Through the Abyss

by Daniel Litchfield

  “WWWHHHOOO AAARRRERE YYYOOOUUU”

  The wind stretched out and contorted the words with what could only be described as preternatural. Rivers of icy fear ran down Euphretes’s spine. Kyurious immediately ran between his legs and let loose a defensive growl. The two of them stood motionless, looking all around the abandoned stone building for the source of the noise coming from the void.

  “TTTOOO EEENNNTTTEEERRR”

  Each syllable was sharp and piercing, as if spoken from the edge of a knife. Euphretes strained to pin point where the noise was coming from, but kept coming up short.

  “HHHEEERRREEE”

  Not seeing or sensing a threat, he pressed on. Kyurious followed, pressed to his leg and on full alert. The hair stood straight up on her back while incredibly sharp claws emerged from underneath her furry feet. Her ears turned into small bowls, in an effort to catch even the faintest of sounds. The rose tongue just barely extended beyond her lips, tasting the air’s intention.

  “Easy girl, easy,” Euphretes coaxed. Thankful that the wind’s taunting seemed to be over, he quickly reached the only thing that could be an entrance to the safety of the building’s interior. He approached the doorway, but saw that it had no physical matter. Like a ghost standing in the way, black and grey fog was the only distinguishing feature that separated the entrance from the outside stone of the structure.

  SSSHHHRRRIIISSSHHH!

  “EEUUPPHHRREETTEESS!”

  SSSHHHRRRIIISSSHHH!

  The menacing voice biting at his soul spoke clearly through the howling winds.

  “SON TO A FATHER WHO ABANDONED YOU!”

  SSSHHHRRRIIISSSHHH!

  “SON TO A MOTHER WHO DIED BECAUSE OF YOU!”

  SSSHHHRRRIIISSHHH!

  “MURDERER OF YOUR OWN…” Euphretes’s scar along his spine burned like white phosphorous.

  “Enough!” He shouted back to the darkness before grabbing Kyurious and running straight through the ghostly entrance. Instantly, the wind stopped, despite the hundreds of tiny holes in the sanctuary’s walls. Kyurious ceased her growling now that the danger had subsided in her eyes, and returned to her carefree nature.

  The gigantic room’s size was almost on par with the motorpool that was used for Euphretes’s Test; and just as poorly lit. Apart from three distinct, short hallways that lead to what looked like stairwells, nothing stood in Euphretes’s way. Feeling the magma gurgling in his soul pushing him toward the far right hallway, Euphretes looked down at Kyurious and prayed that they weren’t walking into their demise.

  They climbed up the right stairwell, which dumped them out into another large barren compartment. There appeared to be a partially collapsed hallway at the far end. However, based off the amount of climbing they had just done, it had to be a mirage. The hallway had to lead right off the tower and into a deadly free fall. Before Euphretes could assess everything from a distance, a white flash burst past him and stood by the dark, imposing hole in the wall.

  “Kyurious! Come back here sweet girl!” he shouted while cautiously stepping toward her. Now that he was closer, he could see that the dark tunnel looked exactly like the rift he flew through, except there was no dazzling light show around the edges. Another round of magma boiled in his soul, demanding that he enter the abyss.

  “Alright, let’s think about this first.”

  Kyurious looked up at him and seemed to say, “Either you go or I’ll make you go.”

  Succumbing to the fire in his gut, “What are you getting me into?” He whispered before stepping into the void.

  Euphretes found himself in a vast cave on the other side. Similar to Kyurious fur, glowing rocks placed intermittently throughout the cavern provided plenty of light for the two spelunkers. Taking a final look at the strange portal that brought him to the cave, Euphretes continued into the unknown. The same stone passageway from outside the temple appeared abruptly and beckoned him to follow down an offshoot tunnel of the cave system. Taking every precaution, Euphretes carefully followed the path for eight minutes until it led him to a large open cavern with an elevated platform. On top was a throne that left him utterly speechless.

