I teleported into the Throne room and looked around. The Emperor was sitting on his Throne staring straight ahead. I knew he could see because I hadn’t shut down his brain and I was allowing his lungs to exchange oxygen and his heart to beat but otherwise my nanites had only locked down his ability to move. When I’d sent off my commands to the nanites here five minutes ago the room had been packed. There had even been children in attendance.

I sorted parents and their children into one group and all the sycophants into another. Then the nanites had taken over their bodies simultaneously. Portals had opened and everyone except the Emperor had stepped through. The nanites in the families and their children had put them in a coma and they stepped out into the artificial parks around the planet at least 100 miles from the Emperor’s palace. After the portals were closed the nanites released them and while they were surprised to find themselves in a different location the shock wasn’t enough to scare any of the children or adults that much.

The sycophants on the other hand were not treated so delicately. The nanites took over their bodies, the portals opened and they found themselves on the larger of the two moons, Itania, frozen in place. Itania is just a little larger than Earth’s Moon at 2,213 km. Also, the mass of Itania was just a little more than Earth’s moon at .084. (1024 kg). Conditions on the Surface were about the same as on Earth’s moon. Fun fact, the reason Vrax didn’t suffer tidal problems was that the entire surface of Vrax had been covered and the oceans and lakes had been put in what amounted to giant containers. As for the sycophants, I made sure the nanites maintained their bodies while they stepped through portals into a shallow crater looking at Vrax sitting above the Horizon. Once everyone was through and lined up, I had the nanites release them from the neck up so they could turn, look around and talk amongst themselves. I’d sealed the crater they were looking out with a thin sheet of transparent aluminum and used the nanites to solidify the crater wall enough so gases wouldn’t escape into the soil after I converted some of the moon’s surface to air for them. The nanites would make sure they had enough Oxygen. The point of this exercise was to show them, and the Emperor, that forces they couldn’t control were in play. I didn’t want any of them to die. I wasn’t doing this to make that kind of point.

I looked around the giant empty hall that the Emperor’s dais sat in and started walking towards him. As I reached the bottom of the steps leading up my nanites detected two stasis fields, one on each side of the steps. Neither was visible to the naked eye nor were either in any way technological. My nanites were trying to infiltrate the field but there was nothing there to infiltrate. A book I’d read came to mind by an author by the last name of Hamilton. Stasis Frozen Guards? But if that were so, the nanites should be able to infiltrate the guard’s bodies. As I stepped onto the dais I received my answer. It was a temporal barrier of some kind that probably had to be deactivated.

Warning: You have stepped into a Temporal Anomaly. Destination Unknown. Would you like to allow this Temporal Anomaly to affect you? Yes or No?

I chose “No” as I continued up the steps. I had my nanites form a chair and sat down directly in front of the Emperor so that he could look out into the room behind me while I looked into his eyes and waited. I didn’t have to wait long. All of the lights went out and I felt a thousand men teleport into the room. Every single one of them came from a world that my nanites had already infiltrated. As they appeared, every one of them stepped through a portal that appeared in front of them and entered the crater on Itania. Those had been the Emperor’s emergency special forces that were always on call and always ready to deploy. 30 seconds later a second wave of 1,000 appeared, also already infiltrated with my nanites. They also joined their friends on Itania.

My nanites detected transmission of both technological and magical nature. The nanites blocked the technological transmission easily. The magical one was a bit more insidious and I didn’t realize that it was a dead man’s switch until the signal had turned off. It seemed that besides the call for an election of an Emperor by the Council of Nobility there was another way to deactivate the stasis chamber behind the Emperor. The stasis chamber was a door inside a pentagram that sat slightly above the Throne. The tips of the pentagram flashed red and the stasis field dropped. A door opened allowing the single occupant to step forward.

Someone in the control room must have deactivated the stasis chamber remotely. As my nanites investigated how this had happened I realized that’s not what had happened. A simple oversight on my part and an absolutely brilliant strategy by whoever set up the Emperor’s protection. Sensors in the control room where set to monitor movement. If movement ceased, the signal to maintain the stasis chamber was interrupted. There had been guards and the commander in charge of the control room and the timer had been set to five minutes. There were other failsafes including queries by the program to other agencies and the Emperor. When I’d cut off communication outside the palace, movement of any kind by the Emperor and everyone in the control room ceased the program had deactivated the stasis field. I just hadn’t thought they’d have something like that in place. I knew they’d have security, I‘d nullified it all, or at least I thought I had. Obviously, I was mistaken as I watched Mah land lightly on the Dais behind the Throne then walk around to the side of the Throne.

