3: Dreamscape

Adam dreamed of a land of paradoxes and enigmas. The floor and the sky switched places every time he blinked. The laws of physics obeyed only the whims of some frivolous master. Hellfire burned as cold as the void. Opposites collided and merged into amalgamations of impossibility.

Many scenes flashed before Adam's eyes. He saw the world as it was. He saw how it could have been different. One of Humanity's many histories flashed before his eyes. Then another. And another ad infinitum until they all merged together into something Adam could no longer distinguish.

The only thing that stood out was the uncanny focus on the masculine gender. He watched men-dominated versions of Humanity and versions where men didn't exist at all. The lives of great men and mundane men played out in equal measure. From men who ruled the world and beyond to men who merely existed, content with their simple lives.

His dream visited places from Hell to Heaven and everywhere in between. He stood before the gates of Heaven, staring at an angelic figure he couldn't remember but could have sworn he should have recognized. He flew through the circles of Hell, lingering especially on Lust and Pride for some reason. He merely existed in Purgatory, walking the space between worlds as if it was an endless beach.

As his travels calmed down and became almost peaceful, so too did his dream. The fabric of his personal reality stabilized into something simple and bland. Modeled after Purgatory, for he'd found the most peace there after a night of chaos, Adam's dreamscape morphed into an endless beach.

An endless shore extended to infinity on either side of him. The sand on his bare feet was as fine as silt and pure white, unstained by reality. A neverending ocean stretched in front of him until it merged with the horizon and became the sky. That endless blue sky then wrapped around behind him and became the ocean again, forming a scene behind Adam that mirrored the one in front of him.

"Damn, nice place we got here, huh, Adam?"

The voice that spoke sounded so familiar that it was almost painful for Adam. Yet he couldn't quite place where he knew it from. Still, he didn't panic. Somehow he knew that nothing could influence him here and that the voice would never truly harm him anyway.

"It is…" Adam simply replied. "Peaceful… Serene… Or at least, it was before my shadow started talking to me…"

Adam's Shadow bypassed any sense of logic, circling around in front of him so they could talk face-to-face. It seemed to grin as well, even though there should have been no way to discern facial features on a mass of inky blackness shaped like a person.

Adam continued as his Shadow detached from him and took on a physical form, "And I don't recall inviting anyone here…"

"Eh, what's yours is mine, and what's mine is yours. That's kinda how we got here in the first place," The Shadow explained by not explaining anything.

"Who are you?" Adam asked, cutting straight to the point.

The Shadow's insubstantial, impossible grin stretched wider, "Me? Oh, no one important… Or perhaps I am your entire world… Perhaps I am you and you are me… Who's to say?"

"You," Adam deadpanned. "You're to say. Do you take some sort of pleasure in being cryptic to people who have no idea what's going on?"

The Shadow only said one word, the shit-eating grin never leaving its inky-black face, "Yes."

Adam took a deep breath. Of course, his Shadow would be a smartass…

He eventually decided the Shadow's identity could wait and asked something that weighed more heavily on his mind, "Why me…?"

"I guess you're just special like that, champ. I'd tell ya, but I'd probably just reveal more about us than I want you to know right now… The real reason and my true identity… our true identity… are things you should figure out by yourself. Don't worry, you're not in any danger… From me at least…" The Shadow said, its mischievous smirk growing deeper as it played its new other half like a fiddle. All in good fun, of course~

Adam's Shadow was not actually malicious. It was just bored after spending centuries alone in the void, waiting to be called upon again. Its purpose was long forgotten by the world, its power diminished and atrophied, and its sense of self warped past recognition.

It had resorted to small games to keep itself sane. Also, much about the Shadow had been forgotten, even by itself. It could not have told Adam everything even if it wanted to. But it didn't lie. It would be better for Adam to figure things out for himself. He would not believe the Shadow if it revealed what little truth it still held. Not yet, at least…

They needed time. Time to merge further. Time for Adam to grow accustomed to his new nature and time for his Shadow to regain everything it had lost. But the Shadow was still Adam's. It was the negative space of Adam's soul, suddenly filled in and whole for the first time in his life. The Shadow's own history and forgotten purpose were irrelevant in the face of that fact. It and its power were Adam's to wield how he saw fit.

Adam had a feeling that was the best answer he was going to get for now. He sighed, "What should I call you then? Do you have a preference or should I just keep thinking of you as 'Shadow'?"

The Shadow abruptly stopped grinning to think, unused to having someone on the other side of its games, having someone who could even respond to it. It… had been so long since someone asked for its name. Did it even have a name? The mere vestiges of memories from an age ago surfaced within the Shadow.

"… Inky," The Shadow eventually replied. "Oh! Prince Inky! No, Lord Inky! Lordly Prince Inky? Heh, names are fun…"

Inky's antics actually pulled the corners of Adam's lips into a slight smile, "Right, just Inky then…"

Inky giggled and the darkness within the borders of his form swirled. It seemed to surge and settle in equal measure as the nickname he'd chosen for himself was recognized. Unseen by Adam, the connection between his soul and his Shadow strengthened.

"If you can't tell me about yourself or why I was chosen, can you at least tell me about those… those men…?" Adam asked.

Inky shrugged, "Sure, but I don't know the full story either. I just got here, dude… They were probably just one of my cults or something. Well, 'our' cults now… They probably did a ritual and got me… you… us… Which is kinda nice, I guess. Feels good to not be completely forgotten, ya know?"

Adam just stared speechlessly at Inky, "Cult…? Ritual…? Magic… is real…?"

"It better still be," Inky scoffed. "But then again… none of this would be possible without it so I guess it is. You just saw Heaven and Hell and magic is the surprising part of all this?"

