I'd learned in the white room while subjected to Dr. Henderson's cruel revelations that shock and disorientation could be physically painful. Staring at this stranger who looked and sounded exactly like my dear friend Piercey–who literally shared a copy of his consciousness–the disbelief hit as hard as a genuine punch.

He nodded at me. "I know the version of you in this world just like Piercey knows you in his. You need to see or you'll just get frustrated."

"See what?"

He pulled out crude-looking binoculars and passed them to me. Though we stood in an empty field, I noticed a small village to the east where smoke rose from dozens of homes, and what looked like training grounds to the west. If I squinted, I could make out the small forms of people milling about. I couldn't make out very many details from here, but the land looked relatively vacant. If I had to guess, the village likely served to take care of whoever trained here.

I lifted the binoculars and discovered I'd been right. Targets and dummies littered one area of the training ground while a large section provided space for sparring. Dozens of people trained now, not just with weapons, but with power. I let out an exasperated sigh. "I've seen this plenty–"

Long dark curls floated like a halo around a tall man's head as he hovered in the air. Chorded arms glistened with sweat. A strong jaw closed tight in effort. Amber eyes shone with the sun.

Nash levitated in the field.

I stumbled forward, staring. "He has power?"

"We all do."

Seeing an identical version of Nash hovering in the air stole my breath away. It made sense that the gods would have populated these worlds with the same souls, but my human mind could not accept this. I'd only ever known one Nash. My Nash. In every life we'd lived, we'd found one another. This man was a stranger, though. He belonged to a different world and if he'd ever met a version of me, he also belonged to a different Max.

I jerked the binoculars back and stared at Piercey. "That's the experiment here? What happens if everyone has a neural implant?"

"Yes. It's the counterpart to your world where only one percent received the quantum powers."

It was so surreal, not because it didn't make sense, but because the two worlds felt like double vision. My mind struggled to hold the two at ones. I couldn't even find words for all the questions I had.

"Who are you?" I asked. "How did you find my world?"

"My name is Elias." His voice, though soft, came out smoothly and matter-of-fact. "I'm a technology officer for one of the largest guilds in our world. My specialty brought me to you."

Despite the differences I had latched onto to force myself to recognize that this man was not actually Piercey, the similarities were overwhelming. "That means a whole lot of nothing to me. Technology officer? For a guild? Does that mean you work on computers?"

"It's more than that. In your world, so few people have power that you all have to fight. The few who don't end up serving the strong. Here, we all can find our true path. We're all working to master our power and have a much deeper knowledge of its potential than in your world. I know that Piercey is not much of a warrior but still had to learn how to fight. I've never trained in any style of combat."

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

I blinked. "You can't fight at all?"

"No. I use my neural implant to interface with technology and stretch the boundaries of what we currently know how to do. It's like when Piercey taught you how to hack into the after-life."

Suspicion nipped at me, but I couldn't bring myself to feel distrusting of another version of my friend. "You really do know everything."

"I've dug deeply into these worlds of ours. I haven't gotten my hands on everything, but I broke into a great deal of data that's been compiled. There's a wealth of information about you since you're allowing the gods to watch over you."

It was strange for him to know so much about me, and yet, not at all when I'd connected to share all of my experiences with Piercey in my world. "Tell me more about your guild and how your work with them led you to my world."

"It's complicated. Our guilds are so competitive. Our organizations started out focused on certain trades, but grew into much more based on necessity. My world is not one where the few dominate the many. Not individuals, at least. When everyone has power, more people can defend themselves, but more people can also fight. True power here comes from coalitions. The combined strength of larger guilds can overpower smaller ones. But it's not always about might here. Plenty of specialties and trades are just as important as combat. That's why it's guilds and not armies that have become such an integral component of our society. It's also why we push ourselves so hard to innovate."

I glanced over to where the man who looked just like Nash trained. "I take that innovation led you to me. So your world is run by these guilds?"

"In a way. We have towns and cities. Kingdoms. Budding nation-states. But there's no government in the world that has more power than the guilds."

"Who rules the valley in this world?"

He chuckled. "No one. There's more than a dozen guilds operating between two kingdoms operating in the valley."

"Are you at war like we are?"

"Mutually assured destruction can be a wonderful and terrible thing. I can't say the guilds or kingdoms get along, but we're not in an all-out war."

This new world sounded better than mine, but first impressions could be deceiving. What did my counterpart do here? "Are we friends in your world?"

The look in his eye, how his gaze shifted for a moment, made him look sad. "Yeah, close enough at least."

Whatever that meant, I wasn't so sure I really wanted to find out. "Does she know I'm here?"

"No. She knows nothing about you. No one does."

The revelation startled me and I couldn't quite say why. Not at first. Studying him, it finally came to me. In my world, Piercey worked within a team framework. He would never have traveled to another simulated reality without saying anything. In fact, my Piercey may not have been brave enough to go alone.

The differences between our worlds had created a Piercey who truly was not the one I knew. Elias was different. I couldn't assume I should trust him.

"Why did you show yourself to me?" I asked.

The breeze toyed with his dreads and the long sleeves of his tunic. "You're the only one I know who has ever killed a god."

My hands remembered the effort of stabbing my blade through Dr. Henderson so well. I curled them as if I held the sword still.

He held my stare. "I have a god who needs to die."

This really wasn't my Piercey. Not at all.

"If you help me, I can help you with your war. The answers about how to live with this power of ours lie in my world. We need each other."

Dread climbed up my throat in a hot rush like bile. "Your supervisor is still corrupt."

"No." Elias shook his head. "It's not my supervisor." He walked closer and spoke in a quiet voice, like he was afraid someone was listening. "It's my guild."