In the future...

Hakaira's Pov...

After falling towards my death, all I could remember was Yura's expression filled with sadness and tears.

This pained me, as I never wanted to be away from her, but losing her was even worse.

That was why I decided to sacrifice myself instead of letting her do so for me, however, as I fell from the cliff all I could remember was feeling powerless for the first time.

The same thought kept repeating in my head as I couldn't seem to release myself from that feeling, in fact with each passing second I could only remember that feeling pervading through my body.

I felt as if I was laying on a cold floor, however, the coldness pierced my back and continued to go towards my head.

However, suddenly this feeling disappeared as I heard a voice saying, "I'll be waiting, host."

My eyes opened and my entire upper body sat up as I moved my right arm and tried to reach for what was in front of me, as I shouted, "YURA!"

But as I opened my eyes there was no one there, I then noticed that I was now in a similar endless white environment where I met God and Above all.

I then heard a voice saying, "So you're awake."

I turned and saw the same entity whom I had just met, "Above all.", I said while looking towards his strange human form.

He smiled and clenched his right fist and said, "That was a great gesture of affection that you did for your system, truly an excelsior performance."

I simply looked towards the ground and asked, "Now comes the part of our deal, am I right?"

Above all looked like he wanted to say something but seemed to keep it to himself as he replied saying, "Hmm... Yes, for you to become stronger and save my universe you will need to experience a few tasks that could potentially kill you. However, if you survive you will be able to attain powers that could rival my own to save the universe."

I took a moment to digest the words that above all had just said and was honestly shocked, as I never imagined that this training that I would go through could rival his powers.

Above all then said, "However, before we begin I need you to look at what has happened so far and what you will be dealing with soon."

However, due to imagining the thought of obtaining powers that could potentially rival Above all's own, I was honestly inwardly shocked and could not catch what he said.

Above all then called out my name as I kept dreaming, "Hakaira... Hakaira... HAKAIRA!"

I was caught off-guard and unconsciously reacted by jumping backward as I never expected him to shout my name in front of me.

Looking slightly disappointed at my reaction he shook his head and quietly whispered to himself, "I truly hope that you are prepared."

I could hear what he said, but I did not put any thought to it as I asked, "Why? What happened?"

Above all snapped his fingers and replied saying, "This is what has happened."

Out of nowhere, a holographic video screen appeared in front of me and showed an image of Yura fighting a red-haired human who had appeared on Vormir.

I was confused and asked, "Who is that? What's going on?"

Above all was silent but then replied saying, "Watch closely."

After hearing his reply I could only watch as I saw Yura fighting this red-haired human, however, what I witnessed was something I never expected.

As they were fighting Yura spoke out a name that I never thought would come up so soon.

"Destoroyah!" As I heard that name I was shocked, as I never imagined that the same creature whom I had just recently killed would now look more like a human instead.

The two kept fighting as they both used attacks that caused wind pressure to form just from the blow of their punches.

However, as the fight continued between Yura and Destoroyah I felt like something was off as Destroroyah seemed to be enjoying the fight and was not breaking a sweat.

It was then I realized why I had that ominous feeling, as Yura gathered energy within the infinity glove and suddenly snapped her finger.

She was then enveloped by the light produced from the infinity glove, I knew what she had tried to do as she planned to erase Destoroyah from the fabric of reality with the glove.

However, what I saw was something I never could have imagined, Destoroyah was still floating and did not have a single scratch on him.

I was truly shocked, as Destoroyah said, "The power of the infinity stones can no longer affect me."

This worried me deeply as I saw that Yura was exhausted due to overusing the power of the infinity glove, whereas Destoroyah seemed to be taking pleasure in it.

I looked to Above all, hoping for a solution to have him help Yura, but it was then I remembered that he could not intervene.

It pained and angered me to watch Yura fight as Destoroyah was merely using her as a toy and wasn't even fighting her seriously.

I crouched onto the cold white floor and punched it with all my strength which managed to pierce through it and creating a two-meter sized hole.

I then looked back at the screen only to see Yura no longer managing to fight Destoroyah evenly, as at this point she was slowly being pummeled by his barrage of attacks.

However, I couldn't anything but watch as she screamed in pain but wouldn't let Destoroyah have the pleasure in that as whenever he would take a look at her expression, she would taunt him instead.

Destoroyah, however, smiled in return and would continue to pummel her with powerful punches that even I knew I would have a tough time dealing with.

For nearly half an hour Destoroyah kept attacking Yura and giving her no time to defend herself, meanwhile, I was in a turmoil of emotions as I walked up to Above all while looking towards the ground.

I then said, "Please... Help her."

Above all was silent but then pointed towards the screen and said, "Don't worry, she'll be fine, watch."

I then turned to look towards the screen and saw the infinity glove within Yura's hand glowing, but then noticed that it was not the infinity glove but the soul stone contained within the glove.

Suddenly, the light produced by the soul stone enveloped Yura's body whereas Destoroyah who had the lower half of his body decapitated shouting towards Yura about what was going on.

