Lord of Perverted Ladies

The sky above Alisster split open.

Not metaphorically.

It actually split.

A massive crack stretched from one horizon to the other, revealing countless layers of reality stacked behind the familiar blue sky.

One layer showed a burning city.

Another showed an ocean covering everything.

Another showed Alisster exactly as it had been seven years ago.

Another showed an Alisster where the city had never existed.

And another...

The academy.

I stared upward.

"What did I do?"

My father grabbed my shoulder.

"You told reality to stop choosing."

"Yes."

"That’s not what it heard."

I looked at him.

"What did it hear?"

He looked toward the sky.

"Everything."

A tremendous sound shook the city.

Thousands of doors appeared between buildings.

Some opened into familiar streets.

Others opened into completely alien landscapes.

A forest with silver trees.

A city floating upside down.

A desert beneath a purple sun.

A world where enormous creatures walked between skyscrapers.

A world where Alisster was underwater.

A world where the city was completely abandoned.

People began pouring through the doors.

Some were terrified.

Others were confused.

Some looked at the modern city around them as though they had discovered paradise.

Others immediately started running.

The underground laboratory trembled.

The white-eyed version of me staggered backward.

"No."

I looked at him.

"You said this would happen."

"Not like this."

"What did you expect?"

"You were supposed to choose one."

"I refused."

"That’s impossible."

I smiled faintly.

"Apparently not."

The laboratory ceiling cracked.

Concrete fell around us.

Noah grabbed Ryan and pulled him away from the collapsing machinery.

"Adrian!"

I looked toward him.

"We need to get out!"

"Go!"

"I’m not leaving you!"

"You should!"

Ryan shouted from behind him.

"For once, listen to the idiot!"

"I heard that!"

"You were supposed to!"

The floor split.

I jumped backward as a section of the laboratory disappeared into darkness.

My father pointed toward the staircase.

"Move!"

We ran.

The white-eyed version followed.

I noticed him behind me.

"Why is he coming?"

My father shouted,

"Because he’s connected to you!"

"That’s not an answer!"

"It’s the only one I have!"

We reached the stairs.

The entire building shook.

Above us, people were screaming.

The doors had spread throughout Alisster.

Worlds were colliding.

A massive tree pushed through the roof of a building.

A section of an alien city appeared over the highway.

The ocean from another reality flooded an entire street before suddenly vanishing.

Reality was trying to reconcile everything at once.

And failing.

We reached the surface.

The sight stopped me cold.

Alisster was no longer one city.

It was thousands.

Different versions overlapped.

A familiar apartment building stood beside a ruined fortress.

A train passed through a street where there had never been tracks.

People from different realities stood face-to-face.

Some looked identical.

Some were completely different.

And everywhere...

There were versions of me.

One walked past wearing a military uniform.

Another was dressed like a doctor.

A third carried a sword.

A fourth wore a black cloak.

A child stood on a rooftop staring down at me.

An old man watched from across the street.

They all recognized me.

They all stopped.

Noah came beside me.

"How many of you are there?"

I stared at the city.

"I don’t know."

A voice came from behind.

"Enough."

I turned.

The First Reader stood there.

Lucien and the Editor were with him.

The First Reader looked at the sky.

"You’ve done something no one has ever done."

"Yeah."

I looked at the chaos.

"I noticed."

"You opened the Outside City."

"No."

I shook my head.

"I didn’t open it."

"It opened itself."

The Editor looked at me.

"Because you gave it permission."

I frowned.

"Permission?"

"You commanded reality to recognize every possibility."

"Why did it obey?"

She looked at me.

"Because you’re the Listener."

The word again.

I hated it already.

"What exactly does that mean?"

The First Reader answered.

"You’re connected to the foundation beneath reality."

"So I can command it?"

"Not exactly."

"What then?"

"You can be heard by it."

I stared.

"That’s different."

"Very."

He pointed toward the sky.

"The command wasn’t powerful because you issued it."

"It was powerful because reality interpreted it as a request from itself."

That made my stomach sink.

"Then I’m not controlling reality."

"No."

"Reality is using me."

"Yes."

The white-eyed version of me laughed.

Everyone turned toward him.

"You finally understand."

I looked at him.

"Who are you?"

He smiled.

"The Listener’s echo."

"What does that mean?"

"I was created when you first spoke."

"When?"

"The first time reality answered."

I remembered the underground laboratory.

The first command.

My grandfather.

The machine.

The voice.

"So you’re the result."

"Yes."

"Then why do you look like me?"

"Because reality needed a shape."

"And it chose mine."

"Exactly."

I stepped closer.

"What was the first command?"

His smile disappeared.

"You don’t want to know."

"Tell me."

"The original Adrian asked reality to make his grief disappear."

I froze.

"That was the first command."

"Yes."

"And what happened?"

"He disappeared instead."

I looked toward my father.

He nodded.

"He vanished from reality."

"The version we knew as the original."

"Yes."

"And then?"

"The Listener was created."

I looked at myself.

The white-eyed version.

"Me."

"No."

He shook his head.

"Not you."

"Then who?"

He pointed toward the sky.

"All of you."

The thousands of versions around the city suddenly turned toward me.

Every single one.

