The Rise Of A Porter

"Odin, Take the humans... away... this place is not... safe for them anymore." Shiva urged his long time friend to do a last favour for him. 

Odin nodded and commanded the gods to get the humans out of there why Arnold's army held the Primordial back. However, it wasn't going to be an easy task. Since Shiva had created the universe, he commanded absolute power within it. 

It was because of that power, Shiva was able to inject every molecule of mana ever created right into Arnold. This included the vast mana reserves the gods had. Most of the humans had already lost all of their mana permanently and hence couldn't use their skills and abilities anymore. Making them a liability.

Not only that, merely being around Arnold, who had become the embodiment of the universe himself, they were being put in a terribly dangerous situation.

Not because Arnold was going to harm them, but because the mana swirling around him was untamed and hence could cause an explosion at least a million times stronger than the strongest supernova explosion ever recorded. 

"Arnold..." Nina mumbled when she saw her husband squirming in pain as mana was rapid being forced into his body.

"Your man will be fine, just go!" Hera urged her before pushing all of them back under the world tree's protection. 

On the other side of the battlefield, Johnny was having an existential crisis. He knew it very well that he had fucked up big time and no one was ever going to forgive him for what he did to Nicole.

Initially, he thought he was making the correct decision by supporting Zeus, but after seeing Arnold and the Primordial... he knew no god would ever compare to those two. He was a fool to ever go against Arnold, someone whom he once referred to as his younger brother...

"I need to redeem myself. Even if it costs me my life." He mumbled to himself, "I... am sorry." 

Unlike the rest of the humans, Johnny was now a demigod. Hence, his mana reserves didn't immediately evaporate like them. Even so, they were rapidly decreasing. It was only a moment of time before he turned back to being a powerless human, like the rest of them. 

Without sparing a second thought regarding his life, Johnny rushed through the retreating crowd. He caught a lot of familiar faces looking at him, but he couldn't bring himself to look them in the eye. Hopefully, at least in his death, he would have to courage to once again look at them and hope to see a friend looking back at him. 

With a couple of gigantic leaps, he reached the place where Hercules, Talos, Tiamut and the rest of them were trying their best to hold the primordial back till Arnold got back to his feet. Using Talos' shoulder as a foothold, he jumped above them and slammed his hands straight down at the primordial.

Primordial was shocked looking at the tenacity of a mere insect. The primordial wasn't hurt physically, but his ego had suffered a lot. 

"You BASTARDS!" 

He out an ear-piercing screech, loud enough to fuck up anyone's insides. Even Arnold's undead summons were having trouble staying on their feet, as for Johnny, he immediately collapsed right in front of the Primordial with no one there to help him out. 

His eyes were bleeding, much like his nose and ears. But it was just the beginning. As soon as the Primordial was free from the grasp of Arnold's summons, he wrapped one of his tentacles around Johnny's neck, lifting him in the air. 

"You insects are the most tenacious species I have ever seen. For that, I applaud you." The Primordial snarled but the next moment gave Johnny a courteous bow, "But now you fuckers are getting on my nerves!"

Suddenly, four more tentacles grabbed onto all of Johnny's limbs and began trying to tear them apart. However, the next moment Johnny fell to the ground with a thud. The Primordial's tentacles were still attached to his limbs but they were no longer attached to the Primordial. 

"You are not the one who gets to decide his fate..." Arnold's cold voice echoed throughout the universe as he himself had become the embodiment of one, "But I have already written your fate with your own blood."

Everyone suddenly turned towards where Arnold was and was left... mesmerised. Every single piece of equipment he had on him laid on the ground, shattered to bits. But it didn't matter anymore, for mana had itself become his armour, his weapon and his soul. 

His body was completely shrouded in a luminescent white glow. His skin, his hair, his eyes, along with every single part of his body was emitting the same whitish glow which was in complete contrast to how the primordial looked like. 

Upon seeing the two of them on the battlefield, one would think a classic showdown between the good and the bad was about to take place. And they wouldn't have been far from true. 

"Look at the bug, acting all high and mighty just because he got a bit bigger. Kekeke." The primordial laughed as his limbs regenerated, and formed a couple of more clones of himself, "I'll make sure to kill you and assimilate you into myself. But enough talking, Let's end this once and-"

Everything happened faster than the speed of light itself. Arnold merely took a step but ended in front of the primordial, punching him straight into space. he then grabbed onto the next one and ripped his head apart. 

All of this happened before the primordial's main body could even retaliate in any capacity. 

"Die-" The primordial tried to grab Arnold, but he phased out right in front of his eyes and grabbed the former's neck instead, "How are you... so powerful all of a sudden...?"

"You think mana is the only thing I absorbed?" Arnold said before ripping his arm apart with his bare hands, "For once, I'll agree with you. It's time to end this farce."