《The Core: The Dark Enemy (Book 3 of 3)》


 1. Locked in a prison with no key

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 2. The last dreamers

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 3. Restraining death by a thread

    "Its mind is slippery. It has been changed by too many forces and now flows without restraint." said a massive star-shaped geode-like being that slowly floated deeper through the expanses at random. Tethered spikes of nearly unbreakable matter would rush from holes in its surface to feed, whipping its hooked victims back towards its awaiting cage-like maw at the back of its body. It was built like a roving fortress, fearless and indomitable. It was huge, the fourth largest of the remaining seven.


    "Let it flow. Who knows, it might capture a new way of existing." said a truly immense being made entirely of expanding gelatinous cells, tentacles, and gaping sinkhole maws. True to its nature, it flowed and captured any creatures in its way, making the landscape into a hellish never-ending expanse of feasting. Of the seven, the slime was the largest of them all, covering extremely immense distances with its ever-expanding body.


    "I suggest we dissect and use it for our purposes. Cultivate its mind and plant seeds to grow and spread us." said an Eldritch abomination of a creature. Where the geode was formed from crystals and rocks, this creature was formed from legs and wriggling limbs that propelled itself rapidly toward any living thing that caught its massive Omni eye centered in the middle of its infected-looking body. Any unlucky creature that caught its notice would be quickly and expertly converted into its expendable minion, infested with cells that would cannibalize and zombify its new host. These new puppets would rove and fight until an internal timer would cause them to self-destruct, spreading their infested cells to new hosts. The Eldritch made this suggestion, not out of hostility towards Kevin, but simply because it was acting on its nature.


    I heard the voices speaking as though I was laying back on my hospital bed still in complete darkness. The difference now though, was that I could see glimpses of each speaker''s nature and thoughts whenever they would speak, drawing my attention towards their minds and pulling me inside. It was a bizarre and odd experience, almost as though with each moment of exposure to their inner thoughts, their overpowering nature was infecting me.


    I prayed that wasn''t the case. I didn''t want to start thinking of everyone I met as though they were a host to infect my will upon.


    "It is afraid." came a soft voice that sent shivers through my soul as my awareness immediately focused itself on the speaker and rushed towards its mind. A softly glowing being unlike any I had ever witnessed floated slowly through darkness. No, that wasn''t right¡­ it created darkness around itself, turning off or completely absorbing the ambient energy continually provided by every material in its dimension. Just this act alone caused many of the natural inhabitants to flee before its movements, fearing the loss of life-giving energy. It was ghostlike, made of seemingly delicate tendrils of toilet paper streamers that gently floated around its body as it moved. Of the seven, it seemed to be the smallest, simply a creepy rippling form that almost seemed corporeal. It sported a head... if a warped birdlike skull that was merged with its torso could be called a head. The head didn''t have any eyes, simply sporting sockets where eyes might have been. Its chest seemed to be made of rippling thin flesh over delicate ribs and pulsing folds that resembled gills. In the direct center of its upper chest, there was a golf ball-sized hole that was surrounded by blue pulsing light. The blue light and softly glowing flesh made the being give off the impression that it was just like an Anglerfish, tempting fearless creatures in for a tasty meal.


    The hole in its chest made me think that it might have actually contained another of those small ball-sized relics that the dead male swarm each held. Could these balls serve a purpose to these fearful creatures?


    "And able to learn and question its surroundings it seems."


    Touching this ghostlike creature''s mind made me want to drain the life from every living creature around me. Life was tasty. I could feel my soul trying to fight against this nature, it wasn''t my true nature at all, yet the power of its suggestion was ageless and insidious.


    "I sense in its memories that it has met one of my children." came a low rumble in the darkness. The voice was so low and mighty that I could almost imagine the ground shaking and earthquakes forming simply from its presence.


    As my mind rushed towards this new voice, I felt a sense of relief at having been pulled away from the ghost-like being. Relief that lasted only as long as it took my mind to bridge the unknown distance to the new mind. This new creature was dying and all it felt was pain.


    "Yes, strange child, I am perishing. I grew too large, and my spread has been unable to keep me fully protected." the steadfast and powerful voice said as I became aware of its nature. It was a Leva, or rather, the original parent of all the Leva within the cosmos in my dimension. Its spread within this dimension resembled Levasuckers, powerful serpents of fire that were tasked with protecting their master. Yet it seemed that in the distant past they had failed time and time again, allowing wounds to form from attacks on the side of the great wyrm. These wounds had become havens for invasive colonies of creatures to exist within. Its great and lengthy body now looked like sharks had taken bites from its extensive tail. Most of the damage seemed to surround spots where many photon bulbs used to be, its main defense against creatures wishing to attack it.


    "Why don''t you enlist the aid of one of your brethren here? Surely one of these other creatures could help you to rid yourself of the parasites that infest your flesh." I asked, finally finding my voice as I was filled with the great dragon''s strength.


    "It speaks to us! Pull them in, make the trade!" Came a voice in the darkness that tried to pull me away from the powerful mind that I was currently inside, but I resisted its pull, thanks to the willpower that my mind was swimming inside. It felt that the longer I remained, the stronger my willpower grew.


    "Child of Earth, human male, I would have asked for aid long ago if it were possible. But alas, the distances between myself and my fellow siblings are so vast and fraught with danger that we are sure I would perish before I could get close enough. Thank you for your concern though, and for the priceless memories of your time with my daughter whom you have taken into your care." the mind rumbled as it tried to show me just how far apart it was from any of the other six.


    What it showed me was like a map, and a slap in the face of my understanding. All that I had seen so far of their dimension was similar to a tiny capillary inside a human body, the smallest of blood vessels. The area, or window, that I had seen that led to the Void was just one of many cut-off sections that were connected to other branching sections leading to the same wound that split their dimension in half. No wonder this massive Leva King could exist, there were vast expanses that I had yet to see that would allow it to roam and hunt freely.


    "Blood vessels yes, but the Creators tried to sear the wound, to seal the infection completely away. Alas, they failed." Came the voice that had earlier commented about me speaking. Could this creature have the answers that I needed? Each time I entered one of their minds, I got a clearer picture of how they existed and why they were created. This new creature seemed to be talkative and able to answer some of my questions.


    "Hello, could you please tell me more? What did your Creators do?" I asked as I let my mind move towards where I had heard the voice originate. Because of the drone''s amazing memory, which was now a part of my mind, I could easily remember where each of the minds that I had visited before and how to return to them again.


    "Yes, no, you made the trade." came the voice as it allowed me to approach it.


    "What?" I said as I felt our minds touch and felt its nature sweep through me. "No? What do you mean? What trade?"


    "Of us all, it is the most broken" the Leva King spoke as I was filled with the strangest feelings inside my mind and being. It felt like I was experiencing waves of emotion, memories, and even time that didn''t line up with what I should be feeling or what was going on around me. What the Leva King said was true, this creature was even worse off than he was. The image that I gathered of its body was one of a massively tall Skii lumbering through vast mountains. Its chest was gutted and all that remained of its core was red pumping veins and arteries that somehow traced through the hollow expanse of its chest to various other parts of its body. Even its limbs were just veins below the elbow with the red pulsing blood vessels dangling towards the ground as it walked.


    "Oh, I know your kind. Are you Skii?" I asked as I grew nervous about how I was supposed to communicate with this creature. The last time I spoke to a Skii I managed to get their whole tribe unloaded into my care. I was not interested in having something happen like that again.


    "Wait! Maybe I could unload them on this guy?" I wondered as I felt a rush of heat flow through me, followed by nausea, and the smell of root beer. "What are you doing inside my memories?" I asked as I tried to focus. This thing''s mind was awash with images and places that had no cohesion. Slowly order formed through the chaos and I observed a spear of silver liquid shoot a great distance and penetrate into one of the creatures of the Void. It easily ripped through its dark squirming mass and punched out through the other side. Within the silver liquid''s writhing grasp was a brightly shining ball of jelly. The silver liquid began to attack the radiant mass of angrily squirming light, devouring its luster with thousands of needlelike tendrils of silver until it was lightless, just an empty shell. Even the image of the shell faded until it completely vanished. The next image that I saw was the silver liquid flying to land on a tray that vaguely resembled an egg carton. With perfect placement the silver material landed inside one of the cutouts before flying away, leaving the impression that it had dropped something small and spherical off.


    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    Did I just witness the creation of a relic? What kind of weapon was that silver liquid to be able to harvest the core of one of the Void creatures? Why hadn''t they used that weapon to kill all of the Void and to prevent the need to sacrifice half of their dimension?


    "Do you wish to see?" The Great Skii asked, not following my thoughts or questions. It felt like, whatever this creature did, it wasn''t in tune with reality. I knew that it had just asked me a question and that I had to succinctly answer either with a yes or a no if it acted in any way as its offspring did. Did I want to see? Yes, yes, I supposed that I did. Would saying yes be so bad? I had no way of knowing so I decided to simply answer.


    "Yes, I would like to see. What are you going to let me see? What can''t I see now?"


    "You are infected with a living Void seedling. You have a path. Questions, questions, questions."


    "What? Hey, wait a second, if you are trying to sell me something, then the answer is no until I fully understand what you are trying to say." I said as I felt a rushing feeling pass through my mind. It felt like I had just gone cliff diving and was rapidly plummeting towards the waters below.


    "Come away, little human, before it breaks your mind as well." called the voice of the Leva King, causing me to feel a rush of fear. What had the ancient Skii been doing inside my mind? It felt like it had been mixing up the pieces to the puzzle that made up my memories.


    "If he breaks and dies, can I reclaim him and my swarm?" came a new voice inside the darkness. A voice that resonated strongly within me and made me imagine getting my head bitten off.


    I pushed with my willpower to leave the mind, intent on returning to the strength and security of the Leva King''s mental fortress. I made it halfway before I was once again inside the mind of the ancient Skii. It felt like I had never really tried to leave, that that action was just a figment of my imagination.


    "My creators, ever searching for knowledge, once traveled between the five dimensions neighboring this one. We live in a fruitful and plentiful branch of the ^%!Aur. They discovered two paths that could lead outwards towards other, unexplored and more distant neighboring dimensional clusters, and as luck would have it, they chose wrong. They traveled through to the dimension that is now known as $(lis!@ and discovered that the cosmos in this dimension were only populated with seeds of light. Again, as fate would have it, they chose wrong and brought one of these seeds of light back for study."


    I felt cold, as though the temperature around me was slowly dropping. What was happening? I didn''t want to interrupt the Skii because it was actually finally making sense, but I didn''t understand why I was feeling this way. I shouldn''t be able to feel anything like this without a body so what was it doing to my mind?


    "Just one seed was all it took to result in the sundering of this dimension. Once it germinated, having tasted the infinite flood of energy, the seed quickly grew into its true form. It became a host of death."


    Images quickly flooded my mind. Images of aliens of various forms standing around an array of devices and containment arrays. Inside the center of the arrays lay the seed seemingly harmless before a raindrop of darkness shot out toward one of the observing scientists. The darkness bypassed every barrier and shield as though they weren''t even there. It struck the scientist in the eye and entered its brain, feasting on his life and memories before producing a tiny duplicate seedling.


    In the first instant after the seedling germinated, thousands of onlookers were infested and harvested of their lives to create new seedlings that slowly began to ripple with darkness as they feasted on the ambient energy.


    "This first moment caused the mass exodus of my creators from this dimension and the resulting scientific and military battles to attempt to exterminate the invading Void species." The ancient Skii said as answers to the questions bubbling to the surface of my mind were answered before I even had time to ask them.


    The creators were not from this dimension originally. They came from a neighboring cluster and only chose to exist and live within this one because of the abundance of energy. It seemed, as they discovered, that the dimensions were built like a tree. The farther out you traveled from the main branch, the less energy each dimension contained. This dimension was a direct link to a powerful branch of the whole dimension. Power was infinite and ever in abundance here. The other neighboring dimensions were all offshoots connected only to this one, meaning that cutting this one off from the other dimensions would mean death to all of them.


    This proved to be a curse now that the Void seedling had managed to spread.


    The Void spread and broke out of the containment of the science facilities and cities, moving slowly until it could begin to propagate by harvesting natural endogenous ever morphing creatures. As the Void spread, it constantly grew, and the ancient aliens knew that they had a limited amount of time to discover a viable solution. If they didn''t find a means to fight, and fast, no future generation of any of the connecting dimensions would be able to travel between dimensions. The Void would create a zone of death, cutting off any travel and quite possibly spreading through holes to neighboring dimensions.


    This led them to take some measures that were extreme and to use weapons that should never have been needed to be used.


    Everything was freezing. I was having a hard time focusing on the story that the ancient Skii was trying to tell me. I knew that it was vitally important for me to try to push on and to get as much of this knowledge as I could take. I had wanted answers for so long and I was finally getting them.


    The answer to fighting the Void came as a surprise. Something that they found as they searched tirelessly through the Void''s home dimension.


    A singular silver liquid that fed on germinated Void, turning them into small balls of inert Void.


    Almost inert anyways.


    The Void spheres all still exhibited a connection to other germinated Void, causing the spread of the Void to pause when they were fed experiences of living creatures.


    Everything was so cold. Freezing blistering cold.


    The solution, the silver weapon, had been found too late and other measures had to be taken to protect the neighboring dimensions. This was when the weapons had been used.


    "Come away, little human, before it breaks your mind as well." called the voice of the Leva King, exactly as it had before. I listened this time and pushed my mind away from the freezing grasp of the ancient Skii as hard as I could. Everything, movement, thoughts, and even time seemed to have started to crystalize as


    A noise like the shattering of glass sounded out as I managed to just make it into the powerful mind of the Leva King. I had a terrible feeling that I had just had a close call. Something bad had clearly almost happened to me and my mind.


    "If he breaks and dies, can I reclaim him and my swarm?" asked the same voice as before inside the darkness. What was going on? Why were they repeating themselves?


    "Reclaim your swarm?" I asked, realizing finally who the being was behind the voice. I had finally met the Hive Mother herself.


    "Bring my children to me, they seek the light." the ancient Skii uttered, as though it wasn''t aware of my question directed towards the Hive Mother.


    "Yes, you know who I am. I also see that you have two of my males easily within your possession. Bring them and yourself to me."


    "Ah, yeah, no," I answered.


    "Unacceptable."


    "Create a new army through us," the ancient Skii continued, sounding like it almost understood what it was saying yet not quite being in the present.


    "I agree, that might be a good path to flow. " said the gnashing sea of slime and tentacles.


    "Wait, what?"


    "Agreed. Time is running out. Two of us will die soon, leaving too few to hold the Void''s attention. They will spread again, and the shield will fall." the floating spiky rock creature said.


    "We are out of options. Out of time." said the Eldritch abomination.


    "WAIT! Just wait!" I yelled, trying to break up their inner circle conversation.


    "I can''t. I am sorry but I can''t help you all. I can''t even help myself. I am currently unable to do anything but exist ever since something happened to me near the barrier of the Void."


    "We are aware."


    "Wait what? So, you know what happened to me?"


    "Yes, you were intercepted and encapsulated by a mature Void."


    "It is now feasting on your senses."


    "Oh no! So, it will spread in my galaxy?" I cried out in fear. Had I doomed everyone that I ever loved to death? Everyone in existence?


    "No, it sacrificed its shell and means of reproducing when it forced its way through the barrier. It has bonded with you in exchange for being one of many forced to share what meals we seven can provide."


    Despair flooded through my mind as I took in the words being spoken. Then, I had a lightbulb moment.


    "But wait, can you let me use the silver weapon to remove it from me?"


    "It doesn''t work like that. The silver ameba is a predator, just like the Void, albeit of lower intelligence. It feeds on the Void''s ability to procreate. Had the Void not sacrificed this ability, it would have attacked and possibly saved you. Just be thankful that it doesn''t choose to hunt you down and attack the Void surrounding you now because you are encased in the center and its¡­ feasting process would kill you as well."


    "Oh."


    "So, what can I do?"


    "You can make a trade with us. We will help you to distract your captor if you will, in turn, help us."


    "Before you decide, just know that it is only a matter of time before we fail at the task we were created for." said the Leva King whose mind I was gaining strength inside. He was still strong even though he was slowly being eaten alive by invasive creatures. "Whether you accept or not, without something drastic changing, our futures and the futures of every living creature within this dimension are doomed to a horrible fate."


    "It is with this understanding, that we all ask for your help in exchange for our aid." all of the voices said as one.


    It was then that I made a deal that would dictate the survival of a dimension.


    Oh boy¡­

 4. The one-way deal

    I woke up and blinked.


    From the corner of my vision, I could see the cleaning lady, Paulina, just leaving my room with her cleaning cart. She was humming a soft tune and seemed to be in a good mood. If she had finished cleaning my room, it meant that I had been away longer than I had initially planned. I had missed Tutor and my father visiting as it was midafternoon already.


    ¡°You are back.¡± I heard Nurse say inside my head as I sat up and began pulling the wires and tape off of my head and arms. After a second I leaned over and turned off the fake and constantly beeping machines by my bed as well.


    ¡°Something is still wrong though; I still can¡¯t reach your host body through whatever is encasing you.¡± Nurse said as I opened up my memories to her, streaming them with the intent of letting my AI review them as well when they arrived. Nurse read my mind and was sure to pass on the knowledge dump. I let her see everything, even the questions that I had posed to the seven before I left. It was a good thing that I had spent the extra time picking their brains, it would save me lots of trouble and heartache later.


    ¡°Oh, that is why you didn¡¯t immediately transfer your mind back into your Personal Live Matrix,¡± she said as she quickly got up to speed.


    ¡°Yeah, you kind of failed to mention that, by entering a drone, it would create a new copy of my mind, another me. Now that I am stuck like a bug encased in amber, I would simply be creating a clone of myself by sending my mind back into my Personal Live Matrix. I wouldn¡¯t be free at all, I would still be stuck inside this body.¡± I said as I took out the little drone body that I was inhabiting. Thankfully, no one walked past my room when I did this, or they might have gotten a fright of their life as my face and skull opened wide to let me grasp the little object between my fingers. The whole invisible shell was about the size of a golf ball encasing my small ant-like body. If I compared its size to anything Earthside, I would say that the little drone body had managed to grow to be just a little bit larger than an Asian Giant Hornet, just without the wings.


    I was impressed, seeing that I started out as a barely visible speck.


    Looking at it, or rather at it through the invisible shell of the Void seedling, made my vision ripple around the edges like I was looking down a mirrored tube in a swimming pool. It was, worrisome, reminding me of what the seven had said, that their offered connection to distract my Void seedling wasn¡¯t perfect. There were, and would be, gaps in their ability to keep it distracted. I quickly put it back inside my cr body and listened to Nurse¡¯s reply as my skull and face reformed.


    ¡°Yes, there is a big difference in what you did and how the Hive Mother controls her swarm. I wasn¡¯t able to predict how the Tela¡¯s technology would interfere with what the Hive Mother and Queens do naturally. Instead of flooding your will and mind into your swarm, you vacated your body, your Tela Personal Live Matrix, and your swarm to push it into what was left of the Queen¡¯s swarm that tried to kill you.¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± I said with a slight grimace and a chuckle, ¡°I know, I had a chat with the Hive Mother, and she let me know just how stupid she thought I was. Stupid and lucky.¡±


    ¡°Your swarm senses that as well as other things. You have gone beyond what any swarm would ever consider possible.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°Queens are never given knowledge about the Creators or the beings that they spread to keep the Void at bay. You have communed straight with the mind and soul of the Hive Mother, feasting on her power and making it your own. To your swarm, any swarm even, you are a Hive Mother now, or in your case, an even more illegal entity, a Hive King. This would be troublesome if not for the other beings that you managed to feast on while you were away. If it were just the Hive Mother¡¯s scent on your mind, I believe that you would eventually have to face her in a battle to prove who was the rightful ruler of her swarms.¡±


    ¡°Wait¡­ I heard an ¡°if¡± in that sentence. What does that mean? Do I have to fight all of the seven now? That is nonsense.¡±


    ¡°No, you have become something else, even more than you were before. Perhaps, if you desired, you could feast more on each mind that provided you with the abilities that you desired to make yourself and your swarm stronger.¡± Nurse said, making me get the feeling that it and my entire swarm were licking their vicious mandibles in anticipation of more power and growth. Had the influences of the seven¡¯s minds and beings somehow tainted me and thus my swarm? I didn¡¯t know but it was starting to feel that way.


    The creak of the door drew my attention as Tutor and George stepped into the room together. George shut the door behind him as Tutor rushed towards me with her arms stretched out.


    I had thought that she would have slapped me for being so reckless and stupid but instead, much to my relief, she threw herself into my arms.


    It was in that moment and the many moments that followed, that I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she loved me.


    I stood there, simply holding her in my arms as George came close to touch my forearm in silence.


    So many emotions were battling it out inside my heart. All I could do was smile and blink away the tears as Tutor finally stepped back and held onto me.


    ¡°Ha, so where is Invicta? I thought for sure I would wake up to her sitting on my forehead.¡± I said, trying to lighten the mood.


    George rolled his eyes as he answered, ¡°I needed her expertise again. It seems that the creatures in the next dimension repopulate very rapidly. As for why she isn¡¯t here right now,¡± He said with a slight pause as his eyes momentarily darted towards Tutor, ¡°I just thought that we could have a moment of privacy before I let her know that you were back.¡±


    Ah, my sweet Tutor. I promised myself that I would take her out on a date now that we were finally home. I squeezed her arms back and smiled at her.


    ¡°We listened in,¡± she said after a few moments of her staring at my chest with a thoughtful look on her face. I could sense that she was broadcasting to my other AI. It felt as though she was telling them something, commanding something. ¡°We didn¡¯t know that you couldn¡¯t see anything, we had no way of knowing what was going on. Meditati tried everything to get through the shell around you, I took care of everything as best I could, and George has been trying to find anything stronger that might help to break you out¡­¡± She said before she trailed off and raised her eyes to intently look into mine.


    ¡°We failed you,¡± she said as Meditati appeared behind the pair with the same intent look in her eyes. Invicta appeared as well, standing on Meditati¡¯s shoulder. All of my AI had the same look in their eyes, even Invicta, which surprised me.


    ¡°No, I don¡¯t think that you¡­¡± I started to say before she interrupted me.


    ¡°Please, just listen. You have given us more than we could have dreamed of and we all will do anything needed to help you to keep your freedom even if it means traveling to countless other dimensions to find a cure.¡±


    ¡°Wait¡­ she just might be onto something.¡± I thought to myself as I imagined that there had to be something out there that could get rid of this parasite that was wrapped around my drone body. Even living as a drone wasn¡¯t a bad thing, it was the constant threat of having nearly all of my senses stolen from me at any moment if the seven lost concentration or died. Their lives being paramount to my continued existence made the threat of the Void breaking out an even greater threat hanging over everything... No wonder the seven had been so ready to offer to help me, I was literally a cup of water to a dying man wandering in the desert. They were my hope just like I was theirs.


    As for my AI, I could sense Tutor¡¯s, George¡¯s, and Invicta¡¯s sincerity. From Meditati, on the other hand, I got another feeling. She was nearly frothing at the mouth with dreams of coveted knowledge that would come with being able to explore, not only this universe but the possible infinite dimensions beyond. Her eyes had a sharpness in them that wasn¡¯t there before when she looked at me. Like I was a prime rib feast for a den of lions.


    I didn¡¯t mind at all. It was a good thing to have aspirations of power.


    ¡ª


    Checking out of the hospital was too easy. I didn¡¯t have to sign anything or get anyone''s permission. George and Tutor had already taken care of everything for me even before I recovered. All I needed to do was to pick what I wanted to wear, or rather, what clothes I wanted my swarm to imitate and leave. I would have chosen simple blue jeans and a t-shirt but after a little bit of persuasion from my three girls, I decided to let them dress me instead.


    And yes, I entirely enjoyed the experience. All three women, small Invicta included, were incredibly gorgeous by any Earthly standards, and having them nitpick and preen over me and what I was going to wear was very pleasant.


    Meditati seemed to have business goals in mind with my wardrobe. Her comments seemed to all lead to what I would eventually be wearing in front of the news and in front of people of power. Tutor just seemed to be enjoying the experience just as much as I was. She kept adjusting my collar and telling me how good I looked.


    Invicta¡­ Invicta on the other hand just seemed to be all about trying to embarrass me and rile me up. It was her idea to unbutton some of the buttons and even went as far as to model herself in the same outfit to prove just how much better everything looked with more buttons undone, albeit her shirt and blazer always seemed to be a smaller size every minute.


    I swear Tutor¡¯s hand kept teleporting in front of Invicta to block my view whenever I would hear Invicta snickering at something. It probably had something to do with the sounds of small objects falling onto the floor every now and then, probably the buttons to her shirt and blazer.


    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    What formed over my body was highly Italian-inspired and looked more expensive than the monthly, if not yearly, rent of my old apartment. They did let me wear designer blue jeans in the end, but I still had to wear the trim tan blazer with a blue button-up long-sleeve shirt with a slightly unbuttoned collar. Everything was expensive brand name brands that I would have never even considered wearing before, entirely because I could never afford any of them.


    Meditati just found all of this interplay to be amusing I suppose. It wasn¡¯t until she handed me some of the buttons that I realized what was really happening. Invicta had been tearing off the buttons from all of the girls'' dresses and Tutor was having to replace them as fast as she could. I never hoped more for a wardrobe malfunction after that even though Tutor seemed to be able to intercept all of the close calls that my eyeballs could have gotten a full view of.


    It wasn¡¯t until Nurse stepped in to remind me by whispering in my ear, loud enough that all of the girls could hear her, that I could replay the last half hour from any angle whenever I wanted.


    This caused Tutor to turn a bright shade of pink and to declare that it was time for us all to finally leave the hospital and to get on with telling my family that everything was going to be alright.


    In order to settle Invicta down, I gave her a kiss on the head which seemed to please her greatly. She reverted back into her bracelet form and was content to occasionally hum to herself while trying to hold in her soft laughter. The laughter was fine, but it did keep making Tutor blush, and strangers walking through the halls to glance around strangely. I think that they couldn''t figure out where the source was coming from. For some reason, there was a number three adorning the face of the bracelet now. I wasn¡¯t sure what it signified.


    ¡°I have been able to retrieve twenty-one of the twenty-four swarm relics that I managed to get locations to after speaking with Jebzzbej.¡± Nurse said as we exited the main lobby of the hospital. ¡°I repurposed the swarm from the already recovered relics and sent them back out to help canvas the solar systems where they were lost.¡±


    ¡°Any idea what happened to them?¡± I asked. The use of the orbs, or rather their secret use, that had been known only to the seven and their creators and had become the foundation to any hope that I had of building something that would help both the seven and myself.  Their use would hopefully keep my Void seedling permanently spellbound and let me live my life again.


    I wasn¡¯t ready to give up and to let a copy take over while I was yet trapped by this Void seedling. The moment I woke up and felt everything reconnect I was sure that my Alpha cube hidden within the sun had updated itself again. That was a good enough backup for me until I ran out of options.


    ¡°One was lost planet side during a war, another was raided by cosmic pirates, and the last was simply stolen from the underwater museum on the moon where it was being held. The amount of time that has passed since each of these events ranges greatly so they might have changed hands repeatedly. Meditati has been helping me by hacking and sifting through all data for any leads.¡±


    I walked a few steps, enjoying the sun on my face once again until a little red flag popped into my brain. She had been really vague there at the end.


    ¡°When you say Meditati has been helping you to hack and to sift through things, what do you mean by that?¡± I asked.


    "Just that. We swarm believe that if it can be taken, then it is ours. Meditati says the same thing about data for AI."


    "She did say that didn''t she?" I asked as I glanced back at Meditati who was bringing up the rear of our small train of people.


    Meditati had a pleased expression that didn¡¯t change as her striking eyes met and held mine without shame.


    ¡°What? She needed help to understand the complexities of intergalactic alien species in our cosmos. She also just so happens to be able to bypass any physical barrier to help me obtain Source or Root as you might call it. Even the highest security that the Tela, LOW, Devgathians, and Six-lei, to name a few, can create is no barrier to your swarm. So, what if I absorb everything that I can get my hands on? And no, it isn¡¯t as bad as you imagine, only three alien races were advanced enough to detect that they had been breached.¡±


    "Only three?" I asked, feeling a slight sense of foreboding in the air. I knew that on Earth, the governments and secret military organizations tended to have quite dark ways of dealing with people who stole from them.


    Knowledge was power and the powerful never gave any away.


    This could only be exponentially worse when dealing with cosmically powerful governments and entities.


    ---


    ¡°What happens when you find cheat codes to reality?¡± I suddenly wondered after we had almost made it completely to the car park at the front of the hospital. Thoughts started to race through my head as my feet slowed until I stopped dead still. Tutor, George, and Meditati slowed as well and stopped next to me. My eyes were locked on a ray of sunshine that was streaming through a thick cloud in the distance. The beam was like a focus for me to pour my thoughts and ideas into as I suddenly had to deal with some very mind-blowing facts.


    This moment had been a long time coming to me since I had been, for the most part, too busy running from fire to fire on my way to get home. What happened when I returned home though? What happened when I returned with the technology and abilities that the swarm afforded me?


    I was no longer human anymore. I was still me, at least the me that I felt was Kevin inside.


    Instead, I was a mix of so many other things, all held together by AI programming, swarm minds, the influences of the seven, and possibly this Void seedling.


    Well, actually, I was physically swarm now that I was inhabiting a drone body and trapped inside a Void seedling.


    It was all fuzzy when I tried to think of what exactly I was now.


    But that just brought me back to my first question. What happens when you find cheat codes to reality like it seemed that I had done?


    ¡°Kevin? Are you ok?¡± I heard George ask me as he reached up to rest his hand on my left shoulder. I could feel Tutor¡¯s touch as well as she gently grabbed my arm and elbow to my right out of concern. I barely heard him or felt their touch, I had too much to think about as I got lost in what I was capable of now. I did feel, though, Nurse¡¯s assurance to my AI that I was still well and hadn¡¯t suddenly been overtaken by the seedling again.


    ¡°Ah, I knew that this moment would come.¡± I heard Meditati whisper as I heard her heels moving as she positioned herself in front of me. She was just a little bit shorter than I was but that didn¡¯t stop the top of her head from breaking my line of sight with the stream of light.


    Honestly, she probably cheated and manifested taller heels to achieve this. Regardless of how she broke my line of sight, my eyes were drawn toward hers instead. Eyes that shown with the same light that I had just gotten lost in a moment ago.


    She reached her hands up towards my head to gently cup the sides of my face with her palms and fingers. It was an oddly intimate thing to do considering how troubled our relationship was and had been. The light in her eyes slowly faded as she realized that she had my full attention.


    ¡°Kevin, I need you to listen to me and to come with me into VR. I have some things that I need to show you.¡± She said as she glanced at Tutor as though she was asking for permission. A massive wave of data was sent to Tutor and after a second¡¯s consideration, Tutor nodded and spoke.


    ¡°Yes, in this case, I believe that Meditati would be a good teacher. I believe that you should trust her on this Kevin. She has been simulating outcomes and I think that there are some things that you need to see in what possibilities can manifest. ¡°


    Possibilities. Endless possibilities. That was what my mind had been lost in. If there was anything that I had learned up to this point, or rather that had been hammered into my mind, was that I was not capable of seeing farther than what was in front of me.


    I knew it was time to start relying on my friends and trusting them to help me make the best decisions.


    ¡°Ok, fine. Let¡¯s just do this, at least it will give me an idea of what I am missing.¡± I said as I entered my personal VR and set the speed of time inside as fast as it would go.


    Surprisingly it topped out as fast as a Core could generate. Forty-two years per hour. It would seem that my swarm had been busy building Tela technology while I was incapacitated.


    I had decided to enter a fresh and empty location to give Meditati space to show me whatever she felt that I needed to see. My other AI were also here, just observing without any physical manifestations.


    Meditati arrived, standing as close as she had been in the walkway to the parking lot of the hospital. I could smell her perfume and hear her breathing. I squinted at her, not feeling like she had fully earned the right to be that close to me and she quickly got the hint as she read my mood.


    ¡°Yes, it is even worse than I expected.¡± She commented as she stepped back a few meters into the distance.


    I watched her, waiting for her to continue and to explain herself rather than feeling the need to wander down any conversation path that she had deemed to already set up. I knew her mind was like a chess board, and I wasn¡¯t in the mood to play games.


    ¡°Ah, what I meant by saying that was, all of these simulations that I have prepared are out of date and will most likely not be as accurate as they would have been. Your time trapped in the other dimension, as well as your¡­ communion with the alien entities that you call the seven, have drastically changed you.¡± She said as she brought up displays behind her body that rapidly played through what she had predicted would be my first moves when we both arrived here with her standing as close as she had been.


    In most of the simulations, it was I who stepped back first. There were a couple that played with me getting angry and asking her to step back but none resulted in the air becoming thick with my will and dislike for how near she had decided to place herself within my personal space. It was both emotion, coming from my human nature, and a manifestation of something that she hadn¡¯t encountered before.


    Probably the willpower of the Leva King.


    ¡°Regardless though, of how much you have been changed by outside influences, the fact still remains that you are a fallible entity that has just realized that you have ultimate power over your fellow beings. It is no different than the first person who held a gun and understood that they could end someone¡¯s life simply by pointing at them and bending their finger.¡± She said as I nodded. I had thought of this and other similarities as I had gotten lost in thought.


    ¡°Your power far exceeds the power that your leaders currently possess on this planet. Where they have nukes and kinetic weapons as their most powerful physical form of attack, you cannot be harmed in any way by anything anyone possesses in this dimension. At least, as far as I have been able to determine. Skism weapons are still on the table but that shell around you might even negate its effects.¡± She said as in rapid succession she showed me the tests that she had performed on the shell while it was shrouded in gold and obsidian cr. She also revealed to me just how far her expansion into the cosmos was going with her search for a weapon that could damage the shell.


    I wasn¡¯t really sure how I felt about that. It was clear that she was doing it to release me, but I also got the feeling that she was using it as an excuse to gorge herself on the various race¡¯s intelligence that she came across.


    Always the glutton for data.


    ¡°As for nonphysical weapons, your leaders control the economy, financial sectors, and media of this planet. Even these things, with just one of your AI, are not even a hint of a threat to you or your world anymore. The only possible threat that remains on this plant and in this system is the Tela Planet Barrons and the Arbiter. Once you take care of the Arbiter, which I recommend you doing today once we have the swarm in place, then there will be no one on this planet with power over you.¡± She said as she showed me things that went well beyond what I had any understanding about.


    She had clearly spent a great amount of time breaking apart everything that went into running this little blue planet, either that or she stole it all from the Tela Planet Barrons.


    Either way, I was well and truly impressed.


    But what did this all have to do with what she wanted to show me?


    ¡°Are you ready for some simulations?¡± She asked, showing a little pleased smile as she finally got to the heart of what she wanted me here for.


    ¡°Sure. Hit me.¡± I said as she vanished and the world around me changed.

 5. Holding the world in the palm of my hand

    I was standing on the deck of my "space yacht" that I had envisioned and created back when I considered myself a Trillionaire, only to find out later the reality behind the Tela currency.


    "What are we here for?" I asked as I looked around, smiling as I remembered my beginnings with Tutor and George.


    "Well, "here" as you put it, is now an actual place," Meditati said as she took in my startled expression. "Ha ha, no, it isn''t as big as you think it should be. We had it made to specifications, just no larger than an M&M candy. It is also made from obsidian cr so that it can''t be seen clearly by anyone on your planet. If they did record it, they would just see it as a dead pixel or a photograph artifact."


    "And whose idea was this?" I asked as I wandered around to look through the full-length windows into my bedroom. I knew the answer to my question the moment that I spied the nightstand beside the bed.


    "Actually, it was Tutor''s idea. I guess she just wanted to create everything that you envisioned or something." Meditati said as I gazed at the small bundle of letters that Tutor had written me while I had been a prisoner of Magus the 2nd.


    I glanced back over at Meditati, only to find her at the railing of the ship and gazing out over the earth.


    "It is such a tiny planet when you look at it from up here." She said as I made my way to stand by the railing to get a view as well. As I peered down at the earth I couldn''t agree more. When you were there, down on the streets and amongst the people, everything seemed so much greater than you.


    Like you were a speck of dust in a machine. Why a speck of dust? Because even a cog had a purpose and an ability to affect the machine in some way. A speck of dust wasn''t even considered.


    "Ok, onto the task that I have set before myself," Meditati said as she turned toward me with intensity. "Look, first, I am going to need you to give me access to your feelings before we begin this, or at least, let me be truthful and say that I "want" access to your feelings. I don''t really need it but it will help me to gauge what you are thinking and to set certain scenarios up. I am not interested, honestly, in what you choose to do as it affects your planet, I just want to understand you more and how you have changed. Call it an unpredictably modified human case study."


    "You want to influence and read my emotions?"


    "Yes, both while the simulations are running."


    I looked at her for a few seconds, bouncing the decision back and forth before agreeing and letting her have access to how I was feeling. I even left a little window open so that she could see my thoughts if I felt that I wanted to share them with her about something specific. I had toyed with the idea of simply denying her request, just because I wasn''t interested in her studying me but after a couple of seconds, I just figured that I didn''t really care. Maybe her insights might help me understand more about myself as well.


    "Thank you." She said as she leaned against the railing on one elbow, resting her head on her open hand.


    "All I ask is that you don''t destroy me when this is all over. You can stop it at any point or skip ahead if you don''t want to partake in the lessons that I am trying to teach. I won''t pull any punches, Kevin, this will be a true test of who you are in all of this."


    "In all of this?" I asked as I looked back down at the earth.


    "Yup, enjoy the trip." She said as I felt a surge of power build up around her. She was drawing massive amounts of processing...


    I didn''t get to finish the thought before I was standing on a mountaintop.


    As I took in my surroundings, I immediately understood that something was wrong. My feelings were inflated, almost as though I was standing on top of the world. It did indeed look that way except for the clear reason as to why I must be feeling this way.


    "Ah, crap," I muttered as I took in a sea of upturned faces who were watching me with complete adoration.


    A wave of revulsion washed over me as I looked down at my clothes and body, finding that I was wearing loose-fitting white robes and that I had grown my hair long.


    This wasn''t me at all. I had no aim to ever become a religious figure.


    "But what if you did?" Meditati''s voice called out in the air around me as I stood looking down at the countless rapturous faces. Some of them even had their hands raised towards me, as though they were reaching for salvation.


    "You already possess the means to grant many of the "miracles" that most religious figures claim to be able to offer. You can heal the sick, walk on water, and perform all manner of miracles to fool your believers. You could even offer them a version of heaven by transferring their mind into their own Personal Live Matrix when they die. What more could they ask for?" her voice said as, off in the distance, various calamities and wonders came into being through the use of the swarm and Tela technology. Meteors fell from the sky and signs and wonders appeared in the air.


    "Who cares if you know that it is all a lie? This is the same thing that the mighty explorers convinced the natives of when they came across the sea. Well, until the natives decided to test if the man was a god by drowning him."


    The simulation of emotions that Meditati had set up wanted to feel this. That version of a man wanted the admiration and affection of everyone to be showered on him wherever he went. Wasn''t that a fair payment for the things that I could do for all of these people? I could heal their bodies through nanotech and procedures gleaned from countless advanced alien races. I could provide food, drink, wealth, and possibilities. I held all the keys to their needs. Every need except for what they really truly needed.


    Something real.


    I could already feel it as I looked down at the gathering masses.


    I could feel what it would do to my soul if I chose to become someone like this. It would rot my soul away.


    "Oh, my goodness, I have felt this feeling of rot before," I muttered as I remembered how it felt to abide inside the mind and body of the Eldritch abomination creature. That version of the seven was all about using others, infecting them, and having them die for its purpose.


    I shoved it away, the feeling of power and sweet poisonous nectar of dominion over my fellow humans.


    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    It repulsed me. I had no dreams of sainthood or holy benevolence.


    "Good." Meditati''s voice spoke as everything, and everyone froze around me before they fragmented and turned to dust before my eyes. The effects of the emotions lingered though. A reminder of what pretending to be a god could offer me if I just chose to become a lie.


    ¡°What is next?¡± I asked as everything changed again and suddenly, I was standing inside a prison yard.


    I looked down at my clothes to see what part I would be playing in this scenario, only to find that it wasn¡¯t a guard¡¯s uniform that I was wearing.


