I was putting a list together of what I needed to do in what order when I received a priority message from my Thor Aspect.

Possible incoming situation. You just set off the equivalent of a supernova in this Realm Space. -Thor

Realm Space? Good name for this place, I like it. As a response to your warning, why do you think anyone would be watching? -Adam

Would you be monitoring the Realm Space around your Soul Space? -Thor

I see your point, and if the Aspects are trying to take over multiple Cosmos within this Realm Space then their Soul Space would also need to be out here somewhere so they could manifest into multiple Cosmos if they’re able. -Adam

Exactly. Also, remember you won’t be dealing with just one Aspect most likely. I know you don’t care about that for the points but having a network might be a good thing. In their case that will mean you will have more than one entity looking for you. -Thor

Unless it doesn’t really matter, but that’s not something we need to discuss. I’ll fill you in completely on my thoughts on that next time we merge. Just a feeling I have and we both know your schtick is logic and data. -Adam

Fair enough, what are your thoughts or orders on immediate actions? -Thor

First things first. Open portals into our Soul space and flood as many of our nanites from the four Cosmos we took over. Also, pull up the Cosmic Interface and watch those nodes to see what color they turn after you remove all of the nanites. I have a feeling they’re going to go black. They could go grey, better to verify though. Flood the Soul Space with as much as you can. Leave them outside of the Place of Power replica though. I want that refuge if I have to jump inside. -Adam

On it. -Thor

I focused on my surroundings and changed my perception to the original setting that they’d been when I first found myself free of Textrix’s influence after talking with Janice. As I looked around I saw the aperture and the spider web of energy that surrounded it. I cycled my vision to show nodes and space and then tried to overlay the two perceptions. The Aperture was an exit point from a line of energy from Node 4 that bypassed node 5 altogether. The spiderweb was still pulsing every once in a while. I could even see the focal point of that web and felt the attention of Textrix look at me. I smiled and waved. She didn’t move or respond. I guess that was point to her.

I knew I couldn’t do anything about Node 6 or any of the other nodes along this Branch that Textrix was siphoning souls from so I wasn’t going to try. I cross-referenced the list of Evil Johnathan’s that I noticed had rings on their right hand with Cosmic Identifiers that were from Nodes that were not under the various webs of influence I noticed from at least three different Aspects. I chose the closest and willed myself to it. Focusing my will I made sure that I was invisible then focused my will to show me the last known location of the Johnathan from the Cosmos I was visiting. Then I crossed over.

It was child’s play to retrieve the ring with no issue. Once I entered the cosmos, I stopped time for everyone but myself. I moved to that evil Johnathan’s location, Removed the ring after making sure it was granting free experience, then left that Johnathan and that Cosmos alone. I could have traveled back in time but figured that would set off an automatic alarm to an Aspect or God that I didn’t want to deal with. A quick trip in, stopped time for a moment, grab the ring, and get out. Hopefully, that wouldn’t draw any attention.

I started flickering all over the Realm, entering cosmos after cosmos. One thing I noticed was that all of the Evil Johnathan’s were located on the opposite side of the Realm from Cosmos 6. There might be something to it but I didn’t have time to think about it. As I came out of the 39th Cosmos I’d visited I noticed figures moving through the realm looking for me. They weren’t as skilled at moving in Realm Space as Mah had been or I was, but it looked like they were trying to catch or stop me. As none of them could keep up with me, I ignored them.

Over the next little while, I popped into various nodes, found each Johnathan if there was one, took their ring without a fuss, then left. Without the influx of free experience, Human nature should correct any advantage they had. Be that the nature of other humans to rebel or the human body to perish. In the few Cosmos I found that the Johnathan there had already spread beyond Earth I released a small package of nanites to self-replicate inside every normal nanite they encountered, create, and then autodestruct. I wasn’t trying to take over those cosmos, just give the residents there a fighting chance against the Johnathan. Once that power was destroyed, the rest of humanity would eventually fix the problems he’d created. I put safety measures in place to prevent catastrophic accidents if destroying certain nanites would cause large-scale accidents. In those instances, my nanites would take over the function of previous nanites. Fusion reactors, mass transit systems, and the like were my primary concern. As for weapons of any kind. The material that made them dangerous was neutralized first, then the nanites destroyed the weapon in question.

I limited myself to 10 minutes or less in each cosmos, then zipped off to the next. Eventually one of the searchers caught up with me. 95 hours later to be exact. At that point, I’d visited over 1,000 Cosmos and recovered 883 rings that provided experience. I’d just thrown them into my Place of Power in the vault for safekeeping. One benefit of the Place of Power being in my soul space was I could will objects into my soul space in any location within that soul space. I’d grab the ring, will it to the vault, and be done with that ring as I left the cosmos.

