"Shoika, is what you said true?" Mark asked his wife as he seemed serious from the information that he had just received.
In front of him a youthful looking Ice Witch stood seemingly looking at Mark lovingly as she nodded and confirmed her words once more.
"Yes Husband, it was the gods that gave me this gift." Shoika said as she looked at her hands once again and seemingly unsure how she came to be younger again.
Still she reminisced at the years she spent here in her new home and never thought that there is much more to the world that she already knew.
[Fifteen years ago]
Shoika still a bit confused as to why the Gods of her people gave her this gift of Youth again as she sat in her throne wearing a veil, contemplated on what she would do to fulfill the two God's expectations of her.
She had tried getting as much information about Mark as she could but she did not expect to get so much resistance from gathering information.
Her Spies led into dead ends as she became confused more and more as to what made this man the Gods wanted her to 'seduce'.
Right now the territory of Mousillon is getting more prosperous as years go by and more and more eyes were trying to see if there is a way to get this powerful Duchy into their hands since the Royalty of Brettonia does not seem to be keen in taking action against this powerful Duke.
So many thought that maybe the Duchy is being abandoned by the Kingdom since it did not conform with how the majority of the nobles work.
So a lot of people tried their luck in many ways, Men of the Empire, Zealots of other churches, merchants from the south, famous warriors from far lands, even wood elves that realized Mark's affinity with nature and High Elves that found trading with this Dukedom had alleviated many problems they have in their Lands.
The famed Duke and his family were rarely spotted but the nobles and commoners of his land are highly loyal to him as his army and force were not something any person wanted to offend.
Now Shoika was finding it hard to sit still and finally take action herself, but she did not think her constant sending of Spies caught the attention of a certain playful four thousand year old sorceress.
Neferata had been bored and found some fun in toying with Shoika without Mark's knowledge and as she had expected the Ice Queen made a move.
So with her simple machinations she was able to capture the Ice Queen secretly and brought back to Mousillon.
But to her surprise when she finally saw the Ice Queen she noticed the divine Aura that seemed powerful within her thus gaining her curiosity.
So for a while she spent experimenting secretly but was found out by Mark making her a bit guilty and thought of what to do to appease her husband.
Thus she came with the bright idea to give him a 'gift' which she brought to their bedroom without Mark's knowledge and made a rather heated night that melted the Ice Queen.
But Mark did not know since he was blindfolded, he had somewhat opened up a bit and let some eccentricities of his wives be since they did not seem to be harmful to anyone.
But he never thought that his wife kidnaped the queen of Kislev and this made the whole Kingdom panic for a few months without his knowledge since he had been more focusing on researching the crystal of the El family.
So from time to time he grown to like spending nights with his wives and let out weeks of pent up frustrations not knowing he was kneading the Ice Queen along with the former Vampire Queen under him.
Neferata seemed to have taken a liking to surprising him once in a while so he got used to her putting a blindfold to him.
So when he learned he took in a new woman made him a bit angry to her so he punished her by not giving her 'any' which made the former Vampire Queen regret a bit which Paris and Francie enjoyed instead in her place.
But she tried reasoning to him that this would make it easier for him to take over the Kingdom of Kislev but Mark disagreed saying that this might offend the Patron Gods of that country if he takes over carelessly.
This also made Mark realize that even if they already surrendered to him and accepted him as their partner, they still have some thoughts on how they thought of making him gain benefits.
Neferata especially since she was quite ambitious before, now her ambition was redirected into making Mark the Emperor of the World of a Dynasty that will never be forgotten nor erased.
Mark got a bit of headache since he knew a lot of dangers still exist, like how a small horde of chaos cultist mostly from Slaanesh and Nurgle seemed to prefer attacking his territory.
Mostly Nurgle who hated the cleanliness of his place, but this did provide opportunity for more soldiers to be nurtured as battle was always a great way to get experience.
