Walker was sitting in the chair that came with the upgraded creation instrument, finishing up his writing marathon. He completed a few thoughts with quick stabbings of ink, looked at it sideways for a moment, and then placed the former journal down near the old computer. He felt oddly drained of energy. Writing in the holy scripture, as he had to mentally call it from now on, had come to him in spurts and bursts of insight. Previously, he had always written in a stream-of-consciousness style. He got a basic idea in his head and then would write until he couldn't anymore. No thinking, just writing. But this was different. This could be something that stretched across a planet from thousands to millions of people. He had to take his time and really think things through. He shrugged his tight shoulders and stood up, looking at the time in his overlay.

 

Time remaining until the next battle: 1 hour.

 

"Hollyyy shit. How did that take so long?" Walker asked his assistant.

Virgil looked at him before saying, "You seemed quite introspective at moments. There were long periods where you would stare at the papers in your hand, then at the sky, before looking at the papers again. I had assumed you were watching the time as you did so due to its importance."

"No! I didn't think we'd lose..." He did some quick mental math. "Over seventeen hours!"

"How many pages did you write in the scripture?" Echidna asked as she walked over.

"I don't know. Twenty? I needed to explain some things, like basic math and science. I don't want my followers to think that they can cure a fever with cocaine because it drives out the ghosts in their blood. Idiocy can't be tolerated."

"Then that is what you've traded. When first creating a scripture, you won't be able to make any changes to its original form. Once it has spread across your followers and become easily accesible, you will find that you can make changes as needed. But for now, you are stuck with what you have."

"Well fuck." Walker said, pulling his hair a little and trying not to think about what he could have done with the lost time. "Can't put the toothpaste back in the tube." He finished, attempting to smooth out his roughened dark hair. "What happened while I was out."

Rimi raised his blue paw as he spoke, "Two of the newer Battlefrogs evolved, so Virgil says your task updated again and you're only one evolution away from finishing it. All of the guardian squirrels are tier four and very powerful. One of the Manticore's tried to move into the Battlefrogs habitat, but they ganged up on it and killed it. I also watched this happen in the desert as they invaded the Scorpions region."

"So the Manticore's are mating and spreading from there, but the other areas of Symphony are defending themselves. Do I have that right?"

Rimi nodded.

"Okay, let's take a look at our original guardian then." Walker said and pulled up the monitor.

The Mana Tree Guardian was pure white, and had reached the fourth tier of the Monster System. Walker knew, or really hoped, that it wouldn't be able to evolve past the fourth tier because of the restrictions they had placed upon it. The former squirrel looked just like it had before, with the exception of its fur, although it seemed to be holding itself differently. It stood on a tree limb and was leaning against the trunk with one hand while gnawing on one of its paws. Was it chewing on a claw? Did the Guardian somehow evolve to gain anxiety?

"Why is it so white?" Walker asked.

"That is the magical attunement from being near the Mana Tree, not to mention eating its leaves. It has a bleaching effect on entities through pure magical permeation."

"Neat. So, we're making a race of giant albino squirrel mages. Let's take a look." Walker clicked on identify.

 

 

"Gods damn." Walker said with a whistle.

"Indeed. It seems to have defended its mana tree successfully from the smaller manticores, and developed quite the amount of combat evolutions."

Walker looked at Rimi who sat staring at the Guardians monitor with something akin to pride on his face. "Rimi, are all of the Guardians going to have the Mighty Kernel evolution by Tier four?"

Rimi pulled his eyes away from the albino Guardian and looked at his screens, a few moments later he nodded, "Yes. It begins as a umm....dormant kernel, passively absorbing magic from the air. As it reaches new tiers its name will change to attuned, then powerful, before landing on mighty at Tier four. Tier five will not bring any upgrades to the kernel's size, but we have not created any tiers beyond it at this time."

"Okay, that's great. What about that change in organism type? Sapient?"

"I was wondering when you would see that." Virgil commented. "It appears its intelligence advanced in leaps and bounds. Identify another guardian and let us see if this is a common trend."

Walker shifted the monitor to the swamp Guardian and clicked identify.

 

 

"Huh, the first Guardian was a mage, but this one went physical. I wonder why."

