221 Upgrades, People!

... The Order Of Library Of The Neitherlands. The keepers of all knowledge in the Magicians multiverse.

Or so they claimed. In truth they barely had half the shit they claimed and even then it was less than helpful for the most part.

There were other threats in the world of course.

Vampires, lamprey, the entire fairy realm and much, much more.

But the librarians were a most formidable force in the world, especially for a newcomer like me.

Why was that? How were librarians, and I mean fucking librarians the greatest threat to me after the Old Gods themselves.

One word.

Travellers.

Travellers were as the name suggested, magicians who can travel the multiverse naturally.

Think a host of Zelretchs, without his morals or limitations. And minus his unlimited mana.

That didn't make them any less fucking terrifying.

They were extremely powerful, experienced, accomplished, and could trap me instantly in say a poison dimension to suffer for eternity.

Which, with the Vaykunth Lok System is not a problem but I'd still prefer to not burn with lesions for the time it will take the system to pull me out.

Or burn in a volcano, encased in lava.

But that still wasn't their biggest advantage over others.

No. It was the Books Of Life they had. Basically a constantly updating akashic record, a veritable SCP-4001, cataloguing the lives the thoughts, every move of every living being in the multiverse. Or at least the more notable ones.

And when they know how you move, what you think, what makes you tick?

They can puppet you like little tyrant gods.

It's deeply unsettling.

Now sure, my ship has a quantum skewing mechanism to hedge my bets against destiny and any of that akashic records shenanigans crap.

I put it there the first moment I could, back in Star Wars to counteract the manipulations of the Force....and nothing will likely go wrong....I would rather not take the chance.

I still have a bad feeling about this.

And after nearly 5 years of being free from the machinations of Fate and Destiny, I have no intentions to give in now.

So I'll need to make a few adjustments to my code.

Add a few features to it.

A soul preservation patch to even out the soul strain across all the clones.

This way, even if the ship is destroyed, I can just reincarnate in a new world, in a new body, ready to fight another day.

Then, some automatic quantum skewing to prevent probability spells from affecting me too much as well as keeping the librarians off my back.

Thirdly, some anti-divine virus programs, in case the Old Gods can see me. Again.

Yup. I do mean again.

Three of my clones have died as of yet trying to make it in the multiple versions of the Magicians world. It was the first thing I did once I got the code to work on the tens of thousands of my clones.

And their death was the whole reason I was sending clones in as probes before bringing in my main body for the feast.

One clone died just entering the world, insta-killed by what I can only assume was Yog-sothoth, given the reading I got off of it's mutilated remains which was basically just conceptual remnants left over from whatever happened to it.

Then the second one got boned trying to enter via the fairy realm.

The third made it far. Yes

The most successful of my attempts. He entered via Brakebills. And he died to a niffin, a person who has become one with magic and lost their self.

Why? Because he made the mistake of revealing his secret of being a clone in the secret trials, the final exam of the first semester.

I know. Stupid.

In my defense, my A.I.s were being overworked handling the optimisation of world conquering strategies for over ten thousand clones at once and couldn't stop the clone's stupidity.

As Senator Armstrong said.

Making the mother of all omelettes here.

Can't fret over every egg.

And once that particular juicy secret was out, it was only a matter of time before a curious niffin came sniffin'.

"I wonder how a planeswalking works?" He said, ripping me apart piece by piece, keeping me alive all through it.

"Let's find out what makes you tick!"

I shudder to think of it.

Aaaand now there's a niffin out in the omniverse with one of my more successful cultivator clones from the world of I Shall Seal The Heavens chasing it down. So that.

I shook my head.

Getting back on track, finally the last thing I had to do was integrate a power sharing mechanism between all the clones so I can use all of their powers without needing to prematurely subsume them.

Not very useful now, bit when they get more powerful?

I will be able to access any and all powers in the Omniverse.

First things first.

Soul patch.

I pulled a Exorcist canister from a portal, a white glowing power roiling within.

The Yomi Yomi No Mi. The devil fruit with the power of the soul.

I hadn't just wasted the last month dilly dallying. I had worked hard on multiple projects.

Learning magic, gathering more devil fruits, searching out some of the more useful worlds, including Campione among the many, many projects I had finished in the microverses.

A 1 to 780 time dilation really helps cut down on research time.

And one such project was this.

The removal of the devil fruits' signature limitations, i.e, the paralysis caused by sea water and the inability to eat more than one devil fruit at a time without exploding.

Of course, the latter required a long, tedious procedure to attune the multiple devil fruits to each other's essences, getting them used to it, treating them with certain radiations and energies, before they are ready to eat.

Which is why I'm just going to eat the Yomi Yomi No Mi for now.

I needed a soul protecting mechanism ingrained into my code urgently.

I reached into the drawer and pulled put a hookah, attaching it to the canister containing the devil fruit, ready to inhale it all in.

