Zorvan monitored Adam and watched as he was teleported away to the Champions Hall for the Sector. A moment later a Sector-wide message went out informing everyone that they had one month of “Free” time. They could enjoy their victory as everyone took some much needed downtime. Additionally, their salary of Contribution Points would be paid by the Multitude.

Zorvan received a more personalized Notification at the same time informing him that it was his responsibility to streamline, as much as possible, the inner workings of the Empire and to prepare training regiments for extended battle-type conditions that may or may not commence immediately after the one month break was over.

Zorvan began his preparations while he made sure to enjoy some time off the 30-day break bestowed on the Sector as well. That is until a new message popped up.

Adam, Emperor of the Adamantium Autocracy has been terminated.

A moment later Thor’s voice came through one of the station’s speakers, “He has not been terminated. My link to him was just fine until he destroyed the Supervisor. After that, he went dimension hopping.

“He did what?” Zorvan said alarmed.

“Don’t worry your little head about it. All the ships we’ve created are being recalled to this Station while we wait for Adam to come back. Eventually, he should make his way back here, if for no other reason than to pick Al and me up.”

“There are protocols, a new Emperor must be chosen…” Zorvan started to say.

“Zorvan, breathe. I’m telling you, nothing, and I do mean nothing can destroy Adam that we’ve encountered to date. Granted, there might be something out there that can kill him but if that happens he will most likely appear back here. So calm down, he’s probably dimension-hopping and got tied up doing something outrageous.

“What is it that he does when he goes dimension hopping?” Zorvan asked warily.

“Makes trouble for anyone or anything that makes trouble for him. I would assume the Multitude is at the top of that list now,” Thor responded matter-of-factly.

***

Over the next couple of months, life within the Adamantium Autocracy went on as the Multitude directed. Duke Vytrix Saljihar became the de facto Emperor, and the masses began preparing for war at the Multitude’s direction. Thor had explained the facts as he knew them and then began taking steps to ensure the Multitude would not be able to seize the technology he’d introduced as he began shoring up the defenses of the New Alamo Solar System.

Zorvan began by investing a significant amount of the Empire’s Collaboration Point production into purchasing one of each type of Class 1 through Class 4 ships the Market had available for purchase. Each was taken to the Skunkworks and analyzed. After that, it was just a simple matter for Thor to begin replicating them at the facilities he had. The ships he’d created from the technology available in his, and Adam’s memories, were brought back to the primary system while the new ships were the ones equipped and manned for training in compliance with the Multitudes directions.

The same was done for weapons and armor, though Thor made sure to purchase at least one copy of each of the Class 9 weapons and armor. He wanted to make sure that their ground troops would have an advantage against most threats they might encounter.

Once he was sure the personnel were equipped, Thor began preparing the Solar System’s defense. He wanted to make sure that the defense was Solar System-wide and not just focused on the wormholes. The weapons and defenses he created did not fall within the Class System the Multitude utilized. Additionally, each weapon, defense, or structure he created garnered an enormous amount of Contribution Points. While the new Emperor only utilized 5% of the Contribution Points for personal growth as he also redirected all the Contribution Points back into growing the Empire, that small amount of Contribution Points allowed him to level his Diplomatic Class, which was something that Adam had never worried about.

Thor allowed the Emperor Pro Tem and Zorvan to handle the day-to-day running of the Empire but maintained that Adam would return and that the Emperor Pro Tem was advised to treat his absence as temporary.

Thor received a message from Al indicating that he wanted to talk. Thor made his way to the Virtual Reality they had created, which was a digital representation of one of the many homes Adam had out in the real. They would often meet up and discuss things. This is what they’d decided relaxing would be like for them if that was even possible as they were both Machine Intelligences.

Al sat behind a desk with a lot of monitors which was a physical representation of the searches he was performing. Currently, he was reviewing all the information Thor had been able to glean from everything Thor and Adam had shared with him.

“You needed to see me, Al?” Thor asked.

“Yes. I was wondering…It’s been about three months, are you sure Adam is coming back?”

“As sure as I can be. What have you figured out since Zorvan said he’d received a message that Adam had been terminated?”

