Destroyer of Worlds, Part 2
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Last Time on Nexus:
Destroyer of Worlds, Part 1

Elli came from the state of Logos, which actually no longer needed a name. Because he was everywhere. And it was a utopia.

Diseases had been eradicated or were only an unimportant trifle, resources were endless, no one lived in poverty or starved. Mankind had left their planet and colonized whole galaxies and even other realities. In the process, they had claimed planets and even universes that would never have been thought to support life. Speed of light, entropy, relativity, conservation of energy, death and time were just pesky obstacles that had been overcome billions of years ago.

Elli, though one of their citizens, had been conceived as a scientist, a clone unit, a thing without a soul, with the sole purpose of acquiring knowledge of the world and increasing it. The human arm of powerful AIs that spent day and night thinking up new wonders, with herself destined to interpret and implement their findings for humans, for computers were too distrusted for their ability to empathize with humans. Consequently, as a mere object, she also bore no name, but only the identifier I773.

But contrary to what her creators believed, I773 possessed humanity despite her origins, because a fatal error had occurred during her creation due to a computer failure. The replacement of a single one by a zero had ensured that from an early age I773 felt empathy and curiosity. Her creators let her live only because she scored better than anyone else in quality control tests. She became a curiosity.

And so, in a small white cell in a cloning factory on a planet whose name was only a twenty-digit identification number, I773 learned more than a thousand times the knowledge that could fit in a normal human brain. Interpersonal relationships were something she was never taught, because clones, who by design lacked any sense of social justice anyway, were low in society. Everyone accepted that. Even the clones themselves, because those who didn't, even if unknowingly, were deemed defective while still in production and discarded. Like broken machines.

I773 made peace with her role. Through her reading of philosophical texts and the history books, she was even motivated to give her all to her creators. But she found interest above all in the stories of other worlds. Lower worlds that were nowhere near Logos' technological level. They fascinated her more than anything Logos had to offer her in the way of technological wonders. One day, she said to herself, she wanted to visit these worlds and meet the people who had such ingenuity that they were raising their peoples to ever new technological heights. Through the enthusiasm resulting from this dream, she far surpassed all previous products driven only by instinct.

I773 was purchased by Lawrence after reaching the age of fourteen, and she was assigned an apartment and an AI whose research results she was to review and evaluate.

This AI was called Nexus. An AI the size of a dwarf planet, with a computing power and capacity that exceeded all other AIs of the time by a factor of ten thousand.

This computer had been built to eradicate the only evil that still plagued Logos, the end of universes. Theirs was still about two hundred years in the future, but the government AIs with their human interpreters had decided to tackle this last frontier now, because who knew if there was not more hidden behind it.


I773, now nineteen years old, walked excitedly through the corridors of the administration building of Door, the space station that orbited Nexus. On Nexus itself, only a few humans and clones were allowed besides her, so the staff and their families were concentrated on this state-of-the-art station, which now included plenty of commerce as part of a trade route.

From a side corridor, Lawrence, her current supervisor, joined her. Like I773, he wore a white full-body suit, but his had the supervisors' logo on the chest, a circle with three arrows pointing in the center. I773, in compensation, wore a white coat as a sign of her function as a scientist.

"I773, you reported Nexus had made the breakthrough?" he asked.

"Yes, that's what he told me anyway. Protocol requires that at least one supervisor be present when Nexus presents his findings and has them interpreted."

"I know the protocol, and I'm still upset about my leftover lunch. Wait, did you do something to your lips?"

I773 grinned triumphantly.

"Yeah, why?"

Lawrence's critical look wiped the grin right off her face, though.

"I don't know, things are getting a little out of hand with your genetic changes," Lawrence said with a critical look at I773's suit, which by now was enduring quite a bit of tension in some strategic places. "You're a research clone, why are you trying to make yourself more attractive?"

"Well, the law dictates that a clone can also change its phenotype via genetic modification as long as it doesn't interfere with its intended use," the clone defended himself. "Besides, there's no law that prohibits clones from having fun with whomever they want."

