The Rise Of A Porter

There was a time in the universe when the gods reigned supreme. There was nothing anyone could have done to them as they travelled throughout the universe without any restraints doing whatever they pleased at the expense of the mortals.

Shiva never indulged in such desires. For he knew, there were stronger beings than them hiding in the darkness of the universe. He referred to these creatures as 'outers'. Being from another universe that existed before anything in their own universe did.

Usually, there shouldn't have been a way for the outers to cross over from their universe to someone else's. But somehow, this primordial had done so twice already. Strangely enough, he always appeared in their universe when a being gained supreme strength.

Just like when Shiva did and now it was Arnold's turn. It almost felt as if the Primordial wanted to test their strength and keep them in check so that their power does not become a threat to his universe. If he deemed them a threat, his job was to annihilate them and destroy their universe.

The only thing was that Shiva was supposed to be the first god of the universe. But he vividly remembered killing 'gods' in his thirst for revenge. Turns out, the godly being that he killed were in fact not gods, but the Primordial's lackeys whom he had brought along to take care of their universe billions of years ago.

With his army gone, the primordial had no choice but to put up a friendly face and then use Shiva's lack of knowledge in his favour. However, it seemed he had overestimated what Shiva could do back then.

Last time, he tested Shiva who couldn't even put a scratch on him. Thus the primordial gave him a bullshit quest of making the perfect universe and left, thinking their universe would now never feel threatened by some other universe.

Since the Primordial was a being of higher existence, Shiva foolishly believed his words and agreed to make a perfect universe and in its pursuit, ended up destroying the universe countless times.

But this time, it was different. Arnold was nothing like Shiva when it came to detecting BS. The primordial couldn't fool him, but judging by his looks, it didn't appear that he had any intention of letting the universe be unharmed anymore. Especially these humans who seem to break their limits time and time again.

Arnold was fighting the outer with all his might. By abusing the non-existent cooldowns of his skills, he was making quick work of the primordial and his doppelgangers. Shiva was helping his former vassal out in any way he could, let it be usual support or full-on assault on the outer being.

However, it wasn't like the battle was one-sided. On the surface, it might have seemed like Arnold was winning the fight, but the fight was stuck at a stalemate.

"Oh, you managed to protect your heart. Impressive." The primordial laughed while Arnold rubbed his chest, "You are not half bad. I tell you what, join us and I'll make sure you and your loved ones on the planet live on without any issues."

"You really take me as a fool, don't you?" Arnold scoffed and got back to his feet, "If your goal is to destroy the universe, how the fuck are you planning to keep Earth unharmed? Even before that, your job is to kill me, isn't it? Then why the fuck do you think I'll side with you?"

"Hm... I just gave you an opportunity to do something no one ever has before, but it doesn't seem like you're someone who follows orders. Tch, what a waste of potential." The primordial shook his head, "Fine, let's do it your way then."

All of them locked eyes with each other, at least Arnold did considering that the outer did not have any visible 'eyes'. A moment later, they clashed again. Sparks were sent flying whenever their attacks collided with each other.

Three of them managed to swarm Arnold with the intention of beating him to a pulp. But instead, they fell right into the latter's trap. Arnold grabbed their arms and ripped them off with ease. The primordial could easily regenerate them, however, before he could do so, Arnold immediately sealed his wounds using lava elemental control.

"You bastard! How did you know-"

Before the doppelganger could even complete, Arnold sliced his head off before doing the same thing again. However, he wasn't dead yet. Arnold then proceeded to wrap his mechanical fist with lava, and ripped through the head, messing up the insides in the process.

He was doing all this to the doppelganger and yet the Primordial's real body was suffering as well. The primordial had no idea how did the mortal realise lava was his weakness.

However, Shiva wasn't doing well. The more he supported Arnold, the faster he was depleting his life force. It was only a matter of time before he collapsed.

'Just a bit longer...' Shiva reminded himself, 'I have to see this to the end...'

However, mere thoughts weren't enough to sustain him and he couldn't hold on anymore. Watching Shiva fall, Arnold kicked the remaining primordials away before rushing to Shiva's side.

"Haha, looks like I am not as strong as I thought I was," Shiva mumbled with a smile.

"Damn it! You are supposed to be the strongest god! Not get back on your feet." Arnold might have said that, but he had seen the future... he knew this was it even if he didn't want it to be.

A moment later, Shiva's body slowly started shrivelling up. His life force was dissipating quicker than Arnold had predicted. If Shiva fell, then he would no longer be able to use his skills continuously without worrying about depleting his own lifeforce.

"It's time... to return..." Shiva said in a weak voice.

As those words came out of his mouth, the domain collapsed, forcing them back on earth. Where the gods, demons, and humans stood side by side. But none of them had expected to see what they did.  Shiva was down and now there weren't one, but two of those terrifying creatures.

"Consider this... a parting gift... from me. Mana spread throughout the universe, shall be yours to command..."

"Stop it!" The primordial roared in rage and rushed toward Arnold as he realised what was happening.

"No, you won't!" Odin yelled back as all of the gods and Arnold's summons lunged to slow the creatures down, if not stop them.