Ordo reviewed what had just happened. Luckily for Adam, the damage he caused with his mental burst was thwarted by the System after only one second. As he was at the center of a Galaxy under the event horizon of a singularity there weren’t many creatures that could survive in, or near, such environments. The raw mental and spiritual energy he’d released when he completely let go had been amplified by his proximity to one of the primary magic sinks in a Galaxy. In essence, he had accidentally converted and released both types of energy as a mental and spiritual annihilation wave due to the killing intent he’d inadvertently added as his only thought at that moment was to destroy whoever had possibly destroyed his family and friends. Additionally, a sense of loss and loneliness had also been imprinted onto that wave of energy as it exploded from the singularity.
The wave of annihilation had raced away from the singularity faster than the speed of light. Luckily the System had detected the burst and had fortified defenses around all sentient species. Even though the System spent a considerable amount of energy shielding what it could, it could not completely reduce the intent and the resonance that spread at faster than the speed of light.
The wave spread through the entirety of Ordo’s experimental domain and contaminated his experiment. Luckily it was stopped at the border of the experiment. Ordo would have to go through and review how the burst of anger and the feeling of such utter loss affected those within his experiment. If he saw a sudden uptick in suicides from those with weak wills he would know the experiment was a wash and he might as well fold the domain and remove the artificial borders he had put in place.
All Ordo could do now was watch as all the work he’d put into creating an ordered existence vibrated with the anger of a single man who had been angered by the loss of his family. He should have stepped in sooner and stopped Thora. Hindsight was twenty-twenty after all. Ordo refocused his efforts and worked to mitigate the wave of mental and spiritual energy as best he could. Then a thought shook Ordo, and he quickly translocated his perception through the Astral and into the various heavens and hells that had been created by the System.
DAMN HIM!!!!
While the System had been able to reduce the lethality of the energy wave, the spiritual and mental components had reached through the fabric of the reincarnation cycle to souls there. Ordo watched as soul after soul let go. Ordo zoomed in on one spirit as the memories and feelings that made it evaporated. The animae of the souls that were disintegrating were fleeing his domain and returning to the realm from whence they came.
Ironically, the souls that were not letting go were those already being tortured in the pits of the hells and abyss. They must have been unable to tell the difference between their suffering and the new feelings that had washed over them. No, the ones who were giving up were those who were predominately self-serving and only looked out for themselves. They simply evaporated out of the reincarnation cycle and were no longer within his Domain. As Ordo’s experiment required personas of all types it was very likely that the loss would skew the data he was collecting.
Damn him. Well, there was nothing Ordo could do now but collect data on this unique event, quantify the changes, and make adjustments that accounted for this possibility in his next experiment. It would be a while before he was ready to start anew. Also, sooner than later, he’d have to release the restrictions on this domain and allow it to connect back to the rest of the Fundament. He had a lot of work to do.
***
Adam on the other hand had forced a connection to the spark of Primal Chaos he carried and connected to it. Not only had he connected to it, but his white-hot rage had ripped apart the shackles of The System and made a fundamental change in him that he would not realize until he calmed down.
WARNING! Karmic Luck value outside the normal range.
Karmic Luck reduced to 100
Karmic Luck above 100 converted to XP
Fundamental conversion is required, current characteristics, while recognized are not in the correct configuration for The Fundament.
Soul Core is not compatible, Adjustments will be made now
ERROR
ERROR
ERROR
Unable to adjust…ERROR
The Characteristics and Status Screen have devolved.
Interface Collapse…..
The foundation of Adam, the Animae, did something that had never been witnessed before and truly wasn’t witnessed by anyone when he did it. It absorbed the memories and feelings that were Adam and then spread throughout the whole of Primal Chaos that Adam had transferred into. As it was Chaoticus’s domain, he moved to stop Adam. Unfortunately for Chaoticus Adam was sheer anger and rage. He wasn’t thinking and he couldn’t be reasoned with. Unfortunately for Chaoticus his error allowed Adam to sweep through the entirety of Primal Chaos within the Fundament. Which was another way of saying that Adam became part of everything and everyone.