But somehow his wives were handling things okay and even made things easier for him, but now he is facing a rather tired satisfied sleeping Ice Queen who experienced his assault for the first time.
This made Shoika a new member but Mark did not let her confided of everything yet. But he cannot abandon her as he rather felt guilty as well since he realized that he was rather rough on the woman.
Shoika was able to get back to Kislev amidst the confusion of the nobles of the Kingdom who were already planning to crown another ruler.
But Shoika just said that the gods were trying to commune with her thus she had to be gone, for proof she showed her now youthful face saying this was the blessing of the gods.
Some might have thought she was just a vampire but when they felt the thick divine power within her then they calmed down and realized that the gods maybe watching over them.
This made Shoika's rule much more stable and she did not return to Mark for a few more months until she felt she was missing the experience.
For the few years later she would be gone for a week or two until she would not be gone at all. Since at the five years she had been going to Mark she got to know him and it made her admire at how great of a leader he was.
Many of his reforms were copied by her and slowly adapted to Kislevite Society, thus gaining more support from both nobles and Commoners.
It was two years later she was finally shown the entirety of Mark's powers making her finally believe her God's words that Mark was a God in the mortal world as well and she was married to him now.
Her Icy heart had thawed a lot that she opened up everything about the God's message to her to Mark but Mark was not angry when she chose to reveal this after years she trusted her since he knew her heart has already been taken by him.
Meanwhile in those years many changed as people were getting more and more loyal to him as the territory became the most peaceful and prosperous in the entirety of the Old world.
Many coveted his power but none dared to take a step forwards since his reputation of being the bulwark of the North has spread far and wide.
Many visited and saw the constant raids and attacks from chaos forces in the Bearsonling's Keep in the north as Mark allowed a few guest from time to time and eyes were opened as many saw the horror of the Chaos Wastes.
Thus a treaty had been agreed upon by many that even the rather rowdy cultist of Sigmar, Ulric and Taal were forced to accept unwillingly as they still thought Mark to be a heretic for serving another God besides theirs.
Mark did not care much about the Empire as they are still in constant battles against each other for the legitimacy of who is the real Emperor.
Meanwhile contacts with the High Elves brought great wealth and trade for Mark's lands as well as some trade deals with dwarves as well. Finubar who he met was a surprised thinking that guy would be the future Phoenix King.
But no one was still allowed to go into Ulthuan as only they were the ones doing the trading. Not that Mark cared since he knew they too have problems of their own.
Though he has been avoiding meeting them formally since they seem to be seeking for something and he did not want to put more in his plate for the meantime.
A few troubles here and there did crop up, it seemed the supposed to be rebellion of the peasants which he thought to have been prevented became something else.
It was the relocation of the Peasants as many fled their lands to go into Mousillon to jump beyond the borders like Mexicans and find a way to become citizens of the famed Duchy.
This brought a lot of problems form many nobles near him except for the ones in Bordeleux as the Duke there was not one bit jealous as the duchy was more inclined in their Sea Trade and Knight training.
Though he has a trade deal with the High Elves and Dwarves, Mark did not put his hands on the trade routes of his neighboring Duchy.
Another problem was that since he has been using Compound V to enhance his soldiers, they tend to age slowly.
So to avoid many questions from other popping up he devised a way for young blood to continue. He made a retirement system that ensures the soldier or knight would be brought to a 'special' place to retirement along with their loved ones.
Mark gave them a space in the Back Yard which now expanded and has another large Island where a small city is forming.
But he also made a special area as well from select individuals, who he placed into cryogenic sleep along with his/her family members who were also given a choice by Mark to become soldiers as well.
A whole family of soldiers, their kids will be left behind to grow and become another soldier that would grow and make a family. Also when that Kid retires he will also be put in Ice with his wife while his Kids repeat the cycle.
He did notice that the kids become more easily improved by the Compound V making things easier for Mark.
Also his underground battles keep on happening as well as thousands of rats always attack his area but they are always beaten by Mark since he was an overview in his command room making him see if they try to dig more tunnels trying to ambush his men.