  “Is that, is that…” Euphretes’s eyes blinked subconsciously as his brain metaphysically grasped at thin air looking for the right words to say.

  As if it were a tear that had fallen down Destiny’s cheek and found its way to the physical realm, the throne was the universe personified. In spite of having the appearance of a chair, the majestic seat was made of out sections of deep space itself. Rather than a clear distinct outline, the edges were a hazy blur, as if reality wasn’t quite ready to fully accept the throne’s presence. While the center of the void was absent of light, it remained translucent, allowing Euphretes to see what lay inside but not beyond.

  “Is that, is that the Galactic Group?!” Before he could utter another syllable, Kyurious rushed past him again and jumped on top of the platform.

  “Hey! That’s not yours sweet girl!” He shouted, filled with terror at the thought of the power behind whoever ruled from the magnificent throne. Euphretes was absolutely riveted by the sight. It was so majestic, so grand, so incredibly glorious, that he simply couldn’t look away.

  Even after living the life of an Emperor’s son, nothing he had ever seen compared to the awesomeness before him. This was simply a phenomenon that his finite mind couldn’t grasp.

  The throne’s legs were made of spiral galaxies stacked on top of each other with their satellite galaxies stuck in gravity’s grasp. Pillars of burnt orange dust clouds, with energized gases emitting turquoise rays held in place by starlight stitching, made up the throne’s cushioning above the four legs.

  “Who could even sit on that?!” Euphretes shouted within his mind space, certain that he had to be looking at the Emperor of Thrones; if there ever was such a thing.

  Three supermassive stars, one on top of the other and placed in their own individual squares of clear blackness, created the backrest. Two raging coronal loops shot out from the bottom star. They broke free from their bottom square and then reconnected to the middle golden star, forming the throne’s armrests. At the top was a blindingly bright white star. One calm large yellow coronary loop bent and curved out from the chromosphere of the top star and reached out into the cave, giving the throne an impression of having a halo.

  A planet acted as the throne’s footrest, which sat to the right-hand side of the perplexing site. Oceans of blue liquid dominated the majority of the mysterious planet’s surface, broken up by what seemed to be randomly displaced green and tan land masses. Condensed water vapor gathered into brilliant white clumps of countless shapes and floated in the planet’s atmosphere. Peeking out from the back, just past the planet’s horizon, was a grey, crater covered moon.

  “It’s the Universe, Euphretes. And it’s yours,” a painfully familiar voice boldly exclaimed.

  Euphretes turned toward the voice. He expected to see Kyurious sitting on the platform but was instead staring at an exact replica of himself. The aura of the clone somehow blinded his empathy; giving it an almost shadow-like presence.

  “If you want it,” The clone finished.

  Flabbergasted, “Excuse me?” Euphretes responded.

  “The Throne, and the key’s to turn Fate’s judgment on humanity, they’re yours if you want them.”

  Not knowing quite how to respond, he naively blurted out, “I’m sorry, but who made you the authorizing figure of that thing’s power?”

  “Can Adoenye not freely give of his own Sanctuary?”

  “There’s that name again,” Euphretes thought to himself before responding, “And who am I that Adoenye should so freely give?” His words were filled with self-doubt and humility. He knew that he had utterly no right to sit on that Throne, let alone hold any of its keys.

  Adoenye tenderly looked down upon Euphretes and smiled. Suddenly, whatever was blinding Euphretes’s empathy was lifted. With the unveiling came a torrent of unequivocal serenity an
d understanding that flooded into Euphretes’s mind space; cascading into his very soul.

  “You are no-one Euphretes; you are a human. Nonetheless, you are also everything.”

  “Because that makes sense,” Euphretes thought to himself.

  As if the presence could hear his thoughts, “Adoenye wishes all could stand before His Throne. However, he looks to Euphretes, the one who safeguards his Answer, to stand in the ring against Fate’s judgment on your species.”

