Defying Logic

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It wasn't long before Dante returned, and on a cart levitating behind him were thirty-five coffin-like cages that each contained an unconscious convict with a string of codes on their neck and wearing orange clothes. It was clear that these people are convicts from the Lunar Citadel.

The Lunar Citadel is a state-of-the-art maximum security prison situated on the surface of the moon. Designed to hold the most dangerous and high-profile criminals of Earth.

The Lunar Citadel is not only a place of confinement; it also serves as a research center for studying the most dangerous criminals and understanding their powers and abilities. Scientists and researchers work within the facility to unravel the mysteries of the inmates' arcanas, in the hopes of developing countermeasures and gaining a greater understanding of arcanas.

Dante, being one of Earth's elite scientists and guardians, didn't face the slightest difficulty in entering the citadel and bringing out a group of criminals under the excuse of using them as science experiments.

After all, who cares about such criminals?

The situation of Earth might've stabilized, but there's no guarantee that another near-extinction event wouldn't come in the near future. In such a chaotic era, arcanists who dare commit violent and vicious crimes for selfish and malicious reasons are bound to be sent to the Lunar Citadal for an indefinite period of time.

"You picked out a lot of strong candidates, old crow," Aldrich said, his eyes glinting in excitement.

"Of course," Dante responded, but then raised a brow. "Do you know who they are?"

"Sort of," Aldrich stated, confusing Dante and the others. He continued, "That pink-haired one, who is she?"

Dante looked at his tablet and said, "She is Mao Yi-Ting, a Level 5 Arcanist. She was a former resident of Beijing Base-City, and a descendant of Mao Zedong. She was convicted due to multiple cases of rape, mutilation, and torture."

"Her arcanas are Explosion Generation and Cloning," Aldrich said.

"..."

"Am I right or not?" Aldrich smiled.

"... You can see people's arcanas," Dante mumbled, shocked.

"I can see if their arcana is replicable and plunderable as well. Based on that, I think there is a cooldown time with my arcanas. I'm not sure about other limitations though."

"I see." Dante was rather shaken at the revelation.

The other three were just as shaken as he was.

If there were no limitations to Aldrich's Arcana Replication and Arcana Theft, wouldn't that mean that he's bound to become an invincible existence?

Moreover, with his Arcana Bestowment, wouldn't he be able to bestow arcanas to other people?

In the future, Aldrich's power was bound to reach a level never-before-seen on Earth. If he ever so wanted, he can become the God Emperor of Earth?

Whilst the four wandered off into their imaginations, Aldrich decided to check his parents and grandfather's arcanas out of curiosity.

Name: Dante Adam

Species: Earth Human

Arcana/s:

• Crow Demon Transformation (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

• Gravity Manipulation (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

• Electromagnetism Manipulation (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

• Super Physique (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

• Metal Manipulation (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

Arcanas can be innate and acquired.

Innate arcanas are the arcanas that people are born with and the first arcanas they awaken. The official world record for the most arcanas awakened in the first awakening is held by Antoinette Zhao, who awakened a total of five arcanas. However, to this day, it's still super rare for someone to awaken three, and there are no records of anyone awakening four arcanas at their first awakening.

As an arcanist's power level rises, he or she can awaken more of their dormant arcanas, or their arcanas can combine into a singular, stronger arcana under certain conditions.

Acquired arcanas are arcanas that arcanists acquire via external methods. Such arcanas can be acquired by consuming and/or refining special materials like treasures of heaven and earth.

Similar to innate arcanas, acquired arcanas can fuse with other arcanas under certain conditions.

According to what Aldrich had read, it is common for Level 10 Arcanists to have four to five arcanas.

However, if an arcanist has body morphing-type arcana, there's a far higher chance of their acquired arcanas to fuse with their body morphing-type arcana. Thus, leading to those with body morphing-type arcana to have lesser amounts of arcanas than their peers.

So, despite his grandfather being a transcendent arcanist, Aldrich wasn't surprised to find that he has no more than five arcanas.

Name: Adamas Adam

Species: Earth Human

Arcana/s:

• Diamond Form (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

• Force-Field Generation (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

• Super Physique (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

• Gravity Manipulation (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

• Tremor Generation (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

• Liquid Mimicry (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

Name: Ramona Black

Species: Earth Human

Arcana/s:

• Super Physique (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

• Pain Empowerment (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

• Bone Manipulation (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

• Muscle Manipulation (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

• Blood Manipulation (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

• Parasitism (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

'An immovable object and an unstoppable force. I guess they are a match made in heaven,' Aldrich thought as he gazed towards the convicts.

