Story Doctor Doom's Isekai Conquest

[Birdsie]

DOCTOR DOOM'S
Isekai Conquest
​

Table of Contents

Prologue: "Oh."
Part 1 - Throne Room Raid
Part 2 - Courtyard Fight
Part 3 - Courtyard Round #2
Part 4 - Victor Von Doom... Dead?!

Chapter 1: Doctor Doom In Another World
Part 1 - Waking Up
Part 2 - Researching This New World
Part 3 - Imparting Education Upon These Hopeless Children
Part 4 - Victor Versus Goblins

 

[Birdsie]

Prologue
"Oh."​

Part 1 - Throne Room Raid
Part 2 - Courtyard Fight
Part 3 - Courtyard Round #2
Part 4 - Victor Von Doom... Dead?!

Part 1

The throne room gates hit the floor, as Thor, Mister Fantastic, Human Torch, and Black Panther came through. They were followed by the red-golden Iron-Man, floating a meter above the ground, his propulsion system charring my pristine carpet.

I doubt he will pay the bill, but the metal from his armor and the blood from his veins may suffice.

The windows broke open, as S.H.I.E.L.D. troops ziplined into the throne room, equipped with assault rifles. Two of them had grenade launchers attached, and one had a contraption similar to a flamethrower but attached instead to a tank of gluey foam that could bind targets in place.

In the corner of my vision, I saw a gate in space opening. A unit of S.H.I.E.L.D. squaddies came through, aiming their weapons at me. They were soon followed by Rogers and Fury. The latter stood in the back, protected by the former's adamantium buckler.

A short divination spell revealed to me that all of Latveria was being invaded. The US military, as well as the armies of surrounding countries, were present in my land. Fortunately, my robots and soldiers were keeping the guests aptly entertained and kept them from entering.

How annoying.

Stark aimed his lit-up palms at me as he ordered, "Surrender. You know you can't win, Doom." The muon charge in his repulsors kept building. Should he release the attack, I might feel a tickle.

My eyes returned to Stark, and I kept my arms folded as I retorted, "Doom does not surrender."

The Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and a contingent of S.H.I.E.L.D. forces and several armies were here, to my knowledge. The gates suggested Strange was helping them, or at least some other sorcerer.

They can invite the X-Men in here as well for all I care. Nothing will change my answer. I do not surrender.

Another gate opened behind me, far away enough as to not warrant an immediate response. The footsteps already told me that green abomination came here, and I was certain Strange himself floated through after him.

"You think this means anything? You've encroached upon Latverian soil, Stark. You are, and your friends, at my mercy," I spoke matter-of-frankly, letting my arms drop as I approached my throne to sit down.

"Your actions today violated international law," said Captain America. "We are here to arrest you. I'll give you one chance before we use lethal force."

"Is that so?" I asked, not stopping as I sat down. "But you should know, Rogers, that international law does not matter to Doom. I am the law."

Upon my response, the ceiling opened to reveal a coil of gray metal. Electricity arced around it then shot out at everyone except me. The squaddies of S.H.I.E.L.D. grunted as they dropped to the ground like puppets whose strings had been cut, as did Pym and Van Dyne - their diminutive size serving them crudely - and a number of others I didn't bother paying attention to.

Only a few of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four could stand.

Thor threw his hammer at the stunner device, smashing it to pieces and disabling it.

With their release from the fulmination, Stark and Rogers prepared to fight me. Iron-Man took to the air, charging up his repulsors while Captain America ran toward me.

Human Torch hurled a flaming ball at me without thinking.

I didn't bother raising my arm. With nary a thought, a barrier repelled his attack and redirected it at Rogers who blocked it with his shield. A great explosion occurred, and my carpet was, once again, among the casualties.

Stark fired off a barrage of repulsor blasts, which dispersed as they came close to my defensive barrier.

I sighed and stood up. At this point, I began to understand these pests forgot who I am. They must be reminded, lest they keep bothering Doom.

Strange attacked, swinging his arm to create a stream of orange power shaped like tendrils, which coiled toward me. This did prompt a response.

A green aura manifested around my hand. The raw magical energy in my palm met with his as a concentrated beam and the two ate at each other for less than three seconds until I overwhelmed him. The beam struck Strange in the abdomen, taking him out, at least for the moment.

Hulk attempted to charge at me but was met with a similar blast of magic, which sent him flying across the throne room and through the stone wall.

I changed the nature of the magic in my palm, shaping and shifting it, then, I directed an arrangement of magical filaments at the Human Torch. Storm's defenses were lackluster, as expected of a reckless fool. The filaments wrapped around his body and created a fireproof cocoon, each strand of magic easily denser than its equivalent in steel.

Hawkeye fired his arrows ineffectually while Black Panther pounced at me. I sent the latter away with a telekinetic pull, directing him in the general direction of the rest of the Avengers like a bowling ball.

