IdeasGuy
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Power Corrupts: Homecoming (ch. 88)
🕑 Added 2021-08-21 14:55:27 +0000 UTCI found myself in a familiar white void -- Megumin was gone, and I didn't see anyone else. I had accepted the call to leave the world as soon as I heard that familiar ping that I had only heard once before. But, I recognized it all the same. I had hit my win condition to allow for the next world selection. I still wasn't fully sure what exact criteria I had to fulfill to be able to leave, but so far, it seemed to be something like 'defeat the big bad evil guy.'
"Okay, so what am I working with?" I questioned the void, wanting to jump right into it. I've done this song and dance a few times before, so I knew what I was doing. I didn't feel particularly antsy, the void imposing the effects of Gamer's Mind on me to keep me calm and rational. In response, pitch-black words formed in front of me, the dark coloring standing out in the vast whiteness in every direction.
Previous game data has been analyzed -- Notable achievements:
Hero:
You became a figure of legend in Skyrim. 25,000 points.
King:
Who needs democracy when you can hit things good? You became King of Skyrim. 25,000 points.
Lover of Gods:
You engaged in sexual relations with several gods. 10,000 points.
Doomslayer:
The end of the world was foretold and staved off with your actions. 20,000 points.
Harem Protagonist:
Have a harem of more than 3 people. 5,000 points.
Public Enemy:
Be hated by an entire kingdom. 5,000 points.
Craftsman of Legend:
Create an item worthy of Legend. 5,000 points.
Unlikely Hero:
Despite being hated by everyone in Axel, you saved them anyway. 5,000 points.
A low whistle escaped me as I looked at the various achievements I had gained from the past two worlds. A grand total of a hundred thousand points that I could invest into myself and use to pick out various items. I guess that's what happens when you do two worlds back to back. Those points would be useful, but I had more pressing concerns.
The world selector appeared before me, showing the various tiers of worlds. I did note that the point cap had gone up, but other than that, I didn't linger on the choice and quickly picked Skyrim once again. It was then that I saw what I was looking for. I couldn't stop the small breathe of relief that escaped me.
Welcome to the Kingdom management feature! From here, you are able to purchase perks and benefits for your kingdom similar to how you purchase them for yourself.
I saw a map of Skyrim, in addition to the land that I had bought in my time at Axel. The city of Axel itself wasn't there though, since I guess I didn't buy it. That was fine though. What I did see was a button called import citizens for a thousand points. And given that I had fought to save them and I became their unlikely Hero, everyone in Axel counted. With little hesitation, I pressed the button.
There. Problem solved. The local gods could quarantine the Konosuba world all they liked. I did my part -- I saved the Axis cult, which I knew I would regret, I saved the Crimson Demons, which I was probably also going to regret at some point, and a bunch of other people. And I could see how the feature would be used later on -- I would go to worlds, be the big damn hero, then I could import people that wanted to come. Those people would then spread across my kingdom, which I could grow in size as I could, in theory, add more landmass to it as needed.
It was a neat mechanic, I decided. With the most pressing issue dealt with, I took some time exploring the various options for Kingdom customization available to me. There was a lot, and it was fairly obvious how each perk could be used.
Like a perk that made citizens more loyal the longer they lived in the Kingdom. Essentially brainwashing them. Add another perk called Absolute Ruler, and I could do whatever I wanted. Along with a few other perks named Beautiful population, and well…
There were other perks. Like the ability to transport the entire kingdom into new settings. For an increased cost, I could even pick where the kingdom was located. There were more options -- magical borders to fuck with invading forces, buffs to my own armies, and I could make my own deposits of minerals.
I never wanted to be king of Skyrim, but I could see the value of the mechanic. Enough so that it seemed like it was worth investing in. I picked out a few perks that seemed useful -- Multidimensional Kingdom, Threat Detection, Abundant Resources, Extensive Hygiene, and lastly, Melting Pot. From top to bottom, I could teleport my kingdom with me at no additional cost. Threat Detection was what the name on the tin implied -- I got warm and cold spot readings on threats in my kingdom.
Abundant Resources made minerals more abundant while increasing the fertility of the soil, while Extensive Hygiene just made my population take good care of their personal hygiene. Technically it was brainwashing, but… eh. Melting Pot would take care of racial tensions because that was an issue I just didn’t want to deal with, and with a press of a button, it went away. Very convenient.
All that was really left was picking out perks for myself. Sadly, I ended up coming up a bit dry on choices in that regard. I didn't get to hit many milestones for my stats, so I didn't earn a variety of choices. For the most part, I ended up getting the choices that I skipped over. With my surplus of points, I was able to buy all of them. Even after my little shopping spree, I still had around fifty thousand points.
