The Cardinal of Justice, Maximilian Stark, or Max as he was known on this version of Earth, sat in his home office and looked out onto the Pacific Ocean below him. He’d created this getaway on Earth 1,600 feet above sea level at the top of the mountain just north of where Randall Creek ran into the ocean. Located in Northern California, it was a very remote location where he didn’t see much local traffic. He’d made sure to keep it that way by making his home and office only accessible by a hiking trail or something that could land on the helicopter pad he had installed.

It was currently 1989 on this Earth. They had helicopters but VTOLs wouldn’t be in major production for a few more years if this Earth’s timeline continued normally. He couldn’t count on that though, there were variations in the timeline every once in a while. The humans on this version of Earth wouldn’t give him a second glance as his current form was that of a human in his mid-thirties with blond hair and blue eyes. One of the “Lover, not Fighter” types that his age was known for, though they’d think he was a rich heir or lucky inventor; he’d have to be to afford everything he had.

He wasn’t rich, at least not within this economic system. With the ability to control The SYSTEM, even in this magically dead version of Earth, he could have whatever he wanted in an instant, but he didn’t bother. Once this refuge was set up he only ever came here to think.

Those who could teleport to his home, could of course visit whenever they wished, which was the point. Magic was unheard of in this Universe and locked away from any that hadn’t been given access to magic like the other Cardinals and he had. So, the only local visitors he should have here would be those that took the long hike up the mountain or those that came in by helicopter which would give him plenty of time to prepare for them. As for the other Cardinals, they would normally call before they popped over.

Max returned to the topic that had brought him here as he looked at the shadows that the mountain his home sat on cast over the ocean below him in the early morning. What had brought him here to think? Ptah. While he wasn’t a Cardinal he had been around and chose to be around since the beginning. Also, Ptah was his best friend's son. Right after the execution of Johnathan Bennard, Ptah had not been seen or heard from since, which should not be possible anywhere within The SYSTEM.

The Cardinals, the Founders of The SYSTEM, not the shadows of the SYSTEM that popped up every once in a while in the shadow Multiverses and the universes and dimensions within. No, The SYSTEM that existed in the background of everywhere and when, could not lose anything or anyone. That the little rascal had gone off and been able to vanish… Ptah had disappeared so thoroughly that it was troubling. No searches could find him and the various places Max knew to look had no record of him visiting either.

There were only a few things that could cause someone to vanish from The SYSTEM, none of them were permanent, however, that was the nature of The SYSTEM, it maintained and saved everything. In fact, the last time…The last time someone had disappeared like this had been when one of the Founders had created a personal network of realities inside an infinitely looping temporal anomaly when Cardinals had not existed. While the action hadn’t been a huge problem it had created a cascading resonance that destabilized adjacent realities that were within The SYSTEM but outside the temporal loop. The SYSTEM had been unable to see inside that area while dimensions and universes outside the temporal loop felt the effects. Many of the Founders had been so disturbed by the possibility that someone could cut themselves off from everyone else while destabilizing areas of The SYSTEM that they’d called for a vote and almost all of the Founders had agreed that The SYSTEM should be reset, and measures should be taken so that it never happened again.

To reduce the need for a SYSTEM reset the Founders took on the roles of Cardinals over various ideals or primary elemental forces. The Cardinals were given special dispensation and abilities tied to The SYSTEM to help them serve the ideal within the purview of The SYSTEM. They’d worked with The SYSTEM to create these Cardinal roles to act as a safety valve and ultimate authority that could overcome such problems in the future. This allowed the Cardinals to keep an eye on things and maintain the integrity of The SYSTEM.

Each Cardinal worked within the parameters of their ideal to maintain a balance with The SYSTEM and the other Cardinals. When they didn’t, things tended to go “poorly.” Depending on which ideal was being abused determined how quickly it all fell apart. The first SYSTEM reset had been voted on by the Founders. The next eight resets had been required because one of the Cardinals had abused the authority they’d been given.

The other thing that factored into initiating a SYSTEM reset was that once Cardinals were chosen, unless they were somehow destroyed which was very unlikely, a Founder could only be stripped of their privileges and a new Cardinal appointed during a SYSTEM Reset. Max was actually looking to introduce a change during the next reset that would allow the replacement of Cardinals without the need for a reset though the others were understandably hesitant. Most, however, agreed that having no say in a reset and having to start all over, even if they had no memory of the events sucked. Well, the Founders who were not Cardinals wouldn’t have any memory of the reset. The Cardinals, by their very nature, would remember and know that they had started over again.

