Becoming the Dark Lord

[Congratulations on completing the Event!]

Angie was falling. The tsunami had hit her full force, but what came after didn’t feel like drowning. It felt like breaking through invisible walls, one after another, while reality folded around her. The world flashed past her eyes in thousands of overlapping images: mountains, stars, oceans, forests, volcanoes, broken skies, unknown lands. Everything appeared and vanished too fast for her to make sense of it.

Until one of those images stopped being an image. And became real. Angie fell onto it. Just before she slammed into the ground, her wings snapped open on instinct. The movement softened the impact, but not enough. She crashed through branches that cracked against her body and tore at her skin, breaking her fall in the least gentle way possible before she finally hit the ground.

For a few seconds, she didn’t move. Then she lifted her face and stared up at the canopy.

“Well. That sucked.”

She pushed herself up slowly, feeling her body complain from several places at once. One of her four wings had been broken since the fight with the lich, hanging at the wrong angle. Angie dismissed all of them. She would deal with the pain and the injuries later.

[The Integration of Worlds has been successfully completed!]

Angie blinked at the message. “I’m back. I’m on Earth.”

The event was over.

[Multiple Worlds have been merged! This is your New Earth...]

Before she could finish reading, another screen appeared, cutting off the first.

[Activating your Event Shop...]

[Calculating your Event Points...]

A new window opened in the system interface.

Sunken Realms Event Shop

Exchange Event Points (EP) for items, equipment, weapons, and skills. Choose carefully. Purchases cannot be returned or exchanged.

(Warning: The shop will remain active for only 24 hours. After that, it will disappear forever, and any unspent points will be permanently lost.)

That got Angie’s attention. A temporary shop with items, weapons, and even skills was not something to ignore. Still, another message was already open, and she needed to understand where the hell she had ended up first. She closed the shop interface for now and returned to the previous window.

Welcome to the New Earth!

Your planet is no longer the same. It has been fully integrated by the system and has undergone severe structural changes. Mana has affected animals, transforming them into beasts, while beasts that already existed have grown even stronger. Ancient extinct beings have been brought back to life and transformed into monstrous beasts. Creatures sleeping in the ocean have awakened. The sky has pulled farther away, and the layers of reality have collapsed into one another.

Do not assume previous maps, borders, ecosystems, or laws of reality still apply.

A single world, once inhabited by beings separated across different realities, has now become one. All together in the same reality. All forced to learn how to deal with one another... or go to war over control of the planet.

Merged Worlds: World of Water, World of Earth, World of Fire, World of Shadows, World of Chaos, World of the Dead, World of Dolls, World of Beasts, World of Orcs, World of Plants, World of Giants, World of the Sky, Underworld, World of Caves, World of Insects, Fragment of the World of the Void, and Fragment of the Midnight Tutorial.

Angie narrowed her eyes. That was a lot. Even by the system’s absurd standards. Before she could read the rest, a noise came from the forest.

She moved at once, rushing forward with her spear in hand. Her senses sharpened, her body ready to strike. But after slipping through a few trees and aiming the weapon toward the sound, she stopped.

“Ow...”

The voice was low, pained, and familiar.

“Charlie?”

Sitting on the ground, Charlie lifted her head. Her face was dirty, her expression lost.

“Angie...? What happened?”

Angie lowered the spear, but she didn’t fully relax.

“You surprised me back there,” she said. “Killing the lich like that.”

Charlie frowned. “I killed that lich?”

Angie studied her carefully. “For a second, I thought you were baiting him into dropping his guard.”

Angie explained what had happened at the end of the fight. The attack. The lich. The trick. The moment everything ended. Charlie listened in silence, growing more confused by the second. By the time Angie finished, the conclusion was obvious: Charlie had suffered some mild amnesia. She didn’t remember the ending. Or the part she had played in it.

Which meant Angie had a much bigger problem than a broken wing.

Angie looked at her hand.

“Charlie, give me that ring for a second,” she said, keeping her tone light.

