A Nascent Kaleidoscope.

Chapter 528:

"Alright, I got 20 on Watermelon." Ddraig stated, holding one of his small claws up as he floated next to Musū Tengai.

"I'm going to drown you." I warned.

Musū Tengai ignored him and looked at me. "Are you sure this is where you want to fight?"

I looked around at the same beach I spent the previous day on and found myself smiling. "Yeah, this is a good spot."

"You don't need to fight so soon either." He said calmly.

"It's fine, I feel recharged." It was only one day but I felt more rested than I had in a long time. My proverbial batteries were recharged.

"Very well, we shall begin." Musū Tengai stated, waving his hand and producing a mirror opposite of me.

It cracked and shattered, my alternate stepping through to greet me once more.

"Oh, nice location!" He shot me a thumbs up.

I spun my Staff of Magnus around, tapping it on the ground, and leaned on it. "You think? I was just here yesterday with the Harem and some friends and family."

"Sounds like a good time." He nodded in approval. "I doubt I could get Meridia in a Bikini."

"You'd be surprised."

"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow. "That's something I'll have to ask later then." He grinned. "Shall we get started? Let's see who made the best preparations."

That is to say, as soon as he arrived, we both started even as we 'chatted'.

He swung his staff and the top layer of sand underneath him blew away revealing a massive Magic Circle.

Similarly, I did the same, however my Magic Circle was a bit different.

"Five Elements within a Runic Circle and a – "

"Talking isn't a free action." I put a finger up to my lips, warning him as a Lightning Bolt dropped from the sky, slamming into a quickly made shield of his.

He laughed and tapped his staff against the ground, arcs of lightning danced across the sand.

The sand around him distorted and formed into swords as they hovered from the ground, pointing at me.

Once more, similarly as him, swords made of sand float up from around me, using Electromagnetism through a spell sequence to quickly create a numerable amount, just like his own.

Without warning we both shot them off as they collided in mid-air. Each one was razor sharp, but as they collided, they were reduced back down to mere sand.

However, his numbers began to overwhelm mine as my 'swords' were slowly being pushed back.

"Strun Bah Qo" I called out, calling for the Storm to appear overhead.

"Lok Vah Koor!" He countered, clearing the skies and he jerked his hand. "Water Dragon." A second spell actualized, using the Ocean as a base, creating a construct made of water in the form of a dragon as it roared to life and launched towards me.

I tapped one of the Elements I prepared and pumped it heavily full of power. "Freezing Winds of Jotunheim."

The power behind my spell was easily magnitudes above his own water spell. The Freezing Winds burst out turning the beach into a winter wonderland.

His Dragon froze completely and so did the ocean's waves come to a stop hundreds of meters in all directions.

A wall of fire rose up around him fending off the frost even as it crept in from all directions. He frowned, clicking his tongue. "Little overboard, don't you think?"

"Strun Bah Qo." I called out again.

"Lok Vah Koor!" He shot back.

"Bakudō 61, Rikujōkōrō." I held my hand up, pointing at me.

"Kidō now?" He held up his hand too. "Disintegrate, Black dog of Rondaniini, look upon your burning soul and sever your throat!" He chanted. "Bakudō #9, Geki!"

His Kidō collided with mine and threw it off rather than block or force him to dodge.

"Smokescreen." A black puff of smoke exploded around him. Another roar resounded and a fully fleshed out Dragon emerged from the smoke and shot at me, its large maw opened wanting to devour me whole.

The Black cloud of smoke also distorted and turned into chains as they launched from around the Dragon, coming at different angles.

"Fires of Muspelheim." I spoke without concern as the flames erupted outwards, burning away both the smoke and the fake illusionary dragon.

"Sun Burst." My copy called out and my flames parted and I was forced to jerk my head to the side as what looked like a laser, but was perhaps a very condensed sun beam shot run past me.

"Strun Bah Qo!"

"Lok Vah Koor!" My copy sounded almost annoyed. "That's not going to work! I already know your lightning is better than mine, I'm not going to let you have a storm at your call!"

