As expected

My little meeting with Deventus had gone about as expected. It wasn't what I wanted, but it was what I expected. After my meditation, it had felt as if I had finished a quest, and it was time to return home. It had left me in a state of pure calm.

That calm had shown me that I needed to be out of this world for a little. You shouldn't do something for too long without pause. Otherwise, it might start to become boring. Besides, after a century, I had begun to miss the Earth. It might be fucked up, but it's home.

If all went well, I would have a theoretically infinite amount of time to make it up to her. I wasn't stressing over it.

I probably could have eased her into it more instead of telling her on the same day, but it is what it is. It crossed my mind to check up on my creations, but honestly, I just wanted to be back home. None of these things would be going anywhere.

From up here in the sky, I could see the storm that I had created. It would last until I dispersed it, but without out me, the faith in Tena would grow much slower.

Ah well, I would just add my disappearances to the lore surrounding him.

The only thing I needed to and wanted to do before returning home was adding tribulations to the universe.

With only a thought, I found myself back in the fulcrum. I felt Iz gently nudge at my mind in greeting.

Only a day had passed on Earth, so to him, it was a regular visit. I briefly acknowledged his greeting before entering the howling tower and opening the book.

Whereas before, I had felt no pressure when I had written in the book, now there was one. It wasn't enough to make me feel uncomfortable, but it was enough for me to know that I couldn't go against the rules that were set. It was once per millennium. Since it went by Malum time, that was ten days on Earth.

In the Century after the birth of the first Divine being, Deventus. The God Tena disappeared to lands beyond. In his absence, the heavens that ha been her been the womb of Deventus gained awareness. It wasn't the awareness of man but the awareness of an entire plane. With that awareness came the understanding that mortal creatures would eventually challenge divinity. The beings that would call it home would be at his risk, and that was an outcome it could not allow. So it attempted to halt the advance of the mortals, but the universe would allow for no such thing.

So rather than directly halt their advances, the divine realm negotiated with the universe. In exchange for an opportunity to strike down the mortals, it would grant those that survived more insight into cultivation.

Even it couldn't get rid of all the mortals, it could still cull the herd as much as possible. The little insight it would have to gain would not make up for the amount that would fail. The universe agreed to its terms, but only under the condition that failure to pass tribulation did not automatically equate to death. Instead, their failure only meant that they couldn't advance further. Only when they attempted the process again would could they die from failure. The divine realm was not pleased with those terms, but it agreed nonetheless. That was as far as the universe was willing to go.

In the year 0101 BF, the heavens added to reality a fundamental law that forever changed history.

My return back was absolutely unremarkable. There was no sudden rush of power or anything of that sort. I just opened my eyes and was back in my home.

For a second, I thought that my powers wouldn't transfer over. I quickly dismissed that thought.

All my powers had been accurate so far. Perhaps it only took a bit of time for them to return. I doubted that the being would lie about such a thing. Given that this wasn't its reality, the transfer probably just took more time.

I didn't immediately do anything of note. I took the time to sit down and try and remember as much as I possibly could. My memory wasn't shoddy, plus with the addition of my creation power, it had actually improved. But I did need some time to recall things.

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It would be a lie to say that I wasn't nervous about this whole endeavor. It wasn't the idea of taking another life that bothered me.

I'd done that many times before. Though I took no pride in it, I was used to it. What got me nervous was the possibility of failure.

It wouldn't be farfetched to imagine that the man had powers that would allow for hit survive. He had, after all, been able to grab our souls and send them to that space. I doubted that he was all that powerful given how much weaker powers seemed to be here, but I could totally be wrong. I would just have to trust that modern technology was up to the job.

The Hecate III, like many modern weapons, was filled with the latest that technology could offer. However, unlike most other weapons, it was also filled with experimental technology.

They made the title of Anti-material Sniper rifle all that more intimidating. Only in the later stages of my cultivation would I have been able to barely survive a bullet from it.

But even then, a bullet to the brain would have been the end of me. I was hoping that applied to this man.

My drive to the town was uneventful and quiet. Halfway through it, and I had almost begun to feel that this was just a regular voyage to the mountains.

But as the artificial snow started to fall and I approached the mountain, that feeling was quickly washed away.

Killing humans wasn't something I wanted to do, nor did I find any pleasure from doing so. However, in this instance, I would enjoy it.