Of Course, there were many more Founders than there were roles as Cardinals. That, however, wasn’t an issue, especially since everyone's memories were eventually erased when their soul and animae were separated. At least that’s what the majority of the founders thought. What was actually going on was only known to a select few.

Ptah was not one of the original Founders, but he was considered one because he came into The SYSTEM when the Founders had. Ptah was the only child of two of the founders. He had been born just before entering The System. Ever since his parents had decided to enter the reincarnation cycle after the 3rd reset he’d been a little bit erratic. Now he was “off” doing who knew what. Max understood what Ptah was striving for but the answers he was seeking were unanswerable at least as far as the Founders had been able to determine, not that it mattered. Ptah was striving to understand what came after death which The SYSTEM was specifically designed to prevent from happening. Sure, there was death within The SYSTEM, but it was all smoke and mirrors. Artificial. True death would never come for anyone with The SYSTEM, which was the point of The SYSTEM.

As the various sub-SYSTEMS sprouted up within the random universes that were continuously manifesting the sentients within would always ask what the SYSTEM was, even though the SYSTEMs present within those universes, multiverses, and realities were but shadows of The SYSTEM. No one had ever been able to figure out exactly why there were variations, though a couple believed it had something to do with quantum mechanics and variations in the original creation of The SYSTEM. They’d eventually given up trying to understand why and just watched for the variations to get too far out of control before they did a SYSTEM reset.

It was kind of ironic that the one question that Ptah, and all the primitive cultures for that matter, asked, “What is The SYSTEM?”, did have an answer. The fact that they would all be appalled by the answer notwithstanding. What was the answer? The SYSTEM was a lifeboat for the Founders. Well, that’s what it had been originally. Now it was a lifeboat for any sentience that came into existence within it, even the semi-sentient SYSTEM which truly had a mind of its own at this point. Of course, after living in that lifeboat for millions, billions…Max had lost track of how many years had gone by. Besides, how long didn’t matter. He knew there were a lot of zeros in the number.

No, instead of using time, he remembered how long he’d been in The System by the number of resets that had occurred. There had only been nine so far but if the report he was reading was right, they might need to initiate the 10th SYSTEM reset a lot sooner than expected. Max was reviewing a report he’d received earlier this morning. The Cardinal of Rebirth, known as Crystal Summers on this Earth, had come over while he’d been watching the local news. He’d looked up from his couch as she’d teleported directly into his living room.

“Max,” she’d began with a nod. “I apologize for barging in like this, but I thought you should know, someone activated the Control Pillar.”

“Which Control Pillar?” Max asked.

“You know how I created a control group to watch for issues…” Crystal started.

“Are you talking about that project where you took 10 Universes, well more like a hundred, but 10 primary Universes and set them up so you could do resets inside an area of The SYSTEM that was pretty much cut off from everywhere else in here?” Max asked.

“Yes, that project.” Crystal agreed while she nodded her head.

“Uh huh, So Crystal, if it’s cut off from the rest of the SYSTEM and the only person, check that, the only Cardinal that can see what’s happening inside that control group is the Cardinal of Rebirth how exactly would I know that someone activated that Control Pillar?” Max asked.

“Oh?”

“Yeah. Oh?”

“Sorry, I forgot. I’m going to send copies of the information I have and go see if anything has changed. Quick summary, someone within the Control Group activated the reset and something went sideways. I’m still trying to figure it out. I thought you should know,” Crystal said apologetically.

Max had thanked her for the information, and she’d teleported back to her home which was in New York City. It was kind of ironic that the Founders and the Cardinals could live anywhere in the various dimensions and universes within The SYSTEM, yet most chose to live on the various renditions of Earth that popped up.

Max pulled up the information Crystal Summers had sent to him through The SYSTEM and began reviewing the information. Someone had activated the control group that The Cardinals were using to watch for instability. Instead of trying to keep track of instabilities throughout the whole SYSTEM, they’d had the Cardinal of Rebirth set up a control group of 10 different Universes, each tracked by specific pillars. The 10th Pillar had been activated and then the code went weird. The reset had happened as predicted but the version of The SYSTEM running the local reset had made some adjustments. Those adjustments were, intriguing and horrifying. It looked like it had reached outside of the 10 universes it was supposed to stick to for the energy it needed to complete the process.

The SYSTEM was supposed to be a closed system. All energy within self-generated. The Control group had been set up the same way. The truth in both cases was that eventually that energy would need to be replaced and there was a mechanism to open The SYSTEM and allow for that to happen. As with any system that had an access point the first thing he needed to do was check the access points.

