse, lack of a heartbeat, and failing brain.
“You can and you will. Put this in your mouth.” The old man pulled out a cinnamon stick stuffed with odd plants and placed his right index finger at the end, causing the limb to bend back like the lid of a lighter, revealing a tiny flamethrower that he used to light the stalk.
Kyrion put the stick in his mouth and felt calm as he inhaled. Then the world around him turned grey as the world resembled the Land of the Lost. He saw a small echo of the person's body above them and raised an eyebrow.
“Put the soul back in the body then use your resurrection spell.”
“How did… It’s likely obvious.” Kyrion passed his hand through the echo and scowled.
“You need to use your powers to touch souls.”
Kyrion then tried doing so with mana and found resistance. Adding a spark of Soul Power allowed him to force the soul into his body as the spell for resurrection. Unhindered he felt his healing mana mix with his new arm and brought the person back from the brink, but their appearance appeared healthier than when he started.
The figure tried to shoot up only to be held back by Kyrion’s hand as he squinted. He could have done it all with mana. There was no resistance, unlike the last time he tried it.
“What’s that look?”
“Heads are going to roll if this fails back home.” Kyrion stated.
“I suspected you already knew the spell, you should be able to see the souls of the deceased at will now. Use that power as needed, and good luck.”
“Thank you.” Kyrion stated as pulled out a bottle and handed it to the man.
“I’ll use this well. But, you’ll need to see the queen. She has a map of ley lines.”
“You should not have said that. I could just go take it.”
“You could, but she also has a cabal of elite wizards at her disposal. You wouldn’t want to anger them now would you?”
“I might. But I don’t need to. I’ll pop into her house in a few days.”
“You’ll get shot by things that can hurt you.”
“I can live with that. See you.” Kyrion stated. He was going to send a plant doppelganger.
----------------------------------------
Throughout the next week and a half, Kyrion stepped into every hospital he could, healing terminal or recently deceased patients, increasing his Patron count and prowess in resurrection in the process.
Clearing out the United Continent, and setting up future healers to take care of everything save resurrection. That spell was quite intensive in that he could cast it five times an hour, but after doing so he’d need to rest or focus to regain his divine essence. That process took 2 hours. The price for resurrection was set at $500, or donations of food/toys, the value of which didn’t matter, when his clerics(Doctors) asked for his help. By the end of two weeks, the healthcare of the United Continent crashed. As medicine became semi-obsolete, surgery was easy, and organs were numerous to come by via regeneration. The healers of Kaolad were invited to Unity and Peace and began to share the miracles they could grant worldwide.
Standing in a factory in the North Pole, Kyrion pulled out the elf gremlins he pulled from that other planet. Having imparted sentience on all of them as well as minor education. Kyrion tasked them with creating toys and using their finances to purchase anything that couldn’t get made as letters to the North Pole increased rapidly.
A website was made to promote his brand in every language, giving a tour of his massive factory that many were skeptical of until Kyrion, dressed up like Santa, began to read out letters while sitting on a throne of candy canes and gingerbread. The letters were real, promises were made, and letters of confirmation were sent back out. Making the gifts was surprisingly easy as the Gremelfs or Gnomes were quite handy when it came to crafting with their hands, easily keeping pace with requests.
Still, he needed to keep this up yearly. Bringing him back home.
Kilo seemed relaxed as he watched Kyrion enter their house.
“You’ve been busy.”
“I need you to build me a Santa bot. For next year. I doubt I’ll be able to continue the insanity, but if I give you a year of time to get it done with your resources it should be easy.
“I’ll see what I can do. So when are you going to check on the others?”
“When I’m not busy… It’s crunch time and I have maybe 30 days to get this done. The toys are prepped but I’ll need to ally with the Janitors to get things going. I can’t stay in this world much longer.”
Cedric walked in from the kitchen. “So, you’re going to where Cecil and Bella are?”
“Yes.”
“Then you’ll have my assistance. On one condition.”
“What?” Kyrion asked if he would admit that he wasn’t the easiest to track down at the moment.
“You take us with you.” Cedric’s wife stepped into the room causing Kyrion’s left eye to twitch as he sensed three heartbeats where there should only be two. Then noticed that Cecil’s mother’s stomach had grown slightly.
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“I can’t promise that it will be safe, but you will have some time to prepare for the changes happening to earth. But are you sure that you want to go there, in your condition?” Kyrion looked at Cedric.
“This is partially your fault. She is one of your clerics now after all. Apparently there are other perks when it comes to working for you.”
“I don’t get it. But you both do seem younger. Fine, you two can come.” Kyrion sighed.
Gram stepped out next. “It’s time to absorb Ari. She’s ready.”
“They’re ready. I’m ready.” A short girl with red hair, and green eyes, wearing blue jeans and a flannel jacket.
“You sure?”
“I’ve played every game that has existed, read everything ever posted. My knowledge of this world and its history are vast yet that tells me things are purposely deceitful. I don’t want to be bored and you plan on trolling the planet. Like some reverse phantom thief. Making an announcement stating that you’ll be breaking into every home, leaving gifts then dipping before they can get you. That's more interesting than sitting down at a desk learning things I already know.”
