(Earth Habitat 1, January 3rd, 2047)

The next 10 days went by in a blur. While I wasn’t busy catching up on the many changes that had taken place on Earth, I also accessed the Cosmic Interface and figured out the tabs that concerned bringing magic back. It seemed that the actual mechanism that removed magic from the Universe was a little more insidious than I first thought. The black holes were mana sinks, and they weren’t. They were more like collection points where mana was pooled on its way out of the Universe through one of the negative conduits that led elsewhere. Modifying the black holes all at once wouldn’t have done what I wanted. Instead, I had to get into the nitty-gritty of the Universal code until I was looking at how the Universe was set up at a quantum level. This meant math. Lots, and lots of Math. Luckily I had Thor to help me work my way through it.

In laymen’s terms, any ambient magic that was detected was shunted through quantum tunnels into the black holes from everywhere. This was both a good and bad thing. Good, because this meant that I could set the filter, for want of a better word to describe the mechanism, to remove all the mana and save a very time bit. Sort of like opening up the water flow on a spigot or faucet. Bad because when the setting was changed the ambient magic would increase across the breadth of the Universe evenly and immediately. I didn’t know what any level of Ambient magic was going to do but in 200 - 250 weeks when the ambient level hit 20 – 25% everyone’s Personal Interface would activate. Which meant that my original nanites would start to degrade a lot faster than I had originally thought. Still, even if it was only 100 weeks that should give humanity enough time to adapt to being free again.

I made the changes and executed the program. I watched as the counter for Ambient Magic Density went to .1% +/- 5% regionally. I double-checked definitions and noted that it was 5% of 1% or +/-.05 Not up to 6% immediately. That meant that at 100% the ambient magic could be between 95 – 105% though. I wonder what the ambient mana being over 100% would be like then it hit me. Probably something like sitting in a positive energy area. Maybe not as good but definitely better than normal. An area of negative magic must be like the negative zone I’d visited. Probably a good place for the Undead to hang out and get extremely powerful, if such areas ever existed here. Other than that, I switched every other setting concerning magic in that section of the interface from “OFF” to “Default.” If I was going to promote natural selection. I was going to promote Natural selection.

One error did pop up.

ERROR Settings concerning time or temporal magic have been locked by an Avatar of Time. These settings will remain locked and cannot be unlocked by any being other than an Avatar of Time or Time.

Well, I knew that was true, nice to see that the changes were hard-coded so even the owner of the Universe or Cosmos couldn’t change it. Of course, I was looking at the Cosmic Interface…I minimized it and pulled up the Universal Interface. I compared it to the Cosmic Interface and realized that unlike my previous uses of the Universal and the Cosmic Interface before I came back to this Cosmos, these interfaces were identical here. I modified one of the magic settings to “Owner Only” in the Universal Setting. The Cosmic Setting changed as well. I changed the setting back to Default in the Cosmic Interface, the Universal Interface changed to “Default” as well. It seemed that in this Cosmos, the Universal and Cosmic Interfaces were linked completely. It made sense since it was placed outside of everything.

With that done, I sent a message to everyone I cared about.

Adam: Hey everyone, I’m heading out

Mom: Be careful

Dad: Honey, he’s effectively a God here, he’ll be fine

Abi: Take pictures.

Adam: Thanks Mom and Dad. Abi it’s a group of Black Holes, those pictures aren’t going to show much.

Amanda: Stop picking on Abi, Take pictures of what you find hidden by the Black Holes

Adam: Oh, that’s what you meant

Desirae: Such a smart ass. See you when you get back. I’ll make sure everyone here stays healthy

Adam: Thanks Ray, see you all later.

I closed the messages and formed a portal to a location one light year out from the system I was going to investigate. I stepped through the energy curtain that held the atmosphere back and found myself in an area of complete darkness. After a few moments, my eyes adjusted, and my Adaptable ability kicked in allowing me to see what my normal eyes couldn’t.

