As Pandora flew south she noticed a directional indicator in her vision with a timer imbedded in it. As she flew in over the outskirts of London she noticed that swarms of various demi-humans were running up and down the streets as humans looked out from windows. Luckily it looked like there was some form of order in place and none of the demi-humans were attacking anyone, though a few were being ushered along by the points of some very sharp spears and swords.
As Pandora slowed down and flew over the city she found out why. Portions of the city looked like they had been magically converted to farmland which were growing crops and raising livestock with nearby structures that did not look like they belonged on Earth. They were more reminiscent of the structures found on her mother's home planet Primore and had a more medieval architecture and feel to them.
The humans were being rounded up and led to these farms where she could see many of them working in fields as they were directed by Goblins, Gnolls, Orcs, and even other humans. On the outskirts of each farm, some giants, 15 to 20 feet humanoids, were walking around and looked to be watching over the farms as well as keeping the slave labor in line. One of the giants looked up, saw her, and then waved. Pandora waved back. There was no reason to be antisocial at this point.
Pandora followed her waypoint arrow until she was over City Node and transformed back into her human form. As she touched the ground she activated Kinetic Absorption to negate her impact and looked around at the group of demi-humans that had seen her fly up and transform.
A small goblin with red glowing eyes looked at Pandora before he asked in demonic, “Who are you?”
Pandora was slightly surprised that she understood the language and then realized that she hadn’t understood the language exactly. It had been close enough to a few other languages that she was able to decipher the language. She also knew that she hadn’t heard enough of the language to be able to speak it yet so she chose to respond in Draconic.
“I am Pandora, and you are?”
Without missing a beat, the possessed Goblin responded in draconic, “I am Zax, and again, what are you doing?”
Before Pandora answered, all 21 of her orbs ejected from her body and began circling her in a defensive pattern as she looked around the small garden she’d dropped into. Along each wall a half-ogre stood, relaxed and not moving. There were also two humans in black robes with dark red trim behind the goblin. The area looked extremely well-defended. Fortunately, Thor’s memories and incorporation into herself gave her everything she needed to handle this situation. Pandora reached out through her nanites and took control of the portal devices back in Scarborough, determined the exact coordinates of the Half-Ogres, and prepared.
“I’ve brought you a gift?” Pandora said.
“A gift?” Zax repeated.
“Yes, a gift,” Pandora said as she pulled out the clear box that contained Lord Charr’s head.
A look of shock marked Zax’s face as he opened his mouth at which point the four half-ogres fell through holes that had opened up directly beneath them. The sudden yelps that came from four sides of the room caused Zax to pause before he could yell out which gave Pandora all the time she needed to shoot her Absolute, also known as her Heavenly or holy, Orb into Zax’s mouth, which still hung open. Absolute was the Opposite of Putrescence as Hellish was the opposite of Heavenly. Pandora had expected a reaction but was caught by surprise when the glowing red energy in Zax’s eyes seemed to be sucked out before the orb exploded and the top of the goblin's head disintegrated as black blood sprayed out and covered the two humans and her.
One of the humans recovered quickly and cast a lance of sickly green energy at Pandora which her Orb of Putrescence moved to intercept and absorbed. At that moment doors into the garden exploded open as a mass of demi-humans rushed in with weapons drawn. Pandora would not be…Calm settled over Pandora as memories flowed into her and a way forward presented itself. Faster than could be followed Pandora split equally into 10 full copies of herself that equally distributed her attributes. Instead of having 100,000 in each attribute, she had just over 10,000 in each attribute for each of her 10 bodies. And they were her 10 bodies. She was seeing simultaneously through 10 sets of eyes.
For a moment she was worried about being able to control each body with so many sensations coming into her mind but the sensations fell away as her point of view shifted back and felt more like she was looking at 10 video screens as she became an overseer of 10 distinct consciousnesses, one for each body. She could still feel, hear, taste, touch, and smell everything each body experienced which could have overloaded her senses but with her primary consciousness in an overseer mode, she had no problem maintaining control. Pandora had each clone of herself activate Mold Chaos and equip themselves with basic blades made of Adamantium so they could hold up to her strength. Then she commanded the 10 clones to explode into action.
Thor had Adam’s memories. Part of that memory set was knowledge and experience in each common weapon and fighting technique known on Earth, Primore, and many other worlds. While her skill level within this SYSTEM was non-existent she started with various weapon techniques and went to work. As she did so she would expend the Skill Point to lock the skill in at Common Level 1. Which would be returned when she reached skill level 2 within 4 attacks using the same style.
