Chapter 353 - Twice Smiled

[Nanite Stage 4 Upload to Information Dimension:

Alice Crawford – 30%

Status: Progressing

Zeel Crawford– 18%.

Status: Progressing

Elizabeth Crawford – SRNT Connection Terminated (50%)

Status: Dead (Corrupted Upload)]

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Silence…

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Silence…

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Silence reigned in the void until Zeel's grunts of pain rang aloud…

With a quick twitch of Zeel's fingers, Elizabeth's body was quickly taken into his Storage Dimension…

Well, technically it was Alice's Storage Dimension considering he had transferred all his materials, along with the Master Nanites, into her custody.

Still, Zeel carved out a special Storage Ring to house Elizabeth's body, away from where Lorien could reach it, and especially away from where Alice could see it.

It took a couple of seconds struggling with Lorien for Zeel to realize that his missing arm was not being regenerated, instead, a white flame lingered on his wounds, further damaging his Divine Body.

Zeel felt all the Divine Energy inside his body fuelling the white flame, which was extremely beneficial, given his Divine Cloud was currently being mutated by Death Energy.

The pain of Aurolana's battle in Purgatory…

The exhaustion of the prolonged battle with Seth…

The dizziness of plotting every detail to get Lorien here…

The rending of his Speed and Dimensional Shift Divinities to make place for a Death Divinity…

The True Death of Elizabeth by Lorien's hands…

Everything painful was occurring simultaneously to Zeel's senses, forcing him to experience the pain tenfold, but he could not give-in to the feeling…

Needless to say, with Zeel's Homo-Superior senses on full force, he was present in every moment and detail currently happening.

It would forever remain engraved in his mind as such was the curse of Homo-Superiors…

Homo-Superiors didn't simply remember things perfectly, they lived in the moment again and again and again…

Though, Zeel often found that his emotions would bias his memories…

All of Zeel's ideas, plans, and thoughts clashed against each other as he plotted the best course of escape from his current predicament.

Rushing to save Aurolana would leave Alice vulnerable to Lorien's attack…

'That would not end well…'

Dealing with Lorien will leave him vulnerable to an attack from The Egyptian Pantheon…

'That would also not end well…'

Trying to run away would guarantee the Time Shadow to be realized sooner… it didn't matter if you switched Dimensions, Universes, or Timeline, a Time Shadow is inevitable…

'Everything meant to happen, will happen…'

Death Divinity in his system also guaranteed Zeel's death, so it was only a question of what would come first, his death or his upload to the Information Dimension?

'This is becoming a gamble…' Zeel thought while looking at the playfully smiling Lorien.

Lorien was weakened and a lot of her memory was forgotten, so it was safe to say that Lorien was only about a quarter of her True Self, but a quarter was more than enough.

Truth be told, Lorien was only restraining herself from taking Alice's life because she already had her fill of energy from consuming Elizabeth's Soul Energy and remaining divinities.

Lorien licked her lips in satisfaction as she loosened the force behind her grip around Alice's neck…

This, in turn, finally allowed Zeel to flash a couple meters away with a dazed Alice in his arms.

Actually, Zeel didn't even mean to react when Lorien struck for Alice because there was no way Lorien would be bold enough to kill Alice with him present, especially in her weakened state…

But, when he noticed Elizabeth moved to block, his body also instinctively moved to protect Elizabeth but it was already too late…

Elizabeth was dead and he could only stop Lorien from becoming even bolder.

The moment Lorien released Alice, Zeel sighed in relief at feeling the pressure off his shoulders.

Had Lorien held Alice any longer, Zeel was sure that he would have melted into Oblivion.

After all, Lorien is The Cosmic Force of Purity, and he was impure in every way but his mind…

Zeel also had an answer to a question he had been contemplating for a very long time – what exactly happened to the Felians?

Sure, he knew that the Felians were defeated in some war involving Lorien's defense, but Felians, by nature, are a species that can never be truly extinct…

In most universes, death was not an aspect of finality but The Felians were dead in ways that didn't make sense...

You could actually perceive it as a truth of The World's Laws – no species could ever be truly extinct, there would always be at least one straggler that got away…

But that was not the case with The Felians…

Looking at the way Lorien licked her lips at tasting Elizabeth's Felian heritage, Zeel was sure that the Felian stragglers that remained were consumed by Lorien.

Each Cosmic Force was necessary to regulate their section of the Multiverse; they served a unique purpose that even Zeel could not phantom…

The Phoenix Cosmic Force was known to create and end Universes through its flames…

The Nautica Cosmic Force was known to return Universes to the compact Absolute Zero coldness from which it was born...

