(Various Locations, January 21st, 2047)
While Jessica stewed in her cell, Adam thought about how he could handle the situation. There were many ways he could but honestly, he was becoming bored with it. He requested a verbal link to Desirae. After a few moments, it activated.
“Adam, what’s up?” Desirae asked.
“I have another ‘You’ situation,” he said.
“Another ‘me’ situation? Who did you piss off this time?” she asked.
“The daughter of someone that tried to kill me and successfully killed a lot of our military, in another Cosmos but she followed me here. I don’t have time to deal with her so I’m going to let Thor brief you on the particulars and you can work with her. She is a mage and magic is coming back into the world so you might need to be careful.”
“Not to worry, Thor can handle her while I still can and when I can’t, his abilities should be fully available,” she said then paused for a moment. “Yeah, I just reviewed the information Thor has on her from you. Just over level 1,000 as a mage. She might have some power, but I should be fine. What are you going to be up to?”
“I need to figure out how she got here and make sure it can’t happen again,” he said.
“Well, good luck. I’d say don’t get yourself killed but as I understand it, that’s not really an issue for you anymore.”
“Thanks, and you’re right,” he said as he shut down the connection and teleported back to the maternity ward in Clovis.
Adam’s Thor aspect had been trying to figure out how Jessica had breached the barrier when she’d made her way into the Universe but failed miserably. Maybe it would require his full processing power? He teleported next to the singularity that housed his Thor aspect. Well inside the event horizon, Adam reached out and touched the surface of his nanites which were now so condensed that they acted as a singularity to surrounding space. This singularity was him and he was this singularity though.
As he touched the surface of the singularity. Now a sphere about the size of a basketball he noticed a slight difference. Adam wasn’t exactly sure what it was. He performed a self-diagnostic on himself and all nanites adjacent to himself and realized that some of the extremely small nanites he’d created to infiltrate Jessica’s mind were within him as well. When he’d come into contact with the singularity some of them had made their way to that connection and were even now analyzing and converting those nanites into much smaller nanites.
If they were one million times smaller than his current nanites that meant that for every nanite currently within the singularity roughly 1 million could be created and the process would be exponential. Would that change the mass of the singularity? Create gravity waves? He wasn’t really sure. With only half of his mana left, even though it was recharging rapidly, he willed a bubble of force around the singularity that maintained the current gravity going outward from that point but contained any other effects within the bubble so that whatever happened within wouldn’t radiate out from this point.
“Overmind,” he sent through our quantum communications channel.
“Yes, Adam.”
“I’m in the Singularity again. Just a heads up, I put a containment bubble around it so stop trying to feed anything. It’ll just wedge up against the bubble. I’m not sure…”
Adam was cut off as the process of conversion exploded within the sphere and everything within, including him, was converted into the new smaller nanites. Through pure strength of will and a strong sense of self, he held himself together and reabsorbed his Thor Aspect into himself. Adam felt like he was riding a tunnel of light down a hole that was both infinite and not, huge and microscopic, real and imagined. he’d been in such situations before, and he always felt like Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole. This time something was different though. There was a feeling of inversion as if he was falling into himself.
Adam reached out with his senses and realized he couldn’t see, taste, feel, smell, or hear anything. As soon as he thought that though he was overwhelmed with the sights, tastes, smells, sounds, and textures of every single one of his nanites, both chaotic and normal everywhere.
Adam knew each and every one of his nanites throughout Chaos and the many universes and dimension they inhabited in the Cosmos he’d come from. He knew each and every nanite that the Thor in this Universe controlled and also felt this Thor’s alarm as he detected something he could not define piggybacking all of his nanite’s signals. Then the shocker. He felt every single nanite within Universe he recognized as his original starting point. It had closed and been put in a state of stasis the moment he stepped through the portal at Nu Draconis to Apolyn’s Abode way back when he started this escapade.
Adam also knew each and every nanite that was making its way through the fabric of reality from the portal that Jessica had ripped into reality and even now he could sense that the fissure she’d created was growing. As his nanites explored the fissure they detected and recorded the energy that was opening the fissure and started backtracking it to its source. While the nanites could exist within it they couldn’t quantify or categorize it.
Adam felt all of these sensations at once and if not for the staggering amount of mental capacity he had that had been reincorporated back into himself his mind might have burned out from Information overload. As it happened he felt the pressure build and continue to build as he struggled to maintain his core identity. He would like to say that it felt like suffering a huge swell off the coast of Australia, which he was experiencing as part of this information influx, but it felt more like being one of the pieces of ablative material on the underside of a Space Shuttles during re-entry. He felt an overwhelming sense of heat and pressure from all sides that seemed like it would go on forever.
Adam allowed a very small portion of his mind to check his internal clock and realized not even a nanosecond had elapsed. He redoubled his efforts and continued to keep his mind focused as the pressure continued to build from all sides until he felt something give at the very center of the mass of nanites that had become his core. Suddenly everything was turned inside out as he found his consciousness inside something he could not quantify or measure. All of his nanites that had been in the singularity were in here as well and spreading out from the center in all directions. Adam tried to coalesce some into the point that he thought of as himself and was surprised when nothing happened. Also, it seemed that his internal clock had stopped working.
Adam could still feel the information from everywhere being added to the information he now held but it no longer felt like an increasing pressure. Instead, it felt like a stream he could either dip into or just let pass him by. When he focused he could still experience whatever his nanites were doing wherever they were, but he wasn’t overwhelmed by the information.
Adam contemplated this for a while then considered the possibility that he had somehow accessed another dimension. That didn’t feel right though. He still felt the same, yet, he felt different, it was hard to explain. Trying to focus himself into a single point hadn’t worked so he thought about focusing himself at the center of this place and suddenly his body formed, and he was whole again and felt himself floating in a void.
