The air seemed to get thicker as these words boomed into Domison's mind. A viscosity permeated the space around him and suddenly it became harder to breathe. He felt as if he was standing naked on a pedestal in the middle of a massive crowd and under a huge spotlight. The feeling of exposure was so much worse than when he had been at the auction house as a small boy though. A presence of self that made him feel completely vulnerable, pushing upon him like a weighted blanket made for a sperm whale.

Domison's knees felt extremely close to collapsing beneath him. No matter how much the feeling persisted though, his legs never faltered, it was as if he had been electrocuted. All of his muscles were pulled extremely taut as if he was flexing every single one in tandem. Even the bands of muscle running along his jaw were sticking out in sharp retort.

'This time, child, you cannot avoid my depths. I have foreseen it. The crack in the celestial frame created by your weapon has allowed me to trace it forward. And you, my son, are near the apex of the explosion. The Omnicrux will forcefully expand the tear, flooding into the world with its system while you will disintegrate into dust without a chance to obtain true power.'

Every word resounded within Domison's head, crashing into his psyche as hammer blows. He could quite literally FEEL the truth shuddering behind every syllable. For the first time in twenty years, he felt a deep primordial fear running through him. No longer did he feel like a man standing tall. No, he was a rabbit cowering before a wolf. He HAD to get home, to get out of this place. Fuck the bomb, he had to get away.

He knew that if he didn't come home, his dog wouldn't leave. His pup would wait for him evermore. That was the kind of relationship they had. They were family and neither had another being in the world they cared for more. That dog was truly the only thing left that Domison considered kin on the whole of Terra. A deep sense of dread and obstinance flared up within him and he clenched his teeth hard, causing an awful squeaking to bounce around in his head.

'GOOD.' The voice seemed to growl with pleasure. 'The Abyss is beyond mortality and I wish to offer you its power, my child. You reek of death and will bring much more of it if you are allowed to persist, yet I feel a certain balance about you. Balance is what is needed, so I will grant you power, and you will be my reaper upon this newly transformed celestial body.'

Domison was trying to register the complete dumb-fuckery he had just heard. No matter the weight behind the entity in his mind's words, the absolute absurdity of them stunned him. Reaper? Omnicrux? Before Domison could even begin to wrap his still traumatized mind around the absolute insanity of what was going on, everything suddenly became very, very bright and then the world began to explode around him.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

In the split seconds it took for the fireball to completely envelop the room, time seemed to stretch to an infinite point and Domison’s eyes adjusted to the bloom. The darkness of the cavernous room had been chased away by fire spreading along metal surfaces. Bloody red un-light no longer held any influence on the luminescence attempting to fill the world and the room was flooded with orange light. Now that time had slowed from a rushing river to a placid lake, Domison’s racing mind began to slow and calm. With a detached amusement, Domison noticed that the metal walls had already begun glowing cherry red and his eyes wandered through the liquid flame flowing through the room in slow motion. He realized then that he had reached out to the glass again while in the pitch dark, his palm placed firmly against the still-cool surface.

'I will take you away from this place for a time, and fret not my child, I will protect your canine familiar while you are away. You will find I have quite the fondness for beasts.' At those words, time resumed its rapid pace. Domison’s impending death suddenly seemed to loom over him, overwhelmingly imposing in its finality, but he still felt an odd calmness sweeping through him.

The instant before the heat ate away at his clothing and scorched nerve endings to ash, the man noticed something odd. The glass under his palm seemed to have a wide spiderweb crack running through it and the fleshy black substance had reached a tendril out to him. It was pressed up against the glass right beneath his palm, straining to make contact through the growing fractures. As the fire began to consume him the cracks expanded at a frightening rate, until the glass burst outwards in an instant. Before Domison even had a moment to clench his jaw in agony, the flash shattered and a fleshy mass swept forwards at lightning speeds, enveloping him in complete darkness.

The only sensation Domison could feel after being wrapped up inside the mass was the feeling that his body was being suffocated. The black flesh was wrapping around his body so tight it was unbearable. As he felt his skin begin to char in the heat that reached him even through the fleshy mass enveloping him, something changed suddenly. The difference was jarring and his entire form felt like it was being compressed to the size of a pinpoint and stretched across an untold amount of space. He felt as though he was going to tear apart and he wanted to scream but not even the final wheezing gasps of a burning man slipped from between his cracked lips. The pain was over in a heartbeat, however, and his charred flesh cooled immediately after, all semblance of heat that had dug into his bones dissipating. His consciousness faded then, matching the darkness wrapped around him like a blanket and he dreamt an old dream. One of an infinite forest lit by no moon, and a massive monster with glowing red eyes stalking between the trees.