Reborn: Evolving From Nothing
chapter-188-30041322

"Hup!" He sprinted over towards one of the tables with a free spot. Each table was wooden, filled with several platters that had mountains of hot dogs on them. Long wooden benches could be seen on either side, taking up space.

"15 seconds!" As the judges counted down, Dorian glanced at the contestant sitting next to him.

It was the real Inigo Montoya.

"Uh, hello. I'm Dorian." He stuttered out, staring at the man. He had never expected to meet the character in real life and had no idea what to say.

The man glanced at him.

"My name is Inigo Montoya." The man's voice was smooth and confident, carrying a rich Spanish accent that made his words unmistakable. After he spoke, he turned to look at the hot dogs, his eyes blazing with passion.

"I have no idea how I came to be here… but hot dogs, I know you are my enemy. I will defeat you." Inigo's body language made his words seem grand,

"Prepare to die."

"10 seconds!"

As the judges continued to count down, Dorian noticed something.

The closer the judges got to 0, the more and more aware he felt. His eyes widened as he realized something.

'My soul… my powers… I can feel them returning!' It seemed that, for this challenge, he would be able to use his full strength once it started. He was only cut off from his powers before it began.

'Still… even if I can shift forms or use my Abilities, how am I supposed to win against THAT?' He turned to stare at the gargantuan Obelisk the Tormentor. The God Monster was huge, far bigger than anything else in sight, easily 40 meters tall sitting down.

"5 seconds!"

"Anakin… you were a brother to me. Don't make me defeat you once more!" His ears almost stretched out as he heard the Jedi Obi-Wan rebuke the Sith Darth Vader. Both were sitting at a table off to his right.

Off to his left, he heard still more familiar speakers,

"I was born in the darkness… bred in it… there can be no balance in the shadows…" Bane's mechanical voice rang out.

"There cannot be shadow without light. Everything in life has balance." Thanos replied, closing his hand on the partially complete Infinity Gauntlet he wielded. Dorian's eyes widened as he saw that.

'Oh man… they really are all here. The various characters I've referenced. Think, Dorian. How do I win this? I need to complete the challenge to get the Inheritance.' Unlike the Lust Inheritance, the design of this Gluttony Inheritance seemed centered around this competition. He had to actively win to receive it.

"3…2…1…"

"BEGIN!"

Immediately, Dorian reached forward, grabbing a hot dog.

Right after he did that, however, absolute mayhem unfolded.

BOOM

Dorian was blasted backwards, his entire table incinerated in an explosion. Poor Inigo Montoya was just a regular human and died instantly, his last move proudly stabbing one of the hot dogs with his rapier before perishing. Bits of wood and rock shot into the air, clouds of dust fizzling off.

"Huh?!" Dorian grunted out as he spun around and landed, cradling a hot dog in his hands. He looked out at the scene before him in sheer shock.

The moment the judges said go, all of the villains sitting at the table had taken the opportunity to attack.

What better way to win a contest than to ensure that you were the only competitor?

However, each character stayed true to their motivations, pulled from whatever movie they had been in.

Darth Vader launched Obi-Wan away, using the mystical Force that apparently worked here, jumping after him with a lightsaber.

"The JEDI are the ones in the wrong, Obi-Wan! I did what I had to because I could see that!"

"Anakin! If that is what you truly believe, then you are lost!"

BWSSSHH

The duo broke out in a lightsaber duel, jumping among the treetops of Champions Park, completely ignoring the hotdog competition.

Thanos, on the other hand, had ignored all the other competitors and vanished, using his Infinity Gauntlet to teleport himself into the air, floating directly in front of the giant Obelisk the Tormentor.

"Your presence here has thrown this competition out of balance… How could any singular being compete against a being of such proportion like yourself?" Thanos shook his head, his voice deep and methodical.

Obelisk had picked up an entire table and was reaching to eat the whole thing when this occurred. The God Beast turned its piercing red eyes to look at Thanos. It looked at him as if he was merely an insect in its way, unworthy of attention.

BOOM

Its massive arm whipped upward at light speed as it dropped the table and attacked. Thanos, in the meanwhile, tapped into the powers of the Infinity Gauntlet, causing space to freeze up around him.