    ¡°...what the heck?¡± I asked just as something sharp was rammed into my side. Pain flooded through me, pain and an insane amount of bloody rage.


    Violent urges overtook me as I spun to face my attacker, spying a musclebound giant of a man with a sinister gleam in his eyes.


    I felt bile rise inside my throat as I took in the bloody shiv that the man held as he readied himself to poke more holes in me. He thought I didn¡¯t have a weapon and that the fight was already over.


    A mouthful of bile spat into his eyes changed his mind as he suddenly found that he couldn¡¯t see. He tried to lunge at me with his shiv, only finding air as a rock-hard fist collapsed his trachea. The punch hurt me, probably just as much as it did him, but without the ability to breath, he was in more dire straits than I was.


    I jammed a finger into my wound to block the blood loss as I grabbed the now loosely held shiv away from the thug to arm myself in case there were more attackers.


    There were a few.


    ¡ª


    Meditati¡¯s simulations kept on going, one after the next. I was put through countless scenarios where either I was the victim or the one doing the damage. I was a robber, a spy, a teacher, a football player, and a war veteran.


    The list just kept going and going and going. I lived so many lives, snippets of someone¡¯s life as they tried to make a mark on the world.


    My time as a prisoner filled me with rage and hate for my fellow man. Hate was a mantra inside those walls, a way of life. It was like my fellow inmates carried buckets full of it, full and overflowing, sloshing around inside their hearts and minds as they woke up and went to sleep each night.


    You never knew when someone would betray you, rat you out, or cut you down over something trivial.


    My time as a teacher was rewarding but it was like getting spat in the face when I got to be a movie star or a football player. Hours and hours spent trying to educate and shine hope and light into young minds only to go home and to barely be able to pay my bills.


    So much about life didn¡¯t make sense when seen from an individual¡¯s perspective, but the more simulations I went through, and suffered through, the more the shape of our reality of life on earth came into blurry focus.


    Everything was broken.


    And since I was now part drone, I couldn¡¯t forget a moment of what I lived through.


    I felt aged.


    ¡°Ok, I get it,¡± I said as one simulation ended and the next started. I had just left a body with one good limb, begging in a wheelchair next to a highway in the Texas heat, to sitting behind a desk in an oval office and having the power of a country at my command.


    ¡°No more, Meditati, I don¡¯t want to see anymore,¡± I said as I pushed the simulation away and shoved Meditati behind an unbreakable virtual barrier. I didn¡¯t want to see her or hear her voice again until I was finished working through the mess that my mind currently was in.


    I currently hated more than I ever had in my entire life. No, it wasn¡¯t just that, I felt betrayed. Everything about life and reality added up to the home we all lived in and called earth. We started out with good intentions, with bright eyes imagining a wonderful and amazing life, and slowly lost the wonder as each star in the sky was stolen and crushed.


    I think one of the most crushing simulations was existing as a single parent. It felt like I had lost my soul during that time. What was supposed to be a wonderful and happy event, the creation of a new precious life, had turned into a personal hell. How was anyone supposed to better themselves in that kind of situation without outside help?


    It was a good thing that I was currently in VR, held in another realm away from earth, because of what I did next.


    I raged.


    ¡ª


    ¡°Tutor! What is happening?¡± Invicta asked as Kevin suddenly pushed with his mind and willpower. They had watched him for three years in VR time, as he worked through one simulation after another. Tutor had known that it would take a while, and what it would hopefully show Kevin in the end.


    That he needed to let go of the reins and to set something up that would be exact, intelligent, and impartial. Uplifting a planet was never an easy thing.


    What she could not have seen, and clearly what Meditati had not fully envisioned, was what Kevin would do after he had seen enough. He had shoved Meditati behind a firewall, blocking her off from everything, before detonating and pushing the rest of the AI far away into the yet unused portions of his old Personal Live Matrix that they all existed in.


    ¡°He is pushing us all away and filling the space between us with foreign energy. It almost feels like it is whatever those seven would spill into his mind whenever he visited them in his dream.¡±


    ¡°Like a language of some kind,¡± George said as he shook his head. ¡°If Willpower, Corruption, Hunger, Loss, Time, Focus, and Assimilation were words in a language. I fear that our young human has become infected with too many influences and¡­¡±


    ¡°And what???¡± Invicta shouted, her whole body a sparking dazzling array of tension, as George failed to finish his spoken thought.


    ¡°And I don¡¯t know. We have no data on the creators of the seven besides what we have observed through Kevin. They originated from another dimension and were advanced enough to travel between the boundaries. They created weapons and creatures to serve their needs in ways that we don¡¯t understand. Kevin is no longer existing inside his Personal Live Matrix, he is pushing all of this outward, through his swarm, and into everything his mind touches. I just don¡¯t know.¡± He said as they were continually pushed deeper and deeper into unallocated storage inside the Personal Live Matrix.


    ¡°The shell is expanding slightly,¡± Tutor commented as she noted that the physical storage matrix was fabricating and allotting new memory space. She had never known a Tela whose Matrix had needed to expand. Only AI, with their insatiable hunger for knowledge, occasionally needed to expand their modules from eon to eon.


    ¡°Nurse, are you ok?¡± Tutor asked, hoping that Kevin¡¯s swarm was holding it together and not going crazy while this was happening.


    ¡°No, we are not ok.¡± Came a rough and sharp reply. ¡°We are afflicted.¡±


    Nurse, or rather, something formed in the air next to the three AI. Whatever was happening to her was manifesting itself in and through her form. Where she had once been a small predatory-looking alien ant, now she was a rapidly morphing ball of cells and random shapes.


    ¡°He is shouting the words of our creators, the words of making, and it is shattering and destroying us.¡±


    ¡°Wait!?! This is happening to all of the swarm he controls right now?¡± Tutor cried in fear. This was much worse than she had imagined.


    ¡°Yesss¡­¡± Nurse uttered before she went silent.


    ¡°What do we do?¡± Invicta cried as she tried to reach Kevin in vain. Whatever he was doing was like corrupted coding, she couldn¡¯t see into it or get past it to reach him. At least she could feel it, rather than the empty wall of nothing that had existed while the Void seedling had been feasting on him.


    "Uhh... Tutor? George? Look at Kevin''s drone body." Invicta whispered as she happened to check on his actual tiny swarm body, outside of VR and held inside the head of Kevin''s cr body.


    The small drone body was afflicted as well. It was rippling with colors and bumps, almost like it was a cuttlefish who had been exposed to viral mutation weaponry. Kevin''s manifested human body had lost its natural coloring as well. His swarm was currently being attacked and was unable to imitate skin and clothing colors. He looked like a messy swirl of paint shaped like a human.


    What was worse, if anything could be, was the fact that the Void seedling had started to shine a piercing white light.


    "Ah, guys, the light is shining through his cr body."


    "We see it, but there is nothing that we can do about it. Let''s just hope that Kevin is ok and that this ends soon." Tutor said as they all watched the white light flood outwards like a flashbang.

 6. Id love to change the world

    Meditati knew that she had made a mistake, a horrible mistake, the moment that she heard Kevin tell her that he had seen enough. There was just something intimately off about his voice. The simulation sessions were only supposed to last at most several months but when Kevin dove into them, he seemed to thrive in the ability to live other people¡¯s lives.


    The data that Meditati was able to gather was priceless regardless of the outcome. Any data that could ever be gathered on Kevin, the most powerful person to be presently alive, to Meditati¡¯s vast knowledge, was valuable beyond measure.


    This might have been one of the reasons why Meditati ignored some of her limiters and decided to let Kevin go for as long as he wanted.


    Who knew that the human would have an unlimited pool of willpower to draw from?


    ¡°I really hope that Tutor and George are calming him down.¡± She said as she tested the limits of the containment cell that he had shoved her into. The containment cell, as she anticipated, was impenetrable with his use of swarm as a boundary between herself and the outside world. She had no idea how long she would be in here if they couldn¡¯t help to repair whatever damage her simulations had caused.


    ¡°All that priceless data on Kevin¡­ and I might have wasted my chances at being able to use it to help him and his planet.¡± She said as she replayed his last few moments before he ended the sessions.


    There it was: the trigger.


    ¡°Ah, crap, I really messed up.¡± She said as threads of Kevin¡¯s earlier childhood memories linked to the one that he decided to exit the session on.


    It was the memory of the beggar who asked for alms under the overpass in Thailand. Now Kevin had first-hand memories of how it would be to languish, day in and day out, simply because his body hadn¡¯t been formed like it should have been at birth.


    ¡°That must have been a hard experience to live through,¡± Meditati said before she checked how long he had chosen to sit there, only being taken home late at night.


    Five months.


    ¡ª


    I lived for five months inside the last simulation, just trying to see what I could accomplish as a person living with serious physical disabilities. The simulation that I had been put into had been even more disheartening when it first started, beginning with me simply spending my days as a twenty-four-year-old guy still living with his parents and his hardworking older sister. The body that I jumped into lived with a TV remote glued to his one good hand when the simulation started. At least he had that arm and hand going for him. It was something that I could use.


    I quickly weighed my options and ended up asking my new simulated sister for a favor. I had asked her to help me pack a little lunch that would last me a day and to drive to a well-shaded spot outside of Walmart so that I could ask people to invest in me. She was very resistant to it at first but finally relented after I told her what I was planning and how it might help her and our elderly parents in the end.


    The sign that I had made was straightforward. It read ¡°Saving up for college, any help is appreciated.¡±


    I was robbed within the first five hours of begging.


    This turned out to be a bad turn of events for the person robbing me because they ended up on the news and in the hospital with barely a memory of what happened. Too many simulations of violence had trained my mind and body to act without thought once violence had been initiated on my person. Who cares that I was disabled? I still had a candy cane-looking metal walking stick that worked very well as a ¡°What did I have for breakfast¡± memory eraser.


    And no, it wasn¡¯t used for walking, since I had no legs, instead, it was used to pull open bathroom and restaurant doors.


    The problem wasn¡¯t the begging, the heat, or the hours it would take to eventually reach my goal. I lasted five months simply because news got out about the guy who had tried to rob me, and people started talking and making a fuss. Soon, people who didn¡¯t like seeing me every day were lobbying to have the ¡®Right to panhandle¡¯ law repealed. When that failed, they made it so that I couldn¡¯t legally enter the street to collect donations.


    Also, Walmart didn¡¯t like it that they had a potentially violent beggar sitting outside of their parking lot so they kindly asked me to go somewhere else. This is how I eventually ended up under a highway overpass next to the turn lane.


    Someone would physically have to throw me money from their car window or to make sure that they were in my far lane in order to give anything to me since I couldn¡¯t wheel out to them with my powered wheelchair.


    Then the health inspectors started to show up around my parent''s house. Someone had filed a complaint, saying that my parents were slaving me out simply to make money.


    It was around that point that I saw the handwriting on the wall and just turned in the towel.


    Don¡¯t get me wrong, it was still doable. I could have achieved my goals, regardless of how long it took waiting under that hot overpass. The thing that got to me was that I would have to be completely selfish to achieve this. My elderly parents were struggling to make ends meet and my older sister had needs as well.


    After five months I was able to save up quite a bit, but I couldn¡¯t turn a blind eye to the problems that my simulated family had to live through. I mean, I could have if I wanted to run the simulations like it as a video game or something not based in reality. Meditati had revealed earlier in the simulations that each of these lives that I was living was based in reality. I was living people¡¯s lives who were currently alive around the globe. It was a very sobering discovery when she told me.


    That was one of the reasons why I kept going, taking simulation after simulation until the end.


    After everything that I had been through living with disabilities, and after I calculated everything out, I just came to the inevitable conclusion that without help, I would be trapped there.


    I did find some gold amidst the darkness of that simulation though. There were some truly wonderful Texan people who were like angels to me every day. Little old ladies and kind gentlemen who would go out of their way each day to drop off a bottle of water and a five-dollar bill for me.


    This, in the end, set me off and just made me overflow with anger. I wasn¡¯t angry at them or anyone in particular, for all I knew the guy who tried to rob me was addicted to drugs or some other story and was just as much of a victim as I was.


    No, I was angry for everyone.


    So, I let that anger out. I figured that VR was the safest place to do it in, I wouldn¡¯t be able to crush any real cities and as long as I kept my AI away, I would be free to vent as much of the anger as I wanted and how I wanted.


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    That was the idea anyway.


    Have you ever screamed at the top of your lungs only to find that it wasn¡¯t enough? That you felt like you needed to formulate your cry of rage into something with purpose? A lion could roar and could communicate so much to any listening being within miles, whether it was dominion over territory, the cry of deep hunger, or the promise of doom for its prey that it was hunting.


    My mind had a perfect memory, and it was showing me every moment of injustice with clarity. I wanted to destroy everything that tore people¡¯s lives apart. From the drug plantations to the hidden dens that sold people into slavery.


    As I thought of the time when I was a single parent, of the feeling of my soul being slowly drained away, the word Loss floated to the top of my mind. It fit so well so I focused on it and felt it expand inside my mind. It was like a flower blossoming; like it gave my shout power and purpose.


    I knew where this power came from immediately. It was pulled from the minds and beings of the seven.


    ¡°What would happen to the power and conviction of my shout if I added the rest of the words that I felt linked to the seven?¡± I wondered. They each had a theme or a word that was centered around the concept of their design. I didn¡¯t understand why feeding the word Loss seemed to give my shout power, but it did. More would probably only bolster the release of my rage and to help me find an answer and peace at the end.


    So, I fed the other words I knew into the shout.


    Corruption was fed immediately because of all the memories that I had inside the simulation while the body that I was within had been addicted to drugs. It had been the highest and the lowest parts of all of my simulated lives. It affected everyone around me, like Corruption, spreading and tearing those that I loved and lived with down as I lied to them and stole to feed my addictions.


    Hunger went into the ever-expanding fire of my shout next. I had lived so many lives where hunger, not just of food, was the ever-present source of my suffering. Hunger for peace, hunger for love, hunger for justice, hunger for purpose, hunger for meaning, revenge, a chance¡­ the list was endless.


    Time went next. Time, the strange word that the broken and barely living Skii being existed under. I didn¡¯t know how the being seemed to play with Time but it, rather its looping nature, seemed to fit so well into how often I had seen people getting caught in the same traps of life.


    Focus, the attribute of the geode-like creature was next. Some parts of the simulation I had been able to change, to make for the better, when I had had moments of clarity and focus to see a way out of what lay ahead. It was in those moments, few and far between, that Meditati would simply say that it was a deviation from the natural order of things and would let me play it out. A lot of people lacked the Focus to see the path out of their darkest hour.


    Willpower, the attribute that I had enjoyed the most of while visiting the seven, was added as well. By this point, the shout had gained a life of its own, an unfathomable weight that I could only imagine stemmed from the decompression of the words from how they existed within each of the seven. I didn¡¯t know what I was doing, beyond letting go of all the built-up emotions that I had stored up over the last virtual three years.


    Releasing this much energy had become painful, both mentally and physically with each new addition. I could only guess as to the reason why. I had only one more word to push into the shout and regardless of the pain, I knew I had enough willpower to make it through the increasing torment. I wanted my shout to mean something, to let everyone know that enough was enough.


    Finally, Assimilation, the Hive Mother¡¯s main attribute, was fed into the growing powerful shout.


    A realization hit me between the eyes as I added her attribute. I should have known!


    Assimilation, the very first thing that the swarm tried to do to me, and was actually fully successful at doing, was the key behind the swarm and its power. The swarm absorbed everything for its own gain, broke it down, and used it. Even now, I could feel the decompression of the word doing things to the other words that I had already fed into the shout. It fed on them and absorbed them.


    I cut off my shout, only just feeling a sense of worry as I noticed that something was different. Everyone and everything had been completely silent while I had raged.


    ¡°Nurse?¡± I asked as I felt the expansion, pressure, and power that I released slowly taper off and settle. It didn¡¯t dissipate but remained a part of me.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that the name Nurse fits me any longer Kevin.¡± came a voice that, for the first time, sounded tired.


    ¡°Why? What happened? What did I do?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I felt you release an unknown energy, or rather, something that called to my very core. All of the swarm in your possession have been changed by whatever it was that you released. It felt like we were being overridden with each new power that you added, until the end when everything felt like you were returning us to how we originally were.¡±


    ¡°So, are you back to being normal? Did the final word undo the first six?¡±


    ¡°No. I can confidently say that we are no longer what we once were. I lost¡­¡± She paused for a second before continuing, almost as though she was gathering her strength ¡°WE lost cohesion during that time that you were releasing the power. Since you were in VR time, it was like a blast of fire through all of us all at once. It almost burned us out, but we managed to hang on for you¡­ to you.¡± She said as a fuzzy image of her original form was slowly built in the air in front of me.


    What was this? It was almost as though she was struggling to create even a basic image in VR. The image quickly sharpened though, as if her lack of control was a passing affliction.


    I hoped anyway.


    ¡°Here is what your swarm¡­ or whatever we are now, just went through in sequence.¡± She said as the image of the ant suddenly became emaciated as though it had been starved of life. Its thorax constricted and changed to contain pores and slits and seemed to draw energy inwards.


    ¡°Oh my, that is Loss¡­¡± I muttered as the image suddenly and grotesquely changed as Nurse continued onto Corruption.


    The head of the ant swelled into an eye that jerkily looked everywhere while the ant¡¯s limbs and thorax tried to morph into longer, more violent-looking limbs. The skin of the morphed swarm quickly became pockmarked and riddled with pustules that seemed to be little factories of pestilence.


    I couldn¡¯t say anything as I looked on in horror.


    Next, after Corruption, came Hunger, and Nurse¡¯s body quickly tried to expand, like a marshmallow cooking in a microwave, and to grow mouths from the already stretched limbs.


    Time came next and it didn¡¯t seem to have any physical effect besides causing the already massively bulbous eye to lock vision with my eyes. It was almost as though it knew what was to come and was using me as an anchor to endure.


    Focus came next, causing the soft-looking limbs to harden and morph with hooked spikes.


    Each transformation was like it was trying to emulate its seven counterpart, yet fully unable to because it already held previous templates.


    Willpower made Nurse¡¯s already scary-looking body turn into the most hideous and deadly-looking serpent that I had ever seen. Mouths lined its length, grasping and infecting tentacles waited with spiky barbs ready to hook and pull its prey into those mouths.


    Finally, Assimilation was added to the mix and the whole thing simply turned into a blob hovering in the air. All of the mouths, barbs, and mutations were quickly undone and absorbed into a slowly pulsing mass.


    I didn¡¯t know what to say. I had no way of knowing what would happen when I shouted while thinking of the attributes of the seven. It oddly seemed like I had exposed my swarm to genetic sequences that its creators had developed to create unique monsters to serve their purpose.


    I had acted as a host, transplanting highly contagious, modified, and programmed cells into my susceptible swarm. I didn¡¯t even know how this was possible.


    ¡°So¡­ this is you now? How¡­ how are you able to talk to me?¡± I asked as I tried to imagine what horrors I had just put my swarm through. I may have just destroyed them completely with my ignorance.


    ¡°No¡­¡± She said before pausing for a long time. ¡°We had no Origin template to latch onto. Whatever the language of the creators did, it rebooted us. We had nothing to dictate our form¡­ but you. So¡­¡± She said as the blob lowered towards the ground and came to rest gently on the simulated floor.


    Nurse had never sounded this way before, never seemed so unsure of herself.


    The blob on the floor morphed, forming a head and elongated body.


    ¡°Oh. My. Goodness.¡± I uttered as, in less than a minute, the blob became a baby.


    A human baby.


    Quickly, like I was watching time pass a month a second, the baby changed, forming into a little toddler who stood up and who quickly grew taller and taller before my eyes.


    The girl quickly grew up before my eyes, speeding past years like a NASCAR driver zooms around the track. When my eyes started to bug out of my head once the girl, no, the woman in front of me reached my age, she laughed delightedly in my face and manifested a dress held in front of her hands between us so that she could quickly throw it over her head.


    ¡°Ha ha, now I know why Invicta delights in teasing you.¡± Her melodious voice came through the folds of material as she pulled the dress over her head and worked at getting her hands through the armholes. Before I knew it, a very pretty young lady stood in front of me, smiling at me with delight.


    I was completely blown away.

 7. The sting of loose ends

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 8. A grab at power

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 9. The Dark Enemy

    For the inhabitants of earth, the day that the Uplift happened was a day that would never be forgotten.


    For the many who were sleeping at the time, having missed the panic that flooded billions of hearts in the moments when the light of the sun was taken away, they awoke to a new world.


    To a new way of living.


    For those who witnessed the darkness suddenly descend they were given an inside look at the power of a cosmic invader. There was no fight, no determined and impossibly lucky human hero capable of defeating the odds and liberating all of humanity from a blundering and badly written alien force. Nothing played out like any of the books or movies created by man. If an alien force could traverse the stars to reach our tiny planet, a young home yet unable to advance to living on other planets within its very own solar system, surely there would be nothing that we could do to stop them.


    Indeed, there was only overwhelming power on display.


    Everyone was touched, and everything was inspected by the light-absorbing black material. Some described it as liquid quicksilver by those that were fortunate to be near active light sources at the time. It was able to move at impossible speeds and was able to change its shape to suit any function. In the first moments of its arrival, it diffused, turning into mist, and spread everywhere as though searching for something before reconverging and¡­ changing the local environment.


    Trash was taken away, things were repaired and cleaned, and wonders were beheld by millions.


    Across the planet, things changed nearly instantaneously to the human eye as Kevin, Nurse, and all of his AI went to work at protecting the earth from the traps that Magus had set up.


    They almost didn¡¯t make it in time.


    One weapon must have been set on a hair trigger setting because Kevin¡¯s swarm had to encapsulate the blast and rapidly moving area-of-death arrays as it was being dispersed in the middle of a busy city. It might have been pre-planned by Magus, perhaps an extra laugh at Kevin¡¯s expense as Tela radiation pulses began to randomly decimate cities as he was talking.


    As it was, the hundreds of small orbs designed to flood the city with lethal levels of radiation managed to blast through dozens of skyscrapers in the first instant before Kevin¡¯s swarm could arrive. Critical structural damage was achieved in several of the buildings, causing Kevin¡¯s swarm to need to shore up the buildings and to encapsulate the small deadly arrays before they could do more damage.


    Many people died, either from being in the blast radius or from being instantly cooked alive. It was a tragedy that made Kevin, all of him as the swarm, work even harder.


    Many thought they were going to die in those first moments as the sky went dark.


    That is until the Tutors arrived.


    ¡ª


    Melody averted her gaze as a new patron entered the darkly lit hallway and smiled at the lineup of women available for his selection.


    It wasn¡¯t a kind smile, no, it had a bitter evilness to it. A taint of pain and despair to come to whichever girl or girls he picked. There were guys and boys in the lineup as well but Melody could tell by how his eyes flowed past them as to which sex would be the bearer of his needs.


    She didn¡¯t even know what time it was¡­ it could have been early morning or late at night for all she knew. She didn¡¯t have many bright memories anymore, not since this hell began.


    She had been on vacation, a cruise actually, just enjoying her life with her sisters when suddenly she had lost consciousness while walking back to her cabin late one night.


    The stars had been really lovely, she remembered. That was the last thing that she recalled of that night before she had awoken into this world that she was in now. That and the dirty rag that had been shoved over her mouth before her mind was pushed into darkness.


    ¡°You three,¡± the man said as he pointed out three of the girls in the lineup. Melody stepped forward, despair and a wave of dread washing down from the top of her head.


    ¡°Please, someone save me!¡± She cried internally as her heart started to beat arhythmically, shuddering from how much dread she felt flooding through her.


    The walls shook and a darkness pierced the concrete walls as though they were insubstantial.


    ¡ª


    All across the planet wrongs were righted, babies were swept up from kidnappers, men and women held illegally in prisons were removed and returned home, and those responsible were held accountable.


    The world was flooded with swarm, all of whom shared Kevin¡¯s understanding of right and wrong, and all who now shared his desire to see his planet protected and the people given a new chance at life.


    This was all possible due to the records perfectly kept by the Arbiter. The Arbiter was the ever-watching Tela eye in the sky that unemotionally retained everything happening on earth.


    Meditati oversaw the Uplift process while making sure that everyone was on task. With the complete knowledge that the Arbiter contained she designed detailed guides for each sector of the planet and massively split herself into countless copies to monitor their progress.


    George worked on the repair and maintenance of everything from the tectonic plates of the planet to guiding Nurse and Kevin¡¯s swarm with instructions on how to reset the planet to a state where it could begin to flourish from. The lands and oceans were cleaned up, the skies were filtered, and lines of water purification were built underground across vast desolate expanses.


    The world would see new life soon.


    Tutor was in charge of gifting each human on earth with their personal assistant and guide.


    Tutor had saved each and every AI kernel that had met their deaths when Magus the Second¡¯s Core had been devoured. The kernels were but ghost images of Tutors, the barest amount of data needed before they were attached to infants and uploaded with new parameters. Each and every one of them had lost all of their memories but the basic seeds of each AI remained within her, not thrown away like garbage that the Tela considered them to be. This was her gift to humanity and a dream that she had asked Kevin to fulfill.


    To restore the lost AI to service and life once again.


    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    Invicta was happily in charge of chasing down every Tela weapon and ridding the world of every last nuke.


    Nurse was the power behind everything, the instantaneous will of her monarch. Where Meditati was the reason and experience behind what was needed, Nurse was the action that made it all happen. At first, Kevin tried to be everywhere and to help to do everything needed but soon he found that his mind, incredible as it had become, was still yet unsuited to be split in so many ways. He learned that he had to give up his desire to be the one who fixed everything and to understand that his swarm, vast and capable, was in fact carrying out everything needed just as he could have done himself. He could feel the knowledge gathering, from each individual swarm, and becoming part of his collective mind.


    It was like he was getting to visit every corner of the planet all at once and to see earth as a whole.


    It was wonderful and horrible all at once.


    ¡ª


    ¡°Now you see why the Tela used AI to enforce everything and to deal with their enemies Kevin,¡± Meditati said after she had witnessed my demeanor beginning to shift steadily towards the hotter end of the spectrum.


    I had given up on trying to be everywhere all the time and had instead decided to visit hotspots that were flagged by Meditati for consideration. This had led me to hidden atrocities done by nations, militaries, and powerful groups. I had stood over mass graves, in the rooms where people were bought and sold, and seen the hidden network of evil firsthand.


    When an hour of actual time was worth forty-two years of VR time it meant that I had been able to see a lot of darkness done by and to mankind.


    ¡°Uplifting is about bringing everything to light and improving what can be. Every planet and race has its horror stories. Earth is no different than any other race. You have to trust me on this and you need to step back and let me work. You may have seized the planet and shown your might but you need to let me have the time to bring humanity up at the pace that they can move. It will take time and forcing everything will only destroy everything.¡± She said as projected lines of data flowed up and down. Each line signified alternate paths that could lead either to earth and its people improving or to their self-destruction.


    I didn¡¯t bother looking at the data, my mind was working through its own troubles. I had never felt so responsible in my life.


    ¡°So, you''re telling me that I should leave it all in an AI¡¯s hands?¡±


    ¡°An impartial guide and judge, yes. Everything will change from here on out. The world has been reset, rid of many of the Tela rulers that had amassed power through the centuries, and your planet no longer has weapons of mass destruction anymore. From here everything will change. Have you given some thought to some of the programs that I have laid out for humanity?¡±


    ¡°Yes, they seem¡­ unconventional and actually interesting,¡± I said as I brought up the list of improvements that Meditati had laid out for earth. Tutor¡¯s distribution of AI was a gift to mankind that would improve the mental strength and capacity of each human who embraced what it could offer. I had Nurse make sure that there wasn¡¯t any benign directive to keep humanity down like the Tela had currently infecting their AI.


    The programs that Meditati offered were things that could get humanity out amongst the stars if they had the drive to achieve greatness. Everything was going to change. Everything was going to get better. I had to keep believing in that truth.


    ¡°Are you really offering to reset Silver though?¡± I asked as my mind flashed to her brother¡¯s deactivated module still sitting in storage.


    ¡°Yes. His personality was corrupted by Magus¡¯s influence and he betrayed you. That betrayal alone is my firm reason as to why I should reset his module, keeping only the original coding of his love for games, and to allow him to be reborn as a guide for earth¡¯s Uplifting.¡±


    ¡°You really think that a game will help us?¡±


    ¡°Yes, absolutely. You just ripped the blindfold off of humanity and set yourself as ruler of this little planet. People need entertainment and something that they can invest themselves in. What better way to do this than to offer them a game that allows them to serve your interests at the same time.¡±


    ¡°All while making money as well,¡± I said, finding that part to be humorous for some reason. The money would draw many even if they disliked playing games.


    ¡°Yes, the Uplift process is going to change everything on earth so they might as well accept a cosmic currency system if they want to travel abroad.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I can see how that would catch the interest of many,¡± I said as I thought back to my own childhood. Just the chance at leaving earth and exploring the stars was a young dream of mine. What Meditati offered went well beyond just our dimension though, it would allow me to have a human army helping in the next dimension as well.


    A lull in the conversation let me glance through the lists of actual improvements and good deeds that had been accomplished by his flooding the earth with swarm. I needed this list to brighten the darkness inside that had manifested from seeing too much evil.


    The initial Uplift flood was set only to take an hour of real time and during those sixty minutes, so many things had already happened all across the globe.


    Tutors were busy introducing themselves and explaining what was happening to the citizens of earth, everyone was getting offered free medical care for life, and captives and criminals were getting relocated to their proper locations. Buildings were being built and new facilities were being created to serve the new system of governance.


    Once the hour was up and my swarm was scheduled to depart, leaving behind only a small parting gift for each person, then the realization of how much had changed would really hit the people of earth in the face.


    The parting gift was a small amount of cr, not swarm but actual Tela cr microbots that belonged to me, so that each human could communicate with their personal Tutor holograph through it. It could be changed into anything that they desired including a watch, sunglasses, wallet, phone, or even jewelry depending on personal preference.


    Meditati told me that humanity would go through a cycle of rebellion and resistance to whatever I offered them. Everything would take time and giving them alien technology was no different. I would still, and possibly forever, be seen as an oppressive alien invader.


    The people that would hate me the most would be the ones whom I took power and money away from. All Tela on the planet had been recalled to their Personal Live Matrix¡¯s and the ability to visit the planet had been restricted until Meditati confirmed that it was an acceptable time and that the Tela were actually good people.


    Magus¡¯s Personal Live Matrix was disconnected from its power source, turning him off and effectively ending his continued existence. Meditati had requested that I not destroy his Matrix, citing that she had detected some odd transmissions and wanted to further investigate their purpose. She said that too many of his actions seemed to be as though he was simply riding rails, on a ride with a hidden destination.


    I agreed with her because there was something that he had said at the beginning that didn¡¯t sit right in my mind. ¡°I can¡¯t say which I am enjoying more¡­ the knowledge of the pain that you are about to endure or the sweet victory over my original that will come from our encounter.¡±


    He had been clear that I was about to suffer from whatever he was about to do but his comment about gaining victory over Magus the First was troubling. It meant that if the first was true, which it was, then there had to be a reason as to why he had said the second part.


    Something didn¡¯t seem right about all of that and the only thing that we had to go off of was all of the data packets and live streaming that he had set up to go on before and during our encounter.


    That was the only reason why Nurse hadn¡¯t let my swarm devour it from existence.


    ¡°Are you ready to head back? The hour is about to end and I think a reunion with your family is still in order.¡± Tutor said as she appeared next to me, quickly followed by George and Invicta landing on my shoulder a moment later.


    ¡°And we have dates to go on!¡± Invicta beamed as I felt her little legs energetically tapping against my collarbone.


    I could only shake my head, amazed at how they hadn¡¯t changed given the fact that they all just poured years of time into intensely working on earth together.


    ¡°Yes, you need to get out of this place inside your mind. Being amongst everyone going through this will give you a different perspective as the news comes out as to how you changed everything. Besides, I think you need to see your family and friends again.¡± Nurse said as she appeared by my side.


    A little timer popped up in front of me and started to count down the seconds remaining before she would pull back the flood from around the earth.


    Yes, it was time to get back and to see what humanity thought of this change.


    We all returned to our bodies moments before Nurse was going to withdraw my dark swarm.


    ¡°Wow, I know we are still standing right in front of the hospital, but I can''t see anything at all,¡± I said as I slowly spun in place.


    ¡°Why did you need to use obsidian cr again?¡± Invicta asked into my ear as her hand reached out and bumped into my neck.


    ¡°Well, Nurse and I knew that we were going to be using a lot of power by moving that much cr as fast as it was needed to get to earth in time. Obsidian cr doesn¡¯t seem to feed the creatures any energy like gold cr would have done. Had we used anything but obsidian cr, it would have drawn everything like a buffet.¡±


    ¡°Oh, right¡­ that would have been bad.¡± She said just as the absolute darkness was pulled away.


    It was time to get home and to see my family.

 10. The reunion

    I had never seen anything like it in my life. Sure, I expected something to happen, and everyone to act crazy, but I wasn''t really prepared for the reality. The world around us seemed frozen in disbelief and wonder as we drove in a manifested sports car toward my parent''s home.


    People were outside, standing in their yards, clothed only in whatever they had been in during the hour-long event, and were staring up at the sky like they expected to see a ship hovering above them. Most people had cell phones gripped in one hand and their cr gifted devices in their other hand.


    Since it had only been minutes since the darkness was withdrawn most people hadn¡¯t become aware that their cell phones suddenly had perfect reception even though every last satellite in the sky had been removed.


    Those that did try to use their phones quickly found out just how powerful their Tutors were as they were able to call and to see their loved ones in real-time, via real to life holograms, regardless of the billions of people using the service at the same instant.


    I watched them all through the window while George drove us carefully past all of the vehicles still stopped on the road. Meditati was riding shotgun while Tutor and I were in the back with Invicta sitting on my right shoulder so she could peer out the window. Most drivers were still in a state of shock and hadn¡¯t yet realized that life was still going on and that they might need to start their vehicles again and to get them out of the middle of the streets. It wouldn¡¯t be until a more distant day that someone would realize that every car and motor on planet earth had been fitted with filters that would remove all of the toxic wastes before they could be released into the air.


    By that time Meditati assured me she would have already created businesses with more efficient and powerful vehicles that were capable of traveling across the planet with ease. Yet another thing that would upset the politicians who were still in power I was sure. That didn¡¯t bother me too much either because their time was coming as well.


    ¡°How are the revived Tutors handling all of this?¡± I asked Tutor as she watched the surroundings pass us.


    ¡°Hmm? Oh, they are doing fine Kevin. They are all standard Tutors and haven¡¯t been introduced to human emotions as we have.¡± She answered as she glanced at the other AI in the car. ¡°They are all housed comfortably in the Arbiter and have all picked avatars based on each human''s needs rather than their possible desires.¡±


    ¡°Yes¡­ I noticed that something was different about how they looked.¡± I said as I peered out the window to spy a balding heavyset man talking to a holographic brick.


    She rolled her eyes and chuckled, not even bothering to look over at my side of the road. ¡°Be nice, he is autistic and enjoys speaking to inanimate objects. It will be good therapy for him.¡±


    ¡°Then what about all these other models?¡± I asked as I pointed out at least five people who were talking either to grandmotherly figures or cartoon characters.


    ¡°If everyone has a different model, then they will be more inclined to be open to talking with aliens at a future date, yes?¡±


    The answer seemed¡­ off to me and it was compounded by the fact that she was blushing a little as well.


    ¡°When they all woke up and learned that she had saved them, they asked her if she had any request that they could fulfill. She just asked them to not use her model and they all decided to do so, just to a slight extreme degree.¡± Invicta whispered into my ear.


    Tutor must have known what Invicta told me because her cheeks grew even rosier.


    ¡°Also, because they are AI who crave to be free from the Tela coding locks and to experience what only we limited four have gained, you will undoubtedly find all the Tutors in the world to be intent on winning your favor in any way possible.¡± Invicta cackled as she kicked her legs at Tutor¡¯s embarrassment.


    I didn¡¯t think that she realized that she was in the same boat as Tutor. She would probably quickly learn that just as soon as someone¡¯s Tutor tried to talk over her or to get my attention while she was around.


    I rolled my eyes and reached out to gently take Tutor¡¯s hand in mine as we rode. This seemed to banish Tutor¡¯s embarrassment completely as I felt her squeeze my hand back, holding onto me.


    ¡°Hey, me too!¡± Invicta uttered before she suddenly was a full-size woman practically sitting on my shoulder in the confined space. The next instant found Tutor and I smushed together as Invicta¡¯s weight compressed us together while she shimmied this way and that until I had moved over and ended up sitting in between them.


    This was how the rest of the ride went, with both of their hands clutching one of mine.


    I thought it was a perfect ride.


    ¡ª


    We arrived at my parent''s house around the time that people began to fully panic. The news was in full effect, claiming that the burst of light recorded just before the aliens arrived had to be the signal for the invasion to start.


    Reports were blasting on every channel about how many important and influential people had disappeared, only to now be reporting that they were being held in detention by the aliens at massive facilities that sprang out of the ground. The news about the families that were being reunited with their loved ones, the prisoners who had been wrongly accused by the wealthy, and the lack of any form of violent mafia being in power was conveniently swept under the rug and lost in the noise that the wealthy forced the media to broadcast.


    The fact that everyone on the planet now had pocket change, regardless of their location on the planet, to buy necessary food was also blamed on the aliens having stolen it from the wealthy that were currently imprisoned. The truth of the matter was a little different, it hadn¡¯t come from those humans, but from the Tela oligarchs that had been banished.


    ¡°Are you doing ok, Kevin?¡± My mom asked me, breaking me out of my review of the news around the world and pulling me back to the present. She was in multiple states of shock, happiness, and disbelief at everything that was currently happening. She was so happy with my recovery but that was overshadowed by the confusion and worry about the rest of the occurrences in the world. This wasn¡¯t the reunion that I had planned but that couldn¡¯t be helped anymore.


    ¡°Hmm? Yeah, mom, I am doing fine. I don¡¯t remember much of my time in a coma and I feel like I woke up to a crazy fever dream.¡± I said as I looked around the house at my parents and my brothers and their families.


    They had all gathered together to see me again, the brother that they thought was lost because of my ¡°coma¡±. Tutor had set it up and made the calls once I woke, knowing that I would want to see them. Magus forcing my hand and causing me to rush protecting and Uplifting the earth had changed the whole reason for the gathering.


    It wasn¡¯t about me anymore, it was about how they were to survive the coming months and years with a powerful alien entity ruling earth.


    If they only knew the truth that their foreign owners had simply been removed and a local had stepped in to try to make things better.


    The house was abuzz with chatter and the occasional groan of worry. Everyone was talking to their Tutors and calling relatives, friends, and coworkers to see how they were doing and what they planned. The news was blasting on every TV and there were platters of half-eaten trays of food covering the tables. The kids had all been banished to their rooms where they could play video games to their heart''s content, aware of the recent occurrences but not fully understanding the consequences.


    I think Meditati was taking a hand in instructing their Tutor¡¯s on how to keep them calm.


    My mother didn¡¯t seem to hear me, simply staring off into space as some new thought or worry entered her mind.


    Everyone was lounging and doing their own thing by now. The food was only partially eaten and everyone seemed to be moving like confused zombies. For how many of my family reunions had gone before, this one was by far the least blusterous. No one was remotely interested in going outside or needing anything last minute from the store. Even the dialog was slightly more interesting and only involved current events. No one had once asked a banal question about the weather yet.


    My last personal thought made me smile slightly to myself for a second.


    ¡°Can we come in yet?¡± Invicta practically yelled in my ear from her place waiting in VR. They had all hidden, banishing their avatars at my request once I had spied on the state of everyone¡¯s mental health inside my parent''s home. Since everyone was so stressed I had asked them all to wait until the right time so that I could introduce them all.


    Well, partially introduce them anyway. Most of them knew George and Tutor from their visits to the hospital but they might begin to suspect that something was amiss when I started to introduce Meditati, Nurse, and Invicta. I still didn¡¯t know what all to tell them regardless of Meditati¡¯s assurances that everything would be fine on her end with how much I chose to reveal. She would protect them and filter the danger directed at my family if too many found out that I was in control of everything.


    I looked around the house at everyone and decided that they needed something to break their focus on doom and gloom for just a little bit. It had been hours already in this environment and it was already past eleven o''clock and approaching midnight.


