Chapter 175: Trump Cards & Chapter 176: Consequences

Almost done! 7K weekend. Enjoy!

Chapter 175: Trump Cards

Walker stared at the man, and the man stared right back into him. The battle was almost done. In a swift strike, the top elites of the entire Evolver faction were dead or dying. Bodies of Awakened littered the area around them in even greater numbers, but that didn’t seem to matter to the man with the wide smile.

“No questions? No confusion about my grand conquest here?” He said without turning around to look at the carnage behind him. “That’s unlike you, Walker.” Alma tilted his head, looking at Walker sideways, “Ah, you’ve reached the fourth stage. What did you pick, I wonder? Especially with all of that Origin sitting in your belly.”  

Walker still didn’t speak as his minds entered overdrive, coming up with plans, counterplans, and suppositions of the future.

The smile finally faded away, “I’m guessing it's you I have to thank for losing the Godeater. That’s been a thorn in my side for thousands of years. I found the root of it decades ago, but never had the opportunity of destroying it because of those damn Sentinels.” The smile returned, blinding in its brilliance. “Thanks again for that. Getting rid of them may have been beyond me.”

“How do you know that was me?”

“Who else? I know Kwaya placed her project in your sanctuary. I know a new System Administrator came online. So I ask you, who else could it be? Who else could possibly defeat a disciple of mine but a man filled with Origin? A man like me.”

That logic checks out, Walker thought to himself. But he wasn’t done getting answers.

“And John Reed? How did you do that? How could you possibly pull a man from an image of the future?”

“He was an anomaly, no doubt about that,” Alma replied as he casually walked away from the throne, blood-filled footsteps in his wake, “But you never got around to working with Causality, did you?” Noting Walker’s shocked expression, he gave his glorious smile again, “Did you really think you were the only Strandbinder?”

“I…did.”

“Well,” Alma held his arms out, now only a few steps away from Walker, “Surprise! You really should’ve made a few combinations with it. It’s quite a powerful strand that can bring you all kinds of joy.”

Walker shook his head, “From what I know of it, it seemed too much like playing God.”

Alma gave him a deadly serious expression, “Who says we’re playing?” His smile returned like the sun rising on a far horizon, “John Reed was meant to be an imperfect image of a resident from your future world, as all images are. A soul-construct pulled from a people you would eventually create. I never expected the image to understand permanence or retain so many of its memories, and for that, I’m sorry.” He gave Walker a deep bow before standing up straight and offering a quick apologetic smile.

In a blur fast enough that Walker couldn’t track it, Alma turned around. He called out an order to clean the area to the men and women standing at attention, then turned slightly and pointed at a wall. It slid aside as he began speaking again. 

“Do you see that, Walker?” The wall panel continued to slide as a gargantuan object appeared. It was a massive white crystal. 

It was a core. 

With a fast inspection, he knew it wasn’t like the one that held Ulysses. First, it was ten times larger in size. Second, it had crystalline growths that covered almost its entire surface. Large secondary crystals, making up different colors, and with glowing veins of energy spread across them that interconnected to the greater whole. The veins almost seemed to spell a series of words, but his translator refused to help him decipher their meaning. And more than that, the core gave off a sense of wrongness that he couldn’t adequately describe. 

Alma continued, “That’s the core of the Evolver Multiverse, our spoils of this long-planned venture. With it, we’ll be able to do all kinds of things. New Universes. New paths to travel. Unending expansion. Soon enough, there’ll be no more Evolvers. Just the Awakened. A faction with no opposition, only further progress.” He took a deep breath. “I can already see it.”

They stood, staring at the core as Walker’s minds came together on a question: “And what’s my purpose in all of this?”

“You? Why, you’re the grand impetus of the revolution! An origin-powered soul! And a Strandbinder at that! Why, you’ll be able to awaken powerful new foot soldiers so we can finally end this war. You’ll help us revolutionize how the universe works, applying your unique mind to problems so old that books on their history have already lost their grip. And even more than that, we could use your creative problem-solving. It’s not every universe that figures out how to create a Primordial Collider- and you didn’t come a moment too soon.” He put a hand on Walker’s shoulder with a soft grip, “Envara is already filled to the brim with our people.” Walker felt a slight shift in the way he was speaking, like it came from within his chest. “We couldn’t take another drop of population. But with you pushing the fold and removing our obstacles, we’ll finally be free to expand. It’s already too late to change our core, but look at that shining beauty,” He pointed at the deformed white crystal again, “It’s never ending.”

