“So, how do you want to do this?

  “You know…” Walker paused as he had to think about that question. The reflection had a good point. The way he’d always done it in the past was to combine two strands, create a double, and then combine that with the third. But that wouldn’t necessarily work for this.

  If he combined Undeath, the Omniverse might freak out.

  If he combined the soul strand with death or life, it might reject its opposite.

  Scratching his chin as he thought about it, Walker said, “I think the only way this is going to work is if we make two double strands and combine those. Put Reclamation,” a groan echo’d out from the area, “with Enhancement, then push em together. Hey Ulysses,” he called out.

  “Yes, I heard you.”

  “No, this isn’t that. I want the combination to go quickly for your benefit, as well as mine. If I call out for it, do you mind helping me compress the two double strands together?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Alright, thanks.”

  Looking at David, Walker nodded, receiving a quick affirmative nod in return. There wasn’t any time to waste, or pussyfootin to do.

  Pussyfootin is a weird word…

  Walker shook his head to clear away the strange thought. Because he wanted this to be a smooth process, he reached into his resources and removed life first. Combining it with the Soul strand was as quick as ever, and just like that, a green orb sat in his hand.

  Taking it off of his palm and placing it in space, he felt the area harden, creating a floating shelf. With a nod of thanks to Ulysses, Walker reached into his overlay and grabbed both the Death and Soul strands. A glance at David, who gave a thumbs up and smile of encouragement, and he began.

  Rather than move slowly, Walker quickly pushed death toward the Soul strand. Instantly a black orb sat in his right hand. Reaching forth with the left, he picked up the green Enhancement strand.

  “Ow,” Ulysses said as the Reclamation strand went to work, “You know you could have just pulled that from your resources. It might have been faster.”

  Walker knew he was right, but for some reason…he felt like this had to be done from scratch. Some small part of him establishing a routine to Strandbinding, finding comfort in the abnormally normal as he dove into the strange.

  Taking both strands in hand, he began to push them toward one another. The moment their proximity began to grow close, a small dart of black fired out from the Reclamation strand, only to be rebuffed by a shield of green from the Enhancement strand. When the black orb couldn’t break through to the green, a small dark halo erupted beneath it, encircling its entirety. In Walker’s other hand, the small green orb did the same, creating a mirroring effect on both. Seeing his chance, Walker angled the two orbs, halos opposite to one another, and began to try to press them into each other.

  It was like pushing against a stone wall.

  “Oh fuck,” He gasped as Ulysses began to press space toward his hands. Having a quick flashback to the last time they tried this, Walker said, “Calm down, man, we need to go at this slower.” The pressure eased a little, but not too much, as the strength of a Universal Personality continued to pressure him. But, even the Gravity strand gave to the pressure more than these two strands did.

  It didn’t matter how he worked it. Covering himself in his soul, the pressure of Ulysses, extending his soul to cover David. He even tried sweet-talking it. None of his previous methods worked. They would not and could not be, combined.

  At least not this way.

  Walker eyeballed the two halos. Looking closer through squinting eyes and gritted teeth, Walker noted that the halos were moving. He took a beat to watch them, confirming his theory. There was a definite motion to them, but they seemed to be going in opposite directions to one another.

  “Ulysses, back off.”

  “This really, really hurts, Walker.” The personality said aloud as Walker felt the pressure disappear.

  For the first time since starting the process, Walker looked around.

  He stood in a minefield of strands. As he watched, more Dimensional and Space strands tore themselves from the environment. As they tore, Ulysses repaired them, only for another, slightly larger section to replace themselves. Counting how many strands floated through the darkness wouldn’t matter, as it’d take too much time. He just knew he had to hurry.

  Walker re-focused on the two double strands in his hands. There had to be a reason for the halos. Every time he’d ever worked with strands, there had been a logical process to combining them-like they wanted to be together. He just had to figure out what the process was for this one.

  Walker looked at the dark halo’d orb of Reclamation and the light green halo’d Enhancement. Going against his normal instinct of just pushing them together, he lifted them both up and flipped Reclamation over.

  “What are you doing?” David asked.

  But Walker was too in the moment to hear him.

  There has to be a reason

  Matching the two halo’s, with Life on top and Death on the bottom, Walker pressed down. He felt a small rumble between the two orbs as they touched, but somehow knew that wasn’t enough. Once he was certain they were lined up on top of one another, he let his instinct kick in and did something he might come to regret later.

  He twisted.

  Click

  Simultaneously, both the green orb of enhancement and the black orb of reclamation seemed to melt and drain before his eyes. Pooling together, they began to quickly spin until each color became a blur. Soon enough, the colors ceased to be, and in their place sat a tiny pearl of white.

  “Oh, thank you so very much,” Ulysses said to the area, “It’s finally over.”

  “Almost,” Walker said as he looked at what he hoped was the beginning of Symphony’s afterlife. Even just holding it, parts of the darkness of his soul began to shift to white quickly. Lifting up the pearl, he pressed it to his overlay. A small shockwave of white splashed out from him just as it entered his resources.

  He didn’t wait to read his notifications.

  Congratulations Architect Dante!