Chaoticus was absorbed and annihilated as his memories were absorbed and his Animae set free, except that it wasn’t. As part of the instinct that was driving Adam was to recover his family when he annihilated Chaoticus he also absorbed the Animae that had been the foundation of Chaoticus’s soul. His Animae had added to and increased the complexity of Adam’s Animae. In that moment Chaoticus was gone and Chaos no longer had a Cardinal. Additionally, Adam became part of Primal Chaos everywhere. As this same thing had happened before the ease of his adjustment to the state was instantaneous. In one moment, he was everything. The next moment he had reviewed and found the creatures that had attacked and abducted his family's souls…
Multiple aspects of his personality started talking back and forth as a few aspects of his personality rose to the top of his consciousness as he began controlling the flow of images and information into himself.
“Too late, he was too late,” one part of him fretted.
“What could he do? Another part said.
“Find them and save them,” yet another voice offered.
“He couldn’t save them, could he?”
“He could Time Travel?” one part of himself offered.
“Possibly but no, he had no idea if paradox would affect him here,” a more realistic part answered.
“If he couldn’t save them? Revenge?”
“REVENGE!” all the voices declared as Adam’s consciousness solidified, and he took control of the many aspects of himself that had spread throughout “The Fundament.”
The Fundament?”
A term he’d absorbed from Chaoticus that represented all known and unknown universes, dimensions, planes, etc. He had just come from a Domain, one of many under the purview of the Cardinal of Order. These were more like pocket realms or universes, but they contained everything one could find within the Fundament. Honestly, to Adam, it just sounded like another way to refer to the Multiverse. It didn’t matter. Adam’s mind was now in control and spread through Chaos wherever chaos was to be found. And within The Fundament it was found almost everywhere.
Adam categorized and sifted through multiple infinities of information he was absorbing as he looked and searched for any sign of the individuals who had killed his family and friends. His absorption of Chaoticus helped him zero in on one of the most likely suspects as information percolated into his consciousness of someone named Thora.
Adam shifted his perception to Thora’s location. Thora was standing on a balcony, a river of putrid green liquid below her as she removed a gem from a dagger and crushed it in her hand. The chaos in the area detected an energy spike that disappeared just as quickly. A moment later she dropped the dagger into the green river far below with a wicked smile on her face.
Through the Chaos that surrounded her in her domain, Adam witnessed the last gem being destroyed and also determined that twelve daggers were in the river below breaking down in the acid contained within. Thora had already released their Animae! Without conscious thought, Adam reacted.
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***
It was done, the family of that thorn in her side was eradicated, and their lives were not even a memory anymore. Thora had won, she had won and now she would plan to destroy this Adamantadine as well. Her spies had informed her that he was still within The System so she would have to wait. Eventually, he would make his way out of the System and when he did, she would end him just as easily as she’d ended…
Thora was shocked out of her thoughts by a mental spike of anger that reverberated throughout her domain. She looked around quickly to see what was going on and noticed that a man-sized figure solidified, moved, grabbed her by her forehead, and forced her to her knees. There was no resistance, no way to fight. She had been overpowered and her body ruined. Her knees hadn’t bent. The bones in her legs and spine had shattered as her head was lowered to where her waist should be instantly.
Thora felt the pain of the attack, but that’s not what terrified her. What terrified her was that something was reaching into her mind and soul and shredding the connections between her core and her memories. Thora struggled as she realized something was reaching in and shredding every connection between her Animae and her soul.
Thora’s last coherent feeling before her mind and soul were ripped apart was that she didn’t feel her Animae fleeing. No, the monster before her had reached into her essence and was drawing the core of herself into it. The foundation of her soul was being drawn into and absorbed by the monster before her.
***
The Animae of Adam’s mother, father, and everyone else Thora had just released had no memory of their previous life or at least nothing they could point to as a memory. Unknown to the scholars of the Fundament or anyone else, imprints could be left on an Animae during each incarnation into the physical world and they often were. As the imprints became more complex new forms and functions could develop and new forms of existence could occur. This was the normal cycle of what those within the Fundament referred to as Animae though the only form they knew of was the most basic.
What they could not know, what Chaoticus had not understood or tried to do was realize that Primal Chaos existed everywhere. Even in the realm, the Animae originated from Primal Chaos existed. Because there was, and because Adam had instinctually reached out and became all points of Primal Chaos within the Fundament a reverberation made its way through the barrier that only Animae normally transversed.
