The Rise Of A Porter

It was only three days later that Heimdall finally couldn\'t take the pain anymore and spilt the beans quickly to ease his pain. In the end, he ended up revealing a lot of things. Things which Arnold might not have known otherwise.

For starters, Arnold got to know that Zeus wasn\'t the only one who had a problem with his existence as the vassal of the Immortal One, a lot of gods did. Some in fear of his ascension and some in anger that he would gain Immortal\'s powers.

Usually, they would have ignored their desires but someone along with Zeus had pressed all the right buttons to make them their allies. Most of these gods were the overlords of the Vassals who had participated in the war of the worlds. That\'s why they all simultaneously gave their vassals the mission to kill Nicole in the end.

Meaning they had already set up a trap for her. They wanted to kill her as they thought that would destroy him on the inside and he would give up on becoming a god. Even Heimdall was in on the conspiracy as he was promised power in exchange for his support just like the other gods had.

However, Arnold knew Zeus a bit and his pea brain would have never been able to come up with such an elaborate plan to hurt him. And what Heimdall told him next confirmed his suspicions. Loki was the one who orchestrated this entire drama.

He played them all like the fools they were. He had been behind it all ever since Arnold gained his powers. He even tried to get him killed using some nonchalant means like with Jake the Necromancer from the flying swords guild and the Brigadier general. 

Heimdall also informed Arnold that the tower of trials was a sham as well. The only reason the tower appeared there was to ensure that he gets trapped in there. However, that plan failed miserably and that\'s when Loki decided to hurt Arnold by killing Nicole, who was his Vassal.

Arnold got a bit pissed off with what Heimdall was telling him. But what he said next immediately got Arnold guilt-ridden. Nicole\'s Guardian, Donna was the strongest among the other guardians. Even stronger than System Sama, due to her cunningness. 

Thus in order to fulfil the will of her master, Loki, she sabotaged System Sama and replaced the Arrogant One with the Thunderous one, once Arnold got to know that the Arrogant one was Zeus. 

In other words, Donna switched System Sama\'s perception of Zeus with that of Thor when the first round of the War began and the gods started commenting on the progress made by them. 

\'System sama was right... He didn\'t do anything wrong.\' Arnold shook his head while sighing heavily, \'My anger always gets the best of me. I\'ll have to resurrect him too, somehow. There has to be a way to do that, right?\'

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Yes. The Guardians can never truly die. You can-

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\'That\'s enough for now. I\'ll think about it after I\'m done resurrecting Nicole. That\'s my priority for now.\'

He then once again turned towards the god who couldn\'t even cry in pain anymore. Heimdall was in a truly pathetic state. If he had known this would happen, he would have never even raised a finger against Arnold. However, Arnold still needed some answers. He wasn\'t going to let Heimdall die before he got to know everything Heimdall knew about the gods. But first... 

"Where did Johnny escape to?" 

"Mount... Olympus..." Heimdall replied weakly, "Zeus was planning on adopting him... as a son and grant him godhood... that mortal was supposed... to replace Hercules... I swear that\'s all I know..."

"A replacement... that bastard always liked to enjoy the company of the strong people," Arnold mumbled with a straight face, "it\'s either that or that coward has a daddy complex of getting adopted by someone. What about the identity of the other gods who were colluding with Zeus and Loki?"

"Ask... the vassals... they\'ll know... Please end this misery... I beg you..."

"Got nothing else to tell me?"

"I already told... you everything... just kill me... I beg you... I can\'t take this pain anymore..." Heimdall kept begging. 

"Fine then," Arnold turned around and stabbed the scalpel into Heimdall\'s throat in a flash, finally ending his misery, "I was already planning on doing that"

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Primal power manifested so far: 5.26%

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"Only 1.5% increase huh..."

Arnold was hoping to increase it more than that but it didn\'t seem like manifesting the power was going to be an easy task. He would need to kill a lot of beings before he challenged Zeus and Loki. But he had to be fast. Thankfully, he had to punish those fcking bastard vassals for what they did... and destroying their worlds seemed like a good start for doing that. 

"Either way, I wonder how Hercules will react to the news of his daddy getting a new son." Arnold mumbled, "Judging his pea brain, he wouldn\'t believe me if I broke the news to him. However, if someone credible would tell him this... someone he knows wouldn\'t lie, then he might even work for me. Looks like I need to resurrect Heimdall after all."

***

Arnold\'s summons were waiting for him right outside the building. In the meantime, all of them were busy training their bodies to the extreme for the inevitable battle ahead. Tiamut had taken up the role of an instructor as she had actual combat experience against the gods which was invaluable knowledge for them.

"The Higher Gods aren\'t the only ones we need to be wary of. The Lesser Gods, if given the chance, can be just as big of a pain as the Higher Gods." She roared while the others got busy duelling amongst themselves, "The weakest part of any god is their nape and the back of the head. That\'s why all of their battle armours protect those parts at the very least."

While they were doing that, Talos and Dani were busy creating an army of constructs. He was making Automatons while Dani was making golems with anything she could use. The domain was full of hustling and bustling until Arnold came out of the room he had been torturing Heimdall in. 

It was the first time the summons had seen him in ten days and he looked nothing like before. His eyes that always had a glow of hope within them now looked sunken, emotionless and lost. The only thing they could see was his anger.

But it was different, it wasn\'t as chaotic as they had assumed it would be. He had turned into more like a dormant volcano, calm and collected now, but could burst at any moment. His blackened third eye was visibly throbbing as the power within Arnold grew by a bit. He looked like he had gone beyond something as meagre as rage. 

"Master!" All of them immediately went on their knees to greet him, however, Arnold remained silent.

He stared at them for a while before asking Alice, "Where is Talos? Bring him here."

Alice got up without saying a single word and rushed towards the forge, while the others had their head bowed down.

"Don\'t mind me," Arnold said before sitting down, "carry on with your training."