Siberia. Underground Vault. 2:13 AM.
Victor stood before the sarcophagus in total silence. The chamber was colder than any winter. Not from temperature, but from something older — a pressure that bent the air and made the shadows breathe.
The obsidian coffin was etched with runes in languages long forgotten by gods. Chains of darkness wrapped around it, some real, some metaphysical, forged by Victor's own shadow magic and reinforced with adaptive energy drawn from his Doomsday Evolution trait.
But even then… the vault throbbed with a pulse.
> [RITUAL READY]
Bind Shadow Entity: [UNKNOWN CLASS – Reality Interference]
Estimated Power Level: ???
Warning: Binding may destabilize environment.
Proceed? Y/N
Victor didn't hesitate.
> [YES]
The shadows peeled open the sarcophagus like petals of obsidian steel. The sound was not metal on metal — it was wailing. Not from the being inside, but the world itself, rejecting what was about to awaken.
Inside lay a figure wrapped in tattered robes, its flesh long dead, yet preserved. A twisted crown sat atop a shattered skull. Six empty eye sockets. No heart. Only a core of roiling black energy inside its chest.
Victor's shadow soldiers took a step back instinctively. Even the dead felt fear.
Victor raised his hand.
"By my command, return not as what you were," he said calmly, "but what you are now — a servant of the Shadow Monarch."
The runes flared. Black tendrils of magic sank into the corpse.
Then, the corpse moved.
---
The being rose — not jerkily like a zombie, but fluidly, like liquid shadow congealing into humanoid form. The tattered robes melted away, revealing blackened armor shaped from bone and crystal.
Its six eye sockets opened one by one, glowing violet with infinite hunger.
> [Entity: Akh'Rem the Endless]
Classification: Primordial Shadow Parasite
Timeline Origin: Pre-Multiversal Collapse
Power: Spatial Distortion, Memory Corruption, Dimensional Anchoring
Loyalty: Unknown
Shadow Binding: 12%...
Victor's eyes narrowed. "Twelve percent?"
The chamber shuddered.
The thing—Akh'Rem—spoke. Not in words, but memory. Victor was slammed with visions.
A dying star consumed. A war fought beyond reality. A Celestial screaming in silence. Then blackness. Unending.
The ritual glyphs cracked.
> [WARNING: ENTITY RESISTING CONTROL]
Akh'Rem turned its head.
"You are not a god," it whispered through six mouths. "You are a mortal wrapped in borrowed death."
Victor didn't flinch. "Maybe. But you're dead."
He raised his hand and snapped.
From every shadow in the chamber, his army surged forth — fifty elite shadow soldiers, some once world-class telepaths, mages, assassins, and warriors. All bound. All loyal.
They charged.
Akh'Rem laughed, then unfolded.
Its body twisted open like an optical illusion, becoming larger without growing. The chamber didn't hold it anymore — it bent around it.
Soldiers vanished, warped into nothing. One turned and stabbed himself in the throat, whispering "the light was a lie." Another dissolved mid-strike.
Victor growled. "Enough."
> [Doomsday Adaptation Triggered]
> Adaptive Protocols Engaged
Shadow Monarch Trait: Dominance Threshold Expanded
New Skill: Crown of Silence Acquired
His eyes flared with black flame.
"Bend."
The command struck not just Akh'Rem — but reality. Time hiccupped. Shadows solidified. And for one breathless second, even a primordial being hesitated.
> [Shadow Binding Resumed – 68%... 79%...]
Akh'Rem twisted again, this time in pain.
Victor walked forward slowly, eyes locked on the aberration.
"You are old," he said. "You are powerful. But you are alone. I am not."
Behind him, the chamber filled with surviving shadow soldiers, reinforcements from across the globe appearing through rift-doors.
Victor pressed a hand to Akh'Rem's chest.
"You are mine."
> [100% Binding Complete]
New Shadow Soldier Acquired: Akh'Rem, Warden of the Forgotten
Role: Spatial Anchor, Reality Manipulator
Loyalty: High (Conditioned)
Limitations: Cannot be summoned continuously. Requires shadow rift and time dilation zone. Risk of corruption with overuse.
Victor stepped back.
Akh'Rem knelt.
"Master."
Victor didn't smile.
He just said, "Seal the vault. No trace left."
And just like that, the chamber vanished — absorbed into a shadow pocket dimension where only Victor could access it.
---
Three days later.
New York City.
Victor stood in a penthouse under a false identity — an investor in renewable tech named "Elias Korr." Outside the window, Tony Stark was holding a press conference after announcing he was shutting down the weapons division of Stark Industries.
The media exploded. Stock prices trembled.
Victor didn't watch the headlines. He watched Tony's eyes.
There was pain there. Conviction. Isolation.
> [Scan: Stark, Anthony]
Mental Instability: Moderate
Trust Circle: Shrinking
Motivation: Redemption
Threat Potential: Rising
He sipped wine slowly.
Good.
Victor didn't want allies.
He wanted the world to follow its story.
Only after the original timeline had run its course could he take full control. Before that, he needed all players in position. Every Avenger born. Every villain risen. Every god humbled.
But he wasn't the same man anymore.
Something from Akh'Rem had stayed with him — even after the binding.
That night, Victor stared into a mirror, and for the first time since his reincarnation… he saw something behind his own eyes.
Not a reflection.
A presence.
---
System Notification:
> [Shadow Monarch Status: Evolving]
You have absorbed a Primordial Echo
> A hidden trait is awakening...
UNKNOWN BENEFIT – Under observation
Consequence Risk: Existential Instability
Victor closed the alert with a blink.
There was always a cost. He'd paid it already with his soul.
Now he would pay it with control.
---
Elsewhere, on the dark side of the moon, a figure stirred — not from sleep, but from a shift in the fabric of shadow.
He was pale. Armored. Eyes like glass.
He felt something old had awakened on Earth.
He smiled.
"Soon."
---