Sunday Special I

Omniscience in Marvel XXX

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With Aethon's rampant energy being sealed, or rather, repurposed, life continued normally for the members of the Hawthorne family as well as their workers.

Leucadius, or Lucas, as he is known took everything that continued to occur around him in stride while maintaining a certain principle he picked up from an old acquaintance - Marcus Aurelius.

Marcus Aurelius was a Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 AD and one of the most influential philosophers of the Stoic tradition. His personal reflections, known as the Meditations, provided a unique perspective on Stoicism, as they consist of his thoughts and guidance to himself on how to lead a virtuous life while grappling with the pressures of leadership, family, and mortality.

He was so remarkable that Leucadius couldn't help visiting him every once In a while to pick on his wisdom.

And one of the many quotes of his meditations Leucadius still followed till this day was: Everything that happens, happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so.

This quote was one focused towards accepting life's challenges as they came by.

As a God and Immortal Living amongst mortals, this teaching had taken him a long way.

While good in practice, it creates this detachment to Worldly things, a character that could be seen as…Inhumane.

In his 5000+ years on Earth, he had seen so much bloodshed, gore, and inhumane practice that would eventually lead to a death so gut wrenching that one would ask: Are these really humans?

An example of such an act was witnessed by Leucadius in the 18th century when a noble man bought a Congolese female slave and had her fed to cannibals.

And when asked why he did it, he simply replied. "I wanted to know how the colour of her skin would affect the cannibals."

It was a thought created and executed based on pure Evil.

It was a Total disregard to human life and despite this, Leucadius did nothing, after all, Everything that happens, happens as it should.

This would be contradictory since all Living Beings were emotional creatures. Even the Wind, the Earth…Trees, all had emotions and Leucadius was not excluded. However, another one of Marcus's quote that went like: You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

It was a funny quote so to say considering that Leucadius was nigh-invincible in the circle of Gods, but upon further contemplation, he felt the Meaning in them.

Leucadius felt it was a pity Marcus wasn't properly enlightened, if not, he would most likely share the same stage as the four great Sages to have walked this Earth.

The idea of the "four great sages" varies across cultures and traditions, but generally, it refers to key figures in philosophy and wisdom who made significant contributions to human understanding. Here's a common perspective on four sages regarded as transformative in their teachings:

One was Confucius, two, Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama), three, Socrates and four, Laozi (Lao Tzu).

Leucadius chuckled to himself as he himself didn't even consider Yeshua as one of them.

He knew in comparison to them, Yeshua and as he's now called, Jesus, had a deeper spiritual understanding as well as divine origins while they didn't.

Anyways, Marcus was an interesting Human.

"I wonder by how much those two's death will affect those two's friends." Leucadius thought out loud to himself as he swifly swept through the pieces of documents in front of him. "Aida dear?" He called out.

And from his right corner where the light in the room hardly reached a figure emerged and took a knee causing Lucas to twitch his lips. "Didn't I tell you that those customs aren't necessary here?"

"I can't possibly fathom conversing casually with you as these barba- uncivilised humans do, My Lord." The figure who turned out to be an oxblood haired girl said without even raising her head.

Leucadius looked at one of the unfortunate girls to have been a member of this era's top 10 assassin from the League Leucadius had created years ago.

Every part of the world where the League had a base, there was also a corresponding ruling family similar to the Hawthorne's and Aida just happened to be based in America.

Leucadius didn't really care for their rankings as long as they were powerful enough to rival even the Black Panther and Captain America at their peaks.

The realms of strength for humans was just so weird. There's Captain America and Black Panther who were boosted to the peak of human potential…Keyword being potential and then there were the humans who built up their strength to that level.

In the past, the entire Asia Region that was referred to as the Jianghu or Martial World back then had them applenty.

The Xians had a rather close relationship with their regions so the flow of energy between the Realms were at their peak.

In seeing how their energy affected the humans, instead of feeling scared of possibilities like certain pantheons, the Xian, Shin and Kami joined heads and created unique set of skills that could aid them in manipulating said energy.

This of course led to a major disaster that had to be settled by the Council of Gods.

This led to clear demarcations being created between the three regions belonging to this pantheon on Earth.

The Shins took over Goguryeo, the Xians over China and the Kami over the Land of the Rising Sun.

Leucadius chuckled to himself at how weird the name. 'Perhaps I'm getting too old. Look at me reminiscing about the past.' Casting a glance at the still kneeling Aida, he wondered how she'll fare against those guys.

The League of Shadows basically had a similar method of training as the Heavenly Demon Cult of back then.

However, while the Heavenly Demon Cult created an environment where you either kill or be killed in extreme situations, the league of shadows only began training you seriously when you've proven to be un-killable in the face of certain natural death.