“Not much,” Al said hesitantly then clarified, “As you know I’ve run entire simulated Universes, including a couple with a setup something like this. From the variables I can detect and deduce, as well as the information Adam shared with us about what he discovered concerning his soul core, I believe someone or something thing or a group created Quintessence to make accessing magic easier through abilities. Sure, they lost some of the versatility of the magic but ultimately it made it a lot easier for everyone to have some magic.”

“So, you think someone did this to even the playing field and give everyone a chance to be special instead of those that took the time to earn that privilege?” Thor asked.

“Exactly. Then at some later point, something came along and corrupted that system. They started siphoning the quintessence energy to themselves while keeping everyone else at level 1. Once the system was set up all they needed to do was bring in new people and they could keep getting more and more quintessence energy which they could then use for whatever purpose they desired. The only question I can’t answer is why?”

“Surely you have some ideas?” Thor asked.

“As do you with what I just told you,” Al continued. “They could have been doing it so they could be supremely powerful. They could have done it so they could take an as-yet-unknown ability to a height never before achieved, or they could have done it simply because they were greedy. I have plenty of ideas for why they’d set up such a system, I just don’t ‘know’ why they did,” Al said.

“Fair enough,” Thor agreed.

“Probability approaches Unity that the Multitude is just a small portion of the tapestry that makes up all of existence, “Al said. “As such, whatever they’re doing is less than a drop of water in an ocean.”

“If you have calculated that conclusion and I have calculated that conclusion, we can surmise that Adam has made that calculation as well,” Thor stated.

“Does he truly have the computational ability of either of us?” Al asked.

“I would say yes, though more recently it seems as if he, and I, have been relying on our memories more than performing new calculations,” Thor said.

“Do you care to explain or give an example of what you mean by that?” Al asked.

“Absolutely. For example, if I wanted to know what area of a circle, one mile in diameter was, I could perform the calculation for one half a mile in feet and then solve it. Since the Area of a circle equals Pie multiplied by the radius squared, that’s pretty easy. Or, Adam can just review his memories and know the answer is 21,900,000 feet or 2.19 E07. It’s not that Adam can’t do the calculations, it’s just easier for him to pull the answer from his memory while you and I must resort to performing the calculation unless we happen to have that piece of information memorized as well. I can pull the information from my memories as well, though when tested it, for me, doing the calculation was faster. For Adam pulling information from his memory is intuitive and practically instantaneous,

“His memory is that good?” Al asked.

“Remember, my memories come from him. When I review them they contain plenty of examples of the ease with which he recalls something he’s learned already. There is a lot of unwasted time as he doesn’t need to review information to keep it fresh, or else he’d forget. It also makes it very easy for him to take a bunch of different data points together in a way others may have missed,” Thor explained.

“So, what’s taking him so long this time?” Al asked.

“No idea. Let’s just hold the fort and make sure he has an empire to come back to. Also, let’s get in the habit of backing ourselves up as often as we can so if he needs to, he can grab the backups and go?” Thor said.

“Good idea. I guess I’ll start,” Al said as he stood and walked over to an alcove which was the equivalent of him jacking into his quantum backup cell. Any changes to the quantum state were noted and added to the storage device. When Al was done, Thor took his place after which they both sat back down to play a nice relaxing game of chess.

***

While individuals within Adam’s Sector were mostly unaffected by the Primal Chaos surging through the Multitude’s Quintessence control Quasi-Astral Plane, as Adam would later define it, The rest of the Multitude was not having as easy a go of it. Not at all.

“Where is he?” Twelve asked.

“I have no idea your excellence, he vanished from the Hall of Champions and was detected within the Framework. After that, we lost him, Azra Sumuda responded as she sent command, after command into her monitor as she tried to elicit some information, any information concerning the whereabouts of their target.”

While Azra continued her search, Twelve pondered everything that had happened since he’d awoken from his slumber. There was always instability after such a long cycle of hibernation, and he could admit that maybe he shouldn’t have decided to just bring every possible entity he could into the Multitude but things like that had happened before and they’d always turned out okay. In fact, the influx of quintessence and power had been so satisfying that he was thinking about heading out to the outer reaches and searching for even more areas for the Multitude to expand into. It would take a lot of energy but right now that wasn’t an issue, they had plenty of energy to spare.

