Extra #1 - Short Stories

Part 1: Myths vs Fables

2020, Earth:

“Fables and myths are different,” Eddie exclaimed as he held his head between his hands in a frustrated manner. “Myths are depicted as something real-- or were. But fables are completely fictitious.”

Nazar stared at him blankly as they floated high above the planet.

“...Same thing.”

Eddie frowned, “How?”

“Myths and fables are both fiction.”

“Well, yes but no.”

Nazar took out his phone.

“Let’s see what the internet says. The internet can’t be wrong.”

“The internet is wrong about many things.”

“Like?”

Eddie thought very hard about it.

“Can’t think of anything.”

“Exactly!”

Eddie let out a heavy sigh.

“Fuck you.”

Nazar chuckled while he navigated through his phone.

Finding the answer, he placed the phone back in his pocket.

“So?”

“...They are both the same,” however, his voice did not carry a lot of enthusiasm.

“So….. Are comics myths then?”

Nazar rubbed his chin as he thought.

“No?”

“Exactly! Then fables and myths are not the same.”

“Then you are wrong.”

Eddie facepalmed as he breathed another heavy sigh.

“Because the world thinks differently.”

Nazar snapped his finger.

Hearing that, Eddie looked at Nazar.

“What did you do?”

Compared to the curious and worried Eddie, Nazar was calm.

“I changed reality,” he let out a burst of evil laughter. “Now, myths are fables. And vice versa. They are the same. EXACT same.”

“Ugh!!”

Nazar laughed comically at Eddie’s groan.

“Change it BACK!”

Nazar stared at him for a moment before saying, “No.”

“Oh come on now...”

“Heh.”

“It’s not a “heh”-ing matter, you imbecile. Change it back.”

Nazar rolled his eyes.

“Fiiiiiinnnnneeee…”

Snapping his finger once again, the reality was reverted back to its original state.

“My win,” Eddie smiled thinly.

“Ugh,” it was Nazar’s turn to groan.

Part 2: (Not) Death Note

2006, Earth:

Nazar leaned back in his seat at the cinema with a complex look on his face.

He held his hands in front of his chin.

“Hmmm.”

Tapping the tip of his fingers, he thought.

Who in their right mind thought of this?!?! He thought angrily. Since when is Galactus a fucking cloud?!

He stared at the rolling credits and noted their names in his head.

“Hm-hm.”

After the credits rolled, he left the cinema and changed back into his younger self.

As the young Nazar walked through the town, he came across a book shop.

Entering it, he saw a dark notebook and purchased it immediately.

Opposite the bookshop was a grocery store. He went in and purchased a bag of potato chips.

Instead of teleporting home, he boarded the bus.

After a while, he reached home and went upstairs to his bedroom.

Nazar took the bag of potato chips and the notebook out of his bag.

“Now then...”

He pulled his chair out and sat at his desk.

“What were their names?” he spoke slowly as he placed the notebook and the crisp on the desk.

Nazar leaned back in the chair and took a deep breath.

The notebook in front of him changed.

On the dark notebook, letters started to be engraved into it.

He locked his fingers and cracked them.

“Heh,” he smiled thinly as he leaned forward in the chair.

The bag of chips started to open on its own.

In Nazar’s hand, a pen appeared.

Opening the book, he started to write the names of the people he saw in the movie while laughing like a maniac.

With my right hand, I will write their names. Nazar thought while laughing. And with my left hand, I will eat the potato chip.

With his left hand, he reached his fingers and picked up a potato chip.

“I am going to kill you all, gyahahaha--”

Suddenly someone entered the room and looked at him with a disgusted and critical look on her face.

“What are you doing?”

Seeing Solace, Nazar’s whole body froze. His mouth was half-open, his left hand was still slowly moving towards his mouth and his right hand had stopped writing.

“N-nothing.”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait,” Solace walked towards him. “You are really, really, really not doing that, right? We are connected so I know, but please, please, please tell me I am looking into another universe.”

The notebook started to deconstruct into nothing.

Nazar forcefully moved his left hand and placed the potato in his mouth.

Stiffly, he swallowed the potato chip.

“WHAT THE FRANKENSTEIN?!?!” she held her head between her palms angrily.

“I… L-look...”

Nazar cleared his throat.

“It’s not what you think.”

Solace’s hand turned into a cannon and held to her head.

