People often say, "History repeats itself," and yet they also believe, "Karma will strike back." However, ultimately, didn't the two statements contradict each other?
How was Karma supposed to strike back if History is to repeat itself? Would the bad guy who won ten years ago via cheating win again in a rematch? So the answer depended from person to person.
Enrique Nova also had a personal answer to that.
"Karma, eh," as he sat tied to a chair, wearing a suit more expensive than most people's annual salaries, Enrique realized it's Karma that always struck back.
He couldn't help but reflect on the one mistake he made in his long, successful life. Born an orphan, he had risen to become an international businessman before his early thirties. To reach this status, Enrique had dirtied his hands from a very early age.
Blackmails, calling murders, ruining rivals' families to destroy their businesses—Enrique committed all big crimes known to man, directly or indirectly. Despite that, he had been cautious to never leave any evidence of his bloody hands, cautious to always have a backup plan for every situation. Caution was the key to survival in this jungle of skyscrapers, in his opinion.
After living a shitty life during his early days, he learned to plan every move and made counter plans for any possible mishap, as any successful businessman should. That's how he was able to rise so rapidly in the world of wealth. However, that didn't mean he had no enemies. In fact, he had enemies who he didn't even know were his enemies.
Such was his abductor, a boy who was barely an adult. Yet, he managed to scare Enrique as he laid down his blades and torture equipment on the ground, one by one.
"Did you just say karma? Kek. Don't you think it's funny, Uncle Enrique?" the boy said, so young that his voice wasn't even deep yet. "If you had just killed me that day, like you did with my father and mother, you wouldn't be in this position today. I agree, this really must be karma for your overlooking."
Enrique would admit the boy had a point. The boy's father was once Enrique's business partner, but due to differences, Enrique had him killed by a hired hitman. If that man died, it was all Enrique who would benefit, that was the plan.
That plan had gone sideways from the beginning since his wife thought she could handle his business, so she tried to step into the world of economics. She tried to replace her late husband for a few months, causing significant losses for the company. Enrique couldn't just kill her; it would make him a prime suspect right away. Plus it's not as if he wanted the death of everyone, he wasn't that cold-blooded of a man.
So he broke her instead. He broke her body and mind, soothed the sad widow who was going through economic failure, and made her obsessed with him. Later, when he gained her trust, he made her transfer all of her shares to him. He would be taking care of her and her children, that's what she expected from him.
After that, he kept her around for a few years until she began to grow dissatisfied with how he was. She wasn't the only woman in his life, of course she wasn't, but she couldn't accept that. She wanted him to marry her, and become her son's stepdad. But why the hell would Enrique do that? He had no plans to and she began to change realizing that.
Then, due to her jealousy and envy, she ended up dead from a natural accident. That was how this kid turned into an orphan. That day eight years ago, he made the mistake of letting her ten-year-old son live as that was her last request. He didn't love her like a husband would, but he still cared for her enough to listen to that. Plus, killing children would have been insane even for him. That's why he let the kid live…
Ah, turns out I am not the 'monster' you declared me as, Synthia. Look, my foolish kindness brought your kid to my throat.
He couldn't kill that child, who he had a not-so-bad relationship with. He had known the kid for years, he called him uncle, and it was too much to kill such a child. So he rather put him in a high-class orphanage and kept an eye on him to ensure he never learned of his parent's fate. Unfortunately, the boy did. And today, he was here for revenge.
A foolish mistake on Enrique's part, as if he were a classic third-class villain.
"You didn't stop at just killing my dad, but you had to fuck my mom too, didn't you? Did you know how obsessed she was with you?" the boy asked while sharpening a razor. His eyes were blood red, trembling as if he was a deranged addict. "Funny, isn't it?"
Enrique Nova rested his head backward, "It wasn't funny." Strictly speaking, it was just business as usual.
She wasn't the first to whom he did something like that, nor was she the last. He liked women a lot, true, but this, in particular, was because of business, not personal desire.
The kid's eye twitched hearing him speak, but instead of replying, he sharpened his razor faster. They were in some abandoned building, second floor from the looks of it, and there were dozens of torture tools around the place. It didn't seem like screaming would help here.
Enrique chuckled. "Kid, maybe you're mistaken. What makes you think I did something of that sort? Why would I ever take care of you, give money for your studies, and even help you get into a top college?"
"I don't know, guilt?" This son of a bitch. When did he get smart? "Anyway, uncle," the boy smiled, turning to him. "Let's get started, shall we?"
Then he shredded Enrique's pinky toe off with the razor. Enrique let out a hiss.
…..
— Poowoo! Poowoo! Poowoo-!
The sound of police sirens outside didn't scare the boy, he didn't stop using his tools either. Enrique had given up already. Even if the police helped him to the hospital, his little emergency medical knowledge told him it was too late. He would be a cripple his whole life, and if that's the case, he would rather face death.
"Haah, they're here faster than I thought," the boy grumbled in sadness, grabbing an ax from the many tools on the ground. "Now, as much as I want you to live as a cripple, I don't think I will be satisfied without seeing your headless body. So goodbye, uncle."
"...Kid," Enrique managed to spit out, blood dripping from his lips. Since he was going to die anyway, he should rile up this little bastard at least. "Wanna hear something interesting?"
"Oh?" The boy played with the ax. "Your last words? Sure."
