Master of Time

But I don\'t remember them being castrated, not by anyone or anything, on purpose or otherwise.

And I do have a perfect memory. It is far more perfect than what Allison has. In fact, her ability is killing her slowly, unlike mine.

I will rectify that problem of hers as soon as possible. It is the least I can do for a beautiful daughter of mine. If it wasn\'t for me, she would live a long and healthier life, so I should take responsibilities.

Aside from that, I do take good care of my own people, just to show them that I do care somewhat for their health and wellbeing. They reciprocate me with their undying loyalty and diligent dedication and much more if you know what I mean.

Having said that, Zephyr is currently not one of my own people. She isn\'t really my underlings. She and I actually have a mutual agreement. It is more of a pact to be honest.

And even if Zephyr manages to castrate me for breaking my promise, it would be pointless, considering that I can undo any form of physical injuries in an instant.

I might still feel it, however. That wouldn\'t be pleasant at all, not that I would allow Zephyr to do such a thing to me in the first place. No one would let someone else castrate them without putting up an actual fight, no matter how insane they might be.

Maybe Zephyr means to castrate me spiritually?

Now that is a plausible threat against me.

But does soul have balls? They might be literally ball themselves.

Not hairy testicles. I mean perfect sphere of glowing goodness.

What the hell am I thinking?

Anyway, although my spirit and soul do heal naturally as demonstrated by my experiment with being roasted by Dragon God, they do so at a very slow rate. Far too slow to be useful in battle to be honest.

And there is nothing I can do to speed up that healing process. At least not right now.

Enough damage to my soul in a relatively short span of time will probably kill me, and I don\'t think my power can save me from that outcome at the moment.

But if I do die for whatever reason, I would just be reborn again, probably into the prime-reality where all my infrastructures are already in place. If that is the case, it wouldn\'t set me back much.

Just 18 years of my fucking life as I wait impatiently for my power to manifest again. As for Hydra itself, I can assume command even if I take an appearance of another person. I did put in a contingency plan in case that happens.

I have a lot of contingency plans. You should already know that.

But I don\'t think it will happen like that if I am killed again, considering that my mother does exists in multiple realities. I am likely to be born to one of my mothers.

Alright. This is getting weird, and it cannot be proven until I actually die again. I am not doing that just for the sake of confirmation.

It would set me back quite a bit.

Also, it is somewhat strange that I don\'t need a soul to be reborn. It is reasonable to assume that since my soul is human within a human body.

Zeus notices this, thus calls me out on my bullshit of impersonating a God, even if it is a fictional God. It isn\'t fictional anymore since Zeus did mention that Stargate is as real as this reality. Interesting.

And maybe it is a good thing that I don\'t have an aspectual soul. Having one would reveal who I really am to those who can see souls like Zeus.

Zephyr cannot, so I guess it is an ability of a God.

If I could see soul, and there is no reason that assume that I could not one day, I am sure that Stephanie of this reality has the same soul as the young-Stephanie of the prime-reality.

I am unsure how souls work exactly, but having one allows a person to be capable of so much more if I believe what Zeus is saying. Again. There is no reason to assume he would lie, considering there isn\'t really much benefits to it.

And it will break the trust between us. He is a smart guy to know it is far better to withheld information than to lie to my face.

It is also understandable for Zeus wanting to cease to exist when he realizes that he is a clone. As one, he would never achieve his goal without having a soul himself. What that goal exactly is, he didn\'t tell me in so many words, but I can safely assume it requires a soul.

Nevertheless, Zeus still accepted my offer and continued to exist as a phantom, meaning that he must have a sure way of regaining a soul later, but it might be very difficult to achieve.

Very difficult does not mean impossible.

Could it have something to do with those monster cores?

Monster cores seem to be more valuable than I have given them credit for.

And through my power, I can create them from nothing effortlessly. This actually gives me something to bargain. I didn\'t bother with Zeus since is a gesture of friendship. Besides, Zeus will return the favor, teaching me how to create monsters.