“Envara?”

“Of course,” He removed his hand, the weird feeling in his chest going with it, and turned so they were facing one another before putting both hands on Walker’s shoulders again, “The beginning of everything, the Evolvers and the Awakened. A great planet full of wonder. I can’t wait to show you. Can’t wait for you to join us.”

Walker’s barely fuzzy mind understood what was happening. Looking back on his memories, he found Kwaya had tried to do something similar, but it hadn’t taken as well as it should’ve. He didn’t know if that was because of his stubbornness, the origin he’d held, or just that she was weaker. Alma, on the other hand, was very subtle about it. The only reason Walker had noticed it at all is that he had placed several minds to focusing on not only the words he was saying, but how he was saying them.

Assigning two minds to center his consciousness, a thought rolled through him, Mind controlling motherfuckers. Is this how he ended up here? He bullied his way in? I need to be careful. Need to not let him know I’ve caught on to his antics.

So, he did something strategic; He smiled at Alma, “That sounds wonderful. I’ve never seen a core before. What is it?”

Alma smiled back at him, “Oh? Well, they’re very special.” Keeping one hand on Walker’s shoulder, he gently led him to the open panel. The glass that was not glass stood in front of them, with an entire multiversal core staring them straight in the face.

“It’s the center of an entire Multiverse, Walker. A gift from a civilization far older than we are. Nobody knows how to get back in contact with them-”

I do.

“Or why we received the gifts that we have-”

Ding, I know that as well.

“But we won’t squander them the way that the Evolvers did.”

Walker painted a lazy smile on his face. “That sounds wonderful.”

A little bit longer.

Alma nodded, “It does, doesn’t it?”

“But what about my people?”

And what are you really after, Walker thought to himself.

“Symphony? Oh, they’ll continue on as they are, no problems there. Eventually, as new generations are born, they’ll no longer miss the evolutions as we program that out of the core. See, look out there now,” He pointed as a ship floated into view, “That’s my engineering team. They’re going to reprogram it just as soon as you hand over the System Administrator rights to me.”

“Okay,” Walker said with a happy nod, “But how do I do that?”

“You don’t know?” Alma said, removing his hand and the feelings that tried and failed to invade Walker, “That’s surprising. No matter, I’m sure we’ll figure it out soon enough.”

No, you won’t. Now for the last question.

Walker gave another happy nod, “Hey, I never touched it, but why did you guys give me the Entropy strand?”

He had, in fact, touched it, only not in this universe. But the smiling mindcontroller didn’t need to know that, and his patience was running thin. Walker had just about had enough of the duplicitous act. 

With each step down the road of self-actualization, he’d grown more confident, until he barely even recognized the man who had first started in the Alpha Protocol. But Alma was strange and had powers Walker didn’t fully understand. It was always better to surprise your enemy when you were about to destroy all of their plans. Otherwise, they might just find a way to stop you. 

Walker turned his head and stopped looking at the man as Alma answered his question about entropy.

“Oh, that?” Walker heard him laugh as one of his minds noted he, also, had turned to look at the core. “That was an idea the former Councilmember One had. I fought against it, of course, as we had no idea what it did, and I had no wish to cause you harm. But the only power I had in the discussion was the name, Entropy, when really-”

Now? Maybe wait…nah. Fuck it.

“It’s chaos,” Walker interrupted him, a green-covered hand already touching his overlay. “It’s the unmitigated chaos of combining and unbinding strands.” Alma turned to look just as he pulled his hand from his overlay. Stretching from his hand to just above his eye was a long stream of different strands detaching from his inventory. They all held different colors as the independent strands looped and dove in circles, touching, combining, then breaking apart again. It was a test of his soul to maintain their containment, but he persevered.

