The first thing Adam realized was that he wasn’t unconscious. His mind had gone blank because he’d received an influx of prompts that had errored out his vision and turned it into a display of white noise. He also felt like the chaos that helped make up his body was being ripped from him at the same time. Initially, it had been surprising and painful. Now it felt like the relief one might get after waiting a really long time to use the toilet. Ironically, not something he’d had to do in a long time. In this case, the sensation kept going, and going, and going. As his mind asserted itself over the white noise of message prompts and the feeling of being drained as excess chaos was removed from him, red prompts appeared.
WARNING: You have entered Primal Chaos
WARNING: Chaos is not immune to the effects of Primal Chaos
WARNING: Chaos Shield at 100%
WARNING: Chaos Shielding at 99.999%
Then the warnings started ticking down quickly. In a second his Chaos shielding was at 98%, then 97%. He tried to look around quickly and found that he was unable to make out anything. Adam could feel the Primal Chaos absorbing and changing the chaos that was trying to shield his core self as it was drawn from his body. The Primal Chaos was eating the chaos that tried to protect him quickly. The chaos he carried around surrounded him and formed a shell to keep the Primal Chaos from touching him but ultimately it would fail. His chaos continued to be eaten by the Primal Chaos outside it. Adam watched as the Chaos Shield strength counter continued to drop until it hit 1%. With a feeling of resignation, Adam watched as the shell popped and his body was enveloped by Primal Chaos. With no way to resist what was going to happen, Adam dropped all his mental shields, opened his heart to inevitability surrendered himself to his fate
Not that being overwhelmed by forces he didn’t completely understand what happened all that often he realized that he should be terrified. He might have the power of a God, but he knew that one of the few things that could end him was Primal Chaos. Adam kept his mentality focused on what was happening to him instead of retreating to his Mindspace and noticed multiple presences that made him feel like a fly trapped on sticky paper being looked at by things much larger than himself. Adam heard, though heard is the wrong word. Adam felt as if multiple sets of eyes were scrutinizing him while they discussed something. As time went on he was able to just make out what was being said.
“What do we have here?” a voice asked.
“It’s a human, from one of the offshoots,” a feminine voice said.
“And powerful enough to make it here and not be instantly destroyed by the environment?” A second man asked.
“That’s a function of one of his core abilities. How can one lose oneself to the nature of Primal Chaos, when they perfectly remember everything?
“I see. Was this loophole properly analyzed?” A third voice asked.
“It was. The chance that an entity with the ability of Perfect Memory could reach this point from location within a location without submitting to the Divine ruleset was measured as a number so low as to be nigh impossible.”
Adam felt more than heard the sigh that came from more than one of the individuals having the conversation. He still couldn’t see where the voices were coming from.
“This one has been busy it seems,” a new voice said.
The voices faded to a point that he could not hear them until he heard another new voice, “But this one did not accept the path of Divinity. He has done everything we’ve reviewed as a mortal?”
“It would seem we have found an appropriate candidate then?” the second male voice asked.
“It does,” an additional male voice that hadn’t spoken before said.
“Ascension Protocol?” a new feminine voice asked
“Fortune?” the first voice asked.
“After reviewing his accomplishments, I believe that role would best suit his personality.
“Ascension Protocol, Fortune?” the second feminine voice asked.
“Ascension Protocol, Fortune Role, a multitude of voices chorused
“Who will inform him?”
“I will,” a somewhat familiar voice that had remained silent until then said.
Adam felt reality shift and he was once again orbiting the Unicorn Singularity though he felt somehow less and more. Immediately he knew that all of the extra chaos he had carried with him was gone. Additionally, he innately knew that his body was once again normal. Well, as normal as he could be. Adam opened his Personal Information to find the following message.
PERSONAL INFORMATION TAB LOCKED – Review Messages to Unlock this Tab
Making sure that he still had some of his abilities he willed myself to fly around the black hole as he made sure his adaptability was still in place. Then he cast Mage Bolt, then a stream of Mage bolts at the singularity to make sure he could still use magic.
Satisfied, he teleported to his estate on the Lifeboat in the Oort Cloud. As he arrived he called out for Adaline.
“Welcome back Adam,” Thor’s voice called out from the speakers, “Adaline is in New Mexico. She thought it might be better to be somewhere with vast open spaces in case something bad happened.”
“Did anything happen?” he asked.
“She appears to be fine, though she is currently accessing her personal interface and hasn’t moved in 3 hours,” Thor said.
