Editing Reailty Book 3, Chapter 15: One Choice

Editing Reality

Book Three: Naughty Fantasies Unleashed

Chapter Fifteen: One Choice

By mypenname3000

Copyright 2019

Note: Thanks to WRC264 for beta reading this.

Steve Davies

“A god,” I said. The word rippled through my soul. I had set things up to be hero-worshiped, for the entire world to see me as something more than them, but to hear my wife say it was intoxicating I glanced down at my phone, at the power it held.

So many edits left…

We used to be good Christians, but then we learned about all of this truth. How the Most High operated. Things changed. And now… Now we were flirting with crossing the line into blasphemy. It was a heady rush. I stroked my wife’s face. I stared into her eyes and—

Light exploded around us.

My wife clung to me. She screamed but I couldn’t hear any sound. The light drowned it out. It rang with a note of pure creation. I pulled her tight against me, my hand gripping my phone. She pressed tight, clinging to me as the light surged us up and up and up.

What was going on? What was this?

The light burst from us and washed like a brilliant liquid through a room that now around me. It was like the light formed the floor, walls, and ceiling. It echoed and reverberated with the fading of a ringing bell. Gold reflected around us. Everything had this stunning radiance, all made of the purest substance on the world. Columns studded with gemstones lay everywhere. Tourmalines, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, amethysts, topazes, and other precious stones twinkled around us.

Linda clung to me as I whirled around, searching for something. In the corner, cloaked in smoke and fire, a presence sat upon a throne. The form hidden inside was impossible to see. Flickers of lightning crackled from the swirling flames and whirling fumes. The majesty radiating from it had me trembling in awe. It had my knees knocking and trembling.

Beside the throne, another figure stood, cloaked in light, a brilliant figure that shone like the rising sun, a star blazing in the morning. The figure turned to us, something in its face flickering with this smug radiance. I could get the impressions of arms crossed, eyes focusing on us.

“Steve,” whimpered Linda.

“The gallery is empty,” the figure cloaked in flame and smoke said. His voice boomed and roiled through the entire room, feeling it. “My Council has abdicated. Do you know anything about this, Steven?”

I swallowed. We stood before the Most High, his form obscured from us. The bible said none could see God’s true appearance and survive. It melted the minds of humans, too much for us to comprehend. We must be in his hall. We were in heaven.

My stomach melted with fear.

“Answer.”

“Yes,” I said, trembling.

Linda whimpered and groaned. Her fingers dug into my arms, fingernails biting into my flesh.

“Did I not send you a warning against this? Did I not promise consequences if you stole any more of my servants?”

“You did,” I said. “Through Sandalphon.”

“And you thought that if you had him under your power, that I would be impotent to act against you?”

“I was told I could do as I will,” I said, lifting my head. “So I did. I made decisions to change things. Your servants were the fastest way. Look what I have done to the world. With my influence, things will become better. Poverty and human-inflicted suffering will be things of the past. No children will go to sleep hungry. No homeless shall die in the cold through neglect. Humans will care for each other and stop being selfish!”

“You had the power to do that without taking any more of my servants.”

“Two cities a day? That would take a lifetime to affect everyone in the world.”

“You could have given yourself such a lifetime. You could have had the patience to work within your limits. You had constraints, and you chose to break them.”

“You gave me the power to break them.” I held up my phone. “Right here. You put this in my hand. The power of creation. That’s what you gave me. The power to remake anything I wanted. You can’t complain that I used it to the fullest. You’re the one that made it possible for me to take control of your servants. For them to give me more power. Why else would you do that if I wasn’t supposed to use them?”

“These are not the crimes we are here to judge,” said the figure glowing with brilliance. His voice had a cruel delight to it. This haughtiness. “Steven, your actions are not your own. You are merely a puppet for the crimes of your wife.”

Linda tensed.

“My wife?” I glanced at Linda. Her face had gone deathly pale. She stared at me with this look of helpless horror. “What did you do, Linda? What could you have possibly done to cause us to be here?”

