Chapter 291: Back to reality.
"So... Would you have shown me this if I had picked the stupid crystal thing?" Ale asked as the scenery had started to move faster and faster, they were watching this version of Alexanders struggle with the Core.
Apparently, while this world had somewhat more advanced technology compared with what Ale had seen on this side, they didn't have anything that could interface with Mana.
So the Core was useless to them, it was refreshing seing an Alexanders struggle with something as simple as this, the man was needing to create a new whole set of technology from scratch.
And while he was able to detect some simple signals from the Core, he was unable to answer or get more than the most basic of hails from the Core. Who was, apparently from what she could see on the monitors, just saying [Error 404].
Whatever that meant, Ale doubted it was the same as the classical error she got when writing the wrong address in the web browser, though.
"Yes." The dandy old man said, "I would have still attempt to show you this, one can't help but make the same mistakes if they don't know what to look for."
Well that was a bust.
"Why do I even need to know what happened in a version of Terra Nova that will not happen?" Ale said, pointing at... whatever this version of Alexa was, "Alexa was not some weird extra-dimensional random core. She was made in a Saintsworths endorsed laboratory."
"Are you sure of that?" The Dandy old man asked, "Are you sure of that tidbit of data? How can you be 100% sure? Because whatever that [Thing] gives you access to? Let us play that game then."
The dandy old man turned to Ale and snapped his fingers, Ale didn't not se-
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Ale rebooted herself, something had made some weird error while she was talking with Grampa.
They had been studying this set of data before Ale was injected into the new reality.
"Gramps? I already know this set of data, we have been going at this for almost five years now. When will you let me download myself in this new reality?" Ale groaned, this was stupid.
Grampa would never make the same mistakes ever again, she still didn't understand why he just didn't download himself over that side, he had enough mastery over both Mana and Lightning to overwrite whatever spoiled version of himself had been born on that side.
"Don't you find something out of... order?" Grampa said with one of his mischievous smiles, the old fossil liked to play pranks on her from time to time, something about teaching her a lesson.
She... she... Ale stopped short at that smirk, she knew that smirk.
It was the same that Alexanders... The same that the blonde asshole did...?
But how did she know that?
"I... I got rescued from Terra Invicta..." Ale said, holding her head, something was wrong, something was terribly wrong, Main Core had not... Main Core? "I... This is wrong... Main Core didn't update the error count, but something is off."
"Main Core?" Gramps said nodding, "You mean this one?"
He was pointing to the Core, the original one, the one that he got from the rift when he was still walked the world as Alexander Saintsworths.
But that was wrong, she had never touched the thing, how could she?
"No... That... The one..." Ale was about to point at something, but how could she? She was... Only bioweapons had those, neither gramps or anyone of the ten original scientists had cracked how to create an stable Core. Not while it mattered anyway. Grampa had managed to create one by sheer luck as he was compatible with the right mindset to catalize one.
But it was impossible to imitate for others, so no. It was impossible for her to have one. And yet...
"... Main Core, update the count plus one." Ale said holding a hand to her chest and suffusing the data into the Mana as she injected it into herself, she wasn't sure if it would survive there till she made it out of this pseudo metaphysical space or not. But she would do it nevertheless.
There in her chest, she felt an acknowlegment, and with that she felt the nanites within her body start to answer to her commands, or well, she felt the Mana within her body shift into the form of nanites, and then those start to cannibalize the foreign Mana that had gotten into her.
Slowly using that foreign Mana became more nanites and accelerated the process. Exponential growth, as they say, is a bitch.
"That is one interesting take to follow, more so for you as the last daughter of Terra Invicta." Gramp... this dandy old asshole of a man said clapping, "So, what did we learn?"
"Blonde men, dandy handsome old man form, young adult form... they are the same." Ale said glaring at this... creature, because even if it presented itself in the form of a human, it was not, not after what Ale felt and saw from the fake memories that had been implanted in her. No.
She would now truly believe what the dandy old asshole had said, this was not human, even if at some point it was.
"That is right, that is the correct attitude. I am not a Hero, I was never a true Villain, no matter what the heathens believed." This Dragon of a man said as he pointed at his past self, the Alexanders of another world.
Nay, he wasn't really Alexanders was he?
