Due to something similar to cosmic Karma, an all powerful being failed to survive.
The part of it trying to recover was calling forth creatures, new hosts it could consume to be reborn.
Too bad it was too picky.
Through shattered and alone, follow the lost soul on a Broken Adventure!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This place was outside. That was the only description that would work, really,
Not only was there no air, no planets, no stars... but time and continuity did not exist either.
One would assume it was dark. Black. But no, light and shadow didn't exist here either.
No multiverse, no framework of reference. Existing in this space was impossible.
But if one were to try and convert what was happening here into something a human being could interpret, into something one could see and hear and touch...
A man frantically ran down an endless corridor.
His face twisted in rage and seasoned with light fear, every step he would test the doors as he passed them even as he frantically tried to run faster.
He was ROB, one of many instances of ROB... and this was humiliating.
A slight slip, and the hunter gained on him.
It was twisted, a wall of flesh and bone and faces... sort of.
If it was of material, of flesh or metal or soul, he could have easily broken it like the multitude of galaxies he had casually devastated in the past.
If it had a mind, or a thought process, he could twist or control it like the trillions of innocents he had tormented in his glory days.
But, in something approaching Karma, he was being chased by something lesser, yet more.
This was the built up negative feelings, concepts, and fractured moments from his victims.
Oh, many of his toys and pet bugs had tried to resist his whims. Some he elevated to unheard of levels of power to allow even greater downfalls. Some realities he visited multiple times, forcing the entire time stream to buckle as he twisted it into repetition.
All failed. He had reigned supreme.
But unnoticed to him, consequences had been gathering... and what he was being chased by now was only a fraction of the pain to come.
Now, he absently grabbed from other realities, hurling some of the infinite planets and ships and continents, ignoring the psychic screams as they collided with the thing behind him.
It didn't do much to slow it down, and every time he added to his own kill count some fraction of that power was enhancing his stalker... but it was all he could do now.
When he slipped, it was a small error. Had he done so in a reality with laws, it would be such a small issue that no tools could measure the time frame he was delayed. No camera could have filmed his issue.
It was enough.
An empty place somehow became more absent.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Pieces of nothing spread through impossible lands and concepts. Most of these pieces, dead.
One fragment, just a shard of existence really, struggled.
It was his last act of defiance. Like stabbing your heart to create a blood pool to cover evidence, he had mutilated his own corpse, leaving just the core of his personality and a carefully constructed glint of power. A seed, almost.
After a few trillion nothings of time, he focused through the blinding pain and attempted to summon a host. Something to consume and wear, a flesh corpse.
The first twelve tries exploded.
Apparently, he needed atmosphere. Maybe gravity and pressure as well. Meat needed things to work... how long had it been?
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Each attempt, pulling bodies and creatures and beings to himself... it required sacrifice. The first thousand, it only needed his reserve power, what bits were left.
But now, each call was damaging.
He had not even noticed at first. He was in such pain that it had simply joined the choir, so to speak.
But when the shard suddenly cracked, ever so slightly... it was a horrifying shock.
He had a time limit, and now he regretted the dozen or so creatures he had rejected for being 'too pathetic'. Any of them would have sufficed, allowed some recovery and time to discard and find a better host later on.
But now, his power was too unstable. Every call was damaging the ONLY TOOL he had that could fix everything.
If he had noticed, he would have cared more that his unstable portals were dissecting limbs and amputating souls and memories.
With great reluctance, he forced the damage on his own soul and remaining consciousness. If the shard broke, it was all over.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Hrtz... hurss... urts...
Somewhere, alone, an end came to an unending being.
Also alone, a slightly cracked shard of potential followed the only instructions it could remember.
Please... please help me.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
The pain was sudden, but at the same time felt like an old friend.
It... was so dark. And he could not remember how he came here.
A stab in the back of his mind, and a blue screen appeared.
"Worm CYOA V1.0!"
Well. That... that was bad.
More and more of his past faded into view, even as the darkness fled from the edges of his vision.
Not enough. Name, family, even the town where he lived... all blank.
But he remembered Worm. One of the many stories he had read over the years, and the base of many fictions he read from fans.
Even the loving and cute ones tended to trend into the dark.
A world being harvested, infected with humanity of all types and where pain granted power.
This was bad.
