Chapter 20

'Something is staring at me .

Itsstaringitsstaringitsstaringitsstaringitsstaring!'

Daniel couldn't move , no one could , whether it was within the barrier or outside it time was frozen , but their minds weren't.

They could still think , and at that moment they all had nothing but thoughts, their thoughts only their thoughts , not even the sound of breathing or their own internal bodily functions could be heard. Not even static sounded in their ears .

It was so darn quiet all present temporarily suffered from insanity. The human consciousness was not built with resistance to this kind of phenomena. Temporary could soon become permanent insanity if this lasted longer!.

Daniel most of all was affected . With his advantages as a genius came a disadvantage he had overlooked. His consciousness has become so powerful, it's resistance couldn't keep up !

At first he thought he failed , that a rift had formed , and a monstrosity from the other side had come over. But it didn't take long for him to reject this thought.

He felt a gaze . He didn't know that one could feel a gaze . He didn't have any power that allowed him to feel the gaze of others, meaning that gaze had the property to let its subject of interest feel it's presence bearing down on it .

Something was watching him in particular.

'Somethingsomethingsomethingsomethinsomethingsomethingsomethingsomething somethingsomethingsomethingsomethinsomethingsomethingsomethingsomethingsomethingsomething ' Daniels mind was falling apart the longer he was gazed upon it even begun to affect his body in frozen time!

It was so terrifying Daniel wanted to kneel down or prostrate on the ground to beg for a quick death . It was then that he found that his will power was shit! Look how fast and utterly shameless he'd caved in!

His mind was being dismantled piece by piece in a very systematic manner he wouldn't last . All he could think about in his last moments were his failure to avenge his family and his unrealized dreams of grandeur.

His [perfecting oneself] would never be realized he would never achieve anything of note even with the gift of genius he'd received.

But as he waited for death to end his bitter suffering, it never came !

'whywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhy!'

The worst part was that he felt himself, his consciousness lay in pieces. It was like saying your body was disassembled until you were just organs laying on the ground, but even then you couldn't die or put them back together.

It was so excruciatingly painful Daniel cursed his existence, and the existence of whatever being was doing this to him.

And after who knows how long in frozen time , a minute, a second or no time at all something changed.

Daniel was put back together like a puzzle piece, and when all parts were in place the wear down and fracturization faded away forming anew .

The gaze still present looked at his flame (his impossiblity.

You see your body was you.

Your consciousness was also you

And in Daniels case his impossiblity was also him.

This part of him he found that the gaze was no longer indifferent to . Before while it dismantled his consciousness it was devoid of all emotion, it was cold like a non living thing.

But when it came to his impossiblity it seemed genuinely impressed . Like it acknowledged him as more than a toy .

His impossiblity was only caressed by it's gaze not dismantled like his consciousness.

But when it's gaze landed on his body , Daniel felt the animosity! He felt like he would get vaporized instantly, but then the feeling he got from the gaze was something like .

' this trash needs to be remodeled, it's too flawed.'

Daniel now understood what was happening.

Something was assessing him. His consciousness even though genius to the supernatural level was " acceptable" to the gaze.

His impossiblity however was " beyond expectations" and something to be left alone like an exotic flower.

His body however was shit.Daniel barely had the time to work on it at all. It had barely been a week .

Like his consciousness, Daniel was being taken apart , literally. Eric and Jay couldn't see everything because their eyes were not on Daniel when time froze , neither was any of the humans alive. Which was probably not a coincidence.

Daniel went through his second round of unholy torture whatever gaze that was , it clearly didn't know about anesthesia . Daniel felt the entire process as he was disassembled thoroughly eyes ears heart lungs , everything was taken apart, and when the organ systems where split apart , the organs were also dismantled from them.

