Fuse

Nahida ended up coming with me, while Dori just wished us good luck and promptly went to count her money, probably.

Well, I have no idea what Dori would be doing now. Probably paperwork, actually…

"So, do you have a plan for this, Fuse?" Nahida worriedly asked as she kept up with my pace, walking down the dirt road, "I know the situation isn't the best, but there's probably a better way to handle this than going straight at Luciel."

Yeah, she's probably right. I'm still hurt as hell from yesterday, and my entire plan is currently non-existent right now. But deep inside of me is the American spirit, indomitable.

"Well, my current plan is to just defy the odds and repeat the year 1776, the year of our founding," I explained to Nahida, much to her dismay, "And dare I say that there's no greater year to repeat."

Nahida sighed, "I'm sure it is, I know as much as Dori knows. Anyways, are you sure you don't need a plan?"

I waved her off, "I'm always at my best when I'm fighting half dead."

That's not true, everyone fights their best when they're uninjured with a full stomach and slept 10 hours the night before.

I am injured and tired out, only got like a few hours of nap time, and because of my slimy and otherworldly nature, I haven't been eating properly because I actually don't need that much food to sustain myself.

But as I said, there's no greater year to repeat than 1776.

Looking forward, I can see the road slowly being covered with ice, with some blizzard covering it.

It looks like Luciel is just ahead, out of sight.

"Nahida, if it comes to a fight, back me up, alright?" I asked, pulling out Washington and Lincoln just in case.

Hopefully it won't come to me having to use them, but who knows. Always plan for the worst, as Grant probably said once in his life.

Well, Grant probably would've just made the worst unconditionally surrender to him, but that's technically a plan as well.

Nahida nods as she stops moving forward, so she doesn't get absolutely destroyed by the cold.

Stopping just short of the ice, I take a look through all of the dense snow fog that Luciel made for some reason, and I spot a figure in the snow.

Using [Observe], I confirm my suspicions.

Luciel

Status: Fine, Strong Headache

Stamina: Low

Mana: Full

Race: Frost-Elf

Title: Destiny's Enforcer

Classes: Cryomancer

Professions: Alchemist

Ranking Setting: Genshin Impact [Change]

Overall Ranking: A+

Power Rank: F- [Expand]

Magic Rank: S+ [Expand]

Social Rank: F- [Expand]

Mhm, as expected, Destiny's Enforcer…

Also, S+ ranked magic?! Seriously?! How the heck did she do that?!

Okay, look, her power rank is at F. She probably folds like a wet paper towel. If I can get a good shot on her, she will probably die.

I debated on shooting her straight away, but I decided I would ask her one question before getting into a fight.

The blizzard clears up a bit as Luciel comes to a stop as she sees me.

We both stared at each other for a moment, and then I asked, "You American?"

Luciel blinked, seemingly realizing who I was, then saying, "You're the cause of all of this."

That accent…

It was Canadian.

Without warning, I immediately aimed Washington and Lincoln at her, and started firing.

Luciel quickly reacts as she puts up a large ice wall in-between us, blocking my bullets, and I can see the ice on the floor starting to move towards me.

Jumping away, the place I was last standing on is encased by ice.

I can sense Nahida trying to break the frost covering the nature using her powers, but it doesn't seem to be working out for her.

I snuck a look at the wall Luciel was hiding behind, and saw that my bullets did pitifully little damage to the ice.

Well, sorry Washington, Lincoln, I'll have to bench you for this fight.

Putting them away and pulling out Kennedy, my rifle, I cautiously waited for an opening from Luciel.

I did not find any, because Luciel was able to create an icicle spear and launched it towards my location from behind the wall, forcing me to dodge it, and several other spears launched from behind the wall.

"Of fucking course you're hiding," I complained before I shot up the wall, causing some cracks into it, but not fully breaking the ice wall.

Tch, Canadian.

The ice on the ground was rapidly approaching, and I didn't want to find out the hard way what would happen if I decided to stand on that ice, so I had to retreat to Nahida's position, and then I asked, "Hey, think I could ricochet something into the back of her head?

Luciel came out of her comfort zone by making a hole through the wall and started walking over to our location, as if this wasn't a real fight and was just an inconvenience to her.

Nahida launched some type of green magic missiles while I shot at a nearby tree and tried to use [Ricochet].