This was also a factory of skilled warriors and soldiers. But deaths cannot be avoided and most were brought to the personalized underworld by Mark which is now being handled by thousands of Dhampirs.
They became his own Valkyrie that will guide the souls of his believers in the endless halls where they are being made into heroic souls that he can call upon if ever they are needed.
[Present]
Mark rubbed his temples again as he thought about the information Shoika revealed, this meant that some Gods were aware of him and the only reason he does not ascend is because he is delaying the assimilation of his divine powers for now.
He is currently in a fine line between Demi-God and God, it was just his speculation but if he ever advances in his divine powers then maybe he would not be able to go to the mortal world easily.
He knew he is so strong that there is barely a creature in this world that could fight him back, maybe the ancestor of the Dragons or the Dragon Ogre, maybe Triton the gigantic mermaid King with a trident that was forge with unknown means.
Or the Slann whose magic is powerful and deadly, Mazdamundi especially. This also includes the death lord Nagaash, The Avatar of Vengeance the chosen of the Lord of Order which Mark forgot the name of, the Dragon Emperor of Cathay, Malekith and Morathi, as well as the Phoenix King and the Everqueen and lastly the rulers of Athel Loren, Orion and his now getting crazy wife.
Mark felt that if he even goes past their level then he might be taken away by some sort of force. But with the System he thinks he might not be taken away, yet it proves better to be wary.
Right now his years of planning and development he was able to ensure the whole Duchy would not need intensive attention from him anymore and would be handled by his people.
This way he could focus on developing faster in the technological part and now plans to make a specialized unit of soldiers for extreme situation.
"Haha, to think I also named my men the Grey Knights. Does this mean I'll have to train them to be merciless? Hmm, I'd rather they act like the Salamanders so I'll instill the importance of the survival of the people and give them stronger power to lessen the chances of any of them dying." Mark pondered as he sat in his laboratory seeing the many variations of the Compound V he made.
Torgu and the minotaurs as well as the muscular beast were also being made into a specialized bruiser unit. The young Giant had grown up and became an important part of the people here.
But it seemed that the kid is still in his early teenage development so one day he will become into a much larger asset.
Mark then went into a wide area in the laboratory, he looked at the equipment he carefully made in the past years to develop into the other direction.
He might have given pause to his divine powers but he still needed strength of his own not needing the magical power or even the Omnitrix.
He planned to become something much stronger and better than the best product made using compound V.
And as he discovered, it was indeed a factor that quantity and quality is included. He remembered in the TV show the boys that only a few ever got to receive the pure compound V and it made them one of the strongest in the series.
Homelander was even stronger because he was injected much more that it gave him the many abilities he has. Now Mark plans to become something more monstrous and these five tanks of pure compound V in front of him shall be the thing that'll make him into a powerful human.
Because he thought that even if he was already powerful in the basic sense, he needed assurance that he would not be killed in a blink of an eye by a sneak attack from someone at his level.
He remembered the ambush of the future enemies of his that it made him aware he might have done something they did not like one bit.
Base Strength wise he is already powerful but what if, a speculation on his part, what if he was not able to react on time? Mark' paranoia is getting traction in his brain as he thought of many ways just to survive.
He even improved his crafting skills in magical items as he researched on life saving abilities engraved in runes. He has not yet found one that'll be useful to him but he did make some that can be used by his people.
Also his small shop in the mansion is still active in receiving guest, only during his free time when he ponders over something, he sits down in the counter in a daze.
Mostly it was normal people that came to him and gave him some small prices. The money made did not seem much but Mark did not deny it, meat is still meat even if it was small.
He did get a few more crafting skills when some old people asked for something like looking for a sickle or a normal hoe. They were just old farmers who was a bit confused how they got here but Mark helped them nonetheless and it made his Craftsmanship level up many folds.
