(Chaos, January 13th,2037, Day 377)
Adam exited the portal onto a flat surface as dark as empty space. Then he realized that he was standing on a panel of something clear that he could see through. As he looked around he saw stars and nebula off in the distance in all directions. A moment later he heard a small pop as Beaezul, the demon from the Syndicate, popped in not ten feet from me.
“Hello, Adam,” Beaezul said with a smile.
“Beaezul,” he said nodding his head towards him. “What are you doing here?”
Beaezul paused for a moment then answered. “You could say that I am a direct representative of the Labyrinth.”
“So, you started out as a construct?” he asked.
“Well, yes. How do you know about constructs?”
“The Labyrinth sent one to me a long time ago.”
Just then a feminine voice filled the air and asked, “And what happened to his Construct?”
Adam thought about making up something or taking his time to explain but decided to go with blunt and quick, “During the last major change to the timeline she was saved and stored by my technology, though a copy of her resides in my mind as well,” Adam said.
“She?” The Labyrinth asked.
“Yes, she named herself Abi and we worked together to stop the destruction of souls that an overzealous Divine of Death and Destruction had wrought on the Cosmos during its previous configuration.”
“I have some memories of that time. I, we, were many and interconnected. Now there is only me, as it should be,” The Labyrinth said.
“If you don’t mind me asking, when did you come into existence?”
“As much as I understand time, I have always existed. There is no point that I do not remember once my memories started. One day Adventurers started exploring me. After that there was a true beginning as I took control, until the splitting, then of course that ended, and now I am back to normal.”
“From the beginning? Do you mean your beginning?” he asked.
“No, the beginning of everything. When I started remembering there was chaos around me and outside of that chaos Nothing. The Astral and ethereal hadn’t formed yet. In fact, they didn’t form until much later. No at the beginning when there was just this place, the universe as you call it, and nothing outside it. I felt changes happen but not for a very long time.”
“But that doesn’t make sense. Primore was the first Universe.”
“Yes, I connected to Primore. It wasn’t the first Universe I have ever connected to though.”
While we’d been talking Beaezul had been standing silently, he looked at me and added, “What the Labyrinth is trying to say is that it is far older than the Cosmos.”
Not possible, Adam thought as he reviewed the information and then made a shocking discovery. There were no nanites present here except the ones in his body. He tried to expand his cloud of nanites to surround himself and nothing happened. They weren’t destroyed, They were simply held at bay in his body. In his body, they could do whatever they wanted but it looked like they couldn’t leave his body for any reason. he tried to conjure a cup in his hand, but nothing happened. What the hell was going on?
“Your technology will not work within The Labyrinth. Here I make the rules and I do not let technology into my center,” The Labyrinth said.
“Why is that?”
“In the long past, I encountered something very similar. Growth through expansion and eradication. When I connected to that Universe the technology tried to enter me and eat at his fundamental nature. I decided not to allow it, so it didn’t happen.” She said.
“You mean to say there is a complete Universe of living technology in another Universe?”
“Yes and no. There is a Cosmos, consisting of multiple Universes that have been overcome by technology that has eradicated everything else. No life exists there and what passes for sentience has no soul. I have removed all access points from myself to it.”
“What will happen to it?”
“I do not believe the technology there was as sophisticated as yours is. Yours seem to be able to alter matter at a fundamental level and interact with magic. The technology in that Universe could not.”
“Could that Cosmos be saved?” he asked.
“Not my responsibility nor a task I wish undertake, but to answer your question, possibly.”
“What is your task?”
“Unlike you, I do not have a purpose because I do not choose to have one. In this version of the leveling structure that was instituted, I would be considered Ascendent Rank 10, though no God of any level can change anything inside me without my permission. I am this Cosmos; this Cosmos is me.”
“You say that you can remember the previous timelines?”
“Yes”
“Then how, before the last change, were there multiple copies of the Labyrinth all interconnected?”