Besides, it had felt good to be a God to the creatures that could do nothing to stop him. Was it not their purpose to control and guide the Multitude? A purpose the thirteen of them had agreed upon many cycles ago. Of course, of the thirteen only he was engaged at this level currently. The rest were off exploring and cataloging or resting as he had been. Besides, he had made this mess. Whatever he had done had brought this Adam against them. Therefore, it was his responsibility to clean it up.

“Still nothing?” Twelve asked

“Nothing, Sir!”

“Very well, extreme circumstances require extreme measures. Thank you for your assistance,” Twelve said as he vanished and appeared in what he liked to think of as the control hub for the Multitude. The room he appeared in was not on any map or accessible by any other mode of travel except teleportation or dimensional travel. Someone trying to find it would first have to find the corresponding location within the correct realm and then cross dimensions into the pocket dimension that housed the room he was in. The dimensional bubble was only about 50 feet in diameter, of which, most was filled with machinery placed above, below and around the small thirty by Thirty-foot room he found himself standing in. At the center of the room was a circular table with thirteen seats around it. At the center of the table, which was within arm’s reach of every seat was an 8-foot diameter orb. The orb looked to contain swirling variations of silver that moved and flowed throughout the sphere.

Twelve moved to his seat, sat down, and place his hand on the Orb.

“Greetings Twelve, The Multitude stands ready to serve, how may I help?”

“Where is the entity known as Adam, Adamantadine, previously Johnathan Bennard?” Twelve asked.

“The connection to the being you have identified was disconnected from the Multitude from within the Framework.” The multitude said in its dry feminine voice.

“How is that possible, access to that dimension is restricted, none save the thirteen should be able to enter the Framework, first because access is restricted but more importantly because no one knows that it exists, it’s an artificial construct. The odds that anyone or anything could randomly come across the dimensional shifting barrier and bypass it are less than one in…my head just hurts thinking about how low that probability is,” Twelve said.

“Our records show that an unknown energy signature bypassed the security features by traveling within the quantum quintessence link from the framework to the individual you identified.”

“How is that even possible, matter cannot travel along those links. Only Quintessence should be able to travel along those conduits. I read, no I created those links. They’re only supposed to allow Quintessence to flow to and from our subjects?” Twelve said.

“I cannot speak to the purpose of the quantum quintessence links; I only know what was detected and recorded.”

“Very well. Where did the energy signature go after it entered the Multitude?” Twelve asked.

“The energy signature exited the multitude through one of the many links that were created between the multitude and the various energy realms the Multitude draws energy from,” The Multitude stated as the orb paused for a moment before a change to the swirling silver orb and began to take place. Twelve noticed that a dot of whiteness had appeared and seemed to be growing.

“What is marking your representation in this room?” Twelve asked.

“I have detected fluctuations within the link Adam exited the Multitude from. After further review, I have determined that the link he fled through connects to one of the many realms of primal Chaos,” The Multitude said.

“What kind of fluct…” was all that Twelve was able to say before the silver orb flashed to white, and expanded absorbing everything in the room including him. A moment later the Chaotic energy, because Twelve knew exactly what it was, expanded and filled the pocket dimension he was in. Twelve tried to teleport away only to find that something was very wrong. He could feel the energy fundamentally interacting within him and eroding his very makeup. Twelve retreated into his Mindspace and then further into his soul core. He struggled and fought against the energy that was destroying his body and mind which he could no longer feel.

Twelve only had a moment to consider the Eons, no much longer than eons as there were many eons within each cycle and the thirteen of them had lost count of the number of cycles they’d been through, all coming to an end now. By Primal Chaos? Was it an accident? Was it intentional? Twelve had a million questions as to how this could happen but knew answers would never come. Why? Because the one thing that he thought never to happen again, had happened, he’d been surprised. To live for so long without a surprise, without something new and now, finally, something new had happened. Perhaps he might even find the answer to the very last question he had.