Charlie looked at her own finger, then at Angie.

“Okay...”

Angie didn’t wait for her to change her mind. She took Charlie’s hand and pulled the ring off her finger. It was the same ring Jonathan had worn before.

This ring mentions the Vespertilio bloodline.

And Charlie had worn it without remembering why. As Angie examined the item, Charlie looked around, searching for anything familiar among the trees.

“Where’s Master Luke?”

Until I know what this thing does, it stays with me.

Angie stored the ring away. Charlie would not touch it again. Not until Angie understood more about what it did, what it meant, and why it was connected to the Vespertilio bloodline.

“I don’t know where he is.” Angie kept her voice calm, but her eyes moved through the forest. “But you know what’s strange, Charlie?”

“What?”

“We landed near each other.”

Charlie blinked. “I don’t get it.”

“When I was taken to Sunken Realms, you were in Maine, at Lord Luke’s house. I was in Camlann, on the other side of the world. So why did we show up in the same place?”

Charlie’s confusion gave way to a flicker of understanding. She stood and began looking around more carefully.

“This isn’t Master Luke’s neighborhood.”

The two of them began moving through the area. Everything around them was forest. Tall trees, dense vegetation, unfamiliar sounds among the branches. The system had warned that the planet had undergone deep changes, and at first glance, it really didn’t look like the world they knew anymore.

“When someone ranks up, they enter a state of integration,” Angie explained as they walked. “Your body gets flooded with mana. Like centuries of evolution getting crammed into one moment.”

Charlie listened in silence.

“If that happened to the entire planet,” Angie continued, stepping around a thick root in the path, “then this place could’ve been reshaped by centuries, maybe millennia, of change. We might be in Maine, but not the Maine Lord Luke knew.”

It was the kind of explanation that should have calmed Charlie down. Too bad Angie didn’t believe it either. It made no sense for her to have been brought to Maine with Charlie. It also made no sense for Charlie to have been brought to the place Angie had been before the event. Unless the system had used some criterion they didn’t understand yet. Or unless they weren’t in either place.

“I’ll scout the area,” Angie said.

She brought her wings out again. The pain from the broken one came with them, sharp and irritating, but she ignored it. She beat her wings carefully and rose above the trees, just high enough to see past the forest.

Maybe we’re not in either place.

Then she saw it. Her worst guess had been right. They were not alone in the region. They were not lost in some random forest. For a second, Angie forgot to beat her wings.

In the distance stood an enormous walled city. From above, Angie saw people working in the streets and nearby fields, some of them mounted on lizards as if they were horses. Armored soldiers patrolled the walls and gates, far too organized to be desperate survivors improvising their way through the end of the world. At the center of the city, a gigantic castle rose over everything.

Angie hovered in the air, staring at the sight. The New Earth hadn’t just changed. It had swallowed entire worlds.

Where did Charlie and I end up?

***

[Teleporting participant Luke Moon...]

And then the ocean vanished. No pressure. No current. No crushing dark. Luke was sitting in an armchair, and for one second, his body refused to believe it. But there was no water. There was warmth, a lit fireplace, the smell of burning wood, and slow, irritating applause echoing through a room far too elegant.

“Congratulations,” a voice said. “Incredible. You won the event, Luke Moon.”

Luke opened his eyes. He was in a cozy room decorated with the kind of luxury chosen by someone too rich to prove anything. Thick rugs. Dark walls. Expensive glasses on a low table. Fire in the hearth.

In front of him, a man in a black suit smiled.

“You got the armchair wet,” he said. “Rude.”

His smile widened.

“But I’ll admit, it was worth the dramatic entrance.”

Luke shot to his feet, muscles still tense, breath still caught in his chest, his hand going to his weapon before he could think. He was not on Earth. He was not at the Baumman house. He was nowhere familiar. But he knew that smile. He knew those eyes.

The man tilted his head, green, serpentine eyes gleaming in the firelight.

“What’s wrong, Luke Moon? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Luke’s grip tightened around his weapon. The name tasted wrong in his mouth.

