"Malacrass, right? You wanted to see me. What's going on?" Inside the quarantine room, Josh sat relaxed on the interrogation chair, separated by thick layers of protection. Through it he looked calmly at the troll, who was tightly bound and guarded by four powerful vibranium robots. (TL/N: Name Change from Maracas to Malacrass as we got more context)
Of course, this high level of protection hadn't been arranged especially for Josh. With Tiamat, a celestial yet to be born, now protecting him, Josh was no longer the same.
If a mere troll priest could hurt him, he might as well give up.
This kind of protection was standard, mainly to keep the troll priest from harming the Ouroboros researchers.
As a very powerful wizard, especially in witchcraft and curses, this level of protection was more than reasonable for him.
"This is our first meeting, human leader. I, High Priest Malacrass of the Amani, greet you. Your strength is truly amazing!" Seeing Josh appear, Malacrass looked surprised.
Like some of the high elves, these trolls had been brought out of system inventory unconscious, so they had never really met Josh before.
But unlike Vereesa and the other elves, Malacrass immediately felt the cosmic power coming from Josh—a kind of high-level cosmic energy he had never felt before.
This showed how special Malacrass was. As a high priest of the Amani Empire, he often interacted with the gods, especially the many Loa gods worshipped by the trolls of Azeroth.
Though these Loa were among the weakest of Azeroth's gods, and were often killed by mortals, divine power is still divine power, and their presence could not be faked.
The gods of Azeroth and the gods of the Marvel world might be different, but they shared a unique, hard-to-conceal divine aura. Unless someone was deliberately hiding it, someone like Malacrass—who often interacted with the Gods—could easily sense it.
And Josh clearly hadn't tried to hide the power of his Rupture Sword or his own cosmic power.
Since he got the Rupture Sword, it had been like Thor's hammer—always with him, well, except when he was cuddling with Margaret.
"Huh? Good eyes. But that won't change your fate. Just tell me why you're looking for me. I'm a busy man," Josh said casually, surprised that Malacrass could see his power, but not bothered.
"Great one, if I'm not mistaken, I'm no longer in Azeroth... am I?" Malacrass nodded, asking instead of answering.
"...You're pretty smart. How did you figure that out?" Josh finally took him seriously.
It wasn't easy to realize that he wasn't in his original world anymore—especially for someone from a primitive civilization like Malacrass.
The idea of crossing worlds would normally be too advanced for someone like him.
"It was actually quite simple," Malacrass explained. "After I woke up here, I realized that I could no longer sense the Loa gods. And when I used my usual divine sensing spell, I sensed something else!"
Now Josh was really interested.
"Oh? What did you sense?" he asked.
"They called themselves Dimensional Gods—the most powerful beings in the universe!" Malacrass said, but his face showed a hint of contempt.
That statement stunned Josh.
What the hell? A troll priest from Azeroth can use divine sensing to communicate with dimensional gods?
The first thought that crossed Josh's mind after he recovered was to kill Malacrass to prevent future trouble.
He had no idea which dimensional god the troll had contacted, but most of them were bad news.
He couldn't let the troll form a link with them. It would be too dangerous.
But seeing the scornful look on Malacrass' face made Josh hesitate.
"In that case, why didn't you turn to them and use their power to escape from here?" Josh stared at Malacrass and asked.
"Turn to them? Heh, a bunch of weak, stingy losers," Malacrass sneered, full of contempt for these so-called "Dimensional Gods".
Wait... was he serious? Dimensional Gods were weak and stingy?
Josh almost burst out laughing, but then he realized something.
Just like the Loa Gods worshipped by the Trolls, not all of the Dimensional Gods in the Marvel Universe were like Mephisto, Cytorrak, Chthon, or Dormammu—those terrifying beings from beyond the multiverse.
Some of them were actually quite weak.
A Dimensional God's power often depended on their true form and the size or strength of the dimension they controlled.
Therefore, some of the weaker ones could probably be beaten by ordinary superheroes.
It's said that someone like the Ancient One had killed so many weak dimensional gods that their corpses could circle the Earth several times.
Malacrass was probably talking about those kinds of gods.
Sure enough, after talking to him some more, Josh confirmed that the gods Malacrass mentioned were indeed those lesser ones.
As for the stronger ones, Malacrass had sensed them as well. But either their presence was so terrifying that he didn't dare approach them, or they simply ignored him altogether.
"So, after all this, what are you really trying to say?" Josh asked finally.
"Hehehe, let me tell you, back in Azeroth, I spent many years studying with the high priests of the strongest troll tribe, the Zandalari," Malacrass said. "Through them, I learned a new way to gain power, something no one had ever tried before: stealing the power of Loa gods and sealing it into the bodies of powerful warriors!"
"Even though there are no Loa gods in this world, I believe these weak dimensional gods would make excellent test subjects!"
Josh froze when he heard that.
Now he finally remembered who this guy was.
Although trolls were one of the oldest native races in Azeroth, they never had much presence. So Josh, who hadn't played World of Warcraft for a long time, didn't really remember them.
But when Malacrass mentioned sealing the power of the Loa God into humans, Josh suddenly remembered—wasn't this guy the Witch Doctor Lord from the Zul'Aman dungeon in the game?
"With your power, you wouldn't care about these weak gods, of course," Malacrass added quickly, seeing Josh's hesitation. "But I think your subordinates could use it."
"So what do you want in return?" Josh asked. He had to admit—this technique was quite tempting.
"Freedom... and power," Malacrass replied, his eyes filled with desire.
Reviving the Amani Empire? Not a chance.
That was Zul'jin's dream.
All Malacrass wanted was power. That was why he had followed Zul'jin once.
In his original timeline, he had succeeded—he had become second to Zul'jin in the Amani Empire, but that hadn't lasted long.
Now, certain that he couldn't return to Azeroth, and after observing this new world and its human organizations, Malacrass had found another path for himself.
Whatever the future held, the first step was to escape his role as an experiment.
"I must say, your offer is quite tempting. I'm definitely interested," Josh said after thinking it over. "But to ensure your loyalty, you'll have to swear a soul oath to me... And since some of my subordinates are high elves you once captured, you can't show up as a troll anymore. Deal?"
"Of course, great master!" Malacrass agreed without hesitation.
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