Chp. 24 Splinter Realms

One thing Paul did not forget during his stunt was to have those that he did not yet want to know of his powers were the future Mr. Fantastic and Dr. Von Doom. As smart as they are, all they could remember was the Auction and a party where they socialized with the guest.

They would not be able to find out about what happened from the others since he made sure no one would be able to talk about it but just remember it. Warning others could work but speaking it directly will render them speechless, literally.

But one day they'll find out but not yet, for now Paul is watching over their launch as they went to go towards space with the ship Reed has designed. Susan Storm, Johnny Storm, Victor Von Doom and Benjamin Grimm rode the space ship going outside earth.

Paul had placed mental trackers on them and observed them using his Hawk Clone which has an innate ability to see very far away. Improved with his minor telepathic powers in every clone he could use the bare eyes of the clone as a super powered telescope.

He could make out a small could of cosmic energy within the course of the crew meaning the Fantastic Four will also debut in the next few months. His other clones were also doing things in the various Worlds and it made Paul a bit dizzy trying to adapt to the different Time perspectives.

One thing he regretted was to introduce his Monkey and Ape clone to the Simian community making them more fervent in worshipping him. One downside of the other clones since they were made inferior is that there are some animalistic traits obvious in their physical appearance.

Some horns, different eyes, fangs, tails and feathers, but other than that there are also difference is body proportions since some are slender and some more muscular. But all in all they still looked like him in facial appearance.

It was then he discovered that even with many bodies being used to learn he still has a limit in digesting new knowledge. Thus he sent others he does not need to many places to investigate things, somehow he had compartmentalized his mind to be able to control them all simultaneously.

But his real body was now driving the RV while his Badger Clone was left in New York to be his physical presence while he tours around the world with his girlfriend in the RV.

Some were given task like improving the programming of the robots and making a prototype AI which will help him greatly in many ways. Others taught the Simian community in making better tools, family planning and a better insight in life by instilling to them values.

But majority of his clones were now in work mode making other variations of the Sentinel Robots working in his Man-Cave. The construction fastened since he also helped with his telekinetic powers and now has a large circular dome carved within the mountain.

He already made a city plan before but now he felt he could do more and thought of making a 3D city with roads as well as waterways like what he remembered on a beloved anime he had like. It was a retro anime but it had many imaginative ways in making different environments.

He remembered his Father cried when he found out Paul got interested in watching said anime and also was there with him when he cried like a little girl during the scene where the brother of the MC died in front of him, that's right he is talking about One Piece.

And Paul is now planning to make a 3C city with waterways similar to that venetian style city called Water Seven where a series of canals were used to transport various ships and boats all around the city. Using the underground river he could make a system similar to that and create a fun way of going all around the large Man-cave planned by him.

He already made an artificial Lake already by making a small redirection of the underground river. He found out the river also flows out towards Savage Land since he was able to find large fresh water fish the size of a small horse in the waters sometimes.

Other than that he loved spending quality time with Shanna teaching her spear arts in mounted and un-mounted forms. She too started to get stronger with his training regime as she found being active enjoyable, her adventurous spirit was kindled as Paul told her about many mysterious things in the Universe(Marvel only).

So now she felt she needed to be strong to have a chance to travel together with her man, she might not have told Paul but she prefers dominant men as her partners as she somehow picked up animalistic behaviors and understood the rules of the jungle since she was a child.

She even felt reluctant to leave the two cubs in the African Reserve but Paul said they'll be there to watch over the two small murder kittens. They also liked making various kinds of dishes Paul could find in many cooking books, which the two cubs liked eating if there were left overs making them rounder than ever.

Paul's badger clone on the other hand traveled in New York making many kitchens that fed many homeless people and also gave them jobs in clearing out garbage and recycling them. Paul bought a large area in New Jersey where he had many people work on building a place where garbage could be recycled into usable resource.

This cost him about a hundred million to kick start and it was not bringing him profits at all which Paul does not mind. At least his actions gave many people jobs and insurance thus improving the life quality of many families.

