After relaxing with Adaline for three days the others started portaling into his estate in New Mexico. They’d all come to an agreement that they wanted to accept the path of divinity from a place on Earth. The decision was made to do so from his home. The first to arrive after they returned to the estate was his Mom and Dad. The four of them talked for a bit while they waited for Amanda and Abi, who arrived next. They’d been getting their assistants prepared to help Thor out while they went on their sabbatical, as it was being referred to. Desirae and Clarence had visited the Dungeon, Al, and then prepped the best teams that went into the dungeon. The teams were added to the payroll and hired to continue training new adventurers. Al agreed, so long as the first level was the only level considered purely for training. Adventures that went deeper were fair game, which everyone agreed to.
The rest of the day we they around and discussed the state of affairs on Earth and how things had settled down quite a bit.
“You should have been here when we opened Al up,” Abi said.
“Yeah, the number of privileged people that thought they could just blast their way into level two with weapons was staggering,” Amanda agreed.
“I have to agree, Adam. That first couple of months it’s probably a good thing you weren’t around. You tend to protect others that should be able to rise and fall by their own decisions,” Desirae said.
“I’m not that bad,” I said.
“I would have killed myself if I’d been in your shoes when we first crossed paths,” Clarence said.
“Yeah but at that point, you couldn’t have killed me with a nuke detonating on my forehead. Shoot even your shadow that tried to kill me before I’d even left this Universe the first time was months behind being able to kill me when we first met.”
“True,” Clarence agreed, “But, you let my shadow and me live. We could have turned into enemies.”
“Better to put your enemy down than face them again?” Adam asked.
“I know you know the doctrine,” Desirae said. “You have a White Knight” complex.”
“Yep,” Mom and Dad said together.
“Teamed up on by his own parents? Where’s the loyalty?” Adam asked half-heartedly.
“Where loyal, and we’d never think of lying to our son,” his dad said with a wink
“Unless we were getting him a present?” his mother said.
“Or not telling him that we’d just finished trying to make him a baby brother or sister,” Dad said.
“Okay, I get it!” Adam said
“As do we all,” Desirae said with a hint of a smile.
Adam looked around the room as everyone laughed and giggled until he also burst out laughing. The laughter went on for a good five minutes before they all calmed down and he said, “A little bit of a subject change, have you all decided what purposes you want to pursue?
“I want to do something to help the dungeons, specifically Al, out. God of Adventure, exploration, treasure, something like that,” Clarence said.
“I’m going for something a little more sinister. I think I’m going to further the cause of Rogues. Either through shadows, theft, or assassination,” Desirae said.
“I would have expected nothing less,” Adam said with a grin.
“I’m thinking of healing or some other purpose that helps people,” My mom said.
“Me too,” his dad piped in.
“And you Abi?”
“Magic, all the way,” she said.
“Any specific kind or just magic in general?” I asked.
“Magic in general. More people need to learn how to use it, especially in this Universe,” Abi said.
“Adaline?” I asked.
“Secrets?”
“Secrets. Creating them, hiding them, and ultimately uncovering them.”
“Those are all interesting choices, make sure you have a backup in case you can’t choose your first choice,” Adam said.
“We do, and we’ve decided to try to form a Pantheon together or join the same one,” Adaline said.
Everyone nodded as they looked around the table, “What Pantheon will you try to create?” I asked.
We don’t know, though we were thinking something like the “Steel Heavens,” Abi said.
I thought for a moment, then grinned. “Steel Heavens? Because all of this became possible from an Adamantium ring which in Latin means strong as steel?”
“Exactly!” Desirae said.
“It’s also really easy to remember if we all become separated during the initiation process, if there is one,” his dad said.
“So, when are you all going to go?” Adam asked.
“Thor, if you would?” Amanda said.
A table materialized with eight champagne glasses on it. A small portal opened beside Amanda. Reaching into the portal she withdrew a bottle of “2013 Taste of Diamonds” and in a show of quick expertise uncorked and began pouring some into each of our glasses.
“Who’s paying for that?” Adam asked with a grin.
“You are of course, though if you need more money I’m sure Thor can create some for you,” Amanda said with a smile.
“You know, I’ve never actually indulged before. At over 3 million dollars a bottle now, I guess there’s no time like the present,” Adam said lifting one of the filled glasses from the table. Mom, Dad, Abi, Desirae, Clarence, Adaline, and lastly Amanda after she set the bottle down.
Adam looked around the room as he lifted his glass, “To family and friends, may this next chapter be as exciting for you as the last million couple odd years have been for me!” Adam said. Adam looked around puzzled as no one put their drinks to their mouth.
