"A girl calls and asks, "Does it hurt very much to die?"

"Well, sweetheart," I tell her, "yes, but it hurts a lot more to keep living."

― Chuck Palahniuk, Survivor

Ven’s eyes opened and he saw the world for the first time. Since his rebirth, his senses had been sensitive. This was different. He could hear the song of the world, taste the composition of reality on his tongue. The runes that replaced his pupils pierced the veil and revealed…

“Truth…” The word slipped from his lips as he observed the Titan’s fist. It glided through the air, slow and obvious. “I see your weakness…”

A ripple of power guided Ven around the Titan’s attack and brought him to the man’s heart. The core of cores, the centre of the web. Giant had one of these as well… or Ven did… It stood first among the many and held the others in balance.

“Hhhoooowww…” The Titan’s words drawled out, almost too slow for Ven to understand. The Man’s toothy face tipped down, too late to stop what was to come.

Ven pulled all the mysterious energy within him, wrapped it up and drove it into his fist. An ant struck a mountain and the universe collapsed. Ven’s blow sheared the layers from the Titan’s core, a big bang that forced a howl from the mad man’s throat. Time returned and the mass of his foe slipped away.

“Impossible…” Core after core collapsed with the Titan’s frame, shattered by the aftershock. He drifted back, into the absent void created by Ven’s attack. “You’re a God of Faith… our kind can’t take in faith…”

“I am not your kind…” Ven panted before the shrunken Titan. He’d given everything, yet more energy seeped from his realm to hold him on his feet. “Every power I’ve met claims they've figured me out, but you’re all wrong…”

He guided the supposed faith energy into his cores and soothed their drained wellsprings. The runes on his body lost their glow and his vision returned to the mundane. The truth of things no longer fell into his mind like jewels.

“Maybe…” The titan laughed through his pain. Great cracks splintered over his body, waves of chaotic force. “They won’t ever let you go, just like with me,” he forced his head into line with Ven and gave him a hard stare. “The Gods will betray any mortal that rises above their station… once you’ve gained the strength you desire, they will come for you.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“If they come, they can join you,” Ven extended his aura and wrapped the Titan, laughter and all, in a wave of midnight. He might not devour universes, but he would eat things that did. “You’re all grass in the field, and we both know… I’m always hungry…”

The aura constricted and Ven ripped the leftover energy from the Titan’s body. He syphoned until a familiar tingle caused him to twitch back. A solitary coin floated in the destabilised universe, black iron coated in silver runes. A wave of his hand and it returned to his storage pouch.

“Every time I wake up, I have to go full force until I want a nap!” Ven stretched and let his aura burrow into the closest universal wall. “I need to find a peaceful spot and visit the realm…”

“HALT!” A winged woman, covered in heavy silver armour, advanced towards him through the universal barrier. “Who are you, and where is the Titan…” She sniffed and brought her fiery sword to bear. “You smell of his kind, prepare yourself!”

Ven gazed at the woman through dull eyes. His power was depleted. Only his body was in fighting form, with his aura and cores in need of time to finish their work. His instincts were silent, so he ignored her and pressed on.

“DIE FIEND!” The Angel lunged forward, but was stopped short of her target's throat. Ven held the tip of her sword between his fingers, firm against her effort to reclaim it. “What…”

“You’re really weak for someone so aggressive,” Ven squinted. His fingers tapped on the blade in their grasp and vibrated it from her grasp. “I’m just looking for a place to sleep, I even got rid of the Titan for you guys…”

This woman was likely related to the One God of this multiverse. Ven didn’t want to make enemies, and he’d already stolen the infinite Earths from the fellow. He wouldn’t injure the woman, just shoo her on her way and escape. He should probably return to the ocean of death, the black waters that carried the many multiverses to an unknown place.

“You what?” The Angel glanced at her hands, no doubt numbed when Ven disarmed her. Her wings twitched and lifted her up, fists tightened. “Impossible! No one but Lady Fate can stand against him…”

Ven bent her stolen sword until it snapped and tossed a piece into his mouth. Milky smooth, with a finish of peppers… better than the Dragon King’s house by a country mile! The remaining sword followed in a fragmented rush.

“HEY!” The Angel scrambled forward, held back by a thread of his aura. “THAT'S MINE! A gift from my…” She drooped as the hilt vanished past Ven’s lips.

“If you valued it, then you should have kept it to yourself,” Ven dropped out of the universal barrier and settled onto a rose coloured star. “Now go away, I need to take a breath…”

He’d been assaulted the moment he awoke. Nothing new, but aggravating regardless. He had to figure out how much time had passed and discover the condition of his friends. His body was in good shape, odd, since he’d been at the end of his ropes versus the Titan.

“I WILL NOT!” The Angel joined him on the sun’s surface and stomped her foot. A blow that generated a wave his aura smoothed away. “YOU ATE MY SWORD!”

“And you tried to stick me with it,” Ven placed a key into the air and turned, an act that spawned a portal to his realm. He waved his hand and tumbled the woman into the golden gateway. “Get in there… we’ll talk inside.”