I’d stepped into a gulf of darkness. As I reviewed the information Thor had gathered I realized that I was in an area of space where light didn’t exist. Not to say this area was like the region of Nothing I’d explored just that visible light didn’t penetrate this area. The other thing that surprised me was the number of black holes that were orbiting the triangle that I could make. I couldn’t see the black hole but my eyes had adjusted so that I could see gravity as if it were magnetic lines of force. Those waves swirled and knotted all around me. This made pinpointing the black holes really easy. I willed myself towards the lines of force where the triangle was and noted that on all four sides of the pyramid there were tunnels to the center approximately a mile wide where ships could travel to the object at the center. Compared to the distances between the black holes these paths of safety were quite small. My sight allowed me to note there was a much weaker source of gravity in the center of that zone but I still couldn’t see what was there.

I altered my trajectory and headed towards the tunnel through the severe gravity wells of the Black Hole. I examined the lines of force and noticed something odd. It looked as if something at the quantum level was holding the barrier that created this tunnel. I slowed and moved over to the edge and placed my hand against it. I allowed my nanites to examine the barrier at the quantum level and sure enough, they found different alien nanites there. Alien nanites could withstand the gravity of a black hole and also alter how gravity affected space in the local area? As my nanites came into contact with them the technological nanites attacked them and tried to break them down. My nanites, created from the raw stuff of chaos easily thwarted all the physical attacks with ease. Next, a quantum level scan commenced against my nanites which included malware designed to overcome and control the nanites. I had no doubt that if they’d come into contact with my old normal nanites they’d have had little problem doing so until Thor or I actively engaged in stopping the hostile takeover. Since the Alien Nanites were trying to work against something I consciously controlled, they were far outclassed and easily defeated.

I wasn’t here for this, though I’d need to investigate it later. I withdrew my hand and willed myself back to the middle of the gravity tunnel and continued down the tunnel of normal gravity. No light made it into this area past the black holes so I allowed the lines of Gravity I could see to guide me. As I drew closer to the bubble at the center, I noted the light of a star making its way into this tunnel. Any light that hit the edges of the tunnel was absorbed and redirected but the light shining into the tunnel could reach quite a ways before the tunnel curved and the light ended. I analyzed the light, magnified my vision, and cataloged a star and a single planet orbiting that star in the goldilocks zone, the area around a star where liquid water could exist which could also mean that life could exist as well.

As I moved out of the artificial tunnel of normal gravity and entered the star system I noted that the star was M-Class. As I moved into the system I veered a swarm of alien nanites that immediately started trying to scan me. The scans were easily deflected. As I considered this, I contemplated the reason for the scan, then the Thor aspect of my mind that was actually a part of me warned me that the failure of the scan could cause a defense response which was exactly what happened.

One moment I was floating toward the planet and the next I was enveloped by an energy/gravity field as a brilliant light flashed around me.

Warning: You have entered a region of the Universe at a temperature of absolute Zero and an artificial field to temporal curtailment. Time has been brought to a rate of 0% of the normal flow of time in this Universe. As this is a technological effect and not magic your Ability “I Have Always Been, I Will Always Be” does not prevent this field from affecting you.

NOTE: Your ability Adaptable makes you immune to any environment found inside the cosmos. As such, absolute zero and technological modifications of time do not affect you unless you wish to.

Would you like to allow the temporal field surrounding you to affect you?

Yes or No?

I chose “No” and froze. If whoever had used this technology on me was actively scanning me they’d see that I still had electrons moving and firing but they’d expect that for at least a few seconds as the temperature where electrons ceased moving took hold. Side note, it was really nice that my Adaptability ability still worked because even my chaotic nanites should have been affected by such cold temperatures.