Max activated one of his Cardinal abilities and effectively turned himself into pure energy as he entered the fundamental matrix of The System. His mind interpreted the energy realm that ran The SYSTEM as a Physical representation of streets, buildings, trains, and individuals. It was all energy that contained data, but to his mind right now it was like he was walking down a street on any city road.

Max pulled up his mapping function and directed his attention to the closed-off section where the pillars were located. To him, it looked like a giant dome set in the middle of a field. Max made his way around the dome and then around the top. When he didn’t find any obvious leaks, he knew he needed to check the access point into The SYSTEM.

Max redirected his mentality toward the access point and double-checked to make sure that the error hadn’t been caused by an influx of chaos from outside The SYSTEM which was the energy The SYSTEM would draw on when it needed to. Max had been one of the few voices against hiding The SYSTEM within a labyrinth of Chaos that underpinned all of reality. Such an environment was by its very nature chaotic and could eventually prove dangerous to The SYSTEM. He had been overruled, though he had to admit that The SYSTEM had lasted longer than he’d thought it would. Maybe he was finally about to be proven correct, which would prove his point but probably lead to his doom.

As Max approached the access point he noticed an almost invisible thread of chaos that was snaking through a breech in the seal to the access point. Chaos was being drawn into The SYSTEM from outside. It wasn’t a flood though, it was just a trickle along a thread that led off into the distance. It wasn’t going through the conversion process so it could be used to power for The SYSTEM which was what the access point had been built for. It was raw, threaded, and it was going…where was it going? Max followed the thread.

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With Chaoticus absorbed by Johnathan Bennard and then his destruction, there wasn’t a Cardinal of Chaos so there would have been no one to notice this influx of Chaos into The SYSTEM. No one would have normally noticed such a small influx anyway as anything that happened would probably be written off as random chance. As he followed the thread he came to the Infinite Library. The Infinite Library was a small building set in the heart of The SYSTEM that was represented by a simple structure that had a single door. Max entered the door and walked into a labyrinth of corridors filled with bookcases. The Library was much bigger on the inside and would continue to grow as new universes and dimensions were created as needed.

Max followed the thread of chaos until he came to a bookcase in the basement that led to one of the Universes where the thread led to a planet called Gemma. From there it branched back to the origin of Chaos within The SYSTEM which was good news. It didn’t look like the energy was going anywhere else. Of course, that the breech could happen was troubling. That meant there was a possibility that a breach could occur within The SYSTEM. Max looked over the information quickly. Earth-like planet, magic was present as were other races including dragons. He hadn’t visited any version of the planet Gemma in the past, maybe it was time to see what this planet was like. It would be a new experience after all. As he reviewed the information a new message arrived.

Temporal Link Established between SYSTEM 10.0.0.1 Alpha 1 and SYSTEM 10.0.0.1 UT1A1, Subjects linked, Pandora and Adamantadine.

The Cardinal of Justice looked at the message and then reread it. Adamantadine was one of the aliases Johnathan Bennard had assumed. How, no wait! Max pulled up Johnathan’s file and found that his daughter's name was Pandora. What were the odds that another Adamantadine would have another daughter named Pandora? While there was a possibility, the probability was quite low. Additionally, if it was Johnathan, or Adam as he preferred, how did he survive having his memories ripped away from his soul? Only the Founders were automatically protected from dissolution. Johnathan wasn’t a Founder; he did not have the protections they did against such actions. Only if they wanted to, could a Founder choose to forget their life and live each reincarnation cycle without any memory of the previous cycles. Only if they wanted to, could they choose to forget. Something Max would never do.

Max pulled up the file on Pandora and saw that she was currently in one of the nascent Universes that had popped into existence. One of the many alternates that were ephemeral to the rest of the Universes and Multiverses within The SYSTEM. She had been placed there by… How was there no record of who had moved her there? Regardless, some of the other Founders referred to such constructs as shadow universes which was somewhat appropriate as she was an Umbral Dragon. Dwelling among the shadows should be common for her. That must be why the thread of chaos had led to the basement. In the library, the location of such shadow universes was represented by being in the basement of the building he was currently in.

Max dived into the code with The SYSTEM’s help and noticed that there was now a tether between Pandora and…there HE was! The thread of chaos had split again. There shouldn’t be a thread of chaos making its way to Johnathan and there shouldn’t be a link between Adam and Pandora, yet he was looking at a link from the control group to Pandora which split two more times. One link lead to Adam and another lead to the reservoir of chaos within The SYSTEM. As he reviewed Adam he noticed that he also had a thread that led directly to the Reservoir of Chaos within The SYSTEM.