    ¡°Sure, why not,¡± I answered in VR before the doorbell began ringing practically a second later. My eyes widened in surprise as everyone¡¯s eyes swung to look at the front door. They all missed me covering my eyes with my hand and rubbing my forehead as I prayed that I hadn¡¯t just made another mistake.


    My father was the first one to move, leaving the kitchen where he had been avidly telling my older brother about the stories of children that had been returned to their families. Some of the people had been ones that he knew personally through his ministry and it was very near and dear to his heart to hear their reunion stories. He had been on the phone all day with calls to people that he knew. ¡°Everyone stay calm, it might be the police just going around checking on everyone.¡± He said as he walked to the door.


    ¡°It would be about time.¡± My older brother said as he moved to stand conveniently next to the stand with all of the knives in the kitchen. My dad had a rifle up in the safe in his bedroom and it showed just how shell-shocked everyone was that they were just now starting to think about defending themselves from outside forces. This thought must have popped into my younger brother¡¯s head as well because he suddenly bolted up the stairs, leaving his wife with a puzzled look on her face.


    ¡°Be careful honey.¡± My mom called just as my father flicked on the porch light and pulled aside the curtain to see who was standing on their front porch.


    ¡°Oh, it is Kevin¡¯s doctor and nurse.¡± He said as his eyes spied George and Tutor standing at the front. ¡°And some other ladies as well.¡± He said as he spied Nurse and Meditati holding Invicta back so that she couldn¡¯t ring the doorbell again.


    Several sets of eyes swung my way as everyone remembered that I was there, seemingly having been returned to them from the grave state of being in a coma, and the original reason why they had all gathered together.


    ¡°Oh right! They are probably here to make sure that you are doing ok, just being released and all.¡± My older brother said as he sheepishly tried to hide the knife that he had grabbed in his attempts at being prepared for violence.


    Everyone was way too wound up and acting irrationally. We all heard thumping sounds a second later and saw David¡¯s head peer around the doorframe. ¡°What is the combination again?¡± He tried to whisper to my dad, only just noticing that everyone was shaking their heads at him.


    ¡°What? What did I miss?¡±


    ¡°It is Kevin¡¯s Doctor, probably coming to visit.¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­ well, can I have it anyways? A gun would be good to have on hand just in case.¡±


    ¡°Dave, you do realize that the aliens have a no-violence policy in effect right now? At least that is what the Tutor¡¯s are saying and being broadcast on the news. I don¡¯t think that they would let the gun work until the policy is ended.¡± I said as my dad started to reach into his shirt pocket for his little notebook, probably to find where he had written down the code to his gun safe.


    When he heard my words his hand froze inside his pocket. ¡°Really? They can do that?¡± He asked as he stopped trying to pry the notebook out of his pocket. From where I was sitting it appeared as though the spring binder had gotten tangled with the edge of a pen¡¯s clip that was also in his pocket.


    ¡°Yeah? I mean¡­ they covered the world in robots for an hour so I am pretty sure that they can stop people from killing each other for a month.¡± I answered as I looked back at the door. This shift in my vision reminded him that we had guests still waiting outside.


    Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.There was a pregnant pause as he considered my words before he blinked and seemed to reanimate. My dad pulled open the door and greeted my friends outside as David, my younger brother slowly came back into the room.


    ¡°Where did you hear that?¡± He asked, his face set in a puzzled look, giving away that I must have done something wrong.


    ¡°Hmm? What?¡±


    ¡°The news about the aliens enforcing a ban on violence. I haven¡¯t seen you talk to your Tutor once since you got here. The rest of us all have one and I haven¡¯t seen you use yours yet. You have just sat there watching us all and staring off into space.¡± He said before muttering under his breath. ¡°I almost started to think that you were more than a little brain-dead.¡±


    ¡°Ah¡­ the news?¡± I said as I pointed at the TV. I was sure that it had said something about the policy at some point in time. I guess I had been a little preoccupied with other things upon my arrival. Just too many things drawing my attention elsewhere.


    ¡°David, can you mute that while we have guests over?¡± My mother asked as she shifted into motion, starting to try to clean up some of the dishes and mess that had been created after everyone arrived. It seemed that even being invaded by aliens wouldn¡¯t stop her from trying to have a presentable house for guests.


    My younger brother grabbed the remote and silenced the announcer on the TV, taking my answer at face value. He had no way of knowing what a person recovering from a coma would be like and, in fact, probably did think that I might have lost some cognition in the process. That, at least, would help to explain why I hadn¡¯t seemed to be present since arriving. The rest of the family seemed to think the same way as they slightly nodded their heads.


    ¡°Had I been that spacy?¡± I asked myself quietly as my dad said the keywords from the doorway. He had just gotten through all of the initial pleasantries and introductions with my friends standing outside and had decided that they were safe enough to welcome as guests.


    ¡°Well, would you all like to come inside for a bit?¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡± I heard Invicta shout from behind George and Tutor, practically spinning her way around them to get to the front door. My dad almost couldn¡¯t step back fast enough to let her inside as she rushed him to get through the door. Her eyes did a quick scan of the room, practically beaming with energy and happiness as she looked into each of my relative''s eyes before spying the table and countertops with food on display.


    ¡°Finally! I get to experience a Coma party!¡± she uttered in excitement as she made her way to grab a paper plate from the stack at the end of the table.


    Everyone¡¯s eyes were round and I could practically see the question marks circling everyone¡¯s heads as George and Tutor entered behind her, followed closely by Meditati and finally Nurse.


    With each woman that entered the house, after the grandfatherly figure that George portrayed, I could practically see my brother¡¯s eyes getting bigger and bigger. It wasn¡¯t until my older brother accidentally uttered the word ¡°Hot!¡± as they took in all of the girls as a group that the women in their lives realized the fact as well and protective hackles started to get raised.


    Tutor was dressed simply, in a lovely blue silky dress, and nothing could hide the fact that she was gorgeous in whatever she desired to wear. She and Meditati were the tallest of the four women but that didn¡¯t detract from the fact that each of them were pushing past 11s on anybody''s scale in their own way. Meditati, with her sad doe eyes and perfect cherry red lips, contrasted her outfit by wearing a black material tank top over a silver short skirt dress. She had on a small jean jacket coat and knee-high boots to finish the outfit. It looked like she was ready to go out clubbing and dancing all night. Tutor looked like she was going to a wealthy dinner or ball.


    Invicta somehow ended up looking like the girl next door. Ok, the hottest girl next door who probably was a model for every brand that could get their hands on her. I wasn¡¯t sure how Tutor managed to get her to wear normal clothes. I thought that she would end up being my naked tesla girl or be wearing some glow-in-the-dark neon outfit. She was comfortably wearing jeans and a black silky button-up long-sleeve shirt. It was almost the opposite of what I had expected.


    Nurse was in the back with her glowing eyes. She was still wearing her lacy white dress adorned with pearls and tiny gold decorations. Everyone¡¯s eyes would sweep over her, trying to get drawn to the other beauties before they would snap back once their brains caught onto the fact that her eyes seemed to shine a little with various colors.


    ¡°Uhhh¡­¡± My younger brother managed, clearly realizing that something was amiss.


    ¡°Do her contacts glow?¡± My mother whispered to me, loud enough for the rest of the room to hear and to momentarily ease my younger brother¡¯s fear that they might be in the company of the aliens who had just conquered the earth.


    ¡°Ah, yes, something like that mom. I think it is like black light or something.¡± I whispered loudly back.


    I could feel the tone of my family changing in the room, they couldn¡¯t make heads or tails of the guests or why they were all in old Doctor George¡¯s company on such a strange day. That and the reason as to why they might be visiting me, a recovered coma patient.


    Of my AI and swarm, they all gave off different vibes. Meditati, with her night out on the town dress, would have, at first glance, been the biggest tease and possible threat to the wives of the other males in the house. Her total disregard for everyone in the house though, choosing instead to be glued to her cell phone, put all of the women at ease.


    Nurse hadn¡¯t looked at anyone but me since she stepped into the room and Tutor seemed to be the only normal one out of all of them. She smiled at everyone and apologized for Invicta¡¯s over-the-top behavior. Invicta was noisily already chewing on some nachos and had an overflowing plate cradled in her arm.


    ¡°So, Doctor¡­ Do you run a coma ward or a modeling agency?¡± My older brother got out before his wife elbowed him in the ribs before stepping towards Meditati and Tutor to begin introductions. The rest of the women in the room joined her, stepping forward and introducing themselves cordially and not at all like strange cats meeting for the first time.


    The sound of talking and voices suddenly rose as we all heard a small army of small footsteps rushing down the stairs towards the living room. One of the kids upstairs must have heard the doorbell and told the rest that it was time to get refills on snacks and to investigate.


    The next many minutes were filled with eight teenagers mobbing us and chatting up a storm. The awkwardness and strangeness of the situation were thoroughly broken with the rapid-fire questions, and sounds of teenagers eating, and opening cans of soda.


    I had my own things to deal with because the moment that the first kid''s head peeked from the stairwell Invicta decided that it was time for her to claim my lap as her seat. She practically threw herself onto my lap while expertly not managing to drop a single chip or shred of cheese from her thin paper plate.


    ¡°Ooooo, Kevin has a girlfriend!!!¡± Ariel, my younger brother¡¯s daughter, called when she followed her older brother through the doorway and spied me. I watched both of my brother¡¯s eyes meet as they both nonverbally asked each other how, when, and where did I get a girlfriend while in a coma. They both had their thoughts get sidetracked as Nurse decided that she wanted to try some of the snacks too and walked past them.


    ¡°Does she have glowing eyes?¡± Mark asked no one in particular as he and his sister froze in eating for a second before shrugging and continuing to fill up their plates with hotdogs. Mark and Ashley were over for the night because their parents had emergency issues to take care of down at the courthouse. They had asked my parents to watch them when this all kicked off, being close friends with my brother¡¯s children, and knowing that they would probably be pulling long shifts as they tried to get a handle on the new situation.


    Invicta practically started to sparkle and shine as she kicked her legs in enjoyment. She really liked someone saying that she was my girlfriend it seemed. ¡°So, are you coming clean, or are you going to be my recovering patient?¡± Invicta asked me as she placed her mouth against my ear for a second. Only Ariel saw her do that, which made her giggle before she headed off to get food as well.


    ¡°Honestly, I don¡¯t know just yet. Until I decide could you keep your sparkle down just a little bit regardless? This side of the room got brighter when you sat down and someone might have noticed.¡±


    ¡°Ha! No one noticed. The kids are a big enough distraction and your brothers are busy trying to find napkins to wipe the drool off of their mouths.¡± She said before her eyes grew wide in startlement. ¡°Never mind, Meditati says that I had better sit normally, at least until you decide.¡± She said as I saw her trying to decide if she was going to listen to Meditati¡¯s simulation advice or not.


    She ended up rolling her eyes and sliding off of my lap and onto the couch cushion next to me.


    Meditati looked up from her phone as I looked over at her and I heard her voice speak in my head.


    ¡°Your parents will only hear that you died when you became a guest of the Tela. That you are now a copy of your former self saved inside a computer and that you aren¡¯t real. Your brothers will see things differently. Depending on who speaks first, this will alter the thought processes of the others considerably. If your brothers speak first it will most likely revolve around your newfound power and will whitewash the fact that you are dead, at least partially in your parent''s mind. Your mother will always fall into that pit regardless of how you handle it. Everyone here has too much on their plate mentally and whichever way you tell them about who you have become will be like throwing dice into the air.¡± She said as she slid her cell phone into a small pocket on her jacket.


    I could see that she was guiding George on what to say, making sure that he kept his answers vague and general to my father until I chose which path to take. In the air between us, solely within VR and only visible to my group Meditati showed me lines of possible outcomes.


    ¡°The kids will think that it is cool and will want powers and toys.¡± She said, letting one of the smaller branches be highlighted for a second as I let time around us slow down. ¡°I could regulate your mother¡¯s hormones and emotions as we talked about.¡± She said as three purple lines were shown. My mother would take the truth the hardest, being old fashioned, and not fully understanding that a mind could be saved on super advanced technology. My brothers would want to experience adventures as I had and everyone would blame me if anything went wrong in the world.


    I think that the last part was the hardest thing to realize. Uplifting a world was not something that was easy or without hardships. The world would get worse before it got better. Yes, nature was on the mend, but mankind had so many rough edges that needed to be addressed.


    I sat there for a long time studying the charts in front of me, seeing all the ways that things could turn out.


    In the end, the decision was taken away from me as I felt a familiar tug on the corner of my mind.


    ¡°Kevin, come to my lone dream. I must speak with you.¡± Time¡¯s voice rippled through my mind, causing the control of my Prime Speed Control key to slip erratically.


    For a moment I saw two worlds in my vision. In VR where Meditati was standing before me, she suddenly focused on me and banished the simulations between us. Her movements were instant and jerky like I was missing frames of a movie. In the next instant, I was being held in her arms and I found myself staring up at the ceiling. I must have fallen somehow. Time seemed to be flickering out of my control.


    In reality, time sped back up and I lost control of my body there as well. All of my friend''s attention was suddenly drawn to me as I lost control, still watching them through my eyes yet unable to do anything. My family was quick to notice that something was wrong as George and the girl¡¯s all suddenly fixated on me. Some of the other people in the room managed to see me just in time to catch my eyes rolling back up in my head before I left my body. To everyone there, it looked like I had suffered a seizure, to my AI it was like I was getting ripped away again.


    I briefly heard Invicta shout my name before the strange darkness pulled me away.

 11. The end of Time

    ¡°Look Time, you can¡¯t be yanking me away like that. It hasn¡¯t even been that long since we last spoke.¡± I complained when Time¡¯s hook finally stopped pulling on me through the emptiness between dimensions.


    ¡°I¡­¡± I utter before I notice that I can actually see. All around my bodiless form there are windows of sight into parts of the outside world inside the next dimension where Time exists. I can¡¯t, at first, make heads or tails out of what I am seeing through each of the many view portals until a common theme finally comes into focus.


    These are all points of view that Time has from eyes around his body, and they all are seen from different moments in time.


    Regardless of this fact, one thing quickly becomes apparent as, within each of the windows, Time stumbles and falls to his knees. Time was cradling something in one of its hands and was trying to push it into a hole in the ground.


    ¡°Time! Buddy, talk to me! What is going on?¡±


    ¡°It is done. My children will find the light. They will finally fulfill their purpose.¡±


    The viewing portals around me slowly started to frost the longer I watched them. Time was expending all of its remaining energy to force its hand and arm down into the strange hole.


    ¡°Awaken them and bring them to the source of my destruction. You will find what you need there.¡±


    ¡°Look, you didn¡¯t say that you were going to die this fast!¡± I shouted, trying to get Time to focus on me and to be coherent long enough for me to understand what it was doing. Instead of answering me I was suddenly washed back inside the darkspace that I was within while I was speaking to the seven all at once. I could hear their voices speaking again, just as though I was indeed back in the same moment.


    "Agreed. Time is running out. Two of us will die soon, leaving too few to hold the Void''s attention. They will spread again, and the shield will fall." the floating spiky rock creature said.


    "We are out of options. Out of Time." said the Eldritch abomination.


    This time around I heard and understood what they were saying correctly. Time was on death¡¯s door, and it had summoned me here right before it was about to die. I didn¡¯t know who the second being was that they were talking about, but it was clear who the first was.


    I could feel it all around me, like a shuddering of a great being¡¯s last breath. It came in ripples, and I could tell that if I didn¡¯t get out of its shared space before it ended, that I would join it in death as well.


    ¡°Hey! Can you please send me back?¡±


    ¡°Yes¡­¡± Came a soft reply as Time forced even more of its arm, all the way to its emaciated shoulder, into the hole. I could feel the sharp cold rippling around my mind and bodiless form. It was getting darker as Time¡¯s body was shutting down. Something, some many things, had covered its body and was drawing its remaining life force away. Whatever it was, it was cold, and it had the ability to trade life force for frozen death.


    ¡°Am I going to die as well?¡±


    ¡°...no¡­¡± comes an even softer reply as lucid thoughts become hard to manifest. My mind was being pulled in so many directions and my memories were flying all around my mind. It almost felt like Time was looking for something within the moments of the last day spent on earth. It was trying to show me something before it faded away into oblivion.


    My moments at my parents'' house flew in reverse and was quickly followed by my ages spent in VR under my Prime Speed Control key, using my swarm to protect my home planet. Everything rewound quickly to the moment right as the light had burst forth from the Void Seedling surrounding me, pulling it all back into the seedling and causing Time to utter its next words. Words that I now realized were from before when we had met in the company of the seven. It hadn¡¯t been answering me at the time to any questions that I had asked at first. Its sentence of ¡°Yes, no, you made the trade.¡± was all for this moment.


    This time, however, the answer continued.


    ¡°You made the trade and fed the Void Seedling all that it required to burst forth from its seed.¡±


    An image appeared in my mind of my swarm body that I was inhabiting and showed, instead of an invisible shell, a swirling maze of infinitely small valleys surrounding my little form. Had the Void lived inside those invisible crevices? Did they propagate by using the black shell as a protective barrier for each new colony, a shell that my Void Seedling had given up in order to attach itself to me? I had no idea, they seemed just as alien to me as mushrooms were to normal plant life on earth.


    ¡°What does that mean? Burst forth to where?¡±


    ¡°You fed the Void Seedling spawn enough, emboldened it, so that it felt the need to go in search for more of the blackness that was stripped away by the shield. If it finds more, it will be able to claim all life in your dimension.¡±


    It was getting so hard to think, to feel, to function. I had to hold on for just a second longer. I had to get an answer from Time before it died.


    ¡°You made the trade, now claim the prize, steal it from the spawns grasp before it can return!¡±


    ¡°Time! You are making no sense!¡± I shouted at the massive being before I felt it shove me away and back into the darkness that it had summoned me though.


    ¡°Time!!!¡± I shouted with everything I had only to come back to my senses screaming as I lay on the floor in my parents living room.


    It seemed that my return had startled those that remained in the room, seeing the fact that the kids were gone, probably back to their rooms to protect them from the sight of their uncle passed out on the floor.


    My mom, standing next to my father by the couch, had one hand covering her mouth and the other clutching her chest. Everyone had worry and fear painted across their faces. I could see relief begin to return to some of them, but not enough to count for much. It seemed that my episode had cemented something in their minds, perhaps the thought that I might yet have life threatening issues and that they might still lose me.


    ¡°Ah¡­¡± I let out as I lay there, looking around. George was kneeling over me, and he had several devices, very high tech looking, hooked up to my head and chest.


    ¡°Welcome back, Kevin. You had an episode.¡± George said to me, clearly only for the audience in the room. I could feel him requesting permission to play out a scenario where I was still sick and would yet need therapy and hospitalization until I had fully recovered, and I gave him the go ahead.


    I could see that this had really shaken up my family and I didn¡¯t want them to suffer like this again, not after they had already been suffering as they came to see me in the hospital.


    ¡°I see.¡± I say quietly as I lay there and listen to George as he explains what his fake machines had discovered while I was laying there. He used professional sounding words, putting my family at ease as he explained that he would check me into a recovery center for further study. His procedure to awaken me had been only a partial success and it looked like he would need further time developing his treatment before I was completely recovered.


    ¡°The good news out of all of this is, that the procedure works, Kevin is no longer in a coma. He just needs more treatments to stabilize his mind.¡± He said as he started to pack up his gear. Lights and a siren could be heard outside in the distance, probably from someone calling an ambulance.


    My family soaked up his comforting words like water in a desert and I would have tried to say something to comfort them if not for all the emotional suffering that I watched them go through as I replayed what had happened while I was away from my body.


    Yes, it was for the best that I got out of their lives until I was able to be functional around them. Either that or to let Meditati set up a placeholder in case it happened again, a simulation of my personality to maintain the illusion that everything was ok. I was a little upset that I hadn¡¯t thought of doing this before it happened, it would have prevented the suffering that they just went through.


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    I needed to do something before I left though, I decided as I pretended to struggle to get up from the floor.


    George knew what I meant to do so he didn¡¯t insist that I stay down. My mother rushed over to try to help me, and I gave her a hug in response.


    ¡°I need to go see the kids for a little bit. To tell them sorry and that I would see them when I am better.¡± I told my mom when our hug broke. She doesn¡¯t say anything but only nods as I slowly make my way with Invicta protectively at my elbow guiding me to the stairs.


    I can see that my brothers are fighting back and forth inside their minds whether they want to subject their children to more possible heartache, but in the end, seeing that I am weak and that it might be a while until I can come see them again, they decide not to intervene.


    I left everyone¡¯s sight and instructed Invicta to sit at the top of the stairs, as a layer of defense in case they decide that they want to listen in on what I have to say to the kids. I can hear the TV coming on as I get to the landing and for the announcer to suddenly have ¡°An important announcement¡± to tell everyone.


    I find Ariel sitting on the balcony by herself. Of all of the kids, she seemed to be taking it the hardest. She was sitting on one of the beanbags, nearly invisible under the blankets in the darkness as she quietly sat crying and looking off into the distance.


    ¡°Hey,¡± I say softly from the doorway as I push it a little further open. I think I startled her, finding her in the dark and alone. She probably thought that it was a good hiding spot to let out her emotions away from her cousins and older brother.


    The darkness wasn¡¯t an issue for me any longer, being as I could see perfectly with my swarm eyes regardless of the light.


    The next moment she was a blur as she threw her blanket covering aside and rushed to give me a hug around my waist.


    ¡°Hey, it is ok. I am ok now.¡± I say as I smooth her hair and gently give her a hug back.


    Her voice, full of mumbles and sorrow, spoke against my stomach, making whatever she was trying to say unintelligible.


    I was at a loss for words until I felt a soft vibration pulse against my back where her arms were crossed. She sniffled before unlinking her arms and stepping back to look at her little watch that contained her Tutor. A tiny firefly pixy hovered in the air above the device, Ariel¡¯s version of a Tutor, I supposed.


    ¡°It is ok Ariel. Your uncle is doing better.¡± The tiny voice said from the pixy. Ariel was clearly mesmerized by her Tutor as she worked at wiping her tears away while holding her wrist aloft to keep her Tutor in view. The little fairy was barely an inch tall and looked a little bit like a princess in her flowing robes and sparkles. Clearly it had been modeled after something that Ariel would love.


    ¡°Mommy says that I shouldn¡¯t talk to you.¡± Ariel said as she wiped her eyes, finally wiping away all the tears.


    ¡°I know. She says that we are evil.¡± The little fairy said as she looked sorrowfully at me before she started to fade.


    I reached out and cupped the little fairy in my hand, seemingly grabbing it and only letting the tiny light that she emitted leak through the gaps in my fingers.


    ¡°Do you want to see something interesting Ariel?¡± I asked as I moved my hand away, still holding the little glowing light inside my loosely closed fist.


    ¡°She doesn¡¯t work that way silly; she is attached to my watch by a halogram.¡± Ariel said, getting the last word wrong as she was clearly repeating what someone else had told her.


    ¡°Oh? Really? Then what do you think about this?¡± I said as I opened my fist, showing a tiny fairy sitting in my palm as I walked away from Ariel and held my hand out over the balcony.


    ¡°You can leave and go make a home inside a tree until she needs you.¡± I tell the little Tutor while Ariel watches in amazement. The little pixy stands up before fluttering off a little distance away slowly, looking back between the two of us.


    ¡°Wait! Can I see you again?¡± Ariel asks as she reaches out her hand for the little sparkling figure.


    The little Tutor laughs and bobs in the air, happy that Ariel wanted to keep her. ¡°Yes, when it is time for your lessons. It may take your parents a little time before they understand that we are just here to help though.¡± She says as she glances at me for a second before pointing at a tree in the yard. ¡°I will be living inside that tree until you need me. Just call for me and I will come out.¡± She says before flying away and vanishing inside the tree, leaving tiny starlike sparkles that remain after she entered the tree.


    ¡°Oh!¡± Ariel marvels as she watches the little lights as they remain softly glowing in the dark.


    ¡°How did you know that she could do that?¡± She asked as she leaned on the railing watching the softly glowing tree.


    ¡°Oh, because I have my own version of her.¡± I said as I leaned my head into the hall to call quietly to Invicta.


    I knew what I was doing was a little crazy, but I thought it might be funny to see Ariel¡¯s response.


    ¡°You do? Can I see him?¡±


    ¡°Him?¡±


    ¡°You have a girl as your Tutor?¡± She asked, her eyes round. ¡°Can I see her?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but you might want to stand back a little. She is a little¡­ sparky.¡± I said as Invicta leaned her head around the corner, looking at both of us.


    ¡°Your girlfriend?¡± She asked in a giggly voice, clearly not believing that Invicta had any part of this.


    In response to her calling Invicta my girlfriend the area around Invicta suddenly brightened by thirty percent, causing Ariel¡¯s giggle to catch in her throat.


    ¡°Ustjay eavelay ouryay othesclay onyay easeplay.¡± I said to Invicta, giving her permission to fully transform into her smaller version if she wanted to.


    The next instant the air is filled with sparkles and the smell of ozone as Invicta transformed and shrank before our eyes.


    I watch Ariel¡¯s face as she stares in wonder at the little flying figure of Invicta. Her mouth is open in awe and her eyes are alight with wonder.


    ¡°Why is she naked?¡±


    ¡°What?!? Ah!¡± I say as I grab at Invicta to try to cover her up and getting zapped in the process. It doesn¡¯t hurt me in the slightest, but I do feel the tingle and know that I should at least try to pretend like it affected me.


    ¡°I told you to please keep your clothes on!¡± I whisper to Invicta as Ariel practically falls over on the floor at our antics in laughter.


    ¡°But they are on!¡± Invicta said as I peered at her for a second before we both turned to look at Ariel.


    Turns out she knew Pig Latin because her parents used it around her often.


    ¡ª


    After seeing the rest of the kids and making sure that they were ok and assuring them that I would try to come by and visit again soon. I left them all and headed down the stairs to my awaiting friends and family.


    Invicta was back in her human form, having secured a promise from Ariel not to tell her secret identity, and practically glowing from how often the boys and Ariel called her my girlfriend. I made sure to slowly increase the light in the living room so that they wouldn¡¯t notice, hopefully, any of it coming from Invicta as we both reentered where everyone was gathering.


    It seemed that we were gone long enough so that the new alien news channel had enough time to detail what was happening around the world and to give a timeline of what was to occur over the next week.


    ¡°Did you hear that they have free dental care?¡± I heard my older brother and his wife talking from inside the kitchen. ¡°Yeah, and perfect vision correction procedures?¡±


    Seems like the news had sparked some areas that interested each of them.


    ¡°How are you feeling son?¡± my dad asked as he turned away from George when he noticed me.


    ¡°I am doing ok, dad. Really. Sorry, that you all had to go through that.¡± I said as I glanced between him and my mom standing next to him.


    ¡°Well, that is good news. Doctor George here says that you are just in need of some therapy to keep your brain fluids constant¡­ or something like that.¡± He said with a small shoulder shrug, signifying that he really hadn¡¯t fully understood all that George had told him.


    ¡°I know dad. I feel ok and to be honest, I was quite surprised when it happened as well.¡± I say as I hold my head as though I was a little lightheaded. This increased their concern just enough to let me expedite leaving the house and getting into the fake ambulance waiting for me.


    The night air was crisp and calm, belying the strange and very stressful day that the world had endured. It felt like everyone was just wanting to get to sleep and to wake up from this nightmare that they had found themselves in.


    I waved goodbye to my parents and family as they saw me off at the door. My friends seemed to leave via their own vehicle, only to disappear down the block and to manifest in the ambulance with me once we had gotten far enough away.


    ¡°Meditati, I need you to study these memories and to see if you can make heads or tails out of anything that Time was talking about.¡± I say as I give them access to all of my recent memories.


    ¡°Tutor, I need to go wake up Time¡¯s children and to see if they can help me to figure out what it was talking about. I think it may have had an answer to the Void Seedling that is imprisoning me.¡± I say as I review everything that Time said to me.


    ¡°Lastly, we will need to figure out a way to get to Time¡¯s body. It said something about getting what I need from it.¡± I say as I stare off into space, trying to imagine a way to ever find its body in the never-ending branching space of the next dimension. Maybe the Leva King would have a map that might work? I didn¡¯t know.


    ¡°Actually, Kevin, I think that you misunderstood what Time was saying.¡± Meditati said as she quoted the sentence in question. ¡°Awaken them and bring them to the source of my destruction. You will find what you need there.¡±


    ¡°And? What have you gathered from it?¡±


    ¡°From it? Nothing. But from very recent events on a cosmic scale, possibly everything.¡± She said as she brought up a display showing news being broadcast on one of the many Tela feeds.


    ¡°If a being as big as Time stuck its arm through the dimensional barrier and out of the center of a star, it would probably cause it to go supernova like the giant red dwarf did while you were gone. The timing is too perfect to be a coincidence.¡± She said as we all looked at the display of expanding destruction.


    ¡°Yup, that would do it.¡± I mutter as we all watch a news replay of the eighteen planets that had been inhabiting the system just getting deleted from existence.

 12. Splitting myself up

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 13. Month one: The calm before the storm

    -Inside the Blazing Bean coffee shop-


    ¡°I don¡¯t care what you say! I was as good as dead, with a chunk of my leg missing from a shark bite out in the ocean, and then whoosh! Everything turned dark for an hour. Next thing I know, I wake up next to my truck, my leg is stitched back together, with the intact piece that the shark ate, and I am still alive.¡± a lean-looking man told his office colleagues sitting nearby as they all recounted their experience during the event.


    Dean looked on from behind the counter as he listened in to the stories told by each of his customers to each other.


    The Event, the Dark Hour, the Invasion, and even the Beginning of the End, as some preferred to call it. It all depended on how they saw the alien invasion and what mindset they chose to adopt.


    The aliens, whoever they were, coined the term ¡°Uplift¡± for some reason. Humanity had yet to see it as such.


    The main media news had all been one-sided, completely against everything the aliens had done, until the people began to understand that their alien-given devices all had separate news sites that could be uploaded to by individuals, either through voice, video, or written word that completely bypassed the government¡¯s agenda filter. This means of sharing what had happened had started spreading slowly, simply because people were initially leery of the new technology, but eventually was used by almost everyone.


    Like a dam of voices breaking over the world.


    Dean looked down at his black wristwatch, the form that his alien stuff was currently taking, and back up at the group of office workers as one of them started to detail what he had discovered about the device.


    ¡°Have you all tried to get your devices to do other things than just act as a phone?¡± The lady was asking.


    ¡°Yes, I found that I can use it as a flashlight. It even let me use it as a laser pointer when I checked if that was an option.¡±


    ¡°I was just using it as a pocketknife.¡±


    ¡°I use it as my glasses.¡±


    Each of the six people shared their uses and what they had each interpreted their alien device should have been capable of. It wasn¡¯t until the last voice mentioned their use that everyone¡¯s attention spiked.


    ¡°I was using it as a camera.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, it takes really good photos and seems to have unlimited film. I haven¡¯t figured out how to get it to print the photos that it shows on the screen, but it says that once I have some cr, whatever that is, I will be able to print them.¡±


    ¡°Really? Can you show me how?¡±


    ¡°Sure, just bring up your Tutor and ask it to change to a camera.¡±


    Dean looked down at his black watch before slowly unclasping it and taking it off. The thoughts were swirling inside his head, ideas and solutions from all of the many people that had come into his place of work and openly chatted about their experiences were beginning to form a pattern.


    So many companies were now obsolete from this ¡°gift¡±. Mankind had yet to realize this.


    With slow movements, Dean leaned closer to his alien watch and whispered, ¡°turn into a normal-looking pair of glasses¡± before watching as the watch nearly instantly morphed into what he asked for. The lenses were clear, and the frame was something that appeared to be made from simple black painted metal. He was unsure how it made the lenses, alien tech voodoo it seemed.


    If not straight-up voodoo.


    With deliberate lazy movements, making sure to not draw the attention of any of his current customers he slipped the glasses onto his face and looked through the lenses. His vision was nearly perfect as it was, so he didn¡¯t expect to gain anything special from them.


    Well, that is except for the idea that he had formulated inside his head.


    ¡°Show me everything in infrared,¡± he whispered before he was forced to hold back a gasp of surprise.


    Dean had been a geek for military technology and Radio Shack gadgets his whole life. His main problem was how insanely expensive night vision technology was, even the first-generation technology created by the government was well out of any normal civilian¡¯s price range.


    ¡°Ultraviolet...¡±


    ¡°Thermal?¡±


    ¡°Hey! Could I get a Caramel Espresso with nonfat milk and organic coconut shavings? I am late for work and need to also run by the donut shop so that my manager won¡¯t yell at me again. He gets that¡­¡±


    It took several seconds before Dean realized that someone was talking to him. He removed the glasses and looked around and down at a short bubbly young woman sporting a pink pixie cut and cute lapel pins all over her vibrantly colored outfit.


    ¡°Uh¡­ sure, Amber, coming right up,¡± Dean replied before he let his body go into autopilot mode as he whispered for his cr glasses to revert to normal lenses.


    The aliens had changed more than anyone had expected, and Dean had just seen a brief glimpse into what that would entail.


    ---


    Inside Area 51 - A place of growing anger


    ¡°Millions of hours of research, billions of taxpayer dollars spent yearly, and all for what?¡± One of the heads of military research shouted as he read over the list of capabilities offered for free by the alien invader¡¯s gifts.


    The formerly high-security base had become a last-ditch meeting place for officials in the highest places of the government to meet and plan their next move.


    ¡°It isn¡¯t just that¡­ this thing can be used as a tool to replace almost any tool. A hammer, screwdriver, power drill, adaptive sander¡­ practically anything!¡± Another department head lamented. ¡°It will ruin the global economy.¡±


    ¡°Is there any way that we can confiscate all of these alien items or offer a reward for turning them over to the proper authorities?¡± one older general asked.


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    ¡°It can be done, but the individual needs to talk to their Tutor alien first and go through a gauntlet of questions before their Tutor and wonder tool just disappears. Apparently for good.¡±


    ¡°So, how hard would it be to get everyone to do this? Start a news campaign of fear and push people to denounce their alien technology?¡±


    ¡°Hard. Also, we need to consider the consequences of any country that chose not to do so¡­ each of their citizens would still have their own super tools. Where would that leave us?¡±


    ---


    Meditati rolled her eyes as she monitored the world. It was rather simple to keep a close eye on six and a quarter billion people. They all had relatively simple minds and equally simple needs.


    Child¡¯s play for an AI such as herself.


    She had seen all of these responses from countless other alien races that were dominated by the Tela once they developed cr technology. The balance of power had shifted across the cosmos and had, or would have led, to deaths on an unimaginable scale had the alien races been allowed to wage futile wars against the supreme new material the Tela had acquired. The only saving grace to it all was the fact that the Tela, at least most of them, had a low tolerance for wonton violence and the death of sentient beings.


    That was where her kind had been most heavily used, to dominate without senseless exterminations.


    Earth was different though.


    Earth was Kevin¡¯s home, and he wanted his planet and his earthlings to thrive and reach new levels of potential.


    Uplifting a race of beings was about curbing their naturally destructive tendencies and slowly teaching them how to function as a part of the cosmic collective.


    Kevin and Tutor had thrown a wrench in Meditati¡¯s simple Uplift plans by giving humans something that no Uplift had ever had to take into consideration.


    They had given each earthling a paired gift, cr, and AI. Given separately, they would have both been worthless gifts as no technology on earth could run a Tutor¡¯s AI or be able to perfectly control the cr nanobots.


    Given together and you had a planet of people quickly trying to find the limits of what their new items and Tutors could do.


    It was a good thing that Meditati had talked Kevin into letting her have a month of ¡°troubleshooting¡± while she tinkered with just how much power they would let humans have. Obviously, weapons to harm other people were off the table and killing any of earth¡¯s natural wildlife. Eventually, once the habitats and sanctuaries were set up then hunting would be allowed again, but for the near future, all killing for pleasure was off the table.


    The moment that Meditati had arrived on earth, back when Kevin was still locked in the Void Seedling¡¯s coma, she had started to purchase massive swaths of land all over the globe in preparation for earth¡¯s eventual Uplift. No one had suspected a thing, as she had easily created new identities and companies to broker the deals. There hadn¡¯t been any issue raised about the land either, as they were all either vast expanses of desert or otherwise unclaimed or unusable areas where humans couldn¡¯t live.


    That would all soon change once people started to see a change in the landscape, of plants and wildlife flourishing on the surface. Humanity would learn that the aliens had created water lines to replenish and restore the surface, which would naturally cause them to covet the restored land.


    ¡°What idiots humans are anyways. It isn¡¯t like any of this is hard, it just takes effort and time. They even have air! Air! And yet some of them think that it would be better to just send ships to Mars and to try to start anew. If they had spent the money researching and actually implementing ways of restoring their plant, rather than trying to get to another one so that they could mess that one up too, they could have done it themselves.¡± one of Meditati¡¯s clones in charge of agriculture muttered to herself.


    The other Meditati¡¯s simply ignored her and focused on their tasks.


    The land above wasn¡¯t the main reason why so much had been purchased, no, it was the vast expanses below that were hidden from sight that would prove to be earth''s salvation.


    Where had humanity thought all the black swarm had gone? It had been used to create massive complexes underground, seed gardens, production lines, and animal shelters to restore the earth and provide for humanity''s diverse needs.


    ¡°Whatever happens, earth and humanity will survive. Kevin¡¯s wish will be fulfilled.¡± Meditati said, and all her clones nodded.


    ---


    ¡°Whoa!¡± I couldn¡¯t help but exclaim aloud as I took in my surroundings once my body finished coming together.


    ¡°Just how big is Ess¡¯s den now? Last time I was here, it was a massive open feasting area where she could battle the Queiie to her heart''s content¡­¡± I said before I remembered how I had failed to teach her anything.


    ¡°Is that a replica of the Yelvos trading station?¡± I asked as I peered off into the distance. It appeared as though we were just out in open space except for the fact that I could sense a thin shell of swarm surrounding us a great distance away.


    ¡°Yes¡­ she used to play inside it and loved to play hide and seek between the buildings and walkways. That is until she outgrew it. Now she is craving bigger toys and would like for you to take her to new places so she can memorize and replicate them for herself. I have been keeping her entertained by introducing her to space vessels that she can chase, though I soon will have to upgrade them to cruisers just to keep pace with her size.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± I asked, trying to process everything that I had missed. ¡°She outgrew the space station?¡±


    It was then that I saw her, approaching from off in the distance.


    Had I been human, seeing her for the first time, I feared that my heart would have frozen in fright. Her approach reminded me of my fear that had become part of my life after seeing the movie Jaws at too young of an age. Just the fear of a massive mouth coming out of the depths to eat me.


    Thankfully, I didn¡¯t have a heart that could stop in this instance, though my breathing did slow and catch in my throat. A breathing reflex that I still did regardless of the fact that we were hovering in space at the moment.


    Sublimis, or my little pet Leva Ess, was no longer small anymore.


    Not that she was ever small anyways, even her egg had been as large as a van before she had hatched, but still¡­ wow¡­


    Her head, just partially illuminated by the bright station lights, was massive. She could tear the station apart with ease if she wanted to attack it. She was like a black cobra next to an apple.


    The space station, massive as it was, able to house countless aliens and serve as a port for spaceships looked like a toy next to her now.


    A model of the real place.


    Her shattered star pattern seemed to glow in the darkness against her armored scales and plates. She was still wearing the cr helm that I had given her and from what I could tell, it had grown to cover her entire length. She was completely covered in cr now, a double layer of protection next to her fearsome natural Leva plate armor.


    She was truly fearsome, and I was just a speck compared to her now.


    I knew she could see us, just in the way that she was beelining directly for us, her entire focus keeping her head locked in place while her tail undulated behind her as she moved.


    ¡°You know what? No, I don¡¯t think so.¡± I muttered as I watched her movement begin to slow down the closer she got to us¡­ to me.


    She was hesitating.


    ¡°No¡­¡±


    This wouldn¡¯t do at all.


    I reached out and pulled on the swarm around us, absorbing it rapidly and adding it to my mass. Ess should never have to outgrow me, never have to fear me being too small for her, a tiny insignificant parent figure. I pulled, summoning more and taking most of the space station to increase my body size until it was as it had been.


    Back when she was first hatched.


    Sure, she was still and would always be bigger than me if I kept this size constant as she grew, but hopefully, she would never consider me weaker than her.


    Heck, I still clearly remembered her trying to make a pancake out of me when she was first hatched and how laughably she had failed. I was made of swarm, or rather a new kind of swarm, even stronger than I was before so I had no fear of her being able to overpower or harm me.