How fast she was leveling her skills didn’t matter to anyone in the room or the side rooms when she exploded out of it. One of Pandora’s bodies reached out and touched the City Node to assume control of it while the other nine continued their attacks. She deactivated the Safe Zone concerning anything except Monster Spawning. If the demi-humans were all transported away she’d have to chase after them. No, it would be much easier for her to have a little fun here and get in as many kills as she could. This was a target-rich environment after all.
Almost immediately Pandora realized that even though she’d divided herself into 10 parts those parts were still too powerful for the creatures she was facing. Also, she was activating and locking in a lot of skills which, while not one of her immediate goals was acceptable. Pandora relied on the guidance of Thor's memories and Caspa's encouragement which she could still feel, even if they weren’t able to talk when combined like this and changed things up. She had three of her current clones take up defensive positions around the London City Node and had the other seven bodies divide into 10 more each. Each of those bodies had attributes at just over 1,000. Another quick application of Mold Chaos by each clone to create a weapon and 70 armed copies of Pandora began pushing the tide of demi-humans back out of the enclosed garden the City Node was in.
One thing she had the new clones do was switch up their weapon choice. In this way, Pandora was able to unlock and skill up multiple weapons, skills, and fighting styles at the same time. As her fighting force spread out the three copies of herself at the City Node released chaotic nanites which cleaned up the dead demi-humans that littered the area. The nanites broke down any biological matter they came across and left any magical items alone.
For the next hour, Pandora spread out around the palace. Her 70 bodies were just a little above normal instead of being significantly more powerful. Each could only attack 10 times per Combat turn without burning through their individual stamina but that didn’t matter much. If she needed it, she had plenty of Chaos to convert into Stamina so that she could move as fast as her perception would allow her to keep up. If a large opponent appeared multiple clones would attack it and take it down as quickly as possible.
There was a slight disconnect between the three bodies she had guarding the city node and the other 70 but it wasn’t anything she couldn’t deal with. It seemed that her core mentality still had her full capabilities in this Triumvirate state. Once she had the Palace cleared and her bodies had started to spread out into the streets to take on the various demi-humans that were still trying to rush toward the palace Pandora decided it was time to try change things again.
Pandora released the Triumvirate state and felt the overseer portion of her focus drop into her Mindspace as her clones continued doing what they were doing. It seemed that they did have some autonomy after all. She could still feel her link to all of her bodies even as her focus drifted into her Mindspace where Caspa and Thor stood waiting for her.
“It seems that you have an innate understanding of going multiple,” Thor observed.
“I’m pretty sure that’s our chaotic nature, “Caspa said.
“Yeah, when I created the clones it felt more like chaos was splitting off from me,” Pandora explained.
“I’m going to take a look and see if I can control them. Why don’t you check our notifications while I do that,” Thor said as he expanded out of her Mindspace and took over the overseer role for the clones.
“What are you going to do,” Pandora asked Caspa.
Caspa smiled, “Well, you splitting off into 73 copies of yourself gave me an idea. Is there any reason we can’t create more copies of the Wizard Orbs now that they’re a part of you?”
“I don’t think….” Pandora started to say and then paused and thought about it. Was there any reason she couldn’t? The orbs were recreated with chaos and she had a lot of chaos. Pandora smiled wryly, “You know what, I don’t think there is. If the form and function are imprinted in me and I can duplicate myself, we should be able to duplicate the orbs.”
“That’s what I was thinking. I’m going to go join Thor and see if I can do something,” Caspa said.
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“Just remember that Chaos only returns slowly or with Chaos Conversion, try not to use it all up,” Pandora said.
“Use it all up, you know how much chaos is tied up within us. We should be fine,” Caspa said. “Besides, how long do you think it would take to recover that much chaos?” Caspa asked.
Pandora just sighed and said, “Longer than would matter.
Caspa laughed and then expanded out of her Mindspace. Pandora did as well just to see if she could.
Pandora’s focus moved into a role that was similar to the Overseer role she’d had when she was controlling all of her clones. While she wasn’t controlling the clones she felt that she could talk to Thor or Caspa if she wanted. As a silent watcher, Pandora felt Caspa start to conjure sets of 21 orbs out of her body. As Caspa did that, Pandora checked her Notifications.
You are conjuring a second set of Wizard Orbs. Each additional orb requires 10 points of chaos. The number of orbs that may be controlled at any one time is equal to your Willpower Attribute Bonus.
