As I traveled East I across the pacific. I could have taken the shorter path by going up and over in a parabola, that would have made the trip just over 4,000 miles. Instead, I went almost due east which would add another 2,500 miles to the trip. I Increased my speed to Mach 10. Even at that speed, it would still take about 53 minutes to get to the pyramids. I could teleport, but the 53 minutes would give me chance to see what was going on.

I left a portion of my mentality to handle the flight and then focused on my Base of Operation. I reconnected with Thor 2 and was updated that I hadn’t been gone long enough for him to even get down to the 1,000 feet below the sea bed. The lines between the west coast and Hawaii and the nodes connecting them had completely replaced my nanites. Any information traveling along those communication lines could now be intercepted, blocked, or copied before it continued on its way. Thor 2 was using that connection to get into everything else. So far he hadn’t detected anything that could thwart his infiltration of any system on the planet. The only thing they could do to keep me out was put their information on an air-gapped computer. As soon as they plugged into a network though, I would get all the information on that computer within minutes anyway.

I was also informed by Thor 2 that a covert strike squad had hit both my parent’s home and my apartment an hour after I’d disappeared. It would seem that those in power just don’t know how to let things go. A quick double-check of all the information I’d been gathering allowed me to backtrack the funding, break down who had been paid, and ultimately who was responsible. I could see now that Sun Mingze, one of the seven leaders of China, was not a man that could be taught easily. Tough love, it was then.

Abducting Sun Mingze and his two guards was as easy as opening a portal to a hallway, doorway, or room he was about to enter. It was easy because the portal I created opened into a replica of the same area in my soul space. I did accelerate the time in my soul space so I could make copies of the guards and send all three copies back into the real world at the same time. As Sun Mingze and his two guards were walking down a hallway two portals opened up back to back. The three of them stepped into my soul space. My chaotic nanites, it was just easier to think of my innate chaos that way, infiltrated and copied all three. Another portal behind them opened and the three nanite-created copies stepped out and went on with whatever they’d been about to do. The three men that had entered my soul space would soon figure out that there was no one else on the planet on this side of the world except them. I made sure to leave a note on the dinner table that said “Courtesy of your host, Play Stupid Games, win Stupid Prizes!” I set the room to be refilled with food for the three of them daily. I wouldn’t want something to happen to them…yet. As I thought about it, if I could get two more idiots to play along, maybe I could help Al out by giving him his first Earth-based adventuring party. If Sun Mingze wanted to be more powerful, maybe I should help him on that path. If he failed and died along the way because he couldn’t adapt, not really my problem. It would be fair which meant I wouldn’t lose any sleep over him if something happened. Who was I kidding? I wouldn’t have lost sleep anyway.

I pulled my attention from the three of them after I saw the realization from Sun Mingze that he was not in China anymore, “And there it is,” I said to no one in particular, then stopped watching them as I pulled up news reports. The local news was reporting that a demon-like creature had appeared near the Pyramids and moved northeast toward the Cairo Mall. It had decimated everything in its path killing hundreds along the way. The police and then the military had responded to no avail and simply added their number to the dead. A helicopter was hovering near the pyramid with a long-range camera taking in the devastation. The demon appeared to be at least eight feet tall. It was humanoid with black leathery wings, horns, and flames surrounding it. Any living thing that it came near was incinerated by the flames while it used its powerful arms to destroy cars, trucks, and buildings. Even gas tanks exploding near it didn’t slow it down. The news feed cut off when the demon looked directly into the camera and then jumped at the helicopter claws outstretched before the feed went dead.

As I closed in on Cairo at Mach 10 and slowed down, I saw the explosion of the helicopter and heard the demon call down to the terrified people below in the language of common from Primore, “Where is that miserable mortal, you will bring him to me or you will all perish!” A military sniper took advantage of the pause and tried to shoot the demon as I was coming into range. I watched as the bullet vaporized before it even touched its skin. The demon laughed, pointed, and the sniper turned to ash where he lay on top of a building half a mile away. To make his point the demon then began systematically destroying every single person in similar uniforms that it could see until I came to a stop floating between it and the people behind me. The demon continued to throw its spell attacks which I immediately countered. When the demon realized nothing was happening it paused and looked down and noticed me for the first time, “You!” the Demon bellowed in common.

“That’s not my name but sure, it’s me?” I answered in common.

“Do you not recognize me, trickster? Do you see what you have done to me?”

