If you to read the completed novel you can go ahead to https://www.patreón.com/cornbringer
The novel is complete, back to daily updates! Sorry the auto auto update thingy didn't work and just noticed
UwU!
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For days to no end, I continued doing some research about certain areas of expertise that would help me face my brother who arguably was a bigger threat than Zeus, Zeus was one God, with a few following him. My brother, he had an army.
As for my relationship with Hestia, I like to think I was making progress, she was definitely more open to talk about her romantic feelings for me, albeit there wa no romantic action of any kind, and for whoever she deemed that necessary I would respect, she was worth it.
Now… to the more complicated things in my life, after what Hephaestus said, and Odin confirmed, I started to… read my griamore in the hopes of finding an answer or a the very least a way to avoid that fate, eventually finding a spell that basically allowed me to enter my inner world.
I immediately investigated the cons of doing such a thing, I mean… for all I knew entering my inner world would be like giving my inner dark self an open invitation to take over, nonetheless, Odin and Athena confirmed the spell would not backfire in such an horrible way.
After that, there was nothing left but to use the spell I had found, nothing but a simple incantation, and I was inside my mind, or rather the mindscaps, inside I discovered that my… inner world was nothing but a city that well… didn't exist in the real world, the fictional city was completely destroyed. Bodies were scattered in the ground, their faces stuck in perpetual expression of fear and agony.
"That's a red flag," I muttered, the faces of the dead looked familiar, almost as if I had met them before, "Oh…" giving a hard long look, I realized why I felt such sense of familiarity, every single body within this world was someone I had killed and consumed, most of them were faces I had long forgotten from my time in Tartarus, others were more recent, and the memories of them were fresh and vivid.
The sight was slightly disturbing, more so that I had ever anticipated such a thing to be, I knew I had killed every single one of them, but to see the bodies piling up, covering the streets with their decay, was disturbing.
"I was expecting you," a voice colder than the harshest winter spoke out loud, his tone almost lifeless, sending a shiver down my spine, "Hello,"
I turned around, already knowing who was behind me, how could I not? How could I not recognize myself? "Hello," I waved at my other half, and from a simple glance there weren't many differences between us, beyond our auras, his was dark and presented more energy than mine, while mine was… well in comparison mild.
"Come to see your future home?" My dark doppelgänger inquired, a small smile forming on his face, "It's rather comfy, the bodies covering her ever expanding world make this feel like home,"
"Then… can you stay here?" I offered in a sad attempt to maybe convince my darker self to simply not bother me any more.
"I have to say, I am impressed," Not surprisingly my doppelgänger ignored me, "You're supposed to be the good one, and yet you have filled this world with corpses, it almost makes me wonder…" he stopped, "No… that's just silly,"
"So… we really have to do this?" I sighed, "Fighting for control?"
"Not we don't," He chuckled.
I eyed my other self for a brief second before I asked, "Are you truly the darkness within me?"
"In a way," He sighed, "I am you, but not entirely evil… not yet at least, the power we inherited from our father will soon consume me, and then consume you… I mean I am by all means your inner demon, but not the demon you should be scare of,"
"So two evil selves…. Great, I got a two for one," I sighed, and my other half… or rather third laughed.
"I am what your human side so desperately wants to hide, and the beast slumbering within us… is what we are meant to be," my doppelgänger chuckled, "But don't be afraid… after all, there is no point in being afraid of the inevitable,"
"I'm not afraid," I scoffed, I still had Hestia, and some self control, all I had to do was to find a way to avoid this shit.
"You give that little goddess too much credit," My doppelgänger snorted, "Little by little, her influence on you slips away… like the last summer of an old man, soon… she won't be enough, and when that happens…. the slumbering beast shall roar breaking down what makes you…. you,"
"So what you're saying is… I have to beat you and that other… me? You, us?" I was starting to get confused.
"I suppose," he shrugged, "But… in all honesty, can you really beat us? I mean, I can't beat the outer us, and I'm stronger than you, what hopes do you have to beat him, if you can't possibly beat me?"
"Can I hug you… and say I accept you?" It was worth a shot. I mean, Naruto did it.
"This is not an anime," His reply was cold, but what I expected.
"I mean it could," I shrugged.
"I am happy beyond comprehension you soon will no longer be the king of this body, your idiocy it's deplorable," He growled, glaring at me.
"Oh great, my other two thirds are boring assholes, which means I'm one third funny…" I snorted
"Next time… you won't find your visit, so pleasant," With a wave of a hand, my dark self kicked me out of the server, I mean… my inner world.
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Opening my eyes, I found myself back to where I had casted the spell to visit my own mindscape, "Well… I am more fucked that I anticipated," for the first time in a long time, I had no idea what to do, and how to escape this shitty destiny.