Some say there was once an infinite number of worlds that appeared one day. The next day, they waged a war.

81 remained, lords in their own right, holders of laws of the universe. Each world took a special law and decided to embody it. Life was born naturally on the highest step, which remained closest to the primal laws. A utopia of golden light, endless life, and infinite pleasure. The first born was called the Lord of Gold, envoy of Heaven. The second born, was born in the cosmic void.

He was called the Lord of Stars.

A blazing streak of light flew through the cosmos, at speeds incomprehensible. Following behind, was a massive dragon of pure gold, its enormous size would eclipse millions of stars. A flap of its wings brought it forward light years, and the sorry beam of starlight was soon facing a golden claw eclipsing its entire vision.

“YOU GODDAMN COWARD, WE WERE THE RIGHTFUL HEIRS; WE WERE THE TRUE BORN CHILDREN OF THE UNIVERSE! IT SHALL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN, THE SINS YOU PERPETUATE. DEATH INCARNATE, DISGUISED IN GOLD, LIFE WILL FLOURISH ETERNAL, AND I SHALL BE THE TRUE RULER OF FATE.”

The next moment, the claw descended, and the voice was extinguished.

This happened over a Billion years ago. An infinitesimal bit of starlight remained, which held a consciousness of hatred. It floated and floated. Inside the cosmos, which lay in between the 81 worlds. It drifted and wandered, Hundreds of millions of years passed, and it came across a world at last. It was a world which held the laws of nature. It was absolutely beautiful.

The shard of starlight landed on this earth and grew into a tree. The apples from this tree gave the local beasts an incredible power: The power of stars. These beasts grew intellect, and formed a village, which quickly became a kingdom. The tree was their symbol, and lifeline. Eat and eat they did, growing ever more powerful. The king was one of the first beasts to eat these apples, an ape, now turned into a Star King.

He would go to the tree and eat often. Occasionally feeling the mad whispers of the Lord of Stars.

He waged war and conquered the other kingdoms ruthlessly. He and his kingdom quickly came to rule the lands. He plowed over nature and produced intricate and luxurious cities. Roads and Transportation. Technology grew exponentially, and the future never looked brighter.

Then, the tree stopped producing fruit.

The king searched madly for answers, in the new world he owned. The land was upheaved. Science could produce no results. After multiple rebellions in cities, he turned to the occult. His army stained the soil with rivers of blood. He personally joined the battlefield on many occasion. The lands were soaked in death.

The rebellion met his front door, his own children, some old friends,and some old enemies. All made from the apples given by the tree. A battle ensued without words, the king attacking madly, slaying with power that could not be stopped, in the end, only his daughter remained.

A prodigal child. She closed her eyes, sword of moonlight in hand, ending her mad father in a series of nine perfect strikes. As he fell, a silent mad cackle engulfed the land.

The tree began absorbing the blood wildly, roots began piercing the hearts of all remaining carriers of its power. A face coalesced onto the tree, and the mad cackle was silent no more.

Yet the prodigal hero walked forward, a sword remained in her hands. Calm strides were taken, these calm steps allowed her to travel forward great distances, shortly appearing before the tree.

“You must have questions. I’ll allow you three, little girl. My child, I needed your father to soak this land in blood. I have subtly influenced him for years, and I apologize for that. It was a necessary evil- “

Without a word, she struck the tree. Her sword suddenly turning gold. Without another sound, it was split in half. Only a stunned look remaining on its face. Once more slain instantly by the power rightfully stolen from him.

Absurd amounts of Blood splattered the land as the tree exploded in a neigh infinite amount, raining down upon the land. The girl disappeared in a golden beam. No life remained on this world anymore, besides the wild beasts. Blood slowly tainted the land. Millions of years later, life flourished once more, in whatever way it could.

One day, at the very same spot the tree had been cut in half, a child goblin came across a cave that held a glowing flower. It was given to his father as a good luck charm in battle.

Now that flower lay in the hands of a dead human.

“Finally, a suitable host. How long have I waited? Gahahaha, the Lord of the Stars will never be killed.”

A voice sounded in the emptiness. The brief respite of death had only lasted seconds. Struggling to open my eyes, I felt a chilling light invade my body. I instantly assumed it was some bloodied slime attempting to dissolve me.

“Begone slime!” I roared and waved my hands.

“S-slime?! Wait, you’re still alive?! How in the hell? You were certainly dead, I’m sure.”

“Holy shit it’s a talking slime.” I was momentarily stunned before turning to reason, “Please stop invading my body, brother slime. I can lead you to some nice bodies!”

The Lord of Stars actually felt like crying, it was already too late to stop the process. He would be scattered into nothing before coalescing as something new in a few million years, but this was absolute torture, and he would not accept this option. However, he could not possess a still living creature, it would maintain a hold on his power. At worst, the host could expel him, which would scatter him.

