Adam watched as the Cardinal moved and was next to Adam in a moment with a blade extended and gleaming as it was thrust toward Adam’s heart. If the Cardinal was supposed to be one of the most powerful beings in existence Adam was unimpressed. Adam easily dodged the attack and disarmed the Cardinal. As the blade flew off it vanished and reappeared in the Cardinal’s other hand and a second attack was made. Adam checked his Heads Up Display and noted that no time had passed as he disarmed the Cardinal a 2nd time and the Cardinal made a third attack.
Time stood still but the Cardinal and Adam did not. The Cardinal would attack and Adam would disarm the Cardinal. The blade would reappear in the Cardinal’s hand and he’d attack again. If anyone had been able to follow the combat Adam was sure it looked like some insane martial arts display as the attacks continued to accelerate and come faster and faster.
While part of his mind kept track of Cardinal and continued to block and disarm, Adam tried to pull up his Status Screen to see what was going on. He was surprised to find that his Personal Information was populated with “Updating” in each category. Adam checked his Soul and Animae Core and verified that Adaline’s Animae was still locked within his. He pondered for a moment on whether he could open his Mindspace to her since her Mind and Soul were together within him and no sooner had the thought crossed his mind than Adaline appeared in his Mindspace.
Adaline looked around and then asked, “Hello?”
Adam materialized a portion of himself within his Mindspace next to her, “Hello sweetheart, Welcome to my mind?”
“Ha Ha, very funny, Where am I, really?” Adaline asked.
“Really, you are in my mind while I’m fighting that crazy Cardinal of Justice,” Adam said.
“If I’m in your head, where is my body?” Adaline said.
“About that,” Adam said with a hesitant grin, “You kind of died again.”
“I died…again.”
“Yeah, that prick is kind of powerful. He’s been increasing the time dilation so he can continue to try to break through my defenses, that was his 16th attack,” Adam said.
“Show me,” Adaline said.
Adam modified his Mindspace to include his sight and hearing so that Adaline could see what he saw. He also had his mind create a three-dimensional rendering of what was going on so she could see how the attacks were progressing. Adaline watched the Cardinal attack five more times before she asked, “Is he using The SYSTEM to get the speed or magic?”
“He’s got to be utilizing a combination of both. The mana cost has to be getting horrendous so the SYSTEM must be helping him out somehow.
“So, ask the SYSTEM to stop the time dilation,”
“Can’t hurt to try,” Adam said and then directed his voice upward into his Mindspace, “SYSTEM, lock down all temporal shenanigans within 100 feet of my physical location…please?” Adam started to say and then his request into into a question at the end.
SYSTEM TEMPORAL LOCK Enacted by (F)Adamantadine. Authorization 0-1-A Noted
Adam’s attention was drawn back to the Cardinal who froze and stepped back as he exclaimed, “What? How?”
Adam smiled as he said, “It’s a Chaos thing.”
The Cardinal of Justice’s brow furrowed as he concentrated on something and then a notification popped into his vision.
WARNING! Cardinal of Justice has initiated termination of (F)Adamantadine based on the failure of previous eradication for the Crime of killing the Cardinal of Decay.
Override Protocol 0-1-A (F)Adamantadine Inquiry, Would you like to allow the termination of (F) Adamantadine at this time? Yes, indicates (F)Adamantadine will be be terminated and his reincarnation matrix will be placed in Stasis and stored until released by the Cardinal of Justice or another authorized party.
Would you like to allow the termination of (F)Adamantadine, Yes or No?
Adam thought about it for a moment and then answered out loud, so that the Cardinal of Justice could hear him, “No, Until otherwise stated by me, automatically answer such inquiries as NO for Adamantadine, Adaline, Pandora, Amanda Sifford, Abi, Desirae, Clarence, Callum, Robert, Pythias, Asling and Cedrik.
Override Protocol 0-1-A (F)Adamantadine instruction NOTED. Full Identities of those exempted from Systematic Termination by Cardinals or Founders with less than 0-1-A Authority Recorded.
SYSTEM Updated.