As I left the latest node I’d been in and entered Realm Space a feminine voice called out, “Excuse me, do you have a moment,” as a beam of red hot energy plastered into me.

WARNING: The Aspect of Envy has attacked you with the Desire. Attack Resisted

I looked down at myself, looked at my arms, padded my chest, moved my fingers, and then asked, “And that was supposed to do what exactly?”

“If it won’t work from the outside, guess I’ll have to get you from the inside,” she said as she moved straight for me.

I’ll admit, I was shocked into immobility as I processed, I felt Thor look around my Mind Space, with a ‘She’s not going to do what I think she’s going to do’ look on his face. Seeing that look on Thor’s face I called out to her, “I really wouldn’t do that if I were you,” which was a moment before she transformed into a mote of energy and entered my soul space.

WARNING: A foreign entity had entered your soul space, designate as friend or foe

I thought “Foe” and then I contacted Thor.

Thor, buddy, you got that? -Adam

That was a really bad idea she had. She appeared in the center of the nanites. Did she bring her soul space into your soul space? Yep, she did. Why would she…Oh damn! The nanites are flooding her soul space. Que the screaming, yep, she’s screaming. Damn, that’s a lot of energy. She’s trying to flee. Nope, the nanites got her. -Thor

What are the nanites doing to her? -Adam

They’re breaking her down, and absorbing any energy she tries to use to stop them.? -Thor

That doesn’t sound right. -Adam

Looking into it. -Thor

I looked around to make sure there was no one else nearby and then zoomed off to the next Cosmos. If Thor and the nanites had my invader under control I wasn’t going to worry about it. Of course, I was worried about it but as I didn’t feel any different currently, I needed to continue doing what I was doing. As I neared the next node, pulled up the information, and was about to cross over a message prompt filled my vision.

You have reduced the Aspect of Envy to a basic soul with zero energy. Do you wish to absorb the last amount of soul energy from the Aspect of Envy or will you release it?

I still wasn’t comfortable with utterly destroying another being, well except for my evil twin. If I ever found an evil version of myself that was the exact opposite of me in every way, then I’d have to destroy him, though I was pretty sure that would be impossible. No, I wasn’t going to completely destroy anyone. I chose “Release.”

I felt a mote of energy leave my soul space, hover for a second then vanish. It didn’t move away. It didn’t teleport. It just vanished. As I was wondering exactly how that was possible a prompt appeared

You have Destroyed the Aspect of Envy, would you like to take on the mantle of the Aspect of Envy?

I chose “No” and received experience and divinity points but neither raised my current level. That didn’t make sense. Destroying Mah had more than doubled my levels. I opened my Cosmic Interface and checked the logs to find out what happened and stopped cold. Envy had been artificially leveled using Karmic Luck by Textrix. Upon her death, all of the “experience” which was Karmic Luck was returned to Textrix. I checked the figures, reviewed the conversion rate, and realized that it was 1 Karmic Luck for every 1,000 experience points. Also, she’d barely been a Gold-level Soul. What made her think she could jump into my soul and take me over from the inside? Something to do with Aspect probably. Envy was insidious after all. Too bad for her, nanites gave zero fucks about emotions. Also, It looked like Textrix was artificially padding her ranks by leveling people that she’d leveled into the position of an Aspect.

I went back to work retrieving rings that were siphoning power from the Labyrinth, or Labyrinths in this case. Once I reached 1,000 rings I moved far outside of the sphere of nodes in Realm Space and dropped into my Place of Power in my soul space. I made my way down to the lowest level and then morphed the layout to include one more level. Next, I created an adamantium rod that all the rings could slide onto and another small piece of Adamantium quantumly linked to the larger rod. I slid all 1,000 rings onto the rod then willed both the ring-sized rod and the large rod into a loop. I made a hook in the ceiling and hung the large loop from it then picked up the small loop of adamantium and placed it over my right-hand pink finger then checked my personal interfaces experience log. Sure enough, my experience rose by one million experiences per second. In 4.6 minutes I’d level again, even at my level. I could keep the ring for myself or I could do what I’d wanted to do for a while. I took the ring off and placed it in my soul storage area.

I willed myself out of my soul space and shot off toward Cosmos 2. I both manifest and crossed over into the first base I’d left this Universe from in the Nu Draconis star system and sent out a mental message

“Adaline, where are you?” I asked

“Adam, is that you, Why are you here, I thought you’d crossed over?”