I held my staff up, nonplussed. "Blizzard." A harsh winter descended upon our battlefield, consuming everything in its path.

"Firestorm!" He countered as fire rained from the sky, and the wind swirled into tornados made of fire, molten slag landing everywhere as the two elements collided.

"Firestorm." I cast in response, amplifying the already heated fight.

"Blizzard!" He countered once more as the weather around us was changing drastically.

"Chain Lightning"

"Grounding!"

"Wall of Flames."

"Wall of Frost!"

"Strun Bah Qo."

"Lok Vah Koor!"

The errant lightning danced in the air, but the clouds were once more dispersed.

"Hurricane."

"Implosion!"

"Firestorm, Hurricane, Blizzard, Lightning Storm." I cast quickly in succession, my foot slid across the ground, and I positioned myself, pointing my palm at him. "Hadō # 63, Raikouhou!"

"Ice – Shield of Asgard!" He finally went fully on the defensive as all my spells collided with his most powerful barrier.

I raised my hand upward and the air around him cracked and shattered, revealing the same trick he pulled on me the first time.

The Six Massive Runic Circles boxed him in. "Great God Carved Seal."

"Did you think I wouldn't notice?" He scoffed, and equally, another copy of the spell appeared in front of mine, but reversed as he actualized it at the same time. "Great God Carved Seal!"

They canceled each other out without my copy coming to harm.

"No, I just needed to get rid of yours." I smiled, making a hand sign. "This is the end; it was a good fight."

"What – "

"Mountain Sealing Incantation."

His eyes widened as he looked up and a large mountain chain appeared upside down, pressing down on him.

He thrust his Staff of Magnus up, dozens of Beautiful Spell Circles spinning around. "Singularity!"

At the top of his staff, a black hole appeared, holding off my Sealing Spell. My reflection was sweating as he trembled to do so, but credit where it was due, he was keeping my spell off.

I was genuinely surprised he had something like that up his sleeve, it was a trump card on par with my own Mountain Sealing Incantation. That was something that managed to suppress Kronos and have him acknowledge it.

"Strun Bah Qo"

"L-Lok Vah koor!" He forced out while continuing to hold off my spell, well rather my Spell began to warp and break down at the point.

My Arms became coated I Lightning and I held a hand up to the sky.

My Copy looked at me, sweat dripping down his forehead then up at the sky and he chuckled in a self-deprecating manner. "The Dragon Words….even if they didn't summon the storm properly, it still left remnants lingering behind. Well done."

It was as he said, the Storm Summoning words of power, well the storm failed to properly remain, but it was summoned filled with Lightning. The Lightning didn't just vanish completely with each disruption.

I just needed enough of it and to call it together.

In the most simplistic way, it all conglomerated above in an instance, like a whirlpool but entirely made of lightning.

"Fall."

A Bolt of Lightning large enough to glass the beach fell down on top of my alternate.

He attempted spells to shield, but they all shattered and crashed down onto him.

The surroundings returned to normal at the beckoning of my Zanpakutō spirit. "Well done." He complimented me again.

"Thanks." I smiled happily, finally defeating my copy.

With another gesture my mirror appeared at his side, looking a little miffed.

He crossed his arms with a huff. "Really, just throwing around copious amounts of firepower to put me on the back foot then dropping something big on me?"

I shrugged. "I noticed that I can channel and bring about more Magical Energy in quicker succession than you."

He sighed. "Well, not much I can do about that. Still a squishy Human…ish body here. Not all of us have Divinity."

Even if we both had Access to the Kaleidoscope – I could presume I simply handled more and did so more efficiently.

"You realized the purpose of this fight then?" My Zanpakutō asked.

"Yeah, it came to me after I had time to think about it." I nodded. "I was losing because I was continuously trying to follow in his steps." I pointed at my mirror. "I was trying to match him on his terms."

"Do you think he took the wrong path then?" My Zanpakutō asked.

