Arc 22 - Phase 4

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Vanaha Empire capital - Xiem:

The divine ruler of Vanaha Empire, Iket Xehz sits on his throne on Planet Xiem.

He sits on the throne thinking about Earth.

(This planet has caused nothing but trouble...)

His thoughts were disturbed when the priest showed up again.

“,” the priest said in a scared tone.

“”

“”

The king raised his hand. He held up, above his head and it indicated silence. He paused and then looked at his assistant. “”

“” As the assistant, who also served as a bodyguard said that, he vanished into thin air.

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Australia, Earth:

The house where Nazar and 010 were talking right now was located in the south of Australia. The place looked like it was a farm.

The building was slowly starting to crumble and Nazar noticed that 010 was unleashing a massive amount of energy. That energy was causing the place to crumble.

“So, you cannot even stop your own madness?” Nazar said as he walked closer to her.

“It was not supposed to reach this phase. You were supposed to stop me.” She paused. “You were supposed to increase your power to the point where you would have become a god.”

“I don’t understand you...” Nazar said in an annoyed tone.

010 chuckled and said, “I wasted about a year gathering information about you. I learned that you are an idiot who always pushes others away, so instead, I created a place for you where you were surrounded by everyone. I found out you did not want to be a hero, so I created a place where you are a hero. I found out from someone, that you had no emotions, so I created a place for your where you could actually feel all of that.”

“Where did you learn all…?”

“I found out about you being a lonely idiot from someone calling himself Esma. I don’t know why, but when I met him again, I asked and he told me this. Surprisingly, he gave me a copy of most of his data on you. It is true, for a long time I did not learn anything about you beside what everyone knew but when this guy appeared, I had enough knowledge about you.”

Nazar seemed a little interested in what was going on and started to sit in front of 010. “Where did you meet him for the first time?”

010 placed her palm on her chin and thought. After a while, she said, “When I was in Italy, he appeared before me.”

“Why would he do that?”

“He wanted to recruit me for a new programme. He said that it was launched recently and he wanted me on it. That was about a month ago. Being new in the world meant that it was hard to adjust to, so I was kind of happy to go back to that hellhole.” She paused. “I was expecting torture and experimentation, but he gave me a pill. My power was reality warping, so they placed in prison because it was a ‘dangerous’ power.”

“I used my power to manipulate the reality around me and gave myself permanent powers. They did not find out that I had powers now, so I used that to my advantage and took ‘Esma’ under my control. He did everything according to my place. If my plan earlier today worked, then you would have been dead, and then this would not have happened.” She added.

“So, the whole of IO has been under your control since you got powers?” Nazar said with an expressionless face.

“No. I gave him enough freedom to do whatever he wanted. But when it came to you, that was my plan. The project Perfect World was never supposed to happen, but after control him, it was made possible. He tried to break free, but it is too late now.”

“I don’t understand something,” Nazar said. “You should have the brain of a...”

“9 years old?” 010 laughed. “I should, but when we were in suspended animation, information was forced into our brains, so that is how we knew what was happening in the world. Beside information, they would force down skills down onto us. Skills like how to blend in, decision making, and so much more. It came down like information, but for some reason, after reading it once, we had that skills. We never got the chance to use it, but it is helpful now.”

Nazar took a look around with his Nigh Omnipresence again. The situation had gotten worse.

There were too many people with powers appearing. Too many people killing one another. Too many people doing things that they wanted to do but could not.

“What did you do?” Nazar asked as he monitored the world around him. He decided to not see his friend and family.

“First phase of project Perfect World was me getting powers permanently. Phase 2 was fixing everything with the physical world (that idiot thought this was phase 1). Phase 3, as you guys though, phase 2, was making everyone be happy. Phase 4 is the stage where achieve their deepest desires. Killing the people you hate. Making love with the people you wanted to but couldn’t and so many more desires.” She paused. “However, it went wrong and out of my control a few seconds ago where everyone started to work towards their desires but it overlapped and it causes a massacre. And… I lost my puppet too.”

“How did you lose control?”

