Death, contrary to popular belief, was neither a sudden cessation of existence nor a glorious ascension to glowing gates; rather, it felt like being suspended in a sterile, viscous fluid, floating into a pool of cosmic proportions.
For the entity, this profound darkness was not a source of terror or existential dread, but a fascinating dataset waiting to be analyzed, for he had spent his previous life dissecting the mysteries of space and wormholes, and he saw no reason to stop simply because his physical body had been obliterated.
He examined his own essence, expecting perhaps a translucent wisp of white light, yet what he saw was a dense, pitch-black core pulsing with crimson veins, a visual representation of a soul steeped in what moralists would call "sin". He was very different to the rest of the souls floating around him.
Memories of his earlier life flickered through his consciousness. He remembered the sterile white walls of the laboratory where he had been caged for a decade, treated not as a human being, but as a high-functioning processor for the government's ambition.
They had enslaved his intellect, demanding he unlock the secrets of spatial compression and black holes to create the ultimate weapon of war.
They wanted a weapon to control a planet; he gave them a singularity that swallowed a solar system.
He didn't feel remorse as he recalled the screams of his captors or the tearing of the earth's crust; instead, he felt the cold satisfaction of a player who, realizing the game was rigged, decided to crash the server rather than lose.
To him, the apocalypse hadn't been a tragedy, but a successfully proven hypothesis: that the ambition of small men could not hold the infinite density of a singularity.
"I calculated the event horizon perfectly," he mused, the memory of the imploding sun bringing a phantom sense of warmth to his disembodied state. "They treated me like a variable in their equation, forgetting that a single variable can destabilize the entire formula. I didn't just die, it was as if I completed a level from a game by wiping the map."
This detachment was his greatest asset. He viewed reality through the lens of a scientist analyzing a simulation—pain was just a nerve signal, morality was a social construct, and power was the only constant metric worth accumulating.
"Interesting," he projected his thought into the void, noting that his consciousness remained intact despite the catastrophic spatial rift that had consumed his former solar system.
"Hypothesis: The gravitational singularity didn't destroy my data; it compressed it, transmuting consciousness into a different state of matter," following his earlier personality as a scientist he formulated a hypothesis
It was precisely this terrifying rationality, this ability to weigh the extinction of a species against his own freedom and find the math acceptable, that had drawn the attention of something lurking deep in the void.
Just as he was calculating the potential half-life of his soul in this vacuum, a mechanical, inorganic voice resonated directly against his core, interrupting his observations with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.
[Welcome, Host.]
[System Initialization Complete.]
[Name: Axel.]
[You have been selected by the Tyranny System.]
The voice was cold, precise, and devoid of empathy, reminiscent of the AI assistants he had programmed in his previous life.
Just before he could formulate a question about the nature of this "System," a holographic interface materialized before his perception.
[Current Location: The Gap Between Realms.]
[Destination: Astray, a Primordial-rank Universe.]
[Objective: Dominate the universe and reach the Existential Apex.]
"Primordial-rank Universe?" Axel mused, his curiosity piqued not by the grandeur of the claim, but by the implication of a structured hierarchy of realities. "And this 'Tyranny System'... I assume you are the interface designed to ease my integration into this new world?"
[Affirmative. I am the System AI. You may refer to me as Zero.]
"Zero. Efficient, if a bit cliché," Axel noted mentally, treating the interaction less like a divine encounter and more like a game tutorial from a complex simulation game.
He then projected his thoughts "However, systems of this nature usually operate on an exchange principle; power is rarely distributed without a corresponding cost or condition. What is the price for this reincarnation?"
[Clever observation, Host. Your soul is heavy with negative karma, specifically the destruction of a solar system. To bypass the Universal Laws and reincarnate you, a condition has been set.]
The darkness around him began to swirl, forming a vortex that pulled him in.
[You will be designated as the 'Primordial Evil'. Consequently, you will be naturally despised by the Good Factions and hunted by the Neutral Factions. Your existence will be a beacon for conflict.]
"So, I will be the villain," Axel analyzed the statement calmly, feeling the pull of gravity return as he was dragged toward a tear in the fabric of the void.
"In a game where the difficulty is set to 'Nightmare,' the villain is the only role that offers freedom. The hero is bound by morality and public opinion, and the monster is bound only by his own capability."
[Preparing for insertion. Soul Integration in 3... 2... 1...]
The transition was violent, as his complex consciousness was forcefully compressed into a tiny, undeveloped body.
The silence of the void was instantly replaced by the muffled, rhythmic thumping of a giant heart and the sensation of warm fluid surrounding newly formed skin.
He was in a womb.
"Analyzing environment," Axel thought, struggling with his new, limited brain. "However, the ambient energy... it's potent."
He could feel it, not just the physical warmth of his mother, but a cold, sharp energy permeating the genetic structure of the body he now inhabited.
[Race Identified: Ice Devil.][Lineage: House Kayser, Archduchy of the Abyss Layer.]
"Devils," Axel mentally smirked, though his physical lips were not yet capable of the motion. "Fitting."
Suddenly, the comfortable darkness of the womb was shattered by immense pressure; the walls contracted, pushing him downward toward a blinding light. The transition from the aquatic environment to the harsh, cold air of the outside world was a sensory overload that shocked his immature nervous system.
He felt cold hands grasping him, rougher than he would have expected for a newborn, lifting him from the warmth of the biological vessel into the biting chill of the outside world.
"WAAAAAAHHH!"
The cry tore from his throat, not out of fear or sadness, but as an involuntary biological necessity to clear his lungs and force oxygen into them for the first time.
As he opened his eyes, he saw the silhouette of a woman with cascading white hair and curved horns looking down at him—not with the tender adoration of a human mother, but with a fierce, possessive intensity.
However, before he could catalog more data about his progenitor, the ambient mana in the room—and, as he would later deduce, the mana across the entire World—suddenly stagnated, becoming heavy and oppressive as if the world itself were holding its breath.
It was not a local phenomenon; it was a universal broadcast.
Simultaneously, a translucent blue notification pane, identical to the one hovering in his own vision, materialized in the retinas of every sentient being connected to the World System, regardless of their location or status.
[WORLD ANNOUNCEMENT: A NEW ERA DAWNS. THE PRIMORDIAL EVIL HAS DESCENDED INTO THE REALM.]
Axel ceased his crying instantly, his tiny heart skipping a beat as his analytical mind raced through the implications of this catastrophic breach of privacy.
If the System had just broadcast his GPS coordinates along with his title, his new life would be measured in seconds rather than years; however, as the seconds ticked by and the oppressive weight lifted, he observed the reaction of the beings in the room.
The midwives and servants were trembling, clutching their chests and whispering fervent prayers to their deities, their eyes darting toward the windows and the sky, searching for a falling star or a demon lord tearing through the clouds, completely ignoring the small, fair-skinned baby resting in the Archduchess's arms.
"Logic dictates that if they knew I was the cause, I would already be dead," Axel supposed, his infant eyes narrowing with an unnatural, chilling intelligence as he realized the notification was a global warning, not a specific accusation.
"The System has announced the event but obscured the source. It has turned the entire world into a hunting ground, and I am the prey. This World System feels like those from the games in my previous world"
A silent, mental smirk formed in his consciousness as he gazed up at the ceiling, feeling the thrill of the ultimate challenge settle over his soul.
"Let them panic, let them search the corners of the world for a monster," he thought, accepting the role of the villain. "While they look at the horizon, I will be right under their noses, conducting the most magnificent experiment this universe has ever seen."
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