Thankfully, the tooltip of ricocheting into an enemy was correct as it deflected off the tree and straight towards Luciel who had made a wall in front of her to block Nahida's attacks.

And then she raised another hand to block Kennedy's bullet.

I clicked my tongue in frustration. It'll have to be multiple bullets at once to even have a chance to hit her, but that skill only works on one bullet.

Maybe I could just use my telekinesis instead?

Using [Create Wall] to block one of Luciel's attacks, I shot another bullet into a tree to cause it to deflect back at Luciel.

Just before she created another wall to block the bullet, I used my telekinesis to force my bullet above the wall and behind Luciel, and then allowed it to keep traveling straight towards her back.

Luciel let out a quiet grunt as the bullet found its way into her sides, as I grinned.

That wasn't a good shot at all, but that's why any competent person aims for the torso! That shot wouldn't have landed at all if I tried for the head or the limbs.

Clearly upset, Luciel shouts as she slams her foot down and causes a glacier to form in our direction.

Nahida quickly reacts by tackling me and activating some short range teleportation thing that I didn't know she had, which allowed us to dodge the massive kill move.

"So, Nahida, how many times can you do that?" I quickly asked, checking if that's something we could abuse.

"Give me 30 seconds." She said as she caught her breath, which elicited some amount of disappointment inside of me.

Can't believe the kid god isn't super powerful. The audacity.

Finding Luciel again, I saw that she was glaring at us as she began to charge up a massive spell in her hand.

Getting ready to dodge it, I asked Nahida, "Hey, I'm not quite sure if we win a battle of attrition. I'm getting pretty cold now. Have any ideas?"

Nahida pointed over to the nearby mountain, "Well, I think I could try to trigger a landslide which might help us get some more solid hits on her."

Well, that's certainly an idea.

"Well, we can try, but that's a long way until we get to a place where a landslide would fall directly on her." I said, testing out one of my new geomancer spells by casting Earth Blast on her.

It didn't do much as she activates the spell and blasts straight through it, but considering her S ranked magic, I guess it was a stretch to expect it to be that handy.

Fortunately, that mega spell was cast pretty far from us, so we had plenty of time to dodge it and allow it to hit the area behind us.

The impact created a large amount of noise and wind as we quickly turned around and realized that She Just Froze The Entire Mountain.

"Nahida, something tells me we can't use that plan anymore." I said in astonishment.

"...We should probably pray for help at this point." Nahida conceded, causing a lot of concern inside of myself as I realized that the god literally admitted she needed to pray as well, "I hate to put my own citizens in danger, but we should run towards Sumeru City and hope that someone notices our plight and helps us. We don't have the numbers or power to fight her right now."

Luciel counter attacked by throwing more icicle spears towards us, but the speed of the attacks were manageable, so we were able to dodge as we ran towards the city in the hopes of finding allies.

I heard Luciel click her tongue, as all of a sudden, a large shadow were cast over us.,

Daring to look back-

DID SHE JUST FREEZE A WHOLE ASS CLOUD?!

The frozen cloud was rapidly falling to our location, as I immediately looked for something in my inventory to counter it.

Okay, I don't enjoy the idea of wasting my bullets, but this situation is definitely NOT wasting bullets.

Pulling out Monroe, I started blasting apart the giant meteor falling on us, shattering it to pieces.

After splitting apart the cloud into enough pieces to where it wouldn't harm us, I redirected my aim to Luciel and hoped to win right now.

Suddenly, Luciel gets the first drop of blood from us as she unleashes a torrent of frost on us, freezing both Nahida and I to the ground.

I was close to panicking, Nahida quickly salvaged the situation by using her powers to break the ice, allowing us some more distance on Luciel, but we were heavily slowed by the snow.

Speaking of, SHE MADE IT START SNOWING!

As we kept running towards our promised land, I occasionally took potshots at Luciel and hoped that one of them would land, but even though Monroe would break through the ice, Luciel was just able to create more ice to stop the bullets even if it took like 3 feet of straight ice. So I had to stop wasting Monroe's bullets that obviously weren't going to be effective in this fight.

Star shattering my ass. Can't even shatter ice properly.

"Nahida, I want you to be honest with me, do we win, even with any extra help?" I asked, still running.