“When you found me, I unleashed Phase 4 quicker, so I did not have much time to take control of it.”

“And what about phase 5?”

“That...” 010 bit her lips in anger. “The reality will be completely replaced and it cannot be restored.”

“I don’t understand most of the things you said, but I think I have a slight idea.” He paused. “Why did you place the entire universe in jeopardy?”

“To take my revenge against you.”

“Somehow, I was expecting that answer.”

“However, when the plan failed today, I wanted to see you defeated. I was going to keep phase 3 for much longer and it was supposed to be the final stage, but you had to find me. I did not count for the traitor.”

They both did not say anything for a minute.

“You know, I hate you the most,” 010 said. “I was born just a few months before you. My mother said that I was loved by everyone, but then you were born. A god born out of an ordinary couple. The first superhuman. My mother said, that after you were born, no one even paid attention to me. I was nothing, but you were special. So, I was not loved, but you were.”

Nazar finally looked at her. All this time, he either looked around checking around him, he did not want to rely on his weaker version of Nigh Omnipresence, so he used other powers. Or he would look down, but for the first time, he looked at her.

“Do you think I was loved?” Nazar said in an irritated tone. “Do you think this is a gift? It is a curse. My own parents wanted to kill me. They threw me inside a lab and made me a lab rat. Is this the existence you want?”

“You might not know it, but you were special,” 010 said. “When you were born, you were cherished by everyone. Your powers were visible from the second you were born, but everyone kept it a secret. However, they could not control your growth, so they took you to the facility to help you, but your parents threw away their emotions to help the world. You parents might not have loved you, but everyone else did. They wanted to stop them, but couldn't. My mom and dad said that they severed all their connection with your parents.”

She took a long pause. This time her eyes were teary and her lips were trembling.

“A few years later, we were forced into the experiment and then never saw the outside world, until you saved us. We… at least I was happy to see you again. I had seen pictures of you, but it was the first time I saw you and I was happy. But then you moved your mouth and I found out what kind of pathetic person you had become. A killer for nothing. I was going to forgive you, but you were a killer. So, I wanted you to repay for all that and to do that, I wanted to become a killer. I wanted to kill you.”

“However, that attack failed. So, I wanted to sacrifice the whole f**king reality to kill you.” She paused. “But I found something else. Your weakness. You hate being in the spotlight. You hate everything. I created a reality for you where everything you hated were gathered in one place. When I found out that you wanted to die, it made me worried. If you would have died, you would be winning. So, I was happy when you did not die.”

“You know, it took me less than 10 minutes to create the reality. People at IO thought that it took me weeks to create this, but I did in a few minutes. I used every information I had on you and watched you suffer. You did not show it on your face, but I knew you had one thing on your mind: “I will kill you Aria,” right?”

Nazar finally spoke. “Yes, I wanted to kill you. For a second I even thought that it was a mistake to let you free from the suspended animation, but then I remembered everything that is happening is because of me.”

Nazar once again looked at the world. The world around him. The world that is painted with blood. The world where humans are flying and killing. A world where everyone gets their deepest desires… only if you are fast enough.

Nothing makes sense, because a child played the role of a god.

“So, what are you going to do to stop this?” Nazar asked.

With teary eyes, 010 said, “I wanted to kill everyone, just so you can die but I am pretty sure that won’t kill you and you will be winning. I lost control of my power. I cannot bring it back. I don’t remember each vector. I don’t remember each person who lived. I don’t remember each atom that was in the previous reality. Even if a single one is misplace, the reality will not be fixed.” She forced a bitter smile and on her sad face and continued. “So, I want you to kill me. My puppet… the boss of IO theorised that my death alone will be revert everything back to the way it was. So, kill me, please.”

Nazar looked down for a second. He raised his face and smiled. It was not an arrogant smile he usually had, but it was a smile. A happy and sad smile. He is not supposed to feel emotions, but this reality is not his friend. “Okay.”

He paused for a while and then said, “I don’t want to kill you. I have too much blood on my hand, not that it matters, but I promised myself that I will never have to kill a child.”

