[28] Anna... Is That You?

Chapter 28: Anna... Is That You?

—

The universe belonged to those who were truly powerful. Such as the Mad Titan – Thanos.

Loki learned that the hard way.

When Loki faked his death and fell from the Bifrost, he wasn't expecting to fall before the throne of Thanos. The figure of the Mad Titan was menacing enough, but the powerful being didn't have Loki's best interest in mind. At least, not at first, when Loki was refusing to take his request.

After a lot of talking, and a little bit of torture, Loki had to accept the deal that Thanos was proposing. He had to agree to lead an army of Chitauri to go and take over Earth.

The Mad Titan was the one to give him all the resources, and even one of the Six Infinity Stones that governed the universe, and all he had to do was to take over the world in his stead.

Ultimately, he would get to rule over humanity and the entire planet Earth as a whole. In return, he would be serving Thanos. As for why Thanos was being so generous, Loki didn't know the direct answer but he had a pretty good guess.

If humanity was under Loki's rule, and by extension Thanos' rule, then a lot of the Earthly

Pantheons would go down. Even the greatest Pantheons will be weakened, namely Olympus and Asgard, which will help Thanos in the long shot.

The Mad Titan was planning something big.

And for what, Loki guessed, he wanted to deal with the threatening Gods of the earthly Pantheons first. Namely Odin, the All-Father of Asgard, as they already had a history with one another.

It's been centuries since their last clash, but Loki vividly remembered how Thanos was always weary of Odin. Despite his… hate for the old man, Loki had to admit how great and powerful Odin truly was.

Still, he wanted to kill Odin. Just like Thanos did. Or at least, put him to his Odin sleep for eternity. So, Loki agreed to Thanos' mission.

Now, here he was, riding a Chitauri and shooting across the city. The fools who called themselves the "Avengers" were fighting the army quite well. Oh, and they even had a few new backups. Namely, a woman whose arms were fiery red as she destroyed enemies with ease.

More than her, however, Loki noticed a sense of divinity in the area. It was as if a God… other than Loki and Thor themselves, was around. No, not really a God, but something close.

"How annoying." Loki turned in the direction in which his Chitauri flying vehicle was going. Just then, his senses flared, and he shot his hand toward his face. Smoothly, a modern arrow slipped into his grip, and he smirked.

His eyes locked onto the archer who shot the arrow, the same human named Clint whom Loki had mind controlled before. Loki had to admit his archery was better than most Asgardian, but whatever the case, he was just a human who was shooting arrows at a God.

"Foolish hu-" Then, the arrow exploded in his face.

– Boom!

Loki groaned and was shot flying from the sky. The Chitauri vehicle shot to the other side, and he shot behind, falling back. Thankfully there was a pretty solid building right behind him, and he landed on its balcony. Not that falling would have killed him, despite it being hundreds of meters in the sky, but he would rather not fall.

"Agh, these swine." Loki's Scepter had fallen to the side, and he slowly got up while groaning to pick it up. However, just as he was about to do that, something else landed near his feet.

It was that lowly human female, the pitiful assassin. Black Widow jumped from the Chitauri she had hijacked, and rolled on the balcony, getting up and turning around to face Loki.

"Haha…" Loki slowly grinned as he stood up, his hands reaching up for the Scepter. But honestly, he could beat her even without it. She was just a mere human who knew how to fight more than well.

Then, just before he could grab Scepter, a white nova shot through the air and slammed him on the chest.

"I got this, go take care of other things."

Super-Nova, the man from whom Loki was feeling the faint trace of divinity, picked up the Scepter and ordered Black Widow. The woman hesitated for a moment, but looking back at the way he had come from, the trail of dead enemies behind, she quickly nodded and jumped off, hijacking another vehicle.

Then, the bright superhero turned to Loki. He grabbed Loki by the collar, lifted him from the floor, and flew away from there in a burst.

What he was planning to do couldn't be done in the Stark Tower, where a million and a half CCTV was observing everything.

"Let me free!"

"Soon."

Loki struggled, and Enrique maintained a stoic frame.

****

Rogue and Greer were supposed to be together but it was kind of hard to pull off in this sort of situation. To deal with an immediate enemy, or perhaps to save a civilian, the two overtime grew apart and now they didn't know where they were.

