A little over 120 fucking years. That's how long it took me to complete my tasks that were given to me. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy myself, or that I didn't have a good time, but the fantasy world I got sent to had overstayed its welcome. I missed soft beds, I missed watching TV and playing games, but most of all, I missed my mom... and now I had to worry about the fact that I told Victoria I loved her and that I apparently would be going back.
This Goddess, and yes, that's what I found out she was, was actually quite nice and was very helpful throughout my journey in Axios, the world she had created. She was actually worried I wouldn't take her seriously if I found out she was a female, which I found bizarre. I actually considered her my friend after spending so long with her in my head.
Creta wasn't like those Gods in those old books or those animes. She was with me the whole time, giving me directions, telling me where to go, and providing me with company. I was a bit pissed off at first when I got sent to this world, as I materialized right above a big ass lake before falling in like a cannonball. Creta apologized for it, and said that she tried to drop me off as close to my first objective as possible. And what was that? Learning the element of water from a man who reached Tier 10 with that element, the highest tier of elemental comprehension. It was a 1 through 10 system, and she had me start off with a Legendary Master right out of the gate.
Both Creta and the master, Li, were quite shocked and surprised by how easily I learned the element though. Creta said that my first goal was to reach Tier 10 with all 7 elements before moving on to Concepts, which were powers only the Gods could understand, but she had faith in me that my power, or skill, could help me achieve that. And so, after 6 long grueling years, I finally reached the peak of power that the water element had to offer, and my master was just left standing there with his mouth agape the whole time.
"It took me 240 years to master water..." Li said, and then began to laugh, "You did it in 6! This truly has been a pleasure. Our Goddess chose well!" He said, patting me on the back.
Creta was not adverse to helping and even speaking to her people. She did so when she lead me to Li in the first place, and that's what made him agree to train me in the first place. She was really the only friend I allowed myself to have here, as she promised that she'd keep checking up on me even after I left. I didn't want to care about people here, especially since I wouldn't be staying. Little did I know, I was in it for the long haul.
It took me 76 more years of pain staking training, spitting up blood, and getting my ass kicked by several masters before I had reached Tier 10 in all 7 elements. After water, I had mastered fire, earth, wind, lightning, light, and dark. Light and dark were the hardest elements to master, due to them basically being pseudo concepts in and of themselves. That, and my master for darkness was a fierce half human and half vampire woman who was brutal and efficient. She was a beautiful woman, but thankfully she had no interest in emotions or romantic pursuits. Good thing too, because I would have caved quite easily to a woman like that. My light master was some dude who never even spoke a word to me, but that was fine with me. The less connections I had, the better.
This power was known as Ki, and because of how much I had trained, and how many elements I had mastered, my reserves of Ki felt limitless, and actually, it would later become limitless in truth. I could expand my Ki, and shape it around me, creating one of those cool ass fields of energy around my body called an Aura. It was as cool as it sounded, as it was a mix of all of the colors of the elements i had mastered. Blue, red, brown, green, yellow, white, and black. The white and black stood out the most, as those were technically the strongest elements. I had been truly ready for the next step.
After that, I spent another 40 years mastering the concepts that I could, although I could not get a full grasp on the concept of Time or Creation. Creta was a good trainer, and her help with Creation was helpful, being one who was a master with it herself. Time was fucking hard, to say the least. I could slow down my perception of time, and even stop it for a second or two, but that was about it. Rewinding time and fast forwarding it was something I could not do, and even then, Creta warned me about doing that. She said that even the Gods who could chose not to because it could disrupt the order of things in a catastrophic way, and hell if that didn't scare me.
Life was an easy concept for me, and what it did was simple. I could heal any wound, both on myself and others. The water element was used to heal as well, but even with my ridiculous level of healing with water that took mere seconds, life was instant, almost like a cheat code. I also didn't age, and I could revitalize others to keep them alive too, if I so wished. I also could not be killed, as Life was simply that. Life, the opposite of Death.
Death was also one that I couldn't fully master. I could revive the dead, but not if it had been too long. A day at most was the longest someone could be dead and my power could still work. I could also prevent others from dying by focusing the concept on them, as well as myself, but since I had mastered life so well, I could use that to also just keep people alive. Creta told me that the reason Death was hard for me was because I had already mastered Life, and they were opposing concepts. She was actually impressed I had been able to grasp Death at all.
I couldn't grasp Space at all. That was the Concept of being in one place, and then being at another a moment later. Well, not really, but since I didn't understand a thing about it, it was how it appeared to me. Apparently, it allowed me to cross vast distances in no time at all, as well as transport others around as well. Yet, no matter how hard I trained... it wasn't happening, so I gritted my teeth, accepted it, and moved on.
