It had been a long time since Adaline and Adam had been together. It was the first time since Adam modified his Animae Core into the Differential Animae Core he now possessed. Additionally, Adaline’s Animae, her primary one, resonated with Adam which became extremely apparent while they were making love. One moment he was looking down into her eyes, the next his mental focus had been drawn through his Mindspace, past his Soul Core and the Shell of the Differential core was peeling back as it detected a resonance and seemed to be vibrating as if it wanted to move.
“What is that?” Adaline asked.
“You’re here too? I did not expect that,” Adam said as he started to wonder how Adaline’s mind could be within his own without….
“Adam Focus! Whatever that is, it feels familiar to me. It feels like a part of myself I thought… I….It feels like Pandora!”
Adam’s focused on the vibration and felt for it. It did feel like Adaline, but different, there was a hint of chaos to the dragon form, not unlike his now, but different, more like Adaline. The chaos felt different too, it felt more organic. More alive than any other time he’d interacted with chaos, even when he’d had multiple forms. That was probably because they had all been part of him and this chaos was part of Pandora.
“What are you going to do?” Adaline asked.
“I’m going to reach for her, try to connect. It may not work, or it may…” Adam said leaving unsaid what both Adaline and he knew could happen and the question of whether he should try, or not.
“Do it!” Adaline said.
Adam used the one tool he knew could exist anywhere and become anything he needed it to be. He activated Molded Chaos and placed a mote of his chaos in the center of the differential Animae Coil and commanded it to find the resonance point and then return. The mote of chaos vanished from his mind and his body, he felt it go. He lost track of the chaos almost immediately as it crossed dimensional barrier after dimensional barrier. Universal Barriers, Multiverse barriers, and even a temporal barrier. It wasn’t a temporal barrier that put Pandora in the past or the future. No, it was a temporal barrier that put her out of phase with him and his existence here. If he chose to enter where she was, there was no telling if or when he’d be able to exit it again. Well, he knew he could exit it, just when on this timeline he’d reappear would be random. Right now, with Pandora acting as an anchor and him acting as an anchor here, he could probably open a portal to her but the moment he stepped through it would become untethered and coming back…There was no way to know when he’d appear. Nothing was ever easy, was it?
Adaline, picked up on his mood asked, “What is it?”
“When my mote of chaos comes back I’ll know for sure, but I don’t think I can go to Pandora?” Adam said.
“What? Why? Adaline asked.
“She’s temporally out of temporal phase with this reality,” Adam said.
“She’s...” Adaline started to say and then understood. “How long until you know?”
“Any second,” Adam said as his mote of chaos returned. Adam reviewed the information he’d been able to get from Caspa, Pandora’s name for that part of herself which was purely chaos. In a moment he reviewed and understood what was going on for her. Right now, she was dealing with worldwide monster surges on an Earth where the Roman Empire had kept its empire going long past when it should have failed. Where she was it was currently the 21st century. Men were in charge. Women weren’t even second-class citizens, they were property. Wow, she was quite ruthless too. Utterly destroying two of the misogynistic pricks that were… Not that they didn’t deserve it, what assholes.
Adam quickly reviewed the information: Tech level, no issue for him. Magic level, again no issue. Nanites were not in use as far as he could tell. Shoot Adaline and he could…He checked Pandora's stats. Nice! She was a chip off the old man getting that Chaos cheat going on.
“What is it?” Adaline asked.
“Pandora is currently on an alternate version of Earth where the Romans still control everything. Additionally, it looks like magic was just introduced into the world, so it’s kind of like my Earth was back when we were inside the Holographic Universe,” Adam said.
“Power level?” Adaline asked.
“Negligible.”
“Does she need help?” Adaline asked.
“Honestly, I don’t think so. I think she’s fine. Could she use help from her friends? Actually, I think so. I think she could even use help from my human mom and dad and maybe Clarence and Desirae, though I think we might need them here. Mom and Dad though? Adam thought about it. Pandora was on an Earth they’d recognize. Maybe it wasn’t exactly like the Earth they knew but they might like it better.”