“Asmodeus?”

“Asmodeus?” The man pressed a hand to his chest, offended in the fakest way possible. “It’s Uncle. Or Uncle Asmodeus. We’re family, man.”

He took a sip from the glass in his hand. Luke looked around. No door. No window.

“Where am I?”

“I watched the event,” Asmodeus said, ignoring the question with impressive ease. “You beat the hell out of that half dragon. The main screen kept replaying it. The gods went crazy over the highlights. You even picked up a few cute fans.”

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Luke narrowed his eyes. “Where the fuck am I? Why am I not on Earth?”

“I took the liberty of choosing a few things for you, nephew. You’ll thank me eventually.”

Luke’s system interface opened. It thanked him for participating in the event.

[You have received the Title: Champion of Earth]

“You’re not much of a conversationalist, are you?” Asmodeus sighed. “Luke Moon, as one of the event winners, you’ve been brought to a special location. The massive inn, resort, universal hotel, whatever you want to call it, where the gods gathered to watch the event for fun. You’re going to meet a lot of important people here. After all that chaos, you earned a seat at the afterparty with the people behind the scenes. Try to look honored.”

Before Luke could answer, the system interface opened in front of him.

[Congratulations on winning Stage 3! Your reward is being calculated...]

[Party Invitation: You and the participants from each region of Sunken Realms who won the event have been teleported to the Olympus Resort Hotel. Many sponsor gods and investors are present in this location. While waiting for your reward, you will receive special information regarding the New Earth.]

Asmodeus spread his arms, pleased with himself.

“See, nephew? Not kidnapping. System business.” He stood with his glass in hand. “Now come on. I need to introduce you to a few people who’ve been fans of yours since the tutorial.”

A door appeared in the wall as if it had always been there.

“By the way,” Asmodeus added, “Samael is here too.”

With no choice, Luke followed the demon.

[Champion of Earth]: A title reserved for those who participated in Planet Earth’s Event 51 and survived long enough to claim victory. Each Stage of Sunken Realms tested your limits, sometimes through straightforward trials, other times through challenges that demanded strength, adaptation, and willpower. You won when you could have fallen, pressed forward when many were left behind, and proved that even in the face of unpredictable circumstances, unstable luck, and unknown dangers, you were still capable of reaching the end. This title represents more than participation; it represents achievement. Among Earth’s chosen, you were one of the few who returned as a victor. Grants +5% to all attributes

Title Path: [Legend of the Universe]

You’ve got to be kidding me. This title is a Title of Power!

It was something as powerful as the Dark Lord title.

Luke removed the [Survivor of the Midnight Terror] title and equipped [Champion of Earth] so he could open the Title Path. Luckily, both titles granted identical attribute bonuses, so he wouldn’t be affected by the swap.

[Legend of the Universe]: The path to becoming a legend is not easy, but you have proven you intend to walk it. Among the stars, your story begins to spread. Through this title, you may automatically receive Invitations to future Events of the Universe. There, you will stand as the representative of your planet. A Champion of Earth. Those who aspire to become a God must also aspire to become a Legend of the Universe.

Event 1 (Sunken Realms): An integration event for the planet where you were born. A world taken by water, and there you claimed your victory. Now the title rewards you.

Reward: [Click to Unlock]

Event 2: This Event has not yet occurred.

Reward: [?]

Event 3: This Event has not yet occurred.

Reward: [?]

Event 4: This Event has not yet occurred.

Reward: [?]

Event 5: This Event has not yet occurred.

Reward: [?]

Event 6: This Event has not yet occurred.

Reward: [?]

Event 7: This Event has not yet occurred.

Reward: [?]]

There are going to be more universe events?

He hoped they were optional. He was already sick of events. Still, he wasn’t about to turn down the reward.

[Do you wish to unlock the Reward?]

He clicked “Yes.”

Asmodeus walked ahead, leading him through the hallway.

[Reward Successfully Received: “Title Evolution!”]

