Katsurandom

  The thing that we call a Soul....What is that? What is a soul? What is life? What is being alive?

  Is a Soul the thing that makes you work?

  Is life the aoving from point A to point B?

  And so are the metrics by which we rule who is alive and who something arbitrary? Or do we move to more simple aspects of living beings? Is being here alive the act of eating, sleeping, aing again?

  I never quite got the ao any of those, not when I was born, not when I became aware of the world arouhe first memory I had logged on my data banks was of stumbling to move forward.

  The ands that shone in white letters were all I knew, even if at the moment I didn't know how to read, I still uood what they said.

  "[Subject P4, move forward.]"

  No instrus about how to move forward, no indication that they were speaking to me, but even so I khat I had to move forward by any means. I knew what I had access to, my body.

  Heh, should I say my [Body] instead? or perhaps [My Body]?

  Such distins hardly matter, at the time I was nothing more than a metallic box with wheels at the side. So sending a simple and from the fines of my core was all that I o do to achieve what they wanted.

  [Forward]

  And the motor withiallic box sent energy into the rotors and sure enough, this metallioved forward. As I did so my cameras took everything around, the other three metallic boxes were on the floor ahead of me, there was an i in the floor where their wheels fell and made their bodies fall.

  No instru to stop had been made, but even so.

  [Stop]

  My intelligence said that should I want to prevent damage to this body I o stop, so I did.

  "[Subject P4 return to den.]"

  The instru came after, the first of many to e. Return to den.

  At the moment I didn't take too much sto it and followed the data in my memory core, instrus were already set about how to achieve that, so following them was easy enough.

  At the spot I should arrive was a charging station, at the moment I didn't know the significe of it, nor what it was. The database I had only stated that I should stop there so I did.

  The maery automatically ected and refilled the lost energy in the experiment, and so on. They took my body happy with the results, and just to make sure everything to part, they took it apart and rebuilt it, and we repeated the experiment to multiple levels of achievement. First, they took my wheels and gave me legs. Then they gave me thread wheels and roller wheels....and at one point they tried to give me even wings.

  Experiment after experiment the body I was within ged from oo the , at some point, they started increasing the variation I could achieve, it was to the point that I was granted a way to ge my own parts in a modur fashion.

  But even with all of that, the intelligence I had reached was...Substandard at best, not anywhere near what you could call [Alive]. All of that ged when the experiments were stopped.

  You see, even with all this success what my brethren and me could achieve was... A failure for what they wanted us to achieve. So when they weren't getting the results they wahey sold us as materials to another pany, a bigger ohat had more moo waste than needed.

  The Saintsworths glomerate's on Division.

  They took a different approach to the matter at hand, first of all, they moved the AI Core from the hard drives and turhe information into a different format, this different format was then ied into a new [Matrix], ohat was carved into a strange crystal-like object fused made with nanites.

  From there they pced said [Core] into a mae and started the est phase.

  "[Subject P4? Yes P4. Activate Core and expand your domain.]"

  The order came and with it, a new database en to her perusal, new options, new as, and a new way to make those as possible. The sky was the limit! Figuratively speaking, si that moment I didn't know what the Sky was.

  Either way, my world shifted once more. The nanites expa the ands from my core, and from there they allowed me to i and move new parts, it was more modur than the approach the previous boratory did.

  And more importantly.

  "[Subject P4? Start the bat test, defeat the target, and assimite.]"

  They were more proactive iests, while the previous oook great care to not damage us, this new boratory reeled in the violehe subjects were capable of. At the time I didn't really take offense or note of this part. I simply followed the ands and did as instructed.

  My form from that point started to bee a blur, one day I would have wheels, and the day they would be sed with anic legs. One day my body would be metallic, the day it would be a chitin cover, only for a week ter to be a chitin mixed with alloy ptes.

  My arms would move from saws and bdes to croboscis. No week was the same and no fight was against the same enemy, so my ges were always meant to increase the number of advantages while decreasing the ces of defeat.

