Chapter 28 - The Hero - Part 7

Planet Kryran - Sombrero Galaxy:

On top of a tall building, an annoyed Nazar, an excited Emma and Edward Hunt, more commonly known as Eddie stood in a circle.

“I will not get hurt, right?”

Hearing Emma’s question, Nazar shook his head.

“Yes!”

Eddie sighed lightly.

“So, how are we going to find the culprit?”

“That’s why you are here, Eddie.”

Eddie frowned once he heard Nazar’s answer.

“Dude, you know space way better than me.”

“That’s true. But I have been out of the loop with the affairs of this universe for the last few months. And I thought we should get together and beat the shit out of some people.”

“Damn it. You are lucky I was close by.”

“Haha.”

“Wait,” Emma said, breaking their conversation. “I am confused here, so I need some answers. It makes me feel anxious.”

“What is it, Emma?”

“Please explain to me fully who you are, how you have powers, are you an alien or human, and how you two know each other? But most importantly, why are you called Norse God? And if you a human, what are you doing in space? This is so confusing.”

“As I said, I am Eddie. Full name: Edward Hunt. I am taken, so don’t get your hopes up.”

Emma made a disgusted expression and said, “I already have a boyfriend. So, no thank you.”

“Ouch,” Eddie said to himself as he faced Nazar. “Your sister is very ruthless. She just shattered all of my godlike confidence.”

Nazar just shrugged.

Eddie looked at Emma and continued.

“I am human. Nazar gave me powers. But in the original timeline, a demon had given me my powers.”

Emma’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Original timeline…” she muttered to herself.

“All will be explained in due time,” Nazar added.

“Continuing on, I am called Norse God because I have the powers of Norse Gods. Like Captain Marvel - now known as Shazam - but with Norse Gods instead of Greek Gods. My powers are Wisdom of Mimir, Power of Odin, Thunder of Thor, Life of Yggdrasil, Precognition of Heimdall, and Speed of Hermod.”

“Precognition of Heimdall is useless as the future no longer exists.”

Emma looked at Nazar in reflex.

Of course, she knew that but she was still taken back a little.

“I based their powers on every version of these gods. From myths to comics and movies… Everything. So, I also have every other power these gods have used in at least one myth/fiction.”

“So… What?”

“Okay, so the ones I mentioned are my main powers. These are the ones I use often and are my most powerful powers. But I can also use the other powers of these gods.”

“Also, Yggdrasil is not a god.”

Eddie frowned and Nazar laughed.

“Anyway, moving on,” Eddie sounded annoyed. “As for how we met… That’s a long story. A very long story. And for what I am doing in space, well, Nazar gave me powers years ago and told me that I cannot be a hero on Earth because it doesn’t fit his agenda.”

Emma gave Nazar a sour look.

“It’s complicated, okay?”

Nazar just let out a sigh.

“Anyway, moving on,” Nazar said in an annoyed tone.

Eddie looked at Nazar and stopped talking.

“I have sent the transmission to the Kry-- to someone I know here and told them their planet is safe. Now, let’s go and find who did this.”

“Okay.”

“Yo, Eddie, this is where you come in. I found a bomb at the core of the planet. So...”

“Hm?”

“Do you know anyone with dark matter powers?”

“Or you can use your superior powers and find them?”

“Or… Wait for it. Or we can use this opportunity and take our time and do something interesting for once?”

Eddie facepalmed.

“Ah, how did I forget about your fetish - seeking excitement in everything.”

Eddie sighed deeply.

“Now, then, let’s find our person. But where shall we start?”

“The bomb?” Nazar said as he slashed the air once more and a portal to the dark dimension opened.

He reached his hand and took out the bomb.

“Is this the bomb?”

Nazar nodded at Eddie’s question.

“It’s a dark matter bomb. I tried getting rid of it but it came back again.”

“Why not just erase it?”

Nazar frowned.

“Oh, right. I forgot,” Eddie said as he rolled his eyes.

Emma watched as the two of them didn't take this situation seriously at all.

After a few minutes of watching, Emma sighed deeply.

“I really thought my first visit to an alien world will be better… Wait, no. This is my second… or third visit,” she muttered to herself. “First being turned into a demon and now this boring world.”

Eddie looked back at her in reflex once he heard about the demon part.

Emma became confused as to why he was looking at her with a serious expression.

“I will tell you about it later. It’s a long story, Eddie,” Nazar said slowly as he looked at the bomb.

“Is she going to be okay? And are you really okay with her being in space?” Eddie whispered to Nazar.

Nazar was honestly not sure.

He was feeling very scared for her.

However, he didn’t want to show it.

“If this helps her have a little change of pace… I will keep her safe, don’t worry.”

“So, how did that happen to her then?”

“....”