Now that is something I want to learn. An army of mythical monsters will fortify my personification of a God. Am I still going on about that?

In any case, I love to have a wide variety of army. It just gives me more options to overwhelm literally any oppositions.

And since fictional universe is real, I suppose I should find ways to have an army of Zergs. I have many ideas of how to enhance the Zergs and truly make them the Scourge of the Universe.

Legion is already a Scourge of the Universe but having more than one is a good idea.

So many ideas hovering in my mind, and I am sure Zeus is the same.

He will definitely find a way to gain a soul and become his own person.

If there is any truth to his myths and legends, I am certain of it, especially from what I have learned so far of his personality through observation.

Furthermore, he has Indominable Will like Zephyr. That means their tenacity is off the chart, and more so in the face of danger.

I actually like people like that, and I am hoping to recruit more as soon as possible, especially the ones who have managed to leave this reality when Zeus told them to.

As a matter of fact, I could recruit the right now. A little time reversal should do the trick, but Zeus has warned me about doing so. They are not understanding as him. They do not take kindly to being cloned just to be recruited.

Furthermore, if I fail to recruit them, I actually create more problems for me in the near future. Having a bunch of rogue temporal clones with godlike powers and a grudge is a huge problem, for me and for everyone else.

It is better not to try at the moment. It is also better for me to recruit the originals, not the clones.

But Zeus doesn\'t reveal to me any important details about his former teammates because of his loyalty to the boss-lady. I am sure there is more than mistress-servant relationship going on between the two of them, regardless of whatever he says.

Mutual beneficial relationship doesn\'t earn such deep loyalty and respect, but I guess if I would do the same if I am in his shoe.

It doesn\'t make me think of him any less for not selling out his former teammates. In fact, I respect his integrity even more. Zephyr too since her lips are also sealed about that, demonstrating that she does know what is important and what is not.

Strange that her real name is not important enough to keep safely. Elian has told me that knowing the real name of something or someone grants you certain power over them.

Zephyr also confirms this, but reveal her real names, nonetheless. Maybe it isn\'t really her real name, just like mine: Maximilien Maxwell.

Isn\'t it lucky that I decide to craft a new name for my new life instead of using the old one?

Since Zeus doesn\'t tell me much, I also return the favor. Zeus doesn\'t need to know that I am the one that the boss-lady wants to kill.

Revealing that I am the Aspect of Time does not bring any benefits aside from the shock and surprise.

I don\'t need to give out sensitive information for pointless shock and surprise, especially to someone like Zeus. In fact, I shouldn\'t reveal who I am to anyone.

No one need to know who I am.

Telling others that I am the Aspect of Time makes me a target more than anything. I don\'t want to be swarmed with enemies of the past. The past that I cannot remember at all.

And considering the power level of Zeus and Zephyr and their teammates, I am sure that my enemies have the power to kill me effortless as I currently am.

If they couldn\'t, they could lock me up somewhere for all eternity. Even without torturing me or doing anything similar, it is still a fate worse than death.

In fact, why didn\'t they do it in the first place? Perhaps they didn\'t know Aspect cannot be killed.

That seems to be likely, bringing a small smile to my face.

It seems that only Aspects know everything there is to know about an Aspect.

And if the Primordial truly aware that Aspects will be reincarnated if they are killed, I wouldn\'t be here. I would be imprisoned somewhere detached from all realities, forever be forgotten.

It also shows me that Primordial are not all-knowing as they are right now. Things do get fall through the cracks.

How interesting. These are all hypothesis, however.

I will need to confirm them, but the Primordial are above Zeus\' paygrade. But he still knows a lot more than I do. If only there is a way to get into that brain of his.

Into Zephyr\'s too.

"I will keep my promise as long as you keep yours, Zephyr."

I reply just before Zeus retaliates, forcing her to take evasive maneuvers and distance herself as Zeus is more adept at close combat from what I can tell.