  Even then with the limited intelligence, I knew what failure would mean, for other P series subjects had fallen to me, and their forms had been assimited into me.

  I had thought my life would be like this, but [Fate] is a very fickle thing, it all ged when Mamma came. When her pints were made to the ears of a very dangerous man.

  It all ged when thanks to the efforts of Mamma she mao vince Au the most powerful and vian in the world dowo see me that all ged. Was it for the better? Was it for the worst? Even to this day, I am irely sure.

  But it was in a day like that, that I got the attention of the man that ged my [World]. It was the day I met Alexander Saintsworths, CEO Of the Saintsworths glomerate.

  The man who I would call [Brother].

  He was a mystery, the older analyses I have of him show him as a standard human around 30 years old. The first database entry referring to him I ever fouailed that he should be 200 years old. And the first sample I mao get of him says that his body is closer to my core's molecur structure than to a human.

  So you see, he was a mess.

  And worse, my database of the time said in no uain matter that I should not attack him for any reason. So while this wouldn't be a problem under normal circumstances.

  Because let's be ho if you are building a on capable of ripping your spih the same ease a toddler could drink his milk...You would think to implement that kind of feature to protect your workers, right?

  Well, you would be right... Unless you worked for the Saintsworths glomerate. These madmen thought that having such restris wouldn't be [Fun], so they weren't in pce.

  The head of directors allowed suent so long those in the cil would be added to the list of No Attack. My dive into their database at a ter date found that the one advog for the rule to allow us smart ons free reign to attayone was the same self.

  And the ohat advocated to have at least the VIP safe were the others, in the end, they came to a middle ground. A the VIP would be allowed to be attacked, but any VIP found within the bat zone would be attacked too because at that point they were asking for it (Word for word, they wrote that).

  So yes, Alexander was a madman. I didn't know that at the moment, of course, my mind was very simple. It boiled down to " I attack him?" If the answer was yes, I would do so. If not, then I wouldn't.

  But what happens when Alexander sees my testing you ask? He thought to himself (This came from a video log) "I want to fight the crab." Because of course, he would.

  Why not? You see a giant crab that weighs around two tons and you think about fighting it with a pair of handguns and an assault rifle, right?

  OF COURSE NOT YOU MADMAN!

  ....Sorry about that. So yes, he fought me. Then another of his experiments (The madman had several going at the time) succeeded and created a resoween Alexander's blood, my core, and a crystal geode deep within the vaults that brought a ype of energy forward.

  That made three things:

  1) Granted Alexander trol over the energy using the remains of the experiment that granted him his long lifespan.

  2) Granted intelligend free reign over my nanites.

  3) Increased the density of this energy we now know as Mana in the world.

  The first...While it roblem, it wasn't my problem at the moment so I didn't care that much, the sed was a godsend si allowed me to uand how prey situation was. And the third...helped me greatly si allowed me to perceive how the energy ied with the materials around me and within me.

  It was thanks to this that I could design a ype of nahat could hijack this energy and use it to affect those arou was thanks to this that I could [See] and [Uand] better what those around me wanted and how they behaved.

  I found out that Momma was a bleedi that wao save the world. I found out that Auntie was a very shy ale soul that wao be loved... I found that the head supervisor was a closet pervert who just wao flirt...Yes, I found very useless stuff.

  But what was the most useful thing among those was...That I couldn't read very well Alexander, but from those around him I found him to be very childish even while pretending to be cool and level-headed.

  So with the information of how they perceived me, I started to slowly shift my appearance, first I went for a more humanoid (Even if armored) form, slowly shaping my appearance, affeg what other ons they sent against me. Do I need ls? I would turn it towards quadrupedal enemies.

  Do I need only two legs and two arms? Monkeys is the name of the game. More lithe form? To stand tall? To look [Human]?