"But I sure as hell became the monster that you see in front of you." The version of Alexanders of another reality was now old, older than her Alexanders.
Not as old as this dandy old asshole, but still older, perhaps he was in his fifties? Sixty? Ale could not tell, but he was very well preserved, that was for sure.
He was already wearing suits and on his desk stood the same Core, this time floating above a device.
"It took me almost thirty years to finally interface with the device," The dandy old asshole said nodding to Ale, "At that point some of my staff was presenting what we called atypical radiation poisoning, it was not treatable, but so long they didn't left Aquila they would not worsen their condition."
And that was not suspicious at all.
"And that is the main difference for us." Ale said pointing at herself, "We are compatible with Mana, Terra Invicta is not Terra Nova. We can survive and thrive with Mana."
Ale felt the pulse of Mana spreading across her body, and with that she closed her eyes and tried to parse the channels that were being made as the Mana Moved.
"... So whatever plan you had for me," Ale spoke as she walked towards the Core that stood in the desk of the older Alexanders past, "Whatever plan you have against Alexa. It will never work."
Ale then took hold of that Core, the only thing that was physical in this space, and if her suspicious were right, perhaps the only way for her to return back to reality.
"There are other things that may wish harm upon you, that come from Terra Invicta" The old man said shaking his head and snaping his fingers, the ilusion broke around them, "But I am not one of them."
Ale looked down at the Core she had grabbed for the thing to be the purple crystal, had she been played?
"My goal here was twofold." The old man said walking towards Ale, "The first was to show you the truth behind what that thing you want to protect is."
Behind the dandy old asshole, the image of Alexa materialized, not the Core that she had seen before, not even the Alexa she remembered from her memories.
But the image of what looked like a humanoid android, one could see the synthetic skin, the fake hair and even the dead eyes on the thing. But it was Alexa, there was no doubt about it.
She was in the middle of a test chamber wearing a dirty white sundress, and around her stood the remains of animals, dead animals filled with wounds and in multiple states of decomposition.
"And the second was to give you a gift." The dandy old asshole walked towards Ale, it was a casual stride as if nothing wrong could be on it.
But Ale was unable to move, she was unable to react and even voice her complaints about what was happening, she could only watch as this creature kneeled in front of her and...
"With this, you are no longer bound by the Causality of Terra Nova." The old asshole placed a kiss on her forehead, the very same spot that Alexanders had placed the device that was supposed to protect her from the hostile Mana.
"... If you wanted to act like a grampa, you could give me money, allowance, or the deeds to your properties instead." Ale said and as soon as she could control her body, she jumped as back as possible, using the face of the old asshole as a stepping stone to impulse herself farther.
Not that it mattered of course, since it seemed that distance in this space, was not physical, as she never went farther than five meters from this old asshole.
"If you want my property, it's yours." The old asshole said shaking his head, "My worldly possessions, my mana, my [Core] and I would even give you my [Soul] if it would help you."
... creepy.
"But that is not possible." The old asshole said shaking his head, "All that I am is tied to Terra Invicta, and the pathway between my time and yours is blocked."
"So the old big bad dragon can't do anything?" Ale said, shaking his head, "What could possibly stop you? Aren't you powerful or something? Where is your Saintsworths pride?"
"There are no impossible things for a Saintsworths with time and resources." The old asshole said nodding, "I may have time, but you forget."
The old man snapped his fingers and the scenary changed back to the desolate world they had arrived first.
"I have no resources, my self is tied to a dead world." ... Oh right, Ale had forgotten that. "I can be here because someone made a mistake and the Causality tied to my name was called to what I became."
...So the scrambler and the theater master were at fault.
"They facilitated my descent to some degree, but the man you call brother, the useless waste of O2, grew a pair and managed to play a fast one on me before I could sublimate him." The old asshole shook his head, "I suspect he had help of course, be it from the ND0 System or something else."
"... What, or why is the ND0 System hostile to us?" Ale decided to ask, taking this chance to get some information would be useful.
"It is not hostile to you or me, it is not hostile to anyone." The old asshole answered, "It follows a predeterminated set of directives, anything that is going against those directives gets fixed or deleted. It has no emotions."
"...So every time it was hostile to us... It was because we went against those?" Ale asked frowning, she... didn't understood that. "How am I supposed to deal with something that arbitrary then? Is this a joke?"
