“…And they just left through the second spatial rift after the first one closed and the other invading forces were destroyed,” Adam explained.
“And you have no idea who or what did that?” General Eris said.
“I met him, but he didn’t leave a calling card. The point is the spatial rifts are closed and I can continue toward the center of the System.
The General looked as if he was weighing whether he should say something or not and finally offered, “You know the center is just a Myth right?”
“The center of the System is a Myth?” Adam asked.
“Well, I’m sure it exists. Let me say it this way, no one who has ever found it has ever returned and we’ve kept an eye on anyone looking for it for a very long time,” General Eris said.
“Understood, I don’t think I’ll be coming back if I find it either. I have a pretty good guess at what’s there and if I’m right I’ll be leaving this behind.”
Just then a message flashed on the General’s monitor. He looked down, read the message, and looked back up to Adam, “Seems your idea worked. I just received verification that the rifts are closed and that my satellite is in place where the rifts once were.”
“Cool, so I can be going? I have a train to recatch after all,” Adam said.
“The least I can do is let you use our portal to Farpoint. No need for you to get back on the Train. Besides, they’ve been delayed a bit. While we were all busy watching the spatial rifts I received a report that the train had been delayed while they assisted with a monster surge near one of the outposts on the way out. Not related to your activities, you cleaned up the area very nicely. They’re just handling a normal monster surge from a Labyrinth entrance nearby,” The General said.
“That’s fine. I may take a break at Farpoint for a few days while I wait for the Counselor Amara Cilira. I’d like to sit down and talk to her again. We’ve been through some similar experiences after all.”
“That’s fine. If a rift opens before you head out from Farpoint do you mind if I send for you?” The General asked.
“Not at all, now that I know that the Conglomerate is actually watching out for the best interest of people in general you’ll find I’m much more amenable to helping. It was just bad luck that I happened to have a bounty on my head when your off-duty powerhouses tried to make a quick credit at my expense.
“Well… it was both a good and bad thing. The Conglomerate has been trying to get rid of its thuggish reputation for a while. Those at the top were wondering how to do that with such unsavory characters on the payroll. “
“So I did you a favor?”
“Not me. Each of them was a valuable asset whose skills and abilities will be missed going forward but even I answer to others and it’s those others you helped out which they won’t forget, even if the help was unintentional,” The General said.
“Fair enough,” Adam said with a laugh.
The General stood and walked Adam through the base until they came to a room that reminded Adam of his clean room back on Earth when he ran Portals Inc. The General nodded to a technician who pushed a few buttons on her console before she said, “Just give the word Sir.”
The General stuck out his hand, “Safe journey Adam, I hope you find what you're looking for. Also, I’m glad we came to an understanding. After seeing what you did…I’ll just leave it at that. Good Luck!”
Adam shook the General's hand as a slight smile quirked his mouth, “I am glad things worked out this way too General. You should be good for a bit and the Conglomerate now has another supporter. If something comes up, I will be in Farpoint until the Counselor comes through. Once that’s done and +she heads back this way I’ll be heading deeper into the center of the System.”
“If you need anything, my counterpoint at our Outpost there has been instructed to give you every courtesy,” The General said as he nodded to the technician who activated her terminal. A moment later, a portal formed that led into another clean room. “Farpoint is on the other side of the portal, Adam. Good luck,”
Adam nodded and stepped through the portal.
***
Thora hadn’t been this angry in a long time. A very long time. She expected Justus to interfere with her plans. He was her polar opposite after all. She’d even expected Ordo to step in if their incursion were discovered into the realm he’d created. The law of balance decreed that she would need to pay some form of reparation should that happen. What she had not expected was that Ordo would snuff out all of her forces near the Spatial Rift and then close it before they could return to her realm.
No, her forces had still been in the process of being recovered after being destroyed by, well whatever had destroyed them. Then Ordo had destroyed the rest and the Spatial Rift had closed before all of them could return. She wasn’t worried about the masses; they would be replaced. No, she had lost seven of her most trusted servants. It would have been eight, but Brutus had made it back and was able to report who had killed him and everyone else away from the Spatial Rift. Someone named Adam, who smelled of the spark. Smelled of the spark? One of Chaoticus’s pets perhaps.
