Space Odyssey: Spectre

"A show of it?" The gray figure asked in confusion.

But Jace just raised his hand as he walked around and the sand under the other figures began to move them which seemed to surprise them for a moment. Before that surprise was replaced with awe as pillars of solid sand began to surround Jace and the glitching black figure.

Jace stood across from him in the center of a circular arena. The arena was forming with a raised platform around them with a small fence blocking them from the arena. This 'reality' was like a mental landscape but in programming form. Which at this point was more natural to him then speaking normally or even thinking. So once he understood that all of this was in a digital landscape he knew he just had to program everything directly. So that is what he was doing. "I will set it back to normal once we are done." Jace informed them as he positioned himself opposite that glitching black figure.

"You-kzzt- are-re-re-kzzt-" It slowly stood up shakily with knees caved inward. "The-kzzt- hunter-"

"I suppose that is your name for me." Jace chuckled. "So how do you want to do this? I think your name was… prey?" He asked as he could see part of the glitching forms arms began to change shape, sharpening into a pair of giant swords.

"I-kzzt- am-kzzt- prey!" The plague simile for programming's form yelled and jumped forward. Swinging arms widely as it closed the distance.

Jace moved forward as well but with a tighter form. As one of its arms approached him he backed up and then moved forward and jabbed his fist forward. It slammed into the black glitching figure's head and it stumbled backward. Its head glitched again and disappeared for a moment but appeared again after the glitching stopped but this time part of its head was breaking away like dust being blown away.

Jace moved forward again and punched it in the left arm as it tried to swing at him. But aiming at the upper part of the arm.

It staggered again as its arm recoiled back before it fell off. Slowly melting into sand and dust as a non-existent wind blew it away. "Kraaa!!!" It scratched as its mouth split its face in half and opened wide while a jagged wave of teeth appeared on the bottom and top of the mouth.

It was faceless but it had a mouth. Which could be a representation of its endless hunger and appetite. "You are just a remnant of the entire thing aren't you?" Jace chuckled as it slowed its movements a bit. Clearly being much more careful, learning on the fly. "How much of Lord Hoodwink is in there? I mean I know I blew his brains out all over the walls of his ship, but I am guessing you scrapped up what you could."

The figure solidified for a moment stopping mid-glitch as it glared at him. "Jace! You killed me! I will ruin you!" It screamed but this time with an actual voice attached to it. Then it leaped forward but Jace caught its arm and flipped it over his body and slammed it into the ground.

Jace raised up his leg above its head. "I doubt that. Die permanently this time." Jace instructed as he slammed his foot down.

"Nooo-" The figure hosting the nano plague and the last of Lord Hoodwink's living will was dispersed into light brown sand that made up the ground around here. As soon as it began to disperse the arena began to lower to the ground and break down.

"That is a clever way to disperse him." The gray figure pointed out as they began to walk toward him.

Jace had not just hit the nano plague formed figure. He had been forcefully dispersing and breaking down its code into each individual it had eaten. The 'fight' was just for show. What he was doing behind the scenes was what was actually causing damage. A program to strip down the plague into the individuals it had stolen and dispersing them.

Of course it would not work with all of them. He could still detect a few strains of will that were gripping to reality. But he had a plan for those. He had a program storing them. He would later turn them into curses that would latch onto and die with certain 'branded' criminals. But for now they could be stored.

"I would say it was cruel. Why not disperse them as well?" Another of the figures asked.

"He can't." The Centuria figure answered. "They are still strong willed and even if they do not understand where they are. They are still surviving."

Jace hummed as he looked around. "So what exactly are we doing now?"

"You are combining all of us into one system." The gray figure informed him. "Since you understand this digital between realms. I assume you know how to work it now?"

Jace nodded as he held out a hand and a pedestal with a jar formed inside the jar were a number of worms of different colors made up of smoke they were wriggling about. "Just about. So you want me to combine all of you into one problem. Because you can't." He stated plainly and then shook his head. "That is not possible."

The gray figure looked shocked. "I thought if anyone could do it-"

"Oh, do not get me wrong. I can do that. But I would not suggest it." Jace scoffed. "I have a different plan in mind. Which will actually end up keeping all of you around. So are you ready?" He looked around for a moment at all the different figures and their variations. "You know… I thought this whole thing would end with a bit more of a last ditch effort on the enemies part." The enemies in this case being the various factions they had been waging war against whether it was the daemons, mortella, or even the foreign nations they had removed.

"You were too effective. You have been patient and played the long game instead of jumping to the forefront of every battlefield." The gray figure pointed out with what definitely sounded like amusement. "You have been fighting since the moment you were born, in fact you enjoy fighting. But this time, you saw it was necessary to let others fight while you did what only you could do."

"Helping to build the gravity device." Jace remarked with a sigh as he rubbed the back of his neck. "So now comes the part where we get to work." He pointed out as he stretched. "I know I said I could program something a bit better but if I am going to do this…" He reached a hand out and a table and chair appeared with a computer, keyboard, and mouse on top of it.

Jace moved forward and sat on the chair. "So we need to write a new program from scratch. But since it would be galaxy wide it needs to be able to withstand or hide from the various immune systems that different creatures have. I remember this was a problem when we originally started with the races from the victorium."

"Can a program help with that?" One of them asked.

"Yes and no, it can be done under the right conditions. I just need to make it still the size of a cell but this time it needs to be adaptive to each host. Not to the point of making them immortal but instead making them survive. So it needs to have an evolutionary program while it needs to have a body that can adapt, fortunately we already created the perfect metal." He began to mumble under his breath while quickly typing on the computer.

Meanwhile the sandy world around them began to change shape and reform with giant towers and buildings seemingly rising out of the ground. "Now what are you doing?" The gray figure asked in confusion.

"Creating an afterlife." Jace told them. All of their 'heads' snapped in his direction. "I know. If I do this then the black hole that is powering the gravity station will just build up with this excess and when it either fails or is destroyed will spew them out into the universe."

"If you know that will be an issue, then why do it?" A different figure asked. "Storing the being of a person is already pushing it, but doing it to such a degree will inevitably draw attention."

"Attention that has already been drawn." Jace answered with a chuckle as his hands glided across the keyboard. "I will make all of you sub administrators. Allowing you to control and make alterations to this world." Jace informed them, "it will also allow you to appoint one avatar in the real world and will give you a 'task' to help corral the people that enter this afterlife."

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