The universe noticed me on day forty-three.
I was in the middle of assigning tasks to my now twenty-seven Subjects when reality shuddered. There's no better word
for it. The air around me rippled like heat waves, and for a fraction of a second, I felt something vast and
incomprehensibly ancient turn its attention toward me.
Then it was gone.
My Sovereign's Aegis had activated automatically, deflecting whatever that had been. According to my Admin Panel, I'd
been scanned by an external force—something probing the Contract, trying to understand what was disrupting the
natural order.
ALERT
Sovereign's Aegis activated.
External investigation detected and deflected.
Source: Unknown. Classification: Divine/Cosmic tier.
Recommendation: Exercise increased caution. Higher-dimensional entities may have detected the Contract's influence
on reality.
Divine. Cosmic.
Gods.
The thought should have terrified me. Instead, I felt a strange thrill. I'd known, intellectually, that the Contract was
rewriting reality every time a wish was granted. I'd known that such fundamental alterations would create ripples,
Chapter 3: Divine Attention
disturbances in the metaphysical fabric.
But I hadn't really believed that anything would notice.
Apparently, I'd been wrong.
I spent the next week researching everything I could find about divine entities, cosmic beings, and higher-dimensional
existence. Most of it was speculative nonsense—religious texts, occult forums, conspiracy theories.
But some patterns emerged.
Across cultures and mythologies, there were consistent descriptions of powerful beings that existed outside normal
spacetime. Entities that maintained the "natural order" of reality. Gods, angels, demons, cosmic regulators—names
varied, but the concept was universal.
And if such beings existed, my Contract was exactly the kind of thing that would piss them off.
I was a mortal who'd been given the power to rewrite reality on a whim. I was violating causality, breaking natural law,
granting wishes that shouldn't be possible. Every Subject I recruited, every task I assigned, every wish I granted—all of it
was disrupting the way things were "supposed" to be.
The question was: what would they do about it?
The answer came three days later.
I was walking back to my apartment when I felt it again—that sense of vast attention. But this time, it didn't stop with the
Aegis deflection.
This time, something manifested.
The street around me went silent. Not quiet—silent. The ambient sounds of the city cut off completely, like someone had
hit a mute button on reality. The other pedestrians froze mid-step, locked in place like statues.
Time hadn't stopped. I could still move. But everything else had been paused.
And in front of me, hovering three feet off the ground, was a being.
It was humanoid, roughly, but wrong in ways that made my eyes hurt to process. Its proportions shifted constantly—too
tall, then too wide, then correct for a moment before distorting again. Its skin was a color I couldn't name, something
outside the normal spectrum. Its eyes were brilliant points of light that seemed to contain spiraling galaxies.
When it spoke, the words bypassed my ears and formed directly in my mind.
"MORTAL. YOU HAVE BEEN DETECTED."
The Sovereign's Aegis was active—I could feel it like a shield around me, preventing the entity from touching me directly
or reading my thoughts. But it couldn't stop communication.
I forced myself to breathe normally. To stay calm.
"And you are?" I asked, surprised at how steady my voice sounded.
"I AM ARCHON MERIDAX, FOURTH ADJUNCT OF THE CELESTIAL CONCORDANCE. I ENFORCE THE NATURAL
ORDER ACROSS THREE HUNDRED FORTY-TWO PLANETARY SYSTEMS."
A cosmic bureaucrat. Great.
"What do you want with me?"
"YOU HAVE VIOLATED SEVENTEEN METAPHYSICAL LAWS IN THE PAST FORTY-THREE DIURNAL CYCLES.
YOU ARE ALTERING REALITY WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION. YOU ARE DISRUPTING THE CAUSAL CHAIN. YOU
ARE CREATING PARADOX DEBT THAT WILL REQUIRE MILLENIA TO RESOLVE."
"I haven't created any paradoxes," I said. "My system prevents those."
"YOUR SYSTEM IS AN ABOMINATION. IT SHOULD NOT EXIST. IT GRANTS POWER TO MORTALS THAT THEY
HAVE NOT EARNED THROUGH PROPER ASCENSION CHANNELS. IT BREAKS THE HIERARCHY."
Ah. So that was it. Not a matter of cosmic law or universal balance—just a bureaucrat upset that I'd found a backdoor to
power without going through official channels.
"That sounds like a you problem," I said.
The being's form rippled with what might have been anger.
"YOU WILL CEASE YOUR ACTIVITIES IMMEDIATELY. DISSOLVE YOUR CONTRACT. RELEASE YOUR SUBJECTS.
IF YOU COMPLY, WE WILL SHOW MERCY—A QUICK ERASURE FROM REALITY, PAINLESS AND COMPLETE."
"And if I don't?"