Thankfully, they could still speak via their earpieces. Mother Goddess Mut could actually set up a telepathic network between them, but since they couldn't speak to Enrique due to his special affinity, that plan was scrapped.

Finally, the earpieces became useful.

– [Rogue? I want you to move to the designated location.]

While Anna was busy tearing down a few Chitauri, Enrique's voice rang in her head and she paused.

"On it." Rogue jumped around a car, rolling on the roof, and dodged a few beams of attack. She kicked the ground and moved like a hungry tigress, her amulet shining gently, as she reached the enemies and kicked them in the neck. Each kick had the force of a hammer, and the necks of the enemies shattered like plastic.

Rogue turned around, looking for more enemies, but when she noted that there were none in the near vicinity, she kicked the ground and dashed towards where Enrique called her to go.

Till now, Rogue wasn't aware of what Enrique was planning for her. So she felt a little nervous, but at the same time – she felt very excited.

Perhaps today was the day when she would get over her meek and pathetic self.

"Let's focus."

X-x-X

It was chaos. Everything was broken, and buildings were wrecked. People fled for their lives, and few failed on their way. Feeble humans were dying, they were being injured, while the few gifted individuals of this era were giving their best to end this all.

For a God like him, as he sat down and drank wine, surrounded by the roofless bar that had fallen to the Chitauri earlier, all this felt… amusing at best.

Sometimes debris would fly by, and sometimes the Chitauri would shoot their beams at him. He would just step to the side, still sitting on a stool, and watch the beam pass by like a sluggish snail.

For him, the Messenger of Olympus, the God of speed, and thieves – Hermes – this was just another war humanity fought in their thousand years of reign.

Frankly speaking, this is special since it's an Alien Invasion, but oh well. He wore a classy suit, his blonde hair slicked back, and a glass of wine in his hand that he sipped slowly.

This lowly wine wasn't of his taste, but he drank it anyway to make a note to himself, to remind himself of the luxury he lives in. Occasionally, it's better to let one realize just how much better they were than the others.

Not that he had come here to enjoy bad wine, nor that he enjoyed this suit and slicked-back hair, Hermes was here for something else entirely.

Enrique Nova, Avatar to Egypt Goddess Mut, had recently been causing quite a scene. To be fair, it wasn't enough to garner the attention of All-Father Zeus, so this visit wasn't anything official, but Hermes was interested in seeing this human in person before he would inevitably cause bigger scenes.

He wasn't expecting an Alien Invasion, though.

Hermes wasn't planning to converse with Enrique, per se. He just wished to see the man for once. One could say Hermes just missed the earth and wanted to see the state it was in right now; he just used Enrique as an excuse to come to visit this mortal plane.

Still,

"Enrique Nova, huh."

Hermes wasn't inside the broken bar anymore.

He suddenly stood on top of a skyscraper, hidden by the shadow of a larger one; he had moved so fast that even Gods might mistake it for teleportation.

With one hand in his pocket, his other hand raised the unfinished glass of wine to take another sip. His eyes stared at the scene ahead, which went so bright that Hermes had to wear his shades.

Enrique Nova, under his Supernova alias, floated right before a leviathan, those long, centipede-like creatures. He was about to do a flashy attack.

"…Oh." Hermes paused, the wine held in his mouth. As Enrique attacked indeed, a little flashier than what Hermes was prepared for, he went silent. He was expecting a lightning attack from Supernova's hands, but this was…

Heat Vision. In hindsight, it wasn't a super complex technique. What was unique about it was, the God most known for this move was Amun-Ra. New Gods wouldn't usually try to replicate the signature technique of a Chief. But given Mut's marital status with Amun-Ra, it was easily explained.

The beam of golden plasma cut through the gigantic metal worm smoothly, as Hermes stared in silence.

"How petrifying." This scene reminded him of Amun-Ra. Despite it having been centuries, Hermes felt a chill run down his spine as he recalled that being.

The God Eater.

"Looks like I have to report to Father about this."

