The Eternal Night God
Samuel continued to draw more and more power out of the Five Infinity Stones in his heart. Even now, he could feel them desperate for escape, but their limitless energy was rapidly converted into mana for him to use.
He would be so much stronger if he had the Soul Stone, which he had a plan to acquire. For now, he continued to focus on fueling Annilation Maker with the necessary energy it needed.
The energy requirements were so extreme that even he began to feel surprised by it.
"I knew he was strong, but this is crazy."
It was only after ten whole minutes of this did he felt that instinctive click in his mind. He had reached the energy requirements which made him sigh in relief. He thought it would never end, but now he looked down at his shadow.
He braced as titanic streams of black crimson lightning began to burst out of it.
'Aeterna. The real deal.'
His shadow began growing before it began to rapidly spin as all the energy he had used began to coalesce into shape and form. After a few more tense moments, a large masculine hand emerged. Samuel grabbed the hand and helped pull Ahrimane Reagen Blade out of his shadow.
Samuel was huge, 6'8, and built like a brick house, but Ahrimane was a bit taller than him. He wore a black fur-lined coat with a pair of black sunglasses on his face. He looked to be in his late 30s, with pitch-black hair, a big grin on his face, and a katana at his side.
When he emerged the powerful domain of The Eternal Night God placed a huge strain on Samuel's dimension. Ahrimane began to stretch out his limbs before he reached up and popped his neck.
He looked at his hand before he glanced back at Samuel.
"Not bad, not bad at all for a cloned body and soul. I can tell I am a clone, but I share most of my memories with the original. I know who I am supposed to be, what I am, and who I am, but I still know I am not the original. Quite jarring if I am to be honest.
However, even I can tell I am more of an inferior knockoff. You don't get enough juice in the tank?"
Samuel smirked.
"If I really could create The Eternal Night God in his full glory then I might as well be God himself. No, I went with the second-best option and made you a vessel containing the potential of the original Ahrimane."
Ahrimane reached up and ran a hand down his black beard.
"Now that is interesting. However, I think you could have done better if you had the last stone. There are six for a reason, you have Time, Space, Power, Mind, and Reality, but you lack Soul. If you had that, you would have had a different problem."
Samuel squinted his eyes.
"What problem?"
Ahrimane pointed at himself.
"Kid, I am a clone of a monster like Ahrimane. If you had created me with all six stones, then that would have caused a link with the original. He would have begun to incarnate through me and believe me, you don't want to get on The Eternal Night God's bad side."
Samuel smirked as he patted Ahrimane on the shoulder.
"True. Regardless, I will welcome you to the world. I would offer you a drink if I had one, or can I interest you in something else?"
Ahrimane shrugged.
"I could go for a whiskey, but I will make do with some candy. Give me a good meal before I die."
Samuel waved his hand and warped reality to make 50 lollipops appear in front of Ahrimane. That made the man perk up instantly.
"Sweet."
Ahrimane popped one of the suckers into his mouth. Samuel hadn't planned to kill Ahrimane. He wanted him to stick around as his second in command.
"You are not. Sure, I plan to absorb your Genetics, but you don't have to die. Stick around by my side, I want a partner I can call a friend. What do you say?"
Samuel extended his hand forward, but Ahrimane though smirked before patting him on the shoulder hard.
"I appreciate the offer, but you know as well as I do that I have to die. The more time you leave me around the greater the chance that the original starts to catch on. If you leave me around too long the original will eventually incarnate into this vessel and you know what will happen if that is allowed to pass."
Samuel smirked.
"Of course, that would be a problem with him."
Ahrimane smirked back.
"What can I say, I am that awesome. Even me an inferior clone. So, let's do this."
Ahrimane opened up his black coat exposing his muscular chest. He brought his hands up which he forced into his ribs. With a grunt of effort, Ahrimane tore his own chest open causing silverish black blood to spill from the wound. In his chest cavity, there were two hearts beating next to each other.
The main heart was a black and red organ that sparked with Aeterna, the dark lightning that defined Ahrimane as the Eternal Night God. Some cultures also called him the Eternal Dragon Of Evil or the Kind Demon because of his brutal and heroic nature.
Ahriman was not just a deity in the traditional sense, he was a Dragon God after merging with his Soul Beast. On top of his Life and Death Hunter lineage, he had become a Silver Emperor in the past and he was the reincarnation of Angra Manyu the the spirit of evil, chaos, and destruction making Ahrimane a Demon as well.
Effectively, The Eternal Night God was a big cheat with unparalleled talent and power. As for the second heart, it was something that Samuel recognized since it belonged to his race.
"The Stolen Heart of a World Sage."
Ahrimane grinned as he looked at the bright blue heart.
"Yup, I 'borrowed' it from one and placed it along my main heart. My blood itself is an alchemical homebrew something I made granting me an elixir of immortality. You should know this since you have one just like it. Just that the Sage I took it from made you look like a toddler since you are a toddler."
Samuel frowned.
"I am 30."
Ahrimane shrugged.
"Toddler when it comes to your race. You guys can live for pretty much ever until they meet someone like me."
Ahrimane popped another one of his lollipops into his mouth which he bit down on. He reached into his own chest cavity before he ripped out his own heart. He turned off his regeneration completely before handing both hearts to Samuel.
"Here, merge the World Sage heart with yours. The Sage I took it from had lived a long time even in this cloned body. As for my main heart, do what I did and place it alongside your own heart.
I can sense that you recreated Aeterna, this will give it the amp it needs. This will make you a god like me. Hope you're ready."
