The Sadistic Immortal Chapter 3: Cosmic Aspersions

Back on Novo Nammu, weeks pass, and Xerxes’s idea to help all his followers directly begins to take shape. Xerxes watches as the line of people only gets bigger as the day passes, lines are forming from multiple warp points from different planets with all types of people coming to see and his ‘divine’ assistance. Xerxes has incorporated volunteers from different villages in Novo Nammu to help settle the hopeful people in line.

Meanwhile in the masses of the waiting people, Nova watches as the volunteers get more overwhelmed, reminding him of the lines at a freak carnival attraction.

“Look at this spectacle... nobody wants to solve their issues by themselves, they want their precious messiah to solve their problems for them.” Nova thinks to himself in disgust, “How could he possibly deal with all these problems anyways”

Nova makes his way toward the palace to see the madness for himself. Nova eventually flies to one of the palace’s unprotected balconies and watches the spectacle unfold.

“People in my planet who originally welcomed him are now acting very peculiar, I need to find out the truth about this” Nova questions himself

Nova can overhear several of Xerxes’s advisors talking in the next room out of sight of the infiltrator.

“Something is wrong with our lord, he is trying to solve everything with questionable solutions”

“Our lord’s wisdom and command of science is nigh impeccable but this has been coming off as rushed and childish.”

“We used to be able to have meaningful conversation, now I hardly keep his attention for seconds. He shifts his attention too often.”

“Yes, but how do we address this issue with him if he can’t focus”

“Our planets are suffering due to his solutions, my planet’s ice age didn’t stop, it got worse due to his volcano blanketing the sky in ash.”

“Our planet’s temperature raised due to the star he moved closer making the crops die faster and people dying of heat more often”

“My planet’s tides have shifted to more dangerous and unnavigable states.”

“Dammit that arrogant ass was right.” Nova mutters quietly after overhearing the conversations

Nova silently leaves the balcony to get a better look at the throne room. As Nova crouched and sneaked past the occupied guards, he sees Xerxes, wedged into his throne, surrounded by animals. Guards and officials line the floor to keep the requestors civilized. Nova sees a man in front of the line approach Xerxes.

Hail to Your balance, I request the ability to help my family more” The man requests

Just then, an advisor approaches Xerxes and tries to speak up.

“My lord, we don’t have time for you to make these inane requests of the people, the volcano on Trappist Prime has dire consequences, the Ice age has not been stopped but has been made worse due to your volcano.” The Advisor claims

“Nonsense, now what was your wish again?” Xerxes brushes the advisor and looks back at the humble requestor, “Ah, to help your family, what a noble gesture!”

“MY LORD, THIS CANNOT CONTINUE, YOU CANNOT IGNORE THESE DIRE ISSUES!” The Advisor screams

Xerxes grabs the Advisor with his creation arm and grabs the requestor with his destruction arm and fuses them together.

“What have you done…” The requestor cries out as he looks about new jutting appendages

“I have given you the extra hands to help you family. Now go on and live in balance!” Xerxes smiles

“Hail to His balance!” The guards and officials chant

A couple of requestors back away in horror and the now quad armed family man is escorted from the palace. Nova stares at the ever panicking line in some horror. As a desperate elderly woman makes her way through the retreating line she requests Xerxes a question.

“Hail to Your balance, I request to have better sight”

“Of course my dear” Xerxes happily says

The materiallite Quartz begins to glow, a beam of light shines on her face. As Nova turns away from the overpowering light, he notices one of Xerxes’s cats looking up at him. Before Nova can even manifest a thought, the cat yells out with a giant hiss. The guards look towards Nova and Nova begins to fly away as quickly as possible, as he leaves he hears the old woman scream in agony as the guards all chant

“HAIL TO HIS BALANCE!”

Nova flees Novo Nammu and goes out to a galactic void where he only think of one place, the same place, the home of the “arrogant ass” told him to go 5 years ago.

The Collector looks over his notes and journals after watching countless hours of Xerxes fighting space defense forces from various universes. The Collector notices something off.

