In a world enveloped by absolute darkness, water rippled underfoot as Asura—a purple-skinned, six-armed entity—paced in growing confusion. He sprinted hundreds of kilometers and launched himself upward, shattering the water's surface, yet every desperate effort failed. He always returned to the exact same spot.
Only a moment ago, he had torn open the gates of hell, overlaying reality with his terrifying illusion. He had been on top of the world. Now, he was trapped in an abyssal void.
"Is this the work of a regressor? Have they shattered my narrative domain?" he thought.
He and his father had anticipated a regressor's interference, but to completely dismantle a narrative domain? This domain was his ultimate power—a realm even the celestials struggled to breach.
A chilling conclusion took root, planting a seed of fear in his heart: his nameless enemy possessed power far exceeding a Celestial. Yet, Asura still held a trump card. Clutched in his grip was a divine narrative artifact gifted by his father figure: the Lance of Destiny, a weapon capable of severing the very fabric of space and time.
[Show yourself!] the purple-skinned entity bellowed. The sheer intensity of his voice sent massive waves rippling across the water beneath his feet, surging into the endless horizon of a seemingly boundless dimension.
Silence answered him. Left with no choice, he realized he had to escape. Deep down, a reluctant admiration stirred; while Asura could only summon a narrative domain, this mysterious adversary had manifested an entire dimension out of thin air.
Taking a few steps forward, the entity abruptly halted. He raised his hand, summoning a glowing golden spell that hovered above him before condensing into shimmering particles. The magic coalesced into a spear in his grip. But just as he tightened his hold, preparing to sever the dimension in half, an unknown force froze him in his tracks.
[God damn it!] He shouted in frustration; his voice alone carried the weight of a comet that splattered the water below him, causing it to rise and fall in billions, if not trillions, of drops like rain.
But something finally happened; all the water faded into a drop of blue, red, and yellow light, and then it assembled into a figure of a female person.
Floating in the middle of the air, radiant with brilliant light that shattered the darkness into a white void, the female figure slowly and gracefully descended and landed her bare feet on the ground, then a heel formed from pink and blue particles appeared beneath her feet.
Her brilliant figure then turned into a dress, and even the light drew her hair. Then her full physical form could be observed; she was the epitome of beauty.
-Is she Lasiv that my father mentioned about? No, but my father mentioned that she has purple hair in her avatar form that showcases her power of true magic, but the lady before me has white hair!-
The Asura with purple skin stood dazed with a mixing feeling of both wonder and fear as he pondered.
Yet, in the next instant, the Asura was frozen—trapped by an invisible force. With the sharp snap of a finger, time ground to a halt, ensnaring even Asura himself. A man with white hair and purple eyes materialized as the world dissolved into a monochrome, colorless void.
[Divine System: Time paused] [Divine System: [?] is breaking the fourth wall]
He looked directly at you, the reader, ambling forward without a care, as if the threat of an Asura amounted to nothing.
"In this story," he said, "an Asura is akin to a demi-god. Neither good nor evil; narrative power is merely a tool to them. Think of them as an Overlord or a titan from ancient scripts! Regardless, I mustn't explain too much. I want you to enjoy the story at your own pace."
A playful, pondering look crossed his face. "I hope the Great Elders don't mind my little joke."
With another snap of his fingers, reality surged back to life.
[Divine System: The system resumed]
In the next heartbeat, something else took the place of the mysterious white-haired man.
She exuded a graceful elegance, levitating slightly as her waterfall-like white hair flowed freely, adorned with a single blue rose. Her captivating purple eyes held a deep hint of mystery. Above her hand hovered a delicate white lotus, seemingly encapsulating the pure essence of nature's beauty, while her flowing white dress appeared to dance on the air.
In that instant, Asura found he could move again. Yet, his eyes remained fixed on the otherworldly presence before him—a being so sublime, yet manifesting in a physical form that his brain could barely comprehend.
Now that he could move again, he summoned a golden lance back into his hand and pointed at the lady before him.
[Are you Lasiv, the regressor?] he asked, a wide smile spreading across his face. His eyes filled with lust as they trailed down to the perfect curve of her cleavage beneath her white dress.