Nahida turned out to be able to fly next to me as she responded, "There's still a chance. Do you still have bullets in that gun? You might not be able to directly break her ice with a frontal assault, but maybe if we find 2 more fighters, I could probably teleport you somewhere and try a 4 front assault to overwhelm her."

The idea of finding 2 more people who have the ability or hax to stand up against Luciel for any extended period of time was cope as all hell, but I had to accept that may be the only chance we have that isn't calling for that evil deity to take over my body.

Continuing to run, Luciel drops more ice meteors on us, this time not using the actual clouds, but we were able to dodge most of them, and the ones that did hit us we just had to suck up and not get tripped up by them.

Luciel was still casually walking, she did NOT take this seriously at all.

Fucking Canadians and their pretentious asses.

Just as we reached a hill overlooking Sumeru, we eventually found 2 people who were rushing to our locations.

Quickly observing them…

Cyno

Status: Great

Title: General Mahamatra

Overall Ranking: A

Tighnari

Status: Fine

Title: Forest Watcher

Overall Ranking: B+

Oh thank god we found 2 people who look competent!

Cyno quickly reached us as he quickly asked "What's the situation?"

I quickly explained, "Luciel, the woman in that blizzard, is freezing everything in an attempt to kill me. Don't step on her ice, by the way, because she can control that to kill you."

Cyno's eyes flickered over Nahida, and he clearly wanted to know more, but he put his duties first, "Alright, Tighnari, did you hear that?"

Tighnari nodded as he reached us, "I did, good thing I just so happened to buy a new bow today, huh, Cyno?"

He nodded, "Quite the coincidence, but yes, hand that to me now."

As we all quickly discussed Nahida's plan, Luciel finally caught up to our eye distance as she scoffed upon seeing more members in our makeshift team.

Nahida activates her teleportation ability as I appeared to Luciel's left, and we all began our attack.

Luciel quickly turned around in anticipation of facing me, but all she found was Cyno's electro arrow which was quickly blocked.

From the front, Tighnari's arrows were blocked at the same time as she quickly created a wall at the same time as the one behind her.

But from the sides, Nahida and I managed to finally make some decent blows, as Nahida's magic missiles crushes her right arm while Monroe manages to literally blow off her leg.

Luciel screams as she falls to the floor, and as soon as her head touches the floor she-

Disappears?!

Without warning, an ice sword comes out of my chest, as I realized she must've had some sort of teleportation ability in the back and just used that to try and stab my heart.

Shame that I'm half slime, so that doesn't really do much.

Turning around and aiming Monroe at her, Luciel's eyes widened at the fact that I'm still alive as I attempted to pull the trigger, but Luciel quickly knocked Monroe's aim off as she tried to freeze me whole.

Just as she was about to make contact, Nahida quickly knocked us away from each other as she used another spell from her back pocket I've never seen before, as she quickly made her way to my side and questioned, "Fuse! Are you okay?!"

Quickly taking out the ice sword and throwing it away, I nodded, "Physical attacks don't do much against me, I'm made out of slime. But if she froze me just then, I was probably dead. Thanks."

Luciel apparently managed to replace her leg with one made of ice without me noticing it, so she was doing fine by most standards, but it's pretty clear that she must still have a heart.

Therefore, I can shoot it.

"Sorry…" Luciel finally spoke for the first time since the battle began, clearly out of it just a bit, "But none of you can stand against destiny…"

…Huh?

I don't think she realizes destiny isn't on her side yet.

"That's nice, Luciel, but you're Canadian." I said, aiming Monroe towards her, ready for anything.

She glares at me, "Will you just shut up…"

She throws her hands into the air as she creates an ice pillar beneath her, raising herself into the sky.

Should I shoot the pillar down, or would it just be more efficient to just shoot her instead of risking wasting bullets on trying to destroy ice she can easily restore?

Seeing her tiny figure point up to the sky, she conjures a large ball of power.

The very same that completely froze over the mountain.

"Oh shit," I lamely got out before firing Monroe straight towards her, assisted by my cursed eye to ensure that I didn't miss the shot for her heart.

Cyno and Tighnari also fired their arrows towards her, so from 3 different directions, there was something trying to kill her.

And she just stood there and took it.

Even as her body was being torn apart by my bullets, she still kept conjuring up her final attack.