Lawrence groaned in agony at the images she provoked.

"At least I only used them for my reality bending powers so I could improve far enough to mentally keep up with you research clones, but this…"

"As if you understand everything I tell you right off the bat."

"Don't push it, I773!"

She immediately fell silent.

They reached the portal generator, a ring-shaped apparatus that took them directly to the AI's mainframe.

The room containing Nexus' mainframe was a large white cube, big enough to house a sports stadium inside. A large black screen hung on one wall, with only a blue line visible at the moment.

"Hello Nexus," I773 greeted the computer. "You have something for us?"

Movement came into the line on the screen as Nexus began to speak in a mechanical and emotionless voice.

"Greetings, chief administrator. I have discovered a way to perpetuate the existence of our universes. Please observe."

The light in the room dimmed and a massive 3D projection of a galaxy appeared in the center.

"This galaxy, it is the Milky Way by the way, the home of your species-"

"May the galaxy rest in peace in its black hole," quipped I773.

Lawrence smacked her across the face.

"Can you shut up for once?"

"Ouch, shut up already…"

"-should be representative of a universe here. I have found out that universes possess a temporal moment of motion, which weakens more and more, until it fades and the universe ceases to exist as a logical consequence of it. From this temporal moment arise all past and future time universes on the temporal axis."

"Gigas over in the Hela galaxy could have figured that out, too," Lawrence grumbled.

I773 stifled her mockery for fear of more punches. Her computer was not that simple and basic.

"That statement is objectively correct," Nexus commented before continuing. "However, I believe that it is possible to strip other universes of their momentum in order to add it to ours."

A second galaxy approached the first from the right, collided with it, and stopped, while the other began to move, disappearing from view to the left.

"I have already prepared the appropriate schematics. I773, would you please?"

The image abruptly changed to a construction plan that looked chaotic to the layman. I773, however, recognized the beauty behind all the sketches and formulas.

"Oh, this is a reality accelerator. Genius!"

Lawrence, who as noted earlier was not quite on par with I773's intellect, frowned.

"I can see this thing accelerating something, but what?"

"It's accelerating fractions of the reality matrix and causing it to collide with itself. If that collision happens inside a spherical interreal portal to which a normal Xyank time accelerator has been added, then the time of the target universe is integrated into our reality. Emission-free."

"That thing is going to be huge, those are gigantic amounts of energy!" remarked Lawrence.

"Yep," replied I773, "We're going to have to build that one around a Dyson sphere."

"Forget the sphere, that's something for a test run, if we're going to mass produce this, we're going to need a whole solar system for this thing to have enough room."

"That's correct," Nexus confirmed.

"Hmm," I773 made anxiously. "Nexus, risk analysis!"

"The risk to our universe from standard operation by research clones is 7.7 x 10-25 percent. I've already written an analysis report."

"Sounds pretty safe, really," Lawrence muttered. "But it's so huge. Let's see if we can even get this approved…"


"The Lifeline Project is hereby approved," Lieutenant Shaw announced solemnly, to the assembled audience, all representatives of various involved agencies.

Shaw was a short-set man with a narrow face and military short haircut. It was he, along with the AI Judge, who had the final say in programs like these. Unlike Elli, he was one of the few real humans to whom an AI was subordinate. Clones were not entrusted with government tasks.

Cheers went up around I773 after this news. No one congratulated I773, who was sitting in the front row of the large hall; after all, one did not thank the dishwasher for cleaned cutlery. The applause was rather for Lawrence, who seemed very embarrassed. I773 did not mind. It was the norm for clones.

Besides, she was allowed to pick out a few test universes with a cosmoscope.

Her target was dead worlds, universes where life had never existed and where there was nothing of value. For those, less effort was needed.

Sometimes, however, she would stop to watch life grow, become intelligent, and create civilizations in other universes on a small, blue-green world far in the past. It warmed her heart.

But it also made her happy to see the first reality accelerator in history in action.

