Ethan Quinn’s eyes snapped open, his pupils blown wide with a cocktail of raw shock and murderous fury. Veins throbbed against his temples like living wires.
The pain was a physical weight, an agonizing echo of the moment his world ended.
He had raised her. He had bled for her. He had sacrificed every ounce of his own youth to ensure Evie Quinn never felt the cold sting of the world he had been thrust into. He thought she was just going through a phase—rebellious, star-struck, young. He never imagined she was a monster.
“I thought you were just chasing an idol. I thought you were just being a kid. But this…”
A bitter chill settled in his chest, colder than the poison that had paralyzed his limbs.
Ethan was a transmigrator, a secret he had carried to his grave. When he first arrived in this world as an orphan, he had been taken in by a kind couple. When he was five, they had Evie. They never treated him like an outsider; they loved him as their own. When they died in a wreckage of twisted metal and shattered glass when he was eighteen, Ethan didn't hesitate. He stepped up. He became the provider, the protector, the wall between Evie and a cruel reality.
Then, the world broke.
Godsfall descended. It wasn’t just a game; it was a restructuring of existence. You entered the world, slaughtered monsters for Lifespan, and burned that very essence to manifest digital powers into reality. The strong could tear fighter jets out of the sky with their bare hands; they could shrug off nuclear fire like a summer breeze.
As society crumbled, Ethan had dragged Evie through the carnage. He hacked a path through the apocalypse until he was ranked among the top hundred survivors on the planet. He had even secured the ultimate prize from the depths of an Ancient God's Ruin: the Ancient God’s Oculus.
It was his ticket to the very peak of godhood.
And that was when his sister—the girl he’d fed, clothed, and shielded for twenty years—slipped Souldrift Poison into his drink.
"You’ve always been so controlling, Ethan," Evie had whispered, her voice devoid of the warmth he remembered. She stood over his paralyzed body, looking down at him with an expression of bored annoyance. "Don't do this, don't go there, stay away from him. I felt like I was suffocating. I never had a single moment of freedom."
She had smoothed her pristine white dress, looking like an angel while she prepared to commit a demonic act.
"You hated Fynn Solo. You banned me from his shows, his fan meets... do you have any idea what I missed because of you? But Fynn reached out to me today. He’s known about me all along. He told me he wanted us to be together, but he knew you’d never let it happen. He said the only way we could be free... was if he had your Oculus."
Ethan’s soul had screamed in the silence as he watched her lean down. With a smile of pure, delusional joy, she had reached for his face.
"Don't worry," she’d chirped, her fingers wet with his blood as she pried the artifacts—his very eyes—from his skull. "Fynn promised he’d find you new eyes. Just as soon as you stop getting in our way."
She had skipped out of the room, cradling his stolen sight like a treasure. She never knew that Fynn Solo had laced the Souldrift Poison with a lethal neurotoxin.
Ethan had died in the dark, hollowed out and betrayed by the person he loved most.
Ethan sat up in bed, gasping for air.
The room was small, clean, and bathed in the soft, honeyed glow of a morning sun. A light breeze stirred the curtains of the floor-to-ceiling window, carrying the scent of cut grass and normalcy.
"Nine years..." he whispered, his voice hoarse. "I’m back. Before it all went to hell."
He looked at his hands. They were smooth, devoid of the scars earned from nearly a decade of high-tier combat.
Fynn Solo.
The name tasted like ash. In the Great Xia Realm, Fynn was a manufactured idol, a glittering product for obsessed teenagers. Evie had been a fanatic since his trainee days, throwing tantrums and sneaking out just to catch a glimpse of him. Ethan had tried to ground her, to keep her focused on a future that mattered.
I didn't let you stay out all night. I kept you out of the clubs. I wouldn't let you ruin your life with drugs.
And that felt like 'suffocation' to you?
He remembered the day Godsfall arrived. Evie had been screaming at him because he wouldn't let her skip her Advanced Mathematics final to travel to a concert in a neighboring city. When the world ended that afternoon, he had been the one to sprint across the city to find her, to apologize, to make sure she was safe. He had carried her through the levels, shielding her from every horror.
In return, she had traded his life for a smile from a man who didn't even know her name until he needed her brother’s loot.
"Fynn Solo was a second-rate hack," Ethan scoffed, a cold, predatory smile touching his lips. "In nine years of Godsfall, he never even broke the top thousand. He only targeted me because he knew he couldn't earn power on his own. And Evie... she was stupid enough to think a god would want a traitor for a queen."
