Chapter 23: The New World

“Two Guardians have been assimilated, their power made my own, and the military might of the world has been all but erased. Who in this world has the power to stop me? Is there anyone left with a will great enough to overcome my own? Born with a heart of such holy righteousness that even my accursed gluttony is overwhelmed?

I wonder if the Old Gods are aware of what has happened to their children? Have they learned to feel fear? Do they shiver from the approaching chill of Ragnarök? They hide away in Purgatory, depriving me of both an honest fight, and a chance to see their terror. What lowly beings they are.”

“They can only hide for so long,” said Ishtar, bowing before Dominion with her forehead pressed to the throne room floor.

Dominion stepped out of his throne and looked up through the oculus overhead. “Are you loyal to me, Ishtar?”

“Beyond words, My Lord.”

“And do you worship me?”

“Would it be foolish not to worship the one true God?”

“That’s where you are mistaken, Ishtar. There is a reason why I have never called myself a god. For one thing, I dare not tempt fate and enrage the force known as comedic irony. History has shown that things don’t end well for men who proclaim themselves to be God. All jokes aside, I have seen the gods themselves and I know how shamefully I compare. They can create life, reshape the universe as they see fit, spawn minions with the power to destroy entire worlds. But me? I am only a simple human. I am unloved by fate, born with no talents, no special abilities, no prophesy foretelling my victory, only a hunger for power that leaves me crying in anguish. All of the might that I have gathered, everything that I have accomplished, they were won through my blood, sweat, and will. Every soul I’ve taken, every inch of soil I’ve claimed, they could only become mine because my resolve was greater than those who tried to stop me.

So how can someone like me hope to defeat the gods themselves? Will the day ever come when I do not curse my weakness and drown in my hatred for those who tower so high above me? When I can sleep soundly instead of burning every neuron coming up with plans to defeat my creators? Peace for me can only come through war, a war in which the universe itself will be a casualty. Perhaps what I truly seek is my own destruction, to lose the game by lighting the entire board on fire.

I am the last in a long line of men who have cursed the gods, who have tried to wage war on the divine, but where they have failed, I shall succeed, for I have seen the face of my enemy. I have earned their acknowledgment as a worthy adversary. I have survived their wrath and come out even stronger. I devote myself to this cause, every fiber of my being focused on their downfall. I shall devour the gods, and at last, become the true god that you believe me to be.”

“How might I aid you your goal, Master?”

Dominion looked down at her. “Find me the other Guardians. My stomach growls for their power.”

The UN had fallen, there was no one left to challenge Dominion. After sweeping France clean, his forces spread across Europe like the Bubonic Plague, bringing death and destruction wherever they went and chasing down the refugees trying to escape him. Dominion, always with Ishtar and his harem close by, made his way southeast towards Italy. Scourge was sent down south into Spain and Africa, Adam went north towards the UK, Norway, and Sweden, and Blight headed east into Germany. Were Blight still a normal human, this would have been a day of celebration for him, like a pilgrimage. The original concentration camps from WWII, preserved as historical sites, were once again opened and even expanded to hold the flocks of scared masses.

A surprising number of people turned themselves in voluntarily, believing Dominion’s words that they’d receive less suffering. At this point in human history, less suffering was the closest that anyone could get to actual happiness. Since their spirits were already broken, Dominion simply had them processed and incarcerated. Those who foolishly tried to fight back or hide were used for his social experiments. He was rather curious to see how people of different nationalities would react to his dungeons, whether or not they would descend into the same type of madness and at a consistent rate.

Much of Europe had succumbed anarchy, with the lawless running for their lives, trying to cling to the freedom they had seized with the downfall of society. They had spent the last several months looting, raping, and killing, and now found themselves on the other side, having become the powerless whelps being preyed upon. Sometimes they would try to put up a fight, believing that they could take down at least one or two spawn, but the result was always the same.

In the dead of winter, countless refugees froze to death while fleeing, their bodies found in the woods after abandoning their cars when they tried to move cross-country. They’d run in any direction away from Dominion’s forces, discarding anything that would slow them down, even valuable tools and food and water. Starvation was a better end than whatever awaited them in Dominion’s prisons. For many, it was obvious where they would go.

