Chapter 74: It Is Finally Time

Chapter 74: It Is Finally Time

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"Success is harder than failure for many things in this world."

– Osamu Dazai, (Bungo Stray Dogs)

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<(Bruce Wayne POV)>

"Nah, it's best not to do anything stupid especially when I can do this later in the safety and comfort of my Bat-cave with the assistance of Cortana and my AmuSphere. I won't have to risk the death of my current personality if I just upload the surviving portion of the previous Bruce's mind to Cortana's servers and modify it first before I assimilate it into myself." I finally mumbled to myself as I withdrew my finger from the 'extract' option beside the 'Unknown Life' folder visible on the PC.

Instead, I focused on the 'Ra's Al Ghul's Amazing Experiences' folder which could be naturally downloaded into my mind without any presence of his personality due to the ritual. I had been steadily absorbing the memories and knowledge inside that folder for a while now. I could have easily done it all at once but I didn't want to face the intense mind-bending mental pain and spiritual exhaustion that would come from absorbing almost a millennia worth of information. After all, I wasn't a masochist.

So, I stuck to only absorbing a decade of Ra's Al Ghul's knowledge every few days since I wasn't in any rush. I preferred meticulously combing through his memories and using them to their full potential rather than just absorbing all of them at once and not knowing what to do with them or worse being overwhelmed with too much information at my disposal and becoming like Ra's Al Ghul myself.

In fact, these absorbed memories had been the reason I was so successful in keeping so many of the generals under Ra's Al Ghul still loyal to me. Despite their wish to grab power for themselves the moment they learned about Ras Al Ghul's possible death, the only reason they didn't rebel was that I had learned some of their biggest secrets and weaknesses Ras Al Ghul knew about them and had basically used those to threaten them in the letters that I had sent them in a bid to blackmail them into continuing to be loyal to me.

A lot of them listened while some even thought that Ras Al Ghul wasn't dead and was retiring with me being his next successor, having his direct support. Of course, some didn't give any importance to the letters, refusing to bow to my threat but I wasn't worried about them. Even with the tiny bit of knowledge, I had about Ra's Al Ghul's connections and resources, I knew that by the time any of those factions attacked, the new League of Assassins under me would just be too powerful to stop.

'I see, that explains why that cunning old man never tried using any mystic abilities on me.' I thought to myself after I pressed on the 'extract' option beside one of the countless files in his folder and gained access to the last decade of Ra's Al Ghul's memories, something I desperately needed to make some sense of a few things.

Ra's Al Ghul just like me was afraid of entities affecting him or manipulating him to their will. That's why he didn't practice conventional sorcery. He also wasn't a natural homo magi. But that didn't mean he could not use magic at all. He could. What he did to achieve that was simply sacrifice his life force and vitality to be able to get the chance to wield mana.

Of course, his having unrestrained access to the Lazarus Pits meant that he never faced death due to a shortage of life force. Whenever he used up too much of his vitality, a bath would simply be enough to bring him to his peak.

But despite all that, the reason Ra's Al Ghul hadn't used any magic against me that day by sacrificing his life force was because he was already running low on it. The blend of chemicals that he ingested to get physical abilities equal to mine had almost ruined his body from the inside and drastically reduced his life force, leaving his reserves not nearly enough to cast any magic. He also couldn't take a bath in the Lazarus pit because even though that would bring his body back to its peak, it would also nullify the strengthening effects of the mixture.

So, I could only laugh at Ra's Al Ghul's bad luck. He would have had a higher chance of defeating me with magic but unfortunately for him, he had the ego of a warrior. He genuinely believed that his experiences and his preparation would be enough to defeat me and take everything I had for himself.

He even had certain plans where he could take over my body if the ritual were to fail. The only reason why he even did that particular ritual despite its shortcomings was because he had determined that having immortality in his own old ugly body was better than living a normal human lifespan in my young handsome body.

"You mean you will just leave everything after the planning stage to them again... You are too lazy my dear maker ^_^" Cortana said as her mini-hologram smiled from the drone.

"Yeah yeah, whatever... By the way, I think it's time to upgrade you from that simple hologram technology and tentacles back at the lab. How does hard or solid light technology sound? I think it will suit you quite well until I develop a more permanent solution to your body problem like an android or maybe a clone or something along those lines." I asked at which she suddenly became visibly excited and her hologram began to nod rapidly at my proposal.

"Yatta yatta" Her hologram jumped up and down in happiness like an anime girl. I could only chuckle seeing her excitement.

I was happy as well. Not only did I gain Ra's useful knowledge but I also acquired control of the League of Assassins as well as the All-Caste. Both organizations were important to me due to their rich history and heritage and I had clear plans for both.

All-Caste would be the international organization for handling supernatural threats like demons, ghosts, and magic, operating as a global Charitable Foundation while the League of Assassins would deal with my more... mortal enemies and be the biggest mercenary organization in the world with deep connections in the underworld operating as a global chain of premium hotels. Both of them would of course serve under the Hightable.

They would appear as independent organizations working for their own respective agendas but in reality, both would be my invisible hands working tirelessly all around the world, mainly outside Gotham and especially outside America to make sure that some random suicidal idiot or subtle supernatural threat in a desolate corner of the planet won't be able to destroy the world before me even finding out about it.

So while I make Gotham my base and headquarters by purging it of its crime and corruption, the other two organizations would make sure to slowly do the same for the world as well, albeit in a way where I would be the greatest gainer. I might not be heartless but I also don't work for free. If I am going to dedicate some of my valuable time to saving the world, I might as well enjoy what it has to offer.

'I think I can be a very good 'one-man Illuminati'.' I mentally laughed at the thought.

"But all these talks of Gotham do make me a little homesick. I think it's time for me to return home Cortana... It's finally time for me to start my real work."

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(A/N: Yep, Rejoice! it is finally time.)

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/God_Doom