He remained entirely oblivious to his own powerlessness before her; to an entity like her, he was merely fiction in the face of truth.
The lady offered no verbal response, only a slight shake of her head, signaling that Lasiv was not her name. He pondered confidently, as he had an ace up his sleeve. Now knowing she wasn't the one his father warned him about—the strongest, yet still unawakened regressor on the planet—Asura felt a surge of renewed confidence to confront her.
[Then let's make a deal,] the Asura said, his tone thick with excitement. [If you sleep with me in your mortal form, I will let you go unharmed.]
Arrogant and blindly ignorant—this was precisely how so many great beings met their ultimate downfall.
The white-haired lady offered no response. Instead, she raised her lotus, pointing it toward the sky. Instantly, the empty space dissolved into a mirror-like realm of glass that reflected their images back at them. Then, the glass shattered.
From the fractured void, countless black tentacles forced their way into the dimension. She began to hum, and the colossal appendages responded to her melody as if answering an absolute command. Driven by her song, the mass of tentacles surged forward, reaching out to ensnare the purple-skinned Asura.
Sensing immediate danger, he swung his lance, severing one of the nearest giant tentacles. Yet, something was deeply wrong; a single swing of his lance was supposed to destroy this entire dimension.
[Impossible! How can the holy lance fail to pierce this dimension with a single strike?!]
As terror gripped him, he looked back at the white-haired lady. Her elegant form was gradually shifting, morphing into a man of the same height with short white hair and a menacing smile.
Desperate, Asura kept swinging his spear, slicing through every colossal tentacle that breached his defenses. His speed was incredible, but the writhing mass seemed infinite—and they were gradually closing in.
As a last resort, Asura raised his spear, channeling the entirety of his narrative energy into the weapon.
[Divine System: The divine narrative artifact "The Lance of Destiny." has been activating.]
He hurled the lance directly at the white-haired man. As it projected forward, the dimension shattered further, collapsing like a crumbling building. Yet, the moment the weapon was about to reach its target, the woman casually swiped his hand. The divine lance instantly shattered into harmless blue particles.
Asura stared in sheer disbelief. A divine narrative artifact—shattered by the mere swipe of a finger! No matter how powerful the being before him was, not even a Celestial should have withstood a weapon that forged destiny itself. After all, a messiah had died under this very lance!
[How... how?! I refuse to believe this bullshit!] Asura roared as the tentacles finally closed in on him.
The white-haired woman dissolved into shimmering blue particles, casting one final look at the white-haired man as he materialized from nothingness, stepping effortlessly across the rippling water and shattered glass.
Only then did he finally respond. His words echoed heavily, sounding muffled as if distorted by the dense pressure of deep water, yet every single syllable pierced straight through to the Asura:
"The lance could only kill the messiah because he allowed it to. It is merely a useless artifact now. Not even a weapon."
The giant black tentacles tightened their embrace, dragging him down as if he were drowning in the crushing depths of the ocean. As his mind faded, a final, frantic thought bubbled up from the last remaining grasp of his consciousness:
-How? I am the tenth strongest ranker in the solar system! I am an Asura! Beyond that, I possessed a divine narrative artifact—a weapon that should have made me equal to even a low-rank Archon!-
*
The Asura entity, with its purple skin, was consumed by darkness itself. It was transported back to its childhood, witnessing the day it was born and the moment it was sold by its parents to a priest in a medieval setting reminiscent of Tellus in the 10th Yaturian, where magic did not exist.
The priest, who was supposed to provide help and guidance, instead grabbed him and tied him up, then something painful was thrust against his will; they sexually abused the Asura entity in his child and helpless form. Throughout the night, the entity cried for help, but no one came to its aid. Only the wicked and demonic laughter of the paintings surrounding its head echoed in its mind. Its friends suffered a similar fate, as the priest used them to make them completely obedient to the church.
The priest convinced the children that engaging in this sexual intercourse brought them closer to God and heaven. However, they were unaware that the glimpse of heaven they saw was merely a delusion, a rejection of the despairing reality they were trapped in. As ignorant children, they accepted the lies fed to them by the priest.
