I can feel the gazes of my companions on me, even though I still can’t see. It takes almost a full minute before the green glow that has completely overtaken my vision begins to dim. As it begins to dim I begin to feel… different.
“Whoa…” I softly utter, as I begin to be able to see again. I can faintly make out a look of worry on Delphi’s face as she moves her holographic form closer to me and looks at me.
“Master, tell me how you’re feeling.” She commands, speaking with surprising authority and firmness. I look at her and let out a weak laugh. I do notice something odd, though, her eyes have begun to curiously glow.
“I’m feeling… I feel different, Delphi.” I remark as I feel my very brain itself begin to change. I can feel my mind itself expanding, filling with wholly new knowledge, even as I feel my range of perception dramatically increase.
My whole body is beginning to change, but the immediate changes are strange. I can hear the soft, idle sounds of a long abandoned, high-tech city and with every passing second I feel my range of awareness increase. I study my surroundings and with even cursory glances at the machines around me I can begin to intuit their purposes. Supernaturally bestowed knowledge allows me to know what the technology on display here can do with some level of certainty.
I’m standing in some strange control room for the city I’m in. Machines near me control an array of things, from the weather up on the surface to different, probably long-ruined security measures.
“I’m smarter now.” I exclaim, stating it with a funny amount of certainty. I walk over to one of the machines located on the wall of the room. It is next to a portion of the wall that is curiously clear of machines and I touch the machine just to activate it.
The thing, among other things, can open doors leading in and out of this room. It comes to life, and I begin to fiddle with a digital keyboard that appears on a small display in the middle of the thing even as I speak to Delphi.
“Delphi, what’s beyond this door?” I ask as I let my finger hover the final key I’d need to press to open the door in front of me. My companion looks at me curiously and then turns to face the blank space along the wall for a few moments before looking back at me with a smile on her face.
“Beyond that wall lies the entrance to one of the vaults. Vaults, especially in this part of the city, tend to be storage spaces for biological omegatech and omegatech which supports them in the accomplishment of their objectives.” She explains, as she continues to watch me with a curious gaze.
“In that particular vault there should be whatever is left over of a legion of servitors, technologically enhanced organic lifeforms designed by the Omega Lords to be servants, footsoldiers, and the basic fodder of their militaries. They are both extremely flexible in terms of easy modifications even a young Omega Lord can install, and in terms of what they can do.” Delphi explains.
“There might well also be a cache of weapons, basic omegatech armaments meant for the likes of servitors and possibly something like a few handheld replicators. If the replicators in there are intact those are the handiest bits of omegatech you’d have on hand, since you have the thronemaidens no matter what.” Delphi tells me, causing me to turn my attention back to Star with a smile on my face.
“Star, have you contacted the Thronemaidens?” I ask, and I hear her gasp in surprise at being referred to as “Star”.
“Uhh, no not yet my liege.” She tells me hesitantly and I turn to her and look at her with a waiting look on my face. I can sense that she wants to say more, and I allow her to wait until she feels ready to say more of her own volition.
“I… I should explain to you the very basics of the ‘Thronemaidens’. They are the Emperor’s, or rather your, personal bodyguards, agents, and servants. They are a group of millions of elite manamutants, natives of Etherscape who can generate ether inside of themselves that they can share with ethermancers. I have not contacted them yet, as I wish to warn you of some stuff before you meet them.” The oracle explains.
“The ‘Thronemaidens’ are the singular most elite fighting force in Etherscape, at least when it comes to small scale and personal scale confrontations. They are magnificently trained agents of the Emperor and even now, when it’s been well over half a million years without an emperor the Thronemaidens have been steadfastly searching for any heir, while continuing to maintain anything that would ostensibly belong to the emperor.” Star reveals, smiling as she thinks about the potent guardians and enforcers of the imperial branch of the government of Etherscape.
“That said there is some basic stuff you should know before you consider whether or not you want me to contact the maidens right away.” Star warns, her smile fading a bit.
“So the world you’re from is very different from the worlds which constitute the totality of Etherscape. Earth is a VERY restrained and prudish world compared to any of Etherscape’s territories. Researchers who study ether have discovered that something about it powerfully charges sex drives and the natural urges some biological lifeforms have with regards to sex and sexuality.” Star tells me, causing me to shut my eyes and smile as I scoff quietly.
“It… makes people horny?” I ask, and when I open my eyes I look at her and see her nodding at me.