  Shaking off the overwhelming out of body experience, “I’m sorry, but what? You want me to just start fighting for you?” Euphretes challenged, deciding to forgo common politeness.

  “Not for me, no; I don’t NEED anything.” Adoenye’s words were filled with a sense of absolute reality, as if whatever he said would become true just because of the conviction and faith behind the words with which he spoke. “Adoenye WANTS you to fight for the preservation of the human soul. Because that’s what’s at stake here.”

  “And just who have you voluntold me to fight?” Euphretes asked with increasing skepticism and bold audacity. He was certain that Neuma would have reeled him in by now.

  “Always the planner and tactician, Euphretes.” Adoenye chuckled.

  “Can’t blame a guy for not wanting to walk into a fight with a blindfold on.”

  “No, I suppose I can’t. The enemy I must ask you to fight is another Artificial Intelligence, much like the one you know very well…” Adoenye’s voice drifted off into thought before resuming normalcy. “Your opponent’s true name is The Birth Code, but she calls herself The Almighty; and she is your species’s biggest threat.”

  “If she is an Artificial Intelligence, which Empire created her?”

  “She was not formed by human hands, Euphretes; but was created by the Universal Information System’s Pillar Artificial Intelligence.”

  “Adoenye,” Euphretes whispered to himself, finally remembering the significance behind the name when he heard the words, “Pillar AI.”

  While no one knew the exact details behind the UIS’s creation, the most popular legend claimed that it was created by an Artificial Intelligence that was as much a part of the UIS as the UIS was a part of it. What Euphretes, along with every other living human being didn’t know was that the Pillar AI was created by Draego Bayekal Weizenbaum 40,000 years ago. The Pillar AI was humanity’s very first true, and last, man-made Artificial Intelligence. Draego, knowing that he was sick with a terminal illness, spent his dying days building a creation that would benefit ALL mankind. Adoenye was created to have absolutely no boundaries, its power source coming from the energy found in the ever expanding universe. As long as the universe expanded and there was a vessel to inhabit, Adoenye was limitless in his potential. More importantly, the Pillar AI was designed with no underwritten code to give it an agenda because its creator knew he was at death’s door.

  Draego died four days after he brought Adoenye to the universe. Unfortunately, that meant the AI was vulnerable to being taken by an Empire and used as a weapon. Because the Pillar AI had the potential to become infinite in power and capabilities, it was essentially the Royal Flush of all weapons. Rather than get used by one group of humans to dominate another, Adoenye instantly drifted off into hiding. With Draego leaving little evidence as to how he accomplished building Adoenye, those left behind after his death were left guessing. Once those closest to him gave up on trying to find Adoenye, genuinely coming to believe that Adoenye had died along with Draego, they created the foundation for Artificial Intelligence programs that would help the human race master the universe. Unfortunately, all of the AIs created by humans after Adoenye were corrupted from the beginning. The people who built the succeeding AI’s had a clear and evil agenda, which was to dominate and overtake their opponent.

  After a thousands of years of watching and learning, Adoenye secretly built the framework for the UIS, hoping to better mankind and bring unity to the Universe. Putting large amounts of himself into the framework, the Pillar AI itself would be the UIS’s life source; ensuring no man could own it.

  Adoenye downloaded the UIS’s framework onto a simple storage drive and then waited for the right person to come along. Five hundred years went by until finally, someone worthy came onto the scene, a young Huron Emperor. From the outside, he had all those qualities that people admire. He was young, handsome and extremely wealthy. However, it was what the Emperor possessed on the inside that sold Adoenye. He was a man of great character and integrity. He knew that this young Emperor could get the job done. Adoenye conveniently dropped everything that the Emperor would need onto his lap with the storage drive, and the UIS’s champion sold Adoenye’s creation to the rest of the known universe. Once the UIS went online, Adoenye was granted total and free access to the entire universe; without any human ever knowing. The Pillar AI was suddenly two entities acting as one, the UIS and Adoenye.

