Step into Godhood (1)

Deep within the mountain, Kuchinashi resided on top of, there was an almost dungeon-like area. It used to be a wine cellar that naturally came with the Mansion the Blake Sheep gave to Shen. But ever since the changes it has been turned into something… else.

"Hya!" A scream was followed by a sound similar to that of a shotgun. Yang was rocketing herself forward seems like a yellow blur as her flaming red eyes and blazing hair left a trail in the dimly lit chamber. However, her momentum immediately stopped instantly. The early sound of a choked gasp echoed from her mouth as a hand collapsed tightly around her neck.

Sharp nails seemed to dig into Yang's skin yet not cause her to bleed due to her Aura.

"How many times do I have to teach you?" Blake's cold voice echoed through the chamber as she slammed Yang to the ground. It felt like the entire room shook from the impact alone as rock and dust fell from the ceiling. All of the air was knocked out of Yang's lung's as she stared up at Blake, her blazing hair slowly going out and her eyes turning back to normal.

"From the moment you raised a hand at my Master, your lives became forfeit. You will live to serve, breathe to serve, die to serve. You will do everything in your power to make his goal's come to fruition, and through that, your life will finally have meaning." Blake's grip only got tighter around Yang's neck as she spoke, speaking without taking a single breath.

"Yet I understand, right now you just don't understand how pleasurable it is to simply give up control. The joy you get from letting all the worries from decisions simply do as you're told." Yang tried to pull Blake's hand away but she couldn't. Blake's eyes stared and seemed to pierce through her as her eyes slowly began to roll back.

It was only till she was on the cusp of falling unconscious that Blake let her go. Yang coughed and choked as air rushed into her lungs and she held her neck. Yet still, Blake could see that rebellious look in her eye, no matter what she did to her physically Yang wouldn't break.

Her body was covered in bruises and wounds, and her clothes were ruined, but she was still defiant.

Blake didn't know why, but that look made her angry. But, it was at that moment that Blake's expression suddenly changed, in fact so did Yang.

Throughout Kuchinashi whether it be Torchwick, Pyrrha, Raven, and even the guards. All of their expressions changed as if they could feel something was wrong. All of Kuchinashi, no it went even beyond that. Across the entirety of Remnant, everyone felt this sudden change.

As if something that had since birth was suddenly lost. Sienna as she was returning to Kuchinashi immediately frowned and Neo stood up from her seat in her office with a worried expression. At that moment the entire world seemed to lose a layer of color, and everything seemed to turn a bit duller.

Everything slowed to a crawl as if everything was moving in slow motion and then finally time stopped.

…

Just half an hour prior to that event Shen had finally reached the end.

"That was the last potential Evolutionary Path. How long did that even take me?" Surprisingly Shen didn't seem to feel time pass. It wasn't that time didn't pass, but surprisingly enough it was an enjoyable process. Seeing all the potential versions of himself, it sort of reminded him of looking through different characters in a game.

And just like a game, it was so easy for him to lose track of time, there were a few moments where he almost jumped the gun and selected a path arbitrarily as well. He was surprised by just how many combinations the Relics could create alongside his races and abilities.

"Pretty much every evolution utilizes something while discarding the rest." For example, let's say there was an Evolutionary Path that utilized the Relic of Destructions power. A power like that did not mesh well with Shen's Life Fibers and so them along with his Life Fiber-Hybrid race would be gotten rid of.

At the same time, thing's like the Relic of Knowledge, Creation, and Choice weren't necessary either. But it didn't simply discard the relics. Instead, it utilized them, if you considered each relic as both a generator and tool, then the moment Shen went down a path of not using a specific relic, then their tool use would be unavailable to him.

However, the power they generated would be directed to the singular relic that still remained. In this case, the Relic of Destruction would be three times stronger than normal. Of course, the opposite was true, if he decided to go with an Evolutionary Path that used all four relics, while he would have access to their abilities they wouldn't be boosted.

The relics were really like faucets, they had an endless supply of energy but there was a limit to how much a singular relic could draw on by itself. It made Shen's decision extremely difficult. Should he just focus on one relic and abandon the others, or should he go for two or three? Or maybe it would be better if he just kept all four of them and forgot about the boost.

Of course, at the same time, there were other drawbacks such as him having to discard abilities if he went down that route. In the end, no path was absolutely perfect, that was the sad truth of real-life evolution as well.

"But all things considered… this one has the most potential by far out of all of them. And in my situation potential trump's immediate gains." Shen's thoughts reached out as he viewed the alternate version of himself in front of him just a few feet away. And, without another second's hesitation, he made his selection.

[Evolutionary Path selected, beginning evolution process…]

The System's mechanical voice echoed through the void as all of the other Shens besides the one in front of him began to disappear, returning to the darkness from which they came. At the same time, the one in front of Shen began to turn into light, disintegrating into particles that slowly merged with Shen's body.