Adam checked his internal clock, which he still had access to, and sure enough, it looked like 3 hours had passed since he’d destroyed Anthrax. Adam accessed Thor’s data via a quantum link, which he surprisingly still had, and reviewed Adaline. She appeared to be fine as she sat there with glazed eyes that were darting to and fro, “I wonder what she’s reading?” he mumbled.
“For 34 minutes before going into the state you see here in, she was frozen,” Thor said, “When she finally moved again, she smiled, and then her eyes glazed over and you see her as she has been since then.”
“Well. she looks fine. I have to open his message prompts how. I’m going to sit down and take a break while I do. Please let Adaline know where he am when she comes to. I’m sure she’ll let us know what happened to her then.”
“Understood,” Thor said.
Adam sat down in his recliner and started going through his messages where he’d left off.
WARNING: Chaos Shielding at 1.001%
WARNING: Chaos Shield has failed.
WARNING: You are in a region of Primal Chaos
WARNING: You have exited the region of Primal Chaos.
WARNING: You have entered the region of the Arcanus Numina
The following changes are being made to you by the Arcanus Numina
Soul Type: ERROR has been replaced with Ascendant: Arcanus Numen of Fortune
Soul Projection Level has been set to “+”
Soul Rank Disparity has been set to “+”
Soul Abilities have been reconfigured to Arcanus Numen Abilities.
Soul Ability “Perfect Memory” has evolved to Arcanus Numen Ability “Perfect Memory.” No change to description or benefits.
Soul Ability “Pansophical” has evolved to Arcanus Numen Ability “Boundless.” “Boundless” – All skills are known to you and are performed at Legendary competence.
Soul Ability “Permanent Addition” has evolved to Arcanus Numen Ability “Eternal.” “Eternal” - All Arcanus Numen are Eternal. As the Arcanus Numen of Fortune should you allow yourself to be destroyed, you will reincarnate out of the Region of Primal Chaos.
Soul Abilities “Chaos Forged,” “Chaos Tempered” and “Chaos Incarnate” have combined and evolved to Arcanus Numen Ability “Chaos Personified.” “Chaos Personified” – In the scope of EVERYTHING, you are the epitome of Chaos. As such Chaos of any type, including Primal Chaos affects you, or others, as you wish it to. As the Arcanus Numen of Fortune, your will with Chaos of any type may only be undone by the Arcanus Numen of The Tower, or Order. Only the Arcanus Numen of Fortune may have this Ability.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Soul Ability “Adaptable” has evolved to Arcanus Numen Ability “Adaptable.” “Adaptable” - Your body adapts to any environment. From absolute zero to the gravity well of a singularity your body can and will adapt to all environmental conditions. This includes the ability to survive in those environments. Example: the ability to breathe underwater if necessary.
Soul Ability “Willed-Movement” has evolved to Arcanus Numen Ability “Willed-Movement.” “Willed-Movement” – You may move as desired through any environment or condition. This is a function of both the Arcanus Numen Abilities “Adaptable” and “Chaos Personified.”
Soul ability “Resistant” has evolved to Arcanus Numen Ability “Resistant.” “Resistant” - You are 100% resistant to all Normal Magic and natural manifestations of those magics. Additionally, you are 100% resistant to all magic utilizing Primal Chaos. All attacks against you imbued with Order create explosions of annihilation in a radius equal to the damage done for the amount of damage done. For Example, if a Sword imbued with Order were to hit you for 8 points of damage. An explosion would radiate out from that contact point to a radius of eight feet doing 8 points of damage. Attacks imbued with Primal Order are 100 times more devastating. From the example above, the 8 points of damage would create an explosion that would radiate out 800 feet doing 800 points of damage to everything in its radius. You may choose to soak damage from such attacks as you wish. Every 100 points of Ordered damage soaked in this way reduce your integrity by 1%. Each point of Primal Order damage soaked in this way reduces your integrity by 1%. When you reach 0% your body will need to reconstitute in the Region of Primal Chaos.
WARNING: Attacks with your Chaos Blade are considered attacks with a weapon imbued with Chaos and will have much the same effect against creatures of order.
Soul ability “Convergence” has evolved to Arcanus Numen Ability “Vertex.” “Vertex” – Your very nature draws the magic you need for any spell through yourself. You may extend this area of effect as far as you’d like. NOTE: The Arcanus Numen of The Tower has historically set this ability to a maximum of a one-mile radius.
Soul ability “Spellweaver” has evolved to Arcanus Numen Ability “Spellweaver.” No change to the description.
Soul ability “Soul Storage” has evolved to Arcanus Numen Ability “Arcanus Numen Storage.” “Arcanus Numen Storage” – As the Arcanus Numen of Fortune your complete control of chaos allows you to store anything of any size within your area of direct effect. What this means is that you create a subdimension out of the chaos that usually takes on the identity of Nothing on the Outside and anything you desire on the inside.
