Princess Ria Celith stood at the center of the ancient array, her legs trembling despite every effort to remain steady. The massive circular chamber stretched out around her like a metallic cathedral, its walls lined with thousands of crystalline nodes that pulsed with an otherworldly light. Each node was connected to the next by intricate patterns of silver conduits, creating a web of power that had taken the Keepers millennia to understand and master.
She had trained for this moment her entire life, though she'd never imagined it would come to this. The daughter of Emperor Hadrian Celith of the Crystal Throne had been groomed for diplomacy, for political marriages that would strengthen their small but formidable empire. Her people, the Calguardians, were among the strongest humans in the known galaxy—their bones denser than steel, their muscles capable of crushing stone. They had carved out their territory through pure physical dominance, and now her father wanted to use her as a bargaining chip to secure an alliance with the Xilith Empire.
The memory of that final confrontation still burned in her mind. "You will marry Chancellor Vex's son," her father had commanded, his voice echoing through the throne room. "The Xilith empires protection is worth more than your childish dreams of freedom."
But Ria had other plans. She'd spent years secretly training in the underground fighting circuits, honing her already formidable Calguardian strength until she could shatter war machines with her bare hands. When the Keepers had announced their recruitment tournament on Nexus Prime, she'd known it was her only chance at escape.
The tournament had been brutal. Thousands of warriors from across the galaxy had competed for just fifty spots in the Keepers' ranks. She'd fought countless strong beings. But her Calguardian heritage had served her well, and she'd claimed victory in the heavy combat division.
Now, three months later, she stood in the Bonding Chamber of the Keepers' ancient fortress, about to undergo the ritual that would either make her one of the keepets of dimensions or kill her outright.
"Remember," called out Master Thane from the observation deck high above, his voice amplified by the chamber's acoustics. "Break through the dimensions to the one you want and bind a creature with your will. You only have one shot. Ria had seen the students before her bind different dimensional beasts and now it was her turn.
Ria nodded, not trusting her voice. Around the chamber's perimeter, dozens of other Keepers watched in silence. She could see their bonded creatures with some flickering in and out of visibility—ghostly afterimages of the beings they'd pulled from other dimensions. Master Thane's creature was a thing of pure light, its form shifting between humanoid and abstract patterns of radiance. Commander Vex (no relation to the Chancellor, thankfully) stood beside a towering figure of living metal, its surface reflecting the chamber's lights like a mirror.
But it was Keeper Lyra who drew her attention. The woman's creature was perhaps the most beautiful thing Ria had ever seen—a being of crystalline formation that seemed to contain entire galaxies within its translucent form. Stars wheeled and died in its depths.
"The array is at ninety percent charge," announced a technician. "Beginning final alignment."
The nodes around the chamber began to pulse faster, their light growing brighter with each cycle. Ria could feel the energy building, making her hair stand on end and her teeth ache. This was technology from the ancients, the long-dead race that had once ruled the galaxy before mysteriously vanishing. The Keepers had spent thousands of years learning to use their artifacts, but even they didn't fully understand how the dimensional arrays worked.
"Ninety-five percent. Dimensional barriers fluctuating."
The air itself seemed to shimmer, and Kira caught glimpses of something vast and alien pressing against the edges of reality. Other dimensions, other worlds where the laws of physics bent in impossible ways. Somewhere in that chaos of possibility, tge creature she would bind to her will waited.
But which one? The Keepers had explained that the bonding was based all on this moment and her will. Warriors often bonded with creatures of metal or shadow. Scholars chose themselves beings of pure energy or quantum particles. There were creatures of gravity that could bend space itself, beings of temporal flux that existed in multiple timestreams at once, and entities of pure emotion that fed on the feelings of others.
"Ninety-eight percent. Ria, prepare yourself."
She closed her eyes and reached out with her mind, following the meditation techniques she'd learned during her training. The Calguardian mental disciplines helped her focus, pushing aside the fear and doubt that threatened to overwhelm her. She was Princess Ria undefeated champion of the Nexus Prime tournament. She would not fail here.
"Ninety-nine percent. Dimensional barriers critical."
The chamber filled with a sound like reality tearing. The nodes blazed with light so bright it hurt to look at directly. The air crackled with energy, and Ria could taste copper and ozone on her tongue.
"One hundred percent. Barriers down. Begin subdual!"
Ria felt her consciousness rip free from her physical body, transforming into pure ethereal essence. Her mind, now weightless and formless, shot through the dimensional array like a bullet through water. The familiar world fell away as she plunged into the layered realities beyond.
She passed through the first dimension—a realm of gas that was closest to that of reality. But RIa pushed deeper.
