Chapter 962: I am the 'ONLY ONE.'
"Secondly, how do you have Vlad Tepes' soul? Wasn't he absorbed by the Vampire King?"
Upon hearing Victor's question, Hela's memories couldn't help but return to the past. A distant past, a time when she only had plans for what would happen today. A time of scheming.
As a goddess with a strong affinity for death, she could predict when someone would 'die' or cease to exist. This ability of Hela's was even more abnormal than Thanatos or the heavenly father's angel of death. The reason she was abnormal was quite simple; it was due to the circumstances of her birth.
With this high affinity for death, she easily predicted when the man known as Vlad Tepes would cease to exist. Knowing this, she approached him.
And made a deal, in exchange for a small part of his core existence that would be used to summon him in a future war to aid her, she would help him ensure that his descendants had a full life.
Essentially blessing Vlad's lineage, she would ensure that his direct descendants had a good life. An agreement that Vlad himself did not refuse. Because despite trusting his vampire friend, he knew very well his shortcomings and how he tended not to pay attention when focused on multiple objectives.
Therefore, Vlad Tepes took precautions. Due to this act, Vlad Tepes's existence was split in two; one part of his soul was with Hela, and another part was merged with the Vampire King.
And as the information of this encounter was taken by Hela when she took half of his soul, when the Vampire King absorbed Vlad, he had no memories of this occurrence.
As a goddess, Hela knows very well that no matter what a human's status is, there will always be things they cannot do, things that she as the Goddess of Death and Time can easily do.
Vlad was concerned about his descendants when he died. Julio wanted to observe the progress of his empire even after his death.
As a Spartan, Leonidas controlled his own birth; he decided how he lived and how he died, so there were no regrets in his death. But he had a small selfish desire, the desire to fight a war, a higher-level war, a war of the gods.
Therefore, he was the only one who accepted the agreement without receiving anything instead of something like ensuring that all his subordinates had a good life in the next life, a promise that Hela could not interfere with, as this was the territory of The Universal Tree responsible for reincarnation. But she could make a request to the system; she doesn't know if this request was accepted or not, but she did her best.
For ages, Hela practiced the same, gathering warriors, expressive humans to fight in Ragnarok. Some humans she made the same agreement with as she did with Vlad, only taking half of their souls, or even a small percentage to nurture later. This was how she amassed such a large army without arousing suspicion from the other pantheons.
On special occasions, Hela would take the entire soul for herself, as was the case with Julio and Leonidas. It's worth noting that she had no respect for the Greeks. To her, the Greeks were worse than pig's dung... Actually, that comparison is an insult to pig dung, after all, even pig dung is useful as fertilizer.
While the Greeks were just useless parasites, so she didn't hold back when stealing the souls of the Greeks; she cared very little for that pantheon.
One funny thing... Even after stealing the souls of Greeks for millennia, they never found out, such was the incompetence of these beings.
'Were they really gods?' Hela wondered. Even now, she is surprised by the negligence of her underworld.
The pantheons she was most cautious about stealing important souls from were the heavenly father's and the Hindu pantheon. They were quite careful about their afterlife, so she avoided taking beings from those pantheons despite her strong desire to do so.
All of these thoughts occurred in less than 3 seconds, enough time for her to silently observe Victor's expressions, enough time for her to try to use her time powers on Victor to see his past or interfere in his past.
Suddenly, her consciousness is dragged to a different location, and she saw a 'thing,' or specifically a being that she couldn't discern.
'What...?' She was very confused.
She realized she was in a completely dark space with thousands of planet-sized spheres representing entire galaxies or even universes.
'Just what is happening here!' She became extremely nervous.
"Interfering in my past is... foolishness, Hela."
The 'creature' that had no form, more like an Eldritch being, spoke, and in the next moment, that creature transformed into a humanoid form.
The Victor who appeared was the same as the one who was in front of her a few seconds ago, but for some reason, she was sure he was different in some way.
"I don't have time; I am the only one. Throughout existence, there will be only one Victor, and this Victor will protect his past... I mean, the past of my wives."
Hela couldn't make sense of what he was saying; there was so much nonsense that she could hardly discern any truth from it.
Victor laughed. "Don't think too much, Hela. Just understand that any interference in my past or that of my wives is irrelevant. The entire space-time continuum is being protected by me to ensure that the Akashic Record continues as written."
"... You... I mean, your future self is protecting you. Ugh, this is quite confusing." Hela was even more confused now. If he is an anomaly unique in the universe, why does he 'exist' in her present? From the moment he became a unique being, shouldn't the past Victor disappear?
This is extremely contradictory and chaotic! It's as if he exists just because he wants to.
"Akashic Records, Hela. The answer is all there; it may seem like chaos and confusion, but it's not."
