Era ?? Loop 124 Year 15 Day 234

His memory is a very interesting one. Since the beginning of this Era he has been obsessed with the idea of me. The First probably has probably done something to him prior to this. Most likely with Little Emperor.

His technology is beyond anything I have come up with. It somehow links his conscious mind to his subconscious one. It brings out memories, hidden desires, everything. It works by sending minute electrical signals down the neural pathways, recreating them within… Ah.

He seems to have discovered something about my power unknown to me. I have several dozen recollections of AI dissecting me, including my brain. He; however, goes a step further in his fiftieth Loop.

He has his VI inject semi-unstable APG into his mind, while recording the energy spikes. While he is still conscious. His results are … disconcerting.

When new memories are formed, the electrical signals are sent into the brain like normal. They are then instantly enveloped in a small burst of energy similar to the energy signature within a particle of APG.

1. I have stored my memories in the minute amounts of HCL in my brain. Once the Loop is over, my brain gets sent to the exact neural pathways it had at the beginning of the Loop, but the minute amounts of HCL are able to bring forth the memories of old Loops.

That must be what those ‘orbs’ of memories are in the Abyss! They are me tapping into my own HCL.

I am going to create my immortality machine and serum, so I can play around with new technology.

Era ?? Loop 125 Year 1 Day 1

It always takes me a bit to organize all of the memories of my old selves. I should have used a bit more time. He had his virtual intelligence controlling his machine poised to kill him should anything go wrong.

I can still recreate his machines, it’s unfortunate I must put effort in to get this started but… Oddly, I did not experience the Abyss.

Era ?? Loop 125 Year 15 Day 234

I don’t know if it’s Karma, or fate, but whatever it is, I am done. It is the same time I came into this world one Loop ago. I now have exact copies of his machines, controlled by AI instead of his shoddily programmed computer. Of course, I have several extra machines. The reason it took an additional fifteen years, is because of these machines. AI and I had to discover how to tap into these blobs of HCL inside my brain. The hardest part was figuring out how to bring them up, since they only seem to appear when new memories are created, but the prior me has a lot of data that is loosely correlated to that. It isn’t much work to change that into something usable for me. About fifteen years of the world’s resources and my undivided attention is all.

“AI, are we ready?”

“Yes Caelus. Ready to commence Procedure 1.”

I nod as I prepare myself. The other me dies dozens of times trying to get this correct. But I have all of his experience to back up my own experiments. Before I start I input a ‘safe word’: Pop. If I shout this out mentally AI is to pull me out right away. I remember the hundreds of times we have practiced this. I get sent into a medically induced coma. It is special in that the chemicals AI will be giving me forces my mind to be continuously active in that state.

AI flips the metaphorical switch.

Darkness.

I’m in the Abyss! This is perfect. I don’t know if I am here because I died, or if the machine worked. I will find out in a few years I suppose.

My experiment is successful when I can artificially send myself into the Abyss, and pull out before the First notices me. And I have no doubt he is looking for me. If he fused all our lost Era together, then he would be here as well.

I can feel the other memory packets that were once me. Am I in my mind right now? Am I literally inside my brain? Is this place a mentally structured place the represents the physical folds of my brain?

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I wade through the familiar blackness, gathering towards the bright sparks in the distance. Wait, one is growing larger. A single bright dot comes towards me. It is getting larger by the second. It’s huge, easily a dozen, a thousand times bigger than any other dot. It is chasing other dots. They seem to be going towards it, getting consumed by it. It pulses lightly, and the other memories seem drawn to it.

AH!!!

It must by the First! It’s looking for me! I don’t know if it is my new knowledge of what these dots are, the machine, or something else entirely, but I am able to move through this place much easier than before. As I begin to mover towards the other dots, I try to imitate it. I urge the nearby orbs of light to come closer, to become part of the still living me.

After a few moments I feel myself contract. As I do a small pulse of light releases from my body.

Nearby orbs begin to become attracted to me. Some, though I thought they were close, were just very large and far away. They were much outside the range. Depth perception in a void is difficult.