In this case, the Law of Balance worked in her favor and she had lost much. She reduced her anger. Calmed her mind and then sent a request for an audience with Animae, she who had dominion over all sparks of consciousness throughout everything. If anyone would know who this Adam individual was, it would be her.
Moments later an ethereal being appeared within Thora’s throne room and solidified into a semi-solid replica of a human female with hair that seemed to flow in the wind. Her eyes were the aqua blue of the sea and the rest of her body shone with a light blue hue. Neither fully physical nor spirit as Animae was neither, and both.
“You have requested my Presence, Thora. What may I do for you?” Animae asked with an irritated voice.
“Now don’t be like that.”
“Thora, your very domain subjugates and corrupts my domain, Why shouldn’t I be like that?”
“Ultimately, they are released and re-enter the cycle, as you well know, “Thora said.
“But they learn nothing as puppets to you,” Animae said heatedly.
“True and False. They learn what it is to be corrupted. Some return willingly but most, as you also know, rebel, and instinctively fight against that corruption the next time around,” Thora said.
“Yes, yes. We’ve had this argument many times in the past,” Animae said, “What can I do for you today?”
“I need information on someone that one of mine encountered. I am willing to pay quite well for the information.
“Define quite well?”
“I know that you have been requesting a fundamental change to the cycle for some time. If I remember correctly it had something to do with the lack of memories one can bring with them and how ultimately the journey through the cycles is a lonely one. I would support your proposed changes the next time you put them forward.”
Animae’s eye lit up in shock as she asked, “Thora, I am one of the few who knows how thoroughly your corruption goes. If my proposal is accepted those that have been corrupted will remember their life or lives among your kind. Ultimately this will result in you losing, not gaining servants. A lot of servants.”
“Ultimately, what is a percentage of an infinite amount?” Thora asked.
“While the sum of the animae which animates a souls is large, it is not infinite,” Animae said.
“It is a number so large that it may as well be. I will be content with the change. What I cannot be content with is the actions of the individual I seek information on. I must know more about him.”
“Very well, who would you like to know more about?” Animae asked.
Thora motioned and one of her servants stepped forward from the wall and kneeled before Animae, “This servant encountered the individual before he returned and was remade in my regeneration pool.”
“It is enough,” Animae said as she raised a hand and the servant started to glow as various lines of energy left him and rushed off in various directions. Animae concentrated for a few moments, smiled then asked, “You would like a full report, yes?
“As full as you can make it,” Thora said.
“So be it,” Animae said as she spread her hands and a three-dimensional image of Adam popped into existence with faint blue lines that led off in all directions.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
“I don’t need to know everyone he’s interacted with. I just need to know who the most important are?” Thora said.
Thora watched as Animae moved her hands and the image shifted as lines vanished from sight until fifteen lines that were much thicker than the multitude of lines he had attachments with were pushed out of sight, “Animae, just how many connections does that man have?” Thora asked.
“Those aren’t connections. It would be more appropriate to say that they were attachments. Individuals he had affected in some way. As I’m sure you noticed there were a lot of light blue lines. That indicates that the attachment was either neutral or positive in some way. There were a few negative attachments, but they were so few that I discarded them.”
“And the fourteen that are left?”
“Of the fourteen that are left, four are very important to him. Four more are very close and the rest are acquaintances of some sort,” Animae said. “All but one of them are in Ordo’s project though. The one that is already outside of the project is under direct supervision, so outside of any type of retaliation you might be thinking of,” she continued as she formed the visible energies into a single point of light and pushed it toward Thora.
“That’s it?” Thora asked.
“That’s it, everything on the other 13 individuals and their locations. Twelve are on one world, the thirteenth is off by himself. The good news is that the most important individuals look to be in a single location, and lucky for you, not in his highly monitored area.”
Thora touched the point of light and absorbed the information. The four most important people to Adam were his mother, father, wife, and daughter. The daughter was out of reach, but she could… Thora brought her thoughts back to the present and nodded to Animae, “You have provided what I needed. Thank you. I will support your changes when you present them, as I said I would,” Thora said.
“Very well, if our business is done, I will be on my way,” Animae said.