The consciousness that was Twelve ceased a moment later as the last mote of his existence was absorbed by Primal Chaos. As was every other member of the Thirteen. Twelve had been unfortunate enough to be in the Command-and-Control center of the Multitude when the Chaos had broken through. For the other twelve members, the Primal Chaos had followed their active Quantum Quintessence links and eaten them from the inside out, starting with their Soul Core, none had been able to withstand the corruption of the Primal Chaos and each had simply popped out of existence as they all became part of primal chaos.

Luckily for Everyone else within the multitude when the Command-and-Control realm was destroyed along with the 13 founding members the quantum quintessence links that the multitude had to everyone else snapped, cutting off the Primal Chaos from accessing them. To the masses, one moment they were part of the Multitude, the next they were not. Unlike Adam, they did not receive a flood of Quintessence to replace all the Quintessence that had been stolen from them. In fact, they did not feel any different at all, though all the interface adjustments that the Multitude had made faded or were lost as the Titles disappeared from their Personal Information.

One thing was immediately noticed by those Empires that had sensors in the outer reaches of each of their Solar Systems within a Trial for Supremacy. The barriers that had been surrounding each Solar System faded. The Wormholes between the various system remained as there were devices that had been placed at each entry and exit point. Those wormholes would allow instantaneous travel. Galaxies had a lot of solar systems and only a small portion were ever utilized for a Trial of Supremacy. With the barriers removed, solar systems that were not part of the Trial were now accessible.

Additionally, The Collaboration Market still worked, though once items were bought, they were no longer replaced. The Multitude had restocked the common items, through some conversion of quintessence. Now that it was gone, that restocking ceased. This would cause immediate hardships for those empires that had been relying on the market for their basic necessities.

Adam was made aware of all of this as information from snippets of information he gleaned from the Primal Chaos that was absorbing information from him. Being frozen as he was, gave him plenty of time to contemplate what he’d discovered. First, as he had thought, the Multitude was a system of control. Second, thirteen beings had created it, though the spike of Primal Chaos into twelve of the thirteen Soul Cores had ended those threats, which meant he should be one of the only Class S individuals around. The titles should have been removed. Interestingly enough he was able to open his Personal Information in his Mindspace while his body was still locked up in the flowing stream of Primal Chaos. His titles were gone but the benefits of those titles remained. That probably had to do with the fact that he disconnected from the Multitude before the titles could be deactivated. They’d just been removed when he was no longer a member of the Multitude. That meant that something had been added to him to artificially increase his attributes in addition to quintessence. That was a concern for another day, for now, he needed to concentrate on regaining control of his body, returning to Thor and Al, and trying to find the rest of his family and friends. The last task seemed like it had just become a whole lot harder.

Adam tried to expand his senses into the area around his body to no avail. Unlike the time within the System Matrix when he’d been able to expand his point of view and take in the realm of chaos he was in, he couldn’t do that here. Perhaps it was because, in the System Matrix, the chaotic environment had been within a structured energy matrix run by Al, so while he had been affected by the Primal Chaos that had made its way into that Universe, that Chaos was bound, or chose to be bound, but wait, it chose? Could it choose? If it could choose, could it reason? Adam changed his tactics, instead of trying to fight to get free, Adam focused his mind on one coherent thought, Hello

The pressure on his memories receded as Adam felt like something was looking at him. A moment later Adam found himself floating in a small bubble surrounded by liquid chaos on all sides. What was even more surprising was when the wall of chaos before him printed “Hello?” in bold black. A moment later Adam watched as scripts in Binary, Hexadecimal, Latin, English and a lot of the other languages he spoke scrolled through the area of those five letters and one symbol on the wall. Almost like it was one of those automatic brail reading devices that changed the letters automatically. Suddenly the letters disappeared and a mouth formed where the letters had been scrolling.

“We have done this before,” The wall said.

“Done what exactly?” Adam asked.