Aiming up in order to interrupt it, she finally unleashes her attack as she finally succumbed to her wounds and fell off her tower with her attack.

Now, this was the same attack that froze over an entire mountain. If this attack lands on the floor, it's basically over for half of Sumeru.

Therefore, I was really praying that my bullets would somehow stop the giant sphere coming our way.

Holding onto the trigger, the bullets started to shatter the incoming destruction, but it was still coming towards us.

Nahida stepped up again as she flew towards the death ball, "Fuse, stop shooting for just a second!"

Doing so, Nahida conjures up some sort of large cage and traps the ice inside of it.

The attack makes contact with the cage as we all collectively hoped that Nahida's godly power was enough to trap Luciel's attack.

The air shook as some of the wind escaped from the cage as the sphere exploded, creating a large block of ice inside the cage.

Luciel's final attack was negated, causing a lot of relief inside everyone watching.

My eyes peer down, and I see Luciel just lying down on the ground, defeated.

She managed to stop the bleeding by covering over the wounds with ice, but from where my shots landed, it's clear that I got her heart, so she's probably not living for much longer.

I cautiously walked over to her, just in case she was capable of any more defense, but…

Her eyes were blank as she stared back up at me.

"...I guess destiny wasn't on my side, after all." Luciel neutrally said, "I guess I should've seen that coming. I could see my own strings."

"You can?" I curiously asked, trying to fish for information.

Luciel closed her eyes, "Hm… Now that I've been defeated by you, I feel far more at peace than I've ever had in my life. It's… Nice."

Ah, she avoided the question, the bastard.

I pulled out and pointed Washington towards her head, "Well, you want to hand over that little domino over to me before you die? Or do I have to forcibly take it out of you?"

Luciel smiled, "Oh, I can't give it up by myself, it ingrained itself into my soul. Do you happen to have a skill that takes souls?"

Oh, wow, how convenient that I happen to have a skill and perk exactly like that. So, I nodded.

"Well, assuming this kills you, do you have any last words?" I asked the Canadian.

Luciel seemed to ponder over it for a moment, before saying, "...Not really."

Ah, well, that's fine too, I guess.

Raising my hand towards her, I used [Extract Soul].

Suddenly, the area around us glows with dark purple as out of where I assume to be Luciel's heart, a little domino piece came out alongside her soul. And observing them showed exactly what I assumed would be showing.

[Destined Fragment Of The Domino - The unseen hand of destiny guides the universe in its vision, yet, not all things are destined for greatness.]

[Luciel's Soul - The soul of a Gamer, Luciel. Being a gamer's soul, it is among the most powerful souls in the universe.]

The soul immediately enters my inventory, while the fragment gently floats into my hands, as it suddenly disappears into my body as I absorb it into my soul.

A few menus suddenly appeared in front of me.

[Let My Ambition Raze All It Gazes Upon.]

Description: With His ambition, you must answer destiny's calling.

Objectives: Assemble all pieces of the domino. [1/6]

Reward: Destiny's Calling Shall Grow Ever Louder.

X

(System Status)

[SYSTEM COMPROMISED]

[PACIFICATION UNAVAILABLE]

[CALAMITY AWAITS]

[LONG LIVE THE UNITED STATES]

(Status of the soul)

[Ambitious Soul of The Domino - Ambition is the fuel that great and terrible men use to enact their will upon their world, and your ambition shall raze all you gaze upon.]

[Destined Fragment Of The Domino - The unseen hand of destiny guides the universe in its vision, yet, not all things are destined for greatness.]

(Destiny's Path)

[Destiny shall show the way to the future - by any means necessary.]

[A flicker in the distance will reveal a mighty star, filled with ambition.]

[Destiny's clamoring grows ever louder.]

X

(World Menu)

[With destiny's blessing obtained, you now are able to venture to attain the power of destruction.]

Achievement unlocked!

[Gamebreaker]

Requirements: Kill a Gamer.

Description: Their aspirations, their dreams, their ambitions, all now lost to you.

Rewards: World Destination: Gamer's Hub, 5 Legendary+ gacha tokens, 3 Mythic+ gacha tokens, 1 divine gacha token, massive increase in all ranks.

Your Strength Rank has increased to B+!

Your Dexterity Rank has increased to B!

