Infinitium

A nuclear explosion at his feet? Wow! Adam accelerated his mentality slightly as the explosion enveloped him and prompts flooded his vision. Not enough to make the universe stand still but enough that everything slowed down to a crawl. The detonation was traveling at the speed of light when he opened his prompts. Even slowing down time as he had, the explosion was already up to his shins and moving one inch higher every 10 seconds at his current temporal flow rate which was 1 trillionth normal. Adam opened his prompts to see what he could do.

You have received 1,000,000 points of thermal and force damage. Soul Ability Adaptable negates 50% of thermal damage. Resistance to Fire negates 50% of thermal damage.

Force damage does 500,000 points of damage.

Damage is greater than basic hits but less than 1.39E-15% of current hit points. No structural damage taken.

Hit Point regeneration is greater than maximum Hit Points.

Damage healed as taken.

The Force of the explosion will eject you from the gravity well of the moon.

Soul Ability Adaptable prevents damage from vacuum exposure.

Prompts checked, Adam returned his personal time to normal and allowed the force of the explosion to catapult him away from the moon, He found himself flying away in a cloud of dust. Eventually, the dust started to fall away from him, and he willed himself to leave it behind as he left the gravity well of the Moon. He changed his trajectory a little bit and turned himself around so he could look at the surface of the moon as he drew away from it.

The first thing he noticed was a structure approximately fifty miles away from the site of the explosion. He approximated the distance by comparing known crater sites from the memories he had of his Universe and then extrapolated the distance. Of course, the distances could be wrong, but the two surfaces of the moon matched by more than 95%. As he looked closer he noticed that the devastation where he’d been was a lot more localized than he thought it should be. Nukes going off in an almost vacuum weren’t as devastating as if they’d gone off on Earth, there was no pressure wave. But, there still should have been damage to the surrounding area. They must have used a shaped nuclear blast to destroy the building he’d been in. Adam noticed a number of small buildings that were placed in a grid all around where the nuke had gone off. Except for a perfect square of destruction centered on the nuclear detonation, there didn’t seem to be any damage or effect to the other buildings in the area. If Katie had been in one of the other rooms she’d probably survived the blast.

As he noticed the grid of structures and the main one that seemed to be at the center of a field of small buildings he realized the Moon was not a place where he could seek refuge. He needed to hold up somewhere safe and gather intelligence. Adam willed himself to faster-than-light speed and flew away from the Sun. He’d head back in, or create portals to return, once he had a base of operation and a plan. As he flew towards the edge of the solar system, he set the nanites that had survived the blast to replicate and infiltrate as much as they could. Some had spread into the surface of the moon far enough away from the blast that they’d easily weathered the thermal component of the nuke because the force of the detonation had been directed upwards.

Adam made sure to set them to only use inorganic material to replicate though. He didn’t need the nanites melting people, at least not yet. Normally he’d be a little more careful, but a lot of things weren’t adding up. He needed to figure out what was going on as soon as possible.

While he traveled through space he realized that finding the orbits of the planets might take a little longer since he didn’t have the internet or stellar body information program to call up for this Universe, though if other parts of his original universe were accurate, like the surface of the moon, maybe the orbits were close to. Adam really loved having a Perfect Memory. He pulled up the data he needed and started a simulation of the solar systems based on that data then rewound the clock in the simulation to the current time and date. Adam looked around and very easily verified that Saturn and Jupiter were where they were supposed to be. They were off slightly so he adjusted the model and then altered his vector to where Pluto should be.

A couple of minutes later he was coming up on the airless surface of Pluto. Adam made sure to land on the side of Pluto that faced away from Earth then put his nanites to work setting up an underground base as he surrounded himself in a bubble of force and increased the temperature inside it. No point in being miserable out here. As he stood there, he opened a very small portal that he could look through with magic to a point above the moon where the explosion had been. He saw a small, very technological-looking ship hovering over the site. It kind of looked like a slightly small version of a space shuttle, though it didn’t look like it was built to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere. It must just be for work here on the moon.

