The wooden box felt heavier than a mountain in Kaelen Thorne's hands.
It was plain cedar with no markings or runes.
Yet the rhythmic thudding coming from inside vibrated through Kaelen's mechanical brass knuckles and into his very soul.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
It was a sound Kaelen hadn't heard in ten years: the beat of a heart that was not a digital seal or a mana-battery.
It was the sound of his own mortality.
The Multiversal Mailman adjusted his brown cap and clicked his pen.
Sign here please Mr. Thorne.
The delivery of 'Past Due Biological Assets' requires a biometric confirmation.
Kaelen did not move his eyes from the box.
Lia Sinclair and Silas Vesper stood behind him their breaths held in a tense silence.
The golden bridge of the IRS ship felt like it was shrinking.
Is that... what I think it is? Silas whispered his daggers trembling.
It is the heart I left in the mud of Seoul Kaelen said his voice a hollow echo.
It is the original collateral for my existence.
Kaelen pressed his thumb to the mailman's clipboard.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
[ASSET ACCEPTED: THE ALPHA HEART]
[NOTICE: YOU HAVE RECLAIMED A 'PRIOR LIQUIDATION' LOSS]
[WARNING: TEMPORAL SYNC IN PROGRESS]
The lid of the box flew open.
The heart did not just sit there.
It was suspended in a pool of thick black blood that looked like liquid ink.
From the muscle of the heart thousands of translucent white threads erupted.
They didn't go toward the world.
They went toward Kaelen.
I want my second life back.
The message written on the bottom of the box began to glow with a sickly green light.
Suddenly the bridge of the ship dissolved.
Kaelen was no longer standing in the Gear City.
He was back in the rain.
He was back in the gutter in Seoul with a vibro-blade between his ribs.
He was looking at his own dying face.
You think you are the Architect? the Dying Kaelen spoke his eyes milky with the approach of death.
You think you can just take my memories and build a skyscraper on my grave?
The Dying Kaelen reached out a hand made of grey ash.
You are a fraud Kaelen Thorne.
You are a copy of a copy.
And I am here to collect the Copyright on your Soul.
[CRITICAL ALERT]
[IDENTITY THEFT IN PROGRESS]
[THE ALPHA TIMELINE IS FILING A 'TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENT' ON YOUR EXISTENCE]
Kaelen felt his charcoal suit begin to turn back into the tattered Rank F logistics uniform.
His [Crown of the Debtor] began to rust and crumble.
His Influence Points were draining into the black blood of the heart at a rate of one million per second.
Master! Silas's voice echoed from a distance but it sounded like it was coming from underwater.
Kaelen gripped the edges of the box as his vision began to fade into a muddy grey.
He was being deleted by his own past.
The Alpha Kaelen wasn't just a ghost.
He was the Original Debt Holder.
In the eyes of the Multiversal Market the version of Kaelen that suffered and died was the 'Primary Account'.
The regressed Kaelen was just a 'Sub-Account'.
And the Primary Account was now demanding a Total Withdrawal.
You died so I could win! Kaelen shouted into the rain.
I am the one who bankrupted the Gods!
And you used my pain to do it the Dying Kaelen hissed.
You used my betrayals as your market data.
You sold my tragedy for Influence Points.
Now give me the Ledger.
I want to see what my life was worth.
Kaelen felt his hands reaching for the Ledger against his will.
His body was recognizing the Alpha Kaelen as the True Owner.
But as the black book began to pass into the grey hands of the ghost a violet flash cut through the rain.
Lia Sinclair appeared in the vision her void aura clashing with the grey reality of the past.
She didn't look at the Dying Kaelen.
She looked at the box in the present.
Lia! Kaelen gasped his lungs filling with the smell of wet earth.
Mr. Thorne Lia's voice rang out like a bell.
The Ledger belongs to the Boss!
And right now I'm the Boss!
Lia Sinclair didn't try to fight the ghost.
She lunged at the heart in the box and wrapped it in a violet void shroud.
[SKILL ACTIVATED: VOID ESCROW]
[EFFECT: PLACING THE ALPHA HEART UNDER A 'LEGAL FREEZE']
The rain in Kaelen's vision stopped.
The Dying Kaelen let out a scream of frustration as he was pulled back into the heart.
You cannot keep me in a box forever! the ghost roared.
I am the foundation of everything you are!
The vision shattered.
Kaelen found himself back on the bridge of the IRS ship gasping for air on his hands and knees.
His charcoal suit was intact but he felt a coldness in his chest that hadn't been there before.
Lia Sinclair stood over him holding the wooden box which was now encased in a pulsing violet sphere.
I've placed it in Escrow Mr. Thorne Lia said her voice trembling.
But I can't hold it for long.
The heart is trying to eat the void.
Kaelen stood up slowly and wiped the golden blood from his chin.
He looked at the mailman who was still standing there waiting for a tip.
Who sent this? Kaelen asked his voice a lethal whisper.
The mailman tipped his cap.
The sender's address was listed as The Archive of Failed Realities.
But the postage was paid by a user named Vane.
Kaelen's eyes glowed with a terrifying obsidian light.
Vane.
The rival regressor hadn't just tried to kill Kaelen with the ocean.
He had gone into the trash of the multiverse and found the one thing Kaelen couldn't ignore: his own original failure.
He didn't send a bomb Kaelen said.
He sent a Prior Lien.
If that heart stays in my vicinity it will continue to drain my authority until I am nothing but a Rank F ghost.
Vane wants to prove that I'm just a fluke of the system.
Silas Vesper stepped forward his daggers humming.
We have to destroy it Master.
We have to burn the Alpha Timeline.
No Kaelen said looking at the box.
You can't burn a debt Silas.
You can only Refinance it.
Kaelen turned to the computer of the IRS ship.
Plutus was still lying on the floor his golden eyes dull and lifeless.
Kaelen grabbed the man by his pinstripe collar and dragged him to the terminal.
Plutus Kaelen said.
I know you're still in there.
I need you to do one last thing for me.
The bankrupted CFO looked up his face a mask of broken gears.
What... what now?
I want you to use the IRS's 'Direct Connection' to the Archive of Failed Realities Kaelen commanded.
I want to file a Merger of Timelines.
Plutus let out a rattling laugh.
A merger? You want to combine yourself with the man who died?
The mental load will shatter your brain Kaelen!
It won't shatter if I distribute the load Kaelen said.
Kaelen looked at the million students of the Shadow Scholarship.
He looked at the mercenaries of the Void Swarm.
And he looked at Lia.
I'm not just merging my soul Kaelen said.
I'm merging the History of the Apocalypse.
I am going to take the tragedy of the Alpha Timeline and turn it into the 'Initial Public Offering' of the new world.
I'm going to make every person who died in the first life a Preferred Shareholder in the second.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
[PLAN DETECTED: THE GREAT RECONCILIATION]
[OBJECTIVE: MERGE THE ALPHA AND BETA TIMELINES]
[RISK: TOTAL PERSONALITY DISSOLUTION]
[REWARD: TRUE SOVEREIGNTY OVER TIME]
Kaelen took the box from Lia.
He looked at the beating heart through the violet void.
You want your life back? Kaelen whispered to the heart.
Then you're going to have to work for it.
Kaelen Thorne pressed the heart against his own chest.
The golden seal on his heart-seal didn't crack this time.
It opened like a bank vault.