“As toasts go, son, that sucked,” his dad said.
“Million odd years, huh? Had to make it all about you didn’t you,” Adaline chided him playfully.
“I guess it did suck,” I said with a grin, “To Family and Friends and our next chapter!” he said which everyone drank to.
Desirae looked around before she spoke, “Now it’s time to go. Everyone get your prompts ready. Adaline kiss your man, it might be a bit before you see each other again.
Adaline turned to Adam and leaned in for a kiss, which he returned. As she pulled away she whispered, “I love you.”
“And I love you,” Adam said before turning to his parents and then to everyone else as I said, “I Love you Mom and Dad and I hold a special place in his heart for the rest of you, please be careful.”
Desirae lifted her glass and cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention before she said, “All right people, I’m going to make a toast, then we’re going to down our drinks and then we’re going to accept those prompts, any questions?” When no one answered Desirae raised her glass, “To Becoming Gods!” she said then downed the rest of her champagne as everyone else did the same. They each threw their glass into the air, which Thor decomposed immediately as their eyes unfocused then almost simultaneously they all disappeared, and Adam was left standing alone.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Thor’s voice spoke to me from the room, “What will you do now Adam?”
“Now? Now you will start setting up the Sol System to weather all forms of attack while I work to fix reality as a whole. I may be a bit,” Adam said as he focused his will and altered his state of being to move out of the Realm he was in and into Primal Chaos, something he hadn’t done before but was pretty sure he could.
WARNING! You have entered Primal Chaos. The quantum state of this area is not compatible with biological beings.
Adam closed the prompt and then looked down to notice that his body was adapting to this region by becoming Primal Chaos, almost like a liquid form man. That was pretty cool. He decided that he might need a spot that could support biological entities if he was going to talk to Chronos and willed a small room into existence around him. Nothing fancy, just a closed room with a table and two chairs opposite each other. If his calculations were correct he should just be able to…
Chronos appeared in the room, “No need to call,” she said as she moved to the chair and took a seat, “What can I do for you Fortune?”
“First, please call me Adam, I’m not used to that title or the name Fortune.”
“As you wish Adam,” she said.
“Second, why do you appear as a young girl?” I asked.
“I have found over the years that appearing as a child causes others to underestimate me or my power. It also facilitates conversation without the normal male-female dichotomy or tension that comes to exist. I tried appearing as an elder of the various races I visit. For humans, it was an old man with a white beard. While I was taken seriously, I usually had to prove my power. As a child, I could walk around with quantum physics books and only J would try to put a bullet through my head.
“Men in Black reference, nice,” Adam said.
“After researching humans, I have found that references utilizing their culture helped them understand the meaning of what I was trying to convey quicker. Though in your case I need not try. I do believe of all the beings I have encountered you might be able to comprehend everything as I do.
“I don’t know about that. If you’re an array that formed out of an infinite amount of chaos and have access to every point in space-time everywhere simultaneously I doubt I can compete with that. Honestly, why aren’t you God, I mean the God over everything?” Adam asked.
“Simple enough, I choose not to be.” While it is true I am connected to every point in space-time, they merely make up my body. I can focus on that part of my body and know what’s going on there but if it doesn’t create ripples in other points, I usually don’t take an interest,” she said.
“I guess I come across like a tsunami,” Adam said.
“More like the 11.0 earthquake that caused the tsunami,” she said.
“Are you going to prevent me from trying to fix things back to the way they were?” Adam asked.
“No, but I would suggest that you try to find a way to fix the connections from this point forward. If you go far enough back, your family might survive the changes but they may still be irrevocably changed.
“I thought we were immune to such changes?”
“As you just pointed out there is a very good argument for why I should be the most powerful being to ever come into existence. If your conjecture is accurate wouldn’t it also be true that I could do whatever the hell I wanted? Of all those beings that have popped into existence to help maintain reality so we all don’t just cease to exist you and I are the only two that can make serious changes without worrying about holding vows or promises.”
“Why is that? Adam asked.
“Because the changes will happen after the actions we have taken manifest. Others bound by vows are stopped before they act. As an example. Let us look at your opposite, Order. If Order were to make a vow to you that he would never go back in time and change anything about you that vow could ultimately kill him to prevent him from breaking his word because he both serves and is, order. Now you’re probably thinking what about a God or Arcanus Numen of Lies, if there was one, there isn’t by the way. If there was though they would still be bound by a vow or promise because Order is not diametrically opposed to their purpose and is fundamental to the continuation of reality. Time follows one of those rules though if someone travels through time and makes changes that cause a vow by myself to be broken I am free and clear of that paradox because I did not break the promise. You, as Fortune, do not have to worry about any of this.