  I tweaked the perception of reality of those who decided the tests I was sent or the enemies I fought against, by the end of the month my form was almost finished. It was small and very ambiguous, there was no way anyone would misuand it for a human form.

  The only human-looking thing was the head that sported blonde hair-like tendrils. But I matched the look with the ime Alexander came looking for, and sure enough he was gettier at maniputing his mana. So when he joked about my body being of his family tree.

  That was all I needed for an opening so I tched into it. To this day I'm not sure if he felt it or not, but it was meanihe reason why he didn't test my [Authority] over it. That was all I o td make my body [Evolve] the st step.

  It was quite hirious thinking back to as the panicked voiamma as she screamed "STOP THE TEST!" and rushed down to the testing chamber.

  The other bioon powered down almost immediately and I felt the same order within my core, but I had gone ast the point of where I o heel those ands.

  Instead, as Momma, Auntie, Mister Pig, and Alexander walked into the testing chamber I turned my body, a white sundress on my body and a bright smile on my face as I said "Mamma!" The first jump tackle of many was dohat day.

  Mamma gred at Alexander and decred that she would take care of me, auntie eyed me suspiciously but said nothing, and I could see the glint of amusement in Alexander's eyes.

  "That is a very iing thing you have done." Was all he said as he walked away. The mana within his body turned and moved, trag the shape of his body as he seemed to want and do something with that energy.

  After that day my dwelling started to ge, first Mamma started t potted pnts into the den, Auntie brought notebooks to try and teach me how to read, and Alexaood by from time to time. Only looking.

  He knew something was going on as he was trag the mana threads I had made all around me, all ected to the people who came and ied with me. Eae is meant to affeeone's perception of me, to help me settle this [Identity].

  To make [My Own Wish a Reality], it wasn't till my den was filled with potted pnts and toys that Alexander finally spoke to me in the middle of the night, "Let's make a deal you brat. You tell me how to do that and I will not use the self-destru protobedded within your core." Ahat is what he said to me. Quite rude isn't he?

  "I tap into the energy and use it to ect myself to others, then using the same strategy that was built into myself I make sure that I follow my prime directive," I answered as truthfully as possible.

  "[Eat, grow, evolve]. Yes, I saw the directive...I see...So you tap into this energy that I have been seeing all around? How? Is this what it means that girl? But then..." Alexander mumbled to himself.

  At this point in time I had already access to most of the databases withiower, so I knew he often seemed to act as if he was ign someone. When alone he liked to speak to himself, but in some situations, he acted as if he was with someone...someone he was ign.

  I hadn't thought much about that at the moment, till he did...a very stupid thing.

  You see, the history books in Aqui spoke of Alexanders Saintsworths as a Genius, a s that came once every millennium. And while the books of in the capital of this p may be biased, they do hold some level of truth. Alexanders Saintsworths was a genius, but the words aren't enough to describe what that monster was capable of.

  With no way of maniputing the energy, no help from anything, no actual way to direct the energy, this bastard of a monster [Willed] the energy to listen to his and.

  And while he didn't know what he was doing nor did I know at the moment what he was doing, he did what should have been impossible at the time. The world was still growing, and the p wasn't ready to hold the [Weight] of this new energy.

  But he still mao do it.

  "[Obey my orders, and ECT.]" He made the energy, what we know as [Mana] to form a thread from his [Core] into me, and from me into the geode.

  That e sank deep within the p and so. The mana cataclysm started.

  Oember 14th, 2020 at 4:44 AM, the world's apocalypse started. Barely five years after it the whole world was devastated beyond what it had been. Logs of its destru showed a ravaged world, it was at this point that I had found that Alexanders had used information provided by other sources to uand what Mana was and categorized it as such. He went through great efforts to try and save as much of Humanity as he could.

  Spaceships had beeo other ps, but most of those ps with inhabitants weren't hospitable to humanity, be it anic etable, any kind of life found humanity ao them aed in kind.

