PROLOGUE

  Atop a dark, windowless spire nestled in the void of a star, far away from anything else, sat a man. Cracked skin emitting light brighter than the surrounding celestial object.

  For countless years, sleep was all he knew. Using the star to temper his body had the side effect of continuously vaporizing it. The resources required in his endeavor would cause any society in the higher worlds to buckle, but his rise to power was one of hardship and loneliness, and he spared no expense.

  On a day like any other, while searching through an empty Domain, one of the strings of consciousness he had sent throughout the cosmos shuddered. The eons of stillness magnified the brief vibration, and all of his attention, which had been spent searching for something in his desolate inner world, was wholly shifted to this new sensation.

  Throughout his time harvesting stars and reforging himself with their latent energy, there were many instances where his strings were shaken. All were of little concern—echoes of people who vaguely aligned with his path. Though the connection only remained active for one to three hundred or so years each time, it brought him out of monotony. To show his gratitude, he'd dilute a small part of his energy and give a whisper of his power to the beings that gained his attention. He knew death was not the end of everyone's journey, and every advantage was needed when traversing the veil.

  The tendril's waving quickly grew in intensity. With a sigh, the man focused entirely on the vibrating string. Finding nothing of concern, he began the ritual of diluting a grain of his power to gift to the person who garnered his attention.

  The process was slow, and he thought he had plenty of time to observe the person. However, unlike every other time someone caught his eye, his tendril continued to shake with fervor, with no inclination to stop.

  —

  Years passed in relative comfort. The being connected to his tendril lived a regular, almost carefree life on a planet just out of its infancy. The feelings he was siphoning through the connection gave him years of solace, but he felt the being growing older. The sensations and experiences became watered-down versions of what they were prior, only giving faint glimpses of life on the planet called Diat.

  Sadness overcame him as the vibrations in the connection started to fade. He knew this event was inevitable, one that would drop him back into his cycle of absorbing the star that surrounded him.

  Without warning, visuals from the being called Rend assaulted his mind. It was as if he were looking through his eyes—a beautiful landscape tarnished by bodies scattered throughout the view. An acrid smell was the next sensation that flooded through the connection.

  Thoughts of the past years flashed through his head. Rend was a good man—a man he wished he could have been during his first years of life. Instead of pulling away from what he saw, he embraced it and decided to feel everything as it happened.

  Broken. Rend was broken. Empty of any will to continue. He kneeled in front of a woman who was strewn on the ground in four pieces, in a protective position above a pile of children.

  Rend's wife and children were the core of his existence. Everything he had done was for the betterment of them, and in front of him, they lay butchered by an invader. The deep sense of loss was quickly replaced with anger. Nothing could stand in Rend's way of delivering the invaders’ just deserts, and the man watching on was ever willing to help.

  Rend looked out blankly over the scarlet-stained street and replied to a question only he could hear.

  “I, Rend Vorce, accept your assistance graciously.” He said as a white light descended on him.

  “Thank you.”

  He became the pinnacle of power. Blinding energy erupted from him. Buildings broke apart, mixing with the gore and destruction that had surrounded him. His perception increased manifold, and only the will to know where his attackers were was enough to blanket the world with his presence and pinpoint his target.

  With speed never seen on Diat, he arrived at his intended destination faster than a blink of an eye. Looking at the grim smile that adorned the invader’s face, Rend’s mind disconnected as he let his instincts take charge.

  He didn’t know how much time had passed. It felt like only a single unit had gone by, but the decimated army of invaders around him said otherwise. He couldn’t feel one of his arms, and his soul felt like a pale shadow of what it used to be.

  Rend looked up into the blue sky as tears began to roll down his cheek. He knew his time was up, and the borrowed power he wielded that helped him achieve his last request had faded. With a heavy heart, he mouthed the words that would be his last as his soul peeled away from his body.

  “Thank you, Mr. Kine.”

  —

  As the Diatian man's perspective abruptly ended, it left the celestial being alone in the aftermath of his entanglement. Tears lasting only a moment fell from his eyes as the final images streamed through his mind.

  “How?” Mr. Kine said as he disconnected from the star. “The connection was the strongest of any baseborn thus far. He was meant for greatness. If I had started with everything he had, I wouldn’t be stuck in this DAMN STAR!”

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  With his outburst, the star around him broke down and dissolved, instantly taken up by his presence. He knew the quick absorption was harmful, but at that moment, thoughts of damaging his advancement were distant.

  He exploded with light and began moving out of the barren space he had created. “No. The fault was mine; If I had pushed him, even the smallest amount, he would have been strong enough to protect what he held dear. Instead, I stood idle—enjoying all his experiences.”

  Seeing a new star on the outskirts of his enhanced vision, he stopped, unable to control his emotions. The light calmed and condensed on the cracks on his skin. “It may not be the life you wished, but this is the only apology I can give. Your time is not through.”

  Completely exhausting the energy reserves he had absorbed from the star, he haphazardly refined it and sent it through the weak connection to Rend’s soul. Although the chances of all the energy getting to Rend were minimal, he tried anyway, knowing that even a tiny amount would be enough to help the poor soul.

  With his chest heaving, he added his willpower to his wish.

  “LIVE!”

  With his gift of power sent out, Mr. Kine set out toward a new star in hopes of healing the physical damage he had done to himself and attempt to alleviate the mental pain of Rend’s end.

  If he only knew that Rend’s soul would be saved before his power was received, Mr. Kine would not have sent so much.

  —

  Years went by in the blink of an eye, with a mind bent on advancement. Though he had only seen one being with the power to rival his, he trained for the sake of advancement. That and the enjoyment of seeing minor gods squirm when he flexed his willpower. The thought of them broke his focus.

