The conversation with Hades, mediated by Athena, lasted only a few minutes. That was all of the time that Walker could stand his presence. He wasn’t, all told, a bad guy. For being the figurative devil of Greek mythology, Hades was surprisingly straightforward and honest-almost to a level that Walker could respect. But then he’d call Walker a juvenile name, or go off about some standout adventurer doing something shitty to his life from a time long ago, and Walker would remember why he didn’t like the Primigenial.

  But it didn’t mean he wouldn’t work with him. Walker firmly believed that being an adult meant accepting your responsibilities, and Hades was one of his.

  They finished up with a promise that the god of the underworld would stay in the tower, and then Walker pulled up his overlay. He tried not to look at the timer for the next battle as he learned where Virgil had gone off to. A quick portal and a shouted, “Finally!” from a former Creator, then Walker was into it.

  Virgil explained that Mirail’s runes and crystal worked together to allow for a great amount of utility variation. The structure of the crystal wasn’t too dissimilar to the cameras Ulysses had given him before the Conservatory events began. But the major difference was that when the Omniversal crystal broke, it stayed broken; whereas with Mirail’s crystal, once the runes were set, it would naturally repair itself by absorbing any un-runed crystal around it.

  Virgil demonstrated as much by shattering a crystal finger sharpened into a dagger. Picking up a piece, he rolled it across an un-runed grouping of crystals, and Walker got to watch as the longer he rolled it, the more whole it became.

  “Of course, we would need a large amount of crystal for any of my plans to work.”

  “What plans would those be?” Walker asked as Mirail broke off another hand with a crack, throwing it into an already large pile on the side.

  “It turns out that Mirail was working on a spacecraft shortly before the third battle. As you have inherited all of his resources, it seems that you have also taken command of his ship. It is all waiting for you in a near-completed state.”

  “Wait, for real?”

  “Indeed. Mirail, would you be so kind as to tell him why I find this so exciting?”

  “It’s a spaceship, man. Why wouldn’t that be exciting?” Walker asked with a huge grin, only marred for a moment as another ping from his overlay told him that Ulysses had sent another message. He ignored it as the crystal man spoke.

  “Your Supreme Assistant has informed me that you have a magical permanence system to create what you call, items,” He said the last word with a shitty expression, “But you cannot duplicate biological entities, which technically my crystal is categorized as.”

  “But,” Virgil prompted.

  “But, when the runes on the spacecraft are complete, which is a very complicated process, by the way, and will take me quite a bit of time to put-”

  “But,” Virgil prompted a second time, causing Mirail to scowl at him.

  “But, when the runes are complete, the crystal will harden and enter a non-biological state. If you want it to, that is. And then-”

  “And then we can make copies of it.” Virgil finished for him with a smile.

  “Hah! Fucking cool!”

  Walker’s little solar system was about to get a big, spacelike upgrade. “Can you make more than ships? Can the crystal be grown separately than-” He waved at Mirail as he broke another arm off,” this gross way?”

  The former Creator shook his head, “Not that I am aware of, no.”

  Due to the contract and since he didn’t show any kind of an uncomfortable reaction, Walker believed him. Still. If they could use the crystal to build other things, even buildings, they might be able to use Mirail to build space stations. Walker could be looking at the-

  “Wait a second, I have access to your entire genetic code,” Walker said aloud after breaking his train of thought.

  “And?”

  “Ah-” Virgil nodded, “I will start immediately.”

  “Thanks, man. You get what I’m asking for, right? That new-”

  “Yes, yes. You want me to extract the crystal aspect from the Cerulean line and create a new modification. Then, I will implant it into the new planets you received, which naturally grow ore so we may consistently gather the material without overworking ourselves. It is an ingenious plan, Creator.”

  Walker had not been thinking that at all. His plan was to modify the Ceruleans so they shed the crystals naturally and then plant a bunch of them into one of the planets. Outloud, however, he said, “Yep. Thanks again.”

  “You are very welcome. This is quite exciting!” Virgil said with a little hop, “Ah, also. I believe I’ve solved your problem with Luck’s Haven.”

  “Alright, shoot.”

  “I believe we should do a lottery.”

  “A lottery? As in…wait, I don’t get it. What do you mean?”

  “Take a look at your temporal resources.”

  Walker did and noticed something strange. It was constantly going up fast enough for him to track it. “What the fuck?”

  “That is income from Luck’s Haven. As the owner of the planet, you are naturally siphoning accrued resources, something that should not occur in the midst of the Alpha Protocol but is happening due to the unnatural manner in which you acquired the planet. You should also now have the coordinates for their portals.”

  Walker had the coordinates for all of the Multiverse’s portals, but nobody needed to know that, even Virgil. “Okay. Wait, Temporal resources are new. What did they use before?”

  “The Evolvers were using a now-defunct credit system.” A crack rang out as Mirail removed another hand, “It was easily corruptible and not policed well. Thus, Temporal resources were a large upgrade, though I doubt their value has been properly weighed.”

  Better than trusting a credit system run by assholes.

  Walker shifted the conversation back, “So why have a lottery?”