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Adam could still feel the space his body was floating in. His point of consciousness was both in the body he conjured and looking through all his nanites everywhere. Where his new body was, wasn’t dark, but it wasn’t bright either. He also noticed that the nanites that he was composed of here were spread throughout the entire area of the sphere. He removed his focus from his body and used his eyes to try to focus on the boundary of the sphere. It moved away from him. Weird. he willed himself to be at the boundary and he was there. Adam touched it and it felt solid. He willed himself back to the center and he was suddenly there. What was even weirder was, he had no point of reference to know where the center was through observation but he instinctually knew that he was at the center again. Adam looked out at the boundary and again it seemed to move away from him. It seemed that something funky was going on concerning the size of this area.
Adam tried to pull up his Personal Interface and was pleasantly surprised when new notifications appeared.
Congratulations! You never fail to surprise Adam. You have successfully evolved your soul into a Soul Space. Normally this is achieved much later in the process of personal evolution as you move through existence yet here you are, having achieved something that only one other has achieved in this Cosmos.
The soul is inviolate. What this means is that anything placed in, or that is a part of this space, remains through every tribulation that a soul is put through. Be it death, rebirth, trauma, magical modification, technological modification, etc…
Note, Fundamental Abilities have been detected. Fundamental Abilities are not compatible with your Soul Space. You may have a number of Soul Abilities equal to 2 plus your Karmic Luck. You may have ERROR number of Soul Abilities. Current fundamental abilities will be converted to Soul Abilities now.
Fundamental to Soul Ability Conversion:
“Perfect Memory” No Change - Like Photographic Memory except for all five senses with an automatic recall of desired information.
“That Was Easy” has been converted to “Pansophical” – Skills that are known to you or known by you are performed as if you were a “Master” in that skill automatically gifting the equivalent skill level of a Master as defined in whatever Reality, Cosmos, Universe, or Dimension you find yourself in.
“I have Always Been, I will Always Be” has been converted to “Inviolate” – Your soul is sacrosanct. Your soul cannot be destroyed. As you have learned Energy cannot be destroyed only converted. Any action taken to affect you through time manipulation has no effect on you. When the timeline of your current local stabilizes your soul will remain in its current local, from which you can reform and continue along in the timeline you are in. This process is almost instantaneous. You are not subject to Grand Father Paradoxes or harmful magic that utilized the manipulation of time
“Creature of Raw Chaos” – has been converted to “Chaos Forged” Your soul had been inundated with Chaos and forged to withstand all forms of chaos. During this process, your will has been strong enough to hold your core identity together and permanently changed your soul. You may enter and exit any environment flooded with Chaos 100% resistant to any further changes. Also, the chaotic nature of your soul allows you to designate and change your normal abilities as you desire. These abilities are normally fixed and may not be modified. This is not the case for you. You may add, remove or change out your normal abilities as you desire. Maximum number of normal abilities: 2
“Adaptable” No Change - Chaos has modified your body so that you may adapt to any environment. From Absolute Zero to the Gravity well of a Singularity your body can and will adapt to all environmental conditions. This includes the ability to survive in those environments. Example: the ability to breathe underwater if necessary.
“Willed-Movement” No Change - As a being of Chaos, constantly connected to it so long as you are not in a region of ERROR, you have the ability to move through that Chaos as you desire at any rate you desire. As Chaos is present in all aspects of reality, your will allows you to move as you desire. This is a sub-ability of the Fundamental Ability “Adaptable.”
“Undying” has been converted to “incessant”- Should your physical body be destroyed your soul remains and can reform your body immediately. This is a by-product of your chaotic and nanitic composition as well as a benefit of your Karmic Luck. You are immortal
“Resistant” No Change - You are 50% resistant to all Primal Magic and natural manifestations of those magics. Additionally, you are 100% resistant to all magic from the following spheres of power; "Chaos, Time, Space, and Gravity, and 50% resistant to Holy and Demonic Magic.
“Godless” has been converted to “Open to new Ideas”- The changes to your body have severed any clerical link to the divine you had. Reality is vast, there might come a time in the future when aligning yourself to the divine or joining their ranks and becoming subservient to one or more may be required. The limitation of never serving a divine has been removed.
“Confluence” has been converted to “Convergence” - The very nature of your Soul draws Chaotic Energy and converts it as you desire. In any Reality, you have access to and can utilize any magical energy normally. Additionally, your Mana Regeneration is increased by Willpower + Endurance per minute. Crossing into a new Reality is traumatic and resets level, attributes, and skills to one (See Pansophical above for specifics on your skill levels in any new reality). Inside your soul space, however, your actual level is maintained and added to. Chaos no longer converts to experience for your current reality. Think of your bodies within any new reality that you visit as a projection. Those projections will have levels and attributes as earned in that reality.
“Spellweaver” No Change - You neither memorize nor permanently add spells using spell slots. Instead, you may weave magic into any form of your desire so long as you have the skill and mana to do so.
“Personal Storage” has been converted to “Soul Storage” – The area inside your soul space is as small or large as you desire and follows any rules you wish to impose. You no longer have a storage limit and can summon any item out of your soul storage as you desire to the current projection of yourself. Items placed into or taken out of the space appear or disappear to the hand touching them. This space can be represented by slots if you prefer.
“Infinite Wealth” has been converted to “Affluent” - Your Fundamental Ability has been transformed by your Karmic Luck. As needed you may produce or create any type of physical money in any reality you visit. In realities where you have integrated yourself into the global markets, digital currency is always available to you.
As he floated in his new “Soul Space” and looked over the changes to his fundamental abilities Adam realized he had a lot to think about.