But the Asura entity, the boy, was the only one who rejected this delusion. He saw the reality for what it truly was. The memory of these events plagued him, refusing to fade away despite his attempts to erase it.
This experience shattered his belief in God and salvation, revealing to him that life was all about selfish pleasure. From that moment onward, he lived his life based on this understanding. He realized that there was no God or salvation, only the harsh reality where the weak were always preyed upon.
Driven by his newfound understanding, the boy sneaked into the room of one priest and killed him. He continued to murder the remaining priests one by one until only three were left. However, he was caught by a heavily armored guard who saw him covered in blood. The guard gave chase, but the boy's physical and mental strength allowed him to steal a horse and escape.
He traveled far away from civilization, across the desert, with no one able to reach him. Eventually, he found himself alone, thirsty, and hungry, with days passing by and no sign of civilization in sight. Only the desert and the dark sky above accompanied him. His horse, too exhausted to continue, finally gave out.
Yet, the boy's will to survive remained strong. In a moment of desperation, he saw a shooting star engulfed in yellow color. Remembering the words of his friend, a girl who had already perished due to constant abuse by the priest, he made a wish upon the shooting star. With his last ounce of strength, he whispered, "I want the power to survive and conquer all of my enemies."
As soon as he made his wish, the boy closed his eyes, and his consciousness faded away. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in a cave, lying on a bed illuminated by a dim campfire. Three individuals were present - a woman wearing a chest and head-covering hijab with silver-mask, and two men with iron and golden masks.
Approaching him, one of the men with a golden mask spoke to the boy, expressing sympathy for his plight. He offered to grant the boy the power he desired but requested that the boy drink a cup of water first. The boy eagerly accepted the cup, drinking the water until it almost overflowed.
With a shy yet excited expression, he nodded and affirmed his desire for power.
The boy's request was acknowledged by the golden-masked man, who had an emblem of the sun cross with a flying eagle on it. He spoke, saying, "I heard you desire power."
The golden-masked man nodded in satisfaction and stood up. He then slightly opened his mask, revealing a glimpse of purple eyes with a golden eagle-like symbol pupils.
Upon looking into the man's eyes, the boy screamed in pain, clutching his face and rolling on the ground. However, the pain abruptly stopped, and the boy stood up, feeling lighter and noticing that his own eyes now bore the same eagle symbol as the man's mask. He had gained enhanced senses, being able to hear, smell, and detect even the slightest movement in his surroundings.
Excitedly, the boy exclaimed, "So this is power!"
The golden-masked man explained, "This is the power of your potential as a human. You have already reached your potential. Now, use this power however you desire, be it for good or bad."
As the silver-masked man prepared to leave, the boy, now with brown eyes and filled with newfound power, stood up and caught his sleeve. He pleaded, asking the man to adopt him.
"Please, adopt me. I will do whatever you say."
The golden-masked man responded, "You are too young to accompany me. I travel the world."
Upon hearing the mention of the world, the boy's eyes lit up with golden particles.
The golden-masked man seemed a little surprised upon seeing his eyes turning into a golden glow.
Recognizing his potential, the silver-masked man sighed and said, "The power I have given you is called Votum. It grants a person's wish to reach their fullest potential. However, it seems that you possess a talent that surpasses even your mortal body."
The boy eagerly exclaimed, "So, you will take me with you now?"
The silver-masked man, amazed by the boy's energy, patted his head and replied, "Yes, you may come. But let me be clear, you will have to kill thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people in the future. Are you prepared to live a life filled with sin?"
Without hesitation, the boy answered, "As long as you love me and are happy, I will do anything for you, Father!"
In less than half an hour, the boy had already started calling him father. The golden-masked man couldn't help but feel satisfied and laughed.
He then said to the boy, "Since you have made a contract with me through Votum, I can see all of your past. You do not have a proper name yet, correct?"
The boy replied, "Please give me a new name, Father!"
The masked man declared, "Your name shall be Stroom, code name number ten. I now appoint you as one of my tenth children."
Curious, the boy asked, "What name should I call you, Father?"
The silver-masked man responded, "You may call me Genie; that is my code name."