Chapter 140: Gift from The God
"...Eliminate someone?"
The One Above All looked at him for a few seconds.
"You are not going to ask me any questions? About... well, you know."
"Your letter was very explicit. It answered most of my questions, and I cannot complain either. I like this place, although the change from normal to super was a little difficult. But I do have one question."
This time, Peter looked directly at him. "How is she?"
"At first, it was difficult, but things improved over time. She does not have a family, but she does not isolate herself in work either. Her life is good.
She did what you told her, so she is not short on money. She kept the things you liked most and sold the rest. She made good money from them."
Nodding, Peter felt a weight he had been carrying for a long time finally lift from his shoulders, making him sigh.
"That is good."
They fell into another comfortable silence.
"Um... excuse me?" Cortana said.
"What is it, beautiful?"
"I have a lot of questions. Like, why did you call him Father when he clearly is not? Why did he call you son when you are not? How does he know your identity, and why are you not doing anything about it? And the most important one: who the hell is he?"
"Wow, that is a lot of questions, little one," the One Above All said.
"Do not call me little," she replied coldly and with obvious annoyance.
He merely smiled, because her reaction reminded him of someone.
"To answer your questions, remember when I said I was a believer and everyone mocked me for it?" Peter asked.
"Yes."
"Well, he is..."
"HE IS THAT GOD?"
"Yes and no."
"What? What do you mean, yes and no?"
"The God you are thinking of is probably the Christian God, and he is not the Christian God. He is the creator of everything. The Christian God is not a God in that sense. He is a deity, something created by humanity, probably with a little help from him. Right?"
"That is correct. I only provided the idea and gave humanity a small push, but then others began developing different ideas, followed by people who saw evil as good and good as evil. That is how different religions and their respective demons gradually came into existence," the One Above All explained with a tired sigh.
"In simple terms, humanity created its gods and demons, while the Omniverse created him, and he created us. He is the true God," Peter explained to Cortana. "And I do not do anything about him knowing my identity because he could probably erase me from existence with a snap of his fingers or a thought."
Cortana immediately went silent.
"And he knows my identity because he is... well, God."
"You do not seem particularly surprised by any of this," Cortana said seriously. "You already knew, did you not? Who told you?"
"Yes. Being Spider-Man teaches you a lot of things. A curious fact is that many aspects of the deities we believed to be true are, in fact, mostly complete farces."
Peter briefly thought of Thor, who was portrayed one way in fiction but was something else entirely in reality.
"And how do you know that? Have you ever met a God....deity?" she asked, correcting herself midway through the sentence.
"Maybe yes, maybe no. Who knows?" Peter replied with a smile that remained hidden beneath his mask. "By the way, you still have not told me why you came, Father, and I doubt it was just for a chat."
"Correct. I came for several reasons."
Placing both hands on Peter’s shoulders, the One Above All looked at him seriously, causing Peter to return the same expression.
"First, I am proud of the changes you are making, along with the limitations you have placed on yourself to avoid becoming a psychopath like some others."
His tone carried unmistakable pride.
The comment made Cortana puff out her chest with pride at having such a boyfriend, while Peter merely widened his eyes slightly.
It was surprising.
He had never heard that particular tone directed at him before.
Even his father in his previous world had only ever said, Well done, and that had been when he was half-drunk.
His mother, meanwhile, had always demanded excellence even when Peter gave everything he had. The only person he had ever truly considered family was Anna, and the feeling had been mutual.
"Second, whenever there is a special day, such as Christmas or a birthday, I give my children something special... but only if they deserve it. Most of them are the ones you already know."
"Do I deserve something like that? Even after everything I have done?"
"Compared to the other Peters and Spider-Women across the Multiverse, what you have done is not particularly bad."
"Well, that makes me feel better. At least I do not resemble the Spider-Assassin."
The One Above All nodded.
"Stop, stop, stop, stop." Cortana suddenly materialized in her soldier’s uniform and pointed at both of them. "You are saying that the Multiverse is real?"
"Understand the reference," Spider-Man and the One Above All said simultaneously.
Because of that simple phrase, something happened simultaneously in both the 19616 and 616 Multiverses, involving a certain group of supersoldier counterparts with an uncanny ability to detect references.
"That was..." Peter began.
"A captain sneezing. His ability to detect references is beyond my comprehension," the One Above All whispered.
"Incredible," Peter whispered back in genuine amazement.
The One Above All nodded solemnly.
Cortana ignored their side conversation entirely.
"I thought it was only a theory. That completely changes how we understand the initial singularity, eternal inflation, and how both relate to quantum mechanics..."
She abruptly stopped when she noticed both of them smiling at her, clearly amused by her reaction. She knew Peter was smiling because she could see him through the mask’s internal cameras, but then she realized something.
"Wait a second. You already knew this!"
She pointed at him accusingly.
"Of course I already knew. I am Spider-Man," Peter said as though it were the most obvious answer imaginable, making the One Above All smile because it reminded him of a certain emo nephew. "Not to mention that I spoke with another version of myself from the Multiverse a while ago."
Cortana gasped as though Peter had just confessed to the worst crime in human history.
"And you did not tell me."
She spoke dramatically while placing a hand over where her heart would be.
"You would have thought I was crazy if I told you without proof. Now I have proof, so do not be so dramatic."
"What else have you been hiding from me, Peter?"
She placed both hands on her hips.
"Some things, but they are spider-related matters that I was going to tell you about later."
"I want to know everything."
She disappeared.
"You are in big trouble, kid," the One Above All said.
"Do not even mention it. Anyway, you said you came to give me a present."
"That is the complicated part. You are the one who chooses it."
"Well... power? I doubt it. I already have an almost unlimited source of potential abilities in the form of the Institute. I have money, I have intelligence, and neither means much if I do not have creativity. Maybe I could ask for more of that, but it would be difficult to measure. There is not much I truly want. I already have almost everything here. I simply have to find it."
Peter closed his eyes and spent some time thinking about what he truly wanted.
Power?
No.
He had already seen what happened when someone gained too much power too quickly. He had no desire to end up like Saitama.
Fame?
Absolutely not.
Immortality?
He could probably achieve that on his own.
Rare minerals?
Perhaps.
Information?
Maybe.
For several minutes, Peter sat with the question until he remembered something he had always told himself. If something similar to what happened in novels ever happened to him, he wanted one thing above all else and that was....