I was supposed to be above pain.
As a God I had watched humans suffer for a long time. I had seen them get sick go to war and get their hearts broken. I felt bad for them. I tried to help them.. When the Sun-Piercer blade went into my side I realized that I had been wrong to feel bad for them.
The metal was extremely hot. It was shaking with Soluss power. It did not just cut my skin it burned my being.
"Look at me Aethelred " a voice said.
I forced my head up. My vision was a mess of gold and red. Solus was standing over me his armor reflecting the light of the sky I had helped create. Behind him the other Gods were standing like statues. Cold and unfeeling.
"You were always the problem " Solus whispered, leaning in. "The God of Sanctuary... A shepherd who fell in love with his sheep. Did you really think we would let you give them control?"
I tried to speak but I could not. My fingers scratched at the floor leaving behind a trail of blood. I looked past Solus searching for a face. I found her.
Lyra. The Goddess of Prophecy.
Her silver eyes, which could usually see into the future were looking at me with no emotion. There was no regret. No secret plan to save me. She had seen this coming for a time and she had let it happen.
"Is this... Your prophecy, Lyra?" I managed to say the words hurting my throat.
She did not blink. "The stars do not lie, Aethelred. You are a problem that no longer fits into our plan. Your existence is a threat to our power."
Power. That was their word for being cruel.
Solus gripped the blade. Twisted. I made a sound that was not a scream. It was the sound of a world breaking. With a pull he took out my Divinity. My God-Core.
The moment it left my chest the world went cold. I was no longer a God. I was a shell leaking stardust onto the floor.
"Throw him out " Solus said, his voice already losing interest in me. "Let the void take what is left of the God of Sanctuary."
Two guards grabbed my arms. They dragged me toward the Great Rift, the edge of the plane where reality ended and the void began.
I did not struggle. I could not.. As they neared the edge my mind began to clear. The love I had felt for my fellow Gods was gone burned away by the Sun-Piercer. In its place a dark cold space began to form.
If I survive I promised the void I will not be a shepherd. I will be the one who kills.
The guards did not hesitate. They threw my broken body over the edge.
Gravity, a force I once controlled now became my master. I fell. The Sanctuary became a speck of light in a sea of blackness.
My skin began to disappear. My bones began to dissolve into the nothingness of the void. This was the end of a God.
Then the silence in my mind was broken by a sound that did not belong to the heavens.
[Ding!]
The fall was a slow-motion erasure. In the void time does not exist; there is the feeling of being destroyed.
My divinity was gone,. My ego. The stubborn vengeful core of who I was. Refused to disappear. I watched my hands turn into mist my legs vanishing into the vacuum. I was becoming nothing.
Then the blue light hit.
It was not the blinding glow of Soluss sun. It was cold. Digital. Precise. It cut through the darkness of the void like a blade.
**[System Initialization...]**
**[Detection: Host's Will to Live is being fueled by Absolute Malice.]**
**[Calculating Revenge Probability: 0.0001%...]**
**[Adjusting Parameters... Bedchamber System.]**
A System? I thought. I had heard whispers of these sentient constructs. Remnants of a time before even the Gods. They were tools of evolution or perhaps, tools of irony.
**[Warning: Soul Integrity at 0.04%.]**
**[Initiating Emergency Transmigration.]**
**[Searching for a vessel in the Mortal Plane... Found.]**
sudden violent pressure clamped onto my soul. It felt like being squeezed through a needle's eye. The silence of the void was replaced by a roar of wind followed by a sickening thud.
Pain.
Real physical agonizing pain exploded through my senses. I was not mist anymore. I was solid. I was heavy.. I was freezing.
I gasped, my lungs burning as they pulled in air for the time in millennia. The air tasted of dust. Rot. I tried to move my arm. It felt like a twig. Thin, fragile and trembling.
"Look at him " a sneering voice drifted from above. "The 'Spare Prince' finally decided to wake up. I thought the poison had actually done its job this time."
I forced my eyes open.
I was not in the heavens. I was lying on a stone floor in a room that looked like a cellar. The only light came from a flickering candle on a crate. Above me stood two men in leather armor. Guards, by the looks of their crests. One of them kicked my ribs sending a jolt of agony through my chest.
"Don't die yet Alaric " the guard laughed. "The Count still needs you alive to sign over the border lands. After that... Well the cellar has plenty of room for one corpse."
They turned and walked out the heavy iron door slamming shut with a resonance that made my head spin.