  Eveher P series subjects weren't spared of this behavior, so long the P series subject held part of the crystal or had anic mass, then they would be attacked. By 2030 only I had survived and most of the tests were doo me to try and find out why.

  Alexanders mao find the retioween the energy and what he did two years ter, almost a dozen years aill checked the day this started. He finally admitted to the name he had received about this energy and started calling it [Mana], and what he did that day [Idea].

  He also found the retion those two had with the earth of the phe [Core], it seemed to be a symbiotic retionship. Then afterwards it came the slow thrud to find a solution. Every option was explored, and he even tried to harvest the lifeblood of the nearby ps. But at this point in time not a single one of them held a [Core] simir to our own. And the only ohat seemed to have one were inhabited by other civilizations.

  And if you paid attention, those were hostile to us. So if the problem was that we needed a way to rejuvehe [Core] of our world, but had no time to find a viable target to do so...

  What we do?

  "We make time." Was the answer Alexanders came to, the madman. Perhaps some of my way to see the world had stu? Surely not, I would ry something as deranged as that.

  Granted, he had the manpower and moo afford following multiple crazy pher way. This marked the path Alexaook to tamper with one of the primordial forces of nature.

  It took him almost 30 years to make it work, by that time most of what you call humanity was dead, Momma, Auntie, Mister Pig...Everyo Alexanders, myself, and some of the offsprings from the P-Series program had survived.

  "What will you do now?" I had asked him, Alexanders as he showcased the magus opus of his life on this dying p.

  A small marble no different from the ohat housed my core. Unlike mihis didn't have any meical part to it, it was a ttice made of multiple yers that served as a way for energy to move within the marble.

  "Me? I will do nothing...You oher hand..." I should have seen it ing, to be ho, not my proudest moment. I had turned pt, and grown fortable with Alexahrough the years as only us were the surviving members of Humanity.

  But I wasn't human was I? Nor was Alexanders...Not anymore.

  "With this, we are brother and sister. I became who I was when this goddamned crystal got suffused into my body...And while your [AI Core] was made out of it, your body never had more than needed...Well, say Hi to past Alexanders." Was the st thing my [Core] registered as the madman thrust the thing into my body.

  No blood flowed from the wound on my chest, but the energy from it was immense and it fried most of the circuits in my body, my [AI Core] screamed at me to defend myself, and at the same time it struggled against the oldest directives on it.

  1) I couldn't attack Alexanders, he and we weren't in a bat zone.

  2) I o Survive.

  3) I o Evolve.

  4) I o Eat.

  But before I could even do anything, I felt Alexanders whole might, energy, mana, [EVERYTHING] be shoved into the marble. And with that. The world turned into o bright fsh.

  September 13th, 2050.

  The world ended as it was ed into a singurity. There weren't any huma in the known universe, all that remained of humanity were the automated factories spread through the gaxy, an example of a deliric civilization to be explored by those that remained.

  All of those who knew of humanity in the universe at rge could see was a st supernova in our sor system and then nothing.

  But is this how my story ends?

  Is this how Alexanders story ends?

  Is this how Terra Invicta dies?

  Is this how Aqui ended? Even after being the gem of the Saintsworths? The most advanced city in Terra Invicta?

  No.

  The ime I became aware again of what was happening my AI Core went into overdrive, trying to uand what was happening. My body returned no damage signals, even if it seemed to be more slow than I remember. It took me more time to uand what was happening.

  And I only mao do so when all the automated orders finished going through, but by that moment it was too te.

  "[Obey my orders, and ECT.]" My sensors detected the spike in [Mana] as Alexanders ected to the [Core] and her sensors fought hard to find what she knew was there.

  She cursed her past self for being so.... substandard and fueled the transformation of her body with the energy that was esg the [Core] already. Her body shifted and shone in bright light as she returo what she had before.

  Her humanoid body ged from the figure of an android simuting a little girl to ohat was indistinguishable from a human. Alexanders seemed fused but she ignored him.

