17. A Reality Check.
│1st Person POV of Meliodas│
[Human World, United States of America, California…]
The past week and a half have been pretty fun, moving from one city to another after spending a day or two in them for sightseeing.
We stayed away from cities or countries that came under the jurisdiction of other Factions or Pantheon though, such as Italy, Athens, India, etc.
In all the cities we visited, I made sure to leave a dozen or so clones to gather information and various other purposes.
With Universal Shapeshifting, an ability I created after taking the Minor Shapeshifting ability of the Devils to the extreme, they can disguise their appearance quite easily.
This way, whatever they do, wouldn't ever be traced back to me.
Furthermore, as I used the Demonic Shadow Clone Technique, I would know anything they do without having to dispel them.
I have even marked every clone I created with Essence of the Binder. This way, I can summon them by my side once they complete their jobs.
Additionally, with the weaker versions of my Essences, they can summon more clones and send them to various parts of the Human World that I wouldn't be able to visit on this trip.
"Meliodas, where are we going?" I heard Morgiana ask, bringing me out of my thoughts.
"We are going to meet a legendary man, the founder and creator of Marvel Comics, Stan Lee."
"Really?! You should have said so from the start." Morgiana responded excitedly.
Stan Lee existed in this world, and so did Marvel Comics, and the name of the franchise, characters, groups, etc. wasn't something weird either.
Right now, we are in the state of California, at the headquarters of the recently established Marvel Studios.
About a week ago, on August 7, 1996, Marvel Films was reorganized and got its name changed to Marvel Studios.
Today was the opening ceremony where Avi Arad would give a speech about the goal of Marvel Studios. Stan Lee would also attend this event.
When I got to know about this information through my clones, I decided to come here and meet the legend in person.
Samara made arrangements for this and we would be attending the event as VIPs.
She also made sure that we would get the chance to talk with Stan Lee after the event concluded.
I kept the details of our visiting this event from Morgiana so that she wouldn't bore me by talking about her favorite characters.
I mean, while I also love Spider-Gwen, AKA Ghost-Spider, and She-Hulk, I don't want to hear about their origins, feats, powers, etc. again and again.
As expected, once she heard about our destination, she started nerding about both of the superheroes.
The few minutes left until our car reached the avenue, she chewed my brain out by just talking about one fact or another about Spider-Gwen and She-Hulk.
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│1st Person POV of one of Meliodas' Clone│
While assuming the form of a Black Vulture through Universal Shapeshifting, I roamed the skies of the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro.
It was nighttime now and using a self-created specialized scanning spell, SG Tracker, I was searching for Humans who may have Sacred Gears in their Soul.
This spell was created using the data the original gathered from scanning Iwaki Nakamura.
On a side note, I think that man is a low-key God of Food. When he was supplied with raw products from the farms of our Zagan Clan, the taste of his foods increased to unimaginable levels.
Anyway, the range of the spell was rather small, only capable of performing scans within an area of 50 sq. km.
Although I am sure the spell will be improved in the future once the original goes through the data of the spell's performance that we, the clones, are gathering.
Leaving that aside, my job was to search for Humans with Sacred Gears in Rio de Janeiro periodically.
If I come across one in this city, I will either collect data on the Gear by scanning its possessor discreetly if it turned out to be a Low or Mid-tier, or extract the Gear itself if it turned out to be a High-tier one.
I have no hope of coming across anything higher than a High-tier in this city as I already know the location of all the Sacred Gears that are either already Longinius or will become one in the future because of the original's Canon knowledge.
Just after the thought crossed my mind, I got a response from the SG Tracker spell.
Adjusting my course, I headed toward the location where the spell detected the Sacred Gear wielder.
As I reached the location, I noticed that the spell was actually directing me to one of the mountains near the statue of Christ the Redeemer.
Let's see how this goes.
Once I entered the woods in the mountains, I ensured I was out of sight before shifting into the form of a Toucan.
A few moments later, I came upon the scene of a group of black-robed people traveling deeper into the mountains. One of them was carrying a child in their arms.
From the looks of it, the child seems to be unconscious. And she was also the one my spell detected to be in the possession of a Sacred Gear.
Before taking action, I subtly scanned the group with a variety of spells and techniques like Observation Haki, Senjutsu Sensing, etc.
I even used Telepathy, the ability I created by combining the various mind-related spells, to scan their memories in order to find out the reason for their actions.
I found out a number of things with my actions.
First, the group of black-robed people, consisting of six males, were Low-Class rouge Magicians. All of them were former members of the local Magician Organization.
The organization was not that big or influential, they are only prevalent in Brazil.
Secondly, the child they were carrying was a five-year-old girl they abducted from one of the small villages situated in the hills of Santa Teresa.
And lastly, the reason they abducted her is that one of them detected the faint aura of a dragon from the girl while they were passing through her village.
They wanted to extract the life force of the girl through a shady ritual and use it to strengthen themselves. They decided to do this just because the girl had the aura of a dragon, however faint it may be.
These idiots don't even know the reason the girl had dragon aura nor did they plan to find out.
They simply assumed that because she possessed the aura of a dragon, her life force must be unique and could be used to strengthen themselves.
Anyway, I know enough about the situation now. No need for imbeciles like these to exist any longer.
