The Commander watched as his men maintained the shields and continued targeting the creatures that were making it through the barrier. He had no idea why the captain would be allowing someone to come down to the battlefield when he’d just reported that his potions were unsustainable and they were planning to detonate a dimensional bomb to close the entrance to the Dungeon they were protecting. His personnel had surrounded the entrance and erected a shield that was currently holding, but their energy supplies for that shield were being depleted rapidly.
One good thing, the forces moving toward them hadn’t attacked in full yet so the sky around them was still open. The swarm had tried to bury them a couple of times but every time that happened the ship above his position cleared the airspace with a particle beam that turned anything it hit to ash. In fact, he was going to have to buy that pilot a drink because he, or she, was keeping that ship at just the right angle in a circular orbit so the particle beam didn’t hit their barrier and just left a very small area over the doom where it wasn’t hitting, which his personnel kept clear with their weapons.
The swarm had quickly learned that if they stacked and tried to bury them they started to die so they were being kept low to the ground and attacked past the line the particle cannon had made in the ground when the beam weapon wasn’t hit that area. Of course, the pilot was moving the beam up and down creating a zone of about 15 meters where the swarm couldn’t be sure if the beam would hit them or not while it circled the barrier. That helped keep the creatures back from the barrier as only a few could make it to the 20-meter safe zone right outside his barrier after the beam had passed. The monsters would rush across the zone of destruction which forced the attacking forces to pause and then rush forward. His soldiers were making short work of those creatures which made it across but the Commander knew it was only a matter of time before they ran out of energy for the barrier.
A couple of the bigger creatures had tried to cross the 45-meter no-man’s-land but the particle cannon destroyed them easily enough. The Ship's weapons were at least 10 orders of magnitude beyond anything on the planet’s ability to withstand. Even his people would be vaporized in a second if hit. The Commander looked around one more time and was satisfied that his defenses were holding before he looked at this new addition to his forces and noticed that white tentacles of something were moving from Adam’s body to the barrier, through the barrier, and into the creatures right outside their protective dome. The pearlescent white glow was beginning to take on the sickly green color of the monsters which then caused growths to grow on the creatures that began exploding out of the creatures creating even more creatures that the shield dome had to deal with.
One of the Commander’s soldiers called out, “Commander, that new guy is on our side, isn’t he?”
The Commander turned from watching what was happening outside the doom to watching Adam and saw that Adam was also perplexed by what was happening before he said, “Adam, I don’t think what you intended to happen is going to happen, do you have any other ideas that won’t cause the creatures to mutate and exponentially grow in number?”
The Commander watched Adam hold up one finger, in a “Wait for one-second” gesture as a portal rose out of the ground and he stepped inside.
***
Adam’s initial plan had been to continuously release chaotic nanites with his Mold Chaos ability as fast as his healing rate would let him replace the mass he was sacrificing. He began converting the outer layer of his body to nanites and allowed his regeneration rate to replenish the body mass he was sacrificing. White tendrils of chaotic energy had started reaching out in all directions through the barrier until they encountered the monsters.
Adam had to admit, the ship was doing a great job of protecting these soldiers though there was a small area right outside the energy barriers that the monsters were able to attack the dome from. Well, safe from the ship’s weapons anyway. The Commander and his soldiers decimated the monsters right outside of their barrier with projectile, beam, and magical weapons that passed through the barrier as if it wasn’t there. They were doing a pretty good job of not allowing the monsters to get to the barrier to inflict damage to it though Adam could tell that it was still being hit and energy was still being drained from their reserves at a faster rate.
That is until Adam started losing control of his white tendrils of chaotic nanites as they started to turn a sickly green as they were absorbed by the monsters and then ejected as new creatures that were growing out of the flesh of those creatures. That’s when the Commander had called out and he’d checked his combat prompts.
WARNING! Chaotic Constructs are being corrupted by Primal Putrescent environment. Chaotic nature has been converted to Primal Putrescent Nature.
