A rare storm was raging in the skies above the slums, as it had done since the morning. Normally, this was the dry season at this time of the year. In a few months, the slums would get several weeks of wet weather. But for some reason, the rain was coming now.

  Perhaps it was divine intervention.

  Or maybe even profane.

  As a bolt of lightning flashed in the sky, the ground was briefly illuminated. It was enough for Other-Arden to continue his journey across the crumbling rooftops of the slums.

  He still fondly remembered the training he had done with Vera a long time ago. She had told him that mobility was one of the most important things that a warrior needed to survive.

  ‘Anyone can run fast. Every warrior will be able to run fast. You need to be able to move quickly in every environment. Not every fight will take place in an open space. If you can adapt to every possible environment, then you will have a great advantage everywhere.’

  He remembered that shortly after, he fell through someone's ceiling into their breakfast table. Despite everything, a small smile came to his face at the memory.

  A couple of hours had passed since Other-Arden came to realize how futile his suicide attempt would be. With the revelation that the Legacy had been weakened to the point that he wouldn't be made whole, he didn't know what to do.

  The rain fell even harder, mixing with his tears and creating an omnipresent white noise.

  He traveled through the slums in the dead of night with only the flashing of lightning lighting his way.

  Even in the pitch black, he navigated through the slums with ease. This was the home he disliked the most, but also the one that he had the most fond memories of.

  He remembered meeting Vera.

  He remembered killing Yaan.

  He remembered training with Vera and Sya.

  And he remembered falling in love with Vera.

  Other-Arden came to a stop in an alley. It was where everything began, in this world or his old one. Everything began with Yaan abusing him in this alley.

  Other-Arden slid his back down the wall to rest.

  He was tired.

  He hugged his knees and sobbed. Agony burst from within him.

  Everyone that he knew and loved was dead. He finally found a way to join them, but it was hopeless. Now, he was stuck in this world. Trapped in a world where this version of him was going through his own life.

  Other-Arden wanted that life again. It was only a memory to him at this point.

  He wanted to take Arden’s spot. Kill him, and live life again in his place. It would be like a strange Golden Stargate.

  But he couldn’t.

  No matter what Other-Arden had gone through, he still believed himself to be human. He’d killed countless people, and survived the end of the world, but he was still human.

  He knew just how much Arden cared for the girls. And how much they cared for him.

  To rip him from them would be the most inhumane thing he could do.

  “Everyone deserves to be happy,” he sobbed. “So why can’t I?”

  He had felt small before. He had felt it every time Yaan tormented him. He had felt it during his first expedition before meeting his Vera. When his universe was destroyed, he was almost crushed by the weight of his survivor’s guilt.

  That feeling didn’t even compare to how small he felt now. It felt like he was existence’s punching bag. It never let up. It would crush him until there was nothing left. But solace would never come.

  He was cursed.

  He didn’t know how long he cried for. The rain didn’t stop, nor did the sun begin to rise. At some point, he looked up from his knees and saw a rat sitting in front of him, hunched over and staring into his eyes.

  He tightened his hold around his knees and spoke.

  “What can I do?”

  His voice was almost silent. He didn’t even feel his vocal cords vibrate. In the sound of the storm, nothing could hear him.

  And yet, something responded

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  It began as a tingle in the back of his brain. It danced across his mind, carrying whispers of discord. His mind went blank, and he soon found that the white noise of the rain was gone. In its place were whispers.

  He could feel the whispers in his mind, and he began to convulse.

  He could feel the sounds with his brain.

  He could see them.

  He could smell them.

  He could taste them.

  He could hear them.

  And he feared them.

  He yelled out in pain, but that too was drowned out by the rain. The dreadful whispers did not stop. They continued to imprint on Other-Arden’s soul, but he remained lucid throughout the entirety of it.

  All at once, the tingling in his brain stopped, and so too did the pain.

  Other-Arden gasped as the pain left him. He trembled and stared at the rat.

  It stared at him with piercing green eyes.

  He began to convulse again, only this time it was not from pain, but fear.