They both started to laugh. Nazar did not know why he was laughing, but he laughed as he saw his little cousin laugh.

While they were laughing, Nazar stopped as he felt hundreds of rifts opening around them.

It was 001, 002, 003, and every other superhuman from IO. Nazar had never seen them all at once.

“But first, will you fight for me?” Aria said she placed a smile on her face. “When I knew you had powers, I wanted you to save me from some evildoers and fight for me. Can you help me achieve my desires?”

Even though she was older than Nazar, for some reason she was still like a little child at heart. She was jealous over how everyone chose him over her. She was jealous that he was special and she was not.

“I don’t understand you,” Nazar said as he was smiling. “But okay. I will do it.”

(Why am I hesitating to kill her?) Nazar asked himself this question over and over again.

Just as the superhumans surrounded them, Nazar stood up. He placed a barrier around Aria and said, “I am not doing this for you. I just want to show them that they are failures.”

“Yeah, right,” Aria said mockingly as she rolled her small eyes.

Nazar prepared for an attack. The superhumans did not focus on Nazar, they all looked at Aria AKA 010. They ignored Nazar completely, like he was not there.

“Damn it,” Nazar muttered. “Now, I cannot test how powerful they are.”

Nazar was getting angry. They had already started their attack on 010 and completely ignored him. He wants to test them, but he cannot if they don’t use their powers on him.

They used super strength, energy manipulation, matter manipulation, speed, weather manipulation, telekinesis, telepathy, and more to try and reach her, but they could not.

“Hey...‘Esma’, if you want 010, I will give her to you, but you have to make your foot soldiers fight me first. Because let’s be honest, you will never get to her when she is under my protection.”

He did not know what to expect but all the superhumans stopped. They looked towards Nazar with emotionless eyes and expressionless faces.

All of them said at once, “I don’t understand why you are doing this, but okay.”

As they prepared their attacks on Nazar, he said, “Hey, Aria, why is your speech pattern so… messed up?”

“What do you mean?” Aria said as she was sitting inside a transparent barrier created by Nazar.

“I don’t know, but they way talk, it does not really have a proper ending. You start talking about one thing and then change it to something else very quickly. I don’t know, but it seems a little weird.”

She laughed and said, “Have you ever heard yourself talk?”

“Um… No?”

“You should listen to yourself from another person’s perspective. I did today and your speech pattern is pretty bad too.”

Nazar sighed.

Nazar stood in the middle of hundreds of superhumans. These superhumans can easily destroy the world if they worked together and if they had completely control and understanding of their powers. And that is what’s happening now. They are being controlled by nanites in their bodies. These nanites allow a software to take over their entire body and can use their power much more efficiently.

001 can now use his psychic powers to an extent that he could not do before. 022 can manipulate weather much better than she could in the past.

It’s one man with the power of a god against an army of superhumans. He is protecting someone who is going to get killed by him in a few minutes.

That girl, who looks like she is 9 years old, is going to be killed by her own cousin, Nazar because this was her final request before her death. She wants to see his cousin, who was the most special being on Earth, in action. She wants Nazar to save her. To experience what it feels like to be saved by a superhero… or in this case just a superhuman.

001 and a few other psychics uses their telepathic attack on Nazar, but his defenses are much more powerful.

As soon as they attack on his mind, they were faced with a monster that defeated all of them in mere seconds.

The other superhumans saw that they could not do anything at all, but they did fight in a world of illusions.

When 001 and dozens of other psychics combined their powers, they attacked Nazar in his mind. They came as a team. They found a way past his defences and entered hell.

While they were going inside his mind, they were control for a fraction of a second. They managed to enter, but they were faced against a monster who looked like a human.

“So, you finally made it.” Nazar said without appearing in front of them. They were fighting telepathically. If 001 and the others managed to defeat this version of Nazar, they could have defeated the version in the real world too.

“I let my defences down to zero, because I wanted you in here,” Nazar said mockingly. “In here time works differently. In this world of illusions, I can create change the laws of physics to the way I want it. In here… time is thousands of times slower than it is in the real world.”