A strange silence spread through Alisster.

Then one of them stepped forward.

A woman.

She looked like me, but with long black hair.

"I remember the first command."

Another version appeared beside her.

"I remember the second."

Another.

"The third."

Another.

"The fourth."

My father looked horrified.

"There were multiple commands."

I stared.

"How many?"

The white-eyed version answered.

"Seven."

The First Reader whispered,

"The seven commands."

"What are they?"

Nobody answered.

The woman stepped forward.

"You’ve already fulfilled the first."

I frowned.

"What was it?"

She smiled.

"Make every possibility real."

I looked at the chaos around us.

"That’s the first?"

"Yes."

"Then what’s the second?"

The white-eyed version looked toward the sky.

"Give every possibility a choice."

The world trembled.

A new System-like message appeared across the sky.

Not just for me.

Everyone could see it.

______

FOUNDATIONAL COMMAND 02

ALL REALITIES HAVE BEEN GRANTED CHOICE.

SELECT THEIR OWN PATH.

______

People began shouting.

Some doors disappeared.

Others multiplied.

Entire worlds began moving.

A ruined city transformed into a living forest.

A peaceful Alisster became a battlefield.

A version of the academy merged with the real one.

The possibilities weren’t simply appearing anymore.

They were choosing.

And their choices were changing reality.

Noah stared at the sky.

"This is insane."

"Yes."

"Can you stop it?"

I looked at my hands.

"I don’t know."

The First Reader stepped closer.

"You can."

"How?"

"By giving another command."

I stared at him.

"That’s dangerous."

"Yes."

"What happens if I don’t?"

"Reality continues splitting until nothing can contain it."

"So I have to control it."

"No."

He shook his head.

"You have to communicate with it."

I hated that distinction.

"What’s the command?"

"You decide."

"That’s the problem."

The white-eyed version laughed.

"You’ve always had that problem."

I turned toward him.

"Then help me."

He stared.

"What?"

"You know the commands."

"Yes."

"Then tell me the second one."

"I already did."

"No."

I pointed toward the sky.

"That’s what reality thinks the second command is."

I stepped closer.

"I want to know what the original Adrian intended."

The white-eyed version went silent.

Then his expression changed.

"The original second command..."

He looked toward the thousands of worlds.

"...was to give every possibility the right to refuse him."

I frowned.

"What?"

"He didn’t want control."

"He wanted consent."

That hit me.

The original Adrian had spent his entire existence trying to change reality.

Yet the first true command wasn’t about power.

It was about choice.

He wanted every possibility to be able to refuse the path he created.

I looked around.

"Then that’s what we need."

I raised my hand.

The city became silent.

Every version.

Every world.

Every door.

Everything listened.

I spoke.

"Every world has the right to choose."

The sky flashed.

The doors stopped moving.

The overlapping realities separated.

Not disappearing.

Stabilizing.

Each possibility became distinct.

One city.

One forest.

One ocean.

One academy.

One Alisster.

Thousands of worlds still existed.

But they were no longer crushing into one another.

The message appeared again.

______

FOUNDATIONAL COMMAND 02 ACCEPTED.

ALL REALITIES HAVE BEEN GRANTED AUTONOMY.

______

The First Reader stared at the sky.

"You did it."

I lowered my hand.

"No."

I looked around.

"They did."

The worlds continued moving.

But now they moved independently.

The chaos had become an enormous network of realities.

The Outside City no longer looked like a threat.

It looked like a civilization.

Then the white-eyed version stepped toward me.

"You have two commands left."

I frowned.

"Two?"

He nodded.

"Seven commands existed."

"Three have been used."

"That leaves four."

"Four."

"Yes."

"What are they?"

He smiled.

"You’ll find out when reality asks."

"That’s not helpful."

"It’s not supposed to be."

Suddenly, the sky darkened.

Every world became silent.

The Witness appeared.

Not as eyes.

Not as a person.

As an enormous shadow stretching across every reality simultaneously.

The First Reader stepped backward.

"No."

The Witness spoke.

Its voice was heard everywhere.

"Autonomy accepted."

I looked upward.

"Contradiction acknowledged."

The white-eyed version lowered his head.

Then the Witness continued.

"However..."

Every reality stopped.

"...one world has been denied."

I frowned.

"What world?"

A single door appeared in front of me.

Black.

Old.

Familiar.

The first door.

The Witness spoke again.

"The world of the original Adrian Cross."

My heart stopped.

"What does that mean?"

The door opened.

Beyond it was a world I’d never seen.

A world where the original Adrian was alive.

A world where the person I loved was alive.

A world where my father had never disappeared.

A world where I had never become Adrian Cross.

I stared at it.

Noah whispered,

"That’s the life you wanted."

I stepped toward the door.

The white-eyed version grabbed my arm.

"Don’t."

"Why?"

"Because that’s the one world you’re not allowed to choose."

I looked at him.

"Why?"

He stared at the world beyond the door.

"Because it isn’t a possibility."

"Then what is it?"

He whispered,

"A temptation."

The person I loved appeared beyond the doorway.

They smiled at me.

Just like I remembered.

"Adrian."

I froze.

They held out their hand.

"Come home."

And for the first time since everything began...

I wanted to.

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