The healing took longer than expected. E.D.E.N. warned me not to move, and for once, I listened. My ribs were knitting together, torn muscle regenerating, and every nerve ending still burned with the memory of Metatron's holy spear ripping through me. But pain was a good thing. It meant I was still alive.
"Vitals stabilizing. Neural activity returning to baseline," E.D.E.N. reported, her voice soft, clinical, and oddly reassuring.
I took a breath and sat up. The Garden of Eden—no metaphor, no allegory—stretched out around me. Verdant trees, golden light filtering through enormous leaves, birdsong harmonizing with the gentle rush of a stream in the distance. For a moment, I forgot the mission. Forgot the gods. Forgot the Devourer.
"Where is he?" I asked.
"Scanning... subject Nº 00000000001 located approximately 0.7 kilometers east. Biometric confirmation matches the database record for Original Adam."
I nodded. "E.D.E.N., cloak me. Full sensory dampening."
"Cloaking engaged."
I moved silently, weaving through brush and fruit trees, until I heard voices—raised, sharp.
"You are revolting! Absolutely revolting! I would never submit to you!" a woman screamed.
I crouched behind a thick fern, heart rate steady. Two figures stood in a clearing: one a lean, smug-faced man with golden hair and the kind of arrogance you'd expect from someone who believed the world had been made for him. The other—a woman. Olive skin kissed by the sun, long black hair flowing freely down her back. Fierce eyes, sharp with intellect and fury. She was glorious.
"God made you for me," the man snapped back. "You're my wife, Lilith. That's your role. You belong to me."
She laughed bitterly. "We were made at the same time, from the same earth. I'm not yours. I'm not property."
She turned on her heel, spat a string of curses in a dialect even E.D.E.N. struggled to translate, and stormed off into the trees.
Adam—the original—stood there fuming.
I stepped out of the shadows, letting the sun hit my face. He turned fast, startled, his expression shifting to confusion, then fear.
"Who—? Are you an Angel?" he asked, backing up slightly.
I smirked. "No. Worse. I'm a human."
He frowned. "But you're... older than me. Bigger. What are you doing here?"
"I came from the future," I said, approaching slowly. "I came to stop this nightmare before it begins."
"What nightmare?"
"The gods. Those damn bastards ruin everything, all because of this cosmic world eater. The Great Devourer. You don't know it yet, but this whole divine setup is a long con. The gods feed on us—literally. In the year 3000 they put their plan into effect and every ten years, they sacrifice 100,000 humans to a monster so they can keep their lives."
Adam looked horrified for a split second, then his face hardened.
"Then humanity must've deserved it. If they displeased the gods—"
I stopped dead.
"What did you just say?"
"The gods created us. If people angered them, it's their own fault. They should've been better."
I stared at him. This man... this was humanity's origin? Blind obedience? Divine bootlicking?
Something snapped.
My fist hit his face before I even processed the motion. Bone cracked. Adam crumpled to the ground with a choked grunt, holding his jaw.
"You pathetic little sheep," I growled. "You'd watch your people burn and call it divine justice? You don't deserve to be the first of us."
He spat blood and looked up at me, stunned.
"You'll thank me later," I muttered.
I stood over him, chest heaving. Somewhere in the canopy, birds had gone silent. Even the garden seemed to hold its breath.
E.D.E.N. broke the silence. "That was... impulsive."
"That was necessary," I replied.
Adam groaned, rolling onto his side.
I grabbed his wrist and started dragging him through the garden as
Adam, the so-called first man, kicked and shouted profanities the entire way, but I didn't care. Eden had already guided me toward a hidden cave just outside the Garden's inner ring, tucked beneath a small hill. The entrance was shielded by low-hanging ivy and roots, and I shoved the arrogant bastard inside like garbage.
"Eden," I muttered, catching my breath, "any of those books you scanned talk about… body transference?"
"Yes. One volume, The Body is a Vessel by Thoth, contains detailed methodology on spiritual extraction and integration."
"Download it. Now."
The pain hit immediately. The surge of data, concepts, rituals, diagrams—I braced against the cave wall, grinding my teeth as my brain roared with the influx. I clutched my skull, sweat pouring down my back as Eden fed me knowledge no human was meant to have. My breathing grew erratic as Thoth's voice—cold, methodical—outlined every step.
