First Step Of Evolution

Early in the morning. Somewhere in the forest surrounding the village of Mystic Falls.

Among the tall trees, where sunlight could still shine through. The temperature was slightly colder and the smell of early morning dew, mixed with the smell of wet soil and fresh leaves brought out the presence of true serenity of Nature.

This kind of weather would generate that lazy mood in people that would make them want to just hide in their bed and refuse to get up.

Nicklaus was around a year older than Kol. He had extraordinary talent in art.

Currently, he was picking up wild berries in the forest to discover new colours for his paintings. He quite enjoyed the harmony of nature in the forest, specially during early mornings, so he often came here.

He crushed some wild berries to turn them into paste, diluted it with some water, then used a homemade brush to test the effects of this new colour on the canvas of a tree bark.

Suddenly, he heard noises coming from not far from his current location. Sounds of metal hitting metal, the battlecries and all kinds of desperate, fearful screams.

Nicklaus knew it was dangerous, but he was young, impulsive, and curious about everything. So he still hesitatingly walked towards the direction of those sounds.

Nicklaus was quite far from the battlefield, so by the time he arrived, the war was already over.

What Nicklaus saw would scar him for life. It was a scene of utmost cruelty. The ground was littered with dead bodies and human life was treated as nothing.

Countless men had fallen here. Blood was everywhere, and body parts were scattered across the ground. Knives and swords were still stuck in some bodies. It seemed like the natural colour of grass was no longer green, but blood red here.

Nicklaus was having trouble keeping his composure and holding back his restless stomach. Trying very hard not to puke his guts out on the spot.

"Cough.! huh.! Cough.! huh.! huh.!".

Nicklaus heard someone coughing, so he turned his head around to look.

And what he saw horrified him yet even more.

A man was nailed to a tree with a sword. He was breathing heavily while coughing. Blood was constantly flowing from his mouth and nose.

He was constantly loosing blood from the wound in his stomach, yet still trying to pull out the sword that was pinning him to the tree. It was clear that if no medical help was provided, he would die a painful death.

"Cough.! huh.! Please.! Cough.! Help me.! huh.! Help me.! Cough.! PLEASE.!!", as Nicklaus looked at him, that man also discovered him, so he desperately asked for help.

Nicklaus' heart was shaken. He was terrified by this sight. Who could had done something so cruel.!? They purposefully left this man alive just so he could suffer in despair before his death.?

What purpose would that even serve.? If he was an enemy, wouldn't it be better to just kill him.? Why make him suffer like this.? And in such a manner.? What kind of sick mind would even entertain such a thought.? Is human life so worthless.? Then what about his life.? His family.?

There were thousand different thoughts going through Nicklaus' head, but he still hesitatingly walked towards the man to help him.

Just at this time, Nicklaus heard footsteps coming from behind. So he turned his head around to look.

It turned out to be Mikael, who drew his sword while walking.

Nicklaus seemed scared to see him there. Especially when he suddenly drew his sword.

"Wait.! Huh.! Huh.! Please.! PLEASE.! NO.!", It seemed that the man had also noticed Mikael approaching towards him with a sword.

But Mikael walked right past Nicklaus, completely ignoring him, and raised his sword at the man without hesitation.

"Huh.! No Don't.!! Huh.! Huh.! Huh.! DON'T.!!", the man cried and protested for the last time in his life.

Nicklaus barely had time to register what was happening when Mikael thrust his sword right into the man's left shoulder from above, and it passed right through it and went all the way to his heart. Granting him an instant, painless death.

It seemed like someone had left their job unfinished. Mikael didn't know whether it was out of hesitation, or the work of a really sick mind, but he ended it nonetheless.

Then he turned around to look at Nicklaus. If this boy had succeeded in helping this enemy, then it would leave the fate of their entire village in that man's hand. It would doom them all.

Due to this war, the village had lost a lot of its strength. Not many men remained who could still fight, and that man had all this detailed information because of his participation in this war.

That meant that he knew exactly how strong they were at this point of time. And all he had to do was reveal this information to some other stronger village and he would had his sweet revenge.

Mikael was really angry as he approached Nicklaus while pointing his sword at him, and yelling, "YOU WOULD SHOW MERCY TO THE ENEMY.!!?", "A FIEND WHO PLOTTED TO RAID OUR HOME.!!?".

Then Mikael took a few deep breaths to calm down. Lowered his sword and spoke, "Mercy is FOR THE WEAK Nicklaus. YOU.!!"

Then Mikael's anger reignited when he saw that Nicklaus didn't even dare to look at him in the eyes.

He wished to mold his children in his image, not make them cowards. He wanted Nicklaus to at least attempt to fight back against him. To at least raise a voice.