Successfully, as his impact with Stark was enough to throw him out of the air. The two fell on Hawkeye and pinned him under the collective weight of their armor. Amusing, as expected of the team of clowns.

Reed was already unconscious from the stunner device, as was Nick Fury. Mortal men couldn't stand against such a device, and Reed's mutation offered little in the way of insulation or conduction.

So much for being 'Fantastic.'

Captain America threw his pathetic shield, which I caught. I poured my magic into bodily celerity and returned it to him, at fivefold the force. It smacked into his chest, knocking him to the ground.

T'Challa and Stark were up not much later, but Hawkeye kept lying down, clearly hurt after impacting with two men clad in heavy suits.

Not having to divert my attention anymore, I turned a smidge of it to them. Green bubbles emerged from thin air, rooting the two to their spots.

"This is what trying to arrest Doom results in," I said dryly, loud enough so they could hear through the forcefields. "Doom does not surrender, and Doom does not lose. Now, I should decide your punishment. My furniture suffered heavy losses at your expense."

"Is this a game to you?!" Rogers yelled, slowly getting up. I spared him a glance.

I approached him slowly. "Of course not. If it were, you'd be getting off easy. This is an attack on Latverian sovereignty. You have provoked a war and attempted to assassinate me. This is grounds for execution."

As I neared, Captain America was on his knees already. He tried to raise his shield. Futile, as my steel boot came faster and greeted the super-soldier's face with a smack that resounded through the hall. He was sent sprawling and hit a wall.

"NO!" Stark yelled, trying to destroy the forcefield that kept him contained.

I walked over Rogers' figure. His body was tensed and kept twitching. His arms helped him support his torso, which in turn allowed him to look up at me. He forced his muscles to work with an effort of will, despite them physically refusing to bend.

I'll give him this much: He has willpower to match my own.

I picked him up with one hand, by the head. With my strength and the augmentation my suit provided, Rogers' body felt light. Like a big doll from styrofoam.

A green charge of witchcraft built up in my other hand. Its release spelled certain death.

That's when I heard loud footsteps, as something impacted into me from the side at an angle that saved Captain America from a tragic end. As I realized what hit me, I was already flying out of the fourteenth story of my castle, with the Hulk on top of me.

"Hulk! Protect! FRIENDS!" With each word, the beast slammed his fist into my face. The impacts were mitigated by my faceplate, but the force he mustered managed to hurt a bit.

I responded by flexing my legs together, then kicking him away into the second floor, as I activated my magic to form a lens of wind underneath me, slowing my descent.

By the time I came to a stop, I was meters away from the ground. I soon built up a counter-momentum and flew up into the sky, cape billowing behind me.

Before I reached any meaningful height, the irksome green monster leaped out of the hole he left behind in my castle, aimed perfectly at me. As I was diverting too much attention to flight, I came unprepared for impact.

"--You!" was the only word I could speak before he crashed into me.

Part 2

The collision sent the two of us through a stunning number of houses. Latverian citizens gasped in shock as their monarch went through the walls of their communes, battling a green monstrosity mid-flight.

In the conclusion of our trajectory, we reached a small courtyard near the center of Doomstadt, slightly south of the castle.

There were some people around us. They chose to keep their distance and run than approach; good choice.

I stood up before the Hulk could even start getting up.

"You've pestered me enough today, you rabid animal. I will put you down for this," I proclaimed, as my palms and eyes glowed a deep green. By the time the Hulk stood, he received a pair of piercing blasts comparable to being hit with a small bullet that had the weight of a car and flew at Mach five.

Even his ultradurable skin was pierced, two holes forming on the upper-right side of his chest, burnt like deep ashtrays by my attack.

I followed it with another shot, aimed at the center of Hulk's mass. His left lung was pierced, and the shot came out on the other side, unimpeded by bone. This damage was enough to stun even him.

It was now or never. If I didn't deliver the killing blow, the result of his rage risked to swallow the city. I did not hesitate.

The fourth shot went out at the Hulk, but I was surprised when a ring-shaped tear in space opened to protect him. The green ray went off into a black void, and I was surprised when I could see the twinkling of stars behind it. The portal into space closed, and I looked behind me.

The rest of the Avengers were here, along with the Fantastic Four. Doctor Strange was responsible for the portal, of course.

"This ends here, Victor," Richards said.

"I don't think so, Reed," I answered, calling Doombots to my location. "Doom will not fall to you, and neither will Latveria."

I spread my arms out, creating a multi-layered wall between myself and the invaders. They poured attacks at me like jets of water. Fire, lightning, concussive blasts of force, magic, arrows, bullets, a shield, crude punches, and attempts at slashing and puncturing.

Useless.

The Hulk stood up behind me and screamed out into the air. I felt an aura spread across the battlefield, giving me pause. Strange paused as well, looking at the beast. To a mage, the aura was palpable, like a gas of dread filling the air, though I felt no fear from it.

