Robert’s life brought him into different situations. Some were terrifying, while others were boring. Some created constant pressure, trying to fracture him with sheer stubbornness of everlasting hardships, not giving him a break over a long period. There were rare occasions when he could enjoy little moments of peace and even dive into a few entertainments before another turn of his life would take him into a new and often deeper hole. However, what united most of these situations was the need to endure something.
A solitude on the island with giant lizards as a company and the scorching sun as a silent observer. The overwhelming fear of death coming from above in trenches with the whistling sound of an angry bee. The stress from waking up in the pile of corpses that just a day earlier were his friends and acquaintances. The boredom on the field, where he lay for days as a broken toy until he restored himself from the gruesome wounds. The madness of being turned into the exhibit for the crowd’s amusement without the ability to do anything. The heaviness of guilt from all his kills in the Tower and in other places with a total number long suppressing many digits. The physical discomfort from staying among happy people with a strong feeling of estrangement. The inability to feel anything like the warmth of touch or taste of food. There were things to test his mental resilience. And a new experience was added to this basket of horrors he went through.
The way through the city was tense but never turned into a blood bath. When Robert made his way to the surface, melting the road and stepping out onto the square, he met a group of armed CSA agents, two familiar APCs, and empowered sniper clones at the roofs with a few more supers in the background. However, it seemed Sarah made a hard decision, stopping everyone from attacking him the moment they saw a pitch-black figure. Moreover, she went further, calling a flying super, whose name Robert never tried to find out before killing. The man was a silent and serious type, dying in the same manner in each of their fights.
This super came from above and without sparing a single word caught Rob just to take him out of the living area under the cautious wary eyes of the multiple witnesses and even cameras from the media. The flight didn’t take long, but multiple military helos were already nearing the spot not far from the city, clearly summoned directly from the prison's security. The outskirts were still visible from above, easily staying in the range of a nuclear blast. Rob tried to point it, but the man simply dropped him from a kilometer height onto the ground, not even trying to ask his higher-ups anything through the communication device as if he didn’t care about the collateral damage, obediently following the orders. The landing was literally earthshattering as Robert increased his weight before the impact, making a huge crater just from kinetic energy. And then the hell broke loose.
Plasma and ordinary missiles, heavy caliber bullets, a laser beam from a flying super in a pink techno-suit – everything rained at him like a downpour in the desire to evaporate the dangerous villain. And, like a cherry on top, the nuclear blast followed, blinding the surroundings with a flaming flash. The deafening roar of this unliving beast of destruction shook the city, sending the trembles across the landscape. The closest areas were blown away by the powerful shockwave, spreading the heat even further. However, it was only remnants as the epicenter took the main part of this overwhelming wrath. Incinerating the surroundings, the nuclear flame burned everything into the ash, evaporating rock, earth, and anything caught in the strike. Anything but Robert.
Rob perfectly knew what he was going to face, preparing to take the power of humankind head-on. Piercing the land, he dived a few meters underground before pausing. There was no escape from the eyes of CSA and the military, so it was better to show them the futility of their attempts… if he managed to do it as Robert needed to survive everything to get to this arrogant state. Therefore, he acted. Overcoming the instinctive resistance of his body, Rob willingly reduced himself to the state of being just a reactor core. All his senses had disappeared at once, leaving him alone with his steel. And he used it immediately, creating a thin layer around the sphere and adding several legs to stabilize his position above the ground. Then the destructive glow enveloped the sphere, shining like never before when Robert pushed all available energy to this task.
There were problems with it, demanding all his concentration. Even if he could feel the attack of the nuclear explosion through the flickering layer to continue fueling the latter, the problem of melting his way down to the center of the earth in case of carelessness was a real one. However, Robert wanted to avoid it because the second problem was still present – Demonologist never stopped trying to escape from the prison made from disintegrative energy. Burning to ashes and restoring an instant later, the tenacious hero was stubbornly trying to tear down Rob’s core from the inside. This was the reason, why he decided to stay – just to be sure that if he died, there would be a weapon ready to kill the enormous dragon, which would threaten all life in this world. It was his decision to become a better man, even if nobody knew about it, viewing Rob as a villain.
Thus, when the nuclear strike came, trying to eradicate him from this world, another enduring event started for Robert. Simultaneously attacked from the outside and inside, senseless, his mind was focused on holding himself together. Patching the damage, fueling the energy to keep everything working, Rob had to constantly adjust to the attempts of both forces to penetrate his protection. It felt like he was repairing the wall that attacked from both sides, just to keep two different enemies from meeting each other. However, this was the moment he could describe as a terrifying experience.
