System Programmer

As Joshua's soul was being torn apart in the nightmare, Diana had used to opportunity to invade his soul world. Since Catherine had been trapped along with him, she could proceed without any obstacle in the way. Every time Joshua's form broke a bit in the dream, she would take over another part of his world.

Diana's appearance was no longer that of a little girl. Joshua's delusions had vastly transformed her body and feeding on his soul had rapidly accelerated her growth. Her upper body vaguely looked like an adult woman, although heavily deformed. Starting from her waist, she no longer had a body. Instead, a black liquid was flowing out of her with seemingly no limit. The liquid was slowly spreading over Joshua's world and was entering the various computers that were present there. Those machines suddenly fell under Diana's control, boosting her own abilities. She had long been aware of the system that was running in Joshua's soul. If she could devour Joshua's entire world, she would gain control over Luna. She found it fitting, Diana was named after Luna, after all.

Of course, devouring Joshua's soul was only the first phase of her plan. His soul was linked to Catherine's and already the liquid pouring out of her was bashing against the door leading to her world. If she could devour both souls, her power would be tremendous. She was sure that deep down, they would actually approve of this. After all, isn't it a parent's duty to give their child the best upbringing possible?

Diana smiled, it was just a matter of time now. Over 80% of Joshua's soul was currently submerged in the dark liquid. However, something unexpected happened. She was about to swallow the area where Joshua's laboratory was located but the liquid suddenly met an invisible wall. She frowned and glided near that area. Soon, she arrived at the area her liquid couldn't penetrate. She carefully put her clawed hand against it but grimaced as soon as she hit the invisible surface and retracted her hand in pain.

'What the hell is this? A remnant of Daddy's will?' she thought.

Her many eyes put all their focus on the barrier, trying to find what was its origin. It took a moment, but they began to notice a few letters appearing faintly here and there. In the end, they all seemed to form a single word.

'Dreams'

###

Inside the shack, Joshua looked at the goddess in front of him. Her words had triggered something inside him, yet he wasn't sure what. Catherine sat in front of Joshua's wretched form. She gently grabbed his head and put her face right opposite of his. Instinctively, he put his gaze away in shame.

"Look at me!" she ordered.

Slowly, Joshua raised his gaze and looked at her eyes. Her pupils had an unusual purple color which he couldn't help find beautiful.

"I know a man named Joshua Lockman. He's probably the smartest person I ever met. Time and time again he proved to me he had a solution for everything. I refuse to believe this is the end of your story. The Joshua I knew is much more capable than this. Please, remember who you truly are."

Remember…

Joshua absorbed those words without being sure of what they meant. Still, it was an order coming from a goddess. He could hardly refuse. If anything, it was probably worth it just to keep looking at the beautiful gaze of her eyes. That gaze… He knew of it… A long time ago he had met someone with a similar look in his eyes.

Suddenly, the scene around them changed. They were still in the shack but two figures had joined them. Joshua recognized one of them as his teenage self. The other was a figure that had no place in a nightmare but a special place in his heart. They were engaged in a never-ending conversation. The subject kept varying, they talked about science, philosophy, art,. . . How could he have forgotten this? Instinctively, Joshua's mouth began to move, mimicking the words his teenage self were saying. At first, he was repeating them with a slight delay, but soon he caught up to his younger version and even began talking before he did.

After what seemed to be hours, their talk finally came to an end. Young Joshua gave the man some money and the old man promised to repay him someday.

The scene changed again. A now adult Joshua was standing in the shack. His appearance was a mess, not unlike the wretched form that was observing the scene along with Catherine. Joshua was holding a knife with his right hand but any expression of despair had vanished from his face. Instead, he was watching at his phone in an incredulous way. I appeared he was watching an interview during a news broadcast. The spectators didn't see the screen but they recognized the voice of the man answering the questions. It was the same old man as in the previous scene.

"In the darkest phase of my life, I lost everything. Yet, I never gave up as I believed in my own abilities. However, success would not have been possible without a helping hand. I had the pleasure of meeting a remarkable young man who gave me the little push I needed to set me right back on track. His name? Well, I won't spoil the surprise. Someone of his caliber will be known around the whole world soon enough. In the end, all you need is someone believing in you and trust me, I believe he will surprise all of us very soon."

Those words of praise seemed to hit their mark on both Joshua's. The memory dropped the knife on the ground and began laughing and sobbing at the same time while Joshua's soul form stopped deteriorating. Instead, his expression altered relief and anger.

"Who dared to erase this from my mind?" he said out loud.

Joshua felt a warm pressure on his shoulder, turned his head and saw the goddess smiling at him. No, he should call her by name.

"Catherine, I'm sorry for dragging you into this," he said.

"You're finally remembering me, took you long enough," she answered.

Before he could answer, a new scene appeared. In the scene, Joshua appeared to be in the waiting room of a high-class company building. He was wearing a neat suit as well as a pair of unusual glasses. He was busy typing on a laptop sitting on his lap. Even when his fingers weren't touching the keyboard, his hands trembling.

"Come on, I can do this, the system works perfectly!" he kept telling himself.

A woman appeared in the room and told him:

"Mr. Lockman, the committee is ready."

Joshua swallowed his saliva and nodded.

"Thank you."

He followed the woman in a meeting room. There were about a dozen people there waiting for him. He politely greeted them but seeing all those serious gazes looking at him made him feel terrified. Nevertheless, he had to press on. The chairman of the committee began to speak:

"Mr. Lockman, we invited you here today due to the video and documents you sent us regarding the artificial intelligence chip you've been developing. While the project seems promising, many of our engineers looked at it and believe it to be a mere fantasy. You do, however, claim to have a working prototype of your project. Could you please demonstrate it to us?"