"Okay," I finally said, gulping down air. "Okay. We're doing this now."
Adam snarled at me from the floor, spitting blood. "You're mad… you're… you're not even divine. You're a pretender."
"You're not wrong," I muttered. "But I'm the one who's going to save humanity. You? You're just a failed experiment."
I moved quickly. A single strike to his temple dropped him cold.
I sat cross-legged across from his body. My own body—forty years of scars, of pain, of memory—sat behind me like a waiting grave. I let my breathing slow, let Eden begin the synchronization.
"Soul anchor stabilizing. Begin meditation to initiate separation."
I dropped into the silence. The void greeted me.
The astral plane unfolded like a black ocean. My soul lifted from its fleshy cage, a thread of silver light trailing behind me. I saw Adam's spirit too—bright, raw, undeveloped. He stirred unconsciously, his soul fluttering like a moth in the dark.
I focused. Following Thoth's instructions, I tore the silver thread from my own body and redirected it—fusing it into Adam's. It screamed against me at first. My body shuddered violently, teeth grinding as our essences collided.
Then came the battle.
Adam's soul fought me, scratching, roaring, biting in desperation. But I had hatred. I had a purpose. And I was not going to lose. I poured every ounce of willpower into crushing him down. The ancient ritual allowed for dominance—whoever had the strongest self-image, the greatest claim of existence, would reign.
And I reigned.
With one final burst of energy, I was inside.
Eyes opened.
Breath filled lungs that weren't mine.
Muscles flexed, foreign and powerful.
"Jesus," I whispered, blinking rapidly. "It… worked."
"Congratulations, Adam," Eden said gently. "You have successfully integrated the first man's body. Chakra paths are dormant but intact. Initiating restoration protocols."
I looked down at my new hands—clean, callous-free. Strong. Young. I stood and stumbled a few feet before turning to my old body.
"What do I do with that?"
"You must make contact to complete the full transfer. I will extract all remaining nanite networks."
I pressed my hand to my old chest.
A metallic shimmer spread from the point of contact. The liquid metal—Eden's physical form—began to bleed from the corpse like mercury, slithering up my arm like a serpent. It moved beneath my skin, merging with my nerves, wrapping around bones and muscles as if claiming ownership over this new vessel.
Pain surged again. White-hot fire. It lanced through me as Eden reconnected systems to this unblemished host.
"Integration successful. Final question: do you wish to preserve the original soul of Adam, or absorb it permanently into your consciousness?"
"Absorb it." I didn't hesitate.
"Confirmed."
I shivered as the last fragments of the original Adam—the arrogance, the loyalty, the weakness—were shredded and consumed. His memories sparked in my mind: his creation, the first sunrise, Lilith's scorn. Nothing that mattered.
"Eden…" I said, sitting down again. "Heal everything. Chakra pathways, brain synapses, bones, tissues. Then download all other books. All of them."
"Beginning upgrades. This process will be excruciating. Brace yourself."
I didn't even get to respond.
A fresh wave of pain slammed into me.
It was worse than any torture I'd ever endured. My nerves were molten. My brain felt like it was expanding in my skull. Centuries of martial arts, blacksmithing, hunting, assassination, magic, science—every discipline I had ever dreamed of mastering—was being pumped directly into my synapses. My body twitched. Convulsed. Muscles tore and healed. Bones snapped and reformed. My skin steamed.
"Do not resist," Eden said calmly. "Let the information root itself. Let the pain pass."
I let out a ragged, broken laugh.
"I've been resisting my whole damn life."
And then…
Darkness took me.
🙚🙛🙚🙛🙚🙘🙙🙘🙙🙘
I woke to the warmth of sunlight filtering into the cave and a dull ache behind my eyes. The kind of ache you get after living someone else's life—literally.
My back cracked as I sat up and groaned, the weight of my body shifting in ways it never had before. I glanced down and blinked. Damn. My chest was broader, arms thicker, and when I moved to stand, I had to duck my head to avoid hitting the top of the cave ceiling.
I grinned. "Well… hello, handsome."
"Good morning, Adam," Eden said, her voice crisp in my skull, the tone all too pleased. "Would you like me to initiate a full body scan?"
"Yeah," I said, stretching my arms out wide and rolling my neck. "Hit me with the stats."
