The white jade office was silent, but the air was heavy with the weight of a trillion lives. I didn't sit on a throne; I sat at the head of a conference table carved from the frozen essence of a collapsed nebula. Across from me sat the Directors. They weren’t men. They were the administrative staff of the multiverse.Time sat to my left, an old man whose skin flaked away into sand only to reform as a crying infant. Space sat to my right, a shifting, kaleidoscopic void contained within a sharp, pinstriped suit. At the far end was Karma, a woman whose eyes were literal scales, tilting with every breath I took."Faceslap of authority, Elias," Time whispered, his voice a thousand ticking clocks. "You claimed the title. You triggered the 103rd Audit. Now, sign the minutes of the meeting. The universe is waiting for its new operating manual.""The Golden Path is stable, but it is static," Space added, the stars in his suit swirling aggressively. "Without friction, there is no expansion. You

The marble moon didn't explode; it simply ceased to be. One second I was standing on solid ground, and the next, I was plummeting through a visual glitch of grey static and raw, unallocated data. The air tasted like iron filings and dead memories."Faceslap of physics, kid! You’re in the Trash Folder now!"I rolled in the air, stabilizing my form with a pulse of the 103rd Audit’s emerald light. Marcus was hovering a few yards away, his pinstriped suit flickering like a dying television screen. He looked through me, his eyes two pits of missing code."You can't touch me, Thorne!" Marcus’s voice came from everywhere and nowhere. "Look at your hand. Look at your fancy Divine Sword!"I summoned the Sovereign’s Blade—a weapon forged from the concentrated will of a billion peaceful souls. It blazed with a holy, golden fire. I lunged, the blade passing through Marcus’s chest as if he were a holographic projection."Impossible," I gritted out, swinging again. "The Divine Sword cuts through an

The "Source Code" in Marcus’s hand hadn't been the end; it was the catalyst for a final, desperate expansion. I didn't let him squeeze the heart of the 103rd Audit. I reached through the white-gold light of the Mercy I’d reclaimed and forced the timeline to lurch forward. I didn't just stop him; I outgrew him.Now, the Higher Realms didn't just feel like a new map—they felt like an appetite."Faceslap of ambition, Master," Aethel’s voice echoed through the bridge of the *Thorne Ark*. "We aren't just building a city anymore. You’ve built a planet with engines."I stood at the center of the command deck, the liquid-sun ring pulsing with a steady, iridescent glow. Beneath my feet, the *Thorne Ark*—a vessel the size of a small moon, forged from living white jade and star-iron—thrummed with the collective Qi of a billion stabilized souls."We can't stay in the cradle forever, Aethel," I said, my eyes fixed on the panoramic view of the shifting dimensions outside. "Marcus’s residue is still

The breach in the Reality Wall was a jagged, weeping throat of white static, and the "Outer Breath" was pouring through it like molten lead. It didn't burn; it erased. Where it touched the white jade floor of the *Thorne Ark*, the stone didn't shatter—it simply ceased to have ever been part of the architectural plan."Faceslap of physics, Elias! The hull is melting into non-existence!" Aethel screamed, his violet Qi lashing out at the encroaching grey mist. The energy hit the mist and vanished like a pebble in an ocean. "My power isn't doing anything! It’s just... sliding off!""It's not sliding off, Aethel! It’s being ignored!" I roared.I lunged into the breach. I didn't use a shield; I used my bare hands. I slammed my palms against the raw edges of the broken universe, my fingers digging into the conceptual glass of reality itself. The ultraviolet pressure of the Outer God’s breath slammed into my chest, trying to accelerate my heartbeat by a billion years."Elias, stop! You’ll tur

The silence was a physical weight. The continent-sized foot of the ultraviolet Sphere remained suspended inches above the *Thorne Ark’s* dome, held in place by a single vibration. The grey entropy had crystallized into harmless salt on the deck, and my mortal lungs, despite having zero Qi, felt like they were breathing the very breath of the void."Faceslap of a pause, Master," Aethel whispered, his voice trembling as he stared at the frozen God. "What did you say to him? It sounded like a grunt, but the universe just hit the brakes.""I didn't grunt, Aethel," I said, my voice resonating with a frequency that made the white jade walls hum. I stepped toward the viewing port, my eyes locked onto the God’s massive, pulsing eye. "I asked a question.""A question?" Selene asked, clutching her robes. "In that... that gutter-tongue of the Primal Chaos?""The first question," I replied. "The word was *'Why?'*"The ultraviolet Sphere shuddered. The geometric shards of its body ground together