Your Vitality Rank has increased to B!

Your Endurance Rank has increased to A-!

Your Power Rank has increased to B+!

Your Intelligence Rank has increased to B!

Your Wisdom Rank has increased to B!

Your Control Rank has increased to B+!

Your Magic Rank has increased to B!

Your Confidence Rank has increased to B+!

Your Charisma Rank has increased to B!

Your Luck Rank has increased to B-!

Your Social Rank has increased to B!

Your Overall Rank has increased to B!

Well, I guess I'm on the right track. The gacha tokens are nice, the massive rank boosts are great, and that new world destination sounds very interesting. Probably what Shapeshifter mentioned when he said some gamers made a society or something like that.

Looking down at the extremely torn body of Luciel, most of her limbs missing with her torso filled with holes, blood oozing everywhere, her face makes it look like she was relatively peaceful as she passed away. But since I have her soul now, I guess I could technically revive her whenever I have the ability to…

Hm, and just eating her soul seems a bit disrespectful, even if she's a Canadian. Gotta give our ugly sibling something, so…

"Hey, Nahida," I called out, grabbing her attention, "Do you think you could preserve her body for a few years? Don't ask what for, though."

Nahida tilted her head as she nodded, "Um, yes, that's within my ability. Why would you like it to be kept secret?"

I shrugged noncommittally, "Eh, I think this counts as… Heresy, somewhere. I'd rather not be swamped by the devout trying to purge me of whatever they think as 'sin.'"

Nahida decided not to continue the conversation, as she encased Luciel's body inside of a bubble made of her own power.

Good, now hopefully, I can revive her later. That way, if something goes wrong and I do the process of revival wrong, it won't be an American eating the price.

Cyno and Tighnari eventually came up to us as they realized Luciel was taken care of, and Cyno immediately bowed before Nahida, "Lesser Lord Kusanali, it's an honor to be in your presence."

Tighnari quickly followed Cyno's signal as he too realized he was standing in front of a god.

Nahida looked a bit flushed as she quickly shook her hands to stop them, "Oh! No! Please, you don't have to bow in front of me…"

As they had that conversation, I quickly stepped off to the side to, first and foremost, open my gacha tokens.

Legendary Weapon Rolled

[Invisible Monk's Fists - A pair of invisible gauntlets that when worn, grants you the power of a monk at your rank.]

Legendary Perk Rolled

[Monologue Boost - When you explain one of your abilities, that ability will gain a massive boost in power temporarily.]

Legendary Weapon Rolled

[Wolf's Gravestone - A powerful red greatsword. When swung in succession, the greatsword will become progressively stronger over time until it stops swinging.]

Legendary Item Rolled

[Detector Glasses - When worn, anything that is normally invisible to the average human is visible to you.]

Legendary Skill Rolled

[Bang! - A magic ability that allows you to shoot invisible bullets via finger guns. Costs a small bit of mana to use.]

Mythic Cursed Item Rolled

[Malevolent Soul Eater Talisman - When this talisman is broken, unleash an extremely powerful soul eater into the world.]

Mythic Class Upgrade Weapon Rolled

[Mk 153 SMAW - An magically boosted rocket launcher. Recycles half of the rockets used.]

Mythic Skill Rolled

[Domain Expansion: Revolutionary Battlefield - Your very own domain expansion. When activated with your special hand sign, your domain will trap everyone around you in a subspace from your mind. Once inside, you are guaranteed to hit all of your attacks, and opponents will suffer from your domain's effect. Takes a significant amount of mana to use.]

Divine Skill Rolled

[Star Eater - When used inside of a star, devour all of the energy in that star to further your power permanently.]

Alright, going from top to bottom, the gauntlets sound just like an upgrade to my fists, so I put it on, flexed my hands a bit to test out how it feels, and it feels just fine, so that's probably permanently on my fists now.

The monologue boost is kind of weird, but I guess maybe it'll come in handy one day in a tricky sort of situation.

I don't need a greatsword.

The detector glasses I'll probably soulbind to make it look nicer, and then I'll replace the glasses that I have right now. In fact, let me do that right now. I think I'll name these after… Vice presidents.

So I name this pair of glasses… Gore. After Al Gore who was the vice president for Clinton.