  You’ve discovered the Immortal strand.

  With your discovery of a new Everlasting strand, the Omniverse has seen fit to grant you a special reward.

  …

  You may select a unique system within the Omniversal order.

  Walker looked David in the eyes as he passive-aggressively whispered, “Huh.”

  “Fucker!”

  Smiling, Walker pulled up the options that came with the reward.

  The list that appeared was daunting. Rather than the scrolling list the Protocol had always given him, this was based on a grid pattern, and still, he couldn’t see an end to them. It took so long for him to get a handle on how many their systems were that the David he’d created went with a pop- but not before being dramatic about it.

  “Nooo!” He yelled out right before disappearing, causing Walker to smirk at what was effectively his own joke.

  Walker reached into his bag of tricks, going back to what he knew worked when there were a lot of options and only one Walker. Pulling up each description for a quick scan, he did his best to memorize as many of the systems as he could. As he moved through a few dozen, he’d created a routine of making three reflections: three who knew it was immediately their job to debate the systems they could remember and see what worked best.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  After doing so dozens of times and taking several hours of reading, four groups co-mingled as they settled on the final options, Walker acting as the arbitrator.

  “The Attribute system.” One group said, “It’s just like Ulysses spoke of. It’ll let us set up our entities to take on statistical increases in strength, annnd allow them to track their progress. It’s foolproof.”

  Walker nodded and looked at another group, “The Reincarnation system. It’s clean, simple, and while it uses multiple strands, they’re all singular. We can use the Jelly ranch to farm them out and do some really interesting things with it. Remember, once we leave the protocol, no more reincarnations.”

  “But it doesn’t work on Primordials, right?”

  The lead David shrugged, “Whose to say it doesn’t? That could just be an issue the Evolvers ran into because they don’t like the Awakened.”

  Walker nodded, conceding the point as the next group stepped forward.

  “The Paradigm system. It’s the same one we would’ve gotten if we’d chosen the Hero paradigm a long time ago. It basically sets people on a path to fulfill their own paradigm; only, we can then pick and choose which paradigms to activate, cutting out the worst ones.”

  As Walker considered that, not enjoying the idea of creating fate on Symphony, the last group stepped up and said only three words, “The Thread system.”

  Understanding their intent, Walker had to reach into his memories for more information. The reason they simply stood still was because of how long the systems’ description was. Creating a quick summary in his mind, something the Davids surely could have done, Walker said, “The one that allows a Strandbinder to connect people directly to strands, letting them take on some of its elements within themselves?”

  “That’s the one. It could be a very high-level setup. We know what you were thinking, considering levels. Get people started with skills and kernels; once they get up there, introduce them to the soul system you’re going to make and see where they head from there. Well, this could be the thing that comes after.” The group’s lead David spread his arms, causing Walker to have a surreal flashback for a moment, “You want a world where progress never stalls and only continues on and on…this could be another step in that direction.”

  “Strong argument,” Walker said, impressed with himselves, “Thank you, everyone. I’m going to speak with the smartest person I know and figure this out.”

  A grouping of, you got it, Walker’s #1, and Ulysses is definitely the smartest rang out while Walker fell deep into thought.

  Each had its own values, with the Thread system seemingly of greater importance than most. But, for some reason, he felt like he could figure that out on his own. What he really needed right now was something that would advance them in the moment and before the fourth battle. Something that would lead to greater…other things.

  Even long after the David’s popped out of existence, Walker stood in thought. Eventually, he came to a decision and asked Ulysses to bring him to the white room.

  As he stepped inside, a part was waiting for him, “Did you make your decision without me? All of the systems seemed to hold some form of merit.”

  “Which are you leaning towards?” Walker asked the second smartest guy he knew.

  “Reincarnation and Attributes, naturally. Both would enable me to conduct a large set of new experiments so I can better understand Dimensionality.”

  “You’re still working on that after all this time?” Walker asked, confused as to why the Universal Personality, who had millions of mini-minds within him, hadn’t figured out a singular strand.

  “Walker, according to what I know from the Guide Token, I’m still only a few percentages into my research. It will take me so very, very long to figure everything out. But then, that’s the fun of it.”

  “Alright, tell me something you know right now that would help me considering Dimensionality.”

  Ulysses smiled, “Sure. You’re not using Gravity correctly. If you invert it on yourself, you can fly. That’s what the flight ability basically is. A mixture of kinetic energy and negative gravity is streamlined into an ability that you can control. All of the abilities are mixes and matches of different strands.”

  Walkers’ eyes opened wide, then settled into a glare, “How long have you known that.”

  Ulysses’ smile turned into a weird grin, “It was one of the first things I figured out.”

  Walker rolled his eyes and then looked at his messages. The moment the four groups had presented each option, Walker had messaged the systems and their traits to his Supreme Assistant. He’d also included a small line about their time difference for expediency. Even though it had been several hours, the return message hadn’t come in yet.

  He sighed, “Ulysses, can you make a portal to somewhere in the fourth rendition.”

  “Okay, where?”

  “Anywhere, I just need to step out and back in.”

