Inside of a remote complex in a long-abandoned city two unbelievably sophisticated artificial intelligences are silently hard at work. For the last twenty-four hours, the two intelligences have been crunching numbers and reallocating energy from various parts of the city to complete one potent objective. Both of the intelligences are interfacing with an impressive number of machines in the complex, working them with eerie, practiced ease.
Neither of the intelligences speaks, despite both of the artificial beings having the ability to do so. A single monitor tucked away in an ignored corner of the room counts down, ticking down with every passing second, and it currently reads "00:01:30".
Another monitor, one in a far more prominent place in the large room containing the majority of the machines the intelligences are using, displays a rather odd scene. The monitor displays a wide shot of what some humans from the world on display would recognize as a large room in a small office building and several figures, humans, seated at various cubicles. The humans are all typing away at various computers or on phone calls with various clients.
Only the artificial beings know which of the humans on the screen is the actual target of their curious attentions and affections. Both of the intelligences are hard at work but at the same time, both are fascinated by the hard-working figure in one of the corner cubicles.
Eventually, the ninety seconds left before the monitor in the corner of the room pass and when they do a machine in the middle of the room begins to turn on and emit an intense glow. As the machine begins to glow a mysterious event begins to occur in the office on display on the prominent monitor. One of the workers, a young man in a tight suit and a poorly tied tie begins to fade, turning see-through as he works, and he is so engrossed in his work that he doesn't even notice until right before he vanishes altogether.
At the same time, one of the artificial beings quietly questions the other. Her words are inaudible, but they are asked nonetheless.
"S.T.A.R.S.H.R.O.U.D., will you be contacting the thronemaidens?" The intelligence, known as Delphi, asks the much younger invention; the artificial oracle named S.T.A.R.S.H.R.O.U.D. Her companion does not respond and instead follows its prime directive: to watch over and protect the emperor, or heir, of Etherscape.
At the moment the young man being dragged from one end of the multiverse to another space and time in it is the heir. Delphi quietly waits to see if she will get a response from the impatient artificial intelligence she's been collaborating with for years, before internally sighing when she realizes that it is not the oracle's plan to immediately contact the legendary bodyguards of Etherscape's emperors.
Meanwhile, the unwitting young heir of the empire is currently falling through dimensions and being dragged forward in time. His body is being exposed to strange aetheric energies and mutating as supernatural energies course through it. To him, only a second will pass before he finds himself standing in the middle of a large, hollow machine, but in actuality, the process will take several minutes from the perspective of the artificial intelligences who have pulled off this rather elaborate retrieval mission.
Every single one of the man's cells are infused with potent and alien energies. His muscles are empowered without changing in appearance, and mysterious organs inside of him begin to vibrate and seemingly come to life. The figure is transforming without even realizing it.
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Coincidentally the second that the transfer happens I am blinking in wonder and confusion. I have just looked at my hand and noticed that it is becoming translucent which causes me to blink and when my eyes reopen I find myself in a new position and entirely reoriented.
I go from sitting at my desk to standing inside a strange, jet-black space. I am surrounded by jet-black walls which only barely give me enough room to move ever so slightly. The transition from my place of employment to here, wherever the hell "here" even is, is simultaneously so abrupt and so seamless that it actually takes me a second to register that I am suddenly standing up even as my mind reels back from the sudden change to what my senses register.
One of the first things my senses alert me to is the fact that I am suddenly naked, which would normally frighten me but given everything that has occurred my nudity is not high on my list of concerns.
"Whoa…" I mutter, even as I hear something in my immediate vicinity hiss, and then feel one of the four walls that surround me begin to move backward and then break into four parts which are pulled into the rest of the machine. I begin to see more than just jet-black walls, and I study what I can immediately perceive before daring to take a step forward.
I am inside of an object in a large room filled with machines, most of which line distant walls. I can see what I instinctually identify as some high-tech monitors throughout the room, alongside various consoles and terminals. Curiously I don't see any keyboards or anything for typing but I've seen digital keyboards before and I assume that the devices must have something like that or are somehow remotely operated, before I take a careful step out of the object I'm inside of and into the room.