“Can’t say that I recognize you at all,” I said in common. “Though I have met a dipshit of a man I warned from China,” I finished in Chinese loud enough for the Cameras that were recording this to pick up. Let the other six Chinese leaders sweat it out as they wondered what I’d meant.

“Why do you speak that gibberish, I have come for my pound of flesh and I will have it!” The demon yelled as he attacked. His right clawed hands, which were twice the size of my face reached for me as I called forth my Chaos Blade, sliced off his right clawed hand at the wrist, dismissed the blade, and caught the burning hand with my left hand and quipped back, “You mean like this pound of flesh here?”

“Argh,” The demon hissed and backed away. “That’s not possible, “the Demon said while he backed away. I took that moment to use Analyze on it

Detrik, Level 5,000 Arch Demon

“Detrik?” I asked questionly, “as in the Detrik that didn’t know how to appropriately reward someone who’d set them free from a trap? As in the pissant that doesn’t know how to say thank you for not destroying their soul, or now that I know what was really going on, not saying thank you to the guy that didn’t destroy a portion of their soul, which would have made it impossible for them to recombine and have whatever happened to such souls happen to them?”

“No, I am the Detrik that did none of what you speak. I was the Detrik of Primore, ready to become one of the Divines of that world when I felt portions of myself return. The amount of Negative Karma guaranteed that I would follow this path and the amount changed me into the creature you see now. I am Detrik Oathbreaker, Arch Demon. I am also far more powerful than any mere mortal and I will destroy you.” he said as his body regenerated a new hand and he opened his mouth wide and spewed hellfire at me.”

If I’m being honest, it kind of tickled. Unlike the other magical attacks I’d dispelled, I couldn’t dispel this. He must have been pulling the energy directly from hell, if there was such a place. The fire engulfed me and superheated the air around and behind me. My clothes were destroyed instantly. Luckily we were high enough off the ground that no one was killed outright but many started suffering from radiant energy burns. Most people fled into buildings, which did offer some protection. When his attack stopped a full minute later I was left floating nude before him. That was a nasty attack. Anyone the attack touched would have been instantly destroyed. There’d been a lot of power behind it. I’d have to end this quickly or more people were going to die.

I double-checked my Chaos Blade just to make sure it did have the primal destruction quality. It did. Hopefully, it would work against this Arch Demon. As I floated up slowly I reclothed myself with my chaos, covering my body in the white sheen of energy that ebbed and flowed around me, then willed my Chaos Blade into my hand, and said with the full might and intimidation of my maximum attributes, “Once before I gave you mercy, now you will have a none. A demon such as yourself deserves no mercy. As a mortal, you failed…

I was interrupted when he rushed toward me and struck with all his might. I saw him coming, locked myself in place, and took the blow. The damage wasn’t insignificant. The detonation alone created a shockwave that turned the upper half of the pyramid to powder. I, however, did not budge. I did hear every bone in his hand and arm break. With my left hand, I pushed him away from me as he tried to recover from the damage he’d just taken and looked at me and mouthed, “How?”

“As I was saying Demon! As a mortal, you failed to learn the lesson. As a possible divine converted to a Demon, instead of trying to choose a better path you once again chose the path of death and destruction, So be It! Let me introduce you to Destruction!” I declared as I willed my intent into my Chaos Blade, activated the Primal Destruction aspect it had absorbed, and drove the Chaos Blade through the heart of the demon faster than he had time to react.

You have Struck the Arch Demon Detrik with your Chaos Blade with the intent to Destroy. The Primal Destruction aspect of your Chaos Blade has been activated.

Damage Done 9.07E+35

Arch Demon Detrik’s Hit Points, 2.54E+13 destroyed by two orders of magnitude.

Chaotic Transformation Triggered.

Primal Destruction counters Chaotic Transformation

Arch Demon shell has been utterly destroyed.

Detrik’s Soul has been returned to Primal Chaos.

Those watching the spectacle saw a shimmering white blade appear in the hand of a man that had survived a fountain of flame the Demon had breathed on him surrounded by a blanket of shifting white energy. The man moved quicker than any eye or camera could follow and was suddenly standing in midair, sword extended in a forward thrust pose, with that white blade piercing the Demon’s chest. A pulse of white light was seen jumping from the demon into the sword. The demon disintegrated from the sword outward leaving the man floating alone as ashes spread on the wind and then disappeared. At least that’s what it looked like when I checked the news channel footage after the fact.