The next second, I reached out with Telepathy and overloaded their minds with all the sensory information that every clone out there was experiencing at the moment.
Considering that there were thousands and thousands of clones out there in the world right now, that was a HUGE amount of information.
Not to mention that every clone also had a perfect memory thanks to Archmage Essence.
The six of them didn't have the slightest probability to survive this as their mental capabilities were only so-so.
I telekinetically reached out and took hold of the girl, preventing her from falling together with the one who was carrying her.
Then, I dropped to the ground and used Universal Shapeshift again, this time taking the form of a nondescript human.
While bringing the girl to my side, I used Nature Manipulation and took control of the surrounding trees, using their roots to drag the bodies of the magicians deep into the ground.
After the trash was taken care of, I focused on the girl in front of me, held in mid-air by using Telekinesis.
First, I made sure she wouldn't wake up anytime soon.
Once I am done with determining her Sacred Gear and taking appropriate actions, I will bring her back to her home completely unharmed.
After telekinetically lifting her to an upright position in front of me, I summoned a magic circle above my right hand. In response, numerous magic circles of varying sizes surrounded the girl from various angles.
Activating Thought Acceleration, I increased my thought processing by 1000 times to quickly process the data my spells were transmitting to me.
A few seconds later, the process was complete and all the magic circles dispersed.
However, even though this fact registered in my mind loud and clear, I was unable to act upon it.
I was completely frozen in shock and disbelief.
While analyzing the data from my spells, I found something completely and utterly unexpected.
This girl…
This five-year-old child was the new wielder of the Boosted Gear, one of the Longinus Sacred Gear.
This… This was…
"I have to inform boss about this development right away." I muttered and immediately afterward, I used the Essence of the Binder's connection and reached out to the original telepathically.
=+=+=+=< Scene Break >=+=+=+=
│1st Person POV of one of Meliodas│
[Human World, United States of America, California…]
"Another one of my wishes was fulfilled today!" I exclaimed with a happy smile on my face.
"Meeting Stan Lee?"
I heard Morgiana ask, prompting me to respond with a nod.
Even though the Stan Lee I met was different from the one who I admired very much in my previous life, he was Stan Lee and that was enough for me.
Hearing Excelsior from his mouth in person made this second life of mine all the more worthwhile.
Anyway, after leaving Marvel Studios, we headed back to our car and drove to the hotel where we were staying.
The hotel was owned by the Gremorys and they have hotels in almost every part of the world where the Devils had minimal problems doing their business.
After the Textile Industry, the Hospitality Business and the Construction Business were the other two primary enterprises of the Gremory Clan.
After Zeoticus Gremory signed the contract agreement of my engagement with Morgiana, he, along with Venelana Gremory, visited us to congratulate the union of our family in person.
As a gift, he even gave me a pass that lets me utilize the services provided by their hotels all around the world for a lifetime.
A few minutes later, we reached the hotel.
Once we had dinner, we retired to our own bedrooms in the presidential suite.
After freshening up, just as I was about to go through the information my clones had collected during the whole day, I sensed one of my clones reaching out to me through the telepathic link of the Binder Essence.
'Something interesting or troublesome must have happened.'
This thought crossed my mind after sensing the communication attempt.
After all, there was no need for my clones to actively communicate with me as all of them knew that I go through their memories twice a day.
Only when something completely out of my expectations happened would they try to inform me right away, instead of waiting for me to review their memories.
I opened the telepathic link on my side and the next second, an unknown voice spoke inside my mind, "Boss! I am the clone tasked with searching for Sacred Gear wielders in Rio de Janeiro."
Hearing my clone speak, my first thought was, 'He must be using Universal Shapeshift to disguise himself.'
Then, without waiting for me to respond, the clone continues, "I found one…"
While my clone continued to tell me the story of the little girl and five magicians theatrically, I ignored him and started directly going through his memories.
Monologuing, theatrically telling stories, and other shits are only okay when I am the one doing it. I have no interest in hearing others doing them.
Even the one doing it happens to be my clone.
After I was done going through his memories, I was as equally shocked as my clone.
The new host of Boosted Gear was in Brazil, not in Japan.
…
Reality always has a way of reminding you about things you forget or selectively ignore.
I had numerous hardcore evidence in front of me that showed me how different my current world was from the Canon one.
Morgiana's existence, MY existence, even the Reincarnation System itself stated that I was going to be reincarnated into an Alternate Universe of High School DxD.
Even then, I always took my Canon knowledge as facts, not references.
I was expecting things to happen as they did in the Canon, despite the various evidence suggesting the contrary.
Huu—! Haaa—! Huu—! Haaa—! … …
With a few deep breaths, I calmed down my racing thoughts and my rapidly beating heart.
Well, this incident did hammer the fact that relying on Canon knowledge was wrong.
From now on, I have to redouble my efforts to prepare for anything that can happen at the drop of a hat and turn my world upside down.
I am very fortunate that it was in such a small but significant way reality slapped the foolishness out of me.
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A/N: Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, there will be no chapters.
I will be traveling to my sister's home, which is in a different state, to celebrate Raksha Bandhan with her.
As such, I won't be able to write anything for the next two days.
Anyway, if you see any mistakes, please don't hesitate to point it out.
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