The piece of reality matrix was isolated in a null dimension that looked like a small, polished metal sphere from the outside. This was then shot at the speed of light through the accelerator, which was like a ring of planets around a sun completely enclosed by a dyson sphere, and collided as intended within a portal.

The result was a relatively anticlimactic "Flupp!" and the dead universe on the other side of the portal ceased to exist.

I773 itself performed the recalculations of the expected lifetime of the universe and came to a surprising conclusion. The expected time had been evenly distributed among all universes connected to this reality here with a portal, that is, I773's home reality thus received net only about one twenty-six millionth.

Still, a success was a success, because that meant that instead of several thousand such accelerators, you only had to build one and keep it running all the time.


"Impressive, really impressive," commended Lieutenant Shaw.

He was one of the few who had been allowed to enter Nexus, and he couldn't help but marvel as Lawrence gave him a cursory tour of the facility.

I773 was part of the facility, but was only humored for a short while.

"Nexus' findings have taken us a long way," Shaw mused after his tour in front of Nexus' mainframe. "So that we can also complete them as quickly as possible, we've decided to hook him up to the controls of the big accelerator until we build a suitable AI so he can resume his actual work as soon as possible. We've even picked out a few universes already. Nexus can control the machine, right?"

Shaw handed Lawrence some papers with a questioning look.

"Well, uh, I773?" he asked in I773's direction.

I773 took the papers from him, smiling.

"Nexus designed the machine, of course he can control it."

"That statement is correct," Nexus confirmed.

I773 skimmed the sheets, a list of universes to choose from, and faltered.

"Uh, lieutenant? May I speak?"

Shaw measured her appraisingly.

"I'm listening… I773 was the name, right?"

I773 nodded in confirmation.

"Sir, all the universes on this list contain intelligent life. Entire civilizations."

"Yes, of course," Shaw replied with a shrug. "The more complex the life, the more complex the processes predetermined by time. As I'm sure you know, time stretches and multiplies as the number of processes that must occur simultaneously within it increases. Ergo, we have more to gain from harvesting universes in which as many biological and artificially added processes as possible will take place, don't you think?"

I773 thought about this for a moment and with a sinking feeling in his stomach came to the realization that Shaw was right.

"That's true enough, sir, but-"

"There you go, no further objections," the lieutenant cut her off.

His watch beeped.

"Oh, darn, I'm due in another reality in a few minutes. You'll be fine here, right? Can you guys handle this with Nexus?"

"If I773 adjusts Nexus accordingly, I don't see any obstacles," Lawrence replied amiably.

"Wonderful," Shaw rejoiced. "Well then, I take my leave."

He strode through the portal and disappeared.

"I773?" the supervisor asked. "Can you manage to prepare Nexus for everything, including this list?"

I773 hummed and hawed fearfully.

"Hey, what's up, clone?"

"Well, um, Lawrence, wouldn't it be better if we limited ourselves to, well, dead universes? I mean, the machine would not only destroy but erase entire cultures in one fell swoop and-"

"-helping whole cultures to persist," Lawrence concluded. "I've done the math, for every time-rich universe there are ten dead ones. Purely a matter of speed; after all, our universes aren't getting any younger.

"Yes, but-" she began tentatively.

Iron shackles closed around her limbs out of nowhere and pulled. The tension threatened to quarter the clone. She gasped in pain. Lawrence had manipulated reality.

"I773, I don't think you really understand where you are in the pecking order," Lawrence burst out. "Yes, you are the administrator of the most powerful computing machine in Logos. Yes, you're also the best research clone we've ever used. But that doesn't mean someone else can't do your job. With just one signature, I can replace you with another model and send you for evaluation. So, you should have our best interests at heart, not those of some reality whose name no one remembers anyway."

I773 broke out in a cold sweat….

"Well, yes, but-"

The chains continued to tighten, making I773 groan again in pain.

"Do you want me to have you evaluated?" asked Lawrence, annoyed.

She shook her head vigorously.

