The next instant, Life Crystal felt nauseous and as if his mind was breaking down.
He had a mental breakdown, screaming so loud that blood started to ooze out of his own ears.
Pride Crystal smirked. "It's just as I expected... So! This must be enough for all of us! Hehe."
The next instant, the ground was restored back to its previous state.
All of them were back to their original positions, as if time itself had reversed.
Everyone's gaze shifted past Time Crystal.
He shook his head. "No! I didn't do a thing, I swear, something else did that!"
Pride Crystal laughed heartily. "It's that thing I told you about, the one you mustn't know! The one who reset all of us."
Leader Slime asked, "If he did that, why did he interfere and save us? Does he just want entertainment? I don't understand this at all!"
King stroked his chin and smiled gently. "I see... I figured it out!"
Fate Guy thought, WHAT! THAT QUICK? IMPOSSIBLE, HOW CAN HE FIGURE SOMETHING OUT THAT FAST?!
All the other aliens were pondering, until the silence was broken by Blue Guy. "If you're that confident, tell us all about your findings. Hehe, who knows, you might be wrong!"
King grinned widely. "Oh! Alright. It's just that if Life Crystal had interacted with us, his erased memories would have been affected. So to avoid that from occurring, the mysterious person saved us! Hehe."
Pride Crystal clapped his hands. "Excellent! King, I appreciate that."
Fate Guy frowned. If it was Lucan, it would make sense! But how did this guy figure it out...
Child Guy smirked. "You have all forgotten, his species is closely related to that of humans! And as you all are aware, humans are one of the top-tier species when it comes to intelligence!"
Pride Crystal coughed to interrupt the conversation. "Alright, enough yapping! Now, do you all know this was all just part of my plan? And hehe, the interesting thing is, even I am a part of the plan!"
All of them quieted down as they recalled his crushing powers!
He spoke: "King has great leadership and intelligence... Fate Guy has the best loyalty and determination I have ever seen... Blue Guy has the greatest potential I have ever seen... And I have the greatest strength among us! Imagine, if each of us were great leaders like King, extremely loyal like Fate Guy, and had amazing potential like Blue Guy and strength like mine! How would it be?"
All of them replied in unison, "It would be awesome, sir!"
Pride Crystal sighed. "Stop it! That was just to humble yourself. Pride is not just boasting and showing off—hehe, at least with the exception of the Lord himself! It's about being true to one's own self, listening to, and acting as per the wishes craved by your inner heart. What I am trying to say is, we are all going to learn the best skills from each other and collectively become stronger, as it will be required... later! Now, before all that, our final mission for now: go and recruit our crystal members! King, you are our leader; Blue Guy, you are our brain; Fate Guy, you will be the main fighter assisting me... Alright, King! We're all awaiting your order!"
King was stunned to see this, and the same shock was present on the faces of both Fate Guy and Blue Guy.
He asked, "But..."
Pride Crystal smiled warmly at him. "As I've told you! Hahaha, my purpose is over, and I only came back to restore that purpose. As the Lord regains himself, I will return to my original timeline and perish as I truly had... Hehe!"
King walked over and patted his shoulder. "Pride... we need you! The whole cosmos needs you, don't make hasty decisions. There must be a way for you to survive!"
Blue Guy also grinned. "For real, I will research it! Whatever it takes, I'll find a way for you, Pride!"
Fate Guy snorted. "I will never give up on you, Pride! Whatever happens, I will give my all and do anything to save you. But... you're only my second priority after Lucan! You have boundaries, alright? Hmph!"
Seeing all of them speaking like this, a flicker of hope sparked in his heart. You guys... damn! I thought I was the most hated person ever!
King saluted. "You were... but once we knew your true face, we realized that you are actually the GOAT!"
All of them bowed to show their respect to Pride.
He muttered, "This is true pride... Lord! I wish you could see this. Getting respect due to fear is forced pride, but getting respected for who you actually are is real pride! Hahaha..."
After a long, deep planning session, the newly formed organization flew through the skies toward Fate's domain.
Cosmos, who was watching all of this secretly, smiled. Pride... unlike them, I won't save you, but you shouldn't die. You are just too entertaining... hehe.
Suddenly, he felt cold water splashing over his face.
Lucan was standing there, frowning deeply at him.
He realized he was back on Earth, disguised as a human.
He said, "Good morning, Lucan!"
Lucan replied, "What the fuck do you mean, 'good morning'?! How did you escape from there, and how dare you sleep here?!"
Cosmos smirked. "Oh! Try attacking me!"
He thought, He doesn't even know about cosmic energy! Huh, I could obliterate his entire multiverse with a single thought! Even more... hehe... but! I freaking disabled my powers; I must either turn back to my original form to use them. Damn!
Suddenly, a figure appeared beside Lucan, and a voice spoke, "Luc! May I know what you were trying to do? You were going to torture him! How cruel!"
Cosmos cried out, "Yes! He said he would peel off my nails and pierce my skin with sharp needles! He would burn me alive! And..."
Lucan's face turned pale as he thought, What the heck! I don't even know about half of these tortures! At most, I would have locked him up for a couple of hours... Damn, now Lana is going to...
A hand appeared over his shoulder. "Luc! I thought you promised to be kind and good... We need to talk!"
He frowned at Cosmos, who was making a funny face with his tongue sticking out and his nose enlarged.
He yelled, "LOOK! HE'S JOKING RIGHT NOW!"
When she saw Cosmos, he was trembling in fear with tears rolling down his cheeks.
He sniffled, "I'm sorry! Please don't kill me... it would hurt me a lot!"
Lucan gasped, "Who the heck are you?"
Before he could even react, she pulled him away, saying, "Rest easy, I know how to correct this bastard! Luc, looks like last time wasn't enough, hehe."
Lucan stared at Cosmos. "Hehe, one day, I'm really going to do all those tortures on you! Just wait!"
Cosmos smirked. Oh, we'll see!
After they left, Cosmos tried to go back to sleep, but only one face repeatedly appeared in his mind. He even lost track of time gazing at others through his endless eyes.
It was Lana's face.
He hugged a pillow tightly. Oh my god! Wait, I am a god! Oh my me, I should somehow make her love me. I wanna love too... I actually like her! Lana, wow! What a beautiful soul and beautiful looks... She's the perfect woman of my dreams! The romance genre is the best in fiction, damn! I hate a few parts of the world... I let a lot of lovers reset and die! King and Celestia... Slime and his ocean... and a lot more. I am going to just reset the reset a bit, making all couples stay the same as they were! Alive! Hehe, of course, they have to pass through certain other hurdles, where I will test their love... If they pass, happy ending! Or else, sad ending! Hahaha.
He stood up and walked over to the door. As he opened it, he saw Lana scolding Lucan.
He laughed silently. Yes! Now she's going to hate him and love me! Perfect!
But to his strange surprise, after a little while, both of them were actually hugging each other and crying tears of joy.
Lucan said, "Forgive me! Damn... but I swear I didn't say any of those things..."
She shook her head. "No, you forgive me. I blindly trusted that idiot! Ugh, I hate him so much."
The last sentence echoed throughout his mind "Wait... how do they not hate each other? Weren't they just fighting? Oh no..."