Black watched Arshu’s body twist and glow in impossible ways as the white mist fused with it, it took a few seconds before stabilizing; he had done it, he changed someone’s existence fundamentally and permanently, if Arshu were to die the next second he would still be Arshu, a system admin, no matter how many times he was reborn he would still have his memories and powers he had effectively given all his system admins true immortality, of course, Black had put some restrictions in place, true immortality was nice and all but if given to an enemy, it wouldn’t be so nice.

Black pulled himself from those thoughts, it was time, reality rippled from above as he felt five auras scanning the world, even the very atoms that made up the world were scanned and had their secrets laid bore to the aura’s owner, it paused when it passed over Black; he kept silent, fearing that his plans and preparations had failed.

It circled around him as if trying to look at something that doesn’t exist shortly after it gave the equivalent of a shrug and kept on searching, Black smiled, they fell for it, or at least wanted him to believe they did though if they did fall for his illusion he set up over the entire world killing them would be easier than planned, they would be descending soon and he would take full advantage of their ignorance of his existence to land a hidden lethal strike.

With a wave of his hand, the massive horde of monsters behind him vanished, leaving only him and Arshu, reality rippled and changed its composition to be more wave like it felt like walking through the thickest mud in existence he felt out of breath even though he didn’t have lungs or the need for air to breathe, he knew it then, he had fucked up, his plans didn’t fail, they were never in effect, to begin with, the realization felt chilling he had been a fool to think he could win against gods that existed before billions of years before he was born.

They were the true monarchs, undisputed and supreme he was but a slightly troublesome cog in a machine that needed to be fixed, he realized that now his power felt harder and harder to call upon, his body felt disgusting and dirty, reality soon became too heavy and thick for him to move in so he stood there, helpless in the face of the absolute.

Black recalled what he felt back when his world was being devoured by the blue particles, he recalled the helplessness he felt as he stood there, rooted by some unknown force, forced to watch his world and himself die, it was the same now, the same helplessness but ten times more intense, he would face the same fate again because of the stupid power difference, he would lose his system, his system users and would never get revenge and achieve his dreams just because of some stupid gods whose death was long overdue, all his efforts were tossed into the flames just like that.

He was tired of it; he was tired of being helpless despite preparing all he could and amassing so much power in such a short time, the gods, his fate, his destiny, it all annoyed him, he wanted them gone, power difference be dammed, logic be dammed, he wanted them GonE, anger swelled up inside him, he wouldn’t accept the bad apple fate had given him, he wouldn’t bow down in the face of the absolute, not now not never, it felt wrong; it went against his core self and beliefs, he wouldn’t have that, no, he couldn’t have that happen at all.

His soul hummed in agreement, something awoke deep inside it, in the depths of his soul that Black had classified as a forbidden zone, simply because it was what made a person a person and a soul a soul, the core of one’s existence, it had no exact shape just layers layered upon each other in an intricate and mind-boggling manner, exactly what these layers were and what they were made of still eluded him, the first layer cracked and split apart, something leaked out, Black felt his existence change, permanently.

Deep within his soul, it fed on his rage and defiance of fate and what was meant to be; it downed it all greedily, once it had its fill, it began spitting out a dark viscous substance in Black’s soul that spread and tainted the other layers, soon they began producing the same substance too.

It reached into his soul; it sprung and leaped inside tainted everywhere it touched, soon it broke past the last layer and began traversing Black’s soul freely, it expanded with even more energy it reached his soul nexus where his system resided and began tainting it.

Instantly barriers were erected, and it and the system began battling it out, both adapted and evolved at speeds that would melt the mind but in the end, the system partly lost.

Error#555: system UI has been breached, attempting a reboot.

Error#556: Reboot failed.

Critical system error#1 All systems have been breached, all attempts to stop @@ [Redacted] have failed.

Millions of such system messages filled Black’s mind but he couldn’t see them, the rage had consumed him.

The world and everything around him fizzled away, he felt himself sinking into something resembling black boiling tar, a door appeared in front of him, a simple wooden door with a wooden handle, it called to him in a way that didn’t make sense even for Black’s standards, his rage disappeared the more he looked at it, that was the power he craved for, the cheat that he had been denied since he came here, he pulled himself forward but the door stretched and moved further away from him.

“Stop! I don’t have time for this!” he shouted, rage boiling up inside him once more, he had to get back to reality, he felt like if he stayed here too long he would die.