“Simplicity itself, they were not me. The Cosmos you came from before created its own Labyrinth. Yes, it was also connected to me, but it chose to try to change the mistakes it had made. This caused the copies to be made and they all became interlinked. Eventually, it could have become a real mess for everyone in your Cosmos. I learned from the mistakes I saw it making and when something happened, I chose not to change it. Also, I have temporally locked myself. No one can take any temporal action within me. The only spells of Time that will work within me affect only the user or the target either speeding up or slowing down their personal reference. I do not allow spells of time to be cast within myself that affect me or allow travel through time.
“What about spells cast on you from outside that changes something within you?” Adam asked.
“I do not know what would happen. No being has been powerful enough to affect me in such a way. Something prevents anyone or anything from targeting me as a whole. Also, I believe that if someone were to change something from the outside that would be a minor change that would spark a split in the timeline of myself. The Energy would come from the source of the change and possibly cause an alternate timeline to form there but the change to me would be outside of me. Also, time travelers are barred from entering me. If you are outside of your spun thread, you may not enter me and make changes. You may enter, we can talk but nothing you do here will remain. As soon as you leave, any changes that may have occurred are automatically fixed. Don’t ask me how that works, I don’t know.”
“Do you mean that you’re not part of the Cosmos?”
“I mean that I am separate but equal to the Cosmos.”
“Are there Universes within you?”
“No, though there are Dungeon Realms within me.” It said.
“Dungeon Realms?” Adam asked
“A Dungeon Realm is what a Dungeon becomes when it grows to a certain level. When that happens, it becomes extradimensional and connects to me. The physical manifestation of the dungeon in its Universe is moved into me. As a very small parallel dimension, you might call it a subdimension.. Not a whole Universe though. I review the laws of the dungeons that connect to myself and adjust myself accordingly or I don’t. I have chosen to in this instance though I could have just as easily converted individuals that traveled into dungeons connected to me and then myself.”
“That seems complicated.”
“It is. The Dungeons act as a kind of buffer. The Labyrinth, or I, am not a very forgiving environment to enter, though I do try to keep things at least somewhat fair. I don’t stack monsters far outside the capabilities of those entering from a dungeon, though some monsters that are created do roam from the higher-level zones into areas they shouldn’t be. In those cases, I try to make sure happy accidents happen where Adventures of appropriate levels find them.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“And your thoughts on the Cultivations?”
“That is why Beaezul was created.”
“I don’t follow,” Adam said.
“In certain Universes within your Cosmos, I stopped seeing Dungeons develop to the point where they would connect to me. If I do have a purpose, it is to help others either strive and succeed or strive and die. In the Universes that the Cultivations were permitted, Dungeons that had previously been connected to me withered and then lost their connection to me. I created Beaezul to investigate.”
“I don’t understand, Dungeons don’t wither and die.”
“Dungeons. No, they do not, but if enough energy is diverted from them they lose their connection to me and reform within the Universe they started in. Those that started the Cultivation were diverting monster spawns from dungeons into the Cultivated worlds. This had two effects. The first was to reduce the number of monsters in a dungeon making them barren to adventures. No Adventures, no possible deaths of monsters or Adventures so the energy moved from the dungeon to the Cultivated planet. If the Dungeon didn’t have enough ambient mana it lost its connection to me. When that happens the extra-dimensional space which was anchored between me and the dungeon’s origin universe severed and the dungeon came fully into me as a physical addition to my physical structure, no longer a parallel dimension or sub-dimension.”
“How often has this happened?”
“Seeing as they were cultivating a planet every 3 months or so and multiple dungeons spawns were diverted to the Cultivated Planets and continue to be diverted to those planets even after the first year is over, numerous,” she said.
“What was it like in the beginning?”
“Much simpler. I have no idea what came before me. One moment I wasn’t there the next I was. There was only one Dungeon connection then to a Universe in a Cosmos that no longer exists. The remnant of that Dungeon remains within me.”
“I don’t understand. Where,? We are in empty space.”
“It is my understanding that you have created a sphere around a star and populated the inside curvature of it to resemble your world?” she asked.