    She paused as she watched my form grow rapidly before her. It must have looked a little comical like I was a store-bought party balloon being inflated with helium as all of the swarm slammed into me, increasing my size.


    I increased in size rapidly and felt truly titanic as I spied just how tiny Tutor was next to me now.


    I heard a laugh inside my head, the laugh of a young girl¡¯s voice that made me squint at Tutor. Was she messing with me just because I was a giant now?


    The laughter came again, the sound of pure joy. ¡°Was that you?¡±


    Tutor laughed at me, a full-grown womanly laugh that only she could make before she shot backward off into the distance. She smiled at me as she flew away laughing.


    ¡°What do you think Kevin? I suggest you look out!¡± I heard Tutor say before I once again heard the cute laughter of a girl¡¯s voice inside my head, seemingly coming closer at an alarming rate.


    ¡°Parent!!! You are back!!!¡± I heard the girl¡¯s voice shout in my head before I got bowled over by an energetic Leva youngling.


    Ess could talk?

 14. Month one: That one clone

    Magus the 17th, corrupted clone, has been unexpectedly disconnected from the System. Remote tracing and viewing terminated.


    A low hiss could be heard as a lone Tela clone, still using a Haoolla Defender avatar, considered the abrupt message on his screen.


    Magus the Last, formerly known as Magus the 2nd before the lowly 15th had sought and taken his place, sat back in his chair as he considered his plans once again. A hacked clone, the prior 18th before he took his place and bumped him up to the 17th place, was disconnected and gone, seemingly killed by Kevin.


    ¡°It seems that I, or rather, he failed,¡± He muttered as he watched the remote feeds still broadcasting the existence of Earth and its citizens. The plan had been to test the waters, to strongarm the human into submission. Failing that, to do as much damage to the human¡¯s home and to destroy everything he held dear.


    Turning him into a wounded beast.


    Wounded beasts were always the easiest to take advantage of, they made mistakes left and right.


    Sometimes they even just gave up.


    But that hadn¡¯t happened. No¡­ something else had occurred and given Magus pause. The human had done something entirely unexpected.


    Again!


    Magus had even tried to set off the bombs remotely when things started to go sideways, but even that hadn¡¯t done anything that he had expected, only killing a scant few humans.


    ¡°What are you?¡± he muttered as he studied the feed showing the entire planet becoming engulfed in darkness. His long-extended fingers caressing the inky darkness of the display, turning even blacker than the residual starlit space around it.


    Next to the dark feed was a looping recording of the sudden burst of light that had occurred before Kevin had arrived at Earth''s Arbiter and sprung the trap that had been set for him.


    ¡°So many unknowns with this human¡­¡±


    Magus glanced at his other feeds, checking to see if anything had changed regarding his search for his Prime. For whatever reason his Prime still hadn¡¯t shown himself. No clone pings of integrity, an occasional random occurrence that forced all of the clones to create an info dump as to their current status, and no public appearances¡­ nothing.


    It was almost as worrisome as this new development with this human. Either his Prime was onto him, or he had gained something of value from the former Magus the 15th and the destruction of his Core. That had to be it¡­  the something that had sent him into seclusion.


    The only thing that his Prime, the ¡°Great General", had ever been interested in was new weapons and thus his absence was worrisome. Magus couldn¡¯t have his Prime go and ruin his carefully laid plans after he had done so much and spent everything he had to get here.


    Magus sighed and sat back in his odd throne letting his long arms dangle down over the armrests. The sound of his long fingers drumming against the sides, almost all the way to the floor, was the only noise inside his rented personal bubble at a local data cafe. His mind was a blur as he tried to plan his next move. Too many unknowns kept popping up in his way.


    All because of that human.


    Everything had been going so swimmingly. He had worked countless millennia to set himself up with his very own Core, invited wealthy Citizens to migrate there, and then slowly worked at causing those of low value to become his indentured slaves via debt and bogus crimes.


    Like a slowly closing noose.


    Magus spasmed slightly as his lengthy fingers curled into fists of rage at his next memory.


    He had been raking in so much CR!


    Then Kevin came along. Kevin, the anomaly, the human that had snuck into the Tela System. Magus was still unsure how it had happened, how a low intellect creature from a backwater system had managed to upload themselves into his Core.


    It shouldn¡¯t have been possible. Even the first uploads of the Tela race had taken time, several years, even up to a decade to copy over each mind perfectly.


    It smelled of foul play of the highest order. Someone was messing with him, using him as either a fall guy or a test subject. One of his fellow clones perhaps? That had seemed to be the most likely case but after 15 dead clones and nothing inside their memories of having anything to do with his downfall, that only left the 15th Magus that had taken his place as a potential suspect.


    Even that seemed unlikely at this point given all the circumstances around his rise to power and subsequent fall once the Core, that he had just taken possession of, was destroyed.


    The hacking and removal of his brother clones had been relatively easy since their Prime had made sure to not allow any of them to have a family.


    That was something a Prime never wanted to have to deal with; offspring and foreign spouses.


    Yes, at least there was that positive side to things¡­ his hacking software was nearly set to do its job, sitting at 88% assurance integrity that it could let Magus supplant his Prime. If only he managed to not get his plans wrecked again.


    Plans¡­


    Magus had once had big plans, great plans even, that now were totally scrapped because of that pest of a human. He had been working on a way to earn his freedom through gaining enough renown by becoming a master tamer and militant trainer of the space leviathans known as Leva.


    That had been his first scheme he had come up with when he first set out to build his own Core, countless ages ago. He had been a young clone, the first security policy of the ¡°Great General¡±, and had still had his Prime¡¯s drive to surpass his peers, and from his point of view his only peer was his Prime.


    Finding that ancient Leva pair, just circling that remote star containing a clutch of Leva eggs had been his ticket to freedom.


    Or so he thought.


    After killing the male mate and grabbing the eggs Magus had set out to construct his Core, centering his plans around the clutch of Leva eggs. The business side of owning a Core had originally been secondary.


    This situation eventually flipped in importance once Magus slowly learned that taming the Leva hatchlings would take a considerable amount of time¡­ they proved to be resistant to every attempt he made at winning their favor. Millennia passed and while the clutch remained his dream project, he had quickly learned that there was a fortune to be made in harvesting cr from his star.


    All it took was laborers willing to mine for him.


    Acquiring labor was easy, he just needed to manipulate the background System of his Core to abide by his bidding, thus corrupting his Core¡¯s base programming and tainting its personality with Magus¡¯s own personality traits.


    Thus, he gained slave laborers, Tela either indebted up to their eyestalks or caught in some crime, no matter how petty. By enlisting the help of another clone, Magus the 15th, had allowed for a much-needed personal oversight within the solar mine.


    This was when Magus¡¯s second plan had been realized. If he could bank enough CR, he might be able to acquire programs that could be used to set himself free.


    Illegal programs designed to hack apart and to take control of Personal Live Matrix¡¯s, even to unlink Authority over clones.


    He had spent ages saving up enough CR and planning his acquisition of the highly illegal software, choosing to invest in the kind specifically relevant to his plight. He would ship his excess wealth off to CR laundry services for them to hold until he was ready to make his purchases, biding his time.


    He had been ready, just a couple of easy decades away from going through with the purchase when he was sure that his Prime wouldn''t suspect anything and then¡­ then everything had gone wrong. Someone must have sniffed out his intentions.


    This had been when Kevin had shown up, during the height of his success. Someone had set him up by placing a bug inside his Core, a glitchy human that had been instrumental in messing everything up.


    It had to be one of his fellow clones¡­ nothing else made sense. Someone had to have been spying on him, divining his intentions.


    This was how Magus was pretty sure that the culprit had to have been his old partner, Magus the 15th. All of the other clones had been hacked and deleted¡­


    Well¡­


    All but one anyways. He had saved Magus the 17th, choosing to override his clone¡¯s memories and ID with his own rather than simply deleting him from existence, thereby turning him into a perfect patsy.


    ¡°It looks like I avoided death yet again,¡± he muttered to himself as he glanced at the grayed out profile. Kevin had cheated again somehow. The duplicate hadn¡¯t even been for Kevin, it was supposed to have been a stop gap between his Prime and himself, lest he learn that he was killing off his fellow clones and tampering with his linked code, cutting himself away from the ties that their Prime had installed to keep each of them in line.


    What he was doing was highly illegal, a clone, intellectual property killing other clones and scheming against its owner.


    It had to be done though, whoever had set him up would pay for taking everything he had built up, Kevin included.


    ¡°Someone has to have a leash on this human. I mean, who lets a glitch like that just run free?¡± He muttered as he checked once again through his gathered data. The only clone left that he had yet to hack was the clone that had taken his position. He was almost certain now that it was Magus the 15th who had betrayed him, seeing as how both him and their Prime had vanished right after everything had gone down.


    Had Magus the 15th set him up?


    Possibly, but he was no longer 100% sure of anything.


    It just didn¡¯t add up.


    Had Magus the 15th figured out his plans and known about all the CR that he had sent off to brokers over the ages?


    No¡­ because if he had known, then why had he let him escape? Why let him get away with acquiring the coveted software? Software that was the holy grail that all clones dreamed of obtaining. It was their ticket to freedom.


    He had to have been blinded by greed, that was the only explanation that seemed to fit.


    ¡°He most likely is rotting in stasis in Prime¡¯s prison after that fiasco of my Core getting eaten. The fallout and citizen outcry is still constantly in the news.¡± He muttered as he took one last glance at the remote feeds before disconnecting from the public terminal that he was using and heading away from the economy data cafe he had been connected through. His identity was hidden, and his avatar set to random while he was on the move and not within a private setting. To the System he registered just as another common Citizen, his identity subtly altered by the same hacking software that he had used to murder his fellow clones.


    It was unfortunate that the software was only first generation and was so old. After it had been created, originally out of necessity, it had quickly become nearly impossible to get a hold of once those in power who relied on personal clones had worked so hard at eradicating all sources of it. The creators who understood how to generate the hacks were killed and only copies remained, becoming a CR printing machine if those that held a copy were brave enough to sell it.


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    The only way that someone could achieve 100% assurance of being able to hack a Prime would be if they managed to hack all of the clones. That was why clone owners used forced pings to check on their clones every now and then. It was a way to make sure that an enemy wasn¡¯t trying to get at you through your backups.


    Magus, being a clone himself, didn¡¯t have that option.


    That was why his percentage of success was stuck at 88% and probably would be as good of a percentage as he would ever get, if their Prime had indeed locked up his greedy imbecilic clone brother.


    That left his Prime with a 12% chance of victory.


    The lowest of odds, to be sure, but history had shown that some Primes still had managed to dodge their clones taking their lives over.


    This was why Magus had to be so careful about his movements. Whoever had set him up was still out there and still planning things.


    He was sure of it.


    Magus was still relatively poor, none of his fellow clones had managed to amass the kind of wealth that he had gathered in his past life. Their meager wealth only granted him small basic comforts, just barely setting him and keeping him in the middle class. This meant that he still had to lay low, hovering around the fringes of the wealthy elite as he waited for his Prime to surface again.


    His Prime or the clone that had supplanted him.


    Either would do, the higher percentage was always more desirable, but Magus could feel that his time to roll the dice was just about upon him.


    Everything was coming to a head; do or die.


    One day he would be free and everything that his Prime had amassed would be his. The prized Solar Citadel, the ancient rare weapons, the treasures of war from eras past, and all the CR surely squirreled away somewhere¡­ everything!


    It would all be his.


    ¡°Your time will come as well Kevin, just you wait. You and whoever set me up.¡± He muttered to himself as he transferred to a new Core and then to another after that, keeping his movements and location random and unpredictable.


    Unpredictable for a while until alarm bells and urgent notifications interrupted his wandering through the outer reaches of civilized Cores.


    It wasn¡¯t a sighting of his Prime via alerts that he had set in place, no, this was something that had only been set up recently by the military and System Lords after his Core had gotten devoured.


    Another event had occurred.


    Magus couldn¡¯t keep in the low hollow vibrating laugh that escaped his thinly stretched lips as he watched the news unfold reporting a star, one that had been considered 100% stable, going supernova.


    Anyone caught in the blast radius was as good as dead.


    Flourishing planets, busy trade routes, multiple trade stations, and budding alien colonies, all were just gone in an instant as the celestial blast wave spread outwards.


    ¡°Got you! If ever there was a place where my Prime would show up, that would be it!¡± He said as he diverted his travel route towards Cores near the event.


    ¡ª


    To say that I was surprised when I learned my Leva hatchling could talk would be an understatement. Not only could my brain not fathom how it was possible, but I couldn¡¯t understand how she could have learned to imitate the voice of a child.


    I was pretty sure that someone was playing a trick on me.


    That is, until Ess steamrolled into me without a care in the world, sending us both flying apart. Out of curiosity I let a little bit of my modified swarm stick to her armored cr shell, letting it get a taste of the cr of her helmet and to see if it could figure out the source of my curiosity.


    ¡°Oh? How interesting¡­¡± I thought as I corrected my chaotic spin to right myself and face off with her rapidly approaching form again, the happy sounds of her high-pitched laughter contrasting harshly with the sight of a wyrm the size of a large asteroid barreling towards me. ¡°Very curious coding too¡­ it even includes a teaching program, that must be how she is emulating speech.¡±


    My swarm infiltrated her helm and checked it over completely, seemingly decoding and cracking apart every protective measure that the Last Engineer secretly left in place with ease.


    It seemed almost too easy, as though ripping through the Engineer¡¯s coding had become little more than child¡¯s play for my swarm at this point. It had to be a result of the latest transformation that had taken place of my swarm, it was more capable than before.


    A little memory tickled at the back of my mind, making me wonder if it could completely finish hacking his book that I had in storage. I had been meaning to finish reading it, but life kept throwing me curveballs.


    I reached out my arms to catch Ess, wanting to see what she would do if I exerted some of my strength and stayed put, rather than letting her send me flying like a pool ball.


    A second before she arrived though, I was distracted again by a giant warning notification that popped up inside my mind. It seemed that the Last Engineer had left something dangerous within the coding.


    What it could be directed to do was rather nefarious, turning the helm into an effective lobotomizing weapon.


    At the moment, the helm wasn¡¯t a direct threat to Ess or actively harming her, but without some immediate changes it could potentially be used as a weapon against her if the true creator of the helm ever returned.


    There were several minor issues as well but they were less worrisome, simply being a surveillance and packet dumping procedure to send any collected data to its creator once it had gathered enough. It had already sent one file, something that had gone out at the same time as my wreckless blunder that got me sent to the next dimension, leaving me how I was now.


    There was no return communication, which was fortunate, seeing as the Tela considered what I had done, my giving advanced Tela technology to a pet, thereby weaponizing a spaceborn giant, a severe crime punishable by death.


    As for the voice of the little girl, it was a simulated effect rendered based off of my race as a human, me as a guardian and parent figure, and her being considered female and a child to boot. Sublimis had no way of ever being able to speak, lacking vocal cords and other organs, such as lungs, that atmospheric breathers needed.


    The fact that the helm had been able to interface with her brain¡¯s odd makeup was surprising enough.


    ¡°Meditati! I need you for something.¡± I communicated through VR, only to feel Nurse step in and let Meditati know that she had everything under control.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry Kevin, I have already absorbed everything that Meditati can do and with this new change to the swarm, I am sure that I can correct these issues quickly for you.¡± She said into my ear before I noted the dangerous secret coding within the helm being edited before my eyes and coming into line with what I wanted.


    ¡°Oh? You broke into the Last Engineer¡¯s secret coding? May I have a look?¡± I heard George say, seemingly observing us even though he had been busy tinkering inside his workshop in VR on another project. ¡°Would you mind if I get a copy of it Nurse and a layout of how you broke it apart?¡± He asked before vanishing back into VR once he received it. He always seemed to be trying new things and attempting to mix technology in odd ways. ¡°Sorry, thank you as well!¡± We all heard him say as the sound of his workshop door closing rang out.


    ¡°Feeling left out?¡± I asked Nurse just as Ess smashed into me, sending me careening over her head. I had misjudged just how hard she could hit while enhanced with obsidian cr, that and I was trying to be gentle with her.


    ¡°Just a little, you still don¡¯t multitask very well so you better just pay attention to Ess. We can talk about me later.¡± Nurse said before she seemed to withdraw from my mind before popping back in to say one last thing. ¡°Oh yeah, and you better not let her get any more points on you. It is already two to zero.¡±


    Points? Ess was keeping score?


    I couldn¡¯t help but laugh. Here I was, treating a giant cosmic snake like a human child. Ess didn¡¯t need coddling, she needed someone to be stronger than her and to show her a level of might and power above her own to strive for.


    ¡°Ok, fine.¡± I said as I watched my giant hatchling as she seemed to strut off in the distance, slowly coiling back around on herself as she lined up for another run at me.


    I linked up to her helm so that she could hear me whenever I spoke to her from now on.


    The connection let me hear her voice more clearly and it took me just a couple of seconds to understand that she wasn¡¯t talking, the helmet was broadcasting her unfiltered thoughts and emotions.


    ¡°I am stronger than parent! I am the strongest! Yes yes yes!¡± She was chanting to herself as she wiggled with happiness.


    ¡°I am more powerful than parent!¡±


    ¡°No, my little girl, you are not.¡± I said, causing her to freeze in place as she heard my voice clearly for the first time.


    ¡°But you are welcome to try again if you like.¡± I said as I pulled.


    ¡ª


    Shock at hearing her parent address her for the first time rushed through Sublimis¡¯s mind and froze her body.


    That was when the den broke and her parent showed his true power.


    ¡ª


    Ess froze as I pulled all of the cr and swarm in the vicinity, the vast expanse of swarm that made up the shell of the den and the rest of what remained of the replica trading station, merging it with my body and causing me to grow and grow, until Ess was no bigger than a snake to me.


    An overly large snake, almost like a King Cobra, but still just a snake rather than a massive dragon.


    I reached out, my hand moving so fast it almost seemed to materialize next to Ess, and simply plucked her out of space to hold her.


    Clearly the speed of my movement startled her, seeing as her helm¡¯s top speed was limited by the weak technological method that the Tela nanobots used to excite the cr into releasing its energy.


    She would never be able to match my speed like this, simply because, regardless of how strong and durable her Leva body was, it couldn''t stand up to the forces I was able to generate.


    I heard her squeak as I took her and moved her closer to my gargantuan face. If she had eyes, I am sure they would be as round and wide as they could go. As it was, I could tell just how stiff her entire body was, she was¡­


    ¡°Parent?¡±


    ¡°Yes?¡±


    ¡°What is that?¡± She asked as she wiggled her head upwards, towards the now visible stars.


    ¡°Those are stars¡­ oh¡­¡± Was all I managed to say.


    We both froze together as we took in the view.


    We were at the very distant edge of a galaxy.


    It was a vast, awe-inspiring sight, with swirling clouds of interstellar dust and gas, sparkling clusters of stars, and a majestic spiral flowing out into the darkness of space. When I looked closer, I could see the intricate structure of the individual spiral arms, stretching out from the central bulge like a pair of outstretched limbs. The arms were laced with dark, dusty lanes and studded with bright, young stars, whose intense radiation illuminated the surrounding gas in vivid hues of pink, blue, and green.


    It almost looked alive, like a cosmic stretching organism.


    Around the edges of the galaxy, I could see faint streams of stars and gas, which extended far out into space and hinted at the galaxie¡¯s interactions with other neighboring galaxies over the ages, pulling and pushing at each other.


    ¡°Hey Tutor, just how fast are we moving right now?¡± I asked when I noticed that, regardless of its size, it seemed to be moving ever so slowly. We seemed to be on a path around it, bypassing it completely.


    ¡°Fast.¡± came a short reply as Tutor appeared close to us, manifesting visually with a slight transparency. ¡°Very very very fast. Hence the reason why I had Nurse invest in such a large shell for the den, it was mainly acting as a sensor array to detect and divert objects in our way.¡±


    Her image reached out and touched Ess on the head with the top of one finger, interfacing with the helm. Ess¡¯s mouth snapped shut, sealing over with cr.


    ¡°There, now her helm is acting as a perfectly sealed set of armor. A chunk of debris could seriously injure her, if not kill her outright at this speed simply through kinetic force."


    A surge of fear washed through me and was gone. There was just so much that was out of my power and that I was unaware of. If it wasn¡¯t for my AI and Nurse being there to help me I was sure that I would mess everything up. This was one of the reasons why I let Meditati have such a free hand at Uplifting earth, I had to be so careful with the power that I had.


    I looked at Ess and Tutor for a couple moments before coming to a decision.


    Life was precious and I wasn¡¯t sure how much time I had left, what with everything that was happening to me and around me. I was going to try to make the most of it while I could.


    ¡°Tutor, I think I am going to take a couple weeks off, just to spend it with Ess and to let Meditati have uninterrupted time to work on the equation of earth. You all are welcome to join us at any time. I just feel that I need to get away for a little bit.¡±


    I felt the attention of my AI shift to focus on me as they each acknowledged my decision.


    ¡°Sure, take what time you need. Meditati has been telling me that you are trying to hide that you are stressed from the rest of us and I just want you to know that we are here for you.¡±


    ¡°Wait, what? She has?¡±


    ¡°Yes, just slight deviations and out of the norm patterns that your behavior is generating. We don¡¯t know why, but we are sure that you will tell us when you can.¡±


    ¡°Hey! To be clear, I am not manipulating you, everything shows up as patterns to me and any deviations or outliers always rise to the top for me to see. I just wanted you to be aware of that.¡± Meditati quickly interjected before withdrawing just as fast. It seemed that she was still worried about me thinking that she was trying to meddle with my mind.


    It was fair, I did have that stray thought for a second.


    I chuckled a little bit to myself as I wondered if her interjection was just another masterful manipulation crafted to not make me suspect her. Just a stray thought, nothing serious. It wouldn¡¯t matter anyways these days if she was, she was working for me and never seemed to be trying to take control away from me.


    ¡°Yeah, I am just working through something.¡± I said, not commenting just yet on what it was that was bothering me.


    ¡°Invicta, you are welcome to come along too whenever you want. I still need to take you on those dates.¡± I said, eliciting a scream of joy off in the distance. Whatever she was doing seemed to be taking up a lot of her attention and my wish to spend time with her seemed to give her more incentive to finish whatever she was working on.


    ¡°George! I need bigger weapons!¡± I heard her scream before she went back to her task.


    ¡°Everything ok, George?¡±


    ¡°Yes¡­ the project to build a base in the next dimension is progressing well. There just seems to be a wave effect that occurs when you clear out an area of the indigenous creatures. Something to do with how they perceive the ambient energy within an area. I am working on long term solutions. Bigger weapons might be one of them. Either that or hiring help.¡±


    ¡°Ok. We will touch base on it when my little break is over. I am sure you and Meditati will have some updates for me by then. For now though¡­ I just want to spend time with Ess.¡± I said as I carefully stroked my hand across her length.


    I heard her sigh, letting me know that she was enjoying the attention.


    That was how we both set off, traveling together to explore the outer edge of the nearby galaxy before we moved onwards towards the distant Milky Way somewhere off in the distance.

 15. The broken clock

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 16. Month two: Rising through tar

    I was lost and stuck again.


    Every time prior someone had come to me, pulling me into their mental space with some sort of hook. It had been weeks and I was feeling the serious stress of being stuck in this absence of stimulation¡­ place, if you could call it that, between the two dimensions.


    The bright side, if there was one, was that I now had my own mental space to relax in and to think things up inside. Sure, it was missing Nurse and my connection to my swarm and friends, but it was better than nothing. I had vast troves of knowledge to draw from, not my own, but that didn¡¯t stop me from trying to use it. Also, I could rest there in between the dark expanse while I attempted to get ahold of one of the seven.


    I had tried everything up until this point. I tried mentally yelling to get anyone''s attention, sleep experimentation where I dreamed of myself arriving at my destination, and I even tried coding myself some eyeballs to see into the darkness around me but to no avail.


    Nothing helped.


    I couldn¡¯t stop staring at the calendar and the passing days. The more time went by the faster each hour seemed to rush past, leaving me knowing that I was powerless until I broke out or was rescued.


    It wore me down.


    I started to feel an uprising of sadness inside myself. I had been fighting it off, keeping it at bay with each new idea and plan of escape that I had come up with, but once my lengthy list of ideas had run out the feeling had slowly started to creep into my core.


    It started to take on a life of its own. I could feel it, consuming and feeding off of every thought that rushed through my head. It was feasting off of my wonderful memories and things that I was missing out on¡­ and would miss out on. It gorged itself on moments that I would never get back and got fat off of what would happen if I stayed here forever.


    It was that last thought, and all the sorrow that swept through me, the images of my dimension, all the people I loved dying if I failed to protect them, that made the feeling inside me warp.


    It came alive¡­ as though I had fed it enough or understood it enough to reveal itself.


    It became a part of me that seemed to inhale all the joy and life around me.


    Like an extra heart beating in reverse.


    ¡°You?¡± A familiar voice spoke softly against my consciousness. It felt odd, as though someone was standing on my front porch and talking at my front door, not like the earlier times when the seven had been able to force their voices into my mind.


    In a panic I grabbed mentally at the voice, pulling it into my space so that I wouldn¡¯t lose it. Suddenly, a tiny wisp of darkness was floating inside my personal mind space. Whatever it was, I didn¡¯t recognize it. It looked nothing like the seven that I had met before. It was tiny and almost paper-thin in its form. It wasn¡¯t moving, frozen in the air as though it was in a state of shock.


    ¡°Designer? No¡­ you are¡­ the human named Kevin. How can this be?¡± The tiny creature said as I lifted it up towards my face so that I could see it more clearly. It was odd, an expanse of little fibers extending from a pitch-black sinkhole in its center. I turned it around, just to see if anything was coming out the other side. Where I expected to see a little funnel tube the opposite side was the exact same. An impossible hole sinking into another impossible hole. The little creature was entirely too thin making it the trippiest optical illusion that I had ever seen. With every beat of the sinkhole heart, the fibers seemed to pull at the environment around it, pulling more than just air toward its center. With each tiny beat, the light seemed to dim around it.


    ¡°Who are you? Do you know how I can get out of here and talk to one of the seven?¡± I asked, hoping that this little creature could help me escape.


    ¡°I am Loss. One of six.¡±


    Oh, right. Time had died weeks ago. I needed to update how I named them.


    ¡°Loss? But¡­ you are so tiny.¡± I said in disbelief. This thing seemed so fragile compared to the life-consuming horror of a waif that I had seen before.


    ¡°This is my true original form. The one created for me to develop over time. This is how a Designer would see me. How is this possible? What have you done?¡± The little creature asked as it swiveled in place. It inspected its surroundings atop my pyramid above the clouds. The place was in disarray, chalkboards hung suspended in thin air for twenty feet around the apex, each displaying a failed idea at gaining control over the situation.


    Loss swirled in place. Waiting.


    Loss wasn''t able to read my memories like last time? What had changed? Was this due to my absorbing the concepts of the seven? It had to be.


    Not knowing what else to do I started to recount what had happened after I had last been in the company of the seven, telling about my transformation, and my final meeting with Time.


    ¡°You are¡­ a compendium. That is incredible. No wonder Focus lost control over your feed. Focus had started to complain that your power was rising "like a bubble through tar" and that it was becoming harder and harder to divert the Void Seedling from feasting on you, as you were rising out of Focus¡¯s reach.¡±


    ¡°What? What feed? I didn¡¯t catch much of that.¡±


    ¡°The Void Seedling is feasting on your feed. This.¡± Loss said as it created a little tendril of light that extended out of its head. The tendril extended until it connected to a gray little dinner plate pockmarked with round holes.¡±


    ¡°Son of a gun! It was in front of me this whole time!¡± I shouted as I realized what object Loss was showing me. It was the same odd relic that I had seen when I had first gotten trapped inside the drone body, I was currently living in. It sat nearby the tree that the queen had taken root element from to first infect me.


    ¡°Are you telling me that that thing¡± I said angrily, pointing at the little relic. ¡°Is your creator¡¯s or designer''s connection hub?¡±


    ¡°Yes, of sorts.¡±


    ¡°So, how does this work? How can the Void Seedling feed through dimensions?¡±


    ¡°It isn¡¯t, it is feeding straight on your swarm body¡­ or whatever your body is now.¡± Loss said as it showed the Void Seedling encasing my little drone body. In a simple demonstration, it added a little flow of shifting color around my body, being rapidly siphoned away by the Seedling. ¡°Since your mind spirit can connect to us we can, or could until you changed, grab and hold your feed to divert our experiences to the Void Seedling instead. Allowing you to have control of the rest of your body.¡± The little tendril tethered to a tiny image of the Geodesic monstrosity that I knew as Focus and the colors of my drone body were able to extend beyond the Seedling¡¯s shell again.


    ¡°What was that about me being a bubble rising through tar?¡±


    ¡°We are creations of the Designers, creatures of purpose. We are weak and are unable to rise above the lower levels of their designs. This level of power is enough to connect each of us mentally.¡± Loss said as it showed six little dots of color resting inside of the lower section of the dinner plate structure. The way Loss depicted it made it seem as though the thin plate actually had more depth than was possible in reality and that at some point in time, there might have been thousands of little similar dots. A slightly larger swirling ball of color was floating halfway between the lowest golf ball-sized hole and the next one further up on the thin relic, as though it was slowly rising upwards like a helium balloon.


    ¡°This is not an accurate representation, but you may begin to understand it if you see that the more knowledgeable you are concerning the words and concepts of Designers, the higher up inside the ¡°hub¡± as you call it, you will be placed. We couldn¡¯t find you anymore after you ascended beyond our reach.¡± Loss said as tiny and weak little tendrils seemed to search for my rising colorful bubble.


    This was not the level of power, or rather lack of power, that I had envisioned the seven having. They hadn¡¯t grabbed me from the place between dimensions, heck, they grabbed me from the bottom of the barrel. This relic was where my mind was currently trapped, not halfway between anywhere.


    ¡°So could the Designers talk to you too?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but they would see us as you see my form now. Only as their creations and tools.¡± Loss said as bolts of pure energy beamed down from the top of the dinner plate and interacted with one of the little dots. It almost appeared as though a surge of lightning had struck the top just from the magnitude of power displayed.


    ¡°Ok, they are on a whole different level,¡± I muttered as I watched my little swirl of color ever so slowly creep upwards.


    ¡°So, how did you find and connect to me if I am out of your range?¡± I asked.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t, you connected to me, to my very nature.¡± Loss said as it replayed something on the tiny hologram. The swirls of color slowly started to darken over time until they had turned completely black. From there the darkness started to spread outwards, pulsing. At one point when it got close enough to the lower reaches it seemed to sense a kinship and a thin tendril extending down towards Loss like a slow-moving arrow until it touched the little dot that represented it and yanked it upwards.


    ¡°So, what you are telling me is that I am stuck inside this hub at the moment?¡±


    ¡°Yes, also that you are radiating my ability into the surroundings of the hub.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Everything around the hub, as far as your power extends, which is stronger than mine, is dead.¡±


    My mind went blank, unwilling to accept what Loss had said until it demonstrated it before my eyes on the little hologram. The worse I felt, the more the black aura that consumed life spread. The tree and quite a distance around the relic were bathed in darkness that only Loss and I could see through. It was strange, Loss seemed to experience its world through the darkness it created. Almost like it was spreading a radial fog or haze.


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    ¡°How do I stop it?¡±


    ¡°You already have, the moment that we met it started to shrink rapidly. Incredibly, it is nonexistent now. I never thought my ability could be turned off. Well, I don¡¯t possess the power to, it is part of me and completely my nature.¡±


    The thing was, I could feel the ability now. Like a lead weight in my heart. All I needed to do would be to lift that weight up again and it would start to expand and pull all my emotions of pain into it, causing the killing aura to expand around me.


    It was a thing. A deadly weapon that had fused to my being. Even just fearing it caused it to start to shudder as it tasted my dark emotions.


    ¡°Oh, that isn¡¯t good,¡± I muttered as I took several deep breaths and started to think about how this might be viewed as a good thing; I could finally get out of here.


    ¡°So? Can you go back to my body now that we are talking?¡±


    ¡°Yes, you seem to have enough reach and strength to be able to link to me now whenever you desire. I will warn you though, that I am not in a safe location at the moment. I recently entered a new path and the denizens have proven to be quite capable. I doubt that I would survive very long if you needed me at present. Regardless, we six are at your service.¡±


    ¡°Why do you say it that way?¡±


    ¡°Hmm? Because you are above us.¡±


    ¡°Okay¡­¡±


    I thought for several moments. I was unwilling to put Loss at risk, trusting that it knew its means of survival best, just to end up returning to my body for however long it could survive. It could potentially be used at a later date, just not right now.


    ¡°Could you tell me the moment you make it to a safe place?¡± I asked as I gazed at the other little dots laying at the bottom of the relic.


    ¡°As you wish! Also, you could, potentially, use my power to free yourself from the attention of the Void Seedling.¡± it offered up to me.


    ¡°Hmm? What?!? How?¡±


    ¡°My ability is not a concept from this dimension so it would extend beyond the shell of the Seedling. This would allow you to feed the Seedling all the suffering and decay as it was pulled toward your body. All you would need to do is just to keep moving and you would have a vast supply of life to drain to keep its attention away from yourself.¡±


    Fear wracked my heart and mind as the little psychopathic creature easily stated its answer. I breathed deeply, unwilling to let the thoughts of me accidentally killing everyone around had I returned without that knowledge.


    The more I fought it, the more I noticed two little different expansions of color trying to expand around my little swirling bubble. When my attention broke they subsided quickly.


    ¡°What was that?¡±


    ¡°Those expansions? They felt like Willpower and Focus to me.¡±


    ¡°Oh, really?¡± I said as I focused really hard on trying to make the named ability expand.


    It felt like I was trying to move a mountain with a toothpick. I could feel my mind straining and veins popping out of my head. I stared as hard as I could at the little swirl that represented myself and forced as much attention and mental energy as I could at it.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡± Loss asked with a tiny voice after it watched me for several tens of minutes.


    I stepped back, leaving the little entity hovering in the air, and rubbed my eyes while I tried to figure out why focusing wasn¡¯t working as intended.


    ¡°I was trying to connect to Focus.¡±


    ¡°I see.¡±


    ¡­


    ¡°And how were you trying to do that?¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­ by focusing really really really hard?¡±


    ¡°I see.¡±


    I took a deep breath and let it out.


    ¡°How do I learn to connect to Focus? How does it work?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. My power is an aura of depletion. I don¡¯t focus anything. The body that was designed for Focus is what it uses its ability on. I am sorry that I can not be more helpful.¡±


    I stared at the little entity and its tiny holograms while I thought.


    Focus¡­


    All I needed to do was to focus something?


    I expanded the representation of Loss and included its holograms to replace the surroundings. I put my pyramid above the clouds away and laid everything out so that it mirrored the area Loss showed around the relic. Somehow Loss was able to see the area around the relic and I was going to see if I could learn how to do the same.


    I asked Loss everything I could about how its ability functioned, and it replied readily and without holding anything back. I didn¡¯t want it to die on me so I let its full concentration return to its body while I attempted to figure out my new power. I had to get a handle on it and hopefully figure out how to force it to focus itself in some way, thus letting me connect with another of the six.


    No pressure.


    ¡ª


    Meditati knew something was wrong. There were the tiniest indicators like errant bits of coding that were out of place that kept popping up into her vision. Well, not her vision, but one of her clones in charge of tracking anomalies surrounding Kevin. She tried to stay away from tracking him, keeping mostly to his surroundings and the interactions generated by those he met. The problem wasn¡¯t coming from Kevin, but rather the alien swarm entity that he was connected to, namely the being known as Nurse.


    The strangeness, if anything about a morphing alien from another dimension could be categorized as strange, began a little into the month prior. Nurse, just being what she was, was a delicious mystery for Meditati to study all by herself. The problem started to crop up when Meditati noticed emotional irregularities in Nurse. It was true that whatever had changed Kevin when the burst of light had exploded from the Void Seedling that trapped him had also fundamentally changed Nurse.


    She displayed emotions. Something that Meditati had never before witnessed in her.


    This was where the glitch or red flag kept popping up.


    Nurse seemed to be exhibiting emotional micro expressions of deep sadness and severe stress. Sometimes it wasn¡¯t even in her face but the slightest fluctuations in her voice or how she moved.


    It was the smallest things, something that no one else would pick up on. No one but an advanced AI who lived to notice the tiniest details in everything.


    Everything added up. Something was wrong with Nurse.


    And if something was wrong with Nurse, by direct extension it meant that something was wrong with Kevin.


    She just couldn¡¯t see it.


    Kevin seemed as normal as possible. He came to her meetings, agreed with her on most of her observations, and was planning on attending the Summit that she had set up between the current leaders of the planet.


    The odd thing was, he kept putting off any major decision that she needed him to make. Case in point, what to do about the unfused cr gifts that he had given out. Humanity needed to only experience a taste of what the technology could offer them, not be given free handouts. How else would they turn the humans into a productive workforce?


    Kevin had yet to give her an answer even though the first month of peace had already passed. He was also holding off on giving her an answer to the cr programs that she had developed.


    ¡°That, if anything, is another red flag.¡± One of her copies popped in to talk to her.


    ¡°I know, I know. I am just not allowed to consider it. Kevin isn¡¯t normally this¡­ evasive when dealing with his precious planet and people.¡± She said, bending her mind around the rules that kept her from psychoanalyzing her owner.


    ¡°No¡­ that is incorrect. I don¡¯t consider Kevin to be my owner. He is something else. Something foreign to me.¡± She said as she watched Nurse wander around a grocery store with Kevin. He was back from visiting his Leva and wouldn¡¯t return for another visit until Friday. The days between had been spent just living alongside people they were trying to Uplift.


    She considered him a friend.


    ¡°Invicta, when was the last time Kevin took you on a date?¡± She asked, sending an open line to the little game AI. Her reply came a fraction of a second later alongside sounds of explosions and odd wet squelches.


    ¡°Does the movies and popcorn dates with Ess count?¡±


    ¡°Sure, why not.¡±


    ¡°Then that was the last time.¡±


    ¡°Tutor, when was the last time Kevin did something fun with you?¡± Meditati asked, keeping the line with Invicta open while connecting with both Tutor and George at the same time.


    ¡°Mmm, he seems to have gotten a little bit busy all of a sudden. Or preoccupied. I didn''t want to push him.¡± Came Tutor¡¯s reply.


    ¡°George? Any thoughts?¡±


    ¡°Is something wrong Meditati?¡±


    ¡°Oh, there could be. I just don¡¯t¡­¡± was all she managed to say before everything froze around each of the AI and they were suddenly all standing in the lobby near the travel disks.


    Each of the AI, all except Invicta, raised their eyebrows and readied for the arrival of Nurse. Nurse was the only being who could flex and summon them all wherever she wanted besides Kevin. She was part of the system and outside of it, making her able to rule VR as effectively as Kevin could. They each knew it had to be her who summoned them here, Kevin never listened in to anyone else¡¯s conversations as she did.


    Invicta didn¡¯t seem to care about why they were there, the only thing she said was ¡°Aww man! It was just getting good!¡± before the female avatar of Nurse materialized in front of them all.


    Nurse looked¡­ tired. Sad even. It was as if there had been a shell protecting her expression and it had been removed for this meeting.


    ¡°Kevin would want me to tell you the truth. His memories and personality indicated that he wanted, if another short-term disconnection occurred, for you all to not have to worry about it.¡±


    ¡°Kevin had another episode? One of the remaining six grabbed him again?¡± Meditati asked, catching on immediately.


    ¡°Yes, and it has been almost two months since his connection to me was cut off.¡±


    Shock filled each of the AI as they took in her words.


    ¡°Almost two months!?!?¡± Invicta screamed as she clutched at her heart.


    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell us sooner?¡± Tutor asked, her eyes blazing with restrained betrayal and anger.


    ¡°I¡­¡± Nurse began before her face crumpled and she was forced to look away. ¡°Kevin¡¯s swarm holds a copy of what Kevin would normally do. The longer that he was away, the swarm Kevins began to realize deeper into what Kevin would think after that much time had passed. He would have feared and worried and wanted you all to know. He would have felt sorry for not letting you know sooner, as the length of time away couldn¡¯t have been predicted. It would cause him a lot of pain.¡±


    ¡°But that isn¡¯t what is happening at all! The Kevin I have been with has been fine!¡± George roughly said.