  There was something behind the rat. It couldn’t be comprehended by either human or Starborn eyes. They would only be able to see that something was there, but they wouldn’t be able to register it.

  It melded into the darkness. It had no form. It gave off no energy. By all measure, it was something that didn’t exist.

  But it did.

  “Y-you,” Other-Arden muttered. “Y-you’re one of them aren’t you?”

  Nothing changed.

  “You’re an Archon.”

  It was impossible. He knew that an Archon’s might was so vast that simply entering the universe would destroy it. That’s why they had agents act in their stead. But here in this alley, an Archon stood in front of him.

  ‘Did it worm its way in because of how long I’ve been here?’

  A hurricane of whispers assaulted his brain. All of them were talking, but there was no sound, nor language. Even still, Other-Arden was able to glean the meaning from the impossible whispers.

  Whispers that told him his story.

  Whispers that told him his world’s story

  Whispers that told him of Arden’s story

  Whispers that told him of this world’s story.

  Other-Arden’s tears did not stop. They only fell even faster, now that he learned the truth of the world. He yelled even louder, but still no one heard.

  Each of the whispers scoured his soul. If it weren't for the fact that the soul was inviolable, it would have crumpled under the weight of infinity.

  Green energy flowed from the nothingness in the alley and into Other-Arden. It filled in his cracks with a thick green fluid.

  More cracks were created in his body that were rapidly filled in with dark green as the pressure of the Archon forced its way into its new vessel.

  Other-Arden couldn’t resist. How could a human resist the might of an Archon?

  But even if he could, he wouldn’t want to.

  He had seen the truth of reality, and it broke him. But he was offered a chance. A chance to no longer be a pawn in this cosmic game. A chance to end his suffering.

  A chance to die, once and for all.

  Green tears of similar consistency to the fluid in his cracks leaked from his deep green eyes. For the first time in a long while, he felt hope for the future. The short future.

  The eldritch whispers no longer felt malicious. They no longer caused discomfort.

  This was an Archon’s mercy, and it only asked for one thing in return.

  A Legacy.

  Other-Arden looked up from his knees to see that the rat had scurried off, and the Archon lingering in the nothingness had vanished as well.

  Rain still fell, but it felt as comforting as the promise of his Archon.

  To his side, cracks in space began to materialize. With a sound like shattering glass, pieces of reality fell to the ground, leaving a swirling mass of red energy in its place hovering slightly above the ground.

  A red-tier stargate.

  An orange stargate appeared in the sky above him.

  All around the slums, hundreds of stargates appeared. And unless they were closed from the inside, all of their contents would come spilling out.

  Celestials. Thousands of them.

  Other-Arden regretted that this was going to happen, but he didn’t let it sway him. This was just the result of a calamitous being’s power. Too much power had been used by the Archon, and the resulting mess was the creation of hundreds of stargates.

  Everything that had happened tonight seemed impossible. But everything did in fact happen.

  “It's not that things considered impossible can't happen, but rather that they shouldn't.”

  He clicked his tongue.

  “He could have at least made me a vessel the correct way. Doing it this way leaves a bad taste in my mouth.”

  He looked at the swirling mass of red energy next to him for a moment, then turned away from it and walked out of the alley, with rain still pouring down.

  Thousands would die, but he chose to ignore them.

  An incalculable amount of lives had already been ended in the course of this prolonged reality-wide game of domination.

  A few more wouldn't matter much.

  “Not that it matters. This is the last round of the game. After this, everything ends.”

  Other-Arden looked in the direction where he came.

  He had a Legacy to retrieve.

  Knowing Vera, this world’s Arden and the rest wouldn't be available for a while. She would make sure of that.

  Other-Arden would kill him and steal the Legacy at a later time.

  He would make sure not to turn him into a husk like himself to wander the void for eternity. He was a husk, not a monster.

  He needed to become the legacy bearer again without damning its current holder to an endless hell.

  “It’s quite simple, actually. If this world’s Arden is the one with the legacy, then I just need to become this world’s Arden.”