I half-turned to look at the green monster. He absorbed my dark magic and combined it with his anger? I made a second shield, casing myself from both sides. With something this unprecedented, I had to be careful.

Suddenly, a pair of strikes impacted me in the back of the head even despite my shields.

I growled and swatted Ant-Man and the Wasp out of the air, opening a brief hole in the shield to send them to the other side.

On one side, the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and Doctor Strange. On the other side, Hulk. Both sides generated enough force to not allow me much rest. I had to pool my magical power into keeping the shields running.

"Surrender! You're pinned down!" Stark declared through the sounds of warfare, using a loudspeaker built into his armor.

At that moment, a message in my helmet told me the Doombots were about to arrive on location.

"Am I the one pinned down?" I asked rhetorically, which made him look up.

Righteous fire descended upon the invaders. Blasts of simulated semi-magic, energy attacks from the armored suits of my Doombots.

My faithful replicas fought ardently and with remorseless celerity, sending rays, beams, and bolts of energy at their enemies. Meanwhile, they hovered to dodge attacks and formed barriers to block them. They coordinated like a swarm of nanobots, to take out their enemies efficiently.

Despite being outnumbered, they landed some strikes on the Avengers. No longer on the defensive, I opened up the barrier to my right side and released a wide, slow-moving wave of green force across the entire courtyard.

As the wave of force moved, pavement cracked, stones were flung, glass shattered, and rock broke.

Doctor Strange abjured the courtyard and redirected my attack at me with frankly surprising dexterity.

I batted it back at him, layering a second wave on top to double the destructive power. It was like a radiant, sonic storm of destruction roiling across space.

Strange was almost swallowed by it, but he opened up several portals to consume the team and emerge unscathed on the other side of the battlefield, next to the angered Hulk who held his ground when his team reached him.

How annoying.

I dropped the shield and called my Doombots to stand beside me. The enemies stood against me in a line of their own, as everyone took a brief, unwritten recess to gather their thoughts mid-battle.

Part 3

On one side, me and my Doombots. Across from us were the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and Doctor Strange to their aid.

"Will you keep insisting on this childish idiocy?" I asked, folding my arms. "You can't win. I've already beaten you, and you were saved by fluke. This will not end in a way you expect it to..."

The heroes steeled themselves in preparation for another round.

This was more trouble than it was worth. "Doom admits you are a nuisance." My change of tone to a calmer one caught some of them off-guard. "If you leave now, I will overlook this. If not, all of you will die."

"We don't negotiate with--" before Stark could finish his sentence, I fired a wide beam of energy at him, coupled with my Doombots firing to all vectors beside him. Dodging was impossible, and his armor wasn't good enough to stop the attack. Stark was out cold before he could finish.

Doctor Strange quickly ran up to him and took him to safety, while a fight broke out between me, my Doombots, and the rest of the heroes.

Spells were flung, attacks were thrown, arrows fired.

In a moment, Doctor Strange returned and changed tactics to something... I didn't quite expect.

He cast a spell that tore away magic in the area, essentially disabling it. Including his own.

I see. He thought this would stop me, but it's not that easy.

I swapped to using psychic powers, as tearing his spell apart with a counter-magic of my own wasn't worth the time it would take. A grave mistake on my part, as I learned later.

Thor's hammer smashed into my chestplate, and I felt lightning running across its surface. I countered with a punch to his jaw and delivered a payload of psychic despair along with my fist, though it did nothing to slow him down.

Another strike from his hammer, before I anticipated. I was knocked into the ground, but quickly rescued by a Doombot - not that I needed rescuing - which flew into Thor, using its own body as a missile.

I stood up and used telekinesis to lift countless bricks from the ground underneath and sent the projectiles forward indiscriminately.

Iron-Man sprayed out a swarm of micro-missiles from his left arm, which left traces of gray smoke in their wake. The missiles hit the telekinetic projectiles I used, negating them. Stark proceeded to fire repulsor blasts my way, and tired of this fight, I focused my psychic might on his suit and fried its circuitry, noticing it wasn't warded.

His backups kicked in and he took cover behind Rogers, who provided it for him, as a second suit began to fly this direction from the distance. He had to swap, but I wouldn't let him.

I mentally assigned two Doombots to take care of his armor delivery, while I turned my direction to Black Panther, approaching slowly.

He swung, claws trailing, but I caught his hand and squeezed it. He made a low grunt of pain but attacked with his second hand. Before he struck, I kicked him in the shin, causing him to kneel and miss. The tips of his claws merely scratched the surface of my cloak, rather than hit the center of its mass as they would originally.

Vibranium could redirect electricity enough that my in-built energy generator wouldn't do much, but his suit wasn't insulated against psychic influence, like Stark's.

I put my other hand on his head and frayed his mind. His cognitive process was peeled layer by layer like a potato, revealing the cogwheels behind it. I could stop their motion to knock him unconscious, or take control but risk him taking it back.

