“I believe so, yes. Do you…” The Universal personality paused for a long moment, which Walker knew, was likely longer still with how its mind worked. “Do you think the empowerment will work?”
“Well, we won’t know until we try.” He paused as he looked at the strand of Spirit in his hand. It still looked like a blue-grey starfish made of gas, but unlike the one he’d created with the help of his Davids, this one was much less active. It almost seemed inert, whereas before, it had danced along his palm. That was concerning.
“Something does seem different about it.”
“Yeah.” Walker felt the universe’s attention focus on the palm of his hand, “It’s not moving like it was before.”
Walker put it back into his overlay, pulled another single resource out, and found the same result. It was also the same when he increased the size of it from one to five, then five to twenty-five. Each time, the strand was inert, unalive, dead.
He put it back into his resources and mentally dove to the moment where he’d created the first. The Davids surrounded him, talking nonsense while they tried to grip the double and single strands together. Walker was bleeding, feeling immense pain from stretching his soul so much, wondering if they were even going to be able to do this. Putting as much of his soul into it as he could. His darkness covered everything, including the strands as they combined.
And there it was.
Covering himself in darkness, Walker pulled out a single strand and pushed on his soul to connect with the tiny starfish. With a small gasp-like sound, it entered the strand. Quickly, it pepped up and began to dance.
“Interesting,” Ulysses boomed out, “This isn’t the first time a Trinity strand has taken on your soul.”
“No, its not.” Walker replied, thinking of the vast amounts of his Origin still streaming through Ulysses' body. He checked his soul and found he could do with a top-up. He’d covered himself in his soul multiple times since entering the Symphony universe, and while he could drag most of it back into himself when it wasn’t directly used, there was always a bit of lost resources. “Do you know where I can find some Origin?”
“Of course.”
Walker felt something shove him from behind as Ulysses demonstrated his masterful control of space. The Cosmic Life Engine was quickly left behind as Walker hopped a ride on the Ulysses express, streaming across the darkened sky. After just a few minutes, the atmosphere around him changed. Hee felt the warmth of the area connect to him in a way that was hard to describe—like he was home but something more.
“How much of this is floating in your body?” He asked the Universal Personality.
“Hrmm, it is an interesting concept, your origin. It has your flavor, for lack of a better word. As such, I feel vast swathes of it drifting across me at any one time. However, unlike the other parts of my body, I have yet to find a way to interact with it directly. Just like your Territorial Seat, it is here, but not a part of my body.”
“Huh,” Walker replied as he absorbed a large section of it. Calling what he took in large, however, would be the wrong word. This was only a drop in the bucket from what he could feel around him, and there was even more drifting across the universe. The Spirit strand seemed right at home in his origin, with small wiggling and dancing movements coming from the gaseous figure.
He looked down at it again as his depleted stores finished refilling.
It was a hard thing to identify. In the information he’d gleaned from the manual, the Spirit strand was like a separate consciousness. An individual thought processor that could be added to an Artificial Intelligence as a second mind. There was no mention of the Frayish strandbinders needing to add their soul to the strand, but he was working with incomplete information. He was forced to assume that there would be large sections speaking about how to work with Primordials later on. It almost made him want to absorb another section, but he relented as the time lost for recovery would likely be too high.
What he knew right now was that they’d used Spirit to further expand their A.I. into what was known as Supremes. He knew from experience that a Basic A.I. just took commands and tried to complete them to the best of their abilities. An advanced would do its best to interpret those commands and find better ways of succeeding, improving on the original command without superseding its orders. But supremes were different.
From what he understood, Supreme A.I.s were given mandates, not commands. Rather than breaking down everything you needed, you gave the Supreme A.I. an idea of what you wanted, and it followed through, evolving the process for efficiency.
That didn’t sound too different from an advanced A.I., but it was the scope that truly sold him. If a basic A.I. managed a few hundred things at a time, and an Advanced, thousands. His information told him that a Supreme A.I. worked in the millions and more.
