As Adam traveled east he across the Atlantic Ocean he could have taken the shorter path by going up and over in a parabola, that would have made the trip just over 4,000 miles. Instead, he went almost due east which would add another 2,500 miles to the trip. He Increased his speed to Mach 10. Even at that speed, it would still take about 53 minutes to get to the pyramids. Adam could teleport, but the 53 minutes would give him a chance to see what was going on.
Adam left a portion of his mentality to handle the flight and then focused on his Base of Operation. He reconnected with Thor and was informed that he hadn’t been gone long enough for him to even get down to the 1,000 feet below the sea bed. The lines between the west coast and Hawaii and the nodes connecting them had completely replaced his nanites. Any information traveling along those communication lines could now be intercepted, blocked, or copied before it continued on its way. Thor was using that connection to get into everything else. So far he hadn’t detected anything that could thwart his infiltration of any system on the planet. The only thing they could do to keep him out was put their information on an air-gapped computer. As soon as they plugged into a network though, he would get all the information on that computer within minutes anyway.
Adam was also informed by Thor that a covert strike squad had hit both his parent’s home and his apartment an hour after he’d disappeared. It would seem that those in power just didn’t know when to let things go. A quick double-check of all the information Thor had been gathering allowed Adam to backtrack the funding, break down who had been paid, and ultimately who was responsible. He could see now that Sun Mingze, one of the seven leaders of China, was not a man that could be taught easily. Tough love, it was then.
Abducting Sun Mingze and his two guards was as easy as opening a portal to a hallway, doorway, or room he was about to enter. It was easy because the portal he created opened into a replica of the same area in his soul space. As Sun Mingze and his two guards were walking down a hallway two portals opened up back to back. The three of them stepped into his soul space. Adam’s chaotic nanites, it was just easier to think of his innate chaos that way, infiltrated and copied all three. Another portal behind them opened and the three nanite-created copies stepped out and went on with whatever they’d been about to do. The three men that had entered his soul space would soon figure out that there was no one else on the planet with them. What was that saying, “Fuck Around and Find Out.”
Adam made sure to leave a note on the dinner table that said, “Courtesy of your host, Play Stupid Games, win Stupid Prizes!” Adam set the room to be refilled with food for the three of them daily. He wouldn’t want something bad to happen to them…yet. As he thought about it, if he could get two more idiots to play along, maybe he could help Al out by giving him his first Earth-based adventuring party. If Sun Mingze wanted to be more powerful, maybe Adam could help him along that path and remove him from the equation at the same time. If he failed and died along the way because he couldn’t adapt, that wasn’t really Adam’s problem. It would be fair which meant he wouldn’t lose any sleep if something did happened to Sun Mingze. Who was he kidding? he wouldn’t have lost sleep anyway.
Adam pulled his attention from the three of them after he saw the realization from Sun Mingze that he was not in China anymore, “And there it is,” he said to no one in particular, then stopped watching them as he pulled up news reports. The local news was reporting that a demon-like creature had appeared near the Pyramids and moved northeast toward the Cairo Mall. It had decimated everything in its path killing hundreds along the way. The police and then the military had responded to no avail and simply added their number to the dead. A helicopter was hovering near the pyramid with a long-range camera taking in the devastation. The demon appeared to be at least eight feet tall. It was humanoid with black leathery wings, horns, and flames surrounding it. Any living thing that it came near was incinerated by the flames while it used its powerful arms to destroy cars, trucks, and buildings. Even gas tanks exploding near it didn’t slow it down. The news feed cut off when the demon looked directly into the camera and then jumped at the helicopter claws outstretched before the feed went dead.
As Adam closed in on Cairo at Mach 10 and slowed down, he saw the explosion of the helicopter and heard the demon call down to the terrified people below in the language of common from Primore, “Where is that miserable mortal, you will bring him to me or you will all perish!” A military sniper took advantage of the pause and tried to shoot the demon as he was coming into range. Adam watched as the bullet vaporized before it even touched its skin. The demon laughed, pointed, and the sniper turned to ash where he lay on top of a building half a mile away. To make his point the demon then began systematically destroying every single person in similar uniforms that it could see until Adam came to a stop floating between it and the people behind him. The demon continued to throw its spell attacks which Adam immediately countered. When the demon realized nothing was happening it paused and looked down and noticed him for the first time, “You!” the Demon bellowed in common.
“That’s not my name but sure, it’s me!” Adam answered in common.
“Do you not recognize me, trickster? Do you see what you have done to me?”
“Can’t say that I recognize you at all,” Adam said in common. “Though you remind me of a dipshit of a man I warned from China,” he finished in Chinese loud enough for the Cameras that were recording this encounter to pick up. Let the other six Chinese leaders sweat that statement out and wonder what he’d meant.
