Previously on Watcher of the Infinite...
I thought the destruction of the multiverse created me alone. I believed I was a singular anomaly, a cosmic engine glitch born from the friction of collapsing timelines. But I was wrong. I am no longer a free agent of chaos; I am a servant to my own creation, bound by powers and principalities I cannot fathom. My name is the Time Punisher.
I woke up to a world of heat and ash. My body was failing, my armor cracked like dry earth, as Lucifer—the Titan God—loomed over me. He didn't even reach out to touch me; he simply summoned the ground beneath my feet. The earth rose like a jagged, growing mountain, locking my entire body in a tomb of stone and raising me high into the toxic sky. His growth was extraordinary, a terrifying evolution that spiked with every passing hour.
"Any last words before you turn to a pillar of ash?" his ancient voice rumbled, sounding like the boiling lava deep within the throat of Mount Elgon.
"Master, don't kill me! I can help you!" I screamed. "I know where the battery is!"
"You fool, I don't need a speedster battery," he roared, his breath a furnace.
"I don't mean a battery, Master... I mean the Supreme God!"
The sky turned black as he bellowed, "I am the only Supreme God here! Find him and bring me his head! If you fail, I will place yours in his stead." He surged with a dark, oily light, drenching me in shadows. "Take the army. Receive this portion of my power. You are now my Second-in-Command. Use this Dark Core. Be my Dark Avatar. Remember: the more you embrace the evil, the more you enhance its power."
The power didn't just enter my body; it violated it. When Lucifer handed me the Dark Core, it felt like swallowing a handful of dying stars. My veins, once filled with the rhythmic hum of chronal energy, now pulsed with a thick, viscous ichor that glowed with a sickly violet light. I could feel my skin hardening, turning into a blackened chitin that mirrored the Titan's obsidian hide. My vision fractured, seeing the world not in colors, but in heat signatures and decaying timelines.
I was no longer just the Time Punisher. I was a weapon of the Ruin.
Standing on the peak of the mountain that Lucifer had summoned from the earth, I looked down at the Rift Valley. The landscape was unrecognizable. The lush greenery of the escarpment was turning to grey soot. From this height, I could see the remaining dark-matter legions—thousands of soldiers standing in perfect, terrifying silence, their eyes turning violet as they synchronized with my new frequency. They weren't just an army; they were an extension of my nervous system.
"Go," Lucifer's voice vibrated through the very marrow of my bones, heavy with the weight of a thousand dying suns. "The 'God of Wisdom' thinks he can hide behind the ancient rocks of Suswa. He thinks the Genesis Core can stop the inevitable. Show him that Wisdom is nothing compared to Wrath. Bring me the Seed, or bring me nothing at all."
[ADVANCED RAW SYSTEM: AVATAR PROTOCOL INITIATED]
USER:Time Punisher (Status: Dark Avatar).
CORE:The Void Heart (Dark Matter Infusion).
POWER LEVEL:God-Slayer (S-Rank).
CURRENT OBJECTIVE:Decapitate the God of Wisdom / Recover the Genesis Core.
SYSTEM NOTE:Buda, what have you done? Your original engine glitch has been rewritten by Lucifer's malware! The Dark Core is eating your memories to fuel your speed. You aren't just running through time anymore; you are tearing it apart as you move. The more hate you feel for Nairobi, for the Watcher, for Pendo—the faster you will become. Kaza butu, because if you stop feeling the evil, the Core will implode and take you with it! This is a one-way ticket to the Void!
I stepped off the peak. I didn't fall; I cut through the air like a jagged blade of violet glass. With a single thought, the army of dark-matter soldiers dissolved into shadows and flowed into my cape, becoming a living storm that followed my wake. The sonic boom I created as I hit Mach 4 shattered every window in the nearby villages, a deafening herald of the end.
I hit the floor of the valley with the force of a meteor, landing right near the edge of the Maai Mahiu road. The asphalt shattered for miles, the cracks spreading like a spiderweb through the dry earth. A group of survivors, trying to flee toward the city in a battered matatu, stopped dead in their tracks as I stood in the center of the crater. The driver stared at me, his eyes wide with a terror that I found intoxicating. To my new eyes, they weren't people with families or lives; they were just flickers of weak, useless light, waiting to be extinguished.
"Move," I hissed, and the mere shockwave of my voice flipped their vehicle into the tall, dry grass. I didn't wait to see if they survived. Compassion was a glitch I had finally deleted.
I could smell the God of Wisdom now. He smelled of old books, wet stone, and that annoying "Genesis" purity that made my skin crawl. He was close, hidden in the labyrinthine lava tubes beneath the Suswa shield volcano. He was protecting the woman—the carrier of the second seed—believing that the earth itself would shield them from the coming storm.