And when the organs were split , the tissues were split from them and when the tissues were split ,the cells were split from them , and when the cells were split, the organelles were split from them, and when the organelles were split the macromolecules where split from them (DNA). This process could have gone on longer as Daniel was being split apart until he basically existed as a wind with a consciousness.but the gaze felt it was there that the modification must start from . Adding nothing and taking nothing out , Daniel was modified against his will as his very genetic marker was rewrite by the all powerful gaze he felt terrible he would have fainted tens of thousands of times over could he have.

And as he was literally being rewritten and put back together, his coniousness took account of all the differences , and my was he blown out of the water with what he literally witnessed. Whatever gaze that was , it made his super genius mind look like the true monkey he barely understood what had been done in soo shot a time, and so casually too. Daniel was shocked.

If he still planned on undertaking his [perfecting oneself] plan , he might need more time to understand what had become of him.

And when the organ systems had reassembled and his new dark skin wrapped around his new flesh , Daniel witnessed a body that looked nothing like his own .

It was soo ' perfect ' the gaze had probably fished it out of his memory and applied its own style . His self was then complete. And the gaze looked to be satisfied.

And what happened next shocked Daniel Time restarted only for those in the barrier to witness the entire army of probably thousands upon thousands of bugs on the outside disintegrate, leaving behind red crystals .

" H–H–How?!"

Then the red crystals also broke apart so much energy gathered around the barrier as another modification process started . This time on the building shielded by a barrier.

Daniel witnessed his three simultaneously operating constants the scrambled space and the weaving of space to allow for a barrier protection merge with the barrier itself! The barrier was ripped out of Jay's control and the process from them on eluded Daniel there was so much done that it'd take him centuries even with his sharp mind to grasp .

But it didn't end there everyone within the building started to feel a connection to the very building and earth , like they were now a part of it now. And the process ended. the gaze also left . Leaving all present stunned quiet for half an hour

Daniel only realized belatedly that he'd been naked the entire time .

His new body was muscular, like it had never seen a day out of the gym . thighs like everyday was leg day .

He scurried to put on the shorts he had on before being modified against his will in the most excruciating fashion.but they were now so tight , he didn't understand why. No biomass was added that wasn't already there so where did the height and build come from ?

In any case he was protected from others eyes .

" A lot just happened at once ." Jay broke the silence. And everyone nodded in agreement.

" You just keep pulling rabbits out of hats " Eric said as he now fully recognized Daniel's superiority .

They did mind that Daniel did not look the same , and so ' masculine ' compared to before

But everyone was tired specially the three heros .

" This is now the safest place on earth , we can stay here without worrying about intruders" that was literally the case .

The only thing that could harm you here was those currently within the barrier.

A unique mechanism has been put into place . Each of the 20 of so still alive had been turned into a key . Apart from them , no other living being could get in here without permission.

All present understood this , there was literally an instruction manual baked into their consciousness.

Not forgetting the horrors Daniel went through his act of sanity was only a front.

He was so mentally scarred by his experiences even though he was left better than before .

Which ever gaze graced them it was neither benevolent or malevolent. All it cared about was that Daniel had created a unique work with the little he had available.

If Eric had remained on the other side of the barrier , Daniel was certain he'd have met the same end as the bug creatures .

Daniel had come to the understanding that the world was greater than he gave it credit for .

Reality actually bent to the will of that gaze . Not space not combustion not any concept in particular, but all of reality.

Consciousness, body and even his impossiblity infeont of that entity he didn't even register as a being with rights .

Daniel didn't even see a progression path that could lead to that height. The enemies he kept at bay were the summit of what he thought was achievable, and he didn't even think he could reach that height in a century.

Earth civilizations technology was really shit . Someone needed to thoroughly study higher dimensional energies. Daniel wasn't even sure if the gaze operated on those energies, because he felt no energy . He was more sensitive to energy than humans .

The process was more like Daniels impossibility, just on a different tier it was like his consciousness and body just decided to disassemble themselves before the gaze.

Daniel didn't even have the will to continue thinking about that gaze , it was too terrible.