The sky was filled with dark storm clouds as Dominion’s palace approached Rome. The city was filled with refugees from all over Europe, huddling together in the streets like penguins in winter. They rushed to the Vatican, hoping that if ever there was a miracle, it would be there, when the Devil’s minions were at the gate. Their heads were bowed as they prayed harder than ever in their lives. They were focused so heavily on their prayers, betting their existences on their faith. It was like they were hypnotizing themselves. Up on his balcony over St. Peter’s Square, the pope led the entire city in prayer.

Dominion’s palace cast its shadow over the Vatican, but everyone kept on praying. Before anyone would be harmed, God would strike down this evil. They were sure of it.

The spawn entered the city, but everyone kept on praying. Any second now, the storm clouds would part and the light of Heaven would shine down and cleanse the city. They were certain of it.

The screaming began, people being seized by the spawn or caught in the lights of the sphinxes and drawn up, but everyone kept on praying. Those who were taken, they were simply unworthy. God was surely going to protect the most righteous. They were hoping for it.

Then the spawn reached St. Peter’s Square and began arresting people, and with tears streaming down their faces, everyone continued praying. This was a test. God had not abandoned them. They begged for it.

Finally, Dominion appeared behind the pope and drove his hand through the old man’s back, sending it bursting out of his chest with his heart clutched in his grip. “Your god isn’t here, priest.”

Simultaneously, all hope was lost, everyone in the city realizing that God wasn’t going to save them. They abandoned their prayers and began running in every direction, trying to find some way out of the city or at least a place to hide. The sound of the combined screams was deafening, and in the chaos, the spawn swarmed in and went to work.

“Ishtar.”

She immediately appeared behind him. “What are your orders, Master?”

“Find me a new sex slave. Make her a good one. I’m in the mood to break something.”

“It’ll be my pleasure.”

Like with the assimilation of the octopus, devouring the angel brought Dominion one step closer to being able to create souls. Each Guardian seemed to contain an ingredient, or rather, they represented different qualities of the human soul. The octopus contained ultimate power, hence its planet-killer blast and its near infinite regeneration. Dominion could create proto-souls that had the same power output as regular souls, but could only exist in S2 Engines made of Dead Matter and vanished if their containers were broken. With the addition of the angel, his proto-souls could now be placed directly in the spawn, without the S2 Engine, though that was hardly an improvement. If a spawn was killed, the controlling spirit would return to Dominion, but the proto-souls would simply cease to exist.

Dominion was currently seeking a means to skip to the next step and speed up his soul production. For that, he had descended into the Vatican Archives. Even after the chaos years, the archives remained almost completely untouched. Rome, especially the Vatican, had been built to withstand sieges and invasions, and the enduring Catholic faith ensured that there were always people willing to lay down their lives for the papacy, whether it meant fighting off zombies or dealing with armies of marauders. Rome remained a consistent beacon of societal strength all throughout the undead war and the decades of anarchy that followed after. For that reason, the percentage of the world population that identified as being Catholic was almost three times higher than it was in the early 21st century.

He scoured the ancient texts and artifacts, many even predating Christ. He was searching for any reference to the Old Gods or the Guardians, anyone who knew of mankind’s true origins. The Vatican had always been very exclusive about access to its archives. Even when it attempted to be transparent and allowed researchers access to its confines, there were always restrictions. Of course, the only reason why they would keep information secret was because it was potentially dangerous or damaging, either about the church or its members, and any kind of acknowledgment of the Old Gods would be a perfect example.

Unfortunately, the results were more boring than what the conspiracy theorists believed. He didn’t find the Ark of the Covenant, Holy Grail, or other sacred relics, there were no fulfilled predictions or doomsday prophecies yet to pass, and nothing that might destroy the Catholic church. Most of the documents were monetary records for things like cathedral construction, art commissions, and military spending. There were plenty of reports of violent incidents, people being killed on the belief of witchcraft or speaking against the church, and even some assassinations, that at the time, would have been considered high profile, but few cases within the last few hundred years. Really, the most damning stuff was all of the sexual abuse coverups, but it wasn’t anything people didn’t already know about.