“You are powerful, but I outnumber you.” Dozens of superhumans said at once.

“Outnumber? Me?”

Just as Nazar said, he let out a laugh. As soon as he laughed, the emotionless and expressionless superhumans attacked at once. Each one, using their telepathic abilities to turn themselves into something they are not.

One turned into a dragon. One turned into a demon. One turned into an angel. One turned into Superman. A few of them, including 001 stayed in their true forms, but the others chose an illusion of a powerful being.

Nazar just looked at them smiling and he did not change his form. He held his hands wide and welcomed them.

They all attacked at once, but they were no match.

A psychic in Superman’s form had all of his powers and he used his flight and speed to attack, but Nazar saw through it.

Nazar just dodged it by moving to the right.

As soon as he did that, the illusion of Superman lost his momentum and he held onto his cape.

“Remember, Edna, said, “No capes!””

As he grabbed his cape, before the psychic could change form, he found himself ripped in half.

If this was the superhumans attacking, they would have been killed instantly, but as they were being controlled by the AI, he thought that they would not harmed at all.

While he was fighting this Superman illusion, the others arrived and attacked, but Nazar did nothing but smile.

He went after 001, who is considered the most powerful psychic in possession of Internal Order. He went after 001 and cut his head off.

He went after the dragon next. The dragon roared and spat fire. Nazar dodged the fire by moving to left and then going inside the dragon. Once he was inside the dragon, the dragon exploded from within.

As it was a world of illusions and it was in Nazar’s mind, he had completely control over what happened here. So, he destroyed this illusion with an explosion that he had created.

He then moved to others and killed them one by one. He killed them by using his strength and speed. Or using his energy beams.

In the real world, it took less than a second, but in there he took his time with them. He was disappointed that none of them screamed.

“What the…?” 010 said. “That was fast. What happened?”

“Hey, if I kill these guys here, will they be alive in the original reality?” Nazar said as he pulled his punches against the superhumans. Many superhumans were punching him, but all Nazar did was dodge it.

010 thought for a second and said, “Hmm… in Phase 3, they would have died permanently, but in phase 4, I made sure that they are affected by the reality. Technology did not provided them with immunity, I did. I just had to make them think like that. So, in other words, yes, if you kill them, they will be alive in the original reality. That is why I am not worried for the death of millions.”

Nazar smiled as he said, “Couldn’t you explained this in 10 words or less?”

002 threw another punch. The punch was supposed to hit Nazar in the face. After hearing what 010 said, he stopped moving. He took the punch to the face, which in return did nothing to him. It did not even scratch him.

“My turn,” Nazar said. As he said this, his right arm lit up with yellow energy. He then punch 002 in the chest and broke him into pieces. His skin was made of metal, so with the punch, his entire body started to crack and break into pieces.

“You know, Aria, I used to think my power was reality warping.” Nazar said casually as he started ripping superhumans around him. He either ripped their body parts apart or rip them in half. If you were close-by, you would have seen human body parts that you never thought existed.

“Why would you think this?” Aria’s expression did not change. Throughout the battle, she was watching with excitement.

“Well, it is because I could get any superpower I wanted, so I thought it was reality warping. Which is why I never added this dangerous power to my list.” Nazar said as he called down lightning on his enemies and frying them. Hundreds laid down. Some had protected themselves using this powers, but others couldn’t.

“So, you can have any superpower you want?”

“Yeah,” he said as he used his pyrokinesis to create fire and burn hundreds more. This time he increased its power to a point where people with super dense skin were slightly burned off too.

He then saw this one person. His power was vector manipulation. He smiled to him and with a blink of an eye, he was in front of him.

“Vector manipulation is a rare power.” Nazar said to him. “You can manipulate anything you touch. Whether it’s light or the air. But you need to have good calculating skills.” Nazar placed his hands on his face. “So, what will you do if the concept of numbers was completely alien to you.”

And just like that, the vector manipulator fell to the ground. His eyes were open and he could not do anything. He found himself dumbfound. He had no idea what just happened.

