Chapter 337: Not All Heroes Wear Capes

Chapter 337: Not All Heroes Wear Capes

There were eyes watching me, I could feel them. I wanted them to see me, see what I could do.

When you come right down to it, right down to the very bottom line, it doesnt matter what everyone else is up to. Even if you know their secrets, the reason for the world being the way it is, you still have to do your own thing.

Thats where it helps to have your goals worked out in advance. It must be nice to wake up every morning and know exactly what you want from life.

The guy who makes a shit load of money, who can buy whatever he wants, and the next morning cant wait to go do it all over again, thats a happy guy.

What do you give the man who has everything? More.

Buddhists think we should give up desire and attachment to worldly things. I think the opposite. Be grateful if you find something to obsess about. Itll make the time go by much faster.

The problem is when people have all the stuff where they are, and then they want all the stuff where you are.

You have to be able to defend yourself from the barbarians at the gate. They might only have clubs and sticks, and listen to terrible country music, but theres more of them than you think.

And if youre a barbarian, you have to be able to defend yourself from the smug twats inside the gates, who think they should get to decide whats best for everyone.

The Romans spread culture and learning throughout the world, and then they got crushed by angry thugs who didnt agree that writing numbers with Vs and Xs was such a great idea. Its a persuasive argument, especially when you back it up by burning Rome to the ground.

When it comes down to it, brute force wins every time. It just does.

I had never felt more powerful than that moment outside the shrine. Whether or not people wanted to do as I told them didnt matter. They had no choice. Sure, they could sit down and wait to die, but what kind of choice is that? Dont be pedantic, itll only make you look small and petty.New novel chapters are published on

It wasnt really about controlling others. My real goal had always been to control myself. I think thats everyones goal, whether they realise it or not. What you do, what you dont, how you manage your whims and cravings. The things that you could have done are just as important as the ones you did, theyre just easier to forget about.

Id had these forces inside me, but I never tried to use them to their fullest. Occasionally something would leak out, but it was frightening, the lack of control.

I always knew I could go further, but then what?

Become a hero. Become a superhero. Become a god.

Then what?

Now, I didnt really care. Maybe this was where I had needed to get to. Id only been alone a few days, and Id progressed a vast amount. Maybe this had been Maurices plan all along, to get me to a place I had resisted getting to. And then theyd all jump out and surprise me. I wasnt alone, theyd been waiting for me all this time.

Yeah. Right.

The heat between my hands was intense. Far more acute than anything Id been able to produce before. Id manage to make fire that burned fiercely, but this was something else. The clearing outside the shrine was lit up by the white bloom I was producing. It was like nuclear fusion between my fingertips.

Id reached the cusp of going nova a number of times, and each time Id back down for one reason or another. Some people might say I bottled it. Some people might say no, that wasnt fair, it would be more accurate to say I pussied out.

Both sides make good points, I wont deny it.

Id say I wasnt ready back then. The way my arms were starting to burn, I was beginning to feel I still wasnt.

But little me was right. I had reached some kind of tipping point. It was different now. The frog Elder had spoken about the source of magic coming from an imbalance. Lack of balance was something I inherently had, I think it would be safe to say, but this time, I didnt feel like it was draining me. It was flowing through me.

There was a searing pain down both arms as the white fire between my hands swirled into a tight ball. I wanted to make it big and impressive, put the fear of god into the locals, but it kept trying to condense to a point.

My hands were being drawn closer, and it didnt feel like it would be wise to let them touch.

The pain was hard to bear. It only took a second for me to go from willing to take the next step in my evolution, to thinking, Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck.

The islanders began emerging at the edges of the clearing. Probably curious about what the hell I was doing.

The president looked at me with pain and anguish in his eyes. Im left-handed, he grunted through clenched teeth.

Nobodys ever happy with anything I do. They just dont appreciate the pressure Im under. I see it in their faces all the time, the belief that they would have done a better job. Well, fuck them. Easy to think that when you never have to prove it.

