“By guide, are you speaking of the token you received during your strand tests?”

Walker started to respond when another bone shifted back into place in his hand, “ye-yep!” He breathed out in relief as it felt much better now. “Here, let me show you.”

Walker pulled up the token in his inventory, and as he thought, he could now view the description as they’d fully connected to the Omniverse.

Hello Architect Dante

This is an Omniversal Guide token

Due to the necessary integration of your first universe, you will have two options for how to use it.

You may place a call out to the Omniverse, wherein the (redacted) will cover the transport fees of a guide to assist you in further enhancing your understanding of the new environment you find yourself in.

Or

You may merge the guide token with an expanded mind.

Please select one of the available options.

Walker found the share button he’d added to the Communication system. Clicking it, he found two options. One, to share it privately, and two, publicly.

Selecting the second option, text expanded over his head for Ulysses to see. As a test, Walker pushed himself through space and noticed the text stayed put. When he moved his hand over it, an option appeared to change its positioning and size.

Neat

As he was staring at it and seeing what other options existed, Ulysses spoke, “Did you do something?”

Walker was confused, “You can’t see it?”

“See is a weak word for what I can now do, Walker. Can you just share it with my interface?”

“That’s right, I almost forgot!” Walker said as he remembered what the Omniverse had said.“Also, do you mind calling it an Overlay? So many words and things have changed recently that even with my memory I feel like I’m going to get confused.”

“Overlay then.”

Moving into the social button that had been added with all of the new options he’d built into it, he found the new contacts section. A “local” contacts tab was there, and when he clicked on it, Ulysses popped up with a very brief breakdown.

Ulysses: The Universal Personality

When he clicked on his name, a range of options appeared. He familiarized himself with a few of them, including trade, and then requested to add each other as contacts. Ulysses did so right away, popping up on Walker’s contact list. Curious, he asked Ulysses to tell him what it said about his description.

“It says Walker Reed: System Architect, Creator, Primordial Human.”

“That’s a lot of titles,” Walker replied while scratching his head.

“Hrmm, I believe that each is a title associated with something else. System Architect for the Omniverse. Creator for the Evolvers. And, similarly to my own title, Primordial Human to describe what you are.”

That tracked. “Why do you think it says Creator instead of System Administrator for the Evolver Multiverse?”

“Maybe the Omniverse is aware that you don’t want them to know you’re the System Administrator for them? Or, more likely, the System Architect title supersedes the authority of an administrator, thereby replacing it.”

“So it could be like camouflage to protect me from them?”

“Perhaps, or perhaps not, we may never know.”

Walker clicked on the Guide token again, “We may if we make you my guide.”

“Are you sure about this?” Ulysses's voice boomed out, “I already feel like I’m going to have enough to do here. Just learning Dimensionality is taking up most of my attention.”

“How much attention are you giving me right now?”

“A little over one percent.”

“That little?”

“Yes, which is still more than I should. To be frank with you, Walker. Our conversations thus far have not been the most enlightening.”

Walker waved a hand, “fair, fair. But, what if you only had to give me a fraction of a percentage’s attention?”

“That A.I. empowering you spoke of earlier?”

Walker suddenly felt the space around him change, as if he was the single most important thing in the universe at that moment.

“You now have five percent of my attention. How does it work?”

“Uh-um…” Walker said, stuttering at the abrupt change, “So, we tested out the manual’s information, and uh, gravity is good to go, even if I didn’t get the reward.”

“Correct, it has been very beneficial for me to learn from it thus far.”

Walker gave two thumbs up, “Great, happy to hear it. So, since one of the combinations worked, I can make a somewhat reasonable belief that another will.”

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

“What’s the combination?”

Walker looked deadly serious, “Reflection with Consciousness.”

“A Trinity strand?”

“Just so,” he said with a nod, “If we combine the three, my brain is telling me it’ll create something I can use to empower my A.I. However, there’s this other wiggle in my mind—like it can do so much more than that.”

“A wiggle?”

“A big one. Like I almost have all of the information, but it’s just out of reach.”

“I see,” Ulysses went quiet, using the five percent for all its worth. Walker spent that time looking deeper into the new Overlay upgrades. Trade was interesting. He’d set resources as restricted, but as the System Architect, apparently, that didn’t apply to him. It made him wonder if he could now give-

“I think we should try,” Ulysses said from nowhere with a loud boom, startling Walker out of his overlay. “If you believe it will empower me, I will put my trust in you.”

Walker took a second to center himself, then said, “I mean, not too long ago, you were me. Not trusting me is like not trusting yourself.”

“To a small degree, that is true, Walker. However, I no longer think like you. Your thoughts are focused on one thing at a time, whereas I find myself bored in doing so. Even as we speak, I have a dozen experiments moving through my body, testing the limits of time, space, and dimensional forces. I believe we are no longer the same.”

He didn’t like the sound of that, “Will that be a problem?”

“No more than it is with anyone else, Walker.”

He’s right. We’re not the same anymore…and I gotta treat him fairly as any other person.

Thinking on that, he said, “If I empower you, are you still interested in managing a few of my systems? I’m not sure what the Evolvers can see over there whenever I make a new one, so-”

“I remember your thoughts on the Sapient’s systems, Walker. That is fine.”

“Alright,” he replied with a grin. So, are we ready to do this?”

“Excited now are we?”

“Just ready to see what else is gonna happen. Just so you know, I’m going to combine this into my overlay. I feel like this is one whose rewards I’ll need.”

“I understand.”