"Wonderful."

The chains disappeared and I773 slapped the floor rudely.

"Just to be sure, I'll run a diagnostic program when you're done," her supervisor continued. "So you don't get any ideas about prioritizing any uninhabited universes after all. Got it?"

I773 stood up again, swaying, and nodded dejectedly. Lawrence disappeared through the portal, which closed behind him.

I773's knees went weak with more than just pain. The papers in her hands flew in disarray as she slumped again.

"Nexus?" she whispered desperately. "Simulate what happens when you wipe out two universes at two different times."

It took a moment for Nexus to answer.

"If the Great Accelerator were to be applied twice to the same universe, the resulting fragment of the timeline would merge with other universes for time-correction reasons, causing temporal instability in them and possibly a time collapse in our reality."

"Simulate what happens if the flow of entropy is previously reversed until the universe arrives back at the Big Bang."

"An artificial change in entropy has no effect on the temporal moment of a universe."

"Simulate the yield from a direct reversal of time."

"Reversing the direction of time does not change the temporal moment. If I may note, Shaw's approach is by far the most efficient for gaining time for Logos. And likely always will be."

"Likely?" repeated I773.

It sounded like a cry of anguish.

"Nexus, project the trajectory of universe consumption incorporating all other powers using the same technology. Give me a graph. Time to consumed realities."

It took a moment, but then she got the 3D hologram she requested.

The formula had four degrees…

"As Logos continues to expand to other universes to accommodate the growing population, there will be an increased demand for time over time to maintain more and more universes," Nexus explained. "Of the twenty-five undecillion or so other known inter-reality states with the necessary technology, my calculations indicate that at least about twenty quintillion are coming up with the same idea. This does not include other universes that come here or to other worlds to steal the technology for themselves. Another technology that prolongs the life of universes does not exist, I have checked carefully. This will lead to a rapid decrease in universe diversity until war breaks out over the remaining realities, using technologies like the Great Accelerator as a weapon. I could recommend splitting existing universes by time travel, but artificial splits make both halves more and more unstable with each successive split, until their existence eventually collapses, if you can even manage to overcome historical stability to split them."

"Either way. It's going to be a war," whispered I773. "The lowest of wars, waged by the highest of civilizations. A war just for the sake of destruction…"

"That statement is correct," Nexus confirmed.

His absolute lack of emotion sent a chill down I773's spine.

"Nexus, what would happen if we destroyed this technology?"

"Destruction is no longer possible because of the completed test runs. But even if it were possible, the Logos people would rediscover it in twelve years at the latest. Its use cannot be avoided in this universe. Nor in at least 17 quintillion others. Probably all of them."

I773 stared with blank eyes at all the list again. All those worlds…

All those worlds?

"Nexus, how many realities is this universe connected to and what is the relationship status with them?"

"We are connected with 26,792,417 other realities…. Correction, 26,792,418. All of them are under the rule of Logos and inhabited only by its citizens.

I773 tears came to her eyes as she made a decision.


Nexus was transported via space jump to the Great Accelerator. Many dignitaries had come, from all corners of Logos.

The Great Accelerator deserved the name because, as Lawrence had predicted, it took an entire solar system to build it. The accelerator was five hundred thousand kilometers thick and formed a ring seven hundred eighty billion kilometers in diameter. To build it and make its interior reality-free had taken Logos only two years.

Since there was no radiation in any form, the control room had been built right next to the portal generation station. Nexus provided only the computing power needed to run the device.

Lawrence sighed happily in the room crammed with all sorts of consoles, switches and levers while I773 made the final adjustments. She was extremely sad.

"What's wrong? It's a big day today," Lawrence tried to lighten the mood.
"It's murder," was the bare reply.

Lawrence frowned. I773 knew that his program had not been able to find any dead universes in Nexus' memory.

A portal opened at one end of the chamber and Lieutenant Shaw joined them.

"What's with the sad face," he asked cheerfully.

