Using the newfound surge of Infinity's blessing, Aiden discovered he could finally move through the Beyond-Realm—a place where the very notion of space and direction simply did not exist. It was chaos without form, yet he navigated it with ease, not by sight, but by sheer will. Closing his eyes, he let instinct guide him. In the span of a heartbeat, reality shifted.
He was no longer wandering.
He stood before a being that defied all description.
Three crimson eyes burned like dying stars, set deep into a visage hidden behind a complex white suit of impossible design—layers of shifting, alien geometry that seemed both armor and prison. Its faceplate glowed a dull, greenish-grey, flickering with unreadable symbols.
The voice—no, not a voice. A thought pressed directly into his existence.
"CELESTIAL…"
Aiden's body stiffened. The word carried no malice, only certainty. Yet the being tilted its head, scanning him, probing him with its three eyes until the impossible realization struck it.
"No… not Celestial. You are… mortal? But God… but Primordial…" The creature leaned closer, its gaze slicing through Aiden's soul. Then its eyes widened, each pupil dilating into glowing rings. "No… NEW. UNDOCUMENTED."
Aiden straightened, unshaken."I am Aiden Blake. Primordial Dragon God… and a human. I have come seeking one from my universe who escaped into yours."
The Beyonder's mind flared with a storm of excitement, each word tumbling in fractured thought-patterns like equations unraveling.
"Dragon… God? Unknown. Dragon—recorded. Human—recorded. But combined? Never seen! Primordial, yes! You are mix of mortal and eternal, new race, new origin! A living paradox!"
It leaned closer, almost trembling. "I am Beyonder. A scientist, in your terms. Not warrior—observer. Recorder. Your form—your race—is magnificent! The discovery of my eternity! I am honored… so honored… to be the first of my kind to study you."
Aiden exhaled, allowing himself the faintest smile. He had expected hostility—perhaps a battle beyond comprehension—but instead he had found curiosity. This one was not mad, not hostile, but enthralled.
"Another time, perhaps, I'll tell you my story. How I became this. But right now… I need your help. There is a threat—a danger not just to my world, but to yours. To all creation."
The Beyonder pulsed brighter, tilting its head. "A threat? Here? Impossible. No mortal crosses the threshold of our realm."
Aiden's gaze hardened."I'm certain. He's coming—or already here. His name is Knull. He seeks to open the path to Oblivion… and unleash it."
The instant the word left his lips—
The air cracked.
The white endless void trembled, vibrating with impossible resonance. Then, like a flood of judgment, they appeared. Thousands of Beyonders. Shapes beyond comprehension, humanoid and monstrous, each one radiating a pressure that bent reality itself. Their eyes—dozens, hundreds—locked onto Aiden with incandescent fury.
The weight of their presence pressed down on him like a collapsing star.
The scientist Beyonder's aura changed in an instant. Curiosity bled away, replaced with something sharp, wrathful, unyielding. Its thoughts thundered like war drums.
"How do you know that name, mortal?" it demanded, each word now heavy with cosmic wrath. "How do you dare speak of Oblivion in our dominion?"
Aiden raised his hands slightly, not in surrender but in defiance."Because I must. A Dark Celestial named Knull has vowed to unleash Oblivion upon all of existence. I am here only to stop him."
At the name, the crowd roared in psychic unison, their thoughts like blades cutting through the void.
"KNULL?" The scientist's thoughts rippled with shock."The King of Black? The Slaughterer of Beyonders?"
Shouts erupted from the host around Aiden, voices without mouths, fury without sound:
"BETRAYAL! The Celestials have broken the peace!""WAR! HE BRINGS WAR TO THE OUTSIDE!""AN INVADER—A SPY—A LIAR!"
The void convulsed with their rage, reality straining under the weight of their collective will. Aiden's fists clenched as he glared back at them, refusing to cower. His voice—his thought—boomed like thunder, defiant.
"No! You mistake me. I am not your enemy. I am no Celestial. I am here to hunt Knull, to stop him before he drags us all into nothingness. He betrayed us too—he betrayed everyone!"