If Trix’s memories were accurate, and I had no reason to believe they weren’t, this man had systematically gone to multiple systems and destroyed them and everyone in them when the counselors representing those systems had killed their fellow counselors in the Council of Nobility during an election for a new Emperor as they tried to get their man into that position. . Mah looked around, noted the current Emperor sitting frozen on his Throne then looked at me.

Without a word or any indication that he was going to attack I looked down to find a black blade buried in my chest through my heart held by Mah who was looking at me as if inspecting a bug, he’d just stomped on. That was surprise number 1. Surprise number 2 was the fact that he’d done enough damage to my body that I was dying. Surprise number 3 was the sensation I felt from the dark blade that was somewhat familiar but alien. Well, one good thing would come of this, I’d finally learn what that Soul Ability Incessant did.

WARNING: Mah has attacked you with The Blade of Primal Destruction.

The Blade of Primal Destruction bypasses all defense and resistance.

The Primal Blade of Destruction inflicts damage by Percentage of total health, not hit points.

This blade is extremely potent against creatures with very high hit points. instead of by health point. Attacks that would normally be fatal inflict 200% damage.

The Blade of Primal Destruction ignores all damage reduction.

All I had time to utter before my body died was, “Ow”

Mah sneered and smiled as I winked at him and reformed to the right of the Throne. The process was instantaneous. As long as the area was saturated with nanites, my body reformed within a second. I looked at him, he smiled and moved. I died again. His form was outstanding and better than my ability to dodge. Of course, I wasn’t even seeing him move to strike which meant… I’ll be a son of a… The soul ability incessant was reforming my body out of the nanites as my former bodies broke apart into their component nanites. As I was dying the third time I checked to see what my nanites were up to concerning Mah. They were infiltrating him just fine. The sword was another matter. Unlike my Chaos Blade, this blade destroyed anything that came into contact with it, even my chaotic nanites. Mah wasn’t protected but that sword was.

I died five more times before I was able to freeze him in place. After the fourth death, I’d tried to leave him in a state similar to the people I had on the Moon. He’d still moved and the sword was still in my chest. The fifth time I put him into a coma as I had his fingers release The Blade of Primal Destruction. Then I’d opened a portal beneath it that led into Chaos. I watched as the blade of destruction faded from view. The raw chaos was staying away from the blade as it fell away from the portal. I sent a couple of nanites after it to stay in close proximity to the sword as I closed the portal walked over to Mah and tried to analyze or identify him. No such luck. Nothing I tried was breaking through whatever was blocking me. Also, I was pretty sure he was an Absolute level soul, though he only seemed to be a manifestation instead of a projection or an Aspect that had crossed into this Cosmos.

Everything happened where the Emperor could witness it. I had a good idea what he was thinking but right now I had to figure out what to do with Mah. I pulled up my interface and queried where an Aperture was. My ability Pansophical activated and a message appeared

The aperture out of this Cosmos is located within the Divide at the center.

I reviewed my memories of The Divide and noted that it was a tube that was long and huge but I didn’t see anything that looked like “The Eye” or apertures I’d seen before. I replayed the memories in my mind and as I looked everyone over I did notice that there seemed to be an area a little farther down from the door where few went though I was lucky enough to see one soul that was floating near the center and seemed to phase out of view. None of the other souls reacted, nor had I reacted when it happened. Maybe there was some form of mental suppression not to notice unless you were looking for it?

I picked Mah up, opened a portal to The Divide, and moved out into the middle of the Divide. Souls were floating by as I appeared but they paid me no notice. Some were crying, others were surprised, and others seemed excited. None were moving through the center area of the tube though. As I entered that center area I passed an invisible barrier. As I looked at the souls passing by me I noticed a slight distortion. That was the only indication that there was something between myself and the other souls. I looked around and noticed that less than 100 feet from my entry point there was a Platinum Door above which words were flowing through many languages though the meaning of the words didn’t change,

“For Those Ready to Start Anew, This Door is For You”

Well, that was just corny as hell. I walked up to the Door and opened It to a shimmering wall of light.

Would you like to Leave this Cosmos, Yes or No?

I chose “No” and then threw Mah through the door. He bounced off the wall of light and floated back towards me. I caught him easily. I guess he had to accept the transition. That did make a little bit of sense. Fine. I shut the door and moved back from it then willed myself to Cross-over.

Would you like to Leave this Cosmos, Yes or No?

I chose “Yes.”

WARNING you are carrying another entity with you out of this Cosmos at a non-designated location. Doing so may have an adverse effect on the entity.