Note Chaos creating the orbs is not spent, it is tied up in each orbs creation. When the orb returns to your body, the chaos returns to your body. If the orb is lost or destroyed the chaos within is dispersed
Pandora read the notification and smiled as Caspa continued to pull forth one set of orbs after another. When she reached 238 sets of Wizard Orbs no more would come forth. This was true for each of the three clones still in the garden. Each Clone now had 4998 orbs orbiting them. Since they were so close together that meant all 14,994 Wizard Orbs for the three clones were orbiting above the clones in the garden. Caspa had left the other 70 clones alone while she tested the ability on herself but now she watched with interest.
Pandora’s attention was drawn to one of her clones on the outskirts of the palace as a huge demon dropped out of the sky and bisected her clone right down the middle of her body. The attack had come out of nowhere and caught Thor completely by surprise.
One of her other clones watched the winged Demon roar and then launch into the air and head toward the enclosed garden. Pandora felt Caspa smile as the winged demon came into sight and 714 Absolute Orbs redirected their movement and shot off at incredible speed into the demon. Each orb was a glowing white ball of holy energy that unerringly moved toward and struck the winged demon center mass.
The Absolute Wizard Orbs pierced into and through the demon as if it were tissue paper. They completely bypassed its defense and then started circling around and within the demon’s body like a mini tornado. In less than a combat turn a Demon Lord, probably a Major Demon Lord swelled and exploded.
One of Pandora’s other clones outside the Palace rushed up to Pandora’s fallen clones and absorbed the two pieces into itself. A moment later a new copy of Pandora emerged. It was kind of disturbing but good to know that the resources in her clones could be recovered and repurposed so easily.
The few humans left in the palace watched in awe as Pandora seemed to be everywhere at once. Her clones kept the demi-humans from rushing back into the palace. Any monster that did make it into the inner Garden where the City Node floated was decimated by the Wizard Orbs that were orbiting 10 feet off the ground and then cleaned up by the nanites that Pandora had in the area.
Pandora decided it was time to change things up. She focused on one of the three higher-level clones defending the City node and moved her focus to the body. As she did she could still feel that Thor was watching over all the other clones and Caspa was controlling the orbs which were still in the immediate area as her level increased and her range of control expanded.
While her skill levels were rising quickly, it was still going to be a while before she had the kind of range she wanted. Her clones could be controlled out to 2 miles and if followed its previous pattern…yep. At Advanced Level 1 the range extended out to 4 miles. That would allow her clones to blanket most of the city.
Pandora reached out and touched the City Node. She’d already claimed it, now she adjusted the Safe Zone. She created a whitelist that only included beings from this world, her friends and family, and her. Those on the whitelist would be immune to the Safe Zone, for now. She’d worry about instituting the Safe Zone for everyone who wasn’t family or friends when all of the demi-humans were out of the city.
One of Pandora’s other clones within the garden focused her eyes on the clone Pandora was controlling. She could feel Thor looking at her through the clone's eyes as he said, “We have incoming. 9 ships, a little bigger than the three we destroyed earlier. One is quite a bit closer; I think it was the one the demon came from.”
“Okay, I have a plan,” Pandora said. “Thor, have the 70 clones outside of the garden divide into 10 more clones each. Caspa, each of those clones should be able to control two sets of Wizard Orbs, have them create the Orbs, and then spread out evenly in all directions. Yes, they will be considerably weaker than these three clones but the Safe Zone is reinstated, they should be fine. The plan is to get the demi-humans to attack us so they’re teleported out of the Safe Zone. We’ll worry about cleaning them up later.” Pandora said.
The clone with Thor nodded as he sent the command to her other 70 clones which caused all of them to break apart into 10 clones. Compared to normal people, the clones were still 10 times as powerful as mortals with attributes at just over 100. Pandora watched as Thor had them spread out in all directions and provoked any demi-humans they ran into. One thing about all the knowledge that Thor had. He could belittle and aggravate verbally in a lot of different languages. When the demi-humans attacked, and they all did, they vanished for violating the Safe Zone.
As for the 9 ships, no attacks were made until they were almost overhead. As they drew closer a rain of arrows, hurled weapons, and spells fell out of the sky. Pandora watched as her Wizard Orbs rose from each of her clones and deflected all of the projectiles shot or hurled at them. Any spells were absorbed by an orb of the appropriate type or by a Chaos Orb if the three of them couldn’t tell what type of attack it was. Of course, once a spell was absorbed they knew what category the spell fell into which made picking the correct Orb for the absorption of that spell the next time much easier. If an orb was destroyed a new one emerged from a nearby clone.