“And you can’t go?” Adaline said.
“I can go, but the dimension she’s in, the only reason I’m able to tether to it right now is because I’m here and she’s there. If I had to guess, I’d say each of us is stabilizing the chaos which is allowing the two universes to stay temporally similar. We’re still out of phase but time is passing the same for both of us. Or both universes could be at different temporal frequencies, and both just happen to be at a similar peak, which now that he thought about it seems more likely. They may be artificially extending that peak, but it could just be a natural phenomenon.”
“If that’s so and we want to send help to her, we need to do so now!” Adaline said.
“Agreed,” Adam said as he ordered the nanites near them to clean and clothe them as they both rose from their bed and made their way to the elevator. Next, he sent his voice to the intercom and flooded the bunker with a call, “Hey, everyone, we found Pandora, Group meeting to decide what to do next in the common room.”
The common room was the largest room in the bunker on the floor directly above the floor which contained the portal devices and cloning coffins, as Adam thought of them, though that wasn’t technically what they did.
As Adaline and he stepped off the elevator, Pandora’s half dark-elf friend Robert, the mage asked, “You found her, truly?”
“We did?” Adam affirmed.
“Thank the Goddess,” Callum, the leader of their party said.
“Yes, thank the Gods that she is okay,” Pythias, the half celestial member of Pandora’s party said.
“So where is she?” Asling, the female wood elf archer member of Pandora’s part asked.
“What’s the catch?” Cedrik, the halfling rogue of Pandora’s party asked.
“The catch, as Cedrik has so eloquently pointed out, is that I can’t go to her.”
“You can’t go?” Adam’s mom asked?”
“I won’t be going either,” Adaline said. “We think Adam can come to Pandora whenever he needs to. If he can, I can too. Right now, she doesn’t need us, but she might need her friends and maybe a few others…” Adaline said and then turned to Adam.
Adam then explained how the Universe or Multiverse that Pandora was in was out of the temporal phase. He was pretty sure he could open a portal to her, but he wasn’t sure what the portal would do if he stepped through. Also, whoever decided to go would need to move quickly because of the amount of energy he’d need to expend to send them would be extreme.
Once he was done explaining what he’d learned about where Pandora was he wasn’t surprised when every member of her party volunteered to go. In addition to them, Mom, Dad, Abi, Amanda, Clarence, and Desirae all volunteered to go as well.
“None of you want to stay?” Adam asked.
Desirae was the first to speak up, “If your mom and dad are going, I’m going, because I took a vow to protect them. While it looks like my classes and levels have been reset, I don’t want to take the chance of breaking a vow.
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“I go where Desirae goes,” Clarence said.
“Pandora is going to need someone who can handle the nanites,” Abi said.
“But there aren’t any nanites?” Adam protested.
“Yet,” Abi said as she looked at Adam pointedly.
“Saw through that did you?” Adam asked.
“Of course,” Abi said, “I was in your head for a very long time, if you don’t recall, oh wait, I know that you do.”
Adam smiled and then directed his attention to Amanda, “It’s Earth, It may be an alternate history Earth, but it’s Earth. Besides, if everything is as you say, Pandora is going to need help holding it all together while everyone deals with monsters, dungeons, and the uncertainty that magic will bring to an Earth that has never known magic.”
Adam nodded, “That makes sense. Okay then, all of you want to go. Adaline is going to stay here with me, for a while at least…”
Adaline interrupted him, “I’d follow your Earth custom and knock on wood…” A piece of wood appeared out of thin air which she rapped her knuckles against, “As I was saying, knock on wood, but I will not be leaving your side for any extended time again.”
Adam smiled and took her hand in his, “Okay then, it looks like we have a plan. Abi, let's see if we can’t compress and store a lot of information within you. Also, everyone remember, when you step through the barrier you will probably be stepping into a new SYSTEM so you might get reset again. It shouldn’t be an issue, just be aware. Pandora should be able to take you around to the areas with monster spawns and level you all pretty quickly.”
“And the nanites?” Desirae asked.