“He’s very smart and creative in his adaptable strategies but he has a hole in his vision.” The Collector notes as he watches countless Inkversian ships fall, “How can I make use of this?”

Suddenly the Collector senses a familiar presence. The Collector turns around and sees an unlikely sight.

“You’re late, Nova.” The Collector frustratedly states

“I see you’re still healing, I hope you can find recovery, old man.” Nova retorts

“We needed you, other planets needed you, lots of universes needed you, and billions of billions of people needed you, and you show up now mocking me?” The Collector counters

“I never saw him as threat but you started this war against him!” Nova retorts again

The Collector chuckles

“Why are you even here?” The Collector counters again

“I need your help” Nova sighs, “I regret saying this but you may have been right”

“The fact that the great and powerful Nova himself is telling me ‘I’m right’ must mean something is horribly wrong” The Collector worried, “Explain everything to me.”

Nova relays the events that transpired on Novo Nammu to the Collector.

“I have seen the astronomical anomalies that have transpired and they have all been routed back to Xerxes” Nova explains, “I thought Xerxes was a strategic war general who uses their power with care but I saw him as a tall child whose wielding nigh-infinite power without consideration.”

“Excuse me, what do you mean?” The Collector said in confusion.

“Could the stones be doing something to him. He looks thoughtless and distracted?” Nova remarks

“Maybe this is the opportunity we’ve been waiting for. I believe I saw a vulnerability in his fighting.” The Collector says, “Xerxes is a brilliant tactician with obvious year of training including coming up with new strategies on the fly but he is clearly trained on the ground, his thinking is clearly two dimensional, the only times he is caught off guard is when he is struck from above… but the problem is that his ability to warp space gets him out of any disadvantageous positions he rarely puts himself in.”

“You mean he teleports?” Nova asks

“No, he warps space, so a teleportation is a bridge between two points in space allowing users to travel these vast distances quickly but what Xerxes is doing is different, imagine space is a large parchment” Collector explains while grabbing a large sheet of spare paper, “He folds the two ends togethers, he manipulates those two spaces to almost touch and instantly passes through”

Collector demonstrates his explanation by poking a hole through the folded sides of the parchment with a spare pencil. Nova takes in the information and he takes a breath.

“I believe the space stone is the one in his back.” Nova claims, “That is the target, if we remove the space stone, we remove his ability to warp, therefore he should be beatable if possible. I think I could beat him anyways”

“I once thought like that, look where it got me” The Collector sighs, “It doesn’t matter how powerful you are Nova but this requires teamwork and no one has the cosmic power that you do… who is also willing to help”

“I think I know someone else… someone who can match his warping speed” Nova claims

The Collector’s eyes perk up

“Are you serious?!” The Collector says shocked, “Even if this person can help you get in position for you to dislodge the space stone, someone still focused elsewhere even for a couple of moments!”

“Why shouldn’t it be you?” Nova states, “Don’t you wield the power of creation?”

“Not at the scale required and she refuses to help me!” The Collector retorts

The two sit silent until the Collector gets an idea.

“I’m sick of Xerxes, I’m sick of the absentee goddess, the multiverse needs him gone” The Collector realizes

The Collector gets up and walks toward his research table, The Collector finds his sword and grabs it. The Collector holds his sword in his hand and looks back at Nova,

“I must thank you Nova for you have given me something I haven’t had in these long, dire years.” The Collector thanks

“What is that?” Nova asks

The Collector slams the sword on his research table, dislodging the extra stone of creation, and slams it into his chestplate. The Library glows a blinding blue and Collector returns to his hundred percent form. The beaming crystalline creature stands tall in his place and looks back at Nova and says

“Hope”

awesome story

nova calling him old man is crazy

THATS MY GOAT⛹️‍♂️⛹️‍♂️⛹️‍♂️⛹️‍♂️🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅💥💥💥💥💥

NOVA🔛🔝
🔮🔮🔮🌠🌠🌠🌠🌌🌌🌌🌌🌌🌌