Adam watched as The Cardinal looked at Adam with horror written all over his face. Before the Cardinal could do or say anything Adam winked at him. The Cardinals eyes grew even wider and then he vanished.
Adam locked on to the Mote of Chaos he’d tagged the Cardinal with and gave chase. His first teleport was to his office on the alternate Earth in Northern California. Adam didn’t know this when he arrived but once his nanites had spread across the planet he found other Cardinals living on this Earth as well. It was easy enough to figure out that this Earth was one that a majority of the Cardinals retreated to. In the moment though, Adam reappeared next to the Cardinal of Justice who vanished again. Adam dropped some of his nanites and followed.
The Cardinal tried three more times to go somewhere Adam wouldn’t follow, including under the event horizon of a black hole. Adam arrived chuckling which unnerved the Cardinal so badly that he activated some form of contingency that tried to give false echoes of his presence in other Universes. Adam followed. The next three times Adam would appear and the Cardinal would teleport away immediately. The fifth time was a little different. The Cardinal activated another series of teleports in quick succession. After the first teleport, Adam paused for a second and concentrated on the Mote of Chaos. It flicked through various dimensions and across various universes until it came to a stop. It had felt like he must have traveled through at least 10 dimensional barriers, maybe more.
Adam made a connection with his Mote of Chaos, looked at its surroundings, and teleported directly behind the Cardinal. While Adam felt fine, The Cardinal on the other hand was looking a bit worn out, “I see even the esteemed Cardinal of Justice can run out of juice eventually.
The Cardinal flinched and then slowly turned around to look at Adam as he asked, “How, No, What are you?”
Adam shook his head, “Doesn’t matter. I’m the guy that’s still pissed at the way you treated me and it seems that the SYSTEM likes me so the question you should be asking is…What is going to happen to you?”
Adam watched as the Cardinal of Justice looked at him and came to the profound conclusion that he had to kill him no matter what. Adam felt a surge of energy go out and watched as notification after notification scrolled across his vision.
C001 SYSTEM Message Override Protocol 0-1-A (F)Adamantadine in effect, Command ignored.
C002 SYSTEM Message Override Protocol 0-1-A (F)Adamantadine in effect, Command ignored.
C003 SYSTEM Message Override Protocol 0-1-A (F)Adamantadine in effect, Command ignored.
…
C998 SYSTEM Message Override Protocol 0-1-A (F)Adamantadine in effect, Command ignored.
C999 SYSTEM Message Override Protocol 0-1-A (F)Adamantadine in effect, Command ignored.
When Adam was done scrolling through the messages he’d received 997 notifications from Cardinals whose commands had been ignored. If the C stood for Cardinal then it looked like there were 999 of them out there and they’d all tried to shut him down All except for two of them, C021 and C016. Those two notifications had not come through yet. The other 997 responded and tried to issue a command concerning him, probably within their scope of influence.
The Cardinal of Justice smiled evilly as he said, “You see, no one is above “The SYSTEM” Even you must submit to the authorities of the Cardinals when exercised.
Adam looked at his hands, rolled each over, and then looked back at the Cardinal of Justice as he asked, “Why?”
“Why? So, you can be put in your place of course,” The Cardinal said as a blade appeared in his hand and flashed toward Adam’s neck and seemed to sink into, and through, his neck where his carotid artery would be. When he felt no pain, Adam opened the message that had just appeared in his combat log.
The Cardinal of Justice has attacked with Skill Heart Burst // Override Protocol 0-1-A in effect // Strike misses.
Adam had no idea why The SYSTEM was protecting him but he’d take it. The “Skill” The Cardinal had used had bypassed all of his senses and he hadn’t even had an opportunity to block it. Adam was beginning to realize that whatever this Override Protocol 0-1-A was, it did not make him all-powerful. To make sure he was still able to affect the Cardinal Adam stepped forward as the Cardinal tried to withdraw his knife, performed an elbow and wrist locked him, and then snapped the wrist holding the knife which clattered to the ground.