After weighing his options, it seemed clear it was best to also turn to reason. He would have to live with the host symbiotically.

“Listen, human, I’m not a slime, I am the Lord of Stars, a forgotten king who by right should rule this universe.”

This slime was extremely rude and strange.

“Hmph, I am going to give you the chance of a lifetime, while I do not know how you survived, I will admit defeat, you have outplayed me. Thus, I will allow you to walk upon the path of evolution, beginning, and ending, with the stars.”

The slime kept talking nonsense.

“So, you were going to take over my body, but couldn’t after realizing I’m still alive?” I easily deduced.

“Well…. yes. But It’s not like your body would’ve been buried or anything, I was just going to save it from being eaten by beasts!”

“Hahaha” I gave the slime a hearty laugh “I am known to heal. See, my wound is gone” I showed the slime the now disappeared wound. It was true, my body was quite frail, yet It would heal at alarming rates.

“Ohhh, so you are of the Asuric lineage?”

“I don’t know what the hell you’re on about slime, and why are you still invading my body?”

“First off, not a slime, I am the Lord of Stars. Second off, I’ve decided to give you a new chance of power, although you have some Asura blood, you are strangely weak. Walk upon the path of evolution and reach the stars!”

I couldn’t help but be slightly convinced, feeling my strength grow at an alarming rate.

“Tell me more of this power you offer. Lord of slimes.”

“Fuck off!” he roared inside my head.

The explanations he gave me were broad.

He told me of the Path of Mana, or Qi. This was the most common path. It focused on taking energy into the body to remold their core time and time again. The attacks were usually elemental and contained laws of the world. It was all about external manipulation of the world. It was a powerful path that required a lot of resources.

Another common route was the path of strength. This path involved simple work and resources. They were close quarter combatants, who grew through absorbing energy, similar to qi cultivators. They focused on strengthening the body, remodeling it ahead of their cores.

He told of the Demon Summoners, who would summon and control demons both internally and externally. Ranking from 1-9 in power. They were apparently reviled and untrustworthy. Their power was obtained completely from demons, which were purely spiritual, sightless, and intangible evil aspects of nature and the laws. This made them require almost no energy to use, just sufficient mental strength to control.

Lastly, he explained the Evolutionary path. This was a path of bloodline and beasts. This path focused on obtaining the strength of the legendary beasts of old, by becoming one. It involved finding and killing beasts of higher power to increase the strength of your blood. This power was inborn and would require little to no energy.

There were many more systems of strength out there, but these were the core paths. All others were just derivatives of these.

“You have no Core, no way to store any Qi or Mana. Thus, the path of Qi and strength is off limits to you. I am already changing your body to that of a beast. I will also bring out the power of your bloodline. The path of demonic cultivation is not suited to you. It requires high intelligence.”

Ignoring the insult, I questioned suspiciously “You are going to set me upon the path of Evolutionary cultivation? So, I may ascend the planes of existence? I don’t believe you for a second.”

“You will, soon enough. I don’t have many options here, to be honest with you. I am going to make you stronger, till the day you may revive me. Now, grit your teeth, this transformation might or might not hurt. First, what is your name?”

“Don’t have one.” I answered curtly.

“Huh, just like me.”

And suddenly, I began to morph. It was horrific as my skin grew a light coat of glowing fur. Individual little hairs poking through my skin like needles. The fur was like iron bristles and served as armor. My blood began to boil, my muscles and bones contorted as they broke down and rebuilt viciously. The body became many and many times stronger than before. Fangs grew in my mouth, and most shockingly, my spine extended as a tail formed. A lengthy tail, like a macaque, which was longer than my body, nearly 7 feet long. The process continued for nearly an hour. It wasn’t as painful as one would expect.

When I looked at my reflection, I saw a humanoid with a thin coat of fur on his arms and legs, my face remained the same, or was I more handsome? I obviously now had a long tail, and the fur was a lightly glowing color fading between blue and yellow.

“Well, what do you think? It may only be equivalent to a drop of blood, but It was once a legendary beast's blood, a star-ape King who went mad, hehe.”

I swung my sword to test out my newfound strength, it easily broke in half as the sheer force knocked a fairly large tree down. My strength had easily grown by nearly 50 times. My vertical leap allowed me to reach the top of a small mountain. I couldn’t help but cackle madly at my new power, leaping with such distance, the agility of an ape ingrained in me, I smashed trees and swung, leapt, and dove around with pure bliss for hours.

This was only the start of possibility. I once read that some are born great, while others have greatness thrust upon them. At this moment, I felt like I had found what it was I had been searching for at last.

“You know, Lord slime, I think this is going to be the start of a beautiful relationship.”