And now Zeel knew that The Purity Cosmic Force, Lorien, was responsible for consuming energies and returning everything to an ideal state of absolute void (Pureness)…

Zeel had no delusions that he could control Lorien and he was fully prepared to die for the act of calling a Cosmic Force for help, but even he could not have suspected Lorien's intentions.

Actually, it was not so much as intentions than a Force of the Universe doing what a Force of the Universe does…

You would not curse mother nature for the natural evolution of humans, so it was impossible for Zeel, as a higher species on the Evolutionary Scale, to hate Lorien for anything she did…

Killing Alice, Elizabeth, himself, or anyone else was not unexpected but consuming the Soul Energy was probably taboo even amongst Cosmic Forces…

There were many species in the Universe that fed on Soul Energy, and they were usually hunted and killed to the ends of the Universes.

"Satisfied…" Lorien whispered, looking at Zeel with an innocent smile that showed her more serious nature had been sealed away once more.

Lorien resembled a child in every way, but nobody dared think about her as a child any longer...

Suddenly, the dazed Alice twitched and even the Egyptian Pantheon knew to be silent since a storm was coming next…

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Ra, as the Head of the Egyptian Pantheon, could immediately distinguish what was to come with his All-Seeing Eyes…

Ra could see it all… he could especially see the smirking expression that hid behind Zeel's surprised and frustrated expression…

Zeel had basically pushed the Egyptian Pantheon into a corner with his detailed plan…

Either they attack now to prevent Lorien from consuming Alice and becoming that much stronger, perhaps strong enough to defeat the entire Pantheon…

Or they allow Lorien to go on a rampage and consume Alice, and hopefully Zeel as well, only that would mean that the Egyptian Pantheon would be guaranteed death…

This was a conundrum of Cosmic proportions, and being a decisive King of Gods, Ra immediately made his choice…

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Feeling that Alice was beginning to recover her faculties, Zeel instantly pulled Alice's consciousness into his mind, suturing her very Being with his thoughts and emotions…

Bringing Alice into his mind would allow her to think logically…

Usually, Zeel would use this method to subtly influence Alice's thoughts, but with everything on the line, he had no choice but to commit such a blatant offense of Alice's individuality.

It took a couple of seconds for Alice's strong emotions to be broken down by Zeel's stronger and much more refined mind…

The nanites were already working to block certain pathways in Alice's brain, severing her memory of ever witnessing Elizabeth's death at Lorien's hands…

As far as Alice was concerned, Elizabeth had died by Seth's scythe long before Lorien ever arrived.

At least, that was what Zeel made her mind believe and it also wasn't necessarily a lie, since Elizabeth would have died then if Zeel didn't keep her soul confined to her body.

Zeel closed off the connection to his mind and Alice rose to her feet, the gleam in her eyes returning to a battle-ready fierceness.

There was no more loss to be found in her eyes, only a single-minded determination to survive.

"You good?" Zeel inquired suspiciously.

Alice rubbed her temples in agitation and nodded "All good… I am feeling a bit giddy like LJ…"

"At least you are not thinking about Carlos…" Zeel scoffed, pouting a bit like a child.

Even Lorien, who crushed on Zeel like a fangirl, was forced to consider killing her crush early because his cuteness rivaled her own.

Alice squinted her eyes and slapped Zeel behind the head in mock anger "You are jealous of a guy I smiled at once while we are seven Universes away and he is probably dead?"

"Twice…"

"What?"

"You smiled at Carlos twice… the other time was when you thought I wasn't looking…"

Alice was speechless by the abhorrent thoughts that would occupy Zeel's mind at the weirdest times…

She would have continued the discussion had Ella and Alle not leaped into her arms, crying tears at the loss of Elizabeth – a loss Alice remembered completely different from the girls.

Suddenly, Zeel's instinct screamed in protest of incoming danger…

Never once had Zeel felt a danger so terrifying potent, and with one arm less, his reactions were also slowed to a certain degree.

He had the distinct vision of his neck being pierced through by a spear filled with Ancient Egyptian Runes.

Before anyone could even react, except Lorien who just didn't care about anyone else, the tip of the spear pricked Zeel's skin, drawing a bit of dark-red golden blood but the spear went no further…

It was as if the spear that was meant to take Zeel's life was restricted by some strange rule, and Zeel knew exactly what rule that was – An Egyptian God cannot kill another Egyptian God.

An archaic rule established for a Pantheon with many members killing each other…