I opened my Universal Interface and checked my location. The coordinate system was relatively easy to follow as all points in the Universe were mapped out on an X, Y, and Z access. The numbers were nonsensical from a human point of view, the 0,0,0 point being the location where the Big Bang happened. The Milky way was roughly 7 billion light-years from that point and speeding away from it at roughly half the speed of light, though how that all worked was due to space compression and expansion while a body was moving through that space. Relatively, the galaxy wasn’t moving at even a quarter of half the speed of light. For my purposes, I’d reset the X, Y, and Z access to put Earth at my new 0,0,0 axis points and reviewed my location. Wow was the only word I could use to describe it was wow. If Earth was at a 7 along the X access and a positive 7 on the Z axis I was now at the opposite end of that location in the Cosmos. I had traveled billions of light-years in a second. I might be able to teleport that far but that would be a huge expenditure of mana. Portals were also out of the question.

I contacted Thor through our quantum link, “Thor, bit of a problem here. I am now more than 28 billion light-years from Earth”

“Understood, I’ll prepare contingencies and a secondary body if needed…You can still resurrect?”

“Yes, I still have the ability Undying. Just set up the body and reduce this link to minimum access just in case whatever this is tries to piggyback to you. Isolate and monitor with extreme prejudice.”

“Understood,” Thor replied as I felt the link between us revert to the most limited functioning we had.

Without moving I analyzed my environment and realized that my nanites couldn’t leave my body without giving away that I was still active. Even so, I visually analyzed my surroundings and found myself to be in a tube with some kind of clear window that I could look out of and that could look in on me. I’d bet anything the scientist or whatever they were that would view me in a moment wouldn’t have thought that they might want to utilize one-way mirrors. Of course, in a zero-energy/time environment who’d expect the creature inside that zone to be moving or thinking at all? I made a mental note to myself that should I ever do something like this I was going to tint the observation glass. Unfortunately, the bubble I was in didn’t allow sound to propagate so I couldn’t hear anything, but I did notice when two shadows fell across the glass and watched through my nanites as two creatures in white coats looked in on me. I saw their mouths moving but I still couldn’t hear them.

Next, I saw an arm extending from the ceiling down to my neck with a small needle. As the needle came into contact with my skin I detected a temporal nullifying field with a very small radius around the needled. As the needle was pushed into my skin I surrounded it with my nanites and prevented it from releasing or contaminating me with anything from it. I felt the suction from the tip as it tried to take a very minute sample of my blood. I allowed this so that my nanites could get out of this environment and check on my surroundings. I wanted more information before I acted.

The mechanical arm and needle were withdrawn, and the two beings stepped away. My nanites outside the chamber detected speech but it wasn’t a language that they’d come across at this point. Once I reviewed their speech I recognized it through my “That was Easy” ability. I guess I really did have a skill level of 100 in every skill that existed. While I thought about how useful that ability had become as the nanites from my blood sample started to replicate and spread. I also listened in,”

“The Subject appears to be Homosapien from a planet called Earth. We visited them approximately 8,000 years ago and found them primitive. Not capable of what this individual was seen doing.” A male voice said.

“What exactly was this one doing?” A second male voice said.

“Our outpost in this human’s galaxy detected him approaching the contact site without a ship or any visible means of propulsion.”

“No Ship, no technology? “

“Exactly! A decision was made by the Overmined to study him and see what is different about him.”

“Why hasn’t he been analyzed yet?”

I decided I’d played my charade long enough and moved to the window. The field I was in was very powerful. I doubted that I could break out without causing a catastrophic accident that the two individuals right outside this window would survive so I stepped up to the glass and looked out on two humanoids, roughly six feet tall, both bald with an athletic build. The first speaker had golden Irises while the second had light blue eyes. I knocked lightly on the inside of the glass which caused both to be startled. I placed my hand in front of the glass and displayed the following as a scrolling message across the skin of my palm in their language.

“Hello, my name is Adam. I would prefer to exit this containment zone without destroying your facility and you two with it. Could you please turn it off so we can speak face to face?”