If they had spaceships, they might have gravimetric sensors and for sure they’d have energy sensors. Just before he closed the portal, he did notice people in space suits down the surface going over the crater with handheld devices. That detonation had been nuclear, there should still be radiation in the area. If their shielding was that good it was either magical, or the technological level of this Earth was a lot higher than he’d witnessed or thought. Of course, the shielding could be magical in nature or the bodies in the suits could be resistant to radiation. Just a couple more reasons to be more careful as he moved forward.

Adam needed to get a better handle on what was going on. His chaotic nanites had not detected any nanotechnology so it looked like that was an advantage he would definitely have. One thing he needed to know though was if time travel was allowed here. He’d been here for about a minute so he tried to will himself into the past to one minute before his now.

ERROR, Travel Backward through time is prohibited. You may speed up, slow down or place yourself in stasis and leave that stasis in a future time but you may not travel backward through time.

Not unexpected, but disappointing. He tried a different version of the spell, something he’d seen in the other universe. He willed a vision of one minute ago on his current location. A screen popped up and he watched himself stand there. Cool, so travel was prohibited but he could use magic to view events that had happened. he’d need to explore then he’d be able to use this spell to see what had happened.

For now, he wanted to get a better idea of the makeup of Earth. Adam opened subatomic wormholes and deposited nanites all over the Earth, and the Moon. As he felt his nanites spread he noticed that some of his nanites were already spreading all over the face of Earth from various locations. It looked like the nanites on the moon had made their way to Earth already.

Adam redirected the nanites on Pluto and in short order, he opened a portal and dropped into a tunnel about 50 feet under the surface of Pluto. Adam released the magic on the surface and then made his way to the command center. His new lair wasn’t that big, but it had all the amenities; a shower, bed, galley, kitchen, and a stockpile of food his nanites were creating for him.

While his nanites were continuing to flesh out his base of operation on Pluto, he was also mapping Earth and recording and analyzing every ounce of electronic data he could. The information he was receiving just raised more questions. He knew he needed more information and sitting here watching the data come in was going to be like watching for the first bubble when boiling water, Boring. He’d check again when he woke up. Adam made his way to the bed his nanites had created and laid down. He fell asleep almost immediately.

As he woke up he thought about everything that had happened to this point and wondered what was going on. He had a feeling that this entire planet was a ruse. He’d know in a moment for sure. Adam analyzed the data as it came in. Within a couple of hours, he had a good idea of how Earth was laid out. Adam had to admit, that the method of control was elegant. There were no other countries on Earth, there was just the United Nations. Everywhere on Earth was populated by small towns. This was true from where he’d been in Italy to where Washington DC would be in North America. Every town was small though, with no more than 5,000 people and the education of everyone was very basic. No Universities, no Colleges, and no government buildings other than that of the local mayor and the Administration buildings.

Adam did find one oddity in each town though. Buried about 100 feet down under the center of every town was a nuclear device. One for every town. Then his nanites detected something truly horrifying. At the center of the Earth, inside a bubble of magical force, a singularity existed. The bubble must nullify the gravity the singularity generated. If that bubble failed though everything on the planet would be spaghettified. It wasn’t a small singularity. It was large enough that the inside of the event horizon would reach all the way to the surface of the planet. It looked like the only thing preventing that from happening was the magical barrier. He was absolutely sure nothing like that had existed on his Earth.

“Why would someone go to such an extent to ensure that everything was destroyed?” He asked himself out loud and was completely surprised when a voice answered.

“Because we can’t have the cattle learning what’s really going on of course,” a feminine voice responded.

Startled, he looked up and found a young woman with jet-black hair and a scythe in one hand dressed in a black hood with a cowl drawn up over her head, “Who are you? he asked.

“I am Death, the gateway to the afterlife, and you have caused quite a ruckus today.”

“So, you’re a goddess then?”

“Yes, I am the Goddess of Death, and it is time to end your interference and send you on your way,” she said as she swung with her scythe to cut off his head.