The now tall half naked muscular man begun to make his way further into the building.

He didn't try to withhold his natural effects on the world around him , so everyone could see the distortions he caused to space just by existing.

He needed rest . He just hoped that subsequent days were more peaceful.

Eric had reevaluated Daniel at this point, in the future were he came from , Jay was the only survivor, Daniel was never even a topic of discussion, like the future /alternate future Jay hardly even thought of him .

Jay was a genius . He has traveled to the past, and even his existence served to motivate his former mercenary leader to develop faster than he had in the original timeline. But the most out of pocket change in timelines was the continued existence of Daniel . Within a week of the Apocalypse, this non entity in the previous timeline shattered all his world views twice . He didn't know how impossiblities worked , but he was willing to bet training was needed .

This ment Daniel was more genius than Jay .

So such a genius died because he didn't have the power to protect others . How about Mavis ? Was she also worth protecting if so , had he doomed her ?.

Daniel had blown his cover , but In an unexpected way . He was rather regarded as a human 'genius' .

At this point the threats they faced had let him unveil a. Bit. If Jay understood Daniels work on space or at least 'seen' it he would know that this wasn't something one human could accomplish on their own within an hour no matter how professional.

Madison, Jace , Augustine, Amon and the survivors arranged the corpses . Madison still has a bloody left eye socket. But with the resources they had they got her bandages up .

The day passed by, evening ,came and the next morning rolled in , no more monster bugs in a 30 mile radius and the rift was even falling apart as you could see it disperse into darkness particles the gaze had really syphoned a lot of energy from the entire area, to complete the building .

Daniel didn't come out of a room he'd picked on the 12 floor from the moment he got his new body he'd been gyming consistently.

Eating good food (meat and carbohydrates) and healthy snacks (fruits and vegetables)

No supplements this time , his biology only looked human his insides were an entire different species. Like the fact that he now had blue blood , and he didn't need to shit .

All energy he ate , served as biomass or converted into energy .

And like that a week passed .

The three supes where wondering even further from their base, this time not worried about their allies being attacked at all . They had tested the defensive system and it was amazing. The barrier was so powerful it redirected attacks kinetic power back to its sender 3 times the force. This was a sure death effect .

It gave Jay a lot to think about when It came to his power. The thing is no one knew what was a possibility of his power or of Daniels impossibility . The lines dividing the two had practically disappeared.

After a week of peace (kind of) everyone had regained their confidence.

Eric dark hair dark eyes pale skin handsome face and lean muscular body now wore casually street wear black clothes biker gloves , knee guards , and had a red scarf around his neck in the summer which Daniel thought was presumptuous.

The boy really wanted to give off main character vibes that it was cringe.

Jay literally embraces his materialism to its apex . Boy had on the most extravagant yet silky and summer friendly white trench coat like jacket on top of a blue shit and white pants . He had even buttoned it all the way up , worn a tie , cufflinks, suspenders a pair of mono coloured socks and a polished shoe. This all complimented his 'elvenlike' handsomeness blonde hair and blue eyes .

And Daniel, naked waist up showing his ripped physique . The firmness of his skin against his muscle , his veiny arms and defined 8 pack abs gracing those who bore witness to the pleasure of human(not exactly )body potential. His new body came with a few perks , like the no cap in growth potential, literally. He was a few inches taller than a week ago placing him above both Jay and Eric in height now .

And the two were tall.

And he wore compression shorts under loose shorts , showing his thighs and calves .

Daniel thought the women would at least appreciate his body back in the building, but Jay literally collected their eyes . He did however attract the men's attention. They complimented him on his gains , so he didn't feel he'd lost anything. Plus he was aware of what would have happened before he went on to train his body to look like this.

Some even berated him for indecent exposure . But he literally created the sanctuary they all had , so they did nothing other than complain .

" Let's find our classmates shall we" Jay said as he sparked the trucks engine.