The Clone put these thoughts on hold agin. There was still something that wasn't quite adding up. He started asking very pointed questions.

  Who sent the impulse that released the concealed memory?

  Unable to delineate specific spirit being source of instigating energy. Suspect obfuscation due to transmission through high levels of cultivatory shielding or less likely, from Immortal Ka attempting to mimic a mortal source.

  Do you know who Zenyak owes this debt to or the circumstances surrounding its creation.

  Negative. All information and probability calculations relating to the likely individual has been deleted from my awareness.

  The Clone’s could feel his eyes bulging out at the impossibility of what the Combi had just stated. Being a construct of Immortal Ka it was a union of all Reality past and present in the iteration that it was currently in. Moreover, it was involnerable to any mortal force that would be insane enough to risk compromising it. The Clone scalded the Combi with his interal scrutiny as he said just this.

  Thats ridiculous! There is no mortal force that could do such a thing–

  But that wasn’t completely true...

  There was one mortal force that could do such a thing.

  And it’s name was Goro Masamune.

  The Clone reached out his mental awareness to connect with Masamune. The undisputed master of mechanical AI as well as its interface potential with Karmic Reality. The old hermit had been far more cultivationally advanced that Zenyak had been at the time of the Original’s Transcendance. For unvoiced reasons, Masamune had refused to Transcend. Choosing instead to remain in the mortal realms and concentrate on his work. Which he never really shared with anyone in great detail. As stern and hard edged as Zenyak could be, it was undisputed that the Original had learned all of his lessons concerning flinty-grimness from Masamune. For the first time in his individual existence the Clone felt butterflies in his stomach as a mental conection was made–

  Masamune’s towering face filled the void infront of the Clone. His avatar was dwarfed with a frowning visage the size of a solar system. Masamune’s heavy hood had been pulled back to reveal his very infrequently seen thinning grey hair and narrow, age lined face. A dark glimmer shone behind his black eyes as he spoke immediately.

  “Yes clone, I did delete the Karmic probability reasoning of your Combi.”

  “I–”

  “No, I will not tell you what is was.”

  “Ha–”

  “No, I haven’t deleted anything else.”

  “Wh–”

  “However, I will tell you why I deleted the Combi’s Karmic probability analysis.” The Clone leaned back and just listened. Stopping trying to get a word in edgewise with his former mentor. It was pointless and the Clone new for bitter experience that if he continued to attempting it, Masamune would get testy at the failed interruptions.

  “Untangling this mess remotely with the Combi’s probability assessments of who the debt is owed will let you clear up Zenyak’s problem, but it will result in very suboptimal Reality outcomes for the rest of us in this and most surrounding iterations.” Masamune’s eyes narrowed. If it was possible, the wrinkled curmudgeon took on an even more serious countenance. “Zenyak’s Karmic Debtor deserves much better than that. And you are going to give it. You will do the leg work on this. Determine who the debt is owed and probability predictions all agree that you will repay the debts that that deadbeat owes the rest of us.

  Ah–

  “Stop interupting me Clone. Your keeping me from getting real work done.” Masamune said dryly as his looked hard into the Clone’s eyes. The Clone dry swallowed as Masamune went back to his previous just intensely irritated expression. “I had been attempting to deal directly with your Originator, but he has seen fit to have removed himself from my reach at this critical time. Fix this problem. Do not recontact me until you have determined to whom and how you will repay this debt.”

  The AI-mechanical-Karma Master’s enormous face disappeared flatly. Leaving behind the ominous resonance of undisputed superiority the Clone had never quite forgotten from his previous times with Masamune.

  The Clone puffed out his cheeks as he exhaled the breath he had been uncousnously holding. That had actually gone much better than he had thought it would. His old master was requiring him to solve the mystery with some old school detective work. And not just resolve Zenyak’s debt, but to achieve an optimal Reality plateau for this iteration and the surrounding cuboid.

  Immortal or not…there was no opposing Masamune in his home iteration. The Clone was wise enough to know that.

  OK… lets get to work.

  Affirmative.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Immortal influence had been ruled out. A high-level cultivator, then. I’ll have to backtrack through the memory to find a lead.

