Adam teleported into the Throne room and looked around. The Emperor was sitting on his Throne staring straight ahead. Adam knew the Emperor could see because he hadn’t shut down the Emperor’s brain and he was still allowing the Emperor’s lungs to exchange oxygen and his heart to beat. Otherwise, his nanites had only locked down the Emperor’s ability to move. As Adam looked around at the empty room he thought about how it had been completely full just 5 minutes ago, there had even been children in attendance. That is until he’d sent off commands to his nanites to clear it.
Adam had sorted parents and their children into one group and all the sycophants into another. Then the nanites took over their bodies simultaneously. portals had opened near the small groups of people throughout the room. The groups had walked through, the portals closing behind them. The nanites in groups with children had put them in a coma as they controlled the bodies and walked them into the artificial parks around the planet at least 100 miles from the Emperor’s palace. After the portals were closed the nanites released them from their comas, they woke up and were surprised to find themselves in a different location. The shock wasn’t enough to scare any of the children or adults that much.
The sycophants on the other hand were not treated so delicately. The nanites took over their bodies, the portals opened, and they found themselves on the larger of the two moons, Itania, frozen in place. Itania was just a little larger than Earth’s Moon with a diameter of 2,213 km. Also, the mass of Itania was just a little more than Earth’s moon at .084. (1024 kg). Although, conditions on the surface were about the same as on Earth’s moon.
Fun fact, the reason Vrax didn’t suffer tidal problems was that the entire surface of Vrax had been covered and the oceans and lakes had been put in what amounted to giant containers. As for the sycophants, Adam made sure the nanites maintained their bodies and did NOT put them into a coma while they stepped through portals into a shallow crater looking at Vrax sitting above the Horizon. Once everyone was through and lined up, he had the nanites release them from the neck up so they could turn, look around and talk amongst themselves. He’d sealed the crater they were looking out with a thin sheet of transparent aluminum and used the nanites to solidify the crater wall enough so gases wouldn’t escape into the soil after he converted some of the moon’s surface to air for them. The nanites would make sure they had enough Oxygen. The point of this exercise was to show them, and the Emperor, that forces they couldn’t control were in play. Adam didn’t want any of them to die. He just wanted to make a point.
Adam brought his thoughts back to the throne room and looked around the giant empty hall that the Emperor’s dais sat in and started walking towards him. As he reached the bottom of the steps leading up to the throne his nanites detected two stasis fields, one on each side of the steps and a third Stasis chamber behind the Emperor. None of the stasis chambers were visible to the naked eye nor were they in any way technological. His nanites were trying to infiltrate the fields but there was nothing there to infiltrate. A book he’d read came to mind by an author with the last name of Hamilton. Stasis Frozen Guards? But if that were so, the nanites should be able to infiltrate the guard’s bodies. As he stepped onto the dais he received his answer. It was a temporal barrier of some kind that probably had to be deactivated.
Warning: You have stepped into a Temporal Anomaly. Destination Unknown. Would you like to allow this Temporal Anomaly to affect you? Yes or No?
Adam chose “No” as he continued up the steps. he had his nanites form a chair and sat down directly in front of the Emperor so that he could look out into the room behind him while he looked into the Emperor’s eyes and waited. He didn’t have to wait long. All of the lights went out and he felt a thousand men teleport into the room. Every single one of them came from a world that his nanites had already infiltrated. As they appeared, a portal opened in front of each of them and they all stepped through their personal portal and entered the crater on Itania that Adam had prepared.
Those troops had been the Emperor’s emergency special forces that were always on call and always ready to deploy. 30 seconds later a second wave of 1,000 appeared. And again, portals opened and they stepped into another crater that had been prepared on Itania.
Adam’s nanites detected transmission of both technological and magical nature. The nanites blocked the technological transmission easily enough. The magical one was a bit more insidious, and Adam didn’t realize that it was a dead man’s switch until the signal had turned off. It seemed that besides the call for an election of an Emperor by the Council of Nobility, there was another way to deactivate the stasis chamber behind the Emperor which contained Mah. The third stasis chamber Adam had detected was a door inside a pentagram that sat slightly above the Throne. The tips of the pentagram flashed red, and the stasis field dropped. A door opened allowing the single occupant to step forward.
