The Earth After Rebirth

Kiro stood atop a mountain, feeling better for the first since he could remember. Ryu was in his right hand, Hubris stood by his left side.

"Do you remember this mountain Hubris?"

"How could I forget master? I was so young and stupid back then, I'm embarrassed even thinking about it."

Kiro chuckled. The two of them have been through too much together. Now it was yet another adventure to the top of the same mountain, only now the beasts that once stood in their way were running the opposite way with their tails tucked between their legs, not wanting to face the force they've both grown into.

He could no longer find any worlds using his vibrations, every frequency he tried to jump to was only static that made him glitch for a little while and sent him nowhere in particular.

It was clear to him that Kronos didn't tether earth to the entire universe, just the planets close by with enough people to build an army. He was quite confident with their skills and numbers, the fact that they had immortality within Asgard was a greater advantage.

All they needed to do was lure the ancient one within Asgard, which is why the both of them were embarking on this journey to the top of the mountain. Kiro thought this particular mountain was the most unstable part of Asgard and they could use that to open a portal to the vastness of space.

He figured being a god and everything, the ancient one would feel the rift open even if it was in space. He expected for the evil god to send hoards of minions before he crosses the threshold himself.

There was no doubt in his mind that he would send thousands if not millions of harbingers to destroy them and their worlds, but they were ready, they could match the numbers with the beings from other worlds.

"Is it me or this mountain has awfully gotten higher? Even with our strength right now, how come it doesn't take an instant to get there?"

"You're definitely not imagining things master, if it was the old one I'd have needed only three strides to reach the top, seeing that the beasts around here won't even attack us."

'Mm..Maybe it came with the update?'

"Can't you use your gravity to make us lighter and we get there faster?"

"I most certainly can master but you didn't ask."

"Hubris!"

"I thought you'd want to do it at the speed you're capable of?"

"Why?"

"Once they come over here, this place won't be the same anymore. It will most likely be levelled, so I thought maybe you wanted to look at it, really look at it, for maybe the last time."

He didn't consider the fact that Hubris wouldn't see him but Kiro nodded at his awareness. It was amazing, to think Hubris started as an NPC beast mutt that was so stubborn it rather died than to he tamed.

"You're right, maybe I should tame more of these beasts, they won't fight back not like you. I still have some slots left."

Kiro hadn't done something like this in a long while, he thought his body would've forgotten just how to tame but he was pleasantly surprised to find out that in-game avatars aren't the same as his body out there, whatever skill they learned doesn't deteriorate because of the lack of use.

He'd only tamed one when Hubris suddenly interrupted him, showing excitement he hadn't seen from the beast since he was a pup.

"Master, master, I just had a brilliant idea. What if you use that to tame the strongest Harbingers?"

"Now, why the hell didn't I think of that!"

"I'm sure master did, he just overlooked it." Hubris tried to be humble.

"I'll knock your teeth out one of these days. Seriously, I allow you to call me master already, no need to act like you're beneath me. I accept you as my equal, Hubris."

"..."

Kiro sighed. Ignoring his mount and bringing out the menu of his skills, a window opened in front of him, it was bigger, much bigger than when he last saw his character sheet. He never bothered anymore checking it once he reached the hundreds, as leveling up didn't bring the same excitement as when they were starting the game.

While getting stronger was important at the moment, since the game was announced as an elaborate plan to keep the ancient one out, it felt a little less fun. He would be lying if he said he wasn't surprised by how big his character sheet suddenly was.

Vibrations had a lot of variations now for example. Since he used it for a lot of things, including detecting and travelling to other worlds. It was an amazing skill, that still had 'evolvable' next to it.

"This is a lot, what the hell is black lightning?" He was looking at his lightning manipulation skill which now he had three variations too, he didn't remember using any of them.

Enjoy new tales from empire

It didn't evolve before so he was surprised to see that it had variations, it didn't go up in rank, it was still an A ranked skill. This was a little strange for him but it didn't matter.

It went a little like this,

[These are subuses of Lightning Manipulation, the user will he limited to these three distinct skills.]

Black Lightning Aura: The user can summon Lightning for armour, this is black lightning, the strongest to ever exist in Asgard. This enhances not just the users endurance but also the speed and how fast the brain processes information.

Consumes 1000 MP per secondn/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Heavenly Wrath: This is an AoE skill, the user can cause lightning storms that very much look like rain and will deal heavy damage to anyone in its path, friend or foe. This skill has a ten second cool down.

Smite: With enough energy, the user could form a high concentrated balls of lightning and make ranged attacks from a five meter radius, once the lightning balls lock on the enemy it is impossible to dodge.

The skill consumes 2000 MP per second with a five second cool down.

His lips parted into a smile, "why thank you Kronos, these should be very helpful."