POV Vittorio Serevare
'This is bad.'
I read over the reports that were collected by my spies; in many cases, they were their final messages before going dark. And the news was quite grim. Gallia, Tristain, and Albion have allied, and assassinating any of the leaders in the alliance is nearly impossible. Even if I somehow succeeded, it would be very unlikely to break the alliance unless I assassinated dozens of people.
To make matters worse, those who were colluding with my agents or me have all mysteriously disappeared. It was far too often to be a coincidence, and that left me in a particularly bad position. My agents are getting turned in and executed on a mass scale, and everyone is terrified the so-called Reaper will come for them as well. The Reaper is the name the people have given to the mysterious creature they blame for making all those nobles and other notables disappear.
Then, somehow, as if that wasn't bad enough, the armory of Brimir was looted. The many weapons we had saved for Gandálfr were lost, and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out who or what was responsible. They took everything of slight value from both the armory and the vault, including the secret stash I kept to keep the founders' mirror safe.
'Why must I face such trials at this time?'
I look to the heavens for an answer, but I know I would not receive one.
'I should reach out to Germania and see about mending those old wounds.'
Germania and Romalia have been at odds for over 200 years, and while some of their religious beliefs have strayed from the faith, they would be my best hope for a counterbalance to Gallia's new alliance. In the meantime, I would have to avoid any conflicts with Gallia and their allies so as to avoid a war that we might not be able to win.
'I need to gather more weapons. Which means I need to send the army into the desert to claim more from the Elves. They have been quiet lately, so perhaps this is for the best; we can know what they have been planning and seize the holy weapons that might be needed soon.'
"Julio," I order.
"Yes, Your Grace?" Julio responds as he enters the room and kneels.
"I have need of your skills. Gather an army of monsters and creatures and attack the elves. Retrieve any holy weapons in those lands you can and then return alive. The Dragon Knights are left to your command," I order.
"It will be done, Your Grace," Julio replies.
Once he is dismissed, I send my envoys to the various other countries to see if I can influence their actions. The first would be to prevent Tristain's alliance with Germania. They cannot all be allowed to unite like that.
POV Shift Rio
I had been in the Familiar of Zero world for almost half a year, and I was unfortunately no closer to leaving than when I started. Louise was far more magically skilled, and she had attempted to cast World Gate that would feasibly send me home, but I had to scrap that idea as my instincts from Constantine were screaming at me that it was a really bad idea. At first, I couldn't understand why, but that became clear when I understood the principles of the spell.
World Gate costs an immense amount of mana, but it has the ability to open a gate to another universe. The issue with this is that it can very easily be hijacked by basically any dimensional outsider. And I'm not talking about an Imp or some random human mage, though that could happen as well, no, I'm talking about beings on the level of Trigon, Satan, Mephisto, Dormammu, Khorne, and basically anything in between. Most mages who can cast World Gate wouldn't be able to draw in anything too powerful, at most, maybe a middle-ranked demon, but Louise has a massive mana capacity, which complicates things.
As such, I had to try to think of a different method to get home. On the bright side, I was confident that I didn't have to fear missing out on the event of my home universe. Or at least I hope so. I had done several tests, and I was fairly confident that time moved much faster in this universe compared to the MCU. The exact ratio was hard to determine without any access to the MCU, but I estimated it was around a 3-6 times difference. Despite being in this world for nearly 6 months, I should actually only be missing for 1-2 months.
Since there was such a time difference, I decided to use that to my advantage and assimilate as many templates as possible.
'I'm sure Tony can keep the world safe while I am gone. Especially with Selene helping out. Right?'
The first to be assimilated was the Xenomorph at around the 4-month mark. It was honestly pretty disappointing for the time investment. I didn't get much in terms of abilities. I could make my blood acid and I had control over even the blood that had already left my body. Not like movement or anything actually useful in combat, but rather, I could choose to make my blood acidic even if it was outside my body. Part of that also made poisons and toxins no longer work on me. My skin is also much more durable. I could now take most calibers to the naked body with no damage. Anything above 50 caliber would still pierce my skin.
I also gained several resistances. Not quite as much as I would have hoped, but it was still very welcome. I was immune to acid of any kind and lethality as far as I can tell. I could survive in the vacuum of space indefinitely, and I was immune to very cold temperatures, but not to all of them. If I were doused in Liquid Nitrogen, I would still get messed up pretty badly, but I could probably survive. I was quite fire-retardant and resistant to high temperatures. Nothing extreme, but I could live in several hundred-degree heat with relatively little issue. I also resolved my sonic weakness, as now I can withstand immensely loud sounds with no issue while still keeping my extremely sharp hearing.