Someone in the control room must have deactivated the stasis chamber remotely. As his nanites investigated how this had happened he realized he was mistaken. A simple oversight on his part and an absolutely brilliant strategy by whoever set up the Emperor’s protection. Sensors in the control room were set to monitor movement. If movement ceased, the signal to maintain the stasis chamber was interrupted. There had been guards and the commander in charge of the control room and the timer had been set to five minutes. There were other failsafes including queries by the program to other agencies and the Emperor. When Adam had cut off communication outside the palace, movement of any kind by the Emperor and everyone in the control room ceased the program deactivated the stasis field. Adam just hadn’t thought they’d have something like that in place. He knew they’d have security, he‘d nullified it all, or at least he thought he had. Obviously, he was mistaken as he watched Mah land lightly on the Dais behind the Throne and then walk around to the side of the Throne.
If Trix’s memories were accurate, and he had no reason to believe they weren’t, this man had systematically gone to multiple systems and destroyed them and everyone in them when the counselors representing those systems had killed their fellow counselors in the Council of Nobility during an election for a new Emperor as they tried to get their man into that position. . Mah looked around, noted the current Emperor sitting frozen on his Throne then looked at Adam.
Without a word or any indication that he was going to attack, Adam looked down to find a black blade buried in his chest through his heart held by Mah who was looking into his eyes as if he was inspecting a bug and wondering how it had ended up on his sword after he’d just squished it with his foot. That was surprise number 1. Surprise number 2 was the fact that he’d done enough damage to Adam’s body that he was dying. Surprise number 3 was the sensation he felt from the dark blade that was somewhat familiar but alien. Well, one good thing would come of this, He’d finally learn what that Soul Ability Incessant did.
WARNING: Mah has attacked you with The Blade of Primal Destruction.
The Blade of Primal Destruction bypasses all defense and resistance.
The Primal Blade of Destruction inflicts damage by Percentage of total health, not hit points.
This blade is extremely potent against creatures with very high hit points. Attacks that are considered critical hits and would be fatal to normal creatures 200% damage.
The Blade of Primal Destruction ignores all damage reduction.
All Adam had time to utter before his body died was, “Ow”
Mah sneered and smiled as Adam winked at him and formed a new body to the right of the Throne and transferred his consciousness to his new body. The process was instantaneous. As long as the area was saturated with nanites, Adam could form a new body within a second. Adam looked at Mah.
Mah smiled and moved. Adam died again. Mah’s sword form was outstanding and better than Adam’s ability to dodge. Of course, he wasn’t even seeing him move to strike which meant… I’ll be a son of a… The soul ability Incessant was reforming his body out of the nanites as his former bodies broke apart into their component nanites. As Adam was dying over and over he checked to see what his nanites were up to concerning Mah. They were infiltrating him just fine. The sword was another matter. Unlike his Chaos Blade, this blade destroyed anything that came into contact with it, even his chaotic nanites. Mah wasn’t protected but that sword was.
Adam died a total of twelve times before he was able to freeze Mah in place. After the eleventh death, Adam tried to leave him in a state similar to the people he had on the Moon. Mah had still been able to somehow move his body so the sword ended up piercing his body through the chest again. That had been his twelfth death, after which Adam had put Mah into a coma as he had his fingers release The Blade of Primal Destruction and then opened a portal beneath it as it fell that lead into Chaos. Adam watched as the blade of destruction faded from view. The raw chaos was staying away from the blade as it fell away from the portal. Adam sent a couple of nanites after it to stay in close proximity to the sword as he closed the portal and walked over to Mah and tried to analyze or identify him. No such luck. Nothing he tried was breaking through whatever was blocking him. Also, he was pretty sure he was an Absolute level soul, though he only seemed to be a manifestation instead of a projection or an Aspect that had crossed into this Cosmos.
