Ozone.
The air in the room didn't just smell like silk and the musk of cultivating joy. It smelled like scorched metal and a world that shouldn't exist.
Kaelen sat up.
His skin was still slick with the white release shared with Su Leng and Lin Qing. On his left, the Ice Queen slept with a faint, satisfied curve to her lips. On his right, the innocent Lin Qing was curled into a ball, her snowy globes rising and falling in the deep slumber of a breakthrough.
The Sharingan in his eyes whirled. Three tomoe spun against a backdrop of violet.
He could see it. A tear in the fabric of reality. It was pulsating three miles away, deep within the mountain's heart.
[System: The 'Multiverse Key' fragment is reacting to the presence of an Outsider.]
[Mission: Neutralize or Subjugate the 'Winter Soldier'.]
[Reward: Metal-Asura Arm blueprint & 10% Awakening of Void Body.]
Kaelen didn't hesitate. He stood, his ni-rvasth body glowing in the moonlight. He felt stronger. The Yin Essence from both women had stabilized his meridians.
He wasn't just a Body Tempering ant anymore. He had skipped directly into the Foundation Establishment Stage.
He threw on a simple black robe. No sash. Just open, revealing his carved chest.
"Kaelen..." Su Leng's voice was a groggy whisper. She reached out, her fingers brushing his thigh. "Where are you going? The dawn hasn't come."
"The dawn isn't coming for everyone today, Master," Kaelen said, his voice a low vibration.
He leaned down. He pressed his thumb against her lips, still swollen from their rhythm of love.
"Stay here. Guard Qing'er. If anyone enters this room who isn't me... kill them."
Su Leng's eyes cleared instantly. She felt the shift in the air. The 'Ice Queen' was back, but now she served a King.
"As you command."
Kaelen vanished.
The Forbidden Library was a tomb of dust and ancient scrolls.
Usually, the air was still. Now, it was screaming.
A blue-white rift hovered between two bookshelves. It looked like a jagged wound in the dark.
And standing in front of it was a ghost.
He wore tactical gear made of materials Kaelen had seen only in his previous life's final wars. Carbon fiber. Kevlar. A mask covered the lower half of his face.
But it was the left arm that drew the eye.
Cold. Silver. A red star etched into the shoulder. It whirred with a hydraulic hiss that sounded like a predator's breath.
The Winter Soldier held a combat knife in one hand and a suppressed pistol in the other. He looked confused. Lethal. A man out of time, thrown into a world of magic.
"You're far from home, Sergeant Barnes," Kaelen said, stepping out of the shadows.
The Soldier didn't speak. He didn't ask questions.
He fired.
Phut. Phut. Phut.
Three rounds. Aimed at the heart, the throat, and the forehead.
Kaelen didn't move his body. His Sharingan tracked the lead projectiles in slow motion. To his eyes, the bullets were crawling through a sea of honey.
He raised his hand.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Three golden ripples appeared inches from his face. Three daggers emerged from the Gate of Babylon, meeting the bullets mid-air and sparking brilliantly.
"Lead toys won't work here," Kaelen remarked.
The Winter Soldier dropped the gun. He knew an 'enhanced' individual when he saw one. He lunged.
He was fast. Super-soldier fast.
The metal arm swung in a horizontal arc, aimed to take Kaelen's head off. The air pressure alone cracked the nearby wooden shelves.
Kaelen caught it.
The sound of flesh meeting vibranium-steel echoed like a hammer on an anvil.
Kaelen's feet skidded back an inch, but his grip was absolute. His hand clamped around the metal wrist.
"Impressive," Kaelen said, feeling the vibration of the hydraulics. "But raw iron is nothing compared to the Primordial Void."
He twisted.
The Soldier grunted, spinning in mid-air to avoid having his arm snapped. He planted a boot in Kaelen's chest, pushing off to create distance.
The assassin landed in a crouch, his cybernetic fingers digging into the stone floor. His eyes, cold and brainwashed, locked onto Kaelen's violet Sharingan.
"Who... are you?" the Soldier rasped. His voice sounded like grinding stones.
"Your new Master," Kaelen replied.
Behind Kaelen, the air didn't just ripple. It tore open.
Dozens of golden portals manifested, illuminating the dark library like a row of suns. Swords, spears, and axes began to slide out, their tips all pointed at the man with the silver arm.
"I have no interest in killing a puppet," Kaelen said, stepping forward. "But I have a great interest in the technology that forged you. And the key that brought you here."
The Winter Soldier reached for a grenade on his belt.
"Don't," Kaelen warned.
In a flash of gold, a small throwing knife shot from the Gate, pinning the Soldier's tactical vest to the bookshelf behind him before he could pull the pin.