The Null concept though? Now that was truly cheating, and one that I had taken too like a champion. I didn't even need Space with a Concept like this. I got the mental image of wide eyes and an open mouth from Creta everytime I employed it, and especially when I reached mastery of it. I could basically negate anything I wanted. Damage, items, people, you name it, I could do it. I even was able to make it to where I broke open my own Ki reserves, and nullified the limit in its entirety, basically giving me infinite Ki. It was fucking ridiculous. It took a lot of concentration to use it and it gave me a headache, but that was due to it being what Creta called, a "Primordial Concept." It was a concept created by being above even the Gods, so she said my mastery of it was unprecedented, even if it hurt me to use it.
During all of this, I wasn't idle with my elemental training either, as Creta said that I might be able to go beyond even a Tier 10 mastery, and she was not wrong. She called it, Divine Mastery of the Elements, and my power with all 7 of them jumped by at least 20 times the strength of Tier 10, which was basically considered Transcendence. It also came with the added bonus of being able to manipulate said elements with precision.
I could snuff out fires with a thought, as well as control natural fires like it was a part of me. I could control and the bend the oceans to my heart's content, and I could even use it on people to stop them cold, as bodies were compromised of mostly water. I could alter ths ground below me, using it as a shield, or armor. I could also alter the entirety of the terrain itself, creating shelter and homes with just a thought. I could create tornados using the wind, and even add in water to creature hurricanes. I could also tell the wind which way to blow. Lightning was fucking sick as well, as I could create storms and strom clouds, and use the element to strike down my foes using nature itself. When I combined that with water or wind, or even both, I could create literal catastrophes of epic proportions, and cast the world into chaos. I didn't do that... but the fact that I could was insane to me.
Light and Dark were the ones that were the biggest pain in the ass for me, as they were basically concepts in and of themselves. Not to mention, most humans shouldn't be able to use them. Light allowed me to created literal light from nothingness, and cast away the darkness like it wasn't even there. I could also transform myself into light, and move at light speeds. It also allowed me to cure people of dark and corrupt sicknesses and diseases. Creta said that my level of light comprehension was akin to divinity, and it was technically the precursor to Life.
Darkness was, well, as you would guess, darkness. I could manipulate the shadows and darkness around me, and even create darkness from nothing to plunge the whole world into it. It was also the biggest offensive weapon I had against light based beings, as light was for darkness, not that I even bothered. The precursor to darkness was, of course, Null, and there for, I could rip the light out of light based, and even dark based beings without even a second thought. Being this strong after being so weak for so long was truly intoxicating, at least for a while, but I never lost sight of who I was, or what I was doing all of this for.
Creta couldn't tell me exactly how long time had passed on Earth, but she assured me that it was much less time than here on her world. I trusted her more than I thought I ever would, and I would be lying if I said I wouldn't miss her once I left. She assured me that she'd keep in touch with me, as she had become rather fond of me. And the last thing on my to do list? Use all of what I had gained thus far to do what no one else had done before. Kill the Gods themselves. The battle was still fresh in my mind.
◇ ◇ ◇
"Without Space... how are you going to reach them? They are all in the divine realm." Creta said, and I just grinned.
"Simple." I said, and then with a pulse of the Null Concept, I merely erased the distance between myself and the Gods.
"What the??" Many of the Gods said as they now stood before me in a vast plain of grassland that I had made specifically for this fight. I had also created a Null field around the whole area, preventing wayward strikes from exiting, but it also prevented them from running as well.
Timos, God of Time. Lifaye, Goddess of Life. Spectros, God of Space. And then there was simply the God Null, and the Goddess Death. Very creature names if I do say so myself. At least the other 3 had tried to come up with something cool, even if they just came off as lazy names based off of their concepts. All of them were exuding so much Ki that it was almost nauseating. Thankfully, I had grown in power far beyond the point where that would bother me. They all looked around, actually bewildered for a moment, before their eyes had settled on me. I grinned.
"Hey." I said, waving casually at them, "Glad you all could make it.
Looking at them more closely, I could see the wrongness in them. The purple veins that stuck out looked gross, and the black and purple eyes definitely did not help matters. It was an admittedly nice shade of purple, but I knew from my talks with Creta that it was the work of the Divine Parasite using them as hosts, and unfortunately, the only way to help them was to kill them. Creta said she could save their souls, but it would take them a long time to reconstitute themselves. .
"A human?" Timos asked, both amused and angry, judging from the look in his eyes.
Creta had used her power to hide me from their notice entirely, and I was hoping that her sacrifice of much of her power to do so would not be in vain. She had created another skill and gifted it to me called "Divine Cloak," which hid me and my power from the eyes and Ki senses of the other Gods. She truly was a good Goddess, and now, one of my best friends.
"How did you bring us here?" Spectros asked, trying and failing to use his power to escape my Null field, "Why can I not leave?"