(Actually, I think I need to wrap this up much quicker than I imagined...) Nazar thought to himself.

Nazar looked at the sky and avoided the question.

“Okay, so excluding everyone else, we are left with over two thousand dark matter manipulators - which I know of,” Nazar muttered to himself. “Narrowing that down from all of them to just villains and mercenaries, we are left with at least 1,500 people. They are scattered across the universe… So, that leaves 2 in the surrounding galaxies. One of them has been missing for a few months. I am not sure if he is back yet… But that leaves us with Darkmass.”

“Darkmass? Who is that?”

Nazar looked at Eddie in surprise.

He thought Eddie would know him.

“Darkmass. Reaper’s foe.”

Eddie thought hard about it but couldn’t remember the person.

“I have never seen him.”

“But you have heard of him, right?”

Eddie shook his head.

“He is Reaper’s clone. They tried to clone him a few years ago but ended up with an abomination instead. And since they didn’t know Reaper’s true abilities, they gave him dark matter based powers.”

“Can you describe his appearance?”

“Well, last time I saw him, he looked exactly like Reaper. But a few months ago, Reaper said that his form is becoming ‘unstable’. Which I don’t know what he means by it.”

“So, my whole purpose in this was…?”

“Nothing. Just wanted to hang around.”

Eddie’s expression became serious.

“You never call to hang out."

"Well... you were close by--"

"And you look very pale. You also have turned off your emotions. I can tell. So, what’s wrong?”

Nazar sighed once more.

“Enter super speed.”

Confused, he did what Nazar said. Eddie entered super speed mode.

Emma watched as their images flickered for an instant.

However, they were now standing face to face once more.

“Hm?”

She noticed that Eddie had a serious look on his face.

“I see.”

Was the only thing she heard Eddie say.

Nazar forced a smile.

The forced smile might have fooled anyone but both Eddie and Emma noticed the sad look in his eyes.

“So, I just wanted you to know to not return to space any time soon. It’s dangerous.”

Nazar sighed.

“Then what about...”

“She will be fine. Don’t worry. What I meant is don’t come here alone. It’s not safe.”

“I don’t understand some of the things you said… But okay.”

“As for her? I will take care of her. I won’t let something like that happen to her.”

“And if you fail?”

“And if I fail… I won’t. I won’t fail when it comes to something like this,” Nazar said with a serious expression.

So, Eddie gulped.

“What are you two talking about?”

Hearing Emma’s question, Nazar’s serious look was replaced by a wide smile.

“We just found the culprit.”

Eddie looked at Nazar in surprise and whispered, “We did?”

“Darkmass is in another city.”

“Oh.”

“Emma, you stay here. I will come back for you soon.”

Without waiting for her reply, Nazar started to fly.

“Let’s go, Eddie.”

She watched as the two of them flew away.

“I wonder why he looked so sad all of a sudden,” Emma muttered to herself. “I hope he is okay.”

လလလ

Hundreds of miles away, a man whose body was becoming unstable. He used to look like a human but he no longer has a shape.

He was sitting inside next to a trash can in a very small street.

If someone saw him, they will just think its a glob.

But inside that is a man. Or a clone.

Nazar and Eddie stood before him.

“Darkmass. Why did you try to destroy this world?”

Hearing Nazar’s serious tone, the glob changed.

It forced itself to take a human form.

They watched the glob turned into a human-looking person.

Darkmass stood up.

He was tall and muscular. He had black hair and red eyes.

“NNNazarrrr….”

He tried to latch onto Nazar.

“Pppppleassseee… sssaaaaaaaaaaveee meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.”

Nazar tilted his head a little.

“Killlllll meeeeeeeeeeeeeee.”

“Make up your mind,” Eddie said slowly.

“I… I can’t die,” the man continued as his human form started returning to a glob. “Pppppleassseeee… kill meeeeeeeeee. Itssssssss my saaaaaaaallllllvaaaaation…...”

Nazar narrowed his eyes slightly.

“So, you wanted to destroy this world and kill yourself with it?”

The man’s body had turned into a glob except for his head.

So, he used that body of his to nod.

“Why?”

“T...y made meeeeee….eeeeee”

Nazar did not hear some of it but he knew what this man meant.

“So, Vanaha Empire was the one who tried to clone Reaper?”

The man nodded.

“Does Reaper know?”

The man nodded before his body became a glob once more.

Nazar closed his eyes.

“Are you going to do it?”

“Death is his salvation.”

“But--”

“He didn’t want to be made. Looking at his memories, he used everything he had to plant that bomb and it was made to counter powers like dark matter manipulation and erasure. Which is pretty good… But I have a plan.”

Nazar slashed his hand once more.

A portal to a dark dimension opened.

“Don’t!”

Eddie sounded very angry.