He found incomplete information within, mentions of levels above supreme, but chose to ignore that as he needed to nail down how to do this, not speculate on how to get to the next stage. Right now, he needed to focus on giving Ulysses the tools needed to run Walker’s odd systems. And, maybe, it would help the Universal Personality solve some of his problems with figuring out dimensionality.
Surrounded by the darkness of his origin, Walker held up the dancing Spirit strand, “This is only one resource of Spirit. I’m, uh, not sure how to give it to you, but it should be a force multiplier for your mind.”
“How so?”
“Efficiency. The Spirit strand is like a separate mental connection for anything it attaches to. I know you’re splitting your focus right now, so I have to ask, how much are you giving me?’
“Five percent,” Walker felt the attention heighten, “Now ten percent.”
He noted that the pressure was less powerful. Either Ulysses had found a way to make it easier on him, or he was adjusting to the pressure. Moving back to the topic, he spoke, “I want you to absorb this.”
“Absorb?”
“Yep. I’m not sure how you’ll do it, I just know what the information is telling me. Somehow, you need to absorb it.” Walker released the Spirit strand to the space in front of him, still dancing for all it was worth.
While watching Ulysses try to figure out how to do what he was asking, he pulled out his bag, taking a quick breath of air. Dimensions opened and closed around him, little bursts of different effects happening around him. When that didn’t work, the personality changed to his Temporal control. Walker had inundated himself in Temporal energy so much that he had developed a kind of sixth sense with it. He felt his perception of time slow and speed momentarily, disorienting him as it registered. He even felt space lockdown, his body suddenly feeling like it weighed hundreds of pounds. But still, the strand stayed put.
It wasn’t until a few minutes after Ulysses began his attempts, that right in front of Walker’s eyes, the Spirit strand disappeared.
After a few minutes, Ulysses spoke, “I’ve absorbed it…yes, I see. One moment.”
While Ulysses adjusted to what was a novel experience as an extra mind joined his own, Walker took the time to pull out five resources of the Spirit strand, feeding it some of his Origin. He found that as he added extra resources to the strand, it became more active. It looked the same, only, its movements were less erratic, and more of a dance.
Walker swapped it over and placed ten resources in his now empty hand. He tried to feed it a small amount of Origin, like he had with the previous one, but this little guy took on more than double what he’d expected. It made him think its scaling was multiplicative, not additional.
While he was considering it, Ulysses spoke up, “I have absorbed the strand in its entirety. You are correct. It is…like adding a digit to a fingerless hand.”
“How’d you do it? Like, how did you absorb it?”
“I changed my view of the metaphysical world.”
“Oh?”
“What you see is one level of the world. The tangible, and controlled. But I do not strictly operate on that level as a multifaced existence. Reality has corridors, folds, where things diverge and meet again. I found one in my body, and folded reality at the location of the strand, collecting it into myself. The Metaphysical realm is not a truly abstract place, as your own experiences have told you.”
“You’re talking about that Kwaya test, huh? The one where she was torturing that poor dragon?”
“Yes. You have only begun to understand metaphysical reality. Strands, as I have no come to learn, seem to operate on the metaphysical level as well as the tangible. It is a most…eye-opening experience.”
“Neat.” Walker said as he held up the smaller strand in his left, “This is five resources, can you absorb it so we can see the difference for you?”
“Yes, please. I would appreciate it.”
Walker let the strand float out to space where in not too long it disappeared. There was no blip that he could see. One moment it was there, the next it wasn’t. He felt oddly like a universal fisherman, throwing bait out to catch the really big fish. In this instance, Ulysses.
“Any difference there?”
“Yes, but please give me a moment. I’m running a few tests.”
After a few minutes of waiting, Walker placed twenty-five strands of Spirit in his empty hand, and watched how much Origin it took up. It was quite a bit more than the ten, proving his multiplicative theory correct. A large portion of the area around him was absorbed into the blue-grey jellyfish, causing a soul-like deadzone in the area. Walker kicked himself a little, moving over to where the rest of the Origin was slowly drifting through space.