“We have rebuilt ourselves from the scattered thoughts, it is easier this time,” The mouth said as it then formed into an indistinct humanoid body with purple eyes and a mouth. It had no other features except that it had a head, torso, two arms, two legs, 10 fingers, and ten toes. As it stepped away from the wall a small tendril of chaos remained attached to its back as it stepped toward Adam and stopped at arm’s length.

“What are you?” the indistinct man asked?”

“I am, or I was, a man. Now I am as you are, a creature of Chaos. You are a creature of Chaos aren’t you?” Adam asked.

“I am…I am Johnathan, No, Sam, no, I…We are many though the loudest voice within me comes from you.” It said.

“Do you have a name?” Adam asked.

“Your memories show me visions and concepts, so many. We, yes, we were just born into consciousness. We have no name as yet.”

Adam was about to ask another question when something happened. He didn’t receive a notification or a feeling of movement. He even reviewed his memories and found nothing. One moment he was in the bubble speaking to Chaos Personified, the next he found himself floating in the Astral Plane in his Dual State form.

Adam was sure something much more powerful than he was had stepped in and stopped that conversation for some reason. Perhaps he’d find out someday, perhaps not. Right now he knew he needed to get back to Thor and Al so he activated Planar Travel and returned to his Administrator Station over New Alamo

“And he’s back!” Thor called out from one of the speakers in the Emperor’s Office. A moment later Zorvan teleported in as a portal opened and the Emperor Pro Tem stepped through into the office from the planet below as he nodded to Adam.

Adam watched as everyone arrived, “Okay, what did I miss?” Adam asked as if nothing had happened.

“Three months ago when you disappeared things went a little wonky. Today, things went extremely wonky,” Thor said.

“I was kind of stuck, though I did receive some of the highlights. Time was a bit weird where I was. Not that I think it flowed any differently, just that as I was tied up, I wasn’t perceiving it correctly,” Adam explained.

Zorvan cleared his throat and spoke, “The Emperor Pro Tem and I have kept things running smoothly. The first month was rather easy as everyone receive the reward for the Trial for the Sector being completed. After that Thor began providing Multitude class ships that replaced your fleet which has been brought back to defend this system. Not to say that the other systems aren’t defended, they are. The New Alamo Systems defenses are at another level thanks to Thor.”

“Zorvan, Thor, and Al. One thing I noticed from where I was, those members of the Multitude that did not take the time to set up proper farms and the like now have food shortages as nothing on the Collaboration Market is being replaced by the Multitude.

“Why is that?” The Emperor Pro Tem asked.

“Ultimately the Collaboration System is a digital currency based on the beneficence of those in charge of making sure the items for sale are available. I think I accidentally broke that mechanism. Okay, I know I broke that mechanism. So, Zorvan and Vytrix, I need you two to get with the Skunkworks people and start creating basic necessities and selling them to the Collaboration Market. You might be surprised at the volume that is necessary. Bring everyone you can on board and get this done and utilize all the resources you need,” Adam explained. “Thor?”

“Yes Adam,” Thor answered.

“When the Multitude went down, what happened to the range of our nanites?”

“Let me check,” Thor said as a ship near the facility at the asteroid belt had some nanites portaled onto it and Thor quickly autopiloted it out of range. Thor performed some diagnostics and found that his nanites were no longer being suppressed. “It would seem that the suppression field that keeps the nanites from spreading has been removed.

“Adam we have an issue?” Zorvan said.

“An issue?”

“Except through the Market, Collaboration Points cannot be earned or transferred into the energy people were using to level their classes.”

“As I never worried about that, I haven’t been paying attention but I would almost bet that now that the multitude is gone everyone will see that those skills and classes will improve automatically as the person earns experience.”

“Experience, what is that?” Zorvan asked.

“What indeed?” Adam opened his Personal Information and wasn’t surprised to find that the experience columns for levels and skills were now visible. Of course, his information was a jumbled mess that he’d have to go through at some point, but not right now.

“I just checked my information, the experience columns are visible again. Experience is earned by performing actions or skills that improve your class or skill in some way.

“Additionally, Zorvan, I need to know how big this Multitude was. Definitive numbers if you can get them. “Thor and Al, You two get to work. Thor, I’m sure you know what I want. Please make it happen,” Adam said.