Nazar had wiped his memory out. He wanted to just remove one concept, but he removed everything he ever had. He first severed the AI’s connection to the superhuman and then removed everything from him.

The man tried to stand up, but he could not. He did not know how to do it. Everything was alien to him.

Nazar looked at different superhumans and there were just too many of them.

He held his hand up high and made himself defenseless. He removed most of his powers and just left a few. He removed any defenses he had and removed his super strength and durability. However, the barrier around Aria was still active.

In the meantime, all the superhumans gathered around him and he let them beat him. They finally landed hits. Punch, kick, telekinetic blast, energy blast, and much more. All of them were hitting him, but he did not do anything, but hold his hand up.

Aria wondered why to lift his hand up, so she wanted to ask what he was doing but she heard something. Something that broke the sound barrier very far away.

Nazar laughed as he was getting beaten to a pulp. Blood was coming out of his mouth and his nose. His bones were broken, but he did not let his hand down.

After 10 seconds of being completely defenseless, a normal human would have died by now. The attacks from the speedsters were the strongest. However, Nazar just sat there and took while laughing.

The sound was getting closer, so Aria looked up straight away. She looked up and something was burning as it was getting closer to them. It was something that was burning.

She wanted to die, but she also feared it. She did not trust in the person whom she wanted to save her. She wanted to see how the battle will end, but she was worried that the barrier will break and she might never see the end of it.

She closed her eyes as that thing was coming in closer. She could not make out what it was because it had fire all around it. As she closed her eyes, she heard the sonic boom as it ripped through air and Nazar’s laughter.

She closed her eyes and prepared to die. She forced a smile on her face as the ‘thing’ started to come closer and closer. She could not see it, but she could feel that it was getting closer and closer.

BOOM!

Whatever that thing was, it touched the surface of the Earth.

Aria found herself safe because there was a barrier around her. The barrier was a telekinetic barrier created by Nazar as it surrounded her.

She opened her eyes, but could not see. Everything around her was nothing but dust. She waited for a minute.

After the dust was settled, she found herself floating and the ground beneath her was turned into a crater.

As she looked around, she could not see anything. However, at that moment she heard a cough. As the person coughed, he stood up. He walked towards her and with blood all over his face and his body, it was Nazar.

“What… just happened?” Aria asked as she tilted her head in puzzlement.

Nazar just smiled as the blood started to disappear and his body started to rebuild itself. He had a few broken bones, but it was returning back to the way it was. “Saturn has a lot of unnecessary debris around it, so I turned one into a meteorite.”

Aria just found herself speechless. It was not speechlessness because of surprise, but more of excitement.

Her silence was broken by when thousands of other rifts opened around them.

Nazar looked around and saw beings who looked nothing like humans.

A few hundred three meter tall beings with advanced technology who were all white clothing and were green in colour.

A few hundred people with silver skin who used advanced weaponry.

A few hundred grey looking beings with robes as clothing. They looked like people who were still in a few thousand years behind. However, Nazar felt something different from them. It was the same energy he felt from magicians.

“” A general of Duluria Empire asked.

“” A general of the Chochica Empire asked.

“” A general of the Vanaha Empire said as he hit a button on his ear and goggles appeared on his eyes. “” He gasped. He swallowed his saliva and tried to speak, but words won’t come out. “”

“” Nazar spoke in Xian, which is the official language of Vanaha Empire. As he spoke in this new tongue, he pointed to Aria AKA 010. “”

Nazar knew that the others were using translators, so he did not speak in the other two languages.

“”

They all found themselves dumbfound. Vanaha Empire was last on Earth 30,000 years ago. So, how can this boy in front of them speak a tongue he just heard for the first time.

Nazar said, “” This time he spoke in Dulian, which is the official language of Duluria Empire.

Aria found herself dumbfound. She did not know what was going on.

“How…?”

“I can understand any language that is spoken in front of me. Even for a split second.”

The general of the Vanaha Empire pulled himself together and said, “”

“” Nazar replied as a grin appeared on his face. “”

All the others who were surrounding Nazar and Aria looked at each other and nodded.