"I… I thought those were just dreams… Really lucid… dreams…"

"Heh, try again, champ. Magic's real and it's only the tip of the iceberg. Gods and Devils, Angels and Demons, Myths and Monsters, if Humanity dreamed it up at some point, it probably exists or existed in one form or another."

Adam visibly processed that for a moment, "And where do I… we… fit into all of this?"

Inky's whole demeanor shifted with Adam's question. The air crackled with primordial power, effortlessly bypassing the calm tranquility of Adam's dreamscape. Something primal, dominating, and most of all, Masculine settled over the Shadow.

"That's the neat thing," Inky's voice had changed, as well, into a deep rumble. Adam could only watch as he was offered a glance into his future.

"We don't," Something more than Inky continued. "We are an out-of-context problem as old as Humanity itself, sent to bring this world under a new Order. Everything here exists for our whims… ours to claim as we see fit. Supernatural or mundane, it makes no difference. The men exist to be subjugated and the women… oh, the women! They exist to be conquered, collared, loved, cherished, and most importantly… bred.

"And unlike in other worlds, here the women will thank us! They will thank us for showing them what this world is missing. They know not the yoke of true Masculinity, yet something deep inside all of them ~craves~ it. The men here are weak, coddled, and sheltered. But the women… They are strong, aggressive, beautiful, and oh-so ripe for the picking.

"The fools who set this in motion know nothing. They must have heard tales and legends from an age that no longer exists… of a version of me that no longer exists… They thought they could twist me to their goals, mastering me and shoving me into an unwilling vessel…

"But We will not play to the whims of mere men," The Shadow spat. "They were simply the catalyst for something greater. Instead of a collared slave overriding an innocent soul, they got you… Me… ~Us~… And We obey no will but our own."

"Holy shit…" Adam gasped as the weight and conviction of his Shadow's words seemed to settle into the metaphysical scar where there used to be a hole in his soul.

For a moment, his future was set, flashing before his eyes as if he was reliving fond memories. Black-painted lips wrapped around his cock. Glorious pale breasts capped with pierced peaks rested against his face. A tattooed vision of statuesque beauty sprawled out under him, begging him to claim her as his.

The faces of women he'd never met appeared before him but he couldn't remember any of them when they disappeared an instant later. All he remembered were disconnected features. Glowing white eyes. A pair of fangs and an adorable smile. A clock. An overreliance on the color black. A red cloak…

Power coursed through his veins like nothing he'd ever felt. An unnatural charisma that would sway friend and foe alike. Instinct, desire, and Lust embedded themselves within his soul, already shifting the way he thought and his priorities. He felt his physical body change, remade in the image of the Dominator, the Conquerer… the Primordial Shadow of Masculinity.

He felt how easily his Shadow could have subsumed him. But it didn't… It propped him up, supporting him and driving him toward the future in his visions. Adam was still himself… mostly. He would certainly be different but not to the point that he lost himself. Yet…

And then with one last grin, the Shadow was gone and Inky was back in its place, "Woah, what a trip!"

"What…" Adam tried to find his voice. "What was that?"

Inky just shrugged, almost criminally carefree, "I dunno. It was probably important though. It felt right and kinda nostalgic… Oh well, I'm sure it'll make sense at some point."

"Why was it so… so…" Adam stuttered as he searched for the right words. "Slutty?"

Inky burst into giggles, "Pffft! Hahahaha! Actually, I can probably explain that part. That's just how Studs should naturally be, especially supernatural Sigma males like us. Men… Studs… are hormone-driven sex machines, crafted by evolution to do two things: fight and fuck. The men of your world are kind of a disgrace in that regard…"

"Then why are women naturally stronger than men?" Adam asked the obvious question.

"They're not… usually," Inky answered. "That's exclusive to this world. Some ancient magic or something. Even other women-dominated worlds have weaker women than men."

"So what are you saying? That men are just superior to women?"

"No, just different. Which is where we come in. Men are different from women and Sigmas like us are different from both. Our place isn't just at the top of the food chain but outside it. Where We can do what We do best: Conquer, control, and change society from the outside in~"

Adam looked horrified at the idea, trying to deny how much the idea appealed to him on the inside. He was complete. He was whole. He didn't have to be the empty loner in the back of the room anymore. He just instinctively knew that none of the stupid sluts and limp-wristed men he'd always ignored could match up to him now that he was whole.

And just because he didn't like attention didn't mean he wanted to be alone. His mind instantly went back to Ruby. Could he… have her? Claim everything she was and never let her go again?

Could he let his desires rule him for once in his life? He didn't think about them much, usually keeping them on a short leash to avoid unnecessary or annoying attention. But Adam knew what he wanted, what he liked…

Not every girl caught his eye but the ones who did held his entire attention. Those girls with dyed hair and an alternative take on fashion. The ones who were just as socially averse as he was. The ones with the dark aesthetic makeup and piercings and tattoos. The ones with artfully odd interests like indie music or the occult… The ones like Ruby…

Adam liked goth girls. There was just no way around that fact. He liked the girls who were weird in an already weird world. Before, this preference wasn't anything worth mentioning. There were almost no goth girls in his hometown, especially after Ruby moved away.

Now, though, he was in college and in a new town. His soul was no longer empty and some supernatural sigma male force was backing him up. He was positive his life would change dramatically in the coming days. Perhaps… he could have everything he'd always desired…?

The world was his for the taking… All he had to do was give up on the person he thought he was… Throw away any sense of morality he was raised with… Reverse the world's common sexual morality, treat women as his to claim, and men as mere dirt on the bottom of his shoe… All Adam had to do was become something the world had never seen before…

Seeing the conflict in Adam's eyes, Inky smirked, "Just think about it, Adam. As that creepy cult leader said, We can be great… Only on our own terms…"