I lay there staring at the ceiling my breath coming in shudders. I reached out with my mind searching for the light.
Status I thought.
**[Status Window]**
**Name:** Aethelred (Vessel: Alaric von Valerius)
**Rank:** Mortal (Fragile)
**Condition:** Malnourished, Lingering Toxicity, Internal Bruising.
**Current Divinity:** 0.00%
**Active System Function:** The Bedchamber (Locked)
**[Quest Triggered: The First Claim]**
**[Objective: The woman who poisoned this vessel is coming to check on her work. Subjugate her. Claim her. Begin the foundation of your New World.]**
**[Reward: Opening of the First Room: 'The Chamber of Submission'.]**
I felt a jagged laugh bubble up in my throat though it came out as a bloody cough. Alaric. A discarded prince. A pawn poisoned by his family.
It was perfect. To the Gods I was dead. To this world I was a joke.
I sat up slowly my new body screaming in protest. I looked at my hands. Thin, but mine. They did not know who they had let into this body. They did not know that the God of Sanctuary was dead and in his place something more dangerous had crawled out of the void.
The sound of footsteps echoed in the hallway outside. Light, rhythmic and elegant.
Shes coming I thought, my eyes narrowing as I focused on the door. My mind began to calculate, weaving a web of manipulation even before the door creaked open.
Solus, Lyra... You gave me the void. I'm going to use it to destroy everything you love.
The heavy iron door groaned on its hinges.
A sliver of torchlight cut through the darkness of the cellar hitting my face. I did not squint. I did not move. I kept my breathing shallow pretending to be a dying man.
Click. Click. Click.
The sound of silk slippers, on stone. A feminine silhouette entered the room smelling of lavender and the faint metallic scent of the poison flowing through my veins.
"Still clinging to life Alaric?"
Lady Isabella. The daughter of the Count. The woman who had personally stirred the Nightshade into my wine. She leaned over me her beautiful face twisted into a mask of cruelty. She was the "Ice Rose" of the kingdom a woman who enjoyed watching things wither.
"You really are a weed " she whispered, reaching out to tilt my chin up with her fan. ". It does not matter. By dawn your heart will. My father will have his signed decree."
I opened my eyes.
The eyes that looked at Isabella were not the eyes of a dying prince. They were the piercing eyes of a God who had seen the birth of stars. Isabella froze. The smile on her lips started to fade
"You..." she said, her voice shaking. "Your eyes..."
"My eyes have seen your end, Isabella " I said, my voice sounding rough.
[System Notification: Target 'Lady Isabella' is in a state of shock.]
[Initiating Bedchamber Skill: 'Gaze of the Void'.]
[Willpower Check... Failed. The Target is now susceptible to Subjugation.]
Before she could scream I moved. My new body was weak. The System gave me a surge of energy. I grabbed her throat pulling her down onto the straw mattress.
"Let go!" she hissed, struggling,. She was not strong enough. It was not my power that held her it was the Systems control over her soul.
[Opening the portal: The Chamber of Submission.]
The air in the cellar started to change. A black void opened beneath us. The stone walls disappeared. We were no longer in a cellar. We were in a fancy room with dark red silk everywhere. A huge black-framed bed stood in the center with a scary light.
Isabella gasped, her eyes wide as she looked around the space. "What is this magic? Where have you taken me?!"
"Welcome to my world, Isabella " I whispered into her ear my hands touching the corset of her dress. "In the world I am a dying prince.. Here I am the only God you will ever know."
The Systems interface appeared before my eyes glowing red.
[Target Status: Lady Isabella]
[Current Mindset: Terror / Latent Arousal (15%) / Confusion]
[Requirement for First Claim: Absolute Physical and Mental Surrender.]
I felt the poison in my body start to change. As I tore the silk of her dress the System started to take the 'Life Force' she had taken from Alaric giving it back to me through our touch.
"You poisoned me to take my lands " I said, my voice. Deadly. "Now I will take everything that makes you, you. Your pride, your body and your very soul. You will be the part of my new empire."
She tried to fight. The room was filled with a mist that made her feel things she did not understand. Her breathing got faster her skin turned red as the System talked directly to her bodys desires.
"Please..." she whispered, though she did not know if she was asking for her life or for my touch.
"Do not beg yet Isabella," I said, smiling, pushing her back, onto the bed. "The night is just starting.. I have a lot of frustration to take out on you."
[System: Synchronization Beginning. Level 1 Authority... Loading.]