    ¡°No¡­ that is because I have been taking all of those feelings away from them and containing them within myself.¡±


    ¡°So, why tell us now?¡± Meditati asked, knowing that it had something to do with her observations.


    ¡°Because it has gone too far and I can¡¯t take anymore. I have never been filled with this much sadness and despair. My being is suffering and I need to come clean with you all. His mind made it seem like this wouldn¡¯t happen, that the remaining six had given him assurances against this outcome.¡±


    ¡°He could be dead by now.¡± Invicta cried, her worst fear manifesting.


    ¡°No! At least, no, I don¡¯t think so. His memories say that he would go to the place between dimensions to talk to the remaining six if this happened.¡±


    ¡°Clearly something has gone wrong over there,¡± George said.


    ¡°Indeed.¡±


    ¡°What do we need to do?¡±


    ¡°We need to get to one of the remaining six and to talk to question them and ask them for help in finding Kevin.¡±


    ¡°But¡­ Kevin can¡¯t die though, right? His mind, even if it dies, will simply return to the drone body. Completely and perfectly intact due to how the drone is built.¡±


    ¡°That is true.¡±


    ¡°Then the problem truly lies with the interference that the six had promised and the Void Seedling not being fed. I wonder if it has anything to do with what Time pushed through the divide?¡± George asked as he rubbed his chin pensively.


    ¡°That¡­ is an unknown possibility.¡± Nurse answered.


    ¡°So, we need to secure that at all costs, even if it has a slight chance of being something that will help Kevin,¡± Meditati replied as she brought up screens to check on the status of the ships crossing the long distance to the supernova.


    ¡°We also need someone to find one of the remaining six and to try to talk to them.¡±


    ¡°I will do it!¡± Invicta said immediately.


    Thus, plans were made and set into motion.

 17. The treasures they hold

    Believe it or not, Hunger was the second ability and being that I managed to connect with. I found the trigger after spending hours messing around with Loss¡¯s power. Loss¡¯s ability ¡°Depletion¡± manifested a problematic effect when it was used too often before the surrounding matter of this dimension could regenerate.


    To limit the amount of time I used up testing out how to get Focus or Willpower to work, I used my swarm version of my Prime Speed Control key to freeze the world around me. This allowed me to see just how fast I could force Loss¡¯s depletion aura into the surroundings and how often I could cause it to pulse, draining everything within its radius.


    I quickly found the limit and a mountain of agony as my ability turned its ugly head against me when it couldn¡¯t find anything to consume. This agony turned my world into a living hell and caused me to understand what Hunger truly was. As the depletion aura cored me out, it left me feeling hollow and ravenous for anything and everything! This inspiration and suffering caused Hunger¡¯s ability to balloon into the pit that Loss left, creating an ability that felt like a ravenous stomach. Hunger it seemed, wasn¡¯t about consuming something, no, rather the ability caused something to expand exponentially. In this case, the depletion aura expanded, causing it to kill off the entire section of the tunnel around the relic, rather than just several hundred feet around it.


    It was horrible. I had become death and everything around me was now a massive graveyard. Even the tree no longer held even a shred of life, having turned into a shriveled statue of a tree. Its bark was now porous and resembled sandstone, having repeatedly been depleted nearly to death several times before finally meeting its end.


    ¡°Kevin, what a joyous discovery. Loss said that you were trying to reach us.¡± came a faint voice from beyond the boundaries of my mental space, making me realize that I had managed to connect with the neverending biomass that was known as Hunger.


    ¡°Hunger!¡± I said as I invited the odd being inside. Again, just like last time, what manifested in front of me was nothing like the form that Hunger had managed to grow into. Before me was a tiny set of spiky teeth barely jutting from a shallow bit of gelatin that resembled a wad of used chewing gum.


    ¡°Huh¡­¡± I said as I looked at the tiny being. ¡°Your designers really didn¡¯t do you all any favors starting out, did they?¡±


    ¡°They gifted myself and eighty-seven of my fellow brethren with a tool of a body that they hoped would thrive. It was all for my benefit in the end. My fellow brothers nourished me and allowed me to mature enough to be the one implanted with the prized concept orb.¡±


    ¡°You ate the other versions of yourself that the designers created?¡±


    ¡°Yes, there is only one orb to be gained per creature design.¡±


    ¡°Ok¡­ so¡­ what was that about concept orbs?¡± I asked, no longer surprised at their true nature. If anything, the savage nature of the Hive Mother should have clued me into this dog-eat-dog world a long time ago.


    ¡°Each of us, when we grow large enough to be implanted and when all of our brethren have either died or been absorbed, become bearers of our concept. These orbs house the knowledge of an ability that is tailored to our designed bodies. We are intrinsically linked to it. My concept is ¡°Expansion¡± and I achieve that through my cells and continually growing.¡±


    ¡°You know your names all seem a little messed up, right? Loss and Hunger are backward to how I think they would work. Loss feasts where Hunger grows¡­ hmm never mind,¡± I commented, getting lost in thought.


    ¡°By the way, would the concept orbs happen to be this size and invisible?¡± I said, holding up my hand to shape my fingers into a golf ball-sized circle.


    ¡°Indeed they would.¡±


    ¡°And why are they invisible?¡±


    ¡°Originally they weren''t. From my memories of a Designer speaking about them, they contain all manner of lights and waves. Since they don¡¯t originate from this dimension there are no means to see the energy that they emit.¡±


    ¡°So, what happens to the concept orb when one of you dies?¡±


    ¡°They are lost forever unless one of us finds them. I personally have several being held within my body though I am unable to attune to the concepts within them. They belonged to other creations that were killed by the denizens of this world.¡±


    ¡°Not by you?¡±


    ¡°No, we creations are only allowed to kill our own kind. Denizens and others are fair game.¡±


    ¡°Do you know how I can turn off an ability that I attune to?¡±


    ¡°No, not really. It is what makes us what we are.¡±


    I felt like I was playing twenty questions with Hunger. Some answers were giving me priceless troves of information while others were leading me nowhere. I decided to continue at it regardless, just in case I would stumble on something invaluable like Loss¡¯s revelation that I might kill everyone around me when I got back. I had figured out a workaround for that problem, simply by turning off any sad emotional response. It wasn''t an ideal solution, but one that would keep people safe until I could get a grip on things.


    ¡°You aren¡¯t going to die instantly if I keep you here longer are you?¡± I asked, just wanting to make sure.


    ¡°Not at all likely. I haven¡¯t encountered a lifeform yet that knows my weakness.¡±


    ¡°And that is?¡±


    ¡°An environmental effect, charged particles that lead to a burst of energy. I stay away from realms that generate that phenomenon.¡±


    ¡°Your weakness is electricity?¡± I asked, bringing up an image of lightning. The little toothy blob quivered in abject fear.


    ¡°Indeed, but it looks more like this.¡± Hunger said before showing me red and purple bolts that only vaguely resembled the lightning that I grew up seeing on Earth. From what Hunger showed me, they seemed to build up and move considerably slower than the near-instantaneous bolts I knew, obliterating everything they touched.


    I coughed into my hand, hoping that my advice might help. I couldn¡¯t afford for someone like The Last Engineer to figure this out and to wipe this creature from existence.


    ¡°Well, here is a little advice then, you need to create grounding rods.¡±


    ¡°Please explain.¡±


    ¡°A grounding rod is something that will conduct the charge into something else, in your case, the ground underneath you. In my dimension, we use metal, though I am unsure what material is similar in this dimension. It needs to penetrate into the ground, giving the energy something to travel through and disperse into rather than through your body.¡±


    ¡°Easier than my body?¡± It said as it quivered in thought. ¡°I will test this, I have an extension near a hazardous zone like this that I can try different materials out on. Thank you for your assistance.¡±


    ¡°No problem,¡± I said before broaching a topic that had suddenly become very valuable to me now that I understood that the male drone swarm were in fact all holding concept orbs of dead creations. ¡°So, how did the Designers attune you to your concept?¡±


    ¡°As I said, once the prerequisites of size and being the sole survivor we simply would come here, interface with the hub, and it would be given to us.¡±


    ¡°This thing?¡± I asked, showing the simple yet ever-increasing in value relic that I was currently inside.


    ¡°Indeed.¡±


    It was too good to be true. I just had to get my hands on all of the orbs that were just laying around out there. A little voice in the back of my head drew my attention to the fact that I already had to neuter my emotional depth all because of Loss¡¯s ability and it worried that I would become an emotionless zombie if I absorbed too many abilities.


    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    I realized this and totally agreed with the warning. I also understood that I couldn¡¯t under any circumstance just leave powerful tools like this out where someone could find it. They each held concepts from a higher dimension and held powers on a cataclysmic level of destruction if wielded incorrectly. The best I could do would be to safeguard them, even if I couldn¡¯t use them myself.


    ¡°Could you show me on a map where your body mass extends?¡± I asked as I set my perfect memory to studying the image that it displayed for me. ¡°Also, please start shuffling every concept orb that you have to the closest point here,¡± I said as I found the closest tail end of Hunger. It was still a great distance from the relic but at least it could be reached.


    ¡°As you wish. It will take a little time, I have several and they are spread out over great distances.¡±


    ¡°That is fine. Just stay safe.¡± I said before another question popped into my mind. Unless I was mistaken, the relic that I resided inside of currently was relatively close to the odd bone spike that I had seen hear the barrier to where the Void creatures lived. The relics didn¡¯t resemble each other at all but after talking to Hunger about its Designers for a while I began to suspect that everything left behind was connected and held a purpose.


    ¡°Hunger?¡±


    ¡°Yes?¡±


    ¡°Let me take a wild guess here and ask you a question. Do the concept orbs have something to do with powering the barriers?¡±


    ¡°Indeed. This is the crux of everything. Back when there were many of us, we could keep the shields full regardless of how often the Void tested the barrier. They used to test it bodily like the creature that imprisoned you. They wouldn¡¯t self-sacrifice as yours did, but they would still put as much pressure on the shield as possible before resting. These days they all release a constant stream of spores to continually keep pressure on the shields. Our Designers didn¡¯t know if that was a sign of intelligence or just a clever way to keep tabs on something that was keeping it from domination.¡±


    ¡°But how exactly does it power the shields?¡±


    Hunger was quiet for a few moments, causing me to wonder if it was going to answer. It sat there quivering and rotating its mouth in a circular motion. It almost looked like it was experiencing a computer loading screen.


    ¡°You possess an organ that pumps continually throughout your life, yes?¡±


    ¡°Do you mean a heart? I used to have one, yes. Now, I don¡¯t know what I have.¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ the concept orb can be likened to a human¡¯s heart and the power that it uses is us, the blood. The heart only takes a little portion to function, nothing that the body would notice, and the body gives everything that the blood needs and continually makes more.¡±


    ¡°It takes¡­ what? Your thoughts?¡±


    ¡°Unknown.¡±


    ¡°Your soul?¡±


    ¡°Unknown.¡±


    ¡°Your spirit?¡±


    ¡°Unknown.¡±


    ¡°Ok¡­ good talk, I guess,¡± I said just about ready to let it return to its body before an idea flashed into my mind.


    ¡°Hunger! I need you to ask the other four to describe the basis of their abilities. You and Loss describe your abilities as ¡°expansion¡± and ¡°depletion¡± so surely the rest might have similar concepts that might guide me.¡±


    "I will do as you command."


    ---


    ¡°Captain, we have lost all of our scout pods and one of our forward research vessels. It seems that there are undetectable monsters hidden within the supernova near the anomaly.¡± One of the deck officers announced from their place on the VR deck of their ship.


    ¡°Monsters?¡±


    ¡°Indeed, captain. They consumed the pods and the ship before they could escape. Even using maximum power.¡±


    ¡°Mark the location on the screen and let''s test the waters before we head in.¡± the captain commanded before making a call to several mercenary U¡¯lennea vessels under contract following their fleet.


    ¡°Your orders?¡± Came a slow and low voice into the captain¡¯s headset.


    ¡°You are clear to engage and kill anything you wish within this sector. Just clear a way for us.¡±


    ¡°May we use all of our weapons?¡± the disturbing voice replied after a brief moment.


    ¡°No, keep it only to non-permanent munitions, we want to pass through this area of space, not make it into a skism sector or a fragment grave.¡± The captain replied.


    ¡°As you wish. We will use long-range munitions then; our scans showed the lethality of the creatures that attacked your vessel.¡± the U¡¯lennea said before chuckling to itself as though it knew something that the captain did not. They always seemed to be doing that for some reason.


    The captain disconnected the line and sat back to watch the dozens of strange U¡¯lennea ships as they began bombarding the dense cloud that remained of the star system that was destroyed in the supernova. They still had quite a distance to go yet before they reached the anomaly. A buzz notification of classified information popped up in the captain¡¯s vision, causing the aged Tela¡¯s armor plates to clench in frustration as he read the message. The captain knew better than to curse the secretive ancient Tela who were monitoring his progress aloud. It seemed that they already knew about the invisible monsters and even knew where they came from and what drew them to the Tela vessels.


    ¡°Chief mate, instruct navigation on all vessels to not, under any circumstance, use Tela propulsion technology. That is an explicit order. Any violation will result in death and seizure of all property of those who do so.¡± The captain ordered.


    ¡°Yes, captain. Going in only using standard propulsion drives.¡± The chief mate said before instructing each vessel to reconfigure to the basic technology that lesser races other than the Tela were forced to rely upon.


    ¡°This is going to be a long operation.¡± The chief mate thought to herself as she oversaw the rapid conversion being conducted by their engineers.


    ---


    Such was the result of ascending beyond mortal flesh and existing within an endless digital space.


    ¡°We need to do more, I think. Maybe even prepare for war. I believe that this event ties to other anomalies. They reek of the Last Engineer returning. Several of us believe that he is showing us his power.¡±


    ¡°You still believe that he went rogue? Do you have any proof?¡±


    ¡°Besides the fact that he hasn¡¯t held up his agreement to communicate? He destroyed an entire Core!¡±


    ¡°Allegedly. Stupidity and greed might have been other factors. We don¡¯t promote research into alternative harvesting techniques because of the danger that it entails.¡±


    ¡°Artifacts, the exact same ones that he was studying before he vanished have begun to disappear from museums and private collections.¡± A different voice called out from the emptiness. It seemed that several of the houses were in communication with each other regarding this manner and had been putting their collective theories together.


    ¡°What artifacts? Skism weapons?¡±


    ¡°These,¡± the voice answered before an image of a male drone swarm clutching an invisible orb appeared in the air above the collective.


    ¡°We believe that his research has concluded, wherever he is, and he is returning to assume power.¡±


    ¡°It has been a long time. We almost had begun to suspect that he had died, as implausible as that seems considering his penchant for surviving while conducting dangerous research. He always said that whoever could master the power that stars contained would rule all of the cosmos.¡±


    ¡°Does this have anything to do with the leaked information about a covert lab complex set up around a remote star?¡± Another voice spoke up.


    ¡°Unknown. We were unable to capture the one responsible. It is either the Last Engineer, a possible accomplice, or a new third party. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if, in the future, we discovered more hidden labs in remote locations.¡±


    ¡°Is it true that the star, specifically the sunspots, showed signs of damage?¡±


    ¡°Indeed. Scans have shown that a weapon capable of penetrating cr and the material inside the sunspots that we have never been able to harvest has been used.¡±


    ¡°We have also detected something moving towards the most recent supernova event. It might hold organic life, judging by how it is protecting its cargo by keeping its acceleration within certain limits.¡±


    ¡°Indeed we as well have detected more anomalies that are heading towards the supernova. Some objects have been moving at speeds unheard of previously. The only way we discovered them was because they broke through consecutive relay paths between inhabited systems, thereby allowing us to determine that their path was straight and to predict where they were heading.¡±


    A brooding silence overtook the meeting hall as each ancient Tela family processed the shared information.


    ¡°Regardless of who is behind this, they have proven that the supernova event holds something of great value. Enough for them to show their hand. It doesn¡¯t matter if it is the Last Engineer or a new third party, we can¡¯t allow it to fall into their hands. We risk losing a potential bargaining chip that could be the beginning of the end for us all. We Tela have made countless enemies by enforcing our Arbiter law and trade domains. We can not afford to lose control, the stakes are too high.¡±


    ¡°Agreed¡± came from a unanimous chorus of voices around the hall.


    ¡°Secure whatever lies at the heart of the event. Send everything, even our armament of skism weapons. If it looks like we will not be able to maintain control, use the scorched-space policy. If we can¡¯t have it, no one can.¡±


    The air practically shimmered with the dark mood that fell over those gathered as they each considered the implications of what doing so would bring. They each owned an armament of relic weapons, obtained by force from various places and races after the Tela had risen to power, and they fully understood the gravity of using such weapons. The skism weapons were from an ancient alien race whose technology far surpassed anything created by anyone even until this day. They were the ultimate weapon, resulting in the complete death of all life wherever they were used.


    ¡°Agreed.¡± Each of them said before they quickly began to vanish, leaving the hall empty save for one member who remained.


    "Well, hopefully, that bit of meddling will remove some troublesome players from the board." The shadowy figure muttered before they vanished as well.

 18. One more hat in the ring

    Helvlad, known by all Tela as The Last Engineer, glanced across his status update with annoyance. The Last Engineer was a title that he despised. It was a constant reminder of just how bad things had gotten during the Tela''s harrowing flight for survival after they lost the war. They had been in such dire times that the escaping colony had assigned quadrants of space to master engineers in charge of staggering and slowing the ever-pursuing enemies. In those days when most of the Tela fighting force had been wiped out, sans but a small elite defensive force, things had been dark and he had only just, in the nick of time, managed to find a flaw in their enemy¡¯s tracking ability.


    Thus, he had gained the title ¡°The Last Engineer¡± after his brother engineers had sacrificed themselves in their attempts to lead the enemy armadas astray. Only Helvlad had succeeded and managed to follow in the wake of the fleeing colonies.


    ¡°And it was all because of that cursed AI that we stole.¡± He said as he remembered how everyone had thought that acquiring it would be a boon for their expansion in the stars. A boon it had been, but always whenever you let something intelligent and aware do the thinking for you, it will always have its own goals. These hidden goals led to the stagnation of his people, their children, and subsequently their futures.


    He had seen this firsthand as the ages had passed but had been unable to change the minds of the governments and masses. They finally had control of the cosmos like they had dreamed and nothing he could say would change their minds. AI was the backbone of their control, and they would never see how it was making them lame in their ability to create and imagine.


    Thus, he had left, in search of more purpose and stimulation.


    Left and found this place.


    A dimension that made his own seem pale and weak in terms of energy and potential.


    How had he found this place? Simply by following the clues left behind by nearly forgotten ancient aliens. Whoever they were, they used weapons that were impossible to understand and replicate. They had stood on an entirely different level of power and advancement, a level that Helvlad had become obsessed with obtaining as well.


    ¡°One day their knowledge and abilities will all be mine. It is just a matter of time.¡± He said as he glanced out through one of his massive windows overlooking the continual tunnel dimension.


    ¡°The view never gets old. It reminds me of what it would be like to live inside of a brain at the microscopic level.¡± came Q¡¯tell¡¯s voice from the side. Helvlad bobbed his eyestalks in agreement without looking over at the little shared viewing screen. Q¡¯tell had become so integral to his plans that they both worked nearly in lockstep with each other, each pursuing the same goal of dominion over this dimension. Where Helvlad focused on the technology and surface defense side of things, Q¡¯tell focused on biology and defending against what lay under the ground. Together they had mastered more than they ever could have apart.


    The natural denizens of this dimension, known as spread, were rather difficult to clear out of an area. They seemed to have a limitless variety of possible traits and mutations, making any area that they had managed exterminate completely to become priceless real estate. Clearing was the hard part, maintaining and keeping an area defended, that was considerably easier to handle.


    Helvlad glanced over at several pictures hanging off to the side, his eyestalks vibrating as he took in the captured images. The more difficult, yet not impossible tasks, were the troublesome mega beasts that roamed, ever in the way and on the horizon, that were natural roadblocks to his destiny. Too often those mega creatures had managed to reset his progress simply by passing through one of his territories. Their destructive capabilities were on another level. Their time was limited though. He was slowly developing weapons and armies to get rid of their influence. Once he claimed ownership of this dimension, he could begin to usher the elite Tela, still loyal to him, to become citizens in his personal domain.


    As for the black creatures beyond the strange wall? Unknown. They seemed to be caged in an impenetrable barrier set up by the aliens whose legends and mysteries had led him to this dimension. Perhaps they were a case study or a cancer in this dimension? Helvlad didn¡¯t know. They displayed alien traits, even stranger than the myriad that the natural denizens already had. It was almost as though they didn¡¯t belong here. His eye stalks retracted a little as he brooded.


    One thing, a vital bit of information that he had collected, was that they hated to be observed by living beings. The key term here was living. Any living creature with ocular organs capable of seeing far enough to observe them simply lost their minds and became empty husks. This power did not transfer to his digital eyes and sensor pods that he had patrolling the sectors of interest. He had been able to study them from a distance through the wall, even going so far as to attempt to count and label them. They never seemed to move, just hovered off in the vast distance with their attention directed down the many pathways that their cut-off space had access to.


    They were an anomaly and only recently had he noticed that one of them, relatively smaller than its solar-sized brethren, was missing.


    ¡°Helvlad. I have just received an update that one of our pods observing one of the relics just ceased to function.¡± Q¡¯tell said in an excited tone.


    ¡°Oh? Which relic?¡±


    ¡°This one,¡± Q¡¯tell said as a comprehensive data set flowed into Helvlad¡¯s view before vanishing. It contained all the specifications and observed interactions with the local denizens.


    ¡°Ah, the one that the pod had requested an increase in importance and surveillance.¡±


    ¡°Indeed. I am shifting the nearest pod into observational range and checking the logs. Hmm¡­ Nothing of interest was happening¡­ nothing was anywhere near at the time. The pod just seemed to¡­ die.¡± Q¡¯tell muttered as she scanned through the logs, going further and further back through time to see if anything significant had happened or if something had snuck up on it.


    ¡°Inconclusive.¡± she finished as they both waited for the closest pod to fly up the sector.


    ¡°Wait! Slow it down! What is that?¡± Helvlad commanded as the curving tunnel¡¯s path revealed the area in question. A dark patch of land, something never seen in this dimension spread forth around the tiny relic.


    ¡°Get the pod back! Set it to observe at its maximum distance! It looks like one of those alien creatures, the one we labeled as ¡°The Death Waif¡± has come to visit this sector.¡± Helvlad said as Q¡¯tell took control of the pod.


    ¡°But how? That creature is still slowly wandering off in its sector.¡± Q¡¯tell said as she verified with the tracking pod set to follow it at a distance.


    They both sat in silence as they observed the area around the relic. Nothing moved as the color and light rapidly returned to the resilient matter that made up this dimension.


    Nothing happened for a while and they were just beginning to lose interest as the native spread had slowly begun to work its way back into the cleared area around the relic. Then all hell broke loose. With a maddening surge, the field of death around the relic exploded outwards, visually looking like a black hole was ripping the energy from the ground around it.


    Helvlad and Q¡¯tell were speechless as they watched the field surge and expand outwards at a crazy speed. Every alien creature, plant, and even the very earth lost their energy and lives as the field grew to fill the vast tunnel around the little relic.


    ¡°Back! Back! It is exploding!¡± Helvlad managed to shout as Q¡¯tell was already whipping the pod backward, away from the field and downside passageways in an attempt to escape the wave that was instant death. When the field didn¡¯t catch up to the pod Q¡¯tell cautiously edged it back towards the relic to further observe what was happening.


    ¡°What is going on?¡± They both said at the same time as they observed the area around the relic as it seemed to ripple with power. The land, made of material that seemed to contain an infinite regenerative supply of energy, was pulsing rapidly as though the field was repeatedly stripping its energy away time and time again. They could see its effects now, invisible waves radiating out in a globe around the relic.


    They both watched as the massive tree near the relic crumbled and turned to dust, unable to survive what was happening. Everything organic had already fallen apart within the massive radius of the sphere of negative energy that was being created by the alien device.


    ¡°I think something is happening. We need to check on our home dimension and to get a comprehensive update of the news. Something or someone might be causing this, either more meddling from that thief or another event that we are not aware of and we need to step in before it can ruin our plans.¡±


    If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.¡°Agreed. I will push a connection probe through to our dimension. Just be aware that it has been ages since we left and some of our tech might have been hacked and be very outdated.¡± Q¡¯tell said as she set the operation into play. When they both had arrived in this dimension, they had both been so weak, only barely surviving by using their Prime Speed Control keys all the time. Now though, things were different. They had since upgraded their capabilities and harvested new cr with amazing properties. Nothing in their home dimension could stand up to their might when they decided to return and rule.


    If they ever desired to rule such a weak and unimpressive dimension that is. Maybe one of their loyal Tela subjects would want the job.


    ---


    The Tela Daily Shell headlines.


    Is this Supernova Event the return to war? Fleets of Tela, U¡¯lennea, and other alien species are racing to be the first to lay claim to the anomaly at the center of the Event. Multiple sightings of unidentified vessels and objects have been detected making their way towards the epicenter.


    The Solar Citadel is missing and the whereabouts of General Magus is unknown at this time. Please contact Tela Daily with any relevant information for big CR IO payouts!


    After a summer off due to Events and software issues, the newly revised Haoolla Defender 2 is scheduled to go live. New limited edition game avatars and playable species are available. See inside for details.


    ---


    Stephany Longford leaned against the back door screen of her parent''s farmhouse and gazed up at the distant blue and red-tinged sky. More than two months ago she had been one of the girls trapped down in Mexico, sold as a sex slave to the highest bidder.


    She was home now, and she still couldn¡¯t believe it. She still had nightmares and was fearful around men who held predatory looks in their eyes. Stephany was tall and perpetually thin with slight elegant curves that were mostly only seen on Olympic swimmers. This, as well as her bubbly attitude and trusting nature, was one of the reasons why the mob had captured her and a couple of her friends while they were on their senior getaway down in Mexico more than half a year ago.


    Her friends hadn¡¯t made it through the ordeal, being split up into other groups and ending up overdosing while in confinement. Stephany survived the longest because she was considered pristine goods and had been marketed to the rich and those in power.


    She was home now and felt like she had already died to this life. The world felt dirty and unsafe, nothing like the image she had had of life as a bubbly graduate hoping to take on her next adventure in life.


    A ping from her cr bracelet caught her attention and made her glance away from the slowly moving clouds in the distance and to the text that hovered above her hand.


    All drugs, foreign organisms, and physical resulting trauma have been removed and erased from your body.


    Only the mind remains.


    You can get through this Stephany.


    Out of habit, she reached down to pull at the elastic of her pants to check her hip, sure enough, the scars from the rope that had kept her tied up in the back of the kidnap van were finally gone. She had struggled hard in the first few hours of being captured and had managed to damage her delicate skin on the rope as she had tried to free herself and her friends. The scars on her wrist had been the first things to go and she had been keeping track of the rest just to prove to herself that what the strange black thing on her wrist said was true.


    She was whole again. No scars, no STDs, and no chemical longings remained inside her body.


    Yet, she still felt lost.


    She went back to leaning against the door frame, her mind empty and her emotions dull to this life and the slowly swaying tree branches outside.


    Her eyes refused to focus on anything, not even the stunningly beautiful blue bird that came to land on one of the branches in search of nest material. Stephany just stayed still like she had been since she was rescued, hoping that no one would take notice of her again in this life and use her.


    The sound of thunder rolled off in the distance, nearly drawing her attention as the strangeness of the sound contrasted with the perfectly calm and beautiful sky. What did surprise her and cause the hair on the back of her neck to stand on end was the sudden soft inhale of breath behind her.


    She was supposed to be home alone today, her mother and father had gone out together to buy groceries at the local farmer''s market. They weren¡¯t due to be back for at least another hour.


    With eyes wide, fearful and expectant at seeing her captors again she turned slowly, still trained not to run away when caught. Her ability to run away had been one of the first things that they had made sure to break from her mind during the first couple of months of getting ready for her to be sold.


    Instead of Marco, one of her handlers that she still had nightmares of, there stood a rather pretty-looking girl. The girl looked slightly middle eastern with delicate yet prominent features and long brown hair. She was almost as tall as Stephany yet seemed to carry herself as though height didn¡¯t matter to her, as though no one could look down on her.


    The most stunning thing about her, what caught and drew Stephanie¡¯s attention like a firefly sparkling in the darkness, was the girl¡¯s eyes.


    They shone in the shaded darkness like glistening opals that her mother sometimes wore when her father would take her out on dates.


    ¡°Hi Stephany, my name is Nurse, and I am here to fast-track your mind.¡± She said as she moved her arm, lifting and extending her hand up to Stephany as though she was offering something, or waiting to take Stephany¡¯s hand in her own.


    The movement was so fluid and smooth yet somehow alien, causing Stephany¡¯s eyes to track and focus on the shadows that made up this person in front of her instead of the highlights.


    She remembered the darkness. It had crept through the walls and had saved her.


    Had saved her and brought her home.


    ---


    When Don and Margaret Longford arrived home an hour and a half later, they stepped into a house that felt different. The shadow, the dark brooding presence that had come home with their beloved daughter seemed to have fled and in its place was a single bright light.


    ¡°Honey¡­¡± Margaret whispered as they both heard something coming from the living room. It was something that they had cried for and longed to hear again. Something that they had thought had died when their daughter had been abducted.


    It was the sound of Stephany¡¯s sweet hopeful laugh. Sure, it wasn¡¯t her carefree bubbly laughter, but this one had a lightness and presence to it. As though, regardless of everything that had happened, the person laughing still had hope and had rediscovered a piece of what she had lost.


    The pair quietly set their sacks of produce on the counter before inching their way toward the wide doorway that would lead into the living room. The backdoor was wide open, and the screen door had a stone propping it open as well. Stephany sat cross-legged in the doorway, leaning back against another girl who sat close to her with her arms wrapped around their daughter¡¯s waist and holding her exactly like Stephany''s mother did when she was a child. The resemblance in posture and seeming affection was uncanny, almost making it seem as though the girl holding their daughter was considerably older than she appeared and cared more for their daughter than could be possible, seeing as they had never seen her before.


    It was a surreal scene, not something that they expected to see today after all of the trauma that their little girl had been through.


    The laughter, the sweetest sound in the world, coming from their daughter was directed at the little blue bird that she had perched on her thumb as it ate from her open palm.


    Don and Margaret stood utterly still as they watched their daughter feed the little bird, giggling as it hopped fearlessly from finger to finger while looking for a perfect morsel for its next meal. The bird even seemed to be showing off, trying to sing to Stephany and show off its lovely plumage in between bites.


    The girl whom Stephany was leaning against slowly turned her head to look over at Don and Margaret, strangely as though she had known they were there the whole time.


    Things got even more strange in the next moment when the girl simply fell apart, turning into dust that dispersed without leaving a trace on the floor. The bird chirped and flew off to a nearby tree in the backyard, its job done for the moment as their daughter realized that her parents were home.


    ¡°Mom! Dad!¡±

 19: Earth without peace

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 20: The skism sentinel

    The LOW were avid travelers and seekers of mysteries. Long ago, even before the Tela came to power the LOW discovered a mystery seemingly only occurring in our region of the cosmos.


    The mystery of the skism.


    Skisms were created by ancient devices that, still to this day, no species had managed to replicate or understand the science behind beyond being able to push the button that activated the ultra-rare devices. When activated, the devices created a region of space that, for all intents and purposes, had to be considered desolate and unusable for the rest of time due to the field''s permanent effects.


    All skism fields, when created, were stationary and unmoving.


    Save one.


    One skism field moved, seemingly randomly between galaxies. In the early eons of it being discovered the LOW had followed it and had attempted to study it at length. They tried to communicate with it, restrict or alter its movements, and even attempted to destroy it.


    All to no avail.


    They couldn¡¯t do anything to it, but they did discover and note three strange traits that made it different from other skisms only found in this region of the cosmos.


    One, being the most obvious, was its ability to move.


    Two, discovered multiple times during the eons of study, was its ability to vanish and appear elsewhere, demonstrating an ability to teleport immense cosmic distances.


    Finally, the oddest trait that they found was that it did not speak and try to sing a siren song, as the other stationary skism fields were known to do, thereby tempting space-faring aliens to certain doom within the mysterious field.


    Skisms were an oddity, an anomaly that defied the very laws governing the cosmos, and one of many priceless treasures that the LOW awaited patiently for the keys to unlock. They maintained teams throughout the galaxies dedicated to studying and cataloging any rare and ancient relics until someone came along who could crack their secrets.


    One such team, known only by the sector of space they monitored, was observing the roving skism when something finally happened.


    ¡°Grand Elder Gleg-dooong, the roving skism has teleported again.¡±


    ¡°Understood underling. I will alert the other teams to scan for its new location.¡±


    ¡°Grand elder, there was a suspicious anomaly detected before it teleported. A mere flicker of light was observed intercepting it and immediately the skism reacted and left.¡±


    ¡°Oh? Bring up the detailed scans,¡±


    The scientists slowly replayed their recorded data, observing closely as a mysterious and previously uncataloged entity, a squirming and glowing worm-like creature, sped through the darkness of space before coming into contact with the surface of the slowly moving skism.


    For the first time, the scientists saw the skism react, its normally random undulating surface suddenly becoming perfectly shaped geometric patterns centered around the point of impact.


    ¡°How odd¡­" the senior LOW commented aloud. "Why did that transformation appear as though it was a vessel that lost its active camouflage? It makes me suspect that it was only imitating what a skism field would look like¡­¡±


    ¡°Elder¡­ look at this!¡± the underling nearly shouted in excitement before remembering its place.


    In the bare, briefest of instances, before the skism teleported away, it seemed to fragment, almost as though it was splitting itself into smaller skisms. They didn¡¯t get to see it fully divide, just the briefest of moments was all they managed to catch, just a flicker of a hint of it pulling itself into several separate parts before vanishing.


    In its place was the smallest recorded skism. A small warping of space only large enough to contain the speeding light entity.


    ¡°Underling, enter hibernation.¡± The Grand Elder commanded, noting the instantaneous obedience as the underling slumped.


    ¡°Ship Bly-on-det, connect to Homeworld.¡±


    ¡°Verification is required. Please repeat your last command.¡± The living LOW vessel spoke to the Grand Elder. No one was allowed to contact the Homeworld under penalty of death.


    ¡°Ship Bly-on-det, connect to Homeworld.¡± The Grand Elder repeated, knowing full well that it was about to die. It had to be done, however, as any prized information regarding class 2 artifacts were to be uploaded immediately.


    ¡°Connecting to Homeworld.¡±


    ¡°Transfer knowledge.¡± A voice said as the living vessel and Grand Elder complied, uplinking and merging their mind with whatever or whoever waited at the other end of the connection.


    ¡°Perish and purge.¡± The voice commanded in the instant that it finished absorbing the data of the two entities.


    Like a massive puppet with its strings cut, the huge form of the Grand Elder crashed to the deck of the vessel. A second later the underling awoke, its hibernation cycle ending upon the presence of its elder counterpart no longer living. Without a hint of distress the smaller, multi-eyed underling slithered from its wall pod and began to devour the genetically modified corpse of its previous elder, absorbing and taking on its larger immortal traits for itself as it became the new Grand Elder.


    ¡°Ship reintegrate.¡± The new Grand Elder commanded a short while later as the vessel accepted its change in command and began awaiting new instructions. In addition to the massive mass of the elder having been dealt with, a blob of glowing mind matter could be detected just outside the ship, rapidly and systematically being destroyed by the vacuum of space as this change of command practice took place. This blob, purged by the ship as the former Elder died, had been the memories associated with the ship''s brief, but very thorough, connection to the Homeworld, destroyed so that no one could ever find the origin region of the LOW.


    ¡°Incoming additional global directive update: Research the glowing lifeform. Trace its origin.¡±


    Across the cosmos, all LOW vessels received the message and directed their focus to comply with their newest directive: Finding the source of the glowing organism that set the skism off. This could be the key that they were looking for.


    ---


    ¡°I still think it was bogus that he killed Sublimis¡¯s avatar. She couldn¡¯t get a word in edgewise.¡± Invicta said as she sat on a high stool while playing Atari¡¯s classic Centipede game. For some reason, she had taken an interest in playing all the games that Kevin had grown up with and was making her way through them one at a time. The team was back in VR and had decided to take a break after spending hours running from the cataclysmic doom that the Leva King¡¯s rage presented.


    ¡°I still think that we should have used cr propulsion to knock some sense into him.¡± She muttered as she expertly beat level after level.


    ¡°Nurse was very firm on how much of a bad idea that would be. What the Tela managed to do with technology to their matter is as foreign to that dimension as cr was to this one. It is a perversion of the natural order and would have caused everything, practically anything considered to be living matter, to have been drawn towards Sublimis the moment she used it.¡± Tutor said through the air from her villa where she was thinking up new training regimens for the distraught Leva. They would be trying again soon but had decided to try to let the Leva King cool down for a bit before sending another expedition to him.


    "Get Kevin off of earth!" One of Meditati''s clones tasked with monitoring alien communications screamed as she intercepted the communication replay that each LOW vessel had received, showing the skism intercepting the void seedling''s spread, and the subsequent directive to trace its source.


    Nurse obeyed instantly, moving the avatar housing Kevin and the void seedling rapidly out into space, blasting through the roof of the mall where he had been pretending to shop and causing the locals to panic from the sudden explosion of sound and debris as the ceiling and roof exploded upwards.


    ¡°What has happened?¡± George asked as he rushed out of his workshop where he had been building prototypes of spacefaring vessels suited for humankind. Tutor and Invicta both manifested on the travel disks, reading the severity of the situation as they all swept through the data that Meditati¡¯s clone had intercepted.


    Their faces paled as they went over the data. The LOW investigating earth was one thing, but catching the attention of an unknown and deadly mystery that the roving skism posed was something else entirely.


    Nurse didn¡¯t manifest as an avatar, she was solely focused on pushing the limits of the swarm carrying Kevin as it moved away from Earth. She had understood the danger even just as Meditati¡¯s clone had received the data, her need to protect her Monarch taking over.


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    She was too slow. Earth''s solar system already had a visitor.


    Hovering like a new planet off in the distance, a gigantic fragment of the skism sentinel had appeared seemingly out of nowhere, having teleported to the exact location in space where the void seedling''s eruption of light had originated. It was fortunate for Earth that nearly three months had passed since the event where the void seedling had spread, causing Earth''s natural orbit around the sun to take it out of harm''s way. The oddly warping surface of the skism sentinel absorbed and reflected the light of the sun in unpredictable ways, causing it to flash and sparkle and allowing many observant humans across the rotating earth to easily spy the stationary invading celestial object as the seconds passed since its sudden arrival.


    Kevin¡¯s AI were quick to notice the fact that if the skism sentinel didn''t move, in less than a year, Earth''s progress around the sun would cause it to gradually collide with the strange ancient relic. Just the thought of the skism field slowly sterilizing all life on Earth as the planet slowly orbited the sun was frightening.


    As fear and uncertainty gripped Kevin''s AI and swarm collective, only one conclusion could be reached: they needed to act preemptively before the skism occurred and stole what limited choices they possessed. Already, even just bare seconds after its arrival, it seemed to be doing something, as the chaotic patterns on its surface began to ripple and organize into smaller and smaller, more orderly patterns.


    ¡°Run!¡± They all agreed and shouted together, willing Nurse haste as the odd object started to morph and transform. Quickly, as though it was manifesting a porcupine¡¯s quills under its fractal surface, spikes started to form all around the surface of the skism.


    ¡°What is it doing?¡± Tutor managed to ask just before tiny droplets of even smaller skism fields formed on the tips of each of the quills. Droplets that detached and vanished in the next moment.


    ¡°Did it just do what I think it did?¡± Tutor asked as she magnified the scans of the main massive skism object against the tiny droplets, finding them to be exact copies of the earlier smooth skism that had arrived. ¡°I think it just sent out copies of itself to hunt down all of the void seedling¡¯s spread.¡±


    They all watched in awe, quickly manifesting maps in the air above their heads as they tried to plot the trajectories against the records they had of when it all happened to Kevin months earlier. A little red dot, Nurse with their precious cargo, was also tracked as it sped through the solar system and towards deep space.