Even their voices sounded wrong. They sounded like they had done nothing but smoke 10 packs of cigarettes a day for the entire time of their existence. They could use their powers inside of the field, but only because I let them. I could feel that despite them being Gods, they were no match for me, but it seems like they couldn't feel anything from me.
"You're all here for me to kill you, of course. Why else would I have brought you all to me?" I asked, and the Gods were silent for a long moment, and then, they all erupted into laughter.
"OH, HOW CUTE!" Death said through a fit of grotesque giggling.
"THE DISRESPECT!" Null said, his voice actually scary in its tone.
"A HUMAN HAS NO CHANCE AGAINST A GOD!" Spectros roared, and I just smiled, and then picked some earwax out of my ear.
Lifaye actually didn't speak, clearing weighing my words with the situation presented to us. I could see something in her eyes that none of the others possessed. It was... intelligence. A sense of autonomy, and strangely enough, there was hope behind her corrupted gaze.
"Borthers and sisters, I will remove this ant for daring to speak such words to us." Timos said, a feral grin on his face, and the others grinned as well, and waved at him to proceed.
Time around me froze, and then Timos lunged towards me, his fist coated in unnatural purple energy. He arrived in front of me in a split second, and thrust his fist right at my face. At that same moment though, the time lock around me shattered like glass, and I caught his wrist as easily as if he were a newborn baby
"W-what?" He asked, stunned.
"Goodbye." I said, and I punched him in the chest with a fist coated in fire and lightning. I called this one, Storm Fire Fist.
His chest exploded like a rotten fruit, glowing purple blood fountaining out of the gaping hole where his heart once was. I let the body drop to the ground, and stared at my fist for a moment. I knew I was powerful, but that was nuts. I just once shot a God, and his Time lock broke just from brute force alone. I didn't even use a concept. My body and muscles had just been tempered so thoroughly from training that I was like an iron fortress. Creta had told me that each tier of each element I mastered also increased the strength of my body, from offense to defense, so it made sense. I hadn't fought anyone for the last 40 years or so, as I had just spent it training and refining my elements and concepts.
"How did he??" Spectros asked, his voice actually trembling.
"TIMOS!!" Death roared, and hit me full force with the concept of Death.
I sighed, nullifying it entirely, and then in a flash of movement, I was in front of her so fast that all she could do was blink once. Then, I grabbed her by the neck, and used my own concept of Death. She was stronger with it, so hers would overpower mine if that's all I was using. Unfortunately for her, I was still nullifying her concept, and she had no defense against me as I pumped her so full of Death that she turned to white ash. Ironic, I would say, but that's what I was going for.
Null had been standing close to her, and tried to nullify what I was doing, but he was unable to.
"HOW CAN YOU HAVE MY CONCEPT? AND HOW IS IT STRONGER THAN MINE??" He roared, and then charged at me with a black sword surrounded by purple energy.
The hand that caught his sword was surrounded with his own concept, and he stared at me in disbelief. Then, I crushed his sword in my hand, grabbed him by the face, and nullfied his life force. He died almost instantly, and he fell like a sack of bricks.
"I'm way too OP." I muttered, but just as that thought entered my mind, a hand erupted from my chest from behind me.
"YOU INSIGNIFICANT WORM! DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG IT TOOK OUR MASTER TO CULTIVATE THEM WITH THE VOID???" He screamed, in my ear.
The Void, huh? Must be the energy this parasite used. Still, I had a task to do, and this dude's arm in my chest was getting a bit uncomfortable.
"Don't care. You're dead anyways." I said, and then I erupted with 5 elements surrounding my body.
Spectros screamed as he tried to teleport away, but I had a firm grasp on the arm that was in my chest, flooding him with Null energy. Water drowned him from the inside, white fire burned his skin, the wind cut through his body, earth spikes impaled his body, lightning fused with the water inside of him, cooking his insides completely. I didn't even need to use the other two, and within seconds, he was dead, his body falling to the ground. I had used a wind blade to sever his arm, and I simply ripped it out of the front of my body, where the wound closed instantly. Life for win, baby.
I turned my head towards Lifaye, where she stood there, her body shaking as her eyes went from purple to green. I walked towards her, confused on what was happening.
"Please, powerful one... kill me... the main parasite is in my body. It could never... take my mind completely... so please, end this madness!" She screamed, and I actually heard a sob echo through my mind from Creta. I forgot that this was her family for a second there.
"Please Gideon. Don't let me sister suffer any longer." Creta said, the tears she was shedding obvious in her voice.
I closed my eyes, and muttered an apology. The parasite, as explained to me by Creta, burrowed into the heart, and the only way to help anyone was to destroy the heart... which meant killing them. Creta said that she could bring them back... but it still had to hurt seeing your family die.
I appeared before Lifaye, and thrust my hand forward. My arm erupted out of her back, her heart in my hand, and I actually hesitated a moment before crushing it. I knew I had to... but it hurt me to do something that clearly hurt Creta.