There was no pain, no discomfort, nothing that his senses described as a source of danger. The problem was that there was a real chance of dying while fighting against two destructive forces. This created a huge dissonance in Rob’s mind. There was a threat, but he treated it like some kind of a robot, calmly and expressionlessly trying to fix the problem without a hint of worry. No surmount, no boiling emotions to strengthen his desire to live, no sudden surge of inner power from the dangerous situation. No fear. Robert could bet that if he had a normal heart, the latter wouldn’t even increase its pace, beating in a relaxed state. As if it was just a mechanism. Such was his detachment from the situation, the outer world. This distance from what seemed to be a normal reaction of any human being scared Rob much stronger than the ravaging nuclear flame around him. His acceptance of potential death. His understanding of how different he had become from others.
I am indeed a golem…
A very powerful creature that despite being alive had not much in common with a real living being. On the other hand, exactly such detachment together with the concentration of his former modified brain made him notice the change that occurred inside the core of Demonologist. It was tiny and easy to miss, but it seemed the superhero gave up, slowing down his attempts to regain his freedom. Or it looked like that but with so much experience in wielding different energies and powers, Robert felt that something was going on a deeper level underneath the super’s remnants. It helped him to react in time when something that was the source of this inhuman regeneration tried to attach itself to Rob.
Unfortunately, being ready and being able to counter it were quite different things. Moreover, when this something found an existing connection right inside Robert, exploiting it once. The demonic taint that stuck to him after a short stay in the hellish realm and caused his bloody outburst in the space city appeared to be such a vulnerability. It was easily used by an unknown source the moment it sensed the hellish influence. It was like a perfect match, a missing part of a puzzle, a long-awaited meeting with a distant relative that despite the first doing it had the same distinguished appearance and character. Rob had no chance to stop when his body was ready to betray him by sheer instinct that long become an integral part of him.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Gripping the deeply engraved part of his inner being, this odd source forcefully connected itself to his reactor core, sending a wave of energy that almost tore Rob apart. Fighting to stabilize himself from the sudden increase in output, he missed the moment when an ethereal connection with Aether moved. And its reaction was violent, causing a flow of mad energy just to stop the uninvited intruder. Then there was a battle between two energy tentacles that had control over Rob’s body and soul, while he was just an observer, having no say in the situation.
Robert didn’t how long it lasted. It felt like an eternity, but in fact, it could be just a fraction of a second. The time lost its meaning when two forces decided who was the true ruler over Rob’s spirit. Somehow both entities found an equilibrium inside his core after finding it impossible to evict the other party, feeding him with more energy to support his demands. That caused an overflow, which he barely kept in check by reforming his body back and covering it with glowing black armor just to spend the energy instead of self-exploding from it. The apocalyptic sight of air trembling from the insane heat, floating burning particles, and heavy smoke might have led to a scare, but Rob’s mind was too occupied with understanding what had happened.
Closing his eyes, he mentally tried to connect with Aether… only to feel the interference from his new addition in energy suppliers. An attempt to get a self-check failed. A similar result was after trying to travel into another realm – a rejection instead of the previous message. Not discouraged by one failure, Robert tried to do the same using a new invisible chain he got around his neck. Unsurprisingly, the answer was an identical rejection, which had a hint of temporality in it. As if it wanted to talk about the unresolved situation but failed because of interference. Repeating the different requests again and again, while comparing the feedback, Rob confirmed his growing suspicion.
I am not a golem but a mere puppet… Dumb as fuck to believe in Aether’s words. Always on strings to push me in a proper direction.
There were so many signs that could point out that something wasn’t exactly right. The situation with Wepwakor, who lied to his “envoys” and Ather silently kept his lie from being exposed, creating a perfect example of the situation where you just couldn’t believe everything you were told. The existence of two Hells in different realms and their ability to intrude into the main world by using uncommon means. The seemed to be an endless source of energy to fuel Demonologist akin to Robert’s direct connection with the all-mighty entity. It was so brokenly overpowered that it was the reason why the man was called one of the mightiest heroes, when other consumers of omicron particles weren’t even close to such a level, having clear limitations. Even the mad and bloodthirsty state of mind that Rob went through in Fantasy City was too similar to the one that occurred with the superhero, just on a much lower scale.