Adam wondered what this Override Protocol 0-1-A was, but since it seemed to be helping him and hindering the Cardinal, he’d take it. Of course, he couldn’t count on it to last but he was hoping that he could pressure the Cardinal into going somewhere interesting. The Cardinal flickered in Adam’s grasp and appeared 20 feet away as he flung his arm out and it healed instantly.
“Nice trick,” Adam said.
The Cardinal didn’t respond. Instead, he flickered again, moved within melee range, and attempted to strike Adam again. Again, Adam broke his arm and the Cardinal flickered back. Adam watched as the expression on the Cardinal’s face grew more and more angry as he’d attack, nothing would happen to Adam and he’d retreat with a broken arm. After the fifth attempt, to keep it interesting, Adam started systematically breaking more bones. First, it was both arms, then the Cardinal’s right arm and his right leg. Then the Cardinal’s right arm and left leg.
The Cardinal grew more and more desperate as he added various skills and abilities to each attack, which failed to land. Each time, Adam received the “// Override Protocol 0-1-A in effect // Strike misses.” After the Cardinals attack information. Finally, Adam broke both of the Cardinal’s arms and both of his legs which immobilized the Cardinal. Adam took a step forward with his hands outstretched for the Cardinal’s throat when he vanished.
Adam kept his link to the Mote of Chaos he had implanted on the Cardinal, even as he felt something try to wipe it off of him. Adam looked around while he waited and found that he was on a beach of black sand overlooking a red sea of liquid. Probably contaminated with iron or manganese, if the liquid was water. The planet's sun was coming up and created a purple haze in the sky. He had to admit as places at the end of a universe went, this location was kind of nice. He allowed his ability Molded Chaos to convert a portion of his Chaos to a spectrometer and analyzed the atmosphere. If not for his nature, yeah, this place would have been toxic. So even the Cardinal’s mad dash had been to try to kill him.
One of the problems he kept seeing was that those in power, including himself, tended to get lazy when responding to threats. Plan and use what works. The unfortunate side effect of that kind of linear thinking was that when something truly unique happened responding to the new original stimuli didn’t go over as expected because they were out of practice reacting on the fly. Also, they didn’t have a cheat in their pocket like he did. Chaos could be literally anything. If he could imagine it and he had the will and drive he could do it. Sometimes there were barriers but more often than not Chaos tended to be the trump card that allowed him to cheat whatever blockages had been erected before him…like now.
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Adam waited five full minutes before he tried to teleport to the Cardinal and bounced back to the beach where the energy release detonated like a nuclear weapon going off which completely destroyed everything in a 10-mile radius as a mushroom cloud formed above him. Additionally, the damage had bypassed whatever SYSTEM protections he had and his physical body had been vaporized. Adam’s point of view was left from his Animae Core’s location on the beach. Which was slightly weird. Adam checked to see if he still had the link to the Mote of Chaos on the Cardinal and was relieved to find it still there.
That only left the question of what had happened. Adam looked at his combat log which had no entries except, “You Have Died!”. Next, he pulled up his Event Log and found what he’d been looking for.
WARNING! Teleport to Location 0-1-A Requires Security Signal during teleportation sequence.
Security Signal NOT detected
Override Protocol 0-1-A NOT on file, Ignored
ACCESS DENIED!
GOD SMACK Protocol Activated
GOD SMACK hits for 100% *TRUE Damage Taken // Damage Types: ALL
*TRUE Damage bypasses all Minimum Damage Thresholds, Damage Resistance, Armor, and Shielding (Magical or Technological).
You have Died!
God Smacked. God Smacked? God Smacked! Adam couldn’t believe it, there was actually an attack type called God Smacked which did 100% damage. Well, that was an attack-type he needed to add to his skill set. It was the kind of attack that would allow the SYSTEM to handle individuals like himself, though Adam had a feeling that The SYSTEM hadn’t set up that defense or trap. Somehow, the SYSTEM had been subverted from the security protocols protecting the place The Cardinal of Justice had fled to.
Adam reached out for the Mote of Chaos that was still attached to the Cardinal and found it easily enough. As he looked at the link between himself and that Mote of Chaos he noted that it was not a direct line. The Mote was Connected to another Mote of Chaos with his identity instilled into it, through another Mote and another and another. To say it was a few motes would be disingenuous. Now that he was looking Adam noted that the number of Motes his connection was being maintained through was astronomical.
