The sky screamed.
It didn't thunder, didn't roar — it screamed, like something alive being torn apart. Aiden Vale stood frozen on the cracked concrete of Central Square, staring upward as the heavens split open like shattered glass.
Reality fractured.
Blue daylight bled into swirling violet storms. Buildings twisted like melting wax. Cars rose into the air and crumpled into metallic debris spirals. And then came the light.
A bright pillar pierced the city and detonated.
Aiden didn't feel pain. Just silence.
Then darkness.
—————
He woke up coughing.
Air burned his lungs. Dust choked his throat. Sirens wailed in the distance, warped and broken like dying things. He pushed himself up and almost collapsed again.
The world… was wrong.
Half the city floated in the air like islands ripped from the ground. Fragments of streets hung suspended, waterfalls of debris constantly spilling into the abyss below. Black cracks pulsed in the sky, bleeding violet energy.
And monsters crawled out of them.
Aiden staggered backward as a creature dragged itself onto the fractured road. It had too many limbs. Too many eyes. Too many teeth.
It stared at him.
He couldn't move.
Then something clicked inside his skull.
[Realm Monarch System Booting…]
[Host Identified: Aiden Vale]
[Timeline Divergence Confirmed]
[Authority Granted: Territory | Control | Evolution]
A translucent window snapped open in front of him.
A game interface.
No… something far more real.
[Welcome back, Monarch.]
His heart stopped.
Back?
A flood of memories slammed into him. He remembered running. He remembered watching the world burn. He remembered dying.
And waking up again.
"…No," he whispered. "This is impossible."
The monster lunged.
Instinct took over. His hand shot out — not to block — but because something inside him commanded him to.
The world obeyed.
The ground beneath the creature warped, bending like liquid before snapping upward and impaling it with jagged stone. The monster screamed before dissolving into violet ash.
Aiden stared at his shaking hands.
He hadn't cast a spell.
He had ordered reality.
Another window appeared.
[Territory Claimed: Ruined Central Square]
[Status: Unstable]
[Monarch Objective: Survive. Conquer. Restore.]
The wind howled.
The sky screamed again.
And Aiden Vale… smiled.
"If this world is broken," he whispered, eyes burning with newfound resolve,
"Then I'll rebuild it… in my image."