“Complete. I am ready to tell you what I have found.”
“Okay, shoot.”
“One Spirit strand…it allowed for an expansion of not a singular thought, but almost a way of thinking. As if many voices spoke in a room, with their own ideas, but in harmony. Building upon one another.”
“Okay, and the five-resources?”
“A more powerful harmony. As if each built on the other in an amalgamation of perspectives. They…blend, together, into a unified collective consciousness.”
“Okay, so what do you think the effect will be in the end?”
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“I am unsure, although, I think, it may cause an evolution for me. A diverted and intentional branching of my own consciousness, allowing for enhanced control of…myself. My body.”
Walker snapped his fingers, “Yes!” he yelled out. His manual had spoken of expanding the potential of different A.I.s, allowing them to manage more at once. Diverted consciousness was exactly the plan. Now that he knew it would work, it was time to test further, “Okay, so, here’s a ten and a twenty-five.” Walker pushed both out to space and watched them both disappear. “Differences?”
“...Yes.”
Walker stared out into the darkness, waiting for a further response as his excitement was still building. When one didn’t come, he looked around, scratching the back of his head, “Kind of leaving me in the lurch here, man.”
“I am not a man. Also, I have completed my tests.”
Walker had a deja vue moment, then mentally shrugged, “Whatever. So, the difference?”
“While the singular strand provided alternative ways of viewing subjects, these strands are different. More powerful. And thus, I feel that they must be used differently. The ten-strand is now independently expanding my thoughts on space, greatly expanding my potential control. The twenty-five, I have directed to Temporal energy, further increasing my understanding of how it works within my body.”
“Okay. So, here’s the million-note question. What would be better? A bunch of smaller strands, or a bunch of bigger ones?”
“Por que no los dos?”
“What?”
“Why not both? Are you saving up your Spirit strands for something?”
Walker scratched the back of his head, “I mean, I kinda wanted to buff up the A.I.s back at Symphony…the world.”
“Okay, so let us do some math. So far, you have used 41 resources, and already, I can feel my potential has increased by over twenty percent.”
Walker was floored, “That much? Holy shit.”
“Indeed. Based upon that math, and with my overall size compared to what I know of the A.I. on, as you say, world Symphony, you wouldn’t need more than one hundred Spirit to increase their power. Each, that is.”
“Okay…okay…” Walker looked down as he did some quick napkin math. It didn’t matter what Ulysses said. If two hundred resources would help him reach his first potential…evolution, then that was resources well spent. But, he only had five thousand in total, and making more was a painful proposition. It wasn’t an unlimited resource, and he had to consider it a commodity that needed to be traded for equal value. Partners, though they were, he didn’t want the Universal Personality to take advantage of him.
He looked up, “So, let's say for now, we’ll spend three thousand on upgrading you up. But… you’ll have to keep moving me. As we do this, we’ll tap out the Origin in the area, and you’ll have to keep dragging me around to get this done.”
“That can be done, but I sense there’s something more you want to say.”
Walker nodded, “Yeah, there is. I recognize that we’re partners in this. You manage your body, and I, with my systems, will manage the people. But you’re asking me to use a limited commodity that we’ve only just discovered. For all I know, Spirit could be something that would massively empower my people, items, and cities…you get what I’m saying. So, I’m willing to spend the three thousand to get you as far as we can, but when I need help with something other than just the systems, you’ve gotta be willing to help me out.”
“I see, thus, a further addendum to what we’ve agreed to in the past?”
“That’s exactly right. This is the price you’ll pay for your evolution. The more of this I put into you, the more you will have to help me. And if I spend more than half of my Spirit resources to supercharge you, I expect a return on that investment.”
Walker waited while Ulysses considered it; it wasn’t long.
“I agree to the proposition.”
“Excellent. Okay, let's start with single resources and burn all of the Origin here first.”
Walker had Ulysses shove him directly into the center of the Origin cloud. Moving slowly at first, then with speed as he got the hang of it, he started to feed singular strands of Spirit to the burgeoning universe.
Take a strand in his right.