Through the second dimension of living metal, where beings of perfect order and structure waited. Still too weak for what she needed.
The third dimension of crystal with various creatures of impenatrable defense roamed. Tempting, but not enough.
Down and down she went, her ethereal form diving through dimension after dimension. The other students showed surprise from seeing the observation screens above—no student had ever gone this deep. Most couldn't handle the mental strain past the 20th dimension.
But Ria needed power beyond morality, beyond the safe choices that others made. She needed something that could stand against empires, something that could tear apart the political chains that bound her.
The dimensions grew darker as she descended. The 90th dimension housed beings of shadow and hunger. The 300th, creatures of pure entropy that fed on destruction itself. Each level became more dangerous, more alien, more difficult to subdue.
Her ethereal form was beginning to strain. She could feel her consciousness stretching thin, threatening to snap like an overstretched wire. But still she pushed deeper, driven by desperation and the iron will that had made her a champion.
900th dimension. 1100th. 2000th.
The observers above watched in stunned silence as the dimensional readouts plummeted far beyond anything they'd seen before. On the screens that showed her progress, they could see her ethereal form—a small spark of light diving into an abyss dimensions..
"Pull her back," someone whispered, but Master Thane raised his hand for silence.
8000th dimension. 9000th
And then, at the very edge of dimensional space, where reality itself began to fray and breakdown, Ria found what she was looking for. Dimensions end.
There she found a creature was enormous—a titan stretching nearly five hundred meters into the void, its form a writhing mass of tentacles and eyes and mouths that defied description. It was ancient beyond measure, a being of horror but unimaginable power.
Perfect.
Ria focused all her will into a single point and dove toward the creature's center, seeking the core of its consciousness where she could establish dominance. The mental battle was instantaneous and brutal—her will against something that had existed for eons.
The strain was incredible. She felt her ethereal form beginning to crack, her consciousness threatening to shatter under the pressure. But she held on, pouring every ounce of her Calguardian strength into the mental grapple.
*Submit,* she commanded, wrapping her will around the creature's core like iron chains. *I am your master now.*
The titan fought back, its alien mind pressing against hers with the weight of ages. But Kira had not come this far to fail. She tightened her grip, focusing all her power into a single, overwhelming command.
And then, impossibly, she felt it yield.
The creature's resistance crumbled, and suddenly she was pulling it upward through the dimensions, her ethereal form dragging the massive entity behind her like a fisherman hauling in the catch of a lifetime.
The observation deck erupted in shocked gasps. On the screens, they could see the impossible—a student successfully subduing a creature from the deepest dimensions, something that should have been beyond the capabilities of even master-level Keepers.
But as Kira's consciousness snapped back into her physical body, something went wrong.
The creature materialized in the chamber, but not as she'd expected. Instead of the massive titan she'd subdued, a young man—perhaps nineteen or twenty—crashed to the floor in front of her. He was half-naked, his lean frame covered in thick, translucent gastric fluid that steamed in the chamber's air.
Kira stared in horror as the truth hit her. She hadn't subdued the titan itself.
She'd accidentally grabbed its lunch.
The young man groaned, rolling over to reveal a face that was disturbingly familiar in its humanity.
Lex's scream echoed through what felt like an eternity of falling, his voice raw and desperate as he plummeted through layers of reality that his mind couldn't process. One moment he was devoured by a creature from the deepest hell, the next he was crashing onto cold metal, his body hitting the floor with a wet thud that knocked the wind from his lungs.
He lay there gasping, his chest heaving as he tried to process what had just happened. The air was different here—cleaner, with a metallic tang that made his teeth ache. Gone was the purple sky and constant lightning of the Dimensions end. Instead, he found himself in what looked like some kind of vast chamber, its walls lined with thousands of crystalline nodes that pulsed with soft light.
"HELP!" The word tore from his throat as he rolled over, his eyes wild with terror. "HELP ME! PLEASE!"
He was covered in thick, translucent fluid that steamed in the chamber's air—the digestive juices of the creature that had been about to consume him. The realization made him retch, but his empty stomach produced nothing but bile.
"What—what is this place?" he sobbed, his voice breaking. "Please, someone help me!"
That's when he saw her.
A young woman stood frozen in the center of the chamber, her face a mask of absolute mortification. She was small with a thin but fit looking body. Her face was delicate with high cheek bones and the beauty of an angel, and she wore what looked like ceremonial armor. But it was her expression that caught his attention—the burning embarrassment that colored her cheeks a deep red.
Around the chamber's perimeter, dozens of figures watched from behind some kind of barrier. And they were... laughing.
