Zeus accepts and gives me the basic rundown of the enchanted cross in his hand.

It is actually a magical artefact called the Gate of Fiction, capable of forming a bridge from this reality into a fictional reality, allowing one and only one person to crossover without needing the creation of a rift or a portal or anything similar.

Sounds impressive even if there is a lot of disadvantages associated with the artefact.

There is also a catch, however.

And it is this catch that bothers me greatly, at least at first, but I suppose it didn't really matter in the end as that catch coincides with one of my goals anyway.

I suppose it is because of the catch that Zeus is offering the artefact to me in the first place.

He is such a shifty bastard.

Now I just need to know what Zeus wants in exchange for it.

There will always be a price as per our agreement, and if the price is not right, I suppose I could always steal it from the past as he has just shown it to me.

I am unsure whether Zeus knows that I can do that or not, but if he didn't already, he will figure it out very soon. His existence is an evidence of that.

"You can have it for free, Max. I am sure it is more useful to you than to me if it works. It should work from the magical energy radiating from it. But do remember that it is one-time use, so unless you have ways to duplicate it yourself, you have to think carefully which fictional realities you want to visit."

Zeus passes me the artefact, allowing me to have a close look.

From his casual words, I am more than certain that Zeus knows I can duplicate things with my power, including magical artefacts.

He also knows that I am unable to duplicate spiritual or soul weapons. I actually can create an imitation of them with my power, however. Even so, those imitations are still pretty powerful, especially in the hands of those who know how to use them.

"Thanks for the gift."

I response and put it into my spatial dimensions for Legion to analyze.

And since the artefact is magical in nature, the super virtual intelligence will have something for me in half an hour or so, likely less.

"I don't have anything for you, Zeus. Well, aside from that place I am talking about, but it doesn't really count. I guess I will owe you one."

I add.

Zeus chuckles.

"Alright, I can accept an IOU from you Max. If you find something interesting in those fictional realities, please do keep me in the loop. I've never truly explored them aside from using them to train my mind, body and spirit."

I take in the information.

"Can I have another IOU?"

I question.

"If it is about separation of your body, mind and spirit, you don't need to ask. I will make sure that you will be able to as soon as possible. I can't depend on you if others can mindfuck you and suppress your spirit."

Zeus responses.

"I will try not to let that happen, Zeus."

I assure, pondering who is the team leader here.

Obviously, it is me if this is a real team.

But still, Zeus acts like the leader, even telling me to get stronger so I will not be a burden to him.

The hell!?

Honestly, it is pretty hard to mindfuck me, but suppressing my spirit is another matter. Spiritual attacks are very effective against my soul, even if my soul is much more resilient than normal.

In any case, I will play along for now, as long as it benefits me.

There is no shame accepting my weaknesses and working towards fixing those weaknesses. And living in denial out of some stupid pride is beyond idiotic.

With Zephyr snoring away in the backseat, Zeus and I chat about more interesting things before I think I have enough of a leisure drive.

And with a thought, I teleport the car and everyone within the car directly into the garage of the estate that I had brought just yesterday.

Is it really just yesterday? Apparently, it is.

It really feels a lot longer, but this is due to me having spent like several months in an alternate reality.

Those times are well spent though, personally and privately and leisurely.

As soon as the surrounding changes, Zeus looks about immediately, feeling the spiritual pressure that permeates the air and surrounds everyone. It seems a lot more denser than yesterday.

His silvery eyes then narrow, turning towards me.

"Unfortunately, Max, this is not a Spiritual Nexus."

Zeus points out.

"I never said it is, Zeus, but it is the only place that I know of that has ambient spiritual energy. Unless it is too dangerous, I am sure that you can make use of it better than I ever could. It also stops a lot of innocent people dying pointlessly in this place."

I response, recalling how many families have died here under the most unusual circumstances.

"And we are not innocent people? Thank you for that."

Zeus questions, making me blink.

I wonder if he is joking or not. He is by no mean innocent. His hands are as bloodied as mine without even needing to ask.

"It is that dangerous?"

I answer his question with a question of my own.

I didn't think something like this would consider as dangerous to Zeus or Zephyr.

"Not exactly, Max. But please tell me how many people have died here already. It is important to have an exact number."

Zeus requests as he cocks around the seat to check on Zephyr, who is still sleeping rather peacefully.

The spiritual pressure lingering in the air didn't seem to bother her one bit, but from the look of things, Zeus is worried about her.

He seems to forget that she is just a temporal clone in this moment.

That is good since I didn't consider Zeus or Zephyr as just phantom of their original selves.

Or maybe Zeus is worrying about something else.

"The exact number is 23. All the information that you needed are within the Hydra ring. Just press the ring to your forehead and you will learn everything you need to know."

I point out and wonder if I should just integrate the ring and all of its features into their bio-mechanical avatar as well. It shouldn't take more than a minute, but the reason I didn't in the first place is because of the same reason why I didn't let them access to everything in Hydra.

"There is no need. I just need to know how many souls are being twisted by spending too much time in the nether."

Zeus replies as he exits the car to have a look around.

I join him and left Zephyr sleeping in the car. I will have to wake her up soon since I need the car to go and pick up Allison before taking her to the hospital.

Actually, I don't need to since I could have the micromachines morph into another replica.

"You are curious, Max. I am too because this is something new to me as well. However, it feels similar to a lot of things I have dealt before, in another realities."

Zeus speaks up after he enters the living room. He then sighs after looking at the ceiling and the ground for a long while.

I remain quiet since he is seeing something that I am unable to. My spiritual awareness is only recently awakened, and if it is fully awakened, I am sure I will be seeing the world in a different light, especially with ghosts and spirits flying around.

I know now that ghost exists, and if it exists, so does all the other supernatural stuff.