“I mean it does more than that, but that’s one of its effects. In time, a matter of minutes… hours… days at the longest, it will have an array of effects on you. But when I call the thronemaidens they’ll be able to get here in minutes and you’ll get to see firsthand how dramatically it can affect someone.” The oracle warns me.
“Manamutants, which includes you since you are a ‘Nova’ and your thronemaidens, can be extremely susceptible to the effects of ether. I also need to give you an advanced warning of this because you are also an ethermancer, and as such you can absorb the ether in the bodily fluids of manamutants. So even just the act of holding the hands of a manamutant can speed up the rate at which you generate ether and increase the amount of ether inside of you if they are sweating.” Star tells me, which causes me to shiver slightly.
“I… Well, thank you for telling me that in advance. Is there anything else you want to tell me before I ask you to contact the Thronemaidens?” I ask, and before she can speak Delphi cuts her off.
“Master, I apologize to both ‘Star’ and you, but I need to tell you something. I have been studying your vital signs and I know what powers you’ve unlocked. You do in fact possess thirteen sparks, which is only the beginning of your terrifying power.” Delphi reveals, her eyes filled with a curious mixture of awe and concern. I turn to her and gesture for her to tell me what she needs to say.
“So throughout the history of the End of Time as an organized base of operations for Omega Lords numerous Omega Lords conducted research on themselves and any of their peers who’d volunteer for such experiments. A favorite topic of study was the powers conferred by even a single spark. It’s worth noting that singular sparks can give rise to numerous powers, as the sparks are not the powers themselves but the font of energy that fuels them.” Delphi tells me, smiling as she talks about the Omega Lords of the past.
“As a general rule, according to the research those inquisitive Omega Lords conducted, there are fifteen powers that an Omega Lord might be capable of utilizing. Some of them are only as complex as they sound, such as ‘Super Speed’ and ‘Super Strength’. Others are complex things such as ‘Nanokinesis’, an incredibly powerful form of telekinesis capable of feats as complex as resurrection, shape-shifting, and illusion-making.” She explains, causing me to be curious about what I can do.
“You can use… all of them. Every single one.” Delphi reveals, causing me to stop for a moment and just freeze.
“The ones that are as complex as they sound are super strength, invulnerability, awareness, super speed, and mimic. Those powers are simple but… powerful. Super strength gives you enough power to be able to lift a planet in terms of the actual weight you can lift. Super speed gives you enough speed to move faster than light and with commiserate reflexes.” Delphi explains.
“The ones that are a bit more complex than they sound are ones like nullification, which both renders you immune to abilities beneath a certain, terrifying, level of power and also makes you completely immune to timeline tampering.” Delphi begins.
“You are an absorber, which means you can absorb powers, knowledge, memories, and more from people and things but you must be in their presence and actively concentrate on them. You have a truly frightening ‘Meta’ power that lets you edit the abilities of other beings, including giving them new powers, taking away powers, and strengthening or weakening anything you let them keep. I already talked about nanokinesis, but that’s one of your abilities too.” She says, as though reciting a list.
“You’re a blaster, which means you can emit the energy stored in sparks as destructive blasts that you can shape and control with truly stunning precision. You can ‘Go blank’ which means you can render yourself invisible to anything that isn’t comparable to another Omega Lord, and you’re a telepath who can both read and control minds on the scales of thousands at any time with a range as wide as a planet…” She continues, causing me to begin to smile as I wonder what else I can do.
“Your senses have been wildly improved and if you experiment you’ll almost certainly discover that you have a frightening affinity for magic that revolves around divining information. You also possess a stunning natural mastery over magic itself equal to a ‘Sorothustran’, a member of a race of planet-affecting mages, and you’re a teleporting, naturally time-traveling, super genius with what humans would call a ‘Galaxy Brain’ when it comes to technology, science, and technologies that break science.” She says, before finally coming to a stop and smiling.
“So… are all Omega Lords just stacked powers-wise?” I ask as I look at her curiously. She laughs and pauses before she answers, clearly thinking about how to answer my question.
“All Omega Lords were POWERFUL, indeed your abilities themselves aren’t naturally more powerful than any of your ancestors, the difference between them and you is that you have more powers than any singular member of your species did. Most Omega Lords had multiple powers but only three or four on average. I’ve never seen a member of your kind with all fifteen abilities.” She explains, which causes Star to beam proudly at me.
