[LEON-FLASHBACK]

The blinding light slowly started to ebb. A man in a cloak beckoned me atop a hilltop. His face was masked by a bright shimmering stream of light leaking from his hood.

“Come… There are things I must show you…”

I stood there unmoving.

What is all this… Where am I?

The man lowered his arm and looked into the distance.

“You are the a land known as Etherium.”

I blinked and suddenly appeared beside the man. The light emanating out from his hood stung my skin.

“Wha…what are you?”

I winced from the sudden sunburn consuming my arm.

“That is not important right now. I have very little time… ”

The man clapped his hands and we suddenly appeared in the center of a massive city.

“Etherium is a place long forgotten by the creators. There are… seemingly infinite numbers of species… and intelligent life here. This place is much different than the reality… you have come to know.”

I looked around and saw a group of gnome-like people talking about going to a strip club on the next block. A couple of long eared, elf-like women chuckled as they past me. A cyborg was leaning against a street post waiting for the light to turn so he could cross…

Wait… Cyborgs?

I looked up and saw flying vehicles and floating luminescent signs. Turning back down to the street I noticed a tavern on one side of the street, and a casino on the other. There was a flock of gnomes tearing down the street on choppers with a giant chasing after them on foot.

“I show you this… in hopes that you will save this place… I have come to know Etherium as home… Something is coming… and you may be the only one who can stop it.”

The man placed a hand on my shoulder and the scene vanished. We were in a ruined sandy terrain. The heat and low oxygen stole my breath. There was a small shiny blip in the distance. We lifted into the air and slowly floated toward the mysterious object.

“It is too late for this world you know as Earth… Humanity ripped the planet asunder…”

The man cast his arm out around him.

“This is what remains of the amazon forest… You will find no traces of life on this planet…”

Red is the closest thing to a human that I know… wait… is Red human?

The man interrupted my train of thought.

“This is what remains of humanity… This is also where you are now…”

We drifted down to land on a colossal solar panel. There were massive vents dispersed around the panel, blowing scorching heat into the atmosphere. A small terminal was set aside one of the vents. I walked over to the terminal.

I pressed one of the keys on the keyboard to wake the screen up. The key collapsed in on itself, causing the entire keyboard to turn to dust. The screen flickered and a bright green text flashed across the screen.

A long stream of characters and numbers flashed across the screen. The seemingly endless text came to a halt. I slowly looked over the text, only to stop on the final lines.

‘SELECT WORLD’ STATUS- RUNNING

PROGRAM START DATE- 12/7/4287

CURRENT DATE- 12/2/429713

TOTAL RUN TIME- 3,764,293,487.46 HOURS

APPROXIMATE REMAINING LIFESPAN- 48,090.72 HOURS

The year is 429,713?! And I’m here?! Is this whole thing just a massive computer?!

The man appeared beside me and stared at the screen.

“Seems like you have a little over five years…”

I fell to my knees and brought my hands to my head. Everything I had ever known was a blatant lie. I could feel my hear start to race. The man knelt next to me and rested his hand on my back.

All of my anxiety melted away. I looked toward the man, but he was looking away.

“I apologize for manipulating your emotions… I felt that you needed to know this before moving forward…”

I blinked and was back in the grassy field from before. The man stood and snapped his fingers. My vision started to blur around the edges. A gold thread appeared in front of me and shot toward the sky.

“This… is your Soul Drive. It is the source of every living creature’s energy. It is usually not visible unless you are being born… or about to die. However…”

The man reached up and plucked the thread like a guitar string. Threads began pouring out of me in every direction.

“You have a great many drives… In fact… you have as many as there there are alive, dead, or going to be. You are the conflux…not just your world… but for all of existence in every possible… or impossible universe. You can influence any creature to your will, or use their souls to manifest their power as your own.”

He lowered his arm, causing all the threads to vanish… except for one.

“You need only reach out and grab hold.”

The thin line connecting us seemed different than the others. I could feel it coming in and out of existence as the breeze blew it back and forth. I looked up to the man. He only stared at me, waiting.