Adam watched as billions upon billions of the chaotic nanites he had created dropped out of his network. Then, blisters started to form all over the monster's bodies as new creatures exploded out of the blisters and grew to full size in less than a second. The creatures had started to explode out of the creatures as if someone had spilled water on the gremlin Gizmo. Not good, not good at all. So, his idea to just use his nanites on these creatures wasn’t going to work? Fine! Those creatures weren’t the only thing that could multiply themselves.
Adam looked at the Commander, held up his finger in a “hold on for a second” gesture, opened a door to his Shadow Vault, and then stepped inside as he set the inside temporal rate to about 100 times faster than the temporal rate outside of his Place of Power. He walked into the living area of his Place of Power near where his speck of nothing was sitting on the mantle and opened the bridge in his Mindspace.
Adam: Thor, I need to create a bridge between wherever you are and here. I need access to all the Chaotic Nanites over there.
Thor: It should be easy enough to do. Touch the mantle and let's see if physical contact will let me create the bridge.
Adam reached out and placed his finger on the speck of nothing and felt the link solidify.
Contact Established with Region of Primal Chaos.
Adam’s mind was immediately flooded with input requests and information from every nanite within Chaos and all the other planar echoes of places, locations, and creatures he’d visited and absorbed. He immediately knew that they were simply constructs within the region of Primal Chaos and not the original locations, though the echo Thor resided in had become a singular universe with that region of Primal Chaos which was allowing him to make this connection. That Echo had become “real.”
Adam had been through this kind of information overload a couple of times now. His mind didn’t freeze, he didn’t lose control and simply accepted the input, coordinated all of it, and moved on to what he needed to do. Adam focused his will, imprinted his intent into the link, and held out his left hand as he kept his right hand touching the speck of nothing.
Bridge opened! Commencing transfer!
Adam watched as a copy of himself grew from his left hand and stepped through the portal that led back out into the Universe he’d just entered from. The doppelganger formed from its right hand which was touching Adam’s left and then separated. Adam established the quantum entanglement links before the separation and added control of each new Adam and then watched them step out of the portal. There was a slight distortion as the body decelerated which he corrected by accelerating the temporal field around each body as they went through the field. At a 100 times temporal variance, to the Conglomerate forces outside it looked like 100 copies of Adam exited the Shadow Vault per second.
While the initial Adam stayed in the Shadow Vault, his clones, which were made from chaos and formed to be exact copies of Adam in every way, moved out at 100 times faster than everything else and began decimating the monsters outside the barrier. Each copy was its own entity, but they all shared one mind. Additionally, Adam noted with satisfaction that his base attributes remained above 39 billion each, except for Chaos which was not listed on any of the Status Screens for his clones.
While the monsters didn’t seem to follow the same rules as the rest of the System-based forces or their equipment, the Putrescent Forces surrounding the Commander and his forces were no match for the physical power Adam and his clones brought. To Adam, everything looked to be moving in extremely slow motion. A punch, slap, or kick destroyed anything he attacked. In 10 seconds, the area around the dungeon was clear. 10 seconds after that The Commander called for the ship in orbit to cease its attacks and they watched as thousands of copies of Adam proceeded to decimate and destroy all the forces that had made it to the planet and then launch from the surface into space just before they disappeared.
An hour later, after Adam had cleared the planet, his clones were spreading into space and attacking any of the creatures in the vicinity of the planet, solar system, and sector. An hour after he started creating the clones, Adam watched as the Commander came to stand beside the portal and wait. Adam finished the Adam he was creating who took over Adam's spot by touching the nothing as Adam turned to the portal and walked out to stand beside the Commander.
As he stepped next to the Commander, Adam set up the control of all of his clones from his Mindspace at their accelerated speed and slowed himself down so he could speak with the Commander normally.
“Commander, what can I do for you?”
