Chapter 114 : Lost

Author note : Hey guys ! New chapter. Enjoy !

Also, just to let you know, the first chapter of 'Reborn as Lex Luthor' has been published on Patréon. Check it out !

You can find 'Marvel : the Author's advanced chapters there, as well as the rest of 'Squib who became Iron Lad' and other stories. I might post the latest FanFiction for public reading… not sure, yet. In addition, I'll resume working on one of my original stories as well as (probably) post it : 'Splinter's tale'.

To sum it up, it's a transmigration story of a guy into a wooden doll, with no memories of his past life. I've re-read it yesterday and, not to tout my own horn, but found it pleasing enough. You decide if it truly is though !

https://www.patre*n.com/user?u=66371596

Or search for Cathbel on Patréon.

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As the purple light of the spell was fired from his gauntlet, the yet-unnamed malthusians leaned backward, his hands leisurely crossed behind his back. Soon, other spells followed which were similarly dodged with ease. As the alien did however, and was probably running some calculations in his head about how to deal with this situation, Ned was doing the same.

At the moment, he was mostly trying to gauge the kind of powers available to the Guardians. For example, he knew that most of them could harness the green light of Willpower. However, given the fact that they discarded all emotions, was that still the case ? He assumed that it was this energy they used to control the mindless drones they had created, but really it could be something else…

The problem was… it seemed particularly difficult to push the Malthusian to reveal his powers. Despite the fact that they were basically at the top of the food chain in their part of the universe and thus ruled over it, they were good fighters it seemed. Or maybe it was just this one. It shouldn't have surprised him really… Before they decided to put Order in the universe, they probably had to fight for survival.

Every civilizations went through cycles of construction and destruction and before it even earned the name of civilization, might made right. On Earth, it was like this for a long time and it was either charismatic or spiritual leaders that put a stop to that. The spiritual leaders invented the afterlife and the gods in order to instill fear in people. Basically, 'if you do bad things in life, you'll suffer for eternity'… At least, that's what he believed in his former life, but then… He was reincarnated !

« Oh, wait ! » Ned muttered. « Gods are real in this reality ! »

Not that they were much better than humans… In fact, they could be said to be mirrors of civilizations and human - and/or alien - behavior.

« Indeed they are ! » The Malthusian reacted to Ned's words. « Earlier you compared us to them… But you could not be more wrong ! They are just as flawed as you, and every sapient race in this universe are ! We are… better. Perfect existences ! »

« Woah ! Talk about a god complex… » Ned muttered to himself.

Iron Lad moved swiftly around the guardians, firing cutting spells after cutting spells. Of course, there were other attacks in his repertoire. The reason why he was not using anything else lied in his current strategy. A simple one, really. Objectively, with the alien's experience, there was little chance he would get fooled, however since he started with this plan, he would continue.

Using the same spell over and over, in different directions and orientation, all while moving around… For most opponents, they would grow complacent seeing you had nothing else to offer them, so when a different and unexpected attack came, they wouldn't be able to cope. In this case, even though he knew the guardian was able to, it would still reveal important information about him.

For a while now, he was trying to use the legilimency enchantments to get in the alien's mind… Without success, of course. This too, was revealing.

Suddenly, a dark blue spell light, almost imperceptible was launched from his left gauntlet, almost at the same time as another purple slash. And, although Ned was positive the Malthusian hadn't seen it, he managed to avoid it.

Did he know what it was ? Ned pondered.

Unlike the previous spells, it was inherently dangerous. It was a simple arresto momentum to slow the blue guy's speed. He could have also used a pretificus totalus for the same purpose, although, like the name implied, it would have petrified him completely. On the other hand, the other spell was only meant to stop the momentum for an instant.

While his thoughts ran a mile a minute trying to figure out about his adversary, the Malthusian finally started going on the offensive. A green light seemed to emerge from the man's body before it suddenly exploded outward toward him.

Ned was blown, flipping backward before he stabilized a second later.

With a cold voice, the alien spoke :

« My brother Ganthet has always held a great deal of admiration for your kind… At least, before we made him see the truth. Frankly, most of us never understood why. Among sapient races, yours might hold the most flaws. You are slaves to your feelings. Your civilization still cares too much about material things. Ever worse, the greed and ambitions of a few prevents you from achieving anything great. » He paused as he looked toward Ned : « My brother believed that your heroes were proof that, although your race was flawed, all it took were a few individuals… That they would make you matter. They do not ! »

Ned's sensors lit up in warnings, alert windows opening up on his HUD.

Warning : Willpower energy detected.

Warning : Willpower energy level rising.

Warning : Armor systems compromised by Willpower energy.

Ned suddenly found himself completely unable to move. Ironically, the Guardian had done what he had just tried to do… Except that he wasn't just slowed. Slowly, ever so slowly, as if the opponent wanted to take his time killing him, Ned felt the armor compress upon him. For some reason, despite his claim that he could no longer feel emotions, the alien bore a malevolent smile. A smile that Ned returned in the form of a wry one.

He wanted to shake his head but couldn't. In the end, he was left with no other option that activate the apparition enchantment installed in his body. A second later, he found himself back on Wonder Woman's spaceship, surprising everyone by his sudden appearance.

« Damn it ! » He swore.

The situation was quite distressing for him at the moment. He was left without armor, on a way to a war against a super-powered race and its drone minions. Moreover, because he tried to play mind tricks, he hadn't even been able to give it his armor's all ! Still, it allowed him to make a few hypotheses and conjectures. The first conjectures : they could still wield Willpower !

He thought they had foregone their feelings after they discovered that the electromagnetic emotional spectrum wasn't an infinite energy source, unlike they thought. But since they were still using it, either their reason was different, or they were hypocrites… Then again, from what he knew of the guys, they might simply be dumbasses ! They created the 'Manhunters' after all, thinking they would enforce law and order in the universe. Look how that ended. Spoiler alert : Badly ! The Manhunters slaughtered the populations of entire planets because their programming deemed that it was the best way to accomplish their prime directive. They also created Atrocitus in this way…

Now for the hypotheses. First things first… He doubted they had 'purged' their feelings like the man professed. Maybe they locked them away, but that smile… Yeah, Ned's guess is that they completely turned psychos and that was it. If they could find the process they used to do it, maybe it was possible to reverse and give them back their feelings.

Second hypothesis : he believed that, in addition to harnessing the light of the emotional spectrum that they were used to, they also possessed psionic powers. The way he dodged every spell and that final attack… It was like he wanted to make Ned feel inferior missing something the Malthusian did so easily.

Still, he was probably unable to read his mind, Ned being a tech spirit and all… Ned was also comforted in this idea when he was thought to be a 'human'. That's not really what he was anymore, after all. However, the alien at least possessed some kind of foretelling ability.

However, his sensors were unable to pick up any magical energy before the alien used Willpower. So, theoretically, magic should be effective against them… Probably.

Clenching his fist, Ned thought to himself :

« Let's get ready for this war that'll decide the fate of the Universe ! »