There was nothing that would help him accomplish his goals. If the Vatican ever did come across written mythologies of the Old Gods, they must have destroyed them. Dominion scanned through everything with his outsight, picking out anything that could even loosely be related to the Old Gods or Guardians, as well as anything interesting. As for the rest, they put out a surprising amount of smoke when burned.

Late-twenties, long raven hair, a good face, and a sexy figure; Dominion licked his lips as she was dragged into his throne room. She hissed and cursed at the sentinels holding her, doing whatever she could to try and break free. She was brought before Dominion, becoming calm when she saw him, but her eyes were filled with wrath and hatred.

“My Master, I do believe I have found exactly what you’re looking for,” said Ishtar, proudly. “Her name is Chiara, a very feisty piece that will give you hours of entertainment.”

“Well done.”

Dominion got up from his throne and approached Chiara, still held in the iron grip of the sentinels. She feared him, he could smell it, but she had a fiery will that wouldn’t let her submit. He grabbed her chin, holding her face still and enjoying the anger in her eyes. Then he leaned forward and dragged his tongue up her cheek, across the ID number freshly branded into her flesh. S006. The skin around it was red and swollen from the trauma, and she struggled to withstand the pain brought by him touching it.

“Well, aren’t you a free-spirited one? Here you are, in the throne room of the ruler of the world, and your pretty eyes are filled with defiance. I’m not sure whether I should commend your spirit or ridicule your intelligence.”

“I’m not afraid of a monster like you. No matter what you do to me, I know I am awaited in Heaven, where I’ll join my husband, but all that awaits you is eternal damnation. Enjoy your power trip while you can, because God is going to put you in your place.”

Dominion sighed with a wide smile. “Oh, I just love that Italian accent. Isn’t it sexy, Ishtar?”

“Quite so, Master. Would you like me to adopt one?”

“It’s only sexy if it’s genuine.”

“Ah, a shame then.”

He turned his attention back to Chiara, then sent a telepathic message to the sentinels, telling them to force her to her knees. Of course, she resisted, but their strength was far beyond hers.

“So, you think that there is nothing to fear, do you? You think that death is to be welcomed, that it will save you from my tortures and deliver you to the Kingdom of Heaven?”

She looked up at him, shooting daggers. “That’s right.”

“Then I suppose it would actually be an act of kindness for me to kill you right here and now.” He held out his hand and a pistol materialized in his grip. He put the muzzle to her forehead and watched the blood drain from her face. “Should I do it? Should I pull the trigger? Or would you rather live as my plaything? Which will it be? Death or slavery?”

Chiara gathered her courage, though she spoke with a trembling voice. “Just do it.”

“Very well then.”

The sound of a gunshot echoed through the throne room, the bullet piecing Chiara’s skull and splattering blood and gray matter across the floor behind her. The sentinels dropped her to the floor, a lifeless corpse, and stepped back.

“Shall I have Sprawl clean up this mess?” Ishtar asked.

“No, I’m going to make it even worse.”

He bent down and touched Chiara’s head. It happened in only a second, the bullet hole in her skull closing up and all the damage repaired. Even the blood she had lost was replaced. Then he gave her a small jumpstart and she bolted awake, gasping for air and trembling.

“W-w-what just happened?” she shrieked. She looked at her hands as if she didn’t think they were real.

“You died,” said Dominion. She stared at him in disbelief. “That brand on your face, it does more than simply mark you as my property. It binds your soul to your body, so that if you die, you remain trapped within your corpse rather than passing on. Think of it as like being in a coma. And just destroying the brand or trying to cut off the marked flesh won’t do anything. It’s stuck to you forever. Do you know what that means? No matter how many times you die, you can always be brought back to life. Not even death can free you from me.

Let me show you again.”

He shot her a second time, once more through the skull. She died instantly and collapsed to the floor. Then a simple prod from Dominion resurrected her. She took a deep, frantic breath, but before she could exhale, Dominion shot her a third time, this time in the heart. She was able to feel the bullet, and her resulting scream came with blood spurting from her mouth. She lay on the floor in an expanding puddle of gore. In seconds, her pierced heart stopped beating and her body shut down.

