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Chapter 2 - the awakening

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✅ Dimension Olive

Chapter 3: The Baptism of Ash

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The darkness didn't last long.

It shattered like glass, and when Thomas opened his eyes, he wished it hadn't.

The sky was gone. There was no Earth, no stars—only a twisting void above a landscape of fractured stone. Islands of black rock floated like broken teeth in a sea of silver fog, connected by glowing blue bridges that seemed to hum with energy.

And in the center of it all… a tower.

No, not a tower—a spear. It pierced the void itself, its spiraling architecture coiling into infinity, segments shifting like a living thing. Its surface was etched with runes that glowed faintly, as if breathing.

Where the hell…?

Before Thomas could finish the thought, a voice broke the silence—not in his head this time, but right behind him.

"You're awake."

He spun around. Standing there was a man draped in a long black coat with glowing steel pauldrons. His hair was silver, cropped short, and his eyes—cold and sharp as blades—glimmered with a hue that didn't belong to any human spectrum.

"Who the hell are you?" Thomas spat, fists clenched.

The man didn't flinch. Instead, he clasped his hands behind his back and spoke with the calm authority of someone who commanded armies.

"General Oz. Commanding Officer of Nexus Division 01. And you…" He paused, scanning Thomas from head to toe. "…are the most interesting anomaly I've seen in a thousand cycles."

"Anomaly? You mind explaining what the fuck that means before I punch your smug—"

Oz raised a single finger. Instantly, the air thickened. Pressure crushed Thomas from all sides, pinning him to the glowing floor like gravity had multiplied a thousandfold. He couldn't breathe, couldn't move.

"Careful, anomaly," Oz said, voice low but venomous. "You're standing in the Olive Nexus. This is the last threshold before Oblivion. Survivors obey here, or they die screaming."

The weight vanished as suddenly as it came. Thomas collapsed to his knees, gasping. He wanted to curse, to fight—but his instincts screamed don't.

Oz stepped closer, boots clicking against the metallic bridge. "Listen carefully, Thomas—"

Thomas froze. Thomas?

"H-how the hell do you know my—"

"That name is dead." Oz's voice cracked like a whip. "From this moment forward, you are Black Rose. Captain of Unit Zero. The spearhead of a war that began long before you were born."

Thomas's jaw tightened. "What war?"

Oz smiled—a thin, cruel smile. "The war against whoever the hell decided to burn your planet out of existence."

The words hit harder than any punch. Thomas blinked, his mind clawing for sense. "You're saying… that light—"

"—wasn't random." Oz's tone was ice. "It was deliberate. A purge. Someone opened the gate, and Earth was collateral."

Thomas's fists trembled. His chest burned—not with fear this time, but with a rage that scorched every thought.

Oz studied him for a long moment before speaking again. "You were touched by the Spiral. You feel it, don't you?"

As if on cue, the markings on Thomas's arm flared like molten veins, glowing blue-black. The ground beneath him cracked, rippling outward in spirals of light.

Then, the voice returned—velvet and cruel inside his mind.

"Break them, Black Rose. Break everything."

The air trembled. Space warped around him. A circle of glowing sigils erupted beneath his feet, spinning endlessly.

Oz's lips curled upward. "Good. Very good. Now prove you deserve the name."

From the mist beyond the bridge, something crawled forth—a beast made of teeth and shadows, its body stitched from screaming faces, its claws dripping with liquid void. Its very presence bent reality like a funhouse mirror.

Thomas—no, Black Rose—stood slowly, the black fan materializing in his hand as if it had always been there. The markings on his skin pulsed in rhythm with the spiraling glyphs orbiting him.

He smirked. A cruel, bloodthirsty smirk.

"Guess it's baptism by fire, huh?" His voice dripped venom as he twirled the fan and snapped it shut with a click that echoed like thunder. "Fine by me."

The beast roared, and the void shuddered.

Black Rose raised his head, his half-lidded blue eyes glowing like dying stars.

"End."

The word wasn't loud. It didn't need to be.

The world stopped.

The beast didn't die—it ceased to exist, erased from every layer of reality like it had never been born. The spiral beneath his feet flared once, then vanished, leaving silence in its wake.

General Oz stared, his usual calm cracking for the first time.

Black Rose rolled his shoulders and whispered, almost amused:

"Damn… that was easier than I thought."

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🔥 End of Chapter 3 Hook:

"The Nexus had found its monster. And monsters… always change the game."