The Beyond-Realm trembled, the storm of their wrath halting, if only for a breath.
"Is that so…?"
The words rippled through the void, calm yet cutting. Aiden's head snapped toward the source. From among the endless storm of alien forms, one figure stepped forward—humanoid in shape, yet unmistakably Beyonder. His aura, vast and oppressive, marked him as something beyond mortal comprehension, yet he wore the shape of a man.
"It does not explain why you are here, human," the man said, his voice soft but threaded with cosmic weight.
Aiden met his gaze, unflinching."I just explained it. I'm here to hunt him. Knull."
The Beyonder's eyes glimmered faintly, cold and piercing."Oh? And yet we are Beyonders. We can feel every inch of this realm. Every grain of dust, every breath of thought. And we have all looked." His words cut the silence like blades. "There is no Celestial here. No dark god. No intruder—except you. So tell me… are you lying to us?"
The sea of Beyonders shifted, their forms pulsing with agitation, their thoughts thundering across the void like a gathering storm.
"If he isn't here," Aiden shot back, his voice steady but iron-hard, "then he is coming. I came here with two choices: find and kill him, or wait—and then kill him. He's heading to wherever Oblivion could be released. And you know that."
The humanoid Beyonder turned, his words booming outward to his people."Do you hear that? He claims he waits! A spy, perhaps, biding time to stab us in the back! Do you not see? This reeks of Celestial treachery! War! They are waging war upon us once more!"
The horde roared, their power shaking the formless void.
Aiden's fists clenched. "What? I don't even represent the Celestials! I came here alone, on my own accord!"
"Then you will die on your own accord. This is the dominion of the Beyonders. If Knull comes, we will destroy him ourselves. But **you—**we do not allow."
Before the mob surged, another presence flared—brighter, steadier. The Curious Beyonder, the one who first welcomed him, thrust his thought outward like a shield.
"Wait! Think, my people! He could not have come to release Oblivion—he does not even know how! His knowledge is fragments, guesses. If his intent was malice, he would have acted already. Listen—"
The mob's fury rippled with hesitation, some faltering, some reconsidering. But the humanoid Beyonder snarled, his fury spilling into every mind.
"No! You are blinded by curiosity! Yes, I am young—but I am one of the few who has walked in their realms! I have seen their lies, their theft, their trickery! Do not be fooled! He is an enemy. They are all enemies. Will you stand idle while another war is forced upon us? Strike now! Kill the Celestial pretender before he kills us all!"
The mob began to seethe again, voices rising, power igniting like a storm ready to detonate.
Aiden snapped. His voice boomed like thunder across the Beyond-Realm, silencing even the chaos for a heartbeat.
"LISTEN HERE, FOOL! If I wanted blood, I'd have drawn it the moment I arrived! If I wished to see you burn, you'd already be ashes! But I CHOSE not to! I came here to save the multiverse, not end it!"
The void went still—
And then it shattered.
A new voice tore through existence, deeper, darker, dripping with malice:"…And I shall end it."
Every Beyonder froze. Aiden turned sharply—his breath caught.
From behind the gathered host, shadows bled into light. Black tendrils coiled like living blades, and there he was—towering in blackened armor, a storm of writhing necroswords orbiting him like a crown of fangs. His grin carved itself into the abyss, sharp and cruel.
Knull.
Without hesitation, one of his blades lashed out. A shriek split the void as a Beyonder was cleaved clean in two, his form unraveling into nothing.
"AHAHAHAHAHA!" Knull's laughter was a storm of knives. "Let the slaughter begin!"
The horde convulsed in fury and fear.
"THE KING OF BLACK!" they cried.
"MY PEOPLE—FIGHT!" The humanoid Beyonder howled, his paranoia now fanned into righteous fury. "Did I not warn you? They are our enemies! BOTH OF THEM! The Celestial pretender and the King of Black! Strike them down!"
And with those words, the Beyond-Realm erupted into chaos.
Aiden stood at the eye of the storm, teeth clenched, every muscle ready for war. The very thing he had come to prevent had just ignited before his eyes.