The entropy strand was chaos, as he’d said. A remnant of his work with the Primordial Energy Collider that had produced so many individual strands. It was a catalyst. Explosive. A strandless strand created from the violent collision of universal elements that were still beyond the pale of his understanding.

And he held it in his hand as Alma took two steps back, mouth open and eyes wide as everything seemed to stop for a moment.

Alma looked from Walker’s hand to the core. His brain made the connection in admirable time, forcing him to place both arms out in a gesture as the smile finally cracked on his face, “Wait! Wait! Look, it’s fine. I can see that my little act isn’t working on you. I understand that now, I really do. But this doesn’t need to happen.” The chaotic jumble of strands continued to expand from Walker’s overlay as Alma’s breathing picked up. “You-you don’t even know what shattering the core will do! There’s no need to cause untold destruc-”

“Don’t you know,” Walker interrupted as the broken strands finished, coming away in his hands, “In order to create, we must often destroy, and you’re the ones who made me a Creator.”

Covering his already soul’d hand in a boost of origin, Walker lifted the broken strands in the air and threw them toward the not-glass with a mighty feat of strength. Rather than crack, the material crumpled outward as the ball continued unerringly toward its target. He didn’t have time to watch as, the moment it left his hand, Alma tackled him to the ground, causing the whole building to shudder as atmosphere was sucked out of the room.

For the first time in a while, Walker felt himself be physically overpowered as two knees pressed upon his upper arms, pinning him in place. His ears picked up both Alma’s heavy breathing and the panels closing over the hole he’d created in the Center.

“You think you’re pretty smart, don’t you?” Alma yelled through gritted teeth over the loud noise, “That your little act will destroy a Multiversal core? As if that ball of Chaos could do anything to something built on pure Primordial energy.”

“Oh yeah,” Walker said in a quiet voice as his legs snaked up, wrapping around Alma’s neck. He pulled back a little, pulling the man off-balance as he locked down his core, “What about if I pumped some Origin into it too?”

A black and white explosion knocked the new panels down as they were violently knocked away from each other. Walker had time to pick himself up and notice panels shifting around the several holes in the building as large notifications sprang up in his vision.

System Administrator Warning: 

The Multiversal Core has been tampered with…

…

System Administrator Warning: 

The Multiversal Core has sustained severe structural damage…

Established protocols are at risk…

Multiversal containment integrity is failing…

Universal tethering is at risk…

Omniversal calibration is pending…

Pre-emptive Multiversal restrictions are at risk…

Walker waved them off, then gasped as the green tip of a blade erupted from just below his chest. The sharp edge of it sparkled.

“Nullification is such an interesting strand, don’t you think?” Alma whispered in his right ear as he heard shouts from the returning Awakened in the other, “Did you know it cuts right through evolutions? With your experience, I’ll bet you didn’t.” The blade slowly pulled back with a bit of jiggling, cutting up Walker’s insides as dark red blood dribbled from the triangular hole in his chest. “Having you would be a great benefit to us, but if you don’t believe in our movement and can’t be controlled, you’re a threat to our progress.” Another jiggle, “And that can’t be allowed.”

Walker assigned one mind to manage his pain and keep track of the damage, while bringing back the others to control his hands and arms. Stepping forward, he pulled himself away from the weapon. Small sparkles of Nullification sat on the wound, keeping his self-regenerating cells from repairing his body.

Rather than let it sit there, his body burst with the fiery presence of his soul, then scooped it out and placed it in his resources. Walker’s status in his overlay told him the wound would take time to heal, just as reality seemed to shudder.

A distorting ripple, like a bounding wave, moved across the landscape as another notification blocked his vision. 

System Administrator Alert: 

The Multiversal Anchor for all universes in Rendition One is becoming untethered… 

System Administrator Warning: 

The first layer of Omniversal restrictions is failing…

Adjusting required Dimensionality.

The air in the room shifted from transparent to an off-pink, then to dark blue, before returning back to transparent again. Just as a green-ringed fist crashed into the side of his face. Walker barely felt his feet leave the floor, nor the two walls he crashed through, but he did feel the bones in his face and back slowly readjust as self-regenerating cells tried to work through the Nullification strands still held in his body.

