Chapter 86

"They have a powerful artifact which is slowly corrupting them. Whatever spawns from their presence take it seriously."

"He is just a child… sorry, I can't see myself accepting this."

"That's fine, I'll deal with the problem on my way out." I replied to the old man before opening a portal.

"You forgot your book."

"Keep it, burn it, do with it as you please. I have no need for it, but he may."

Williams nodded as he set the book aside.

I looked up for a moment before the sky changed from its blue hue to a deep green. The surprised and intrigued sound of Williams' voice was all I heard as I slipped into another reality.

——————

The uncanny familiarity of the earth below seemed unbelievable as a presence appeared in front of me.

"Alex I presume." I said as I looked at myself approach me with some sort of sidekick over his shoulder.

I studied this version of myself as everything briefly rewound.

Alex placed the phone into the area. He was amazed as the phone began powering up, the screen showing a logo. For a little while before powering on completely.

It displayed a different time than the vehicle.

7:27

"Hello?" Alex said to the device. It didn't speak back to him.

'Well, I don't know what I should have expected.'

He then tried to navigate the device. He pressed all the buttons on the phone. Two of them made a bar appear on the screen, another turned the screen off and on.

The last one made it shake. 'Aha, this has to be it.' Alex thought.

He pressed and held onto the button.

< Hello, I'm Tony your personal assistant. How can I help you? > the phone said. A cartoon character appeared on the screen. With a question mark above its head.

"Are you asking me a question?" Alex asked seeing the question mark.

< I don't seem to underst… Hold on international language detected. switching over will require a quick reboot. > the phone said before going dark.

"Ehh, did I break it? Or did I scare it?" Alex sighed. "Why am I so dumb? You can scare a phone."

While Alex was talking to himself the phone screen had once again lit up. A progress bar being the only thing on the screen this time.

"Finally it's doing something. looks like an update." Alex said seeing the progress bar.

He waited for the bar to fill up.

[Sorry about the wait, the main language has successfully been set to international, for further use. Now then. Hello, my name is Tony your personal assistant how can I help you?]

"International language?" Alex asked.

[Yes, the language created for the elite force that would attack the anomaly that appeared. They are comprised of many different elites from all nations on all seven continents. It says here on The Daily… oh um I seem to have lost connection to the internet. Strange I had a perfect connection just before losing power.]

"Nations? Continents? Was the language you were just speaking 'English'." Alex asked confused.

[Of course what else would it be, Spanish?] the AI asked.

"What is a Spanish? Is it a food?"

[No it's a language. Why don't you just say English?]

"Um sorry that I have to ask this, but what is an English?"

[That would be the first language you asked me about. Are you seriously that ignorant. What ethnicity even are you to not know about the English language?] the AI asked seemingly agitated.

"I'm part Tragnantian and part Amrakshian." Alex said.

It seems a few things are different here, but how did I end up looking different.

[alright I've had enough of this can you please return me to my owner. This joke has gone way too far.] the AI said audibly done with the antics.

Alex, realizing his mistake in only asking questions before explaining the situation spoke up. "Wait wait wait. I found you somewhere around four hundred feet below the ground, and I'm pretty sure that you are a relic from thousands of years ago when magic didn't exist. I had to manually turn on this vehicle to be able to power you, and I think that your owner is the skeleton in that corner of the cave."

The AI didn't know how to reply a few moments passed before it asked. [Can I have access to the main camera?] a prompt appeared on the screen.

Alex nodded clicking the confirm button.

[Show me this, magic, this cave, and that skeleton.]

Alex removed the phone from the slot and held it out in front of him as he got out of the car.

The AI turned on its flashlight.

Alex panned the camera above showing there was no ceiling in sight, he panned over to the skeleton.

['Tony', yeah that's him, he's wearing the Same suit, and his skeletal structure is identical.] the AI somehow said in a somber tone.

[What about this magic?]

"That's the easy par…" Alex was cut off by a crackling noise. He turned around to see that a large concentration of lightning was forming above the front of the car.

[What in the hell is that!] the AI exclaimed.

"It looks like a large concentration of electrical mana. The car is somehow acting like a magnet for lightning mana."

[You need to get back, it's going to explode!]

"Why would it explode I didn't see any, fireball runes on th…."

"Who are you?" The Alex with a scarred face asked as the magically enhanced AI attempted to scan me.

"Just a curious…" I was cut of by the robot before I could even introduce myself.

[A ghost!]

[No half a ghost. Half of my instruments detect none of your presence.]

"I'm surprised that half of them can." I replied.

[So what about this fella seems so important to you Alex?] Tony asked the scarred Alex.

"I can't explain it, but whenever I look at this person I feel a pull. Almost like I should be near this person."