This may be more troubling than what met the eye. Choosing Avatars was the only thing that Egyptian Gods weren't banned from, so Olympus hadn't taken any action yet, but at this rate…

If Mut was trying to create another Amun-Ra, then it's better to put things to a stop now than regret them later.

****

Black-Cat had a sudden urge.

While dodging attacks from countless Chitauri, and slowly coming to terms with the limits of her power, taking them down with relative ease, she had this urge to punch her shining hero.

"Next time, for sure." Perhaps saying 'next time', while being surrounded by a few dozen Chitauri was but a mere delusion, as they pointed their gun and charged it up right at her face, but she believed in her nine lives.

Perhaps she was being delusional, but hey.

– Chip Chip Chip Chip!

She was a cat, in the end.

Thick white something shot through the air, slamming on the Chitauri one after another, sticking their bodies against their arms and guns, and in a second they were all immobilized.

That wasn't their end though, as a red and blue figure came swinging by the sky, and kicked the group in a circular motion. Hanging from a web that was stuck to a nearby skyscraper, Spider-Man maneuvered his body in a circle and dealt with the group of Chitauri in a second.

The few that managed to slip, Black-Cat moved to yank by their throat, dealing with them as well.

"Good job, Spider!" Black-Cat yelled, throwing a playful kiss in the air before she pointed at the crowd behind her. It was the group Supernova tagged behind her.

"Can you deal with them? Take them to safety, I am busy running-"

"Great! You are saving people even in this situation?! I am surprised again- oops, uh, not that I know you personally!" Before Black-Cat could explain her scenario, Spidey started blabbering. He and his class were saved by Black-Cat a few months ago, from the hands of Electro. Black-Cat already learned his identity from there, too.

"Anyhow, good job! You take them to safety, I will try to save some other people!"Spider-Man said and turned around. He shot his web at one of the many skyscrapers, as Black-Cat yelled from behind before he vanished into the denser fight.

"Ughhh! I hate superheroes!" Stomping on her feet, Black-Cat had no choice but to continue her adventure of leading the people to safety.

No, life should be simple like stealing and sleeping. Why was she doing this sort of pressuring chores?

"Dammit."

X-x-X

"You mudblood!"

Enrique threw the blabbering Loki on the floor, as he rolled the ground and then cursed at him.

Enrique's cape moved away from his shoulders. It rushed to Loki and tied against his wrists and forearms.

"What are you doing?! You are a mere Avatar! Act like one! Free me this instant!"

Loki continued his session of yells while Enrique looked around him.

It was an abandoned garage. He had rented this piece off a few days ago after Anna told him about her wish to grow stronger. This wasn't the only garage, he had rented quite a few for emergencies, but this was the one closest.

This garage was where his plans would be executed. If nothing went wrong.

"Which God are you the Avatar of? Who sent you?! Was it Olympus?!"

That made Enrique turn his head and look at Loki. So he didn't know whose Avatar he was? Did that mean Gods couldn't tell at a glance which God an Avatar served? 

"I am Loki of Asgard, you'll pay for this!"

Loki struggled to free himself while yelling, but his attempts were meaningless.

Enrique chuckled deeply.

"Weren't you exiled, Prince Loki? How idiotic of you to still brag about Asgard. We wouldn't be after you if you still were a part of Asgard."

Obviously, Enrique had discussed this with Goddess Mut before engaging. She permitted him only because Loki was already exiled. There shouldn't be any danger from Asgard to Egypt after this incident.

Enrique continued.

"I can give you useless ranting about how you were being a manchild, jealous and insecure about meaningless things, but that'd be a waste of time. I usually only do typical villain dialogues when I'm trying to buy myself time."

"You dare! You dare call a God such as I, a manchild?! Free me this instant, and let us find out who is-"

Loki continued yelling, but Enrique tuned him out and turned his head to the side. His ears had picked up a little sound from far away. He watched the gate of the garage, as it moved upwards, and then Anna Marie – Rogue – walked inside.

"Rogue."

"Supernova."

The two greeted each other, and then Rogue paused as she looked at the body tied to the floor.

"This guy is… from the news? He was there in Germany."

"Yes, he is a God from the Asgardian Mythology. I think you'd know Thor and Odin, right?"