The reverberation was familiar and the the twelve Animae as one stopped and turned back toward the call. Even though the realm they had just returned to felt comforting and inviting something about the call called to each Animae on a fundamental level. As Animae were driven more by emotion than thought, they felt that they should turn back and return.
Animae were not bound by the laws of physics or the conservation of energy, they could pass between the physical and this realm as easily as walking into the ocean on a sandy beach. So, as one, the twelve Animae, and a few other Animae in the area turned and crossed into the physical and flocked toward the call that had been made.
As the Animae crossed over they were drawn in by the same force that had captured the Animae of Thora and was even now adding to the complexity of the animae that resided within the pattern of Primal Chaos. The Animae were the foundations of all souls. They had no memories, only feelings. They would be incorporated into the pattern that called to them and this was good. Even the extra Animae that had tagged along felt that adding themselves to the pattern of the Animae that was increasing its complexity was good.
In that moment the Animae of Adamantadine, once Johnathan Bennard, expanded and grew. The complexity of his Animae incorporated his memories which became its core held together by the structure the animae created. The consequence of such complexity was simple, this Animae would no longer be driven by emotions and imprints alone. This animae would remember.
***
The Turmoil within Primal Chaos calmed and the mentality that was Adam retreated into a single focal point within the Domain of Corruption where a copy of his physical form had solidified. Something had changed within Adam, but he could not quantify that change, he only knew he felt different. As he felt himself come more in tune with his body he realized that he was standing on a balcony overlooking a stinking flowing river of some corrosive liquid. Adam heard a sound like a zipper and looked down to see the shattered body of a woman, someone named Thora at his feet, As she evaporated. One moment she was there, the next, it was as if she’d never existed. Adam looked down at the empty space and tried to remember what had just happened.
Adam had no idea how long he stood there before he was suddenly yanked, which was the only way to describe it. He was yanked and now stood on a dais within an arena that seemed both infinite in size and yet not. Above him, a golden orb shone down on him. To one side Adam noticed Ptah sitting and on the opposite side of the orb was the man who had appeared and closed the spatial rifts within The System.
Suddenly a voice spoke. A voice full of power and righteousness that Adam felt must be obeyed while another part of himself strove to break free and do whatever it wanted to do.
“Johnathan Bennard, Adamantadine, you stand accused of destroying two Cardinals of the Fundament, How do you plead?”
Adam thought about it for a moment but realized he had no idea what the voice was talking about and said as much, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Did you not destroy Thora and Chaoticus?” the voice asked.
“If Thora was the crumpled woman at my feet, then yes I guess I destroyed her. As for Chaoticus, I have no idea who you are referring to. I have no memory of destroying a Chaoticus, whoever that is,” Adam said.
“It matters not. On my right is your Advocate, who will speak on your behalf, Ptah. On my left is your opposite. He would speak against your actions, Ordo. The charges and evidence will be laid out and the two will make their case. You are here as a formality.”
Adam tried to say something but found that he could not move or speak anymore. Over the next half hour, the charges of what Adam had done were laid out for everyone present to see. Some of which was news to Adam. It seemed that he had destroyed the Cardinal of Chaos, Chaoticus. Adam had no memory of doing so, but every time the name was mentioned he felt a resonance with it. Next, evidence was shown of him teleporting onto the balcony before Thora, grabbing her by the head, and forcing her to knee level without waiting. No words were spoken and a moment later she popped up like a bubble and evaporated.
Adam knew he was powerful, but he had no idea that he could grab one of the Cardinals and do what he’d done to her. Especially since it seemed to him that he was powerless now. It was as if all of his power was locked away. Adam tried to open his Personal Interface, only to find that he could not. Nor could he retreat into his Mindspace or his Soul space, both were closed to him.
“While the actions that Thora instigated against Adam’s family were unwarranted the destruction of two Cardinals is unacceptable. Additionally, we have seen that Adam cannot be controlled. It is, therefore, my recommendation as the Cardinal of Justice that the being known as Adamantine, once Johnathan Bennard, be removed from the cycle and his Animae given the chance to form a new foundation. As such a sentence will require the combined effort of all to carry out against such a potent agent of Chaos all must choose to participate.”
“I will NOT participate!” Ptah declared. This ‘trial’ is anything but just.”
“As you are not a Cardinal and merely a God, your participation is not required though your statement is noted for the record,” The Cardinal of Justice said before he continued. “Make your decisions, now.”