Max had half a mind to go pull Pandora out of the nascent Universe, but The SYSTEM severely frowned upon any Founders or Cardinals traveling into Nascent Universes like the one Pandora was in because it could end badly for the Founders. While everything with The SYSTEM was governed by it, there were areas that it had less control over. Those areas acted as pressure relief valves. If The SYSTEM or one of the Cardinals pushed their weight around in such areas, everything there could be lost, including the founder or Cardinal. It was one of the few ways to accidentally destabilize the SYSTEM. Something Max was not willing to chance. Sure when the SYSTEM Reset they’d be back but if no one else witnessed the mistake it could happen over and over.

The Universe Johnathan, no he was reincarnated, and his file now referred to him as Adamantadine or Adam as he referred to himself. The Universe Adam was in was stable and old, it was an alternate Universe, another normal copy as it were. Founders and Cardinals could travel there. As such, Max could teleport there and end this troublesome asshole once and for all. After that, he’d keep an eye on Pandora until she exited the Universe she was in, and then he’d end her too he needed to plug those leaks. Once the links to Chaos were severed he should be able to seal the access point and stop the Chaos from entering The Control group. If it worked it would give him a workaround should this ever happen to The SYSTEMs access point. That also meant that he would need to find another Founder to take on the role of the Cardinal of Chaos. He’d have to go through the files and find someone appropriate. Most had entered the reincarnation cycle but that was easy enough to correct, as artificial as it was. Best to prepare for the next reset now.

Max verified Adam’s position. He was sitting underground with his mate, Adaline, on a couch. Max looked over her status screen and noted that she was also far outside the parameters of a normal member of The SYSTEM. It would seem that Adam’s chaotic nature had corrupted her as well. To bad. They were together though, which would make this easy. No trial, no second chances, just the full weight of a Cardinal passing judgment. It was time to get to work.

***

Adam held Adaline as they sat on the couch and thought about Pandora. While she might not be safe where she was she had her friends and family to help her stay safe and get the world they were in in order. Additionally, they now had nanites which was going to make her task of bringing that Earth closer to something mom, dad, Amanda, Clarence and he recognized, or at least a little less authoritarian than it was. Also, the fact that he could feel their connection gave him a sense of comfort. What was even more comforting, as long as he and Adaline were together he’d be able to find Pandora anywhere. He would always be able to search for her resonance, no matter where she ended up.

When his connection to Pandora was severed, he drew Adaline to him as he jumped to his feet and watched the new threat materialize before them. Though it didn’t matter. Before him stood the Cardinal of Justice. The eyes were the same, but his hair was in the style of an exec on the West Coast. Also, he was wearing blue jeans and a light blue collared shirt. Something Adam would expect to see in a man in the 80’s or 90’s. Not a style he’d seen on Gemma thus far and definitely not part of this world. Adam was going to say something witty and found that he couldn’t move at all.

Not one to hesitate, Adam accelerated his mentality and dropped into his Mindspace, then his Soul Space, and finally to his Animae Core. The shift was becoming smooth and effortless. The differential animae core he’d created had millions of independent animae, each of which was being influenced by something that he could not exactly see. He could feel the force as it tried to separate his memories from his soul and his soul from his animae. It was a battle the force couldn’t win though. It was like a man picking a rock off of a pile of rocks that kept shifting and refiling the hole that had just been made. There were millions of rocks constantly shifting while the pile continued to grow while only one rock could be lifted at a time. So, his soul couldn’t be shredded this time. His body was still frozen thought. The last time he’d been frozen like this was right before his animae had been shredded from his Soul. This time though the influence was visible as a haze which Adam followed away from himself. Adam sent a mote of chaos after that link even as he felt his mind being pulled out of the time compression he’d created.

Adam’s attention was brought back to his body as both Adaline and he started to break apart into their component atoms. While his Animae remained intact the components that made up his body were still being shredded. Adam immediately opened the differential animae core and pulled Adaline’s Animae into it before sealing it again as the tendrils of power tried to reach in and rip Adaline's soul apart. While her animae wasn’t as complex as Adam’s, it was still more complex than her original animae core and the attempt to shred her soul failed as well and once it was inside his differential animae core, Adaline was impervious to the attack.

Now that he was paying attention to the attack on his Animae Core, Adam was able to see that the process was not magically initiated. Instead, it resembled a code sequence for systematic deletion. That part was easily recognizable. The part that caught his attention though, that happened at the very beginning when he saw something that looked a lot like a save request. Because it had been directed at both Adaline and his souls he saw the command go out twice and watched as it went down the same line of energy his mote of chaos had just disappeared into. Only his high mentality let him recognize the quantum request hidden within the dimensional structure that permeated and touched the material plane he was in. He was looking at the coding of quantum engineering on a multi-universal scale. So, he was definitely not in a holographic universe, The Cardinals had found a way to program reality…While cool that could be bad on so many levels.

