NOVEL NEXT Chapter 456: Omnipotence
Parker's form flickered between existence and something beyond it, his body cracking like porcelain under the weight of cosmic forces that were reshaping him from the inside out. Each fracture revealed glimpses of raw power beneath—not light, not darkness, but the fundamental energy that held realities together.
The cracks would seal, then reappear seconds later as his very essence struggled to contain what he was becoming.
The palace trembled. Not from earthquakes or external force, but from the chaotic energies radiating from its master. The Origin Family leaders stood in respectful silence around him, their own forms flickering with instability from proximity to such overwhelming power.
Even they, in all their cosmic authority, appeared diminished and fragile in the wake of what Parker had undertaken.
Nyxavere maintained a shield around her father, her omniscient mind calculating and recalculating the energy output required to contain him.
The barrier she'd erected was so potent that if released, it would annihilate Earth in a nanosecond, then cascade through every connected dimension like a cosmic wildfire. Sweat beaded on her forehead—an impossibility for someone of her tier, yet here she was, straining against forces that threatened to break even her limitless awareness.
Today marked the acquisition of the third-to-last major city, and with it, another Prime Core secured under Parker's protection. But the price of shouldering such responsibility was becoming clear with each passing moment.
His very being teetered on the edge of complete dissolution, and if he broke, the worlds he'd fought to protect would follow him into oblivion.
The system—his personal interface that should have been visible only to him—began to glitch. Notifications flickered into existence before the assembled Origin Family, their golden text stuttering in and out of reality.
[Ding! Acquired Tokyo! Spent $50 trillion, earned $500 trillion!]
[Balance: $20.770292 quadrillion]
The numbers hung in the air for a moment before disappearing, only to reappear seconds later as the system struggled to maintain its usual privacy protocols.
Forty-two major cities. Forty-two Prime Cores. After claiming the heart of every major nation's power structure, Parker had transcended the very concept of wealth. He wasn't rich—the word itself had become meaningless in the face of what he controlled.
He was... there wasn't even a term for it.
The assembled Origin Family stared at the fluctuating display with a mixture of awe and terror. The numbers were staggering, but everyone present understood the true cost. Each acquisition had pushed Parker further beyond the boundaries of what any single being was meant to contain.
Even Nyxavere, with all her vast power, couldn't take on what her father carried. There were responsibilities that only he could bear, burdens that even his siblings would collapse under. If they could have shared this load, it would have been Vivian who stepped forward—but carrying the weight of quadrillions of souls across infinite connected realities was beyond even her capabilities.
Perhaps only the Princess could manage such a burden, but she governed her own concepts, maintained her own cosmic responsibilities. The multiverse was too vast for any single being to shoulder... except, apparently, for Parker.
Now only two cores were left!
*
One Week Later
Seven days passed in this precarious balance—Parker's form constantly reconstructing itself, the palace shaking with barely contained power, and Nyxavere maintaining her protective barrier while her omniscience calculated probability after probability of catastrophic failure.
Then, on the seventh day, something shifted.
Parker's power didn't just stabilize—it spiked. The energy radiating from him suddenly crystallized, compressed, and then exploded outward in a wave that rewrote the fundamental laws of physics around him. The palace didn't just shake—reality itself bent and warped as he crossed a threshold that beings in lower dimensions called the Omnipotent Rank.
The transformation was instant and absolute. Where moments before he had been straining against cosmic forces that threatened to tear him apart, now those same energies flowed through him like rivers finding their proper course. His form solidified, no longer cracking and rebuilding, but settled into something that radiated perfect, terrifying control.
But with that ascension came a price that made the Origin Families step back instinctively.
The warmth in Parker's eyes—the humanity that had driven him to protect Earth, to love his family, to feel rage at innocent deaths—flickered and dimmed. Not gone, but... muted. Distant. Like looking at emotions through thick glass.
When he spoke, his voice carried the weight of absolute authority, but it lacked the passionate fury that had driven him to tear apart the Gateways in Manhattan. It was the voice of someone who loved from a cosmic distance, who protected because it was logical rather than because his heart demanded it.
Parker stood at the center of the palace's throne room, and reality bent around him like light through a prism.
Where once his presence had been overwhelming, now it was something else entirely—absolute. The air didn't tremble in his vicinity; it simply accepted whatever form he decided it should take.
His physical form appeared deceptively human at first glance—the same perfect features that had once made mortals weep for their inadequacy, the same dark hair that caught light in ways that defied physics.
But the differences were apparent to those who knew to look.
His skin held a subtle luminescence, as if starlight flowed beneath the surface instead of blood. His eyes, once warm with protective fury or tender love, now held the depth of infinite space—beautiful, mesmerizing, but utterly vast and distant.
When he moved, it was with the fluid grace of someone who had transcended the concept of effort. Each gesture carried the weight of cosmic authority, each step reshaped probability around him. The very air seemed to pause in anticipation of his will.
But what was missing struck his family most profoundly.
The passionate intensity that had driven him to tear apart gods puppets for threatening his city—muted to a cool assessment of necessary actions. The tender warmth he'd shown when carrying his frozen wife—now a logical protection of valued assets. The righteous fury at innocent deaths—replaced by an efficient calculation of acceptable losses.
Maya approached him cautiously, her soul recognizing the change even if her mind couldn't fully process it.
"Parker?" she whispered, reaching out to touch his face.
When her fingers made contact, she gasped. His skin was warm, familiar, but beneath it thrummed power that made her very existence feel fragile. Still, she pressed closer, desperate to find the man she'd loved across lifetimes.
"I'm here," he said, and his voice held perfect gentleness—but it was the gentleness of a mountain tolerating the presence of flowers on its slopes.
Protective, but infinitely distant.
Nyxavere watched the interaction with growing concern, her omniscience tracking the subtle but fundamental changes in her father's emotional resonance patterns.
"Dad, how do you feel?"
Parker considered the question with the same analytical precision he might apply to cosmic mathematics. "I feel... purposeful. Clear. The weight of responsibility no longer threatens to break me." He paused, looking at his family with something that approximated warmth. "I can protect you all now. Perfectly. Forever."
The words should have been comforting. Instead, they sent chills through everyone present.
Seraphina stepped forward, her vampiric instincts picking up on something the others had missed. "You're still you, right? Still our daddy, right?"
"Of course, dear. I am Parker Black Nyxlith," he replied with absolute certainty. "I am your father. Those facts remain constant."
But the way he said it—like reciting entries from a cosmic database rather than expressing lived truths—made Seraphina's blood run cold.
Before anyone could respond, Ava burst into the throne room, her usually composed lawyer facade cracked with urgency.
"Parker!" she called out, then stopped short as the full weight of his transformed presence hit her. She steadied herself, then continued with professional determination. "We have a problem. Tessa—"