Title Evolution? That’s the reward?

[Examining Titles compatible with evolution...]

[Compatible Titles: Regicide and Myth Slayer]

[Choose one to evolve.]

He read the titles.

[Regicide]: Title granted to those who decided crowns look better on the floor. While active, provides resistance against intimidation from authority figures. After all, once you’ve toppled a monarch, it’s hard for anyone else to scare you.

[Myth Slayer]: Even legends can die. You encountered a mythological being and killed it. Some say myths are not real. You proved otherwise and reduced one of them to just another story. Your blade has also tasted the blood of some rather... juvenile mythological beings, proving that age means nothing once you decide something is your prey. Grants +9% to all attributes and the skill [Myth Sensor (Ancient)].

Yeah, that choice was pretty damn obvious.

[Evolving the Title Myth Slayer...]

Luke closed the interface while walking with Asmodeus. He kept watching it as he thought of Charlie and Angie, hoping they were okay.

[The Title Myth Slayer has become a Title of Power!]

What? A Title of Power?

Luke quickly opened the title interface, and now it had its own Title Path, just like Dark Lord and Champion of Earth.

Holy shit.

That changed things. There were missions and rewards.

“So, did you like the Battle Royale?” Asmodeus asked, walking ahead of him. “When I sent your name to the system so it would throw you in there, I swear I had the best intentions.”

Luke stopped. “Wait. You’re the asshole who shoved me into that shit?”

“Oh, hold on. I need to tell you something. Almost forgot. The system reminded me,” Asmodeus said.

[Your Fruit of the Sin of Wrath has been successfully created!]

Asmodeus gave Luke a brief explanation of how things would work from there and what the hotel was.

“Now let’s go.”

But Luke stayed where he was, staring at the Dark Lord title interface. There was the image of a red fruit hanging from the tree.

Fruit of the Sin of Wrath: The bearer demonstrated the nature of Wrath by abandoning hesitation and turning his violence into judgment. His rage was not a directionless outburst, but a conscious force, used to destroy what dared stand in his way. Even so, the Fruit has not been fully unlocked. To release the power sleeping within Wrath, the bearer must offer the Tree a worthy sacrifice.

Sacrifice: Soul of a Hero (Successfully Completed!)

Reward: ?

The moment he touched the image, an apple appeared in his hand. He knew that if he ate it, he would unlock the reward. He could wait. Maybe ask Samael about it first. But he had already decided. He had killed that damned hero. He wanted to savor it. The bastard had killed Cadmus.

Luke bit into the apple and swallowed the piece. As soon as he did, the apple vanished.

[Receiving Reward from the Fruit of the Sin of Wrath...]

[Your Title grows stronger!]

[Your Bloodline grows stronger!]

[The Dark Lord’s Familiar is evolving...]

And then the reward came.

[Forging your Dark Lord Relic...]

A door appeared in the wall at the end of the hall. Now Luke was about to meet them. Not just gods, but other participants. The best of them. The winners from each region of the event. For a moment, Allison’s name came to mind. There was a chance, however small, that she was there.

[Winner List: ...]

A system window opened, and an enormous list began to unroll. Name after name appeared in sequence. Luke’s name was there.

“These are the people from your planet who are coming here,” Asmodeus said.

Luke searched for Allison first.

Then he froze.

His eyes locked onto one name. Not Allison. A name that shouldn’t have been there.

***

The God Siegfried was at the Olympus Resort Hotel when the event ended. He was still staring at one of the giant screens, where the final scenes were being replayed for an audience of gods, investors, ancient monsters, and creatures that thought they were too important to die. Of all the images, one remained stuck in his mind.

Anne Grimhart...

The doll woman had made it far. Very far. Siegfried took a sip of wine, watching the memory of her fight with a faint smile. He had never interacted with the doll. Only Erza. Still, it was interesting.

Siegfried was not just any god. He was an Apostle, a high-ranking position in the Divine Order that served his master, Lakarion, the God of Assassination. And when the event ended, Lakarion had simply disappeared. Like a shadow deciding to stop existing, his master vanished from the hotel without a trace.

