“Wait! What just happened?”

We were back in the cave–back in Lord Solomon’s facility on the outskirts of Edrona. But then again, we had never left.

I whirled around myself. But yeah, definitely back in that blasted cave and not safe at home.

“You just witnessed the death of Lord Solomon.” The AI of the god was sitting on his large throne once again, looking as if we had never traversed the memories of his origin self.

I blinked. “If he died, surely Lady Euridice had to, as well. That explosion–”

“That explosion, she was prepared for,” Lord Solomon interrupted. “No one knows exactly how she did it. At least, not to my knowledge. I am unable to use the true Lord Solomon’s ability to access all information. But, as Lady Euridice said herself, she was also much higher-Tiered than Lord Solomon. He really stood no chance against her.”

“But that’s just it! He was a god. A god! Just like her. How could he die like that?”

I didn’t know why anger rippled through me, making my blood boil. Maybe it had to do with the fact that Lord Solomon was… well, he was kind of me.

“There are many Tiers within the God Tiers, or the Celestial Tiers as most call them. She was Celestial Tier 5 at that point, and now, I’m sure she’s advanced even higher.”

I rubbed a hand over my face. This was all too much. Just the day before, I had thought the highest anyone could possibly try to get to was Tier 4–maybe Tier 5. And no one in Edrona had ever passed 3. But now, this AI man-thing had shown me a world leagues beyond what I had ever imagined. I felt small, ignorant, and very much like a child.

“Before Lord Solomon went to his final battle, he devised a plan just in case the worst happened, which it did.” The AI continued speaking as if I wasn’t going through an existential crisis. “He created me, he created Codex, and he established a way for clones of himself to generate in various parts of the many universes out there.”

“Alright, alright. You’ve yanked it out of me; how are we… clones… ‘generated?’”

It felt uncomfortable to know that I hadn’t come into existence the usual way, but I had to find out exactly how I got here.

“Allow me to show you.”

Lord Solomon rose from his chair again, and I braced myself for another immersion of darkness and pain in my head. I’d thought we were done with the memories.

“What are you doing?” the AI asked with a slight tilt of his head.

I noticed my shoulders were tensed up near my ears, and my eyes were squinted into slits. “Uh, I thought you were going to take me into another memory again.”

“No.” Lord Solomon frowned at me. “The birthing chamber is just behind this dais.”

The AI pressed a hand against the wall behind his throne, then the wall whooshed over to the side as if an unseen hand had slid it over. Lord Solomon stepped through the new hole in the wall, gesturing for me to follow. I did, but I felt wary to view any sort of “birthing chamber” at all.

I entered the hidden room, trailing Lord Solomon on his hovering heels. And what I saw was not something I expected. In fact, I didn’t know what I had expected.

The room was small and simple, with short walls made from the same stone as the rest of the cave. But in the center stood a strange device. It was large and cylindrical, with an egg-shaped curve at its top and bottom. The surface was a glossy white, and the device stretched horizontally from one wall to the other.

“This is the pod you came from.” Lord Solomon circled the “pod,” as he called it. “Lord Solomon scattered these pods all over various universes and created facilities around them. Tap that button there.”

He pointed to a small, almost imperceptible divet at one of the pod’s ends. I pushed a finger into it and heard a soft click. I leaped back as the white surface revealed a panel and flew open. Inside were a bunch of flashing lights surrounding another pod-shaped device, but much smaller than the one it resided in.

“You were gestated inside this.” The AI pointed at the smaller pod. “Lord Solomon set a timer for your creation to begin, as he did with all the other clones.”

He pointed to a smooth black siding of the pod among the flashing lights and directed my attention to the “0:00” glowing on its surface.

“That’s the timer? What does it do? Countdown?”

“Yes,” the AI affirmed. “And once your development was complete, we teleported you to the surface. We–”

“What does ‘teleport’ mean?”

Lord Solomon frowned at me in a similar way Drayek did when I’d get on his nerves. “Teleportation is the process of breaking down someone or something into their base molecules, then transporting them to another location entirely.”

“You are saying a lot of words, but I am understanding very little.”

Lord Solomon rolled his eyes. Testing the patience of an AI copy of a legitimate god felt like an accomplishment.

“You started in the pod, then you magically,” he emphasized the word “magically” in a long, drawn-out tone–I decided to not take offense, “appeared on the surface.”

I paled. “Seriously? You sent a baby–you sent me–abandoned and on a hot, rocky planet with monsters at every corner?”

Lord Solomon remained impassive. “Yes, of course. Is there a problem with that?”

There were a multitude of problems with that–with everything the AI had told me! I’d always liked to imagine a caring mother and father out there somewhere. Maybe they had lost me, or maybe they had died. But all romanticized dreams of loving parents were squashed as I stared at the white pod that had created me from discarded DNA.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“Am I even human?” I whispered.

“Of course! You are just as much a human as any other. Better, even! You are godspawn.”

“You keep saying that. Godspawn.”

“You are Solomon Rohn, as I have said. And he was a god. Almost everything about you is identical to him.”

“I can think of a few ways we are different. One, our names.”

“Number 52, listen! This is important.” The AI narrowed his eyes at me. “Your DNA is identical. And your Souls are almost identical. You don’t have the same Soul he did when he was your age–you have the same Soul he did before he died, and possibly an even stronger Soul.”

I cocked my head. “Meaning what, exactly?”

I thought back to that device during my Marking Ceremony that couldn’t determine my Soul Strength number because it was “too high.”

“You have a perfect Soul. A god’s Soul.”

My eyes widened. I didn’t quite know what a “perfect Soul” entailed, but I could guess it meant something good.

“You may have noticed that your body hasn’t grown into itself yet,” Lord Solomon continued. “You are small, and you may have struggled in training and getting physically stronger in the past.”