"There's no right or wrong." I shook my head. "I learned a lot, and it was nice to have a purely magical battle, even if that's not what I would do in a normal situation. People change every day, I'm different from the person I was yesterday, but that doesn't mean I need to force myself to be someone else. Likewise, I didn't need to try and copy him to beat him."

Tricks, cantrips, small spells and the like, they would always have a spot in my repertoire. But overwhelming power was a must when fighting beings on the level of Kronos. I simply leveraged my power to push him onto the defensive and finish him off with something he couldn't counter.

It's about leveraging your talents correctly.

I had a significant amount of raw power available to me, and to ignore that was just as fallacious to only rely on it.

Why did I need to keep up with him, he needed to keep up with me!

"Best two out of three?" My mirror smiled.

"Fuck that."

"Boo."

I felt the small World Tree inside of me grow exponentially, to the point where it was several feet tall now.

"You pass the first round." My Zanpakutō declared.

"So I was right then?" I asked though it was more rhetorical than anything.

"As you said, there was no right or wrong. Simply, what you decided was best for yourself and to walk that path forward." He smiled warmly.

"I'm proud of you, Watermelon, for beating another Watermelon. Truly Watermelon is the best Watermelon." Ddraig looked very sagely while he 'praised me'.

"Dammit Ddraig…" I sighed.

"Why is he calling us Watermelon?" My Mirror looked at me then at him.

"You…don't know?" I looked at him. "Right….you must have lived a much different life than me."

"Hmm, you figured it out then?" He tilted his head.

"I'd have to be blind not to notice the peculiarities and verbiage used." I deadpanned.

"True, true." He rubbed his chin.

"Are you real?" It was the main question I wanted to ask. "I thought I was a unique existence."

"Who knows." He grinned. "But we both know there's no such thing as unique."

"You know what I mean though." I rolled my eyes. "Obviously I would exist elsewhere, just from probability alone." An infinite number of possibilities means an infinite number of myself even when I wasn't a 'constant' like Zelretch.

"I am a possible life that lived and has lived. I have my own dreams, my own wants, my own goals. However, I'm also a reflection of yourself."

"I feel like you're trying to be intentionally vague and mysterious."

"Indeed." He just nodded.

Granted, that's what I would do as well. "How different are we? You mentioned Meridia, you're with her as well?"

"Of course, she's my wife." He smiled happily.

"Wife? Married?" I was surprised.

"I found the woman I love, of course I'm going to put a ring on her finger. You're running around with a harem, right? Probably why you're slower in that department."

"True…." I would admit that having multiple girls meant that things progress slower overall. But that doesn't mean in any way I'm unhappy. "Legs." I simply said.

"Legs." He agreed immediately.

We both chuckled.

"Who else for you?" He asked.

"Artoria –"

"Ah, that shouldn't surprise me. I had a bit of a crush on her for a while." He smiled wistfully.

"Scáthach." I also added.

"Hmm, that's surprising. I don't know a Scáthach."

"You never went to the land of Shadows?" I asked, realizing that this was why we differed greatly in our fighting methods.

He shook his head. "That sounds like an interesting idea. I can see how you would lean towards certain martial methods then if you were trained by the Immortal Witch."

"Yasaka." I continued on.

"Ah, that's understandable." He seemingly agreed again.

"Minamoto-no-Raikou."

"An interesting choice, I don't know this person however."

"Jinn."

"The Relic Spirit?" He blinked. "Actually, no, that's understandable."

I'm glad we could agree there just from first appearances alone.

"You went to Remnant too?"

"I did indeed. Interesting place, picked up some nice stuff. Too bad I couldn't use my Aura in the fight and we could only really rely on ourselves and our Magic." He hummed.

"….Salem."

He raised an eyebrow. "I'm starting to see a pattern."

"Are you really going to call me out here?" I said dryly.

"No, just realizing something about myself as well." He muttered.

"Izanami."

"Another Goddess? Interesting."

I was sad that he didn't apparently know Izzy in his potential existence.

"Venelana."

"...Well then."

"I'm not ashamed."