He even hired the college kids that befriended him in various jobs related to their career path. Some went to work in various Kitchens, some helped in repairing broken cars that were left to rust away, some became health instructors to many sick homeless people, some even became teachers to uneducated people and a few became great managers in various establishments Paul had raised.

This earned the attention of the media and many were shocked at the sudden boom of work available bringing in a job fever in Manhattan and other cities in the East Coast.

Paul threw money away giving many jobs and pulled two hundred million in the hidden account to suddenly appear as charity to the organization he built. What he didn't expect were the many people that got scared of him also made donations since they were still traumatized at his display of powers.

Many had a wake-up call at the display that they suddenly went religious for some reason, because their faith in their nukes were rendered moot by Paul alone and even Fury felt the advance weapons he have in stock were not enough to give Paul a head ache.

But at least his mind is calmer than most since he had realized Paul has no ambition at all, just a very eccentric mind. Even his agents were curious at the sudden organization Paul made by splurging money and also saw how billions suddenly appear in his charity.

Paul did not mind the windfall as he just had more four of his clones go to Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia to build more of his HHH ( Helping Homeless Hobos) which became a hit. He did find time to screen people who came to work for him but he did not mind much of the others that have small sins or mistakes.

All he cared about was people getting second chance and given the help that they need, many had evil thoughts which were small time gangs, criminal organizations or the Maggia but they suddenly got police knocking on their doors with evidence of their illegal dealings so they were not able to make trouble to the Organization.

Paul was also monitoring Ophelia Sarkissan aka Viper who was now hell bent in making HYDRA pay for tampering with her mind. She does not know who cleared her mind but she at least heard a voice she felt was responsible for her freedom.

Ambitious, Cruel and cunning she might be but she felt that whoever released her wanted something she can give but somehow thoughts of trying to usurp whoever this person is was absent within her mind.

A person that could circumvent a brainwashing of an old dangerous organization like HYDRA is not someone she can fight against. Thus she just silently took over some bases to her command as she is actively seeking the other leaders of HYDRA, she did find the hidden vault where five super soldiers were sleeping and got them under her command also as she got the codes to activate them.

Too bad the legendary Winter Soldier was not there but it did give her a better edge in usurping HYDRA. This was all she could think off as Paul made her more emotional when it comes to getting herself free of HYDRA.

One day was all it took for Paul to cause turmoil all over the world as well as a secret war fought within the shadows by secret agents. Fury also went on the offensive as he took out many HYDRA agents within SHIELD by having them go to dangerous missions.

He did this in ways no one would suspect him of knowing his understanding that HYDRA is within SHIELD as many men also in Fury's side also 'perished'. But it was more like they went dark and got more deep into finding who and where the HYDRA agents are.

Alexander Pierce even said sorry to Fury as he thought many SHIELD agents died due to fighting the so called Red Room who were discovered to be rebuilding their power. Natasha also found her sister and got a file from Paul about her 'mother' and 'father'.

Unbeknownst to her the hidden commands in her mind were wiped off by Paul as well as Yelena's and their mother's, Melina. Thus making the three able to wreak havoc within Russia as they broke out Alexei aka Red Guardian, the 'father' of their family.

Their actions made the Red Room retaliate in response sending in many super spies to counter the SHIELD agents but Fury mostly sent HYDRA agents to face the deadly females. Paul also pointed out that Natasha and Yelena had a hidden trigger in their brains left by the Red Room so in order to infiltrate better he let the two women be 'caught' and 'controlled'.

General Dreykov which Natasha thought to have died was still living well and even led the Red Room to regain strength once again. The two pretended to be controlled so they could act as a double spy as they focused on taking out the HYDRA members in SHIELD.

While they also help in taking out the ones Fury wanted to become ghost that could join a hidden group he is hiding to save strength once he devours HYRDA altogether. The leaders of HYDRA were confused as to how the Red Room eluded their radars.