I reached out and grabbed the thread. A stat screen popped up. I looked to the top to see his name [Č̸̩̓ỏ̴͙r̵̀͘ͅơ̷̢̋]. All the stats were rapidly draining to nothingness. I looked up, a sudden sadness threatening to bring tears to my eyes.

His body instantly started to deteriorate. His voice was garbled and falling away.

“… I entrust this to you… I hope you do a better job… than I…”

A large gust of wind hit the man and his body burst into yellow motes. A massive core lie at his feet. The sadness threatened to choke me. I looked down to the orb. I reached down and placed my hand atop the glowing pulsating orb.

A screen popped up above it.

PLEASE SELECT:

ORB OF DESTRUCTION/ORB OF CREATION

I stared at the screen. ‘DESTRUCTION’ was greyed out. I tried to select it out of curiosity. The orb shifted to black and had a purple aura emanating from beneath it turning its surface ice cold.

ORB OF DESTRUCTION IS ALREADY IN USE.

Why even give me the choice?…Not that I would have selected it either way… I want to protect… not destroy…

The same prompt from before reappeared on the screen.

PLEASE SELECT:

ORB OF DESTRUCTION/ORB OF CREATION

I tapped ‘CREATION’. The orb’s surface began to shift under my palm. Metal plates rose to the surface and began interlocking and disconnecting from each other causing a burst of light to erode from their seams.

ORB OF CREATION? Y/N

WARNING: THIS CHOICE CAN NOT BE REVERSED

I tapped the ‘Y’ and reality folded around me. I was instantly aware of everything, yet nothing. A loud sound, followed with by the ground shaking, knocked me onto my back. The sky went dark and a sinister laugh faded as burning sensation took over my mind.

I opened my eyes and I was back in the abysmal darkness laid back in the recliner. The only difference was a screen in front of me.

CONGRATULATIONS! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Two party poppers appeared beside the screen and exploded along with the message. Another screen popped up with a blank line and a flashing bar.

I looked away from the screen.

That screen did say Coro… right?… If he is on earth… how could that have been him? Was I just seeing things? …My head hurts…

I raised a hand to my head and looked back to the screens in front of me. I closed the congratulations screen and pulled the blank one in front of me.

Is this a search bar? Like Google?

IS THIS A SEARCH BAR? LIKE GOOGLE?

The words in my head appeared on the screen at the speed of thought. A second later the screen shifted with my answer.

NOT REALLY. MORE… ALL ENCOMPASSING THAN THAT. YOU WILL FIND ALL INFORMATION ON ANYTHING HERE. YOU CAN ALSO THINK OF ANY OBJECT OR BEING AND A SCREEN WILL POP UP WITH ALL OF THEIR RELEVANT INFORMATION.

“Interesting.”

INDEED.

“Do… you know who that guy I was talking to was?… His screen said Coro…”

GUY? WHAT GUY?

I sighed…

Guess that man isn’t included in “all information on anything”…

“What about Etherium? Do you know anything about that?”

I accused the screen. Frustration was sinking its teeth in my brain.

…I HAVE SOME RELEVANT INFORMATION ON ETHERIUM… I SAW YOU CONNECTED TO IT… BUT YOU WERE BY YOURSELF THE WHOLE TIME…

By myself?… I’m not getting anywhere getting mad at a screen… I’m going to have to look into it later… If that was some version of Coro… Then I need to get him on my side…

“Can you speak in my head? Or can you only communicate with text?”

“I can speak in your head if you would rather.”

A soothing clear feminine robotic voice appeared in my head.

“So… What are you then? Are you another AI?”

“Hmph… That’s rude to assume.”

The voice had clear agitation in it. It felt similar to talking to Red.

“I’m just as real as you bud.”

She sighed.

“I was assigned to you after you selected…”

She paused and I heard the rustling of paperwork.

“The Orb of Creation?… Oh… sorry about this, but I think I have the wrong host. One sec.”

She put me on hold… Or at least it seemed like she meant to. I could faintly hear her in the background.

“What do you mean I HAVE to? I don’t know anything about the ‘Creation’ perks and abilities! My mentor only taught me all about death and destruction… Yes… Yes but… Fine!”

There was more shuffling of paper.