"Pendo is a distraction," I muttered to myself, my voice sounding like grinding metal against bone. "The girl is running Mach 6 to lead a ghost away, but she doesn't realize the real monster is already at the kitchen door. While she plays hero on the plains, I will end the story in the dark."
I began to run. This wasn't the golden, hopeful sprint of the Watcher that left trails of light. This was a dark, silent glide. Every step I took caused the grass to wither into black ash and the insects to drop dead from the sky. I was a walking dead-zone, a shadow moving across the face of Kenya, devouring the very color of the world as I passed.
[SYSTEM INTERFACE: TARGET ACQUIRED]
TARGET:The God of Wisdom (Genesis Guardian).
LOCATION:Deep Level - Suswa Lava Tubes.
DEFENSES:Wisdom Shielding (Active / 98% Integrity).
SENG NOTE:Aki, this is a mess! The Time Punisher is moving with a 'Hate-Drive' now. She's ignored all the distractions and is heading straight for the source. If she reaches the God of Wisdom before he can sync the Seed, the game is over. Carel! If you're still in 2012, stop looking for your wife for one second and look at what's happening to your world! Your greatest enemy is now an Avatar of Destruction, and she's already inside the perimeter!
I reached the entrance of the caves. The air here was different—it tried to push me back with a gentle, persistent pressure, a physical manifestation of ancient morality. It was the Wisdom Shield. It didn't fight with force; it fought with peace. It tried to make me remember my life before the glitch. It tried to remind me of the smell of Nairobi rain hitting dry pavement and the sound of laughter in the crowded markets of Gikomba.
"Weakness," I snarled, clutching the burning Dark Core in my chest until my knuckles turned white.
I summoned the hatred. I thought of the unfairness of my birth, the engine glitch that made me a monster while others were born into the light. I thought of the arrogance of the Watchers who played with timelines like toys, never caring for the "glitches" they left behind. The violet light in my veins flared into a blinding strobe, turning into a dark, corrosive energy. I punched the air, and the Wisdom Shield shattered like a glass bottle on a Mombasa sidewalk, the shards of pure energy dissolving into the soot-filled air.
I descended into the dark. The walls of the lava tubes were lined with ancient drawings—prophecies that tried to tell me a different story, of a balance between light and dark. But I moved too fast to read them. I was a blur of violet shadow, a predator in the house of the wise.
Deep in the heart of the cavern, I saw the amber glow. The God of Wisdom sat there on a throne of basalt, his skin shining like polished stone. Behind him, the pregnant woman cowered, her hands protecting the life within her. He looked up, his golden eyes meeting my violet ones with a calm that infuriated me more than any weapon could.
"You have traded your soul for a crown of ash and a master who will eventually consume you," the God of Wisdom said, his voice echoing with a resonance that made the cave walls vibrate.
"I traded a glitch for a throne," I replied, my hand forming a jagged blade of dark matter. "Lucifer wants your head. He wants the Seed. And I am here to collect for my King."
I raised my blade, the violet lightning crackling with the screams of a thousand dead timelines. The God of Wisdom didn't move. He didn't even flinch as I prepared to strike the final blow. Instead, he looked past me, toward the entrance of the cave where the darkness was deepest, and a faint smile touched his lips.
"They are coming," he whispered, his golden eyes reflecting a light that didn't belong to this cave or this dark era. "I can see them now, stepping through the cracks of the multiverse."
I froze. My internal sensors spiked, detecting a resonance I hadn't felt in centuries. It wasn't just one speedster. It was a chorus of vibrations, a harmonic frequency that made my Dark Core shudder and moan in my chest. The air in the cave began to glow, not with the violet of ruin, but with the gold of the infinite.
"Do not be afraid," the God of Wisdom said, looking at the trembling woman behind him. "The Watchers are no longer running away. Help is finally on the way."
Outside, the ground didn't just shake—it began to hum a melody of pure light. A golden streak of light pierced through the Suswa sky, followed by another, and another, tearing through the soot like needles through silk. The Watchers weren't just returning; they were bringing the entire multiverse with them.
[SYSTEM STATUS: MULTI-CHRONAL REINFORCEMENTS DETECTED]
SIGNAL TYPE:Positive Tachyon Storm (Omega Level).
LOCATION:Suswa Perimeter / Landing in T-Minus 5 Seconds.
SENG NOTE:Wueh! Wait a minute! I'm seeing ghosts on the radar, but they aren't dead! It's them! The Watchers of the Infinite Earths! They've found the door that Carel opened! Time Punisher, you might want to rethink that blade, because you're about to have company... and they aren't here for the scenery. They've brought the backup from a hundred different Kenyas! Pendo, stop running—your uncles and aunts are here!