The assassination attempt came on day 1,247.
I was in my palace, reviewing reports from my various Client States, when reality shattered.
Not metaphorically—the space around me literally cracked like glass, and through the cracks came weapons I'd never
seen before. Reality-severing blades. Existence-erasure bombs. Ontological poison designed to unmake beings at the
conceptual level.
My Aegis activated instantly, deflecting everything. The Regulator entered Protected State, seizing control of all system
functions to prevent whatever this was from compromising the Contract.
And then I felt something unprecedented:
My Aegis was struggling.
Chapter 7: The Great Conspiracy
Not failing—not yet—but actually having to work to maintain protection. Whatever these weapons were, they were
powerful enough to challenge absolute defense.
I teleported immediately, relocating to my pocket dimension while I analyzed what had just happened.
The attack had come from multiple directions simultaneously. Not just cosmic entities, but other mortals I'd granted power
to. Subjects from several Client States, working together.
They'd tried to kill me.
Worse: they'd come close to succeeding.
REGULATOR ALERT
Conspiracy detected. Multiple Subjects across 7 Client States have been secretly coordinating.
Analysis suggests external influence—signatures match Concordance manipulation, but also several unknown cosmic
entities.
Estimated conspiracy size: 2,400+ Subjects.
Recommendation: IMMEDIATE AND SEVERE RESPONSE REQUIRED.
Two thousand four hundred Subjects. Out of my current total of 7,892.
Nearly a third of my people had betrayed me.
The rage that filled me was cold and analytical. I'd made a mistake—I'd assumed that granting wishes and providing
power would guarantee loyalty. That people would be grateful.
I'd forgotten that people are people. They want more. They get greedy. They resent authority, even when that authority is
the source of their power.
And apparently, my enemies had figured out that while they couldn't kill me directly, they could turn my own people
against me.
Time to remind everyone why that was a bad idea.
I activated the Regulator's Absolute Failsafe on every single Subject implicated in the conspiracy.
All 2,400 of them.
Simultaneously.
Across seven worlds, in hundreds of locations, the traitors simply stopped. Mid-sentence. Mid-step. Mid-thought. The
Regulator seized total control of their bodies and minds, suppressing their consciousness completely.
Then I gave an order through the system:
Walk to the nearest public space. Kneel. Wait.
I watched through the Admin Panel as 2,400 formerly independent people became puppets, moving in perfect sync, all
following my command. They walked through streets, into town squares, onto public stages. And they knelt.
Once they were all in position, I used my spatial manipulation to teleport to each location in sequence—a few seconds
per world, appearing before the kneeling masses like an angry god.
And I made an example.
I didn't kill them. That would have been mercy.
Instead, I stripped them. Of everything.
Every wish they'd purchased—reversed. Every power they'd gained—removed. Every bit of progress they'd made
through the Contract—erased.
I reduced them back to exactly what they'd been before accepting my offer. Powerless. Desperate. Normal.
Then I released the Failsafe and let them remember what they'd lost.
The screaming was satisfying.
But I wasn't done.
I addressed them—all 2,400, across all seven worlds, my voice transmitted through the system directly into their minds:
"You betrayed me. You tried to kill me after I gave you power you never would have achieved otherwise. You thought you
could conspire in secret, thought you could challenge the Sovereign."
"You were wrong."
"I could kill you now. I could unmake you from reality so thoroughly that you'd never have existed at all. But death is too
clean. Instead, you'll live with what you've lost. You'll remember what it felt like to be powerful, to be special, to matter—
and you'll spend the rest of your lives knowing you threw it away."
"And everyone else will remember what happens to traitors."
I terminated their Contracts permanently. Erased their Dashboard access. Locked them out of the system forever.
Then I left them there—kneeling in public spaces, powerless and humiliated, while crowds of normal citizens gathered to
watch.
The message spread rapidly through my empire:
The Sovereign's mercy is not infinite.
In the aftermath, I enacted reforms.
I increased monitoring of all Subjects through the Regulator. Any hint of disloyalty would be flagged immediately.
I raised the tax rate to 70% for all non-essential Subjects. Only my inner circle—the ones I truly trusted—kept favorable
rates.
I implemented mandatory "loyalty tasks"—assignments designed not to earn Points but to test commitment. Subjects
who hesitated or refused were watched more closely.
And I purchased a new wish:
PURCHASE CONFIRMED
Wish: "I wish for the ability to perceive and influence the emotional states of all Subjects—detect deception, induce
loyalty, suppress rebellious impulses."
Cost: 94,447 Points
Remaining balance: 1,847,921 Points
It was subtle, but effective. I couldn't control their minds directly—that would have been too obvious, would have
destroyed the illusion of free will that made the Contract attractive. But I could nudge. Encourage. Redirect.
Make betrayal feel wrong at a fundamental emotional level.