“You can save him.”

“Do you think he wants to be saved?”

“I don’t know. But you shouldn’t just kill him. He is in pain and you can help him.”

“Sometimes death is the only Salvation, Eddie. Your ‘heroic’ personality can’t seem to see that.”

He placed the bomb inside the globe-like body of Darkmass and threw both of them into the dimension.

“Save him? What if he goes on a killing rampage again? He wanted to kill them all. He wanted revenge for creating him. Save him? He would have killed more.”

He tried to dismantle it at the last second and closed the portal.

But before it was closed, Nazar saw an explosion.

“He is dead now.”

Nazar looked at Eddie who had a very serious expression on his face.

“You really, really need to stop killing people as if they are nothing. You could have saved him but you didn’t.”

He flew up and vanished from Nazar’s sight.

Nazar thought about this man’s plan.

He wanted to kill the world and himself with it.

But once Nazar appeared before him, he knew his plan had failed. So, he asked Nazar to kill him.

Nazar did what the man asked him.

"What did I do wrong then? He wanted to die."

Nazar sighed.

လလလ

After a few minutes of standing in the exact same place, someone appeared near him.

It was over two meters tall alien with red eyes and no hair.

However, his skin cannot be seen since it is radiating white energy. However, his face features can be seen.

And it's not very bright to look at.

“It’s been a while, Nazar,” the man spoke to Nazar in a calm tone.

“Kiet… I didn’t know you were the one who cloned Reaper...”

Kiet Xehz the ruler of Vanaha Empire. In the cosmos, he is known by many names such as Divine Ruler, Cosmic Messiah and Cosmic Destroyer. Most of these have been inherited from the previous ruler, his father, Iket Xehz.

And as the King of the empire, he also inherited his father's powers and ‘divine physiology’.

For his people, he is a God.

“And made Darkmass.”

“Oh, so you found out?”

Nazar looked at him.

“What are you going to do? Tell Reaper? He already knows.”

Nazar showed him a wide smile.

“Honestly, I don’t care. But...”

Nazar prepared to teleport out.

“I do have one request...”

“Hm?”

“If you try to clone me, let me know. I will help you out myself.”

Nazar then vanished into thin air, leaving the King of Vanaha Empire alone.

He looked at where the glob-like body of Darkmass and clicked his tongue.

As he was staring at the place, a guard showed up. The guard was also over two meters tall. However, just like everyone else besides the king, they had green skin and green eyes.

“”

“”

They walked out of here and went away.

လလလ

After a while, Emma was getting bored, so she sat on the edge of the roof.

“Where is he,” she said as she pouted her lips in annoyance.

“I am here.”

Her shoulders jerked once she heard a sound from behind her.

She slowly looked back and her shoulders relaxed.

“Wait, you are already done?”

Nazar nodded.

"I was expecting a big fight..."

She turned her head back and looked at the city below her.

“So… what happened?”

“Nothing. He died.”

Emma’s eyes widened.

“He was dying so he died.”

“Couldn’t you do… something?”

“I killed him.”

She looked at him with a horrified look.

Seeing that look in her eyes, Nazar took a deep breath and wanted to explain it.

“He was a clone. He was dying now. If I had saved him, more people would have died. The rainbow and sunshine justice of heroes don’t work in this universe. If I had saved him, he would have definitely destroyed this whole world and more. I went inside his mind and found what he was gonna do. He was out for revenge. He was going to kill so many and then get himself killed.”

Emma was feeling somewhat scared.

“If anything, I just saved more people but killing one person who ultimately wanted to die. That was his salvation.”

“Salvation...?”

“Yes, salvation. Do you know how many times I died?”

Emma lowered her gaze.

“Millions of times. And every time I wished it was my end. But that’s the thing, Emma… Death doesn’t come to me. I will never truly die. Left alone after everyone is gone… Is that salvation? Does it even seem like salvation to you? No, I don't think so. To me and to millions of others, death is our only salvation. But some of us are not fortunate enough to achieve salvation in millions of years.”

Emma looked at Nazar saw the sad look in his eyes.

“Believe me, Emma, if he wanted to, I would have saved him. But he didn’t. He didn’t want that.”

Emma, who has lived a peaceful life away from all of this on Earth, was not sure how to take it.

“This is why I kept it secret from all of you all this time. I live in a different world than all of you.”

She looked at him.

“My world is different. It’s much darker.”

Despite what he was saying, Nazar smiled.

“I am used to it tho.”

He looked at Emma and she looked like she was in pain.

"Emma?"

She felt pain in her head. So, she held her head in his hands.

“Argh!!”

“Emma…?”

Her eyes opened wide in fear and horror.

“I… remember...”

But soon, her vision darkened and she started to fall down.

“EMMA!!!”