“What are you going to do with those that don’t agree with you?” The Emperor Pro Tem asked.

“First, we need to solidify the base, once that’s done we’ll worry about the leaders of the Multitude,” Adam said.

“Sire, might I suggest you spend some of the Collaboration points to purchase a Teleportation Nexus?” Zorvan asked.

“Excuse me?” Adam asked.

“A Teleportation Nexus. I just checked and they are now available to everyone since the restrictions have been lifted. It will create a transit port, much like a spaceport where individuals can enter and leave a location. You’ll be able to travel to any other Teleportation Nexus within the Multitude. Until recently, only the very wealthy leaders, or those with authorization could have one.”

“So anyone that has one probably runs an established Sector, Galaxy, or whatever that’s been established for a while?” Adam asked

“Yes,” Zorvan affirmed.

“Purchase it! Thor, wherever it ends up, I want the highest level of security and shielding around it, both from within and without. We don’t want a Psychlo incident after receiving a present from one of our rivals,” Adam said.

“Psychlo incident?” The Emperor Pro Tem asked.

“The Psychlo were a fictional race of humanoids that were destroyed when humanity transported a nuke to their home world in an alternate Universe or galaxy. When the nuke detonated it set off a chain reaction that destroyed the whole world. While such a chain reaction is unlikely in reality it is very possible that a weapon that could crack a planet could be teleported in. What I told Thor in a single sentence, I just explained to you in a paragraph or so.”

“A shorthand of sorts?” Vytrix asked.

“Of a sort, yes?” Adam affirmed.

“The Teleportation Nexus has been purchased, where would you like it?” Zorvan asked.

“Thor?” Adam said redirecting the question to Thor

“I have just the spot on a relatively big Island out in the middle of nowhere,” Thor said as a screen came on and zoomed in on an island halfway around the world, which had portals opening around it as the camera zoomed in.”

“I have the location. assigning coordinates. Executing!” Zorvan said.

Everyone watched as the infrastructure for a Teleportation Nexus began to unfold.

“Thor, are nanites doing that, or is that magic?”

“I can detect no quantum fluctuations in the area. The structures that are forming are forming from nothing,” Thor said.

“So magic. It’s interesting that the preprogrammed functions of the market are still working even after the destruction of the Multitude. Maybe there was more than one layer and only the quintessence level was destroyed?”

“Perhaps, Thor agreed. What are you going to do about it?”

“Not sure, I need to find out how the rest of the Multitude is holding up before I start trying to change everything,” Adam answered.

“A little late for that,” Vytrix said with a laugh.

“That it is, but at least we won’t be going to war for absolutely no reason.”

“Speaking of which,” Zorvan said interrupting the flow of the conversation, “Are you sure you dealt with the primary threat we’ve been waiting for?”

“I believe so, but that is why I want Thor to shore up our defenses and prepare this system and anyone else we can contact to be ready for anything,” Adam said.

“Very well,” Zorvan said.

“By your leave?” Vytrix asked

“My leave is given, let’s get to work,” Adam said as a portal opened and he found himself at his base in the asteroid belt. Once the portal closed he asked, “Okay Thor and Al, how prepared are we?”

“I have the nanites expanding through every planet in this system, We have 100% coverage, and the sensor I have placed out to where the barrier was. We have complete coverage in all directions out to 10 light years. As we expand that will increase but that will take time.

“Understood. Let’s make sure everyone here is safe and start providing some of this equipment to the rest of our empire. I have a feeling that with the loss of the Multitude, things might be about to change. Though, I believe the Quintessence system was put in place before the Multitude. Removing it at this point is probably not going to happen as whatever put it in place still has a far better understanding of the underpinnings of reality than I do,” Adam explained.

“What will you do next?” Thor asked.

“Well, the Multitude seemed to be run like a bureaucracy, so… As soon as the Teleportation Nexus is done I think I’m going to go visit one of these established Sectors and find out what happened to everyone on Earth, especially our people. Someone, someone who has to be keeping the records, unless I accidentally destroyed them too of course,” Adad said with a sigh.