Joshua nodded and carefully began his explanation. The version of Luna installed in the pair of glasses he was carrying wasn't a finished product but it was competent enough to help him with the presentation and suggest how to reply to the various questions he was asked.

He used his laptop to show them several slides containing bullet points of information before handing the chairman the second prototype he had prepared so he could test the technology himself. What should have been a short presentation ended lasting over two hours as everyone on the table wanted to try out the system. In the end, everyone was enthusiastic about Luna and the chairman ended up saying:

"Mr. Lockman, your prototype is very convincing and could without a doubt revolutionize the market once finished. We would be honored if you accepted to work with us in order to make that a reality."

"O-of course! I accept!" Joshua replied with no hesitation.

"Good! This will require a big team and, of course, you'll be in charge of the project. We'll set up another meeting in a few days so we can over the details. Is that all right with you?"

Joshua nodded and the meeting ended soon after.

As he exited the building Joshua removed the pair of glasses he was wearing and looked at it while smiling.

"Me leading a team? I did it! Thanks to Luna, I finally look human enough to function normally!"

The scene ended and the Joshua left out a sigh.

"Catherine… I'm sorry, you deserved better than this," he told her.

Catherine looked at him confused and asked:

"What do you mean?"

"The day you summoned your guardian. You were supposed to get a great spirit to partner up with you and were disappointed you ended with a mere human. But as you can see now, I didn't even qualify to be referred to as a human being, did I? Without Luna, I'm nothing. "

He had barely finished pronouncing those words that he was slapped in the face.

"How can someone as smart as you say such stupid things?"

"But. . . you've seen what kind of pathetic person I am."

"I suppose you're right, the way you're looking at for the moment is truly pathetic. Where did all your brilliance go? That bizarre humor of yours? Your endless creativity? Indeed, if I remove those things that make you a wonderful being, then yes, you would be a piece of trash. But that's not who you are. You're my soul guardian. Show some freaking pride in your accomplishments!"

Before he could reply, Catherine suddenly leaned forward and kissed his lips. From Joshua's perspective, this really came out of nowhere and he didn't know how to react. He just stared at Catherine looking like an idiot.

Catherine put her hand against his cheek.

"Seriously, you made me a promise. You said that if an obstacle appeared in our way we would solve it together. That works both ways, not only when I face an issue. I know, this entire situation scared you a lot. But you can trust me, I will never turn my back on you. I believe that Joshua Lockman is a man capable of accomplishing impossible feats as long as he put his mind to it. And so should you."

Joshua took a step back and almost fell over. What just happened slowly sank into him.

###

Diana was getting frustrated by the barrier. Dreams? Such a word made her laugh. She was a nightmare, she would crush those and feed on the shattered ambition that came from them. She kept attacking the barrier, it would collapse soon enough and with that, she would devour the remaining of Joshua's soul.

Suddenly, a bright light appeared above Joshua's lab. Like a falling star, it smashed on the ground, creating a lot of smoke. Diana frowned. Was this a desperate attempt of her dear Daddy? It was located on the other side of the barrier so Diana had to wait for the smoke to disperse before she could see what just landed. When it finally happened, she couldn't help but look confused. Having fed on Joshua's soul, she had a vague idea of what this was but…

On the previously empty area, an enormous statue had appeared. It was a female figure, dressed in clothes that seemed to come straight from the Antiquity. An Earthian historian examining the statue would probably think it was designed to portray a Greek divinity like Athena or Aphrodite. But seeing the statue, Diana couldn't help to think:

'Mommy?'

###

Catherine was observing Joshua, waiting for his next reaction. She was extremely worried about him but had opted to be harsh with her words. After having known Joshua and his crazy antiques for so long, she couldn't stand seeing him like this.

'Come on, stand up proudly,' she thought.

However, instead, he knelt in front of her. She feared he had given up, but she saw that his soul form gradually began to restore itself. She was relieved and waited a few minutes for his appearance to look normal again.

"Feeling better?" she asked.

"Catherine, you know I've never been a religious person," he replied.

"Hmm, what?"

Still kneeling, he grabbed her hand and kissed it.

"However, I believe I finally found a goddess worth believing in," he added smiling.

"Huh?" Not expecting such a reply, Catherine couldn't help but blush a bit.

"Now, my dearest Lady, let's get the hell out of here. We have too much left to accomplish than to languish on the boulevard of broken dreams."

Catherine smiled at him and replied:

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"So, Mr. Genius is back? Do me a favor and just blow this place up in pieces."

=============

Author's thought but it's too long for the little box:

Sorry for the delay everyone!

I have a little announcement.

As you may know, I began selling the story on kindle. Volume 1 is currently out and doing really well (over 3300 sales :) )

For anyone who bought the volume, you have my thanks.

I've been considering releasing the published volumes on kindle unlimited. The problem is if you do that the book has to be kindle exclusive.

So what does that mean?

For published volumes, I will have to gradually remove them from the free sites they're being hosted on. However, I'm allowed to give out review copies. So, if anyone in the future wants to read the story but is unsure about buying it. (which I understand). I'll post a link to my discord where they can request a copy of the volume.

Unpublished volumes will be available on free sites until they are released on Amazon, but will gradually be removed. (with the option of asking me for a review copy).