Chapter 34: Acnologia's weakness

[Third Person's Point of View]

"A weakness that I don't even realize I have..."

Acnologia repeated Death's words while he tried to think of what weakness he might have overlooked.

"Oh, it seems that I now have your attention."

Death said as she went back on her seat and lay down before conjuring a drink out of nowhere and then spoke.

"Knowing you, you're going to quickly think about what weakness you overlooked before asking me about it."

The twitching of Acnologia's eyebrows was all Death needed to know that her remark was correct. She sighed before resuming.

"*Sigh* Let's do this, how about you take your time, think about what weakness you might have overlooked, and when you are ready tell me and we can proceed onto the next part of this conversation."

Acnologia narrowed his eyes at her while she was sipping her drink like she was on vacation. This brought forth a series of questions, why was she doing this? What was her goal? What did she want from him? And most of all the question he wanted to know was; why did he not feel the need to be on guard around her?

"I am sure you have a lot of questions about this and most will be answered once we resume our conversation so don't worry about it... also you're welcome, for bringing you, here, to the Hidden Sea just in the nick of time before you get your new memories which by the way left you defenseless."

Acnologia stayed silent for a bit while observing the surroundings before he looked at Death and then spoke.

"Thanks."

Death simply smiled while Acnologia proceeded to think about what weakness he might have overlooked. He took his time and after an hour, he could not find any weakness that he might have overlooked. He knew his abilities as well as his own weaknesses, even after thinking about it for an hour straight, he could not think of anything new.

"What is the weakness that I am not aware of?"

He asked Death who stood up before replying.

"Well, I could just tell you... but knowing you, you won't believe me without a demonstration and context."

She remained silent for a few seconds before she resumed.

"Tell me, what do you know about the Endless? Try using the knowledge you copied from that Lord of Order."

Acnologia did not seemed bothered by the fact that she knew about what he had done to Nabue as he answered her question.

"Long story short, The Endless are seven somewhat siblings who each represent an aspect of the universe. They spend most of their time fulfilling their functions as embodiments of natural forces or at least that is the summary of what Nabue knows about The Endless."

"That's somewhat accurate except it isn't an aspect of the universe but a multiverse that we each represent."

[AN: Ngl, I am not sure if there is only one set of Endless per universe or multiverse or omniverse. I am going by the sphere of gods being outside of the multiverse and the Dreaming being in the sphere of gods or at least at that level of a domain. Correct me if I am wrong.]

Death corrected him before adding on.

"Since we are an aspect or the embodiment of a concept if you prefer that means that things such as time or space affected us differently than they would to a human, Atlantean, Martian, Kryptonian, or any other third-dimensional species. What I am trying to say is that we are not force to experience time linearly."

"So you can time travel, why don't you just say that?"

Acnologia said while shrugging his shoulders to which Death replied with.

"Figured I would pull a Destiny- Oh right, you haven't met him yet so you won't get it. Anyway, long story short, I am from your future. To you, we have met twice... well three times but you were accepting the Life Spirit into your body and couldn't talk so that shouldn't count, right?"

She waved her hands in the air before adding on.

"Either way, from your perspective, we have yet to meet a fourth time if we exclude this moment but from my perspective, we have met dozens of times. Now before you ask what does that have to do with the weakness that I talked about, I am saying this for you to understand that I know what I am talking about because again you will not believe me if I don't give you the context and a demonstration."

Death once again sighed while Acnologia said nothing. Seeing that she had his full attention she decided to continue.

"Me being from your future is kind of the context, required before I give you a demonstration. Now for the demonstration, this is going to sound out of the blue but I am going to turn you into a baby by snapping my fingers. To prevent me from doing that... all you need to do is say no."

"Huh?"

Acnologia muttered in confusion as that came out of nowhere.

"Are you ready?"

Death said before giving Acnologia enough time to regain his composure. Acnologia was still trying to see what that had to do with the weakness that he had overlooked. He sighed before nodding and when he did so, Death spoke.

"Okay, I am going to countdown from three. As long as you say no, I will not turn you into a baby."

Acnologia's eyebrow rose before he opened his mouth and tried to speak.

"3!"

Acnologia was shocked that he could utter the word. He tried but no matter how much force he put into it, no sound came from his mouth.

"2!"

"WHAT IS GOING ON?"

He yelled! Now he realized that he could speak just fine but his was unable to utter the word he needed at the moment. He spread his shadow far and covered it with mouths which tried to utter the word he needed but no sound came from them.

"1!"

"FUCK!"

He cursed as he could not understand what was happening but he strangely knew that Death was not the cause of it which further confused him.

"And 0!"

*Snap*

As Death snapped her fingers, Acnologia could only mutter one thing.

