Cosmic Dominion: Rise Beyond Realms

My hands shot up to my head the moment the pain hit—a blinding, twisting force like invisible claws gripping my skull. My vision blurred, I lost my balance, and I dropped to my knees with a hoarse cry. It felt like something, no, someone, was yanking me from behind my eyes, as if an unseen hook had latched onto my soul and was now tearing it free from my body.

"Gah—! What the fuck is this?!" I hissed through gritted teeth, my armour groaning as I hunched forward. The pendant I'd dropped on the throne room floor seemed to blur and split, like I was seeing double — no, triple. The whole damn place warped like heat haze. The throne room, the cracked stone, and the skeleton on the throne began to distort. The walls rippled like water. Shadows bent and danced, stretching into long tendrils. The very air shimmered, folding in on itself, until everything collapsed inward.

I forced my eyes open, sucking in a ragged breath. "Get the fuck out of my head!!!"

The air seemed to twist. The cracked stone floor wavered, the ruined throne flickered in and out of view — then everything snapped like a rubber band pulled too far.

And then it happened.

The pull.

I felt it like a snap—like reality itself had broken, and I was being sucked straight through the tear. The world turned into a blur of colour and sound, light and shadow, all of it warping into a single point before exploding outward. My stomach twisted. My limbs flailed. My scream was swallowed by the tunnel of rushing chaos.

Then darkness.

When I opened my eyes again, I was floating. And around me, nothing. Pure blackness. No floor, no ceiling. No sky, no earth. Just an endless ocean of emptiness, cold and terrifying. The only thing I could hear was my own heartbeat. I could feel my limbs, but I couldn't see them cause of the pitch-black darkness…

I spun slowly; my breath caught in my throat. "Where… where the hell am I now?" I whispered, my voice sounding alien, muffled like it had been wrapped in cotton. "Is this death? Some kind of… void?"

I looked down—there was no down. I looked up—there was no up. I was alone in all directions. But then, a sudden crack of light split the black. I flinched, throwing my arm over my eyes. The light punched through my eyelids, searing, blinding. Through the gaps between my fingers, I peeked — I saw it, it was something beyond comprehension. A storm of stars being born, matter colliding with antimatter, fire and gas, and dust exploding outward in every direction. Galaxies spiralled out like sparks from a fire. It was… beautiful and terrifying at the same time….

It looked like… the Big Bang. The creation of a universe.

"…Is this… the beginning? The Big Bang?" I whispered. My mouth was dry. ""Am I… seeing the beginning of everything…? What the hell is this place trying to show me…?"

I reached out a trembling hand toward the maelstrom — but before I could touch it, that same force yanked me backwards like a hook through my spine. Harder this time….

"No—wait, no, not again—!"

Too late.

The stars collapsed into streaks, the light bent into spirals, and I was gone again, ripping through reality, slipping between the cracks of existence.

When I landed, I hit something solid — ground this time. My eyes shot open — I was standing in a dense forest, surrounded by towering trees. The air smelled… alive. Fresh, sweet, like rain was about to fall. Warm, sunlit filtered through the trees.

"What the hell—? A forest…?" I spun around. Birds — or something like them — scattered from the branches overhead. I could hear the roars of different monsters. The roar was oddly similar to the roar of T Rex I once heard in a movie.

Then the ground shook.

Birds—or something like birds—scattered into the sky.

I looked up and froze.

A fiery rock, the size of a mountain, was barreling through the sky. Flames licked its edges. The sky itself split apart as it descended. It was an asteroid. A real, world-ending asteroid.

"Oh, no. Oh hell no." I stumbled backwards. "This… this is the fucking dinosaur apocalypse, isn't it?!"

The air grew hotter. The wind howled. The trees bent backwards.

I turned on my heel and ran—but the pull struck again.

This time, it felt like gravity itself had flipped.

This time, when my eyes opened, I was floating in the icy dark — but something massive loomed in front of me. A planet. Green oceans, swirling storms. Orbiting rings glittered with icy debris. Blue clouds swirled across its surface. Cities glittered across the continents—bright, neon lines like circuit boards. Through the haze, I caught glimpses of needle-like spires piercing the clouds. Ships zipped between glowing towers.

"Where the hell am I now…?" I whispered, awe and confusion tangled in my throat. "An alien world…? Or future civilization or something like that?!"

I reached a hand toward it—

Another pull.

"Not again—!"

Everything spun, and then I was staring into the abyss. Now, I was in front of a black hole. Its event horizon glowed with its sheer power. Stars bent toward it. Light couldn't escape. My body screamed in protest, like my soul was being stretched across infinite planes.

Then another pull.

Now I was standing knee-deep in a desert of red sand under a burning sky. A twin sun glared down. Strange creatures — long-necked, scaled beasts — flew past me, shrieking in alien tongues.

I turned, only to be yanked again.

The pull came again.

And again.

I was ripped into a world filled with fire—oceans of lava, volcanic skies.

Pulled.

A frozen world—icicles the size of towers, the air so cold it burned.

Pulled.

A city under water—glass domes housing glowing aquatic beings.

Pulled.

A realm of shadow, where time moved backwards and everything sounded like a whisper.

Pulled.

Again and again, until I couldn't tell what was real anymore. Each universe bled into the next. My body stopped feeling like a body. My thoughts scattered, and my mind was breaking apart.

"Stop… please, stop…!" I begged. My voice broke. My arms went limp. My mind couldn't keep up. Every world I entered screamed a new truth at me, then tore it away before I could even understand it. The last thing I saw—before my eyes rolled back—was a universe collapsing in on itself. Stars snuffed out. Matter imploded. And I was falling into it.

I didn't scream this time, or rather, I couldn't.

My mind shut down. The pain, the light, the noise—all faded.

My breath rattled in my throat. My vision flickered.

And then darkness swallowed me whole as my consciousness faded.

TO BE CONTINUED