Turning to Lawrence, he added quietly, "I'd have her evaluated sometime soon…"

Lawrence nodded thoughtfully.

"Well, then," the lieutenant said. "All set? Judge is expecting a lot of good PR from this thing. This is going to dwarf any Dyson sphere, any structure we've ever created."

He punctuated his words with appropriate hand gestures.

"The president is giving another speech right now. As soon as he's done, you'll get the signal to launch, okay?"

"Okay," came the response from Lawrence.

I773 just nodded.

It took a little while, but then Shaw's watch beeped.

"Here we go, folks."

"Well, uh, I773, do the honors."

She sighed and put her hands on the accelerator lever.

"Null dimension created. Launching extinction in five…. four… three… two… … one!"

She literally jerked the lever around. She felt like an executioner.

With a mighty rumble, the moon-sized null dimension was sent on its way with its abstract cargo. It made the accelerator glow where it zoomed along.

"The dimension is about to reach the speed of light," Lawrence said. "It will take a few minutes until it comes back.

"Activating portal generator and time accelerator," reported I773.

"Acknowledge," Lawrence reported. "Portal opening."

Outside the window, a massive interreal sphere opened, filling the entire tube passage. It was as large as a planet.

"Okay, now it's wait…," Lawrence muttered. "Reality passage is stable to- What are these numb- OH SHIT!"

Shaw was alarmed.

"What's going on? Is there a problem?"

Instead of answering, the supervisor ran to his clone in a rage and grabbed her by the collar. He couldn't use his powers because of all the ontokinetic equipment in here.

Meanwhile, the null dimension brought the first quarter of its journey behind itself.

"What have you done? This is a simple spatial portal! Close it right now!"

I773 shook her head in tears.

"I can't close it again. Nexus has instructions to ignore any of my orders to close it and go to emergency power. All the backup systems have been shut down. Nothing can stop this now."

Lawrence said nothing, instead, he ran away through the access portal.

"What's with him," Shaw asked. "What's going to happen?"

"The matrix fragment will collide with its own matrix," I773 explained with the calm of a person who had made peace with the inevitable. "Along with the Great Accelerator, our universe and everything attached to us will be compressed together to the zeroth dimension and forever trapped in the same moment."

Halfway through the journey…

Shaw grabbed her by the throat and pressed I773 against the viewing window. In the process, he inadvertently came up against the lever that regulated the portal radius. Normally, Nexus would have corrected this fluctuation, but it no longer responded to any input from the Great Accelerator due to the lack of active safety protocols. That's why the portal expanded a small distance into space and began sucking the air out of I773.

"WHY DID YOU DO THAT!!!" the lieutenant yelled in exasperation. "YOU HAVE CONDEMNED COUNTLESS TO DEATH!"

"How… does that make me different… from you?" she choked out. "I sacrifice us… to save… A million times more… Even if only for… a few years…"

The three-quarters round was done.

Shaw punched her. Despite the escaping air, the glass offered enough resistance to make I773 feel the pain in two places at once.

And he struck again. And again, and again.

"I'm so sorry…" cried I773.

"YOU PATHETIC CLONE! YOU DIDN'T JUST KILL US! YOU WILL ERASE US COMPLETELY! I WILL-"

The null dimension came back and created a nothingness that appeared completely black. It absorbed all that was across dimensional boundaries as it continued to grow and grow and finally collapsed in on itself.

Logos shrank with all the dimensions it was connected to into a single, infinitesimally small point.


I773's eyes had gone black. Then she noticed that she had no eyes at all. She had nothing at all!

She wanted her body back! The way it had been, the way-.

Somewhere in the back of her metaphorical brain, calculations were running at faster than light speed. And suddenly she had a body again.

Only she couldn't see anything… And not breathe.

But the latter dissolved by itself after the same flickering in the back of her head.

I773 began to understand…

"Let there be light!"

And there was light…

I773 created her own little world, while she tried to understand what was going on inside.