"Crapbaske- *POOF*"

Before he finished, Acnologia was turned into a baby. Death sighed while looking at Acnologia who was busy observing his tiny new arms and legs. She lifted a finger and a tree started to grow beside them. She turned to face the tree once Acnologia started looking at the tree.

"You're weakness is that you are completely defenseless against things that end up making you stronger. Now, I know this sounds dumb and most would not consider it a weakness at all but currently, you have the strength of an Atlantean baby. A regular human beat you at this moment.

That is what makes this a weakness because although it ends up making you stronger, it can still be used against you. I mean, if I was your enemy, a quick yeet the baby would be enough to get rid of you right now. By the way, this is also why you got new memories of the new timeline because you got assimilated into it."

Death pointed at the now fully grown tree, which had branches all over its trunk and a blue line traced a path from the ground all the way to the top with one of the branches of the tree. Once the line had reached the top of the tree, Death spoke.

"Imagine that line as your timeline then..."

Another line appeared on the tree, this time it was red and it traced a path from the ground all the way to the top with another branch of the tree. Once that was done, Death resumed.

"Imagine that red line as a possible timeline that could have happened to you but didn't. I know this might be confusing but here is where it gets interesting. When someone goes back in time to change things, unless they have reality warping powers, they don't really change anything per say.

What happened to them will still exist unless they fuck it up and destroy their own timeline but what usually happens, especially for Speedsters, when they go to point A to prevent even B from happening... this is the result, a Time Boom."

On the blue line, point A appeared followed by a point B which was higher then the latter. The logo of a lightning came out of point B and went to point A before exploding upon reaching that point.

Upon exploding, the blue line was cut into two and the explosion's after-shock ruptured the red line as well. The four lines started wiggling until the upper part of the red line connected with the lower part of the blue line then after a second both lines turned purple.

"What actually happens when a Time Boom occurs is that the timeline that happened prior to point A is connected to the timeline that could have happened but didn't. Now since there are some elements that would not fit with each other and the fact that the past affects the present and future and sometimes vice versa...

Don't ask me how, it would a lot of time to explain... both timelines merge into a new timeline. The past affects the future while also being changed by this merger. Some events unfold differently than they had prior to the Time Boom.

During that merge, things that do not fit in are erased like a guy in the future ceasing to exist because, in this new timeline, one of his ancestors decided to get a vasectomy straight out of college.

Now for the remaining two timelines... frankly nobody ever cares about them after the new timeline is created. This brings me back to your weakness, normally you would not have been affected by the Time Boom but due to your weakness, the changes to the past, your past affected you.

The reason for that is simply because in the new timeline, you were found when you looked like a three years old child. You study magic at an earlier age and thus you became more proficient than you were before the Time Boom.

If I told you this before, you would not have seen the downside of this weakness but now you should understand it after experiencing it. I turned you into a baby without telling you that it would help you fully merge with the Life Spirit faster.

From your point of view, you had no reason to let consciously yourself be turned into a baby but you subconsciously stopped yourself from rejecting it... because it would end up making you stronger.

You should now understand that if an enemy were to do something that ends up making you stronger than you would be defenseless against it and it could cause your downfall."

Death turned to face Acnologia, who was still a baby, as she spoke.

"The fact that you haven't said anything means that you-"

She stopped herself when she realized that Acnologia was no longer there. She looked up upon hearing the voice of a baby giggling and saw a Pterosaur flying with Acnologia in its mouth. Death simply stretched her hands in the sky and then brought them back revealing them to now be holding Acnologia.

"Okay, how much of my explanation did you hear before you went awol?"

Death asked to which Acnologia simply brought his right hand into his mouth like a baby would.

"No..."

Death said as she looked at Acnologia. She let go of Acnologia though he remained floating beside her as she brought one of her hands to massage the bridge of her nose while closing her eyes as she spoke.

"The merge was supposed to happen after I finished my explanation not as soon as I turned him into a baby. *Sigh* Guess he isn't my vortex for nothing. Guess, I'll just have to wai- huh?"

Upon opening her eyes, she noticed that Acnologia was no longer there. He had crawled towards the sea and upon reaching it, the waves had brought him far from the shores. She saw him float at the surface of the sea right before a Pliosaurus emerged from below him and gobbled him up.

"You got to be kidding me!"

She said before snapping her fingers.

*Snap*

Upon snapping her fingers, Acnologia who was still a baby but now covered in mucues appeared in front of her and giggled. She put a forcefield around him thinking that it should do the trick but Acnologia disappeared from her sight once more after she blinked.

This started an hour-long cycle of Death chasing after Acnologia to prevent him from being eaten, catching him then losing him after dropping her guard followed by her chasing him again. After that, Acnologia turned back to normal.