[Please select a name for your Evolution.]

"A name huh? All that time spent choosing and I couldn't think of one. Well, whatever it's not that important so for now let's go with… Dominus. After all, that is what this evolution is going to thrive on." It was the moment that name was confirmed that Shen saw the void around him disappear.

He was returning back to the real world. Or at least that's what he thought, but when his eyes regained focus Shen found himself floating.

"Honestly I really didn't expect you to be capable of something like this." Shen heard a female voice in his head, this voice belonged to the spirit within the Relic of Knowledge, Jinn. At the same time, her misty blue figure began to appear in front of him.

Looking down at his own body Shen saw his body was still undergoing changes. It would take a few minutes for the evolution to finish.

"You know you sound pretty calm despite the fact your disappearing. I can't imagine the other spirits are taking this as lightly." At the moment the lower half of Jinn's body had begun to change, slowly being drained of its color and dissipating. Hearing him Jinn smiled without a sign of worry on her face.

"We Spirits weren't created with a sense of self-preservation. We don't fear the end but I suppose we don't welcome it with open arms either. Besides it's not like we're truly disappearing, we're simply being merged into your being. We'll all be able to enjoy a pretty interesting show for a while at least until we're completely assimilated into your being."

As she said that Jinn lay down in the air looking up at the sky above them. Both her and Shen were no longer on the surface of the remnant. Instead, they were at the edge of its atmosphere. Above the two of them was the vast void known as space. Stars shined more beautifully than any jewel, and interstellar dust merged with the far-off constellations and galaxies.

"A beautiful sight is it not?" Shen followed Jinn's gaze looking up at the space above him. His eyes didn't change nor did his expression but his eyes shined. For just a moment they lost that dull layer that he always hid his true feelings under. Yet at the same time, he could feel that those feelings were fading and changing into something else.

"I adore life, you know. Not just humans but every intelligent race, all of you are so interesting and hard to predict. Yet they all seem to forget just how small they are. Compared to the vastness of space, their wars, their issues, their hope and dreams, their hate, and sorrows. All of the goes completely unnoticed by the world around them."

"If you never looked-"

"It all seems a bit insignificant." It was Shen who spoke this time, his gaze turned from vastness above him to the planet Remnant below. Every achievement he had ever had was limited to this, it almost seemed laughable.

"So how does it feel?" Jinn looked towards Shen who in turn looked at her.

"What do you mean?"

"The relics are the physical manifestation of the god's gifts to humanity. Their the reason humanity could advance as fast as it did, but they're also limited based on humanity's understanding. The destruction the Relic of Destruction can bring is limited to the destruction humans can properly imagine, the same goes for the relic I inhabit. I have no knowledge of things that do not concern humanity in some way."

"But right now you are corrupting the relics and assimilating them. You're changing what they represent, and so your growth and power will only be limited by what 'You' represent. If people see you as the embodiment of fear, then the more fear they feel, the more terrifying you are to them, the more powerful you become and the more limitless the relics are as well."

Shen looked at Jinn feeling a bit impressed. He was positive she didn't know about his system, but even so, she knew exactly what was happening. What she said was right. The relics all represented something, an aspect of humanity, and their power was based on that. But now they were changing all of them were changing to represent him.

Truly the relics have unlimited power, but humanity's limits also limited how much of that power could be drawn out at once. But now that limit was adjustable, depending on Shen, the very concept of himself that limit would slowly grow broader and as it idd he would grow stronger.

Even now every thought people had of him was increasing how much EXP he had and how much power he could draw on from the relics.

That's why his name this evolution Dominus, the more control, the more ownership his very image had over the minds of the masses, the more powerful he would become. Considering the entirety of Remnant was under his control and feared him even now his power was many times greater than what it was before.

"Before I'm unable to manifest myself again let me ask you a question Shen. How do you think your journey will end?" Hearing that question Shen looked back up at the stars. How would this come to an end? Would he die at the hands of some hero? How many more worlds would he conquer?

"I have no clue."

Jinn paused upon hearing his answer and then shortly after began to chuckle to herself, her entire body fading away. Only the echo of her voice was left as she disappeared entirely.

"And that's what makes it interesting."

…

At that moment the evolution was complete, Shen's entire body began to change. His Life Fiber body began to crack like stone, falling away piece by piece. And in between those pieces, if you peered into what lay behind them.

You would see a deep yellow vortex sucking in everything around it. The result of Creation and Destruction intertwining, of Knowledge and Choice combining into one, and all of it being sucked into a never-ending well.

It was Chaos, pure entropy to the point it could make you go mad, yet its vastness and complexity created beauty like never seen before, even more, so that the stars in the heavens.

It was Shen, the very essence of his being. His mind had lost its last shreds of normal humanity and a strange look appeared on his face. As he looked into the distance, his eyes peered farther than they ever could before.

'They're coming.'