“We really are the same person.” Kyrion took a step back.
“Wait, do you see this as a massive prank?” Kilo asked.
“Not just that. I’m arming the people of the world, by breaking into their homes and giving them weapons that they can use to fight against the apocalypse. I’m making them stronger, and in time they will return their investments. But I’m not too worried about that.”
Ari placed a hand on Kyrion’s forehead and vanished into him. He was now both of them, and he could feel his mischievous nature was slightly more cold and calculating. He would need to be careful to avoid slipping into the well of madness that seemingly doubled in size.
Kyrion summoned a body made from plants and sent Ari’s consciousness into it like he did the others, back home. Wearing the exact clothes they had on before they merged.
“Much better, you should have an idea of my other plans with a good portion of my abilities and money.”
“One minute.” Ari grabbed a few large trash bags and vanished.
“Oh no. Whats the law on retrieving hidden assets from a company that has been shut down and declared bankrupt.”
Cedric raised an eyebrow. “You know where the Slayers kept their money?”
“Ari did. Its all on them.” Kyrion stepped back.
Ari returned through the portal right after. With none of the trashbags she's entered with.
Kyrion noticed the bags filled with money, weapons, tools, and artifacts in his domain. Closing his eyes he let out an internal sigh.
“I decided to expose their location and break down their location after receiving my reparations.”
“You’re what?”
“I was kept in a vat for 50 years in a fluid that prevented growth and enhanced my perception. Then they forgot about me and left me in the Arctic for the last thirty where I was used as a database, an advanced information storage program. This is my retirement, 401k, back pay, and payback. There’s more at the location. I’m considering making 4 round trips and then moving on to the other caches. Since the owners of said caches disposed of themselves and left hints to their loyal drones.”
“Thats the thing about this merger. It isn’t instant knowledge for me. I have to search for it while you can just use what you get.”
“I am just much better at it. You have about 16 gigabytes of Ram for mental processing while I’m packing 160 terabytes. It's science.”
“That's short, basically short term memory. Oh you’re distracting me while you send drones and robots to collect the rest. The real question is, are you sharing the loot?” Kyrion figured it out quite quickly.
Causing Cedric to scowl as he looked between them.
“Fine… It's around 3 yottaFLOPS.”
“Like the shoes?” Kyrion hadn’t heard that word before and felt that information suddenly appeared in his brain.
“You get it. You think therefore you know.”
“So I know you're lying. Supercomputer level processing maybe, but unless you had direct contact with multiple computers or servers, you’re only limited to right above the peak of cognitive abilities back home. I wouldn’t have out planned you so quickly if you could figure things out that fast. We’re likely close, but you lack imagination. Which is why you lost. You see things in three dimensions, for me, things are more malleable.”
“What's going on?”
Cedric touched his earpiece. “A parade of elephants. Penguins in Rome? You sent people to check it out! Someone painted red stripes on the White House?”
“They’ll turn green in eight hours. This is payment for the new moon.” Kyrion stated as he struck something off a list.
Cedric’s right eye twitched.
“What's wrong?” Gram asked.
“The Statue? A red felt dress, Santa hat? How! When did. No one saw it happen? The Eiffel tower is lit up? That's normal. Multiple toy , and candy store break ins. Worldwide. Only candy and toilet paper were taken in excess and one of each type of toy? Gold bars hidden under the registers?”
“What’s toilet paper?” Kyrion asked, ignoring the explanation.
“You’ve been here three months and you don’t know what toilet paper is?” Kilo asked.
“He’s misleading us.” Gram stated.
Cedric put his phone down, “Have you been to a superstore yet?”
“What’s that?”
“You would enjoy Stan’s Club.” Kilo stated.
“I am so lost.”
“I can’t believe you’re so focused on food, yet you missed the place where everything is sized for you.”
A purple-haired woman appeared through a doorway, confused as various weapons were drawn and pointed at her in seconds.
Ceres didn’t know what a hollow point gun was, nor did she understand why there was a red dot on her helmet. However, she did place both hands on Kyrion’s arms and slammed her armored head into his.
“Owww.” Kyroin said from across the room, where he was pouring a cup of iced tea into a glass. A small vial was added into the cup and then stirred with a little bit of mana.
The plant clone dissolved into nothing, cleaning up its mess along the way.
“Feel better?”
“You left me over the ocean!”
Kyrion tilted his head. “No. You went off on your own while I was injured, That blast disrupted my mana!”
“I tried to find you!”
“You’re a big girl, you can figure stuff like that out on your own. How did you get lost?”
“I teleported a few times, then my head started hurting and I fell into the ocean. Armor is not good for swimming, Then I had to fight sharks, sea leviathans, and other monsters.”
“Good for you.” Kyrion replied.
“I was drowning!”
“Why didn’t you just teleport out? Plus you don’t even need air to breathe.”
“Not everyone has infinite mana for teleportation.”