It was later they found out about the flying fortress in the but they did not take action because they were getting busy with Viper's aggressive takeovers. They believed Fury would handle the Red Room since they were wining in the odds but they did not know that the widows were also being saved since Paul pointed out an Old Widow during Melina's generation that developed an antidote gas designed to Immunize the brain's neural pathways.

Thus made Natasha and Yelena able to save the girls from Dreykov's control without his knowledge. Though they were not able to save all since some were already deep within but the sisters still worked together brilliantly that they now have dozens of deadly assassin girls in their command.

Paul had been observing this and thought that this world is vastly different from what he expected to be, sure there were some elements similar to the movies but he felt he could not use what he really knew to everything within this Universe.

Thinking of getting counsel with this he thought of the only person in the planet that might give him an answer if there is ever one. Paul left the driving to a robot as he did not want Shanna to meet any of his clones yet, they were not even driving anyways but was in a large cargo ship going to Africa.

Telling his gf that he'll be gone for a bit, Paul went to get some books and scroll that might be useful in Kamar-taj. Also there was a tome which he wanted to seek out the opinion of the Sorcerer Supreme.

Once he was ready he popped out of nowhere in the New York Sanctum which raised alarms to the Master guarding it since an unknown entity appeared in the building.

"Ahh, Master Drumm. Could you please tell the Ancient One that I am seeking an audience?" Paul just said that and walked in the room full of different artifacts like he was just having a stroll in the park.

The old man just stood there for a moment but seeing Paul doing nothing else he opened a portal and left. Few moments later another portal opened in front of Paul and he could see the frowning face of Master Drumm along with the Ancient One sitting there drinking tea. Passing by the portal Paul smiled at the grumpy Master of the New York Sanctum who went back to his post.

"What seems to be in your mind Mr. Esteban?" Ancient One asked as Paul was the only person she has no idea of but she could still see his innate nature.

"Nothing much, I know you have many knowledge in other dimensions so I just want to ask, is there one out there where I can take a lot of energy or something like that and no one would complain?" Paul then laid out some scrolls in front of the Ancient One.

She was curious and tried reading the tomes, she was able to understand it since the language is very similar to an Ancient Chinese language. Reading a bit and looking at the other tomes as well as the scroll she was able to connect one to the other.

"You plan on making a dimension of your own?" She asked curiously since the tomes all lead to one end where a person makes a small dimension within their body but the energy written in the books only says of using Heavenly Energy.

She does not know what it is since it has no definitive description in the tomes but she still looked at Paul for confirmation.

"Yes, and I am looking for a place teeming with untapped energy that no dimensional creatures have hold over." Paul was just curios in doing this as he wanted to see if he could break through Nascent Realm using unconventional methods written.

He was still very slow in gaining cultivation since he had been stick in Golden Body and Golden Core for so long with no progress. To others he might be very fast but that was because he has a lot of pills and potions looted before.

But the resource he used could have made fifty Nascent Cultivators already but he still has no progress even with all of that. So he wanted to go big and make a more unconventional action, take a lot of energy that is similar to Heavenly Energy and push through with brute force.

Though he does not know what the Marvel equivalent of that he still think that it might be ambient energy but from what he can tell Earth doesn't have enough energy to make him breakthrough so he went to ask for the Ancient One who knew a lot of places teeming with energy.

"I do know of such place but it houses many creatures of the Chaos that I have prevented before. Though I cannot understand the extent of your powers and their reach I still feel you can come out of there alive somehow. Just remember to not bring back other things there that might endanger the existence of this Universe." The Ancient One waved her hand and sent a mental coordinate to Paul who was able to pinpoint where it is.

It was vague but he can tell it was still in this Universe and it meant he could still connect to his various clones.

"But before you go Mr. Esteban, would you like to learn the mysteries of the Mystic Arts?" Paul paused at the offer as he looked at the bald Tilda Swinton.

"I would love too but my clones are currently occupied so I cannot allocate much for the meantime." Paul said as he seemed interested.

"Clones?" The Ancient One asked.

"Oh, I forgot to mention. I can travel between other realities at will, and I went through some universe where their way of life is different and that is where I got those books I showed you earlier as well as a technique of being able to make some clones using a dead body of another being."

