The GOD-SLAYER'S INFINITE REGRESSION

The Riot Begins

I stood on the edge of the VIP balcony, my shadow blade dripping with black smoke. Malek scrambled backward, his boots sliding on the polished marble. He held the purple orb like a shield.

"Stay back, you freak!" Malek screamed. "You’re a glitch! You’re a virus in the System!"

"I’m the cure, Malek," I said.

"You cheated!" he shrieked. "No F-Rank slave can move like that! No one can buy from the Divine Store without a Priest’s seal!"

"Your Priests are just middle-men," I said. "I cut out the commission."

"Guards!" Malek bellowed. "Execute him for high treason! He has violated the Divine Balance!"

Four elite sentinels in silver armor vaulted over the railing. They leveled spears tipped with white fire at my throat.

"By the authority of the God of Greed," the lead sentinel intoned, "Vaxen 402 is sentenced to soul-erasure."

"Vaxen, behind you!" Jace yelled from the arena floor.

"Don't worry about me, Jace!" I shouted. "Worry about the doors!"

"The doors?" Malek laughed. "The doors are sealed with Celestial iron! No one leaves until the Purge is complete!"

"Then I’ll just have to bring more guests," I said.

I opened the Store. My finger hovered over the new icon.

[SKILL PURCHASE: SHADOW OF THE SLAIN.] [COST: 5,000 KARMA.] [DESCRIPTION: SUMMON THE VESTIGES OF THOSE YOU HAVE KILLED.]

"What are you doing?" the lead sentinel asked. He paused, his spear shaking. "Why is the ground turning black?"

"I’m calling in some old debts," I said.

I slammed the purchase button. A shockwave of freezing air exploded from my chest. The marble balcony cracked. From the shadows beneath my feet, hands began to reach out. They were gray, translucent, and covered in battle-scars.

"What are those things?" Malek whimpered. He dropped the orb. It rolled across the floor, hissing.

"Meet the people who fell to my blade," I said. "They’ve been waiting a long time for a rematch."

"They're ghosts!" a guard screamed. "They aren't in the database! System, identify! Identify!"

[ERROR: TARGET DATA NOT FOUND.] [ERROR: VESTIGES ORIGINATE FROM OUTSIDE CURRENT TIMELINE.]

"You’re a necromancer!" Malek yelled. "That’s a forbidden class!"

"I’m whatever I need to be to kill you," I said.

The shadows rose. Fifty spectral warriors stood on the balcony. They wore armor from a future that hadn't happened yet. They didn't speak. They just turned their hollow eyes toward the guards.

"Kill them," I commanded.

The shadows moved like liquid. They didn't use weapons; they tore through the silver armor with their bare hands. The sentinels screamed as their souls were pulled from their bodies.

"Vaxen, stop this!" Lyra called out. She was standing at the base of the balcony. "The energy is too much! You’re tearing the pit apart!"

"Good!" I shouted back. "Let it burn!"

"You're insane!" Malek scrambled for the orb, but a shadow warrior stepped on his hand. "AAAGH! My fingers! You’re breaking my fingers!"

"You like breaking things, Malek?" I asked. I walked over and kicked him in the ribs. "You liked breaking the slaves?"

"It was my job!" Malek sobbed. "I was just a manager! Please! I have a family!"

"The people you killed had families too," I said. "Now you can go apologize to them."

"Wait!" Malek pointed at the sky. "Look! The eye! It’s turning red!"

The Golden Eye in the sky was vibrating. The clouds around it were spinning into a vortex.

[ALERT: THE GOD OF GREED HAS DECLARED AN ILLEGAL INTERVENTION.] [DIVINE STRIKE IMMINENT.]

"He’s going to kill us all just to get to you!" Lyra screamed. "Vaxen, we have to get the slaves out now!"

"I'm on it," I said.

I looked at the shadow warriors. "Go to the gates. All of them. Use your essence. Blow them open."

"Vaxen, they can't!" Jace yelled. "The gates are ten feet thick!"

"Watch," I said.

The shadows leaped from the balcony. They flew across the arena like dark comets. They slammed into the massive iron doors of the Vorax Pit. They didn't hit them; they merged with the metal.

"What are they doing?" Malek asked, clutching his broken hand.

"They're overloading the atoms," I said.

"That's impossible!" Malek screamed. "Iron doesn't have atoms! It has durability points!"

"Your System is a lie, Malek," I said. "Everything is just energy. And my shadows are hungry."

The iron doors began to glow a sickly purple. The air around them warped. The sound was like a thousand bells ringing at once.

"Get back!" I shouted to Jace and Lyra. "Cover your eyes!"

"Vaxen, what about the slaves?" Lyra asked.

"They're about to be free!" I yelled.

"You've ruined everything!" Malek wailed. "The God of Greed will skin me alive for this!"

"You won't live that long," I said.

I picked up the purple orb Malek had dropped. It was pulsing with unstable mana.

"What are you doing with that?" Malek gasped.

"Returning it," I said.

I threw the orb straight at the Golden Eye in the sky. It didn't reach the eye, but it exploded in mid-air, creating a cloud of magical interference. The Divine Strike faltered. The red lightning hissed and dissipated.

"You attacked a God?" Malek whispered. He looked like he was about to faint. "You actually attacked a God."

"He’s next," I said.

I looked down at the arena floor. Thousands of slaves were standing in front of the glowing gates. They were holding their breath.

"Now!" I roared.

The shadows inside the metal expanded. The iron didn't just bend. It didn't just break.

The prison doors didn’t just open — they exploded.

A wall of fire and shrapnel blew outward into the city streets. The shockwave knocked the guards off their feet. The path was clear.

"Freedom!" a slave shouted.

"Kill the guards!" another yelled. "To the armory!"

The riot had begun. Thousands of men and women poured out of the Vorax Pit like a flood. They weren't slaves anymore. They were a weapon.

"Go, Lyra!" I shouted. "Lead them to the tunnels! Don't look back!"

"What about you?" she asked.

"I have to finish this," I said.

I turned back to Malek. He was shivering in the corner of the balcony. He looked at the empty arena, then back at me.

"You’ve started a war," Malek whispered.

"No," I said, stepping toward him. "I’ve started an execution."

I grabbed Malek by the collar and dragged him toward the edge of the balcony. Below us, the riot was turning the city into a furnace.

"Vaxen, please!" Malek begged. "I can give you codes! I can give you gold!"

"I don't want your gold," I said. "I want your fear."

I held him over the drop.