Chapter 62 - Fruits of Labor

Crack.

A small crack appeared on the pitch-black egg within the endless white void. A trace of dark smoke escaped out of the small crack that formed, and a foul stench spread out with the egg as the epicenter.

Crack, crack.

More and more cracks started to appear with each passing second. The sound turned louder and louder as a cacophony of eggshells breaking rang in the empty void.

As the cracks spread out like a spider web, the whole egg suddenly expanded by a few inches and a loud thud can be heard.

The entire egg shook with each thud as one side of the egg was seemingly being pushed from the inside.

CRACKED!

A hand poked through, a hand covered in a dark and thick substance that emitted a foul stench. The black substance hid the true form of the hand underneath, but the long and messy nails that can be seen through the vile material spoke of the time that has passed.

Another hand soon pushed through the eggshell until Ryuji's head finally appeared. A pair of golden eyes shone brightly with fatigue and exhaustion. He gasped and opened his mouth to take a deep breath of air, revealing his rotten teeth and grayish tongue.

His creation—the gargantuan machine that helped him in this heaven-defying task—whirred to life. The black substance covering his body from head to toe slowly flew off into the sky, gathering into one large ball, while the egg around his body fully broke down and he landed on the ground with a soft thud.

"Ha… Ha…" His breathing was rough and unsteady. His entire body shook as he struggled to stand up. He gritted his teeth and pushed himself up from the floor and stared at the reflective mirror that popped up from the ground beneath him.

He saw an old, decrepit man, with messy white hair and a long twiddly beard. His body was riddled with wrinkles and his bones has practically fused with his skin. The smell of rotting flesh can be smelled from his dried-up body.

Yet, even though he has lost his youth and was at his life's end, a mad grin was on his crooked face. He laughed and could feel the vibrant darkness shimmering inside his soul, a dark star that shone brightly beside a golden sun.

"Hehehe…" He chuckled and ignored the hellish pain his body was in. He grabbed at a nearby robotic arm and stood up with trembling legs. His face turned more twisted and crazed, like a demon from hell.

"AHAHAHAHA!" He boomed with victorious laughter. He stared at the endless white sky with a grin that split his face into two.

Then, he stopped.

His face turned impassive and serious, with an intense cold light flashing from his eyes.

He walked forward with his naked body of skin and bones, of grayish skin and rotting flesh.

His heart was calm and his mind was tranquil.

It wasn't over yet.

Even though he was so close already, he didn't let his excitement cloud his judgement.

He soon arrived in front of a floating star in the middle of his gargantuan metallic construct, with golden energy being pumped to support the existence of the rainbow-colored light.

The dark void inside his soul reacted as soon as he neared the rainbow-colored star. An insatiable greed and thirst to devour that shining hope caused his eyes to turn into a darker shade.

But, his mind was as tranquil as ever.

He slowly stretched out his hand and grabbed the rainbow-colored star lightly and gently. With great familiarity, he evoked the power of the endless darkness inside his soul and watched as the rainbow-colored star faze through his skin and arrive right in front of his soul.

The two stars soon met. One dark, one shining.

The dark star hurriedly expanded in an attempt to devour the rainbow-colored star fully.

Because of that extreme reaction, Ryuji's body started to tremble as his legs creaked and his arms shook. Sweat dripped down his forehead as he closed his eyes and stood like a monolith.

He hurriedly exerted the power of his soul and original Quirk to control the two stars. He clenched his teeth and stabilized the situation with immense difficulty.

Yet, his mind didn't waver one bit. Success was here. After plotting ever since his birth, fooling his parents, fooling his classmates, and fooling the government, he has undergone an endless series of trials that made him continuously grow under immense stress.

For him, this is simply another challenge to overcome!

The rainbow-colored star slowly extended out colorful and glowing tendrils with it as the center. The tendrils then slowly approached his ginormous soul, and as each tendril rooted itself deep into his Soul, a strange sensation soon started to overwhelm his senses.