Surprisingly, Lifaye didn't fall, bur she didn't move either. She just stood there, giving me a warm smile, blooding slowly leaking out of her chest. Her now bright green eyes were filled with relief, and with tears.
"I was stuck like that for so long... and now I'm free. Thank you, my savior. I assume I have my sister to thank for you ending this threat?" She asked, and I coughed to clear my throat.
"Y-yeah. Creta brought me here to help you... I'm sorry this happened to you." I said, and she just continued smiling at me.
"You've done a wonderful thing here...?" She said, a question in her voice.
"Uh, Gideon." I said, and then more formally, I added, "Gideon Astier."
"Gideon Astier... I see. I will remember the name of my hero, and when I reconstitute, I will find you, and repay my gratitude." She said, giving me a warm smile.
"But... you're alive..." I said, but I noticed how the wound wouldn't close, despite her having the concept of Life.
"Only because I am actively using my concept. You destroyed my heart. I cannot fix that, but don't worry, I will return, and I will never forget you." She said, and then she stepped forward.
I saw her body begin to dissolve from the chest wound, and spread out through her body. She stumbled, and I reached out and caught her, and strange sense of guilt coming over me. Then, with her final act, she brought her face up to mine, and kissed me cheek. And then, she dissolved into nothing.
I stood there staring at the spot for several moments, before I fell back onto my ass, and out my head in my hands. I didn't even know her that well, and I did what I had to do. I did what she asked me to do, so why was I crying?
"It's over... Gideon. Thank you..." Creta said, her voice not in my head this time, but right next to me.
I whipped my head to the side, and was met with the embodiment of beauty. Creta was definitely a fucking woman, that's for sure. She had long golden hair flowing down her body, reaching her waist. Her face was more beautiful than any woman or any model I had ever seen. Her pure white eyes were both haunting and beautiful, and the smile she gave me was radiant, although I did see lines of glowing tears streaking down her cheeks.
I looked her over a bit longer, and I couldn't help but admire the absolutely massive breasts adorning her slim figure. I couldn't see behind her, but I had no doubt she had a nice ass as well, given how good everything else about her looked.
"Creta... you... are gorgeous." I said, unsure why that was the first thing out of my mouth, but that seemed to be the right words. She giggled, wiped at her eyes, and then bound up to me, and hugged me.
I froze at the feeling of her soft body against mine, of the massive pillows of her breasts pushing into my chest, and at the strength of this woman's hug.
"Thank you so much, Gideon. None of this would have been possible without you." She said, and I slowly put my arms around her, and squeezed her back.
"Thank you for guiding me, and for being my friend. I'm sorry that this all happened." I said, and she let go of me, and looked up at me with those hypnotic white glowing eyes.
"You did nothing wrong, Gideon. It will take time, but I will have my family back. And I have you to thank for that." She said, before letting me go completely, and turning around, "And now, to fulfill my promise to you."
Creta looked up at the sky, smiling at the clear blue color and the clouds above. Then, because I couldn't help myself, I looked lower, and I almost fell over at the sight of her ass, which was better than I had thought it would be. She was wearing a skin tight outfit with gold trim in the seams that was almost like a second skin in and of itself. So, obviously, the full size and movement of her breasts, as well as the plump and round shape of her asscheeks, was on full display.
Creta looked back and me and smirked.
"I'm glad to know I can catch your eye." She said, and I snapped my gaze up, and scratched my cheek.
"S-sorry, Creta." I said, and she used one finger to beckon me closer.
I walked forward, and stopped in front her. I looked at Creta's smiling face, and I couldn't help myself. I wrapped her in a hug, and with a small giggle, she returned it, like she knew I was going to do that.
"I'm going to miss you, Creta. Thank you for being here with me." I said, hugging her tight.
Her grip became just as tight.
"I'm glad I got to spend that time with you, and it saddens me to see you go, but I must tend to my world, and my brothers and sister. Do not worry, we will meet again, and when we do, I think I'd like to stay a bit longer. You are now what I am, Gideon. You have become a God in your own right."
I released to look at her and ask her what she meant, as her words left me with a fuckton of questions, but then I got the biggest surprise of my life as her lips met mine in a surprisingly deep kiss. I hadn't had sex or been around a woman in so long that a lot of things happened at once. I almost passed out, I got a full and painful erection almost immediately, and my legs wobbled. Then, I put my hands on her shoulders, and kissed back as best as I could. It was wonderful, and something I had missed for a long time.
Then, she broke the kiss, and stared at me with big white eyes that began to intensify in their brightness.
"Remember that, Gideon. I hope we can do that again someday." She said, and I was almost amused to see a Goddess as powerful as her, blushing like a teenager.
Then, my world went white.
"Wait! What did-" Were my last words before the world around me disappeared.