“Sounds like a you problem.” Kyrion took a sip of the tea and poured another vial into it.
Ceres lunged at Kyion only to be flicked on the forehead hard enough to cause her to stumble, as the tea was placed in her hands. “Don’t drink that by the way. Anyways I do not recommend TwI, Teleporting While Intoxicated. You never know where you’ll end up.”
“Drunk? I don’t recall drinking. Ander offered me tribute.”
“Hospitality and you ate 3 of his cups. Anyways.”
“Big Ben, vanished and was replaced by a Christmas tree twice as large.”
“I call it the Christmas Tree of Power. Basically when the wizards of England and New England respectively need mana, they sniff the pines from that tree and receive an influx of mana. It turns pollution into mana and will return to a clock in 19 hours. The queen chooses the days this occurs by the way.”
“A giant mass of energy is pooling above Korea. Is that you?”
Kyrion turned to Gram. “Which sibling lives in Soul?”
“Seoul. Yes I can tell. And I’m not sure. Mildred?”
“You are a quite questionable father at times.” Kyrion squinted.
“To be fair. There are two still missing.”
“Speaking of missing, Deci, where is she?” Kyrion asked.
Gram scratched his head. “She said she had time to make up and ran off after you left. Not sure where she is but she does send notifications from an encrypted source? Something about an island for card games.”
“Makes sense,” Kyrion stated he’d find the island later.
“Seoul is either Hecate or Mildred.” Kilo stated.
“You don’t know either?” Kyrion raised an eyebrow.
“Mmmm...If I could see Jin’s system it would be easy. But apparently he received a quest not to share it with me.”
“You’re a good friend. But a pretty unperceptive older brother. Which one is older.”
“Heacte.”
“There you go. Did she ever try hiding things from you? Like toys, diaries, projects she was working on in an attempt to usurp your position as oldest child?” Kyrion stated as though he had years of experience.”
“Huh. Hindsight is 20/20. Definitively Hecate if she was working to save humanity longer than you’ve been active out of spite or a sense of competition. She always did try to compete with you.”
“I don’t remember any of that.” Kilo stated.
“Checks out. Kilo, I guess you must have been frustrating.”
“Does Seoul have soul food?”
“They have Seoul Food.” Kyrion moved to teleport only for nothing to happen.
“Thats new.”
“Before you go, care to explain why every world power is participating in your insanity?”
“Only if you agree to become a devout believer in me.”
“It’s a divine mandate for all of his followers. Essentially he tasked his direct followers for creating the best Christmas attractions. Most world powers are participating and he’s also given them acces s to a bit of his power for this purpose. So I can use an amount of channeled Faith to make the decorations magical with the help of Kao. Or the kid standing infront of us.” Cecil's mother said with a shrug.
“So the president is in on it?”
“The first lady mostly. She has a better sense of aesthetics. I’m surprised that there isn’t much competition.”
“Oh, right, religion kind of vanished when humanity entered this universe. Since such things cause conflict, the Slayers had monitored it and kept it to a minimum. To be fair, people aren’t treating Kao as a deity and more of a being offering them power for a pittance. That was under the belief that conflict is what hurried the apocalypse the previous times.” Gram stated.
“Good to know.”
“Why didn’t you run that through me?”
“The leader of Unity informed your superiors though they are doing something secret, you weren't invited since I told them you’d be assisting me directly.”
“Ugh. Why me?”
Ari returned quietly noticing everyone was distracted as per their plan. Asking a question. “Anyways. Do we need to build Hecate a body?”
“Handled it, using the data from your clones I can manufacture my own.” Gram stated blandly.
“Good.” Kyrion tried to teleport again. Failing he scowled and tried to sense the source. Then looked at Ceres who looked away.
“I’m trying to leave.” Kyrion said dejected.
“Where are you going and how long will you be gone?”
Kyrion used a bit of his soul power and found no resistance. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
Kyrion teleported to the North Pole where he found his new workers moving about without a care in the world. “They couldn’t have finished with everything yet. Status report Karl?.”
“They did. Though a majority of the game systems were purchased due to lack of understanding with that level of tech. All of the toys for Christmas have been made, but we did have to by rights from to owners of certain toy brands. Like these Spin tops that fight each other, toy cars that turn into robots, dolls with inhuman proportions, cooking sets, among other things. We made a deal with, Card Monsters, they will be a colab set that will go out the week before Christmas, for the enchanted cards. They won’t activate until the 25th and the academy you set out to create will begin taking students in January. Portals will open up leading to the island and will allow for them to learn magic and help build the final system.” Karl stated.
“Good. Wait… Cardamon collab? Will the cards summon monsters made of mana?”
“A good portion will be monsters, a large amount of your spell catalog, spells in the card game, monster gear, and gadgets made from magi tech.”
“Good. Are you sure about staying here partially? I get why you.”
“This is my home world. Unlike Cecil, I want to help if I can. Also, my mind isn’t limited like yours. Splitting part of myself off to stay in that dungeon won’t harm me as I can freely travel due to being just information bound to vessels."