Death re-explained what she had said about the timeline and Acnologia's weakness. This same weakness was the reason why Acnologia received the Life Spirit since if it had been caused by the time boom then that meant that the Original Acnologia should not have received the Life Spirit... at least not at that moment.

It also would have made no sense for Acnologia to be affected by the Time Boom in such a way that he gained the Life Spirit but nothing else from his past had changed since those around him who were affected by the Time Boom would have had different yet similar lives to their counterpart.

That difference, no matter how tiny it could be, would have changed their lives or at the very least their actions towards certain events, and as one knows, a single change in the past can greatly alter the future.

This meant that Acnologia's original past events with those affected by the Time Boom could be different from what now, in the new timeline, truly happened. It might sound confusing but that is due to trying to understand time travel and its consequences. 

The best way to further simply this is to quote a common recurring sentence of numerous Nasuverse fans when they try to explain the Nasuverse's timeline... 'Don't worry about it'.

Anyway... Granted, had the altered or new timeline's past of Acnologia made him weaker, he would not have been affected by it, due to his second perk being immunity to mind control and negative power/skills alteration.

It is this same perk that made him extremely vulnerable to what Death described as his previously unknown weakness. Right before Acnologia was about to speak, Death brought her right hand up to stop him from speaking then spoke first.

[AN: Imagine like a Manwha where the MC has a skill that allows him to find precious pills but once he eats those pill that grants him immunity to all poison and other things he must suffer like a week of tremendous pain to gain the benefits of those pills.

If a bad guys can catch the MC lacking then at that time then Idk about you guys but I consider it a weakness of the skill I just made up.]

"I'm kind of tired right now, go get your shiny trident while I lay down for a bit then we'll get to the main point of why I am here. Don't worry about the barrier after taking the trident, I'll keep this place safe."

"Fine."

Acnologia said as he went to get what he initially had planned to get. He went to the cave which would lead him to the Trident. Upon entering the cave, he was led to an underwater passage that brought him to what he could only describe as a ruined palace chamber.

"I have guarded the Trident against false kings since the beginning, and for a thousand years, I have seen the greatest champions try and fail."

A voice said as Acnologia noticed tentacles swarming towards him but upon hearing what the creature said, he could not help but to ask a question that was on his mind.

"Hold on, others actually managed to get here before me?"

"You- You understand me?"

The voice said to which Acnologia replied.

"Of course I understand you. I mean, how else would I be able to know what you said. Wait, how come you seem shocked? Weren't you talking to me?... Don't tell me you were monologuing?"

"Hmm..."

At Acnologia's words, the voice grew silent for a moment after muttering a single sound then spoke while trying to change the conversation.

"Others have indeed come before you but they seemed to have come here without knowledge that Atlan's Trident resided in this place. They seemed to have been exiled from where they came from and ended up here by mistake."

Upon hearing this Acnologia could not help but to ask a question once more.

"So all that speech about false kings and greatest champions try and fails was nonsense and make belief?"

"Hmm...."

Once more due to Acnologia's words, the voice grew silent for a moment after muttering a single sound then spoke while trying to change the conversation.

"It matters not! For you have come to prove yourself worthy of acquiring Atlan's trident-"

"No, I did not! I came here to get that trident over there. I have no need to prove myself worthy to anyone."

Acnologia interrupted the voice midway through its sentence.

"You know what! I'm dropping the pretenses! You go and take the trident from Atlan's hands which is necessary to be acknowledged by the Trident, a feat that none has ever been able to do. If you manage to rip it away from him then congrats you get it but if you don't I am eating you! You little shit!"

The voice yelled to which Acnologia just shrugged his shoulders, and swam towards the Trident before clapping his hands together then grabbing the Trident. A series of electrical sparks courses through the Trident after Acnologia pulled it out of Atlan's grasp.

Acnologia did not even bother hearing Atlan's trapped soul after he pulled it out of Atlan's dead hands. He used Alchemy and traded Atlan and Kordax's souls to bind this Trident to him while also giving it all the abilities of Kordax's trident.

"I guess that is that. So what are you going to do now that you don't have to guard the trident?"

Acnologia said while looking at the source of the voice that he had been hearing. It was a creature that resembled a colossal combination of a squid, a shrimp, a crustacean, and a dragon. It was a creature known as a myth in Atlantis, the Karathen.

"You have pulled the trident out of Atlan's grasp thus you are worthy of being King and for that, I am now at your command."

The Karathen said as it bowed its gigantic head towards Acnologia. Its voice no longer had the enmity that it had towards Acnologia a few seconds ago. Acnologia was about to speak when something occurred to him and he could not help himself but ask the Karathen another question.

"Why were you here, guarding Atlan's trident?"