“Where is that panther?” Asmodeus asked, sitting in a chair beside the bar. “Your master.”

Siegfried didn’t even look at him. “Where he goes and what he does are the business of the Great God of Assassination alone.”

“You need to get out of that automatic servant mode, Dragon,” Asmodeus said, swirling the drink in his glass. “I just thought it was strange that your Great God of Assassination suddenly disappeared from this hotel.”

The demon smiled. He knew something. Or he was pretending to know something, which was sometimes even more irritating.

Siegfried set his glass down on the counter. “I’m leaving. Excuse me. I’ll be receiving one of the participants personally.”

He had given his name to the system to take on that task. Other gods had received similar notifications and had been summoned as well. Asmodeus, of course, had done the same.

Siegfried arrived in a private room and sat, not in a chair, but on the table. He waited with the calm of someone who had nothing to prove.

Then a woman appeared before him. She wore a mask.

“Congratulations on winning the event in your region of Sunken Realms,” Siegfried said.

She greeted him with a formal nod. She carried herself with posture, control, and a kind of caution that didn’t belong to beginners. As he explained the situation, Siegfried confirmed what he already knew: she was a high-ranking member of the organization Reaper Court on Earth.

A rising star on her planet.

“I thought I’d be sent back to Earth,” she said, looking around. “I never imagined I’d end up somewhere like this.”

“This place is reserved only for those who distinguished themselves the most. You, the winners.” Siegfried crossed his arms. “And believe me, you will want to be here when the special information about the changes to your planet is revealed. The system will explain soon.”

The woman was silent for a moment. Then her eyes moved in front of an invisible interface.

“A list of winners,” she murmured. “Interesting.”

“For someone like you, access to the names of those who stood out in the event should be useful.”

She kept looking.

Then she froze.

“Send me back to Earth. Now.”

Siegfried frowned. “What? Why?”

“If you’ve read the winner list, you know damn well why. I give up the invitation. I can’t stay in this place. There’s someone on that list I’m not supposed to meet.”

Siegfried stared at her for a few seconds.

Then he answered dryly.

“You can’t give up the invitation,” he said. “You will meet the other winners, Elizabeth Moon.”

***

Franky slithered through the forest. His small serpentine body cut through leaves, roots, and mud as fast as he could manage. It had been a long time since he’d been separated from Human Luke’s family. One day, he’d been in the Human’s den with the Human Rat Sister called Lillian. The next, everyone had started disappearing. One by one. And then he disappeared too.

“Human!” Franky shouted into the forest.

His small voice vanished among the trees. He searched every day. He slithered until he was exhausted, shouted until his throat burned, followed tracks that didn’t exist, and got angry whenever tears escaped his eyes.

“I’m not crying again today!” he complained, speeding up. “I’m not!”

He slipped under a fallen trunk.

“Human Rat Lillian!” he shouted. “Human’s Mother! Human’s Father! Human’s Big Brother!”

He called for each of them. That was what he did every day.

“Even Human Rat Lillian is fine! I don’t care! Where are you, rat family?”

No one answered. They had vanished. Completely disappeared. Franky had also been taken that day and had woken up in a huge forest, far from everything. Since then, he had fought beasts, fled from others, and stolen cores whenever he could. But he still had the body of a tiny baby snake. He couldn’t kill creatures powerful enough to get better cores and truly rank up. Growing naturally would take way too long.

Even so, during that time, he had gathered every core he needed. Except, for some reason, he still hadn’t left Rank F.

“I don’t miss them!” he grumbled, curling against the roots. “So what if they abandoned me? I don’t care about them. I’m a powerful snake. So what if the human’s sister won’t feed me anymore or make me play dolls with her? So what? I don’t care about that family. I hate families. I’m better alone.”

He hated how quiet the forest stayed after that. Half an hour later, Franky was already slithering through the forest again.