As I stood there, I had my chaos reform my battle leathers over myself and withdrew the chaos shroud I’d put over myself. Then I looked around. Pulling on my memories from my original Cosmos I lowered myself until I was just above the Pyramid then quickly replaced every brick exactly as they had been. While my chaos was doing that I focused my intent and sent out a healing wave in a one-mile radius to heal all people and animals. I heard the news anchors screaming for attention but paid them no mind. What did get my attention was when I sensed a missile coming at me at Mach 3. When it was 500 feet away, I opened a portal in front of the missile that opened into my soul space at the same location. The portal closed as the missile passed through and it detonated a moment later.

The missile had been a tactical nuke and the proximity fuse had gone off when it had been close enough to the target destination. The nuclear explosion was about 10 times as devastating as the Fat Boy nuke had been and destroyed the replica of Cairo I’d created. Because it was in my soul space and not in the real world, the devastation was negligible and no one died. I had it completely cleaned up and repaired in minutes.

I finished repairing the real Pyramid, waved to the reporters, then flew straight up at just under the speed of sound. Once I was 5 miles up I went hypersonic and started heading west toward the United States. I went invisible but also made sure that all satellite and radar station information was intercepted and changed to remove me from any permanent records as I flew to Alamogordo New Mexico. I found where my estate had been and landed in the mountains in the middle of nowhere overlooking Alamogordo off to the west. Nothing had been built here. I looked around and knew that I wanted to put my estate back here. I pulled up the current owners and made a call. I offered them 300% of the current value of the land and even signed a contract stating that they would get 25% of any mineral deposits discovered within the next 25 years. I’d even make good on that part of the contract, no reason not to.

The owner accepted and I transferred the money to him immediately. Once that was done I hacked into the local government network, found where everything was, and opened portals to pull out and change all the physical documentation while I also hacked and changed all the digital documentation. All in all, a process that took a couple of weeks normally was done in minutes.

As I was working on the land deed I converted some of the chaos in my soul space into physical nanites then opened a portal and sent them out to recreate my estate and the subterranean base I had under the estate. I wanted it to be identical to my Base of Operation in my Soul Space. I also instructed the nanites to build fusion generators and portal devices. When I say I converted some chaos into physical nanites I should clarify that the number of microscopic nanites that exploded from my soul space produced a steady gray stream of matter for a full minute. It almost looked like oil being released from an oil pan as it splashed out flowed onto then soaked into the ground and disappeared.

While the nanites went to work, I went over to the drop-off and sat down to enjoy the sunset as my estate and the underground base were being built behind me. There was a lot to do here as well as try to figure out what had happened to Adaline and Pandora.

As I sat and watched the sun grow closer to the horizon I checked in on Sun Mingze and his guards in my soul space. They were still trying to find someone. It would be a bit. Maybe I should let Desirae have some fun with them? Not yet, maybe if I decided that they needed to try their hand at being adventurers. I’d let her get them ready then.

Next, I looked at my copy of Sun Mingze in China. I had a quantum link into his brain after all. I established a connection and watched as the copy performed just as the real Sun Mingze would have and continued to try to order people to find me. They were looking hard too. Eventually, a white man with a long white beard in robes was led in to see Sun Mingze. The guards that entered with the old man left leaving Sung Mingze and the old white man alone.

The man came before Sun Mingze bowed and said, “Sun Mingze, or should I say, a puppet of Adamantadine, May I speak with the man holding the strings to this puppet?” the elderly man asked.

Not one to waste an opportunity, I opened a portal beside Sun Mingze as I stood and addressed the elderly man through the portal, “Then please, come join me, it is a beautiful sunset.” Without hesitation, the elderly man stepped through the portal, which I closed behind him, looked at where I’d been sitting then stepped beside that point.

“May I sit here while we talk and enjoy the sunset with you?” The man asked in elvish”

“Please,” I said in elvish as I joined him and we both sat and faced the Sun as it started to sink below the horizon.

We both watched the sun set, neither speaking a word until the last tip of the Sun had dropped below the horizon. As if that were a cue to begin talking the elderly man turned his entire body to face me while he remained sitting.

“Would you like something to drink?” I asked in elvish

“Do you have apple juice, I find that I like the taste of it with all the sugar they add here?” he said.

I had the nanites that had saturated the area create some off-the-shelf chilled apple juice in two glasses and handed him one. I took a sip first then waited as he did the same.

“First, thank you for sharing that moment with me. It felt like you were looking for a moment of solitude and I appreciate that you invited me to partake in it.”

“You are quite welcome,” I said.

“Second, I am Myrddin. It is very nice to finally meet you Johnathan Bennard,” Myrddin said.