  “What were they called again? Immortals? No, that can’t be.” Mr. Kine said as he looked up through the star he was inhabiting. “They forego a mortal lifespan well before they reach their current level of power. Oh yes, Deathless! A ridiculous name, but after their physical transformation, I can see why they would choose that.”

  He closed his eyes, preparing himself to fall into the deep meditation that allowed him to remake his physical form continuously. However, he found it more difficult than usual. An itch in the back of his mind kept him from focusing.

  “Another one so soon?” Mr. Kine questioned as he focused on the disturbance. Like with Rend, one of his many tendrils of consciousness began to move. Like the waves of an ocean beckoning a storm, the shaking in the string grew. A mere few years passed until the feedback was something Mr. Kine couldn’t ignore.

  Firming his willpower, he looked through the connection. The strength that held his form wavered for a split second, causing him to stumble and cause part of the tower he had created within his star to crumble. Unbothered with his living arrangements, he looked further.

  “From the same planet, no less.” Mr. Kine had a bird’s eye view of the person in question. “A bit on the small side for someone of his heritage, but undoubtedly skilled. He looks to have a much better foundation than Rend, but that’s probably from all of the royal instructors following him around.” He said to himself.

  Nobody anywhere near him could hear his self-dialogue, so he continued to share his thoughts for the years leading up to this boy’s adulthood.

  “For reaching your goal of honing your presence better than anyone in the Empire, allow me to help you firm your gains.” Mr. Kine said, projecting his words as power through their connection, not too much as to hurt the boy but enough to solidify his achievements. He had done this multiple times throughout this boy’s life, but something changed moments after the latest infusion—a qualitative change.

  “This is what I had hoped for. Prepare to live as one of the strongest on your planet! An entire Empire will be under your care; with this, you’ll be ready. Prepare yourself, little Kalex, for your connection to me, the Shattered Monarch, shall see your path through until the end!”

  As Mr. Kine felt a small amount of pride suffuse his mind at his speech, which nobody heard, the worst had happened, and any feeling of joy faded as he watched on. Due to his power, which Mr. Kine lightly uplifted, Kalex quickly became ostracized by his people—by his own family.

  Feeling affronted, Mr. Kine made to send an influx of power through to Kalex so he could prove that he was meant for the throne, but he held off at the last minute. A wiggle in a recent thread of his broke his anger. The faint connection with Rend moved abnormally. The waves didn’t move towards him but to the string connecting Mr. Kine to Kalex.

  He felt his non-existent heart skip a beat as the two connections connected, strengthing both. Images and memories flooded into him, showing what came of Rend after his death. He had been given knowledge and a form that looked more akin to mist than any being he had ever seen. He smiled and looked on.

  Lost and confused, Kalex was brought to the planted leaders of his world and set to live his life in a way that did not fit his path. To make it worse, he was sent to care for the most vile creatures Mr. Kine had ever seen. They were small six-legged animals with four sinister claws at the end of each leg. Teeth capable of easily ripping through flesh and thickly corded muscles lining every part of their bodies, hidden behind a pelt cloud-like fur. With a long tail meant for balance and an uncanny intelligence behind each large eye, Mr. Kine was surprised that these beasts were protected and not outright exterminated.

  With a slight push in the right direction, he got Kalex out of that nightmarish situation and let him follow his path the best he could. Kalex had aspirations of becoming an artificer and settling down to a relaxed life, and a few years later, he achieved just that.

  Years passed in this manner. At first, Mr. Kine felt nothing but joy from his connection to Kalex, but after living the life he thought he wanted, Kalex became listless and yearned for more. With the memory of Rend still fresh in his mind and their connection partially restored, Mr. Kine didn’t push Kalex or imbue any more power into him. He wanted to see what would happen.

  A year later, both Kalex and Mr. Kine were caught by surprise. Even after his disinheritance, one of the instructors who helped Kalex ended Kalex’s life under the guise of the most awful creature. Mr. Kine prepared himself for the inevitable sadness that was to come, but instead of seeing the connection wither, it grew brighter and vibrated at a speed that not even a Deathless would be able to see clearly.

  He had done the impossible as a baseborn. Creating an avatar using one’s creation was something most would never be able to do. What was more intriguing was that the avatar was a physical object, not an energy projection. Curious and worried. Mr. Kine flexed his power and wrapped the little box as it entered the abyss. The soul could survive, but the small cube wouldn’t. Entering the abyss as a baseborn soul was a cleansing, with only a wisp of the previous person’s power hanging on to be recycled.

  Deciding that Kalex’s path was not over, Mr. Kine burned the star around him to power the barrier, holding his cube together and carefully keeping it undamaged. At times, he needed to add power to the cube from the intense energies of the abyss nicking the corners off every year or two.

  Sweat beaded on his brow as holding the cube together took its toll. He could only wait until the soul decided to join the living.

  Those were the longest hundred years of his life. His barriers started breaking apart quicker than he could repair them, and worry grasped every waking moment. He realized that he would have to forcefully bring Kalex back to the mortal plane and decided to start with Kalex’s home world.

  Diat was blocked off. A contract locked the planet down and only souls deemed clean could get through. Panicking, Mr. Kine looked to the owner of the planet.

  With a small amount of his power as payment, the woman named Wren vowed to have one of her ascended assist. Due to the contract on his domain, souls were given free passage in and out. The man who owned the planet Enternia didn't know what was happening, but he opened his domain to all souls for a time. Enough time for Mr. Kine to place Kalex’s cube next to the nascent soul of a newborn. The other soul would soon be entirely shadowed by Kalex’s, but it was the best he could do.

  Once Kalex’s soul was safe, Mr. Kine watched on with trepidation. He’d never heard of anything like this happening before. With equal parts worry and excitement, he watched on as Kalex was reborn.