There wasn't much to spend it on until I discovered I could turn the points into skill points that I could then invest into myself. With fifty thousand points, I started swiping right on sliders across the board, maxing out what I deemed important, then going back and purchasing the perks that came available afterward.
When I was done, I nodded in satisfaction, "Alright, let's get this show on the road," I decided. The customization was short and sweet, and I had things to do.
My vision went white, and…
…
I stood at the throat of the world, the highest point on the planet of Nirn. All things considered, it hadn't exactly been that long since I last stood on the peak of this mountain. Little more than a month really, but it almost felt like a lifetime ago. Next to me, I heard the sounds of crunching snow, my expanded vision allowing me to see Paarthurnax, the ancient dragon taking notice of me as well.
The last time I saw him, Alduin was devouring him, his soul flaking off of him and being absorbed into Alduin, granting him strength. Even at his weakest, Alduin was overwhelming. So much so that two falna levels later, I doubted I could defeat him at his best.
"Outsider… your presence is…" Paarthurnax rumbled, shaking off a metric ton of snow to reveal silverish white scales.
I offered a thin smile, "Some time shenanigans happened. So, sorry for giving your dad a seizure," I apologized. This was a dragonbreak, or a break in time. Aqua had been able to follow through with her promise -- I was transported before the final battle. In a manner of speaking. "It's a bit of a story, but the long and short of it is that I'm back to kill Alduin right this time."
Paarthurnax shifted, rising to his full height and towered over me. The ancient dragon paused for a long moment, mulling that over, before his head dipped into a nod. "I see. I take it that my brother's arrival happened sooner than expected?" He asked while I turned my attention to the Marks that Sheogorath had placed.
"Not if I have anything to say about it," I said as the Marks flashed. From thin air, I saw Serana arrive first. It had only been a month, but I really did feel longer. Serana's dark hair was blowing wildly in the wind, revealing her pale skin and blood-red eyes. A trait she shared with the Crimson Demons. Serana seemed momentarily surprised to see me, her eyes widening.
"Mr. Jericho?" I heard Lili question, peeking her head out from behind Serana with a surprised expression on her face. As far as they knew, I was back at the manor and had no reason to be here.
I was already fucking with the timeline, so what was a little more fuckery? It was a simple change, really. Instead of heading down to deal with some orc mercenaries and meeting Aela there, I headed for the throat of the world. That's all it took to circumvent the events that led to Alduin arriving early and unexpectedly.
"Hey, Lili and Serana," I returned, looking at Lili. She looked the same -- same heart-shaped face, golden-brown eyes, and short, light brown curly hair. Her build was slight, even smaller than Megumin, but her curves were more pronounced. I took a moment to drink in the sight -- in the end, they hadn't changed.
I did.
"So, it turns out, opening a portal through space and time to look at Alduin's defeat is a bad idea. It's just going to make him arrive sooner," I said, and Serana blinked at the tone of my voice. She cocked an eyebrow while Lili frowned.
"Mr. Jericho?" She questioned as I approached, sounding uncertain. "Did something bad happen?"
"It would have," I told her, dodging the question as much as I could. In the end, I really didn't want to discuss what had happened. I was far more interested in what would happen. After all, the circumstances had changed wildly. I looked at Serana, who offered the Elder Scroll that they had picked up so she could learn Dragonrend. "I'll explain later, but… lots of things happened. Actually, it might just be easier to show you -- Paarthurnax, could you clear the skies real quick?"
Paarthurnax let out a noise that borderlined on disapproval, "The Thu'um is not something that should be used for mere convenience. But, in this case… LOK VAH KOOR!" Paarthurnax shouted, blasting away the heavy and thick clouds that blocked the view of what was below.
We walked to the edge and I heard Lili gasp at the sight. Serana was the one who spoke, "I think we will need an explanation. What I'm seeing leaves me with more questions than answers." She pointed out, and I suppose that was fair.
The space around Helgen had been contorted. Helgen was nestled in the valley between two mountains, but those mountains had been pushed back by more than fifty miles in every direction. Around the walls of Helgen was the land that I had purchased in Konosuba -- some of which was little more than craters from the battle. It looked very out of place with green grass and trees compared to the snow and hard stone that surrounded it.
From my view, I could see that the influx of people was being dealt with. In Axel, there had been about three cities worth of people as we made our escape. Which was probably a huge chunk of the total population in all likelihood. I hadn't seen Hestia yet, but I imagine she was down there with the others, getting the whole mess sorted.
"I died killing Alduin, and my soul got plucked out of Nirn for being a hero, to save another world. Things got complicated -- the gods there decided to quarantine the universe, so we had to make a break for it. And I ended up taking a few cities worth of people and some land with me," I summarized the events of Konosuba in a few short sentences. Lili looked very unimpressed, clearly desiring more answers, but… "We should head down and get everything sorted. After all, now that we know the scroll lets Alduin out of the space-time continuum, we can choose when he comes out."