As Animae disappeared Thora couldn’t help but feel that Animae had left some information out. Regardless she would be fine. She reviewed the information on Johnathan Bennard and his connections. Honestly, there wasn’t much to go on. Just the names of the individuals he had direct ties to and their location within Ordo’s experiment. It was enough though. The one absolute truth about corruption, it existed everywhere. Another truth, that balance was always maintained as Adamantadine would soon feel the same level of frustration at an inability to retaliate that she had. From the accounts given, she knew targeting him would be pointless. A third truth, everyone always has ties to others. Like the strings on a harp, those ties could be plucked to vibrate and cause minor fluctuations or they could be broken which damaged the ability of the instrument to function and corrupted it to the core which was her domain.
***
Adaline was enjoying the ride home from her day at the academy in one of the automated rental vehicles. Since their move to Terra, everything any of them had ever wanted was provided for as they worked to get stronger. They still didn’t know what had happened to Adam, but it sounded like he came through the transition into the System in a lot better shape than they had. She’d been lucky enough to maintain her ability to shapeshift between a Shadow Dragon and Dark Elf but otherwise, everything else had been reset. Everyone had. Mom, Dad, Abi, Clarence, Desirae, Amanda, and even all of Pandora’s friends had all been level zero and making their way through the world when they’d been brought back together and transferred to this world where everything was being taken care of.
The last week had been great. She’d already made it to level 10. She’d gone out to a local refuge which gave access to a low-level dungeon. Being a dragon made such dungeon dives rather easy for her. The others were coming along slowly but they had to be more careful and leveled slower. Even so, they were adjusting well. Adam’s mom and dad had decided to take it slow and just enjoy life. Adaline could see in their demeanor that they’d reached a point of not wanting to invest their time in training only to have all that work and effort negated again. She, however, couldn’t just sit back and wait. Pandora was out there somewhere and the only way she’d be able to find her was if she kept trying to grow and become stronger so she could venture out and find her.
The place they’d been given was nice. They’d been moved into a mansion on the outskirts of the city Venture on the continent of New Aethelon that could house all of them. The mansion even had a staff that saw to their needs and kept the property clean. It looked like whoever set this up really wanted to keep them happy. She had her own room which was as big as some houses Adam had shown her back on Earth. Adam’s Mom and Dad also had their own room as well. It was just as big and the others all had smaller rooms but they were all individual rooms.
As the vehicle pulled into the drive and came to a stop, Adaline exited it and headed inside. Her guard went up immediately when she smelt fresh blood and the stench of death coming from somewhere in front of her. The room she was in was much too small to turn into a dragon, so she pulled out a gun Desirae had given her and moved so her back was to the wall beside the door as she lowered herself into a crouch and looked around.
“So cautious,” a sly feminine voice said from her left.
Adaline turned as a shadow began to solidify just as Desirae appeared from nowhere with a blade aimed at the shadow's back. Unfortunately for Desirae, a hand materialized out of nowhere and blocked the blow as a counterblow left the hilt of a dagger with a pulsing green gem sticking out of Desirae’s chest. Adaline watched in shock as the spark in Desirae’s eyes seemed to fade away into the depths of her eyes. Just then she felt a pinch in her chest and her gaze was drawn down to see a similar dagger pulsing as her vision darkened and everything went black.
***
Administrator Dilyard looked at the bodies of Desirae and Adaline in the entryway to the mansion as his clean-up crew was busy searching the rest of the property for survivors and attackers. One of his investigators came back into the entryway.
“Administrator, The staff are all dead, as are the other twelve guests,” the investigator said.
Do you have their names?” Administrator Dilyard asked.
“Yes, Cindy and Robert Bennard, Amanda Sifford, Abi, Clarence, Callum, Asling, a different Robert, Cedrik, and Pythias. Only Cindy Bennard, Robert Bennard, and Amanda Sifford had last names. The two in this room are Desirae and Adaline.”
“I can see that. How did they all die?” Administrator Dilyard asked.
“The staff were killed very messily, to send a message. Each of the people I named, including these two was killed by a single strike to their heart.”
“A single strike to the heart?” Administrator Dilyard mused. Why did that sound familiar? “Clean it up, I need to get back to the office and check something?” The Administrator said as a portal opened beside him and he stepped through to his office on Nexus.
Administrator Dilyard typed in a code on his desk. The room around him shuttered and was pulled out of its current dimensional layer as a holographic monitor appeared in front of him. A dispassionate feminine voice asked out of the empty air,
Administrator Class Noted, What can I do for you today Administrator Dilyard?