“Why do you speak that gibberish, I have come for my pound of flesh and I will have it!” The demon yelled as he attacked. His right clawed hand, which was twice the size of his face reached for Adam as Adam, in turn, called forth his Chaos Blade into his right hand and sliced off that right clawed hand at the wrist. As the hand was severed Adam dismissed the blade, and caught the burning hand with his left hand as he quipped back, “You mean like this pound of flesh here?”
“Argh,” The demon hissed and backed away. “That’s not possible, “the Demon said while he backed away which gave Adam a moment to Analyze the demon.
Detrik, Level 5,000 Arch Demon
“Detrik?” he asked questionly, “as in the Detrik that didn’t know how to appropriately reward someone who’d set them free from a trap? As in the pissant that doesn’t know how to say thank you for not destroying their soul, or now that I know what is really going on, not saying thank you to the guy that didn’t destroy a portion of their soul, which would have made it impossible for them to recombine and have whatever happened to such souls happen to them?”
“No, I am the Detrik that did none of what you speak. I was the Detrik of Primore, ready to become one of the Divines of that world when I felt portions of myself return. The amount of Negative Karma guaranteed that I would follow the demonic path which changed me into the creature you see now. I am Detrik Oathbreaker, Arch Demon. I am also far more powerful than any mere mortal and I will destroy you.” he said as his body regenerated a new hand and he opened his mouth wide to spew hellfire at Adam.”
If Adam was being honest, it kind of tickled. Unlike the other magical attacks he’d dispelled, he couldn’t dispel this. He must have been pulling the energy directly from hell, if there was such a place. The fire engulfed Adam and superheated the air around and behind him. His clothes were destroyed instantly. Luckily he was high enough off the ground that no one was killed outright but many started suffering from radiant energy burns. Most people fled into buildings, which did offer some protection. When the demon’s attack stopped a full minute later Adam was left floating nude before him. That was a nasty attack. Anyone the attack touched would have been instantly destroyed. There’d been a lot of power behind it. Adam would have to end this fight quickly or more people were going to die.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Adam resummoned his Chaos Blade, double-checked to make sure the Primal Destruction ability was active, It was. As he floated up slowly he reclothed himself in bands of chaotic energy that he used to strategically cover his family jewels and ass as he proclaimed with the full might and intimidation of his maximum attributes, “Once before I gave you mercy, now you will have a none. As a mortal, you failed…
Adam was interrupted when the Detrick rushed toward him and struck with all his might. Adam saw him coming, locked himself in place, and took the blow. The damage wasn’t insignificant. The detonation alone created a shockwave that turned the upper half of the pyramid into powder. Adam, however, did not budge. He did hear every bone in the demon’s hand break. Adam pushed the demon back with his left hand.
As Detrik tried to recover from the damage he’d just taken and looked at him and mouthed, “How?”
“As I was saying Demon! As a mortal, you failed to learn your lesson. As a possible divine converted to a Demon, instead of trying to choose a better path you once again chose the path of death and destruction, so be It! Let me introduce you to Destruction!” Adam declared as he willed his intent into his Chaos Blade, activated the Primal Destruction aspect it had absorbed, and drove the Chaos Blade through the heart of the demon faster than he had time to react.
You have Struck the Arch Demon Detrik with your Chaos Blade with the intent to Destroy. The Primal Destruction aspect of your Chaos Blade has been activated.
Damage Done 9.07E+35
Arch Demon Detrik’s Hit Points, 2.54E+13 destroyed by two orders of magnitude.
Chaotic Transformation Triggered.
Primal Destruction counters Chaotic Transformation
Arch Demon shell has been utterly destroyed.
Detrik’s Soul has been returned to Primal Chaos.
Those watching the spectacle saw a shimmering white blade appear in the hand of a man that had survived a fountain of flame the Demon had breathed on him surrounded by a blanket of shifting white energy. The man moved quicker than any eye or camera could follow and was suddenly standing in midair, sword extended in a forward thrust pose, with that white blade piercing the Demon’s chest. A pulse of white light was seen jumping from the demon into the sword. The demon disintegrated from the sword outward leaving the man floating alone as ashes spread on the wind and then disappeared. At least that’s what it looked like when people took the time to check the news channel footage after the fact.
