“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” D_Light lamented, now weeping. Tears ran freely down his cheeks.
What the hell is going on, D_Light? What is your status? The blink was a desperate plea from Lyra. Please, please, please end this! Lyra’s thought thread was not crisp. D_Light had received threads like this before. They were indicative of panic.
Holy shit, they’re close, Djoser blared. We’re in a tree! We’re going to die in a fucking tree! Oh shit, I can see them!
Lyra begged, Save us, D_Light! I swear to Soul I’ll love you forever! I’ll repro with you. We’ll live together forever. I love you. Stop it, please make it stop. Lyra’s thoughts poured in like floodwater.
Through tear-blurred eyes, D_Light beseeched his familiar, Smorgeous, help me do it. Give me something so I don’t feel. It’s the OverSoul’s will. I’m failing her.
Master, I am uncertain as to what chemi will facilitate your request. However, I will attempt to suppress your inhibitions with SaniMind™.
Although the drug’s effect was nearly instantaneous, D_Light still did not pull the trigger; he merely stopped trembling.
Before Lyra was ripped to shreds, she had completely opened her audio and video feeds to broadcast what she saw and heard. It ended so quickly there was little to see-a blur of hair and skin leaping up the tree as though drawn up by a powerful magnetic force. Terrible teeth and claws and rending wetness as flesh tore. Gargling screams and hoarse shouts. And then there was nothing.
Through sobs Lily stammered, “D…D_Light, they’re coming, I can hear them. You need the repellant.” With these words she pinged him the location of the bottle; it was hidden under a rock at the edge of a stream. It was not too far from where he was now, but the cullers were close.
Smorgeous, give me the odds of survival.
Master, given distance and time required for metabolism-
Just give me the odds!
Fifty-three percent chance of survival, Smorgeous answered.
“You need to go! Do what you must and go!” Lily begged.
Fifty-three percent is not good enough, D_Light thought. Running for my life is not good enough-not this time. Do what I must?
“Yes, there is something I must do. I still have time to make it right.” D_Light sat down and Smorgeous walked over resolutely, sitting on his haunches across from his master.
Smorgeous, I want full sensory override with maximum power diverted to a Cloud connection, a connection straight to the Authority source tree.
Lily screamed at him to get up, but the sensory override deafened him. She kicked wildly and slapped him, but he barely felt it. His glazed-over eyes closed slowly as his mind connected. The official banner of the Divine Authority appeared momentarily while D_Light’s credentials were processed.
D_Light, player #49937593, status “demon.” How can the Divine Authority be of service?
I wish to correct an error, D_Light responded.
The Divine Authority appreciates your time in remedying this matter; however, due to the possible security ramifications of your request, we must do a deep scan to confirm that this change is in the best interest of the OverSoul. Would you like to learn more about deep scan?
No, D_Light answered.
Very well, if you are not familiar with the terms and conditions of deep scanning, please review them now.
By now, the dull blows from Lily had stopped. He could not afford to wonder why. He had to stay on task.
Like days before when he had attempted to check into the source tree, D_Light saw a graphical progress bar constantly apprising him of how much time he could expect the scan to continue. Like before, he felt tingling all over his body, experienced both audio and visual hallucinations, and felt countless fleeting emotions.
My Soul is yours to know. From somewhere under the folds of his mind, the words “ God is love, God is love, God is love… ” echoed.
And then, finally, the tingling stopped.
The OverSoul is pleased to grant you access at this time. Based on your scan, you will require approximately two minutes to complete your transaction, after which point you will be logged out. Please begin your transaction in three…two…one…
D_Light plunged into the source tree, the code and data repository that made up the Game. There was no time to waste. Quickly, he found Lily’s profile. From what he could tell, the reserve from which she had escaped did not want her reported as missing. He did not take the time to ponder why. Within her detailed profile, he zoomed in on the following data fields:
Organism ID: Homo sapiens #4038430298 (camper)
Aliases: Anastala, Lily, Talashia, Cave_Girl111
Status: Demon
Level: N/A
D_Light changed the data to the following:
Organism ID: Human
Alias: Built_4_Love
Status: Player
Level: 63
He thought it best to give her a relatively low level since she was such a nOOb and would attract attention with a level not commensurate with her experience. He then fine-tuned a few more fields of her profile to make sure she was complete.