The Soldier struggled, but Kaelen was already in front of him.
Kaelen placed a hand on the metal shoulder. He didn't attack. He channeled his essence of life directly into the cybernetic interface.
[System: Analyzing Cybernetic Soul-Link...]
[Override in progress...]
"ARGH!" The Soldier's head snapped back. His metal arm began to spark. The red star glowed a baleful purple.
Memories began to leak out. Hydra. The ice. The falling train. Steve Rogers.
And then, something else.
A vision of a woman. She was dressed in ancient Greek armor, holding a shield that bore the symbol of an eagle. She wasn't from Marvel. She wasn't from this world.
She was waiting in the rift.
"Another one?" Kaelen muttered, his eyes narrowing.
The rift began to expand. It wasn't stable. It was hungry.
It started to pull the books, the shelves, and the Winter Soldier toward its center.
"Kaelen! Help!"
The voice came from the entrance of the library.
It was Lin Qing. She had followed him. She stood there, her yellow robes fluttering in the sudden gale created by the vacuum of the rift.
"Stay back!" Kaelen shouted.
But it was too late. A stray tentacle of blue energy lashed out from the rift, wrapping around Lin Qing's waist.
"Brother Kaelen!"
She was yanked off her feet, flying toward the jagged blue maw of the multiverse.
Kaelen's heart skipped. He had promised to protect her.
He let go of the Winter Soldier. He turned, his hand reaching out.
"Gate of Babylon: Enkidu!"
Golden chains erupted from the portals, racing toward Lin Qing to catch her. But the rift was faster. It pulsed with a violent light, a shockwave throwing Kaelen back.
When the light faded, the library was silent.
The Winter Soldier was slumped on the floor, unconscious.
But Lin Qing was gone. And in her place, stepping out of the fading blue mist, was the woman from the vision.
She held a golden lasso that shimmered with the power of truth.
Wonder Woman.
And she didn't look happy.
The air in the library grew heavy with the weight of divinity.
Wonder Woman didn't just stand; she commanded the space. Her armor, forged on Themyscira, gleamed with a celestial light that pushed back the shadows of the Forbidden Library. Her blue eyes, sharp and ancient, locked onto Kaelen.
"Where did you send the girl, sorcerer?" her voice rang out, melodic yet carrying the thunder of Zeus.
Kaelen didn't flinch. He adjusted his grip on the air, his Sharingan spinning rapidly. He could see the divine ichor flowing through her veins—a golden energy far more potent than the Winter Soldier's serum.
"You're in the wrong world to be making demands, Princess," Kaelen said, his voice dropping to a dangerous silkiness.
He didn't wait.
In a flash of gold, Kaelen launched a volley of daggers from the Gate of Babylon.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Diana moved with a speed that defied the laws of physics. Her silver bracelets blurred, deflecting every blade with surgical precision. She didn't just defend; she closed the distance in a single, earth-shaking leap.
"Yield!" she commanded, swinging her shield.
Kaelen ducked, the wind from the shield's pass ruffling his hair. He countered with a palm strike aimed at her midsection, his hand glowing with the violet light of the Primordial Void.
Boom!
The collision sent a shockwave that shattered every window in the library. Diana skidded back, her boots carving grooves into the stone floor. She looked at him with newfound respect—and a flicker of battle-lust.
"You have the strength of a god," she noted, her hand reaching for the golden lasso at her hip. "But your heart is shrouded in darkness."
"Darkness is just a matter of perspective," Kaelen replied, his eyes tracing the vibrant curves of her Amazonian physique.
The way her leather corset hugged her snowy globes, the strength in her sun-kissed thighs—she wasn't just a warrior; she was the ultimate prize. The Supreme Conquest System began to pulse in his mind, its hunger matching his own.
[System: New Goddess-Tier Target Detected!]
[Target: Diana Prince (Wonder Woman / The Amazon Archetype).]
[Status: Combat Ready. High Willpower.]
[Mission: Subdue the Goddess and retrieve Lin Qing.]
[Reward: True God's Bloodline Fragment & 15% Void Body Awakening.]
"Come, Princess," Kaelen beckoned, his voice a low lure. "Show me the strength of Olympus."
Diana uncoiled the Lasso of Truth. It glowed with a blinding, golden radiance. She lashed out, the rope moving like a living serpent.
Kaelen used the Sharingan to predict its path, but the lasso didn't follow the laws of linear movement. It curved through the air, seeking the truth of his soul.
He summoned Enkidu, the Chains of Heaven.
Golden chains erupted from the ripples behind him, clashing with the golden lasso in mid-air. The two divine artifacts hummed, a battle of wills manifesting as sparks of pure light.