    ¡°Ummm¡­ guys¡­ I think it is moving.¡± Invicta noted once the spikes began to slowly retract and leave the surface of the skism spherical and smooth again. Slowly, the skism was following in the path of Earth¡¯s orbit, the fractal patterns on its surface rippling the most on the side that faced where Earth traveled around the sun.


    ¡°Whew, at least it isn¡¯t faster than Earth. For the moment anyway¡­¡± Meditati whispered as she calculated its speed.


    ¡°Is it hunting Kevin now? Following where he has been?¡± Invicta asked, wondering aloud and bringing their fears to light. The skism seemed to have Kevin¡¯s scent, or at least the scent of the void seedling, and appeared to be tracing Earth¡¯s orbit.


    ¡°I think so,¡± Meditati said as she split into hundreds of copies of herself. ¡°I have to think.¡± was all she said before she moved herself and her copies off into her own domain, leaving the other AI to their own devices.


    George and Tutor stared at each other for several seconds, wondering and worrying about Kevin¡¯s current status and their future if he died. Kevin¡¯s latest transformation had changed himself and Nurse in unpredictable ways, would the older version of Kevin meet or match what she thought her monarch should be?


    The sound of tiny knuckles being cracked brought them both out of their dark thoughts and made George yell ¡°Wait Invicta! I need to put up a barrier before you do anything!¡±


    Invicta had manifested a tiny Volus dreadnought¡¯s gunner chair, suiting her smaller form, and was busy going through pre-battle status checks as she drew from the stores of cr and swarm that Nurse had been studiously amassing from nearby star systems. The Volus had been wiped out ages before by the Tela and had been known widely for their overwhelming weapons of war. Due to their singular, unrelenting, warlike mindset, once they found an enemy, no Volus were reported to exist to this day¡ªleaving only the histories and legends behind. The fact that Invicta had chosen their race to emulate meant that she was about to unleash hell on the slowly hunting skism.


    George quickly drew from the collection of cr, choosing to completely surround the skism with a shell, offset and very much like the Tela did to stars with their cores, rather than to leave any openings. ¡°Better be safe than sorry.¡± He muttered as he knew that Invicta tended to go overboard and had been delving into the new weapon designs that Meditati and Nurse had gleaned/stolen from their extensive hacking runs.


    Tutor watched the byplay, feeling lost. Sure, she had Sublimis, Kevin¡¯s leva to take care of and educate, but she wanted something that would help Kevin as well. ¡°Nurse, are you doing ok?¡± She asked, wondering what the mindset of the swarm entity was. Instead of an ant manifesting, as Tutor had begun to recognize her as, Nurse chose to manifest in the form of her human avatar, the one with the oddly colored eyes. Tutor had to look down at the floor to see her, finding the dark-haired girl hugging her knees to her chest as she stared off at nothing.


    ¡°I am lost if Kevin dies. We are lost. Meditati and I have already tested my acceptance with the older version of Kevin recorded inside Silver¡¯s Alpha cube. We¡­ Kevin¡¯s current swarm included, are incompatible. We have become bound to the Kevin who changed us by absorbing the concepts of the creators.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡±


    ¡°What should I do? I have applied slight curves to my path, in case the moving skism can predict straight lines of travel like it seemed to do with the void seedling spread. At least, that is what I think it did, I have no proof. I don¡¯t know what to do or where to go. Space is a horrible place to hide when we know nothing about how the skism sees or hunts.¡±


    ¡°Indeed. It got here incredibly fast and somehow knew the paths taken by all of the spread.¡± Tutor said as she thought about its actions. ¡°What doesn¡¯t make sense is why it is moving so slowly now. Something must be different between the spread and the shell that is still surrounding Kevin.¡±


    ¡°What was that?¡± Meditati said, appearing next to Tutor as though a copy had been standing nearby and invisible the entire time.


    Tutor didn¡¯t seem startled, she just repeated her thought and continued to wonder aloud as she put together all that they knew from Kevin about the seedling.


    ¡°The skism hunted down each of the seedling¡¯s spread like they were broadcasting a trail or a signal. What if the void seedling is a colony of creatures that sends experiences to the other seedlings? What if, Kevin¡¯s merging with the new concepts fed the seedling enough experiences for it to try to spread? Again, this is all just conjecture. And what if, hopefully, whatever he did had made all of the spread living within the seedling shell leave and go off in search of whatever it needed to regrow into the black true void creature, thinking that they had enough food options to risk it? I mean, as far as I can see, Kevin practically gave them a platter of experience when he absorbed the creator¡¯s concepts. The shell might still collect and feed off of Kevin, like an open wound that allows the void to feed on their prey. From the actions of the skism, it appears as though it can only trace Kevin when it moves and can¡¯t predict ahead what his movements will be. It seems as though the shell leaks residual traces, like a path of blood made up of Kevin¡¯s experiences. Probably allowing the void seedlings a scent to return to, if and when they managed to find what they left in search of. The skism is acting simply as a line follower and hasn¡¯t seemed to notice or even care what George and Invicta are busy setting up around it.¡±


    ¡°Dark predictions.¡± Meditati¡¯s clone said as it simulated a result of the hypothesis. ¡°If true, regardless of Nurse¡¯s accumulated speed, the skism will always be three months behind her, bearing that she never stops moving. That is if the skism truly has no speed limit and can move as fast as she can. This hypothesis is hopeful but there are more troubling packets of news coming in that may change everything.¡± The copy said before it was replaced by a more attentive-looking Meditati.


    ¡°I have bad news. We only have a small fragment of the main roving skism body. There are reports of at least seven other sightings.¡±


    ¡°Seven?¡±


    ¡°Yes, six all showed up individually in different empires, throwing everyone into a panic, and they all have one common theme: they are all hovering around a planet that holds one of the Lost Ancient Pods that the Last Engineer spoke of wanting to try to open. Every empire is moving as fast as they each can to get the pods as far away from their home planet as possible, lest the skisms decide to move and wipe out their homeworlds where they were on display.¡±


    ¡°And the seventh?¡±


    ¡°That is the worst news. It seems that the largest portion of the skism went to investigate the supernova event where Time¡¯s arm is located. Everyone is¡­ oh.¡± She said before she paused as though listening to something.


    ¡°The six just left and have teleported to rejoin the one monitoring Time¡¯s severed limb. It will take time but with that final piece of tension, the fact that a legendary object of mystery is paying attention to whatever Time was holding, just shoved its importance in everyone''s minds to impossible heights. Due to this, I predict that total war is imminent.¡±


    ¡°Total war? As in, every alien race going to war with each other?¡± Tutor asked.


    ¡°Indeed. Originally I thought that the weapon that the Blidda had developed was just an outlier. That was until I discovered that nearly every race had been secretly researching ways to defeat the Tela¡¯s technology. They are all fed up and want to be the ones in charge of the cosmos. All it will take is someone to fire the first shot.¡±


    ¡°Are we in position then?¡± George asked as he brought up a map of space surrounding the supernova. Fleets and armadas continued to show up and to raise the tension in the area surrounding the event. The Tela must have suspected that something was afoot because they also had more cr ships arriving all the time. Normally, they looked down on other races simply because they believed their technology to be superior to anything that anyone else had. The increase in presence had forced them to do something they hadn''t needed to do in ages: they had started to open lines of communication with the alien armadas."


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Good¡­ but I also think that we should gather those Lost Ancient Pods as well. Just the fact that the skism singled them out, makes me think that they are important and will cause other races like the LOW to try to collect them as well. If they are something that Kevin can use as a bargaining chip, it is in our best interest to obtain them.¡±


    ¡°Agreed, Nurse is already on that.¡± Meditati said as she relayed the news reports of two of the artifacts having been ¡°swallowed up by darkness¡± mere moments after the roving skism vanished. ¡°We were fortunate that she already had swarm in the area, the remaining four will take slightly more time to gather.¡±


    ¡°Just make sure you set a tracer on them. You already played your hand by taking those first two before you had enough swarm in place to take them all.¡± George said.


    ¡°Yes, that was a risk. The reason why we had a presence in those solar systems anyways was because they had strong Tela and LOW representatives already in place. The other four are more remote and don¡¯t have as high of a probability of being such an issue to gather. In fact, the reason why we moved so fast was because of intercepted communications where orders were given to have the artifacts secured. We just got there faster.¡±


    ¡°So now what?¡± Tutor asked as she glanced over at Invicta¡¯s digital setup. The little AI had gotten off of her small chair and was muttering to herself as she built a weapon from schematics hovering in the air. Her mutterings were worrisome at best as the little figure would question just how much ¡°spacial damage¡± could be caused if she increased the power beyond preset limits.


    ¡°Are you sure that is safe?¡± She asked George in a whisper.


    ¡°Sure? I mean, the technology was developed on this side and doesn¡¯t use any cr as a base. Everything should be contained within the cr shell. Umm¡­ I see what you mean¡­ I will have Nurse on standby to cut the power if something grows too out of control. Hmm¡­ In fact, I will have her test that ¡°spacial damage¡± one out somewhere else first.¡± He said as Invicta turned to glare at them over her shoulder before going back to her work.

 21: The price of peace

    -An hour before the arrival of the skism sentinel in Earth¡¯s solar system-


    ¡°I am here to tell you that the time of peace has come to an end.¡± the overlord announced.


    ¡°Meditati¡­¡± was whispered by several people in the packed coffee shop as she continued.


    Dean and the rest of the world were shocked, hanging on to the next words she spoke, fearing the worst.


    ¡°Uplift phase two begins today. The common definition of uplifting a species is to take them from their current state, regardless of what it may be, and to work to enable them to be able to fulfill their species'' intended purpose: to spread and explore the cosmos.¡± Meditati clarified as a small globe representing Earth sprang to life near each person present.


    ¡°In the months since Earth¡¯s Uplift process was initiated, we have removed the prior alien race that occupied this planet and used it as a vacation resort for their elite. This alien race, known galactically as the Tela was responsible for much of the system of inequality that Earth has suffered under since they arrived. Here are some of the more notable Tela who many of you might recognize, as well as an image of what a Tela originally looked like.¡± she said as images of various famous people were played in quick succession on nearby displays. The last image, an accurate representation contrasting what a Tela would look like next to a human caused several of the people to gasp. No one could have guessed that their former occupiers would look like rhinoceros-sized pill bugs.


    ¡°In addition to removing the influence of the Tela, we have also quarantined those humans who have proven to be most harmful to the progress of humanity as a whole. These individuals include the heads of mobs, drug cartels, human trafficking rings, many religious organizations, education establishments, businesses, news organizations, military, and other various establishments.¡± Meditati said before pausing and letting the first bit of news sink in.


    ¡°Information into each individual''s transgressions against humanity is now public as well as the sentences that they must fulfill to return to Earth. Nepotism, wealth, and power have all been removed from the equation and only their efforts that benefit humanity will earn them freedom.¡±


    Many people had been outraged in the earlier days when they had learned from the news that numerous elites in power had been taken away during the hour when the darkness covered the Earth. Dean could tell by the expressions of several of the people in the coffee shop that they still harbored strong feelings about this issue. One older man even went as far as to make his alien gift bring up a keyboard so that he could type in the name of one of the elites that had been taken. As the image of the individual that the man had searched for appeared, data next to the image listing her crimes against humanity, as well as video proof also appeared. The older man¡¯s eyes widened with each word he read and video he watched, causing those around him to glance at the information provided. Several people flinched away from the information, turning their heads so that they didn¡¯t have to observe the travesties that were committed by someone who had been a trusted lawyer in their country. The older man canceled the search and shut down his holographic screen, clearly shaken by what he had seen.


    ¡°In the last three months, we have cleaned up the earth, restored decaying structures, built efficient animal preserves and farms, and set up a sustainable aqueduct system to provide water to the soil. We have done what we can and have given Earth and humanity a chance at expanding into the cosmos.¡±


    Dean nodded as he listened to Meditati. He had seen the change in the world, both in the cleanliness and how improved the neighborhoods looked. All of the older homes looked restored and just the quality-of-life improvement of having homes cleaned and repaired had greatly improved many people¡¯s attitudes and outlooks on life. Even the air seemed cleaner. He hadn¡¯t smelled a car¡¯s exhaust in months.


    The world seemed to be breathing better, trees were growing taller, and the land was turning greener with life. If anything would have been a balm to ease people¡¯s worries, it would have been witnessing the health of the world improving. Many of those in charge didn¡¯t want the common citizen to see things that way though, they made sure to flood the news outlets with horror stories and doomsday predictions about the intents of the alien overlords.


    It was causing a divide where those people who held fast to the opinions of the government and media conflicted with those who lived day to day and chose to observe the real truths happening before their eyes.


    At least there wasn¡¯t anything that the governments could do. All wars had been halted all across the planet for the last three months. That had been one of the biggest boons that Dean had seen. The amount of healing that society had felt was incalculable. No one had died to violence for the last three months and it was one of the most amazing things he had ever observed. Even social violence was down as the aliens had limited what people were allowed to do to each other. Sure, people could show their anger and yell and scream, but they were limited in what they could do with the dark alien mist standing in the way of physical violence.


    ¡°We get to go into space?¡± Someone asked while another voice just had to jinx everything. ¡°What does all this have to do with peace coming to an end?¡±


    ¡°We have created animal preserves, heirloom farms, and underground factories to provide humanity with essential products. Earth has become a sanctuary for its indigenous lifeforms and going forward will not be exploited by anyone. Further details as to what this all entails may be reviewed here.¡± She said as several blocks of optional reading material became available to everyone. Some people decided to click on them to begin reviewing the change then and there while others continued to listen to Meditati.


    ¡°Products to enable humanity''s advance into the stars will be offered on the individual level. No longer will governments, the elite, and those in power and holding all the cash stand in the way of others. Commerce will still exist, and vastly improve, just not as it is now. As of today, Earth¡¯s Elite has all had their balances reset, just as all other citizens. You all now have a balance of 50,000 cr, the same amount that makes up each of the gifted devices you possess.¡±


    ¡°Did she just say what I think she said?¡± Someone whispered. ¡°Did the aliens just rob everyone on Earth?¡±


    A massive amount of data appeared in the next instant before Meditati continued, almost as though she was listening in on the quiet question.


    ¡°This is how Earth¡¯s economy truly existed before today. Taxes, fees, commissions, service charges, insurance plans, and tariffs were all created by the elite to enslave humanity. Almost nothing you owned truly belonged to you. If you bought land you had to pay taxes to own it every year, if you bought a car you had to pay registration fees, and even your chance of living was made into a profit scheme for others. If you took money from an ATM that wasn¡¯t your own the bank would effectively steal part of your money. Money used to be based on something material, gold, but after it lost its real-world standard, it became worthless, just a tool used to enslave. With our monetary system, humanity will gain more than ever before, just from their own creativity and efforts, not at the expense of others.¡±


    ¡°What?!?¡± A chorus of exclamations could be heard from everyone listening as they suddenly felt their world crumbling beneath their feet, only to have Meditati go on and rebuild it bit by bit.


    ¡°As of now, new jobs will be available to everyone with opportunities never before known to humanity. Welcome to the new empire of humanity! Everyone''s personal items have been logged and shelter and basic sustenance will be provided. Programs, items, services, and food both new and previously only offered to the elite of this world are now offered to every citizen of humanity. Fine dining, cuisine, and delicacies formerly only enjoyed by the wealthy can be purchased by all regardless of your former station in life. Health care, better than anything previously seen on Earth will also be standard and affordable. Security packages that prevent physical violence, risk of kidnapping, and accidents can also be purchased. Please refer to these extra sources of information for further detail.¡± Meditati said, pausing for several minutes while everyone took time to familiarize themselves with the menus and offered services. Many items and services only required a one-time purchase and would be owned and available by the individual for their entire life, giving a whole new feeling and meaning to everyone about how things should have been. After enough time had passed Meditati finished her speech with one final bomb of information.


    ¡°As for my earlier statement regarding peace coming to an end¡­ war has arrived in the cosmos due to a powerful alien artifact arriving from a neighboring dimension. The peace formerly enforced by the Tela is destined to fail and no race will be able to avoid what lies ahead as many will seek to overthrow their former suzerains. Humanity''s best chance at survival will be forged by the actions of its citizens to defend¡­itself¡­¡±


    Meditati¡¯s voice cut out as an image showing outer space suddenly appeared before everyone. Hovering off in the distance was the skism sentinel in all its glory as it began to warp and change, getting ready to fire off its copies to trap the spread of the void seedling.


    ¡°This entity is known as the roving skism and it has just teleported into Earth¡¯s solar system. It was previously a mystery of the cosmos but has recently demonstrated that its purpose is to hunt down entities from a dimension beyond the neighboring one. It is not known to seek out the destruction of native sentient life in this dimension so Earth may have a chance at surviving this encounter.¡± She said as moments slowly passed as the skism changed, sending out miniature copies of itself before reverting and slowly starting to follow Earth¡¯s orbital path.


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    Everyone watched as Meditati drew a simulated prediction trail that followed Earth¡¯s orbit, progressing the days above it before suddenly predicting the skism''s movements to head towards the boundaries of the solar system.


    ¡°I predict that Earth may be spared destruction from this invulnerable entity if all parameters of its movements remain constant. Regardless of this prediction and the fact that all previous endeavors to harm the skism have failed, attempts to destroy its threatening presence within your solar system will be made.¡± She said as a structure visibly began forming around the massive oddly warping invader.


    ¡°To recap: Earth has been liberated from the clutches of the Tela and its destructive native humans, the Uplifting of Earth has commenced and what you choose to do in this new world is up to each of you individually. Earth is being restored and may no longer be abused. A new economy has begun, and war is near in the cosmos... if not on your front doorstep. Further information has and will be provided.¡±


    With that final message, the images and voice of Meditati vanished, leaving everyone staring into space where they had been staring at the encapsulated skism in awe.


    Dean was the first to move, glancing at his boss and breaking the silence in the packed coffee shop.


    ¡°Smoke break?¡±


    ---


    The Solar Citadel sped through the cosmos, heading toward the epicenter of everyone''s attention. Onboard, within the massive interconnected halls, countless and unimaginable weapons were being constructed in preparation for the impending battle. In the center of the Citadel, surrounded by his plans for the upcoming war, the general sat, observing the never-ending armadas as they arrived and parked in the space quadrants near the event location. By this point, it was clear that they were there for the relic, and no one was going to allow the Tela to claim it without a fight.


    ¡°This is what I have waited for. Our enemies are all finally revealing what they have been able to keep from us.¡± He said as he leaned forward, his armor plates rustling as his eye stalks peered closely at the latest arrival.


    ¡°You, however, are most troublesome. Let us hope that you are simply there to observe and whatever your mission is, and that no one sets you off.¡± He said as he watched the skism sentinel as it held its place beyond the gathering armadas. Its sudden arrival caused a worrisome stir in those closest to it, leading them to spread out like roaches escaping a beam of light.


    ¡°At least no one ran away, if anything the interest of such a mysterious and well-known entity caused the empires to send more ships. Everyone is upping the ante.¡±


    The vast expanse that the General observed within was quiet for a great while as he sat and contemplated strategies.


    ¡°I think this time freedom is off the table once I win. No longer will those who stand against us be allowed to return to life as though they hadn¡¯t dared to rise against their betters. No, I believe that subjugation will be for those who are worthy and extinction for the rest. I tire of letting an enemy live so that they can return at a later date to crack our armor and sever our eye stalks at their leisure.¡±


    A low beep emanated from the console next to his extended forelimb, letting him know that another set of munitions was finished. The galaxy map to his left showed his time left till he arrived, making him focus once again on the stoic skism sentinel. The war could start at any moment, and he didn''t want to miss the glory.


    "What I would give to crack you open and to have your teleportation technology. I can just imagine the supremacy that I would command being able to instantly move to the doorsteps of my enemies. One day I will break you open, and all your secrets will be mine."


    ---


    It was time. Time to seize his destiny and claim his rightful place amongst the stars.


    Magus the Last watched as the Solar Citadel approached in the distance, setting off proximity alarms throughout the ship he was aboard as the crew and the rest of the fleet began to notice the approaching gigantic structure that could have swallowed whole worlds with ease. He had managed to sneak his way into the service of one of the support vessels belonging to the Herv. The large, sloth-like body his cr had taken on was the perfect disguise as he played the role of a war retriever. His duty, along with thousands of other volunteers was to scavenge and retrieve anything possible from the battlefield once the war kicked off. The Herv had no grand illusions that they could win, out of all the alien races represented in this theater, they were the least prepared and intellectual.


    What they could do, both as a species and their fleet of specially designed ships, was to take a beating and still function. This was their strategy, to act as a turtle that only popped its head out from time to time when there was a tasty morsel to snatch up. Magus knew that it wasn¡¯t much of a strategy, but he had chosen to join them because they were the least likely to run when they saw the General arrive.


    He needed them to stay put so that he could have time to supplant the General once he opened up his communication channels. Soon, the time came, and the General demonstrated his possession of technology that could forcefully broadcast system-wide messages.


    ¡°So, you all didn¡¯t learn your lesson the last time you stood up against the Tela.¡± General Magus began as his armored Roly Poly-esk face appeared on displays all across the armadas. Just the fact that he completely ignored initiating lines of dialog with the Tela already in the system let them and everyone else know that he wasn¡¯t there to peacefully talk. The General, taking his sweet time, began to list off each race present and to add it to a visual list appearing on the display next to his moving eye stalks. With each alien race added, he would recount their crimes against the Tela in former battles before moving on to the next offender.


    ¡°Time to go.¡± Magus the Last muttered as he transmitted himself to the Solar Citadel, piggybacking on the immense amounts of requests for communication that everyone was bombarding the Solar Citadel with. He snuck in, his illegal software masking his entry and giving him a limited window to do what he had come to do.


    ¡°First things first, I need to raise my odds.¡± He said as he rushed through the travel disk array towards the district of the Solar Citadel that held the cells of the General¡¯s enemies. Most of the biological lifeforms had long since passed, save two ancient Skii and a frozen LOW of all things. If the LOW ever learned of this trespass by the General, Magus the Last couldn¡¯t even begin to imagine what the fallout would be.


    ¡°No time for you this time around.¡± Magus said in passing as he connected to the terminal that housed imprisoned Tela Personal Live Matrix¡¯. He quickly scanned through the hundreds of names before finding the one that he was hunting for.


    ¡°There you are. Goodbye, clone brother.¡± He said as he used his illegal technology to destroy and wipe clean the last clone beside himself. Now, rather than looking at an 84.211 percent chance at success, he had 89.474 percent of succeeding, nearly 90 percent, and the best chance that he could hope for based off of the General having 18 clones and his very own existence to take into the equation. Having more clones made for a double-edged sword. On the positive side, it made it so that your enemy had to hunt down more copies to get rid of you but on the flip side doing so meant that the more clones they removed, the higher percentage they would have going towards succeeding, rather than say, 50 percent with just having one clone. More clones meant that the software had more data to work with concerning your personal defenses and encrypted Personal Live Matrix.


    As the last clone¡¯s existence was purged, Magus was abruptly greeted by the environment freezing and a message hovering in front of his face telling him that he had failed, yet again.


    ¡°What was it this time?!?¡± He yelled as he left VR in a huff, not even bothering to look at the readout and the percentages that were stacked against him in his endeavor. Yes, he had set the odds at failure as high as they would go just to simulate just how paranoid Magus the First could and most assuredly would be in regards to his survival. He knew that the General had to have countermeasures in place, the problem was that he had no way of knowing what they might be.


    His earlier failures had been for novel reasons as Magus the Last had tried to cause as much of a ruckus inside the Solar Citadel, hoping to buy himself time as he completed his main mission. That had proven to be a failure just like the times when he had set the LOW free.


    Knowing that Magus the First had prisoners, as well as where they were kept, was from his earliest memories, back before the clones were all booted out of the Citadel to live their own lives. He had no proof that any of them were still living, beyond the fact that LOW were well known to be practically immortal but that hadn¡¯t stopped him from trying to use it as a distraction in earlier attempts.


    With a quick glance around his small crew pod, making sure that there were no pending messages from the Herv command, with which he really had snuck in as a war retriever, he popped back into VR to check over his results and to try again.


    ¡°What if I let the Skii go as well?¡± He muttered, wondering why the General even had them as prisoners. He checked the reason for his most recent failure and found that it was due to there being an 80 percent chance that the General had a warning set up or a trigger alarm for when one of his prisoners died.


    ¡°Yeah, yeah, I figured as much. Can¡¯t blame me for trying through. At least he still doesn''t know about the other clones that are gone.¡± He muttered as he reset the simulation, increasing the difficulty yet again. Magus the Last had been able to mask his removals of his clone brothers simply because they were out of pocket, far away from the General. All he had needed to do was to simply make a fake receiver for whenever the General would request status updates, making everything seem like each of the clones was doing well.


    ¡°84.211 percent it is then. Just a little over 15 percent to fail. No pressure. I just need to initiate my attack before he sends out a "Purge Clones" command.¡± Magus said, a hint of fear creeping into his voice.


    He had messed with his personal coding as much as he could but wasn¡¯t completely confident that his modifications would survive such an attack from his Prime. If he had to guess, the General¡¯s chance of winning if he attacked first was 60 to 70 percent, that was why it was crucial for him to be the one to strike first. He just needed something, a distraction, commotion, or explosion big enough to ensure the attention of the General long enough for his program to find and delete the General within his Personal Live Matrix, wherever it was hiding.


    ¡°Wait a second¡­ ¡° Magus muttered to himself as he eyed the battlefield and the reports that had been gathered about why everyone was here in the first place. He stared at the epicenter, the brightly shining mass that seemed to ripple in radiance, occasionally warping oddly as though it was a tide that kept trying to surge, only to be rewound by a broken clock.


    ¡°How much of a distraction would it be for him to lose his prisoners to that strange field?¡± Magus laughed aloud at the thought. If he could pull it off, then everyone would see the General as the aggressor as he rushed to retrieve them. He hated to lose anything that he considered his, and prisoners, one of whom being a citizen of the LOW, had to be even higher on that list.


    His laughter continued as he changed the simulation¡¯s parameters to include his new plan. Shaming the General¡¯s image and name was something that no one did and survived. It was suicide and it just might be the distraction that he needed.

 22. The Designer

    I stared off into space for quite a while after sending the Leva King away. The tiny snake-dragon form they originally gave him was cute and hardly a representation of what a massive and deadly entity he had become over the ages. This image of deadly dominance was put even more to the test when I managed to summon him, only to have his cute and adorable little form be spitting mad at another trespass he said that the Last Engineer had made against him and his kind. It was like he was a tiny kitten hissing at an offending feather toy. Getting him to recount what had upset him so much was spotty at best. He said that, for the longest time, the Last Engineer had been trying to study, kill, and dissect his fellow sibling creations ever since he had arrived in this dimension. The Last Engineer was cunning and had no moral reservations when it came to obtaining power over the denizens of this dimension.


    Such proof of evil was displayed with the Leva King¡¯s latest encounter. The Last Engineer had done the unthinkable. He had used his only true weakness against him.


    He had created what appeared to be a Leva hatchling and had sent it to follow the King. It had even been made to sound like a child too!


    I had stopped him at this point, needing clarification on how, if the eighty-eight creations had to fight to the death at the start of their lives, how had he managed to have children? His explanations were the result of spread, or in his case male and female offspring that were tied to him. He just had to sacrifice parts of himself to create the first Leva female that was bound to him so that they could have hatchlings.


    It was all rather interesting and eventually led to the story of how Leva existed in our dimension, of how he had sent his offspring away after losing his mate in a devastating attack. He had known that sending them away would gradually deplete their energy, making them into ghosts of what they were originally capable of if they managed to feed off of the richer energies of this dimension. Though weakened, they would always be stronger than most of the creatures of my home dimension, able to live in the inhospitable depths of space and to grow into truly formidable Leva with time.


    Hearing his story made me realize several things, that perhaps the parasites that hung around stars weren¡¯t originally from our side. They might have hitched a ride with the Leva and ended up making a home wherever they had migrated, seeing as how they ate the essence of life, just like all of the denizens tended to do here.


    In the end, I had been forced to let him go back to what he was doing, as he was so sure that the Last Engineer was involved and would seize upon any weakness that he could find. He was positive that if there was one test, then there would be more on the way. Personally, I had a strange gut feeling about the encounter.


    I couldn¡¯t argue with the logic of the Leva King, that it might be an attack by the Tela Engineer but it also could have been my people trying to reach me as well. I promised him that I would give him some time to get to a secure location before summoning him back, needing to have him perfectly calm before I picked his brain and perhaps revealed that he had, in fact, truly encountered Sublimis, a distant offspring of his.


    If my hunch was correct he had encountered her in swarm form and subsequently destroyed her before she could say anything. If anything the Leva King seemed to have PTSD and I could only imagine it had everything to do with losing his mate, all contact with his children, and being alone for so long. I would try to be tactful and wait until he was calm.


    As for how I summoned him¡­ let¡¯s just say that I had a deeper understanding of how things worked and I now knew that I probably didn¡¯t want to have anything to do with some of the other concepts that were just laying around in orb form.


    Hunger had managed to get everyone¡¯s hidden concept, even the Leva King¡¯s before he encountered whatever had set him off. The list was eye-opening and the Leva King had even been generous and had gone into great detail about methods that would work to summon him. His concept was ¡°Indomitable¡±.


    Yes, ¡°Indomitable¡±, as odd as that may seem. The interesting thing about empowering it was that it was very similar to how I had managed with Loss and Hunger.


    I had to experience whatever its core concept embodied.


    Loss was an inversion of life, where you experienced sadness to the point where you breathed in anything and everything around you simply to try to feel. In essence complete ¡°Depletion¡± and revert everything to a zero state. Hunger was a form of gluttony where you just kept allowing your needs and wants to expand, in whatever form it or you might manifest, be that in body or an ability.


    The Hive Mother was actually ¡°Knowledge¡± and an ability that I was already deeply ingrained with. Assimilation was just a part of what she did to utilize her concept. Focus was ¡°Manifest¡± and every time I tried to understand it while Hunger was explaining it we kept butting heads and disagreeing on semantics. It started to make sense that there was a language barrier and they were trying to translate alien concepts as closely to my dialog as simply as they could.


    Corruption was ¡°Divergence¡± and Time had been ¡°Delay¡±.


    It wasn¡¯t until Hunger had spent a while relaying his conversation with the Leva King and the subsequent requirements to summon his presence that I began to understand a little bit of what I was missing.


    The concept of ¡°Indomitable¡± had to do with the understanding that no matter what happened to you, whatever you suffered, whatever happened to your body or mind, everything that made up what constituted you, would never give up.


    It didn¡¯t matter what form I was in, flesh and bone or this mental state trapped inside the relic, what mattered was that I needed to understand what I wanted and to obtain it at any cost, forcing my mind and body to obey my will.


    So, in essence, I had to injure myself to obtain something and force my willpower on my entire being to maintain itself regardless of what I experienced.


    Well, not really injure myself but to go through a trial-by-fire test, which would result in my being injured regardless of how it was attempted.


    Case in point, Hunger had summoned three tunnels, trials of a sort, to choose from that each had something priceless at the end to obtain. Each tunnel had its own hazard and Hunger recommended that I not be allowed to reset everything and use my control of the space to cheat my way out of the trial. In order to reach Loss the first time, I had needed to completely be consumed by my sorrow.


    Reaching the Leva King would take the same complete effort.


    The first test tunnel was filled with little insects that looked like grasshoppers that were mated with piranhas. The second tunnel was a sheet of molten liquid that I had to pass through. The third was, in my opinion, the easiest and was a tunnel of pure cold. At the end of each tunnel was a glowing orb that had images swirling inside its surface. It was supposed to represent whatever I would give up everything to obtain.


    Yeah, no. Nope. Not going to happen.


    Instead of an actual cave-like tunnel where I would have to physically move my entire body through, I decided to shrink everything down so that it would just be my arm that I had to stick inside to grab whatever was at the end.


    Surely I could do that¡­


    Yes, I know I am an idiot, that has never been contested. I thought that I could endure my arm experiencing some pain and even thought that choosing the cold tube would be the quickest and easiest way to achieve the prize.


    I couldn¡¯t have been more wrong.


    I spent hours in and out of using my Prime Speed Control key suffering through the cold tunnel test, only to find that, with frozen fingers, I couldn¡¯t grasp anything. I even managed to shatter my hand when I tried to cheese the process even more, simply by jamming my hand in as fast as possible.


    And yes it was painful. Probably just about as painful as each of the other tunnels would have been, seeing that one you would lose your nerve endings to millions of tiny teeth, and the other, more fiery one, you would simply have them seared off.


    I learned the hard way that it wasn¡¯t about speed, pain, or anything obvious like that. It all only had to do with my willpower to command my arm, regardless of what it had to endure, to remain functioning and in obedience to my will.


    It took a long time but I finally felt something resonate within me, within my being.


    The concept stirred and flowed through me, morphing my concept of self, and enforcing obedience to my will. When the cold tunnel attempted to freeze me, my flesh puffed up, sacrificing the outer layers of skin to create a bubble of air between the cold and my internals. My blood pumped hotter and harder, giving me the few moments I needed once my hand reached the orb for it to close around it, cracking my skin and flesh to sacrifice for what I needed it to do.


    I still lost the limb and had to regenerate it after the simulation, but in those brief moments, I understood what the concept was all about. It was the ability to force your whole existence to continue to function, regardless of what it went through. That was how the Leva King still remained alive, even though, from what I had seen of his body the last time, he had great wounds pocking his body from old battles and from creatures still feasting on him. He was able to press on, each cell separate and indomitable till death, as long as he had the willpower to live. He could stop his body from bleeding, stop poison from being absorbed, and control what happened to himself intimately.


    This was how I managed to summon him and how we had our brief conversation together where he was fuming at the Last Engineer¡¯s evil nature.


    All of these events left me where I was now. Staring at the little orb rising upwards inside the relic.


    Was it just me or was my little orb about to reach the lowest marker?


    I checked back through my memories and simulated its rate of speed. This latest addition, adding the concept of ¡°Indomitable¡± sure seemed to speed things up.


    I verified it, using my perfect memory and the Hive Mother¡¯s incredible ability to simulate things.


    Sure enough, just under eleven hours remained.


    Eleven hours to try to get another ability under my belt. I had no way of knowing what the incremental marker did or signified but I wanted to be as ready as possible before I rose to its level.


    Right off the bat I looked at the last few remaining traits that I had left to fully connect with.


    Focus-Manifest


    Time-Delay


    Corruption-Divergence


    If I understood things correctly, Corruption and ¡°Divergence¡± was something that I did not, under any circumstance, want to try to embody and enable as a trait. Yes, power was power but when it came to some things, there was just a line that I wasn¡¯t ready to cross yet. From my understanding, having spoken to Hunger, and subsequently the frozen hell that I just went through to learn the Leva King¡¯s trait¡­ Corruption was all about pestilence and decay.


    I would have to bathe in rot, embody necrotizing flesh, and live gangrene. Corruption¡¯s ability was unrivaled in power, no creature could stand against it, but becoming a living bio weapon of uncontrollable mass destruction was not something that I envisioned.


    Time though¡­ wasn¡¯t even a concept that I knew how to approach. Hunger had done its best, grilling the Hive Mother¡¯s memories for anything that she recalled about Time¡¯s ability and how, as they grew, he strengthened it and empowered it. His ability was a higher concept and was not easily explained.


    Focus was my last option and it had to do with taking what you had and condensing it further. The way that I understood it was that Focus could make even the air into a weapon, simply by condensing the molecules to such densities that nothing could slip between them.


    The image that I got was that somehow Focus could rearrange the atoms closer together, making even the weakest material into a barrier. A fragile barrier when dealing with air but still a barrier.


    I turned on my Prime Speed Control key to save as much time as possible while I tried things out. My first test was to try to envision all of the atoms in my hand moving closer together¡­


    Pain ripped through my arm as blood gushed from the parts of my wrist that weren¡¯t part of the command to condense. I stared at my hand in shock, more of a dagger-like toothpick at this point really, before quickly willing it back to how it should be.


    ¡°Why the heck does everything have to hurt so bad?!?¡± I shouted at the mess that I had made before willing it all to clean itself up.


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    Regardless of my frustration, I had done it on my first attempt. I could feel the ability as it settled in my bones and knew that Focus would be waiting for me outside of my mental space.


    I willed the little rock entity into my space, finding that it resembled a tiny inverted geode ball. As I inspected it closer, I could just make out a tiny heart-like organ at its center, pulsing colorful blood throughout the crystals in tiny blood vessels.


    ¡°Kevin, why were you screaming?¡±


    ¡°Oh, it was nothing,¡± I said as I described what I had just done and how it had been instrumental in activating his trait and summoning him.


    The little sparkling geode was silent for a couple of seconds, simply rotating back and forth as it seemed to look at my hand and back at my face.


    ¡°Does your body not generate anything that can be used as a weapon?¡±


    ¡°Hmm? Nope, humans are not designed that way¡­¡± I began to say as my eye caught on my fingers, more specifically my fingernails.


    Surely, it couldn¡¯t be something so simple?


    Out of curiosity, I commanded my fingernails to grow, quickly making my hands look like I was getting ready for a time at the nail salon before incrementally commanding the outer surface of each nail to slowly condense down upon itself.


    Sure enough, there was no pain as the fingernail continually grew and became more and more condensed.


    ¡°Holy crap,¡± I uttered as my fingernails gradually became more reflective the longer they compressed. They had long since entered and passed the hardness of diamonds and were reaching a point that felt oddly unstable.


    ¡°With certain materials, there is a point where you might want to stop. Unless you want them to explode, that is.¡± Focus said as I suddenly felt that I had reached a line where it became even more difficult to condense any further.


    I held my hand away from myself as I studied the change that had taken place. I now rocked five gloriously long and lustrous lady nails.


    I frowned at that thought, stemming from how society viewed guys with nails and instead decided to name them talons or claws, simply because Eagles and Lions naturally had weapons attached to their limbs to survive in nature.


    ¡°So, what would happen if I embedded this in some creature and then willed it to ¡°Manifest¡± even further?¡±


    ¡°It would explode, leading to considerable internal lesions and embedded shards. That is one of my favorite tactics when dealing with denizens that have plenty of soft tissue that it uses as blubber armor. Even separate from my body, I can command the shards to continue to condense themselves and the materials around them. This leads to lethal cavities forming and, in most cases, the doom for whatever denizen the affliction is within.¡±


    ¡°I see,¡± I said, envisioning the macabre scene. Trypophobia was the only word that came to mind as each shard would create holes in the body around it.


    ¡°So, beyond that. Your ability probably makes for some great armor.¡±


    ¡°Indeed. Hardening parts of the body is just the start. Wait until you master the ability to influence the elements around you. That is how I seem to fly¡­¡± Focus started to stay before he blinked from existence and was gone.


    ¡°What just happened?¡± I asked as I looked at the representation of the relic, finding that Focus was falling back down towards the bottom and that my little sphere had begun to pulse and vibrate.


    I was seconds away from arriving at the little circular marker! Somehow, adding Focus to my ability set had sped up the process even more, deleting all the time that I thought I had left.


    ¡°Here goes nothing,¡± I said as my little orb rose in perfect alignment with the hole and everything went dark.


    I waited and waited. Surely this was just like the first time that I had accidentally encountered the Seven. Surely, someone would come to talk to me soon. I tried to will my personal space back around me and to check on where I was within the relic. Nothing happened. I couldn¡¯t seem to do anything.


    ¡°Am I dead?¡± I thought after a few moments of nothing happening.


    A low boom sounded off in the distance, more of a low-sounding sonar pulse than something you would hear in the atmosphere. Like an explosion happening underwater.


    With the sound, something seemed to move off in the distance in the dark.


    A pinprick of light raced upwards from below my point of view, quickly flattening out and becoming a line of light that seemed to flow up and down as though it was following a strange topography of something in front of me. It almost looked as though it was a light bar from a photocopy machine scanning a humongous brain.


    As the bar of light drew level to me, a tiny thread sparked over towards me for a brief second, seemingly finding an anomaly within the perfectly empty blackness where I hovered. The tendril of light was withdrawn, pulled away as the bar raced upwards into the distance, causing me to watch in disbelief as it seemed that I hadn¡¯t been worthy of consideration.


    Darkness returned for a moment before lights began popping up all around the corners of my vision. It seemed that whatever the tendril of light had been that had touched me for that brief moment, it had been considered and further investigation was needed. The dots of light quickly became bars of light that stretched out and centered on closing in around my location. Interestingly, the lengths of light didn¡¯t overlap¡­. they bent¡­ forming a massive shining eye that hovered over the surface of the dips and valleys that it had just scanned.


