For a being of absolute boundless eternity, five years was less than the blink of an eye.

But for Arthur Sterling, things were different. He was a man who had spent his entire mortal and immortal life moving at breakneck speed.

Five years of uninterrupted peace felt like an eternity of agonizing boredom!

The Ebon Empire was a flawless perfectly oiled machine.

The Mortal Domain, the Apex Realm, and the Celestial Court had been stitched

together into a singular massive super-dimension.

The crushing classist hierarchies of the old Gods had been violently liquidated.

Under Arthur’s absolute rule, the universe operated on a strict ruthless meritocracy.

If you worked hard, you got paid.

If you tried to start a rebellion, your entire bloodline was erased from existence before breakfast.

It was an incredibly efficient business model.

Arthur sat on the Imperial Throne of Infinity. It was a massive imposing construct of dark obsidian and polished starlight located at the absolute apex of the Ebon Citadel.

He swirled a glass of hyper-refined celestial whiskey while resting his chin on his knuckles.

He looked down at the sprawling holographic ledgers hovering over the war table.

"Profits are up," Sylvia Thorne noted.

She walked gracefully around the table. The Arch-Mage wore a sleek silver-threaded executive suit that clung perfectly to her lethal curves.

"The integration of the lower-realm leylines has boosted ambient Qi production

by four thousand percent. Even the slums in the Mortal Domain are producing Grandmaster-tier cultivators now."

"And the Vanguard?" Arthur asked lazily.

"Bored out of their minds," Aurelia reported as she stepped out of the shadows.

The former Valkyrie’s golden wings were tucked neatly behind her back.

"Commander Cross led a sweep of the outer rim yesterday. They found exactly three rogue abyssal beasts. Two hundred elite guards nearly killed each other fighting for the right to execute them."

Arthur chuckled. He took a slow sip of his whiskey.

Caden Cross. His original naive little battery had grown into a terrifying Divine Emperor in his own right. He acted as the loyal attack dog of the Ebon Empire.

"Can we invade something?" Morwenna groaned.

She dramatically draped herself over the armrest of Arthur’s throne.

The Demon Empress rested her head on his thigh. Her liquid gold eyes looked up at him with profound impatience.

"I haven’t punched anything substantial in half a decade. I’m getting soft, Emperor."

"You are a literal Goddess of the True Abyss," Lyra scoffed from the rafters

above.

She was hanging upside down by her knees. The Stardusk rogue casually tossed a

divine dagger into the air and caught it.

"You couldn’t get soft if you tried. But I agree with the brute. The markets are too stable. It’s depressing."

Arthur smiled softly and rested his hand on Morwenna’s dark hair. He understood

exactly how they felt.

The hostile takeover had been exhilarating. The absolute domination had been

intoxicating.

But maintaining the monopoly? It lacked the thrill of the hunt.

He had won the game. He was the Prime Creator.

Just as Arthur opened his mouth to suggest they take a vacation to a mortal beach planet, a sudden violent spasm ripped through his skull!

"Fssshhkk!"

Arthur flinched. His hand tightened so hard around his glass that the celestial crystal shattered into glowing dust.

"Emperor?!" Sylvia gasped. Her aura instantly flared with protective absolute

zero magic.

Morwenna shot up from the throne. Her abyssal claws elongated as she scanned the

room for a threat.

Arthur held up a hand. His dark eyes were wide.

Deep within his mind, a system interface that had been completely dormant for five years violently booted up.

It wasn’t the calm soothing blue he was used to. The entire holographic screen

was flashing a blinding catastrophic red!

[System Alert]

↳ CRITICAL ANOMALY DETECTED.

↳ WARNING: The Outer Gods are awakening.

↳ Current System Multiplier 10,000x is statistically insufficient for host survival.

↳ Emergency Upgrade Initiated.

↳ Upgrading to: 1,000,000x Return System.

↳ Dimensional Barrier to the Primordial Chaos unlocked.

Arthur stood up from the Throne of Infinity.

His heart was hammering against his ribs. It was a sensation he hadn’t felt since he first woke up in the muddy slums of the Mortal Domain.

"Boom!"

The entire Ebon Citadel violently lurched. It was a floating fortress the size of a continent, yet it shook like a leaf.

The physical laws of the throne room groaned under an impossible incomprehensible pressure.

"Look!" Lyra screamed. She dropped from the rafters and pointed frantically at the massive panoramic viewport.

Arthur looked up. The pristine perfectly ordered sky of the Celestial Court was

tearing apart.

It wasn’t a spatial portal. It was a jagged rotting wound in reality itself.

From the tear, a massive terrifying tentacle breached the sky. It was composed entirely of pure anti-matter and shifting geometry.

It dripped a sickly grayish miasma that completely erased the golden clouds it

touched.

It defied logic. It defied the fundamental math of the universe.

"What in the name of the Creator is that?" Aurelia whispered. Her golden spear

trembled in her hand.

Arthur stared at the cosmic horror descending upon his perfect ordered empire.

The boredom that had plagued him for five years evaporated in an instant. It was

replaced by a dark burning euphoria.

The multiverse he had conquered wasn’t the entire ocean. It was just a tiny fragile bubble floating in a sea of infinite chaos.

And the real sharks had just noticed him.

"System," Arthur commanded.

His voice was a low vibrating rumble that made the dark metal of the Citadel hum.

"Equip the Armor of the Absolute Monarch."

A blinding flash of pitch-black light enveloped him.

When it faded, Arthur was clad in sleek hyper-condensed starlight armor. It radiated the sheer undeniable weight of his Administrator Privileges.

He reached out and the Ebonheart Cube snapped into his hand. It extended into a

massive humming longsword wreathed in the Primordial Flame.

"Stay behind me, Queens," Arthur ordered. A terrifying predatory grin stretched

across his face.

"Looks like we aren’t at the top of the corporate ladder after all.

The hunt just got bigger."