“JUST WHY?!?!”

She blew her head with the cannon.

“Nooooo...”

And that marked her first death.

Part 3: Form Creation

2011:

In the middle of nowhere, Nazar was floating.

“This should serve as a testing ground,” he told Solace who was floating next to him. “An empty planet at the edge of the universe is better than Earth.”

“No shit, Sherlock,” she rolled her eyes. “If I hadn’t told you, you would have never thought about it.”

“Okay, fine...” he groaned.

Nazar took a deep breath.

“Form Creation: Death.”

The muscles and skin slowly start to wither out, leaving only bones.

“With this form, I can kill anything organic, no matter how powerful it is,” his voice lost all of its emotions. In wake of it, a cold voice was left.

It was as chilly as death itself.

“An angel, demon, human, plant, or something similar.”

A dark robe appeared, covering his skeleton.

“Solace.”

She nodded.

“You sure?”

A dark hood covered his head, leaving only his boney hands and face visible.

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

In front of them, the planet wobbled.

“It doesn't work on something like concepts or abstract entities.”

In Nazar's hand, a scythe appeared.

"Since they are not alive."

"Are you going to make a different personality for it?"

Nazar thought about it as he stared at the planet, which was changing.

From the circular planet, two arms and then two legs came out.

On top of it, a small head appeared too.

It was alive.

"Yes, I am working on that."

“Wavavaha?”

A sound came out of the planet. It seemed as if it was in pain.

“Now then...”

Nazar swung the scythe.

Dark energies flew out of it, slashing the planet before him in half.

The planet screamed in agony for a moment while it twitched before dying.

“That was a successful test,” Solace spoke with her eyes lit up white. She was searching for any trace of this new living being she created.

The planet was still around, but the life it was given was no longer around.

Nazar’s form returned to normal.

“Creating form: Destruction.”

A dark purple energy started to cover Nazar.

“With this, I can destroy anything. Organic, non-organic, abstracts, concepts, and more. No matter what, I can destroy it.”

For a test run, Solace snapped her fingers and created an abstract entity that spread its root immediately through time and space.

Lucifer’s eyes widened as something new was added into the Ultraverse.

“Who…?” Lucifer searched the Ultraverse for the source of it.

He couldn’t find the source, except for a dark spot.

Realising that it was Nazar, he let out a heavy sigh.

“It’s an abstract entity which has no purpose and cannot harm the multiverse if it gets destroyed,” Solace continued to monitor the entity and make sure nothing goes wrong.

Nazar nodded as he held his palm up to the dark starless space.

“Begone!”

And just like that, with a cracking noise, the entity was destroyed.

It was as if it never existed.

Not a trace of it was left.

“Unlike [Death], this leaves no traces behind.”

Nazar looked at the empty planet before him once again.

“Observe.”

Solace searched for this entity once more and made sure that the entity was dead.

“Aww, I liked this planet,” spoke while reminiscing about the past. She used to come here and do all forms of experiments.

“I will make you a new one,” his voice sounded as cold as his [Death] form.

“Thanks, sweetie,” she sneered.

Nazar ignored her and held out his palm towards the planet.

“Begone.”

And just like that, the planet withered out of existence.

It was as if it never existed.

“You need to come up with a better catchphrase for that.”

Nazar’s form returned to normal.

“Find one for me then.”

Solace crossed her left arm around her chest and with her right hand, she rubbed her chin.

“Hmmmm. How does “DIE!” sounds?”

Nazar smiled wryly, “D-do I look like one of those Golden Age villains to you?”

“Mm-hmm,” she nodded. “You wish you were them.”

“Urk,” it stabbed into his very being. “Your words are more hurtful.”

“Heh,” Solace smiled smugly.

Part 4: Chicken or Egg?

2018:

“What came first, the chicken or the egg?” Eddie, who was lying down on a sofa in Nazar’s spaceship and looking through a magazine, asked.

Nazar, who was floating in a sitting position not far from him and reading a light novel, stopped reading and stared at Eddie blankly.

“Do you have nothing better to do, do you?”

“I never have anything better to do because someone told me not to use my powers on Earth,” Eddie looked at Nazar. “Oh right, that person was you.”

“Then go to space and be a hero there.”

Eddie sat up with a thoughtful look on his face.

“Huh, I never thought about that…”

Nazar rolled his eyes as he let out a sigh.