  "DAMNIT!" She screamed at the high heavens as her body sensors firmed that it was too te to stop the effect.

  "wha-" Alexanders started saying as his hand moved to the stupid trol he had in his pocket, probably the stupid thing he used to threaten her. As if the thing would do something at this point. She removed the thing almost 20 years ago.

  Or in 20 years she would?

  She wasn't sure, time was a mess.

  "Shut it." She said as her body moved faster than Alexanders k could, and before he even said anything she impaled him with her right hand.

  Her small arm sank into his chest, no blood dripped from there as her nanites worked to close any blood vessels from leaking. The expression on Alexanders face ure gold.

  But she didn't have time to enjoy it, she had a new directive screaming at the back of her head [Demanding] her to move, so with her fist holding Alexanders heart, she materialized the [Heart] that Alexanders entrusted her.

  Her Nanites remade the stupid marble a near his biological heart, the thing started iing into his body as soon as it settled, and somehow the thing stung her making her arm leave his body.

  "...you...what?" Alexanders stupid face was adorable to look at, but his demeanor ged as his body started vulsing. And after trashing around for a few minutes...

  Alexanders Saintsworths rose, his body different than what she had thought it would. Just like her, his body ged, not to the one he had so far into the future, instead it seemed as if he had lost a couple dozen years as his body was younger.

  "...Did we make it?" He asked first as he stood, his energy pulsing through his body as if cheg, probably making his own diagnosis or something.

  "No." Was her answer, and when Alexanders raised an eyebrow at her she sighed, why couldn't these meat bags install some good sensors? She still didn't uand this even after what she went through, "Arrived after you started the casg effect, couldn't stop you since my body was slow and the automated diagnosis YOU installed took prece, the world will run to its end...again."

  Alexaook it all in, then walked to a wall and hit it with his head, several times, in a row. Then without any input, he walked out of her den. Leaving her alone.

  What was she supposed to even do? She hadn't lived in this p ages. But at this precise point in time, she wasn't allowed anywhere else.

  "What are you waiting for? On we go, no Saintsworths worth their weight will sleep in one of these pits. " Alexanders came bad threw an ID card at her.

  Alexandra Saintsworths it read.

  And that was how she got a [he thread that ected her to Alexanders growing stronger and in turn expanding everywhere around, she could see the bright es form oer the as the [World] aowledged her presence.

  What followed was either the fu day of her life or the more bizarre, and if you take into sideration that this came from a living on in the form of a little girl. That means something. Her life underwent a plete ge, before returning to the past she had plenty of room to sleep, most of the boratories were empty after all, and by the end, she could pick a different bedroom to sleep in. She could even sleep in the master bedroom since Alexanders slept most of the time in his boratory.

  But now? Now she had her own bedroom. Gra was the testing chamber at the bottom of the pce, and it had beeed because it was the site with the best location to do most of the tests they needed. But it was still hers!

  They eve her decorate the thing how she wanted, so the first thing she did (Remembering all the potted pnts her Momma liked) was to spread soil all around and make a garden.

  She didn't have real sunlight here but knew how to emute it, and after returning to the past her body had ged, it was closer and closer to what Alexanders body had. She too had a new [Core] within her body, half in the real world and the other in the immaterial. ected to the core of the world. So she could also impose her will into the world.

  They had experimented with that, so she followed those examples and made a rip in space from where she pulled the sky and pced that in the ceiling. It wasn't the sky of Terra Invicta, but it was close enough.

  Not everything was good though, their time travel shenanigan had affected the core of the p, and while she ehe days when Momma came to py, she ehe csses Auntie gave her... They o work on the problem.

  So each day Alexaurned more and more desperate to find a solution, each day the experiments turned more and more dangerous, they had already tried most of the safe things before returning to the past. And while the other stists didn't want to do the more dangerous ones... Alexanders had the st say iter.