“There are still plenty of creatures that would be wildly dangerous for you to fight on your own, such as ‘Ascendants’ creatures who can interface with and break reality itself or ‘Elohim’ spirits that dwell in the hearts of universes or the multiverse itself and feed on the energies therein, as well as greater gods, mythic wyrms, and demon lords, but for the most part even without the Thronemaidens you’d be… difficult to defy. And I have no clue what sort of ethermantic abilities you possess. If you are as mighty a Nova as you are an Omega Lord… The possibilities are terrifying.” She tells me, but the look on her face is not one of fear. I recognize the excited look in her eyes as one of powerful emotion but she’s not afraid.
“Do you… do you have a physical body? A corporeal form?” I ask as I study the woman. This question causes her to refocus and she shakes her head at me.
“I don’t, sadly. There IS Omegatech for spirit oracles and other artificial intelligences to have true, corporeal bodies, but it’s but one example of the long destroyed omegatech which can be found throughout the city.” She explains. I decide to try something out of curiosity.
“Can you tell me how my ‘Meta’ ability works?” I ask, causing her eyes to fill with excitement.
“Of course master! The name given to it by one of the Omega Lords who researched the abilities your kind could manifest was ‘Alter Power’ and it was useful for a lot more than mere alteration. Any Omega Lord who possessed it was capable of bestowing supernatural abilities upon those they wished to give powers and could create powers as easily as someone else might do the simplest arithmetic. There were some pretty strict limits that the curious Omega Lords noticed, most especially that it was extremely taxing to create powers on a scale similar to those of the abilities the Omega Lords themselves possessed, but anything below that was extremely easy to create.” She tells me, doing so delightedly.
“Virtually any sort of power can be created if you invest the mental time and energy to do so. What’s more is that with sufficient experience it becomes easier and easier for you to create powers that would have once taxed you to create, allowing for the most ancient Omega Lords who possessed this power to create and bestow Omega Lord level abilities to their followers and objects they created.” Delphi reveals, lecturing me quite happily.
I turn inward as she continues to speak, giving examples of abilities some Omega Lords have created in the past. I attempt to activate the power and begin trying to build the ability I want to give Delphi and Star: the ability to take on a truly physical form unbounded by technology, along with a dash of shapeshifting to customize the physical forms they’ll be taking on and instinctual knowledge of how to use these new powers. Once I turn the power on and feed it what I want to create I feel a bit of my focus be siphoned into it for a split second and then I sense the power form inside of me and settle down in my soul.
“Huh… Delphi, do me a favor and take my hand would you?” I ask, interrupting her. She looks at me curiously but does as I ask and when she does I will the power to surge out of me and into her. She freezes as the power courses into her equivalent of veins and I watch as she makes a soft sound even as her mind fills with newfound knowledge regarding the power I have just given her. It takes her a second to refocus and when she does she smiles at me and I watch her activate the power I have given her.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Her body transforms from that of a strange, shimmering thing made of curious omegatech and turns into a true, corporeal form. She doesn’t alter her appearance in any meaningful way, and instead looks exactly like what she looked like before, just fully solid instead of strangely translucent. She takes a deep breath but even as she’s doing it I watch a strange blush spread across her cheeks.
“Master… You smell amazing.” She says, and this declaration surprises Star who surprises both Delphi and I by speaking up.
“Oh, he does?! That’s incredible! That is probably his ‘Pheromones’ beginning to manifest!” She tells Delphi and I. We both look at her and wait for her to expand on that. It takes her a second to get the cue.
“Ah, sorry! I’m so used to working with the Thronemaidens that I forget that most people aren’t as familiar with ethermantic abilities. Okay, so the key to the success of the first emperor when it came to unifying Etherscape included his sexual abilities. This is… not solely his sexual prowess, though those did help, but also a variety of abilities related to sex that he possessed. One of those powers was his pheromones.” Star explains.
“Ethermancers are naturally highly attractive members of their species. That said there exists a rare mutation in the imperial family that causes some ethermancers and manamutants to naturally infuse trace amounts of ether into the air around them, which transforms the air around them into potent pheromones that make those of their preferred gender both more sexually attracted to them and more naturally amenable to their ideas and suggestions.” The oracle explains, causing me to turn and look at Delphi. I smirk at her and she smiles but doesn’t say anything.
“Ethermantic abilities are not tied to sexuality in the ways that your great ancestors once believed them to be, but some meaningful ties between sexuality and ether do exist. For example, the sexual fluids of manamutants contain the most ether of any of the fluids that contain the stuff such as salvia or sweat. Despite this, there is no truth to the idea that ethermancers are stronger when they are virgins or another urban legend which is much the opposite: ethermancers with enormous harems of lovers are not stronger than less sexually diverse or, potentially, sexually active ethermancers.” Star explains, causing me to almost laugh.
