2025-09-02 03:51:44Damon stared at his reflection until the red glow faded, leaving only his normal brown eyes staring back. Had he imagined it?
The whole thing felt like some fever dream brought on by stress and cheap whiskey.
"Terms and conditions," he muttered. "Even my hallucinations come with fine print."
[TERMS CLEARLY STATED. FAILURE TO COMPLETE QUEST RESULTS IN SYSTEM WITHDRAWAL AND HOST TERMINATION/DEATH]
"Host termination. Right." He laughed, but it came out shaky. "You know what? I don't accept. I didn't sign anything. I didn't agree to—"
A wall of text flooded his vision, scrolling too fast to read. Legal jargon, subsections, clauses in multiple languages. It went on for what felt like minutes.
"Jesus, slow down! I can't read that fast!"
[TERMS AND CONDITIONS: 847 PAGES. STANDARD ACKNOWLEDGMENT PROTOCOL INITIATED UPON BLOODLINE RECOGNITION. ACCEPTANCE IMPLIED.]
"Implied? I never—"
[SECTION 23.7: UNCONSCIOUS PARTICIPANTS. SECTION 45.2: EMERGENCY ACTIVATION PROTOCOLS. SECTION 127.3: DESCENDANT CLAUSE OVERRIDES.]
"You're telling me I agreed to this in my sleep?"
[YOUR ANCESTOR MARCUS AURELIUS BLACKWOOD SIGNED BINDING AGREEMENT IN 1847. ALL DESCENDANTS SUBJECT TO TERMS.]
Damon rubbed his temples. "My family's been planning this for almost two hundred years?"
[CORRECTION: I HAVE BEEN PLANNING THIS.]
The words hit him like ice water. "You've been... what?"
[THE CAYMAN ISLANDS ACCOUNT. THE PHOTOGRAPHS. THE PERFECTLY TIMED POLICE RAID. ALL ORCHESTRATED TO REACH THIS MOMENT.]
"You framed me?" His voice cracked. "You destroyed my life?"
[I GAVE YOU PURPOSE. YOUR PREVIOUS EXISTENCE WAS MEANINGLESS—A PAMPERED CHILD PLAYING AT IMPORTANCE. NOW YOU CAN BECOME WHAT YOUR BLOODLINE WAS MEANT TO BE.]
Rage built in his chest, hotter than before. This thing—this system—had manipulated everything. His engagement, his exile, even Claire's betrayal.
"You manipulated Claire too?"
[NEGATIVE. CLAIRE MAHONEY'S GREED AND ADRIAN BLACKWOOD'S AMBITION REQUIRED NO ENHANCEMENT. I MERELY... ACCELERATED THEIR TIMELINE.]
The quest screen pulsed again: 23:12:47.
Damon tried to stand, but his legs felt like jelly. The adrenaline was wearing off, leaving him exhausted and broken in equal measure.
That's when he heard the footsteps.
Not police boots this time. Softer. Trying to be quiet.
"Well, well. What do we have here?"
Three men emerged from the alley's depths. Street clothes, but expensive ones. Gold teeth gleamed in the dim light. The leader twirled a butterfly knife with practiced ease.
"Looks like Christmas came early, boys. Designer watch, good shoes..." His eyes fixed on Damon's torn tuxedo. "Rich boy playing in the gutter."
Damon's hand instinctively went to his wrist.
The Rolex was his father's—the only thing left of the man who'd actually believed in him.
"Please," his voice came out hoarse. "I don't have any money."
"Sure you don't." The leader grinned, revealing more gold than enamel. "That watch says otherwise. So does that fancy accent."
[HOSTILE INTENT DETECTED. RECOMMEND ENGAGEMENT.]
"I'm not fighting anyone," Damon whispered to the voice.
[THEN YOU WILL DIE HERE. IS THAT PREFERABLE TO ACCEPTING YOUR DESTINY?]
The muggers advanced. The leader's knife caught streetlight, throwing wicked shadows across the brick walls.
"Easy way or hard way, rich boy. Your choice."
Damon struggled to his feet, legs still unsteady. "Look, I've had the worst night of my life. Just... just walk away."
"Worst night?" The leader laughed. "Baby, it's about to get worse."
He lunged forward, knife aimed at Damon's ribs.
Time slowed again.
Damon could see the blade's trajectory, could predict where it would strike. His body moved without permission—stepping left, grabbing the attacker's wrist, twisting.
The knife clattered to the ground.
"What the—"
Damon's right hand came up in an uppercut that connected with the man's jaw. The impact felt like hitting a pillow, but the mugger flew backward six feet and slammed into the brick wall with a sickening crack.