Oh, and this newborn will need something to start off with, he realized.
D_Light then transferred all of his own deedable points over to Built_4_Love. With this last task complete, he was forcibly logged off. The gatekeeper software had indeed predicted the time of his task to within a few seconds.
D_Light now ran for the repellant, and as he did so he felt great happiness and relief. It was as though he had just shed lead shoes he had been encumbered with all his life. He felt like he was flying-not flying as a man aided by a machine, but as a man buoyed up by his very soul. She was safe. He had made things right. This was his atonement; his prayer had been fulfilled. It was the first time in his long life that he did not feel alone.
The final moments of D_Light’s life came not as a flood of memories that rushed passed his eyes, but rather as a movie scene played in slow motion. There was Lily, glowing in the light of the midday sun. She was moving toward him ever so slowly, a blue vial clenched firmly in her hand. Her eyes were wide with terror and her mouth formed a scream.
When D_Light heard the culler dashing up behind him, its clawed limbs ripping and battering the soft soil beneath its feet, he was not afraid, nor did he turn to look back. Instead, he kept his eyes fixed on Lily as long as he was able.
CHAPTER 35
My prayer has been answered! The OverSoul, in her mercy, has both brought my lamb back to me and performed a miracle! Now human, she can join my family as a free player. Lily is good. She is loyal to those she loves. She is intelligent and sensitive. I know this because she, along with her line, was designed this way-my greatest and, I dare say, most shameful creation.
— Excerpt from Dr. Monsa’s journal, “Musings of an Immortal”
Witnessing D_Light’s death would be the last real trauma Lily, known legally as Built_4_Love, would experience for more than one hundred years. She had been running back toward D_Light with the precious blue bottle. She could see the culler bearing down on him with lightning speed, but when it caught up, she was still too far off to do anything but watch. Her knees began to buckle, and her first impulse was to shield her eyes from the horror, but instead, she found herself charging the beast with wild abandon. She thrashed about, screaming at the top of her lungs, punching her determined fists into hard muscle and bones.
Intent on its meal, the creature at first ignored her. But in a short while, having sated the worst of its hunger, it then snorted at Lily-not in fear, but in disgust of the repellant emanating from her pores-and scampered off.
Jacob marched through the inner sanctum swiftly enough to consider time, but without the undue energy costs of flight. Not long after entering the garden, three cullers charged from all sides in a coordinated attack. Jacob, having confirmed that the cullers were private property and not carrying modern weapons, decided to wait until they were only a few meters from him so he could
be absolutely certain they meant him harm. Although it was unlikely that the cullers were capable of actually damaging Jacob, the angel nevertheless took the protective measure of detonating a bomb just above his own head. The concussion and heat of the blast fell well below the material threshold of Jacob’s nanofiber armor; however, the bomb detonation exhaled the cullers as raggedy, burning body parts.
Aside from this minor obstacle, there was no resistance to his investigation of the inner sanctum. Dr. Monsa presented Jacob with the evidence-four corpses consisting of one product and three humans. It was confirmed that all four of the deceased were demons guilty of aiding and abetting yet another demon. However, curiously, Jacob could not call up any records of who the missing demon was. He decided to do a sweep of the area.
That’s your target, you stupid tool! Katria sent her thought to the angel as high priority.
She couldn’t believe it. That blond bimbo bitch demon was standing there not three meters away and the damn machine insisted that she was human-that she was a player of “no interest to law enforcement.”