Dominion again resurrected her, this time shooting her in the lung. She gave another garbled scream, and he watched with a smile as she slowly bled out on the floor while struggling to breathe. Yet another resurrection and another bullet fired, now in her thigh, cutting her femoral artery. Despite everything she had just experienced, she shrieked in terror and tried to stop the bleeding. She covered the wound with her hands, compelled by her instincts to preserve her own life, even in this hopeless situation. By now, she was completely drenched in her own blood.

“Ishtar, she said he had a husband, right?”

“Yes, there was a man with her. He should be in the middle of processing.”

“Bring him here.”

Ishtar disappeared and Dominion removed his clothes. He once more revived Chiara, and when she opened her eyes, the sight of his erect horse cock sent a shiver of terror down her spine.

“No! No!”

She tried to run away, but all of the blood on the floor made it impossible to get to her feet. Dominion got down on his knees, grabbed her, and dragged her back. She screamed as he ripped off her clothes, revealing her gore-caked tits and her Italian bush. She tried to fight him off, to get away, but she would have had an easier time stopping a runaway semi with her bare hands. Dominion laughed as she tried to resist him, while thoroughly enjoying licking the blood off her womanly shelf and sucking in her nipples.

“Ah, there’s that spirit! Oh look, we have a spectator.”

Chiara looked over to where he was pointing and gasped in horror. Ishtar had returned, standing nearby with a handsome young man on his knees in front of her. She had paralyzed him with one of her toxins and had to hold him up by his hair, though she did it with a glove. She refused to touch or ever let a man other than her Master touch her in any way. The only exceptions being her killing someone to harvest their soul, or if Dominion ordered her. Despite his drugged state, his mind was clear and he was fully aware of what was happening.

“Chi ... ara...” he mumbled.

“Al!” she sobbed.

“I see, you thought he was dead. He’ll stay alive as long as I have use for him. And for now, he gets a front row seat to watch his wife get taken by a real man. Don’t worry, this won’t kill you.” Dominion put his hand on her vulva and used his powers to alter her body, just like he did with Daisy. The flexibility and elasticity of her flesh were multiplied, allowing her to receive his cock without injury. However, he didn’t block her pain receptors. “Now take a deep breath and think of Rome.”

He spread her legs and forced himself inside her, burying himself in to the base and making her scream bloody murder. His thrusts were immediate and violent, he drove into her at full force like a machine. She shrieked in agony, having never been fucked so brutally or with a member so large. She could feel her organs being rearranged, his cock shooting up into her guts as he took her on the cold floor.

Beyond the physical agony, she was forced to wallow in the grotesque horror of having this monster inside of her. Less than an hour ago, she had been praying for God to save her from him, the Devil in the flesh, and now his cock was stirring around inside her, tainting her body. She sobbed in humiliation, feeling her husband’s eyes on her. She wanted to look at him, if only to find comfort in his eyes, but she didn’t want him to see her. She didn’t want to see the look on his face as he watched his wife getting raped. She tried to contain her voice so that he wouldn’t have to suffer her agonized moaning, but her body wouldn’t let her. It didn’t know how to handle the experience, how to deal with Dominion’s cock stuffing her so tightly. She felt like he was going to break her, like he was going to split her in half down the middle.

On the hard tile, it was difficult for Dominion to get a steady pace going, but he worked out the mechanics. Chiara’s bouncing breasts were used to measure his rhythm, their oscillations were a perfect way to see how she took the force of his abuse. There was a certain frequency he was looking for, a resonance when her breasts and his cock would move in perfect synchronicity. It was something he did every time he fucked his slaves.

“Let’s play a game. I want to know if I can make you climax before you die again.”

Before she could respond, his fingers closed around her throat like boa constrictors. Fear flooded her, so intense it almost blocked the pain of being raped. She fought for air, shaking her head from side to side, trying to let even a molecule slip by. He was pressing down, not just on her windpipe, but on the carotid arteries in her neck. Her brain was being deprived of oxygen, she could feel the blood getting backed up, feel her frantic heartbeat as the pressure built.

