NOVEL WEB 64. Intertwining Threads
Demiurge PoV:
Location: 6th Floor of The Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick
‘First off, about the corpses and living Skrulls or Brood. I have no requirements. I also have the wreckage of their spaceship stowed away in my pocket dimension. You can use all of them anyway you wish,’ Lady White’s voice resonated in Demiurge’s mind.
Aura and Mare had left the vicinity of the colosseum and wandered off to other sections of the 6th floor. Begrudgingly, of course. The twin children desperately wanted to participate in what they considered to be a high level meeting of maximum confidentiality.
The more likely reason was so that Demiurge alongside Albedo could make appropriate preparations before guiding everyone else in Nazarick as required. As much as they wanted to conquer the multiverse, this grand undertaking was no mere child’s play.
Even if the twins are highly qualified guardians, any plan must be deliberated over repeatedly and improved upon. It seems that Aura and Mare understood this as well and finally left without more complaints.
Now, about what Lady White just relayed. He was free to conduct experiments as he desires. Moreover, there’s wreckage from a spaceship for him to toy around with as well. It seems that he would be spending lots of time filled with joy soon.
‘By the way, I have also hijacked a ship and controlled some Skrull to fly the spaceship. It was quite fun for a while riding it but I soon got bored. Magic is the best after all! Nevertheless, I’ll be returning to the ship soon to have a more comfortable space trip,’ the Supreme Being continued.
‘Hmm, it is reassuring that they will be flying in a spaceship in relative luxury. It would be best to have an impregnable moving fortress to cruise through space. It’s best to incorporate the time travel technology of the TVA as well. Another addition to my ever growing list of research topics.
Perhaps, we can employ some of the mind controlled TVA members for the task. It would improve research progress significantly.
Hopefully, that human named Mobius has made some decent progress. Lady White did not give him more commands and neither me nor Albedo told him anything. An oversight on my part.’ Demiurge thought.
He was deeply inspired by multiple iconic spacefaring vessels present in Lady White’s scriptures. He also desired to create a fleet of ships in association with the main one.
‘This is what happened…,’ she went on to explain the events of their space trip so far. From floating through empty space and spreading multiple surveillance clones to fighting the Skrull and Brood while acting as the Evil Goddess.
For the short while they had left, it was quite an eventful trip so far. Then again, such events were to be expected if the comics were anything to go by.
‘…that’s about it. Moving on, I have created a series of plans as well as pondered on possible steps to take from here on out,’ her voice seemed to casually remark.
‘As expected of Lady White!’ Such a thought passed through both Albedo and Demiurge’s minds.
“I’m guessing that you need our help to enact these ideas, Lady White? If so please tell us and we will try to get it completed immediately,” Albedo requested for the task immediately.
‘Yes, that’s right. Upon considering the circumstances, I decided to take advantage of the situation by linking my parallel minds to the Brood hivemind and sending them off to different timelines.
The idea is that my parallel minds would consume the Brood hivemind giving me its abilities and a boost in my overall power. I have used this method before on someone else that was also the controller of a hivemind but it was in the same timeline.
So, I don’t know if this will work. But if the hivemind is somehow able to counterattack, I can cut the connection between us immediately.’ She said.
While Demiurge was a bit worried about any danger associated with the plan, it was a plan that would greatly strengthen Lady White. The stronger Lady White was, the better. Especially in her weakened state. As for the plan not working? Demiurge refrained from commenting anything as he anticipated that Lady White had much more to share.
‘As I said earlier, I have started to act as the Evil Goddess in earnest. The scuffle with the Brood earlier gave me another idea to solidify the image of my alter ego alongside the others. And that is to create a swarm of my own.’
“The Horo Neia from earlier…!” Demiurge asked making connections to the spider-babies draped in shadows he had seen earlier.
‘That’s right! And I want to include all positive adaptations of other swarms such as the horde or the brood into them. The idea is to create the strongest and deadliest swarm in existence.
Perhaps, I will use my [Administrator] skill to create 2 different paths of evolution for 2 groups of Horo Neia. One for me and one for my ‘D’ persona. But this is not certain.
As for the spider babies that wandering through time, I have other plans for them which I will now tell you. But, ideally they should evolve into a distinct third branch capable of temporal abilities to best work with my idea and in conjunction with the resurrection eggs.’
That was a lot of information and there was more to come. But Demiurge was not dumbfounded. Far from it, the excitement was visible on his face. This plan was right up his alley. Even more so than deciphering technology.
Demiurge was certainly entranced with technology and applications of technology working alongside magic. But like Lady White, deep down, the old way of doing things was and will always remain his favourite. Especially, experiments on evolution.
Oh, of course he won’t conduct any crude experiments on the spider babies to achieve Lady White’s orders. It would certainly make things difficult but that was his burden to bear. Or rather another gift as Lady White will be using the results of his experiments directly.
The other good news was that, a lot of what was to be researched was something he was already working on. For example, researching the horde or cracking the mysteries of time.
‘The other idea I just mentioned is about creating a system…,’ she described the idea she had.
The idea was to create a vast, multiverse-spanning system called the [W System]. Based on the scriptures they had read, they certainly knew what a system was, but the specifics eluded them.
The original idea for this system was a planetary construct that facilitated magic and reincarnation cycles to restore planetary energy. Something she had thought up in her free time back in their old world.
Ideally, she said that the system could span the multiverse but she said that is was beyond her means right now. Something only theoretically possible but practically unfeasible. Naturally, it was their duty to make the Supreme One’s desires possible by any means necessary.
So far she had considered creating a scaled-down version covering Arachnumec, an idea that worked quite well in blending aspects magic and science and serve as a learning tool without the negative downsides.
