The overwhelmingly bright light slowly started to fade and was replaced by the familiar sight of the metal pod I clambered into what felt like a lifetime ago. With a hiss, the pod slowly opened, and I pulled myself from what was my tomb. Marcus was dead and now there was only Kairos The Silent Overseer.
"Welcome back, Marcus, or should I say Kairos now." Malek stood up from his chair and walked over to me, extending his hand to help me up. I was almost blinded again by a radiating golden light that seemed to radiate from his pores.
"Thanks, It's a pleasure to be back," I replied through a grunt as my eyes attempted to adjust themselves to his blinding radiance. Was he always like that, or is he like that now because I’m awakened?
"So now that you are back, we need to have a small discussion of some things that you did." His friendly tone remained, but it still put me on edge. “Like what exactly?”
“You see, I am an A4 administrator. So, I get notified whenever an Administrator does something unique. Which in your case is the creation of three races. Once of which you became.” He walked back to his chair, and sat down. He interlaced his fingers and smirked leaning forward in his chair.
Silence settled in between us as I tried to find the best way to explain, but in a way that wouldn't give too much information out. Not that I didn't trust Malek, but my current understanding of the universe made my distrustful of a lot of things. “Well, I was in the middle of making a name, and then Alpha showed up and we talked for a while. He gave me some titles, told me to help humanity, and left. So with my newfound ability, I decided to experiment.” As much as I decided to withhold But I wasn’t sure how much he actually knew.
Malek let out a deep hearty laugh as he sat back into his office chair. “Ah, of course he did. Alpha has always had a soft spot for humans.” He wiped away tears forming from the corner of his eyes. “That old fool. I want to say he’s lucky that I was the one who intercepted that communication and cut it off from the others. But knowing him, he had it planned down to a quark.”
I stood there, unsure of what to say. I had a feeling that I was stepping into a fierce political and social struggle as some naïve child. “Malek, where do you sit on the spectrum of Administrators? I’m starting to realize that there is a caste system of sorts as well as underlying conflict.”
He finished laughing and wiped away the tears that had formed in the process. “I’m beset on all sides by a lot of the older administrators. Let’s just say, I’m the very thing they hate, and they can’t seem to get rid of me.”
I crossed my arms, and decided that I would only superficially trust him. After all, I was still a new admin, and I needed all the help I could get. In the meantime I would sit back and make any judgment needed on the matter. “I see. Should I be worried about them at all?”
“Right now? No. You will have a full year of protection from the system. Then only administrators of the same rank and eras can attack you. Once you get to the space age though is when stuff starts to get a little dicey.” He sat forward in his chair, eyed me for a moment. His eyes glimmered with amusement. “But back to where we were. I’m actually proud of you for taking that initiative. Three races upon awakening is unprecedented. Would you tell me about them?”
“Forgive me Malek, but I feel it best if I kept that a secret.” I shot him down without hesitation. I was unsure if I could fully trust him just yet, and on top of that, I didn’t want to lose my aces just yet. I’m sure once I started my job, something would come up, and word would spread. But for now, they would remain my little secret.
“I like the way you think, Kairos. It’s good to keep stuff close to your chest. I think you will make it far.” Malek interlinked his fingers as he sat his elbows on his desk. “Rest be assured, you have every reason to trust me. In fact, I would even wager that Alpha had a hand in placing your soul onto Earth for your cycles, just so you’d end up under my wing.” He smirked and another short laugh left his lips. “I ascended that man millions of standard years ago at this point, and here he is, maneuvering around me at every turn.”
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His words brought a small chill down my spine. “Malek, I’d much prefer to not be used by anyone. This is a new life for me, and I’m not going to have it squandered around someone else’s power plays.”
“Don’t worry Kairos. Even if you were brought into existence by Alpha, your fate is your own. What you do from this moment forward is entirely up to you.” The mirth left his face as he stared at me. “But I will be an ally to you, and even though Alpha can not be publicly an ally, he will support you from the shadows.”
“Thank you Malek. I will keep that in mind.” While I was a little annoyed at the fact that it felt like my life was never in my hands, that ended now. This was a new era, and I would live it the way I chose to.
“Good. Now, I will be sending you to your system here soon to make your companion. So do you have any other questions for me before you go on your way?”
“No, all of my questions were pretty much answered already. Though, I do have a more personal request. One day in the future, would you mind if I returned to earth just to visit?” My attachment was already starting to fade, as my old life was fading into memories. But deep down, I knew that Earth was always going to be my home.
“Of course. Whenever you are ready, just contact me. I’ll make some time for you.” His eyes glimmered once more as he stood up from his desk. “Is that all?”
I carefully thought it over, and nodded my head. “Yes, it is.”
“Alright then. I’ll see you around Kairos. Remember to keep in touch!” He waved his hand, and his command center vanished in a muted display of light. Faster than I could even blink, another strange metal room appeared around me.
Well fuck, he sent me on my way before I could even say good bye. What an asshole, and why is that a recurring theme around these parts? Was everyone in such a hurry all the time that they cut good byes short?
I shook my head, and glanced around my new room. It was a decently sized one that looked like I could fit a whole house in here. The walls were metal, the floors metal, and not a single seam was in sight. In the center sat two thin pillars that were spaced about a meter apart, and in the center was a flashing hologram.
Welcome, Administrator Kairos to your home system.
Current Task: Create your system companion.
The intrusive words blotted out my vision, demanding attention. Which was frustrating. I’ll get to you when I get to you. Calm down. I waved my hand through the words, dismissing them, and walked over to the floating console. As I got closer to it, it flashed, and the console inserted itself into my vision like an annoying little pest.
Welcome to your personal terminal. Here you can explore the Admin web, modify your base, and explore the store page. As this is your first time, you will need to create your companion to access all of your systems.
Analyzing templates...Analyzing templates... User has access to the following templates.
Human
Celestial Nephilim
Ancient Ones
Arachne
Living Golem
Dark Elf
I was excited about this part! Finally I could create something that would truly help me, and that I could trust! An evil laugh escaped from me as I gazed at the screen. My mad scientist side was starting to spark up as I stared at the screen, trying to decide on what I wanted to do. But there were a lot of choices to be made here.
For starters, what race did I want? Male or female? More than likely, it would be male. Not that I had anything against females. But there was always some cute, or air headed female helper and honestly, I found that trope overused. Not this was a book or anything. I just refused to be a part of the problem.
So with that out of the way, I just had to decide on the race. I went ahead, and took celestial Nephilim off the list, as well as the ancient ones. Both were new races, and I wasn’t sure how they were going to interact with the world based on how they functioned and what they came from. One was birthed from an eldritch horror. The other was designed to be a super weapon. Therefore it was in my best interest to not let them out just yet.
That left humanity, dark elves, and arachne as my potential choices. The dark elves had a spot solely because I was biased. Humanity had a spot because I was once human, and the arachne because it would be pretty cool to have spider people. But I had to make an intelligent choice here. After all this would affect my future.