"... I see... You're protecting your records." Hela understood a bit, and at the same time, she decided not to think about it now; clearly, she lacked information, but she had a question. "Are you protecting your records only for your wives?"
"Of course, I do everything for my family," Victor nodded.
Then he complained, "You have no idea how many beings try to interfere in my past to harm me or try to steal my wives from me, trying to get to know them before I did, or even when I hadn't been born yet." For a moment, Victor's features completely distorted.
"Especially these 'outsiders'... Annoying creatures who think they're above everyone else because some superior being is helping them, these annoying vermin. No one will have my wives; they are mine alone. They and my daughters are mine alone."
Hela was sweating profusely due to Victor's possession of the tone, and the spheres being destroyed by these words.
Victor returned to a neutral expression, looked around, and then sighed. "Damn, I have to fix this now. Ugh."
"Forgive me for my imbalance."
"... It's okay... Those 'outsiders,' what are they?"
"Annoying beings who come from outside our universe or from a completely different reality trying to interfere in ours. The body count of these idiots is already in the billions; they are worse than plagues, and the worst part is that they never stop coming."
"They are..."
Victor raised his hand in a stop gesture. "Forgive me, but regarding keeping the records intact, I can't say anything more. I can only speak up to this point because this is the record of your newest self. Don't worry, eventually, you will understand everything. For now, return to your present."
As if someone had pushed Hela, she felt herself falling into a bottomless abyss, and as Victor's vision drifted further away from her, she began to lose consciousness.
"Oh, you can tell me what happened here, after all, I am unique, and that applies to my old records as well."
Upon hearing these parting words, she was back in the Norse pantheon.
"Hela? Are you alright?" Victor asked her, confused.
"Y-Yes, I am," Hela stammered.
Victor narrowed his eyes slightly. "You did something, didn't you?"
"What did you do?"
Deciding that honesty was the best option, Hela spoke, "I just tried to look into time."
"Foolishness. There's a reason why this is the territory of the primordials. Unforeseen consequences can occur when messing with time."
"Yes, I know..." Hela pouted. 'In my defense, you think you're abnormal! I used these powers on the mortal, and such a sudden reaction didn't happen!' She thought internally.
"Anyway, explain what just happened, and about Vlad, and the abyss as well."
Recalling the words of the other Victor, she nodded obediently. "Very well."
...
Extra 2. [Part of the story.]
Victor diverted his attention from his wife Hela, who had been sent back to her present, and looked back into the abyss.
A crack appeared, and a soul tried to enter this universe.
Victor's form distorted completely, and his body took the shape of an Eldritch entity larger than all galaxies combined.
Eyes larger than entire stars looked at the soul, which took on the form of an extremely handsome Japanese man with eyes like the sky and long snow-white hair.
"Hehehe, MTVABV universe, here I am! Violet, Ruby, Sasha, Scathach, just wait for me, I will... Huuh?"
Before he could even comprehend anything, he was swallowed and erased from existence.
"Irritating pests." Victor returned to his humanoid form and examined the memories of the creature. "Systems again, huh. Not to mention, another imitation of Satoru, how many is it this week? 1000? 2000? I lost count."
Victor shook his head in disdain. "These 'higher beings' clearly lack creativity. What's the point of the system? In the end, power given easily can be taken away just as easily; I know because I do it directly with my subordinates."
"Well, at least they serve as food to increase my power, even if it's minuscule..."
"Akashic, locate the origin of the intruder."
[Accept.]
[... Energy located, the intruder came from the ninja universe located at coordinates...]
Victor nodded and then said, "Open the portal."
A distortion appeared in front of Victor, and without wasting time, Victor threw a sphere with the energy of 100 Big Bangs, effectively erasing that universe from existence.
Victor didn't care about the consequences of his actions, and if this would bring even more enemies, anyone who came after his wives would be erased.
"Damn pests think they can do whatever they want just because some random AI gave them power," he said in disgust.
"Let's reinforce the barrier between universes once again... This time, let's increase the defenses."
"Azathoth."
"A lifeless-looking woman appeared near Victor."
"Yes, Father."
"Summon Nyarlathotep and Yog."
"They are protecting other layers; is it wise to do this?"
"It's alright; I want to reinforce the defenses of creation, at the same time, I will create a funnel so that these pests only come from one place."
"Very well... What should I do about the others?" She asked before leaving.
"Let them carry out their duties for now."
Hearing Victor's words, she nodded and then disappeared. Less than a few seconds later, she returned with two other women who had features similar to hers.
"Return to your nightmare form."
The three women implode... And the place has become something where reality can barely sustain itself due to the presence of these cosmic horrors alone.
Victor returns to his nightmare form too, and begins working together with his daughters to make his home even more protected.