Chapter 56: Infinite Potential

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"Freedom is power. To live a life untamed and unafraid is the gift that I've been given, and so my journey begins."

- Halle Berry, (Catwoman)

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<(Atem POV)> 

"*Pant* *Pant* So, it seems I lost even with that type of power," Clone-me said while lying on the floor. His entire body was bruised in multiple places, and he bled from his mouth and nose. "I am really proud of 'myself'." He chuckled, causing him to cough up some more blood.

"Amazing! This mental space is almost as real as the outside." I calmly commented as I scooped up some of his blood in my fingers. "And as for me winning, of course, I won. You for some reason only possess my divine physiology and a unique divinity, not my other powers which gave me a huge edge in our battle. It would have been a disgrace if I had lost."

"Yeah... I guess so. I possess the divinity of Void, aka, nothingness. It's a hell of a power when it comes to offense but it's not absolute. But again, nothing in this world is... Anyway, you passed. So, congratulations!" He snorted while looking at me and then glanced at the statue that still hadn't fully recovered from his void-based attacks. "It looks like you won that fight as well by using me. That statue was supposed to be the perfect antithesis of your current powers since your domination divinity, magic, and physical abilities wouldn't have fared well against it. But you cheated by including me in the fight." 

"You can't blame a man for using his brains," I said with a small smirk.

"Yeah, especially if that brain is mine." He said with a somewhat proud expression on his face. "Now, help me up. It's time for you to get your reward and for me to get to complete my special purpose." The clone-me thrust forward his hand. The previous annoyed expression was nowhere on his face. Instead, his face sported a look of what looked like acceptance and relief.

He was happy. 

I didn't reply. After just staring at his face for a couple of seconds, I gave him my hand. The moment he grabbed it, his body began to break down into millions of small pure light particles and got absorbed into me.

'Every time I absorb one of these 'clones' of mine, it almost feels like I get some of myself back that I had lost due to some reason.' 

Soon, the statue also began to transform into tiny particles of light as they floated towards me. Its body which had almost been completely destroyed by the power of nothingness and then fully subdued by my black receivers began to flow towards me and merge with my being.

It was like those tiny light particles were changing me. They weren't just affecting each and every cell in my body but also, influencing me on a spiritual scale as well. I could feel that change happening. There wasn't any pain, just a sense of calm like I was high on some extremely potent drug. The pleasure forced me to close my eyes in delight and the next time I opened them, I was no longer in my mental space.

I was back in my room on Ego with no evidence of my previous fight with that statue and clone of myself. It was like I never left the room... which in a way, I didn't since everything happened in my mind... or soul or whatever that was.

Despite my recent evolution, however, there was no sticky or dirty liquid covering me like in those wuxia novels. I was as clean as always, just like a god should be. But I could feel something different in myself especially the explosive power that I could now accurately sense in each of my cells. 

[Ding! The host has started Divine Evolution]

[Congratulations! Evolution successful]

[New God Physiology and Immortality have combined and evolved into Transcendent New God Physiology]

[Alpha Physiology eligible to evolve into Omega Physiology]

[All conditions have not been met for evolution into Omega Physiology]

[The process of evolution into Omega Physiology has been frozen till the host is able to meet all evolutionary requirements]

[Ding! Trial for Second Divinity detected]

[Congratulations! You have succeeded in your trial for Divinity]

[You have achieved the Divinity of Void]

[You have achieved the title 'Voidmancer']

"Wait, my evolution only evolved a single ability on my stat page? Did the second one get stuck? Is it an error or something? That's truly unfair. Evolution is supposed to change me entirely, isn't it? I thought I would be able to get some new OP abilities and powers with this. So, all that effort was for nothing. Damn!" I muttered aloud, swearing at the unfairness of the system.

