Chapter 187 - Light And Rainbows

Stirring awake, Zeel observed his environment for a while before turning to Alice sitting next to him "How long was I out?"

Zeel was currently floating in the air next to Alice. They were at Alexander's encampment on the Mysterious Island.

"Not very long. About a day at most," Alice replied while roasting a small Zebra over the nearby fire.

"I could hear the Humans praying," Zeel said as he began to laugh "They call me The Crimson Exterminator,"

"The titles tend to stick. I am now being called: The Savanah Disaster," Alice replied giggling softly, but her smile did not reach her eyes given Zeel's and Elizabeth's states.

Hank, Gabato, Sean, and Kailani were also there but each was deadly silent.

No doubt the battle witnessed from space had only now begun to really dominate their mind.

'I am standing next to beings that have the power to survive a nuclear holocaust,' Hank thought hoping that silence could at the very least guarantee their lives.

"Why did you bring us back here?" Zeel asked confused, even if the mythical creatures were handled, a lot of dangers could still be lurking on an island that once belonged to Poseidon.

"She is safer here than anywhere," Alice replied looking at a floating figure in the distance.

Zeel directed his gaze towards the floating Elizabeth, closing his eyes for a brief period as codes flickered across his pupil "She is physically fine, but her soul is a bit weak,"

Seeing that everything was under control, Zeel was tempted to enter a long slumber but quickly expelled the thought from his mind.

With all the divine essence he coughed up, falling asleep now would guarantee he sleeps for a couple of years at the very least.

Zeel planned to make full use of Poseidon's memories he plundered earlier. There were many things on this island that could benefit him and the girls.

Zeel tried to stand but found that his body no longer listened to his command.

Alice pushed him back down when she saw him trying to stand, but this led Zeel to notice her blackened left hand.

"You touched me when I was in pain, huh?" He said with certainty even though he was asking a question.

Alice nodded and grinned bitterly "Yeah, I unconsciously touched you since you were in so much pain. My hand blackened in an instant,"

Alice still looked a bit fearful recalling the experience "Your chains aren't anything to mess with,"

Zeel shook his head as he looked at Alice complicatedly, after a while of contemplation, he decided to tell her "What hurt you wasn't the chains themselves,"

He then turned his eyes to look into the distance "The being that cursed me is not omnipotent. I don't think anyone is omnipotent. Some are more observant than others,"

Alice nodded in understanding knowing fully well that the reason they have been able to survive until now is thanks to Zeel's observant nature.

"When that Cosmic Being cursed me… no! What it did was imprison my soul via a contract so I had to do what I promised," Zeel explained choosing his words carefully "Well, If I didn't agree, I'd probably be dead but that's all semantics,"

"But when it imprisoned my soul, it had a clear goal – get me to complete the task and then grant me freedom or kill me," Zeel said as if he was talking about someone else "But how was it supposed to know that my own soul would become my own poison?"

Alice smiled bitterly at this statement "I have felt it for a while, at first, you let the nanites flow freely in your memories, but soon after, you started locking information away in the cube. The dangerous inventions, certain precious memories, and you also kept me and Elizabeth away from certain memory locations,"

Alice continued "I found it quite strange at first but then I thought 'Why do you need to hide knowledge from yourself?'. Then I found the answer when that kid tried to possess you on Planet Viveron,"

Zeel looked at Alice with a sly smile as his sharp red-slitted eyes stared into her own "What did you find?"

"At first, I thought you were dying but that didn't fully explain everything," Alice said staring down at her hand, then she turned back to Zeel "Your soul is also being corrupted by yourself,"

Zeel nodded in conformation at her hypothesis "Yeah, I first realized it on Planet Viveron when that elder tried to possess me. I would usually kill threats immediately but I hesitated subconsciously. Something was urging me to kill out of anger, but I only ever kill for necessity,"

"Then dark thoughts started appearing much more. At that point, I realized my mind was being eroded but it was hard to acknowledge.

Even before that, I knew something was wrong so I separated important knowledge from myself. Then I started separating myself from you and Elizabeth, she was getting a few of my dark thoughts at that time,"

"The real confirmation came just yesterday when I used my Travelers Divinity. I am a God of Speed so I should be pulled towards a speed dimension of sorts, but instead, I was pulled towards a Dimension of Death and Shadows," Zeel said thinking back to a couple of hours ago.