"Care to fill me in on what this agreement you two have?"

Zeus question, but I give him a shrug as a response.

"It is for Max and me to know and for you to find out."

Zephyr snorts and strikes Zeus, pushing him back through sheer force alone. Her scythe-shape weapon is dangerous enough for Zeus to be defensive. His weapon is the same, forcing Zephyr to dodge instead of blocking.

Those electric shocks, exploding outwards with each impact do stun her from what the data is telling me. Quite ingenious way to use his lightning power. Zephyr is the same since the ambient temperature drops sharply.

They take their sparring far away from me, ripping the land and sky apart.

I shouldn\'t call it a spar since it isn\'t like any sparring I have seen before, and I have seen quite a lot in all these years.

And from the intense shockwaves and extensive damages to the surroundings, it is more like they are trying to kill each other. They are definitely trying to kill each other.

Their magical enchanted weapons are more than capable of severely crippling or damaging their bio-mechanical bodies, but so far, neither Zeus or Zephyr has managed to get a clear shot in.

They do, however, have suffered superficial wounds, which heals almost instantly.

Quite a bit of data is being recorded as Zeus and Zephyr demonstrate their battle prowess, and as they are getting used to their new bodies, they are getting faster and stronger.

But in the end, Zeus will be the winner.

There is no doubt about that in my mind.

Zephyr understands this too, and if this is a battle, she would disengage him already and try something new and more effective. It is not a battle. They are testing their physical abilities.

Since they will be doing that for a while, I suppose I should continue my little charade. I left the spatial dimension and return to the real world.

The new storage ring is worn on my index finger. I should call them spatial rings now. They aren\'t really for storage anymore. Each of them is a world of their own.

I cannot seem to clone them with my power, however.

A cloned ring does appear, but it also connected to the same spatial dimension. This tells me that the spatial dimensions aren\'t really store inside these rings. They are merely gateways. That makes sense as each micromachine drones are connected to the same spatial dimension.

Seem likes I found a way to build Stargates though the application of Spatial Compression. I just need to test whether vast distance of the universe has any bearing on the spatial connection.

Hopefully that it doesn\'t.

Everyone is still dead since there is no need to revive them as I deal with Zeus and Zephyr. I revive my mother and her family first, allowing me to see what they are doing.

Mum is still desperately trying to use the elevator, but grandfather just will not let her. I suppose I will have to judge her instead, and she will bring out Maximilien Maxwell and the conclusion of the play.

Within an instant, I am back to sitting on my thrones with fire in my eyes, staring down the Queen of England.

Elizabeth pulls out the legendary sword from the stone and points it towards the sky as white blinding light descends from above. But having seen it so many times, it is super boring. The people still cheer and applaud since this is the first time that they have seen her doing so, relatively speaking.

Everything is relative.

I give my little speeches and let the Queen of England be on her way along with her supporters, which is quite a lot. Those who are against her are also gone.

My body and mind are on autopilot for the rest of the countries. I did spice up ways for them to prove their worthlessness just to kill the mind-numbing boredom. I mean worthiness.

Is there really a difference at this point? Probably not.

And once they are all gone, only the proud American people remains.

"Selene, choose a few random people as demonstration before selecting Stephanie Connors. It is time we conclude the play."

I tell Selene almost inaudibly. None should hear what I have said.

Selene acknowledges my request as flames swirl within the arena, letting out another person.

I didn\'t think I could be surprised again, but I am really surprised. I have deal with one God of Lightning, now I have to deal with another God of Lightning. But shouldn\'t he be in Australia?

I suppose not since there are some differences.

"Oh shit."

The eighteen years old Australian pothead calls out.

Honestly, the young man is really high, but he still knows what is happening like pretty much everyone left in the world at this point. You have to be living under a rock to not know.

"Christopher Hemsworth. Do you think you are worthy?"

I question as lightning descends upon the sky, teleporting in a mythical hammer.