“Yes, we call it a Dyson Sphere, named after the man, that invented the concept.”
“Beaezul, show him.”
Beaezul pointed and a circular window opened in front of them aimed in the direction he gestured. As Adam watched the scene inside the window started moving at incredible speed through nebula and gases until laid out before him. A landscape exploded into view that went off for what felt like forever in all directions as a flat plane. Beaezul gestured and the window disappeared. He pointed up and behind Adam and a new circular window formed. The image within raced forward until once again he was looking at a different flat plane that seemed to go off forever in all directions. Beaezul gestured, and the 2nd window disappeared. He then pointed down and a circular window appeared in front of their feet which showed another image similar to the 1st and 2nd.”
“What is below those planes of land?” Adam asked
“The Edge, which continues to expand.” The Labyrinth said.
Adam pondered for a moment then said, “A Dyson Sphere on a Cosmic Scale?”
“Yes.”
“Wow,” he thought as he pondered the breadth and scope of the Labyrinth. A Sphere of as close to infinite size as one could get with a landmass around the inside of it. His trigonometry teacher had once explained that if you could zoom in close enough on a circle that there would come a point where anything on the circumference of the circle would seem to make a straight line to any points on opposite sides of that point. In this case, the curve would be so gentle that it would appear that the lands and seas went on forever on a flat plane. Those that would say the planet, which it really wasn’t, was a sphere would be partially correct and the flat earthers would have a field day which brought up a thought, “What about moons and day-night cycles?” Adam asked.
“There are no Suns or Moons as you know them over the Terrasphere. There are day and night cycles though and they vary depending on where that portion of the Terrapshere you’re on. An Atmosphere covers the entire sphere but there are areas of the desert that could span galaxies where very little vegetation lives. In those areas, the oxygen content of the air would be lacking. In other areas, there are seas that could span the breadth of Universes where aquatic creatures rule. Some areas might resemble Earth, others Primore, other areas, your planet Mars, or even Venus. Whatever region you’re looking for you will find within me along the inside of this sphere.”
“The scale though, it’s staggering.”
“Not too staggering. To me, it is no more than a part of my body.”
“What about the space within the Terrasphere above the Edge?” he asked.
“Above the atmosphere of the Edge, just a little over as Astronomical Unit “AU” from the surface a very thick nebula which covers most areas where civilizations have sprouted up. There are regions where a nebula does not cover which also do not have a day-night cycle though the temperatures are kept reasonable. In those areas, people can see deep inside of me. Past the nebula, I am much more like a normal Universe. There are Galaxies, Stars, Planets, and moons. The planets are inhabited, or not. Every normal environment exists within me and follows the natural laws of a Universe much like the one Primore resides in.” it explained.
“But sunlight and starlight?” Adam asked
“Simulated without direct observation. In populated areas the light of the day will grow through the day and then receded, diffused from the Nebula. One thing about the Edge is there is never a truly dark night as there is always some level of light unless one goes underground of course. Seasons are even simulated allowing for springs, summers, falls, and winter environments. to befall the Terrasphere.”
“What about the monsters that spawn within you?” he asked.
“I have designated safe areas, usually around major Leyline junctions throughout the sphere though my North and South Poles are particularly interesting. Might I suggest that if you ever find yourself on the edge you make your way to Leyline Junctions P0 and NO, Positive 0 and Negative 0 respectively? They might provide some insight into reality.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Cosmos you have come from is sheltered from some truths. You’ll need to learn them for yourself.” The Labyrinth said.
“Who made up the rules for the Cosmos I’m in?” he asked.
“The ones who came before.”
“And what of souls, Gods, and the heavens and hells.”
“I do not know. There are no Heavens or Hells within me. There is, however, a version of what you refer to as The Eye here. Souls, when done here, either return to their origin through the open connections I keep, or they travel through The Eye. One fundamental truth to every Cosmos I’ve encountered is that souls are sacrosanct and pass on when done with their mortal and divine coils.”