While this may sound confusing, it wasn't.

The…Orthodox path of martial arts only taught you their techniques and then hoped you temper your body until you awaken your ki.

The…Unorthodox path however created a situation where you'll awaken a pure ki cultivated in life and death situations.

The League of Shadows however, exposed thei vic- potential members to mental collapse and physical collapse that was sure to lead to their death.

Failure to die however, would indicate that your body's ability to adapt and evolve.

That adaptation and evolution would then be put to test by poisonous foods, drinks, insects and finally snakes.

Now, if this didn't kill you, it was guaranteed that you would have awakened your ki, but while other merely awaken their ki, a potential member awakens their ki with certain attributes due to their adaptation and evolution.

Abilities like Night vision would be the least of said abilities.

Now this is when they're taught how to manipulate said ki with various techniques that would increase their ki quantity and quality to enable them perform techniques that would seem Godly.

Now this is when the Truly evil part of it all began.

Of the survivors, only half will be allowed leave, which means they'll have to kill eachother.

In every set, there were those who simply hid until the number dwindled, there were those who went on a killing spree to sate their psychotic desires and then there were those who simply took everything in stride.

They simply fought back when attacked and won.

They were Humans who broke the limit of their race.

But no matter how powerful they got, they still fell to the woes of time.

Not even the Cultivators taught by the Xians managed to live past five hundred years of natural life.

Yup. They were either killed after several centuries of their enemies passing down certain grudges as well as evolving their techniques to the next generation and then…they were killed.

"Humans are weird." Was the conclusion Leucadius came to after witnessing all these, as only the few that managed to find favour in certain God's eyes managed to leave Earth and enter their respective Divine Realm.

"What news do you bring me?" Leucadius finally asked.

"A hit has been set on Howard Stark's life." Aida immediately replied, going straight to the point.

This news caused Leucadius to frown for a moment before his face returned to its casual expression. "Who?"

"Hydra." Aida replied.

"I see," Leucadius said and began tapping his finger on the table. "The Winter Soilder then?"

"Affirmative."

"Martha will be missed." Leucadius said with a sad sigh. "Have a protective detail on Tony. Prevent him from doing anything stupid."

"Understood." Aida said as her figure vanished at speed that would seem like Teleportation to a normal human but was actually she just returning to her former position. 'Weird, but I heard Howard and My Lord are friends.' She thought.

What? Did you think she could actually disappear? Please, Leucadius didn't give her a specific timeframe to carry out her orders so she didn't see the need to leave through the door or the window.

Almost at the same time, Thena burst into the office in a mad fury and walked towards Leucadius position and upon reaching, she slammed into his desk, denting it so much with her raw physical strength that Aida hiding in the shadow unconsciously winced.

"What's this I'm hearing!?" Thena asked calmly despite the rage. 'Hmm. The Lady. Perhaps she'll be worried about the man.'

Leucadius raised his Index finger and paused for 5 while seconds before her said. "The sound of silence."

'My Lord…this is not the time.' Aida thought to herself in worry. She wouldn't be able to decide who to protect if they decided to fight it out here.

"Don't fuck with me right now Leuca." Thena threatened, not buying into Leucadius' comic act. "Martha will be killed today? You know this and yet do nothing?"

'Poor Howard.' Aida thought of the pitiful man that had a few hours to live, yet his two closest friends weren't even concerned for him.

"*Sigh* If I could do something about it, I would." Leucadius said only for Thena to slam her right hand once again on the table.

"Don't give me that shit."

"Why are you agitated? This isn't our first run at this y'know." Leucadius said with an expression that said 'Duh'. He looked to the corner of the room and locked eyes with Aida whom Thena had also noticed but ignored. With a nod, she understood his meaning and hurriedly left the room as fast as she could without disturbing the room.

"We've lived amongst the humans for so long that right now, dying…is just that."

"That's True but…they were family." Thena said as she broke down into a sudden sob while Leucadius had a look of realization.

Thena finally had her long Cherished dream of conceiving a child and when she finally did, the only people around her and Leucadius that they could relate with as they've usually done throughout the years were Peggy, Howard and Martha.

With Martha, a friend who also had a child and had gone through what she had just undergone, Thena was able to easily navigate through her life as a Modern Noble woman.

To hear that such a friend was about to die this early would be painful, no doubt, but to be unable to do anything was straight up heartbreaking.

She knew her friends would be killed.

She knew who, where and when they would be killed

She could end the plot with a quick order, hell she could even stop the entire thing personally, but…she couldn't.

"I'm sorry." Leucadius said and stood up and circled around the table to Thena before pulling her into a hug. "I'm truly sorry."