“Oh shit! I didn’t put him on hold… Uh hello?”

“Yeah… So… What was that all about?”

“Sooo sorry you had to hear that… I am the most qualified to be your assistant…Because apparently… I am the only one in this WHOLE FUCKING INDUSTRY that even knew about the existence of the ‘Orb of Creation’… All other constructs didn’t existence the last time it showed up… so… here I am…”

“Uh huh… So Ms Construct… Do you have a name?”

“Oi oi stop it with that Ms shit! Can’t go around assuming genders these days! I simply took the form of what seemed most pleasant in your mind. To answer your question…I don’t have a name… my designation code is Tau 005.956.7.308.”

I looked to the screen and imagined the greek letter and string of numbers. I opened my eyes and a massive black web surrounded by blinding light filled the screen. It zoomed in on a small branch of the web. Strands of DNA-like structures started coming into view. I noticed a thin golden thread ass the light started to wane. I reached out and grabbed the thread.

“Ahh!”

Her voice brimmed with pleasure.

“Wha…What the hell are you doing?!”

I blinked a couple times and decided to give the thread a light tug.

“Ahhh! St… Stop that! Uhh…You… You can’t! Ahhh!”

I felt information flooding into me. I grabbed the thread with both hands and pulled with all my might. A face suddenly flashed on the screen. She was made of a clear metallic material with glowing honey colored eyes. A dark purple energy flowed out of her head, and fell down past its shoulders. She looked up to me slowly and panted heavily.

“I… will… be… whatever you want me to be…”

Her cheeks started to glow with an ominous purple light, several shades lighter that her… hair?

“Ju… Just be… more gentle… next time…”

“Sorry… I just wanted to see your face…I didn’t know it would… do that to you…”

I scratched the back of my head and stared at her…

“Uhh… Can I just call you Tau? Your string of numbers is a bit much to remember.”

Tau was still gasping for breath.

“Yeah… That’s fine… just… give me a sec…”

She took a few moments to gather herself.

“What do you require of me?”

“Well I overheard you say you didn’t know anything about the ‘Creation’ perks or abilities… so I guess I can’t ask you about that… You didn’t know anything about that guy… Can you make a contract for me that will split Coro from me, but keep him bound to me?”

“I hardly see why you would need me to make anything like that for you… I am one of the precursors… and you were able to effect me… anything should bend to your will.”

“I could write it, but he is part of me… I think he would see any holes that I make, that’s why I’m asking you to make one.”

“Sure no problem…One sec… Here. Pretty easy first task Leon. I think you are misjudging my ability…”

“No… I just don’t have anyone else to help me with this right now… How about… Can you manage my interactions with threads so the people I affect don’t have the same reaction you did? Would get a bit weird if everyone I interact with… climaxes… when we connect…”

“Yeah… If you plan on messing with other living things… That seems like a good Idea… I will always be here… If you ever want… to try that again…”

“I’m good right now, thanks. But I will keep you in mind.”

Starting to think this being is someone… I should avoid as much as possible…

“I heard that… But you are interesting… and I have had worst hosts than you… Just think of me as your sub consciousness… I will merge with your software to gain a better understanding of your psychology… The only sub routine I have the ability to manipulate is [TIME STOP]… If I feel like I need to… I will intervene. Good luck Leon.”

“Thanks. Talk to you later Tau.”

I looked around the screen and noticed that time hadn’t been moving since I got back into the abyss. I thought about Coro and his sheet popped up immediately. I added the delete button and reached out to him as I started to resume time. A golden thread shone through the darkness. I wrapped it around my hand a couple times and called out to him.

“Hey!… Coro can you hear me?”

[NARRATOR]

The world slowly came into focus. The air was fresh. Red looked over and saw Coro standing near a crooked tree, overlooking a city. Ash stood nearby keeping her distance. She kept casting sidewise glances over to Coro, and blushing furiously.

Coro looked like he was going to give himself whiplash. He was snapping his head back and forth furiously. He took in a deep breath.

“Smell that? I have no idea what it is… but I WANT some…”

His personality seemed to flicker savagely. He kept his cool and didn’t shift.

Red noticed she was still holding Leon’s hand and quickly ripped it away from his grip.