NOTE concerning Arcanus Numen Ability Arcanus Numen Storage: Arcanus Numina only have access to those areas they control directly. Due to your interaction with Chaos, the rules and limitations that apply to these storage locations do not apply to you. The Arcanus Numen of Judgement, suggests that you limit this evolved ability to what it evolved from, a storage ability, and endeavor to adhere to the limitations that such spaces usually have. The Last Arcanus Numen of Fortune did not do so and had an unfortunate accident of his own making, hence the reason for your Ascension.
Soul Ability “Affluent” has evolved to Arcanus Numen Ability “Affluent” – No change to description.
Soul Ability “Prophet” has evolved to Arcanus Numen Ability “Arcanus Numen.” “Arcanus Numen” – Those with this ability no longer track their attributes or levels. Instead a simple “+” replaces all values. This indicates that your values are higher than anything without that symbol. Each Arcanus Numen has absolute authority in their Arcanus Numen. See your specific Arcanus Numen for clarification. Arcanus Numen are beholden to no one and are the supreme authority in their Arcanus Numen.
Personal Information has now been unlocked.
Adam opened his Personal Information which was now unlocked. Adam found that all of his information had been reduced to the attribute or designation and a “+” symbol. So, he could do anything he wanted now?
“Yes,” a voice he knew said from beside him.
Adam looked up to find Ptah standing beside him.
“Ptah, what the hell!” Adam said.
“Please, we both know you felt the telltale signs of an incoming teleportation before I arrived,” Ptah said.
“Yeah, I did,” Adam said. “First, it’s good to see you, Second, which one of these Arcanum Numen are you?” Adam asked.
“I am The Tower,” he said.
“My opposite? Then why help me all this time?” Adam asked.
“But did he help you?” Ptah asked.
Adam thought back to everything that had happened.
“That one time something stopped that God from smiting me?” Adam asked.
“Not me. One of us, but not him. Others have been watching you as well. I’ve been paying particular attention because we had to be sure Chaos was actually submitting to your will. When we realized it was acting synergistically to your desires, we took a harder look.”
“Why?” Adam asked.
“Because your predecessor made an error, Fortune decided it was time for him to move on”
“What happened to him, I thought we always came back?”
“Let me start by saying that you have been elevated to the position of Arcanus Numen of Fortune by a majority vote of the other 19 Arcanus Numina. Mortals on the Ascendant Protocol progression track or the Divine Progression track are chosen when a vacancy becomes available. One of the things the 20 of us do is ensure that the Totum remains stable.”
“Totum? Do you mean Everything?” Adam asked recognizing the word as the Latin word for everything.
“You have come to know about Universes, parallel universes, and dimensions? Those reside within a cosmos, which resides within a Realm that consists of one or more cosmos and layers. In fact, your daughter is in another Realm altogether. Those Realms exist within a sea of Primal, or Primordial, Chaos. The twenty Arcanus Numen that have arisen control ideas or concepts. Though control is a misnomer. We oversee, mediate extremes and work together to make sure everything continues working.
“Why?”
“You should know better than most, what have you been doing ever since you found that ring in New Mexico?”
“Moving from one insane circumstance to the next,” he said.
“Yes, but why?” he asked.
“Because I was lucky enough to be able to?” Adam said.
“Is anyone truly that lucky?”
“I have been,” Adam said.
“Let me ask it this way, If I am here to make sure order is maintained, how likely do you think it is that I have been allowed to reach a state like yours was before you recombined all the shadows?”
“Not likely, if the order was my ball of wax I’d be all kinds of upset,” Adam said.
“Exactly!”
“So why did you allow it?”
“I didn’t. Your predecessor did.”
“Wait, is that why I received that warning about my storage ability?”
“You never disappoint Adam. That is exactly why that warning was added. Your predecessor created a Realm inside one of those spaces. To be honest, we have no idea how what happened. Somehow the Realm he created was ejected into the Totum and he was destroyed. Which shouldn’t be possible. Why? Because if the Arcanus Numen of Fortune is destroyed, he or she is reconstituted in the Realm of Primal Chaos.
“Do all of you, I mean us, reconstitute there?” Adam asked.
“No, each of us reconstitutes from the Numen we watch over,” Ptah said.
“So what now?” Adam asked.
“Now, you help us try to fix the corruption your predecessor created when this happened. As an added benefit, fixing that corruption will allow you to reach your daughter again.”
“If I’m in the Totum, why can’t he go to her now?”
“You could?” Ptah said. “That would be very bad though.”