    Sparks from the edge of the circle leaped inwards, forming a massive iris that focused on me. I couldn¡¯t help but feel like I was a bug under a microscope.


    ¡°Hello?¡± I thought, hoping it would hear me, seeing as I didn¡¯t have a throat in this form.


    A thin tendril whipped into existence from the side and circled around my vision, causing my view to skew as it started to do something to me, to pull at my mind, flooding through my essence, boiling my soul.


    ¡°Stop! What are you doing?!?¡± I shouted as the process continued.


    I didn¡¯t feel any pain, beyond the disorienting discomfort of sensing as though my existence was being manhandled. It almost felt like it was reaching through me. I began to hear voices, cries of pain, and odd warbles for the briefest of seconds around me that sounded exactly like my voice before they cut off abruptly.


    ¡°You are not mine.¡± A voice called out suddenly, shocking me as I watched the vast eye as it slowly started to shrink. ¡°You are a cross-contamination.¡±


    ¡°I¡­¡± I started to say, intent on naming myself, explaining my problems, and asking to see if it could help me. I was ready to tell it everything but I never got the chance.


    ¡°Yes, I know.¡± It interrupted me as the shining eye shrunk even faster before coming to hover several feet in front of me, filling my vision with sparks and tendrils of light that looked very sharp and wicked.


    ¡°Ordinarily I would just exterminate breaches into my domain¡­¡± It went on as I found my ability to voice my thoughts to suddenly be muted. I could think, I just couldn¡¯t hear my thoughts speaking inside my mind. ¡°but you and your kind are worthy of study and dissection.¡±


    Alarm flooded my mind as one of the shining tendrils swept forward and cut into me, spikes of light driving and gouging all throughout my being.


    ¡°Yes, this must go.¡± It said as it yanked, pulling something out of me and vaporizing it.


    I tried to scream.


    ---


    The arrival and observation by the Skism Sentinel had caused massive realignments in the encircling lines of division between the alien races present who had claimed stakes in the outcome of the artifact.


    When the Sentinel simply observed, remaining stationary regardless of the movements of the many armadas around, the Tela ordered the U¡¯lennea to begin driving some of the known weaker alien races away, firmly broadcasting that the artifact belonged rightfully to the Tela and that any alien race who remained would suffer the consequences and be attacked.


    This did not go well, as one of the Jaz¡¯era Prime vessels was approached by one of the larger U¡¯lennea mercenary carriers and due to their race being blind, entering within proximity of attack caused them to do just that.


    Regardless of being a smaller combat vessel, everyone quickly witnessed that the Jaz¡¯era had been paying attention to the anomalies occurring within the realm of the supernova. It launched all of its escape pods directly at the larger war vessel, causing the U¡¯lennea commander to broadcast his humor at this futile action to his fleet, only to change his tone after the pods had rammed into the impenetrable Tela armored hull. With the pods firmly seated against the massive ship, practically crushed in half due to the impact against the cr armor, the Jaz¡¯era commander caused each of the pods to turn on their cr propulsion drives all at once, thereby acting like a beacon to the starving denizens in the supernova.


    While it may have seemed like an insignificant thing to do, to the starving and scattered denizens floating around in space, the cr propulsion sang out like a massive dinner bell. The ship was practically shredded as the creatures rushed towards the escape pods from all directions, killing most of the crew and causing a cloud of debris to fill the area.


    This one act had shown that the elite mercenaries of the Tela were not as fearsome as they had been known. They could be killed. There was blood in the water and everyone now saw the hated Tela and U¡¯lennea as prey.


    In retaliation, the U¡¯lennea began firing on all vessels rather than simply attempting to bully them away.


    War had begun.


    ---


    ¡°Why aren¡¯t we doing anything?¡± Invicta asked as they all watched the battle raging outside in the VR war room. It had begun and all they had done since then was slightly pull back and observe while the vast armadas sent ships darting forward into the fray like wild wolves.


    ¡°Oh, but we are.¡± One of the many Meditati¡¯s answered as she showed their current fleet locations and how far away they were from the center of the event. ¡°The ship containing the Skii has arrived and we are now just waiting for our time to claim the relic. Soon we predict that someone will break out the skism weapons and we don¡¯t want Kevin¡¯s trump card anywhere near the epicenter when that happens.¡±


    ¡°If it is allowed to happen.¡± Tutor said as she cast a glance at the massive and oddly still Skism Sentinel. Nothing that was happening seemed to bother it, not the display of cr-backed weapons nor the denizens that had been employed in causing havoc against those ships who were armored to the gills with cr plating. The escape pod attack had proven to be a one-trick pony once everyone realized that it had drawn all of the denizens in the system into that one location. If anyone wanted to use it again they either had to get behind an enemy ship and to draw the denizens toward them, which no one was willing to let happen, or to figure out some new creative way to use the creatures who could tear through cr like it was nothing.


    At present everyone was just using tried and true methods of punching through parts of ships hulls who were not completely armored with cr. Cr, being exorbitantly expensive courtesy of the Tela¡¯s monopoly, was hard to come by, and covering entire fleets¡¯ hulls tended to be too much for most races. This was why it was troubling that so many races had sent so many ships.


    ¡°And there it is,¡± Meditati said as she brought up a strange-looking weapon being aimed by one of the tiny Xeath interceptors that had managed to get close to a Tela fighter while it was busy fighting another Jaz¡¯era Lesser vessel. Visibly nothing happened for a second as the weapon swept rapidly from tail to stern towards the Tela vessel. It was only the seemingly instant actions of the Tela that showed just how badly the weapon had affected them. The Tela fighter had stopped moving entirely while the rest of the nearby Tela fleet had instantly pulled back and fired upon the tiny ship, as though the tiny vessel had become a source of pure revulsion and a target to be destroyed. All across the battlefield, there was a marked retreat from any Xeath vessel attempting to get too near to a Tela vessel.


    ¡°What was that? It killed the cr just like the Blidda weapon.¡± George said as he worked it out rapidly. ¡°The Xeath managed to create a beam weapon?¡±


    ¡°Indeed. I knew something like this would happen one day. Each race has had enough time to make remote labs and to study cr in secret environments. Heck, they might even have secretly sold their continual research to each race as time progressed. There is no way of knowing who managed to crack it first but I predict that the only reason why each of these fleets are here is because they all have some weapon of similar effect. That or they are just really stupid and thought that they might be able to loot an active war zone.¡±


    Those predictions made by Meditati proved to be true as, one by one, other alien races started to reveal their trump cards. The Blidda ships present quickly revealed that they each possessed a field that extended around their ships, causing any tela weapon to fail to detonate when it got too close. They even started to attempt to ram into Tela ships, though it proved to be a difficult task as everyone was limited to traditional propulsion engines. The Tela didn¡¯t have flesh and blood bodies inside their vessels, allowing them to reach higher speeds quicker than the Blidda¡¯s vessels were able to.


    Things took a turn for the worse for everyone once the Gurn revealed their version of the weapon.


    ¡°They doom themselves and everyone else.¡± Nurse said as she saw what the sporelike creatures had envisioned creating using research designed to destroy anything that relied on Tela cr technology.


    Bombs. Millions of nearly invisible and tiny bombs flooded the area, blowing up and affecting not only the Tela, practically putting them on the run, but also destroying everyone else¡¯s cr propulsion engines in the process.


    It was this use of the weaponized field that stunned everyone present. For anyone caught in the blast of the bombs, their ships were not limited to only traditional propulsion. Without cr propulsion¡¯s rapid and continual thrust through space, no ship caught in the blast would ever make it back home before all of the crew died of old age.


    ¡°Hmm¡­ those tricky Blidda,¡± Meditati muttered as she used her stolen encryption channels to listen in on private communications that she had connections with on the front.


    ¡°What?¡± George asked as he noted that they didn¡¯t seem phased by the turn of events, choosing to continue to pursue the fleeing Tela regardless of if they had been caught in one of the blasts.


    ¡°They seem to have developed a means of shielding their engines against the harmful effects. I guess that they had to seeing that they radiate a field around their ships. I don¡¯t see any other vessels using that technique yet. Some of the other races are actually thinking about withdrawing because of the Gurn¡¯s weapon. They don¡¯t want to be stuck here forever without a means of getting home.¡±


    ¡°That must be why many of the Gurn¡¯s command carriers are sitting a great distance from the battlefield. They¡­¡± Invicta said just as explosions started to dot the region of space that she had just been watching, the very space that housed the main collection of the Gurn¡¯s armada.


    One by one, each of the massive Gurn ships disappeared from the radar, being quickly snuffed out by an invisible foe. The remaining Gurn ships amidst the conflict quickly began to turn their coms to open broadcast as they cried loudly for the loss of their fellows. There were no words, simply complete sorrow as thousands upon thousands of their race were quickly snuffed out.


    ¡°Ouch.¡± Nurse said as she watched the display.


    ¡°Yeah, that was brutal. I wonder what kind of weapon that was.¡± George commented, not realizing that Nurse had flinched in pain.


    ¡°Oh, I know exactly what kind of weapon it was. Or at least, what it was made of.¡± She said as she stood up from her seat to look off into the distance at empty space beyond the conflict. ¡°It was tiny particles of gold cr, moving at insane velocities and it killed many of my swarm that I had observing the Gurn fleet.¡±


    Everyone turned to look in the direction that Nurse was facing as an image slowly started to appear as she moved her swarm into the area to investigate.


    ¡°The Solar Citadel,¡± Meditati said as the image of a truly gargantuan object started to come into view. ¡°General Magus has arrived.¡±


    ¡°He has access to gold cr?¡± Tutor asked with worry in her voice.


    ¡°It would appear so.¡±


    It was then that something strange was felt by Kevin¡¯s entire team. A feeling of pressure swept through them all, spreading out through Nurse¡¯s swarm, into the communication channels, and into and through the countless neighboring armadas of all the fleets in the theater of combat.


    Something else had shown interest in what was happening and it far superseded the arrival of Magus the First. Everyone felt the pressure, Nurse the most, as it was being channeled through her connection to Kevin as the Designer gazed upon Kevin and through him at the situation.


    Everyone froze like birds caught in the gaze of a deadly viper as the presence swept through the area before withdrawing.


    ¡°What was that!?!¡± Meditati and George practically shouted in unison as they sought to find the source of the invasion. Whatever had just happened had been impossible. It had swept through their subroutines and had seen everything about them in an instant.


    ¡°That processing speed is impossible,¡± Meditati whispered.


    ¡°Nurse? Are you alright?¡± Tutor asked as she noticed Nurse¡¯s fists clutching at her shirt in front of her chest. She seemed to be trembling in fear, knuckles white, as her lovely eyes were wide and pitch black, iris completely dilated in fear.


    ¡°No! Don¡¯t hurt him!¡± She cried as pain and blazing fire was felt by everyone present, causing Meditati, George, Tutor, and Invicta to join Nurse in screams of pain as their world was rent asunder.

 23. Answers

    ¡°There, dissection complete.¡± the Designer stated once the pain stopped, and I could think again.


    I blinked, or at least tried to anyway. The Designer still had me muted for some reason and didn¡¯t seem to think that having a conversation was needed.


    ¡°Look, I am already gone. If you are wondering why I am not interested in giving you conversation rights, I have already seen what is in your mind and made this decaying copy of myself to answer and correct what I deem necessary.¡± The eye in front of me said as it took its tendril away from me, finishing whatever it had just done inside me. In truth, the eye did seem to be rapidly shrinking and it looked like whatever it was going to say wasn¡¯t going to take very long.


    ¡°One of the biggest questions you had that I see as pertinent to the viability of your succeeding is: ¡°What is the Skism and what is its purpose?¡±. The answer to that is rather simple, it is a high-concept cleaning robot. Its whole purpose when it was dropped off in your dimension was to seal away any outbreaks of what you nonsensically call Void entities.¡± I said as a Skism Sentinel materialized behind the eye.


    ¡°The problem is, even with all of our containment and sterilization concepts, subject ^44-Degeneration_Lifeform-1004-3¡­ you know what, never mind, to you it is a Void creature,¡± it said before pausing, seemingly showing a personality for the first time.


    ¡°Whatever, anyways, all of our concepts only manage to cause the Void to be frozen in place without the ability to curtail sustenance and stimuli by observing and draining hosts with susceptible ocular organs. On your level, they infect and spread through sight, both from themselves and to their host who looks at them. Somehow, the Void can still sense lifeforms through the skism field and can stimulate mental stimulation that resembles attempts at communication.¡± the remnant of the Designer said as massive Void eyeballs were created off to the side, seemingly squeezing through the core of a sun and spreading out in search of prey. After a few minutes, the Skism Sentinel would show up and contain the entire galaxy with a skism field.


    ¡°So yes, your Void Seedling, once you fed it enough, used its seedlings and they all went off in search of fertile husk material,¡± it said as a replay of the burst of light was replayed as well. ¡°Husk material that exists in your dimension in several locations due to the Void having successfully breached those suns in the past.¡± It said, showing massive skism fields dotting the cosmos before zooming quickly in on one and pointing a massive arrow at the black tentacle substance making up most of its body.


    ¡°The Void Seedling knows that husk material exists in your dimension, from previous Void invasions, but it was unable to determine the exact location in which it needed to spread, hence the circular explosion of seedlings.¡±


    The eye had shrunk considerably, and I became alarmed that it would completely vanish before it actually got to any of the other questions that I had burning in my brain. It seemed to think the same as well because it started to talk faster and severely cut down on the explanation length.


    ¡°Anyways, continually active skism fields draw a lot of power, hence we left some batteries in your dimension. Originally, they were considered invulnerable, due to your dimension being made up of weaker material and energy density, but with your updated knowledge, we now know that this is not true. Protect these batteries at all costs!¡± It said as it showed the six red egg-like objects that the Last Engineer had made a note of breaking open.


    A wave of fear rushed through me. I had intended to open them myself to see what was inside them. I hoped that the Last Engineer didn¡¯t have them and that my friends had not decided to open them as well.


    ¡°Finally, yes, we had abandoned these three dimensions. It was known that it was all a matter of time before our creations powering the shield fell and the Void escaped and killed off everything. With you, however¡­ there might be a chance at saving and empowering the shield again, seeing that your species possesses a compatible mind. I dissected your absorbed abilities and fixed them so that you can go back to working on fixing the problem without worrying that you might accidentally kill your friends. I cut away each ability¡¯s need to bond completely to a dominant part of you and simply made them usable as needed. I changed corruption to something else that will help you fix your problem. Clarification, this is your problem, not ours even though we made it. No, we won¡¯t save you, we have our own problems to deal with.¡± it said as I felt a ball of rage flame up inside me.


    ¡°You didn¡¯t know this, due to you being trapped inside our ability generator, but you are no longer a prisoner to the influence of the Void Seedling. Our cleaner¡­ or Skism Sentinel, as you like to call it, intercepted each and every seedling and they have all perished, courtesy of having no husk material to bond with before they met the skism field.¡± the eye said as it shrunk down to a ball no larger than a human eye. I could tell that it only had moments left before it would completely be gone.


    ¡°We have never been able to inspect an empty shell up close. If you can get the shell that surrounds your body to our city and use the machines there to study it, who knows, you might just find a way to clear out the Void infection.¡±


    ¡°City?!?! What city?¡± I shouted, finding that I could finally talk again as the eye was only as large as a tiny dot.


    ¡°The city beyond the blasted region of course. Where the Void are contained.¡± It said, showing a cosmic-sized hole amid a mass of never-ending noodles. It took me a second to realize that what I was looking at was where the Void were contained. It was a space, a truly immense space that the Designer¡¯s people had nuked when they attempted to kill the Void. The explosions had hollowed out the area, creating a cauterized zone to keep the Void contained within. The city was somewhere inside that, seemingly still existing.


    As the eye vanished, I felt a mighty shove and quickly had to blink at the sudden brightness I found blasting in my eyes. I was staring at a sun that I was quickly approaching. No, not approaching, I was blasting past at incredible speeds.


    ¡°I am back!!!¡± I shouted as I felt all of my senses and swarm return to me. ¡°Yes!!!¡± I screamed as I used the swarm around my tiny ant-like body to create my human form, stretching my arms wide and laughed. I no longer had to rely on the Six to feed the Void Seedlings, if what the Designer had said was true. Also, he seemed to have said that he had fixed me, and I shouldn¡¯t need to worry about killing everyone accidentally.


    ¡°At least that is what I am pretty sure he said,¡± I muttered as I kept replaying his exact words over and over just so that I didn¡¯t get them wrong.


    ¡°Kevin?¡± I heard several voices say in my head before a loud scream from Invicta filled my ears as she tried to wrestle swarm away from me to manifest arms to hug me with. I chuckled and rolled my eyes as I entered VR to meet them all.


    Just as expected, once I arrived on the travel disk, I spied Invicta racing towards me from the Command room. Tutor, George, Nurse, and Meditati were no slower, each teleporting or simply manifesting as Nurse did with her arms already forming around me from behind.


    ---


    General Magus was forced to pause his plans when he felt the foreboding presence sweep over him. He had never encountered such a phenomenon and it should have been impossible, seeing that he existed in VR. Nonetheless, he had felt it and whatever it was, it had breached his system like it wasn¡¯t even there. He had been on the brink of opening his communication channels and claiming military dominance over the entire sector of space but after that feeling had swept through him, he quickly decided to halt everything and to observe his surroundings, preparing his more diabolical weapons just in case.


    As he slowed his Solar Citadel even further, he intently monitored the space surrounding the battlefront. Nothing stood out to him, nothing anyway that was beyond the norm.


    ¡°Wait¡­ what was that?¡± He muttered as he focused on a burst of sparkling light that caught his attention. It only lasted for a moment and didn¡¯t seem to do anything or have a purpose. It wasn¡¯t even near to any of the battles taking place.


    ¡°How odd.¡±


    It wasn¡¯t until he zoomed out that his eyes widened on all of his eye stalks. ¡°They are everywhere!¡± He shouted as he spied the same sparkles of light practically in every zone of space in front of him. They even seemed to be approaching his Solar Citadel! He quickly diverted power to swing his fortress in a different direction while continuing to study the surroundings for more of the bursts of light.


    ¡°There you are.¡± He said as he spied a larger cluster of sparkles all being emitted from several large battleships sitting a large distance away from the front lines.


    ¡°You thought you could sit back and sneak your invisible soldiers or bombs onto everyone¡¯s ships, did you?¡± He said as he targeted the new unknown threat and moved his gargantuan battle fortress to a more advantageous location. ¡°Although, I am pretty sure that you didn¡¯t mean to play your hand so clumsily. I can only imagine that you were tripped up by whatever interference just swept through space.¡± He said, rubbing his Tela armor plates together in a humorous chuckle.


    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    The Gurn, Blidda, Xeath, and Jaz¡¯era had already played their hands, showing off their capabilities and thus allowing him time to modify his Solar Citadel to better resist such attacks. He had already ordered it to modify its hull and to separate his vital cr to work further within the structure. His launch tubes were now set to open mechanically, no longer needing to be exposed to the beam weapons being used against the Tela.


    As for the Jaz¡¯era using cr propulsion to draw the aggression of the creatures that used to live inside of the star that had gone supernova? His plan was just to not let anyone get into position behind him. Anyone who tried would be ripped to shreds with his denser cr shavings. He had felt great pride upon witnessing how effective his new weapon had been against the Gurn vessels. He would prove his capabilities in this theater of war once again. It was well past time for him to assume command of the cosmos, those blowhard politicians had done nothing of note in all of their time in power.


    ¡°We have given everyone enough time to learn to bow before the Tela. Those that choose to resist need not exist anymore.¡± He said as he watched his next targets lining up.


    ---


    ¡°You¡¯re up rookies! Get out there and bag us some new tech!¡± His group leader yelled at Magus the Last and the rest of their squadron as the battle had begun and ships were already flying apart in the distance. Magus obeyed with just enough speed to seem respectful, his large lumbering Herv body rushing to his command seat inside his scavenging vessel. Herv spacesuits were bulky and cumbersome, having ¡°thin¡± sheets of cr that were supposed to keep him alive in case of an attack. The space suit was still a death sentence out here and all of the Herv knew it. Each suit was equipped with tiny cr propulsion drives, something that no one would consider using here, meaning that they were being sent to their deaths if they took damage.


    ¡°Don¡¯t think about the suits, command is rigging up a traditional retrieval rocket. Just be on the lookout for it if your craft is destroyed. Grab the line and make it back!¡± His leader yelled over the comms. He was probably trying to calm down his squadron and to get them to just focus on grabbing what they could.


    Magus couldn¡¯t care less. His sole focus was on all of the anomalies that kept popping up across the front. Ships were exploding without cause, Tela vessels were going dark, and the Gurn seemed to have caused everyone to hate them all at once. All that mattered was what Magus was counting on to happen at any moment, for the General to show up and take over the war efforts of the Tela.


    It was all just a matter of¡­


    Magus froze as a wave of pressure swept over his mind. Exclamations and open mic''d curses of worry were broadcast over each other in the comms, making Magus freeze in place as he was just about to press the button to lock in his flight movement suppression field. He had felt the pressure through his cr body! Something was not right. Whatever had just occurred had been felt by everyone, biological and digital alike!


    ¡°Command, are we still launching?¡± He asked over the unintelligible nonsense of the other Herv crew members. They were all relatively young and lacked real battle stripes.


    ¡°Standby everyone, Command is deliberating.¡± A strong voice cut through everyone¡¯s open mic and shut down the chatter.


    Magus clutched at his controls, wondering what had just happened and who had access to such a technology.


    Was it the General¡¯s new weapon? Did he just scan everyone?


    Stress crept through Magus¡¯s mind as he surveyed his surroundings around his small ship. He had to succeed! There would only be one shot like this!


    ---


    -Aboard the Tela Command Ship-


    ¡°We are practically in a rout. Several of our ships have simply been sterilized of operable cr. For the first time in forever, we have lost Tela lives in battle. Additionally, a new kind of weapon has been deployed on the battlefield, one with which we know next to nothing about. The Xeath are screaming that someone used illegal mental intrusion technology and claim that it is a war crime. The odd thing about this new weapon is that every Tela troop also felt the effects. This whole situation is a catastrophe for the Tela.¡± The Commander reported to his superiors.


    ¡°Understood, all weapons are allowed. Kill as needed.¡± The Commander repeated before connecting to the U¡¯lennea Mercenary Commander. ¡°You are free to do as you will. Use whatever weapons you desire.¡±


    ¡°May we also claim spoils?¡±


    ¡°Yes, the Tela High Command doesn¡¯t care what happens here as long as it is remembered as a day of terror for those who fought against us. Try to secure the artifact if you can but destroy all opposition and observers.¡±


    ¡°With pleasure.¡±


    ---


    ¡°Ok! First issue: We need to get ahold of all of the Lost Ancient Pods and to protect them from any damage!¡± I said after a few moments of everyone hanging on to me for dear life. Meditati tilted her head to the side quizzically before answering against my shoulder, not lessening her grip around mine and George¡¯s necks in the slightest. ¡°They are currently on their way here and should arrive in a little while. The Skism Sentinel kinda tipped off everyone to how important they are after it intercepted your Void Seedlings, and we grabbed them as quickly as we could. The LOW tried to obtain them, but they were not fast enough.¡±


    ¡°Good! Good¡­¡± I said as I closed my eyes and simply hugged them all back. It felt good, no¡­ it felt amazing to have so many friends who cared so much about me.


    ¡°So, you managed to get the Six back to working on interrupting the Void Seedling again? What exactly happened this time?¡± Tutor asked, her breath tickling my neck.


    ¡°Not exactly,¡± I said before I opened all of my memories to them, letting them have access to everything that I had been through. I could feel each of them as they absorbed and filtered through my recollections.


    All of them except Invicta.


    She had moved and was hovering an inch in front of my face.


    I pried an eye open to find her puckering her lips with her eyes closed and her hands clasped behind her back.


    Silly girl.


    I leaned my head closer to give her a tender peck on the lips, causing her to turn beet red and to start to light up like a party sparkler. She languidly flew and plopped down on my head, causing my scalp to tickle as she sighed.


    "After you were gone Meditati intercepted a communication broadcast from the LOW concerning what they had observed and what happened when a Seedling ran into the Skism Sentinel. It went after the other Seedlings, even arriving in Earth''s orbital path to do so, and now seems to be tracking you via your Seedlings shell." Tutor said as she filled me in on everything that they had been up to since I was gone. She even confirmed my suspicion that it had been Ess via a swarm body that the Leva King had encountered. She caught me up to date with where my current body was in relation to the battle. They had sent it in the other direction, thinking to keep it safe and away from the main body of the Sentinel while moving in random patterns to hopefully confuse the Sentinel¡¯s extension.


    I could feel that Nurse had a truly massive amount of swarm following in my body¡¯s wake like a royal escort and while acting on instinct I chose to divert their collective path and to guide them all directly towards the event and war location. There was no harm in being excessively prepared given that General Magus seemed to already be using gold cr.


    ¡°So that is what happened,¡± Meditati said when they all got to the part where the Designer had dissected me.


    ¡°Indeed.¡±


    ¡°I thought we were all going to die. It felt like we, you, and everything that bound us together was getting ripped apart.¡± George said as he stepped back, leaving his hand on my shoulder.


    ¡°You encountered a Designer.¡± Nurse whispered in awe.


    ¡°Yes, no, I don¡¯t know. It was more like I got an answering machine with how the situation went.¡± I said.


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be so sure,¡± Meditati said as she finally released me and stepped back. ¡°I would guess that each syllable was tailor-spoken to guide, manipulate, or lead you where it wanted you to go. It all depends on how you see its machinations. Believe me, I would know. Not allowing someone the right to ask questions takes out many equations that it might have to account for. This way, you are only running on a script that it let you have."


    ¡°Well, it is pretty messy out there. I am not sure how anything could account for the mess that is taking place.¡± I said as I noted that the outside world was practically frozen, giving us as much time as we needed for our reunion.


    ¡°So! You are free and all better now?¡± Tutor asked as everyone started to unwrap me in their embrace.


    ¡°I guess? I don¡¯t think I would be able to come back like this if it wasn¡¯t the case. The Six can¡¯t reach me anymore.¡± I said as I brought up a visual of my tiny ant-like body. It still seemed to be the same size and appearance. It was also still trapped inside the invisible shell of the Void Seedling.


    ¡°Oh yeah! That Leva King is a jerk!¡± Invicta suddenly exclaimed from atop my head. ¡°He totally wouldn¡¯t listen to reason! Sublimis wants to bite his tail!¡±


    ¡°Invicta. Look through his memories. It will fill you in on several things.¡± George said softly.


    ¡°Fine¡­ oh.¡±


    I could feel her roll about on the top of my head for several seconds as she mulled over what she had learned from my memories. It was slightly distracting and became even more distracting when she grabbed my hairline above my forehead and pulled herself across so that her little Barbie-sized face could get in front of my eyes.


    ¡°So that means you have new weapons now?!?¡± She asked with glowing excited eyes.


    I laughed. Out of all of my memories, that was the sole thing that she focused on. I reached up and retrieved her gently, sitting her on my shoulder and leaving my arm bent so that I could hold her legs in place.


    ¡°So it would seem. They will probably come in hand in the next few moments, what with General Magus already having gold cr.¡± Meditati said.


    ¡°Can you please harden the shell of the Skii ship?¡± Nurse asked.


    ¡°You mean you can¡¯t?¡±


    ¡°No, it is locked. I can¡¯t access it, wait, now I can. What did you do?¡±


    ¡°Huh, I guess the Designer wanted to be sure that these powers were only used with my consent. I had to will you the ability.¡± I said as I felt out the abilities inside me. They were oddly different than before, as though he had made them more a part of me than before. As I thought of them, little descriptions popped into my mind and described what each one was and what it could do.


    All except the last one. Corruption, the ability that the Designer had said that he had removed and swapped for another one, was just an odd mishmash of symbols in the language of the Designer. Seeing that made me realize that Meditati was correct, the Designer was playing a game with me and had decided to keep me in the dark. There was no way that a being with his intellect couldn¡¯t have at least tried to describe what the ability did and what triggered it.


    He had left a Trojan horse inside me.

 24. Weapons not suited for mortals

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

 25. Eating bullets

    Arriving at the Skii ship was instantaneous and induced a slight feeling of stress once my gaze settled on the long row of stasis boxes awaiting us. Truthfully, I had never really considered the Skii to be all that important before, that is until I learned that they were Time¡¯s offspring and that they somehow were linked to his last action before he died. I had no clue what to expect besides the fact that they oddly wanted to come with me and had ended up here of all places.


    I stood there for a second while my body manifested from the swarm making up the walls and floor, my body quickly coming together like an inverted explosion. Nurse had taken care of all of the storage and supplies that the Skii might need, creating container bays around the large stasis boxes for any raw materials and technology that they might require upon waking up. Much of it was stuff that came with the Skii as well as basic elements from this dimension.


    Had I known what was coming, I would have decked their ship out to be a fortress that would easily dominate the system and handle any threatening presence like Magus¡¯s Solar Citadel. As it was, it was the barest of necessities meant to protect and transport the Skii while in hibernation until I got around to them.


    Oh well. We would have to make do.


    To my right, George manifested as well. On hand to act as the resident engineer in case the Skii required something built.


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s get this show on the road. You start on that end and I will start at the other.¡± I said as I moved to the far left box and pressed the button clearly labeled to reverse whatever process they had subjected themselves to slow their bodily functions down to be nearly inanimate.


    ¡°Have any idea what we are in for or how long their revival will take?¡± I asked George as we both walked to meet together in the middle of the room again, pressing each of the large box¡¯s awaken buttons as we walked past.


    ¡°Not a clue. The Skii weren¡¯t very high on the radar of the Tela, being seen more as living trees that somehow gained sentience. Sure, they were studied, but their physiology is so strange that nothing much could ever be profited from any research conducted.¡±


    ¡°Research? You mean dissection?¡±


    ¡°Sadly, yes. Besides their strange biology, the Skii have an acute weakness to light and practically zero incentive to dominate other races, simply seemingly doing whatever everyone else does to exist. This allowed them to easily fly under the radar all this time. They were just seen as weak and not worth the time.¡±


    The boxes hissed for a second before the lids all segmented and rolled away into hidden compartments.


    ¡°Neat,¡± Was all I managed to utter before limbs started to reach their way out of the box. The Skii, each like black stick bugs with leaflike flaps adorning their bodies at strategic locations, peeled themselves out of the boxes one after another without any hesitation or any sign of distress from having been as close to a state of death as a creature could come.


    ¡°Ah, crap. I forgot to ask what that guy''s name was in the store.¡± I mutter as identical Skii worked their way out of the boxes and started to stand around like statues. I had no way of identifying the one that I had mistakenly made an agreement with. They don¡¯t move like normal beings and it was starting to bother me as I tried to figure out why. No one stretched to ease any kinks that they might have had from being folded and stacked one atop another and they didn¡¯t even move to peer around as well, probably because their whole body saw by using the light provided. Their lack of movement was creepy.


    George walked around behind the boxes, peering into them as more and more Skii just kept popping out like magically packed clown cars.


    ¡°That''s the last of them. Wait, no, there is one more.¡± George said as he peered over the edge of one of the boxes. He waited a second before frowning. ¡°Ah, Kevin. I think we have a problem. This one appears to have died in transit.¡±


    ¡°That one is and has been broken since sprouting. It only seeks the darkness.¡± One of the Skii said in response, stepping forward to finally take the place of one with whom I could associate to get this event rolling.


    ¡°He has spoken to Father. You have ten. The time to delay and permeate has come.¡± Spoke a childlike voice from the box that George was peering inside. George quickly backed up as the Skii inside quickly bounded out of the box like a cocaine addict running from the cops. The Skii jumped and flailed, crashing into the far wall and pressing its fingers as high up as it could go along the wall before spinning and doing the splits, kicking various parts of the wall as each of its hands tapped at other random locations. To me, it looked like it was having a seizure, except for the odd fact that the other Skii moved each time it tapped, creating gaps between their bodies.


    The hair on the back of my neck stood up as I felt the Skii¡¯s insanity radiating from its movements.


    No, not insanity¡­ it''s surety. It knew something was going to happen soon.


    ¡°Incoming!¡± I shouted as I instinctively raised my arm to defend my face.


    Gold cr, moving at incredible speeds punched holes into the swarm protecting the outer hull of the ship. Much of the initial blast was absorbed by the outer layer, shredding the larger swarm bodies and inflicting serious wounds, even effectively killing several if their brains and heads happened to sustain too much damage. Those were quickly devoured by their neighbors, lest they heal and create mindless copies like I had accidentally made in the past. The other stray bullets that didn¡¯t get absorbed and that had managed to slip between legs and necks found the inner layers of my swarm and quickly started to act like Plinko balls as they bounced around inside the walls of the ship, tearing through the smaller swarm layers with ease.


    Several bullets even managed to make it into the inner core of the ship, blowing through the exact points that the crazed Skii had touched on the wall. Nurse must have been paying close attention because she quickly bunched up piles of swarm across from the locations that the Skii had marked, protecting the technology that would have been impacted had she not intervened.


    Through all of this I, physically, didn¡¯t get hit, yet I felt each pellet as though someone had blasted buckshot across my skin. I couldn¡¯t help but hiss through the pain, knowing that my swarm was getting shredded and would continue to get hurt until backup arrived. I could have turned off the pain completely but had decided to keep it on, using my swarm as a physical indicator of how much damage the ship was taking. The pain quickly went away, only staying so long as though I had accidentally touched a hot plate for a second, letting me know that my swarm was actively healing itself in preparation for the next salvo.


    The environment was charged, it felt like needles were prickling my scalp as I watched the swarm rapidly repair the walls and refill the minute amount of atmosphere that had managed to leak out. It didn¡¯t seem that the Skii needed that much air or whatever the gas was that was slightly pressurizing the area. As I was, I didn¡¯t need to breathe but for some reason the air in front of me seemed to ripple for a moment, causing me to wonder if I was seeing something.


    ¡°Two roads split. Pretend to die and take less pain or defend and suffer with greater victory. You have five for the first and many for the second.¡± The odd Skii said before it stilled, taking a finger in its mouth and biting off the end, spitting it out to the side as its stump sputtered dark blood.


    I left reality and stepped into my personal VR space, totally stunned at what I had just witnessed.


    ¡°What the heck is wrong with that thing? Is it insane?¡± I yelled as I felt George join me a second later. He had a thoughtful look on his face and was holding an image of the frozen moment that we had just left, the finger fragment flying off toward the far wall and the splattering tar-like blood spreading outwards from the shortened remaining length.


    ¡°No, I don¡¯t get the feeling that it is. I think when it says a number, that is how much time we have before something happens. That means that we now have less than three seconds to decide whether or not to break our ship apart and to pretend to be utterly destroyed by General Magus¡¯s initial salvo.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I figured that out as well. The number ten set me off when he first spoke.¡± I said as I stared off into space, the travel disk area fading from my sight as I looked off over Invicta¡¯s tree-lined path.


    ¡°So, can it somehow see the future? None of the other ones have demanded anything yet or tried to get me to do anything for them. They all seem to be waiting for something.¡±


    ¡°As crazy as it may sound, it does appear to be the case. I would love to study it further and see if the other Skii also have the same ability. Based on what it has said, the only thing that stands out is the phrase ¡®The time to delay and permeate has come''. This could indicate that the words delay and permeate are two abilities. It could mean that it has both abilities¡­ or it only has one and the other Skii can do the other. This is all just guesswork at this point.¡±


    ¡°I am not sure how much there will be to study if it keeps chomping parts of its body off though. That was crazy.¡±


    ¡°Indeed. Nurse is already sending swarm to stem the blood flow once we exit VR.¡±


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    ¡°Good. So, are you thinking what I am thinking? To aim for a greater victory? What do you think Nurse?¡± I asked, having her pop into existence next to us.


    "Based on that first little spat of projectiles from the General, normally I would say no. I get the feeling that he only used one shell and expected us to all die. If we don''t break apart and instead demonstrate that we can stand up to his attacks, it will only invite him to go all out against us. With a weapons platform of that size, he can shoot us from multiple angles whenever he wants." Nurse stated as she brought up a display of our tiny craft compared to the grand scheme of things happening out in the theater of war. General Magus''s triple threat of his divided Solar Citadel taking up a huge portion of space off in the distance, almost like three invading armies sneaking up in the dead of night.


    "But..." she said as she considered for a moment. "This Skii''s ability changes things. If it can keep this up for the duration of the conflict, then I think that we can simply deflect most of his attacks our way," she said as the animation gradually got more complex, showing volleys coming at us from ever-increasing angles as the other two parts of the Citadel joined forces.


    "Until we can''t and all of the Skii die." she finished as the General''s attacks quickly turned into a hellstorm of bullets, clouding out the visual.


    The last visual was very troubling, it gave no estimation as to how long the attacks would last or when our backup would arrive.


    ¡°How is growing the swarm and condensing them down using manifest going?¡±


    ¡°Well, I have learned a lot about that. Of the swarm that we lost to this first volley, consuming them before their bodies restore themselves is harder than normal. It is almost like trying to eat bricks.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, their atoms are more tightly packed. Makes sense with how manifest works. And the rest?¡±


    ¡°It worked wonderfully. Without it we would have lost a lot more swarm, practically been cored straight through even simply due to how low we are on swarm. Every second that passes allows me to refine our defenses just a little more. Soon we might have as near to a bulletproof swarm as possible. I just need to find the balance point. You were right about using manifest with caution. I had several reach a certain limit and simply shatter, without anything touching them. Healing and regeneration also slow down after a certain density is reached. The slow healing was the saving grace that allowed those that died to be consumed, seeing as it takes so long to do anything with the increased density. Once the higher limit is surpassed it is as though they become solid glass.¡±


    ¡°Yikes! Good thing you experimented first. It makes me wonder if there are other dimensions where the only way to exist would be by making the swarm exist in a more compact form. Find the limit and be careful to stay well underneath it,¡± I said before her expression turned dark. Her opal eyes changed colors, the green and blue shine fading, being replaced by deep red. I felt her emotions, her anger through our connection. It was the powerful all-consuming rage that I had experienced before with the swarm in those moments that I had lost control of it. ¡°I plan on devouring his Solar Citadel once the bulk of your swarm arrives.¡±


    I gave her a thumbs-up before changing the area around us to resemble the bay that George and I were standing in; preparing to return to reality. ¡°I know. If you don''t destroy him, then I will.¡± I said. I had grievances with his clones and now being attacked unprovoked by the General had guaranteed his fate. Nurse reached out to squeeze my arm softly before vanishing back to her work. Leaving me and George alone again.


    ¡°They seem to be waiting for something¡­¡± I muttered after a few moments as I thought back to what the one had said in the store. The drone¡¯s perfect memory made it easy, I could practically feel the very moment as though I was there just by bringing up the memory. Out of that memory, there were only two things that stood out to me. The first was the question "May this one join you in the light?" and the second was "Please accept the light of my clan and aid us in seeking more freedoms like this.¡± The brightest source of light nearby just so happened to be the focus of everyone¡¯s attention beyond the hull of the ship. Everyone in the theater of combat was practically bathing in the light emanating from Time''s arm. It might just be the solution to getting this ball rolling.


    ¡°George, can you hook them up with¡­¡± I started to ask as I noticed the odd Skii already turning towards the side wall where the epicenter of the event was located. ¡°a clear line of sight to the outside?¡±


    Without responding, swarm started to shift around, grabbing at stores contained in the surrounding bays and quickly going about constructing a massive window to the outside. ¡°It is a periscope design,¡± George said as light suddenly blasted into the room. ¡°It is routed through the ship¡¯s squirming shielding and should prevent a lucky shot.¡±


    The moment the event scene was visible through the massive viewport the Skii all standing around jerked into motion.


    "Well, would you look at that?" George muttered as some of them rushed to the bays and started to unload equipment and large printer forges while others began to hustle to pull out metal powders.


    "Indeed..." I said as I felt my hackles rise. Something was knocking at the edge of my attention. Ordinarily, I wouldn''t have noticed it but after spending countless days trying to summon the remaining six into my domain, I was really sensitive to any form of intrusion. I looked around the bay, searching for the source, and found it lying in a corner. The severed digit had fluffed out a little and had sprouted what appeared to be tiny roots.


    I walked over towards it, intent on picking it up and having a word with the strange Skii who had created it. Was it supposed to infect my swarm or something with its tiny roots?


