Marvel: Ascension

Leonard was still standing there, in the living room, still trying to process everything that was happening.

He had died, reincarnated, had ended up in the marvel universe and had a system with the personality of one of those cartoon characters made for you to hate.

This whole sequence of events happened in less than two hours and it was still difficult to process all that. In one moment, he was a normal teenager in his world, in the next, he was at Marvel and had a system.

With little to do, Leonard just kept messing with the system screen. It was the best he could do now.

Although he still didn't fully understand all of Aegida's functions, he had enough knowledge of manga and novels to see the basics.

First, he saw the home panel once again, just because yes. But then he saw something that caught his attention.

[ Skills: ]

[ The path that opens ]

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Where before there was nothing, now he had a new ability when a few minutes before he saw that he had none.

It was strange and didn't seem to make sense. He wanted to be able to see the description and better understand that new skill, but he didn't know how to do it and was still afraid to touch the screen after being electrocuted earlier.

But this doubt did not persist for a short time when the thing he wanted to see appeared without him needing to do anything.

The screen blinked for a moment when the description of his new ability appeared before him.

[ The path that opens: the chosen one creates his own journey and only he has power over himself and his decisions. No force in existence, apart from their own creators, can interfere with your journey and only you decide what happens to your destiny.

Effects: protection against soul reading, soul manipulation, past or future reading, possession and any other form of manipulation of the chosen one's destiny ]

Leonard read the description carefully, his eyes widening when he understood the full extent of the ability.

In short, it was a protection against any form of manipulation that could or would be done against him. It was as if an invisible and impenetrable shield was protecting his soul against any manipulative external force.

It was really impressive, but why didn't he see the skill the first time he opened the screen? He would probably never get the answer, but this doubt would not abandon him so soon.

Wanting to clear his head of these thoughts, Leonard decided to turn his attention to something else.

The store.

Even though he had no money, or Libert as Égida called him, nothing prevented him from seeing what he had in place. Accessing the store was not difficult, it was simply pressing the Libert icon on the home screen.

The store itself was not very complex. It was divided into two sections: items and skills.

In the items they had the simplest things like food, clothes, appliances, or things that seemed to have come out of a fantasy book such as mystical artifacts, enchanted armor or even technologies that seemed from the 2001 century.

In the skills they had powers, in the most summarized and simple way possible. Although they were not the powers he expected. He imagined things like pyrokinesis, invisibility, telepathy, the simple things of anime and comics.

Some of the things he saw there were simply surreal.

[ Blood wrath: a sword forged with the blood of enemies and enchanted by a master blacksmith in mystical arts. The sword requires blood and death in every battle, the blood of the enemies only makes it thirstier and its power only grows with each death.

Effects: for each enemy mowered by the sword, its cutting power and resistance has a permanent increase of 5% ]

[ Price: 25,000 🔻]

[ Eye of light: an ancient technique created by a demon hunter in an ancient time. Made to be able to see through the illusions of evil and always have an advantage against any evil form ]

[ Price: 5,000 🔻]

[ Invisible hands: allows the user to impose will for any object he has already touched before, regardless of size or weight ]

[ Price: 1000 🔻]

[ False echo: allows you to capture the user's essence and use it to create a copy of it that will follow your orders and commands ]

[ Price: 350 🔻]

There were also many other things that Leonard, but mentioning them all would take too long and they weren't even half of the things I had in the store.

Leonard kept fiddling with the screen and the store for some more time, but didn't find anything very interesting or that held his attention, so he dismissed the screen and let out a sigh.

Something that was bothering him until now, a headache he was feeling since he took the other Leonard's body, were the memories of the old Leonard.

Even having the same name and the same appearance, they still in essence, body and soul, two different people with different lives. They had lived different lives and as such, they had different memories.

To be very honest, there was a part of Leonard that didn't want to absorb his counterpart's memories. Whether because he felt that he would be invading someone's privacy without authorization, he was also afraid of what would happen to him after seeing those memories.

He was afraid of losing himself in memories and emotions that were not his, of losing himself in the middle of a life he had never lived and after that not knowing who he was anymore.

It would be his 16 years of life against the 16 years of life of the other Leonard. As simple as it may seem, it was much deeper than it seemed.

In the end, he decided to absorb the memories of the old Leonard. Even with all his doubts and concerns, it was something he would have to do sooner or later.

He had taken someone else's body. One hour he would come across the acquaintances of the old Leonard: family, friends, neighbors, people who knew him well enough to see if he had something.

For example, he forgot overnight the names he knew. And pretending to be amnesia wouldn't work, in fact, it almost never works.

So Leonard closed and let the memories run wild, doing his best to process them all.

Former Leonard's life was not as complex as he thought it would be. In fact, the lives of both were very similar.

Leonard Muller, son of Isabel and Fred Muller, born on February 6, 2001.