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Chapter 4: The First War Cry will establish Black Rose as a feared anomaly among both allies and enemies. This is where his dominance truly becomes legendary.

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✅ Dimension Olive

Chapter 4: The First War Cry

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The Nexus had no sun, no horizon—only endless bridges of steel and shards of Earth floating in a chasm of silver fog. Thomas—no, Black Rose—stood at the edge of one of those bridges, staring down at the void below as if daring it to blink first.

Behind him, the sound of boots echoed. A squad approached, their armor gleaming black with glowing sigils etched along the plates. Each bore weapons forged from systems Black Rose couldn't name yet. They were survivors, yes—but they didn't look human anymore.

The man in front stopped a few steps away. His jawline was carved from stone, eyes like molten gold. His voice was hard, sharp, full of pride.

"So you're the freak Oz was bragging about."

Black Rose turned, his half-lidded blue eyes glowing faintly, calm yet dripping with contempt. "Freak, huh? Cute. You got a name, Goldilocks?"

The man sneered. "Captain Draith. Nexus Division Vanguard. And you?"

Black Rose smirked, snapping his black fan shut with a click that cut the silence like a blade. "Name's Black Rose. Try not to forget it—I don't like repeating myself."

The squad murmured, tension coiling in the air. Draith stepped closer, towering over him. "Listen, rookie. You might have impressed the General, but out here, strength isn't enough. You need control. Strategy. Discipline."

Black Rose tilted his head lazily. "Funny. Last I checked, strength solves a lot of problems. Like the one I'm about to have if you don't shut the hell up."

Before Draith could retort, the void screamed.

It wasn't sound. It was a vibration, a resonance that tore through the Nexus like the strings of reality had been plucked. The bridge beneath them shook. The silver fog churned into whirlpools of darkness.

And then they came.

Creatures—not beasts, not demons, something worse. Humanoid silhouettes twisted into mockeries of flesh, their limbs branching into spines and their faces melted into black voids. They crawled out from ruptures in space, dragging chains of broken dimensions behind them like trophies.

A voice boomed across the chasm, thick with malice and hunger.

"DIMENSION RAIDERS. YOUR WORLD IS OUR FEAST."

Draith cursed under his breath, signaling his squad. Blades ignited with cosmic fire, shields shimmered with layers of rune scripts. The squad moved into formation—disciplined, precise.

Black Rose didn't move. He just yawned.

Draith snarled. "What the hell are you doing?! MOVE!"

Black Rose glanced at him with bored amusement. "Relax. I've got this."

Then he stepped forward.

The nearest Raider lunged—a blur of teeth and claws, faster than lightning. Before Draith could even shout, it froze mid-leap.

No, not froze. It unraveled. Its body split into spirals of glowing ink, collapsing inward like a page burning in reverse. One by one, the others stopped—dozens of them—staring at the black-haired figure with glowing blue eyes.

Black Rose's voice cut through the silence, low and calm.

"You picked the wrong dimension to raid, assholes."

Sigils erupted in the air, spiraling endlessly around him, glowing brighter and brighter until the very fabric of space began to bend. The Infinite Spiral was awake.

The Raiders screamed—not from fear, but from instinct. They knew. They felt it. This wasn't power. This wasn't magic. This was something higher. Something that didn't belong inside the rules of existence.

Black Rose opened his fan slowly, the metal whispering like a serpent as it unfolded into a perfect arc etched with runes older than time. Blue light flared behind him, painting his silhouette like a god draped in apocalypse.

His smirk widened.

"Time to make this quick."

The word left his lips like a verdict:

"End."

The Nexus fell silent.

The Raiders didn't die. They were erased—concepts torn out of the equation, their essence scrubbed from every reality they ever touched. The ruptures sealed, the fog stilled, and only the hum of the bridges remained.

Black Rose closed his fan with a snap and turned to the stunned soldiers. Draith's golden eyes were wide, his jaw slack.

Black Rose twirled the fan in his fingers, casual as a man brushing off dust. "Next time, Goldilocks, don't waste my time with speeches."

He walked past them, boots echoing like war drums on steel. General Oz's voice crackled through the comms, calm but sharp.

"Black Rose… remind me never to piss you off."

Black Rose smirked faintly as he whispered under his breath, almost to himself:

"This is just the beginning."

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🔥 End of Chapter 4 Hook:

"The Nexus had found its weapon. And soon, the multiverse would learn its name."

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