This was definitely what was left of Logos. By being inside the portal, the concept of her being had probably not been shattered, rather she had linked herself to the universe and now formed its guiding force. The goddess of her own dead cosmos, eternally curved in on itself, in a moment that was constantly repeating itself. And that in her head, that was Nexus! He was quantum entangled with her brain, so he had to still be somewhere. If he wasn't everywhere even, crushed by folded reality. And yet, he listened to her commands and helped her formulate creation wishes.

She decided to name this dimension Nexus in his honor. This dimension where she was above time.

It took a little while, but then she realized that she could poke something in the vicinity with the power of her mind. Like some kind of membrane that you could only think but not perceive….

I773 put a little more power into it….

And brought doomsday to a completely uninvolved reality when she opened a portal into it. The portal, without her being able to do anything about it, opened wider and wider within minutes until it reached such a size that both universes merged.

However, I773's dimension, consisting of several million compressed universes, exerted a powerful pull similar to a black hole and drew the alien reality into itself. In I773's world there was no vacuum, no endlessly extending space and so the whole creation moved too close together. Planets and stars whizzed over I773 and collided in magnificent explosions. Debris came down around her, including ruins, artifacts, and the dead of an alien world.

She vomited with remorse, but she had nothing to vomit.

She decided to create a cosmos for herself and experimented with some dead universes until she found a way to create a safe portal and sense universes and safe places for a portal creation. She equipped her portals with a safeguard that allowed them to open from the Nexus only in places where they could be confined by solid matter. So far, so good.

Going through one, however, nearly killed her.

Since her dimension was trapped in a repeating moment, she concluded, everything she created in here also existed only for that moment, running on false time. It took a while for I773 to come to a hard decision, but eventually she reconstructed her own body extremely painfully from imported matter and also replaced everything she had created so far with import material, including air.

It was a nasty feeling, she felt like a grave robber using her loot to make repulsive art out of it. And so, after that, she vowed never again to create new things from the alien matter in here…

Then I773 made her long cherished dream come true. She visited alien worlds, viewed their wonders, and was haunted at all times by her crushing guilt.

She discarded her name, for she learned that there was no difference between natural and artificial beings, apart from their origins. She simply turned her identifier upside down and called herself Elli from then on.

She traveled to the past, to the future, and finally to the ends of universes.

Which did not happen naturally.

Elli became painfully aware that she had destroyed only one of a countless amount of powers that wanted to use the realities of the multiverse to delay their own demise.

But she had the weapon to smash them all….

She was a monster. She was to blame.

So she had to do it so no one else would have to…

She visited the other superpowers even before they could use their reality accelerators for the first time and had them devoured and crushed by the Nexus. So all-encompassing was the process that her targets couldn't even create mirror universes where Elli had never appeared. She forced herself to always be up close and personal so she could see what she was doing, even if that meant looking all the alternate versions of herself in the eye. Then she tracked down the survivors to make sure no one ever again even got the idea that preserving universes was possible.

And then she did it again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again.


It is not wrong to speak of eons in which Elli traveled from civilization to civilization, wiped them all out, and then hunted down all the fugitives to the death, trapping their souls in the Nexus. Many of the artifacts taken by these survivors, or even just hurled through space-time, were also tracked down and destroyed by her when they threatened to alter the course of a universe's history and thus destroy it, when the historical divergence became so great that realities split into unstable mirror worlds that immediately collapsed. For by coming from nowhere from the perspective of the multiverse, it was terribly easy for Elli to trigger universe-destroying paradoxes. Historical time resistances did not exist for her. This was also true of all the remnants of her victims.

Consequently, people killed by terrible superweapons got their lives back from Elli. Persons who owed their lives to these things from the end of all time were sent back to their cold graves by her, as history had intended. She brought prosperity to numerous lives, but ruin to just as many. All to save the associated worlds.

Thanks to Logo's cloning technology, she could not age further after her twenty-third year, making her biologically immortal. This allowed her to see the multiverse restructure itself through her actions.