"It was Atlan's last wish."

The Karathen replied to which Acnologia added.

"But you said before that no one had managed to pull the Trident away from Atlan's grasp meaning that no one managed to be acknowledged by the Trident... So why did he put you here for all those years if the true test was to take the Trident away from his hands?

Was it just to get rid of those that failed?"

"... Th-... How did I miss that?!"

The Karathen questioned itself in a depressing tone which caused Acnologia to sigh and then speak.

"Well, either way, you are free now. You can go anywhere you want but it's better to bring you up to speed with the outside world to avoid future trouble."

As he finished his sentence, he pointed his new trident towards the Karathen then blue smoke-like substance spread towards the Karathen and covered it in an instant. By using the Monstrification ability of Kordax's Trident together with his Alchemy as well as Magic, Acnologia was able to give the Karathen modern knowledge as well as enhance its via Kobra-Venom.

Since Acnologia had touched Kobra-Venom it meant that he could replicate it via Alchemy but simple replication would not suffice for him. In this new timeline, he had found a way to improve the Kobra-Venom abilities while reducing its risk to zero.

This is one of the numerous pieces of knowledge that he acquired through gaining his memories from the new timeline. Acnologia figured that the Karathen might not be as strong, compared to others, as it was during Atlan's time.

"By the way, don't tell anyone that I got the Trident."

As he said that, Acnologia left while the Karathen was getting used to the knowledge it had acquired as well as its new abilities. Acnologia returned to see Death who now was sipping Margaritas just like when he had been teleported here.

"Okay, now that you got that Trident, it's time to talk about how this weakness of yours might screw your plans for the future."

She said and before Acnologia had the chance to say anything, she continued.

"First of all, don't worry I am not here to thwart your plans or anything... In fact, I am actually here to help but you would not have believed me if I didn't show you, that weakness of yours first."

Death stood up and then pointed her finger at Acnologia.

"That plan of yours will only work as long as you use beings like Klarion whose existence is technically powerful but are a dime a dozen i.e. not the embodiment of a specific aspect. I mean, you need at minimum a Lord of Order or Chaos level of existence for your plan but it is also the safest level.

If you try to use the existence of any higher being like I said before the embodiment of a specific aspect, then that weakness of yours will cause you to take their place. You get a power up but you also gain some cons because of that."

At Death's explanation, Acnologia asked one question.

"That still doesn't answer the most pressing question... Why are you helping me?"

"Yeah, I kinda see your point since I am supposed to be neutral and not supposed to be meddling in others' business... but if you must know, I know the domain you are going to create is going to be a fun and relaxing place so let's just agreed that I am helping you because I want to be able to get in whenever I fell like taking a break."

Acnologia was about to speak before Death added on.

"It'll be a deal and in exchange for that I will keep this place hidden and inaccessible from others without your permission like I have been doing after you pulled your trident."

Even with this Acnologia was still not convinced since he knew that making deals with high-level entities was never a good idea if you left things vague. This caused them to spend another hour going over the details of the deal before Acnologia accepted the deal.

Death also explained to him what Vortex was to an Endless which helped him agree to the deal but that is a story for another time.

---

Once upon a time, a creature fell onto the planet Calaton, it tore that world apart for three years. With only the capital city left, all the members of the royal family combined their life forces into a single energy being, The Radiant.

The Radiant killed the creature with a huge blast of energy, laying waste to over a fifth of his world in the process. In common Calatonian burial procedures, The creature's body was shackled and masked, and due to his status as a murderer, was shot into space where it would remain for eternity.

As one can see, the cause and effect of the Time Boom did not stop at Earth, it also led to a change of trajectory of one peculiar meteorite. That peculiar meteorite which was fated to roam the universe without ever landing on an inhabited planet was heading toward Earth. This was a couple of million years ago.

Eventually, the creature would land on Earth more specifically the ocean after that peculiar meteorite collided with something that caused both to land on Earth. The force of the impact of that peculiar meteorite landing drove the casket deep under the sea.

The creature, however, was not dead, as any time it would be killed, it would return, having evolved past whatever defeated it. Time would pass before the creature awaken but that did not mean that Earth was not in danger since it was not the only threat that had just landed on Earth.

Speaking of Earth, that something, that collided with a peculiar meteorite, was created 50 000 years ago as a weapon in the battle between two far-off planets, possibly across a galaxy. It successfully consumed its creators' enemies and promptly returned to feast upon its creators themselves.

Afterward, it endlessly continued the cycle of consuming planets, reproducing then moving to the next planet. Eventually, IT found its way to Earth, and upon collision with that peculiar meteorite, IT landed on a mesa near Goldhanger, Nevada.

[AN: Want more? Like Thanos, I want those STONES!!!]