“If The SYSTEM hasn’t shut them down completely, it’ll take about two weeks for them to spread throughout the planet. They’ll be set to follow the same protocol here. Abi will be able to add some individuals who can also benefit from the nanites but only a small percentage of the planet's population at most.”
“And we’ll be able to use them?” Amanda asked.
“Yep, everyone except Pandora. I can’t chance trying to add nanites to her. Her affinity to Chaos would prevent it anyway. I need to be near her to set that all up and I would also have to educate her on the fundamentals of what nanites are and how they work so that she could hold that concept in her head while directing her Chaos to behave that way. That’s a much longer conversation than the one she’ll get to have with the ghost in the machine I’ll be sending to her. Speaking of which, Adaline if you’d come with me for a moment,” As Adaline walked with him over to a corner of the room he looked over his should and called out, “While we’re busy over here, why don’t all of you get ready to go? We are on a bit of a time crunch, and I want to get you all over with her as soon as possible.”
Adam brought Adaline into his Mindspace, accelerated time, and went to work. He created a message from both of them to Pandora and then also allowed Adaline to compose one with only her while he did the same. He included directions on how she and Caspa could alter her Animae Core, though Adam believed her Animae Core was probably already more complex than a normal one based on how Caspa reacted to everything, but he wanted to make sure she had the tools to understand the dangers of not being able to defend it. He also explained why he wasn’t programming the nanites to infiltrate her. Once every non-biological particle on the planet was infested though, then she would be able to get with Abi to institute some global changes on a macro scale. She just needed to make sure to work with Amanda, Abi, Mom, and Dad because they were coming along to help. The last thing he included was instructions for how to create a differential animae core. Adam strongly suggested that she not do so unless she lost contact with her mom and him for an extended period of time. It should allow her and Caspa to find him anywhere.
The last thing Adam did was make sure he had a current copy of everyone’s memories again, just in case. If they lost their Animae this time though, it was going to be a lot harder to bring them back, then again, as complex as all the animae were now, he should be able to find their uniqueness wherever they disappeared to.
When Adaline and he were done they walked back over to the others. Hugs were given, nods were shared, and then Adam opened a portal to a reservoir of nanites that held steady. As soon as he opens the portal to Pandora they’d create a tunnel from one portal to the other which would allow nanites to flow into and through while everyone else walked through the portal.
Adam looked around and then asked, “Everyone ready?” When everyone nodded, Adam activated his differential animae core. As before the resonance felt familiar and this time when he put the mote of chaos into the center of his animae coil he also activated Molded Chaos and created a gate with the target destination of that single mote of Chaos as it disappeared.
Everyone watched as the background in the second portal changed rapidly until it solidified and followed an Umbral Dragon as it flew through the night sky. Through the portal, Adam could tell that they were over an ocean until he noticed that they were moving onto a coastline that resembled the area northeast of Mexico City near Barra de Cazones. They all watched as Pandora came into the city and attacked a Kraken-like creature that had come out of the ocean and was destroying buildings and eating people.
Adam was fascinated by how the fight went on. Without being able to see the SYSTEM messages he could only guess what was happening, but it looked like every attack the Giant Kraken landed against Pandora did no damage, and then the energy of that attack was somehow redirected back at the creature. An absorption type ability? That would be handy. Within 10 seconds it was dead which was just as well because Adam was spending more mana than his mana regeneration could handle.
Adam directed his Aura through the portal at Pandora and flared it as he adjusted the portal to ground level and allowed the nanites to start flowing from his reservoir into the Universe Pandora was. The flooded into the ground and disappeared.
Pandora turned and her gaze looked at the open portal and froze as she saw Callum, Asling, Robert, and Pythias step through the portal. In a flash, she was beside the portal and looking across it at Adam and Adaline, “What, how?”
“Dad, this world isn’t safe, this place isn’t safe. I need to get them from here all the way back up near Scarborough England,” Pandora said as Abi and Amanda stepped through the portal.