I ignored the warning and crossed into the Place between Places with Mah. Interestingly enough his body didn’t dissolve or get destroyed. There must be a set of rules governing the chaos of this region or it wasn’t chaos, just a chaotic region where chaos could exist as well. I’d have to explore this area a little more next time I was out here for a while. My interface showed a great empty expanse so I reset my Interface to default for this place and everything around me changed. I was standing next to a barrier holding Mah and not too far away there was a conduit racing off into the distance.

So asshole didn’t want to leave the Cosmos willingly. I was betting that if I placed him in the Conduit from outside the Cosmos he wouldn’t have a choice. I willed us closer and holding Mah by the neck I kept my body outside the conduit and pushed him through the permeable barrier surrounding it. I felt pressure pulling on Mah’s body and released him. I felt my nanites inside him get drawn down the conduit away from me at a very rapid rate. I still had communication with them and release Mah from the Coma as I willed myself away from the conduit. I brought the image of the Emperor’s Throne room into focus and willed myself to Cross-over into that location. There were no prompts this time. I just phased into existence in front of the Emperor and sat down in the chair opposite him.

“Now that that’s out of the way Emperor Princeps you and I can have a talk,” I said. “Don’t worry I’ll let you ask some questions in a minute, first though, Everyone, save Mah, will be returning as soon as we’re done here. The families and their children are fine, They’re in some of your parks around the world just far enough away from any portals so they won’t be getting back anytime soon. Those of your court that don’t have family and all of your soldiers are on the Surface of Itania. They’re frozen much like you are though they can breathe normally and they’re not dying so I guess that’s a bonus for them.” I paused for a second, stood and looked around the Hall again then sat back down. “And this place, Why the hell would you need a place so big? I get that you’re the Emperor of a multi-interdimensional empire that spans a huge number of star systems across multiple universes but seriously isn’t this a bit ostentatious? Last thing, I’m going to release you now. If you try to cast any magic or utilize a technological weapon or device on me I will take you where I just took your guardian and drop you off. In effect that means you’re going to die but that’s not what really happens and I don’t want to ruin the surprise when it happens so let’s just say, that you probably wouldn’t like that outcome,” I said as I released him.

The Emperor moved his arms and legs to make sure he had full movement back then launched himself at me with a very impressive closed fist punch to my left eye while I was sitting down. I didn’t move, didn’t even flinch. He broke his hand and fell to his knees holding it and groaning.

I stood as I said, “Let me help you with that.” I had the nanites cut off the pain receptors to his hand and knit the bones back together. While that was happening, I lifted him by his waist and put him back on his throne then went back and sat down in my seat.

When the pain had stopped he looked at his hand which had allowed me to pick him up and place him back on his throne due to his surprise at there being no pain suddenly. He sat there and watched as the skin rippled and the bones knit back together. When it was done, I released the block on his pain receptors. He flexed his hand, poked it with his other hand then asked, “How?”

“How isn’t important? Also, thank you for believing me about using magic or technology. I left that gap for physical action to see what you’d do. You acted quickly and decisively which is the type of leader I most wanted to deal with today,” I said

“With what I just witnessed and felt, I don’t see why, you could take over the Empire and no one would be able to oppose you,” he said.

“That’s only partially true. There are entities that are just as powerful as I am and weapons that can strike me down, though I tend to get back up, as you witnessed.

“What did you do with Emperor’s Guardian?” he asked.

“The Emperor’s Guardian has a soul. That soul has moved on to his next life.”

“You ripped his soul out and banished it?”

“Nothing so crass, I merely sent him on his way. You’ll have to trust me on this but he was not on side of the angels. In fact, I’m pretty sure he was probably a demon or demon spawn of some sort.”

“Stop talking nonsense, You’re talking like good and evil are actually at war with each other. There are only the choices you make and the consequences of those choices.”

“You are both correct and incorrect. There are consequences for all the choices you make and the more significant ones will remain with you for a very long time. Which brings me to the reason I’m visiting you today, “Why did you have Trix assassinated?”

“I did no such thing!” He declared righteously.

“First, your right, you didn’t order the Death of Trix, she was already dead when The Agency eliminated her. Second, yes you did. Just answer my questions and I’ll get out of here and return your people to you.”

The Emperor looked at me intently and then said, “I ordered her death because there can only be one Emperor. She was trying to set up an organization that would have made my title meaningless.”

“That makes sense. Thank you for your honesty. What you didn’t know about Trix is that she was like me.”

“Was?” he asked.

“Was. She is most definitely dead and never returning. Which is a very good thing because had you been able to pull off your plan and kill her she would have returned to her boss who most definitely has the ability to make your life and death a living hell.”