“Which brings me to a very important question, why are you informing me of all this?”
“Because I’ve been watching your Cosmos for some time now. I understand what you did to save souls from the monstrosity that was destroying the souls across multiple universes. Because I believe you to be an honorable individual that is trying to do the most good that you can and because the decisions you will make will change your Cosmos forever. I wanted you to know that no matter what you do, like you, I will remain unchanged, and you should be able to find me again.”
“How many Cosmos are out there?”
“More than one, less than infinite. Who would know?” she asked rhetorically.
Adam pondered her statements then looked around one last time taking in the beauty of the stars before he said, “First, I might make a mess of things. Second and more importantly, how can I trust you?”
“You may, or you may be the catalyst that is needed to ensure that the Cosmos you’re in survives. Also, whatever you decide, it won’t affect me. I have merely asked for you to come here so that we could finally meet. As one of my previous iterations, that no longer exists, was paramount to your elevation I thought it only prudent that we meet.”
Beaezul spoke then, “If it helps, I had no idea what I was doing when The Labyrinth created me to be its spy on the Syndicate. Also, until you came along I had no idea how I was going to shut down the Cultivations.”
“But wait, you’re a demon?” Adam asked questioningly.
“Yes, and no. Besides didn’t you know that demons that have lived long enough eventually evolve, or did you think we’d remain evil forever. Or do Angels remain good? Every entity has free will, it’s built into its soul. To remain good forever or evil forever is crazy. No one, not even the gods that have existed or the Labyrinth here knows what’s on the other side of The Eye. Here I’ll give you a perfect idea of why eternal happiness in heaven or eternal damnation in hell is a stupid idea. First, Forever is a really long time. A really long time. Second, think about when a human for example is their happiest. That one moment when you have achieved perfect ecstasy and happiness, when is that?”
“I would say the moment of an orgasm,” Adam said.
“Exactly! What else can you do at that moment?” Beaezul asked.
Adam thought about it for a moment. He thought back to before he was connected to his nanites, because they truly did give him an unfair advantage to the question then said, “Nothing, I guess.”
“Exactly! Nothing!” You lock up because your brain is firing off endorphins and you’re in the throes of pleasure. So, most of the Christians from your Earth believe that you’ll all go to heaven and live in a state of ecstasy forever which basically means you’ll be a drooling, locked rigid, spirit for all eternity until something happens. And those that go to hell, you already know that at any moment they can just let go and they’re off through the Eye. Besides, demons get tired of endless torturing. There’s a point when it gets boring and becomes like a job. Sure, the occasional bad girl comes in and we have our fun running her through the paces over the next couple thousand years if she’s strong-willed. Normally though they melt, and you just feel sorry for them until they let go and move on. That’s how the Labyrinth found me, I’d taken a break and received an offer I couldn’t refuse. The actual me probably released itself to the eye a long time ago. I am but a copy that has been added to the Labyrinth.
“And he’s done a fine job too.” The Labyrinth said.
“I can see the points you’re making, but that still doesn’t explain why I should trust you” Adam said.
“Simply, because we’re the only beings talking to you that know the truth.” The Labyrinth said.
“If I wanted to visit your P zero and N zero nexus points how would I get there?” Adam asked.
“Easy enough, just ask and I’ll open a portal for you. Like you with your technology, I can hear anything inside myself. Be warned. The P zero position will start flooding you with energy. This energy will equate to extra hit points. The rate at which you gain the points depends on how close you come to the origin point.”
“Origin Point?” Adam asked.
“Don’t worry you’ll figure it out.” The Labyrinth said. “Oh yeah, N zero works exactly the opposite. If you run out of energy you’ll die, though your regeneration rate is so high you probably have nothing to worry about. Why don’t you go check them out and we’ll talk after? Your fundamental abilities should work, though your nanites won’t and you are a God after all. Nothing up there should be too terrible to deal with. Which location would you like to go to first?”
Adam thought for a moment then said, “How about P zero. Not knowing what he was getting into it was always a good idea to start with a positive outlook.