It seemed that Lady White was once again uncountable steps ahead of him envisioning what the completed Arachnumec should look like. Perhaps she had already though of this the moment she spoke about it when they flew to the desolate city for the first time.
Concurrently, she envisioned a sub-system under her 'D' persona, using clones and resurrection eggs to control and empower individuals across timelines by channelling corruptive energies and knowledge.
This plan involved extensive technical challenges, especially in transmitting energy across timelines, but aimed to centralize control and extract information from brainwashed subjects.
She also spoke about multiple hypothetical ideas that could be incorporated into the system on this basis as well as other challenges faced and how to address them. Plans such as using the celestial corpses dispersed across time as a power source or the using the flexibility of her parallel minds to their advantage and many more.
“Sasuga! I truly have no more words of praise this time.” Which was true. Demiurge prided himself in being an intellectual and understanding the subtleties that underlay all her plans sent shivers down his spine. He thanked his creator for gifting him this intelligence.
It seemed that Albedo was in a similar mood if her quivering wings and unnerving smile were anything to go by after acknowledging Lady White’s ideas. Not that he was in any position to judge as he suspected that a rather terrifying grin was decorating his face right now as well.
Every action and event that they had encountered so far were truly working hand in hand in order to trap the multiverse in a web created by Lady White. This was not an exaggeration if one considered how interconnected all the actions they had undertaken so far were. If even one aspect was missing or had gone differently, perhaps the plan could not be realised.
Even so, Demiurge could unfortunately only catch a glimpse of what Lady White had in store for the multiverse.
‘For the next couple of days work with me to decode the magic Pandora has sent as well as understanding the TVA technology. I want to experiment with the sending my energy to the past first and grant a sub-system to Agatha first.
Hopefully, it will be a success and I’ll leave on my trip again immediately. If not then continue working without me and take any steps you feel necessary to work with these ideas. Most of them are hypothetical scenarios so you don’t have to overdo it,’ the Spider Goddess ordered.
“What an honour to work alongside you!”
“I will complete any task you give Lady White!” Demiurge agreed immediately following which albedo did so as well. Too bad Pandora’s Actor would not be able to join them on this mini collaborative project
‘Now, Demiurge. I will bestow a sin skill upon you. You should also complete evolution into a world enemy while most of us are here to oversee you. After all, you will be the first creation amongst any of my friends to actually break past the level 100.
Well, besides Pandora’s Actor who may have done so if Kamar-Taj’s magic empowered him greatly.’
“Very well, Lady White. I thank you for providing me with this opportunity.” Demiurge was a bit surprised that she wanted him to become a world enemy immediately but agreed immediately. Was this day one on which some auspicious occasion had taken place? It certainly seemed like it as one joyous event after another had taken place.
‘Which skill do you want? I don’t mind giving two skills to you, it’s your choice. I assume you have given this enough consideration.’ She inquired.
Yes, he had certainly given it a lot of thought. To a certain extent, it could be argued that most of the creations of the Supreme Beings embody multiple sins to differing extents. This held true for most of them with the exception of the few that had high positive karma values like Sebas.
Moreover, he had pondered upon some other factors as well. Lady White could grant these sin skills and using the chaos catalyst would crown the user as a lord of sin. Lady White’s skills were also intrinsically different from the world item’s. There were also multiple demonic entities representing the sins in this marvel multiverse.
It meant that, just owning these skills or titles did not truly make him the only one in existence to represent the concept of the corresponding sins. Hypothetically speaking, becoming a chaos tyrant might lead him to truly embody the chosen conceptual sin or might result in something different entirely.
Ultimately, what this meant is that he did not have to overly agonise over making the ‘right’ choice. Since he could get a skill and title bestowed by Lady White, he can choose to become a [Lord of the Seven Deadly Sins] representing another sin.
Becoming such a world enemy would massively increase his strength over the other members of Nazarick barring Lady White and perhaps Rubedo whose strength he did not truly know.
Regardless, even if thirty level 100 players, were fully prepared and forewarned of the battle ahead, did battle with a World Enemies, the outcome of the battle would still be in doubt. He would also gain immunity to world items.
He did not know what sort of immunity he would have against the native abilities and objects of this multiverse. At the same time, Lady White will be able to bestow another sin skill to someone else to increase the overall comprehensive strength of Nazarick.
“Lady White, please bestow the [Gluttony] skill upon me and grant the others to someone else who deserves it,” Demiurge declared. Based on what Lady White told him of the [Gluttony] skill, it would massively cover up any deficiencies he would have.
Moreover, he decided to use the chaos catalyst to embody [Greed]. This was not something he had to deliberate over too much. He did not choose to use the chaos catalyst to become [Pride] for obvious reasons.
He was certainly prideful but he knew his place beneath the Supreme Beings. He was not particularly lustful or envious. Of course, he did have them in healthy quantities like everyone else in Nazarick.
He could certainly be wrathful if something happened to Lady White, but he was a believer of prevention is better than cure. On his watch, something like this must not happen. As for sloth, Demiurge felt that this sin was the furthest away from him.
This was the same for everyone created by the Supreme Beings as they desperately wished to work and serve them more. This was the reason others envied him as Lady White gave him multiple important missions.
So, [Gluttony] and [Greed] it was.
***
Hey, everyone! I’m luckily still alive, for now at least. My surgery initially went…let’s say less than ideal and there were many complications. But I’m relatively fine now and back home. Thanks for all the support!
It’s been quite a while since I last wrote and uploaded anything at all so I decided to try my hand at writing again. It’s been a nice change of pace. Hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading!