Yaan laid on his back within the confines of his cell. His cot had been improved to one of a larger size and greater comfort, something Arden had been willing to allow for his recovery. Despite the constant pain that Yaan was in after having most of his muscle mass consumed, he was in a great mood.

  Everyone thought that he was a fool, and for the most part, they were right. But Yaan himself knew that as well, especially after his first encounter with Domah.

  In the face of her reality breaking might, Yaan came to realize how much he was lacking. Before, he was adrift, never really focusing on one thing. He just wanted to rule.

  That was what led Domah to him in the first place. In her own words, his drive not to rule any specific thing, just to rule as long as he lived was perfect. There was no one thing he wanted to dominate, but that meant that he would be willing to dominate everything.

  After Yaan’s encounter with Domah, he changed. No one knew of such a change for several reasons. The first was that he had gone into hiding when the cascade began following an escape from Miasma. The second reason was that he faked being his old self during the times he was with others.

  Yaan grinned.

  Arden should have figured it out sooner after the hellfire stigmata incident that Yaan was hiding something. Reluctantly, Yaan had to admit that Arden was stronger than he initially thought. Yaan tried his best to kill him with the stigmata, figuring that it was smarter to do so after his ‘defeat’ at the restaurant.

  Everything with the exception of the stigmata’s failure had gone according to Domah’s plan. Yaan revelled in it. He was called to a greater purpose, and his compliance in doing so would allow him the two things he wanted most: Dominance, and Arden’s submission.

  Yaan followed Domah’s orders to the letter.

  Using the chaos of the stargate cascade, Yaan abducted many women, all of them either mundane or Blight Walkers. According to his patron, they were going to need a lot of blight essence to forge a vessel strong enough for her to reside in.

  Unfortunately, Domah would not allow him to taint any of the Blight Walkers in the way that he would have preferred, but he was willing to make the concession on one condition: He chose the person who would become Domah’s prime vessel.

  When the unfortunate soul was selected, Domah told Yaan where she could be found. He didn’t hold back against Sya, so she was very quickly and very easily defeated. When she was brought back to his temporary base, he was pleased that not only would the plan of using Arden’s sister as a prime vessel work, she was a perfect match for the Archon as well.

  From then, he started collecting.

  Now, Yaan was in custody, but he couldn't stop smiling. He didn't mind having some time to himself again, especially because the plan had gone swimmingly. Arden would be out there looking to find his sister, only to find an Archon in her place. Yaan’s only regret was that he wouldn't be able to see Arden’s defeat himself.

  There were no clocks in his cell, but his biological clock told him that it was a little past midnight. He was waiting for the good news now.

  He wasn’t sure why the medicine and healing he received from the old doctor didn’t affect his ruined body, but he would ask Domah to fix that for him for doing such a good job with the assignment.

  As his mind started to drift, he was alerted by the presence of his patron within it.

  “You’re back!” he celebrated. “How was it? Did Arden cry? Did he beg?”

  Domah said nothing. Yaan could feel her inside of his mind, but she didn’t reply. His thoughts lagged behind a few moments, and he realized something was wrong.

  “Why are you back?” he asked. “What about the vessel?”

  “The vessel is out of my hands.”

  Yaan thought that he misheard the voice in his head. So he asked again.

  “I don’t think I heard that. What about the vessel?”

  “She’s out of my hands!”

  Gravity multiplied by several times in the small cell, causing the medical equipment to burst, alongside the cot. Yaan wasn’t spared either, but with his improved biology and affinity with domination, he only fell to the ground with blood trickling out of a corner of his mouth.

  Before Yaan could plead with Domah to stop and explain what happened, she spoke, as if having read his mind.

  “That man is cunning. His mental fortitude is incredible.”

  “Arden?” Yaan asked as the pressure crushing his body disappeared.

  “We both overlooked something. I told you that a new Archon took their place in the pantheon.”

  “Yes, madam, you did,” Yaan said,on his knees making sure he paid proper reverence to his god. “Did the new one get in the way?”

  “Our target is the new one.”

  “...What? Arden? He is the new Archon?”

  “I don’t know how he did it, but he carried traces of both Life and Eternity within him, but RedShift was something more. I believed that I would be able to get the youngest to submit given his recent elevation.”

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  With his head on the floor and his hands in front of him, Yaan couldn't help but clench his fists in rage.

  “But Arden beat you…”

  Yaan’s whole body trembled at the sense of betrayal. He joined the employ of a goddess who was the embodiment of domination, but even she couldn’t beat a lowly slum rat?

  The ground cracked beneath him as he pressed further into it. This time, he wasn’t spared like last time. The gravity was focused only on him. Fragments of the celestinite floor ground against his face and body, threatening to break him even more.

  “Watch your tongue, o agent mine. I may have been defeated, but that doesn't mean you can just disrespect me.”

  “...How did he do it?”

  “We fought inside of his soul. He held on long enough to run me dry, and as per our agreement, upon my defeat I gave him back his sister and made an armistice.”

  “We can't get back at him?”

  “Upon my existence as an Archon, we must ‘bury the hatchet,’ according to him. The causality of the world will destroy us if either begins a fight with the other again.”

