Cosmic Dominion: Rise Beyond Realms

I don't know how long I was lying there before my eyes finally flicked open, but the moment they did, the blinding light of the sun hammered down on my face. For a moment, everything was just blurred streaks of gold and white, shifting shapes that refused to settle. Then… the heat. Heat, dry air and sand stuck to the side of my cheek where my skin brushed the ground.

My head felt… hollow.

The wind hit my face, warm and stale.

I didn't move at first. I just stared up at the pale sky.

I blinked, slowly and roughly. My mind, still raw from… everything.

"What the hell… happened…?" I croaked; my own voice sounded foreign in my ears.

I pushed my elbow against the sand and sat up. Grains of dust slid off my armour with a dry rasp.

I sucked in a breath — rough, dry air burning down my throat.

My voice cracked, raw from… dying? I couldn't tell. I dragged in another lungful, but something felt off. My chest rose and fell like normal, but deeper inside, something was missing. Something more.

"Last thing I remember…" I muttered, the memories flooding back in fragments — Joseph's laughter, his blood on my hands, Zhang's tears, Aetheria's voice telling me there was nothing left to save, my body crumbling away like burnt paper and the universe itself splitting apart.

I closed my eyes, jaw tightening.

"I died there, didn't I?!"

I touched my face. It felt solid. No cracks. My body was whole.

I laughed — a dry, half-broken sound. "So… is this it? The afterlife…. So, is it Heaven? Hell? Or some goddamn purgatory?"

I dug my fingers into the sand. It was dry, cracked, and hot. Not welcoming at all. I forced myself to my feet, my armoured boots crunching into the cracked soil, my legs stiff as iron beams.

I stood up, and my knees almost gave out, but I was able to steady myself right on time. The sand crunched under the weight of the armour. Then I looked down at myself…

That damn armour was still with me. That same dark, jagged suit, veined with that sinister crimson light. The shaped core in my chest still pulsed faintly, like a dying ember. I pressed my hand against it.

"So, you came along too, huh?" I muttered, tapping the chest plate. It thrummed faintly, like it recognised me. "Great. Could've left this behind, but no… guess we're stuck together."

I started looking around. The cracked, sunbaked earth stretched out in every direction — not a single tree, no buildings, no wind even, just an endless field of dry, yellow-brown dirt under a sky so pale it hurt to stare at it.

I turned in a slow circle. My voice cracked as it left my throat, carried away by the dry wind. "Hello?" I shouted, my voice echoing against nothing. "Anyone? Someone?"

But there was no reply, only silence. The only sound was the sound of the dry wind. "Figures," I grunted. "But where the hell am I now?!"

I wiped sweat or maybe just dust off my forehead. "Okay, Shin..."

As I was looking around, suddenly my mind flicked to that first dead world, the one I fell on after drifting in the void for five fucking years.

"This… this feels like that planet. The dead one. Where I first fought those giant worms. Did I get spat back here after the universe crumbled?"

I crouched down and scooped up a handful of soil. It slipped through my fingers, and a twisted grin pulled at my lips.

"Is this the same place?" I asked the sky, half-laughing. "You again? Really?"

I half-expected one of those worms to pop out, or some giant insect to claw its way up from under the sand. I waited and waited, but nothing happened. The ground stayed still.

"Alright. Fine…" I spread my hands. "I guess it's time to explore."

I pressed my hand to the ground, bracing my knuckles like I always did before I flew. I focused, trying to feel the spark of energy. But I felt nothing, just… dull emptiness.

"Come on…" I whispered, digging my knuckles deeper. "Move. Fly. Anything…"

But still nothing.

I stood up and tried again, planting my feet.

"Come on…" I hissed. "Up. Fly…"

I bent my knees, willing my body to launch into the air, but all I got was a weak push in my calves, like I'd just tried to hop a fence.

I straightened up, staring at my hands. The crimson veins in my armour flickered, but that was it.

"Strange…" I murmured. "The armour's here. But where the hell is the power?"