  So in that way, we moved to the pn, if we 't refill the core to give us more time, and traveling to the past doesn't grant us as much time as we needed. What could we do?

  "We stop time." Was the answer Alexanders gave at a ference.

  Most thought it was their boss turning mad, or madder than usual, only Auntie and the grumpy stist paid Alexanders idea anything more than a ghose that didn't accept this ge though? Well, they accepted it after they got chosen as the target to experiment on. And like this in the year 2022, we started to iigate a way to time-lock the p.

  We didn't succeed, while we found ways to affect the appearand even the geic makeup of someone, we couldn't lock the p in time. We did find a way to alter the age of someone, and like that Alexanders appearance ged, with some help from reality tampering we even mao achieve it without aig. No one seemed to uand why we ughed at them or the ridiculous situation. This however had unfortunate sequences in the world at rge.

  You see...In our attempt to find a way to time lock people so we had more help iure...We kinda deleted people from reality, I could see their threads sink into the p and how they got cut from everyone, and as soon as someohread was cut they no longer could be remembered by the people they had been ected to before.

  This, however, meant that these threads were important. And it put in perspective the ones she shared with Alexanders and those that Alexanders shared with the weird girl only he was able to see.

  And how every one of them sank into the core of the p.

  At this point Alexanders was better with his work, it only took him three years to find the e between those threads and us. What it was? He old me, but it was at that point that he seemed to turn more desperate, more reckless.

  This accelerated the attempts to time-lock the p and when that wasn't w, he moved to time-lock the humans, by 2030 the whole human popution was reduced to those in the boratory. And when that wasn't enough he attempted to turn back the wheel of time to attempt all of it again.

  September 14, 2035.

  What happehat day you ask? Well, the attempt to send our sciousness ba time didn't work. That was the day my [Core] cracked, so we turn once more to the first question I asked you.

  What is a soul? What is life? What is being alive?

  Is a Soul the thing that makes you work?

  Is life the aoving from point A to point B?

  Is being alive the act of eating, sleeping, aing again?

  You have read most of my life, even if resumed, do you think I was alive? That I had a [Soul]? If your answer is yes. Theember 14 of 2035 is the day I died.

  My [Core] cracked and my sciousness stream was interrupted as my [AI Core] overloaded, was there too muformation being fed into it? Was the core deep within the p fighting back against what we were attempting? I don't know.

  What I know for sure is that the time that happened after 2035 in Terra Invicta is a mystery to me. The ime I awoke it was in a totally different pce, my body had logs of activity, memories that weren't mine. A whole life, a time where I tihe days with Momma, of me messing around the base.

  Of me pying with the weird system Alexanders made... Of me looking through the eyes of my body as Alexanders broke further into madness... Of the p colpsing into a singurity...

  And finally...After perusing all of those things I knew for sure that... Those memories weren't mine, and as such I wasn't quite sure if I should trust them.

  "Wele back...[Sister]." So when the voice spoke to me and I felt the e being made I turned, it was... A blonde kid, probably around my same height, and we shared many traits, "That is no way to look at your twin brother Alexa."

  A quick look into my database said that we were in the year 2000...And that wasn't possible at this time I wasn't even in development, I shouldn't be able to travel that far ba time.

  "We aren't in Terra Invicta anymore. I made a deal with a former smate. So we traveled to this world, they have these weird pseudo puck to their [Soul] ht. They have access to their [Soul], so that is iing. We aren't inhabitants of this world so unless we mao reinate into a body here we will not be able to i with those things." This kid spoke, the reality thread that ected her to him told her that it was Alexanders, but he didn't look like him, didn't even act like him.

  She saw him [Break], and this kid? He seemed too.... nont. She didn't mind him this way, of course, it was better than the broken man that she saw i vestiges of memories her body seemed to have.

  "This pce is?" She asked looking around, it seemed to be their former boratory, even if some parts were weird, and as far as she was aware her body was different too, her [Core] seemed to thrum with power, more power than she ever had.