Administrator Dilyard looked thoughtful for a moment before he said, “Access the Reincarnation database. I need the current location and status of Cindy Patricia Bennard, previously in Static Dimension One One Alpha Zeda Alpha Zero One Zero. Her Last known location was the planet Terra, near Venture City.
Working.
File found for Cindy Patricia Bennard. Died at 1:07 in the afternoon local.
Reincarnation annotation NOT found
No record of Cindy Patricia Bennard exists within the System.
“Verify,” Administrator Dilyard said as a sinking feeling started to enter his mind. A moment later the System responded.
Verified.
Cindy Patricia Bennard Died at 1:07. All aspects of her soul were removed from System memory at that moment
“Well Shit,” The Administrator said as he thought quickly before issuing another command, “Verify reincarnation cycle for all individuals within a one-mile radius of the location of Cindy Patricia Bennards Death from midnight until now.”
Verifying
Verification Complete. Thirteen individuals have entered the cycle of reincarnation within the System.
Additionally, the following individuals have died at the designated location and are no longer part of the System.
Robert Clancy Bennard
Amanda Sifford
Abi
Desirae
Clarence
Adaline
Callum
Another Robert, no last name given.
Cedrik
Pythias.
All individual bodies are present and accounted for. Their souls did NOT enter the Reincarnation cycle.
Unlike the rest of the System inhabitants or even most of the other Administrators, Administrator Dilyard knew that no matter what happened the soul was sacrosanct and as part of the System, all souls entered the System version of Reincarnation where they went to an afterlife that best suited their idea of what an afterlife would be like, though there were standard variations of course. Unknown, except to a few of the Prime Administrators like himself, was the fact that the System was not infinite and that there was something outside of it.
Administrator Dilyard sighed. One of the errors that could crop up when a soul left the system permanently was the error he’d just received for Adam’s family and friends. Probability dictated that such an occurrence could happen to one individual in a million in a given day. Adam’s daughter Pandora had been one such individual when she’d been ejected from the System during the Multitudes reabsorption. These things were bound to happen. Twelve people being removed from the System within a single day was not a probability, it was a willful act.
Administrator Dilyard had reviewed Adam’s memories. He knew how important family was to Adam. That was why he’d put them in a safe location to begin with. Now they’d been killed and their souls removed from the System. He honestly didn’t know how Adam was going to react to the news. One thing for sure, after watching how he’d handled the creatures spilling in from the spatial rifts to the outside of the System. He would much rather be on the side that was honest and forthright than the side that tried to hide anything from that man. Administrator Dilyard had no idea why, but one thing he did know, whoever crossed Adam usually had a really bad time afterward. He’d prefer not to go down that path.
Administrator Dilyard quickly filed a report, transferred his office back to the Nexus, and opened a portal to Farpoint. Ironically Adam was at one of the various saloon-type establishments in the city. Hopefully, he could talk to Adam before he found out about his family and friends some other way. Of course, each of them had that tiny mote of chaos in them that would probably return to Adam…
Wait, what?
Administrator Dilyard only had a moment to realize that the only way for those motes of chaos from his family and friends to find Adam would be if they’d attached to him and come along while he made his way to talk to Adam. Just as he realized that he activated one of his Administrator scanning abilities and noted that particles of energy were entering Adam’s back which went rigid as he sat up straight.
Administrator Dilyard froze as Adam froze while everyone else in the Saloon continued on with their day as if nothing untoward was happening. A moment later Adam’s back relaxed and he looked over his shoulder at him
“Administrator Dilyard. Relax, come on over and let me buy you a drink, you definitely look like you need one,” Adam said.
Administrator Dilyard walked forward and took a seat on the stool next to Adam at the bar. He didn’t say a word as Adam ordered the drink for him. The Administrator muttered a “Thank you” as the bartender dropped it off. He had no idea what to do or say because when Adam had turned to look at him with a smile on his face the Administrator had seen Adam’s eyes which had turned the pearlescence of chaos and he saw the madness and righteous judgment that had taken root there. One thing was for sure. He was very glad he’d decided to be honest because as sure as people did not want to be under a flock of birds for an extended period of time, he did not want to be the individuals who had earned that gaze.