Also his Skeleton production line became much more numerous as they now numbered in the two thousand mark.
Mark still got some bronze chest or silver chest once in a while from the various battles won by his armies and he used every minion roll and contracts to summon various things.
Mostly demonic beast from the Soul Land Universe since he had also been teaching a few things to his wives about cultivation.
Paris and Francine were incredibly interested and became a bit busy in practicing recently.
The others only gave a normal response but they still practiced knowing it'll help in making their beauty shine better in the future.
Mark did not think of summoning much from other universes using the contract as he thought it'll be hard to handle rather intelligent subordinates.
So mostly he summoned were beast and though he did get some random stuff in the minion roll from time to time.
One of which is the few dozen eyeballs floating in his backyard, just a large eyeball with small bat wings and a tail like that of a devil.
They were ugly that it disturbed Mark a bit but they became the best surveillance system of Mark to handle the various beings inside his realm.
They were both camera and projector that he uses to relay messages with his subordinates in farther lands.
Though he can go there using the anywhere doors, why walk when you can video chat? So he gave one to Hans, Maria and Melissa as familiars to contact them from time to time, he even gave Shoika one as well since she seemed to be a rather attention seeking one.
Mark did not come out often for the moment as he knew that if he frequents such active roles in helping others then some people will take that as an offence.
His heart and purpose might be in the right place but not all would appreciate it, mostly the humans.
There is a reason they are prime real estate for the Chaos Gods since they are easily corruptible and the easiest ones are the prideful useless fat turds that call themselves nobles.
Sure there are good ones but there are really a lot of insufferable bastards there thinking they can one up against Mark in the game of schemes.
So his role in the shadows became a rather frequent visit since many nobles became destitute and fallen when evidences of their crimes and involvement in the occult became public knowledge.
Mark did not need to do anything as witch hunters and even cultist of the Empire actively hunted them knowing they were worshippers of the Chaos Gods.
Though some that troubled him were the cultist themselves, mostly zealots who think their god is best and will attack another if they say otherwise.
This gave him plenty of headaches not understanding how these idiots lived their lives with that kind of mentality gaining enemies left and right for their church.
Other than going around handling problems, he also found things that were beneficial to the Duchy, he formed a secret trade with the halflings in the Moot.
The hobbits of this world who were very subjective to the tall ones they called, but when many delicious dishes were shown by Mark's own Halfling cooks. Many families of halflings migrated to his domain, but in secret.
He got a lot of this deal and even gained a new staple food in the backyard other than the numerous rabbits that are found almost everywhere.
The Chickens of the Halflings which were at least four feet tall and are used as the cavalry of the small folk themselves.
Mark found it comical at sight but he does see the usefulness of these giant chickens. They were bigger than the ones he received from the minion roll and much stronger and faster.
They are fast that they can reach 50kmph in under five seconds couple with their great maneuverability and only needs small logistic support making them great mounts for the halflings.
This soared his population a bit as well as at least a few thousand Halflings had migrated to his domain, this enabled him to hire the Wardens that came with them and made a rooster cavalry force that patrols his area.
Fast, swift and light they come and go and found bandit camps easily, also they proved to be rather hardy folk when it comes to fighting. Some even brave enough to spar with a knight of his order.
But the most recent interest of Mark is in the mysterious Island of Albion, where he had developed a small port with at least a thousand garrisoned soldiers and a few thousand men to develop the land by the shores.
Good thing his navy was quite strong that the giants and indigenous people of the island could not push them away.
His rather peaceful approach helped too since he did not go openly and attack everything on sight, his men did contact a local and made trade with him while some Dhampirs went on to slowly gather information on the Island.
Neferata too had limited contact on this place, she did have some on the various tribes of barbarians on the north but that was it.
This fog filled Island was a mystery even to her as there was rarely a group that was able to discover many on this place.
Since this place was a forgotten side of the world, High Elves think they were the saviors of the world when they built the Vortex making them arrogant and conceited but they did not know the sacrifice made by the select few of Albion.
