The applause was far too neat, far too rhythmic for a place that was nothing more than a cosmic mass grave.Clap. Clap. Clap.Lady Luck descended from empty space as though invisible steps had formed beneath the heels of her shoes. Her dark emerald gown drifted gently behind her, a striking contrast against Necro-Prime's gray wasteland of ancient godly bones. In her left hand, a crystal wineglass filled with swirling nebula wine spun elegantly. A silk blindfold embroidered with constellations still covered her eyes."What a marvelous performance, Oliver Warner," the goddess said. Her voice flowed like the melody of a casino promising a jackpot. "I have watched countless heroes fall and countless demons perish. But witnessing an anomaly reprogram a cosmic executioner until it died as a mortal? That... that is pure art."Oliver didn't smile.His white and gold body of energy flickered softly. At the center of his chest, the five Compass Shards rotated in perfect harmony, radiating a glo

The mahogany table stood alone in the endless void, illuminated by the only source of light left in Necro-Prime, the radiance of the five Compass Shards spinning within Oliver's chest.Lady Luck sat with one leg crossed over the other, her emerald gown reflecting the glow of dead stars. She smiled, graceful and refined, yet hiding the cunning of a cosmic predator."A game of dice," Lady Luck said, her voice ringing like crystal against crystal. "Simple, ancient, and absolute. But since we're wagering existence itself, those plastic dice from your rundown casino won't be enough."The goddess raised her pale right hand.She didn't reach into a pocket for dice.Instead, she opened her palm, and the empty space above the table suddenly warped. Two dead dwarf planets, the abandoned corpses of a long-erased solar system, were pulled across the Void from unimaginable distances.Right before Oliver's eyes, Lady Luck compressed the space surrounding the planets.Absolute gravity took hold, cru

If you asked Oliver Warner what it felt like to become a god, he'd answer like this:It felt like being pulled in ten different directions by ten enraged hippos while solving quantum physics at the same time.In the flattened emptiness of Necro-Prime, Oliver's body of pure energy floated like a living constellation. His arms were spread wide. From each of his ten glowing fingers extended threads of golden and black light. The threads pierced through dimensional boundaries, anchoring themselves directly to the cores of the five worlds he had just liberated.The System inside his mind, now little more than his personal dashboard, screamed without end.Golden warning panels flashed across his vision.[WARNING: COSMIC-LEVEL SPATIAL LAW VIOLATION.][MERGING SEPARATE DIMENSIONAL COORDINATES WILL RESULT IN A DIMENSIONAL COLLISION.][PROBABILITY OF TOTAL MATERIAL DESTRUCTION ACROSS EARTH, AETHELGARD, THALASSA, AURELIA, AND NOX-MACHINA: 88.7%.]"Shut up, System," Oliver hissed.His voice echoe

The main portal standing at the center of The Nexus plaza wasn't merely enormous.It was a science fiction monument the size of a cathedral, constructed from the remains of the Grand Deleter's Ring.When the cosmic machine activated, it didn't produce the ordinary hum of machinery.Its voice was a harmony of crashing oceans, steam engines, and raging storms, all resonating at a perfectly synchronized frequency.WHOOOOOOSH!A burst of sapphire-blue light exploded from the heart of the gateway, forming a swirling vortex of liquid mercury spinning inward.All around the plaza, thousands of Nexus citizens, cyborgs from Aethelgard, fishfolk from Thalassa, priests from Aurelia, and mafia members from Nox-Machina, stopped panicking about the Prime Architect.They crowded around the portal, staring at it with wide eyes.Oliver drifted down from the balcony of his tower.His body, woven from white and golden light, descended slowly, passing flickering casino neon signs and Victorian-style stre