I put the nozzle into my mouth and activated my devouring ability.

My mouth bulged out, and an irresistible suction force bore down on the devil fruit essence, sucking it right in, integrating it into me almost instantaneously.

I could feel my soul undergo a change, both quantitative and qualitative.

It grew, in size and malleability, like an ocean of primordial clay, ready to be moudled.

Malt and ale, sweet and earthy.

It was a hard to describe sensation.

But I knew, instinctively. I could now control my soul on every level.

Alright. I sucked in a cold breath.

Onto the next one.

I pulled up the file on the world of Campione and downloaded it intomy bio-chip before opening a portal to it.

Time to becoma godslayer. A Campione!

I disappeared into a portal, appearing in the ruins of a village in the middle of a stormy night.

Thunder and lightning crackled in the sky above and a harsh wind swept through the torn up township.

In the distance, two figure appeared, one giant, towering like a titan above the world, standing in the eye of the storm, while the other was more...human.

Though, that wouldn't fool anyone into thinking he wasn't of any significance.

No. He was floating in the sky, glowing phantoms of divine beasts coalescing into his body.

Melqart and Veretharagna.

Below them stood two humans, a blonde girl and a handsome asian boy.

Erica Blandelli and the future Campione, Goudou Kusanagi.

I smiled.

Looks like I have arrived just in time.

I shot forward, as the eyes of the two gods snapped to me, glittering with intrigue.

The two humans followed their gaze, as I came upon them, flying overhead.

"Looks like this will be a three way match between gods!" The smaller one chuckled, "But I don't mind! It has been a long while since I got a good fight! Come new god! Let us fi-"

I cut him off, grabbing him by the neck with one arm, chiking him as he helplessly clawed away.

"Tsk tsk tsk." I wagged my finger at the boy.

"I think you're mistaken, Veretharagna. I just need your anti-divinity attribute. This won't be a battle." I raised a glowing fist, "This will be a butchering. And I call dibs on the prime rib."

"Wha- My powers...." He croaked.

I grinned evilly, pointing at a clipped ball on my hip.

"Like it? My new and improved, portable reality anchor. Helps me deal with pesky little pests like you easy peasy."

With a crack I crushed his neck, dropping him to the floor, dead.

"Hahahahahah! Looks like I won't need to teach the brat a lesson today-" Melqart bellowed out with laughter, only to get pulverized by a blinding beam of light shot out of my fingers.

"Sorry, but I don't have time for chit chat right now." I replied politely, "Got a long day of work ahead."

I descended to the ground landing beside the two humans, as the blonde girl pulled out her sword in a pitiful display of wariness.

"Goudou was it? Hand over the Prometheus Grimoire, and I might just let you live." I said gesturing at the stone tablet in his hand bearing a carving of Prometheus stealing fire for humanity.

Goudou frowned, clutching the stone tablet in his arms even tighter.

"No. This is not mine to give. It belongs to-"

"Atatatat!" I interrupted him, "That was not a request, kid. It was an order. Just because these dumbasses you call gods humored your bullshit, you think you'll get away with it everytime?"

Well in truth he would've, if he hadn't encountered me here. But he doesn't need to know that.

"Goudou get behind me!" The girl said, rattling her saber at me.

I sighed.

The only reason I was being polite was because I was scared of the Prometheus Grimoire. It had the power to steal the power of gods and legends.

I didn't know if it would be effective on me, but I didn't want to take the chance.

Hence the attempt to lull him into a negotiation.

Clearly though, he had more guts than brains.

"Fine then..."

"Coure di Leone!" She cried out, taking a stand in front of Goudou as a red glow burst put from the hilt of her sword, forming a lion's head, burning with magical power.

I raised an eyebrow.

"Seriously? I just killed two Heretic Gods like squashing bugs, and ypu raise your sword at me? Don't you have any common sense, girl?"

Swiping my hand, she collapse into a pile of finely chopped mincemeat, her sword falling through a portal into my storage.

"What did you-"

With another swipe, the Prometheus Grimoire appeared in my hand and Goudou's head slid off of his body, falling to the ground.

Sheesh. Kids these days....

I unhinged my mouth, and activated my devouring ability getting ready to consume both Melqart and Veretharagna's divinity when a small girl purple hair in a priestess outfit appeared before me.

Pandora. Bestower of championship.

She was the one who decides who got to be a Campione, a godslayer and get the slain god's divine authority.

"You have defeated a heretic god, and though you are divine yourself, you possess no authority matching your power. Hence I shall allow you to take one divine authority from the slain gods. Choose wis-"

"No."

"What?" She looked at me confused.

" I said no. Who are you to decide what power I can and cannot consume?" I sliced her neck off.

"I am the one who decides. Not you."

With that, a black hole appeared in my mouth, and I consumed them all, even Pandora and the Prometheus Grimoire as I fell into a trance.

I felt like I was floating in a great milky ocean, stars dotting the sky above me.