It is just a matter of being able to see them or not. They inhabit a different plane of existences, running in parallel along with this one.

It is not a higher plane existence like where Adria has gone.

"The architect of this place is either a certified genius or an authentic wacko."

Zeus comments, practically quoting Ghostbusters, and with that single line I immediately understand what is so dangerous about this place.

"I sure hope not, but as a God yourself, can't you handle him or her?"

I jest, but since fictional universe exists, the genderless deity Gozer from Ghostbusters certainly exists in some form somewhere.

Zeus chuckles and gestures a hand dismissively.

"I am not worry about that, Max. I am more worry about a bunch of Ghostly running around the place and annoying me. Ghostly is a ghost, and as a ghost, he can possess objects whether they are living or not. The souls that are trapped in this place is similar to him, but they are twisted for being trapped in the nether for so long."

Zeus smiles sourly.

"I don't think there is any ghost more annoying than Ghostly, but these phantoms are pretty annoying and dangerous, especially when they manage to possess someone powerful. But in any case, opening a gate to hell is just really bad for everyone, especially when this reality doesn't seem to be that highly spiritual."

Zeus adds as he looks pass me and at Zephyr at the entrance into the garage.

Her eyes are closed.

She appears to be still asleep.

Alright. When did she gets there? I didn't even hear anything.

This whole place sure gives me the creep, but it is probably because my spiritual awareness is not up to par yet. And what is this about the gate to hell?

Zeus snaps his fingers, instantly zapping Zephyr and forcing her to wake up.

Zephyr immediately blinks and looks around before staring at the ceiling and the floor.

Just like Zeus, she is capable of seeing thing that I am unable to, at least not yet.

I feel like I am out of the loop at the moment. I really need to full awaken my spiritual awareness, but harassing Zeus about it will only antagonize him. It will certainty antagonize me.

"Eh? How did I get here?"

Zephyr asks, looking puzzled.

"You were possessed by an evil spirit. Try to keep your mind focused so you don't possess again. That means you too, Max. But if you have a place to be, I suggest you go for now. Having more people here just create more work for me. Also, please give me those cores you have. 23 of them will do. They are capable of containing evil spirit."

Zeus points out.

So that is what happened when I was in this place the first time. An evil spirit manages to possess me for a few minutes, causing my lap of memory.

And did I just got shown the door?

But I understand that I will not be of help if stay around.

And besides, I do have places that I need to be.

"Alright. I will leave this place to you, Zeus and Zephyr. I will drop by in the evening to see how things are. Please try not to destroy it while I am gone, huh."

I response and give exactly 23 blank cores to Zeus.

He had asked exactly for that much, so I will give him the exact amount.

I will give him more for his personal projects later when he asks.

Without Zeus, I was going to try something similar with those cores anyway. They have demonstrated that they can capture and contain essences. They can also be used to create monsters from what Zeus has implied.

I will experiment more with it myself through Nairam Oxford.

With that, I return to the car and head out onto the road again.

After several streets and roads, the car immediately goes on autopilot mode as my mind takes control one of the avatars within one of my spatial rings.

The instant I open my eyes, countless pods greet me. Each pod contains my clone, readying to launch into another reality to carry out whatever missions I have programmed into their mind.

They are given all the advantageous that I can provide with the exception of magic itself.

This is because they are soulless duplicate of me in bio-mechanical form. They cannot use magic at all, but with the technology at their disposal, they should be able to handle anything and everything that will come at them.

Legion informs me that he has finished the preliminary analysis of the magical artefact. He would need to take the artefact apart to learn more, which he will be able to once I duplicate it.

The Gate of Fiction returns to my hand as I have a look at it once more. It looks very well made, and I do wonder who have made it in the first place. Must be someone from modern earth.

And with my power, I duplicate it a few hundreds of times.

"Selene, produce a copy of Stargate, Star Trek, Star Wars, and Starcraft from memory."

[Acknowledge, Operator.]

Selene complies with my request.

The first three items are in form of video media and the last one is in the form of a game. I pick up the disc containing Star Wars and pop it into the media player and look at the television screen, watching a bit before checking the Gate of Fiction in my hand.

It is pulsating with energy. I toss it to the screen and the moment it did, a spatial rift begins to form in front of the television.

The magical artefact really creates a bridge into the fictional reality, at least from observation.

I immediately have one of the billion drones available to go into the portal to have a look around just to make sure it really works as Zeus has told me.

There is no need to doubt him, but I want to make sure.

And once the drone passes through the spatial portal, the portal collapses, dissipating. I look at on the screen to see it moving around before cloaking.

Seeing that makes me chuckle.

To return to the prime-reality again, the drone just needs to destroy the Gate of Fiction, hence that is why it is only a single use.

Once it did, a portal appear allowing to return to the prime-reality to file its report. I am very happy at the test. I did the test a few more times to make sure it works as intended.

Unfortunately, only Star Wars and Star Trek can be accessible.

This is the catch that Zeus has told me about. These fictional realities are accessible only and only if it is within a lot of people's mind. That mean the media has to be released and distributed.

I am unsure the exact reason for that condition, but it prevents me from creating a spatial bridge into Stargate's and Starcraft's universe. Neither of these exist in this reality yet.

But even so, I still have quite a bit of fictional realities to visit and steal from.

Once Legion finishes analyzing and deciphering the magical artefact and its construction, learning how it works exactly, I watch countless of screen being built and erected across the landscape.

Each screen displays a certain movie that have already been released in theater of the prime-reality.

Most of them have portals manifested.

Those that didn't have portals are movies that barely anyone seen or know about.

And before each of those portals, a pod is launched, sending a clone of myself into that fictional reality to harvest anything that I find useful.

Now I just wait and reap the benefits of my invasion.