He didn't waste time thinking "Oh this can't be real!" or anything like that. He had a philosophy that had been shared with his friends and family, one where you looked at the options and tried to choose responsibly. 'Assume real and treat with seriousness', because either this WAS real and his choices would matter, or it was NOT real and someone had enough power to force this situation, and said person would likely react badly if he ruined the ruse.
But he tried to avoid Murphy as much as possible. He had never taunted a fanficition creation or character, nor had he filled out CYOA's like this one in the past, nor did he answer any surveys. He was polite to others, ESPECIALLY if they seemed to be in weird places or unusually weak and helpless.
Clearly, it hadn't prevented this situation though.
That said, he would normally have easily filled this questionnaire before him at this point.
The blue screen was cracked.
Some words were readable, but not even 25%. And his memory of what was SUPPOSED to be here was vague at best to begin with, so guessing would be dangerous.
A crack on the blue screen snapped LONGER.
Guessing it is then.
First page was almost too damaged to modify, so he was going to have to go with the default of self insert. Endbringer would have boosted survivability, especially with some master prevention, but it would have to do. The difficulty options however, were unreadable.
He knew it either went from easiest to hardest, or visa versa... but his mind came up blank when trying to remember which.
Better pick the middle option. It SHOULD be Standard Difficulty, so at least 4 points to spend, right? Maybe five or six.
The next page was riddled with cracks, but some careful reading had each option listed: Alexandria, Legend, Eidolon, Emperor of Man, Kaleidoscope, Inspired Inventor, Psychokinetic, Power Manipulation, and Shaper.
The concern though was how damaged his shard was BEFORE picking it! How could he risk half these options, when this clearly unstable fragment could crumble at any time? Some could theoretically corrupt anyone nearby, or distort multiple realities!
With almost no thought he reached out with his left hand and selected Power Manipulation.
The pain was sharp and sudden, unlike the constant ringing in his mind. His left index finger was bleeding heavily, having hit a crack in the blue screen. Sharp hiss later and he was clutching his hand to his chest even as the screen advanced.
Yeah, he needed to fix this.
No companions, this instability might twist them or worse. Next page, and quickly!
He can't read most of this, which is bad because he WANTED blank, which would protect him from prediction and so forth, but at least he found Shattered Limiter. Combined with power manipulation, the 5 free powers/enhancement per day would become 10, with other benefits as well.
Almost as important as Blank, he also could not find Invictus... and that could be bad. A super strong will was... very valuable.
The blue screen actually lost the lower right corner, which dissolved with the sound of shifting glass.
He couldn't risk taking any longer or searching for missing options. Next, next, confirm. His wounds burned, but he managed to close the damned thing.
The burning in his head spiked, eyes slammed shut as some sort of axe was digging into everything.
As everything became fuzzy, he faintly reached into his own mind.
It was... full of stardust now. And floating, twitching, were broken twisting white blobs.
He gripped them all as he fell.
"Fix This."
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
He didn't know how much time passed before he woke up.
But there was a sphere shaped dimple in his soul.
In his head there was stardust.
In his star fields there was a white shard.
And before his eyes was a blue screen.
Unbroken. Clear. White text easily seen.
"System Repaired."
Below that was a summary, but he just fell back to the ground again.
Oh... there was ground.
That's nice.
Hours later he gathered enough energy to focus on the blue screen, which had followed the fall to stay in view.
Apparently, the damage that had been repaired had required features to be sacrificed.
Originally, he would have been able to have unlimited powers slotted into himself at one time.
Now, only one soul socket per realm visited. Which, since he was in a realm now (No idea which one), brought him up to one.
Originally, his power would gain 10 charges a day... now, one. And he could only hold created powers in storage, so no saving up charges. He would have to use it each day or slow development.
No nullifying, enhancing, modifying, copying, stealing, or transferring powers either. He would have to use up charges to recover those features later on.
Still, the whole point to power manipulation was its unfair ability to grow stronger forever, if one is able to survive long enough.
A nail of pain in the neck helped settle the thought process a bit.
He reached into his mind, a star fragment glittering between the metaphorical fingers.
"Slow Recovery."
Socket-ed to his soul, a tiny circle with a blood red cross began pulsing, the body already slowly relaxing as the pain began to retreat.
Once he could move without wincing, he would need to find out where he was