All I felt at first was blackness.
Not the simple darkness of closing my eyes, but a void deeper than thought itself — infinite, empty, and crushing. Time did not exist here. Space did not exist here. Only I, a fragile nothing, drifting.
Then… something stirred. A presence, vast and aware, pressed against the edges of my consciousness.
Voice: "Well, well, well… another wandering soul in purgatory. Another driftwood mind washed up between the multiverse, between realities. The Empty. The Void. The Nothing. Amazing, isn't it, how many of you there are nowadays?"
I tried to speak, but there was no mouth. Only thought.
Voice: "Oh well. One way or another, I have to clear you out, just like the others. I'm sure you know how this goes. If not, I'll explain."
The presence pressed closer, casual but heavy with power.
Voice: "You died. You've been dead. Your soul, your essence, the very thing that makes you you is here. The Void can't hold too many of you at once. So… options.
Option A: you're destroyed.
Option B: you decide where you want to go and what you want to be.
Option C: you let me choose for you."
I could feel the weight behind those words. My mind spun, but I found a single answer.
Me/Soul: "I… I'll go with Option B."
Voice: "Wonderful. That makes things so much easier. This is how it works: you choose where you want to go. That choice generates a number of points. The worse the reality, the more points you earn. Those points become your wishes. Choose wisely. So… where do you want to go?"
Me/Soul: "Warhammer 40,000k.
A low, delighted sound echoed in the void.
Voice: "Ah… that's a pretty bad reality. Very well…,
Numbers flared around me, spiraling like stars. 3,000 points blazed before my mind like a verdict. Maximum.
Voice: "The cap. Not many achieve it, you know. Even fewer survive long enough to spend it."
I spoke again, my thoughts precise.
Me/Soul:
"Primal Zerg–Human hybrid."
"Psychic link to the swarm."
"A hive cluster with several bioforms to start."
"A hive world under Imperial control, somewhere on the fringe."
"Beta-level psychic power."
"Insane amount of willpower."
The presence chuckled, almost approvingly.
Voice: "Bold, ambitious… I like it. Very well. Three thousand points, spent. The pact is sealed. What rises now will not be man, nor beast, nor alien. But you."
Then, the blackness gave way. I felt myself falling, as if through an endless shaft of emptiness.
——————————————
Pain, Immense amount of pain.
I Felt something wet and Cramped. Bone snapped. Muscles tore. My skull cracked and reformed. Every fiber of my being screamed, yet one thought cut through it all: my will was mine.
The pod hissed open around me like a flower blooming in sludge and shadow. I was submerged in filth, but awareness bloomed like a predator's eye. Threads of psychic perception swept through the underhive. Hundreds of alien minds — skittering claws, embryonic horrors, tiny broodlings — shivered in recognition. Mine.
I stumbled out of the pod, feeling the full weight of my new body. Strong. Alien. Efficient. My hands ended in black-tipped fingers, yet the human shape remained. I touched my face. Skin, jawline, eyes… mine.
Something caught my eye — a rusted iron bar. I wrapped my fingers around it. Slowly, deliberately, I bent it. The metal groaned. Then it snapped.
A laugh — wet, relieved, exhilarated — escaped me.
I could feel the whispers of the swarm, waiting at the edges of my mind. I flexed my new muscles. The hive beneath me would grow. My body, my will, my swarm… it all belonged to me now.
I was no longer just human.
I was no longer just Zerg.
I was something superior.
And this was only the beginning.
END
[Authors note: this is the beginning of the new work. I thought of have you have any comments or questions please ask.]