All those resistances were great, and I was glad to have them, but it didn't change the fact that it took four months to assimilate. But I guess I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. Speaking of horses, the template I got after the Xenomorph was Geralt of Rivia. I had almost finished assimilating him, and thankfully, I didn't become sterile. But thanks to Geralt not being human and being fairly different from anything I had gotten before, it had taken nearly two months to assimilate. But I had to admit the gear was worth it.
I got an indestructible Mastercrafted Legendary Wolven Silver Sword and Steel Sword. A Crossbow that was neat but basically useless. I got a full set of Grandmaster Legendary Wolven Armor, which looked really cool but was otherwise fairly useless to me. With the sole exception that it reduced incoming damage from creatures labeled monsters by 90%. That was really strong if I were facing monsters, but that category was a bit limiting, as a lot of things didn't meet the criteria. But the armor was still really good beyond that, just not as good as my other options, unless I am facing enemies not using modern technology, or more specifically, firearms.
But all of that gear paled in comparison to what came next. I have a full set of Witcher Decotions, Bombs, and creations. And it was so strong because while I had limited amounts of it, it would replenish everytime I took a long rest, or in this case, slept/meditated for four hours. And while I'll admit the potions and bombs are not the strongest, they are still a massive toolbox I now have access to. I also learned some Runecraft and, of course, the Signs magic system, but I wouldn't be likely to use them that often. The Signs, that is, they are fine, just not that useful. The Runes could be useful to some extent.
Now, disregarding the gear in terms of abilities, I had gotten some pretty great stuff. The first was the extensive knowledge of monsters and their weaknesses. Then came the Witcher Senses, which made me a master tracker and hunter. Then there was the extreme mastery of the sword and the excellent combat instincts. Another reason Geralt took so long was that I was getting centuries of experience. Then there was the fact that Geralt was definitely superhuman. Though not necessarily in terms of defense, as with most witchers, they are still just as flesh and blood as anyone else. They're just a lot harder to take down unless you target their head. But I at least learned how to roll now. I might be ready for playing Dark Souls, cause heavens know I wouldn't last a day in that hellhole.
But back to my situation. I had a long way to go before I could get home, but for now, I had been working on building an empire of sorts in this world. My idea was that if I had a united continent behind me, I could finish my work more quickly, and if something went wrong, I would have an empire to support me. It would also ensure peace reigned, so I didn't have to get dragged around to solve everyone's issues.
To get such a situation to pass, I had worked hard to get Princess Henrietta and Prince Wales to marry and thus unite their crowns. Then I made contact with the Grand Duke Peter Anhalt-Zerbst, who was the ruler of the lands neighboring Tristain. I wanted to see about placing him on the throne, but all of that fell apart when Germania was invaded by a massive army. This army was led by someone or something calling themselves the Demon Lord. Which I had no recollection of such a thing happening in the original story, but that was exactly what was happening.
But at least my initial plans of cancelling the marriage between Germania and Tristain worked fine. Then the marriage of Henrietta and Wales went off without a hitch, thus uniting the two crowns and making things easier for me. My next move was to convince the newly united thrones to accept an agreement that would have them become vassals of Gallia, who would then formally proclaim the creation of the Roman Empire. Because I just had to rebuild the Roman Empire in another world, let's be honest, who wouldn't? From there, I would have Grand Duke Peter Anhalt-Zerbst also become a vassal under the Empire. Of course, that would definitely cause a war to break out between Germania and the Roman Empire, but I was more than ready to deal with that now that I had stolen all the weapons from Romalia.
I had already started instructing people on how to use modern firearms and was working to build an ammo factory, as this world has already discovered gunpowder and muskets, so ammo isn't as hard, especially with magic making it far easier. The only other threat was Romalia, but I was confident they shouldn't be as great a threat without all of those weapons. The only issue was the new player that came out of nowhere, this Demon Lord.
'I'll need to prepare to deal with them if it comes down to a fight.'
Another player was the elves, but I had nothing to go on, so for now, they would remain where they are. With any luck, they would spark another conflict with Romalia, making them both easy pickings.
'Hmm, I might need to take a trip to the Sahara. They might have some clues as to how I get home.'