(???, January 4th, 2047)

I watched until the sun was well and truly set, a clear night sky showed the stars above shining down on Alamogordo and the desert beyond. I finished off my Fey wine, stood up, and made my way to my bedroom where I laid down and drifted off to sleep. But what is sleep for a being with attributes over 57 million each when the average human had somewhere between 8 and 12? Even with my Thor Aspect busy on the other side of the Universe there was more than enough of my mentality on Earth that as I drifted off to sleep my mind accessed the Nanites controlled by Thor and became one with the entirety of this region of the Universe. Everything within 250 million light-years of Earth, well except for the space between most of the planets that were more than 10 light-years out, became known to and part of me. The nanites created by the stars were riding the solar winds from each of the stars and as yet had only been traveling for just over 10 years. There was a lot of empty space in space after all. Also, there were black holes that Thor hadn’t accessed because his nanites had not been created after I’d become a creature of Chaos.

I let my senses expand and knew each world where sentient life existed that was not Homosapien in nature and watched from the nanites in the organic material that surrounded all those alien lifeforms while I slept, taking it all in. Thor had stayed true to my directive and left sentient species alone.

As my mind took all of this in at a subconscious level my conscious mind reviewed and analyzed while I slept. I knew this was happening as my dreamscape had morphed into a white sterile room with a single monitor that information was scrolling by on. The information was scrolling so fast that the screen had turned white except around the edges. The funny thing was that I was actually keeping up with it.

Beings of all types living their lives. So many similar stories. Some familiar to humanity, some not. Plants and animals of all types and additionally regions of space and planets that were truly breathtaking to behold that humans would not be able to visit for a very long time, if ever. Frozen nitrogen waterfalls on a lifeless planet that had escaped its star somehow and effectively flash frozen the atmosphere creating a bubble of ice around the planet as it hurtled through space. It had been passing relatively close to another star system when the nanites had come across it. Small holes were created from small meteorites that impacted it which closed up as escaping gas froze again. The only life left on the planet was so deep underground, though the core had cooled to just about freezing. A couple thousand more years and even that heat would be gone.

So many wonders in just this small section of this Universe. My mind drifted to humanity, and I watched as Abi spoke through the Johnathan construct.

“I am contacting everyone to inform you of a Universal Change that is taking place. Over the next couple of years, magic will be returning to this Universe. This is important because Magic is very detrimental to the functioning of highly technological devices, for example, nanites. What this will mean for humanity is that a lot of the changes that have been made will need to be rolled back. Thor will not be able to watch everything everywhere anymore so we will be transferring control back to local governments.”

Abi paused for a moment then continued, “This brings me to my next bit of information. Magic will be a game-changer for everyone. As the ambient magic increases throughout the Universe access to magical spells and extraplanar and dimensional spaces will become available. Some will have a knack for magic, others will not. How that pans out is completely random. While I was in another Universe I learned that some of the people there believed that the ability to use magic was a blessing from the Gods. Others believed it was a matter of luck and still others believed it was a matter of Karma. One thing everyone should understand though is this. Anyone might gain the ability to become a master mage so be wary of who you piss off today, it might come back to haunt you very soon.”

Abi looked off to the side and nodded before finishing up, “Over the next couple of weeks the ambient level of magic will be less than 1%. We do not believe that such a low ambient magical density will ignite anyone’s latent abilities. That said, there’s no way to know what will happen. We will be releasing an information packet so you know what to expect and also what might happen. Last thing before I sign off. Monsters are real, as magic returns to this Universe, so will monsters. If you see something you can’t explain back off and call for help. Odds are we won’t have to worry about this for about a year, but no one knows what will happen when fundamental changes have been made to a Universe.”

The broadcast ended and every phone that Abi and Amanda had lit up at once. They could handle it. I pulled my focus back off of them and considered the return of magic to the Universe when Thor and I both detected a portal opening at the Center of the Bermuda Triangle.

