In Another Life and crush out(chapter 149)
Gu Changge smiled, his eyes gleaming with superiority. "How does it feel, knowing that from the beginning, your life has been laid out in front of you? Every step, every choice, altered by my whims. You were nothing but a character—a fictional character—in my story. And I… I am the author, the protagonist, and the villain. I am the fated villain, Henry."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 149
But Henry, as composed as ever, simply chuckled in response. "So, you think I care?" His tone was dismissive, almost amused by Gu Changge's self-importance. "I achieved my goal. We don't care if we were manipulated like puppets on a string. As long as I achieve my goals, I don't care about the journey, this isn't some cheesy story about a group of pirates who were hunting for a treasure, only to release that the real treasure was the friends they made along," His voice held a finality that sliced through Gu Changge's grandiose declarations.
Gu Changge's laugh echoed throughout the throne room, but there was a strain in it now, a subtle crack in his composure. "I know, child. Who do you think you take that after?" He leaned forward, his eyes narrowing, his voice lowering into a chilling whisper. "You were molded, built in my own image. You, Alchemical Henry, are MY creation. You are my Adam, and I am your god." As Gu Changge's laughter filled the room again, he snapped his fingers, warping reality once more. The throne room dissolved into a new scene, one that Henry recognized immediately. It was the early moments when he first arrived in this world, the stark expo to be exact. But something was wrong.
"This is how your story was supposed to go," Gu Changge said, waving his hand like a director commanding his actors. The scene played out, but this time, Henry didn't steal the Hammer Drones. He didn't kill any SHIELD agents. He was simply… doing his job. The chaos around him unfolded, but Henry, the Alchemist, stayed in the shadows. Gu Changge's voice narrated the scene like a twisted storyteller. "In your original fate, you never stole the Hammer Drones. You never killed anyone. In fact, you even joined the Avengers."
The scene shifted again, showing Henry, who seemed a bit buffed up, mostly due to potions, clad in armor, standing alongside the Avengers in New York. They fought, but this time, they were using potions—Henry's potions. "You were known as 'The Doctor,'" Gu Changge continued, as the scene unfolded. "Thanks to you, every Avenger became the best version of themselves. Super soldiers, all of them. tony never died, steve never went back in time. Natasha never sacrificed herself. Wanda never went mad. And the world? It was saved. Half of it wasn't wiped from existence. You even married Natasha and Wanda, you sly bastard,"
Henry watched as an idealized version of himself stood beside a perfect version of the Avengers. The world was saved, thriving under the protection of these perfect heroes. A utopia shaped by Henry's talents. A peaceful life, devoid of chaos. "See? This was your fate, a fate you sure with many others like you, until I came and destroyed it. Remade it to my own liking. What do you think?" Gu Changge asked, his eyes gleaming with expectation, waiting for a reaction. But all Henry gave him was a shrug. "To be honest?" he said, his voice flat and indifferent. "The other universe looks boring as hell. Me, sharing my gifts with everyone else? What a load of bullshit."
The words hit Gu Changge like a slap in the face. His grin faded, replaced by a twitch of annoyance. "You… this is my masterpiece! And all I get is meh?!" His voice rose, enraged, shaking the very foundation of the reality he had created. The cracks in the void began to widen, splintering through the idealized world as Gu Changge's anger twisted reality itself. The once-grand throne room began to crumble as his fury grew, his voice echoing through every corner of existence. "You ungrateful... THIS IS MY MASTERPIECE!" Gu Changge roared, the fabric of the false world shredding under the sheer force of his rage. The reality warped and buckled, twisting in on itself as Gu Changge's emotions spun out of control. The very essence of existence bent, bending to his will, but also unraveling at the seams.
"Please, stop yelling," Alchemical Henry said calmly, his voice cutting through the chaos as he raised a hand to his ear, sounding annoyed. He rubbed his temple as if Gu Changge's temper tantrum was nothing more than an irritating noise. "You're giving me a headache." The indifference in Henry's voice only served to enrage Gu Changge further, his power tearing apart the world they stood in. Yet, despite the collapsing reality, Henry remained unfazed. He was beyond it.
With a single thought, Gu Changge's power flared, bending space around him. Stars collapsed and reformed, their light swallowed into the crushing void he conjured. "I will unmake you, Henry, where its this body or the one you have hidden," he spat, his voice vibrating with a force that rippled across the cosmos. His Void Suppression Art activated, and an entire realm folded inward. Planets, stars, and nebulas compressed, squeezed into a singularity of overwhelming force, a black hole forming at its center, aimed directly at Henry.
Yet Henry barely moved. His hand raised, fingers outstretched as the True Alchemical Stone pulsed with power. A shimmer of green light enveloped him, bending reality with casual ease. The black hole Gu Changge had conjured dissolved into pure alchemical energy as Henry absorbed it into the stone, converting the terrifying gravitational force into fuel for his ever-growing power. "You'll have to try harder," Henry said, his voice almost bored.
In response, Gu Changge snarled. With a flick of his wrist, entire star systems were torn from their anchors, and time itself seemed to slow. His mastery over the Heavenly Dao of Space allowed him to twist the laws governing existence. A thousand stars, burning with the fury of their creation, ignited in unison. Gu Changge hurled them forward like cosmic missiles, each one capable of obliterating entire galaxies.
Henry's response was effortless. He clapped his hands together, and in that moment, the laws of physics around him ceased to exist. The stars froze mid-flight, their immense heat and mass held in place. His Alchemical Mastery manipulated the very essence of matter and energy. Each star collapsed inward, converted into spheres of pure alchemical energy that hovered at his command. With a gesture, Henry unleashed them back at Gu Changge, but each sphere now pulsed with the destructive power of alchemical transmutation. As they neared Gu Changge, they exploded, releasing energy equivalent to the death of a thousands of suns.
The cosmic detonation vaporized nearby planets that were being created just from gu changge being present, reducing entire systems to glowing ash. Space itself rippled, distorting as the shockwaves tore through the fabric of reality. But Gu Changge stood firm, his Innate Supreme Physique shrugging off the explosions with barely a scratch. The debris of annihilated worlds swirled around him as he stepped forward, grinning.
In an instant, Gu Changge raised his hand, and time itself fractured. Using his Time Control powers, he split the battlefield into different time streams, each section of space moving at different speeds. On one side, centuries passed in the blink of an eye, while on the other, time froze entirely. He stepped through the chaos effortlessly, as though the laws of time bent to his will. In each time fragment, Gu Changge launched attacks—slivers of his own Soul Devouring Technique that aimed to fracture Henry's mind across multiple realities, which unfortunately, he didnt exist in.
Henry responded in kind, his eyes glowing with the alchemical energy of the True Alchemical Stone. "Enough of these games," he murmured. With a wave of his hand, time reformed itself, collapsing back into a single unified stream. Henry's mastery over Reality Manipulation was on full display, and he did not allow Gu Changge to fracture the battle further. Instead, Henry shifted his alchemical energy to his Mind and Soul Alchemy, weaving defenses against the soul-devouring attacks, transmuting them into harmless particles that dissipated into the void.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
A/N: Well, the multiversal crush begins here. Bring on the stones, or I'll make Hermione the most annoying female lead ever—like those red-haired manhua female leads who are insufferable, arrogant, and have a stick up their butt. Trust me, I can do a lot worse than that, so put them in the bag