The floor beneath my foot is cool to the touch, the room itself is also decently cold, and I take a quiet breath as I lift my back foot and allow it to join my braver limb. Nothing happens, and so I decide to go ahead and approach one of the machines I can see lining the walls of the room.
I take several steps into the room before I notice and react to a strange light that spontaneously manifests in front of me, my eyes widening in alarm as I attempt to quickly study my surroundings and see if I somehow set off something. I almost hop backward in alarm as the light begins to take on a specific shape: that of a curiously curvy woman who is smiling brightly at me.
"Greetings my liege!" The woman says, her voice synthetic and calming and the smile on her face disarming in its beauty. The holographic figure has impossible blue skin and elegantly "cut" white hair. Her face is beautiful and she has perfectly white, almost milk-like, eyes that study me.
She has a digitized outfit on that looks like something I'd expect to see at the fortune teller booth in a renaissance fair. Her word choice is formal and specific and when I mentally replay what she just said to me my eyes narrow in confusion and I look at her curiously.
"'Liege'? Did you just call me your lord?" I ask as I look at her studiously, and this question makes her nod brightly at me.
"Yes, I did! I completely understand your confusion Your Majesty, but I and my companion have called you to a mythical place known to explorers as the 'End of Time' because you are the joint heir to this ruined and long-abandoned city and to an independent, still very extant, empire known as the 'Empire of Etherscape'." The hologram informs me. I take a step back and I look at her confusedly.
"Is this… a practical joke?" I ask, causing her to laugh. Another figure appears beside her, this time the light manifests and turns into a beautiful woman wearing something I'd expect to see in a science fiction movie, a bodysuit with an open slit revealing some of the woman's cleavage. She frowns at her companion and turns to me with an apologetic look on her face.
"My companion is overly excited, and I apologize on her behalf. Allow me to begin first by introducing the two of us." This figure says.
"I am Delphi, an 'Artificial Spirit Oracle' created by the ancestors of your ancestors. My companion is 'S.T.A.R.S.H.R.O.U.D.', an ocular artificial intelligence, and despite our similar sounding origins we are not all that similar in how we view or predict the future, created by one of your more distant ancestors on the Etherscapian side of your family, a woman named Tar tel'Avos. Tar was the third emperor, and also the first empress, of the empire my colleague mentioned." Delphi explains.
"There is a long history beginning here, at the End of Time, which eventually involves Etherscape, and culminates in your birth. This history involves betrayal, civil war, chaos, genetic experiments, and superpowers, but I can assure you, master, Ignacio, what my companion told you is true. You are the next, the only, person in line for Etherscape's throne as well as the last Omega Lord, the inheritor of this city and the rightful lord and owner of all surviving Omegatech." Delphi tells me, causing me to study her curiously.
"I… I need an explanation." I remark after being silent for a few seconds. This causes both of my companions to smile at me.
"That's… fair. Okay, allow me to explain things from the Omega Lord angle." Delphi replies, still smiling.
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"Omega Lords are members of a humanoid species that have things called 'Omega Sparks' nestled within their souls that allowed them, and will allow you, to use potent supernatural abilities. This city was their primary home, and it is nestled, temporally, at the very end of the multiverse, which itself is a collection of universes including the one you are from. A long time ago, speaking… loosely, one Omega Lord betrayed the rest and devised a machine that shuts down Omega Sparks. Using this machine a coalition of the enemies of the Omega Lords, who had plenty of foes due to their power and technology, banded together, invaded the city, wrecked it, including slaying every one of my kind other than myself, and slew every last Omega Lord they could find. Which… was most of your kind. The traitor herself was slain in the battle by one of the more effective living weapons a non-traitorous Omega Lord scientist was developing." She says, pausing and smiling.