Truthsayers or druids, a line of men/women that were taught the ways to handle the arcane stemming from the teachings left to them by the Old Ones.
(A/N: I don't know if there are female druids in Albion since Lore was a bit vague on this part of the Warhammer Fantasy so I'll just assume since magic in warhammer does not seem to be picky except for the Ice Magic where they were strictly practiced between women but that was the decision on the Ice Witches side.)
Mark had been searching this place for a long time since he knew this was where the Old Ones built their dwellings when they were in the mortal world.
But somehow this Island has evaded his men's pursuit as mist always deliberately nulled their senses.
Now he only made a small encampment by the shores since the whole place is off marsh and bogs, due to the way the Truthsayers made the magical formation of the Ogham stones.
Like the Vortex the Ogham stones gathered the magic in the air and siphoned it to the land thus effectively rooting the chaos in the north.
But the price paid was great as the land itself became corrupted and poisoned. But the Truthsayers did not mind as it was for the safety of the world, with the help of the Giants of this Island they were able to build a formation with great ease.
Yet their nature still reclusive made them stay in their lonesome in this part of the world.
Generations passed by and the formerly noble Truthsayers had degenerated to warring tribes and clans while the Giants spent centuries of inbreeding that it clouded their once gentle and kind mind.
This caused them to show unwarranted shows of aggression for fun as they became bored within this small Island. But even then tradition still continued as some lines of truthsayers still existed.
Though they did not know what or why they do it, they still perform rituals that keeps the air of magic root here in Albion thus keeping the Chaos in the north for centuries.
Mark wanted to guide them to his side and slowly purify this place while keeping their traditions intact. Thus he let his newly made bruiser brigade into making the Giants behave in this Island led by Torgu.
Minotaurs, Ogres, Trolls, a few Giants and the Bastiladons of Mark were deployed using the Beast Fleet.
Though the camp is small it was enough to make a makeshift castle for Mark to install another Anywhere door there.
Somehow there were no signs of Skaven on these parts making Mark wonder but he did not dwell on it so much as he found the land to be riddles with copious amounts of magic that it became diseased.
If Skaven dig through this they will face a lot of complications, so that's a plus for Mark since there will be no pest bothering them for now in this place.
He did find the Island on his world map but the process of his sailors finding it just took a bit of time for him.
And now that he was here he found that his men is situated in the Isle of Wights. Yet even in this part the camp faced problems as the weather of this place is like England, always raining and no sun shining upon the lands.
The things in this Island that could harm his men were few but he did find a few interesting things here, some high cliffs of this smaller Island had Great Eagles nesting upon them and Mark made a personal trip to tame them and nurture them.
Things were going quite alright for him now but things got noisy as one unexpected event arrived too early. The village of Escantos had fallen in the hands of the Skaven, this made Mark alert since it was at the 1599 IC and this event should have happened two years later.
Mark was alarmed a bit even if the deviation as a bit off and now results of the butterfly effect are showing within the present.
It was also this time he felt a fluctuation within the land telling him about the situation of something he had been putting behind his list for a long time.
"The Oak of Ages seems to be getting restless." Mark said as he looked at the direction of Athel Loren.
(A/N: Hola mi amigos, just kidding I am not Spanish or Latino or anything. I found time to write even when I am busy in midterms exams and things are getting hectic that I could barely find time for myself.
Good thing I can now use both hands even if I got a bit clumsy in moving around, next few chapters will be Mark getting connections to various races and also preparing to venture into the Marvel World as his development in technological advancements has slowed down a bit since he does not have the means yet to make them into reality.
I've been looking into the plots of Marvel world in the 90's but since the MC received a plot change then the marvel world will be a mishmash of MCU, Marvel Comics and some hints from the Monsterverse.
But should I start during 1997 where Zilla first came to be or should I drop MC on a mysterious Island with a big 'friendly' hairy giant on it?)