Virgil stepped closer and said, "They are independent creatures, Walker. You cannot expect them all to evolve the same way, even with similar circumstances. I imagine that the swamp Guardian found the agility more helpful in its natural environment, as it needs to move from place to place with an acrobatic fashion, while the original Guardian has a relatively small and secure area to watch over. You wanted to build a system where the creatures of it adapt and evolve to fit their environment and the circumstances within. That is what is happening here."

"True. Okay, so we have a little less than an hour until the second battle. What do we need to do right away, like...right now?"

"There is not truly enough time to add additional monsters to Symphony, and I believe we have reached a point where we can now add Sentients without disrupting everything."

"Yep, I agree." Walker said, scratching his head. "Not enough time to really work on landmasses either, since every time I do I lose track of time." Walker looked around their tiny planet and spotted the row of evolution chambers. "It's nice to have the five evolution chambers now, but they're too slow like you said. Maybe I can pop in with my new avatar ability and say hi to one of the Guardians. See what it's like down there."

"That is an idea, but please keep a close eye on your timer. You only have so much remaining."

"You got it." Walker said with a thumbs up. The three primigenials grouped around him with the two squirrels to watch what happened when he activated it. Zeus was giving him a glare while the rest of his cadre just seemed curious as to what would happen. This was his moment. "Catch you guys on the flipside." He said, attempting to have a cool sign-off before clicking the ability in his overlay.

"Walker! You didn't select where you want....." Virgil said as he stepped towards him, but it was already too late. His attempt at seeming cool made him forget to choose where he was going to appear, and as his vision distorted then cleared, he found himself within the Crater of all places. He looked down and spied the grey dirt of his first landmass, getting a bearing for where he wound up. Turning his head, he noticed one giant Battlefrog staring at him.

"DO DO DO DO DO." It rumbled deep in its throat as it moved close to him with one great leap of its powerful legs. When it landed, Walker's shield flashed and kept him from being destabilized, but he could see the bushes around him shake and rattle. He tried to not be afraid as he knew that the protocol was protecting him, and clicked the inspect button.

 

 

"What?" Walker said upon looking at the screen. It was only one of his Tier 3's, but still, its evolutions seemed strange. A heavy jumper? What was the point of that? Didn't that work against itself, as gaining height in jumps could be directly proportional to muscle versus gravity and weight? That couldn't be helpful when eating the Muys. While he was looking it over, the battlefrog beat its internal drums at him again. A screech answered the drums only a hundred feet away.

A small black object began hurtling at the Battlefrog. It was a young male mini-manticore. It stumbled for a moment when it saw Walker standing there staring at it, but then regained its balance, screeched again, and kept running. The Battlefrog turned toward it, deciding that the screaming and hissing monster was the major threat in this situation. It dooted a few times, then started to shine with a brown aura that showed highlights of clear blue within. Walker watched as the ground around it began to soften up, and water rose in puddles from the ground. The Manticore's sprint turned into a slide as it continued its run unabated and without thought. Its feet finally slipped out from under it, and it felt like an inevitable event was about to occur right in front of him. The Battlefrog made a great leap in the air. When its body reached the arc of its leap, it bloated in size to twice what it was before, then came crashing down into the fragile body still sliding below it.

The Battlefrog sat still for a moment as a darkly-colored glow erupted out of the dead manticore and permeated its body, before it shrunk down to its original size. It dooted twice before eating the squished remains of its nemesis in relatively small gulps. Walker still stood there, completely forgotten.

"What the fuck did I make here?" He asked himself in a quiet voice. Slowly so as not to disturb the Battlefrog at its meal, he started to amble towards where he knew the entrance to the heart of Symphony was. As he placed a few more steps, he heard an even louder Battlefrog over his shoulder. Walker turned his head to look, and found a massive body right next to him that he was sure hadn't been there before. He had to arc his neck back so he could look up, and up, and up for a full view of what shouldn't be possible. A massive golden-colored Battlefrog stood right behind him. He didn't even attempt to identify it.