When Obelisk's massive arm slammed into the frozen space, a huge shockwave spread out as greenish-blue energy exploded outward, blowing apart hundreds of trees and annihilating the nearby park area.

Strangely enough, the judges sitting at the long table appeared fine, some type of invisible protective barrier protecting them.

'What in the Heavens? Who are these beings?! How can they be so powerful?!' As Dorian witnessed all this, a familiar angry voice sounded off in his head.

"Oh? Master bubble!" Dorian muttered out as he swallowed the lone hotdog he'd managed to snag in a single gulp, looking around.

"Are you watching thi-"

BOOM

Before he could finish speaking, an explosion sent Dorian's Balance Demon form flying backward a few meters, the unexpected blast taking him by surprise. Dirt was sent flying in the air as a crater formed, the already damaged ground damaged even further.

Thankfully, with all his Abilities active and his Balance Demon form out, he was completely unscathed.

"Oh? You survived that well, strange creature." Bane's mechanical voice tumbled in the air as he emerged from the cloud of dust, carrying what appeared to be several explosives with him.

'Ah, the explosion was from him.' Dorian turned to look at the still corpse of the real Inigo Montoya, his eyes flashing. He also couldn't see the other regular human, John Denver, and assumed he was dead as well, killed by the blast.

'Or maybe he just left...' Denver was known to be against violence and an environmental activist. Dorian couldn't really see him competing in a hot dog eating contest where food would be wasted.

"You killed him before I could even talk to him…" His voice was full of danger as he stared at Bane, his thoughts turned to Inigo.

He knew the character wasn't real, nor was the now dead Inigo. They were all made up illusions from the Inheritance. Yet, the scene before him felt undeniably real, the Magic that powered it advanced far beyond his expectations.

WHOOSH

Dorian's body blurred. In a split second, he landed down on the ground next to Bane, his movements incredibly quick.

For, in that moment, Dorian had drawn upon both the Law of Lust and the Law of Chastity, simultaneously, for the first time.

When he did so, he felt the world around him seem to shift.

Similar to how it functioned in his Perfect Body state… everything slowed down. This increase was hugely noticeable. The world around him slowed down by at least 50%.

The Law of Chastity and the Law of Lust had almost identical effects. By using them both at once, Dorian was able to increase their overall effectiveness.

Each Law slowed the world down around him by roughly 25%, with his current understanding. When he used them both at once, these two Laws seemed to work together and slowed reality to roughly half its normal speed.

'Wow.' His only thought was one of awe. Everything around him was moving at half speed.

Of all the Seven Great Laws of the Demonic Race that he had acquired, this Law was the one that most impressed him. His understanding of it was still only middling, yet if he fully mastered it, he instinctively felt that he could slow the world around him by more than 25%. Perhaps by 30%, or 40%, or even more, he was unsure what the upper limit would be, especially when combined.

Even further, the fact that the Law of Chastity of the Seven Virtuous Laws had a similar effect and could even be combined was huge news to Dorian.

The increase was far more noticeable in his Balance Demon form, his best Humanoid close combat form.

As he landed down next to Bane, he lashed out with his claws in an almost lazily fast strike.

His hand slammed into the huge, muscular character from his memories…

And instantly killed him, ripping his heart and chest apart in one single motion, sending red blood spattering everywhere.

'Oh, right, he was just an above average human in the movies.' The Bane that Dorian was familiar with wasn't that strong of a character when compared to beings like him.

BOOM

Dorian felt an explosion shake the air as Obelisk the Tormentor and Thanos began to battle. Explosions of light and sound seared out as reality itself trembled. The two beings were colossally powerful in their own right, Thanos with his Infinity Gauntlet and Obelisk with, well, himself.

"Great beast, I admire your strength, but I cannot allow you to upset the delicate balance of this contest!" Thanos' deep voice echoed out as he and the huge blue demon separated temporarily. Obelisk was standing upright with blue energy crackling around his arms, his eyes flashing, while Thanos had his hand stretched out upward.

GWORRRNNN

A laser beam of blue energy shot forward and slammed into Thanos. This beam twisted at the last moment as it was about to hit him, the powerful attack absorbed into his Infinity Gauntlet. Thanos then shot the attack back at the towering God Beast, knocking it several dozen meters through the air.