I move with ease through the various balls of light. Their memories pour into me, but I push them aside, when I am done here I will go through them. For the moment I need more. I need to absorb more memories. I need to become bigger.

…

It has been years, at least the amount of time I have counted is years. It might have been seconds in the outside world. My everything has been composed of consuming these other versions of me. I am quite good at it now. I decide to be risky. From ‘watching’ the other versions for a while I’ve noticed there are several large orbs consuming smaller ones. They pulse out and attract others. They also consume each other. It seems many other versions of me wish to gather more memories.

There is probably an exact area of effect that the bigger other versions of me can sense the pulse, but I have been safe, so I haven’t tested it out. I send out a pulse, bigger than any other I’ve sent out to date.

This pulse has two consequences. The first, and better one, is that the nearby orbs seem to come to me of their own volition, more quickly than ever before. The second, and much worse, is that a large orb of light seems to notice me.

It begins growing larger, the only indication in this void that it is moving directly towards me.

I move as quickly as I can while absorbing nearby memories. The First seems to grow larger endlessly. How far was it? It is now a dozen times bigger than it was, and it still is too far to send the pulses at me.

Shit. This is too much. I’m going to be consumed! Pop! POP! POP! The bigger me is getting to close! It is constantly sending out pulses. They are so pure. So many memories must be stored inside it. If I could just touch it a little, I could steal some of its memories. Maybe I could tear off a piece of it and it won’t consume me. I just need to get a little closer… just a bit more and I can touch it…

…

My breathing is extremely rapid. “Where am I?”

“You are in the laboratory. I pulled you out of your medically induced coma when you gave the signal.”

“What was the delay time?”

“I pulled you out less than four hundred oscillations of the Cesium Atom after you sent the signal.”

9192631770, or a little over 9 billion, oscillations of the Cesium Atom being one second of course.

“Good.”

Time must move faster in that space. Now that I have these new memories, I am going to digest them, and think of my next step.

1913485. That is my ‘Era’, at least according to the memories of the versions of me immediately prior to ‘me’ being created. This new me, this one came three Era after me. So, it is now Era 1913488.

The memories I absorbed were ones directly prior, and after, me. It seems that without moving the ones closest to me are the ones that are also closest chronologically.

Era 1913488 Loop 125 Year 17 Day 67

It takes several hours to comprehend all of the memories of these other versions of me. I spent hundreds of years in the Abyss, but AI says it is only a few years later. It seems time moves exactly 100 times more quickly there.

The memories I have are worthless to me at the moment. They do nothing to aid me in my current goals. I’m going in again.

…

After I finish reviewing my memories of the last version of me I consumed, I enter the Abyss. I am in a slightly different area than last time. I will need to find out why. This is the first time I have paid attention to my ‘location’, but I will need to figure out why I am not in the same spot.

Era 1913488 Loop 125 Year 27 Day 124

I am just out of my fortieth jump. AI gives me the data about the beginning and ending of the jump. When I go in, my entire brain is temporarily encased in the purest HCL we have ever seen. It is equivalent to the stuff being poured from the Void in the Bermuda. That’s where I am now. I am just feet away from the damned thing. It is walled off of course, but all of the HCL is instantly vented into this room. There is no air or contaminants to dilute it.

“AI have you got everything you need?”

“I believe so Caelus. Shall I start Procedure 2?”

“Do it.”

Procedure 2 is simple in concept, difficult in activation. We are going to artificially bring forth older versions of me to fuse with, while I am still conscious and not in the Abyss.

I am sitting in a metal chair, I have more wires and electronic boards connection to me than AI does at this point. To stimulate this state is not easy. All around me in the sparse room are various measuring instruments. It looks like what a hospital room for a rich guy might look like while he is dying in a Hollywood movie.

Everything goes black for a moment. When I come to, AI is congratulating me. I am unaware of what happened between those times, but I do have a few Loops of extra memories. I ask her how long I was out. I lost memories of roughly the last thirty minutes. The memory packet is roughly three hundred years long. It’s not much. Not to mention I need to see if the blackout was a one-time event, or if there is some sort of correlation to the memory packet I have obtained.