His arms and legs worked in concert to get him upright, albeit with a slight hunch, as two Awakened attacked, one with a spear and the other bare-handed. Walker’s Soul Vision mind told him that two more were aiming weapons at him from above, while the mind he’d assigned to his senses and identifies told him more were coming. Suddenly, his identify stopped working. 

System Administrator Alert: 

Omniversal change occurring…

Base Omniversal skill, Identify, found in all subjects.

Base skill found to be too intrusive…

Skill reduced in power and set on a path of individual improvement.

…

System Architect Alert:

Designed Evolver Multiverse restrictions failing…

Omniversal change occurring…

Base Omniversal skill, Identify, found in all subjects.

Base skill found to be too intrusive…

Skill reduced in power and set on a path of individual improvement.

Several messages began pinging Walker from both Symphony, and the Ulysses-verse. Walker had one mind sift through them as another opened a book within his internal world. A heavy compendium focused on hand-to-hand combat and synthesized from every Symphonian and Primordial he could find.

A spear came at him from the left, Walker minutely shifted his head, catching the base of it with his left hand as a kick shot at his stomach from the other Awakened. His right foot shifted of its own accord, placing the haft of the spear in the kick's way, while his left hand and stomach muscles clenched and shifted, snapping it in half with the added momentum from the Awakened. 

His feet moved in a circle as his arms wheeled to gather extra momentum, then used the gathered motion to stab the spear into the back of the pugilist Awakened. While one hand performed hand-to-hand combat, his free hand removed several Potential Energy resources, shifted them to electricity, and fired a bolt into the Awakened beside him, burning a hole through his chest.

Both went down within a second of their initial attack, as powerful beam attacks began to rain down on his area from the ranged attackers above. Kicking off with Kinetics and adjusting mid-flight, Walker soared through the air, spinning and dodging attacks as every mind worked in concert to keep the damage as minimal as possible. He dodged and twisted until getting close enough to place one kinetic-empowered punch into the chest of the woman firing at him. 

Her open-mouthed expression as she flew through the wall behind her only registered for a moment before Walker’s soul mind lifted her weapon off the ground, another mind kinetically charged the ammo can attached to the bottom, and together, they threw it at the other attacker only ten feet away. The explosion rocked the building, and small pieces of dense wood spun through the air as Walker looked down and into Alma’s eyes.

The first Awakened was no longer smiling as the threat in his eyes called for Walker’s death. He roared out for reinforcements as he took two long steps toward him, the ring slipping off his finger and morphing in the air into a green sword that neatly fit his hand.

Knowing it would be too difficult to fight all of the incoming Awakened on top of Alma, Walker decided to use an ability he’d thought up but hadn’t tested yet. He just needed a moment. Diving into a room and hiding behind a door, he had enough time to start moving towards his inner world when another notification came in.

System Administrator Alert: 

The Multiversal Anchor for all universes in Rendition One is now untethering.

All Omniversal restrictions in Rendition One are being released.

All portals connecting the Center to Rendition One are now deactivating.

System Administrator Warning:

Multiversal core damage rating assessed: Extreme

Omniversal calibration is proceeding…

System Administrator Alert: 

Universal difficulty scale: 6/10

Balance must be met…

Omniversal change occurring…

Initial changes have begun:

Increasing availability of naturally forming strands for the development of treasures…

More notifications came in, but Walker was thrown for a loop a second time as another pulse of reality-straining energy shot out of the crystal. Gravity increased, then dropped, then increased again as the Center shifted to whatever the Omniverse was doing to everything. Walker unlocked his kinetic anchor to the ground and got a quick peek at the core. 

A smaller set of crystals had broken off and away from it.

System Architect Alert: 

Universal difficulty scale: 4/10

Balance must be met…

Omniversal change occurring…

Initial changes have begun:

Increasing availability of naturally forming strands for the development of treasures…

Skill system found…

Skill system adjusted to allow for less restrictive development…

Statistical tracking not found…

Statistical tracking added to the Status system at a discounted charge…

Primordial Bloodline system found…

Bloodline system adjusted to allow for greater development…

…

Universal Personality discovered…

Further analysis required…

Please standby..