When the creature landed, it formed a crater of cracked earth and fallen trees, sending up a shower of wood and stone shrapnel.

"So be it, beast." Thanos called out loud,

"HUP!"

Thanos made a large, jerking motion, as if he was pulling something hard. The extremely powerful Infinity Gauntlet on his hand flashed, light sparking off of it.

A moment later, Dorian's eyes widened in awe.

For, in the sky far above, he could now make something out. A huge object, hurtling towards them.

Thanos had pulled Earth's Moon out of orbit and brought it blasting down towards where they were.

"Are you an idiot?! You brought down the entire MOON to deal with a single being here?! This will wipe out th- Oh right, this is all a fake Earth." Dorian caught himself mid-yell as he watched the unfolding scene of apocalypse before him.

"Strike me down, Anakin, and I will only return stronger than before!"

"Huah!"

Over to the side, Dorian witnessed a somewhat familiar scene. Obi-wan being killed by Darth Vader, the duel they had apparently ending.

'How would Darth Vader even eat a hotdog? He doesn't look like he wants to take that mask off.' The character wore a large black mask that obscured his face.

"ROAAAAAR!"

Obelisk the Tormentor let out a rage-filled roar as it saw the moon descending upon them. Even Dorian was shaken, despite knowing this was all fake, as he watched the gargantuan rock plunge towards them. Large clumps of the Moon seemed to fall apart, shooting down ahead of its main body in waves of flaming meteors.

It was horrifying to see. The Moon blocked out the sun and the sky, a huge piece of white and grey rock that stretched more than 2,000 miles wide. The meteors that fell from it cascaded through the air, a true ending of the world.

Dorian felt the air tremble around them as the moon penetrated the atmosphere, huge vibrations of heat and pressure shaking reality.

"My God… What do I do?" Dorian stared up at the massive rock, his heart dropping. How on earth was he supposed to do literally anything about that?!

"There are no longer any hot dogs remaining! Thus, the Champions Hot Dog Eating Contest is complete! The Judges are now tallying the numbers!" As he was facing his death, trying to think up a plan, a loud voice cut through the mess of the world around him.

Dorian spun to the left, staring.

The panel of human judges were all currently sitting down casually, talking amongst themselves, ignoring the literal millions of tons of rock that were hurtling towards Earth, about to cause its complete destruction.

"The results are now tallied!" The judges called out confidently, apparently unaffected by the quaking waves of heat and pressure as the atmosphere of Earth began to dissipate.

GWORRRNNN

Obelisk shot another towering laser beam at Thanos, one that Thanos promptly reabsorbed and shot back as the two began to duke it out. Darth Vader, meanwhile, silently looked at where the corpse of Obi-Wan had been. Upon his death, the body had vanished, disappearing.

"The winner, with a grand total of 1 hot dog eaten, is the Demon Challenger Dorian!"

Dorian blinked.

'That's right… almost all of the tables and hot dogs were wiped out by the explosions from Bane and Obelisk. The heat and pressure waves from the descending Moon must have wiped out any remnants...'

He slowly came to the realization as more explosions shook the air between the dueling foes.

'I managed to snag a single hotdog and ate it quickly… Many of the characters that showed up from my memories were villains, all from movies or tv shows. As such, they all attacked each other without eating, causing the contest to be thrown into disarray…'

As he realized that he had won the contest, Dorian felt a feeling of epiphany settle upon his shoulders.

He felt energy swarm his soul, a familiar feeling descending upon him. Green, vibrating energy surrounded his body, wrapping around his soul like a warm blanket. It was relaxing and energizing, filling him with satisfaction.

He was undergoing another Baptism of the Laws of the Universe directly. This time, for the Law of Gluttony.

As the world around him fell apart and Dorian was about to vanish, teleporting away after completing the Inheritance, he heard a voice call out in his head,

'What is going on?! What are these creatures?! How are they doing what they are doing?!' The frantic voice of the Array Genie continued,

'What kind of past did you have?! What is going on?!?!'

WHOOSH

Dorian vanished, leaving behind a collapsing world and a greatly panicked bubble.

.