Transfer to his left.
Feed a bit of Origin.
Throw it out to space.
As the Origin depleted in the area, Ulysses started to slide him to places in the local area where it still existed. After Walker had fed him over one hundred and fifty resources worth of Spirit, Ulysses moved him to the next cloud, which took a few minutes.
Walker still fed him only single-resource units until he hit two hundred, his supposed evolutionary point.
After reaching that mark, he looked up at space, “Well?”
“Well…wow…..wow.”
“Dude…the suspension is killing me. What the fuck happened?”
“Language, Walker. I just…I don’t know. It is as if everything is clearer.”
A tear in space occurred just to Walker’s right. Small pieces of ice floated in front of him. He looked through the opening and noticed a white fox screaming at him from just beyond the rip, before the tear sealed itself as if it had never occurred. The ice, however, still floated before him.
“What the fuck?”
“My grasp of dimensional qualities has increased exponentially, Walker. Please, lets keep going.”
“Okay…” Walker started again, but this time, he used five resources for each strand. It took a little longer to put each together, but that was time saved for the size of each strand. However, he had to be moved twice to new clouds as the increased resources greatly drained the Origin in the area. Once he hit the magical two hundred again, he looked up, “Feeling close?’
“No. I would say that I am currently at around twenty-five percent to my next evolution. I believe it will escalate as each new evolution occurs.”
Walker sighed, “Of course,” and continued again, using ten resources at a time. It was faster, but he had to be moved to even more clouds across the universe. At some point, his travel time reached over an hour to the next cloud.
“Are we running out?”
“Goodness no. We are still only on this side of my body, Walker. Do not fret; I will manage our time accordingly.”
It was at a little past eight hundred that he reached his second evolution. Walker had shifted from tens to twenty-fives at around the five-hundred mark, forcing him to be moved every twenty minutes or so.
As he waited for Ulysses to undergo his second evolution, Walker looked at his resources. He still had close to four thousand left. It gave him an idea for what to do next.
“Complete.”
“And? What changed?”
“Watch.”
A portal opened without any of the minutiae Walker had grown used to. Looking through it, he could see a green moon under a metric boatload of construction, as a much smaller landmass floated just outside of it.
“Holy shit, that’s Symphony.”
“Yes. I can now make portals, Walker. I believe your return trip to Sonata will be much easier now.” The portal closed and another opened. Walker didn’t see anything different about the darkness, but he trusted his partner. A small bit of space pushed him through the opening, and a warm feeling surrounded him.
“Straight to the Origin.”
“That is the idea, correct? To save time?”
“Yep. Okay,” Walker got down to business, “I added a shitload of single to twenty-five level Spirit resources to you. But, I think for the last bit, we go for two big ones?’
“How much are you thinking?”
“A thousand each. Just one big fucking load of Spirit to really push you into your third evolution. We may go over how much you need, but based on you hitting two hundred and then eight hundred for your first two evolutions, I think we’ll be pretty close.”
“Yes…yes. I believe that the larger Spirit strands will have a qualitative difference from the others. Although…why not try two five-hundreds first?”
“Testing?”
“Always, Walker. That is how you keep from making mistakes.”
Walker smiled, “Let's do it.”
Reaching into his resources, he pulled out five hundred Spirit resources at once. This was the biggest collection of strand resources he’d ever pulled out, and it showed. The space around him seemed to warp, taking on a gas-like quality. Rather than forcibly pushing Origin into the strand, it aggressively pulled on the area around him, including Walker's own.
“Oh shit.”
“You will have to move fast Walker. I apologize for what I am about to do, but it is necessary.”
The origin in the area tapped out quickly, but still, the strand was pulling. A portal opened up and Walker was roughly shoved through to another place filled with Origin. It gobbled that up as well, another portal already waiting. Walker felt his soul being slowly drained as they moved from one to another until, finally, he felt the pull stop. It was a good thing, too.
“Shit, I’ve only got half left in the tank.” He pulled on the Origin in the area, refilling himself. “I’m a little nervous about going for one thousand now. Good idea on the testing.”