"Fortunately, before the city itself was attacked a group of Omega Lords were exiled from the city and went to your homeworld: Earth. When they arrived they found the planet was a nice enough world to settle down in and build new lives for themselves but they were paranoid because even back then the Omega Lords had enemies who'd hunt down and slay any Omega Lords they could find. They beseeched an ancient, primordial being and asked for a way to shield themselves from their supernatural foes. This being asked for some of their knowledge in exchange, and they agreed. The world of Earth was draped in a… veil of some sort that kept supernatural beings other than the Omega Lords from interacting with humans, except those with powers of their own who got shunted to the supernatural side of the veil, and in doing so shielded the Omega Lords from the supernatural." Delphi tells me with a proud smile. I can sense that she must be lonely…
"Those Omega Lords had kids of their own, and they all lived for millennia before eventually dying at the hands of some human, some natural disaster, or some other cause. It turns out that the veil was strong enough to weaken even the sparks that fuel the powers of your kind which made them vulnerable enough to be killed with enough effort from would-be killers. Their kids had kids and those kids had kids, eventually unwittingly interbreeding with some descendant of the last emperor of Etherscape. Before terribly long, cosmically speaking, you were born. You are someone who has the right mix of genetics and innate supernatural energies to be able to straddle the veil, wandering between both sides with impunity, and though that ability never awoke in you before now it was still enough for my companion and I to find you and pull you here. And if you are curious, you SHOULD be able to do what your ancestors could do." Delphi explains, before turning to S.T.A.R.S.H.R.O.U.D. and silently gesturing for her to speak.
"Oh, it's my turn! Okay, so give me a second. I've never had to summarize Etherscape's history before." She admits, before laughing awkwardly.
"Etherscape is a series of planes which naturally intersect each other located in the same universe as the Earth you are from, a world which is known to sufficiently well-traveled explorers as the 'Veiled Earth'. In addition to naturally crisscrossing each other, these planes are all naturally suffused with 'Ether' which is a type of energy that can be used to fuel everything from magic to technology and can only naturally be found in Etherscape. Some people from these planes are capable of manipulating ether naturally, and using it instead of more universal fonts of arcane energy to fuel spells and other supernatural things, as well as creating machinery and technology which is powered by ether." The powerful intelligence explains.
"Ether is a natural amplifier and fuel source and things fueled by it, be they magic or technology, are more powerful than they should be, then they'd otherwise be. A long time ago one of your most distant ancestors unified the different planes where ether could naturally be found, becoming the first emperor of Etherscape. His successors did not possess the same leadership skills he possessed, but until the most recent emperor, hundreds of thousands of years ago, only rarely did civil war break out and they tended not to result in the deaths of emperors. His foolishness resulted in not only his death but the supposed extinction of his direct family. Thankfully the last emperor had a daughter, an imperial princess, who died secretly giving birth to a child with special powers: a 'Nova', uniquely powerful ethermancers who can generate ether inside of themselves even in places outside of Etherscape making them potent living weapons wielding an assortment of powerful ether abilities. By the time he was born he was the last of his kind. That child lived in hiding until he heard of Veiled Earth." The intelligence reveals.
"Upon hearing of Veiled Earth, he and his most loyal allies made for the distant planet. They reached it, and every one of them willingly gave up their powers in exchange for entrance into and sanctuary in the world. They would live and die on Earth, but not before having children and families of their own. And I think you can imagine the rest of that part of this history." She says, surprising me with a bit of a joke. I smile at her and chuckle.
"Their most recent descendant is you, my liege. You are a Nova. Even now my sensors are picking up ether slowly generating within you, due to the activation of powerful anomalous organs inside of you. You are capable of ethermancy, the arcane and supernatural manipulation of ether, and you are a manamutant, a creature who naturally generates ether even in worlds far from Etherscape. If you had lived your whole life on Veiled Earth you'd never have any way of learning this thanks to the havoc the Veil would have played on your powers, but thanks to Delphi and I collaborating, a collaboration which has lasted longer than you've been alive, and your latent nature as a 'Veil-Straddler', we found you and can allow your powers to blossom to life." She says, joyfully.
I am quiet as I take in these complex and royal histories. I know the two have skimmed over important details, but as I look at the two of them I quietly want them to be telling the truth. If this is a prank of some sort it's the most intricate prank I have ever heard of, with unbelievably advanced special effects and bizarrely complex lore.