You have been attacked by the Greater Goddess Death, Level 10 God.

Rank Disparity between Greater God and Ascendant Human 32.

Goddess of Death misses

Adam dodged easily. Even at 32 times less power than this God, it looked like Ascendant Humans did not have anywhere near the maximum attributes he had.

Pansophical has activated: Creatures in this Universe range in levels from 1 to 100. Ascendant level creatures are from levels 101 – 200. The Divine, Deity Demi-God, etc. are all at least Ascendant level 200 plus their divine rank level ranging from 1 – 10 which is earned by earning Faith Points. Death is a Level 10 God with a maximum of 800 attributes as an Ascendant mortal multiplied by 32 as all attributes are doubled upon attaining a new divine rank.

If divided equally among all attributes Death should have attributes at right around 2,304 compared to his 808,000,000,000 in each attribute, even dividing that by 32 left him with 25,250,000,000 in each attribute, more than 10,959,201 times her attributes.

Adam returned his attention to the scythe and reached out and casually touched it as it passed by him and let his nanites go to town on it. There was a pause as she finished her swing, shifted her grip, and prepared to attack him again, then the Scythe exploded.

“That’s not possible!” she exclaimed.

“I get that a lot and I do mean a lot. By the way, after you reform, come back for a chat if you want. If you come back hostile, I will find a way to put you down for good,” Adam said menacingly.

“What do you mean mortal, you can’t kill me, I am a Goddess of the…”

“Boring,” Adam said as moved and punched her as hard as he could. Even at 32 times less power than his maximum normal, the result was devastating. The force with which he hit her popped her head as if she’d been traveling at the speed of sound and slammed into a concrete wall. The energy discharge turned her body into mist and the resulting explosion of blood, guts, and viscera covered the chamber he was in. The only part of him not covered in her was directly behind his fist, which luckily had been at eye level, so his face was mostly free of the mess. Adam had his nanites start cleaning up the mess as he reviewed his prompts.

You have attacked the Goddess of Death

Called Shot to the center of her face.

Rank Disparity considered.

You hit

Damage was reduced by 32 times.

Damage to Goddess of Death 2.24E-21

Target has been disincorporated at current location. Target will reform at spawn location in ERROR

His punch had completely destroyed her. A moment later what was left of her Scythe disappeared as well. As he contemplated what had just happened he realized there could be issues and ordered his nanites on Earth to convert all the fissionable material in the nuclear devices on Earth and the Moon into lead. Then he had his nanites infiltrate and take over the singularity and covert its mass into nanites, thereby destroying the singularity.

About a minute later he felt the detonations of every shaped charge on the planet. A couple of minutes after that he felt the magical bubble around his nanites drop. The singularity was gone and instead, the mass of the singularity had been converted into nanites, a lot of nanites. The nanites started flooding the planet from the inside out. There were so many nanites that they were chains into orbit where they released themselves onto the solar wind and started floating away from the Earth. That singularity had been huge.

His nanites were going to be busy for a while infiltrating everything on the planet and the moon and probably the entire solar system. That had been a lot of nanites. If not for his Adaptive ability and Chaos-Forged ability there would have been almost nothing he could have done. Messing with the barrier might have dropped it and magic might work but there might also be rules in place that he didn’t know about yet. He’d been lucky. Now he was starting to get pissed though. What kind of asshole would destroy a planet because a 16-year-old knew a name?

Adam replayed the signal that had been received by every bomb on Earth and traced it. It was Quantumly locked into another dimension. He turned himself invisible and insubstantial then teleported to the originating location. Adam appeared in what he could only describe as a command bunker.

“What do you mean it didn’t work?” a 10-foot-tall perfect example of what a Pit Fiend from Hell would look like. Red skin, leathery wings, and an infernal aura that was radiating from him as if he was hell incarnate.

A naked woman, fear in her eyes was punching some buttons on her console, “They all detonated but none of the explosions went nuclear.”