  As a starting point, it made logical sense that whoever had saved Zenyak for his mortal death was the being he owed the debt to. If true, obtaining the savior’s identity would be the first step in finding out what debt was owed and how to repay it. The Combi had had some information which would have atleast set the Clone on a direct path to this. Apparantly a quick resolution to this problem would have left the rest of the iteration and cuboid in the lurch…For Masamune to care about this, it would have to be pretty severe. His old mentor’s interest alone told him how the stakes were. Fixing this problem was his primary priority. If the iteration was to fail, undoubtedly his two wards would go down with it…that was not acceptable.

  I need to know who save Zenyak.

  But the Clone had problems on two fronts. First, the Clone’s memories were untrustworthy. Especially given the Combi’s admission that Zenyak had concealed ‘many memories’. Odds are that they would be recollections surrounding the very memory he was trying to unravel. The second issue was that the Clone knew that there were no likely candidates still living at that time who were strong enough to have saved Zenyak. Atleast not if the fight is what he believe it to be: The last stand of the living against the Undead Sky Commendant, Zelviz. All of the iteration’s advanced-level cultivators and quasi-immortal beings had already been expunged prior to the final fight with Zelviz. The price that had been paid in lives in order to whittle Zelviz down to a killable state had been too high. The entire elder leadership of the Iteration had been destroyed.

  All had been lost– yes Masamune himself had been alive back then. And although his old master was as uncomfortable as whiping your behind with a piece of 80 grit sand paper, he wasn’t a direct combatant. Elusive and uncatchable because of his great knowledge of this iteration and his unique understanding of Karma, Balance, and Reality for sure. Even Zelviz had saved him for last, perhaps the Sky Comendant himself would have come to some form of compromise with the AI-Mechanical master. But Masamune would not have taken the field directly under any circumstances. Lack of adequate forces had been the whole reason Qasir had apprenticed Zenyak to Masamune and the two had worked together, dedicating huge quantities of their own cultivations to create Intelligence and its fleet of battle drone avatars to stand at Zenyak’s side.

  No. Zenyak had been the last one standing with the personal strength to face the Sky Commandant in direct combat. And the freshly revealed memory showed how well that had been going, didn’t it… Well, when you can’t answer a question…ask someone else…Combi, who was the being that saved Zenyak in the fragmented memory.

  Unknown. Information has been delited and is currently not available.

  Generate a list of likely candidates with sufficient mortal power to do so from your memory pool of the end of the Necro War.

  Null set. None of sufficient power were still alive. Zenyak was the last living mortal being who had adequate strength to even stand in his presence at the end of the final battle.

  So, I have an ancient mystery wrapped in a Karmic debt so great that, if left unbalanced, it will result in Iterational level insults to an unstable cuboidal power-swilling maniac. And the riddle has to be solved without any significant probability predictions from my Combi as to who triggered the memory or who saved Zenyak in the battle he owes the debt to. Does that about sum it up?

  Affirmative.

  Great. It’s time to go.

  The only lead they had was where the tachyon burst had come from. He would start there.

  The Clone repositioned his core to one astronomical unit outside the neo zoi the Combi had identified as the source of the tachyon signal. He willed his new reality into fulfillment and translocated.

  Starlight in the infrared spectrum flooded all around him as Destruction’s Desolation was left behind, and he appeared in the billowing gaseous disk whirling around the target neo zoi. Even his layman stellar skills could tell that this star, and the multitudes within several hundred light years, were on the edge of eruption into nuclear fusion. Ready to jump into flaming existence coalescing into life-bearing sources of light.

  A small smile crossed the Clone’s usual stoic expression as he compared the feeling of permeating growth ready to spring out from every corner of the Creaturix with the memories of his last visit. When he and Qasir had informed a novice Child Matron about the passing of her sister and the diabolic plot to force her hand to destroy everything her and her subjects had loved… “Good for you Gaia. I’m very glad your people are finally coming out on the other side.”

  At this distance, it was child’s play for his Combi to identify the source of the original signal. Just glancing over the fledgling star’s surface, he identified the relatively powerful auras of several of the ruling generation of Star Children. Any of whom may well have had the capacity to launch the tachyon signal at his avatar’s brain. This included Gaia herself, who was also present in the star’s corona. She was apparently having some minor disagreement with one of her vassals. At least her hand pulling his heart from his chest seemed to indicate less than completely friendly diplomatic relations at the current time.