Searing agony filled her, her face feeling like it was on fire as all of the veins bulged. Her vision was blurring, her limbs losing their strength. He had already killed her half a dozen times, she knew what it felt like to die. It didn’t get easier. To lose all of her senses, to become trapped in her own corpse without any form of awareness, it truly was death. It was a terrifying darkness that made her tremble. Even worse, she didn’t want the last thing she’d experience before death to be her rapist’s manhood punishing her womb. She didn’t want Dominion’s insidious grin to be burned into her mind’s eye before the darkness enveloped her.

Chiara was tight, but she was moistening by the second. Whether she experienced pleasure or pain, her body reacted the same way, but before she could climax, her heart stopped. Forced to watch Dominion release his limp wife, Alphonse gave a loud groan. In his current condition, it was the closest he could get to a scream of anguish. He thought she was dead, that Dominion had murdered her with his cock still deep inside her confines, but his surprise was unsurpassable when he saw her wake back up.

“So, you died first. It doesn’t matter, you’ll climax eventually. Now onto Level 2. Mary!”

His concubine materialized beside him, making Chiara shriek in terror at the sight of the skinless woman.

“What is your bidding, Master?”

“Sit on her face. I want you to suffocate her. Don’t stop until she’s dead.”

“It would be my pleasure.”

Mary kneeled down over Chiara, pinning her wrists, and settled over her face. Chiara shrieked in disgust, seeing every exposed muscle fiber around her vagina and anus, and then having to feel the slimy tissue pressed to her skin. She could taste Mary’s blood, it filled her mouth as her asshole rubbed back and forth across her face. Mary smothered Chiara with deadly precision, managing to cover both her mouth and nose and leave absolutely no room for air to get in. Chiara screamed and tried to get out from under her, not just to get at least a single breath, but out of revulsion for having to taste another’s woman’s nectar.

Dominion resumed his thrusts with the same level of power as before. Her pussy was wrecked with each impact as she felt him go deeper than she ever thought possible. He could feel her wetting, loosening, inching ever closer to the inevitable result. While he fucked Chiara, he leaned over and sucked on Mary’s breasts, making the humanoid creature moan in euphoria. Alphonse had to watch as her wife’s body disappeared beneath Dominion’s and Mary’s, hear her screams as she was raped and suffocated. It was agony, the helplessness he felt, but try as he might, he couldn’t overcome Ishtar’s poison.

“Ah damn it!” Dominion cursed.

Chiara had died again, suffocating under Mary’s ass without ever climaxing. While normally this wouldn’t annoy him, she had croaked just before he could finish, and right now, he felt like he was going to explode. He dragged Mary over, laying her atop Chiara, and slammed his cock inside her. Mary cried out in euphoria as her Master took her like an animal. Her unholy body greedily accepted him and her inner muscles flexed against his manhood to try and milk him dry. He came, pumping Mary’s pussy full of his seed. In the background, he could hear Ishtar muttering swears in envy.

“All right, onto Level 3.”

Mary got off Chiara as Dominion resurrected her, but rather than keep her on her back, he flipped her over onto all fours, facing her husband. She had no time to resist or beg for mercy, he simply grabbed her and resumed raping her, now taking her from behind. The slamming of his body against hers, it dominated every movement she could make. Her limbs wouldn’t obey her commands as he shattered her focus with each impact. Her ass rippled against his lap, those ripples moving up her body like an electric charge and making her shriek. Her face became red from her congealing blood on the floor, as she was unable to hold herself up. Dominion gave her a helping hand, cruelly pulling her hair to make her look at Al. It was like she could see her own reflection in his eyes, see the shameful look on her face, the way her tits swung and bounced like chandeliers in an earthquake.