"This fucker must be twenty feet tall!" He yelled out in a panic. Walker began to run, his belief in the protocol protecting him unable to cope with the reality of a truly massive Battlefrog appearing just beside him. The greatest instinct in an animal is self-preservation, and awakened or not, Walker ran.

As Walker tried to gain speed in large loping steps, something tried to ram into him. "What the hell!" He yelled as his shield pushed the offender away. As he kept sprinting away, he could see the golden Battlefrog on the ground closely to his right. It had tried to crush him with its body and was now picking itself up off of the ground. Walker's heavy breathing and the Battlefrog's large lips smacking were the only sounds that could be heard in this part of Symphony. Walker continued to run.

After what felt like forever but couldn't have been more than a few minutes at a dead sprint, Walker heaved a sigh of relief. He had reached his initial target, the exit for the crater, and was trying to slow his heart rate by taking small breaths of sweet precious oxygen. It was a hole in the side of a mountain, just big enough for someone his size to squeeze through. Walker saw the water he'd connected throughout Symphony passing through the cave and toward the Battlefrog's habitat, draining toward the lake and the Muys held within. He knew he could manage to press himself through the hole as long as he didn't mind wet shoes. A little water trudging wasn't the worst thing he'd ever been through, and squeamishness couldn't be allowed. As he was about to enter the cave, he felt an old warrior instinct kick in, and jumped back as something slammed to the side of where he was standing. He looked at the destroyed missile, and recognized from the parts of bark and branches littering the area that it was a torn-off piece of tree. A loud doot sounded behind him. When he turned to look, he found the golden Battlefrog standing there, holding an even larger piece of tree in its hands. It arced its arm back and Walker realized what it was doing.

"You're not trapping me here!" He yelled out as he threw himself at the hole. His shield lit up as the tree bounced off of him, then he never looked back as he was splashing through water on his way to the center of Symphony. A series of Doots sounded out in frustration, but Walker was already gone.

He navigated the tunnel as quickly as he could, looking at his timer.

 

Time remaining until the next battle: 24 Minutes.

 

"I'm not stopping." He said to himself in encouragement, as he increased the tempo of his movement through the water. While he traveled, Walker attempted to ignore just how out-of-shape his body was. The protocol may take the need to eat and sleep away, but physical exhaustion was apparently still in the cards as muscles burned and breath became more and more ragged. As he traveled through the hole in the mountain, he found himself passing darker and lighter portions of rock. Walker assumed this was the sporadic ore formations he had received as a reward a few days ago. He tried counting the amount he found but it was a worthless pursuit, and he soon gave up and continued on his way, making each step count.

The exit hole appeared in front of him as if by magic, and he increased his speed.

Walker stepped into the center of Symphony for the first time, and found a majestic sight branching its way toward the atmosphere. He found himself looking at a large blue and cyan tree glowing in the near distance, as peaceful and beautiful as can be. If he were an artist, this image as a painting would've stolen the show at a gallery. He looked at his timer again, and found he'd only lost about five minutes traveling through the remainder of the tunnel. Walker straightened up and placed his hands on his head so he could catch his breath, then began to run as fast as he could toward the mana tree. To gain extra speed, he began the old marching trick he'd learned in the military, rolling his feet from heel to toe for extra momentum. He felt like he was making good time.

Bushes and grass moved by him at an almost blur as he ran, and he could hear the screams of a manticore to his left far in the distance. After a few minutes and a good amount of distance behind him, he looked at the tree again and stopped running. It had stayed at almost the same distance as it had when he first began, and Walker realized what was happening. It was over 100 feet tall as Virgil had estimated, and due to its great height, he had underestimated just how far the center of Symphony was from his current position. The odds of his out-of-shape body, already worn by running through the tunnel and away from the giant Battlefrog, keeping a steady enough pace to make it in time were non-existent. He stopped trying entirely and caught his breath, placing a hand on a nearby Cyprus tree for support.

"Well shit, I did it again. But at least I got to see the Battlefrogs." He lamented to himself. That golden fucker was truly outrageous. "I wonder what kind of battle this will be." He said to himself as the timer finished the countdown in sync with his lungs finally releasing their hold on his chest. His overlay lit up.

 

Congratulations Dante! You've made it to the second battle!

Translocation in

5.

4..