I went for the former and Black Panther slumped to the ground in a coma. With the amount of power I used, even his structurally-enhanced body would need a few minutes to re-awaken.

A truck - a truck in here? - was thrown at me by the Hulk. I reached out with my arms and stopped it, but he jumped onto the other side and drove it into me like an oversized, blunt nail. My limbs splayed under the pressure, I was pinned to the ground.

I generated as much psychic force as I could and sent an omnidirectional telekinetic blast out. It created a sonic boom with the amount of power used, stunning everyone nearby as if a grand explosion took place.

The truck and its green passenger flew into the sky like the Latverian space program.

For some reason, Doctor Strange stopped generating the field of anti-magic and flew after him, his red cloak billowing behind him.

I'll let him off, I have bigger concerns.

I looked across the battlefield as my Doombots gained ground on the assailants. The fires of battle were slowly dying down. Thor was down, Hawkeye was being overwhelmed by a group of Doombots, Captain America and Iron-Man barely held their ground, and the rest were about to be downed.

"Reed."

I looked at my rival and he looked at me, through all the chaos.

He elongated his body toward me, coiling through the ground at various vectors. I fired blasts of energy, but he simply created small potholes in his form to let them through to the other side. I used a pulse instead, damaging him, but he was close to me.

Mister Fantastic wrapped around me like a snake, but it was meaningless. I freed my arm and made a motion for his neck, grasping it and sending electricity running through it.

He struggled, kicking against me with his legs, making them more solid than human limbs should be.

Useless.

When he was out of it, I threw him forward like a ragdoll and prepared to deliver the last blow. A curse of death.

Before I started charging up magic, however, I saw a shadow on the ground, blotting out the sun.

I looked up and the last thing I saw was a truck, its silhouette glowing a bright, magical iridescent lime.

I was crushed.

Part 4

Everyone stood close, watching the destruction. Even the Doombots paused, their programming giving them conflicting messages on what to do in this situation.

The rubble from the truck was spread across the courtyard, but its biggest mass was still in place, glowing an ectoplasmic green.

"Is he..." Tony trailed off.

A ring opened. Bruce and Doctor Strange stepped out, before it closed. "I caught up to the truck and cast a spell so he couldn't detect it, then sent it back at him," Strange clarified.

People stood silently, thinking of what would happen now.

They were hoping to arrest Doctor Doom, and they knew it was possible.

But killing him?

It was so sudden, so unexpected.

Mister Fantastic assembled his body next to the rest of the heroes.

"It's... over..." he said, not noticing he was shell-shocked. A part of him was even... sorry. A part of him regretted it had to end this way. A small part of him wanted to apologize to Victor.

Invisible Woman watched the scene uncomfortably, a trail of blood going from her head into her closed left eye. "Victor's dead," she said, her tone utterly disbelieving.

Tony and Steve were among the first to gather their thoughts and turn to the Doombots. Their programming seemed to direct them towards the wreckage, to rescue their master. They pulled it apart, using their internal kinetic energy generators to simulate telekinesis, and to everyone's surprise...

I crawled my way to life, gasping for air. My brows were furrowed underneath in rage. A pit of anger welled up within me, as I yelled, "You will pay! You will..."

I coughed up blood on the inside of my mask before a Doombot helped me stand up. I looked up at them again.

The indignant shame of allowing myself to be hurt in such a way in front of these... these... fools! The shame filled my chest, and it hurt worse than my broken bones or malfunctioning respiratory system.

"You will pay... Curses upon all of you," I declared, "even if in another life, I shall take vengeance! Doom will be back for retribution! No world, no barrier, no force will keep Doom's wrath away! Sevenfold! Sevenfold, will you pay! When I am done--"

Me and the Doombot holding me up were squashed from above by the approach of the Fantasticar, driven/piloted by The Thing. The rocky man held a fast-food cup of cola in his hand, slurping through his straw.

Everyone stared in utter shock.

The Thing burped, as he scratched the back of his neck coyly, saying, "Sorry, I couldn' make it, Reed. I got hungry on the way here, so I passed by a burger joint..."

Everyone stared in utter shock, including the Doombots.

"Anyway, where's Doom? That bastard's been askin' for a good clobberin' for a while now!" The Thing smacked his fist against his hand enthusiastically.

Everyone stared in utter shock. Hulk's body swayed uncomfortably as he fainted.

"... Why are you all staring at me like that?" The Thing looked underneath the Fantasticar. "Oh."

 

[Birdsie]

Chapter 1
Doctor Doom In Another World​

Part 1 - Waking Up
Part 2 - Researching This New World
Part 3 - Imparting Education Upon These Hopeless Children
Part 4 - Victor Versus Goblins

Part 1

When I came to, I was in bed. My vision was blurry, and I could roughly see the outlines of a dark brown room.