"Well, I hope not if you're me. If we're going to fuck our Grandma, it better be with pride." He snorted. "But you skipped over why Ddraig was calling us Watermelon."

I let out a groan. "In Remnant, do you know Roman Torchwick?"

"The….thief?" He looked at me oddly. "I think?"

"Yeah, him." And it sounds like he didn't really know him either. "He…..legally changed my name on Remnant to Watermelon Torchwick." I let out another long sigh.

My copy looked at me for several moments before breaking out in laughter.

God Dammit Roman.

[***]

Odin POV

I already was regretting this.

I could be doing a million better things with my time, but here I was, going to talk to the petulant manchild himself while he tried to swagger around and pretend his dick was bigger than mine. It wasn't but that wasn't the point.

"Are you ready, All-Father?" Skeleton-boy asked me.

"Is it strange that I would literally rather stick a cactus up my ass than deal with your family?"

"I often feel the same." Hades replied, not disturbed at all by my comment. "You did not have to come, however."

"Bah." I waved it off. "Same thing I told Nuwa when I went to deal with the Chinese kids. We owe far too much of a debt to the brat and his, at the very least, I can shoulder this annoyance in his place."

"I will go in first to announce your arrival." Hades spoke as he walked towards the ostentatious golden doors that led to the Throne Room of the Olympian Gods.

I grunted in response, ignoring it as I looked down the Mountain.

Honestly, it was a beautiful sight, almost as good as my Asgard. Despite my own distaste for this Faction, even I couldn't deny that their architecture was elegant and tasteful. We were never as enlightened as them in the past.

Their philosophers, their artists, their musicians, their architects.

Our followers were too busy killing each other and raiding across the seas.

"How long are you going to stare at me?" I swiped my hand through the air, pulling back a metaphysical curtain. "Ares."

He stepped out from behind his hiding spot looking unconcerned. "You looked like you were deep in thought, I didn't want to disturb you considering it was probably a rare occurrence."

I snorted in response. "I thought all the important kids were in the room over there? Well, I guess that's still true."

"Cute." He drawled. "Did you come here to beg in front of pops? He's pretty pissed, might be my time to shine soon."

"It would never be your turn, brat. There is a line and you're too short to ride the Odin Coaster."

"You're probably right." He smiled oddly. "There's plenty of other people that would be wanting to take your head far before I got a shot."

…..why was he giving me a weird feeling?

I admit I didn't pay him much attention at the meeting for the brief time we were there….he barely even spoke. And I just laughed at him when the brat's women kicked his ass.

But now that I'm looking at him….

Shit, when was the last time I saw him before that? A couple thousand years?

Something's off about him.

I attempted to peer into whatever secret he was holding. Rude? Probably, but I wasn't really here to play nice.

Ares tilted his head as my vision was distorted and rejected.

"Careful there, old man. Might see something you're not supposed to."

"….what's happened to you?" I narrowed my one eye, feeling the need to summon my spear.

"Who knows." He shrugged, clearly not willing to throw down at the moment so I relaxed.

The fact that I had to be on guard near him was….concerning.

I remember what Hades told me about his talk with his old man and I was filled with a strange sense of trepidation. Many things seemed to be peeking out of the wood works now. And it felt like the world's flow was all converging onto something.

"All-Father." Hades stepped out. "And Ares."

"Uncle." Area casually waved his hand. "I was just keeping our guest company. You know how polite I am."

"Right." Hades obviously didn't believe him. "They're waiting."

"Let's get this over with." I ignored the war brat for now. It would not do me good to worry about something beyond my control for now.

We can worry about uncertain things later.

Area quickly joined his faction sitting on their massive thrones as they were enlarged and towered over me. Literally, they made themselves massive just so they could look down on me quite literally.

Though, Hades was by my side and he looked unamused by their posturing.

"Odin." Zues boomed.

"What!?" I shouted, holding a hand to my ear. "You're gonna need to speak up, I'm old and can't hear that far away!"

"Odin –"

"Haaaah!?