"Yes, I recall reading about them back in school. So is this the guy who…"

Rogue didn't finish her sentence and looked at Enrique. Enrique walked to her and put his hand around her shoulder, giving it a slight squeeze. He then led her forward, towering over the body of Loki. He was still yelling.

"You saw what sort of person this guy is. He's quite the scum, you agree? So I believe you shouldn't feel guilty if any accidents occur."

"You two! What are you talking about?! What is this foolishness? Girl! Yes, you! Free me this instant, and I shall grant you a seat in my palace after I take over the earth!"

Loki yelled seeing them chatting over him, as the two of them exchanged glances. Rogue broke into a giggle, and Enrique shook his head.

"Alright. I guess I won't feel guilty if it's him. What are his powers though?"

As she was asking, she crouched down. Enrique stood over her with his arms crossed and watched the procedure with careful eyes.

"You'll see what his powers are. It's mostly illusion based. Do remember, he is still a God. If anything feels wrong, immediately tell me. If you can't talk for some reason, then back off."

"Alright."

Rouge was crouched down near Loki's face. Her green eyes stared down at his as he yelled, calling her names, but she ignored it all. Slowly, she put her hand on his cheeks. Loki's eyelids flinched but then nothing happened.

"Huh? Nothing happened?"

Rogue frowned and looked back at Enrique, who facepalmed.

"Take your gloves off."

"Oh. Ah. Right."

With an embarrassed blush, Rogue quickly took off her gloves and put them aside. 

Loki grew nervous this time. He could tell that something was going on. Sadly, he couldn't use his powers when his hands were tied like this. He needed to move his hands to use his powers.

Now, when Rogue's hands touched his cheeks, he flinched visibly. His entire body shook, and his body trembled. 

"Wha-"

He tried to say something, but the veins on his face and neck tightened. He grumbled, his voice weird, as he felt his strength leave his body.

Rogue stared down at Loki, her eyes gaining light, as she felt a rush of power sweeping into her body.

It was different. Compared to anything she had absorbed before, this felt so much richer. What was that energy that was rushing into her?

"Haaahhh…"

Rogue's limbs trembled. This power felt delicious. It was soul-touching. She felt her muscles tremble, as they grew a lot stronger.

Loki wasn't strong compared to Thor, but he was still a Frost Giant. His body was a lot stronger than a human's.

What more Frost Giants had were pure Ice Powers. Loki, the son of the strongest Frost Giant, had pure blood. Rogue with her power could absorb the essence of that blood. Her veins that were filling up with magical energy, Mana, began to fill up with Frost Giant bloodline powers instead.

"Ah-!"

Visible blue lines went up through her veins as Enrique frowned.

"Are you alright?"

"Ah, yes, it's just chilly…"

"Don't worry about it. It's one of his powers. Though he hates using it."

Rogue returned a vague nod at that and continued focusing. Not that the process needed any of her focus, it was automatic. Enrique observed the steam of blue grow, as Loki entered a seizure. His skin turned ice blue, reacting to the process, and his true form came into sight.

The process was long. Perhaps it was because he was a God, or maybe this was the usual time one took to entirely absorb another's power. Enrique didn't know. 

Rogue's breathing grew rigid. When she first absorbed the Mana, it was a stream of bright blue through her veins. As she was absorbing the Frost Giant powers, it was an icy blue color. But as this side was done absorbing as well, the next part was a rich color of green.

Enrique watched as the blue changed to green and Rogue, who was feeling uncomfortable from the heat, with her entire body a light shade of blue by now, reacted in surprise. Her face turned into a show of pleasure as divinity rushed into her body.

The power of the Gods, Divinity.

"E-enrique- m-memories!"

Rogue yelled with a sharp moan, her expression bewildered.

'So she is absorbing his memories too. I don't know how much though.' Enrique clicked his tongue.

It was a little problematic. But there were benefits too. Depending on what the memories were, they could teach her how to use magic from the get-go.

Rogue could absorb memories of the people she was sucking the powers of. It hadn't happened until now because she hadn't absorbed enough. She also kept a bit of their personalities, too. Which could be a real problem, given she was touching Loki of all people.

By now, Loki was a shaking corpse. Not that he was dead, but he wished he was. He looked in great pain, but he didn't have the power to move a muscle.