  The Clone smirked at the thought of the child he remembered from their first meeting having grown to a point capable of carrying out a stealthy brain attack against him. Some perceptions would always be shaded by your first impressions, no matter how time passed or the evidence one gained to the contrary. In some ways Gaia would always be that little girl he and his master had thrown to the wolves for the greater good. The Clone sighed and looked in the general discretion of the Tilk Ramadi’s former home galaxy. “Not our finest moment Qasir. Karmically enforced or not, we will always owe the Olympians for our roughshod tactics that day.” Qasir agreed with silence, long having moved on to the mortal Soul Nexus.

  Given Gaia’s actual presence here, his visit to the Star Children would be best started with a preliminary audience with her. Both for protocol’s sake on the off chance there was need to overcome any resistance from the perpetrator, as well as for simplicity. The Mother of the Star Children was, after all, a trusted ally. She may well have an idea of why one of her nobles could have sent the tachyon burst—

  Foul rot blasted from the Aztec vassal’s core as Gaia stripped its outer layer. The repulsive aura of the long eradicated undead scourge entering his thoughts so much lately completely saturated the entire Creaturix and forced the Clone’s emotions to ramp up in shock. At the unimaginable threat, he reacted like any alpha wolf having just seen the tail of a mountain lion streaking after its newborn pups. He went completely insane.

  ZELVIZ!?! WHEN?!? HOW?!? Monosyllabic questions flying through the Clone’s mind as instinct reflexively cycled his reserves of Immortal Ka. That cancer needs to be destroyed at all costs! I’ll detonate the Creaturix! His fists clenched in rage as the surplus of Transcendent Immortal energies made the Clone’s body glow brighter than any of the celestial bodies in the visible void. Light bent and folded around his avatar, as his mind screamed in challenge. Lines of Space/Time buckling under the strain of his acivatd power.

  I’LL COLLAPSE THIS ENTIRE ITERATION!!!

  PEACE CLONE! STAND DOWN! The Combi forced its voice to be heard in the Clone’s racing mind. If resetting the iteration were the extent of Zenyak’s debt, He would have hardly needed to block your memory. He could have performed it in a nonce.

  The Clone’s eyes bulged out at the Combi’s interruption, but the wisdom was undeniable.

  Continue. Was all he managed to mentally utter. The brilliance of his avatar fading as he regained momentary control and returned the bulk of Zenyak’s Ka kernel to his core.

  It’s hardly a coincidence that you have a concealed memory of the final battle with Zelviz immediately preceding the detection of his presence upon arrival to this neo zoi. It bespeaks direct Karmic intervention. Probability predictions estimate an 89.997 percent likelihood that the best course of action for this iteration is to determine how the Sky Commandant’s decay is related to Zenyak’s Karmic debt. It is also just common sense to track the extent of the infestation before consuming your entire power base to reset this universe to a singularity.

  Agreed. The Clone conceded less bitterly. Now was the time to eliminate each infected target individually. Thus, guarantying complete eradication. There would be better achieved with single pulses from an nucleus carbine than trying to exterminate all of the vermin at once with a volley of Sun Crushers. The former was almost a guaranteed way to allow some targets to escape.

  Our first steps will be to track the Karmic ties binding the minion Gaia was about to expunge. It may well be possible to track him back to the root of this infestation.

  The Clone did. The network of mucky obsidian interconnections spread around the neo zoi like a putrid spiderweb. There was a definitive center with the largest concentration of vile death, clearly marking out the likely source of Zelviz’s returned malignancy.

  The Clone narrowed his eyes and studied the Star Child in question with a penetrating gaze that was in danger of alerting the being.

  The Combi again stepped in, Proceed as originally planned to an audience with Gaia. Recommendation: Leave all actors in place until our primary mission of restoring Karmic Balance for Zenyak is achieved. Until we know who his debt is to, we can’t afford to eliminate any of them.

  The Clone shifted his core to Gaia’s throne room and translocated through the Way.