prevoiusly in chapter 128
Before the Celestial could speak, Henry took the initiative, bowing slightly. "I greet you, great lord Arishem the Judge," he said with a measured tone of respect. His words caught the Celestial off guard, though its expressionless face betrayed no emotion. Arishem remained silent for a moment, his immense presence exerting a pressure that felt like it could crush a planet.
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Chapter 129
"You are aware of who I am, mortal?" Arishem's voice rumbled through the void, deep and resonant, like the shifting of tectonic plates. Henry smiled inwardly, his posture unyielding despite the overwhelming power he faced. "I am. You are Arishem the Judge, one of the Celestials, creator of the Eternals." Arishem's gaze bore down on Henry, his eyes glowing more intensely. "Yet you slaughtered them despite knowing that. Why?" "They failed," Henry replied simply, his voice calm but firm.
At this, the red hue around Arishem intensified, the very fabric of space seeming to tremble under the weight of his presence. Henry could feel his soul being squeezed, tested by the immense pressure that radiated from the Celestial. "You see yourself as a judge," Arishem's voice thundered, each word vibrating with a power that could unmake reality.
Realizing that reasoning with the Celestial was futile, Henry sighed. "Well, I tried," he thought to himself. Then, as if on cue, something materialized—a small, device-like object known as a time charge, which Henry had discreetly prepared just before being pulled out of his dimension cube. The moment the time charge activated, the orange liquid inside it turned a deep, ominous purple. Instantly, Henry began to fade, his form blurring as he was erased from the timeline.
Arishem watched the process silently, his massive form still and imposing. As Henry disappeared completely, the Celestial's glowing hue softened, a rare hint of fear creeping into his otherwise stoic demeanor. "I am deeply ashamed," Arishem said in a voice that had lost some of its earlier thunder. "He should be in the Void now."
A playful, almost mocking voice suddenly echoed beside him, cutting through the silence. "Hm, it's weird. I thought he would have wasted the protection protocol on you, like the other system hosts did. I guess this one has some brains" The voice, though lighthearted, caused even the mighty Arishem to quake with a fear he had not felt in eons. He knew who the voice belonged to, and the realization sent a shudder through his colossal form. "I guess they were right," the voice continued, laced with a dark amusement. "I'm going to enjoy this hunt. Come on, little pet, let's go."
Before Arishem could react, he was forcefully teleported away, the overwhelming power of the unknown entity whisking him from the scene without resistance. The void that remained was filled with a chilling silence, as if the universe itself had recoiled from the presence that had just made itself known.
[-scene change-]
In a world where the sky was a chaotic swirl of purple, grey, and black clouds, with lightning streaking through the gloom, casting an eerie glow over everything. The air feels thick, almost oppressive, as if reality itself is unstable. All around, there are broken pieces of time and space — shattered monuments, ruined buildings from different eras, and even parts of cities that seem frozen in time, hovering or half-buried in the barren, cracked ground. Strange, forgotten relics and eerie silence stretch out for miles, punctuated only by distant roars and flashes of light from the menacing storm. That is when suddenly the sky split open and henry was thrown through, only for him to stablise himself, he looked around for a bit as he though, "hm, so this is the void?" he though to himself.
He then turned around and looked In the distance, that is when he saw a massive, swirling cloud of living smoke, devouring anything in its path. It moves like a predator, always looming, always searching, and the closer it gets, the more fearsome its presence feels. "Interesting" he muttered as he then hovered above before floating up as he then started to fly at a high speed while the sphere of cognition floated beside him. He flew for while, but even then, the landscape felt oddly twisted, like the real world but with a nightmarish overlay. The environment is bleak and cold, filled with wreckage — charred forests, crumbling industrial ruins, and desolate fields that stretch endlessly. he felt an unnatural quiet, punctuated by faint whispers in the distance or the echo of something far off — something alive but hiding. The place feels like it's meant to trap anyone, and there's a pervasive sense of doom hanging in the air, as though he not alone, and yet, everything here wants him dead.
After having looked around for a bit, Henry sighed as he thought, "Well, that sucks," before chuckling softly. He then entered his dimension cube, where the golden library pulled up every single video it had related to him. "Hm, where did I go wrong?" he asked himself, but he knew the answer to his own question. "The Hunter. Either way, ruling a planet is not for me," he thought to himself, although it was the Hunter who threw the pebble at the calm river, which led to everything that has transpired, including Henry ruling the planet. Despite knowing that fact, Henry wasn't all that concerned about it. He didn't look for him when this Hunter appeared or when he started to influence the world, right under Henry's nose, and that was for a simple reason: Henry is at a critical point in his development.
where Project Null, Project Rebirth, Project Magnum Opus, and Project Titan are all at their completion stage, meaning that he couldn't spare the manpower to look into his greatest obstacle in his journey to godhood. Once he was done with these projects, Henry would only have one more project remaining, which was Project God, or Tier 9 Potions, and by that time, the Hunter would be easy to deal with. Basically, he couldn't be bothered with his supposed nemesis. " unless i have other ideas for a project. Anyways, I was still able to profit greatly, amassing mountains of rare resources all around the world and ransacking Wakanda and atlantis for their vibranium, not to mention the time stone and the mind stone" he told himself as he let out a weary breath.
"Anyways, before I explore this world, or Void, I need to finish these four projects," he reminded himself as he slipped into his work clothes. "And since there are no events I need to watch out for, I can relax," he mused to himself as he got to work. The first project he decided to finish was Project Titan, which was 87% completed; all he had to do was the finishing touches. Project Titan mostly used the Gamma blood infusion he got from the Hulk, which meant that this project aimed to give him the same powers as the Hulk. Everything was ready: highly stabilized and synthesized essence of a highly, extremely upgraded and stable Super Soldier Serum, which was made from hundreds of Super Soldier Serums extracted and turned into essence, then combined.
There was, of course, the main ingredient: Gamma Infusion Extract. The blood of Thor was also used, and lastly, there was the purified essence of 100 supernatural creatures such as werewolves, vampires, mermaids, wendigos—yes, all of those existed. In fact, there was a whole tradition where humans hunted these monsters, a famous example being the famous hunters from the Bloodstone family, users of the Bloodstone, which was an artifact that granted its user prolonged life, shot energy bolts, and revealed the form of monsters. The last ingredient of this potion was the extremely upgraded Extremis Compound that didn't even look like an extremes.
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A/N: Finally, we are nearing the end—well, the end is still a couple of chapters away, more like 20+ chapters. It's mostly about Henry, who goes from being unable to take on characters like the Avengers head-on without artifacts or potions, to, well, tanking a Big Bang explosion. Yeah, all the talk about this project and that project will finally come to fruition in the next three chapters, turning Henry into a flaming cockroach (not literally, don't be stupid), an unkillable character. So yeah, LET THE MULTIVERSAL SHENANIGANS BEGIN!