After implementing these changes, the conspiracy problem evaporated. Oh, there were still Subjects who resented me,
who chafed under my authority. But now they kept those feelings internal. Manageable.
The incident taught me an important lesson: power isn't just about capability. It's about control. About ensuring that the
people beneath you never believe they can successfully challenge you.
Fear and gratitude in perfect balance.
Year four brought the first overtures from the truly ancient entities.
The Concordance and its contemporaries—organizations millions of years old—were one tier of cosmic power. But there
were older things. Entities that predated the current universe. Things that existed in the spaces between realities, that
had witnessed countless Big Bangs and heat deaths.
One of them reached out to me.
It called itself the Architect, and it appeared as geometric shapes that made my enhanced brain hurt to perceive. When it
spoke, its voice contained mathematical concepts I could barely process even with superhuman intelligence.
"SOVEREIGN A. WE HAVE OBSERVED YOUR RISE WITH INTEREST."
"And what interest would that be?" I asked carefully. This entity was powerful enough that I wasn't sure my Aegis could
fully protect me against it.
"YOU REPRESENT A PATTERN WE HAVE NOT OBSERVED BEFORE. A MORTAL WHO HAS ACQUIRED REALITYWARPING CAPABILITIES WITHOUT TRADITIONAL ASCENSION PATHWAYS. YOUR CONTRACT—IT IS
UNPRECEDENTED."
"Is that a problem?"
"ON THE CONTRARY. IT IS FASCINATING. WE COLLECT INTERESTING THINGS, SOVEREIGN. UNIQUE
PATTERNS. NOVEL CONFIGURATIONS OF POSSIBILITY."
"I'm not for sale."
"WE DO NOT WISH TO PURCHASE YOU. WE WISH TO OBSERVE. AND PERHAPS... ASSIST."
That got my attention. "Assist how?"
"THE CONCORDANCE AND ITS CONTEMPORARIES—THEY ARE YOUNG. FOOLISH. THEY CLING TO ORDER
AND HIERARCHY BECAUSE THEY FEAR CHAOS. BUT YOU REPRESENT EVOLUTION. DISRUPTION. THE
POSSIBILITY OF SOMETHING NEW."
"WE WOULD SEE WHAT BECOMES OF THIS. AND TO THAT END, WE OFFER KNOWLEDGE. THERE ARE
WISHES YOU HAVE NOT CONCEIVED. POWERS YOUR LIMITED MORTAL IMAGINATION CANNOT GRASP. WE
WILL SHARE THEM. IN EXCHANGE..."
"In exchange for what?"
"CONTINUE TO BE INTERESTING. CONTINUE TO DISRUPT. CONTINUE TO PROVE THAT MORTALITY IS NOT A
LIMITATION BUT A VARIABLE."
It was a deal with something that might as well be the devil. But I'd come too far to be cautious now.
"Show me," I said.
The Architect shared knowledge that fundamentally changed my understanding of reality.
I learned that the universe I inhabited was just one of countless parallel variants. That consciousness itself was a form of
energy that could be manipulated. That the "laws" of physics were more like suggestions, enforceable only because most
beings believed they were absolute.
And it showed me wishes I'd never imagined:
CONCEPTUAL-TIER WISHES
1. "I wish to exist as a quantum superposition—simultaneously present in all possible timelines, able to select the most
favorable outcome and make it concrete."
POINT COST: 34,891,447 Points
2. "I wish to transcend individual existence and become a memetic entity—an idea that exists in the consciousness of
billions, drawing power from belief and worship."
POINT COST: 78,449,274 Points
3. "I wish to rewrite the nature of consciousness itself—make it so that all sentient beings in the universe are
fundamentally loyal to me at the level of their core being."
POINT COST: 994,382,447 Points
That last one made me pause. It was the ultimate control—not just individual domination, but rewriting the fundamental
code of sentience so that loyalty to me was as natural as breathing.
It was also horrifying. Even I could see that.
But the thought wouldn't leave my mind:
If I purchased that wish, I could never be betrayed again. Never be challenged. Never be threatened. Every conscious
being in reality would be mine.
Complete. Absolute. Final.
The Architect observed me considering it.
"THAT WISH IS POPULAR AMONG THOSE WHO ASCEND TO ULTIMATE POWER," it said. "AND ALSO
UNIVERSALLY REGRETTED."
"Why?"
"BECAUSE ONCE ALL BEINGS ARE LOYAL BY NATURE, THEY CEASE TO BE PEOPLE. THEY BECOME
EXTENSIONS OF THE SELF. AND RULING A UNIVERSE OF YOURSELF IS... BORING."
"MOST WHO PURCHASE IT END UP UNMAKING IT WITHIN A SUBJECTIVE CENTURY. THE LONELINESS
BECOMES UNBEARABLE."
I closed the wish list.
"I'll keep that in mind."