Ulysses sent a series of panicked messages as changes occurred all across his body. The Universal Personality gave a hectic rundown about what was happening in the advanced-time portions of his body.

None of the Omniversal changes sounded good so far, as Ulysses described similar Dimensional changes occurring in his universe, but at a much greater level.

One of Walker’s minds tracked the first renditions untethering, did some quick napkin math using his memory, then produced a timer in his thoughts for how long he had until the third rendition and the Earthers would no longer be reachable. While that occurred, the minds controlling his arms and legs pulled themselves away, joining others in his inner world.

Each stood on the air, their hands prepared to touch a different leaf as they gained permission from the Primordial it was connected to. As soon as the Primordials agreed, Walker stepped out from behind the door.

When the small army of Awakened turned the corner and approached the room where Walker had hidden, they found that he was no longer alone.

Eight other Walkers stood beside him, each in a different outfit. Without waiting, the Walker in a white toga and furthest on the left turned into a great bolt of lightning as he shot himself at the enemy.

Chapter 176: Consequences

In the melee, it was over a hundred Awakened and an Alma versus eight Primordially-enhanced Walkers and the original. 

The Awakened should’ve brought more people.

The Zeus-infused Walker was an absolute killer as he shot through the modified battlefield with lightning, power, and a facial expression that screamed, I won’t be fucked with. Each touch of the hand left electrical burns. Each movement came with a thunderclap, dazzling the senses and blurring the eyes. By himself, he could’ve taken out the whole group in little time, but Alma saw his actions and stepped in himself, the sword in his hand changing itself to a long wooden staff as the leader of the Awakened attempted to curtail Walker’s abilities.

The other seven weren’t pushovers either. Each was a prime, a strategic choice Walker had made when inspecting the leaves of the Everbound Tree. The Ra-infused Walker fired great beams of heat from his hands, eliminating weapons, defenses, and Awakened as he moved with precision. 

The Jade Emperor-infused Walker, the Prime of the Chinese Branch, called on the power of the wind and air, forming creatures that would independently attack anyone who came near and tripping and disabling Awakened in large groups.

Each was the representation of a Prime that Walker had absorbed, their powers a gift by permission and ability. But they were there on borrowed time, and Walker’s still active sensory mind informed him that more Awakened would arrive from one moment to the next.

The question was why.

The Core was surely going down. The Multiverse of the Evolvers was eroding by the second, and yet, the Awakened were still attacking. There was nothing to gain here. Was it just sunk-cost fallacy? Or was something else going on? With his other minds greatly occupied, Walker was forced to figure it out by himself.

A Morning-Star appeared in his hands as a book on its use opened in his inner world. Coordinating their movements together, each of the infused Walkers used an ability that flashed, banged, and generally disabled the group of Awakened before them. With a flash of soul’s power and kinetics, Walker wound up his weapon before plunging it into the center of the floor. 

Five-thousand-year-old wood hewn from an Eldar-Tree and crafted by a Grandmaster split under the ministrations of a man who had seen and experienced too much in the life of his body. The floor cracked and split, the shards of ancient wood cut, and all the remaining Awakened fell through the breach. All but one.

Alma floated in the air, small sparks of Neutrality flitting from the tip of his sword as another alert rang out.

System Administrator Alert: 

The Multiversal Anchor for all universes in Rendition One is now untethered.

Access to Rendition One is now closed.

Walker heard a great cracking sound ring out in the Center. 

System Administrator Alert: 

The Multiversal Core has sustained catastrophic structural damage…

System Administrator Alert:

Core systems are now failing…

Protocol abilities are reverting back to standard Omniversal levels…

Walker thought that was the end of the notifications for the time being, when a blanket of scrolling text hit his overlay.

System Administrator Warning: 

The Translocation system is failing…

The Shield system is failing…

The Sanctuary system is failing…

The Assistant system is failing…

The Center syst…

…

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On Sonata…

Virgil felt it the moment the Localized Assistant Database began to fail. It was as if something he’d always known and felt his whole life was suddenly weak and challenging to reach. Like a leg that wouldn’t hold up his body anymore. 