Enrique smiled, "Your mum had a loose cunt." His mother was a whore.
The ax came flying at Enrique's neck. He felt it as the sharp blade cut half of his neck, but not entirely, and as the boy continued slamming it on his neck, he felt it all. With one strike after another, going halfway through his throat, filling his brain with impossible pain, Enrique still let out a gurgling chuckle.
Finally, at the last strike, Enrique's head fell to the ground, and everything went dark.
"Die, die, die you son of a bitch!" Yet the boy kept yelling, stomping on the severed head. However, Enrique was long gone. From this mortal world, and from this universe.
****
Darkness enveloped him for how long? Oddly enough, at one point he could feel his body in the endless pool of darkness. He couldn't see his body due to the lack of light, but unlike in the beginning.
He wasn't sure if he had died a second ago or if it'd been centuries since then, or perhaps even longer than that. Thankfully, the darkness didn't last for eternity. One moment all of his reality was dark, and in another, Enrique was in a cloudy plane, on his knees, facing a woman right out of an Egyptian historical play, although with some divine traits along.
…Nah, maybe it wasn't cosplaying. Given he just fucking died. "A Goddess?"
"Mortal child," the woman said, looking down at him for a long moment before she reached out a hand. "Indeed, I am Goddess Mut, and I want you to be my Avatar."
Ah. A real Goddess… So this was the infamous afterlife? I wasn't religious though.
Even if he went to a Christian church sometimes for reasons, he had never prayed to any Egyptian Gods. Well, from what she said, at least he wouldn't have to spend all his life in hell. Because he was pretty sure that's where he'd end up otherwise.
Taking her hand, he decided to hear her out.
****
Ogdoad Pantheon's Mother Goddess, the wife of Amun-Ra, mother of Khonsu. That's who she was.
However these days, in the 21st century, Mut was more of a trophy than her original title of a Mother Goddess since the other Egyptian Gods barely ever listened to her. However, she still wanted the best for Egypt and the Egyptian Pantheon.
That was why she had decided to summon help from outside.
The [All Pantheon Meeting] that happened two millennia ago had caused Ogdoad to decline in power and authority, the other pantheons had set many restrictions on Ogdoad and its Gods. Mut and her children had no choice but to accept the restrictions because their strongest God wasn't around to object to the decision. Amun-Ra, the once Chief God of Egypt, was residing inside the sun, away from the material world's conflicts.
If he was still around, the other pantheons would never have had the courage to restrict them this heavily. Even Zeus would think twice before speaking against Amun-Ra, the God Eater.
Because of these restrictions, many of Ogdoad's Gods and Goddesses were sealed inside statues if they broke the slightest of restrictions. Even for silly ones such as making river water into wine. As Gods, they ought to have some fun, but that little fun shouldn't cost them millennia of confinement!
Mut was frustrated because of that. However, even being the Mother Goddess, she could do nothing since Ogdoad would be ganged on by the other Pantheons if they tried to fight back. Without their Chief God, it was hard to survive. So she endured it for millennia.
Then, her patience hit its last nail.
Mut didn't care anymore.
Her frustrations knew no limits anymore when a few weeks ago, Odinson Thor, the Norse God of Thunder, came down on earth and wreaked havoc. How could he do that?!
Why was it that he, just because he was the son of Odin, could wreak havoc in the mortal world with no recuperations while they were so heavily restricted? That wasn't right. Things couldn't go on like this anymore.
After a lengthy consideration, Mut had reached her decision. She decided to use that technique, that one forbidden Divinity that her husband gave her before leaving.
Her husband was the son of Demiurge, the Essence of Chaos and the Primordial Ocean of Nothingness, and had inherited that power by birth. Before he left, he gave that power to her to use in the utmost emergency.
The Divinity, «Call of the Void».
Once a problem was 'called out' using this Divinity, the Void would provide a solution for it, no matter how big or small the problem may be. Mut hadn't used it ever before because it could only be used once. She kept it safe, to use only when the Ogdoad would face a truly dangerous problem.
And this right here was an era that was most dangerous for Ogdoad. So much so that they were on the verge of eradication. If this wasn't the perfect time to use it, she didn't know what was.
Standing on her individual heaven, Aaru, a plane made of rich yellow heavenly clouds, she held her hand toward the night skies and channeled the Divinity. The power that could never be used again, and the power… that would save Egypt erupted out of her palms.
– Shoosh~
A dark hole abruptly opened up in front of her, and reality twisted to form a white translucent hand that slid inside the hole. It yanked out a bloody man, although he didn't seem to suffer from any wounds. Void energy wrapped around him to wipe off his blood.
Mut observed the young man, who was blinking rapidly, getting used to the light of the realm. "A Goddess?" He asked.
A powerless mortal… Mut observed before shaking her head. No… not powerless, how odd. The void empowered him a bit. She wasn't sure if it was the Divinity itself, or if he was like this from the beginning. His soul is clad with a veil of darkness, it seems, blocking me from reading his mind. Hah. If even I can't read his mind, he should be immune to most telepaths on earth.
She understood it now—why a mortal appeared instead of a strong divine being. He was the solution to her problems, and the void wanted her to take him in…
"Mortal child," Mut said after a minute, looking down at the kneeling mortal as she reached out a hand. "Indeed, I am Goddess Mut, and I want you to be my Avatar."
For the first time in eternity, she would take in an [Avatar].