With the connection set, a mystical energy flowed out of his soul and into the rainbow-colored star, causing it to shine a bit brighter than before. As seconds passed, more and more of the energy from his soul was poured into the rainbow-colored star, and the star then stabilized his soul to create a symbiotic relationship.

The rainbow-colored star absorbed a nameless energy from his soul, while it then nourishes his soul with increasingly powerful light to create a self-sustaining cycle.

'This is the power of One for All!' Ryuji gave a hoarse laugh and fully concentrated. 'It gathers the spiritual energy of holders and stores it into itself, which then strengthens it which would make the soul and body of the holder stronger! Not only that, but this Quirk can also cause other Quirks to grow stronger with the energy it gathers!'

'It's a Quirk that practically defies the basic laws of physics—Law of Conservation of Energy!' His entire body shook as he started the next step.

As the situation stabilized, One for All's rainbow-colored star then went on to extend more tendrils from its body toward the dark and murky All for One.

The star seemed to have noticed the tendrils' presence and reacted ferociously. It expanded in size and tried to take control over the tendrils and assimilate it into itself, but Ryuji's deep soul foundation exerted its strength and forcefully controlled the situation.

Grayish red blood flowed out of his mouth as Ryuji's body trembled under immense stress, but still, he firmly held on and controlled the situation with his indomitable will.

The colorful and glowing tendrils soon rooted themselves into All for One, but the dark star's innate dominating nature wanted to take control of these tendrils and make them its own.

Ryuji furrowed his brows and exerted more strength, subduing the star fully. Then, with an agonizingly long process, the colorful tendrils finally rooted themselves firmly into the dark star, and the situation stabilized.

He heaved a sigh of relief and could feel the growing endless energy inside One for All pour into All for One. As time passed, and One for All expanded its energy reserved, its tendrils grew bigger to allow more energy to flow through the Quirks within his soul.

'I'm practically creating One for All's terrifying might from scratch. With this being merely a copy, it would take years before I can rival Izuku's One for All. Even with my already strong soul, it would still take that long.' He shook his head and watched as One for All's mystical power soon revitalize his body.

As tendrils pierced into the biggest star inside his body—his original Quirk, he could feel his body growing stronger and stronger.

More and more tendrils then connected into his physical body and One for All pumped its endless reserves into his veins and cells.

It was a wondrous feeling, to have endless energy flow through your veins like an unending stream of warm spring water.

It was finally over.

His disheveled white hair turned black and luscious.

His grayish skin and rotting flesh turned into a vibrant and supple bronze color.

His body which was practically skin and bones regained its muscles and vitality.

Veins bulged out of his skin as his golden eyes shone with a deeper, more profound brilliance.

At this moment, his aura has fully changed compared to before.

He closed his eyes and revealed a wide smile on his face.

Inside his Soul, in the very epicenter of his being, he saw his Origin and a strange object that was 'within' it.

'My Law Seed has finally manifested!'

What is Law? It can be referred to as Truth, Principles, Dao, Rule; it is the fundamental order that reality runs on.

The difference between gods and mortals was simply the difference in the stages of their Origins.

Most people on Earth are at 1st Stage, entities that have gained minor supernatural abilities.

2nd Stage entities are far stronger compared to 1st Stage beings and have stronger, more mystical supernatural abilities like Ryuji's original Quirk.

3rd Stage, on the other hand, is more god than man. They have formed their Law Seed and have acquired enough Laws through their own methods, and Ryuji did this through Quirks!

He has undergone a qualitative change, becoming closer to a god than he is a man. It was clear as daylight to Ryuji what he needed to do to finally create the initial form of his pathway!

'I need to grow stronger, acquire more Quirks, and grow my Law Seed till it sprouts into my pathway.'

With the existence of the Law Seed, his understanding of his own powers has deepened, especially Mind Dragon, and uniquely enough, illusions.