"It's not necromancy at all but it is more like Alchemy as well as using your own mental faculties to control them remotely. Here look at this, this is the general explanation of how this technique works" Paul did not mind at all telling the Ancient One of this because he knew she might have hid him from troublesome people on her own.

She was surprised Paul telling her all of this and even felt amazed that he somehow went over the wall of Realities. Her evaluation of Paul's powers just raised itself many fold as she knew the amount of difficulty of crossing an entire reality itself.

He too was curious of the clones and saw that it was more like a biological Automaton being controlled by mental commands. Paul's unique soul might be the only one who could handle such a burden of controlling as much as he does right now.

That was why she can see many threads spreading out of Paul as they were his connection to the many clones he has. Though it does have the need to use the a preserved body but seeing Paul use bodies of beast that were able to transform into humans lessened her trepidation against the technique.

"I think it is better of you keep such a dangerous ritual hidden and out of reach of other people's hands. You need not show me more of these things as it might just be heard of my beings that will have nefarious thoughts for such things." The Ancient One said in caution to Paul.

"Like Dormammu? Relax, that guy can't hurt me at all. I might wreak havoc in his dimension if he tried something funny…" Paul left those words as he teleported out of there and appearing in a place full of chaotic energies.

[Archipelago of Anguish and Redemtion]

"Whoa, this is cool…" Paul said as he flew around, still able to connect to his clones he smiled as he felt he had discovered another playground to mess around with.

Paul looked around the endless splinter Realms with no rulers on them and was filled with mindless beast born of darkness and chaos. He could also see the large realm from afar which might be the Dark Dimension ruled by Dormammu.

"Okie, let's get busy." Paul went to search for a uninhabited splinter realm using his mind powers to the fullest while making sure his presences in cloaked in full force. Floating around he was able to find many which were all abandoned while some has one or two persons within them but that was negligible.

Paul went to the smallest one he could find and this small splinter realm is as large as Mt. Fuji. This was just a and filled with rampant energy that no one owns, thinking deeply Paul remembered the technique but he still thought hard on pulling in the energy within this plane.

He also realized while doing this that time seemed loopy and weird here as his perception with the clones seemed to be vastly different. Time seemed non-existent here so all he receives were paused perception on his part.

"Whoa, so does this mean I can heighten my perception this high? I can probably see light if I focus hard enough… maybe later." Paul then refocused on pulling energy all around him as he stood on top of the small splinter realm.

Slowly and surely he felt the surge of energy running through his veins and he directed them on where he could break through to the Nascent Level. Time passed by and Paul felt like he spent decades in this small splinter Realm until he felt that he no longer has energy to absorb.

Opening his eyes he looked down and saw the small realm is not gone and turned to dust.

"Damn, how much is this going to take me to increase my strength?" Paul knew that even a small development is a very colossal improvement for him since he could also use the Eight Gates in tandem with his improved physique in bodily cultivation.

Meaning his past maximum strength has developed way past on what he could have done before. The cultivation side was just a bonus for him since he like to see thunder and fire coming out of his hands even if it is weaker than what he can really dish out.

Now he was not sure on how he can reach the four stages above the one he already is in. Maybe he'll need to find something that'll provide him with energy infinitely.

"Hmmm… never mind. I'll go find another splinter realm." Paul felt that he could spend a great amount of time here in developing so he went back and took the three worlds with him and see if the time would also flow relatively different here.

After coming back he experimented but what he found was a bit different. The Scroll world only has a 2:1 ratio here while the ring world has 3:1 ratio and the Orb world has 6:1 ratio here.

This made Paul realized that there might be factors that differentiated the time dilation abilities of the three small worlds. But that might be later for Paul to ponder upon as he went to find more small realms to absorb.

But at least he could do more as he let his clones make more resource for him to use and more robots so once he gets back he has an army of builders to finally finish his Man-cave.

The worlds might be small but they still have properties of making new resources inside mountains in it. So Paul went to do many task at once not realizing months were passing by and not much time passed through the real world.