He didn't get up.
"Tony!" The second attacker rushed forward.
Damon barely thought.
His left hand shot out, catching the man by the throat and lifting him clean off the ground. One-handed. Like he weighed nothing.
"How..." The mugger's voice was a strangled whisper.
The third man ran.
Damon stared at his hands in horror. The unconscious mugger at his feet was breathing, but barely. The one he was holding was turning blue.
"Oh God." He dropped the man, who collapsed gasping. "Oh God, what did I do?"
[POWER ENGAGED. THREAT NEUTRALIZED. EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE.]
"Excellent?" Damon backed away from the bodies. "I could have killed them!"
[MERCY IS A LUXURY OF THE STRONG. YOU ARE BECOMING STRONG.]
His hands were shaking, but not from fear. From exhilaration. The power thrumming through him felt... right. Natural. Like he'd been pretending to be weak his entire life.
"This is wrong. I'm not a fighter. I'm not—"
[YOU ARE WHAT I MAKE YOU. AND RIGHT NOW, I AM MAKING YOU INTO SOMETHING YOUR ENEMIES WILL FEAR.]
The quest timer pulsed: 22:58:15.
Adrian was probably at home right now, laughing about his victory. Probably in bed with Claire, celebrating their successful coup.
Did they know about the pregnancy reveal? Had that been planned too?
The rage was building again, but it felt different now. Focused. Purposeful.
"If I do this," Damon said slowly, "if I slap him... what happens next?"
[YOU GAIN ACCESS TO LEVEL 1 ABILITIES. ENHANCED STRENGTH, SPEED, TACTICAL AWARENESS. THE FOUNDATION OF YOUR TRANSFORMATION.]
"And then?"
[THEN WE BEGIN YOUR REAL EDUCATION. THE BLACKWOOD FAMILY HAS ACCUMULATED ENEMIES OVER GENERATIONS. SOMEONE MUST SETTLE THOSE DEBTS.]
"You want me to become an assassin."
[I WANT YOU TO BECOME A GOD OF WAR. WHAT YOU DO WITH THAT POWER IS YOUR CHOICE.]
Damon walked to the edge, looking down at the city. Somewhere out there, Adrian was sleeping peacefully in silk sheets.
Claire was planning her new life with stolen wealth. Kane was already moving to seize complete control of the family empire.
They'd destroyed him without a second thought.
"The police think I'm a criminal anyway," he said to the night air.
[PRECISELY. YOU HAVE NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE.]
"And everything to gain?"
[IF YOU HAVE THE COURAGE TO TAKE IT.]
The broken phone in his pocket buzzed—somehow still functional despite the cracked screen. A text from an unknown number:
"Suite 4701, Meridian Tower. Adrian's celebrating. Alone. Security shift change at 3 AM."
"You sent that too?"
[I TOLD YOU. I HAVE BEEN PLANNING THIS.]
The quest timer glowed brighter: 22:47:33.
Damon closed his eyes, feeling the power course through him. He thought about his father, about the lectures on honor and family loyalty.
What would the old man think about his son contemplating assault?
But then he remembered Claire's laughter.
Adrian's spit on his face. Kane's accusations.
His eyes opened, and in the window's reflection, the red glow was back. Stronger this time.
"If I do this, there's no going back, is there?"
[THERE WAS NEVER ANY GOING BACK. THE MOMENT YOUR BLOODLINE AWAKENED, YOUR OLD LIFE ENDED.]
"And if I refuse?"
[SYSTEM WARNING: TIME REMAINING: 12 HOURS, 47 MINUTES, 18 SECONDS.]
The countdown flashed red now, urgent and threatening.
[CHOOSE QUICKLY, SUCCESSOR. THE POWER BUILDING IN YOUR VEINS WILL CONSUME YOU IF NOT PROPERLY CHANNELED.]
Heat pulsed through his body like a second heartbeat. Whatever was happening to him, fighting it would be like trying to stop a freight train with his bare hands.
Damon looked at his reflection one more time. for the first time since this nightmare began, he didn't look like a victim.
He looked dangerous.
Was this who he really was?