Everything had happened where the Emperor could witness it. Adam had a good idea of what the Emperor was thinking but right now Adam wasn’t worried about that. He needed to figure out what to do with Mah. Adam pulled up his interface and queried where an Aperture was. His ability Pansophical activated and a message appeared.
The aperture out of this Cosmos is located within the Divide at the center.
Adam reviewed his memories of The Divide and noted that it was a tube that was long and huge but he didn’t see anything that looked like “The Eye” or apertures he’d seen before. He replayed the memories in his mind and as he looked everyone over. He did notice that there seemed to be an area a little farther down from the door where a few went though he was lucky enough to see one soul that was floating near the center and seemed to phase out of view. None of the other souls reacted, nor had he reacted when it happened. Maybe there was some form of mental suppression not to notice unless you were looking for it?
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Adam picked Mah up, opened a portal to The Divide, and moved out into the middle of the Divide. Souls were floating by as he appeared, but they ignored Adam and Mah. Some were crying, others were surprised, and others seemed excited. None were moving through the center area of the tube though. As Adam carried Mah toward the center of the tube they passed an invisible barrier. Adam looked at the souls as they continued down the tube outside of this inner area shrouded by the invisibility screen which only showed as a slight distortion. That was the only indication that there was something between himself and the other souls. Adam looked around and noticed that less than 100 feet from his entry point there was a Platinum Door above which words were flowing through many languages though the meaning of the words didn’t change,
“For Those Ready to Start Anew, This Door is For You”
Well, that was just corny as hell. Adam moved up to the Door and opened It to a shimmering wall of light.
Would you like to Leave this Cosmos, Yes or No?
Adam chose “No” and then threw Mah through the door.
Mah bounced off the wall of light and floated back towards Adam.
Adam caught him easily. Adam guessed every person that went through the door had to accept the transition. That did make a little bit of sense. Fine. Adam shut the door and moved back from it then willed himself to Cross-over with Mah.
Would you like to Leave this Cosmos, Yes or No?
Adam chose “Yes.”
WARNING you are carrying another entity with you out of this Cosmos at a non-designated location. Doing so may have an adverse effect on the entity.
Adam ignored the warning and crossed into the Place between Places with Mah. Interestingly enough his body didn’t dissolve or get destroyed. There must be a set of rules governing the chaos of this region or it wasn’t chaos, just a chaotic region where chaos could exist as well. Adam would have to explore this area a little more next time he was out here. His interface showed a great empty expanse so he reset his Interface to default for this place and everything around him changed. Adam was now standing next to a barrier holding Mah and not too far away there was a conduit racing off into the distance.
So, this asshole didn’t want to leave the Cosmos willingly. Adam was betting that if he placed him in the Conduit from outside the Cosmos he wouldn’t have a choice. Adam willed them closer to a conduit while holding Mah by the neck. Adam kept his body outside the conduit and pushed Mah through the permeable barrier surrounding it. Adam felt pressure pulling on Mah’s body and released him. Adam felt his nanites inside Mah get drawn down the conduit away from him at a very rapid rate. Adam still had communication with them and released Mah from the Coma as he willed himself away from the conduit. Adam brought the image of the Emperor’s Throne room into focus and willed himself to Cross-over into that location. There were no prompts this time. He just phased into existence in front of the Emperor and sat down in the chair opposite him.
“Now that that’s out of the way Emperor Princeps you and I can have a talk,” he said. “Don’t worry I’ll let you ask some questions in a minute, first though, Everyone, save Mah, will be returning as soon as we’re done here. The families and their children are fine, They’re in some of your parks around the world just far enough away from any portals so they won’t be getting back anytime soon. Those of your court that don’t have family and all of your soldiers are on the surface of Itania. They’re frozen much like you are though they can breathe normally and they’re not dying so I guess that’s a bonus for them.”