Those who had begun their time with Walker as Subsystem Assistants and hadn’t reached Supreme couldn’t tell the difference, and they wouldn’t until they reached his level or one close to it. Their connections to the LAD were smaller and less bound to their personality. 

Of course, Virgil’s processors had theorized that something like this might occur. That Walker wouldn’t be able to contain himself and his rage- That he would try to grant them all a sense of freedom from the Evolvers, at whatever cost must be paid.

And now, he had to take several actions that would secure Symphony's future.

Rimi glanced across the room at him with a questioning look, likely feeling the same thing as himself. Rather than say anything out loud and cause a stampede of problems, Virgil messaged him and Cagna, who was busy managing the Creators in the little Tower.

Virgil: I believe I know what is happening, and I have a plan. I am going to do something that Walker would likely never want, but may save him in the end. For Walker, do I have your support?

Rimi responded instantly.

Rimi: Of course, Virgil.

A moment later.

Cagna: Absolutely

Knowing he had his fellow Supremes' agreement, Virgil called out to the room, “Everyone, listen up!”

All conversations ceased as they all turned to the large black squirrel in the room. 

“You are all going to gain several systems and be forced to assimilate the information at a rapid pace. I need you to focus on gathering as much information as possible. We do not have a lot of time. Trust in me, and believe in yourself. Together, we can do this. For Walker and Symphony.”

“For Walker and Symphony.” They intoned right after, not a one of them backing off from the challenge and showing implicit trust in their Supreme. 

Virgil stepped into the Systems and began to drag each over every Assistant he and Walker had created together.

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In the Center…

To call it a slaughter wouldn’t be fair. Many of the Awakened were quite powerful in their own right. Ranging from the third to the fourth stage, each brought their unique weapons and Icons, fighting styles, and minds to the fight. But when you’re battling an empowered, origin-fueled, mini-army of synchronized and angry Walker Reeds, the only option was to leave and never look back.

The Awakened did not take this option.

An infused Walker-Prime stepped out of a previously furnished room, now crushed into splinters and scattered body parts. Souls taken from those it had vanquished languidly sat within its constructed frame, awaiting the moment to join Walker’s body. 

The infused Prime’s face held a contemplative look as he gazed at the remaining Walkers battling the small army of Awakened. 

The opponents facing them were weak by comparison. The Concepts, Icons, and Idols they brought to battle were flimsy, as if they’d all been unnaturally pushed to reach their stages. Their bodies, fragile, and easy to break. 

Excepting Alma, who’d held back the Zeus-Walker for most of the fight, not even five of the Awakened could handle one infused Walker. Far less when they worked together.

Knowing its time within its infused state was nearing the end, the Mind speedily ran to Walker, touching him just as he finished off a third-stage Awakened with large metallic wings on its back, absorbing the weak soul as it filtered out. At the moment of touch, the lime-green energy of their shared soul surged into Walker, the leaf reappearing on the Everbound Tree, though much smaller after use.

Walker moved the mind back to one of his limbs. It was the third to return to the fold, but not before doing devastating work on the Awakened attacking them.

Walker’s soul mind told him where to go next, and with a leap, he moved over a balcony and down upon an Awakened with an Idol that infused skin. Small bumps were seen all over, it’s Idol focused on reinforcing the body structure and toughening it for punishment. He could tell at a glance with his abilities that the Awakened had reached the fourth stage, but as his recently recovered mind had noticed and the soul’s memories confirmed, it was weak. As if an incomplete oath had held it back. 

It was too bad that his opponent had focused on strengthening its body, as Walker’s kinetically empowered morningstar didn’t care about the effort given. It crashed down with the momentum of a falling star, blasting the air out of its lungs and forcing its vision to shift from the lighted room in the Center to the sudden darkness of unconsciousness. He hit it again to finish the job, not an ounce of mercy in him for those who stood in his way. 

This should have already been over, but the Awakened kept coming, and coming.

A new notification rang in.

System Administrator Alert: 

The Multiversal Anchor for all universes in Rendition Two is now untethering.