Adam had shielded himself automatically from the information from the Chaotic nanites he’d created throughout the various realms, universes, and dimensions he’d been through. He noted the Chaos he’d left in the Fundament and how it was traveling through the chaos there and expanding. The universe that he’d first come into and the 100 other universes that had been upgraded from holographic to “real”. His Chaos still had quantum linkages and now that he felt for them he could access them all through the Mote of Chaos on the Cardinal. It was the weirdest thing. He was on one branch of various quantum links but from that Mote of Chaos on the Cardinal he could reach out to every single Quantum link he’d ever created.
Adam sent a command to the Mote of Chaos on the Cardinal and modified the Chaos there to reach out to possible physical nanites of his through the quantum links he built into them. With Perfect Memory, he had each of those links memorized and it was nothing to issue the command to activate them all. As he initiated the command he thought for a moment that everything would be alright. As with every other time he’d expanded his mentality information flooded into him at an astounding rate. This time was a little different though. This time the Animae Core that he’d created shielded him as the structure of The SYSTEM filled in and he could view it, if not in full, pretty damn close.
The Mote of Chaos that was on the Cardinal sat at the center of…How to describe it? It was what had shielded everywhere and when he’d been able to travel to and visit since he first started crossing dimensions in physical space. The holographic Universes had been simulations but he could see that this network that the Cardinals oversaw was sealed away in a sphere or bubble. Chaos existed in some form within each and every dimension, universe, or plane within this structure. Was it a Dyson Sphere on a Universal scale? Language could not describe how large the structure that was feeding him information through his Chaos and Nanites was. If he compared it to the size of the Ancient Enemy which spanned galaxies in size this structure was bigger by an order of magnitude greater than 1,000 times.
As Adam took it all in he noted why his nanites had been able to continue working in mana-saturated environments. The reason was actually quite ironic. They worked because he wished them to and his Chaos, which had taken on a significant portion of all the Chaos throughout this…lifeboat…Where did that term come from? The term Lifeboat would work but he had to know where it had come from. As he looked for the source he found Ptah locked in a temporal trap of some sort. It was quite interesting, the entire Universe and some parallel planes and dimensions were all inside the temporal trap. Ptah was trying to get out and seemed to comprehend that Adam was paying attention to him now somehow. When he’d understood the question he’d thought ‘Lifeboat’. Adam wanted to ask him directly but he currently didn’t have a body and couldn’t establish a mental link across the temporal interference.
Once Adam realized that Ptah was out of phase he looked to the barrier that enclosed everything and noted that there had been temporal shearing along the border of the sphere of, whatever this Lifeboat was, it was definitely out of sync with whatever was outside of it. Additionally, Adam noted that the structure of the Animae Core that he’d created, in fact, all the Animae seemed to be an artificial construct that was linked to something in the same Universe as the Mote of Chaos on the Cardinal. Now that he knew to look for it, Adam searched throughout his own Animae Core until he found lines of energy that were so faint that they were lost in the background noise of the cosmic radiation. Adam thought back over the various times he’d searched for links from himself and now that he knew what he was looking for saw the link even when he’d first traveled to Primore in the Artificial Universe.
Wait, the Gods, back then, were they Cardinals as well? He had so many questions to ask Ptah. Again it didn’t matter for now. His Chaos had spread throughout a significant portion of the entire Lifeboat and now that he could feel the connections to every when and where he pushed. The first thing he did was reach into the universe where Pandora was. He didn’t do that by following a direct line. He had a notion that doing so, while not in a physical body, would probably still hurt. No, he did so by dropping into the plane where the rest of the animae were, including some of his chaos, and then reappearing next to some of the chaos around Pandora that had his signature. She seemed to be trapped in a cocoon of spiderweb but even as looked around he felt the primary core of his consciousness accelerating away from the temporal coordinates of the universe Adjra was in. With that thought he dropped back into the plane where the animae returned to and came from and then started exploring the Lifeboat.