Walker spoke out loud, telling him his plan. Based on the last time he’d combined strands across categories, he knew this would be difficult. Add in the fact that it was a Trinity strand to boot, and he was a little worried about how much pain and pressure he was about to experience.

Ever since he’d jumped away from Sonata, a lot had happened. He’d visited another Creators planet, finally experimented with strands, and created an entire universe somewhat with his own hands. But this step would give the final push toward his new and unique systems. Something the Omniverse had probably never before seen. All managed by an empowered universal personality.

It was the best he could do for his people.

Once Ulysses agreed with Walker’s plan for how to combine the strands, he created a dozen reflections of himself. He didn’t even look at his resources to see if he had enough. It was a non-starter after the Universal strand creation had given him so many. Maybe, as Symphony expanded, he’d start to run low. But for now he didn’t even think about it.

Twelve David’s looked at Walker, ready and willing for the next step.

“Ready?”

A few nodded, while one particularly loud David yelled out, “Just do it already!”

Ulysses boomed in with his ascent, and just like that, his next trial started.

Placing the Reflection strand in his hand, he transferred it over while taking the brown of Consciousness in its place. Raising his hands high, he looked over at the Davids. Just as the plan called for, they split into two teams of six on either side of him. Placing their hands on his arms, Walker guided everything towards the middle, where the Conciousness and Reflection strands would meet.

Walker felt small beads of water drip down his back as the universe focused even more of its attention on this moment. With a slanted grin, he said, “Really interested in this, huh, Ulysses?”

“Ten percent only, Walker.”

Walker focused back up as he moved his hands toward the center. As they met, rather than the clash he had experienced with Cosmic power or the odd reverse magnetism of the gravity combination, this one felt like jelly trying to smother a hard rock. Consciousness flowed over and around the Reflection strand rather than seeping into it. It constantly squirmed and shifted, making him focus twice as hard on just getting it into place.

It was an odd moment for him. The plan called for the Davids to hold onto him and push. With the low Dimensionality he’d made them with, he figured that Ulysses could use his control of space to help push them along rather than his own hands. It would still hurt, but hopefully, he wouldn’t end up with mangled and mashed fingers again.

But that wasn’t what was happening here.

His plan was a bust, and all twelve of the Davids around him knew it as they eyed the two strands rubbing each other in his hands.

“Stupid…”

“Well….shit”

“Walker, that way isn’t going to work.”

“I know! Okay! Just….” He covered himself fully in his darkness. The only way to touch any of this was for his soul to empower him. He looked at the strands and did his best to mash them together, but no matter what he tried, they wouldn’t go. Then he had an idea.

Just because the Davids didn’t have their own Origin, didn’t mean he couldn’t lend them some of his. He remembered Kwaya’s lesson from what felt like a lifetime ago.

Holding the two strands in his hands, Walker closed his eyes and pushed on his soul, willing it to extend past his body. It wasn’t easy, as he hadn’t practiced after first learning the skill, but eventually, he managed to cover both of the Davids next to him.

“Kinda tickles,” One of them said with a laugh.

“Shut up, idiot,” Walker snarled while still maintaining his soul’s projection, “Get your hands on it. Push it together!”

They stepped forward and did as he asked. Walker held still while the two continued to try to shift and move it together. Eventually, when they realized that two wouldn’t do it, they asked for more to join them.

Gritting his teeth, Walker pushed his projection even further, but rather than covering their entire bodies, he only covered their hands. It was already taxing his mind to cover the two Davids, but as he added the large area in the center, he felt like something was cracking in his mind. Feeling a small wet liquid run down his nose, he pressed on. This had to work for his plans to come to fruition. He already knew this was taxing enough that he probably wouldn’t be able to do it again for some time.

Unknown to Walker, one of the remaining Davids tried coming at it from the bottom, but Walker hadn’t placed any part of his soul there. As he touched the Reflection strand, he stopped all motion, his mouth opening wide. In the blink of an eye, his body morphed into a blue and white streak, then was sucked into the strand itself.

“What the fuck?”

“Jesus, is he dead?”

“We’re not really alive, idiot.”

“Focus!” Walker screamed as he felt warm liquid running down his eyes. “Don’t touch it unless you’re touching my soul!”

It took several minutes, but eventually, the Davids figured out how to corner the Consciousness strand. Working together, they moved as one unit to press it in.

“Get the left!”

“I got it!”

“Your left or mine!”

Walker couldn’t hear them anymore. All he knew was that his soul felt like a rung out dishcloth, and his mind felt worse than the last time he’d almost broken it. It even took him a moment to remember when that was. Oh yeah, only a few hours ago.

Was it hours? Wait, where am I? Wait again, am I breathing? Where’s the air?

While Walker’s mind controlled to fall apart, the Davids pushed together.

“Get in there!”

“That’s your home! Are you too good for your home!”

“Haha, nice! Suck my white ass Consciousness!”

Walker felt a small implosion occur in his hands, but strangely, there was no pain.

Opening eyes filled with crusty blood, Walker blearily looked at the new Trinity strand in his palm. It looked like a floating, blue-grey starfish made of gas. Honestly, it was one of the strangest things he’d seen, within the alpha protocol or without.

While the Davids around him celebrated, Walker gritted his teeth. Putting the Universal strand into his resources had come close to killing him, but these things had a short shelf-life. If he didn’t do it now, he’d have to go through all of this again, and that had zero interest for him.

Walker placed the Strand on his overlay, and it went in smoother than any he’d ever tried before.

He gave the Davids a half-smile before he entered his usual resting state when working with strands.

Walker blacked out.