"

"Odin!" Zeus bellowed, slamming his fist on his throne, lightning crackled from the sky.

"That's my name, don't wear it out." I gave a cheeky grin.

He was seething. "Enough of your nonsense, All-Father."

"Brother, perhaps we should dispense with all this nonsense together." Hades snapped his fingers and the room returned normal as the 'Gods' of Olympus and normal sized again even if they surrounded me and still held a 'higher position'.

It was acceptable, I was on their turf.

"Hades." Zeus glared towards his brother, lightning crackling from his eyes.

"Feel free to continue as you were and try to argue with Odin. But my time is precious and if you continue to act childish, I will simply return home." He ignored Zeus.

"You stand with him against your own – "

"Hey Bone Boy, where's your chair?" I looked at him.

"I don't have one." Hades said dryly.

Zeus very quickly shut his mouth with a scowl.

Hard to come back from that.

Trying to throw around the 'family' card or whatever, but Hades didn't even have a chair on Olympus, even if he was God of the Underworld, just a symbolic seat there with them would have gone a long way.

But Zeus was too arrogant and paranoid to consider that.

"Father, we should prioritize the important matters at hand." Athena counseled him.

Zeus snorted. "Fine, let's move on to the important matters. And we shall decide what punishment the Norse Faction will receive –"

I slammed Gungnir on the ground dispersing all the lightning overhead and I allowed my presence to engulf the room. "Do you take me for a powerless mortal that you can pass judgment on? Do you forget who I am, Zeus?"

Oh, it was annoying that there were another dozen Gods here that all released their own pressure down on me as did Zeus in response, but I didn't let up.

I pointed my spear at every single one of them and I dared them to make a move.

"Maybe I should remind you brats who I am!?"

"I didn't come here to fight, count me out." Dionysus quickly pulled himself back. "I'm a lover not a fighter."

Zeus snapped his head at his 'son' with a barely hidden rage.

"I was the one who invited Odin here, it would be my responsibility to ensure his safety." Hades said simply, ignoring the torrent of powers battling against one another invisibly in the room.

"Brother, careful of what you say." Poseidon had a hand on his trident, and I admit, it wasn't far off from my own Gungnir.

"Would you tell me to let go of my pride because you all want to act like fools?" Hades drawled.

"No, let him. If he wants a war, let's have a war." I declared.

Zeus's eyes widened.

That's the difference between us brat.

I do what it takes to win.

And the moment he just backed off in our 'fight' here and now, well I just 'won'.

The tense moment was disrupted by the sound of a lyre reverberating throughout the room. Apollo ran his hands along his musical instrument but somewhat shrunk his head as everyone stared at him.

"What? Things were getting a bit too intense there." He awkwardly laughed. "Come on, we're Gods. Let's just talk this out like Gods."

"Hmph." I withdrew my presence giving Zeus a chance to save face.

Despite my provocations I really didn't want a war, nor could we honestly handle a real war with another Pantheon right now.

But Zeus and I both know he was pushed into a corner beforehand so he shouldn't push too hard now knowing I would jump back to what I said before because he certainly doesn't want a war either.

To start things off, I dropped the chains used to bind Hel that Loki stole onto the ground.

Zeus's nostrils flared. "Stolen from the armory…."

"Used to chain one of mine!" I countered.

"Stolen by one of yours!" He shouted. "You are at fault!"

"Bah, Loki wasn't on our side."

"Your own internal conflicts are irrelevant. One of yours attacked and stole from us!"

"Yeah, well two of yours aided him and nearly destroyed Asgard!"

Zeus scowled because he knew he couldn't argue against that.

"After yours helped release our father and the other Titan from their prison. The fault is entirely on your faction, All-Father!"

"Right, so you're saying that Loki was strong enough to do all that huh? To force your Titans to work for him? You're saying they didn't do it from their own free will?"

"Don't try to twist my words, you know where the fault lies!"

"And I'm saying that we're not at fault!" I shot back. "You got no proof, but I do!" I pointed at the chains.

