In an alternate dimension around the world, within the divine realm of the god of protection, dreams, and swift judgment, Adam remained seated upon his throne.
The palace made of white marble and gold was quiet, adam sat alone watching. Before him hung a thin veil of light, a living window through which he watched Enoch.
Enoch turned the floating interface this way and that, eyes wide, caution warring with disbelief.
Adam tilted his head slightly.
"He doesn't look as excited as I expected him to be. Fitting, since he is not someone from my world. Any of those enthusiasts would be losing their mind right now," he said flatly.
He rose.
Even that small motion caused the air to move slightly, as though creation itself adjusted when he moved.
At the far end of the hall rested what appeared to be a simple glass bead, suspended in nothing.
Adam approached it slowly.
For a moment, his reflection stared back at him through the curved surface, blue hair bright against the endless glow.
"I had almost forgotten you existed " he murmured.
His fingers touched the bead.
"Return."
The command was soft, yet absolute.
Golden light erupted from within the glass, not violently but with immense pressure, like a star suddenly remembering how to burn. The radiance poured into him in spiraling currents, wrapping around his limbs, threading through his mind.
He guided it carefully, sending the divine essence around his body and brain, never toward his heart, lest chaos devour it.
As the power settled, his perception widened.
He felt life.
Not merely within one world, but across the spinning infinities that circled heaven within the bead. Sparks flickered and vanished. Entire civilizations dimmed unnoticed.
All but extinguishing.
"Sorry," he said quietly to the bead as fractures began crawling across its surface.
"but I need this back. Return to where you came from."
The last of the light drained away, then the bead shattered into silvery dust that dissolved before it could fall.
Adam exhaled.
"I had forgotten how much of myself I stored inside this."
Then—
Reality screamed. From within the floating window to the mortal world, a crack appeared above the world.
Not a trick of the light, but a literal fracture.
It split the firmament like torn fabric, edges writhing as though the sky were alive and in pain. From within leaked a colour that did not belong to existence, something the mind would struggle to hold without recoiling.
Then, "it" emerged.
An eldritch mass forced itself toward the opening, tentacles folding over one another in slick coils, its vast body neither solid nor fluid. Faces seemed half formed along its surface, dissolving before recognition.
At its center, a mouth curved into a sinister smile. When it spoke, the sound did not travel through air, it arrived directly inside the minds of those who perceived its words.
Across the world, creatures clutched their heads. Birds fell mid flight, beasts collapsed into the dirt, men and women dropped to their knees as sharp agony speared through their minds.
Even the gods felt it, Adam's fingers twitched once. As pain bloomed behind his eyes, brief but unmistakably there.
"So this is the source of the disturbance?" the being crooned, its voice layered with laughter that scraped against sanity.
"Hahahaah… Antalos can't shield this world for long. We are coming for this world's life."
The crack trembled, then widened, shrunk slightly and as it began to seal again, millions of beings surged forth from the being's mouth.
Flying horrors with needle wings, twisted humanoids whose limbs bent in too many directions and deformed monstrosities that crawled by tearing at space itself.
They poured through like a living flood.
Adam frowned.
Behind him, the fragments gathered instantly, their colored auras igniting.
"Let's try to stop them from landing onto the earth," he commanded, stretching his hand toward the breach.
The fire within him answered.
Bolts of searing flame ripped upward from the earth, tearing through the first wave of invaders. The creatures shrieked as they were reduced to drifting ash.
The fragments joined him.
Lightning's fury exploded from Anger. Yellow lances from Happiness pierced the swarm. Earth bullets shuddered outward from the earth. Wind, darkness and all the others caused phenomena to manifest on the world.
Yet their rhythm faltered, they moved as individuals, not as one.
Gaps formed, and through those gaps the creatures fell toward the world.
Toward the helpless.
Adam's gaze dropped, piercing layers of cloud and distance until it found the village.
Enoch, almost on queue moved like a drawn blade among the chaos. Five deformed creatures rushed him at once, their limbs snapping with insect speed.
His sword burned. Fire traced the arc of each swing.
One fell.
Then another.
The third tried to lunge from behind, but he pivoted, severing its spine before it touched ground.
The fourth died screaming from a stab to the chest.
The fifth was split cleanly down the center.
A chime rang before him.
[You have levelled up.]
He did not hesitate, he did as the tutorial taught him and allocated stat points.
[+2 Stat Points Allocated: Constitution.]
Warmth spread through his muscles, washing away fatigue. Torn fibers knit. His breath came easier through the fatigue. He looked at his hands his word planted into the ground next to him.
He gave a toothy grin as if he was turning crazy like the god he worshipped.
A creature lunged toward Thomas.
Enoch sprang forward, picking up and throwing the sword which impaled the creature onto a destroyed house's walls.
Another landed behind them, two swift fist strikes on it's neck and head and it fell lifelessly.
The battle did not slow, Adam lifted his gaze from the village, something pressed against the edges of the planet.
Much more stronger things, which were denied entry thanks to the world's suppression.
Without another word, he vanished.
The void greeted him with cold silence as he appeared beyond the boundary.
Then he saw it.
A creature the size of a double decker bus hurtled toward him, its body lined with rotating maws.
Adam waved once.
Green fire bloomed in an arc and the chaos tainted flame consumed the being utterly, leaving nothing behind. Where it had existed, a transparent strand drifted forward and slipped into his hand.
He frowned, the structure of the strand looked like extra thin fibers of long luxurious hair. He pressed hard on it and it snapped in half, and as if given direction it burrowed into his brain. He recoiled from the other strand and feeling a slight tingle stopped momentarily.
His thoughts began to sharpen, connections in his brain cells reformed.
Understanding unfolded, many things he had forgotten, particularly from his previous life began to become clearer and sharper.
A thought came back to his mind, previously he had tried to assimilate with Happiness. His mind had nearly unraveled beneath the weight of emotion.
The combined consciousnesses were too heavy. He needed a stronger consciousness. Unfortunately, the void had offered no guidance on how to nurture a stronger consciousness. He had been stumped, that is, until now.
Realization settled, and without pause, he stretched his hand and guided the other piece of strand to his mind. The familiar feeling of his thoughts speeding up and his understanding becoming deeper washed over him.
As he reveled in this, in his periphery, he saw more creatures approaching the planet, without thinking he flew straight through the dense cluster of the creatures.
Green infernos erupted in his wake, bodies vanished, and strands of consciousness remained behind. Each one then entered his mind like a breath, and his clarity grew.