However, the bigger sign was in the worlds he had visited. No matter what he asked for, there was always some kind of problem, an obstacle to face, a dangerous situation to overcome. The coincidence of entry right through the portal during the outside attack in the world, where supers weren’t welcomed. The coincident appearance in the realm, where he looked like a modified soldier from a genocidal empire with a psycho as a future governor, who had power and a wish to add such an interesting subject to his sick collection. The coincidence of wary treatment from the Tower right from the start, when the sapient construction put him on a different side from locals, while the machine was trying to get rid of Rob without breaking its set of rules. There were too many such things in a row that showed that someone or something deliberately shoved him into dangerous situations, where either he got strong enough to escape or died trying. And now he had confirmation of this theory, getting the attention of another such being.
What are they? Deities? And why are they doing it? To raise some kind of Champions, or what? But if their other puppets are like me, then why hasn’t Demonologist entered the loop? Oh, wait. Right, he died at that point… or at least was on the verge of it. Moreover, it was me who smashed into the time machine… Poor guy.
Robert sighed, his thoughts racing over multiple topics and potential plans. Somehow, both entities balanced their influence over him, cutting a part of the direct connection of each other, but still giving him power through their link. It strengthened his reactor core, supplying the endless process of micro explosions to generate even more energy. It made him mightier. However, Rob wasn’t happy with this upgrade at all. From all he knew, both entities would try to claim their ownership over him quite soon, creating situations where he would either break one of the links or doom him so he wouldn’t serve the opposite side.
He long ago felt the leash over his neck. Even standing like a motionless statue in the museum to entertain the public, Robert viewed Aether as another slaver, just with a longer rope. All the strength earned was meaningless, not giving him a basic possibility to enjoy his life. Rob wasn’t hungry for power just for the sake of owning more power. Maybe he experienced a lot at this point, having many skills, but Robert rarely felt happy. Even his heroic achievement to save the city and its citizens was bittersweet with empathy on the bitter part.
Through the thick smoke, Rob could see the traces of the destruction that the outskirts took after several nuclear explosions in a row. The wind was already blowing the radioactive cloud toward the city, enveloping it in the invisible hugs of slow and painful death. It was nothing compared to the devasted land that was left after the attempt to kill the dragon. Still, it had cost a lot of lives. Some of them were the direct cause of Robert’s loss of control in the laboratory. Moreover, he was sure that the current silence was just a short pause before the military would strike again, trying to nullify the potential threat from a powerful villain, who popped out of nowhere.
On the other hand, Robert knew it had to be done to save more people. He also was sure that his actions would lead to more changes in local society and maybe in the whole world. The latter was already on the verge of exploding from the awful treatment of supers, and another process of tightening the screws would be definitely met with resistance. There were too many witnesses of Rob’s appearance and his deed, making a government's long-tested strategy to blame the super completely unworkable. It would be hard to sell it to the public – the need to use a nuclear weapon, when there wasn’t a threat to the city as the villain obediently tried to leave it under control of CSA, simultaneously warning its senior agent.
The other thing was Sarah’s desire to uncover the truth. Rob could bet that she would find the serum’s production and find out the potential side effects of injecting it. Maybe she would even help with finishing the proper variant of serum to give superpowers to everyone. It wasn’t so unbelievable, given the fact that she started as a hero on the streets herself and knew everything from both sides. There were too many possibilities for what might happen in the future as Robert’s act seemed to break a dam with multiple old cracks, exposing the hidden muddy water.
However, in the end, all these world-changing events with an unknown result would have no connection to Robert, as he would be long gone into the next realm. For now, all he wanted was to find a safe spot far from any settlements and wait for the end of the countdown before finally leaving the place and the mess Rob caused, trying to save others. His desire to be a hero flopped, causing more ripple effects than he initially predicted.
Or maybe he just didn’t want to think about the consequences himself, solely focusing on his “heroic” act and not trying to look at the realistic version of “lived happily ever after”. In the end, Robert knew that he had done it mainly for himself and not for others. He wanted to prove to himself that he could do something not selfish, not driven by survival instincts or a wish to save himself. The result was right in front of him, still burning like a nuclear wasteland… And Robert didn’t want to redo everything multiple times to find the best outcome, too tired of the constant repeats. On the other hand, he wasn’t sure that it was even a possibility as the other entity attached to his core might have its own saying in this regard. Therefore, turning away from the city, Rob looked at the smoke with inner acceptance of the current situation, trying to pierce it with his gaze to see the distant horizon.
But where do I want to go next? Somewhere remote with no or limited number of people around? With no nuclear weapon or anything technological – I am too fed up with them at this point. Yeah, what else? Obviously, the possibility of cutting one of the links… Okay, let’s move before another gift from above will try to burn me into nothingness. I have two months to think about it, and no desire to get hit by another nuke.