“Those tall tales are… something.” I remark, brightly, a smug grin on my face. I imagine telling my friends about this world before I pause and think about something important.
“Is it possible for me to go back home? If I want to?” I ask, looking at both of the artificial intelligences curiously. To my surprise they both smile at me and nod.
“We mentioned you being a veil straddler earlier. Because of that aspect of your unique nature you can in fact return to Earth. In fact because you are a ‘True-Warper’ you can actually not only go back to Earth… you can go back to Earth the very instant that you disappeared, if you feel like returning to your normal life.” Delphi tells me with a huge grin on her face.
“Truewarping is an incredibly rare Omega Lord ability that Omega Lords normally need their tech to do but you can do without one of their machines. Truewarping is the art of traveling between universes and timestreams, it’s freeform time travel and universe-hopping.” Delphi reveals, causing me to chuckle.
“Freeform time travel… Fuck, what an incredible ability.” I say, bluntly. This removes any pressure I am under to make my way back home, or to rush forward here. Delphi’s smile widens when she hears me say that.
“Truthfully there’s more to it than that. You can also take up to a planet with you, and you can warp reality itself on a planetary scale. It is the single most powerful Omega Lord ability, at least right out of the gate. It is a phenomenally powerful ability.” She explains causing me to turn and look at her with an awed expression on my face. She is now fully smirking at me.
“You are amazing, master. And the endless research done by the Omega Lords of old confirmed that all omega powers, even ‘Truewarping’ are capable of growing stronger over time and with sufficient experience.” Delphi tells me, even as I turn my attention over to Star and put a hand on her holographic shoulder. My hand only stops because I hold it where her shoulder is, rather than allowing it to pass through her digital body. I share the power I created earlier with Star and I watch as she shudders before becoming a fully corporeal being.
Star also does not make any meaningful alterations to her form, simply becoming a solid version of her holographic avatar. Nonetheless when she takes a breath I watch a blush almost identical to that of Delphi spread across her face, causing me to wonder just how powerful my “Pheromone” ability is. She manages to regain her composure quickly enough and she closes her eyes before speaking.
“Okay master, would you like for me to go ahead and contact the thronemaidens? If I do they’ll be able to arrive here in an hour, give or take.” Star tells me, causing me to pause and I consider what all she has told me about them.
“I still need more information before I can decide if I’m ready to begin to meet more Etherscapians. What is the government of Etherscape like in the absence of the emperor or some heir?” I ask, looking at Star thoughtfully. She ponders my question for a moment, and I can see wracking her brain for what sort of information to use to contextualize whatever she is about to say next.
“So the government of Etherscape has split into different, though largely cooperative, factions in the wake of the death of your ancestor. The imperial faction has been led by the thronemaidens and has made use of my precognitive powers to lead a secret search for you. Thanks to my powers we knew that the emperor had an heir but couldn’t reach him in time to stop him from going to Earth. Thankfully we quickly learned that someday a new heir would be reachable through the veil, at least if we teamed up with the right people.” She informs me with a smile.
“The imperial faction consists of the thronemaidens and others uniquely and steadfastly loyal to the imperial crown and the tel’Avos family. We are in close contact with several other factions, and the hegemonies know that there is an heir somewhere in existence. A few of them are actively funding the search for you. That said, the number of hegemonies that fully understand what we are doing totals just three.” Star explains.
“The tel’Dzeks, the tel’Iomes, and the tel’Knirs are abreast of the situation concerning your existence. The tel’Dzeks are a family of fanatical loyalists who were once prolific serial assassins, the tel’Iomes are one of the central military hegemonies, and the tel’Knirs are the hegemony with the most skilled intelligence apparatus of all of the hegemonies. All three families are actively sending money and supplying valuable aid with regard to the search for you.” Star announces with a bright smile.
“Fortunately even the rowdiest of the hegemonies are at least somewhat supportive of the idea of finding you and placing you on the imperial throne. Every hegemony has memories of the power of the emperors and relished being unified under the aegis of the imperial sovereign, as well as the cooperation that came with true unity. And you, my liege, would be the first emperor to be a nova so your personal power should vastly outstrip that of your predecessors, even the first emperor.” Star declares, a smile on her face as she thinks about the various hegemonies situated throughout Etherscape.