I picked up the hand. It was a little scorched, but otherwise intact. I stuck it back on his wrist, and put both my glowing hands over the join. The president began screaming again.

I ignored him and used my healing. The stumps had been sealed over when I cut his hand off, but they were still hot and sticky. It didnt take much effort to glue them together.

There was no sense of losing my own life force to him. Whatever I was channelling, it wasnt coming from me, but it was coming.

Why bother when Id probably have to kill him later anyway? To be honest, I had so much energy flowing through me, I wanted to see what I could do. How powerful was I now?

I let go and the president stopped screaming. He looked at his now reattached hand with wonder. He held it up, wiggled his fingers, turned it this way and that. Then he looked at me. Thank you, he said in between gasps for breath.

He was starting to realise I wasnt all bad. I was willing to fix my mistakes. We shared a moment.

Youre welcome. I swung my sword and cut off his right hand. Hey, I still had a point to make.

Now, Im going to open the shrine, I said once the screaming had died down to whimpering. Not sure how, but itll probably be messy. I would appreciate it if you let me get on with it, no interference, no backseat coaching, no nibbling on my toes when Im not looking. The or else part, I think you can work out for yourselves.

I looked around at the islanders. They hadnt taken up attack poses. The ones with spears werent aiming them at me. Unpleasant as it was to admit, the threat of extreme violence was doing its job.

I turned to face the shrine, my back to my enemies to emphasise just how little danger I considered them capable of. It was a bluff they could have probably found a way to overwhelm me but it was an effective one. People really do respond best to being treated like shit. Its very disappointing.

I want to get rid of it, I said. Using force. I know Arthur probably set up a clever way to turn it back the right way, but I dont think Ill ever figure it out. Hes a strange guy.

Damicar peeked out of the doorway. Huh?

I wasnt talking to you, I said. You might want to vacate the premises.

I think you would have liked Arthur, said Wesley. Im sure he would have liked you.

First time for everything, I suppose. Theres a good chance your body is under there. Which means we might end up accidentally damaging it. Which should be okay, Ill probably be able to heal it back to one piece, more or less. I just dont want you to freak out if theres a scar or two. Maybe a couple of bolts in your neck.

If you think this is the best way, Im happy to help. She seemed totally on board with my plan.

We discussed the best positioning, how I wanted the shrine to move, and then I let her take over. Once she was in the control booth, my hands stopped glowing, and started shaking.

My power had reached a level of intensity that was quite staggering. Wesleys was on another level. She raised her palms to face the shrine, and the whole building began to vibrate. Stone and debris fell. The islanders retreated behind trees, transfixed. If they hadnt given up hope of taking me down already, I was sure they had now.

The shrine shifted off its foundations. I thought it would slide off to the side, but it caught on something, and then tipped up. Then came crashing down, like somebody had pushed it over. Which they had.

The ground that was revealed was dark and full of movement. Beetles and worms crawled around, and basically things with either too many legs or none at all. They werent the tiny things in your garden, they were the size of kittens.

Wait, that doesnt really capture how gruesome it looked. They were the size of dead kittens. Better.

And in the middle was a hole. With steps leading down.

Okay, stage one complete (finally). Now I just had to go down into the dungeon below, fight monsters, solve puzzles, yada, yada, yada, treasure chest with BiS gear, winner. I was at a point where I was confident I could handle whatever came next. Because I was stronger and more in tune with my abilities than ever before. But mostly because I had Wesley, and she could knock over a fucking building.

I took back control of my body and turned to the President.

It worked. High-five. I raised my hand, but he left me hanging, his face twisted in agony. I didnt see the issue, he still had one good hand. I should have been the one looking betrayed.

You might be thinking I was being a bit obnoxious. I get the upper hand (no pun intended) and suddenly Im acting like Im better than these people. Let me remind you, they were fucking cannibals. Of course I was better than them.

I gingerly stepped through the creepy crawlies and approached the hole that had been under the shrine. The stairs led down into the dark. The sounds of footsteps approached from the other direction. Someone, or something, was coming up.