He felt a sudden, profound lightness.
For years, his every decision had been weighed down by her. He had passed up legendary zones because they were too dangerous for her. He had missed out on hidden quests because he was too busy power-leveling her.
"You wanted freedom, Evie? You've got it."
He wouldn't kill her. Not yet. She was the daughter of the people who raised him, and for their sake, he would grant her this one mercy: he would let her live the life she so desperately wanted. Without him.
He was done being a martyr.
As the resolve crystallized in his mind, a mechanical, crystalline chime echoed in his skull. Ethereal runes began to stitch themselves into the air before his eyes.
[‘The Eye of Judgment’ is awakening...]
[You have obtained the ‘Scepter of Judgment’!]
Ethan froze. The Ancient God’s Oculus—the artifact that had cost him his life—had followed his soul back through time.
"It was soul-bound?" he muttered, closing his eyes.
In the darkness of his mind’s eye, a single, terrifying iris stared back at him from the void. It was an ancient, primordial thing that felt older than the stars.
[The Eye of Judgment (Activated)]
[Unique Passive: The Scepter of Judgment]
[The Scepter of Judgment: A Primordial Authority that transcends the laws of Reality and Order. (Note: Divinity required for active use. Current Status: Passive effects engaged.)]
[Passive Effect: Upon entering Godsfall, you are guaranteed a Maximum-Tier Talent.]
Ethan’s heart hammered against his ribs.
In his previous life, he had fought for seven years just to reach the Dominion of Order, hoping to grasp a sliver of the "Force of Order." In nearly a decade, no one in the entire Azura region had ever touched anything close to "Primordial Authority."
And the talent...
In his past life, Ethan had been a top-tier powerhouse with an Emerald-tier talent—the seventh rank. But Godsfall had thirteen tiers:
Inferior, Common, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Jade, Diamond, Epic, Legendary, Mythic, Ancient, and finally... Immortal.
"I’m getting an Immortal-tier talent?"
He checked his phone. 8:00 AM.
The launch had already begun. Most people wouldn't realize it until noon. They’d go to work, they’d get yelled at by bosses, they’d waste the most critical hours of the new era.
The rule of Godsfall was simple: the moment an adult fell asleep after 8:00 AM, their consciousness was pulled into The Forsaken Realm. In reality, their physical bodies would phase out—visible, but untouchable, existing in a different dimension.
"I’m not wasting a single second."
He grabbed a bottle of prescription sleep aids from his nightstand. He didn't need to eat. He didn't need to call anyone. He just needed to be first.
Rivenhaven Normal University
The autumn leaves crunched under the boots of students rushing to their morning lectures. Among them, Evie Quinn walked with her head held high, her long white dress fluttering in the breeze.
"Are you really not going to call Ethan and apologize?" her friend asked, jogging to keep up. "We ditched the exam for that concert. He’s going to blow a fuse."
Evie rolled her eyes, her expression curdling. "Apologize? He’s not even my real brother. He’s a glorified babysitter who thinks he can dictate my life. He’s lucky I even live in the same house as him."
"But he's so good to you," her friend countered. "He buys you everything..."
"I have my parents' inheritance," Evie snapped, waving a dismissive hand. "I don't need him. I’d be much better off if he just stayed out of my business for once."
She walked into her classroom, utterly unaware that the world was about to end—and that the man who had spent a lifetime protecting her had finally decided to let her fall.
In his bedroom, Ethan Quinn drifted into a drug-induced slumber.
His consciousness tore through the veil of reality, plunging into a silent, pitch-black abyss.
[Welcome to Godsfall.]
[Destination: The Forsaken Realm.]
[Please select your Class.]
[A random Talent matching your Class will be assigned upon selection. Good luck.]
A massive, spectral wheel manifested in the darkness. Warrior, Mage, Cleric, Ranger, Assassin... the standard archetypes glowed with a faint light.
In my last life, I picked Warrior so I could frontline for Evie, Ethan thought. It was sturdy, but slow. This time, I’m playing for myself.
"Highest-tier talent guaranteed," he whispered to the void. "It won't matter what I pick. I'll be a god regardless."
He didn't reach for the standard icons. Instead, he pressed the glowing center of the wheel.
[Random Class selected. Initializing...]