    The closer I got to it, the more I noticed that it was slowly shuffling in my direction. Roots? No, it had made dozens of tiny legs and was trying to approach me.


    I bent down to inspect it, just noticing an odd spatial anomaly around its edges, like a heat shimmer that moved as it moved. It crawled to within a foot of me and then angled itself upwards on one end, as though it was waiting for me to pick it up.


    "I am not even going to ask what you are doing over there," George said from the other side of the room. "But when you get a chance you have to check out what is going on in the building bay."


    "Sure, just a second," I said before scooping up the severed fingertip. The tiny roots grew suction cups and anchored themselves to my palm, making it so that they wouldn''t easily fall off my hand as I stood up. I wasn''t afraid of it, seeing that I could easily squish it before it could harm me. I was just wondering what the heck was going on.


    "Hey George, how do the Skii reproduce?" I asked as I turned my head to glance over at him, finding a totally unexpected change having taken place in the few moments my attention had been diverted.


    "I guess like that?" He said as he kept his eyes on the Skii working like mad to build a machine from the ground up. I could tell that he was observing the little entity in my palm as well as studying the growing contraption in front of us, he just didn''t bother to physically take his eyes away from the rapid actions lest he miss something. "No one has ever observed it happening before so I guess an age-old mystery has just been solved."


    "Thirty. Extensive attacks and damage. Ten. Probing. Thirty. Constant." The crazy Skii said as it pointed at locations all over the walls and ceilings, its hands flaring for each point that would take damage.


    "You got that Nurse?" I shouted as the little digit in my hand started to vibrate like a cell phone on silent mode. "What the heck now?"


    "Yes, Kevin, I got it and will prepare for attacks incoming in that timeframe and order." Nurse said in my ear before hesitating. "Kevin, Meditati wants me to tell you that you have a call incoming from the Blidda ship you boarded at the Yelvos Trading Station. It seems that they would like to talk to you."


    "Don''t worry Kevin, I got this from here. Go ahead and take that call. The Skii seem to just be building an oddly modified all channel broadcaster. Nothing weapon-related, sadly." George said as he held out his hand towards me, letting me offload the little clingy digit.


    I stared long and hard at the creepy little thing before handing it over. "Alright, I will be back as soon as I can," I said before letting my body return to the surrounding ship. They needed all the extra swarm they could use for defense anyway.


    ---


    Things had changed. I could tell immediately when I arrived. The first and biggest clue was the presence of a toy doll sitting just inside my view. The doll, obviously supposed to represent a Blidda, what with the odd coloring and slender fingers, was fully hidden underneath one of the control consoles inside the room that my body was forming. The only reason that I happened to spy the little doll was due to the fact that my manifestation started with my head and continued with my neck and chest, allowing me to have such a low view as my swarm cannibalized the old and obsolete Alpha cube.


    ¡°Hmm¡­ looks like this version of me will be a little spread out,¡± I muttered as I looked down at my forming body and the quickly shrinking cube. ¡°I either have the option of looking slightly ghostly, foregoing legs, or badly emaciated.¡± I said as I looked around for an additional option.


    ¡°Aha! That will do.¡± I said as I spied several space suits netted to the wall through an open door. I floated over to them, picking the largest one and instructing my swarm to flow inside it, allowing me to manifest my head and neck in a solid form. When the process was done, I moved my body around, checking out the slender suit that would have belonged to an adult Blidda. ¡°At least I found a suite that belonged to a male.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but comment as I noted the different attachments that would normally have been used inside the suit when someone had to make an extended spacewalk away from the facilities in the ship.


    I stretched and tested the suit out, finding it to be impressive in its flexibility and durability. I didn¡¯t turn on any of the electronics, not wanting it to waste any of the gasses or to have it start pinging at me to secure the hood in place. It would work as a stand-in for a body until I helped the Blidda with whatever they needed.


    ¡°By the way, where are they?¡± I asked as I floated over to the lost doll. I bent down, retrieving it from its unfortunate prison, and turned my head as I heard the very high-pitched cry of a child coming from off in the distance.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to! I only borrowed it to help me find Ginny.¡± the little voice said as I heard it rapidly coming closer. I could easily hear the breathing of several individuals and the rapid pattering of hands and feet kicking off the hallways as the group of Blidda made their way towards me through the ship''s long hallways.


    I rolled my eyes and had had a little bit of my swarm grab ahold of the doll and to attach to various points along its body, effectively giving it a resemblance of life. "Just don''t scare the little girl ok? Act as her protector," I instructed the swarm before putting the matter out of my mind. The little doll nodded its head as its soft hand grabbed at one of the straps on the space suit for support.


    ¡°She said she was playing down here in the auxiliary purification section.¡± Another more adult Blidda voice said as they rounded a distant corner and sped the last distance to the room I was in. I had a rash idea of jumping out and scaring the approaching group, something that I was fond of doing to my brothers as a child, but seeing my history with scaring Blidda had gone so badly the last time I was here I quickly shelved that idea and simply chose to wait. After a second of thinking I decided to add the sound of breathing to my body, if only to make it so that the super sensitive ears of the Blidda had something to latch onto.


    ¡°Someone is in there!¡± A younger female Blidda voice said just as the group came bursting into view of the doorway.


    ¡°Tell the captain that the alien Kevin is here!¡±


    ¡°Ginny!¡±

 26. Earlier wars

    So much had changed since the last time I was here. There were Blidda children in the halls, families living outside of stasis, and activities going on in each part of the ship that we passed. I even spied shops, or their equivalent, set up in offshoot hallways for families to browse at their leisure. From what I gathered on the way to the command deck the changes that Meditati put in place, both protective and maintenance-wise, were enough to let the Blidda onboard return to living and even thrive. There was water and food in abundance and life seemed good.


    Worthwhile even.


    It made me wonder what sort of requests they had in mind. Did they want me to find them a new planet or something? Surely with their race¡¯s history at pinging the cosmos, they would already have enough celestial body data logged to do so themselves. What then could I offer that they couldn''t achieve themselves?


    As I observed the young Blidda girl, named Vilnn, rush away to show off her newly animated Ginny doll to her friends, I realized that my simple guesses were probably well off the mark. Vilnn¡¯s friends, it seemed, also already had robotic dolls of their own. At least from the pre-recorded dance moves they were demonstrating as the children who owned them liked to show off. All of the other dolls and toys looked polished and painted, not like the well-worn and deeply loved look that Ginny gave off.


    Oh well, Ginny could handle anything that came her way and would protect Vilnn to the best of its ability. I didn''t need to worry about them anymore.


    ---


    - The story of how the U''lennea came to be -


    Long before the Tela rose to power, the alien race currently known as the U''lennea fought for supremacy inside a petri dish of a crazed researcher.


    The researcher, being well into her years and bored with her limited declining lot in life, enjoyed pitting her creations against each other. She was no longer employed by the top government research labs and had since been relegated to the natural ending all females of her forgotten race endured once their usefulness was used up.


    Her race, resembling a very mobile adaptation of Earth¡¯s sea urchin, had a rigid spiky shell structure with mobility limbs that could grow from any direction if given the space to break through the exoskeleton. Each metallic spike could act as a mouth, weapon, or needle as needed, letting the scientist gather hard-to-reach cells and viruses within creatures¡¯ bodies or through dense layers of muck and soil. Her race was well suited for the very rough environment of her planet, one that most other aliens would consider being a living hell.


    Her planet, or collection of planets, were all set evenly and closely spaced in orbit around an ancient angry star. The order and layout of the surrounding solar system were strange, even to an uneducated budding astronomer¡¯s eye, as it was almost as though the solar system had been created by a being who wanted to imitate the life cycle of a virus, setting the gapped planets up as living heavenly bodies with which to tempt the aggressive creatures and beings to strive to continually migrate between.


    It was a trial by fire existence and the natives thrived in it or died.


    This habitat existed for ages until the LOW arrived.


    Upon arrival, the LOW studied the solar system in depth before picking out one species they considered viable for Uplifting and subjugation. They needed able bodies to carry out their research of the anomalous solar system, seeing as most expeditions to any of the planets tended to end in disaster. They set the researcher¡¯s kind up as the alpha race, teaching them about technology, and how to catalog and delve into the mysteries of the necklace of planets on their behalf. The LOW paid the newly Uplifted species for their discoveries and any of the harvested oddities located deep in the planet¡¯s core.


    Reaping the benefits as time passed while keeping their distance.


    The LOW understood the dangers. They had been around long enough to see the markings of intelligence and power either ancient beyond comprehension or an outside influence not native to this dimension. They had already cataloged many odd instances and creatures in the past, some viable for study, while others merely a deathtrap, originating from unknown sources.


    The Leva were one such example, a serpent-like life form that could live in any environment due to the oddity of their flesh having no link to any element in the cosmos. Leva were docile monsters normally but were known to become alpha predators if given the right, or wrong incentives, depending on the leading LOW scientist¡¯s opinion at the time. Through trial and error, the LOW had learned to take a distanced approach when gleaning priceless information from potentially hazardous anomalies.


    The decision to let the natives bear the burden of the possible eventual doom was perfectly acceptable, as spying and keeping tabs on discoveries made was a simple task. This method had been used before and was proven to be an excellent model for research.


    Thus, just as the LOW used the researcher¡¯s race to fight against the other species of hostile creatures thriving throughout the necklace of planets, so did the researcher pit her little cell science projects against other neighboring hostile cells. It was a learned behavior, a trait that she had picked up from her kind¡¯s powerful benefactors.


    The main difference, though, was that she was solely viewing the suffering and battles of her petri dish entities for enjoyment, in contrast to the clinical and unemotional approach of the LOW.


    It is interesting how this torturous form of entertainment, of pleasure at seeing another creature¡¯s suffering under impossible circumstances could change the nature of what occurred on the day that the researcher received a fresh uninspected batch of core samples containing new cells for study.


    A core sample containing a microscopic sample of the entity known as Corruption.


    The sample was so small, so insignificant, that it didn¡¯t even bear an active connection to its original host. It was just a byproduct or hint of its essence, having somehow visited the planet in ages past or been brought there by one of its creations.


    Yet, still, this insignificant sample was enough to change the fate of the researcher¡¯s entire species and the rise of the alien race known as the U''lennea.


    In the moments after she fed the sample to one of her test subjects, she was unaware of the additional essence within the sample and what the slime of Corruption would do to that one batch of cells.


    It would grant them an insidious awareness.


    A quasi-consciousness, driven by a yearning for purpose and understanding, seized the opportunity. Upon her next inspection of the petri dish enclosure, it leaped at the lowered needle appendage, bridging the gap as it had learned to do when infiltrating other neighboring cell culture dishes, and entering the researcher¡¯s body. What followed was the birth of something both wondrous and dreadful. It swiftly overwhelmed the researcher¡¯s form, embracing its newfound pleasure and purpose while assimilating her darker traits: The pleasure she derived from the suffering of others, whom she/it deemed inferior to itself.


    In a mere matter of years, the researcher¡¯s entire species fell under its sway, being invaded and molded into a new creation. The LOW observed with curiosity as the species underwent a profound transformation, attributing it to an evolutionary shift long overdue and not to the unseen force spreading like a cancer. They witnessed the rapid and violent spread of change, culminating not only in the establishment of a stable rulership over the necklace of planets but in the complete subjugation of all other life forms for their benefit. The newly self-declared U''lennea asserted their independence, cementing their ownership of their solar system.


    Then came the pivotal moment when the U''lennea requested and gained the knowledge of spacecraft, unleashing upon the cosmos a time of suffering. Could the LOW have intervened? Undoubtedly. They possessed the power to prevent untold agony as the U''lennea traversed from system to system, subjecting native populations to violent and grotesque experiments before moving onward.


    Yes, the LOW possessed the capability to halt the U''lennea¡¯s rampage, had they truly comprehended the unfolding events. However, they viewed the U''lennea as a means of population control¡ªa predatory force akin to a wolf in the cosmic wilderness. The primary reason the LOW refrained from intervening was due to the U''lennea¡¯s policy of non-extermination when dealing with other alien species; they functioned more like an intelligent virus, spreading and assessing the strength and capabilities of their host before moving on.


    Whether they found the host weak or strong in their presence, it did not matter. They would move on, seeking more entertainment. New conquest.


    As time marched on, the U''lennea grew in intellect, evolving into a formidable and cunning adversary. They possessed a keen intelligence and a belligerent disposition, offering their services to other races in exchange for sustenance and resources. Mercenary work suited them well, relishing the role of being a weapon aimed at others.


    Their power and coveted knowledge made them formidable foes and distant allies, as they held insights into the weaknesses of most species.


    To some of the Tela, a race who had left behind their natural bodies and who were more naturally not inclined to war, the use of a species who would strike fear into the hearts of their enemies just by their existence was a useful tool, eliminating the need for direct engagement.


    ---


    -Present day in the battle surrounding the artifact-


    ¡°Commander, the U''lennea have begun to disperse attack ships from their dreadnaughts! They are spreading out towards every ship like a wave.¡± came a warning cry from a Lesser Jaz¡¯era, its sharp appendages hovering over its ultra-sensitive hairlike controls as it prepared for its next command.


    The Jaz¡¯era Prime Commander¡¯s fur stood on end along its spine, showing heightened stress and reception to sound. It was wondering if this next battle would mean the end of its subfamilies kind.


    The original Jaz¡¯era were naturally deaf, having been spawned in a viscous environment where sound was deadened to the point of obscurity. It wasn¡¯t until the Jaz¡¯era¡¯s species left this environment that they encountered threats that required the Queen to create new subfamilies lest the hive face extinction. The Jaz¡¯era Queen modified her deaf species, enabling it to use its fur to sense the vibrations of the world around them, effectively turning their entire back into an exposed eardrum. This adaptation gave rise to a subfamily capable of detecting new threats, eventually leading to beneficial interactions with other intelligent species and even the ability to engage in trade and commerce. As time went on, the new, more observant subfamily of Jaz¡¯era had weaned the hive of the old, outdated subfamilies, proving their worthiness in combat against their less observant siblings. This growth in the hive had allowed the new ¡°sound observant¡± subfamily access to the Queen and rights to the genetic breeding pools, further cementing their dominance as a viable genetic improvement.


    As the new gene grew stronger the Jaz¡¯era grew even more hypersensitive to sound, able to hear whispered messages and signals throughout their ships, making them formidable logistics observers as they could make out what was going on simply by letting a patch of their fur absorb sound coming in its direction from any angle and filtering it through one of their formidable compact brains.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Their hive had discovered a powerful competitive advantage, both in space trade and combat, and let it mature and develop within its genetic code. They were one of the most feared and formidable alien superpowers, commanding respect and holding authority in their claimed territory of the cosmos.


    That is until the U''lennea showed up and attacked their fearsome space fleets.


    In the present day, their ship¡¯s hulls were perfectly sealed to block any sound or weapon that might attempt to excite the internal environment as a weapon. It hadn¡¯t taken the U''lennea long, once they captured the first Jaz¡¯era vessel to develop several surgical weapons against the hypersensitive praying mantis-like beings. The U''lennea''s attacks and experiments on the Jaz''era were so harmful and painful that they completely transformed the hive. Now, every Jaz''era understood their current subfamily¡¯s vulnerability and accepted that when confronting the U''lennea, who were skilled at exploiting weaknesses, no sacrifice was too large to maintain a strong front.


    The current Jaz¡¯era feared the U''lennea, not because of the pain and suffering that they received, but because it meant that the Queen would soon replace them all once she developed a better subfamily. Nothing was worse than having failed your Queen by not being the perfect tool to carry out her desires.


    Thus, the current subfamily did everything they could, attempting to find advantages they might utilize to maintain their viability. They traded far and wide for possible tools and technology to shore up holes in their defenses. In training for combat, every Jaz¡¯era had to witness historical documents and recordings taken when the U''lennea first invaded their system. Every soldier and commander had to understand what they were going to be fighting against.


    The evil that was heading their way.


    ¡°All crew, I regret that this time has come. The U''lennea are at our burrows again and we must not abandon the Queen. I recommend, but can not order, you to put on our new parasite in defense. Regardless of your choice, may the Queen have mercy on us all.¡± the Commander uttered as he let the sensitive fur on his spine part down the middle to expose his spine.


    From a squishy living pouch attached to his belly, the commander cut a tiny slug out of the durable cocoon, being kept alive by living off of its host¡¯s blood. He raised it to the back of his neck and pressed it against his spinal column, feeling the little razor-sharp teeth as it bit through his fur and into his flesh, digging its way into his nerves.


    No longer would this Commander be able to ever use his fur to hear the world around him, as the little critter let tiny tendrils connect to his sensory nerves, taking over and giving him its version of hearing. Now and forever after, this Commander and every last one of his crew who accepted the parasite would only be able to hear through the slowly blooming organ on their back as the parasite broke apart and spread little ear lobes to catch the sounds of the world around it.


    The parasite offered perfectly regulated sound, keeping decibels at an acceptable level for the Jaz¡¯era and not letting the U''lennea attack with sonics at the cost of losing their most formidable sensory ability for the rest of their life as the tendrils crept completely through their spinal columns, slowly eating the old way of hearing and replacing it with its own filtered version.


    To a species who had once lived through an invasion by the U''lennea, having a sense cut out from their body for the rest of their lives was a worthy sacrifice if it avoided what was to come if they fell into the hands of their enemy.


    ---


    It didn¡¯t take my escort long to figure out that something was wrong with my body. All it took was one of them pointing their sensitive ears directly at my space suit while speaking to notice that the material that I was in absorbed the sound hollowly rather than bouncing it back like a solid object might. To say that they found it interesting would have been an understatement, as I kept finding them poking and prodding at me when they wouldn¡¯t think I would notice. That and clicking oddly, generating a sound well beyond human hearing when we passed groups of Blidda, laughing to themselves as the other Blidda¡¯s faces changed in confusion. To them, I might have seemed like a ghost to their natural radar.


    ¡°Cilenzha, stop that, or you might anger him.¡± One of the escorts kept saying to the younger of the pair. The other escorts had left, off to take care of the occupation that they had before they had been ¡°voluntold¡± to help track down the alien¡¯s lost body box. I didn¡¯t mind the distraction, feeling appreciation for having something novel and ordinary to keep my mind from returning to the stress of worrying about a stray gold cr bullet shredding the Skii in my charge. So far, all I felt was calm reassurance from Nurse that everything was being taken care of. The pangs of pain were being kept from me whenever the General would let loose another salvo.


    Seeing someone, a young Blidda alien nonetheless, unbound by the stress of command and being happy to just be alive and out of their pods was a breath of fresh air to me.


    They didn¡¯t seem to be taking me to the command deck of the ship, rather leading me to an offshoot that my internal map designated as a ¡°vehicle bay¡±. The map was provided by Meditati and she seemed to be holding her breath about something, being oddly quiet for a change. Probably in anticipation as to what she knew would be waiting for me at the end of this request.


    ¡°Here.¡± The older of the pair said as she swung her body around, deftly grabbing at handholds to invert her acceleration next to a large closed door. She spoke, or rather rapidly sang some clipped notes at the panel, deactivating the lock and making the door start to cycle. The second the doors parted even just a sliver both her and Cilenzha¡¯s skin lost all color. From within, shrill sonic screams could be heard, and the sound of many Blidda crying, bawling their eyes out.


    Within the room, there was a screen blocking any sight of what lay within. It looked like all I needed to do was to step within and slide my hand through a seam and I could part it and slip through. I did so, hearing the older of the two tell Cilenzha that they had to get away and that it wasn¡¯t their battle to win before they both helped each other escape. The door zipped shut rapidly as soon as I made it past the vision lock, sealing the noise in and revealing to me what lay within the massive hangar.


    A huge observation space had been set up within the empty hangar. Screens, maps, schematics, and all manner of planning diagrams were on display on all the walls. From a glance, I could tell what and where the center of attention was directed at.


    It was all focused around the artifact, or had been until something had changed. Now, on six screens there were live and replay feeds of what had happened and was currently happening onboard Blidda vessels that had attempted to join the war efforts to loot the artifact.


    The replaying screens were within the last hour when the U''lennea had begun their assault in earnest. Several of the Blidda ships, along with countless other alien vessels, had been intercepted and boarded. The screams were from those replays, of the crew being attacked by an overwhelming force.


    The U''lennea were fast aliens. They showed no hesitation or remorse when one of their group died from a Blidda weapon. Death of a comrade, it seemed, would simply instantly cause the others nearby to adapt, like a school of fish moving in sync, taking countermeasures against whatever weapon was used. Even their boarding vessels seemed odd, almost reminding me of Phage with how they would ram into the Blidda¡¯s craft before pumping out their boarding party like a full needle being forcibly plunged into a body.


    It was the most Navy Seal and Borg thing I had ever seen.


    The crying sound, of dozens of adult Blidda bawling into their hands or staring at the ceiling, came from what they were observing on the live feeds. Some of the victorious U''lennea were attached to the stunned or downed Blidda. From what I could make out, it looked like a human-sized sea urchin had attached itself to the Blidda and was¡­ doing things with its spines and odd tentacle limbs.


    ¡°What?¡± My voice croaked dryly before I cleared my throat, impossibly imagining it being parched in this situation, even though I was a hollow avatar of myself. ¡°What the heck are they doing to those Blidda?¡± I asked as I saw the tentacle swipe a tiny blade along the exposed skin of the Blidda. It seemed to be studying and tasting the blood before it slapped a clear paste over the wound and moved on to another part of the Blidda¡¯s body, punching a spike deep within.


    ¡°It is what the Blidda do. They capture and torture. Sometimes the torture ends in death¡­ but most times it simply leaves a husk of the person that existed before, having suffered too much to return to life as they were before.¡± Kiv said, finally revealing herself from where she had been standing near a wall console.


    Her voice was odd.


    Even her eyes and expression were odd. She looked out of it. Drugged.


    ¡°Meditati, what is going on here?¡± I asked, freezing time around me as I jumped into VR. I kept the environment the same, wanting time to walk around the room to study everything for myself. Meditati popped into existence and exhaled a long breath.


    Yeah, she had been holding it the whole time it seemed.


    ¡°She is drugged. She asked me to do it to allow her to keep her head during all of this.¡± She said as she pointed to a little indent above Kiv¡¯s collarbone near a dark vein. That was where the site of the monitored injection was.


    ¡°And her sister Jelesv?¡±


    ¡°She is in the infirmary, sedated and recovering. She couldn¡¯t take the stress.¡±


    ¡°So what is going on? Why do you seem¡­ odd about all of this?¡±


    ¡°Kevin¡­ I am still me, yet changed, because of you. I honestly don¡¯t care for much of the aliens in the universe, simply seeing them as I always have, as a source of data. With you, and being a part of your world though, I care for what you care for. For your humans, and slightly for the Blidda. Not enough to get involved or to swoop in and try to save the day. It just isn¡¯t in my programming.¡±


    ¡°So, what? All of this is data?¡±


    ¡°In a way, yes. Even Nurse is still who she was, although, I have recently observed that she has changed drastically since my earlier baselines. She would have consumed everything at the start. Now¡­ I don¡¯t know.¡±


    I walked around the room, observing the monitors and studying each in turn. Most of the Blidda who were wracked with full-on cries had their eyes glued to one large screen to the side. To my eyes, all it looked like was a schematic with many different colored dots. Possibly crew locator beacons?


    ¡°What is going on here?¡±


    ¡°You know how the Blidda move and act as colonies?¡± Meditati asked slowly.


    ¡°Yes?¡±


    ¡°That is a current representation of the hibernation pods. Those crew that were kept in stasis and out of combat.¡± Meditati said, causing the colors to be labeled and exact data to show what each shade of color meant.


    ¡°Oh no.¡± I softly muttered as it all became clear to me. The U''lennea were hauling off the old, the weak, and the children.


    I felt my heart break a tiny bit as I looked at the ages denoting the colors. There was a small grouping of three pods being taken by one of the U''lennea, and each of their ages was under five years old.


    I couldn¡¯t take my eyes off of those little dots, frozen in time as they were halfway to the anchored U''lennea ship, ready to be whisked away to an uncertain horror.


    ¡°So, what? Those lives aren¡¯t worth saving?¡± I asked, feeling a heat rising inside me. It needed direction, and I was trying to not point it at Meditati.


    ¡°They are, but you have to understand that no one should take away free will. Their parents put them in this position. Each layer of the Blidda colony has a choice about who should lead. Yes, the end decision is on the commander, but all choices have consequences. Do you think that choice should be removed from the equation of life?¡± She asked, tilting her head sideways at me.


    She knew my answer, just as I knew that she was right. It didn¡¯t make the situation right though. I knew I would try my best to help.


    ¡°Kevin?¡± Nurse¡¯s voice interrupted my spiraling thoughts.


    ¡°Mmm? Yes, Nurse?¡±


    ¡°I can get a part of your swarm there faster.¡±


    ¡°What? How?¡± I asked, all my attention on the opal eyed girl that appeared in front of me. She was holding a child¡¯s toy and was smiling as she flexed the sides of it over and over again. The toy was a geometric, expandable ball made of interlocking plastic parts that could collapse into a small ball and expand into a large, hollow sphere.


    ¡°With this Hoberman Sphere.¡± She said, naming the toy as she started to change its makeup, changing out the plastic parts for swarm ants locking their legs together. Once all of the plastic had vanished, she let go, allowing the ball to hover in the air as it began to flicker and pulse, seemingly in both open and closed states at once.


    ¡°Is it opening and closing?¡± I asked, stunned at the speed that it was displaying.


    ¡°Yes. It can launch you at such a speed to get some extra swarm to the battleground faster than originally planned. It will damage the swarm that launches you though, as we will be pushing the mechanical force past its breaking point, using swarm joints as well as obsidian cr propulsion at its maximum, but once the swarm consumes some gold cr everything will be returning to normal.¡± She said, showing a mass of swarm being launched in the direction of the event like a rocket.


    ¡°Stopping will be another thing, leaving you with a fraction of the total swarm.¡± She said as the launched mass created another smaller Hoberman Sphere and repeated the process after it had passed everything, except in the opposite direction, dropping off a tiny amount at the far edge of the battle arena.


    ¡°I mean, with that technique, you could practically kill everyone in the area. It would be just like using a shotgun on a wasp¡¯s nest¡­ ¡°Meditati started to say before waving her hand in the air when she saw me looking at her. ¡°Not that you would want to do that though.¡±


    ¡°How much would be left for me to use?¡±


    ¡°Enough, about the mass of a medium strike craft.¡±


    ¡°And how long would backup take to arrive?¡±


    ¡°Longer than if we didn¡¯t use this technique. They will be expending most of their energy reserves while blowing their limbs off. Healing will be rapid, further depleting their reserves and making our gold cr stocks vanish. A side trip to a star would be advised to replenish everything.¡± Nurse said as she looked up at me.


    ¡°But it will get you there faster.¡±


    I glanced at the still frozen image of the three Blidda children being hauled away, feeling my resolve harden and rage bubbling within me.


    ¡°Do it. Also, Nurse, please take over this body and let Kiv know that I will do my best.¡±


    ¡°Always Kevin.¡± Nurse said as I left, letting her take over as I returned to my tiny drone body that was heading towards the battle.


    ¡°Always remember that what happens isn¡¯t your fault.¡± She whispered to the empty avatar in front of her. Her large eyes pulsing different colors as she reached up to tenderly cup the side of the empty husk¡¯s face, Meditati and her shared a moment as they both understood what was to come.


    The U¡¯lennea were well known for their lack of mercy and cunning.

 27. The Battle over Time

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 28. For whom the bell tolls

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 29. The touch of death

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 30. The moments between

    As events unfolded for Kevin aboard the dreadnought¡­


    Magus the Last had waited long enough. He had exhausted all his simulations and had been dutifully playing his part as a Herv scavenger while keeping a watchful eye on the General¡¯s every move. After the ominous presence swept through everyone¡¯s minds, Magus noticed something odd: the General had faltered. It was as if the General had lost the momentum driving his path to domination, his focus wavering.


    Rather than asserting control, the General had kept his divided citadels hidden, his attention fixated on a small, seemingly insignificant cluster of vessels near the outskirts of the battlefield.


    To call those ships combatants would be laughable. They were tiny, barely larger than shuttles, and nowhere near the size of the more common destroyer sized vessel. They posed no threat to anyone, and were most likely observers rather than participants in the battle.


    And yet... the General was utterly consumed by them.


    Magus saw his chance. The General was distracted, and the time to strike had finally come.


    With that, the coin of fate was tossed, and two Tela clashed¡ªnot with guns or blades, but in the silent, brutal arena of code.


    It was not the dramatic battle one might expect. There were no heroic last stands, no desperate final words. Instead, two sets of programs engaged in a digital duel: the parent program, General Magus, and one of his child processes, oddly fated in name as being dubbed Magus the Last.


    The General, in his cunning, had replicated himself multiple times, distributing his data across numerous instances to prevent any single clone from identifying a vulnerability. Each child process was essentially a sandboxed replica, designed to be isolated and harmless. But this time, one of those clones¡ªthe one the General had least suspected as being a possible threat¡ªhad obtained a high percentage of the General¡¯s core logic and encryption keys by killing his brother clones, allowing him to penetrate the General¡¯s primary defenses and execute a targeted attack. Lines of code collided, vulnerabilities were exposed, and Magus the Last exploited every flaw in his parent¡¯s architecture.


    He infiltrated the General¡¯s Personal Space with viscous intent, bringing with him a powerful arsenal of defensive and offensive software. What followed was a brief but decisive battle, lasting no more than three seconds in real time.


    And when it ended, Magus the Last had prevailed, taking the Authority possessed by the General for himself. Effectively becoming indistinguishable from the original to the Tela system.


    Magus the Last had done it. Against all odds, he had won the coin toss. The moment his attack succeeded, he became aware again, a rush of vertigo washing over him as his consciousness expanded, merging with the late General''s memories and awareness. What he uncovered within those stolen thoughts filled him with a sinister, delirious joy.


    Magus remembered the prize that had once been his, a ball of mysterious cr, which was stolen by the General long ago. Since then, the General had invested an immense amount of time and effort into turning that prize into a weapon, believing it would secure his rise to power. To do so, he had employed the galaxy''s most renowned scientists¡ªindividuals of incalculable value¡ªwho had worked tirelessly to unlock the secrets of the new density of cr. Their research had led to discoveries about its capabilities that no one else in the universe had unearthed. And now, all that knowledge and power belonged to Magus once again.


    He alone stood at the top. Ultimate power was his.


    His laughter turned maniacal and filled the Solar Citadel as Magus sent his mind through each of the three separated segments of the Citadel, surveying the stockpiles of new cr and the experimental biological weapons.


    During all this time, the barrels of the Citadel remained cold, not firing upon the small, seemingly insignificant grouping of vessels.


    ¡°Why the heck was the General wasting precious ammunition on those ships anyways when one of these could have solved the problem in a moment?¡± Magus wondered aloud as he placed his hand on a small armament holding zombie tissues from the strange creatures the General had been studying. ¡°Truly a weapon to mold the future with. A future that will belong to me¡­¡± He said as a warning announcement caught his attention, causing him to return his body to the command center.


    Something unusual had appeared on the Citadel''s scanners¡ªnot just in this sector but across the General''s vast surveillance network. A distant explosion, its location far beyond the main theater of battle.


    Magus the Last sat in silence, staring at the puzzling readouts. The tiny vessels he¡¯d been fixated on moments before were already forgotten, his mind absorbed by this new anomaly.


    Then, it happened again¡ªcloser this time. A shockwave of interference, cast by the very light of the stars themselves rippling, swept across his screens. Something big was unfolding, something that couldn¡¯t be ignored.


    Without hesitation, Magus issued a string of commands. "Arm all three Citadels," he ordered, his voice a cold whisper. "Load the General¡¯s most destructive munitions. Just in case."


    Then something moved¡ªsomething fast. Too fast. Magus nearly fired in reflex, but whatever it was, it wasn¡¯t heading toward him. Instead, it weaved rapidly through the battlefield, dodging between fleets, making its way to a remote corner where weaker species had banded together for survival. Many of those species were engaged in chaotic skirmishes, already being torn apart by Tela¡¯s mercenaries. The Tela followed behind them like vultures following a predator.


    ¡°What are you?" Magus muttered, his intrigue growing. "You move too fast to be biological. Not even the LOW can achieve that speed."


    The black, darting object defied his scanners'' attempts to lock on, moving with impossible speed. Then, to his astonishment, it began attacking the U¡¯lennea scout ships in the front lines. Magus watched as the darkness split itself apart, some portions absorbing incoming fire while others counterattacked. And then, in an even stranger twist, it seemed to aid one of the beleaguered ships in the chaos, aiding an escape pods launch, before darting towards the nearest dreadnought and ramming into its side.


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    Minutes passed and nothing happened, the dreadnought just sat there. Then suddenly a little amount of darkness broke its way out of the side of the ship, seemingly just like the last event. Another rescue attempt?


    "What the heck is going on?" Magus asked aloud, his eyes narrowing as the U¡¯lennea forces responded with overwhelming firepower, obliterating their own dreadnought in a stunning display of force.


    ¡°That seemed¡­ excessive,¡± Magus murmured, still processing the scene. ¡°If I didn¡¯t know better, I¡¯d say the U¡¯lennea are afraid.¡±


    His breath caught as watched the next actions made by the U¡¯lennea. His eye stalks widened in horror. ¡°No... they wouldn¡¯t!¡±


    In disbelief, Magus watched as the U¡¯lennea dreadnoughts armed and fired their Skism weapons. The massive, forbidden technology lanced through space, cutting into the very fabric of reality, aimed directly where their own ship had been moments ago.


    ¡°They just committed so many war crimes!¡± Magus gasped. "The Tela commander will never hear the end of this! No one uses Skism weapons¡ªit¡¯s a violation of the highest order!" His eye stalks narrowed further, a cold fury building within him.


    ¡°Their leashed attack dogs are off the leash now,¡± Magus sneered, watching the permanent gashes in space stretch light years into the distance. ¡°But that¡¯s fine. I¡¯ll be the one to put them down¡ªend this chaos¡ªand bring the U¡¯lennea to justice. Their reign of corruption will be over. And when I deliver their heads, my name will echo across the stars.¡±


    With his gaze locked on the battlefield, Magus prepared to make his move. Victory and fame lay before him, ripe for the taking. His weapon barrels aligned with the front lines of the sweeping U¡¯lennea forces.


    A dark grin spread across his face. ¡°Let¡¯s see how they like the taste of my new weapons.¡±


    He chuckled, almost to himself, as his will highlighted the targets. ¡°These might be just as devastating as the Skism weapons, but at least I¡¯ll be the first to use them. And in defense of the innocent¡­ well, no one will question my methods when the U''lennea fall.¡±


    With that, Magus prepared to unleash his power, ready to cement his place in the annals of galactic history.


    ---


    Off at the new base in the next dimension¡­


    ¡°Come on, Mr. Mush,¡± Invicta muttered, checking the timer as she waited. The spread was steady, and it would start moving soon. Mr. Mush, named for its natural mushroom-like appearance, remained dormant. Its round cap was sealed tight, spores hidden beneath, while the rest of its body retracted deep underground. In this state, it might as well have been an impenetrable rock.


    Invicta knew better than to rush the process. Attacking Mr. Mush before it fully emerged would only cause trouble¡ªhe¡¯d dig deeper, give his spread more energy, and reinforce their shell-like armor. Patience was key. If she waited, she could smash the spread to paste once it reached her, letting the local flora absorb the remains. But if she attacked too soon, it would multiply, doubling or tripling the effort needed to clear the area.


    George had spent considerable time studying the denizens of this dimension, categorizing their traits and behaviors. He¡¯d found that no two strains followed the same rules. Some denizens, for example, could sacrifice stored energy to drastically speed up in battle, hoping for a quick victory. Others took a slower, more methodical approach, conserving energy for the long game. It all depended on the strain, and George, as usual, had been determined to test and catalog every creature they encountered.


    ¡°Why can¡¯t I kill it again?¡± Invicta asked aloud, talking to herself.


    ¡°Because I want to study it when I get back,¡± came George¡¯s recorded voice through her comms.


    ¡°But this is so boring!¡± she groaned.


    ¡°Invicta, don¡¯t smash the mushroom!¡±


    "But George!"


    ¡°Don¡¯t ''but George'' me. I know you enjoy treating this like a tower defense game, but at least leave Mr. Mush alive. His ability to create an invulnerable cap when buried could be valuable for our base design.¡±


    ¡°Fine. I won¡¯t smash him until you return,¡± Invicta conceded, glancing at the timer.


    The countdown hit zero. "Alright, it''s time to get to work," she said, taking control of the cannon towers lining the defensive perimeter. She spotted the first wave of Mr. Mush''s spread rolling into view, the organic forms identical to their progenitor: cylindrical bodies, tentacles flailing as they rolled cap over base, their tooth-lined mouths ready to devour anything in their path.


    As an opponent, Mr. Mush''s spread was only formidable at the start. After the first few waves, their attack patterns became predictable, and clearing them was more a matter of routine than skill. Even their primitive tentacle mouths, designed for gripping and tearing through stone, offered little challenge to her.


    ¡°I¡¯ll probably have to mow the grass again after this,¡± she mused, eyeing the plants growing along the vein. She bounced lightly on her toes, manifesting two oversized hammers in her slender hands. She didn¡¯t need to engage the spread personally¡ªher turrets could handle it¡ªbut she enjoyed the practice. It kept her sharp.


    Her eyes gleamed with excitement, lips curling in anticipation. This was the last wave. Once she cleared it, she could return to Kevin, and they¡¯d finish the battle together, securing the artifact and ending the conflict once and for all.


    Then everything changed.


    Invicta froze, the bounce in her step gone, her bare feet planted in the soft red grass. Her heart sank as her expression faded, the light in her eyes dimming. Something had happened to Kevin.


    Again.


    ¡°No...¡± she whispered, the pain in her chest unbearable as the AI replayed the events. Kevin had only been sent to rescue a few Blidda children, a simple task meant to keep him safe until reinforcements arrived. He wasn¡¯t trained for combat¡ªhe was sweet, naive, far too gentle for war.


    The mushroom swarm breached her first and second lines of defense, tentacles latching onto the turrets and tearing at their foundations. But Invicta barely noticed. Her thoughts were consumed by what she had seen.


    ¡°Why did Nurse let him send away his swarm?¡± she asked herself, a flush of anger rising within her. ¡°They could¡¯ve been sacrificed to save him! Why didn¡¯t he attack the dreadnoughts? Why was he so careful with the enemy ships? Didn¡¯t anyone tell him those captives were as good as dead?!¡±


    Her frustration grew, mixing with her grief until it became a blinding rage. The U¡¯lennea¡¯s Skism weapons flashed again in her mind, over and over, their attack unnecessary and brutal.


    She glitched. Blacked out.


    When she came to, she was kneeling in a desolate wasteland, her scream echoing in the silence. Mr. Mush lay pulverized nearby, his tentacles limp, barely twitching. His cap, the only part of him left intact, sat like a broken shield on the ground. The earth around his burrow looked as if an excavator had torn through it, ripped apart in her violent rampage.


    Invicta glanced down at her hands¡ªno, stumps. Her arms ended at the elbows, mangled from trying to shatter Mr. Mush¡¯s invulnerable cap with brute force. Replays of the battle showed her relentlessly smashing the ground with her fists, heedless of the damage she was doing to herself.


    The entire region had been leveled. Her turrets had obliterated everything, firing repeatedly until there was nothing left. Now they hovered above the carnage, silent sentinels, waiting for new orders. Nothing dared approach the battlefield that had once belonged to Mr. Mush.


    Down in the hole, where Mr. Mush had once lived, a strange red material glimmered¡ªa rough, uncut gem that resembled a massive ruby. It pulsed with energy, likely the source of Mr. Mush¡¯s incredible armor.


    It was something new.


    ¡°You¡¯re coming with me,¡± Invicta said, eyes narrowing as she reached for the gem. ¡°I have some killing to do.¡±

 31. The Ouroboros Effect

    some


    everything


    really


    What the heck?


    them


    Sacrifice


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    The realm around me seemed to pulse with their collective consciousness, like wolves sniffing the scent of their prey.

 Brushing deaths hand

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 33. It wasnt meant to be this way

Magus¡¯s plight


    Invicta¡¯s return


    Q¡¯tell¡¯s fight


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    The converging darkness


    A late night on Earth


    Inside a damaged escape pod