“Fair enough,” Adam said as he increased the flow rate of nanites and commanded them to make a VTOL aircraft that could carry everyone. “Everyone in the aircraft after it’s finished forming.”
“Aren’t you coming too?” Pandora asked.
“We can’t honey,” Adaline said. “Your dad has sent a message to you through his little friends. Once you are safe, head to your Mindspace, the message should be accessible there.”
“A trick I learned from Abi,” Adam said as his Mom and then his dad hugged him and stepped through the portal to Pandoras side.
“How will I find you? How will I get back to you?” Pandora asked with tears in her eyes.
Adam smiled at his daughter, “Sweetheart, it is my understanding that you are doing a fantastic job cleaning up the mess in that world. Everyone heading over is coming to help. I can’t because if I do…Let’s just say I have things to take care of before all of us are as safe as we could be. So, do what you were going to do anyway. Your mom and me will be along eventually.”
“That’s a promise dear. We will be along as soon as we’re able,” Adaline said.
Adam checked his Mana which had dipped below 40% of his total and said, “Running out of juice to hold the door open. Desirae and Clarence, your turn. All of you, don’t have too much fun.”
“There’s no such thing…“ Desirae said.
“As too much fun,” Abi finishes.
“And Desirae…Stop corrupting Abi.”
Everyone laughed, even Pandora. Adam looked at his daughter on the other side of the dimensional barrier and smiled. “We’ll see you soon,” he said as Adaline reached through, quickly hugged her daughter, and then stepped back.
“Don’t even think about it Pandora, if you do, you might strand everyone already over there and if I do I’ll lose track of this timeline. We cannot hug here. Get to a safe place and access your Mindspace. My mana is down to 20% and falling faster. Have to end this now.”
“Love you, Mom, Love you Da…..” Pandora said as Adam closed the portal with only 3% of his mana remaining. The cost had been increasing exponentially. Why was that? Adam went over his Personal information and noticed that all of his attributes had been reduced by one-tenth of one percent.
What the hell?
Adam opened his Combat Log. There was nothing there. Next, he opened his notifications, but nothing was there. Whatever had happened hadn’t been flagged as an error. Lastly, he pulled up his utilization log and found what he was looking for.
Chaos bridge formed.
Chaos bridge transfer across SYSTEM barrier started.
Chaos bridge transfer ended.
A chaos bridge. A transfer? Between him and…Adam checked to see if the mote of chaos had been recalled and noticed that it had not returned yet. He sent out the command and the mote returned at which point he learned that while the portal had been open, a direct conduit had been established between his Animae and the combined Animae of Pandora and Caspa which had allowed the Chaos he was composed of to begin transferring. He hadn’t willed that, or had he? Adam fell into his Mindspace and searched through his conscious and subconscious mind and found the culprit, which of course had been himself. At his most fundamental he wished for Pandora to grow stronger and succeed. He also had a subconscious desire for her to be able to protect herself and everyone that had just come to help her. Those drives had been picked up by some of the Chaos within him and when the opportunity presented itself a transfer had been started. Not a huge transfer by any means but a transfer that had left Pandora flooded with chaos and attributes of 200,000 in every category.
As he reviewed the information he discovered that the SYSTEM she resided in had a hard limit of 100,000 in every attribute but because Caspa and her were considered two entities each had been raised to 100,000 and then combined. As the Chaos Attribute couldn’t be limited, the rest of the Chaos that had been transferred from Adam had gone into that attribute.
Considering her attributes, the first time he’d sent a mote had been around 6,000 and she was already a monster as compared to anything else. Pandora was going to do just fine.
“Adam!” Adaline called for…he checked his memory, the sixth time.
“Yes, Adaline, I’m here.”
“What were you thinking about?”
Adam explained what had happened and how Pandora had received an upgrade of sorts. Not levels exactly but attributes and raw power.
“And she’s in a world where men think they rule everything?”
“Yeah,” Adam said and then started to laugh.
“Those poor fools,” Adaline said and started to laugh.
They were both laughing as they made their way over to the couch and fell into it. They were laughing, but both had tears in their eyes as they held each other.