“” all three generals said in their own languages.

Nazar smiled and was getting ready to face these aliens, but his smile disappeared immediately when Aria’s energy started to unleash again.

This time, she held onto the blue energy for as long as she could.

“Kill… me.” She said as she struggled to keep it in.

Nazar moved towards her as soon as he could, but the energy started to leak. She could no longer hold it in and it exploded.

It will take less than a fraction of a second to cover the entire planet and Nazar had to kill her before that happens. She needs to die in 0.0001 seconds, to prevent the final phase of the project Perfect World.

(Damn it...) Nazar thought. (No time. I can get to her on time, but she won’t die in the given time. It will take her 5 seconds to die completely and that might be too late. There is no other choice. I need to use it...)

Nazar thought of a power. A power that is so cool in fiction and he loved it a lot, but the power in the real world is dangerous. It so dangerous that it can cause trouble to the entire reality, just like reality warping.

Nazar frowned and muttered, “Time manipulation.”

He added time manipulation to his list. Time manipulation allows the user to move through time freely and control it. He can stop time now. Go back in time. Go to the future. He can do anything at any time.

“Stop!” This time Nazar shouted.

Aria’s energies were leaking and it would have taken over the world in less than a fraction of a second, but Nazar stopped time. He stopped time completely across the whole universe.

“Wh-what happened?”

“I stopped time.” Nazar said and he was no longer smiling. “Time for you to die.”

“Okay,” Aria just replied casually.

“But first, I need you to answer some questions for me, okay.”

“O-okay.”

Nazar sat down and Aria followed. They both sat down and looked at each other.

“Did I have any siblings?”

Aria was surprised to hear that. She thought for a while and then said, “I am not sure. However, there was another kid in your family photos that we had at home. It was taken on the day of your birth.” She paused and forced a bitter smile and her face. “You can ask my parents about it. Also, shouldn't you remember all of this?”

"I should, but I removed most memories of early days. Like the ones with my parents and family. I really cannot stand their faces."

"Okay," Aria said in a disappointed tone.

“So, what is it that you wanted to do in your life?”

She was surprised by this question too. She thought for a while and then said, “Many things.”

“Tell them to me.” Nazar’s expression and tone did not change. He spoke calmly.

“Well, I wanted to see the planet from above. I wanted to fly. I wanted to defeat you. I wanted to see all of our family together again. I wanted to see the world the way you do. I wanted to live a life to its fullest. Get married. Have children. And do so much more.” She explained her desires with a bitter and sad smile on her face.

“If I kill you now, I can resurrect you again. So, you will get a chance to achieve them all.”

”I just want this life to be over. It has been nothing but misery. I thought life was all fun and games like cartoons I used to watch, but it's nothing like that. Just to put a smile on your face, it takes so much effort. Just to feel happiness, you have to sacrifice so much. I don’t want that. I want it to be over completely.” At this point, she could not even force a smile on her face.

She said this on the outside but in her mind she was shouting "Please save me!" and "I don't want to die!"

“Okay,” Nazar said.

He got closer and placed her hands on her cheeks. Both of their eyes lit up with blue energy.

After a little while, Aria laughed and said, “No wonder why you want to die so badly. Your life is nothing but misery too.” She paused for a little while. “Now, I know too much unnecessary information about fictional characters I never heard of.”

They both laughed.

(Save me.) Nazar heard Aria’s thoughts.

While she was laughing, her eyes were closed and Nazar placed his index finger on her forehead.

As he placed his index finger on her forehead, her eyes lit up with blue energy.

Inside her mind, she saw herself flying. She saw the world from the moon. She saw herself being together with all of her family. She saw herself getting married, with every friend and family with her. She saw her children. She saw her grandchildren.

And then darkness engulfed everything around her. Her life in this world of illusions was over and so was her life in the real world.

She fell to the ground with no sign of life. She was dead. She had caused so much trouble for the world and her cousin, but in return, he made her the happiest person ever. He made her wishes come true. He made her live her life to the fullest. She lived 70 years in a few seconds in her perfect little world.