The present moment shattered like glass.
One second Vlad was standing over his newly bound Abyss Hound, still bleeding from claw marks that defied reality. The next, he was somewhere—somewhen—else entirely.
The sky burned red. Not sunset red. Not even the red of fire.
The red of blood. Of endings. Of a universe dying its final death.
[TEMPORAL DISPLACEMENT DETECTED]
[TIMELINE: +127 YEARS]
[LOCATION: EARTH - FINAL CONFIGURATION]
What the hell?
Vlad stood on a balcony carved from obsidian, overlooking what had once been Jakarta. Now it was something else. A city of impossible architecture that hurts to look at directly—spires that twist through dimensions, streets that fold back on themselves, buildings that exist in seventeen different states of reality simultaneously.
And everywhere, everywhere, creatures bowed.
Not just monsters. Everything. The twisted remnants of humanity, grotesque fusions of flesh and nightmare. Entities that had crawled up from the deepest Void Realms. Even the architecture itself seemed to lean toward the obsidian palace where he stood, as if the very concept of existence was genuflecting before—
Before him.
[CURRENT STATUS: EXTINCTION GOD]
[DOMINION: COMPLETE]
[SUBJECTS: 847,392,847,392 ENTITIES]
[REALITY ANCHOR POINTS: 12,847]
The numbers scrolled past his vision like a fever dream. This wasn't possible. He'd just summoned his first creature five minutes ago. He was barely holding onto his sanity, let alone—
"My Lord?"
Vlad spun. A figure approached from the shadows of the palace—tall, elegant, wearing robes that seemed woven from starlight and despair. Human in shape, but wrong in every detail that matters. Too many joints. Eyes that held the depths of collapsed galaxies. A smile that had never known warmth.
"The morning tribute has been prepared," the figure continued, its voice like silk over razor wire.
"Seventeen civilizations from the outer systems. Their despair is particularly... refined."
Tribute. Civilizations. Outer systems.
"I..." Vlad's voice cracked. "What happened to Earth?"
The figure tilted its head, confusion flickering across features that include in nightmares. "My Lord? Earth fell in the third year of your ascension. As planned. The survivors serve in your legions now."
[MEMORY FRAGMENT ACCESSED]
[WARNING: TEMPORAL ECHO DETECTED]
Images flooded his mind. Not memories—he hadn't lived this—but echoes of possibility. Of choice. Of a path where survival becomes dominion, and dominion becomes damnation.
The dimensional collapse spreading beyond Jakarta. Beyond Indonesia. The Devourers pouring through reality's wounds like infection through a cut artery. And him—himself—standing in the center of it all, no longer trying to save the world.
Ruling it instead.
I see Elena falling. See myself choosing power over humanity. See the moment I stopped being human and became... this.
"The Western Cluster grows restlessly, my Lord," the figure continues, apparently unaware of Vlad's existential crisis. "Shall I dispatch the Extinction Fleets?"
Fleets. He's got fleets now. Fleets that could end solar systems with a thought.
Through the massive windows, Vlad could see them—ships that looked like weaponized mathematics, their hulls carved from crystallized entropy. Each one carried enough firepower to sterilize galaxies. And they were his. All of them.
This is what winning looks like.
"My Lord?" The figure's voice carried the faintest note of concern. "You seem... distant."
Vlad walked to the edge of the balcony. Below, the city sprawled in directions that geometry couldn't contain. Millions of creatures moving through its impossible streets. Some had once been human. Others had crawled up from realities where sanity went to die.
All of them wore the same expression when they roamed up at his palace.
Terror. Absolute, soul-deep terror.
And worship.
They feared him more than death itself. More than nonexistence. Because he was both of those things and worse—he was the choice between oblivion and eternal servitude, and they had chosen servitude.
Is this victory? Is this what I fought for?
[TEMPORAL ECHO DESTABILIZING]
[IMMINENT RETURN]
"My Lord, the tribute—"
"Burn it," Vlad whispered.
The figure blinked. "My Lord?"
"All of it. The tribute. The fleets. The empire." His voice grew stronger, carrying harmonics that made the air itself shiver. "Burn it all."
[PARADOX DETECTED]
[TIMELINE FRACTURING]
The world began to crack around him. Not physically—worse than that. Conceptually. The very idea of this future was coming apart at the seams, unable to exist in the face of its own rejection.
The figure stepped back, genuine fear flickering in its galactic eyes. "My Lord, you cannot—the entropy cascade will—"
"I know what it will do."
The palace began to dissolve. Not into rubble, but into the space between possibilities. Into the place where refused futures went to die.
[TEMPORAL DISPLACEMENT ENDING]
[WARNING: MEMORY RETENTION ACTIVE]
[CAUSAL LOOP ESTABLISHED]
The last thing Vlad saw before reality snapped back was his own reflection in the obsidian walls. Not as he was now—battered, barely keeping it together, still fundamentally human where it matters.
As he would become. Could become.
Eyes like dying stars. A smile that held the weight of extinct civilizations. Power that made gods kneel.
And absolute, crushing loneliness.
Present. Jakarta. The World Cracks are still spreading like cracks in ice.
Vlad gasped, back in his own body, his own time. The Abyss Hound looked up at him with concern, its multiple eyes reflecting worry that seemed almost... protective.
[TEMPORAL ECHO COMPLETE]
[FUTURE KNOWLEDGE ACQUIRED]
[CHOICE MATRIX UPDATED]
Around them, reality continues to unravel. The dimensional collapse hadn't stopped just because he'd bound one creature. If anything, the fissures were spreading faster now, reality responding to the presence of an Extinction-class entity.
But now he knows. He'd seen what happened if he chose pure power. If he lets the Protocol consume him completely.
127 years. An empire built on fear. And everyone I ever cared about, died.
Elena's voice whispered through their bond, carrying memories from her other self: "Power without understanding is just destruction waiting to happen."
He'd understood, all right. Understood that he could rule everything.
The question was whether he should.
[DIMENSIONAL COLLAPSE: 67%]
[ADDITIONAL BREACHES DETECTED]
[RECOMMENDATION: SUMMON ADDITIONAL ENTITIES]
More creatures. More power. More steps down the path that led to obsidian thrones and tributary civilizations.
Vlad looked at his hands. Still human hands, for now. Still capable of choices that weren't dictated by the hunger for dominion.
Through the largest fissure, something massive stirred. Something that makes the Devourers look like house pets.
The real invasion is just beginning.
But now he knows the cost of victory. The question was: was he strong enough to find another way?
Or would he become the monster that the future feared more than extinction itself?
The Abyss Hound pressed against his leg, a gesture that was almost... comforting. Its mental voice carried warmth he hadn't expected: Alpha decides. Pack follows.
Even in the face of universal collapse, he still has a choice.
He just had to be strong enough to make the right one.
[INCOMING: GREATER THREAT DETECTED]
[EMERGENCE PROBABILITY: 99.97%]
[TIME TO MANIFESTATION: 12 MINUTES]
Twelve minutes to decide the fate of reality itself.
That's me? Why do everyone bow to me?
The memory of that obsidian palace burned in his mind like a brand. Like a warning.
Like a promise he refused to keep.