“Um…Walker…” He looked at his hand, where a solid blue starfish sat, waves of brown energy pushing off of it. Ulysses spoke again, “Can I um…”
“Oh, sorry.” Walker let it drift out to space, and it was gone just like that.
“Yes!” Ulysses yelled out, “Walker, that is such a rush!”
“What?” A weird thought came to mind, “Ulysses is the Spirit strand making you high? Like-”
“I know what getting high is, Walker. And no. But, still. That strand is quite powerful.”
“What’s the difference?”
“It is hard to put into words, but I will try. If the twenty-five strands feel like gaining an extra arm, the five-hundred feels like gaining the ability to swim while running.”
“Thats…wait, what?’
“Lets go again, Walker.”
“Hang on, explain that to me.”
“I doubt you will ever understand, Walker. At least, not without first becoming a more powerful form of Primordial.”
He scratched the back of his head, “I guess, man. Alright.” Putting the five hundred resources into his hand, they did the song and dance a second time, Ulysses gobbling it up quickly.
“How much more do you think you need to evolve?”
“The one-thousand strand should be more than enough, Walker. Thank you.”
“Okay, but how are we going to do it? I mean, I’m pretty sure if I tap out on Origin during this, I’m going to pass out…maybe even die. I’d prefer for that not to happen.”
A portal opened next to him. Beyond it, he found another portal and another beyond that, stretching further than his mind could conceive.
“Do not worry, Walker. I’ve created over fifty inter-connected pathways for you to travel through Origin. I will time the absorption rate to within a millisecond and move you from one to the next. At the moment of the large strands creation, please start to drain the origin around you for yourself.”
“You’re sure that’s going to work?”
“Yes. I have faith in us, Walker. I just need you to as well.”
Walker slapped his cheeks, mentally psyching himself up for this. He may die, he may not. He currently had what was probably the smartest entity he’d ever meet telling him that he would survive this. It was a big deal. But, Walker was the only one who could get this done.
Sure, they could keep going with the five hundreds or even drop down into the twenty fives again. But a thousand-resource spirit strand could have a huge effect on Ulysses. It could really push him into the next level. The level he needed in order to build his systems.
Slapping his cheeks again, Walker reached into his resources and collected a thousand resources of Spirit. As soon as he pulled it out, all of the Origin in the area was sucked directly into it.
“Oh, fu-”
He couldn’t get a word out as he felt something kick him directly in the ass, hard. Walker was universally punted through the first portal. The moment he arrived in that area, he noticed the very beginnings of cosmic dust nearby. Something he’d only seen pictures of in school. Then he was kicked again, only this time much harder.
He flew through portal after portal, the strand in his hand battling to drain him as the Origin clouds across the Symphony universe were sucked up one by one. He closed his eyes to the environment, doing his very best to not only get some of the Origin before the strand could take it all, but also fighting off its efforts to drain himself.
It took over two full minutes before Ulysses finally spoke up, “Walker….Walker, you can open your eyes now. It’s done.”
He opened his eyes and looked at his hand.
The starfish was gone. In its place, a bright and seething ball of dark blue sat. The darkness covering his hands felt like it was being pushed away from him, as if the power of his soul wasn’t enough to contain the strand he was holding. Walker thought better of shoving it and instead, just lightly moved his hand away, Ulysses helping by gently pushing him with a small bit of space.
One moment, the area was filled with the light of the strand, and the next, it was gone.
“Hahahahahaha,” Ulysses's voice said, only this time, there was no booming and cracking sound as if space was warbling. Instead, it felt like it was all around Walker at once. “That issss amazing.”
“Yeah?”
“Oh yes.”
A tear opened up next to Walker, and through it, stepped….another Walker.
“Hello, Walker. It’s me.”
“Me who?”
“Ulysses, you idiot.”
Walker looked him up and down, noticing all of the paunch he associated with himself was gone. It was a prime version of himself, in the best shape of his life. He glared at him suddenly, “Oh…fuck you, dude.”