“Bad, how?” Adam asked.
“When the accident happened, that’s how we refer to what happened. When the accident happened the connections between realms were severed. The realm your daughter ended up in was one of the very first realms. It was also the Realm Bri evolved from, though the Accident severed her connection to it as well.
“What is Bri? Is she one of us?” Adam asked.
“There is a long answer to that and you will become privy to it at some point but for now I’ll just say that Bri served two purposes in the past. The first ended when the accident happened. She connected the various realms in a spiderweb of connections that spanned more space than all the realms combined. The second purpose she served was to act as a testing site for the various manifestations and combinations of the numina and various magical spheres that do not have an Arcanus Numina to watch over them.
“That’s a lot to take in,” he said. Then why the number 20 was significant came to him and he declared, “The Major Arcana of a Tarot Deck. Do Tarot Decks describe the Arcanus Numina?” he asked.
“You’re mind put all that together for you? You really don’t forget anything do you?” Ptah asked.
“I really don’t,” Adam said, agreeing with Ptah.
“Yes, the Tarot Major Arcana describe the 20 Arcanus Numina. They are:
The High Priestess, Holy
The Fool, Air
The Magician, Weakness
Wheel of Fortune, Chaos
The Empress, Water
The Moon, Shadow
The Hanged Man, Hate
The Chariot, Earth
The Hierophant, Shunned
The Lovers, Love
The Emperor, Adored
The Tower, Order
The World, Lawlessness
The Sun, Light
Temperance, Fire
The Hermit, Mercy
Strength, Strength
Judgment, Judgement
The Star, Life
Death, Death
Justice, Justice
The Devil, Unholy”
“Some of those cards don’t seem to match their Arcanus Numina while others’ names match perfectly?” Adam asked.
“Over the eons, the concept has remained the same though the image that represents it has changed,” Ptah said.
“Will I get to meet the others?” Adam asked.
“Perhaps, but if everything is working as it should, normally we do not interact.
“I just noticed, Gravity, Time, and Space aren’t represented.”
“They have never had an Arcanus Numina though if one needs one, most of us agree it should be time.”
“I can see that,” Adam agreed.
Ptah looked at Adam and then said, “My time working with you to get you ready is almost up. I have one more thing to share with you. We are not divines. We are not limited in what we can do for a single purpose. If we are doing everything right we should never have to speak to each other. Most often we will interact with our direct opposite or those that serve them. In the coming days as we work to fix the issues that still exist, we will garner some interaction. This will be an exception to the norm. We have a little time though so check on your family and friends and Bri. When you are done, call out for me.”
“One second, you never explained why tracking down my daughter was a bad thing.”
Ptah thought about it for a moment then said, I never did, did I?
“Nope.”
“Okay, Computer science man, I’ll put it in terms you’ll be able to get through I’m declaring from the beginning this is an oversimplified metaphor. Before the Accident the Totum could be seen as a giant mainframe, all parts connected and working in harmony. After the accident areas were isolated to prevent the changes that were leaking out through the connection points. Individuals such as your daughter could pass through the barrier because she did not disrupt the barrier as she interacted with it. If any of us were to try to enter these sealed-off Realms, the disruption of our passing would cause the changes that were released to infect that realm.
“Like a computer virus?” Adam asked.
Exactly like a computer virus. The contamination would invade and change the realm, most likely making it like yours. Our coming together to discuss you was the first time we have done so in a very long time and was accomplished by proxy. Some of us are trapped in other Realms afraid to leave them for fear that we would doom the Realm we are leaving. I am lucky enough to be the only Arcanus Numen that can maintain the order of any barrier I cross. You on the other hand would destroy the barrier just by getting too close to it. The only barrier that is not true for, is the barrier for this Realm. So, going after your daughter would be a very bad idea. Even your ability to craft and shape chaos to suit your will would break down the barriers because they would be from a power created by the modified operating system. We must work to fix this Realm before we can reconnect with the others
“Understood, and Ptah, thanks for looking out for me, even though you didn’t do anything,” Adam said with a grin.
“My pleasure, talk to you soon,” he said as he vanished.
Adam thought about everything Ptah had just told him, then checked on Adaline. She was still going through her prompts, “Thor?”
“Yes, Adam?”
“Let Adaline know I’m going to check in with the Labyrinth then I’ll be back.”
“Understood”
As soon as he heard his confirmation he teleported directly into Al’s entrance chamber just to make sure he could, then he used the Travel Node there to hop to the first Travel Node in the Labyrinth. As he appeared he noticed monsters searching the area, but none seemed to notice him.
“Bri,” he said out loud, “Portal please, we need to talk.”