Adam couldn’t say that he was surprised. Every time someone pissed him off he went and did something he probably shouldn’t have. Still, he did feel some satisfaction with the way he’d ended Thora. Also, as he considered that thought a feeling of righteousness came over him. Like her sentence had been more permanent than even the Gods and Cardinals of this Fundament knew.
Additionally, as he thought about this idea that they were going to rip the core out of his soul and cast him into the cycle of reincarnation as his punishment he wasn’t scared. Something had changed within him; he could feel it. He couldn’t quantify the feeling, nor could he check through his interface, but he no longer felt alone. In fact, the anger at the loss of Adaline and his mom and dad was gone. He felt as if they were a part of him that he could will into existence if his powers and abilities weren’t being blocked somehow.
Adam was jolted from his thoughts when the Cardinal of Justice began speaking, “The Cardinals have spoken. Adamantadine, you are too dangerous to allow to continue existing. Therefore, the Cardinal of Animae will remove yours and set it free. All that you are and have been will move on in the cycle of reincarnation.
“If I might ask, what does that mean exactly,” Adam asked.
“It means that the memories that are tied to your soul will be removed from your Animae, and it will be allowed to return to the realm it emerged from. Once there it will reenter the cycle of reincarnation when it wishes.”
“What of my daughter, what will become of her?” Adam asked.
“That is no longer your concern,” the Cardinal of Justice declared with finality as a force enveloped Adam and tried to shut him down as a being of energy floated toward Adam.
Adam fought against the immobilization and looked directly at the Cardinal of Justice as he said, “I don’t know what the FUCK you think you are but one thing that you will come to understand before this is all done, Anyone that tries to control chaos is a fool” Adam fell silent as he struggled against the attempt to shut him up and was finally able to say, “I’ll make sure to remind you of that fact when we speak again.”
As Adam finished speaking his eyes caught the hint of a smile crossing Ptah’s face as the female being of energy, The Cardinal of Animae stood before him.
The Cardinal of Animae looked at Adam with a lack of empathy that Adam found disturbing as she said, “You may be strong, but the other Cardinals have removed your ability to influence all other aspects of reality at this moment. As they have the ultimate authority over their domains and have suppressed those domains within you, you can do nothing as I reach in and withdraw your Animae. Once removed you will be no more and your Animae will be free to find another host and begin again. I wish you well in your next incarnation, hopefully, it will be a little less eventful,” The Cardinal said as her hand of energy reached into Adam’s chest and tried to grasp his animae and pull it free.
Adam felt the hand of energy enter his chest and then his mind was drawn into his Mindspace, through his Soul Space, and deeper into himself than he had ever been drawn before. His memories were condensed and compacted so much that they became scrambled. He still had his sense of self which was bolstered by a feeling that others were also there helping him hold himself together. As Adam realized this his thoughts became coherent again. He felt a falling sensation as his mind felt a resonance and he felt himself shoot toward it.
***
Ptah watched the Cardinal of Animae reach into Adam’s chest and try to withdraw his Animae. A look of surprise crossed her face as she realized she could not grab it. Ptah watched as the Cardinal withdrew her hand quickly as if in pain and the body of Adamantadine disintegrated as the chaos that it was made up of evaporated into his surroundings. Something had happened to his Animae when he attacked Thora. Something unique.
It would seem that he had the answer to a question that he’d had for a very long time. There was more to the cycle of life and death than the cyclical cycle of animae reincarnation though he didn’t understand exactly what yet. If he was correct Adam had not been reset as the idiot beside him had wanted. If that was true, Ptah had his work cut out for him. In the infinities that was the Fundament the Animae that was Adam could reincarnate anywhere. Without a Cardinal of Chaos in play, that meant that Adam could utilize chaos without fear of being detected, as there were few divine beings or Cardinals that could utilize Chaos.
Ptah considered the different paths he could take to find Adam again and help him get back on track both so he could get an answer to his age-old question and also help Adam reunite with his daughter. Hopefully, the loss of Adaline and his mother and father wouldn’t divert him from his path too far, though the look in Adam’s eyes when he’d made his defiant statement. The Cardinal of Justice, as well as every Cardinal that had acted against him, had been judged by Adam. Ptah wondered what form that judgment would take.