The demon looked to a succubus that was now looking at him as he asked, “Trix, what do you think happened?”

“Why don’t we ask the man that’s standing right next to you?” she said.

“What?” the demon bellowed as he turned and swung a whip with 13 snake heads that flew around toward Adam trying to find him. It looked like neither the big demon nor his whip could see him. Adam decided there was no point hiding and dropped the invisibility. Each snake head turned and struck him biting down, mostly because he didn’t try to dodge. he could have, but he didn’t see the point. Adam could feel that this demon was orders of magnitude less powerful than Death and she’d been the maximum-level God for this Cosmos.

The damage was negligible. The magical and mundane poisons and diseases the snake heads tried to inflict on him were countered immediately by his abilities or his nanites. Adam ordered the nanites to defang each snake head at the base of the fangs. Each head flew away from where they’d struck and looked confused and affronted, hissing at him, it was actually kind of hilarious. The demons watched as the fangs that were embedded in him were pushed out and carried along his skin by his nanites to his now open hand. When he had 26 fangs in his hand he turned his hand over and dropped the fangs which evaporated as his nanites destroyed them to make more nanites which spread into the room.

“Hello,” he said.

The demon drew a sword as big as himself from an extradimensional space and smiled as he said, “Now you die!”

“By that? Come on now, you can do better than that, “he said as the demon swung. Adam didn’t even have to try as he sidestepped and dodged until his nanites had infiltrated the sword and then had it decompose out of his hand.

“What? How?” The demon said as he looked at his now empty hands in shock. The demoness Trix watched avidly but did not move. There were fifteen other naked mortals in the room, though when nanites infiltrated them it noted that their race was listed as “The Damned.” Maybe this was some sort of afterlife dimension?

“This is my realm, I can do anything here!” the demon declared as if in some final judgment, “Rip the soul from this body and devour it!”

Adam felt the fundamental forces of this place try to comply with that wish. His soul was being told to remove itself from the body at a fundamental level. He really missed having access to the Universal and Cosmic interfaces. He bet if he could have accessed them this jerk had just tried to use a universal command to destroy him. It was a useless attack against him; however, his soul was inviolate. Adam stood in front of the demon looking a bit confused as he asked, “Exactly what was supposed to happen?” Then he had an idea. Adam reached out with his hand and willed his body and the demon into his soul space, then locked it down, not allowing any kind of teleportation or dimensional shifting into or out of his soul space.

“What, where am he? The Demon Bellowed”

“Freeze,” Adam said. The demon stopped moving. He sped his soul space up to the ludicrous speed he liked to move at when he was doing stuff inside and needed only a second or two to pass before he came back out. Then he had his nanites infiltrate the demon and map out his physical structure. Next, he read his mind with magic. The contest of wills wasn’t even one. Adam had full access and he dived hard. Once he started seeing the atrocities this creature had committed, he stopped being nice as he ravaged his memories and his psyche.

Adam would later admit that the demon was one of the most depraved and sadistic creatures he’d ever come across. Also, what he saw was all there was. He didn’t detect a soul or soul space in this demon. If he had, there probably would have been a stronger contest of wills as the rules that governed such a contest would also govern him. He went back to reading its memories. The demon’s name was Brux. Brux had been the runt of his litter and had grown up in hell though he’d been vicious from the start, having killed his brothers and sisters until he was the only one left. He’d been noticed by Trix, the supervisor for this region of hell. He’d served hundreds, if not thousands of years in hell until he’d been tasked with watching Earth. Murder, Plunder, and Destruction had been all he’d known until Trix found him and gave him the tasks he’d been handling for a long time now. He wasn’t sure what Trix was, but he was sure she wasn’t a demon…

Adam pulled his thoughts from the memories of the demon and extended his senses back into the room he’d drawn from only to find Trix looking right at where he was viewing the room from as she said, “There he is,” and everything around him started to shift at an incredible pace. Adam dropped back into his soul space and increased the time dilation even further to give himself a moment to think and react. It had been a trap.