Only then did he fully realize the sheer power he wielded. This was a force so great that it could overeride even the stone, and with it he could affect the entire world if he wished. "Good God..." Jon muttered as he took in this realization. "Not that God even exists..."
It was a very startling transformation, to have his worldview shattered in an instant, one that he felt was far more painful than the involuntary sex-changes he would have had to experience in other branches. "Is that even me, though?" he wondered aloud. He whispered a quick wish to the stone, and then knew that each time a branch was created another universe was spawned. Each of these universes contained an alternate version of himself, many similar but always different because they would have had different experiences and it is our memories ultimately that make us who we are. Some universes contained radically different Jons, however, due to authors who had them brainwashed as well as physically altered.
"Sick bastards," he spat, a disgusting flavor in his mouth. He wondered if he should try to help the other Jons, but decided against it. "They can't be helped. The bad authors will always be writing," he reasoned. "I would do nothing but create more universes with new Jons."
He sighed then, realizing that not even the power he now wielded could alter the higher universe, the one in which Sapphire Palace was created. Maybe, though... Maybe he could create such a power himself, either with the stone or Fiction Branches.
Clicking "Add an Episode", he quickly typed out a little story about him gaining access to another website with which he could control the higher universe. He clicked "Submit Episode" and was disappointed to get an "Error 404" screen. He refreshed a few times to no avail, and sighing he hit back to resubmit it.
Neither that entry, nor the next one, nor the next he tried would be accepted by the website. Frustrated, he wished to know why it wasn't working. Instead of the knowledge instantly appearing in his head, words started appearing in the "Enter your episode here:" box as though he was typing them.
"Only I may command this universe," he read the text. "I have power you can scarcely imagine, and I have made it impossible for any sub-creature to affect this world through the use of magics." What the...
"Who are you?" Jon typed beneath the message. As soon as he stopped typing, another message began to be typed underneath his. He gasped at the sentence that appeared on the screen: I am God.
"That world has the real God?" he asked of the air, receiving no response from the mysterious IMer. Shaking, he closed the window at once. In no way did he want to insult God.
"I've got the stone," he muttered. "I don't need Fiction Branches, anyway. I'll just stay in my world..." But he could still use the website, he remembered. The whole God thing made him forget that he could just use it to alter his universe.
"But was it really God?" he then wondered. If his universe was artifical, written by internet users, then who was to say that the higher universe wasn't all a work of fiction by a higher power? This train of thought easily made him dizzy, so he hastily abandoned it.
Opening the site once more, he went to his latest branch and clicked "Add an Episode". He paused then, having a sudden case of writer's block. There he sat, near absolute power within his reach, and he had no idea what to write. "Hmmm..."
His eyes lit up. He had found the coolest improvement to make to his world. With a smile, he began to type...