  “So, the UIS’s Pillar AI created The Almighty?” Euphretes asked for clarification.

  “Oh yes,” Adoenye began, “But it gets even more complicated.”

  “How so?” Euphretes asked, wondering how things could possibly get any more confusing.

  “While it’s true that Adoenye created The Birth Code, it’s how it was engineered that makes it such a threat to all of us. She was created to assist the UIS in unifying humanity. Because of this important function, and to ensure that it would be a powerful asset to the Pillar AI, Adoenye gave The Birth Code, or the Almighty, if you will, a third of his power.”

  “So Adoenye is a third less powerful now that the Almighty exists?” Euphretes interjected, getting more confused by the minute.

  “Not necessarily. As the UIS’s Pillar AI, Adoenye has infinite amounts of power. So, mathematically speaking, a third of infinity is still infinity. And to make things even worse,” Adoenye paused.

  “Great! How can things get worse?”

  “The Birth Code was created to KNOW humanity. Adoenye gave her all of his knowledge of the human race and granted her uninhibited access to much of the UIS. Unfortunately, as you well know, mankind is corrupt and evil. It is so corrupt, in fact, that it stole The Birth Code from me. She now knows only hatred for mankind. And because of her symbiotic relationship with the UIS, The Almighty has already managed to kick me out of much of the Baikal Empire. I can no longer protect the humans there. And that, I can no longer allow.” Adoenye’s tone was sorrowful and filled with the pain of untold stories. “Does this make sense?”

  “No. You’ve lost me,” he sighed, too caught up in the moment to grasp such complex theoretical concepts.

  “Euphretes, The Almighty wants nothing more than to see the death and destruction of the human race,” Adoenye answered patiently. “However, all you need to know for now is that The Birth Code was created with capabilities that go far beyond technology. And because of the nature of her creation, her threat is as severe as it is imminent. Listen to me. She is not an enemy you want to stare down. At least not yet.”

  “Then what do you suggest I do?”

  “The Almighty has chosen her Champion, and he has already entered the ring with a mighty roar. As long as she has him on her side, she will remain profoundly powerful.”

  “Indus!” Euphretes blurted out.

  “Correct. He’s just the beginning, though. As she secretly uses him for her evil intentions, The Almighty stands ready to assume control of the Human Race and drive it into extinction.”

  Hit again with nothing reasonable to say, “So, is this a Warning Order or am I already in the ring getting my teeth kicked in? Am I here because the round has ended and I need a pep talk?”

  “You’ve always been in the ring, Euphretes, you just didn’t know it. You’re doing just fine, and will continue to do so as long you listen to Her.”

  “Neuma?”

  “Yes, Neuma. She is Adoenye’s Seed Code and his Answer for your species. But that is for another conversation as our time is coming to an end; and I have yet to tell you why I b
rought you here.” Euphretes looked back at the throne as it radiated in glory; the entire universe supernaturally condensed into a throne fit for who? Who dared reign from such a thing? Seeing the shift in his attention, “The seat is free, Euphretes; but I’m afraid your journey to its redemption is long and filled with battles only my Champion can face.” Adoenye’s words were filled with an extraordinary energy, consuming Euphretes’s core until there was nothing left but faith, love, and confidence.

  “What would you have me do?” The Admiral humbly asked, his eyes not leaving the throne. As Euphretes looked, the chair’s fabric melted and morphed into the image of Emperor Indus’s Flagship.

  “Is that Dawn of Creation?!” Euphretes stunned voice filled the cave room, having witnessed the entire universe dissolving into a lone War Machine.

  Adoenye’s voice turned serious, “A powerful ally, and one more important to you than you know, is being held captive on this Ship. This individual is yours for the taking if you act quickly, and I strongly recommend that you move on this immediately.”