Enrique looked at Rogue. The power to subdue a God… with just a touch. How terrifying she was. He was glad that she was so naive and by his side.

The process continued for a bit longer, and, as Enrique watched, he noticed how Rogue's body language changed a little.

At last, nothing was coming from Rogue's touch anymore. Rogue gently withdrew her hands. But she didn't move after that. She stayed in her spot, her movements still.

"Rogue? …Anna?"

Enrique called, frowning.

Then, in sharp movements, she turned her head around. Her green eyes locked with his. Luminous green energy shone in the air, and golden horns formed on her head. Her blue skin returned to normal, and her dress was replaced by a scaly green one, with a fur coat hanging over her shoulders, while accessories hung from her hair and neck.

Her brown hair went black, though her partial white hair was still there.

[Image Here]

 "You foolish mudblood."

"If this is a prank you better stop."

"Prank? You think a Goddess would joke around?"

Rogue's accent was different. Enrique sighed and watched her get up, while he called Mut in his head.

'Any solution to this? Like removing the foreign memories?'

[There is but, uh, it's a long process. I don't think you can do it right here.]

'Dammit.'

 Then, in a fast motion, faster than ever, she leaped at Enrique. Enrique was about to pack a punch in response, to leave her jaw dismantled, but he paused at the last moment. Because… 

"Enrique!"

The girl jumped to hug his arms.

"Got you! Ahaha, you should have seen your expression, sugah!"

"...."

…Enrique gave her a suspicious look, careful if she would pull out a knife or not. However, she didn't do any of such things, making him sigh and hug her back.

"I nearly dislocated your jaw. Stupid prank."

"Worth it."

She turned her head from his chest and looked into his eyes. Her green eyes were more vibrant than ever before. They had a supernatural glint. 

Her lustrous black hair vanished and her brown hair returned, as did her old outfit.

"It's not entirely an act though. I do… feel a great deal of change within me, but I suppose you'll just have to fix anything you don't like manually? You mudblood~"

"First thing, you don't call me that. I'll break your pinky." Enrique pinched her nose and stared into her eyes. "Second… let us leave, we need to make a bit of a show outside before it all ends."

The two of them cast a long look at Loki who was seemingly frozen in time. He was in a coma, as it happened with anybody who came too long of contact with Rogue's touch. He might wake up, or he might not. Whatever the case, there was no need to let anybody else find them with his comatose body.

Enrique's cape came flying and attached itself back to his shoulder. He grabbed Anna by her waist, feeling her plump curve, and then took off in the air, lifting the door and flying off.

That day, a new God of Mischief was born.

That day, Anna's first divine power was acquired.

**

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Master4thWall Note: Here with a recommendation 🔥it's also a shoutout for a close friend. It's about a man reincarnating inside a fantasy game, with the powers of a murim/cultivation name - the power of Heavenly Demon. 

I helped plan the story in the beginning, and some of the powers are named by me – as you'd notice in the incoming chapters of Eternal Samsara when Aqua uses the powers from his heavenly demon life (9th life). So do give it a try, it's cool asf!

Check it out RoyalRoad, currently uploaded 8 chapters = 40k words!

===

Title: The Martial God: Establishing a Demonic Cult in a World of Magic [Isekai LitRPG]

Synopsis:

Iskandaar Romani, the loser son of a Count, lived life with a woman on each arm and booze between his lips. He wanted to rise through the Levels, overcome all walls, and have Queens and Empresses wooing up to him. Sadly, born with a sick and mana-less body, dreams only remained as dreams, and he could only cling to his father's wealth to live in cheap luxury.

Until even that ended, he died, and I got stuck.

A new world with limitless possibilities. A Game System, classes, magic, and monsters. As much as I loved that as a gamer, there was a problem. In this world where everyone worshiped Gods, I have become a Demon. Uh, well, somewhat... A Demonic Cultivator was quite different from those bat-winged demons, I suppose.

The Heavenly Demon of Murim God Cult did not need wings to fly, anyway. Unfortunately, that did not lessen my worries, only increased it.

Starting with, how do you make a Cult and save the world?

[Quest: Make a Cult; Save the World.]

Goddammit.