My head hurt in all kinds of ways, mostly near the back. Concussive trauma? Hopefully, I lost no neurons. I could restore damaged brains to pristine condition, but returning lost knowledge was trickier.

I stood up from my bed, swaying as my feet took me a few steps to the right against my will. I took the support of some kind of cabinet and waited for vertigo to pass, before continuing. I had to cure my damage, and the fact such wasn't done already by my Doombots meant I was captured by the enemy. I had to get out.

I trudged across the empty, dark room.

More importantly, I had to take vengeance! Those bastards must be tired of living to challenge Victor Von... Doom?

I stared at the mirror opposite of me, next to the door, which was showing a curious optical illusion. I felt the desire to laugh, but I clenched my fists instead and squinted my eyes, craning my neck closer to the mirror and trying to analyze the impossible sight through the wooziness and nausea.

Definitely an illusion. Or a TV.

The 'mirror' showed a man in his early twenties, with close-cropped light brown hair and blue eyes. He was subjectively handsome, with a supple jawline and athletic physique, wearing only brown pants. For some reason, his lips were twisted in an inhuman snarl and complimented by his widened, hateful eyes; which provided a rather macabre expression of undistilled bitterness. He looked like someone took his pet dog and shot it in front of him, before feasting on its corpse. I couldn't fight back the feeling that...

Something creaked, and my head whipped left. I felt a lash of migraine hit me at my rapid movement, but I had to be prepared for whatever came this way, channeling magic into my right palm. I assumed the nausea was serious since I didn't feel the sensation of magic in my arm.

There was a woman in the door now. She asked, "Did you get up? Please, lie down, you're seriously injured."

"Never! Who are you, and who sent you?!" I pointed my finger at her, channeling a bolt of green energy in it, prepared to disintegrate her. For some reason, there wasn't a bolt of energy in it and I didn't feel my mana. The nausea must've been really bad.

"I'm Helen, a nun at the convent here. The gods have sent me."

Gods? Polytheism wasn't popular nowadays. Weird.

I kept my finger pointed at her, and spoke with an intimidating inflection: "Why was I brought here?"

"You took quite a scary-looking fall, sire. One of the children playing in the yard found you at the bottom of the nearby cliff. We took you in here and have been taking care of you ever since," she explained, her hands together.

I swayed, and she instantly twitched, moving in to support me, but I took the wall with my arms. "Stand back!" I barked, stopping her.

"Where is my mask?" I asked.

"Mask?"

"I wear an iron mask on my face. Where is it?" I realized the vertigo made me forget about the rest of my suit. "And the suit I wore with it."

"You are clothed exactly as you were, sans the lack of shirt. I took it off, and it's over there." She pointed at a nearby chair, but I didn't care.

I considered this impossible situation. I was in the possession of a different body.

Did I die?

No. That's impossible. And no one can force me to change bodies, so I must've done it unconsciously when that rock-faced simpleton impacted into me from above. Let's try it again, but in the opposite side. I reach out with my magic and...

What?

I raise my hands and look at them.

Channel magic... Do it...

No matter what I do, I sense no magic within myself.

I begin to panic, but fall back on psychic powers and try to send a telepathic message. When it doesn't work, I try to move the nearby cabinet with telekinesis but it doesn't budge. My psionics are gone as well?!

I growl, which startles... Helen, was it?

Whatever. I'll figure something out. For now, I turn to Helen. "What country are we in?"

"The Kingdom of Re-Estize, sir."

"I see..."

This place was unfamiliar to me. My locational, cultural, and religious geography was as perfect as it could be, down to the ability to name all or nearly all towns in most third world countries. And yet, this place didn't exist as far as my knowledge goes, and its name doesn't fall into the language sphere of any culture I know.

There are several options. An alternate universe, or I went forward in time. The former is the most likely and results in me making the least assumptions, so going by Occam's Razor, I'll stick to it.

I walked over to the bed and lied down, calming my muscles.

Helen looked at me with a mite of surprise at my sudden compliance and care for my own health.

She didn't understand what was going through my head. In reality, I realized that since this is another world, none of my enemies are here, and even if they were, they likely wouldn't recognize me with this body. Since magic and psionics were gone, spiritual changes must have took place as well, so Strange probably couldn't go after me by tracking my resonance or psychic signature.

The only thing that stayed relatively intact was my sharp mind.

In any case, while I planned my moves, I had to keep myself hydrated. Water is nearly always helpful to an injured organism.

"Helen, can you bring me a glass of water?"

I decided to act polite. I was far superior to her, but if I acted that way without tangible power to back it up, she wouldn't comply. For now, Victor von Doom would have to become the simple man 'Victor,' until I regained my might.

"Ah, also, I apologize. I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Victor," I said.

Helen smiled at my sudden change in attitude. From her perspective, I went from aggressive and scared to calm and focused on resting myself.

"Right away, sir Victor," she said, her tranquil smile not leaving her lips for a moment. She bowed lightly in my direction and walked out.