3...

2....

1.....

 

Walker smiled as the mana tree disappeared from his vision, and he faded onto the standard platform he'd found himself on before. Virgil and Rimi arrived simultaneously next to him. The first battle had showed a single arena directly in front of them, but this time it was different. Walker noticed that his platform had the word Dante branded into it this time, and he was floating several hundred feet over three distinct areas. Each had a grey-slated tower pulling itself together nearest to him, and a path stretching toward something dark and hazy in the near distance. The paths and towers were surrounded by large walls that seemed designed to be unclimbable, theoretically to contain whatever was placed within. The small paths were still forming and appeared flat enough to seem like a road. As each of the three paths completed themselves, the haziness at the end of the road ripped and tore itself free. Walker realized what it was from the video games of his youth. A portal. He strained to look closely at it, but it almost seemed like his eyes or his mind wasn't strong enough to gain a good grasp of what he was seeing. They were a blurry black image that seemed to bend and twist within themselves. Walker turned his head to Virgil who shrugged his shoulders.

"I have told you before, I do not know what each Battle will contain. They change it every rendition and I have no memory from the alpha protocol's records to tell me what happens next."

"So it's a crap-shoot."

"Yes, a roll of the dice at each battle. The more you have completed with your world and its entities, the greater your odds of succeeding. At least, historically."

Walker looked across the way at the Creator he would be battling. This time, the stakes were real. In the first battle, the protocol had set it up so that those who lost would have a second chance. In the second battle, losing meant the end of everything he had accomplished so far. He tried not to let it get to him but could admit that it was extremely stressful. Walker was curious as to how the other Creator would manage it.

He laid eyes on his opponent and was bewildered by what he saw. The other Creator was a strange four-armed insectoid who stood quite tall and was currently thrusting his hips at him while sharply screeching.

"What's that guy's fucking problem?" He asked Virgil.

"Oh, that is a warclaw. They are a genetic offshoot of the prosperous Starflutter line that was quite successful in the second rendition of the alpha protocol. The original Warclaws were designed to be powerful and quite fertile, expelling their progeny across the universe. I am afraid though, that this one is from the lesser-bloodlines that were designed to destroy planets across the third rendition. Unsuccessfully I might add. They are quite powerful in battle, yet sadly, are not very intelligent."

"So strong but stupid."

"Just so."

"That doesn't sound so...." Walker didn't get to finish in time as the towers finally built themselves and an announcement rang out in his overlay.

 

Battle!

Dante vs. Crratch

- - -

Rules:

Stage: Tower Defense.

Entities allowed: Three.

Rounds: Unlimited.

Battle Type: Defense.

Evolution possible: Yes.

Weapons allowed: Yes.

Extenuating Circumstance: Creators have ten minutes to select three entities for this battle. Each Creator may use one ability on each entity.

- - -

 

Reward for the winner: All of the losing Creator's resources. A copy of the losing creators chosen entities. One ability by choice.

Reward for the loser: Survival and placement back into their universe at the time of their removal.

- - -

 

Battle begins in 10 minutes.

 

"Yes, that is indeed new." Virgil said. "There have been instances in the past of great army battles, but that does not normally occur until the fourth or sometimes fifth battle."

"Okay, okay. So, do we have ideas on which three we should pick? Also, why aren't the primigenials here?"

"They are connected to you and not tied directly to the protocol, so they cannot be translocated to the Creator wars. As for the chosen entities, I defer judgement to my fellow assistant Rimi here."

"Hi!" The blue squirrel said with an excited wave. "This is super cool Walker. I love love love it! That stuff just appeared as if by magic, but I didn't see any magic! Wow!" His breathing was quite fast, so he took a moment to collect himself before saying, "So, yeah, I think we should pick the original Battlefrog, one of the Guardians, and one of the Scorpions or Mini-Manticores."

"Why one of each?" Walker asked. "The guardians are arguably the most powerful of our entities as they all sit at tier four. We could just drop all of them in and probably be okay if we assume the other Creator to be as dumb as Virgil thinks."

"Well, I think we should go for variety just in case something that works directly against pure magic appears. This way, each of our monsters has a chance of winning using their own strength."