“Captain Kali has asked that you head back to the ship. It would seem that your assistants, clones, whatever they are, might be getting in the way of our other forces. The captain would like to coordinate your efforts with our forces, so we don’t accidentally destroy any of your forces,” The Commander explained.
“That’s fine, I’ll head up now, I’ll leave 100 of my clones on the planet in close proximity to this dungeon entrance to help defend it. The others are heading off the planet to help throughout the sector. They should be fine, but I’ll go talk to the captain. It was nice meeting you Commander,” Adam said as he put his hand out for the other man to shake.
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“You as well, Sir! Good luck, and thanks,” The Commander said as he reached out and shook Adam’s hand.
Adam released the handshake and teleported to the bridge on the ship to find Captain Kali looking at him with a look of utter incomprehension as she asked, “What the hell are you?”
Adam laughed. It had been a long time since someone was so blunt, it was refreshing. Adam brought his laugh under control as he said, “Just a guy trying to make sure his family and friends grow up to be big and strong,” Adam said with a bit of mirth.
“How many of you are there now?” Captain Kali asked.
“A lot,” Adam said sheepishly.
“Why so many?”
“Because whatever this rift is, it needs to be closed. I needed enough clones running around cleaning up this section of System Space so I can get on with what I need to get on with,” Adam said as he purposely left out his plans to find the center of the System and track down the Omega, who, or whatever, that was.
“Well, it seems to be working, Additionally, do you already have clones of yourself on the other side of our defensive sphere? I ask because our ships over there are picking up some weird readings just before the monsters they’re tracking die,” Captain Kali said.
“Captain, I am currently present around the circumference of the 250 light-year diameter sphere around the distortion, or spatial tear that holds that nebula. I haven’t approached within 10 light-years of that area yet but I can assure you that from 250 light-years out to about 50 light-years, any creatures are now destroyed and my clones are making their way deeper and deeper as we speak.”
“Our forces have reported that the invading forces are just disappearing and that there is no apparent cause?” Captain Kali asked.
“My clones have cloaked themselves and are scanning and eradicating the infestation. They should be able to clear everything outside the nebula of Angels in the middle and keep the invaders from leaving it from that point forward…
Adam was about to continue explaining what he was doing when every person within the area Adam had unleashed his clones into received a System Alert.
SYSTEM ALERT! Severe mana depletion has been detected in this System Sector. Minimal functionality is currently available. Return to System Controlled space to return to normal mana levels.
Adam read the prompts and then reviewed the status screens of all of his clones. He noted that his clones were still receiving mana from Astral Space through his Astral Link which meant that it was probably his fault that the mana was being depleted so quickly. His clones were utilizing Obscure, Flight, Freedom of Flight, No Escape, Scan, True Sight, and any of his other abilities he might need to deal with the monsters after all.
Adam did notice one thing. The message about mana depletion disappeared when his clones came within a light year of the nebula of angels. Adam considered how to proceed. The corruption of his chaos by the putrescent nature of the creatures his chaotic nanites had tried to infiltrate had been a surprise. Of course, if the primal force in question was corruption, he should have expected it in hindsight. Hence, his secondary plan to create replicas of himself and go multiple again.
Adam watched through his links to all of his clones as they killed creatures with a single punch or kick their targets couldn’t see in most cases. As the monsters evaporated upon death, there was very little chance that his clones would become contaminated. When possible he made sure to utilize tools or weapons of some kind. He still had clones being created and had even had other clones open doors to his Shadow Vault at various strategic locations so he had more clones flooding the area from all directions around the distortion in space-time the Angels and Demons had created.
The inside of his Place of Power now had portals all around the courtyard. Also, the rate of time within his Place of Power had been increased to almost 10,000 to 1 as more clones exited the various portals and joined the fight. Everything was going as he expected as he eradicated all invading forces that were 10 light-years out from the nebula and started setting up a containment sphere that his clones maintained.