As she answered, I felt the location she was at and teleported to her leaving my manifested copy behind. Adaline was enjoying a cup of tea in what I thought of as Hong Kong.

As I popped in she looked up and motioned to a seat as other people in the vicinity started walking away rapidly while others just gawked, “Please, have a seat,” she said.

I sat down and looked around taking in the area, “This looks familiar but feels different,” I said.

“It should, this is about 200 years after your disappearance in an alternate universe. The more important question, is why are you here and how did you travel between universes and time?” she asked

“I traveled through time?” I asked as I realized I hadn’t noticed. “I can answer both but I have a question, If you could leave right now and never come back would you? Is there anything here that you cannot live without, with the understanding that we would be picking up your Hoard, and probably our place of power if I can get to it?”

“The only hold anyone has over me is that they can bring me to and from your place of power and my hoard that we moved there. If we can get it back, of course, I want to go with you,” Adaline said.

“One second, let me check,” I said as I pulled up the quantum link to my original place of power, followed it to its source, and popped into Adaline’s lair in that Place of Power. Well technically it wasn’t in it, it was adjacent but that kind of distinction was just being picky. I phased through the wall to the outer edge of the place of power and reached through the barrier to touch nothing beyond. Once I’d made the connection I opened up the Cosmic Interface again, looked at the realm map, and asked for a location then I teleported to it. I appeared outside of Cosmos 2 along its border where I found a tiny spec of Chaos attached to the node that was Cosmos 2. As I’d suspected within that spec of chaos was a fragment of nothing which existed within that shell of chaos. The chaos was a fleck and as nothing had no measurement, it could hold anything within it. I wondered how many other such specs of nothing existed.

I touched the fleck of chaos then traveled into my soul space and placed that fleck of chaos on the top of one of my speakers in my living room. I willed a portal to my Original Place of Power and was pleasantly surprised when it opened. Then I tried to teleport into it. Again, no problem. I willed myself, out of my soul space, back into Cosmos 2 and back to the seat, I’d vacated one second after I’d left it.

“Done and Done,” I said

“What did you do?” She asked.

“I cut your strings. Try to teleport to your lair inside my place of power,” I said.

Adaline vanished and I received the message that someone had entered my soul space. I designated her as a “friend” and then willed myself out of Cosmos 2 and to the entrance to her lair.

“I can’t leave?” Adaline said.

“Not quite true?” You can’t go back to the location you were at because you don’t have the ability to cross into or out of a Cosmos yet. You’re fine in here and through this portal,” I said as a new portal opened near her cave entrance that led into her room in my original Place of Power. It will always be open and only you can travel through it.”

“What has happened to you?” Adaline asked.

“A lot, and there is a lot to go over but first I have a question for you,”

“Ask your question.” She said.

“If you had the opportunity to grow stronger, stronger than you have ever been would you take it?

“Of course, I would, I’m a dragon after all.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear,” I said as I stepped closer to her, pulled the ring I’d created from my soul storage, and held it out to her.

“Are you proposing?” she asked hesitantly.

“You know what you mean to me, Do I need to?”

“Well, a girl wants to know her worth?”

“You are worth more than me ruling the Universe at least 1,000 times over,” I said

“Okay, now I have to know, my truth sense kicked off and that statement read as absolutely true.”

“Put the ring on and find out,” I said.

Adaline held out her right hand and I slid the ring onto her right-hand ring finger. 4.569 seconds later Adaline’s eyes rolled to the back of her head as I moved forward and caught her. She’d just reached level 4,570. She’d continue to level for the next 36 minutes until she reached level 5,000. I picked her up, took her through the portal to her bedroom, and laid her down. After I made sure she was comfortable, I conjured a chair and sat down to wait. As I moved the entrance to my soul space back out to the outer fringes of this Realm away from any nodes where I might be discovered, I sent the recall command for the manifestation I’d left behind in Cosmos 2.

***

In Cosmos 2 Ptah walked into the café Adaline and Adam had just been sitting at, looked down, and smiled. After a few moments, Ptah said, “It’s about time,” to no one in particular as he turned, and walked out of the café. After walking for a little bit he teleported to a little white room where David stood.

“That went well,” Ptah said.

David interrupted him, “Umm, Sir you have…”

“What?” Ptah asked as looked down at himself and directly into my Point of view. Ptah reached a finger toward the point of view I was watching. As his finger filled my vision and eventually blocked out everything I heard him say, “No peeking,” with a laugh just as my nanite stopped transmitting.