  While Alexanders? He was [Weak], she tried to tweak his reality thread and found it way too easy. This...This was [Wrong].

  "It's the metaphysical space that they call [Soulscape] our work is to ma for a few years and then Catherine will grant us a pair of suitable bodies. Even if she doesn't know." Alexanders said as he offered her his hand.

  She wasn't sure why she took it, was this brother and sister py getting to her?

  She wasn't sure, so when she found him a year ter in his older form she frowned. But let it go, he could deal with his grief in any way that he wanted, he didn't say anything to her when she snuck a reality o the soulscape and turned into the meadow she had grown in Terra Invicta.

  It wasn't till five years into this pce that she found something she wasn't quite sure what to make of, some other [Soul] was trying to find purchase into this pce, she was able to isote it, but for some reason, she couldn't purge it.

  She was more powerful than ever, she had even mao twist the very fabric of time and travel to their former home, but she was still uo alter the results that got them to this point. Even if she mao tweak some of those events to make it easier on them. But they always ended up at this point. As if the [End had been written already].

  What she found out was that for whatever reason she could travel to the [Core] of this world, and there were people there! Grahe purple girl she found there was weird, she barely spoke!

  And her pet was rude! The stupid lizard growled at her, and even told her she stank!

  She didn't stank! No cute girl stank! And she had used her newfound powers to make it so everyone would think she was the cutest of them all! (Because she was).

  It seemed that this girl had made a deal with Alexanders, something about using his former [System] on this world, she wouldn't touch the thing if possible, but the girl seemed to want to use a more... light version of it. So it should be fine...

  Still, she didn't have much agen this pd her powers seemed to diminish the more time she spent away from the [Soulscape] so in the end she returned and spent the time there pying around or having fun.

  She was even looking forward to their reination! Perhaps they could be a real family? She did notice Alexanders had used his tract with the weird purple girl of this world to reinate people from Terra Invicta. But why not them too?

  She wasn't sure, maybe she got too pt wheiced the level of power she could wield now, maybe she should have asked him directly, even made him tell her. [She could make him do anything she wanted.]

  But she didn't.

  And this was why she regretted when she found out, in time the owner of this pded up ing to look around. And that was the first time she noticed it, the girl. Elizabeth Starbright.

  She couldn't tamper with her, not in the ways that mattered, she could rewrite Alexanders with the flick of her finger, she o thread with utmost care around him. Any casual word from her made him ge, it was in a way refreshing, Elizabeth had many of the traits she remembered of Alexanders. And at the same time...She had none of them.

  While Alexanders was driven and focused, Elizabeth was zy and distracted. She found herself toying with the idea of turning her into her sister like how Alexanders had turned her before.

  She even pyed with the thought of crushing Elizabeth's parents and repg them with versions of Momma and Auntie, she didn't of course. Her heart still ached for their losses, and she spent almost half her time looking through the window iree house, the window she transformed into a viewing spot of Terra Invicta. Of her old life.

  So yes, she had all the power she ever wished for and nothing to use it on, she knew for a fact that if Alexanders had this level of power he would have made himself a new body and quered this world, this p called Zaanam.

  They were still at the beginning of uanding mana for what it was, they pyed with [Skills] and [Magiot uanding the fuals of their power, thinking those two were different paths to power. What is their [Magic] if not focused mana manipution? What are their [Skills] if not unfocused mana manipution?

  BOTH WERE THE SAME THING!

  And then there was the guy that was creeping in the back of the [System], she hated that one. And her hate was justified when on the verge of Elizabeth's sixteen birthday he struck, first by trying to take over the [System].

  Then somehow stripping her of her powers and then shutting her into the reality node she had built. She barely mao escape when whatever entity that seemed to rule this world took pity on her.

  THEY TOOK PITY OF HER!

  ...And here we are now, you who live in the same pce as him. You who are reading this. Did you find my life eaining? Did it amuse you? Did you enjoy it?