I woke with a start and teleported to a position 1 mile above the portal that had opened and was continuing to open as first a trickle of water, then flood began to eject into the Atlantic Ocean. Not good! At the rate the water was coming in the sea level would rise and coastal towns around the world would be wiped out.

“Thor, any new candidates for another copy of Earth?”

“Yes.”

“Viable Atmosphere lacking water?”

“There are no living creatures on the planet so adding water to the biosphere won’t hurt it,” Thor sent

I reached through our link, acquired the planet’s location on the other side of the Milky Way, and opened a portal directly in front of the horizontal waterspout.

“Where is the water coming from Adam?”

“I don’t know. Did anything come through the portal?”

Thor and I both reviewed all information from the local nanites and noted that water and fish of a species not known on Earth were the only things that had made it through the portal into the Atlantic Ocean. I then willed myself to see with true sight and analyzed the portal the water was coming from.

You have detected a portal to the Elemental Plane of Water.

What was an Elemental plane of water and why hadn’t I heard of one until now? I opened my Universal Interface and queried “Elemental Plane of Water.” I searched through the database and finally found a note that explained things a bit.

NOTE: This Universe has been placed outside of localized Reality. All connections to Chaos have been severed. Instead, parallel dimensions for the eight primary elements are being created to act as a barrier and insulator for this Universe. Only Positive and Negative Connections remain. All other elemental types are recycled in one form or another.

>>>ERROR<<< NOTE: Universe is completely cut off from magical energies due to previous changes. Normal safety mechanisms have NOT been incorporated into the design of this Cosmos, they are not necessary

Not Necessary? Okay, then time to fix things. I teleported to the singularity near the Overmind and reconnected with my Thor Aspect directly. I then opened my Cosmic Interface. First, I set the speed of the Universe too as slow as I could make it while I worked. I couldn’t travel through time, but I could speed up and slow it down, so I slowed it way down. It now took 1,000 years for one second to pass. Next, I drained the Cosmic Interface’s help files of any and all information concerning Universes, their setup, function, settings, normal safety mechanisms, and just about any other questions 100% of my mind could think of?

It took me just about 24 hours of my personal time to review and correlate the information until I had a good handle on what had happened. It seemed that the shortcut that had been taken when this Universe had been shunted off to be by itself had ever entertained the idea that magic would be added back to the Universe. When I’d set the return of magic in motion the lack of safety buffers had caused and would continue to cause issues. This obviously led to the question, why would there need to be barriers. I found the answer as a Note in an appendix.

“NOTE: Chaos autoregulates itself into what is necessary as it permeates the boundary of Universes. Artificial or closed Universes must mimic this self-correcting behavior of Chaos. Non-Magical Universes must still consist of the elements that they are comprised of and can self-regulate themselves when flares of magic happen in localized areas. The easiest way to do this is to create parallel dimensions that can withdraw and replace energy as needed when flares occur. So long as changes remain small in scale this method of buffering a Non-Magical Universe is acceptable.

Warning – If Magic is to be reintroduced into such a closed environment safety precautions must be taken prior to making that change. Any increase in the average ambient magic across the entire Universe can cause each parallel dimension to open the flood gates to come to a new equilibrium throughout the cosmos. Breakthroughs from all elements can happen randomly throughout the Universe.

I looked over the interface and made a note of my own

“To Whomever It May Concern – This NOTE should be the first thing anyone sees that is trying to adjust the magical settings of a Universe. Thanks for nothing!”

I waited a few seconds to see if there’d be a reply. Nope, nothing. I went back to work and looked up what the most common settings used were to ensure that the System for Magic remained stable. My mentality was able to discern the mathematics and algorithms that were utilized to make sure magic worked right. I also fell back on what I’d learned from visiting another Universe and my proficiency with magic. The Normal part of myself just thought of it as a filtering program that tracked, utilized, and replaced energy as it was utilized. The idea wasn’t complicated, but the coding was. It took another 24 hours, my timeframe, to reconfigure everything and fix and close any breakthroughs that had happened while I ensured nothing else had gone incredibly bad.