“Human rats! Rat family! Where are you? I’m not looking for you! I’m only calling because I don’t want you getting lost in my new forest home! I want you to leave! Are you there?”

He emerged into a different area. The ground was marked, wide, and far too smooth to be just forest.

A road.

“Human rats!”

Then the pain came. A burning sensation tore through his serpentine body, spreading like fire beneath his scales.

“Ranking up now?” Franky toppled onto his side. “Stupid core!”

The pain grew worse. His body began stretching and breaking in ways it absolutely shouldn’t. And this time, no amount of cores could stop it. Franky screamed until his voice gave out.

Then he fainted.

When he opened his eyes some time later, the world seemed different. His vision was strange. Too high. Too wide. The air smelled of wood, old cloth, and human sweat. There was a constant sound of creaking wheels and hooves striking the ground.

Galloping.

He was lying on something soft. Something Human Rat Lillian had once called a pillow.

“He’s awake,” a voice said.

Franky turned his head. A human was staring at him.

“We found you on the road, kid. You’ve got a fever. Do you know where your home is?”

Franky blinked. He was no longer in the forest. He was inside a wagon.

“Home...?” He tried to sit up.

“Easy. We brought you into the wagon.”

“Where is the human’s family?” Franky growled, or tried to. “I’ll devour you if you touched them.”

“Calm down, little guy.”

Franky tried to get up again, but collapsed to the side.

“I knew it,” the man said. “He still has a fever. You all right there, little guy?”

“Little guy? I’m a powerful sna—”

The sentence died.

Franky stared at what was in front of him. Human hands. Small ones, like Human Rat Lillian’s. Except those hands were attached to him.

Slowly, he looked down. There was no snake body anymore.

“What happened to me?!”

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out, kid,” the man replied. “You were lying in the forest.”

Another human started arguing with the man.

“And what was I supposed to do?” the first one snapped back. “Leave a kid on the road to die? He didn’t even have clothes.”

Franky didn’t answer. He managed to sit up a little, disbelieving, staring at his own body.

Legs.

Arms.

Skin.

Fingers.

All wrong.

All soft.

All human.

“I’m...” His voice came out small, almost frightened. “Human?”

Then something appeared in front of him. Franky didn’t know what it was. He only knew one thing. It was waiting for him.

[Choose your Class wisely...]

I want to thank everyone who has followed the story up to this point. Seriously, thank you so much.

I know Volume 4 was a little complicated at the beginning because of the Battle Royale, but it will all start making narrative sense very soon. After all, now you know Asmodeus had a hand in it.

The event has finally come to an end. And honestly… did you really think I was going to take the story down a route where Charlie lost her memories and got separated from Luke? Am I really that cruel? Poor Charlie. I mean, some of you were actually happy about it because it opened up the possibility of the Allison route. You guys are terrible lol.

But about this ending, a lot of things were revealed. New Earth is going to be something incredible to explore in the next volume. And Elizabeth’s ending, the one we just read… well, the beginning of this volume is going to be very interesting. She has no way to run from Luke now.

I’m also really curious to hear your theories about Luke’s mother and why she distanced herself from him. By the way, somewhere, maybe in the comments or on Discord, a reader said she was the newest member of the Reaper Court. Just so you know, when I read that… I’m sorry, but I had to pretend I didn’t see it lol. If I had replied with anything, it would’ve been way too suspicious. That theory was so on point that I just thought, “damn, he figured out the ending of this volume.”

And then we have Franky. He’s back. A lot of you asked me to bring him back, and I couldn’t say anything about how or when it would happen. But he’s returned, lost and now human. It’s going to be pretty fun if he ever reunites with Luke.

As for Luke, in the next chapter, Luke and you guys along with him will be heading into that hotel, and a lot of interesting things are going to happen there. Don’t worry, I’m not going to open with POVs from Zoe, Julian, or anyone else. We’re going straight to what matters.

Okay, I think I’ve talked enough here. That’s it. End of my message.

Thank you for everything, and thank you for following the story this far.

Welcome to Volume 5.