Check again! ordered Katria. She then spent the required points to get the Tool to do another visual, seismographic, and DNA scan on the girl.
She is the one. She has to be! Katria screamed in her mind.
After the second round of scans came back negative, Katria tried to get a third scan, at which point the angel terminated the blink and sent a generic error message. We apologize, but you are unworthy of access at this time.
“Fucking computers!” Katria shouted, startling a fellow player passing by on the otherwise tranquil path of the nectar orchard.
The final oranges and pinks streaked across the sky as the counterfeit sun set once again. Nocturnal photoflowers began to glow as their petals slowly unwrapped, lighting up the gardens below. Dr. Monsa smiled crookedly in the glow of dinner candles, as he always did, while the first course was served. The nightly ritual had begun.
“So, Daughter, if you wanted to become a god, how would you go about it?” By now Lily could expertly read her father’s misshapen expressions. He asked the question with pleasure. She knew that the doctor enjoyed nothing more than good food and a stimulating conversation with his “lambs.”
“To become a god, I’d want a monopoly on violence,” answered Sara, the doctor’s first concubine, from across the table.
“Yes, Sara,” replied the doctor, “although I wouldn’t say the OverSoul has a monopoly on violence. Nonetheless, she certainly does have a monopoly on the most effective violence, thanks to her modern weapons.”
“Ability to bestow everlasting life,” the priest offered.
“Yes, the flipside of effective violence is mastery over regenerative medicine. So let’s just lump those two together as godlike power over life and death. What else?” the doctor asked.
“Effective rulership,” Love_Monkey proposed confidently while glaring at Sara. “Provide an effective economic and religious framework under which subjects feel fulfilled and secure.”
The doctor nodded. “Right, through the Game you gain both. What else must our god do?”
“Prayer fulfillment,” BoBo fired.
“Oh, I’d squirrel that away with effective rulership. Prayers, as well as more mundane wants, are fulfilled by playing the Game well.”
“It’s distinct, Daddy!” BoBo protested.
“No, it’s part of the Game,” the doctor countered. “It was the Game that fulfilled my prayer for one of my Star Sisters to return to me. Hal can show you the night harvesting archives-”
“No, I will not!” Hal interrupted. “Those are classified. Only one designated analyst per major house is given that security clearance.”
“But you gave it to D_Light.” The doctor smiled crookedly.
“What I gave to that man resulted in my security credentials being revoked!” Hal started to choke. “My successor has learned from my mistake and will not repeat it!”
“Oh, and which one of your baldy lab friends has the mantle now?” BoBo asked.
“That’s classified too,” Hal retorted. “And night harvesting is a myth. Nothing more.”
BoBo’s mouth dropped open in mock surprise. “I didn’t know analysts could lie! Daddy, Hal must be a reject. We should sell him immediately!”
“Oh no, Hal is my favorite, and I like that he lies. It comes in handy sometimes.” The doctor clasped Hal by the arm, bending a tube in the process, which caused the analyst to wince.
“Okay,” the doctor said, “so we have power over life and death and effective rulership-”
“And prayer fulfillment,” BoBo added.
“Whatever,” the doctor said with a dismissive gesture.
“Yeah, whatever, Daddy. Send me the points! Prayer fulfillment lends credibility to the godhead. A god who does not answer prayers is not godlike.”
“All right already, and prayer fulfillment,” the doctor conceded wearily. “What else?”
“Omnipotent knowledge of one’s subjects, also done through night harvesting.” BoBo’s voice was excited.
“Very well,” the doctor said without enthusiasm.
“Yes, that’s two for me!” BoBo squealed.
“So you’ve given me four pillars of godhood. Give me another,” the doctor commanded.
The table was silent for a few long seconds.
“Lily?” the doctor asked.
“The ability to learn,” she answered without looking up from her plate.
“ Really? ” The doctor’s one eyebrow rose. “Now why would the mind of a god, presumably perfect, require learning?”