Name: Neil Red

Species: Earth Human

Arcana/s:

• Super Intelligence (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

• Radiation Manipulation (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

'Hold on. Isn't this guy a Youtuber?' Aldrich browsed the internet for a moment. 'Oh, no. Nevermind. I was thinking about Nile Braun.'

Name: Hamza El-Mansouri

Species: Earth Human

Arcana/s:

• Gigantification (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

• Fire Generation (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

'Eh...'

Name: Vick Clinton

Species: Earth Human

Arcana/s:

• Super Regeneration (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

• Draconic Breath (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

• Super Physique (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

• Snow Manipulation (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

'Mediocre.'

Name: Abe Hinata

Species: Earth Human

Arcana/s:

• Lightning Manipulation (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

• Light Distortion (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

• Navigation (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

'I might need the Navigation Arcana…'

Name: Rani Devi Chandrika

Species: Earth Human

Arcana/s:

• Mental Manipulation (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

• Gold Manipulation (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

• Super Physique (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

• Teleportation (Awakened - Replicable, Plunderable)

'Hah! Rather fitting for a political convict.'

Five minutes after checking the convict's arcanas and making comments about them later, Aldrich presented a list of arcanas that he was most interested in replicating and plundering from the convict at the moment.

The arcanas he listed were:

Neil Red - Radiation Manipulation

Abe Hinata - Navigation

Rani Devi Chandrika - Mental Manipulation & Teleportation

Isabella Santos - Biological Manipulation

Mark Zuckerberg - Dragon Transformation

Sofia Petrov - Size Manipulation

Lin Feng - Time Dilation Field

Ilya Volkov - Density Manipulation

Sariya Patel - Dream Manipulation

Emre Yilmaz - Technopathy & Energy Absorption

Serena Costa - Clairvoyance

Tariq Al-Mansour - Elasticity

Alexandria Rossi - Weather Manipulation

"A question before we continue." Aldrich looked at his grandfather and inquired, "Why these people though?"

"They were the only ones available. They don't want to truly change for the better, no one wants to defend them, and their only true value at this point is their research and experimentation value and how we can use them as shields for dangerous scenarios," Dante explained.

"Ah, I see."

Such people are no different from the eternal prisoners of the Eternal Eldritch Empire. Their lives expire when the empire believes that it can no longer milk them for benefits.

"Let's begin testing your arcana. In the time I was gone, I received a report about how another youngster had awakened a replication arcana," Dante stated, shocking nearly everyone. "However, that youngster's replication abilities are temporary and only works when other arcana users are around him. His arcana is actually rather similar to Monoma Neito's Quirk from My Hero Academia."

"Sometimes, I forget that you were young once," Adamas commented on his father's extensive anime/manga knowledge.

Dante ignored him and continued, "I have a feeling that more replication arcanas are going to appear. Theft or plundering-type arcanas on the other hand? I have my doubts. Even more so about the bestowment arcana."

"I'm assuming that's based on the experiments you and your colleagues have conducted, no?" Aldrich raised his eyebrows.

Surprised by Aldrich's conjecture, Dante wasn't able to reply quickly but luckily he didn't look like a fool since Ramona entered the conversation.

With a thoughtful expression, Ramona said, "Arcanas also seemingly follow a general trend. If you can call it that. Before 2020, most of the arcanas were simple elemental manipulation, physical and mental enhancements and powers. Body morphing and psionic arcanas were a rarity. It wasn't until the Woe of Beasts and the near extinction of humanity from 2020 to 2032 did more body morphing arcanas and psionic arcanas appear. New and complex elemental and non-elemental manipulation arcanas also appeared. Fairly strange arcanas just like the Parasitism Arcana I acquired also appeared. Near the end of 2032, arcanas that were more like applications of full packaged arcanas began appearing."

"Antoinette's Incinerating Swords of Lights Arcana is the perfect example of that. She can control its size and can summon them easily within ten meters of her, making it incredibly difficult to fight her in close quarters. Even if you do manage to break through her defense and enter hand-to-hand combat against her, you better have an excellent defense. Otherwise, you'll get skewered and incinerated instantly," Adamas added.

"Theorized arcanas also began appearing as if the planet is reacting to people's thoughts. Replication Arcanas are probably the most theorized arcanas, so I wouldn't be too surprised if more than two replication arcanas appear in this year and the following years," Dante said after regaining his composure. He gestured at the convicts. "Go on, test your limits."