Adam paused for a second, stood and looked around the Hall again then sat back down. “And this place, Why the hell would you need a place so big? I get that you’re the Emperor of a multi-interdimensional empire that spans a huge number of star systems across multiple universes but seriously isn’t this a bit ostentatious? Last thing, I’m going to release you now. If you try to cast any magic or utilize a technological weapon or device on me I will take you where I just took your guardian and drop you off. In effect that means you’re going to die but that’s not what really happens, and I don’t want to ruin the surprise when it happens so let’s just say, that you probably wouldn’t like that outcome, or you might, who knows.” Adam said as he released the Emperor.
The Emperor moved his arms and legs to make sure he had full movement back then launched himself at Adam with a very impressive closed fist punch to Adam’s left eye while he was sitting down. Adam didn’t move, didn’t even flinch. The Emperor broke his hand and fell to his knees as he held his hand groaning.
Adam stood, picked up the Emperor, and put him back on his throne with one hand as he said, “Let me help you with that.” Adam had the nanites cut off the pain receptors in his hand and knit the bones back together.
When the pain had stopped the Emperor looked at his hand which had allowed Adam to pick him up and place him back on his throne due to his surprise at there being no pain suddenly. Adam sat back in the chair he’d created and watched with the Emperor as the skin of the Emperor’s hand rippled and the bones knit back together. When it was done, Adam released the block on his pain receptors.
The Emperor flexed his hand, poked it with his other hand then asked, “How?”
“How isn’t important? Also, thank you for believing me about using magic or technology. I left that gap for physical action to see what you’d do. You acted quickly and decisively which is the type of leader I most wanted to deal with today,” Adam said.
“With what I just witnessed and felt, I don’t see why, you could take over the Empire and no one would be able to oppose you,” he said.
“That’s only partially true. There are entities that are just as powerful as I am and weapons that can strike me down, though I tend to get back up, a lot, as you witnessed.
“What did you do with Emperor’s Guardian?” he asked.
“The Emperor’s Guardian has a soul. That soul has moved on to his next life.”
“You ripped his soul out and banished it?”
“Nothing so crass, I merely sent him on his way. You’ll have to trust me on this, but he was not on the side of the angels. In fact, I’m pretty sure he was probably a demon or demon spawn of some sort.”
“Stop talking nonsense, You’re talking like good and evil are actually at war with each other. There are only the choices we each make and the consequences of those choices.”
“You are both correct and incorrect. There are consequences for all the choices you make. The more significant choices will remain with you for a very long time. Which brings me to the reason I’m visiting you today, “Why did you have Trix assassinated?”
“I did no such thing!” The Emperor declared righteously.
“First, your right, you didn’t order the death of Trix, she was already dead when The Agency eliminated her. Second, yes you did. Just answer my questions and I’ll get out of here and return your people to you.”
The Emperor looked at Adam intently and then said, “I ordered her death because there can only be one Emperor. She was trying to set up an organization that would have made my title meaningless.”
“That makes sense. Thank you for your honesty. What you didn’t know about Trix is that she was like me.”
“Was?” The Emperor asked.
“Was. She is most definitely dead and never returning. Which is a very good thing because had you been able to pull off your plan and kill her she would have returned to her boss who most definitely has the ability to make your life and death a living hell.”
“What are you talking about, the major Gods have served The Emperor of the Vrax for millennia. That pact is as old as the Empire is. Some even say the Empire formed because of that Pact and the Gods love for the people of Vrax.”
“That may have been true in the past but it is no longer true.
“You lie!”
“I do not lie,” Adam said as he sent a message through his nanites to Death
Adam: Come to the Emperor’s Throne room on Vrax now, please!
Death appeared and asked, “Who…” then stopped herself as she saw Adam and the Emperor. She nodded to Emperor Princeps then glared at Adam as she asked, “Did you summon me?”
“I didn’t summon you, but we both know my requests have just a little bit of weight to them don’t we?” Adam said with a smile.
“That is Death, you can’t talk to her like that, she’ll kill you?” The Emperor said adamantly.
“Nah, we’re besties, aren’t we Death?”
“Sure,” she said rolling her eyes. “Why am he here?” she asked.