As he stood there, Adam had his chaos reform his battle leathers over himself and withdrew the chaos shroud he’d manifested. Then he looked around. Pulling on his memories from his original Cosmos he lowered himself until he was just above the Pyramid then quickly replaced every brick exactly as they had been. While his chaos was doing that he focused his intent and sent out a healing wave in a one-mile radius to heal all people and animals. Adam heard the news anchors screaming for attention but paid them no mind. What did get his attention was when he sensed a missile coming at him at Mach 3. When it was 500 feet away, he opened a portal in front of the missile that opened into his soul space at the same location. The portal closed as the missile passed through and it detonated a moment later.
The missile had been a tactical nuke and the proximity fuse had gone off when it had been close enough to the target destination. The copy of Earth he had in his soul space was as close to the original as possible after all. The nuclear explosion was about 10 times as devastating as the Fat Boy nuke had been and destroyed the replica of Cairo he’d created. Because it was in his soul space and not in the real world, the devastation was negligible, and no one died. Adam had it completely cleaned up and repaired in minutes.
He finished repairing the real Pyramid, waved to the reporters, then flew straight up at just under the speed of sound. Once he was 5 miles up he went hypersonic and started heading west toward the United States. Adam turned on invisibility that was not detectable by satellite or radar station.
While he was flying west toward Alamogordo he had Thor begin removing Johnathan Bennard from any official records. Adam found where his estate had been and landed in the mountains in the middle of nowhere overlooking Alamogordo off to the west. Nothing had been built here. he looked around and knew that he wanted to put his estate back here. he pulled up the current owners and made a call. He offered them 300% of the current market value, cash. He even signed a contract stating that they would get 25% of any mineral deposits discovered within the next 25 years. He’d even make good on that part of the contract if it came up, though he doubted it would. Adam didn’t plan to mine the area, there was no need.
The owner accepted the deal and Adam transferred the money to him immediately. Once that was done he hacked into the local government network, found where everything was, and opened portals to pull out and change all the physical documentation while he also hacked and changed all the digital documentation. All in all, a process that normally took a couple of weeks was done in minutes.
As he was working on the land deed he converted some of the chaos in his soul space into physical nanites then opened a portal and sent them out to recreate his estate and the subterranean base he had under the estate. Adam wanted it to be identical to his Base of Operation in his Soul Space. He also instructed the nanites to build fusion generators and portal devices. Nanites exploded from his soul space and went to work. As they exited his soul space they looked like oil being released from an oil pan as it exploded from the point of Adam’s Soul Space opening and soaked into the ground before they all disappeared and went to work.
While the nanites went to work, he went over to a drop off that looked down on the city far below and sat down to enjoy the sunset as his estate and the underground base were being built behind him. There was a lot to do here as he tried to figure out what had happened to Adaline and Pandora.
As he sat and watched the sun grow closer to the horizon he checked in on Sun Mingze and his guards in his soul space. They were still trying to find someone. It would be a bit. Maybe he should let Desirae have some fun with them. Ultimately he decided , no, that could wait. Maybe if he decided that they needed to try their hand at being adventurers, he’d let Desirae have a go at them then.
Next, he looked at his copy of Sun Mingze in China. Adam had a quantum link into his brain after all. Adam established a connection and watched as the copy performed just as the real Sun Mingze would have and continued to try to order people to find him. They were looking hard too. Eventually, a white man with a long white beard in robes was led in to see Sun Mingze. The guards that entered with the old man left leaving Sung Mingze and the old white man alone.
The man came before Sun Mingze bowed and said, “Sun Mingze, or should I say, a puppet of Adamantadine, May I speak with the man holding the strings to this puppet?” the elderly man asked.
Not one to waste an opportunity, Adam opened a portal beside Sun Mingze as he stood and addressed the elderly man through the portal, “Please, come join me, it is a beautiful sunset.” Without hesitation, the elderly man stepped through the portal, which closed behind him, looked at where Adam was sitting then stepped beside that point.
“May I sit here while we talk and enjoy the sunset?” The man asked in elvish”
“Please,” Adam said in elvish as he joined him and they both sat and faced the Sun as it started to sink below the horizon.
They both watched the sun set, neither speaking a word until the last tip of the Sun had dropped below the horizon. As if that were a cue to begin talking the elderly man turned his entire body to face Adam while he remained sitting.
“Would you like something to drink?” Adam asked in elvish
“Do you have apple juice, I find that I like the taste of it with all the sugar they add here?” he said.
Adam had the nanites that had saturated the area create some off-the-shelf chilled apple juice in two glasses and handed him one. Adam took a sip first and then waited as the old man did the same.
“First, thank you for sharing that moment with me. It felt like you were looking for a moment of solitude and I appreciate that you invited me to partake in it.”
“You are quite welcome,” Adam said.
“Second, I am Myrddin. It is very nice to finally meet you Johnathan Bennard,” Myrddin said.