Adam looked at Captain Kali, who had continued with her duties as Adam had stood on her bridge frozen for the last thirty minutes. He’d been so engrossed in what his clones were doing that he’d lost track of his real body. His eyes focused on Captain Kali as he said, “Sorry about that, I was making sure everything was going okay.”
“Is it?”
“Your second line of defense and third line of defense should both be pretty bored right now. My clones are handling all the small monsters that are fleeing the center and leaving the big creatures to your Legendary and Mythic forces inside the 10 light-years from the center of the nebula of conflict. I was actually thinking about heading toward the center to see if there’s anything I can do to seal up that spatial rift,” Adam said.
“It’s just that easy for you, isn’t it?” Captain Kali asked disbelievingly. “Are you seriously thinking about heading toward the center? This ship is not equipped to be able to withstand the attacks the powerhouses on our side dish out, let alone the monsters that are coming through the rift,” Captain Kali said.
“Yes, I think I am going to head toward the center. I would like to thank you for your hospitality, but I think I need to do this next part alone,” Adam said.
“Please stay in touch, we’ll monitor from here and see if we can’t stay out of your way. Also, I’m glad you’re on our side, Adam. You will make a lot of people really happy if you can close that spatial rift.”
“Whatever those forces fighting at the center are, they are much too powerful for the normal adventurers and explorers, I’ll see what I can do,” Adam said as he teleported outside of the ship, activated, Obscure, Flight, and Freedom of Flight and started heading toward the nebula of angels and putrescent forces.
As he headed toward the center, his clones formed a uniform sphere around the Nebula approximately 10 light-years out from the center. As the Nebula was only about five light years across that put his closest clones about 5 light years beyond the angelic forces. Within moments Adam had reached that perimeter he’d set up and slowed down to approximately warp 5, or about 3,125 times the speed of light, just over one light-year per hour.
A lot of people don’t understand how far a light year is. Light travels approximately 186,300 miles per second. In a year there are 60 seconds, multiplied by 60 minutes multiplied by 24 hours multiplied by 365 days, or 365.25 days if you want to be exact. He just used 365 to keep things simple. When he did all the math that came out to 5,875,156,800,000 miles. As he headed toward the center of the spatial rift he was traveling 1.175 trillion miles per minute. If he hadn’t had the ability Freedom of Flight which converted him to energy while flying, even his health wouldn’t have been able to save him if he’d run into a micrometeorite or anything else. He would have been reduced to his component atoms in an instant.
As he made his way closer to the front line, Adam was able to see the lines of conflict between the forces. Whether it was his high attributes or a function of True Sight he noticed that there were two spatial rifts. One above the other. The Angels and their allies were rushing through the spatial rift on top while the putrescent forces seemed to be squeezed out of the lower one like toothpaste out of a tube. Once they were out of their rifts they spread out and engaged each other from all directions. As the forces clashed they disappeared and the energy, or the souls, that Adam could see with True Sight was pulled back through the rift they’d exited from. In fact, as he looked around quickly, Adam noticed that streams of energy from everything he’d killed were making their way back into the rifts.
Adam saw that the Conglomerate forces that were engaging the big creatures that defied description as they could be considered planet size in their own right in some cases, were not engaging the putrescent invaders until they were at least a light year out from their conflict with the Angels. As Adam made his way forward the space around him was flooded with shockwaves that would have made a supernova feel tame. While the energy discharges couldn’t affect him he knew that if he turned off his Freedom of Flight power he would be affected by the weapons the Conglomerate was using. The energy from the weapons and the shockwaves passed over him harmlessly, though he stopped his clones from advancing when they were 3 light-years out.
Adam came to a stop just past the one light-year mark, just outside of the Conglomerate's first line of defense, and hovered there as considered how he’d close the spatial rift. There were a couple of things he could try. Opening a gate that intersected that point might seal it, though as he looked at the area surrounding the spatial rift he could see that the wound in space-time seemed to reach through the dimensional boundaries as he could see them opened and spread out as if a flower were in bloom. Adam floated there and watched the war between the Angels and the putrescent forces and contemplated his next course of action.