"I don't have time for games," Kaelen growled. "My woman is in that rift."
"Then let us find her together," Diana countered, though she didn't loosen her grip. "If you are truly her protector, the Lasso will know."
"I don't need a rope to tell me who I am."
Kaelen surged forward. He didn't use weapons this time. He used pure, overwhelming presence.
He moved through the golden light, his hand reaching through the coils of the lasso. Diana's eyes widened as he bypassed her guard, his fingers closing around the nape of her neck.
He pulled her close, their chests colliding.
The heat between them was instantaneous. Diana's soft peaks pressed against his bare chest, the cold metal of her armor contrasting with the warmth of his skin.
"What... what are you doing?" she gasped, her divine strength momentarily failing her as she looked into the swirling violet of his eyes.
"Taking what I need," Kaelen whispered.
He didn't kiss her—not yet. He channeled his essence of life through his palm, not as a weapon, but as a bridge. He forced his consciousness into the rift through her connection to it.
Flash.
He saw it. A pocket dimension. A "Void Between Worlds."
Lin Qing was there, suspended in a web of blue energy. And standing over her was a figure draped in shadows—a lich-like entity holding a staff that pulsed with the energy of a dozen different universes.
The Multiverse Key fragment was embedded in the staff.
"The Necromancer," Kaelen hissed, recognizing the energy signature from his past life's records.
He pulled back, his gaze returning to Diana. She was trembling, the Sharingan's hypnotic power and his own overwhelming masculine aura breaking down her legendary defenses.
"She's being held by a soul-eater," Kaelen told her, his voice commanding. "If we don't act now, her soul will be refined into a battery."
Diana's warrior instinct overrode her suspicion. "Then we must go. Together."
"Not yet," Kaelen said, his hand sliding down to her waist, pulling her flush against his hardness like iron.
"The rift requires a massive surge of Yin and Yang energy to stabilize," he lied, though the System gave him a silent nod of approval. "You are a daughter of Zeus. Your Yin energy is pure. Combine it with mine, and we can tear that dimension open."
Diana looked at the rift, then back at him. She felt the warm lava of his intent, the sheer power radiating from his pillar of strength.
"Is this... the only way?" she asked, her voice losing its warrior edge, becoming the voice of a woman fascinated by a force she couldn't control.
"It is the fastest way," Kaelen replied.
He didn't wait for a verbal 'yes'. He claimed her lips.
It was an explosion. The Amazon Princess met his fire with her own. Her arms, capable of lifting tanks, wrapped around his neck with a desperate strength.
Kaelen lifted her, his hands finding the deep valley of her curves. He carried her toward the center of the library, right beneath the pulsing blue light of the rift.
He laid her down on a table of ancient mahogany.
The rhythm of love began amidst the ruins of the library. Kaelen stripped away the divine armor, revealing the snowy globes of a goddess—perfect, firm, and tipped with pink pearls that ached for his touch.
"Kaelen..." she breathed, her head tossing back as his warm pressure explored her peach source.
She was an Amazon, a virgin of the hunt, but under his touch, she was a woman discovering the gates of paradise. When he finally became one with her, the library groaned.
The energy released was blinding.
A pillar of gold and violet light shot upward, piercing through the roof of the library and into the heavens. The rift reacted, expanding until it swallowed the table, the books, and the two figures locked in a merging of souls.
[System Notification: Yin Essence (Divine Type) Absorption at 40%...]
[Rift Stabilized. Destination Locked: The Shadow Realm.]
As Kaelen reached the peak of his effort, releasing his white essence into the goddess, the world around them dissolved.
They weren't in the library anymore.
They were standing on a plain of gray ash, under a sky filled with dying stars.
A hundred yards away, the Necromancer stood over the unconscious Lin Qing.
But he wasn't alone.
Beside the Necromancer stood a man in a black suit with a red tie, holding an umbrella. He looked calm, out of place, and infinitely dangerous.
"Welcome to the end of the line," the man in the suit said, tipping his hat.
Kaelen stood up, his hand still resting on Diana's shoulder as she recovered her strength.
"The Void-Walker," Kaelen narrowed his eyes. "I wondered when you'd show up."
The man smiled, revealing teeth that were too sharp. "I'm just here for the girl. And the eye you stole from the future."
Author's Thought:
Kaelen has successfully subdued Wonder Woman and entered the Shadow Realm! But he's now facing a Necromancer and a mysterious Void-Walker who seems to know his secrets.
Should Kaelen trust Wonder Woman to fight by his side, or is she still a potential threat now that she's regained her senses?
Let me know in the comments!