'Hmm, maybe it's because I've been using only illusions this entire time to solidify my disguise, even when no one is watching.' Ryuji rubbed his chin and ignored that strange detail.

There were more pressing matters to do.

'In total, eight months have passed since I went to start acquiring All for One. If I didn't have Leader and his ability to control time and create this subspace, then it would have ruined a lot of my plans.'

'Fortunately, only around 16 hours have passed. My calculations were a bit off and I had to spend an extra two months, but this is still fine.' Ryuji nodded his head and, with a single step, arrived into the outside world once more after his eight months of seclusion.

A masked man wearing a black cloak stood in front of him and nodded at Ryuji. He was Leader, a person who was once after Ryuji's life before being mind fucked by a child.

Ryuji walked past Leader and grabbed a white shirt and black pants hanging beside a wall. Then, as he walked through the door.

A strange sight soon welcomed him. People were on the ground like unmoving dolls, their lifeless eyes staring at the ground as if they were bound by glue from head to toe.

Ryuji's eyes flashed with malevolent light as his mind churned with delight.

One for All's main flaw is that it takes too long to grow strong. Even though Ryuji's body has once again turned stronger with his status as a living demigod, it was still only around 15% of Izuku's One for All!

And that kind of power was built after a century of stockpiling, a century too long for Ryuji's liking. And, with it being merely a copy and having to fuse with All for One, it's ability to siphon spiritual energy from his soul was a lot slower, meaning it might take multiples times that original timeframe to be as strong as Prime All Might.

But, he knew that already with the research he has done throughout the months with One for All in secret.

And there was one simple solution he came up with, a solution that required having both All for One and One for All at the same time!

He arrived in front of a pale woman with messy hair, and she stared at his face with an emotionless gaze.

Ryuji calmly stretched out his hand and grabbed her head. Exerting a bit of his strength, blood splattered out and coated his body in scarlet liquid from head to toe.

His gaze was indifferent, but his eyes shone brightly as he soon activated both All for One and One for All!

From the headless corpse, Ryuji pulled out a glowing ball of light, and his grin slowly grew wider as the ball was sucked deep into his hands and into his soul through the colorful tendrils all around his body.

Ryuji felt an extremely intoxicating feeling overwhelm him as his soul turned brighter and more solid. This caused One for All to react positively and siphon more spiritual energy from his soul, strengthening itself and all of his other Quirks!

"It works…" He muttered under his breath as a malicious grin appeared on his face. "It works!"

He waved his hand without hesitation, and a series of heads rolled to the ground.

Souls shrieked and wailed as he gathered all of their souls and went on to deepen the foundation of his own soul.

After a short while, his eyes glimmered with bloodthirst and he felt the clear increase in power, 'One for All, All for One, once these two Quirks combine with New Order and all of the other Quirks I'm planning on getting, I would be unrivaled and would be well on my way to becoming a 4th Stage Pathway Entity!'

AN: This chapter has 2256 words.

I'm just saying this, but Ryuji's still a fucking ant. I've already dropped hints here and there as to what is being cooked underneath the pot lid, and hopefully, you guys managed to realize something is off (especially with that Yuga being somehow magically 99% compatible with AFO and allowing a certain someone to acquire AFO in the process).

Hehehe, at least after years of hard work, your boy is gonna be able to at least catch up with the big boy leagues (slight spoiler, but doesn't matter) and can act a bit more like a crazed demon.

Also, yes, I know I'm rushing the power scaling by a bit and we didn't get to enjoy Ryuji when he was weak, but shut up dude, there's Arc 1 for you when Dolian was still scheming with tiny shit like making a girl fall in love or brainfucking kids to make them his loyal servants. Arc 3 is gonna be a lot wackier, especially with the certain ominous ability I gave to Ryuji regarding souls... hehe.

(June 17, 2023 - 569th day of writing)