Mikael angrily walked towards Nicklaus, bent his waist to lower himself and came face to face with Nicklaus, hoping to see at least a hint of anger or defiance from him.

Then he spoke, "Look at you.! BOY.! You are pathetic.!",

"If you are determined to prove yourself a weakling, I SHOULD CAST YOU OUT.!!", Mikael yelled, then paused to catch his breath.

"Better your brothers not be exposed to A COWARD.!", he continued, but in a tone that expressed his disappointment.

Mikael was getting older. He wouldn't stay in this world forever. If his children stay a burden, then they wouldn't be able to survive on their own in this cruel dark world that was filled with supernatural creatures.

The memories of losing Freya still haunted him to this day. He couldn't protect her. So he would do things differently this time and instead make the rest of his children strong enough to protect themselves.

It didn't matter how cruel he had to become for them to finally learn, because as long as they became capable enough to survive on their own, it didn't matter if they hated him to their core.

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Time passes quickly when you're doing something worthwhile.

Kol was already fifteen years old. He had never stopped making progress, and quickly learnt everything he could.

The time was high noon, and currently, Kol was somewhere in a clearing that was far away from his village or any kind of human activity.

He was surrounded by eight stone pillars from all sides and sitting on the stone platform in the middle.

This entire area was covered by several different invisible spells, anti-scrying spells, anti-detection spells, and various other kinds of spells and enchantments.

Not only were all the eight pillars were enchanted with different enchantments, but each one was engraved with different kinds of Magic formations.

Archaic Asgardian runes could be seen everywhere in this place. Be it across the ground, around the pillars, on the surface of the pillars, and even on the platform where Kol was sitting.

He was holding a black humanoid skull in his hands, but it was only the upper part of one.

This was a very strange looking object. Not only was it all black, but the mysterious, magically glowing golden symbols were engraved on top of it, giving it an air of majesty and beauty that could draw anyone's curiosity.

Kol, who was holding the Codex of Life, took a deep breath. If something went wrong here, not only would he loose this precious object, but that would mean that he would definitely not survive this operation.

His intensions were quite clear here. He wanted to fuse with the Codex of Life.

Kol didn't just study Odin's knowledge, but the knowledge of that Kryptonian scientist was also very valuable to him. Especially about the Codex of Life.

He knew several different spells to temporarily boost his brain's processing power and thinking ability to a completely different level.

So it wasn't hard for him to learn many things from the knowledge of that Kryptonian scientist. Especially when all the knowledge was already in his mind.

Sure there was no technology here in this era, but Magic is also just science that we don't yet understand. So Magic can also do things technology can. And Odin's knowledge was quite complete in this regard.

Evolution was a random repeating process of continuous change. It was always unpredictable. There were countless possible outcomes during evolution.

And what Kol was aiming for was not to change himself into a Kryptonian, but to become something in the middle of Superman and Doomsday. They both had their advantages and disadvantages, so Kol choose to create his own personal evolutionary direction.

For example, unlike Superman who could only absorb the radiation from a Yellow Sun, Doomsday could siphon the very energy and lives of anything around him into himself. That's what Kol wanted. But at the same time, he didn't want to look like Doomsday, or become a mindless monster who only knew destruction.

Kol also wanted the ability to generate Doomsday Virus, but with complete control over it. He didn't want to unconsciously affect everyone around him.

And Kol most definitely did not want to loose his Magic, which he would had he chosen to become a Kryptonian like Superman instead of Doomsday.

Kol wanted absolute control over all his abilities.

All in all, Kol wanted to change his entire genetic makeup according to the outcome he desired.

And usually, it would be nearly impossible even for a Kryptonian scientist to precisely define a desired evolutionary direction. Let alone him.

But, unlike any Kryptonian scientist, Kol had Odin's knowledge, which he had learnt quite diligently.

And Odin had knowledge about many things, like several different god level formations working on the concepts of causality and effect, reality warping formation, spirit transfer formation, temporal evolution formation, quantum bands rearrangement formation, and energy conversion formation. There were others, but Kol had only learnt these.

And these were enough. With all this in his arsenal, and already having the complete knowledge about the Codex of Life, Kol finally succeeded in taking the first step to achieve his dreams.

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Superman did not get all his abilities right away. It took him years. Similarly, it will take years for Kol to fully awaken all his abilities.

Kol's other self is the living embodiment of annihilation and evolution, so there's bound to be a lot of evolution, but please don't just assume things.

He will not stay in this world forever. Don't forget about his dreams. He wants freedom, happiness, strength, and adventure.

Kol's character is somewhat similar to 'Meng Hao' from 'I Shall Seal The Heaven'. So he's bound to desperately use everything he has in his arsenal to get stronger.

Plus I did say that he would be OP.. So no nerfing. This is not a "weak to strong" story like my second novel.