“As far as the actual government of Etherscape goes… Without the direct power and authority of the imperial crown keeping such a vast region together and actively unified is difficult. At the moment each of the hegemonies are largely independent, but thankfully cooperation is commonplace and at any given time only a few hegemonies are in any meaningful state of conflict with each other. Right now the most hostile relationship in Etherscape is between the tel’Poths and the tel’Pahts, two hegemonies with a long, brutal history of conflict and war and even they are currently tolerating each other and waiting for a chance to strike.” Star states.
“The hegemonies have plans in place for if, or when, you were brought to Etherscape. Unsurprisingly, your faction also has plans for when you were retrieved. At the moment the thronemaidens are busy preparing those plans to be initiated the second the head of the thronemaidens confirms you have been brought to the city.” Star declares with a grin.
“So if I ask you to call the thronemaidens and confirm that you’ve found me what happens in the short term? At least with regards to Delphi, yourself, and myself?” I ask, deciding to focus on my immediate future. Star thoughtfully contemplates my question for a few moments before eventually beginning to give me an answer.
“When I call the thronemaidens Delphi and I will give them our coordinates and allow them to make use of the same machine that we used to bring you here. They’ll be knowingly being brought here, so they’ll have foreknowledge of the trip, but it’ll be otherwise the same experience for them as it was for you. And from there we’ll be able to begin to plan the next steps towards the imperial faction’s overall plans to getting you on the throne and having you lord over Etherscape.” Star tells me, proudly.
“That said, in the time between the thronemaidens being called and appearing we’ll have enough time to go and scour the vault. Omegatech is immensely rare and your natural ability to use the stuff could prove to be a game-changing advantage as far as any negotiations you find yourself in or any adventures you wish to undertake. I recommend, long-term, doing our utmost to fully explore and map out the city as well as to try and retrieve every scrap of omegatech that we can find.” Star reveals, with a happy look on her face all the while.
I tell her to go ahead and contact the thronemaidens while I press a final series of keys on the digital keyboard on the machine in front of me, which causes the wall next to me to open in the rough shape of a large door. I march through it and into a vast hallway while Star contacts her allies, shutting her eyes and no doubt transmitting messages somehow to people elsewhere other than this point in space and time. At the other end of the hallway, something like a mile away from our current location, is a vast door with a large device in the middle of it that is the perfect shape for someone to fit their hand into it. The door itself looks like it was made from what I’d have previously imagined was steel but now I can’t believe that the entrance to the vault would be so low-tech.
A part of me wonders what my bodyguards look like, but I quickly realize that I’ll be discovering that in about an hour. When Star is finished contacting them she beams at me and I ask her what sort of abilities Novas are known to possess. She doesn’t hesitate to answer my question this time, not needing any moment of contemplation before doing so.
“Well they do have some abilities in common with Omega Lords. Super speed, super strength, invulernability, teleportation, and both potent magic and the ability to shape and wield energy in destructive ways represent the commonalities between Omega Lords and Novas as far as superpowers go. However, Novas also have plenty of unique abilities. Novas can shape ether into non-destructive tools and items with metacreativity, they can also bring back the dead, clone themselves, manipulate technology with nothing more than their minds, and two different nova had powers over life and death.” Star explains as we make our way down the long chrome hallway.
“Sadly, the only way to test out which nova powers you possess is for us to wait for you to have enough ether to try out various abilities or for us to get to Etherscape and allow you to practice your abilities there in spaces with unlimited ether.” Star says, revealing why she hasn’t tried to test my powers, other than my usage of metacreativity. I nod at her as we stride further and further down the long hallway.
My companions and I only stop when we find ourselves in front of the vast steel-like door. I look at it and smile as I place my hand on the device I spotted earlier. The device beeps and the door beings to slide open. I admire the device and note its simple, but in the context of Omega Lords incredibly absolute, unlocking mechanism: the door only opens to people who possess fully active omega sparks. The knowledge I possess as someone with a big brain for technology is amusing since it seems to come from nowhere, coming and going as I look at potent omegatech.
The door slowly slides open and reveals what Delphi was reasonably certain would be here. Rows upon rows of agender beings clad in nothing and all waiting for some sort of order. The creatures on display in front of me have traits that are a mixture of man and machine, picking and choosing whichever they wish with seemingly no concern for consistency. It’s almost annoying to study them as they simply stand still and wait for someone to say something that brings them to life.
“Oh thank goodness we have an intact batch of servitors.” Delphi exclaims brightly when she sees the curious fusions of man and machine.
She enters the vault fully and seems to glide over to the nearest servitors, an almost contagious excitement filling her as she quietly mutters her observations about the fancy omegatech. I watch her walk over to the nearest machine and sigh wistfully as she reaches it.