Even I was surprised as I never expected Yura to have a plan of escape, but when I looked towards Above all to ask him about what had just happened.

He merely waved his left hand and said, "Now then, since Yura is safe, can we get back to our bargain."

I was surprised by his casual tone as if he knew that what happened to Yura was something he expected, so I asked him, "What do you mean she's safe?"

Above all stood for a moment and said, "Well, you see the soul stone within the infinity glove detected that Yura was in danger, therefore it saved her by transporting her into a pocket dimension contained within it."

Above all then looked at me and said, "Don't worry, in fact being inside the soul stone will be somewhat beneficial for her, but at the moment you need to get stronger and fast because the final battle will take place two years from now."

I was confused and asked, "How are you so sure that it will be two years from now and not earlier?"

After hearing my question, Above all merely said, "Well, let's just say that the Beyonders are not that patient, especially since the soul stone has now been obtained."

Hearing about the Beyonders from Above all, normally would be overwhelming for any individual, but for some reason, it sounded like something interesting and probably fun.

Above all then looked at around and then said, "There's no need to hide, if you have something to say, say it to him."

I was confused by Above alls words as I looked around to see who he was talking to when suddenly a flash of light appeared and revealed someone whom I knew very well.

"Hello, Hakaira.", the person said while looking at me, however, I did not care as I walked up to him and gave him a well-deserved punch to his jaw.

The person fell to the ground and said, "Wow! It's been a while since I've felt that."

But I did not give him a moment of rest as I lifted him off the ground and shouted, "EXPLANATION! Now."

He looked at me with blood flowing from the side of lips and said, "Alright, I guess you deserve one."

Even though I was pissed for him not telling me about his plan of sacrificing Yura to help me obtain the soul stone, I slowly placed him on the ground to let him explain.

But as I did, he suddenly punched me in the jaw and said, "You did not expect me to take that lying down now, did you."

I was surprised by the amount of power God had within his punch, but after spitting out the blood within my mouth I then replied, "No... not really."

I then said, "Now, your explanation."

God nodded and replied, "Of course... but first."

He then looked towards Above all and said, "Greetings Above all."

Above all looked at God with contempt and replied saying, "Greetings to you too... Author."

All of a sudden a heavy atmosphere pervaded through the air as the two kept looking at each other, I was interested in what was going on but I knew that the current situation wasn't progressing at all.

So I quickly looked towards Above all and said, "Above all, do you mind.", with sincerity in my voice as he looked at me.

He noticed that I wanted to speak to God alone and said, "Fine, I'll leave you two alone for now."

Above all then disappeared leaving only God and me to talk, God looked at me and sighed while sitting down, but then chuckled and said, "You can stop calling me God for starters."

I wasn't surprised when he said that, after he could read my every thought, however, I merely ignored what he said as I replied with a tone of anger, "Your explanation."

God or whatever his name is then said, "Call me Author for my sake, and for your explanation well, it's complicated as you're right, I did plan for Yura to sacrifice herself to help you obtain the soul stone."

At this point, I felt like giving Author another punch to his jaw, however, I held back as he calmly explained himself, "Well, at first this was the reason."

Hearing what he said I resisted the urge to punch him right there as I heard him then say, "However, I had a plan to extract her soul once you obtained the stone."

I was confused as he then asked, "Do you know why I asked you to seek out the Ancient One?"

Suddenly I remembered before coming to this universe the Author specifically told me to seek out the Ancient one.

"You see the Ancient one and I have a difficult history, as I once meddled in this universe in the past and that is why Above all is sort of pissed when he noticed my presence in his universe once again.", the author said while sighing.

I was surprised as I never expected the Author to actually have a history with beings such as The one above all, "But you see back then, I assisted the Ancient One in a conflict with a being that was a bit of greedy bastard who wanted to devour the earth. This, in turn, guaranteed that the Ancient one owed me a favor, but in the process, I angered the one above all for interfering with his world."

The Author then looked at me and said, "However, he then decides to forgive me by forbidding me from ever entering his universe ever again."

Hearing him talk about his past I actually found that the God whom I feared, seemed different now as if he was someone else entirely.

"Anyways, after being cast out of this universe I found you and another idiot whom I won't mention. But shortly after your death in the previous world, I felt the restriction made by Above all to enter his universe was undone. That was when I knew that something happened and now... here we are, he couldn't even give me a proper explanation and now he expects us to help him."

I nodded and allowed him to keep going, "That was why I told you to visit the ancient one because with her help in creating Yura's soul you would be able to obtain the soul stone and I would be able to extract her soul within it. However, I really underestimated the fact that you loved Yura too much and that you would sacrifice yourself for her, for that I apologize."

I could tell he was sincere but this wasn't enough for me as he then looked towards me and said, "Don't worry I plan to atone for my action in the future, but for now I have something important to do."

He then stood up and said, "Until then goodbye, for now, Hakaira."

Suddenly the author's body was covered in light and vanished, I then stood there until I heard the voice of Above alls saying, "Hakaira, it is time."

I was at first surprised when my body was suddenly enveloped in light, but then curious as to where Above all would take me to learn about the stones.