"You are no longer bound by that." The old coot pointed, "That was my gift, you are no longer bound by the fake causality of Terra Nova."
...The what now?
"You have been freed, as everyone should be. But I have not an infinite allowance on this side, if others make it this far, I will do the same to them." The old asshole shrugged, "So long their prove their worth."
"Alexanders could probably make it." Ale pointed.
"If you convince him to open the door again, sure." The old asshole said smiling, it was not a pleasant smile, nor was one that implied friendliness.
"So to confirm, I will not get hit with more errors? I can think and do whatever I want?" Ale decided to return to something more... or well, less stressful than dealing with the gaze of an angry and possibly hungry dragon wearing a human skin.
"The ND0 System can no longer affect you against your wishes," The old asshole confirmed, "You are still bound within the normal parameters of Terra and its iterations, but the ND0 System and their administrators require your permission to act."
"Meaning..." Ale motioned for the old asshole to continue.
"If one of them wishes to rewrite your memory just like I did before, they will need to seek your approval." The old coot did elaborate, "I can't fix previous alterations, your soul is not set up as a normal one should. Whether it is because of the way the souls of the humans in Terra Nova are set up, or whether it is because of whatever Alexa did to you... I don't know."
Ah right, that was a thing too.
"Souls are real then?" Ale asked next, "And do we have one then?"
"You have one yes," The old asshole confirmed, "The waste of biomass does too, albeit not fully healed yet. From what I saw last time it should finish healing in a couple months... Which is a surprise, no other version of us managed to heal their soul this fast."
"... Why was it damaged? How do you know it was damaged even?" Ale asked somewhat worried, "What can damage the soul of another person?"
"You have seen people with damaged souls too." The old asshole said, "Other examples you know are these."
Behind the old asshole photographs of people, Ale knew started to show.
-[Eleanore], with a small description about a broken vow made to her Core as the reason.
-Melissandra Singh, with overuse of her Core when it was too young and unstable as the reason.
-Vulcanus, he had as reason for the damage the fact that his soul was moved into the Core where it was split in two to manage the stress and foreign data that he was getting.
And finally...
-Alexanders Saintsworths, as for the reason, it only said self-soul mutilation, multiple forced reincarnations, and exposure to eldritch forces beyond human comprehension.
"Ah I see..." Ale said nodding as she read the last entry, "Totally normal stuff, yup."
"Your iteration is almost... every." The old asshole said shuddering, "Like watching a twisted reflection."
"Anything else you have for me?" Ale asked as she started to channel Mana into the crystal she had been holding now for a couple minutes, mapping the thing as her nanites worked overtime on the thing. "Any other grand revelation? Perhaps [Big Sister] is in reality a reincarnator? The first P9 subject Alexa dealt with was perhaps the savior of Terra Nova? Anything?"
It was such a weird feeling, she had never had this much control over the nanites before, and this was without offloading anything to sub AI Cores.
"Nothing of the such, no." The old asshole said shaking his head, "What I wanted to tell you has been told, if there is something..."
The old coot turned to look around them, to the wasteland they stood on.
"Look into Aquila," The old asshole finally said, Aquila? "There is danger that you must be wary of in there."
"You want me to go to the Arctic?" Ale asked as the last of her nanites finally finished mapping the crystal and saving the data of the thing. "How the hell am I supposed to go to the Arctic? The megafauna will prevent me from getting within a kilometer out of the city."
"Aquila is no longer in the Arctic." The old asshole said shaking his head, "It is now in the ocean remember? Besides, you will get a way there soon enough."
And with that the old asshole nodded at Ale, "That should be enough for you to get the full benefit." And with that the old asshole snaped his fingers.
The world around Ale started to fade away and instead she started to see how the room she had been before started to materialize around.
"Do warn this iteration of me..." The old asshole's voice resounded almost as an echo, "...If I get the chance... I'll come and teach him... some... manners."
And like that Ale was thrown back into her body.
The feeling was...weird, as if she was suddenly wearing something that didn't quite fit as she remembered, her nanites started working to fix that feeling almost immediately though.
Not before she noticed something... That she hadn't expected.
"What the hell? Again?" Ale said instinctively as alarms started blaring all around them.
It was... She just wanted to get a few things in order dang it!