"She summoned its lunch!" someone called out, their voice echoing through the chamber. "Princess Ria dove to the bottom of dimensional space and came back with a half-digested human!"
More laughter erupted from the observers, and Lex felt his terror spike even higher. He scrambled to his knees, his hands slipping on the fluid that coated his skin, and looked up at the woman.
"Please," he begged, his voice cracking with desperation. "I don't know what's happening. I don't know where I am. There were monsters, and my friend—they killed my friend. Please, you have to help me!"
Ria's face twisted with a mixture of embarrassment and anger. She'd gone deeper than any student before her, had proven her strength and will by subduing a creature from the deepest dimensions, and instead of the titan of power she'd expected, she'd accidentally grabbed its partially digested meal.
The laughter from the observation deck grew louder, and Lex could hear comments floating down:
"Look at it begging!" "Is that what passes for exotic slaves these days?" "Poor Princess Ria, all that effort for a piece of creature vomit!"
The humiliation was unbearable. Ria had spent her entire life proving she was more than just a political pawn, had fought her way through the tournament to earn her place among the Keepers, and now she was being mocked because of this... this thing that had appeared instead of her bonded creature.
"Please!" Lex reached out toward her, his eyes filled with tears. "I'm human! I'm from Earth! I don't understand what's happening to me!"
The desperation in his voice only made the laughter worse. Ria's face burned with shame and fury, and before she could think, her powerful leg lashed out. Her boot connected with Lex's chest, sending him skidding across the chamber floor like a rag doll.
Lex cried out as he hit the far wall, his ribs screaming in protest. Blood filled his mouth, and he could barely breathe. But even through the pain, he could hear the voice that boomed down from the observation deck:
"Congratulations, Princess Ria," Master Thane's voice carried clearly through the chamber, though there was an odd note to it. "You have successfully completed the bonding ritual. This creature is now yours to command."
The laughter died away as the implications sank in. Ria stared at Lex in horror, watching him curl up against the wall, coughing up blood and gastric fluid.
"But it's not—" she started to protest.
"The ritual is complete," Master Thane interrupted firmly. "The dimensional array registered a successful bonding. Whether you intended to summon this creature or not is irrelevant. It is now bound to your will, and you are responsible for it."
Lex looked up at her through bleary eyes, his face streaked with tears and alien digestive fluid. "Please," he whispered, his voice barely audible. "I just want to go home."
Ria stared down at him, her mind reeling. This broken, terrified human was supposed to be her bonded creature? The source of power that would help her escape her father's political machinations
The silence in the chamber stretched on as Princess Ria of the Crystal Throne realized that her perfectly planned escape had just become infinitely more complicated.
She looked down at the pathetic creature before her—this broken human who was supposed to be her source of power. The humiliation burned in her chest like acid. Without another word, she raised her hand and focused her will.
"Return," she commanded coldly.
Lex's eyes widened in terror as he felt the familiar sensation of dimensional travel grip him. "No, please—" he started to beg, but the words were cut short as his form began to shimmer and fade.
The last thing he saw was Ria's face, cold and dismissive, before the chamber vanished around him.
Lex crashed back onto the fleshy ground of the dimensions end with a wet thud, his broken ribs screaming in protest. The purple sky split with lightning above him, and in the distance, he could hear the sounds of the monsters still feeding on the wreckage of the ship.
He lay there gasping, his body wracked with pain from both the kick and the dimensional transport. Every breath was agony, and he could taste blood in his mouth. The digestive fluid from the creature still coated his skin, making him reek of death and decay.
With trembling hands, he pushed himself up onto his elbows and began to crawl. His legs wouldn't support him, his ribs felt like they were grinding against each other, but he had to find shelter. The sounds of the feeding frenzy were getting closer.
The ground beneath him was soft and yielding, like diseased flesh. It squelched under his weight, and he tried not to think about what it might actually be. After what felt like hours but was probably only minutes, he spotted a small opening in the fleshy surface—a hole just big enough for him to squeeze into.
Like a wounded animal, Lex crawled toward it, leaving a trail of blood and alien fluid behind him. He dragged himself into the cramped space, his body folding in on itself as he pressed as far back as he could go.
The hole was barely large enough for him to fit, but it was dark and hidden from the horrors outside. He curled up in the fetid darkness, his broken body shaking with pain and terror, and waited for whatever would come next.
Meanwhile, in the bonding chamber, Ria straightened her shoulders and walked toward the exit with as much dignity as she could muster. The other students watched her go in silence, their earlier laughter now replaced by fear of their own upcoming summoning.