The town that was at the foot of the mountains was a typical swiss tourist town. The buildings were of an older architectural style. The majority of people were in the later stages of their lives.

Upon my arrival, I rented a room at a quaint little hotel and ate something light before waiting for nightfall.

That was the best time to carry out my plans. The lack of vision from the snow that would be at the top of the mountain and the lack of light would make it harder for me to be noticed.

I walked instead of driving. It was easier to avoid all cameras that way. The location of his home was already known to me. But even then, it took me quite a while to get just to the base of the mountain.

Halfway through the trek up the mountains was when I finally started to change into gear. The cold bit at my skin as I changed, but I managed to do so quickly and efficiently. I slapped on my adaptive camo suit and gear before continuing my trek. The bag was left under a pile of snow marked by a couple of stones.

Only a minute in, and I no longer felt the cold as my suit heated me up.

Hex remained in her container. She only came out once I had visuals on the target's general location.

It was easier that way.

The howling wind and accompanied me throughout the entire trek. Luckily I had programmed the location into my E.V.T advanced combat helmet.

I would have to delete its memory after this.

It was only 3 hours later that I finally arrived at a good vantage point from which the house could be seen. It was a quaint little thing. Just big enough to live in. It wasn't in any of the tourist ski areas, and according to my information, it was owned by him.

Which was perfect for me. No one would come and check for months. Properties like this had an Anti surveillance agreement that disallowed government observance. It wasn't given to most people, but if you had enough cash, didn't have a record, and were a citizen, it was easy to get.

The government only did yearly checks to ensure nothing suspicious was happening, but even that was out of formality.

It took me only 30 seconds to set up the sniper rifle on a large stone obscured between a couple trees. Laying down on the floor, I took aim and calibrated the scope for the distance.

Looking through the scope, I saw his heat signature through the wooden walls.

My finger almost clicked the trigger, but I bided my time. I needed visual confirmation that it was the target.

I couldn't mess this up.

My numerator abilities were already calculating the distance. It was perhaps unnecessary given the scope, but there was nothing wrong with being doubly sure.

Then I waited patiently.

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I slowly begin to feel the trickle of my power coming to me. It was a slow process. I could tell that it would never reach the level it was back in Malum. But that continent's worth of qi had to be worth something.

Instead of waiting for all of it to come back, I decided to hop in the shower.

It had been a century since I'd had one, and boy did it feel good.

Afterward, I went to the kitchen and made myself a nice warm plate of spaghetti bolognese. All the while, my power slowly dripped in.

It felt different from when I was in Malum. It was weaker but felt much more substantial and flexible. My body felt as if it was expanding, but I didn't feel uncomfortable. Glancing at my fingers, I could visibly see them becoming healthier.

I began to hum a little tune under my breath as I cooked.

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As I waited for visual confirmation of the target, my mind entered a space of absolute silence. I noticed everything around me, but all of my attention was focused on the target.

I'd been waiting for over 20 minutes for confirmation, and I would wait for hours if that was what it took. Thankfully I didn't have to wait much longer for confirmation.

The target walked past a window before he entered what seemed to be a kitchen. It was only for a brief instant, but in that time, I was able to get a clear view of his face. He didn't have that manic face that he'd had, but it was undoubtedly him.

My breath stilled.

With a flick of a button, Hex began to hum in power. Various different mechanisms activated and prepared the bullet. The hear that radiated from her was enough to melt the snow build up. I was going to make sure that nothing remained of his head.

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As I finished my making my meal and sat at the dining table to eat, I felt the last trickles of my power entering. My hands and body began to glow blue as I felt the presence of the concept fragment.

It hummed with power even here on Earth. As it arrived, I directed it towards my body. That fragment of evolution would be used to resist the cancer. As I began to diffuse it in my body, I fell into pure bliss. I had never felt so good.

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The target was finally no longer in motion.

From where he sat, I saw him clearly. It removed all doubts that this wasn't the target. Without a second of hesitation, I pulled the trigger.

Click.

Bang!

The winds continued to howl, and snow continued to drift. The world was unaffected by the events that had transpired.

As I stood over the now headless body, my body felt light. Things had gone as expected.

His brain matter was scatted over the room. Almost as if a child had spilled red paint.

Time for the clean-up.