“What is he…”

The aroma seemed to take her by surprise. She started salivating and ran up to join Coro and Ash. The group of three turned back to Leon but found nothing. Confused they turned and noticed that he was already standing beside them.

“I think it’s coming from that strange little booth down by the park.”

Leon pointed toward the city. The rest of the them looked at him curiously.

“You mean you can see that far out? How? What happened to you?”

Coro looked in the direction Leon was pointing. Leon made a picture frame with his hands and expanded it to form a screen in front of the group.

“That better? Sorry, I’m still not used to this power…I can kind of… just see everything now.”

There was a small humanoid creature, maybe 3 feet tall, flipping burgers over a fire lit grille. She had a fluffy fox like tail and tall pointed ears. She was hopping around excitedly every time she flipped one of the burgers.

“There are more Eclecs… like me… She seems really excitable.”

Ash finally started to get over her embarrassment and jumped into the conversation. Her tail was swishing side to side.

“Want to travel there? Looks like there is an transport station to the east.”

Before Leon even finished speaking Coro started jogging away from them directly towards the city.

“Should we just let him go? Still don’t really like that guy…”

Red had her hands crossed over her chest as she watched the psychotic schizo tear off. She noticed that Leon and Ash were walking side by side toward the transport station. Red sighed and jogged to catch up with them.

Coro’s path shifted as he looked back to find no one following him. He panted heavily on his approach.

“Sorry… food makes me excited now it seems… Where are you guys going?”

“You left before Leon finished…”

Ash still wouldn’t look Coro in the face. Her ears twitched as she looked at the bus stop looking station. Her voice was hushed as she addressed Coro.

“Uhm… does anyone know what that thing is?”

There was a massive pile of boiling sludge taking over both of the benches. The smell of it was permeating through the air causing Ash’s face to contort. Leon pulled up a screen, but kept walking toward the station.

“Apparently that’s a…”

Leon coughed a couple times as the smell reached him.

“That’s a Limax. It’s an ethereal being that lives in a mass of corpses covered in a sticky ectoplasm. It controls the appendages of the corpses to move around. Also… It’s name is apparently Jeff.”

Leon promptly thought of the four of them as a group and a single screen popped up. He toggled their sense of smell ‘OFF’ and they all visibly relaxed. They approached the station and the abomination jiggled. It’s many eyes scanned over the four. It started vibrating and rolled over, only to rip one of the benches from its supports.

“ARRF A BLARG BLARG?”

It created a seam in it’s mid section and made a slapping noise as it spoke. An odd green haze poured out from it’s… mouth…

“What the fuck…”

Ash pulled back in disgust.

“Barg uff taakaa”

Leon responded, completely unfazed by Jeff.

Red looked up at Leon befuddled. He held out a had as if to say ‘One second’.

“Jarba de umbdum?”

“SMACHA OOP DE! FARGA DE FUUU! FAKAFAKAFAKA”

Leon looked to the others.

“He asked if we are new around here and offered us a seat. I asked about that little fox Eclec’s burgers. He said that they were pretty good but don’t call her little to her face. Then he laughed.”

Coro walked over to the creature and pulled the bench from it’s side. He placed it back on the ground, and started generating heat in his palm. He brushed his now glowing hand across the surface of the bench. The sticky substance burned away with a sickly green smoke and a hiss. He proceeded to sit heavily in the bench and looked up at Leon.

“How long do we have to wait… I’m becoming impatient…”

“Why are you two so unbothered by this… Jeff creature?

Red looked back and forth between them. Ash walked over and sat next to Coro crossing her hands and faced away from him. Leon made his way over and sat on the side closest to Jeff to continue their conversation. Red simply stood there staring at the them. Ash scooted a couple inches closer to Coro to make room for Red beside her and became visibly more uncomfortable. Red shook her head and slowly walked to the bench.

“You guys are fucking insane…”

“…It’s not so bad… I mean without the stench I mean… Plus look at me. After Leon… altered me… I just accepted that we would run into some weird shit… I will admit that this is much… much more than I expected… but… it’s easier to just go with it… If Leon isn’t bothered then I’m fine with it.”