Once I was sure everything was set up as required I returned the passage of time back to normal and waited. When 10 minutes had gone by and no more alerts had been received from my Universal or Cosmic Interface I relaxed, let my Thor Aspect get back to doing his work with the Overmind, and teleported back to New Mexico.

“What was tha…,” Thor started to say then cut himself off. “Did you just handle the situation, Adam?”

“I did”

“What exactly happened?”

“The simple explanation, returning magic to a non-magical Universe must be done carefully. Who knew? Well not this guy, though I do now.”

“What does this mean?”

“Well, you know how I said that we shouldn’t see any breakthroughs until the ambient level of magic was around 20%?”

“I recall that information yes.”

“Well, it would seem that any amount of ambient magic is enough to allow the buffers that hold this Universe in check to create rifts. I had to patch that. That patch is basically to redirect that energy to allow monster spawns and dungeon spawns, which will increase over time as the ambient amount of magic increases. It shouldn’t be as bad as going from zero to 100% overnight but it will take an adjustment. Please inform Abi and Amanda and start watching for breakouts near humanity. The good news is that while the ambient level of magic is low you’ll still have access to nanites to help prevent any truly horrific events from happening, though how long you’ll be able to keep that up is unknown. I think we’ll start seeing a loss in your functionality as we hit 10%.”

“So take the timetable and crunch it by a factor of 10?” Thor asked

“Yeah, probably more. I’m going to head over to the Overmind and get their Portal set up. If anyone starts to show signs of magical control keep track of them and well do what we can for them. I shouldn’t be gone for more than a week.”

“It’ll be done.”

With that, I told my Thor Aspect to let them know I would be at the lab in about 3 seconds, did a three count, and teleported to the lab. Over the next couple of seconds, the Thor Aspect updated me with what he’d discovered and the plans they’d come up with. I informed the Overmind of the change in timeframe and went to work.

The information my Thor Aspect had acquired had chosen a site in what would be considered the Capital of this world, though their governmental structure was almost a pure representation of what Communism would look like if people weren’t involved. Everyone had access to everything they needed equally. The “government” as it were, was the Overmind. I willed myself to look like one of the citizens of this civilization, which was a simple shape change as most differences between the Alari, the name they had chosen for their race, and humans were mostly superficial, though the average height of females was six foot and males where around six and a half feet. It took very little willpower, and the mana cost was negligible.

I teleported to the site and allowed my nanites to get to work. They spread out into the surrounding area as the Overmind supplied raw materials for me to convert into everything I needed to create the portal device and the magic collectors and batteries that would power the portal. I made sure it had enough energy to open at least two portals a day to distances as far away as the other side of the Universe. I let my Thor Aspect in the Singularity handle that bit of math. Then I created the command-and-control center and tied it into the Overmind giving it complete control. All in all, I was done in approximately 30 minutes. I transferred half of my mana into the magical portal device and then established a connection to the Overmind,

“That should do it. I’ve even transferred some of my mana into the batteries so you can test it. Short-range portals will have a significantly smaller cost than opening portals across the Universe. I would strongly suggest you utilize your technology while it still works to evacuate everyone from your outposts. Also, with the new information I’ve shared, I’d do that much sooner than later.”

“Adam, I have one question for you, why are you doing this for the Alari and me?” The Overmind asked.

“The simple answer is that you didn’t continue to attack me once you knew I wished to talk. The much more complicated answer involves Karma, eye for an eye and trying to do the right or good thing.”

“I see,” the Overmind said while still conveying that it actually didn’t see the reasoning behind my decision at all. “Are you done then?”

“I am done here. I need to get back to Earth and handle the issues that will be happening there.”

“Well then, we would like to thank you and hope you are as successful there as you have been here.”

I nodded and teleported back to Earth, the Overmind wasn’t one for small talk and my Thor Aspect was still in constant contact with it. I needed to get back to Earth and make sure everyone was ready for whatever was going to happen next.