Serana and Lili exchanged a look before they looked back at me, “That didn’t help either.”
“Ehh, don’t worry about it. The important part is that I’m going to fuck up Alduin, and I ended up picking up some interesting characters. By the way, if anyone from the Axis Cult comes up to you about worshiping Aqua, feel free to kick their ass,” I decided, heading to the Mark. Was that religious persecution? Probably, but the Axis cult annoyed the hell out of me, and they owed me their lives. They could deal with it.
“I don’t think it’s right to persecute someone for their religious beliefs,” Serana commented lightly -- I suppose after being a part of a Daedric cult, she felt like she shouldn’t be throwing stones.
“Neither do I, but I’ll make an exception for the Axis Cult,” I returned. “You’ll see what I mean,” I promised before the three of us stood on the Mark. I looked to Paarthurnax, “I’ll be back soon enough. Call it two or three days before we spring Alduin.” And this time, no one would die.
Paarthurnax offered an accepting nod in response, his cold blue eyes looking through me. If the dragon had one thing, then it was patience. He could wait a little longer to get the full scope of what transpired. With that, I activated the Mark and found myself falling from my ceiling. I effortlessly caught Lili, and Serana landed lightly on her feet. My gaze swept over the interior of the manor, finding it unchanged from how I remembered it .
Though, that only lasted for a moment.
“Who- oh!” Yunyun exclaimed upon seeing me as she stepped out of a bedroom. Her face instantly turned beet red the moment she did. "You… have a teleportation sigil on your ceiling?" She asked , which seemed like an odd thing to latch onto, but I suppose she was still reeling from what we did in that room during the battle against the 'First' Demon King .
"It was put there by the god of madness. Yunyun, this is Serana and Lili, members of my familia. Serana, Lili -- this is Yunyun, a member of the Crimson Demon Clan and one of those people from another dimension I mentioned." I introduced them, making Yunyun drop into a bow. Lili looked up at me -- she had been through this once, so she was more familiar with this. After all, last time, she and Hestia had been the fish out of water.
"Nice to meet you!" Yunyun greeted forcefully. Lili smiled lightly as she approached, while Serana shot me a look. I shrugged, choosing to ignore the unspoken question in her gaze.
"Nice to meet you, Yunyun," Lili returned.
"Yunyun, do you know where Hestia is?" I asked her, making Yunyun straighten out, though she pointedly looked everywhere but at my face. I had some guesses, but given that so many new people had been dumped here, I had no way of knowing for sure. In response, I got an uncertain nod.
"She's in the city square. She sent me and Megumin back," Yunyun said, her blush deepening. "She's arranging for an evacuation. A dragon is coming, right? My family is really excited to fight it." She said, and it seemed that I had brought some allies with me this go around.
However, I shook my head, "Not yet, but I'll let Alduin out in a few days." Enough time to make sure all of my supposed allies were actually in the city so they couldn't run from the fight. "For now though, I suppose I should introduce you to-" I began, stepping past Yunyun to open my bedroom door, intent on introducing Megumin to the rest of the familia.
However, as soon as I saw her laying on the bed, her legs wide open with my cum oozing from her well-used pussy, her eyes a million miles away to the point that she didn't even register me poking my head into the room I withdrew and closed the door behind me. "She's sleeping, but Megumin is the newest member of the familia."
Serana let out a chuckle, "It seems I wasn't the newest member for long. I look forward to meeting her," she offered. I offered a smile back, but as they headed to the door to find Hestia, I dipped down to Yunyun's height.
"Do you still want to join the familia?" I asked her quietly, and before I could even explain that it wasn't strictly necessary, Yunyun's head bobbed like a bobblehead, eager to join. Enough so that I wasn't sure if I had to explain that sex wasn't a necessity to join. I don't think it mattered in the slightest to her.
And she had been fairly willing back in Konosuba.
"Then expect me to keep my promise," I told her lowly, and Yunyun blushed so hard that she almost radiated warmth. Swallowing the smirk that wanted to spread across my face , I straightened up and headed for the door. "Stay with Megumin for now, if you can. When she wakes up, it'll be good for her to see a friendly face”
To that, I got a heartfelt smile and a firm nod.
Walking out of the manor, I saw that the streets were packed to the absolute brim. There was a sense of urgency in the air while people looked upwards to the sky, expecting Alduin to swoop down at any moment. The population of Helgen had just quadrupled, but Hestia had future-proofed the city so it was just a case of making sure people got organized.
Making my way to the city square was a simple task when people parted for me as I walked. The Skyrim population knew me as a king and as a living legend. The Konosuba population was more of a mixed bag. But, seeing how most of the worst offenders had traveled with Kazuma and got themselves killed, all that was really left were those that knew me as the guy that fought Shartan's army. And as the guy that would just go through them if they got in my way.