  Virgil paused for a moment, something he almost never did in conversation. Walker paid special attention to what he said next, “Think of it this way, Walker. You are down on your luck in a world that tells you currency is what’s important. That everything you have ever wanted in life is related to what is in your wallet. That where you are born and the wealth you are born with, matters more than what you do with your life. That it is nobody’s problem except those unlucky ancestors who came before you.”

  “Jesus.” Walker replied in shock, “It can’t really be that bad there.”

  “Oh no, it can. Titles are inherited. Real estate is inherited. To a large degree, jobs are inherited too.”

  Walker turned to the Cerulean, patiently waiting for his hand to grow back, “Is that really what it’s like?”

  “More or less.” He nodded, “It has been that way since I was young. We’re taught that your birth is the single most important thing about you. I believe-”

  “It is.” Virgil confirmed, cutting off a glaring Mirail.

  “Well, fuck. So, the lottery. How would we do it?”

  “You send a message to Luck’s Haven, offering those who live there a way off the planet. Let them know the new world will be difficult, that it is not a paradise, but that anyone who comes will have the opportunity to grow. Write up one of your big speeches. Tell them that the world they know is not every world. That there are places out there where economic bondage does not exist. At least not yet.”

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  “Not ever, if I can help it,” Walker said as he pressed a fist into his palm.

  “Indeed.”

  Walker scratched his chin, “How are we going to process all of these people? And how many do we take? If I make a system and attach it, it could cause problems with the Protocol if they realize what we’re doing.”

  “I…” Virgil palmed his face, “We could use assistants to manage everything, process applications, and decide on the best way of accepting them.”

  “It would solve my placement issue with all the folks we got from the Grand Auction if we mix them all together. Plus, I could seed a few new genera we’ve picked up. Create one large, non-human area.”

  “Please remember, those you initially place will not have kernels. You will want to produce enough similar entities that kernels will naturally produce. We will also have to keep a close eye on our guests to make certain sporadic magical evolution does not occur.”

  “Yeah, I remember. It’s not like I can ever forget something again,” Walker said with a smile.

  Virgil shook his head, “Remembering and actively focusing on it are two different things, Walker. You are not omniscient.”

  Walker shrugged, “Never said I was.”

  “Are you thinking of the Warclaws?”

  “Yeah. And the dragons, Wildkin, hell, even the Ceru-”

  “You have Warclaws?” Mirail burst out as he cracked another hand off, “Why would you ever seed those idiots near a civilization? Just build up their numbers and throw them at your enemies.”

  “Our enemies are the Evolvers themselves,” Virgil calmly stated, “and, potentially, the Awakened.”

  “Both?”

  Walker noticed the look Virgil gave him, and he agreed with the sentiment. They’d talked a lot about the two factions during the displacement, as well as nailing down what their overall goal was during the protocol.

  Escape.

  Walker didn’t want to enter an eternal war against what looked like a battle between supremacy-minded zealots and entitled rich kids with god complexes. It would be neverending. As much as he hated the Evolvers, from what he’d seen of Kwaya and what he now understood of the Awakened, they weren’t much better. The only options he could see were to use a multiversal nuke on both factions, wiping out trillions of people who hadn’t done him any harm, or run away. So, he chose the far easier option.

  He took a knee next to the Cerulean, “I mean to get us out of here. The moment the Alpha Protocol ends, when our chains are removed, we’re going to leave. I’m going to pack up all of my shit here and go. The people, the systems, everything we’re using is mine now. I’m not going to leave a single thing behind. I want it all.”

  “But where will you go?”

  “I’ve got a place. It’s small now, but it’ll get bigger,” Walker said with a grin. He then typed in a quick message, knowing what Mirail would see.

  -System Message

  I’m not fucking around

  “That’s you!” Mirail screamed as he slid back, falling on his not-yet-recovered arm.

  “It hasn’t always been, but yah. I’m the guy now.” Walker stood up, still looking down at the Cerulean, “And you’re not going to say a word about this to anyone, do you understand.”

  Mirail didn’t respond, and Walker didn’t need him to. He looked at Virgil, “How many assistants do you think we’ll need?”

  Virgil sighed, “At least a dozen. Likely twice that if we want to move expeditiously.”

  Walker tsk’d, “I’m going to need a few more than that to help me manage all of the new systems we have. Don’t forget I grabbed a few during the auction, from the third battle, and Rimi sent me a message a few days ago asking for more help with his lore system idea.”

  “The one where the milestone system interacts with the communication system to create a background on every object and entity?”

  “A long description for lore, but yeah. He was doing it by hand before, but even with all of his under-assistants, it’s way-way too much work now. He figured we could use the tracking system and interconnect it with everything else. It’s got merit.”

  Virgil nodded, “Indeed it does.”

  “So…” Walker said expectantly, looking at his friend.

  Virgil sighed.

  All told, forty new assistants joined Sonata and headed off to orientation. When the first came out, Mirail screamed at the confused plaid squirrel. He screamed even louder when it asked if he was its Creator.