I clenched my fists, but no surge of energy, no quake in the air. Just silence. "Great. Just great. Death takes my powers, leaves me stuck in this fancy tin can."

I glanced around "Well, fuck it then," I said with a rough sigh, giving the empty plains one last glance. "…Guess I better start walking."

I started walking. The ground was uneven. Each step kicked up a faint cloud of dust that swirled before settling right back down. Time blurred — a few minutes, maybe hours. This place didn't give me any clues: just more sand, more dead wind.

After a few hours of walking, something shifted under my boot. A crunch

Crunch…

I crouched, brushing the sand aside with my metal fingers. A skull…. It was clean, white and looked like it belonged to a human.

"…Hah…" I breathed, hollow. "What's this now?"

I lifted it carefully. It crumbled a bit in my palm. Around it, half-buried, was a dented helmet — nothing like Earth's. Bronze-like, with simple markings. Looked like something ripped from an old fantasy novel or the medieval era.

I looked around, then I saw it….

Scattered across the sandy land were skeletons. Dozens, maybe hundreds. Some still wore battered chest plates, leather straps turned to dust. A few rusted swords lay stabbed into the sand. Broken shields. A snapped bow. Something that looked like a wand — splintered in half, thin runes still etched along the grip.

"…Where the hell am I…? A battlefield? A graveyard?"

Another skull was also lying near my feet. I picked up the skull in my hand. Tiny cracks spiderwebbed across its brow, and this one also crumbled in my palm. They looked very old.

"This… isn't Earth. Or anything like it. So, what the hell… am I in some twisted medieval afterlife?"

I picked up an iron sword, dull, chipped to hell. It snapped in half when I turned it in my grip. I threw the sword's broken piece.

I looked at one skeleton, it still clutched a sword in both bony hands, the tip driven into the dirt like they'd died kneeling or died while fighting. "Who were you fighting? Or running from…?"

I started scanning the horizon again. Far off, I caught it. A shape. Something was breaking the endless monotony of cracked dirt and bleached bones.

A massive wall. Ancient-looking. Stone blocks stacked high, weathered by time and wind. I narrowed my eyes, the heat haze shimmering over them.

"Is that… a city wall?" I murmured.

A grin cracked across my dry lips. "Well, at least it's something."

I started walking again, boots crunching over more bones, the remains of a forgotten war or a massacre I'd never understand.

Soon, I arrived at the location of the wall. The walls were higher than I originally thought. Easily a hundred feet at its lowest, maybe more. Turrets dotted the top, half crumbled but still holding. Banners that flapped weakly in the wind — a crest, faded but clear enough to see: a star shape, jagged and bold.

Near the base was a massive wooden gate, thick planks bound by iron bands. It hung slightly ajar, like someone had left it open in a hurry and never came back to close it.

Above the massive gate, a crest was carved into a round slab of stone. A star. Five points, each tipped with a curling flourish like the rays of a sun, but stylised. Cracks spiderwebbed through it, but the symbol still held its shape.

Looked like an insignia of a kingdom. But Whose?!

I ran my fingers over the huge wooden gate.

"So there was a kingdom here once. Maybe people, too… Maybe answers."

I peered into the dark gap where the gate cracked open, half-expecting to see another empty expanse — but shadows swallowed whatever lay beyond.

"Alright…" I whispered to myself. "Time to find out where the hell I've landed this time."

The massive wooden gate creaked as I pushed it open with my shoulder. It didn't put up much of a fight — the hinges gave out halfway, one side clanging down in a puff of dust.

I stepped through, and the sound of my armoured boots hitting the stone road echoed in this graveyard of a city.

I looked around and all I could see were broken houses lined on either side of what must've once been a grand street. Stone storefronts, signs half-hanging on rusted hooks, smashed windows. Everywhere I looked around… bones, skeletons, and rusted swords lay.

"…What the hell happened here?" I muttered. I stepped over a spear, and it cracked under my foot. "Did a war break out? A siege? Or something else…?"

I kept walking. My armour clanked with every step, metal scraping metal. I caught my reflection in a shattered window — I didn't even look human anymore.

