The last thing Elias Kane knew was pain.
The truck came out of nowhere. Screeching tires. The scream of metal. A moment of bone-crushing impact—then nothing.
As his vision dimmed, he laughed bitterly. Life was a rigged game from the start. If gods are real… I'll kill them myself.
His words were not a prayer. They were venom.
—
When his eyes opened again, the world was wrong.
He lay on grass softer than silk, beneath a sky painted in swirling gold and violet. The air shimmered faintly, and silver-leafed trees loomed overhead like ancient sentinels.
Elias sat up slowly, blinking. His hands were small. His voice, when he muttered, "What the…?" was higher, younger.
He stumbled to a crystal-clear pond and froze.
A stranger stared back. A boy no older than fifteen, dark-haired, silver-eyed, with sharp, regal features. This wasn't his body.
Before panic could set in, a deep, resonant voice filled his mind.
Welcome, Kael. Your wish to defy divinity has been heard.
Kael flinched. "Who—who's there?"
The Void Beyond All Things. I have granted you this world. Here, gods walk among mortals. Here, you may rise above them all.
"…Why me?"
Because you dared. Because you cursed them in your final breath. So I gift you what no god dares wield—Limitless Authority.
"Limitless… what?"
You can become anything. Create anything. Copy anything. Thought is reality. Will is law. Use it—or die.
The voice faded, leaving only silence.
Kael sat there trembling. Copy anything? Create anything I think of? Is this… real?
A guttural growl snapped him from his thoughts.
From the trees emerged a wolf the size of a house. Its fur shimmered with divine light, and its eyes glowed like twin moons. A celestial beast.
Kael stumbled back, heart hammering.
The wolf lunged.
Instinctively, Kael thought, I want to stop it.
Reality obeyed.
The wolf froze mid-air, suspended as if time itself bent to his will. Kael stared, wide-eyed. I… did that?
Tentatively, he imagined a weapon—something strong enough to kill a god. In his hand appeared a black blade, humming with impossible power.
He stepped forward and swung once.
The wolf split apart cleanly, dissolving into motes of silver light.
Kael stared at the blade in awe. It… worked. I just thought it, and it became real.
But before he could process it, a radiant spear of light struck the ground beside the wolf's corpse.
From the sky descended a man clad in golden armor, glowing like the sun itself. His gaze was sharp, cold, divine.
"Another beast, cleansed," the man said. He turned toward Kael, his eyes narrowing. "…Mortal. You killed it?"
Kael said nothing.
The man frowned. "Be grateful the gods protect you. Know your place."
And with that, he vanished in a streak of light, ascending into the heavens.
Kael stared at the empty sky, his grip tightening on the black blade.
"This world really is ruled by gods," he murmured.
But now, he smiled faintly.
Good. Let's see how they handle someone like me.