'But still, this evolved physiology should be extremely useful and powerful if I only received this after the evolution, right? So, maybe I am not going to face a complete loss.' That was the thought with which I opened the inventory with almost shaking fingers.

||Transcendent New God Physiology: You have surpassed the restraints of material existence and transcended the physical limitations to achieve a higher level of status, power, and/or state of being. You are now a being of evolutionary perfection and genetic stability composed of mostly energy connected to the concept of life. You are unageing and immortal. Only exceptionally powerful conceptual attacks or equal divine/demonic might can hope to kill you. However, normal attacks if powerful enough can still hurt you. Also, you can now properly draw power from your worship and your divine authorities.

You have boundless potential with no foreseeable limit and your body can hold as much power as you need. Even devouring a universe won't stretch you thin. The only hope is that you can realize this unlimited potential. You have beyond superhuman physiques, and to a lesser extent, mental capabilities including Super Strength, Invulnerability, Super Stamina, Superhuman Reflexes, Superhuman Speed, Superhuman Speed and Superhuman Healing||

The newly evolved power was not exactly game-changing. But certain words like boundless potential did catch my attention. This evolution seemed like it was aimed more at preparing me for something bigger than just handing me some power and being done with it. At least, that was what I hoped since if this thing was just a fancier name for my previous perk, then the system had completely scammed me.

Anyway, let's look at my divinity stat. At least, I hope I didn't get scammed in that. The divinity I got can be said to be one of the most broken and coolest forms of power ever. So, I am really excited about it.

||Divine Authority: The user now has limited authority over two divine concepts. As long as those concepts (Domination & Void) exist, the user will be able to derive and recharge his divine energies through them. Cosmic, Universal, and Dimensional energies are no longer required by the user to recharge his powers. The more the concept exists around the user, the stronger the user becomes||

||Divine Domain (Domination & Void): The user has command over a certain domain, a sphere of influence. Within this domain, the user's powers and level of existence are enhanced by fifty percent of what it was before while all enemies' powers and levels of existence will be decreased by fifty percent. In this domain, the user can even erase concepts and fixed laws of reality. The stronger the power, the more laws and concepts the user can obliterate||

||Divine presence (Aura of Oblivion): The user can release and surround themselves in/with null elements for defensive and/or offensive purposes. The auras may also give the user enhanced physical capabilities as well as cause genuine fear in targets. The aura can also protect the user from being affected by the domain of other beings||

||Nothingness Manipulation: The user can create, shape, and manipulate nothingness, the absence of entities or substances. With this the user can remove energy and matter from existence, by simply making things disappear, preventing energy from ever being conceived or via varied other means. They can control the essence of oblivion, allowing them to delete an eternity, even remove targets from all timelines in every dimension with enough practice, alter, reverse, or negate energy; etc. This could also lead to an ultimate goal of "destroying matter and energy" as in bringing it out of existence. The user can break any attack and defense since anything that comes into contact with it disappears irremediably without leaving any trace behind especially when it's the user's own void||

||Silence of the Abyss: The user has limited authority and duty over the void of the omniverse and its eldritch residents. They can trap targets in this void to destroy them, imprison them, or use these eldritch horrors to attack them. The lower tier of these monsters will even do your bidding. But always remember, the more you stare into the abyss, the more the abyss stares into you||

[Voidmancer (Title Card): 30% less damage received from all void, abyss, destruction, and nothingness-based abilities.]

'... Yeah, those skills are not creepy at all... But still, these divine abilities are pretty OP. I don't think I even have to worry about the everyday threats of the Marvel world with this anymore. Maybe, after so many years of living in this fucked up world, I can at last call myself overpow... Naah, I am still pretty weak.' I instantly stopped my line of thought as I suddenly remembered the giant space foodie with a penchant for devouring planets that I met a couple of days ago.

I might be closer to Galactus' power level but I will have to work much harder if I want to mercilessly beat him down like I plan to in my mind. I was still far off from that level of power.

Maybe, it's time I started collecting some infinity stones for myself. 

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