Ash kept glancing over at Coro and flicked her tail against his long white hair playfully. He didn’t seem to notice anything and stared off into the nearby city.

A small bus like vehicle fell from the sky and Red shuttered.

“Are we seriously going to get into that tiny thing with… Jeff?”

The door swung open and the space on the inside was much larger than the outside. A dozen pairs of legs popped out all over Jeff. The blob lifted itself and rolled into the bus, leaving a slimy trail emanating a green fog in its wake. Leon followed with Ash and Coro closely behind.

Red was captivated by the seam between the outside and inside. She stepped in and out several times before the door shut in her face.

“Did… did any of you guys notice how insane this…”

She turned around to the group and finally noticed that the inside looked like a hotel lobby. There were at least six floors littered with countless different creatures. There was a battalion of white orbs rolling around and serving water to the passengers.

Red walked over to Leon and sat beside him. He patted her on the back.

“Hey you okay?”

“Yeah… Yeah… I just… don’t understand…how you made this world… Or how you made so many different creatures… You talked to Jeff like it was no big deal… How did you know its language?”

Red looked over to Leon. A small flash of light seemed to appear in his eyes and he put on a half smile.

“I didn’t make this place… It was shown to me by someone else… All I did was make a bridge to the ‘Select World’ simulation and ported our code over.”

Red stiffened up. She felt around her head in a panic and relaxed suddenly after finding what she was looking for.

“I can still log out… I want to look at the program running this world to make sure other humans can’t slip in here. If they die in the simulation then it’s highly likely that they will die in reality. Last thing I want is a bunch of people logging in here and dying in their pods.”

Leon looked concerned for a moment but shook his head.

“I placed a block so no one can pass over the bridge without my permission first. You may also be able to get things in and out, but the encryption is an evolving algorithm. Let me know before you do something so I can drop the defenses. There is something else I need to tell you… but this isn’t the time or place.”

The door for the transport swung open and the center of the city was visible outside. Jeff made a tear for the door and quickly rolled out of sight. Leon pulled up a screen and toggled everyone sense of smell back to on.

“I will have to just make it so he smells pleasant to us or something. He is actually a pretty nice guy. He was telling me about how his girlfriend was about to go into labor. He rushed away from the morgue to make it here in time.”

Red stared at Leon with a disgusted face.

“I’m going to pretend that I didn’t hear that…”

Coro stood up and lead the group out of the transport. He was on a mission for Eclec burgers. Ash was hot on his heels wheel Leon and Red hung in the back.

“What happened to you Leon… You’re so different from before…”

Leon scratched his head and sighed.

“Let’s not talk about this now. I’m fine… If that’s what you are worried about…”

Red blushed and looked away.

They were approaching the small booth. The little fox Eclec was packing up. Coro started to sweat profusely and made a dash to the booth. He slammed his palms on the counter. The poor fox crouched down and covered her ears.

“Are you closing!? Please make me a burger first!”

She quivered and slowly turned toward toward the menacing man.

“I’m… I’m sorry sir… I just ran out of meat a few minutes ago… I’ll be here tomorrow though.”

Coro looked down in dismay. He slumped to the ground and looked to Leon.

“Would it be okay if I turned back the clock a little bit?”

Leon looked at him skeptically and shook his head.

“No. We can just stay at that hotel and come back tomorrow.”

Coro’s head fell again. Ash crouched down by the fox Eclec and helped her up.

“Sorry about that… He seems to be on a big food kick lately… My name is Ash, what’s your name?”

“Thanks Ash, I’m Flora. What did your white haired friend mean by turning back the clock?”

The two looked between Coro and Leon.

“Don’t worry about it. He was just making a bad joke. Sorry my friend scared you…”

Leon answered promptly and walked over to help Coro to his feet. He groaned and stormed off toward the hotel.

“He seems… weird…”

Flora’s eyes lingered on him and her tail swished side to side. Ash had a similar reaction before she ran off to join him.

“Come on Red… Lets go before he gets himself into trouble. It was nice to meet you Flora.”

Flora watched them leave, her ears and tail drooping. She sighed and went back to closing up her little shop.