“Tell me, did your husband ever fuck you this hard? From the envy in his eyes, I can tell he hasn’t. Right now, he’s regretting every opportunity he let slip by where he could have bent you over and made you beg for mercy, every chance to reduce his precious wife to a piece of meat for him to enjoy. That deep, guttural moan you’re making—it’s your first time, isn’t it? It’s your first time getting truly fucked and made to feel like a real woman, to fear the man inside you because you don’t know if you’re strong enough to withstand his lust and fury.

Oh, I can feel it, you’re about to cum, aren’t you?”

“No! Never!” she sobbed.

“You are, and I can feel myself ready to blow. Let’s make it a race. Will you cum first? Will I cum first? Or will you die before either of those?”

A sharp talon grew from his fingertip and he reached down and slit her throat from ear to ear. She tried to scream as a fountain of blood sprayed from her wound, but she couldn’t make a sound. Alphonse, still paralyzed, was sobbing as he watched his wife bleed out. With time of the essence, Dominion became even faster with his thrusts, each strike making a momentary pause in her blood loss as if he was plugging a leak. Her brain wasn’t getting any oxygen, but she was still fully aware of everything due to her nerves. He had to make her climax before her consciousness faded. The sound of flesh on flesh was almost like rapid-fire, with Chiara unable to voice her despair at suffering Dominion’s cruelty.

“There we go!” Dominion laughed as Chiara felt a thunderous orgasm rush through her.

Pleasure—despicable, evil, horrendous pleasure, and just by looking into her husband’s eyes, she could feel the sense of betrayal he felt. No matter how much he loved her, how miserable he knew she was, for her to climax from being raped was like her declaration of submission to Dominion. Then, as she lay dying, the last sensation she experienced was Dominion’s semen pouring into her like toxic waste.

“Well done, Master! Your skill is as flawless as always!” Ishtar said while she and Mary applauded.

Dominion yet again revived Chiara, and she immediately began to cry. “Oh God, no more! Please, just leave me alone! Let me die!”

“You know, it’s rather funny that you’d say that. With my victims, it always turns out the same way. They start by begging me to spare their lives, and by the time I’m done with them, they’re begging me to kill them. But you, you’ll die plenty of times. I’ll have you keep dying until you can’t even tell it apart from being alive. You’ll soon beg me once more to spare your life, because you just can’t bear the pain of dying yet again.

I’m still not done with you. Not even close.”

He grabbed her and pulled her on top of him as he lay on his back. Underneath, she could feel him guiding his erect member into her, but not back into her pussy. She screamed and thrashed, doing whatever she could to get free, but her suffering was inevitable. He went balls-deep into her ass, and while her body had been altered to be able to withstand his full manhood, her scream in response was almost loud enough to break glass. He grabbed her legs and spread them, her feet up in the air. Then, he started bucking his hips, beating her asshole like an automatic hammer and filling the throne room with a horrific flesh-clapping sound.

Chiara was gasping her air, feeling like every time his cock went in all the way, it was sucker-punching her lungs. She had been placed in the perfect position to let her husband see all of it. He could see her breasts heaving with each thrust, her face blushing from sexual pleasure and the orgasm she had just experienced. He could see Dominion’s semen trickling out of his wife’s vagina, as well as the countless inches of manly muscle sliding back and forth inside her backdoor. Her body was completely limp, unable to gather any strength when bombarded so hard and so fast. It was like she had already died yet again and Dominion was just raping her corpse. He had never known her wife could even bend in such a way, could take so much.

Ishtar and Mary watched enviously, each wishing they were the ones to be so harshly fucked. Yet something caught Ishtar’s eye, something that made her grin. Alphonse had a bulge in his pants. “Master, you’re not going to believe it! He’s gotten hard!” she cackled.

Hearing Ishtar’s words, Chiara felt like a cold stone had been dropped into her stomach. No, that was impossible. Her husband would never react to this. He was a good man, a kind man. To become erect at the sight of his wife getting sodomized ... that was not the man she married! They were just tricking her! Trying to make her suffering even worse!

But it was true, and Alphonse felt like he was going to vomit, so ashamed by how his body was reacting to his wife’s predicament. He groaned in pain as Ishtar stepped on his crotch, grinding the sharp point of her heel against the head of his penis. His pants offered him some protection, but he still felt like she was going to draw blood.