"Why would we need proof for something so obvious!?" He slammed his fist again.

"God of Justice, huh? Not even providing proof for his claims." I hummed. "How ridiculous."

His lightning returned, crackling around him in anger.

Brat had a really bad temper.

"We would be more than happy to provide evidence to support our claim All-Father, if you give us access to the Trickster." Athena smiled.

"Not gonna happen."

"So you would deny us the chance to prove our claims? Now who is being ridiculous." She hummed, mocking me.

Ugh, I hated the brainy types.

"Let's make a few assumptions then." I held a hand up. "Let's say that Loki did steal from you lot."

They went silent because they didn't expect me to acknowledge it at all. They weren't the type to take a step back so they could take three steps forward on the next. Well, Athena didn't look too surprised, but most of them just didn't have 'back down' in their dictionary.

"So this is where we're at. Loki stole those chains right out from under your noses, embarrassing really. Also, Pandora's Box."

"We demand the Box back." Zeus said rather seriously.

"I don't' got it, sorry." I put my hands up. "No idea where it's at now."

Technically the truth.

The brat has it, but I have no idea where he's currently running around.

"But here's the thing. Loki made fools of you all, that we can agree on." I worded it purposely to piss him off. "On the flip side, we have two of yours attacking us directly. Do you see the comparison? Alright, we're sorry that one of our criminals robbed you, we'll pay reparations for that. But now, let's talk about what you owe us for your two titans nearly destroying Asgard." I narrowed my eye.

"They weren't – "

"They were criminals, right? But consider Loki is also a criminal of our faction and you seemingly didn't care about that, so why would it matter then?" I looked right at Zeus as I trapped him in his own logic.

Athena twitched slightly, and it seemed she was annoyed with her Old Man for not letting her lead the talks.

"Either we're both at fault, but you lot are more at fault. Or neither of us are at fault and we shake hands and walk away." I smiled happily.

Zeus had his pride, everyone knew it. He couldn't so blatantly contradict himself without harming his own pride.

So it was a catch-22.

I gave him an out, but it went completely against what he presumably originally wanted. Probably to flex over us, get us in their debt, or squeeze us of something he wanted.

He couldn't even demand Kronos or the other one back without looking like an idiot. He missed that opportunity entirely and now the wind was taken out of his sails.

Zeus leaned back and looked at me intensely, he tapped his finger on his throne. "And what about the rumors I heard? Tell me, why was it that two of our greatest heroes were seen within your lands? Heroes that should have been dead?"

"Well, maybe you should ask Skeleton-boy over there? He's the one who deals with the dead." I pointed at Hades.

Deflect, deflect, deflect.

Hades looked at me and I could tell he was peeved at me pulling him in front of the bus.

"The souls of Atalanta and Achilles are still safe and within our hands." Hades said simply.

Zeus looked at him for a long while, as if trying to peer into the truth of his words. While not good at me, Zeus was good at telling when people were lying.

And, well, Hades was telling the truth.

It seems like things didn't go how you envisioned, Zeus!

"We can ask the mortal to clarify. Send a summons."

I slammed my spear onto the ground and different from before, I put my true intent behind it. My bloodlust, my magic, my Godly might.

I wasn't simply postulating this time.

If he said the wrong words, I would let my spear loose.

"Let me make one thing absolutely clear, Zeus. The brat and his are off limits."

"Are you threatening me?" Zeus's tone changed and it wasn't his tantrums from before. This was Zeus at his 'most', this was Zeus who was ready to start throwing hands.

"They.Are.Off.Limits." I punctuated. "So says Odin, the All-Father. So says every single God of Asgard! If you even think about trying something, we will march on Olympus."

"You're insane." Zeus's surprise snapped his expression back to normal. "Asgard barely stands, your faction was nearly destroyed! Utter nonsense! You wouldn't sacrifice everything for some mortal! False Bravado! A bluff and nothing more."

I reeled myself in, returning to normal.

I turned around and headed towards the door.

"That's the difference between us, Zeus. I don't make empty threats."

[***]

A/N

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