***
The Demon Goddess Thora watched her minions exit her Domain and enter the other place. Thora, by the standards of the mortals in the dimension she was invading, could be considered a God, but she didn’t think of herself as such. She was just a demon who had done very well for herself and now commanded armies of her little corner of, well some would call it hell, but she referred to it as home.
Thora stood on her balcony at the center of a cave that was thousands of miles wide by the mortal races her creatures her forces were encountering. It mattered not, those that made it to her Domain either had the will to resist being completely corrupted to her will or they did not. Those that did not were now rushing blindly through the gate she had created. They were tied to her intrinsically and when they died she knew it and when their essence returned she could absorb it and find out what had killed them before they were reincarnated and headed out again.
Thora looked around her home. Except for this cavern, there were only tunnels with small bubbles that were scattered throughout her Domain. The only available light was provided by magic, technology, or the eerily green glow that spread throughout her domain due to its putrescent nature. Except for the giant bubble her Aerie resided in her Domain, or Dimension, best resembled a sponge or ant colony that seemed to go forever. Within her Domain creatures and plants decayed and regrew at an accelerated rate. Also, there were no stellar bodies. There were only tunnels through various kinds of natural materials, open areas, and more tunnels. Also, gravity only worked in one direction so the creatures within always knew which way was up and which way was down. There were no stars because there was no need for stars. This Dimension was corruption. Corruption was this dimension. Only her will maintained this gigantic open area that her Aerie rested in.
Even though this Domain was corruption, Thora wanted for nothing. Why would she? This realm was infinite and anything she desired could be brought to her. No, those desires were minor to her need to spread her corruption and subvert the will of others who could resist the call to become a part of her singular consciousness. Only when she was able to get involved and establish her will over those who thought themselves incorruptible did she feel something akin to pleasure. Breaking those that could resist her corruption and refused to serve, those were the moments that truly brought her pleasure.
Those who chose to serve were given some leeway in their service and even some free will as corruption could take on many forms and she even needed input from dissimilar mindsets so she didn’t become complacent. Otherwise, eternity would become quite boring. As if summoned with that thought one of her demoness servants, Ash-Li walked onto the balcony and waited to speak until Thora motioned for her to do so.
“Mistress, we have tasted the spark!”
“When?”
“Just moments ago, on the edge of the containment field, the denizens of that dimension have set up. A swarm you had tasked me to command was working toward a dungeon entrance and suddenly the spark was there, and we were multiplying.”
“Were you able to save any of it? Thora asked.
“No Mistress, every creature that was able to savor a taste of the spark was destroyed moments later. Their energy has returned though the spark did not return with them.”
“Pity, but the spark is elusive and while corruptible also carries the ability to corrupt within it. What else have you discovered?
Ash-Li was about to speak when a look of shock crossed her face and she said, “Mistress, my connection to the swarm you assigned me is failing?”
Thora nodded and focused her attention on her minions who were currently facing her hated enemy. There was no change among those forces. They fought and died, though they made a good showing as many of the so-called angels and their allies died as well. Satisfied that no changes had happened near the gateway while her attention was diverted, Thora focused her attention beyond the beachhead and was surprised at what she found. Her forces were being systematically killed and her radius of influence was shrinking back toward the beachhead rapidly.
Thora willed herself to the heart of her realm and appeared before a pool of decay and corruption that creatures were stepping out of. She willed herself over to the returning souls from outside the beachhead and started reviewing their memories. Many did not know how they died but the few that did saw a single face every time. A human male, not bad looking but always responsible for their deaths.
Thora sent out the command that all forces were to look for this man and figure out who and what he was. It didn’t seem like she had to wait long as her generals started reporting that the beachhead had been surrounded by millions of creatures that resembled the man she’d described. It looked like she would need to directly intervene again which would of course force a response from her hated enemy, that pompous, do-gooder piece of excrement. Why was he always interfering in her fun?