Chapter 828: 816 (1/2)

Title: Glorious Burden (2)

To Nik, the most useful skill was undoubtedly Reality Manipulation. In addition to Reality Stone, he didn't take long at all to finally create a beautiful and solid infrastructure in the dream core that accommodated the girls. In fact, the structure was similar to the City of Consciousness but with a wider area and many new places of interest while the old structures such as arenas, and the two towers of pleasure and punishment following. Of course, their looks had been changed. With how much time the girls lived in the connected space, all of their needs were already noted and the city was already mapped out.

Meanwhile, this city was also only for his harem members. The angels he brazenly controlled were still kept away from the group. Their own flying ark was reconstructed but it wasn't made to fly high but remain on the ground. The more exotic species he kidnapped from the Collector of the universe, who also somehow had his hand on the power stone, were set in the forests and various terrains that matched their attributes. In fact, the collector even had two slaves with a rather strange pink-colored skin but already knowing one slutty Pinkette working under Ray's ministration was enough for him.

The greatest use was that the reality stone, alongside soul stone, finally abled Nik to create perfect bodies for Lola, Poole, and Spider around their consciousness, and with soul and mind stone, Nik refined the processed souls he already had in the core.

This was a service his other spirits finally ended up denying.

Sky, Lilith, and Asmodeus were incomplete spirits who had attained their bodies recently and still needed their souls but they finally refused to have a brand new soul attached to them for a single reason.

They were once rank 9 monsters.

To return to the most weakened and shackled state of soul was not acceptable to them. After all, the infinity stones were connected to this universe and the souls Nik was able to refine for the originally soulless entities meant that now Poole, Spider, and Lola would have to reach rank 7 before they could really accompany him to other worlds and until then will have to explore the Dream Core. Something that Lola didn't mind because she was finally independent and with a form, albeit, she could only sigh due to Nik's greed when he made their bodies.

---

In Nik's apartment, everyone he had ever acquainted himself to was gathered and truly it looked like any man's dream. Well, a wet one, of course. But it also happened to be the case that when even the Goddess of Death is made to leave her realm and castle to enter a modern setting apartment with her future self alongside publicly acknowledged thieves, heroes, and many more personas then the situation would truly be hard to control.

Yet, aware of why they were here, everyone glanced at each other. Some coldly, while there were also a few who wouldn't care and this cheerful indifference attracted its own attention. With his fridge raided, Nik had to materialize food and drinks constantly. He was already saving a fortune with this.

But he himself wasn't present in the living room even if he could visualize anything and everything going on in there. Of course, without a proper 'lubricant', the girls wouldn't really open up to strangers they didn't know of. Still, everyone waited quietly with a hint of anticipation. Nik had been gone for a while and now that he had asked everyone rather politely to return in here, they all ended up agreeing. Even Tigra and Vertigo had their hearts set aflame while they waited with a hint of impatience.

For them, Nik was absent for an even longer time. But now Nik didn't have any major use of the Savage Land or its tech. He already had it within the dream core.

Finally, the door to Nik's bedroom opened and he walked out while wearing a rather lavish and thick robe with nothing underneath, but despite his rather suggestive appearance, the grin on his face spoke of a different tale.

”Why did you call us?” Felicia was the first to chime, her body still unable to have enough as the world-famous thief glanced at Nik's waist. She was dressed in a casual white t-shirt that revealed her navel and blue denim pants. Her green eyes locked with Nik as he explained with telepathy than anything else. Words would fail to describe the amount of influence Nik had just gathered.

Everyone stood rooted.

Infinity stones?

All the strength of the universe?

The concept was still hard to understand but when Nik invited two other figures out of his room, their faces extremely similar to one particular blonde still sitting next to Anna, equally dazed, everyone else couldn't help but feel stumped. Especially Hela since it was due to being provoked by one of these figures that she ended up battling in futile and lost her realm. Of course, she did end up gaining quite a bit, too.

A stomachful of it, in fact.

”P-poole?” Gwen suddenly gasped at the lady wearing her iconic white and pink tights. In fact, only these two wore spandex and tights while everyone else was in their clothing of comfort. Many already knew of Poole. She was weird, after all. And sticking close to her, Spider's distinguishing feature was her hair. By now, Gwen's hair color had faded and elongated somewhat so out of the trio, Poole had the shortest hair with tips tinted with bubblegum pink, Spider's hair was equally short but the roots of her hair was muddy blonde, and finally, Gwen had longer but simple blonde hair pulled back by a hairband.

No, instead, it should be: Gwen had long hair. Gwen had short hair. And Gwen had pink-tinted hair.

Suddenly, a pair of arms slithered from his back as Loki looked past Nik's shoulders from behind while hotly kissing his ear, ”You promised to take my mind off of it,” she whispered while her dainty and slender fingers sneaked into the robes and directly held his chest, ”So stop wasting time already.”