After everything that has happened… maybe I wasn't one.

I wandered through the ruins for what felt like hours. The city was huge — winding streets, alleys that turned to dead ends or opened into what once must've been marketplaces. Here, a broken stall, its canopy torn and flapping in the breeze. In the centre of the city was a toppled statue of a knight with his stone sword snapped off at the hilt.

"Is there anyone here…?" I called out at one point, my voice bouncing down the empty street.

I nudged aside a rusted helmet with my boot, staring at the skull inside. "Long time dead… all of you." I squatted down, fingers brushing a crumbling shield next to the skeleton's side. It fell apart in my palm. "Whatever happened here… happened a long time ago."

I kept moving aimlessly. I was hoping for another clue, a sign, someone to explain what this godforsaken place was, but all I found were more skeletons — armour half-rotten, blades snapped in half, arrows sticking from ribs long turned to dust.

After another hour or two of this wandering, I stopped in the middle of an old square. Something caught my eye in the distance. Rising above the ruined houses and the collapsed rooftops was a massive shape, almost swallowed by time and decay.

"…A castle?" I murmured, narrowing my eyes. It had to be. It had huge stone towers, or what was left of them. Even from here, I could see the outer walls were cracked wide open, like they'd been hit by a catapult or… or something else.

"Guess you're my next stop," I said under my breath.

I made my way through the city's bones, stepping over broken carts, doors torn from hinges, clothes turned to rags that fluttered around my boots.

By the time I reached the castle walls, the sun—or whatever pale orb hung overhead in this dead world—was dipping low. Shadows stretched across the courtyard. The gate was gone — only splinters and rusted hinges remained. I slipped through a gap in the crumbled wall instead.

Inside was a wasteland of stone and memory. The hallway was completely empty. I passed what looked like a kitchen. Skeletons still slumped over a long-cold hearth. Servants? Maids? Maybe the royal cook.

I paused in front of a faded painting, or what was left of it. Just smears of colour, shapes worn away by time. "Can't even tell who you were," I said to the shadows on the wall. "King? Queen? Someone's kid?"

I moved deeper. Doorways led to shattered bedrooms, storage rooms, and halls that ended in collapsed ceilings. Everywhere — more bones, more dust. It felt like the castle was barely holding itself.

At last, I stepped into a massive chamber, and the cold air hit my face. A carpet — half-eaten by moths and age — led to a throne at the far end.

I walked down the centre, my footsteps echoing in the empty throne room. Skeletons littered the room — armoured guards fallen where they stood. Rusted swords clutched in bony hands.

There was a figure on the throne.

"What were you…queen or a princess?"  I muttered, stepping closer. This skeleton didn't belong to a man. The bones were delicate, smaller, and its pelvis was bigger. The tattered scraps of what might've once been a gown clung to her frame. Tarnished jewellery glinted on brittle wrists. A bent crown, half-crushed, sat on her skull.

I stared for a moment, then my eyes dropped to her hands. Clutched in brittle fingers was a small pendant, its chain twisted around bone.

"Let's see what you were holding onto in your last moment…" I whispered as I reached out, gently prying the pendant from her grip. The bones gave way like ash, and the pendant came free.

I turned it over in my palm — the metal was cold, covered with centuries of dust. I raised it to my mouth and blew across it — a little cloud of dust drifted away, revealing a star-shaped crest etched on its surface. Same as the one on the city gate.

"Let's see what's inside this…." I said, voice low.

I thumbed the latch, and the pendant clicked open. But before I could even see what was inside, I was hit by a wave of dizziness.

"Ghh—! Now what the…?" My vision blurred. The pendant slipped from my fingers and hit the floor with a dull clink.

I staggered back a step, grabbing at my head. "What the hell is this…? What is happening?!..."

My knees buckled — the throne room spun, the ruined banners and skeletal guards blurring together.

Darkness pressed in.

"Arghhh…!" I screamed in pain through gritted teeth, and the pendant lay on the cracked stone, half-open… secrets still hidden.

TO BE CONTINUED