“Yeah, I have definitely noticed all of those things. Thanks for pointing all of that out.”

The AI ignored my quip. “Your body cannot handle the strength of your Soul. At least, not until you are able to advance into Tier 1. Once you do, you will begin to notice a lot of physical improvements. And these improvements will continue as you advance through the next Tiers.”

I chewed on the inside of my cheek. “Alright…. But what is my Soul Strength number?”

Lord Solomon frowned. “That, I cannot tell you. The original Lord Solomon genetically altered his DNA for all of his clones and succeeded in establishing perfect Souls within each of you. Meaning, your Soul could be stronger than his ever was.”

I rubbed my hands on my face and could say nothing in response. This new information had rendered me speechless.

“You might never know the exact number of your Soul Strength, Number 52. But because you have a perfect Soul, you will have no limits to how powerful you can get.”

I liked the sound of that but was still struggling to process all of the particulars. The AI knitted his brows as he studied me, but he said nothing more on the matter.

We returned to the throne room; Lord Solomon settled back on his throne, and I took my place, standing in front of him like a puny, ignorant child.

“I believe you are now ready to advance into Tier 1.”

I shot up straight. I had been waiting for this–hoping for this. That all of the explanations and life-changing information would lead to my own future on a path to strength and power.

“Codex, as you might have guessed by now, is a wealth of information–a tool for you to use throughout your life. It was molded into your mind as you were created in the pod.

Not only can Codex answer your questions, translate languages, and provide you with more knowledge than your current brain could handle, but it is also your instrument in cultivation.”

The AI paused, expecting me to interject with another question, but I didn’t.

“Codex has been dormant in your mind for most of your life, but I have awakened it for this very purpose. You are now ready, Number 52, to start your journey of eternal strides and become Lord Solomon.”

***

Without warning, the Lord Solomon AI had somehow sent me back to the gulch. Dead Nagari from our previous fight littered the ground, but it was otherwise empty. No sign of Drayek and the others, and no sign of living Nagari.

How long have I been gone?

I made my way toward the root leading to the surface, trying to ignore the roaring in my stomach. It felt like I hadn’t eaten in days. But… maybe I had been gone with Lord Solomon for days. I had no way of determining how much time had passed.

It was dark all around me, save for the dim glow of the three crescent-shaped moons hanging above my head. I held my breath as I observed my surroundings, ensuring I was alone and no monster would attack me.

I attempted to remember all of the instructions Lord Solomon had given me before he’d rudely sent me back to the gulch without warning.

“As soon as possible, find a private place to meditate, then Codex will direct you on how to break into Tier 1 and start your cultivating journey,” he had said.

I thought back to what might provide shelter above the gulch but remembered there wasn’t much around to provide protection as I meditated, just miles of cracked rock and distant mountains. But I was impatient. I wanted to get into Tier 1 as soon as possible.

I returned my attention back to the gulch again and stared at the Nagari bodies, expecting one of them to jump out at me and say, “Just kidding! Not dead! But you will be soon.”

I marched over to the wall of the gulch that had opened up for the Hunters and me earlier–that felt like ages ago–but the gaping entrance to the cave was gone. I almost tried to convince myself that it had all been a dream, but why else would Drayek have left me three or four miles from Edrona by myself?

No. It had all happened, and I now knew I was one of the many clones born from the DNA of a long-dead god killed by the very goddess I’d worshiped my entire life. Talk about an identity crisis.

Finally, I made up my mind. It was too late to travel through the craggy desert toward Edrona alone, and I had no weapons to defend myself. Though it was a relatively short trek, I decided that taking it in the morning, and as a Tier 1 (hopefully), I’d be better off.

I made my way over to the large root in the gulch and found a nook that I could wedge myself into. After I situated myself in the best way possible, I prayed to–well, I don’t who. It felt strange to pray to Lady Euridice, but I still prayed. Maybe someone would listen. I prayed that no Nagari or other ill-meaning beast or human would attack me as I meditated.

I breathed heavily through my nose and tried to relax my entire body. My arms fell over my legs, and I did my best to ignore the part of the root poking into my ribs.

I urged my eyelids to settle from their hurried fluttering and calmed my breathing down to a slow pace. I could feel my heart slow along with my breath and happily noticed the tension releasing from my shoulders.

“Hello, Master. Are you ready to begin?”

“Hi, Codex.”

I wasn’t surprised by the presence of Codex any longer, especially if I ignored the fact that he–no, it–was an artificial intelligence that had been embedded into my brain while I was gestating in a white… pod, was it? I kept thinking of it as an egg-shaped tomb. No, it was better not to think of that. I could get used to thinking of Codex as my internal companion if I pushed aside everything else about the situation–at least for now.

“I’m ready.” I felt no doubt in my response. And I was ready–very ready.

“Computing your essence levels,” his squeaky voice said. “Ah, you have a lot within you. I have activated your core, Master. You may now absorb essence into it.”

I did as Codex said, imagining my core once again as I had with Drayek after eating the monster heart. The blue lines of essence floated around the hovering orb of light that made up my core, and I imagined myself directing the streams toward the ball as I’d done before. But instead of my core rejecting the essence, it absorbed it quickly, as if my core had been starving.

After just a few moments, the high-pitched ding of a bell sounded in my mind, and then the image of my core was replaced with a gold slate covered in words. I recognized it as similar to what I had seen in Lord Solomon’s memories while he’d meditated on the mountain and had broken through to the Celestial Tiers.

“If you read the screen,” Codex said, “you will see that you have succeeded.”

“Screen….” I’d seen use of that word once before, during my Marking Ceremony.

I followed Codex’s direction and read the words, a thrill of adrenaline energizing me.

STATUS

NAME: CLONE #52

TIER: 1