  Two more notifications rolled in while he’d waited for Virgil to recover. It seemed like the Egyptian Primordial’s tasks would be completed much faster than expected, putting some extra pep into Walker’s step.

  He gave Virgil some more instructions on what he’d like the large squirrel to work on at the moment. As his oldest assistant was the only one with access to the Landmass system, he was also the only one who could build new ones without Walker needing to be there. Some tests done during the displacement showed that Virgil’s skills were far beyond Walker in that field…and many others.

  As such, he asked Virgil to create a new multi-tiered hexagon that would allow the non-humans their own place to call home. By creating seven hexagons with one central landmass and leaving out the barriers they’d done in the past, Walker’s mix of genera would be free to develop societies that would best fit them within unique environments. One where biomes could interact in a more natural way than the territories currently could.

  It would be the single largest landmass on Symphony. Distance-wise, when asked, Virgil said it would be close to the mass of the United States. As a rather patriotic person for his homeland, Walker appreciated the sentiment.

  When Virgil pointed out that this was the same process he’d initially started with, and that he might be backsliding a bit, Walker told him to shut up.

  Sending a few last-minute messages to Rimi on his new grouping of Assistants, he told Virgil he’d take care of Mirail’s landmasses the moment he returned. When asked about where he was going, he simply gave a wink.

  As he began to walk away, an enormous black hand touched his shoulder.

  “One last thing before you go, Walker,” Virgil said in a serious tone.

  “Yes?”

  “Have you looked at the Conductor system yet?”

  “To be honest, no,” Walker scratched the back of his head, “I haven’t had time with everything that’s happened since the third battle.”

  Virgil nodded, “Please do. When I looked through it, my mind traveled back to what you had said when first returning from Ulysses. This could be something very important going forward.”

  “Isn’t it just a system copier? Why would that be important? We can just make new ones when we need to.”

  “That is true, but when the Protocol sacrificed Mirail’s copy ability into it, I believe it changed the parameters of what the system can affect. Please look when you can.”

  Not one to take Virgil’s advice lightly, Walker nodded, “Alright, I will. Thank you.”

  “You are welcome.”

  Walker left the room, the sound of cracking crystal fading behind him. He made a few stops, Virgil’s reminder about sacrificed abilities rattling around in his head. As he ascended the tower, Walker pulled Neus aside, asking about the changes to the Territory system after the Monitor ability was sacrificed.

  Since the protocol changes had included merging the Identify ability into the Monitor ability before it was sacrificed, Walker had no idea what effect that might have. The green squirrel looked like he was going to vibrate through the floor as he told his Creator about what happened.

  “Every Territory holder now has a giant screen! It’s allowing those who already have Territory command centers to fully display everything to their people rather than forcing them to describe what they see. From the number of citizens within their region to how many notes they earn daily. It’s fascinating!”

  Walker nodded and with a simple, “Neat, thanks.” He moved on.

  Maybe not everything they do is shitty.

  He stopped a few more times to say hi to some of the assistants he rarely spoke with, making sure they still felt like they were important to the Symphonic mission.

  Athena grabbed him for a quick smooch in a darkened area where nobody would likely find them. Of course, the tower knew what they were doing, but it wasn’t really alive to judge. Before she left, Walker had her help him craft the Lottery message they’d be sending out. It took more time than he’d expected, but when it was done, he sent it off to Virgil, who agreed with the sentiments within.

  Walker tapped into the Broadcast ability; it was something he hadn’t had since first sacrificing it to empower the Milestone system, but with Mirail’s loss came his gain. He sent it out across the entirety of Luck’s Haven, ignoring the fact that those only visiting would see it. Walker informed Virgil of what he’d done, ignoring the fact that he’d just messaged literally more people than had ever lived on the Earth, and then began ascending to the series of doors at the top of the tower.

  “Fourty-two” He said after arriving, giving the password for the day, then waited for everything to open up.

  Stepping through, Walker found himself floating in the Ulysses universe.

  Immediately, a portal appeared, space hardening behind him to shove him through, and Walker found himself standing in Ulysses’s white metaphysical space.

  “Haven’t you gotten my messages!” His part yelled out, several appearing around Walker to cross their arms and glare at him.

  “Uh, yah. Sorry about that.”

  The main part threw his hands in the air, “I’m starting to really get into the good stuff on that Guide token. Some of the systems they use are crazy! Even I don’t understand how they work.”

  “Really?

  “Yes!” The other parts disappeared as the main took a deep breath. “Now, what can I do for you?”

  “I need a section of your body for some experiments, and I’m a little worried that things may get out of control, so I’ll want it sealed up tight.”

  “Experiments? I’m guessing this has to do with strands?”

  “Yep, I need to test out a few that could be pretty volatile, like when we first built,” He waved his hands around, “Well…you.”

  “I see,” Ulysses took a second, then replied, “What’s in it for me? You know the rules; this is outside of our agreement.”

  “I do indeed, and I have an idea of what you might like.”

  Walker tapped into his inventory. With the push of a button, a large floating sphere appeared. One that held multiple civilizations, including his Jellies.

  “How would you like to be a Jelly farmer?”

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