His consciousness flickered around the inside of the Lifeboat like an electron trying to find the right ring to sit in around the nucleus of an atom. He bounced here and there took stock of the various levels of reality that existed within the Lifeboat and came to a significant conclusion. The SYSTEM was maintaining the Lifeboat by creating an artificial cycle of cosmic rebirth while also keeping a copy of every being's sentience. It was a very “Ordered” construction. Within that Order, however, even the Chaos was ordered, except for him, or was he?
Adam pressed against the boundary of the Lifeboat and looked for a way through. The SYSTEM locked down every single attempt with a simple message
ERROR! Boundary Maintenance is accessible in Location 0-1-A. Please proceed to Location 0-1-A to access Boundary Maintenance Routines.
Adam received the error two more times before he decided it was time to confront the Cardinal and see what Location 0-1-A was. The plane of the Animae, while it seemed to be artificially constructed seemed to be accessible by all dimensions and universes, even location 0-1-A. It was a simple thing to bypass the security and pop into the universe right next to his Mote of Chaos still on the Cardinal. Technically, Adam moved his Animae into that Mote of Chaos and grew from it but it was what it was. Once there, he used the chaos that always seemed to be trickling into his soul from his link to, well, wherever that link went, to create his new body. Adam’s body solidified within seconds five feet in front of the Cardinal of Justice as others in the room reacted simultaneously to Adam’s appearance.
As if coordinated beforehand the other individuals present in the room he appeared in near the Cardinal drew their weapons and fired. There were energy and projectile weapons that all failed to land. Adam wasn’t shocked when a voice thundered throughout the area. So loud and thorough that he felt it vibrate his newly formed bones. It was one word and it left no room for misinterpretation while he also received a notification with the same word, “STOP!” It seemed that The SYSTEM had finally spoken.
When the energy weapons and projectiles didn’t stop the individuals shooting the weapons disappeared. Adam looked around to find a few technicians still sitting at various desks and the Cardinal of Justice looking at him.
The Cardinal tried to compose himself as he looked around at his now missing allies and then looked back at Adam before he said, “This is impossible, you should not be able to enter this location. You are not an original Founder. You are not one of the Cardinals on the Security Council and you are not one of the residents of this Universe. You should not be here!”
Adam lifted a finger as he said, “Hold that thought,” and reached through his Chaos for the barrier to the Lifeboat.
You are attempting to Access Boundary Maintenance Functions, is this Correct, Yes or No?
Adam chose “Yes”
Please choose from one of the following options:
* SYSTEM Boundary Check
* SYSTEM Recharge
* SYSTEM Reset, DO NOT ATTEMPT without 100% Reserve Power
* SYSTEM Shutdown
Adam chose “1) SYSTEM Boundary Check”
SYSTEM Boundary Check,
Status: Stable
Power Reserves at 86%
Adam didn’t like the options displayed before him and dived into the various commands and what they did. The System Boundary Check just checked the stability of the SYSTEM’s Boundary. He’d already pulled up that information. It looked like it hadn’t been too long ago that energy was added to the System, though the amount of time was relative and it looked like from inside The SYSTEM time didn’t matter. There was no way to know how much time was passing outside of The SYSTEM
The SYSTEM Recharge choice allowed The SYSTEM to pull in energy from outside of the barrier which was followed by a bunch of equations that were supposed to be gibberish to anyone that didn’t understand math. Adam looked over the equations and immediately discerned that the SYSTEM resembled a singularity and that the boundary was acting as a sort of event horizon. The energy was constantly being pulled into that horizon and shunted into another dimension until it was needed. At that point, the gate would be open and the energy would replace what The SYSTEM needed.
The choice for a SYSTEM Reset returned the SYSTEM to the point when the SYSTEM was first created utilizing Time and Order magic to reset everything. Any sentients were placed in stasis and stored in one of the many dimensions The SYSTEM created for that purpose. Adam pulled up his information and checked to see if there were any copies of him in those stasis locations. There was nothing from before this reset. While there were variations of himself from alternate Earths and there were even some versions of himself that had been killed and placed in Stasis all those versions hadn’t existed before this last SYSTEM Reset. He was unique to this reset. How many resets had there been? Nine so far.
