The sky tore open like a wound across existence.
Not a crack, not a lightning strike. Something older than time itself had ripped through the heavens, spilling darkness, fire, and impossible light across the horizon.
Auren Veythar froze on the balcony of the Astral Observation Institute, staring at stars that had burned for millennia… disappearing one by one. It wasn't dimming. It wasn't obscured. They were erased.
His terminal screamed alarms, but the sound didn't matter. Gravity stuttered. Oceans lifted from their beds. Cities swayed, buildings twisting like paper in a storm that obeyed no law of physics.
Then came the creatures.
They weren't beasts. They weren't demons. They weren't dragons—at least, not any dragons anyone had ever imagined. They were fractured fragments of reality given form. Multi-limbed, impossibly tall, some glowing with shattered constellations, others with voices that vibrated through matter itself.
One approached the city. Its eyes were fractal, infinite, and cold.
Auren's heart stopped.
He had spent his life studying universes, laws, Daos. He thought he understood physics, causality, energy. None of it mattered. None of it prepared him for this.
People screamed. The city's defenses activated. Lasers tore through the air, orbital missiles fired, yet the creature didn't even flinch. It moved through the city like a tide, bending space with every step. Reality itself buckled beneath its weight.
Auren's throat tightened. He saw children, parents, friends—all vanishing as if existence itself rejected them. He wanted to run, to hide.
But he couldn't.
Something deeper than survival instinct surged inside him.
"This… cannot be the end."
Then it happened.
White.
Not light. Not brightness. Absolute white. A void so pure it erased everything around it. The screams, the collapsing buildings, the impossible creatures—all gone.
And a voice, cold and mechanical, yet resonant, filled his mind:
[Infinite Return System Activated]
[Candidate Selected: Auren Veythar]
[Amplification Protocol Initialized]
[Return Range: ×100–×10,000]
[Information Access: Restricted]
Auren's knees buckled.
"Restricted?" he whispered. "What… what do you mean?"
[Access Denied Until Survivability Confirmed]
He felt his body disintegrate. Not his body, exactly, but his very existence. Memory, soul, essence—torn apart and remade. Pain exploded through every nerve. And then… silence.
When Auren opened his eyes, he was back on the streets of Ashveil.
But the city was… different. Broken in ways that made no sense. The air shimmered with energy. Gravity bent subtly underfoot. And the creatures—the three-meter-tall, multi-limbed abominations—prowled the streets, hunting.
Something in his chest tightened.
He tried to move… and felt it.
Every muscle, every fiber, every instinct had been amplified thousands of times. He flexed his hands. The air rippled. His senses—sight, sound, smell, even the faint hum of laws around him—had sharpened beyond comprehension.
[Mortal Frame Rank 1 Established]
[Initial Adaptation ×6,742 Applied]
He turned just in time to see a creature lunge at him. Its claws were the size of tree trunks. Its mouth glowed with fractured starlight.
Instinct exploded.
Auren ducked, pivoted, and struck. His fist connected with the creature's chest—and reality shattered. It didn't scream. It didn't roar. It fractured into light shards, dispersing into nothingness.
His breath caught. His body throbbed with energy he didn't understand. This was the amplification. This was the system.
And yet… he sensed something else.
A shadow. Watching him from beyond the warped sky. Something older than the multiverse itself, studying him, waiting.
Auren fell to his knees, hands trembling. Around him, the city still burned. The air was heavy, thick with the scent of ozone and primordial energy.
And then the first thought came:
If the universe can be destroyed…
…then maybe it can be rebuilt.
He closed his eyes, feeling the system inside him. The amplification. The randomness. The power.
×100 could save him for today.
×10,000 could remake him into something… unimaginable.
And that uncertainty—the chaos of what he could become—was intoxicating.
He opened his eyes.
The creature from the shadows stepped forward—this one was smarter, faster, radiating an aura that whispered of multiversal authority.
Auren clenched his fists, feeling every fiber of his being burning with potential, yet restrained.
"I am Auren Veythar. I survived when nothing else could. I will learn. I will grow. I will return… stronger."
The creature lunged.
The city shattered.
The multiverse waited.
And somewhere, the Observer smiled.