"THEN WE WILL TAKE MORE AGGRESSIVE MEASURES. THE CONCORDANCE HAS ALREADY DISPATCHED A
TRIBUNAL TO ASSESS YOUR THREAT LEVEL. IF THEY DEEM YOU IRREDEEMABLE, SANCTIONED
ELIMINATION PROTOCOLS WILL BE AUTHORIZED."
The being began to fade, its message delivered.
"YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED, MORTAL. ACCEPT MERCY WHILE IT IS OFFERED."
Then it was gone. Sound returned to the city. The pedestrians resumed walking, unaware that anything had happened.
I stood there for a long moment, processing.
Then I laughed.
They were scared. These cosmic beings, these self-appointed guardians of reality—they were scared of me. Of what I
represented.
Good.
Let them be scared.
I returned to my apartment and immediately convened an emergency session with my most trusted Subjects. Not all
twenty-seven—I didn't trust most of them that much yet. But the core group I'd been cultivating: Jessica, Marcus, and
three others who'd proven themselves exceptional.
I explained what had happened. I watched their faces as the reality of our situation sank in.
"So we're being hunted by gods," Marcus said flatly. "Great."
"Not gods exactly," I corrected. "Cosmic entities. Enforcers of the natural order. They maintain the status quo across
hundreds of worlds."
"That's not better," Jessica said. Her hands were shaking. "How do we fight something like that?"
"We don't," I said. "Not yet. We're not strong enough. But we will be."
I pulled up my Admin Panel and showed them the Strategic Recommendations feed from the Regulator. The system had
been analyzing the threat and suggesting countermeasures.
REGULATOR ANALYSIS
Threat Assessment: HIGH. Celestial Concordance possesses reality-warping capabilities that exceed current Sovereign
defenses.
However: Sovereign's Aegis provides absolute protection against direct attacks. They cannot kill you through
conventional means.
Weakness Identified: Concordance operates through legal/bureaucratic frameworks. They will attempt to build a case,
gather evidence, and obtain authorization before taking aggressive action. This provides a time window.
Recommendation: Accelerate Point acquisition. Purchase defensive and offensive capabilities. Recruit more Subjects.
Expand influence.
Secondary Recommendation: Target Concordance infrastructure if possible. Disrupting their operations will delay
response.
Tertiary Recommendation: Seek allies among other entities who oppose Concordance control.
"We need to get stronger, faster," I told my Subjects. "That means more aggressive Point farming. More wishes granted.
More reality alterations. We're going to poke the hornet's nest harder until I'm powerful enough to burn it down."
"That's insane," Jessica whispered.
"No," I said. "It's survival. They've already decided to eliminate me. Being cautious won't save me. The only way out is
through."
I assigned them new tasks—dangerous ones, worth massive Point rewards. Research assignments to learn more about
cosmic entities and their weaknesses. Recruitment tasks to bring in more Subjects faster. Supply gathering for materials
I'd need for upcoming wishes.
And I opened my Wish List to plan my next purchases.
SOVEREIGN WISH LIST - PRIORITY QUEUE
1. "I wish for the ability to perceive and interact with higher-dimensional entities and constructs."
POINT COST: 892 Points
2. "I wish for offensive reality-warping capabilities—localized alterations within a 100-meter radius, limited to physical
matter and energy."
POINT COST: 1,247 Points
3. "I wish for a pocket dimension—a personal space outside normal reality, accessible only to me and those I permit,
where time flows differently (1 day inside = 1 hour outside)."
POINT COST: 2,116 Points
Expensive. So expensive. But necessary.
At my current Point accumulation rate, with tax collection from twenty-seven Subjects, I'd have enough for the first wish in
about two weeks.
Not fast enough.
I needed more Subjects. Way more.
"I'm changing the tax rate," I announced. "Fifty percent on all Point earnings going forward."
They didn't complain. They couldn't, really—I was the Sovereign, and the system enforced my authority. But I saw the
resignation in their eyes.
"I know it's not fair," I said, and I meant it. "But fair doesn't matter anymore. The Concordance doesn't care about
fairness. They care about maintaining their power structure, and I'm a threat to it. So we either get strong enough to fight
back, or we all get erased from reality. Your choice."
Marcus spoke up. "What do we get if we win?"
I smiled. "Everything. A world where the old rules don't apply anymore. Where power goes to people who earn it, not
people born with it. Where desperate people don't have to stay desperate."
It was a pretty speech. I almost believed it myself.
But really, I just wanted to win. To prove that I could. To take everything the universe had denied me and make it mine.
The Subjects agreed. They always agreed.
After they left, I purchased my first offensive capability—a small one, just to test the system.
PURCHASE CONFIRMED
Wish: "I wish for the ability to generate and control electricity within a 5-meter radius, up to 10,000 volts."
Cost: 89 Points
Remaining balance: 125 Points
Processing...
Lightning crackled between my fingers. I felt the power singing in my nerves, ready to be unleashed.
The gods wanted to threaten me?
Let them try.