"How… How can I learn to use these powers?" I ask, looking at the two artificial intelligences. They both smile, and the artificial intelligence from Etherscape is the first to respond to me.
"Manipulating ether is normally quite easy, at least under ideal circumstances. In Etherscape the very air is permeated with ether. You are not in Etherscape so this will be a bit different from how we've tested people… Cup your hands together." She commands, and I do as she asks.
"Lift your cupped hands to your mouth and exhale, capturing as much of the breath as possible. Since you're already generating ether you might have generated enough to use to conduct a normally simple test." She tells me. She takes a deep breath, which is a curious action since she's a holographic projection and, at least as far as I can tell, not a physical being here in any corporeal sense. I do as she asks, and I smile inwardly when I feel my warm breath heat up my hands.
"I am currently walking you through the test we in Etherscape give ethermancers when we want to see if they can use the ability known as 'Metacreativity'. It may not work. But this is the simplest ability I can think of that can be easily tested that isn't enormously destructive. Picture the breath in your hands becoming something you can hold in cupped hands. Perhaps a small ball or something." She tells me and I close my eyes. I do as she asks.
I focus and I picture the air in my hands slowly solidifying and taking on a new shape. I keep my eyes shut even as I feel the captured exhalation begin to shift. It takes on new weight and grows until it is barely touching my nose. I open my eyes and I see a plain white ball in my cupped hands, which causes my opened eyes to widen in amazement.
"I… I did it." I say, astounded by what I am looking at. Both Delphi and the oracle from Etherscape beam at me, delighted by what they hear and both women gasp when I move my hands and reveal the small white ball in my hands to the two artificial beings.
"It's real…" I utter, astounded by what I have just done. Delphi approaches me and studies the ball, her eyes wide as she admires it.
"How astounding. I've only met a handful of ethermancers, but even I know that so smoothly manipulating ether is challenging, especially when the ether is inside of you instead of outside of you. And still, you smoothly rose to the occasion… Novas are truly amazing. S.T.A.R.S.H.R.O.U.D's guidance is incredible!" She says, which causes Star to smile almost proudly.
"He is directly descended from the emperors of the past, Delphi. We know for a fact that some degree of ethermantic ability and skill is directly inherited, and Ignacio is a direct descendant of the true emperors of Etherscape." Star says proudly.
"What you have just done is use an ability named 'Metacreativity'. This ability allows you to transform ether into objects of various sorts, of all sorts of sizes, functions, and traits, once you either have more experience or are surrounded by more ether. As a 'Nova' 'Metacreativity' is one of your most interesting abilities since once you have a normal amount of ether, for a nova, inside of you you'll be able to craft all sorts of intriguing things, most of which will only take a few minutes, if that, to make." Star explains. Delphi speaks up the second her companion is finished speaking.
"Master, for you to use the powers of your Omega Lord ancestors we must awaken the sparks that may exist inside of you. To do that I need you to enter a machine," She says even as she points to an object similar to the metal box I was just in on the other end of the room. "Once you're in it I can turn it on and it will awaken the powers you possess as an Omega Lord." She tells me, excitement audible at the very edge of her voice.
"Can we go ahead and do that right now? Having seen you manipulate ether so easily I am imagining the sort of potent potential that must be present in every cell of yours." She says, her voice becoming more and more excited with every word. I smile and begin to walk towards the machine. When I get close to it one of the walls of the object opens and I step inside without hesitating. I'm nervous, but I've seen firsthand that at least some of what I am being told is true. If I want to find out how true the story I've been told is I need to move forward, and accepting that is something I've already done.
The wall I stepped past to enter the machine shuts and I hear Delphi's voice over some sort of internal speaker tell me that there's going to be a flash of light but that I won't feel a thing. I also hear her say that it's a good idea for Star to go ahead and contact "The Thronemaidens", a title that instinctually makes me quite curious.
I have just enough time to blink before everything around me brilliantly lights up. For a moment all I can see is emerald colored light. Even when I hear the familiar sound of the machine I'm in opening up, I still can't see anything for a few moments. Nonetheless, I smirk and put a hand on the machine to steady myself as I step out of it, curious to learn about whatever I can, supposedly, now do.