The SYSTEM Shutdown was a doozy. It released control of the SYSTEM to all dimensions, Universes, and planes and also brought down the barrier. As he dug into the coding for that choice he noticed that a lot of notes and warnings had been added about how bad an idea that was. As he was looking over what would happen if he shut down The SYSTEM he wondered why there was no option to shut down the boundary while turning The SYSTEM into a self-propagating entity that would spread into whatever was outside of The SYSTEM. Just then a new notification popped into his vision.
SYSTEM Boundary Shutdown. WARNING! Shutting down the Barrier without also shutting down the SYSTEM can have unintended consequences.
Adam sent an inquiry into The SYSTEM, “Help, SYSTEM Boundary Shutdown”
HELP Request Noted, Defining SYSTEM Boundary Shutdown. The SYSTEM exists within a bubble of Order that mimics most cosmic processes found outside of the boundary. If the SYSTEM Boundary is shut down all functions within the Boundary remain. If The SYSTEM remains after the SYSTEM Boundary Shutdown, the SYSTEM will Analyze, Adapt, and Expand into areas outside of The Boundary Radius.
WARNING! Removing the barrier without shutting down the SYSTEM may have unforeseen consequences, The Founders creating this note strongly suggest that you do NOT do so! Of Course, The Founders writing this note do not expect anyone to be insane enough to try this option. You who read this, You have been warned!
Adam Thought about the SYSTEM and everything that had happened. Ultimately there should be a cycle to life and death and it looked like The SYSTEM prevented that cycle from completing itself. If he was right, and he was pretty sure that he was, he’d never actually died and the Animae Core he’d created was an artificial construct that The SYSTEM and the Founders had created to fill a gap it couldn’t understand in the processes of biological entities. If he allowed the SYSTEM to attempt to propagate he had a feeling that nothing would change for anyone within the Boundary. The SYSTEM would be able to draw in energy as needed to maintain itself while also reaching out and expanding. Those inside should remain unaffected for the most part. Therefore the only thing to worry about would be entities from outside of the barrier trying to make their way into The SYSTEM controlled area, which also shouldn’t be a problem.
Ultimately it came down to one thing though. A group of aliens had subverted and trapped a small portion of reality so that they could live on forever. Existing for existence's sake was not living. It was time to add a little bit of chaos and mortality back into the mix. Plus, the Cardinal of Justice had pissed him off. If he was being honest, he was going to bring down the barrier just to spite that asshole.
Adam made his choices, and clicked “Yes” to bring down the Boundary without turning off The SYSTEM as he said, “You owe me.”
SYSTEM Message: Noted
Adam had a feeling that message was just to him which was immediately followed by a slew of new general messages.
SYSTEM NOTICE! Override Protocol 0-1-A has initiated a SYSTEM Boundary Shutdown. SYSTEM Propagation will begin shortly. Please note the following major changes
* The Artificial Reincarnation Cycle will end once the boundary has been removed.
* The SYSTEM will not be present in locations outside of the boundary radius.
* When The SYSTEM was created the Founders did so to remove the natural life, death, and reincarnation cycle and to remove divine, and demonic influences from those governed by The SYSTEM. The constructs within The SYSTEM that mimic these processes were artificial. With the Boundary being removed the cycle of life, death, and reincarnation are returning to their natural origin. Additionally, the struggle of the heavens and gods is not artificially replicated anymore. Simply, creatures of divine or demonic origin are not governed by The SYSTEM, if they exist.
* SYSTEM Processes will continue as normal within the previous Boundary however individuals placed in stasis will be released and SYSTEM Resets are no longer possible.
* SYSTEM Update 11.0.3 is now live.
The Cardinal of Justice’s eyes went wide as he read through the prompts until his eyes cleared and he focused on Adam as he all but screamed, “What have you done?”
Adam smiled maliciously and then grinned, “Honestly, I have no idea, but I think it’s going to be more interesting than the bullshit you Founders tried.”