Your life was quiet, so to speak. His father, a renowned doctor known for never letting anyone die in his operations, earned well and supported the family while his mother took care of the house.

His life was in a few words, very quiet. Kind and understanding parents, a simple and quiet life, family and friends who supported him, everything a young man of his age could ask for.

But everything changed the day his days decided to spend the holidays in a different place than usual. Sokovia to be exact.

At first, it didn't seem like a big deal. It was a quiet place, kind of isolated but cozy, with beautiful landscapes and places worth visiting. Even though he was surprised by the idea at first, Leonard just accepted it.

Funny that if he knew what was going to happen in that place, he would never have agreed to go and would have tried to convince his parents to change his mind.

The first 3 days in Sokovia were normal. They walked around the city, talked to the locals and visited several establishments of the place, things that curious tourists would do.

But on the fourth day, everything became strange when an evacuation order was announced in the city, ordering all people present to leave as soon as possible.

Leonard and his parents didn't understand at first, but they began to pack their things and left the hotel where they were as fast as they could, but before they had the chance to leave the city, Sokovia began to fly.

Literally.

As if this wasn't strange and scary enough, what seemed to be an army of robots invaded the city and began to kill everything that walked in front of it.

Leonard's parents included.

He was only 14 years old when he saw his parents killed by what appeared to be laser beams fired by the killing machines.

Without even having time to process his deaths, Leonard had to run through his life while being chased by machines that seemed determined to end his life.

He ran, ran and ran without stopping, tears running down his face while his lungs burned from dying so much. Even trying harder than he could, even being motivated by his natural survival instinct and the hope that he could escape from those robots if he kept running, his body couldn't keep up the pace and he ended up collapsing in an alley, being surrounded by the same robots that chased him.

Right when they were already very close, when all hope abandoned his body and fear took over his spirit, a blue figure ran by, destroyed the robots and took Leonard to the edges of the city, where what seemed to be rescue ships were already positioned.

Without thinking too much, Leonard got into one of these key ships, which soon after took off taking them and everyone on board away from that madness.

When he arrived on firm soil and received due care, all that went through the mind of young Leonard was the scene of his parents' death, the sinister expressions of the machines that chased him and the blue figure that had saved his life.

And in the midst of all this storm of thoughts and emotions, a question haunted Leonard's mind:

"Why did that happen? "

He only found out months later that Tony Stark was responsible for all that. Or rather, the machine he created.

Ultron as Stark called it, was an artificial intelligence created with the aim of protecting humanity, but apparently he had developed consciousness and decided that humans should no longer exist, leading to every situation in Sokovia.

Stark... that was a name that Leonard began to hate with all his might after that day. In his head, Stark had been responsible for the death of his parents and the destruction of Sokovia, which was not a lie.

After the incident, Leonard was forced to live with his aunt who also lived in New York, Sabrina, with her becoming his legal caregiver.

Sabrina was a police officer, a strong and determined woman, who decided to take care of the young man after the tragedy that happened to her family.

And that was 2 years ago. Now 16 years old Leonard faced a mild degree of depression, recurring nightmares involving the events of Sokovia, anxiety problems, panic attacks whenever someone mentioned what happened in Sokovia and post-traumatic disorder.

Absorbing all those memories and emotions, feeling them mix with their original memories and putting them all together in one, Leonard could only say that the other Leonard did not have an easy life.

As an MCU fan, he acknowledged the events of the Age of Ultron movie and silently thanked the late Mercury for saving his life.

Seeing and feeling all that mass of negativity and depression was not easy, but it was something that had to be done. Those memories were his, and he would have to assimilate them sooner or later.

In the end, Leonard just sighed as he felt as if a new weight had been put on his shoulders.

"You really didn't have an easy life, did you, partner? " He murmured to himself, trying to see if there were still remnants of old Leonard inside him.

When he didn't receive an answer, Leoanard just sighed again.

" Sorry " He whispered with a heavy voice " You're probably dead now that I've taken over your body, you must have already met your parents at that time and you're probably already in a better place, but I don't think that makes it worse that someone else has possessed your body " He whispered with guilt.

That was not a junction of souls or their soul reincarnating in another universe, it was possession. He knew that. He had taken the body of his variant of this universe, and he had probably died for this process to occur flawlessly.

That is, he had indirectly killed someone else. Even if it had been against his will, he had still done it.

"But know that I will do things the right way. You can rest in peace, because even if you don't trust me now, know that I don't wish any to you or those who were close to you " He said getting up and going to the room.

After this speech, he felt his soul lighter. Perhaps the last remnant of the soul of ancient Leonard abandoning his body or perhaps a part of the guilt he felt leaving. He would never have the right answer.

But he didn't care now either. As soon as he entered the room, he threw himself on the bed and closed his eyes.

Even though it was still morning, too many things had happened for him to process and now he needed to rest.