Part 2

"So you don't remember anything?" she asked, a cup of tea in her hand and a half-empty glass of water next to my bed.

"No. I do remember some things. My name, early life, my country... Have you ever heard of Latveria?"

She shook her head. "No. Is it far away from here?"

So, not the future. "Yes. Very. I've become something of a traveler recently."

A world traveler, and today.

"I see. What do you intend to do once you're healed up? You're welcome to stay here at the monastery for as long as you need, Victor," she said, giving me a smile.

"I'll try to find some honest work. What's the nearest town?"

"That would be E-Rantel. We're a kilometer south of Carne Village."

"Interesting. Is the Re-Estize Kingdom ruled by nobles?"

"Yes, two parties of nobles; the Royal and Noble factions. One is with the king, the other against him."

How stupid. The royalty of this country allowed its aristocracy any such thing? Such resistance on a political landscape deserves death. You are the king's servant, not his equal who can think about taking his power. Despotism works better in that regard.

In any case, whoever the king is, I've already decided he has to go. I'll replace him with a puppet and annex the country later. For now, I'll focus my sights on conquering the Baharuth Empire. It is a meritocratic society with much more focus on the military and has a better economy than the Kingdom. It's superior in every respect and has a professional army.

The Theocracy is also a good target from what I've learned so far, but its religiosity and governmental infrastructure were built in a way that makes it inherently difficult to control as with the other two. I suspect foul play – some kind of outlying genius who created the Theocracy maybe a few hundred years ago knew someone like me would come along and decide to do this, so he created a Theocracy that would be difficult to take. Very well – hats off to you, mysterious sovereign. You've forced my hand elsewhere, if only momentarily. The Theocracy will bow in due time, as will all the others.

"I'd like to go get some fresh air," I lied. In reality, I wanted to see the local flora and fauna and compare it to the one in my world.

"Let me help you," she offered. I nodded.

I sat at the bedside, and Helen took my arm and helped me stand up. Her help was small - due to her minuscule strength I suspect - but it is appreciated for what it is.

She helped me move as I lumbered outside in my dizziness, a good part of which was gone now. We walked into a small chapel, with several pews and an altar containing iconography of what she called the 'Four Great Gods.'

Each God represented one of the four classical elements. The Theocracy's religion had two extra gods, called Surshana and Alah Alaf, who stood for Death and Life respectively in addition to the typical Fire, Earth, Water, and Air.

We went outside, where I saw an unpaved courtyard represented by a lack of grass when compared to the verdant-hued fields surrounding the monastery. There were several buildings from sturdy stone bricks, with stained glass windows surrounding us, as well as several others from wood. One such building was connected to the chapel which we've just walked through.

Several children were playing a game, which I think was tag, but with different or additional rules.

I've never cared much for games, anyway.

"Is it always this calm?" I asked.

"Monster attacks have been happening recently, actually," she said, and I quirked a brow.

"Monster attacks?"

"Yes." She gave me an incredulous look. "I thought you'd know. Monsters are magical beasts, and often attack human settlements."

I nodded, accepting the fact as reality. Alternate worlds do not conform to expectations.

Unfortunately, my plan of researching vegetation and animals was spoiled by the fact that none besides grass were in immediate visual range. Grass that, as far as my eyes told me, was normal. Granted, my vision was still a bit blurry.

A young boy approached us with a ball. "Hey, sister, who's the stranger?"

"This is Mister Victor, Eintam. Be nice to him."

"Hello, Victor onii-chan!"

Onii-chan? Isn't that Japanese? Why are they speaking Japanese in conjunction with... Wait.

I turned to Eintam. "Hello, Eintam. How are you?" I said in Arabic.

"Pretty good," he admitted a bit coyly. "How about you, Mister Victor?"

I narrowed my brows, not at him, but at this world. An automatic translation function? Whoever put this place must've been an interesting kind of philanthropist. I shrugged the idea off and continued to speak normally. "Not terrible, my brain damage taken into consideration."

He laughed, a bit befuddled by my words, as if I said something funny. "Brain damage? What's that?"

Seeing us strike up a casual conversation, Helen stepped back, smiling.

"It's what happens when you hit your head on something very hard and your head hurts, and then you might lose memories or feel weird for prolonged periods of time," I explained, in a way a child could understand.

There wasn't much I could do in this monastery, except educating whichever of these children were willing to listen. They would be my future subjects after all, and there's always the one-in-a-billion chance this child might become someone great.

Part 3

It is my fifth day awake at the monastery, and a week total that I have spent here. My wounds have healed. The nausea is gone, and the dizziness is almost gone.

I've decided to stay a few days more, just to be safe, and then I'll head towards E-Rantel to pick up an easy, well-paying job. I'll work until I get enough money to cross safely to the Baharuth Empire, where I intend to study this world's magic.