“How fast do you reckon I can move?”

Nazar lowered his gaze and looked at the book in his hand.

“130 times faster than the speed of light, when you lost your physical form.”

“Oh right...” Eddie looked down with a troubled look. He used everything he had back then and lost his physical form.

“According to my calculations, if you don’t use anything else besides speed, you could move 1300 times faster than the speed of light.”

He looked up at Eddie.

“If you use all of your powers at once, you will lose your form at 13 times faster than the speed of light. But if you use some of them at once, like speed and Thor’s weather-based powers, you could move at least 660 times faster than the speed of light before losing your true form. If you use Odin’s power with speed, you will lose your form just around 493 times faster than the speed of light.”

Eddie breathed out depressingly.

“A-anyway, what came first? The egg or the chicken?” Eddie changed the subject. He didn’t want to think about the painful experience.

Nazar threw away the book. A portal appeared and swallowed it.

“Humans were created around 30,000 years ago. Animals were created soon after so they could feed on it.”

“So…?”

“The chicken came first.”

“Ummm...” Eddie did not believe him. “Think about it, it is not scientific.”

Nazar stared at him blankly.

“You have the powers of SIX DIFFERENT Norse Gods.”

“I get that, but just think about it,” he started to explain passionately. “You told me that Lucifer gave everything a logical and scientific origin on this planet.”

“Well… More or less.”

“So, if a chicken came first, the question remains… How?”

Nazar thought about it.

Lucifer did not want humanity to know about something like the angels or beings who can create and destroy everything, so that’s why he warped earth’s reality to make sure that there was a scientifically explainable reason for everything.

Humans can find fossils of animals that have existed billions of years ago.

However, this planet did not have anything then. It was completely empty without plants or animals.

“But if an egg came first, that would make more sense. Similarly to mutation, no?”

Nazar stood up and opened a portal made of blue and white energies.

“Well, let’s go and find out.”

“Is that…?” Eddie’s mouth and eyes were wide open.

Surprise, excitement and fear danced on his face.

“Yes, let’s travel through time itself.”

Without hesitation, Eddie jumped into the portal and Nazar followed.

Inside the portal made of energy, Eddie could see the world from a different angle.

The energy portal showed images, important events that shaped the world into what it is today.

What is important? What is not important? Time did not decide that, but the subconscious of the traveller did.

“DON’T do anything,” Nazar warned him. “Don’t touch anything. And don’t try to focus on one moment for too long, it will suck you in.”

“Uh, okay.”

Nazar knew that Eddie was not listening to him, so he sighed.

“Oh well...”

Nazar took a deep breath as he started to explain this new side of the universe to Eddie.

“Time is a thread that exists alongside space. They are two parallel lines that move together. The co-existential model makes the universe. Time and space in each universe are different, but it all falls under a single framework that we call 「Inflow Timestream」. Travelling between a normal timestream - which means travelling through the time of a specific universe - has no consequences to the neighbouring universe. However, if you travel through the Inflow Timestream, you could cause a lot of problems to the neighbouring universes. And those changes are harder to remedy. Currently, we are travelling through the normal timestream. But even slight changes can be problematic. So, that’s why we are going to look at it from outside the timestream.”

Nazar let out a sigh once he noticed Eddie wasn’t paying attention to him.

He was looking around at the different images the timestream was showing him.

“At least pretend like you were listening, idiot,” he muttered to himself in a gloomy manner.

Nazar closed his eyes for a moment as he tried to subside his annoyance.

However, that was a mistake on his part.

They were chewed out of the timestream and into a newly created Earth.

Eddie and Nazar flew through a mountain, destroying it.

Nazar managed to recover by manipulating his kinetic energy.

Nazar took a few deep breaths while floating a few meters above the empty ground.

“DUDE!”

Eddie lying down on his back, smiled stiffly, trying to hide his fear and his mistakes.

“Sorry…?”

Nazar breathed out.

“Don’t worry, we can still leave this world and enter the timestream again. From there, I can take us outside of the regular existence and look at it from the outside.”

“Okay… But dude, this is the past. Nobody is around in this desert. Let’s look around!”

Seeing how excited Eddie looked, Nazar let out another sigh.

“Fine.”

Eddie floated high up and looked around the empty terrain.

“Bro, you can do so much stuff yet you stick to just punches and kicks.”