“What are you talking about, the major Gods have served The Emperor of the Vrax for millennia. That pact is as old as the Empire is. Some even say the Empire formed because of that Pact and the Gods love for the people of Vrax.”

“That may have been true in the past but it is no longer true.

“You lie!”

“I do not lie,” I said as I sent a message through my nanites to Death, Come to the Emperor’s Throne room on Vrax now, please!

Death appeared and asked, “Who…” then stopped herself as she saw me and the Emperor. She nodded to Emperor Princeps then glared at me as she asked, “Did you summon me?”

“I didn’t summon you, but we both know my requests have just a little bit of weight to them don’t we?” I said with a smile

“That is Death, you can’t talk to her like that, she’ll kill you?” The Emperor said adamantly.

“Nah, we’re besties, aren’t we Death?”

“Sure,” she said rolling her eyes. “Why am I here?” she asked.

“You are here to answer one simple question that shouldn’t be stopped by the Geas placed on everyone in this Cosmos. Did something happen to modify or nullify the pact the Gods made with the Vrax prior to your encounter with me a couple of days ago? I’m not asking you to explain because I know that you cannot. A simple Yes or No will suffice.

“Yes,” she said.

“Thank you,” I said

“You’re still an ass,” she said

“But you’re not in limbo for, how long was that going to be again?” I asked.

She sighed, then asked, “Are we done here?”

“Yes,” I said

Death departed as quickly as she arrived as the Emperor asked, “Limbo?”

I thought about it for a second then decided that the truth might help in this instance, “I punched her so hard I caused her solid form to disintegrate. Why does that matter? Well, it looks like she created this rule concerning the death of immortals and Gods that they had to remain in limbo until they had regenerated any damage that was done before they could return to physical form. I don’t know the specifics but that’s what I gleaned. Her own rule was going to keep her out of things for a very long time. Not days, months, years, or even centuries. Much longer than that.”

“Then how is she back?” he asked.

“I made a wish and expended some of my healing rate to bring her back.

“I don’t understand.”

“Nor should you, that would be giving away all my secrets. Just know this, in the very near future I’m going to send a message to you. In that message will be instructions on how to resist the power that has nullified your pact with the Gods as well as what teachings you need to end immediately. You will most likely be promised things you desire. I can tell you from the little bit of interaction I’ve had that this being, and others like her, don’t give a rat’s ass about any being that becomes their vassals. They just want followers so they can gain more power from them. Each and everyone member of your empire can make their own way and make their own choices. My understanding after researching your history is that this empire started out like that. You need to redirect the people of the Empire back on that path.”

“What will you do if I don’t?” he asked

“Nothing, you and your empire need to make your own decisions. If you chose to follow the master of Trix then so be it. I’ve done what I came here to do, I warned you. I’ve also given you a boogieman to use to whip people that were not listening to you in line. I did not turn off the recording devices in this room. Mah is gone, showing that even he, with all his might and the power to destroy planets, had no chance against me or others like me.

“I must ask again, why not just take my throne and do things the way you want?”

“Because I do not need to be bogged down with the governing of a single empire.”

“Are you a God?” he asked

“Honestly I don’t know what definition to use to answer that question. If your definition of God is someone as powerful or just slightly less powerful than Death, then by that definition yes. But my instincts and my personal insight tell me that no I’m not a God. I’m just a guy that has been incredibly lucky while I’m trying to do the best I can for the most people I can.” I said then paused for a moment before ending the conversation, “I will have something written up and sent directly to you. Not to worry no one will intercept it, you’ll understand when it happens. I have a couple of other small items to take care of. Oh yeah, tell the Agency to leave Ne’lix alone. He is not like me but any attempts to kill him will lead to the instant deaths of the agent sent and whoever issued the order. I’m sure someone will try, just make sure it’s not you that orders or even hints at ordering it. Just be ready to replace the assassin and their supervisor. Then make sure to reinforce the order the second time. Portals will start opening momentarily and all of the people that were here will return. Your elite soldiers will be returned here as well to help you see to the needs of your people. The families and children can find their own way home. Your empires portal network is quite impressive,” I said

Just as the emperor was about to say something or ask a questions I teleported out and the chair I’d been sitting in was broken down. I watched through my nanites as Portals opened and people started returning from the Moon. The Emperor stood and looked down the dais to his people. Shutting off his security measures he rushed down the steps while speaking into an intercom on his wrist, “I need medics and counselors in the Throne room now!” I watched as he organized and saw to the needs of his people. Maybe I’d been a bit heavy-handed. Emperor Princeps was a good ruler, He might be able to alter the path of his empire and help this cosmos get out from under Textrix. To do that though, he would need just a little more help. Now I had to get the Gods of this Cosmos in line.