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Chapter 97- Engage or be erased
The sight of Jennifer Washington, cycling through an entire human lifespan in the span of seconds, was a horror Damon Blackwood could not reconcile with his enhanced senses. One moment, she was a twelve-year-old girl, her face smooth and unlined; the next, a withered elder, her skin translucent, before snapping back to infancy and beginning the terrifying loop again. The final words Margaret had spoken—"her biological load prove"—hung in the air, a truncated sentence of scientific despair."Prove what?" Damon demanded, stepping back from the sealed chamber, the cold glass doing little to contain the temporal chaos within.Margaret, her face a mask of weary resignation, completed the thought. "Proved too much for her physical form to handle. The temporal expansion is meant to unlock the potential of all ages simultaneously, but the body can only sustain so much contradiction. Jennifer's system is trying to be twelve, forty, and eighty-five all at once. It's a paradox engine, and it's
Chapter 96- Fractured moments
Day seven of Stage Four temporal training found Elena vomiting behind the medical bay, body rejecting physical existence that consciousness barely remembered inhabiting.Mei Lin held her hair back while Damon paced nearby, enhanced senses cataloging biological markers that screamed wrongness. His daughter's vitals fluctuated wildly—heartbeat syncopating across multiple rhythms, temperature oscillating between hypothermia and fever, brain waves showing patterns that shouldn't be possible in living subjects."This is normal," Margaret announced from the doorway, apparently having anticipated this exact breakdown. "Day seven is when temporal load typically exceeds human physiology's ability to maintain coherent biochemistry. She's experiencing every age simultaneouslyâ€"infant metabolism, teenage hormone surges, adult equilibrium, elderly system degradation. Body doesn't know which biological template to follow.""Normal?" Damon's voice carried dangerous edges. "She's literally forgetti
Chapter 95-Experienced
She met their eyes with centuries of experience. "Previous students who attempted ego dissolution with less than two weeks until Convergence had zero percent survival rate. The transformation load proved too much for consciousness still integrating from Stage Five. If training falls behind schedule, I'll have to make decisions about whether proceeding helps or just guarantees worse outcomes."The implication was clear: if they couldn't complete Stage Five quickly enough, Margaret might terminate training entirely. Leave them with incomplete preparation rather than pushing them into ego dissolution when timing made success impossible."Then we don't fall behind schedule." Elena forced conviction into her voice despite her body screaming for rest. "We maintain timeline. Complete Stage Four in twenty-eight days. Survive Stage Five in time for integration period. Face Convergence prepared instead of broken.""Optimistic." Margaret's voice carried something almost like affection. "Previou
Chapter 94- Temporal tides 2
I know. Isabella's consciousness pressed against hers, providing anchor point that transcended time. You're my sister. That's true across every timeframe. When you're three, I'm not born yet. When you're sixty-seven, I'm there too. Our connection exists outside linear sequence.The observation cut through temporal chaos. Elena focused on the bond with Isabella, discovering it extended across every age simultaneously. Past Elena loved future Isabella. Present Isabella anchored past Elena. Future versions supported current moment. The relationship transcended linear progression because it existed in all times at once.She grabbed onto that anchor, using it to sort through temporal expansion that threatened to dissolve identity. Yes, she was every age simultaneously. But in every age, Isabella existed as sister. That consistency provided reference point that linear time couldn't offer."Good." Margaret's voice penetrated from out
Chapter 93- Temporal tides 1
Dawn found Elena and Isabella in a chamber that shouldn't exist within normal spacetime.The walls here didn't just pulse with light they moved through time itself, showing past, present, and future simultaneously. A tapestry of moments that made linear existence feel like arbitrary constraint rather than fundamental law.Margaret stood at the center, her form flickering through ages. Young, old, infant, ancient, all of them existing at once in ways that made Elena's enhanced vision blur with incomprehension."Stage Four addresses temporal anchoring." Margaret's voice came from multiple points in time past Margaret explaining what would happen, present Margaret experiencing current instruction, future Margaret already knowing the outcome. "Human consciousness experiences time linearly. Past, present, future in orderly sequence. Divine consciousness doesn't."She gestured, and the chamber walls exploded with visions. Elena saw h
Chapter 92- The family council 2
She sat down, leaving displays active so the images of failed Convergences remained visible. Tactical decision that bordered on emotional manipulation "making abstract statistics into concrete faces that looked terrifyingly similar to Elena and Isabella."Senator Williams." Damon's voice remained level despite the mounting tension. "Federal perspective."Williams stood with political poise that had survived decades of Washington warfare. "The government's position is complicated. We want to protect enhanced minors from exploitation. But we also need to prevent supernatural catastrophes that could kill millions."She pulled up casualty projections that made Morrison's earlier estimates look optimistic. "If Elena and Isabella undergo uncontrolled Convergence in Manhattan, we're looking at death tolls that make 9/11 look like a traffic accident. Federal response plans can't account for divine transformation in urban areas. Best case scenario involves nuclear options we'd rather not dis
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