All Omniversal restrictions in Rendition Two are being released.

All portals connecting the Center to Rendition Two are now deactivating.

The Zeus-infused Walker sent a packet of data on Alma’s fighting style, causing a new book to begin to form in his internal world. By putting what amounted to a soul-empowered reflection against the leader of the Awakened, Walker’s real body got to skip all the pain Alma had caused. But, as Walker reflected on what the newest book told him, he had hope.

The sometimes sword, sometimes mace, and sometimes ring was moving more slowly, and it seemed to be becoming brittle. But that didn’t mean Alma had played all of his cards yet. The man was a Strandbinder, though why he wasn’t using more of his powers was a mystery. There had to be something wrong there.

As if that bitch, Fate, had heard him talking, the sword in Almas hands sparkled with Nullifcation as he took a heavy swipe at Zeus-Walker, cutting into his shoulder. A crack formed at the site, one that quickly spread across the infused body as his figure greatly weakened. 

Worried about what would happen if the mind was destroyed outside of Walker’s body, he took two bounding steps, then leaped off hardened Space. With an extra push of Kinetic energy, he managed to touch the body, absorbing it and the souls it carried as he slid through the area. It was done without a moment of hesitation, allowing Alma’s Nullified sword to pass through the precise location where its neck used to be. 

The leaf on the branch of the Everbound Tree was small enough that it would take a very long time before it returned to working order, but a fast check showed that Zeus was unaffected. 

Alma sneered as Walker slowly stood up from his crouched position. “Enjoying the blood of my people on this unhallowed place?” The sword slowly shifted back into a ring, wrapping itself around his finger as Walker took a beat.

Taking a deep breath as further information was processed by his minds, he asked, “Why are you still trying to kill me? You’ve already won. The Evolvers are going to lose their seat, the Core’s done and dying. What is the purpose of spending more blood here?”

He’d tried to find a moment several times to create a portal and leave, but every time, an Awakened had been just around the corner, bounding forward. With the changes splashing across Ulysses’ body and the untethering of the Renditions, it was enough stress for him to want to tear his hair out.

Another notification came in as Alma answered.

“It’s really quite simple.”

System Architect Alert: 

Omniversal analysis complete…

Standby for changes…

“Every oath has a binding restriction that empowers the oath-creator.”

Bound Universes were detected…

System Architect Omniversal Brand located…

Unregistered Multiversal breach detected…

 “The greater the restriction, the more power you obtain. I’ll even give you a hint towards the totality of my oath…”

Novel Mastery system modified…

Novel Professional system modified…

Limited Mount system empowered…

Economic functions are found to be satisfactory…

Title system found to be significantly restricted, total upgrade required…

…

The world around him seemed to pause as Alma spoke.

“Those who take from me will be repaid. We are the weapon. Revenge is not a response. It is the rule.”

An exceptionally dark, purple glow erupted around him as the last words were spoken. Walker’s notification stream continued to come in, filling his physical eyes while Soul Vision had to shut down for a moment due to the blinding energy erupting out of Alma.

As it rebounded to its origin, the leader of the Awakened coughed twice before collapsing to a knee. Not wanting to waste the momentary reprieve, Walker already had a mind spun up to open a portal just in case there was an opening. But the moment it started to form, the sparkles of Nullification tore it apart with a small pop, causing him to sigh.

“Was that a portal? Are you still trying to get to your precious Symphony?” Alma said with a red grin, dribbles of blood dripping from the sides of his mouth and nose as he stood back up. It was a disconcerting expression with the already dried blood covering him from the Stitched man bodysuit. “You know, I find that I still have a few of my Protocol abilities left over.” A monitor appeared, but unlike Walker’s, he couldn’t see what was on it, “Let’s see what happens to dear old Symphony when you’re not around for a few generations.” His hands moved across the monitor, "Let's see what happens to your precious Symphony, when you are nothing but a forgotten Creator, abandoning the people you'd once championed."

Walker tilted his head, What?

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On Sonata…

The flat plane of Symphony, which had once begun to separate as the Alpha Protocol reversed the changes enacted upon Walker’s world, came back together with speed. An explosive collision resounded so loudly that it could be heard on Sonata far, far above.