"Do you also want me to surpass it at this very moment?" Aldrich asked, seemingly teasing the old man of his anime/manga knowledge.

Unfortunately, Dante just ignored him.

Snickering lightly, Aldrich rolled up his sleeves and approached the convicts. An unseen brightness shined from his eyes as he remarked, "None of you were wrong to say that I've changed, but that's not entirely true as I've always been myself. Perhaps I was just locked up for a very long time, but never once have I changed."

A silhouette slowly formed behind Aldrich, its size dwarfing him and most of the pillars that supported the ceiling of the spacious yet mostly empty room. While his family were incapable of seeing the silhouette, they immediately felt the immensely terrifying yet assuring aura that it emanated.

They looked at Aldrich's, bewildered and uncertain of what was happening.

Memories of Aldrich's life in his origin universe vividly began appearing in his mind, it was as if he was reliving his previous life. Every sensation and every emotion he ever experienced coursed through him. Surprisingly, memories from his early childhood vividly appeared in his mind as well.

Lucia Esperanza Rivera, that is the name of his mother. His father met her in the Golden Meadows Arcana Combine's super training camp. Both fell in love and gave birth to him in their young adulthood.

Lucia took care of Aldrich for nearly four years before succumbing to an unknown illness.

She was a very kind mother, Aldrich could remember that very well. He rarely talked to anyone about trivial matters after her passing… Undoubtedly, she was the source of his Eldritch Entity Creation arcana.

Aldrich never understood why he never once felt strange by how he addressed his new life's parents and grandparents. After all, in his previous life, he was nearly a hundred years old. There are barely any sapient beings on Earth that were as old as he was.

Yet, addressing beings far younger than him in such a way never once felt strange.

Aldrich had been pondering about this over the past week since his arrival here. It wasn't until his meeting with Yog-Sothoth did he learn and realize certain things.

Yog-Sothoth had said a lot of things. Arguably too many things. But although Aldrich was still processing the many things the supreme eldritch was saying, he understood enough.

When Aldrich's fellow eldritch godkins' experimentation on the infinite dimensional travel technology failed, the scientific and magical principles that were used in the experimentation collapsed against each other and resulted in an explosion that sent Aldrich, of all people, on a random path in the multiverse.

Because of the Eternal Eldritch Empire's connection to Yog-Sothoth, he saw its destruction and Aldrich's predicament. Yog-Sothoth immediately realized Aldrich's value and helped him out.

Yog-Sothoth sent Aldrich to this multiverse for rebirth. Unexpectedly, however, his appearance caused a change in this particular region of this multiverse.

The reason that Aldrich never felt strange about any aspect of his new life was because not only was he naturally reborn and didn't take over anyone's existence, certain people he was close to were likely to be counterparts of people that mattered in his previous life or something along those lines.

While he had a difficult time painting the full picture, Aldrich understood that he is some sort of anomaly or singularity. A true anomaly unlike most other Champions who became anomalies due to their benefactors.

That was why Aldrich had earlier said that he never changed, his consciousness just merely went into slumber until it recovered enough.

As for why he was showing off like this? Well, he could barely control it.

Aldrich was a true eldritchkin once; someone from a group of species who came into existence by luck and constantly defied the odds until the majority of them no longer could. Therefore, while the people behind him may be important to him, he still doesn't like being underestimated by weak existences, as hypocritical as it was.

An unfathomably vast power swelled up inside him, something that he hasn't felt for a long time.

Pointing at the unconscious convicts, Aldrich commanded, "Under the unfathomable might of my arcana, Eldritch Entity Creation. I

command you, my eternal undying servants, to break free from your restraints and display your might!"

Shockingly, the cages bulged and eventually burst open to reveal thirty-five figures of great power.

"Do I need to say more?"

With just those words, the new eldritch creatures organized themselves and prostrated in front of Aldrich.

Grinning widely, Aldrich praised, "Excellent."

After merely a moment of saying that, however, he groaned as he barely stopped himself from falling down.

"Aldrich!" Ishtar tearfully yelled as he rushed towards Aldrich, completely ignoring the terrifying creatures in front of him.

Dante, Adamas, and Ramona quickly followed her. With Dante arriving faster than all three of them combined, and looking at the creations of his grandson in fear and incredulity.

'I don't understand,' Dante thought.

For the first time in his life, he finally encountered something that didn't make any sort of logical sense.

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RD: Aldrich Adam, the Logic-Defying Emperor! You'll get a cookie (🍪) if you guess the reference.