  Yaan was about to explode, hierarchy be damned. What was the point of everything if the goddess couldn't smite a mortal.

  “And we're just supposed to accept this!? That bastard must have cheated! There's no way a human could defeat an esteemed being such as yourself in a fair fight!”

  “There is something we can do. I'm loath to accept the outcome as well. I don't know how RedShift did what he did, but I refuse to admit defeat to someone like him.”

  “What can we do?”

  “It's the causality of the world that holds our existences at risk. To avoid that outcome, we must escape this world. There is a place we can go, another layer deeper than this reality. Go there, and grow stronger.”

  “How are we supposed to take revenge if we're in another world?”

  “RedShift will have to go there as well at some point. Grow your skills to the point where you can kill his physical body. You won't beat him in his soul. A new world is opening, o agent mine. Others have already made the journey, but you must be the one to stand above the rest.”

  “Your will is mine, Lord Domah.”

  Grey energy washed over Yaan, and his body was repaired. All of the muscle mass that had been devoured by the newsets Archon along with his missing hand were restored in a flash. Yaan gasped, finally able to take a real breath, a healthy breath, for the first time in days.

  ‘Maybe I can overlook her inability to kill Arden,’ he mused. ‘I failed as well.’

  More grey energy took the form of a colorless stargate. Within seconds, a swirling mass of different shades of Grey hovered in the air. Quite unlike other stargates, this one had no presence at all. The air wasn't abuzz with the alien force that came from every other stargate.

  “Go in, agent mine. Become woven into the tapestry of reality. Grow stronger.”

  At those words, Yaan woke up with a jolt, surprised to be asleep in the first place. Though he was still held in place by the mechanical equipment keeping his vitals steady, he wasn't restrained enough to be unable to move his limbs.

  He wiped the sweat from his brow, thankful to be awake after a dream like that. Just the thought of Domah failing to kill someone as lowly as Arden was aggravating.

  He brought his hands to his face and covered his mouth, breathing heavily. Over the next few seconds, his breathing eased back into its natural rhythm, which started to increase upon realizing that both of his hands were there.

  “T-that wasn't just a nightmare?”

  “Silence, o agent mine. A caretaker is coming.”

  Domah was back in his head, still without a vessel, and still as domineering as her namesake. With her input, Yaan laid his head back down on his cot with eyes shut, pretending to be asleep.

  ‘It was real,’ Yaan thought, clenching his teeth hard enough to create another injury. ‘Arden is still alive.’

  “Get ready. Your escape is about to start.”

  Yaan’s breathing was deep as he faked being asleep, but there was an edge to it, like he was huffing in anger. Naturally, this was because he was furious. But he held it in. He knew that he needed Domah’s help more than she needed him.

  He heard the door to his cell slide open and the quiet footsteps of one of the caretakers from the infirmary doing his rounds to make sure that Yaan was still breathing.

  “Grab him when I say.”

  The medic came within a meter of the bed and stopped, gasping in surprise, no doubt seeing the transformation that Yaan had undergone between the last time a checkup was performed. Yaan’s arm was back, as was his lost muscle mass.

  “He's healed…” the man muttered.

  His hand began to reach toward the radio on his hip.

  “Now!”

  In a flash, Yaan threw himself at the man, ripping himself from the medical equipment. The man was unable to react when Yaan’s newly regrown hand appeared in front of his face and grabbed hold. In a swift motion, Yaan slammed him to the ground. It was an easy movement for him, as Yaan was an experienced red-tier and the man was just a healer.

  Yaan didn't even stop to be aware of the fact that his power was somehow returned to him even though the jammer was active. The man made a noise that sounded half way between a pained groan and a sob, and Yaan slammed the man's head into the ground again, eager to see what would give way first: the man's skull, or the celestinite floor.

  The answer was reality.

  Right before Yaan slammed the poor medic's head against the floor a second time, reality fell apart. The floors, the walls, the ceiling, everything.

  The pair of men fell through existence like they no-clipped from reality. A multicolored maelstrom assaulted their vision, even when they closed their eyes. Noise like television static of the soul resonated in their heads. This was far worse than any stargate could ever feel.

  Yaan only knew he was out of whatever the hell that portal was when he could think without his mind being assaulted by virtue of existing there.

  He opened his eyes and saw the bright, pale blue sky without a cloud in sight. Looking around, he saw that he was on a rocky outcropping with patches of the greenest grass he had ever seen dotted along the rocky surface. Wherever he was now, it looked like a natural paradise.

  “Where…are we?”

  The omnipresent voice of the goddess in his head told him.

  “Your new training ground. O agent mine, this is the next world. A world untouched by humanity since its destruction. Until recently, that is.”

  The sound of groaning alerted Yaan to the presence of the man who he only now realized was going to be one of the disappeared Starborn.

  “This is where they're brought…” Yaan mused. “And I hitched a ride on him.”

  He got to his feet and marched over the groaning medic who was miraculously still alive.

  ‘Not for long.’

  Yaan pressed his hand against the medic's face and a familiar warmth began to stir.