From there, all I have to do is gather personal power until I can overthrow the Emperor and take his place.

Things can only become easier once I get to a position of authority.

"And that's why changing a single part in a thermodynamic system can cause an alteration in the outflow of kinetic energy. It should be noted that-- I'm sorry Mister Baragar, am I boring you?" I asked, from across the impromptu classroom - a previously empty room that Helen allowed me to use.

The boy shook his head. "I'm sorry, sensei... It's really nice of you to educate us, it's just that... I'm not sure I understand all of this. Can you describe kinetic energy again?"

Helen watched in stunned silence as I educated the children. Her eyebrows bent in slight terror as I called Baragar out.

Without a sigh, I explained, "The kinetic energy of an object is the energy that it possesses due to its motion. It is defined as the work needed to accelerate a body of a given mass from rest to its stated velocity. Having gained this energy during its acceleration, the body maintains this kinetic energy unless its speed changes. The same amount of work is done by the body when decelerating from its current speed to a state of rest. What's not to understand?"

The children gave each other anxious looks.

In retrospect, maybe trying to teach pre-school children middle-school material isn't the best. To be fair, yesterday, our physics tutoring was limited to elementary school material, but I forget these aren't super-geniuses like myself.

My bad.

"Let me describe it in simpler terms," I said, approaching, as I walked up to Eintam's desk. I took the quill he held and showed it to everyone. "This quill is being affected by gravity as I hold it, gravity being the earth's pull of all objects. It's why our feet return to the earth when we jump, instead of flying away. The gravity affecting it fills it with potential energy, which isn't released for as long as I hold it, but when I let it go, the potential energy becomes kinetic energy and..."

I drop the quill onto Eintam's desk from a height. "It starts moving."

The classroom let out an orchestra of sounds and murmurs of understanding.

"Good. Now, which one of you can tell me the value of Pi, down to the fifth digit? The person to do it correctly gets a treat."

I've been doing other things than teaching, of course. I've set up a rudimentary lab behind the chapel, with Helen's permission. Medieval technology, unfortunately. A simple smithing setup, smelter for ores included, but also gathered her herbology tools for alchemy. I used the latter to synthesize pieces of candy out of honey I collected in the nearby woods on a walk yesterday.

"Me!" Eintam raised his hand. Out of all my students, he was the most eager one.

"Go."

"Three-point-one-four-one-five-nine. Easy."

"Very good."

I took a pouch off of my belt and handed him a hexagonal piece of translucent yellow candy. The boy giddily put it in his mouth.

"Let's go through your arithmetics and geometry, now."

Part 4

I wound up staying a ten-day, despite my previous decision. I've made too many good tools to part with them, including the prototype for a stun baton which could work its way through armor and thick clothing. I lacked some key materials for it, but I'd find them or make them through chemical synthesis, eventually.

As far as armaments went, a stun baton like this was lackluster. For now, it didn't have adjustable power settings, and without a proper and true battery, it couldn't even come close to having a 'lethal' setting. At best, I could temporarily paralyze someone by shocking key places for prolonged periods of time. The best thing I could make with my limited supply of time was a chemical battery, which... wasn't bad, I suppose. It being a bit heavy and energy-inefficient would be the only major downside.

I wish I had professional tools so I could create workable devices. A microfusion battery or a suit of multi-shielded power-armor would be nice.

I've also started work on a steam engine. Water was abundant near the monastery, but I didn't think diesel was. Besides, I had no way of detecting it.

I intended to mount the steam engine on a carriage, onto which I would pack my tools. Helen had a wagon, but it wasn't big enough to fit everything on it, and even I wouldn't take away the possessions of someone who showed me kindness.

Speaking of which, the children really took to me, even despite my harsh attitude and stern teaching methods. They appeared to have been ready to jump at any offer of education, and for someone like me to teach them was unspeakably kind to do. On my eighth day here, Helen and the children threw a small party in my name.

"Hey, Victor-sensei, I'm done with the assignment!" Alicia declared proudly, eager to earn her candy.

I approached her desk and peered into her notebook. I've already learned their alphabet from observation. I pointed at the circle, saying, "The circumference is right, but the field value is wrong. Try it like this."

I took her pen - I gave out pens I made, as they were handier than quills - and scribbled a few notations. I handed it back to her and let her take a look.

She nodded. "Oh, I get it now!"

I dropped a piece of candy on her desk. She was close enough to the right answer to satisfy my expectations. Ten days ago, she was half-illiterate and had problems adding two and two.

I walked back to the middle of class, looked at my watch - another thing I made - and said, "Math's over. Let's go with biology now."

The children flipped to another section of their notebooks, as I started saying, "Today, we'll have Darwin's theory of evolution, its basic hypotheses, and how they affect the ecosystem. To begin with, Darwin created this theory after his trip to---"

A bell rang out in the church, and Helen walked down to us, yelling, "Everyone inside!" The children's faces bent in shock and they all packed their items and ran into the church.