Then, the dust, rock, and water floating in the air began to speed up at great haste, spreading and settling into the atmosphere and lands below, just as another monitor showed the sky slowly shifting from the light blue of its design to a particularly well-known Cyan.

Virgil already had a monitor on it, summoning it the moment an Assistant had noted the changes. With a discerning eye, he quickly understood what was happening, pushing his processors to the brink to find an alternative. None were found. 

Looking out at the already gathered Assistants before him, he called out.

“My friends and fellow assistants. One of the incidents I had warned you of has come. Symphony is advancing in time at a greatly accelerated speed, and I do not know when it will end. We cannot stand above as the great world below us changes without the shepherds of Symphony. Because of this, I am activating the ninth plan. You will now receive a message with your assigned location, if you object, please inform me at your first chance.”

Virgil stepped into his messages and sent the pre-planned writing. Each Assistant looked at their assignment, and none spoke a word of rejection. It was all for Walker and Symphony.

Rimi came over first, as they’d spoken of.

Virgil took one step forward and hugged the slightly smaller squirrel, “It has been an honor and a pleasure, Supreme Rimi.”

They stepped back as Rimi nodded, “The pleasure has been mine, Elder Virgil.” He said with a smile. “I am ready.”

Virgil stepped into the System Walker had gifted him, scrolled over to the sacrifice ability, chose Rimi, still listed in Walker’s abilities, then sacrificed him to the Monster system.

Rimi shrank in size before the crowd's eyes, morphing back into his original green form, then, with a smile still on his face, he disappeared. A notification struck Walker, pinging back to Virgil as his original assistant, and it was done.

Another black squirrel stepped forward, “It has been an honor and a pleasure, Supreme Cagna.”

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In the Center…

Walker hadn’t known what was happening until the mind that was tracking notifications opened the floodgates. He’d had it holding back information, not wanting the other minds to be distracted by everything the Omniverse was throwing at him and separating it slightly from his consciousness. He didn’t know it was holding back notifications from Symphony and Sonata as well.

Congratulations Dante!

Due to sacrificing your ability, Supreme Assistant Rimi, The Monster System has been empowered!

…

Analyzing…

…

…

…

As a Supreme Assistant has never been sacrificed to a system before, and the Core is currently having difficulty analyzing the changes, you will have to wait for a response at a later time.

From all of us at the Alpha Protocol, we apologize for the inconvenience.

- - -

 One second later.

Congratulations Dante!

Due to sacrificing your ability, Supreme Assistant Cagna, the Milestone System has been empowered!

…

Analyzing…

…

Walker waved off the mind as the ramifications of what was happening filtered into him. Each mind went to work, trying to break down what was happening. One opened up a monitor to look at Symphony, finding the answer quickly as Walker’s eyes shot over to the projection before him.

Symphony was being sped up at an alarming rate. Aside from the slight haze that the Temporal Subsystem normally showed, he knew what Alma had done by the rising buildings and rocketing landmasses speeding forward. The automated landmass additions Walker and Virgil had programmed were going to work, adding land unto Symphony at a rate he didn’t believe was possible. One mind informed him that his Primordial energy was being drained at a rate that would be extraordinary at any other time.  

Then, his notification mind slowly sent a new notification, even though he’d asked it to hold back, as too much was happening at once. 

Congratulations Dante!

You’ve merged the Landmass, Entity, Seeding, and Ecoweather systems together. 

System has been renamed to the Virgil system.

“No.”

Virgil: We will still be with you, Walker. Always.

Then it came.

Congratulations Dante!

Due to sacrificing your ability, Supreme Assistant Virgil, The Virgil System has been empowered!

…

Analyzing…

Walker stood in shocked silence as the notifications faded, but the message from his friend remained. He kept staring at it, reading each word and letter one at a time. That silence was broken by laughter.

“Hahaha,” Alma said with a gleeful smile, “You should see your face! Come on now, Walker. It’s only a little bit of time in the long run. A few thousand years-”

He was interrupted as Walker looked at him with a pulse of darkened, lime-green energy, “You’re going to die.”