Everything was too quiet.
No car horns. No footsteps. No murmurs of passing crowds. Just the rustling of leaves and the soft, distant hum of strange floating symbols drifting through the forest canopy.
I stood there, sword still in hand, heart still trying to slow down after that beast nearly turned me into lunch.
What even was that thing?
It looked like a wolf and a bear got shoved into a blender, then had pure hatred poured down its throat. I should've been dead. No training, no weapon, no idea what I was doing — and yet, somehow… I cut it down with one swing.
Not me though.
The sword — or maybe whatever was inside me now.
"You are the Absolute Dominator," that voice had said. It wasn't mine. It didn't sound human either. More like the voice of the world itself — patient, unshakable, and absolute.
I turned the sword in my hand. It shimmered faintly, then dissolved into motes of silver light, vanishing as if it had never been there. But I could still feel it — a heat in my palm, like something was waiting to be used again.
I wasn't just dropped into a fantasy world.
Something had chosen me.
I started walking. Not because I had a plan, but because standing still felt like inviting death. And I wasn't about to die five minutes into a new world.
The forest was beautiful in a strange, eerie way. Giant mushrooms glowed softly at the base of tree trunks. The air itself had a color — like sunlight filtered through dreamwater. Birds I didn't recognize chirped in bizarre rhythms, and the occasional floating rune drifted close, spinning lazily before drifting off again like it lost interest in me.
After maybe thirty minutes, I found a path — half-overgrown, but definitely man-made. Stone slabs, broken and crooked, led deeper through the trees. Relief hit me harder than it should've. Civilization meant people. People meant answers. Hopefully.
I followed the trail.
As I walked, I started noticing… rules.
Not written signs or anything obvious, but patterns — how the runes avoided the path, how small blue crystals grew near water, how certain trees had no birdsong nearby. Like the world was designed, even if no one had written a tutorial for me.
And I wasn't tired. At all. I hadn't eaten, I hadn't drank anything, and my legs weren't sore.
That's when I realized: my body felt different. Not stronger exactly — just more... complete. Balanced. Like everything was in sync for the first time in my life. My reflexes. My breathing. My senses. Everything.
Was this part of "Absolute Dominion"? I didn't know. But I wasn't complaining.
Hours later, the forest thinned, and I caught my first glimpse of civilization: a small village nestled in a valley. Wooden homes with moss-covered roofs, smoke curling from chimneys, windmills creaking lazily in the breeze.
I froze just beyond the tree line.
People.
Part of me wanted to run up and ask a million questions. Another part of me screamed to observe first — and that part won. Because the last time I blindly stepped into something, I ended up fighting a demon bear.
I crouched behind a fallen log and watched.
Villagers moved with practiced rhythm. A woman hung laundry. A group of children chased each other around a well. Blacksmiths hammered away at blades with purple fire instead of coal. A boy maybe two years younger than me floated five feet off the ground, adjusting roof tiles with a flick of his hand.
Magic.
Real, actual magic.
And nobody was surprised.
Which meant either magic was common, or everyone here was insane.
Either way, I had to know more.
Eventually, I approached — slowly, hands raised, trying not to look threatening. A few people spotted me. Whispers passed. Faces turned. One man, tall and broad-shouldered with a steel pipe slung across his back, stepped forward cautiously.
"You're not from around here, are you?" he asked, not unkindly.
"No," I said honestly. "I… don't know where 'here' is."
He looked me over. Not hostile, just curious. His eyes flicked toward the small emblem glowing faintly on my collarbone — I hadn't noticed it before, but it shimmered in the shape of a spiral.
He saw it. And he knew what it meant.
"You're a Summoned."
I blinked. "A what?"
He didn't answer right away. Instead, he motioned for me to follow. "You need to talk to the elder. She'll explain everything.
Her name was Eira — the village elder. A woman who looked ancient, but her eyes were sharper than steel. She studied me in silence for a while as I sat across from her in a hut that smelled like herbs and ink.
Finally, she spoke.
"There have been others like you, boy. Brought from beyond the veil. Summoned by the world's will, usually in times of great change."
"Summoned?" I echoed. "I didn't choose to come here."
She smiled faintly. "You think any of them did?"
I sat quietly. She continued.
"This world is called Kaelvara. A land held together by ancient systems — Domains, they're called. Each domain rules a different law of reality: flame, shadow, metal, storms, memory... and one, the rarest of all — Dominion. The power to bend all others."
I swallowed. "And that's what I have?"
"You are not the first to hold it," she said. "But it has not appeared in over a thousand years. It always marks the beginning… or the end."
The hut was silent except for the creak of wood and the distant wind outside.
"So what now?" I asked.
"Now?" She leaned forward. "Now the world will test if you're worthy of holding it.
That night, I sat alone outside the village, staring up at two moons hanging in the sky — one red, one white. I didn't know where this journey would take me. I didn't know why me of all people was chosen.
But I knew this:
I wasn't weak here. I wasn't ignored. I wasn't just some kid barely making it through high school.
Here, I was a force.
And I was going to find out just how far that power could go.