Nazar sat down on the ground and sighed.

“It makes me feel useless and weak,” Nazar spoke slowly.

Eddie didn’t care enough to pick it up.

“I mean you can travel through time and stuff, so wouldn’t it be better if you...” he paused to think about what time manipulation could do. “Anyway, you could de-age someone into a child or make them age faster, you know?”

“Hmm, that’s boring.”

“Well...”

Although Eddie found it cool, he respected Nazar’s opinion so he dropped the topic. He wanted to enjoy the empty terrains of the past.

On the ground, Nazar lied back and closed his eyes.

“Ahh, I guess I can finally get a peaceful sleep.”

He continued to lie down with a blissful smile on his face.

“Life is good again...”

He lied down with a blissful smile for a few minutes before his eyebrows twitched.

“Fuck you, sun,” he spoke agonizingly.

Nazar tried to sleep, but the sun in the sky was bothersome. So, he held his hand up. His palm covered the sun to Nazar’s vision.

“If I just move you out of there and put you in--”

He was about to move the sun out of its rightful place, however, he stood up frantically.

“Oh, fuck...”

He turns his head around and saw a group of people

{Eddie,} he initiated a telepathic contact with Eddie. {Get DOWN! We need to go.}

{God, I hate TP*… Anyway, what do you--}

{People are here! I should have checked.}

{Oh shit! I am sorry.}

Apologetic, Eddie landed near Nazar.

Following Nazar’s trail of vision, he saw a group of people.

Eddie gulped.

“Wh-wh-what’s...”

He frantically placed his arm on Nazar’s shoulder and turned his face towards himself.

“What IS GOING TO HAPPEN NOW?!” he screamed at Nazar’s face.

“Relax,” Nazar sounded annoyed. “I will just mindwipe the whole planet.”

“Oh...”

Eddie let out a relieved sigh.

Nazar clicked his tongue as a psychic wave covered the planet.

Both of them vanished into thin air and went back to their correct time.

However!

Eddie’s jaw dropped to his feet.

“WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU--”

“We fucked up.”

Earth had become almost a utopia.

Nazar’s eyes lit up momentarily as he tried to absorb the information he needed.

“Someone saw us and drew us immediately and the other wrote it down. I removed their memory but turns out, they still remembered via other means. That led to them improving science and focusing on creating superhumans earlier… And it turns out that many superhumans came into existence with the help of Aarin. They also managed to defeat Zerathos before he got too powerful. And managed to avoid 90% of the wars in history. FUCKING HELL, THIS WORLD IS INSANE!”

“This is stupid. It doesn’t make sense.”

“Seems like a bad plot point, so let’s fix it.”

"We can?"

Nazar nodded, "Yes, the timeline hasn't been solidified yet, so fixing it easier than it sounds. But the longer we stay, it will solidify, then changing it will become annoyingly harder."

However, Eddie had other thoughts.

“Should we, though?”

Eddie thought about it, if this world is as perfect as Nazar says, then maybe, just maybe they don’t have to fix what’s not broken.

“Oh definitely, time is still not concrete and if we don’t fix this ASAP**, I will be dealing with Lucifer.”

A portal appeared and Nazar moved towards it.

He paused for a moment and thought.

Oh right, I forgot about Eddie.

He held Eddie by the back of his collar and dragged him after himself.

They flew through the portal.

Quickly, they went back in time.

Nazar can’t be affected by time. His shell holds his essence - the physical body - so as long as his essence isn’t affected, Nazar is immune to all effects of it. So, when he went back in time, his younger self wasn’t there.

However, Eddie was a different story.

Frantically, Nazar held Eddie by the back of his head and slammed him into Eddie from a few moments earlier, merging them together.

They immediately left before someone showed up.

To be safe, he also mindwiped the world, just in case anyone had seen or noticed them.

Back in their correct time, Eddie, with a frightened look on his face, took deep breaths.

“I am never time travelling again.”

Nazar breathed a sigh of relief and went back to reading his book before checking if Earth was any different.

He didn’t see anything different.

However, he didn’t look deep enough.

The universe is 99.9999999999% the same, except for one bit… The mountain that was destroyed. That was not fixed.

Although it’s effects on the world were almost non-existent, the world was still slightly different.

Oh, and they also COMPLETELY forgot their original mission, which was to see what came first; the chicken or egg.