"So you are dying and being corrupted at the same time?" Alice laughingly asked.

"Yeah, and unless I can remove these chains then I will eventually become corrupted and die. My soul erodes faster the more I use my abilities," Zeel said but seeing Alice's grim face, he decided to tell her the upside "Lorien helps keep the corruption at bay so it would take decades, if not hundreds of years to fully complete,"

Alice sighed in relief only just realizing that her food had been burning the entire time.

Luckily, Hank was there to turn the stick every couple of minutes, so the zebra meat was not unsalvageable yet.

"What is that language you guys speak?" Hank asked genuinely curious since it was unlike anything he ever heard.

"English," Zeel replied not placing any importance on the question.

"English?" Hank asked, "Then why can't we understand?"

"That's a bit complicated. It has to do with vibrational frequencies and the frequency threshold of every universe. So English here might sound like Latin in a different Universe,"

Hank, Kailani, and Gabato rolled their eyes since the entire explanation was a bit over their heads.

Sean still had a murderous look on his face but had managed to calm down quite a bit after witnessing the destruction of an entire desert.

A couple of minutes later while everyone was enjoying their respective miniature animals, Alice turned her head in Elizabeth's direction abruptly "She's waking up,"

Zeel and Alice disappeared from their location, appearing next to Elizabeth's. Her brows twitched a few times before they abruptly flung open.

A multitude of colors surrounded her body sending a pulse that of colors that spread all over the mysterious island.

The damaged land once again became vibrant in the blink of an eye.

Broken trees stood once more, injured animals were healed, chunks of missing Earth were once again filled.

However, for Zeel it had the opposite effect, his body was burnt similar to when Alice would touch him.

"Fuck!" Zeel grunted out angrily.

Elizabeth gave a meek smile in response "My divinities are Light and Rainbows, but it seems like the Rainbow is way more dominant,"

Alice realizing, she was not burnt came up with a theory on the spot "Light is a pure force and Zeel is more of a chaotic evil alignment. So it is only logical that it would burn him,"

"Or maybe Elizabeth just wanted to burn me?" Zeel added causing Elizabeth to blush faintly since he was partially right.

Turning her head to the side, Elizabeth quickly regained her composure and switched the topics "You guys should check my memories. I seem to have some that aren't my own,"

Zeel and Alice stared at her allowing codes to flicker across their pupils.

Zeel was the first to speak "Remnant memories of Poseidon when he possessed you,"

Allice nodded since she also had the same thought, but something bothered her "He seems to be trapped in this Universe. Aren't Gods supposed to be mostly free?"

"No!" Zeel replied "Poseidon, Zeus, Athena. All of these are common God's names. If you have the legacy of a god, then it is almost impossible to leave your birth Universe,"

"To put it simply, these guys are second-rated gods and not the originals. Like you became a god through your own effort, but some other Alice might become a god due to your elevated status, or some of your remnant fate.

Gods such as those would be bound to their birth Universe. Switching Universe would require not only a method but also giving up their respective powers,"

Elizabeth nodded "So the reason most gods rely on faith is because they aren't the original, right? They can't grow their powers, instead, it can only grow depending on the status of the original,"

Zeel nodded and began to explain "Say there are two Zeels. I am a god, then he will be a peak human powerhouse. But when those two Zeels, becomes three Zeels. I am a god, then one might be a CEO, while the next a powerful martial artist,"

Alice seemed to get the gist of what Zeel was attempting to explain and decided to summarize "So if the original Zeus was an Old God. The Multiverse gives birth to many Zeus' and disperses his status throughout all of them. Though this does not weaken his power, only makes it stronger,"

"Yeah," Zeel replied "Most gods are aware of the Multiverse but can never leave their respective Universes. They only know of the Multiverse but can never explore, or know the intricacies of it,"

"That explains why most Gods die out in their Universes," Elizabeth muttered.

Zeel immediately corrected her "There are exceptions like Hermes who is a God of Travel. They can breach barriers and leave their universe but still have to return every so often when their power weakens.

Also, a truly strong god can jump Universe at a certain price like the God that killed Hermes in 'Jumper Universe',"