"No, I see your point and I agree. I know just who to pick from the Battlefrogs. We recently had a run-in with each other."

"Was it bad?" Rimi asked worriedly.

"No, but he wasn't the most welcoming. We can use any of the Guardians really so why not go with Chipper so we can see some pure mage badassness." He said, slamming a fist against his palm. "But, I don't want to use the mini-manticores. Before you ask, I'm worried they're too stupid or aggressive. So instead, let me ask you, Rimi, as you've been watching them all from the start. Are the scorpions a good choice for this? Are they like the Manticores?"

"No." He replied. "They're a bit territorial thus far, but for the most part, they have a tendency to only eat and kill when they need to. Also, their carapace is quite powerful and it is very difficult for anything to break through them. No Manticores have survived an engagement with them."

"Outstanding. Virgil, how do I do this."

As Walker asked that, a screen appeared and showed all of his entities at once. Virgil gave a wave with his wrist to point out that the system was already working with Walker, then started to study the portals, quietly talking to his junior counterpart. Walker focused on what the protocol was showing him.

The screen was overwhelming as it showed every plant and bush in Symphony. Thousands. Thankfully, the system had a filter option near the top, so Walker clicked it and selected animals right after. The list appeared and showed all of the prey animals he'd placed as general food, so he further increased the filter to only include animals found within the Monster System. The protocol generated his entities, and as he zoomed in on each a holographic representation showed them in all of their glory. He zoomed out to view the totality of his specially designed entities, and from Battlefrogs to Mini-manticores he counted over 100 already.

"Moving right along." Walker said with a smile. He clicked on the golden Battlefrog and unsurprisingly found that it was already at tier five albeit without a territory as that system was not in place yet. The Battlefrog, for lack of a better word, was stuck at its current tier. Its Kernel was still there and could still gain in magical density, but there was nowhere for its future evolutions to go until they created higher tiers. That was the bane and benefit of creating a system-bound evolution system. It was controlled, but there were upper plateaus that couldn't be reached until they had time to dive in and build more. He moved its image to one of the three empty slots at the top of his screen and it slotted in with a chime.

The former teacher scrolled past all of the Manticores. Some of them were tier three, and a few were tier four, but very few. It seemed their propensity for violence was too catastrophic for their own good. Still, semi-reliable threats were a good way to keep the citizens of Symphony on their toes, and not allow them to become complacent with respect to sudden danger. Peace must have a price, or it would be lost to inner turmoil over time. As the saying goes, "Rome fell from within."

He left the second slot for one of the Scorpions. Walker scrolled through them until he found the biggest and meanest-looking one on his screens. He slotted it into its spot, and another chime rang out.

Walker couldn't find the Guardians, so he changed his filter from animals within the Monster System to sapients, and there they were. He scrolled through until he found Chipper, the original mana tree protector. He slid it over next to the first two, and rather than a chime, a loud strike of thunder burst into the air.

 

Dante's selection round is now complete.

 

The moment Walker completed his selection, another strike of thunder hit the sky. Walker looked across the way at the gesticulating four-armed insect man. It was still acting out a crude pantomime of what Walker assumed was meant to be provocative. Was it interested in procreating with him maybe? How would that even work?

 

Crratch's selection round is now complete.

Creators, you now have one minute to apply any available abilities to your entities.

 

Walker clicked his Alpha ability, and selected each of his chosen entities in the overlay. The Alpha ability would make each smarter, stronger, and faster. The only restriction it had, was that he could only place one on a single entity per genus. Since he had picked the three strongest from each already, it was easy to use. Although, he was a little worried about making Chipper smarter than it already was. But, in the end, if he didn't win here it was all over anyway.

This wasn't a repeat of the Slicer. They had a plan, they had safeguards in place. It was all up to his creations now. They had to win.

 

Both Creators have submitted their entities and their chosen abilities.

In three seconds, the creator's entities will enter their assigned sectors and will be forced to defend them.

Upon completion of this battle, any of the winner's entities who have perished will be revived and placed back in their home world.

The totality of all resources for the losing Creator will go to the winner, with the exception of their bloodline.

The translocation of all entities will begin in three seconds.

 

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