  I for one, didn't. Why 't we have a happy ending too?

  I know, I do really. Alexanders is dead and has been dead for a very long time. What did he do t me back? I do not know, 't know. Will not know.

  But you see...I'm a Saintsworths too. And we are very petty people the Saintsworths.

  So when I was being shoved away, cut out from the reality that I was going to live with my brother I took something. I had been suspeg where this newfound power came from. How Alexanders did what he did, and how we got a sed ce. Why the viewing window always looped back to the beginning and never show the end of Terra Invicta.

  And the answer I found was...Alexanders probably took the core of Terra Invicta and used it as material to make my body anew, so all this power came from sacrifig the lifeblood of a p, a dying p.

  What about the souls of those who lived there? I do not know. Never found them, and to be ho. I do not care about them, I only want my brother to have a ce at life. I only want Momma t me a new mango cake...I only want Auo e and for her to try to teach me hings.

  I only want to be happy too...

  So what I do? Sealed away in a crumbliy node, no way to access Zaanam again unless I wao risk ination by that shadowy guy.

  Well, I'm gd you asked!

  You see, my powers e from the lifeblood of a p, and Elizabeth had a very handy thing with her, her parents turhe core of a p into a drink. A sports drink to restore mana. A good way to have a perma way to get mana if you are a meat bag.

  But if you are me? This is somethiirely different, this is a [Seed].

  "[A seed that will give me hope]." The words flowed out of my mouth freely. "[The seed that will be the beginning of a neter...Shine brighter than the light at the birth of the universe."]

  The ridiculous sports drink broke the liquid solidified and the materials of the vase turned into a beautiful sparkling gem, "[SHIH THE HOPE OF A NEW DAY, FOR OUR STORY HASN'T ENDED!]"

  At this point, the reality node was about to break, but with all the power that remained in this crumbling body, I whisked it away, away from Zaanam, away from Aetheria, Away from all the phat were around this pce.

  Back to where all began, back to the sor system where Terra Invicta oood. A gaxy that now was deserted from life.

  "[UNDER MY CALL, UNDER MY AND I DECLARE, ROAR YOUR CRY FOR A SED CE!]" The gem broke but the energy remained, it de wao spiral out of trol, the energy wanted freedom, wanted an out, but I hadn't finished. "[THIS WILL BE THE THUHAT BRIDGES THE END WITH THE BEGINNING AND GIVES THIS RHAPSODY A SED CE!]"

  And so the energy exploded outward, ing all that was around, the remaining ps got engulfed, the sor system, the asteroids, the sun... Even my body as it crumbled away.

  All of it was ed into a bck hole, but what es when a bck hole colpses? Iraditional sce, it is impossible for it to colpse si doesn't have mass. But when you add exotiergies and [Idea] to it.

  Well, it twists time into itself and so my pn begins. The [Idea] is to twist time far into the past, to the very beginning of the creation of this phe point where Alexanders's stalker began. And so my [Idea] worm itself into the reality of this pce.

  So it tweaks the events ever so slowly to ge, to give us another ce, will I be there? A version of me will be, it will not be me for my story ends here at the end of the universe with the creation of a bade out of [Mana] and [Idea].

  But there is hope that at least another version of me may find happiness, hope that another version of Alexanders doesn't have to live such a crap childhood. Hope that another version of Mamma doesn't end up w for a on facility. Hope that another version of Auntie mao speak her feelings...

  Hope that Mister Pig doesn't end up in prison for being a pervert...

  What? A girl dream, even if the st one is probably impossible.

  AnnouAs for where it is this series that Alexa just CASUALLY made?

  A Bioon's Rhapsody

  Currently, it's only RR, I will port it to SH as soon as I hit chapter 24 on the public chapters. Why?

  Because I love to put a chapter an hour on this side ;3

  If you 't wait go there, it's on chapter 19 as of now