“Because change is a constant,” replied Lily. “Even if, theoretically, a mind could be made perfect for the conditions of today, sooner or later even God would need to change.”
“Fine then. How would she learn?” the doctor shot back.
Love_Monkey interjected with a confident tone, “Thanks to night harvesting, our collective consciousness is part of the OverSoul, and the Game is shifting all the time. That should provide change enough.”
The doctor frowned. “It is true that much change is done through this means, but the OverSoul has a core mind aside from the Game and its participants.”
“Core mind?” Love_Monkey inquired.
“Yes, most intelligent beings have a core mind-basic values, habits, and the like-which does not change easily. It makes up our personality and acts as the principle guide for our actions and beliefs. Likewise, the OverSoul has a core mind, although it might be better referred to as its ‘core tenets’ or ‘core rules.’”
“But,” interrupted Love_Monkey, “if I understand the nature of the OverSoul, she is not actually a single being, but a collection of billions of agents, ourselves included.”
“Like the Holy Trinity of old Catholicism-multiple entities that also represent the One?”
“That may be a stretch, BoBo,” the doctor replied with a chuckle. “However, I believe the overall design of the OverSoul was indeed inspired by Christianity. Hardly surprising since it was the most widespread religion before the OverSoul. If economics and religion are the foundations of society as Marx and Weber asserted, respectively, so long ago, then the OverSoul has her bases covered.”
The doctor popped a steamed silkweed roll into his mouth, chewed loudly, swallowed, and then said, “In any case, it is important for the OverSoul to have a core mind. Without it, imagine a deity with a rapidly oscillating personality.”
“The definition of anarchy!” BoBo exclaimed.
“Correct, but at the same time her mind could not be static. The OverSoul was designed to ‘scale.’ In this context that means to adapt to social and technological change over millennia.” The doctor washed down the sentence with a gulp of nectar wine.
Love_Monkey pointed a small index finger at her father. “But as you already said, such change is risky. To change the core mind is to change the personality. What if the core mind was changed to that of a psychotic tyrant? I mean, how do
es it know right from wrong? Even human ethics shift over time.”
Lily fielded the question. “The OverSoul needs human beings to teach her,” she said. “That is why D_Light was able to access the source tree. The deep scan revealed that his intentions were derived from…” Lily paused momentarily and then finished her sentence in the gentlest of whispers. “From love.”
The doctor’s wine-stained lips parted into a smile of satisfaction. “Yes, and there she mimics Christianity again-‘God is Love’-perhaps the core belief of Christianity. And although it may not yet be possible for the OverSoul to directly experience love as humanity thinks of it, she can detect such love in a subject’s brain signature using a deep scan.”
Love_Monkey was skeptical. “Haven’t you heard of a ‘love-struck fool’? You’re telling me this is how the OverSoul evolves personality? If so, it’s a wonder we haven’t all been obliterated or worse by now.”
BoBo laughed. “Yeah, if love was running the show, then every day would be Valentine’s Day by divine law!”
“And we would have to kiss everything we see, even things that aren’t cute,” Love_Monkey added.
“And constantly wear pink,” Curious_Scourge chimed in.
The jokes ceased as Hal, the analyst, pounded the table as hard as his feeble muscles would allow while shouting for them to stop.
After they all had quieted, the doctor said, “Yes, yes, early phases of romantic love are biochemically very close to some forms of mental illness.”
“The deep scan takes that into account!” the analyst screeched, desperately wanting the tedious dialogue to end so he could resume his work. “In order to gain direct access to the core mind, your brain signature must fall within specific parameters. Please, this conversation is pointless. May I return to my calculations?”
The doctor ignored the question. “Hal is correct, you can’t just be ‘sporting a chubby,’ as they used to say, and change the mind of a god. By ‘love’ I’m not necessarily referring to romantic love. I’m referring to a purity of purpose, clarity of mind, and an altruistic intent.”
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