The sky above the Crimson Expanse cracked like shattered glass.
Isaac Ardent stood alone at the center of a dead continent, the wind howling as if reality itself were screaming in warning. His long black coat fluttered violently, crimson sigils faintly glowing along its seams. Abyssal Crimson rested in his hand, its blade humming softly—uneasy.
This place was wrong.
Not corrupted.
Not destroyed.
Overwritten.
Isaac narrowed his eyes. "This isn't a battlefield," he muttered. "It's a summoning ground."
The moment the words left his mouth, the world responded.
Space folded inward, collapsing like a dying star. From the fracture emerged a colossal figure clad in fractured gold armor, wings forged from crystallized light and shadow. Each step it took crushed causality beneath its feet.
A god-tier existence.
[WARNING]
Hostile Authority Detected
Designation: TYRANT–PRIMORDIAL CLASS
Name: KORVAX, THE THRONE WARDEN
Isaac felt pressure slam into his chest—not physical, but conceptual. The air itself rejected his presence, attempting to rewrite him out of existence.
Korvax raised a massive halberd forged from divine law.
"You do not belong here, Scarlet Sovereign," the god intoned. "Your existence violates the balance."
Isaac smiled faintly.
"Balance," he echoed. "That's usually what gods say before they die."
Korvax struck.
The halberd descended, dragging solar judgment and dimensional collapse with it. Isaac vanished an instant before impact, reappearing behind the god using Teleportation. He swung Abyssal Crimson—
—and the blade stopped.
Korvax caught it with his bare hand.
Reality screamed.
The impact shattered the continent, sending fragments drifting into the void. Isaac was hurled backward, skidding across broken space itself. His boots dug into nothingness as he stabilized, eyes sharp.
"…So that's how it is."
Korvax advanced, gravity bending inward. "Your weapon is formidable. But your dominion is incomplete."
Isaac felt it then.
Limits.
For the first time since his awakening, his abilities—normally effortless—met resistance. Probability refused to bend fully. Fate threads tangled. Causality fought back.
Not negated.
Contested.
The god raised his halberd again. "Kneel."
Isaac's crimson eyes glowed brighter.
"No."
Korvax unleashed Authority Suppression, a godly field that crushed concepts themselves. Isaac's regeneration slowed. Flight destabilized. Even Abyssal Crimson trembled.
The pressure intensified.
Isaac exhaled slowly.
"…So this is the threshold."
His blood pulsed violently, memories of annihilated worlds surfacing. The system within him—dormant, watching—reacted.
[CRITICAL CONDITION MET]
Existential Pressure Exceeds Current Threshold
Authority Conflict Detected
A crimson interface exploded across Isaac's vision.
SYSTEM INITIALIZATION AVAILABLE
Designation: CRIMSON DOMINION
Confirm Activation?
Isaac's smile widened.
"About time."
CONFIRM.
The world froze.
Not time—everything.
Causality halted. Fate threads snapped taut. Even Korvax's divine authority stalled mid-action.
SYSTEM INITIALIZATION – CRIMSON DOMINION
Status: ACTIVE
Function: Absolute Combat Governance
Integrating… Probability, Fate, Causality, Reality, Blood, Memory
Crimson light erupted outward, forming a vast dominion sphere. The battlefield was no longer neutral ground.
It was Isaac's territory.
Korvax staggered as his authority was forcibly analyzed, broken down, and rewritten into readable data.
"What—what have you done?" the god roared.
Isaac lifted his sword.
"I took control."
In an instant, Isaac moved—not faster, but inevitable. Probability collapsed into certainty. Abyssal Crimson cleaved through Korvax's halberd, slicing divine law itself in half.
Korvax screamed as his arm was severed—not physically, but existentially. Golden blood poured into the void.
Isaac followed with Gravity Manipulation, crushing the god into a collapsing singularity, then layered Blood Manipulation to seize control of Korvax's divine ichor.
"You gods love control," Isaac said coldly. "Let's see how you like it."
Korvax roared, unleashing a final surge of authority—Acausal Judgment, bypassing cause and effect entirely. The attack pierced Crimson Dominion's outer layer, slamming into Isaac's chest.
Isaac coughed blood.
The dominion flickered.
For a moment—just a moment—the god smiled.
Then Isaac's eyes burned scarlet.
[ADAPTATION COMPLETE]
Acausality Registered
Countermeasure: ABSTRACT REDUCTION
Korvax froze as his higher-plane existence was forcibly dragged downward—compressed into Isaac's level of reality.
"What—what are you—"
Isaac placed a hand on Korvax's chest.
"Your end."
Death Manipulation activated.
Three seconds passed.
Korvax's divine core shattered.
But Isaac did not erase him.
Instead, he released the god, allowing the broken Tyrant to fall into the void, alive—but defeated.
Breathing heavily, Isaac deactivated Crimson Dominion. The system faded, leaving only silence and drifting ruins.
His regeneration surged, sealing his wounds.
"…Not yet," Isaac muttered. "Not ready to erase gods wholesale."
A chill ran through him.
This fight had proven something important.
There were beings—multiple beings—capable of pushing him to this edge.
And they were watching now.
Far beyond the void, eyes opened.
Tyrants.
Gods.
System-bearers.
The Scarlet King had activated his dominion.
And the multiverse had taken notice.