My body, my very being shifted, changing ever so subtly. Just enough that I could make it out. A sort of lock, a paperweight appeared in space time, blocking out fate itself, and turned this moment into an inviolable, fixed point in the multiverse.

I knew what this was. It was the mandate. Something that ensured that Campiones wouldn't just die because of causal shenanigans or a bad fight.

No matter their wounds, no matter how much power they lost, they would always regain it over time.

Their existence could not be erased.

Once a campione, always a campione.

No matter what happened now, I would never lose these powers.

This also gave them an extended lifespan.

Of course this also made sure they couldn't hide their aura of power, antagonizing gods everywhere. But that was solved easily by using Pandora's authority that I had consumed, creating an exception for me, allowing me the complete opposite of this problem.

Absolute stealth, hiding my presence from all the gods.

I had specially chosen this world precisely for this.

And that wasn't all.

Inside me, I saw my divine power grow, and condense into over twenty different balls of divine power. Not quite god seeds, not by far but each containing their own authority including one of Veretharagna's, if a bit weakened. The anti-divinity sword of light that made Goudou the most powerful being in this world.

I patted my belly happily and smiled satisfied.

"Thanks for the meal."

.

Returning to the ship, I got into a tank of my own, sinking into my own conciousness as my powers turned on at full tilt, the room shaking with the sheer might of them all.

Pulsing blobs of divine power, mixed with kaleidoscopic motes of lights like little stars, a permeating static buzz, an wave of cyan devil fruit essence and a stream of cosmic energy, all revolving around an all consuming black hole.

And finally, like a nervous system, the psychic circuitry revealed itself, weaving across the whole spectrum of my powers, interconnected but separate, distinct from them.

Not for long though.

Under my will, the psychic circuitry bent and twisted, frayed and melted, merging slowly and steadily with slivers of the other powers, forming a strong, sturdy bridge between them all and my soul as lines of code appeared in my head, like a huge universe spanning program.

Soul patch completed.

Next, I pulled at the powers, sending out minisvule ammounts of each into the corcuitry as I began to integrate aspects of them into my code, adding two more elements to it.

Anti-Divinity. And Devouring.

Now, any and all clones I make will be considerably harder to influence by divine entities.

And with the devouring aspect added to my code, not only will I have an easier time apotheosizing the correct way, but also, that if I should need to consume a god seed without properly integrating it into me, at least it would prevent me from nearly dying like the protagonists did in the story.

Potent trump cards for the future.

Leaping back into the coding though, I got to work again.

There were still two more additions to be made to the program.

I connected to the A.I. and pulled up the edits I had coded for power sharing among clones and quatum skewing of my fate, and began to upload them into my psychic code drowning in the work, drifting off.

When I next came to, I could hear Wanda tapping on the glass, waving at me as I woke up.

I shook my head, and got out of the tank.

"Pfuah!" I wiped the hyberbaric fluid off my face.

"Computer. How long was I out?" I immediately asked.

"Thirteen hours and 45 minutes sir."

"Oh...so just a long nap then." I sighed in relief.

"Wanda, just give me a minute." I raised a finger to her.

"Computer, scan my code, check for anomalies." I ordered as a sterilization beam cleaned me up.

"No anomalies found sir. Operation was successful. A suggestion. Proceed with the same on all the clones." It replied.

"Hmmm...okay. Sure. Summon them all back. Get them through the same procedure. Better do it here than out there in the void. And get the probe clone ready for the Magicians world." I said.

A pinprick appeared out of a port, taking in a new blood sample from me for the procedure before disappearing.

"That's that." I clapped, "Now, what did you want to talk about again?"

Wanda looked sheepishly to the side, blushing, casting furtive glances at my parts, muttering 'so big'.

She gulped.

"Can you put on some pants first? I can't talk to you like this!"

I smirked.

"Why? You seem to be enjoying the view~"

"Just... please?"

" Alright. But you're so cute when teased, I can't help myself!" I chuckled getting dressed.

"The mission. The next world. A briefing would be nice. Get some details. I want to know the plans. You know, so we don't....uhm..." Wanda heaved, remembering the mess from a month ago.

Pietro's death.

I took her hand in mine and squeezed it softly, rubbing the back of it.

"It won't happen. Ever again. And yes. Let's go over the plan in the living room. Over some hot chocolate."

Wanda smiled and nodded.

"Let's."

__________________

The extra chapter for 400 powerstones as promised!

MC upgrades himself and formulates a strategy for the next world.

Sorry about the info dump.

Needed to get it out of the way.

And this chapter was getting too long so I sawed it in half!

The MCU arc extends just a teeny tiny bit more into another chapter. Or two. Max.

Don't want to rush it. Spoils the story.

On the plus side, I can put the chase sequence into a flashback montage bringing mc into magicians this sunday.

Vote on it!

Thanks for reading!

Bye~