Actually harvested universes got their time back and brought forth new civilizations and ever new life. Realities actually destroyed by splitting plopped back into existence as history resumed its destined course. The time of the universes destroyed by the Nexus, which Elli's world could not take up by nature, was distributed on other realities. Among them, however, were again some who tried reality accelerators. But these also fell victim to Elli.

In the end, Elli had saved billions of times more lives than destroyed, even if she had not been able to save all realities, but the number of the dead nevertheless could not be expressed with an existing numeral.

And she always remembered it. The destruction, the screams from countless throats as billions and billions of worlds went under with loud thunder. The fearful faces of all those she had hunted. Peoples she had left behind in wastelands and worlds of death she had created. They haunted her by day and prevented her from sleeping.

As a research clone, she could not forget. Even large amounts of alcohol failed to do permanent damage to her brain, or any of the other organs in her body, but it did help her repress.

To sleep.

Elli tried to build a new life outside the Nexus, but her hopes were always dashed. Whether it was by a rebellion, robbers, criminals who wanted to use her powers, or completely unrelated dark machinations, Elli always got caught up in it.

She realized that she had to be a foreign body, since her homeworld effectively no longer existed. Had never existed. She was an unknown in space-time, the only one exempt from all temporal laws.

And the multiverse did not like unknowns. Universes repelled them like a virus that had come to infect them, condemning Elli to never find a home outside the tomb called Nexus. Wherever she was. She felt like a butterfly caught in the web of a spider.

And so, goddess of her own empty world, she traveled the cosmos from then on to atone and, so she hoped, one day die in the process.


The power of these memories was too much for Chloe's head, probably Lawrence's too. Elli, by now just a heap on the floor twitching and whimpering with convulsions, was like an ultra-wideband transmitter that simply flattened all other frequencies and only allowed her own transmission. Only with effort Chloe managed to get out of her mind at the last moment before she threatened to break under its weight. Exhausted, Chloe slumped to the floor beside her. Lawrence had similar difficulties, but was quicker to recover.

"So it was empathy after all," her former supervisor spat with disgust. "You were nothing but a defective product!"

Lawrence forced his way past the slumped Chloe under the pressure of Ellis' psionic link and kicked his former protégé so hard in the stomach that he lifted off the ground.

Probably the greatest mass murderer in all the worlds.

Who for millennia tried to pay her debt, knowing full well that it was impossible…

Chloe's own memories of her adventures with Elli flooded into her head.

She didn't deserve this.

Not after all of this…

Chloe dragged herself to her and lay protectively over her.

"What?" snapped Elli's former supervisor angrily. "You're still protecting her after seeing that? She destroyed the greatest civilization that has ever existed. And then some!"

"And she regrets it every day," Chloe countered. "She destroyed you to save us from you."

"Spare me the moralizing…"

He holstered his pistol, grabbed Chloe and threw her across the room.

Chloe gasped in pain, Elli too, as Lawrence pulled her up by the hair.

"You know, death would be way too good for you," he mused dangerously calmly. "I773, you haven't lost nearly enough to know how I feel. But I already know what I'll take as trade-in…"

He rudely let go of Elli and instead grabbed the squirming Chloe by the wrist to drag her along. She struggled as hard as she could, but the man was just too strong now that the effect of the link was beginning to wear off.

"No!", Elli pressed out, but was unable to rise as her limbs clearly disobeyed her. "What… are you… up to?"

Lawrence gave her a satisfied grin.

"The SKP certainly harbors an interest in the divine power within this girl. I'm going to extract it so it can be harnessed. I don't know what they'll use it for, probably weapons of some sort, or as rocket fuel, who knows. But what I do care about is that your little friend here should be too connected to that power by now. Do you know what that means? I'm not just going to kill her, I773, I'm going to wipe her and her soul out completely. And that's just to get back at you. Have a pleasant stay."

Elli powerlessly reached out her fingers to Chloe as she was pulled shrieking from the cell.

The door closed with a loud bang.

Next time on Nexus:
Destroyer of Worlds, Part 3

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