I walked up to Helen. "What's going on?"

"Goblins, headed this way," she said, scared and exasperated.

"Don't hide then. They'll find a way in - the only option is to run or fight. I'll be right back."

I ran past her, in the direction of my workshop. I walked in, and outside the window, I could already see the horde. Twelve goblins, five larger 'hobgoblins,' and something huge that reminded me of an ogre. It probably was.

I took my stun baton, and fiddled with the electronics, but lacked several things. Removing the counter system from my watch, modifying it a little bit, and placing it into the baton to provide a rudimentary processor helped, but where would I find a chemical battery?

I ran to the alchemy stand and mixed several, high-electron metals that I prepared previously. I had to work with what I had.

I shone a steam-powered UV ray on the stun baton's circuitry. I needed its photoelectricity levels to test if there were breaks in the wiring, but detected nothing.

Fine, this would have to do.

I fished the pseudo-metal out of the vial and inserted it into the stun baton, pressing the 'ON' button. Its metallic prongs twitched to life with cracks of lightning. I clicked the 'OFF' button and ran towards the supply closet, where I found an old broom. I broke it over my knee, took some sturdy string, and tied the baton to the broom to create something resembling a short spear.

I ran outside, just in time to meet the goblin horde.

As soon as they saw me, they ran, and I was clearly outnumbered, so I ran in the opposite direction. I had to split up their forces.

Running, I held out my hand behind me and chanted, "[Grease]."

A 1st Tier Spell. I've learned it from Helen's dull descriptions of it. As a cleric, she knew several spells of the 1st Tier. Magic in this world appeared to be ruled by these Tiers, and anything above the 6th was considered a myth.

The earth became slippery and the goblins near the front fell down like idiots, smashing their heads against the ground. The ogre fell down on top of them, crushing them underneath his mass.

I stopped in my tracks and moved back, then stabbed the ogre in the head with the stun baton, keeping it in contact with the back of his head for several seconds until I saw smoke emitting from it. That should've given his nervous system in the area a bit of a fry, maybe enough to prevent him from moving.

I ran back in the direction of the church, and a goblin came into my way. I swatted it aside, when another ran at me. I hopped back to dodge a swing of its club, before I kicked it into the wall with disdain, then followed up by jabbing it in the eye with the stun-spear, blinding it and causing it to writhe in pain on the ground.

I thought a non-lethal weapon would be better, as it'd let me capture opponents, but it was more trouble than it was worth in this scenario.

Growling, I kicked the goblin in a sweet spot on the neck, breaking its spine instantly in that area. I ran to the church gates and stood in front of them.

Four hobgoblins approached, attacking me at once.

The first one swung his jagged sword, only to be smacked in the side of his abdomen with electricity. He fell.

The second and third ones stabbed their swords at me at the same time. I stood my ground, holding my spear horizontally then twirling it to parry their attacks and make them stumble. I kicked the one to the right in his genitalia and stabbed the one to the left with my sharpened electric prongs.

They both fell, writhing on the ground, and I hit them both near the necks with my stun-spear, making their movements stop.

The fourth one hesitated, standing in place and considering what to do.

I gave him a mean look, and he shuddered then ran away.

That would be it for goblin attacks, I believe.

Soon after the horde ran out - some of them trying to carry the ogre to no avail before I scared them away - Helen approached me, opening the church door.

"You saved us, Victor!" she said, hugging me with gratitude. There was praise in her voice, an endless amount of thanks described only in emotion.

The children followed her out and hugged my legs, saying words of praise and thanks like, "you saved us, sensei!," or "you're so cool, you were like POW, and they were like AAH!"

I wouldn't allow these peasants to touch the dignified body of Victor von Doom, even if it was a new body. Actually, the fact that it was new only made the touching worse.

"Stop hugging me," I demanded to no avail.

Helen complied, but the children maintained contact and refused to part with my legs.

Eintam shook his head, and I could feel his hair ruffle against me.

"Stop," I said again, harder in tone this time, but they kept nuzzling against my legs.

"Noo~" Alicia said, her voice dragging on in unpleasant comfort. "I'm going to marry you when I grow up!" Some of the children laughed, and so did Helen.

My eyebrow twitched, and for a moment I considered blasting these ungrateful fools away with Magic Arrows, but...

No. I've invested time and effort into educating them, and I had to keep up the persona of the polite Victor. This one time, I would permit the nuzzling of my body. Next time, there would be no quarter, children or not.

I gave them a toothy grin, my eye still twitching, but I mostly suppressed and hid my rage.

I couldn't afford to act haughty without tangible power to back it up, or I'd be painting a target on myself. If I wanted to rule through intimidation, I first needed enough power to be intimidating. Granted, that fight just now might've been enough, but intimidation won't work properly on a group of people that already adores me.

I'll just have to tread through this nonsense for now.