Samuel took both hearts before nodding. The viral matter around his chest shifted exposing the only true organ in his body, his heart. The bright blue organ contained 5 bright lights as its mana surged through his body.
Tendrils from his heart lunged out grabbing the World Sage's heart while Tendrils of the Black Light grabbed Ahrimane's heart. While both blue hearts began to merge together, his body began to warp and adapt as it implanted the new Demonic, Divine, Draconic containing the demonic nature of Angra Manyu.
As this happened, Ahrimane pointed at himself.
"Now, kill me. Take this vessel and use it to give yourself a true power-up. It's time to become a Hunter of Life and Death."
Samuel nodded before he lunged forward stabbing his hand through Ahrimane's chest. The Black Light began to snake through Ahrimane devouring his blood, organs, and genetis.
At the same time, his new heart began to beat once it was in place which caused a massive surge of power to flow through Samuel. Thanks to this, Samuel would become a truly terrifying abomination with no equal.
Ahrimane smirked as he pointed at his head.
"Don't forget my soul, You're going to be a monster and it's all because of me."
"It sure is."
Ahrimane closed his eyes as he was fully consumed. His soul which had been made through the Five Infinity Stones and Samuel's power began to merge with Samuel's own soul. With it, brought the Demonic Aspect of Angra Manyu, and the Divine and Draconic Power of the Eternal Night God.
Samuel though stayed silent as he fell to his knees as the overload of absorbing such a massive amount of power had thrown off his equilibrium. Already, his adaptive regenerative began to rapidly repair his own collapsing body as the power of the bloodlines he was absorbing was immense.
He also noticed Annihilation Maker drinking in the Demonic Power from Ahrimane's soul which brought with it the memories he had. With it came Ahrimane's own magical knowledge and his life history which was one huge saga of legend.
Samuel rose to his feet as his soul grew to a titanic size, it was like two giant oceans fully fused into one. In his chest, his World Sage Heart fully fused with the second one causing the amount of power he had access to go through the roof.
However, the biggest change was in his soul and the second heart as he could feel Infernal, Divine and Draconic Energy begin merging with him. His own control over every element of magic increased as Silver Emperors were masters of every element.
Not just that, but that overwhelming over that came with Aeterna was fully his to command. He raised his hand causing black and crimson lightning that surged with pure force.
"The first lesson of the Eternal Night God is thus, nothing escapes Nox Aeterna."
He clenched his fist as he could feel that Annihilation Maker was being overfed with power. The gear wasn't just a separate thing, it became a true part of Samuel. With it, came knowledge. What gave Annihilation Maker its power was that God used the corpse of Tiamat to create it.
Not the Dragon King that shared the same name, but the Mesopotamian Goddess Tiamat. Since God didn't use her soul, Annihilation Maker carried with it her resentment which formed its own consciousness.
The gear had been trying to reform Tiamat, but through his creations and evolution, The consciousness of the gear had gone dormant. With how powerful his soul was, if he didn't want to resurrect Tiamat, she would never return.
However, he decided to let it happen, but he would remain in charge. Samuel looked down at himself since even now the Black Light was working over time with his regenerative adaptive abillities as merging with Ahrimane was devestating.
"This will take a while."
He coughed up blood which was just like Ahrimane's now, silverish red containing potent power. He wiped his blood away before absorbing it back into his body. He teleported into his room where he was fully alone.
When he reached his room, he collapsed onto his bed in agony. The sheer power contained in the genetics of Ahrimane was almost too much. Almost, as he planned to just pass out, Mistress Death appeared before him.
"Did my presence really unsettle you that much?"
Samuel grunted as he sat up. He was more powerful than ever, but he didn't feel it.
"I used to be a slave so whenever I get threatened, I take precautions. The Stones were supposed to allow me to become even stronger which led to this. So, yes."
Death sat down on his bed crossing one of her legs over the other.
"Has anyone ever told you that when you get paranoid?"
He smirked as he could feel his body begin to stabilize. Doomsday's and 682's abillities combined with the Black Light and his World Sage blood quickly began to stabilize his power.
Even his soul rapidly coalesced as his strength began to return.
"Everyone."
Death was going to say more, but someone else decided to pay Samuel a visit. By this point, he was far less nervous as by the second his potent adaptive abillities began fixing all his internal damage.
His new hearts surged with power and his magics were stronger than ever. Who appeared in Samuel's room was Death's sister, Mistress Life. Much like Death, their forms were ever-changing, but in this case, she took the form of a dark-skinned woman, with pure white hair and piercing crimson eyes.
When Death saw Life she smiled.
"Sister, paying tribute to the new Eternal Night God?"
Samuel liked the sound of that which also made him question his name. Death had told him to think of changing it and he was thinking of some new ideas. Life looked at Samuel with great curiosity.
"No, much like you I came here because of his ability to create life. It is quite interesting. I can see why The One Above All lets his kind mess around. Though now, that he is becoming a god, I decided to pay a visit just like you."
Samuel stood up before he changed his viral matter outfit into the same thing Ahrimane wore.
"I am right here."
Life smiled.
"My apologies, as my sister told you, I am Life. Some call me Mistress Life, but I am the embodiment of all that lives. Except for your creations."
Samuel thought that made sense.
"I see. I take you and Death are here because of my new powers?"
Both Abstract Entities nodded. His new powers the Life and Death hunt meant he could feed on the life force of living creatures or the death force of the undead. All life and death now were just fuel for him.
"So what can I do for you two? If it is just a visit, I can have my maid and butler serve you something if it is for something else, I got time. All the time."
Death and Life both began to speak so Samuel listened closely. The words of Life and Death had to be something big for them to visit him like this.