As I neared the square, I nearly missed a step when I reached the stairs. While I had been up at the throat of the world, and then in the manor, the timeline had played out normally down here.
I spotted firey red hair, bringing my attention to Aela, who stood next to Hestia, who was on a platform with the other gods as they barked out instructions. The last time I saw her, she had been half-buried in rubble, and all I could do for her was toss a health potion. It really made me think about how the aftermath would have played out. Helgen had been devastated, so many dead…
But that didn't matter. It was a defunct timeline.
I kept walking, even as I recognized others that died in the last timeline. I saw Farkas and Vilkas near Aela, along with so many others that died in the battle. The Companions had been taken out instantly, almost as soon as they arrived from the Mark. Sheogorath had only managed to save two of us. Everyone else was obliterated in the face of the Thu’um.
The crowd clearing for me made it easy to see me and the others. Well, except for Lili. Hestia looked over at me with bright blue eyes, a look of resolve on her face that fell when I raised the Elder Scroll up for her to see. I saw her let out a breath of relief at the sight. The message had been received.
I tried to wipe any emotion from my face as I approached, but when I felt a thump on my shoulder and saw a familiar face pop into existence, I couldn't quite manage it.
"Ya' look like you've seen a ghost!" Sheogorath cackled at me before she threw an arm over my shoulder and pointed over at what looked like a group of Crimson Demons. They were pretty easy to pick out thanks to the spiked collars and the unnecessary amount of leather straps that served no purpose beyond aesthetics. “I like your new friends! They’re a rowdy bunch!”
I just had the mental image of the Crimson Demons becoming Sheogorath’s familia, and honestly, that was a deeply terrifying prospect. But, I’ve decided I’m done with trying to make everyone do what I wanted. Probably what I shouldn’t be doing as King, but… eh.
“Glad you like them. Each and every single one of them is ridiculously powerful, so Alduin won’t know what hit him,” I said, continuing to stride forward while Hestia was temporarily lost among the crowd when she jumped from her stand to head towards me. I heard Sheogorath chuckle at that as she gave me a sideways look. Her green eye and purple eye switched coloring and I felt the sensation of magic brush over my skin.
“Suppose so. Looks like someone got a bit bigger in the past thirty minutes,” she remarked, revealing the fact that she knew time shenanigans were afoot despite not being told outright. Maybe the Crimson Demons had tipped her off, but with a single look, I knew that Sheogorath had gained a near full picture of what happened.
"A little," I admitted. By that, I meant several times over. When I left Skyrim, I had been a level two. Now, I had reached level four by the falna system and I was closer to a hundred than not with the normal system. “I feel good about our chances,” I added, and I did feel confident. I had armor made to counter Alduin’s Thu’um, I was several times stronger than I had been, and now I had allies in the city that would arrive when I needed them.
If I needed them.
Sheogorath slapped me on the back, “I’m looking forward to it! Can you really say you’ve lived until you’ve suplexed a dragon?” She questioned, and before I could answer, Sheogorath popped out of existence. I might have been concerned, but I saw her appear above a small girl that looked like Komekko, Megumin’s little sister. I looked away just in time to see Hestia push through the crowd.
“Alduin’s not coming?” She asked, before her gaze shifted to Lili and Serana. She looked between them, then me, as if she wasn’t sure if she should deal with her familia or the dragon first. With little surprise, she chose her familia, and wrapped her arms around Lili and gave her a powerful hug. Lili seemed faintly confused, but both she and Serana seemed to understand what was going on.
Hestia soon found a way to both smother the long-missed members of our familia and worry about Alduin's potential arrival -- picking Lili up in her hug and looking to me. I met her gaze and nodded, “Alduin won’t be coming until we release him in a few days. So, we have a little time before the storm.” I said, and with my expanded vision, I saw Aela approach from behind.
So, we had a little time to enjoy ourselves.
And a little time to settle some accounts.
“Let’s call it a calm before the storm.”
...
Just a reminder -- Power Corrupts will be ending on chapter 90, so one chapter left. I'll save my thoughts for the final chapter AN, but I will say it's been a wild ride and it's hard to believe that it's almost over.
Comments
Dao
There must be more! The gods demand it. A season 2
CarrotWizard
He may be referring to the fact that chapter 89 is already available to bigger tippers
Cefta
Unless there's been a mistake 88+1 doesn't = 90, but as Sad as I am for it to be over it's been fun and worth the investment
Petrox
It's a shame this fic is ending, but I guess it's a risk to make it longer and start getting boring as it's very hard to reach a climax such as Alduin's. And while the story won't continue I would like snip picks or omakes like the crimson demons dealings with daedras or the college of winterhold, the axis cult expansion that are more hated than Daedra cults, the implementation of the adventurer guild across tamriel. A vacation back to Danmachi?
