The universe was a vast, silent ocean, but to me, it was a tapestry of screams. Each shriek, each boast of power, was a ripple that I could feel. They were the claims of would-be gods and cosmic tyrants, and they always tasted the same: arrogant and fragile.
My name is Kaelen, or at least that's the name I've been using this cycle. Names are fleeting; they change with the dimensions I cross, the stars I leave behind. What remains is the purpose. I am the Echo, the challenger who answers the whisper of strength.
The latest whisper came from a reality known as the Aethelian Expanse. A being calling himself the Starlord Imperator had just consumed his third nebula, claiming the energy for himself. His declaration had been bold, a cosmic pulse that echoed through the dimensional folds: "I am the new First, the Apex of all creation! Let any who dare challenge my might tremble and be forgotten!"
I didn't tremble. I smiled.
My transit device, a gauntlet forged from the heart of a collapsed star, hummed to life. The process was always disorienting, a gut-wrenching lurch as my physical form unraveled into pure energy. It's like being pulled through a straw while your mind tries to hold on to every particle of your being. One moment, I was standing on a desolate moon, the next, I was a flash of light erupting in the violet sky of a new galaxy.
The Aethelian Expanse was beautiful in a terrible way. Giant gas clouds swirled in hues of magenta and emerald, and the stars pulsed with an aggressive, hungry light. The Starlord Imperator's capital, a massive fortress carved from the core of a planet, hung menacingly in the void. Its power signature was immense, a pulsing beacon of raw, untamed force.
I materialized on a floating piece of asteroid debris just outside his domain. My body reformed, the atoms snapping back into place with a subtle pop. I was ready.
A dozen sentinels, hulking automatons made of living metal, descended on me immediately. Their energy lances sizzled, but they were a joke. I didn't even bother to use my abilities. A simple flick of my wrist sent a kinetic pulse rippling through space, shattering them into a million glittering fragments.
A booming voice, a voice that shook the very asteroids around me, rang out. "So, the little gnat has arrived. You have traveled a long way to witness your own insignificance, challenger."
I looked up toward the immense fortress. "I came to hear your name. Now say it, so I can remember it when I tell the next universe about the fool who thought they were the strongest."
The voice was silent for a moment, then it roared with a power that could melt stone. "I am the Starlord Imperator! I am the First! And I will show you what true power feels like!"
A beam of pure, concentrated cosmic energy erupted from the fortress, heading straight for me. It was the kind of attack that could rip a hole in spacetime, a final, definitive statement of power.
I simply stood there, my hand outstretched. The beam hit me, and for a split second, the universe held its breath.
It didn't kill me. It didn't even push me back. I absorbed it. Every last particle of its magnificent, violent energy. I didn't just endure it; I consumed it, savoring the taste of his arrogance.
"Is that all?" I asked, my voice calm, but with a new, subtle ripple of power behind it. "Because I can feel the next whisper already. Someone's claiming they're stronger than you are."