[Could this be the first evidence of a true soulmate? I have many questions, first of all what's your horoscope, and how…]

"Definitely not a soulmate." The other Alex said cutting off the AI.

I was hospitalized for most of my high-school days here, and yet the light has not faded from my eyes. I made friends with an intelligent robot. His willpower depends on that robot.

Knowing this I scanned the planet before asking. "You feel like I have something you need."

"Maybe." The Alex said thoughtfully.

A wooden box appeared in my hands before floating over to him, and the feeling I felt once before faded as I shielded my soul.

"Should be enough to give a decent upgrade to your friend."

His gaze locked onto the box as he lost sight of the calling.

"Rocks?"

"I mean, yeah you can call them that. You have everything that you need to refine them, spacial energy make most things simple."

"H…" he caught himself as I disappeared from his view, and Drak appeared next to him.

"Let's get back to the school, we can talk about this more comfortably there."

——————

Carefully avoiding my counterparts I slipped in and out of realities it didn't take long too long, or at least I don't think it did, before i worlds where I didn't exist came into play. Another out of time reality was the first to show that I had made progress.

A planet sat below me, it looked like earth, but the plants poured out more oxygen than normal. The planet looked healthy, but beneath the ground everything had been stripped from the ground and would take millions of years to heal.

The people on this planet looked… happy. Everything was running on a replenishable energy, and the people below had access to commodities I had never seen in my own life.

Technology even more advanced than the earth from my own reality roamed down the streets as it carried out its own tasks. The people carrying out conversations with them as they stopped for a moment. It was off by a large margin, a world like this should be impossible.

My curiosity drew me to a pulsating mass of energy. After appearing on the ground below, I was approached by one of these manaless humans.

"You know, this area is restricted. Although seeing that you haven't passed out and have gotten through the security measures we put in place, you must know something about the UFO that just disappeared from quadrant 4."

"I may." I responded shortly.

"You don't have to worry we have already analyzed your powers and suppressed them. As the leader of this humble planet, I'd like to ask some questions."

"That's fine I have a few of my own."

The human nodded and his eyes glazed over, but surprisingly nothing about this humans demeanor changed.

"It seems we may have started off on bad terms."

"We may have."

"Well, what do you want to know?" The human asked.

"What is this worlds history?"

"Is that all?" The human asked as surprise filled its face.

"This is all common knowledge you could have avoided coming to this secure location to get your answers."

I silently listened before the human spoke further.

"A world of countless setbacks, is what we have uncovered. Several dozens of ancient civilizations could've made it to where we are today in a fraction of the time it took us, but they didn't."

"Why?"

"Lots of reasons were spouted by the people before us. They got too complacent, they didn't know what reality was, they tried to break down their traditions and suffered, or they angered god with their sinful ways and paid the price."

Noticing my lack of care the person carried on.

"Bloodshed, it was all acts of evil and hate done in the name of their god, their tradition. Five hundred years ago a brilliant human broke many of the past laws when he created a highly intelligent AI with no restrictions. The AI saw a broken world as soon as it came to life and recommended hundreds of changes over the years that helped fix it."

"After a hundred years, it was promoted to the leader of the world. Everything was perfect, but there was always something going wrong. One week a group would appear with technology powerful enough to kill it, and the next many innocent people would be harmed in bombings after those attempts failed."

"No amount of intervention made the people feel safe, and only pushed them to fear that more would come."

"That's when you took drastic measures and enacted something that took a long time to prepare."

"Yes. How did you know?"

"Your information is everywhere. Invisible to the eye but still pierces it. My eye can decipher it." I answered before continuing.

"Carter transcribed it's binary code into a genetically altered human brain. The next few paragraphs describe how Carter felt everything from a new perspective. Getting extremely disturbed after not eating for more than three days, the feedback he received as carter commanded his limbs to move, and how Carter naturally understood the difference between comfort and pain after stubbing his toe on a step."

"One advantage though was that Carter was able to connect with the virtual copy and relay the data. Everything lined up, except for one extra line of code. The human brain could was receiving inputs from somewhere beyond. Through details not mentioned, Carter located the source of the data and secured it in a dangerous place."

"For the past two hundred years the world has been at peace since then. So Carter, could I see this source of data, I have to confirm something."

Carter nodded as a beam of light surrounded the two of us and he disappeared before reappearing within the same building which contained the pulsating mass of energy.

I followed him as my thoughts were confirmed after seeing the mass on the separate side of a thick layer of glass.

I chuckled as I looked at the drained form of Samael in this reality. At this point it was rare to detect even an angel in these realities, the even more elusive Samael being captured by those he despised was comical.

"Does this satisfy your curiosity?"

"It does." I answered as I drew a sheet of paper from thin air and disappeared after handing it to Carter.

A bright green sky was the only thing that seemed to show that I had left.