[Gore [Detector Glasses] - A pair of sunglasses that when worn, anything that is normally invisible to the average human is visible to you. This item is named after the 45th vice president, Al Gore.]

Sweet, now I don't have to think about that again.

Bang is a weird sounding skill, but I'm sure that it'll come in handy if I ever run out of bullets again.

I'm probably never going to break the talisman because I'm not going to get jumped by someone who eats souls.

And I got a rocket launcher! Definitely going to name this one, since its special ability thing isn't that big. It even has a rocket already in it!

Hm, I think I'll name all of my explosive weapons after the worst presidents, so I'll name this one… Buchanan!

[Buchanan (Mk 153 SMAW) - A rocket launcher bound to Fuse's soul, allowing it to grow alongside him. This particular weapon is named after the 15th President of The United States, James Buchanan.]

Alright, Buchanan, you worthless bastard, you now have a spot in my arsenal.

So, the next thing I got was domain expansion, and I think I know what that is just from cultural osmosis or whatever the hell that's called. I think I can make an educated guess on what my domain does, but I'll have to use it to make sure.

And dear lord, what a waste of a divine gacha token! When am I ever going to have the opportunity to eat stars?!

I mean, it sounds cool and maybe possible in the future if the whole god thing works out, but I'm right here and now and I can't use that thing unless I'm literally thrown into the sun.

Nahida and the other 2 finished up their conversation, as Nahida looked towards me and said, "Did you just grow stronger, Fuse?"

I gave her a thumbs up, "Yep, I did. I've also got some other news, but I'd like to tell Dori first, if you don't mind."

Nahida frowned, "Oh? That's fine, but you do know I have a city I need to retake, and I have been helping you a lot…"

I tilted my head, "Nahida, are you trying to coerce me into helping you with taking down a whole bunch of academics plus that Dottore guy so you can take back your country?"

Nahida smiled as if she had done nothing wrong, "Maybe."

Hm, well, I did free her in the first place for basically free, why does she think she has a favor with me?

…Well, she did save me a few times in that fight, I guess it's fair. Besides, I don't think I have to get around to going to that other world just yet.

Even though my heart really wants to go to another world.

"Agh, fine," I conceded, "I'll help you get your throne back, but I want Sumeru to be a democracy."

Nahida raised an eyebrow, "A democracy?"

"I'll be damned if I help put another tyrant into power." I plainly say.

"You know that a democracy has never been tried on Teyvat, right?" Nahida said.

"Then try it, dummy." I lightly mocked, making it sound obvious because it was.

A democracy is basically always better than any authoritarian system. Surely, the god of wisdom should see that?

Nahida closed her eyes to deliberate it for a moment before deciding, "Very well. A new democracy for your aid?"

She held out her hand.

I took it smiling, "You've made a very good decision. I'm sure today will be a national holiday in the future."


AN:

I know this is a short chapter but GODDAMN this was really hard for me to write for literally no reason.

Fight scenes are just not my specialty. This feels awful.

Anyways, the 23rd, 25th, and the 1st are all upload days, so to make it easier for me, I'm just gonna write shorter chapters.

The 10th chapter will be wrapping up Genshin, then we move onto the next world in the 11th, and hopefully I'll carry enough momentum to get the 12th chapter ready in the span of a week.

Hopefully, I can maybe write that next chapter of Time Capsule so I can double upload on Christmas, but we'll see.

X

Hm, I may or may not have screwed up a bit on Fuse's power scaling, since most of his power right now comes from gacha hax.

Eh, something for future me to deal with.

(I have not read JJK, but I thought domain expansions were cool, so I gave Fuse one. Probably should've been later, but gacha tokens are definitely a cool concept but not cool to deal with.)

(Which is also why I gave him a dud divine skill.)

(I swear every time I stare at Manifest Destiny docs I'm thinking to myself 'why did I decide to write gamer fics this is so stupid.' and continue to write anyways, even if it takes 2 weeks for 4k mega mediocre words to be written.)

[Every time I quickly skim over every chapter I'm uploading, I always say to myself 'I could do better.' And that really applies for this chapter because I really should be treating the 6 fragments of the dominoes better. But alas, I'm a shit writer, so all I can say is that I'll probably get better.]

[Man I just scrolled down for this chapter and it's comically short. What have I been doing for the past 2 weeks?!]