As for the creatures that fired at them or cast a spell? Every one of them was ejected from the Safe Zone which halted the attacks raining down from the flying ships. After the rain of weapons and spells stopped, the ships floating above the city were left with the crew that was flying the ship and the commanders of each ship. On eight of the nine ships, a single 9-foot-tall, winged demon looked down at the city node. One of the demons roared and jumped which acted as a signal for the other seven to follow.
What happens when 44,380 orbs separate into eight groups of 5,547 and attack a demon as it’s gliding down to the ground? A thought floated through her mind from her father’s memories which had been directed at her by Thor; The same thing that happens to a pigeon that is hit by 100% of a shotgun shell with buckshot, it gets shredded.
If it hadn’t been so disturbing Pandora would have considered what happened to the demons to be beautiful. One moment there were eight very large beings rushing toward the ground, the next they’d been pierced by so many projectiles that they exploded into fleshy bits and black ichor.
Three portals opened above Pandora’s three clones in the enclosed garden. The opposite ends of the portals appeared over open areas in the enclosed garden. The rain of body parts and blood rained down onto the ground all around the three clones as any of the mess that fell from the sky passed through a portal and was deposited in one corner of the garden. The portals disappeared and the portals disappeared leaving the sky clear again. As Pandora watched the 9 ships started to turn and fly off to the west.
A swirling of nanites above Pandora’s head drew her attention as it morphed into a sleek and deadly-looking ship materialized out of the air. Thor had used Mold Chaos and then molded that chaos into a ship. The ship was left hovering above her three primary clones. Pandora’s clone housing Thor flickered and disappeared as he Shadow Stepped into the ship and rocketed after the 9 fleeing magical vessels. A 35th Century Interceptor versus 9 magical ships that resembled something Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic on. It wasn’t even a contest. Honestly, Thor could have shot them out of the sky from his hovering position but he decided to follow them until they were just passed the outer city wall and then shot them down. Thor activated the cloaking technology and brought the ship back to hover over the Garden.
For the next 10 minutes, the three of them tested the clones to figure out what they were capable of without direct control. As long as one of the three of them was in direct control of a clone or as an Overseer activated it directly, any clone could perform any ability, title, skill, or spell she had. Any of the costs associated with the ability, skill, or power used came directly from the clone in question. If the clone didn’t have the Stamina or Mana to act, it couldn’t.
Pandora allowed the 700 clones to run around and get attacked which continued to increase the range of her ability to control the clones exponentially. After one hour she’d already reached Advanced Level 5 and had a range of 12 miles that her clones could work within. If they stepped out of that range they faded rather quickly so she kept them within range of each other. Pandora thought that her clones were reducing the normal time it took to level a skill but she couldn’t be sure. After another hour she was sure they were helping. Triumvirate had ranked up 3 more skill levels to Advanced Level 8 and she now had a range of 17 miles.
As for the clones, none of them were controlling directly, they would continue to do what they were doing but had some free will and could react as they needed to. They just couldn’t use any powers, abilities, skills, or spells. They could call out very loudly through their link though, and they did. Once they figured out that the clones couldn’t use abilities unless one of them was controlling them or acting as an Overseer one of them was always in that role. Pandora let Thor and Caspa handle that while she remained in one of the three clones near the City Node.
Pandora didn’t get to level up many of her other combat skills because all she was doing was running around in 700 bodies and provoking the demi-humans into trying to attack her. When they did, they disappeared. As Nightfall approached Thor took one of the clones and the ship around the city and retrieved all of the other clones which rejoined his. When he returned to the ship to hover over the garden he down to the ground and rejoined with the last two clones there.
As Pandora returned to only one copy of herself she considered how she was going to protect the City Node from being taken.
Thor’s voice came into her mind, “You have that new Perk SYSTEM Node Access. Can you hide or dismiss the mode until you call it back out?”
Pandora smiled, maybe she wouldn’t have to protect it at all. She opened up her Status Screen and chose her SYSTEM Node Access Tab.
After looking over her choices for a moment she found two choices that would come in handy. The first was
Dismiss City Node – The City Node is removed from the Domain of the City and may only be activated or returned by someone with a skill that allows for SYSTEM interface access without Node functionality.
Disband City – The Current City is disbanded and the City Node is Destroyed. Once done this action cannot be reversed.
Pandora chose “Dismiss City Node.” The City node faded from sight and Pandora was left standing in the empty enclosed garden by herself. Now she needed to figure out what to do about that portal off to the west.