  A portal opened behind him to the darkness of space. Walker stepped out, smiled and waved at a small pink planet, unsure if anyone saw him, then stepped back in as it closed behind him. He pulled open his messages again.

  “Virgil says Reincarnation and the Thread system.”

  “So we agree on one system choice then,” The part said, “What are you thinking?”

  “I think I should do what the two smartest people I know advise.”

  “Wise,” Ulysses said with a nod, unmistakable subtext there.

  “Whatever,” Walker replied with a scowl. “Athena would have agonized over it, and I didn’t want to wait.”

  “Yes, who wants to wait for the GODDESS of wisdom to get back to you.”

  Walker waved him off, “She’sdjust get mad that I haven’t made the education system yet. And I’m not going to, though she doesn’t need to know that. The moment I do, she disappears from Sonata, and we don’t get to spend any more time together.”

  “So you’ll have a world of dumbasses.”

  “Only until I can find a way to keep us together.”

  Walker reached into the options and selected the Reincarnation system.

  Congratulations Builder Dante!

  You’ve unlocked the Reincarnation system!

  Secondary rewards for your discovery of the Everlasting Immortal strand

  5000 Immortal resources

  10000 Life resources

  10000 Death resources

  10000 Soul resources

  “What?” Walker said as he re-read the secondary rewards.

  “What’s wrong?” Ulysses said, stepping a little closer, “Get a nasty surprise?”

  “Correct me if I’m wrong, but when I made the Universal strand, didn’t it only give me one?”

  “Yes, that’s correct.” Ulysses replied, “According to my information, you only get one strand per combination. Rewards can’t duplicate the effort because they’re entirely too singular.”

  “Fuckkk,” Walker replied, grabbing his head, “Then I didn’t create an afterlife. I only made another Trinity strand.”

  “Only…” The part was lost for words momentarily, “Only made another Trinity strand? From what I’ve seen, few Strandbinders ever attempt to. It’s too dangerous. Most of them are happy creating Helix strands and avoiding the Everlasting ones. What you’re doing here is like playing with a bomb, one that can blow up as you advance forward with no training wheels. You could have died multiple times, and I don’t think you seem to get that.”

  Walker didn’t care about any of that. Call it foolhardy or simply foolish, but every risk he’d taken had been necessary for their forward momentum. To stall was to die in the Alpha Protocol.

  “But I need a fucking afterlife, Ulysses. I know it seems like I don’t, that it’s just a pipe dream situation, but it’s something that we need to have. I don’t want to build it in the fourth rendition and then leave. It needs to be done here. I mean, if I can make a universe from nothing, I can make an afterlife, right? I just don’t know what I’m missing.”

  “Who knows, buddy,” He said, patting Walker’s shoulder, “Who knows?”

  Walker took a deep breath and spoke in a barely concealed snarl, “Bastard, I know that’s locked away in the Guide token.”

  “Whoa, Walker.” Moving the part’s hand away, “That’s not fair and untrue. I haven’t seen anything about the afterlife yet. A bit about the strand combinations, but those came with a warning of not giving away too much. It doesn’t mean it’s not in there, but it takes a lot to squeeze out just the smallest bits from the thing. Hell, I’m still trying to figure out how they crammed so much into an object no larger than a coin.”

  Walker stared at him for what felt like a long moment before his shoulders gently slumped. Scrubbing a hand into his hair, he said, “Ulysses, you’re right. I’m sorry. I guess…I don’t know. I’m used to you having an idea of what I can do when I’m lost on all of this strand stuff and unfairly took out my frustrations on you. There’s just a lot happening, and even with the dilation here, I feel like I don’t have enough time.”

  Ulysses nodded, “How much do you need?”

  Walker waved a hand in the air, “A lot, I guess. This isn’t something I should jump into. Creating an afterlife has become much more complicated than expected- though in hindsight, that should have been obvious.”

  “Well, if all you need is some extra time, I have something that might help you out.” Ulysses pointedly looked behind Walker at a portal, “This is one of my early experiments with draining Temporal resources. The time in that area is sped up by more than a small amount. The deeper you go towards the center, the faster it’ll become. When you’re finished, just message me, and I’ll get you out. I do have to warn you to be careful of the center, though; that’s an experimental speed ten times that of what you’re used to. You may not survive it.”

  Walker looked at the portal, then back to Ulysses, “Thanks, man. Can you send me to Conduction for a second? I need to grab some food and water.”

  “Sure.”

  Walker stepped foot onto his Territorial seat and looked around, noticing nothing much had changed since his last visit.

  Experimenting with his systems, Walker selected himself and removed all forms of gravitational force. Being very gentle, he kicked off with kinetic energy and flew through the air. It took about an hour to gather enough food and water in his inventory for what he expected to be a very long trip. Thankfully, when he’d created this world in a stupor, he’d included that food and plant maintenance should be automated. Once he was done, he flew back to the portal, not enjoying his first true flight in the least, as his mind was too weighed down by what he needed to do.

  Stepping back through, he said a quick thank you to Ulysses, sent a message to Athena and Virgil, and stepped in.

  Looking around, Walker Reed found himself surrounded by nothing but darkness and his own thoughts.

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