“Steve,” she said, her voice tight and hoarse.

I threw a look at this other voice. He was as brilliant as the morning star. Was this Lucifer? Was the Devil standing before us accusing my wife of some misdeed? “I’m the one who edited Sandalphon. I’m the one who wouldn’t let anything stand between changing the world. I knew it was wrong, and I didn’t care. It was the fastest way to help everyone. To make the world into a better place. I’m the one who sinned, not her.”

“You have done that. It is an admiral act, but it wasn’t your will that accomplished it. Linda imposed her will upon you just as you have imposed your will upon billions.”

“Linda?” I glanced at my wife again. “What is he talking about? What is going on?”

She broke away from me. Her entire body trembled. She had this look of hopeless fear on her face. She clutched her hands to her chest. Fingers knitted together as she clasped them tight. Her breasts jiggled before her. Her breath quickened. The vein in her neck pulsed.

“Steve…” she croaked. “I did it for us. I did it so we could have more. So we could help everyone.”

“Do what?” I demanded, growing angry. “What did you do? What could you have possibly done to me?”

“She edited you.”

The Most High’s words echoed through the golden hall. It rippled around the columns. It spilled over me. I stood up against it, weathering it. Confusion rippled through me. I stared at my wife, pleading with her to explain.

“Linda?” I reached out to her. “What are they talking about?”

“The… the… app appeared on my phone,” said Linda. “Right after you beat Seth. It was your app, but different. It had one single edit, but I could do it to anyone, even someone protected. Even to you.”

My brow furrowed. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

She glanced at the glowing figure. At Lucifer. “It came from Hell. From a demon. Lilith. She spent days tempting me. She tried to get me to use it selfishly. Tried to make me jealous of you.” She darted forward and grabbed my hands. She gripped me tight. She had this wild desperation in her eyes. This look of hopeless panic that rose from her soul. “She wanted me to build a harem of schoolgirl sluts. To make myself powerful. She whispered in my ear that I could make you obey me. That I could rule the world through you. I didn’t. I held off. I wasn’t selfish. I did what I could for our family. Not me. Us!”

“What did you do?” I demanded.

“You wisely rejected your wife’s suggestion to find Sandalphon’s true name. She merely saw a shortcut to power while you were tempered by caution. You were content to work in the constraints I placed upon you. And then she edited you.”

“Through my Lilith, your wife made it so you found Sandalphon’s true name, changing your history, and then put in the desire that you would do anything to change him. To fix the world. Look for yourself. See what she did to you.”

I grabbed my phone and opened the editing app. This boiling anger rippled through me. She had edited me. I had done it to her. I shouldn’t be mad, but I had come clean. When she edited me, I was open to her. She was my partner. She could have come to me and told me what she had. What she could do with it. We could have figured it out for ourselves.

We both wanted to take over the world. We knew we needed Sandalphon’s name. I hadn’t hesitated at all to use it.

I found my profile. EDITED BY THE MOST HIGH.

“There’s nothing here that says Linda edited me,” I said. “It just says you edited me, Most High.”

“That’s how my app works. It’s insidious. A hack upon the world. If it left obvious traces, it wouldn’t be effective, but it can’t hide the traces. You’ll see them. You know how new desires stand out.”

Desires…

I hit the Spiritual Menu and then Desires Sub-Menu. It opened up and I scanned it. They were all normal save one. One that stood out in bold. It was a new one. My heart clenched as I read this edited desire.

• Steve Davies desires to take over the world and remake it in his image. He will not let anything stop him from doing that. No fear of threats even from Sandalphon will dissuade him.

I glanced at my wife. “Did you put this in me?”

“You… You didn’t want to use Sandalphon,” Linda said. She gave me this pleading look. “It was clear to me that we had to. We would never be safe if we had his sword hanging over our heads. Our family would never find happiness so long as we were under the threat of death. What else could I do, Steve? I had the chance to fix you.”

“Without talking to me?”

Anger flared in her expression. “You edited me without talking to me. You made me enjoy incest.