POV: Ren — Dimensional Rift, Outskirts of Time
Time stopped the moment I stepped beyond the veil.
The hallway behind my bedroom door dissolved into silence as I activated the Worldwalker gate. My consciousness slipped free of linear time—past, present, and future collapsing into a still frame as I arrived at the threshold of the forbidden market.
The Multiversal Slave Bazaar.
A hidden node of reality tucked between collapsing timelines and broken dimensions. A place where currency was counted in soul coins, and power was measured by how many gods bowed their heads to you.
Today was different.
For the first time in weeks, the traders had stock—living, breathing inventory.
And not just any inventory.
Every slave was a goddess.
Some bound in chains woven from divine law. Others sealed in transparent caskets of frozen aether. All silent. All radiating celestial power.
Some trembled. Some glared with divine fury. None of them spoke.
They had not been broken yet.
They soon would be.
I walked slowly down the central corridor of the marketplace. My steps made no sound in the halted world, but every trader felt my presence. The air bent around me—not from violence, but from certainty.
Their eyes widened as I passed. Some bowed. Others stood frozen with wary reverence.
They had seen me before. Once.
That had been enough.
I raised one hand, and time partially resumed. Only the traders moved—reality carefully sliced so that the merchandise remained unaware, still locked in stasis.
"I'll buy all of them," I said simply.
One of the merchants, cloaked in tattered veils of stitched time, stepped forward. "The auction hasn't begun, Your Presence."
"I don't care," I said, voice low and quiet.
The traders exchanged glances. They knew my reputation. They knew I never haggled, never asked twice.
I pulled a golden sigil from the air—my empire's seal—and let it hover before them. "I'll pay ten times the listed value. In soul coins."
They flinched. One of them gasped. "Ten times?"
"You heard me."
I turned to the sealed goddesses. There were twelve this time. Each from different realms. Fallen deities. War captives. Betrayed saints.
Their faces varied—some mature and sorrowful, others young and defiant. All powerful. All helpless now.
Mine.
"And there is one more condition," I said without turning. "From this day onward, I own the rights to every female slave you acquire. Every one. You do not sell them to anyone else. You do not auction them. You do not even show them."
The lead trader swallowed. "But—what if the Grand Buyers—"
"I don't care about the Grand Buyers," I said. My voice never rose. It didn't need to.
I stepped closer, letting my presence press against him like a suffocating tide. "You will send them directly to my dimensional gate. You will not log their presence. You will not speak their names. You will pretend they never existed."
His knees hit the ground. "Yes, Sovereign. I swear it. All of them—yours."
"Good."
I snapped my fingers.
The soul coins vanished into their vaults—enough to purchase entire pantheons. In a blink, the twelve bound goddesses disappeared from their cells and reappeared in the stasis chamber deep within my empire—each tagged, scanned, and sealed in their own cryo-chamber. Safe. Untouched. Stored for later.
I stared at the empty stalls.
The market was quiet now. The traders bowed lower as I turned to leave.
I didn't come for desire. I came for control.
There were no gods above me now. Only prey.Only quiet.Only property.
As I stepped back into the gate, time resumed in full. I returned to my room in a breath.
The world above still spun slowly. Mother was cooking. Astraea slept. Airi texted.
No one knew what I had done.
Not even the goddesses who had just been added to my collection.
POV: Ren – Sovereign's Descent, Dimensional Empire
The moment I crossed the dimensional threshold back into my domain, the air shifted—the energy grew thick, pulsing with ancient tension and restless anticipation. It was not the quiet reverence of a throne room, but the heavy presence of those who waited for me.
The five goddesses emerged from the shadows of the Inner Sanctum, their arrival as inevitable as the rising of the sun. Kaelira, Selphira, Nyxara, Luneth, and Virelya—they never failed to appear, their gazes piercing and filled with unspoken questions.
Kaelira's molten gold eyes found mine first. Her fingers hovered just inches from my arm, a trace of flame licking the air between us. "You bring new power with you. New captives," she said softly.
Selphira's serene voice flowed like the steady currents of time. "The market yields its bounty. But what is it you truly desire?"
Nyxara's dark smile was a whisper against the shadows. "Secrets woven beneath your skin. I sense a shift—perhaps a new game is beginning."
Luneth's precise gaze surveyed the space around us. "Twelve new divine souls have been captured, sealed in stasis."
Virelya's voice was gentle yet edged with wild sorrow. "Will they bend beneath your rule… or break in resistance?"
I met their questions not with words, but with the quiet certainty of my presence. I did not answer. There was no need.
The goddesses stepped aside, granting me passage deeper into the heart of the Inner Sanctum—the Cryo-Abyss.
There, thousands of crystalline pods floated in suspended silence. Each contained a captive goddess, a fragment of shattered realms trapped in dreamless sleep. Among them, one pod stood apart—a colossal structure reinforced with paradox sigils and chrono-chains humming with restless energy.
Within floated a goddess unlike any I had encountered.
Her skin shimmered pale with violet veins of light. Her hair drifted like silver smoke in the suspension fluid. She was immense in her stillness, an eldritch presence sealed away.
I approached and extended my hand to the control panel. At my touch, the seals slowly unwound, and the liquid drained.
Her eyes opened.
They burned—not with fear, nor hatred, but with a deep, curious intelligence.
"You are the one who took me," she said, voice reverberating like a song through the chamber.
"I am," I said.
She tilted her head, a faint smile curling her lips. "Why reveal yourself now? Why collect us all?"
I paused, considering. Then I answered simply, with an edge of finality:"Because I can."
The words hung between us—bold, unapologetic.
Her laugh rippled through the chamber, a low and resonant sound. "So, you gather us like trophies... because it's within your power."
I stepped closer, my presence a silent command. "Not trophies. Allegiance."
The chrono-chains binding her dissolved. She lowered herself onto the pod's floor, graceful yet restrained.
"Show me then," she said softly. "Show me this allegiance you demand."
I turned away without hesitation. I never sat on my throne—not because I couldn't, but because I did not want to. To sit would be to rest, to give power away. I was a king in motion, always calculating, always commanding. The throne was a symbol for others—I lived through action.
Behind me, Kaelira's voice was a smoldering ember in the dark. "You linger too long among shadows."
"I must know what I hold," I replied quietly.
Her fingers traced a line of fire along my arm. "And what you hold may one day consume you."
The goddess in the pod watched in silence, eyes closed again, yet her power pulsed beneath the surface like a caged storm.
The chamber was thick with unspoken challenges and promises.I remained standing, always moving—never still.
Because a ruler who rests is a ruler who falls.