While that revelation coursed through Adam's mind because it was interesting Adam felt his soul core get shredded which was fine, the backup was within his Animae Core now. When the force was done with his physical body, Mindspace, and his soul core his Animae core was cast dimensionally into the location where all of the other animae fled to and returned from. Again, this time something was different, most likely because he’d been able to bring his mind, memories, will, and intent within his animae core into this dimensional space. This time he was able to look around and see the effectively infinite number of single animae that existed within this space. That was interesting. What was more interesting was that every single animae seemed to have a serial number. He could tell that they were not part of the animae structure. No, they had been added, like a cow or lobster receiving a tag.

Now that he could think clearly, Adam memorized the feeling of this dimension. He also tried something new. He kept Adaline's Animae core sealed within his differential animae core as he rebuilt the structure of his soul core with animae. With his Perfect Memory, he called up the structure of his soul, mind, and body and watched as the animae flooded into the structure and it took form. It was a weird sensation as he felt his remnants of senses come online within the body he had constructed. Next, he added the framework of his mind and then his body. Once he had the structure created he noticed that a trickle of chaos was entering this realm from an untethered link to his soul core. The chaos was filling his attributes, health, stamina, and mana. Any extra that seemed to spill into the space around his new body was converted into animae that did not have the serial numbers he’d noticed before.

Adam reached out for the chaos and directed it to build on the framework and reform his body completely. The chaos and animae that had been created from chaos were drawn to and covered the framework of animae that made up his soul core, Mindspace, and body as he felt his body solidify around him. It was unlike anything he’d ever felt before. One thing he noticed was that his link to Pandora had been severed and they had become untethered from each other. As Adaline and he were effectively eternal he could only hope that the temporal shifting between them wasn’t too great. He knew he would see her again but how long it would be was now unknown. Just then notifications started scrolling through his vision.

ERROR Current User is incompatible with SYSTEM.

ERROR Corrective Measures cannot reset physical structure.

ERROR Founder Override Protocol 0-1-A Unique Occurrence exemption granted.

SYSTEM USER, welcome to…ERROR…

SYSTEM USER Recognized. Designation [F] added to Johnathan Bennard // Adamantadine // Adam

SYSTEM USER [F]Adam Personal Information recalculating…

Adam read that last notification and willed the notifications closed. Next, he checked his soul core and made sure all of his abilities were present and slotted. Once he was sure that at least looked stable, because he had no idea what kind of changes The SYSTEM had made but he needed to get back to the Cardinal of Justice as quickly as possible, Adam activated his ability Molded Chaos to teleport back to his bunker where he found the Cardinal of Justice standing right where he had been only a second ago. Only a second? Adam double-checked his internal clock and sure enough, only a single second had passed.

Adam smiled as he saw the look of shock in Cardinal of Justice’s eyes as he said, “I believe I 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’ I also believe I said that ‘I’ll make sure to remind you of that fact when we speak again.’”

Adam felt the power that had ripped his soul and animae from his body try to separate them again. This time he felt the framework of animae force the attempt aside. Adam continued to look at the Cardinal of Justice as he tried two more times to end Adam in the same way.

Adam laughed. He knew he shouldn’t. He knew he shouldn’t taunt the man in front of him, but he couldn’t help himself as he said in a sing-song voice, “If at first you don’t succeed and all that,” before his voice turned deadly serious with the intonation of ritual magic, “Thrice heard and witnessed.

A look of confusion and then surprise crossed the Cardinal’s face as a tone sounded throughout The SYSTEM, at least that’s what it felt like. Adam was sure everyone, everywhere knew something profound had just happened. Adam didn’t pause though and made a flicking motion with his right hand as he flicked ‘nothing’ at the Cardinal.

Adam had flicked a mote of chaos that had taken on the aspect of ‘nothing’ at the Cardinal of Justice. Without being able to sense the chaos within, it would be very hard to see it. Additionally, it was a mote of his chaos so it could alter its course as necessary. The Cardinal tried to dodge but completely failed. The mote of chaos landed and then made its way up behind his left ear where it soaked into his pores and waited. Now Adam could find the Cardinal if he tried to flee. Adam looked at the Cardinal until a malicious smile started to appear on his face right before he said, “This next part, this is going to be me reminding you!”