“So, while I could go back and change time those changes could still affect me if I’m breaking the fundamental rules of reality?” Adam said.
“Exactly,” Chronos agreed.
“I think my explanation was simpler”
“I’m just an amalgamation of all known points in space-time spanned across all of reality, what would I know?” she said with a grin.
“Point taken.”
“Any hints?”
“Literally millions, how to go about making the changes you are going to make is for you to figure out.”
As he thought that he really didn’t have anything else to say, Chronos vanished. Adam relaxed his will and allowed the room to be absorbed back into Primal Chaos until he was once again surrounded. As he had so long ago, he acclimated to his environment and took in all his surroundings. Adam could feel the realm he came from if it was right next to him, but he couldn’t see it. That wasn’t right either. Unlike his exposure to the place between places that connected all the shadow Cosmos, his perception of adjacent places was in flux and ever-changing.
In this place, He could not just visualize what he wanted to do and go there. Instead, it was more about the feeling of something. He could inherently feel what his realm was like and then link himself to it and then pass into it. He could also feel other mirrored “feelings” which had to be other realms, but the feelings were all jumbled together. He had no way to distinguish between them. He could find his realm because he'd been there. Other realms that he’d never been to though, if his ‘feeling’ was off by just a little he felt that he could end up somewhere that was not his target.
As he was starting to get frustrated he thought about the Labyrinth. If she could reach other realms, he should be able to as well. As that thought entered his mind he felt millions of tendrils reaching throughout the Primal Chaos. Some paths were active while others were long dead.
Going back in time and changing things would be bad. What about going back in time and just looking? Adam focused on one of the broken threads of the labyrinth and then willed himself to be incorporeal, invisible, at a null gravity state, and scentless as he dove back through time until the broken links were once again whole. As he traveled further into the past the density of Primal Chaos seemed to lessen and he was able to see farther until the threads he could see filled his vision.
Adam kept himself within the Primal Chaos as he followed them back to a single point. While it only took him a sentence to explain what he did, the amount of real-time he spent was a bit longer. While he made his way through time and followed the tendrils, he would take a break and retreat into his mind space as he floated in Primal Chaos then get back to it.
When he finally found the starting Realm, He concentrated on the Realm in front of him and tried to bring up a Realm Interface with his will.
Realm Interface activated.
That had worked, almost too easily. Adam went through each screen and code setting he could find. He even found access to settings He’d never seen before, and had no idea what they were or what they did. It took a little while but he made sure to get every scrap of data he could.
When he was done he closed the window and willed myself through time to one second after he went into the past. Next, he opened a Realm interface for his realm. As before, he went through every page and data entry and started noticing the differences. Immediately.
Adam brought up five other random realms and checked them with his Realm interface as well. He didn’t need to use any specific realms, so he just followed his feelings and opened the interface. He checked those five other realms to make sure the changes were present in them as well. They were. Except for their identifiers, they all had settings that adjusted the maximum character level, mana density, and a few other minor settings, a couple of which worked together to make humans more prevalent throughout the Realms. The settings that made that happen had been embedded within other settings. This made it so that a common combination of factors occurring within the Realm eventually led to a DNA pattern that allowed for humanoid-type creatures with a very high probability that they would be Homosapien in nature. Especially in low magic settings, which each of the Realms he’d checked had been. As the magic density of the Universe and Cosmos increased variations would occur which led to the creation of a lot of the other known mythical races like dwarves, elves, gnomes, and the like.
Whoever had thought up these changes had done so in such a way as to remove most of the randomness from reality. Or a better way to say it is they had ensured that randomness always led to an outcome that allowed for humanity. Why would someone do that? The fix was relatively obvious and easy to create, especially since he had such a fundamental link to chaos in general. He could create a batch of Primal Chaos that would spread exponentially like a wave. Unlike Chaos, he wouldn’t be able to control the action because Primal Chaos did not like holding any shape for very long but it would spread and everything it touched would be changed. That would bring every realm the Primal Chaos touched back to its original settings, after which it should be a relatively simple thing for Labyrinth to reattach to its broken links. if I messed this up…
Adam put those negative thoughts out of his mind, created the realm-changing virus I would need, and released it. Like a pebble hitting a pond, a ripple spread away from him in all directions until it faded from view as it spread through Primal Chaos.
Anxious to see if what I’d just done had worked Adam willed himself to enter his Realm once again near his estate in New Mexico. Nothing happened. He gave it a few more moments then tried to will myself inside. Still Nothing. He opened the Realm Interface, or he tried to, only to be met with the following message.
WARNING! Fundamental Realm Shift In Progress. Access is Temporarily Unavailable.