“You are here to answer one simple question that shouldn’t be stopped by the Geas placed on everyone in this Cosmos. Did something happen to modify or nullify the pact the Gods made with the Vrax prior to your encounter with me a couple of days ago? I’m not asking you to explain because I know that you cannot. A simple Yes or No will suffice.
“Yes,” she said.
“Thank you,” Adam said.
“You’re still an ass,” she said.
“But you’re not in limbo for, how long was that going to be again?” he asked.
She sighed, then asked, “Are we done here?”
“Yes,” Adam said.
Death departed as quickly as she’d arrived as the Emperor asked, “Limbo?”
Adam thought about it for a second then decided that the truth might help in this instance, “I punched her so hard that I caused her solid form to disintegrate. Why does that matter? Well, it looks like she created this rule concerning the death of immortals and Gods that they had to remain in limbo until they had regenerated any damage that was done before they could return to physical form. I don’t know the specifics but that’s what I gleaned. Her own rule was going to keep her out of things for a very long time. Not days, months, years, or even centuries. Much longer than that.”
“Then how is she back?” The Emperor asked.
“I made a wish and expended some of my healing rate to bring her back.
“I don’t understand,” The Emperor said.
“Nor should you, that would be giving away all my secrets. Just know this, in the very near future I’m going to send a message to you. In that message will be instructions on how to resist the power that has nullified your pact with the Gods as well as what teachings you need to end immediately. You will most likely be promised things you desire. I can tell you from the little bit of interaction I’ve had that this being, and others like her, don’t give a rat’s ass about any beings that become their vassals. They just want followers so they can gain more power from them. Each and every member of your empire can make their own way and make their own choices. My understanding after researching your history is that this empire started out like that. You need to redirect the people of the Empire back on that path.”
“What will you do if I don’t?” The Emperor asked.
“Nothing, you and your empire need to make your own decisions. If you chose to follow the master of Trix then so be it. I’ve done what I came here to do, I warned you. I’ve also given you a boogieman to use to whip people that were not listening to you in line. I did not turn off the recording devices in this room. Mah is gone, showing that even he, with all his might and the power to destroy planets, had no chance against me or others like me.
“I must ask again, why not just take my throne and do things the way you want?” The Emperor said.
“Because I do not need to be bogged down with the governing of a single empire,” Adam answered.
“Are you a God?” The Emperor asked pointedly.
“Honestly I don’t know what definition to use to answer that question. If your definition of God is someone as powerful or just slightly less powerful than Death, then by that definition yes. But my instincts and my personal insight tell me that no I’m not a God. I’m just a guy that has been incredibly lucky while I’m trying to do the best I can for the most people I can,” Adam said then paused for a moment before ending the conversation, “I will have something written up and sent directly to you. Not to worry no one will intercept it, you’ll understand when it happens. I have a couple of other small items to take care of,” Adam said as he looked thoughtful for a moment.
“Oh yeah, tell the Agency to leave Ne’lix alone. He is not like me but any attempts to kill him will lead to the instant deaths of the agent sent and whoever issued the order. I’m sure someone will try, just make sure it’s not you who issues that order, or even hints at ordering it. Just be ready to replace the assassin and their supervisor. Then make sure to reinforce the order the second time. Portals will start opening momentarily and all of the people that were here will return. Your elite soldiers will be returned here as well to help you see to the needs of your people. The families and children can find their own way home. Your empires portal network is quite impressive,” Adam said.
Just as the emperor was about to say something or ask questions, Adam teleported out, and the chair he’d been sitting in evaporated. Adam watched through his nanites as Portals opened and people started returning from the Moon. The Emperor stood and looked down the dais to his people. Shutting off his security measures he rushed down the steps while speaking into an intercom on his wrist, “I need medics and counselors in the Throne room now!”
Adam watched as the Emperor organized and saw to the needs of his people. Maybe he’d been a bit heavy-handed. Emperor Princeps was a good ruler; Adam might be able to alter the path of his empire and help this cosmos get out from under Textrix. To do that though, he would need just a little more help. Now he had to get the Gods of this Cosmos in line.