"Height: 6 feet, 5 inches. Weight: 220 pounds. Body fat percentage: 8.3%. Build: Mesomorphic. Muscle fiber density: 138% above baseline human norm. Vascular structure and skeletal framework have also adapted to accommodate the neural influx of divine knowledge. You are… optimized."
I chuckled as I ran my fingers down my new forearm, veins prominent under tight, healthy skin. "Optimized, huh? That's one way of saying I look like a pure-blood now."
"There are similarities," Eden replied. "But you're still human. Just... an upgraded model."
I stepped away from the bed of leaves I'd collapsed onto after the transfer and turned toward my old body. It was pale now—ghostly, soulless. It looked smaller than I remembered, more fragile. Like a crumpled shell of who I used to be.
Strange. That body had been with me through so much—the apocalypse, the labs, the creation of Eden, and the first kill. And now it was nothing but meat and memory.
"What should I do with it?" I murmured, more to myself than Eden.
"May I offer a suggestion?" Eden asked, ever the helpful AI. "We're in a time period lacking forensic science and divine surveillance is currently minimal. Cremation would be simplest. There is a lava flow system two kilometers west of your current location. It runs beneath the Garden's perimeter. Accessible via a jagged pass through the stone ridge."
"Lava?" I blinked, then shrugged. "Why not. Seems poetic."
I hoisted my old body over my shoulder, surprised by how light it felt. Maybe I was just that much stronger now. Or maybe carrying my past had become easier to bear.
As I walked out of the cave, I could already feel my senses working overtime—my hearing more acute, the scent of flora stronger, even the feel of the soil beneath my feet more vivid. Everything was… louder. Realer.
I was alive again. More alive than I'd ever been.
The path to the lava flow was rough terrain, Eden guiding me with precision. A wall of volcanic stone carved a valley ahead, and the smell of sulfur tickled my nose as I approached. Molten rock flowed like hellfire through a jagged crack in the earth, hissing and bubbling as it moved.
"Are you sure this isn't going to mess with the timeline?" I asked, staring down at the glowing river.
"The original body has no role to play in the past. It is unregistered and anachronistic. Disposal here eliminates the risk of temporal contamination."
"Cold." I smirked. "I like it."
I set my old body down by the edge and knelt beside it for a moment. "Thanks for everything," I muttered, not sure who I was talking to. Myself? My past? The man I used to be?
Maybe all of them.
Then I rolled the body into the lava.
There was a sickening hiss, followed by a sudden plume of steam and ash. The flesh burned away instantly. Bones cracked and popped before vanishing into the bubbling inferno. No one would ever find a trace of the man I had been.
Good.
I turned and started walking back toward the garden, the heat fading behind me. "Alright, Eden. Give me a readout of what we've got."
"Of course. I have successfully downloaded the following texts into your cognitive database," Eden said, her voice switching to mission mode. "The Flow of Vital Energy – advanced chakra theory and control. How to Tame the Forge – foundational and divine blacksmithing. The Way of the Hunt – archery, tracking, and survival. The Silent Knife – assassination arts, author unknown. The Art of Eight Limbs – Muay Thai, authored by Hanuman. The Thousand Cuts of War – warfare and combat tactics, authored by Ares. The Body is a Vessel – anatomy and spiritual possession, by Thoth. The Immutable Will – discipline, meditation, and internal energy control, by Bodhidharma."
I let out a low whistle. "That's a hell of a syllabus."
"And we're just getting started," Eden replied. "I recommend beginning with stabilization meditation. Your neural pathways are still adjusting to the influx of divine knowledge and high-level motor skills."
"Yeah," I said, rubbing the sides of my head. "Still feeling like someone jackhammered my skull from the inside."
I made it back to the cave and sat cross-legged in the center, breathing slowly as I let Eden take over guiding my internal systems. She dimmed certain pain receptors, rerouted minor synaptic surges, and helped me find the silence within the storm.
The garden was calm outside—birds chirping, a breeze rustling through thick leaves. It was beautiful here, no question. Deceptively so. A paradise built atop lies, sacrifice, and control.
I wouldn't be lulled by its beauty. I knew better.
As I slipped into meditation, letting Eden handle the flow of power and knowledge across my meridians, I clenched my fists.