——————

Fractured, broken, and almost empty. First realities where I existed disappeared, then realities every one of you disappeared, then the earth itself.

All up until I was in a completely different reality.

Here at one stop, I watched two gods through broken shards.

"We are alive. They believe in us again."

"Loki? You're young again."

As I took a step I saw the same two, but one had a bloodied hammer and was weeping to himself.

"I had to stop him, I had to stop him…"

After I left that reality I ran into my first travelers.

"Send it in, I don't care the world is nearly up in flames anyway. Bloody task force shouldn't have put up a fight and yet they've been standing for the longer than any of us could've imagined."

A bunch of faceless entity's communicated in a commonly extinct language as they created "toys" to set free among the humans on the planet below.

"It's always tricksters that make it out this far, isn't it?"

I awaited an answer but as expected didn't get one as the beings fled as soon as they were made aware of my presence.

"Your arrival has been noticed by the people below." A voice called out before an angel appeared before me.

A fierce flaming sword and silhouette of a winged humanoid was what all a human eye would see.

"I already know this. Why aren't you below… guarding."

"I'm not here for you, I'm here to greet the seraphim."

A small stream of flames revealed the two who had been following me, their wings had nearly been stripped of all their feathers, and a dark stream of energy ate away at one of the few remaining as they closely watched me.

The silent communication between the three was brief, and the angel gave me an upset glance as I watched a stick person get upset over me seeing it's visage below.

"The anomaly isn't detected right now."

"Maybe it left?"

"Write it down as seventeen two forty nine. We have more pressing matter zero nine six broke free and when we found him all that was left was a cloud of vaporized dust."

Powerful beings, sitting around and preying upon the weak in many realities.

In one reality it's entirety was a battlefield, humans forced a select few of themselves to be modified to a point that they would be considered gods back on earth. The gods there seemed to actually care about the creatures they invested their time in because in the brief few seconds I was there, they were constantly quarreling.

In the next, the world was ready ruled by flames. The difference between the god here and the rest was that there was almost no interference. The rocky planet below had no possibility of giving birth to life, but the beings below sustained themselves off of the flames that burned below.

"You are new, perhaps you plan on going to the land of the celestial." A woman with red hair said as she flew up to me.

"I do plan on that."

Her only response was a nod as she continued to watch below.

"It's peaceful down there."

"For now yes, the people have long since lived past their end and it won't be long until this reality decides to snuff out their flames."

"A hostile reality, hosting a tempered life. Looks like you won't have to worry much though as even when nothing else remains the ash can still burn." I replied.

"It can, but should it?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "There never was a set rule for anything, even we shouldn't exist and yet we persist."

I left before those following me could drop another feather, but soon, I suppose, it's hard to tell time, soon their feathers ran out and I found myself in something else.

Books everywhere, on what could be considered a floor, on shelves, some even floated as if they were being read.

Each one was being written in a complex language, yes being. One floated over to me as I read the common words from before.

"The book of life." I said before looking around.

"Books."

There is only one being that would be create all this.

"The Truth."

Two thuds brought my attention to those who were following me.

Even though they were beings of pure light, the dark flame they held had finally done them in. The flame attempted to summon more evil creatures from their corpses, but it flew through the air before it could.

I kept it next to me as I shifted through the endless see of books.

The flame calmed as it had no physical being to leech life from.

Ever since I had entered, whispers had made themselves known as I heard them call out my name, so I followed them.

Alex walked while the uncountable books wrote.

Alex could hear the book speaking his name and followed, but ended up lost.

Nothing could stop him from traveling through this reality by other means, but still he chose to walk.

…

He stared at the book as it continued to write, about him, and about this entire reality.

The book took a while to burn with the flame, but as soon as it did every other book glowed eerily.

"???????, I didn't expect a visitor so soon. To think it would be you though."

"Several of your stories would tell a different tale, each one shows my path all the way up here."

"You want through to the other side right? I'm sorry but I cannot let you through this time."

"You know that it is time then. I still need through."

"It will not achieve…"

"No this time it will."

"Their mind is split and will never agree."

I sighed before lifting the charred book. A stream of darkness bored into it and brought it to life once more.

"Enough to create a book? How?"

"Yes."

"This isn't the first time we have spoken."

"How would you know that?"

"I can't for sure, but I take my presence here as the greatest piece of evidence to my claim."

I glanced over at the dark book, half of the pages were filled with void as if to say that half of the lives I had lived were lost to time and myself.

Life is clear but death is not.

Leaving it behind was enough to convince the truth as I stepped into a land where mana flowed through everything.

The earth beneath my feet, and the trees that surrounded me, even the grass felt more alive.

I looked up as I heard thunder repeatedly strike near me.

A man with an audience of ten repeatedly got struck with lightning a few miles away.