CHAPTER 226

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[Alex Walker POV]

Resurrecting the Eternals Alice had killed has been super easy, barely an inconvenience, all I had to do was use the time stone to reverse to flow of cosmic energy and then when the energy was back, reshape it into its original form, using my own power to meld it all together once again.

It literally took me like two minutes tops, to do it.

After that, I relocated with Ajak to a different place to talk about their destiny, about what they wanted to do now.

Personally I had no need for them, I had golems in my attic that could fold their entire group in less than a minute alone. I just wanted them to choose for themselves, as a way to thank them for helping humanity until now.

Sure their reasons to help humanity were about the same as a farmer would have helping their cows, but still, whatever their reasons were, their actions, their results were good.

I mean, you know the saying… people sometimes do bad things for the right reasons? Well, I prefer the other way around, people doing good things for the bad reasons.

Sure is morally questionable, but who really cares? 

So, in honor of that, I was giving them a chance, a chance to be more than they were supposed to be.

"You are a Celestial, Arishem himself recognized you as such," Ajak sighed, her eyes drained in a mix of confusion and something else that I quite couldn't read.

"Enough about me, what do you guys want to do?" I sighed.

"You are a Celestial, your will it's our command," Ajak replied bowing, as I couldn't help but wonder how many times she had said the same thing. It felt so… robotic, like it was almost second nature for her, it was uncanny.

"Hm, yeah, that might work on Judge Judy, but not me," I rolled my eyes, "I asked you what you want to do with your life, not what you think I want to hear as a quote on quote celestial."

Ajak said nothing, but within I could feel her hesitation.

"I know you weren't intending on letting the emergence happen," I sighed, as she looked upon me in mild shock, "I know lots of things, stuff I shouldn't possibly know, so please… stop acting and tell me… no, scratch that, do what you want, whatever it is, no need to tell me." I smiled standing up from the chair I had conjured for our talk.

"I thank you," Ajak bowed.

"Fair warning though, if your… family gets… Well, murdery for the lack of a word, I will… well, I'm sure you get the gist," I winked, teleporting her back to her group before teleporting to mine.

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[Ancient One POV]

Alex's power was inconceivably high now, both cosmically speaking and magically speaking, his power was beyond anything I have ever seen, and what's more, it was only the beginning.

Alex hadn't consumed a Celestial, not really at least, but a seed of one, and even then, the seed was stronger than most fully formed Celestials, a singularity amongst them, one that would take thousands upon thousands of years to grow and reach its full potential.

But even this cosmic singularity, one that went beyond what a Celestial should be, had a very well marked limit to his growth, by that I mean he was to reach its emerging potential in over twenty years or so.

But before he could, Alex consumed him.

Creating an entirely new singularity, born in the midst of their merging, one that combined both Alex's infinite potential for growth, and the Celestial's innate power to absorb cosmic energy generated from intelligent life.

Each Celestial has a clear limit, one they had imposed upon them since their seeding, after all, each seed was different, once they reached said limit, that innate power of them to absorb cosmic energy passively, simply… disappears, which in turn starts their emerging process.

Key point being that limit, one Alex lacks.

Now, imagine a Celestial without limits, one with infinite capacity for growth, for cosmic energy.

That was Alex, who in a way, had become more than a Celestial itself, a seed, one that would grow for all of eternity, consuming the cosmic power intelligent life creates around him.

I could now only wonder, what awaited him at the end of the road? Then again, I guess it didn't matter, after all, I would be there to see it anyway, like I had been for every step of his way.

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[Alex Walker POV]

I wanted the infinity stones, yes I know I said against Knull they would be nothing but pretty jewelry, but… I still wanted them.

Because while Knull was out of their reach in terms of power, I was, because unlike him, I was alive, and frankly sharing a weakness with Superman wasn't on my wishlist.

So, I had decided to collect the stones.

Or rather… have others to do it.

I mean, I already knew Thanos had one stone, the mind stone.

And that the remaining two, the soul stone and the reality stone, were in other dimensions, one required a sacrifice, and the other required time, or power to break the dimension open, power I now had.

Sadly, I couldn't break the dimension where the Soul stone was like I could with the Reality stone, because the stone wasn't hiding on a dimension itself, but on an idea, a concept so to speak, one that that was both attainable, yet unreadable, meaning I either sacrificed that what I loved the most.

Or.

I picked or.

Manipulate someone to do it for me.

Which is why I started Operation Thanos prime. As Amazon prime, my plan was simple: I would spread rumors across the universe about an old spirit living on a desolated planet that spoke about the stone and let the domino effect do the rest.

I estimated Thanos would be visiting the "old man" within a year or so, and from there, well, it was all a waiting game.

I feel bad for Gamora though.